My New Years goal... (Brian)

Well, Cheryl and I went out and bought new iPhone4's this week...  It was a pretty good deal as well, they are normally $199 each, but Radio Shack had a deal for $51 off saving us $102.  Not a bad deal at all, especially since I knew I could sell our old 3G's for $200 a piece.  So, when all was said and done we were paid $100 to upgrade out 2 and a half year old phones.

I'll post my review of the iPhones some time in the future, but for now, my goal is to take a picture every day of 2011.  It might be of Connor, vacations, food, golf, camping, new toys, my truck, school, whatever I feel like taking a picture of...  Who knows, I will probably forget after a week, but if I do remember, it could be pretty cool in the end...

Happy to announce...

Whoo hoo! Brian and I just found out that we were selected to become a part of the new Purex Insiders - a group of Bloggers who will be able to try and then share our thoughts on new products and  work with the Purex Brand Team by offering tips and opinions...something we really are good at! :)


We do lots of laundry around our house and Purex is one of our go to brands - especially with our oh so sensitive skin -  so this is a really exciting opportunity for us! Check back for the latest news from Purex!

Dear Santa...a letter from the grown ups...

Well, it's Christmas time once again, and we are almost ready for Christmas here at the Pudney House.
We thought that since Connor is getting ready to write a letter to Santa, we would like to write a letter as well....one from "us" for our wishes... just in case the big guy reads our blog. 

Dear Santa, 

   We hope that you are doing well and staying warm up in the North Pole. We have tried very hard this year to be good in all areas - as parents, as spouses, and as teachers. As always during the Christmas Season, we hope for prosperity, good health, joy and happiness for our family and friends, but just in case you have a little extra room in your sleigh, we thought you might like to know what is on our wish list this year:

1. A new bathroom. This really would be quite spectacular, considering it would benefit our whole family! We don't want anything fancy, just a new floor(since ours has water damage and needs to be replaced) and a new tub, since we are pretty sure that is the cause of the water damage. Perhaps you have a few elves who are tradesman and can do quick work?  We only have the one tub, you know, and we kind of need it on a daily basis! We'd even be happy to help with the painting and such, we just don't have the skills(or tools) to do the heavy repair work needed...so, yeah, that's our biggest wish! 

Image courtesy of Google Images

2. Thrift Store Treasures....As you know, we love to refurbish new to us, thrift store treasures, especially dressers! We think it's a frugal, green way to cozy up the house in a way that represents us. We had our first true find just this past fall, and it now lives in our kitchen. Our living room really would benefit from a dresser as well - we have the perfect spot! So we are hoping that you could bring us some "Thrifty Luck" - with our holiday vacation coming up, it's going to be the perfect time to do a little furniture makeover...we just need the piece! 

Image via Thenester.com

3. Obedience Lessons for The Dog. Yes, our dog. Oh, he's a crazy boy, that Dunkin. At 6 months old, we think we are pretty lucky that he seems to have stopped growing...for now. He's a big boy. And gentle, too...just lacking the social graces that we would like him to have. So some obedience classes really are needed...just have to find the ones that fit our schedule.

The Dunk. December 2010.

4. For Cheryl...a new Vera Bradley Bag....specifically, this one:

The Squared Away Tote www.verabradley.com

 

 

 

It's The Squared Away Tote from Vera Bradley in Baroque. Love it! It would hold all of my necessities, plus all of the junk I tote for Connor(and Brian, too!) I am a HUGE fan of Vera bags - I've carried one for the last 6 years consecutively. They look great, are roomy, comfy to carry, and best of all - washable! I still pull out my older styles and patterns to carry, depending on my mood, and even after being washed several times, they still look brand new! 

5. For Brian...new Tires for the Tacoma...specifically, these:

Image from www.goodyeartires.com

The Goodyear Duratracs...the Tacoma is our baby - we love that truck.  But the tires are getting a little worn after the miles we've logged in the last 18 months on it, and its time for an upgrade. Most of our miles are on the highway, but when the situation arises, we need to be able to (and quite honestly, get a thrill out of) go offroad. Camping trips and our weekend day trips to the Adirondack Mountains (home to numerous off roading spots) really are much more fun when we have the traction needed! Plus, they look great, too!

So Santa, those are our wishes for this year. We are looking forward to your arrival this coming Christmas Eve, and will be sure to leave your usual homemade cookies and beer, along with some carrots for the reindeer(organic, naturally!) We wish you safe travels and good weather for your trip! Merry Christmas! 

