It's SUPER DOUBLES again...

and slacker me just went for the 1st time this morning.... :-/ There was just an overwhelming amount of work that I needed to do to my coupon book to get it back up to date and I was procrastinating! Last night, though, I made myself sit down and do it, so when I crawled into bed a little before midnight, I knew exactly what my plan was for today!!!

Here's the breakdown of deals I found:

*Hamburger/Tuna Helper (6) - Sale price $1/ea - $.75/3 coupon (doubled to $1.50 off 3) = $1.50/3 or $.50 ea
*Cinnamon Toast Crunch (2) - $2.50/ea - $1 off 2 coupon (doubled to $2) = $3/2 or $1.50ea
*Lucky Charms (2) - $2.50/ea - $1 off 2 coupon (doubled to $2) = $3/2 or $1.50ea
*Cheerios (2) - $2.50/ea - $1 off 2 coupon (doubled to $2) = $3/2 or $1.50ea
*Betty Crocker pouch potatoes - $.79 - $.40 coupon (doubled to $.79) = FREE
*Good Earth boxed dinner (2) - $3.50ea - 2 $1.00 off coupons (doubled to $2 off) = $3/2 or $1.50ea
*Progresso Soups (4) - $5.18 or $1.29/.30ea - $1.00 off 4 coupon (doubled to $2 off) = $.79/.80ea
*Campbell Chunky (2) - $1.25ea (and there was a coupon involved here, but I don't remember the amount :( )
*Smucker's Jelly ($2.75)+ Jif to Go peanut butter ($1.99) - $4.74 - $1 coupon (doubled to $2) = $2.74
*Chef Boyardee (3) - $1/ea - $.35/3 coupon (doubled to $.70) = $2.30 or $.76/.77ea
*Mini chocolate moon pies - $2.00 - $.55 coupon (doubled to $1.10) = $.90
*Libby's pineapple chunks - $1.85ea - $1/2 coupon = $1.70 or $.85ea
*Reduced angus chuck steak - $2.87
*Reduced angus chuck stear - $2.99
*HT Whole Chicken ($.59/lb) - $3.16
*Reduced HT "Pick of the Chicken" - $3.88
*Reduced HT "Pick of the Chicken" - $4.28
*Reduced italian sausage - $2.83
*Reduced apple assortment - $1.54
*Green grapes ($.99/lb) - $2.06
*Reduced bananas - $.95
*Romaine lettuce - $2.49
*Yellow onions - $2.99
*Baby bella mushrooms - $2.79
*HT Whole Grain bread - $.77
*Tombstone Pizza (2) - $6.67 - $1/2 coupon (doubled to $2) = $4.47 or $2.33ea
*Green Giant boxed veggies (6) - $.99ea
*Danactive yogurt (2) - $1.99ea - 2 $1 off coupons (doubled to $1.99) = FREE
*Activia yogurt (2) - $1.99ea - 2 $1 off coupons (doubled to $1.99) = FREE
*HT dozen eggs - $.79
*HT whole milk - $3.19
*Off the Bone lunchmeat - $3.50 - $1 off coupon (doubled to $2) = $1.50

And...because I purchased 20 General Mills products - $6.00 off at the register. Also rec'd catalinas for $3 and $2 off next purchase.

GRAND TOTAL SPENT - $74.34
GRAND TOTAL SAVED - $91.01 (<--and this does NOT factor in a lot of the reduced meats/produce I purchased!!!) :)

Abby and I will probably make a go at it one more time tomorrow...I hope that you have all had a great Super Double week thus far!

All my love,

5 Years Ago...

...at 5:54am, my life changed forever. My priorities were shifted around, my life was turned upside-down, and my heart began to grow outside of my body. I gave birth to a beautiful little girl and we named her Katelyn Elizabeth. Katelyn immediately became a wonderful addition to our life. She has spent the last 5 years growing and learning, and getting ready for the biggest step in her life - starting kindergarten!

