Ah...home...

I am writing tomorrow's Tuesday Travels blog about Salt Lake City a would love some locals insights since a LOT of my readers live there currently and I have not lived there since 2003. Thanks in advance!! Send any frugal travel tips, hotel ideas, or destinations to visit (and if you happen to know how to get discount tickets to any of the destinations, I would LOVE those).

You can request a free sample of Feed Whole grain granola. Just click here to make your request. (There are a number of different flavors you can choose from, and they all look great).

Thanks Penny Pinchin Mom.

I am stealing the following from my dad's Facebook status because it so perfectly says what I want to say today for Memorial Day:

“I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war.”
~Abraham Lincoln

We should praise all of the brave officers and soldiers who have fought in all wars including those who are serving today. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!

Today, we honor you, thank you and remember all of you who have served. We all have family and/or friends who have served and I am truly grateful for each and every one of the men and women that serve our Country bravely each and every day.

On a personal note, I want to publicly thank our dear uncle/brother/brother-in-law, Tyson who has served in Afghanistan, and is now at home with is wife and children! He has served his country and fought for our rights! We are proud of him, and grateful for his service! Tyson, we just send our love and our thanks for fighting well for our country!

I told you the other day about the Barnes and Noble Summer reading program for grades 1-6 that we love to participate in each summer. Well, the other summer reading program we love to participate in each summer is for kids of any age and is run through the Omaha Public Library. It is really neat and there are usually like 4 levels of prizes and you get one level for every 10 books you read with younger kids or that older kids read themselves. It varies a bit each year, but that is the general gist of it. Last year we got free tickets for all our kids to the state fair as well as free books each and lots of other fun prizes. It is a GREAT program! The kick off party for this summer will be on Tuesday, June 1. I know that is a month away, but worth letting you know about to plan on! I will remind you again closer. Here are the details from the Omaha Public Library website:

Event Type: Summer Reading Program Event
Date: 6/1/2010
Start Time: 6:00 PM
End Time: 8:00 PM
Description: Make waves at Elmwood Park! Splish splash with animals and have oceans of fun at the dunk tank, among other high-sea adventures. Join Scamper and your friends as we turn on the waterworks to welcome the Summer Reading Program!

On the cover of the Living section in today's Omaha World Herald there is an article by John Pitcher about the new "seats" in Gene Leahy Mall. They look awesome, and I think that would be a cool new thing to take your family to see! Just a suggestion! You can see a slideshow of all the artistic seats here on Omaha.com (just click on the slideshow).  I love the frog one and the hands one! SO creative!

Tomorrow, Tuesday June 1, Nebraska Furniture Mart, is having a FREE BBQ. Best part, the FREE food is coming from Famous Dave's. YUMMY!! This is at the KC and the Omaha locations. In Omaha, it is outside the Appliance and Electronics Building from 5-7:30 PM or while supplies last. You get a famous BBQ Pork Sandwich, chips and a drink! (limit 1 per person)

I think I know where we will be eating dinner...

***Please note that this is an ONLINE deal-so you can get this no matter where you live (you do not have to be in Omaha).***


Today's ONLINE (Omaha) Groupon is $12 for $25 Worth of Delicious Cookies and Brownies from Geoff & Drew's.

As with all the deals, make sure you check out the fine print before purchasing. To sign up for Groupons, click on my referral link here (this does NOT commit you to buying any deal-you choose what you buy) and to see the Omaha page, including today's deal, click here.

Not sure what Groupons is? Then click here to read all about it!

***Please note that this is an ONLINE deal-so you can get this no matter where you live (you do not have to be in SLC).***



Today's ONLINE (Salt Lake City) Groupon is $35 for a Panoramic Wall Mural from Larger Than Life Prints.

As with all the deals, make sure you check out the fine print before purchasing. To sign up for Groupons, click on my referral link here (this does NOT commit you to buying any deal-you choose what you buy) and to see the Salt Lake City page, including today's deal, click here.

