I'm back....for now.....

Well, right now, I'm back. For how long, I don't know. My schedule at work is changing to where I will be doing overnights until Christmas.

So anyhow.

I should talk about how my Thanksgiving meal went. It was pretty awesome. I mean some of it was pop in the microwave and cook, but it was that way because I had to work that day and I only had so much time to get it done.

Menu was:

• Roasted turkey (in the crockpot)
• Mashed potatoes
• Green bean casserole
• Mac and cheese
• Green beans (husband won't eat green bean casserole)
• Gravy
• Stuffing
• Apple Enchiladas - I HIGHLY recommend using fresh apples instead of the canned pie filling.
• Hot chocolate brownies
• King Hawaiian rolls

Everything came out really well. I was not fond of the mac and cheese. I have to do something next time I make it that way to make it taste cheesier. Oh, I know. Use a different cheese sauce or make it homemade.

My husband got a car for himself (finally). Now he can find a better job that Hardee's but I don't know if that's going to happen. He might become a general manager whether he wants it or not. Hopefully something will happen with one of these places he's applied before that happens.......

Him getting a car makes the finances a LOT tighter. Not a fan of that so close to Christmas with Miss Bug's first Christmas coming up, but it is what it is.

I need to get a blank cookbook so I can put recipes in it. I really don't want to use a computer to keep them. Things can happen to a computer, and I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to things like that. Sometimes, it's just better to have a cookbook done with paper and pen.

Oops....so much for doing blog planning

Yeah, oops. Haven't blogged in a month. To be quite honest. I haven't felt like it.

5 days after my last post, my granddad passed away. I haven't felt like doing much of anything. Couponing, anything. I'm getting by right now. My coupon notebook....yeah, it's a mess. HOT mess.

Just getting by.....yup....just getting by...

What's new?

I'm still working on getting that post about what I learned while traveling with an infant. (Kind of forgot about it until I looked at the blog.)

Other than that, I have recently started selling Avon products. I'm still learning the ropes with Avon. My mom sold it when I was younger and I think she did well with it. I don't really remember.

Oh, yeah. I need to post about my latest CVS and Walmart trips because those were pretty exciting for me. My friend Bekah posted something on her Facebook page about how she spent close to $82 on $500 worth of groceries. I wish I lived close enough to her so I could go with her and perfect my grocery couponing.

I found a really interesting recipe for an easy Mexican dip recipe from couponsavingsinthesouth.com. It looks so good. I can't wait until I get all of the ingredients to make it and try it.

I found some Fila Skele Toes on sale at one of the local shoe stores in town. I can't wait to pick them up and wear them. Now the thing is to find some for my husband that fit. The store had some for him, but they weren't in his size. :(

Okay, back to planning the posts that I want to post soon.

Upcoming post

I need to make a post about what I learned from traveling with an infant, and I need to do it soon. Right now because we are getting a new furry family member (today), I need to get my cat food coupons clipped and get the rest of my house ready for him.

Busy busy busy

Miss Bug has had a SUPER busy week meeting family!

Let's see......She and I went to Florida to see my dad, granddad and aunt down there. She flew like a champ! Mommy's back was killing her after the trip down because my husband somehow managed to talk me out of taking her stroller to help me carry her stuff and her around the Atlanta airport. Yeah, not listening to him on that one again.

Anywho.......

Yeah, my dad TOTALLY ignored me when my aunt had us stop over at the hospital where he works. Meh, whatever. Doesn't matter to me. He finally got to hold his first grandchild and that's what mattered to me.

Miss Bug and Granddad. I had to leave the room because I was crying so hard taking this picture. There are more, but this is the only one I want to post.

Nap time snuggles. Just too damned precious.

One of my best friends from high school. She drove an hour and a half from her house to see us. You never realize how much you miss friends like that until you move away and you can't see them all the time.

Miss Bug and her cousin Nodah. That's his life long nickname. :)

Her and her Gpa. These two can see each other as often as they can get together.

I think the craziness of this past week is over and done with for the time being and now it's back to getting on the regular routine.

I can't think of a title....

Yeah, I'm not going to talk about couponing in this post. Shocker right? LOL

Well, I have to go to Florida. I'm going to visit my granddad who may or may not make it to 2013. Yeah, it will be nice to go see my dad and hopefully a couple of friends of mine, but it's mainly to see him. I've done some crying over it, but there's nothing I can do. He's 91, and I'm almost positive that it's not just his kidneys that are failing him. I believe that he's dying of a broken heart because he lost his wife last year.

