Economic Stimulus Coupons

Ohhh, there are some good deals today and quite a few FREEBIES! I know that it's becoming increasingly rare to shop for anything besides necessities these days, but that's not really amenable to the current fiscal crisis!* Let's not forget Econ 101: if people aren't buying goods, merchants must raise their prices, and this = INFLATION.

*Disclaimer- I am NOT advocating irresponsible, gluttonous, wanton spending; make wise choices, find good deals, and help the struggling market by being a responsible consumer.

So without further ado, have some fun, save some money, and by golly, get all the freebies you can get!

Sephora- FREE 5 Piece Philosophy Kit, with $ 25 purchase, with Coupon Code: PHL31

Express - $10 off $30, $20 off $60 or $30 off $90 Online and In-Store [Exp. 03/22], with Coupon Code: 6918 Also, if you sign up to get their email, you'll receive an additional 15% off!

Papa John's - Large pizza with three toppings for only $10.99, [exp. 3/23] with coupon code: 30909A

Ann Taylor Loft - 20% off AND FREE Shipping on full priced merchandise, with Coupon Code: teacher20 Plus, if you buy one sweater, you'll get the second one 50% off!

JC Penny - $10 off ANYTHING [exp. 3/21] with Coupon Code: BUDDING

Amazon - $10 Off Starbucks Coffee and Truffles, with Coupon Code: SBUXCFNC

TastyBaby at Amazon- $20 off $49 TastyBaby Products [exp. 3/31] with Coupon Code: TASTY555

Babies 'R' Us - Save $5 on all Pampers or Especially for Baby value boxes of diapers (72-252 ct.) [exp. 3/26] with Coupon Code: 926066

Babies 'R' Us - 10% off ALL car seats, with Coupon Code: 926087

Babies 'R' Us - 5$ OFF ALL 40-load or higher Dreft or TIDE laundry detergent [exp. 3/26] with Coupon Code: 926070

St. Paddy

We celebrate St. Patrick's day to honor a man and missionary of God- who in the face of persecution continued to spread The Good News. In Ireland, ironic as it may seem, all pubs and bars were closed on March 17 in his honor, until 1970!


While I am very proud of my Irish heritage, I often feel like a bit of a loner in the Erin Go Brah world. I have the worst luck, I have never found a four leaf clover, I hate corned beef and cabbage (though I do love Shepard's Pie and potatoes in all forms), I'm not Catholic (although I support Catholic Ireland). I don't live in the North, and I don't curse like a sailor. I can't stand to read James Joyce, (although I love Mary Tighe, Shaw, Yeats, and Wilde, and the worst sin of all - I HATE Guinness - it tastes like motor oil to me (if I had tasted motor oil that is).

On the other hand, there are also a lot of things that I love about Ireland and the heritage that gave me milky white skin. I love the music and their musicians, especially Glen Hansard, The Cranberries, Sinead O'Connor, John Fogerty, Damien Rice, and Van Morrison. Green is one of my favorite colors and I look good in every shade of it, not to boast or anything.

Side Note: Blue was the color associated with St. Patrick, but this caused much confusion, as Ireland was associated with the color green. This was changed by the Church in 1750 to make things more cohesive.

I love the mysticism associated with the Old Land, the Celtic lore, and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I love that my Great-Great Grandpa was sent to America as a bond slave in order to pay back his debt to society: He hit a home run while playing baseball on the Sabbath Day, and that ball just happened to go over the fence, hitting and killing a pig. Three big no no's- playing a sport on the Sabbath AND killing an animal AND not having the money to pay for the prize winning hog.


See what I mean about luck? My family just doesn't have it! What are the chances that his home run would just happen to hit and kill the owner's pride and joy, prize winning money makin' hog?

Pretty Slim!

Although, if it hadn't been for that pig, my GG-Grandpa would have never of met his wife, Elvira (I kid you not) while en route, crossing the Pond to Virginia. It's nice to think how fate works, how certain events had to occur in order for us to be here, to be who we are.

This is one of my favorite Irish sayings/poems because I have always believed that the eyes are the windows into our souls. I hope you like it and I hope you had/have a day filled with the Luck 'O The Irish!

When Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure 'tis like the morn in spring.

In the lilt of Irish laughter

You can hear the angels sing

When Irish hearts are happy

All the world seems bright and gay

And when Irish eyes are smiling

Sure, they steal your heart away.

Chaucey Olcott and George Graff, Jr.

