Snap-EZ Blog

No, I haven’t fallen off the planet!

But I sure haven’t had any time for blogging!

I’ve never been a diary kind of person, and taking photos of everyday events is not my strong suit!  So when you combine my lack of talents in those two directions with a HUGE move, painting our new house, cleaning/painting/fixing our old one, being in the first trimester when way over 40, homeschooling 6 children, dentist appointments, tutoring appointments, a business to keep running (and adding a new line of diapers as well), and keeping my husband happy and my 9 kids at home cared for and keeping in touch with my oldest who’s overseas in the Marines….let me see….oh I forgot - going out of state to watch my second oldest son compete at the National Bible Quizzing Tournament, putting our mobile home on the market and showing it around 3 times a week….and for some reason, I just can’t find much time to blog!  LOL!

So here’s a quick catch up as to where we are now (there’s just not enought time to even hit the high spots other than what I did above!) -

Our oldest son is transfering from Okinawa to 29 Palms, CA next month!  He’ll finally be in our time zone again!  Bummer is that he’s with a new unit - Recon - and he has no idea if he’ll be continuing with computers, or if he’ll be facing a new job description - he will also be spending at least 6 months of the next 2 1/2 years overseas, most likely Iraq - God’s Grace is what will get us through that if it comes to that!

Our second oldest son is still working fulltime where my DH works and is doing a great job - and using most of his income to fix up his two cars and other hobbies (like video games).

Our oldest daughter just turned 18 and can’t wait to have her own Costco card so she can help with the shopping - not the usual thing for just-turned-18 yos to be excited about, but then again, when you homeschool your kids just don’t turn out “normal” - they turn out so much better!   She’s also getting pretty deep into dog breeding/training and hope to start competeing in the AKC and UKC this year with her latest dog, Sebastian!

The rest of the school aged children are growing and learning and doing normal stuff.

Our two littlest are typically very busy and often getting into trouble, but they’re so cute it’s hard to get mad!

As of now our kid’s ages are: 21, 19, 18, 14 (15 in 2 weeks), 13, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, and #11 due September 30!

We are in our new house, but there’s still trim to be painted, and flooring to get done, but that should all be done by the end of May - and then we have to tackle painting the outside! I don’t even want to think about painting again!

I will put up a photo after the mobile is moved off and the new house is painted, as it doesn’t look much different from the last photo from the outside!

We just sold our mobile home last night (well, we accepted an offer and will do paperwork next week) - Praise The Lord - I tried very hard to rest on God’s providence in this but at times I found myself worrying about “what if it doesn’t sell” - but I only hurt myself and should have always trusted Him for this!

I figured out during my recent spell of being on bedrest after my trip to Minneapolis (Bible Quizzing) that I need to keep to home this summer and get my rest - this is a real testing time for me!  And for my family as they’re used to me going 90 mph 24/7 and now they’re having to help out more and allow me to get the rest I need!  So no camping trips this year, bummer!  Oh well, our van’s broken so we can’t take the trailer anywhere anyway!

And business wise, out first round of wholesale orders is going to be shipped out next week!  We are frantically trying to pull everything together this weekend - so check out the “What’s New” page for information about the new Snap-EZ Eco Pocket Diaper and the retailers who will be carrying them this first round (I already have about 9 more retailers in line for the next shipment!).  We are so excited about this project…maybe this will be the ticket for my DH to start working from home with us and then start on his own business!!!!

Above all, God’s been working on my heart to trust Him at all times, even when things don’t seem like they are making any sense - I am in His hands 24/7 and nothing will come my way without his loving hands allowing it for my good (to make me more Christ-Like) and for His Glory and to show me His grace! - and what a peace this  gives when I am leaning on  and trusting in Him!

Glad you stopped by and read my long update!  Hopefully things will be slowing down a little more and I’ll do a little better here!

Ruth

Snap-EZ enters the world of Wholesale!

We in the beginnings of producing a new Snap-EZ pocket diaper for Wholesale!  This new pocket diapers will be very similiar our current pocket diapers, with small differences in labeling and materials/colors.

If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in offering this new pocket diaper, please email me at snap-ez at snap-ez.com (change the “at” to @) for more information and a wholesale application form!

Stay tuned for more on this exciting new adventure for us!

