Matt and Cindy

Yesterday was Sam's 4th birthday and we celebrated by taking the kids to Six Flags. I love you Sam and here is to you!!!

Top Ten Things I love about you Sam

1. When you wake up, you always come out of your room, find me and say, "Momma". Then you crawl up into my lap or in my bed. I love it.

2. You are brave and always willing to try new things.

3. You are a great joke teller, and love to tell jokes

4. You are all boy as evidenced by food stained shirts, jumping off anything with a ledge and your general craziness.

5. You kill spiders for me.

6. You are contented. You will sit quietly in the car, play on your own, and find ways to entertain yourself.

7. You are my special, sweet middle child.

8. You adore your big sister and guide your little brother.

9. You listen to and respect your Daddy and Mommy.

10. You love to eat frozen pancakes actually frozen. It's gross and I love you for it.

Sam you are such a special part of this family and our lives are so much more full because you are in them. Love you big 4 year old boy!!! Love Mommy

Here is a recap of my Target trip today. Airwick iMotion Automatic Spray Regular Price $10.99 Sale Price $5.45 Price after Coupon $1.48 (I didn't really need this but for $1.48 I did it!) Downey Fabric Softener Regular Price $4.29 Sale Price $2.14 Price after Coupon $1.14 (I don't usually buy fabric softener but I have been wanting to try it and see if it makes a difference. For $1.14 I can do this!) Campbell's Select Harvest Regular Price $1.50 Price after Coupon $.50 (I wanted to try this because I am dieting and these soups are only 80 calories!) Air Wick Refills Regular Price $4.99 Sale Price $2.48 Price after Coupon $.48 (For the air wick above-My house will smell good for awhile!!) Twizzlers Regular Price $2.49 Price after Coupon $1.44 (OK-totally didn't need this but it was a reward for my kids for putting up with my long Target trip...) BioTrue Regular Price $4.99 Price after Coupons $.99 (I LOVE this contact lens solution. FOREVER I have been buying the cheapest lens solution and I now can afford the good stuff!) Golden Graham Regular Price $5.08 Price after Coupon $ 3.58 (this wasn't a great deal but my coupon was about to expire and I needed my golden grahams) Juicy Juice Regular Price $2.60 Price after Coupon $1.60 SOBE Regular Price $2.04 Price after Coupon $1.04 Dora DVD Regular Price $4.75 Price after Coupon $1.75 Regular Price-$43.72 Price after Sales and Coupons-$14 That is 68% SAVINGS!!!!!!!!

My new favorite website is www.hip2save.com. I have come across SO many great coupons, deals and freebies on this site. It was from this site that I found out that Kmart (where I NEVER shop) was having a toy clearance sale.
This is my first year of trying to buy most of my kids Christmas and birthday presents on sale during the year instead of spending a million dollars right before their birthday.
Here is what I scored!

Original Price for these toys $271
Clearance Price $88

SCORE!!!!

Are coupons really worth the trouble???
This is the question I have been trying to answer lately. Recently, I stumbled across a couponing website called www.hip2save.com. From there I found www.totallytarget.com. Seems these people are REALLY good at using coupons and saving tons of money. I have been lurking on these sites and trying to learn more about whether couponing is really worth it.
A few weeks ago I went out to Target with a fistful of coupons and a list. My total came out to $14.50 before coupons and $4.33 after coupons and from there I was hooked!!!!
Couponing is an interesting beast though. First, I have found that I need to be careful what I use coupons for. Everyone that knows me very well knows that I LOVE a deal. Sometimes in my quest to get a great deal I may actually buy stuff I don't need. Secondly, there are all kinds of "rules" when it comes to couponing. Some stores let you "stack" coupons, others don't. Some stores let you use a coupon if the price of the item is less than the coupon amount, some don't. I am still navigating all the "rules" and haven't really decided if couponing is for me or not. Oh, and I forgot a really really important thing for me. I CANNOT, I repeat, CANNOT try to do the major coupon thing when my kids are with me. When I am trying to find a certain product, make sure the price is right, make sure I am using the right coupon, make sure the cashier actually scans it, etc is WAY too hard when I am also rangling three kidlets....
So here goes. This is what I did with coupons today.....

Target
Bread-Regular Price $1.27. FREE with coupon
Bic Disposable Razors 4 pack-Regular Price $3.99. .Price after coupon .99
Target Total (with tax) $1.32 (They charged me tax on my products BEFORE coupons...is that right?)

Walmart
M&M's-Regular Price .64 each. .64 for two bags with B1G1 coupon
Lysol Hand soap dispenser with soap and 4 aa batteries-Regular Price $9.99. Sale Price $6.00 Price after coupon $3.00
Walmart Total (with tax) $4.04

Raleys
Glucerna Cereal-Regular Price $3.49. Price after coupon .49
Degree Deodorant-Regular Price 2.43. Price after coupon $1.43
Smart Balance Milk-Regular Price $4.99. Sale Price $3.99. Price after Coupon $1.99
Wholly Guacamole-Regular Price $3.99 each. Sale Price $3.50 each. Price after coupon-$1.75 each
Raleys Total (with tax) $7.13

So bottom line-I paid $12.49 for $38.08 worth of groceries!!!!!!

So I definitely saved ALOT of money. What I can't figure out is did I really save money??? I bought a bunch of things I wouldn't have bought otherwise (lysol hand soap, glucerna cereal, smart balance milk) BUT I will use these items for sure.

So, the jury is still out for me. If nothing else, it satisfies my urge to save money in my life and it is a fun little game....

For a while now I have been meaning to learn about some of the birds in our area.  I spent a while tonight with Google and Wikipedia and learned that have Red Tailed Hawks, which we knew, and lately juvenile Red Tailed Hawks.  We also have American Kestrels.

There were 3 or 4 (or more) adult Red Tailed Hawks that were constantly perching or hunting in the area right around our house during the winter and spring.  Lately they seem to have ventured elsewhere, because we have rarely seen them.  Lately there was a similar-sized bird around that looked a little different, and that is what prompted me to do the research tonight.  On the way home today from dinner out, one of these birds was sitting right beside the road and as we watched it, the bird picked up a mouse from its feet and swallowed it whole.  The kids enjoyed a real close look at this bird.  It looked very much like this picture from Wikipedia.  Btw, this picture is hilarious and it really looks like that mouse head is photoshopped.

Also lately there have been 7-10 smaller birds that look very similar to the adult Red Tailed Hawk, at least to my untrained eye.  Every morning for the last couple of weeks they are outside of the bathroom hunting playing and chasing each other.  These birds always hover with flapping wings when hunting for prey on the ground, and that behavior confirms them as the American Kestrel.  All of this group I see each morning appears from their coloration to be femail.