Check out this blog: http://mariemadelinestudio.typepad.com/mariemadeline_studio/2009/11/the-happy-scrappy-quilt-giveaway-again.html

They're giving away one of two quilts (one of which is the one pictured above)--go enter now!

CVS had a pretty good 3 days sale this week.  I had $27 in ECB's and 2 other good coupons--$5 off $20 and $5 off $30. 

This is how I did:

2 King Size packages of Peanut M&M's  $1.59 each Earned $1.59 ECB and had a BOGO coupon

2 tubes of Colgate Total toothpaste $2.88 each saved $1.01 on each with sale price, earned $4 ECB and had 2 $1 coupons

2 Colgate 360 toothbrushes $2.99 each saved $1.00 on each with sale price, earned $4 ECB and had one $1.00 coupon

1 Vaseline Sheer Infusion lotion $7.99  Earned $7.99 ECB

2 Bic Soleil razors $6.99 each, saved $1.00 on each with sale price, earned $10 ECB and had 2 $2 coupons

1 Phillips universal remote (badly needed for the upstairs tv!) $6.99 Earned $6.99 ECB, saved $6.00 with sale price

1 Phillips in-ear headphones $6.99 Earned $6.99 ECB, saved $3.00 with sale price

2 bags of Hershey Kisses $3.49 each Saved $3.49 with BOGO sale, had $1.00 coupon

1 bottle CVS shampoo $5.99

14 lbs Kitty Litter $5.99

At full price, my order would have come to $85.92.  AFTER my $5/$20 and $5/$30 coupons, my ECB's ($27) and my manufacturer's coupons, my total was:

$22.99

And I brought home $41.56 in ECB's!  Not bad at all!

EDITED:

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you had a wonderful day with your family.

Steve was on call from 8am to 12pm.  And sure enough, he got a call at 11am.  And not an easy, in and out call, but one where he had to call in a 2nd tech, and didn't get home until 5pm.  We missed Thanksgiving dinner at my uncle's house.  We showed up with some dessert, and hung out for about an hour and a half.  Now we're back home.  My mom has to work tonight--Toys R Us opens at midnight, so she has to be in at 11pm.  So she's sleeping on our couch, instead of going all the way home.  I don't mind, but it means we're all stranded upstairs so that we don't disturb her.  Ah well.

I'm trying to remember to be grateful that Steve DOES have a job, but it's frustrating after 6 years of being late (or almost late) for holiday dinners.  Next year, we're having dinner at HOME.  No matter what.  That way, my kids will get a turkey dinner, instead of leftovers, and Steve will be able to relax if he does have to work, instead of having to go out.  And if people want to see us, I will bake delicous desserts and they can come visit.

Completely forgot to mention the other half of my title--the recipes that bombed.  I decided to make a Butternut Squash Applesauce bread recipe that I got out of the newspaper.  Made it TWICE.  And both times it sunk in the middle.  The first time I read the recipe wrong and added too much milk.  The second time I read it right, and it still didn't come out correctly.  Aughh!  I hate wasting ingredients!

Then I decided to make pumpkin fudge.  The gals over on the FIAR boards have been raving about it for years.  Finally decided to try it.  Maybe I wrote it down wrong, but it was more spicey (pumpkin pie spice) than sweet and fudgy.  Maybe I did it wrong, but none of us liked it. :(

Then I thought I'd make an Apple Butter Pie that I saw on baking bites . com.   Same consistency as a pumpkin pie (which I don't like) but with the flavor of apple butter, which I do like!  My aunt ate a piece yesterday, and I ate one, and I don't think either of us was impressed.  The rest will end up in the garbage. Sigh.

I did make a trifle, which was a hit, like it always is.  I think I'll do more recipe testing before Christmas!

Our church hosted a Harvest Party.  The kids had a lot of fun, playing games & winning candy. :)

After we left (I had to bring Steve home--he had to work that night), I brought the girls to my friend Val's house to go trick or treating.  This was the first time my girls had ever been trick or treating. And now I know why.  I was exhausted by the time we were done & so were all of the kids! LOL

Here are some pics of the party:

The cookie that Patience decorated for me

Patience getting her face painted by Miss Heidi.  I thought she would get a rainbow on her cheek or something...NOT.

