b-day clubs

These businesses offer B-day clubs that are free to join and you receive discounts or free stuff for your b-day. Cold Stone Creamery, Burger King, McDonalds, Lone Star Steakhouse, Toys R Us, Peter Piper Pizza, Baskin Robbins, Sonic, Denny’s, Famous Dave’s, Dairy Queen, and Red Lobster.

Many other restaurants have coupons on their websites so be sure to check them out before you go out to eat.


Marie-Anne

Free Samples

I signed up for the following freebies. I only used sites that are from the companies, (with the exception of Wal-Mart’s site). Most sites stated 4-6 weeks for delivery.

Quaker mini Delights rice cakes:
http://www.startsampling.com/sm/100545/captureAddress.iphtml?item=100545&source

Total cereal:
http://freesample.totalcereal.com/TotalCranCrunch/Default.aspx

Metamucil and Viva Paper Towels:
http://walmart.triaddigital.com/In-Stores-Now-free-samples.aspx

Bear Naked Granola:
http://www.bearnaked.com/postcards/sample.asp

Betty Crocker Warm Delights Minis:
http://freewarmdelights.bettycrocker.com/WarmDelights/Default.aspx?source=379

Charmin mega-roll extender:
http://www.charmin.com/en_us/pages/extender_request.shtml

Marie-Anne

Tae Kwon Do

Today was Alex’s first class in the Little Ninja’s Tae Kwon Do. As expected Alex was the most hyper child there. Alex was very excited about the class. His teacher, Mrs. Miller has loads of patience and praises the kids when they do a good job. He did pretty well until he had to go to the bathroom then he started doing his own thing. We will be practicing at home.

Marie-Anne

A BBQ and an invite

God is amazing! A lady at church invited us to a BBQ. We didn’t realize that when she has a BBQ she invites her neighbors. From this one event six new people have come to church with most of them coming faithfully.

Another lady in Wal-Mart commented on how cute Sabrina is. As we were talking I invited her to church. Her family has been coming faithfully and they’ve invited friends. From that one invitation ten people have come to church.

From a BBQ and an invite we not only have sixteen new people, but they want to be involved. Two ladies want to become Sunday School teachers. One man is helping with the music. Another man is picking up people and taking them home.

God has truly blessed our efforts in “sin city.” We are still a small church with less than 50, but the church has only been here for less than 2 years. It wasn’t too long ago that we were sometimes the only ones at Bible Study, but now we normally have at least 10. Many people are coming to every service. A lot of people are getting involved in inviting people, Sunday School, picking up people, music, cleaning, and the many other aspects of church work. The church growth is amazing to watch.

Marie-Anne

Life will never be the same...

Life will never be the same. I put Sabrina down for tummy-time. When I turned around she was on her back then on her tummy then on her back then on her tummy then… Life’s about to get more exciting around here.

Marie-Anne

Planet Heroes as a homeschool lesson?

The neat thing about homeschooling is that I can tailor Alex’s education to his interests. Right now Alex is big into Planet Heroes, which thanks to Dad (Doug) he has several. I have taken that interest and expanded it by getting books from the library on the different planets, getting a DVD on planets, and reading the big section on space in his Children’s Picture Encyclopedia that Frank’s parents got him for Christmas. Since Alex is interested he is soaking the information up.

Marie-Anne

Happy Valentine's Day!

How do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Leave a comment, please. I want to make it a fun family holiday and I want your ideas.

Until this year we haven’t really celebrated it. This year I decorated with hearts everywhere. I have felt hearts hanging from the ceiling and I printed off candy hearts on pretty paper and taped them all over the wall. I also have a decorative flag with hearts in the kitchen. We each will get a little gift $5 or less. I bought a couple of plastic candy-filled hearts that I will hide. I may even make it into a scavenger hunt. (I chose these because I can use them every year). We will play games and have pizza bread on fancy plates. (After Valentine’s Day I’ll get more decorations for next year.)

On the educational side Alex is making a Valentine’s Day lapbook and he will be making Valentines for family, (mostly cut and paste). I want to keep it fun.

