Smellyann Strikes Again

The Mystery Is History

You know what? I have been mystery shopping like crazy lately and have learned one thing I never really picked up before about living in Miami and surrounding cities: There is a ridiculous number of malls here. I've been to more shopping centers than I can count lately, and they're starting to blend together. But it's fun, I'm learning my way around with Siri's help, and hopefully I'll be helping pay the bills when my fees start rolling in...

Another thing I've learned is this: I can usually fill Oscar the Pouch and the belly of at least one of the smaller children (not Rob's or Sophie's - the two of them are never full) by walking around the mall's Food Court during peak hours, sampling everything that's handed out, and save some money on buying actual meals. They don't seem to care whether you plan on buying there or not, or even if you listen to their sometimes long-winded spiel about everything that's on offer, but I usually try and stay. Unless I can't understand them. Then I just say "thank you" and bounce. 

So when we found ourselves at Aventura Mall on Wednesday evening, with not a clue on the planet where the expensive kitchen boutique was that I was supposed to evaluate and four hungry bellies (and a pouch), we headed for the Food Court to do my trick. Only, we were there at a bad time, apparently, because no one was out with their red tray (it's always red, I wonder why?), giving out samples in dixie cups. That's another thing I learned: no one here uses toothpicks for the samples. I wonder about that, too; did a guy stab someone at the crowded table next to him for some teriyaki chicken?

Anyway.

We bought some delicioso Thai mango chicken and something-BBQ chicken (I seem to be having as much trouble returning to full-on vegetarianism as I am giving up my Diet Coke habit), lo mein, flied lice, and fried platanos (yum!) for dinner. Chloë surprised me by completely chowing down, even more than Sophie did, I think. Once in a while, Chlo can really pack it away.

So I couldn't find the boutique, left the mall to go across the street, walked around for about ten minutes, went back to the mall, and finally went into Nordstrom (or "Nerd Storm," as Sophia has hilariously dubbed it) to ask for help. I thought it would be in there, knowing how much the coffee machines I was to evaluate cost, but I was wrong. Argh. More walking, and I have a huge blister from Orlando on my left pinky toe.

Rob and the kids were still out in the car by this point, having gone all over Aventura to track this damn shop down, which really cut into my mileage and per-hour fees, y'know? It's a good thing I ended up getting a perfectly brewed cup of coffee and a pretty big fee out of that shop, or I'd have been more upset. I still haven't shut up about that coffee. If I didn't have the Keurig, I might be tempted to buy one of these guys, outrageous price tag notwithstanding.

After the coffee boutique, we headed NW to Sawgrass Mills, a freakin' enormous mall with everything from Old Navy and The Gap to Jimmy Choo and other lux brands. Sawgrass Mills is to the left of Fort Lauderdale, if you're following along on a map. I had to go there to do three valet parking and one retail shop. One of the valet stands no longer exists, though, so it's anyone's guess whether I'll get my fee for a 'closed' shop (sometimes you get paid even if the place isn't there anymore) or not. After we parked at the first place, we had to wander around the mall a little bit to kill time. There were these cool spiral-shaped fountains there, and this one was empty, so we let the kidoodles walk around on top of it. I love the stance and look on Jack's face, like he's in Jurassic Park or something.

We happened across an arcade, Gameroom (which Sophia amusingly decided should be called "Gam-er-OOM" instead of the real pronunciation), so after checking that prices weren't outrageous, I decided to load a game card with a little cash and turn the kids loose. We were the only people there, so they had the run of the place. It's like a giant, grown-up Chuck E. Cheese's in there or something. I've not been to a Dave & Buster's yet, so I can't compare.

We went around, sliding the card for one kid after the other, for about a half-hour. Each kid won a ton of tickets at their games. Here, Sophia was on a machine where she had to jump when the light was on "STOP" to win lots of tickets. Not shockingly, she was great at it. This kid is good at pretty much everything she attempts. Except cleaning her room, but I'm starting to think that's a conscious effort on her part...

I told Chloë, "I don't know why you guys love playing the Claw Game so much. It's almost impossible to win anything!" but they don't care. They'll care when it's their money, I'm betting.

Jack loves to prove me wrong. He won this humongo ball from - you guessed it - a Claw Game. A gigantic Claw Game, one of four adjacent to each other. He was, to put it mildly, thrilled. So was I - we can use it for P.E. class! Never mind that the thing is as big as he is.

Speaking of huge games, Chloë found this big Connect 4 and had to play that. She won, too, but it's a pretty easy thing to do when you have no competitor...

When Rob helped the kids feed their earned tickets into the redemption machine, they'd gotten 209, I think, for their little bit of money. I showed them all the things that could be gotten for 200 tickets, and they weren't impressed, so I showed them some things they could save up for, and which would they rather do? Miracle of miracles, they decided to bank their tickets for another time. You could've knocked me over with a feather; they've never gone that route when I've tried to convince them in the past!

::SNIFF:: My little babies are growning up.

Anyway.

We went and did another parking shop at the same city mall, as well as the retail store I mentioned above. It was silly, because that store has a similar name to a much more well-known, popular brand (see photo above for hint), and I had to ask in the no-name shop if they were the big-name one. Kind of embarrassing, but I love to embarrass myself, so I didn't care. I like to play games with these shops when they don't give me a specific scenario: I make up something ridiculous, just to gauge the reaction I'll get. This time, I went in there insisting that I had to have a yellow tank top; no other color would do, because I simply did not have enough yellow in my wardrobe. The guy who helped me cracked up; he couldn't help it. If you're crazy and you know it, clap your hands!

We headed back East then to Fort Lauderdale to do a really fun (or at least it was supposed to be) shop that the kids had been anticipating for about a week. I expected a much more professional, business-like outfit than the disorganized, badly-in-need-of-my-services one we encountered, however, which meant a long report was going to have to be written. I love doing the shops themselves; going home and doing the reports is another matter. I don't mind doing them, but I do, admittedly, seem to have a problem getting them done in a timely manner. I make sure to write kick-ass reports to make up for it, though!

We had time to kill, once again, between portions of this last shop for the night, and once again everyone was ravenous, so I checked in to our location on Foursquare to find recommended places to eat. We were in the Las Olas Shops section of Ft. Lauderdale by that point. All of the recommendations were too far to go in order to eat and be back to the place where we needed to return in an hour, so we looked around for inspiration. At first, I thought we'd go to the crépe restaurant - who doesn't love skinny pancakes?! - but then we spotted a cheese-and-whine bistro next door, and yeah, they had me at 'cheese.' I love cheese. Jack, who doesn't, was less than thrilled and refused to eat, so I promised him something else when we got back to Penelope.

If you're looking around for a place to eat in Las Olas, I recommend the Cheese Culture. The food was outstanding, and the ambiance was really cool. It's not a place for kids, and they don't have a menu for them either, but it sufficed. Especially since we ate outside on the otherwise-deserted patio, away from the rest of the grown-ups. People seem to get grouchy when their fancy date nights are disrupted by bickering little ones, for some reason... I want to go back sometime when we have a babysitter.

The girls shared an "Ultimate Grilled Cheese" sandwich, with gruyere and Emmenthaler cheese melted on a delicious ciabatta, and I had a bite. It was splendid! Rob and I each had a "Build-Your-Own" sandwich. I forget what he got, except for the greens on the side that were good but got left behind when I told him we had to dash off to get back to our shop location on time - bummer. I had turkey, fresh mozzarella, baby greens on a baguette with garlicky basil mayonaisse. I don't usually like mayo, but it sounded (and was) good. The food delivery had artistic flair to match the out-of-this-world flavor. The server was a little dingy but sweet, and she agreed we should return on a parents-only date night. I bought a bottle of wine from her, a sweet Moscato that we have yet to open, and she gave me a discount for which I didn't even ask. Nice place.

Kilwin's, a chocolate shoppe in Las Olas, was just a few store fronts down from Cheese Culture, so I stopped in to peruse the goods. I am first and foremost a chocolate fanatic and second a chocolate-coconut truffle fiend, so I'm forever on the hunt for the perfect one. I found it once, at a candy store on the Jersey Shore, but its match has been elusive ever since. They had huge coconut chocolates at Kilwin's; I bought a couple, and they were all right, but definitely not perfection. Alas, I'll keep looking.

I purchased some more truffles while I was there, though, about ten or twelve. Obstensibly for Robert, though I don't think he's had a single one yet. I bought him the raspberry ones, which he tends to love, along with some mocha, mint, and other delicious goodness I can no longer remember. These chocolates weren't cheap, being in the neighborhood of $23/lb and up, so imagine my chagrin when I woke up the next morning to find the cats had knocked them off the table and used them for hockey pucks!

We returned to our previous location to finish the half-begun assignment and go home. It was late by then, about 10:30 PM. Obviously, we weren't in NYC, but there's a hint for you. The return was more pleasant than the first leg, but they still blew it. Like I said, they need me. Desperately. I'll fix 'em, I will!

Apropos of nothing much, Rob told me recently that I should open my own mystery shopping company. I don't know. I doubt I'd do it, though it would be fun.

*~*~*~*~*~*

I had reports to write when we got home, but I was cold and exhausted. I decided to treat myself to some JAFRA Spa pampering, and it was just the right call to make. I was in smelly-good heaven, relaxed and soft of skin and hair. It felt amazing. I even tried to nap in the bathtub, but I didn't want to pull a Whitney, so it didn't take. Sorry, that was crude.

Ahhh... so refreshed! (That's unretouched Instagramography, there. Thanks, JAFRA!)

If you want to win some awesome JAFRA products, by the by, friend me on Facebook. I'm having a fun FB party online this week and yes, there will be prizes!

*~*~*~*~*~*

On Thursday morning, Rob unfortunately woke up with a pretty nasty cold, so it kinda sucked that we had about 10 hours of mystery shops to do in the Keys that day. And yeah, he is totally playing the part of military retiree these days. Hanging out in the Keys, fishin', growin'a  beard... people are always like, WHAT. is THAT. on his FACE?! Haha. Although, one of my friends did say he's kinda smokin' with the beard, and of course I agree. I ♥ my little Fur Face...

The first shop in Key Largo was interesting. It was inside an exclusive, gated village, and the words "hoity-toity" come to mind. Now, I've been in exclusive, gated villages before (and I don't mean gated apartment complexes like the one we live in now), in places like Hilton Head and whatnot, but this was something else again. They had a whole town in there, with grocery and fishing and shoe and other stores, and it was definitely an Old Money community. I felt spectacularly out of place. The gate guard took my driver's license, called up the shop where I ad to evaluate the service, and asked them permission to let me enter. I wasn't expecting that. I'm not a gawker or anything, not too much, but I gawked, y'all.

I had to do a high-end fishing store shop. Rob is a fisherman. He knows what he's talking about. Me, I don't collect and kill animals as a general rule (no offense) (maybe a little), so I had no clue. I tried to inveigle him into coming into the store with me and running the show, but he wasn't down with it. So I had to go in there and wing it. I played up my scenario thusly: I'm getting gifts for my fisherman husband and I don't know what I'm doing, so please help me out. It worked. I bought him four clouser saltwater fishing flies - though he doesn't have a saltwater rig yet - and he was happy with them. Win.

I had to drive south to Marathon after that and evaluate the company there that, uh, well, see the picture above? I can't exactly spell it out for you, because that would give it away. Anyway, the guy I talked to there was amazing. He completely blew me away with his keen interest in environmental initiatives. Y'all know I'm a raging environmentalist, so we really hit it off. I'll probably go back and talk to him some more on my own and have him give my kiddos a tour of the facility someday, too. This guy was GREEN, folks. True green. I loved it. Also, he gave me a way cool "welcome to the neighborhood" gift of 4-5 reusable canvas bags, an electronics charger that shuts down after the device is fully charged to stop vampire electricty suckage, a nifty keychain, lots of information printouts, and more. Color me impressed.

It had been storming like the dickens in the Keys between the first two assignments, and there came a point where Sophia and I really had to pee. Water rushing down the windows didn't help that situation much, you know? So Rob drove us right up to the door of a Hom Depot, and in the ½-second it took us to get out of Penelope and into the Depot, we were completely drenched. Which meant we were freezing when we returned to the air-conditioned van after emptying our respective bladders. That's probably what helped along my cold, from which I'm now suffering. Anyway, it was quite the tropical storm. When we got to Key West a couple of hours later, the roads were all rivers. Lakes. I haven't seen that much rain since 1995, during Tropical Storm Gordon my freshman year at U-Miami.

We arrived in Key West much earlier than we needed to be there, so we drove around a while and returned to the souvie shop where I'd bought my red wrap dress/skirt/thingy the week before. I think I showed it to you? If not, here it is:

It's amazing versatile and, I think, pretty flattering, depending on how I tie it. For twenty bucks, I can get several styles of dresses, skirts, and tunics out of it, so I wanted to get a yellow and a teal one, too. That I did. I accidentally bought the floor-length ones, though, which is okay but not ideal. I'll just have to tie them the other ways that don't work with the red one, right?

After that, Rob wanted to go fishing. He knew we'd end up down there way earlier than my assignment required, so he'd brought down a few poles, a cooler, and a bucket to prepare. We drove around on a wild goose chase for a while, trying to find a decent place to fish, before someone in a Circle K just told us to go the marina. You're not supposed to fish there, but he said they were cool about it, since it was the end of the charters' day. Worse thing that could happen was they'd tell us to leave, so we went.

The fish weren't biting for him, though. I think he was disappointed. I was, I know that much. I may not like to catch 'em and clean 'em - although back in my Mote Marine Lab days, I was pretty good at filleting the snook for the grouper and snapper - but I don't mind cooking and eating them these days. I'm trying to quit... but not that hard! ;) 

After an hour or so, he packed it up, and we went off in search of dinner and gas for Penelope. We didn't want to eat out anywhere, needing to save our cash, so we ended up at the Publix nearest my next assignment. Rob and the kids stayed in the car while I shopped for sandwich fixin's on the cheap. Bologna and American cheese it was; I splurged on good rolls. I got back in the car and told the kids, "Here are your choices: You can have boloney and cheese, or you can not eat. That's it." Guess what? They ate.

Finally, it was time to head over to one of the movie theaters on the island for my last assignment. Sophia was my date, having won the title of "Best Behaved Child" (can you believe it?!) after our trip to Orlando earlier in the week. We had planned to see The Croods for her sake, but it was 3D, and no upgraded movies were allowed for the job, so we went to see Iron Man 3 instead. It was the only one left that was semi-appropriate for an 8-year-old. I wasn't terribly excited, not having seen IM or IM2, but I was happy to have my fun baby as a companion. She did not disappoint.

The movie turned out to be really entertaining. It held my interest from start to finish, and hello?! I knew this already, but the movie reaffirmed it: Robert Downey Jr. is farking HOT. Oh, my word. I may have drooled. Cute butt, too. I think wardrobe did a really good job with him (as did his parents' genes). Honestly, though, I didn't expect to NOT be bored throughout the movie, and there wasn't one single second of that. I don't normally go for superhero movies - not since Christopher Reeve as Superman, anyway - but this was extremely well-written and -acted. In a nutshell, I liked it. Go see it. I'd even watch it again. And not just for RDJ. Much.

