It's a......BOY!! (and other quick updates)

So to quickly update all of my blog readers (are there even any out there?? lol...no biggie if there isn't...i tend to write for my own enjoyment...readers would be nice...but not a neccessity..lol).

We had our ultrasound yesterday to find out the sex of baby #5. I had in my mind that it was a girl. I mean, what are the chances that we would stick to our pattern of boy, girl, boy, girl...but this baby stuck to our pattern! BOY! I am happy, but just shocked really.

We brought all the kids to our appointment. We decided that it would be enjoyable for them to get to find out what the baby was. They really surprised me at how well they all enjoyed watching the baby on the tv. The baby even sucked on his hand and the kids got a kick out of that. And after we found out it was a boy the boys were cheering and all of a sudden the baby threw his arms up in the air almost as if he was cheering with the rest of his "boy" team! Very cute!

So that is our latest baby update. I've been feeling REALLY well. Definetly feeling the second trimester now as I have more energy and I'm not extrememly huge at the moment so i can still move around quite well.

I'm hoping for a HUGE blog facelift to take place after Christmas. I have new ideas for this blog and hopefully ways to make it more enjoyable for all those that read it. (which very possibly could only be two of you..lol.)I enjoy blogging about as much as I enjoy reading blogs (blogs are one of my favorite things to read--if you could see my whole blog list of the blogs I follow and read..you will see I have TONS of them..i love reading other people thoughts) I have been slacking on blogging a lot lately. I'm blaming it on how tired I was at the beginning of this pregnancy or just the busy that life brings. I'm working on that though. Time management...a goal of mine. I decided I need to get my butt in gear because if I don't think I have time now...what will it be like when #5 arrives??? And I'm not talking about just time to get the neccessities done but also leaving time for some hobbies of mine (blogging, crocheting, crafting etc). But anyways..that is all sounding like a new blog post..so I'll just stop there and say hang on...changes are coming to my blog (good ones I hope!).

Merry Christmas to everyone (as I'm guessing I won't get a new post written between now and christmas). Remember the real meaning of Christmas. Our Savior Jesus Christ. Enjoy time together with family. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas,
Shawna

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Coming in Spring 2012....

Another precious Gift from God will be entering our family this spring. Sometime around the end of April beginning of May. We are VERY excited to go from a family of six to a family of seven. I thank God every day that he has chosen to bless us with another precious blessing. It's crazy to think we will have 5 children...wow. FIVE! But it already just seems like a perfect number..just like four did when we added our 4th.

I'm a little over 12 weeks pregnant. As some of you may remember from my previous pregnancies I have a VERY rough time. I get super sick. Non-functional sick actually. Laying on the couch for 2 1/2 months sick. I throw up and faint numourous times a day. It's horrible. BUT thankfully I have been able to get some good meds this time that have ACTUALLY helped me. I'm taking zofran and it's a MIRACLE drug. I am fuctioning and not getting sick at all. I have been SUPER tired though and having very little energy but I can handle that. These past few days I have started to have a little more energy. I'm sure since I"m on the verge of being in the 2nd trimester has a lot to do with it.

The kids are so excited. I think Gracie is the MOST excited. She is OBSESSED with babies. SHe asks me every day if there is still a baby in my tummy. She pats my tummy and talks to the baby already. She can't wait to meet her little brother or sister that is going to make her "a big sissy". SHe keeps telling me that she won't be a baby sissy anymore..she's going to be a BIG sissy! It's SOOO cute! The other kids can't wait to find out if this baby will break our pattern of boy-girl-boy-girl. Most of them think it will be a girl and break the pattern...we shall see.

So there you have it! Our exciting news!

First Day Of School

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First week of school 2011/2012 school year

We started our 2011/2012 school year on Monday August 15,2011. This week and next week we won't be doing our actual curriculum that I've chosen for this year (because we haven't received it in the mail yet...due to me procrastinating ordering it). I am just kinda giving them review stuff just to get them in the hang of actually sitting down and doing school. Since we homeschool, our home has been just "our home" for the past few months and now it's also our school..so it takes a little bit of adjustment for them to get into the routine of it all. It takes ME some adjustment time as well. I'm trying to balance all my other duties around the house and trying to not do too much of that other stuff (cleaning, laundry, etc) while its school time. If i take my focus off..even for a moment my kids seem to loose focus as well. (something we are going to be working on the next couple of months though, not to get so distracted and lose focus on their school work. Even if there is lots going on around them).

This is the first year that each of my kids have their own desks. And I must say...wow..I didn't realize how much that is going to make school easier this year. Each child has their own space and they have really taken ownership of "their desk". So it really helps them leave each other alone when they are trying to get something done. Usually when the big kids are working on something, the little ones would try to climb on the table and be right in the middle of it. Now they don't really pay much attention to what the big kids are working on which enables the big kids to focus better. Also, this is our first year we actually have a REAL school room (okay, so we had one a few years ago when we first moved to TN in our temporary house..but that turned out to be a flop...since we had to go outside to get to the school room. IT just didn't work for us and we ended up doing most of school in the main house at the kitchen table.) I had fun making the school room look like a school room and the kids really liked that as well. I still have some work to do on it. I have to get a book shelf and some other things but for now I just used what I had around the house.