The finished product!

Eli helped the little kids play games.  He is growing up so fast!

Next!

Patience doing spin art

Maddie, getting her face painted.  Quite frankly, seeing her made up like this was disturbing to me, so I didn't take a picture of the end result.

I didn't bring the camera Trick or Treating--it got dark pretty quickly.  The girls had a great time (and for those of you wondering, Eli said he didn't want to come.  Steve said he changed his mind 2 minutes after we left--oh well!).

It feels like it's been a long week!   I taught Sunday School this past week--I enjoy it, but it's a lot of work.  Then I had a show Sunday afternoon in Swansea, MA.  A bit of a drive, especially if you're a native RI'er. :)

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Monday, Patience started to cough.  She's been coughing ever since.  No fever, though, thank God. Steve had school Monday evening.   We ended up cancelling Patience's piano lesson on Tuesday, and she stayed home from art lessons.  I ran to the bank while Eli & Maddie were in art. Steve had school Tuesday night.  Eli had writing class on Wednesday, and then I had a show in North Kingstown Wednesday evening (fun bunch of girls--we laughed a lot!).  Yesterday, Maddie and I had our first knitting lesson with my friend, Ruth.  Then we went to Stop & Shop and Wal-Mart. 

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Today I need to go to the bank.  And tonight my friend, Val, is having a Lia Sophia party.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with one of my new consultants, and Steve is working his overnight shift & Wal-Mart.

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I cannot wait for Sunday--just church, nothing else.  We can put football on and just relax!

Oh, I've been meaning to post some more pics of our cats, Moses & Selden.  It's been weeks since Selden has been allowed outside, and he seems to be adjusting to having Moses around.

Here's Moses, playing in an empty Frosted Flakes box that someone was helpful enough to leave on the floor.

Sleeping together on the window seat

What?  Was this seat already taken?

 On the table together

It's been absolutely ages since I've shopped at CVS and used Extra Care Bucks with any kind of regularity.  All of the shopping I did there over last winter really helped.  I think we just recently ran out of toothpaste.

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Since Patience is sick, and I had to make a CVS run anyway, I got out the flyer and my coupons.  Now, keep in mind that in order to get ECB's to use in the future, you have to spend some $ to start off.  At least I've always found that to be the case.  There were things on sale this week that I don't know that I would normally buy (i.e., name brand), but they were items that we use, and I could get ECB's back, so I went for it.

--

This is what I bought:

2-Dawn Ultra   I saved $1.02 each with the sale, and had 2-20 cent coupons

2-2 liter bottles of Coke saved 49 cents each, and earned $1 ECB

2- 42 count boxes of Prilosec saved $4.22 each with the sale, had a $7 coupon, and earned $10 ECB

2- 5.8 oz Colgate Total saved $1.40 each with the sale, has 2- $1 coupons, and earned $2 ECB

1 package of Neti Pot premixed solution packets saved $2.49 with sale

2-12 count boxes of Nyquil & Dayquil (one box of each) hmmm, I'm just realizing I didn't get the sale price on these....I was supposed to save $.99 each, and I had $2.50 in coupons.  Those plus the solution packets earned me $10 ECB. Although I had to go back into the store to get the $10 ECB's because for whatever reason, they didn't print out on their own--probably for the same reason that I wasn't given the sale price on the Dayquil and Nyquil.  Not sure if I'll go back to get that $1.98.

2-8.5 oz Soft Soap handpumps BOGO saved $3.29

4-boxes of Kleenex They were BOGO (saved $4.78), and I had a $1 off 4 coupon

A SoftSoap handpump with a base refill I had a coupon for a FREE refill ($3.99 value), and I'm just noticing that that coupon wasn't redeemed.  Did I drop it?  Did the cashier drop it?  Is it still in my coupon box? Grrrr. It's not here.  He must have dropped it.  Do I go back?  I have a $3 coupon I could apply to this purchase.  I earned $4 ECB by buying both.

