Thanks, Walgreens!

I think I'm getting the hang of working the Walgreens deals, and I'd like to say THANK YOU to Walgreens! And I'd also like to say THANK YOU to Grandma, who sat in the car with the kids while I ran inside Walgreens!!!!! Grandma asked me where I found all these coupons, so I'm including that also. MC means manufacturer's coupon.

Pam Cooking Spray: $3.99 - $1 MC from All You Magazine = $2.99
Peter Pan Peanut Butter: $3.49 - $.50 MC Internet Printable = $2.99
Hunt's Tomato Sauce: In Ad Coupon $0.39 x 4 = $1.56
Triaminic Sore Throat Formula: $5.99 - $1.50 MC Internet Printable = $4.49
Expecta Lipil DHA Supplement: $12.99 - $2 MC which was expired! from the last box I had = $10.99 (I'll continue to take while nursing)
Excedrin Menstrual Complete Express Gels: $5.99 - $4 Walgreens coupon - $2 MC Internet Printable = $0.02 overage! (I thought these might come in handy after the baby!)
Excedrin Menstrual Complete Express Gels: $5.99 - $4 Walgreens coupon - $2 MC Internet Printable = $0.02 overage!
Nature Made Prenatal Vitamins: $12.99 - $1 MC from newspaper = $11.99 (I'll continue to take while nursing)
Nature Made Chewable Vitamin C: $8.49 - B1G1 on Nature Made Vitamins -$1 MC from newspaper = $1.00 overage!!
(if I'd realized this one applied, I would have gotten 2 prenatals instead!)
Glade Sense & Spray Air Freshner: $9.99 - $4 Walgreens coupon - $4 MC from newspaper= $1.99
Huggies Gentle Care Wipes: on sale 2/$5.00 - my last $5 Huggies MC Internet Printable = FREE
- $10.00 Walgreens coupon from my previous Huggies / Kimberly Clark deal
So my total came up to $25.98!

Now... Rebates!

Walgreens Rebate on ConAgra items (Pam, Peter Pan, Hunt's): $5.00
Walgreens Rebate on Triaminic: $3.00
Walgreens Rebate on Nature Made items: Free Denise Austin DVD
Expecta Rebate: $12.00 (got this one in the mail after registering on their website)
Caregiver's Marketplace Rebate on Nature Made Prenatal Vitamins: $1.00
Caregiver's Marketplace Rebate on Nature Made Vitamin C: $1.00

So... if I apply the rebates to the receipt total...

$3.98 and a free DVD for over $68 worth of groceries & health items!

Aunt Sissy asked me where I found some of my information, so here are a few of my favorite sites for finding the coupon match-ups (I've got these in my reader):

Money Saving Mom
Being Frugal is Fabulous
Frugal 4 a Busy Life
Stretching a Buck

I also find it easy to find coupon match-ups myself by viewing the weekly sales ads online. Both Walgreens' & Kroger's weekly ads are online and are searchable by product. For example, if I have a coupon for Peter Pan, I can search each ad to see if anyone has Peter Pan on sale this week. Then I try to wait to use the coupon until I find someone with it on sale. If it's not on sale & I need it, and if it's 50c or less, I'll use that coupon at Kroger where they double and triple coupons. This usually gets the cost of the item below the other "every day low price."

Coffee & Seeds

Sun rising on the Texas Mountain Laurel

After yesterday's emotionally tiring day, I thought about skipping coffee this morning, but finally decided to serve it up anyway. Plus, I have some things I need to add to my garden log. And I really wanted to go outside and photograph those blooms!

Read more about the Growing Challenge: From Seed to Seed at One Green Generation.

Tuesday, March 17 - I finally cut up the pumpkins we had from last fall & took the seeds out. I don't know if they're hybridized or not, or if the seeds are still any good. We were surprised when we cut into the big one to find that the seeds were sprouting inside the pumpkin! I tried putting those sprouts into some little pots. We'll see if they do anything.

Oh, remember that David planted some carrot seeds last week? Well, he forgot he planted them & dug in that pot. So I planted some more.

I also planted my hollyhock seedlings and rocket larkspur seeds along one of the fences out front (above). Once those get big enough to bloom, they should provide some pretty photos for us!

Wednesday, March 18 - After leaving my plants on the back porch for a couple of days, I finally decided to start planting them in the ground! Into Raised Bed #1, I planted the Rio Granda Roma Tomato,

2 - Mariglobe Tomatoes,

2 - Toma Verde Tomatillos, 2 - California Wonder Bell Peppers, and 3 - Sunbright Peppers. Then sprinkled everything with some DT, because I saw an awful lot of pillbugs in there. I'm afraid my pepper seedlings may have been to small still. They're having quite the struggle. I did not plant all of them, so if these don't make it I have more. The more I deal with pepper seeds & seedlings, the more I realize they need more codling than a lot of other plants!

I had a Jalapeno that was going outside, too, but David accidentally pulled it up. I re-planted it back in it's little pot & will give it more time to recover from that!

