Random Anti-Clutter Stocking Stuffers List! Part I

A lot of my favorite bloggers are posting stocking stuffer lists and I think that's awesome!

I love stocking stuffers and struggle with the fact that I tend to enjoy giving (and getting) one hundred little presents instead of one big present. This leads to random junk, impulse buys and clutter! Seriously, set me loose in the Target Dollar Spot and it's on!

However, when Sunday rolls around and it's time to throw out or donate 7 things (post coming soon on that), that dollar junk is usually the first to go. So how can I satisfy my need for QUANTITY without buying junk and adding to the clutter?

Here are my ideas for fun, random, useful gifts, without feeling like it's just more stuff! Remember though that I'm weird. Your giftee might look at you oddly if you give them crockpot liners.


Of course, I'm using Amazon Affiliate links, but you can find most of this stuff anywhere!

Gummy Vitamins - Every adult wants them, but most won't buy them for themselves. These are the ones I like.

Dish Towels- these are beyond adorable! Nobody realizes how ratty theirs are until they get new ones. The trick here is to THROW OUT the old ones.

Storage containers- Maybe it's just me, but I would love a huge box filled with 99¢ white plastic shoeboxes you can get at Wal-Mart or Dollar Tree

Scentsy laundry smell good things- If you have never tried these, you are missing out.

Scentsy Car smell good things- These are fun, and disposable!

White Strips - Be careful here. I would LOVE to get these because they are kind of frivolous and I love frivolous gifts. However, your giftee might think you are insinuating they have gross teeth.
Proceed with caution.



CrockPot Liners - I LOVE these things, but never buy them because it seems silly to spend money on them when I can just, gasp, wash the crockpot. But, if these showed up in my stocking? Ridiculously happy!

iTunes gift cards - Obvisously, make sure the recipient has an iProduct of some sort, but having a little iTunes gift card makes you feel less guilty over buying really stupid $1.99 apps.

Ponytail holders- You can never have enough QUALITY ponytail holders. Ever. They get lost and self-declutter.

 There you go, Part I of Doodleturtle's Random Anti-Clutter Stocking Stuffers List!

**Some of the above links are Amazon affiliate links. If you choose to shop through that link, you get the exact same wonderful prices as you would if you went to Amazon yourself, I  just get a little thank you bonus from Amazon for directing you there. Some links are to my Mama's Scentsy page. She gives my free Scentsy because she's awesome, I'm just trying to return the love.

Complaining (nicely) is effective!

Last week I was happy to find coupons in my mailbox for $10 off any $20 purchase and $10 off any $50  purchase at GNC. We were running low on a few things so the timing of this was perfect.

I read the fine print carefully and it didn't say anything about not being valid with any other coupons and, in fact, said something about applying other coupons if applicable. At the store we loaded up about $75 worth of product and headed to the register, expecting to get $20 total off our purchase.

At the register, the salesclerk said she didn't think she could do both coupons on the same transaction and we said that was fine, we would break it up into two transactions. We even grabbed a little something extra to make sure that one sale was $25 and the other was $53. The sales clerk was struggling a bit so she called her manager over. He proceeds to tell us, nicely, that GNC has a new policy that allows only 1 coupon per customer. And that if he wasn't there tomorrow, we could use the other one tomorrow so I'm not sure what to make of that one?? Apparently it's one coupon per person ever?

I told them that was fine, just sell us the $25 box of Quest bars and use the $10 coupon. We paid and left and I was flabbergasted that GNC thought this was a good policy.

If they had let us use both coupons, we would have had two transactions of 4 items. One for $15 and one for about $43. A total of almost $60 in sales.

Instead, we bought one thing for $15. Scratching my head. As a former retail employee and as a current business owner, that made no sense so when I got home, I emailed GNC.

I nicely explained how their new policy had affected their sales today and how I thought they should know it seemed silly.

Less than 24 hours later I received an apology and I'm getting a $15 off anything coupon in the mail.

