Couponing Tips - SUYL

I'll admit that I have a coupon binder, complete with the baseball card sleeves. I'll also admit that I have expired coupons in there from June. :) So to say the least I am not an extreme couponing mama, but I do love to save money when I can and when I have the time to organize my binder! :o)

Here are a couple of great websites that have a lot of awesome information!

#1 - http://printable-coupons.blogspot.com/
This blog always has the most current retail/restaurant coupons listed! Along with tons of other coupon stuff. I always check this site before we go shopping.

#2 - http://www.stockpilingmoms.com/

One of these ladies is from our hometown and I've attended a couple of her couponing classes and they have some great tips and info on their website too!

#3 - http://www.luvabargain.com/

This website always has great offers and freebies listed! Along with upcoming sale listings for the major drugstores.

Thanks for stopping by ~ Have a great weekend!

For a link back to Kelly's Korner you can click HERE

SUYL - Side Dishes

For this week's SUYL Kelly is hosting our favorite side dishes!
Here are a couple of my favorite go-to recipes for sides. The veggie rolls are good for appetizers also! (Sorry there are no pictures, but trust me these are yummy!)

Veggie Rolls
8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
8 oz. sour cream
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1 stalk of broccoli
6 carrots (about 1/2 bag of baby carrots)
1 stalk of cauliflower (optional)
Hidden Valley ranch dip mix
Package of large flour tortilla shells

Mix cream cheese, ranch dip, sour cream, shredded cheese together.
Chop all of the vegetables and add to the mixture. Spread it on tortilla shells and roll up. Place
them in an air tight container and freeze them. Take them out and cut them 1 hour before serving.

Chinese Cole Slaw
1 bag shredded cole slaw
6 green onions
2- 3 oz. Ramen Noodles (Oriental)
2 small pkgs. sliced almonds
2 small pkgs. sunflower seeds
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
Combine cole slaw and green onions in large bowl. Add sliced almonds and sunflower seeds. Add crumbled Ramen Noodles.
Combine oil, sugar, vinegar with oriental seasoning packets that comes with the noodles. Pour over salad and toss right before serving.

Thanks for stopping by and I pray you have a super blessed day!

Blogger Roll

For Kelly's SUYL this week we are to share our favorite blogs. I was going to re-post all of the ones on the right side bar because they are all truly some of my favorites! So you can check them all out!

But I had to include a couple that will bless you!

The first one is written by a young mom in Colorado who lost her husband suddenly last December. When I first read her posts about his death and the following days after, it just made me appreciate my family and especially my hubby so much more. She is a gifted writer and puts words on her posts with such emotion, that you can't help but to pray for her and grieve with her:
http://teachingtuckandty.blogspot.com/

This is a sweet young lady that I know personally and is such a wonderful inspiration to my girls and me:
http://steppingheavenward-ellerslie.blogspot.com/

And this last one is a precious lady that we are blessed to be members of the same church body with. She has such a huge heart for Jesus and missions and she is really funny too!
http://myheartishisthrone.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do and I look forward to meeting some new "bloggy" friends myself! I just love the world of blogging where you can meet like minded people from all over the world!

And I know it's not really a blog, but am I the only one totally addicted to Pinterest?

Our Church

For Kelly's Show Us Your Life this week we are sharing our churches.

We LOVE our church and I can't wait to share with you! We live in a small town and feel very blessed to be part of our congregation. Bethel is an Acts 1:8 church that supports and takes part in many missions that are local, national, and international!

Our pastor is one of the best pastors in the entire world! Bro. Kenny has such a caring and compassionate heart along with a strong desire to be a godly servant for Christ! We love him dearly!

(This picture was taken last spring when he had just performed a very country wedding! Our girls dressed old fashioned too and I had to get a picture of them together!)

Our youth/associate pastor is a great guy too! Bro. Larry David does such a wonderful job with the youth and filling in. We love him bunches too!