Love, 

Brian and Cheryl

Christmas Card 2010

Holiday To Do List: Wrapping Center

One of my favorite parts of Christmas preparations is setting up my Wrapping Center! We started doing this when we moved in to our house and had space to actually utilize it. For the first few years, we used our guest bedroom....and then Connor was at an age where he realized what we were doing and my mom moved into the guest room, so now we have it set up in our basement. It works just as well, if not better, because all of the gifts we buy come from the car, to the basement and get wrapped and stored in Rubbermaid Totes until the Big Guy comes. No sneaky peekys!

So, what do we have in our wrapping center?  Well, it starts with a 6' long banquet table that we purchased for our family gatherings several years ago at BJ's. Then, we have all of our wrapping paper stored standing up in a storage container purchased at Target a few years ago. It looks like a garbage can with a tall lid which is great for keeping the paper dust free and from rolling all over!  (I will admit to having a penchant for the wrapping paper, especially Hallmark wrapping paper, so we have a lot of it!) After that, we have separate boxes of bows, tags, pens and scissors, adhesive runners and tape lined up on a nearby shelf so that we have everything we need to wrap at our fingertips. Gift bags and larger shirt boxes are stored in a Rubbermaid Tote standing up on the floor - we just flip through to find what we need.

This has saved us SO. MUCH. TIME when we have a last minute gift to wrap, or a quick 5 minute block of time(especially while waiting for laundry to finish!)...and especially when Brian needs to wrap gifts! So, I guess I'd better get to setting that up this weekend because the presents are piling up and we need to get wrapping!

Holiday To Do List: Advent Calendar

So, I mentioned yesterday that I love me some Holiday Traditions...today I wanted to share another tradition we have started for Connor - our Advent Calendar.  When we were kids, Brian and I had the chocolate Advent Calendars - the kind where you open up a little cardboard door and pop out the cheapy chocolate?!  Well, we've upped the ante with our version.

We started our Advent Calendar three years ago, when Connor was old enough to start counting down to Christmas. Our calendar is a a simple Primitive style fabric tree, that hangs on our kitchen pantry door. It has 25 small pockets. The first year, we used simple things to fill the pocket each day -  a small piece of chocolate, some stickers, a matchbox car...then last year, we found the Lego Advent Calendar and we used that....attaching the day's Lego Toy to the pocket with a clip each day. Connor LOVED it!

Lego City 2009 Advent Calendar Photo via Amazon.com

This year we are doing the Playmobile Advent Calendar:

Playmobile Advent Calendar Image via Amazon.com

We chose this one because while Connor (and us!) LOVES Legos, he also has started a collection of Playmobile sets, and we wanted to add to that collection. This Advent Calendar is a nice collection of Woodland Creatures, which will be right up his alley! We purchased it at our local Wegman's, but it is available online at retailers like Amazon.com for right around $20.00. We plan on clipping each day's piece to its pocket like we did last year, and setting up the backdrop on Connor's dresser in his room.  I know he is really looking forward to it!

I've seen lots of cute tutorials on the blogs I read lately for making new Advent Calendars. I think I am going to look into this, since our pockets are a little too small. So, is there an Advent Calendar in your house? What do you put in it?

Holiday To Do List: Order Those Christmas Cards!

Falalala! It's the most wonderful time of the year in our house! We are gearing up for a meaningful yet simple, family centered holiday season. With a five year old, we are truly at a GREAT age for Christmas - Connor is a big believer in all of the magic that goes a long with the holidays and Brian and I love every single second of his joy! Traditions at the Christmas Holidays are big in my family - special foods, special Christmas Eve rituals, and along with those, we have added some of our own special traditions since we've been married. One of the most anticipated Christmas Traditions since Connor was born has been our Christmas Card photo. We spend several weeks in the fall thinking about what we will do for the photo, what he will wear, and what kind of card we want to send. When Connor was a baby, I made all of the Holiday Cards by hand and enclosed a photo of him. Then, I got busy, and I bought premade cards to attach a photo to. Easy, but not quite what I had in mind. It was when Connor was three that we found the solution!

Shutterfly.  With GORGEOUS card designs, a simple to use interface, and great prices, we figured that we would give it a try. When the cards showed up, we were stunned. The paper was thick and luxurious, the quality of the printed image was phenomenal and the colors were just so vivid!  It's been such an easy process for us for the last two years that I am so excited about ordering from them again this year - especially when I saw their Holiday 2010 designs. We are anxiously awaiting just a light snowfall this weekend to take our photos (we have a great idea in mind for this year's photo...so excited!) so that we can get our order in.  So...what will we choose???

