Test post for Ali

I made a mug!

I know things have been a little quiet around here. That's what happens when there's a newbie in the house. Life with three kiddos has been interesting. In many ways things are better than before, but the big kids are also starting to push bhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifoundaries harder and fight more... usually over who gets to hold the baby first.

But I was excited when Shutterfly sent me an email with a code to create a free photo mug. What mom doesn't like showing off pictures of her kids?! I paid just over $6 for shipping and tax (I'm pretty sure it was $6.19 - I just don't have that in front of me). That's less than I'd pay for a mug with a flower or artist print at the store, and this is bound to become my favorite mug!

Here's my project!

Mug

View the entire collection of cards.

They are currently running an offer where, if you post about the project you made and share the link with them, they'll send a code for a $10 credit on a future purchase. Thanks for the great deal, Shutterfly!

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

Many people have shared this around the internet, but I had to, too. I was listening and remembering a time when various choirs I've belonged to have done the Hallelujah Chorus... but I started crying when I saw people who were obviously just onlookers occasionally getting caught up in it and singing along (about 90 seconds from the end, there's a mom sitting next to her little boy - who is standing on a chair to watch... she's taking his hand to make sure he doesn't fall and singing along!).

Great job! Amazing job! And mall acoustics... not too shabby!

You aren't going to believe this! Another ERGO giveaway!

Apple Cheeks Diapers is giving away an ERGO carrier! More information and ways to win can be found HERE!

I'm starting to think I need an ERGO tag!

Sweet crayon giveaway

Rachel's Reviews and Giveaways has teamed up with Gaddy Nipper to offer a giveaway. Gaddy Nipper upcycles crayons into adorable shapes in this gift set. We've done this as a family, and my kids always love the shaped crayons!

Enter the giveaway here!

Is it possible? Another ERGO giveaway!!!!

Rachel's Reviews and Giveaways is offering more opportunities to win and ERGObaby carrier! Hop over HERE and enter away!!!!

Another chance to win an ERGO carrier!

BabyBix is running a giveaway for an ERGO performance carrier AND infant insert! You can enter to win here!

Chance to win an ERGObaby carrier!

Loves Jurn3 is giving away an ERGObaby carrier. You have many chances to win by going to this post and doing as many or as few of the entry options you choose on their form.

LEMONS! (lemon glaze)

The Happy Housewife is looking for lemon recipes. I've already shared this one (which is incredible and just proves Giada is a GENIUS!). But I wanted to share this very simple one, too.

My mom used to glaze lamb cakes (pound cakes baked in a lamb-shaped pan at Easter) with a powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze. That's it! She would use as much lemon juice as it took to get the powdered confectioners sugar to the consistency she wanted, and then pour it over the cake (which was standing on a cooling rack over a drip plate). It's so simple, but it's SO good - it's almost like frosting a cake with lemon heads - super sour and super sweet at the same time! I would imagine some lemon zest in the pound cake batter would be incredible, too!

If you have some you'd like to share, go ahead and link away HERE. I personally can't get over the SIZE of their lemons - they're like grapefruit!

Win an Ergo Performance baby carrier

As if Ergo wasn't great enough, they have a new design that is lighter and cooler! Heavenly Hold is giving one away! Enter here for a chance to win.

Fight Burrito Boredom

Qdoba is running a deal right now were you can build your own burrito (or something else - but I hear burritos have the best coupons) and end up with high value coupons at the end. You can play every day for 6 weeks. The coupons are only good for 2 days, so you can't really stock up. But yesterday and today I won "free entree with purchase of a drink" coupons. So Geof and I have free dinner tonight =)

http://www.foodloversfightingburritoboredom.com/

Give it a shot - and let me know how you do!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

As you may have noticed, my blog has received a facelift. When Courtney ran a giveaway about a week ago to win a chance at a premade blog template, I figured "what the heck - it has looked the same for a couple years!"

AND I WON!

I'm so thankful to Courtney of Storing Up Treasures in Heaven and Lena of Premades For A Purpose. It looks great ladies! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Our Deck Garden

The Happy Housewife's post about home farming reminded me that I haven't posted anything about our deck garden here. We're renting and didn't want to tear up the back yard (though, if we were to purchase this house and use a lot of hard work hauling landscaping stone out, we could have a massive garden - almost farm - without taking away from the kids' play area. But I digress...). So I decided to do some research on container gardening and what could be grown in a small space.

The answer is: Quite a lot! Especially when you pair container gardening with companion planting.

This is the link to my facebook album for my garden. I started most of our plants from seed indoors using little peat pellets and a grow lamp, but I did purchase some of the tomatoes, herbs and flowers. If I start earlier indoors next year, I will not have to purchase as much - if any - plants. I will save seeds from the successful plants this year for next year's planting purposes. I hope to be able to move some of the herbs indoors for winter use, dry the rest, and can quite a bit of tomatoes and peppers (possibly just prep/freeze the peppers) to help with our family's grocery budget!

