Entries from July 2008 ↓

See this photograph of sweet Fancy Cheeks?

The first time I saw it, my mind instantly went back to one of my childhood treasures; my Blue Bonnet Sue doll. I read an advertisement for her on the back of the Blue Bonnet margarine box when I was probably 5 or 6. You had to save so many UPC codes, or product codes (or whatever they had back then), and send them in, and you could receive her for free. I wanted that doll so badly! We were dirt poor, and I do mean dirt poor, and my mom only bought the cheapest margarine, usually an off brand. But I wanted her so badly, that we all Blue Bonnet spread for months, to get those codes. I remember when we sent them in. I checked the mail everyday for weeks. I mean weeks! I had just about given up when she arrived one day in the mail. I ripped the package open, and fell instantly in love with Sue. I took Sue everywhere with me - to church, outside to play, in my luggage when we went to church camp, etc. I wish I knew where Blue Bonnet Sue ever ended up going to. Probably Goodwill or something. But something about my Fancy Cheeks’ blue outfit and blue eyes, just brought me back to that Blue Bonnet blue color of my doll. Who would have thought that one day I’d have my very own living Blue Bonnet doll?

(I found one on e-Bay to share with you:)

 I had no idea what I was going to use for my Wordless Wednesday this week. I contemplated different things. Of course they included my children. (I promise you they did not include my wearing and bridal lingerie! That would be a miracle these days! TMI, eh?) Then, this random cat that just showed up on my porch. It literally just sat there. I have no idea where it came from, and no idea where it went after I took it’s picture. But it did a great job at modeling for me.

Our tackle this week was pretty big! At least it made a big difference! When we moved in here last year, a portion of the sidewalk leading up to the side porch was made of flagstone. The flagstone was old and broken up. We dug it out, and replaced it with several paving stones. However, it never looked finished. The weeds would grow up between them, etc. So this weekend, we went out and bought some mulch. (Forest hated the smell of it in the van!) We mulched around the sidewalk, around my flowers in the front, and around both of my husband’s blueberry bushes.

We keep saying that if only we knew how easy and cheap it ended up being, we’d have done it a lot sooner! Now I want to go and look for some Target coupons so that I can get one of those copper hose holders I’ve been drooling over, so that the hose isn’t thrown into a heap in the corner in the backyard. I’m ready to pretty things up!

If I wanted proof that Warrior was growing up, I could look around and see the signs. He started his very first swimming lesson today (more info and of course pictures to follow soon!), he talks my ear off constantly, is a great conversationalist, and is just so grown up. If I wanted anymore proof, I have it:

He got into the bananas and peeled his own banana. And correctly. My wee man is growing up!!! Next thing I know he’ll be asking for mountain climbing gear or tactical gear or something. Wahhh!

Because I’m a worrier, that’s why. And I hate giving out my credit card information online. The thought of identity theft really bothers me. One of my friends was the victim of ID theft. It’s a very real and scary thing.  So I was really excited when I recently discovered ebillme. It’s a service that you can pay for online shopping with. And the neat thing? You never have to share your credit card info. How it works is, they give you a unique account number, their address, phone number, etc. and you set this information up on your online banking service. When you order from a company, you hit the ebillme option, and they send you an invoice through your email. You then go to your online banking and send out a payment to ebillme, and they make sure that it gets to the merchant. It’s that simple! I bought a mouse from Tiger Direct, which accepts ebillme, and I have to admit that I was a wee bit suspicious of how easy it would be. But I was pleasantly surprised. It took like one minute to set it up, and about 10 seconds to schedule the payment. Next time I won’t have to set it up, so it will be even faster! I really imagine that this is going to catch on big time! Before long, I bet we start to see this service at most online retailers!