janeenoel's Xanga

December 1

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:51:58 GMT

World AIDS Day is coming up in less than 2 weeks. Even if you've never observed this day before, I'd encourage you to take some time to think about the 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS (including 2 million children) and consider what you might be able to do to help in this global crisis.

Here are some excellent ideas to consider from one of my favorite bloggers.

Fuzzi Bunz Deal

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:38:53 GMT

Anyone out there wanting to try out some Fuzzi Bunz for cheap??

I've been cloth diapering for almost 3 years now, and yet still had never had the chance to try the famous Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers. But now that Levi is big enough for Mediums and likely won't outgrow them before potty training, I started thinking about getting a few. I've used Bum Genius pockets for overnights and naps and while I love the convenience of the velcro (aplix) tabs, they're starting to look pretty ratty and worn, and snaps are seeming more and more appealing.

Which brings me to the deal I figured out. Bottom line: if you are a new diapers.com customer or can create a new account, you can get Fuzzi Bunz pockets for around $12, which is pretty close to what you'll see them for used on Diaper Swappers. The regular retail price is around $18, so that's a fantastic deal.

Mine came this week and I am loving them. Both of my kids (at 18 and 24 lbs) are wearing the mediums comfortably, and I LOVE the way they fit, as well as the softness of the fleece. I think they are considerably softer than my BG diapers, and so far I am definitely preferring them.

Want some? Okay, here we go.

Create a new account on diapers.com. Use my referral code JANEENOEL and you'll get a $10 discount off a $50 purchase, and I'll get a $5 referral credit. Yay! We all win.
E-mail their price-matching department at bestprice@diapers.com, and request that they match this price of $15.25. Act fast, because they are almost out of stock at the other store, and Diapers.com will only match in-stock items. They will apply a coupon to your account for the items you plan to order.
Order 3 Fuzzi Bunz and one other small item to bring your total up to $50, so you qualify for the $10 discount and free shipping.
Place you order. I love Diapers.com because my orders always arrive in less than 24 hours. Talk about convenient!
Use them on your kiddos and re-sell them on diaperswappers.com when you're done with them. You should make back 75% or more of your purchase price. Whoever said pocket diapers were expensive?

Let me know how this deal works out for you!

Learn along with me

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:33:49 GMT

One of my favorite bloggers is Lisa, a Christian mom of 11 kids (both biological and adopted), who honestly yet sensitively writes about her family and what she's learning about attachment and parenting. Her "My Learning Curve" series has been so practical and helpful to me that I thought I'd share a link here. It's worth your time!

"My Learning Curve" at A Bushel and a Peck

Still Alive

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:00:14 GMT

Wow, it's been a while. Life is good and I believe I have completely recovered from the sheer sleep-deprived horror that was Giving Birth and The Month That Followed. So much so that I have begun to actually entertain the idea of possibly having another child sometime in the next 15 years or so.

My baby is now five months old and the most social little guy you've ever seen. He loves loves loves people and has the biggest smile ever. We are completely in love with him. He is incredibly active and strong, loves scooting around on his tummy, and is almost strong enough to sit up on his own. Noelle didn't grow up nearly this fast and it's a bit shocking. He's a completely different baby! We've recently mastered the "fall asleep on your own" technique and while it's rather convenient, I confess I miss all of the sleepy snuggle time. Now that he's such a big boy, he does NOT appreciate Mama's attempts to cuddle him. He's also recently mastered the art of the two hour nap. Yay, Baby Vi!! (I like this picture but his scowl is rather uncharacteristic)

Noelle is 2.5 now and a pure delight. She has an enormous vocabulary and talks non-stop when she's around people she's comfortable with. She adores her cousins and her best buddy Emma from church. She got to go to VBS a couple of weeks ago and LOVED it. She loves to sing and cook and read and do art projects and is a total parrot. We have to watch what we say because chances are, we'll be hearing it again. Lately she's been frequently asking us to "talk about Jesus" and that makes her Mama and Daddy very happy.

Ryan just got hired on as tenure-track faculty at the local community college. It was a very competitive process and he had the unanimous support of all parties involved in the hiring process. He loves what he does and is very good at it. I'm so proud of him and happy to see him succeed at something that he enjoys.

I'm loving being at home with my kids, although I'm finding myself busier with outside activities than I'd like. We've been going and doing a little bit too much lately, and I'm making an effort to scale down and spend more days at home. It's good for the kids, especially Levi, to have more of that. I'm really trying hard to make home a happy, peaceful place for all of us, and it takes time to accomplish that. Here's a picture of me taken about a month before Levi was born . . . can you see why I was ready to be done with pregnancy for a while??? I still had a month to go!

