Traveling and Couponing!

 

     As some of you know, we are moving from OH-IO to PA! It's been tough keeping up the house without my husband. There's no one to "tag" and say your it, I need a break! I have found that I put myself in Time Out just to get away for a moment. See, in our house, Time Out is any corner of the house and you are not allowed to speak or be spoken to, until the timer goes off. We stand in the corner until the timer goes off. 1 minute for each year of age.... :) I get plenty of alone time :) 

      Reality set in when the house went up for sale.  As we watched the for sale sign go up, we couldn't help but question ourselves.  Are we making the right move?  The answer is... YES! With my husbands promotion, I get to stay at home and watch my children grow rather then looking at a photo album on my days off and wonder where the time went. I have worked my tail off since I was 16 years old. I stayed with the same job for 14 years!  I loved meeting new people and helping those little whipper snappers form into hard working individuals. I had the pleasure of meeting so many awesome people in those years. Not only customers but employees.  I remain close to many of them and wish them the best of luck in their future. I like to call them, My Kids! I have seen them start their first job, make their first batch of food, get their license (oh boy), go to Prom (so beautiful) and graduate. I have even kept in contact with some of my kids that have now graduated college! Now it's my turn... 

     I took advantage of the 4 day weekend (kids being out of school) and took off to see my husband. See, he has been there since November. He used to come home on the weekend, but now he's just too busy with work. I am lucky if I see him once a month for a day and a half. So, I packed their bags, stuffed the trunk, bagged up some food and drinks (from the stockpile) and took off to see Joe! It's about a 6 hour drive and a full tank of gas. The views are amazing going through the mountains of PA! I gave Joey (my 8 year old) the Nikon camera and told him to have fun and take pictures. These pictures will make great postcards to send when we move! Great job Joey!!

     Two bathroom breaks later, we arrived (with 3 miles left in the gas tank). Emily (our 2 year old) started crying again when she saw Daddy! She gave him the biggest hug :) and said, "I missed you Daddy!" Now, I began to tear. Anthony (our 5 year old) said, "Daddy, you sure do live far away! Can't you move closer?" Haha, I told him we are the ones that will have to move closer as soon as our house sells. 

     Saturday morning, we woke up and got ready to house hunt. We found this amazing woman, Carol, that knows we have a big distance between us and crammed all the houses in for us to see in one day.  We saw 11 houses!! Out of those 11, we narrowed it down to 2! Next time we come out, someone please remind me that I need to bring slippers. Some of these houses were foreclosures and they are freezing inside. I believe my toes became icicles! And, FYI, empty houses become playgrounds for children. Especially if they have secret hiding places. Oh, like finished attics, laundry room, mud rooms, jacuzzi's and crawl spaces!! Yeah, that was fun! I also need to bring a rope to lasso them together :)

     I was reading the ads and websites about all the deals at CVS and Rite Aid, and thought I pass all these stores on my way home, why not do 1 transaction per store (so I don't take it all). As you will see I found a lot of Rite Aids, and in this house of 5... toilet paper is a must! The tissue will be donated to the kids school classrooms and the chips go on our shelf!