We love being part of our church! As a Christian we are suppose to come together and be part of a group of like minded believers with a soul purpose of serving Christ while bringing glory to God. Plus, they make living this sometimes difficult life so much easier!

Here is our website - Bethel Baptist Church and our Blog!

Thanks for stopping by and I pray you have a blessed weekend!

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

SUYL - Books

For Kelly's SUYL we're sharing our current book list. I've been on a Francine Rivers kick this past few months! With homeschooling our two daughters I don't have a lot of free time to read, but I have managed to squeeze in a few this year.

Her Lineage of Grace series are wonderful! They are historical fiction novellas and aren't very long, but give you a little insight about what their lives may have been like.

The Atonement Child was a really good book. It told about redemption and salvation that only God can give. I won't go into any more details, but definitely check it out!

And in case you're wondering what we've been reading in our school! Carry on Mr. Bowditch is a wonderful biography about Nathanial Bowditch!

Thanks for stopping by and I pray you have a blessed weekend! I'm looking forward to adding some book titles I may be able to read one of these days!!!

Our Last Christmas Gathering for 2010

We had our last Christmas gathering last night at Brian's grandparents and we went to my Dad's afterwards to see my brother and Kati! They had taken Kati (who btw is an awesome softball player :) to a softball seminar/camp at Tenn Tech a few hours away . The camp was Mon-Wed so they came home on Sunday and then left for TN early Monday morning and got back Wednesday. His youngest Cori, stayed with us for a couple of nights and our girls didn't want to turn her loose today! They've played and played and giggled and giggled! I'm praying that they might just move a bit closer to Kentucky....especially if Kati is going to college up here :D (Hint Hint to Becky (my SIL :) Wish you could of come with them :( Next time!)

I just love this pic of Gigge and his girls!

This was the girls opening their goodies at Brian's g-parents house.

Brian's cousin made this quilt for his Papaw. It was really neat! He LOVES pictures! They added on a family room many years ago and he has nothing but pictures lining the walls. Next time I go up there I'll have to snap a pic of it. He managed the sports equipment at Berea College for many years and still stays in contact with many of the athletes.

Neat story - Brian and I were flying back from Panama this summer and was going through customs in Atlanta and when the clerk saw what city we were from and our last name he said, "You by chance wouldn't know an Elvin ___ would you?" And when we told him that was Brian's grandfather you should have seen his face! It was really neat and needless to say, we sailed right through the customs checkpoint!

They were also celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary!

Most of the crowd had already left at this point.

It was kind of late when we got to my Dad's house, but these four didn't care. When people always comment on how good and reserved our girls are - I'm going to show them this picture of the girls wrestling Chris to the ground and taking his Nerf gun away! Haha!

It was such a blessing to see most of our family for Christmas this year! Fun times!

2010 A Year of Blessings!

As 2010 is coming to a fast end I thought it would be neat to recap some of our most memorable moments of this year. I'm going to start a new thing on Saturday called Project 365, but I'll get into more detail with that soon enough :)

January
Our trip to Pigeon Forge with our bestest friends that had been in Sri Lanka for the past two years doing mission work.February
We got a scary call about my brother, Gigge (Garland), that lives in Texas. He had pneumonia and it developed into ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) and was in ICU for a LONG time. After he was admitted with an oxygen level of 40% (I think) and was intubated and put on life support Dad and I (and Sis after we met her in Little Rock) headed to Texas. Many praises to God that he is doing so much better now and he is here (in KY) now!!!
Gigge with his precious family! (Hi, Becky!:)

Kati, David, & Cori (Gigge's oldest son and his girls!)

Kati & Cori (my beautiful nieces!)

My other brother got married in Orange Beach, Alabama. We decided to go on our way home from Texas. He had two girls and Denise had two boys! Now (as of August) they have a baby girl together!

Holly's 8th birthday - We drove all through the night from Alabama so we'd make it home for her special day!

March
Our sweet great niece Isabella was born!

April
I got an awesome phone call from Gigge! He hadn't been able to speak very well before they had switched out his trech, so when my phone rang and it was from him I got a little excited!

April 18th my Mama had been gone 7 years. Still so hard to believe.

This was taken in front of Danforth Chapel after our wedding right before we were leaving. This is the dress that she was buried in.

Holly played her 3rd year in the city's softball league.

May
Brian's sweet aunt Lora passed away after battling cancer for several years. A close friend of hers read a very precious letter at her funeral that Lora had written her and it was a perfect example of Lora's testimony.
My father-in-law won the Primary Election's Sheriff's race!

June
Of course Toy Story 3 came out in theaters. After Anna's love for Woody all of these years we couldn't wait to see it!

Anna was able to attend Mitchell Tolle's art workshop again! What a blessing!

July
Brian and I were able to go on a 9 day mission trip to Panama (the country)! This was a life changing trip for us and I am looking forward to going back one day!

August
My dad turned 60!

I attended my 15 (gasp!) year high school reunion.

Brian and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary!
My brother and his wife Denise had a new baby girl, Miss Kathryn Reese.

Brian surprised us with an impromptu trip to Pigeon Forge, TN.

September
We celebrated Anna's 11th birthday while in Plymouth, Massachusetts! We were able to be part of a documentary that Kirk Cameron is filming called "Monumental" and we enjoyed being a part of a revival service called New England Solemn Assembly.

Monument to the Forefathers statue in Plymouth, MA.

October
The girls and I had our annual fall photo shoot. :)

Don Pinson with Heritage Ministries of Kentucky preached an Election Sermon at our church and we had a total of 17 candidates in attendance!

November
Brian's dad won the Sheriff's office in the general election!

So did many Tea Party candidates all throughout the nation! Hopefully sending a message to the government that less is more!

December
We've had a wonderful month of celebrating our Savior's birth!
Also, my brother came home from Texas less than a year after he was in such critical condition. God is so good!

Here is one of Gigge's daughters, Cori, with the girls tonight when we ate at Sonny's!

Looking back over the past 12 months we have gone through a variety of things and I realize that through it all one thing was constant - God was in control of each and every second! We just have to learn to obey and go with the flow!

Looking forward to what the Lord has in store for 2011!

Christmas 2010

We had a truly blessed CHRISTmas this year. Christmas Eve we went to Dad's house to celebrate! We decided about a month ago that instead of all of the kiddos drawing names that we'd just find a family that needed help. Then we were going to do a few Christmas crafts with the kids. It turned out wonderful!

Anna finally got to hold Miss Kathryn Reese, her new baby cousin!

All the kids making their ornaments & stockings! Before we got started I was able to share why we were doing this and how we have our hope in Jesus!

I LOVE this pic of our newest addition :D

So so sweet!

Holly

Madison

Anna's snowman art on her ornament.

Pa and Kathryn Reese

Madison & Anna

Pa & Marla got everybody presents. The girls got a Toy Story 3 game!

We woke up Christmas morning with snow on the ground!

The girls stockings (for memory sake): I stitched Holly's name on hers a few days ago :)

We got Anna's when she was a baby.

This year we did a LOT less than we've done in the past and it was truly one of the best Christmas' ever!

Liberty & Jubilee got new dresses!

We surprised the girls with a Wii.

Shock & awe!

We surprised Brian with socks and a dvd!

Brian was not suppose to get me anything, but they snuck and did anyway.

The girls modeling their new dresses!

Brian helped me fix a big breakfast and it was yummy!

Then we had a devotion and Brian read the Christmas story! So thankful for the family that the Lord has blessed me with!

Hope you all had a blessed CHRISTmas!

My brother Garland and his girls are in Kentucky!!! He and his oldest are traveling back to Tennessee for a softball camp Monday morning, but they'll be back Wednesday and stay until Saturday! Cori, his youngest will come and stay with us a couple of days! We can't wait!