This is a video I made of pictures of Nicholas playing baseball in Spring 2009. I used "Centerfield" by John Fogerty as the background music.

As you can tell, I am not too good at keeping up with blogging, but I thought this was a good way to share the video!

Another ABC Album Page

Today I made another page for the ABC album. I had some nice "snow" and "sled" pictures so made the S page with one of my favorites. I am trying to decide whether to put the words that go with the letters and pictures on the page or whether to leave just the pictures. I'm having trouble finding a good place for the words. What do you think?

The Start of the ABC Album

My personal hobbies are photography and scrapbooking. Over the last couple of years, I have branched out from traditional scrapbooking to digital scrapbooking. My very favorite digital scrapbooking website is ScrapGirls. It’s a great page to check out if you interested in this type of scrapbooking.

So, between learning this technique and having two very busy boys, I am woefully behind on my scrapbooks. I still need to finish Zachary’s baby book, but I also decided that I really want to make him a personalized ABC book, similar to the one I made for Nicholas. I need to make 26 pages, plus a front and back sheet for a total of 28 pages….I hope to make 4 a week and finish it in a couple of months! I decided to start with the Z page and the N page, and here they are. They are simple and straightforward and I like them quite well!

(Credits for pages: SNU SS DLAT 4x6 Alphabet, CO_Aidan_Again_Bonus_Paper3)

My Walgreens Adventure for February

One of my recent “hobbies” has been using coupons and matching them to the sales at grocery stores and drug stores. By doing this I have usually save a couple hundred dollars each month on groceries and other household items. I have found the best deals at Kroger (since they double coupons up to 50 cents), Walgreens and CVS. I used to rarely shop at Walgreens or CVS, but I have found that by using coupons along with the Walgreens rebate program and the Extra Care Bucks at CVS I can get many items for free or for pennies (even with our 9.5% sales tax!) I learned most of the techniques online. I started couponing using the The Grocery Game, but since I’ve learned more about it, my favorite sites for finding good deals are Hot Coupon World, Money Saving Mom, and Coupon Mom. I get most of my coupons from the Sunday paper inserts, and there are many great printable coupons online.

This picture shows what I got a Walgreens last week for only 89 cents after coupons and rebates. Actually, my total would have been negative, except they were out of Scrubbing Bubbles Wipes, so I bought the Pledge Wipes instead and they cost a little bit more. I’m still thrilled!

This and That and Other Stuff

Welcome to our first post on "This and That and Other Stuff." I've enjoyed reading the blogs of my friends, so I thought I would give it a try. I'm not sure what stories will be posted here, but I thought I would just start posting and see what I come up with!