Quiksilver Sheet Set

A couple weeks ago I stopped in Bed Bath & Beyond just browsing and happened across this sheet set on the clearance shelf...

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=117509&RN=17

It's definitely not a sheet set that I would normally buy just to buy them.... however, please notice the price of the queen set is $69.99, and I got the set for a mere $11.48 because it was their display set! Oh, and I had a gift card, so I didn't really pay anything out of my pocket. I was SO thrilled with my find! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Martin's Trip

So today, in addition to my Walmart trip, I ran over to Martin's (which is right next door to Walmart) to get just a couple things that were on sale that I had coupons for. I was happy with the deals I got, and Bailey was happy too, although for a different reason.... :)

Here's my "loot"...



I got:
5 cans of tomato soup for 44 cents a piece
2 cans Cream of Mushroom & 2 cans Cream of Chicken for 58 cents a piece
2 bags Steamfresh Meals for Two for $2.25 a piece

Total: $10.42
Savings of 51%

I'm going to hit up Kroger either Thursday or Friday. They have good deals this week on Michelina's Frozen Entrees and Nature Valley Granola Bar products and Post cereal.

Painting Ideas

Okay, so you people (except for Sheree, thanks for the advice!) either love my house the way it is, or are just as clueless and inept about decorating as I am! :)

So here is what I've come up with....

I have several lighter green/olive color swatches that I am leaning towards for in the living room. And I think I want to paint the wall with the windows and loveseat and probably the wall with the Starry Night painting and the chaise lounge. Possibly the wall with the couch, but I want to start with the other two first. I don't want to do the wall with the wedding pictures and TV because that wall extends into the kitchen as well, and I don't want it green in there.

Then, I am thinking of putting chair rail in the dining area and painting blue on the bottom (to match my blue French Toille curtain in the kitchen). Then I'll either just leave the top the same that it is, or I'm going to have to find a neutral color that goes well with the blue in the dining room and the green in the living room, since the top color in the dining room and the TV wall/kitchen wall will be the same.

Does all that make sense?? I think I might try to edit these pictures in paint shop just show I can show what I mean. It makes me really nervous to do all this, but I really need to spice things up so I think I just need to go for it. Even if it looks bad, it's just paint, it can be fixed. So tell me what you think! Any ideas or suggestions are welcome!

American Scholar

Meet Cameron - He is a great young man that is in our youth group. We also work with his parents (who are also Liberty grads) in Trek on Wednesday nights and we just love this family! They have 2 daughters, Paige, who just got married this summer and is living in Lynchburg with her husband Stephen, and Elle, who is a freshman at Virginia Tech. So, I'm sure you can imagine, as they will have 2 kids in college next year, life is getting more expensive for them!

So, it would be great if Cameron could win the Spirit FM Liberty University American Scholar contest. It would be a 4 year full tuition scholarship to LU for Cameron. He is very deserving for the scholarship and I have no doubt that he is going to go on to do great things, during and after college, and would make excellent use of this scholarship.

So if you have not already, and wouldn't mind just taking about a minute out of your schedule, would you go vote for Cameron? Just click on the link and fill out the information. You have to enter your email so they can send you a confirmation link, which you have to click to finalize your vote. Don't worry, they won't add you to their email list unless you ask them to. Thanks so much for your help! I know I speak for Cameron and his family when I say that they appreciate your vote!

Meal Plan Monday

Here's the plan for the week....

Also, it's getting to be soup weather, so I'm looking for good, easy soup recipes, if you have any. Let me know!

Monday
Anthony Quiz Bowl Meet/I'm going to Mom's!

