Crystal wants to share

June through December 2010

2011-01-24T09:00:00.002-06:00

Hello to anybody out there who's still following me after half a year of no posts.
I didn't mean to stop blogging completely, it just happened. To be quite honest, when I opened up blogger just now, I had kinda forgotten how to use it.
So I guess I'll catch you up on what's been going on in my life for the past six months or so, just the highlights :-) or at least the things I have pictures of anyway.

June 2010
My last post was in June to show off the purses my sweet hubby gave me for my birthday.
Earlier in June, my cousin Calondra got married. Cali is one of my favorite people in the whole world and I am so happy for her and Robert, they are so sweet together.

The wedding was at a lovely old farmhouse in Virginia.

I had the pleasure of making their wedding cake. The cake was chocolate and lemon poppy seed with buttercream frosting and decorated with gumpaste hydrangea petals and a big bow.

July 2010
I'm trying to remember if anything interesting happened during July.
We went to a fun 4th of July party at a friends house, and I made these chocolate covered pretzels.They were a big hit and I've made them a couple of times since then with other seasonally appropriate sprinkles.
July was really freakin' hot, so I'm sure I mostly just stayed at home in the air conditioning for most of the month. Oh, I did think of something else! I met with a lady who needed wedding and groom's cakes in August (I'll get into that in a minute). She wanted some of the groom's cakes to be red velvet, so I made three sample cakes for her. One was a scratch recipe from Paula Deen that used oil, one was from the Food Network that used butter, and the other was a Duncan Hines mix. Personally, I like the butter one best, and my hubby liked the oil one best, but the lady and her family? They liked the mix best. Yeah I know! I couldn't believe it either. But that was okay with me, it made my job of baking cakes a lot easier. The last few weeks of the month were spent preparing for this big wedding event.

August 2010
So, back to the wedding cakes. The friend of a friend was getting married and wanted me to do her cakes. The situation was that it was a second marriage for her and the groom and she wanted to have a private wedding at her house. There were a lot of people she didn't want to come to the wedding, but didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, so she had a reception at church a week before the private wedding at her house, and she wanted the exact same wedding cake for both events. So I made the exact same cake two weekends in a row. Y'all, these cakes were huge. The bottom tier was 16", the middle was 12", and the top was 8". The flowers are real orchids (thankfully I didn't have to make 30 orchids for each cake!).
In addition to the wedding cake, I also made three 10" red velvet cakes with cream cheese frosting and pecans, two 10" chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream and ganache, and a 14" chocolate groom's cake decorated to be a dartboard. I made the dartboard ahead of time, but when I went to transfer it to the cake, I broke part of it and had to COMPLETELY REDO THE ENTIRE THING the morning of the wedding! Talk about stressful! The first time it took about 5 hours, the second time it only took about half as long. The dartboard is made of individually cut pieces of fondant pieced together and the "metal" parts are royal icing painted with Pearl Dust and clear vanilla extract mixture.
I also made a birthday cake for my friend Courtney.
The rest of August was spent recovering from all of the cake making LOL! Not really, I'm just kidding. The rest of August was spent planning my itinerary for our upcoming trip to LAS VEGAS!

September 2010
I made a 40th birthday cake for my good friend's husband who is a big MSU fan. It was a 2 layer half sheet with Bully on it. He loved it :-)

On September 11th, Wesley and I went to a really fun go kart race in Columbus at Propst Park. I think I'm lucky we don't have a place to store a go kart, because I think he wants to buy one! Anyway, here are a few pictures from the race.

Then we went to Las Vegas from the 19th-26th. Mr. McHacker had a conference/training to go to and since he had already been to Las Vegas without me (twice) there was no way I was going to let him go without me again. Thanks to the wedding cakes from August, I had some spending money to have fun with. Wesley really enjoyed his training and stuff and I really enjoyed sleeping late every day and shopping. Heavenly. I have about eleventy bajillion pictures, and I should probably do a separate post with just Vegas pictures. But don't hold your breath. Y'all know how I am about blogging! So here are a few in case I don't get around to that post LOL.

We stayed at Caesar's Palace.
Replica of the David statue in Caesar's.
Fountain in front of the Forum Shops.
Waiting for a fountain show to start at the Bellagio.
The glass flowers hanging from the ceiling at the Bellagio.
A greenhouse in the Conservatory/ Botanical Gardens in the Bellagio.
The Paris Hotel and Casino at night.
Mr. McHacker and me with Yellow in front of M&Ms World.
Lots of stuff I wanted to buy in the Coca-Cola store.
Some shots of the Sirens of TI show.
Flamingos in the bird habitat at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino.
The MGM Grand lion.

October 2010
Mr. McHacker's coworker had a small costume party the weekend before Halloween which worked out really well for me since I had a cake to make and deliver the Friday before Halloween. I wanted to make an awesome vintage dress for my 50's housewife costume, but I came down with food poisoning the week that I was sewing it and didn't get it finished. So I improvised with a dress that I already had and it worked out okay. Forgive the iPhone picture quality and the fact that these were taken after the party, so my face is all shiny.

Carrie, a good friend from college, got married a couple of years ago, but at the time wasn't able to have a church wedding. So on their anniversary this year, they had a vow renewal ceremony. Her colors were teal and purple and this is the cake she wanted for the reception.
She loved it, it was exactly what she wanted. Well, she actually wanted buttercream icing, but that just wasn't doable since I had to drive it 5 hours from Starkville, MS to North Little Rock, AR. So it was iced with buttercream and then covered with fondant. I transported the tiers and assembled it when I got there. There was also a groom's cake, but I can't find the picture of it.

November 2010
I sewed a lot in November, mostly aprons. I took pictures of them with my phone, but when we updated the phone a couple of weeks ago, I lost them, along with all of the other pictures I had taken in November and December :-(
Also, we had Thanksgiving here at our apartment this year. It was really great. My middle sister and her husband and kids came, as well as my mama and my oldest nephew's girlfriend. We fried a turkey and I made all kinds of stuff to go with it and we had a good time. I wish my youngest sister and her kids could have been here too, but it was okay since we did get to see them at Christmas. After we buy a house and have more room, I would love to host Thanksgiving every year!

December 2010
I volunteered for a teacher friend who is the librarian at the school where I used to work. I made gingerbread men and took the stuff for the kids to decorate them, much like I did a couple of years ago. The school now consists of 3rd through 5th grade, so I already know most of the kids pretty well either from having taught them or through volunteering the past two years. I was able to decorate cookies with each class and it was a lot of fun for the most part. I also baked and decorated several dozen Christmas cookies for different folks and made a couple of cute birthday cakes for some little girls. Lost all of those pictures too. I also made my friend a new gingerbread train, since the last one I made her was broken with all of the moving around that happened this summer.
December was full of getting ready for Christmas. I bought more gifts than I made this year, but that's okay, because some years are just like that. Along with their gifts, I made gift baskets for everyone in my family using stuff from my stockpile. They all seem to like it and I think everyone genuinely looks forward to getting their basket full of stuff each Christmas. All of the gifts I received were thoughtful and very much appreciated.
2010 was a really good year for me. Life is good and I know that I am truly blessed. I hope 2011 will be just as good, and so far, it's off to a pretty good start.

So that brings us up to this month and now maybe I can get back to posting regularly again. Because honestly, I miss it.

New Purses!

2010-06-22T14:05:00.003-05:00

My sweet hubby took me out to lunch for my birthday today, then we went to Reed's, a local shop here in Starkville because he wanted to buy me a new purse for my birthday. Well, they had retired patterns on sale for 50% off. So I ended up getting one bag in a retired pattern (Java Blue), and one not retired pattern (Purple Punch).

I absolutely LOVE both of them!

Menu Plan Monday June 21-27

2010-06-21T21:38:00.003-05:00

It's been a busy month at the McHacker house! I have a couple of things I want to write about, but just haven't had (taken) the time to do so, but I will get to them. Since it's Monday, I figured I would post a Menu Plan. I haven't really been sticking to a plan lately since I was out of town for a week and Mr. McHacker was out of town more than half of this month so far. But it looks like things are getting back to normal now, so it's time to get back to a plan.

Monday 6/21
Lunch - Salad
Supper - Beef pot roast with potatoes and carrots

Tuesday 6/22
Lunch - Guacamole and chips, leftovers
Supper - Barbecue sandwiches, fried squash

Wednesday 6/23
Lunch - Leftovers or salad
Supper - Chicken quesadillas

Thursday 6/24
Lunch - Salad
Supper - Pepperoni and salami calzones

Friday 6/25
Lunch - Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
Supper - Red beans and rice with sausage and cornbread

Saturday 6/26
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Eat out

Sunday 6/27
Lunch - Sloppy Joes
Supper - Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Rouge Magazine

2010-05-13T23:27:00.003-05:00

I love checking my mail and finding freebies and coupons. Today, I got a beauty magazine from Proctor and Gamble, called Rouge. It's sent out once per quarter, and has beauty tips that promote their products, which is okay. The best thing about it though, is that there are several coupons in it.
Since P&G products go on sale fairly often, you can save some money with these coupons. This time it contained:
$1 off Olay body wash or lotion
$1 off 1 Crest toothpaste, rinse or Oral-B toothbrush
$1 off Zest, Ivory, or Safeguard bars
$1 off Natural Instincts hair color
$1 off Secret Soothing Effects
$1 off Olay facial moisturizer
$1 off Perfect 10, Root Touch -up, or Nice 'n Easy
$2 off Venus Embrace or Breeze razor or cartridges, or Venus bikini kit
$2 off any CoverGirl Simply Ageless product
$10 off Crest 3D Whitestrips Professional Effects with Advanced Seal

Go sign up here to start getting Rouge.

This week's CVS deals

2010-05-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

There are lots of ladies who blog about CVS deals, and do a much better job of it than I do. Money Saving Mom is one of the best of them. But I'm going to share the deals I'm taking advantage of this week. Some things I bought yesterday, the others I will pick up today or later in the week. I break up the transactions to roll the Extra Care Bucks, but also to scan my Green Bag tag more often. It can only be scanned once per day, and after 4 scans, you get a $1 ECB.

Transaction 1:
Crest Pro-Health toothpaste $3.50 + .25 tax = $3.75
(There is a .75 coupon out there, I had used mine already.)
2 Right Guard deodorants $2.99 each + .42 tax = $6.40 - $3 off 2 coupon = $3.40
(You can get the coupon HERE. Last I looked, it was on the last page.)
Total = $7.15
Get back $7.50 in Extra Bucks

Transaction 2:
Schick Hydro razor $8.99 + .63 tax = $9.62 -$5.00 coupon (from last Sunday's paper) = $4.62
U by Kotex $4.99 + .35 tax = $5.43 - $1.00 coupon = $4.34
Total = $8.96 - $7.50 ECBs from 1st transaction = $1.46
Get back $8.99 ECBs

These I will do today or later in the week:

Transaction 3:
Clear Care contact lens solution $14.99 + $1.05 tax =$16.04 - $3 coupon (from last Sunday's paper) = $13.04
2 Pantene products 2/$6.97 + .49 tax = $7.46 - $2 coupon (from free sample) = $5.46
(There's also a $1 off 2 coupon from the 5-2 paper)
Total = 18.50 - $8.99 ECBs from last transaction = $9.51
Get back $6.00 ECBs

Transaction 4:
(All of these coupons came from inserts in the Sunday papers.)
4 Mentos gum @ .99 each + .28 tax = $4.24 - 4 $0.55 coupons = $2.04
1 Carefree liners $1.00 + .07 tax = $1.07 - $1.00 coupon = $0.07
1 Always $1.00 + .07 tax = $1.07 - $1.00 coupon = $0.07
1 Taster's Choice instant packets $1.00 + .07 tax = $1.07 - $0.50 coupon = .57
2 Cover Girl lip products $4.99 (Buy one, get one free) + .70 tax = $5.69 - $2.50 off 2 coupon = $3.19
Total = $5.94
This is where I can choose to give them the $6.00 ECBs, and lose 6 cents, or find a really cheap "filler" and pay a few cents after using the ECBs. I'll probably grab a candy bar or something .50 or less.

Total for the week, about $18.62 for about $64.00 worth of stuff, about a 71% savings.

Pokemon bag

2010-05-11T07:00:00.002-05:00

Today is my nephew Quin's 9th birthday. I love this kid! He has to be one of the sweetest, most loving children in the world.

I knew I wouldn't see him on his birthday, so last time I was at my mom's, I left his present there. He loves Pokemon stuff, so I got him a bunch of little Pokemon action figure things (which I didn't take a picture of). There are 15 of them, so I figured he needed something to keep them in, so I wanted to make a drawstring bag to go with the toys. I meant to look for some fabric at Joann's in Meridian, but completely forgot. Luckily, found a twin size sheet at a thrift store that was perfect (and it only cost $2!). So I threw the toys in, put some tissue paper coming out of the top, tied the drawstring, and just let it be the gift wrap too.

Front:

Back:I hope Quin has a very happy birthday and enjoys playing with his new Pokemon toys.

Bread machine rolls

2010-05-10T07:30:00.000-05:00

The other day, my mama asked me for the recipe I use for making rolls in my bread machine, so I thought I would share it with y'all and give Mama step by step instructions.

Here's the recipe:
Basic Dinner Rolls
Warm water - 7 1/2 ounces (3/4 cup + 3 Tbsp.)
Bread flour (I just use regular all-purpose and it works fine) - 3 cups
Dry milk - 2 Tbsp.
Sugar - 3 1/2 Tbsp.
Salt - 1 tsp.
Butter (or margarine) - 3 Tbsp. cut into 6 pieces
Yeast - 2 tsp. active dry, OR 1 & 1/2 tsp. fast rise (I use 1 & 1/2 tsp. of Fleischmann's yeast for bread machines)

Directions:
Add the warm water to the bread pan.
Add the flour, right on top of the water.
Sprinkle the dry milk on top of the flour.
Sprinkle the sugar in next.
Then and salt to the pan.
Tap pan to settle dry ingredients, then level dry ingredients, pushing some of the flour mixture into the corners.
Place the pieces of butter around the outer edge of the pan on top of the dry ingredients.
Make a slight well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the yeast.
Place the bread pan in your bread machine, making sure it's locked into place. Choose the dough cycle (to do this on my machine, I have to push the "Program Bread Select" button until it shows "Dough"). On my machine, the dough cycle takes 1 hour and 20 minutes, yours is probably similar. Now go do something else while the bread machine works its magic, it should beep when it's done. During this time, take a minute to lay out a piece of wax paper and sprinkle a little flour on it.

