Church Today 11/23/08

Today’s sermon was on Psalm 100:1-5. The main message was that our country sets aside a national holiday for all Americans to take time to be thankful, but that a main part of our faith and our focus should be practicing constant thankfulness daily. An attitude of “thanks-LIVING” is something every one of us should be striving for daily; being continually thankful for every blessing we are receiving minute-by-minute, day-by-day. One point that struck me especially hard was that the best blessings are free and are not measured by how much you have. Things like family, friends, laughter, love, health, happiness, fond memories, sight, hearing, mobility, etc.

A fun (and insightful!) exercise is to do the “thanksgiving alphabet”. Start with the letter “A” and name something starting with each letter of the alphabet that you are personally thankful for in your life. Here’s the catch- don’t name any foods, personal names, or animals. This exercise will give you a glimpse of the multitude of things we are blessed with daily, and most times take for granted.

It is so easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of life and not take time to realize the source of all our blessings. If the nation can take 1 day a year to celebrate a time of thanksgiving, so should we set aside time each day to be in an attitude of thanks for God’s provisions in our lives.

Additional scripture references include:
Ps 92:1
Ps 113:3
Ps 119:62
Eph 5:17-20
1 Thess. 5:18

Awesome Gift Card Deal at CVS this week!

You have to put out some $$ to do this deal- but it is a great moneymaker!
Buy any 3 American Express gift cards, receive $10ECBs and a $15 gas card MIR. These gift cards can be used at any location that accepts AmEx credit cards. So, take any $$ you are going to spend on Christmas gifts, gas, groceries, etc and buy these with that $$, then turn around and use these to buy those items.

Scenario
3 $25 AmEx gift cards- $75
activation fees- $3.95 per card
total OOP: $86.85
-$75 in gift cards you can use anywhere AmEx is accepted
-$15 MIR gas card
-$10ECB’s
Profit: $13.15

**Gift cards must be purchased w/ cash, debit or credit card. Cannot be purchased w/ a check, gift card or prepaid card. Gift cards are activated at the time of purchase but you must wait 4 hours from the time of activation to use your gift card.

CVS and competitor Q's

Apparently CVS accepting competitor Q’s is YMMV and may vary between the pharmacy and the front counter in the same store. My local CVS pharmacy accepts competitor Q’s and price matches prescriptions. However, I asked today at the front counter if the store itself accepted competitor Q’s and was told that they do not. The cashier said that most CVS stores do but that it is up to the manager of each store to make the final determination.

CVS Deals 11/23 to 11/29

Visit Crystal’s blog here for this week’s ECB deals with coupon links!

*note: the Complete no rub saline solution is advertised as limit 1 but is actually LIMIT 5! (St. Clairsville only had 2 of these left when I was there on Sunday!) Also I'm not sure what the limit on the Maybelliene foundation is but it is more than the advertised limit of 1. At the bottom of your receipt you will find a list of deals you have hit the limit on and deals you still have items you can get. I bought the Maybelliene this morning and my receipt does not say limit reached.

CVS Black Friday deals w/ coupon links

Black Friday ECB deals and coupon match ups are here!

Rite Aid- Black Friday Deals

Not a whole lot for free this year at Rite Aid, but still a couple items worth going after. Click here to see FAR items in the sale ad.

Black Friday Shopping!!

Remember WalMart will ad match, even on Black Friday, so if you want to avoid the crowds at other stores- just make one stop at WalMart! Black Friday ads for most major retailers can be found here. Just click the links to various stores on the left hand side of the page.

Pumpkin Rolls!!

Mom, Dad and Nanny came up for a pumpkin roll making fest! We got 7 done and are getting together again to make another 8....guess what everybody's getting for Christmas this year? LOL

CVS Today

I had to get some scripts refilled today and Isaac is sick so I had some new ones too. I picked up my script and used Rite Aid's "$30 gift card when you transfer a script" coupon (CVS matches competitor Q's). I also had my script price-matched with WalMart. So- I paid $4 for my script and got a $30 gift card. This coupon is limited to "one per patient".

Then I got Isaac's scripts- $8 total, used the CVS "$25 gift card for a new script" Q. This Q is limited to "one per customer per day".

