150 Martino Bash

150 Martino Bash

GUIDO

What's up big bro?

Ready for Christmas

I made 15 of these wine glasses for Christmas gifts for this season. I am well on my way.

Can You Guess It?

Can you guess who this might be all dressed up? No. It is not Madison or McKenzie!

Ice Cream...NOT in the summer!

This is a picture of the ice cream the kids made during the snow storm. Doesn't it look great?

SUMMER 20111

It is 100 degrees outside today! Ouch it is hot!! Madison is playing ball this summer and McKenzie is working with her dad. This is the second week of VBS for my boys and cooking class for Braden. I am going to start adding some learning tools to this blog. Come back soon!

Cookies Galore!

The Saturday before Thanksgiving Katie, Madison, McKenzie, Holly, Leah, and I baked cookies all day! Here are the results with a few other Thanksgiving photos included.

Gobble More!

My mom, Rick, Madison, and I went to Branson for Thanksgiving. We ate at a restaurant where there were people that would sing to you at the tables. A guy from the 2008 season of American Idol sang to Madison. We also went to Silver Dollar City to see over 4 million lights. One really neat attraction we saw the night before was the Trail of Lights. It was over 2 1/2 acres of neat Christmas lights. We did so many other things too. Oh, yes, we did shop on Black Friday.

Gobble! Gobble!

Bedazzle or Something like that

I was watching a Halloween show on TV and thought this would be a neat idea. Bedazzle your pumpkin.

How Much

Character Pumpkin

Here is a picture Brett made of his character pumpkin for school. The name of the book is My Monster Mama Loves Me So.

Haunted House

Here are some pictures of the haunted house I made out of a cardboard box. You can't see the purple lights inside the house that sort of shine through the windows.

Halloween Decorations and Football

Today Brett and I decorated for Halloween. We are only 1/2 finished but I will post some pictures anyway. I only have pictures of Braden's football team. It was a beautiful day.

Boys' Bonfire Blast!

Tonight Brett and Braden had 3 friends over for a bonfire. They had such a terrific time. They played with sidewalk chalk, roasted marshmallows, jumped on the trampoline, ate some more snacks (or shall I say ate s'more!!!), played football, and much more.

Where did all the air go?

The boys and I did a little science experiment this morning. We took a large trash bag and one of the boys got in it and cinched it by his waist. The other boy took the vacuum cleaner wand and sucked the air out. Result: A funny, tight, bag around the body.

Getting Caught Up!

I am going to post various pictures of recent happenings. There are some pictures of the fishing derby at Lakeside Park. I took Brett, Braden, and Braden's friend Asher. My mom and Rick went and we all had a picnic, too. There are some pictures of my Fall table. Exciting to me but maybe not to you. In addition, there are some pictures of the first day of school. The girls are freshmen now and Brett is in 4th grade and Braden is in 2nd.

Grocery Challenge Day #7

This is the last day of the grocery challenge. I made it!! I spent $36.56!!! This DID NOT include drink here or there or the occasional $1 hamburger my husband may have purchased for the kids. This was strictly groceries. I DID NOT eat out AT ALL!!! Today for breakfast was either cereal, pop tarts, toast, and/or applesauce. Lunch was chips/salsa,Cheese Nips, and turkey sandwiches. The afternoon snack was FREE frozen drinks from Long John Silvers and brownies. Dinner will be hamburgers!!!!!!!!! Sit down for this one! Dillon's today....Total before coupons...$79.58.....after coupons....-51 cents.....so, I had to buy a candy bar.grand total .03 cents.

Grocery Challenge Day #6

Yesterday was day #6 of my grocery challenge!!! I think I will make it. However, I do have a slight change. I am not going to count when we get popcorn, my girls go with a friend somewhere and buy a snack, etc. That wasn't my intention. My intention was to lower my weekly grocery bill. So, I am going to add the $10 back in from the popcorn this week. Therefore, my total is $17.56. Last night I spent $19.00 at Dillon's. My new total is $36.56. I bought the following: bag of salad, 12 boxes of General Mills cereal, box of Cheese Nips, three 1/2 gallon cartons of ice cream, and a box of Hormel turkey. I saved 73% of my bill. For breakfast we had toast, cantaloupe or cereal. Lunch was turkey sandwiches. Dinner was salad, Italian shells and cheese, cheesy garlic bread, and cantaloupe.