*~*~*~*~*~*

We got home from Key West at something like four in the morning on Friday, and I had all those reports to do. But I didn't. I tried, man. I tried. I was beyond exhausted by that point, though, and went to lie down "for a little bit." You guys, I didn't even get up until 9 PM on Friday to pee or anything! Crazy. So I missed a bunch of shops that I've since rescheduled, all my reports were late (ahem, but what else is new?), and I had a killer migraine. I needed that sleep, though, so it's all good, I guess.

And now? I have more shops to do. See ya!

Fin.

Sea World, Orlando, & Downtown Disney

Over the past two days (Monday and Tuesday), Team Odette traveled 4½ hours away to Orlando for a mini-vacation. Thanks to Anheuser-Busch for supporting our troops, because with their Here's to the Heroes 2013, Rob and three of his dependents could get in for free. We just had to buy a ticket for Jack. We also bought the eat-all-day deals for everyone but me, which is totally worth it, because you can literally go through the participating restaurants again and again and again and get way too much food for a normal person to consume. We are normally not wasteful people, so it was a little painful to throw away perfectly good food, but otherwise it was a really good value; do it!

To prepare for the trip, I packed tons of snacks (no-frosting strawberry Pop-Tarts, trail mix, a little chocolate, cereal, etc.) in snack-size Ziploc baggies for all three kids in their new bags (from Publix) with their names on them. I gave each child a clipboard filled with paper and enough writing and drawing implements, new sticker books, glitter and glue, and more to keep them busy. Finally, I ran to the Toys 'R Us outlet store at a mall about 5 minutes away and picked up these glow sticks, together with smelly-good bubbles and more cyalume light-up bracelets and necklaces, for use on Monday night after we left the park.

I let them open up their new goody bags on Sunday night before bed, giving them instructions on when and where each item was to be used. We had to leave at about 0400 to get to Sea World by the time it opened at 0900 Monday morning, or else I would have left them in their car seats and let them find them then. They were super-excited to find out what was in those bags!

We arrived at Sea World more than a half-hour early, thanks to only having to stop for potty breaks and drinks at the Florida Turnpike travel plazas once or twice. I'm definitely going to do this pre-planning packing for the kids' car trip needs when we road trip in the future. It worked out perfectly: there was no "I'm hungry," "Are we there yet?" or "I'm bored" whining whatsoever. Awesome!

One really nice thing about Anheuser-Busch parks - and Sea World was no different - was that, right after the park opened for business and while we were standing in line to redeem our vouchers for tickets, they stopped to play the National Anthem. Rob stood at attention respectfully, and as usual, tears welled up in his eyes. I love that my guy is such a true patriot. I really admire that. Sophia started talking about what a dumb song it was, but I hushed her up and explained to her what the song was and what it meant, and that shut her complaints up immediately. She stood quietly and respectfully throughout the song after that.

Entering the park was really easy, smooth and fast. The folks at Sea World have got it together. The first thing we found inside was a flock of flamingos, stinky and squawking like crazy. They have a distinctive smell, which isn't very pleasant, but they're absolutely beautiful. Sophia, our bird lover, was particularly captivated.

Near the flamingos, also-banded pelicans waited to be admired. Or as a Facebook friend called them, "the crows of Florida." Still, as aggressive and unpleasant as these fowl can be, I think they are pretty cool.

We moved along to the stingray tank (although there were other rays including this cownose), and of course my thoughts immediately went to the untimely death of Crocodile Hunger Steve Irwin, right? Apparently, though, the stingrays are de-barbed or something, to make them not dangerous to park guests. I don't know how I feel about that, but I guess liability would be a huge issue if a similar thing happened in the park.

There were oodles and oodles of penny press machines inside Sea World. They were everywhere! We spent about $25 on collecting these souvies everywhere we found them, which makes me cringe a little. However, they're really cool, a great thing to collect, and the kids have fun doing them. It's a take-away and a project in one experience, so I think it's worth it in the end. We have collections from here, now, along with Disney World and Epcot, and everywhere else we've been able to find them. I love 'em.

It took us less than two hours to fill our Sea World pressed penny book! The machines were so ubiquitous, it wasn't hard to do. We have about 10 more that don't fit in the book, plus there are another 10 or 12 on the back of this book, so we have plenty. We probably even missed a bunch of machines, since we didn't do everything there was to do in the park. It'll give us something to do on a future visit to Sea World, y'know? 

After we pressed our first set of pennies, the first thing we found was the dolphin feeding tank. It cost $7 per kid and was on Chloë's bucket list, so Rob and I talked it over and decided to do it. $21 for an experience like that was pretty cheap compared to other behind-the-scenes adventures Sea World offered, and we had zero fundage for souvenirs other than the requisite pennies and my shot glass collection (I got a shark one, natch), so this was the thing to do. I'd rather give the kids an amazing memory than more stuff we don't need any day of the week, too. Here, we were waiting at the dolphin tank for our turn to pet and feed them.

Soon, it was the kids' turn to step up and feed the bottlenose dolphins. It was an incredible, memorable experience for all five of us. I'm actually surprised Chloë didn't cry a little bit. We all got to touch them, and the girls and Rob (who stepped in for the too-nervous Jack) each fed them two fish after doing the instructed rub under the jaw. It was amazing; words can't do it justice.

We walked through the aquarium that goes over one's head after feeding the dolphins, and I pointed out the different fish we saw to the kids. Parrotfish, like this Stoplight one here, are among my favorite of the reef fish. 

We visited Turtle Trek, which was a breathtaking surround cinema, like the inside of a planetarium. Another Facebook friend highly recommended it, and she was right; I loved every second of this short 3D adventure through a turtle's life. Afterward, there was a staffer giving out trivia questions and discussing the lives and habits of turtles and other sea creatures. I answered one question correctly before anyone else did, so she handed me a baseball card-like information sheet on the Leafy Sea Dragon for a prize. Later, she talked all about conservation efforts in which Sea World participates and gave the kids a chance to earn their own cards. We walked away with prizes for the Bottlenose Dolphin, Florida Manatee, and California Sea Lion, too.

Speaking of manatees, I love that the iPhone 5 has such a great camera; I took this picture, which Steph snagged off Facebook for a background on her iPad, with it. It turned out beautifully, IMNSHO.

The kids played a little turtle game, "Race for the Beach," against other kiddos. There were lots of little educational and interactive exhibits around Sea World like this one. I think it's great the way the park is so focused on edutainment and conservation; they really make the effort to preserve our natural marine resources. That impressed me throughout the day.

A Florida gator adolescent taking a swim 

We found some upside-down jellies, Cassopeia frondosa, near the alligator holding pen. I learned about these animals long ago as an undergrad at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmopsheric Science (RSMAS), during my Invertebrate Zoology class with the wonderful Dr. Peter Glynn. I wonder if he's still teaching; he was an inspiration for me as a budding marine biologist.

I'm not sure what kind of Cnidarian this one is, but my question to you is: artistically beautiful species, or just ick?

We then visited some leopard sharks, and Rob asked me to drop some knowledge about them. You know what? I didn't want to; I just wanted to have a fun, great day without so much pressure to be the authority on anything. So I refrained and just enjoyed being in the moment.

By that point in the day, it was hot, we were sweaty, and the kids were red in the face. Sea World isn't too heavy on rides and play so much as shows and experiencing the natural beauty of the marine environment, so we didn't have a lot of that. Fine by me, but the children wanted more of it. We headed over to the little kiddie area on the far end of the park to let them play in the small waterpark area for a bit. It was just the cool-down they needed, so I'm glad we took the time out to do that.

Sophia as Queen of the World! 

Chloë and Sophia took a ride in Swishy Fishies, which is like Sea World's equivalent of Disney World's Teacups. Jack, who had been the most vociferous complainer about the lack of rides, chose not to go on any rides. Really? That's so Jack, but whatever, he still had a great time and thanked us for taking them on the trip, so it's all good. If you're a Teacup fan, by the way, they also had a similar ride that went high up in the air. We didn't do that one, though, because the kids have a bit of a fear of heights; they come by it honestly!

Chloë had to pose for a photo-op with a Shamu replica; she happily obliged my request. It's never hard to get this one to do so; it's always hard to get Jack to pose unless he's thoroughly pleased at the moment!

Oh, I lied. Jack DID go on one ride, the kiddie train. This was more his speed, literally and figuratively speaking. 

We opted to rent a double stroller for several reasons: Jack, who has taut Achilles' tendons, has trouble walking for long distances. Plus, we knew we'd have lots to carry and thought it would be easier to take them around with us than pay for a locker we might visit but once during the day. And also, it would provide some sun protection for the kids, who took turns riding during our visit. An unexpected bonus was that it provided some tush respite for Rob, who occasionally took a brief siesta when he could sneak the opportunity!

My friend from Portsmouth, Miss Lisa, requested a family picture in the park, so I stopped a woman to take one in front of the sea creature-themed carousel we all rode immediately after that. Sophia started to pull a stranger-child off a purple seahorse that she wanted to ride; the nerve of her! After a scolding from me, we went on the other side and found one for her. But talk about embarrassing...

Just for good measure, I had Rob snap another shot of me on my carousel ride for Miss Lisa. You know, we all wore bathing suits all day long, but I was the only one who wasn't asked to cover up with a shirt or shorts. If you ever visit Sea World, be prepared to have a cover-up of some sort for males and females alike, because they will say something to you if you're not 'properly' dressed.

A fun moment between Jack and Chloë that I was thrilled to capture

We walked through the Arctic exhibit and found ourselves there at just the right time for a short training session for the beluga whales. The trainer had the belugas spin, jump and play for fishy treats. What fun to watch!

This polar bear was lounging near the beluga whales. I'm sure there were more, but we didn't see any, and she didn't want to come closer for me to get a better picture. Brat. I jest.

Both Rob's and my phone died after that, so this is a shot of Shamu that I stole off Google Images. Hee. We walked around the beautiful Sea Garden - a replica of the undersea environment made out of land plants - while we waited for the Shamu show to start at 1730. It was completely worth the wait. I had gone to Sea World with my grandparents when I was five years old, but the only things I remembered were seeing the flamingos and having an alligator come toward us while we ate dinner. 

Shamu - probably the n^th generation - and other orca friends put on a great display of tricks with their trainers. We had a lot of fun sitting in the Soak Zone and watching all the people in the rows in front of us get up, pissed, to leave after they got completely wet from the killer whales' antics (they're really dolphins, though, you know). Um, duh? You sat there knowing you'd get splashed and then you get upset when you do? What kind of sense does that make? None. Plus it's hilarious to have a whale do a humongous belly flop in front of you that leaves you dripping from head to toe. Make sure to put away those electronics and purses if you go; "soak" is definitely the key word!

Shortly after watching Shamu, we headed to our nearby hotel for the night.  The Seralago has mixed reviews from friends and strangers alike who have stayed in the same place, but we had a really nice stay there. There is a big cafeteria-slash-convenience store near the main lobby; we were able to get pizza, burgers and gyros for dinner, and everything tasted great. We picked up breakfast in the morning from there, too, even though Expedia said there was supposed to be a free continental one. (That was the only let-down.) There was a tiki bar and playground in the pool area, and the room was spacious and comfortable. For less than $60 a night in a high-traffic resort area, we were not disappointed. Your mileage may vary. 

The kids played with their glow sticks and bubbles, went swimming with Rob and warmed up in the hot tub at Seralago. Meanwhile, Rob and I got drinks from the bar that we left mostly untouched. Oh, that was another thing - my piña colada? They must have thought I was fourteen, because I swear it was a virgin; if there was alcohol in it, it was undetectable by my highly sensitive system. And that's sayin' something. I'm actually kind of glad, though, because I no longer enough the buzz of alcohol and have pretty much decided I'm done with the stuff after this. I might have something now and again in the future, but for the most part, I see no need to imbibe.

For lunch on Tuesday, we headed back East to Orlando (we stayed just West in Kissimmee, which is pronounced "Kiss-IH-me," but which my silly grandpa always pronounced "KISS-amee" to be funny) for a mystery shop. The place was dead, so we were able to get in and out of there fairly quickly before heading to our next destination.

We didn't have any real plans for Downtown Disney other than something fun for Jack and possibly renting a paddleboat, so I asked Rob's dad if he wanted us to visit them instead at their place in Boynton Beach on our way back to Homestead. Only, Rob's dad was not actually IN Boynton Beach yet, so that didn't pan out. A weather check Monday night didn't look promising for Downtown Disney, either, but fortunately the rain held out and we had a beautiful couple hours of sun during our trip to the Marketplace.

After getting squirted with water by the giant Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) at World Of Disney, we stopped to listen to the orchestra play some tunes from movies and TV shows everyone recognized. I really enjoyed that and was grateful we didn't miss it.

There's a big LEGO store - one of Jack's few obsessions - at Downtown Disney, but instead he wanted go to Ridemakerz to build his own radio-controlled car. We spent a lot more there than I planned, but it turned out to be really worth it. The cars, accessories and chargers come with a lifetime warranty, which is good because later we discovered he had a bent axle and needed a new undercarriage. They swapped it out for him, no questions asked.

At the store, which is at the back of Team Disney if you want to find it, there was a huge selection of rims and wheels. Some are included in the price of the chassis, and some are extra. Jack happened to pick a set that were free-with-purchase, to my relief.

After he selected his rims, wheels and sound, Chris helped Jack assemble his new yellow Corvette. That was fun, to put it concisely. Jack could have been timed to see how long it put together the vehicle, just for fun, but he chose to take his time and not rush through the experience. I wasn't suprised at that; he's a pretty methodical kid when it comes to mechanics.

I wanted the girls to have an equitable experience compared to Jack's, and we didn't want to do the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, so we walked around to see what they could do. First, they chose to have their faces painted. Artist Emily was really talented; Sophia looks adorable in her "Princess Kitty" make-up, doesn't she?

Chloë chose to have the "Music Mania" paint. They each opted to get the glitter lipstick after Emily verified with me that it was okay. Why not? Full package, baby.

After their faces were done, we went to the Ghirardelli store near the entrance and got a strawberry shake for Sophia and a chocolate one for Chloë. I didn't taste Sophie's, but Chlo's was really rich and delicious. They were a bit pricey, but since neither girl could finish hers and passed them to the boys less than halfway through, it was okay by me. We got chocolate samples when we walked in the door, too, which satisfied my sweet tooth!

Just like my dad, Chloë usually chooses to eat the stems of her maraschino cherries. I do it, too.

Stim (Steph and Tim, back in Virginia) are big fans of Sulley from Monsters Inc., so now that the new movie is coming out, she was hoping to have me pick her up some Sulley merch to send her way. We didn't find anything for her or the boys, though I had fun looking around and texting her pictures of all the latest offerings!

Even though he'd spent a small fortune at Ridemakerz and knew he wasn't getting anything else, Jack wanted to look around at the LEGO store. I figured I'd see if they had anything new in the LEGO Friends section (the girls collect those sets) for my lady-babies, because their shakes and facepaintings cost nowhere near as much as Jack's Corvette. Not that I wanted to spend money just to spend money, not at all, but I wanted both to be fair and also give them something to DO and something to HAVE, just like Jack.

Sophia, who's been gunning for the LF House for over a year now, surprised me by changing her mind and opting for the Stable instead. She loves horses, as well as the afore-mentioned birds (bugs, too, though all the kids love animals in general), so maybe it wasn't so surprising. Chloë went with a smaller set, the Café I think. When we got home that evening, they started building their sets out front on the patio, since their room is still crowded with unpacked boxes. Must remedy that situation soon!

