Wishful Wednesday~Wedding Gowns

This week is about wedding gowns. Ahhhhh  When I saw this I had to join in. Well since I am getting married in Septemeber I need to find one soon!  I have tried on a lot and they range from average prices to higher end and plain to not so plain.  I do know I do not like the ones that tie in the back and I do not like the ones that are fitted in the hips, but I do know that I want strapless and something with some sort of the vintage looking lace on it.  After trying a bunch on I do know what I do not want!  I am running out of time and I am afraid I am just going to have to settle on something.  I really have found a lot that I really like but I do not feel that I will be able to wear it for 8 hours (the church does not have air conditioning in it) and be able to sit or dance in many of them! I really hope I find something soon!  I can not wait to read all of your posts for some inspiration!

Tips Tuesdays~Grocery Shopping

Leslie over at Lamberts Lately is doing a new blog hop about tips and this week it is about grocery shopping.

I have blogged about this many time and it can be really fun to grocery shop once you realize how to get the most for your money and  it is super fun when you are walking out with numerous bags and you hardly paid anything for them.  It is kind of like legally stealing!  Last night I saved over $90 at Publix.  I had not done to much shopping lately since we have been gone so much since Thanksgiving so therefor I had not blogged about any fabulous deals.

* I learned in a coupon class that you should buy a paper for ever person in your house, so I buy two each week.  Even if you live alone I think you should get a minimum of two papers or print out two coupons because when they have a BOGO sale and the coupon is for a % of of one item then you can use both coupons off of the cost of one item since the second one is already FREE!  That is when you start saving a lot!

* You should make your menu off of what is on sale and not make your menu and then grocery shop because it is really hard to save money that way.

*If you go once a week (I Puffy Heart Publix so that is where I try to do most of my shopping) and use your coupons and get the non perishable items that you use anyways then in no time you will have a good amount of food to choose from.  Then you are not always running out to buy an item here and there.
* I have many saving cites listed on the right side of my blog and I refer to them often especially when they are notifying me of FREE or close to free things.  I do like iheartpublix.com
* I also have a very organized coupon book that is split up by categories.  I have found that it is better to make your own list of categories depending on your needs and the easiest way for you to file things and find them!
*I try to get on the website of which ever grocery store I am going to and make a list of the things I need that are on sale and then I try to pull my coupons before I go to the store so that way I know if I have coupons for the item.  The best way to save money is to get items on sale and BOGO and then use coupons on top of them!
* I buy a lot of our meat at Sam's (much to the dismay of my Father because he likes better quality meat...ha) because it is much cheaper and I can break it up and freeze what I am not getting ready to use.  I also buy the large items there as well such as rice.  Milk and eggs are super cheap there too!  My tip for the best thing to buy at Sam's is the hoagie rolls that they bake fresh there.  It is a little more than three dollars for 6 loafs and we use them for sandwiches and also use them as french bread with meals.  They are so much cheaper than buying regular french bread and you can freeze it as well.
* I also am better at shopping alone so that I do not get sidetracked.

Happy Valentines to Me

Well it will be when I hopefully WIN I will I will this fabulous giveaway!  You see I have a great love obsession with those two candles Miss Laura has posted and they NEED to come to my house so they will have some companions that I use sparingly because I can't bare to use them all up.  If any of my friends win the giveaway then I will come sit at your house to enjoy the great smell of them burning and if they dissapear well then I will have no idea what happened....honest.  So go over and try to win the prize for you ME, today is the last day!

Five Question Friday

1. What is better: Growing old without any money or dying young and being rich?

Well as I have read a lot of the comments and I agree with the answer off.......can we dye old and rich?

I guess I would have to go with old and poor maybe between now and then I will be rich in between.

I have a fear of dying and I fear dying and leaving my children because it happened to my mother!

2. Who takes the garbage out at your house?

Um the man!  Isn't that a mans chore?  No really I put it in the trash can inside but when it is full the hubs to be takes it out to the outside trash can and this horrid place that we live does not have trash pick up so you have to drive it off to the trash dumpster so he does that too, obviously because he has a truck and that smelly stuff thanks to cat litter is not going in my car.  Him and Maggie and usually me take it off once or twice a week!  She likes to ride so that is her special treat!

