Bedding and Football

This is the bedding we just ordered for Blake. Thank you Grandma Slagley for sending us the money to buy this! She was so sweet to buy Kate's bedding when she was born too. I guess the tabs-keeping has begun to try and keep things equal between kids! I have already caught myself buying little things for one and feeling quilty, leading me to buy for the other. I have been looking at bedding patterns for a while, and I found this one for a great deal. It includes the dust ruffle, sheet, bumper, quilt, valance, and diaper stacker.

This is the pattern up close. It kind of looked like an animal print from far away, but it is just tiny bubbles. I love this pattern and cannot wait to use it! I thought I had found a great crib on Ebay, but the bidding got a little too high for our budget, so we will wait for the next "steal" to come around. We are planning on him being in a cradle in our room for a while anyway, so we still have plenty of time. The nesting has really started, and I have only had a few "freakouts" when I realize that we have NOTHING ready for him. I keep thinking we need to go get the cradle from Mom and Dad's house, but it hasn't happened yet (and they live here in town). I guess the nesting this time around will be more geared towards cleaning and making space for him, rather than getting equipment ready. We are so thankful that most of the equipment for Kate is still in great condition, neutral in color, and still in our house!

On a not so great note, we found out yesterday that the new stroller we ordered has a recalled part! There is a laceration hazard if you have your hand in the hinges when you fold it- am I the only person that thinks it is crazy to have to recall for THAT? Who puts their hands in hinges when you are folding things in the first place?! I found a website that sends you free hinge covers if requested, so I went ahead and ordered those so they will be here in a few weeks- just in case I feel like putting my hands in some hinges.

We are off to AUBURN for the weekend!!! Football season begins! Brandon is geared up for a full day of tailgating, seeing friends, watching other games, etc. But, I am not sure how much walking around in the heat Kate and I will be up for. Papa G and JoJo are going to be in town to keep Kate if she gets tired of tailgating and needs a nap, which makes me so happy! I am pretty excited about seeing everyone, but to be honest, I will probably not pay any attention to the actual game! War Eagle!

Another Good Day at CVS

I just wanted to share one of my recent deals from CVS. I won't bore you with too many details, but I am loving this coupon/Extra Care Bucks game! It is really fun once you get a good collection of coupons and you figure out how to read the ad and figure out how to do your transactions. I will try to explain it the best that I can...

Transaction #1

2 Kelloggs Special K $4.49, on sale B1G1 free

Softsoap $2.49, on sale for $0.99

Cottonelle Flushable Wipes $3.19, on sale for $1.99

Infant's Advil $6.49, on sale for $5.79

2 Ajax Dish Detergent $1.79, on sale B1G1 free

Coupons-

$0.20 off Ajax

$0.35 off Softsoap

$0.50 off Cottonelle wipes

$1.00 off Advil

$2.00 off CVS coupon (printed on receipt from previous purchase)

B1G1 free Special K coupon, which made both boxes free!

$5.00 ECB from last purchase

So, I got $24.73 worth of stuff for $2.32 out of pocket. Plus, I walked away with $5.79 in ECB (from Advil purchase) for my next purchase and another receipt coupon for $4 off $20.

Transaction #2

Playtex Sport Tampons $5.69, on sale for $4.99

Zipfizz Energy Drink 3 pack $5.99

Coupons-

$1.00 off tampons

$2.00 off CVS coupon (receipt printout)

$5.79 ECB from last purchase

So, this time I got $11.68 worth of stuff for $2.51 out of pocket. This round, I walked away with $3.00 ECB from the tampons and $5.99 ECB from the energy drink, so I have $8.99 to start with on my next trip!

Another great shopping tip is for Publix: they take competitor coupons and they will stack B1G1 free coupons with others (cents or dollars off of that item), so I went to Publix and saved a ton with my coupons there too! I love that Publix took a $5 off of $25 Piggly Wiggly coupon! Why haven't I been coupon clipping and smart shopping all along?

*New Post Below*

One Last Trip

We took a chance going down to the beach during "Hurricane Fay," but we had some pretty nice weather afterall! We played outside the whole weekend, even when it was sprinkling a little. We even made it into the ocean a time or two.

Melanie, me, and Elizabeth enjoying our relaxing day! We met some people down there, and one crazy man (who had been drinking beer ALL day long) completely missed the fact that I was pregnant. I went inside and Dee and Elizabeth tried to explain the dynamics of our group and said, "the pregnant girl is married to the other guy here." To which the old drunk guy replied, "She was pregnant?" How sad is that? He was either really drunk or just thought I had a nice gut on me! There was another man by the hot tub all day who had such a huge belly that his belly button looked flat/poked out a little like mine!

Getting ready to go eat on Friday night. We enjoyed some good food!

