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busy busy busy

What a busy time we have been having! Frank just arrived home late Friday night - very late after a whole week away training around the country. On Saturday we slept in and drove down to Fresno and then up to the cabin. We met with Frank's aunts and a couple that is interested in buying the cabin. They looked the place over top to bottom and asked several questions and chatted - They will be getting back to us the first of the week. It is always sad, when we are up there, to think about selling the cabin. It was lovely yesterday. The dogwood tree's leaves had turned a lovely pink color and the ladybugs were nesteling into deep crevases in the trunks of the large redwood trees, creating red lines along the trees. We headed down the hill about 6:30-7:00 and had a quick meal at in and out burger. This was Nolan's delayed pick for last week.

Have I blogged about that? The kids, Frank and I take turns picking the place we will eat on Sundays. Now our only eat out of the week. Last month, everyone chose their favorite. This month it has to be $25.00 or less. Next month we will be doing a contest for the cheapest. So today, it was my pick. I found a gift certificate on http://www.restaurant.com/ for a local place. It looked like a dive, so I wasn't really sure! But man it was great.... I paid $3.00 for a $25.00 gift certificate with a code from http://www.couponmom.com/. We then had to purchase $35.00 worth of food and pay the normal tip and tax. So all told we paid $25.00 for a huge lunch that included drinks, appetizers, pizza and dessert.

On other frugal news.... we got 67.00 worth of free products from Walgreens and Rite aid and with coupons made an additional $3.00. Great stuff - expensive makeup that I would never buy for myself.... the stocking stufferes will be really great this year! The great thing is that you can enter your receipts right on line so you don't have to fill anything out and send it via snail mail to get your rebate! Ahhh welcome to the internet age!

From freecycle this week, received three bags of dry nonfat milk - a $21.00 value for free.... Then when I went to the grocery store for one gallon instead of two of nonfat milk (too mix it at intervals so my kids wouldn't notice a big change) I found 2 1/2 gallons of one percent milk at a reduced price of .75... I bought those and mixed the most delicious milk. The kids don't seem to mind the non fat dry milk, especially in ultra cold frosty glasses or in cereal... so that will be a lovely savings.

I also received a whole box of several jeans that Haley will be able to wear - they smell like smoke and animals, but after a nice bath in the washing machine, she should have her pick and the rest I will use for aprons at the craft fair.

The kids are doing great and talking about their birthdays and getting excited for the holidays. Next saturday we will have a couple of Haley's friends for a sleepover for her birthday and on her birthday weekend she is requesting a home cooked meal of ham, mashed potatos, macaroni and cheese and bread and butter - carb girl!!

Nolan continues to do great. He started a step study bible study at church this morning and is really enjoying helping in the Wednesday night group - Every young man's battle. He meets with the leader, also his accountability partner, before the group to have dinner and catch up on the week and then they go onto the group. He is loving it. He got his scooter fixed up finally! He laid it down about two weeks ago and broke the mirror so he has been "borrowing" my car and it has been causing all sorts of mix ups in my schedule. So he is back on the road.... thank goodness.

Hopefully some pictures later in the week.

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