Bright orange package

As promised, I received my bright orange Shutterfly package today!  I am so excited that I got my holiday cards!  My 'It pays to be a blogger' post was so worth it.  My total savings on these holiday cards...$104.50.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I saved over $100 just by writing a simple post about Shutterfly.  Now, I just need to figure out what fifty people to send them to.  Is it too early to start sending holiday cards?

Black Friday

Jason and I decided to brave Black Friday for one item.  Yes, one item in hopes that we would actually get it when we got there.  Kinsey has been wanting a Nintendo DS for over a year now.  When Walmart advertised they would have them for $89 from 5-11am only (while supplies last), we knew what we had to!  I admit, I kinda felt like we should have put on our war paint and dressed in camo for this!  I also have to admit that we've never been to Walmart on Black Friday so we really didn't know what to expect.  Armed with nothing but stories of experiences from friends and our bank cards, we set out and arrived at Walmart at 4am.
Madness.  It was pure madness.  After walking past it about five times, we finally found the line we were supposed to be in.  I walked up and got a wristband, which you must have to get whatever it is you're in line for, the lady told me I got the last wristband.  I truly felt like I'd won the golden ticket. We turned around and tried to find the end of the line...it only wrapped up and down three aisles and down a main aisle for what seemed like forever.  All we had to do now was wait in said line and as soon as they opened it at 5am, we would be able to cross this present off of our list.
Once they opened, the line actually went really fast.  We went up and down each aisle and finally made it to the final turn.  We could see the employees handing out each DS as we moved one spot closer.  So excited that we were the next ones in line!
"THIS IS THE LAST ONE!" some employee calls out.  As if those words didn't hurt enough, he hands it to the lady directly in front of us.  And I'm left standing DSless trying to show that I have a wristband too!  Where is my DS that I just waited in line for over an hour for?  The manager comes over and apologizes that something got counted wrong and they didn't have enough (No kidding!  I kind of figured that out when I didn't get one.)  The best he could do was take my name and number.  He said they would try to locate another one and call me if they found it.
So I walked out.  Defeated.  Nothing to show for the hour and a half I just spent waiting.
Something in my head told me, there is no way they will call me.  And if they do call me, will they still honor that amazing price?  Probably not!
Later that evening we went to dinner in Garrett with my mom.  Jason and I had to stop and get a birthday gift for our niece.  Since we were so close, we just went to the Auburn Walmart.  We decided to take a shot in the dark and ask if they had any of the DS's still.  The words coming out of my mouth sounded ridiculous since we waited earlier that morning for an hour and a half at a different location and they sold out by 5:15am with a huge line of people that didn't get one.  We also knew that the sale was only until 11am so we weren't expecting anything.  By this time it was after 8pm.
The woman behind the counter said, "Well, I just sold one when I came in at 5pm.  Do you want blue or red?"  Both of us kind of went blank and we didn't really know what to say.  We somehow managed to mumble out a color and she came back with it in her little hands.  She rang it up and it was still $89.
We laughed the whole way out and said to each other that next year we will not be getting up early for any sales.  But we will go to the Auburn Walmart around 8pm!

It pays to be a blogger

Shutterfly recently announced their promotion for bloggers to receive 50 free holiday cards for promoting their fabulous items.  So I thought I would share a few of my favorite things from Shutterfly to give you all some awesome holiday gift ideas.  And, hopefully, you too can find the perfect holiday card to send out this year!
This season I plan on using Shutterfly for all of my Christmas cards.  Shutterfly makes it so easy to upload pictures and create the perfect card.  I like to include pictures of my family and children on our cards.  Since we live so far from our family, Shutterfly Christmas cards allow me to share pictures and memories with the touch of a button.  I especially love the ones that I can put lots of different pictures in.  Here are my favorites that I'm thinking about for this year's card:

click here to check out other amazing holiday cards

Not only do they have amazing holiday cards but they have so many other amazing products that you can use all year round.  I love the idea of creating calendars, birthday cards, stationary, and lots of other really fun photo gifts.    

If you have your own blog, you can check out this great promotion for your very own freebie-check it out here!

50/50

It's holiday season.  For me that means making my favorite cookies.  Well, really it doesn't matter what time of the year it is.  Saying that I make them for the holiday season makes me feel better about it, even though I tend to make them year round.  I have a love/hate relationship with these cookies because they only turn out right about 50% of the time.  They are the classic No Bake cookies.  I don't understand why, but I have such a hard time getting these cookies to set up.  Often, I have to put them in the refrigerator to get them to harden.  I made a batch last week and they were perfect!  I didn't even have to cool them in the fridge.  I was so proud and I thought that I really understood how to make them now.  Until I made them today.
After I made them today, I let them set and set and set.....and set some more, I realized they were not going to set up on their own and they, in fact, would need the help of being chilled.  Disappointed, I took my loss and pouted to Jason.
After sulking for about five full minutes, I decided that I wasn't going to let them get the best of me. I was going to make another batch right then and there to prove I know how to make these cookies!  My second batch turned out perfect.  I have no idea what in the world I do different but I sure wish I knew what it was.
I am absolutely positive that I'm probably the only one that has this battle with these cookies.  But I never let that stop me from making them.
Here's the recipe if you're up for the challenge of making these incredibly easy cookies that I can't seem to master:

Chocolate Peanut-Butter No Bake Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups oatmeal
• Waxed paper

Directions

In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute then add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by the teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened.

