About me

I cut my teeth on the grocery business. My grandparents have owned and operated the same 8 aisle grocery store since 1978. I worked there for 5 years when I was a teenager and I learned many successful skills that help me to be a great couponer and blogger. (Because we had to hand key in the prices when I worked there, I memorized every single price in their store. Now I can recall the price I paid both before and after coupon for every item in my house!)

My grandparents operate their store on a skeleton crew, literally. Ok, not literally. My mom was feeling silly on Halloween and did it. It was just so funny I had to share.

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Everyone is invited to light at candle at 7 pm in their time zone in remembrance. If everyone lights a candle and keeps it burning for at least once hour, there will be a continuous WAVE OF LIGHT over the entire world.

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the day we found out our third child had passed away. Throughout the tough year, I have been overwhelmed by the support and compassion shown to me by other mothers who have also suffered the same pain. 90% of women that I have spoken with have lost a child. Many of you reading this post have either lost a child or know someone who has. Please know that today I am praying for you as well.

I am lighting my candle for my son, Andrew Johnathan.

(And sorry for the lack of deals lately. I honestly just haven’t had it in me. I hope to be back to the full swing of things next week. I don’t know what I would do without you. I love being able to interact and help so many of you on a daily basis. Thank you for sticking with me!)

The picture of the rainbow we saw at Disney in Jan 2011. Do you see the angel baby in the clouds?

This coming week is the most depressing and emotional week in our family. On October 13, 2008, my father in law passed away from lung cancer. On October 13, 2010, my third child passed away during the 19th week of pregnancy. We found out that we had lost him on October 15th and I gave birth to him on October 18th, 2010.

I am taking today off to spend it with my family and to try to get my life and emotions in order for the coming week. I would truly appreciate any prayers, thoughts, encouragement you can send my way. I have no idea how hard it’s going to be when we reach the 1st anniversary of when we lost the baby. Compound that grief with the grief over losing my Father in Law and I have a feeling we are going to be an emotional mess.

I don’t know if you truly understand what a tremendous blessing you are to my family. The fact that you come to my blog and read my posts and genuinely care about my family means the world to me. I had no idea that when I started this blog in the summer of 2009 that it would become so much more than just a place on the internet to share deals. It has become a part of my family. Each one of you bless me and my family every single day and for that I am extremely grateful. If it hadn’t been for my blog readers, I truly don’t know think I would of survived the grief over losing the baby as well as I did. You all kept me going day in and day out. I appreciate you.

If you are interested in reading about our journey last year, here are some posts I wrote at the time:

Emily’s appendix ruptured and we almost lost her in Sept 2010
Update on Emily
I lost the baby
My precious boy was born sleeping
The brief life story of my sweet Andrew

And here is my favorite picture of Jacob and my father in law, Cliff. I named Jacob after him. John Clifton and Jacob Clifton.

I am blown away. I am going to be honest. I had hoped anticipated that we would receive 50 boxes. We are now at over 500 boxes! Thank you all so much for sending your donations!

I want to send a HUGE MASSIVE thank you to everyone that has sent a box. I tried to keep track of everyone, but unfortunately I failed. There were days the volunteers beat me to the boxes. They are just so eager to get these things sorted and out to the people. But we are SO VERY VERY VERY grateful from the bottom of our hearts.

Here’s the previous information if anyone needs it…

Online: You can ship items directly to the church via Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc. A few people have ordered cases of diapers, wipes and even food. Anything that you want to send would be appreciated!

Share it: Please feel free to share this information via your blog, email, Facebook, Twitter, whatever. The more people that know of this option, the better!

April 27th my town was hit by a tornado. We suffered loss of homes, businesses, vehicles, etc. Praise the Lord we did not suffer many losses of life. Unfortunately, it wasn’t over. Later in the day, more tornadoes touched the ground in Alabama killing at least 250 people. They are reporting that the tornadoes were EF3, EF4 and EF5s (which is the worst kind).

Southerners are in dire need of some of the most basic necessities and I am working with my local church to start an online donation drive to help the victims of these storms. If you have any items that you would love to mail to us, we will gladly take them. Here are a few things that we are in need of:

Updated list:

Baby supplies (including diapers, wipes, A&D Ointment, baby food and juices)
Blankets
Bungee Cords
Can openers
Charcoal grills (small)
Construction materials
Convenience food (snack type)
Deodorant
Diabetic Monitors with Strips
First aid kits
Gloves
Hand tools
Non-perishable food items
Over the counter medications (mainly tylenol)
Pet supplies
Ropes
Shampoo and Conditioner
Soap Powders and Cleaning Supplies
Socks and underwear *NEW*
Sunscreen and Bug Spray
Tarps
Trash bags
Water
Yard tools (rake/shovel)

We will gladly take anything that you are willing to send, but we no longer need clothing. I hate for you to spend the postage on something we might not use for months when a local shelter in your area might be in dire need of it. All of the clothing we have received so far is very much appreciated and has been sorted and distributed (or stored based on season) to the victims. But it appears that everyone that needs clothing has received it and there are no more requests for it.