Had to get the girls picture again. (Who knows what I had dripped on my belly, it tends to catch most spills these days!)
We went to the beach with some college friends from Thursday to Sunday and left Kate with Brandon's aunt and uncle in Montgomery. They had said it would be fun to keep her sometime, but little did they know that I would be calling to ask! Kate had a blast with them, and it seemed like they enjoyed having her too. It was so nice to get away and sleep in (even though my body won't let me sleep past about 8:30) and have nothing to do. I am so used to worrying about having Kate's milk and breakfast at a certain time, naptimes, lunch at a certain time, etc. that it was hard to not live by a schedule this weekend. I did only allow myself one phone call a day to check on her, and I stuck to it. It is funny how guilty I felt when I was enjoying myself, knowing that she would have had a blast too. This was really the last time that Brandon and I would be able to get away by ourselves (not really alone, but without a child) before Blake gets here, so we made sure to relax and enjoy our trip. We were glad to get home and see our sweet girl though!

New Words

Kate's vocabulary is becoming bigger and bigger everyday, and I am having a hard time keeping up with what all she is saying when- so this post is sort of for my own good to help me remember. She is almost 15 months old now, and she is shocking us everyday at how big she is getting! We laugh all the time at the things she understands and is starting to try to communicate to us. So far, here is a list of common words we hear:
MaMa
DaDa
More-she gets stuck on the "m" and says "mmmmmore"
Car-when she sees one or when she is ready to leave somewhere, she says it in a Northern/Canadian accent, "cah"
Bird
Woof Woof-any time she sees a dog or hears one bark
Aubie-her Daddy taught her this from an Auburn kids' book, she can also point him out on any page!
Kate
Hot-when we get in the car and when we watch the olympics and she sees the torch, she points and says, "hot"
No No-she knows when she is not supposed to do something and she starts shaking her head and saying "no no no no" before I get the chance to tell her no
Baby
Bailey
Pop
Pig
Ball
Please-"Pees"

Anyway, I just wanted to keep up with some things that are constantly changing in Kate. One thing that is funny about her talking is that she chooses when she wants to talk and what she wants to say. Sometimes she makes a liar out of me when I try to get her to perform for other people. She also amazes us at what all she can point to. She knows all of your facial features, several household items, and she even can follow commands now such as, "pick up your red block." I am trying to teach her about picking up her toys when she is done playing with them and I say "pick up the blocks" and she will help me put them back in her bucket. One new thing she does that is not so cute is that she will slap. You can ask her "where is Blake?" and she comes over to me and lifts my shirt up. She used to just tap my stomach and she will kiss it if you ask her to, but now she has started to slap it and she laughs when we tell her "no no." Usually she obeys when you tell her to be gentle and just to rub it, but she still thinks she is pretty funny when she tries to slap it. My sister and mom kept her the other night and Kelly told me that she kept trying to slap her too- not a good habit! This may be a really boring post for most people, but I need to keep up with these things for our own memory!

First Try At The CVS Game

Not too shabby! I have been blog-stalking several other blogs to try and figure out exactly how you can get something for nothing... and I decided to give it a shot on this rainy day. Kate and I needed to get out, so why not go spend a little to save a lot?! I started off with nothing. If you look at other blogs in their tales of $0.00 purchases at CVS, they are usually starting with some ECB (Extra Care Bucks, they are what you earn by spending on certain items at CVS and can be used like cash in their store). I have a CVS card and I have been studying their weekly ad trying to figure out which items I had coupons for and what we would actually use. I split it into 3 transactions to earn the most ECBs.
Transaction #1:

Alavert (Brandon always needs allergy medications) for $5.99 (on sale from $10.99)
Infant Advil (Kate definitely will use this with these teeth) for $5.79

I had coupons for $1.oo off Advil
$4.00 off Alavert
$2.00 off any $10 purchase at CVS (I printed several offline from another blog)

So, I spent $5.76 out of pocket, but walked away with $3 ECB from the Alavert, $5.79 ECB from the Advil, and the register printed out more coupons too!
Basically, even though I spent a little, I walked away with $8.79 to spend.

Transaction #2:

Huggies Diapers $8.99
Huggies Wipes $2.50
2 Colgate toothpastes (Buy one get one free) $3.29
CVS brand Ibuprofen $3.19

(CVS has a deal this week that if you spend $25 on certain baby items, you earn 5 ECB, and the diapers and wipes went towards that purchase.)

I had coupons for $2.00 off diapers
$1.00 off wipes
$1.50 off toothpaste
$2.00 off $10 CVS coupon
$3.19 off Ibuprofen printed from the register (which made it free)
$3.00 ECB from last purchase

So, I spent $6.26 out of pocket this time- not quite free, but I would have spent WAY more on the diapers alone anywhere else!