There are many LEGO structures around the store in Downtown Disney, including a serpent in the water nearby and this family and their dogs. On our way back to our van, Penelope, Jack wanted to pose with this structure for me. Oh, see his gappy grin? He lost a tooth at Sea World the day before! Apparently I forgot to tell my progeny that they weren't supposed to leave body parts in the park.

After stopping for another potty break during the ride home, we spotted this fresh Florida oranges and grapefuit shop that I wanted to visit. We were out of oranges, after all, and I knew we'd find more local goodies from right there in Fort Pierce and surrounding areas. I was right. I spent more than I wanted to, but shopping locally is important to me, so it was worth it.

Along with my ¼-bushel of Valencia oranges, I bought some real Florida honey (mmm...), some orange honey, and jellies and preserves: Guava Jelly, Jalepeño Pepper Jelly for Rob (ew, but he'll love it), Tangerine Marmalade (omg, that sounds so good right now), Orange Pineapple Cherry Marmalade, and also Mango Chutney. I also picked up some Vidalia Onion Mustard for Rob, and some Habanero Beef Jerky that he gobbled down as soon as I got back to Penelope and handed it to him. I snagged a bag of saltwater taffy that the propietor described as "so good, it's addictive" to ship to NY for my BFF, Dr. Lisa. She loves the stuff.

When we finally got home after a quick stop at the Walmart Vision Center to pick up Chloë and Rob's new prescription sunglasses (theirs took longer than Jack and Sophie's because they're so blind), Jack rushed out to test out the new wheels. He drove it all the way around the block and had to be convinced to come in when it got dark. I'm glad he was so happy, but he seems to think we'll be going back every year to get him another one. Ha! I don't know where he got that idea, but it wasn't from me!

So now that it's May, it's time to really get serious and down to business. April was a full month of fun for Team Odette, but it's time to rein it in just a little bit. Oh, there will still be plenty of fun, but we have work to do. There's lots of homeschooling on which to catch up, jobs to get, unpacking to finish, VA paperwork to get done, a house in Virginia to sell, and college to get into (for Rob). Much to do, though like I said, we'll still be having fun in between the more serious stuff. Stay tuned for another post tomorrow, as I have fun mystery shops planned for today!

Fin.

Oh, My Dawg, I'm So Excited!!!

...or, How We Spent Our Tax Refund!

        ...or, Man, We Should Be One of Those Couples Who Has To Spend a Million-Dollar Inheritance in 24-Hours Flat!

                   You feel me? But let's move on from these 77 alternate titles and get to the meat of this post.

If you hadn't realized, our federal tax refund hit our bank account yesterday. Here's how we've spent it on the kids and household goods in the day since then:

1. First stop, our local post office. We had to mail five or six packages, including the Progressive Snapshot device I'd never plugged into our Odyssey, Penelope, some video surveillance equipment for a mystery shop I'd (never) done, and the keys to our Virginia Beach house to our realtor back in that town. Plus, I had to buy a roll of stamps. Yes, some of us do still send snail mail. And also, we had to bring our lease in so that we could FINALLY get the keys to our mailbox. It's been 3 weeks, and we still have almost NO mail, save for the little bit that trickles down into our PO Box. Speaking of which, the kids and I went to check it while Rob finished up with the lease business, and there were two cards in it from Aunt Stacey (my sister). She sent cards and money for the two birthday babies, Jack and Sophia, having decided together with me that money was the way to go for our kids' respective birthdays from now on.

2. Next stop, Walmart. We spent a buttload of money on household necessities (and a few un-necessities, but not many) there. And Jack spent his new birthday money on this remote-controlled boat he'd been eyeing for a while.

Sophia spent her birthday money on this horse, which goes with her doll that she'd bought with birthday money from others earlier in the month. Granted, it's not tax money, but it happened yesterday, so I have to tell ya.

Also, Chloë and...

 

 

... Sophia both got new pairs of skates, which was and wasn't a splurge. It wasn't an absolute need, no, but they did need to get more and more varied exercise, and I needed a skating partner! Rob wanted to buy me a bike, too, but I figure I'll keep an eye on Freecycle for that. (Side note: Sophia fell on her butt a million times but is already zooming skillfully around the block. Chloë is still falling, but she'll get there, I'm sure. Soon as she lets go of all the tree branches, that is.)

 

 Other spending at Wally-World included food (absolutely necessary, right?), an iron (Rob had left ours back at the Va Beach house, oops), toilet bowl brushes (because, eww, he forgot those back there, too), a plunger (same story), towels and accessories to match the new shower curtains and mats in both our and the kids' bathrooms (splurge-y), a garbage can (forgot it, too), aaaand new bedding for all three kids (Sophia ruined all the old ones. She does that).

 

 

 

Next up, back at home, I went online to the Florida DMV website because we both need new state licenses, and then we'll need to register Penelope and the motorcycle, and then we'll need to get new insurance policies. (And I still freakin' need to fix the gigantical crack down the middle of my windshield, but that'll keep a li'l longer, won't it? It's been a month and a half already, after all...) But the next appointment - you make 'em online, here - for the DMV isn't until May 6th, so I looked at the docs we'll need for the new licenses. Crap, I need a new Social Security card. So do the kids; ours got stolen, which is not awesome. Lots of other stuff did, too; someone stole our "important papers" lockbox I kept under my desk. Ugh. Anyway. We'll go do that business tomorrow. Of course, they'll want my driver's license, among other things, to get the new card, so now I understand dogs and cats chasing their own tails!

 

 

We don't need cable TV - -haven't had it for years- - but we do need internet service. This is 2013, after all, and we have numerous electronic devices needing wi-fi. Not to mention the fact that our iPhones get crap for signals in the house on the LTE network, or 3G or 4G for the matter, and we don't have a landline. So, we put in about a half-dozen phone calls to Comcast to sign up for supah-fast (and cheap, compared to what we were paying for Cox in VA) cable internet service. We'd have done it sooner, but, ah, that's neither here nor there. It's done now, and they're coming Sunday, and I can't wait, and yeah.

 

 

Next stop, JAFRA, to place an order. I have gotten several from clients that needed fulfilling, plus I plan to start kicking that into high gear, so I needed a few things myself for said purpose. Yeah. I love JAFRA packages. They smell so damn good and always bring promises of buttery soft skin. Mmm, me likey.

 

 

 

Speaking of our iPhones, I've been boosting off my 5's Personal Hotspot to get online and do all the important stuff like tell you on this blahg about that important stuff, and so I had to go on the AT&T website to pay our big, fat bill. That was that. Can't wait to whittle that back down after the Comcast guy comes with our new, um, nothing?

 

 

Speaking of paying the bills, I hopped over to our bank website and put in an extra payment for Penelope, and...

 

 

 

...Elsie, Rob's BMW motorsickle.

 

(Yes, I spelled it that way on porpoise. C'mon, now.)

 

And then, the really exciting stuff started. Well, wait, first dinner. The kids must eat. The husband must eat. I... must nibble. I gained about 10 lbs during our move and realized it even before I got my scale back a week ago to confirm it, so I've been eating very carefully and am already down 4 lbs since then. I was hoping to take it off by my birthday in September, so yay. But what? am I talking about??

 

 

For dinner, after Rob and the kids cleared off the table and cleaned up the kitchen enough for me to cook in it properly, we laid down the new bamboo runner we'd gotten on clearance from Walmart (a minute splurge, yes, but it went with my Fiestaware, and hey, bamboo!) and used the also-clearanced new cloth napkins (hey, reducing paper waste is a good thing). Since we were going fancyish, I decided to make the kids promise promise promise they wouldn't break the wedding crystal we'd gotten from Dr. Lisa and Uncle Faris, and they did pinky-promise, which is as good as gold 'round here. And guess what? The only person who came even close to breaking one was ME. Yup, I'm still the same ol' klutz I always was, rest assured. PS, the candles were Sophie's idear. We are SO decadent. ;P

 

 

I'd gotten this Ninja Chopper from my friend, Yet Another Stephanie, back in VA, but I hadn't put it to good use yet. We had avocados, we had guac mix, and we had tortilla chips, so it was time. And guess what? After a few pulses, we had delicious-ish guacamole. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but compared to the improvised batch I made after Rob and - yes! - the kids quickly polished off this one, it wasn't bad at all. Heh. (Mine wasn't either, but it lacked salt. And lymes. And cilantro. And had too much onion. And tomato. And not enough avocado. Damn, it must've sucked worse than I first rememberated.)

 

 

 

This picture is way washed-out compared to the actual scene, but then I whipped up a pork steak dinner from a recipe I'd gotten on the back of a can of Campbell's chicken broth. There was pasta instead of rice, because that's what I had, and I needed to squeeze fresh juice from oranges rather than use bottled juice, because that's what I had and hello, yummier, but other than that, it was pretty much according to the recipe. Kinda. Anyways. Rob says it was good enough to make again, which is high praise coming from him, but all three kids had upturned noses, the punks. I don't see them doing the whole presentation-is-everything thing on me with hummus and pita, or anything, so humph!

 

 

 

However, Jack and Chloë did enjoy the orange slices in the dinner so well that they requested more for dessert. Um, okay, twist my arm a little bit, why don'tcha.

 

And NOW for the rilly, rilly exciting part!!!

 

(You'd better be sitting down now.)

 

(I mean it.)

 

(Because this is heady, heady stuff, coming up here in a second.)

 

Are you ready?

 

All right.

 

You asked for it.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

I bought stuff for homeschooling!!!!!! Yeah, school, baby! I can't WAIT to delve back in and get the kids back on track and have tons and tons and TONS of fun in the process. I love teaching them!!

 

Here's what I bought over at the Homeschool Buyers' Co-op:

 

 

 

All FIVE levels of Latin American Spanish from Rosetta Stone!!! Whoop!! For cheap! I have been wanting RS for aaaaaaaages, ever since I did a mystery shop at one of their kiosks (oops, I'm not supposed to tell you that) and saw how well it works. Chloë started angling for German, and I would have been thrilled with Latin, but we all settled on the LAS after thinking about what would be the most useful in our lives right now. I can not WAIT to get my teeny-weeny little hands on this baby. Sirrusly.

 

 

I usually piece our Science and Social Studies curricula together myself, but this year (starting now), I'm going to get a little help from the award-winning Adaptive Curriculum. I cannot wait to see how that works for us, especially in Social. Science, I've got down, but our Soshe has been a little, well, piecemeal, so I'd like to get it more organized in their brains, y'know?

 

For teaching Grammar rules more concretely, I got us a lifetime passport to Grammaropolis, which looks very promising. Sounds like fun, too!

 

 

For writing and all that goes with that business, I bought us a year's subscription (which is really enough information, with what I got, to last us through the end of high school if I choose) to Brave Writer, a highly rated program about which I've heard nothing but good stuff. Eeeeeek!

 

And now for the reeeeeealllllly exciting part!!!!

 

Can you stand it? I can't!!

 

Because we want the kids to be technologically savvy, and because so much of their work is computer- and internet-based, I have been wanting to get them each their own laptop or tablet for a while. I've been researching and thinking and debating about it; we've had ONE laptop for the kids up 'til now, and it just doesn't work that well when all three kids need to be online to do assignments. With three, I wouldn't need to constantly rotate them out and cut them short on projects - they could all work simultaneously! So after tons more research, I bought them each a Kindle Fire HD 7" tablet on Amazon.com! Wooohoooo, the
y are going to be so stoked, man!

 

 

 

 

Of course, to protect their shiny new electronical toys, I got them each a case in a different color. Jack's is green, because, well, it's his favorite, and I couldn't find a boyish pattern to suit him.

 

 

I think this one will be Chloë's.

Sophia will like this one.

I don't know how much they'll need or use them, but it remains to be seen, so I got them this pack of 6 styli for their Kindle Fire HDs, and also one - yes, just one - wall charger to share. I figure that much we can do on a rotational basis, right?

But I'm still not done outfitting the kids for the coming year. Nope, nope, nope. I did s'more shopping on ye olde Amazon first:

Sophia needs a new queen-sized mattress for the bunk bed she'll now be sharing with Chloë, because we had to leave her old one behind in Portsmouth (doesn't really matter; it was gross). I got her this memory-foam one, which has really good ratings. Remind me to air it out for two days first...

Oh, and for us, I got a new bed frame since Rob left our old one behind at the Virginia Beach house, which sucks because they aren't as cheap as I thought they were. Booger.

For Jack, I picked up a Yamaha keyboard stand (and a new wall charger, since he lost his). Even though he's decided not to pursue lessons for now, the music store folks convinced us to hang onto the keyboard in case one of the kids picks it up. And I can play, albeit slowly and gingerly, so we can all bang around on it for our music lessons in Sweet Pea Academy. It's cheap but comes highly-rated, so I think this one'll do us just faaaahhhhhn.

 

And finally (as you all breathe a sigh of relief, I know), the kids have been doing some growing since last I shopped for summer clothing for them. Especially Sophia; she's now, like, a foot taller than Jack! No lie. She needed a new bathing suit and picked this one out at Sears.

They all needed shorts and tees, so I bought bunches upon bunches of those for each kiddo, too, along with one dressy outfit for each kid. Inexplicably, after making a painstaking order there, Sears canceled several of my items and let the rest go through. Buh-wha-huh? I have to call them. I want those things, dammit! They need 'em! But it'll keep 'til 0900. Which, oh, is four minutes from now. Serendipity, baby!

Oh, shit, I totally forgot one more big splurge! Well, not like, a boat big, but Shamu big. *Ahem*

 

Yep. We're going to Orlando on Monday and Tuesday! Rob still has a little bit more time (a month, maybe) on Active Duty, so that means he and three dependents still get in for fah-reeeee at Anheuser-Busch parks through their ongoing Here's to the Heroes Salute program.  That leaves one kid out, so I bought another ticket, along with our parking pass, dine-all-day passes for Rob and the kids (I'll nibble and graze meagerly), and a stroller rental voucher. I can't wait, and the kids are ecstatic! (The stroller is mostly for Jack, who still has trouble walking sometimes, especially for long periods of time, thanks to his tight Achilles tendons, and also to keep the kid out of the sun here and there, and also in case we want it to carry things around the park without holding them.) Can't wait to see the shows, can't wait to see Shamu, can't wait to see my babies' faces when they get to feed a fish or two to the dolphins. Wheeee! That'll be Monday.

I think we'll do this on Tuesday, but we might not. I don't know yet. We'll see. Maybe we'll just come home Tuesday, or we might hang out with my online friend, Gloria, whom I've not yet met, or maybe we'll... hm. I don't know! Suggestions?

NOW I'm finished.

I have some mystery shops to go do today, along with my doctor's appointment for this thing growing on my chin, soooo.... whew! This post took forEVER to write.

Fin.

P.S. I'm such a liar. That's not all. HAHAHA. The cats got new beds and litter to poop in - LOTS of litter.

Sundays In My City: Homebound In Homestead

It may be Monday, but no matter, because I'm always late. I'm linking up again with Unknown Mami and her posse on Sundays in my City, so come along as we explore what Team Odette did all last week when lack of gas - and funds - kept us around the ol' Homestead homestead. I promise to visit and comment back, too - though it may take me a month, I'll do it! Swears.

