The Reception

I just realized I never did a post about our reception. We had a great time eating and dancing. Wish it could have lasted longer but it was a Friday night/holiday weekend and most people needed to get home or on their way to weekend events. Scott picked out the formal looking glasses. I think this was really the only thing formal we had in the wedding event.

My face in this picture cracks me up. I think I was telling him I needed more control of the knife.

Our first dance to "You had me from Hello"

Breanna, Christian, Justin, and Trevor along with the help of some adults had a blast decorating the car. My brother Tim video taped it so I have evidence except for the times he had a great idea and had to stop taping to show them how it should be done.

Walgreen's & Walmart

Well, Scott is out of town and I didn't have anything better to do so I made a small coupon run. Here is what I got. Walgreen's:

All - $5.99 used wg$2/8 coupon and $1 mfg coupon =$3.00

3 Sunsilk conditioners - on sale $1.99 used 3 $1.50 coupons - .49 each

2 Glade $1.99 used wg coupon for .99 used b1g1 and the cashier took off $1.99 =.01

2 Adidas do $2/5 used wg coupon for $1.99 and 2 mfg coupon for $1.00 = .99 each

2 Reach Floss - $2/5 got $5 register rewards = Free

Halls $1.99 - used wg .99 coupon and .35mfg coupon = .64

I also used a $2 register rewards from last week. I still don't understand why I can't use more than one register rewards coupons at a time. I have several.

Total spent $11.83 and got back $5 register rewards




Walmart:

10 Viva paper towels - $1.00 used .50 mfg coupon =.50

(Most people get a better deals than this but in our small town this is a good deal. I never thought my stock of paper towels would get low but it did so I had to restock before the coupons expired.)

6 pkg Kool-Aid - 1.20

Crystal light - $2.98 used free after 3 kraft products =Free

Kraft Swiss Cheese - $4.28 used free after 3 kraft products up to $4 = .28

4 Farmland Bacons - $2.50 used 4 $2 mfg coupons = .50 each

Voila -$3.98 used $1 mfg coupon =2.98

Total Spent $13.38

It probably looks like I never buy any real food but last week I spent $80 at Walmart so this week I just need some stuff to go with it. I comped some meat prices and some other really good deals. Of course Walmart was out of alot of things that I wanted to get this week so I may make another small run later in the week.

Beautiful Breanna

I decided to dedicate a post completely to my step daughter Breanna. She never lets anyone take her picture. Why she chooses to be this way, I have no idea. She is absolutely beautiful inside and out.

I will be honest. . .I did take her shopping to buy all new makeup as a thank you for being my maid of honor and because I knew how bad she hated pictures and it was so important to me. I let her pick out pretty much whatever she wanted and we only used a few coupons. That was an expensive trip to Wal~Mart. But in the end it was so worth it. I will cherish these pictures forever. Thank you Kim for taking care of this special request for me.

OUR WEDDING DAY

Scott and I had the wedding of my dreams Aug 29th. When you plan an outside wedding you never know what can happen. And the kind of person that I am, I didn't plan for anything to go wrong. I wanted it to all happen the way I wanted it! The morning of our wedding I went to get my toe nails done while they got everything to the reception room so we could start decorating. While I was there relaxing in their massaging chair, I looked out the window to see that the sky was completely black and could rain at any moment. I could feel the tears forming in my eyes and I decided this was not going to happen to me! It was not going to rain on my day and guess what, I must have willed it away. It didn't rain at all. The weather was nice. Not to hot and not cold. Everything went as planned. Kristy fixed Breanna's and my hair just how I had dreamed up and we didn't even have a practice run. She just read my mind I guess. The pictures that Kim took were absolutely perfect. These were so important to me and she did a awesome job. The dress my mom made was perfect. Exactly what I wanted simple and beautiful. By dad found the perfect pearls to match my dress. Scott was handsome and the kids clean up really well. Scott had told everyone he wanted a 15 minute wedding and it took something like 15 minutes and 5 seconds so I guess he got what he wanted also. The only thing that I didn't do was take the time to get a good look at the reception room before everyone got there. I left to get my hair done before it was completely decorated. What I do remember before I left and what I saw after I got there, it was beautiful as well. Scott and I also got to have a first dance which I think was so important because we met dancing.