Miss Bug is going with me so she can see her Papa Jack (my granddad) and her granddad (my dad). I'm looking forward to the trip because of that.

I painted my nails tonight just because I could. It's one of the few girly things I've done for myself lately. Buying make-up and actually wearing it is another thing I've done too. :)

In order to help supplement my income, I have been considering selling Avon, Scentsy, adding coupons to this page (oops, I mentioned them), just something. We have enough, but at times I still feel like it's not enough. I guess I feel that way because my hours are so damned crazy at work, even though my department manager gets me more hours than I had been scheduled for. (Some weeks, I don't get that many hours.)

Miss Bug is really getting into what I like to call "big girl food," meaning jarred baby food and some food off my plate when we go somewhere to eat. Good thing is, she LOVES it. Today for breakfast, she had oatmeal, some peaches (she's not too sure about those), and a small amount of formula. She ate all of her oatmeal! She also had some sweet potatoes and a banana/strawberry mix. We went and ate at a Mexican restaurant in town and had some refried beans and rice off my plate. There was some guacamole on there too, so I let her try it. She loved it all. My little girl is such a good eater, and that makes me happy. I just hope she doesn't become one of those picky eaters when she's older......

I think tomorrow morning I'm going to mix some of her fruit in her oatmeal to make sure she eats it. (Peaches  here we come!)

I decided today as I was leaving work that I would inventory all of her food. Done. Now I just have to organize it the way that I want to and put that inventory in my coupon notebook so I have it when I go shopping.

Well, I guess I need to get back to looking for plane tickets or organize the baby food inventory or something. I am fresh out of ideas to talk about here..........

Sept. 11 and more

Today is 9/11. Obviously a day that we will NEVER forget. (If you have forgotten about what happened on this day 11 years ago, shame on you and do some research. If you're too lazy to do that, jump off a bridge. Harsh, I know.)

I was a senior in high school when this happened. The school district I went to school in had these stupid things called half days and that's what that day was. I had a doctor's appointment that morning and because the day was a half day, I was staying home from school then going to work that afternoon.

Wow, I thought I was going to blog about this when I got here tonight, but now, I don't feel like it. Long story short, I remember what I was doing and where I was when these HORRIBLE events happened and my daughter will know about it. I don't care that people have stopped showing the video from this day on TV because they are "too graphic." Piss off, you bunch of babies. We NEED to see this to remember what happened and why America changed.

Never forget

To me the skyline of Manhattan will never be the same........

On to things that make me happy.....saving money and free stuff. I'M GETTING FREE NAIL POLISH THIS WEEK!!! BOOYAH!!!!! How?

Thanks to the $1/1 coupon for Wet 'n Wild nail polish that was in the Sunday paper, all I have to pay is a teeny weeny bit of tax, and nail polish is MINE!!!! Exciting!!! I'm doing a little happy dance over here!!!!

I was going to get new eye shadow over at CVS this week for the ECB offer they have for Almay products. I still might do it, but I'm not sure if I can pass up using my $2/1 Almay product coupon to get my favorite eye shadow for $2.97 at Walmart.

I mean, the ECBs are nice and I plan on using some of the ones that I will be earning to help me get more make up. (Oh, I just remembered I have a $5 Beauty Club Reward too. Maybe I will buy this at CVS....)

I think I might be able to get me some Carmex, but I have to double check my coupon and see which product they have in the $.98 bin.

In case some haven't heard, Walgreens is changing up their reward program. I'm all signed up for it and I'm planning my first purchase with this program.

Updated my app and I'm ready to earn my points!

Yup, that's the screen shot that I took from my phone today. Super excited about this too. Woot woot! I should be saving some good money there soon too.

I'm going to try my hand at shopping at Kroger coming up soon. I think it might be worth the 30 minute drive. *Fingers crossed*

Wags rewards card and other news

Yeah, that's what I said to myself this morning when I looked at iheartwags.com, but then promptly started putting my purchases for that week together after signing up for the program.