When the machine beeps, take out the bread pan and flip it over on top of your floured surface, making sure to remove the little paddle from the dough. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
After letting the dough rest, the you can shape however you like. This time, I wanted some rolls to use for burger and sloppy joe buns, and a few for eating with other meals, so I made a few large rolls and a few small ones. I like to use a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, but if you don't use parchment paper, just put your rolls on a greased sheet.
After shaping the rolls, let them rise until they are close to double in size, about 45 minutes to an hour. At this point, you can brush then with melted butter or a beaten egg white (but I usually don't). Bake them in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 15- 20 minutes, or until golden brown. After taking them out of the oven is when I like to brush them with butter. They're best right out of the oven, but will be good for a couple of days.
It does take a little time to make them, but it is so worth it. They taste better than store bought, and have to be healthier for you, since you know exactly what went into them and know there's not a bunch of preservatives and artificial junk in there. If you have a bread machine, I hope you'll make some, you'll be glad you did.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T13:20:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to take a minute and say Happy Mother's Day to my mama, Wesley's mom, my sisters, and friends, and all of the other mothers out there. You are all wonderful, precious women and I love and appreciate you! I hope you have a great day.

Spring wreath

2010-05-08T09:38:00.001-05:00

The weather has been so nice and spring-like this week that it made me want to clean things up a bit outside. Every few months I like to freshen up the wreath that hangs on the front door. I keep the same grapevine wreath and just change the ribbons or whatever I decide to put on it. It was looking kind of sad since (embarrassingly) I didn't even change it for Christmas, so it still had autumn thing going on. I know, pitiful, right? So I went to the Dollar Tree (love that place) and grabbed 3 rolls of wired ribbon. I cut the ribbon from each roll into 4 equal pieces (so altogether I had 12 pieces) and formed each piece into a bow and tied it in the middle with a piece of thin white ribbon (I thought it looked good with the polka-dots). Then I took some florist wire and attached the bows to the wreath. It was easy-peasy and only took about an hour to make. I don't know (or care) if anybody else likes it, because I think it is adorable.
I hope y'all are having a great weekend!

May 2-8 CVS and Walgreens shopping trips

2010-05-08T09:34:00.006-05:00

I took advantage of some of the good deals at CVS and Walgreens last week and thought I would share it. Sorry I didn't get it posted sooner, so y'all could get the deals too. I have a couple of friends who are learning to coupon, so I thought I would go step by step on how I did my transactions to get the most value for my money and Extra Care Bucks (ECBs).
Instead of getting everything at once, I make multiple transactions to "roll" my ECBs so that I have as little out of pocket expenditure as possible. To learn more about how to shop for deals at CVS, go HERE and HERE. A tip from me is to get a Green Bag Tag, every 4 times it's scanned, you will get an ECB for $1.
When I make my list each week and calculate my expense, I take the sale price, add tax, then subtract the manufacturer coupon or CVS coupon to get the price of the item. Then I add the price of all of the items in the transaction for a total, then subtract the amount of ECBs to get the total out of pocket expense. I'm sure there are other ways to do it, but this works for me.

1st Transaction:
Venus Spa Breeze razor - On sale for $9.99 + .70 tax = $10.69 - $ 2 man. coupon = $8.69 - $6 ECB from last week = $2.69 got back $6 ECBs.

2nd Transaction:
Olay Total Effects body wash $7.00 + .49 tax = $7.49 - $ 2 man. coupon = $5.49
Carefree liners $3.99 + .28 tax = $4.27 - $4 off CVS coupon (that printed when I scanned my card at the kiosk) = .27
Colgate Total toothpaste $2.99 + .21 tax = $3.20 - .75 = $2.45
Crest 3D White toothpaste $3.99 + .28 tax = $4.27 - .75 = $3.52
Total = $11.73 - $6 ECB from 1st transaction = $5.73 got back $9 ECBs

3rd and 4th Transactions:
3rd:
2 Sensodyne Pro-namel toothpastes $4.49 each + .63 tax = $9.61 - $2 in man. coupons = $7.61
Sensodyne Pro-namel isoactive foaming gel toothpaste $4.99 + .35 tax = $5.34 - .75 man. coupon = $4.59
Total = $12.20 - $7 ECBS = $5.20 got back $6 ECBs
(I actually gave him all $9 worth of ECBs, but one $2 one didn't get scanned and it was a big hassle. They ended up printing me out a new $2 one to replace the one he didn't scan.)

4th:
Dr. School's insoles $9.99 + .70 tax = $10.69 - $2 man. coupon = $8.69 - $6 ECBs = $2.69 got back $3 ECBs

5th Transaction:
2 Folgers decaf. coffees 2/$7.00 + .49 tax = 7.49 - two .75 man. coupons = $5.99
Bounty 6 big roll $6.49 +tax = .45 tax = $6.94 - .25 man. coupon = $6.69
Charmin 20 roll (The 16 roll were on sale, but they ran out and this rang up as the same price, yay 4 free rolls!) $9.99 + .70 tax = $10. 69 - .25 man. coupon = $10.44
Tide $5.97 + .42 tax = $6.39 - $1 man. coupon = $5.39
Dawn Hand Renewal .97 + .07 tax = $1.04 - .50 man. coupon = .54
24 pack of Gold Emblem water was free with the purchase of the Procter and Gamble products.
Total = 29.05 - $5 ECBs = $24.05
(Actually I wrote down $23.91 in my checkbook register, so I'm not sure why there is a 14 cent difference, and I can't look at the receipt because I just sealed it up in an envelope with the form for the P&G coupon booklet!).
I never spend that much, bet we were getting low on tp and paper towels, so it was worth it.
So now I have $0 ECBs. I did that on purpose, so I can try to figure out the best deal scenarios for next week for someone just starting out.
Total spent at CVS this week = $40.22

Walgreens Transaction
Walgreens' has this policy that you have to have at least as many items as you have coupons. I had a Walgreens coupon from the weekly ad for the Russell Stover, and I also had manufacturer coupons for them, as well as 2 Register Rewards coupons from last week. So altogether, I had 5 coupons, so I knew I needed to have at least 5 items, even though I really only wanted the chocolates. Since M&Ms and Mars candy was on sale for 49 cents each (without a coupon) I knew those would make good "filler" items. (When I need "fillers" I try to get things that I will use, I can use the M&Ms in cookies). Adding the M&Ms gave me 5 items, so now I had the same number of items as I had coupons.
2 boxes Russel Stover chocolates $4.49 each with Walgreens coupon + .63 tax = $9.61 - $2 in man. coupons = 7.61
3 bags M&Ms .49 each + .10 tax = $1.57
Total = $9.18 - $8 in Register Rewards (from last week) = $1.18

I don't know if any of this has helped anyone, (there are so many others out there who are better at this than I am) but I hope it may help somebody understand a little better about how it works. I'm going to try to post next week's (5/9 - 5/15) deal scenarios a little earlier.

Menu plan and other stuff

2010-05-04T13:00:00.002-05:00

So I know yesterday was Monday and I didn't do the menu thing, so I guess it's better late than never.
Tuesday- Eat out (A friend's husband is out of town, so we're having dinner with her, just to give her some company. I know how lonely it can be when you're husband's out of town.)
Wednesday- Cheeseburgers on bread machine rolls, potato salad
Thursday- Chicken spaghetti, rolls
Friday- Sloppy joes on bread machine rolls
Saturday- Baked chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce
Sunday- Lasagna (from freezer)

I didn't get any posts made last week because I spent the week at my Mama's since Mr. McHacker was out of town for a conference. I had a good time and really enjoyed spending time with her and my nephews, niece, and Nana.

I want to write more, but I have eleventy bajillion things left to do today. One of which is clean up a bunch of Nerds that I spilled earlier. It's kind of reminding me of the gumball incident of 2009, but not that bad. I guess that's what I get for eating crap like that. I grabbed the dustbuster to vacuum it up off the rug, but the battery was too low, so I plugged it in to charge up and took that time to write this post. If it's not charged up yet, I'll just use the broom, even though I hate sweeping stuff like that up from carpet. Anyway, I hope y'all are all having a good day!

For I was hungry...

2010-04-25T16:34:00.003-05:00

I'm not usually one to post Bible verses and such on here, but this passage spoke to me in a real life way this week. We met someone who needed help, and he asked for it in the name of God, and I remembered verse 35 and could not say no. Whether the man's story was true or not, it was obvious that he needed help and I pray the Lord will bless him. I thank the Lord that He gave us the opportunity to help someone who was in need.
Don't overlook those around you who are in need, you never know when God may use you to be a blessing to someone else.

³⁴"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

⁴¹"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

⁴⁴"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

⁴⁵"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

⁴⁶"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Cotton District Arts Festival

2010-04-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday was the Cotton District Arts Festival. It was fun, but I didn't take enough pictures. We're lucky enough to live next to where all of the activities were taking place, so we didn't have to worry about parking and pesky things like that. On our walk, The first thing I noticed was that the irises that I had been waiting to see bloom, were in bloom. This picture doesn't do them justice, they were much more beautiful in person.
So we're about to walk into the madness.
We walked around and looked at all the booths and various things for sale. I saw a thousand things I wanted, but weren't in my price range. It was lots of fun to see what everyone had made and was selling, and it gave me lots of ideas of things I would like to make myself. This is where I didn't take enough pictures :-)
There's always a bagpipe parade, which I think is pretty awesome.
After we walked around till we were tired, we went to a cookout at the house of a friend who lives down the street. That was a lot of fun because it seems like all of our friends stop in there at some point during the day, so we were able to visit with several friends while we were there. Then we went home and I took a nap so that I could be rested up for the music festival that night. I'll write about that soon (hopefully tomorrow).

Here are some pictures from last year's CDAF. I never posted them last year, so better late than never, right?
The crowd.

Bagpipe Parade

I don't remember what group/club sponsored this, but there were all of these bulldogs that people had painted to represent various movies. They were auctioned off as a fund raiser of some sort. I love them and took lots of pictures of them.

They didn't have the painted bulldogs this year, but they had lots of other cool stuff. If you've never been, you should come to Starkville for the Cotton District Arts Festival next year.

This week

2010-04-23T13:28:00.005-05:00

I had every intention of posting every day this week, but you know how life gets in the way. So I'll use this post to catch up.

Monday was really busy with housework and the typical housewife life, but I did get my Menu Plan Monday post up.

Tuesday was going to be my "free day" to get caught up on sewing projects and reading, so I slept in and was just getting started with my day when I got a text from a teacher friend.
Her - "Is there any way you can have the cake here in the morning? She's leaving at 10."
Me - "Nobody told me when you needed it or anything, last I heard about it was before Easter. Mrs. M was supposed to get back to me about it. What does it need to say and how do you want it decorated? I can get it there no earlier than 8:00."
So then there were a few more messages and she told me what they needed. So I went to the store for some supplies and spent the rest of the day baking and decorating the cake. (So much for my free day, huh?) So here's the cake, and since I had a little batter and icing left over, I made some cupcakes for some of my other friends at the school since I know they could use a little something to brighten their day.

Wednesday after I took the cake to the school, I spent the rest of the day doing more housewifey stuff. Mostly going through coupons and sale ads and making lists. Also, I made chocolate covered strawberries. They were delicious and we ended up eating all of them that night. I know we shouldn't have, but oh my goodness they were good.
Thursday (yesterday) was a pretty good day. I got a lot of shopping done and got some great deals on stuff at CVS. Also last night I went to a floral design workshop thing that was sponsored by a group on campus that a friend of mine is involved with. I've always been interested in floral design and would love to take an actual class at some point. I learned a few things, so I'm glad I went.
So that brings us to today, Friday. So far, so good. We ate lunch with friends today. The guy that Mr. McHacker works with and his wife (who works in the same building) are friends of ours and I always enjoy it when we're able to eat lunch together. Tonight is supposed to be date night, but since the weather is supposed to get pretty bad later this evening, we're probably postponing it, which is fine with me since we ate out for lunch.

I wanted to write about last weekend in this post, but it's already getting too long, so I'm going to hit publish on this one and call it done and go ahead and start working on the next one and get it ready to post for tomorrow. I hope y'all have a great weekend!

Menu Plan Monday April 19 - 25

2010-04-19T11:13:00.003-05:00

It's that time of the week again.

As usual, lunches will be sandwiches or leftovers. We may eat out for lunch at some point this week as well.

Suppers
Monday - Lasagna from the freezer (We ended up eating out when we were supposed to have this last week). Bread machine rolls
Tuesday - Baked lemon pepper chicken, Pasta Roni angel hair pasta with herbs, green beans, rolls
Wednesday - Sloppy Joes on bread machine buns, french fries
Thursday - Chicken, broccoli, rice and cheese casserole (I'll make 2 and put 1 in the freezer), bread machine rolls (fresh batch)
Friday - Eat out
Saturday - Red beans and rice with sausage
Sunday - Salad with fried chicken

Another Computer Science Birthday Cake

2010-04-17T07:00:00.004-05:00

Here's the cake for the Computer Science and Engineering department's monthly birthday celebration.

I know it looks a little crazy, but I promise I haven't lost my mind. The only person with a birthday this month was the professor who teaches cryptography. So I thought it would be fun to write the happy birthday message in code. This code is Caesar cipher, which basically shifts letters in order. In this case, all of the letters are shifted 2 places (since the birthday is on the 2nd day of the month), so A becomes C, B becomes D, C becomes E, and so on. The message says Happy Birthday Dr. Ramkumar. When I took it in yesterday morning, the department head said it was cool, and Mr. McHacker said the recipient thought it was great, so I'm happy with that.

We are going to the Cotton District Arts Festival, Old Main Music Festival, and possibly some of the Super Bulldog Weekend activities today, so I'll have some pictures and stuff to post next week. I hope y'all are enjoying your weekend!

Four-wheeler birthday cake

2010-04-16T07:00:00.001-05:00

The birthday cake I delivered with the Easter cookies was for a teenage boy who loves his four-wheeler. His mom didn't give me a picture, and said that it didn't really matter what I did, as long as it had a red four wheeler on it. So I found a picture online, and this is how it turned out.

She loved it and said it looked just like the one he has, so I was really happy about that.

Easter cookies

2010-04-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

When I took the baby shower cake to the school, several of the ladies asked me if I would make some Easter cookies for them. I've done it in years past, but this year I had completely forgotten about asking if they wanted anything. So when they asked, I said, "Sure, why not?" Well, little did I know I would end up with orders for about 12 dozen cookies, a cookie bouquet, and a birthday cake. I worked 27 hours straight to get them all done. Thankfully, I remembered to get some pictures while I was working on them, because I forgot to when I got them all finished and wrapped up pretty.
I forgot to take a pic of the cookie bouquet. Anyway, I delivered them the Thursday before Easter, and everybody was happy with them.

We spent slept in a little late on Good Friday, then headed down to Mom and Dad McHacker's house and spent the night and part of Saturday with them. Then we went to my Mom's and visited with her and my sister and her kids Saturday and Sunday. Saturday night, after everyone went to bed, I stayed up and made more Easter cookies for Sunday.

We went "across the river" for Easter dinner and the egg hunt with my Nana's family (I took the big cookie bouquet above) and had a great time. We left from there and drove back to Starkville that night. We were so tired, we needed a vacation by the time we got back, but it was fun and I'm glad we went.

Alabama baby shower cake

2010-04-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Monday before Easter, the ladies at the school I used to work at had a baby shower for one of the teachers. She went to college at the University of Alabama, and is a huge Bama fan, so the ladies thought it would be fun to work that into the cake somehow.
I kicked around a few ideas about what I wanted it to look like. At first I thought it would be cute to have something like a baby wearing a Bear Bryant fedora, drawn on the cake. But I thought that might be kind of hard to draw, so I started sketching out a little elephant instead. As I was doing this, I was talking about it with Mr. McHacker. The following is the actual conversation we had (I actually wrote it down). (I included the drawings as well, you're welcome).

Him - "It wouldn't be hard to draw a baby in a fedora. Here, I'll draw you one."
Me - "If I drew that on a cake, they would refuse to pay me."
Him - "Well fine then."
Me - "Here's what I have in mind instead." (Sorry about the bits of icing on it).
Him - "That's a really good drawing of an elephant. I figured drawing an elephant would be hard, that's why I was thinking drawing a baby would be easier."

Me - "Yeah, it wasn't too hard, a lot easier than a baby I think."

Him - "Dang, I would rather draw three of those babies I drew than an elephant. I'd draw three of them and say, 'Maybe you'll have twins. God bless Bear Bryant!'

Me - Laughing so hard I'm crying. "Three babies is twins, huh?"

Him - "Oh. Never mind."

So anyway, this is what the final cake ended up looking like.

Basketweave birthday cake

2010-04-13T07:00:00.001-05:00

I've been making monthly birthday cakes for the Computer Science Department at MSU for several months now. This was the cake for March. Since the only person with a birthday for then month was a lady, I took the opportunity to make it a little more feminine than usual. Basket weave and springtime flowers seemed like a good choice :-)

Menu Plan Monday April 12-18

2010-04-12T14:00:00.000-05:00

I've still been doing menu plans, just haven't been posting any. Trying to get back into the habit of posting regularly, so here's this week's.

Lunches will be leftovers or sandwiches.
Suppers:
Monday - Pizza at Game Night
Tuesday - Chicken Caesar Salad
Wednesday - Santa Fe Soup
Thursday - Chicken Spaghetti and bread machine rolls
Friday - Cheeseburgers and fries (on bread machine rolls)
Saturday - Lasagna (from freezer - made extra last time)
Sunday - Southwest quiche

Thomas the Tank Engine cake

2010-04-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

It seems like all little boys goes through a phase when they like trains, and it seems like a lot of them love Thomas the Tank Engine. Our friends' little boy is one of those kids, and his birthday party this year was Thomas themed. (He's the same one who had the Little Einsteins cake last year.) I've done a few Thomas cakes before, and thankfully they get easier each time :-)

I wish I had remembered to take my camera (or iPhone) to the party, it was at one of those indoor inflatables places, and I think the adults had as much fun playing on those things as the kids did.

Gamer girl costume

2010-04-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

A month or so ago, our friend needed a costume for a costume party her fraternity (Theta Tau) was having. Apparently engineering fraternities are full of geeks, because the theme was "dress as a video game character." So, I told her I would help her make a costume. I didn't quite realize how much work it would be when I volunteered, but I'm glad I did it, it was a lot of fun making something other than aprons and such. I don't know the name of the character, but this is the costume she showed me, and said something like that would be great. So this is what I had to go by.

Of course, I didn't have a pattern, so I had to take measurements and make my own pattern pieces for the costume. I knew I could do it, but I didn't want to tape pieces of paper together to draw the pattern on, because I have done that before and it's a pain in the ass. Then I had a brainstorm (which I'm sure many others before me have had) that I could use the back side of some of that leftover Christmas wrapping paper I had in the closet. It worked great. So I took measurements, drew out the pattern pieces, and spend two days sewing. Here are the results.

Skirt:

Sleeveless top:

Vest over the shirt:

Arm band/sleeves:

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of her wearing it, but she loved it, and I think it turned out pretty well.

Congratulations Mr. McHacker

2010-04-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

My dear, sweet, very smart husband received some awards from the MSU Student Association recently. They let him know that he was going to receive the award for the Most Outstanding Student in the College of Engineering, which was pretty cool. Then at the reception, they announced that he was also the winner of the Most Outstanding Student of the Year at Mississippi State University. He wasn't expecting this, and it was really cool for him to win it. I'm glad that he's being recognized for all of the hard work he's done as a PhD student, he deserves it. He said it was okay to post the picture, so here you go. Sorry about the red eyes, but I'm not taking the time to fix it. (Although it is tempting to photoshop out my double chin and fat arms).

Also, Mr. McHacker also started a new job at MSU with the National Forensics Training Center. You can read about it over at his blog if you want to know more. So now, he's working full time, and working on his PhD dissertation too. Busy guy.

It's been a while...again

2010-04-09T19:33:00.004-05:00

For some reason, I just haven't written anything in a long time. I think about it, but I've been busy with other things. And sometimes, I'm not busy, I'm just lazy and want to goof around on the internet rather than write a blog post. So, I'm going to really try this time to write more often. In fact, I'm sitting in my husband's office at work with him right now, and while he's working on stuff, I'm going to sit here and write up a bunch of blog posts catching up on what I've been up to lately. Since I don't have other things to distract me here.
So anyway, something I've been wanting to show y'all, are some pictures I took on campus at MSU a couple of weeks ago. It was one of the first really pretty days of spring, and I took a walk around the neighborhood and MSU.

This is the footbridge that leads into campus if you're walking from downtown.

I love, love, love this tree. Every year I say I'm going t take pictures of it and I'm so glad I finally did it this year.

I hope y'all are enjoying the lovely spring weather as much as I am.

Happy Birthday Jayden!

2010-02-22T19:27:00.003-06:00

I'm a terrible aunt for not posting this sooner. Jay's 1st birthday was February 5th.

Here are his cakes. He loves Moose and Zee, so I made my second Moose and Zee cake. The little cake was for him to smash, his big brother Quin helped me decorate it.

His mommy and big brother helped him blow out his candle, he just wanted to touch it.

I think he liked it!

Shopping trip 2-09-10

2010-02-10T07:00:00.000-06:00

Like I said yesterday, I'm trying to get back into couponing and stockpiling, so I thought I'd share my shopping trips with you.

Kroger

Nature Valley granola bars (50 cent coupon, doubled)
Fiber One bars (40 cent coupon, doubled)
2 Old El Paso heat and serve rice pouches (2 - 50 cent coupons, doubled)
Old El Paso Fajita seasoning
Mission tortillas (50 cent coupon, doubled)
Kroger sugar
3 cans of Rotel ($1 coupon)
4 cans Hunt's diced tomatoes ($1 coupon)
5 cans Hunt's tomato sauce ($1 coupon)
16 oz. bag Kroger shredded cheddar cheese
16 oz. bag Kroger shredded mozzarella cheese
Kroger butter (free coupon)
Softsoap hand soap (35 cent coupon, doubled)
2 20oz Cokes (free coupons for both)
2 Sister Schubert rolls (2- $1 coupons)
2 Toaster Strudels (55 cents off 2 coupon, doubled)
Healthy Choice Cafe Steamer ($1 coupon)
1 DiGiorno Pizza ($4 coupon)
Most of the items I bought were part of the Buy 10, get $5 off Mega Sale, so I saved $10 that way.
I had $15.33 worth of manufacture's coupon savings, $4.35 worth of bonus coupons (from the ones that doubled), saved 19.99 by using my Kroger card and got $10 off from the items I purchased that were part of the Mega Event sale. That made a total savings of $49.67, 67% off the original price, so I only paid $26.58 for all of those groceries.

CVS

3 boxes Ritz crackers ($1 coupon)
2 boxes Wheat Thins ($1 coupon)
Gillette Fusion razor ($4 coupon)
Used $5 worth of Extra Care Bucks from last week, and paid $9.32 out of pocket. I also got back $7 worth of ECBs that I'll use for another transaction later this week.

Walgreens

1st Transaction:
Dove for Men Body Wash. Used a $1.25 coupon, paid $5.16 out of pocket and got back a Register Reward coupon for $6.

2nd Transaction:
Gillette deodorant ($1 coupon)
2 Kotex products ($1 coupon)
Used the $6 RR from 1st transaction, and paid $2.69 out of pocket. Got back $4.50 in Register Rewards.

3rd Transaction:
Whitman's chocolate ($4.99 with Walgreen's coupon, stacked with a $1 Mfg. coupon)
Gillette Fusion shave gel ($1.99 with Walgreen's coupon, stacked with a $1 Mfg. coupon)
Dayquil ($2 coupon)
4 Valentine bags
Used the $4.50 in Register Rewards from 2nd transaction and paid $4.84 out of pocket.

Walgreens' policy is that you can't have more coupons than you have items, so since I stacked store coupons and manufacture coupons, and had Register Reward coupons, I got the Valentine bags as cheap "fillers" to have the same number of items as I had coupons.

Total spent for the day: $48.59
Total saved for the day: $100.75

Catching up

2010-02-09T20:36:00.002-06:00

It's been a long time since I've posted. Again. I keep thinking that I'll start posting more often but haven't. Sigh.
I've been back and forth to my Mom's a lot this year, spending a week at home and then a week there since the year started. I've been helping her out at the tax office again this year, and it's been busy.
When I'm here, I've been working on decluttering the computer room, to make it functional again. It's kinda slow going, but we've made a lot of progress on it. I'm getting rid of my old desktop computer and using the desk space for a sewing/crafting area, and I'm really excited about that. I usually use the kitchen table for that sort of thing, so it will be nice to have a place to work on stuff whenever I want. When things get a little less busy, I've got some sewing projects I want to work on.
I've also been getting back into the couponing/deal finding again. We've mostly been using up the stuff I stockpiled last year. I also used a lot of the health and beauty items in gift baskets at Christmas, so it's time to start stockpiling again. I did a good bit of shopping today, and got some good deals, so I'll probably make a post about that for tomorrow.
The next two weeks are going to be crazy busy again. Tomorrow, and then most of next week, I'm helping the Kidzone teacher take down and redecorate her classroom for a a new unit about the human body. This will be the fifth time I've helped her do it. It's fun, but a lot of work. That reminds me that I still haven't posted the pictures of the units on the ocean and Hawaii, I'll try to do that sometime soon, if I can find the pics.
After I leave the school tomorrow, I'm planning on going back down to my Mama's to help her out at the tax office on Thursday and Friday. They're supposed to get some snowy weather down there on Friday, but hopefully I won't get stuck there and will be able to come home for the weekend.
While I'm helping out at the school next week, Mr. McHacker is going to be in Alaska, giving a lecture to a class about how he helped the FBI catch a hacker last summer. He's given the same talk a couple of times at a couple of places over the past few months, and people seem t enjoy it. I really wanted to go to Alaska with him, but it was such short notice and the tickets are SO expensive (like $1,400) that we just couldn't swing it right now. It's probably for the best since it's like 5 degrees there and I don't know how well I would do in that kind of cold.
I finallay got caught up on my Google Reader again, when I got home Sunday I had almost 800 unread blog posts! I've been kinda lax about leaving comments on y'all's blogs lately since I was so far behind, but now I'm caught up, so I'll try to start commenting more often.

Happy Birthday Mr. McHacker!

2010-01-16T13:36:00.001-06:00

Happy 30th birthday sweetheart, I love you!

Menu Plan 1/11 - 1/17

2010-01-11T18:02:00.002-06:00

I'm trying to get back into the habit of menu planning. It all fell apart during the holidays.

Mr. McHacker and I are going to try the Special K Challenge for the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure how well we will do, but it's worth a try.

Breakfasts - Special K

Lunches- Special K (Or if we just can't handle another bowl of cereal, we'll have a small salad).

Suppers-
Monday - Chicken Spaghetti

Tuesday - Pizza (I know, not good for a diet, but we're going to a friend's game night.)

Wednesday - Read Beans and Rice with Sausage

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Frito Pie

Saturday - Digiorno Pizza Party, (I was selected as a House Party host, so Mr. McHacker get a pizza party for his birthday! I'll post more about that next week) veggies with dip, cheeseball, birthday cake

Sunday - Turkey soup (from the freezer)

Want to see lot of other folks' menu plans? Go to orgjunkie.com!

Some aprons

2010-01-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

I did a good bit of apron making over the holidays. I apologize in advance for the pictures. I haven't been using my camera since it takes so long to upload the pictures to my laptop, so I've just been taking pics with my iPhone and emailing them to myself. I know they're not the best quality, but you get the point.

My sister had me make this one as a Christmas present for her friend:
It's the Lorelei pattern from the A is for Apron book, it's one of my favorite patterns. The picture is a little dark, the dark purple looks almost black, but in reality, it was a pretty eggplant color, and the main fabric was a pretty little floral pattern.

This one was a Christmas present for Mom McHacker since her favorite color is yellow:
I forgot to iron it before I took the picture (oops). The pattern is from Susan Branch and you can download the PDF here. This is my newest favorite pattern. Here's a closer look at the fabric:
I call it the "Busy Bee" apron. After finishing it, I went back over the bias tape to make it lie down flat, even though the directions did not say to do that. I think it gave it a more finished look. Speaking of bias tape, if you've not worked with it much, or have a hard time with it, you should watch this tutorial by Amy Karol.

I also used the Susan Branch pattern to make an apron for my youngest sister, but forgot to take a picture of the finished product. This is the fabric I used though:

I bought enough of it to make 2 aprons, so I'm going to use it to make one for myself. I'll try to remember to take a picture when I finish it.

I'm also going to try to participate in the upcoming Tie One On, due March first. Since I now have a bunch of new patterns, I'll probably be posting even more aprons in the future. Maybe I should rename this blog Crystal wants to share...her apron obsession!

More patterns

2010-01-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

When we were at Mom and Dad McHacker's house after Christmas, I was looking at the JoAnn sale ad and saw that they were going to have a sale on McCall's patterns for 99 cents each! I know I just bought all of these Butterick patterns, but I just couldn't pass up this deal. I knew I wouldn't be in Meridian those days, so Mom was so sweet to pick them up for me. Here's what she got.
M5997
M5720
M5643
M5551
M5825
Since I mostly make aprons and crafty things, I figured it's about time to try my hand at making clothes. This doesn't look too difficult.
M5896
And I would really love to make these dresses to wear this summer when it gets warm again.
M5094
M5619
I hoping that posting this will give me some motivation to actually make them!

Please pray

2010-01-07T23:25:00.002-06:00

Please pray for Lindsey at Pleasant Drive. Her breast cancer has returned and she needs our prayers now more than ever. I can't even pretend to imagine what she is going through right now.

Better to write for yourself...

2010-01-07T17:45:00.002-06:00

I keep telling myself, "this will be the day I will start blogging regularly again," and then the day is over and I didn't write a thing. So even though I don't have a great post today, I figured I needed to make an effort to write something. Anything. Just to get back into the habit. I miss blogging, but I struggle with wanting to write something that is interesting to others and wanting to write for myself about the mundane, ordinary things going on in my life. So I've got to find a balance between the two. I remember reading somewhere that some well-known blogger ( I can't remember who though) said that voice is more important than content, I take that to mean I should let my voice be heard, even if what I'm writing is not important to anyone else. As Cyril Connolly said, "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." So if you find what I write boring, go away. It won't hurt my feelings.
I'm not going to try to write everyday, that would just be setting myself up for failure, but I am going to try to write more regularly.

Thanksgiving and Christmas and the whole holiday season was pretty good for us. I do have to admit that I'm glad it's over now though. We spent a lot of time with family and were out of town a lot, which I enjoyed, but it'll be good to get back into some kind of regular routine again.

I'm behind on blog reading again, but I'm slowly catching back up, and I'll try to start leaving more comments again. I hope you are all doing well, and staying warm in this cold weather.

Cheap Patterns at Joann

2009-12-20T17:32:00.011-06:00

Sorry I've been so long without posting. I guess I've had blogger's block or something, but I just had to let y'all know about this deal in case anyone was interested.
We're visiting Mom and Dad McHacker in Meridian this weekend and I decided I wanted to check out the new Joann Fabric that opened up last month. So I got online to check the sale ad and saw on page 14 of this week's ad that Butterick patterns are on sale for $1.99 each through the 24th, with a limit of 10. This is a GREAT deal. I've been wanting some more apron patterns and some bag patterns, and this was the perfect opportunity to get them. I picked up 8 patterns for less than what one would have cost at regular price. Regular price before tax $128.15, sale price before tax $15.92! The deal is in-store only, which kinda stinks, but if you have a Joann's near you, it would be worth going.
These are the patterns I got:
1950's Vintage Apron B4087

Apron pattern B4945

Waverly Apron pattern B5263

Apron pattern B5302

1954 Retro Apron pattern B5435

Vintage Apron pattern B6567

Handbag pattern B4822
Waverly Totes B5267

Pink stuff FAIL

2009-11-15T07:00:00.001-06:00

"Pink Stuff" is what we call strawberry congealed salad in our family. I hate the word congealed. Anyway...
Here's a recipe for it:
Small container of Cool Whip
Small container of small curd cottage cheese
Box of strawberry Jell-o (don't make the Jell-o, just dump the powder in)
Can of fruit cocktail, drained

Mix the Jell-o powder into the cottage cheese, add the fruit cocktail, and fold in the Cool Whip. You can add nuts if you like. Sometimes I make it with orange Jell-o and mandarin oranges. You can pretty much come up with your own combination of whatever flavor Jell-o and fruit you like. Easy-peasy.
Except, somehow I messed it up. This is the email I sent to my mom-in-law last night, I thought you all might enjoy it.

Hey Mom and Dad,
I just had to share this with you cause I know you will get a kick out of it. Last night I made some "pink stuff" and it still wasn't firm by tonight. I've made it dozens of times and never had this happen. I think there was too much liquid in the cottage cheese and even though I drained the fruit cocktail, I think it had too much liquid as well. So we decided to make smoothies out of it. The texture is a little funny, but overall, not too bad. So jello salad fail = smoothies win. :-) Oh, and it's such a pretty color of pink. Love y'all lots, Crystal

To make the smoothies, I just threw a bunch of ice cubes, a little milk, and about half of the failed mixture into the blender and used the ice crush setting. I think I'm going to throw a banana in with it when I mix up the rest of it. I guess this is just one more example of how I hate to waste anything!

Cork board cake

2009-10-14T19:07:00.004-05:00

This cake is for a faculty meeting for the computer science department at MSU. Mr. McHacker helped me come up with the idea of making it look like a cork board with calendar pages tacked onto it. I think it's pretty cute. Hopefully they'll like it.

I'm heading down to Lucedale tomorrow to do a wedding cake, cupcakes, and cookies for this weekend. I'm gonna be so busy, I'm not really looking forward to all of the work since my back has been bothering me a lot, but i promised to do it, so I am. I'll post pictures of everything next week.

Windmills

2009-10-03T12:16:00.004-05:00

I saw this segment on Good Morning America last week and I just can't get it out of my head. They had an interview with a young African man named William Kamkwamba, who built a windmill to produce electricity for his family's home. At the time he was 14 or 15 years old and couldn't go to school because his family couldn't afford the $80 a year tuition. So he went to the nearest library and borrowed books about physics and generating electricity and taught himself. He built a windmill out of junk parts he could find lying around. It just amazed me that this boy who had nothing, had so much initiative that he would do whatever it took to make his family's life better. It's such an amazing and heartwarming story.

On this page at Good Morning America's website, there is a link to the video of the interview, I think it's the 4th link listed. There is a feature length documentary about William, called Moving Windmills, in production now. You can watch an excerpt of it here. I hope you will take the time to watch the videos, they're about 5 or 6 minutes each.

He also wrote a book, with co-author Brian Mealer, called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

I'm not trying to sell anything, and no one asked me to write this. I just saw this young man's story and it touched my heart so much that I had to share it with y'all. We always hear about so many bad things happening around the world that I thought we all could benefit from an inspiring story such as this. I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Shopping trip 9-26

2009-09-26T19:43:00.003-05:00

I haven't made a couponing/ deals post in a while, so I thought I would post what I bought today. It wasn't the most money I've ever saved on a trip, but I got a few good deals. I went to CVS and Walgreens, but just took one picture of everything.

CVS
1st Transaction:
2 small boxes Nutter Butter cookies
1 small box Ritz crackers
1 small box Oreos
$1 each, used 2 $1 off 2 Nabisco coupons
2 Right Guard deodorants $2.99 each, used $1 off 2 coupon, got $2 ECBs
Gillette Fusion cartridges $14.99, use a coupon for free shave gel ($4.29) got $3 ECBs
Used a $4 ECB and $17.07 on a CVS money card
Total out of pocket $2.95

2nd Transaction:
10 oz Glade soy candle, used a rain-check from several weeks ago making it $6.99, got $6.99 ECBs back. Used the $5 worth of ECBs from the first transaction.
Total out of pocket $2.48

Walgreens
2 Glade scented oil candles with holders, 2/$5, used a $2 off 2 coupon, got $1 Registar Reward
Electrosol gelpacs $3.99, used $.50 coupon, got $1 RR
2 Aussie shampoos $2.99 each, used a $2 off 2 coupon, got $2 RR
2 small boxes of Cheez It $1.99 Buy one get one free
Total out of pocket $13.65
Not the greatest deal, but I did save $10.51 from sales and coupons, and got back $4 in RR that I can use on a future purchase.

I hope y'all are having a good weekend. Remember to get a paper tomorrow for the coupons, I know I will!

Another birthday cake

2009-09-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

This cake was for the principal at the school where I used to work. I've made him a birthday cake and Boss's Day cake for the past 3 or 4 years, so I'm starting to run out of ideas! After I took this picture, I fixed the little bit at the bottom that was crooked, but forgot to take another picture of the cake. Oh well!

Wow Wow Wubbzy cake

2009-09-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wow wow Wubbzy is another one of those Noggin shows I think. A friend ordered it for her friend's little girl. I have another one of these to do next week, it'll probably end up looking exactly the same way!

Sunflower cookies

2009-09-19T21:05:00.004-05:00

I made these a couple of weeks ago. The sunflower cookie bouquet was ordered for someone at the school where I used to work. The little bouquet was just a happy I made for an acquaintance's birthday.

Petit Fours and marzipan

2009-09-15T16:12:00.000-05:00

Once again, sorry for my lack of posting. I finally got around to downloading pictures off my camera, so I wanted to share a couple of things with you.

Several weeks ago, ok, more like 2 months ago, I made some petit fours for my friend's mom to take to a baby shower. I've finally recovered from the ordeal and can talk about them without hatred now. (What a pain!) The ladies at Bakerella and VeganYumYum have written lovely, detailed posts about the process of making petit fours, so I won't go into detail, since I pretty much did exactly as they did. Mine were filled with buttercream rather than jam, though.

Since I didn't have anywhere to get marzipan, I blanched, peeled and ground some almonds and made my own almond paste using the first recipe on this page, minus the rosewater. Then I kneaded in powdered sugar to make it into marzipan. I have to admit, I thought that part was kind of fun. I didn't realize just how much it would make though, obviously, since I ended up with almost 4 pounds of it!
Thankfully, it freezes well, so I used what I needed and stuck the rest in the freezer. I'm going to dip some of it in chocolate and make candy for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'll let you know how that turns out.

So anyway, here's a picture of the finished petit fours.

I hope y'all have a great day!

Umm...I'm still alive

2009-08-30T21:09:00.002-05:00

I haven't made a blog post in over a month. Sorry 'bout that. I don't have any good excuse really. I keep thinking that I should start blogging again, but then just don't do it. I rarely have anything blog-worthy to write about, but I figured I just have to jump back in somehow. So here I am.

Today I cut out and organized coupons while I watched a bunch of episodes of Firefly. I really love that show. It makes me sad that it didn't do better when it was on the air, cause I wish there could be new episodes of it. I've owned Serenity for a couple of years, but just can't bring myself to watch it, because then the story would be over for me and I want it to last as long as possible. That's why I decided to rewatch Firefly. Maybe I'll finally watch Serenity after I finish Firefly this time.

Also, I've been a tiny bit obsessed with watching Mad Men. We just started watching it again, so we're still a few episodes behind, but we should be caught up soon. I just love the clothes of that era. Part of me is tempted to start making my own dresses in the styles I see on the show. I can just imagine the sorts of crazy looks I would get from people. Who care what people think anyway, right?

In other news, we had sloppy joes for supper tonight and with that, I will leave you with this video. Take a trip down memory lane, back to the mid nineties with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley.

Free coffee sample

2009-07-27T10:36:00.003-05:00

Heather at Freebies4Mom posted this link, and I thought I would pass it on. Y'all know I'm all about the freebies! Hopefully this will make your Monday a little bit better :-)

Just one more reason why I love my husband

2009-07-18T05:00:00.000-05:00

He makes up silly charts like this and sends them to me, just to brighten my day. "The Masaokis Boundary" is apparently where "sausages" go wrong, and is in reference to a guy who makes "cooking videos" and puts them on Youtube. Check out Masaokis's Super Sausages video - if you dare. It's long and he's crazy, and it will leave you saying "what the heck was that?"

Happy Anniversary

2009-07-17T07:59:00.003-05:00

Five years ago I married my best friend. He's the best thing that ever happened to me and I love him with all my heart. If there ever were two people who were meant to be together, it has to be us!

Tinkerbell cake

2009-07-16T01:02:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the craptastic picture, I took it with the iPhone. I did
take better ones with the camera, but I'm tired and don't want to take
the time to download them from the camera then upload them to the
interwebs. So, goodnight.

Spiderman cake

2009-07-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

This is the cake I just finished for my friend's little boy, he's
turning five tomorrow. I promise there aren't spacing issues, he has a
double first name and you can only see part of it in the picture. I
hate to see cakes where the writing is off center.
Next up is a Tinkerbell cake for the same friend's daughter. She's
turning twelve next week, so they're having one party instead of two.
Let's hope I don't mess up the writing on it or I'll be eating my
words. I'll post a pic of it when I get done.

A purse for my niece

2009-07-08T15:22:00.003-05:00

Several months ago when I asked my niece what she wanted for her birthday, one of the things she said she wanted was for me to make her a purse. She said she wanted pink and green and really bright colors. So, last weekend in between 4th of July stuff, I made my niece a purse as part of her birthday present. She seemed to really like it, and her mom liked it because she can throw it in the washing machine when it gets dirty. The pattern has a large version and a small version, this is the small one (perfect for a ten year old girl I think). I'm planning on making some with the larger pattern for myself and a few for Christmas gifts. Last year it was aprons, this year will be purses :-)

Menu plan 6/29 - 7/5

2009-06-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Breakfasts this week will just be whatever we feel like eating. The choices are cereal, yogurt, oatmeal, grits, and possibly muffins if I feel like making some.

Monday 6/29
Lunch - Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers
Supper - Red beans and rice with sausage and cornbread

Tuesday 6/30
Lunch - Leftover red beans and rice
Supper - Chicken Spaghetti, homemade rolls

Wednesday 7/1
Lunch - Leftover chicken spaghetti
Supper - Lasagna, salad, rolls

Thursday 7/2
Lunch - BLT sandwiches
Supper - Leftovers from the week

Friday 7/3
Lunch - Leftovers or tomato sandwiches
Supper - Manwich sandwiches and french fries

Saturday 7/4
Lunch and Supper - cookout at the family reunion

Sunday 7/5
Lunch - family reunion
Supper - Southwest quiche (from freezer)

I give up

2009-06-24T14:44:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to clean out our computer/junkroom this week. It's
not going so great. A few minutes ago I knocked over one of my
favorite pieces of junk, an old cast iron and glass gumball machine.
Oh, and somehow I managed to cut myself on the leg in the process. I
couldn't face cleaning it up right away so I sat down to compose
myself and this post. Just shoot me.

Menu plan 6/22 - 6/28

2009-06-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

It's my birthday today, so if we end up eating out somewhere tonight, I'll just push everything back a day.

Monday 6/22
Breakfast - Yogurt
Lunch - Leftover red beans and rice
Supper - Ham and cheddar quiche

Tuesday 6/23
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Leftover quiche
Supper - Chicken Club Ring

Wednesday 6/24
Breakfast - Yogurt
Lunch - Leftover chicken club ring
Supper - Pork tenderloin, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese

Thursday 6/25
Breakfast - Cereal or oatmeal
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Pork fried rice

Friday 6/26
Breakfast - Yogurt
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Cheeseburgers and french fries

Saturday 6/27
Breakfast - Cereal or oatmeal
Lunch - Homemade pepperoni pizza
Supper - Breakfast for supper (Affectionately known around here as "brupper")

Sunday 6/28
Breakfast - Yogurt
Lunch - Fettucine alfredo (the Knorr side dish kind) with chicken added
Supper - Baked chicken breast with lemon pepper, squash casserole, pasta salad

Cheap By Choice

2009-06-21T23:41:00.004-05:00

Cheap by Choice is a fellow couponing, deal-seaking blogger, and she's having a coupon giveaway. Whether you're an avid couponer, or just getting started, you should check it out. Go here for more info. Good luck!

Gift baskets

2009-06-21T21:06:00.003-05:00

I came across this post from Coupon Mommie today and it reminded me of the gift baskets I made for Mother's Day and forgot to tell you about.
Knowing that our mothers and my Nana have just about everything they need, it's sometimes hard to figure out what to buy them for occasions such as Mother's Day, so this year I made them gift baskets from my stockpile. I know for instance that my Nana likes to use Dove products, so when CVS has deals on Dove, I stock up. I've forgotten exactly what I put into each of them, but it's stuff like shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, body wash, lotion, soap, razors, and deodorant. Gifts like these always seem to be appreciated and I think many people like getting gifts that are useful.
The Dollar Tree has a pretty good selection of baskets and plastic containers, and shredded paper to use as filler, as well as gift basket wrapping kits, which contain one clear plastic bag and a "pull bow" for a dollar each.
So, if you've started couponing and don't know what to do with all of the stuff in your stockpile, try making some gift baskets!

Menu Plan Monday...just a little late

2009-06-16T22:46:00.004-05:00

Better late than never, right? I actually had the menu plan mostly done last night, but forgot about posting it till now. I really got into planning the menu this week and decided to just go ahead and plan meals for the next month. That's right, I have a month's worth of meals planned. After I get this posted I'm gonna go ahead and type up the next few week's menus so I won't be late getting it done again.

Meals for the week of Monday, June 15 - Sunday, June 21

Monday 6/15
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Chinese buffet
Supper - Mini meatloaf, mashed potatoes, baby lima beans

Tuesday 6/16
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Hot Pockets
Supper - Fried chicken tenders, salad

Wednesday 6/17
Breakfast - Granola bars
Lunch - Salad topped with chicken tenders
Supper - Barbecued pineapple pork chops, green beans

Thursday 6/18
Breakfast - Blueberry muffins
Lunch - Hot dogs and potato chips
Supper - Cheeseburgers on homemade buns, french fries

Friday 6/19
Breakfast - Blueberry muffins
Lunch - Hot Pockets (yes twice in one week - they were on sale at Kroger)
Supper - Chicken Spaghetti, homemade rolls

Saturday 6/20
Breakfast - Grits and toast or muffins if there are any left
Lunch - leftover chicken spaghetti
Supper - Cooking out with some friends at their house

Sunday 6/21
Brunch (we sleep late on Sundays)- Cinnamon rolls
Supper - Red beans and rice with sausage, cornbread

I'm also going to try my hand at making a pineapple upside down cake to have for dessert for the rest of the week.

Gettin' better

2009-06-14T18:19:00.010-05:00

I'm getting better at this couponing thing. I just thought I would share last week's CVS trips with y'all.

Transaction 1
1 Bayer Contour meter on sale for $14.99, regular price $79.99 had a coupon making it free. (Gonna give it away).
2 Dawn dish soaps 2/$2, used a $.50 coupon and a $.25 coupon.
Earned $6.00 Extra Care Bucks (ECBs)
Used $2 ECBs
Total out of pocket (OOP) $1. 05 in taxes
Saved $83.97

Transaction 2
1 Gillette Fusion razor sale $7.99, regular $9.99, used a $4.00 coupon
1 King sized Hershey's candy bar $1.00, used "free coupon" up to $.85
1 Hershey's Bliss sale $3.50, use $1.00 coupon
3 Reese's Select Clusters $3.50 each, used 3 $1.00 coupons
Earned $9.00 ECBs
Used $11 ECBs
OOP $3.98
Saved 27.60

Transaction 3
Dove body wash, sale $7.00, regular $8.69, used $1.25 coupon
Dove shampoo , sale $4.00, regular $4.99, used $1.00 coupon
Dove conditioner, sale $4.00, regular $4.99, used $1.00 coupon
Dove deodorant,sale 2/$5.00, regular $3.49 each, used $1.50 coupon
Earned $10.00 ECBs for buying Dove
Used $10.00 ECBs
OOP $5.95
Saved 20.40

Transaction 4
Febreze Noticeables, sale $7.00, regular $8.49, used $1.00 coupon
Febreze Air Effects, sale $2.00, regular $3.29, used $.50 coupon
M&M's King size, sale $1.00, regular $1.59
M&M's regular size, sale $.67, regular $.89
Used $10.00 ECBs
Earned $5.00 ECBs
OOP $.29
Saved $14.09

Transaction 5
4 - 12 pack Coke products, regular $4.79, sale $3.25 each
Earned $3.00 ECBs for buying 4
Used $5.00 ECBs
OOP $8.56
Saved $11.16

Total OOP for all CVS transactions - $19.83
Total saved for all CVS transactions -$146.06
(I think all my math was right!)

*Edit*
Shelby asked why I did so many transactions, so I thought I would explain that. It's to "roll" the Extra Care Bucks (ECBs). ECBs are "$ off your next purchase" coupons that CVS gives you for purchasing certain items, and ideally, you want to use them to purchase items that give you more ECBs. I started out with $14 ECBs that I already had from last week's transactions. On transaction 1, I used $2 ECBs but earned $6 more, so that put me up to $18 ECBs. Transaction 2 I used $11, but earned $9 more, so tht put me at $16ECBs, and so on. When you break up your transactions, it gives you more chances to use the ECBs you have to earn more, which results in getting a huge discount by using the ECBs. I don't know if that made it any clearer, but you can email me if any of you have questions. I'm no expert though.
If you're interested in couponing, check out Hot Coupon World. You have to join the site, but it's free and SOOOO worth it. Once you join, click the Forums tab at the top, scroll down to Swingin' Deals and click Drug Stores, then click on the CVS subforum. There is tons of information about how to get good deals at CVS there. There are forums for just about every grocery and drug store out there, and they're always updated with the current deals. I've found it really helpful to see how others "coupon", Yeah, I'm so adjective, I verb nouns.

toothpastefordinner.com

Peanut butter pie

2009-06-11T22:37:00.003-05:00

I just made this:

and it was as easy as the Pioneer Woman said it would be. Oh and her pictures are a little better, so go take a look.

Around here we really like chocolate and peanut butter. Actually I'm pretty sure I've posted a couple of other peanut butter and chocolate related recipes.
Mr. McHacker has been gone a lot lately and I wanted to make something yummy for him to come home to tomorrow. I think he'll enjoy it, I know I will.
I hope y'all have a happy Friday and a great weekend.

funny stuff

2009-06-09T16:17:00.003-05:00

Yeah I've been neglecting the blog a lot lately. I have some things I keep meaning to post and just haven't. Maybe I'll get around to it someday.
But anyway, This post is to tell you about a funny blog I've been reading for a couple of months. It's called List of the Day, and it's frakkin' hilarious. If you're sensitive to foul language or vulgarity, don't click it. If you're sick and twisted like me and so many others, click and enjoy. I was reading this one today and literally laughed out loud like 18 times it was so funny. Just wanted to share the funny with any of you who wanted it. Hope you're having a great week.

Monday again

2009-05-11T16:28:00.002-05:00

I hope everybody had a good Mother's day yesterday. We spent the day with Mom and Dad McHacker and had a great time, and ate way too much pizza at Cici's. We're hopefully going to see my Mom next weekend.

One of the things I really like about posting a menu plan, is that Mr. McHacker can see what's for dinner at any time he wants, even when he's at work.

Breakfasts will be cereal, oatmeal, or grits. There's also a can of cinnamon rolls in the fridge that I might fix at some point this week.

Monday
Lunch - Turkey sandwiches
Supper - Round steaks, mashed potatoes, English peas

Tuesday
Lunch -Sandwiches
Supper - Baked chicken breasts, Pasta Roni, green bean casserole

Wednesday
Lunch - Leftovers or sandwiches
Supper - Red beans and rice with sausage, cornbread

Thursday
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Fried chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese

Friday
Lunch - Leftovers or sandwiches
Supper - Spaghetti casserole (didn't make it last week)

Saturday
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Pork tenderloin, broccoli and cheese sauce, pasta salad

Sunday
Lunch - Leftovers
Supper - Chicken/rice/broccoli/cheese casserole (didn't make it last week)

Menu Plan 5/4 - 5/10

2009-05-04T14:47:00.002-05:00

It's Monday again!

Breakfast will be a choice of granola bars, cereal, oatmeal, or grits.

Monday
Lunch: Grilled Cheese sandwiches
Supper: Hamburger Helper and homemade rolls

Tuesday
Lunch: Chinese buffet at Taste of China (yay!)
Supper: Chicken Fajita salad (I didn't make it last week)

Wednesday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Chicken Club "hot pockets" and fries

Thursday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Baked Spaghetti, homemade rolls

Friday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Chicken, rice, broccoli and cheese casserole, homemade rolls

Saturday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Red beans and rice with sausage, cornbread

Sunday
Lunch: Leftovers
Supper: Baked chicken breasts, Pasta Roni, green beans

A Soft Place to Land Giveaway

2009-05-04T13:35:00.002-05:00

Kimba at A Soft Place to Land, is having a great giveaway. It's for $50 to spend at Dayspring.com. Their new Life to the Full collection is really beautiful. Go enter the giveaway: http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/05/dayspring-life-collection-giveaway.html
And she also has a 20% off coupon code if you can't wait to see if you win the giveaway and want to order something now!
Good luck!

2009-05-02T10:38:00.001-05:00

We're at the Mississippi State graduation ceremony. Our good friend
Liz is graduating today. Yay Liz!

If you're thinking it looks like there aren't many graduates, it's
because they have two ceremonies. Otherwise all of the family and
friends wouldn't fit. Congrats to all the grads!

Test post

2009-04-28T00:21:00.000-05:00

Just trying to figure out this mobile blogging thing. I hope it works.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-04-27T22:38:00.003-05:00

(I accidentally hit post, so if you got a blank menu, sorry.)

I haven't been blogging lately and I'm not sure why. I've still been reading all of the ones I follow, and commenting occasionally, but just haven't had the motivation to write anything of my own. I've done some fun stuff in the past month or so, so I'm going to try to post some things that I should have posted about when they happened - better late than never I guess.
Mr. McHacker reinstalled Windows onto my laptop, and I'm not loving it. It's not his fault though, I asked him to do it. But after running Ubuntu Linux for the past year or so and returning to Windows, I am reminded of why I left it in the first place...oh well. I told you that to tell you this, several things I want to write about have accompanying photos and all of my pictures and stuff are still on the DVD backups that I haven't gotten around to putting back onto the laptop. And by "haven't gotten around to," I mean really mean, "have been too lazy to do." So, I'll work on that and try to get caught up.
Since it's Monday (for a few more minutes anyway) I thought I would do a Menu Plan Monday post to try to get myself back in the habit.

Monday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Ham or turkey sandwiches
Supper: Chicken fried rice

Tuesday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftover chicken fried rice
Supper: Chicken Caesar salad

Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Leftovers or sandwiches
Supper: Lasagna, homemade bread sticks

Thursday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftover lasagna
Supper: Baked pork chops, Pasta Roni, green beans, breadsticks

Friday
Breakfast: Grits and toast
Lunch: Chef Boyarde ravioli
Supper: Fried chicken tenders, french fries, some kind of canned or frozen veggie

Saturday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Leftovers or pb&j sandwiches
Supper: Cheeseburgers on homemade buns, french fries (yes I know we're have fries two nights in a row - don't judge)

Sunday
Brunch: Scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, toast
Supper: Chicken fajita salad

I'm also making these things for desserts:
Strawberry shortcake (homemade pound cake, more about that later)
Pound cake with blueberry sauce
Brownies
Peach cobbler

I hope everyone's week is off to a good start.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

2009-04-03T16:33:00.004-05:00

I needed a break from blogging, so I took one. Now I'm back.

We're going to a friend's for dinner tonight and these are the cupcakes I baked to take along. The recipe came from a Taste of Home bake sale magazine. Actually, the cupcake part of it is from one recipe and the frosting is from another, but they work really well together. I've made them before and they are really good. If you like peanut butter and chocolate (who doesn't?), give them a try.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar ( I use light brown)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
12 miniature peanut butter cups

In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla (scrape down sides of bowl). Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fill paper lined muffin cups with 1/4 cup batter. Press a peanut butter cup into the center of each one until the top is even with the batter but not covering. Bake at 350 for about 22 minutes. Cool about 10 minutes then remove to wire pan to cool completely. (The recipe says 16, but I find it makes 12 nice, big cupcakes.)

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 3/4 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups confectioner's sugar
4 to 6 tablespoons milk

In a mixing bowl. cream the butter and peanut butter. Add the vanilla, confectioner's sugar, and enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. (I piped the frosting on with a decorating tip rather than spreading it.)

Yes those are Winnie the pooh cupcake papers, and yes, only adults will be eating them. And after we finish off the cupcakes, we'll be eating the rest of these:

Dr. Seuss cakes

2009-03-08T00:46:00.010-06:00

Here are the Dr. Seuss birthday cake pictures. There were five cakes in all. One just says happy birthday, and the others are covers of Dr. Seuss books. I'm posting the pictures of the book covers along with the pictures of the cakes so you can see what I was working with. Some are better than others. I think it's pretty obvious that the fish cake and the happy birthday one were the last ones, they're not as good as the others. Every time I look at them, they scream "it's midnight and I'm tired!"

I took the cakes to the school early Friday and stayed the rest of the day to help out. The party was fun, I think all of the kids (and teachers) enjoyed it. The kids singing "I do not like green eggs and ham" from Seussical the Musical was so cute!

Shopping trips

2009-03-04T16:42:00.006-06:00

This is going to be a long post, so I hope you've got a few minutes. Like I said yesterday, I did a lot of shopping. I've kind of abandoned the budget I had set out with earlier in the year. I just wasn't working for us. I kind if felt guilty about it, so I didn't write any posts about shopping/couponing, but then I got over myself and realized that I had to do what works for us. Some weeks I was going way over budget and other weeks I was spending very little (or nothing). So I figure it's pretty much all evening out. I still use coupons and shop sales save a lot of money. Almost all of the coupons I use come from the inserts in the Sunday paper. Sometimes I get them from other sources, but mostly the newspaper. So if you don't already, start buying a Sunday paper and just set aside the coupon inserts until you need them. It does take some time to match up my coupons to the sales for the week, but I feel like it's time well spent. I only buy stuff we need or will use, and try not to buy anything we wouldn't normally buy "just because it's on sale." Your shopping needs probably vary from mine, but maybe this can help you too. Email me or leave me a comment if you have any questions and I'll try to help you if I can. Also, if you go to my profile and look under Blogs I Follow, there are lots of blogs about couponing and saving money. Good Luck!

CVS
Coolmint Listerine - regular price $5.19, sale $3.99, used $.50 coupon

CVS has an Extra Care bucks deal on Loreal products this week. Buy $20 worth, get $5 Extra Care bucks. The $20 is based on the before coupon price.

Skin Genesis facial cleanser - regular price $7.99, sale $6

Skin Genesis cleansing towelettes - regular price $7.99, sale $6, used coupon for $3 off 2 Loreal facial products

True Match powder - regular price $10.99, sale $7, used coupon for $2 off any Loreal makeup

lipstick (not pictured) - regular price $8.99, sale $5, used coupon for $1 off any Loreal lip product

Gillette Fusion Power razor - regular price $11.49, sale $7.99, used coupon for $4 off any Gillette Fusion razor, earned $4 ECB

Always pantyliners - regualr price $3.99, sale $2.99, used $.50 coupon

I earned $9 Extra Care bucks (ECB), so I spent $9 ECB that I already had from previous purchases.

Total out of pocket spent - $21.07

Walgreen's
If you've ever seen a Walgreen's sale ad, you know that they have their own coupons for select products each week. You can "stack" those with the manufacturer's coupons (MFG) from the newspaper to get extra savings. That's what I usually do at Walgreen's (WAG).

Kraft singles - regular $4.59, used WAG coupon for 2/$5, making it $2.50

2 bags Reese's Peanut Butter mix candy - regular $4.99, sale 2/$7, used $3 off 2 WAG coupon from their monthly Easy Saver coupon book and MFG coupon for $2 off 2, making them $1 each

Chex mix - regular $3, sale $1.50, used $.50 coupon

Fiber One bars - regular $4.19, sale $1.99, used $.50 coupon

Chex Mix bars - regular $4.19, sale $1.99, used $.50 coupon

Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup - regular $1.59, used WAG coupon 3/$3 and MFG coupon for $.25 off

2 Dove bath soaps - regular $1.59 each, sale WAG coupon $.99 each

Nivea lip gloss (not pictured) - regular $3.99, used WAG coupon for $1 off, and MFG coupon for $1 off

2 Dawn dish soaps - regular $1.99, sale WAG coupon $.99 each

Olay bath bars - regular $5.79, sale $3.50, used $1 MFG coupon

Old Spice body wash - regular $4.99, sale $3.50, used $1 MFG coupon

2 boxes Cascade ActionPacs - regular $5.99 each, sale $3.99 each, used 2 $1 off MFG coupons

Total out of pocket spent - $30.95

Then I went to Kroger and Walmart and by the time I got home I was ready to put it all away and forgot about taking pictures. But you know what groceries look like.

Kroger
A couple of weeks ago, Kroger sent me some store coupons. I registered my card online and have been shopping there regularly so I guess that's why I got them. So, if you have a card, go to their website and register it. They also have online coupons through Proctor and Gamble and Shortcuts.com that you can load onto your card that will be used when you buy those products, like other coupons they expire. So anyway, I used a lot of manufacturer coupons and store coupons at Kroger yesterday, and I think I might have had some online coupons that I had loaded onto the card and forgot about cause there are a few coupons on the receipt that I'm having trouble matching up to products. The Kroger receipts are kind of hard to decipher, but here goes:

Electrosol - regular $5.59, sale $4.79, used Kroger coupon for $.50 and MFG coupon for $.50

3 Starkist tuna pouches - regular $1.45, sale $1 each, used MFG buy 2 get 1 free

McCormick taco seasoning and fajita seasonings - $.99 each, used Kroger coupon for $.50 off 2 and MFG coupon for $.25 off 2

Luzianne decaf. tea bags - regular $3.99, sale $3.50, used MFG coupon for $.25 off. I sent an email to them telling them how much I liked their tea and they sent me 2 coupons. This is the ONLY tea I buy anymore, it's worth paying for.

Cheerios - regular $4.49, sale 3/$5, used MFG coupon for $1 off (3 boxes for less than what 1 would be regular price!!!)

2 Duncan Hines brownies - regular $2.99 each, sale 2/$5, used $.60 off 2 Kroger coupon and $.60 off 2 MFG coupon

Country Bob's steak sauce - regular $3.45, free with coupon (I sent an email to them telling them how much I liked their product and they sent me the coupon).

Hellman's mayo - regular $4.65, sale $2.99

3 Kroger chesses - regular $2.99 each, sale $2 each

Kroger butter - regular $2.89, sale $2.50, used Kroger coupon for $.35 off

Kroger large eggs - regular $1.42, free with Kroger coupon

Kroger frozen lima beans - regular $1.75, sale $1, used Kroger coupon for $.35 off

Hot Pockets - regular $2.34, sale $1.59

Sanderson farms boneless skinless chicken breasts - regular price without card $15.16, sale with card $6.80, used Kroger coupon for $2 off fresh poultry

Sara Lee bread - regular $2.29, sale $1

Total out of pocket spent - $36.12

Walmart

Great value vegetable oil - $2.88

Cake box - $2.47

14 Pillsbury cake mixes - $12.32

3 dozen eggs - $4.12

8 bags Domino powdered sugar - $12.96 (Usually I would get the Great Value brand, but they were out).

Aussie conditioner - $3.33

Great Value angel hair pasta - $.92

3 cans Pringles - $1 each, used MFG coupon for $.30 off 3

3 cans Rotel - $.98 each, used buy 2 get 1 free MFG coupon (Last time I was there they were only $.84, if I had know the price had gone up, I would have just gotten them at Kroger).

Total out of pocket spent - $46.81

Total for the day - $134.95
That seems like a lot, but I'll be able to make that back plus a little more from the cakes I'm doing this week, so I don't feel too bad about it. :-)

I probably won't post tomorrow since I'll be busy with cakes, but I'll try to post pictures of them Friday or Saturday. They're for the Dr. Seuss birthday party at the school and I'm planning on doing different Dr. Seuss characters on each one. Talk to y'all later!

Excited

2009-03-03T14:30:00.003-06:00

Thanks so much for the sweet comments on the cakes :-)

I'm so excited that I just have to tell y'all. I finally got an iphone. I have been wanting one for a while and since I've been saving us money with the couponing stuff, and we got a decent tax refund, we decided to buy some toys. Mr. McHacker got a new ipod touch and I got the iphone. And I didn't even have to break my old phone to get it. The biggest reason I finally decided to get it is because my mama doesn't have internet at her house, and when I'm there it sucks to not be able to get on the internet. It's an addiction, I know. Not that I get very good cell service there (it's in the boondocks) but if I stand in a certain spot I can get a decent signal (no I'm not kidding) so that's good enough for me.
Did I tell y'all that I told my mama about my blog? I wasn't keeping it a secret or anything, I just didn't tell her about it. But when we were visiting with Calondra, it came out. So Mama, if you're reading this, hey, I love you. Also another cousin found my blog through Cali. Hey Melanie! So the number of people I know in real life who know about the blog is growing. That's good right?
I've been to CVS, Walgreen's, AT&T, and Kroger today and still have to go to Wal-Mart. I totally agree with Tassie about the evil Wal-Mart. I try to stay out of there, but there are some things I need there and I've put it off too long. Wish me luck haha.

Cakes

2009-03-02T22:58:00.006-06:00

These are the cakes that kept me so busy last week. The first one was for a wedding shower. All I was told was that the wedding colors were peony pink and grey (okay to me peony is a flower, not a color, and there is no way I'm putting grey on a cake with flowers), and that the flowers were roses and hydrangeas. This was the best I could come up with using that information. The lady that ordered it liked it, so that was good enough for me.

The next cake was for a girlie baby shower. It's light mint green and pink marshmallow fondant. I don't use fondant very often, so I'm still learning. My fondant cakes are not as awesome as Lisa's or Tracye's, but overall I'm pleased with this one. I really like the way the bow turned out.

The last cake was for our friend's little boy's second birthday. He LOVES Disney's Little Einsteins, and Rocket is his favorite. So his mom asked for a rocket cake for him (and that was part of our gift). There are lots of variations of these cakes on the internet, and this is my take on it.

I had a couple of good shopping trips today and I'm going to try to get that posted tomorrow since I haven't done one of those types of posts in a while. Hopefully I can pass along some good deals to y'all :-)

Snow!

2009-03-02T10:43:00.006-06:00

If you live in Mississippi, you probably already know that it snowed Saturday night and Sunday morning. If you don't live in Mississippi, you might not know that this is a Big Deal. Usually we will get a little snow a couple of times during the winter each year, but rarely enough to accumulate. It was exciting to see snow actually covering the ground when I got up at 6:30 Sunday morning to walk to the corner store to pick up a newspaper. I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures as Mr. McHacker and I walked. The quality is not so great, mostly due to user error, but you get the idea.

Mr. McHacker was excited about the snow too.

This is the neighborhood where we live.

The ornamental pear trees in front of the apartment must be so confused. Some of the branches still have brown leaves that have not fallen off yet, new green leaves and blossoms, and now freezing cold snow.

After getting our newspaper, we went back to sleep for a while and by the time we got back up, the snow was mostly gone. We had a very lazy Sunday, which was nice since I had such a busy week with making cakes. Now I've got to get caught up on the laundry and cleaning and such. I hope everyone's week is off to a good start.
(I'll have cake pictures posted tomorrow.)

Back home

2009-02-25T13:15:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. I haven't had internet access or a chance to post since Thursday. I'm back in Starkville now, at least for the rest of the week and weekend.
My back is feeling a lot better these days, thanks so much for your kind comments :-)

I spent lots of time with my nephews and niece this past weekend. It was fun but tiring. And it makes me think that I might want to have only one child.

I got to see my wonderful cousin Calondra for a little while on Monday and meet her Robert. It was so good to see her.

I have a baby shower cake, and a wedding shower cake to deliver to Aberdeen Friday, and a birthday cake for the sweet little boy of our friends to make for Saturday. So, as usual, I'll be pretty busy these next few days. And I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

I'm really behind on my blog reading, I have almost 500 unread items in my Google reader at the moment. I'm going to try to get caught up and comment on your blogs soon. I hope you are all doing well.

Clumsiness and a pro tip

2009-02-19T13:26:00.003-06:00

I can usually manage to keep from hurting myself, but yesterday, my clumsiness caught up with me. It was bound to happen, it's been a while since I've fallen. That's right. I fell. I'm only 30, this shouldn't be a problem yet. At the time, my pride was hurt more than my body, but today I'm feeling it. Apparently, I twisted my ankle, and threw my back out of whack. Again. I'm so stinkin' tired of my back hurting all the time. Ugh. But anyway, I went to my mom's chiropractor again and am feeling a little better. Still hurting, but not as bad.
Yesterday was a slow day at the tax office, but today has been a little busier. Which is good. I hate to be sitting around with nothing to do. A lot of our customers opt to do a refund anticipation loan (RAL) which is supposed to let them get their refund in 1 to 2 days. What they don't understand it that the IRS has to give the okay to the bank that we do the RALs through before we can print their check. And the IRS is being slow about it this week. I hate it for the customers, but there is nothing we can do about it. And getting snippy with us on the phone is not going to make it get here faster. Did I tell you I'm passive aggressive? Well, I am. Case in point: Yesterday we had a lady call us no less than 6 times to ask if her check was here. Each time I was polite and told her no, but that I would call as soon as it came in. By about the third call, she was getting a little snippy. So this morning, her check came in and I called her around 8 o'clock. She was still asleep, but hey, I had told her 6 times that I would call as soon as it came in, right? Pro tip: be nice to your tax preparer, they really are doing all they can to help you. That is until you start getting snippy with them.

Hello, my name is Crystal and I'm a Chocoholic

2009-02-17T13:31:00.003-06:00

When Mr. McHacker asked what I wanted for Valentine's Day, of course I said chocolate! But y'all know how cheap I am. So we went to Wal-Mart the day after Valentine's Day when the candy was 50% off! As you can see, I'm all stocked up for a while!

My new nephew

2009-02-16T08:08:00.005-06:00

This is my 100th post, and what better way to celebrate it than to show you some pictures of my new nephew.
Meet Jayden. He was born February 5, and is beautiful, and perfect. It runs in the family (haha).

I talked to my mom last night and she needs me to go ahead and come back to Lucedale to help her at work. So I'm getting my stuff together to leave after lunch today. Hopefully I will get a chance to post a couple of times this week though. I hope everyone's week is off to a good start.

Hey y'all

2009-02-14T20:24:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day and everything. I hope you're all having a great weekend. I'm having a great weekend. I spent the past week working for my mom at the tax preparation office she runs. It was very tiring and made for some long days. I was happy to help her and will go back and help her some more pretty soon, but I sure was happy to get back home. Sorry for the lack of comments from me on your blogs, I feel so out of the loop since I just got a chance to catch up on everyone's blogs. I didn't get a chance to read anything during the week, so it took me all day today to read through the 500 or so posts in my Google reader. I've got lots of stuff to write about, but I'll get to it tomorrow when I have more time. We're about to order a pizza for romantic valentine's dinner!

I saw this fun quiz on Valley Life in Alaska's blog and thought it would be fun. So here ya go. If you take it, let me know what you are. Later taters.

You Are FAQ

For you, the internet is like your personal library. And you know more facts than fifty normal humans.

Your brain is basically lot a computer at this point. You have a lot of information stored up there.

You spend hours looking up obscure information and learning things. If you have question, you always Google it.

You can't help but be a bit of a know-it-all. You can answer everyone's frequently asked questions.

What Internet Slang Are You?

Moose and Zee cake

2009-02-06T23:10:00.000-06:00

Last night I decorated a first birthday cake for a kid who apparently likes to watch Noggin, a cable channel for kids. Since I don't have kiddos, or cable tv, I'm not very familiar with Noggin, but apparently the feature characters are Moose and Zee. This is the picture I was sent in an email:
And here's the cake:
Not too bad, I think.

They also wanted a little cake for him to smash since it's his first birthday. This is what they asked for:
Overall, I'm pleased with the cakes. I hope they are too.
I hope you are all having a good weekend!

M&M cookies

2009-02-05T10:09:00.006-06:00

While I was visiting my family earlier this week, I thought it would be fun to make some M&M cookies with my nephews and niece since I had gotten some Valentine's M&Ms cheap at CVS. We had fun and enjoyed the cookies, they were pretty yummy. Jared asked if I would put some in a bag for his teacher, and some for them to take to school as a snack for the next day. So I walk into the kitchen, and this is what I find:
Ashley ate the leftover M&Ms from the bag, but apparently that wasn't enough. The little snot picked M&Ms out of ALL the cookies with her fingernails! UGH! Yeah I was a little pissed. But what really made me mad was that she LIED when I asked her why she did it. Flat out lied in my face and said she didn't do it. She even still had chocolate under her fingernails! I might understand this if she were three years old and didn't know better, but she's nine. She knows not to lie. So needless to say, next time cookies are made, Ashley won't get any until she apologizes for lying. Yeah I'm mean like that.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-02-02T09:00:00.004-06:00

It's that time again. Here's the menu for the week of February 2-8.

Breakfasts:
Cold cereal, oatmeal, grits & toast, Fiber One bars

Lunches:
Leftovers, sandwiches, soup

Suppers:
Monday - ? Out of town
Tuesday - ? Out of town
Wednesday - Homemade cheese pizza, french fries
Thursday - Hamburger Helper, broccoli with cheese sauce
Friday - Baked Spaghetti Casserole, homemade yeast rolls
Saturday - Baked pork chops, squash casserole, butter beans
Sunday - Breakfast for dinner (eggs, pancakes, sausage)

25 things

2009-02-01T00:49:00.002-06:00

I've been tagged by a few people on Facebook to do the 25 random things meme, so I figured I would do it here too.

1. My husband says I'm funny.
2. I really think everyone else's life is a lot more interesting than mine.
3. The ant problem in my kitchen is driving me crazy!
4. My favorite video game of all time is Super Mario Bros. 3.
5. When I'm driving at night, I'm paranoid that my headlights won't be turned on and I won't know it and will get a ticket.
6. I'm paranoid about a lot of things actually.
7. Clipping and using coupons has become my new obsession. Yes, I really am saving money that way.
8. I love to cook and I cook everyday, but the stove/oven is the one thing I hate the most in this apartment.
9. I'm a pack-rat, which is seriously interfering with my desired progress in becoming organized.
10. I love flannel sheets on my bed in the winter.
11. I tend to be sarcastic a little too often.
12. I have always felt socially awkward.
13. I really wish I could be on What Not to Wear. Jeans and t-shirts are getting old and I want to know how to dress like a grown up.
14. I used to never watch tv, now I watch it several hours a day, but never during the day when I'm home by myself.
15. I'm listening to the Twilight books on mp3. I'm on the third one now. I just have to say that I really do like Edward, but it's still a little creepy that he looks 17 but it really 100&something and in love with a teenager. And I think Bella Swan is a stupid cunt.
16. I think people on Facebook are way too nice to each other and don't want to say what they really think for fear of what others may think of them.
17. I hope that by this time next year we will have or be expecting a baby.
18. I voted for Obama.
19. I have a tattoo.
20. I can draw almost anything on a cake using icing, but have a difficult time drawing the same thing on paper using a pencil. Weird huh?
21. I have enough scrapbooking materials to make several scrapbooks, but have not made a single scrapbook page in almost 6 years. I don't want to get rid of the stuff cause I know I'll use it at some point. I'm a pack-rat, remember.
22. I could eat chocolate every day.
23. I've never broken a bone or been in the hospital overnight.
24. I've had kidney stones 4 times in the past 7 years. They are Painful.
25. I spend way too much time on the internet!

It's been a busy week. I spent the week at the school helping to take down the Christmas in Germany theme and putting up the forest theme in Kidzone. I'll probably go back Thursday and Friday to help her finish it up and take some more pictures. Mr. McHacker has a conference in Orlando for the next couple of days, so I'm going to go visit my mom while he's away. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, I miss them. I hope you all have a good week!

$5 dinners giveaway

2009-01-28T22:00:00.002-06:00

Y'all know how much I like the $5 dinners site. She doing another great giveaway that I wanted to tell you about. 10 winners will receive 10 coupons each for free cans of Swanson chicken breast. Enter HERE. Good luck!

Santa Fe Soup

2009-01-28T07:00:00.000-06:00

This recipe is something I make a lot. It's easy, it's cheap, and it feeds a lot of people (or a couple of people a lot of times). I've seen variations of this recipe on the internet, but this is the way I make it. I got this recipe from a friend about 10 years ago. She got it from her sister. I don't know where her sister got it, but I'm glad she passed it on. I've also passed it on. To a lot of people. I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't like it. I hope you'll like it too.

Santa Fe Soup
1 pound ground beef
1 packet taco seasoning
1 onion (chopped)
1 can of Rotel tomatoes with chilies
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can northern beans
1 can black beans

Brown your ground beef, drain off the fat and return to the pot. Add the chopped up onion and cook a little bit more., then add the taco seasoning and stir it up real good.
Open all the cans of stuff, but don't drain them, and pour them in the pot. See, I told you this was easy.

Stir it up real good again and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat and let it simmer about 45 minutes or until you get really hungry and don't want to wait any more.

Put it in a bowl and add some shredded cheese of your choice and sour cream if you like. Grab some tortilla chips and om nom nom. (That's lolspeak for eat it up!)

FAIL

2009-01-27T07:00:00.001-06:00

***WARNING***CONTENT MAY BE OFFENSIVE***
Like many of you probably do, I read a lot of the blogs I subscribe to in my Google reader. Well, the other day I was reading along like I usually do and came to a post from PassiveAggressiveNotes.com. If you're not familiar with it, it consists of user submitted, passive aggressive notes. Some were written to the users who submit them, other are found. I think a lot of them are pretty funny. Maybe it's because I'm a bit passive aggressive myself, or maybe it's just because I have a weird sense of humor. Here's the post as it appeared on the website. Here's the post as it appeared in my Google Reader:
(Click image for larger view.)
Did ya look real close at the Google Ad at the bottom. Yeah it's a shopping ad for boys dick.
I don't know how many of you have sick and twisted senses of humor like I do, but I'm guessing a few of you may have heard about the humor blog, FAIL Blog. When I saw that ad, all I could think was "Google Ad FAIL." I think I'll go see if I can figure out how to submit this to FAIL Blog now. Thank you, that is all.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-01-26T08:21:00.000-06:00

Here's the menu plan for January 26 - February 1.

Breakfasts:
Cold cereal, oatmeal, grits & toast, Fiber One bars

Lunches:
Leftovers, sandwiches, soup

Suppers:
Monday - Red beans and rice with cornbread (ended up cooking that last night and we have lots of leftovers).

Tuesday - Santa Fe Soup (This is a really easy recipe, I'll try to post it Tuesday.)

Wednesday - Chicken club ring

Thursday - Hamburger Helper

Friday - Fiesta Lime Chicken

Saturday - Breakfast for supper: Pancakes, sausage, eggs

Sunday - Mr. McHacker won't be here for supper, so I'll probably just eat cereal :-)

I've seen 149 out of 239 films

2009-01-25T14:36:00.000-06:00

One of the blogs I lurk is Valley Life in Alaska. It's a good one, check it out. So anyway, she did this post about how many of these movies you've seen. I like movies and I've seen a lot of them, so I thought this would be a fun post to do. Like she said, it's another way to get to know each other. If you would like, copy and paste the list and delete and add the (x) where appropriate for you.

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
(x) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total so far: 10

(x) The Princess Bride
(x) Anchorman
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
(x) Saw
(x) Saw II
() White Noise
() White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
() The Princess Diaries
() The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 18

(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
() Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
(x) Scary Movie 2
() Scary Movie 3
() Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
() American Wedding
() American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 24

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
(x) Resident Evil 1
(x) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
() Little Black Book
(x) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 33

(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
() White Chicks
(x) Butterfly Effect
() 13 Going on 30 (Suddenly 30)
(x) I, Robot
() Robots
Total so far: 40

(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
() Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
() Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
() KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
(x) Eight Crazy Nights
(x) Joe Dirt
() KING KONG (2003)
Total so far: 48

() A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
() The Lizzie McGuire Movie
() Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
() Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
(x) Final Destination 2
(x) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
() The Ring 2
() Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber
Total so far: 55

(x) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
(x) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
() Ghost Ship
(x) From Hell
(x) Hellboy
(x) Secret Window
() I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
() The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 62

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
() Child’s Play
() Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
() Just Married
() Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
() Coach Carter
() The Grudge
() The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
() Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 68

(x) Bad Boys
(x) Bad Boys 2
(x) Joy Ride
(x) Lucky Number Slevin
(x) Ocean’s Eleven
(x) Ocean’s Twelve
(x) Bourne Identity
(x) Bourne Supremacy
() Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
() Predator I
() Predator II
() The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
() Curious George
Total so far: 79

(x) Independence Day
() Cujo
() A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
(x) Children of the Corn
() My Bosses Daughter
() Maid in Manhattan
() War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 85

() Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She’s All That
() Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
() Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 96

(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
(x) X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
() Sky High
(x) Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
() Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Little Mermaid
(x) Freaky Friday
(x) Reign of Fire
(x) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
() Cruel Intentions 2
() The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 109

() Swimfan
() Miracle on 34th street
(x) Old School
() The Notebook
() K-Pax
() Krippendorf’s Tribe
(x) A Walk to Remember
() Ice Castles
() Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 112

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 118

() Baseketball
() Hostel
() Waiting for Guffman
() House of 1000 Corpses
() Devils Reject
(x) Elf
(x) Highlander
() Mothman Prophecies
() American History X
() Three
Total so Far: 120

() The Jacket
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
(x) Shaolin Soccer
() Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
() Willard
Total so far: 126

() High Tension
() Club Dread
(x) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
() Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(x) 28 days later
() Orgazmo
() Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 131

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
() Wolf Creek
() Kingdom of Heaven
() The Hills Have Eyes
() I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
() The Last House on the Left
() Re-Animator
(x) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 134

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
() Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
() Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 140

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
() Animatrix
(x) Evil Dead
(x) Evil Dead 2
(x) Team America: World Police
(x) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
(x) Hannibal
Total so far: 149

Now Add them up and…
Put “I’ve seen … out of 239 films” in the subject line and repost it.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-01-19T21:01:00.002-06:00

It's late, but hey, it's still Monday :-)

Breakfasts: cold cereal, oatmeal, Fiber One bars

Lunches: Sandwiches, soup, or leftovers

Suppers:
Monday - Southwest quiche, french fries (I know I make this a lot, but we like it).
Tuesday - Hamburger Helper, broccoli with cheese sauce
Wednesday - Chicken, rice, broccoli & cheese casserole
Thursday - Hamburgers, french fries
Friday - Red beans and rice with sausage
Saturday - Chicken Spaghetti, french bread
Sunday - Hamburger steak with gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole

Yeah, I know it's not very healthy, but it's better than fast food!

Lemonade Award

2009-01-19T20:45:00.000-06:00

I recently started following a really great blog called Cheap by Choice. She's a fellow Mississippi blogger, who likes to save money, and shares lots of great tips for couponing and finding deals, on her website. And, Cheap by Choice was so kind to give me the Lemonade Award! I'm not sure I really deserve it, thanks so much!

"Do you know that special blogger that somehow finds a way to make lemonade out of the lemons life hands them? They are that certain blogger that is grateful for what has been given to them in this life? I do! And that is what this award is all about!

The Lemonade Award is passed on to 10 people who have shown a great attitude or gratitude this week. I'd like to pass this one on to these blogs (in no particular order).

1. 50's Housewife

2. Dr. Wifey

3. Gitzen Girl

4. I Hate Whine

5. Views from Buzzard Roost

6. Deanna's Corner

7. My Boy and Me

8. Pleasant Drive

9. Tassie and her Random Thoughts

10. just write (This is my cousin, and one of my favorite people in the whole world. She's an unbelievably wonderful person and really deserves this award. She has a lovely way with words.)

