its been awhile

this is my fault. I kept meaning to update everyone and write every few days. Ahh good intentions. Then Thanksgiving hit. Then I lost my internet at home. Have you ever been without internet? Its pretty much as if my life no longer has meaning.. Ok that's a bit dramatic, however I am alternating between this

and this

Then I realized it had only been a few days since I was unable to access internet at home. *hangs head in shame* I still have my phone but its not the same. le sigh. Soon enough though I will be *hopefully* able to catch everyone up.

Hugs and kisses

~me

Adventures in Pumpkin carving.

This year I have been elected to carve the pumpkins. I don't know why. Its not as if I do it all the time or even know what the heck I am doing, but the hubs ignores any and all requests regarding the pumpkins. At first I thought maybe he just wasn't hearing me, but no I realized that he was purposefully ignoring me. hmph. Lets hope we don't wake up with pumpkin guts in your pajamas one morning.

We have 5 kids. I don't do 5 pumpkins so we bought 3 the boys chose 1 design, the girls chose 1 design and since I'm carving *I* am choosing the design for the last pumpkin.

I also decided I am going to roast the pumpkin seeds. I found a few recipes aside from the regular salted ones. Wish me luck on the pumpkin carving I will post pics when I am done. lets hope they aren't crooked.....

Who says a penny can't buy anything these days?

Ok so I didn't really physically pay a penny for all these products. But I pretty nearly did.

For this particular transaction I paid out of pocket $5.01. I received $5 in register rewards which made this purchase for all intents and purposes $.01

How did I do this... well let me start at the beginning.

This was my original purchase plan. ( well minus the laundry soap and purex crystals)

Originally I was going to purchase the Theramist spray since it would generate an $8 register reward. This would then pay for my second transaction nearly in full.

Here was my plan.

Transaction 1: Theramax spray Cost. $7.99

Register Reward ( RR) $8

Transaction 2: 2 dentek flossers on sale at 2 for $4 but I had 2 $1 off coupons making this only 2 for $2 and I would receive a $2 RR for these.

2 colgate toothpastes 2 for $6 with 2 $1 off coupons making them 2 for $4 and it generates a $4 RR

2 carmex bogo at $1.59 for 2, but I had 2 $.35 off 1 coupons ( which at walgreens can be used on a bogo) making it $.90 for 2 carmex.

2 pencils with walgreens coupon making them $.25 a piece.

and a soda to push it over $8 to use the reward.

These 2 transactions combined would at most cost me at most $10. (7.99+tax for the first one and then the tax plus change for the second)

What happened instead: the walgreens closest to me was wiped of dentek. boooo rain check time and an adjustment to my strategy.

Transaction1: Theramax spray $7.99

2 Colgate toothpastes ( bought as stated)

2 carmex ( bought as stated)

Total cost after coupons:

14.04

However I received $12 in RR

Second Walgreens: I had $12 in RR to spend so I wanted to make the most of it.

I decided to buy the laundry soap since I was trying to slowly stock up. and the Purex Crystals had a RR and a coupon so I had to get it.

So this is how it went down:

Transaction 1:

2 bags of dentek ( this wags had them YAY) purchased as stated

2 laundry soap, it was bogo at 6.99 and I had a $1/2 coupon making them just 5.99 for 2.

1 Purex crystals $4.99 with $1/1 coupon making it just $3.99 and it generated a $1 RR

2 carmex purchased as stated

and 2 pencils as filler for my previously earned RR.

This transaction total before coupons was: $19.91

after $12 in RR, a $.50 coupon for the pencils ( making them just $.25 ea) and $4.70 in regular coupons I walked away paying just $2.71 and received $3 in RR.

Transaction 2:

2 packages of dentek purchased as stated above

payed $2.30 but received $2.00 in RR

All in all for everything pictured in the second picture I paid out of pocket $19.05, but at a value of $40.95.

Not bad for a first timer.

