Emily's field trip & more...

it's been a good week... I chaperoned Emily's Excel class field trip. They went to Historic Philadelphia.. the kids got a map of the area, with 33 different locations they COULD visit & they were to pick 3 or 4 of them TO visit. IT's been an UNUSUALLY HOT week in NJ/Philly area. Today it's supposed to get up to 88. Anyway.. Tuesday the day of the trip was in the low 80's. But in the city it felt HOTTER! Anyway ofcourse Emily decides to choose places the farthest away from each other & we only had 2 1/2 hours. Luckily alot of parent chaperones went on the trip, so I was really responsible only for Emily.. which was good. We visited the Tomb of the Unnamed soldier, Independence Visitor center, the Bource Building for lunch, then to Elfreth's Alley & Betsy Ross House. the tomb was located on 7th or 8th st.& Elfreth's Alley was on 2nd.. it was rush, rush, rush... BUT we had a great time. We were hot & tired by the end.. but we got to see everything we had wanted to. Anyway.. like I said it's been really HOT & NO rain.. so my veggie plants have gotten some much needed sun! YAY! Today, Dan, Joshy and I went to Christmas tree shop, I got some organic fertilizer & a garden bag (i use it for Emily's stuffed animals.. works great!!). Then we went to lunch! Panera-YUMMM! Anyway.. guess I should go, I need to get some things done before Emily gets home from school & Brian home from work. Have a great day EVERYONE! :)OH and Emily just reminded me, OUR FAVORITES on Dancing with the Stars.. HINES WARD & KIM JOHNSON WON!!! WOO HOO! :) *We were waving our terrible towels.. OH YEAH!! Told you it's been a good week. :) I don't wanna jinx anything since it's only Thursday! So let's knock on wood. ;)

Vegetable gardening woes

i think my "veggie" garden isn't doing sooo good.. the ground is soo wet, it's been raining for so many days...I think they are drowning.. ugh. NO sprouts have immerged of what I've planted, and it's been over a week. There is rain being called for the next 3 days after that it's suppose to be sunny.. I just hope they can wait that long. VERY FRUSTRATING! :/

Shopping last night...

As you all know I've been trying to "penny pinch" around here. We went shopping and for us, it's been a few MONTHS since we've done any kind of major shopping because we've been trying to use up what we have & quite frankly didn't have the money to do a BIG shopping trip. SO LAST NIGHT was the NIGHT... Anyway we've been doing really good about using up what we had in the pantry BUT that means we were REALLY in need of some things.. we were having to get creative with dinner choices.. haha.. I think that's a sign. Anyway.. so being that I've been trying to save us some money.. i went thru the ad's and compared them to wht I had coupons for & then decided the places we should go and made up 4 list. One for Target, one for CVS, one for Riteaid, and one for SHOPRITE... I know it's sounds like a lot of work & running around.. but since we have the HYBRID now we don't mind so much the running around, and since I'm not working, I have the time to do it.. so we can swing it. Anyway, Brian got home kinda late last night so we ended up only going to 3 of the 4 stores, and we did pretty good. We saved $33.00 in Manufacturer's coupons and got 2 $5.00 Target gift cards &4 CVS bonus bucks to use next time. So a total of $47.00 in savings in coupons and BOUGHT nothing unless it was on sale.. NOT TOO BAD! We spent a total of $178.00 at all 3 stores we went last night... which was more than we wanted to spend BUT we also got ALOT of things for that, 60+ items... including some BIG ticket items like 2- 38lb boxes of cat litter, 1-20lb dog food, 3 razors & one blades refill (for me & Brian), 3 Shave gels,3 cottonelle wipe packages,a big 12 roll of paper towels, food shopping: Including 14 boxes of Cereal, 24-16 oz bottles of Ice Tea, 2 bags of Tostito's & salsa, 2-boxes of Granola bars *bonus back with 4 extra's for free, 2 frozen dinners, 2 pizzas, 2 free bottles of soda, amongst other things...We only bought things on sale or if we had a coupon and I was able to get many things on sale with a coupon! YAY! Anyway... we still have to go to Shoprite tonight... and I'm hoping we can keep it within $75.00 (we need a new swiffer-wet jet kit which is $17.99 on sale but I have a $5.00 off coupon so that's a big price item already) Anyway..I'm no where near as crazy as those Extreme Coupon people on TV NOR do I want to be & no where in my house do we have a wall length "stockpile" but I do like buying things when they are on sale..& then I use them up and not buy them again until we need them & only then will I buy them again, & I'll wait for them to go on sale or we have a coupon. I'm trying to be smart about it.. and know I don't need a stockpile of 40 DEODORANTS just because they were a good deal. The reason we got sooooo many cereals is because with Brian's stomach problems, its actually one of the things he regularly eats so we go thru A LOT of cereal... alot of Fiber one, Special K, etc.... so they can be like $4.00 a box if u don't have a coupon, so it made sense to buy them in bulk when they were on sale & also we had coupons! When I was doing this blog post, I counted the boxes from the receipts& I couldn't believe we have 14 boxes. Haha.. Anyway.. after tonights shopping, we shouldn't need to go serious shopping again for months, and week to week, we should only need the basics, milk, bread,etc. Which is good.... next week is when there is better meat sales... so we'll wait to buy our meat until then.... but that's it. Anyway... just wanted to share this with you, to show you how I've been doing it. :)