Walgreens is calling it Balance Rewards, and you earn points to get money off your purchases. I'm guessing they are doing away with the Register Rewards catalinas. I've never bought anything that gave me the catalina coupons, so I guess I'm not worried about that. I will, however, be participating in this. It seems a LOT like the CVS ExtraCare Bucks that I love so much.

iheartwags.com, werdeals.com

ihearwags.com, werdeals.com

iheartwags.com, werdeals.com

iheartwags.com, werdeals.com

In other news, I'm finally getting a washer and dryer in the apartment. I'm hoping it gets here today because I would LOVE to wash some clothes for work before I go in today. If not, the pair will be here tomorrow and I can get caught up on my laundry then. Squee!!!!!

And here I am again

So I took a short little break away from my blog for the past few days. Sorry. :(

This past weekend was not easy for me. It marked the one year anniversary of when my grandmother left her family to take her place as an angel. I was pretty much in a crummy mood all weekend, and I was so happy that Monday rolled around as quickly as it did. (Yeah, it's weird that someone would look forward to a Monday, but I did.)

I have 100% completely decided that living in a small town that doesn't have my absolute favorite grocery store sucks. Publix occasionally rolls out these coupon books with all of these yummy coupons that I need in order to satisfy my new couponing habit/addiction. Problem is: Cullman (the town that I live in) doesn't have one. It really really sucks. The closest one is in Decatur, which is about 30 minutes away. Yes, our "new" van is a lot more mechanically sound, but we aren't sure if we want to put it to that kind of a test yet and gas isn't cheap. (Please Publix, come to Cullman!!!!!! Other than the coupons, there are several things that I need because I miss them!)

Since I'm talking about saving money, I did awesome yesterday. I walked out of CVS with a pack of Pampers and some Pampers wipes for $5.72! That's a little cheaper than getting some Parent's Choice diapers alone! How did I do it? Here's how:

• The diapers were $8.99 with the Extra Care card.
• I had gotten some coupons from Pampers in the mail. Coupon values were $4, $3, and free wipes with the purchase of diapers. (That coupon allowed me to buy 60-72 count wipes with a price of up to $3.99)
• I used my card, the $4 coupon, and the free wipes coupon and paid $5.72 for all of it.

This week CVS has a deal if you buy $30 worth of P&G products, you get $10 in Extra Care Bucks. Unfortunately, all I needed were the diapers, so I didn't get to earn any of those ECBs. (Pampers is a P&G product).

Here's the edit with the receipt. Ignore the peanut butter. 

Work is going pretty well. I didn't get the full time position in my department, but I was asked to be a sponsor. Sponsors at Walmart are basically department trainers. I know that I don't get paid any extra to be a trainer, but it's okay. It's another little feather in my cap to add to my resume to help me move up. I'm hoping that there is another full time position in my department open that I can apply for. I think the only thing that might be held against me is the fact that I've been with Walmart for less than 6 months. I haven't really been there 3 months yet, and I haven't gotten my discount card yet.

I should try to get a little bit more sleep before Miss Bug wakes up. It is pretty early in the morning still. Oh, and I have to put a bill payment in the mail before I forget and the mail gets here.

New happenings

Well, hmmmm.....

Let's see. Miss Bug has decided that she wants to start becoming more mobile. She's attempting crawling, and she's rather successful (yet awkward).

And to think it all started with her pulling herself across the floor on pretty much her elbows that morning.

She had her four month shots a few days ago (not sure if I mentioned this). She did fantastic. Miss Bug is such a little trooper. She definitely makes it easy for a first time mommy to handle the whole immunization process.

Work is work. Someone in my department was terminated last week, so it seems like more hours are available. (I'm scheduled for 38.5 this week alone, which is always nice.) I still have to deal with Old Bitch, but I spend most of the day ignoring her because her negative attitude is highly offensive. (I don't need any language that can be considered offensive to get me in trouble.)

My mother in law was saying something about boiled cookies the other day on Facebook, and I was like, "Huh?" They also go by the name of no bake cookies. Tonight, I decided to look at Pinterest and see if I could find a recipe. Of course, I did. Guess what items are going on my shopping list next time? You got it. Boiled cookie supplies, and they will be made on my day off.

Speaking of days off from work, THURSDAY!!!! Woot! Agenda for the day:

1. Take Hubster to work
2. Clean
3. Bake cookies (been meaning to do this for a couple days now)
4. Dr.'s appointment (story for another blog post)
5. Cook dinner (I have no clue what yet. Pinterest maybe?)

Ugh, I suppose I should get out of here and get to bed. I have stuff to do!!!!