I want to apologize if all this is a bit garbled. I foolishly decided I needed to post this at midnight. I'll be rereading in the AM to make sure I am not making stuff up. lol

Couponing Adventures at Target.

I actually had plans to go to both Albertson's and Target, but trunk issues interfered so I only made it to Target.

This was my list:

Butt Paste

Burt's Bees Face wipes

Dove Men+care body wash

Degree deodorant

Listerine

boogie wipes

My coupons:

Degree 2 $1 off target coupons

Dove Men+care body wash 2 ea manufacture and target coupon $1 off

Butt Paste 1 ea manufacture and target coupon $1 off

1 $1 off Burt's bees face wipes target coupon

1 $.50 off boogie wipes target coupon

Ok that was my list.

I was dying to get the degree deodorant because I noticed it on the clearance shelf when I went to get the listerine. It was only $2.78 for a 2 pack, with the dollar off coupon each deodorant wound up being $.89 I got 2 2packs

Dove Men+care was $3.50 I had 2 $1/1 stacked coupons. I bought the one with a free travel size bonus. Each body wash was just $1.50

Boudreaux's butt paste its $4.99 with a stacked $1/1 I got it for a whopping $2.99

Boogies wipes on sale for $3.59 with a $.50 off coupon it came out to $3.09

Burt's bees face wipes not on sale, but I wanted to try them regular price $5.99 with a $1.00 off coupon final price $4.99

My surprise steals:

While I was at the clearance rack they had 3 pack of reach toothbrushes for $4.24 with a peelie $1.00 off coupon. Making each toothbrush $1.08

I still had a Listerine manufacture coupon and they were still on clearance with a peelie for an additional $1.00 off so I again scored another listerine for just $2.24

St Ives face scrub, on sale for $2.88 with a target $.75 off coupon. Final price $2.13

Aleve is $5.99 for 50 ct ( regular price sadly)$2.00 off coupon made it just $3.99 ea

Sadly I forgot to add my Aleve, but I did buy it, bonus they came with $1.00 off coupons each box. Total price ( tax not included) 36.46.

Average Couponing.

I totally got addicted to watching Extreme couponing on TLC. Yes I know that its nearly impossible to save that much in a single trip and most of them are doing coupon fraud, but I figured I could try to do some coupon clipping and see how that saves me. I call it average couponing.

I was at Target last week and they had some Listerine on the clearance shelf. It was only 15% off, but I had 2 $1 off coupons ( one manufacture coupon and 1 target coupon) which would bring the price down $2. The clearance price was 4.24 ( reg price 4.99) so the 1L of Listerine WITH a travel bottle wound up costing me a whopping $2.24. Now I did not clear the shelf, did not swipe them all. I bought 2 of them and that was it.

My big score of the week however was tonight's shopping trip. I went to Albertson's to pick up some essentials. I need cereal ( don't we always) cake mix ( making a cake for a cake walk for one of the kid's carnival next week) some yogurt since we are out, frozen pizzas ( always a good thing) soups and some roast and chicken breasts and biscuits.

Right now my Albertson's is having a sale mix and match save $4 when you buy 8 of the marked items. There's a catch max of $8 savings per transaction. After checking my ad and coupons I realized I had at least 4 of the mix and match so damn this would require either 2 trips to the store or take my husband along. Well tonight since its Monday and we are a busy family, I had to go alone. This meant strategizing. What did I need most? I decided I would get the cereal, cake mix, soup and the biscuits.

My coupons were as followed. 3 General Mills cereal coupons 2-$1/2 and 1 $1.10/2 the cereal was on sale for 1.99 but with the mix and match it was really 1.49 ea. I was limited to only Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cheerios, or Cookie Crisp. So I bought 2 Cookie Crisp, 2 Cinnamon Toast Crunch and 2 Banana nut Cheerios. With coupons and in store savings each box of cereal was only $.97 ea. Not bad for a first timer huh? I paired the cereal with my biscuits, they were $.99ea ( in store special) with a $.40 off 2 coupon this made each can $.79. There was one of my $4.00 off savings.

