I Love Ebates.com! I know I have mentioned that before, and again, and again. I joined almost two years ago and in that time I have received almost $400 back from my online purchases. All I do is check their site before I buy anything and most of the time the store is listed on their site. I click through with their link and then it’s automatically recorded once I’ve made a purchase. I even have a reminder service that I have downloaded that alerts me when there’s an “ebate” available for me.
This week I have ordered a ton of Christmas gifts online and I’ve saved a lot between online coupons and my “ebates”. I ordered Christmas PJ’s for the kids yesterday at The Children’s Place and received 84 cents for that purchase alone. Not a lot, no. But it adds up! Payments are sent every 3 months and I normally receive at least $20-$30. That’s not bad for not really doing anything to get it, you know?
Right now Ebates is offering double the amount that they normally do for sign ups. When you sign up using this link (and it has to be this link), you will receive $10! That is totally worth it with the holiday shopping season upon us.
Sgt. Antwan L. Walker
22 years old from Tampa, Florida
2nd Forward Support Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division
May 18, 2005
Sgt. Antwan Walker was excited about coming home from Iraq to celebrate his 23rd birthday with his family and friends. His mother, Andrea Pringle, was busy planning the party when an Army official unexpectedly came to her house.
She said he told her Thursday that her son was killed the previous day by a bomb blast in Ramadi. The Department of Defense hasn’t publicly confirmed his death.
Sgt. Antwan Walker, known as Twan to his friends and family, joined the Army in 2000. Pringle said her son joined to earn money for college.
“Twan had a lot of goals in life,” She said. “He was very ambitious and very smart.”
Sgt. Walker had been in Iraq for about a year. He called his family often but didn’t want to talk about war. Instead, he talked about starting a real estate career and his three children.
“He was such a good dad,” his mother said. “All he wanted to do was make a good life for his kids.”
In April 2005, Walker wanted to talk about the fighting. He told his mother five soldiers he was traveling with were killed. His phone calls became more frequent after that.
Pringle said she had days when she couldn’t eat or sleep because of her worries. But she never forgot to give her son her support.
“I always told him I’m proud and be safe”.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.
and I still stink at keeping up with my “online” life. I really do mean to reply to comments and visit everyone’s blogs and I don’t know .. actually comment myself! But then someone needs a diaper change or a sippy refill, or a cat has eaten a cheesecake and I get all distracted. gah.
I have really cut down on the blogging lately, mainly the sponsored stuff, and while it’s not as much fun for my bank account, it has been like a breath of fresh air for me!! Read the rest of this entry »
None of these things mix very well .. let me just start off with that!
I spent my afternoon creating a cheesecake for the hubby. He had mentioned how delicious the one I made on Thanksgiving was, so I thought it would be a nice gesture (and oh yeah.. I like cheesecake too!!). So I baked it and left it on the counter to cool before I put it into the fridge. I put a towel over it, thinking that would be sufficient and I left to go put the kids down for their naps. Well I must have nodded off while putting Aubree to sleep (she makes me rub her back .. lol) and well .. I didn’t come back to my cheesecake.
It was WALKED on, with paw marks and all – and the little biatch took a nice bite out of it. I know it was Jozie as she is the one with the sweet tooth. Cooper prefers savory items and Leo isn’t able to get on the counter due to not having a tail (for balance) and being too fat.
She’s lucky that animal cruelty is illegal.
It’s amazing how much you can love someone but at the same time want to bitch slap them from here to next week. You know?
By the way, if you’re one of those married people who totally can’t relate and have one of those warm, fuzzy, “I can’t live without you” marriages .. well you’ll get there. Eventually it’ll happen and if you deny that, you’re living in a dream world. lol
Anyway, the boy child magically lost a chunk of hair this weekend. I say magically, because I can’t seem to get an answer as to who, how, when, why. Nope. Nobody knows a thing!! It must have just fallen off.
Uh. yeah.
I’m suspecting that someone *cough* the only other adult in this home *cough* must know something. Someone had to quickly take those scissors away and clean the hair off of the carpet before I made it to the crime scene. But as I am sometimes married to a 33 year old BOY, I can’t get a straight answer. It will end up in that vast hole where all of the other “I dunno” answers go, never to be answered for sure.