The key here is to be NICE at all times. The employees at the store may not understand the policy or they may be enforcing it wrong, but making them mad won't help your case. Just go along and do the best you can and then email headquarters. The holiday shopping insanity is coming upon us and the person behind that cash register is just as aggravated at the holiday shopping ridiculousness as you are. Most of them aren't trying to be jerks. They are trying to do their job the best they can. If they are being a jerk, it may be because you are being a jerk. Maybe.

PS If you don't have a GNC nearby, you can purchase Quest bars online at Amazon. The Cookie's and Creme are amazing!

**The above is an affiliate link. If you choose to shop through that link, you get the exact same wonderful prices as you would if you went to amazon yourself, I just get a little thank you bonus from Amazon for directing you there.

The Wal-Mart Savings Catcher

Part of my goal with this blog is to just put my random thoughts out into the world. The other part is to share ideas and motivation with others like myself. Moms and wives trying to manage their lives and be bad-asses at the same time. Today I'm taking a look at how the Wal-Mart Savings Catcher can help us be more efficient and save cash!

Full disclosure: I have a love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart (Boo and I call it hell-mart).

 I hate every stinking minute I'm in there. Too many people, too much stuff, the annoying screens that blare commercials while you shop. The holiday aisles that appear 7 months before the holiday. Blech.

However, I love that you can get most everything there. I love the cool knick knack piddly stuff that you didn't know you needed that is so cheap you cannot leave without it. In fact, J and I had Friday night date nights when we were first married where we just wondered around HM.

All that said though, I try to avoid the place. Last weekend though we needed dog food and that is when we have to go to HM. We also needed groceries and I had heard about the new Savings Catcher that HM offered so we decided to put it to the test.

We purchased about $150 dollars worth of stuff and I figured the Savings Catcher wouldn't find anything because we bought some random, obscure stuff. The Savings Catcher only works if the item is exactly the same as an item advertised at a local store. Since our town is quite small and has few stores, I was expecting zero savings.

As soon as we got in the car, I downloaded the HM app and created an account. Then I selected "scan receipt" and was done. This took me 5 minutes, tops. The app told me I would get an email in three days telling me if any savings were found.
                                                        



Well, guess what? Apparently Rite Aid had my biscotti on sale and I was getting $0.58 back! Woo!

The way I figure it, if it took me five minutes to enter the receipt and get $0.58 back. That's $6.96 per hour and while that's not much, it's worth my time. And, from here on out it will be significantly faster because I've already downloaded the app and made my account.

My vote, this a great option to squeak out some savings! Have you tried it? What were your results?

So much exciting stuff

I haven't written in a while. Not because nothing has happened, but because so much has happened! The big CrossFit competition I've been training for happened last weekend and it was awesome! The picture above is of me helping my team on our best finishing event of the weekend with a few bar muscle ups. (Photo credits to MetCon Photos, LLC) The event was three days long and 6 hours from home. When we got home last Sunday I was done, physically and mentally.

Then yesterday we had another competition, albeit more local and less intense, but a competition nonetheless. J and I partnered up and finished second! All of this has left me with a case of the fatigues. Two weekends of anxiety and adrenaline constantly pumping and dumping has about wiped me out!

All that said though, I feel pretty good tonight. I treated myself yesterday and had pizza and ice cream, but today I'm back on the (correct) macros. I track every day, no matter what, but on days like yesterday MyFitnessPal likes to tell me that if "every day was like today, you would weigh 167 pounds in five weeks". Haha, I'd be a beastly 167 though!

I think that is where people mess up when they are tracking macros and doing the whole flexible dieting thing. On days they "cheat" they do not track, therefore they do not really see the damage they did. Don't get me wrong, I tore that pizza up and did not care one iota about the fat and carbs. I felt absolutely zero guilt. But when I put the numbers in, I saw that it would take about a week of 100% on point eating to offset the binge. I'm okay with that.

But if I hadn't entered those numbers, would my brain have really registered the extremity of eating 2/3 of a large Domino's pizza? And 4 scoops of Moose Tracks Ice Cream? Nope.

The morale to this story. Eat what you want to. Track the numbers. No guilt. Accept the consequences. Stay the course.

PS you cannot track your diet without a food scale. This is pretty similar to mine.

