Wow Wow Wednesday

For this Wow Wow Wednesday, I'll let you in on a little insider info about where we're going to be spending our childfree labor day/anniversary trip at the end of the month.

We're going to be at the Tapatio Cliffs Hilton Resort in Phoenix. We first heard about TC from a Major in LT's previous battalion. I think he and his family had been there for 4th of July or something. He came back raving about it so we started checking it out as our childfree trip option. We went back and forth for a few days about whether to go to Phoenix or to Santa Fe, NM. I'm not sure if I ever really admitted to LT that I want to go to Phoenix because they have an Ikea. I've never been to Ikea and I've heard all my friends talk about it for years. I know many of you say I will be sorely disappointed, but I won't know that I'll be disappointed until I've walked through for myself! Besides, we'll be on 'vacation' and for some reason I can rationalize spending money on 'vacation.'

After deciding that we might go to TC, LT told the Major about our plans and he has talked his wife into going the same weekend we'll be there. I think LT and the Major have plans to play golf while we're there. His wife and I will probably either find our way to the Spa, Pool or a mall.

I can't wait! I've never needed to get away so badly in my life. This will also probably be our last 'vacation' type trip, other than a trip to Waco possibly at Christmas, before LT heads to 'somewhere in the Middle East.'

Wow Wow Wednesday

I'm really trying to get back on track with my blogging, but it just doesn't seem to be happening very well lately. I jumped back on the Weight Watchers train last week so I've spent a ton of time entering my points into my online points tracker.

I got the late summer 2008 Pottery Barn Kids catalog in the mail Monday and have been salivating over the many things I wish (coveting) I could get for the boys! These are just scratching the surface of the things I would love to have out of the current catalog.

These backpacks are a little big for Bailey and Maverick right now, but I would love to have them and the matching lunch boxes for Mother's Day Out.

I just love this whole room! The beds and the red tub chair are way up on my wish list, though!

Since we spend a ton of time outside, I've been eyeing kid sized outdoor furniture and I love what Pottery Barn has to offer. This Safari Animal stuff is way cute and so is the Chesapeake stuff.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, most of the things I like are sold out! Not that I need to be buying any of these things on my wishlist for the boys. Maybe I'm just dropping hints to the grandparents :o)

Since I'm dropping hints, I might as well add one for myself, right? I've been hung up on these grommet style drapes for a while. My hang up is the reason I haven't bought drapes for our new house because I'm not going to spend the money unless I'm getting exactly what I want. Since I need to cover 3 different windows to the tune of 6 separate drapes at the price of $89 per drape - you can see why this cheapskate, clearance shopper hasn't bought new drapes. That doesn't include the high speed rods that I would want to go with the drapes.

Our music minister's daughter manages a Pottery Barn store in California. I haven't asked the 'Can your daughter get me a discount?' question yet. I've been waiting until I'm serious about making a major purchase which may not ever happen. Just thought I'd share my Wow Wow wishlist with you. Hint Hint!

Wow Wow Wednesday

Today's Wow Wow website belongs to a personal friend. She was actually a bridesmaid in our wedding. She was one of my running buddies as a single living it up in the suburbs of DC. She's since moved back to the midwest with a great job at Notre Dame. She recently purchased a fixer upper house and is chronicling her adventure through a blog. I'm fascinated with this stuff so of course it interests me. I hope you'll find following her journey as interesting as I do. Check out her work and progress here.

We've past the midway point of VBS here in El Paso and I think I had a VBS hangover this morning or something. Not that I've ever had a hangover to know what that would feel like - honestly. I can just imagine! It's smooth sailing here on out for the most part. Then it's clean up time. Then I go to camp for a week. After that I think I'll have to tell the church office they can reach me via cell phone for a few days while I recuperate while hanging out with my dad, step mom and sister.

Wow Wow Wednesday

Today is going to be more like a confessional and maybe should be a For Women Only - Read at your own risk - type post. Nonetheless, you can join in my craziness. Just don't think about this post every time you see me - deal?

We all know I have the big Dining Out Formal to go to on Friday and that I spent way more than I was really and am still really comfortable with on my dress. My intention was to do lots of walking and be a good dieter before this event. Every woman has been there, right? And we all know what happens with these intentions on most occasions - DETOURS!!! I've had my share the past 4 weeks or so. Since November, I have probably lost 50 lbs, but it's been the same 5 lbs at 10 different times.

