Parks & Lemon-Basil Chicken Deliciousness

We took time out from couponing to see if Scarlett would enjoy the park.

Apparently there are loads of parks in our area so I printed out directions to five of them and we excitedly headed off to find the first one.

It was also the LAST park we visited for the day. I really think Scarlett would have liked the bucket swings--I mean she loved her baby swing and she knows no greater joy than getting tossed in the air like a rag doll.

There was a moment there when it really could have gone either way...

Unfortunately it went the wrong way, another child at the park took that moment to weep, wail, and gnash his teeth. Which started a chain reaction. Scarlett started crying causing another boy in the swing next to her to start crying and so on and so forth. So we picked a different piece of equipment hoping for a more positive outcome.

Scarlett couldn't seem to figure out why we were laying her down on the slide. She kept trying to sit up. She thought it was great watching me go down but when I took her with me she made no expression whatsoever. She seriously could not have looked more indifferent. I did feel her tense slightly when I went down the covered slide but that was about it. We may wait a while before we try the other four parks.

On another note I cracked open my Betty Crocker book again and made Sunday dinner.

I'm working my way through the poultry section and I realized that I was cooking the recipe pictured on the cover of the book. This is my 256th recipe of 563! I thought it was picture worthy.

I highly recommend the Lemon-Basil Chicken deliciousness. We wish we could share it with you.

Do you have any coupons?

I've found a new hobby or as Wes calls it "a way of life."

Okay, here's the story. I went to Costco TWICE last month and bought only the things on my list, in other words not a bunch of extra junk we didn't need. I bought things such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, paper towels, dish washer detergent, laundry detergent, TP, deodorant, paper plates, plastic cups, sugar, flour, formula, diapers...i don't know what all else. I spent just over $100 each time I went! Well, I was feeling a little depressed from saying goodbye to two of my dear Ben Franklins and I came home and watched Extreme Couponing on TLC. Now those women and the man truly were EXTREME. I actually now follow one of their blogs and they're not as extreme in real life as they were portrayed to be on the show...TLC hyped it up a bit. Anyway, some had like over 300 packages of TP that they literally paid pennies for...buckets full of deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss...shelves of detergent and canned goods. As I watched them ring up their goods, for 90% or less from the retail value, I thought, I'm doing something wrong here! Now, I don't want 300 packages of toilet paper. . .but ten free ones would be nice! So, I started couponing.

I've only been doing it a week, but once I get an idea in my mind, I can't rest until I've got it good and under way. I now have a binder that keeps all of my coupons categorized and organized. I absolutely love it! It's like one big giant Sudoku puzzle and my mission is to align all of the pieces together and figure out how I can get the best deal possible. Here is my last week's purchases. Just because I love to share my sweet savings and deals, I will occasionally post what I got on the blog and how much I paid for it! Just for reference here is one of the ladies from the show Extreme Couponing's website. She was the one with the little boy that was dumpster diving for Sunday papers (which I must say, I have not done.) Her site is very useful when beginning to coupon. Another site I use is from a lady in my Ward who is great to follow because she gives a lot of the national deals like CVS and Kroger, but she also mentions a lot of local deals as well. Her husband works in the Young Mens with Wes and they're a super nice (and big) family!

thekrazycouponlady.com This is the TLC lady's site.

mylitter.com This is the lady from my ward's site.

Here's a picture of my own krazy couponing:

All of this was $18.51 out of pocket including tax. For the record, the Milky Way bars were completely free with the coupon and sale, normally Wes and I would not buy 4 candy bars just for kicks!


Here's a picture of my enormous binder. I feel a little ridiculous hauling this through stores, but it makes couponing SO much easier! Wes has had all sorts of cheeky little comments to make at me because of it.