This morning Easton pointed to my forehead and said "Booboo. Mama booboo." I looked in the mirror to see what he was talking about and OH MY HOLY HECK!!! Where did THAT come from?! Lines on my forehead so deep you could lose a small child in there.

Good thing I bought this last night.

And this.

But apparently if my two year old noticed it then I should have bought this or .this.

And thanks to my kids I also need to add this, and this. Crap. Welcome to thirty something. While I'm shopping, maybe I'll buy this and this. Or maybe not but it's nice to dream, right? :)

What an exhausting day today!!! I got up, worked out while I watched the Today show. The kids slept late so I had time to get my coupons ready and get my stuff together. The kids woke up around ten (TEN! Holy cow!). I got everyone fed, dressed and into the car. No big deal so far, right? We made it to Walmart and did lots of shopping. This was no small feat either. Easton was in the front of the cart, Audrey was in the bottom taking up the entire thing with her carseat. This meant I had to put things in my reusable shopping bags and put them under the cart, hang them on my arms, hang them onto the sides of the cart...it was probably really funny looking.

Then all of a sudden Easton had the mother of all meltdowns right in the checkout line. Oh. My. Goodness!!! Kicking and screaming and standing up in the seat of the cart. The checker was ringing up my stuff already otherwise I would have just left the cart with all the stuff and hightailed it out of there. It was that bad. But she was already ringing up my stuff so I decided to try to pay for my stuff and leave. Easton kept screaming and trying to get out of the cart and I was scared to death he was going to fall out of the cart and split his head open right in front of everybody. I tried talking to him, spanking his little butt, threatening him and then finally ignoring him. NOTHING helped. (Yes, Mom and Dad, I am finally getting my payback for all those fits I threw and yes, they really are a *&^$!)

The cashier called someone over to help me out with my stuff because there was no way I could manage to get all that stuff AND a screaming kid out to my car by myself. Thankfully the lady who came over to help me was nice. She was a mom herself so she knew what I was going through. Once we got out to the car, I put Easton in the car (not even in his car seat yet) so he could chill out and shut the door while I loaded the stuff into the trunk. By the time I was done, he had calmed down completely and suddenly my sweet, sunny funny boy was back like nothing had ever happened. Little stinker!!!

Then I went to change his diaper. Worst possible dirty diaper. Of course! No big deal. I can handle this. I changed the dirty diaper, got him buckled into his seat. By tthen, Audrey was screaming and I knew it was time for a bottle. I went to make her a bottle and...no bottled water in the diaper bag!! What the heck?! OK. No big deal. I unbuckled E from his car seat, locked Audrey into the car. (I was in the closest parking place and could see Audrey from where I was going.) and Easton and I walked up to the vending machine to buy a bottle of water. We got the water, buckled E back into his seat, made the bottle and realized Audrey was crying because she had a dirty diaper. I got her ready, reached for a wipe. NO MORE WIPES!!! AARRGGHH!!! I rummaged around in the console and found some napkins. She wasn't coming clean with just the cheap napkins so I had to wet them with the water I had just bought. WOWEE!!! Can you even imagine the shock on that poor girls' bottom! lol I finished with the diaper change with Audrey screaming her little head off. I calmed her down, gave her the bottle and we all just chilled out while she finished. WHEW!

Then Easton decided we all needed lunch. By then it was 3:30 and we’d been shopping at Walmart for THREE hours! We got Easton “unch” at Sonic and then we went to the grocery store for a couple of items that were on sale there cheaper than Walmart. On the way to Martin’s, Easton requested a song. He said “Brick House, mama. Brick House”. I had to laugh. OK, little man. 70’s funk it is. He loves that song and Lowrider. I didn’t realize how intently he was listening to the words until he said “36”. (The part where the guy says 36, 24, 36.) And Easton kept saying Brick House. Brick House. Oh my goodness, it was just the comedy relief I needed. Here ya go. One of Easton's favorite songs right now:



We had an uneventful trip to Martin’s except for the part where it was pouring down rain when we came out of the store. Luckily, Jason called and was close by so he came to help me get the groceries and the kids into the car in the pouring rain. I rewarded myself (and Jason) for our hard work by buying us some coffee. We came home, got the kids in bed, had grilled cheese, tomato soup and beer for dinner vegged on the couch for the rest of the night. What a day!!!<

Today I bought some cute new pajamas to wear in the hospital. Gotta get out of that hospital gown as soon as they'll let me! :) We also bought some Mother's Day gifts and found Jason a shirt on clearance. Gotta love Kohl's 15% off coupons! Those of you who don't live by a Kohl's, it's worth the trip to the nearest one just for all the good deals. And YES you want to sign up for their credit card (I pay with mine and then pay off the balance before I even leave the register). They'll send you great coupons that make their clothes C-H-E-A-P! I also got a good deal on some pillows for the spare bedroom ($3.39 ea)and some Elmo utensils for the kiddos ($2.85 ea). They also have great clearance sales. I've found cute kids clothes there for $1.00 a piece. So get yourself to a Kohl's and see what great deals you can find!