I also bought a package of gummy vitamins for the kids and a bottle of CVS hand sanitizer.

Once I got home from CVS, I found an online coupon for $5 off a $30 purchase.  I went back to the store yesterday evening (hence my hesitation to go back AGAIN), and they allowed me to apply it to my transaction.

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SO.

Before sales & coupons, my total would have been $146.36.

I had $4 ECB's to apply to the order.  I used $17.90 in coupons.

I paid $92.78, and I now have $27 ECB's to use next week.

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I have to admit, it's a little frustrating to see where the cashier messed up and I didn't catch it.  I need to pay more attention!   If I had caught the mix up on the Nyquil/Dayquil price, and realized that he didn't use the Softsoap coupon, I could have saved an extra $6.  I did save $54, though, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

I'll see YOU after my show tonight.

LOL  Yeah, it's been a while.  But I went to not one, but TWO public schools today, and I'm okay.

I had to hand in the consent forms for the H1N1 flu vaccine.  Steve and I haven't decided completely if our kids are going to get it, but if we decide to, the consent forms need to be there.

The shots aren't being administered until the 2nd week of December, so who knows?  Maybe we'll have already gotten the flu, and built up our own immunity! (I'm just kidding--I really don't want to get the flu!)

Fourteen years ago, at this exact moment, I was sleeping.  And still pregnant with my daughter, Abigail. 

Almost exactly fourteen years and 5 hours from now, my water was breaking.

Fourteen years and 11 hours from now, I was giving birth to Abigail Louise.  Five pounds, one ounce, head full of black hair.  Perfect little fingers.

Fourteen years and 13 hours from now, she died.

I can't believe it's been fourteen years.  How do you survive fourteen years without holding your child in your arms?

I've missed her every day for fourteen years.  My eldest, my firstborn, the child who made me a mother.

--

Most days I'm fine.  Some people don't even know that I have a child who died.  Mother's Day is hard.  Her birthday is hard.  Some years not so much, but tonight I find myself unable to sleep, just missing her so much.

Hating the fact that I don't know her.  What would she look like?  What would her interests be?  Would she be tall and skinny like Eli & Maddie, or rounder, shall we say, like Patience?  What color were her eyes?  Would she be into sports?  Crafts?  Cooking?  Science?  What would her voice sound like?  Her laugh?

She would be in high school this year.  How is that possible?  I am not nearly old enough to be the mother of a high-schooler!  At least, I don't feel mature enough to be one.

--

I've been so blessed.  I have three gorgeous, funny, brilliant, sweet children upstairs sleeping right now.  My husband is asleep in our room.  Just the fact that our marriage survived losing Abby is incredible.  Although........it's hard when you're at different places in the grieving process.  Maybe it's because I'm a woman, a mom, a little dramatic, ME, but I still have moments like this, and he doesn't.  At all.  In fact, I tried to go to bed earlier, but I was crying, and it woke him up.  I asked him if he missed Abigail, and he said not really.  That he's at a point where he just looks forward to seeing her in Heaven.

I can respect that, but....how can he not miss her?  I can still feel her little body in my arms, her little cheek against mine.  She was so tiny, and I wanted to hold her so tight against me, to not let go.  How do I stop missing her?  I've accepted that it happened, and I don't question why, and I'm not mad at God, but I still grieve what what I'm missing here on earth.  The relationship that I didn't get to have with her.  Hearing her call me 'Mommy', teaching her to walk, homeschooling her.....in two years, she'd be old enough to get her license!

--

I have been incredibly blessed with friends who remember Abby's birthday every year.  They let me know they're thinking of me, and remembering her.  It means so much to me.

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I'm trying to count my blessings tonight.  To remember and see God's faithfulness in our lives.  But right now, just for this moment, I wish my girl were upstairs sleeping. 

Abby, I miss you so much, and I hope you know how much I love you.  Happy Birthday, baby girl. xoxo