Frustrated.

Ok, so most of you know that I’m married to a banker. Obviously, that impacts my view of banks in a way that may be different from someone outside of this situation. So that’s my disclaimer…
This morning two girls on a local radio show were talking about some new bank fees that are [...]

Boys’ Christmas Ideas

My friend Suzanne recently blogged about having a hard time coming up with some ideas for her boys for Christmas. I feel like my older boys have given me a pretty good list to start with this year (family: if you want actual suggestions, please email me. I’ve already bought some of the [...]

Sale Alert!

If you’ve been reading here long, you know that I’m constantly on the lookout for the perfect (non-designer-priced) jeans. I’m definitely a big fan of Express Eva’s, but I can’t just have one style of jeans in my wardrobe, right?
I have this love/hate relationship Old Navy…one season, we’re BFFs. The next, I either [...]

Is It Just Me?

Or is shopping for older boys’ clothes the worst?
Seriously.
I feel like I can still find some super-cute things for Jack Henry, and even a few for Bennett, but obviously, they’re not the ones I’m doing the bulk of the buying for, since they get hand-me-downs.
Here’s the deal: I like the boys to look cute, but [...]

Why I Don’t Love Junie B Jones

I may be in the minority in this opinion…I don’t know. I’m new to this phase of books for children. But I had to get this out: I hate Junie B Jones.
I was at a garage sale last weekend where I scored a TON of short chapter books for $5 – literally, there [...]

Staycation Planning, Part 2

Part 1 of the staycation planning is posted here.
Here’s a list of some of the places we’ll likely visit in case you’re a St. Louisan who’s sticking around here for the summer, or if you’re visiting here from out of town, this will give you some ideas. None of these are very original, but [...]

Vacation? Nope. STAYcation.

This year’s vacation plan is different than most.
With the economy the way it is, and the fact that we’d really love to be moving next year, we decided that it would be wise to stick around St. Louis this summer to save a little money.  But, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t taking a vacation!  [...]

A Letter to Luke

Dear Luke,
You probably know by now that I love “teachable moments,” though you don’t know yet that that’s what they’re called. And the one we’ve had this week has left me feeling incredibly proud of you.
On Monday at school, you had the NED presentation, where they got you really interested in yo-yos. Which [...]

Online Shopping, New Recipes, and The Bachelor.

I did a little online shopping this afternoon and found some great things on clearance at Kohls – specifically some sports gear for Luke. There were Illini football jerseys for about $15 and a Cardinals hooded sweatshirt for about the same. There are tons of teams available – if you’ve got a little [...]

On Allowance

We decided back in July to start giving the boys an allowance as a means to teach financial responsibility (as opposed to paying them to do jobs around here – but I’ll talk more about that later). So far, it’s been an interesting study in the boys’ personalities, and I’m so glad that we’ve [...]