can't handle couponing and loving the new iphone update.

Adam and I just got home from a grocery run to Publix, getting some things for our first supper club tomorrow night at our house! We recently decided to start this and invited a few other newlyweds to join in. We are hosting the original Supper Club and then will pass it on to another couple. SO excited!

What I am about to tell you might be a bit suprising but...I am sad to say you will never see me post anything about grocery bargaining and coupons. I will not post pictures of 39 items that I got for 2 dollars. I will not give tips on where to get your coupons and when and how to double them to get money back on an item instead of actually paying for it.

I do not have the brain cells and the energy it take to do all of the planning and organizing for it. Soon after Adam and I got married I "thought" I was cut out for it - showing off my binder with dividers and plastic baseball card holder sheets to organize all of my coupons. This lasted every bit of a week and 4 days. Now don't get me wrong. I LOVE a bargain and when it comes to clothes and shoes I buy sale items over half the time. But you don't have to cover your living room floor with newspapers, clippings, and coupon piles to save money on your clothes. I think the women that coupon and get all of this stuff for next to nothing are very smart and have a lot of patience and drive to figure it all out and "beat the system" if you will. I don't mean that offensively at all. I just mean that for example, Green Giant did not set out with intentions of paying 'YOU' 15 cents to buy their frozen vegetable bags. El Paso didn't plan on you getting 18 jars of salsa for a nickel a piece. Anyway, I wish I could do it. I really do. I am sure it is a great feeling coming home to your husband with all of that stuff but I guess it is just not for everyone. I wonder if it is some kind of maternal instinct that kicks in after your have a baby? Could be.. Maybe I will have to delete this post one day and write about how much I LOVE couponing. We will see!

Adam and I both updated our iphones last night to the new iOS 4 software. So far I am loving the multi-tasking and folders, but I have to admit it is getting a little much. It took me all of 5 minutes today to find where I put my calculator in my phone! Sometimes I hit the wrong button and I keep doing it to the point of high frustration because things are so new. Not complaining though. Could NOT live a day without it.

I finally got to do some catching up with my great friend and bridesmaid, Victoria today!

She lives in northern Alabama, very close to Chattanooga so we met there for some P.F. Changs, of course! I havn't seen her in a while and it was so good to chat! We sadly sat in the booth from 12:30 until 4 p.m :/ I know, I know. I'm sure they hated us but I just couldn't stop talking!!

Subject U-turn. Everyone welcome my beautiful, sweet, (newly married also) friend - Jessica G'deau and her husband Clark to the blogging world!

She's got great posts and I am SO looking forward to reading her stuff!

Check her out here:

http://web.me.com/thegdeaus

With that said, I am gonna finish up a couple things and head to bed. Check back tomorrow night for "Supper Club" talk and fun photos and maybe a recipe or too!

How do you feel about couponing?? Love it or just can't handle it? I would love to hear from you!

cute kids, recipes, and rolls

The end of this week has quickly approached and I am feeling a bit tired from an extra busy week. :/ I have a feeling my housewife sleeping late days are over. There is always plenty to keep my busy these days! The Cooking Camp was a blast. The kids were adorable and they did so good with everything. My mom was, of course, a huge help. She drove 6 hours just to help out. God gave me an incredible mom, thats for sure. They all loved her and for some reason, I thought it was sooo cute when they called her "Sharon". So fun. Is it possible that I enjoyed it more than they did? Anywho...I snapped a few pictures...

We made some fun dishes and they all tasted really good. We started out the week on Monday with "Breakfast". We made things you could serve for breakfast. The next day we did things you could serve or might have for "lunch"... and so on. The last day we made and decorated homemade cupcakes and had a little party. I have to brag a bit on our students... Check out these cupcakes that they decorated. SO creative. SO cute!

One of my favorites recipes of the week was the strawberry butter we made on 'breakfast' day. I thought I would share it with everyone!

Strawberry Butter

1 10 oz. package of frozen strawberries (drained)

or 1 pint fresh strawberries

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup powdered sugar

Mix all together in stand mixer until creamy and no lumps. (It may look like it's curdling but keep mixing until smooth)

Place in sealed jars and refrigerate.

* It is delicious on biscuits and toast, waffles and pancakes. You can also substitute strawberry butter in recipes for dishes calling for regular butter. Serving strawberry butter is an easy way to dress up your family breakfast table, or impress guests by serving it with dinner rolls at your next dinner party.

Ok, complete change of subject. To say that we 'like' Sister Schubert rolls is an understatement.

Adam and I can sadly put away a whole pan between the two of us at any given point. I only buy them every once and while because if Adam knows they are in the freezer he will beg me to bake them immediately. We don't understand how they are so good or what kind of addictive poison is in those things but we always said if we ever got the chance to meet her we would ask.

What are the odds that she walks into Adam's restaurant.

