Merry CHRISTMAS!

This will most likely be my last post before Christmas so I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Lord willing, we will be spending Christmas morning at our house, Christmas afternoon/evening at my in-laws, and New Year's week up in NC with my family.

I have my first OB/ultrasound visit this afternoon and I'm quite anxious to see/hear the baby's heartbeat and be assured that everything is OK so far. I'll be 11 weeks pregnant tomorrow and I'm due around July 14th. Would still appreciate your prayers!

All for now! Time for Clint's morning nap......he really needs one at the moment. :)

Congrats Cousin Jonathan and Jennifer!

On Thanksgiving weekend, we had the privilege of seeing my Cousin Jonathan and friend Jennifer tie the knot. All three of my brothers were in the wedding and miraculously, they all behaved. :) Congrats Jonathan and Jennifer! May God give you many happy years together!

Guess Who's Going to be a Big Brother??

Doesn't he look excited?? :)

Yummy! :)

He'll eat about anything..... :)

NOTE: We're leaving on a trip after tonights church service and I most likely won't have internet access until Thanksgiving week. Until then, ya'll be good and have a wonderful Thanksgiving season!

Remembering Those Who've Served

Photo by Adam Skoczylas

Over 93% Savings @ Publix

BEFORE sales and coupons: $77.19

AFTER sales and coupons: $4.72

Had some great sales and coupons this week. The (24) jars of Beechnut baby food, (2) Wholly Guacamole, (14) boxes of pasta, dozen eggs, and Cottonelle Clean-up wipes were all FREE and I used the overage I got to bring down the cost of the other items.

This and That

I guess I'm still trying to get in the blogging mood. Most of the time I have a hard time deciding on something interesting to write about. That and the fact I'm having a time and a half loading pictures onto my computer makes this blog seem.....well, boring. :)

Life has been busy, but nice the last week or so. Hubby and I celebrated our anniversary in the BIG town at a little Italian restaurant. My in-laws watched the baby for us and it was nice spending the evening with just the two of us. ;)

The baby is 7 1/2 months now and is trying to get into EVERYTHING. If it's NOT a toy, he's happy playing with it. He's already knocked the floor lamp over, ripped the dust cover off one of hubby's books, and bent the antennae on my LIMEGREEN stereo. The next 17 years or so are bound to be an adventure.

It's sooooooo hard to believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner! We plan on being out of town ( more about that later ) about 10 days total this month so I may end up decorating my Christmas tree early this year since I definitely won't feel like doing it in-between get togethers and traveling. I thought about making a western themed tree skirt to go along with the rest of my home decor, but I'm not sure if I'll get around to it. It would look mighty purdy though. :)

All for now! Baby is napping and I'm going to take advantage of it. :) Have a great weekend!

Sometimes a Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words

Today's Statistic

"10 out of 10 of Clint's Cheerios ended up on the kitchen floor."

(we need to work on the "hand to mouth technique" :) )

Over 95% Savings @ Publix

( Clint had a vaccination visit today so I was able to visit 3 different Publix stores on the way to and from the office. The pasta was bought for overage purposes and I'm now looking for a food bank to drop most of it off at :) )

BEFORE Sales and Coupons: $117.35

AFTER Sales and Coupons: $4.77

2 Years Ago Today.....

.....I married my friend.

Happy anniversary to us both! :)

Readers are Leaders :)

Reading the Walgreens ad for Mommy

Reading books at home

A Day at the Flea Market

The Hubby has a new hobby. He picks things up nobody wants, cleans them, and then turns around and sells them on Craigslist or at the local flea market. I do my part by helping with the cleaning and posting of the Craigslist ads. The flea market, however, was one place I wasn't too thrilled with getting involved with. I finally gave in this past Saturday and decided to be a real trooper by getting up at the ungodly hour of 3:30am. We quickly got ready, put the baby in the car seat, and started making our way to my in-laws' house to swap the baby out with my 12 year old SIL ( she wanted to come along and it was too cold of a morning to have the baby out ). Below are the highlights of the day.

1). I don't care if it's fashionably correct to wear flip-flops/sandals in GA 12 months out of the year.....mid-October mornings can be FREEZING. I have learned to wear socks and shoes the next time around.

2). I know it's mid-October and folks will be decorating for Christmas in just a few weeks, but don't be fooled......you can still get a nice sunburn in the afternoon. I'm a true GA "red"neck now.

