Author Archives: Sheila

Back to the Doctor’s

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On Sunday, I decided that Lily and probably Zach needed to go back to the doctor’s. After being on antibiotics for a week, Lily had a fever and Zach was shaking his head. The big question was rather Kendall should be seen at the same time. Sunday night was the confirmation that a trip to the doctor was needed. I have been told before that with 3 kids in order to have them all seen at the same time I needed 2 adults present. Not a big deal, Matt took off the morning to help with the sick kiddos. So we dropped Haley off at school and headed straight to Salisbury. It was close to 8:30 when we arrived for the walk in clinic. Things got a little wild when, one of the CMAs asked how I wanted to split up the kids. I did ask if they could be seen together but of course the answer was NO. GRRRR, I am frustrated but decided to send Kendall with Matt since she was the “least” sick. Lily’s ears were still infected, Zach had one ear that was still infected. Kendall comes out with Matt and now has a double ear infection and needs breathing treatments 3-4 times a day. WOW now I am so glad we took Kendall, she technically is the sickest even tho Matt forgot/didnt ask for the official diagnosis!
Yesterday was a long day but I *think* the meds are working because everyone feels so much better this morning!
Lily new glasses came in as well! So we went and picked them up…

She looks so much older with them!

Menu Planning for March 8th

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Last week worked out well except for Monday when we ate out because of the trip to the doctor. So we ended up not have the Chicken Cacciatore. I have moved it to this week although Matt keeps insisting that his was better but he does not know how he made it. One of the blogs I follow Couponing to Disney has a challenge this month to not eat out! I am going to try this because we had decided to try and cut back on eating out so get out spending under control. Weekend are always the hardest because I hate cooking 3 meals a day, much less the clean up but this weekend we did it :)! Next weekend should be easy as well, because they are having a dinner after church! Now on to the plan

Monday Stuffed Green Peppers
Tuesday Chicken Cacciatore
Wednesday: Pork Chops (Angel Food) plan to try a sweet potatoe pie recipe as well and make some form of Carrots to use up those as well.
Thursday: Shrimp Scampi (Bagged meal on sale)
Friday: Mexican night of some form? Not quite sure yet!
Saturday night: Youth Progressive dinner (Baked Ziti)

Sunday Drive

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2 girls, one blond and one brunette,in a Jeep Hurricane,top down,wind blowing thur their hair, sunglasses on with songs blaring from the radio like “You give Love a Bad Name” and “Hotel California.” Sounds like a scene from a movie or at least a really good dream Right?


This is the scene from our movie/life this afternoon. It was complete with lines like “Turn the radio off Kendall so I can FOCUS on the Tom Tom.” “I am going North.” and ” I can’t hear the Tom because the music is so loud.” Matt and I were in stitches just listening. Today it was 60 and sunny most of the afternoon.

We have returned to our normal NC weather here is a picture from Wednesday:

Haley was out of school because of the snow and she and Lily made this snowman!

Unfortunately, the germs have also returned to NC with full force. Lily has started running a fever again. She and I both have definitely had some form of a stomach virus this weekend. Zach is miserable in every position but being held by me and Kendall’s has a green runny nose and blew out a diaper while I ran to CVS today. Matt and I are trying to come up with a plan to get all three back to the Doctor tomorrow to try and get something to make any and all feel better!

Sick

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This whole week has been fast and difficult. I am posting on Saturday morning but this is my Friday night post.

Monday… Matt came home early from work and we picked up Kendall’s new glasses. We took Lily and Kendall to the doctor. Lily has a double ear infection and Kendall has the start of one.

Tuesday- Snow day. I went to work while Haley watched the girls. I worked 4 hours!

Wednesday- Honestly I can’t remember anything about this day 🙂

Thursday- Lily started with a fever and complaining of her stomach hurting. She actually woke up in the middle of the night and threw up. On Thursday evening I started feeling really really bad. I attempted to go to bed at 8pm but was up ALOT this night.

Friday- Ibuprofen really helped me feel better. Amanda watched the little ones while I worked for 3 hours today. Both Kendall and Zach are whiney and probably have the same stomach bug as Lily and I. Amanda also is sick!