Ruth

Updates, Surprises, and a Snap-EZ/Snap-EZ 4 Life Moving Sale!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a long while!  Once I got started on painting the inside of our new house, we were down to survival level functioning around here - do what it takes to keep the children fed, educated, clothed and keep the business afloat, and spend 4 - 8 hours a day painting!

All that is left on the house is window trim painting (me - should be done by Tuesday), carpets/laminate flooring (Tuesday - Friday), Staircases (early next week), Cabinets (Wednesday - Friday), interior doors installed (after cabinets and carpets),  and then finish plumbing (sinks/toilets etc) - then we can get a temporary occupancy permit and move in!  Then the work of cleaning up the mobile home and putting it on the market and finding a buyer will begin!

We are so close we can taste it - the kids are even dreaming about moving in and I have trouble sleeping as my mind’s going 1000 miles an hour thinking about moving/arranging furniture/all the room/all the light/everything clean and new!  I’m sooooooooooo excited I’m about to burst!

Needless to say, it’s been tough - especially while recovering from the sprained knee and one other surprise - I’m expecting again!  Blessing #11 is due to arrive here late in September!  So if I’m slow to post here, reply to emails, or anything else, I’m sure you’ll understand that I’m running slower but having more than usual to do each day (I’m down to just painting a few doors and window trim, so I can do short spirts of painting now and that helps) and having far less energy than usual to do it all in!!
So while we’re gearing up to move and moving into our new house/shop I thought we’d celebrate by having a sale!

To celebrate, until the end of March, all our AIOs are on sale - both diapers and trainers!

$4 off AIO Solid Color Diapers, and $2 off AIO Solid Color Trainers!*

And at Snap-EZ 4 Life - Sale Prices on all our Snap Pads - $1 - 3 off every size*

Best prices on these in years!!

Happy Bargain Hunting!

http://www.snap-ez.com

http://www.snap-ez4life.com
*Sale price appears once item is added to shopping cart!

We are painting…

I sprayed primer last week, as well as painting the garage - all interior of course!  We started putting color inside the house yesterday after the texture got finished.  But I didn’t get very far - just one room.

So last night it snowed 4 inches of fluff - you know…the kind of snow you brush easily off the car.  We’ve been below freezing around here for over a week so all our puddles, big and small, have been frozen solid.  This made for much fun for the children sliding and such!

So this new snow covered all the ice and made a very beautiful picture this morning.  I was so anxious to get more painting done (I was only able to pick up some of the paint), and we were completely out of cheese and peanut butter (a complete crisis for our family, especially me as I always have peanut butter on toast  for breakfast!), so I decided to brave the elements.  I envisioned going off the road in this cold, so I put on my thermal undergarments, and donned my DSs rubber boots and headed out the door.

I hadn’t gone even 15 feet from the front porch, hadn’t even put on my gloves or zipped my coat yet (I had started to get too warm in the house), and woooof I was on the ground - found some of that hidden ice!

Remember those nasty “hurdler stretches” you did in PE?  Well, they hurt back then, but let me tell you, at 44 and when done suddenly and involuntarily, it is very painful and tends to do nasty things to your knees!  It makes a nasty little popping sound!

It totally freaked me out, so I sat there for a moment and took a little inventory and I seemed to be OK, just a little weird in the knee - so I got up, moving carefully, and got the snow out of my purse, gloves on my hands, zipped my coat and cleared off the car, testing the knee.

It seemed OK so I left to run my errands - got the paint, got the groceries, and added one errand, that of going to the pharmacy to get a large ace bandage for my now qutie sore knee.

I did have one more adventure between errands - I found one intersection to be much icier than it looked - I found myself doing a 180 before I had much time to even ponder why I was seeing the telephone pole, stop sign,  and fire hydrant fly by - but I did have time to say a quick prayer “please don’t let me hit anything!”.  But all was OK, and after I got straightened out and headed in the direction I wanted to go, I was actually laughing - so glad God saw fit to preserve my DH’s car!

So instead of doing the painting I so wanted/needed to do, I spent most of the day with ice on my knee.  I did go out with the girls long enough to show them how to paint and they got pretty far on their bedroom!

I’ve promised DH to go to the doctor tomorrow if it’s still quite painful, but I just wasn’t up to venturing out again today for some strange reason!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures today - It will make a great story to tell my grandkids someday, I’m sure!

First Sale in 16 months at Snap-ez

Well, it’s been over a year since I discounted our prices (November or 2005 to be exact), so I thought I’d give it a try and see if you guys like a good deal!

