Day 15

Day 15 I am thankful for my camera.  It lets me catch so many memories that I can cherish down the road.  I am the picture taking queen, just ask my hubby.  There are times my older kids look at me and say "seriously? you want to take more pictures?".  I absolutely love my DSLR, the pictures have such an amazing quality to them.  My kids may complain, and my hubby may roll his eyes at me at times, but I will continue to take hundreds of pictures at a time, so I can fondly look back at all the memories we have made together as a family.

Day 14

I am thankful for our Realtor.  She was AMAZING! Seriously!  We met up with her on a Tuesday and by Friday when we boarded the plan to come home we had put in an offer on a house and had already been to the bank to submit paperwork for our loan.  She dedicated almost all of her time to helping us find the perfect house in a short period of time.  We absolutely love our house.  We know we found it and bought it pretty quickly, but we truly feel like it is the perfect house for us and we don't feel like we settled at all.

If anyone wants to buy a house in North Carolina, I will gladly pass on her name to you!

Day 13

I am thankful for my 4 yr old son Riley.  I am thankful for all my children, every day, but the 13th of Nov is his birthday, so it's a special day just for him.  He has such a crazy, spunky personality, he makes me laugh ALL the time.  I just love him to pieces and am so thankful that he is my son.  I couldn't imagine my life without him in it.

The Birthday Boy on his birthday :)

Day 12

I am thankful for Pinterest.  Silly?  Maybe!  But it's true!  I have gotten SO many ideas for recipes, crafts, and my home that I never would have thought of on my own.  At one point I was severely addicted to Pinterest, but I have been able to curb my addiction and I don't spend as much time on there as I use to, but I still enjoy it.  I love that there is now an android app for it, so I can browse it from my tablet as we watch TV.

Do you follow me on Pinterest?  If not click on the "follow me on Pinterest" button on the top right of my blog!

Day 11

I am thankful for my husband's job.  We got very lucky and he has a great job working for a great company.

His old company got bought out, so we decided to move back to Arizona back in 06.  We wound up living off his severance pay and our credit cards, and we racked up a lot of debt during the 3 months it took for him to find a job.  When he got offered the job with Mclane we jumped at it.  They have treated us so great.  He started as a senior accountant in Dec of 06.  6 years later and they have promoted him to controller, moved us to California to be a controller and have now moved us to North Carolina to be one.  We have been able to pay off ALL of our CC debt and buy a house.  We are financially stable because of his job, and it doesn't hurt that he loves what he does too.

Day 10

I am thankful for my best friend.  We have had our ups and downs, we even had a really big down at one point, but here we are 19 years later, still best friends.  I know if I ever really need to talk about something I can call her and she will be there for me.  When we get back together, it's as if we were never apart.  We got matching tattoos to celebrate our 10 year anniversary of being best friends, no matter what I will always have good memories when I look at my tattoo.  I love you Mel, thanks for being such a great friend. I can't wait til we are old and terrorizing other's in a retirement home together.

Day 9

I am thankful for my Slow Cooker!  Some people might find this silly, but I really am!  There have been times that it has been a life saver.  I love that I can throw everything into the slow cooker and have dinner waiting for me when I get home from football practice, cheerleading, dance, tumbling, band concert, baseball, softball, etc.  My kids do a LOT of activities through out the year, and I love how active they are, but sometimes that means getting home late, but also leaving too early to eat dinner before hand.  With my slow cooker I can just dump everything in there and whenever we get home dinner is ready.



This is the one that I have, and I absolutely love it!!  It has a timer on it, so I can set the temp and then how long I want it to cook.  When the time ends it beeps at me, and then it automatically turns it to the 'warm' setting!  How cool is that?

I also love that I can easily cook roasts and whole chickens in my slow cooker with VERY minimal effort!  A nice big huge home cooked meal, and I am able to go to the store, run errands, maybe go to a practice with the kids, and do stuff around the house without thinking about it.

So yes, I am very thankful for my slow cooker!

Day 8

I am thankful for social media.  It has helped me keep in touch with so many different friends and with my family.  It has also helped me find and reconnect with friends I have lost contact with over the years.  I am glad that it has made it so easy to catch up and keep up with friends and families, and made it easy to store and share our family pictures.

Insta GC

Instagc is a site I just joined on October 8th.  I am LOVING this site!  I have already cashed out $48 in Amazon gift cards!!  Seriously!  I get free gift cards just for doing offers.  I only do free offers, and they have a TON to pick from.  You can even watch videos to earn points.  They have a chat feature, so you can talk to other members and they are all so friendly and helpful, they will answer your questions and will even tell you what offers are crediting quickly.

Now, this site does take a tiny bit of work.  You can sign up with your normal email, but you'll want to make some email accounts for doing your offers.  Basically you just want to clear cookies and use different emails to help your offers credit better.  I write down what offers i do with which email address, so if I need to conform something I can.  Doing it this way also avoids spam to your regular email inbox too.  But this is a quick and easy way to make money.

You earn 10 points when a referral signs up and confirms their email address.  After that you earn 10% of what they earn.  This particular site is 1 account per household.

They also don't have just amazon gift cards too!  They have Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Old Navy, Game Stop, Starbucks, and more!!  And the best part?  It's instant payment!!!  I select the gift card I want, and then they give me my code right then and there!!  THAT is awesome!!!

Now is the perfect time to join and earn a little extra money to help pay for Christmas!  You can join me by clicking on one of the banners on the page, or on the hyper link above.