My second one was 4 cans of progresso soup and 2 frosting and 2 cake mix. I had a coupon for $1/4 for the soup and 1 coupon .60/2 one frosting and cake mix and 1 coupon .50/2 frosting and cake mix. The soups were 1.07 ea with my coupon they turned out to be .82ea. Each cake mix and frosting were .99ea with coupons they wound up being .72 ea.

My big score of the night however had to be the yogurt. I stumbled upon the Albertson's savings book and was thumbing around and noticed that yoplait was 10/6 with free eggs on the next visit. I always seem to have yoplait coupons around the two I had was a $.60/8 and a $.40/6, but I decided to check online and low and behold they have a $1/10 coupon. Each yogurt came out to be just .50 ea PLUS when I go back tomorrow... er later today. I get 2 dozen free eggs. SCORE!

I did manage to score some really nice roasts which are BOGO. so I got 2 nice sized roasts for about $10 a piece. I really wanted to get the chicken deal which is buy 1 get 2 free. Yes you read that right. its either chicken breasts or tenders, but yeah 1 for 2. amazing deal, which they were out of chicken. boo hoo. I have another albertson's I'm hittin up tomorrow for that. But whilst I was cruising the meat area I came across some ground sirloin for 1.99 a pound yes!! 1.99 a pound!! you bet I scooped that up.

I managed today to save about $36. not bad for a first timer.

I realized a few things about average couponing. 1 It will take time. Time to print out the coupons and find the deals. 2. I will need a binder. This one pains me a bit... but I'll live with it. 3. I may not get things for free or even mega cheap, but I will save money. I vow not to drive around town wasting more money and time looking for the cheapest price, I will use the tools available to me, the internet and my weekly circulars, and my good sense.

A little tip for anyone reading.. anyone??? Right now if you got the Target ad with Target coupons in the mail they have a $1 off degree deoderant, which at my target is clearanced 2 pack for 2.82. Just a little tip. Oh and there is a dove mens target coupon plus dove men+care online has a printable coupon. So you know you can double up a bit.

Happy Couponing.

Balloon Fiesta

I'm behind. I apologize. I have a lot of things coming up that I want to blog about, but lets start with Balloon Fiesta.

Truthfully I didn't think I'd ever go. I mean big deal balloons take off. Pshaw. Its awesome. Indescribable.

Its near impossible to shoot a moving, glowing balloon when your lens is wide open and... you didn't bring your tripod. =/ These are just a few ( I use that word lightly) of the pics I took that day. It. was awesome.

Not everything has to be shared.

I guess the baby figures its only right to share her cold with me and her dad. =/ thanks kid.

Of course its on one of our busiest weekends. Tomorrow we are taking the kids to see the balloon ascension at their school since it is Balloon Fiesta. Saturday we are going to a breakfast to watch the kick off for the balloon fiesta, oh and did I mention my family is in town. So its a full house. And I'm sick. WHHHHYYYYY!!!

Cookies

I caught an episode of Pioneer Women last Saturday, I was intrigued by these Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies she was making. I love a good chocolate chip cookie, I love flat crunchy cookies, these seemed to fit the bill. So I moseyed on over to her blog to get the recipe. Seemed simple enough though I have never bought Malted Milk before, and was thinking watch them not even have it at Albertson's. But no they did. Today was a cookie baking adventure.

It started out like any other cookie, butter, sugar, eggs, all that. I think my ninja hand mixer was on strike or needed an alignment or something because it just didn't want to go smoothly to the right. However I smacked fixed it in the end lets hope it learned its lesson. Things were going fine till I added the malted milk, then it got a bit tough to mix it, then I had to add the flour and other dry ingredients. even tougher. I gave up with the mixer and decided to hand mix it which just made me tired, but well it was working. Till I realized I still had to mix the chips in. craaaaaap, more hand mixing. In the end it felt like there were too many dry ingredients and I was a bit worried it wouldn't mix together smoothly, but it did. Times like this I would kill for a Kitchen aid or even a generic aid stand mixer. Maybe one day soon.

