Getting to Know....Nature's Children

I got a box in the mail today from Scholastic. I thought it was another set of books from the Dr. Suess Book Club that I had the signed the kid's up for awhile back but it was something totally different. It was a t-shirt and 2 books on wild animals (with 2 animals in each book).
Apparantly the people at Scholastic called Aaron about a month ago to tell him about this book series, Getting to Know....Nature's Children, and he agreed to give it a try. They are almost like little encyclopedia's about the animals and I absolutely love them!

I called Scholastic to find out why we got them and after talking with the lady I decided to buy the whole set! I paid $8.98 today and they will send the rest of the books in one shipment and then I make payments on them for 28 months. All-in-all it will end up costing around $250 for the complete set.

Me and Aaron both agreed it is worth it. I put a high value on books and the fact that the kid's can really learn from these is awesome.

Here is a direct link to the offer if you want to check it out for yourself!

product review

Okay, so I have another product review. It's on the Gillette Fusion Phenom Razor aka the best razor ever!!!! It is the razor I got so cheap from CVS the other day using the Grocery Game. I bought two of them and I really needed to shave my legs so I tried one out.

Seriously the best shave I have ever had! It has 5 blades and you can't even feel it moving across your leg. It looked like I was pushing shave gel around when it was actually giving me a super close shave.

I couldn't find a pic so here is a link to the website. I will continue to buy this razor, full price and all, I love it that much!

The Grocery Game

Ok, so this is like the 2nd or 3rd time that I have decided to sign up for The Grocery Game. If you haven't heard of The Grocery Game and don't know what it is, let me refer to the website to explain it (I'm lazy today...lol).

Basically, this give you a list of all of the great sales at your favorite stores and match them up to the coupons from the Sunday paper for you. It's something that you can totally do yourself, but it saves a lot of time and hassle to have it laid out for you.

So today I wanted to share with you the savings I recieved at CVS. All of the numbers are minus any sales tax.

I bought:

1. Gillette Fusion Phenom Razor $11.99 x2
2. Dawn Botanical Dish Soap $ 1.79 x2
3. Clairol Natural Instincts Hair Color $9.95
4. Crest Whitening Toothpaste $1.77 x2
5. Colgate Advanced Whitening Toothpaste $3.99 x2

The total price for this items (excluding sales and coupons) is : $49.03

I paid a total of $9.49!!!!

This is how I did it.

First transaction:

1. Gillette Razor $11.99-sale price $9.99-$4.oo coupon-$4 Extra Bucks back printed on the receipt (I actually used a second CVS card to get that coupon). After Extra Bucks, it made the razor $1.99.

Second transaction:

1. Dawn Dish Soap x 2 $1.79 ea.-sale price 2/$2-2 coupons for 75 cents off ea.-made them .25 cents each.
2. Clairol Hair Color- $9.95- sale price $5.99-$4.00 coupon- made it $1.99
3. Crest x 2-$1.77 ea. (which is the sale price) 2 coupons for .75 cents ea.- made them $1.02 each.
4. Colgate x 2-$3.99-sale price-buy 1 get 1-2 coupons for 1.50 off-made them .49 cents each.
5. Gillette Razor-$11.99-sale price $9.99-$4.00 coupon-$4 Extra Bucks on the receipt made it $1.99.

That adds up to: $7.50. So add the two transactions up and it's $9.49 before tax! A savings of $39.54!!

Not too bad huh? A big part of the Grocery Game is stockpiling items. That is exactly what I did when it somes to the dish soap and the toothpaste. If you don't have a need for so much of the same item, you can always donate to a homeless shelter or a church.

Girl Scout Award Ceremony

On May 21st, Emma had her Girl Scout Award Ceremony where she was "invested" into the Brownies. She had to tell why she wanted to be a Brownie and then say the Girl Scout Pledge.

You should be able to click the box right below here (even though it's blank witha red X). It will take you to a video on Photobucket. If it doesn't work, let me know and I will take it down.

