Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Random Food Favorites

Thought I'd post a little list of some of my favorites in some different food categories:

Salad Dressing: Ken's Steakhouse Lite Caesar Dressing
Coffee Creamer: Int'l Delight "Hershey's Chocolate Caramel" creamer
(drink at your own risk...may prevent losing any baby weight..ever)
Crackers: Kashi TLC 7 grain or honey whole grain (or whatever they are called)
Yogurt: Stoneyfield Farm Vanilla
(I eat it in the morning with frozen raspberries, dry oatmeal, sliced almonds...yum!)
Granola Bars: Again, kashi...something like honey nut chewy? 
Pickles: Meijer dill pickles
Junk food: Planters Cheese balls (do they still make these?)
Cookies: Lofthouse with the frosting...mmmmmmm


I have many more favorites....these are just a few for now. What are some of YOUR favorite brands???? 
Saturday, January 26, 2008

Off to Walgreens

Today only at Walgreens their "Easy Saver" books overlap. These are checkbook sized booklets they keep at the front of the store near their current ads. Each month a new book comes out with coupons and rebates in them. Well, it has been reported that there is the overlap of a day on these...so some really good deals to be had.

Here's what I am going to do...
L'Oreal HIP Makeup is on sale for Buy one get one free.
Buy Two $6.99 eyeshadows.
You are allowed to use coupons for Both items and you are allowed to combine Manufacturer coupons with store coupons...so...
Spend $6.99 on 2 eyeshadows, use two $2 off manufacturer coupons from a recent insert in the paper, use 2 $2 off coupons from the easy saver catalog.

Get 2 FREE eyeshadows, plus OVERAGE...money to use on something else you buy.

Another deal....
Garnier Fructisse Shampoo is on sale. There is a January $1.5o ES coupon and a $1 mnf coupon. Pay .45 cents out of pocket...use the overage on the eyeshadow to pay for the shampoo...still have some overage left..buy some gum?

In the end, 2 free eyeshadows, free shampoo, and free gum! 

I hope they are all in stock so I can do these great deals!!!! 
Friday, January 25, 2008

Check out these deals...

Most end tomorrow, but click on the Money Saving Mom link on the sidebar. She has some really great deals listed from the past few days. Lots of grocery store deals, pharmacy deals, etc. Let me know if you get any! I may have to do the CVS M&M deal (I've done it once already this week, but didn't have the coupon...) and maybe the Walgreens makeup deal! 

There are UFOs...

All over my house!!! UFOs is the knitter/crafter term for Unfinished Objects, and MAN do I have a lot of them. I seem to have NO problem starting projects (definitely no problem BUYING the stuff to do the projects); however, I have a problem seeing the project through to the end. 

For example:
My perfect-fitting pair of socks...oh wait, I still need to knit one more sock!

Another unfinished sock...

That will never be finished. Check out how huge it is in comparison to my perfect-fitting sock! I need to rip it out but it hurts my heart too much!

A baby hat...for a baby that was born a while ago...

A mini-album about our Thanksgiving...what you see is all that is completed.


Not to mention the 4 picture frames that are awaiting prints to be selected and enlarged so they can be hung on the wall, the balls and balls of yarn for projects that I haven't even begun, and the 5-10 scrapbook pages that are sitting half done in my scrapbooking room! Sigh! 

Maybe I should cut myself off from starting a new project until I have finished some of these. 

Nah! 
Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Can't stop crying...

because I am laughing SO hard! 


warning: Some somewhat inappropriate, but most are just plain funny! 

(I predict Brian B and Meghan will enjoy this more than anyone else I know!) 


Monday, January 21, 2008

Recent Reads

Those of you who know me, know that I LOVE to read. I am constantly reading magazines, listening to books on tape, or at the library getting new books. I read while I'm brushing my teeth, using the facilities, taking a bath, eating breakfast...you get the picture! I tend to read mainly fiction books, but occasionally venture into non-fiction. The problem that I have discovered with getting motivated to read non-fiction books is that I feel smarter merely by buying them and putting them on my shelves! Almost like I learn through osmosis. As a result I have a lot of really good titles sitting on my shelves that make me feel smart or make me a better person just by looking at them! Anyone else have this problem? 

Recently I have been reading a couple of non-fiction books that I'm enjoying so far. The first is Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. I started reading this book last night and it seems pretty good. The premise is that marriage is not for our happiness and romance only, it is primarily designed to make us holy. A very different perspective than one we are given these days. So far it looks a lot at how loving our spouse can help deepen our love for God. So far very interesting. I'm only about 50 pages into it, so I'll let you know what I think when I am finished. Looks like it will be one of those "convicting" books! 

Another book that I'm reading is called The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. It was lent to my by one of my teacher-friends, but as a mother I am finding it very motivating! It talks about how to read-aloud to kids, why, and gives some new ideas on how to connect stories with everyday life.

This weekend I finished a fiction book Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos. This was a beautiful novel about families and love. The author has a different rhythm to her writing that took a little getting used to, but I really liked once I got used to it. The author was very descriptive and almost poetical. One of my favorite quotes from the book was "Maybe love comes in at the eyes, but not nearly as much as it comes in at the ears". An interesting thought.