He text me right away when she came in and I sent him a picture of a pack in the freezer. Unfortunately, he did not ask about them being addictive but he did show her the picture that I sent him and actually got to sit down and talk to her a bit about my new CoCo cake dots business venture. She gave me some great advice and wished me luck. Precious! As if we could like the rolls anymore now??

Happy Father's Day to MY most wonderful DAD and all the dad's out there!

Have a great weekend!

behind and busy.

Well folks, the past couple days have been super busy and extremely fun! Where do I begin when I am a few days behind? Hm. Well, I will try to give a good play by play of what's been going on.

Saturday - I forced Adam out of the car on the side of the road to pick some wildflowers for me for the day.

I was too scared to get out because it was very near where I found that slithery sneaky snake the other day. Im sure there were others around. I baked a lemon bundt cake that turned out very YUMMY.

Mom finally got here and we headed to Jenkin's (a local favorite restaurant here in Cleveland) to get our chicken 'n rice soup and chicken salad fix . As always, she came bearing gifts. I now have some super cute new pajamas and Adam got a precious little southern outfit as well.

Mums the word!

Sunday - Had an amazing church service in the a.m. On the way home from lunch we found a fun little estate sale and couldn't help but pull over. Mom and I were so lucky to find LOTS of antique handkerchiefs! Great buys and such a fun, little special gift idea.

Naps were in order for the girls while Adam did some hardwork and dug around in the dirt. Isn't that what boys do? :)

Monday - The first day of CoCo's Cooking Camp.

I am so loving these kids and things they say. They did SO good with everything and are learning a lot, I can tell. The rest of the day was kind of calm, including a little T.J. maxx'n with the Mom and preparing for the next day of cooking camp.

Today was basically the same as yesterday. Mom and I just got finished making a huge southern meal for dinner. We had rotisserie grilled chicken, fried green tomatoes, boiled okra, purple hull peas, sauteed squash and onions, cornbread, and THE best blackberry cobbler I think I have ever had. You will not believe how easy it is!

I will leave you with this unbelievably delicious recipe for "TenTucky Blackberry Cobbler"

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 cups frozen blackberries ( I used freshly picked)

Preparation

Whisk together 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk just until blended; whisk in melted butter. Pour batter into a lightly greased 12- x 8-inch baking dish; sprinkle blackberries and remaining 1/4 cup sugar evenly over batter.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until golden brown and bubbly.

Make this soon and enjoy! :)

Have a great night bloggies!

-CoCo

Wowsers! The past couple days have been super busy for Adam and I. When I have to get up earlier than 9 am then I KNOW its going to be a busy day. :/ Let me preface that thought by filling you in on our current "lovely" transportation situation. Two weeks ago we had to put Adam's car in the shop, due to it conveniently running hot while he was out running some errands. After 3 different people told us 3 different things we finally discovered the truth about what was wrong. None other than..... "You need a new engine". Nice. Let me go pull $1,500 dollars off of the money tree in the backyard and I'll get right back with ya. So... needless to say thats where we are right now. I take Adam to work... I pick Adam up. I could just sit home all day while he has the car but what fun is that??

Today started our first day with a housekeeper.

I have finally given up on trying to stay on top of Adam's personal laundry and the rest of the house duties as well so I thought I would get one just to help a bit with the large duties and some small ones too. I think my favorite part of coming home to a super clean house is that I didn't have to put clean sheets on the beds! Why do I hate doing that SO much...? The thought of it makes me cringe and also makes me want to sleep on a bare mattress forever so I don't have to deal!!! I had pretty much given up on trying earlier this week but let me give you the current status of my protective nature over this newly cleaned house: Adam is slowly eating a pretzel with his shirt out under to catch any crumbs that may fall and also using a solo cup and plastic spoon (he's being a very good boy) because at least for the rest of the night I would like to do NOTHING and just enjoy the house being this clean.

Mi Madre will be here tomorrow!!!

So very excited about that. She is coming up to help me with CoCo's Cooking Camp all next week! I am teaching a cooking class for kids monday through friday and we will make some amazing fun treats. I will be sure to post pictures throughout the week of the cute little kiddo's in their little monogrammed aprons. I might even post a few recipes "just for kids"!

Speaking of cooking.... If you are a lover of baking and in the mood for good laugh, check out this site... Hilarious! www.cakewrecks.com

Have a great weekend little bloggies!

-CoCo

Hello again...

I have vowed to blog once a-day for the first few weeks of my blog. Unless, of course, something crazy happens or I have an extra busy day and I genuinely just don't have time. I've been trying to decide what to say today and came up with the idea to plan a little make-believe party! I have no darling children yet so we will just plan it for ourselves. (hehe!) Here is what it would look like:

The invitations would look like this.

We would sit at long tables like this.

and the decor' would look like this.

and this.

and this.

We could drink from these.

and snack on these cuties.

and these too!

Maybe the cake could look something like this...

All the cute little kiddo's (and adults too) could play game like this...

and what's a Mad-hatter tea party without a game of croquet, right?