Tuesday
Farmhouse Chicken
Green Beans

Wednesday
Grilled Cheese
Tomato Soup

Thursday
Savannah Chicken Salad
Corn

Friday
English Muffin Pizzas

Saturday
Scrambled Eggs
Bacon
Toast

Kroger Won & Painting Suggestions

Yep, I was wrong. The toaster strudels were on a different sale, not the "But 10, Get $5" sale. Bummer. Oh well. I learned my lesson and will be paying much closer attention next time. I still got some decent deals, despite my stupidness! :)

Anyways, we've had a good weekend. Saturday Anthony had SAT's at school so Bailey and I headed over to Mom's and then when Zoe got home, we went to the pumpkin patch at Country Connections. We had such a fun time. We took a horse wagon ride to the pumpkin patch, picked our pumpkins (which we really cheap, price, not quality, by the way!), and browsed around the store. I love going to that store and wish I was rich so I could buy lots of stuff! I got some majorly cute pics of Bailey and Zoe at the pumpkin patch and hopefully I'll get them uploaded soon.

Then today we had church and was at Mom's for the afternoon and then had our lifegroup fellowship at church this evening. Lots of yummy food and of course it's always fun to fellowship with friends from church.

Tomorrow evening Anthony has a quiz bowl match so I am going to go to Mom's for dinner and see a volleyball game at Ridgeview. I've been wanting to go to a game, so this is a good chance for me to do that. The rest of the week holds some grocery shopping (hopefully I won't need very much this week) and I'm thinking about browsing paint colors at Lowe's and/or Home Depot. I really want to do some painting in our house but I feel like I am so bad at decorating choices. I'm also not sure if I want to do every wall, or maybe just two walls. So take a look at the pictures and give me any suggestions you have! I'm open to anything! :)

Showdown with Kroger

So I went to Kroger yesterday to get some things on their "Buy 10, Get $5 off" sale, and unfortunately I can't read and made a booboo causing me to not get the $5, or Kroger's computer made a booboo. I'm hoping it was the computer, but I'm guessing it was probably me. However, I am going to make the trek back over to Kroger today to go find those darn Toaster Strudels and see what the tag says. I'll let you know who wins the battle. :) I think I did pretty good with or without the $5, but it would be really good with the $5.

I'm also going to drop by Walmart to look for something I am wanting for the house. And I must say that I am excited to go to Walmart for a non-grocery purpose. I'll probably also hit up the toy section to look at the Cabbage Patch dolls and see if any of them have Bailey's birthday by chance.

Then, as long as Bailey is still in a good mood, I think we may go to the park for a little while. I know the nice days are numbered, so I feel like we need to enjoy the great outdoors while we still can.

Now, on to my cooking/baking I did yesterday. I made the Roasted Chicken & Veggies that you no doubt saw on my Meal Plan Monday. It was good and fairly easy, but if you put Lemon Pepper seasoning on it, like Kelly does in her recipe, I would go easy on that. I put it on mine, and the green beans turned out too lemony for my taste. I think I'll make it again, but with less seasoning.

And then, I made The Pioneer Woman's Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet minus the iron skillet - I don't have one so I used my stainless steel skillet. Thanks for the suggestion, Courtney! Anyways, this is really good and I highly recommend it. I think it is best when it is warm out of the oven, but still delicious even not warm. I am looking forward to having some of this for a snack later tonight. :)

Okay, that's all for now. Just waiting for Bailey to wake up so we can run our errands.

Wordless Wednesday

Apple Picking

On Saturday Anthony's parents came for a visit, and we headed over to Chiles Peach Orchard in Crozet to pick apples. It was a neat place and we had a good time. I can't believe we have that place so close to us but had never been there before! We picked Fuji and Granny Smith apples. Anthony's mom and I made 2 different types of apple crsip later that evening, and they were great! I got enough apples that I am going to make another one sometime this week. Here are a few pics from the trip.

We can't wait to go back again next year, when Bailey is old enough to actually pick some apples herself! :)

Meal Plan Monday

Here we are.... another week! They are just flying by and it's so hard to believe it is October already and Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before we know it. I actually have a lot of recipes that I want to try but the week is just too short to have fit them all in. But we are trying a couple of new things this week. Thank goodness for other blogging Moms sharing their recipes! Here's the plan for the week....

Monday
Anthony gone for Quiz Bowl meet @ Fort Defiance/I'm going to Mom's!