With so many great designs, it's been difficult to decide, but right now we have it narrowed down to the following card designs...


We just love the cool, wintry blue of this one combined with the Vintage typeface.  It's called Vintage Noel Christmas.

Image from Shutterfly.com

Image from Shutterfly.com

This card is called the Red Revamped Christmas Card. We love the traditional red and green used on this card in combination with the black and white photo option. The square card reminds us of our wedding invitations and we think it's a nice twist on a Holiday card. It would be great with the family photo we have in mind.

Our last contender for Christmas Card 2010 is this one....Sending Holiday Cheer.
We could totally see a photo of Connor and Dunkin the Dog on it...

Image from Shutterfly.com

This one made our list because of the bright green and red color combo, the fun text box and the fact that we could be a little sillier with our photo on this card. Sooo, which one will we choose? We will let you know!

Image and Text from Shutterfly.com

The fabulous thing about Shutterfly is that they aren't just for holiday cards...we've also ordered thank you cards, photo mugs and photo mouse pads as gifts from them as well. My favorite gift ever, though, was the photo book I ordered last year for Brian, showcasing photos of our family from each month throughout the year.  It was a big hit! We have it displayed in our family room, it gets a lot of views, and its glossy, hard cover still looks brand new. Definitely keep them in mind for a unique gift for those hard to buy for grandparents!  It was super easy to put together, I simply uploaded the photos that I wanted to use, added text and basically dragged and dropped into one of my choice of templates. I could have added as many photos and pages as I wanted to. I just couldn't get over how easy it was!


In addition to all of the great products that Shutterfly offers, they are offering a great promo for bloggers! We wouldn't even mention this if it wasn't a company that we truly adore, but we feel that this is such a great product from a great company that we had to share it with you. Don't miss the chance to get your holiday cards!  Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010.  

Sooo, have you sent out your Christmas Cards yet??  If so, what do you do? Are you the traditional boxed cards family, photo cards, lengthy Christmas letter?  Tell us in the comments!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Ahhh, yes, the holidays are coming! Our neighbors are out in full effect with their decorations and lights.  It's a competitive sport around this neighborhood at Christmas - Holiday Decorating.  Literally, our neighborhood community association has a contest for it. We've never won - we gave it a try a few years, Brian was up on the second story roof stringing lights and everything.  Then it became apparent that we could not compete with the "professionals"...the neighbors who make Clark Griswold look bad. We now stick to a safe lighting scheme of retro white bulbs, greenery swags and wreaths, and festive red bows. I will be encouraging Brian to finish up that little project today...can't be the only house in the neighborhood without lights!

Image from etsy

In addition to the exterior lighting, we will really start full scale with the inside decorating this week...and seriously, this is the year I finish cleaning out and donating all of the holiday decor that just doesn't do it for us...you know...the army of snowmen I have been given over the years, the plethora of ornaments from my various decorating schemes, and all of the strange figurines that have invaded our home.  We visit the local Thrifties enough, we can drop off a donation the next time we go. This year, we are about streamlining, colorful lights, kindergarten artwork ornaments and the retro decorations from our childhood that we love. We are still on the search for a set of five foot tall plastic Santa and Frosty guys - we have the 12" ones from my mom, but really, the tall ones would put us on the map in the Holiday Decorating Contest here....so if you know of a set that needs a new home, please, feel free to let us know!

Well, I'd better get the Thanksgiving decor picked up before the boy returns from his sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I'm sure he will be running in to see where the Elf on the Shelf has landed for today!

Free Golf Clubs... Sure, I'd love some... (The Review)

First off, thanks to mygolfspy.com, Miyazaki Golf Shafts, and Cleveland Golf for the opportunity to test and keep the shaft. It is truly appreciated. The shaft was shipped and arrived at my doorstep in less than a week, that alone is pretty impressive.

At first glance, I was excited and couldn't wait to get my new shaft, then I went to the website and realized that there was more than one option, and I had to choose the right shaft for me. Having never bought a shaft before, I had no clue, so after much reading and a quick trip to Golf Galaxy, I decided that the Miyazaki Kusala Blue 72 was the shaft for me. As you can see in the picture, there are three different driver shafts available based on trajectory (Low-Mid, Mid, and Mid-High), then I needed to choose the flex, and weight of the shaft.

So, what did I put the shaft on? A stock 2008 Taylormade burner 10.5 degrees with a stiff stock shaft, and I had it cut down to keep it the same length as the stock shaft - 44.5".