Transaction #3:

Huggies Diapers $8.99
Huggies Wipes $2.50
Johnson's Baby Lotion $2.99
Playskool Cottony Cloths Wipes $5.79
(all went towards $25 baby purchase to earn more ECB)

I had coupons for $1.50 off diapers
$0.50 off wipes
$1.00 off lotion
$2.00 off Playskool wipes (printed from register at first purchase)
$2.00 off $10 CVS coupon
$5.79 ECB

So, I spent $8.53 out of pocket, but walked away with $5 ECB this time too. So, even though I did spend some money, it was not as much as I would have even paid for the 2 packs of diapers, which I needed anyway!
I would love any tips from seasoned CVS shoppers on how to save more, but I had a great time buying all of this stuff for such great prices! I am already looking at my ad to see what else I can get with my $5 ECB to earn even more!

Two Common Faces

We had another relaxing weekend at home. Brandon was off Friday, so we just had a lazy day at home, and we enjoyed the opening ceremonies Friday night. I was supposed to work all day Saturday, but I got put on call, so we had a fun lunch with friends at Zoe's and a fun dinner with friends/family at Tortugas. We started the new members class at church yesterday, so we were there from 8 until 11, so Kate was exhausted. That was about it for our weekend, which was perfect!
We have a couple of faces around here lately that I wanted to share with you. One is funny and one is NOT so funny...

This face is driving me nuts! I know it is not driving me half as nuts as the teeth are driving her though. Hands are in the mouth all the time! She has been drooling like crazy, and she has never been a drooler. I thought we had made it through the bad parts of teething, considering she has a mouthful of teeth... but, apparently these "stomach" teeth (the bottom I-teeth) are killing her! They keep her from sleeping well too, which just adds to her whiny-ness. I really feel so bad for her because there is just not much I can do. I give Motrin at night, but the nurse in me does not want to tear up her stomach by giving her Motrin all the time, so I try not to give it to her during the day too. Tylenol doesn't seem to cut it lately, but it doesn't tear up the stomach quite so bad, so it is our backup. And she closes her lips tight when she sees my finger with orajel on it coming close. I can sneak it in there before naps and bedtime by pretending like I am putting her pacifier in and then putting the orajel on, but she resists it. I think that is only because she doesn't want me to touch her gums. The bottom ones (stomach teeth) are just under the skin, so I know they are close, but this has made for a miserable girl lately!

And this is her new fake smile. When she sees the camera come out, she starts this squinting thing until I take the picture. She loves squatting like this when she plays, it does not seem like it would be that comfortable, but she seems to enjoy it. It keeps her in the ready-to-run position at all times! We had a welcome dinner last week for our Christian Medical Ministry Bible study, and we saw friends that we have not seen all summer. So, Kate was surprising them all with her walking/running skills. She was running around, weaving through all of the people, and we were just trying to keep up with her. I finally told Brandon that it was his night- I was way too hot to chase her around the whole time. She loves being chased, she just turns and smiles and goes even faster in the other direction. Fun in the house, NOT fun in the heat of outside! Anyway, one friend of ours just watched her for a minute and said, "Did she just go straight from crawling to running?" I forgot that Kate only started walking around her birthday in late May, and most of our friends from this Bible study have not seen her new skills.
Speaking of that Bible study, we are starting back to our weekly meetings tonight! I am so excited to get back in the swing of things, I feel like I am starting back to school. We have a womens' Bible study that meets on Wednesday morning (nursery is provided, which is so nice) that starts back this week too. I am also starting a smocking class tomorrow night that I have been so excited about, so I cannot wait! I had a friend ask me the other day what I do all day at home with Kate, and it made me so glad that the "schoolyear" is back in session, because I don't feel quite so stir-crazy when I have things planned for each day. I just hope Kate can be a trooper with this new schedule of things to do that may interfere with the nap/bedtime routine we have worked so hard to establish!

Diabetes Free!

