Cinco De Mayo

Quick post as I am swamped with work.

The weekend went by really quick. I was not feeling 100% so I tried to stay home and out of the rain as much as I could. Yesterday I was in the mood for some soup so I made Albondigas with home made meatballs. It was delish if I do say so myself.

Buddy loved it.....

Buddy: This is good - does it have tomatoes in it?
Me: Yes, it has tomato sauce
Buddy: I thought so. I could taste the Cinco De Mayo
Me: (thinking) Cinco De Mayo, how can you taste Cinco De Mayo....
Me: Oh, you can taste Pico de Gallo.....

I love that boy so much!!!

Countdown Begins...

OHHH HAPPY DAY!

Pitchers & Catchers Report: 22 days!!!!

I love baseball season for so many reasons.

1. The Angels

2. Vladimir

3. Summer is right around the corner

4. Angel Stadium

5. Drinking Coronas watching baseball games.

6. The Angels

Little Banged Up...

My poor daughter was in an accident yesterday.

She's OK - Thank you God - but she's a little shaken which is to be expected. She was on her way to school yesterday when she was rear ended. Her truck thankfully had little to no damage but his jeep was pretty crushed in the front. I'm so happy she wanted a truck for her first car.

She went on to school (finals week) and later that night we sat for a couple hours in the Urgent Care. So not fun - but not as bad an an emergency room. The entertainment consisted of an old TV (with a VHS tape player) showing the movie"Junior" with Ahhhnold. Ewww not a good movie at all!

Daughter had x-rays which showed her neck to be pretty strained so they gave her a stylish neck brace and wrote a couple prescriptions (which mom will hold on to) and sent us on our merry way.

She was feeling pretty good this morning. So fingers crossed that she stays that way.

Isn't She Pretty??

I love her.
She's my new KitchenAid Mixer I got for Christmas. I use her any chance I get - making biscuits, mashed potatoes, bread, etc. If the recipe says "Mix" - she's my go-to gal.

I've always heard about how much people loved their mixers but I didn't realize how helpful and handy they are until I was blessed with my very own on Christmas morning. I didn't ask for the Heavy Duty or the Artisan - I just wanted the simple Classic one. She's just perfect for me.


Last night we made some yummy (but too sweet for my liking) oatmeal butterscotch cookies.





Last night I also learned the J does not like butterscotch.... hmmm never knew this until he took a bite of the cookie and smiled trying not to make "that face".... Now I know...

I Love You Mr. Clean

As strange as it sounds, I love cleaning products. I love them all Lysol, Pine-Sol, Clorox, Windex, Comet, etc. But my all time favorite cleaning product is my Mr. Clean Eraser. I kid you not - this little baby will clean everything!

I use it to clean my stove top, outside of the refrigerator, erase scuff marks left on your floor, clean the baseboards, scuff marks on your patio furniture, cabinets, and walls. I seriously walk around the house looking for something to clean when I have my eraser.

"It's like crack for cleaners"

My new found appreciation for Mr. Clean came when I was cleaning my kitchen sink and it just looked yuck - I reached for my eraser and it turned my sink bright white again.

Mr. Clean is my cleaning best friend.

We Are All Heroes...

Guitar Heroes that is.

Daughter "Rocking It"

Our whole family has gone mad over this game. It's the first thing Buddy goes to as soon as he walks in the house. Daughter has no problem sweet talking a turn from her little brother. She has mastered that thing and Buddy is in awe of his sister. Last night he whispered "She's amazing" as she battled AND beat Slash!

I think our whole family could play this for hours. I can definitely see why it is such a huge hit!

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday night
Lately we have been going to the movies on Friday nights but this week not too much was out (that was kid friendly) so we just stayed in, rented movies and enjoyed our microwave popcorn.

Saturday

It was a very early game for Buddy. His basketball coaches are frustrating the heck out of me! Look at the score - you'll know why. J takes him to practice and says they really don't do a lot of drills - basically just shooting. Our poor boys were having the ball stolen from them left and right! Poor Buddy - but he still loved it.

Buddy and I decided we were going to check out Game Stop to see if they had anything new for the Wii. We both were excited they had Guitar Hero for the Wii in stock. $89.99. He had $65 left over from his Christmas money. I suggested we go home and go through his older GameCube games and trade them in. So home we went and he found about 12 games he no longer played. After a quick lunch we headed to the mall and traded them in. He got $73! Woo Hoo. I paid the extra and we are now owners of Guitar Hero (a.k.a the best video game ever invented). I frickin love that game!

While at the mall I stopped into Forever 21. My new favorite blog is My Super Sweet Fashion Diary. She keeps an on-line diary of her fashionable outfits. I'm not good at putting outfits together - I have to see it and then copy. She's got a knack, a talent and I'm constantly thinking while I'm shopping - what would mssfd wear? I stopped in really quick (Buddy was itching to get home to play his new game) so I quickly found a couple things and headed home. One of which I liked the other - I'm taking back.

I thought this would be cute paired with some tights.

Front


BackI have been wanting to use my new KitchenAid. I cheated a bit with this cake but add orange zest and made a yummy orange glaze for the top. It was so good. Trader Joe's Vanilla cake is quick, easy and not really sweet.

