Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

O Brain, O Brain

My daughter made this.

I often wonder that too...

"Oh Brain, Oh Brain, wherefore art thou Oh Brain?"

Friday Photo Flashback

My Best Friend and I.

We met in 1994, as sixth graders.

Here we are in 1998, beginning our sophmore year in High School.

This is probably about a month before she moved to another city about 2 hours away.

A life or death situation.

For a hormonal high school girl that is...

But, we became pen pals. My Best Friend and I.

I'm sure dozens of letters included the parting, BFF, phrase.

We were too.

Fast forward to March 2007.

My Best Friend and I at her wedding.

I cried at her wedding.

Not only because it was beautiful,

but because, I was giving my Best Friend away,

to the man of her dreams.

Another life or death situation.

For a hormonal pregnant woman that is...

We are still Best Friends.

{BFF's}

We are Sister's in Christ too.

We are kindred spirits...

Our bond is like that of a modern day King David and Jonathon.

I love her. To pieces. She blesses me to no end.

She strengthens me, as "iron sharpens iron"-Prov. 27:17

She brings a whole new meaning to Best Friend's Forever, because her and I will share all of eternity, together, worshiping our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Alicia hosts Friday Photo Flashback... won't you join us?

Confessional...

I've hit a wall.

With my house.

It's impossible.

I have 4 little ones home with me everyday, and we live in a small house. My guess is its under 1000sq. ft. It's a rental, so I don't know for sure. Amongst my 4 little ones are two toddlers. Toddler boys.

They are little tasmanian devils I tell ya!

Especially that little red head!

That little red head has taken a fancy to our bookshelves. As a matter of fact, he is quite obsessive compulsive about it. He must rearrange a book or two every time he walks past it. It's in the living room, right next to the sliding glass door to our backyard. Which gets a lot of use. I also have 2 older girls who love to read, but hate to put things away where they got them. So after a short while my bookshelves start looking like...

this...

Because it's in the living room, it starts to drive me crazy when it's in complete disarray!

So I went to target and bought a ton of their plain jane dishpans to help me organize my bookshelves.

Am I just completely crazy?

I might be having my own OCD moment here...

This is what I ended up with...

aaaaaaaaaaaagh... much better!

You can't tell [yet] but the books are organized into categories.

Promise!

See?

Wordless Wednesday

PRAY FOR RAFIQA!

I'm not sure how many of you have heard about Rafiqa Bary. The 17 year old girl raised Muslim who converted to Christianity at the age of 13, and hid it from her family for as long as she could. Her Father found out, and she ran away to Florida, in fear for her own life. Her claim is that her Father threatened to kill her, an "honor killing" which is called for in the Koran.

I believe her.

I'm praying for her.

Her parents are fighting for her return to Ohio, to their custody. As of today, a Florida judge ruled that she remain in foster care in Florida, until an "investigation" is completed into the home and family of this 17 year old girl. Pray that the Lord would do a mighty work in this case! That the Lord would protect this precious daughter of His! Pray for her safety!

Jesus, Mighty God, I come before you now, with my fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ and lift up this precious child of God to you! I pray that you would do a mighty work in her life, in and through the people around her! I pray that you would bring wisdom, and clarity to the Judge over her case. I pray that the truth would be revealed to him, and that his ruling would be one to protect this young girl. I thank you for her courage, her strength, and her faith. Her ability to stand up for you, even with the fear of losing her life hanging over her head. I pray for a radical conversion of her family! You are an awesome God, and I've seen it happen before! I pray that through this young girl, and this situation, that her family would come to a Saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ! The Alpha and Omega! I pray that through this many eyes would be opened to the truth and reality of Islam. I thank you for your love Lord, you love all people, and wish for none to perish. Thank you Lord. In the name of Jesus I bring this request.

Amen.

Watch this video below, it will break your heart!

Friday Photo Flashback

Alicia is hosting a Friday Photo Flashback. I wanted to join in this week. We all have tons of pre-digital photos sitting in albums, laying in boxes, heaps and piles somewhere... I've started scanning in old photos, so this was a perfect time to join in the fun and share flashes of my past with you all!