I laid down to sleep tonight and couldn't quit thinking of things I need to do. So I got up and packed my bag for the hospital. Yes, I realize it's a little early for that but I just want to make sure I have everything I need. I am SO ready to not be pregnant anymore! My back hurts, I hate that I have to waddle everywhere and I can't bend over to pick things up. Heck, I can't even see my toes! And I really want to meet this little sweetie who keeps kicking me and keeping me awake. :)

I'm nervous about what will happen when all our visitors go home and I'm at home still recovering from surgery, not able to drive, with a newborn and a very active 18 (by then will be 19) month old. Hear that, all you visitors? You can come visit but you can't leave! Not til 6 weeks after Audrey is born, OK? Then I can at least be cleared to drive and we can get out of the house for a while! :) Hmmm...somehow I don't think that's gonna work. Good thing Jason still has some time off he can use. We'll see how it goes. Keep your fingers crossed that this recovery is even speedier than the first one was.

Whew! What a day! Well, two days actually. Yesterday and today I have literally shopped til I dropped looking for stuff for our sweet little girl's room and for Jason for his birthday. We got a little unexpected money and decided to spend it. We normally are in save, save, save mode so this was a rare treat.
Yesterday I went to:

• The bank - important first stop if I'm gonna be doing any shopping
• Lowe's - to check the price of garage door opener systems. I didn't buy one there but I did buy Easton a rug with a town and roads on it so he can practice making car noises with his daddy.
• Target #1 - to check to see if they had the curtains I wanted for the baby's room. They didn't.
• Walmart - I found some good deals on clearance though. Some bins for the organizer shelf we bought for baby 2's room.
• Bath and Body Works - to use some coupons I had.
• Chick-fil-a - LUNCH!!
• Gymboree - to see if I could find any good deals on clothes for my kiddos. I bought E one pair of pants.
• Motherhood Maternity - fun fun. Bought two nursing bras. Super exciting, huh?
• Sears - bought a garage door opener with 2 year parts plan and installation.

And that was just yesterday! Today I went to:

• Kohl's - looking for a bedspread to put on the guest bed in baby 2's room. I found a super cute one that hopefully Miss 2 will like when she gets bigger and can use as her "big girl bed". On sale. Plus 15% off. I love that place! I also got some earrings to replace the ones my dad bought me for Christmas last year. (I lost one and was REALLY upset because I LOVED those earrings.) They're going to be from Easton for Mother's Day so I'll pretend I'm surprised. :)
• Sears - to return the garage door opener. There wasn't anything wrong with it at all but we got it home and decided we should wait til around Father's Day to see if they go on sale. For his birthday, we're paying to have his '69 Camaro hauled here from Perry...FINALLY!
• Gymboree - to return the pants I bought in the wrong size yesterday. Grr!! I hate when I do that! I just flat wasn't paying attention and grabbed 12-18 months instead of 2T. Thankfully, the return was no big deal.
• Panera Bread - LUNCH!!! I usually go somewhere cheap and that is certainly NOT Panera but I decided to treat myself today and man I was glad I did! Delicious!
• Michael's - to use a 40% off coupon I had to get a picture frame for the baby's room. And some sheets of colored foam. I'm going to attempt to make a mobile to hang above the crib but we'll see how that goes.
• Target #2 - to see if they had the curtains I need. Nope. But they did have a double stroller. I said forget it to trying to find one that will work with our current car seat and just went ahead and bought the stroller and a new infant carseat. Hooray! Finally the stroller fiasco is FINISHED!!! I also bought a rug, some art, some mirrors, a lamp and a piggy bank for little 2's room. I went a little over our budget but boy that room is CUTE!!! And it is just as "done" as Easton's room is and that is what I was trying to do. I didn't want any hard feelings once little Miss 2 gets old enough to compare bedrooms. E's room was totally decked out and done up so it was only fair that we do the same for her. And it was F-U-N! This is also where a very rude woman in the Easter basket aisle took one look at my big belly and one look at cute little Easton and said "yeah. Good luck with that! We spaced ours out and they're still a hand full." What the heck? Lady, mind your own business! HOW RUDE!!!

