Coupon Clipping Part 2

Stephanie has now gotten me hooked! And I have to post about my awesome deals this week at Target. This is everything (42 items) I got for 19. 04 + Tax. Amazing!

Here is a breakdown of what I got:

3 Aveeno bath bars: Free

3 Aveeno body lotions: Free

10 Johnson's Buddy Bars: 2 Free, 8 @ $.22= $1.76

2 Johnson's Baby Lotion: 2 @ $.44= $.88

2 Johnson's Take Along Pack: 2 @ $1.04= 2.08

2 V8 V-Fusion Juice: 2 @ $.99= $1.98

4 Market Pantry Fruit Snacks (large bag): Free

6 Market Pantry Fruit Snacks (box): 6 @ $.52= $3.12

2 All Small and Mighty: 2 @ $2.99= $5.98

4 Kraft Easy Mac: 4 @ $.39= $1.56

2 Mini Teddy Grahams (bag): 2 @ $.52= $1.04

2 Teddy Grahams (boxes): 2 @ $.50= $1.00

* In case you were wondering where I found the coupons, they are all online. You can get them by clicking on the link on the sidebar under "Sites I Blog-Stalk" that says "Attention Target Shoppers". Oh, and these deals are all good through Saturday April 25th. *

Up, Up, and Away!!

This past Saturday, while Don stayed home with the little ones, Brennan and I went to Scout Camp to shoot off model rockets. I'd spent most of the day Saturday gluing Brennan's rocket together (did you know that they take FOREVER to dry and you have to hold the piece in place until it's dried?!?). I was actually quite pleased with the way it turned out~ please note though that it was a $3 model, nothing fancy~ until we got to the launch site and saw all of the other rockets. Oh well, you can't be the best at everything :)

Launching the rockets was really fun and even more fun to watch. If you've never been, you should try it sometime. The other scouts were laughing and chasing each rocket as it glided down with its' parachute, while others chutes didn't open and the rocket came down so hard, they got stuck in the grass. Brennan's rocket did 2 really good launches~ the parachutes opened and they didn't drift too far. On the 3rd launch, the parachute caught the wind and the poor rocket ended up in a tree! Brennan was so sad! So I told him that we'd do it again with his friends Fletcher and Brooks (both of whom lost theirs to a tree too!).

Cousins

I just thought these pictures were too cute to not post.

Ian just loved being held by Tara~ I even think he preferred her to me!

And Tara, thank you for watching the boys while we went to dinner and a movie~ we really appreciated it!

Easter 2009

Now I know that the Easter Bunny is different at every house, so I'll tell you what our Easter Bunny does at the Borchert House. The night before, we leave our Easter Baskets out, filled with our dyed eggs and empty plastic eggs. Then we go to bed because the bunny never comes if we are awake (and the bunny checks!). While we are asleep, our bunny fills and hides the eggs and fills up our baskets with all kinds of goodies (sometimes toys, sometimes just candy). Then we wake up in the morning, look at our baskets and find all of the eggs that he hid!

Brennan's, Nolan's, and Ian's baskets~ can you guess which one is which?

Hidden eggs...

The only downside to this bunny is that Easter morning starts off so EARLY!! This year it was 6:30. Brennan and Nolan were the first ones up, followed shortly by Ian and Marissa. Micaela and Tara weren't to be seen until after 9. Brennan was super excited to get his basket and toys. Nolan had no idea what was going on, but could feel the excitement from Brennan so he was happy! After a quick peek at their baskets, it was driving Brennan nuts to see all of the eggs in the living room/kitchen/dining room and not be able to collect them. We let Nolan go first. It was a total repeat of the egg hunt... find a few, pick up a couple and then just walk away. Such a silly kid. Then came Brennan and Marissa. It was really fun to watch them run around, screaming and laughing. Totally worth the early hour!

The boys checking out their baskets.
"I can just reach it!"
Brennan and Marissa reaching for the same egg when there are still plenty to be found!