Here are the girl's before the ceremony. It was patriotic themed so I made Emma a big bow to match her new shirt.

Here are all of the Try-It's (badges) Emma has earned. She recieved 12 total! Not too bad for being a Brownie for a little over a month! She really worked hard and she can earn more Try-It's over the summer if we get a Try-It Book. No problem. I also want to pick up a songbook so she is more familiar with the songs when we go back on the fall.

Miss Debbie and Miss Joan did an awesome job on the table decorations. We really lucked out by getting such a great troop. They have worked really hard to get Emma caught up as much as possible to the other girl's in the troop. I look forward to what they have in store for next year.

The girl's were all asked to bring 10 "swaps" to trade with the other girl's. Swaps are just for fun and you can pin them on your vest or a banner. Emma loves horses so she made horse themed swaps. I think they were everyone's favorite.
Up close. Aaron helped her trace a tuna can and he used my pinking shears to cut out the circles and she did the rest (it helped that all of the shapes were foam stickers). Then I attached safety pins to them and she was ready to go.

adding stuff to the blog

I've decided not to have a seperate homeschool blog anymore. Mainly because I prefer to blog right here on Blogger.com, I like the format better, and it's easier to post pictures.

And since I am combining the two, check out for new stuff being added to the right sidebar (under the pictures). I've already listed the curriculum we plan on using and the field trips we have planned.

I think that this is going to be the best year of homeschooling yet. I'm breaking away from pre-planned curriculums and putting stuff together myself. That way we aren't stuck with boring stuff and can concentrate on more of the thing's the kid's enjoy. And it is way easier to teach when they are having fun.

Plus all 3 will be starting Chemistry, so they can have that time together and help each other with experiments. Anthony's Chemistry is just a more in-depth version suited better for his grade level...so they will be learning the same things, just Anthony will have a more advanced understanding of it.

I am beyond excited about seeing King Tut at the Dallas Museum of Art. It has been 30 years since the exhibit has visited the U.S. and they are bringing some stuff that hasn't been here before. Did you know that King Tut's death mask isn't allowed to leave Egypt? I found that interesting.

The exhibit isn't cheap though...the group rate (for 10 or more) is $24.50 for adults, $32.50 on the weekends, Students and yunger $15.00. If those are the group rates, I can only imagine the non-group rates! You can pre-register for tickets here.

I could only plan so many field trips since the kids will be pretty busy this fall. In August Emma starts sewing lessons on Mondays. She will also have horseback riding lessons twice a month and they will all have homeschool P.E. three times a week. Busy, busy, busy.

Happy Birthday Anthony!

My son Anthony turned 12 yesterday. Man oh man is he growing up! He has a recent fascination with Indiana Jones so almost everything surrounding his birthday had to do with it.

It actually started because I was watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade one weekend and I asked Anthony if he wanted to watch it with me. He said sure and it went from there! The next day we watched all 3 original movies.

Then I went out and bought him a little Lego set and he found it in the trunk of my car...so busted. Aaron and I took him to the movies on Thursday to see the newest Indiana Jones movies...The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Last night Kyle and Ashley came over and so did my mom so we had a little party for him. Here are the girl's helping me make his cake.

The finished product. A treasure map cake. It has the jungle, a temple and giant ants...all from the new movie.

Make a wish!!!!

With the bigger Lego set he got. Including the one he found early, he got 3 Lego sets from us, all Indiana Jones themed.

This is him opening a card with an IOU for a Wii game. I waited until the last minute to buy him Mario Kart, only to find out that they are sold out in stores...oops. So I ordered him one online from Circuit City and it will get here before Friday.

My mom also gave him an IOU for the Indiana Jones Lego Wii game that is coming out tomorrow. And she got him some cute orange swimming trunks. The girl's got him an Indiana Jones book and some new basketball clothes. This week he will also get a pair of basketball shoes, the store was out of his size so we have to try another store.

