Bargain Hunting

I have an obsession with bargain hunting. Zaphyn and I have a Saturday morning routine that revolves around yard sales, markets, consignment shoppes and thrift stores. This Saturday we had quite possibly the best morning we ever could have.

We found several additions to our Fisher Price Little People and Imaginext collections (another castle, a Wild West scape, another barn with extra stable, Noah’s Ark, and the air traffic control centre to be exact) all for less than $15!  I doubled Zaphyn’s library for $5 (that was a purchase of  60 books), and found some Veggie Tales DVDs that we did not have for $.50.

My favourite finds of the day were definitely many pieces of clothing for Zaphyn that I have since sorted and stored according to size and season.

For whatever reason I can’t upload pictures right now, but they’ll be added as soon as I figure out how to remedy the problem.

For $25 I got Zaphyn 3 bags of clothing from 18months to size 5 (mainly size 2 and 3) from one yard sale, three pairs of pants from a Steve and Barry’s resale at a bargain store, and two adorable winter coats (sizes 2 and 3).

 These are the coats (my little darling is going to be covered in faux animal print!):

Don’t Let it End

I have had the most wonderful weekend!

I feel so accomplished having cleaned my rec room up to the best of my ability at this moment.

Much of Saturday morning was spent cleaning. I did finish cleaning early enough to go to a few yard sales. I found some really cute, and nearly new outifts for Zaphyn to grow into over the next few years. I got four outfits for $5 after a little haggling!

Zaphyn and I went to the mall for some mommy and baby time. We drove my niece Mandie there so she could visit with a friend and get her nails done. Zaphyn and I explored the sales, the food court and Chapters.

 We shared a poutine. It was delicious!

Saturday evening was delightful! I got Mandie to babysit, Justin was entertaining friends, and I went to a spa party at my friend Rebecca’s. Oh. my. word. We had foot soaks, and facial masks done by our local Arbonne representative, Jasmine Cheng.  It was such a wonderful way to spend a Saturday evening. I even won a prize valued at over $60!

Sunday was a very busy day, but I had so much fun! It was another Mommy & Baby day. We went to church where I had nursery duty, so I got to watch her play and explore with other children her age.
After church we took a drive down the road, to Hamilton.

We changed out of church clothes and had some lunch along the way.

Zaphyn is such a good little traveller. I was sure to keep a ready supply of toys by my side that I could pass back to her from time to time. Her favourites for the trip seemed to be her giraffe from Justin, and one of her Amazing Animals monkeys. I felt pretty prepared for the trip considering it was fairly last-minute.

The whole reason for our journey was to meet some of my online friends for the first time in real life. I was so excited when the opportunity came up that there wasn’t very much that could have held me back.

 We arrived in Hamilton at 3:30, making the journey there just over 2.5 hours (not bad with a baby!), and met Kim and Kara at a Tim Horton’s. Below are some pictures of Zaphyn and her new friend playing in the park.

“One on One”

Wednesday mornings are one of my favourite times of my week. Zaphyn and I get up, have breakfast together and then head down to Mother Goose time at the Quinte West (Trenton) library.
The programme is a half hour of singing, clapping, rhyming, reading and dancing, followed by snack time.
This past Wednesday Zaphyn and I were a little late, as she napped up until 9:50am. We jogged downtown, and were only a few minutes late.

She was in such a happy mood that we decided to stay for snacktime. Luckily I had thought to grab her container of snacks as we ran out the door. She loves watching the older babies run around, and she is beginning to mimmick them.

On our way home we went to A&P and I got us some watermelon to share on the way home. We had some amazing one on one time together as we sat by the shore of the Bay of Quinte and snacked on our healthy treat. I also sang the song “down by the bay” to her and she attempted to sing along.

I love how soft Zaphyn’s voice is, for the most part anyway. She occasionally lets out some very deep growls and grunts that cause her face to turn red, but that is typically only in the presence of her dad or her uncles. As we have been spending more time playing together she has been vocally communicating with me and I love it. She has such a sweet little voice that is beginning to form words. She has been matching the words and sounds with some of her signs also. It makes me so excited!

