I started writing this post a few days ago but got distracted (the story of my life) so now it’s almost the weekend again. Just a quick update on our Golden Retriever. He is doing better. We opted against the surgery they were recommending because they couldn’t give us a lot of answers and let us know the surgery was just exploratory because they didn’t know what they would find. They got the biopsy results back and don’t think it’s cancer but they are not 100% sure. Right now they think the masses might be from a perforated ulcer. Our dog is 11 ½ years old and we just decided that surgery was not the best route. He’s on medication and is almost back to 100% of the way he was before he got sick. We’ll just have to wait and see how he does over the next few weeks.

I hope you have a good weekend!!

These were two very emotional days – everyone time I talked to someone and told them what was going on or every time I got more bad news from the vet the tears started flowing. Our Golden was our baby before we had kids. He was a gift to me from my husband before we got married. I love dogs. My family had a German Shepherd and a Golden Retriever when I was growing up. This part of loving dogs is very difficult. Luckily, his fever came down and we were able to bring him home last night. He didn’t want to spend another night in the clinic and we didn’t want him to either. There are such difficult decisions you have to make at the end. His fever seems to be staying down so I’m hoping that he will continue to do okay and he will be able to pass quietly in his sleep while he’s at home with us. They told us he wasn’t in any pain and although he’s weak he can still walk around (slowly) and he has eaten a little and usually drinks on his way out and back in after he’s gone outside. My kids aren’t overly attached to him so it’s mostly my husband and I dealing with all of the emotions. The only thing I’ve been pondering is exactly what I should tell the kids when he’s no longer here. I think I’ll go do some Internet searching to see if there are any good ideas out there.

I hope you’re having a better week than us.

I didn’t get to post this yesterday because our Internet connection was down. Our Golden is doing a little better today. He’s eating and drinking a little more and is getting around a little better. We know not to get our hopes up because he still has the tumors. We’re just trying to take it one day at a time.

We have two birthday parties to go to this weekend so that should get us in a more upbeat mood. It will at least get us out of the house and give the kids something fun to do. I hope you have a good weekend.

Normally, I try to get my mom to watch the kids when I have a doctor’s appointment but I also promised my 6 year old that I would volunteer to help at her Valentine’s Day party. My appointment was at 10 and her party was at 1. I figured I could get a babysitter, have time for lunch with my husband in between the two commitments and make a day of it. As it turns out, my husband decided to leave work for the day at lunchtime so we both went to my daughter’s school (she was ecstatic). That made a nice day for everyone – even the twins were happy because they had someone focused completely on them (not their mom who is always trying to get something done around the house in between paying attention to them). All in all it was a good day. However, I do have to share something that happened . . . read on . . . .

I love my husband (he reads my blog so I felt that little preface was necessary) but he did something today that was just one of those typical guy moments . . . last week when we discussed what we were going to do for Valentine’s Day I told him that since we were going to lunch let’s not bother with cards this year. That’s a big deviation from the norm for me – I’m a big card person and a huge supporter of Hallmark. My older daughter doesn’t know that anyone besides Hallmark makes cards. I have to keep an extra supply of Gold Crown stickers on hand so that if I buy a non-Hallmark card (gasp!) she still has the crown sticker to put on the envelope. If she happens to make a card for someone she draws a crown on the back of the card. Anyway, back to my point, now that we have three kids and a bigger house payment cards don’t seem quite as important. However, old habits die hard, and I did specifically tell him that he didn’t need to buy me a card but just so he knows each of the kids did get him a card. So after the kids open their cards/presents they each take their card over to Daddy so he can ooh and aah over their crayon drawings. After he opens the third one he looks at me and mouths “What about you?” Now, what exactly is that supposed to mean? Did he think I bought cards for the kids to give me? I wasn’t overly disappointed (I did get to go shopping by myself today) but I did think it would be nice if he could have at least had each of the kids make me a card just to show that he put forth some effort on my behalf. Oh well, there’s always next year.

Hope you had a good day filled with plenty of love!

My 2 ½ year old daughter woke up with an ear infection this morning which meant a trip to the doctor for antibiotics. The 1:00 trip to the doctor meant no nap time at home today. Since nap time was already missed and we had time to kill before picking up my other daughter from school I figured I might as well run errands. I decided to go to Marshalls to look for a baby gift because I keep getting postcards and e-mails about this huge baby event they have going on. I didn’t really see any great big baby event but it turns out that they were having 25% off all of their clearance for the next three days. That was a good and bad thing – I’m sure I bought more then I would have (if there hadn’t been an extra 25% off) and more then I should have (I didn’t really need everything I bought). I’m still working on retraining my thinking. I need to be in frugal mode (not spending money) not in frugal mode (buying things at a good price) – see my previous post about saving money.

When we were baby shopping before I gave birth to the twins we went through the big debate about a side by side double stroller or a long front/back one. I talked to other people, I went to as many stores as possible and I checked things out online. To make a long story not too long, we ended up with the Peg Perego Aria – a side by side stroller. For the most part, I have been very happy with this stroller. At first I was nervous when I would go places using the stroller – I was always worried I might not fit through the door but the only place I ever found that I couldn’t go with the stroller was into the exam room at my pediatrician’s office. I could fit it through all the other doors of the office – just not into the exam room. The only bad part is that the kids are sitting right next to each other. This is fine when everyone is happy but on a day when my daughter has a fire engine red ear infection and she’s missed her nap and mommy’s been shopping for too long I tend to question that stroller decision. You would think that someone with an earache would be gentle with other people’s ears. I’m here to tell you that’s not so. I don’t know if my daughter thought that my son should be having sympathy pains but besides hitting him and fussing at him she kept grabbing his ear and trying to twist it. I finally decided the best course of action would be to remove my son from the situation so I took him out of the stroller as I was going through the check out line. This never ceases to amaze me – maybe it’s a twin thing – but what does he do? He walks back over to the stroller and stands right next to her so she can beat on him a little more. We finally got back to the car and my daughter was asleep within seconds of getting buckled into her car seat.

