http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/ Coupons, coupon forum, printable grocery coupons, grocery store coupon matchups, printable coupons, coupon trading, coupon database, coupon trading, deals en Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:18:19 GMT vBulletin 720 http://static.hotcouponworld.com/forums/images_hcw/misc/rss.jpg http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/ http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/773-gotta-get-weight-off.html Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:59:52 GMT 2007 was a tough year between the emotional side of dealing with my brother and his kids and all their drama, and then being in that car wreck (which... 2007 was a tough year between the emotional side of dealing with my brother and his kids and all their drama, and then being in that car wreck (which took several months to just feel normal again), changing jobs, starting back to school, sick kids.....the list goes on and on.

Over the course of the year, nearly 40 pounds slipped back on. I was really close to my goal weight and it just sucks that things sort of spiraled out of control on the weight side of things.

And when I am stressed, I am a regular coke drinker, which is where my extra calories come from.

But I've had it. I bought a new scale this week, and it actually weighed me 5 pounds heavier than the old scale.

So, I am going to try and jump back on the exercise horse (been 3 times this week to the gym for at least 40 minutes of exercise) and then I am going to go back to the protien in the AM, no carbs before noon thing which worked for me before.

What really sucks is that you start drinking water like you're supposed to, and suddenly, you're weighing 4 more pounds.

But we're going skiing next month and I think exercising ahead of that will help.

So I am going to use my rant and rave blog to rant and rave about how much I think dieting and exercise sucks, but also attempt to keep myself accountable. I read that if you're religious about writing it down, it helps. I'd like to keep to about 1600-1800 calories a day.

1/17/08

Exercise - 40 minutes
Food - 1z beef jerkey - 100 calories, 1 string cheese - 80 calories.

It's 11 am and I haven't had any carbs yet.

Adding to the food:

Peanutbutter pretzel things (totally addicted to them!!!) - 210 calories
Applesauce - 70 calories
fruit leather - 45 calories
bagel - 100 calories
cream cheese - 50 calories
tuna sandwich - 250

Total so far - 905

Gotta still do dinner and a snack in class tonight - I am a total muncher when I am in class, and class is 3 hours long.

Had 3/4 an apple before dinner - 70 calories
8 shrimp scampi and rice - 578

Puts me at 1553, so I can pack a snack for school and should be right on target for the night! ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/773-gotta-get-weight-off.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/364-heading-hawaii-spring.html Sat, 20 Oct 2007 04:07:13 GMT I believe in signs. I think that if you watch for signs, you'll find your way in life.

I told Mark that when the semi driver hit us this summer, he drove off with all our bad luck, because we've had nothing but good luck and good graces all summer long since then (although my brother said we deserved to be in the wreck because of the fight he and I had - said it was karma - little does he know just how good the karma's been!!!)

Six years ago - Mark was really sick, and I was pregnant with our second kid. On the way to the hospital to induce the baby a few weeks early so Mark could have surgery the same week, we had some time to kill. So we drove up to washington where they have a card room where you can play blackjack. One of the things we'd done right before getting ready to have the kid was we paid $1000 to bank his cord blood. Mark had what was looking like leukemia, and the head of transplant surgery at the research hospital suggested we bank the cord blood for Mark.

There's this little bet you can play with the black jack - Queens of Hearts. If you bet $1 and get any 2 cards that make 20, you get 4 to 1. Same suit pays more, same two cards and suited pays even more, but the object is to get 2 queens of hearts in one hand. When you do, it pays $125 to $1.

Mark never used to play proposition bets. The side bet on blackjack is just that cause the odds are slim to none. So we're there and he's had a few smaller hands go by, and I'm kicking him cause he's losing $4 and $9 wins left and right. So he bets this $1, and a few hands later, he gets the two queens of hearts.

Well, there's a kicker....

If you get the two queens of hearts in your hand, and the dealer has an Ace of any suit face up, and then the dealer rolls a blackjack in her hand, but you have the two queens, the odds are so slim, it pays $1000 to $1. Sure enough this is what happened, and we used the $1000 to pay for the cord blood. It was kind of this too good to be true type thing. Ironically, the pit boss felt that if we were having a girl, we should name her "queenie". I told her we were having a boy, and it had been long decided that his middle name would be Quinn.