Now I'm exhausted but I'm looking forward to getting all of the new bedding washed and put in the room and all the new things put away. Now I say "let's be done!"

P.S. Pictures as soon as everything is put together. Should be soon...I hope!

P.P.S. And HOW could I forget?! Easton had his first haircut today! He didn't need a cut all over but just in back. Yep. Mean mama cut off all his adorable little curls. I loved those curls. But they kept getting caught in his bib when we weren't careful enough and Easton really hated that. So I did him a favor and took him in for a trim. Ms. Angie at Family Cuts in the mall did a great job. I took pictures but after that all-day-shopping marathon I'm too tired to get up and find my camera. Check back by Sunday and hopefully I will have them here.

Sniff, sniff! My baby got his first haircut today! Guess that means he's officially a big boy. Man, oh man...the time sure flies!

Thanks to my friend Mandy for reminding me about this. I never followed up with a post about using my Restaurant.com gift certificates. So far we've used them at three different places and never had a problem with any of them. The server just takes $25 off of the bill and I just smile to myself at all the money it saves us. You should try it!
As a matter of fact, I think they're running a special again for 80% off.

Here's part of the email I get from a site called couponmom.com:

Save 80% on Restaurant.com Certificates with code DINE

Pay only $2 for a $25 gift certificate. Be smart,
at this price get a $100 certificate for
only $8. Certificates do not expire
for a full year, stock up now! It's not too
early to think about Mother's Day
and Father's Day gifts at this price.

Whew! I'm tired! I had such a good day today though. Sometimes I have tons of energy and can go all day long almost like I used to before I was pregnant and other times it's all I can do not to sleep the whole day away. This morning, I got up before my alarm went off, ate breakfast, got dressed (with hair and makeup no less! holy cow!), got Easton up and got out the door all by 8:30 am. That is no small feat for me, let me tell you!

I had an appointment today but it wasn't until 10:15 so I went to Target to shop for baby stuff and stuff to organize my office and scrapbook supplies. I found some great stuff at Target but didn't really buy much because I wanted to take Jason and get his input before I bought any of it. We left Target and then went to pick up Jason at work.

I had my appointment (just a checkup-nothing too exciting.) and everything looks good. I get to call on Monday and schedule my c-section. I'm looking forward to having a date to meet this baby! And that way we can start making plans for visitiors too! Anybody want to come visit? We're trying to schedule it so we have people here for quite some time after the baby is born. I am kinda freaking out about not being able to pick up Easton for 6 weeks after the c-section. Poor little guy! I don't think he'll be able to understand why mama can't pick him up and I'm feeling a little guilty about that. I'm sure we'll manage though and hopefully he'll come out of it needing little to no therapy. :)

After my appointment, we all went to lunch at Texas Steakhouse. Oh my goodness, it was so good!!!! Probably TOO good. Now I'll be wanting to go back again really soon. Delicious! After lunch, Easton and I dropped Jason back off at work and I went to pick out some new glasses. My current ones are all scratched up and I am several months overdue for a new pair. I ordered some new ones (very similar to the ones I'm wearing now) and then we went to Walmart.

Easton was such a sweetie in Walmart today. He did about drive me BANANAS by saying 'nana over and over and OVER again! I bet he must have said 'nana 75-100 times during the course of our LONG Walmart trip. I finally stopped the cart and said "YES Easton! We have bananas! See?!" I wasn't mad at Easton, I just wished with all my heart that he would pick another word already! Then I laughed at myself for getting so worked up about it because I am THRILLED that he is talking at all! :) Yep Dad, you were right. You DO spend months trying to get them to talk and the rest of their lives trying to get them to shut up! haha

After Walmart, I drove home, put Easton down for a nap, put the groceries away, made dinner, and helped Jason give Easton a bath and put him to bed. Then I shopped for a bit online (baby2's registry at Target -FUN!) and then finally settled down to do my homework. Now it's midnight and I'm totally exhausted. Thankfully we have nowhere to go tomorrow and nothing to do except hang out at home.

By the way...what do you all think about registering for a 2nd baby? I'm not sure how I feel about it. I wasn't going to at all because we have most everything baby-related that we need. We sure are lucky to have such generous friends and family. I was overwhelmed by all the gifts we received before Easton was born! Thank you everybody!!! I certainly don't want anybody to feel obligated at all to buy us stuff just because I did that but several people have asked about it and I figured that would be the quickest way to answer their questions...just be able to say "yes, I'm registered at Target".

