Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The Happiest Place on Earth

I am well aware that my darling brother would completely disagree with me on this. Actually, I am well aware that some of you will completely disagree with me on this. But...... it's my blog and I'll do what I want to, do what I want to (sing to the tune of It's My Party)....ha-ha.

The hubby and I, along with the boys snuck (is snuck a word?) off to one of our favorite places (i.e. The Happiest Place on Earth) a few weekends ago. We knew it would be our last "hoorah" as a family before baseball, t-ball, planting season, etc.

You know the story by now....because we're passholders, we get great deals on Disney rooms. Our location of choice for this trip was the Port Orleans Riverside.
The boys had special treats waiting for them in the room when we arrived.....they received an autographed picture of the "classic" Disney characters! It was too cute and you'd have thought they got the moon on a silver platter!
Nolan, bless his heart (I'd say sweet heart, but we've had some behavioral problems with him lately, so it's not sweet right now--we've had a LOT of character development lately; um..that would be spankings). Anyhow--Nolan, bless his heart, was sick and we didn't know it. He had complained that he didn't feel good that afternoon and of course, the hubby and I were like "you're fine...come on"...and little did we know we'd be up many hours that night with a little boy that had STREP THROAT. Go ahead and blame that one on me. I'd had strep throat that week, but had been on antibiotics and his didn't develop until that Friday night. We dosed him up good with Motrin though, and he had a great time, despite not feeling well.
Friday, we headed into the Magic Kingdom for a few hours of fun

Then on Saturday, we headed over to Animal Kingdom and met our cousin, Jennifer and her boyfriend, Matthew, for some family fun!
We all had a great time together and the boys just LOVE Matthew (sorry Jenn--they love you too).

At Animal Kingdom, the boys were able to see a few characters that they've never had their picture with, Rafiki and Timon.

They played "whack-a-mole" and a few other games in Dino Land and had a great time winning prizes!


It was a quick trip to Disney, and as I always say, a nice break from reality. I can't wait for the next trip.

~CB~

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Publix-Deals and Steals

So....here's my latest Publix update! Check out what I got for $1.19! Yes, only $1.19.

It is......2 "things" (that's what we call 'em here) of 8 bottles each, Gatorade-4 cans of Progresso Soup-1 box of Glad trash bags-1 package of 24 rolls Angel Soft toilet paper-1 bottle of Purex laundry detergent (64 loads), the He kind (for high-efficiency washers)-and last but not least-another Purex laundry item, the new 3-n-1 "stuff".



I'm LOVING my couponing!!!!!!!

~CB~

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A surprise in the mail!

A few weeks ago, "From the Beginning" hosted a giveaway on her blog! I love a giveaway, even though I "never" win--ironically enough, I've won 2 of the 3 giveaways I've ever entered via blog land.....ha!

I was SO EXCITED when I saw posted on Julianne's blog that I WON!! A few days later, look what I got in the mail....a sweet surprise!

This package had the CUTEST Valentine's Day decorations in it! It had 2 candles, a sachet, some red/white dishtowels, and some red/white cloth doilies/coasters! HOW CUTE!


Thank you Julianne! I decorated with all my goodies and they were wonderful!

~CB~

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy Birthday and Valentine's Day!

Yesterday (Friday) was the hubby's birthday! We decided that we would not really do gifts this year for birthdays and such, just so we could save more money--that was well and fine, especially since I've been sick for the past 3 weeks and didn't have time or energy to get the hubby a gift anyhow!

I did manage to get the hubby 2 SMALL gifts for his birthday......a new razor (which is orange and blue--can't go wrong with those colors) and a Disney visor (for playing golf and for when we go to DW!) See? I told you they were small gifts--since we had already decided not to do anything, he was more than happy with those 2 items--especially the razor, he's already used it. Hopefully I won't make Carrie's "bad gifts list"! HA!




It was a low-key birthday since it was so cold here, I was sick, and hubby had to be on the tractor until "later" in the day. Nothing big--we just gave him his gifts, grabbed something to eat, and he blew out the candles on his birthday cake. See? Nothing big.
I had decided Thursday night that I would get up on Friday morning, then leave as soon as I could get in to see the Doctor--I have been sick for 3 weeks now and just couldn't seem to shake whatever it was I had. First was strep throat the last week of January, which turned into the Flu last week/this week, and then a bad cough, etc. Cecil tried to talk me into staying at work until noon on Friday, but I just kept saying that there was no sense in that--if I was staying until noon, I might as well stay all day and the longer I'm at work, the harder it is to leave, etc. Here's why he wanted me to stay at work!

He sent me flowers! Here's the kicker! I didn't get them on time! They came about 10 minutes after I left work yesterday morning! : ( Turns out, my mother-in-law got off work early, drove to where I work, picked them up and then we picked them up from her house last night. It was so sweet of him to send flowers though. I haven't received flowers in YEARS from the husband! I will confess though, I was like "No! You could have bought 10 or 12 other things rather than spending who knows how much on a dozen roses!".......He just laughed and said "I know!".....
It was a nice gesture though!

Here's to the hubby on his 31st birthday AND a great, big Happy Valentine's Day to y'all!

