Thankful Thursday

1. The kids had a blast at the "Parents' Night Out" event. Evidently it's an annual event, and I am hoping the kids can participate again in the future because they had fun and we were able to take a date without paying for a babysitter! We used a gift card that covered most of our bill at Olive Garden. The food was delicious! The kids' event included coloring, kickball, pizza, cupcake decorating (and eating), Santa hat decorating, 9-Square, freeze tag, musical chairs, red light-green light, toilet paper snowman building, and more! Nadia loved the photo booth. She took SO MANY pictures of herself, ha ha!

2. While we were shopping on our date I used three coupons at JCPenney which enabled me to buy Oliver a long sleeve Mickey t-shirt for 80 cents (original price was $18), Nadia a pair of ski gloves for $2.83 (original price was $20), a welcome mat for our front porch for $2.65 (original price was $25), etc. 

3. On Saturday I used coupons at CVS that enabled me to get 6 boxes of Kleenex, 8 boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats, and 6 two liters of Pepsi for less than $11 total!

4. I placed two more orders with Shutterfly within the past week using my last two free shipping codes. The one I did yesterday cost me $1.37 for three photo books (saving $161.95). I don't remember how much I saved on the other order, but I know I got two 8x10 prints, two sets of address labels, and a double sided 18x18 pillow (first time "splurging" on the second side) for $7.41 total. CVS, Shutterfly, and JCPenney are three of my favorite companies for how generous they are with coupons!

5. On December 2nd the kids and I had a play date at Isaiah's house. Isaiah is six years old, and his mom is homeschooling him. She treated everyone to pizza from Domino's. The kids enjoyed playing with Isaiah. We plan to invite Isaiah and his mom to come to our house soon. 

6. The kids and I enjoyed the free breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning. It included crafts, cookie decorating, sausage, pancakes, fresh fruit, eggs, juice, hot chocolate, and potatoes. Yum!

7. Nadia, Ian, Paul, and Paul's parents enjoyed seeing A Christmas Carol at our church on Saturday afternoon. The ghost of Christmas past was their favorite character. 

8. Ian and Grandpa had a very special birthday weekend! Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law joined us for pizza on Saturday evening. Millie brought two delicious cakes. One was mandarin orange (for my dad), and the other was half chocolate and half vanilla for Ian. I'm very thankful for the 7 years of life thus far God has granted Ian and then 73 years thus far he has granted my dad.

9. The Steelers and the Giants won on Sunday! It looks like both of our teams will probably be in the Playoffs as either a wild card or division winner.

10. My dad had a safe trip to our house on Saturday afternoon and a safe trip back on Monday morning.

11. Ian and Nadia started their basketball season this week. Ian's team name is the Dragons, and Nadia's team name is the Alligators. The husband of the childhood director at our church is her basketball coach, and one of her teammates from soccer is on her basketball team. Small world!

12. We made Christmas ornaments at the library on Monday night, and the kids and I also enjoyed having Ian's birthday dinner at Bonanza that night. Kids' meals are only $2 on Mondays at Bonanza, which is a great price for an all you can eat buffet. That night they also had a Santa there and he was giving out free bags of candy. They had crafts you could do, but we couldn't stay very long because of Ian's basketball practice. 

13.  I collect points through Kellogg's and Coke. I vastly prefer Coke because it takes SO long to get enough points with Kellogg's because the require a LOT of points for their items. For example it takes about 200 boxes of cereal to get a free photo book. Well on Tuesday they started a seven day promotion where you can win free points, and I won what would equal 75 boxes of cereal on Tuesday. I only won a tiny amount yesterday, but I am thankful for what I got on Tuesday and hoping to win more in the next five days. It's possible to win what would be equal to 1,000 boxes of cereal!

14. I am so thankful for the new flooring in the kitchen and family room! I also appreciate that he repaired one edge of the dining room carpet.

 15. The kids are very thankful for the snow! They played outside in it for hours each of the past three days.


16. I'm also thankful that Lindsey allowed me to drop my kids off at her house at 5:45 last night and took them to AWANA so I could attend at least part of the membership class at church. I had to leave 75 minutes before the class was over to go pick them up since Paul was on a business trip. He usually takes them to and from AWANA while I am at choir rehearsal.

17. My gyn appointment was cancelled by my doctor's office. They were going to push it back three months because they have lost two providers. I opted instead to schedule it at my primary care doctor's office. I asked a woman in my Sunday School class if she'd sit with my kids in the waiting room. She lives in our town (which is where our primary care doctor's office is located). I am so thankful she can help me out. I took the kids with me to my dentist appointment on Monday, but it's a whole different matter with a pap smear. I am also having the BRCA genetic test done (hopefully - that's the plan anyhow). Most of my life I have been the kind of person who *hates* to ask for assistance from someone (I think I take after my mom in this). With Paul's work schedule, it has been necessary for me to ask for people to help - arranging other moms to take my kids to and from soccer games, etc. I guess me stepping out of my comfort zone and asking for help from others is probably a good thing even though it does not come naturally to me At All. I also have usually not been faithful in getting these screenings done, but let me tell you after what my mom went through this year I plan on being VERY faithful with getting an annual mammogram and pap smear.

18. My new camera arrived last evening! Amazon had said a signature would be required. We were home all day until 5:45 pm when I left to drop the kids off at Claire's house and then drive to church. I figured I'd come home  at 8:10 to a note on the door saying they tried to deliver it but couldn't since I wasn't home. I was VERY pleasantly surprised to find they had just left the package on the front porch without a signature! I am very excited to use my camera for the first time today. I am excited to take my photography to the next level. 

19. Paul's mom's recent biopsy showed she does have some lymphoma in her stomach, but the good news is that they have released a new medication (pill) that she can take daily (probably for the rest of her life) that is supposed to prevent the cancer from growing. We are so grateful she doesn't have to do chemo and/or radiation again, and we're praying that this will be very effective with little or no side effects. 

20. I'm done with my Christmas and birthday shopping for a few months, and I'm very close to being done with wrapping my gifts for various relatives plus the presents my dad had shipped here that he asked me to wrap on his behalf. Now I need to start baking Christmas cookies with the kids!