A Letter to Luke on His 2nd Birthday

My sweet boy,

I can’t believe that today you are TWO.  TWO!  As many times as I say it, it still doesn’t seem real.  

I will never forget the day I found out that you would be in our lives.  On November 17th, 2008, we found out that someone would be changing our lives forever, but it wasn’t until March 2nd, 2009, that we found out it would be YOU.  I had been praying so hard that God would let me be a little-boy mommy the first time around, and I remember crying such tears of happiness when the technician told me that you were undoubtedly a boy.  It was then that I knew you were my “Luke” and not just “baby” anymore.  I was so thankful and overjoyed that God had given me the desire of my heart! 

We found out on Monday, July 6th, that we were going to get to meet you in two days – quite a bit earlier than we expected.  07-08-09 was our “let’s go get him” day and we thought that it was so neat that your birthday was going to be such a memorable date.  I knew you needed to come out, and I was a little nervous for you, but mostly excited – so, so excited.   Even though we had SO much to quickly do, those two days just seemed to drag on and on and on.  We went out to eat the night before, and I ordered a meatball grinder as my last pregnant meal.  I wanted to go out right. :)

And then the day came!  I hardly slept at all the night before (how could I?!).  We got to the hospital at 4:30 and started the journey to meet you.  I was tired and people kept telling me to rest, but again: how could I?!  Today I was meeting my Luke and I was just too excited. 

07-08-09 ended up being the longest, scariest, most emotion-filled day of my life.  By the time you are old enough to read this, you will probably have already heard Mommy and Daddy’s stories of what that day held for all three of us.  It did not go at all like we or Mommy’s doctor had expected or hoped. 

Sometimes when I think about that day, I still cry a little.  It was a hard day – much harder than I ever thought it would be.  But then I stop and think about what would have happened if you were born in 1909 instead of 2009 or if Mommy’s doctor hadn’t been so fast-moving.  You probably would never have made it to come out and meet us – or your little brain and lungs would have sustained a lot of damage.  Maybe too much damage.  So when I start to feel sadness creep up, I think about those things, and I am beyond happy and grateful that God chose you to be born when He did and to whom He did. 

Because in the end…we got YOU. 

And you were beautiful.  From the moment you were born, right up until today, I have had no end of people stop me – in stores, in parks, in church, wherever - and tell me that you are honestly the most beautiful boy they have ever seen.  And I believe them, of course, because I think it is true. :) Mommy had told everyone and their brother AND their mother how much she hoped you had hair and you did not disappoint.  (Although we did think it would be blonde, not black – that was such a surprise!). 

You were such a little peanut, and so helpless and teeny-tiny and precious.  You had a whole bunch of fuzz on you, from coming out early, and we jokingly called you “Esau.” 

I could not get enough of you. 

We stayed in the hospital for four days to help you and Mommy heal from a few things, and then we came home and started our real life together as a family. 

We watched you grow…..

and learn…..

and giggle…..

and eat…..

and be a silly monkey. :)

You turned ONE and then we got to start experiencing the joy of toddlerhood with you.  You learned to walk, run, and jump, you learned to eat with a spoon and a fork, you learned to put on shoes, your vocabulary started taking off, and you grew much more independent in so many ways. 

We fell in love with you as a baby because you were ours and you were so teeny and smelled so good. :)  It is fun to fall in love all over again with this new little boy that you are - growing up right before our eyes!

Over the last two years, I have learned so many things about you.  I know that when you climb up into your highchair, you are ready for me to feed you RIGHT now – no matter what I’m doing at the moment.  I know that when you are tired, you like to have your paci (yes, still!) and a head of hair to play with, whether it’s yours or someone else’s.  I’ve learned that you are fascinated by animals, of all kinds, and you like to hold a matchbox car in each hand as you walk around the house.  You love to read books (alone and with us) and when you watch Curious George, you get so excited and pump your right arm so hard it makes us all laugh.   

I know where you are ticklish and what can make you smile and what will scare you.  I know that you love to line things up in rows and organize things and that you are so observant; you notice things in pictures and fields and stores that Daddy and I would otherwise have completely missed. 

You sing all the time for us, and Daddy and I love it – we hope you will be musical like us, someday! (But it’s totally okay if you aren’t.)

I love that you have a little lisp on the word “s” sometimes and I secretly hope it stays around for a while, because I think it is the cutest thing in the world. 

