Weather Forecast

Whoo hooo!!! The weather forecast for next Saturday the day of the wedding is 86 degrees and 0% chance of rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, it's now June 2 and I am now obsessed with checking the weather for Saturday, it's now 80 degrees with a 40% chance of rain. Cooler is much better!!

Nursing School

Oh, I forgot to share, I got into Nursing School!! I'll be doing the 4 yr BSN program, which will allow me to continue working for awhile. The school is considered one of the best in the area and hard to get into so I'm very pleased.

Instant Oatmeal for Pennies

Instant oatmeal is a great healthy easy breakfast. You can make your own much cheaper and healthier than the storebought. First you'll need a box of quick cooking oats, baggies and salt.
Powder 1 cup of oats in the food processor. Put in each baggy 1/4 c oats, 2 Tbsp powdered oats and 1/4 tsp salt. Seal baggie and store in a tupperware container. To prepare add 2/3 c milk or water and microwave for 2 minutes. Add more or less milk depending on how you like the consistency of your oatmeal.

You can make your favorite flavors too. Just add 1 Tbsp sugar and 2 Tbsp dried fruit and enjoy. We try to dehydrate our own fruit whenever we can right now we have coconut, strawberries, apples, oranges and bananas.

A box of instant generic/store brand instant oatmeal is $2.00 for a box of 10 servings. We paid today $2.00 for a box of oats, which will make 40 servings. Plus our oatmeal has 4 ingredients oats, salt, sugar and fruit, not the big list of ingredients we can't pronounce that the store bought oatmeal has.

Update - We made used our homemade instant oatmeal for breakfast this morning (me-maple syrup and brown sugar, him-cinnamon and apples) It was delicious!! So much better than the storebought. The only change I'm going to make is to try 1/8 tsp salt instead of the 1/4, it was a little salty tasting to us.

Make money with your purchases

I've been using a website called Ebates to get discounts and cash back on all my online purchases. It's true, I'm not lying, last week I got my first check for $16.66. There are over 900 merchants on the website, major companies, not places you've never heard of. I don't do alot of online purchases but whenever I do I always go through Ebates. Sometimes I get free shipping, or a discount on the purchases, but more often than not it's a cash back rebate, anywhere from 1%-5% of the purchase. It's free money, very cool!!

If you're interested click here to learn more and sign up - http://www.ebates.com/referral/0508bonusosu.htm?referrerid=FZiZ0Ub8K3sTJWKvP1z4Og%3D%3D

Court Ruling in Texas

"Court: Texas Had No Right to Keep Polygamy Kids"

"An appeals court ruled today that Texas didn't have the authority to keep dozens of children from a polygamist sect in state custody. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin, in response to motions from at least 50 sect mothers, ruled that Child Protective Services did not present enough evidence at a hearing last month that their children were at risk of abuse to justify keeping them in state custody. "

"The court said that the state had not demonstrated that the children were in immediate danger and that Judge Barbara Walther abused her discretion in failing to return the children to their families. "

See entire article here - http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=4911318&page=1

Whether or not you believe polygamy is right or wrong, NO ONE should be persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Couponing

We've been getting into using coupons in the last few months. I had never been one to use coupons, I always forgot them and the paper never seemed to have very many. But living up here the local paper has tons of good coupons. Paul sent me this article last night about a woman that by using coupons is feeding her family of 5 for $10 a week. http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=115698 WOW!! I am no where near able to do what she is doing.

But today I did get some great deals by using coupons. I think my best one today was toothpaste, it was 2 for $4 , I had one coupon for $1.50 off and another for $0.50 off, then the stores doubles coupons so I got the toothpaste for free. Toothpaste seems to be one of those easy things to get for free or next to nothing. There are tons of coupons out there for toothpaste and seems like every week the store has one type of toothpaste on sale. I think we have about 5 tubes of toothpaste in the pantry right now and I haven't paid full price for any of them. Stock up, it's not like you won't use it! My other good deal today was shampoo, it was $6.59, I had 3 - $1.00 off coupons, which when doubled I got the shampoo for $0.59. Awesome!! I' m not sure if all stores will let you use more than one coupon for items, but mine will, so multiple coupons along with double the amounts, really adds up.

It does take time to pull this off, I usually take about an hour on sunday to go through the new coupons and the store ads mentally planning what I want to buy. Now I don't do like alot of people do and go to all the different grocery stores in the area. I have 3 stores I will shop at for groceries and toiletries, Kroger, Walgreens and CVS. I actually only go to walmart about once a month now because they don't double coupons and don't have great sales, but a few of the items we need are always cheaper there. I go through the ads and see what is on sale, because we have a well stocked pantry, I only buy things when they are on sale or if my coupons make the item a great price. Then before I go to the store, I check my grocery list, and go through the sales ad again and through the coupons pulling out the coupons I want to use. I tend to go on Saturdays to shop which is working well because we get the Kroger ad for the next week on Saturday and if something is a better price next week than this week, I know to wait and get it then. For example today Pepsi products are on sale but only if you buy $10 worth of other specific items. But starting Monday Pepsi products are on sale for the same prices but without the restriction of purchasing the specific items.

I don't think we'll ever be at $10 a week for groceries, alot of that is because we cook mostly from scratch and use fresh vegetables as much as possible. Lots of coupons seem to be for prepackaged meals and boxed food. But it's definitely a help. Let's face it folks food prices aren't going to go down, gas prices are rising, you've got to save every penny you can.