I know it's only Thursday but I would say our first week of school was a success! I accomplished all what I wanted to do. Just have fun and start to get into the swing of things. I am really excited to get their new curriculum in the mail and get our school year really rolling. I hope my kids are as excited as I am!

A few changes I've made is that we have decided to NOT have the kids participate in a co-op here. We had actually signed them up for their classes and everything. BUT after much thought and prayer about it. I just didn't feel it was something my kids needed right now. They are involved in many other activities and church and by using our whole day on Friday for these classes we would be using a whole day that was really needed to be spent at home. I'm not worried about my kids needing that for social reasons. They get plenty of that elsewhere. So I felt it was best to skip that for now. Right now we have Jordan in fall baseball, Mason in fall T-ball. Mya is in 2 dance classes. We also have church on Sundays and Wednesdays. I think we are good as far as "activities" go. Sometimes I just want to stay at home and never leave. I don't like making our schedules so busy that we are just running from activity to activity. I like spending time at home as a family and not feeling rushed from place to place every day of the week.

Here's a summary of what we did so far this week:
Jordan -reviewed his math facts; took his English diagnostic test (so I knew exactly what English level to order), worked on some 2nd grade Social studies A.C.E paces. (little workbooks that are used in our new curriculum. I had ordered those awhile back to just see what they were like)
Mya -reviewed writing her alphabet, reviewed phonics, worked on some math bookbooks, took a 1st grade math test that was left over from jordan's 1st grade math curriculum. she got all of the answers correct by the way.
Mason -reviewed his shapes, practiced writing his name, did a lot of playing with gracie with playdough and some learning toys.
Gracie -ate crayons, ate playdough, colored the table, played with toys. But I must add..she did all this sitting at her little table...a step up from her climbing all over the big kids work like she did last school year! :)

All 4 kids are also working on memorizing Psalm 1. We are up to verse 3 now. We have a month for them to learn the whole thing. I'm sure they can do it! They are coming up with all sorts of creative actions to help them memorize it! They will be memorizing a new passage of scripture every month. Some months it's a whole chapter and other months it's just part of a chapter. It goes along with their new curriculum.

So there you have it. What we have been working on. Here are some pictures of our school room.

Summer break in a nutshell....

Wow....once again. I'm SO behind on blogging. If you were to look at my blog and see all the blogs I have started but aren't quite ready to be published you'd be amazed! I think I probably have about 35. I have LOTS on my mind and I jot down ideas and quickly type things in my blog and save for later but finding the time to actually sit down and proof read them and make sure they make sense to my readers and add pictures is a whole different story.

We've been on summer break. With moving at the end of June (to read blog post about moving CLICK HERE) and a few of our summer birthdays we have been quite busy. We were also able to get away to Gatlinburg and Dollywood for one weekend. A much needed time away. The house is JUST about completely unpacked and in order. There are a few boxes left in our bedroom...i'll get to those someday.

I have been working ALL week on getting our homeschool room ready. I'm So excited to have a school room and I think the kids are excited too. They love having their own desks and their own work space that NO ONE else can use. But they also enjoy having a table that they can all sit at together and work on something together. This week we have done a little bit of school here and there. Just kinda getting our toes wet. Starting Monday we are starting FULL FORCE. We will have a schedule. We will have weekly goals, we will have RULES (my kids just LOVE that one), and we will most importantly have FUN!!!! School will be in session. I have a few little added surprises for my kids. You know...teachery (I honestly don't think that is a word...but i like the way it sounds if you read this outloud.) type stuff. That's the teacher inside me. I did go to college to be a teacher although I've never actually taught children besides my very own. An example. I have name tags for their desks. Now really...we don't need them, do we? I know my kids' names, they know each others names. But it's just SO fun...I just like that type of stuff. And I know my kids will LOVE that as well.
Now lets talk business now. Their curriculum. Once again I've changed the curriculum choice for this year. (i know I know...I thought using bob jones last year was the PERFECT curriculum that I'd stick with forever). It was a nice curriculum choice...but I'm learning what we really need/want for our homeschool. This year we chose to go with A.C.E curriculum.(click here for the website) IT's much simpler but I'm excited because I think it will be easier to get thru and give us more time to do added things to the lesson. I was bombarded with so much information with other types of curriculum that there was NO possible way to do it all that I think I ended up leaving out things that would have been benefitcial to do. I also need something that I can hand my kids (well, mainly Jordan) and ask him to complete a task on his own and then I will go over it with him. THere is just no possible way to do an extensive curriculum (that is really set up for classroom use) with 4 kids at one time and doing 4 different grades at one time. It was almost impossible to get thru it all with only 2. It won't be long and I'll have 3 then 4 kids all working on lessons every day. So I need something that they can work independantly from time to time. I think this will be a good one. I may find something new for next year but for now this is what we chose to go with.

So this is what has been going on in the Beers household for now. Stay tuned...I"m hoping next week to have a blog post with pictures about our first week of school. But for now..here's a few of our summer pictures.

