Dear Miley...

"Dear Miley,

I had such a great time at your concert in Atlanta last night. I sang loud, danced along to the Hoedown Throwdown, and basically acted like the other 7-13 year old girls that were there. I do, however, have one question:

What is your aversion to wearing pants?"


More on this later...

Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart

Thanksgiving
was
awesome.

We
love
our
families!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I am thankful for:
my husband (!!!!!)
our families
Dash & Snooker
amazing friends
a beautiful home
LIFE!

Enjoy time with your families today! BE THANKFUL!! :)

Missy's HERE!!

Jason and I were so excited to host Missy as our VERY FIRST house guest!!!


She was so wonderful to put up with us and our everyday lives (read: laying around and watching tv), and she said she had a blast!!

I'm pretty sure I still haven't posted pictures of the room known affectionately as "the horse room", but this is where Missy stayed. (I will post more pics this week!)

Snooker and Dash were excited to have a new friend in the house!

"Who me?"

It Ain't No Hobie.

This is our dishwasher.


She is a lovely shade of... ugly. And to be quite honest, she's not very good at her job. I should have taken a picture of all the glasses that come out spotty... Anyway, it was time to bid her farewell.


And say HELLO to this little baby!


She was installed today and is running her very first load, so I will have to let you know how it turns out. WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!! (Especially me since I've been hand-washing dishes for 2 weeks!)

It ain't no "Hobie", but it'll do. It'll do JUUUUUST fine. :)

Ranch Style Chicken - does not contain ranch

Mmmmm... last night (and for lunch today) we had PW's Ranch Style Chicken! It was a new dish for me and I kind of strayed from the intended recipe a little... [It says to marinade the chicken for 1-3 hours in the fridge. And ours... let's just say, it got about 10 minutes in the fridge while I cooked the bacon.]

Planning ahead was never my forte.

In case you didn't know, pan frying bacon is a SERIOUSLY messy job. And it's "pop-y" -- like, put on an oven mit just to be able to hold the spatula to turn them over or you get splattered and feel like your skin is falling off (or so I've been told).

But it was worth it - you should definitely try this recipe!

(Mmmmmm...)

Oh yeah, and as far as the title of this post goes, we were literally bites from being done with dinner last night, and Jason said:
"You know, I really don't even taste the ranch in this..."
"That's because there isn't any, sweetheart."
"You said it was ranch chicken!"
"No, it's 'Ranch Style Chicken..."
"Huh?"

Anyway, we also had mashed potatoes, sort of like the PW potatoes, because we used cream cheese and Lawry's seasoning salt. They were definitely different than we normally make them, and very yummy!

We'll be having this again soon. :)

CVS-ing, Take Two

My round two of CVS-ing went even better than round one!



CVS Paper Towels - $8.99 (for an 8 pack) This is what I went for. We needed paper towels BAD, and I read in Consumer Reports (yes, I really did) that CVS brand paper towels are the #3 rated paper towels, but I basically got them for free - please read on. :)


Glade Sense & Spray Starter Kit
Regular price: $9.99
Got it for: FREE (on sale for $6.00, had 2 $3.00 off coupons)


Glade Lasting Impressions
Regular price: $9.99
Got it for: FREE (on sale for $6.00, had a $3.00 off and $4.00 off coupon)
When you buy $12 worth of Glade, get $4 ECBs, so really I got them for FREE and got PAID $4.


Trident Layers Gum - 4 packs
Regular price: $4.00
Got it for: $1.25 ($0.31 ea.), B1G1 Free and $0.75 off coupon


Reusable Bag Tag - $0.99, I just added this to get up to the right amount.
If you attach this to a reusable bag, you get $1 EBC on every 4th trip.


I used a $5.00 ECB from my last trip and a $5 off $15 coupon I got when I scanned my CVS card when I first walked in (one of those coupon stations), so according to my receipt I saved $35.69 and only spend $1.89 out of pocket!!! Not bad to buy an 8 pack of paper towels for $1.89 and get the rest for "free".


So now I still have a $7 ECB and got a $4 ECB from my trip. Yeee-haw!



When I was at Walmart, I realized that there Halloween stuff was 90% off, so I took advantage of a few things. Spider rings, caution tape, white spider web stuff, window clings, a witch doggy outfit for Dash, fake sideburns, and this super cool pirate t-shirt that I will TOTALLY wear next year!! All this, and guess how much it was: $3.06!!! You should totally take advantage of this, if there's anything you need!

"Stocking" Up - Part 2

Well, last Friday, November 13th was my self-imposed deadline for finishing our Christmas stockings! So how did I do??

I am so totally close to being done with the first one.

This is why I need deadlines, people.

I think two more sessions with Mamaw, and we will have ourselves some amazing stockings ready for the holiday season. :) (Click here to see Part 1.)

Below is when I had sewn the batting to the fabric...

...and after I sewed those pieces together and flipped it! It looks like a real stocking!!

Then it was time to add the cuff... what a pain. This is what took the longest since we didn't have a real pattern or anything.

Finally we got it on...

And this is the ALMOST FINISHED product!!

All that's left is some hand stitching and touch-ups (and eventually a monogram). Now that we know what we're doing, I'm confident #2 will take less time. YAY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Back in Black

I wanted to quickly recap some of the fun things we've done lately!

We went to the TN vs. SC game on Halloween! It was soooo cold and yucky and rainy but....

...the boys came out in BLACK JERSEYS!!!!!! It was AMAZING!!! We all went nuts!! It was such a fun game.



Since it was Halloween night, the band had a very special halftime show, and when they started playing Thriller, I thought, "Someone HAS to do the dance!" Just as I was thinking it, the ENTIRE band sets down their instruments and starts doing it!!

Final score? TN: 31, SC: 13 - as Jason said, the perfect Halloween score. :)

When Kitties Attack

I have lots to update since I've not updated in like a week+, but for your viewing pleasure, here is our very own Snooker in "When Kitties Attack."


And also in "I've Fallen For You."


She keeps us QUITE entertained around here. :)