~CB~

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Three Dollars? Only THREE?

Yes! Only $3! For what you ask? I made a small trip to Publix the other day, and got all sorts of items for only $3!!!!!! Remember I took that couponing class a few weeks ago? I've been really doing well with stacking my coupons, but really outdid myself this week!

Here's a picture for proof! I ended up with 2 boxes of Ritz Crackerfuls, 2 jars of Planters Peanuts, 1 jar of Claussen pickles (is there really any other brand?), 2 packages of Yoplait-Trix for Kids yogurt, 2 bottles of mustard (that's my addiction, along with pickles), 2 16 oz. containers of Breakstone's Sour Cream, 1 package of Oscar Meyer lunchmeat, and 2 containers of Heluva Good dip! (the picture is missing one jar of peanuts and one container of sour cream, because I gave that to my mother in law)


I called Annie that afternoon to tell her of my good fortune--her response? NO YOU DID NOT? STOP IT!! And my response back? YES I DID TOO (with much laughing)!

Yay for couponing!

~CB~

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

You'll have that tune in your head all day, won't you? Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Last Saturday night, we went out to CELEBRATE the birthday of a dear friend, Travis. Travis' wife, Cori planned out a great surprise party for Travis and had lots of our friends meet us at Yamato's for some great food!
Travis and Cori

Travis standing on his chair while we sang Happy Birthday to him and Yamato's rang the gong

Here's our group after dinner and we were STUFFED!! It was delicious!

Someone (who shall remain nameless!!) insisted we go somewhere else after dinner......where else, but bowling! It was determined that one of the bowling alleys in Gainesville was a tad "shady" so we elected to hit up another alley, just down the road from Yamato's. Strikz, I think it was called......

Ladies during bowling......(minus a few who either had gone home after dinner or whatnot)

Let me just say here and now that Danielle is the BEST bowler I've ever seen. Let it also be known that I do NOT bowl. Ever. Ever. I just can't do the foot funk. Nor do I enjoy purposefully making a huge fool of myself in front of others. Incidentally, not that I've got a great side, but my backside most CERTAINLY is not my best side. Oddly enough, that's all you see of most people when they are bowling. That being said, let me just say now that I've made a fool plenty of other times, all by pure accident! Bowling was not happening for me this particular night.

Back to the real story here. Danielle. She is the BOMB when it comes to bowling!!! GO DANIELLE! Strike after strike after strike! She credits all her talent to the Wii, but I'm not sure Todd hasn't been taking her to the bowling alley (let's hope not the shady one) to practice!!

I'll say here and now that the girls team was AWESOME! They kicked some bowling booty! The guys did too, but I forgot to look at their final score...sorry guys. If you're even reading this.

After bowling, that same someone (who is STILL remaining nameless) suggested we go for roller skating and go-karting next door to the bowling alley. By this time, it's about 10 something at night! Yes, I'm old. 10 something is late for me, especially considering we had been in Disney the night before and all day on Saturday--and I could feel myself getting physically sick with the flu (it ended up that I had to get strep-tested AND had the flu, which would hang around for another week).

Go-karting came first and let me say that I love a good race. Especially in a car. I know, I know. I have road rage something awful. I'm working on that. No, it was NOT one of my New Year's Resolutions. Why work on something that you know you're going to fail at? Waste of my time! ha!!

Turns out, my car was defective and I was lapped FOUR, yes FOUR times. It was SO SLOW! It was great fun, but my car was slow so I couldn't race anyone! Y'all know how I am about things, so does it come as a shock to you that I called the the manager Monday morning and complained? He sent me some free passes for go-karting that I mailed to the person in our group that paid for our go-karting. That's only fair.

Roller skating proved to be a blast!! To watch, that is. Did I mention I don't roller skate? Not only that whole foot funk thing again, but also because I can't. Like, absolutely can NOT! It was great fun to watch the few people that did skate though! Actually, only a few of the guys skated, plus Cori. She was the only girl brave enough to skate.

And this--this was one of the biggest highlights! Our friend Brad on skates! hahahahahha! Y'all I wish you could have seen him! It was hysterical! I'll give it to him, he sure did try hard on those skates, but he couldn't seem to stay upright for very long.....in this picture below, I don't know if you can see it good or not, but he had fallen down and just sat on the floor and posed, I'm assuming he knew we were all snapping pictures!
Bet you thought you'd never see these two in anything other than cowboy boots, huh?

All in all, a great Saturday night with some good friends--can't wait til we all get together again soon! Travis, we had a great time CELEBRATING your birthday!

~CB~

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

A Coaches Dinner

Every year the head baseball coach invites his assistant coaches over for a pre-season dinner and gathering--an all around great time! The coaches and assistant coaches get along wonderfully, which is sometimes a rarity when it comes to sports!
Here's a few of the wives chatting as dinner was about to be served....(make no mistake, we were NOT chatting about the upcoming season! ha-ha!)

and the guys (coaches) after dinner.....

You can't see who is in this picture, but it's Jim and Cecil......
We're gearing up for a great season with great coaches and great players! GO BIG RED!

~CB~