About 2 weeks after I first learned I won, I was on the driving range testing this thing out.  Honestly I wasn't expecting much, since I am still working on my swing, and about 50-65% of my drives are pretty bad slices.  BUT, after about 5 slices, I stopped and got into a grove.  I can't do a side by side analysis, but I do like the weight and flex of the new shaft.  It seems slightly stiffer, but not much.  I couldn't tell any difference in weight, but I'm not sure of the stock Burner shaft weight, so it could be the same, I'll check.

The Kusala Blue is a mid trajectory shaft, and I did notice the ball flight was lower than the stock Burner, which I ballooned quite often.  I was not able to get a good read of distances from the driving range, and my one 9 hole outing, but from the three drives I had on the course, I did not notice any real gain in distance off the tee, but I will comment more on that next week, one I get a chance to play my regular course with my phone/GPS app.

Overall, the shaft is beautiful, and the graphics are VERY different and will get a lot of attention, but they are not distracting at all.  The ordering process was slightly confusing, but from what I hear the folks at Miyazaki are developing an online tool to help choose the right shaft for everyone.  They have also just released a new line of shafts which include hybrid shafts.

Again, Thanks MyGolfSpy for the Lottery, it is truly unique and sets this site above all the rest...

Now for the Pics...

Free Golf Clubs... Sure, I'd love some...

So a few months ago, a new golf forum was started (www.mygolfspy.com), and as a way to encourage people to join they were giving away prizes.

SO, I thought a few prizes would be fun...

8th place - Never Compromise NCX-Ray Tau Putter

Then there was the Avatar Contest - Winner

First my avatars - 

 And the prize -  A Gene Nead Custom Handmade "Damascus" Steel Divot Tool

 Next was the "Lottery" where they sent out 24 different pieces of golf equipment to be tested.  I received a Miyazaki Kusala Blue 72 Driver shaft which I will review later.

Oh, I forgot to mention a few other things that have nothing to do with MyGolfSpy...

Leaderboard Golf was having a contest where you had to guess the top four finishers in the US Open.  Top 3 win prizes... I won a 57 degree Sand Wedge.

A Taylormade 6 iron that Taylormade was giving away to encourage people to try their new irons, a Golfpride putter grip which is on my NC putter, a Lamkin grip which is on the driver, A Taylormade hat from an event at Golf Galaxy, and 2 dozen Callaway Tour xi golfballs.

Menu Plan Monday

We are back! After a bit of a blog break, we are now trying to post (much) more often here at the blog! Today we are starting off with a post that has to do with a strategy we have found helps us save a ton of money on our grocery bill each week. We used to decide what we were having for dinner each night that afternoon - causing multiple trips to the grocery store each week, and a lot of wasted groceries each week. When we tried planning out a weeks worth of meals at a time, we found that we did much better with our diets:) and our budget!

So here's this week's menu -

Breakfasts: (nothing formal - we grab what we feel like, and Connor eats whatever Grandma offers to cook him!)
Eggo Waffles
Cereal
Blueberry Muffins
Fruit
Cereal Bars

Dinners:
Monday: Grilled Turkey Keilbasa, Grilled Potato Wedges, Green Beans
Tuesday: (Golf Night) Sub Sandwiches from Wegmans
Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas w/ Rice and Salad
Thursday: Lunar Pizza(Family Recipe for Italian Calzones)
Friday: Barbequed Chicken, Macaroni Salad and Baked Beans
Saturday: To be decided

A few notes:
- I don't ever plan dinner for Saturdays, we sometimes go out, eat with family or friends, or else we throw something on the grill - easy. Plus, sometimes we have something pop up unexpectedly, so we have to change dinner plans. If that happens, we have that meal on Saturday.
-Lunch - I don't plan lunches because I know Brian takes leftovers from the previous night's dinner. I don't eat leftovers, so I keep a supply of yogurt, cheese, fruit, crackers, and the like in the fridge for my lunches. Connor and Grandma eat lunch at home - whatever Gram makes that day - PB and J, mini pizzas, homemade "lunchables", etc.
-Leftovers - Brian takes leftovers for lunch the next day. We don't ever eat leftovers for dinner. I don't like leftovers, and I have found its easier for me to make four/five servings of dinner - and send the extra serving with Brian for lunch, than it is for me to deal with leftovers in my fridge. We are really good with portion sizes and have learned over time how much food feeds our family for a meal - another budget helper.

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Freebie Fun....