Not sure what Groupons is? Then click here to read all about it!

If you are a fan of American Chopper on Discovery Channel, you won't want to miss today's Graveyard Mall has a fun deal. You can get 12 pairs of American Chopper Sunglasses (valued at $119.88) for only $19.99. Just go to Graveyard Mall to check out that deal and the others they still have going on today!

This is incredibly cool! I hope some of you Utahns take advantage of this/ What a perfect FREE date night!

The Capitol Preservation Board is excited to be teaming up with the Utah Film Commission to present the Utah State Capitol 3rd annual summer film series, "Movies Under the Stars", featuring four "Made in Utah" movies:

July 1 - The Sandlot (1993) MADE IN UTAH
July 8 - Legally Blonde 2: Red..., White & Blonde (2003) MADE IN UTAH
July 15 - Planet 51 (2009)
July 22 - Forever Strong (2008) MADE IN UTAH
July 29 -The Goonies (1985)
August 5 -The World Fastest Indian (2005) MADE IN UTAH
August 12 -The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
August 19 - Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
August 26 - The Blindside (2009)

Films will be shown at dusk on the southeast corner lawn of the Utah State Capitol and are FREE to the public. So bring your picnics, blankets, and friends, and enjoy this years Movie Under the Stars!

LOVE this!! Check out & join their Facebook page here.

Donut Day is June 4 and the following places are participating by giving away some sort of freebie:

Krispy Kreme's is giving away a free doughnut per person. Just stop by. Find a location near you here.

Dunkin Donuts is giving away a free donut with the purchase of a drink. See locations here.

Locally, LaMar's is giving away a FREE Ray's Original Glazed donut (one per person). There are LaMar's locations in in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, to find one near you, click here.

Do you know of any other places with deals, promotions or freebies on Free Donut Day? I just emailed Winchells and asked them if they have any promotions, and I will let you know when I hear back. Anywhere else you know of?!

Hy-vee has some great Momorial Day Sales going on today through Tuesday (May 30-June 1):

• Hy-Vee Canned Vegetables $.29/each
• Hy-Vee Large Eggs $.48/doz (limit 2)
• Dole iceberg lettuce $.58/head
• Budget Saver Red White and Blue Berry Blast Pops 2/$3
• 12" Sub Sandwich $5
• Hy-Vee Ice Cream $.98 (limit 2)
• Hy-Vee Spring Water 24 pack $1.98 (this is better than the Walgreens deal!)

FYI, in Today's Newspaper there is a 20% off coupon in the Bed Bath & Beyond ad. One of these days I am going to use one of these to buy a Dyson Vacuum! Right now though there are some seriously good Memorial Day Sales going on you could use the coupon on. And they have a lot of Father's Day stuff on sale. Also, if you sign up for the Bed Bath & Beyond emails as a first time email subscriber, you will get a 20% off coupon in your email. You can sign up for that here.

There is one small coupon insert in today's Newspaper that includes the following coupons (I am putting stars by my favorites):

• $1/2 General Mills Cereal (3 different coupons)
• $.75/2 Betty Crocker Box Supreme Brownie Mix
• $.50/1 17.5 oz + Betty Crocker Cookie Mix
• $.50/2 boxes Fiber One Chewy Bars
• $.75/2 boxes Nature Valley Granola Bars
• $.50/1 box Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut Granola Bars
• $.75/3 Pillsbury Refridgerated Baked Goods Products
• $1/5 Totino's Crisp Crust Party Pizza Products
• $.40/2 Totino's Rolls Snacka
• $.75/3 Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper or CHicken Helper
• $1/1 Yoplait Frozen Smoothie**
• $1.50/1 Wanchai Ferry Frozen Entree**
• $.40/6 Yoplait Yogurt cups
• $.50/8 Yoplait Yogurt cups
• $.75/2 Yoplait Go-gurt Yogurt

As a bit of an intro, since I started shopping at Walgreens and getting Register Rewards (RR), I seem to always have RRs that I need to use before they expire. In case you do not know, RR are the same as Catalinas at other stores which are basically coupons you get back for future purchases. Well, I try to "roll" the rewards by using them to pay for things that give me new RR, and it is a bonus when those things I can roll are things I really need, or can get free.

