Halloween is upon us!

Yup Halloween is coming up quick. It is my favorite time of year and Holiday but this year just feels off for some reason. I think this year feels "rushed" not sure why but it just does. On base they moved our trick or treating day to Saturday October 30th which might be why I feel rushed partially. So since on base we are trick or treating on Saturday we are going out into town for a little bit on Sunday and trick or treat for a little bit =) Lucky kids this year (have to look at it positive right?). I feel like a donkey today. Didn't realize the character parade was starting right at the beginning of school so completely forgot my camera and my phone so no pictures of the kids at the parade...It just isn't like me I know but what can you do. I wasn't feeling well last night and trying to recover from it today. But I do have a pic of the treat bags I did (well one of them)! The kids looked super cute today in their costumes and I will get pictures when they go out tomorrow!






Until next time, be safe & many loves and hugs!

Coupons

I do realize I might just be talking to myself out here in this blogger world. I don't mind obviously since I do keep posting and updating, but whatever.
Coupon-ing has become my new addiction. It's always thrilling to see that you can save a mere .55 cents on some deli meat, $1.00 on tortilla's or toilet paper. I have notice though if I really go through the coupons and go through our local grocery stores and take the time I do save up quite a bit of money. Paying full price is a thing of the past these days. My last grocery shopping trip alone I saved almost $20. I got everything I needed for 12 meals, breakfast, snacks, & dessert included for less than $100. It was GREAT. Nothing like seeing your grand total keep shrinking and shrinking down.

In today's paper there are a couple good coupons. I was mostly looking for deals on point and shoot cameras now that mine is DEAD (read previous posts for that rant). There was a $25 off coupon for a sonicare toothbrush which I am thinking might go lower in price for black Friday this year. This coupon is good until January of 2011 so I'm pretty sure I can find a good deal by then. If not then some lucky person will find my coupon on the shelf at a random store. There was a free KFC sandwich if you buy a 30 oz drink from them. Will be lunch some time this week, love getting free food lol.

Have recently discovered that the commissary does indeed change their prices almost daily and its much more beneficiary to shop on the OFF weeks of payday cause most of their items are significantly cheaper!! For instance I bought a couple boxes of cinnamon toast crunch, it has become a staple in our house the last month or so since I keep getting this great coupons on them and then combine it with the military store coupon and get a box for less than .75 cents a box sometimes even cheaper. Well I shopped the "off" week which is about 5 days after pay day. I got the boxes for $ 1.69 a box. I then went back 2 days after pay day and they wanted $3.00 for that SAME box, I wasn't paying that price not when I paid $1.69 before the coupons. So again I waited and sure enough on day 6 at the commissary they were once again $1.69 on the shelves. I have been paying a little more attention and this goes for quite a few of their items if not all. Now that they have switched to electronic its hard to keep up with all their price changes but I think its bogus that they do that to our service members and their families. But like many others I will continue to shop there to get the most out of my money simply cause I can get it cheaper than anywhere else. Okay that is it for now. Much Love, laughter, & snuggles.

3rd Annual Fall Pictures

Elora Ellisyn Leigh age 6

Caleb Bryce Age 8

Andrew William Age 10

Susie Home Maker

Been in a baking mood since all the fall decorations have come out and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Got my Taste of Home Magazine today and boy did it inspire me. I has these great Halloween lanterns I would love to try out this week, they look so simple too and super cute. I can't wait to do them! But also in this months Magazine there was some great Thanksgiving meal recipes. They have a whole section on "Sweet, Tart, & Tempting" can you guess what it is?? Caramel apples of course! Who can resist those? Man my eyes say yum and my brain says "just walk away, just walk away" but I can't sometimes. Self control is going to be a big issue I have to work on these holidays!

This Thanksgiving I want it all. I want the fancy traditional turkey slathered with butter & herbs, thrown in the oven to cook all day, stuffed with my mom's delicious stuffing recipe, with all the trimmings I remember as a kid. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, pumpkin pie and apple pie. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water and my stomach hurt =) Really hoping that I get to play hostess to some friends this year especially being it might be our last year here. If not then you know what I will do it all anyways! How bout that! I am a little nervous though. I haven't ever done a turkey on my own EVER. Mark and I have been married 11 yrs 2 months and 2 days and I have NEVER done my own whole turkey. I have done plenty of hams, plenty of turkey breasts but never my own turkey! Ohhhh Boy! I am looking forward to it though, just the whole day of the nice cool crisp air (yes it should be chilly by then), letting the kids play outside, getting all the food ready, having friends over, enjoying good food and good company! Did I mention I also want to go all out and decorate too?? My husband must think I am nuts sometimes and I admit I get an idea stuck in my head how things should look and how I want them to look, don't we all? Okay until another post! Love often, love much!

