Wednesday, December 31, 2008

65 cents/gallon....taking it back old school style!

I shop at this grocery store called Randalls. They are one of those grocery stores that have their own gas station too. I never use their gas because a cheaper station is across the street. Well, throughout the year they have had a promotion where they gave you 10 cents off per gallon of gas when you purchased a certain amount. I just give them my rewards card so that I can get the discounts on the items in the grocery store and never use the gas discount.

Last week the cashier reminded me that I need to use the gas discount by Wednesday Dec. 31st or I would lose my reward. So I thought "okay, I will finally use them." She told me I was up to 80 cents off per gallon! I was shocked!!!

So I took my car over the gas station...had to have the gas station clerk help me because I didn't even know how to scan my rewards card at the pump! I know...I am soooo lame! The station was packed. I wasn't sure if it was because it was New Year's Eve or if everyone else was trying to maximize their rewards points too!?

I filled up my car for 65 cents per gallon! I spent a little over 7 bucks on gas...CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!! I wanted to fill up everyone's tank on my great deal, but the place was so packed that I was overwhelmed. Wouldn't you have wanted someone to come up to you and say, "hey wanna fill you car up for 65 cents a gallon??" LOL. It would have been so awesome! I wanted to share the wealth with everyone, but the gas station was crazy and people were waiting in line and I just didn't see an opportunity to share :(

Anyway, I wanted to show you guys because it was awesome. Sadly, I went to the grocery store right after going to the pump. The grocery shopping trip added 10 cents to my rewards card. This made me mad because had I known that I could have saved 90 cents a gallon, instead of 80 cents, then I would have hit the pumps after my shopping! Darn! Oh well...still a great deal!

Friday, December 19, 2008

A night to remember

Awwww....so I took Lauren to see her first live show tonight. She loves watching Disney channel in the morning. Her favorite shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (of course), Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, and Tigger and Pooh.

Last week I heard a radio advertisement that the "Playhouse Disney Live! Show" was coming to town. I got online as soon as I could and tried to buy tickets. Well, there weren't any good seats left :( I guess tickets started going on sale back in May...sheesh!

I started researching Craigslist and there were a few people selling tickets. There was your normal reseller that was trying to sell 'terrible seating $30 tickets' for $80-$100! LAME!!!! I did get hooked up with an older couple that had tickets to sell for a reasonable price. I paid $10 over the original price for each ticket. They were the most amazing seats I have ever had...I don't think I have ever been this close to any event!

I took Lauren to the show, while Eric stayed home with Kaeden. This was a perfect evening with "just the girls!" Lauren had been so excited all day that she didn't take a nap at school, so I thought this was going to be a meltdown-disaster evening. Well, she happened to fall asleep on the way to the venue. Luckily, it's about a 45-minute drive and so it was just enough to re-energize her.

I hit traffic on the 35 and started to get worried that we would be super late! Tired of sitting in traffic, I ended up taking an exit and just happened to come upon a shortcut to the venue! haha! I felt like the luckiest person in the world....until I got to parking. Then I realized that I would run into another problem!

I thought I was going to have to park miles away, but decided to try the parking lot right next to the venue. Before we left the house, I had been debating what car to take and decided on the Jetta (ended up being the second smartest decision of the day!). So I get through the parking attendant and proceed to a parking space. There was one RIGHT UP FRONT, in between two ginormous trucks who had parked way over their lines. It was too small for any normal sized car, but my itty-bitty jetta was just the perfect squeeze...it was meant to be!!!! I didn't care if I got dings from their huge doors, cuz it's just the jetta! Well, it just so happens that I got outta there before they even got to their cars (last one in, first one out...so no dings!).

So we got there and I bought Lauren all the nifty toys and snacks and crud. She got a Quincy (Little Einsteins) trumpet that plays "Twinkle, Twinkle little star", a gadget that spins around these light things with Handy Manny on it (kinda of dangerous, if you ask me), a Rocket (Little Einsteins) cup that had a snow cone and squiggly straw, and cotton candy that came with a Handy Manny hard hat. Notice I didn't buy any Mickey Mouse stuff cuz she has plenty of that stuff...because Vivian and Kimmie take care of sending the kids tons of Mickey/Minnie stuff straight from the source...Disneyland!

Okay, so enough about the details....