Then in traditional fashion, I made breakfast. French Toast, a real treat! The rest of the day was spent just lounging around playing until Easter Dinner. Usually I make ham (as tradition dictates), but I really wanted something different, so I made Tammy's Root Beer Roast, and it was a total hit! Dinner was followed by homemade caramel popcorn and a movie. What a great Easter!

My Great Coupon Outing

So Steph told me about this great website to get some great coupons and I found another one that was just as great, so I decided to try my hand at getting some free stuff. Here's a rundown of what I got:

6 boxes of Fruit Snacks @ $.52

2 boxes of Cheddar Popcorn @ $1.29

2 bags Cheetos @ $1.69

14 bars of Johnson's Buddies Soap @ $-.03 (that's right, they paid me to take them off their hands)

Total: $8.66 + tax

Not so bad huh!?

Nashville Children's Discovery Center

Since Marissa and Micaela were here for Spring Break, we decided to go to the Children's Science Discovery Center in Downtown Nashville. It was really fun! We arrived shortly after opening and got through the entire bottom floor before it got really crowded. The kids really enjoyed learning about physics and space. Nolan really loved the sound and pitch area... we couldn't get him to leave the piano! We coaxed Nolan from the piano to the wooden train set, were Ian and I sat and watched him while the others played in the giant 4 story fun house type thing (I didn't get to go inside because I had a stroller, so I couldn't really say what was inside it other than the kids were there forever and were really sweaty when they came out!)

By the time we completed the first floor and the playhouse, the place was getting really packed. We rushed through the human body because everyone was getting hungry. After they saw almost everything (we skipped the bee exhibit), we decided to go home. When we were walking outside, the lady at the front desk warned us that we were under a tornado watch and that the storms were to the North and moving North-East, so I thought we were okay to go. Totally should have stayed! We got everyone in the car and started on the way home.

We weren't in the car for five minutes when it started to downpour and the tornado warning sirens went off. I looked for somewhere to go, but where can you stop when you're on the freeway? So we continued to drive through the rain and traffic. It seemed to go on forever when all of a sudden it was gone. I'm not kidding... from total darkness and rain to bright blue, clear skies. The rest of the drive home was uneventful. When we got home, we found out that that storm had spawned 4 tornado's and destroyed 97 homes, killing 2 people and injuring hundreds of others. Scary stuff.

I'm just glad that we were okay and we got home safe.

Here are the pictures of the day:

Nolan and Marissa at the sound, pitch and frequency station.

Brennan and Nolan at the piano.

Nolan playing with the trains~ can you believe how big he's getting?

Brennan digging up balls with a hydraulic shovel.

Brennan moving the ball with his mind!

Brennan testing his reaction time~ he wouldn't make the best goalie, but he was a pretty good shooter!

Dying Eggs

Brennan had been on me to dye eggs for about a week, but I kept putting him off by saying that we would do it when Marissa and Micaela came. Tuesday night, Heidi's family got in. The first thing Brennan said to me after they arrived was "Can we dye eggs now?" My child has a one track mind!

We finally got around to dying eggs on Thursday morning. I forget how much fun we used to have dying eggs with all of my nieces and nephews. Brennan and Marissa had a ball just seeing how many they could dye. Micaela was the only one really concerned about color. Ian slept through the entire thing and Nolan just watched because I really didn't want to end up with a red/blue/green/yellow baby or baby clothes. He didn't really mind at all~ he was more interested in his snack anyway.

Can you tell he just wanted to take a nap?

The kiddo's finishing up the eggs...

And the finished project! (Don't mind Brennan missing his shirt. He was very concerned that he was going to dye his shirt too, so he took it off. When he did, he told Marissa and Micaela that they needed to take off their shirts too... interesting conversation we had about that one!)

Daddy's Boy

Isn't this the sweetest?!?

