homeowner and shopping

Before.....

After......

it is a little bigger than the other one, huh?!

Being a homeowner has me naming a new favorite store.....Lowes. Yep, Lowes. The first time we owned a home (townhome), we purchased it new and picked out all the paint, fixtures, and things.....but I was much younger and my taste has changed.....or is more picky these days. I am really enjoying picking out and planning for future projects too. We purchased a new frig, Samsung french doors with the bottom freezer!! I checked out reviews and decided that was the one. I measured the space a half dozen times and saw it would fit, so when the frig went on sale I headed over and purchased it. Well........it didn't really fit....see I was measuring the base board to the cabinet on the bottom....I didn't notice the counter top was hanging over a few inches. We decided to keep the frig and then we headed to Lowes this afternoon and Rob got a new saw to fix the counter top problem! Besides all the dust and mess he made, he did a great job.

We also purchased a new light fixture for the dining room (currently has a ceiling fan in there) and a wall light for Jenna's room. I can't wait to get the painting started and then I will be showing some before and after shots of the rooms.

I have also prepared my garden spot and will be planting some seeds with the girls tomorrow. From reading the back of the seed packs, we are still in the planting season for this area, so keep your fingers crossed we get some plants and then food to grow on them too.

More couponing fun!

Today's adventure took place at Walgreens! I prepped for my trip for an estimated hour time....could have been a little less, but I went over the deals a few times.

I checked out the sales paper from Sunday's paper then looked on southernsavers.com to see how she was doing these deals.

I wrote my list of exactly what I was going to buy and how many of each, what the prices were, and all my items had a coupon and some had two coupons.

Here is a break down of what I purchased today.......

Oxi-clean was on sale for $5.99.....I purchased two because I had a $3.00 coupon off 2=$ 8.98

Listerine Total Care $6.49.....Walgreen coupon made it $3.00...I had an additional $1.00 off coupon=$2.00

Puff's tissue 200 count $2.49 each.....Walgreen coupon 2/$3...I had a .50 coupon=$2.50

Three Suave body wash $2 each, One Suave lotion $3.......I had two B1G1 coupons.....the coupon took off $3 and $2= $4......I earned a $2 coupon off my next purchase.

Advil 50 count....on sale for $4.99 each.....I had a $4 off two which took my price to $5.98.....I earned a $5 coupon off my next purchase.

The earned coupons for my next purchase are off of anything I buy at Walgreens.

Carefree products....sale for .99cents

Qtips 275 count $3.29......on sale for $1.99 with a .30 cent coupon= $1.69

Nestle wonka chocolate bars $3.5 each....on sale for 2/$3...and I had a B1G1= $1.50

I broke my savings down so you could see how I worked it....on sale in the store, store coupons and then topped off with manufactured coupons!!! It was a lot of work to figure it all out, but I was up for the challenge.

Todays cost would have been....$71.56 .....but after all my hard work I bought it all for $30.75 and look forward to using my $7 in coupons I earned from this purchase on my next one.

(I did have a few other items on my list, but they were sold out)

17 months

I can't believe Sarah is already 17 months old.

Wow, it feels like just yesterday she was 17 days old.

Sarah is so much fun and I'm sure I will miss some details about all the things she has been doing....but I'll try not to.

Sarah is one very busy little lady...she is always on the go and keeps me busy. She likes to get into everything. She loves to play and her favorite rooms are the big girls' rooms. They let her play in them and then I go in and have to clean up all the mess she has made.

She calls for them when she wakes up..."nenna" and "mae mae". They eat breakfast with her in the mornings before school and then she brushes her teeth with them. Jenna taught her how to spit when brushing her teeth. Most of the time nothing comes from Sarah spitting, but she makes a noise and leans over the sink...thens looks up with the biggest smile. She has also started wanting to sit on the potty. Nothing has happened, but I let her sit...she makes a funny sound when she sits on the potty too.

Sarah is very bossy and when I'm calling the girls for dinner or anything else....she calls for them too.

She also fusses with them when they are arguing.

She also likes to boss Sissy around.

When the phone rings....she calls out..."Papa...Memom"!!

She will then laugh. She yells out their names when I'm on the phone with anyone...

She doesn't talk to them every time we are on the phone with them, but she listens with a super big smile while they talk to her and she leans into the phone like she is giving them kisses.

Sarah does a lot of talking and makes lot's of animal noises.

She is around 23lbs and wears size 18 months clothing, size 5 shoes (they are a little big) and size three diapers.

She has 8 teeth with two more getting ready to pop up.

She has started using a spoon and fork to eat....not all the time, she will start using it and then switch it to her other hand and start picking up her food. She still eats like someone might take her food!

Sarah LOVES our backyard and has even jumped on the trampoline! She loves to run around in circles on it then she falls on who ever is sitting near her.

If music is playing....Sarah is dancing! She has the Moore dancing genes in her!!

