Ode to my frugal Husband

To the man who reuses plastic ziplock bags

To the man who heats up the last remains of the peanut butter jar in order to scrape that last bit out

To the man who coasts down hills to conserve on gas

To the man who refuses to use napkins at dinner

To the man who only chews 1/2 piece of gum at a time

To the man who does not use the A/C in his car (when alone)

To the man who goes to the restroom at work so he doesn't have to use up much toilet paper at home

To the man who eats red potatoes at work as a snack just so the extra ones we bought don't go to waste

To the man who goes to the dry cleaners once a year

I love you and your frugal ways. I love seeing all the ways you are wise with our money and are willing to make sacrifices. You are so creative in the ways you save. I love trying to sneak your one plastic drinking glass into the dishwasher when you aren't looking so that it can have it's monthly washing. You are a blast to be married to. You are frugal with money when it comes to you, but not to me. You are a generous giver and never hold back on me. Thanks love!

The Fishin Magician

This is what happened this weekend.

We actually did catch a lot of good sized bass but that was my favorite picture from the day. Greg and I went to a lake in Katy that my coworker told us about. We packed a picnic lunch and spent a few hours fishing. The weather was perfect.

There has been a lot of fishing recently. Last weekend we had a "hunting and gathering" weekend. My dad took Greg and Cody fishing while my mom, my sister, and I spent the day together. We mostly "gathered" at hobby lobby. Here are the pictures of the boys.

More Random Facts

I was tagged a while back to do 6 random facts, and was recently tagged again by Lynn. I currently have no blog material, so this is great. I will give 6 new facts...

1) I just bought 3 new pairs of shoes last week, all in one day. Two of them were from Target, and one from DSW. I am not a huge shoe person, but since I wear the same shoes to work all the time they get so worn down. I had 4 pairs of heels in my closet that had the caps of the heels completely worn off, to where the metal spike is sticking through. Sometimes I take them to the shoe hospital to get fixed. But there comes a point when it is no longer worth it. This not only makes walking difficult, but is slightly embarrassing. I have to adjust my walking just to conceal the scraping metal sound that occurs when walking across hard surfaces. Not an easy feat my friends. People notice. And comment.

2) Greg is laying on the floor looking at his flys while I blog. He is calling out the name of each fly as he looks at them in a very loud, deep, announcer-type voice. "Nuuumber 6: BLACK ZONKER". I just keep typing.

3) I started a new book yesterday. Knowing Scripture, by RC Sproul. I have started this book before, but got busy. It has been a while since I have read a book, and really miss it. I forget how much I enjoy it. I was attempting to read a book recently about Jesus and end times, but it was completely over my head using multiple words per sentence that I couldn't even pronounce. I was just getting frustrated. So I am looking forward to this book, and so far it is really good.

4) I am getting excited about Christmas already. My mom, sister and I made a trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend and were looking at their Christmas stuff. My sister and I picked out stockings for our husbands for when we have Christmas at our parents house. This will be Greg and my first Christmas as a married couple. I am looking forward to the following: looking at Christmas lights, singing Christmas songs (the good ones about Jesus, not so much the cheeseball ones), and making gingerbread houses.

5) I spend 3 hours today at work on rounding. ROUNDING. Decimals are my nemesis. Anyone who works on financial reports can relate. Let's start a support group.

6) It took me 45 minutes to type up this list. I keep getting distracted by the tv. A rerun of the Office is on :)

Wedding Shower Cake

So I branched out this week from undergarment shaped baked creations. I did my first wedding shower themed cake. This cake was for my best friend Lindsay's co-worker. Lindsay came up with the idea to do a cake in the shape of wedding dress. I thought it was such a good idea! Here is the final product. It was a lot of fun. Now I am looking forward to trying to make a baby themed cake in the shape of a onsie. I'll post pictures when I get the chance to try one.

Fireproof

Greg and I just saw the best movie this weekend! Fireproof is a movie currently in theatres put on by Sherwood Baptist Church, who also created Facing the Giant's. I first heard about this from Chelsi's blog (thanks Chelsi for getting the word out!) She gives a great summary of the movie which you can read about here. This was the best movie we had seen in a long time. Kirk Cameron is the main character in this movie. He is a firefighter and local hero, while at home his marriage is falling apart. This movie was amazing! It was made me tear up, laugh, and it had a great love story. Not the kind of love story we typically see in movies where someone is falling in love with someone other than their spouse. This story is about loving the person you are married to. But not the feeling of love, the action of love. And this was not just a chick flick. Greg loved this movie. We both keep talking about it and encouraging everyone to go see it. I am just so excited that this movie is in theatres. I am praising God and so thankful that a movie like this is at the box office. It is not just a clean, morally good movie, but has a clear gospel presentation. It is presented so well, with great analogies and real life situations. It is interesting to read about the movie too - none of the actors were paid. Kirk Cameron was the only actor offered money, and he instead had it donated to a ministry. Also, in the scene where he kisses his wife, he doesn't actually kiss his on-screen wife. His real wife fills in for that one shot. How awesome is that! Anyway, I am praying that people go support this movie. It is rare and so refreshing that a movie like this is ever in theatres. I am looking forward to future movies that this ministry creates. So go see this movie and spread the word!