These are some of the pictures I have decided are my favorite.

I will share more photos in another post. I think they are all my favorites so it is hard to choose which ones to share.

I love to shop good Sales!

I think Scott is starting to like the fact that I shop all the sales with my coupons. He lined up all my bargains from Walgreen's last week on the table before helping me put them away so I could take a picture to them. Too funny!

The rest of the Honeymoon story

We had so much fun just relaxing. We didn't get to go out and enjoy all the music and things we had planned. Unfortunately, alot of it was cancelled due to the crazy weather. We did watch some funny shows on TV which we don't usually have alot of time for when we are home. We also got to go listen to a Rock Band at Live Bait and they were really good.

Doesn't that hand holding the beer can look much better with that shinny ring on it?

I bought these flip flops that I thought would make some really cool tracks in the sand. It was alot harder than I thought it would be. . . . but I did get a good picture.

We had a blast! Wish we could go every month!

Hurricane Gustav Passes Honeymoon Continues

We woke up in the middle of the night to hear a loud whistling sound which was the wind blowing against the building from the hurricane. That and the really large waves is all we experienced from the hurricane. It was kind of crazy. It was like we were in a bubble and there was bad weather and tornadoes around us.

We were extremely lazy beach bums. Most of the time we didn't even make it to the beach. We spent most of our time with our feet on the balcony not on the sand.

This is our favorite restaurant. If you are ever in Gulf Shores you should try it.

I have been to the beach many times but have never saw the police patrol it like they did the week we were there.

One of my favorite pics of the week!

Look at the wind blowing the palm trees.

Did you use the $10/ $40 coupon from Walgreens?

Last night I came home checking my normal blogs and was excited and a little leery to find there was a $10 off coupon on a $40 purchase good for today and tomorrow. You can go to Walgreen's web site to print a coupon. I have used the $5/$20 coupon only once and that was for a bottle of Zyrtec which is almost $27 . I paired with a $4 off coupon and then the $5 off coupon which helps me out a lot. I use to pay $50 for a 30 day supply with my insurance so getting a 45 day supply for $20 is great. Anyway I went to work planning a strategy to try and get my photos at a discounted rate. I mapped out 2 different plans one for if the sales clerk who I like that doesn't question my coupons was there and one that if the lady who refuses some of my coupons was working. I really don't like her she refuses them even if the computer would take them. Anyway I get there and of course it was the lady who hates coupons checking at the front register. I'm thinking ok use plan B and I realize I left my paper at home (note to self get small notebook for couponing.) I had my easy saver book with me and realized I was a little smart I had my coupons split apart so I should be able to figure it out. I didn't do as well as I planned and they were out of several things that I needed for plan B. In the end I got all of this for the cost of my pictures which I would have gotten anyway. Crest Mouth Wash - $4.29 Got $4.50 back in Register Rewards

Chemistry Hair Care - $7.99 Will get $7.99 rebate

Excedrin - $3.99 Will get $3.99 rebate

Crest Pro Health toothpaste - $3.29 Will get $3.29 rebate

Lypsyl lyp Moisturizer - $1.99 Will get $1.99 rebate

Glade Fabric & Air - $2.99 Less $1.00 easysaver coupon and $1.50 Coupon from recent Sunday paper.


Photos - $14.25


Visine - $3.99 Less $2 easysaver coupon and $1.00 coupon from recent Sunday Paper.


Post it Tabs - $3.49


I must have mis-calculated somewhere and thought I needed a few dollars to get me to the $40 mark and I was actually over that. (note to self get small calculator to carry with coupons)

(2) Pez mint .60 each
(2) Skittles Gum .40 each
(2) Mike/Ike spray candy .60 each

These were all on sale and usually over a dollar each. They were a good price and I like to keep special treats around for the weekends when we have the kids and it is not our nineweeks.