I'm so thankful to be the Mom to three beautiful, loving, sweet, smart little girls!

Couponing

I'm sure you have either watched a preview of the show or the show itself....Extreme Couponing on TLC. I LOVE the show, except I don't see the point in buying and stockpiling goods you may never use. But the idea is awesome and I am working to get my spending down and my savings up. Last week I noticed the sales paper and saw some pasta on sale for 49 cents.....well I had 50 cent coupons and a $1 coupon off of them, so I not only got the seven boxes of pasta for free....but I made 57 cents. Of course that 57 cents went to another item I purchased. This week I started early and made my list, searched for coupons (I print them from the internet and buy newspapers), and searched the sales paper. After all my hard work, I saved $80.05 on my grocery bill today!! (And no....I didn't get 40 some bottles of hot sauce I'd never use....you would have had to watch the show to see why I say that).

I am a stay at home Mom and up until March I was a spouse to an Air Force officer. I clipped coupons and tried to save, but I didn't HAVE to do it....well we are no longer making the bucks that an officer makes (we actually have to pay for our mortgage, health care, life insurance....etc)......so I need to start saving more on groceries, so we can have money for other things. Never thought I would be in the situation, but I am stronger and actually more happy than I was before. Life threw us a crazy curve ball, but we hit it and are running the bases of life;)

Backyard living

The backyard finally dried out enough for the girls to play in it. Not sure if it will stay dry but we had a great afternoon outside today.

Meghan and baby sister....I think Sarah looks older than her age in this picture. She wants to do all the things her big sisters do and it seems like she is growing up way too fast.

Meghan and little sister (but don't tell Jenna I called her that)!

Sissy enjoyed roaming around the yard. I love how this picture has captured Sissy's gray face. I can't believe she is going to be 12 in June. She is starting to show her age more. She doesn't hear as well and her eyes are not as sharp. She is still my oldest girl and loved so much.

boxes boxes boxes....you get the point

This first picture is the florida room....aka box room!ha I decided to put all empty boxes in this room since we don't have the furniture for it just yet. Can't wait to get the boxes cleared out.

This is Meghan's room....well part of it.

Jenna's room. If you look in the lower right corner you will see Jenna's arm. She was setting up her HSM school/house while we were unpacking. Priorities:)

Master bedroom...both of these pics.

living room

dining room

front room...aka kid hang out room/craft/music.....oh, just call it the everything room at the moment.

another view of the front room

And finally....little sister's room. Sarah had to get some cooking done while we were unpacking:)

still unpacking

So we are still unpacking, but with having 12040 lbs of household goods...that is to be expected. And yes, you read that correctly.....12040 lbs of HHG:) I think that a few pieces of furniture take up most of that weight..just ask the movers..... as they are moving in the high board. We are working kinda backwards and are planning to paint and get new carpet later instead of right when we move in. We have blue carpets (not our favorite color) but we have decided to keep them a while because they are kinda new and with the kids and dog...well, you get the point. I do have grand plans for lots of painting to take place and the big girls have picked out some pretty cool colors for their rooms. I will do some before and after pictures of the house. I have decided to wait and hang pictures when the painting is completed, so it might be a few months before I get some pictures posted of the after.

We stayed in the house a full week before our furniture was delivered, so we found some fun ways to play.

I taped all the boxes we brought with us together and we made a "club house" for the girls to play in. All four of my girls were in it at one point....yes, all 4. I didn't get a picture of Sissy in the boxes, but she was in and out of them so much, we had to block the entrance to keep her out. She was walking all over the girls and right in the middle of the fun.

These boxes are in what we are calling the living room...it is open to the kitchen and has a gas fireplace to help keep us cozy in the cold Ohio winters.

I will try and upload some pictures of the house full of boxes and then will update as I decorate and make changes.

I'm not cold....

Easter weekend brought some low 80 degree weather to the upstate of South Carolina. The girls took that as a sign they needed one last weekend of fun in the pool before we moved.

Meghan, Jenna and Kayla had a blast in the pool....even though the pool water was never above 70 degrees. They tried to tell us it was warm but if you check out the second picture, you will see Jenna hugging herself.haha

These three little ladies are the best of buddies and have so much fun together.

still here

Just wanted to pop in and let you know we are surviving this move. We signed for the house late friday evening and have been "roughing it" in the house. We have two camping chairs, sleeping bags and blow up mattresses. We are hoping to have our hhg arrive sooner than later, but it is looking like a delivery date of friday. I have signed the girls up for school and they will start Monday the 9th. I think they are more nervous than excited.

We had a really good trip up.....with a big thank you going out to Memom and Papa:) Also Aunt Steph and Cousin K......thank you so much for spending part of your spring break with us, the girls had a blast and it was a great help to me.

I'm excited about all the things we are going to do with this house. A lot of painting, carpets, appliances....and a few more things and we will have it looking more like our style. We will be doing it all slow.....but the finished product is going to look great.