Our Yard Sale

Me with a portion of our items for sale.

My two helpers who joined me after the rush!

Well, I did it . . . I held our first ever yard sale! I thought it was going to be a huge hassle, but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. I got up around 6 this morning and proceeded to drag our heavy table from the deck to the garage and load it up with stuff. We ended up with a lot more junk than I thought as I filled 4 tables and had lots on the ground too. It did start to sprinkle early on so I had to move everything in close to the garage, but other than that the weather was perfect. We ended up selling $73.75 worth of JUNK . . . not bad considering that my best junk goes on eBay!

The Terrible Stage

As long as I can remember I've heard people talk about the terrible twos. Unfortunately, we are now beginning to experience them. Yesterday was one of the worst days I can remember since Savannah was itty bitty. I honestly was ready to throw in the towel by the time Dave got home. It started with her waking up at 5:30 am (as I was getting ready to leave for aerobics) screaming like crazy. I tried to wait it out, but finally decided that I better go and try to get her back to sleep and just be late to my class. Thankfully, she did go back to sleep, but only long enough for me to work out and get home. As soon as I walked in the door from aerobics I found my work staring me straight in the face. This was going to be a doozy of a day!

To make a long story short, I spent the entire day listening to a whiny, crying baby who just couldn't find the right thing to make her happy. We tried going to Charlotte at Play and running some errands, which both helped some time pass without much fussing, but as soon as we got home she started in again. It's a new feeling trying to make a toddler happy as I just can't seem to grasp what's in that little head, but I'm here to say that yesterday nothing was appealing to my precious child! Maybe it was just because she's still suffering from allergies or maybe it really is her way of testing the waters around here, but either way it was R O U G H!

I called my friend, Laura, who is the Rosemond expert and begged for some advice. She was so encouraging in letting me know that we were doing the right things and that this too would pass. What would I do without these precious friends?!

Today, however, has been a much better day! We have spent some time at the park, ran some more errands, and enjoyed watching the much needed rain. Don't get me wrong, she has still tried testing her limits today, but just knowing that I am doing the right thing has made me more able to handle her. So, maybe the terrible twos are really a training period for parents and toddlers . . .

Welcomed Long Weekend

I have truly enjoyed having Dave home all weekend and today as well. Although it was his vacation day, he really gave me a break by helping out tons with Savannah and around the house too. We have enjoyed sleeping in, gathering junk for our first ever yard sale this coming weekend, spending tons of time outside (even though it continually makes Savannah's allergies crazy), grilling out, eating out, attempting to make home made ice cream (add that ice cream maker to the yard sale pile!), playing at the park, and even playing a few card games over and over again. What a treat to have so many days together without planned activities!!

Tomorrow it's back to the old routine . . . with an added focus on losing the four pounds I've gained since vacation. :( We're still praying that Savannah's allergy crud goes away soon. Although MUCH better now, we're still working on four plus weeks of runny noses, sneezing, watery eyes, and Benadryl around the clock.

Zoo and Hilton Head 2008

Just What the Doctors Ordered

It's been awhile since I last posted as we finally stole away from Charlotte and enjoyed a family vacation with just the three of us. For awhile I didn't think it would even happen, especially on Friday! The day started great with things being pretty caught up around the house, Savannah in WEE school, and me with my short list of things to do during the morning ~ planning to use the afternoon to pack for our trip to the zoo and Hilton Head on Saturday morning. Here's the short version of how things went awry: between Savannah and me we saw THREE different doctors during the day and made THREE different trips to the pharmacy to get prescriptions all on Friday. By Friday night at 8pm, as I was sitting in the urgent care with my eye pouring green ick I literally started to cry, and not because I was in pain. I was simply frustrated that I had a daughter with an awful cough, an infected eye, and that all of my plans were going to be ruined. However, after all three doctors agreeing that what I really needed was actually to go on the trip, and after lots of encouragement from my awesome husband, we packed up our stuff at 10pm Friday and headed out early Saturday morning for a few days of rest and relaxation.

We started with the Columbia zoo where our Sunday School class met for a day of fun. It was amazing!! Although Savannah wasn't at 100% and I had to wear my glasses because of the eye infection, it was so much fun watching her see animals in person for the first time. Thankfully, since my glasses prescription is 9 years old, the animals were very close and I could still see them. We even fed the giraffes from our hands!!

Then we headed on to Hilton Head for Saturday through Tuesday. Other than Savannah being up coughing all night and even getting so worked up that she threw up a couple of times, we had a terrific trip. We spent lots of time on the beach (which Savannah loved this year unlike last year), rode bikes, ate out lots, and just enjoyed being away from the computer for awhile. The beach wasn't very crowded and in the early morning when we were out, the ocean was at low tide and made a perfect wading pool for Savannah to play in without us having to worry about her going too far out into the ocean. She even made a new friend that she loved playing with and sharing toys with. What a blessing to enjoy some quality family time and not be rushing from one place to the next!

The Savings are In . . .