Sunday

We went to church and then I spent the rest of the day cleaning and watching football. Poor Peyton and Romo. I was happy for the Chargers though and for Brett!

Last night I made some yummy Cheesy Garlic Biscuits with chicken and broccoli. So good!!!

I Saved $103.24!!!

It's been quite a few months since I've coupon shopped using Teri's List for shopping but yesterday I reaffirmed that it does pay to take the extra time and be a smart shopper. I saved close to 50% on my shopping trip yesterday. What would have been a $225.24 bill came to $122. Woo Hoo.

I'm not going to lie - it is a time consuming process but once you get your system down it's quite easy (and for dorks like me, it's fun).

Here is my system:

Ralphs is the only store right now that doubles coupons so I only shop there. Advertisements from Ralphs are mailed on Tuesdays - sales run from Wednesday - Tuesday.

Sunday morning I Log in to http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ to get THE LIST.

Sunday-Tuesday - Shop with TERI'$ $HOPPING LI$T

Make sure you have your coffee. : )

I print out the list of the items I want to buy.

Make sure I have all the coupons out of the newspaper (LA Times).

Start cutting - everything. Even the things you don't think you'll ever use. Sometimes they will be free and you could give them away or find a use for them. (except for items you KNOW for sure you won't use)

I have an idea of what coupons I'm looking for off of the list so I put those in a pile and the ones I'm not going to use that week I'll put them in piles so I can file them after I'm done.

File the ones I'm not going to use this shopping trip.

I have a good idea of the layout of the store so I put the coupons I'm going to be using in groups according to the aisles.

I take my list, grouped coupons and filed coupons with me to the store. I refer back to the list while I'm shopping just to be sure I'm using the right coupon, have the right item, etc.

I've found that if I take an envelope to put the coupons in AFTER I've found the right product I save a lot of time. So when I get to the check out I give them the ones in the envelope.

I also take my filed coupons with me - some times something might be on sale and I have a coupon for it but it's not on the list.

I know the process sounds tedious and way too time consuming but once you have your own system down shopping with be a lot less of a pain.

I buy things even if I don't need them at that time - I like to have nice stocked cabinets. So I have it when I need it and don't have to pay full price.

Things that Make Me Happy from A - Z

A - Anaheim Angels. I love, Love, LOVE my Angels and am thrilled that baseball season is getting closer.

B - Break-ups. I'm happy that I've experienced heartbreak and break-ups as a teen so when my daughter recently went through one I knew exactly what she was going through and could be a shoulder for her to cry on.

C - Cereal. I can eat cereal anytime of the day. I do not discriminate I love them all from Grape Nuts to Captain Crunch. I'm a lover of all cereal.

D - Duncan. My Duncan dog makes me smile everyday. I can seriously not think of a day that went by that he didn't do something that made me smile.

E - Eating. I love food - what can I say?

F - Five o'Clock. For two reasons - 1) Quitting time and 2) My standing phone date with my dad. We try to speak every day during my drive home.

G - Girlfriends. I'm so very lucky to have friends that I've known since I was in grade school, friends I used to work with, and even my Internet friends. I cherish my friendships and I would do anything for these girls as I know they would do the same in return.

H -Husband. He makes me feel so loved every day.

I - "I love you" coming from my son. He will stop what he's doing and come find me just to tell me he loves me. Doesn't matter where or when (even on a field trip with his class) he will tell me he loves me every day.

J - My son's name starts with a J - he makes me verrry happy!

K - The Knotties on the LA Board. They are funny, smart, witty, creative and helpful.

L - Love. Being loved and being able to love makes me happy.

M - Matching bras and panties. I hate if I am mismatched. It's a weird thing and probably too much information but it's like a bad hair day for me.

N - New Hat. I love hats. A new hat definitely makes me happy especially an Angels hat. I have sort of an obsession...

O - Ornaments. I collect Christmas ornaments and every year when I decorate my tree it makes me happy to go down memory lane.

P - Pasta. I love any and all pasta.

Q - Que - as in BBQ. We are BBQ junkies. We will BBQ anytime we can. J is quite the master of the grill.

R - Roomba. As sad as it sounds, my Roomba makes me happy. I'm happy I don't have to vacuum anymore.

S - Sisters. I am so very blessed to have my sister. We are extremely close and I consider her my best friend.

T - Tomatoes from my garden. There is nothing like home grown cherry tomatoes.

U - Unconditional love of my mom. My mom is such a wonderful giving woman. Her love knows no boundaries. She has devoted her life to her family and being with her makes me happy.

V - Ventura. I love living in Ventura.

W - Work. The actual work doesn't make me happy but I'm happy to have a job that I don't hate and I enjoy.

X - X-rays with no cavities.

Y - You. For reading this post all the way to "Y".

Z - Zoo. The Santa Barbara Zoo is one of our favorite zoos around. I have many memories of taking both my daughter and my son there when they small.

National Delurking Week

So I learned today that it is National Delurking Week from NannersP and Winnie and Wan . I love to read comments and would love to see who is "lurking" out there. : )