I hate going to
Wal-mart. I hate it with a passion. I avoid it at all costs. It's not so much that I don't like shopping there, but I have yet to have a positive experience when shopping their with my children. It usually ends up that
at least once if not twice during the shopping trip, a
Wal-Mart employee will yell at my children, for being children. I've had them yelled at for touching toys, bouncing a glitter ball, for sitting quietly in the middle of the aisle's looking at books. You name it. It's like my kids have a sign that
says, "Yell at me!"
tattooed to their
foreheads.
I don't know what it is, about that big blue sign. It's like a beacon to my children, that shouts to them, "Be naughty, run
amuck! Cause chaos and make your mother look like the worst mom in the world!" I seriously mean that.
Take today for example. We had to go across town to a birthday party. I needed to pick up a few things from the grocery store, and since
Wal-Mart just happened to be right there, I figured I would save myself some time and make one stop, because I was also looking for a few craft supplies.
So, if you can imagine, my 7-year-old, my 5-year-old and my *darling* 2-year-old proceed to be children. Bickering, crying for toys, "I want this, I want that." But for the most part, not to bad.
So we get up to the check out, which
always brings the chorus of "I want a treat," and my 2-year-old is hanging out of the cart and pulling her brothers shirt over his head. I am trying to load bags into the cart and my 5-year-old is trying to help, by turning the bag station. The employee, who was a very nice older lady, asked him to stop. I told him to stop. I send J.D. to grab something off the end cap and he is taking forever. I ask Tyson to go find J.D., and he promptly starts yelling across the store for J.D. The chaos continues for a few more minutes, and Tyson touches the dang bag station
again and the employee tells him, a little crossly, in my opinion, to stop.
I flipped. This poor lady, who was trying to check me out as quickly as possible, got an earful of why I hate
Wal-Mart. I told her that, although he was being naughty, it never failed for me to have a horrible experience in
Wal-Mart, because they have employees who are not nice to children. I had a line full of older ladies, behind me. All Grandma's who are watching this whole thing go down. The poor cashier is stuttering her apologies, for something she didn't even really do.
And now I feel awful. The cashier was so nice and I totally unloaded on her! Every time I take my kids to
Wal-Mart, I vow to never return. I prefer Target, their
employees seem to be much more laid back and much nicer. I'm
beginning to think it's worth hiring a babysitter, just so I can do my shopping. When I am a Grandma and in line, behind some poor women with a cart full of stuff and children running a muck. I will remember myself and I will step in and intervene and help.
At least, I hope I will.
Aren't these darling??? 
That's why I like to check out the quick sale racks when I go to the store. I take my goodies home and I freeze them. Today I scored 3 trays of cinnamon rolls for $0.99 cents a piece! Regularly priced $2.99 a tray.! They had the sell by date, marked for today, so really, they aren't a day old. These cinnamon rolls are being used for a Young Women activity this weekend, so I just popped them in the freezer, because I will need all of them at the same time.
My kids love glazed donuts. It's such a treat to get them when we go to the store. I also buy these on the quick sale rack. I bring them home, let the kids have one for a treat and then I package them into freezer bags in groups of 3 or 4 donuts. Lay them in the freezer, so they are flat and freeze them that way. That way when the kids want a donut, I pull out a package, pop one in the microwave for 30 seconds and wala, warm, yummy glazed donuts!! For $2.99, I get 4 packages of donuts!! 
Crust:
I'm on a file folder kick. I googled file folder games and tons of sights popped up, but I weeded through them and found some of the best one's available. Here are some great site's with free games.
I hate going to Wal-mart. I hate it with a passion. I avoid it at all costs. It's not so much that I don't like shopping there, but I have yet to have a positive experience when shopping their with my children. It usually ends up that at least once if not twice during the shopping trip, a Wal-Mart employee will yell at my children, for being children. I've had them yelled at for touching toys, bouncing a glitter ball, for sitting quietly in the middle of the aisle's looking at books. You name it. It's like my kids have a sign that says, "Yell at me!" tattooed to their foreheads.
I just put the craft stuff out and let them go to town and this is what they came up with. They used a punch and put a button in the cener. Each one is diffrent and each is super cute.
Let kids go wild and see where their imaginations will take them. They do the funnest things!
Go here, for two great giveaway's!! You've got a day or so to get entered, but don't wait! I haven't passed along giveaway's but I love this sight and want to give them some exposure! If your a Young Women Leader, this is a sight you must see!
Well, I seem to have eggless chickens. I mean, we get about 6 to 10 eggs a week, but I should be getting several dozen a week. I have 5 chickens, so if they each are suppossed to lay an egg everyday or atleast every other day, you do the math. But my kids sure do love them, as you can see from the picture above.
Here they are when we started out. Sadly, 3 of our orginal 5 did not survive. One just disappeared, probably by a cat and 2 of them met tragedy at the hands of my 4-year-old and my 6-year-old neighbor boy. They were trying to teach them how to fly. It was a good lesson about life and death that was learned to 2 little boys.
Alpha Mom has a FANTASTIC list of fre Valentines that you can print!
I love owls. And I love Living Locurto! This is only one of the darling gems you'll find at her place!
I just went back in our archives and we have some awesome Valentines Day Ideas in there! Go check out this link and it should pull up all our past Valentines day ideas! It's creeping up on us, you know? Can you believe it's already January 14th?
I honestly can't wait for Sunday to come, to see how well it entertains my 7-year-old! 
I've seen this done with cereal boxes, and it's very cool. I only have a couple of open boxes of cereal, so........
I used boxes. This is just a few of the left over boxes I had after my Alison's Pantry order. I started cutting up pieces to make this track. I used a hot glue gun to attach all the pieces. I was going to use packing tape, but we couldn't find it.
The kids love the tunnel. The nice thing about this track is that it's a bit flexible so they can lift portions of it and make jumps and hills. I added guard rails on the corner's of the track and I added a few jumps in the corners. It's super flexible so the kids can make more jumps by putting more boxes or toys underneath it. The kids loved drawing flames and road lines on it, also.
The kids spent the afternoon making cars jump off the tunnel. I spent the afternoon in front of the jump trying to catch a really good picture of the cars as they came off. This one is so awesome and it's really the only good one I got. The kids thought it was hilarious to watch me dodge the cars as they came flying at my face!
My blessings and providers of tender mercies
Isn't this a glorious old window frame. I love the peeling paint, and it has an undetone of a aqua color to it. What to do, what to do? I have a lot of ideas. But want to know what you think. Any great idea's?