What have you been reading lately? Anything really great, fiction or non? 

P.S I've signed up for goodreads...and will post a little button on the sidebar for it as soon as I figure out how!
Saturday, January 19, 2008

And the Winner is.....

Shari (or Mom, as I like to call her)!!! 

Well, it turned out to be a three way tie for the winner...with Shari, Katie, and Catherine guessing 2 of the 5 questions correctly. Sorry Melissa and Kurt...you guys tied for last with one correct each! Shari, you will be getting a package of goodies (think chocolate!!!) in the mail soon! 

The answers were:
1. E :spent $10.76 out of pocket on the hand sanitizers, candles, etc. Never fear though...I will be getting a $10 rebate in the mail for those hand sanitizers, courtesy of Walgreens.
2. A: spent .11 on the sippy cup, garb bags, tooth brush, glucose tester, etc all at CVS due to some CVS sales, but mainly with my Extra Care Bucks (more on these later.
3. D: spent 9.62 out of pocket at CVS using manufacturer coupons as well as Extra Care Bucks. Could have spent more like $2 but did the deals in the wrong order. Oh well, still a good deal!
4. A: spent .50 cents out of pocket at WalMart using manufacturer coupons (from internet and Sunday paper)
5. A: spent NOTHING out of pocket for these items using manufacturer coupons at the local grocery store and WalMart.

Thanks for guessing to all. I hope this peaks your curiosity!!! Look for a post in the next day or two on how to start couponing and getting some of these good deals too!!! Also, check out money Saving Mom's website for some great tutorials and links on how to start couponing and which stores offer good deals. Most importantly, make sure to get the Sunday paper this week and save ALL of the coupons (even ones you don't think you need) so that we can do some good deals together this week!!

Time's UP!

Time's up for the contest! Winner will be announced later tonight! Stay tuned!
Thursday, January 17, 2008

Couponing Quiz

Can you guess??????



I promised more posts, so here's a little quiz for you to get you reading my blog again and to entice you to keep reading!!! I'm also attempting to tempt you to join me in my latest hobby, couponing. So, quiz time....I'm posting several pictures and I want you to guess how much I spent out of pocket on each photo. I will be giving a small prize to the person who guesses the most correct. If there is a tie, then I'll have a drawing between the tie-breakers. 
Oh, also....I have changed the commenting feature, so you should be able to post without having a Google ID. Good luck! Contest ends Saturday at noon eastern time!!! 

Now for the quiz:

For each photo you need to answer how much I spent out of pocket. Choose one answer for each question.
A. less than $1
B. Between $1.01 and $2
C. Between $2.01 and $5
D. Between $5.01 and $10
E. $10.01 or more
Question 1

How much did I spend on: 2 glade scented oil candles, 5 Walgreens hand sanitizers, 2 bottles of some sort of fancy vitamins, one box of children's Dimetapp, and one mini highlighter (too cute to resist buying)?


Question 2
How much did I spend on: 1 Ascencia Breeze blood glucose tester, 1 box garbage bags, 1 bag teeth flossers, 2 toothbrushes, 1 sippy cup?

Question 3

How much did I spend on: 2 boxes HN Cheerios, 2 boxes granola bars, 3 bottles soft soap, 1 bottle palmolive, 1 pkg excedrin, 2 pkgs of Kotex maxi pads, 2 tubes lip gloss, and 1 can of Redken texturizing spray?
Question 4

How much did I spend on: 1 box Kashi crackers, 1 bottle Huggies kids hand soap, 1 jar PB?
Question 5
How much did I spend on: 1 box kleenex, 1 pkg Kotex, 5 Johnson's buddy bars kid soap, 1 jar PB?


Best of luck to you all! 
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

I'm Back!!!

Well, so sorry to tempt you all with a new blog, and then not post! My intention was to post much more often than this...unfortunately that was not my computer's intention! It decided to die on us last week, so we have spent the week shopping for a new computer. It's been driving me crazy not to be online! So...please check back frequently! I promise to redeem this rocky start! 

Friday, January 4, 2008

Here goes....

Well, here it goes! I'm finally in the blogging world! Hmmm, actually, to be more acurate, I've been in the blogging world for a long time, just more as a commenter/lurker/stalker :). Now I finally have my own blog and I can spend even MORE time procrastinating those things I should be doing (like cleaning).


Basically, I'm starting this blog as a way to write about my many, varied hobbies. I am completely addicted to scrapbooking, knitting, reading, taking pictures, shopping (yes, it's a hobby!), and most recently, couponing. I spend a lot of free time doing these things, as well as hanging out with friends and family, talking to friends and family...and a little bit of free time doing those OTHER obligatory things that make a household run (grocery shopping, errands, cleaning....).


So anyway, welcome and a big




















from me to you!

About Me

I am a sinner who has been chosen by God and redeemed by the death and resurrection of his son Jesus. I am a full-time wife and mom, though I hope to someday return to my job as an SLP. I love photography, coffee, reading, and adoption. I hate to clean, but sometimes do it anyway!
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