Canteloupe Update!

I know you are DYING to know what my single lonely cantaloupe looks like today, right? Well, dun da da daaahhh!!!!



:) I think I can pick it tomorrow. Not sure why we are waiting until tomorrow, but Farmer Ben said it needed another day....

My couponing paying off

Over at Chicks with Cents, they are doing a blog hop on people's stockpiles. They've talked about organization too but without actually having a pantry, I have no organization other than just finding a spot! So just to show you what all my couponing has done (i'm pretty sure ben and i could eat for 2 months w/o going to the store) Here you go:

Not sure if you can tell but above my cabinets are 6 boxes of mac/cheese and there are more in the cabinet! (They were free after coupon at publix a couple months ago).

Here is my other cabinet: 4 things of mayonnaise, 6 dressings, 2 A1 sauce, 2 syrups, 2 crystal light, bbq sauce and enough hot chocolate for the winter. I need someone to come over to eat pancakes! It is a rarity that I cook them, but how can you pass up $.50 pancakes/syrup! (i'm just guessing that was how much it was awhile back because I wouldn't have bought it otherwise)


Here are my purchases today. I am not even close to being as good as the amazing girls at Chicks w/ Cents or Southern Savers, but I was pleased... Spent $31 and saved $50! The penny item was greenwise TP, hiding behind the potatoes. And there is my sweet Sierra dog poking her head up for some South Beach granola bars.

Welcome to the world Ava Grace!

Sweet little Ava Grace was born yesterday on August 27, 2009 at 7:21am weighing in at 5lbs even and 19.5 inches long.

She was born exactly 6 weeks early, but we were ecstatic. You may not know, but it is VERY important to be born on the 27th in our family. My birthday as well as Ava's brother Austin, Uncle Ben, Uncle Chris and Uncle Jim are all born on the 27th and now she is too! We weren't sure what we'd do if she was born on another day... probably just never remember it.

Jessica's water broke on Sunday, 7 weeks early. This was very scary because she was so early, but they managed to keep Ava in for 4 more days and give Jessica 2 steroid shots for Ava's lungs.

Well she came out, went to NICU for 2 hours to get checked for being so early and for the risk of infection and went straight into well baby! She is eating, breathing, keeping her temperature up all by herself. They said she's ready to go home Saturday!!

Party in the USA

I try really hard....to not like Miley Cyrus... However she is kinda like walking into a room with cartoons on. 10 minutes later I realize I'm staring blankly at the TV screen with my mouth wide open. It makes complete sense how kids get so sucked in! Well, every time I hear the Party in the USA song, I tend to look like this before I realize it..... that dang Miley Cyrus...

There is a horse in the audience.

This weekend went by way too quickly.

Friday night we went to Paint and Party in 5 points for Painting with a Purpose, benefiting Cross My Heart. $10 from every ticket goes directly to Cross My Heart. However, sadly, only ONE person came. Great support. So we have two more events, this coming Friday which I will not be able to get to because I have class every other Friday night, but our finale Painting with a Purpose is August, 28 and will involve Cosmo's next door. Hopefully there will be more than zero people there. Here is Kathryn's Painting from this week, too cute:Saturday I went to Standifer's Animal Clinic to meet their dogs and take pictures because they have no way of advertising the dogs they have up for adoption. I met these two sweet girls that have been at the shelter for 6 YEARS!

Click their picture to learn more about their story. They are definitely up for adoption. I then had lunch w/ several of the CMH girls to talk about upcoming fundraisers. We have Boo at the Zoo in October and Pet-A-Palooza!

Saturday night was my friend Amber's husband's CD release party at Work Play. It was a lot of fun because a lot of our friends from school showed up.

However, things were a bit strange throughout the night. I'm not sure how well you can see this picture but there is a guy w/ a horse head on.... in the audience, who occasionally played thumb wars with the girl leading him around.

Also, on the side of the stage for the entire show, was a scientist wearing a gas mask stirring beakers. Yep... again, I'm at a loss.

So on that note, Happy Monday. School starts again this week and my NCE exam is getting closer and closer. I'll be so glad when November gets here, things should slow down quite a bit.

We have a cantaloupe!

So, as an update to my black thumb of gardening post here. You can see my teeny cantaloupe plant. Well, the chives and lettuce didn't make it. Apparently I can't plant anything that requires too much attention or knowledge, because it may be days or weeks before I remember to water it and I just don't have the time to go read about how to grow things right now. :-/

Well, it seems cantaloupe does not require much! Our teeny plant has become a monster and taken over half the flower beds/grass.

And on a more exciting note, we actually have a small cantaloupe or two.

I have no idea if this will ever be edible, but I'm pretty pleased with it still. Hopefully the bugs won't find it before its big enough to pick! I was told by a friend who is MUCH more successful at growing fruit/veggies, to put the cantaloupes in tied off panty-hose once they grow to keep bugs/critters away. I never thought I'd get that far, but I may have to stop by walmart!

This weekend

Very eventful.... or rather uneventful weekend?

Friday night we planned on having Chris' going away party, since he was scheduled to go into the Marine's on Monday. Well... this week, his recruiter postponed Chris' leave date for the second time and said he couldn't leave until February! (Keep in mind he signed up this past February! You'd think they'd jump on people signing up... ) Anywhoo... Chris and his girlfriend forgot to cancel his party, so we still had his going away party w/ all his friends and our family. :) He is trying to sign w/ the army to leave sooner, but apparently that is more trouble than it sounds, so its completely up in the air now as to where he is going and when, but he WILL go somewhere... sometime!
Here is Stevie at the going away party. I'm pretty sure those are woman's glasses.

So... Saturday, Ben and I were scheduled to go up to Tennessee for some important family stuff. But... before we left that got canceled as well. We were schedule to make several stops in Tennessee during the day and found out our plans were all going to be interrupted, so Ben canceled it all and we spent the day w/ his mom instead, which was much less stressful! Here is Logan wishing we would let her out of the car...
Sunday! Today was cleaning, Publix (saved $57, spent $60 - not my best), and movies! I took a break to go get a Sunday paper filled w/ coupons and instead found this little baby:
This poor baby was wandering in the highway and the gas station attendant said she'd been there all day dodging cars! So I bought a few slim jims and coaxed her into letting me pick her up. She's now (hopefully sleeping) in our garage. The funny part is, Ben's yelling at me saying "we can't keep her!!!" while petting her and talking baby talk to her. He wants to not love them all so bad! lol. If you know of anyone missing this dog, let me know!

Next weekend should be fun, Friday - Paint & Party! Saturday - Puppies & Jesse's CD Release Party at workplay! Sunday... studying for the NCE.