My Caddy

Are you a coupon-er?

No I don't mean like the kind you see on Extreme Couponing I mean the fun kind.

A MALL QUEEN COUPON-ER!

Well I am and I got overwhelmed with all the coupons I had. They didn't fit in my wallet, especially once I added all the credit cards I had to have for each store. I came up with a "Coupon, Credit Card Caddy" that works great for me.

I still use my wallet, the caddy is just for the extras. Sometimes I even take it out and leave it at home (when I know I won't be shopping). I DON'T believe in having credit card DEBT, I just have the cc from stores to receive better points and coupons. Here's how I organize mine...

 My categories are listed below. Of course make yours to fit your shopping interests.

Sports - Academy, Lids, Foot Locker, Finish Line, Champs, MC Sports
Big Box - Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Target, K-Mart, Staples
Dept Store - Dillard's, Macy's, JCPenney, Sears
Favs - Loft & Victoria's Secret
Eat Out - Any food coupons or gift cards
Gift Cards - GC for massage, pedicure... anything I might happen to have
Misc - Stores I don't shop as often, Pier 1, Maurices, Anthro, Old Navy, Gap

 The contents of each pocket often change. I put coupons, credit cards, gift cards and store credits in this caddy. This system has worked for me several years now, try it and see what you think. You can buy your own caddy at any store that carries office supplies and Staples now carries a Martha Stewart brand that is adorable. Let me know if you make one and if it works for you! Enjoy :)

McDonald's... For Real??

The boys and I had a lunch date at our new McDonalds the other day and I have some thoughts for them. 

 If you're so worried about child obesity that you change your kids' meal fries to

 Oompa-Loompa or Munchkin size...

 WHY OH WHY do you replace your playgrounds with...

video games???!!! For Real?!

Springfield Cards & Creator Designs

Our favorite people, friends from Creator Designs, surprised us with a night at the Springfield Cardinals' game. We had a great time, beautiful evening.

Darin, Janelle, Ian, Chapel and I.

Lots of Creator Designs' friends.

Boss, Ryder, Bo, Jake and I.

Seriously guys... you're standing up, hoping to get a free t-shirt??? We don't have enough?

Thank you everyone for the fun evening!

Us

Most of you know us but I just created a page and wanted to share it as a blog post... enjoy :)

Dwain - the Coach
Truly the leader/coach of the Banner boys, Dwain seeks God's will above all else and guides are family to do the same. He's the most honest, consistent, competitive person I know. Dwain, commonly referred to at work as "Boss," is an amazing leader, fervent teacher and HARD WORKER! He teaches Sunday school, coaches every team, serves on several boards and loves to golf... he's using the skills God gave him in mighty ways, all while being a very involved daddy!

Trina - the Cheerleader
Leading is not my game but motivating is. Dwain labels me "a starter not a finisher," that applies to most everything for me except running, which I've happily done for years. Small business motivates me, I enjoy brainstorming ideas with our employees and other owners. Hospitality is another fav, my guest rooms are often occupied and I want to keep it that way! Come visit :)

Deacon - team Banner
Leading off our team is Deacon, he takes after his daddy in sooooo many ways... sometimes I feel like he's my parent (so mature.) Not sure what I would do without him and his help with the other boys.  He's great at football, baseball, basketball and swimming. Deacon is a leader and also an entrepreneur. After working the student council dance he came home informing me "the stu-co isn't gonna make money on these dance things, too many expenses & we aren't charging enough for admission" Love that in him!!!

Bo - team Banner
Second child but NOT to be overlooked, Bo stands on his own. He's a lion and won't back down. He's my loving, loyal, red-headed, hot tempered ball of joy! He's extremely competitive in every sport he plays... football, baseball, basketball and swimming. Bo loves going by his real name, Boaz, knowing the strong leader he is named after in the Bible. I like to tease him, telling him all the girls want a Boaz ;). 

Jake - team Banner
Our sweet Jakin doesn't want to compete... he has his own way of doing things and you can guarantee it won't be anything like Deacon or Bo. Jake has an AMAZING sense of humor and loves people, everyday he asks to have a friend over. Good at all the sports the other boys play plus golf, but sports aren't Jake's passion. He's Indiana Jones/master lego builder in his mind. When asked his favorite position in baseball he replied "the dugout."