Last week's shopping trip

2009-01-18T23:14:00.002-06:00

I should have already had this posted days ago, but the truth is I've been avoiding it. On purpose. I kind of went over my budget, and I hate to admit it.
I thought I could shop once a week. I think I might be wrong. I usually plan a month's worth of meals, then just do one major shopping trip a month to get what is needed for the meals, and just buy stuff like milk and bread when we run out. Now that I'm couponing, I feel like I NEED to shop every week so I don't miss a deal. It's driving me crazy.
I went to CVS, Walgreen's, Walmart, Dollar Tree, and Kroger all in the same day, (then Piggly Wiggly the next day). I bought a lot of stuff and spent a lot of money. I didn't take pictures because I had a raging headache when I got home and just wanted to get it put away so I could sleep.
Here are my totals:

CVS:
Suave deodorant - $2.00

Advil - $9.99 minus $1 MFG coupon = $8.99

Kotex - $3.69 minus $1 MFG coupon = $2. 69

Total = $14.78
Saved = $2.39
ECB earned = $1.00

Walgreen's: (WAG)
2 boxes Fiber One bars - $4.00 minus 2 $1.00 MFG coupons = $2.00

Lysol Wipes - $3.79 Buy one get one free (BOGO), minus $1 MFG = 2 for $2.79

Peter Pan Peanut Butter - $3.49 BOGO = 2 for $3.49

2 Glade air fresheners - $.89 each with WAG coupon, minus $1 MFG coupon = 2 for $0.89

Kleenex - $0.89 with WAG coupon

Bounty Basics Paper Towels - $0.89 with WAG coupon

Total = $11.88
Saved = $17.18

Walmart:
I'm not going to list everything from here because it was mainly just store brand food stuff with no great deals.
Total: $62.44

Dollar Tree:
Sandwich bags, wax paper, lime juice, minced garlic, tortilla chips, scrubber sponge, clearance Christmas candy (.25)
Total: $6.69

Kroger: I did get some good deals here, so I'll list it. Everything was on sale except for the milk, eggs, and rolls.

Honey Nut Cheerios - 3 $8, minus $1 MFG coupon = $7.00

Kroger red beans - $1.39

Healthy Choice Fresh Mixer - $3.29, minus $1 MFG coupon = $2.29

Hamburger Helper - 3 boxes @ $1 each, minus $1/3 MFG coupon = 3/ $2.00

Kroger shredded cheese - 4 @ $2.00 each = $8.00

Kroger crescent rolls - $1.67

Kroger gallon milk - $3.97

Activia yogurt - $2.00, minus $1 MFG = $1.00

Kroger sour cream - $0.99

Kroger eggs - $1.61

Green Giant frozen boxed vegetables - 4 @ 1.00 each, minus $.50/2 coupon, $1/2 coupon, and bonus coupon loaded onto Kroger card from website = 4/ $2.00

3 Lean Cuisines - $1.88 each, minus catalina coupon $1/3 = 3/ $4.64

Onions - $2.00

Potatoes - $2.00

Saltine crackers - $1.25

2 small packages Kroger honey turkey lunch meat - $0.29 each = $0.58

Kroger smoked sausage = $2.50

Kroger sandwich bread - $1.00

Total: $50.09
Total saved: $32.54
Got catalina coupons for $1/6 Lean Cuisine, and $1.50 on 4 General Mills cereals

Piggly Wiggly: When I decided to bake cookies and make Mr. McHacker's birthday cake, I realized I was out of brown sugar and shortening, things I needed for cookies and cake. So I went to the Pig cause it's the closest
Total: $6.08

Total for all stores: $151.96
Year to date total spent: $211.53
Year to date left in budget: 1608.47
Year to date savings using Manufacturer's coupons: $21.25

That makes me $59.86 over budget for January. See what I mean? Everything I bought was stuff we needed, and I'm so used to buying enough to last a month at a time, it's hard trying to change. *Driving me crazy.* So I'm not sure what to do. Do I continue to buy things of they are really cheap and a great deal, or do I not spend any more money until next month?(We have enough food to do that). Does it matter how much I spend monthly, as long as I'm within budget at the end of the year?

I know I'm new at this, so I'm hoping that I will get better at finding deals and using coupons. I'm off to browse the forums at Hot Coupon World and hope I can learn something!

Happy Birthday

2009-01-17T20:37:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was Mr. McHacker's birthday, though he informed me last night that it would still be his birthday until the opening of the next business day, and since Monday is a holiday, we'll be celebrating around here till Tuesday morning.
Happie Burfday babby!!!
Have I mentioned that we are huge geeks and one of our favorite shows is Battlestar Galactica? Well we finally finished watching all of the DVDs of the past episodes in preparation for last night, the first new episode in a long time. Since we're saving money where we can, we don't have cable, so we went over to our friends' place and watched it with them and had a sort of birthday party for Mr. McHacker. I made chicken spaghetti (like this but I add a can of Rotel and leave out the bell pepper and pimento).
I also made him a birthday cake. Bless my sweet husband's heart. I wanted to make a really cool cake with the Battlestar Galactica emblem on it, like this:
But I didn't have time to do it like I wanted. So this is what he got instead:
For some reason, in the BSG universe, corners are cut off of books, papers, etc., that's why I cut off the corners. And frakking, well, you can learn about that word here.
So even though it wasn't beautiful, Mr. McHacker loved it. And I love him.

JANE4girls giveaway

2009-01-17T16:27:00.002-06:00

I have some stuff to post later, but I wanted to go ahead and post this while I was thinking about it. You all know how I'm trying to save more money this year right? Well one of the blogs that I started reading has some really great information, tips, etc., for using coupons and being thrifty. It's called JANE4girls. You should check it out, she's amazing with the coupons!

She also has a giveaway going on right now for a set of reusable bags, called hotSACKS, that would be great for grocery shopping. Go ahead and take a look at her site, and enter the giveaway.

Free bottle of Suave

2009-01-14T00:22:00.002-06:00

In case any of you haven't heard about this, Suave is giving away coupons for a free bottle of any Suave shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, styling aid, body wash, or body lotion (up to $3.00). All you have to do is SIGN UP HERE, and they will mail you a coupon in a couple of weeks. This offer is good for TODAY ONLY, so don't wait.

Delurking Day

2009-01-13T16:53:00.004-06:00

When I went over to Jenn's blog today, I saw that it was Delurking Day. I had not heard of this, but I think it's a great idea. So if you're reading this, leave a comment, I'd love to visit your blog or know what you think about mine.

Kroger shopping trip

2009-01-11T20:08:00.000-06:00

Mr. McHacker and I did a little shopping at Kroger today so I thought I would post a pic and keep track of my total spent so far this year. My goal is $35 a week, with 52 weeks in a year, that makes my yearly budget $1820 for groceries. I hope I will actually spend a lot less than that once I get the hang of the couponing stuff a little better.

Today's purchases:
Bacon - sale@ $2.50

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts - sale $1.97 lb - 2 packages (14 breasts in all) = $13.71

Kroger ground beef (not in the picture)- 5 lbs @ $9.20

2 packs Kroger cheese @ 2/$5

2 Lean Cuisine @ $1.88 each minus $1off 2 coupon = $2.76

Kroger milk @ $2.19

Colgate toothpaste - sale $1.50 minus $0.75 coupon = $0.75

Kellogg's cereal - sale 3/$8 - buy 3 get $4 off = $4.00

Kroger eggs - sale 3/$4 = $1.34

tax = $3.30
coupon savings =$5.75
savings using Kroger card = $24.03

Today's total = $44.75
Year to date total spending = $59.57
Year to date left in budget = $1760.43

Today's savings wasn't nearly as good as I wanted it to be. Since I'm just getting started with coupons, I don't really have a good stash built up yet. Hopefully that will continue to get better. I wish my Kroger would double coupons, but they don't. They do take the internet printable ones though. And I just found out that Piggly Wiggly will double coupons up to $0.50, so I'm going to start getting their sale paper every week and see if I can find some good deals there. The grocery store sale papers come out here on Wednesdays, so I'm planning another grocery trip later in the week, hopefully with more savings than today.

Lunch tote giveaway at $5 dinners

2009-01-11T12:11:00.002-06:00

$5 Dinners is doing another giveaway that I thought you all might be interested in. It's for a really cute lunch tote. Go check it out, and good luck!

Google searches

2009-01-10T16:29:00.000-06:00

I was just thinking that I wished I had something to post about. But not much has been going on around here these days. Then I remembered this post that I started and never posted. So here ya go...

I was looking at my Feedjit Live stats and found that some people get to my site by searching for some funny/strange stuff on google.

I had no idea that so many people would find my blog because of the post I wrote about my crazy Aunt Margie's mishap with a coconut pie.

fingernail crystals
food for fingernail
i eat finger nails in my sandwiches
fingernail found in food

No, I don't want to share HIM!

i want to share my husband
share my husband
sharing my husband blog

This just makes me laugh, cause I think about that scene from the Boondocks.

feed her the cheddar biscuits

I hope my recipes helped these folks out. :-)

southwest quiche
southwest quiche recipe
southwest hashbrown quiche ( I don't think my recipe was what they were looking for).
fannie farmer chicken pot pie

Not so funny, but they must've went through LOTS of pages before finding mine.

rocky horror picture show audience participation
rocky horror picture show mississippi

I'm planning another shopping trip tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some good deals to show y'all. Have a great weekend!

I'm a couponer

2009-01-07T08:00:00.002-06:00

I'm sure y'all have figured out by now that I like saving money and finding bargains, right? Well, I've always been a "casual coupon user," using a coupon if I happen to come across one, but never really seriously using them. Until now.

One of my goals for this year is to spend only $35 a week on groceries and items like shampoo, dish soap, and stuff like that, consumables I guess you would say. I know to meet that goal, I'm gonna have to be one thrifty b*tch. That's where the coupons come in. I've been reading all these blogs of these ladies that save ridiculous amounts of money this way and thinking "I can do this!" I can't even explain how freakin' excited I am about saving money this way! It's kind of like a game to me. I think it's a sickness maybe.

So anyway, I went on my first "serious couponing" trip to Walgreen's yesterday, and am so excited about all the money I saved that I just had to make a post about it.

In the picture:
Arm & Hammer laundry detergent - Buy One Get One Free @ 6.99

Electrasol tabs - sale 3.49 minus 2.50 with MFG coupon= .99

Softsoap - Walgreen's coupon making it .99 minus .50 with MFG coupon = .49

Palmolive - sale 1.79 minus 1.00 with MFG coupon = .79

Hunt's tomato sauce - Walgreen's coupon making it 3/$1 minus 1.00 with MFG coupon = FREE

Progresso soup - Walgreen's coupon making it 4/$5 minus .50 with MFG coupon = 4.50

Pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream - sale 3.00 minus 3.00 with MFG = FREE

Total cost of today's trip = $14.82

Not too bad for a newbie I think.

Do any of you do the coupon thing?

Random thoughts

2009-01-06T09:37:00.002-06:00

I don't have a well put together post today. Just thought I'd write down some of the things floating around and bumping into each other in my head.

The other night, Saturday I guess it was, I finally saw Twilight. Tassie, who is an awesomely fun, great person that I haven't seen in forever but read her every blog post, called me up and said she was going to see it again for the 6th time (yes 6, that's not a typo), with another friend and asked if I would like to see it too. Well, y'all know I don't get out much, so I jumped at the opportunity. And as much as I hated to admit it, I really liked the movie. I didn't want to like it, but I did. Usually when something gets all hyped up and everybody and their mama like it, I run the other way. I guess it's the nonconformist in me screaming "I don't want to be like everybody else!" But alas, I guess I am like everybody else. Of course I want to see how the story of Bella and Edward continues, so I'm listening to the audio book on my mp3 player while I clean.

Speaking of cleaning, I've started doing the Flylady stuff again. I'm really serious about it this time. I even put together a Control Journal and everything. But right now I'm still decluttering, and boy do we have a lot of clutter. We also have too small of a space for all of the stuff we really do need. But I'm making the best of it and really am trying not to complain about the smallness of our apartment anymore. That will be the last time I say anything about it. For a while anyway. Or at least until I get pissed off about it again. Anyhoo.....

Today is my final counseling appointment. I've been going to my counselor, who is wonderful, since August of '07 when work and life became so overwhelming that I didn't know what to do. She's helped me a lot, more than I can say really, but hopefully this will be the last time I see her. I haven't taken any medication for depression or anxiety since October (yes, my doctor approved it) and my last counseling appointment was in October, so we scheduled this appointment because she wanted to see how I'm doing, off of medication. I'm doing great. I've finally learned to get my priorities straight and to do what's best for myself rather than do what I think is supposed to be done or to do what I think others expect of me. Sure, I have a bad day here and there, but so does everybody else. Life is good and I'm excited about the future - those are things I couldn't say a year ago.

I guess I've rambled enough, I need to go declutter and listen to some more Twilight! I hope you are all having a great day!

$25 Kroger Giftcard giveaway

2009-01-04T21:22:00.002-06:00

I don't know if any of you are familiar with fivedollardinners.com or not, but I wanted to let you know she is giving away a $25 Kroger gift card. $5 Dinners is a great site. She does a cost analysis of each meal and has lots of meals you can make for $5 or less. Go check it out.

Silly Saturday picture

2009-01-03T13:30:00.000-06:00

This is my nephew Q. I posted about him one time before. He usually wears his hair in cornrow style braids, but on Christmas Eve and day, he had it down. Boy that kid's got a lot of hair! I just love this kid!

Pajamas

2009-01-02T18:02:00.000-06:00

See, no more aprons today. The members of my family who didn't get an apron for Christmas, got pajamas.

The pattern is Simplicity 9871, and was a really easy pattern to use. I would even call it foolproof.

The pants were all made from repurposed sheets, of course. What else would I use ;-) For the tops, I bought a pack of Fruit of the Loom T-shirts and appliquéd initials or stuff to the front.

These were for my 9 year old niece.

My two youngest nephews got these. I love the monkey fabric. My youngest sister also got a similar pair of pants, and a red shirt to go with it, but I forgot to take a picture of hers. Somehow, none of little sister's stuff got photographed.

These were for my 14 year old niece. Well, she's not exactly my niece, she's sort of my sister's foster child, but I love her like she's my niece.

These were for my oldest nephew, he'll be 14 this month.

More crafty stuff later. Have a great day!