8 years Already?!?!?!

Eight years ago my life was changed forever. I was given a gift only God could give. Something so precious, something so delicate, something so beautiful, something so life changing. I was given the gift of motherhood.

On July 1, 2003 at 2:17pm 9 pound Jordan Lee was born. My first born. Where has the time gone? Has it REALLY been 8 years? Am I REALLY the mother of an 8 yr old. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself to believe it's real.

Jordan is SUCH a blessing in my life. Because of him, my life has been changed. I could not imagine my life without him.

From little on Jordan was always my cuddle bug. He loved to snuggle. I actually remember a time when he was snuggling with and said even when he's 16 he would still lay on the couch with me and snuggle. He's half way to 16 and even though we do not actually have lots of time that we lay down and snuggle, I know he would come and sit on my lap and hug me the second I asked him to. So even though he is growing up and doesn't actually cuddle up to me like he did when he was just a few years old, I know in his heart he would in a heartbeat!

Jordan LOVES anything to do with science. He will watch it on TV, read about it, try to create it...He just loves science and not just loves it..he actually gets it..he understands it. More of it than I could ever dream of understanding. Yes, I know he's only 8! And he also has a love for history. Something I didn't pay much attention to growing up so he has taught me to now have a love for it as well. I am enjoying learning with him.

He is definetly a gamer. You know..one of those who LOVES video games. Now, we don't let him play them constantly...nor even daily. Our Wii or playstation aren't even left out..they are put up and only taken out every now and then. But that kid can figure out ANY game. It's crazy. And the computer...WOW...he can figure out ANYTHING on it. Usually when it's messed up and I don't know what to do. I ask Jordan..and he'll figure it out! He is into computer games. I try to sway him toward the actual "learning" games which he does enjoy and likes to play, but every now and then a boy has gotta just play games. :)

Baseball. He is our baseball player. He has tried a few other sports and just wasn't into them. But baseball keeps his attention. And he's good at it! He is also into collecting sports cards. He's got SO many baseball, football and basketball cards. And he knows each team and player. He gets all that sport knowledge from his Daddy. Definetly his department and not mine. He is also into the outdoors. He dreams of going on long hikes in the wilderness. Again, that is his Daddy's department. The two of them have all kinds of dreams of the places they are going to some day hike.

He can also be a goofball and loves to goof around. He will always do things that make us say "Jordan Lee..you are so crazy!" Of course we are saying that while laughing. Sometimes we are ROLLING! He is quite the character! (i'm sure he will not appreciate the following pictures of him.)

Jordan is also a good big brother. I have to tenderly remind him at times that LOTS of little eyes are watching him. Which I'm sure that is A LOT of pressure for an 8 yr old curious boy to handle. For the most part though, he TRIES to take that into consideration when he makes his choices. But over all..he's a great big brother and the other kids just LOVE him.

I love you my precious baby boy. I know you are now 8 years old but you will ALWAYS be my baby boy. No matter how old you get.

Happy 8th Birthday Jordan Lee!!!!

Happy Birthday Gracie Ann

I can not believe our little baby, our youngest is TWO YEARS OLD today. Where has the time gone? (Click here for her birth story) I still think of Gracie Ann as our little infant..but then she quickly reminds me that she is far from an infant. She has NO trouble keeping up with her 3 older siblings. She is our little firecracker. A little ball of energy. She keeps us on our toes. If Gracie isn't in the room with us, that is a very scary thing. Who knows what she is getting into. I watch her like a hawk yet she STILL seems to get into all sorts of messes. Some of those messes scared the living daylights out of me and had me running to call poison control.

She loves girly things like dolls, barbies and make-up. I think she gets confused as to what is actually make up. She once thought white out was eye makeup and rubbed it all over her eye lids! (For the record..you can use baby soap to wash it off but it doens't come off of the eyelashes. It wears off of eyelashes on its own in about 4 days!) She looks girly dressed in her dresses with her bouncy curls, but don't let the bright blue eyes and blond curls fool you!! She is definetly a tom boy! She loves bugs and dirt. Her big brother Mason and her make quite a pair when it comes to getting dirty! You will also find her in the middle of a wrestling match between her two brothers. She holds her own and has quite the moves! (I think the boys are secretly scared of her when she starts in on their wrestling matches!)

Also, I am believeing she is an artist in the making. Give that child a pen, pencil, crayon or marker and she will give you a BEAUTIFUL drawing. WARNING: it may be on the walls, carpet or furniture. (also for the record, using hair spray and Mr. Clean Magic eraser will get ANY pen marks or even permanent marker off of the walls)

Gracie is also an animal lover. She LOVES dogs and meows (cats...but she just calls them meows). There are some neighborhood cats that roam around and if she sees one she will follow them everywhere! And horses...she LOVES "or-eees" as she calls them. I wish I could just buy her a real pony!