This list will include items with RRs this week that I think are good, as well as any deals that I think are worth mentioning (even if they do not have RR). This is NOT a comprehensive list, just the items I think are great deals. Please see your local ad to see ALL your local deals this week.

First, the items that are "like getting them free" after RR:

• Luster White 7 Toothpaste Sale Price $5, get $5 RR, Like getting FREE
• Ecotrin Asprin Sale Price $2, get $2 RR, Like getting FREE
• Walgreens A thru Z Select Multivitamins Sale Price $2, get $2 RR, Like getting FREE
• Rejuvicare Ultimate Skin, Hair, or Nail Supplement Sale Price $9.99, get $9.99 RR, Like getting FREE

Other RR deals:

• Household Cleaners (Tilex, Clorox, Pine Sol, Liquid Plumr, Formula 409) Sale price $2.99, get $1 RR, Like getting for $1.99
• U by Kotex Faminine Care Sale Price $3.49, get $2.50 RR, like paying $.99
• Gillette Fusion ProGLide Manual or Power Razor system Sale price $9.89, get $5 RR, like paying $4.99

Other (non RR) deals I like this week:

• Huggies Jumbo Packs or Pull Ups $8.99
• Arm and Hammer 2X Laundry detergent B1G1
• VO5 Shampoo and Conditioner $.69
• Quaker Oats 1 minute Oats 18 oz B1G1
• Werthers, Riesen, Lifesavers B1G1
• Orbitz gum $.69 with in ad coupon limit 3
• Cortaid Anti Itch Cream on sale for $3 and there is a $3 mail in rebate so like getting FREE

Please also note the following deals available only as part of their 2-day sale today and tomorrow only (May 30-31):

• Coke 12 packs 3/$12, get $5 RR, Like paying 3/$7 (which is $2.33 each)
• Chex Mix, Combos and Cracker Jacks $.99
• 24 pack Pure Drinking water $2.49
• Australian Gold sun care B1G1
• Sunglasses B1G1
• Dixie Plates or Bowls Buy 1 at $3.99 get 1 FREE

Have a Happy, fun and Safe Memorial Day Weekend! We will be grilling and enjoying the great weather! Hope you get to do something fun too!!

This weekend's deals at 6pm.com look awesome!. They include up to 7o% off Rusty & Body Glove, and a Skechers sale! AND this weekend they are offering free shipping on orders over $100 (That is valid only Friday thru Monday). Go check out all this weekend's deals here.

I have a friend, Devon Toomey, who is currently going through an adoption of a special angel right now. She has had quite a journey, and when this posts will be days away from picking up her new son. I asked her to do a guest post about her journey for this week's Saturday Service post. Please read on about her experience and read my short note at the end!

From Devon:

It was October 1, 2009 and I was having a discussion with two friends about adoption. I often had these discussions with people throughout the years because I had been quite vocal about my desire to adopt since I was 19 years old. When I was 19, I studied abroad in Mexico for 5 months and I was blown away by what I saw. I had never seen such poverty. I had never seen so many street children without a safe place to call home. It was during this time in my life that I decided that eventually, one day, I would adopt.

So on this nice October afternoon, I was having this discussion again. My friends had brought it up. They wanted to know when we might adopt. They wanted to know from where. They wanted to know the age of the child or if I would consider siblings. They wanted to know it all. I told them what I had told many people throughout the years who had asked us these exact questions. My response was “We want to leave our options open because we truly believe that our child will find us so we want to be open to anything.” This was something I truly believed. I knew that one day, our child would find us.

