Wedding ABC's Part 1 of 5

Since I started this blog after we got married I did not get a chance to include any wedding memories or favorite things posts.  In 5 weeks Eric and I will be celebrating our 1st Anniversary, so I have decided to review our wedding using the alphabet, a Wedding ABC's of sort.  However, to keep from having an enormously long post, I am going to do 5 letters per week until our anniversary week.

So here are The ABC's of Our Wedding, Letters A-E:

Attendance

We invited around 300 and ended up with around 200 people coming to the wedding.  With both of us playing college sports and having rather large extended families we had a lot of friends to celebrate with.

Our families...

...and friends!

Bridesmaids

I had a Maid of Honor (my future sister-in-law), three bridesmaids (friend from high school, my college roommate and a friend that I worked with in college), a junior bridesmaid (my cousin), and a flower girl (another cousin).  Believe it or not, they are all wearing "cornflower blue" dresses.  I love how they all look just a little bit different!

My girls

Cakes

We had the bride’s cake and the groom’s cake made a Publix.  For the bride's cake we went with a traditional 3-tier cake, that was vanilla cake with white butter cream icing and white dots on it.  We had them decorate it with some flowers to give it some color.  Eric wanted a fish cake so his cake was a traditional chocolate sheet cake that had a fishing scene on it. In the water there was a picture of a crappie (his favorite fish to catch).  We also had 3 cookie cakes from Sam’s.  Cookie cake is my absolute favorite kind of cake, and I especially love the ones from Sam’s because they are double-decker.  I actually looked into how I could have the bride’s cake be done in cookie cake but I could not find anything that I liked, so we just added them in!

Bride's Cake

Groom's Cake

The cookie cakes!

Dress

I found my dress at David’s Bridal.  I went to a couple of different places and tried on several different styles, and I was not really sure what I wanted.  I knew I wanted something I could be comfortable in, and I knew I really liked the lace-up backed dresses.  As soon as I put this one on I felt like a bride!  My bridal photos were taken by the very talented Michelle L Hughes.

“Everything is Falling Apart” Moment

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect.  We were a bit rushed trying to get ready but it all went off without a hitch, which I am so grateful for!  However, we nearly had a disastrous situation the day before the wedding.  My mom had a weird blob in her eye that started shortly after she got down to AL for the wedding.  She did not think much about it but it kept getting worse, so she called a local eye doctor on Thursday just as a precaution and they set her up with an appointment for Friday morning.  She also asked my brother, dad and I to keep it quiet because she didn’t want anyone to worry—Side note: my grandfather had a heart attack the week prior to my wedding (something I did not learn until after the wedding) and she did not want to upset him or my grandma or anyone else.  Well 3 hours later we had not heard from her and I started getting concerned.  Finally she called me right after lunch she called and said that the doc thought she had a torn retina and sent her to Montgomery for SURGERY.  WHAT?!?!  She assured me that it was a simple procedure that could be done quickly (the rehearsal was to start a few hours later), and that she would be there as soon as possible.  My dad went to meet her and so my brother and I (still keeping it a secret from the rest of the family that was there) were left to entertain and occupy the family.  It was at this point that I lost it.  Thankfully we were still at our house, so I went and locked myself in the bathroom and cried.  I didn’t know what to think.  Was she going to be ok?  Would she lose her eyesight?  Will she have to stay in the hospital?  A couple of hours later (about an hour before the rehearsal) she called with wonderful news.  It was not a retina tear, just a random blob.  The doc said there was nothing he could do, but that the blob would eventually shrink and go away.   They raced back out to Tallassee (they didn’t event stop to change) and made it just in time for the rehearsal.  By that time we had already told everyone what was going on so they were just happy they were there, although my uncles were pretty disappointed that mom did not have to wear an eye patch for the wedding photos.

Letters F-J coming next week!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Heaven

Got a new cookie recipe from Mom last weekend and I tried it out yesterday.  OMGness they are fantastic!  I am really glad I decided to just bake one batch and keep the rest of the dough in the fridge because we could  would have eaten all of them had I cooked all of them. What kind are they?   Reece's Cup Double Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies.......or just plain YUM!

I used Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix (Betty Crocker, in the baking aisle) and followed the directions on the box.  I then added 2 Tbsp of peanut butter and 3 chopped up Reece's Cups (mom used 1/4 cup of mini-Reece's Pieces and said they were delicious!), and baked them on my baking stone. 