She is independent. She has potty trained herself. (well, we are in the middle of it now...but during the day if we are home she just goes by herself and then comes and tells me!) This is amazing to me as you may recall I had issues potty training my other children (click here to read the post). Mason had just finished getting potty trained about 6 months ago (he turned 3 in Dec)but every now and then he will have an accident and Gracie will be the first one to tell him that he needs to go on the potty and that it's yucky to have an accident. She also praises our ENTIRE family when they use the potty. "Good Job Mommy...you pee peed in the potty! Give me FIVE!" That is usually what she tells me!

She is tender hearted. She will always ask "you okay?" if someone gets hurt or seems sad. And if anyone raises their voice to her she busts out in tears. She gets her feelings hurt so easily. On the otherhand, this girl could fall down hard or bump her head and get right back up without a single tear, but hurt her feelings and she'll sob and sob.

God has blessed me greatly with another beautiful, precious daughter and I couldn't be more greatful for her. I am excited to continue to watch her grow into the beautiful girl God has planned for her to be. I love you Gracie Ann! Happy 2nd Birthday!
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On the Move

We are about to move...AGAIN. There...I said it. yes, moving. Didn't we just move?? Yes, but that was one year ago. We are renting our home....ever hear of a ONE YEAR lease? Yup..that is what we had...yup..that time is up again. Do we want to renew our lease??? HECK NO! Do we like our house...well..it's DEFINETLY not what we wanted in a house like we thought when we found it last July. I actually hesitated to write this post. I could have wrote this post a month or more ago. But chose not to. I didn't want to hear it. I didn't feel like explaining our whole move to everyone. Sometimes I feel like I have to explain everything to everyone (that's why I love blogging...saying it one time for all to read!)Nothing against anyone who makes comments to me about moving. I know it's hard to "get it" when you don't live in my home on a day to day basis and hear our conversations about how we are trying to find that perfect place to "plant our roots". and just when we thought we found that place (bella vista, AR...we still miss that place and our church family and friends there..that truly is our "home"..when someone asks where we are from..I don't hesitate to say Arkansas)we had to move due to lack of a job--kind of a necessity when you have 4 kids to feed. We had to move to where the work was.(long story short..Ryan went back to being an insurance adjuster) Now that we have the whole job thing straightened out we need to just find that perfect place in Tennessee to plant our roots. TN is a big place and Ryan basically works the whole state (well, from Nashville all the way to the Eastern side of the state) so we could really live anywhere. And it just takes some time to find that perfect place. Does that make sense? His job is different than most where he has the flexibilty to work from any place here since he works from home.
Last year we moved out of our temporary rental house (if you recall..we had moved here from Texas due to my husbands job and the move was rather quick so we just found a short term rental house until we could figure out the exact area we wanted to find something more permanent)Our temp house was out in the country. We LOVED living out in the country. But since the house was for sale and we knew we could not buy it, we had to move when our lease was up. We decided to try living back in town. In the suburbs. TWO weeks after we moved, we KNEW this living was not for us. We hated everything about living in a subdivision. No offense to my neighbors, but MAN I very much dislike having neighbors. I dislike looking out my front window. I can see house after house after house. I dislike hearing garage doors open (and they aren't even loud..but I can hear them). I dislike having to hush my kids while playing outside early on a Saturday morning. I could go on and on but I will just leave it at we belong in the country. My children are COMPLETELY different children when we take them out to the country. They get along, they are creative in their play, they roam around and just enjoy being outdoors. They appear to be in their element. I love watching them play when they are out of the "city". I know it sounds crazy but there is a definite difference. And I like what I see.

About 4 months ago...we started trying to figure out what we would do when our lease was up. We knew that we could not stay here, living here for another year would be TOO much. Our main reasons being: we want to be in the country, the house is WAY too small for our larger than average family. (since we live in here, do school in here and Ryan does his work from here, we need space--more than we realized). Also, Ryan was staying out in Eastern TN at least one night a week sometimes two since a majority of his work is out that way. So the only thing that made sense was to move. We LOVE eastern TN. And decided we would move a few hours in that direction.

Once we knew we would move the next step was to hopefully find something that suited us. Nothing was popping out. Nothing seemed to be what we were looking for. We had lots of needs and wants in our next home. Plus we had our 2 hr distance from potential homes against us. (it's hard to find a rental and set up a time to look at it before someone else snags it). Well, Ryan found an ad about a certain area that had acre lots. He called it to just find out about the area. The realtor said she had a rental available but it was a two bedroom. Okay, that will DEFINETLY not work. Then she said she had a 3 bedroom on a 4 acre lot that will be up for rent at the end of June. We said that is actually the time we will need to move. SO she gave us the details and told us where it was and said we could drive by and if we were interested she would set up a time for us to look at it. The house wasn't even up for rent yet so we did not have other people trying to look at it before us. Ryan was out there the next week and drove by. AMAZING is all I have to say. Country...DEFINETLY country. It's on 4 acres. Mostly wooded but some cleared up by the house. BAM!..it meets critera #1. The house is 2400 sq foot.(ours right now is 1500). BAM! meets critera #2. We havent' even seen the inside yet. So we set up a time and went to see it. BAM! Critera #3...it has SO much room. I was SHOCKED...when you see if from the outside, it looks smaller. After we looked at it she asked us if we wanted it. I knew for SURE I wanted it. It wasn't a fancy house but it met everything we required. And actually it has a whole area for a homeschooling area, which will be WONDERFUL! Since it has 2 living rooms, one will be used as a school/play room. Oh and can I add that I can not WAIT to do laundry! The house has a HUGE laundry room. Probably 4 times the size of mine now. I have grumbled about my laundry room for almost a year now so that excites me. :) So back to the realtor asking us if we wanted it. We said we did. She said, okay, it's yours. Heres the application. I won't show it to anyone else. If you change your mind let me know but if not it's yours. I couldn't believe it. We found everything we could want in a house, we didn't have to stress about finding one. It kind of found us actually. Amazing. Well, it was God I know for sure who brought it to us. I'm so greatful. That was 2 months ago. How amazing to not have to stress about where we will live.