I love that you are still sweet and innocent – I can’t remember a single time when you have ever tried to push or hurt another little boy or girl.  (Although I think once you did put sand on someone’s head. :) And you have not yet started the “mine” phase, for which I am thankful. 

You recently started saying “hi” to inanimate objects (like your stuffed animals), and people in stores, and it is just too cute for words.

Your most favorite food in the entire world is milk – you just can’t get enough of it, even though you usually only get it at morning and night.  You were calling it “mosh” until just a week ago, when you finally started calling it “melk” just like your Auntie Lindsay. :)

I could go on and on and on, sweet boy.  You are my little buddy, and since we spend all day, every day, together, Mommy knows you inside and out.  Every day your brain makes new discoveries and new connections, and I love being here to watch it all happen. 

You are the light of my life.  I love you so much it makes my heart actually ache.  I would do anything in the world for you, sweetheart.  

My deepest and strongest desire for you is that you would grow up to love God with your whole heart.  Daddy and I pray over you every night with that request, and that you would be a man who loves others and who does great things for Him.  Right now, as I type this, I am praying that at whatever point in the future you are reading this, you have already given your life to Jesus and and want to be a part of His mission for the world. 

I love you, I love you, I love you.  You are my most favorite boy in the whole wide world.  I hope when you are old and you read this blog post and my other journal entries about you, you will be able to catch just a glimpse of how much my heart was filled with love for you.

I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living,
My baby you’ll be.

I love you to the moon and back! Happy 2nd birthday!

- Mommy

our fourth of july weekend plans

don’t you just love fourth of july weekend?! i think it’s second only to thanksgiving as my favorite holiday.  everyone’s happy because it’s beautiful outside and everybody gets out of work on the crummiest day of the week.  you get to eat picnic food and love on your country and see fireworks and wear flip-flops. 

ahhhhh, american holidays. :)

our weekend plans are as follows:

friday night: date night with my man (luke is staying OVERNIGHT with my parents!!!!! overnight people! as in, i don’t have to use my son as an alarm clock!  as in, mommy and daddy can sleep AS LONG AS THEY WANT TO!  did ya catch that?!!! lol)

chris and i will be eating here:

and then doing a little of this:

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and eating a little of this (coconut or almond joy for me, probably mint chocolate chip for him:

{via}

 

saturday and sunday will be laid-back, at-home days (besides going to church), before glorious monday rolls around. 

at 7 am you will find me here with my mom and sister for a 50% off sale:

then at one of these:

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then home for luke’s nap before a big picnic, where i will be bringing this food of the gods and trying desperately not to rub my face in the pan:

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and HECK no, it’s not clean or healthy. but this is an american holiday, after all! ;)  

happy fourth, everyone – have a blast!

Simple Tips for a Successful Yard Sale {Part Two}

Thanks for coming back for round two!  Part One was clearly a huge success (ha!) but I wanted to stay true to my word, so here’s the rest of what I wanted to share with you: 

6. Have plenty of change, in all amounts.   

  It’s a standard fact of life that ATM machines give out $20 bills.  So, as annoying as it is, be prepared for the fact that a lot of people coming to your sale will be paying with $20s, especially in the early morning, before some other lucky yard sale host has already broken it for them. :)  Knowing that going in will keep you from getting frustrated.  Personally, I like to take out $100: $10 in quarters, $30 in fives, and $60 in ones.  That’s just what I’ve found to work. 

7.  Realize that there’s something for everyone.

  It never ceases to amaze me what people will buy at yard sales.  Sometimes the craziest things are just what people are looking for!  For instance, I had a super cheap-looking tankini top from Wal-Mart that I haven’t worn in forever.  I contemplated just chucking it, but I put it in the 50-cent women’s clothes bin, and sure enough, someone bought it.  Same goes for some picture frames that I thought were hideous, and on and on.  Unless it’s truly broken or really worn out, you might get lucky and sell it – so just try.  :) 

8.  Free signs get rid of things for you.  Fast.

  Every time I have a yard sale, I do have at least one “Free” box at the end of the driveway, where I put everything that I consider truly unsellable.  Inevitably, without fail, the majority of the stuff in there is gone by the end of the day.  Everyone just loves to get something for free – what can I say? :) 

  The same goes for the end of your day…rather than automatically put all your leftover stuff in the car for Goodwill, place it on the end of the driveway with a “Free” sign.  I have done this for every sale I’ve had – after my two in PA, big ol’ totally creepy vans drove up and took every single item left.  Unfortunately, this didn’t happen here, but a ton of people did come by throughout the afternoon to look through our leftovers (Chris and I were totally getting so excited every time we saw someone taking it away. ;)  It’s a win-win: they get free items, and you have to fit that much less stuff in the car for a donation store.