I was hesitant last night to report my savings at BiLo, but with the encouragement of my husband (who is FINALLY home) and with my huge savings today I couldn't help but share my excitement/serious high with everyone!!! So, please don't think this is a bragging post, but rather one to encourage all of my coupon clipping friends to clip away!! So here we go:

Yesterday Bi Lo Savings (thanks to my friend Kristin who informed me that they will triple up to 100 coupons, unlike Harris Teeter's limit 20 policy): Spent $9.88, Saved $108.39

Today Harris Teeter Savings (with my coupon that I politely asked for at customer service to get $20 off a $40 purchase~that they let me use on a $21 order!) Spent $1.60, Saved $80.44

I returned something at Harris Teeter so I actually ended walking out of the store with laundry detergent, pull ups, 8 bags full of groceries and $5 cash more than when I went in! Add that to the $24.50 I earned by doing a mystery shop at Harris Teeter while I was racking up and the grand total for the Bachmann household this week . . .

Over $200 in groceries for FREE with $18 more in cash than when we started!!!

Clip away my friends, clip away!

The funny thing is that as I was at Harris Teeter I ran into Kimberly, who works at my regular Harris Teeter. She immediately said hello to me and Savannah and then asked me what I was doing at a different store. Come on, don't they know by now that I'm a mystery shopper??!! I also ran into Nancy, our Sunday School coordinator from church, who gets just as big of rush as I do from clipping coupons if not bigger. I'd never have guessed that she was into coupons, but we stood in Harris Teeter and compared notes for a long time. I LOVE COUPONS!!!!

Monday's Play Date

This morning my friend Heather from Florida stopped by to visit while she was in town. It was so much fun catching up with her and visiting with her sweet children, Ethan and Aubrey. We played a little outside, had lots of fun inside, and wrapped up our visit with lunch at Chick fil A! Yum-O! Here is a picture of the three of them on the Chick fil A playground. We're not quite ready for solo play, but Ethan and Aubrey had a blast.

UPDATE:

I thought things were going okay with Dave being gone. However, after finally finishing catching up on all of my blog reading I went in to check on Savannah and found this!!!!!!



I guess she got tired of the chair on the floor and decided to put it on top of our storage containers . . . and don't even ask me how she managed to get in that thing with it so high! She knew it was blog worthy though because when I said don't move and got the camera she immediately started saying "cheese" for the picture. What else is in store for me??

Mother's Day

Well it has been quite a busy weekend. We enjoyed our time with Jamen while he was here and were sad to see him fly home on Sunday. It was nice trying to adapt to his laid back lifestyle for a few days. We actually rented a movie to watch on Saturday night, probably the first time we've rented something since last summer.

Sunday came and we said goodbye to Jamen and packed up for our race to Burlington. As we were eating breakfast our power went out and stayed out, who knows what happened, but at least we were leaving so we didn't have to sit in a house without power all morning. I opened my gifts from Savannah and was excited to get a pedicure, a new book, a picture frame, and swim lessons!! My favorite gift however, was a certificate good for one Saturday off!!! Yippee!

We arrived in Burlington just in time for church. The weather was NASTY the entire trip there and we quickly figured out that Savannah and I had dressed for the wrong season completely! After church we ate a delicious lunch at grandmaw's house and enjoyed some time with my brother and his family. Here are a couple of pictures from grandmaw's house. Then it was time to head back to Charlotte. Thankfully this trip was much less rainy and by the time we got home the weather was beautiful! So we topped off our afternoon with some Coldstone ice cream treats!

Now Dave just left for a business trip and will be gone until late Wednesday night. I'm already sad and worried about being a single mom for three days. Yikes! I called my neighbor and put her on alert just in case I need backup! :)

Lots of New Firsts . . .

Savannah has had quite a few firsts over the past few days. Here are a few of them along with the reward they've earned:

Sweetest First: Rubbing mommy's face with B trying to help her feel better while saying "mommy feel better".

Funniest First: During dinner at The Outback I realized that Savannah needed a diaper change and I had no diapers (because I switched diaper bags and sold my old, faded one on eBay for $43) . . . Jamen's solution . . . use a napkin! Well we did and it wasn't the best idea as by the time we got home she was soaked!

Smartest First: Finally figuring out how to say and actually saying "I LOVE YOU!"

Well that's all for now. We're hosting Jamen this weekend so I'm sure by Sunday we'll have lots to post about as he's quite the handful!

A Britax Bargain

Here we are . . . trying to decide which seats to buy!

I have been awaiting this sale for several weeks now and last night I could hardly sleep (I was up from 2-4am) from being so excited about the Britax warehouse sale this morning. My friend, Kristin, and I decided to try to beat the crowd and we left at 5:35am this morning to get in line for the sale that started at 8am. We were no match for the people who were first in line and had been waiting since 1:30am . . . now that's CRAZY! I thought it would be a long wait and brought lots of reading material, but didn't read even one article. We had fun just talking and sharing funny toddler stories. Anyway, we both found most of what we wanted including our next booster seats for the girls. I got a Britax Regent for $190!!

Thankfully this year was much more organized than the last sale where we waited in line for about 4 hours only to find out that they sold out of the seat we wanted. I'm sure it was quite comical and frustrating for the 200+ people waiting in line to get in watching us try to load 6 huge car seats into my highlander. We did it though!!!