free amazon gift cards!

i have stumbled across an opportunity to make a few bucks without hardly even trying and i'd like to share this opportunity with you so you can start earning too. there is a company called swagbucks. they are a search engine like google. the concept is really pretty simple - search your normal searches through their engine like facebook, my blog (lol), your email, etc and randomly earn 'swagbucks'. you can also do selected surveys, daily polls or even special offers if you'd like but nothing is required. i'm averaging about 50 swagbucks daily. you turn your swagbucks in once you find something you'd like to purchase in the swagshop. i'm choosing to purchase amazon gift cards. i received enough swagbucks to get a $5.00 amazon gift card in just 8 days!! that is like FREE money to me! i just learned that there are hundreds of stores online that when you make a purchase (as long as you were logged into their store through the swagbucks homepage) you get double swagbucks per dollar you spent. so, if you needed to buy something at walmart online, you'd go to swagbucks homepage, click on shop, type walmart, then shop. if you spent $20.00 then you earn 40 swagbucks!

i have a friend who started this and within the first 15 days earned $150.00 in amazon gift cards.

it is free to join, you give about the same amount of information as you give facebook and i haven't received a single email from them. i searched and searched to see if it was a scam and how it really works from various sites and the only major complaint i found was that sometimes the swagbucks won't credit to their account. so... you might not get the 8 swagbucks you earned every once in a while - no biggie if you ask me.

i'm excited to see how many gift cards i can earn and super excited to start using them to get free stuff!! this is a referral based company so if you choose to sign up, please please please sign up under this link. http://swagbucks.com/refer/threelilmacs if you alter away from this link, i will not be given credit. if you were to sign up under me, i would receive matching swagbucks you earn from your searches too. =-) then if you are happy and want to share with your friends, you will get extra swagbucks for their searches.

so basically this is really really simple. instead of using the google toolbar, you use the swagbucks toolbar and randomly receive swagbucks that you can turn into gift cards or items available at their store. if you have any questions, please ask =-)

on a side note, i've been doing this for only 8 days. goggle has already sent me a message asking me to please start using their search engine again. obviously they are making money off of my searches but since they won't give me any free stuff... i'll just stick with swagbucks instead.

grocery store

ever since i was old enough to drive, i became the designated 'grocery shopper'. i used to get wired looks from fellow shoppers and i'd laugh. here i was, a 16 year old girl with an absolute huge grocery cart filled to the top with all kinds of food. must have been a strange sight. my mom has never been a fan of grocery shopping so once i was old enough, she gladly passed over the car keys and a blank check. she even set it up at the store for me to write a check for her. looking back... i totally should have taken advantage of this, lol. anyways... i honestly don't mind shopping. i don't even mind taking the kids with me as long as they are in good moods. thankfully they prefer chicken tenders or pretzels over candy so feeding them to make them happy and our shopping trip faster is totally fine in my books.

blake has been having several difficult days lately. i'm not sure why he is acting out. he is sleeping 10.5 - 11.5 hrs per day so he is within the normal range, i've been trying to give him extra special attention to make sure he knows he is loved and not feeling left out and trying every trick in the book. actually, i've started a new book so hopefully i'll be able to learn a little more and dig a little deeper in his little mind. i want him to be happy and enjoy his days, not whining and sad. on one of our special outings, i took him to target. as we were walking out he said, 'mommy, look over there. i see a hotel truck' can anyone guess what that might be??

anyways... i haven't wanted or had the energy to attempt to go grocery shopping this week. when chuck came home i decided to take off. this trip was quiet and kinda funny. i had a lot to get (my cabinets were pretty bare). food prices are higher here than fresno or even new jersey but the people are so nice. the meat counter guy is young, kinda scrawny, face filled with acne but the nicest, most respectful young man you could ask for. they have an older gal who pushes a cart around offering different products to try like grapes, popcorn, yogurt, etc. she is nice and super quiet. she can sneak up on you and surprise you when she starts talking. then there is the deli gal. she is older, dark stringy hair under her hair net. she looks like she should be a lunch lady (sorry mom) and she talks with a very strong german accent. she doesn't chat with you while she is working and doesn't move very fast, but she looks you right in the eye and wishes you a great evening with a crocked smile. she makes me smile =-) the checkers are all super nice (except one of the managers that i complained about) and nice to talk with while checking out.