So now the moving details. We were going to move July 1st but it will be ready for us June 23rd. Since July 1st is Jordan's birthday we decided to move June 23rd so we will be at least moved before his birthday so we can celebrate his birthday rather than be moving. I couldn't be more excited. We plan on this being our home until we can buy our own. (yes, I've said that before but sometimes for reasons it makes sense to move--one of the pros to renting..being able to just pick up and move without having to mess with selling a house!)

The kids are very excited to move. We have already found a very active homeschooling group there, We have found a church home already (we went there one Sunday). We don't have any connections here. It's easy when you are homeschooling. We don't have to mess with switching schools. The kids have really not had any major connections with friends here. THey have kids they play with but no body they will be heart broken to leave. Same with our church. We just don't have a real "connection" there so I think this move will be a good fresh start for us. Hopefully to find that special place to "plant our roots". I hope this is it. But if it's not...know that we are following Gods Will for our lives and He always guides us to our next step.

Just thought I'd share this information with you all. I hope it explains things a little where you don't think we are just "moving again" just to move because as you have read, that is not the case. We have put much thought and prayers into this decision and we feel confident God is leading us each step of the way.

Here is a picture of our new home.



So you probably won't be seeing many posts from me for the next month. I'll up to my neck with boxes packing up this house, then up to my neck in boxes unpacking our new house!

Happy Birthday Mya Jade

I can't believe that my little baby girl is now 6 yrs old! WOW...where did the time go?? Happy Birthday to my precious Mya Jade. You bring SO much joy to our lives. You are a beautiful and smart girl. I look forward to the many more birthdays of yours and watching how God unfolds your life. I love you with all my heart! Happy Birthday Baby Girl.

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Slap in the Face

Today was just one of those days. I can't pinpoint any specific problem. I just had a bad attitude I guess and well, in my opinion everything was going wrong. I had lots on my to-do list that needed done but I found myself going in circles and getting nothing done. Just when I would start..another mess that just had to get cleaned up at that moment would happen. It seemed never ending.

I broke out in tears while emptying the dishwasher. I just felt overwhelmed. My house was a wreck and I just couldn't seem to get ahead on anything.

THEN I saw it. It being my notecard that I had lamanated that was taped up by my sink. (click here to read a post about it) It read "feeling overwhelmed? too much to do but not enough time? Take 5 minutes and refresh in God's word.". I even have a Bible by my kitchen sink for those times that I want to look at it but heading to my room would be too much.

SO I grabbed that Bible and started reading. Skimming actually...thinking I was going to find some verse that would just POP out at me giving me the comfort and strength I needed at the moment. I kept reading...NOTHING that seemed to pertain to what I was feeling. THEN..I flipped a few more pages...started to skim and out of nowhere a verse popped out. Not the verse I had hoped for. Instead of something comforting and strengthing...it was like a SLAP in the face. The verse was this:

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. Phillippians 2:14-16

SHOOT...so it's ME that is the problem. I know I complained many times today...Yup..that verse was DEFINETLY for me. The scripture didn't exclude complaining about housework or dealing with misbehaving children. It DID indeed say EVERYTHING. Yup, I need to do EVERYTHING without complaining. I should NOT be complaining about what needs to be done. I am definetly not blameless or pure at the moment. So then I had to bow my head and first ask for forgiveness, then thank God for speaking to me thru his word and THEN with a new outlook on my tasks at hand get back to work. :)

Okay, now back to my work with a smile on my face and a happy heart. :) I had to take a few minutes to type this blog post. I was just going to type it and save it for later but decided it was okay to go ahead and publish right away. So sorry if there are typos. :)

My Walgreens Trip 5/22/11

YES..I was FINALLY able to make it to a Walgreens on a Sunday and score some deals before they were out of stock in everything I wanted. I usually get the newpaper on Sunday and read thru the Walgreens ad. I find things that I think are a good deal. I get my coupons together and head there on Tuesday. And usually end up leaving there without anything or half of what I came to buy. So this week I scoped out the ad online BEFORE even buying my newspaper. I figured up what I wanted to buy and went there. SCORE! I was able to do 2 transactions. (I'll tell you everything I got in the next paragraph). After going grocery shopping and getting my newspaper I went home. I went thru my coupons and walgreens ad again and decided to make another Walgreens run. This time to do 4 transactions. I had it all written out what I wanted. I walked in and 10 minutes later I had my cart full of everything I was going to get. I checked out and was out of there with everything I set out to buy! I was so happy. Finally success at Walgreens!