At Birth

 1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

 3rd Birthday

 4th Birthday

 Recently

I hope that you all enjoyed the photographic walk back down memory lane as much as I did!!! I find it so hard to believe that the little baby in the first picture (the one that I wasn't even sure how to care for!!!) has learned to walk, to talk, her colors, to count, to read, to do math, to love science, to negotiate, to do monkey bars, to make her own PB&J sandwiches, and to bring joy to everyone she comes into contact with. Katelyn has a heart of gold and is always there to give a hug to anyone in need. She and her sister have developed an extremely close bond since Abby was born and Katelyn is always looking out for her sister's best interest. 

I'm going to have to wrap this up now, as we have a birthday celebration to kick off, but I wanted to just take a moment to share with you that my baby girl is now 5 years old!!!!

All my love,

Grow babies, grow!!!

Good evening everyone!!!

The pictures above just provide a quick update to our garden. If you look closely, you'll see some baby veggies and some of the grown vegetables that the girls have harvested. It looks like we are closing in on having daily fresh produce at dinner!!!! YUM YUM!!!


Also, I would like to mention something else that's growing right now and that would be the Lynch Station Pumpkin Patch!!! You can check it out on Facebook at this link or you can follow the progress throughout the summer here on my blog. Here are some of the most recent pictures:

This effort has been a major undertaking for my Dad - he set this patch up while on short-term disability leave from his job after his stroke. Justin and I are both cheering him on with this venture and we hope for BIG pumpkins by fall!!!!

Moving on to the other side of my family, I am trying to help my mom and step-dad sell their 1984 Ford TravelCraft 27' motor home. It has a 460 cubic inch engine, over-sized automatic transmission, cooler for towing, a large awning, and almost new tires. They've given it many upgrades and it's well-kept and clean. This RV will sleep 6. It has new brakes, radiator, water pump, belts, and hoses. Also, it has an over-sized refrigerator, roof A/C, gas furnace, gas hot water, new holding tanks and valves. There is no generator, but wiring in place (they used a portable generator). The engine has 75,536 miles on it. They are asking $7,500 and the vehicle is located in central Virginia. Email me if you're interested in finding out more!

That about wraps it up for this update...I hope that you all have a wonderful week and find many ways to beat the heat!

All my love,

Container Garden Update

Good evening everyone!

I took new pictures of the back porch garden today, and I think you'll be amazed at the growth since my last update! We have harvested a LOT of strawberries already and we have 2 zucchini sprouts growing. I also see some yellow blooms on our grape tomato plant as well as some tiny jalapeno pepper buds on that plant. The girls and I separated the green bell pepper plants this afternoon, and left 3 in the container in the back of the house and moved 6 more to containers in the front of the house (I'm not counting on those making it though - I think the neighborhood stray animals eat my plants in the front...now that I think about it, maybe I should throw some habaneros up there just for fun ;-) ).

Here's what we have now:

Our 2 baby zucchinis

Yellow crookneck squash

Mystery plant (I think it's another yellow squash plant)

Cucumber plant (I can actually see where its vine snapped and then healed! Very cool!)

Green beans (We'll be harvesting these shortly)

These are the green bell pepper plants that we separated late this afternoon.

See the small yellow blooms on our grape tomato plant???

A complete look at our Upsy-Downsy planter

The "scraggly" zucchini plant is finally catching up!

We have the strawberry plant on the left and the jalapeno pepper plant on the right.

The girls and I put Miracle-Gro on all of the plants again this evening and we are very excited to see all of the baby vegetables making appearances!

Thanks for following our plants!!! I hope that you all have a great week; I should be blogging later this week about the Lynch Station Pumpkin Patch!


All my love,

Helloooooooo Super Doubles!

The girls and I maxed out our 20 coupons this morning and scored some amazing deals!


Here's what we got and how we did it:



*Maxwell House Coffee - $2.97 - $1.00 coupon (doubled to $2.00) = $.97
*KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce (2) - $2.19(ea) - $1.00 coupon (doubled to $2.00) = $.19/per
*Dove deodorant (2) - $3.35/ea - $1.50 coupon (doubled to $3.00) = $.35/per
*Sure deodorant - $2.89 - $1.50 coupon (doubled to $3.00) = FREE
*Mystic Pizza (3) - $3.00/ea - $1.50 coupon (doubled to $3.00) = 3 FREE PIZZAS
*Bagel Bites (2) - $2.50/ea - $1.00 coupon (doubled to $2.00) = $.50/per
*Tonys Pizza (4) - $1.17/ea - $1.00/2 coupon (doubled to $2.00/2) = $.17/per
*Pillsbury Jr. Biscuits - $1.00/ea - $1.00/2 coupon (doubled to $2.00/2) = 6 CANS OF FREE BISCUITS
*Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls - $1.25/ea - $1.00/2 coupon (doubled to $2.00/2) = $.25/per
*Go-Gurt - $2.79 - $1.00 coupon (doubled to $2.00) = $.79
*HT Milk - $2.27

GRAND TOTAL - $9.25
Savings today - $60.08

Good luck to everyone else! We'll be returning later this week to scoop again!

