All posts by Anne Younger

Anne is a 30-something full-time SAHM mom of 5 ranging from 3 to 17 and grandma of 1 who resides in Ashwaubenon (Green Bay) Wisconsin. She started blogging in 2008 as a way to regain her sanity. She enjoys coffee, chocolate, cheeseburgers and vodka along with spending time with her husband and kids.
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Chicago….Here I Come!

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This coming weekend, I will be in Chicago as part of the Verizon Wireless Midwest Savvy Moms program!  Not only am I going to Chicago to attend an awesome Verizon event, but they are also sending me to the 2012 SocialRevUp Brands & Bloggers Summit!

I am so happy and excited to be given the opportunity to be part of this program and cannot wait to get my hands on some new technology and share it with all of you. I know as a mom of 4, I rely on my techy gadgets to keep track of which kid needs to be where on what days, all of our family appointments, bills and more. Really, if I did have my gadgets, our life would be even more chaotic than it already is!

I am also thrilled that I will be attending the Brands & Bloggers Summit once again.  I attended this conference last year and it was my the first blog conference that I went to and it was awesome!  I learned so much, met some great people and made wonderful contacts.

I am looking forward to seeing some old friends, meeting more new people and introducing Ellie to everyone as well.  On this trip, both Zack and Ellie will be joining me.  I would have loved to bring the entire family along but my little Alexander has his first t-ball tournament over the weekend and I didn’t want him to miss out.  Needless to say, we will be leaving Chicago bright and early Sunday morning to get home in time for his final game and watch him get his participation award.

Since it will be Zack, Ellie and I, we couldn’t take the family minivan to Chicago and leave the Alex and Alexander without a car.  Once I came to this realization, I turned to the good folks at GM and am happy to announce that we will be riding in style in a GMC Yukon XLT!

I can’t wait to share all the excitement when we return from our weekend in Chicago!

If you will be attending the #BBSummit12 please let me know, I would love to meet you!

Dedicated to the Cause

Words of Encouragement – Can You Please Help?

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Over the years, you have read things about my crazy best friend Natalie. Natalie and I have been friends for as long as we both remember. When my mom was younger, she babysat Natalie’s older brothers. As I grew up, Natalie became like a sister to me and her family is what I refer to as my second family, her parents are my other parents. To me, they are part of my family.

So….why am I seeking words of encouragement?
Natalie’s mom, Linda, the woman who has always been like another mom to me, the woman my kids call Grandma Linda….was diagnosed with cancer just over 2 weeks ago.
Last Monday she underwent major surgery to remove as much of the cancer as they could. After hearing everything the doctors did during her surgery, Linda has not been herself.
This cancer diagnosis is killing her before she has even had the chance to fight.
As of right now, we don’t know exactly how bad things are. What we do know is the cancer started as ovarian cancer and has spread to other organs but we are all hopeful she will beat this!

Now I have seen the power of prayer work in circumstances like these and I also know that words of encouragement from people in her life and complete strangers will help put her in the positive attitude that she needs.

 

 

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Saving Money on Vacation

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Every year our family likes to get away from the hustle and bustle of our day to day life. Being a family of 6 now, we don’t have a lot of extra cash to take as many adventures as we like, but we do try to squeeze in one special trip before school starts each fall. This year, our vacation plans have been put on hold due to our impending move at the end of August.

We are planning to sneak away to Wisconsin Dell’s for 1 day in August and I have been working hard to take advantage of the Promo Codes 2012 to help lower our costs. Planning a vacation to the Dell’s requires us to have all of our swimming necessities in addition to figuring out how to feed a family of 6 on a budget….a very tight budget!

I have also been looking over the BookIt Promo Code 2012 online to see what is available in savings to help distinguish if we should and if we can afford to extend our trip to more than a day. Fingers crossed that I can find a way to pull this off and keep it cheap!

Thanks to my entering online sweeps, we have already won 4 free passes to one of the waterparks in the Dell’s and I also received another when I got more than 10 gallons of gas at the local gas station.

This will be our first family trip to the Dell’s and my first trip there since I was in middle school. I am looking forward to letting the kids run and have fun while the little Miss Ellie and I cover ourselves in sunscreen and hats while we float along the lazy river and just enjoy our time together.

Zack and the Libby have been planning out which waterslide they want to attack first while Alexander has decided he will be spending the entire day in the kiddie area with Daddy.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens!  No matter what, I am sure we will all have a lot of fun!

What does your family do to help lower the costs of a family vacation?

Just One Of My Kids

Sick Baby

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My poor little Ellie is sick with the croup.
It all started with the sniffles, which led to icky running nose and huge green boogies.
And then the barking took over.
I spent a large portion of what should have been my sleeping hours last night in our bathroom with the shower running, sitting in the steam with my little lady.
I think I managed to squeeze in 45 minutes of sleep before Alex came home and took her for another steam.
From that point I managed to steal another hour of sleep.
After nursing her in our bed, I got up to see this.

Thankfully she is starting to feel better now and her bark is fading away!
Here’s hoping tonight involves sleep and not steam!

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Always on the hunt

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By now I am sure that all of you who read my posts on a regular basis are aware that I am always on the hunt for a good deal. I absolutely hate to pay full price for anything. Now that we are going to be moving to a new house I can guarantee that I will be looking to save even more. We are going to be paying a bit more than we are for our current house monthly but are looking forward to freedom that comes with it.

I have started looking for items online that I want for the new house and have been waiting to purchase them to make sure that I get the best deal on them. I am constantly on the hunt for voucher codes for different companies to help lower the costs as well.

Since we will be moving to a new home, I am planning things out both in my head and on paper. I have great plans to construct an awesome playroom and office in the basement so I can work while the little kids play. I have also been toying with the idea of setting up a work station for the kids as well complete with their own desktop computer. I have found some great dell coupon codes that might make the decision to purchase a new computer easier, but I will not be making that final decision until after we are moved and settled.

Other things I have been looking for are an island with a butcher block top that I found on Facebook. A friend of mine just happened to post to a group that she had an island for sale and I snatched it up for a cool $50 and cannot wait to get it in our kitchen! I’m also on the hunt for a great deal on loft beds as I am wanting to buy 3 of them….now I just need to find a company that will give me a nice discount for buying 3 at once!

Until we move at the end of August I will be on the hunt for more great deals to help turn our new house into our happy home.

What do you do to help save?