We have been learning a lot about each other. I know her most ticklish spot is her underarm, she knows that mine is the bottom of my feet. I know that she loves to sit between my legs, facing outward, but she knows that I like to see her smiles and reactions, so she often turns to look at me. I know that she appears to have a wonderful, early concept of sharing as she shares her toys, food and hairbrush. I know that she loves taping sticks and blocks together to make music, she knows that I will have a larger reaction the closer she gets to my face with whatever she is tapping. I know that she shakes her bum and sways her hips to any beat. She knows I do the same. I know that she loves making her kissy sound. She knows that when she makes the sound I will drop whatever I am doing and run to her in hopes of collecting as many kisses as possible.

“…What a feelin’!”

I have been feeling amazing!
Over the past couple of weeks I have been focused on my health and not my weight loss. In stead of focusing on scales, weights and measurement I have been paying a lot of attention to what goes into my body and what I am doing to make myself better. I have been doing the Couch to 5K Challenge, quite successfully.

I have never had as much energy as I have these days. Even with Zaphyn pulling a few all-nighters I am still feeling energised enough to go running and walking daily.

I got my hair dyed and trimmed today also. I think it looks great!

My favourite part of today thus far occurred this morning on a quick stop in at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. I got an entire Weekenders set: two skirts, a pair of pants, a camisole, a cardigan, and a scarf for $12, and a brand new pair of Lululemon pants for $3!!!

This evening I am off to watch Justin play his first baseball game on the church’s team. I can’t wait!

I have a few pet peeves…

and while I realize that I am no where near perfect, I do find a few of these problems quite irritating.

The first that comes to mind is sign grammar and spelling. If someone is going to put time, effort and money into making and posting a sign they should be sure that it makes sense. I find signs that contain errors to be entertaining, and yet highly annoying. Some claim that I have invested too much time and thought in this- I fully agree.

For example:

My problem with this sign: the incorrect use of a simile.
In the statement says that “God is like Hallmark because he cared enough to send the very best.” It’s a wonderful thought, but it doesn’t make sense. Hallmark doesn’t care, and they don’t care enough to send the very best. Hallmark’s claim is that they ARE the very best, making a Hallmark customer the caring one.
In the context of this sign’s message it should read:
God is like a Hallmark customer…

Neglect…

I have been really bad at keeping this blog, and entire site, up to date.

I have a few things ready to blog about too. It’s the sitting down and actually writing it out that has been hard for me.

Now that I am no where near as busy as I have been for the past few weeks I should be able to get back on track.

To recap, I’ll work backwords:
Yesterday was “Star Wars Day”. It was May the Fourth-be with you.
We celebrated with Boba Fett-uccine and Obi-Wan Kabobies. Mmmm. Star Wars day is delicious!

Sunday, the 3rd, was a very busy day for the Monks. We were at the church by 8:30am in order to have the little kiddies dressed for their play, The Tale of Three Trees. I worked with a lovely lady from the church to create some pretty wonderful tree costumes. It was such a great performance!
After church we went out for lunch at Applebees. So grood!
Justin had baseball practice with the church team. I slept in the car. I had a sinus headache- not fun!

Then, Sunday evening, we went to see John Pinette. He was absolutely hilarious! He did “Get out of the line”, and “Fawee wiwwy”, with many others also.

The rest of the time was spent sewing, and spending time with Zaphyn. I love my daughter!

I love this thing!

Tuesday morning Zaphyn and I left the house on a mission. We were not to return home without a jogging stroller.
It was quite a long day between my early morning online research and travelling from store to store doing stock and price checks. When we were turned away from the last consignment shop on our list I decided that the InStep stroller at WalMart was the stroller for us.

Justin assembled it last night, and had it ready for the adventurous day ahead.

Zaphyn had an appointment this morning, so I strapped her in and jogged down.
It was so beautiful outside that I needed a mid-afternoon jog/walk also, so away we went again.