Sorry if this bores you. I hope this encourges you to start shopping the deals and creating your own stockpile! I used to have a HUGE stockpile of all kinds of items we used all the time (especially diapers...at one point in time I Had 3 kids in diapers at the same time so we went thru TONS of diapers!)but those items have been used and my stockpile has disappeared. I have started it back up again! I will now list out each transaction:

Trans #1:
Carefree pantyliners = 1.99 used a 99cent walgreens in-store coupon and a $1.00 manufacterer's coupon making them FREE.
Complete multi-purpose contact solution = $7.99
Total out of pocket with tax = $8.73 received an $8 register reward (RR) coupon to use on next walgreens purchase.

Trans #2:
Tone Body Wash = $3.99
4 Suavital fabric softners (one is $2.99 and they were buy one get one free) = $5.98
I used my $8 RR coupon from previous purchase.
Total out of pocket with tax = $2.89 received a $3 RR from the tone body wash to use on next purchase.

(my second trip)
Trans #1
Complete multi-purpose contact solution= $7.99
I used my $3.00 RR from previous purchase.
Total out of pocket with tax = $5.73 Received $8 RR from the Complete contact solution to use on next purchase.

Trans #2
Infusium shampoo= $5.99
Tone body wash = $3.99
Scrunci hair rubberbands = $2
Used a $2 manufacturer's coupon for the infusium and $8 RR from the Complete contact solution.
Total out of pocket with tax = $3.09
Received a $2 RR from the infusium, $3 RR from the Tone and a $2 RR from the scrunci rubberbands.

Trans #3
Pure Silk shaving cream = $1.99
4 Suavital fabric softners (one is $2.99 and they were buy one get one free) = $5.98
I used the $3, $2 and $2 RR's from previous purchase.
Total out of pocket with tax = $1.71
I received a $1.50 RR from the Pure Silk

Trans #4
3 walgreens brand tin foil = $.69 each with Walgreens in-store coupon.
I used the $1.50 RR from my previous purchase
Total out of pocket with tax = $.76

Summary of my Walgreens Trips:
19 items for a total of $22.91. I estimated the total without the register rewards or coupons or buy one get one free deal to be around $65. I saved a total of $42.09!! I was very happy since all items I would buy anyway. I would just probably buy different brands (usually what is cheapest but in this case...brand name products were cheaper than the store brands!)

I could have kept going and kept rolling my register rewards but decided this was a good run and I would leave stuff on the shelves for other shoppers (as I know first hand it's VERY frustrating when people clear the shelves only a day after the sale starts - I'm not out to clear the shelves, just to get some each time to add to my stockpile)

I hope this encourages YOU to try some walgreens shopping. Or other deal shopping.

Easter 2011

Crunchy as a Carrot???

When I hear the word "Crunchy" I usually think of it as a word to describe a texture. You know, like when you are describing a carrot perhaps? Example: This carrot is crunchy. Crunchy is the opposite of soggy. Am I right???

Crunchy, a very simple word to define. So I thought. I didn't think about it having too many other meanings. So here's my question..

How on EARTH did the word "crunchy" become a word to mean someone who is "green"? You know, the tree huggers, eco-friendly, natural type people. Just a thought. I'm just curious. I googled it. I can't seem to find that out. It's just odd to me. I mean, who thinks of those words like that to use to "label" people? I mean, there has to be a story as to how the word "crunchy" became a slang word for being "earth friendly". Maybe I'm just not the brightest and don't see the obvious connection. Maybe it's spelled out as clear as can be. But to me...it's as clear as mud. Maybe someday I'll be embarrassed of this post. Maybe a light will go off in my head and I'll totally "get" it. Here is an example of that happening to me before.

It did take me QUITE sometime to realize what the term "BOGO" meant. I thought it was an actual "style" of something. You know, how Payless Shoes would advertise their "BOGO sale"??? I used think it was some "style" of shoe. Then one day the light went off in my head and I realized it ment Buy One Get One free. I couldn't believe I didn't get that sooner. I can't believe I just admitted that. Embarrassing. But I felt I needed to put that in there just in case some day down the road the light goes off and I realize why the word "crunchy" makes PERFECT sense to describe these tree huggers, eco-friendly, natural type people.

The only connection I can possibly see is this: Did they choose that word because..I don't know...veggies are usually crunchy. Veggies come from the earth...therefore they are crunchy and so are people who are earth friendly???? I seriously don't get it. I just want to understand. It's one of those things that bugs me. And the only reason I decided this needed a whole post was because I have heard this term quite a bit the past few weeks. So it got my wheels in my head "thinking". Scary, I know.

