Halloween Part 1

Here are some pics of Halloween Part 1, preschool party as Spider Man. Or "Bad Spider Man" as CJ calls him.

Money Matters

I read this headline today....Exxon Mobil shatters own record for largest profit from operations by a US corporation. Apparently they did quite well from the $4/gallon gas.

Now I admit I was a Econ drop out (from my short stint at UMD thinking I would be good in an accounting major) (yeah, I think that lasted 1/2 a semester)(what the heck was I thinking)(sorry Mara - no offense)(I think I'm better at wiping ass) but where is their "struggling economy"?

Speaking of economy, I watched an Oprah show on the thriftiest family in America and they had this lady on there called Coupon Mom. While I admit to being a coupon cutter, I've never taken it to this level. Actually matching up the weekly sales ads for Target, Cub, etc. and buying whats on sale combined with a coupon. (Okay Mara I know your gouging your eyeballs out). So, I've tried it and lets see I've gotten free toothpaste, cheap shampoo, any many a savings on groceries. So of course one click in coupon mom leads to a few thousand clicks later and there is quite the "thrifty" community out there. Found another forum where people post their Target deals they find, my most recent one I cashed in on was 10 pack Minute Maid juice boxes for $0.69! Yes, 69 cents for 10 juice boxes! What a deal, actually its more of a steal. I was able to pick up 7 of them yesterday, no coupon needed. We are well stocked for juice, although I think I may give them out to trick-or-treaters. If you really want the nitty gritty on the juice let me know.

If you need a good laugh...

Check out this blog called Cake Wrecks...basically they peruse the internet looking for cakes gone awry. Some of the stories to go along with the cakes are just as funny. The funniest I've found so far is this...Fireman Cake. I've added them to my ridiculously long daily blog tour.

Edited to add: On the right column part way down the page is a section marked "Fan Favorites" - these are pretty good. From the creepy baby cake to the cake that started it all - good stuff.

SOLD!

I've successfully sold my first items on eBay. What fun! Watching the frantic bidders at the last minute is pretty entertaining. I watched my breast pump go from $87 to it's final selling price of $139.38 in a matter of minutes. Today a stamp set sold (don't worry Jean and Michelle I'm only selling a couple on eBay) for $24.50 that I bought probably 6 or 7 years ago for $24.00, not a bad return on my money. The odd thing, the buyer - in Switzerland. She had asked earlier in the auction how much to ship to Switzerland - $17! She must really want this stamp set! Anyone have anything they need to sell on eBay?

Tall skinny boy

Nick had his 9 month check-up yesterday. He is one tall skinny boy!
29 inches long -90th percentile
18 1/2 pounds - 25th percentile
and I don't remember his head but it too was in the 25th percentile.

In comparison CJ at 9 months was
28 3/4 inches long
24 1/2 pounds!

Quite the difference!

We're also thinking Nick is allergic to the cat. Which brings in a whole other dilemma. Anyone in the market for a fat lazy cat? I think we might have to make her a downstairs cat only. I feel better about this option than bringing her to the humane society where we got her over 8 years ago. We don't bring Nick downstairs very often and we can close the door down there. While I feel bad she won't have free range of the house, she at least won't be confined to a cage like at the humane society. We'll make it one of CJ's chores to go have cat bonding time with China. We're also going to try Nick on Zyrtec to see if that helps his allergies/eczema.

Anyone have any other bright ideas for Nick's allergies? Anyone want a cat?

Amery scrapbooking weekend

Finally I'm getting some scrapbooking pictures up. While I didn't get much done as far as layouts go, I did learn a ton. Everything from how to "cut" a piece of paper to fit on a page to how to get photos to fit into a frame without the edges showing. Of course the non-scrapbooking portion was just as fun, little sleep, great meals and lots of laughs. I'm sure Emily will have MUCH better photos in her blog, but here are a few to share and some layouts too. Who am I kidding, "some layouts" these are ALL of my layouts. I'm sure in 5 years when I look back I'll be mortified, just as I am now when I look back to scrapbook pages from 5 years ago, but for now I'm pleased.

Emily found the benefit of sitting next to me, LOTS of scrapbooking real estate, see that laptop in the corner - that's my scrapbooking real estate. Of course sitting next to Emily had it's rewards too, being that she's a graphic designer and I am most definitely not!

Mojitos anyone?

Crab boil chefs...

Mmmmmm...crab boil...the definite food highlight of the weekend.

And for some layouts, if you are truly interested you may have to click on each one to see it larger.

Finally...

Some video of Nick clapping - and his other favorite task - spitting. Nevermind Dad in the background, this is why it took so long to get video, I never wanted my voice on the blog cheering him on (the only way to get him to clap).


And the hair deserves some mention - not sure where the Alfalfa do came from!