Marie-Anne

Happpy Birthday to Me!

I am not ashamed of my age- I earned 30. Today has been a wonderful day. I woke up early and just thanked God for my birthday and for my life. I am truly blessed.

I spent the day playing with Alex. We played with his castle set and we played several games: Learning to Listen Pizza Palace Game, Duck Duck 1-2-3, and Matchin’ Middles. I got B-day wishes from Mom, Dad, Mamaw, Jennifer, and Sister Davis. (Adam called me yesterday on his b-day). I got a card from my in-laws, Alva and Wayne with a Barnes and Nobles gift card.

Frank took me out to eat at LoneStar. It was a good meal and we enjoyed ourselves. I got the free b-day dessert and they sang happy b-day to me. We didn’t realize that it was kids eat free night so that was nice too. After we ate we went to Barnes and Nobles where Alex played with the train set while I spent my gift card.

After we got home I let Calgon take me away while Frank played with Alex. Then Frank put Alex to bed and we did our devotional then we played Chinese Checkers. It was a great b-day!

Marie-Anne

Marie's Birthday

Tomorrow is Marie 's birthday. I won't say how old she is but will say she is now officially my "old lady". :-) She is a special lady and I am blessed to call her my friend, companion and wife.

--Frank

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

We interrupt this blog for a special announcement: The royal Princess Sabrina repeatedly rolled over from her tummy to her back today. She did it at least 3 times. Princess was mad when she got on her back. Yes, folks, the Princess is growing up all too fast.

Marie-Anne

Phoenix in February

Yesterday we drove to Phoenix, Az for a fellowship meeting. It was great! Pastor and Sister Davis, Rev. and Sister Kekel, Rev. and Sister Wright, Rev. and Sister Ashmore and so many others were there! The great thing about New Testament Christian Church is we are a family. You can go to any church and just meet the congregation and it is like being with family.

The trip was good Sabrina slept most of the way and Alex had stuff to keep him busy. (I packed his backseat organizer with new and interesting things.) However, when we got there Alex had just fallen asleep and threw a fit because there wasn’t Children’s Church and Sabrina started crying. I thought oh no, I can’t deal with this. So I took them to the nursery. Frank noticed that all the other kids were in the sanctuary so he came and got me. I am so glad he did!

Rev. Kekel preached Stating the Obvious about how we need to be reminded of things we already know.

After church we met in the fellowship hall for a wonderful feast. Alex was thrilled that he had other kids to play with in the nursery. Everyone cooed over Sabrina. Frank and I both got to talk with a lot of friends. It was great and well worth the drive.

On the way home Alex slept the entire way and Sabrina screamed for 35 minutes then fell asleep. I got to talk to Frank and enjoyed just being with my husband.

Alex discovers the great outdoors

As you know, Alex is hooked on the computer, but I have started kicking Alex off the computer at about 1 o’clock. At first he just complained. Then he actually went outside and had fun! Today is the third day off me kicking him off the computer. The kid who doesn’t even want to go outside is out with some new neighborhood kids and does not want to come in. Alex has been playing outside for 4 hours! Today he’s only been on the computer, including watching DVDs for 2 hours and he’s not having withdrawals. Maybe there’s hope for him after all.

Marie-Anne

Game Night

Yesterday I got the Learning to Listen Pizza Palace Game from Playskool Games. It is a memory game. Frank, Alex and I played last night for game night. I flipped over 3 cards and Frank and Alex had to pay attention. Then I flipped the cards back over and they had to make my pizza. It has some real pizza toppings and some crazy stuff like soccer balls and smelly socks. Frank was busy making jokes and twice he couldn’t remember what went on the pizza and Alex forgot once. It was a lot of fun. In fact, the first thing Alex wanted to do this morning was play the game again.

I also got Learning About Manners Picnic Basket Game, but we have not played that one yet. (I got both games at Target on clearance.)

Marie-Anne

Picnic with the Wright’s

We took Rev. and Sister Wright to Lake Mead on Monday for a picnic. We went to the same place we went on New Year’s Day. This time we brought hotdogs and sausages and the Wright’s brought pork chops to grill. We really enjoyed ourselves. I brought the lightsabers and Alex had fun fighting with Papa and with Rev. Wright. The coyotes were there. We really liked watching them. There were about 10 of them this time.