This is my husband and I at Disnelyand, shortly after we met, over 12 years ago!

I was 14, he was 15 about to turn 16. We met at Magic Moutain, Ca. and became pen pals.

Crazy, I know!

He was always very chivalrous.

We never dated, but were "friends". Though he knew the moment he met me at 15 years old that I would be his wife. I thought we was crazy, and possibly a psycho axe murderer...

plus we was in the marching band. A "band geek". I was an athlete. The too "cool for school" jock. Plus we lived in different cities...

He moved to my city to go to college, and to secretly be closer to me. He was 17 when he started college. I was 16. But the fact that I was still a "high schooler" kinda freaked him out. It just was not our time yet....

Finally, SEVEN years after we met, the time was right, and we started dating. A year and a half after we started dating, we were married.

That's the short version. There's a lot more to it. Drama.

I love our story though. Mainly because it's "our" story.

But also, because one of my favorite love stories in the bible is that of Jacob and Rachel.

Jacob fell instantly in love with Rachel at the well where he met her. He then worked for 7 years for her Father, his Uncle, in order to marry her. Then... drama. But in the end, he was able to marry Rachel, after another 7 years of hard work.

Although my husband didn't have to labor for over 14 years for my hand in marriage, he did pursue me for over 7 years, with the hope that one day I would be his bride. That was hard work too! I had ZERO interest! Plus, all the drama.

But here we are, almost 4 years into our marriage, 12 years after we met, happily married!

In the end, he got the girl, and I got my prince!

Really, it's a great love story.

Like that of Jacob and Rachel.

Complete with lots of juicy drama.

Which I'll save for another day.

=)

Here we are 12 years later.

Happily married. Madly in love.

=)

Hoje fiz esta decoração...

Hoje fiz esta decoração..., originally uploaded by hippyxic.

Hippyxic posted this on Flickr. Isn't it amazing? I wish I could be sitting there, with a great book, my best friend, and a Thai Tea... my friend has me completely intrigued!

So Precious!

This is $29.95 on sale at Anthropologie. I absolutely adore it!!

I'm trying to justify the expenditure.

I can't.

But I'm trying to!!

This is a 27 piece felt play set. Aren't those little cards adorable? My favorite are the stamps.

Gosh!!

Still trying to justify the price.

Still can't!

Perhaps you can justify the price for your little ones.

It's just TOO cute!!

I know I could make this, but anyone have an idea how to add adorable little pictures to felt?

I will love you forever if you could share a tutorial!

=)

The Blind Side

I can not WAIT for this to come out! I got all choked up watching the previews!

Wordless Wednesday

That's All For Now Folks...

I do apologize for any inconvenience I've caused by not posting the weekly grocery deals after all... A Thrifty Mom and Save At Home Mommy both have weekly grocery deals with coupon match ups.

My plate is full right now. Too full. Overwhelming actually. My husband and family need me right now. And so I've decided to take a break from the Coupon Match ups and Weekly Grocery Deals. I've actually taken quite an unexpected, but long break from couponing all together, and I don't know how long that will resume. Probably not for very long, as coupon savings are an absolute necessity for our family. Not a hobby, or even a luxury, but an cold, hard must!

I will still be posting and connecting with my close friends, family, and blogger friends who remain interested....

I am also open and willing to answer any questions one may have about saving money using coupons, cutting their grocery bill, and other frugal money saving questions, because over the years I have become quite the "frugal Mommy"... However the time it takes to post on a weekly schedule, and to write out the weekly posts, I don't have at this time.

I would like to ask you for prayer during this season in my life. And, NO, my marriage is not over, nor on the brink of being over. But Satan is very real, and very present in his attacks. As this is more of a spiritual battle being played out in a very personal, and very painful way.

There is a "Wordless Wednesday" post scheduled for tomorrow. Look forward to more pictures, updates on what is going on, posts about homeschool, prayer requests both mine and others who wish to share need for prayer, either for themselves or others. Look forward to me sharing the mighty, and powerful ways that the Lord is working and moving in my life. Providing, answering prayers, ministering, stretching, growing, and refining my family through the fire!

