The coolness of coupons!

Today I went grocery shopping! And, Target ended up paying me one penny to get some Kraft Mayo! It was on sale for 1.99. I had a target coupon for a dollar off, and a manufactures coupon for a dollar off. That is two dollars off total, cause they take both coupons for the one item, hence them paying me one penny! Pretty good deal if you ask me:)

A Milestone!

So, imagine if you will, a ton of confetti, and a ton of balloons! Then imagine turtle cheese cake, turtle candies, and a bunch of other chocolate desserts. Why you may ask? Well, that would be because this is my 100th blog post! I want to thank all my blog readers, because with out you, there would be no reason to blog! I also want to thank my husband, my daughters, who can't even read yet, and the academy!
And, thanks for humoring me:)

My Hair cut story

My sister in law Kari graciously has me on her voucher list, so I can go to her really nice salon and get my hair cut for only $4! It's been great! For the first time I have actually kept my hair cuts up on a regular, every three month basis! We are excited, because she is expecting a baby this month! She wanted me to schedule a hair cut towards the end of February because it could be awhile before I can get in again, since she will be taking time off after the baby is born. I scheduled my appointment a couple weeks before hand and was all set!
But then came that dreaded snow storm! The one last Thursday that dumped about 6 inches on us in about 6 hours! You would think that this would deter me from going out, but I was very determined to get this hair cut in! The appointment was at 6:15 in the evening. At 2 p.m. I packed the girls up, along with winter clothes, spare clothes and PJ's! And the dinner that I was going to cook at my brothers house. It was just an adventure to get into the van! And yet, I still kept going! Just to get up highway 52 which takes usually about 5 minutes, took 40 minutes! I was stuck in this one spot and saw that the exit ramp was just not moving! So I quickly decided to take a road that I did not know where it went, but luckily I found an exit to the road I needed, and bypassed a lot of traffic!
Finally, 2 hours and 20 minutes later I arrived at my brother's house. It usually only takes about 35 minutes! I made dinner, left and got my haircut, and then we headed home! It was still snowing! And, it took about an hour to get home, but that was not nearly as bad as the way there. For whatever reason, the Lord was gracious! In the future, I may just cancel my appointment! I am very glad to have gotten my haircut though!

A Feat for Me

So, maybe this is an easy thing for people to do, but for me, not so much! I ended up going about 4 1/2 weeks without cooking the same meal twice! Usually I am cheering if I do it for two weeks in a row. Now granted I do not cook 7 days a week, but it usually is at least 6 dinners a week. I'm not sure what prompted me to try this. Maybe it was me feeling like we were just eating the same things over and over, or maybe I needed a challenge. Whatever the cause, it was kind of nice. We had our regular meals, but also tried a couple of new recipes, and we had meals we hadn't had for awhile. I finally stopped though, cause there was something I really wanted to have for dinner again. I think I could have went a little bit longer, which is encouraging. I'm not sure if I will do this again, but hopefully it helped to get us out of a bit of rut. And now when I cook some of our regular dishes, I'm not feeling like we just had them!

I've Been Tagged!

So, my friend Lisa tagged me from her blog.


Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose someone else to be tagged. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I love Chocolate!
2. I love Ice cream!
3. I never used to like/eat broccoli, but now I love it!
4. Even though the Detroit Lions lost every game they played this season, they are still my favorite football team.
5. I enjoy playing fantasy football.
6. I played tennis in high school all 4 years. I won conference championships with my doubles partner, my junior at #2 doubles and senior year at #1 doubles.
7. I know the exact ripeness that Hannah will eat her bananas at.
8. I like this quote that I haven't heard from anyone, but I would be surprised if I made it up...."marriage is hard work, so work hard at it!"
9. I love to watch professional tennis.
10. I hope to some day going to NY and watch the U.S. open for tennis.
11. I also hope to go down hill skiing in Colorado someday.
12. I am thankful for my Husband Bill.
13. I am also thankful for my two lovely daughter's Hannah and Lillian.
14. My relationship with the Lord is important to me.
15. My check book is always balanced to the exact penny.
16. I have enjoyed my membership to the YMCA.
17. I try and work out three days a week, and love doing kick boxing with Bill on Monday nights.
18. I don't love cooking nearly as much as I love to bake!
19. I have decorated all the cakes for my girls birthday's.
20. I love to watch it snow.
21. Hmmm...I'm thinking that trying to think of 25 random things to say is tougher than I thought!
22. I got to see the Detroit Redwings play this year against the Wild at the Excel center, and that was awesome!
23. I don't like dogs, but there was one dog I did like, at that was my great Grandma Lillian's dog, and his name was Mo.
24. My favorite color is blue.
25. And, someday Bill and I hope to make it to Italy.

Now, first off, I tag Bill!!!

And then, because I read their blogs, if they are up for it, I also tag Andrea. And, my good friend from high school, Heather. And Celia, Lori, and Stacie, but no worries if you don't do it!
I would also like to tag Missy, but I'm not sure how that would work, cause she doesn't have a blog, but her husband Caleb does!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all having a blessed day!
"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

Trader Joes

Last week I went to a Trader Joes for the first time. It was a nifty store. I don't know that I would shop there all the time, cause some of the prices did seem a little high. Although I thought the quality of the products was pretty high. I found, and bought, so really yummy dried apple slices. And I found our chocolate advent calendars for the year for only 99 cents a piece! We have been doing the advent calendars about 6 years now, which is crazy! I know that one or two of the years we have done it, the chocolate hasn't been that great depending on where we got it from. So I am hopeful this year that the chocolate will be really good since it is Trader Joes brand. We shall see come December 1st!

Funny Luxuries

We have this funny little feature in our van. The volume of the radio changes as you accelerate or decelerate, going louder when you accelerate, and quieter when you decelerate. It was funny when I first figured it out, cause I was sure I didn't touch the volume, yet the volume was different. It's crazy how you adjust to things like that. Now I when I have to drive Bill's car, I kind of get annoyed when I have to adjust the volume myself. Go figure!

A report

Well, I just thought I'd let people know that I tried out my garbage bowl! I was making an egg bake that called for six eggs. So, instead of the usual multiple trips to the garbage can, or the trying to fit as many cracked egg shells in my hand as I can, I just cracked and egg and put the cracked shell it in the garbage bowl. It was quite nice:)

Garbage bowl

I can now say that I officially own a Rachael Ray garbage bowl! Bill gave it to me for my birthday. I haven't used it yet, cause my kitchen is kind of small, so walking to the garbage isn't that big of a deal, and it feels like if I use it, it's just another thing to wash....But! I am still very excited to own one:) I also now own the Rachael Ray Moppine too! (which is her all in one kitchen towel, with built in pot holders).

The garbage bowl.




Lillian holding the moppine.

That million dollar question

So today I was able to get a massage, and it was great! During the the massage I was thinking to myself...And, I was thinking about when people ask you that question, "if you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?" And I seriously think that if I ever came across a million dollars, I would hire a personal masseuse, and get a massage at least once a week!
Just me random thought of the day!