Then, at 7pm, as I realized I would need to go get milk, my darling began rubbing her eyes. In stead of putting her in the car and making a mad dash for the store I put her in the stroller and we walked again- for 3287 steps according to my new pedometer.

My review after a full day of use:
Assembly- I did not assemble this, as mentioned, but Justin said it was quite simple to snap together, and there wasn’t a lot of assebly required.

Folding and Unfolding- Both tasks are very simple. There are folding instructions fixed right to the stroller, but they really aren’t needed after the first time. It is a simple ’slide and pull’ system. When the stroller is as flat as it will go there is a locking clasp that typically pops itself in to place. I just wish that it folded a few inches flatter so it would fit into the trunk of my Sunfire.
Unfolding is quite simple. The locking clasp on the side of the stroller needs to be pulled on slightly to unlock. It is a quick pull of the handle that fully unfolds the stroller.

Buckling-  The relatively easy-to-use 5-point harness system provides an additional feeling of security when running, and when stopped.

Front-Wheel Swivel- I like that the wheel is able to be locked. Even witht he rear brakes on the front swivel can cause the entire stroller to swing when on a slight incline. The swivel was great when I took Zaphyn on a trail though. We went over roots, branches and underbrush like it was new pavement.

Storage- There is a large, spring-loaded basket underneath the stroller. I can safely say that it holds 8L of milk, baby treats, a full diaper bag, coffee filters and 3 blouses. My only negative thought about the basket is that it is made entirely of mesh and nylon, and I was afraid the entire walk home that I would have something pierce right throught it and the milk.

Ease of Cleaning- It is unfortunate that I know this after only one day of use, but any minor surface dirt and stains are very easy to clean from the seat. The cover is also easily removable, but I haven’t washed it yet, so I don’t know what the instructions are for that.

Overall- This was a very smooth ride. I love how it feels like it is gliding without putting any effort into pushing. Zaphyn loves it too! I reclined the seat for her this evening, and she just stared up at the sky. She has definitely adjusted!

My new ‘do!

I am such an indecisive person, so when I woke up one morning with a sudden urge to cut my hair I knew I had to do it! I called and made an appointment with a salon around the corner. I only wanted a trim, with a little extra taken off the back.

What I ended up with was A LOT more taken off the back.

I LOVE it!

A very happy Easter!

I trust that anyone reading this had a truly blessed Easter holiday.

I had such an emotional day yesterday. Our church service was absolutely amazing!

Zaphyn looked absolutely beautiful in her Easter dress.

 She alaways gets so excited to go to church. I hope that never ends!

 We had a family dinner, with ham and all the fixin’s, and did an egg hunt. Zaphyn received a basket of empty plastic eggs and carrots. She filled them with other toys and shook them. She loves her music!

 The orange egg in her hands here talks, and there is a little toy inside that she has fun playing with.

 You may notice that her headband is different from the “going to church”picture. She likes to take them off and fling them, so we put this one on because it doesn’t stretch.

 
The boys’ hunt was a clue-based treasure hunt. They were both successful in finding their goodies.

 Brad LOVES his chocolate and candy, so mom gave him a nice supply that may last him a few days.
It was only a matter of minutes before he had his fist through the soccer ball chocolate to break it into pieces.

Tony received a lot of chocolate also, but his favourite part was the Transformers that mom picked up for him. It was one of the few sets that he didn’t have. This boy loves his collection!

Zaphyn attempted to help him out by pulling the ribbon. Thankfully she didn’t find the chocolate!

A head-bopping good time

Zaphyn, my almost 9 month old daughter, has been doing the cutest thing for the past couple of days. Whenever she is sitting up, be it in ther highchair, her crib or on the floor, she starts shrugging her shoulders and nodding her head. She doesn’t even need music to follow along with.

I love it, and it makes me laugh so much!

We went to the mall today to meet with an old friend and she bopped her little head as we walked around.

I don’t know where it came from or how it started, but oh.my.word. It’s the silliest, most adorable thing I have ever seen.