Cooking. Did I show these already? I forget. Sorry, if so. Anyway, I promised to take the load off Rob - and give Chloë something to tally on my side of her chart - so last week I made some seasoned vegetables for all of us and this:

pork steaks, for the rest of the family, 'cept me. (I don't do mammals. Somehow, some way, I'm going to become a full-on vegetarian again by the end of 2013, but it's hard when I have such high protein requirements, thanks to my gastric bypass surgery.)

We had no salt, no seasonings (the veggies came pre-seasoned, heh), and no fat, oil, lard, margarine, butter, you name it, you got it? So I quickly texted my former home-ec teacher of a mother-in-law, who suggested I cut the fat off the meat and render that first, then cook the meat in it. Brilliance! It worked like a charm. And even in that state, Rob pronounced it delicious and entirely edible enough to make again. Thanks, Mamacita!

That was Sunday. On Monday night, we came home from I-don't-know-where hungry, and I whipped up some healthy lettuce and chicken salad spinach wraps for Rob and me, while he made some pasta for the mouths under the kids' upturned noses. Poo-poo on them; the wraps were delishamus.

We've been walking every day still, and each day we encounter new flowers. This flower, on Tuesday, was the first yellow hibiscus I'd seen. It was the 29^th anniversary of my mom's death that day, but I was determined not to cry. Guess what, I actually succeeded, thanks to my drugs I'm guessing.

Every day, we go down to the lake across from our place. Well, almost every day. Rob wants to fish here, but the sign says no way, José. I don't think he'll listen. And gators? No way can my kids walk down to the lake by themselves. I've already lost one kid; I'm not giving the rest away.

Some of the eggs have hatched! This mama Muscovy duck had 12 ducklings. Twelve! 

Chloë and sibs have been determined to spot a gator since we moved down here. Fortunately, they've been unsuccessful so far. I want to go down to the Everglades and rent an airboat. I've never done that before, and I know it's fun. Surely we'll spot some gators that way.

It took me a week, but I finally spotted an ibis. I was the last one. Why is this significant? The mascot of my alma mater, U-Miami, is Sebastian the Ibis, of course!

We have seen several instances of Muscovies mating, so we've had to explain, yet again, all about the birds and the bees to the kids. It's an ongoing conversation, and we have an Open Door policy where that is concerned, so it's cool. I found it interesting to note that the drake bites the female on the back of the neck while he's mounting her, much like a male shark bites a thickened part of flesh on the back of a female during their dance of looove.

And not to be outdone, this Mama Muscovy sported no less than 20 following ducklings that afternoon. Twenty!!

On Wednesday, the hibiscus turned out to be a beautiful pink rose. And not only that, but:

check out the gorgeous orchids on this tree! Real ones, too, no matter how fake they looked; I checked. We diverted from our usual path that day and walked to the next neighborhood over. I was bored to tears and dying for a change of scenery, after all.

Knitting. I've kept up my pledge to knit for the highly-allergic Vinnie, though I don't have much yarn with me until our stuff gets here on Tuesday from the movers. A little colorwork this time, using an unraveled coat I never finished making for Sophia four years ago, and some yarn of Stephanie's that was used in another project for her boys.

On Thursday, we decided to take the short walk up the road to get some free groceries with coupons I'd gotten. We stopped along the way to peer into the canal, where we spotted turtles, fish - and numerous shopping carts. Who throws a shopping cart into a canal, for Pete's sake?!

I was aMAZED at the Publix, where not only did I get my items for free, but the coupons scanned above the cost of the items, and I got overage. I figured they would just make me buy something additional to eat that up, but no! They totaled it out, opened up the cash drawer, and gave me the money! Hello, ring-a-ding-ding! That's so unusual, and I bet you dollars to donuts it's not the official coupon policy of the store, but arguing was useless with them. So I took it and clicked my heels together with glee. 

Sophia, wearing my straw hat from Miss Lisa, picked up what she called a blade of wheat and said, "Look, Mama, I'm a cowgirl!" Oh, the cute.

On our way back home, we spotted these palm trees full of coconuts. Except, on closer inspection, they weren't coconuts at all, I guess. I don't know what the hell they are, but ... palm fruit, I guess?

So this was my haul: A $6.59 bag of organic sugar, a $5.99 bottle of organic raw blue agave, two Michael Angelo's family-size meals, and a large Diet Coke from the deli - all of which, they paid me over a dollar to take home. Nice, huh?

I'm part of Michael Angelo's team of taste-and-tell bloggers, so they provided me with the coupons for the free products to try. We got the chicken parmesan and the vegetable lasagna, both of wish were SOOOO good. I kid you not. Have you had their frozen foods? I would definitely buy these again, but you know me, they gotta be on sale and have a coupon to match! ;)

One of Chloë's agents back in Virginia called Thursday to say they wanted to submit her for a lead role in a TV show! They said she was perfect for the part, and you know, I may be biased but, I wouldn't doubt it! The kid has charm and personality to spare. Look at that sass!

And she looks so much like her daddy, it's nonsense. Fingers crossed, Chloë!!

Friday was not my day. It was payday, yet my card kept getting declined every where I went. Turns out there was fraud on our account... I had to cancel about a dozen mystery shops for the weekend, along with a host of other plans. Big bummer. We had to hang around the 'hood even more. Here's silly Sophia dressing up as both her mom and her dad, simultaneously.

For the first time in January, while he was visiting my dad, Jack had a grapefruit. Surprisingly enough, my picky boy LOVED it with a heavy dose of sweetening, so he kept prodding his sisters to try one, too. (Neither Rob nor I are big fans of the fruit.)  So when we grocery shopped Friday morning - after, of course, having to call the bank yet again to release the hold on my card so I could pay for mah dang groceries - I bought them each one to try. What would they think? I wondered.

That was Sophia's reaction to her first bite. Ha! She cracks me up. So went Chloë's first bite, too. Needless to say, the grapefruit is now wrapped in Saran wrap in the fridge, since Jack only wanted a few bites. And yes, I sweeted it with that better-than-free organic sugar ;)

Meanwhile, on Saturday night after Rob made us omelets for dinner, Jacky helped out with the dishes. Since he is a Little Person, he needs to jump up on the counter in order to reach the faucet. I'm so proud of this kid; nothing holds him back from doing what he aims to do, despite his small stature!

And finally, since we're still more-or-less homebound, here is one last shot of "The Tweens," Cupcake and Muffin, acting as bookends over the kitchen sink. Pretty girls, they.

As always, thanks for stopping by! See you again real soon, y'hear?

Fin.

Fun Family Splurging - On The Cheap

I've been doing a lot of mystery shops again lately, so we have been out and about as a family frequently. On Thursday, I had stacked about seven shops back-to-back, and I did not relish the idea of going back home, tired and worn out, to a messy, half-packed, midst-of-moving house. So I broached the idea of getting a hotel room for the night to Rob, and he was all in! So I went on the Hotels.com app on my iPhone and booked us a room at The Aloft in Chesapeake for a heavily discounted price.

We had actually never heard of The Aloft, so we had no idea what to expect, but all five of us were delighted and impressed! It was a really neat hotel, with great service (say hi to Justin for us if you go - the night clerk at the Front Desk) and awesome details. We liked it so much, and the off-season rate was so great, we ended up staying for two nights!

While I rested, and then worked on mystery shop reports, Rob took the kids to the hotel pool two or three times. Sophia is swimming like a little fishy now - okay, like a puppy, since she still doggy-paddles for the most part - and does wonderfully in the water.

Meanwhile, even Jack has finally decided to start swimming! Yay, Buddy! He can't go too far, or for too long, but it's a start. On the other hand, Chloë is still quite timid in the water and barely manages to jump in from the side... but I know she'll get there.

On the second night, I stopped by the bar to get drinks for Rob and me. However, the bartender (hey, Lisa!) was closing, so I got him a bottle of beer to go and ordered this Bahama Mama for myself. It was delish. And strong. I got so plastered by the third sip! Thankfully alcohol hits me hard and fast, and gets processed by my new system just as quickly, so it had worn off almost by the time I got back to our loft and needed to work on reports!

After my buzz wore off, I was quite thirsty, so I asked "my favorite child" to get my Coke out of the fridge. Naturally, all three of them decided they were that child (and they were right!), so they went, giggling, together to the fridge and fetched it, delivered it, and presented it with smiles as a team. Love my funny gang! ♥

On Saturday morning, before we had breakfast and checked out, I went to the pool to see the latest swimming exploits and knit (and, okay, snooze some more) while the kids swam with Rob. I loved the atmosphere in there... definitely want to return to another The Aloft in the future. Sometime.

On Monday, Steph and Tim babysat for us while we went out for a date/mystery shop at a restaurant bar. We went to the Walmart around the corner from the restaurant afterward, ostensibly to pick up a load of cat food, but we were looking around and came across a whole bunch of super-duper clearanced toys that we knew the kids would love. When we went to pick them up from Stim, we left their new toys in their car seats and let them discover them upon returning to the van. What joy! What glee! What fun! Here is Sophia's newly updated Lalaloopsy collection, with April Showers (the newest one) in the center.

On Tuesday, en route to lots more shops and other errands, we all found ourselves very hungry for dinner. So, we took advantage of the Kids Eat Free special that day at Chili's and had a really inexpensive dinner, with Rob and I getting the combo dinner and all three kids eating for nada. The chips and spicy corn guamacole were SO good!!

And yesterday (Wednesday), we had LOADS of fun. While Rob and Jack went to Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach to get Rob a haircut, I took the girls to Sunshine Smiles, A Kids' Spa around the corner. I had given Sophie a gift certificate to spend $20 there (which I'd actually gotten for FREE on LivingSocial!) for Christmas, and it's just taken this long to get time to get her in there. The girls were so hilarious during the visit.

For her money, Sophia was able to get a manicure and make two lip glosses (an experience she shared with her big sis), and the first thing she did after the way-awesome Michelle set her up was soak her nails and hands. She sighed dreamily during this experience. Goof!

Michelle quickly realized that Sophia was going to be quite a little wiggle worm during her mani - as she ALWAYS is, but even more so because she was so excited to be there - and she and I kept bursting into laughter about Sophia's hilarious antics and attempts to stay still. Such a goose. Here, she was having some kid crap (glue, maybe?) removed from her hands.

Sophia happily looked on as Michelle painted her nails a lovely shade of sea blue-green (my favorite color!) that Chloë helped her pick out. Poor Michelle had to touch up her nails about five or six times, because she would NOT STOP MOVING!

I love her cute little pudgy baby hands - the only thing about Soap that's still wee, I'm afraid - and her pretty nails. 

Sophia was dying to lie down on the spa lounges and let her nails dry, so she inveigled her way into that with Michelle after promising not to smudge her nails. She was sooo happy, even if she didn't also get the cucumber slices on her eyes that she also requested!

Chloë chillaxed next to Sophie and did her usual model pose when I asked to take her picture. Always preening for the camera, that one!

Finally, when the nails were sufficiently dry (and after more touch-ups), it was time to go to the lipgloss-making station. They were able to pick their own colors to add to the balm bases and put lots of glitter in there, too. Of course, both of my girly girls wanted to use shades of pink.

Glitter time!  Sophie added the pink and the silver to hers for some major sparkle.

Then, the girls were given sticks to apply their new lipglosses to their puckers. Chloë did a pretty good little job not getting it all over the place.

Sophia, meanwhile, had quite a bit of trouble getting hers just so and not glopping it all over the lower third of her face, so Mama had to step in and help her out after she wiped off the first attempt. It actually looked pretty good on her!

So that was that fun-ness, and all for the cost of just a tip to Michelle! Thanks, Sunshine Smiles!

After that, it was Jack's turn for some fun, since this is his tenth birthday month, and we are celebrating him all month long! I had $20 in gift certificates to Build-A-Bear Workshop, (five for his birthday present and the other $15 from rewards for the Christmas gifts I'd gotten from there), so I instructed Jack on from which three least pricey stuffies he could choose - after all, the goal was to go cheap or go home - and he picked a pooch!

The store employee helped him stuff his dog, and he was sooo excited to fluff him up. He worked that pedal pretty quickly!

The employee then had Jack pick out a heart for his dog, and rub it on his face for smarts, cheek for cute, etc. Jack had a ball doing this and was giggling his little peanut head off! It's so great to see him genuinely smiling, since he's kind of a grump usually!

Next it was time for an air bath to keep the newly fluffed and minted puppy clean. More real smiles from the boy!

After a bath, Puppy needed some new clothes. Jack chose the camouflage outfit, which he seems to be into lately. Like his Dad!

Daddy helped dress the easily-frustrated Jack's dog. The two of them are so cute together and have really been male-bonding a lot lately. I love to see it!

Lastly, it was time to adopt Roger, the dog, into Jack's growing BAB family. He was thrilled, and I peeked in on him a couple times during last night and found him clutching Roger tightly in his sleep.

After that, I had to do some more mystery shopping in the mall, but once again, everyone had gotten hungry. I told the kids we could grab just a little something to eat in the Food Court first, so we headed upstairs to snack on samples (hey, free belly filler) and then pick what we wanted to eat. Jack actually wanted to ride the escalator upstairs, which is unusual because he's terrified of it. And he still balked when he got over there, but then, he did it! He got on and rode up on his own (usually one of us has to carry him)! Yay, Jacky!!

Well, call us pushovers, because when we got to the top of the escalator, Cold Stone Creamery was right there, and Sophie shouted out, "Ice Cream!" Rob and I quickly conferred and decided to have an upside-down meal: dessert at the mall, then dinner later at home. The kids LOVE when we do that, of course!

We only got small (still going for cheap) kid-size ice creams for then, with one mix-in each, but they didn't seem to care. Or notice, I'm not sure which. Ice cream is ice cream, right?

After the kids had their ice creams, I wandered around the Food Court (leaving Rob with the children) to figure out what I wanted to eat. Usually, it only takes a few sample bites to fill me up these days, so I wasn't really expecting to buy anything. However, I came across Cupcake Central - and, lo and behold, it was their Happy Hour Wednesday special! Amazing cupcakes for a buck each! Sweet. (heh, no pun intended) I bought six, because I couldn't bear the thought of having an empty hole in the box. When I walked back with the box, I told the kids they were for later, but I let them have this sneak peek!

However, after a few minutes, Sophie wanted to look at hers up close, so I let her. Isn't she funny?! She kills me. And even though these were supposed to be "for later," the next thing I knew, she had peeled off the wrapper and shoved almost the whole thing in her face at once! I dropped my jaw and then died laughing, which made her laugh and spit cupcake out of her mouth all over the place. Oh, man. I was in total hysterics.  Sophie is just as nutty as I am!

I did my last shop at the mall after that, and then we headed home. Rob fed the kids some mac & cheese for dinner, while I took yet-another much-needed cat nap. 

When I woke up, the kids were getting ready to go to bed. However, Sophia got into her lip gloss again and came jokingly stomping in to the room, blurting out, "Still can't get the hang of it, Mom!" I took one look and begged her to let me take this picture. 

Ahhh... good times, good times... and y'all know I love a great deal!

Fin.

