Finding Balance...

Great Coupon

 If anyone is interested in a great deal on this new movie - here's some instructions for a $10 off coupon.

I just called our local Target and they are selling this for $20 - then the $10 off = $10 for 4 different discs! SWEET!
The Target guy actually asked me to email him a copy of this offer.

Here's a copy of my email to friends and family:

They are selling this movie combo pack for $20 (that includes the DVD AND a Blu-ray, plus 2 other discs in a pack).

I followed the directions below and was able to print off 2 coupons for $10 each.

That would make this a GREAT deal at $10 for the combo pack. 

We don't have a Blu-ray player, but it doesn't matter, because the DVD is included.

Robyn

P.S. Target is not the only place you can use this coupon.

 

Instructions: 

Google   $10 coupon for UP 

 

Then click on $10 up Coupon Now Available!  it will take you to Fatwallet.com 

Then click on  the http:// disney.go.com and it will take you there

click the $10 Off Coupon USA   and it should allow you to print 2 coupons . 

 

You may have to install the COUPON PRINTER, but I did it and it only took a couple seconds - then it printed right off.

Utah #2 & #3

The second new place we tried out in Utah was THE LIVING PLANET AQUARIUM in Sandy.

This was really cool.  There were lots of really great displays/tanks with cool aquatic plants and animals.

The jellyfish were so fun to watch. I've never seen one up this close.

It was hard to get any good photos because it was so dark.  Plus, some of the fish were 'sensitive to flash'...

They had some stingrays just swimming around in this low tank. You were able to touch them if you wanted.  

I wasn't scared, Saydee finally did touch one (barely) - Logan was scared they would 'sting' him, and Steven's a freak about germs on his hands....so no slimy creature touching for him.

It was nice because it was interesting, but didn't take all day to look at everything.

The 3rd new place was Pirate Island in Orem.

This place was really fun. Totally fun atmosphere - again, lots of details that impressed me.

We spent the day with my brother's family. It was fun to go to dinner with them.  Pirate Island was so family friendly. The food wasn't THE CHEESECAKE Factory, but definitely good.  And, they did serve CHEESECAKE FACTORY CHEESECAKES for dessert! S W E E T!!

There was a guy making balloon animals - struggling BYU student, so I tipped him well. (He had to make 7 different balloon animals for us).

I didn't have any cousins my age growing up, so I love that my kids love their cousins.

The kids had a program in church on Sunday, so we drove home late Saturday night. It is so good to get away, and SO good to come home.  We had a couple of cats that had been gone most of the week and they were both back (so sorry, Steven - we know you were disappointed when you saw they had returned).

Logan was excited to cuddle his new cats from Utah - yup, they were nursing cats again....jeesh!

This was a good little getaway for us!
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 

Utah #1

A little friend of Logan's was in a fire accident on Saturday night. We had a very emotional day Sunday.  We've gotten close with this little boy's family over the summer and have grown to love and respect them.

The little boy is doing good and has always been so tough.  We know he will be alright, but we still feel so sad for his family to go through this. We've said lots of prayers at our house to help him.

I made lots of this today:

Took some to the extended family that are helping with all the 'stuff'.  This is an easy, pleasing recipe that makes lots and perfect for this kind of things. I pulled out 5 loaves of WONDERFUL RHODES bread and we delivered that hot with the dinners, salads and cookies.

We also took some frozen lasagna (gotta love Stouffer's) to a couple of friends that have had surgery and new babies. I was way behind on my dinner/service stuff, so I did it in one large SWOOP tonight. 

I baked up the last of my cookie exchange cookies and delivered some of those, too.

Speaking of cookie exchange - I'm coordinating another one next week. If you are interested email me SOON - we will be exchanging "UNCOOKED" cookies on Thursday, November 19th.  This should give us all cookies just in time for the holidays.  There are already 4 committed, so let me know soon if you want in.

