Couponing and mixed feelings

I have been couponing. I buy the newspaper, clip coupons, and refer to wesites such as Southern Savers so that I can get the best deal out there. I have even started CVSing which means I shop at CVS to earn $ toward future CVS purchases. Also, I am going to a workshop with Jenny from SouthernSavers this coming Monday. Its called Extreme Couponing 101. I am sure it will be very intense considering the name. Anyways, here are some deals I have gotten so far...


From Publix...
Free rice
Free Glade candles
Free dish soap
Almost Free yogurt
...I am sure there are many more but these are just the most recent.

From CVS....
Free clinical strength toothpaste
Free Mascara
Cheap Sunscreen

So obviously you can get some good deals, but I think the idea that you can save and get a good deal is pulling me in. I got a Free Scrubbing bubble extended cleaner sprayer with 2 refills which I will get a rebate back of $5 from SC Johnson (so in the end I will make $), but I also went to 3 Publixes that are out of the way just to get that deal because they were out of the product in my usual Publix. I recently "purchased" pictures and cards from shutterfly that were technically free but by the time they calculated shipping I thought maybe it isn't worth it.

And my most recent purchase...a 2 year subscription to All You magazine for $20 which comes out to be .83 per copy. Apparently each issue has $70-$90 worth of coupons and I'll admit I don't hate looking at all the pretty pictures and sometimes reading articles, but the initial $20 for a magazine I have never read gives me a small bit of buyers remorse. I am sure it will be worth it or at least right now I am telling myself that because its only $10 a year and .83 per month and they are donating $8 of the purchase to charity so its a good cause.

Buyers remorse,

Please go away, but next time stop me before I buy something I don't really need.

Thanks,

Miriam

Victory

Since I have been short on blogs these week after an abundance of them last week, I decided to share with you our victory last night...trivia victory that is. We abandoned our usual place of trivia last night because of some promotional event which means the place was probably so packed you couldn't move, and we ventured out of our comfort zone to a new venue. One that our friend had found in the Free Times. She called just to make sure they were still having trivia and the lady she talked to said "yes, we just moved our trivia from Monday nights to Thursday nights and the crowd is still growing". Little did we know what still growing is. At our usual trivia joint at least one of us gets there 45 minutes or more early to guarantee a table. So as usual, our friend got there 45 minutes early, and it was empty. There were a few people at the bar (most of who worked there) and another couple, a total of 5 teams. Needless to say we won. We won by a whole round of points above the 2nd place team. We won $60 which paid for dinner for all 6 of us. Its good to win but I think we need a little more competition.

Multitude Monday, Week 2

11. fellowship with my fellow junior high girls leaders
12. encouragement and advice from friends
13. food blogs
14. craft blogs
15. cooler temperatures
16. birds eating from our feeders
17. beautiful flowers outside our house
18. allergy shots
19. unexpected gifts from my sweet husband
20. reminders that we are one body in Christ
21. gifts from God and opportunities to use those gifts
22. women's conference at church
23. a new coffee place
If you missed this new endeavor until now-check out Week 1

Sunbutter Chocolate Chip Blondies

I have finally gotten around to baking with my sunbutter again! This time I think it was a true success. Its a twist on blondies with chocolate and how could that be bad?

Sunbutter Chocolate Chip Blondies

1/4 cup and 1 Tbs of Sunbutter

1 Cup of brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla

1 Cup of flour

3/4 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup of chocolate chips (more if you like!)

Mix first 4 ingredients together. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mix to wet ingredients. Do not over mix (if you do your batter will become very stiff and hard to work with). Fold in chocolate chips and put batter into a greased 9x9 or 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

For those who are not allergic to peanuts I believe that you could substitute peanut butter for sunbutter since they have the same consistency!

Happy baking!

In full bloom

Our roses are finally in full bloom, and I am happy to say that we Glen has cut back those renegade stems with minimal loss of rose buds.

I love coffee

I have the privilege of volunteering with the youth group at Lexington Presbyterian Church. One of my favorite things is to take girls our for ice cream or coffee. Today we went to a brand new coffee place called Jamestown Coffee off 378. It was very good and a new favorite place to go!

My favorite blogs

Since I have finally admitted it...."Hi, my name is Miriam and I am a blog-oholic", I will share some of my favorite blogs with you.