all in all our alberstons over here is really nice. i had two favorite parts to tonight's shopping trip. the first was the 75-80 year old, gray haired, very slow moving woman who smiled and eyes twinkled with the 'i'm proud to be drug free' ribbon attached by a broach to her sweater and also when i saw the $245 dollar bill drop to $150 after my coupons and bonus card. i feel so much better knowing my cabinets are full and there is plenty to eat. plus we will be having a yummy new dish tomorrow night!!

oh... did you guess what the 'hotel truck' was? a huge motor home. =-)

computer issues

well... i've taken a bunch of pictures, thought of a bunch of topics to write about and now we are having computer issues. while teaching school today, blake was given a break to play with abigayle while brayden and i started our reading lesson. i heard a loud bang, walked into the living room to see if everything was ok, no one said anything was wrong so i went back to teaching. later i noticed our laptop on the floor. i picked it up to turn it on and it won't turn on. i asked why it was on the floor and blake admitted to kicking it from the couch to the floor. nice huh?? i'm hoping it'll be able to be fixed or at least just turned back on so i can recover my pictures.

our other computer, which was just handed down to us about a month ago just all of a sudden started freaking out too. last night, the screen just decided it wasn't pretty enough i guess cause it started displaying static rectangles all over. there are 10 rows of 23 rectangles on the monitor right now. i'm having a very difficult time seeing what i'm writing.

so... i'm bummed. bummed for so many reasons. my car blew a tire on the way home this weekend and we had to be towed (we were missing one part and the tow truck driver didn't have it either). that means when we can afford to buy another set of tires we will have officially bought tires for every vehicle we own this year. our truck, my suburban, our box trailer and our enclosed trailer. i'm bummed that things are so tight financially that i just cannot hardly breath. i'm bummed that both our computers are busted and cannot properly search for my husband a better paying job. i'm bummed that fresno doesn't have a need for commercial divers so we can live back home. i'm bummed that even though i went to the grocery store, bought ONLY the things we had to have, i still spent $80.00 and i didn't even buy any meat. why does living in southern california have to be so darn expensive?? i can guarantee, we won't be living here for too much longer, we dislike it with a passion. i have many more 'i'm bummed' but that'll just have to wait. i'm very thankful for our health. i'm very thankful for the support we have from my parents. i'm very thankful for the love we have as a family. i'm very thankful for my ability to cook and bake yummy food from scratch making healthy food even cheaper for us. i am very thankful for my husband, who works so hard for us. i am very thankful that even though times are tough i have faith that there is a reason, that God has a plan and that we will survive.

sorry if there are more typos than normal. i cannot hardly see the screen.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl!! Two years ago today, the birth of our precious baby girl completed our family. She was loved beyond words from the moment she was conceived and even more beautiful than we could imagine. And I can honestly say... we love her more and more every day!!

Today we are not really celebrating. Of course we'll sing many many times today and let her open a present but Daddy is working and then we will be traveling up to Fresno for the weekend to celebrate with family. Ab's never really got a first birthday party so this party is really important to me. Unfortunately two very special families are not able to make it to this party either. You will be missed! This will be the first day Chuck will have off since he started and the first time he'll be able to go 'home' since we've moved. We are looking forward to this little trip.

My day will be filled with packing, cleaning and searching. I know this is silly but I've misplaced my camera battery and it has finally died. Hence the lack of pictures on here lately. Please pray I find it so I can record this special day. Also pray for safe travels.

As always... when I'm out of the house I'll not be posting so, we'll talk again Monday when we get back. Hopefully pictures and a yummy menu will be in order =-)

Abigayle is turning 2 tomorrow and I'm amazed as to how fast time has flown by. I'm excited to see her grow but sad all at the same time. She is our last and I just don't want my baby getting any bigger. My boys can just stop growing too. I'd be completely happy if they all just stayed the same.

We had such a wonderful week up in Fresno last week with both sets of grandparents and it seems as if this week back has been so fast. I'm not caught up on laundry or dishes but we've been doing some great school work to make up for the lack of it last week. We are headed back up tomorrow night (arriving really late) but then the official celebration begins for Ab's with all the family. She loves Tinkerbell or as she calls her Bell-Bell so I'm making her a Tinkerbell cake with sparkles and all. We are super excited about this little trip!! Not only do we get to see both sets of grandparents (which makes my heart happy to see my kids playing with all of them) but also Aunts, Uncles and the Uncle Lala who is really an aunt but has a funny name, lol. but we also get to see all kinds of cousins and the best part is that my husband actually gets to join us this time!!! Not only will the drive be nicer but we will all be together for several days with makes me very happy!!

