Monday morning status update....

Well....the update is....I'm here and I'm breathing. :) Wow - No one filled me in on that little issue that when you become a full-time church-goer......that's all you have time for! Could someone fill this full-time worker, full-time mother, full-time wife, full-time church-goer when you fit your laundry into your day?! Drycleaning is calling my name....and so is a housekeeper! Any takers? Need everyone to put in bids - lowest one wins! ha!

Had a singing at Huntsville Friday night - had a great time! The singing was very good. Great way to start off "singing season!" Of course we didn't get in until after 11:00 and I had worked all day and I crashed! Got up Saturday morning and Lee and I were going to go to the new house and do a few things, and then hit a few yard sales....somehow he begged out of the yard sales and me, Mom and Melissa went. Didn't buy a thing!!! We just didn't have a good yard sale day. I guess I did too well the week before. I didn't post about that! I bought a brown glass patio table with 6 resin wicker chairs with the cushions (and I actually liked them!) and 4 extra resin wicker chairs and 2 wrought iron chairs for $75!! Unfortunately, didn't find that kind of bargain this time around....

(Notice in that last paragraph there was no mention of laundry.......)

Mom decided we needed to cook so Kylee and I ran to the store. We bought 20 lbs of chicken leg quarters and Lee grilled them and Mom made 10 lbs of homemade french fries and slaw and mac and cheese and then Kylee and I made a fresh fruit pizza. Oh my goodness. It was wonderful!

(Again, notice in that last paragraph there was no mention of laundry......)

Went to church Saturday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night. Mom and I did shop in between church Sunday. I went in to panic mode when I realized that I had NOTHING to wear for fall. I now own a few fall skirts - of course, there are no shirts to go with them but I am going to work on that soon....

(And again....notice....oh nevermind - you get the picture!)

Have a happy week!!!

And just because I like to always have a picture.... Here is one of Kylee's favorites and I want to blog it so I will always have it around. This is Ben Honeycutt. He is the guy from Rainsville that was on the last season of American Idol (briefly, but he was on television a couple of times!). Enjoy!

My secret....

Okay - I feel the need to tell my secret. NO. It isn't whay you are thinking and it will NEVER be! :)

I had several calls, texts, and emails...and then Drea....who were pretty much impressed with my shopping skills this week. Let me just say that I was pretty impressed also. But let me let you in on WHY I did so well this week. You see, I have 100s of coupons - so many that I was overwhelmed, frustrated and felt like picking them up and throwing them all up in the air and letting them rain down on me. Yeah, that bad. I decided last week that I WOULD figure out a way to get organized. I mean - I knew I had the coupons of things I wanted to buy, but I could never actually FIND the coupons I needed. So I set out on a quest. A quest for the perfect organization for my coupons. I knew some folks used baseball card binders, but I felt like they were too small for what I was printing. In the beginning I was using a small coupon organizer - not quite big enough for me now days. Then I bought a larger coupon organizer - still not helping, had to pull all of the coupons out to be able to see what I had. I couldn't find what I was needing. So I went to Walmart and I SEARCHED AND SEARCHED for my perfect solution. And I found what worked for me. A photo album. It holds 4x6 pictures and it has a row of three. I bought a package of stick on tabs and I went to work.

And it was what I thought. Perfect. I can flip through the tabs that I personalized just for me and it's right there in front of me. Ohhhh...and I also had a hang up with how much I spent for it - I mean, I'm trying to SAVE money with the coupons so I didn't want to spend what I was saving! The photo book was on clearance for $5.00 - I bought some extra pages for $2.50 a pack. Not a bad price! THAT is how I managed to save $90 this week. Because I could actually SEE the coupons I had. I took it to the grocery store with me and when I saw something on sale that I didn't have on my list - flipped the pages to see if I had a coupon and most of the time, I did. I scored big.

Here are a few pictures of what I did. Leave a comment if you have questions! Will be glad to answer!




Have an awesome day!!

Writers block....gone.

Obviously my writers block has been lifted. I keep thinking of things and saying, "ooooh, I need to blog that" today. Very unusual for me lately. I have been stareing at my blog daily thinking, "do I have ANYTHING to write about?????"

Here's what's on my mind....followed by an explanation:

DOUBT. Let us ponder on that word. The meaning is "to lack confidence in and to consider unlikely." Do you have problems with doubting? I have been rolling this around in my mind lately. Do I doubt? I am talking about spiritually. Do I? I have ask myself that question over and over.

Here is what I have come up with...kind of. It's sketchy to say the least.

Everyone knows about Kade getting shot in the eye. We have ever more had a time with it. I asked God an INFINITE amount of times to heal him. Did I doubt that he would? No. I 100% believed that he could and WOULD take care of Kade's eye.

