Sunday, October 12, 2008

Garage Sales and New Closets

Well, Amy just keeps growing up. I don't know how to stop her; she doesn't seem to want to be my little baby anymore. In anticipation of this defiance, we have been in search of a toddler bed lately. We decided one Saturday a couple of weeks ago that we would try to hit some garage sales in our search, as craigslist wasn't turning up much in our neighborhood. To our surprise and joy, it turned out that the Saturday we went that Estrella Mountain Ranch was having their community garage sale - about 1 in every 5 houses was having one! So we drove the neighborhoods and found a new bike for Mike, a new Disney sing-along song movie for Amy,a crouquet set,... and near the end of our morning, there it was! Just as we were about to give up, we found the perfect toddler bed! Amy LOVES it, and she has even asked us to put her to bed a night or two. Advantage: She can get up in the morning instead of peeing her diaper, meaning she wakes up dry! Disadvantage: She can get up in the morning, and she does... at 6:30 in the morning. I think she's always gotten up that early, but she's always been content to stay in her bed and play and talk to herself until we came in to get her - basically, she spoiled us. Now that she can get up, she toddles herself into our room saying, "Mom! Mom! Some Milk?" Notice it's "Mom," not "Dad." Mike has been a good sport and let me sleep in some mornings, but if he doesn't get out of bed and take her into the front room for some breakfast or cartoons, she refuses to cuddle with him in the bed because she wants me, which is both sweet and a bit annoying some mornings. Oh well... I guess we can officially say she's completely potty trained before the age of 2 (she turns 2 in a couple weeks)! The only other problem we've had with the bed is her habit of occasionally falling out of it. I need to get some sort of railing for her because she is definitely her mother's child, meaning she rolls all over the place, including onto the floor.

The other happenings around our home are the new shelves. The closets in the office and Amy's room are those lame, single plastic shelves across the top. I wanted some wooden ones with several shelves across one side and some long shelves across the top because the closets are really tall. Mike and Richard spent a whole day cutting, measuring, painting, and installing some wooden shelves for me, including 3 small shelves across the top that fit my food storage cans PERFECTLY! Thanks Richard for all your help! Thanks Mike for dealing with my ever-changing mind. The next step is to do something similar in Amy's closet. Hooray for a husband who likes to learn new skills!

Friday, October 10, 2008

FREE CLEANING SUPPLIES!

I am currently obsessed with this website, moneysavingmom.com. Today she posted this amazing deal (I also got this Visine deal) where you get free cleaning supplies! Here's how I did:

Retail Price: $55.92 (this includes sales tax)

Manufacturer's Coupons: $29.00

Walgreens Coupon: $4.00

Walgreen's Rebate: $22.00

Total Money Spent: $0.92. Actually, because I chose to get my rebate on a gift card instead of in check form, I'm getting 10% more back, so I'll get $24.20 back, meaning I made $1.28 buying cleaning supplies!

HOLY COW THAT'S AMAZING!

Here's a picture of what I purchased! Everyone must go stock up now! Even if these aren't things you normally use, you can either give them a try, or put them in a cute basket and call it a wedding gift!
I left them on the floor where I took the picture and walked away for a minute, and Amy felt it was her job to line them up on the table! How funny!