So that was pretty much it. Really low-key. He might have some friend's over next weekend if their mom let's them come over, so there might be a part 2 to his birthday.

my house

Well, I finally got around to decorating my house. It's not done though, there is still a lot of work to do. But I took some pictures of what I've done so far and here they are. By the way, the books on the bottom of the bookshelf aren't going to stay there...they are just there for right now. I love the red Believe box, it matches perfectly.

My new red velour curtains, new lamp and yep, new picture of Sara.

I should have warned you that I love, love, love patriotic stuff. I love red, white and blue. And I love Texas stuff. But Aaron will only let me decorate the kitchen with it.

Don't you love my Swiffer in the pic. lol Check out the Mason jar on the right. It's actually a gumball machine where you turn this little wooden knob until the hole lines up and the gumball can roll out....definitely the coolest item I have right now.

My Mary Englebreit corner in the kitchen. I love ME stuff and I have a lot more of it packed away somewhere. My favorite is the rooster cookbook holder. Most of the books are ME craft books. She is awesome.

The wall above my kitchen table, taken from the recliner in the living room.

This is the wall right above the computer desk. In between the fridge and the kitchen window. Did I also mention I love roosters? When I finish the other side of my kitchen, I will share my rooster stuff.

Top of the fridge. I love my new kitchen angel my mom gave me. And this is where I have my Texas Longhorn stuff. I even have a Mary's Moo Moo's longhorn. Notice the Coke can....it's from when they won the National Champoinship in 2006. I paid $10 for it on ebay....who the heck pays that much for a soda can? lol

My Mary Englebreit curtains my mom made me. They aren't staying there but it's okay for now. Underneath is my new collection of birdhouses coutesy of my mom. She likes to buy stuff and then passes it on to me when she doesn't want it anymore....I don't mind. I shall refer you to the wall above my kitchen table...almost every bit of it is from my mom.

So that is it for now. Like I said, I'm not done with the house so there will be more to come. I encourage everyone to take pics of their favorite places in their house and blog them. I think it really gives you more of an idea of the person themselves.

I'm sure it surprises people a little when they see how much patriotic stuff I have....I don't think they expect that. I don't know, maybe not.

So when you blog your spots, let me know so I can go check them out!!!

allergies

So my husband tried to kill me today. And 2 of the 4 people who read my blog have already heard the story but that's okay.

For anyone who doesn't know, I am allergic to artificial sweetener. Deathly allergic. And by artificial sweetener I mean Equal, Sweet n Low, Saccharin, Splenda (even though it's made with sugar, it's considered a blend because it's 1/2 sugar 1/2 artificial sweetener), and anything with sucralose and aspartame. So I can't have anything that is sugar-free. And in this day and age, there are a lot of products that are sugar-free.

Anyways, Aaron bought the girls popsicles last night and Emma gave me one today. It tasted funny but it wasn't until that after taste set in did I figure it was sugar-free. I checked the box and it was. For this particular allergic reaction it means a headache and my tongue swelling up. Nice. I don't have any Benadryl so I took an allergy pill. Not that bad though compared to other reactions I have had.

And for someone who is very aware of their allergy, I have way too many slip ups.

The first time I had an allergic reaction I was 17. I loved Mountain Dew and my mom accidentally bought Diet. I have never liked the taste of diet soda but I loved Mountain Dew so much I figured it would be okay. Nope. I got sick, throwing up, headache, not too bad.

My 2nd allergic reaction was the most severe I have ever had. I was 20 and I worked with my mom. We had gone to dinner and went back to work. I was thirsty and grabbed my mom's drink and took a drink. It wasn't soda though, it was iced tea sweetened with Equal. I immediately knew it was bad.

I went to the bathroom and started throwing up. When I walked back into out office I was white and the underneath of my eyes were black. Everyone freaked out and someone called 911. By then, my throat was starting to close off. 911 told them to call poison control. Poison control told them to give me Benadryl.

