MelissaStuff

Go here to request your coupon for a free package of Oscar Mayer Beef Franks. Get your's fast as these things seem to disappear quickly!

I promised to keep you updated on my planting project, so here it is. Just over two weeks post seed planting day, we have some lovely plants and we have some lovely dirt. I actually have two kinds of plants that have taken off incredibly. Our pumpkin plants: (It may be hard to tell, but the orange container is a full size planter.) And our sunflowers: As you can tell I've had to repot both of these. I knew that we had planted 10-12 seeds of each in those small pots that came with the kit. I didn't realize that it was possible ALL of them might sprout into plants. It's my nature to try to do it all - so I quickly realized I was going to have to separate and repot each of the small individual plants. From what I've read, an experience gardener would have pruned instead of trying to save them all and only saved the hardiest handful. I don't like that. That's not my nature. I want to keep every single last one of them. "Pruning" seems like a waste, but

Okay, so, if you don't know Bank of America has a "Museums on Us" program where you can get into certain museums for free with any Bank of America card during the first weekend of the month. To find out what museums qualify and when, go here . If you are local, here are the museums near us that qualify and the hours that you can get it in for free. Dallas Museum of Art Sat. 11-5; Sun. 11-5 Dallas Museum of Nature and Science Sat. 10-5; Sun 12-5 Ft. Worth Museum of Science and Nature Sat. 9-5; Sun 12-5 No details on how many get in for free per card, so it would be a good idea to call and find out before heading out. The wording online says "each cardholder" which makes me think it will be one per card, but if you and your spouse both have a card - then you could both get in free! This has the makings of a GREAT deal!

I have one of these crosses on my wall . . . apparently one of the first which I am assured will mean it is worth more once their creator is famous. One of my friends from church and MOPS, Susie Bibb , created it. She uses antique marbles and makes different crosses in a variety of sizes, colors, and types of wire. After she made the large one I won as a door prize at our MOPS meeting a couple of months ago, others began to place orders and now they are coming in at such a fast rate she has set up a website - http://www.endurancedesign.com/ . You can see more pictures and learn about the vision behind Susie's creations. Each cross is handcrafted with love, creativity and the following statement: The vintage marbles in this cross may have cracks or chips. They are given ‘new life’ by the cross that holds them up. In the same way, we too are held up by the cross, made new by the suffering and resurrection of Jesus. This cross is a reminder of the beauty that God can produce from a ‘c

Come in for a FREE scoop of any Bee-Built ice cream flavor at participating Häagen-Dazs® Shops between 4-8 pm.* Tomorrow at participating Haagen-Dazs stores you will be able to get a free scoop of any of their flavors that use bees to pollinate essential ingredients. Apparently that's about 50% of Haagen Dazs flavors, so everyone should be able to find one they like. *Please call your nearest shop in advance to check that they are participating in the offer. Shops at Willow Bend 469-366-1038 and Valley View Center 972-490-9557 Anyone think we can make a quick run right at 4 p.m. and be back in time for me to get ready to be at tutoring by 6:30 p.m.?

Thought I would join with MckMama in doing a Not Me post... I wasn't the mom who had the worst 7 days of motherhood yet in the week prior to Mother's Day and then spent the entire day feeling like she didn't deserve to be "honored" . . . not me! I didn't race around trying to clean my house for a showing while asking my 3-year-old to PLEASE pick up his toys. He didn't clean up his toys only to pull every one of them out into the floor 5 minutes before the people were supposed to show up. And I definitely didn't start crying. And surely he didn't laugh when I cried, prompting me to totally lose my mind and be the worst mom ever . . . not me! I didn't lay in bed listening to my husband tell my son to go pee before bed. My son surely couldn't have been the one who peed in the trash can instead of the toilet. And even if he had, I would never have been the one who stayed in bed laughing under the covers while my husband cleaned it up . . . not

This week at CVS (5/10-5/16) you can get a Schick Quattro Women's razor for $.99! Sale price = $8.99 Coupon in last week's paper - $4 Extra Care Bucks back from CVS -$4 TOTAL = $.99 You can buy up to 5 this next week, and if the store isout, make sure you ask for a rain check! If you don't know how the Extra Care program works at CVS, you receive "bucks" printed out on the end of the receipt that are supposed to be as good as cash at any CVS. You will have to put the money out up front, but you will get it back and can immediately spend it on something else.