I love the man, I do. That’s obvious considering the fact that I am .. still here! But my goodness, sometimes it’s like having 3 kids – and I don’t need that. I don’t have enough patience most days to deal with the two I already have. While I am far from perfection on the parenting front, I rarely .. and I’ll knock on wood here .. have any issues with surprises. I watch them almost constantly when they are awake and pass up luxuries like using the bathroom for more than a minute and taking more than a splash of a shower. Ask any delivery person who visits me – they know this! I’m the bra-less wonder with crazy hair and leftover mascara smudge from the night before. I take a great deal of pride in the fact that I have never had kids in the kitchen downing household cleaners, or poo-poo art on my walls or furnishings. They have never had stitches or any injuries that would need anything more than a kiss and a spongebob band-aid. I don’t seem to have any issues, yet when the hubby is left alone with them?! All kinds of things go down. My computer gets toddler hacked, items go missing, snacks end up all over the place, cats tortured, bathtubs full of water end up on the bathroom floor, office furniture is mangled, kids LOSE HAIR! After almost 4 years of my nagging advice, he still has issues with these common sense parenting details.
Oh well .. maybe by the time they hit high school he’ll get it? He has to, right?
In a small way I sort of look forward to being a real Navy wife again, with sea duty, time apart, and of course single parenting. It’s probably another year away, at least, but I’m counting down. I know it will be HARD now that we have kids to add into the mix, but I do think it’ll be a fantastic time for me in many ways. While most wives can’t imagine having their husband gone for 6 days, 6 months is nothing to me. Before these last 3 years of shore duty I didn’t know any other way of life. My husband was home 25% of the time and gone the rest – and you know what?
I LOVED IT!! lol
Ok, so maybe that sounds horrible, but I did enjoy myself. I’m a freak like that. I grew so much as a person during those long separations and I learned a lot about life. When I read through those old blog entries I can’t help but want to give myself a high five. 
I’ve been meaning to switch themes for awhile, but have honestly never had the time or brain power working on my side. I threw this together this evening using the “Oh So Very” theme as a start. I realize that this theme is used A LOT by a lot of bloggers that I know and some that I even link to. But it’s so easy to edit, and it’s clean with the three columns breaking everything up.
I’m not sure how I feel about the header, but it’ll do. I have all of these digital scrapbooking elements that I have purchased or downloaded as freebies. I’ll never get time to scrapbook, so at least I’ll get some use out of them this way! I may go back to the old look after the holidays. Or I may not. I don’t know. I just needed something new to look at – and I hope you all (all 5 of you ..lol) will appreciate the change as well!
Now I need to get my butt in bed. Having 4 days of no diapers to change and time to nap has spoiled me. I’m sure I’ll be a total biatch in the morning if I don’t get some sleep soon.
I forked out over $40 for hair color the other day. See, even doing it at home doesn’t save me THAT much money. My hair is ridiculously thick and soaks the color up like crazy. I end up going through two boxes and nearly needing a third by the time I’m done. But anyway, I’m getting off track!
I decided to go ahead and put the color on last night and had my first bottle mixed and ready to go. I didn’t mix the second, hoping that maybe I wouldn’t need it. Of course that wish didn’t come true and I did need it. So I grabbed the second bottle, not even thinking about the fact that I didn’t MIX the color into the developer. I put that second bottle on all willy nilly and didn’t realize I had totally screwed up until I was completely done.
ARGH!
So I decided I would just “mix” it while on my head. Hell, I already put the developer on, why not just squeeze some of the color tube out and squish it on there as well?! I was a little nervous, thinking that maybe I would have spots of uneven color or even worse, nothing at all. But you know what?! It worked!! Everything turned out just the same as if I had mixed it up in the beginning. Disaster averted. Though I don’t think I will try that again, and I am definitely glad that I never did explore any careers in the “beauty” field. I would be in so much trouble. lol
It’s cold in here and I am debating on whether or not I should maybe turn the heat on, just to warm everything up a bit. Part of me says, go for it! The other says that it’s not THAT cold (around 40 outdoors) and I could easily put socks and sweatshirt on. I may just do that instead. It’s cheaper, after all and doesn’t make me as anxious as the furnace.