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement this past month, what a crazy month it's been! I couldn't even make up this stuff if I tried to people!! I've said this before, and I've always meant it, even now; THANK YOU for your support! You have all been so incredibly generous in your comments, emails, phone calls, hugs, and prayers!! I hope you will all continue to be a source of encouragement, because you are awesome!

My blogging journey definitely isn't over... just changing, growing, as my life changes and grows, because that's what we do right? As people? Especially as God's people!?

Won't you continue to join me on this amazing journey?

With all my love,

Rachael

GREAT NEWS!!

I went back to my chiropractor yesterday, and got the results from my hip x-ray last Friday. FINALLY!

I DID NOT BREAK ANYTHING!!

I was thrilled to hear that!

However, I most assuredly bruised my femur bone inside my hip socket.

AND, I essentially threw my lower back out of whack.

BUT I DIDN'T BREAK MY HIP!

I'm still in pain, though now, only after a long day spent on my feet. Which is just about every day. Why on earth do I spend the day on my feet?

All day, every day?

Oh yeah.

I'm a Stay at Home Mom. Of four. Two toddlers. And I homeschool.

Nope, no reason at all to spend all day on my feet, just about every day.

BUT I DIDN'T BREAK MY HIP!!

It was a pretty funny situation though, not knowing. I mean how many 26 year olds fall and break their hip as a result? Not me thankfully, but if anyone, it would've been me.

That fits me so perfectly, I can't even begin to describe it!

This has been quite an unexpected blogging break, but, I'M COMING BACK!

PROMISE!

NEXT WEEK!

Things will get back to normal around here come next week! I'm taking the rest of the week, and weekend to catch up on my poor neglected house. Funny how that happens.

Everything is hunky dory, looking quite nice, then WHAM! Mom is out of commission, and the house falls apart. Why does that always seem to happen?

Could it be that my kids just take total advantage of Mom being incapacitated, and therefore run amok? My kids do!

Did I mention that my youngest, my little, ornery, red head found it hilarious that Mommy was limping along slowly? He took TOTAL advantage. And would run away. Fast. Every chance he got. Gleefully giggling as Mommy had to resort to hopping on one foot to catch him, as I could do that faster than limping on both feet.

Oh the orneriness of it all!

In the Desert

If you want to go straight to the song fast forward to 4:40.

However, I encourage you to listen to Jill speak. It's encouraging. Refreshing.

I am in a season of desert right now.

I needed this.

Perhaps you do too.

Unexpected Happenings...

Sorry for the silence! I haven't abandoned you all, I promise!

Remember how I told you about the Indian Meal Moths, and Mice living in my house? Well, thankfully they are being taken care of...

However, now I am the one in need of care.

You see, while throwing out B A G S of food infested with Meal Moths, I fell.

Hard.

Off of a step ladder.

While standing on the top step.

Yeah. It hurt. A lot! My husband came home to find me in a heap on the floor, crying my eyes out.

This was Tuesday night.

You see, I, having not been named Grace for a reason, lost my balance and fell of my step ladder. I landed on the ball of my right foot, and consequently twisted my ankle, pulled several muscles up my leg and into my back, tweaked my knee, and jammed my hip bone pretty badly.

Or so I thought.

I went to my chiropractor today, hoping he could relieve some of my pain, and twisted joints. He was able to work on everything except my hip. I related to him the story of what happened, and he did some diagnostic "tests" to see if I truly jammed my femur bone into my hip socket, or if I did something much worse. [I truly love this man! He's my miracle worker, and is so cautious!]

Let just say I failed his tests. Miserably! I was in SO much pain, I actually hit the poor man! [Sorry Doc!] Because of the circumstances of my fall, and the nature of my pain [we're talking SERIOUS pain! So much so in fact that any movement causes me to see sunbursts and mini explosions, as well as sending bolts of lightning through the inside of my leg bones!!] he sent me to get a Stat X-Ray.

He thinks I either broke my hip, or ruptured the blood vessel that supplies nutrients to the femur bone. Ya. Seriously. O. U. C. H.