All my love,

Welcome to the life of a mompreneur!

Blackberry: "DING DING DING...CHIRP CHIRP...BEEP BEEP BEEP"
Hootsuite: "DING DONG DING DONG"
Phone: "RING RING"
Bills: Just keep rolling in
Kids: "Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy! Can I have more juice? Up, up, up!!! She pushed me! I'm hungry! Abby just bit me!"
Household chores: (they live at the bottom of my priority list...)

Me: "Hmmm, and I asked for all of this???"

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First, let me say that I love my kids and I am completely satisfied with my place in life right now. I get to have the best of both worlds by running a home-based business and being able to care for my children. Sure, there are some "sticky" moments where I want to give up and just do neither job of mine, but overall, the good times outweigh the bad. I can be there when my kids are sick, I can kiss all the boo-boos, they can nap when they want, eat when they're ready, and if they exhibit bad manners, I can be right there to correct it! I also have my other life, where I can be a successful small business owner who is immediately receptive to the needs of her clients and believes with all of her heart that hard work and perfection are the best ways to grow her client list. Additionally, I get to keep my resume in-tact without a gaping hole where I was not involved in any business community. Every mom who has taken time off to care for her children dreads the part of a job interview that covers "so, what have you been doing for the last 5 years?" Finally, I am able to put my degree to use by managing every aspect of a business, and if I fail at either endeavor (my children or my business), I have only myself to blame.

I just wanted to give everyone a little glimpse into my daily life. I hope to get some pictures up from our Virginia trip soon!

Have a great week!

All my love,

And with that, April has now come and gone...

Good afternoon everyone!!!