I finally got to use my cookie scooper I picked up one day at Wal-Mart. My excitement was for nothing, it sucked. I'm getting a better one at the cooking store. Stupid plastic thing... I mean it worked ok, but it could have been much better [ i know i know full of complaints today]. So I put my parchment paper on my cookie sheets, I don't have those fancy schmancy liners and my cookie sheets are pretty awful and not really non-stick anymore, so parchment paper for me it is, and remembering the tip that these cookies spread I put 6 cookies per sheet spread out nicely and put them in my 375* oven per recipe.

At first it smelled sooo delish... then a little burnt, but naww it can't be it said 10-12 min and its only been like 6 min. I opened the door and the edges of the cookies were burningish, so I pulled them out and they were... hard. They weren't burnt or inedible, just not soft or chewy in anyway shape or form. and they had slightly burnt edges.. A nice char if you will. well hmmm.

Executive decision time. I turn the oven down to 325-350 somewhere around there and put in my next batch of cookies. I put my timer for 6 min ( so I could check on them) and things were moving along nicely. At a lower temp they did take about 10-12 min to set up nicely. Makes mental note.

Taste wise. I thought they were very tasty. There is an almost creaminess about them. The crunchy edges and softer chewy centers are a cookie lovers dream. I think I may make these again, but when I'm in a less pissy mood and when I make a note to lower the oven temp to avoid burning lol.

So as you can see the cookie in the forefront is from the lowered temp batch. pretty chocolate chip color no burnt edges. the cookie to the right is from the first batch, burnt edges and crispier than it should be. The cookie on the left is from the third batch, They didn't burn, but I didn't watch them so they are a bit darker in color. If I had had ice cream I so would have made ice cream sandwiches out of them.

and for those who want to try them:
*** I do recommend to lower the oven temp between 325 and 350 to avoid burning or you can do a test cookie to see how long they need to stay in if you want to keep it at 375*

• 1 cup (2 Sticks) Unsalted Butter Softened
• 3/4 cups Golden Brown Sugar
• 3/4 cups Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1-1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1-1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 cup (rounded) Malted Milk Powder
• 1 bag (12 Ounce) Milk Chocolate Chips

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter, then add both sugars and cream until fluffy. Add eggs and beat slightly, then add vanilla and beat until combined. Add malted milk powder and beat until combined.

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture, beating gently until just combined.

Add chocolate chips and stir in gently.

Drop by teaspoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop) and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Bake less if you want chewy cookies; more if you want crispy cookies.

Optional: Allow to cool completely, then use two cookies to make an ice cream sandwich. Add sprinkles to the sides of the ice cream, then wrap individually in plastic wrap.

Why I don't like Wednesdays during school

In general I love every day of the week. They each have their very own special purpose. During the school year though, Wednesdays rank right up there with Mondays. Actually I prefer Mondays over Wednesdays. Sad no?

My main dislike for Wednesdays is for some reason known only to the state of New Mexico, its half days for school. And by half day it really means 3 hours worth of actual instruction time. Why? Why even bother? I send my kids to school by 9 they are home by 1. What can they possibly learn? NM is one of the lowest ranked states when it comes to education and we combat this by cutting out more than half a days worth of learning?? GAAAH!! I have more to complain about on this, but this is about Wednesdays, not my dislike for the state's lack of action.

Wednesdays is when we drop off one of the twins with his mom. [Just incase anyone didn't know the 'twins' aren't really twins, one is mine and one is my husband's. They are only a few months apart and most people think they are twins because they are so close and act like twins. So we call them the twins] Its always hard to drop him off because we miss him and he misses us and well we won't get into why we do it on Wednesdays. Again another post for another day.

It seems that everything happens on Wednesdays, cheer practice, band meetings, job interviews, errands I need to run. All on a day that I have to be home between 1 and 5. Thankfully I chose NOT to enroll the kids in CCD on Wednesdays. Then there would be just one more thing to complain about.