Ain't Nothin' Gonna Break My Stride

I was up late, well, early, to the tune of 0530 this morning, working on my Jafra business for some client meetings and parties I have coming up in the next few weeks, so I fell into bed exhausted just before the sun rose this morning. I slept fitfully for about two hours, tried to get more zzzzzs, and failed, so I gave up and arose to greet the day. Having done my CVS deals, I decided to head out and do the Rite Aid deal shopping that I'd worked on much earlier in the week, so that time wouldn't go to waste.

Okay. There's your backstory.

I walked out the front door to my waiting Penelope, and a man across the street shouted something at me. Cars were going by, so I shouted back, "Me?" and pointed to myself. He shouted again. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" I returned. After a third failure, he started across the street to meet me. I put my things in the van and then turned around to see what was the matter.

"I cut your lawn yesterday," he told me.

Looking around, I noticed our once shin-high grass was now well within city regulations. "Thank you!"

"Yeah. My man here, your neighbor," he said, gesturing next door, "used to cut it." I nodded. "Well, he's in jail now, and I noticed your grass was getting high, so I cut mine and then came over and did yours, too."

{Aside: the jailed neighbor is the one I suspect of stealing mi precioso Nikon DSLR, so I'm not exactly stunned by this news.}

"Thank you!" I again exclaimed, beaming at him. "How much do I owe you?"

The gent, about 65 years old, said, "You don't owe me anything, baby, just keep wearing that pretty smile on your face."

I thanked him profusely, and he left. And you can bet I smiled all the way to Rite Aid.

********

At Rite Aid, things were so up and down, I felt like Otis. (Please, somebody, get that reference!) Half my deals were out of stock, and then, they changed the rewards system around so drastically, I couldn't get the other half as I'd so carefully planned them. I left with only a third of the items I intended to buy. You can bet I'm going to put in a call to corporate to complain about the changes, but I'm still wearing that "pretty smile!"

Have a great day, folks. Remember, there are still good people in the world.

Fin.

Bzz, Bzzzzz: UNREAL™ candy UNJUNKED™

Disclaimer: I received a coupon for a free package of UNREAL™ candy, along with several Buy-One-Get-One pass-along coupons in exchange for sharing my thoughts on the product with anyone I felt like, so here I am. No monetary exchange has taken place. All opinions are, and will always be, my own.

If a picture says a thousand words,... well, okay, this one actually DOES say a few, but they kind of make you sit up and take notice, right? I mean, CANDY? With nothing artificial and no corn syrup or hydrogenated oils? Either I've gotta be joking, or it must taste, well, like crap, right?

WRONG.

Check out their website, where you can learn all sort of interesting information about UNREAL™ candy unjunked™, like, well, I'll let you read their story and the FAQ, if you want (you should!), but we all know what you're most interested in finding out, don't we?

HOW DOES IT TASTE?!!

Dudes. Let me take you through each of the five varieties of unjunked candy currently on the market, and let you decide:

#1: UNREAL8™ Chocolate Caramel Peanut Nougat Bar UNJUNKED™

 

(Oh. I should say that I totally used two of those BOGO coupons so I could buy all five varieties, which worked out perfectly for us, a family of five, to each try one kind.)

We let Daddy go first, because it was his birthday week. Here he is Vanna White-ing his selection of candy #1.  We all watched with anticipation as he opened the wrapper, took a bite, chewed, and ... gosh, he ate some, ya dig it? So what did he think of it?

Woohoo! He likes it, he really likes it! Which, you may not realize, is actually saying a lot, since he's kind of a food snob and tends toward a rather sophisticated palate. Score one big one for UNJUNKED™!

#2: UNREAL77™ Peanut Butter Cups UNJUNKED™

Now comes the real test, folks. I mean, who hasn't had a billion peanut butter cups already, and has an opinion formed about how they should taste?

As the oldest kid, we let Chloë go second, and of course she went straight for the PB cups. She's her mother's girl, after all. She dove in much faster than her father, thank goodness. (He likes to keep us in suspense.)

She didn't even finish her first bite before flashing me the two-thumbs-up signal. I'd say that's a pretty good argument for extreme deliciosity.

#3: UNREAL41™ Candy Coated Chocolates UNJUNKED™

I know what these are. You know what these are. Everybody loves the "real deal," so how does this version stack up?

Don't ask me why Jack got bypassed and Sophia, our youngest, got to go next. I'm sure there was a good reason, but heaven help me if I can remember now what it was! ANYway, she chose the, uh, candy-coated chocolates, being quite the fan of the "regular" sort, so what did she think of these?

Two more thumbs up. UNJUNKED™ is three for three! Not too shabby, eh? And people, we like to eat, okay? If something was yucky, I'd tell ya. So far, though, not yuck. Yum.

#4: UNREAL54™ Candy Coated Chocolates With Peanuts UNJUNKED™

Second verse, same as the first (because "fourth verse, same as the third" just doesn't quite have the same ring to it), except with peanuts this time. We all know and love this guy, too. 'Least I do. But it still wasn't my turn.

Jack got to pick the peanut, um-um-um's ;) and he took the task seriously. Very. See:

What the heck?! Two more very enthusiastic thumbs up? What is going on here? Mind you, I'm sitting behind the camera the whole time, patiently (cough) waiting for my turn, expecting at least one of these dern things to, well, suck! But thumbs were popping up all over the place, and I was quite the surprised one!

So now me, at last. Guys, I am a chocolate FIEND. An aficionado. A huge lovah, if you will. So what did I think of...

#5: UNREAL5™ Chocolate Caramel Nougat Bar UNJUNKED™

Darn. Nougat. I got stuck with the nougat one. I'll say I generally don't like nougat, because I don't know what the heck nougat is. Do you? I mean, c'mon, really, you can't find nougat in anything but certain candy bars that I don't like. So I was totes expecting to be the lone hold-out on the candy-train of love we had goin' on here.

At least I looked kinda cute holding my (ick) nougat (ick) bar. Time for a taste. My answer to the camera finally pointed my way?

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! I pulled a Chloë and shot those thumbs up before I even finished chewing and swallowing my first bite! For real, this stuff is GOOD.

So, I have a confession to make: I didn't share ANY of the pass-along BOGO coupons. No, I sure didn't. I went back to the store and used 'em a couple days later, and we had some more UNREAL™ candy. PIGS, we were. ARE, because if I had more of those coupons, I'd use those, too.

So, to recap this rather lengthy post about better-for-you treats, here's what there is:

... and here's what the five members of Team Odette thought of them:

So what about you? Have you UNJUNKED™ your candy yet? Will you try UNREAL™ candy now that I've told you how freakin' good it is? If you do, let me know, and which ones, 'cause I'm nosy like that. No, really, I want to know if you like it, too, or if we're a bunch of weird healthy-candy-lovin' mutants. 'Kay?

☼

Thanks to BzzAgent and UNREAL™ candy for the yummy yum yums!

Fin.

Weekly Steals & Deals

As always, thanks go to Collin over at Hip2Save for help putting these deals together. I couldn't do it without her awesome blog. Visit this page for more information on the coupon lingo I'm using below, too.

I have been doing the deals weekly since the last time I posted, but I wasn't sure if people cared to read them every week, so I haven't been posting them. Let me know in the comments if you care (or not) one way or the other. However, I haven't been visiting Walgreens, preferring instead to stick with the deals at CVS and Rite Aid. No particular reason, other than I prefer the rewards programs of the latter two stores. Tuesday, I shopped CVS in two transactions and Rite Aid in 5, to maximize my savings. Here they are:

CVS - Transaction #1

I went into this transaction with NO ECBs, having used them on my last transaction the previous week, but I had a CVS gift card with some change on it, as well as two $5 Viggle gift cards.

Purchased in this transaction:

- (2) boxes flavored Cheerios: on sale 2/$5, used $1 Magic Coupon Machine (MCM) SQ plus (2) 50¢ MQs from MyPoints (many of my IP Qs come from there, and I get rewarded for that, so there's my referral link ;)), rec'd $2 ECBs for #2

- (4) Revlon nailpolishes: on sale $4.99 each, used (4) $1 MQs plus $3 MCM SQ, rec'd $12 ECBs for #2

- (2) 72-ct Listerine PocketPaks: on sale $2.99 each, no Qs (Rob really likes these, which is why I bought without a Q), rec'd $4 ECBs for #2

- (2) Right Guard Total Defense 5 deodorants: on sale $2.99 each, used $2/2 MQ, rec'd $2 ECBs for #2

- (2) Nivea for Men Shave Gel: $4.49 each, used (2) $2 MQs BUT DID NOT RECEIVE EXPECTED $3 ECBs b/c I PURCHASED LESS THAN THE REQUIRED $10, so I need to spend another $1.02 to get it. (Might take these back & exchange for the $4.99 items I was supposed to buy but forgot, which will total $9.98 & is close enough to generate the ECBs.)

- (2) Schick Hydro 3 Razor: $8.99 each, used (2) $4 MQs, rec'd $8 ECBs for #2

- (2) Crest 3D White Rinse 32-oz + (2) Crest 3D White Rinse 16-oz: $7.79 each & $5.79 each, respectively; used (2) $5 B1G1 $5 off MQs BUT DID NOT RECEIVE EXPECTED $10 ECBs BECAUSE I PURCHASED WRONG ITEMS & WILL EXCHANGE FOR CREST WHITENING. (OOPS)

{So as you can see, even the pros (haha, I jest) goof up once in a while, and my scenarios will be improved once I make those changes. I'll continue with my actual transactions, though, so it makes sense to all of us.}

TOTAL OOP (after the GCs mentioned above): $51.87, though I will submit for the P&G MIR of $5 on $25' worth of P&G products (Crest); TOTAL VALUE: $111.04

Transaction #2

I went into this transaction with the $28 ECBs received from #1. Generated $0 ECBs in this transaction for next week. Purchased:

- (2) Colgate Baking Soda & Peroxide Whitening toothpastes, 6.4-oz: on sale 2/$2.69, used (2) $1 MQs

- (3) 2L Mt Dew bottles: 88¢ each, no Qs (for Rob; can never find Diet, dang it!)

- (4) Renuzit Adjustable air fresheners: on sale 88¢ each, used 50¢/3 and 55¢/1 MQs

- (4) BumbleBee Chunk White Tuna 5-oz cans: on sale $1 each, used (2) $1/2 MQs from Recyclebank rewards

- (4) Scotch clear packing tape rolls (I go thru a TON of pkg tape!!): on sale B1G1 50% OFF, so (2) were $3.79 and (2) were $1.89, used (4) 50¢ MQs

-(2) 3M (Scotch) Magic "Greener" Tape, $6.79 and $3.69, WHICH APPARENTLY WASN'T PART OF THE B1G1/50% DEAL, SO I'LL EXCHANGE FOR REGULAR; used (2) 50¢ MQs

- (4) Caliber Notebooks: on sale B1G1 50% BUT WERE INCORRECTLY RUNG UP, SO YET ANOTHER THING I NEED TO GO FIX (sigh), so they came out to be: $5.79/$2.89 and $4.79/$2.39, used $3/$15 MCM SQ

Again, going by actual instead of woulda-shoulda:

TOTAL OOP: $13.87; TOTAL VALUE: $75.48

* I may come back and update this post after I fix the two transactions; we'll see if I'm up for it ;) *

 ********

Rite Aid - Transaction #1

I went into this transaction with $61 (!!) +UPs from last week. Purchased:

 - (2) Arm & Hammer deodorants: on sale $2.99, paid $2.87 with my Gold-Tier 20% discount off the regular price of $3.59; rec'd (2) $2 +UPs for #2

- MagniLife Restless Leg Cream: Reg. $14.99, on sale for $11; used $2 SQ, rec'd $11 +UPs ($2 moneymaker!) for #2

- Conair 2-in-1 Style-as-you-dry curling iron: Reg. $17.99, on sale $16.99, paid $14.39 with my 20% off; used $10 SQ, rec'd $7 +UPs ($2.61 moneymaker!) for #2

- Arm & Hammer Kid's Spinbrush MyWay toothbrush: Reg. $7.49, sale $6.99, paid $5.99; used $2 MQ, rec'd $2 +UP for #2 (and made Chloë VERY happy!)

- (2) Revlon Quick Dry nail products (base & top coats): Reg. $5.75, paid $4.60; & (2) Revlon nailpolish: Reg. $4.99, sale $3.99: rec'd $3 +UP for #2 plus will get a $2 and a $4 SCR!

- (8) Wet 'n' Wild eye pencils: Reg. 99¢, paid 69¢ each, rec'd $2 +UP for #2

- (2) Lichi Meal Replacement 16-oz canisters: Reg. $9.99, paid $7.99 with 20% discount; rec'd $20 +UP ($4.02 moneymaker!) for #2

TOTAL OOP: $3.14 - $6 SCRs = -$2.86 NET; TOTAL VALUE: $99.37!

Transaction #2

I came into this transaction with $50 in +UPs from #1 (except $3 from last week, which I didn't use on #1). Purchased:

- Gillette Mach 3 Razor: Reg. $9.99, sale $8.99, paid $7.99; used $3 MQ and rec'd $4 +UPs for #3

- (7) I Love... skin & bath collection products: Reg. $7.99, sale $6.00 each; rec'd (4) $5 +UPs for #3 ($10) and next week that I didn't need today ($10)

- Arm & Hammer Kid's Spinbrush MyWay toothbrush: Reg. $7.49, sale $6.99, paid $5.99; used $2 MQ, rec'd $2 +UP for #3 (and made Sophia VERY happy!)

TOTAL OOP: $3.78; TOTAL VALUE: $76.21!

Transaction #3

I had $16 +UPs from #2 for this transaction. Purchased:

- (2) Futuro Restoring Dress Socks for Men: Reg $14.99, sale B1G1 50% off; used (2) $3 MQs, rec'd $10 +UP for #4

TOTAL OOP: $1.60; TOTAL VALUE: $31.10!

Transaction #4

I went into this transaction with $10 +UPs from #3. Purchased:

- (4) Trolli Sour Brite Crawlers: Reg $1.79, sale 99¢ each; used (2) $1/2 MQs

- (2) Haribo Godld gummi bears: Reg. $1.69, on sale 99¢ each; used (2) 30¢ MQs

- (2) Nair Precision Face & Upper Lip Kits: Reg. 6.99, sale $3.49; used $3/2 MQ, rec'd $2 +UP for #5

- (2) Nair Cucumber Melon Body/Leg lotion: Reg. $7.29, sale $3.64; used $3/2 MQ, rec'd $2 +UP for next week

- Children's Benadryl Allergy Relief 4-oz: Reg $7.49, on sale $5.99; used $1 MQ, rec'd $2 +UP for next week

TOTAL OOP: $3.45; TOTAL VALUE: $47.45!

Transaction #5

I came into this transaction with $2 +UPs (plus more for next week). Purchased:

- (2) Hershey's Simple Pleasures chocolates: Reg. $4.49, on sale $2.99; used (2) $2 MQ and $1/2 SQ

- (2) Samy Fat Foam haircolour: Reg. $9.99, sale $8.99, paid $7.99 w/ my 20% discount; used (2) $5 MQs and (2) $6 SQs ($6.02 moneymaker!!)