But the potatoes are not so particular!

Can anyone tell me at what point I need to start mounding up over this plant to cover it up???

Potato Cage #2 has started sprouting as well!

The lettuce is still sprouting sporadically.

And the swiss chard shot up after the rains last week. It actually looks like teeny tiny little swiss chard now!

Onions appear to be doing well. I think this dirt would benefit from some mulch, though. It's gonna crack pretty quickly. I've got onions scattered all over the place - some in raised bed #1, these are in the trough with the Mountain Laurel, some are in with the iris, some in another trough.

Now on to the flowers! I am so proud of the Texas Mountain Laurel that was the first photo of today's post! Dad grew that from seed that we collected in the Texas Hill Country. These are very hard to grow from seed. He's been raising it in a pot for several years now. Last year it had one small bloom cluster on it. This year, it's in it's permanent home by our back porch and has about 8-10 bloom clusters on it! Standing nearby, you can whiff it's intoxicatingly sweet fragrance. Such an amazing plant! I should really take another picture of it in the evening light.

The pansies from last fall are blooming again.

And I just went blank... : \ but isn't it pretty?

Grape hyacinths bloomed all week. Cannas are pushing up.


And the Phoebe nest looks about finished. I saw one of them catch a flying insect on the back porch this week. Go for it, birdie!

Updated to add: This morning I added some old hay to mulch raised bed #1, the giant potato, and the hollyhock seedlings. I hope maybe the shade from the hay & slight wind protection on those smallest seedlings will help, especially with the peppers.

Updated again to add: This afternoon I planted the Wild Cherry Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifter Tomato, and Yellow Pear Tomato into raised bed #2 and mulched around each with the old hay.

Survived by three families...

I really feel like I want to say something, but am really not sure what to say. It was a long, tiring, and emotional day. Part of it was being 8 months pregnant. Part of it was seeing family and children left behind. Part of it was realizing that, should I survive my husband, I will be the recipient of the same outpouring.

Engineer Cocke was survived by three families: his family family, his church family, and his fire family. There was obvious outpouring of love and support from all three.

Not everyone will experience what it's like to be a part of a family at work. I think we are fortunate to have that. And it's not just our department family, it's fire family. The church was packed. Extra chairs were brought in. And the walls were lined with men standing. I wondered if we were breaking fire code. There were easily over 200 firemen present, and they were not all from Fort Worth.

There were trucks and firemen from Azle, Saginaw, San Antonio, Arlington, Sansom Park, River Oaks, Reno (TX), North Richland Hills, Lake Worth, Benbrook, Denton, and perhaps others. The Fort Worth Mayor, Fire Chief, Deputy Chiefs, several Bat Chiefs, were also there as well as MedStar, FWPD Mounted Honor Guard, and the Texas Department of Parks & Wildlife represented as well. Fort Worth's own Quint 23 with ladder extended, Engine 23, Engine 21, Quint 24, and Bat 3 were there, and Engine 11 carried the casket to the burial.

I know it's not a pleasant thing to think about, but I couldn't help it... thinking that it could be me some day. We talked on the way home about how we'd tailor the service for us. What music, what ladder he'd like extended, what departments might come.

It's comforting to know that I have three families also. And I know I can count on all three. Please remember the Cocke family in your prayers, the three children who lost their dad (a son with special needs & 2 daughters) and the brothers left behind at Station 23 also.

The View on St. Patty's

26 days to go...

Tiny Talk Tuesday: St. Patrick's Edition

Happy

St. Patrick's Day!

David wanted me to lay down with him on the couch one day, so he asked, "Is it ok if you could join me with a lay party on the couch?"

David: Hey, what's that?
Mom: It's a memory stick.
David: For memories of dreams when they come true?

Bedtime prayers from David:
Thank you God for all the beautiful things. Thank you for swans... a swan is a bird... Do swans fly?

Here's one of David's recent Lego creations - a space shuttle. All on his own.



Elizabeth & I were watching our New Year's fireworks video on YouTube & she said, "A dad! A dad! Fire to boom!" (Dad can not be seen in the video, but she knew he had something to do with it!)

Some of her pronunciations that we want to remember:
Ladybug is "Buh-Lug"
Elizabeth is "Bil-eth" or sometimes "E-bil-eth"
Belly Button is "minute" (don't ask how she came up with that one!) And just this week, she started saying belly button correctly. : (
This week she also started saying "Grandma" and "Grandpa" clearly instead of "Ah-ma" and "PaPa".

Elizabeth: Buh-lug, Mama.
Mom: What?
Elizabeth: I find Buh-lug. Buh-lug hard.
She hands me a ladybug, it's wings extended, legs twitching... : | Then we had a little talk about not picking them up when you see them, even though ladybugs are good bugs.

See more tiny talk over at Mary's. Here we are last year on St. Patrick's Day. Dad's working this year, but maybe I can get the kids to pose together... Keep your fingers crossed, Aunt Jana.