_____

Onto other stuff with our little clan:

We headed south to the "Holy Land - hee hee" for a couple of days last week. The kids were out of school on Friday and we needed to get gone....it was SOOO warm (in the 70s) the whole time we were there - so nice to feel the sun on my face!

There were even flowers still blooming!

We went to 3 new places while in Utah. We are trying to find somewhere new to see and explore/experience when we go down - there really are lots of cool places.

First was the historic train depot in Ogden.

We accidentally found this place another time when we were lost. It was really fun - especially when you have a TRAIN CRAZED little boy!

He would've played all day out there on the trains - pretending he was the conductor, checking out the engines, etc.

We ate a yummy lunch at the little cafe and then looked through the train museum and old car museum. There was even a gun museum but we didn't have time for that, too.

There were lots of displays and a huge miniature train set for Logan to FREAK OUT about! It was hard to get him to leave and head outside to play on the big, real trains.

I've always loved little things and especially the details of little things...

Saydee actually enjoyed the trains, too. She's always so good to pose for me when I ask/beg. There were actually about 4-5 professional photographers there taking pictures of kids dressed in Christmas outfits or families in front of the big black train.  So fun - lots of fun props - I tried NOT to stare, but it was cool to see them in action.

Another time, we will ride THIS thing when we'er down there:

This was a fun place to stop and somewhere we will come again.




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 

Winners

Winners:

Thanks for your comments - I appreciate you taking time.

Here's the two winners for the little notebooks (I promise they are so much cuter in person)...

Arlene

Angela

Give me your addresses and I'll mail 'em or I can coordinate where to meet you.

Again, thanks you guys!

Stay tuned - I have lots of photos to share today and all this week.

Until then - one from this weekend:

You never finished....

Ok, so it's been established - I need medicated...and NOT with Diet Pepsi and sugar - although, what the hell would be wrong with that? REALLY!

I know I can be like a 'toot in the wind' - all over the place sometimes.

I get ideas, projects, start sentences....and NORMALLY NEVER finish them...or truthfully, I INTEND to finish them all - but something else sparks my interest or makes me head towards it and leave the current 'passion' behind....I know that about myself - honestly I recognize it....but I know of no medication (besides the above mentioned items.....)

I have recently been told by two different people that I forgot to post about ______ and I never finished showing pictures and tell ing about _______.....so I will get to those two posts, soon - I promise...

And, it got me thinking - what else have I NOT completed on this here blogarooni?! Is there something I've said I'd get to/said I'd share/ said I take photos of - and haven't?

This is going to be like a little contest....if you will leave me a comment telling me something I NEED to post about or something you've been waiting for me to finish/share - I'll enter you into a drawing for this:

I actually have two to give a way.  It is a little notebook that I did make - yup, actually completed a few of them.  It has fabric and then some little do-dads on it's cover. 

Inside, there are 52 sheets of paper that say 'The Freakin' Never Ending To Do List'. It's set up in a weekly format. I downloaded it from HERE.  So fun!

Anyway, leave me a comment and I'll draw two names and post them on Monday morning. 

Until then, a couple random photos - some fun ones from lately...

Ok - so comment N O W ! Do it - you'll really help me!
 
 
 
   
 

Halloween 2009

Just a few photos from Halloween. 

I must've overdosed on the Diet Pepsi last week because I thought it would be fun to make some MORE pretzel rods for some people in our community - like 'older' people/widows...who wouldn't get any candy or sweets for Halloween. This is one of my very favorite things to do....give people something when they aren't expecting it.

Notice Saydee's nails? She wore the same costume from last year that I so meticulously 'put together' (mostly with hot glue and safety pins - sewing isn't my gift) - we bought her eyelashes and nails and new striped tights to 'change it up a bit'.  She wore some of my sisters old clogging shoes so that she 'clicked' as she walked around. Kinda fun.

