The Wisdom in Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: “Notice that all of the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other's cups.”

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate!

FREE Garnier Products at Walgreen's again

This week Walgreen's is doing the 99 cent sale on Garnier Fructis hair products! Yeah! I went to the Dollar Tree yesterday and purchased 5 newspapers because I knew the RedPlum coupon insert had two $1.00 off coupons for Garnier Fructis.

Now I will be able to use this month's Easy Saver Coupon (ESQ)* to get the items for free.

This is what my transaction will look like:
5 Garnier Fructis shampoo/conditioner - $4.95 with the ESQ
5 Garnier Fructis hairspray/mousse/or gel - $4.95 with the ESQ
3 packs of Orbit gum - .99 with the ESQ

Give the cashier the coupons in this order: FIRST, the 10 Garnier Fructis manufacturer coupons; then the gum ESQ, then the Garnier ESQ.

The total out of pocket should be about $1.65, to cover the cost of the gum and the taxes.

I'll let you know if it turns out differently.

Because the coupons for the Garnier give you a penny difference, you want to make sure to buy something small so there are no problems. Also, at Walgreens the system is set up so that you cannot have more coupons than items. With this transaction, I'm using 12 coupons, but I'm buying 13 items. If I did not buy the gum, the transaction would not work the way I want it to.

Even factoring in what I paid for the newspapers: $5.40 with tax, I'm still only paying $7 out of pocket for 5 bottles of shampoo, 5 bottles of hairspray, and 3 packs of gum! That's cheaper than the dollar store, and it's name brand product!


Also, don't forget to take advantage of the Register reward deal from Kimberly Clark. www.coupons.com currently has $5 off Huggies Gentle Care and $3 off Huggies Natural Fit. You can print each coupon twice. (scroll through the coupons until you find the Huggies = they will be there, but may not be on page 1, and may not be together). Purchase two packs of diapers on sale for $10 each and one pack of refill-wipes on sale for $6. Use two $5 coupons and one $3 coupon. Spend about $18 and get a $10 register reward, which is just like cash - a $10 coupon off your next purchase at Walgreens. If you don't have the Garnier coupons, you could use this on Garnier.


* ESQ stands for EasySaver Coupon. Walgreens has a monthly coupon catalog (EasySaver catalog), which can usually be found by their weekly fliers in the stand as you walk in the door of their store. You only need 1 ESQ for the entire transaction. The register will automatically multiply it for each item it refers to. Match it up with manufacturer and it'll be free! You will need to purchase something very small as it will give $.01 overage, and that can be a problem.

Bro. Clark

I'm including both pictures here, since monitors are all different - on my camera, I thought the first picture was too dark, and the second picture was perfect... but actually, the lighting on both is not the greatest. I do like Bro. Clark's smile better in the second picture - there's just something about teeth showing when you smile! :)

Sheldon and his "Holy Ghost" smile!

More Revival

This picture cracked me up. Kadee's shoes remind me of shackles, and I felt like singing

"Take these shackles off my feet, so I can dance - I just wanna praise Him, I just wanna praise Him!"

As Kadee says, Hey, you gotta do whatcha gotta do to get the Holy Ghost!

Revival With Bro. Clark!

First Apostolic Church was blessed to have evangelist Carlton Clark from Arizona with us this past weekend. We've had him many times before, but it had been several years, and he had never met the Sullivan's. The Spirit of the Lord manifested itself in such a mighty presence and move of God.... thank you, Bro. Clark, for helping us reach the next level, as our Pastor has been trying to do, and has prayed and sought the Lord for us, our church, and our community.

The Hardest Puzzle Yet!

You will see that the bottom was the only "easy" part of this puzzle... and Shauna did most of it!

When I told my mom that I didn't think all of the pieces were here, she said "well, we can always count them." I had to inform her she was wrong... the box says "approx" 1000 pieces. :) LOL

The puzzle has many pieces that are odd shaped and just "fit together" but don't interlock.

My Wild Monkeys

You can't really tell in this picture, but I love Staci's ponytail! It's so beautiful - God has given her blonde highlights and the ends are naturally curly. (Shauna's was just like this when she was 4 years old, but as her hair gets longer, it no longer has the curl at the end).

Ladies Car Wash

Saturday, February 21 we had a Ladies Car Wash at the church to raise funds to help out with those of us who want to go to the Annual Northern CA Ladies Conference. The girls of course wanted to do their part to help.

Watch out when Sis. Amy has the hose!

Puzzles ~ My "Rhonda Time"

A dear friend of mine recently asked me if I ever have "Rhonda time." At the time, the answer was no. I have since begun to work on puzzles quite frequently (which I think is a minor annoyance to my husband...) I told him he could help me work on them, but he wasn't too keen on the idea. My mom has been my biggest helper, although the girls like to help.

This puzzle was HARD! Many of the inside pieces looked like edge pieces, due to the round shape.

I love this one - it's a collage of old Hershey's ads/wrappers. It states "MORE SUSTAINING THAN MEAT" and the other one below states "A Meal in Itself." Ha Ha!!! I think those were from the 1940s.

The bad thing is that with my frugality, I buy almost all of my puzzles from thrift stores and Goodwill. Many times they are missing 1 piece... which is very frustrating... but I always like to think of it as a visual reminder that we all have a piece inside of ourselves that is empty and can only be filled by Jesus Christ and His spirit living within us.

Staci's Performance in Chapel

It's really hard to get a great picture when the object (my child) keeps moving around! :)