Git er done!

That's been our motto this past week. And this is what I saw when I walked into the bathroom last week:

A little freaky to be sure. He is above the cabinets in our bathroom here. But Daniel has accomplished OH SO MUCH during his time off! Our house is quickly becoming homey and functional.

Menu Plan for Nov. 30th, 2009

It looks like the aviation industry's slowdown is hitting our little neck of the Puget Sound now too. Daniel is still employed but work is slow and he's not getting called in everyday recently. So...I'm thankful for the food we have stockpiled and the great bargains we have in our nearby grocery stores! Plus, Daniel is getting some of the more important projects done around the house with his "time off" such as getting the back door complete and functional, adding shelves and storage to our bedroom and venting our bathroom.

Breakfasts:
cold cereal, super power muffins, pancakes and eggs

Lunches:Leftovers

Dinners:

Monday: Hot Doggie Mac N Cheese, fresh veggie platter (broccoli, carrots, celery & dip)

Tuesday: Pork Chops (got for $0.25 after markdown and cat this weekend!), Mashed Potatoes & steamed broccoli

Wednesday: Fried Brown Rice (using planned bits of leftovers up)

Thursday: Pasta E Fagioli & Cream of Wheat Bread (recipe coming for these soon!)

Friday: Homemade Pepperoni Pizza

Saturday: Garden Burgers, Green Beans, Crackers

Sunday: Realy Good Beans & Rice

Visit Orgjunkie for more plans!

Winter hats and happy girls

The girls' great-grandma Byrne made the yellow hat-so cute!


Unfortunately the mess around M in this picture is normal! But since Daniel has had some time off this past week he's been working non-stop on getting the house in shape and we actually have a functional living room! We could actually sit in there and not have to step over junk--its either gone, rearranged, or in the new cabinets/shelves he's installed! Awesome!

Walgreens Post Black Friday Awesomeness

Dragging a hungry, tired 6 month old around shopping close to her bedtime is usually a very bad idea. This time it was worth it! I got some amazing deals at Walgreens and since it was the last day of the sale I had to get there or forget about it! So get there I did.

I bought the above pictured items for about $13 after a $1 RR I had and a fistful of coupons. And I got $10 in RR back (after several transactions) to spend next time! I would have actually ended up with $12.50 in RR but for some reason a $2.50 RR did not print on one transaction. But the clerk was being so patient and kind that I didn't bother to ask about it. We drink a a decent amount of diet caffiene free soda when we can get it for cheap so that was a big reason to go. The men's shave gel is something we always run out of too, so I was happy about that. And free chocolate? Well that is a necessity of course! ;)

Sister Love

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're off (or will be here shortly) to celebrate thanksgiving with family. We hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving and remember to thank the One who gives all good things!

The Crosby Family

Philly Cream Cheese deal @ Albies!

Philadelphia Cream Cheese is $0.88 each (limit 2) at Albertson's right now. Use this printable coupon (thanks Money Saving Mom) for $0.55/2 doubled to get cream cheese for $0.33 each! Now that's a deal!

Loves me some grocery bargains pre-thanksgiving 2009

These trips encompass about a week and a half. Sometimes I can't believe how dorky I can be with getting so exciting about good deals! But I guess its a better hobby than I COULD have-shopping without the "bargain" in front of it for example.

Anywayz....:)
Target and Fred Meyer.
Just under $30 for all. I admit it-I can't pass up certain deals! Canned fruit and veg is one of them-they seem to rarely go on sale that cheap. Other highlights-free wipes, $0.28 whole wheat pasta, $0.50 cottage cheese, free (after catalina) butter, $0.50 batteries, $0.66 Ritz crackers and flour for $1.39. A lot of reasonably healthy food for the money, so I was happy.

Rite Aid:
I had a Fall Savings gift card for $10 burning a hole in my pocket and a $4/$20 coupon. I bought some things we needed and some light bulbs that worked to be free after SCR and coupon. The address labels were stinking expensive, but we needed them for our newsletter (signed sealed and almost delivered today by the way!!) Total spent: just under $7

Last week I said I wouldn't have to spend anything this week because of my catalinas from Albies. Well that was partially true-at least applying to this trip.
Albertson's:
Total spent: 2.92 after catalina. Coffee can be a budget buster for us so I did the spend $20 get $5 back deal on coffee and then did the sara lee deal. 2 pies and 2 Breyers for less than $3 bucks? I can do that! Ragu was $0.38 after coupons and spinach was $0.75.

Much overdue raking DONE!

Our little house was in sore need of a good rakin'. It looked orphaned once again(when we bought it no one had lived in it for years). But this weekend, we had a fun family time raking up the leaves together. Funny thing too when your neighbor (instead of telling you its about time you cleaned that mess up!) asks you to throw your leaves into their yard! They have a beautiful flower garden during nice weather months and they use them to insulate their flowers apparently. Works for us!!