Logan was Spiderman.  I actually bought him a Spiderman costume last year, but he wore it out (several holes) BEFORE Halloween - so he ended up wearing another costume we had on hand.  This was actually the 2nd Spiderman costume this year, but after the first one started unraveling after only a few days of wear (stinkin' Walmart) I took it back, got another one and put it away until THE DAY.

We did the trunk or treat at our church, stopped to show Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds (My mom had yummy kettle corn in cute, little bags for the kids) costumes, then back to our community to visit with some friends for a while.  Home to sort candy and off to sugar dream land....S W E E T!

OH, and by the way....the "stash" I had put away for myself (I always buy the kinds I like and pick out my very favs and put them in SAFE KEEPING) is nearly gone - no wonder my belly is fatter and rumbly every night.....
 
 
  
 

Moles/Voles

Off and on over the summer, one of these...

...has shown up on my front or back porch.

Take a look at it a bit closer:

My dad says these are called "Voles". 

All I know is they must not taste very good to my cats and dog, because they NEVER eat them!  They just leave them for me to discover....dead.

A couple of weeks ago I counted 5 dead on the porches or in the garage - UGH!  They are small and I'm not scared of them, but 5 in one shot - come on!

No kidding, the next night there was a story on the local news about these dang things - and the local county was offering a dollar a vole/mole if you brought them in dead (because there are so many causing problems in the fields, etc.).....I coulda had a 12 pack of Diet Pepsi for the ones in my yard that day! 
  

 

Pretzles.

As I've mentioned, I asked to be over teacher appreciate at both my kid's schools. 

This is something I really enjoy and I find fun to do (mostly).  I really do believe teachers have one of THE most important jobs in the world.  I like to make sure the ones who work at my kid's schools feel appreciated for the work they do. 

I've been trying to do a little something for them each month/holiday.

I found Halloween pencils and wanted to give them a treat that wasn't so traditionally Halloween-ey with the pencils.  I came up with white chocolate dipped pretzel rods. 

I buy my chocolate chips in 25 lb. boxes every couple of years. I keep them in my pantry in these labeled white buckets.

I read somewhere on line that if you add a bit of vegetable oil to your melting chips, it will make it smoother.  I added canola oil and sure enough - much, much smoother than in the past.  I added 1 T. oil to each cup of chips I melted.

I attended a local candy making class a few years back.  They showed us this way for melting the chocolate - milk or white.

You line one of these pans (can't think of the technical term at the moment) with a towel, turn it on low (I was @ about 250) and I had two glass bowls going - I did a cup at a time in the small one (because it would melt faster), then I would add that to the big one once it was melted to keep the big one full for dipping.

My first test ones....the broken end rods....Steven and Logan INHALED THESE AS FAST AS THEY SET UP (they are one of Steven's very favorite).

This was the first batch I did over the weekend. It went more smoothly than I expected, but took some time.  I did another batch this same size (3 bags of rods) on Monday night.

And here they are all done:

I planned to do these pretzels for the teachers and all the aides, etc., but they did take quite a while, so I opted to wash some of the little pumpkins we grew in the garden and put them in cellophane bags, tied with ribbons for the aides - if I include aides, it nearly triples my number.

It was fun to stuff them in their 'boxes' at the school and listen as they found them.  It really is important to me that they know they are appreciated.

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

A couple of recipes:

I'm not sure if I've shared this recipe on my blog or not, but here it is anyway:

I'm making this for dinner today.  We'll have it over baked potatoes and a big, green salad with it.  

My kids and Steven INHALE it and I've been asked for the recipe SO MANY times.

I got it from a Jodi who got it from a Jodi....now it's ALL MINE!

We served it at Saydee's school a couple of years ago for the teachers and they went wild over it!

So, please try it - I promise you'll love it!

And one last little recipe for the coming cold months:

Enjoy!
 
 

Progress

...from yesterday:

Before:

Yesterday:

We even did the playroom:

Now, the upstairs is coming along....more pictures on that later....