Autumn Splendor

It still hasn't quite hit that it is Fall here in Jacksonville Florida. It is our 3rd fall here in the city of Mayport. It's amazing to hear that parts of the Northern states are getting snow when we are in 80+ degree weather still enjoying our short sleeves, skirts, shorts, and flip flops. Autumn is my favorite season of them all. Winter usually is quite drab and cold with hardly any color but Christmas and Winter festivities are enjoyed none the less. Spring all the flowers bloom and the promise of Summer isn't very far behind. I do enjoy Spring though due to it kicking off our "Birthday Season" as I call it. Although I am sure our checking account/wallet cringe at the mere thought of "Birthday Season". But it's been "Fall" here since September when our calendar forces us to realize the weather should be changing. Not here apparently. I am wishing for cooler days, which don't get me wrong we have had a few, not many but a few. Nights are getting cooler, mornings are nice and breezy, just enough to want a light jacket. Although Mark says I am nuts since I am cold 98% of the time these days. Anyhow on with the updates...

We did our 3rd annual Autumn pictures last weekend. Went and found adorable matching outfits for all three kids,& yes we are THOSE parents LOL. Spent our small fortune and took some pics on the new nature trail out by the front of the Naval base. The children, bless their little hearts were all smiles and giggles about entertaining my demands for pictures. Thankfully they are quite used to me being "in their faces" for pictures. I got quite a few that I love. Our only down fall that day was the camera died, yup it just died, keeled over, kaput, dead, finito! Oh you should of seen me. I was not a happy Momma. Not to mention we still had to go to the Fall Festival! Can you imagine my panic about having to go with out a camera!! Oh yes. Not a pretty sight. But anyway, I got over it, let the kids enjoy their rides, games, & food. Had a GREAT day. This whole weekend was picturesque really. Sunday we went to the "farm" out in St.Augustine. Yeah it's pretty sad when you're farm contains 3 chickens, 1 pig, 1 goat, 1 donkey, a corn maze, and a sad looking pumpkin patch. Shoot never mind the dang patch all the kids wanted to do was jump on the popper! Ahhh to be young again LOL. So yeah we tried, won't ever go back and sadly it won't ever compare to the gorgeous setting of Belmont Farms out in Matthews County in VA. One of the only great things about VA we liked. We miss our little pumpkin patch out in East County San Diego where we lived in Lakeside, was adorable and fun not to mention FREE. So yes this farm was quite the disappointment and not to mention EXPENSIVE. WOOOWEEE it was expensive. After our trip to the farm we found "The Hyypo" which is a fresh little gourmet Popsicle shop in Old St.Augustine. They had delicious flavors of all kinds of freshly made Popsicle. Pricey but GREAT. We each got our Popsicle and devoured it right there in the store, even debated on getting a 2nd one. After deciding not to we walked around all the great little stores and decided to go to the S.W.I.N.G park. It was this great looking park with towers, swings, slides, bridges, cut outs for pictures, all sorts of things. We let the kids play and then took them home. Of course we were all tired so we enjoyed some nice Chinese take out from one of our local favorites and watched "How to Train your Dragon". We just love that movie.

This weekend we are keeping it low key for sure. Have bought Elora some cute but inexpensive fairy wings since that is what she would like to be for Halloween this year. I might make her another tulle skirt and have her wear some legging underneath, and a cute long sleeve shirt to match. Boys still haven't 100% decided what they wanted to be. So I might make Andrew his costume since he would really like to be Soren from Guardians of Ga'Hoole. Caleb wants to be another clone trooper. Again. LOL. I haven't been as excited for Halloween this year. I am not sure what is up with me. I haven't even bought a costume for myself this year. Not sure if I am going to?! I might be a witch or just slap on some fairy wings too. We'll see. You would think with all the weight loss I've just had that Id be out getting all sorts of new costumes, yeah not quite. ::shrugs::

New regs come out for us November 8th and guess what? It is our turn to choose. Am I excited. A little. Am I worried, not so much really. We'll make the best of where ever we end up. Sea Duty will suck that is for sure, usually does. Although we are on Shore Duty now and he works longer hours than he did when he was on Sea, which is ridiculous that is for sure. I am going to miss living on this base though, I am going to miss utilizing the Youth Center, the close friends the children have made, and the friendships I have looked forward to on a daily basis. Just have to make the best of what is to come. Until next time. Many laughs, hugs, & smiles.

