The making of the 2006 Christmas Card

We had Thanksgiving at my sister's in Greensboro, NC and had a great time. Madison loves being the center of attention with her Aunt Ginger, Uncle Terry, Nana and Granddad. She had such a great time with them. And since my sister has already decorated her house for Christmas, I thought I would take some matching clothes for Jack and Madison and try to get a picture for our Christmas card. So I got Bruce and my sister to take pictures and my mom was there to make noise and get their attention so they would look at the camera. Here are 3 things I learned:

1. Get the photographer and attention getter on the same side of the room.

2. Jack is not real crazy about Madison holding him.

3. You have to take a picture real quick or Jack will just crawl away.

After about 40 or so pictures, I think we got a few to use on our Christmas card. Friends and family check you mail boxes in a couple of weeks for your card and I will also post the card as soon as I can.

Western NC animal center

Once we got to my parents house, I was looking at posts from our friends blogs and saw that all our people went to the zoo. I showed Madison the pictures and she was so sad that she could not go. So I looked on the internet to find out if there was a zoo close by and the closest thing to the zoo was the Western NC animal center. So off went Jack, Madison, mom and myself. We saw all the animals that are native to the mountains here. After seeing all the wolves, bobcats, bears, cougers and coyotes, I will not be walking outside by myself anytime soon.

Pictures are of a wild turkey and a black bear. In the 1st picture, look closely, the bear is in the tree. Note: If you ever are being chased by a black bear do not climb up a tree to get away. You would not believe how fast that bear climbed that tree.

Other pictures are of Madison at the top of the otter steps and then sliding down the otter slide.

It worked...it really worked!!!

First, I am taking this posting idea from my friend Sheri. But I have been playing the grocery game for a few months now and have been disappointed. I was not saving money and did not see a lot of stuff that I wanted on the lists I was paying for. But today was the day I struck gold. For those who do not know about the grocery game, you pay for a list of items that are on sale at the store and it is matched up with the coupon so you can save lots of money. If you want to play go to www.grocerygame.com and use my email so I can get free weeks. Here is a picture of my goods. I got a 5 lb bag of flour for $.08, free batteries, 2 pks of cream cheese for $.50 each, jar of apple sauce for $.33, box of potatoes for $.48, muffin mixes for $.15 each. The total for all the stuff of the tray was about $7.00. I am so proud of myself for saving all this money I just had to post my goods. Anyway if your looking for a way to save on your grocery bill, this will work. You can try it on a trial basis for $1 for 4 wks. But before you start, save up your coupons for a few weeks so you can see the savings right away. Don't cut out coupons just write the date on them and keep the whole section of coupons in date order. Good luck. Let me know if you try it and if it works for you.

Pics from our trip to NC

Ok, I know no one will believe me but Jack really did cry most of the way from Texas to NC. However, I did not realize this until Atlanta, where these pics are from that whenever you point the camera at Jack he will instantly stop crying and start smiling. I wish I knew this at the start of our trip. But I promise that the moment I took the camera off Jack in these pics he would cry and scream his head off and the second I turned it on him he was all smiles. The other pics are of Madison in the car in Atlanta. Madison at the lake was at the rest stop in SC. The other picture is of Atlanta from the car. The gold dome is the capital building. Obviously we were bored about this time.