Today we were talking and there's an extremely high chance Mark is going to get deployed. He recently had a friend from college who encountered an IED and is now a double amputee....same rank and classification as Mark. We have a little over a year before he deploys, although he's going to be insanely busy. There are some things he's really worried about with all this, and so I told his mom today that heck or high water, we're going to make the next year memorable. I wanted to take time with he and I alone, and have at least one really good family vacation in March. I didn't really care what it was going to cost or whether we could afford it - it was the right thing to do.

So since he was in such a funk today, I called my nephew to come babysit - figured we'd go have a nice dinner, and then go up to the little card room in Washington. I had $20 in free play coming to us (which we promptly lost).

We had this really nice dinner, and then played for a few hours. We had lost about $75 between us, and decided to go to the casino across the way - the same one where we had won the money 6 years ago.

We're playing the stupid proposition bet, and not winning much on it. Don't know what possessed me, but I started playing $2 on the prop bet. A few hands later, I get the two queens. I'm all excited, cause it's $250 dollars. But Mark starts grabbing my arm - the dealer had the Ace up. She peaked, and rolled black jack. $2000 in one hand of blackjack tonight!!!! It was really wild. So, I told Mark that I had been talking to his mom about a vacation in March - and here was the ticket money - it was absolutely a sign.

We do like to gamble. We don't do it often, and we don't typically win. But any time we've ever won big, we could afford to be playing, but we also had a looming financial need or challenge that needed to be met. I just find it to be good karma....I said we'd do a family trip heck or high water, and the means immediately presented itself this evening. I am just beyond stunned, even as I am writing this. So, Mark's going to be checking his calendar for March, and I have a couple of things to square away with Southwest Air (they owe me some mileage credit) but otherwise, on Monday, the money will go to the bank - and we'll be looking at buying tickets for a vacation before Mark deploys in a little over a year.

All I can say is - put good things out there - and good things come back to you! ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/364-heading-hawaii-spring.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/255-community-forums.html Mon, 24 Sep 2007 03:28:48 GMT I love the new community spotlight forum, and from the looks of it, it's been viewed pretty well.

It was a ton of work though getting it organized, but I loved meeting people - that part was really cool.

So if you haven't checked them out yet, please do. Wanted to also give some thanks to FLASH for looking over them and doing some edits/rewrites on some things - that was a HUGE help.

And I want to use one of the new smilies, just because....:d2: Since Deb (youpdwhat) is the smilie goddess and archived in the MOM part of the spotlight!

PS - I need mod of the month nominations for September!!! ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/255-community-forums.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/211-didnt-your-mom-every-tell-you-might-get-knocked-up-kissing-boys.html Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:36:41 GMT Well, if she didn't, I'm here to tell you - you will!

13 years ago, I was all packed and ready to move to the dorms for college. And then some boy came along and kissed me and ruined me for anyone else for the rest of my life.

Fast forward and we've got 3 kids, and one of them turns 6 tomorrow. We did a birthday for him today complete with jumpy houses and screaming kids.

With those kisses comes a mortgage, dogs that can never barf on the tile - they have to do it on the carpet, broken china, years of diapers, vacations with family members with whom you don't want to talk on the phone with let alone hang out at a theme park during your one week off, Christmas eve with drunken inlaws, and really, the list goes on and on.

Kisses mean you're committed when the other person is sick and has anything from a bad back to deathly disease. It's waking up to the sound of crying kids in the morning, and going to bed with more crying in the evening....and about every waking hour in between.

Kisses means you're stuck watching football all fall long (and listening to 8 months during the off season when he's wishing there's football on tv). But it wouldn't really be football season unless the boy who kisses you is snoring on the couch while the game is on and no one is watching it.

It's wondering how you put the kiddos through college and whether or not we're having pizza for dinner, AGAIN.

Being kissed is like saying goodbye to knick knacks, personal space, and peace and quiet. It's piles of laundry and wishing your name was anything but mom. It's red paint stains on white carpet, and replacing school shoes about every month because "I thought they were my play shoes".

13 seconds of kisses quickly becomes 13 years of crazy ideas, moves around the countries, and three trips to the delivery room.