Daddy and his big helper (yes she is wandering away from her job:) And the front of our little house:)

Big helper probably exclaiming "I did it"! after putting one leaf in:)

The one leaf

And one more...

Daddy-you're doing a good job!

Taking the leaf back out-then wandering off to look at a worm (and yelling "it scary me!")

Hard workers!

For the record I was working too-but I took a break to take pictures:) O was asleep in the house:)

Menu Plan thanksgiving week 2009

Our pastor had us do a neat exercise today in Sunday School. We spent 5 minutes writing down everything we were thankful for right now. It helped put things into proper perspective:)

It's gonna be a crazy week until Thanksgiving (we found nasty mold in our new shed and we have lots going on) so I am going to focus on easy meals.

Breakfasts:
cold cereal, muffins from a mix, fruit

Lunches:Leftovers

Dinners:

Monday: BBQ baked beans in crockpot with hotdogs, carrot sticks

Tuesday: Salmon Patties, Mashed Potatoes, Peas

Wednesday: Lasagna (got amazing deal on cottage cheese this week), green beans

Thursday: Thanksgiving! Bringing ginormous macaroni salad to our family get-together

Friday: Homemade Pepperoni Pizza or leftovers, depending on where we are-we might head over to my parents'

Saturday: up in the air depending on whether we make the trek over the mountains

Sunday: " "

Visit Orgjunkie for more plans!

Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

Five years ago last Friday Daniel and I were married. He an Indiana transplant, I a Washington native. We met at our church and got to know one another as friends at young adult events before we started dating. Before we our first real date Daniel had made it clear that he wasn't dating for fun and that his intention was marriage. We tentatively planned for a wedding a little over a year when we first started dating, but ended up getting married 7 months later after a summer apart (I was in London on a mission trip). I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder! We planned our wedding in about 2 months after Daniel proposed on a mountain top:)

Happy anniversary my love!

(Daniel brought me the lovely roses tonight!)

Uninspired-but I have cute kid pics!

I am feeling terribly uninspired with blogging lately. I am so sorry-- I really want to have something worth reading here once in awhile!

Until then, here are some pictures from our visit to my parents' in E. WA last week.

O has discovered her feet. M is a ham as usual

Me and the girlie- I got bangs again (thanks Carol!)-what do you think?

Seriously-this baby is a smile maniac. She has a temper yes, but smiles so easily! And she's a cuddler. Love it.

Grandma and Grandpa (well...grandpa fell asleep in his chair;) babysat while Daniel and I had our romantic getaway to a local hotel. They had fun, we had fun, we'll do it again soon I hope:)

Crosby Family Fall Photo

Someday the girls will both smile at the same time and Daniel and I will both be looking in the same direction! But until then, here's our most recent photo:)


In other news we are getting excited about the possibility of beginning training with Wycliffe this Spring. For those of you who get our newsletter you will be getting yet another one in the next three weeks with news that we are actually bumping up our goal date!

We'll be very sad to leave (whenever we do go), but we continue to be burdened by the need to move towards the mission field as soon as possible. If you want to partner with us to bring God's word to the Bible-less people in West Africa, click on the link under the profile at the top of this blog page. Thank you!

Grandma & Grandpa wore them out

Wonder what they fed them?

I think O's tongue is hanging out a little.

Too bad that nap didn't last:)

Menu Plan for Nov. 16th, 2009

Breakfasts:
yogurt, cold cereal, leftover pumpkin dark chocolate muffins, gingerbread waffles or pancakes

Lunches:Leftovers

Dinners:

Monday: Chinese Pineapple Chicken over brown rice with asian veggie mix

Tuesday: Turkey Divan (need to buy broccoli to make this)

Wednesday: Mexican Casserole, carrots & dip

Thursday: Pork Ribs (from freezer) and mashed potatoes, green beans

Friday: Homemade Pepperoni Pizza

Saturday: BBQ Pork and Beans in the crockpot

Sunday: Crockpot Honey Lentils

Visit Orgjunkie for more plans!

Bed-Ridden Daddy and his girls

After a week of taking care of a sick hubby, the house and the two babies (okay one baby and one potty-training toddler), Daniel knew I needed a break. Besides giving me a break to go shopping by myself to get some deals. But he also let me get some work done in the kitchen for almost an hour while the girls played around/on him in the bed. They were having a pretty good time.

Daniel was feeling a lot better in these pictures by the way.

Our bed IS our bedroom. Pretty much the only thing besides a dresser that fits in there. But its ours and its cozy:) You learn quickly what you really need when you have no space!