OK- yesterday was a dramatic day! I had an appointment at 8 in the morning, which is hard to get to when you have to get yourself and a little girl ready and get her to her friend Porter's house all in time for your scheduled appointment. But, we made it with a few minutes to spare! I had to drink the nasty, thick, sugary, flat-Sunkist tasting drink (which sends chills up my spine and makes me want to vomit) right when I got there and sit until I saw the doctor. That part wasn't too bad because I brought a book to read.
Then, I had to see the one doctor that I am not crazy about, and I felt like he rushed me. I know I am probably their least favorite kind of patient, but when things worry me, I cannot rest until I know the reasons behind my concerns. Anyway, he measured my belly and told me I measured fine and baby is head down, and as he walked towards the door, he asked me if I had any other questions. That is not exactly the way I want to be asked, and it reminded me how much I love seeing Dr. Adcock because he sits there and chats and makes you feel like he has nowhere else to be. I told him that I have been having contractions and that when I have them, the lower right side of my stomach is so tender that I cannot even touch it. He just waved his hand and said, "That doesn't bother me. Anything else?" I kept talking to him as he walked closer to the door and pressed the button on the wall that tells the nurses that he is finished to come put new paper on the chair/table thing. And back out to the waiting room to finish waiting my hour for the sugar test!
I went back to the nurse's station and got my finger pricked. The nurse is telling me that she knows everything is fine, most people have normal results, and she wants my glucose to be less than 140. The screen pops up and says 168. My stomach dropped, and she told me she had to send more blood to get another reading. I was upset, but I held it together through the checkout. All I could think about was how Gestational Diabetes can make for very large babies, possible low blood sugar in the baby after birth, higher risk for respiratory distress, etc. Thank you NICU for always making me think of worst case scenarios! I thought it was just hard to work there full-time when I was pregnant with Kate because I had to see those scenarios. BUT, it is no different when I am not full-time. I still think of everything that could possibly happen to Blake.
Another few things to add to my frustration... I went to check out and I told them that I really wanted to see Dr. Adcock next visit because it has been so long since I saw him, but they told me that I really needed to see the one other one I haven't seen this pregnancy. Why wasn't anyone listening to me?!?! Also, I had exactly $2 for the parking card machine. When I got down there, I waited in line for 10 minutes, and when I got to the machine, they had raised the price to $3. I had been there a little over an hour, and I had to put $3 on my credit card because I didn't have anymore cash! And, when I got to the mechanical arm to put my parking card in, the arm was stuck in the air, so I didn't even need the stupid card! What a day! I called Brandon, and when I was telling him about the bad morning, I just burst into tears. I told him that I had not been doing a good job of taking care of myself or Blake, and that I had already tainted his chances of a smooth, problem-free entrance into the world. He just calmed me down and told me that I was overreacting and that we have nothing to worry about yet, etc.
To end the drama, I called today at lunch to ask what my blood sugar was in the send-off labs they took after my finger stick. Good news- it was 131, so I passed afterall! I don't have to go now to do a 3 hour glucose test, yay!!! All of that drama was for nothing. I am very thankful that everything is ok and that I don't have to worry about blood sugars, big babies, etc. Just wanted to share the good news with everyone!

(Un)Eventful Weekend

We have had a pretty relaxing weekend here at home. Brandon got the day off on Friday, so we picked veggies from the garden and made tons of fresh goodies.
I love it when you can go outside to pick fresh green tomatoes off of this:

And fry them up to look like this:

Also, when you can take your fresh squash from here:

And turn it into squash casserole like this:

We took our casserole to a potluck dinner of Bible study friends on Friday night, so I hadn't tasted it before we went, but it seemed to be a hit.
Saturday, we were pretty lazy and watched movies and played with Kate at home. It has been so hot lately that it just about kills me to be outside for long, so we have found lots of things to do inside. Luckily, Kate loves to read, so we spend lots of time reading! It is funny to have Brandon home and stay inside because he says he feels completely non-productive. I guess I have gotten used to being a home-body and staying home with Kate, even if it means playing inside and staying close to home for naptimes. Today, we actually made it to the early service and it was great. Usually, Kate sleeps into the 7:00 hour and we just haven't gotten ourselves together in time, so we hadn't successfully made it to that service, and then the 11:00 service hits right at naptime and she does NOT do well if you try to keep her in the nursery with other cranky kids. When we went to pick her up, she was happily playing and was excited to see us, so this may be our new routine.
About the naptimes... Kate has been doing much better! I had to take some advice from the book Baby Wise and from some friends and just put my foot down. This book says that as the mom, I should decide when naptime is and when it is time to give it up. Even though we had some days of Kate just whining for the entire time in her room, I stuck with it and she is back to taking good naps twice a day. My pediatrician told me that most babies should be taking 2 naps until around 18 months (I know every child is different and this is NOT the case for all babies, but Kate has always been a good sleeper, so I thought she would fall under the category of "most babies"). I think these teeth are the culprit for the lack of sleep recently though.
Joe (the extremely loud guy that lives upstairs) update... Last night, Brandon was out by the grill while Joe was grilling too. Brandon said the first thing Joe said was that he was sorry for the noise that night that I left him the note. It turns out that he was home, but he was sleeping so heavily that he didn't hear me knock or his extremely loud TV. Ironically, he made the comment that his first wife hated that he would fall asleep with the tv on loud and not hear anything either. He has gotten better about the blatant noise, but we still hear his every step, his toilet flushing, and we still count pushups. I guess those are things that will not change in this old building. I was very glad though that he apologized, and Brandon jokingly told him that you just can't mess with a pregnant momma that wants precious sleep when her child is sleeping. At least he is conscious of the noise situation now.
Anyway, that is about it for us recently. I go in first thing in the morning for my glucose challenge test... yikes! I hope the blizzard I had today does not linger in the system- I want to be Diabetes free!