She absolutely LOVED it! She kept thinking we were going to see the cartoons in a movie theater and didn't understand the LIVE portion of it. When they came out she was so happy and just thought it was the best thing ever. We had FANTASTIC SEATS!!!! I wasn't sure what end of the section we were going to be on, but we ended up on the good end which was almost dead center stage! I felt like I could spit and hit Mickey! hee hee.

Everything was great until the family who sat in the row in front of us showed up. Not to be mean, but the mom had this giant fro (see picture...i had to take a pic, sorry!) and LT could no longer see the show. So I put her in my lap for the rest of the show (which was fine) but I wasted money on a seat that never got used :(

Here are some videos of the show (nevermind, can't get them to work yet. coming soon!) ...it was a perfect evening!


Oh, I didn't get a shot of this but Mickey and Minnie kissed at the end of the show!!! IT WAS SOOOO CUTE!!!

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Mission: Decorate.....Complete


Last weekend, as you know, we decorated the outside of the house for Christmas. Lauren loves it and thinks we did a great job.


We also got the tree up last weekend, but didn't have enough time to fluff it and decorate it. So this weekend I fluffed it and we began the decorating. Lauren and Eric had a big role in decorating this year!


We had the Christmas music going, the fireplace was blazing, and we all had hot chocolate to sip.

LT was in charge of placing the decorations on the lower part of the tree, while I was in charge of the top of the tree. Eric's job was to put the hooks on the ornaments and place the angel on top of the tree.










We only had one broken ornament. It was partially my fault. I was reorganizing LT's decorating because she had 3 ornaments on one tree limb! So I went to grab some to move them and one slipped off, hit the floor, and crash!!! broke everywhere.


Next weekend we will have Eric's grandparents in town and we will probably visit the Trail of Lights lighting ceremony!! I will put up pics of that if we end up going. I love Christmas!!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!




Monday, December 01, 2008

Christmas Time is Here!!!

Well, we pulled all the Christmas stuff out this weekend. The fake tree (yes, we love fake!), the christmas ornaments and decorations...and lastly the outdoor decorations. After some deliberation on what to do for the house this year....we decided to GO GREEN by purchasing those LED lights.


What an amazing technology! There are so many benefits to these light compared to the standard bulb light. Here's the comparison:



life expectancy
- LEDs last 200,000 hours and regular bulbs last 1000-2000 hours.
safety - LEDs don't emit heat like the traditional bulbs. Thus reducing the risk of fire or burning.
simplicity - you can string up to 80 strands in series, where you can only do 3 strands of regular lighting before you have to get another power cord.

So here is the comparison of the new and improved (left) vs. last year's setup (right).The craziest thing happened while we were putting lights up on the house...some people came and parked across the street, went into a house down the way and when I turned to look behind me there was a DEAD deer on the roof of their car! They obviously had been hunting all day and shot the deer, but it was disgusting! Who puts a dead carcass on the roof of their car and makes a stop in the neighborhood! LOL. So I had to take some pictures of it.

Halloween....a month later!

You don't realize how quickly time passes until you have completed another holiday....and haven't posted the pictures from the previous holiday.

Well, it's about time to put up the Halloween pics (because I am going to be posting the Christmas lights pic up next!).

Truth be told...I didn't actually take pictures on Halloween because I couldn't find my camera anywhere. So these pictures were actually taken weeks after Halloween. I barely got good pics because Kaeden was so cranky and ready for a nap. Actually, he was getting upset with me because he wanted to chew on the Mickey ears and I wanted him to WEAR them!

The costumes were made by me and the Mickey and Minnie ears were sent to the kids from Vivian and Keith. I put a different bow on LT's hat to match her dress. The original Minnie mouse wore a red dress with white polka dots, but the new "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" Minnie wears pink.

It was a fantastic night...the weather was perfect (about 78 degrees) for trick-or-treating. This year, LT was a champion candy collector. She kept going and going and going. I had to empty her bucket into another bag because it was getting too heavy for her to carry.

Eventually she was so tired of walking from house to house that she requested to be chauffeured around in the stroller...only getting out to walk up to the door and get more candy!!!!

The other kids in the neighborhood were particularly greedy this year. We ran out of candy fast! We normally just leave a bucketful of candy on the porch so we don't have to keep opening the door. Last year we still had candy left at the end of the night...but this year, we were out quick...which means the kids were more aggressive at taking candy and they were taking MORE THAN ONE!!! Little ratheads! hee hee.