2011 Recap

The end of 2011 is here.  I can't believe how fast it flew by.  I figured a recap is in order so I can look back at what we did!

January

We rang in the New Year in Orange Beach, AL.

We celebrated Eric's 27th birthday.

Birthday Blizzard!

I got to dance in the Follies.  The first dance recital I have been in since I was 14. It was so much fun!

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February

Out kitchen got a facelift.

We celebrated my 26th birthday!......

......and the day after my birthday was the day that I started The Cagle Chronicles!

March

My Dad came to visit and we opened up the pool for the year!

We re-did our living room.

April

Mom and Dad came to visit for Easter!

May

The Pointed Toe Dance recital.  

My BIL proposed to my FSIL!!!  I can't wait for their wedding in June 2012!

The four of us at our wedding
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June

Weddings, weddings, and more weddings!

We visited Hodge's Vineyard, who knew rural Alabama had cute little vineyards!

some local fare

This little cutie pie turned 4 years old!

July

We celebrated the 4th of July at the beach.

We headed up north for a family reunion in Maine!

I love my family!

And we celebrated one year of wedded bliss!

August
I discovered Pinterest.com, and no longer had any free time because of it =).

I spent a wonderful weekend in Michigan with my parents running the CRIM, and on the way back I got to have lunch with Matt-Matt in Atlanta!

This handsome boy turned 4 years old!

He LOVES his tennis balls!

September
Football season took over our lives.

Getting the boys fired up!

October
Basketball season started for me!

We went to Homecoming at Huntingdon College, our Alma Mater.

November
My family came to our house for Thanksgiving!

The best family in the world!

December
We won our first basketball game!

We took a snowboarding trip with friends to Sugar Mountain, NC.

Headed up the mountain on the lift

On top of Grandfather Mountain!

We spent our second Christmas together as a married couple, but our first as a married couple in our home!

2011 was so good to us and I cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store!

 Happy New Year!

Couponing 12-28

One of the reasons I started this blog was to share my couponing experiences.  However, I have been completely slacking on this (the posting--not the couponing itself!).  This partially has to do with basketball  season getting under way and not have time to make an enormous grocery run once a week like I am used to, but it's mainly because I just have not sat down to write a couponing post.  Oops!  Well that changes today because I had a pretty good shopping trip yesterday that I HAD to share!

Since the end of the month is upon us, I had several high value coupons that were about to expire.  Unfortunately I had to purchase some items at full price, but the coupons made it all worth it!

The Proof

My haul:
2 bottles Fomula 409 All Purpose Cleaner for $1ea = $2 (on sale 2/$4 + 2 x $1 off 1)
2 packages Oscar Meyer Bacon for $2.99ea = $5.98 (on sale $3.99ea + 2 x $1 off 1)
1 bottle Publix Apple Juice = $.01 (Publix Penny Item!)
1 package Kraft Big Slice Cheese = $1.99 ($2.99 + $1 off 1 [mc]...I had a sc to pair with it but I cleaned out my purse last week and apparently it did not make it back in....grrrr!)
2 packages Oscar Meyer Lunch Meat for $2.33es = $4.66 (on sale 3/$10 + 2 x $1 off 1)
1 package Nathan's Hot Dogs = $3.50 (on sale 2/$7 <--impluse buy because they are so freaking good and are $5.29 regular price)
1 package Community Coffee = $3.99 ($5.99 + $2 off 1)
4 jars Pace Salsa for $.90ea = $2.70 (BOGO $2.79 + 2 x $.50 [dbl] off 2)
1 bottle Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice = $1.50 (on sale 2/$5 + $1 off 1)
1/2lb shrimp = FREE! (Eathfare Competitor Coupon:  Get a FREE! 1/2lb of shrimp with a $10 purchase)
2 boxes Zatarain's Rice Mix for $1ea = $2 (on sale 10/$10)
2 boxes Coffee filters for $2ea = $4  ($3.99 + 2 x $2 off 1)

The rest of the items were for a Duck Stew Eric wanted to make.  I am hoping he takes it all to the hunting camp and it gets eaten there!
1 bag pearled barley = $1.23
2 cans tomato paste for $.60ea = $1.20
Progresso Beef Broth for $2ea = $4 (on sale 2/$4 <--there was another brand that was BOGO but they were out and Eric had to have BEEF broth for his Duck Stew recipe)
green beans = $1.13 (on sale $.99/lb)
carrots = $.99
celery = $1.99
pearled onions = $2.99

On top of all of my coupons I had my trusty $5 off a $55 purchase from Winn-Dixie that I get everytime I make a purchase, so I slapped that puppy on top of my coupon stack before I handed it to the cashier so that my total was in fact more than $55 when it was scanned.  I am not sure why it's taken me this long to realize that I should hold onto those coupons and use them at Publix!

