This video is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It happened right here at the Comedy Barn in Pigeon Forge Tennessee. A couple audience members are brought on stage to participate. The guy in the middle has one of the funniest laughs I've ever heard.
This is my first time contributing to the Frugal Friday posts. I should have posted this right after Christmas. If you are like us, you always have candy canes left over after the holidays. Here is a great idea that I wish I could take credit for, but I can't. I saw a piece on the Today Show after Christmas where this was one of the ideas presented. Take your leftover peppermint candy from Christmas and run it through your coffee grinder. You can clean your coffee grinder first by running some white rice through it. It makes a wonderful peppermint sugar that is great in hot chocolate or sprinkled over vanilla ice cream. I've also mixed it into whipped cream to use over chocolate cake. YUM! I would suggest that you could mix it to taste into powdered sugar to stretch your peppermint if you don't have many pieces. I think this would work well with any flavor hard candy. I want to try it with butterscotch.
The results are pretty, pink and yummy.
Patty over at Morning Ramble shared stories from her life where divine intervention kept her safe. It reminded me of something that happened almost 23 years ago . We lived in a small town outside of Montgomery Alabama. We were only married for a few years and didn't have much money, but we loved to window shop and imagine what we would buy if we could. One Saturday afternoon we decided to go to a local furniture store and look around to see what was new. We decided to split up, Randy took our 3 year old son to look around downstairs and I took our 13 month old daughter upstairs to look at sofas. If you have ever tried to carry a 13 month old around for very long you know that once they learn to walk, they want DOWN.
When we got upstairs my daughter was squirming to get down out of my arms. I didn't see but one exit, the stairs we had just come up, and I decided it was safe enough. Besides, I wanted to look at the furniture in peace. So I let her down. She toddled away from me and the stairs. I kept one eye on her as I looked around to make sure she didn't go anywhere near the stairs. I felt perfectly safe letting her walk around the chairs and sofas, there was nothing I could see that could harm her.
After a few minutes I had a "thought" come into my mind, very clear, "Where is Laura?" I looked over and called to her, I saw her look in my direction and smile. She was completely across the room from the stairs. Everything I saw said to me she was fine. I turned away and again, much stronger, much more urgent sounding, almost like an order barked at me, "WHERE IS LAURA? CHECK ON HER NOW" I literally jumped. I turned and ran over to where my daughter was. When I came around the sofa she was walking past I saw there, cut into the floor, right next to the wall not 2 feet from where she was, a slot about 15-16 inches wide. It was cut into the floor for the door to the delivery area downstairs to be raised and lowered.
To you or I, or an older child even, that slot would not have been a real danger but to my 13 month old it was a death trap. If she had fallen through she would have falled about 20 feet to a hard concrete floor below. I snatched her up and sat shaking for a few minutes before I found the strength to walk back down those stairs. When I tried to tell my husband about what happened. I never could describe the voice I heard. It was much more than a thought, almost like someone standing speaking over my shoulder directly into my ear. I heard it as clear as a bell that second time.
There have been other times that I believe Angels have protected my family. I may never understand why they have been spared harm, but I will always be grateful . Life gets us down, and is really hard sometimes. We should all remember how precious we are and that we are loved.
I've been trying an experiment. A few months ago I checked out the book A Mom's Guide to Making and Saving Thousands on the Internet. I found some useful tips and felt the book was a good read. I was intrigued by the section on internet freebies. Could a person really spend a few minutes each day filling out forms and receive enough free merchandise, samples and coupons to make it worth while? I set out to find out. My two biggest concerns, time and the knowledge that my email address would probably be bombarded with spam were taken care of with self imposed time limits and a new address at Yahoo used exclusively for freebies. I began by choosing freebies listed at the author's site Momdotcom.blogspot.com. I decided that I would only sign up for around 4 or 5 a day. This prevented my obsessive self from getting carried away with hours of surfing looking at one after another. I learned a few very important things: Stay away from what is called a 2 step offer. Basically a "Visit our sponsors site and choose blah blah blah...and we will send you XYZ." Do not fall for that one unless you are interested in signing up for new credit cards etc. My goal is to spend less not more. I am not interested in point rewards or any such program. Maybe there are benefits for certain consumers but not for my family. That is something each person would have to research for themselves. I am only interested in sampling a product so those are the offers I look for. Second, until and when you figure out what you are doing you will definately need that second email address. I signed up for quite a few items that continue to send email to my box everyday. In fact, I have already deleted that email address and opened a new one. For the period of one month I decided keep all items I received in a basket and take stock of whether my 5-10 minutes a day were worth it. Judge for yourself...
Advantages were I got to try products that I otherwise might not have. I received samples that were useful, some that were useless and some really cool things, like a Sponge Bob Square Pants battery toothbrush, useful posters for homeschooling, and even an entire info packet from Nato with a dvd and computer game. I continue to get coupons on items from various companies. Most of the coupons are for $1 off or more.
All in all I give the experience and the book a grade of B. I would recommend it but caution you to look closely at each site you visit and only sign up for those directly connected to the product that you are requesting a sample of OR through a reputable company such as Wal Mart or Target. Free should be just that,free, without a catch of any sort. If you try this, drop me a line with your results.
Come back soon.