Please help a friend!

I have a good friend, Melanie, who along with her husband run Portraiture by Melanie. They are awesome photographers with a great eye to make the ordinary, well... less ordinary =)

Please take the time to pop over to the Blogger's Choice Awards and vote for them. I've nominated them for Best Photography Blog. I'd love to see something great happen for this wonderful family and, if possible, bring even more business their way. The link to their site is available at the BCA link.

http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/95654

Bamboo Bums GIveaway

Exploits of a Military Mama is giving away a Bamboo Bums cloth diaper.

Follow this link to learn more!

GREAT deal on paper at Staples

Through Saturday, HP General use paper is on sale for $4.99 with a $3.99 rebate. There's a limit of 2 per household.

There's also a coupon on their website for 15% off all in-store purchases (excluding computers). Use that with the paper and get the 2, 500 sheet reams for $8.48.

Submit the rebate and get a check for $7.98.

Total of two reams of paper for $.50!!!!

There's a deal on HP Photo Paper as well. $9.99 with and $8.99 rebate. After the 15% coupon, you would pay $8.49... for a PROFIT of $.50!

Uninsured and taking prescription medications?

That's the boat I've found myself in. Sure, you can pay $30 a year to Walgreens and get their overpriced drugs brought town to just slightly more than everywhere else.

Or I can give you another reason to join Swagbucks.

I take a brand-name thyroid medication. I can't take generics on this medication for multiple reasons, so the $4 generics at the major chains won't work for me. We are currently uninsured, so I've been eating the whole cost of this medication - ranging from $18-23 a month depending on where you fill it. I've been filling it at Wal-Mart (and, coincidentally, I paid $23 one month and $18 the next without changing a thing). This month, through tomorrow, there was a coupon at coupons.com for a free $25 gift card to Rite Aid if you transferred a prescription to them that you have never filled at Rite Aid before. So I decided to give it a go if the price was similar to Wal-Mart. It's quite a drive out to Rite Aid for me - about 40 minutes - but I was going to be in that area today anyway.

Their cost was $19.99 for 30 pills. I brought in this printout from the Swagbucks HealthAdvantage Program. I'm gonna be honest here: I figured for something that was free on the internet, it probably wouldn't be worth all that much. But in today's economy, every penny counts - I'll give it a shot.

I brought my prescription, my coupon, and my print out. I said, "I've never used this before - I don't know if it will even do anything for this prescription, but if you'd try, I'd really appreciate it." They said no problem - they had never seen it before, but they'll try running it at check-out.

It saved me $8.37!

I almost fell over when I saw that! I figured it might knock off $.50 - maybe a buck. But over $8 was HUGE to us. In the end, I got my $20 prescription for $11.62 - and got a $25 gift card!

I don't know if you even have to sign up for Swagbucks to use the discount card. I don't think you do. But I don't understand why you wouldn't want to. I have never paid them a cent of money, and in return for doing my internet searching through them, I've received $130 in Amazon gift certificates - and I'm not that far off from another $5 certificate.

I'll be really honest - I don't know if I'll keep going out to Rite Aid for this prescription or not. I went for the $25 gift card to get more supplies for our container garden (and spoil my kids a little). But with as great of a discount as I got there for this HealthAdvantage Program card, I just might go back if the discounts aren't as great at other stores. Where can you use it? It says it's is accepted at over 50,000 pharmacies nationwide. Here are a few of the "most recognizable" stores they list:

Albertsons
Bi-Lo
Costco
CVS
Duane Reade
Eckerd
Fred’s Stores
Giant Eagle
HY-Vee
Kerr
Kmart
Kroger
Longs
Meijer
Osco
Pamida
Publix
Rite Aid
Safeway
Sav-on
Schnucks
Supervalu
Target
Tops
Walgreens
Walmart
Wegmans

So get out there, save some money through Swagbucks and their HealthAdvantage Program. I'm not sponsored by Swagbucks or anything - this is just a really happy user and fan spreading the word about a great free service offered by Swagbucks.com.

Bubblegum Machine Cake Pops

Bubblegum Machine Cake Pops

These are SO adorable! I need to start stocking up on the supplies when I see them on sale... must try!

Hooked On Phonics

HOP is having a sale on a lot of their materials right now, and some of their older stuff is in "overstock" for really cheap. On top of that, they have a code out that works on most sale stuff - HOP50 - that will take 50% off your order. I'm about to place an order for their older HOP K-2 program (audio CDs rather than the new one with DVDs) that will be $39.98 (before tax and shipping) rather than $199.95! The two friends I know that have used the program have used this version and love it.

Thanks to Dealnews.com for this info bit!

My God is an AWESOME God!

I shared this on Facebook, and I know many of you found me from there. But I needed to share this here, too.

This is the story of the husband of my friend, Jeney. He is currently in Haiti helping with the rebuilding efforts - both of buildings and of lives.

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth