Kroger Shakedown!

Yes, it's a day early. Kroger is having a three-day sale, so our Listmaker at The Grocery Game put up a list today. There will be another tomorrow with the Sunday inserts, but it was worth it to me to go today.

Also, I don't normally make a special trip because the nearest Kroger is 14 miles away, but Jason needed a part for the Jeep from an auto parts store up there so we went. (We also took my mom, so she helped keep Anna Marie occupied. Grammas FTW!)

This was one of the best weeks I'd had in a LONG time. I now am officially out of space in my cabinets - which isn't saying much. I'll have to take a picture some time, so y'all know how truly limited my space is!

One of the great things about this week was the Mega Event, where you buy 10 of a certain group of items and get an extra $5 off. Usually they let you do that three times (getting a total of $15 off) and for the first time, I did the limit!

Here's how my trip went:

1 bottle of Kroger brand cleaner with bleach
1 box of Capri Sun Roaring Waters
2 cans of evaporated milk
1 box of Krusteaz muffin mix (low fat cranberry orange - yum!)
3 boxes of Fiber One Bars (I had three paper coupons, plus one Cell Fire and one Shortcuts coupon loaded on my Kroger card)
2 bottles of French's yellow mustard
2 bottles of French's honey mustard dip
1 bottle of Frank's Red Hot
4 boxes of Kraft mac and cheese (Sponge Bob edition - Anna Marie hasn't realized that yet!)
2 cans of Hormel Turkey Chili
3 cans of Hunts Diced Tomatoes (I had a paper coupon and a Shortcuts coupon on my card)
2 packages of Kraft shredded 2% milk cheese
1 package of Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese (for my mom, who was only getting a couple of things and not doing the Mega Event)
1 Cadbury caramel egg (for Jason, natch)
1 20 oz. Coke Zero (also, of course, for Jason)
1 dozen eggs (the kind from chickens, not bunnies this time)
5 six packs of half-liter Coke products (for Jason to sell at the auction, so I'll get this $10 back)
1 2-liter caffeine free Diet Pepsi
2.65 lbs of bananas
1 four-pound bag of navel oranges
1 red onion
2 bell peppers
1 box of Ritz crackers
2 boxes of Cheeze-its
1 box of whole wheat saltines
1 bag of Quaker Quakes (which I realized I DIDN'T use a coupon for, so I could have saved another 75 cents! Ugh!)
1 package Johnsonville turkey sausages
1 package light hot dog buns
2 boxes of Toaster Strudel (I had a paper coupons plus a Shortcuts loaded on my card)
1 box of Success boil-in-bag rice (for free, thanks to an email from someone at their PR firm who saw my post about buying the Kroger brand on THIS BLOG and sent me a coupon! Score!)

Total before coupons/sale: $116.75
Total after coupons/sale: $49.56
Total savings: $67.19 (59%)

As Stacy London says (because I've been watching a What Not to Wear marathon today):
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! Who pays over $100 for that many groceries? (If that's YOU, then we need to do an intervention, hon.) The $15 Mega Event savings isn't taken off until the cashier hits the total button, and before she did it was $94! That plus the coupons brought the total down to less than half.

I do still need some cereal for myself, and Walmart has their pizzas on sale for less than Kroger this week (thanks to the Super Bowl) so I'll get one there for Jason and Anna Marie to have while I work Tuesday night. I'd also like to stop by Aldi tomorrow after church to pick up some turkey meatballs so I can make some Hawaiian meatballs this week. I have several bottles of barbeque sauce in the cabinet that I got for next-to-nothing a few months ago, plus those pineapples I got for 24 cents a can last week and the (FREE) Success Rice. Just add some bell peppers, and we've got ourselves an inexpensive, healthy meal.

But still - I will come out having spent about $50 of my own money, and have really enough food to last two weeks if I needed (or more.)

I love stockpiling!

Book review: The Gospel According to LOST

How stoked am I about this book, and next week's premier?

PRETTY DANG STOKED!!!!!

So, thankfully, I finished this book in the nick of time. And I have some free time, since there's a terrible winter storm outside, our bosses are all off at a conference, and we got out of work early because of the weather. I sit here on my bed, typing on the laptop my mom so graciously loaned us because Jason's is in the shop, in my VELOUR JUMPSUIT!

As soon as I get myself a cup of hot tea, my life will be perfect.

I am so glad I read The Gospel According to LOST by Chris Seay before the new season started. I just started watching LOST last year, just before the end of the fifth season (and I caught up all five seasons in just a couple of months) so I needed something to help tie the show's rather convoluted plots together.

This book filled that bill quite nicely.

Seay analyzes several of the main characters, showing us how each one shows us something from the Gospel. Although I'm quite sure the creators of the show aren't particularly religious, there are many influences from Christianity throughout the series. Seay helps dissect the characters and their motivations, and tie in all of the symbolism woven into the plot. Seay is a fan of the show, and it shows in the care and respect he takes with the material

He uses the stories in LOST much like Jesus did - as parables to teach us precepts in a practical way.

If you are looking for a way to get even more out of your viewing of LOST and talk to other LOSTIES about it in a faith-centered way, you can pick up your copy

here or here.

Kroger shakedown!

Two weeks worth, that is.

Yes, I went grocery shopping last week, but "life" got in the way of me posting this. But don't fear! I'm making it up to you this week.

You're welcome!

Last week, I stopped at Aldi and picked up a couple of things I knew I could get cheaper there - like a couple of cans of black beans, and some canned diced tomatoes - because they weren't on sale at Kroger.

That being said, here is my list from January 17:

2 boxes of Swiss Miss cocoa
3 cans of Hunts tomatoes (I thought I had a Shortcuts coupon, but a check of my receipt revealed it didn't work!)
2 packages of Dole diced peaches
4 cans of Campbell soup
1 package of Fleishman's margarine
1/2 gallon of milk
2 packages of Danimals smoothies
1 package of Danimals crush cups
3 lbs. of bananas
1 Kroger brand pizza (for Jason and Anna Marie when I worked late)
1 bag of Birdseye peas
2 bunches of green onions
1 box of Nabisco 100 Calorie chocolate covered pretzels
4 Armour lunchables
1 loaf Natures Own light bread
2 bags of some new snacks called Riceworks, which are a little like a cross between a Dorito and a Wheat Thin. (I had two coupons, but they weren't on sale, and I realized later that they were cheaper at Walmart. Boo!)

Total before coupons/sales: $65.05
Total after coupons/sales: $37.26
Total savings: $27.79 (44%)

Now, for yesterday's rundown:

2 bottles of Heinz Ketchup
4 (8 oz) cans of Dole pineapple
2 cans of Rosarita refried beans
2 packages of Ortega taco seasoning
1 package Folgers Gourmet Selections Hazelnut coffee
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of black beans
1 Hersheys bar (for Anna Marie)
1 Reeses big cup (for Jason - I've got to stop going shopping with those two in tow!)
1 20 oz. Coke Zero (you guessed it - for Jason)
2.57 lbs. bananas
3.11 lbs. Granny Smith apples
1 bag of Clementines
2 DiGiorno 200-calorie pizzas
1 full-sized DiGiorno pizza (for The Redheads, because I have to work tonight)
2 boxes of popcorn
2 packages of Hillshire Farms meat

Total before coupons/savings: $67
Total after coupons/savings: $38.59
Total savings: $28.41 (44%)

Since Jason and I ended our meat fast yesterday, I will probably hit up our local supermarket for a Boston Butt and some chicken breasts that are on sale this week.

My cabinet is getting full again, and my freezer will be that way soon - yay for stockpiling!

True story!

(Man, every time I hear those words, I think of the Los Angeles season of The Real World and that guy from Kentucky named Jon, who said "True story" in a sing-song, twangy voice in the intro each week. True story!)

Anna Marie her-own-self requested, nay, insisted that I put this on the web.

And because she's an only child, of course, I am. Because I can't buy her that Wii she's wanting (darn you, speeding tickets and car tires and faltering economy that ate up our savings!) but I can put her stories on my blog.

Sunday night as she was getting ready for bed, we were in the living room, where one whole wall is taken up almost completely by three large windows looking out onto the front lawn. She looked out the window and kept saying, "What is that red thing, that's metal, with a cushion, outside?" She was acting pretty alarmed, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she was talking about.

"Mom! Red, cushion, metal! Outside!"

I was pretty perplexed, and getting a little worried. All I saw was snow and the occasional cat walking through.

I made my way closer to where she was, and realized it was the reflection of her little red folding chair in the window. She thought it was HILARIOUS, and started to do the same thing with her blue chair.

And then - "Mom, PLEASE put this on the internet. You HAVE to put this on the internet! PLEASE!"

Oh, Anna Marie!

Know what this blog has been missing?

Yeah, that should just about cover it.

Oh, and a little smidge of these guys too -



Happy Thursday, y'all!

Book review: Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World

(Yay! Another book review from me! I know you must be really excited.)

Over the past couple of months, I've been reading Dr. David Jeremiah's book Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World. It's a very topical book, which references many of the dramatic events which took place over the past year.

It's easy to let our hearts be troubled when we see record unemployment; the collapse of the housing market, financial sector, and automotive industry; and people sneaking onto airplanes with explosives in their pants.

But that's just what Jesus commanded us not to do - and Dr. Jeremiah outlines several ideas for keeping our hearts and minds calm: stay calm, stay compassionate, stay constructive, stay consistent, and so on.

Ultimately, he says, the chaos in our world points to Jesus' second coming - but if our hearts are prepared, we have nothing to fear.

You can pick up your copy here or here.

New Years Shop-stravaganza!

Happy New Year, y'all! I got (just about all) my grocery shopping done today! HOLLA!

Jason and I drove separate cars to church this morning, something I don't enjoy doing (since the church is 20 miles away), but I also don't enjoy having to have myself and Anna Marie ready to be there by 8:15 (when he had to be there) when we don't have to be there until about 10:15.

Catch my drift?

Well, today afforded me a great opportunity, because Anna Marie rode home with her dad and I got to shop alone! Oh happy day!

Since there were so many coupons in this week's paper, we bought both a Commercial Appeal (the Memphis paper) and a Clarion-Ledger (the Jackson, MS paper) so I wouldn't miss any. Red Plum no longer inserts in the Memphis paper, but mails their coupons directly. Except, they don't mail down here where I live - so the only way I get their inserts is if my sister, who lives in Memphis, remembers to save them and then get them to me in a timely manner. I discovered a few weeks ago, though, that they DO still insert in the Jackson paper. So today I got both!

(I got the Memphis paper also, because it has circulars for stores that are local, and Jackson doesn't.)

Two of the inserts had coupons for $2.50 off Electrasol tabs. And what do you know? Target's circular said they had those very same items for $3.49! And what else do you know, but I had a $5 Target card from buying dog food there last week!

So - I stopped at Target, which was next to the Kroger I was shopping at. And found the regular Electrasol tabs (not those high-falutin Quantam things) for $3.23. I got two boxes for $0.63 each!