Tuesday
Ravioli
Peas

Wednesday
Grilled Cheese
Tomato Soup

Thursday
Roasted Chicken & Veggies

Friday
Stromboli
Pringles
Pickle Spears

Saturday
Crockpot Chicken & Dumplings
Corn

Food Lion Deals

Here are my best deals from my trip to Food Lion today....

and the breakdown....

*2 boxes Honey Nut Cheerios: MVP price B1G1 at $4.00 each minus $1/2 coupon = $1.50 per box

*Toaster Strudel: MVP price $1.79 minus $1 coupon = 79 cents

*Crest Toothpaste: MVP price $1.75 each minus $1/2 coupon = $1.25 per tube

*Edy's Ice Cream: MVP price $1.99 (didn't have a coupon on this, but we're making apple crisp tomorrow, so we NEEDED some ice cream to go with it) :)

*Creamer: MVP price $1.67 minus $0.55 coupon = $1.12

*Smithfield Bacon: MVP price B1G1 at $4.99 each minus $3/1 coupon = $1.00 per pack

Tha brings my total on these items to $11.40. The regular price, without any sales or coupons would have been $31.53, making my savings $20.13 or 64%. Although, like Kroger, I believe most things are overpriced at Food Lion as well. My best deal was definitely that bacon. I have had that coupon for a while but had been hanging on to it hoping to find a great deal like that.

They also had a good sale on Gain Laundry Detergent and Coke products, so I got some of those as well.

Well, Bailey is in her bed now, supposed to be taking a nap, and I need to get some cleaning done. Anthony's parents come tomorrow - excited about that! :) Hope everyone has a great weekend.

October!

So it has been a week since I blogged! I think I'm having withdrawals. :) Not quite, but it just feels like the weeks are going by so fast. I can't believe it is October 1st already, and my baby turned 9 months old on Sunday. It's sad that she is growing up so fast, but I'm also glad that my days at home don't drag on and on.

Where to start?? I got a couple of good deals in my shopping this week, mainly Bird's Eye vegetables (regular and SteamFresh) that Martin's had on sale. They were 69 cents a bag, which they advertised as the lowest price of the year, and I had a couple of coupons as well, so I'm guessing I probably got them for closer to 50 cents a bag or so. And I kept my total under $40 this week, which I don't hold myself to, but it's what I have in my mind that I would like to be able to do every week.

I was going to go to Target today to pick up some coke that is on sale, but while Bailey was napping this morning, I happened upon the Food Lion specials this week (their circular has not be in the paper the past few weeks, not sure why?) and they have soda for a better price, along with a few other great deals that I cannot pass up. They also have a few things on a 3 day sale which starts tomorrow, so I decided to skip Target and go to Food Lion tomorrow. I'm excited about some of the deals I should be able to get.

I didn't get around to posting our menu for the week but I have to brag on the new recipe I tried on Tuesday. It was Poppyseed Chicken from Kelly at Kelly's Korner and it was yum-o! I definitely recommend serving it with rice, like she suggests. And it was so good, that my husband, who rarely likes leftovers, suggested that I just whip up some more rice and we could have the leftovers for dinner on Wednesday evening! And it was just as good the second time around. :) Tonight we are having baked spaghetti, which is all ready to go, just needs to be put in the oven, and tomorrow night we're having french toast and bacon.

This weekend Anthony's parents are coming to visit, so we are looking forward to that. We are planning to go apple picking at Chiles Peach Orchard and I've never been there before so I'm excited to check it out. I love doing things like that with Bailey in tow. It's so fun to introduce her to new things and watch her learn and grow. :)

Well, I think that's about all for now. I believe my little one is awake from her nap now. Speaking of which, I just have to throw this in, I think we are finally on a good, consistent schedule for naps now! She has been taking a morning nap usually at 9 or a little after and an afternoon nap at 2 or so, and her naps have mostly started being between an hour to an hour and 45 minutes (whereas sometimes she would just sleep for 30 or 45 minutes), so I am one thankful mama!