50% Off My Grocery Bill!

Yes, I've become one of those people who's so excited about coupons that I actually scanned my receipt. This is a new high for me, though! $25.05 in manufacturer's coupons, including those from cellfire.com, shortcuts.com, and pgesaver.com! The bonus coupons are the ones Kroger doubled & tripled. And the plus savings are sale prices I got because I used the Kroger Plus Card. Just think, if I'd forgotten to hand over my card, my bill would have been about $30 more!

And I got catalinas worth $9.50 off future purchases and another for a free pack of "kids yogurt".

And most exciting - Really the only thing I've been craving this pregnancy is cream soda! I was able to get A&W Diet Cream Soda (no need to add the extra sugar) for $0.75 per 2L! Whoo-hoo!!!! Now hand me my cup and nobody gets hurt...

Saturday: Belly Shot: 36 Weeks

Mr. Nick's cows huddled up along the fence yesterday in the rain. They just stood there looking miserable, as if they thought they could all fit in that barn if we'd let them in.

The birds are singing this morning like the rain is over! I have a feeling we'll need to get the lawn mower serviced, now! Perhaps the last frost has passed??? So... hard... to... wait...

I haven't been very good about taking belly shots this time. I guess since we moved back, I don't feel the need to email progress photos on this pregnancy. But I took this day to try a creative angle on the belly shot. What do you think?
Yeah, I can't see my feet. 36 Weeks.

(oops... forgot to hit publish yesterday!)

Friday Garden Log, Coffee, and Seed Update

So welcome back, Company Girls and Seed Sowers! What an interesting week we've had here! We enjoyed warm 80-ish degree days at the beginning of the week and were near freezing last night! It sure is hard to be patient and wait for planting time to be right. Those warm days are soooo tempting! But today, there's coffee on & a fire going as we try to keep warm and just imagine how nice the weather will be by next week.

The lettuce seeds I planted on March 1, sprouted this last Monday, March 9! Just a few pots first, but by the end of the week they all had sprouts. More on that later.

Another of Grandmama's white iris was also blooming on Monday.

I added some organic matter to the trough that had the Swiss Chard growing in it and they're still growing. The Spinach never showed.

The Grape Hyacinths, also from Grandmama's house, also started blooming. I love these little purple clusters. This one is not fully opened yet.

On Tuesday, one of the Cardinals finally landed close enough to a window for me to get a good photo! I think this guy is a young 'en. He & his girl (who's hard to see there closer to the fence) were pretty small and he was not as vivid as some I've seen.

Then the cold weather moved in on Wednesday. I brought the tomatoes back inside to protect from the strong wind and *just in case* the temp dipped. I didn't want anything happening to my babies! My counter is ready to be past the last frost, too!

Here is a little miniature rose I got around Valentine's Day re-potted to a bigger one, a couple of ornamental peppers I've re-potted, my tomato gals, and tomatillo in the foreground.

Marigolds will be ready to go outside soon, too. Greek Oregano has disappeared. : ( I could barely ever see it, even when it was coming up.

Another re-potted ornamental pepper, the rest of the peppers, the asparagus doesn't even stand up any more it's so long, and some flowers waiting to go out front to welcome open house guests in a few weeks.

Another view of the peppers in waiting...

OH, David helped me plant some carrot seeds in a pot on Thursday. Another test. I set them out on the porch by the lettuce. They're Danvers Half Long. Carrots went along with one of his activities & books we read today, so it seemed appropriate.

I went out in the dark last night so I could add a photo of how the potato plant has grown this week! No others have sprouted. Not sure why this one's such an over achiever... or if the rest are just duds. Patience... I must keep reminding myself!

Another last night in the dark update - the lettuce seedlings. I admit I didn't know what I was doing when I planted these, but I *thought* I had sprinkled them around pretty evenly. Each pot seems to have a little concentration of sprouts. I guess time will tell if more come up or what!

So everything is growing, I'm learning patience, but I'm eagerly anticipating the changes that will be coming in the next few weeks!

Oh, yeah, and I have just 30 days until my due date! Thanks for dropping by!

Baby Bump: 4 More Weeks!

I know it's a bad picture, but David took this one of me the other night while I was washing dishes. He had his hand over the flash. I think you can still see the huge baby bump sticking out there!

The Problem with Soup...

The last photos I posted were Monday. The kids were outside in shorts getting hot. Today we were inside in sweats with a fire going. Seemed like a good day for soup. Everyone knows, however, the problem with soup is that you can't make a little pot. It keeps growing the more good stuff you think to add to it.

Did I mention I was the only one at home to eat this??? The kids don't really go for soup yet. They did devour the noodles & cornbread, though.

And Fluff just watched. Surely he can at least be thankful that he's got a nice size, DRY porch to hang out on! We'd even let him take a spin on the Big Wheel if he wanted.

Well at least he was happy out there the other day when it was sunny... and he did get some of the cornbread bones crumbled up with what was left in the bottom of the milk cups today.