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Frugal Novice

Falling Into the Gap

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I don’t know how much I’ve talked about it before, but I love to shop. It can make being frugal a challenge – but I also almost exclusively buy things on sale or clearance, so that helps. Our town is pretty limited on shopping options. One of my favorite stores to shop at is the Gap. We used to have one at the mall, which then turned into a Gap Outlet, and then disappeared. Our mall is kind of pitiful, actually – we usually only go to let the boys play in the little indoor playground they have set up.

Well, this weekend we’re in DFW (that’s the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex for you non-Texans) and we got to go to a REAL, HONEST-TO-GOODNESS MALL!! Ok, so the only store we went to was the Gap, but it was so nice to have options. I’m having the boys’ photos taken this afternoon (wish us luck! I’ll let you know how it goes) so I wanted to find matching shirts for them to wear. Yes, I’m that mom that dresses her children in matching/coordinating outfits when possible. I figure I better do it now before they’re old enough to protest!

So, my mom and I headed (with boys in tow) over to Baby Gap and I was immediately all aflutter at the sign I saw next to the door: All Sale Items an Additional 40% Off. Score! Right off the bat we found these great sweaters:

Continue Reading…

Friday Follow & QOTD

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I participate in Menu Plan Monday each week and am always looking for new recipes, so here’s a question of the day… What is one of your favorite recipes in your repertoire? Share a link to a recipe you love (whether it’s on your own blog or another site), and I’ll include all the links in Monday’s post so everyone can blog hop and find some new recipes to try!

Also, if you are visiting from Friday Follow leave a comment letting me know you’ve followed through Google Friend Connect so I can return the favor!!

Happy Friday, everyone!!

Things I Love Thursday: My iPhone

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I’m one of those people – I would be lost without my phone, and I always have it with me. Some people hate to feel tethered to their phone, but if I forget mine at home you can be sure I’ll turn around to go back and grab it. I’ve even got a cute little case for it.

Of course I use it for its primary purpose – talking on the phone – and I’m also a BIG texter. Brian always says, “You know, that conversation would take half as much time if you’d just use the phone for what it is meant for!” but I love that I can send exactly what I want to say without the need for small talk. What do you think – do you text? I grew up when AIM first became popular, so maybe that’s part of the appeal of texting to me – it’s got the feel of chatting online.

Aside from actually communicating, my phone serves a million other purposes. I take a ton of photos with it, and have a pretty extensive photo album – over 2,000 photos:

I am absolutely in love with the calendar feature. I set reminders for myself all. the. time. I don’t know if I’d remember to do anything without it!

See? Yesterday I had to buy an apple. For a horse (really!). I’d have totally forgotten if not for the alert from my calendar.

I have a ton of applications on the phone. My personal favorite is Words With Friends (if you play, let me know your name – I’m always looking for new games!) but I also have the Bible, the Weather.com app, Facebook, Tweetdeck, and many toddler games to help us survive any instance of having to sit still and wait. Brian even got one app that lets us use our phones as a remote for our DVR. Continue Reading…

Dishes Deal

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$10 in Kohl’s Cash given to me by my MIL

+

BOGO free on all tableware

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for just $10! If I’d bought them full price it would have been $40, so I saved 75% (and that makes each dish just $1.25). I’m excited to have these, too, because they’re perfect for summer. I love chilled glass plates for salads, and colorful fruit will look great in the bowls.

These are great because they’re not fussy. I love dishes – I’d be in trouble if we had a larger kitchen with more space – but I’ve never been a fan of dishes with too much embellishment. In part because it’s just not my style, but also because I like the idea of the food holding center stage, if that makes sense (that’s the Top Chef fan in me talking, ha).

Speaking of dishes, here’s a question of the day: What is your favorite dish (or set of dishes)?

Birthday Party Recap

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Now that we’ve (almost) fully recovered from the birthday weekend I thought I might share a few photos! The party went really well, and although C can’t talk, I feel certain if he could he’d say he had fun. ;)

We scattered some helium-filled balloons around the house, but for the most part we kept the decorating confined to the dining table. I have a feeling when the boys get older I’ll want to do more, but for now this works really well (and is SO easy to clean up – a huge perk for me).

I designed and printed letters to tie in to the birthday invitations, and strung them up with some brown grosgrain ribbon along the window beside the dining table:

Continue Reading…

Buffalo Chicken Pizza Recipe & Our Menu for the Week!

