Free Doritos! (NOT)

I got all excited when I received an e mail forward containing a pdf to a coupon for up to $5.00 of free Doritos yesterday! The e mail alleged that I could print the coupon out and use it as many times as I liked between now and December 31. At first, I was all set to blog it, excited about the find. Then I had a little nagging voice in my head reminding me of the old adage that if it seems to good to be true, it probably is...

So I looked it up, and sure enough, Snopes had to go and burst my bubble! The Doritos coupon is a scam. What is the world coming to? *sigh





So if you get an e mail containing these printable coupons and text that looks something like this:

This is a great coupon if you like Doritos!!! It truly is FREE!!! There
are six coupons on each sheet – can print or forward as many as you
like!! No gimmick!! It works on any flavor and since it’s
good for up to $5.00, it works on the family size bag as well!

Though you must print out in color or the grocery stores will not accept it.


...Ignore it, or even better, kindly let the person who sent it to you know that they might ought to skip filling up their cart with assorted flavors of Doritos in hopes of a freebie bonanza at the checkout. I'm pretty sure that if they try it, they will be sorely disappointed!

That said, if you ever hear of a great coupon circulating on the internet that is legit, please send it my way! I'm all about the savings these days! : )

Bring TCBY to NWA!!!

I don't know about you, but I love me some TCBY! I had forgotten quite how yummy it was until the other day, on our way to a Michelle and David's wedding, we stopped at one in Little Rock and I had the yummiest dessert my prego tastebuds could imagine: No-Sugar-Added, Fat-Free Mountain Blackberry Frozen Yogurt with blackberries and raspberries on top. It was AMAZING, and the whole dessert only had about 150 calories! Perfection.

So anyway, it got me wishing we had a TCBY here in NWA, but I didn't know what to do about it other than just hope. Then, lo and behold, I just read on the Celebrate blog about a TCBY franchise giveaway they're doing! And one of the 10 national finalists is in NWA! Glory!





But in order to make it happen, Jared and Sarah Greer need our votes! Click here to cast your ballot. It just takes a minute, and every vote is one step closer to having White Chocoloate Mousse right here at our fingertips... Mmm... So go vote already!!! : )

Rolling Along...

Well, our debt snowball is rolling along nicely! I had a little setback yesterday, because just when I thought I had everything in there, I ran across a stack of little random medical bills I had gathered up a few months ago and forgotten to mail out! Frustrating. So I added those in, and then just to be sure we weren't missing anything, I decided to take things one step further!

I read on the Dave Ramsey site about a place where you can go to download one free credit report per year from each bureau, with no payment information whatsoever required and no accidentally signing up for some random identity theft protection you don't need! So I trucked on over to annualcreditreport.com and printed out copies of mine and Jason's. Then I went over each entry on both of them to make sure that there wasn't any incorrect information on there, and to make sure that we weren't missing any old medical bills that we didn't know about!

Sure enough, I turned up some random $27 bill from Ozark Radiology and an old bill for $131 from some tests Bear had about 5 years ago on his lungs. I had no idea those were even out there, so I was really glad we looked! We were a little overwhelmed with the number of bills that came in back then, and also when Norah was born.

We have pretty good insurance, but until we met our out-of-pocket limit, we were still paying for 20% of everything at the NICU, and for some reason, instead of just sending one bill like you would imagine, they sent a million little tiny ones for each individual service. We had ultrasound bills, radiologist bills (to read the ultrasounds), labwork bills, lab tech bills, neonatologist bills, pediatrician bills, NICU bills, prescription bills, several regular hospital bills, etc., etc. It was a little hard to keep track of, but at this point, knock on wood, I think everything is either paid for or has arrangements made on it. FINALLY! That was a long and frustrating process, but I'm glad it's done! We are pre-paying for everything we can with Shiloh, and now that we have a better system in place, hopefully we won't run into the same trouble with any medical bills from him! Also, hopefully we can keep him in me long enough to not make another trip to the NICU. So far so good!





We are really praying that things will sail smoothly to term so that we can just wrap him up and take him home with us around the 1st of September. I'm 21 weeks now (the same amount I was when I first went into labor with Barrett!), and so far so good. I will get my 4th 17P shot later this week, and I have not had any troubles whatsoever. Other than my complete jealousy of all of the ladies in the BodyPump class while I laze about in the pool, but that's another story!

So right now, we're feeling pretty good. I'm still slowly working on getting the house cleaned up and organized, Shiloh is growing and kicking around right on schedule, and we're watching our debt get smaller every day. All of these things make me happy! : )

It also makes me feel secure knowing that nothing weird is lurking on our credit reports, looking to act as a stumbling block when we get ready to buy a house. We can't wait! Go download one now if you haven't lately, and you'll feel happy too!

Easter, Part 3 of 3: Say Cheese!