The best toy for a 5 month old? A plastic hanger. And a 2 year old sister to watch.

Visiting Grandma & Grandpa G again

The girlies and I are back at my parents, but not to live, just to visit. I finall got my cracked tooth covered with a permanent crown (EXPENSIVE!) and my parents will be watching the girls overnight so Daniel and I can have some couple time at a local hotel and out to eat on a real date. Its much needed time away for us:)

We also will sharing about our plans with Wycliffe on Saturday at a home meeting at my parents' house. We've had a ton of people let us know they couldn't come due to other previously made plans so another bunch of people were invited at the last minute. So we'll see if anyone actually can come! I hope so:)

We are blessed that we have loving and involved grandparents on both sides of the family. M gets so excited when she gets to see anyone called grandma and grandpa!

Eating from the Pantry month: Complete!

So I shopped with a vengeance. It didn't help my case that I really needed to get out of our flu-ridden house!

First up:
Albertson's:
I did the spend $30, get $15 promo. I spent $16.60 after coupons (incl. 3 twice the value coupons) and received a $15 cat and a $2 survey receipt back. I will use this for next week's grocery necessities (and hopefully have a $0 grocery bill next week!

Also Albies, total $0.67 after twice the value and manu coupons. So happy about the gingerbread creamer! Soooooo good.

QFC:
I shopped the open house sale this past Saturday. I spent $15.xx for a 20 lb turkey, free 7up, $0.99 milk, bananas, 2 pineapples and 3 lbs ground beef.

Walgreens:
Our town has a new one with a grand opening coupon for $3/$10 purchase. But for some reason the clerk wanted to use the $5/$25 instead and my total was $2.90 after my $3 cat! I got a $5 cat back for the meter too;) $2.90 for three things I needed is sweet!

It was a good week and I don't expect to shop next week except to use up my albertson's catalinas.

Visit Grocery Cart Challenge and Money Saving mom to see more!

Impromptu Cooking/Baking Night

We're heading out of dodge (well the girls anyway) today on the girls' first train ride. So naturally I decided to do some major cooking & baking the night before!

Probably a really bad idea, but after you thaw out a 20lb bird, you gotta do something with it! The results of my cooking &baking are as follows:
9 meal sized portions of turkey
1 crockpot of turkey soup (working on that still) for Daniel
1 loaf half wheat bread
20 pumpkin chocolate chip 1/2 whole wheat muffins

Not bad, eh?

Here is my lovely assistant:

Potty Training Update

I almost gave up on Saturday night. After cleaning up half a dozen accidents (which was as many as she had in the previous 3 days combined) including several #2's, I thought it was time to throw in the towel for a few months. BUT-I decided to give it another day and yesterday went MUCH better.

Today: AWESOME! M has actually told me she had to go potty a few times and has only had one partial accident. Today was the first time she's actually told me she had to go (and actually did have to go) since we started exactly one week ago. I'm not ready to say we're successful yet of course, but its looking like she's starting to figure things out! Whoo hoo!

Menu Plan for the week of November 8th, 2009

I was considering skipping menu planning this week since I will be at my parents for a better part of the week. We are staying at a hotel near my parents' for our 5th anniversary (while they watch the girls!) and then having a home meeting to share about our plans with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Cameroon.

But, since we had a house full of sickies this past week we threw last week's plan out the window. And I am making a huge turkey today because I have to (no room in th freezer-I need to make meal sized portions to get it to fit!) Not only that but hubby isn't feeling well and he will be fending for himself for a few days until he joins me at my parents this weekend.


Breakfasts:
yogurt, cold cereal, toast

Lunches:Leftovers

Dinners:

Monday: Makin' a 20 lb turkey and some squash in the crockpot

Tuesday-Sunday: (the girls and I will be gone from here on...)
Meal ideas for Daniel: turkey sandwiches, turkey soup and I need some more ideas for 5-10 minute prep turkey meals for Daniel! Got any?

Visit Orgjunkie for more plans!

Loves me some grocery bargains (house full of flu edition)

Besides going to the store to get sprite and cold/flu meds, I didn't get out much this week. Potty training, the flu (2 members of the fam) and my own cold have just about done my enthusiasm for shopping in! But I managed a couple deals while picking up the necessities at Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart


Usually I plan a little better than this but yesterday I just brought my coupon box with me to the store. I found a couple good deals you can do too!

Welch's sparkling juice was only $2.97! Pair with this $2/1 coupon for $0.97 sparkling juice!

Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup is only $0.58 and use a $1/2 printable to get it for $0.08 each!

Eat da food!

Liv is eating "real" food now(in addition to full time nursing). Bananas, avacado, pumpkin. She's enthusiastic about it all!