As many of you know, Joey and I are planning to go on a ten day mission trip to Belize in early July. We have earnestly been working to raise the money and have raised about half of it. Unfortunately, that still leaves us with $2500! Joey is working overtime. I'm tutoring, and we have done our best to pour all of our extra dollars into the trip fund. We had a garage sale back before Easter that was quite successful, and we plan to have another soon. Look for more information to come . . .

I'm pretty sure I've set a personal record for blog posts. I've posted more today than I have in the last year! But there are MORE Target deals . . . FREE Chex Mix - small bags at the register are $.99. Use the Target coupon here for $1 off. (Expires May 9th which is Saturday, so hurry on this one.) FREE Quaker Bites - small bags at the register are $1. Use the Target coupon here for $1 off. (My husband said these were great!) FREE Hershey's Bliss candy bars - near the register are $.99. Use the Target coupon here for $1 off. (This coupon has beeped on every type of Hershey's Bliss it's been tried on, but there are no size restrictions on the coupon so your cashier should not have an issue with it.)

Free 2-piece grilled chicken meal from KFC (or KGC now). Get two pieces of grilled chicken, two individual sides and a biscuit! Limited Time Download Coupon download available from 9 a.m. CDT on May 5, 2009, to 9:59 p.m. CDT on May 6, 2009. Coupon is redeemable at participating KFC® locations in the United States from May 5, 2009 to May 19, 2009—excluding Mother's Day, May 10, 2009. Print your coupons now! I hear it lets you print out multiple coupons so keep trying to go back and refresh until it tells you that you've reached the limit. I tried this chicken today with a different coupon and it's great. I actually prefer it to fried.

I just bought 8 boxes of Fiber One's new version of pop-tarts for $.32 total!!!! Now, here's the deal . . . Buy 4 Fiber One boxes of pop-tarts at $1.79 each = $7.16 Use 4 Fiber One coupons $.50 each = -$2 Get a $5 Gift card from Target = -$5 TOTAL = $.16 More deals from Target this week: 1. Get Target coupons here for $1/1 lb. or more of apples and use it on the apples that are $.99/lb. for free apples. 2. Get Target coupons here for $.75 off and use them on the $1.27 Target brand baby bath wash to get it for $.52 each. 3. Use $1 manufacturer coupons and $1 Target coupons here to get the bonus size Quaker granola bars for $.04 each. (Found in the seasonal section) 4. Silk Milk is clearanced to $2.12 (Fiber and Bone Health types) 5. Sargento and Kraft shredded cheese are clearanced starting at $1.70. Happy shopping!

Wow! I just posted last night about our planting project, and I went today to water . . . and a bunch of them had sprouted. I'm thrilled, and my oldest boy thinks we have been given an incredible gift - and maybe we have. If you look really close, you can see the green sprouts in the two far left pots. One of them is the sunflowers . . . and they're opening up all crazy. Big thick sprouts all kind of tangled up on each other. I guess that's a bit hard to see, but you'll be able to tell better as they grow. I promise to post updates often. In an effort to not lose ALL of my non-gardening readers, I do have to say that this whole project has been a bit eye-opening for me. Two months ago I would have told you I didn't have time for planting flowers. I was cramming every free moment of my life with stuff. Stuff I thought was good. People I loved and projects that seemed worthwhile, but my focus was off. I was pouring my life into bottomless pits. I was reaching for thin

So, I've never been much of one to get dirty. Not super prissy, either . . . just tend to have an issue with dirt under my nails and grass makes me itch and I feel like people are staring at my butt when I bend over to pull weeds, well anyway you get the idea. But we're trying to sell our house so it was important to make the front yard look nice. So we dug up a couple of overgrown trees and planted some new bushes that I went to Home Depot by myself and picked out - Texas grass, a rose bush and some zinnias! Before - After . . . Well, I kind of got a bug about planting. It's cool to see something grow and thrive because YOU took care of it. Guess it's a bit more instant gratification than watching children grow and thrive. On one of my regular CVS runs, I found a garden kit clearanced for $2.50. It had 12 little pots with 12 different kinds of seeds. I think you were supposed to plant one seed packet each month, but as you can tell I'm not the patient kind . . . so