Here is the total rundown of my Target trip:

2 boxes of Electrasol tabs
1 bag Baked Doritos
1 pks. Act II 94% Fat Free Popcorn
1 box of Target brand juice pouches
1 package of Folgers Caramel Drizzle coffee (my one splurge!)

Total before coupons/sales/gift card: $19.53
Total after coupons/sales/gift card: $8.97

I saved $10.55 - over 50%!

Next, I went to Kroger. Three things happened that threw off my mojo: my mother called, and I left my list somewhere (later discovered to be the van). I already had my coupons laid out in my folder, so I used those as a guide to what I needed.

The third thing was that our church is starting 21 days of fasting and prayer tomorrow, and Jason and I have decided to fast meat, so I had to buy some staple-type things to make meatless meals - potatoes, beans, rice, etc. Last year he also fasted meat, so in consideration of him I didn't cook any at home anyway.

(Lest you thing that giving up meat isn't much of a sacrifice, remember we're talking about the Chicken King and the Hamburger Queen. And our local grocery store has Boston Butts on sale this week, and I won't be buying one. The sacrifice starts already!)


I'm not real impressed with my performance at Kroger, but I think the Target trip (and my trip to Walgreens, which I'll explain later) kind of make up for it.

Kroger rundown:

2 cans of Progresso soup (they were on clearance, and I had a paper coupon and a Shortcuts coupon loaded on my card, so these were only $0.25 each!)
1 box Kroger boil-in-bag brown rice
1 box Kellogs Corn Flakes with Honey (on clearance, plus my coupon, means it cost me $0.09!)
2 cans of black-eyed peas
3 cans of black beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 packages of Betty Crocker Cornbread Mix (I wanted the Jiffy Mix that was 3/$1 but they were all sold out and I didn't want to mess with rain checks.)
1 can of Chili Magic
1 package of Kroger 2% milk shredded cheddar
1/2 gallon milk
1 box Hershey's 100 Calorie chocolate-covered pretzel bars
1 dozen eggs
1 20-oz Coke Zero (Hey, I was thirsty, OK?)
3 lbs. Clementines
2.91 lbs. bananas
1.67 lbs. Granny Smith apples
1 Kroger cheese pizza (for Jason and Anna Marie when I work late Tuesday)
10 lbs. potatoes
2 Lunchmakers (on sale, but not by much)
1 loaf Natures Own light bread

Total before coupons/sales: $49.56
Total coupons/sales: $10.49
Total after: $37.07 (only 23%)

In my defense, that total does not take into account the soup or the Corn Flakes, both of which were on clearance (only the clearance price is listed on the receipt, not the regular price).

Now, for Walgreens. I did this before dinner tonight, because I wanted to get all of my shopping over with for the week. I have to work late several nights, and they're calling for a significant amount of snow mid-week, so I didn't want to have to get back into the store if I didn't have to.

I may end up going back later, though, because they have their Progresso soup 4/$5, and I have two coupons for 50 cents off two, so they'd be $1 a can. Also, if you spend $10 on this group of products, you get $3 in Register Rewards, so that helps.

Anyway - I had $6 in RR from last week. And their Smuckers Jelly and Jif Peanut Butter were on 2/$4. And I had two coupons for $1 when you bought both the PB and the J.

And I left that store with two jars of Jif and two squeeze bottles of Smuckers for $0.56!

(And I had to bum 6 cents off the cashier, because I'd miscalculated how much tax I'd need and only brought two quarters!)

So there you have it - I spent $46.60, and saved $35.09 - nearly 50%. I'm a little down about that Kroger trip, but I know I got a lot of groceries. I'm not used to doing all of my shopping in one day, and I kind of like getting a more complete picture of what I've gotten and what I've spent.

Hopefully, we won't get snowed in around here!

Walgreens, Part Deux

It's so cold outside, I'm thinking of hightailing it to Arizona.

I'm only half joking. I really hate being cold.

However, I also hate missing a good deal. And so I ventured into Walgreens again during my lunch break, braving the cold for the miserable few seconds it took to get from my van to the front door.

Oh, the sacrifices I make for my family!

Here's today's rundown:

1 bottle of Tide
1 gallon of milk
1 can of Febreeze Air Effects
3 12-packs of drinks
1 pack of Swiffer dusters
2 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch
1 box of Magic Erasers (I LOVE THESE THINGS!)

Total before coupons/sale: $47.86
Total coupon/sale savings: $22.29
Total after coupons/sales: $25.57

That's nearly 50% savings! I also got $6 in Register Rewards to use last time. Unfortunately, I thought I was getting an additional $2.50 in RR, but I forgot their policy about using RR from the same manufacturer. Because I used the Tide coupon, I couldn't earn the RR on the other P&G products. Bummer!

Guess my $6 back will have to do - and I guess I'll stay out of Walgreens for a few days!

The Walgreens (something or other)

(If I'm going to do this on a regular basis, I need to come up with a catchy name for my Walgreens posts. Any suggestions?)

Hey there! Hope you had a good Christmas - mine was spent eating the Buddy The Elf way - sugar, sugar, and more sugar.

(That's partially thanks to Amanda's new job at Muddy's Bake Shop in Memphis, and the fact that they're closed this week, and their policy of telling the employees on Christmas Eve to divide up whatever was left in the cases and take it home.)

(With names like Pucker Up, Prozac, and Oodelolly, how could I not?)

Anyway, I'm now off Buddy's plan and on to something a little more adult - if it's not good for me, I'm not putting it into my mouth.

So there.

And so after my healthy lunch today, I hit up Walgreens. And by "hit up" I mean "totally decimated with my mad couponing skillz.

(Editor's note: I didn't go to Kroger this week, and probably won't, as I was less than impressed with the continuation of last week's sale.)

Here's the breakdown:

• Bounty paper towels (6 big rolls)
• Charmin toilet tissue (6 big rolls)
• Gilette body wash
• Zest body wash
• Playtex rubber gloves
• Two boxes of Tampax Pearl
• Two boxes of Crest Whitening toothpaste
• Two bottles of Dawn dish detergent
• A bottle of Olay in-shower body lotion

Total before coupons/sales: $59.32
Total coupons/sales: $30.19
Total paid: $29.13

The best part? I also scored a coupon for a FREE bottle of Tide detergent, which I'm going to run back to Walgreens tomorrow at lunch to redeem. I love free stuff!

Here's to a happy, and coupon-filled, New Year for everyone!

II Cor. 4:8-9

I have a friend at church named Holley who has a pretty neat thing she does every morning: she has an enormous list of text message contacts, and she sends everyone a Bible verse every day, about the same time of morning.

More often than not, it's kinda eerie how well the verse lines up with what I'm experiencing. Today was no exception.

I started to have trouble with my car last week, and yesterday, it actually ran hot - despite the fact that it was about 40 degrees out, and we were headed down the interstate at about 75 miles an hour.

Turns out, it was completely out of coolant, which is odd - it's leaving the system somewhere, but we haven't figured out where.

This morning, though, I think I figured out where it's going.


As I went to the gym, I noticed that not only did the "check engine" light BLINK, and continue to BLINK, the whole way there, the amount of white smoke pouring from my exhaust pipe was just not normal. The car wasn't running well at all.

For those of you who don't know, there are basically two places that coolant could be going - either onto the ground (which we couldn't find any evidence of) or through the engine and out the tailpipe, as the result of a problem with one of the heads, like a leaky gasket or - GASP - a blown head.

I tried to work out (thank God for my iPod, not only for the uplifting music it provided, but also because I could turn it up and drown out the 98 lb. guy grunting on one of the weight machines) and headed home. I noticed the "smoke" had an odd smell.

After I summoned Jason from a warm bed to check on the situation, he said, "It doesn't smell like coolant, it smells like oil."

Um, I'm just the daughter of a humble mechanic, but in my experience, OIL isn't any better smell for exhaust than COOLANT is.

Houston, as it is said, we have a problem.

I walked to work, as Jason took the only other automatic-transmission vehicle we have to Memphis to pick up supplies for the auction. I was feeling really, really down - I even cried when I was feeding the dogs - and then my office mate, Amber, placed a red velvet box on my desk.

It contained a really cute pair of pearl drop earrings - we had our office Christmas breakfast this morning, and we were supposed to give money to the animal shelter instead of buying gifts for each other, but Amber must have been feeling generous because there they were.

And something about her gesture just totally lifted my spirits. I'm ashamed to admit that, because somehow I should be able to get out of the dumps without jewelry, but hey, I'm human. I like shiny things! It wasn't just the jewelry that did it, though - I guess it was her thinking of me.

And then I remembered Holley's verse for today: II Cor. 4:8,9 -

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."

I may be hard pressed in the transportation department right now, but I'm not crushed. I may be perplexed because I'm having these difficulties, but I'm not in despair. I feel persecuted, but I'm not abandoned, and the weight of my circumstances may strike me down, but I'm not destroyed.

I've got the van-formerly-known-as-the-amazing-technicolor-dream-van to drive, and after Christmas, we'll see what kind of hook-up my dad can get me for a good deal on machining those heads.

And I'm going to look back on this day as a testament that even though not everything goes right all the time, God can still help us get through it.

I really need to blog, but …

- The dishwasher needs loaded/unloaded/reloaded

- There is a pile of laundry as tall as my kid waiting on me.

- I have my big Christmas projects to do at work.

- FACEBOOK!

- The lights on the Christmas tree went out, AGAIN.

- The dogs are barking at the squirrels in the trees above them.

- The dogs are barking at the new dogs two doors down.

- The dogs are barking at the air.

- My sister just got a fabulous new job at a fabulously funky bakery and I NEED to go try one of those Pucker Up Cupcakes she posted pictures of on her blog.

(HAVE MERCY!)

- I still have to get a gift for my mother-in-law, who lives 500 miles away and is IMPOSSIBLE to buy for.

- Did I mention, FACEBOOK?

Yes, gentle readers, things are moving right along in Melz World. Thanks to two separate Turners (Anna Marie and ME) having not only Christmas musicals two weekends in a row, but stomach viruses the weekend of each respective musical performance, I feel like I've just lost half of December.

(Why do they call it the "24 hour" virus anyway? Because it took me about three days to fully recover from mine!)

I do, by the way, have a photo of the tree taken during the 24-hours when all the lights were working - but my parents borrowed my camera last weekend, and haven't returned it yet.

(My mom has this rather complicated system set up with one of her sisters, you see. The sister has a long list of health problems and an even longer Christmas list, so my mom does all her shopping/wrapping/shipping for her. The camera is to take pictures of the gifts before they're wrapped, so the aunt can see what she paid for without my mom having to load everything up and haul it to my aunt's first.)

Anna Marie's Christmas break is scheduled to start in about 20 minutes, and it's two weeks of sleeping later/no backpacks/no lunches to worry about! Yippee!

Haul out the holly, Y'all!

There shall be showers of blessings

When my mom was a kid, she and her sisters (and many nieces of the same age) took piano from the same teacher. It was an older woman whose house, apparently, was overrun by cats (and smelled that way). She must have been a bang-up teacher, though, because everyone in my family who took lessons from her is a pretty superb piano player.

One of my uncles, who has now "moved away to be with God" (as my mom says) was know for his wit in our family. Maybe he was just jealous because my Papaw didn't think the boys needed piano lessons, but he never thought the girls were learning anything at theirs.

"All y'all ever do is learn another chord to 'There Shall Be Showers of Blessings' each week," he'd say.

Jealous much?

***

That bit of fun family trivia is NOT what this post is about. But the title does mean something!

Yesterday, Jason FINALLY received a couple of checks he'd been waiting on for some work he'd done. (And none too soon, let me tell you!) I came home from work a little early, and he was (frustratedly) trying to light the 1/3 of our pre-lit tree which has now gone dark.

The same tree he'd spent three hours working on LAST Friday. Yeah, I think this is it's last Christmas at the Turner house.

He suggested we go to Southaven, a town about half an hour from here (just south of Memphis) where there is all manner of things to do - Target, restaurants, Sam's Club, that sort of thing.

I was driving, and asking him where we were eating dinner. Of course, he had no input, but since it was freezing outside I wanted something that would stick to my ribs (and maybe dinner by a nice fireplace?)

Cracker Barrel it was.

It was pretty early in the evening, so we didn't have to wait for a table. We were seated right by the fireplace, and next to the checkers table, so after our orders were taken Anna Marie and I had ourselves a little game.

(She won. Obviously. My dad taught her everything about that game that she knows.)

We waited for our food (and for the biscuits and cornbread which Jason had requested). We waited. And we waited. And we waited.

And seriously, because of our checkers game, I hadn't really noticed the time. Plus, Anna Marie had ordered a hamburger, which always takes a little longer.

Finally, our waitress, Ursula (a middle-aged German lady with a neat accent), came by to say that the hamburger was holding up production and our food would be out momentarily. And also, would we like some biscuits while we were waiting?

Jason had to stifle his laughter at that last question.

A few more minutes pass (yes, she brought the biscuits this time) and the manager comes by. Seems our ticket had gotten lost in the back, and our food had not been made!

"We're very sorry, but we're working on it now, and dinner will be on me."

Now, our dinner probably wouldn't have been more than $15 anyway - Jason also ordered a kids meal, and I just had a bowl of pinto beans - but WOHOO!

As we left, Anna Marie said, "Doesn't dad have to pay for our food?"

Obviously, she wasn't listening.

Still high on our dinner blessing, we went to the nearby Target. Jason had told me that he wanted a new wireless keyboard/mouse for Christmas, because the one we currently have is so old that it isn't working with the Windows 7 upgrade on the desktop.

"I miss my volume button on the keyboard!" he lamented.

Well, Anna Marie and I were in a different part of the store, and met up with him. He was carrying a wireless keyboard/mouse combination.

"You are going to wrap this and put this under the tree," he said. "It's normally $30, but it's on sale for $15 until tomorrow."

Hooray for checking one more present off my list!

After the week I've had - Anna Marie isn't too keen on wearing long sleeved shirts, and she's been pretty vocal about it, so we've had a bit of a rough time, plus my sinuses are giving me fits and I haven't slept much - those two little gems really made my night.

There shall be showers of blessings . . .

Living on the edge

(I've had that song going through my head since yesterday morning at choir, when the Music Minister told us to come to the edge of the risers. They aren't really choir risers, so they're much too wide, and we needed to concentrate our sound. I started singing it when he said that, and he started singing along! Guess he was thinking it too.)

(But I digress.)

I'm not living on the edge, unless you mean "the edge of how much food I can squeeze out of my house without going to the store."

Y'all, I have not been "for real" grocery shopping in over two weeks! Talk about living off my stockpile - my cupboards are looking a bit bare!

Truthfully, I was not real impressed with Kroger's sales these past two weeks. I didn't need a turkey (since we didn't host Thanksgiving, and Jason will only buy the breast anyway) and I'm not a big from-scratch baker, so there wasn't a whole lot for me.

It helped that we had Thanksgiving dinner at church last Sunday night (so no cooking for me), and ate so much Thursday at my Aunt Esther's house that we didn't eat dinner that night (ditto for last night, when she hosted her granddaughter's third birthday party), and we ate smoked turkey provided by my parents on Friday night. And I don't have to cook Tuesday night, because I'm going to our church's Women's Ministries Christmas banquet.

(I hit the gym HARD this morning, y'all! I have to go to the doctor for a checkup in a couple weeks, and it'll be the first time I've stepped on a scale in months, so I'm super motivated!)

I did get some milk at Sam's last night on the way home from the party, and last week one of our local store had Del Monte canned vegetables for $0.39 a can, including the no-salt varieties, so I got a few of those. I picked up two boxes of Kelloggs Frosted Mini Wheats at Walgreens last week for $1.50 each, and Jason made pancakes a couple of nights on the NEW electric griddle he bought last week!

I ran by Walmart this morning, and picked up a Jennie-O Turkey Roast (with a coupon) and some already-sliced ham that was on for a good price. Jason is supposed to order some chicken breasts for us from the food service, since they have a really good price and he likes their uniform portion sizes. Hopefully, that will get me through until this weekend so I can shop for real!

We had a really, really good Thanksgiving this year. Maybe the best yet. And I realized something that never quite hit me before - no matter how bad things were financially around my house growing up (and believe me, they got pretty bad) I never had to worry about what I was going to eat for Thanksgiving dinner. Whether it was God's provision or my mom's big family dinner (or a little of both) we never went without.

I may have missed a meal because I was too busy, but I've never missed a meal because I couldn't afford food to eat. And that, my friends, is something to be truly thankful for.

Donut be sad, part deux

Y'all.

Y'all, y'all, y'all.

Those of you FB peeps already know this, but I had ANOTHER tire go flat on the interstate this week. Back passenger's side.

Wednesday night, to be exact. Just like last time. Except this time, it was dark, and getting cold, and Jason wasn't with me.

And instead of choir practice, I was on my way to Courtney's visitation.

Thankfully, I was able to pull off at an exit and into a well-lit gas station parking lot, and not have to sit on the side of the dark highway.

Let's be clear - I am not completely incapacitated when it comes to doing things on my car. I have had knowledge of how to change a tire, but since I've never had to actually do it, that lesson that was given nearly 18 years ago has tarnished a bit with age.

So, I call Jason, hoping to have him walk me through the process. No answer. His phone goes straight to voice mail.

I called my dad, and he said it would just be easier if he came up and helped me. We were about 15 minutes from where he was.

Since his stroke, his physical capabilities are not what they used to be. So, I tried to get the car jacked up and the lug nuts loosened before he got there.

Thanks to the inferior, factory-supplied tire iron, however, that was just not meant to be.

Thanks to a nice young man named Scott, though, it did get done - he and his wife and three kids were getting gas, and saw me, and he came over and changed my tire - before my dad even got there!

(Not to worry, though, it's a good thing he was coming, because we left the plastic lug nut covers there, and I remembered about the time he was getting of the exit to turn around, so they were not lost after all! Hooray!)

Anna Marie was crying about being late to her Missionettes class for the first time, but given the circumstances, they didn't even have a lesson - the teacher had the girls each make a card for Courtney's five-year-old daughter Madison, who isn't even in that class.

(Anna Marie's had horses. I have no idea why.)

Courtney's visitation was incredible. Pink flowers were everywhere. I stood in line for nearly half an hour to get to where she was, and instead of sorrow, I felt an incredible sense of peace once I got up there. This sounds so odd, but seeing how good she looked - and she really did look good - made me realize she was at peace, so I was too.

Jason and I went to the funeral yesterday, and I left both inspired and ashamed of how petty I can sometimes be.

Courtney was so sick over the past five years, yet she never wasted one minute asking "why me?" or getting bitter. She had a newborn when she was diagnosed, and she spent the next five years savoring every minute she had left and making sure Madison had good memories. I am so thankful she lasted this long, so that her daughter would be old enough to have some recollection of her. One of the most touching things I saw yesterday was at the end, when Courtney's husband Robert walked out of the sanctuary with a sleeping Madison on his shoulder. She was wearing the most beautiful pink poofy dress.

(Did I mention she's a red head too? Yeah, that makes me just a little more biased!)

Jason figured out yesterday upon closer inspection that I do indeed need a new tire. Not only am I thankful that Scott helped me, but I'm also thankful that we had that flat over the summer so that I knew what that awful sound was, and so that the spare (which had been flat the first time) would be in better shape.

I started to worry for about half a second yesterday. Do I have the funds for a new tire right now? In the words of that sage teacher Whitney Houston, "HECK to the NAW." But after witnessing Courtney's courage and faith over the past two years, how can I get upset about driving on a donut tire for another few days? If she can leave such a legacy that the pastor pulled out a pair of boxing gloves at her service, saying that they reminded him of her spirit, surely I can let God help me figure something out about a stupid tire.

I mean, really, y'all.

Farther along, we'll know more about it…

Tomorrow I'll post my Kroger Shakedown. But today, I'm feeling reflective.

We received word last night that a precious young woman at our church, Courtney, had (as my mother would say) "moved away to be with God."

Courtney was 30 years old, and had a five-year-old daughter. She died in her sweet husband's arms.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, after having her concerns unheard by her doctor. I suppose the doctor just thought she was too young, and didn't follow up, but by the time Courtney was treated, the disease was rather advanced.

She always sat on the front row, and no matter how sick she was, she always managed a smile. I have heard (but I wasn't there at the time) that when she was first diagnosed four years ago, the whole church showed up one Sunday - hundreds of people - wearing pink hats in support.

On Halloween, nearly a HUGE group donned custom-made "Team Courtney" shirts and raised over $20,000 for her at the Race for the Cure. She had no idea the effort that was directed in her honor, until she was wheeled to the race site.

She was so ill that she slept in her wheelchair during the awards ceremony.

Courtney had been doing much better, but began to decline in the last few months. In addition to being treated for tumors in different parts of her body, two brain tumors were found at the end of last month. She had a gamma knife procedure at the beginning of this month, but it was unclear how effective it had been.

After the procedure, she began to lose short-term memory. In the past week, she has been delirious, and then unable to speak. The doctors said her tumor markers were "through the roof," and she was sent home with hospice. The family was told there was nothing else that modern medicine could do.

I knew how ill she was. I knew that an "open house" had taken place on Saturday, so that her friends could help lift her spirits. I knew that friends were organizing play dates for her daughter, so that she would have some sense of normalcy through all this. I had seen the look of concern on her mother-in-law's face, as she sat in the front row on Sunday and I sang on the stage, and knew the family was burdened beyond belief.

Still, hearing that news last night was a shock.

I have never been so thankful for Facebook. Most of the people at our church are on, and though we were separated by geography, we could all grieve together. It was like one big "party line" telephone conversation, except I was in my PJs sitting on my couch with a laptop.

The first thing that went through my heart was an old song:

Farther along we'll know all about it,
Farther along we'll understand why,
Cheer up my brother, live in the sunlight
We'll understand it, all by and by.