Here’s what’s on sale at Snap-EZ

Solid Color Snap-EZ Pocket Diapers- now only $15.95 all sizes*!!!

Nap-EZ Stuffable Trainers - $2 off solids, prints, and fleece!!

Wet Bags - $2.00 offregular retail - ALL SIZES!

Diaper Pail Liner Bags - $3.00 off - now just $15.00 ea!

Sale ends 1/25/08 - and it might be another year or two before I do another sale!!

See you there!

Ruth

*except Extra Large, they are also discounted, but the price for the sale is $17.85 instead of $18.95

Snap-EZ 4 Life Dealz - Prices Slashed!

It worked so well with Snap-EZ, I decided to do the same thing for Snap-EZ 4 Life - all DealZ Sets were marked down an additional 50% this week!

Nursing pads as low as $.50/pair, Snap Pads as little as $2 ea, Adult Diapers starting at just $16, and Snap Extenders just $3 - 4/pair!
Get some while you can as at these prices, they’ll clear out quickly!

Ruth

I’ve started a Yahoo Group Co-op!

Well, with all the fabric I need, I still have trouble meeting minimums with some of my sources, so I finally decided to start a co-op.

For those who don’t know what a co-op is, it’s where a group of people combine their purchasing power to enable purchasing in larger volume.

For use this means fabrics/notions used in the making of cloth diapers and accessories.

So if you are a cloth diaper maker (for personal or business use), or know someone who is, check out what I have going at the new Snap-EZ Cloth Diaper Supplies Co-op:

Join Snap-EZ Cloth Diaper Supplies Co-op
See you there!

Ruth

DealZ Prices Slashed!!!!

All out of stock DealZ sets have been removed for shopping ease!

www.snap-ez.com/ShoppingDealZ.html

Plus Free Shipping For Orders over $125.00!!!!

Prices for set now HALF PRICE of original prices - that means they are about 65% off original retail!

Fitted Diapers - less than $10 ad
AIO Diapers - $10 or less!
Pocket Diapers - $7 - $9 ea!
PLUS - most of these are first quality/Overstock items!

Small Diaper Liners - Sets of SIX for Just $2!!!

These are all made from Malden Mills Microfleece
and they make clean up a breeze,
and also are great for keeping diaper creams off the diapers!
These can also be used in larger sizes to target specific protection needs!

Print Wipes - Just $4 for a set of 6!

These are all made from Flannel with sherpa, velour, and/or Terry !
and they make clean up fun and easy!
and also are great for face wipes, re-useable Keenex, family wipes, and dolly blankets!!
This is just overstock - you get the same wipes that we are selling for $12 on the regular shopping page!!!

Foldable Inserts and Simple Soakers - 60% of original retail!!

Discontinued 1T/2T, 3T, 4/5+6/8. and size 10 Trainer Inserts

- these fit in Diapers Too - check dealz page for list of which sizes fit in which size diapers!
Get the best absorbency available at rock bottom prices - there aren’t any left, so don’t wait or they’ll be gone!!!

Oh - and an update on the house, of course!

Right now, the electrical and plumbing rough in is done, they started the insulation yesterday, and the sheet rock is scheduled to arrive this week yet! Outside, the siding is done on two sides, and half done on two sides! We’re still on schedule for a finish in late February or early March!!! We are definitely getting closer!

I don’t have my gif animator on this computer, so I’ll just post what it looks like now:

Oh - and I almost forgot - a customer of mine, Beth W, who bought from me way back near the beginning, moved out to British Columbia, just across the border from me, last summer!  She called and came over today, bearing Christmas gifts (coffee and cookies from Canada - and I just ran all out of coffee yesterday, so it was such a blessing to me!), and she and I had a lovely time visiting and I even got to give her a tour of the new house!

She was especially impressed with how close the new house is to the old one - if you look close, you can see that they aren’t able to finish the last part of the porch because it’s too close to the mobile home!!!  LOL!!

Hope you enjoy this house update!

Long Overdue Update, plus excuses, excuses, excuses!

OK, so I fell off the planet! That was because I was holding my breath, figuratively. Here’s why:

Our Marine is Home for Christmas!!!!!!!!

We found out that Jeremy was planning to apply for leave back in September, but he wanted it to be a secret. So we didn’t tell. Then in mid November he found out that he could take leave, and by Dec 1st he had his tickets!