So, if your mom never told you kissing boys might get you knocked up, I'm here to tell you it's true...it does...and after 13 years, the kisses are still worth it! ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/211-didnt-your-mom-every-tell-you-might-get-knocked-up-kissing-boys.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/210-won-scholarship-but-i-think-its-more-hassle-than-its-worth.html Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:11:59 GMT So I applied for a scholarship for the MBA program. Mind you, most of their scholarships are need based, but I applied anyway cause my grades have... So I applied for a scholarship for the MBA program. Mind you, most of their scholarships are need based, but I applied anyway cause my grades have been really good. Got an award letter this weekend, and they gave me $100. But the caveat is, they want a professionally written Thank You letter and a picture, like in the next few days.

Tuition for the program is like $20K plus books...I don't think $100 even covers text books for one class. So we'll see - I don't have a good picture to give them, don't want to horse with it, but I guess it is $100, and I am kind of a money monkey, so we'll see if I go chase it. ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/210-won-scholarship-but-i-think-its-more-hassle-than-its-worth.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/130-bachin.html Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:24:39 GMT So, Mark's been gone for the week and won't be home til late tomorrow night, but then works on Sunday and leaves again on Monday for the bulk of next week.

When Mark's gone, the boys and I turn into total bachelors. It dawned on me as I was coaching my 4 year old and refining his technique of belching the alphabet that I am the world's worst bachelor.

Seriously - the house is beyond trashed. There's a week's worth of mail and newspapers piled up on the kitchen island covering the stove top, although that's probably alright cause when I've remembered to to feed the kids, we're doing the 4 food groups:

Cereal with milk (bread and dairy)
gogurts for protein
and fruit rolls for vitamin C

I think I've had a brat on the grill every night this week cause then I wouldn't have to do dishes.

Speaking of dishes - the same ones are sitting in the dishwasher since Mark ran it on Monday. There's finally enough dishes (rinsed) in the sink that I probably should swap them out.

I did break down and do a load of whites sometime this week cause socks are a requirement for daycare and school, but we've been grabbing them out of the dryer....when it's empty, we'll wash more whites.

I am a stickler on baths, so at least they're clean.

I think the kitchen's the worst of it. Between stuff out all over the counters for sack lunches, open boxes of cereal, and the krispy kreme boxes on the counter and the kitchen table (hey - donuts double as breakfast AND dessert if you buy enough of them).

The groceries I bought that didn't need to hit the fridge - they're still in bags out on the garage floor. We haven't made a bed in the house all week. The boys have been pitching their socks and shoes all over the place - there's a trail of them from either enterance into the house depending on the which door we came into this week.

And now as I type this, my 4 year old wants to watch beavis and butthead with me. He's so sweet - I can't resist.

Someday, I might actually go through all the junk the teachers sent home from school and see what they want, and if they're lucky, it might get put back into the backpacks which are heaped on the family room floor along with a coat and a stack of magazines Mark started sorting before he left....and are still there.

So I felt a twinge of guilt though - I took out the trash and put the dozen soda cans or so that were on the counter and put them in the recycle in the garage. I put the cereal boxes back in the cupboard and consolidated the yogos with the fruit rolls. Then I figured - I don't have to have the house put back together until tomorrow night....it can wait til the morning.

So, a bachelor's life at the Hotcouponhouse this week. I guess I probably make a better roommate then a mom when Mark's gone cause the kids have had a blast! ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/130-bachin.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/120-people-flippin-jerks.html Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:35:45 GMT Can I just say that they aren't just jerks...they are really more like a$$ and then some holes!!!

I'm not normally this pissed off, but I guess I am just floored by people's arrogance, lack of sympathy/empathy, what ever you want to call it - I could scream! We're raising a generation of self-absorbed, awful people.

So I am floating around online tonight, and my best friend from college found some of our other friends from college on Myspace. I am not a my-spacer and I think it's really over-rated. But I log in through our HCW account (cause I don't have one) and I email on of the gals. So then I am looking around for a few other friends, and that leads to googling for some of them.

One of my friends from high school was on a NOAA expedition right out of high school. They were outside of Chile and swimming in the ocean, and her shipmates caught on tape one of like a small handful of taped white shark attacks in the world. The shark took off her leg.

So some dumbass puts it on youtube and people are talking about what a dumb b!tch she was - hello - like she asked to have her leg bit off by a shark????

I guess I just don't get people. I haven't seen this gal since high school, and I knew about the shark bite, but I'd never seen the video before (which is pretty damn freaky because I know the girl) but we were in swim classes together, and her brother was Navy I think, and they were swimmers - it's what they did.