- Revlon Nude ColorStay Whipped Creme Foundation: Reg. $13.99, sale $9.99; used $2 MQ and $2 SQ and will receive $2 SCR

- (2) Cella Chocolate Cherry candy: Reg. 33¢, paid 26¢ with my 20% discount

TOTAL OOP: $1.67 - $2 SCR = -33¢ (!), TOTAL VALUE: $44.74!

********

So while I did okay at CVS, I think the clear winner here was Rite Aid! With the five transactions, my total OOP was: $13.64, total value was: $298.87, PLUS I'll get back $8 in SCR and came away with $14 in +UPs for next week.

NET: They paid me $8.36 to buy almost $300 worth of quality merchandise!

Dudes. I call that a WIN. ☺

Happy shopping! How'd you do this week?

Fin.

Some Great Deals To Pass Along To You...

Spacial.com has been a leading source of audio software technology since 1999:

 

 SG Identity: Fully Managed Identity Theft Restoration & ID Monitoring for 50% off the normal price of $60:

SG Backup: Secure Online Computer Data Backup for all computers in the household for $30:

And finally: Receive up to $50 of personalized Pexagon Technology products for $25!

Fin.

Weekly Steals and Deals

You know why I haven't posted one of these in ages? Because I haven't gone deal-shopping in ages. Between the move that never ends, not feeling well, out-of-whack finances and so forth, I just haven't kept up with it. I finally got my coupons in order on Monday, and I was about seven weeks behind! Yikes. Now, remember, those of you who want to find fault with what I buy: these are the DEALS. Not all of the food here will go in our (kids') bellies, nor is everything that does go in their tummies shown here. As for the rest, if we can't use it ourselves, because, say, it conflicts with my Jafra business, for instance, I use it for donations to Samaritan House and other charities. Ya dig?

As always, thanks to Collin at Hip2Save for helping me put together my deals! (Refer to her site, also, for the coupon - or 'Q' - lingo I use below.) I shopped Rite Aid, CVS, and Target (x2) in that order, not finding anything too impressive to warrant a Walgreens visit. Here's how I did this week:

Rite Aid

PURCHASED:

• (2) Revlon Designer Tweezers: $6.00 each, minus BOGO 50% off sale, minus (2) $1 MQ, minus $2 SQ, minus $2 SCR, minus $4 +UPs = $1 MM!!
• 0.75-oz Super Poligrip Denture Adhesive Cream: $1.99 minus $1.99 SCR = FREE!
• (2) Crest ProHealth Clinical Toothpaste 4-oz w/ BONUS Rinse sample: $3 each, minus (2) 75-cent MQs, minus (2) $3 +UPs = $1.50 MM!
• (2) Pantene shampoos & (2) Pantene conditioners: 2/$7 each, minus (2) $3/2 MQs, minus (2) $2 +UPs = $1 x 4!
• (2) Venus + Olay razors: $9.99 each, minus my gold status 20% off, minus (2) $4 MQ, minus (2) $4 +UPs = FREE x2!
• (4) Head & Shoulders shampoos: $4.99 ea., minus (2) BOGO MQs, minus $2 +UPs = $2 x4 (not stellar, but Rob needs these)
• (2) Bayer 100-ct tabs + (2) Bayer 50-ct tabs: $6.99 + $3.49 (BOGO 50% off) + $5.49 + $2.74 (BOGO 50% off), minus (4) $3 MQs, minus $5 +UPs = $1.03 MM!
• Aquafresh Extreme Clean Whitening 5.6-oz toothpaste: $1.99 minus $1 SQ, minus 50-cent MQ = 50 cents!
• (2) Biotene Mouth Rinse 16-oz: $4.49 ea., minus (2) $1 MQ, minus $3/2 SQ = $1.99 each
• (2) Crest Rinse 1-L w/ bonus toothpaste: $5 each, + (2) Crest Rinse 500-mL: $4.23, minus (2) BOGO MQs, minus (2) $3 +UPs = $1 x4!
• (2) K-Y Yours + Mine: $20.99 each, minus BOGO 50% off, minus (2) $7 MQs, minus $10 +UPs = $3.74 x2!
• (2) Oral-B 3D White Action toothbrushes: $3 ea., minus (2) $1 MQs, minus $5 +UPs = $1 MM!
• (2) Futuro Compression Stockings: $18.49 ea., minus BOGO 50% off, minus (2) $3 MQ, minus $10 +UPs = $5.87 x2!
• 3.5-oz Lanacane Spray: $5 - $5 +UPs = FREE!

TOTALS: Value = $291.13; OOP = $126.47; SCRs = $3.99; +UPs = $65; NET: $57.48 for almost $300 worth of merchandise!

CVS

•  

PURCHASED:

• • (4) Halls Warm-Ups Mocha Mint Drops: 49-cents ea., minus (2) $1/2 MQ = FREE x4!
  • (2) Carmex Lip Balms: $1.67 ea., minus (2) 75-ct MQs = 92 cts X2!
  •  (3) Dawn dish liquids: 99-ct ea, + (3) Puffs Plus tissues: 88-ct ea., minus (3) 50c MQs, minus 25c/3 MQ - $1/5 SQ = 48-ct x6!
  • (4) Olay facial cleansers: $3.74 ea. + (4) Olay body wash: $5.99 ea. - (4) B1 cleanser G1 body wash FREE MQs - $3/15 SQ - $5 ECB - $10 Olay MIR = $3.04 MM!
  • (4) Kellogg's Raisin Bran + (2) Froot Loops + (2) Apple Jacks: 3/$6 - (4) $1/2 MQ - $5 ECB = 88ct x8!
  • (2) Hellmann's Mayo: 2/$7, + Lipton Tea Bags 100-ct: $3, minus (2) $1 MQ, minus $3 ECB = $1.67 each!
  • (3) Suave deodorants: $1 ea, + (2) Suave bodywash: $2 ea, + (2) Suave shampoo & conditioner: $1.75 ea., minus (3) 75ct MQs - $4 ECB = 61 cts each!
  • Bengay 2-oz cream: $5.99 - $2 MQ - $3 ECB = 99 cts!
  • (9) Cadbury chocolate bars: $2.19 ea, minus B2G1 FREE, + Almond Joy & Reese's Fun Packs: 2/$1.98, minus $5 ECB = 92 cts x11!
  • (2) Kellogg's Frosted Flakes: $1.99 ea, minus (2) 70-ct MQs = $1.29 x2!
  • (4) small packs Nabisco cookies: 3/$4, minus (2) $1/2 MQ = 83 ct x4!
  • (4) Carefree liners 20-22ct: 99c ea., minus (4) 50-ct MQs = 49 cts x4!
  • (2) NatureMade Magnesium 250-mg 90ct: $9.49 each mi

TOTALS: Value = $231.44; OOP = $80.09; MIRs = $10; ECBs = $21; NET: $49.09 for over $230' worth of merchandise!

Target - Transaction #1

PURCHASED:

• (5) Kellogg's Nutri-Grain bars: $2.54 each - $1/3 SQ - (2) $1/2 MQ --> $5  GC for #2
• (5) Kellogg's Fruit Snacks: $1.99 each -->$5 GC for #2
• (4) Kellogg's Rice Krispies: $2.55 ea. + (1) Kellogg's Fruit Snacks: $1.99, minus $1/3 SQ, minus (2) $1/2 MQ --> $5 GC for #2
• (2) Gillette Venus + Olay razors: $8.99 ea., minus (2) $4 MQ --> $5 GC for #2
• (4) Old Spice deodorants: $3.99 ea., minus (2) $2/2 MQ --> $5 GC for #2
• (4) Olay Body Wash: $5 ea, minus (2) $3/2 MQs --> $5 GC for #2

= $30 in GCs for #2!

Target - Transaction #2

PURCHASED:

* (2) Comet Stainless Steel Powder Cleanser: $1.99 minus $1 SQ minus $1 MQ = FREE x2! (except I forgot one and have to go back for it, oops)

* (4) Merona & Mossimo tanks & tees: $6 ea, minus (4) $3 SQ = $3 x4!

* Market Pantry Fruit Snacks: $1.69 - $1 SQ  = 69 cents!

* (2) gal 2% milk: $3.09 ea. (no deals, we just needed some ;))

*(10) 6-oz Chobani Greek yogurts: $1 ea., minus (10) 30-ct MQs = 70ct x10!

*(2) Chobani Champions 4-pks: $2.50 ea. minus (2) $1 MQ, minus (2) $1 SQ = 50ct x2!

* Philadelphia Indulgence Creme tubs: $2.49 ea., minus (2) 75ct MQ = $1.74 ea (not the original deal, so I had to improvise - and they are tasty! Gonna make something yummy with them, watch)

* Aquafresh Advanced toothpaste: $1.89 - $1 SQ - $1 MQ = 11ct MM!

* USA Write Dudes Gold Wood #2 pencils: $1 - $1 MQ = FREE!

* PaperMate Eagle Ballpoint Pens: 94ct, minus $1 MQ = 6ct MM!

* (6) Bic Pens: 99cts, minus (3) $1/2 MQ = 49 cts x6!

* (3) RoseArt watercolor paint kits: 97 cts ea, minus $1/3 MQ = 64 cts each!

* (3) 2-L Coke products: $1.25 ea, minus $1/3 SQ = 92 cts x3!

TOTALS (btwn #1 & #2): $221.63 value; $82.08 OOP after MQs, SQs, ShopKick rewards, GCs from #1... and will submit for another $10 Olay MIR, too!

*********

Not bad, overall! I could do better, but since I haven't done my deals in so long, I didn't have rewards stocked up. Now I do and will go regularly again.

Hope this helps some couponing n00bs out there!

Fin.

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday IV: Tasty Tapas And Tempting Treats

If you're ever in Virginia Beach, check out Central 111 Tapas off Great Neck Blvd - it's got a sophisticated vibe, yet children are welcome. And so are Restaurant.com certificates!

Cosmos were, like, ridiculously cheap since we were there at Happy Hour. Um, I had two.

We've ordered the Tuna Tartar before; it's always delicious and never disappoints.

Likewise, the Spring Rolls are exceptional.

Jack is ALL about wings lately, so we ordered a small plate (duh) for him. For the girls, we ordered their usual cheeses platter, with crackers and fruit, but I didn't photo that for some reason.

After tapas, as usual, everyone was still hungry. I decided to use the BOGO Cold Stone Creamery coupons I've been holding onto for lo, these past eight years, and spoil the kids some more. They were, shall we say, thrilled?

Fin.

This Week's Drugstore Steals & Deals

So it's lame; I just made it on the fly a minute ago until I can come up with something better for this feature. 

I'm going to consolidate the trips as concisely as possible to make sense for you, since I had to visit each of them at least twice, if not three times, to get things corrected that weren't rung up properly or were (gasp!) my mistake. As always, big thanks to Collin over at Hip2Save for helping me put together my deals. (Visit her site for an explanation of he coupon lingo I'm using as well, if you're confused.) So let's go!

Walgreens

Two trips; four transactions (five if you count the return I had to make to re-buy the items in the bottom pic at the right prices with Qs). Details:

1. Not shown: Photo collage and 8x10 enlargement, for mi amiguita Saritah of her and her sons' baptisms yesterday, which I'll blog about later... Both FREE, for a total savings of $6.98.

2. (2) boxes Kellogg's Rice Krispies, on sale 2/$5, minus $1/2 MQ = $4.13 OOP. $6.58 Wag & Q savings. Earned $2 RR.

3. (2) boxes Rice Krispies, sale 2/$5, minus $1/2 MQ;

(2) Colgate MaxFresh 6-oz Toothpastes, sale 2/$5, minus (2) $1 MQs;

(2) Lady Speedstick deodorants, $4.29 each, on sale BOGO, minus (2) $1 MQs; and,

(1) 24-ct Zantac 150, on sale $7.99, minus $2 SQ and (2) $2 RR Qs from two weeks ago.

OOP: $13.87; $25.65 Wag & Q savings; earned $5 RRs.

4. RETURN: Zantac & Lady Speedstick deodorants, for $17.00, despite my protests that it should be less because of the Qs I used. Lucky me!

5. Repurchase of Zantac, on sale $7.99, minus $5 MQ and $2 SQ, and

(2) Men's Speedstick deodorants, $3.79 each, on sale BOGO, minus (2) $2 RR Qs from (2) and (3).

OOP: 97¢; $18.79 Wag & Q savings.

OVERALL: $1.97 OOP, $58 savings, and $3 RRs for next time. NET: $1.03 moneymaker on the above items!

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

CVS

Two trips; two transactions. Details:

(2) bags (12.6-oz & 9.9-oz) m&ms, on sale 2/$6, minus $1.50/2 MQ, earned $2 ECB;

(3) 12-packs Coke + (1) 12-pack Sprite, on sale 4/$10;

(3) L'Oréal Studio Style hair products, on sale 3/$9 + (2) L'Oréal EverSleek shampoo & conditioner, on sale 2/$12 + (1) L'Oréal Go 360 facial scrub, $4.39, minus (2) 75¢ MQs, minus (2) $2 MQs, minus $1 MQ, earned $10 ECB;

(3) Reese's + (1) Hershey's Easter candy bags, on sale 4/$10, minus $2/3 MQ, minus $2/$10 SQ, earned $2 ECB;

(4) Purina Beggin' Strips dog treats + (4) Beneful Baked Delights dog treats, on sale 2/$6, minus (2) BOGO MQs, minus (2) $1/2 MQs, earned $5 ECBs (I get these for my therapy dog, Mojo, whom I love to smithereens!);

(3) 20-oz Diet Coke bottles, on sale $1.50 when 2+ are purchased, minus (3) coupons from My Coke Rewards for FREE 20-oz bottles, which the cashier took off the non-sale price of $1.67 for...;

(1) Complete Multi-Purpose Contact Lens solution (which I need since I just got new contacts today!), on sale $8.99, earned $8.99 ECBs;

(2) 3-ct Thermacare Neck & Shoulder Heat Wraps, on sale $5.99 each, minus (2) $3 MQs, earned $5 ECBs;

(1) 3-ct Small/Med Depend Sillhouettes, on sale $3.99, minus $2 MQ, earned $2 ECBs;

(2) 9-oz Dawn + Olay Hand Renewal dish liquid soaps, on sale 99¢ each + (2) 8-pk Bounty Basic paper towels, on sale $6.49 each + (2) 9-pk Charmin Basic UltraSoft, on sale $5.99 each + 60-ct Always pantiliners, on sale $4.39, minus (2) 50¢ MQs, minus (5) $1 MQs = (2) FREE boxes Cheerios cereals;

(1) Revlon Quad EyeShadow "Seduction," $7.29 + (1) Revlon 10-ct emory boards, $3.37 (Not rung up, which I discovered later, but they told me not to worry about it when I brought it to their attention today, so FREE for me :\ ) + (3) Revlon Nail Clipper Deluxe, $2.87 each, minus $2 MQ, minus (3) $1 MQs, earned $7 ECBs;

(3) Kellogg's Special K cereals, on sale 2/$5, minus $1/3 MQ, earned $4 ECBs;

(1) CVS Green Bag Tag, 99¢, minus 99¢ SQ;

(1) 60-ct CVS Sheer bandages, $2.37, minus $3 SQ;

(25) 4x6" photo prints, $7.25, minus $7.25 SQ;

also used $10 ECB, (6) $5 ECBs, $7.50 ECB, (3) $5 Viggle (the awesome TV-watching app) gift certificates, $5 Gift Card from meeting the pharmacist, and $10 Gift Card from MyPoints.com.