3. Have you ever had the same dream numerous times?

Yes, I can not pin point any of the specific dreams at this minute

4. Can you play a musical instrument?
If I tried to you probably would leave the room!  So um no!  I took violin lessons when I was young!

5. If you owned a store what would you sell?
Well I have lots of ideas!
Our town needs a good bakery, but more than likely it would be the cute kind of store that carried Vera Bradley and tons of cute things for your house, jewelry and purses and lots of monogrammed things.  Kind of like Heartstrings here in Auburn which is no longer Heartstrings.  But something like that where I could bring home one of everything for me!




        

My Life~My Trees and My Cookies?

OK Bloggy Buds and Peeps I know I have missed last Friday and currently am missing today for Show Us Your Life at Kelly's Korner because well frankly if I show you my life it will look like a HOT HOLIDAY MESS!  So once I get back from Cas's family Christmas and I get a few things picked up and have some time to upload pictures and make you think my like is peaceful and organized then I shall share the Christmas Love!  I do have some cookies to share with you and a a tree or two or 6 with you.  So Happy Friday and Merry Christmas from a Howard, a Smith, a four legged Princess, two Siamese, a Momma cat and her wild child cat!  Maybe the cats that have taken up outside wish you the same too but frankly it is too cold for me to go ask them so just assume they sent you Cat Christmas Wishes too or Bah Humbug!  Ah let the Christmas Chaos begin!

Five Question Friday

Five Question Friday

1.  Does Santa wrap the presents he leaves at your house?

When I was growing up all my "Santa" presents were left on the fireplace or in a group at my Grandparents house depending on where we were. Santa even brought my presents to the beach one year as my parents decided that would be a good place to spend Christmas?????  We don't have children yet but Santa will leave the presents unwrapped......may we have a fireplace by then!  Dear Santa could you bring me a house with one?!!!

2. When is your "Big" Christmas Celebration?

Well since Cas's family is so big we always have Christmas at his family's a differant weekend so we are actually in the midst of baking, wrapping and packing as I type look I took a 10 minute break okay.  We have an all day family Christmas party at his Granny's on Saturday.  Everyone eats all day and most of the kids go on a Scavenger hunt to get them out of the house.  Then afterwards we will open presents.  It starts with the youngest to the oldest. There will be about 30 (and growing with two babies on the way) people there so you do the math on how long that will take.  Then we will have Christmas at Cas's parents and Sister and Brother-in-Law and their two boys on Sunday.  Then on Christmas Eve morning Cas and I do our Christmas and then we travel to Birmingham to my Dad and his wife's house.  Our big meal and opening presents in on Christmas Day once my two Step-Brothers make it to the house!  I can't wait til one of us has children so we will have some little ones.  Ahh that tires me just typing all of that...

3. Are you big on keeping tradition every year?

Well I would like to but as we have so many Christmas's and we just started our hom last year our Christmas traditions are slowly changing and/or evolving.  Once we have children I will for sure start traditions and try to keep them up!

4. Colored or Clear lights?

Well we have a couple of trees. All of them have clear lights except for the Peanuts/Snoopy Tree and colored lights are more fitting for it!  I think clear lights are more elegant and I love them but then on fun or childrens tree I think colored is cute

5. Do you decorate outside?

Yes.  I have wreaths on the windows and on the door and I have a sleigh with deer and a Santa and the I have two more snowman on and some lit up trees on the other side.  I dont have anything big for the yard. I have been looking for something pretty but have not found anything I like.

Happy Friday

A Tar-Jay Giveaway

My great bloogy friend and friend IRL Sus is giving away a gift card for her 100th!! blog post!  She is giving away a gift card to Tar-Jay (Target) for the winner.  Now if you feel like you would like to enter and you don't reallly want the gift card email me and I will send you my address and you can send it here!  We take all forms of gifts cards, cash and checks here at the Howard Smith Household!  I love Target and I would love the giftcard.  Chances are I might have the $25 dollars spent before I leave the dollar section so I might not even make it to the rest of the store! Ha!  So go on over here and enter!  You only have until tommorrow night at midnight to enter so if you don't hurry well then that greatens my chance of winning!  :)  Good Day Ladies!