So later that afternoon I went home and got on the computer while my two sons were napping. I went straight to Reece’s Rainbow, which I had done many times in the past. For the past few years, I would periodically head over to the Reece’s Rainbow site and look at all the waiting children in need of a forever family. Well on that October afternoon it seemed a bit different. Once I was on the site I wasn’t really thinking about where I was going on the site… I didn’t really have an agenda. I truly feel like I was being led… straight to our son. I found his picture on the Other Angels page and I could not take my eyes off of him. Something was different. This had never happened before. I literally could not take my eyes off of him. Then, I did something completely out of the ordinary. I emailed the contact at Reece’s Rainbow about him. Within a short time, she had emailed me back and our lives have never been the same since.

Our son had found us and we would never be the same. My husband came home that night and boy was he in for a surprise. It took him a little longer to commit, about a week, but he too knew that the child in this picture, the child that we knew so little about, was supposed to be here with us.

It is now almost 9 months later and we have been on quite the adoption roller coaster. It has had some wonderful ups and some difficult downs but it has all been worth it. The things we felt would be the most difficult, such as coming up with the money, actually fell into place more easily than we would have ever imagined. This is all thanks to God, all the prayers we received, wonderful friends and family and a plethora of people who blessed us with a donation. With that being said, the things that we thought would not be difficult, such as family support (and I am not talking about financial support), wound up being the most difficult. This has been one of the very difficult downs of the roller coaster and has changed us in a lot of ways. But, just as I stated above, we would not trade this adoption experience for anything. We know that the roller coaster ride is getting us to that final destination of being able to finally bring our son home.

It is now May 23, 2010 and we are leaving in a little over a week to bring our son home. We are so unbelievably excited and we feel so blessed that he has been brought into our lives. We have been changed through this experience and we will never be the same and I say this in a positive way. Our eyes have been opened and we now understand what is important in life and we look forward to changing the world for the better while we are here. Our son’s middle name will be James. We have chosen this name from James 1:27 in the Bible. It states, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless in this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” This has become my passion. This is what I feel I have been called for and I look forward to venturing down this path.

I urge all those reading this post to look at http://www.reecesrainbow.com/ when you have the time. Reece’s Rainbow is a Christian ministry that promotes international adoption of children with Down Syndrome and children that have other special needs, the Other Angels. They have disbursed almost $600, 000 in adoption grants since 2006 and helped over 250 children with special needs find their forever home. It was all started by one woman, Andrea Roberts. One woman. Who says one person cannot make a difference. If you do not feel you are able to adopt or cannot adopt at this time, Reece’s Rainbow has a number of other ways to help the alarmingly high number of orphans around the world. You can sign up to be a prayer warrior (at no cost) for a specific child, or children. You can make donations to the ministry or to specific children or families and all donations made to Reece’s Rainbow are tax deductible. I can say, from personal experience, that Reece’s Rainbow has changed our lives for the better and hopefully it will do the same for you.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about our journey. If you would like to continue with us on this journey, please visit my blog at http://onestitchatatimetoomey.blogspot.com/.

Sincerely,
Devon Toomey

I would like to add that although a lot of donations have been made to help the Toomeys out, they are still short $2500 from being fully funded for the adoption. If anyone wants to make a donation, Devon has a button on her blog, http://onestitchatatimetoomey.blogspot.com/, on the right hand side that says "Help Bring Sean Home". If you click on this button, it will take you to their family sponsorship page on Reece's Rainbow, where all donations are tax deductible.

Yesterday I posted about a great article that got me thinking about unique fun things in Omaha. You can read my post here. But, ever since I read the article written by Josefina Loza about 32 Adventures in Omaha yesterday, I have been slightly obsessing over one of the 32 adventures she presented. She said:

"If you've never seen a traditional soda fountain, head to Shenandoah, Iowa. It's worth the hourlong drive. The George Jay Drug Co. has had a soda fountain since the 1890s and it still prepares treats the old-fashioned way."