What a week! YUCK!

Kendall’s New Glass

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First I want to remember that at the end of the year, I can print my blog to a book. I will continue to scrapbook but this will be a neat way to review the year! Kinda like a journal. Now on to the important stuff. Yesterday both girls were whiney. So we decided that we would take both to the doctor to have them checked. Lily has been running a low grade fever for almost a week now! Kendall’s and my glass also were ready to pick up. The pictures are from this morning! It turns out that Lily has a double ear infection and Kendall is starting with one so they both are on antibiotics.

February In Review

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So it is that time again, a new month…so here is how I did last month with the goals I have set for the year.

Budgeting- Our grocery budget was over by 263 but I feel that we are finally able to monitor and buy most items only on good or stockpile prices. I have been able to start my stockpile. In other areas because of tax refunds we have caught up with our bills. I am still going to work hard at paying off the extra medical bills we have from the past 2 years aka 2 babies. But for the present, we are in our best financial situation in two years. We have a guy coming to tile the new bathroom this week paid in cash. Now we have to purchase a water heater, door, and sink prior to having it inspected and attempting to refinance. In other budget news, we purchased a chest freezer for $50 yesterday :).

Preschool- We had about 10 days of snow this month with the girls home from school or as Lily said too cold and yucky. I did manage to squeeze in 3 formal days of preschool and have started working on letter sounds with Lily all through out the day. So not really a good month on this front but I did order a new lower case letter book for her and we will hopefully get back on track this month!

Reading- This was a really really bad month. I am going to try and make this more of a part of my nightly routine. This is definitely my weakest area this month and needs the most improvement.

Blogging- I had 14 post in February. So not bad…

Encouragement WELCOME!!!

Menu Planning for March 1st

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I have figured out that by writing things down they are more likely to get done :0) so I am going to attempt to keep more of my daily life information on my blog! Menu planning is something I do alot in my head but I either forget or get sidetracked so I think that by doing it here I am be more likely to stick to it. I do realize that if I do a menu plan then I am less likely to eat out or be tempted to grab something to eat here. Both of these are really expensive for feeding the 6 of us right now. Matt and I have agreed to try and limit lunches to one out a week and one meal out a week as a family. This way we can enjoying going out to eat and it still remains a “treat” instead of expected. Also I will try and comment to remember if we liked this and if it should go in the “fix again stack.”

Monday – Sausage Apple Skillet Menu (New) Using all Angel Food (update both girls at the doctors so we ate out)
Tuesday -Chicken Cacciatore Costco Home Cooking p139
Wednesday – Chicken Pie (trying different crust)
Thursday – T- bone steaks- Angel Food
Friday – Mexican night- Taco rice, dip ???? depending on what I decided

I am not going to plan for Saturday and Sunday as these days we eat differently and I usually have one “meal” and the other two are snacks or convenience foods. This is also the most likely time we will go out to eat. Sunday is also the day that we eat at Granny and Papaw’s.

Great CVS trip

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I had an awesome trip to CVS today (2/28). I spent a total of $25, saved $39 and came home with 4 ECB, a total of 67%! This is my second highest percentage for a trip! I realized after getting in the van that I could have saved an additional $3 had I separated and completed 3 transaction instead of 2 but oops! One of the reasons I missed this is because I ended up using 2 store coupons that I had not plan prior to going to the store! Here is what I did:

Transaction #1
CVS Psoriasis shampoo $7.99 with a $1 store coupon
Gillette men’s clinical strength deodorant $8.99 w/$3.00 off manufacturer’s coupon and 2ECB earned.
1 Bottle of Colgate Kid’s toothpaste $2.50 w/$.75 off manufacturer’s coupon and 1 ECB
1 Tube of Colgate Toothpaste $2.50 w/$.75 off manufacturer’s coupon and 1 ECB
Softsoap body wash $4.99 w/4 ECB back
Other coupons included 5 off 25 from Rite Aid and 2 ECB

Transaction #2
Box of Huggies Diapers $19.99 with $4.00 store coupon and $2.50 Manufacturer’s coupon earned 4ECB
2 bags of Jelly Beans $.88 each with $1.00 off 2 store coupon
2 new Pacifers for Zach
Other coupons included 3 off 15 from Rite Aid and 8ECB

The really cool part of the second transaction is that including the jelly beans and pacifers as free,then diapers were still $.12 each!