So I paid $12 for scripts and have $55 in GC's (BLACK FRIDAY here I come!! :) )

Church Today

Our sermon today was on the parable of the talents. This is found in Matthew 25:14-30. You can view/listen to the sermon here . Anyway, while listening to the sermon I had a "lightbulb moment" Hahaha. Pastor Brad said if he was writing the parable he would like to include a 4th servant who invested what the master entrusted to him and lost it all. When I first thought about this story I thought the same thing. But as I was sitting in church today it hit me....there never could be a 4th servant to the story....that would never happen! OK OK, hear me out. Let's just say that Jesus was alluding to His relationship with us as master/servant through this parable. Well then, there is never going to be a time when we are given Jesus' love and invest that love with good intentions and come up empty handed. As Jesus servants, entrusted with the great responsibility of spreading His message to all the world, we are never going to lose everything so there couldn't possibly be a fourth servant in the parable. Isn't that an amazing thing to discover? However, with this insight it's also even clearer why the third servant received such anger from his master. I would venture to say that it would make Jesus very unhappy with us if we took the love He offers us and buried it in the backyard, never showing His love to anyone, never speaking His name, never giving Him the glory for all the good things in our lives. Wow! Definitely a week when the sermon seemed directed right at me.

First Food!

Mallory had her first meal of solid foods for lunch today :) After much debate and fence-riding I decided to go ahead and start solids. To this point she has had nothing but breastmilk :) She ate about an inch and a half of banana, smashed up, and about 2 Tbsp of rice cereal mixed w/ breastmilk. And she LOVED IT! She gobbled it up and would've eaten more! I went ahead and stopped and nursed her (also nursed her BEFORE the solids as well!). I don't want her to get a tummy ache. Any doubt I had about her starting now is gone- she was definitely ready LOL. We will still keep nursing as her #1 source of calories until she's 1- solids are just for practice and not for actual nutrition just yet.

CVS This Morning

I figured with the battery deal I had better do my CVS shopping early so I headed over right after church. I was right! Some of the racks were already nearly empty! Here's what I did:

ON MY CARD:
Transation #1
2 AAA 16pk duracell $9.99/ea
2 Ocean Spray cranberry sauce $1.69/2
2 Deluxe Mixed Nuts $4.99/2
3 Coke 12 pk $9.99
10 Powerade $10
-2 $0.75 Duracell
-$4/$20
-$19.95 ecb's
-$10.47 ecb's
Total OOP: $11.12

**A little note about this transaction- I was doing the coke and powerade because the deal this week is if you buy $20 of Coke products you get $10 off the Wall-E DVD that's coming out on Tuesday. I'm going to get the DVD for Isaac for Christmas. Well, the Coke 12pks were advertised as 3/$10- but only rang up $3.33 each- leaving me 1 cent short of getting the $10 off DVD Q. So I bought another powerade in the next transaction- but I will call 1-800-shop-cvs tomorrow and see if they can credit me for that since I shouldn't have had to buy it according to their ad pricing.**

Transaction #2
1 AA 8pk Duracell $5.99
1 Powerade $1
Total OOP: $7.48
Earned $15 ECB's for the batteries and got $10 off the DVD

Transaction #3
1 C 4 pk Duracell $5.99
1 9V 4pk Duracell $9.99
1 Big Red gum $0.99
4 Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce $1.69/2
-2 $0.75 Duracell
-$4/$20
-$15 ecb's
Total OOP: -$0.15 (one of the duracell Q's was adjusted down to $0.60)
Earned $15 ecb's for the batteries

Transaction #4
2 AA 8 pk Duracell $5.99/ea
1 D 8pk Duracell $9.99
-3 $0.75 Duracell
-$4/$20
-$15 ecb's
Total OOP: $0.93
Earned $15 ecb's for the batteries

ON THE SHOP CARD:
Transaction #1
1 C 4pk Duracell
2 C 8pk Duracell
1 9v 4pk Duracell
-4 $0.75 Duracell MFC's
-$4/$20
-2 $5/2 Duracell CVS Q's
-$13.96 ecb's
-$2.59 ecb's
Total OOP: $2.79
Earned $15ECB's for the batteries

This VERY nice lady was also doing the battery deal and had extra $5/2 CVS Q's. I mentioned that I hadn't been able to find any of those so she gave me 3 of her extra ones!!

I still need to pick up an 8 pk of D's and an 8pk of AA's on the shop card. I will spend about $10 and get $30 ecb's back. Just waiting on the Q's from today's paper- will post details after I get the batteries :)

Thumb Sucking and Potty Training

A week before Annalee's birthday I took her binky away. She was doing very well without it- until a few days ago when I noticed she has started sucking her thumb. UGH!

On a positive note- we started potty training when she turned 2 and it seems to be going very well! We aren't brave enough to attempt outings diaperless but at home she has been accident free for about a week now :)

Preschool Lessons

Today Isaac started saying the days of the week! He said "Monday, Tuesday, Saturday" but still- I had NO IDEA he was learning that!!
Earlier this week he started saying the pledge of allegiance!! AND he can count to 13! And then there's all the songs he knows and the little games he comes home with- like Rock, Paper, Scissors! The kid knows how to play that! (granted, he's always "scissors" but still! LOL )

Mallory Sits!