3). I now know why the Hubby needs to arrive 2 1/2 hours early to set his stuff up. He spent half the time looking for the labels and the other half looking for the permanent marker. I think a flashlight would be a nice stocking stuffer this year.

4). "When shopping in the dark, think twice before speaking".......One woman thought my SIL was Hubby's daughter and that I was the "new" wife. Left me wondering who the "old" wife was.

5). You can see about anything for sale at a flea market.......tools, Mexican snacks, clothing, toys, engines, TV's, even a basket full of OPENED toothbrushes.....

All in all it was a pretty good day. We made some money, spent a lot of time together, ate some good food, but just seeing the smile on Hubby's face whenever he made a sale was worth it all. :)

Homemade Carrot Baby Food

I got a free bag of Earthbound Farms carrots a week or two ago and today's "experiment" was making homemade baby food for Clint.

I peeled, washed, and chopped them first and then boiled them on the stove-top until tender. Next, I drained the water and dumped them into the blender where I pureed them. I chose the cubed freezing method and plan on storing the cubes in freezer bags once frozen. Hopefully, it will turn out OK. If not, at least I tried something new. :)

Look Who We Saw! :)

We took a little day trip to Greenville, SC this past Friday and our son Clint got to meet Patch the Pirate ( aka: Ron Hamilton ) for the first time. I'm so glad I had the camera with me! :)

Persimmon Bread

We have a persimmon tree in our back yard and this was the first year I actually harvested some. It was actually more of an experiment, but I enjoyed picking, hulling, pureeing, and baking with them. Below is the recipe I tried.

*Persimmon Bread*

1 cup persimmon pulp

2 tsp baking soda

3 cups white sugar

1 cup oil

4 eggs

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup water

3 cups white whole wheat flour

1 cup chopped walnuts ( optional )

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F ( 175 degrees C ). Grease three 6x3 inch loaf pans. In small bowl, stir together the persimmon pulp and baking soda. Let stand 5 minutes to thicken the pulp. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, oil, eggs, spices, and salt. Blend until smooth. Mix in persimmon pulp and water alternately with flour. Fold in nuts. Divide batter into the prepared pans, filling each pan 2/3 full. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

(recipe adapted from allrecipes.com )

Over 78% Grocery Savings

( NOTE: Once again, the pasta is to be shared with others....I only bought it to get overage for other needed items )

BEFORE Sales and Coupons: $146.89

AFTER Sales and Coupons: $31.37

Potato Pancakes with Avocado Mash & Eggs

Tried this recipe earlier today and it was a winner with the Hubby! :)

1 1/4 pounds shredded baking potatoes

1 grated onion

4 eggs

2 avocados

salt

pepper

olive oil

hot sauce (optional)

Place the shredded potatoes in a kitchen towel and squeeze to remove any moisture. Transfer to a bowl and stir in grated onion, 1 TB olive oil, 3/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 2 TB olive oil over medium heat. Divide the potato mixture into 4 mounds in the skillet and pat into 4-inch pancakes. Cover with a sheet of foil and cook, turning once and adding 1 more TB olive oil, until browned, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a platter. In the same skillet, cook 4 eggs sunny-side up with 1 TB olive oil for about 1 minute. Mash the flesh from the avocados and season with salt. Top each pancake with some avocado, an egg and hot sauce ( if desired ).

YIELD: 4 servings

(recipe taken from Oct. 2010 issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray )

Over 97% Savings at Kroger

BEFORE Sales and Coupons: $66.48

AFTER Sales and Coupons: $1.72

Momma's Little Pumpkin

Since Hubby will be working late today, the Pumpkin and I plan on leaving here in a bit to do some deal hunting/window shopping. He's 6 1/2 months old now and can roll over and sit by himself. No teeth yet, but I don't mind putting that off a little longer. :)

Last night was the last night of our church's revival meeting. The guest preacher preached on the home......fathers being godly fathers, mothers being godly mothers and the children's job to obey their parents. A great message indeed!

All for now! I think I smell a dirty diaper. :)

Future Truck Owner

"Driving" Uncle's truck

Looking out the window

Blueberry Cobbler

*Blueberry Cobbler*

3 TB Butter

3 TB oil

1 cup White Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup Milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

1 pint Blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put butter and oil in 10 in. iron skillet and place in oven until melted. Meanwhile, in large mixing bowl sift together dry ingredients. In a small bowl, stir together milk, melted oil/butter, and vanilla. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until moisten. Pour batter into hot skillet and sprinkle blueberries on top. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until done.