We picked him up at SeaTac on Monday and I’ve been in momma-heaven to have all my children home again!!!

He’s been sleeping and gone a lot so far, so not many pics yet, but here’s one from this morning of him working on Wedgits (logic building blocks) with his little brothers:

Here are the rest of my excuses for not posting lately - I was working to get all caught up with work, housework, errands, Christmas shopping, so I could be free to spend time with Jeremy. I succeeded in most of those, just some of the housework didn’t get done, but then it’s never “done” around here!

So here’s some photos of life around here over the past few weeks!

Thanksgiving weekend, we replaced the livingroom carpet with laminate flooring - this was the first time we’d ever done it, and overall it went well (that means that there were a few learning curves and minor injuries, but it got done and that’s what counts!):

Here’s the before (just after having it professionally cleaned, mind you ;):

Here’s the after:

Sorry for the reality, but with so many kids, our entry way catches way too much stoff coming in and going out! BTW, that’s ELE, in a poodle skirt that Jess made for her, playing with Jess’s puppy!

Here’s a sweet photo of our sleepy Thanksgiving girl:

The following week we did the same with our “shop” - here’s a before picture:

And here’s an after photo (I’ll be posting more photos of the “new” shop look on our “about us” page later this week!

Those two photos are taken while standing at the door into the room (what used to be our master bedroom!

So that brings us to our snow day - which was between the two flooring weekends:

That’s Beka with her mini snow buddy! We actually got 10 inches of snow between Saturday night and Sunday evening, and it was mostly gone by Monday morning, and all gone by Monday afternoon! It was sooo weird!

Making a hat/scarf for Beka, gave me the inspiration of what to do with a fabric I had purchased that just wouldn’t work for diapers:

Red Ridinghood in person - with her sister too:

And of course, here’s superman!

And here’s Red in action - now that’s a Riding Red!

And one last take - here’s Luke and Leah:

So - now back to the new floor in the “shop” - that meant rearranging to better suit going to 3 computer desks instead of one broken table, and getting a new snapping table as we have now broken two tables!

The problem with rearranging our shop, is that it means moving our snap drawers! We had one mishap while moving (I dropped 3 drawers), one soon after the move due to a light cord, and then the Friday after the big move, 3 drawer sets crashed off the shelf due to the front door causing them to shift! What a mess - that’s around 9,000 snaps in three colors, and three types of snaps (caps (think thumbtacks - *ouch*), sockets and studs) all mixed up, all over the table, floor, shipping boxes, etc! I felt like crying! Daryl had taken the day off, and I was so glad!!!! Here’s some photos of the snap sorting crew - you can tell by their faces that this was not fun - but they did get some hot cocoa and a candy from the store for their hard work!

Last week ELE and I had a little photo shoot with Jess at the camera - it was fun and here’s what came of it:

But we won - all the snaps from the floor got sorted that day - and it only took 7 of us 3 hours! Then throughout the next weeks, Jess and I worked through the ones that were on the table - I still have one more drawer of mixed-up snaps, but for some reason I haven’t gotten around to it!

That brings us up to last weekend - and that was our Christmas Tree Hunt! We love to go out and select the perfect tree for our home from a tree far - trek around in the brisk winter air, through the fields and over the woods, etc!!! Here’s some photos of our hunt this year:

A gentleman! This was so sweet - he held her hand almost the whole way to the back field!

Found the perfect tree! Dad got the honors this year!

Back to the car with our prize!

Almost ready to hit the road! (we actually had to take two cars, as our 12 passenger van had the engine go out in October, so we use the station wagon, but it only holds 8 people! So Jess drove D’s car with 3 kids, and the rest of us piled in the station wagon.

Then we were home, and started trimming the tree - here’s a couple pics of the tree in process and finished!

and then we sat down, munching on our candy canes, and read “The Candy Cane Story”!

Somehow I made it through Sunday without blowing our secret, and then Monday I managed to not let the kids know I was wound up tighter than a top. Left to pick up Daryl and off to SeaTac to pick up Jeremy!

When we got home, Jeremy made it all the way to the kitchen before anyone realized it was him! Then is was havoc as everyone tried to realize that he was really home!! What fun!!!

That pretty much brings you up to date!  Sorry for such a long post, but it’s been along time since my last post!!

Have fun getting ready for Christmas!~!!!

Ruth