So, I should probably tell you all that I am a Coupon Clipping Freak....I love the forums at Hot Coupon World and A Full Cup. I scour my feed reader for new deals constantly and I can spend hours in Target, Rite Aid, CVS and Walmart with my coupons, searching for hidden deals! I love getting free trials and coupons in the mail - ever since I was a little girl I would RUN to the mailbox to look for mail - and now I am getting great stuff - samples, coupons, full size products and more, all for free! I thought this would be a great place to share some of my favorite deals and freebies with you - there are plenty of GREAT coupon and deal blogs out there, and I am not going to list everything that is available, but I did want to share some of the highlights of each day with you.

Brian is really great at finding these deals and freebies too, and we generally receive two or three products or coupons each day along with a great variety of magazines - we get Family Fun, Woman's Day, Weight Watchers, Golf Digest, Bass Master, Shape, Glamour, Taste of Home - a TON of magazines, all for free because of the deals we see online. In addition to the major coupon savings we receive, its such a great way for us to try out new products. Keep checking back for my favorite deals of the day!

Saturdays...

So another Saturday has rolled around...we've been on vacation from school this week, so it kind of felt like every day was Saturday, except for the fact that OUR Saturdays are usually pretty action packed!

Today will be spent at Connor's Soccer Game at the YMCA, then Gram and I will take Connor with us while his Daddy goes to the Golf Show that is being held this weekend. I intend to do our shopping for the next week while he's gone, pick up all of the coupon match ups I have on my list, and maybe squeeze in a stop or two at a few thrift stores in our area, then come home and finish cleaning out my closet! Tonight we will return to the YMCA as they are having a Roller Skating Party and that's what we chose to do as our Family Fun Night.

Family Fun Nights are pretty big for us - the event is often simple, many times we just stay home, but we like to have "something" planned to look forward to. We think its really important to spend some time together as a family each week doing something that we can all enjoy, without other pressing obligations, invitations or friends involved. Since we spend so much time during the week after school at meetings, we often get home later than normal, we often have work such as plans or grading to do, and it significantly cuts into the time we have to spend together as a family. Then, add in our weekend schedule (usually we have a birthday party or two to go to as well!) and visits with family, and its very easy for the time to get away from us. So our Family Nights are one of those things that we block out time for each week - usually Saturday night is when it happens but it is somewhat flexible.

I will post some of the things we have done for Family Fun Night activities later this week. The other aspect we like about our nights is that they are very inexpensive - often free...and living on a budget, well, who doesn't like that? It's a long way from when we were dating and newly married - our Saturday Nights generally consisted of dinner out, movies, basketball games, maybe a trip to the casino nearby, or occasionally, "downtown" with friends....all costing at least $100.00 each night - now we are really trying to make each penny count and with a four year old, well, we are much more interested in spending our nights with him!

So here we are...

Hey there...

Welcome to our new project! Brian and I decided to start a blog...well, ok, I decided and he's along for the ride...to journal our year. As a (on hiatus) scrapbooker, this is one way I've found to keep track of our life in a format I can do everyday. If we aren't near our computers, our iPhones are always handy and we can pop in and post easily - love that about this day and age we are living in - easy access to technology!

So a little more about us...

Cheryl...In addition to being a wife, a momma and a teacher, I'm... a Mac Addict, permanently attached to my IPhone, a crafty girl and a really good cook. I am the baby of the family and l love to drive my brother and sisters crazy with my antics. I have no patience. I have two tattoos and am adding a third. I over analyze, over commit and over plan. I have a really big vocabulary. I despise poor grammar and bad manners. I say what I think before I think about saying it. I love shopping and a good sale. . I'm superstitious. I love a good glass of white wine...or two. My brother is teaching me how to be a gardener and I'm getting pretty good at it. I am very chatty, yet antisocial, a chronic worrier, extremely sarcastic, high strung, a shopping fanatic, decidedly indecisive, highly caffeinated, shoe obsessed, slightly crazy, overly hyper, completely sassy, fiesty, green eyed girl - totally living my happily ever after.

Brian...I'm "the man of the house". I teach urban high schoolers - freshmen to be exact, and I know a lot of Biology stuff. I grew up in the country, I drive a truck, I golf, I drink beer and actually, I like to drink beer while I golf. I can waste hours on the Internet. I do manly things like watch sports and use power tools. I also shop with Cheryl and know my way around the mall (Note from Cheryl - Bonus Points for that, B!:)). I like traveling, camping and getting muddy. Did I mention I like golf?

So, check back...you can look for posts from me and from B...giving a working mom and dad's perspectives on juggling life's curveballs, DIYing a house, living on a budget, and growing a boy.