My dress for Friday fits just fine, but losing 5 lbs would've made it even better! Today I did probably one of the craziest things I've ever done to try and make up for some of my DETOURS - I bought a pair of Spanx! For those of you who don't know what Spanx are check out their website here! It's like the modern day girdle! I still can't believe I came to this point and even more that I'm willing to admit it! (You'll notice their models all weigh about 110 and don't have anything they need shaped and smoothed.)

I'm wearing them as a trial run right now just to see if they will drive me nuts or not. The style I bought isn't bad as far as comfort, but there is no undergarment on this earth that can completely and fully do away with fat rolls on the body of a woman who's had 2 children in less than 3 years time and has had a hard time staying motivated to lose the weight post child #2! Fat rolls are fat rolls and though my Spanx may smooth them or disguise them, they're still there!

I've thought about doing a 10 lbs challenge with some friends to see who could lose 10 lbs first and take home the prize, but I have other things going on in my life that keep me from getting that little contest organized. Any challenge takers in blogger world?

Wow Wow Wednesday

Many of you know that I'm terrible in the housekeeping and organization areas. Today's Wow Wow site has inspired me a little in the past couple of days to start tackling some of my problem areas. I'm an Organizing Junkie offers lots of helpful tips and articles on taking control of the stuff that overtakes our homes and our lives. Today I've cleaned out my pantry, under my kitchen sink and thrown away a bag full of expired condiments in my fridge. It was really gross to think how long some of those things had been expired. It also proves that we don't use half the stuff we had in there!

Another fun site for organizing stuff is Real Simple. I signed up for a few free issues of Real Simple last year. Many of the articles and products in the magazine were way out of my budget! I still get a weekly email from them and it usually has an organization article in it. I downloaded a chart once that tells how often we should do some of the major cleaning in our homes. Please know that I've not made it far enough to actually keep with their schedule! To get your own copy of the chart, click here.

Maybe I'm getting more excited about cleaning because we're in the beginning stages of hiring someone to clean our house every other week. Because of our proximity to Mexico, housekeepers are relatively inexpensive which is the only reason I am even considering it. Jake wants her to iron his church clothes so that's a prerequisite to hiring her. I'll keep you posted on how all of that works out. I'm hoping being free from some of the every day cleaning that I'll get to tackle some projects like my closets and laundry room! Yikes!

Wow Wow Wednesday

This week's website was discovered a few weeks ago when I was in need of replacement straws for our Playtex Cups. Since my electricity is taken care of when they deduct our housing allowance each month, I always use the heated drying option on our dishwasher. Unfortunately, the heating mechanisms have melted about 3 of our straws for these cups, rendering the cups pretty much useless!

I wasn't real sure where I could get them locally and since shopping with Bailey and Maverick is always an event, I decided to take my search online. After one Google, I found Teebop.com and found a pack of 6 of my straws for less than it would cost me to replace the cups completely, even after paying shipping. I purchased them and have 3 spare straws ready should my dishwasher decide to melt any more straws.

After looking at Teebop a little bit today, I've decided it could be called the Big Lots of the Web. They have a variety of products that they sell in limited quantities. Some of the products are things you can't find at your normal grocery store, but could probably stumble upon at Big Lots like Tussy Deodorant and Prell Shampoo. I can't remember the last time I saw a bottle of Prell. It was probably in my grandmama's shower and she probably bought it at Big Lots! Too bad they don't carry furniture.

Apparently Teebop also runs PlaytexStore.com, too. Browse some of their different categories and I'm sure you'll see something you've not seen in a quite a while.

Wow Wow Wednesday

I had another website in mind to pass along today, but after placing my picture order and being completely surprised by how much it cost I decided I would do a little pub for our favorite studio in the Carolinas.

Last week when we were in SC visiting, we made an appointment at Our Heritage to get our pictures taken - the whole family! It was a total catastrophe, but we did get 1 decent picture of all 4 of us, 2 really cute pictures of Maverick and 1 good picture of LT and me. The 2 ladies who worked with us did all kinds of things to get Bailey to stay in a picture, but he's a hard headed little boy and isn't into taking pictures on demand. If you remember, a year ago I had a mortifying experience there so I was glad that Jake got to experience it, too! He was dripping sweat by the time we left.