Someone left to go get some Benadryl and it was getting harder and harder to breath. That was so scary. So they made me drink half a bottle of Benadryl (gross). You need to know that I don't do well with liquid medicine...it tastes like it has artificial sweetener in it and I automatically want to spit it out. That is what is messed up with my allergic reaction today...I normally can taste the artificial sweetener in something.

So that was that reaction. I have had little ones since then. Once my MIL got some cola from the dollar store and even though it wasn't diet, it had sucralose in it. That freaked her out a little.

Then my kids got snowcones from outside Wal-mart and I took a taste...sugar-free. I was with my mom and I had her take me to a gas station to buy a little pack of Benadryl. Ever since then she carries one with her because it freaked her out a little. I guess it would freak me out too if my daughter said "I'm having an allergic reaction and my throat is closing up".

So I looked through my medicine cabinet for some Benadryl and actually found a bottle of my kid's Benadryl. Are you ready for this? It's sugar-free. lol

The one thing that could save my life would also kill me. I also found regular kid's Benadryl so I'm all good.

Summer 2008

I really can't wait for summer. We only have one week until we are there. This summer basically consists on me being at home with me kid's and my friend Shelly's kid's, Ashley and Kyle. I am watching them for her this summer.

I have signed 4 out of the 5 kid's up for Vacation Bible School the 2nd week of June. Anthony is too old, so he gets to stay at home with me. I have my kid's signed up for two more VBS's this summer but it's in the evening, so Ashley and Kyle can't make it.

The plan is to get a swimming pool. Not a huge one. The one I want is at Wal-mart for about $200. It's 13 ft x 3 1/2 ft....that should be big enough for all of us. I really don't think I will survive the summer, being stuck in my house with that many kids, without a body of water nearby! lol Plus I am whitey white and need a tan!

The last three weeks of July the kid's will be at day camp that is run by the city. It is so dang cheap compared to other summer camps...only $135 a week for all 3 kids. I really don't know what the heck I am going to do all day by myself....I can't even remember the last time that happened. And whenever it did happen, it was only for a day....not everyday for three whole weeks! Yippee!!

So that is my summer in a nutshell. No clue what I'm gonna do on the weekends. Really, I can't wait for the summer to be over so I can get school going. That is sad.

I'm back

Yay I'm back. My mother-in-law gave us a monitor so for now I am back on the internet. Now I just have to download all of the pics I've been taking and blog about them....so be prepared!! lol

hey y'all

Just thought I would drop in and say hi. I have to admit that the only downside to not having a computer is the fact that I can't blog!!! Ok, I could blog if I wanted to but I like to blog with pictures...and I can't until I have a monitor.

Trust me, I have tons of stuff to blog. I have been taking pictures and actually writing everything down in a notebook, so there will be plenty to read once I'm back and running.

I don't just blog for people to read it...I literally have 4 people who read my blog, so it's not a huge audience...lol But I like to blog because it is a great record of all the little things that happen in my life that I would otherwise forget. That is why I intend to play catch-up on what's going on.

So....have a great Memorial Day weekend!!!

<3 Cortni

monitor update

Okay, so it wasn't the power cord. Turns out, the nice shiny, new computer tower that Aaron bought wasn't compatible with our monitor and it fried it. Literally, smoke started coming up out of it. I was pretty unhappy about that considering that the monitor is only 4 years old. That isn't that old.

Hewlett Packard is willing to cut us a deal on a new monitor for our customer loyalty. I was like, "hell yeah we are loyal, we've bought 2 computers and a laptop from HP"...so I can get a 17" widescreen LCD for $180. Not too bad....but I don't have $180. So again, someday I will really blog again. yay

broken monitor

Our computer monitor is broken. I think it's the power cord adaptor and it turns out that you can't just go to Best buy and buy a new one. I have to special order it from Hewlett Packard for about $100. $100!! That is crazy.

