There's Not Really a Theme This Time

Yay! The boys both earned ribbons at the chess tournament this past Saturday. They each one two of the three games. Although, Butch said JP should've let the cute little blond girl he played for his first game win. But he's only 6 and he's also a boy so it wouldn't even have crossed his mind yet. They were both very excited. I guess the coach has the ribbons, though to pass out later, so I will post a picture as soon as I have one. Well, today a light mist is coming down so no sun again. But it hasn't been as bad lately.

My youngest brother arrived in the Philippines this week. He seems to be in a pretty good area. I was thinking he'd be somewhere poor, but he said they have running water (cold, but good because it's so hot there), and there's a laundromat. He said his friend's house back home was scarier than his apartment. He said that the people haven't seen a white man speak their language so he thinks that will really help with the work. I'm very excited for him. My other brother already has less than a year left in Sydney.

Peanut has been eating a lot lately. He must be going thru a growth spurt again. Both Fri. and Sat. he ate 2 hot dogs for lunch and then a whole apple on Fri. and some graham crackers.

Jo Jo had two more teeth pop thru on top this week, so he's got the bottom 2 and 3 top ones now. So we finally moved his crib out of our room yesterday*gasp*. I know what you're thinking. But we hadn't moved him because he never sleeps thru the night. We didn't want to put him in his shared room with Peanut and wake him up at night because he doesn't just wake up, he wakes up screaming. So we decided to put him in my craft room, formerly known as the guest room until I sold the bed for a little extra dough. But we do still have a sofa bed that we moved up to the bonus room, so any guests would have a bed and privacy for anyone wanting to come stay anytime soon-hint hint. I'm going to try just laying him down again and letting him cry so we'll see how this goes. I just can't function anymore having to get up multiple times and with him sleeping in our bed because he won't go back in his. He likes to lay on me and head butt and kick me at night, so needless to say, I don't get any sleep regardless. He's also started this really special thing where he smacks himself in the head with his hand if he gets mad or if you tell him no about something. He's also started to arch backwards if you try to put him down when he doesn't want you to, so he has wacked his head on the tile a few times or hard on the carpet.

Oh, so we went to the mall Sat. to return a pair of shoes that we had bought for Bubba on sale when he wasn't with us. They didn't fit, so we thought we might find some others. Well, they were having a major clearance on the tennies and they had all sizes pretty much. They were marked down to $13-14 a pair. Well, a few months back I had taken them all to Famous Footwear to get them shoes. I got them each one pair and the total came to $80! So we figured while they were on sale we should by one in every size since after 11 and a half, we don't have any for Peanut. With boys they just don't last past that size to pass down. Peanut is wearing 11-11 and a half right now, and we had bought a 12 awhile ago at one of these same sales, so we got a pair of 13's, 1's, 1.5, 2.5(for Bubba right now), and 3.5 because we had previously bought a 3 at the same previous sale. Anywho, we got 5 pair for $75 with tax included in that total. I was really excited even though you might be thinking that sounds like a lot. I shopped sales last week too and got a bunch of short sleeved shirts for Bubba for summer and also a sweatshirt for next year. Dillard's has a 70% sale at the end of each season, so I try to get things for the next year then. I've been re-arranging our budget and making cuts and I'm super determined to live on less. We'll see how it goes this month. I definitely don't go to the store as much as I used to. Oh, I also got some sales ads for Albertsons, where I don't normally shop because they're so expensive. They had double coupons, lots of 10 for $10 deals, buy one get one free deals, and other great sales. So I took the flyers with everything marked I wanted to get. I ended up saving $94! Yes, you read that right. I was so excited. They also offer gas rewards for however much you spend you get like $0.05 off. So the last time I used them I got $.50 off a gallon and the time before it was $.35 off a gallon, which ended up making the gas uber cheap. Hooray for deals. I also just went through all of my free sample and travel sized things and decided I have enough to use for a long time. I had like a bucket full. We use power toothbrushes right now so I have a super collection of the free ones from the dentist, plus the toothpastes. Then I have all the stuff that's free from hotels, so we're pretty much set for awhile. I also always stock up on soap, deordorant, and other toiletries when they're on sale since they generally aren't cheap items. So anyway, just a few cool bargains this week.