Here's a couple of pictures from a recent trip to Monterey with my in-laws. We had a great time!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:25:06 GMT

Disposable Diaper Deal

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:58:52 GMT

Recently, thanks to my sister-in-law Lindy, I've started to get more serious about this whole coupon/money saving game. Up until now, my money saving strategies have had to do with shopping at the cheapest stores, planning affordable menus, and eating what's on sale. Now I'm having fun reading different money saving blogs and learning how to use coupons and sales to save even more money and get stuff for free. Yesterday I got a whole cart full of groceries for about $35, and as satisfying as that was, I know I could do even better if we started getting the newspaper again so I could clip more coupons.

Thanks to a friend, I recently learned a great way to save money on disposable diapers. We use cloth 90% of the time, but for overnights and certain outings, we do use disposables, and I hate paying for them. With this strategy, I just paid under $25 for 6 jumbo packs of diapers. Here's the deal:

-Go to www.diapers.com. If you use mypoints.com or ebates or any of those other sites, use their link for added points.
-Select the diapers you want, totaling to at least $50. I got 5 packs of Luvs and 1 pack of Pampers Swadders to bring my total to just over $50. Be sure to check the box to apply a $1 coupon discount for any Pampers you buy.
-Enter code JANEENOEL as your referrer. I will get a credit for referring you and you will save $10 instantly.
-After your diapers arrive, print this rebate form and mail in with proof of purchase for a $14.97 rebate.

If you know of any better diaper deals, let me know!

Life with Four

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:59:20 GMT

It's been almost four weeks now since Levi was born (how can it be going so quickly?) and I haven't really blogged a bit. We're adjusting to life as a family of four. To be completely honest, it's been rough. All four of us (except for Ryan) have been sick, Levi's been a rather fussy baby, and Ryan didn't get any time off work at all. (Note to self: plan any future pregnancies to deliver during a school holiday). Poor Noelle is miserably sick this week, with a fever and coughing so badly that she ends up vomiting. Oh, and to top it all of, a skunk got under our house last week and sprayed, so our house reeks and by the way eyebrows raise when we enter a room, I'm pretty sure we still do too.

It's all good, though. In spite of the challenges we've had, my kids are beautiful and precious and wonderfully snuggly and these busy days at home will be over far too soon and then I'll wish them back. Maybe without quite so much spit-up and snot and definitely without the skunkiness, but nonetheless. We're blessed.

Baby Levi

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:06:00 GMT

He arrived Wednesday, January 28, at 9:10 AM. 9 lbs, 8 oz, 21 inches long.

We are blissfully happy and utterly exhausted. More pictures and details can be found here.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:29:01 GMT

Baby Levi is due on Monday and so I figured I'd blog a little bit of normal home news before we become completely enraptured by our new baby and can't think about anything else.

Noelle turned two last month ("I TWO," she loves to say) and is growing up so much every day. She can count to 11, knows the alphabet, and can identify many letters by sight. Yes, I am excessively proud of her. Her favorite things include wooden puzzles, going to see the chickens, singing "Happy Birthday To You," Sesame Street, reading books, anything involving numbers or letters, and playing with her cousins, and she can eat more veggies than Ryan and I put together. We adore her and she knows it.

Ryan's semester started up last week and he is still loving teaching at the community college. He loves the opportunity to be involved in his students' lives and he's finding teaching to be very fulfilling. It is so nice to see him enjoying and thriving in his work. His teaching load is 110% this semester so he's pretty busy, but at least he loves what he is doing.

I'm just trying to get through these last few days of pregnancy and keep the laundry done, the house reasonably neat, and food on the table. I've had a ton of contractions lately and they are getting quite painful. I know that's only supposed to help when the "real" thing starts, but I can't help being annoyed at the hours and hours of what feels like early labor but goes nowhere. At the same time, I'm terrified about going through childbirth again, so there is a small amount of relief each time things taper off.

That's about all that's happening around here . . . hopefully my next post will be a birth announcement.

Good morning

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:46:14 GMT

Noelle just woke up (she's a gloriously late sleeper these days) and is in her crib yelling out whatever is on her mind.

"Boooer! Mama, BOOOER!!" (booger. . . she has recently mastered the art of picking her nose)

"Oh, no!! Bear Button!!" (much to my chagrin, she wants every toy to make noise when she pushes on it, and she's quite disappointed that the "button" on her bear doesn't do anything)

(crashing noises) "No books! No books on bed!!" (I'm thinking she dropped a book out of her crib)

"no, no, no, no" (could be anything)

(whining sounds)

"Light ON, Mama!! Mommy!! Mommy!! Light ON!"

"Out, peas. Out, peas. Out peas. No, no, no, no, no. Hurry! Hurry! I wanna READ!!!"

I think I'd better go get her up.