Just a disclaimer: I am not against being "crunchy". Heck, I possess quite a few "crunchy" characteristics myself. I am very much into getting back to the basics with simple living, living off the land, doing things more "natural". I haven't completely changed over to be 100% earth friendly (mainly due to convenience and finances) but I would LOVE to be able to do that some day. I am really interested in things that are more "natural". I make my own household cleaners and laundry detergent. I like to find ways to "re-use" things instead of throwing them out. I can't wait to have a garden to be able to grow my family's food. Etc. So I guess I'm on the road to being "crunchy". Just wish I knew why the heck such a strange word to describe it. Like being "green" isn't strange enough of a word to describe being "earth friendly". But at least it KINDA makes sense.(but does it REALLY)? Crunchy..I just don't get it.

What kind of shoes do you wear?

I always kind of chuckled to myself when I would see a mother in a grocery store wearing heels and trying to chase her little kids around or keep them from climbing out of the cart. Or that mother that is scampering through the isles of a store trying to keep up with her kiddos in a pair of high heeled boots that are SO pointy that you just KNOW her feet hurt. I just don't get it. I KNOW that is not comfortable nor is it practical. Cute and stylish...YES but comfortable...HECK NO! (At least in my opinion). I can only imagine what would take place if I found myself in a pair of red heels at the grocery store. I'd probably leave the store with one less child as I'm sure one of the little kids would get away from me (given it was one of their "off" days where they decided to run and do anything but stay with me). I need shoes with a "grip" on them to just keep up with my kids! LOL! And no, I don't consider my kids that horrible of shoppers. If that were the case, I would never take them in the store. But most of the time I have at least 3 in tow with me. They do pretty well out in public (now in our own home...that may be a different story. Most days I feel like my children are really monkeys!)

So what type of shoes do I wear? Either tennis shoes, any type of comfy flats (gotta have some style to my shoe wardrode!), and in the summer FLIP FLOPS all the way. I'm good at wearing them. I know some people probably can't walk good in them...but I can RUN in them! Yup, I've done it! Guess that is where my daughter gets that from. I've seen her run VERY FAST around a baseball field in flip flops last summer!


So anyways, I was reading a blog post from a blog I follow and read this post. (click here for post) So after reading this it made me realize how different we all are. We all have different gifts, just like we have different shoe styles. Read the post. It was pretty good! :) Maybe I shouldn't be judgemental of those Mommas out there wearing heels at the store! (but seriously, are they REALLY comfy???) lol.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Sooo...I didn't get completely caught up on laundry like I planned BUT in exchange I did make these SUPER COOL cupcakes. I read a blog post this morning (click here to read the post I got this idea from along with the instructions on how to make them). about these and couldn't get them out of my mind as my new facination is with baking cupcakes. (I made some for St. Patricks Day and since then I've decided I want to make them all the time!).

So while I still have a few more piles of laundry to fold and another to wash, I also have these sitting on my counter top. (I'm guessing they won't make thru half of the day tomorrow).


Rainbow Cupcakes....what a yummy, fun treat! :)

St. Patrick's Day 2011

Click here to view this photo book larger

Blessed!

This past month has been filled with some unexpected blessings. They aren't anything HUGE or anything, but just simple things that shows God cares about the small things too.

Blessing #1: (this one actually took place quite a few months ago)We were given a bed frame for Mya. It's not just your typical twin bed. This bed is a few feet off the ground. It has a wooden SLIDE and underneath it has a tent thing that makes it look like a princess castle! It looks brand new! It's a little girls DREAM bed! We didn't need that bed yet (mya does have a twin bed right now but soon we will need two as gracie gets ready for a big bed). We don't even know the people that gave it to us! They gave it to my sister in law and told her to give it to US. What a blessing!

Blessing #2: I've been wanting a new VCR (you know, those ancient things that they had before DVD players..lol). We had one that we bought 8 yrs ago and almost a year ago it would NOT eject the tape. I thought maybe a motor died in it or something (but what do I know...nothing about VCRs or other electronics that's for sure!) So the VCR sat hidden away. I wanted to buy another one recently because we were given TONS of Disney movies for our kids (Little Mermaid, Snow White, Aladdin, etc. TONS of those disney movies as well as veggie tales videos). I know it's not THAT big of a deal if my kids watch those movies but most they have NEVER seen and they really do enjoy movies. So I wanted them to be able to watch these when we had movie nights. Then a few weeks ago we were blessed with some MORE disney videos. Jordan asked if he could take a look at our VCR..i let him since I figured we just needed to throw it away anyway. Well, he unscrewed it and when he opened it up he found a toy fork and a lego! THAT is ALL that was wrong with it. With those toys removed it works PERFECTLY! WOW! I was SO happy. I know it's not a big deal but to me it was. A few days before that I actually prayed that we would find a cheap VCR or that we would even be given one. Silly, I know but God TRULY does care about the small stuff. I would have been JUST as happy without one but I would have just liked to have one for the kids.

Blessing #3: If you were to surprise me and come over unexpectedly anytime after dinner you would probably find me in my pajama pants. They are JUST so comfy. I just love pajama pants. I go thru pajama pants like CRAZY. I guess its' because they get worn so much and washed so much (with 4 kids and 2 dogs...i change clothes often in one day! LOL). I had a pair I loved that I had just a little over a year and they just got this huge hold right above the knee and the hole grew and grew until I had to sadly throw them in the trash. Well, out of no where I was blessed with not one, not two but THREE pairs of pajama pants (along with tops). They are like brand new! I was so excited! Nothing big, and they weren't something I needed desperatly..but just wanted more of them. I was so thankful for my new comfy pajama pants.