Chapel - team Banner
Way to go out with a BANG, that's what we think with Chap. He NEVER lacks attention, being the heart-throb of all the older girls :). Whatever "da bruders" are doing is what Chapel does. Baseball season, he's got a matching uniform for each team; basketball season, he constantly has a ball with him; swimming season, he begs to go to every practice... we'll soon see what football season brings. He has an imagination talking often about his practice, his game and his school. Loved by all the boys' friends, we call Chapel the rock star of our family. 

Creator Designs - our business
Started from the ground up this business is at the center of all we do. T-shirts are our passion and we are so so blessed by the way the Lord has enabled us to make a living doing what we love. If you don't have a screen printer or embroiderer... call us! Our BRILLIANT staff will wow you with their hard work, customer skills and artistic genius.

Willy Wonka is My Cousin

I must be related to Willy Wonka. I LOVE candy, oh sweet, sweet candy! It's not just the YUM that I love, it's the bright colors, the variety available and mostly the happiness it brings others. If you've ever visited my house then you too have probably enjoyed my "candy store".  Shortly after moving in my friend suggested decorating my kitchen shelves with jars of candy. Instantly I KNEW that was perfect and I've never wanted to change, and still don't but I need help!

My kids are WAY too addicted to the candy. They ask me 100x a day for candy. I feel like I'm constantly telling them "NO" and I'm the fun-mom not the no-mom :) (or at least in my eyes.) We love our dentist but we'd rather see him for dinner than an appointment in his office. Anyways, I need help... please give me suggestions for either healthier snacks to put in the candy jars or ways to limit my kids with the candy. I know you blog readers are smart, now share your thoughts with me please :)

(cabinets on either side of my sink)

Guess What We Had???... For Real!!

Most of you have became aware of my less than blog-perfect life. I'm having so much fun pointing out all the things others might shy away from, but let's be REAL, we ALL have hilarious, embarrassing things going on everyday.

Meet Annie, our gorgeous, sweet, loving golden retriever. Her favorite spot is on the couch next to one of "her" boys. Oh I can't tell you how much we love her. So often the boys enjoy snuggling up next to her and watching TV.

We had a mild winter here and ticks are horrible. We have purchased Annie a tick collar and she's on pills for fleas. You would think that would take care of things but apparently... 

 

 We had ticks... YES, for real!

 The boys were constantly scratching and checking each other for ticks. Bo labeled himself a "tick expert" after a hunting trip in which he was obviously the HUNTED, over 200 ticks found him! If anyone asks the dreaded question "is this a tick on me?" Bo would rush to them to evaluate the situation.

This was a nice a quiet family secret until we visited our local barber at The Barber Shop. I noticed him inspecting something on Bo's head and then he asked me to come take a look...

Yes, I'm afraid our secret was out... we had ticks!

Luckily this awful Missouri drought has killed them off, we haven't seen any in quite some time. :)

Restore, Part 1

Dwain and I have always loved buying older houses and buildings and restoring them. We actually have never purchased new construction. There's something we love about taking the old and making it new, maybe because that's exactly what Christ did for us.

We are living in our 4th and hopefully final home. I want to start sharing the "before & afters" with you. I saved the pics from the real estate listing when we bought the house.

The front walkway was of course the first thing I wanted to change... first appearances mean everything! I thought the stepping stones looked like they should be leading to an outhouse not a home. We had Hofstetter Concrete create a custom walkway for us and I love it!

All the gold had to go. We replaced with black lantern looking lights. We have also replaced the front doors.

Painting goes a long way! This front porch was painted/stained with a charcoal grey. It was so much cheaper than replacing the whole worn-out looking deck.

We added brick to the guest house and a walkway. We also took off the front deck.

Barns should be red, right??? That's what I thought so I talked Dwain into changing this one. Also notice the light for whiffle ball games :)

I will try and post more at different times. Now go and restore something and thank our Heavenly Father for his wonderful gift of salvation, forgiving our sins and making us NEW again!

#'s, $$'s & #'s!

Numbers, dollars & pounds... this is my new plan to stay on track and not overeat. If you are interested today is the day to join! We start a new group every Monday. This is open to ANYONE. This is NOT a scheme or pyramid or anything, just a game. :) Read below for more info...