They might be my new favorite cookies, hands down.

**On a sad note, my Pampered Chef baking stone that I have been seasoning for 2 years now met it's demise last night.  I think the grill was too much for it to handle the other day and it broke in two pieces......a moment of silence please..................................................

I am so sad!  What on earth am I going to use to bake things now?!?!?  Surely I don't have to resort to metal pans!  

Couponing 6/24: Register Woes

I always try to be very polite to cashiers when I am using coupons.  I have learned that a lot of them like for you to hand them  your stack of coupons before they start scanning so they can make sure all of the items are scanned and so they don't have to look all the way through your order to get the price for a free item coupon.  Also, I worked at a grocery store in high school and I don't mind bagging my own groceries when I have a large order and there is no bagger around to help.

Friday at the store I did all of the above mentioned things, trying to be nice, and I paid $13 for it. GRRRR!  I handed the cashier my coupons as she started scanning my order, and because I had a bunch of Powerades and no one was there to bag my order, I went to bagging myself.  I finished up just as the cashier did, just in time to notice my total at the end of my transaction increase by $5 instead of decrease by $5.  Right after I got it out of my mouth, the receipt came out.  The transaction had already gone through....great.  I had to take my receipt to customer service and they refunded my $11--$5.50 that was charged to my order and $5.50 for the coupon without any trouble.  I went on my way with my $11 and a smile on my face, until I looked at my receipt on the way home.  I had 2 FREE item coupons from Kraft, one for a lunch combo meal and one for a packet of lunch meat.  As I looked at my receipt I noticed that the lunch meat and the sandwich combo cost $4.29 and $3.50, respectively, which was all fine and dandy until I noticed that the clerk had given the FREE item coupon each a $2.99 value, which cost me $1.81.  NOT COOL!  I toyed with the idea of going back and getting another refund, but I decided it was not worth another trip to customer service.

I did do the math when I came home and was able to figure out my adjusted savings after I made the corrections, and here it is:

After all of the adjustments were made I spent $26.76 and I saved $38.03, for a total savings percentage of 59% this week, which is ok with me!

This week I got:
8 pack of paper towels = $4.99
10 Powerade Zeros for $.42 ea = $4.25
milk = $3.79 (ouch!)
2 bags frozen Rosetto pasta for $1.25 ea = $2.50
1 Oscar Meyer Sandwich Combo = FREE!
1 Oscar Meyer Meat Combo Pack = FREE!
1 box Publix trash bags = $2.99
2 bags Fresh Express Lettuce for $1 ea = $2
2 lbs bananas = $1.18
2 bags Cape Cod Kettle Cooked chips for $2 ea = $4

On top of my manufacturer coupons, Earthfare had another $5 off a $20 purchase for their Auburn and Montgomery, AL customers this week that I was able to use!

Lesson learned this week:  being nice is not worth $13!  I will be paying MUCH closer attention to the register from now on.

Pizza and Rainbows

I don't know where the weekends go.  I feel like we just get relaxed and then Monday always rolls around again.  I am sure it has nothing to do with all of the fun stuff we have been doing lately!  This weekend was no exception.  Between cleaning the house, fixing up the yard, getting some pool time in and celebrating the marriage of some of our friends from college, you would think that we didn't have any time left to relax....but we managed!

We actually managed to do very little on Sunday, which was just what we needed.  That afternoon Eric decided that he had to have a Greek pizza cooked on his Big Green Egg grill for dinner.  I made up some pizza dough and made a quick run to the store for some mushrooms, feta cheese and Kalamata Olives.  We topped it with an extra virgin olive oil/balsamic vinegar/minced garlic mixture, some crushed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, some Italian herbs and spices, onions, along with the mushrooms, feta cheese, Kalamata olives, and some tomatoes from the garden. It turned out great!  Very tasty!  I was a little hesitant to let him put my Pampered Chef baking stone on the grill (and told him if anything happened to it he would be getting me a new one), but it held up pretty well and is even more seasoned now!

Sunday night we had a storm roll through (which is very common this time of year).  For the 3rd time this week, the winds blew my poor tomato plant over, so had to wedge it up against the house.  Thankfully a nice rain storm followed the winds.  After the rain came through Eric really wanted some ice cream (I have decided he considers it it's own food group).  I was not really feeling it, but he convinced me and we loaded up the puppy dogs and headed to Dairy Queen for some mini-blizzard action.  Boy am I glad we went.  Had we not gone, we would have missed the most incredible rainbow I have ever seen.  Not only was it a double rainbow, we could actually see the entire rainbow (both ends!), which I don't recall ever seeing before.

I tried to get the whole thing in one picture but it was too big, so here is the middle.

This was one end of it.  The colors were SO bright!

That glow is the other end of the bright rainbow and just to the left of it you can see a more faint rainbow.

Great Summer Read

I just finished a GREAT book, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  If you are not familiar with the book, you have probably heard of the movie that came out earlier this year, Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson starred in it.  I have not seen the movie yet (I wanted to finish the book first), but the book was wonderful.  I started reading less than a week and ago and could not put it down!  I highly recommend it!

from Amazon.com

2 Peas in a Pod

We had a baby shower at work yesterday and I had to share some pictures of the decorations.  They were sooooo cute!  The girl we threw the shower for is having twins, a boy and a girl, so we went with a 2 peas in a pod theme.  I must say I work with some pretty talented people and we were able to pull together some really cute decorations!

The bow I made for the door.  I learned why my mother told me to always use wired ribbon to make bows, this one was a little wild.

Centerpiece

Flowers and pea pods we made out of tissue paper, balloons and pipe cleaners.

Welcome table

INCREDIBLE cake and cupcakes made by a girl I work with!

We played "guess how many jellybeans"

Food table

We even had pea green (but pineapple-lime flavored) punch! YUM! 

The detail on the cupcakes.

Couponing 6/17

We had some friends from out of town come in for a shrimp boil this weekend so I had to make an impromptu trip to the grocery store to get a few things....plus I had another $5 off $20 purchase from Earthfare to use!  Because I had a pretty specific list I was scrambling to get my total up to $20 so I could use my coupon.  I went ahead and got most of the items on my grocery list for next week while I was there.

This trip I spent $21.62 and saved $30.00, for a 58% savings!  Not too shabby considering I paid full price for 2 of the items.

Here's what I got:

2 bags Green Valley Fresh Steamer vegetable bags for $.19 ea = $.40

2 bags of Simply Potatoes hash browns for $1.30 ea = $2.59

2 bottles Bailey's Coffee Creamer for $1.17 ea = $2.34

2 Oscar Lunchables (I still LOVE these!) for $1 ea = $2

1 canister Crystal Light Pink Lemonade Mix = $1

Cucumbers = $1.49

Onions = $1.52

1 bag whole natural raw almonds (yes we have already gone through the other bag) = $4.99

1 box Publix trash bags (big bags for shrimp shells) = $1.89

3 boxes of Duncan Hines cake/brownie mix for $.66 ea = $1.99

2 - 130 packs of Hefty plates for $2 ea = $4

Now if I could just get Publix to put the almonds on sale I would really be in business!

Happy Birthday Peanut!

Today is my sweet puppy dog Peanut's birthday.  He is 4 years old today.  I can't believe that he is that old already!

Peanut was meant to be a gift for my grandmother-in-law but she did not want him so Eric called me one day and told me to come out to Tallassee because he had an early Valentine's Day present for me.  The whole drive out there (45 mins) I was racking my brain to figure out what it was.  I remember thinking, what if it is a tiny dog.  (I honestly had that thought).  And then I thought, I don't want a tiny dog.  I don't have time for a dog.  I had just moved into my first apartment by myself and did not think I could handle a dog then.  I spent the entire ride trying to convince myself that was not it.

When I walked into his parents' house, a kennel caught my eye.  Sure enough there was a small red-headed,  long-haired,  miniature dachshund inside.  He was huddled in the corner shaking and would not come out to anyone.  Eric explained that if I did not want him they were taking him to the pound.  Of course I was not going to have that!  I sat down in front of the kennel and started petting him.  After about 30 minutes he came out and set his head on my lap.

That was it, I was hooked.  Since that day he has been my little shadow. ( I later learned that dachshunds are notoriously loyal to their owners. They get really attached to one or 2 people and could care less about the rest.)  We have had our moments good and bad.  The first time I left him in my apartment I put him in his kennel and went to the store.  He was crying and barking when I left and was STILL crying and barking when I got back, but as soon as I let him out it was like nothing was wrong.    That was the end of the kennel and the beginning of me understanding that he may be small but he is incredibly stubborn. We also made it through the long ordeal of the slipped disk in his back, which  required surgery and 6 months of rehabbing that included me walking behind him holding a towel under his stomach to take him out (did I mention he is a miniature?), but I would do it all over again if I had to in a heartbeat.

