Great Deal at Publix

So, yesterday Scott was running by the store for hamburger buns. So, of course he had to go to the store w/ the lowest price for good buns, which was Publix this week. Well, I noticed that they have their Taco Bell dinner kits B1G1 and there is a coupon on the Smart Source website (if you use zip 32801 and then search by brand for Taco Bell) for $1 off, so I asked him to print out 2 of those coupons and pick a couple up as well. I didn't know exactly how much it would be. He got 2 dinner kits for $.69 with those coupons! You can only print up to 2 from each computer, so we printed 2 from his, 2 from mine, and then 2 from mine here at work and I am going to the Publix over here close to work today and getting 6 dinner kits! I have a hard time passing up anything to do with tacos when they are on sale!

Biltmore House Visit

When we took our trip to Asheville a couple of weeks ago, we drove down Wednesday morning and had lunch at the Tupelo Honey Cafe once we had checked into our hotel. We then drove to the Biltmore and made sure we didn't go in before 2 pm. We did the outside stuff on that day. We checked out the gardens and the little sitting areas and then headed over to the winery to do a wine tasting (well, Scott did, I forgot my wallet in GA, so no luck for me) and inside the actual winery they had all kinds of samples out! They have all these cheeseball and dip mixes for sale as well as salad dressings and they have various samples of these things sitting out with a big bowl of pretzels next to it. We wandered around tasting for a while. We also sampled their Wassail mix to wash it down.

Thursday, we toured the house in the morning, had lunch at the Stable Cafe, and then checked out the Farm and the petting zoo-type area they have. We then went on a Behind-the-Scenes tour of the winery, which was very interesting. We really don't like wine much at all, but it is still interesting to see how they make it.

Here are pictures we took at the Biltmore House. We have other pictures from our trip, but that is for another slide show and another post.

Savings Galore!

Sunday evening Scott and I went to Publix armed with our list and a baggie full of coupons. We bought a ton of stuff. Our menu is for two weeks, but with the stuff we already had at home that wasn't included in our menu and the stuff we bought because it was on sale and we know we'll eat it, we probably have enough food in our house to live for at least a month! Scary! I think we need to pause on the shopping for a while. But, we had some good savings. We saved 47% on our trip at Publix! We bought several "big price" items like 3 things of ground turkey breast, 6 things of litter and 4 NY Strip steaks! The cat litter was B1G1 and I had my little $1 off coupon thinking I would buy 1 and get it for $2.50. Well, we start looking at it and there are those little pull off coupons for $2 off on all of them! I was super excited. We got Wheat Thins for $0.63 each, brownie mixes for $0.85 each, bagel-fuls for $1 per box. The cheapest thing we got was our Kraft salad dressing, which was B1G1, which made it $1.50 each and then we had $1.50 coupons (2 of them) so they were free! Between the B1G1 and our coupons (including doubled ones), we saved $97.96.

Scott went to Kroger on Monday to get the things that were on the best sale there (plus their produce always seems to be cheaper) and saved 40% between sales, coupons! We got 6 tubes of Colgate toothpaste for free! It was 10/$10 and we had 2 $1 coupons from previous weeks' papers and were able to print 4 of coupon.com. We also got a thing of Weber Grill Creations seasoning for free. They were 10/$10 and we had a $0.50 coupon, which gets doubled! Yay!

Oh the excitement...

Have I mentioned that I have become a pro at packing food into our fridge and freezer?

Have you found any exceptional deals lately?

Shana's Shower Pictures

As promised, here are the pictures from Shana's Shower. It was a lot of fun and Shana got lots of good baby stuff!

We're Back!