Marie-Anne

Revival

We are in the midst of revival at church! Reverend and Mrs. Wright are here in town preaching a three-day series of messages to us. It is a blessing to fellowship with these great people. They came through town in August of last year and so many of the church members remember the Wrights and were looking forward to their return. Someone shared with us, "I need something [from God] during the revival." Oh, how exciting that people can bring burdens and needs, real issues from real people and God can solve them.


--Frank

TV and computers

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 not watch television, which I followed with Alex. It is a bit harder to follow with Sabrina because Alex is allowed to watch pre-approved cartoons on the computer (we do not own a TV) and we watch documentaries together. For the most part she is in another room while Alex watches DVD’s.

Alex has been on the computer a lot lately. I was very tired during pregnancy and a lot of times I am busy with Sabrina. The good news is Alex is on mostly educational preschool websites. He is quite good at many of the games. The bad news is I think he spends too much time on the computer and he thinks he doesn’t spend enough time on the computer. I am trying to come up with crafts and other activities to keep him occupied offline. There’s a balance to be found- I just got to find it.

Marie-Anne

Valley of Temptation

The other day I was at Wal-Mart walking through the toy clearance aisle. It seemed like every toy Alex wants was there at a good discount. I called Frank and said, “Lo though I walk through the valley of temptation I will spend no money without talking to you.” We decided to buy some out of this paycheck and save them for b-day or Christmas. Then I was talking to my Dad and he said he was going to get Alex some Planet Heroes so I told him I could get them on clearance for $5 each so Alex got some of those too.

This budgeting stuff really makes you stop and think. Always before I would have just got some and put them up for Christmas, but this time I knew it wasn’t in the budget. Our goal of someday owning a house won’t come true if I nickel and dime money we could be saving. At the same time, I’m glad our budget isn’t so rigid that I couldn’t ever get things not in the budget. We talked about it and decided together to budget a certain amount this paycheck for the toys.

Marie-Anne

Exercise Week 2

Monday- walk 20 minutes; Nordic Rider, Squats, Side-kick/punch 50 each; Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Leg Lifts, Weights 100 each; Stair Sprints 10

Tuesday- walk 20 minutes; Nordic Rider, Squats, Side-kick/punch 50 each; Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Leg Lifts, Weights 100 each; Stair Sprints 10

Wednesday- Squats 25; Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Leg Lifts 100 each

Thursday- walk 10 minutes; Nordic Rider, Squats, 50 each; Side-kick/punch 20; Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Leg Lifts, Weights 100 each

Friday- Rest

Saturday- walk 30 minutes; Nordic Rider, Squats, Side-kick/punch 50 each; Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Leg Lifts, Weights 100 each; Stair Sprints 10

Sunday- Crunches, Reverse Crunches, Leg Lifts, 100 each; Nordic Rider 50

Marie-Anne

Thanks a lot Dave!

We’ve been listening to Dave Ramsey for a while. We’ve even read several of his books and watched clips of him on the internet. It took quite a while for me to come around on budgeting. We’d make a budget then I’d want to eat out more often than we agreed, stuff like that. Now I’m even budgeting my spending money! See what my husband and Dave Ramsey have done to me???? I’m not saying I’m staying on budget all the time, but I am trying now. I’m even looking into ways of cutting our utility bill and other costs. Thanks a lot Dave!

Marie-Anne

Parenting is worth the effort

As all parents know kids don’t come with instruction manuals and even if they did each one would be different and who has time to read it? We have to use common sense and the resources available to raise our kids.

Some resources we use are our parents and friends with older well-adjusted kids, (We don’t take advice from parents of kids who are out of control). We read about parenting. Some books we’ve read are The Strong-willed Child, To Train up a Child, and Supernanny.

Study after study stresses the importance of spending time with kids, playing with them, reading to them, and eating together. Parenting is not easy. It takes diligence and sacrifice, but it is well worth the effort.

Marie-Anne