Saving money and having a "plan"

THIS IS A "DEAL" POST. If you only read my blog to find out what is going on in our lives...it will probably be boring:)
Today I decided to save money by making a list, going to lots of different stores, and using coupons and gift cards.


I fueled up (my energy) by getting some frappichinoish drink from Borders on the way into town. I have a borders gift card and...I don't read, so spend it on fu-fu coffee drinks. I have done the same with a Barnes and Noble gift card I got once:)
Office Depot was in the same shopping center so I got my free 10pk DVD+R for signing up for a weekly e-mail. This is a great deal!(worth 9.99)
You can do the same here.

I went to Walgreens yesterday because the May and June deals overlap on the 30th of the month so you can use both coupon books for great deals. I also had a $10 off any $30 purchase only good on Friday, so I got some great deals...but I also got some deals that I thought were going to be great, but were only OK. To make up for it I was more organized today.

I went to Target, Safeway, and K-mart for most of this.
I nixed a trip to King Soopers because of the awesome deals at K-mart...plus with a 20 min drive home, I can only go to 2 stores for cold stuff.
I got all this for under $20.00.

The 5 boxes of Cheerios are 14oz. boxes! The strawberry containers were a $1 each, I forgot to include the eggs I got for $1, and a gallon of milk for 2.49. The lifewater was $1 each and I had a BOGO free. Most of the rest (except the Ziploc) I got for a dollar (using coupons and deals).

I also got some FREE stuff:

Free Coke from register rewards (those coupon things that you get along with your reciept at some grocery stores) Actually I think this one was sticking out of the coupon printer, and I was walking by one and no one was around so I took it:) The BBQ sauce, Dressing and Brita filter all have a mail-in rebate...so eventually they will be free. The All, Tylenol, Baby wash and Excedrin were trial size things, and I had a $1 coupon for each...so they were free.
Chex mix was on sale for 99cents at Walgreens and I had a dollar coupon.
Liveactive ceral was on sale at target for 2.99 and I had a 3.00 coupon. I watched some commercials online for about 20 min a month ago, and I got a free subscription to Good Houskeeping.

To add to my deals, our house was hit with hail during the tornado, so I asked John to make me a list of things he needed from town. First on the list was 2 new hoses. This is what the hail did to our hose. (no joking, it worked fine the day before the tornado.)


I went to Lowe's for all of his stuff. I didn't get amazing deals, but at least I saved money doing it.

I did 2 separate transactions and used a $10 off any $50 purchase, and used a 10% off coupon for the other stuff.

I plan to post some of my favorite freebees that don't have strict guidelines and don't have to be done on a certian date. In case you are more hard-core into this, I have included some of my favorite money saving sites on the "other blogs I look at" on the right hand side of my blog. They are money saving mom, freebies4mom, and centsible sawyer.

Clay Animation

The art teacher and I got together and offered a clay animation class for middle school kids this year. Mostly 6th graders signed up. This one is short, and the words go by fast...but I think it is hilarious. They used a feather for the "special effects".

something different

After lots of tornado craziness...here is a happy post.

After the storm, we hung out with our friends Andrew and Lindsey. They have a baby (David) who is 5 weeks old. He was sweet.



I received my gift cards for the TV converter box. They look pretty cool.
I'll put a picture up when I'm on the other computer.


In other news...It's officially summer!!! I can sleep in a little longer, get ready for track practices instead of school, start cooking/baking more, work on cleaning the basement, scrapbook, and enjoy the outside Colorado weather. Yippee!

More Tornado Pictures

If you haven't read the last post, scroll down so the rest of this makes sense.
Today we went through 3 security check points (behind John's boss) to get into the restricted area so we could get John's truck out...but it was worth it. We walked around and looked at the damage for at least an hour. Here are a bunch more pictures:
The work truck was parked right next to John's...and it had a lot more damage. (see the huge dent in the bed)


His truck did amazingly well in comparison to this one which was about 30 feet away,


and this one,


and this one! (check out the big tanks in the back that tipped over too)


He was very happy once reunited with his truck.