OVERALL: $29.39 OOP, $156.21 in CVS and Q savings, and earned $45.99 in ECBs. NET: They paid me $16.60 to take home all of the above. WOOT!!!

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Rite Aid

Two trips, two transactions. Details:

(2) 14-lb Arm & Hammer kitty litter, on sale $4.99 each, earned (2) $1 +UPs;

(6) 9-oz Dawn dish liquid soaps, on sale 99¢, minus (6) 50¢ MQs;

(2) 80-ct Dentyne Ice gum + (2) 80-ct Trident White gum, on sale $2.99 each, minus (4) $1 MQs, earned (4) $1 +UPs;

(2) 5-oz Haribo Gold Gummy Bears bags, on sale 99¢ each, minus (2) 30¢ MQs;

(4) Hershey's Pot of Gold boxes of chocolate (three of which I gave to Jenny from The Block, Saritah, & The Other Melanie, my "Turtle" friends, today for a little pressie), on sale $3.99 each, earned (4) $2 +UPs;

(2) 16-oz Gillette Men's Bodywash + (1) bonus deodorant on one, on sale $3.99 each, minus (2) $1 MQs, earned (2) $2 +UPs;

(1) 36-ct double-pack Scunci Hair Elastics, on sale $1.99, earned $2 +UP;

(1) K-Y Intrigue Personal Lubricant + (1) K-Y Yours + Mine (yeah baby, you know it, I said it), $20.99 each, minus $2.10 for being at "gold" level Wellness Rewards, minus (2) $5 MQs, earned (2) $7 +UPs;

(2) 25-ct Halls Defense cough drops, on sale $1.50 each, minus $1/2 MQ, minus 50¢ SQ, earned $1 +UP;

(2) 50-ct One-A-Day VitaCraves Fruity Gummy Vitamins, on sale 2/$18, minus (2) $2 MQs, minus $1 SQ, earned $5 +UPs;

(2) Rite Aid Weekly Pill Reminder containers, reg $2.99 each, on sale B1G1 50% off, very much needed!;

(4) 50-ct Mentos Curvy Bottle gum, on sale 2/$4, minus (2) $1/2 MQs, earned (2) $1 +UPs;

(1) 20-oz Pepsi Next, on sale 99¢, minus 99¢ SQ;

 also used $22 in +UPs from last time.

OVERALL: $63.20 OOP; $135.23 in RA & Q savings; earned $51 +UPs. NET: $12.20 OOP for all of the above! Not bad!

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Stay tuned for Target deals coming up later this week!

Fin.

CVS Steals & Deals 3.4.12

WOW! Thanks to the help I got from, as usual, Collin over at Hip2Save in putting my deals together, I had an awesome trip to CVS tonight! I haven't posted my deals in a while - just too busy - but I thought I'd share this week since I need to stay up for a while anyway. I'll do the rest of the deals after we shop tomorrow.

I did the CVS deals in two transactions. Here's the breakdown:

Transaction #1:

(Sorry for my messy office; it's kind of in flux right now!) Anyway, going into this transaction, I had $40.79 in ECBs from last week's deals, another $5 ECB printed at the Magic Coupon Machine (MCM) for meeting the Beauty Club $50 limit, and I had another two $5 gift card rewards from the Viggle app (love that!). I also had a gift card, but I forgot about it, so I have it for next time... ah, well.

Deals:

*Two bags of Purina ONE cat food for $8.49 each, with two $1 MQs, PLUS 10 cans of Purina Friskies cat food on sale 10/$4.50 = $21.48 (minus the $2 Qs) -> this SHOULD have generated a $5 ECB for next time, but it didn't, so I have to call and have that added to my loyalty card. ( I just noticed, or I would've had it printed at the store.)

*14 packs of CVS Toddler Wipes @ $1.49 each + 4 packs of CVS Soft Cloths Supreme @ $2.67 each = $31.54 OOP -> this generated $10 ECB for next time, for spending $15 x 2 in CVS products

*Two individual Snickers Eggs @ 50¢ each, minus (yet another) 25¢ SQ that printed from the MCM = 2 x 38¢

*One bag of Gold Emblem 7-oz jelly beans @ 99¢ -> generated 99¢ ECB for next time

*One 24-ct Zantac 150 @ $7.99, minus $5 MQ -> generated $2 ECB for next time

*Four Febreze Noticeables Refills @ $5.79 each, minus B3G1 FREE sale, PLUS four Febreze Noticeables Warmers @ $3.59 each, minus four Buy Refill Get Warmer FREE MQs 

*Two Colgate 3-ct Value Pack @ $4.79 each -> did NOT generate $3 ECB each, but they should have per the ad description, so I argued the point and got my awesome cashier to print them out for next time =)

TOTAL OOP after all sales, MQs, ECBs, etc. = $7.88, with $18.99 ECB generated (and another $5 missing)!

Transaction #2:

 

Deals:

*Two 64-oz Welch's Cherry blend juices @ $4.79 each, minus B1G1 FREE sale & two $1 MQs = $1.40 each

*One "convenience pack" Oreo Double Stuf @ $1.50, minus $1.50 SQ from the MCM = FREE

*Two Olay facial cleansing wipes packs @ $3.99 each, minus $3/2 MQ, PLUS two Olay Body Wash @ $6.99 each, minus two B1 cleanser G1 body wash FREE MQs that somehow each took off $9.49 without beepage (!!!) = 2¢ moneymaker! AND -> generated $2 ECB for next time, AND I'm going to put this $21.96 toward the $15/$50 P&G Mail-in Rebate! Sweet deal!!

*Three Kashi GoLean bars @ $1.77 each, minus B2G1 FREE sale, minus $1 MQ = 85¢ each

After sales, MQs & SQs, and $5.99 ECB from Trans #1, my OOP was 53¢!

*****

Total OOP: $8.41, I still have $15 in ECB for next time (plus the $5 I have coming to me) and the forgotten CVS gift card, with a good chunk toward my PG MIR... and $159.13 in savings.

Best part? I checked out from 11:40-11:55 PM (gotta love a 24-hr CVS), originally did everything in one transaction and realized I didn't have enough $$ on me to cover it when she totalled my order, and we had to split it into the above two transactions so I could use ECB from #1 for #2... and my cashier was sweet as pie, didn't give me crap about it, and thought it was awesome I saved so much money.

Yeah. I love CVS.

Fin.

Keekoo.com - Join Now If You're A Mom OR About To Become One! :)

As you may have heard, keekoo.com has recently gone live with new member signups, and

Check it out - I'm excited to find out what's going to be offered! Aren't you?!

their amazing members‐only sales events will begin in mid‐March! Click my link above to get $10 credit when you join, and when the sales are live in March, you'll have access to up to 90% off on great deals for pregnant and new moms and their babies and children.

Fin.

Weekly Steals And Deals, Part One

So we're down to our last pennies until payday, and we have enough food and gas to get by, but what about my deals? I ended up selling a gift card I'd received on eBay in a matter of hours, so I had right about $16-17 to play with. It's with that money ONLY that I was able to snag the following goods. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. Wait, did you? Anyway.

CVS

I was able to score all this:

• 3 boxes of Cheerios
• 2 120-ct pkgs of Sweet 'n Low
• 4 boxes Quaker oatmeal packets (my kids LOVE these for breakfast in the morning!
• 2 canisters Quick Oats
• Revitalens
• 4 360º Pro-Sensitive Colgate Toothbrushes
• 4 boxes Colgate Total toothpaste
• 6 Suave deodorants
• 4 cans Progressive hearty soups
• 2 cabs Bumblebee white albacore tuna
• 5 32-oz bottles Gatorade
• 4 Suave Professional styling products, and
• 3 cans Glade room spray

for a total OOP of $17.81, which pretty much ate up my entire Paypal balance. However, I saved $118.05 among sales, Extra Bucks, and coupons, and I came out ahead between the $3 Extra Bucks I received on the last of three transactions and the $10 mail-in rebates I'm going to receive. Okay, so maybe not quite ahead, now that I do the math: my net total for all of the above is therefore $4.81. Not too shabby, considering each of those toothpastes alone retails for $5.49, right?! I'll be selling more on eBay this week, to fund my deals, so stay tuned for that if you give a rat's patootie. :P

Walgreens

Now here was where I had to get really creative, since I literally had about 30¢ or less to spend OOP. I managed to get all this:

• (16) Valentine's gift sacks
• (4) Children's Sudafed PE Cold & Cough
• (3) Disney coloring/activity books
• (3) Cepacol Sore Throat lozenges 16 ct, and
• (2) Mucinex Moisture-Smart Nasal Sprays


for a total of - wait for it - 25¢ OOP! With sales, coupons, and Register Rewards, I saved a whopping $77.22 and paid a quarter! Not bad, eh? I didn't end up with any RRs for the remainder of the deals I have to do at Wags (and there are lots), so I better get eBaying if I want to snag some more steals!

Target

Oh, so technically I didn't do any deal shopping at Target, but I did manage to get some money back on things that had rung up wrong at the register, so that'll help me score more deals, yes? Also, I wanted to mention that if you haven't signed up for SavingStar yet, you should do that as a couponer, because you can easily activate online savings and cash out for rewards. That's not a referral link; I don't get anything if you join except the joy of helping you save. You can cash out for $5 Amazon.com gift cards after reaching $5 savings, for example - I just did that last week.

The catch is, you have to register your stores' loyalty cards to make sure that you get the credit, and since Target isn't one of those stars, I had to make a return here tonight that I had bought mistakenly thinking I'd get credit for it. Duh! So I'm going to make that same purchae (InStyle magazine, which will make it free after $2 MQ and $2 Savingstar) at Rite Aid, since CVS seems to be out all the time... Anyway, blah blah blah. Take home message: Sign up for SavingStar, AND always check your receipts at least when you get home, if not right there at the store or in your car, because they DO make mistakes, and usually not in your favor. M'kay? 

(Another couponing tip: instead of going to Coupons.com to print out your coupons, do it from MyPoints.com or Swagbucks.com to get extra bonus points for printing and redeeming the exact same coupons you'll find at the former site. I get lots of MyPoints for that! Though I'm thinking of switching to SB for my internet printables...)

Farm Fresh

It may be silly to post this one little thing, but I just wanted to point out for you local shoppers that you can sign up for emails from Farm Fresh and go to their Facebook page to print out coupons, often for free products. Thanks to Collin's posting on Hip2Save, I found out that latter bit recently, and I snagged a coupon for this free bag of Fresh Express salad just in time (they have short half-lives, so be quick) to have myself a yummy dinner tonight! (Salad is one of those weird things I can eat a lot of; strange, because I wouldn't think of it as what we in the gastric bypass world call "slider foods.") Anyway, free salad - and it was right next to Target, so gas savings, too. Score!

More deals coming later in the week.... stay tuned. :D

Fin.

Friday Fragments

Hey, y'all, link up with Mrs. 4444s if you're fragmenting today!

☼

My husband texted the following to me, but he didn't ID which kid said it, so I can't give proper credit (my Mommy senses tell me it was 6yo Sophia, though): "Unicorns are real. They're just fat and gray and we call them rhinos." I was out shopping when I got his text, and I split a gut laughing and had to share it with the other person shopping near me, lest they think (correctly) that I was loony! Too funny!

☼

I shared this gorgeous yarn I received from The Knitting Goddess (in the UK, so shipping took what seemed like forEVER) the other day on Wordless Wednesday, but it's so beautious, I wanted to see it again. Hehe. Tell me those aren't some luscious colors?! I'll be using these for hexipuffs on my Beekeeper's Quilt. Why haven't I started yet? That's a darn good question. I will today, I think.

☼

My husband's alarm has been going off for 45 minutes now (it's currently 0645). Why don't I wake him up, you ask? Because. It's IMPOSSIBLE to rouse that beast. Hence the 45 minutes. Are you easy or difficult to awaken? Most of the time, I'm hard to wake, too. I don't sleep well or often, but when I do, I want to stay that way, thank you!

☼

My gardening friend, Miss C., was a guest presenter at my Daisy meeting yesterday, and while I was editing the pictures, this one popped up as the first one. Yes, that's MY kid disrupting the group, not in uniform (she had it on but yanked it off, as she always does) and being a total goose. Sophia!! She is such a pill. Or as Miss C diplomatically put it, "She's spirited." Oh, I'm so glad I'm the Leader, because I'd be mortified if she behaved that way for others meeting after meeting (and she does). Argh!

☼

As far as what Miss C. did with the girls, she read them the next chapter in our yearlong story (aka our "Journey," "Between Earth and Sky) and then talked to them about how plants clean the soil and air. She then gave them a project that I'm sure we've all seen before, if not done a time or two: made pinecone bird feeders with peanut butter and birdseed. However, her yard had a dearth of pine cones but plenty of gum balls, so she brought those instead, and they worked great to clump up with PB and seeds. Sophia rushed right home and tied hers to her special 4th birthday tree, out front, and waited immediately for the birds. And did they come! Mostly gulls and crows (?) or some sort, but we're hoping for something a little more exciting colorful. Anyway, it was a great meeting, and I'm glad we did it!

☼

Jack, who will be 9 in a month and a half or so, has been asking for his own digital camera like his sisters for ages. I mean, forEVER (I used that one already, right? So what) - and I found a killer steal on one for him the other day. I'm even going to get $40 back in rewards for it, making it an even sweeter deal. I didn't pay a cent for it, because I am one of those crazy coupon deal girls, when I get the chance, and I'm so ecstatic about both (a) the fact that I'm going to make him SUPER happy and (b) my great deal, I just had to share it with you!

☼

Speaking of deals, kids and birthday presents, I got a robotic penguin toy for Sophia of a Plum District deal the other day, too, as she is a penguin fanatic. I mean, she is nuts for them. She likes all birds (and bugs!), but penguins are her absolute favorite. So yay me for scoring goodies - with slick deals - to make their upcoming birthdays fantabulous! (She'll be 7 a month after Jack's birthday; my gosh!!!! I can't even stand it that my baby will be that old. I wish I could make another one or three. Hehe.)

☼

So I've had that iron transfusion, confirmed with the oncologist/hematologist that I do NOT need to continue taking oral Fe supplements daily, and yet I still get so dizzy I almost pass out when I stand up half the time. What gives? My blood pressure is on the low side, but still within normal range. It's wicked annoying. I mean, if I'm gonna get that dizzy, can't I have the fun of passing straight out, already? That would make for a much more interesting fragment, at least. I did it once, in 8th grade. I was the talk of my class. What fun! Haha.

☼

By the way, if you're a frequent www.Amazon.com shopper (hello, Swagbucks money!) and you know about their Prime free shipping but don't want to lay out the moolah to pay for that service, here's something I scored that you might want to know: If you have an .edu email address - even if you're a college alum! - you can sign up for Amazon Student and get free Prime shipping! I've been taking loads of advantage of that sweet deal, since I do get tons of Amazon GCs from Swagbucks, surveys and other things I do on- and off-line to save a buck, and it is Teh Awesome. Check it out. Rats. I just went to go link you to Amazon Student here, and the free offer is now gone and replaced by a half-off deal. Still, better than $79, right?

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It's 0708. Hubby finally woke up. Just keeping you updated, since I knew you were in suspense about that!