If Baby 2 is a boy, we certainly have the clothes part covered! The only thing is that this baby will be born at the end of May and Easton was born at the end of October. I'm not sure if the seasons will match up to the sizes of clothes we have but I'm sure some will work OK. Of course, we have to get a crib. Easton's grows with him all the way to a full-sized bed so we needed a 2nd one. (Thanks, Dad and Tina!) And I'm determined to deck out Baby 2's room just as much as Easton's is so there's no hurt feelings over Easton's room being more "done" than this little one's just because Easton was born first. (See, kids? Mom tries REALLY hard already to make sure things are fair and Baby 2 isn't even born yet!) Anyway, opinions or thoughts about this would be appreciated. Is it greedy? I hope not! Is it the smart thing to do? I hope so! Let me know.
Good night and happy weekend!

P.S. I bought lots of tomatillos at Walmart today. Guess what that means? Expect a review of that much anticipated enchilada recipe some time next week. I think I'll be making it on Sunday. It better be good! I'll let you know.

I just bought $200 worth of restaurant gift certificates for only $16!!! Boy do I love bargains like that! Those are gonna come in handy for date nights with my hubby. These would also make for great (and cheap!) gifts for Christmas.

Want to know how you can get this great deal too? (Boy, I sound like an infomercial.)
Go to www.restaurant.com and type in your zip code to search for participating restaurants in your area. Then add a gift certificate to your shopping cart and then type in the discount code SURPRISE and click on APPLY.

I bought 2 $25 gift certificates to four of our favorite restaurants and cannot believe I only paid $16! Yes, there are some fine-print things to wade through ($35 minimum charge, only one gift certificate can be used per restaurant per month, etc) but if you're careful and read closely, you can REALLY find some great deals for nights out at your favorite places to eat. I think we'll save these to use when it's still a week til payday and we're just really craving a night out on the town.
That tends to happen a lot when you only get paid once a month. :)

I am really getting into this coupon thing. I saved $72.33 by shopping at CVS today. Everything I bought was on sale or I had a coupon or CVS extra care bucks. I've been reading blogs like Money Saving Momhttp://www.moneysavingmom.com/ and The Centsible Sawyer http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/ and learning how these ladies shop at CVS and play the "CVS game". They spend relatively little there and make huge $$$ with extra bucks. I've been shopping at CVS for quite some time but usually let my extra bucks expire because I only went there very infrequently. Last month, I made a list and bought most of my stuff at CVS and with the sale prices combined with manufacturer's coupons, I actually made money shopping there. Well, ok not actual dollars but extra bucks that are redeemable for almost anything in the store. Now the hardcore CVSers just keep rolling those extra bucks over and buying more stuff each week but I like to use the extra bucks to buy milk or bread or treat myself to new makeup or Easton a toy or whatever when funds are low at the end of the month. It's like getting it for free! Today I went to two CVS stores and used up every single extra buck I had. But I found some majorly good deals! The first store I went to didn't have anything good on clearance really so I went to another CVS that I knew was pretty much almost always a jackpot for finding good stuff on clearance. And sure enough, I wasn't disappointed! Right when I walked in the door, I saw a cart full of stuff marked "Clearance! 90% off!" I dug around in the bottom of the cart and found some really pretty tinted lip balm that regularly retails for $7.99 on sale for $0.79! I stocked up and bought all they had. Here's what I got:

• five new lip balm shades for less than $5!
• some eye shadow on sale for $0.35
• some L'Oreal Visable Lift makeup for $1.29
• a Cookie Monster doll for Easton for $1.75

And that's just the stuff that was on clearance! All the other stuff ended up being on sale or I had coupons for. I also got

• a remote controlled car on sale for $5.49
• 2 bottles of nail polish that were $0.99 each which I had a coupon for that meant these were FREE
• a box of Lipton green tea that was on sale for $0.69
• Crayola fingerpaints for E for $5.49 (not on sale but with all the other steals I found, it didn't bother me too much.
• a bar of Johnson's Buddies Soap for $0.99 but free after $1.00 off coupon
• a gallon of milk
• a loaf of bread
• a newspaper
• two CVS magazines full of coupons

All of this only cost me $3.71 out of pocket after extra bucks, sales and coupons.

Pretty nice, don't you think? Jason couldn't believe it. I told him he shouldn't complain about me shopping if I get all this stuff for so little money. He laughed and said "I guess you're right." What was that honey? Can ya say that again for me? :)