May 15, 2008 | Ask the Internet

Anyone know any tips for….

1. Getting Sharpie ink off a toddler’s arm?

2. Getting wood stain off an adult’s foot?

Yesterday Emily apparently was bored and got into the teacher’s drawer. She grabbed a Sharpie marker and proceeded to draw all over her arm in red ink. If that wasn’t bad enough, she also drew all over a friend’s arm as well. Nice right? Apparently she must not have been watched too closely by the daycare teachers to have done that!

And yours truly looks like my foot lost a battle with wood stain. I suppose staining chairs while wearing flip flops was not a great idea huh?

May 14, 2008 | $aving $ome Cent$

The other week Abby & I went to the grocery store. The store was running a charitable promotion where they sell $1 scratch and win tickets. On the ticket you have the chance of winning money and also you get a coupon for a free product worth at least $1. Throwing caution into the wind, I bought two tickets and Abby and I each scratched one. I won a bag of tortilla chips (value $3.49) and Abby won a bottle of VO5 Shampoo and Conditioner (value $1). We went back to claim our prizes, and buy the two items we forgot on our original trip. We couldn’t find a bottle of VO5 shampoo/conditioner combined so we grabbed one of each. Mind you Abby spent about 5 minutes smelling them all and picking which ones she wanted. She was so proud of herself!

With our selections in hand, we headed back up to the register to pay. The store honored our selection of a bottle of shampoo and one of conditioner. And the shampoo was even on sale. So they charged us for the sale price but credited us the scratch/win value of the full price. Anyhow, after all coupons, bonus cards, etc we paid only $3.52 for all of this (a value of $9.55).

So Abby left the store thrilled with her new shampoo purchase and I left the store feeling thrifty! Every little bit saved helps in this economy!

On that note, I have a “save $25 off a purchase of $100 or more” Lands End coupon. It’s valid May 12 - 22, 2008. If anyone wants it let me know and I can email you the voucher and PIN number. I don’t plan to use it but it’s a good deal and can be used at landsend.com.

May 13, 2008 | This and That

*It finally stopped raining! We had close to 5 inches of rain over the past couple of days. So much rain that our backyard actually flooded Sunday night. Luckily our house is up on a hill so the water stayed away. It literally rained non-stop for over 24 hours. Good time to be a duck - not so much a human!

*I heard on the radio this morning that there is a movement underway to boycott Starbucks because of their “slutty” logo. When I heard that I couldn’t even picture what the logo looked like so I looked it up this morning. Looks like some sort of mermaid thingy. Slutty? I don’t see it. And quite frankly I enjoy their coffee too much to even consider boycotting them regardless.

*Sunday, for Mother’s Day, we went to brunch with my in-laws and my mom. The brunch was held at my in-law’s neighborhood clubhouse. Picture large ballroom with all you can eat buffet. The food was really good and both kids were very well behaved. At some point the conversation turned to how Emily, when she wakes up, just sits in her crib yelling “Mooommmeeee!” or “Daaadddeeee!” until we appear to get her. Usually if I ask her what she says she whisper yells “Mooommeee!”. So Sunday I asked her what she says when she wakes up and damn if that girl didn’t yell “Moooommmeeee!” at the top of her lungs! Thankfully we were sort of sitting in a corner so hopefully not too many people noticed!

*I found out yesterday one of my ex-colleague’s husband was shot and killed Saturday night here in Northern VA. He was leaving a friend’s house and was confronted in the parking lot. He leaves a devastated wife and 3 kids. They have not caught the shooter or know the motive. It seems they think it was an attempted robbery gone bad. Very sad. Please keep them in your prayers.

May 12, 2008 | Emily

Dear PetSm*rt Peeps,

Please train your employees not to give mothers of small children dirty looks. After all it was someone in YOUR organization who decided to display fish tank after fish tank chock full of fish, with NO LIDS, a foot off the ground. You should have realized every small child that walks by will think the fish are free for the scooping! Kind of like those carnival games where you grab a rubber duck, flip it over and see if you won a prize. And while we’re at it, $0.12 per goldfish? What does that say about their life span? Anyhow, next time my ninja reflexes might not be so lightening fast. You might find $0.24 worth of squished fish in my toddler’s hand. So, you might either want to put lids on those tanks or train your employees to be a little less expressive.

Thank you,
Mother of Inquisitive Toddler