Just Some Little Things

I'm getting a lot done today. Already went to Benjamin's pediatrician checkup this morning, Super Target, the grocery store, did a load of laundry, mowed the lawn, cleaned, read 478 Dr. Seuss books, and organized recent pictures and uploaded them to our external hard drive. B's down for his afternoon nap and I'm even getting a blog post in. Man, I'm winning today!

That swingset in the back? Gone thanks to Freecycle. It needed to be stained and cleaned and was old. We just didn't have the energy or desire to fix it up. And the benefit of Freecycle is that someone else will use it, keep it out of the garbage, care for it, and we didn't have to do a thing except offer the guy a beer while he was doing all the hard work!

The mulch is still there and that will be our job. We'll be moving it to flowerbeds and turning that area to grass.

That tree poking out? Chopped. While beautiful, it was too close to the foundation. We also had the tree in the middle of our deck (another issue) trimmed and a crabapple tree from the front yard removed. We still have at least 10 mature trees in our yard, so we're still plenty shaded.

The deck is next. We're figuring out what needs to be done. Unfortunately, the state of our backyard is mayhem right now with that mulch area and the deck boards being pulled up to figure out if we'll:

- Use the current layout/foundation and just replace the old boards and re-stain (cheapest option)
- Overlay the current layout/foundation with synthetic wood boards that have less maintenance (expensive)
- Rip it out and start from scratch (also very expensive)

We're just not sure at this point, but we do know it needs some attention. It might take all summer, but we'll get things in order.

The little boy doesn't appear to be too little anymore! He is 31.5 inches tall, has a big noggin at the 80th percentile, and his weight has improved greatly. {I would like to take a moment to thank butter for its contribution...} The ped also talked us down from the smoothie platform and insisted we go about normal mealtimes and expect him to come around. Bootcamp is on. Baby is getting no more smoothies and must eat.

Our new-old white hook was hung last night (BY MY HUSBAND) in the laundry room and is already getting some use {you know, because I staged that sweatshirt there}. I think this will come in handy for many years. One can never have too many hooks in the laundry room.

I started packing up the car for our road trip to Sandusky, Ohio! We're meeting Ray's parents, sister and her boyfriend at a house we rented near Cedar Point Amusement Park. Ray's mom will be 60 at the end of May and as a celebration, we're all going to the amusement park she and Ray's dad worked at for a summer in college. They have some great memories there and we {kids + B} have never been. We're quite excited! We'll be going to a steakhouse they used to go for date nights after saving up their money they earned at the amusement park and just enjoying the park and our rental house for the weekend. I started buying up some snacks and things and have already filled this laundry basket.

I'm not sure if there are any couponers out there, but even if you're not, this one is fun and easy. I use an iPhone app called ibotta to save money. I've been using it a couple months and while I may only buy 4-5 things each month, I always just check it before I head to the grocery store and see if anything is in there I plan to buy. I bought one of those Evol burritos and other things. You shop like normal, scan your receipt and the barcode and they give you that money back via Paypal.

If you sign up and use it by buying/redeeming 5 products in the next two weeks, they'll give you $10. When I started using it, I got $5. I'm up to $17 in savings at this point. Kind of fun in case you're interested. I'm not sure if I get anything for referring, but I just learned about the $10 deal and thought I'd share. No coupons at the register, most importantly! I know a couple friends who also use the app and like it.

There's a little random post for you Thursday. Hope it's a good one. I'm really looking forward to this long weekend!