Well that was my day from 12 o’ clock until 2:30. I hope you had a better day – with less fighting, no ear-aches and a healthier lunch. If not, I hope you at least got to save some money on clearance items that you really needed!! Tomorrow can only be a better day (or at least a mom can hope).

At some point last year I did become more thrifty when I was shopping for groceries. We used to just go to the grocery store and buy whatever we needed, whenever we needed it. Some trips our bill would be over $200. I started reading things on the Internet that made me realize that I always look for deals when purchasing other things and I should do this with buying food too. I read some information about stockpiling and realized that it was a good idea to stock up on items when they were on sale so that you didn’t have to pay full price the next time you run out. There’s another blog that I read all of the time. Sarah has some great frugal ideas and she has a post about stockpiling. It’s definitely worth reading. Now we try to keep our weekly shopping trips to around $100. The only catch is that I did start buying food at other places (Target, WalMart, Walgreens, etc) so it’s a little harder to keep track of since I’m not buying all of my food in one store.

I’m still working on getting organized in the house and I think that once I’m better organized I will do better with keeping track of things and using coupons. I’ve organized both of my daughters’ rooms, most of my office and my kitchen. The main places I have left are my dining room, my bedroom and my laundry room. I’m making progress so I’m happy about that. It’s nice to feel a sense of accomplishment. I also think that once I’m more organized I’ll have more time to search the Internet for good deals. I’ll try to share whatever I find here with you. So, whichever way you are looking at savings, I hope you get some good deals this week. Have a good one!

The twin’s party theme is still in the works. I’m thinking about Dora’s Adventure to Radiator Springs to meet Lightning McQueen or maybe something to do with racing. I’m still thinking that I’m going to do the Mexican Fiesta. I wanted to do a frozen margarita machine and then I was thinking of getting a second machine to do virgin strawberry daiquiris for the kids. The first place (and the only place I knew of in town) seemed kind of pricey and when I e-mailed for an actual price quote no one responded. Then I happened to mention it to a friend and she gave me the name of someone else who does the same thing and when I contacted them they were a lot cheaper. This just shows that it pays to ask around. I’ll definitely be looking in the stores to see if there’s anything on clearance after the Daytona 500 and after Cinco de Mayo. It really does pay to plan early so that you can shop around and buy things at the best price. I was able to get some Cars stuff for the goody bags at the dollar store. I was also able to get some other goody bag items on clearance at Walmart. I’m sure if I was shopping for that right before the party I wouldn’t be able to find it or I would have to pay full price. Now I just have to hope that my kids don’t change their minds about the theme they want!!

Time for bed. Tomorrow is the start of another busy week . . . school, work, doctor’s appointments, playdates, birthday parties, cleaning, laundry, errands and the list goes on . . . Have a good week!

Do you like planning birthday parties? Do you have any great ideas? So far the party themes we have had are: Teddy Bear, Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues, Care Bears, My Little Pony, Mermaidia, Winnie the Pooh and The Wiggles. I had a lot of fun planning each one. A great place to get ideas for your birthday parties is http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/. I’m thinking about devoting a part of my web site to party ideas too. Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas you would like to contribute.

Have a great day!

We moved into our home almost 2 years ago and we’re still not organized. A lot of things have happened in those 2 years (but that’s something for another post) so I feel like I have a good excuse for not getting things the way I want but now is the time to get it done. Everything else in our lives seems to have settled down and now I’m ready to get things organized.

The problem is with 2 children who are home during the day it’s difficult to get too involved in a project because someone always seems to need something. Either that, or it’s too quiet and I have to go find out what they are doing for themselves so that they don’t need something from me. One day I found them helping themselves to water from the freezer door. Apparently they weren’t thirsty though. They were filling their cups and then throwing the water on the floor. I guess they were swimming in the water too because my son was wet from head to toe. Oh well. At least it was just water and I was able to soak it up with a towel. That part I am thankful for.

I’ve been trying to work on a lot of organizing while my husband is home to help with the kids. So far I have started organizing in my daughter’s bedrooms and our office. I know they say it’s better to start in one place and finish before moving on but it’s not possible to organize in their rooms while they are sleeping. My goal for tomorrow is finishing in the office and cleaning off the kitchen counters (a never ending task). A friend of mine recently moved to town and when I went to see her new house I commented on how nice and big her kitchen is. She said she was bummed about that because it just gave them more counter space to put stuff on – I guess our household isn’t the only one where empty counters are a magnet for anything you don’t feel like putting away or don’t know where it goes, something you just took away from the kids that needs to be put where they can’t reach it, last week’s school papers, mail, etc. So, along with the office and the kitchen – I’ll be taking care of the kids, walking the dog, picking my daughter up from school, doing laundry and the list goes on. I’ll let you know how I do. Hope you have a productive day!