So, I thought, this adventure would be a great weekend warrior fast and furious getaway!! I can assure you, next time we have a free day, we will be trying this out!

I looked up the directions from my house in Omaha to Shanendoah, Iowa, and found out it is about an hour and a half drive. I thought that if I was going to drive that far, I would want to do more than just the Old Fashioned Soda Fountain, so I looked up Shanendoah to see what else we could do there.

According to Wikipedia:

Shenandoah is a city in Fremont and Page Counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 5,546 at the 2000 census. Once referred to as the "seed and nursery center of the world," Shenandoah is the home to Earl May Seed Company and the radio station KMA, founded by Earl May.

After reading this, I feel like a day in Shenandoah would not be complete without a stop over at the original Earl May-maybe we could pick up some things for our garden.

I also found a fantastic website here that lists Apple orchards in Iowa. There are 2 Apple Orchards that are only 18 miles from Shenandoah: Mincer Orchard and Wright Orchard both in Hamburg, IA.

So, here is what my plan for a daycation to Shenandoah would look like:

• Wake up early and drive out to Mincer Orchard or Wright Orchard in Hamburg, IA to pick apples (You will have to call them ahead and make sure they are in apple picking season and make sure they are open/available for you to go there: Mincer: (712) 382-1793, Wright: (712) 382-1146)
• After picking apples, head over to The George Jay Drug Co. to get old fashioned sodas and maybe lunch.
• Stop by Earl May.
• Head Home having had a great adventure with the family!!

***Please note that The George Jay Drug Co. is closed on Sunday's so don't do this adventure on a Sunday!***

Today's free Disney Music download is 'It's a Pirate's Life' from Disney's Ulitmate Swashbuckler Collection

This is a great 2 day sale at Walgreens! It will be available on Sunday and Monday (May 30-31) only. Here is the deal:

Buy 3 12-packs of Coke products at the sale price of 3/$12
Get a $5 RR back
Like paying 3/$7 or $2.33 each.

I always like to know what deals are coming up so recently I signed up to get the sneak peek of Walgreens ads, and today I got my first sneak peek email!!! Some of the deals coming up next week (May 30-June 5) include:

• Huggies Jumbo Packs or Pull Ups $8.99
• Arm and Hammer 2X Laundry detergent B1G1
• VO5 Shampoo and Conditioner $.69
• Quaker Oats 1 minute Oats 18 oz B1G1
• Werthers, Riesen, Lifesavers B1G1
• Orbitz gum $.69 with in ad coupon limit 3
• Household Cleaners (Tilex, Clorox, Pine Sol, Liquid Plumr, Formula 409) Sale price $2.99, get $1 RR, Like getting for $1.99
• U by Kotex Faminine Care Sale Price $3.49, get $2.50 RR, like paying $.99
• Gillette Fusion ProGLide Manual or Power Razor system Sale price $9.89, get $5 RR, like paying $4.99
• Cortaid Anti Itch Cream on sale for $3 and there is a $3 mail in rebate so like getting FREE

There are 4 items that are like getting them FREE after the RR:

• Luster White 7 Toothpaste
• Ecotrin Asprin
• Walgreens A thru Z Select Multivitamins
• Rejuvicare Ultimate Skin, Hair, or Nail Supplement

These are just SOME of the deals going on next week at Walgreens, if you want the full sneak peek, click here.

Well Utah readers, this one is for you! City Deals is having a 50% off summer fun activities sale. There are a lot of great Utah attractions with half price tickets right now! Just click here to see what they have!

BTW-as a former High School English teacher can I just note how much I love that in this ad above the starred part at the bottom says "CityDeals acknowledges that 'funner' is not a real word and admits it was used only because it made our tagline kinda rhyme. Regards to our 7th Grade English teacher."  I love advertising with a sense of humor!!