Free MP3s and Audiobooks!

As far as I know, these offers are all still valid.

Get 75 free MP3s compatible with any player from eMusic when you use the Pizza Hut promotion. 25 of these songs are on a Pizza Hut sampler. No Pizza Hut purchase necessary. Basically you sign up for a free trial, any of them will do, download your 50 or 75 free songs, and cancel the trial within 14 days and you owe nothing.

eMusic also offers a free audiobooks trial, same deal as above, and get 1 credit toward any audiobook. Many books are available for just the 1 credit. You can also get one free audiobook from each of the following promotions (in theory- you probably have to provide different email addresses to take advantage of each): Audible.com is sponsoring the Escape Pod family of podcasts. Visit Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and Podcastle to get the details, but basically you will be able to sign up for a free trial, download a one-credit audiobook and cancel your trial without having to pay anything.

All of these above promotions require a credit card number, but they won't charge anything unless you forget to cancel or go over the terms of your free trial.

Small Successes Thursdays, Late Again

I am doing SST so that I can remind myself, and women/moms in general, that the little things we do can and do add up to big things. Generally I will accomplish this by posting three things I have done that day or that week.

1. Got a binder made for a new protocol at work.
2. Hugged my baby.
3. Updated my blog with pictures of my garden!

Wow, I was sure busy yesterday. Haha. The things I did were important to me, though, which is really all that matters.

Little Mary, Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mine grows with lots and lots of rain!! You can't even see my pepper plants anymore, because the radishes have gone insane and the tomato plants are huge. If anyone knows good uses for radish greens, please share! The pic above is of my rose plant. Much bigger than the last time I posted!

Strawberries and beans and zucchinis and sunflowers!

My lovely pea plants. This was taken yesterday, and they've actually already grown taller today.

Two of my pitiful pepper plants.

My giganto container! It's gone a bit nuts, huh?

Saving Money on Groceries

This is an import from my soon to be dead Exercise in Frugality.

Also, here's a link to an article in Parenting listing the Best Coupon Sites for Moms.

Using coupons can be a great way to save money, especially if you use them in conjunction with in-store sales and specials. This is especially useful at Target. Anyway, there are some tricks to using grocery coupons effectively. Here are some things that I look for before using a coupon:

• Check the other brands out. Often, the store brand is cheaper than the brand name even with the coupon, and the store brand is usually just as good as the national brand. (A huge exception is Kroger instant oatmeal. I don't know what they flavor that with, but ick.)
  
• Is it a Save $ on TWO or more? If so, you may not actually be saving money. If you have a coupon for 50 cents off of any four boxes of cereal, and the cereal is $3.00 a box, and you wouldn't normally buy 4 boxes of cereal, it probably isn't worth it. Target frequently offers deals where if you purchase two or more of some brand you get a $5 gift card, and if you do this in conjunction with a coupon you may actually come out on top. More info on that in a recent posting at Baby Cheapskate. I did recently find a coupon here for $1 off any two TreeTop items (just search Tree Top)- if I use this on frozen juice, I can get both for under $1 each, which is a good bargain.
• Is it something you would normally buy? Sure, $1 off of potato chips is nice, but if you don't normally buy them, is it worth spending the money you aren't saving?
  

I hope this is helpful to you!

I have found the Penny Pincher Gazette site useful in the past, it is great for comparing circulars from various stores. However, it doesn't cover all of the major stores in my area, but it will probably be useful to some of you! Sunday Saver is another good site with links to all major (and maybe all) grocery store circulars, but it doesn't compare them side by side for you. There are a lot of blogs linked from Baby Cheapskate that do the comparisons and coupon stacking for you, but I haven't thoroughly explored that yet.

Happy shopping!

My To-Do List and Home Improvements

Number 36 on my To-Do List is done!! Yesterday I touched up the paint and installed the hardware in the master bathroom! I think it looks quite lovely. Word to the wise, however. The drywall screws that come with the bathroom stuff suck. They went right through the drywall. It's a good thing we had another kind of drywall anchors around, or my project would have been a lot more irritating and more difficult. It is so nice to actually have toilet paper on a holder though, after almost/about 2 years of not having it there...Anyway, here are pictures of both our bathrooms, which we've redone, including the floors. Sorry, no before pics. Pretty much just picture white walls, and beige carpet. Yep, carpet. And ugly shiny towel bars.

Master Bathroom:

The lovely long counter, and my basket-o-toiletries.

The long-awaited tp holder :-)

View from the door. I absolutely love the color I picked, and it comes through nicely in the photos. I think we need new towels. Scratch that, I want new towels, but C doesn't think we need them. I guess ugly faded and unraveling towels are good enough for him. Ah well. I do keep an eye out for super bargains in the colors I want, but no luck yet.

The floor, peel and stick tiles all the way, baby! Apparently the flash did something funky, I don't know what that streak is. Usually there's a rug there, but I am not really as much of a fan of it now as I was when we bought it, since it doesn't much match the finished bathroom.