And the Rest of the Day to YOU

I'm Irish, like really Irish, in case you couldn't tell by my dark curly hair, pale freckled un-tannable skin, and my blues eyes. I love being Irish, there's just something about it!  On St. Patrick's Day when I was in kindergarten, my teacher sent me to the front office to deliver the attendance to the secretary. When I walked in, there were a lot of people gathered around- the Principal, the VP, and the visiting Superintendent. My Principal said to me "Top of the morning to you!"

All eyes were on me, all "old people eyes" that is, but I gathered my courage and boldly proclaimed "And the rest of the day to you!" Well, everyone got a big kick out of it, the office was howling with laughter. I almost started to cry because I thought they were laughing at me. I quickly dropped off the note with secretary and scurried off back to class.

A few hours later there was a knock on the door and in walked the Principal with a piece of paper in her hand. Uh oh, I just knew it had to be about me, because I had said something wrong and embarrassed her in front of the "important people."

She asked everyone to sit down on the reading carpet and she began to tell them about a student in their class who had proudly displayed her love for the Irish. It was ME! They had created some award for me because everyone was so impressed by my boldness and my Irish knowledge!

I was so excited, so excited. When she told the class what I had done, they all looked at me like "uh, what's the big deal? "Who cares?" "Can we get back to building our lego masterpiece?"

But I really didn't care what they thought, the Principal of my elementary school was impressed with ME, ME, - she created an award that hung in the front office, for ME!

My family was happy, but they were kind of like, "Duh, of course that's what you say!"

This is me in kindergarten, wasn't I cute?!

To this day, it's one of the fond memories that sticks with me; something I think about every St. Paddy's Day. Of course, my celebrations these days are bit more tame than my CELEBRATIONS of yore. And since I'm one of those freak of nature Irish folks who hates Guinness Beer, I plan on putting some green food coloring in my nice Diet Coke.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, I hope it brings much luck! Do you have any plans? Anything fun, or same old, same old?

A Helping Hand

The Tipping Family
- They were pregnant with quads and they lost all four. She had already delivered two who had passed away, but there were high hopes for the others. Unfortunately, it was not to be, and they lost all their babies.

The Simmons Family - They have a two year old boy who was born with only half of a heart. They are currently waiting and praying for an available heart so that he can have a transplant.


The Wagner Family - Their first child, Elise, was born at 26 weeks. She is now a week old and is need of all the prayers she can get.

My New Arrivals

I would not call myself materialistic, per say, but I do like things. However, if there were a fire, or some sort of reality show where I could only take what I could carry in one trip, it wouldn't even take me a nanosecond to grab Spencer, my dog, my laptop with all my pictures, my Spencer memorabilia/important docs bag, and my Mema's ring. My bloggy friend Hayley, told me she bought a fireproof safe where they put all their pictures, external hard drives, etc., and I am totally saving up for one!

But the real point of this, is that I like things. Not necessarily expensive things, although in my BS (Before Spencer) days, I had a real love for designer bags and sunglasses. But things are different now, I am different now. These days, when I'm not buying for the babe, I'm looking for unique items, things that aren't expensive, but still look like I spent time picking them out. I'm no longer an impulse buyer, (okay, sometimes I just can't help it- but my impulse rule is $20 and under) perusing Etsy and eBay until I find the perfect purchase at the right price.

I told you last week that I bought these adorable milk glass mugs from Maisy's Market, and they came this week! I am so excited and they are TDF. I also bought a super cute pair of earrings from DarlyBird last week, as I had coupon from an earlier promotion that they forgot to apply to a purchase, so they let me use it on my earrings. Such niceness in these recession times! And they came today!

Let me tell you, there is almost nothing better than getting a package on a rainy, yucky morning. So here is a picture of my beautiful mugs and my, hopefully, Spencer-proof earrings! Side Note: BS, I would never be caught dead without my pearls, or my graduation gift diamond studs, or my Chanel C's (don't get any BIG ideas, the C's were SO tiny that you'd practically have to be sucking my earlobe to see that it was a C on my ear. The first time she ripped out one of my pearl earrings, which has still yet to be found, was the day I stopped wearing earrings- almost 18 months ago! Remember, I have a huge fear of earlobe rippage- is there a phobia for that? If so, please email it to me, because I would love to what it is!





The earrings are a tad blurry, so here's the store picture of them.

Grand total of both purchases, are you ready for this? Less than $20! Not much less, like a few cents or two less, but still under $2o. (Not counting shipping) Nothing puts a spring in my springtime step, like pretty, inexpensive, make-me-smile purchases.

It was a good weekend! More on that for another post, but it was good. Well, except for my Heels losing to FSU, but they played terribly and didn't deserve it. On a brighter note, they'll be more rested for the Big Dance this week!

So did any of you make some good purchases this weekend? Remember, we are trying to stimulate the economy!