{Poor Luke looking at all the neighbors’ cool toys for sale that mommy and daddy did NOT buy for him!  haha}

10.  Realize going in that yard sales are a lot of work. 

  Not to be a Debbie Downer here, but I just want you to be prepared in advance.  To run a good, smooth yard sale takes quite a bit of effort.  I spent hours on and off for a few weeks (and then more intense time in the two days prior) making sure that this would be a success.  For someone like me who has way more time than money :), this is not a problem.  It was worth it to me to clean the house out and make money, even if it took a while.  If I was working full-time and had triplets and a dog, I probably would have just hauled the stuff to Goodwill and called it a day.  Only you can decide if it’s worth it for you.  But for me as a stay-at-home mom, it was a no-brainer that a yard sale was a great idea.  

Which brings me to my last point…

11.  Host a yard sale with friends. 

  We had good traffic from about 7:30-11, when it slowed down dramatically.  Even though we were busy consistently, it was so much fun to have my mom and aunt and sister there to talk to and laugh with.  Plus, the more people you have selling with you, the more attractive your sale will be.  We had tons of items, in all different home styles, for sale.  I’d much rather stop at a giant sale than one with only a little table out front…just because odds are that I’m much more likely to find lots that I want to take home with me.  So talk to your girlfriends and family members, and get others involved.  Odds are, you’ll make a lot more money and have a lot more fun.  :)

 

Well, that’s a wrap!  Again, anything you’d like to share, I’m more than willing to listen!  What have you seen or tried that has worked well?  What has totally bombed?  I’m all ears eyes!

Simple Tips for a Successful Yard Sale {Part One}

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, I hosted a yard sale at my house last weekend, along with my mom, my sister, my aunt, and a couple from our church.  I made about $245, and that’s without selling any large pieces of furniture or electronics.  (To give you a better picture: the most expensive item I sold was $8; every other item besides that was $5 or less.)

I go to yard sales about every Saturday, so I’d estimate that over my 26 years (yup, my Mom hauled us to yard sales as kids), I’ve been to well over 1,000 yard sales in my day.  As an adult, I’ve done three of my own now in addition to selling at a local flea market (which is similar but also a lot different).  So, I think it’s safe to say that I’m pretty knowledgeable about what makes them work and what makes them doesn’t. 

Here are my top ideas for having your own successful sale – and please be sure to share with me at the bottom….because odds are I’ll be doing this again many times in my future. ;)

1.  Advertise, and do it well.  
  Imagine for a minute that you’re in your car.  What’s going to grab your attention more easily: an 8.5x11 sign with teeny-tiny directions on it, or a brightly colored poster with big letters telling you which way to go?  Sounds obvious, but I can’t tell you how many people place those standard “garage sale” signs around town and expect that people zooming by will be able to squint their eyes well enough to read the itty-bitty directions. 

See what I mean?  Can you read anything on the right?!

    
{via and via}                                                       

  Use a bright colored paper, and cut the crap. ;)  I bought giant yellow poster-boards ($3 for 6 at the Dollar Tree), cut them in fourths, and put them on a bunch of telephone poles…WITH ARROWS.  (I learned the hard way that making them too big only makes the ends flap over and then no one can read what it says.)  I also put a bunch of smaller posters on stakes that simply had an arrow on them to point people in the right direction.  Being consistent with the color is key…it was so helpful to be able to write on my Craigslist ad, “Follow the yellow signs!” 

  Which leads me to another point… advertising in the paper is fine, but a lot of people don’t get the newspaper anymore (and I can’t access our local paper’s classifieds online).  So Craigslist is a great choice (it’s how I find a lot of yard sales now!).  Place an ad for free, be detailed, and please, for the love, use good grammar and spell-check!  :) 

 

2. Decide what’s more important to you: an empty house, or money in your pocket.

  I can’t stand it when I go to yard sales and people try to convince me of the worth of their item.  I always want to say, “If it’s so wonderful, why aren’t you keeping it yourself???!”  You’re having a yard sale to get rid of items that you no longer want; be at least a little flexible when it comes to negotiating. 