Sadly, the radiologist did NOT get the "Stat" results back to him before the end of the day, and unless my Chiropractor makes a "special" 160 mile round trip to his office tomorrow, I'm afraid I won't know anything until Monday! Even then hopefully on Monday!

So, due to the intensity of the pain, the orders to stay OFF of my feet as much as possible, [with 4 children under the age of 7] the fact that the pain is much worse in the sitting position verses the prone postition, and the ridiculous amounts of Vicodin I must take merely to take the edge off... [1500mg 3x a day...]

I'm being FORCED to take a break. From blogging. From Couponing. From Frugal Deal Finding. From carrying my incredibly adorable 2 and 1 year old babies. From driving. From my life pretty much!

I don't know for how long, but please don't give up on me! I will be back as soon as I'm able!

On the bright side I will be able to stay in bed and JUSTIFY it!

Although I will be planning out our lessons for this upcoming school year.
And probably losing handfuls of hair while I'm at it.

So in a nutshell this has been a HORRIBLE week, but I find comfort in the strength, and the peace of my Lord Jesus Christ!!

Wordless Wednesday

Back from vacation BUT...

I came back to find that my kitchen is fully infested with

INDIAN MEAL MOTHS!

Non only did they get into ALL of my grains, and pasta,

they also got into almost ALL of my

cake mixes, spices, seasoning mixes, cereals, teas, coffee, crackers,

if it's a dry food or staple, you name it, they got into it!

They even managed to make their way into my air tight canisters, AND my unopened vacuum sealed packages of food from Trader Joe's... my expensive, non coupon, organic, foods...

[sniff... sniff...]

So my last few days have been spent throwing out B.A.G.S. of food,

[and by BAGS I mean several 60 gal. outdoor trash bags, B.A.G.S.!]

clearing out ALL of my cupboards looking for additional sources of food for these buggars,

cleaning and wiping down EVERY drawer and cupboard with extra hot water and bleach,

but then...

in this process...

I discovered...

MICE DROPPINGS!!

EVERYWHERE!!!!

In places I know I've cleaned out and recently, and the droppings weren't there!

So folks, not only do I have an Indian Meal Moth infestation

[of the severe sort]

but I also have a Rodent Infestation!

Which apparently go hand in hand.

Terminex is coming out today to spray and lay traps, and help me get a jump start on these infestations!

So instead of lazily sipping my coffee, perusing the grocery circular's for the best deals and coupon match-ups yesterday and today, I've basically had to move my entire kitchen into my living room, only to find..

EVEN MORE MOUSE DROPPINGS

in random inconspicuous places...

oh the joys of it all!!

So if you're wanting your coupon deals and matchups for this week please check out

A THRIFTY MOM she has a whole list of stores on the right hand side of her blog. Sadly, I don't have a Vons post this week for HER or YOU, but I'm sure Save At Home Mommy does!!

I'll be back in a few days with pictures... lots of pictures... so you don't feel left out of the mayhem that is my home right now!

Wordless Wednesday

Frugal Deal!!

So I needed to get a few things that I would need on this trip.

Diapers, bug repellant, wipes, swim diapers,

So I took the opportunity to get in on some of the deals at Rited Aid and Walgreens.

5 transactions later here is my Frugal Finds!

All of this WOULD have cost $176.92!

After sales and coupons it cost $90.22!

I had $32.48 in Gift Cards that I used bringing my OOP cost down to $57.74.

All of this for $57.74 Out Of Pocket!!

Even better is that I still have $6.00 in RR at Walgreens to use like cash

AND

I now qualify for the $25.00 Rite Aid Gift Card for their July Kimberly-Clark deal

and I qualify for the $2.00 Single Check Rebate for buying Huggies diapers, AND since I've now purchased 5 packs of Huggies diapers I also qualify for 1 FREE package of Huggies Diapers, thanks to Rite Aid!!

So I paid $57.74 OOP and am getting back $27 dollars AND a FREE pack of diapers from Rite Aid!