*check out this and other fabulous recipes from www.foodnetwork.com

Good Luck and happy baking!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The past few weeks Kinsey has been practicing a readers theater with her reading group.  They have been working so hard with the second grade student teachers everyday.  Here is their play, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" performed for their 1st grade class.  Kinsey played the role of Goldilocks!  

I tried several different ways to stream this video and this is the best quality I can get.  I know it's not very clear but Kinsey is the one in the red shirt :)

Thursday randoms

1.  Kaitlyn did not win the mustache photo contest.  Personally, I think that they need to reconsider the staff at tmz who are allowed to vote because the top five were not fabulous.  At all.
2.  As many of you know from Facebook, I found a phone number in Kinsey's folder. She told me a boy in her class gave it to her and defended keeping the number by saying, "I'm going to put it on my no call list and when I get a cell phone when I'm 12 I won't even call it."  So there's that to deal with.  Luckily, I happen to teach at the same school she attends, so I can give him the look in the hallway that says, "Don't give your number to my daughter.  She is 6.  And so are you."  
3.  One year and $17 later, I have finally put up curtains to cover our sliding door.  I decided this was a good idea because the neighbor's children were coming to the window and peeking in to see if we were home so the girls could come out and play.  It was creepy.  
4.  One of the above mentioned children vandalized our mailbox.  She twisted, bent, and broke our flag.  She also scratched it all to heck with something sharp.  It was so bad the association had to replace the whole mailbox.  The crazy thing is that she is only 8.  I wonder what she'll be like as an adult?
5.  My hallway at school smelled like sewage today because the pipes were backing up into the hallway and the upstairs bathrooms.  Naturally, someone sprayed something to try to mask the smell.  It didn't work and I ended up dry heaving the moment I walked into the hall and was blasted with the unimaginable smell. 

Hope everyone has a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Mustache Photo Contest

While you were thinking about your little girl entering a beauty pageant, I entered mine in a mustache photo contest.  If she makes the top five, I will let you know so we can all vote for her!  Fingers crossed!

The b word

I don't know where the idea of "bad words" came from.  How does a word become bad?  Are they created as bad words or does society's use of them make them bad?  Whatever you believe, this idea is something that has been rather comical to me as I watch my six year old try to create meaning out of what words are "bad words."
On the way home from school the other day, Kinsey says to me, "Mom, two boys in my class were saying the 'D' word."  Of course my mind goes to the worst possible words that can be created using d as the first letter.  With much hesitation I asked, "Kinsey, what word were they saying?"  Part of it was pure curiosity on my part, the other part was wondering how much damage control I was going to have to do with her.  She said, "If I say it, do you promise I won't get in trouble?"  I assured her she wouldn't.  "But do you really promise you won't be mad?"  I assured her once again.  She looked down and in the lowest voice possible, I heard her mumble, "They said dummy."  Relieved, I explained that yes, that is a very hurtful word.  And we shouldn't say it.
I would say that we are very protective of the TV shows that our kids are allowed to watch.  We don't let them watch Sponge Bob or Nickelodeon at all.  Yes, we shelter our children.  Very much.  So imagine my surprise when Kinsey comes to me and informs me that a new show on Disney said the 's-h' word!  My immediate thought went where yours is probably going.  There is only one bad word that I know that begins with 's-h'.  And I was shocked to hear that it was said on Disney.  However, to Kinsey the bad word was 'shut up.'  Which is also not something that we say in our house.  I tried not to laugh but was very relieved when I realized that her view of bad words was a bit skewed.
In the car one day, both girls were bickering back and forth about something.  All of a sudden I heard Kinsey start crying and saying, "You can't say that!  Mom, Kaitlyn called me the B word!"  I nearly pulled the car over because I was so taken back by this comment.  I asked Kaitlyn what she called Kinsey but she would not repeat what she just said.  Given that she refused to utter the b word again, I couldn't believe that she really did say it.  So I made Kinsey say it just to be sure.  I said, "Kinsey, what b word did she call you?"  Through tears and sadness, Kinsey blurts out, "BABY!  She called me a baby!  That's a bad word right?"  Holding back laughter, I validated Kinsey's thought that yes, it wasn't nice to call people a baby.  But I was very glad that Kaitlyn didn't call her the b word I thought she said!
I realized that my children probably wouldn't know a bad word if they really did hear one.  Jason and I don't use that kind of language so how would they know?  When they do hear a real bad word, I bet they will come home and use it the same way they heard it used but won't have a clue what they are really saying.  Is that the downfall of over-sheltering your kids?  I know I can't keep them thinking that dummy, shut up, and baby are the worst words in the world to say and hear.  I'm sure they'll get it all figured out one day.  I just hope it's not until they are about 30.