PLUG FOR DUMMY DANGLERS....get it?......PLUG!!!

Are you tired of picking your babies pacifier off the floor and feeling guilty when you give it back to them and haven't washed it? Want something really cute to attach to their clothes without paying an outrageous price?
My sister is selling what she calls DUMMY DANGLERS (In Australia they call pacifiers "dummy's"). Here is a link to her blog that gives all the info. http://dummydanglers.blogspot.com
They are DANG cute. Every child needs one (at least if they use a pacifier). Check them out! There are over 40 styles to choose from. One for every outfit your child has.

Thumbs up to My Roberto for an amazing six years!

Rob and I have now been married for six years (May 10th) . Wow......I mean, WOW. There are times when it seems like it has gone really fast (like when we watch our wedding video, which we do every year, and realize how much hair Rob used to have and how much I used to smile and laugh), other times it seems to have gone by really slowly (like when we try to imagine how many years it will be before all of our children are out of the house and it will just be the two of us again).

I have been in kind of a "postpartum-I-hate-the-world-just-get-me-through-the-day-and-hope-I-don't-hurt-anyone" phase and have not been very fun to be around for the last 9 months....make that 18 months. Do you want to know how I came to this knowledge? I came out of it. I came out of the "pit of despair" without realizing just how far I had fallen into it. What a joy it is to be out of it and ENJOYING life again. In the midst of this new found "light" I have come to realized just how truly, madly, and deeply (thank you Savage Garden for hitting it on the nail) I love my husband.

Rob, I love you. I love you more today than I did the first time I touched your elbow in Spanish class (and that's saying a lot....I knew I would marry you even back then...ask my roommates). You are the most wonderful and supportive husband a girl could ever ask for. You are perfect for me (my mother knew you would be..... Since the day you took me out on my parents front porch to have a "good" cry because my wedding dress was getting a little snug (a week before the wedding). You just put your arm around me and let me cry, telling me that I was beautiful and everything would be okay and..........it was. You are always my sanity in times of "crazy" (which is more often than I care to admit). No one else would be up to the challenge and yet you are always there and always prepared for more. You are my best friend and the only person who knows me for who I really am and loves me in spite of it.

Here's to another six......sixty........six hundred years........oh, actually eternity. That's right, you are mine for eternity. Well.............Here's to eternity. I look forward to it with you by my side and in my heart.

I LOVE YOU! HAPPY 6 YEARS ROB!

O Ye Perceptive One!

Today, while sitting down to eat lunch, Gabe asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I replied that I was grown up and I am a mom. To this he replied, "No Mom, what do you WANT to be when you grow up." (Emphasizing the WANT). I was a little shocked and very amused. Could he read my mind? Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my children and I am learning to actually ENJOY them sometimes but in all honesty, I never dreamed of being a mother. I just knew that I would be some day (So, you ask, why did we get pregnant with Gabe so quickly? Who knows.......anyway). How brilliantly perceptive of him, I thought. So after having a good chuckle (inside of course, I didn't want him to know just how right he was), I answered him. "Someday I hope to get my degree in Health and Fitness and be a physical therapist, a personal trainer or just an aerobics instructor....anything to keep me in shape and healthy." He didn't really understand what that meant but seemed satisfied when I told him I wanted to exercise for the rest of my life.

Funny.....Funny.....I am still laughing about it (again, inside, but for a different reason.....the children are napping.......I wouldn't want to wake them up and have to "enjoy" them for a extra hour of the day.)

Ode to my fellow mothers. I would like to give you a high five for your hard work and dedication. Keep up the hustle....it is bound to pay off some day.

HE WHO LAUGHS!

Isaac disappeared on me yesterday and I found him down the hall doing this. Isn't that so cute? He is only 8 months old and he gets around and plays like he is two. He is such a happy, giggly(he is always chuckling at something), observant boy and wants nothing more than to be smiled at. He LOVES his brothers and is even learning to relax and not cringe every time Cael comes near him (although he has reason to most of the time still). He follows his brother around everywhere (they were both in time out at the time of the picture) and plays with what they play with. He is not satisfied with his baby toys. He wants to be all grown up.

We love him and are so glad he decided to come down and be a part of our family. At the time it seemed so hard, with everything else we had going on, but....It's funny how sometimes our greatest trials turn out to be one our greatest blessings (let's wait and see if I am still singing the same tune when he is a teenager).