Here's what I did:

Walgreens Trans. #1

2- Pull Ups $9.00 ea

1- Huggies Wipe $2.50

I used 2 $2.00/1Q for the Pull Ups.

I used 1 $.75/1Q for the wipes.

Total came to $17.75.

I used the Gift Cards I had.

Total OOP Cost? $0

BUT I got back a $5.00 RR for spending $20 on Huggies products.

Walgreens Trans. #2

1- Listerine $3.00

2- Reach Toothbrushes $3.00

1- OFF Clip-on $9.99

1- OFF Clip-on refill $4.99

1- Mini Highlighter $.19

-this was my filler item to even out coupon to item ratio.

I used 1 $2.00/1Q for the Listerine.

I used 1 $2.00/1Q for 1 toothbrush.

I used 1 B1/G1 FREE Q for 1 Toothbrush.

I used 1 $2.00/1Q for the Off Clip-on.

I used 1 B1 Clip-on G1 Refill Free Q.

I used the $5.00 RR from Trans #1.

Total came out to $7.54.

BUT I got 2 $3.00 RR back!

1 for buying 3 listerine/reach products. 1 for buying the Off Clip-on.

Walgreens Transaction #3

2- Huggies Diapers $9.00

1- Huggies Wipes $2.50

2- packages of tabbed dividers $.39

-these were my filler items to even out item to coupon ratio.

I used 2 $1.50/1Q for the Huggies Diapers.

I used 1 $.75/1Q for the Huggies Wipes.

I used the 2 $3.00 RR from trans #2.

Total came to $13.60.

BUT I got back another $5.00 RR for buying $20.00 in Huggies diapers.

Walgreens Transaction #4

1- OFF Clip-on $9.99

1- OFF Clip-on refill $4.99

4- Reach Toothbrushes $3.00

2- Mini Highlighters $.19

-These were my filler items to even out item to coupon ratio.

I used 1 $2.00/1Q for the OFF Clip-on.

I used 1 B1 Clip-on G1 refill FREE Q.

I used 2 $2.00/1Q for 2 Reach toothbrushes.

I used 2 B1/G1 FREE Q for 2 Reach toothbrushes.

I used the $5.00 RR from trans. #3.

Total came out to $7.83.

I put $2.83 on a GC and spent $5.00 OOP.

BUT I got back 2 $3.00 RR!!

1 for buying the OFF Clip-on. 1 for buying 2 listerine/reach products.

Then I went to Rite Aid.

{I know this seems like a waste of time, but I happen to have 2 Walgreens, 3 CVS, 2 Rite-Aids, 2 Wal Marts, 2 Targets, 2 Albertsons, 1 Vons, and 1 Ralphs within a 3 mile radius of my house! Plus I had NO kids with me, and for me the savings FAR outweigh the time spent doing several transactions at 2 different stores!!}

I only did 1 transaction at Rite Aid.

1- Huggies Swim Diapers $6.99

1-Huggies Wipes Refill $6.99

2- Huggies Snug&Dry Diapers $14.99

I used 2 $1.50/1Q for the Diapers.

I used 1 $.75/1Q for the Wipes.

I used 1 $1.00/1Q for the Swim Diapers.

Total came out to $43.50.

I put $18.50 on a GC.

Total OOP cost was $25.00.

BUT I NOW QUALIFY FOR THE RITE AID KIMBERLY-CLARK GIFT CARD DEAL!

[Spend $50 on qualifying products get a $25.00 Gift Card.]

I ALSO NOW QUALIFY FOR A $2.00 SCR AND A FREE PACKAGE OF DIAPERS!

So Rite Aid basically PAID me to buy this stuff! =)

Sorry I did not post all the info about where I got the coupons.

I barely had enough time for this post, as we are leaving in under an hour.

{but my bags are packed, my house is clean, we're all dressed -sort of- and everyone's fed.}

If you'd like more info on the Rite Aid Single Check Rebates and a list CLICK HERE.

I got the vast majority of the coupons used in these transactions from the Sunday paper over the last month or so. You can perhaps search for the coupons HERE. You can also buy coupons on that page too.

See you in 10 days!