Do you eat out of stress, boredom, celebration… anything but hunger??? I’ve found myself needing some accountability in this area and people motivate me so I created a group to challenge this area of my life. Of course it’s just for fun and you can quit anytime. Let’s be clear right off the bat, I’m not making $$ on this, just enjoying the “peer pressure.” :)

Brief version of the group: everyone “deposits” $7 per week. Everyday that you track your food intake through myfitnesspal.com you get a “point”, everyday that you meet your calorie goal you get a point. At the end of the week we tally points, then divide money accordingly.

You are guaranteed your money back if you get all 14 points, guaranteed half your money back if you get 7 points. Here’s a brief example below…

Sally deposits $7. She has a great week and earns 12 points. At the end of the week she gets $11.05 back.

Eddy deposits $7. He has an avg week and earns 7 points. At the end of the week he gets $6.45 back.

May deposits $7. She has an avg week and earns 8 points. At the end of the week she gets $7.36 back.

Mikey deposits $7. He has a good week and earns 9 points. At the end of the week he gets $8.29 back.

Susy deposits $7. She has a bad week and earns 2 points. At the end of the week she gets $1.85 back.

We had a $35 balance.

38 points were earned.

The pay-off was $.92 per point.

So you can see, unless you have a horrible week and don’t even have the heart to record what you eat, this shouldn’t cost you much of anything. The extent of the commitment is 1 week.

Steps to join:

1. Open free account with http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ You can do this on your computer, or download the app with your phone.
2. Add me as a friend. My username is trina6b
3. Open free account with https://www.paypal.com/home
4. Send $7 to me at paypal link here 
5. -make sure and use the “personal” tab and then “other”

-my email/account is trina01@windstream.net

-if you “fund” your account first you won’t have the cc charge

       5.  Email me back your myfitnesspal username & info that you sent $7 payment. (Sometimes payment takes a few days to process, that’s ok, just let me know it’s coming.)

I will email you back confirmation and a list of everyone else participating so that you can become friends on myfitnesspal… and watch each other.  Start today keeping track of your “points”, email me Monday with your total points. Most of all ENJOY, don’t be stressed about it, quit when it’s not working for you anymore and try something different.

Call or text anytime with questions,

Trina

Mary Kay, this is for YOU!

Facebook is a great thing but there's a slight problem... my mother-in-law doesn't have it. She's a fanner of the Banner boys' pics and she misses out on the ones I've posted on FB. So here ya go MK ;)

Dwain, Coach Guiot, Dr. Taylor, Kyle Seaney and Guy Newcomb competed in the KOLR 10 Sports Trivia contest. You can watch them on KOZL Springfield (Channel 27 or 2) at 10:30pm on Sunday.

 The boys and I were able to attend the Bolivar Y AquaZone grand-opening. We're pumped about this!

Deacon and Jake playing with the tp :)

It's swim season and we all love swim meets..

Chapel especially loves swim meets!

 and baseball games...

he's quite popular with all the sisters!

My brother was in town to visit and pointed out this Republican Fat Cat.. hahaha

 My 4 goofy dates.

 The SBU Basketball players had a car wash, and I was a beneficiary.

 The boys and I went and saw Madagascar 3 and this was Chap's sweet selection.

 Chapel and his buddy Ian tearing into the melon! Ian got really into it... and...

Dwain helping out!

 And last but not least...

^" Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

Eph 6:10-13

Country Clubs & Swim Meets... For Real

The Banner boys compete for our local Y swim team. The majority of the time our meets are at country clubs in Springfield. Often I've cracked up at the big Bolivar Y herd invading ritzy, south Springfield's private pools. Today was no exception.

As we walked into the swim meet I noticed Jake carrying a water bottle and I instantly had a proud parent moment... "look at that sweet boy, he was responsible when we left the house,  packed his own water bottle," We scooted right in next to all the other parents who had already "set up camp" with their lawn chairs, coolers and shades.

Just as I was admiring the beautiful pool and setting up my seat I noticed a horrible smell and heard the gasps of all the mothers. Jake was standing in the middle of everyone with an ornery look... he had dumped his water bottle, which apparently he had found in the car. The rotten chocolate milk it held moments before was now splattered all over the pool deck, resembling upchuck!!! The once pleasant pool-side was now the spot no one wanted to be.

Just when I get prideful as a mother, my "for real" is brought to light in front of everyone... yes we have rotten milk in our car, yes my children behave carelessly,  and yes now we have a beach towel that's soaking up what all perceived as vomit.

Everyday is an adventure with children!