Verse on growing old

I was reading a chapter from a book a volunteer shared with me. It's about Spiritual Direction with the Dying, nothing in it was earth shattering, mostly the importance of being there and listening with people as they are going through the dying process. One verse from the Bible they quoted however caught my eye:

John 21:18
"I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go."

There is alot more to the passage than just that and has a deeper meaning than just growing old, but it's something many of us will face as we grow older and can no longer take care of our selves.

Ok, on a happier note, 3 weeks til the wedding!

Organizing

On Tuesday I decided to drag out all the wedding junk and starting organizing it. There were bags and boxes all over the living room so Reese decided to help me out.

Even though she wasn't much help, the end result was still good. We still need another tote, but we have a very nice organized and labeled pile of wedding day supplies.

More Pics

This is where we had dinner on our second date. I call it the first real date. It was such a great date too, we saw Gone with the Wind in the old historic theater and then walked in the arena district to the restuarant, it was lovely.

The exposure is off on a couple of these, but I actually really like the effect.

I think this one is my favorite.

Centerpiece Pics

We are using pictures of us for the table numbers, our friend will be hiding a number somewhere in the picture. Here our a few of the pictures we took last weekend. Hopefully I'll have more to share this week.

Tickling my ear!

I love how we're laughing while kissing.

This is not a real couch, it's a concrete one outside on the sidewalk.

Canning

I got a pressure canner a few weeks ago and have been busy playing with it. In the 2 weeks we've put up alot of food, so far we have chicken, ham, taco meat, sloppy joe, roast beef, and beef broth, about 14 quarts of food (14 ready to eat meals). Below is the vegetable soup I did tonight. Pressure canning is a great way to preserve food either from your garden or when you find an awesome deal on meat. It's very easy to do and if you follow the directions you won't poison yourself or blow up the canner, so there is no need to be scared of canning.

"And the rain descended,

and the floods came,

and the winds blew,

and beat upon that house;

and it fell not:

for it was founded upon a rock."

Matthew 7:25

Sneak Peak

Here's a sneak peek of the invitation. They are going out in the mail this weekend!

Fun ways to pass time

38%

14

Blizzard

We got hit with a major snow storm. It started yesterday morning, and is finally starting to slow down today (it's 3:45pm now). This was our back patio this morning, I measured 10 inches out there. It was drifted up against the fence so bad I couldn't get the door open more than 2 inches.

The snow is drifted up around the cars, in some spots over the tires.
View from the front porch, the hazy look in the air is actually the blizzard.

I just measured again and one spot measured 11 inches and another 13 inches, either way that's alot of snow out there.

The start of the showdown

This was the start of the fight. The cats just cannot share the window.

Then Max stole the house box. I love the innocent looks they are giving me all the while they are plotting.
The start of the showdown, Shiloh is fed up with Max in her box.

55 degrees and sunny

This was our view last week. Snow, snow and freezing rain.

Today! 55 degrees, sunny and breezy. The animals are taking advantage of open doors & windows.

The trail of dirt....

So apparently one of the cats has a grudge against one of the houseplants. 3 times in the past day this poor innocent plant has been viciously attacked and ripped from its pot. And if that torture wasn't enough, it was drug around the house, chewed on, and played with. The plant has been moved into the houseplant relocation program and is trying to recover from it's trauma, but honestly it doesn't look good, it suffered from a broken stem and is looking very yellow. 3 suspects have been identified in the attack - Shiloh, Reese and Max. So far Shiloh has been cleared as she does not like to play in the dirt, we are considering checking the paws of Max and Reese for dirt. Further investigation is planned.

Meat Sale and Preparedness

Some girls buy shoes, some buy fancy clothes, me, I like to buy meat, especially meat on sale. I don't know why but I always worry we don't have enough food in the house, plus we are trying to create an emergency stockpile in case of a disaster or flu epidemic. So today I hit a great sale, pork ribs $1 a pound, $1 Amazing, shoulder steaks $2.40/lb. Now these did come in family packs, but all that means is I get to play with my seal-a-meal and divide up the meat for the freezer. The ribs will make 2 meals and the steaks I should be able to make into 3 meals (2 pieces were very large, 2 were smaller). So back to my compulsion of buying food, I decided to count out how many meals I could make out of just the food in my freezer. Without considering the potential for leftovers, I can make 16 meals from the items just in my freezer. Considering we only eat about 4 evening meals together a week, I have a month of food just in my freezer. Adding in the pasta, soup, canned goods and leftovers, we probably have 5-6 weeks of food in the kitchen alone. Now my personal long term goal is having a 6 month supply of food, but of course alot of that needs to be dry goods and canned goods. I'm not sure how much we have in the stockpile I just hand the items to Paul and he puts them away but I think we're on a good start. I really need to switch my focus to drygoods and canned goods for the stockpile and kitchen. One way we are doing that is to always have a backup ready, for example, I have a large box of Bisquick in the cupboard and another one put away in the pantry (note for us the pantry and the stockpile are two different things). We've just started this system and only have a few items so far.

How long could you survive without a trip to the grocery store? Are you prepared for the possibility of having to stay in your house for several weeks?

Countdown

Let the countdown begin !!!!

3 Months and 2 weeks to go!!!!!!!!!