What's been going on HERE lately

So the past month I discovered Huggies put out a coupon on coupons.com for $3 off 1 package. If you friend them on Facebook they have another $3 there as well! Here's a few steals I was able to get. Of course I have a ton of register rewards now but I am A-OK with that! :)

This stash was $26.97 + tax
This was $13.11 plus tax
This total was $35.
$12.00
Now no Huggies but I paid $14.95 for all of it and I thought that was awesome!
And if anyone knows how to build storage cabinets please feel free to come over and build something for me because I really look like a hoarder right now with diaper packages and other junk everywhere. LOL!

Dominic and His Robot

Single-Stream Recycling

We have been avid recyclers now for about 2-3 years. Before that it was just cans, glass and paper. Our town recently went to single-stream recycling. A good majority of people objected to it because of the increase to their bill and thought how could you recycle with everything thrown together? I'm not sure if everyone else in their cities have started but basically you throw everything together, no bags. When it came down to it though everyone wanted to try out these cool karts. We live in the country but off a main road so we were offered a cart. In town you get picked up twice a month, here in the country, once. That for us is going to be a huge drawback because we recycle so much. They'd like no bags but with us in the country we are allowed because of the once a month deal. We normally put out 12-15 of the tall blue trash bags out in a month. I also have a bag of cans but we take them in for cash. We currently throw maybe 2 bags of trash in our poly kart a week, if that. I'd say about 95% of our trash is recyclable.

I love the fact that I can have an extra easy chore for one of the kids. ;) We recycle so much that they can easily take out a big trash can every day (or other day) light as can be and dump it.
Our town is not mandatory however I know alot of nearby ones are. Offering a nice fancy kart though I'd say nearly everyone here is doing it. Anyone else doing single-stream?

Some New Pictures

I have tons of new pictures but here's a few of my favorites. Rocco is 3 1/2 months now and growing so fast! We're still plugging away at breastfeeding and he's co sleeping and still waking every night. At this point I've been waking every night for so long (October 2008) it would be totally odd if he started sleeping through. I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

Mia and Sophia adore their little brother. I have to watch them all the time.
Damien playing Xbox.
Rocco enjoying the swing.
Mia being goofy!
Rocco
Alex on Valentine's Day. She's getting so grown up! Almost 10!
Sophia right before leaving for church
The boys. Dominic wasn't real happy about doing a picture. lol
Sophia
Mia. She looks just like Alex did at her age though. It's so weird because you can't tell the difference between the two when you look at old pictures!

Goodbye Old Friend

March 5th turned out to be one of the hardest days of my life. We have lost 2 other dogs before Bailey but this was the first time we'd put one down. Our first "baby" Dusty died Oct 2005 at 8 yrs old when he couldn't make it across the highway in time. Our 2nd was shot believe it or not in town before we moved out here in the country. Dusty had been shot too but lived however she was taken by some coward in the country and dumped off. Both experiences were horrific. This one was different because we actually ended his life.

Bailey had been slowing down. With the cold weather and being inside loafing he had really packed on the pounds. I was constantly nudging him to get out to go potty or even get out of his bed. March 2nd it was around 60 degrees so I put him outside so he could run around. Usually when it's nice he starts to lose weight because he's out more. Well that night I couldn't find him but could here him sorta whining like he normally does when he wants in. I went out and a sinking feeling came over me because I knew his back had went out again. It happened about a year and a half ago and I found him in the same spot in the flower bed unable to walk. I brought him in and hoped that maybe he'd walk again quickly because he was atleast able to use his front legs this time. After 3 days though it hadn't, he wouldn't eat or drink and he was just looking miserable and so sad so we made the decision to put him down. I decided to stand outside the door and Dave held Bailey because he sometimes will bite at needles and I didn't want to see any of that. They planned to open the door for me to be with him after the injection but he died within the second they did it. Our vet told us when it happens that way they are ready to go. I came in though and cuddled him anyways.

Bailey was our oldest dog at 12 years and as I compare pictures of what he looked like younger to what he looked like now it's just odd. I guess I really didn't see him a few weeks ago as old but he really was and he was acting it too but I was too busy to notice. I feel awful for what we did, I keep wondering if I would have waited if he could have recovered but then we both knew it was just probably going to become a vicious cycle since Dachshunds are prone to this. The first time took 3 weeks before he regained use of his legs, tons of steriods and a $400 vet bill. I'm doing better with letting him go, the first week was hard and we had so many routines with him that everything I do is a constant reminder. From giving him scraps after meals to going out with me when I took care of the other animals and of course his walks with the kids to the bus everyday. It's hard.