Not so Manic Monday

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Today is exactly what I needed it to be a nice, quiet, routine day at home! This weekend has been so hectic starting with Thursday night and then through yesterday. So since I want to keep this almost as a journal, I am going to try and hit the highlights of the weekend.

Thursday night I made a quick but profitable trip to CVS and Food Lion. At Food Lion, I found stage 2 baby food on closeout for 39 cent a jar. I also had several coupons for $1 off 4 and 6. I ended up buying 14 jars of food for an average cost of 13 cent each. I also picked up 64 ozs of Apple Juice for 50 cent. Diet Cokes were also on sale 🙂

Friday, Amanda and I went to Winston after I saw a patient at North. We hit Harris Teeter and Costco as well as the Verizon Store where Amanda is going to be getting a new phone. This phone is the 3rd one in 10 months that has broken so she got to chose a different phone to replace this one! I also went to CVS where I had a great transaction spending 32 cent and saving $22. I had a 5/25, a 4/20 facial items and 16 in ECBs. I still brought home 6ECB from my first transactions! Matt’s brother Dave and his family arrived from Disney around midnight, I was asleep!

Saturday, Matt stayed at home to visit with the kids. I went to help with Angel Food distribution, came home ate lunch and then went back to church for quizzing. Matt and the babies brought Pizza Hut pizza for dinner!

Sunday was a church day as usual and I got a much needed nap!

Today, I have caught up on laundry, emptied cat litter, caught up on the internet and hopefully will get my coupons cut out from the past 3 weeks that Mom saved for me! I also need to get a new calender for March put together!

The biggest news is that Kendall used a spoon to feed herself Applesauce for lunch !

Kendall’s Appointment

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We started to notice several weeks ago that Kendall’s left eye was starting to cross(turn inward). The more we watched it the more often we saw it turning in. Because of Lily’s extremely poor vision we decided to have her checked immediately. So yesterday we both took her to the appointment. I have to say that she was absolutely amazing! She is so cooperative with all the tests they had to do. It was really obvious to the tech that she was far-sighted. Her vision is not as bad as Lily’s but she does require glasses. We are in prayer that she will not need surgery. After receiving her glasses, she returns in 3 months to make this decision. Because Zach was with us, they decided to “check” his vision as well. Because he is so young this may change but his eye “look” normal now. One of the main things we were so worried about was finding glasses to fit Kendall. Lily was a year older but around the same size and it took 3 months and multiple visits to different place to find her glasses. So we decided to go ahead and order a pair if we could find some that fit. We did find and order a pair from the doctor’s office. they are pink and brown and have the “cable” /wrap around ear pieces. They are not the best but they did look cute on her so we decide to get these as well as keep looking. This office does not accept our vision insurance so this pair is full price. After coming back to Lexington, I took her to the office I use and where our insurance is accepted. I was able to find an adorable blue pair of glass that she LOVES and looks great it. So I ordered this pair as well. I was also able to order myself a new pair of glasses. I will post pictures when both pair come in!

I did make my first trip to Harris Teeter for super doubles yesterday before Kendall’s appointment. I am upset with myself, first I have lost my envelope that had my extra coupons to use. These were the ones I had pulled if an item was out of I couldn’t find it at the store. I had probably 16 or so coupons in this one. On top of that I lost my receipt. I know that I had over $50 in coupons but no clue how the totals actually are. I am planning a second trip tomorrow hopefully I will do better.
The playhouse arrived and only took Matt about 30 minutes to assemble. I will try and get pics of this as well.
Matt and I are going to build raised garden boxes for our square foot garden this year. I ordered the book today and he is planning on building 2 4×4 boxes for me!