  At the end of the day, all of that stuff in your driveway has to go SOMEWHERE.  Now, if you’re like me, there are a few things you’re not going to go rock-bottom on.  For instance, I sold some clothes last week, but not everything.  I know that I can bring them to my local consignment shop and attempt to get money from them there…which is why they weren’t offered at 25 cents a piece or placed for free at the end of my sale.  Same goes for an in-the-box kitchen vent we were trying to sell for $20…odds are that someone on Craigslist will want it for $50, since we bought it for $100. 

  So there might be a few things that are important enough for you to try “round two” on, but the rest…well, be willing to part with it.

 

3.  Have your items priced before you open.

  Some people love to haggle, but most people don’t.  Personally, I hate asking the owner about each and every item I hold up – it gets really old, really fast.  Pricing things allows people to know immediately if it’s in their affordable range. (And interestingly, people are less likely to haggle when the price is on the item.  I’m not sure why, but it’s true!) 

{via}

  Another benefit to pre-pricing is that when you have a few people waiting on you to “check-out” (and that happened to us, off and on, all morning), you can zip through the payment rather than having to negotiate each and every item with all the buyers.  Ugh.  That makes my head hurt just thinking about it! :)

  Pricing everything most certainly does not mean that you need to put a price tag on everything.  Get some old boxes, fill them with like items, and take a sharpie to them:  Books 50 cents, Frames $1, Kitchen Plastics 25 cents, etc.  You can even set a little sign on a table describing what each item is worth. (I did this with my lamps table:  I made one sign that said, “Lamp bases, $4; Shades $1.”)  Doing stuff like this is waaay easier than having to make a sticker for each individual item!

  Oh, and another tip:  don’t price anything for less than a quarter.  Trust me on this.  It’s not worth your aggravation, or your customers’.  If you truly think it’s worth less than a quarter, just mark it as free. 

 

4.  Use tables, if possible.

{you can click to enlarge!}

   I was very lucky that my parents’ church was only a few miles away, and we were able to use all of their folding tables for free.  You might not be in that position, but try to be creative in getting things off the ground.  Use drying racks, boxes turned over, kitchen benches or chairs, plywood over sawhorses…anything you can think of to get products up!  A lot of people don’t like to bend over to reach things, and I’ve noticed that my stuff within easy reach always sells a lot well than those that I’ve had to place on the ground because I simply ran out of room.

 

5.  Be organized.

  This ties in with number 4, but it’s really important to be organized.  People enjoy looking at things with visual cohesion  - it’s just human nature.  So if you have 15 Christmas items, place them in a group, not scattered throughout your sale.  Same goes for baskets, or books, or frames.  You’re more likely to make more money that way, since the person looking for Christmas items will most likely be interested in more than one item that you have. 

 
{click to enlarge}

6.  Place baby items somewhat close to the road.

  I realize that at first glace that might seem odd, but hear me out.  On the rare occasions that I yard sale with Luke, I am very selective about which ones I actually get out at.  Why?  Because each stop means unbuckling him and lugging his chunky little self out of the car.  So when I’m on the lookout for baby clothes (which I usually always am) and I see boxes of infant clothing or kids’ games out front, it’s a good clue that there’s going to be something there for me, and that it’s going to be worth my time to get him out.  Just something to think about if you’re trying to get rid of kid stuff. 

Whew, well that went even longer than I thought!  Come back tomorrow for Part 2 – and PLEASE share your feedback with me below!  I’ll probably do some kind of yard sale every year or every other year and I am always looking to do it better than I did before. 

 

Oh and one last thing: Darlene is hosting another giveaway on her scrapbooking blog!  All you have to do is comment on this post and follow her blog to get a chance to win Echo Park’s newest release, “Country Drive.”  So hop on over! :)

 

Linked to:

Works for Me Wednesday

Miscellany Monday {12}

{1} WOW, what a week we have had!  My DH was on vacation for the last 9 days, and it has been awesome to have him with me everyday.  We truly are best friends (we were even before we ever dated), so having him around to talk to and be with all day is pretty much my favorite thing ever.  We started out the week (from Saturday – Wednesday afternoon) in PA visiting his family (where we lived until last summer).  We had such a nice, refreshing, relaxing time.  It is so beautiful there in the Pocono Mountains and whenever we visit I am struck by how amazing God’s creation is. 

