Kelly in the House

Jason, the Rastafarian August 27, 2008

Sunday at church the music leader had a great activity planned. We are reviewing songs that we have learned all year so that we are prepared for a program we have planned in front of the church in September.

To make it a little more fun she enlisted the help of Jason. Since he is bald she had him come sit in a chair in front of the kids. The song started and if the kids were singing they were chosen to come up and put some hair on his head. This went on through 8 songs! This is the final pic when he was finished.

Makes me totally wanna listen to some Bob Marley!

ALL things dogs for my daughter August 26, 2008

So, we were driving to school yesterday and we got onto the subject of aunts and uncles. Lucas thought it was super-cool that his neighbor Hayden has an aunt and uncle that is younger than him. He said he wished that he could have an uncle younger or close to the same age as he is. I tried to explain it to him but he didn’t really understand it.

I explained to him the only way that could happen is for him to get married and have a baby then I would have another baby too. I then added a very important piece of information.

"And that isn’t gonna happen because I am not having any more babies!"

Kendall who was being very quiet and I didn’t even know was listening to the conversation blurts out…

"Why, because you have been spayed?"

Props to the Humane Society Camp for teaching my little girl this summer.

Southwestern Chicken Tacos

I haven’t posted a new recipe lately mostly because…well, I am lazy and haven’t tried anything new. Plus I hate heating the kitchen in the summer so I have been doing easy stuff like hot dogs, sandwiches and stuff.

So, this is actually a crock pot recipe which is great because you don’t really have to worry too much with it plus it smells really good in the house all day!

Here are the ingredients:

Now, take the chicken, corn, black beans, and salsa and throw into the crock pot. Cook on low for about 8 hours.

About 30 min before you serve dinner get the chicken out and shred it with two forks.

Put the shredded chicken back in the crock pot along with a block of cream cheese which has been cut into pieces.

Stir every 10 min or so to let the cream cheese combine and melt. Looks kinda nasty but let me tell you…it is all kinds of good!

Take your tortilla shells and load it up with this mixture. Roll it up and plop some sour cream on it and some shredded cheddar cheese and you have yourself a really easy SW chicken taco!

Here is the printable recipe if you need it. Enjoy!

clothing organization (BTS) August 21, 2008

The week before school starts back is when I tend to try and get the most organized. One of the things we do is weed out old clothes and figure where we stand on nice summer school clothes and fall/winter clothes.

Throughout the year Jason and I both "shop" for the kids. We always know what sizes they are needing soon and what they are short on.

The other day we got a wild hair and decided to lug out all the containers of clothes to see what we still needed to get.

Doesn’t he look OVERJOYED!

Well, we figured out very quickly that we had overbought especially for Lucas! Jason counted up all the winter shirts that we had for him and figured that Lucas could wear a different shirt every day for 9 weeks before we would have to wash. Needless to say we pared that down quickly.

I think we finally have a system for keeping up with the clothes. We have two containers per kid. One that is labeled with whatever the next season coming up is and the other is labeled TOO BIG. This way we don’t have to dig through the boxes to figure out what they are and we don’t have too many containers (pppfffttt…is that EVEN possible?) So when winter is close all I need to do is pull out the winter containers and re-label it spring or whatever. Does that even make sense? We also keep a piece of paper on the top of the stack of clothes showing what we are short on like PJ’s or dresses. Comes in really handy!

Please if you have a better system let me know!

But my point is this…try and buy ahead of your kids sizes. Lucas is in a 10 Large now and Kendall is in an 8 Medium now so Jason and I both are looking at 12’s for Lucas and 10’s for Kendall. That way when we get to that size we know we are pretty well stocked up. Keep the cycle going and you may never have to have a big back to school shopping spree…unless of course you enjoy that!

She is growing up too fast August 17, 2008

Yesterday she turned seven years old. Seems crazy to me that this is possible. She is a beautiful soul inside and out. Happy Birthday Keekers LaRue!

For the love of creepiness! August 11, 2008

Wow…just when I thought I had seen the worst of the worst from the coupon inserts out pops this little freak o’ nature.

"There she is, frolicking in the yard-so typical". Please do me the favor of reading this entire brilliant marketing piece. Somebody needs fired ASAP.

This thing is 5 inches of creepy for a mere $30!!!!! Do you know what I could do with $30?

Man, I don’t know whether to laugh my head off at the absurdity of this "collector’s item" or feel really sorry for the people that actually get suckered into buying this. Either way all I have to say is "WHO BUYS THIS CRAP?!"

More Great deals with coupons August 10, 2008

Some people tell me how hard it is for them to coupon…that is fair. I agree. It takes time…about 3-4 hours a week (from cutting the coupons, filing them, making the grocery list, and actually doing the shopping) for me. Right now in my life I have those extra 3-4 hours to give. It actually happens to be something I really enjoy doing now.

But I do know there are lots of people who work full time, go to school, take care of the kids, etc., etc. who can barely do that much less spend time messing with coupons. I totally get that too.

So, when I post these deals I don’t want it to be show-offy (totally just made a word up there) I just want it to be a way that some might be able to coupon. It isn’t all or nothing with coupons. You can do as much or as little as you like.

Take for instance this week at CVS and this past week’s coupon inserts in the Charlotte Observer. I was able to take advantage of some great deals just using the coupons from this week combined with the sales from this week.