Here's the story - Kade saw the same retina specialist six times in 3 weeks if I'm not mistaken. On the 5th time, he set him up to see a cataract specialist because he had a cataract. His reasoning for this was that he could not see the extent of the damage to his retina because of the cataract, therefore, the cataract had to be removed. So...we go to see the cataract specialist, he agrees the cataract needs to be removed and even agrees for the reasoning. That was on a Tuesday I believe and they scheduled him for surgery 8 days later. On Monday before the surgery on Wednesday, he had another appointment with the retina specialist. Lee takes him and it takes FOREVER. I finally get in touch with him and he is just acting strange about it. So he explains that obviously the doctor is crazy. lol. When they went in, the doctor looked at him, told Lee his retina looked good and he thought he was fine. He then proceeds to tell him that he has a small cataract and later on he might need to have it seen about. So Lee proceeds to tell him that HE sent him to the cataract specialist and Kade is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday! The doctor says, "Oh, I did? Well. Good. I don't need to see him again, he can just follow up with the cataract specialist." HUH? Remember back when I told you that the REASON for the cataract surgery was so the retina specialist could see the damage to the retina and fix it?? He told Lee his retina looked fine! So then Lee goes on to ask him about the three prescriptions three times a day he is on. The doctor's reply, "Oh, he don't have to take those anymore." And....the appointment is over. The cataract specialist had already told us that the surgery was no rush - he said it could be done in 2 days, 2 years or 20 years. Needless to say, we cancelled that surgery in a hurry.

So what did we do? Decided the doctor was a quack, and got an appointment with a different one for a second opinion. Then it hit me, didn't you ask God to take care of him? Yep - sure did. Numerous times. And then I cancelled the second opinion.

Do I believe God took care of him? Most definitely. Why have I failed to blog about it or tell everyone? (I have told very very few.) I have decided it isn't because I have doubted, but for fear. I KNEW that as soon as I made the statement that he was fine, Satan was going to be ALL.OVER.ME. Why have I decided to tell now? There were 100s of people praying for my son. And they deserve to know that he is fine. And I can handle anything Satan can throw at me. Period.

GOD IS GOOD!

And yes, Shannon Byrd, I know. It IS still very strange to read anything remotely associated with God that I write. :)

Couponing and other things....

Let me just confess. I am an addict. I LOVE to cut coupons. It's really nothing new - I have always loved to cut coupons, but NOW - I actually use them. For years I would cut cut cut and then forget about them. But NOW, I can't wait for Publix to send out their sales paper so I can see just how low I can get the price... and FREE is even better. It gets my blood pumping. Gets my brain to kick in to gear, I research and research on just how low I can get my total at the checkout. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an expert, I'm still in learning mode. But I do okay most of the time! Here's how addicted I am: I jumped up at 6:00 a.m. this morning, got ready, got Kade ready for school, dropped him off at Melissa's (she's doing the school driving this week)and went straight to Publix! I had my list, my coupons, and a nice quiet store. Bought what I wanted and was at work ON TIME!! Yeah, I know, it's kind of strange..... But check out this receipt!!



Ahhhhhhh! What a rush!! lol. Some people need drugs.....I just need coupons!! Maybe that's a new treatment plan? Get them addicted to coupons!? I may have just came up with something great! ha!

I told Melia I would put what I bought on here - the receipt is waaaaaay too long to take a picture of. So here goes:

1 Aquafresh Toothpase
1 Colgate Toothpaste
1 Bounty Napkins
1 Publix Greenwise Bath Tissue (Penny item today!)
3 bags of Chex Mix (Traditional, Chipotle Cheddar & Honey Nut)
2 Hunts Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding (both were FREE!!!!)
2 Franks Hot Sauce
2 French's Worcestershire Sauce
4 Betty Crocker Potatoes (2 sweet potatoes & 2 loaded baked potatoes)
5 Hormel Compleats Chicken and Dumplings (on Kade's list of GREATS!)
3 Nature Valley Granola Thins/Peanut Butter Bars (for Kylee who is on a major diet!)
1 Caramel Bugles
2 Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli
2 Select Harvest Mexican Tortilla Soup
1 Little Debbie Honey Bun (only thing I bought not on sale)
1 Ritz Crackers
1 Clorox Bleach
1 Heinz White Vinegar
2 Lipton Teas
1 Orville Redenbacher Popcorn
1 Kraft Squeeze Mayonnaise
5 Right Guard Total Defense Deodorants
5 4-pack Yoplait Fiber One Vanilla Yogurts (the name of this kind of throws you but it is REALLY good - and I don't usually like yogurt!)