Easter Egg Hunt

I'm so happy that it is finally spring... otherwise, today would have been a total waste! A local church has been advertising an Easter Egg Hunt through the school (only in the south!) for the past few weeks. Brennan has been dying to go; he practically paid me to take him! He's been reminding me of this since Monday, so I couldn't disappoint!

The egg hunt was held at the school, hence why they could advertise for it, at 3 o'clock today. It was PERFECT weather... not hot, not cold, and not windy. We got there early and it killed Brennan to have to stand back and wait. He really, really just wanted to go at all of the eggs! While we were waiting for it to start, we decided to practice with Nolan. He was very quick to figure out the pick-up put-in-basket idea, but only for the plastic eggs, not for the candy. While we were practicing, a lady from the local paper asked if she could take his picture, so maybe my baby will be in the paper tomorrow!

When it was finally time to find the eggs, I watched Brennan while Don helped Nolan. Brennan went NUTS! He was running around like a chicken with his head chopped off! While I may not agree with his methods of doing things, he was very successful. He managed to fill up his entire basket with eggs and candy~ yeah for me!?! While I was having a hoot watching Brennan, I guess Nolan wasn't having any part of the hunt. Don said that he collected a few at first, but when other kids got too close, Nolan just walked away and was done with the whole thing! And all the while, Ian just watched from my arms, enjoying the perfect day!

My Piano!!!!

After I moved to Texas, when my mom got her new house, she gave me her piano since Heidi and Stephanie already had ones. Because I lived on the top floor in an apartment, I couldn't take it right away, so she kept it for me. While we were in Utah when she passed away, we made arrangements for it to be shipped to Illinois (where we were living at the time). It sat in our garage for a year in Illinois and, when we moved to Nashville, in the garage again. For a Christmas surprise, Don contacted a really nice gentleman who repairs pianos in his spare time. He picked up my piano in October and has been working on it for five months. He refinished all of the wood and replaced some of the pieces and fixed everything that needed fixing. After a lot of work and dealing with parts that they don't make anymore, my piano was finally delivered yesterday afternoon. All I have to say is that it was worth the wait!! It looks amazing now... better than I've ever seen it.

Here are some of the before pictures that Jack took:

As you can tell, it was in really, really bad shape. Dog bites, moving marks, and just everyday wear and tear over the last hundred years had really banged up this sweet piano.

Here are the moving pictures and after:

Doesn't it look amazing?!?! I would never have guessed that it could look this good! Jack told me what a great piano this is and how they just don't make them like it anymore. It is made of solid red mahogany by Bond Pianos. Bond built pianos from 1912- 1932, so to find one in working condition is a great find. Jack also told me that the Bond decal on the piano is one that no one in the piano restoration business has seen before, so Jack spent nearly a week trying to fix the scratched lettering on the decal.

When Jack delivered it, he also brought along what he called a bag of goodies~ things that he found inside the piano while he was cleaning it. It contained assignment cards from mine and Steph's piano lessons, a card of antique buttons from my grandmother, a scrap of paper my mother had written on, a Bazooka Joe bubble gum wrapper, and about a dollars worth of coins. It brought back memories of my childhood, not only practicing on the piano, but building tents over it and playing banker through the legs. Remember Steph? I had forgotten the hours spent around that piano...

Anyway, I'm going on and on, not just for you, but mostly for me. I am just so excited to have it back in working order. And in case you were interested, Don found out this morning that my Bond piano, in restored condition, is worth around $12,ooo. Crazy, isn't it!?

Steph and Heidi: Please correct me if I am wrong in my history~

History of Piano: This piano was built in 1914 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was delivered to Salt Lake City, Utah in the summer of 1914 to either my grandmother Vesta Frost or great-grandmother Louise Holdaway. My grandmother had it in her possession until the late 60's when she gave it to my mother. My siblings and I all learned to play on this piano. My mother had it until her passing in 2007.

So there you have it~ My fully restored antique family heirloom piano!

And honey, I didn't forget about you~ THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER! (good luck topping this next year!)