So I am a bit on the pissed side tonight. I wish youtube would take that video down. ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/120-people-flippin-jerks.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/98-all-i-ever-wanted-red-rep-boxes.html Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:53:41 GMT It was my idea - Kurlisola ripped me off and everyone is keeping her red. And I have admin panel privs - I could go make myself red....but Mark has... It was my idea - Kurlisola ripped me off and everyone is keeping her red. And I have admin panel privs - I could go make myself red....but Mark has Heidi and I set up so that we can never be altered in the panel...even by ourselves???? WTH???

And people of course around here are so nice, so I've gotten nice comments, but really, I like to be the bad-cop half the board. It's the ying and yang - Heidi should be super green, and I should be as red as they come. We're all out of balance - it's just making me a little nuts. ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/98-all-i-ever-wanted-red-rep-boxes.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/78-woo-hoo-kids-all-started-school-week.html Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:49:54 GMT Well, can I just say that I am beyond excited!!! All my kids started public school this week in some form or another. The oldest had his first day... Well, can I just say that I am beyond excited!!! All my kids started public school this week in some form or another. The oldest had his first day of 2nd grade, and the middle one starts all-day KG tomorrow. The baby (can I even call him that anymore?) starts 1/2 day preschool at the school tomorrow as well.

Sad thing is, the extra half day for KG and the preschool program are $$$ - I have to pay tuition for both of them. And then we have some daycare on top of it. So while we haven't really gotten rid of daycare and costs this year, it's the first time they are all together in one place in a school setting, with their little backpacks and lunches and such. I am beyond thrilled.

Next year, we'll be down to just KG tuition and a little bit of daycare. That wil be the big year for us where all the thousands of dollars a year we've spent having three kids in tuition based programs suddenly gets almost non-existant. I won't even begin to know what we'd do with the extra money. But for now, I am still excited to have them all be geared towards school and not a play environment, and that I can get them back on a school schedule.

I've read where people are sad cause their little ones are turning 2 or 3 - let me tell you - there's no better feeling then them getting all school-aged and settled down for the day in a learning environment. It's a total gift for me! ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/78-woo-hoo-kids-all-started-school-week.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/50-about-me.html Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:41:57 GMT Just a little bit about me. I figured I would take a leaf out of Heidi's book and do it on a page.

For those of you whom I haven't traded or interacted with on the site, I am the other owner of Hotcouponworld.

I have been married to my DH for 11 years, although we've been together 13 years in all this month.

Mark is the silent partner on the site. You'll see him post very rarely, but he's on here every day making sure we run smoothly from a technical perspective.

Mark's a Lt. Colonel in the Army. He's been in for 18 years, but was PT for 2 years, so he officially has just under 4 years to go for retirement.

We have three wild hellcat boys - 8, 6, and 4 years old.

I started out in school hoping to be a journalist and a first amendment lawyer. I wound up in food service management, although I still got a communications degree. I am currently working on an MBA, and don't tell Mark, but I think when I finish that next year, I may just consider going back for my law degree. I feel a lot better about school these days as an adult learner - I get better grades than I ever did as an undergrad.

I have been an active couponer for years. The long running story is that coupon savings were my jewelry slush fund. As we've had kids, that's changed a bit to include vacations and funding kids athletics and such.

This fall, I decided to take a break from working and focus on building out Hotcouponworld. So you'll see new features in the works that I hope our members will find enjoyable.

Otherwise, when all's said and done, I'm pretty much just like you all - out hunting the deals. In fact, I'd probably be the first person to knock you over with a shopping cart if the deal was hot enough!

Like Heidi, between doing newsletters, posts, and building our HCW store, life gets a little nutty, so I hope to blog when I can.

Thanks for your participation here at the site - we hope you find it as enjoyable as we do! ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/50-about-me.html http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/2-im-excited-blogs.html Sun, 02 Sep 2007 06:05:26 GMT Well, after a challenging evening working to get the blog software in, we've done all the upgrades and we're online!!!

I am looking forward to the blogs because people can be a little more visible here with their brags, rants, raves, and share more about themselves in a meaningful way.

Notice some of the features. It does let you categorize your blogs. You can see it in the Plain ol' boring gray color as well if you'd like. You can make your blog public or private, let people comment or not. You can use the smilies we have.

We hope you'll enjoy the blogs and we think they will be a great new part of our board! ]]> hotcouponmama http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/blogs/hotcouponmama/2-im-excited-blogs.html