Food-

How Sweet It Is

Cookies And Cups

SugarCrafter

For Laughs-

Cake Wrecks

Food/Photography/Life/Ect.-

The Pioneer Woman

Crafts

All Things Thrifty

Homemade Mamas

I read too many blogs

Since I have started blogging (all 2 months ago), I have started reading a lot more. When I began it was just those that I know. Then somehow I stumbled upon a food blog of someone I never knew which led me to more food blogs which somehow led me to craft blogs and one thrifty blog. I enjoy cooking and crafts and therefore I thoroughly enjoy getting new ideas, and I enjoy the side stories that they tell along with their recipes and instructions. I have even caught myself relaying those stories to Glen as if they were our friends. And now I find that I have too many recipes and crafts I would like to attempt and not enough time. Maybe I do only work 25 hrs a week but I coupon, clean, cook, make crafts, and walk the dog too and that takes time. So maybe I should become a professional blog reader....you think they'd pay me for that?

Apple Fritters

What could be better than fried dough topped with powdered sugar?

Fried dough with apples topped with powdered sugar.

A close second to my favorite wedding present (our automatic coffee grinder), my mini deep fryer. Yes, when we got married we lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment with no storage space and therefore had to return a lot of our bigger appliances we had gotten for wedding presents including a crock pot, but no worries- we made room for the mini deep fryer.

Sunflowers

As I have expressed earlier, I am not a natural gardener and for the most part I don't particularly want to grow in that area of my life. I have other interests and things I am naturally good at- like mini golf. {Sidenote: I am super competitive and I think that side of me might have come out a little on Friday night when we went putt-putting with some friends. Well who wouldn't be excited when they got 5 hole-in-ones out of 18 holes...that's more than 1/4 of the holes...anyways...} So this Sunday afternoon I planted my sunflower bed. Yes sunflowers the kid proof, fool proof, beginner flowers. It even said on the package- "guaranteed to grow". I'm not really sure how they can completely guarantee that, but I am holding them to it! So here it is...

p.s. I had to enclose my sunflower bed with a mini white picket fence because...

1. It's cute- a miniature white picket fence to match our lifesize white picket fence.
2. Last year I planted sunflowers and labored over them watched them grow for 2 months just to have the neighborhood lawn care people (they don't take care of our yard just the 4ft by ft patch next to use) pull up my sunflowers and throw them in the trash pile across the street. They had reached 4ft tall already and were beginning to bud and in one sad afternoon they were gone. So I think this fence says, "hey, somebody meant to plant these here. They are not weeds. Stay away from my sunflowers". Well, maybe not all that but hopefully NO ONE will pull up my sunflowers this year.

Before

After

Some already sprouted sunflowers that my mom brought me.

Multitude Monday, Week 1

1. the marriage of two good friends
2. a reminder of how God has bound Glen and I as one through marriage
3. a friend to walk the dog with
4. my bible study girls
5. starting a new book on prayer
6. new cooking recipes
7. free coffee and no line to wait for it
8. babies who entertain during Connect group
9. Apple fritters & my mini deep fryer
10. weekends

Check out the explanation for Multitude Monday! Also, I am planning to put a notepad on our fridge so that both Glen and I can jot down what we are thankful for each week and do this together!

Cat Nap

Spring has sprung...well, sort of

I have been waiting for my rose bushes to bloom for awhile now. For the past two weeks they have looked like they are going to explode. They are getting bigger...starting to take over the side of our porch really, but refuse to bloom other than about 10 renegade blossoms. Glen keeps saying, "Maybe we should cut them back again.." and I adamantly say "NO...then we would lose like 100 rose buds."- No kidding they're huge and getting bigger. So I guess we will hold off in hopes that the rose bushes don't take over our house and keep us captive. At least we have two doors to escape from.

Here are some pics of what has bloomed. Also, I am very excited to say I finally figured out the right Macro settings for my camera...a year later, but better now than never!

p.s. I am by no means a gardener. The rose bushes came with the house and were certainly established...I usually kill things. Usually due to the lack of water or too much water. I guess I just don't have that green thumb, but soon I hope to plant some sunflowers. According to my research they are the best flowers to start your kids (potential gardeners) with because they are pretty much guarenteed to grow. I guess it can apply to those gardening-handicapped adults too!

Multitude Monday

A friend of mine posted something on her blog a couple of weeks ago called "Multitude Monday". It comes from a challenge to give thanks to God for a thousand blessings! She has encouraged me through her list of things she is thankful for and I know that I am blessed but I don't always find myself usually ever find myself thanking God for all that he has blessed me with. I hope that through this God will change my heart to be thankful for all the little things and that it will change my focus from being frustrated by all the small things and instead be thankful for all the good things.

