suntanned toes...

...tickling the sand. 

Cold drink chilling in my right hand...

We're headed to the Dominican Republic this week for our "work vacation".  I call it a "work vacation" because it's an awards trip paid for by my husband's company.  Be back in 5 days! And did I mention we're kidless this week?  Woo Hoo!!

Nothing to do but breath all day until the big moon rises and it's time to play...

a letter from mr. president

For my Grandmother's 92nd birthday I requested and received a Happy Birthday note from President Obama.  I didn't know that you could request a congratulatory note from the President for special occasions until 2001 when I was pregnant with my youngest son.  I requested a note after his birth and received one from President and Mrs. Bush.  My second request for a special note was this spring when I requested the letter above for my grandmother.  I sent my request in February for her April 12th birthday.  The note didn't arrive on time, BUT it did arrive during her birthday month.  I was very excited!!!  Two requests...two notes!  Not a bad record.

So, how do you get a VIP note for special occasions?

Here's the info...

The White House will send greetings to U.S. citizens only for special occasions, as outlined below.

• 
  
  Advance notice required.  Your request must be received four weeks in advance of the event date.  Every effort is made to honor every request, but there is no guarantee of a greeting if this guideline is not met.  (Greetings generally are not send after the event date, except for wedding congratulations and newborn acknowledgments.)
• 
  
  Anniversary greetings are extended only to those couples who are celebrating their 50th (and subsequent) wedding anniversary.
• 
  
  Birthday greeting cards will be sent only to individuals 80 years of age or older.  A special card is sent for those who reach 100 years of age.
• 
  
  Other greetings: A limited number of special occasions other than birthdays and anniversaries exist for which the Greetings Office will send appropriate recognition to U.S. citizens.  These include:

1. 
   
   Wedding (send your request after the event; include couple's married names)
2. 
   
   Baby's birth.  Send request only after baby's birth, include baby's date of birth, and full names and address of baby and parents
3. 
   
   Eagle Scout Award
4. 
   
   Girl Scout Gold Award
5. 
   
   Bar/Bat Mitzvah or equivalent occasion

The following information much be included in your request:

1. Name and home address of honoree(s)
2. Form of address (Mr., Ms., Mrs., Dr., etc.)
3. Exact date of occasion (month/day/year)
4. Age (birthdays) or number of years of marriage
5. Your (requestor's) name and daytime phone number
6. Any specific mailing instructions if other than to honoree's address

Send your request to:

The White House Greetings Office

Room 39, Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Washington, DC 20502

When should you expect your greeting?  "In most cases, greetings will be mailed from the White House approximately 10 days prior to the event.  If you have made a special delivery request, every effort is made to honor that request."  (Note...It took 4 1/2 months to receive my note after my son was born, and then I received my grandmother's note the month of her birthday)

So - next time you need to send a unique gift to someone consider requesting a letter from the President.  I think it makes a great memento (regardless of your political affiliations)!  The notes are free and if you wanted, you could frame for the honoree to hang on his/her wall! 

grocery game update

$447 worth of groceries!

...and I paid $210!

I've posted before about the Grocery Game and how much I love it!  This past week there were some great sales that I fully took advantage of.  Take a look!  Probably the one thing that will stand out most is how much processed food I bought.  Yes...there is a lot.  I stocked up on crackers, Fiber One bars and cookies for our vacation.  We're spending a week at a beach house and are taking almost all the food that we'll need.  At least half of what was purchased is for the beach.  Some of the snacks are for my kids for when they fly to see Grandma at the end of this week.  They're flying by themselves and I want them to have a few snacks for the airplane ride.   

And, I guess the post wouldn't be complete without a picture of how I'm able to save the money.  Coupons!  I always wait and get the Sunday paper on Sunday night or Monday when the store has combined 2 papers for a lesser price.  I'm able to get 2 papers for $3 instead of 1 paper for $2.  When the coupons are exceptionally good, I'll purchase 4 papers for $6.

$237 saved.

an intentional summer

Yesterday I mentioned a blogger who wrote about having an Intentional Summer.  Here is a link to the posts by Rebecca at Turned Loose.  If you haven't already, take a look at it when you get time!

We're on Day 11 of our summer.  Here's what we've done so far intentionally...

Day 1 - Family Night.  Grilled hamburgers & hot dogs.  Played board games with the kids.
Day 2 - Watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off as a family. 
Day 3 - Drove into "the city" to get fishing stuff for our vacation.  Ate lunch at the kid's favorite drive-in.  My oldest son had a friend sleep over.
Day 4 - Went to a Memorial Day party/cookout at a friend's house.
Day 5 - Went on a Night Hike in our woods and caught lightening bugs.
Day 6 - Went swimming with friends
Day 7 - Went to a country Farm Stand and planned dinner based on what looked good at the stand.
Day 8 - Went to pool until it started raining.  Kids got to have pizza for dinner--hubby & I got to have sushi...everyone was happy! 
Day 9 - Went to see Cheap Trick in concert at our town's amphitheater.  So much fun!!!
Day 10 - Took boys fishing at the lake.
Day 11 - Football camp.  My oldest son rec'd his airsoft gun that he'd ordered (using his own money) & spent the day in the woods having target practice.
Day 12 - Repeat of Day 11 only adding some tennis in there for me!

We live in a golf cart community so we've been trying to have days where we're "golf cart only" and don't drive our car.  So far this summer we have 7 days of only driving the golf cart! 

So that's it so far! We're in prep-mode right now getting ready for our vacations. The kids leave Thursday for Grandmas. Hubby & I leave Monday for the DR. Then we all get back next Friday/Saturday and leave Sunday for our family vacation.  So the next couple of days our intent will be getting ready to go (for the most part -- I bet we can throw some fun in there too)!!!! 

m.i.a. --- school's out --- summer's here ---

Missing in action...that's been me!  I can't believe I haven't posted anything in almost 2 weeks!  We've been busy wrapping up the school year and beginning our summer.  School got out for us the Friday before Memorial Day.  So...that last week of school was jammed packed with fun things happening at the school.  It also was the start of football season in our neck of the woods!  Yes...football season!  Lucky for us our family LOVES football, so passing out pads and helmets and having football tryouts the last week of May sounded like a great idea to us!  :)  This week the boys are in football camp each morning!

We're into our second week of summer now and we've been having a great time.  Somewhere I read about a blogger who is having an Intentional Summer.  I'll have to go back and find the posts that I read, so that I can link it.  When I read the bloggers posts I thought it sounded like a great idea.  How many summers (or ANY breaks from school...) do we have a mental list of all the fun things that we want to do, only to the week before school starts to realize we've accomplished nothing on our mental list.  This is what I want and plan to avoid!

I asked my boys some of the things that they really wanted to do this summer.  The requests ranged from having a lemonade stand to going hiking up in the mountains.  All were fairly inexpensive outings that will make some wonderful memories.

So...we're having an Intentional Summer this year.  I'll find the blog/post so that I can link it, and I'll share with you what we've been doing so far!