We are back from our much-needed get-away. We enjoyed Asheville and the Biltmore House. There really isn't much to do in Asheville, so if you want to take a 5-day trip, I suggest you plan two stops, maybe 2 days in Asheville and then the rest somewhere else close by with not much to do. But, we still made the most of it. We thought we were going to have an indoor pool, but as it turns out, there are 2 Country Inn and Suites in Asheville. We ate at the Tupelo Honey Cafe that Lindsay suggested and it was really good. We at breakfast and dinner at the Moose Cafe next to the Farmers' Market close to our hotel. All the restaurants in Asheville are all about fresh food from the farm and stuff like that. The Biltmore House was fun to go through and they had even recently reopened one of the important rooms in the house. All the flowers were really pretty. We ate at the Stable Cafe on Thursday for lunch and it was really good.

While we were in Asheville, we also played a round out Putt-Putt and saw two movies: Monsters vs Aliens (in 3D) and Star Trek. I had never watched an entire show or movie of Star Trek. I am not sure how I avoided them growing up as they were on a lot since my dad and sister were big fans. I thought that the Star Trek movie was really good. I would definitely like to own that one once it comes out.

We have downloaded our pictures, but I haven't finished editing them and I need to create a slide show to share on here.

Also, we threw a baby shower for Shana on May 3 and I have those pictures downloaded but not posted yet either, so sorry.

While we were away, it rained a good bit, so everything grew a lot! Our neighbor Nan was also sweet enough to check on the boys and water my pots on days that it didn't rain.

I will post a slide show or two later this evening, hopefully.

TTFN (ta-ta for now!)

Flowers and Cats

While we are away, I want you to have something to look at on our blog. So, I am leaving you with some pictures of our flowers for so far this year. I planted some things in our front bed called celosia. They look pretty cool, but I don't think they like all the wet soil from the rain. I really hope they don't die. I am pretty sure I am done with planting pots and baskets for the summer. I planted just a few...ahem. We have also planted 2 tomato plants, a bell pepper, and a jalapeno plant. So, we'll see how those turn out. I saved all my geraniums from last year and have incorporated them into this year's pots. They are already getting some pretty green leaves. I really hope they bloom as well as they did last year.

I have also adding in some pictures of what the cats do while I am working on the gardening. I usually open the windows to air out the house and the boys sit right in the window and watch me. They like to sniff the air, which is what Sampson is doing in one of the pictures where he is making a funny face. We've been getting a lot of bird activity lately, too. The boys love it. The birds and the cats are eating us out of house and home.

DVD Giveaway @ A Full Heart

My sweet friend Erin at A Full Heart is giving away some DVDs from the Vision Forum. Check out her post here and enter to win! The deadline is May 14! Erin's blog is always an encouragement to me, so be sure to read some of her posts while you are over there.

Wolverine

We went to see the movie Wolverine on Saturday. It was really good! I enjoyed the action and it also explains a lot of the mystery surrounding Logan in the X-Men movies. Also, it definitely left room for another movie between when this one ends and the first X-Men movie began.

There are a lot of movies coming out this summer that we want to see. Harry Potter, Transformers, GI Joe, and I am sure there are a few more that Scott mentioned last night. Are there any movies out there this summer that you just have to see?

We leave on Wednesday morning for our trip. I can't wait!

Update

Wow. It has been a long time since I posted anything. Almost a month. That wasn't really my intention, it just worked out that way. First of all, I was sick twice in three weeks. I am still sort of recovering from my last illness. I am kind of tired of being sick. I usually only get sick about once a year. This makes 4 times in 6 months. Scott was sick too. He got sick with some sort of sinus thing at about the same time as I got some sort of stomach bug. Then, he went to the doctor and started feeling better and once I had recovered from my stomach thing, I started getting sick with whatever sinus thing he had. No fun. I started to feel sick a week before my birthday, on the day of our joint birthday party with my family for Stephanie, Kristyn, and me.

Our birthday party was a lot of fun except that I wasn't feeling great, Stephanie was starting to have some sort of allergy thing, and Kristyn's stomach wasn't feeling too great either. But it was still good to get together. I got so many great gifts for my birthday. Obviously I don't think that my birthday is all about getting gifts, but it did sort of lessen the sting of turning...ahem...30. This is our group picture. Love the bunny ears. haha.