Can't have a party without favors!! We could send everyone home with a box of these?! (I'm going to try my hand at making these sweet treats very soon!)

Hopefully the party will look and feel like this picture. Something about this magical picture makes me so happy and completely puts me in the mad-hatter mood. I'm sure I could find some striped socks, a blue dress, and maybe a black hairbow/headband duo to wear myself!!

Who knows? Maybe I could get my hubby Adam to participate and dress up too... :)

Anyway....well, enough of the day(evening)dreaming. Party's over! I'm gonna get some sleep. Gotta wake up bright and early for the good ole' dentist appointment!!

Night little bloggies!!

-CoCo

making a scene and making dinner.

Look what I murdered today.... The first time I ran over it was an accident. The second time was definitely on purpose. I wouldn't dare get out of the car near this thing but boy did I make a scene trying to snap a few pictures. It was a small country backroad anyway so stopping and turning around to go back is definitely a feat all its on. I, though, turned my flashers on (just incase), rolled down my window, drove right up to it and stole a couple quick pics on my iphone. I saw a truck coming so I quickly turned my flashers off and drove away. This little devil was trying his best to survive with all of his internal organs outside of his body. I am sure he didn't last much longer. I don't feel bad talking about the snake like this only because, according to all the sunday school lessons and what I have gathered from the whole history lesson of Adam and Eve, snakes are the reason its painful to have a baby. Just sayin'. :)

On a lighter note, I am so loving this white jelly watch fad. Sandra (poor thing) started all kinds of fashion trends in her movie "The Blindside". I personally loved all of her outfits and had to find the watch too!

I loved it so much that I got a pink one just like it.

This day has gone pretty smooth. Just the way I like it. :) Dinner is in the works and here is what we are having:

Chicken Spaghetti Bake

3/4 box spaghetti noodles, cook as directed
Garlic powder
2 (8 oz.) pkgs. Mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 1/2 lbs. Cooked Chicken Breasts
Squeeze type butter
Parmesan cheese (in shaker type container)
1 lg. jar spaghetti sauce (of your choice)

1 tsp. Minced Garlic & 1/2 Chopped onion (if you like)

Put cooked noodles in a large oven proof bowl or metal pan, about 3" deep.

Squeeze butter around on top, sprinkle garlic powder and Parmesan cheese; stir noodles.

Chop or shred cooked chicken breast.

Add spaghetti sauce and chicken in medium saucepan.

Simmer for a few minutes. (This is where I like to add a little minced garlic and chopped onions. If I chop my onions really small Adam won't know they are there!)

Pour one half of chicken and spaghetti sauce mix on top of noodles.

Add 1 (8 oz.) package Mozzarella cheese.

Add remaining one half of sauce mix and top with the other 8 ounces pack of Mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and hot.

This makes a large amount. You can cut everything down to the amount that fits your family need. You can also add more Mozzarella cheese and also add other shredded cheeses that you desire.

Have a great night folks! I saw this on another blog and tweeked it to be a bit more personal. I will leave you with this:

I am learning...

.. that home is where your bed is.

... that it's wiser to be silent.

... that your bank statement is a print-out of your heart.

... that polite never expires.

... that jeans can't get too comfortable.

... that no dream goes to waste.

... that we can always use a hug.

... that fireflies are magical.

... that nothing lasts forever.

... that you can be happy, wherever you are.

... and that God is ready and willing to use me

whenever I make myself available to him.

What are you learning?

Icy Hot and Ice Cream.

Well today was interesting. We had great intentions of it being a normal relaxing Sunday. Instead, Adam woke up with excruciating back pain that was literally taking his breath away. I got up to run my bath water before church and found Adam laying on the couch whining. Poor thing. After a quick back massage, some "back pain reasons" googling and a few advil, I tucked him back into bed and somehow ended back in it myself. I woke up JUST in time to get lunch ready and check on the Beef Tips and gravy in the crock pot. (Adam's Favorite) We ate fast, got showered and changed and headed to a wedding shower for some of our great friends Grant and Nichole where I tasted the most DELICIOUS punch. It was called May Pole Punch. I, of course, went around asking "Do you know who made this punch? I need the recipe." I finally found it and I can't wait to try it out. We had already told some friends we would go see a matinee movie with them so from there we headed to see "Get him to the Greek". Although I do have to admit it was funny at times, I do not condone this movie by any means and if we had children I would never let them see it. I was telling Adam earlier that I bet the people that made those old fashioned, good, clean, black and white movies would absolutely roll over in their grave if they saw what movies have become today. So, here we are. Home. The advil has worn off. We have moved on to this for Adam...

and THIS for me...

Now we are recovering from our busy day and psyching ourselves up for our even busier week by snuggling up on the couch watching the NEW Kate + 8 ( I know she's mean but I can't help but watch) and Adam's new favorite - Whale Wars; and no Mom, The show is not about "Whales that are fighting". hehe! G'night everyone!