CVS had Covergirl foundations and powder on sale BOGO (buy one get one free). In the inserts this week there was a coupon for Covergirl foundations that was BOGO as well. So I was able to get four papers this week and I had four of these coupons. So, I grabbed 8 Covergirl items and only had to pay tax. The sale combined with the coupon canceled each other out! This happens to be my powder of choice and the extras will go to my friends or family (make up gets EXPENSIVE!). These items were all $7.99 so I saved over $60. Now I would never spend that much money on make up…esp at CVS but combining the two sales together means I won’t need face powder for about 6 months or more. Make sense?

Moving on…at CVS they have a monthly book of all of the ECB (Extra Care Bucks) deals that go on the entire month. The August issue has Children’s Advil on the front page as on sale for $5.79. When you buy this you will get $5.79 back on your cash register tape that you can spend on anything in the store. I also happen to have a $1 Internet coupon that I printed here… (http://www.advil.com/childrens/index.asp). So I bought these, got my money back and actually made $3 in the process. I for one HATE buying children’s medicine esp at full price so these will come in soooo handy!

And for your last deal of the week…Pert Plus was on sale BOGO (price for one was $4.79). In this week’s inserts there were coupons for $2 off Pert Plus. So I bought two at $4.79, used two $2 MQ’s (Manufacturer coupons) leaving me paying .79 cents for both. Now, the fun part…underneath the Pert coupons in the paper was a MIR (Mail in Rebate). If you buy $5 worth of Pert and $5 worth of School Supplies they will mail you a $5 rebate check. So, I bought these notebooks and envelopes which were both BOGO as well and will send in my rebate to get $5 back. So after rebate I actually spent less than a dollar on all of this.

So, my lesson of the day is…even if you just occasionally want to grab some deals you can! Don’t let the time thing burden you down. Saving money is a good thing! And anything you can do to save some cash, even if if is only a few bucks, is a step in the right direction.

Who Buys This CRAP? August 7, 2008

You know, I am constantly in awe of some of the junk that sells on QVC or infomercial’s these days. Seems like in every piece of mail, magazine, and even email I get there is something that I must buy NOW!

I can’t escape it…even in my precious coupon inserts each week. Now there are some doozies! Jason and I try and out-do each other with how bad some of this stuff is. I mean, really…WHO BUYS THIS CRAP? (and you must know that I really wanted to use a different word in place of crap because that is what this stuff is…but since I have some younger children in my blog audience I will skip that for today.)

I decided to start saving some of the worst items to blog about…because my mouth just hangs open when I see some of this stuff they sell to people. I mean, my goodness, it can’t be that cheap to advertise with the coupon section each week so SOMEBODY must be buying it.

For instance…Anti-Aging Slippers. What…anti-aging slippers? You mean to tell me if I wear these I will not age? It will make my feet feel 20 years younger? Really? Who buys this load of bunk?

What about this beauty? I mean, do people really buy miniature shoes to look at? The shoe has a name for pete’s sake…"Love and Cherish".

Or what about "The Most Comfortable Lounger You Will Ever Wear"? Aren’t these called Moo-Moo’s? Now, I do understand heavier ladies need these but the model here…we will call her skinny lady…in fact does NOT need to be wearing a moo-moo.

Or better yet, how would you like to have NO MORE FOOT PAIN? With "Flexible Toes" (which FYI was inspired by yoga exercises) (WHAT?????? Never seen that kind of yoga exercise) you will have the secret to healthier feet. All for only $12.97. Ummmm, thirteen bucks for a piece of foam? I think not.

Finally, a personal favorite…"The Zip-Front Bra". Yes, my male friends…FINALLY easier access. No more fumbling around. And ladies…don’t you love the idea of having a ZIPPER in between your cleavage? Sounds so comfortable!

So, keep your eyes out for some great crap that people actually buy! I swear, one day I am gonna invent some junk to sell to these same people so I too can be rich.

Breaking Dawn Release Party August 6, 2008

Aug 2nd has come and gone and the book has been read cover to cover. Sniff, sniff. It was so fun looking forward to it…at least now I have the movie to look forward to. I had a wonderful time going to the Barnes and Noble Release party. I sort of felt a little old to be there considering this was a young adult book but at least I wasn’t the only one.

It is funny what great books can do to you…this one has totally swept me away…away from reality into an exciting world of imagination. I can only hope that my children find books that do this to them. I am not sure where I learned my love of reading as a child but I am so thankful to the girls at church who started our book club that renewed that love for me.

Here are a few pics of our fun night at the release party. Be sure and comment if you were at a party or have read it yet…let me know your thoughts on the book and what happened to Edward and Bella.

Jolene and I waiting on the sidewalk of B&N.

I was number 34 in line…here is the scene inside the store at about 3 min until midnight.

After we had the book in our greedy little hands we decided to try out our vampire teeth the store gave out. Scary huh? Keep in mind…it was LATE and we were punchy.

Overheard Conversations August 1, 2008

Don’t you just love hearing conversations by your kids?! I think I might start a new category just for these. Here is today’s.

Kendall to Lucas "you need to change your hat"

Kendall to me "MOM, Lucas is wearing a hat that doesn’t match AT ALL!!!"

Lucas to me "What? I don’t care about all this matching stuff. Really, I don’t"

This really made me giggle because it is so indicative of my two children. Kendall is miss matchy-matchy and Lucas couldn’t care less about his clothes.  Guess it is just a girl/boy thing.