You can mail your donations to my church. We will ensure they get into the right hands. You have my personal guarantee that all donations will be distributed:

Disaster Relief
c/o First Baptist Church of Moody
902 Church Street
Moody, AL 35004

If you would like to send a monetary donation, please memo your check as Disaster Relief.

Last weekend my friend Missy emailed me to let me know that she and Tammy (the lady that she was shopping with on Extreme Couponing) were making a road trip here from Orlando. So on Thursday, they drove the 12 hour drive from their house to mine and brought with them a HUGE HUGE HUGE donation for the Disaster Relief drive.

I met her at the donation hub so we could unload her van which was literally squatting! She had it packed like a sardine can and had even more on top. The volunteers were blown away and kept saying how they couldn’t believe that someone would drive all the way from Orlando to bring the items to Moody, Alabama.

After unloading all the items at the church, we went out to dinner at our local Mexican restaurant and then hit Walmart. Shopping with Missy and Tammy was so much fun! She brought a huge stack of coupons so we could get even more donations for the church.

We were all having so much fun that they decided to stay for most of the day. We went to Target where we made out like a bandit with more donations then we brought all the items along with the packages from the AMAZING readers to the donation hub. Then we had more time for another shopping trip to Walmart (this time we bought items to aid people as they fix their homes) before they had to say goodbye to drive back to Orlando. It was an awesome, fun filled 22 hours. Thank you so much Missy and Tammy and all the couponers in central Florida who contributed to the tornado victims. You are all awesome!

Before I share anything with you, I want to share this picture. These 2 ladies are who your donations directly helped today. They came up to the church while I was loading the boxes into the van to transport to the donation hub and asked if we could help them and help them we did! YOUR DONATIONS went to this family. YOUR GENEROSITY improved the conditions they were in. YOUR HEART touched theirs. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

(I let them know what we were doing and asked if it was ok to share their pictures and they generously agreed!)

Thursday I went to the church to pick up the packages to take to the donation hub, but since I had some time and the donation hub was sorting through some large donations I decided to stack all the boxes up for everyone to see. This is ONE DAY’S worth of donations. There is a total of 49 boxes!!!!! That is in ONE DAY. I had hoped to get 50 boxes total and y’all blew that away. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

My friends Missy and Tammy decided to stay to help me transport the mail to the donation hub. Today it took 2 mail trucks and a UPS truck to bring all the packages. There were 73 boxes!! We are all blown away by YOU!

And here are the donations you have sent being sorted and processed at the hub. It’s amazing how quickly your donations are going out to those who need them.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Click below to review the list of donation items needed.

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Do you remember the episode of Extreme Couponing with Missy Eby? She is the one who said that her inserts come from God (which they do, He just sends them to her through her congregation, local food banks, friends and family and strangers around the state). Well Missy and her friend Tammy are currently in route to Birmingham, AL with their van packed full of things she got for FREE to take to my church to help the tornado victims!

Missy Eby is truly an amazing person. Not only is she an Extreme Couponer, but she uses her talents for Feeding God’s People. She teaches 3-5 FREE coupon classes a week (she is adamant about not charging) and supports 2 food banks, an orphanage and her extended family with all the items she gets for cheap/free with coupons.

Missy is a long time reader of Couponing to Disney and she swears I changed her life. I am excited to hear the story firsthand when she gets here this afternoon. I’ll keep you all posted on her progress!

We received 40 boxes today!!!!!!

The first load came around 11 am from the USPS followed by the UPS load around 3 pm. I took the kids with me today and they helped unpack the boxes. Jacob kept dancing up and down saying “I’m just so excited! I want to help! I want to help!”

A huge thank you to The Woods, The Wallaces, The Romos, The Wheelers, The Wards, The Wilcox, The Schallers, The Copes, The Flippos, The Stewarts, The Younts, The Lunas, The Aglios, and everyone that I either missed or wished to remain anonymous. Thank you all!!!

Click below to review the list of donation items needed.

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We just got back from taking donations out to the hard hit areas here in Moody, AL. We caravaned with the church and we were the water truck. We drove through a hard hit area giving out batteries and candles, boxes of food, cases of water, bags of ice, etc. I also picked up Capri Suns since I know kids don’t always want to drink water.

We got a message from the school that there will be school tomorrow. We were out Wed – Fri. The kids will not be counted absent if they can’t get to the school. They have missed more days for weather this year then I ever did.

I want to thank you all so very much for supporting us here in the south through your prayers, donations and really just by reading this blog. I am so grateful for all of you!