Well, it’s been a ride since last time I was able to write a blog! We did enjoy spending time with my family on Easter weekend and then the girls and I were blessed to spend the following week in Wilmington with our family there. Scott arrived just in time for the Montgomery Gentry concert on Friday, the 9th and we got to spend the rest of the weekend hanging out looking at azaleas, watching the parade, and enjoying some much-needed family time. We all drove back to Fayetteville on Sunday afternoon and prepared to resume our “normal” lives….WRONG!!! By Monday night, that plan was rapidly falling apart as my dad had called and indicated that he was experiencing some serious health issues and planned to see his family physician early Tuesday morning, and would I come up and be with him? Of course, I would! So I loaded the van that night and we planned for me to arrive in Virginia at his work before lunch on Tuesday and we would tackle the health problems from there. By Tuesday morning at 6:45 though, there was a message on my phone from him. He had acute paralysis in his left arm and hand, and a coworker had come over to his house and convinced him to call 911 instead of waiting to be seen by his primary care physician. Dad was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital, where it was determined that he’d had a stroke. We arrived right at lunch time and found him settled into his new “home away from home” in the Neuro Intermediate Care Unit. The Dr.s ran a battery of tests and the results were that he’d actually suffered multiple strokes over a period of at least a month, and that he had severe blockages in both carotid arteries. After this news came in, I called in the big guns and consulted with my “little sister” who is a nurse in the Neuro Critical Care Unit at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. She gave me a huge list of questions to ask, things to watch out for, and possible treatments. We had a consultation with a neurologist, a family care specialist, and a vascular surgeon. The course of treatment that Dad opted for was to wait approximately 2 weeks from the onset of symptoms and then have a carotid endarterectomy on his left side, which was only 70% blocked. Apparently, there’s nothing that can be done for the right carotid, which is 100% blocked – the elevated risk of further stroking during surgery prevents physicians from attempting to clear an artery that’s completely occluded. After we had these consultations, my little brother decided to fly in from California (and thank God too, I needed him at this point!). He arrived on Friday night around midnight and brought his youngest daughter, Olivia, with him. Dad was discharged on Saturday morning and we were to watch him for any further symptoms and help him get to and from his therapy, since he wasn’t supposed to drive. His surgery was scheduled for the 27th, so we got to spend about a week between the discharge and the surgery together. (I did drive the girls home on the 22nd for Katelyn’s kindergarten orientation and we returned to Virginia on the 24th.) We made it to the hospital with plenty of time to spare on the morning of the surgery, and everything went very well! Dad was in the O.R. for less than 2 hours, and then was put in the recovery area for about an hour, and then was transferred to the Neuro Intensive Care Unit for an overnight stay. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Justin and I spent that night around a bonfire catching up and renewing our bond (and eating s’mores and drinking some beer, of course…). That was probably my favorite night of the whole time he was here! I miss him so much when he’s in California and it totally caught me off guard when he said “I’m coming home,” so I relished every single second that he got to be here. He said he’s not coming back to the East coast before he deploys, so my only hope to see him again is to get more internet marketing work and buy a ticket to fly out to California before October!!! (And I’m not counting on that, so I made sure to appreciate the time I got!) Getting back to my storyline though, Dad was discharged on Wednesday morning and I went back to Fayetteville with my girls on Thursday afternoon. We spent Thursday night at home and then on Friday, we drove to Southport, where we joined Scott’s mom at her Relay for Life. On Saturday morning, we hit the beach and by Saturday night, we were back in Fayetteville. Sunday meant more road time, though, as we were set to have dinner and spend the night at my mom’s house with Justin and Olivia. We had a great time there and ended up staying Monday night as well. We came back to Dad’s house on Tuesday and Justin and Olivia boarded their plane back to California at 5:30 on Wednesday morning. I plan to return home on Friday, and may spend some time there next week getting caught up on errands and housework. This whole month has been an absolute whirlwind with so many emotions and so much road time and so little sleep, but I am glad to know that my family can pull together in times of crisis and that everything should be ok from here on with my Dad. He’ll always have an elevated risk of stroke since he’s already had several, but with the lifestyle changes he’s made (quit smoking and drinking, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, exercise more, healthy eating choices), he’s increased his odds of healthy living. I am so thankful that he has no debilitating effects of his strokes and that his occupational therapy seems to be helping a lot with his minor motor skills in his left hand. He should be back to normal in a few months! And I, will NEVER be back to normal I fear…

All my love,

Out of Sync

The past few weeks have left me feeling out of sync with my world of budgeting, couponing, thrifty shopping, and being frugal in general. I am now pretty much forced to shop at our local Food Lion or at the Wal-Mart, with special trips to Harris Teeter being made once, maybe twice, a month. I despise Wal-Mart, so Food Lion has been the big winner and now gets most of my grocery money. The little things though (my coupon binder isn't in line with how their store is arranged, they don't double coupons so I'm constantly stopping myself from seeing "$.60 off" and automatically doubling it to "$1.20 off," etc.) are driving me nuts and I just can't seem to get it together! I took Abby today and we got approximately 1 week's worth of groceries for $43, which is at least $15 MORE than what I used to spend at the Harris Teeter. The good news was that I was able to redeem 6 coupons...the bad news was, I forgot to buy a newspaper while I was there so I could get more coupons!!! I am expecting an envelope from my mom this week, so that will help and I've also been tipped off by my new friends at FayettevilleMommies.com that I should have Scott pick up a copy of Paraglide every Thursday while he's on base. Between getting those items and keeping my will strong, I think I can get back on track by Easter!

I wanted to share these here too:

March 11


March 13


March 16


March 17


March 18


March 21


What we've got there is seedlings of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, green peppers, peas, green beans, and pumpkins. I'll keep you all posted on these plants as the year progresses. After seeing green peppers for $1.59 EACH today at the store, this is a harvest I'm really looking forward to!

I hope that you all have a great week! I hope to have a successful week in the world of internet marketing and a quiet week with the kids. We had a big weekend and they'll need their rest. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and then we'll be headed to VA for Easter and then to Wilmington for the Montgomery Gentry concert and the Azalea Festival - time flies when you're having fun!!!

All my love,