And the GRAND TOTAL is --------------------------> $36.21 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I may take a picture of all of the stuff to add here just for dramatic effect - but it will be later. :)

Yep, it's a good day - even though my tire was flat on my car this morning and I had to drive the truck ------- it's a good day!!!!

Also - if you have time, say a prayer for Br. Slick and Sis. Crystal - they have had a set back with the new baby and I'm sure would appreciate everyone's prayers! Here's the link to read about it - http://slickandcrystal.blogspot.com/

HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY - LIKE ME!!!!

Happy 70th Birthday Granny Jones!!

Granny Jones is turning 70. She looks great for 70 doesn't she!? Her children and grandchildren threw her a BIG 70th SURPRISE birthday bash at church last night. Granny Jones has LOTS of friends that wanted to celebrate with her!! I had the honor of playing photographer. I still have a few pictures to upload but the majority of them are HERE (and a big "YEE HA!" to me who just figured out to link another URL!! :) ) on my photography website (and you can even order from there if you want! WOW! GO ME! lol.) Just scroll down the page until you see "Granny Jones Birthday."

Awwwww.......

My favorite thing to photograph......

Panic.

Okay - my panic is actually now over. For those of you with small children....you have soooo much to look forward to!

Somehow - and I still don't know how - my daughter (she's 19) ended up with a free beach trip, so she calls me and says, "Mom, the only thing is, Rachel and I have to drive down by ourselves." Rachel is also 19. And I certainly thought her parents would say, "NO WAY!" for me, but they didn't (geez Leslie! lol). So, I still wouldn't give the go ahead and I told her to call her very.over.protective.still.thinks.she.is.8.....father. Guess what he said!?! He told her yes, that she could drive - ALL THE WAY TO GULF SHORES. Oh, he did tell her that if it rained, she had to pull off?!? lol.

I never said a word. I just acted like it wasn't happening. Until 5:00ish a.m. this morning when she called to tell me she was leaving. Then I decided I might need to pray about her! ha!

They made it. They never even got lost one time!!

WHERE IS MY BABY!?

Changing colors.....

Well. We made a drastic change today. For YEARS my kids have worn the green and yellow colors for their elementary school and the ever-so-popular-spent-a-fortune-for red and blue for their high school. However, this year, this year is different. Kade will now be sporting purple and gold. It's like coming home for Lee and I. We both graduated in purple and gold and it's just, well, it feels normal. It hasn't been without some tears though. We took Kade to 6th grade orientation Thursday night and while I was sitting there I was fighting tears. Yes, me. Not Kade. Me. Kade is so excited. He has wanted to go to MCMS for a while now. He has numerous cousins and friends there. But while we were sitting at orientation it hit me - this is the first time EVER that one of my kids weren't at OCR. They both started kindergarten there. I was always head of this or on that committee. We were just involved. And there I sat - in the middle of a hundred people, and I knew one person there. Seems odd that I was the one upset but not really. We are expecting a great year though. I was so happy to see Kade excited. But for the first year ever - I FORGOT TO TAKE HIS PICTURE!!! He will so be reenacting this afternoon!!! lol.

So now, all my money goes to purple and gold. Let's start the new collection! :)

And here are a couple of pics that Nickie made for me at orientation! I'm gonna LOVE having Nickie around - she NEVER forgets her camera!! :)

By the way.....

UPDATE - Ignore the below post....Photoshop works wonders! :)

If anyone in blogland knows how to fix my header so that the words aren't across our faces - please email me at mkrogers3081@hotmail.com!!! Thanks!!

Monday Morning Injury Update.....

He looks injured doesn't he? lol! This is Kade after his latest eye appointment - these are the glasses you wear after cataract surgery - of course he chose to wear them now.....at least he feels fine! Crazy kid!!

He had an appointment to see a cataract surgeon this morning. We got there at 7:55 a.m. (his appointment was at 8:00 a.m.) - we left at 10:38 a.m.!! And it was SO COLD in there! And I mistakenly thought we would only be there for a few minutes so we hadn't had breakfast!

However, Kade LOVED the surgeon - he hasn't been as crazy about the retina surgeon, so that was a relief. If you ever need a cataract surgeon - go see Dr. Mitchell at Maynor & Mitchell. Anyway, they did schedule Kade for surgery on August 18th. The impact of the pellet caused a cataract and the cataract has made it impossible for the specialists to see the damage to his retina. Therefore, the cataract has to come off in order to move forward with repairing the retina.

It was kind of funny while we waited for them to call him back - you could tell all of those little old gray haired folks were looking at him thinking, "why are YOU here??" lol. Not many eleven year olds have to worry about cataract surgery! But that's MY BOY!! haha.