Am I the only one who gets a little nervous when using the heat?! I know it’s just me and my worry wart ways, but that first heat of the season leaves me a little edgy – like it may blow up and catch the place on fire or something. I have to run it a few times before I calm down. lol I think I watch the news too much. There always seems to be half a dozen house fires here during the first really cold week of the season. I’m sure the majority of those are the direct result of ignorance – using ovens to heat homes, space heaters left on unattended, dried out Christmas trees with faulty lights… but still. I worry. heh
I spent most of my day (yesterday) shopping. Not out of my home though! Thank goodness!! I found a few really good deals and pretty much finished Aubree’s list of demands. I even managed to find a few things for Will as well – which has been horribly difficult for me. He’s too young to “want”. He plays with what we give him and doesn’t watch tv much to make those mental lists like his sister. But believe me, the girl has more than enough wishes to make up for him. That’s for sure! She’s so much easier to shop for and I actually enjoy it – and her gifts have been mostly found on sale. I actually bought one today for 50% off! Of course I will make up for that money saved by spending over retail on other gifts that were harder to find. Like this goofy “Fur Berries” toy that I am currently watching on ebay. I’m the high bidder, but I just know some boner will come along and outbid me at the very last second. I’m purposely up at 2am, trying to avoid that / praying that the last high bidder will be in bed already. lol But we’ll see! If I get this then I am so, totally DONE. I promised the hubby I would only spend maybe $100 each, but I know I have already hit that and went way over on Aubree’s list. Oops! It’s all coming out of my extra cash anyway, so really he can’t complain. No debt is being created and he’s still being fed. Everyone wins.
After the majority of my shopping we went out to see the lights as planned. It was very nice and the perfect way to kick off the holiday season. The kids LOVED it and I love seeing them so excited. While my own parents were always very generous with the gifts, they weren’t into the rest of the holiday like I am. My mom would have waited until Christmas Eve to put the tree up if she could – total Grinch! Most of the time I would be the one to decorate. I’d drag the tree out of her closet while she was at work and put it together before the both of them came home. I’d also attempt to string up some lights outdoors, totally half assed, but as good as I could do as a 10 – 12 year old kid. lol
Anyway, we definitely don’t have any issues with that now. I’m all set, as you can see. I had to laugh when we were coming home from the lights – we could totally see our apartment from the highway! It glows as soon as the sun goes down and I LOVE it. I’ll miss the exterior of this place. We’ll only have a very small balcony in our next home and while I am sure I’ll work my magic somehow, it won’t be the same.
After we arrived home I decided to take off again, by myself. Because you know I just didn’t do enough today or spend enough money. I wanted to see if I could possibly find a little something on sale at Target, but yeah.. not happening! Their toy department looked as if it had been hit by a bomb. Total wreckage – nothing left. At least nothing that was on sale. So I went to Michaels where I knew I would still be able to find stuff. They never run out! I filled my tiny little cart (what is with their itty bitty carts?!) and I only spent a little over $20. I have a few more ornaments for the tree, electric window candles, cinnamon scented pine cones (because everyone needs those!! come on!), and picture frame ornaments that I just had to get because they were cheap.
On my way to Michaels I noticed a sign on the side of the road pointing to a lot where there was a shuttle to Best Buy earlier in the day. I had to look at it twice and just shudder at the thought. I can’t imagine how many people they must have had in that store. There was a story on the news about folks who had been staying outside since before Thanksgiving day. Seriously .. you would never find me camping outside of a store or having myself shuttled from two miles away. I would likely have an anxiety attack before I made it there. I didn’t see any sales that were all that great this year – decent, but not camp in the cold, forgo bathing and pee in a bush fantastic, you know? But then again, electronics have never been my thing. Free Louis Vuitton? I can almost guarantee a little sacrifice, but HDTV? nah.
I was randomly searching for movers and came across one in NYC called “Shleppers”. lol I love that! So there you go, if you are looking for a mover NYC, look them up.
As for us? I don’t know. I have looked at every company in this area it seems and nobody really stands out. Well, maybe one. But they look expensive and since the military is footing the bill, I doubt we’ll get anything but cheap, cheap, cheap. The packers that they contracted in California looked as if they had just been released from prison. It was horrible. I just hope and pray that they don’t stick us with a group like that this time around.
