We're fans of the ref!!

My dad has been a basketball official for over 30 years. Any time he has a game close to us we go cheer him on! He had a game in Camden tonight so we got to see him. I think Fred, Clayton, Jack, my mom and I were quite possibly the only people in the referee's cheering section, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! I mentioned earlier that we are fans of the ref. Well, we are also fans of game food! You just can't beat nachos, pizza, hot dogs and Powerade!

Good Times!!

Tennessee Snow Day

Since our yard is relatively flat we loaded up the front wheel drive sleigh and headed to Melody's house. She has hills and hot chocolate!!The adults turn down the hill...
The kiddos turns down the hill, which was mostly mud by this point...Bennett did not quite make it down on his sled. I wish this picture had sound b/c he was crying and saying, "It's not funny, guys!" Sorry Bennett, but it was a little funny!! All the boys taking their turn together...We had a great day in the snow at Melody's house! Did I mention she had hot chocolate?!?!

Country Ham Dinner

Several weeks ago Fred saw a program on the Food Network about how to cook a country ham. He has been, for lack of a better word, obsessed with it since then. We decided to invite some country ham experts over for dinner to test out the ham with us. I made slaw, beans, blueberry salad and cornbread and Beth brought hashbrown casserole, rolls, coca cola cake and tea. What a feast! Fred's ham really was good! Thanks Alton Brown for the recipe and thanks to the Harrods for the ham!!
Jack liked the ham, but he REALLY liked Beth's coca cola cake...as you can see in the above picture!!

Hopefully you read Melody's blog as well...

So Melody and I got a big laugh out of our friends blog which showed pictures of Katie's "Tacky Christmas Party". Katherine wore a sweater dress and Melody asked me if I recognized it. Of course I did!! Melody had that dress when we were in high school and I had a picture of her in that dress. I think when we graduated from high school Melody made me a scrapbook and that picture was in it. Looking back over the scrapbook really brought back a lot of memories. When I saw some of these pictures I just had to post a few...just for giggles...
Some of you out there are thinking, "Hey, We've been friends a long time and you didn't post any pictures of me?!?" Well all in time my friends, all in time!!
Thanks Katie and Katherine for the memories! Check out Melody's blog by clicking here.

Two times around the block!

It is 60 degrees here today! Can you believe it?!? While Clayton is at school Jack has gotten to play outside in his new sand box and ride behind Fred's bike. A friend of ours at the gym loaned us this special seat for 2 that attaches to a bike. Fred is going to ride later this afternoon, but I suggested he take Jack around the block a couple of times. Fred said each time he went back around Jack would say, "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, daddy!".

Drum roll, please...

I got all of this at Kroger for.............................. $2.45!!!!!!!!!! Yes, all of this for $2.45, but allow me to explain. Kroger is running a special this week that if you buy 10 items from a certain list you get $5 off your entire purchase. While I was glancing over the list I realized I had coupons for many of the items. For example, the Green Giant Steamers were part of the deal, but they were also on sale for $1.59. I had four coupons for $1 off each bag, plus my $0.50 per item discount which made them $0.09 a bag!! I counted all of this up and my total was supposed to be around $5 plus tax. When they rang me up it ended up being $10.32. I looked over my receipt and noticed they had made an error. Kroger's policy is to refund the amount they made a mistake on--2 bags of vegetables for $3.65 . So they handed me $7.87 in cash...thus making my total $2.45!!

Here is what I got:
2 blocks of cream cheese
2 bags of meatballs
1 bag of Chex Mix
4 bags of Green Giant Steamers
1 bag of break apart cookies

Oh my goodness! I am still in shock! I have to give credit to my mom. She taught me everything I know about coupons and saving money. In addition to all of this she also saves her coupons out of her paper for me each week! What would we do without mothers?!?

Jack's new room

Jack got a "big boy room" this week. Fred and I worked Sunday and yesterday to get it ready. Jack's response to his new room was..."Why you paint my house brown?". He really seemed to like it. We have a little more tweeking to do, but for the most part it is done.

Most important though, he actually slept in his "big boy bed" without any objections. He still does not know he can get out of his bed by himself. I'm sure he'll figure that out soon enough!

Renee's Chocolate Cheesecake

Bunko is at my house this week and I was trying to decide what to have for dinner. Renee (my mother-in-law) makes a delicious, home-made chocolate cheesecake. She makes it for most of our birthday meals. I have never attempted to make it...until now. After numerous phone calls to Renee I think the final product came out great! Although the cheesecake will not be the same since we are not eating it in Memphis I am looking forward to sharing it with my Paris friends.
I said "share it with my friends". I literally meant that. I have been eating this cheesecake with the Shackelfords for 12 years now and I've never seen the recipe...until today!! We'll just sum it up by saying I'll share it with my friends. I'll probably not eat it again unless I'm training for a half marathon!! (I'll just leave you with FOUR blocks of cream cheese!!! Yes, I said four!)

I love a deal, Part II...

I HAD to go to Walmart this morning to look for something (which they were out of). While I was there I got curious about my deals yesterday. I wrote down the price of everything I got yesterday at Kroger and took into account my coupons. Had I bought all that stuff yesterday at Walmart with my coupons it would have been $70. That is a $22 difference. For those of you like me who are really nerdy, that would be a 45.8% increase on my total bill at Walmart. Gotta love Kroger! It is always encouraging to see David beat Goliath!!
But not to leave Walmart in the cold...we were in the market for a point and shoot digital camera. They had a Canon camera marked about 25% off. I guess we'll forgive Walmart for not being the "low price leader" on yesterdays purchases since they helped us on our camera today!

I love a deal!

So, Jack and I headed to Kroger this morning because I needed the ingredients for a cake and laundry detergent. I noticed in their ad a few other things that were on a really good sale that we could use as well. When I walked down one aisle I noticed they were having the sale of the century!! I was so excited! It was like Christmas morning for me!! I got all of this for $48! But wait, let me tell you what all is in this stack...1 bottle of Pantene shampoo
4 bottles of Herbal Essences shampoo/conditioner
1 bottle of Gilette body wash
1 tube of Crest children's toothpaste
2 containers of cool whip
1 box of femimine products
1 bar of cream cheese
1 container of canola oil
1 container of Betty Crocker frosting
1 Duncan Hines cake mix
1 box of Special K cereal
1 box of Special K bars
1 bos of Special K bites
1 64 load container of Tide
1 bottle of Downy fabric softener
8 rolls of Bounty paper towels
2 boxes of Batman fruit snacks

WOW!! Isn't that exciting?? If you spent $25 (before coupons) on P&G products you got $5 off instantly. My favorite deal of the day was the Special K cereal and cereal bars. They were 3 for $8. If you bought 3 though you got $4 off instantly, making them 3 for $4. But, I had coupons in addition to this so I got all three boxes for $2!! Isn't that amazing!!
It doesn't just stop at this though. I found a new website this week, pgeverydaysolutions.com. When you spend $50 in P&G products you can mail in your receipts to get $120 worth of coupons. Thank you Kroger! The savings just keep coming and coming!!