Finally! She loves to stand so every time I try and work with her on sitting she straightens her body out to stand up. But last night she sat unassisted for about 20 seconds 2 separate times! :)

Final Mega Sale Kroger Run

I'm kinda sad to see the end of the mega sale LOL. Here's what I got this morning:

Transaction #1
2 cottonelle 4 pk $0.99/ea
30 Scotch Brite erasing pad $1/ea
1 powdered sugar $1.67
7 cream cheese $1.31/ea
3 Imperial margarine $0.91/ea
-$15 Mega Sale
-30 $1 Scotch Brite
-2 $0.50 Cottonelle MFC
-2 $0.50 Cottonelle (doubled)
Total OOP: $0.80

Transaction #2
3 cream cheese $1.31/ea
4 Libby's Pure Pumpkin 29 oz $2.50/ea
2 Cottonelle 4 pk $0.99/ea
30 Scotch Brite erasing pads $1/ea
-$15 Mega Sale
-30 $1 Scotch Brite
-2 $0.50 Cottonelle MFC
-2 $0.50 Cottonelle (doubled)
Total OOP: $1.17

Transaction #3
22 Scotch Brite Nail Saver sponges $1/ea
8 Scotch Brite erasing pads $1/ea
4 Chocolate chips $1.89/ea
2 jumbo marshmallows $1/ea
3 Imperial margarine $0.91/ea
1 baking soda $0.79
-$15 Mega Sale
-22 $1 Scotch Brite sponges
-8 $1 Scotch Brite erasers
Total OOP: $1.17 (This should have been $0.17 but she missed 1 Q and I didn't catch it)

Transaction #4
1 mini marshmallow $1
30 Scotch Brite nail saver sponges $1/ea
2 Orbit Gum $1.19/2
7 Cream cheese $1.31/ea
1 Brown sugar $1.67
-$15 Mega Sale
-30 $1 Scotch Brite sponges
Total OOP: $0.22

So my total trip OOP was $3.36 (should have been $2.36). Not too darn bad!

Another Kroger Run....

I ran out of printer ink but I made a quick run with what I had and to scope out how many sponges/erasers were left.

Transaction #1
29 Nail Saver Sponges
1 Scotch Brite eraser
3 boxes beef broth
1 5lb all purpose flour
1 onion powder
6 jello
-$15 mega savings
-29 $1 nail saver Q's
-1 $1 eraser Q
Total OOP: $2.37

Transaction #2
20 Scotch Brite erasers
1 johnson's buddies
2 johnson's baby oil
1 bag yellow onions
1 baby powder
-$10 mega savings
-20 $1 eraser Q's
Total OOP: $0.39

Christmas ParadeS!

Oh my! We just got a note from school that the kids are invited to be in our town's Christmas parade next week. The next day is the "big" Christmas parade in the next town over. Then the next week our business is in a Christmas parade in that town. WHEW!! At least we'll be in the Christmas spirit!

Kroger Today :)

Transaction #1
2 Cottonelle 4 pk $0.99/ea
9 Viva paper towel single roll $2.00/ea
2 Quaker Oats $1.50/ea
9 Scotch Brite erasing pad $1.00/ea
Total: $33.90
-$10 Mega Sale Discount
-$1/4 Viva store Q
-9 $0.50/1 Viva MFC
-9 $0.50 Viva doubled
-$1/2 Quaker Oats
-9 $1/1 Scotch Brite
-2 $0.50/1 Cottonelle
-2 $0.50 Cottonelle doubled
Total OOP: $1.48

Transaction #2
28 Scotch Brite nail saver sponges $1/ea
2 Scotch Brite erasing pads $1/ea
4 Boxed Progresso Chicken Broth $2.59/ea
5 Kroger 26oz Cream of Mushroom soup $1.79/ea
5.73 lbs Bananas $3.38
2 Cottonelle 4pk $0.99/ea
Total: $57.95
-$15 Mega Sale Discount
-28 $1/1 Scotch Brite nail saver
-2 $1/1 Scotch Brite erasing pad
-4 $0.55/1 Progresso broth
-2 $0.50/1 Cottonelle
-2 $0.50 Cottonelle doubled
Total OOP: $8.00

WalMart and free veggies!

WalMart has green giant valley fresh steamers bagged frozen veggies for $1.27. I have $1 off coupons. BUT WAIT!!!! These just went on rollback for $1 a bag!!! Ohhh yeah, 100 bags of free frozen veggies! Clear out the deep freezer!