Isaac......stay sweet and be true to your name. If you do, you will have friends and loved ones wherever you go (Isaac means; "he who laughs," "child of laughter," laughter,".....you get the idea).

Can you say "REBATE" baby?

I am amazing.....that's right, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I have always been a thrifty spender but now that I have learned a few tricks of the trade I have taken it to the extreme. I wonder if Rite-Aid and Walgreen's are even aware that they have me in their employ. That is to say....I get PAID to shop at their store. Month after month money goes into my pocket and I get FREE stuff. Again, FREE. All it takes is a little time and a little effort and VIOLA! Want to know how? Well.....I'll tell ya!

Each month both Rite-Aid and Walgreen's come out with a rebate savings booklet. You pick it up directly at the store. The Walgreen's booklet is pretty straight forward. It flat-out lists the items that are FREE for the month among several other rebated items. If you want to purchase something that is not free but has a rebate, watch the adds throughout the month and you will most likely find the item on sale, at one point, as well as rebated (extra savings). Rite-aid, on the other hand, is not as open about their FREE items. The best way to keep up on them is through their adds each week (add will say.....FREE with single check rebate). They have items that are FREE all month long and items that are only FREE for one week at a time (read the fine print. It will say "only valid XX/XX/XXXX throught X/XX/XXXX." If it does not specify a date then it is valid all month. Make sure you do not buy something FREE with a rebate outside of the dates it is valid for. Otherwise it makes it really hard to return....they think you are trying to scam them....believe me, I know). Just like Walgreen's, Rite-aid also has a whole plothera of item that have month wide rebates that also go on sale throughout the month so be sure not to pay full price just to get a rebate....wait until it is on sale as well.

As far as actually taking care of the rebate form and the $, each store have their own bonus. Rite-aid's can be done on-line. You just have to enter information from your receipt(s) and it's done.....you have your money in about 2 weeks. It's GREAT! Walgreen's has to be sent in and takes a little longer to receive but......if you have your rebate put on a "Walgreen's gift card" you receive and additional 10% of your rebate amount (i.e. if your rebate is $37 you will get that plus $3.70 making your total rebate $40.70. MORE MONEY!). The down side is that can only use the money at Walgreen's but I just use it for next month's rebate items and it all comes out in the wash.

Now.....you still have to pay sales tax for the FREE items. So how do you make money you ask? You add coupons to any of the item you can. For instance......I had a $1.5o off coupon for one toothpastes and $1.00 off coupon for the other. I also had a $1.00 off coupon for each of the bottles of shampoo and conditioner I bought so.....on top of the rebates I had $7.50 of manufacturer's coupons. Hence, the coupons more than covered my sales tax of $4.28. (Now in case you are wondering....not all of the item's I purchased this month were the FREE items. Some of them just had rebates on them but I still got them for free....in the end).

So.......Can you guess how much I paid......or should I say, got paid for all of the items you see above? $1.42 .....well, actually if you subtract the postage stamp I will have to put on the Walgreen's rebate to send it in I will only have made $1.00. I know that may not sound like much but.....think about it again. I GOT PAID $1.00 to pick up all of these items from the store(two bottles of shampoo, two bottles of conditioner, two bottles of hair gel, two tubes of toothpaste, a toothbrush, tums-quick desolve, mineral blush, and 35 days worth of Rob's allergy medicine....and I'm not even done for the month). You can't beat that (and really, if you think you can, let me know. I want to know your savings "secrets" as well).

So......don't miss out on this opportunity. These stores are just banking on the fact that people will forget to turn in their rebate, or loose their receipt, or forget to cash their checks or something. Don't give them the satisfaction. Go out there are take advantage of their generosity. Someone has to so why shouldn't it be you?


For more money saving tips, please contact Melanie @..........just kidding. But no, seriously, if you have any question's e-mail me. I am more than happy to help others save money as well. I figure that when we have to, I mean get to, practice the law of consecration we will all be better off if everyone prepares for it. My new slogan is as follows:

"DON'T PROCRASTINATE THE DAY OF YOUR FREE LOADING......TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE STORES AND NOT YOU FELLOW SAINTS" ;)

Sometimes I kill myself I am so funny! :)