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We eat chicken a lot in our house, mainly because I’m the one who plans our meals. We have beef probably once a week (sometimes less) but never fish. I hate seafood, and I know I need to work on that if I’m wanting to encourage the boys to eat well! Any recommendations for seafood options I might be able to tolerate? I don’t want anything even remotely fishy tasting. (Nooooo, I’m not picky at all…)

I wasn’t too creative with this week’s menu plan – but I do have two recipes to share with you for things we really love – buffalo chicken pizza and homemade guacamole.

Monday: Grilled chicken salad with cucumber & carrots – it’s a Monday, what can I say? I wanted something easy!

Tuesday: Buffalo chicken pizza with carrots & celery – When we get wings at one of our favorite places, they serve raw veggies with them, so I think it’s a good fit to have with this pizza. Here’s the recipe so you can give it a try! It is a little spicy, so try it at your own risk, haha! Continue Reading…

Friday Follow: Party Week

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The Ultimate Blog Party is coming to a close, and I’m just ramping up for my little man’s first birthday party on Saturday! I also realized I’m just eight posts away from hitting fifty posts – and, well, I can’t wait until 100 posts to do a giveaway, so I’m planning to do something to celebrate 50 soon. Keep an eye out for details!

In the meantime, I thought I’d share some blogs I’ve discovered through all my blog-hopping. That’s what Friday Follow is all about anyway, right? Happy reading!

• New Nostalgia

• The Blessings of Modern Domestication

• With Words and Lattes

Oh, and I can’t not mention my mom’s blog – her recipe index is AMAZING. Check it out if you’re looking for some new meals to try.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

My Baby is ONE!

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Happy 1st Birthday, C!!!

Forgive the lack of a “Things I Love Thursday” post. Today is C’s birthday and it’s been a busy one. For starters, I apparently turned off the alarm in my sleep and caused us to all oversleep this morning. That completely dashed my plans to make pancakes for the boys, as well as any hope of me washing my hair before work. Gross, no? I’m not one of those people that can do the whole wash-every-other-day thing.

Back to the point, though – C is one! I can hardly believe it. I can remember our time in the hospital like it was yesterday. I remember the emotions I felt the night before, worrying at how J would handle the change, and how our family dynamic would change; the nervousness as we checked in to the hospital; the awe when we first saw C’s little face.

Our little man went from this:

to this:

in the blink of an eye.

C’s walking all over the place and says, “Mama” and “Dada” on a regular basis. He wants to eat what we’re eating and do what we’re doing, and right now he is completely fascinated with the fridge and with Josie’s dog food (I’m constantly on the lookout if he’s in the kitchen, because if I’m not careful he’ll have a piece of dog food ready to chomp on). He is independent and assertive, and smiles almost all the time – unless he’s hungry, and then he’s screaming. :) His personality is starting to show more and more each day, and we’re so thankful we get to watch it all unfold.

Candy-Themed Party

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I thought today I’d share two photos from C’s baby shower that Brian’s work threw us last year (see how well I’m doing with keeping the party theme going?). Brian eats a ridiculous amount of candy (and is SKINNY, too – so unfair!) and it’s a well-known fact up at his work. Knowing this, his coworkers had the theme of our shower be candy. The invitations were made to look like giant candy bars – the invitation was the label wrapped around the bar (foam core). SO cute! They mailed just fine, too. This is an idea I want to incorporate for one of the boys’ birthdays in the future.

Instead of having a large cake, they did cupcakes on a tiered pedestal – each one looks like it has a giant M&M on top of it, only they put “C”, and then used a bowl of gumballs as a topper. So colorful and cheery!

Continue Reading…

Word World Birthday

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I figured I might as well keep the birthday theme going all week long – it ties in to my mindset right now in preparing for C’s party on Saturday, and it fits perfectly with all the blog partying going on with the Ultimate Blog Party!

Last year we chose to do a Word World theme for J’s 2nd birthday. If you have small children and have never seen this show, you really ought to check your listings and find out when the next episode is so you can catch one. Brian and I tried to really limit how much TV J watched (we’re not doing so well the second time around!) but Word World was a show we felt really good about. It’s comprised of animal characters that are made out of the letters that spell their name, like this:

J has loved letters for a long time (along with songs like Twinkle Twinkle and Jesus Loves Me, we sing the ABC’s each night before he goes to bed, at his request) and we really think part of it is due to him watching Word World.

