Our Wedding

Five years ago today, Michael and I got hitched!

The 'score cards' were created by the best man.

 This is my favorite group shot

 I absolutely love the sunset in these two pics!

 He started it! :)

 It looks like I'm crying over what my brother and his cohorts did to my truck.

The Lord has given us a wonderful five years together! I pray that we'll be able to enjoy many more!

I love you, Michael! Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!

Things That Have Made Me Smile

• Josiah declaring that he is not a boy but a dragon
• Josiah pretending to fly (complete w/ sound effects)
• A sweet note from a friend
• Michael explaining to our two year old that the internet is 'an information super high-way'. To which J responds with his infamous 'HUH?'
• Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips and a tall glass of Sweet Tea
• Coupon Fairies
• My mom remembering "Why I came to her house in the first place" before I left her house.
• Me: 'Michael, this is not loading! What did I do wrong?' Michael: 'Yes it is! See these numbers? WOW! LOOK, its loading one MEGA BITE per SECOND!' Me: {I stare in silence and then bust out laughing} Michael: 'What's so funny?
• Josiah says thank you to our waitress yesterday. She exclaims "Oh, he is SO CUTE!" Josiah then gets all delighted and says 'I CUTE!!!!!' {We all laughed so hard! It was so precious}
• Clean dishes and clean laundry
• The thought of getting to spend time with my sister tomorrow
• Missionaries 
• My hubby reorganized my 'pantry' AND vacuumed for me this weekend!!!
• The ability to download sermons to my ipod from our church website. {What an incredible blessing to re-listen to messages that have really touched my heart.}

Psalm 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

Publix Junk Food Shopping Trip

Spent: $32.12 (+2.21tax)   Saved: $74.87 or 70%

Things worked out for me to go shopping today rather than next week. I had coupons expiring tomorrow and next week I am planning on visiting my sister and also Michael was home this morning to help me which kept me from putting too much strain on my back. YAY! I love it when things work out. :)

I got all 8 Pepsi product 2L for FREE! 

The paper plates turned out to be a nicer deal than I thought because the 55ct bogo pack had 30% more free. So I paid $4 for 144 plates. 

The koolaid also worked out better than planned. I bought 15 @ 5/$1- I had (2) $.50/5 and (1) Buy10Get5Free. The B10G5 coupon when scanned automatically took $1.25 off but the cost of 5 was only $1. There was an office lady standing right there and told my cashier to go with the coupon price that scanned so I got all 15 for $.75! =)

We are totally lovin' the junk food. I can't wait to open that bag of Sun Chips! I think a family movie night is in order real soon! 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

~Joy

Publix Shopping Trip

Spent: $22.73 (+1.52tax) Saved: $56.21 or 71%

Thank you, Alesha (Coupon Fairy #1) for the two extra coupons so I could get the Fuze deal! I think it came to $3 for all 15 bottles. :o) Those will definitely come in handy during the summer when we are traveling! 

Free items: 2 Ketchups, 1 Pepsi Max, 6 Yakisoba, 1 Chef Boyardee

I paid $.35 for the Publix bread & $.08 for the sliced honeydew thanks to my Coupon Fairy #2! I also had a $3 off your entire purchase so that coupon ate the majority of the price of the bag of peppers that wasn't on sale.

The oatmeal was on clearance at $1.57, definitely not bad when you don't have any coupons and you need some! ;) 

I have found meat on clearance every week so far. Today I found a pack of drumsticks @ $.99/lb, a pack of some kind of sausage thing-a-ma-bobs @ $1.??/lb and then a 2pk of absolutely beautiful T-Bone Steaks @ $4.99/lb (I think the reg. price is around $8.99/lb). I was tempted with the t-bones but decided against them since I wouldn't be able to grill them immediately and I dislike freezing such beautiful steak.

This is my little man on the way out the door this morning. We had a full morning so he is out like a light now. I am going to go recoup from the busy morning too and hopefully get enough energy to put away the rest of the groceries and get dinner started... Turkey Tetrazinni, Homemade Garlic Bread, and Green Beans.

Happy Tuesday!

~Joy

Ahhhhh....

Yesterday I jumped in the car with two other friends and went to Anna Maria Island!

It was so beautiful! 

We had the place to ourselves for about 2 whole hours!!!

All the birds kept putting on a little show for us.

We had such a relaxing time playing in the crystal clear water.

 The treasures we found...

 My sweet friend 'Mrs. P' is the QUEEN when it comes to finding shells and sand dollars!

One of the coolest things was all the dolphins that we spotted! A boat actually chased some toward the beach and we jumped up and ran after them to try and get a picture. They were gone by the time we got close enough but we had fun running down the beach anyway. The other neat thing that happened was no more than five minutes after getting out of the water the group off to the left of us spotted a manatee! We could see it moving but not clearly. We ran down the beach to watch as it headed toward a fisherman standing in the water. In the picture below the manatee is right in front of him! The guy said it came to within 5 feet of him. We would of probably passed out if we were still in the water!

He is actually looking down at the manatee in the water.

I had such a relaxing time yesterday. It was so nice to be with the girls and catch up with them.

Then to top the day off, Church last night was INCREDIBLE! I absolutely love it when the message "just happens" to coincide with my devotions. I can't wait to re-listen to it! And for the first time in a couple of weeks I fell asleep quickly without having to take anything! I credit that to a stress free day and a good dose of God's Word!

This morning I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle some of these chores that I have been putting off. Its amazing how a little break can make such a big difference. Now I am off to sort laundry... :)

~Joy

Blogs I Follow

Here is a list of the 'coupon' blogs that I follow. I use google reader which allows me to hit the 'next' button to go to the next post if the current post does not interest me. This helps me not to spend an enormous amount of time reading or scrolling through all the posts. The other nice thing about a reader is you can 'star' a post which allows you to come back to a post later. I use that option A LOT! :)

Why do I follow these blogs? I follow these blogs because these ladies find a bunch of unadvertised deals at the store and tell you about the coupons that match up with them. They also post other deals they come across, free sample alerts, great printable coupons that come out, and so much more. And sometimes its just nice to see how others are doing on their shopping trips. It keeps me motivated and helps me not to miss great deals!

This week their were several deals that I came across in my blogs: ***Free + overage Kikkoman Seasoning w/ a $.55 off of eggs wyb any kikkoman product (the 1/2 carton of eggs only cost me $.40) *** Buy Kingsford charcoal get Publix brand free w/ a coupon for $3.50 off pork wyb Kingsford and Kings Hawaiin rolls (I found a package of cubed pork for $2.66 which made it free and the $.84 overage helped to buy the $1.50 rolls) *** Yoplait yogurt is 2/$4 There is a coupon for $2/2 in the yellow adv. buy flier. I used a $.50 q and a free product coupon which made it free + $.50 overage *** Hot Shot $2.79 I used $1 off q in the yellow adv. buy flier and a $1 printable so it only cost me $.79 *** I missed the Pepperidge Farm roll deal but saw someone else buy it, it ended up being $1 for 2 bags of rolls.

I hope this list helps those of you who asked me about what blogs I follow! Have fun finding your favorites! :)

My Top 3 Favorite:

My Sweet Savings

I Heart Publix

Passionate Penny Pincher


Others I follow:

The Prudent Patron


The Krazy Coupon Lady

Hip 2 Save


Southern Savers

The Frugal Girls

Totally Target

Got Coupons?

Publix Shopping Trip

Spent: $28.65 (+$1.60 tax)   Saved: $101.91 or 78%

I also bought a gas card but I didn't include the cost or savings in my above totals. :)