Saturday, February 27, 2010

Bad Karma

Before I go into the story about Karma I want to say I had started a post about my oldest sons birthday but it was never finished. Sorry, I didn't mean to avoid posting about you on your day. You will understand in a moment why.

I picked up my oldest son one day last week and took him out for his birthday dinner. It wasn't quite his birthday yet but it was the best day for us to do it. Before we went to the restaurant I had to stop at my favorite store to pick up a few things, Of course he was cool with that because he needed a few things too.

I knew we were getting low on the much needed TP so I headed over in that direction. Being the frugal person I am I spotted a large package in the clearance section. Score 36 double rolls for $7.48. I sent Oldest Son to get a cart for me, why I didn't pick one up on the way in I will never know.

While he was gone, I spotted another one sitting on the shelf with the smaller packs, so I grabbed it up. Hey, don't judge - remember I am frugal.

Oldest Son returns with cart and sees I have a second package he asks if there are anymore. I search the shelves. Um, sorry no suck luck. He makes a comment about me not sharing. I give my evil laugh and remind him who he is talking to. We pick up the things we need and head to the check out.

We meet up with Kris at the restaurant for dinner. He was kind enough to get a table for us and order all our drinks. We ordered, had some good conversation, colored with little one. When our meals came we ate. We all took home a to go box. All was good.

Here is where the bad karma comes in.

I should have been nice and let Oldest Son have one of the packages of TP. Heck, I should have bought it for him, took it to his house and put it on the darn holder for him!

You see I woke up the next morning with horrible stomach cramps, and the rest I am sure you can figure out on your own. I don't know if it is a bug that I caught, food poisoning or what but trying to deal with little one while being that sick was and still is awful. I tried eating something other than a cracker today, it didn't go over so well. I guess I will try again tomorrow.

So to prevent any more bad karma like this again I am raising my hand and taking an oath.

I will do my best to never again be so stingy with my TP. I will do my best to learn to share my new unused packages of TP with Oldest Son.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Picnic in the backyard

Oh the weather around here was beautiful yesterday. If it didn't hit 60 degrees it was pretty darn close.
Little one begged for a picnic lunch. He did not care what the lunch was, all he wanted was to eat outside.
Since the ground was too still to wet and muddy to actually throw down a blanket and sit down on it, I scrubbed off the table and chairs that has been sitting out all winter.

I made lunch and outside we went.

The sun was shining, the sky was a pretty blue, the birds were out flying around and doing a lot of chatting to each other. Little one decided that if any bugs came around, I was not allowed to shoo them away. He had a plan!

He was going to feed the bugs that came around. He just knew they would be hungry and he wanted to share his lunch with them. This is not a good sign of future picnics. You see right behind our house is an old farm. They don't have much animals there anymore other than dogs and a few horses but during the summer months those few animals being so nearby cause us to have lots of flies when we try to eat outside.

If it is one thing I hate about eating outdoors is the flies.

I hope that by the next nice day he will have forgotten all about wanting to feed the bugs because I don't think I could just sit and let the bugs join us.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Mattresses Galore

We went mattress shopping this past weekend.
It had to be done. My little man is just to big for his toddler bed now. How did that happen so quickly?

I knew going from place to place would not be fun for little one but I did think climbing on mattresses and bouncing on them would be a good time for him. Boy was I wrong.

He wanted nothing to do with trying out mattresses. At the first place he looked at one mattress and said I want the one with the swirls, then he turned around and went to play with the toy they had there. When I was finally able to convince him to get up on them he rolled across all them, got down and declared he wanted the one with the swirls.

Several more places, the same thing occurred. One place had several other kids so he was all over hanging with them and wanted nothing to do with trying out a mattress or two.

After going to several places, checking mattresses, we wound up going back to the very first place. The store with the best prices as far as we were concerned. The store with the best selection. The store with the mattress that had the swirls on it! Yes we wound up buying the mattress that Zack originally looked at and declared that was the one he wanted.

We both felt it was the best of all the mattresses we tried. We both felt it was the best bang for our buck.

Little one did not get to sleep on his new big bed that night because mom was a bit slow in getting his brand new sheets in the washer and dryer. Oh well one more night in the toddler bed wouldn't hurt him.

The next day he tried it out at nap time and declared it was a good big boy bed. The only thing he seems to have any problems with is the bed doesn't have Wall-E sheets and blankets :(
I think if I were to buy Wall-E sheets, next month he would want some other character and I would not even be accommodating him on that quest.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Muffin Tin Monday

It is Muffin Tin Monday again.


Muffin Tin Monday at Her Cup Overfloweth

Today the theme is Orange.
My little guy was pretty excited when he saw this lunch. He immediately told me there was lots of orange on there, so I guess I succeeded.

Orange M&Ms, Orange slices, Cheese crackers
Velveeta shells and cheese, carrots, baked sweet potato fries.

As expected he tried going straight for the M&Ms. I did tell him he needed to eat the carrots before eating the candy. By some absolute miracle he listened and the carrots were all eaten before he inhaled the candy.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Good food gone bad.

Have you ever bought something in the grocery store only to get it home and it was already bad?
A month and a half ago I purchased a frozen dinner for my husband to take to work on those days when there were no left overs or no bread to make a sandwich.

When he opened the box to heat it up, the food was freezer burned. The plastic that normally covers the top was not sealed. This dinner never stood a chance. It was destined to become freezer burned no matter what.

The meal was thrown into the trash. There was no way it could have been eaten.

I don't normally write letters to companies but these meals are so expensive I figured I would let know about the poor quality of the packaging.

I received a coupon yesterday for one free product made by that company. Was I happy about that? Yes and no.

Yes I was happy they replaced the product. This means we can get another one for another day when there are no leftovers for him to take. Then again I was thinking whatever happened to companies wanting to make sure you come back to them over and over again. Companies long ago used to send you products in the mail or at least multiple coupons for free items to make sure you stayed a happy customer. Now all you get is a coupon to replace the same item you had to throw out.

In recent years I am that person that just threw the food away and said the heck with the money lost but I will not be that way any longer. If I purchase a product I want it to be good. If I buy that bag of cheese only to get it home, open it for dinner that very night and see mold, you can bet it will not be thrown out and forgotten. I will write a letter to the company. Maybe they will only replace that bag but I can not stand the thought of me throwing money in the trash can when money is so tight.