Now for my total.  I spent $47.00 and saved $51.19 for a total percentage of savings of 52%.  Not bad, but not great.  Of course any trip when I save more than I spend is a good trip in my book!  Considering I had to pick up several items for Eric that were not on sale, I would say I did pretty well.  I am especially proud of the fact that the total of my coupons outweighed my Special Price (store sales) Savings. Usually it's the other way around.

Happy Savings!

Christmas Morning Breakfast

One of the things I look forward to on Christmas morning (besides seeing what Santa brought) is Christmas morning breakfast!  My mom has always made a Breakfast Casserole that is oh-so-good!  Since we were not with my family this year, I decided to make one for Eric and I (I halved the recipe of course). It turned out great!  It's one of my favorite recipes because it so easy to make and I can make it up the night before.

Breakfast Casserole 

this is the halved version of the recipe that has 4 servings

What you need:

3 slices of bread cut into cubes

1/2 lb breakfast sausage

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

What to do:

1.  Grease a 9 inch round glass dish

2.  Cook and drain sausage. 

3.  Cover the bottom of the glass dish with cubed bread.  Cover bread with cooked sausage and cheddar cheese.

4.  In a bowl, mix bread, milk, salt and pepper.  Pour over bread, sausage and cheese in dish.  

5.  Refrigerate overnight.

6.  When ready to eat, bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins and enjoy!

 In addition to our traditional breakfast casserole I decided I wanted to make Hash Brown Casserole, Cracker Barrel Style. I used this recipe.  And it turned out great!

Hash Brown Casserole

What I'm Pinning Wednesday

So my Boilers won last night....yay!  I was able to start the game from the beginning on my DVR and caught up with the live feed just as the DVR was about to cut off because they game went longer than the tv time slot.  My parents had a great time!  Here is a pic my dad sent me pre-game....aren't they cute?

Mom and Dad

Now on to all of the lovely Pinspiration that I have stumbled across this week!

After spending a few days in the NC mountains last week, I could go for another round....but maybe out west this time?  in Montana?

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I am soooo ready to start doing some vinyl crafting with my new Cricut!  I am thinking some projects like this maybe in store for me!

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Love, love, love this!

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Dance

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Bang Bang Shrimp.....one of our fav's from one of our favorite restaruants.

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Long Boy "Burgers"....looks delish!

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I love this dainty necklace! So Pretty!

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Love this ring!

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Jillian Michaels is my hero!  

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I hear it all the time!

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Love the wiener dogs!  I think that is Peanut in the glass on the right!

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Happy Wednesday!  

Boiler Up!

My beloved Purdue Boilermakers are taking on Western Michigan this afternoon in the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl this afternoon in Detroit.  I am super jealous of my family because they will be there in person watching the game and I will be in Alabama.  It will be alright though, I have the DVR set to record the first part of the game and I will be home after the first 45 mins. The games usually never get started on time anyway, right?

Check me out sporting my BLACK and GOLD today!

I have such fond memories of going to Purdue Bowl games with my family.  In the late 90's and early 2000's when Purdue had some pretty great teams (this time included the Drew Brees era) we followed Purdue around the country going to several different bowl games.  Since my family lives in different parts of the country and we all don't see each other that often, it was a great family get-together!  We did the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio a couple of times, the Outback Bowl in Tampa, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to name a few.

So even though I won't be at the game today I will be there in spirit! Boiler Up!

Let's Go Boilers!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents!  They have been married for 31 years tomorrow!  I love you guys!

Christmas 2011 Recap

Another Christmas is in the books, and what a wonderful Christmas it was.  We ate, went through our stockings, opened presents, ate, played with the dogs, talked to my family on the phone, watched Christmas movies, ate, visited with Eric's family, did I mention we ate?

For probably the first time in my life I managed to sleep in on Christmas morning.  For whatever reason I usually cannot sleep on Christmas Eve....I guess it's the anticipation!  We got up around 8:00 AM (yes the dogs let us sleep that late!) and went to see what Santa had left for us, and he was VERY good to us!

Me and my Cricket Imagine that Eric got me!!!!  I am super-stoked!  I am going to be on crafting overload!  

Eric and his flashlight....don't worry he got more stuff, but this was the only thing I got a picture of him opening.  

One Christmas Eve Eve I waslooking for something to do so I ran up to Wally World and got a puzzle!  Two days later I had finished it!  I almost don't want to take it apart because it's so pretty and I am so proud of it!

I also made sure to pull my Christmas dishes out this year.  I know I know, it's just the two of us, but I wanted to set the whole table =)  We had a fabulous Christmas dinner of a standing rib roast, twice baked potatoes, and a salad.

Of course we had to take a yearly Christmas picture in front of the tree.  Unfortunately my camera did not want to cooperate with me and it took a little longer than Eric would have liked.  This was test shot #256.  

No worries, he was a good sport and we got a decent shot!  However, we did not realize until we put the pics on the computer that Hawk was moving and thus looks headless.  Be assured, he has a head, it is just moving!