He is my sweet little man and I love him so much!  Happy 4th birthday Peanut!

Right after I got him...still so scared!

He loves to lay upside-down!

He burrowed himself into my blanket one day. (another dachshund trait)

Sweet birthday boy!

Happy Father's Day!

This picture is from our Father-Daughter Dance at my wedding.  I picked the song "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle.  I knew when I picked the song that both of us were going to lose it, and I was right.  There just was no other song that I could think of that would be any more perfect for us.  I can't listen to that song with out thinking about him and tearing up. I was right, and we were both crying through the first verse, but about halfway through we both started laughing, it was very special.  I have always been a bit of a daddy's girl. I certainly get my temper from him =).  

We have always bonded over sports.  From softball when I was little to basketball as I got older.  All throughout my basketball career I looked to him for advice, critiques and encouragement.  Event when I was in college and he could not come to my games, he would call me a few hours before game time to give me a pep talk. He never missed a pre-game call.  It was like it calmed me down and I was ready to play after that.

So Happy Father's Day to my wonderful dad!  I love you and I wish I could be there today with you!  

Adventure Dining in Mobile

So this is a week late, but better late than never.  I was in Mobile for work last week and of course did a little adventure dining down there.  We found Ed's Seafood Shack a couple of years ago and it has become our go-to spot in Mobile (technically Spanish Fort).  The seafood there is fantastic and the view is even better!  I love that they have a big deck with tables outside where you can eat with a 180 degree view of Mobile Bay.  Since it is right on the bay you get an awesome breeze so it really isn't too hot.  Trust me, it's been in the upper 90's for the last 3 weeks and we were very comfortable eating outside.

I had a fabulous grilled shrimp platter with rice, which they make with their special seasoning blend.  I am not sure what's in it but it's delicious!  I think my favorite part of the whole meal is the coleslaw--YUM!  When you sit down to eat, they give you a bowl of coleslaw like some places give you a basket of bread.   I highly recommend it!

I could eat here every day and not get tired of it.

Couponing 6/14

With all of the stuff I got last week I did not have a whole lot on my list for this week.  That was until I checked my emails on Monday and found a $5 off a $20 purchase from Earthfare in my inbox.  The Publix I go to in Montgomery accepts Earthfare as a competitor so I was able to get a few goodies!  Yay!  I even got something that I had to pay full price for--GASP!

Here is the evidence:

Not my best trip to date but it will do.  I saved 54% which is below my goal of 60% but I did not use a while lot of coupons this trip since I did not need a lot of things this week..

This haul included:

4 bags of Sargento Extra Sharp Shredded Cheese for $1 ea (will freeze these) = $4

1-4 pack of Breakstone's Cottage Cheese single serves = $1

2 packs of Ball Park Hotdogs for $1.27 ea = $2.54

2 jars of Marie's Caesar Dressing (new favorite!) for $2 ea = $4

2 bags of croutons (for our caesar salads!) for $.99 ea = $1.98

1 box Family Size Wheat Thins = $2.25

Bananas = $1.61

Fresh Shrimp for dinner (to go with our Fried Green Tomatoes) = $4.25

1 bag of raw natural almonds = $4.99  <--I could not help myself, I was going through withdrawals.

I made one more stop before I got home at Winn-Dixie because I could get free Colgate Toothpaste with my coupons this week.  So I stopped by and picked up a couple,  along with some lunchmeat (because I was afraid I might have a negative balance and would have to purchase something anyway). At Winn-Dixie I spent $7.09 and saved $7.02 for a 50% savings.  

So all together for the week I spent $31.45 and saved $36.13 for a savings of 53%!

Fried Green Tomatoes

We tried our hand at a little Southern Fried Gourmet for dinner last night.  Our tomato plant has about 14 or 15 green tomatoes on it right now so we decided to fry some up and have some Fried Green Tomatoes!  But we decided to dress them up a bit with some sauteed shrimp and remoulade sauce and served them with a Caesar salad.  It was delicious!  Eric even fixed my plate so it looked like it came from a fancy restaurant.

YUM!

Fried Green Tomatoes!