{2} While we were there, we also spent a lot of quality time with my BFF  and her family. She made us Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls. I have had them before, and every time I eat one, I’m pretty sure I do some involuntary moaning that makes my husband uncomfortable.  haha! 

Normally I’m not a big fan of pastries and things like that because they just make me feel kinda sick instantly.  But my darling friend made hers with whole wheat flour, which kept my blood sugar from skyrocketing and allowed me to eat….well…..more than the few bites I originally planned on.  lol 

{via}

I’m pretty sure if I was a country singer and/or a Southerner I would classify these as “slap your grandma” good….but since I’m not, let’s just go with seriously TO DIE FOR.  If you haven’t ever tried them, you gotta get the book from your library or beg someone lovely to make them for you.  Out of this world, people! Out of this world.

{3} Speaking of amazingly good foods, I have another one for you, and this one’s as easy as driving to the grocery store: Oikos Organic Pomegranate Raspberry Acai Greek Yogurt (by Stonyfield). 

{via}

Normally I buy plain Greek yogurt, add fruit and honey (and sometimes flaxseed if I’m feeling wild and crazy) and call it a day.  I love it that way.  But this was on sale and I gave it a go.  YUM.  Sweet, but not so sweet it made me feel sick.  Great treat. 

Oh, and true story of life in our house: Chris was giving Luke a bath when I opened the container of yogurt.  I was all like, “Honey you have got to try this!!!” so I went in the bathroom so Chris could have a spoonful.  My child stands up (in the bath, remember), points to the yogurt, and does a pitiful little moan.  So I give him a spoonful, and he loves it and wants more.  So there is my son, buck naked in the bathtub, getting spoon-fed yogurt by Mommy.  It that’s not quality parenting, I just don’t know what is. Ha!

{4} I forgot to add earlier that the rest of this week was a little stressful because of the massive yard-sale I had at my house on Saturday with me, my mom, my aunt, my sister, and a couple from our church.  We had a TON of people, and overall I made $245 (plus a bread machine).  I am super happy with that number, considering I didn’t sell any furniture or anything – just smaller household items.  I am thrilled to have spending money (for Ikea this month!!!!), but wow was it ever tiring.  I’m relieved that it’s over!  Come back later this week and I’ll be giving you some yard-sale tips I’ve learned from having 3 yard sales of my own and selling twice at a flea market in PA! 

{5} So my blissful week with DH is over, and we’re back to reality, oh, there goes gravity….lol, I mean, back to the regular in-and-out of life. ;)  (Sidenote: I just got transported back to senior prom, 2002, and my prom date rapping every single word to that song on the dance floor.) Thankfully, my Monday is going to start out with a visit from a blog-friend turned real-life friend, Abby from Tales and Trials.  I’m pretty sure my mother would be going into cardiac arrest tonight if she knew that I had given my home address, last name, and phone number to someone I met on the internet.  hahaha! 

Seriously though, no worries…I am like, the most paranoid person on the planet about privacy and I’ve met Abby before in a neutral location just in case Abby was really Al and 75 and drove a creepy white passenger van with no windows in the back and she and her boys are really sweet.  Looking forward to seeing her again tomorrow at my house! 

{6} Oh and last but not least…..I stopped by Goodwill today and there, on the bookshelf, with a heavenly light around it, was this book, for $1.99:

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I’ve been looking for this book (and the first one) for years now – they’re out of print, as far as I can tell.  I can’t tell you how happy I was to find it!  It totally came home with me and I was definitely reading it in line. 

If I’m not the coolest person you know, then I’m pretty sure you need better friends.  Or something. 

 

Happy Monday! ;)

LInked to:

How to Make an Organized Grocery Shopping List

If that’s not a compelling title, people, I just don’t know what is. Well, you’re still reading, so that counts for something, right?  :) 

About 497 years ago, I posted about how I organize my recipes.  This system has helped me a lot, and although I’ve modified it quite a bit, it still helps me get a handle on meal planning.  I thought I’d share with you today how I’ve streamlined my grocery-store shopping, as well.