So I get to thinking is couponing really worth it. . . . .I have definitely had my goof ups where I thought I was getting a great deal and got home and it wasn't as great as I thought. In the end it is still fun to walk out of the store with sacks full of great stuff and spend under $5. This just wasn't one of my best days. My total for the trip was Spent $37.03, Saved $11.26, $10 coupon, Register Rewards back $4.50, Rebates back $17.26.


Now back to clipping coupons. I have been working all week on getting organized. The reason I needed the tabs. . . I will share what it looks like when and if I ever get finished

Evacuated Honeymoon

Scott picked a beautiful condo with sun shiny yellow walls, granite counter tops and antiqued furniture. I fell in love with the cosiness as soon as we got there. They were nice enough to let us check in early and we got everything unpacked. We went to dinner and ate out on a patio over looking the ocean which had such a nice breeze. . . Then Sunday morning we went to eat breakfast and saw tons of cars backed up heading out of town. I asked Scott if we should be worried and he kept saying no thinking that the cars were leaving from Fort Morgan which we knew had been evacuated. We went to Walgreen's to pick up a few things and get some newspapers so I could keep the headlines to scrapbook someday when I have time. We found out there that everyone from that point to the beach were evacuated. Panic started to set in (for me anyway) as we made our way to the office of our condo. They were nice enough to move us to one of their other properties in Orange Beach. Amazing just a few miles down the road was considered safe ground. I think the second condo was bigger than the first condo but not as nice to me anyways. As Scott worked out the details with the office. I went up and started to pack at high speed and secretly cried. It was 11:30 and we had to be out by 1:00. Things like this are not suppose to happen on your honeymoon even though we knew there was a chance when we went down there.

Outside of our second condo they had a weather team there and were doing a live broadcast.

I've never saw a truck that looked like this before.

Double red flags flew most of the week which means. . .water closed to the public. I couldn't believe how many people and their kids were is the water with these flags flying.

More to come in another post. . . . .

Wednesday Letters

I have so many thing to share about our honeymoon/vacation. I will start with the perfect book that I read for the occasion we were celebrating. This was a easy read and to me showed that there are some men that appreciate and want to romance their wives along with leaving their story behind for other to find. Life is not a easy one but with communication and love you can make it through almost everything. I would highly recommend this book. Let me know if you want to borrow it.From Publishers Weekly
In the wake of his bestselling Christmas Jars comes a sweetly crafted story from Wright, a Virginia businessman. Jack and Laurel Cooper are two hardworking, loving Christian pillars of the community who die in each other's arms one night in the bed-and-breakfast that they own and operate. The event calls their three grown children home for the funeral, including their youngest son, a fugitive from the law who must face an outstanding warrant for his arrest and confront his one true love, now engaged to another man. As events unfold around the funeral, the three children discover a treasure trove of family history in the form of Wednesday letters-notes that Jack wrote to his wife every single week of their married lives. As they read, the children brush across the fabric of a devoted marriage that survived a devastating event kept secret all these years. It's a lovely story: heartening, wholesome, humorous, suspenseful and redemptive. It resonates with the true meaning of family and the life-healing power of forgiveness all wrapped up in a satisfying ending. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

Birthday Girl

Our sweet and sometimes a little goofy Daisy turned a year old today. We started out the morning singing her Happy Birthday. We must have been hurting her ears because it made her act all crazy. The Thursday before we got married Scott took her to the groomers for her first big girl hair cut. Doesn't she look like a different dog. Bless her heart, I kept saying "Whose dog are you?" Then she had to go visit grandma's house for a week which was her first time away from home.

We're Back

Unfortunately, we had to leave beautiful skies and relaxing waves and come back to the real world. Every time we leave the beach we pout a lot and want to plan a way to go back as soon as possible. We have decided this time that it would be best just to buy a condo down there.

This was the most relaxing trip I have ever been on. I will have much more to share. . .