^^Affiliate link^^

What the hell? Do I look like I work here?

We just arrived at the hotel and are rolling our luggage in. I think I am dressed "travel chic" with leggings, a tank, and a button up shirt tied up at my waist and Uggs on my feet. This beautiful, tall girl wearing Lilly stops me in the lobby and asks if I "work here?". Um, really?
Apparently my "travel chic" is really housekeeping.

No, Kroger, I'm not highly satisfied! And it's ok!

I think Kroger has some confidence issues. I mean, they are kind of needy and whiny.

On my recent shopping trip this week, I was offered 50 fuel points in return for completing a survey of my shopping experience. Ok, sounds good to me.

The survey started by asking what departments you shopped and then proceeded to ask my satisfaction level with each department. The options were highly satisfied, satisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, dissatisfied or highly dissatisfied.

Apparently, if you are merely, "satisfied", that gives Kroger a complex and you get inundated with questions about WHY you were not highly satisfied.

Well, let's see. It's a grocery shopping trip, not sex, so is it possible to be "highly satisfied?" No one grabbed my list at the door and then directed me to a massage table while they gathered my goods. I didn't see any Segways for me to race around the store on. I was not offered an adult beverage and given 50% off my total.

And worse, sweet potatoes were $1.29 per pound! $1.29! Of course I'm not highly satisfied!

Did I get what I came in for? Yes, pretty much, satisfied. Did I get EVERYTHING on my list? No, actually Kroger I couldn't find the cacao nibs, but it's ok. I'm satisfied.

Due to your responses, may we have your contact information so we can follow up with you? Um, ok, but I was SATISFIED.



I can't imagine what happens if you click highly dissatisfied.


PS I found the Cacao nibs.....at Amazon.

**affiliate link above**

Eating for your goals isn't sexy

As a coach, I'm always having people ask me diet and nutrition questions. Generally, it's ladies that point to their tummy area and ask, "How do I get rid of this?" I don't know what they expect me to say, but when I reply that it is all about the diet, they look like I popped their birthday balloon.

Losing fat is all about the diet! The diet, the diet, the diet! (Picture me jumping up and down while yelling)

When I talk to them about their diet, I generally finish up the conversation by asking them to record their current diet for a few days and let me look it over. And you know what I get? Crickets.

People want the body, but they don't want to do the work that comes along with eating right. They don't want to plan meals, weigh and measure them out, carry around food, cook, etcetera because it's time consuming, and, it's hard.

Don't get me wrong. It's not child birth. It's not Mt. Everest. But it's not fun. It's not sexy. I mean, if Lady was trying to cut a few pounds she would not have been slurping up spaghetti with the Tramp without weighing it to the nearest gram and busting out her "My Fitness Pal" and screaming at him that she couldn't share that noodle because SHE HADN'T WEIGHED IT!

Okay, I'm being dramatic. It's not that bad and I don't suffer. However, I do not enjoy cooking, but I make myself do it at least twice a week. I love pizza and gas station food, but I don't eat them that often. My goals are more important right now than my "don't want to" or "I wanna's".

Discipline is just choosing between what you want now and what you want most.

If you want to reach your physique goals, you have to decide that's what you want most.

***Affiliate link*** because I am an Amazon Associate they give me a little thank you gift of a few pennies if you shop through my link. The price is the same for you as if you just went to straight to Amazon. Even if you don't want to buy a food scale through Amazon,  use my link and buy something you would normally buy, ok? And then I can write in my YMJ that someone shopped through my link and earned me a penny for my thoughts. :)

A Day In The Tummy Of Doodleturtle

A lot of our athletes ask me what I personally eat so I recently tracked my food via pictures for a day. Here ya go, a day in the tummy of Doodleturtle.

I started off this day coaching morning classes so I grabbed coffee on the way out the door. Black, yum! When I got back home, I fixed oatmeal with peanut butter and raisins and took my vitamins. Oh, and more coffee!

Before heading back out I ate a huge plate of chicken, veggies and rice and after coaching the CrossFit Kids class, I needed a little Snickers! After my workout I crammed in a tuna and sweet potato mash! Delicious!