I'll remember my camera this time and hopefully be able to post pictures from both trips when I get home. Thanks to Curt he took pictures and put them on a CD for me from last week. Thanks!!

menu

As of yesterday at about 3:00 I finally have Internet again!! Time for some catch up!!

My menu is the first up - Chuck was sent to San Francisco for a few days for work so the kids and I headed up to Fresno!! We had such a blast, but that'll have to be for another post since I have stories to tell BUT I wasn't able to make but one or two meals from last week so my menu is pretty much the same as last week. I'll post a new one once I head to the grocery store later this week.

I've posted on Face book a few times about baby Ewan. If you haven't read this mommy's blog, please take a minute and read a little and pray for this family. My heart just aches for her and it has made me appreciate even the bad days I've had lately. www.team-ewan.com

loss of internet

well... my internet is down

stealing from the neighbor.

will get back to blogging when i get things up and running again =)

enjoy your days!!

our weekly menu

well... i've finished our menu.

now i'm hungry.

saturday - homemade biscuits and gravy, picnic lunch and picnic dinner
chuck's company is having a picnic. should be fun!! hamburgers, hotdogs, tritip, etc.

sunday - pumpkin pancakes, crockpot chicken lettuce wraps (pf changs copy cat recipe), salsa chicken tacos with mexican rice and beans.

monday - zucchini bread, salsa chicken burritos, crockpot pork chops with apples, mashed potatoes and broccoli.

tuesday - oatmeal, fish sticks and homemade mac n cheese, homemade make your own pizza's, spinach salad with warm dressing.

wednesday - cereal, winnie casserole, taco soup with homemade cornbread (still looking for a great cornbread recipe if anyone has one)

thursday - pancakes, winnie casserole, leftovers.

friday - oatmeal, sandwiches, backyard fire pit chili dogs and marshmallows.

snacks this week - carrots, celery with peanut butter, apples, bananas, sunflower seeds, shell your own peanuts, yogurt, raisins and homemade chex mix. i typically provide two snacks a day.

frozen burritos

i've started really trying to cut down our food costs around here. i hate the fact that healthy food costs more than unhealthy food. it's no wonder why there are so many overweight americans around. a bag of chips costs less than crackers or even a bag of carrots. even though money is tight right now, i'm still not willing to compromise on healthiness. albertsons had whole wheat pasta (all shapes) on sale for $1.00 a box. i bought all they had and got a rain check for 15 more =) i've stopped buying boxed, canned or premade foods all together except kraft mac n cheese but i found a recipe that the sauce can be made in the microwave last night that sounded great. hoping to try it this coming week and eliminate everything.

to help curb our costs, i've learned that if i meal plan everything, not just dinners, i have less last minute craziness trying to come up with something for breakfast and such and less waste in my fridge. so this is my goal this weekend - come up with an extensive meal plan, buy groceries and start saving. i'm also going to start posting my menu's. i haven't decided what day but i'm hoping some of you will find planning your meals less irritating since i'll be posting mine AND i'm hoping you'll start posting your menu's or great recipes you have.

until i have everything squared away over here i wanted to share with you a tip i've learned and come to love!!

i now make frozen burritos for fast, protein filled breakfasts.
sausage was on sale so i crumbled and fully cooked the sausage. i then added 12 eggs, milk and pepper to the pan and cooked until done on medium low heat. while that was cooking i put 6 hash brown patties in the oven. i prefer homemade hash browns but my husband likes the store bought hash browns and since i was making these for him i decided to make them the way he prefers. =-)

i began assembling egg mixture, 1/2 a hash brown and cheese in large tortillas and rolled them with two layers of stretch tight.

i made 12 yummy burritos, plenty big enough for a man. i placed them all in the freezer and now had enough breakfast for my husband for 2 work weeks (and then 2 for me). they thaw out great!! not soggy or chewy, i'm most impressed with how easily it was to make a ton of breakfasts for my husband. most mornings i just don't get out of bed early enough to make him breakfast and lunch and if it were only up to him, he'd just skip it so... this has been great!! i'm going to try frozen english muffins with canadian bacon, egg and cheese this week. hopefully he'll enjoy those as much as he has these.