Whole Chicken in the Crock Pot

I've always been a boneless skinless chicken kinda person, but with a family of 6, that's a lot of chicken!  I recently decided to buy some whole chickens, that I got a great price on.  I love my slow cooker, and what better way to cook a whole chicken then in the slow cooker?  Just dump everything in and let it cook while you go about your day.  I spent less then $4 on the whole chicken and we even have left overs.  Yesterday was a pretty busy day with Voting, grocery shopping and taking my daughter to Ballet, so it was the perfect day to use the slow cooker.  I had taken my chicken out of the freezer Monday morning knowing I wanted to cook it on Tuesday.


Whole Chicken in the Crock Pot

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken 
• 1/2 c chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground thyme
• 1 small onion*
• 3-4 carrots*
• 3-4 medium russet potatoes*

*you can add or subtract the amounts of the veggies, these are just rough guidelines.  I just kind of eyeball it and stop when I think it's enough for all of us.

Directions:

After removing the neck and giblets from the chicken place it breast side up in your crock pot.

Next add the chicken broth and the spices.

Cut up the Onions, carrots and potatoes and add them to the crock pot. (the onions are hidden and there are more carrots under the potatoes, I decided to add extra carrots)

Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  

Mine cooked for 5 hours and when I went to take it out of the crock pot the legs, thighs and wings all fell off in the pot and had to be removed separately.

Serve and Enjoy ~

Day 7

Today I am thankful that the election is OVER!  I have seen soooo many people get rude and negative about it and I have seen so many attacks against 'friends'.  So sad and crazy at the same time.  Even this morning I saw people posting about unfriending their friends on Facebook.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and beliefs!  Everyone is entitled to share them too!  But please, please, be respectful about it!  Try to act like mature adults!  Name calling and throwing out insults and threats because someone doesn't agree with you is just wrong.

This has been the worst election ever, and I think a huge part of that is the social media.  Future elections worry me, because I think people are just going to get worse, rather then better about how they voice and share their opinions.

Maybe, if we as Americans can learn to get along on the political front, our elected politicians can attempt to find a middle ground too.  Because really, the only way to 'fix' America is if we can all work together, rather then each side trying to push their personal agenda's.

Day 6

On day 6 I am thankful to have the right to vote, both as a woman, and as an American.  It wasn't that long ago that women didn't have the right to vote.  We have come a long way as a country when it comes to several things, yet we have a long way to go still.  The only wasted vote imo is the one you do not cast.

I voted, did you?

Day 5

Today I am thankful for coupons.  They have done so much for my family in the last 2 years.  We have saved SO much money, and we have so much more because of it.  I am even able to buy items specifically to donate to help others out.  When the tornados ripped through Alabama in early 2011, I was able to donate items from my stockpile.  When the fires burned through Colorado earlier this year, I was able to donate items from my stockpile.  Even now, as NY and NJ are trying to recover from Hurricane Sandy, I am getting items together to donate to help them out.  I am so happy that I am able to do this, and it is because of coupons.

I have also met some pretty amazing ladies and made some great new friends because of coupons.  I miss going to my coupon swaps in Indio and getting to sit with my friends and chat while we went through coupons.

So today, I am thankful for coupons, for the money they save me, for what they give my family, for what they help me give to others, and for the friendships gained.

Day 4

I am thankful for the Military.  I grew up an Army brat, because of the Army I got to live in Germany and England (I actually went to school in the British school system), and I got to see Wales, Scotland, and Belgium.  I have seen Big Ben (he was being renovated when we lived there), the crown jewels, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards.  I have been to the city that the Pied Piper was about, and I have been to too many castles to count, including the Fairy Tale Castle, Neuschwanstein.

When I was older, I joined the Navy.  I can't even begin to list all the things the Navy did for me.  I made some amazing friends, that I am still in contact with all these years later.  I lived in some pretty great places too.  I also got to see more of the world (Hawaii, Singapore, and Hong Kong).  I was part of Operation Unified Assistance after the Tsunami hit Indonesia in late 2004.  I will never forget the devastation I saw, or the wonderful acts of humanity that I saw performed. The Navy helped me to grow as a person and helped to shape me into the person I am today.

I am also thankful for all the sacrifices our military men and women make on a daily basis for our freedom.  Not just the members, but their families too.  Having been on both sides of a deployment (the spouse left behind, and the member gone away) I know how hard a deployment is on everyone involved, our military members and their families give so much, and for that I am very thankful, every day.

Day 3

I am thankful for my Mom.  We may not have always seen eye to eye....especially when I was going through the rebellious teenager stage LOL, but now she is one of my closest friends.  She has always been there for me, even when I didn't realize that I needed her.  I've messed up a few times in my life, but she never turned away from me and has always accepted me for who I am.  I am very lucky to have such a great Mom!

Day 2

I am thankful for my children.  They light up my life, even tho we have had to deal with quite a few issues, I wouldn't trade any of my kids for the world.  They are all so special and unique, each in their own way and I can't wait to see what they do with their lives.  They are my world, and I would do anything for them.

Day 1 of Thankfulness

I am thankful for my amazing Husband.  I don't think there are enough words for me to use to describe how wonderful he is.  He goes above and beyond for the kids and I.  He is an amazing husband and an amazing daddy.  He truly makes my life complete.

October Savings

Another month has come and gone.  Is it just me....or did October fly by for the rest of you too?  I can't believe it is November already!  I have 2 birthday's this month, and then Thanksgiving.  Then in December my oldest becomes a teenager and we have Christmas.  We have a very busy end of year!

Now my monthly total for October is actually a bit lower then it should be...I know not all of my receipts got recorded (sorry, I slacked off a bit one week, and then couldn't find all the receipts).  But here you have it, my October savings!

$1,038.63

Still a phenomenal number!  We've had to restock some of our perishable foods, plus I bought Halloween candy and started to buy stuff for the joint birthday party we are having this month.  I gotta say, I love saving money!!!