Why I love my car...

Last week, I went to Pittsburgh to visit my grandma, who recently had her hip replaced (and is doing so great!!).  I drove all the way there and almost all the way back before filling up my gas tank in Toms Brook.  I got a whopping 41.7 miles per gallon.  Woohoo!!

Free Coffee!

McDonald's in our area has free coffee from 5-9 a.m. for the whole month of February and you don't even have to buy anything else!  You just drive up and tell them you'd like a free coffee.  You can even get iced coffees if that's your thing.

Personally, I think BK has MUCH better coffee than McDonald's, but I'll take whatever I can get if it's FREE!!

Take 5 Tuesday

5 things that have interested you lately

 - Indian food

 - Sweet Acidophilus milk

 - Meeting and talking with Ricky's mom

 - Organizing/simplifying the house

 - Reber - he's cool!

5 things you've researched lately

 - Indian food

 - Celiac disease

 - That's about it

5 things you're looking forward to this year

 - My 25th birthday

 - Our 4th wedding anniversary

 - Our church growing and changing in a positive way

 - The start of football again in the fall

 - Becoming a foster parent

5 things you've watched recently

 - The Super Bowl!

 - Food Network

 - Clean House

 - Bridezillas (my guilty pleasure...that show is a pure waste of time!)

 - My exercise DVD

Meet the coolest kid ever

Meet Ricky, the kid who comes over every Tuesday and plays guitar with Reber.  Recently, he also loves the microphone and makes up his own songs.  He was born oxygen-deprived and is a little miracle.  When we met him, he was really shy and didn't talk much.  Sometimes he's still a little hard to understand but his personality has really started to shine through and he talks with us all the time now.  He especially loves Reber and they are always joking around.  I'm so proud of both of them!!

We Did It!!!!

No more crap from Cowboys fans for us....the Steelers are America's team!!  Go Steeler Nation!!  That's enough gloating for me.  I'm such a girl though, because I always feel bad for the losing team (unless it's the Ravens).  I know they get paid millions but they're still people.  But I sure love my STEELERS and will always be ecstatic when they win a thrilling game like that.

Oh and check out these cookies that my brother brought to share with us.  They were Fed-Exed from Pittsburgh and were delicious.

This is one bandwagon you should jump on

Reusable shopping bags!!  They're great because you can pile a bunch of groceries in each one so you have fewer bags to carry and they're much more comfortable.  They don't dig into your arms like when you get a bunch of heavy plastic bags.  Plus, they don't end up making our earth look like this...

• The estimated cost of plastic bags to retailers is $4 billion annually, so by not using the bags, you will be doing your small part to help the economy.

• Plastic bags don't biodegrade.  The break up into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and enter the food web when animals ingest these toxins.

• In 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 million plastic bags.  A plastic bag consumption tax, implemented in 2002, reduced consumption by 90%.  Approximately 18 million liters of oil have been saved since the tax implementation.

So go to your favorite store and spend that dollar on the canvas bag.  Or check on ebay if you want to get something more interesting.  I even found Steelers bags at the Kmart in Pittsburgh for $2!!

Facts from www.resuablebags.com.

Caramel Dip

Wow, this stuff is good.  I made some pumpkin cookies and doubled the recipe but forgot to double the sugar!!  So instead of trying to make a frosting and icing each one (major pain in the butt), I just made this caramel dip for each person to put on their own cookie and wow, is it delicious.  This recipe is adapted from allrecipes.com.  This would also be amazing with apple slices.

20 individually wrapped caramels

1/4 cup water

1 (8-oz) pkg cream cheese

1/2 cup brown sugar

Melt caramels with water in microwave.   Stir to make sure there are no chunks.  Whip cream cheese with brown sugar in separate bowl.  Stir cream cheese mixture with caramels, and voila, deliciousness.

YESSSSSS!

Do you ever feel like that when you go grocery shopping?  I did today...with stops at CVS, Food Lion, and Kroger, I got all kinds of good crap!  I won't bore you with all the details of my groceries, but here are the highlights...

4-12 packs of pepsi

4 bags Lays chips

3 dozen eggs

Milk, ice cream, cream cheese

Bunch of Hormel chili

Lots of other random grocery items

So basically my total bill for all 3 places should've been about $84, but the grand total was only $35.50!!  Woohoo, that's less than half!!

Food Lion is not my favorite store by any means, and their products are usually pretty expensive, but one of the ways I save is their printable coupons.  Just go to this site to register and sign up for their weekly emails.  Today I used coupons for $1 off Food Lion brand ice cream, peanut butter, ketchup, cereal and potato chips.  Combine that with MVP savings and the stuff is really cheap.

Also, Kroger usually has the cheapest milk of any store, and they often mark it down when it is getting sorta close to the sell by date.  Sometimes you can get gallons for only $2!!  Sometimes Reber drinks tons of milk and sometimes not, but if we aren't using it fast enough, I just make homemade pudding or biscuits and gravy.

Happy Shopping!

MLK Day

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."

I am taking a moment today to appreciate Martin Luther King, Jr.  Virginia also celebrates Lee/Jackson day on Friday, and while I appreciate the day off from work, I think it's crap that they tacked that onto the same holiday weekend that honors MLK.  I like to remember him because of the strength that he showed and the difference that he made in so many people's lives.  He was no chicken.  I know that the only person we should aspire to be like is Jesus, but I think MLK sure set a good example.  He reminds us to take that first step in faith.  I love the following quote, showing his practical side...

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."

You missed a good show...

...right here in Harrisonburg!  On Thursday night we went to Court Square Theater to see Michael Burks, who plays the blues.  It...was....AWESOME!!  Very classic elements but not old-school, intense but not overwhelming.  We were in the 2nd row and I only bought the tickets about a week before the show.  Admittedly, we went more because Reber wanted to go, but I think that deep down there is not a person on earth who doesn't love the blues.

Football Hotties

Haha, I feel funny writing that title.  In celebration of a Steelers win today and a great football season in general, I'm doing a football post.  However, I know most of my readers (except Reber and Aaron) are women, so most of you don't give a crap about football (even though you should).

*Disclaimers:  I love my husband very much and think he is hot.  However, he doesn't qualify for this because he doesn't play in the NFL (although he was good at football).  Also, I never watch certain teams like the Raiders, so obviously this list is just from the players I see on a regular basis.  So without further ado, here are my picks for hottest NFL players.

#1 - Willie Parker - Steelers running back - this is the best pic I could find on Photobucket

#2 - Philip Rivers - Chargers QB

#3 - LaDainian Tomlinson - Chargers Running Back

I couldn't get the picture I wanted for this one, so here are some:

www.ladainiantomlinson.com  Best feature:  eyes

He's also in the Campbell's chunky commercials.

#4 - Brett Favre - Jets QB

Yes, I know he is "old," but he was the first guy I thought was cute in the NFL.  Though he is much better without the gray beard stubble.  But basically a classic, good-looking guy.