Any opinions on this? We are approaching the two year anniversary of moving into the house and the foyer is still booooring.

*Ignore the junk you can see in our family room* C is in the middle of building two new computers.

Where did 2009 go and why did it go so quickly?

January- We went to Blowing Rock, North Carolina with the in laws.


February- We celebrated with Bonnie and James as they announced that they were expecting their first child. (This picture is from a few months before)



March- The house hunt continued, moms birthday and Stacy's birthday.



April- Alecias Bachelorette Party, celebrated our third wedding anniversary.



May- Nephews first birthday, graduated with BHA and took a cruise to the Bahamas.



June- We put an offer on our house and it was ACCEPTED!!!


July- We closed on the house, 4th of July at the lake, celebrated my birthday and moved into the house the end of the month.


August- The reality of being homeowners sunk in when we discovered a tree branch was resting on our shingles and had rubbed completely though the shingles and tar paper to the plywood.


September- We adopted Toby!


October- Had a lot of fun pretending it was fall in Florida.



November- Cruise with Danecia and a lot of family time.



December- Spent more time with family and finally ordered some furniture for the house!!


We had a wonderful year and are looking forward to what 2010 brings!

Ok, so I am already 3 days late with posting this.

* be more consistent with keeping the house organized
* improve my photography skills and save money for a SLR
* have more people in our home for meals
* clean & organize the garage {again!}
* overhaul & organize my kitchen cabinets and closets
* get rid of half of my clothes
* sew more and spend less
* read at least 1 book a month
* send a Christmas card… because this year I never did get my act together!
* Lose 20 pounds
* Eat out less/cook more

Today was a wonderful day with family. Our Christmas celebration began last night when I hosted Christmas Eve dinner for my side of the family. We are truly blessed to have so many caring people in our lives.

Total saved was $18.08
Total Spent was $11.96, so I get to make another trip.
Where I saved…
Store coupons $7.00
Vendor Coupons $5.00
Advertised Savings $6.08

I bought some Tylenol, Tylenol cold, Tylenol Sinus, Sudafed and some Tylenol Head cold

Total savings was $71.79
Total OOP was $62.77

I was a slacker and didn’t take note of the coupons beforehand, so I can’t give you a breakdown of what costs what after coupons.

Here is where I saved:
$11.58 from store coupons
$16.40 in Vendor Coupons
$43.36 from advertised specials

I spent about an hour going through ad and looking for coupons. I spent about an hour while driving home from Gainesville one day to sort the coupons that I would be using.

P.S. No picture of the items this week either due to the limited time we have had the past week.

Publix 12/5/09

This was my first week of actually spending more than ten minutes gathering coupons for grocery shopping. Last week, I just got lucky because of the chicken on sale. I spent close to an hour going through all of my coupons, but I was also organizing them at the same time.

Total spent out of pocket $52.09
Total coupons $10.85
Advertised Savings $23.17

Total Saved: $34.51

Cheerios $2.50 (2)

$1/2 boxes, so $2 each

Grands Biscuits $1.25 (2)

$0.30/2, so $1.10 each

Publix Orange Juice $3.79

Publix Glazed Donuts $1.99

Jell-O Chocolate Pudding $1.39 (2)

$0.55/2, so $1.12 each

Cranberries $2.99

Betty Crocker Cookie Mix $2.19 (4)
BOGO

$0.40/1

$0.40/1

$0.40/1

$0.40/1, so $0.70 each

Pillsbury Brownie Milk Chocolate $1.99

$0.40/1, so $1.59 each

Publix Strawberry Preserves $2.39

Idaho Potatoes $0.70

Publix Honey Wheat Bread $1.79

Bananas $1.89

Publix Grape Jelly $1.99

Nestle Tollhouse Cookies $3.39 (2)
BOGO

$1/1, so $2.89 each

Oscar Meyer Bacon $3.00

$0.75/1, so $2.25

Egg Beaters $1.67 (2)

$1/1

$1/1, so $0.67 each

Publix frozen pizza $3.99

Soft-soap Shower Gel $2.79

$0.75/1, so $2.04

Bear Naked Granola Bar $1.39

$1/1, so paid $0.39

Publix Milk $3.19

$1/dairy from baby club

Daisy Sour Cream $1.50

$0.50/1, so $1.00

Publix Cool Whip $1.89 (2)

Nestle Hot Chocolate $2.19 (2)
BOGO, so $1.10 each

It is red, but doesn't seem to bother him. Hoping that its not red tomorrow morning when we get up. I have no idea what it is. He was inside with me for the majority of the day yesterday since it was raining. I feel bad for him :(

This recipe is from A Year of Crockpotting. I will be honest, this was the first time I ever skinned a chicken. GROSS! It was disgusting. I doubt I will do that again or at least not anytime soon. The chicken was good. I wouldn't give it 5 stars, but it wasn't put on the list of never cook this again.

So What does it call for?