I don't know why Courtney didn't pull through this time. I know it wasn't for a lack of "trying" on our part - there were more prayers sent up for her than just about anyone I know. Jason said those prayers were probably what helped her hang on this long.

One thing I do know, is that Courtney is no longer in pain. And my prayer now is that that knowledge will comfort those who love her. As the Bible says, we do not grieve like those who have no hope - we know that we will see her again someday.

And we'll understand it, all by and by.

Kroger shakedown!

Like my logo? I got mad InDesign skillz now, yo.

Anyway - I went shopping Sunday after church, just me and The Kid (kept in line with the aid of your Friendly Neighborhood Nintendo Game Boy)

(Yes, it's older than she is.)

Here's the rundown on my shakedown.

2 cans Dole Mandarin Oranges
1 box Kelloggs Cinnabon Bars
1 box Krusteez Blueberry Pancake Mix
1 bottle Franks Red Hot
1 bottle Franks Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce
2 boxes Kelloggs Nutrigrain Bars
2 bottles Welch's Grape Juice
1 can Dole Tropical Fruit Salad
2 half-gallons of milk (one 2%, one skim)
3.15 lbs. bananas
2.82 lbs. Fuji apples
3 Lean Cuisine pizzas
1 box Act II 94% Fat Free Popcorn
1 bag Chocolate Chex Mix (FREE with sale and coupons!)
1 small bag of Cheeze-its (at the checkout, for the kid, naturally)
4 Armour Lunchmakers (for the kid, too)
1 package Thomas Light Multigrain English Muffins

Total before coupons: $74.09
Total after sales/coupons: $33.06
Total savings: $41.03 (57%)

This was another week of the Kroger Mega Sale (buy 10 of something, get another $5 off) and I did one of those deals. I also had a $2.50 off my purchase "catalina" (one of those coupons that prints out at the checkout.) The cashier, who was harried because they only had two lanes open on a Sunday afternoon, didn't believe it was a coupon, but I persisted - hello, it's got a barcode! Just scan the dang thing!

I went to Walmart on Monday, and got a couple of bell peppers and a couple of onions to make steak tips with some steak I had in the freezer. We had that Monday night, and if I'd thought about it Sunday, I could've saved myself the trip and gotten them at Kroger.

I was planning on hitting up Walgreens for a sale on baking stuff, but Jason just called to inform me that the brakes on my car (which I've been complaining about for the past week, but that's another post) are shot, the rotors are going to have to be replaced, and he and my dad are on their way to Pull-A-Part to see what they can come up with. The outcome of that expedition will dictate just how much I have to spend at Walgreens!

(And hey - since that Chex Mix was free, the calories from the whole bag I ate by myself over the course of three days don't count, right? Right?)

Exciting news!

Well, it's official, so I'll tell you what my big news is.

For starters, HECK to tha NAW, I am not pregnant. Just in case you were wondering.

(That would be less of an "exciting news" situation and more of a "complete panic" situation.)

No, but the news is kinda-sorta related. I have now left the ranks of The Uninsured.

That's right - after over seven years of having no medical insurance, I finally have a little card to carry around - and some more money out of my check - to prove that I am INSURED.

How did this happen, you might ask? Well, about a week and a half ago, on a Friday afternoon, we got a call that our publisher was adding our newspaper to the insurance group used by his other (slightly larger) newspaper. A representative from the benefits company came by a few days later, and explained the package to us. I had to make a decision within a day, while open enrollment was still going on - it was that quick, less than a week from finding out it was being offered to signing on the dotted line.

It wasn't too terribly much for me to sign up, and my employer is paying half. Unfortunately, it was HORRIBLY expensive for Jason, so, alas, he remains without insurance. He did some research, though, and it's much less expensive for him to get individual coverage through the same insurance company I now have than to get it from them through my job.

Weird.

So, anyway, it sounds like a small thing, but for me, it's HUGE. It's really unimaginable for me to think that the next time I get a sinus infection, I can go get a "sinus cocktail" shot and get over it quickly, instead of suffering for weeks on end.

The Turner insurance tally now stands at two down, one to go. Stay tuned …

Kroger Shakedown! (Plus a little more.)

Three blog posts in as many days! What has gotten into me?

Guess I've gotten a little of my mojo back, huh?

We stopped at Kroger on the way home from our small group tonight, which meets at a home about two miles from one of their stores. I would have gotten through in record time, but Anna Marie was making that a bit, shall we say, DIFFICULT.

But before I tell you about my Kroger haul, let me talk about Target.

Did you know, sometimes Target has a deal where you get one of their gift cards just for buying something they're running a special on? Well, this past week, it was dog food. If you bought two 20 lb. bags of Dog Chow for $11.49 each, you got a $5 card.

And what do you know? WE have dogs, and WE needed dog food! Plus, I also had two coupons, one for $1 off a three-pound or larger bag, and one for $1.50 off a 15 pound or larger bag, and I saw no reason why I couldn't use both.

We don't have a Target here, but there's one in the next county north of us (and we had to go up there Friday anyway for something else) so we stopped in. We picked up two bags of dog food, a two-pack of DVDs for some long-since-canceled Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series on clearance for $1.98, and, of course, a 20-ounce Coke Zero for Jason (because he can't seem to leave a store without one).

The little teenage guy at the checkout totally spazzed out when he saw those Sonic DVDs. He was so mad he hadn't seen them first, and that Anna Marie had picked up the last set. It was like that SNL "Target Lady" skit come to life! In fact, he was so geeked out, he messed up our gift card!

He scanned the card, like we were paying for one. Then, he took it off like we were getting it for free, and said something about it taking off $5. Fine, I thought, he's applying the gift card to this purchase. No big deal. He put the card under his cash drawer, we walked out, and my math-addled brain went to work.