First school week down...many more to go

Well what can I say. School has already blasted off full speed. Andrew so far is doing fantastic. He is currently on ADD meds, the lowest dosage possible of 5 mg. He has been so proud of himself telling us he has been writting, and doing quite a bit of it. He has been raising his hands to ask questions about math problems and does his homework with out issue so far. We are very proud of the way he has carried himself and made himself want to be responsible. Elora is proud of herself as are we for being in the first grade and not wanting to stay home like so many of her classmates complain about in her class. Caleb was nervous at first, but who isn't on the first day of school? He is a bit better and even has a new friend who comes over just about every day to see if Caleb can play outside lol. Its been an interesting first week of school. Wish I could say I enjoyed it but I didn't not with consignment going on. I am sure once consignment is over I can get things back into a routine and done with. I am just so glad our first week of school went well for the kids and they are enjoying being back!

Sunday Morning

Good Morning!

I can't believe I am awake, but that is thanks to my husband who couldn't decide if he was coming or going. I've realized I haven't blogged in a long time. Just been so busy and got so caught up with our weight loss and then we had decided we were going to still go on somewhat of a vacation. Just foregoing Cali since we don't know our transfer status we decided to save the money and we went to Arkansas to see the grandparents instead. This trip was a much more pleasant experiance to say the least. Of course there was a couple little "hiccups" along the way but it wasn't anything to do with us and our immediate family, more like the in-laws or "out" laws as some people like to call them...I handled things a bit more graciously this time then I would of in the past, guess that means I am growing up some hu? Yeah don't laugh too hard, doubt it. Just have learned when to bite my tongue and when to let it go, this time it benefited me more than I could of thought or imagined.

Weight loss update:
I started February 26th 2010 and I was a whopping 203.6 lbs and climbing. I know my waist was over 46 inches. The weight has steadily but not always so easily dropped and I am currently now 150 lbs and dropping!!! I am feeling fabulous! I haven't exercised in a while being on vacation (I know its not an excuse) and I had gotten sick prior. I have lost a total of 53.6 pounds and still hoping to reach my ultimate goal of 140 by Christmas! I am so excited every time I try on a pair of clothes and it is a size 10 or an 8! It was great taking pictures on our 11 yr anniversary trip and not feeling like a fat blob and being able to walk and walk and walk and not feel so winded or tired, and man did we walk alot (I had three huge blisters to prove it).
Enough weight talk. I am sure I have annoyed people plenty with facebook statuses out the wahoo while dropping so many pounds and inches.

Summer vacation came to an end all too quickly in our opinions. Mark and I enjoyed having the kids home so much though it was great. Am I glad they are back in school, yes I would be lying if I said I wasn't, do I miss them most definitely. Our vacation was two week in AR but thankfully not all two weeks were spent in Dermott. No offense to my husband and his dear grandparents but there isn't much to do in Dermott let alone in heat that was 110 and heat index of 120 (yuck with a CAPITOL Y) lol. We got to go visit some friends in Hot Springs which was nice. It was nice for the kids to spread out some and run around and just to visit with friends and hang out in a not so tiny house. We thankfully got home safely and in one piece, barely had any time to unpack anything and went to Tampa 3 days later. We visited our coastie friends which made us desire living on an airforce base lol VERY Nice =)
Our friends were gracious enough to watch our three little monkies while we conquered Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure solo with out the kiddos. We got a very nice upscale hotel onsite to take advantage of their fast pass and it was GREAT. Being it was peak season those fast passes were a life saver, we never waited longer than 10 min on a ride and even the new Harry Potter ride that is in Hogwarts wasn't that long or at least didn't seem like it cause there were so many things to look out and take in. It was fantastic and now I dont think we can stay anywhere else BUT a universal hotel for just that reason! Hoping to have pictures uploaded to a website so that I can resize and upload onto the blog. Summer came to an end but it was a great one for sure.
Until next blog...