Since this is Wednesday, not Monday, I will start this next week, and will hopefully to continue until I reach 1,000!

Free Starbucks!

I just found out that this Thursday you can go by starbucks with your own coffee mug and get a FREE brewed coffee! I drink starbucks every morning but there's something about someone else making it for you, expecially when it is FREE. I also have three empty starbucks coffee bags(from the grocery store) on top of my fridge right now. Did you know that you can turn those into starbucks and get a free tall coffee? But still, Thursday I don't have to trade anything and that makes me happy. They are trying to be conscious about the environment and save trees by offering you free coffee in your own mug so that you won't use a paper cup. I am all for it. Bring on the free coffee!

One another note, I ate a FREE chicken sandwhich and drank a FREE lemonade from Chikfila yesterday courtesy of the chikfila calendar and filling out a survey from the last time we visited chikfila. I really love food! Can you tell? Especially FREE food!

Chicken Little

Today I cooked my first whole chicken! I hadn't really planned to cook a whole chicken, but I went to the grocery store last week in hopes of buying .99/lb chicken breasts. Little did I know I misread the ad. I should have realized that they were selling them that cheaply but now I know. So I decided why not try cooking a whole chicken. I have never done it before and maybe its worth the savings.

We got home from Greensboro Sunday afternoon, and I started cooking. First I baked some chocolate chip cookies! I haven't made these since I got my amazing KitchenAid this past Christmas. I can't believe its been that long! After the cookies were done I started on the chicken. I was afraid that I would find something more than just the chicken in the package and I did. All the gross insides. I quickly disguarded all those insides and got to seasoning. Yes, I am sure the insides are useful but I didn't want to tackle that today. I used Chicken seasoning and fresh Lime juice. While the chicken was baking, I steamed cauliflower and made this parmesean dip to go along with it.

The chicken turned out GREAT! Better than the rotisserie chickens you buy in the deli. I think I will do this again! 

I had to tie him up so he wouldn't run away!

 

Me with my first chicken little

Abby was exhausted. While we were in Greensboro, she stayed with three doggy friends. She has such a hard life.

Congrats to Jonathan & Amber!

This weekend Glen & I headed to Greensboro, SC for Jonathan and Amber's wedding! Glen was a groomsman and they asked me to read something during the ceremony. We had a ton of fun- from the rehearsal dinner to the wedding which was a real party! Glen went with all the groomsmen and Jonathan on Saturday morning to the driving range and then headed to the wedding site and I went and helped with some of the last minute preparations. They did all the decorating and details themselves which turned out so cool. Each table at dinner had a different location with pictures from places they had traveled together, and all the plates were different china patterns- I think from thrift stores!

I didn't get too many pictures- seeing as my camera started flashing red as soon as a turned it on and I forgot extra batteries, but here are a few....

Handmade Programs

Right after they were pronounced Husband & Wife!

Me & Glen in our snazzy wedding attire

Caddies

We got some good photos of the caddies out there...and a few other good ones!

Lying down on the job
(literally)

Scoping out the competition

Showing him how its done!

Just Chillen'

Scenery

Cool reflection

This is our friend. Let's call him Freddy. He felt left out of the party so he had to sit on the outside and just look in...

Action Shots

The Golfers

We first thought since it was Monday, the first day of the practice days, that we would not see any of the big name golfers. We were wrong. We saw Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, and Jim Furyk within the first 30 minutes of being there. Later we saw Angel Cabrera (who won last year), Vijay Singh, and Goosen. We also found some new golfers to cheer for- Kevin Na (first timer and fun personality) and Henrik Stenson (very well dressed and friendly). Check out some of the photos we got!

Masters Tournament

Glen and I were able to get Masters tickets this year! It was just Monday which is a practice day, and it turned out to be so fun. Practice days are a lot more relaxed and you can even bring a camera so we got a lot of fun pics! Our friends Andrew and Elizabeth were able to come with us. This was their first time! After an absolutely awesome day we were exhausted and sunburnt to say the least but we had a great day off work at the Masters! Here are some pics of us...with some more posts to follow with our shots of the golfers!

Elizabeth & Andrew

Glen & Miriam

Elizabeth & Miriam

And just so they wouldn't feel left out...

Glen & Andrew

And a few more....