Oh and by the way.... We found this great program at CVS Pharmacy. We've been using Recyable bags at the stores. At CVS they have this things called GREENBAGTAG. It cost .99 and you put it on your green bag, and each visit have them scan it *there's a barcode on it. & after the 4th visit.. you get a $1.00 bonus buck savings certificate. HOW COOL??? Right?? Love it! :)

This was funny & true

Bill Maher was on Chris Matthews & said, "I know why 1% (the Richest 1%) votes for Republicans, you'll have to explain to me why the other 40-50% do" heheh... couldn't agree more! Just sayin'

It's okay to be me...

well i'm feeling kinda sad, well sad isn't even really it.. i guess I am feeling a little disappointed. Disappointed in people, why is my life, your business? If I want your opinion I'll ask for it--- otherwise, know that you're not perfect and I'm not ripping you apart for it. Sure there are things about me, that others might not get. But so what, it's my life not yours and If I'm okay with them then that's all that matters.. that's pretty much how I feel about alot of things.. to each his/her own. I don't have to undertand you--- I should try to respect you. If we were all the same, it would be really boring. I don't want your take on why i need to be different, I just want to be accepted for being me. I think I'm a pretty good version of me. Who's perfect anyway??? I know I went through a lot of words to basically tell you nothing.. because I dn't really feel like sharing what has me "disappointed" for lack of a better word. Let's just say... someone pointed out a(in there opinion) "flaw" of mine, and preceded to tell me how it is I could fix it. Well maybe I don't want to, it's not hurting you, so JUST SHUT UP! But I didn't say any of that... i bite my tongue and held my breathe... and didn't blurt out what I realy wanted to say which was just that...."SHUT UP" "WHO are you to judge me" blah blah blah..... but I did the grown up thing and kept quiet. But inside I was peeved and pissed & all together more angry than I should be, at this person who shouldn't have the power to make me feel that way. What I really wanted to do was go all REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NJ on their ass. After all I'm a Jersey Girl.. but alas my momma raised me better than that. She also raised me better then to do what was done to me. Anyway.. what I do need to work on is to be more confident in who it is I am.. and know that as Todd Parr wrote, "It's Okay to be Different" Perhaps some people who should know better, need to read that children's book again & heed the lesson that it's okay to be different! :) just sayin'

SO here are some pictures of my Vegetable garden.. I'm sure to avid gardeners out there I have made some mistakes BUT I'm new to this. I really did try.. I read my "Vegetable Gardening for dummies" book. I hope it works.. FINGERS CROSSED for me! Thanks Peeps! :)

People who are SUPPOSEDLY friends can do the most hurtful things... it's hard to believe.

Happy Mother's Day!

Well it's Mother's Day.... I woke up this morning to a WONDERFUL card that Emily made me. It was the most Beautiful card I EVER have seen... :) I'm LUCKY!

Just call me Grandma or an ECO-Warrior

We put up a clothesline the other day, and finally PUT the cement in today, so we hopefully tomorrow have a nice staight usable clotheline instead of the LEANING towers of clothesline that we have now. I decided we needed a clothesline cause we are trying to save money on the electric bill, trying to be pro-active, I suppose. thinking about that damn AC bill too. Thought about something though, seems like I'm doin' things my grandma did??? Gardening, clothesline.. What's next YELLOW Soap.. OK, so what's yellow soap right, the truth is I don't know.. alls I know is my grandma had this bar of yellow soap that was a stain ridder, & that thing lasted for years!! I buy spray & wash by the gallon... i gotta find me some yellow soap! Anyway... I don't know why we stopped doing these things.. I suppose we were perhaps tooooo cool to put our clothes outside any longer... or perhaps just TOOO lazy. (which is probably more like it) Anyway... I'm learning that grandma had the right idea...that and the fact my dryer has been having to work extra hard lately because the washer isn't spinning the clothes right and so they are SOAKING wet when they get in the dryer...& we've been having to ring them out by hand, very tedious.. anyway... hmmm.. finally dawned on me that WE need a clothesline (well that and a new washer & dryer but that proably won't happen.... atleast anytime soon) The funny part is we ALREADY had a clothesline which we must have bought YEARS ago and forgot about because we had a kit down in the crawl space. DUH! Anyway... I guess I'm going green, but my question is why did we stop doing these things.. they really do make sense.. DAMN the sun is out and it drys clothes really nicely.. now if I wasn't a little paranoid about the ticks.. I'm gonna be shaking those clothes out something feirce, but I'll get over it.. we need the savings on our electric bill tooo much. LOL! Damn ticks..