Blessing #4: Our boys slept on a full sized mattress on their bedroom floor for almost a year now. They desperatly needed twin beds. (The full bed wouldn't have been so bad for them to share..but it was SUPER old and so worn out and so uncomfortable). We were given TWO twin beds and TWO mattresses a few weeks ago! WHAT A BLESSING FROM GOD! We also got quite a few sheet sets and quilts for both beds! This one brought tears to my eyes. Our boys really did need this. (I have to add that the first night they slept on their new beds they were squealing with delight and I asked Jordan what he was doing and he said he was JUST SOO happy, he couldn't stop smiling because this bed was SOOOO comfortable!--that right there made me smile!)

THANK YOU God for the many blessings in my life. Both BIG and small.

St. Patrick's Day 2011

(AHHHH...i could JUST scream. I just typed out this WHOLE blog post. Was just adding pictures and my internet timed out and I LOST my whole post (which is odd seeing as it auto saves as a draft while I'm typing...ugh). I'm SO frustrated. I don't time to type the whole as I didn't have time to do it in the first place. Ugh..technology sometimes...argh! )

This blog post is LONG overdue. I haven't posted a blog post in over a month. I don't know what is wrong with me. I have had SO many blog post topics and ideas floating around in my head but I just could NEVER seem to get myself to sit down and actually get those thoughts typed out. I just wasn't in the mood I guess. So here is my post. It's nothing that profound or anything. It's just a tid bit of what the kids and I did to celebrate St. Patricks Day!

The quick run down of our ST. patrick's day. We wore GREEN clothes, ate GREEN pancakes & drank GREEN milk for breakfast. We baked "Funfetti" cupcakes with GREEN icing.


We ate a GREEN feast for lunch which consisted of GREEN mac n cheese (added food coloring so it was a nasty looking green color..lol), kiwi fruit, salad, pistachio salad (cool whip, pistachio pudding mix, crushed pineapple, mini marshmellows all mixed together), key lime pie yogert and GREEN kool-aid to drink! It truly was a GREEN feast!

After lunch we learned about the history of St. Patricks Day and about St. Patrick himself. THEN the kids painted shamrocks using their thumb print!
Oh and later on in the day once again a leperchan snuck into our house and peed in our potty! If you remember reading my post from last St. Patricks Day (click here to read that post)

Overall St. Patrick's Day 2011 was a success in the Beers Household.

Habitats

(just a warning...this isn't the most exciting post. I'm mainly just posting it for me so I have a written down account of what we did in school.)

A few weeks ago (yes, I'm behind on blogging). My kids were studying habitats in science. I had Jordan and Mya made a habitat out of a shoe box.

Jordan made a "Desert" habitat. (I wasn't so sure about rhinos living in a desert but I did look it up and there are some species of rhino that can live in some deserts so I agreed to let him add the rhino to his habitat. He was BOUND and DETERMIND to have a rhino in his desert!)


Mya made an Ocean Habitat:

Paleontologists in the Making???

Jordan has been studying about fossils in his science book this week. The project we did to go along with this was called "Bag of Bones". (Each child was to be handed a "bag of bones" which was simply all different types of pasta. We didn't do the bags since we were out of baggies at the time) The object was to connect them together to make the shape of a dinosaur.

I decided to include all four kids in this project. Here is what we did:

I put lots of pasta in the middle of the table for the kids to grab as they needed. (we had macaroni, penne, lasagna noodles, and spaghetti noodles--you could use ANY type of dry pasta, I used only what I had in the pantry.)

I gave each child a piece of construction paper (we are out of construction paper so I had to dig in my scrapbook paper stash--eek!)

I was going to give the kids glue to glue the pasta to the paper BUT then I had a vision of what it would look like...a massive amount of glue puddled on their paper (especially for the little ones). SO I decided to make "paste" with only flour and water! Totally edible if they did get it in their mouth (which they did--the little ones anyway) and it didn't matter how much they used! It actually "glued" the pasta to the paper VERY WELL! I had them use paint brushes to get put the glue on the paper and pasta. Those worked really well.

My older kids decided to get even MORE creative and asked for a little bit of dry flour so they could "dust" it on their finished project so it looked they just dug up the bones and there was still dirt on them. Creative!

Overall..this project was a success. MESSY...yes, but they enjoyed it, it kept them busy and it tied into a lesson.

(oh and may I add that I forgot to put the flour up in the pantry and while I was cleaning up I ran to the bathroom--just for a second. When I came back, Gracie had dumped FLOUR all over my camera that was sitting on the counter!!!!! AHHHH....luckily no harm was done to my camera but talk about a scare! wow!)

Here are some pictures: (not sure why both my boys are shirtless..they are so funny...even in the middle of winter they are constantly taking their shirts off. I don't know how they aren't chilly!)