Here is the face I made when I opened my Cuttlebug. I was really surprised that Daddy and Stephanie got it for me. I had always just thought that I would end up saving up and getting it for myself. But, sometimes looking at my expressions is scary, seriously!







I got my first gift wrapped in "Over the Hill" wrapping paper this birthday. Thanks Daddy and Stephanie.













They got a special cake for my birthday...and added their own finishing touch of 30 candles!








Here I am trying to blow out all the candles! I was not successful in blowing them all out in one breath. They were all so spread out! It was a lot of ground to cover.










I won't list all my gifts, but I got a compilation of Jane Austen novels, some CDs that I had really been wanting, a movie, a Cuttlebug die cutting/embossing scrapbooking tool, and a new cookbook I really wanted. On top of the MP3 player that Scott gave me a couple of weeks ago, he surprised me with the perfume I really wanted, Armani Code for Women. I love the way it smells!

On the date of my actual birthday, April 18th, our close friends Andy and Caitlin got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was an enjoyable time to get to see a lot of people that we had not seen in a long time.











The weather has been absolutely crazy the last few weeks. Just this week, the lows have been about 35 and today it got up close to 90 degrees!

I have planted some tomato plants in pots with cages this year and a jalapeno plant. Hopefully we will have a good crop with them. We also purchased some dirt to amend the soil in our garden and I have started dumping my pots from the winter out and planting the whole thing out in the garden, kind of around the big area that I usually plant on that is raised. I put a lot of bulbs in them and I am hoping that by planting them in the garden, they'll come back next year and bloom. Scott and I went over to the Growers' Outlet today and I liked some of the stuff they have, but was disappointed that they didn't have more things I like. So, we didn't end up getting anything. I think that we are going to go back next weekend to see what they have and hopefully they'll have more stuff out. I still have plenty of time to plant. I don't have a lot of stuff to do in the yard this year because I have so many perennials, but I do have some things to plant. Mostly though, have my pots to take care of. The other day when I was working in the gardens and Scott was cutting the grass, I walked over to the side of the house to go through the fence and was surprised that all the hostas on that side that I planted 2 years ago have come up and they are monsters! The closer they are to the fence, or the more shade they are getting, the bigger they are! I will have to divide them this fall if we are still living here.

Did I ever say on here that we dropped the price on our house? Since that happened, we have had a pick up in traffic. We are not sure if that is because of the price decrease or because of the fact that it is spring. We would really like to be able to sell our house so that we could take advantage of the low prices on a house closer to our offices and church.

Today was Founders' Day for Scott's fraternity at GA Tech. So, we went downtown and got to spend time with friends. It was really nice.

I am still doing Weight Watchers. I have lost almost 12 pounds. I still have about 18 more that I want to lose.



Scott and I are taking a trip to celebrate my birthday. I decided that I would rather do that than have a big party or something. We are going to the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. Neither of us has ever been. We will be there the last weekend of the Flower Festival. We are going to drive up on Wednesday, May 13 and come home on that Sunday. Obviously we won't be spending all of our time at the Biltmore House. I know that there is a lot to do up there, but I haven't spent a lot of time researching it. Does anyone have any suggestions of things we can do or restaurants we can visit?



Well, if you are still here, I am impressed. I hope you have a blessed week.

Weight Watchers Ice Cream Sandwiches

This is a recipe I got from my friend Robin from T&U back when she was doing WW while I was studying for the CPA Exam (one of the many times I studied for it haha). I used to make these all the time because they are so stinking good. Why I stopped, I don't know.

1 chocolate graham cracker (use low fat if you can find them)
2 Tbsp fat-free Cool Whip

Make a sandwich by breaking the graham cracker in half and smearing the cool whip in the middle and freeze. They are so good, you won't feel like you are missing out on anything!

I couldn't find low fat chocolate graham crackers, so it is 2 points. I think if you use low fat, it is just 1 point.

How easy is that? You're gonna love it!

(That's not the best picture I have ever taken, but I just ran and pulled out the ones I have already made up and set them on the lid of the container I have them stored in.)