The Second Bathroom:

The floor, again peel and stick tiles. This was my first experience with them, and it's really not perfect, but it'll do til we want to sell the house. Then we'll redo the floor in this bathroom. In the meantime I think they look pretty nice!

View of the teeny shower and the towel rack. Not sure why the towels look blue in this picture, but they're really green.

The sink, and a better picture of the towel rack with green towels. I got the dolphin sculptures from Mexico, one was my mom's and one an old boyfriend gave me in high school.

Musings

I need a different career.

I took Friday off, and it was wonderful. I got a ton done around the house, J and I had a blast, the dogs got taken for a nice walk. All weekend was like that, with J and I bonding and doing chores. I felt liberated, happy, and free.

I came in to work this morning, and felt the anxiety building. Crushing me. I feel like a prisoner in my own body when I am at work. Sometimes the cell becomes transparent and I can see right through it, as if it isn't there, but then moments later it's back, the hard surfaces enclosing me in their grasp. Feeling judged, an outsider. Incapable of blending in. Terrified of making a mistake that will make people think less of me, that will make them think I am a slacker. I want everyone to know I get my work done.

I used to want to me a doctor, specifically a pediatrician. Then I realized that just wanting to take care of children was also covered by wanting to be a mom. Next logical step? Just get my degrees in Molecular/Cellular Biology. PhD didn't end up being what I wanted any more than med school, so I got my MS instead. Moved back home, get a job as a lab monkey. Two years later, slightly higher ranked lab monkey, drowning in mucous in her prison cell.

Every day I resent having to work. Joyless Occupational Bondage, as the MK ladies called the daily grind. I know I am so lucky to have a job, and I am glad I have a job, but it takes me away from my son. C is working an overnight shift tonight, so he's gone til 2am. I wish his job could support us without me having to work. I don't want to work outside the home at all. I want to be home with my child, and other children as they come along, but at this point that just isn't in the stars. I desperately wish I could just get a job as a teacher. After baby #2 that will be an option- I didn't want to be dealing with maternity leave while teaching, since I've heard that's a big pain in the ass. The funny thing? I always thought teachers didn't make very good money. Turns out I'd make more teaching than I do now, plus I'd get summers off. Summers off would be better than no time off.

I only need to take two classes. Next summer, perhaps. After C is done with his degree.

Small Successes Thursday, on Saturday

I am a bit late on this week's SST, but I am sure y'all will forgive me. :-)

SST exists so that I will remind myself, and women/moms in general, that the little things we do can and do add up to big things, by posting three things I have done that day or that week.

1. Had my annual evaluation (Thursday)
2. Spent some time with my mom (Tuesday and Wednesday)
3. Bought bus tickets (Monday)

Na na na na, Life Goes On...

Today begins a new cycle. Ugh. Which explains the mood swings of the last few days. I am glad I'm getting back on a fairly regular cycle, but I am really not keen on this 10 day LP thing. WTF? I always had a 13-14 day LP before pregnancy, I don't know what's going on with this new thing. Oh well. At least charting gives me 24 hours of warning before my period starts, what with the temp drop and all. Here's the link if you are interested: http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/15d9e6.

In other news, I had my annual evaluation at work. Apparently I rock, but because of budget freezes no merit increase this year. Bummer, but we'll live. Hopefully later this year I can get another promotion, since at that point I think I will qualify for a level 4 peon. That would be nice, and comes with a handsome 10% raise in salary.

I also get to go shopping tonight!!! YAY! Boss Man told me that he wanted me to dress as though I will always be seeing a patient, so no more t-shirts. Boo that I don't get to wear t-shirts to work, but yay that I get to buy some business casual type tops and maybe pants as well. Bonus? Kohls is having a HUGE sale with power hours tonight and everything! Yay for retail therapy! I may still try and swing by a thrift store this weekend, too, but we'll see how much I get. Plus I can get birthday presents for my nephews and possibly my stepdad, since their birthdays were in the last couple weeks and we missed the party.

June Showers?

We've gotten lots and lots of rain recently. Like over 3 inches in the last week. My garden is absolutely loving it. I will have to get some updated pictures soon, but not right now, since it is dark out.

The mystery of my "miniature" rose bush has been solved! Apparently the miniature part was a graft. I don't know why it was grafted, but it was, and now the miniature part has died and the big regular part is thriving. I can't remember what color the roses were supposed to be when I bought it, but I am excited to find out!

If April showers bring May flowers, what on Earth do June showers bring? July flowers? Hmm.

The Hazards of Batteries

A little girl Elaina Redding died May 21, and I knew nothing about it until just now. She had swallowed a button battery, and even though her parents took her to the hospital and they took it out within about 10 hours of the toddler swallowing it, it was too late. Less than three weeks later, a coughing fit caused her to rupture her damaged esophagus and she bled to death.

The same thing happened to Hazel, but she was lucky. Hazel had the battery in her throat for six days, but she survived.

Please, please keep your batteries, any kind of battery, out of reach of your kids and pets. Lock them up if you have to. Don't put them in small trashcans that are easily raided.

Let's not allow any more senseless deaths from something so preventable darken our world.

Please keep the Redding family in your thoughts and prayers.