So I'm out a computer for now. This week I have been coming up to the library to use theirs. Luckily though a friend offered me a monitor that she doesn't need anymore....but she lives in Frisco, so I am not sure when I will be getting that. Her hubby works in Grapevine and that isn't too far from us so I'm sure we can just meet up.

Anyways, until then , no blogging. That sucks too because I actually have stuff to ramble about and a kick ass product review.....I guess y'all are just going to have to wait. I know I know, it just breaks your heart. lol

Back from Brownie Palooza!

Here is Emma this morning before we left for Brownie Palooza! She insisted on wearing her bandana on her head. She reminds me of Cinderella...lol Aaron kept talking about how pretty she looked this morning.
Here is Emma wearing the shirt and hats they made. She has several swap's from the other troop's attached to the hat. I'm not 100% clear about what the purpose of swap's are, but I do know that the troop's make them to trade for events like today.
The day was supposed to last until 6 pm but they finished up at 4. Her troop leader, Miss Debbie, said that it was a very long day. I bet!

Emma earned 6 more try-it's! That makes a total of 8! Not too bad for only being a Girl Scout for a couple of weeks. The try-it's are the little triangle shaped badges that the Brownies sew onto their vest's. Emma can also earn try-it's over the summer at home with me, so we will be working on those too!

bento for Brownie's

Tomorrow Emma has an all day Girl Scout event called Brownie Palooza. Her troop is going to meet with other Brownie troops and work on their try its. I have to have her there at 8:30 and pick her up at 6pm.

I can't think of a time where she has been somewhere all day without me and I'm paranoid that she isn't going to have enough for lunch.

Starting on the upper left she has strawberries, cheese and 2 mini bologna sandwiches. Then there is ranch dip, carrots and broccoli. Still in the fishy container is a hard boiled egg. Pasta salad with parmesan cheese, ranch, peas, carrots, corn and green beans. And last but not least, a blueberry muffin and a triple berry muffin. She has a bottle of water to take with her too.

Not too shabby for the fact that I had forgotten she needed a lunch for tomorrow. This is all stuff I had on hand. It is probably way too much food, but at least I know she has options.

my first born

On my mommy board I go to they had a thread about posting a pic of you and your first born. All of our baby books are still packed up but I had this one in a frame on the wall so I took a pic of it.

This was taken about 11 years ago. Anthony was 10 months old and I was 20, so that puts it at 1997. I can't believe that my baby is already going to be 12 next month! It hit me yesterday that he is only 2 years away from being in high school. High school! 2 years! He's all grown up.

my Canon printer

Just over a month ago Aaron went and bought a new computer and a new printer for me. The printer is a Canon MP970 (pictured above). It is one big ol printer!

It's actually pretty cool because it is an all-in-one so it can copy (both color and b&w), print and scan. Plus it has a pretty neat feature of being able to print pictures from negatives. It is actually meant to be a photo printer but I need it for copying school stuff more than anything.

So anyways, one day it decided to break. It kept showing an error that there was a paper jam and to clear it. There was no paper in the printer at all. But somehow or another I managed to clear it and got it working again. Then a week later it broke again. Same error message.

Now my first thought was to take it back. For one, I love Hewlett Packard products so I wasn't too happy when Aaron brought a Canon home to me. Plus he paid $300 for it. Who pays that much for a printer?! But since it's been more than 30 days, I couldn't take it back and so I sat here pouting that Aaron wasted $300 on a Canon when he should have gotten a Hewlett Packard to begin with.

Wow, this story is way longer than I thought it would be. Anyways, I called Canon today to see if they could help me fix it. They couldn't. So they gave me two options. Take it to a service center to be fixed or they could send me a new printer. What?!?!?! I will take the new printer, thanks. There is a 1 year manufacturers warranty on the printer. That rocks.

That is how Hewlett Packard is too but they never offered to send me a replacement printer! They always want to send you the parts for you to fix it and keep trying that way until they would finally give in and agree to replace.