Need a Cake?

Note to readers:

If you are a boy, and are reading this, it is really a girly posting. If you are a girl, and are going to be offended by pictures of a lingerie cake, you probably shouldn't read this. These are not inappropriate, they are just clean, fun cakes for a soon-to-be bride, all in good taste. I think that bachelorette parties / lingerie showers should be God honoring, not trashy, and in celebration of someone entering in to marriage. But I don't know who all reads this blog, and didn't want anyone who does't know me to get the wrong idea, so just consider yourself warned.

I have had the chance to make the cakes for a few of my friend's lingerie showers, and it was really fun. How come I seem to only be good at women's intamite apparel when it comes to cakes? I feel like these ones look better than the ones I did in cake class, which seemed a lot more sloppy. These have lost of decorations though, which conveniently hides and non-smooth surfaces.

So, if anyone has a friend's shower coming up, and would like me to make a cake, let me know. Greg's hoping my cake business will take off so he can take next year off. These are cut out of regular rectangle cake pans, so I can do different designs, and different colors too. I will obviously not do anything distasteful. Here are the pictures of the cakes I have made so far. I need to get a little faster at making these. They take a LONG time. And the last one I attempted to make while watching the season premier of the Office, so that probably made me even slower. I think I need to re-watch the Office to see if I missed anything.

Recipes, Housekeeping, and Coupons

I tried this recipe tonight and it came out great. I found it in while flipping through Good Housekeeping in the waiting room of the dentist office. Then I went home and found it on their website. This was interesting because last week I got one of those coupons from Kroger that is printed out with your receipt, for a free 1 year prescription to Good Housekeeping. At first I thought NO...I cannot get that. Only moms are allowed to read that. I have a few more years before I can have one in my home. But then after realizing they have recipes in them, I thought hmmm....might be a good idea. I made Greg review the coupon and scan it for fine print, asterisks, and ambiguous binding contracts. He declared it scam-free so I mailed it in. I am now looking forward to reading up on some home tips and new recipes.

Speaking of coupons, does anyone cut coupons? Is it worth it? Abby mentioned in her blog recently that she started clipping some coupons and was pleased with the savings. A few weeks before that I had purchased the Sunday paper to do a little coupon experiment to find out if they are worth it. I excitedly sat down with the paper and a pair of scissors, eagerly looking forward to hours of coupon cutting bliss. I was disappointed to find few usable coupons. Most of the grocery inserts were just advertisements. Like, get excited, red seedless grapes for $2.99 a lb. No, I am not excited about that. That is not a pretty little coupon with dashed lines enclosing it that I can cut out. That is not helpful at all. I go to the same store for grocery shopping, and I just look at the prices of food when I'm there and decide whether or not it is worth it. I do not need to look through non-coupons before I go. Maybe it was just a bad week for the coupon section in the Chronicle. If anyone has good coupon tips, please let me know. I think I will try again, and see how it goes. Sometimes Kroger mails me coupons, and they are really good ones so I love using those. But those don't come that often so I need a better source of coupons.

Ok here is the recipe. And it is great because it is a recipe for the full meal.

Almond Crusted Tilapia

2 lemons
2 tablespoon(s) olive oil
1/2 teaspoon(s)salt
1/4 teaspoon(s) coarsely ground black pepper
4 (6 ounces each) tilapia fillets
1/4 cup(s) sliced natural almonds
1 small onion, chopped
1 bag(s)(12-ounce) trimmed fresh green beans
1 package(s) (10-ounce) sliced white mushrooms
2 tablespoon(s) water


Preheat oven to 425 degrees. From 1 lemon, grate 1 teaspoon peel and squeeze 3 tablespoons juice; cut second lemon into wedges. In cup, mix lemon peel and 1 tablespoon juice, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper.

Spray 13" by 9" glass baking dish with nonstick spray; place tilapia, dark side down, in dish. Drizzle tilapia with lemon mixture; top with almonds, pressing them on. Bake 15 minutes or until tilapia turns opaque.

Meanwhile, in 12-inch skillet, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil on medium-high 1 minute. Add onion and cook 5 to 6 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally. Stir in green beans, mushrooms, water, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper. Cook about 6 minutes or until most of liquid evaporates and green beans are tender-crisp. Toss with remaining 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Serve bean mixture and lemon wedges with tilapia.

* Instead of the lemon mixture on the beans & mushrooms, I added 1/2 tbsp. of worcestershire, 1/2 tbsp. of soy sauce, and 1/2 tbsp. of sesame oil. Mmmmm!