Today I ordered our pictures and had my credit card ready for her to tell me my whopping total...$55.31 tax and all. I already had it in my mind that we would be topping the $100 mark! Here's what I got for my $55.31 - 2 11x14s, 5 8x10s, 10 5x7s and 16 wallets. Impressive, I know. When you count in our $15 sitting fee, it's still a great deal. They are the only ones who have ever taken our pictures and as long as we keep visiting SC, they may be the only ones who ever do. We have friends who have been using them for 16+ years! We even used them as the photographers for our wedding.

So if you're ever in the Fort Mill, SC/Charlotte, NC area and you need your picture taken, they come highly recommended from me and lots of my friends! That's coming from someone who's had 2 mortifying experiences there, which should say a lot.

Wow Wow Wednesday

After our trip to Charleston, I thought I'd pass along some links to a couple of B&B type places we've stayed on some of our travels. I highly recommend all of these places or I wouldn't pass along their info.

The first is where we stayed the past couple of nights in Charleston - The Ashley Inn. Our room was 'quaint.' We stayed in their smallest room because it was less expensive, but it had a private bath and Jake's not into sharing bathrooms with strangers! Our breakfast each morning was delicious and we met a couple from Lake Norman and from Western Canada. The Innkeeper is a retired gentleman, but I would say he can't be much older than 60. The staff was very helpful, as well. It's located about 12 blocks from the Charleston Battery, but is a convenient location for getting on and off the main Charleston peninsula. The owner actually owns the Canonboro Inn, too.

Probably our favorite place that we've ever stayed is the Inn on Pamlico Sound on North Carolina's Outer Banks. The views of the sound are amazing. Their daily breakfast was over the top! We had belgian waffles, yogurt parfaits, eggs on a cloud and all sorts of flavored coffees. The Inn has an in home theater room and loads of dvd options. They keep their refrigerator stocked with complimentary beverages and snacks. We would be regulars there if we lived closer to NC!

No review of places to stay would be complete without Beulah Land, the cabin owned by my GG and PawPaw Wade in Pigeon Forge, TN. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I always get car sick travelling to Buelah Land, but have a great time while we're there. It's a great place to just hang out and relax and do nothing. I can always find a good deal or two on our trips into Pigeon Forge to eat. You can also take a scenic drive to Cades Cove to catch a glimpse of some of the wildlife that roam the Smoky Mountains.

If you're heading to Las Vegas and want to stay off the strip, we highly recommend Montelago Village at Lake Las Vegas. I do need to give the disclaimer that we've never actually stayed here. We discovered it on our first trip to Vegas and fell in love. The area has a neat Tuscan feel and is a much slower pace than what you experience on the strip. We like to just go sit on a bench by the lake and talk. Of course talking is much better when sipping on a cup of coffee or eating an ice cream! Next time we go, we're going to suck up the cost and stay there! We have actually stayed at Treasure Island and the Stratosphere.

Wow Wow Wednesday

This week's website find - I actually found this a while back, but have just gotten to the point where I'm almost serious about diving into coupon world - is Coupon Mom. Some friends and I have been having the coupon conversation lately. I really do need to figure out how to save money on groceries. Having an income and a half has been very comfortable and I haven't tried too hard to save on groceries other than trying to use all the groceries I buy! So I'm about ready for the challenge, but from what I've read so far, I've gotta change the way I do my grocery shopping and how I plan my menu! We get pretty good deals at the Commissary already so I'm anxious to see if I can save us even more. I'll keep you posted on the journey!

Do you have any grocery saving tips? Pass them along! I want to learn!!!

Wow Wow Wednesday

I'm going to try a new idea here on Wade's World and hopefully I can keep up with it.

If most of my blogger friends are like me, you go to a friend's blog and checkout all the blogs on their blogroll. Some interest you, some don't. Sometimes you randomly find a blog belonging to someone you know but didn't know they had a blog. That happened to me a few weeks ago when some how I stumbled across Janelle Hartsfield's blog, who is the wife of a friend from my youth group days in Bellmead. So now I can keep up with Heath's family!

Today I took a chance on Nikki's blog and went to Blogging Basics from her Blogroll and from there ended up at Scribbits - A blog about motherhood in Alaska. I've taken a little bit of time browsing and think that I could be friends with this stranger! She's a mother of 4, a musician and this month is even posting organizing tips!

So on this first installment of Wow Wow Wednesday - check out my site find of the week, Scribbits! Bloggers may particularly like her post about housecleaning your blog.

For fun, tell me what your favorite blogs are that you've stumbled upon!