Listen UP!!!

My family means everything to ME!!!! It's why i write this blog, it's why I share so much on here, for me the reason I started it was because My mom lived to only be 51, and that made me aware of the fact that life can be short. I decided to share with my daughter things.. the things that I want my own mother to have shared more of with me. The little insight into her heart and so I lay it out here, and I try really hard to be honest...& while I don't share everything because it's my blog... and some things are private! Also my daughter reads my blog and for me the purpose of this blog is really for her! Anyway, for me it's special, just like my family. SO it makes me mad when I found out that someone was trying to mess with me, trying to PURPOSELY hurt me & my family, that they wrote things back in 2009 to specifically TRY to do just that! So I'm putting this out there to say... you didn't! You are a small minded little person who is lonely and pathetic! I have an idea of who you are and your not worth my words..or my time. SO you'll get no more of either!

the VEGETABLE garden...

So here's what I've been working on... My Vegetable Garden!!
I know it doesn't look like much, but I'm new at this. LOL! :) I just want to provide veggies for the family this summer. (Especially my practically Vegan husband Brian!) I wanna be able to say.... Juice away my love (imagine my harvest in my basket) \ Okay so I'm a little ways a way from that.. but u gotta start somewhere. LOL!

a new post.. (boy that was original)

Hi, so lets see..... WE GOT A NEW CAR!! We turned in our gas guzzler for a hybrid. IT's a little on the small side, but 4 people can fit in it. We got a Honda Insight... we drove around all weekend and the gas needle barely moved!! We are LOVING that so really as they say, size doesnt matter. We can all fit, and we can all eat!! Gas is crazy! We were wasting so much money on it.. and even with a fairly high car payment we think with the savings on the gas, we'll b good. Brian's co also gives him a gas break cause his commute is 80 miles round trip. SO we have that too. Anyway...that's all good! Now, lets see what else.. I spent the day yesterday arguing non-sense with peeps on facebook. People are such fools, they say the stupidest things and throw them out there like they are fact. Saying Barack Obama's taking all the credit for capturing Osama Bin Laden. Glaring NON-truths! Everyone know that he himself.. did not go in there and get Osama.. our Navy Seals did that, they did a PHENOMINAL job and deserve soo much credit. They are beyond brave & skilled. We owe them our gratidude, and highest praise. BUT Obama put them on the ground in Pakistan, he also listened to the Intelligence coming in, and DECIDED when they should go in. HE's THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF & deserves some credit! People write the most insanely one-sided oppinions. Saying, that Bush deserves the credit more than Obama, the President had little to do with it, wasn't involved... etc. Just said to inflame an ultra-conservative base who needs no-flaming. They got enough already in their bigoted nature... the ones who make him proof he was BORN in America, and when he does they still don't beleive it. I'm glad that BS is now atleast off the "MEDIA" radar in most cases. Oh it can still be found, but you'd need to go on CONSERVATIVE blogs to find it daily. ANyway so yesterday was an annoying day... and I just wish I didn't let them get to me, they really don't deserve my time but yet I take the bait. I gotta work on that. Anyway, My garden is coming together S L O W L Y!! I've decided not to stress tooo much & know that this year is a trial run, and I can learn from it... I moved the non-intented pumpkin patch i was starting to develop in my FLOWER bed out front, into the garden, but have yet to plant anything else.. my neighbor said by the 15th.. so I'm hoping my seedlings start to grow by then... i bought the peat pots so they can be planted right into the ground.. this way they don't have to be completely grown when I plant them (i dont' have to mess with their roots) if they are really delicate. Like I said I'm trying not to stress. My brother & I tried to put up a Clothes line yesterday... that was a comedy hour. We forgot the important CEMENT!!! So it's up but not secure.. I'm hoping we don't hve to take it completely apart to put the cement in and we can just lift it out... we'll see. It was funny though in hindsight and it looks pathetic!! Oh well.. u gotta laugh or you'll cry right. Anyway.. hoping we can save some money on the electric bill by using the clothes line.. I'm trying to come up with ways to save us money... we'll see!! Oh and I almost forgot.... Our March of Dimes walk was on Sunday.. it was a BEAUTIFUL day, and for some reason it seemed extra LONG this year but we did it, completed the whole thing and raised $700.00 for the March of Dimes. Which is a lot less than we usually get BUT also know how very hard we worked at even raising that much, times r tough... so I'm really pleased with the amt. Next year it'll be our 10th year, and I'm hoping EVEN more of our family walks with us.. kinda lke an anniversary celebration! :) Well I guess I should go, hope u all have a WONDERFUL fatastic day.. and I hope that you know that I love all people, it's just I don't like BS or non-sense and I believe very strongly in my core values. It's difficult hearing such hurtful things about a president I admire so much... i love most people.. it's just Ultra Conservatives can go too far sometimes and really push my buttons! anyway... PEACE people!