Later that night at home, I had chicken fajita and more sweet potato with protein powder pudding (with PB and bananas) for dessert!

I don't like cooking and these meals are pretty simple. A few hours of baking and crockpotting (is that a word?) and my food prep is basically done for the week.

Mobility and face smacks

I was going to write about how to make this super difficult, super expensive massage tool, but then, something exciting happened and I changed my mind. <nearly all of the above was sarcasm>

First, to make the massage tool. Take a long sock, put two lacrosse balls in it, tie. Done. Use it to loosen up all those tight spots like lats and hip flexors.

Every other month we take new athletes into our beginner program and teach them the ways of the CrossFitter. Last night was wall ball night. I loathe wall balls. I'm short and I'm legally blind in one eye so depth perception is a small problem. However, I'm getting better at them and don't generally cry anymore if I have to do them.

The Scene: a bunch of newbie CF'ers who are awed and inspired by me, their CF coach. In the two weeks they've been with us, I've shown them how to squat, how to press, how to do pull ups, how to deadlift and double under. And I made each look easy. And now they wait with baited breathe to see these mystical, magical wall balls.

I approach the ball and square up to the target. I lift the ball, perform a beautiful squat and throw. The 14# ball hits the 10 foot Rogue target with a solid thump and begins its descent. My arms go up to receive the ball. I take a breathe to solidify my core. I close my hands around the ball right as it..

SMACKS ME IN THE FACE.

Now, if you CrossFit, you knew this was coming, right?

Now, I'm no longer super awesome Coach in their eyes. I'm that doofus that smacked her face.

Oh, if you want to make the super awesome mobility tool, you can purchase Lacrosse Ballat Amazon.com.

**affiliate link included**

Confused and unable to understand

About 4 months ago a cute little puppy found us. We had zero intentions of having a dog, but he was so cute. So we have a dog, and he's great. The problem, he's a mutt. Tell someone your dog is a mutt and they just can't comprehend. Labradoodle? They get. Chorkie? They get. Mutt? Not so much.
So I'm fixing this problem, here we go.

Pre Today Conversation related to E's Heritage

Random Person- Oh, he's so cute! What is he?
Me- Oh, he's just a mutt.
Random Person- (Confused look on face, unable to comprehend the term mutt)
Me- (annoyed)

Today and Future Conversations related to E's Heritage

Random Person- Oh, he's so cute! What is he?
Me- Oh, thank you! He's a German Boxador Hound Shepherd
Random Person- (Confused look on face, unable to comprehend the designer breed)
Me- (entertained)

Is it normal to be this excited about trash pick up?

Up until the last three months, we've not had trash pick up at our house (that's ten years y'all!).  But in August, I had had enough of having to haul our trash to the dump ourselves.


I know it seems ridiculous, but every Sunday night as I drag the can to the curb, I get as giddy as a kid the night before Christmas! It's so magical! It just disappears!

Seriously, I don't think you understand the amount of joy I feel.

I hate warming up..

I hate mobility work. I hate warming up. I have to make myself do it because, somewhere deep inside, I know it's good for me and it makes me perform better. I was already having trouble getting focused to lift today and wanted to be finished ASAP because we were heading out of town once I finished. Don't get me wrong, I love to lift (lifting's my favorite!- Will Ferrell voice), I just wanted to START NOW and GET DONE! Considering my rep scheme today had me hitting 90% of my squat for a double in 6 minutes, not warming up was out of the question.

So I made a deal with myself, I could listen to a podcast I had been looking forward to while I warmed up. I rode the bike, did some PVC work, hit the Rumble roller and did some light weight squats. 15 minutes later, I was good to go! Maybe this idea would help someone else in my shoes, who, ahem, isn't a spring chicken, and hates to warm up.




**Disclaimer, the above link is an affiliate link**

So, I think I'm smart and funny...

So, I think I'm smart and funny and that people will be completely charmed by my wit and wisdom. But then I remember that I'm also a complete dork and only a handful of people really get my humor. But I love reading other people's blogs and would like to give it a go. Stay tuned!  3-2-1-Go!