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If you're at all interested in Native American culture, be sure and check out my post here about our field trip last Saturday to the Mattaponi ("matt-upon-AYE) Indian Resevation 90 minutes north of here. It was cool as all-get-out, and I can't wait to go back up in June for their annual Pow-wow. Worth a read, I'm told!

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And, as long as you're here and I'm in demanding begging mode, answer my Aloha Friday questions, will ya? I'm nosy interested. And I like strikethrough.

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I've been struggling with constant, daily migraines the past few weeks again, so schooling has been sketchy lately. Anyway, a recent day last week was quite warm, but rainy. Once the rain cleared, I was ready to get up out of the house and go for a walk to get some exercise for my and the kids' young bodies. Instead of just walking, though, we did a lot of running and jumping and splashing in the ubiquitous mud puddles around our neighborhood lake. It was too fun, and Chloë declared it, "The BEST rainy day EVER!" I had to agree. Sometimes, you just gotta be a kid again, right? We were so soaked (and muddy), we jumped right into warm showers when we got home. But what a memory that should make for all of us!

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Guess I'm out of fragments for now - lucky you!! I'm off to email my Girl Scout troop about Thinking Day, which is coming up. It's a day when we think about the Girl Scouts and Guides around the world, every year, and we always participate. Anyway, blah blah.

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Have a great week! 'Til next time...

Fin.

Monday Steals And Deals - Week Of 1/29/12

I'm going to keep this short again, in the interest of, well, you, and maybe getting some sleep, since I have my 3-year gastric bypass check-up in the morning... I will say that I spent a lot more money OOP than I usually do, because we had grocery needs and wants, and it was payday. :P So here goes:

CVS

Transaction #1: Total $31.94; Savings: $15.74; GC rec’d: $10 CVS

Transaction #2: Total: $91.73; Savings: $110.06; ECBs: $28.87

Rite Aid

Transaction #1: Total $106.28, wellness + savings: $25.20, coupon savings: $81.18, MIR: $10; +UPs: $29

NOTE: Need to return $59.57 worth of Centrum products and re-buy $29.97 worth, and get $10+UP back

Walgreens

Transaction #1: Total $46.93; Savings: $124.57; RRs: $15

Transaction #2: Total: $12.15; Savings: $9.75; RRs: $10

Transaction #3: Total: $7; Savings: $4.79: RRs: $8

Target

Transaction#1: Total: $200.25; Savings: $136.98; Target GCs: $15

NOTE: Should get back $17.20 from mis-rung prices, additionally*

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If you have any questions about my deals - not that anyone ever does - feel free to ask in the comments. :)

Happy shopping!

Fin.

P.S. Thanks go to Collin at www.hip2save.com, as usual, for helping me with my deals!

Friday Fragments

Link up here if your thoughts are all over the place and you think Mrs. 4444 and pals have just gotta read 'em anyway!

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I've been grateful to have a pretty low-key week both at home with the kids and extra-curricularly, since I'm still nursing a weeks-long migraine. It's a baddy. I need to call Neurology today to get back into the headache clinic. I was supposed to call Tuesday, but I haven't even been able to bear being on the phone for five minutes. Thankfully, the children "get it" and have been pretty hushity-hush when Mom is begging for them to be quiet. All three of them get migraines, too, so they're able to empathize, sadly for them.

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Anyway. I did manage to do some extensive deal-shopping and save (even make!) a few bucks this week, but that's about all I've left the house for, other than driving a friend to work one night.

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No one's answered my Aloha Friday question yet - won't you? - so I'm thinking people either don't get the question or I'm the only such weirdo. Now that latter thing wouldn't surprise me, nor does the confirmation of it smart, but it'd be nice to know that someone out there knows what I mean and has a similar feeling!

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Oh, I know what's happened since last Friday! On Saturday, my son Jack's Cub Scout pack ran their Pinewood Derby race, and he won first place for both his Bear den and the overall pack. Woohoo! Three years running, he's taken home a trophy (or two) and headed to the District race, coming up in March. You can see his grins here, if you'd like.

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Also, that night, I took my Daisy troop - and Chloë went with her Junior Girl Scout troop - to a local museum for their environmental activities and exhibits. I haven't blogged about that yet; perhaps I will after this, 'cause I'm wide awake this early morning and yet not energetic enough to, y'know, fold the dozen or so loads of laundry taking up space over yonder. It was fun, and I think they learned a few things, but my Assistant Leader and I both agreed it probably wasn't worth the cost. Meh. Whatcha gonna do, barter over Girl Scout programs? I don't think so. But we probably won't do that one again next time.

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So that's me for the week. Usually I can blather on 'til the cows come home, but my head aches, and if I told you anything else, it would likely be a complete fabrication!

Have a great weekend!

Fin.

P.S. Oh! I've been asked about my iron transfusion last Friday. It went great! It took forever, and I was humbled as I was by far the youngest patient in there and, judging from the bald and be-wigged heads of the others, probably the healthiest, relatively speaking. It took about six hours, so I did a little knitting, a bit of chit-chatting with the nurses and other patients, and mostly, I napped. I probably snored and drooled; okay, I know I did, but I didn't care then, and I don't care now! Ah was tarred. If it weren't for the migraines, I'd be feeling like Superwoman now, I think. That infusion made a huge difference. I'm already looking forward to the next topping-off in 4-6 months. Hee! Iron-piggy, me. Thanks for your concern, askers out there! Now cross your fingers I'm able to donate blood tomorrow afternoon; I'm O-neg and feel it's my duty, but I've been deferred every time I go in for a year now! Ayee!

This Week's Steals & Deals

I'm going to keep this short (ish), so if you want the details on anything, feel free to leave me a comment, and I'll be sure and help you out. See previous posts in this category for the lingo I use. As always, muchisimas gracias to Collin at Hip2Save for her help in putting my deals together!

Rite Aid

 

You can see my totals if you click to embiggerate the pictures, but I'll give you a few more details: These deals were purchased in two days, because in the top picture from Tuesday, I left the house with barely over a buck-fifty! I still managed to snag all that, basically paying only tax, so I did okay, eh? Overall:

I did three total transactions. My actual OOP was $3.86 for the above (yep, that's all I spent!) for $150.89' worth of merchandise. Plus, I'll get $15 back in rebates, and I received $18 in +UP rewards. NET for over $150xx = -29.14! Pretty good week at Rite Aid, I'd say!

Oh, wait, add another $4 to that NET (well, subtract, I suppose, for a total of -33.14, because I'm going to get a gift card in the mail for a coupon they refused to accept, since Rite Aid employees I encounter in this area are NOT well-versed in their coupon policy, and I had to call corporate. Ugh. But hey, I'll get it back regardless.)

(Note: All of that candy and gum goes in a lockbox, for special treats, occasions and yes, rewards; we don't load the kids up on all that junk all the time! Almost all of it I buy because it's either (a) free, (b) a moneymaker, or (c) a "filler" item to meet my coupon:item ratios, which you can read more about on Collin's site. Or ask me, whatevs.)

CVS

Hehe. Lame, I know, but I took the pictures, put away the groceries, and then uploaded the photos to find out the CVS one(s) had disappeared. What the?! I wasn't going to unpack everything from the fridge and pantry, so you can see what I purchased in the list above.

Deets: Single transaction, OOP $23.24 for $84.85' worth of goods, getting $16.99 back. For all that, I spent $6.25. Not negative, but when you add the three drug stores together, I still come out ahead. ;)

Walgreens

 

Details: (4) separate transactions. Why? Because if you buy something that generates Register Rewards, it will only print ONE RR for ONE of the items/deals, and I wanted at least four of those Flurry protein bars, there. The Butterfingers were used as filler items so I could use a $2 RR from last week to buy two of them in two separate transactions. Okay, so Rob could: I sent him up front to do the first two trans. while I kept shopping. He was all, "I don't have to do "deals," do I?" I was like, "Um, yeah! But you can do it!" And I kept it simple, and he did great. Anyway, the rest of the deets:

OOP spent: $15.39 for $83.83' worth of merch, and I got back $23 in RRs. NET total: -$7.61! Sweet. Could've gotten LOTS more at Wags, but they were out of a lot of my 'deal' things. I may or may not try again before the week is up; we'll see how I feel when I'm out & about.

Target

I haven't been doing big Target runs in a while, because we simply haven't had the money (I've been doing a lot of Schwan's lately for groceries), but I had two weeks' worth of deals worked out, and I wanted something to show for it, dang it! Obviously, that there is a lot of stuff, and it's hard to see all of it, so the totals are going to be higher than for the drug stores. Especially since Tar-jay rarely kicks back money into my hands for the following week, like ECBs, RRs, and +UPs. (Love those!)

Details: (1) transaction; spent $183.82 OOP with $94.09 in coupons, and I should've gotten about $5 more that he didn't ring up... but I don't have the time or energy to go back and haggle over it. I should call and all that, but really, Target is getting less and less coupon-friendly, and I don't want to get known as a trouble-maker there for that, know what I mean?  Still, saving almost a hundred bucks isn't bad, especially considering all I was able to get.

Anyone need some mustard? :P

So that's it... good luck with your deals, smart shoppers!

Fin.

Christmas Day 2011

Once everyone was up, and we parents declared it 'time,' the kids bolted right for the stack of presents in the office. 'Scuse the clutter behind them in the pics; it's an ongoing project (or twelve) in here at all times. Right, so let's, shall we?

We started with the presents from Aunt Stacey (my sister); the girls got a couple outfits for their Barbies. I don't mind the Barbies at all, because these once oft-feuding sisters have really bonded over their play with her (them). So bring it on!

Jack's first present was a box of Ninja Legos, and he was overjoyed. The kid is a Lego fanatic.

Another Lego set for Jack - Stacey really scored points with the boy-child this year!

Actually, Stace scored all the way around - Chloë has already dug into this American Girl Fashion Studio, which caused lots of squealing upon being opened!

Sophia was given a Ballerina Barbie, and she declared, "I always wanted one of those!"

This was a last-minute snag I got off Amazon when it was price-dropped way low, and I didn't pay anything because I had Amazon money from Swagbucks to pay for it. It's a game we'll use in homeschooling (which significantly upped the "oh" factor when I told them that), because I get to make up the questions and then they buzz in. The reviews were pretty good, so I jumped on it.

Both grandpas gave the kids cards this year, and they requested Rob's dad and stepmom's card next.

Jack's reaction to getting his "own credit card" from Grandpa was hilarious, and he's been plotting and planning how to use it ever since.

Well, and so have the girls. They're all pretty excited about the concept.

Similar excitement ensued when they found gift cards to Books-A-Million from my dad's cards, especially from the bookworm in the family, Chloë.

I had gotten this Japanese-inspired outfit when we were in Charleston over the summer, before Chloë had even gotten her American Girl doll. I saw it and, given my love for all things Asian, knew I had to snag it for the doll we were already planning for her birthday.

Skipping ahead just for a second, here's Faith decked out in the outfit. Lovely, isn't she?

At the same store in the open-air market of Charleston, I spotted this tea set for Sophia. She peeked and saw me buying it, and she's been reminding me about it ever since! And I still almost forgot about it! Ha. She was thrilled when she opened it, and we've all had our share of "tea and cookies" this afternoon, including Daddy. It inspired us to plan a real-life tea party one of these days, which I can't wait to do.

I grabbed this Nerf gun for Jack online a long time ago, probably at the end of summer, when I saw a killer deal over it. Jack's still playing with it, hours later. He loves it and wants to use his gift card (this moment, anyway) to buy more 'bullets' for it. The four cats have been providing him endless target practice, which both scares and amuses me. I'd make him stop, but for the most part, they seem nonplussed by the experience. Good ol' Nerf!

Not long after we finished opening gifts, Chloë insisted on taking a shower with her new Jafra "BTWIN" shower gel and body lotion. She smells pretty good, I must say!  I could eat her up.

My metrosexual son was funny and just as quickly followed suit, bathing himself in his Jafra "Skid Rock" shower gel for boys, and spraying himself with so much of the cologne that the girls had to step outside for a few moments to get some fresh air!! I nearly joined them. *cough, cough*

Sophia was equally thrilled to get her Jafra goodies, a bag filled with perfume and sparkly lotion and lip gloss. She's probably used half the tube of gloss already and covered me in pink kisses. Silly cutie.

This was another last-minute snag, when the price dropped way down on Disney's website, and I knew Jack would love it. I was right. The only disappointment was there was no tree to hang it on, so he's looking forward to doing so next year.

We are big Webkinz collectors here, and this was Box One which contained a Mud Hippo for Curls, an Okapi for Soap, and a Yeti for Jacky-boy.

Out of Box Two, Jack chose the Prairie Dog, Sophia the Aardvark, and Chloë the Wombat. Aren't they great? I love all the different animals, I do.

I grabbed a great deal from Kiwi Crate for three months of crafts and projects for the two Littles, but I was a little disappointed they got the exact same things when I had to put in their ages and genders at sign-up time. Ah, well, we'll do the projects together - this month it's a rocket and space mobile, and I'm sure we'll have a good time. It's a little young for Jack, but he seemed excited about it, so whatev.

Rob caught me making this goofy face when modeling the earrings "he gave me," which were really another killer deal I snagged from Novica, which is a collaboration of National Geographic with artisans from around the world. I think these came from Thailand, but I forget. They're pearls, blue amazonite, and turquoise on silver findings, and they came in the most beautiful handmade paper box that will be great when I have to give a small gift to another. Two gifts in one!

I was glad when I found this deal for snow boots from Land's End, because even though we don't get a ton of snow and ice here, we do get some, and they've all outgrown last year's boots. It's hard to beat the boots from Land's End, so I'm well-pleased. I got a much-needed white oxford short for The Bob and a smaller, more well-fitting bathing suit for myself, from the same deal, but we opened those a few days ago and I didn't get pictures. Eh, well.

I paid practically nothing for this sapphire and diamond (although I think it's a CZ, but the saph is real) pendant from YaySave!, but we didn't get a photo of me actually wearing it because it arrived with a knot in the very fine chain. As you can see, I chopped my nails down to nothing, so I can't get the knot out at the moment, but I still love it. It's purty.

Sophie has been asking for a Barbie motorcycle for aaaaages, and I've been searching for one, but all I could find were either these Vespas on eBay, or $60+ collectible Harley ones. Obviously, she was going to get the Vespa. I showed it to her before I bid on it, to make sure it 'do,' but I told her I had to win it and that I might not if it went too high. She didn't quite get the concept of auctions, which I realized when she opened the packaged, exclaimed her shock that I won, and inquired as to whether anyone else got a prize. Hehe! Funny girl. But she's delighted with it, and I couldn't be happier to have finally made her small wish come true.

 

And last but not least, I grabbed another great deal on Rob's teapot and warmer from Cost Plus World Market, but I didn't realize we don't have any tea (that he'll deign to drink, anyway), so boo, me! The posing of this picture cracks me up, but it works, so hey.

Welp, after naps for Mom and Dad and lots of hours of playing with no signs of stopping by the kids, it's been a pretty good Christmas despite my being sick and falling short of the mark in many regards. They're all happy, so I'm happy.

I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday, however and whatever you celebrate, and don't have to spend 100 hours in line at the returns counter tomorrow!

Cheers!

Fin.