Today: I was all excited because I had spied a pot roast in my freezer the other day and I thought oooh I'll make pot roast on Wednesday YAY!. except when I pulled it out to examine the 'pot roast' I found it was brisket instead. Well crap. There goes one more reason to not like today.

Here's hoping the brisket makes it out ok.

Homemade chex mix.

All I've been hearing all week on my fav forum is about homemade chex mix. Raves upon raves of it. I've. Never. Made. Some. I mean I've eaten it. Oh yeah, bags and bags of chex mix. But homemade?? ehhhh people still do that?

Last week my lovely twins decided ( on their own) to take snack this week for their CCD class. Aren't they generous they volunteered me, their mother to make snack for class. so sweet. *grumbles under breath* I should mention, its a no nuts/peanuts/eggs/cheese snack. Well crap. WTH do I make?? Cupcakes? out, eggs... OOOh cookies, CRAP eggs. String cheese and fruit. CRAP cheese... *ding* haven't I been reading a gazillion page thread about the virtues of homemade chex mix? Snack time is solved!! *revels in cheers from imaginary crowd*

This is my friend's not quite perfected recipe sans a few ingredients.

I decided to make it slightly sweeter because its for kids. Not me. Oh and I did read all the packages to make sure none had allergy alerts.

My ingredients:

2 cups Rice Chex ( generic Albertson's brand )

2 cups Corn Chex ( again generic brand)

3-4 cups Honey nut chex ( also generic... and sooo delish)

1 cup Goldfish

2 cups Pretzels ( target brand had no allergy alert, but Snyders did)

1/2-1 cup Sesame sticks ( hell and high water to find.. finally found them in bulk snack sections)

2tbs Worcesteshire sauce

1tsp Soy sauce

3tbs brown sugar

1/4tsp onion powder

1/4tsp garlic powder

1tsp salt ( that giant kosher kind since soy sauce has a ton of it)

1 stick of butter

Special item: crockpot.. yes i said crock.pot. trust me. it works.

put all cereal, pretzels, goldfish, sesame sticks in the crockpot

Melt butter in microwave, add worcesteshire sauce, soy sauce, garlic, onion, brown sugar, salt mix well.

Pour butter mixture over cereal mixing well. What I did was pour a little, mix a little, pour some more mix some more, till its all mixed. Quick tip: taste your sauce, get a chex and make sure its the flavor you want before you pour it on the cereal.

Put your crockpot on low, leave the lid off and wait 30 min. Watch half an episode of dexter, or grey's or something you dvr'd. Stir the chex mix. go back and finish the second of half the show you were watching. Come back, stir chex mix again. Start a new episode or play a half hour long game of peek a boo in which your child never tires. Come back, remove chex mix from crock pot ( turn off crock pot as well very important tip), and give it a final stir. Argue with your 1 year old who doesn't really talk, about how its very important that they nap. You lose. By this time your chex mix should be cool.

Make sure your the first to the bowl.. enjoy.

Friday. Night. High School. Football.

I'm such a dork because last week I pack allll my camera stuff ( including my flip HD) fight the crowd down the stadium stairs, hope that my camera doesn't get soaked from the rain that was going on, lift it to my eye.... No memory card. *giant eye roll* I guess I neglected 1 thing. Good news though I did find my missing SD card so I'm back to having 2 cards. YAY!! lol

These pictures are from the first Cleveland game. Which worked out great because ( now this part doesn't sound that great, but really it was), lightening had struck the field earlier in the week ( no kids were around it was evening) so their lights had gone out. They wound up hosting the game at 5.30 perfect because the light was amazing.

It's the STORM!!!!

Cleveland Vs Bel Aire. [PS I love my 70-200 lens just fyi]

Dancers. They were pretty awesome

I'm pretty happy with my reflexes. I tried going manual a few shots after these and it was no good. My eye can't tell sharp from blurry after awhile. which sucks.

The band [well some of the band]

This part is pretty bad ass.