I am a total stream-of-consciousness person in real life.  Subjects switch in my head really fast, and sometimes it feels like I have about 3-4 different subjects in my head at any given time.  Can anyone else relate?  I used to through Chris for a loop every time we had conversations, so now I just preface my train of thoughts with “Okay, next subject…” It has really helped both of us out. :)

Anyway, I was doing the same thing with my grocery shopping list: writing down the items as they occurred to me during the week (which is what most normal people do).  But inevitably I would get to the store, get done shopping, and realize there was something in the middle of my list that I inadvertently missed, making me trek back through the whole store to find it.  After I had Luke, I hated this process even more, because I was trying to keep him occupied as well. 

I knew I needed a different system, so I came up with this system and I’ve been using it since last summer.  It works perfectly for me.  {Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.}

 

I have a pre-saved template on my computer for my grocery list.  I have ordered this list in the same order my favorite supermarket lays out their groceries, so it follows a natural progression of the aisles.  I keep it up on my fridge, and throughout the week, as we run out of items, I simply write the item in the appropriate category.  EASY.  SIMPLE. TIME-SAVING.  DUH WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS A MILLION YEARS EARLIER????!!!!

 

Then, as I go through the fliers for the week and see what’s on sale, I add those items, as well.  A little circled “c” means I have a coupon for the item, and a dot by the item means it’s at a different grocery store (one that I shop at for a few sale items but don’t do the bulk of my shopping at). 

On the back, I include my weekly menu plan, as well as anything I need at Target for the week.  (I put drugstore deals on a separate sheet of paper; and no, I don’t cook dinner every night – with just the three of us, there’s usually always enough leftovers to cover 2 nights or more). 

I absolutely love this system and will never go back to the stream-of-consciousness-way again. 

I’m sure I’m not the only person in the world to make a grocery list this way, but I’m so glad it popped into my head because it has saved me a ton of time and aggravation over the past 12 months. 

Hopefully it will do the same for you, too. :)

{Turning the comment moderation on has resulted in comments not getting posted….so it’s off, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed!}

Consider this Part 2 to My Last Post

When I typed that last post about CVS, I had NO idea that it would cause a bit of drama!  WOW.  First of all, that post has already received 1,921 hits in the 24 hours it has been up, and almost 1,000 of those hits have been from Facebook.  At least one sweet woman has e-mailed me (hi, Beth!) to say that she shared the deal with her coupon group on Facebook, which I think is awesome.  Suffice it to say that that number is waaaaaaaaaay more visits than I usually get on my little blog!  By a long shot! haha

The downside of that post is that I have received some hurtful, thoughtless comments (which were immediately deleted).  So you will notice that comment moderation is turned on, and I will probably keep it on for a few weeks.  Let me just encourage all of you to remember that (as corny as it sounds) behind every blog you read is a real person with real feelings.  It is easy to be a bully when you write anonymously behind a computer screen, but those words can hurt someone else. 

I, like many of you, have a small monthly budget to work with – hence why you see so many posts about thrift stores and yard sales.  CVS has been a huge blessing to me and my family, because I have learned (thanks to Money Saving Mom) how to combine coupons and sales to save literally thousands of dollars over the past several years.  What I didn’t type after yesterday’s post was that I was able to roll my 7 ECB into buying swim diapers for my son.  After using a Pamper’s coupon, those came out to only $.50.  That’s why I did the deal – to save on that expensive summer necessity.  I am not at all ashamed to say that I bought those items – I consider it a win-win for my family and for the person at my yard sale next week who will be able to buy them for 90-95% off. 

I have a small, 3-level plastic container where I keep my drugstore items – when that container is full, I take a break from doing deals.  I am certainly not a hoarder or a miser. Sometimes I sell my few overstock items, and sometimes I give them away.  I am THANKFUL for the blessing that coupons and learning about stores has been to my family.  I am also thankful that I was able to help some of you out yesterday. 

Lastly, someone yesterday had a question about how I was able to do the stacking of coupons at CVS.  That is the great thing bout shopping there – you can stack a CVS coupon with a manufacturer coupon to get maximum savings.  One of the reasons I never shop at Walgreens is because they don’t have that policy and things get very, very confusing – you have to end up buying all sorts of filler items and to me that just gets too overwhelming. 

I guess I just want to ask that before you type a comment – to me or any other blogger – please consider the real person behind that blog.  Life is far, far too short to go around leaving nasty anonymous comments on other people’s personal websites.  

I mean, really…you could spend that time learning to coupon instead. ;)