With both girls we've started with veggies/fruits before rice cereal- against dr.'s orders! I guess I don't see much reason not to in the reading I've done.

Yum nanners!

She looks so little in that highchair! Big sis uses it most of the time so she seems tiny comparatively.

Instead of Baking all day like the rest of the world...

We heated up leftovers and canned soup. And did some laundry.

I really wanted to participate in the cooking/baking day that Money Saving Mom was hosting.

But silly life gets in the way sometimes. Between the flu and potty training an almost 25 month old, I've got my hands full. Three days in a row I've talked about getting to the store to buy M some big girl undies, but it hasn't happened. But all in all, potty training is going well! We've had plenty of accidents (but there are blessings to no carpet in our house!;) but today we've had none so far.

Anyway, I am thinking of doing so freezer cooking next week so hopefully I can still join in the fun albeit a little late!

A reason to shop Safeway again...

Check out the details at the Frugal Find for this week's ad.

Weeks like this one tempt me to start blogging about their weekly ads again!

I am excited about the Kohl's promo, spend $50, get $10 to spend at Kohl's and on up the more you spend the more you earn (you get the idea). I have heard your pre-coupon total counts, so combine this with the Home for the Holiday's promo and you could get some great deals!

We are still eating from our pantry through the end of this week, but come up with some good scenarios for these deals and next week I will be visiting Safeway again!

This would be a great time to stock up on chocolate chips, flour, etc. that have coupons and that you'd be using for holiday baking anyway!

I'd love to hear of any good scenarios any of you locals have cooked up.

Blogging interrupted by: the FLU

Not only are we eating from the pantry, but now we are cleaning out that medicine stockpile! 3 out of 4 of us are sick, and the other one is potty training:) Life is messy around here!

Luckily I have a mild version of the badness. Daniel and baby Liv have the much nastier version.

I'm off to cough and clear a path through the bathroom and sort out the medicine cabinet!

Soup & Cereal Diet (patent pending)

I'm only half joking-mostly about the patent part:) I kept thinking that I needed motivation and a jump start like signing up for Weight Watchers or Nutrisystem, but the money wasn't really in our budget.

So I decided to try and tackle two problems at once and I created my own "diet" consisting of things I needed to use up. I looked up the Special K diet (several other cereals have the same thing) online and got an idea what that looked like. Realistically I knew I wouldn't be able to stick with replacing two meals a day with cereal, but I needed something low-cal and easy that we had lots of. Progresso soup fit the bill.

Another thing I've read says that some people eat less when they have a repetitious diet. To some degree, that's me. Variety makes me want more because the taste is novel. Having the same bowl of cereal each morning makes it less fun to go back for seconds;)

So here's what I came up with using inpsiration from the cereal diets online, Slim-fast and others like it.

Breakfast: big bowl of fiber rice cereals with skim milk
coffee and milk

Snack: something under 150 calories (high protein is best, but sometimes I have just crackers or a bar of some sort)

Lunch: can of progresso soup, any leftover veggies from dinner and sometimes a couple bites of leftovers- I always have a few bites of dark chocolate and/or homemade iced coffee for dessert. This has to be something I can stick with for more than a week!

Snack: fruit, carrots/fat free dip, yogurt. 100-150 cals

Dinner: Normal. I eat what I feel like until full. I have a small dessert (about 150 cals) as well.

I usually stay right under 2000 calories for the day. I know this is a lot, but since I am nursing and tall its a good amount for weight loss right now.

And I am happy to report that I am within 15 pounds of my goal range. That puts me in the high end of a healthy weight for my height. Last time I checked in I think I was at 27 or so to go (several months ago!) so I am happy with progress.

Menu Plan for the week of Nov. 2, 2009

Its November already?!? And its Monday and I haven't even THOUGHT about a menu for this week. That is weird for me since I really enjoy doing it- but its an indicator of our busy weekend.

I'm extending my eating from the pantry because I cheated too much last month! ;) Our pantries are still too full, although much less so. I will be breaking my eating from the pantry month next weekend, when Albertson's doubles come back out. I'll be out of plenty of stuff by then too.

Breakfasts: pancakes (today), cold cereal, pumpkin muffins (still need to get a recipe)

Lunches: leftovers, fresh pineapple

Mon: Quesadillas, beans & onions in the crockpot

Tues: Scalloped Chicken Casserole, squash

Wed: Hot Dogs on whole wheat buns, rice chips, cauliflower

Thurs: Tuna casserole from scratch

Fri: Ziti Bake using ground turkey and Italian Cheese Bread

Sat: Pork ribs in the crockpot, scalloped potatoes, green beans

Sun: Fried Rice (using up leftover bits) or just clean out the fridge/freezer of leftovers

More menu plans at Orgjunkie!