Ingredients
1 whole chicken, skinned (4-5 pounds)
2 tsp kosher salt (if you'd like it as salty as the ones in the store, add another 1 tsp.)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
pinch of chili pepper (probably not necessary)
4 whole garlic cloves (optional)
1 yellow onion, quartered (optional)

Directions

A 6 quart crockpot for a 4 pound bird.

Skin the chicken and get rid of the neck and other stuff from the cavity. This takes a while, and is gross. (If you don't mind skin on the chicken, then you don't have to skin it. We aren't fans of the skin on chicken)

In a bowl, combine all of dried spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the bird, inside and out.

Place the bird breast-side down into the crockpot.

Place 4 whole garlic cloves and a quartered onion inside the bird.

Do not add water.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8.

The meat is done when it is fully cooked and has reached desired tenderness. The longer you cook it, the more tender the meat. When I took mine out, the meat was so tender, it fell off the bone.

----------

It was very tender and it done fall right off the bone.

I did double a few of the ingredients. Which ones? dried thyme, black pepper and cayenne pepper. It was not spicy at all. I didn't use 4 cloves of garlic, but only because I only had two.

I would HIGHLY recommend preparing the chicken the night before you are planning to put it into the crockpot.

First, we have some awesome friends. We took a long weekend and headed to the Bahamas. The cruise was nothing spectacular, but there were some good memories made.

First, this will be cooked again at our house. It was very good. I came across this recipe on A Soft Place to Land. It was a 5 star for taste, prep, leftovers in our opinion.

Here is what you need:

4-5lb brisket (not corned beef brisket) Do NOT trim the fat off. You want it to soak up the flavor.
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon onion salt
1/4 teaspoon salt (all this salt makes it good. Not salty)
1.5 oz bottle of liquid smoke
BBQ sauce

1. Sprinkle seasonings over your brisket.
2. Pour liquid smoke over seasoned brisket.
3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours
4. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
5. Place brisket in covered pan and place in oven.
6. Cook for 3-4 hours or until fork tender.
7. Slice thinly, across the grain.

Earlier this week, I came across this blog. I spent a good hour today going through coupons trying to find my way to saving on groceries the way the blog explains.

Publix has a promotion with BP right now. Spend $25 in groceries and get $10 off a $50 gas gift card.

Deals this week:
Boneless skinless chicken breast on sale for $1.79 a pound.
Cheez-its were BOGO
Bananas were on sale for .39 a pound, compared to .69 a pound.
Alexia crunchy snacks BOGO. I also had 2 coupons for $1 off, so for both packages I paid 89 cents!
YoPlait FiberOne yogurt BOGO. I had one coupon for $1.25 off and one for $1 off, so I paid 25 cents for 2 packages of 4.

I spent $190.29
I saved $87.41

I also walked out of the store with $150 in BP gas gift cards.

P.S. and I added to the stock in the freezer. I bought 14 packages of chicken :)

I found this recipe on Big Red Kitchen. The picture of it fooled me. It was a little to sweet for us. I may try it again, but with half of the brown sugar that is called for.

The worst part, I tried this new recipe when we were having friends over for dinner. Thankfully we had dessert left over from Thanksgiving, so everyone filled up on that.

Monday: Ham with crockpot green beans
Tuesday: Baked Chicken with corn on the cob
Wednesday: Quick Beef Casserole from Keep the Beat cookbook
Thursday: Spaghetti
Friday: Grilled chicken or shrimp if I can make it by the market

Today marks four weeks since we brought Toby home. I saw a raised dog feeder at PetsMart and knew I wanted one for Toby. I did not like the look of that one though. I came across a blog and she had recently made on for her dog!

Before polyurethane was applied:

After polyurethane was applied:

Wood wine box $4.99

Polyurethane $6 at AC Moore after coupon

Dog Bowls $8

(The ugly PetsMart one was $29.99)

I feel so bad for him. He has only been home 5 hours and I am honestly dreading the next few days.

P.S. He doesn't have any odd growths on his right side. He is walking like a drunk ;)

2-3 pound Pot Roast ( I substitute for Boston Butt occasionally)

bsg of baby carrots

5-6 small/medium potatoes

1/2 to 1 pound of green beans

1 package dry Italian dressing mix

1 package onion soup mix

Cook on low in Crock pot for 7-9 hours

I forgot to take a picture of this before we began to eat. I will add a picture next time.

It is still very warm in Florida, but I thought bringing out some fall decor would make it seem more "fallish". Here is a sneak peak of how the fall decor is coming along. More pictures to come...

P.S. that is real hay, thanks to DH!

For the past week I have been wanting to make some chili. While grocery shopping today I decided today would be the day.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef or turkey
30 ounces diced tomatoes
1 can corn
2 cans of kidney beans
1 can of black beans
some chopped celery, peppers and onion
1 package of taco seasoning
2 cloves minced garlic

Put it all in the crock pot and cook on low 7-9 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

What is the best part of cooking chili when you are the only that eats it? There is quite a bit leftover, so it ends up frozen for next time I crave some :)