Grocery Challenge Day #5

Today was the last day of the 'kid movies' at the mall. Therefore, I spent $5 on popcorn again. That brings my food total to $27.56. Tonight we ate sloppy joe's for dinner. We just snacked on little things for lunch because I knew we would have popcorn at the movie. I didn't go to the store today. I really ought to go soon because I have some great coupons to match the Dillon's ads. I have some great ice cream coupons for this week but I have NO room left in any of the 3 freezers. Darn!! Breakfast was cantaloupe. I got 5 of them from my friend's, grandpa's garden! SCORE!!! Not bad so far.

Grocery Challenge Day #4

Today is day #4 of the grocery challenge. Oops. Madison and I didn't eat breakfast. Lunch today was tomato soup. Tonight for dinner is bbq chicken, corn, tomatoes, yogurt and biscuits. I didn't spend any money on food today. I am going to have to buy some milk soon and other groceries so I can "stock up" on food for the upcoming weeks. Dillons has a pretty good ad this week.

Grocery Challenge Day #3

Yesterday was day #3 of the grocery challenge. One thing I didn't post was that my husband and 3 of our kids were trail bike riding for four days and 3 nights. They rented a cabin which had a kitchenette. I packed food for them so they wouldn't have to eat out. So, when you see I had frozen pizza or something so simple, that was because it was either just me or my daughter and me. Otherwise, I would have cooked a better meal for the 6 of us. Last night I only snacked for dinner because I took Madison out to a movie and we bought a $5 bag of popcorn. That brings my total to $22.56 out of my $50 grocery spending for the week. Not bad. For lunch yesterday Madison and I had pizza rolls.

Grocery Challenge Day #2

Today I spent $2.55 on food. I am up to $17.56. Remember, I already have some food at home. I am 'cleaning out food'. I did go to Dillons and saved 86% of my bill. I spent $9.82 and saved $44.75. I will post a picture of what I purchased. There are items such as: Dawn, Tampax, Crest, etc. You can see the rest in the picture. I spent $1.02 at Walgreens. My total BEFORE tax was actually .16 cents!! I will post a picture of those items as well. I purchased items such as deodorant and wipes. For lunch today was frozen pizza and sandwiches and the same items were for dinner. So far, so good. I think I can spend $50 or less for 7 days of eating for 6 people. We'll see!

Grocery Challenge Day #1

Yesterday was the first day of the grocery challenge. Remember, I am going to use what I already have as well. So, I am guessing the first week will be the least expensive. However, I spent $15.01 on baking items and I baked for six hours yesterday. I mad a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, double batch of peanut butter cookies, four boxes of corn bread muffins, a batch of biscuits, and I browned six pounds of deer meat. Today my mom and Rick took Madison and me out-to-eat for my mom's birthday so I didn't spend money on dinner. For breakfast my family ate a combination of foods. We ate either toast, toast with peanut butter, cereal, or yogurt. Lunch was pizza rolls. Today for breakfast was either toast, apple sauce, or health bars. I only have $35 dollars left for the week. I think I can do it!

Grocery Challenge

Okay. So this isn't something exciting to post on this blog I actually created for my kids. However, I don't want to start an additional blog just for me. I am going to try a grocery challenge for our family. I now know how much money I saved in June and July. In June, I saved $700 at the grocery store and in July I saved $813. That doesn't mean I actually would have spent that. I would NEVER buy 25 packages of razors in one shopping trip. However, they were free. So, I am stockpiling a lot of items if they are rock bottom cheap or free. In August, I am going to see how much money I spend on JUST groceries for our family of six. I am actually going to separate the groceries from beauty products, cleaning products, etc. I am hoping we will eat out less and spend less. I will buy what is on sale and cook with that. We have a lot of deer meat in our deep freeze which I haven't used in awhile and I really need to. I am going to try and 'clean out' what we already have. It always seems like there is never anything to eat that I want t cook but I am really going to try and use everything we have. I just have to look around and be creative. My goal is to spend no more than $50 a week on groceries. That would be great considering we spend about $35 if we go out to eat. I will try and post how I am doing. I hope my kids will eat Pop Tarts and cereal because I have stockpiled that in the last two months. I sort of have a menu prepared for 14 days of dinners using mostly what I already have. Hamburger Helper will be making its way to the dinner table made with deer meat. I am going to be able to use some vegetables from a friend's garden for free. That will help. So, here I go!!!

More Pics

These are random pics of this summer. Some pictures are at Steve's pitt. There is a picture of Brett and Braden doing straw painting at the library. There is also a picture of Braden at Kiddie Land. McKenzie is fishing at a nearby pitt.

Catching Up Again!

I have been having problems with the background. The company that I had my original background from had to redo some things and my background was just gone one day. I have been trying to figure out how to get a new one. I have one for now but I don't really like it because it is hard to read. I will change it later.