We also saw a lot of power problems.



Here is the inside from the back, of the creamatorium.


The Doctors office 20 ft south of the shop building.


The "alleged" coffin holes.


Hole in shop roof.


Back behind there they are putting tarps over the daycare roof.


Roof beams coming out of the building just next door.


We decided to take a walk to look for the trailer that was parked out back of the shop...that was missing.


We found it in the middle of a dirt feild.


It had no wheel marks around...so we assume it was picked up and dropped out of the sky. Here is is closer.


Here is one of my favorite pictures...a tree just ouside the shop with a beam wrapped around it.


My cousin Jason (and his wife Jamie) came out to help from Denver.


A few from the drive over to the shop area:
Stripped trees.



We just Thank God that lives were spared during this disaster.

Windsor Tornado 2008

Hey all,
Today at 11:45 a tornado hit Windsor(where I work) and went right over-top of our building as we were huddling in the bathrooms with the kids that hadn't gotten picked up yet. We dismissed at 11:25, and I was helping kids into their cars...until it started hailing...then it was LARGE hail. We ran back inside, and I stopped 2 little girls who were going to ride their bike home and brought them inside. Then we went to the bathroom because of the tornado. I snuck out for a second to look, and I saw a big wall of DARK clouds. Durning the tornado we heard a lot of clanking, but nothing too bad. Our roof stood up and we(teachers and kids left at school) were safe. After the tornado, I grabbed my keys and phone from my room...and a school camera. I took a few pictures outside school because most of the cars had windows blown out...then there was a gas leak at school so we had to get out. We moved to a workout club down the street because there was another tornado warning.
After I finally got to leave, I went to John's shop down the street, and there was a lot of damage. I took a few photos before cops started yelling at me to get away (the wind was still blowing...but there was no danger).
John's truck was at the shop, and it surprisingly had little damage also. (It is in the "restricted" area of town and he supposedly won't be able to get to it until Saturday sometime)
It took me an hour to get home because of closed roads, and I had heard that Milliken had a tornado too...but it wasn't that bad...and our home is fine...except we have no power. We drove to Greeley so we could watch the news with some friends.
(We just got power back this morning(Fri.) I'm not allowed back into school for a while because of a gas leak...but that whole are is "restricted" and guarded by cops, so we couldn't get on the roads if we tried.
Picture # 1


Pict #2


Pict #3


Pict #4


Pict #5
Click on this one and you can see a lot more damage inside.


Pict # 6
building just north of John's


Pict # 7


Pict #8


Pict #9


Pict #10


Pict #11 My teacher friends and I waiting out the second tornado warning in the workout club locker room.


Pict # 12


Pict # 13
Building just south of John's

Pict # 14
Building just west of John's - Notice the crane in the background is still upright


For those of you who are curious...here is a map of where things are:

Sunday School Drama

This Sunday I taught the story of Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednigo to 4-8 year olds in Sunday School. I really enjoy them, and with the costumes that I got from garage sales, after reading the story, we put on a play. Everything was going great, and everyone was acting out their part beautifully. The king (who happened to like pink)was great at being furious with Shadrack, Meschach and Abednigo for not bowing down to his statue. She (the king) sent them to the fiery furnace! Right then Shadrack(a 4 year old boy) started to cry. Apparently the drama was too real. After a switch-out of Shadrack, a hug from another leader, and a safe appearance out of the furnace, he was fine. I guess I will think twice before doing a play next time:)

Dunk Tank

Our school has a Nickel Fair every year- with booths, prizes, popcorn, games...and a dunk tank.

This year I volunteered to "be dunked" for a 15 min. slot. While the weather was pretty nice (70 degrees), the water was COLD!

I got a pretty big shock the first time someone dunked me (and I got water up my nose).








Then I went in again...

and again...


and again...