For the next half hour as we drove home, I tried to figure out what was bugging me, and when I looked at the receipt, I knew. He'd forgotten to give me my $5 card!

So, today after church, we went back to Target. And wouldn't you know, we were blessed with double for our trouble! When the manager investigated, she saw exactly what had happened, and gave us a TEN DOLLAR card! She said the guy was new, and I told her I figured as much. It was also pretty late, and I wasn't angry.

But boy, I sure was glad to see that extra $5 on that card. I basically got one of those bags of dog food for free!

This week, they're running a special on Kelloggs cereal - starting at $2.66 a box, and buy three, get one free. We're out of cereal, so I picked up four boxes. Jason also picked up a clearance bag of candy-corn pumpkins, and two drinks (I'll admit, I got one too) and we paid just over $3 out of our pocket!

(Then I got home, found out there were printable Kelloggs coupons, and wasn't quite so stoked. But, whatever. It was still an extra $5 I wasn't counting on!)

Moving on - here is my Kroger list for this week. There is no meat, because I don't need any, and I didn't need cereal (thanks, Target!) or milk, so that isn't on there either. I tend to buy meat at our locally-owned market here in town, because they run some really good deals about once a month.

Kroger is having a Mega Sale this week, where if you buy 10 of the participating products, you get another $5 off your purchase (or 50 cents off each thing). I racked up two of those, for a total of $10 more off. I also ended up with a coupon for $2.50 off my next grocery purchase, thanks to those nice people at Betty Crocker (who make all these fruit snacks I bought).

1 box of Fruit Stackers
1 box of Fruit Rollups
2 boxes of Fruit by the Foot (all of these will last us several months for lunch boxes and snacks)
2 boxes of Quaker granola bars
2 boxes of Special K bars (Yes, more granola bars! We eat them a lot!)
3 cans of Hormel Turkey Chili (23 cents each!)
2 cans of 2% of Carnation Evaporated Milk
1 bottle of Heinz ketchup
1 package of Danimals Crush Cups
1 package Danimals Smoothies
2.4 pounds of bananas
1.97 pounds of Granny Smith apples
2.16 pounds of Red Delicious apples
2 boxes of Keebler cookies
1 box of whole-wheat saltines
1 package of turkey pepperoni
And, of course a Coke Zero for Jason.

Total before coupons: $60.70
Total savings: $31.90
Total after coupons: $28.80
That's a savings of 54%. Once again, I feel a lot of this is just bringing it down closer to what I think it OUGHT to cost. The people in front of us had a total of over $160, didn't use a single coupon, and I wanted to say, "I am so sorry. Let me help you!"

And before you start deriding me for buying so much processed stuff, let me remind you: this is stockpiling. Yes, I bought four boxes of fruit snacks tonight, but those will last me about four months! One can of the chili will probably feed all three of us, as I tend to put it over baked potatoes (which I bought on sale about two weeks ago) with a little 2% milk shredded cheese (which I got on sale last week). I've got canned salmon in the pantry (that I got on sale about three weeks ago at Walgreens) and I can use that, along with a couple of potatoes and a can of the evaporated milk, to make salmon stew. See where I'm going with this? I only buy cookies about once every three months - literally, the last time I bought them was before school started. And I got them for less than $1 a pack!

The other bonus to some of these foods is that they have Box Tops for Education, which help our school raise funds for stuff they need.

Anna Marie is going to love her lunch tomorrow - some saltines, some turkey pepperoni, a Danimals smoothie and a banana.

(Oh, and a Fruit by the Foot for snack time, of course!)

Thank you candy corn, thank you Mike and Ike . . .

Thank you, THANK YOU Smarties!



And thank you, Amanda, for finding this so I could. (She grabbed the audio off of this a couple years back, and I totally listened to this on my iPod while I was on the elliptical the other day.) Enjoy!

"Mama this is happy Halloween, to you . . . "

With a hip hip, and a clippity clop…

Anna Marie and I watched Ichabod and Mr. Toad last week, and I forgot how much I loved those old Disney cartoons. But that is totally not what this blog post is about.

First, let me explain how the car lines works at our school.

We pull up to a covered, curved walkway in front of the school, and there are four or five ladies on the sidewalk, which is on the passenger side. A group of cars stops, and the ladies go down the line, each opening the doors of two or three cars before that group pulls away and another several pull up.

Now, on to what happened this morning:

The truck in front of me had stopped, and one "crossing guard" (that's what they're called, even though no one is crossing anything) opened the door. Anna Marie was getting out at the same time, so I was half paying attention, when the other crossing guard screamed.

Apparently, someone in the truck was wearing a mask, and she was startled - which brought back some elementary school Halloween memories for me that I hadn't thought of in YEARS.

For me, in elementary and middle school, it got to the point where eventually my mom let me stay home on Halloween. Between the boys scaring the bejeezus out of me with their ugly masks, and the librarians telling ghost stories in the library (WHO'S GOT MY GOLDEN ARM?), I didn't sleep well for weeks.

I hope Anna Marie was having a better time of it today, and I suppose she would - she's not as easily frightened when I was her age.

Case in point: when we were watching the movie last week, and Ichabod Crane was trying to get over the bridge and get home. Every time Ichabod would get scared by something, she'd say, "Dude. It's just a tree." Or, "Dude, it's just a frog." Or, "Dude, it's just some plants beating on a log."

No joke.

So this weekend, as you're eating more chocolate than the law allows (and believe me, I've gotten a head start on you) don't be scared. Just remember: Dude. It's just the wind.