Oops I did it again

Not really an oops. I just liked the title:

That is:

4 12 packs Diet Coke

12 bottles of Pepsi

40 SoyJoy bars

1 mini eyeliner

5 men's deodorant

12 boxes of Oreo Cakesters

18 boxes of instant pudding

3 bottle of Rapid Release Tylenol

12 tubes of Aquafresh

2 pkgs of maxi pads

6 organic lollipops

1 Carmex

4 boxes of bandaids

for a grand total of $24.99 out of my pocket, which was primarily taxes, CRV, and a few dollars to get the ECB deals started (that's Extra Care Bucks at CVS). The retail value of all of that is roughly $157 and I have $8 in ECB's left and $3 RR from Walgreens. Not bad, eh?

I'm sitting out next week. I don't see much worth chasing after so instead of spending time stockpiling my stash, I'll organize it instead. The week after that, though, watch out!

I swear he is smart

The other day StinkyMan wanted to go play with Grammy. It was quite early in the day, so I said that she was still sleeping and that he maybe he could play with her in the afternoon.

A couple of hours later she and I were gabbing on the phone and StinkyMan was jumping up and down next to me, absolutely desperate to talk to her. When I gave him the phone he said:

"Hi Grammy. Are you awake or asleep?"

"What?" asked a baffled Grammy.

"Are you awake or are you asleep?"

"Well, you are talking to me, so that means I am awake."

"Oh yeah. Can you play wif me?"

"In a little while, OK?"

"OK."

He's smart. Really.

Goodbye My Friend

My friend Rochelle died last night.

I'm really quite numb. She was 37. She had the flu. And then she was just gone.

I called her house tonight to talk to her husband and her 2 beautiful little girls. Her voice was on the machine.

I will never get to hear her laugh again. She had a great laugh. I will never get to share another secret with her. Never again will my family sit at dinner with her and her family. She won't be there to help me pass out cake at my next shindig. No more comments from her on my Facebook page, we'll never have that meet-up at the outlets we kept talking about. She was the kind of friend that, while we didn't talk every day, every week or even every month, it was always as if no time had passed at all when we did get in touch, something I consider the mark of a true friend.

A husband is left without his soul mate, 2 little girls without their mama. Here one day, gone the next, I can only begin to multiply what I feel by a thousand and then try to imagine that might be a tenth of how they are feeling right now.

And although she will never see this, I need to say it to her:

Rochelle, you and I were destined to be friends. Neighbors twice, it was my dream to be neighbors again some day. I can't believe you are gone. It is my absolute privilege to have been your friend. I will miss you terribly.

I promise that I will be here for your girls, to help the navigate the tough road ahead, not just now, but years from now: first loves, first dates, first heartbreaks and more. It isn't fair it can't be you and it isn't fair they have to learn at their young ages that life can be cruel. I will try my best to support Lance, to encourage him forward, to help him however he needs. I know he is and will remain lost without you. I will try to make sure he manages to find some joy amongst the sadness in his heart.

I will tell stories about you...how you knew I was pregnant by the look on my face when you said "what's up?", how we used to walk in circles around the neighborhood every night just chatting away, how we ended up as neighbors by accident the second time, how we went to Ikea and bought furniture together, how we had a door in our backyard fence so we could open it up and hang out in one giant backyard. I will tell the girls how you liked Starbucks and chocolate, how you gave me one of the best haircuts I ever had and how all you ever wanted for them was happiness and peace and love and family. I will tell them about violent Chinese food and the dinners we used to have together at the last minute. I'll tell them about the laughs we shared even in tough times, the tears we shared when things got worse and the laughter that inevitably came back and often started with you.

They will miss you. I will miss you. Together we will keep your memory alive. Goodbye, my friend. I love you.

Talent

"Mommy, what's your special talent?"

"My special talent?"

"What are you really good at?"

I had to think for a minute. Curly posed a good question. What is my special talent?

"I tell pretty good stories, I think." I finally answered.

"You do tell good stories, Mama. Do you know what my special talents are?"

"You are a good artist." I said.

"Yes. But I am also a good dancer."

"Yes, you are."

"And a good singer. And a good cartwheeler. I'm a good spinner too." She says as she proceeds to spin around in circles.

"I can see."

"And I am a good stand-on-one-legger" She begins to demonstrate this particular talent, but it's a tough one to do after all that spinning.

"Be careful. I don't want you to be a good ambulance rider."

"What?"

"I don't want you to fall and hurt yourself."

"No. I don't want to crack my head open. I don't want to be a good blood leaker. That's not a good talent."

"No it's not. I'd rather you keep your blood in your body."

"OK, Mama." And the spinning begins again.

Best conversation ever

Bathing suit debate:

Peanut: I wanna on my baby soup.

StinkyMan: Peanut, it's not a baby soup. It's a baving suit. BAY-VING.

Curly: No, your both wrong. It's a babing suit. Bay-bing suit. Baybing suit.

Mommy: Why don't you all just go get your swim suits on, okay?

Look what I did!

"So?" you ask "You went shopping? Big deal."

Except it is.

Above you are looking at:

26 deodorants

12 body washes

4 detanglers

5 shampoos or conditioners

7 mini eyeliners

8 rolls of toilet paper

2 boxes of snack cakes

2 containers of baby puffs

2 things of baby food

1 lollipop

2 candy bars (I ate the 3rd one)

16 jars of spaghetti sauce

14 jars of peanut butter

1 container of baby powder

and a Diet Coke that I drank.

It should have cost me a total of $244.92.

But it didn't.

Including what is cost me to acquire some extra coupons, I spent $63.27 and I have $16 in store money (known as Register Rewards at Walgreens, where all this is from) left over for the next set of deals.

Woo-hoo!

Very big thanks to my friend Christi for all her help. If you want to configure some deals for yourself, read her blog at http://www.almoststealing.blogspot.com/. There were several purchases made where the store was paying me to take stuff off the shelves and I wouldn't know where to start without Christi's blog.

But what on earth does someone need that many deodorants for? Well, they don't go bad, but beyond that, if I want to take some down to the local woman's shelter (deodorant is something they are always in search of, as well as body wash) I can write it off my taxes at retail price and everyone wins. We'll eat the spaghetti sauce and the peanut butter and the snack cakes and the baby food. I'll use the eyeliners and the baby powders and we'll be through the shampoo, conditioner and detangler and toilet paper in no time. The candy bars won't make it through tomorrow.

In the end, it saves me money to do it this way. And it's a high. A bargain shopping high. Try it. You'll like it.

Side note: On that infamous message board I frequent, there would undoubtedly be women who would rake me over the coals for clearing out the shelves and not leaving anything for anyone else. On the contrary, I went to several different Walgreens (5 to be exact) and nowhere did I take more than my fair share. The only time I cleared the shelf leaving none is when there were only 2 of the item left anyway. There was plenty of it all to go around.

BabyGirl

pulled herself up onto her feet today with the help of the Cricut box. She's getting too big too fast.