As I was saying before I got distracted, we decided to do a Word World party. I got online to see what plates and napkins were available, and found something pretty amazing: FREE Word World birthday party resources. Continue Reading…

Menu Plan Monday – Birthday Week!

Thursday is C’s birthday, and even though he’s just turning one, I want to make food I know he really likes.  We’ve also got company coming over two nights this week, so I’m pulling out some favorite meals/recipes to use. Oh, and can I say – we love those quesadillas we tried last week! It’s so much fun trying new things, especially when they turn out to be wonderful like that.

Monday: We’re having some people from my work over, and are making chicken fajitas. Brian’s going to grill the chicken – our first grilling of this year! We love to grill out and do it a TON during the spring and summer. I’ll also saute some onions and bell peppers, and we’ll have Brian’s homemade guacamole (this stuff is AMAZING. I’ll have to post the recipe sometime soon).

Tuesday: We’ll have leftovers of fajitas if there are any. If not, we’ll do a hodge-podge meal. I’ll make mac & cheese and some veggies to have with it.

Wednesday: My brother (& maybe his girlfriend, too) are coming over, and I’m going to make one of his (and our) favorites. This is not a recipe we make very often at all because it’s not the healthiest of choices, but it is a definite comfort meal for me! It’s called Crunchy Chicken Crescents. Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it, too: Continue Reading…

Keeping With the Party Theme…

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Today one of J’s friends had a birthday party. I went shopping for the gift with a friend of mine, and picked out a fire truck (can you really go wrong with a fire truck for a 3-year-old? I think not). I then went home and made the rookie mistake of showing it to J. This was a mistake for two reasons: 1) J, as you probably guessed, decided this truck should be HIS, or at the very least that his friend should definitely bring the truck to day care and share it; and 2) once the present was wrapped, J kept repeating, “It’s a fire truck! A fire truck!“, making me certain that we’d last about one minute at the party before the birthday boy knew what his gift was.

While we were driving to the party, J said, “You know, mommy? I love fire trucks. They’re my favorite!” Which is definitely not true – Thomas & Friends are his first love – but was pretty smart on his part. He knows how to appeal to his mom! Too bad it didn’t work this time. Poor guy.

The party was at a place filled with inflatables, perfect for toddlers to run & bounce off all their energy. Unless you’re J, and are pretty intimidated by those big bouncy structures. We’ve been to this place once before, and J spent most of his time running back and forth on some gymnastic mats (totally worth $5). Today he was a little braver, encouraged by seeing his friends playing. Don’t get me wrong – he still spent a large part of his time standing next to various bouncy houses, cheering his friends on through the little mesh net windows. He did play long enough to let me snap a photo, though:

Can I admit that for a moment I wished I was young enough to hop up there and play a little too? I would have loved a place like this when I was a child.

After playing for a while it was time for the actual party to take place. We all shuffled back to the party room and took seats along picnic tables to watch the birthday boy blow out candles and open presents. I have to say, I love being around other parents of toddlers. There’s no embarrassment when your toddler throws himself to the floor in a huff – just knowing, sympathetic looks. Not that J would ever do that. Multiple times. Along with exclaiming, “Where are my presents?!” Noooo, not my child.

Really, J did well overall. He and his friends were pretty cute to watch as they ate cake – their conversation was mostly about the cake, and about the Mickey Mouse toppers on it. They also liked to talk about what big bites of cake they were eating. Riveting stuff. :) Once it was time to open presents, J became very interested – mainly because he thought it was just a matter of time before it was his turn to open presents too, I’m certain. He stood just a few feet away, watching intently. Toward the end, he picked up one of the opened gifts, a big truck, and tried to bring it over to me. I – in my sweetest voice, mind you – told him he needed to put it back, and that’s when one of the aforementioned huffs took place.

Mostly, though, it went really well and was a fun outing. I liked getting to know some of the other moms, and I loved seeing J interact with his friends. Plus, I’m hoping it was a good trial run for him to be ready for C’s party next weekend. That’ll be his first experience with his brother getting all of the attention, and getting presents when he doesn’t. It might not be completely pleasant for him, but we want him to learn that it’s not always about him, and that it’s fun to be excited for other people’s special days. Wish us luck!