The other thing we seemed to be doing all day on Easter was smiling for the camera! Luke and Levi were on hand as well, and we even managed to get a shot of all of the grandkids semi-looking at the camera! We were so proud. Here are some cute shots of us posing (or at least attempting to pose!) throughout the day.












And my personal favorite... Norah says "CHEESE!"





I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! I am completely beat, so I am going to bed now. Despite my previous life as a night owl, this whole "up at 10:45p.m." thing is throwing me for a loop. I've gotten used to a 9:30 bedtime lately... Maybe I can nap with Norah tomorrow. We'll see! Good night everybody!

Easter, Part 2 of 3: An Afternoon at Grandjo and Granddaddy's

After we were done hunting eggs and hanging out with Garner, Papa, Jamie and Joe for a little while, we headed over to Jason's parents house for some more egg hunting fun! His mom had come up with the idea to have a grown up egg hunt after the kids were done with theirs, which was a pleasant surprise! Especially since all of our eggs were filled with coupons for prizes such as lotto tickets, chapstick and cold hard cash. That is my kind of egg hunt! : )

Here are a few snapshots from the afternoon's adventures:














I especially love the ones of Bear's hat and Norah with famous Uncle Chet/Ian. Also, isn't the back of her alternate Easter dress adorable! (the pink one - she managed to get something from lunch all over her yellow one despite the giant bib she had on) Jason said it looks like a hospital gown, but I think it's adorable!!!

Easter, part 1 of 3: Easter at Our House

Well, there are too many Easter pictures to comfortably fit in one post, so I've decided to split it into 3! Here are a few pictures from Easter morning and the Easter egg hunt we had at our house after church. First off, the baskets!






You'll note that the "bunny" in the middle isn't really a bunny, but a Star Wars Mr. Potato Head. You see, the Easter Bunny thought that Bear might be getting too old for stuffed bunnies, given that he recently renounced sleeping with his long-treasured puppy... Then Mommy was surprised to discover that Bear was confused as to where his was when he woke up that morning. I said that I bet that the Easter Bunny thought he might like the Mr. Potato Head better, he seemed so sad. Luckily, the Easter Bunny had accidentally ended up with 2 bunnies for Norah, one of which was stashed in the cabinet in the laundry room. I happened to find it just in time, and the crisis was averted! Now he sleeps with the bunny, which I think is hilarious!


Now, on to the Easter egg hunt!






Here was my idea for how to hunt Easter eggs:




Autumn apparently had a better plan, because she cleaned up!





Now finally, here is my lame attempt at creating an Easter movie from the couple of short video clips Jason got of Norah during the egg hunt. I think I need a little more practice in iMovieHD! Click on the picture to see the video.





On the plus side, isn't her little romper precious!!!

Dying Eggs

We have been so crazy busy these past couple of weeks that we just now had a chance to peek through some of our Easter pictures! I'll be posting those later, but here are a few shots from the egg-dying party in the meantime!









We also baked a super-yummy coconut cake for the occasion... My mom made the frosting, and it was AMAZING!




I also loved how Autumn's eggs had so much variety, while Bear's stuck to more of a theme... I love those kids!





Easter pictures to follow soon! Have a good night everybody! : )

A Birthday Cookout!

In honor of my Dad's 49th birthday, we all got together a week or so ago for a family (plus J Michael!) cookout! Chef Joe grilled the burgers, Mom cut up the strawberries and baked the angel food cake, and we all feasted in the back yard. Here are a few snapshots from the evening!













p.s. With another boy on the way, I'm thinking maybe it's time we invested in some guy-friendly birthday decor... Just a thought! Otherwise Dad, Jason, Joe, Bear and Shiloh will forever be stuck with this! : )





Ha! Now I better go check on my spaghetti! Have a good night everyone!

In case you hadn't heard...

It's a boy! : )





Everyone kept trying to tell me that Shiloh was a boy, but I had been thinking girl the whole time. Then we went in for our 2nd trimester ultrasound earlier this week, and it was very, very clear from early on that the baby had parts that girl babies don't have! In one, it was even sticking up while she had frozen the image for a profile shot to measure something.





That's when we decided to go ahead and ask. Jason said, "Is that..." And she said, "I think I see a little something sticking up here." And then we knew we had to find out for certain. Once she moved the probe around for a good view, there were the boy parts, plain as day!





Jason is thrilled that he is going to have a son, and Barrett still can't believe he's going to finally have a brother! He had been praying every night since before Shiloh was even conceived that God would give him a brother. Jamie has decided that God must like Barrett! : ) Autumn is excited too, because every time we would ask her what she was hoping for, she would say, "I hope it's a boy, so that Barrett can have a brother." Isn't that sweet!

It is also nice not to have to call Shiloh an "it" any more. He is definitely a "HE" and we are delighted! Here is one more shot of his precious little profile. So sweet!