So all in all, I am pretty happy with how Canon is handling this. The printer is cool (when it works) and so I thought I would share my experience. That's all. I know, boring.

Big Brother 9 *UPDATE*

****Well Adam won! It was a vote of 6 to 1 in favor of him. I guess Ryan didn't play the game as well as he thought he did. Actually he did play it well, but he isn't as nice of a guy as Adam. Plus he needs to dump Jen...she called him a racist and then totally lied to his face. Craziness!****

I seriously love this show! Even though it is ending tomorrow I signed up for the live feed yesterday. It's a 14 day free trial, then $14.99 a month...but I had nothing to lose since the show is about over.

It's down to just Ryan and Adam. I have a mini crush on Ryan. He reminds me of Aaron. Aaron doesn't appreciate the comparison. lol

I hope Adam wins though. I think it's because I think that he is a nice guy. Plus he's funny.

There is something so dang addicting about watching people live on video....such a voyeur. Oh well, there are worse things in life.

bird feeders

Got some new bird feeders up. This patriotic feeder I have had for awhile and found it while I was unpacking.
I got the idea for this from a Mary Englebreit craft book. It's actually supposed to be for a candle holder but I decided to use it as a bird feeder. It's just a terra cotta pot base.

I really should have painted this one red and then added white stripes but oh well. I really don't think the birds are going to care. I have more feeders to paint, but they are a lot smaller than these.

product review

I have been struggling for a few months now with keeping tangles out of the girl's hair. They get tangles like crazy, and not just little ones. We are talking big, matted, takes forever to brush out tangles. And they happen overnight!!!

I have tried all kinds of products. No More Tangles spray, Aussie leave-in conditioner, Bed Head conditioner (which works pretty good actually). But none of them compare to the new Johnson's No More Tangles leave-in conditioner. Seriously, this stuff works!!

It's in a bright green tube for about $3. Johnson's has a matching spray, but I don't know if it's a new formula or the old spray in new packaging. Before using this I would have to use kid's shampoo (which is a 2-in-1) plus another conditioner, then a spray. Now I just use the kid's shampoo and then rub this through their hair and brush through no problem. Plus their hair looks healthier and better than ever.

So there is my product review...would definitely recommend this to anyone who has to fight tangles. Plus it smells good.

sun tea

This is my new drink of choice. Sun tea. It's perfect for spring/summer. The kid's are so into drinking sun tea that I think I need to switch to decaffenated. This is their crack! lol

Every morning Sara helps me make a jug so we can drink it throughout the day. We will seriously drink an entire jug every single day! And on the rare occasion I forget to set it out, Anthony about has a heart attack!

The last 2 days the kid's have been jones-ing because we have been out of sugar and can't have tea...lol So I just thought I would share.

p.s. it's been over 7 months since I have had a soda!! May 13th will make it 8 months! And it's been 3 years 2 months since I quit smoking...yay me! If I can do it, anyone can!

Girl Scouts

Well, it's official...Emma is a Brownie Girl Scout! I had wanted her to sign up a few months ago but the troop that contacted us was just too far of a drive.

Now that we have moved and are getting settled into our new area, I decided to try again. And luckily her troop meets about 5 minutes away from our house. Emma had a blast today. There are 9 girl's in her troop and 2 others are homeschooled.

The meetings are almost over for the year but the girl's will meet up over the summer to hang out. Then they will start back up in the fall. Sara is going to have to wait until then to join a troop. Since she will be in Kindergarten she will be a Daisy Scout. I am really excited!!

Sara's photo shoot

After taking the Earth Day pics Sara decided she wanted to change her clothes. She was really excited to put on her new blue jean dress and wanted her pictures taken again. So here they are! (I couldn't find a white bow so I went with cream colored, even though it looks yellow).

The kiss blowing was totally her idea. She is so freakin cute!

Seriously, the child can take a picture!

The sun is too bright!