This friday we have off, because there are technically only 2 High schools in the school district, they play a lot of out of town games. They can't take the band with them when they leave the city, its nice sometimes not to have to rush around on fridays to get everyone ready and get to the game on time. But next week I hope to remember my SD card and get better/different pics.

I have no motivation

I haven't posted lately because I feel as if most of my posts would be things like: I sat around watching tv eating tons of carbs and drinking a shit load of soda. Not exactly exciting. I'm in such a rut I haven't played with any of the yarn I bought a few weeks ago or worked on the blanket I've been trying to finish. le sigh. I have hardly even taken out my camera for anything. Sad. Panda.

This Monday we went up to the Sandia mountains with the hubs family. Still hardly any inspiration. I need a kick start. Tomorrow I am going to Zumba to try and get some energy going and some kind of get out of rut kick in the butt. Lets hope.

I took a few pics while I was up in the mountains. meh.. This is how depressing this is I can't even be excited to show you all pictures. blahhhhh.

I like how its blurry in front. pretty much how I felt. not fully focused

Sometimes I'm a nerd.

Ok all the time... I've been talking to my husband about this DS game all week. First I'm a complete HP nerd. beyond measure. I love pretty much all things HP. ( except the movies.. I merely tolerate them). I also love the lego games, OMG HP lego game for DS WITH Lego stylus. *swoons* [hey I warned you]
So since I spotted the game with the stylus I've been bugging my husband BUGGING him to buy it. Which we couldn't do till today.

Go ahead and judge me I can't be bothered to care because I am playing Lego Harry Potter. aww look how cute he is.

**edit I tried to add a picture. for some odd reason my HTML code isn't working ( from flickr) nor is the direct link. I have no clue what is happening blogger, but I don't like it. hmph*

**second edit, ok so switching back to the old interface i can now get my pics to show up. nothing can be smooth can it. I hate technology sometimes.**

I'm back from the depths of.... Regular life.

Hello my faithful readers!! Lately I seem to start off all my posts with I'm sorry. This post is no exception. I know I have been away from the blogasphere. Back to school has been crazy, trying to decide which sports/activities to put the kids in plus schedule around their pre-planned activities like CCD and the hubs school nights. Talk about a hair pulling moment.

But with BTS comes the fun stuff. Friday. Night. High School. Football. This year my oldest daughter is in marching band which means we have a legit reason for going. I'm stoked. So in preparation I've made bebe a shirt for her very first HS football game. This meant I get to do some crafting, yay for me, and take a trip to Hobby Lobby.

I wound up picking a rhinestone iron on because the original letters I wanted were going to be too big for her shirt. and it worked out since they are in 'Storm blue' and cheaper than the 'Storm blue' regular iron on letters with the pretty font. Sad panda. At any rate I picked up some letters, a mini football iron on and a number 1 for the back of the shirt. Stoked!!!

Front of the shirt

Back

up close of the rhinestones

The rhinestones were a bit difficult to work with. When you cut the letters out the back kinda falls off, which sucks if you haven't place the letters yet ( but they are still moveable) and if you don't cut them right or place them right you have the issue I did where some how some of the rhinestones got ironed on to the plastic topper of the other letter. :/ but it works out because you can still re-iron them and they stick.

I hope to have some more pics up this weekend along with my current crochet project. Have a lovely weekend everyone!!

Watching while blogging: Project Runway.

Camera shy.

Lately I've felt camera shy. I take my camera with me, but don't pull it out to snap any pics. I don't know what is going on with me. I haven't even forced the baby into a photo shoot. I need to get out of this funk and soon. Days are slipping by with my 50mm borrowed lens.

Even Mondays can be a good day

My 50mm lens from borrow lenses showed up today!! *does happy dance*

I am in love. The shutter speed is awesome even in super low light with no flash its fantastic. love. I want one for my very own. I will be so sad to send this back.

A chocolate I picked up the other night at Walgreens for $.39... it was meh.

Taken just a few minutes ago in uber low light.

Some fruit I picked up earlier today