Five Question Friday

1. Are you a Black Friday Shopper?

Yep!  I started 4-5 years ago and I get up very very early and go shopping by myself.  I usually head to Kohl's 1st!  I love a deal but I do hate the crowds!

2. What was your favorite childhood toy?

Well the Easy Bake Oven is a sore subject with me because while yes I had plenty to play with I NEVER had an Easy Bake Oven!  My daughter will get one very early! Ha!  I played with Cabbage Patch Kids and Barbies.  I even had a lot of little cars I loved to play with and I would ride them up and down the fireplace and the individual bricks were parking places.

3. Favorite Christmas Movie?

Christmas Vacation~Hysterical

Charlie Brown Christmas~Classic

4. What is the must have item on your Christmas list this year?

Money!, laptop, I-Phone, Columns for the House (the dream list)

Maggie and I are getting matching pink snuggies!  I usually get perfume and I love getting pajamas and socks!  Love some fuzzy socks!

5. Do you go all out with the decorations or do you keep in simple?

Since we bought our house last year and it was our 1st Christmas in our house together I went all out!  Each room has a tree! Even the bathrooms have a little one and there is one for the pets in the laundry room!  Each room has somewhat of a theme/color.  Now if only I could get all of it put out and get these boxes put away!  I told Cas the next house we buy I will be scoping out if it has good places to put trees!  I want a big window for our main tree!

Show Us Your Life~Pets (4 legged children)

It is show us your life~Pets this week at Kelly's Korner!  As all of you know that read this little blog we have a four legged daughter Maggie!

I have had her for 10 years and had her before Cas and I met.  She is a purebred Daschund and actually came from near where we live now.  She is very spoiled.......see below

She loves to ride in the car with us and depending on where we are going we like to take her with us!  She sleeps with us every night and is "The Queen of the Queen Bed!"  She has a vast wardrobe and loves her Momma and her Daddy! She loves to be in the kitchen under your feet while you are cooking hoping for food to fall because one of her favorite pastimes is to EAT!  We love her dearly!

We also have four cats!!!!

Snoogans~Blue Point Siamese (bottom~I did not name him! His name has to do with a movie)

Snittens~Chocolate Point Siamese (top)

They came from the same breeder and are half brothers with different mothers and the same baby daddy!

They have a love hate relationship but we are always very amused by them and their big personalities attitudes!  Snoogans was a surprise Christmas present from me to Cas a few years ago! Then we got Snittens the following Spring. Yeah I know you are thinking it is strange for a guy to have a cat but he has always preferred cats over dogs (that is until the Mags) and Snoogans loves him and sits by the door waiting on him when he hears his truck pull in in the evenings.

 

Snittens as a baby

 Snoogans as a baby

 They are talkers!

They are in Cas's lap here in the car.  We used to take them in the car when we went to Cas's parents in Macon until the most horrific car ride ever!  It was a trip for Christmas and I ended up standing on the side of the road in some teeny middle of no where town crying!  Snittens foamed at the mouth the whole way and between the two of them they got sick and and messed up my new coat and some of the wrapping on Christmas presents.  It was about midnight and I told Cas just to either leave me or them on the side of the road!  Obviously as you are reading you can see we all made it back in the car but we ceased the family vacays!

Tillie~Just a Itty Bitty Kitty

I have had her for a while and I had her ever since she was about 6 weeks old, she is the oldest kitty child.  It is hard to tell by the picture but she is tiny, about half the size of the rest of the cats.  She is definitely a different kind of cat!  She also eats more than anyone in this house and will sit at the food bowl when it starts to get low to make sure that you are informed that she is gonna need food! She also LOVES some men!  The second Cas sits down she is in his lap and rolls around and purrs.  Anytime we have male company over she likes to sit with them as well!

Possum~Tillie and Snittens had a litter of kittens last year so he is technically half full blooded Siamese!

Last year as a kitten

As the youngest of the house he is definately the "Wild Man" of the house!  He through the house and jumps over furniture very often!  You never know what he is going to do next!  He loves to wrestle with the other kitties and he loves Maggie too.  They often nap together!

There you have our "clan"!
It is rarely quite around here!
Melissa and Cas plus 5!

Plus 6????
This is Shadow who technically is "Not Ours" but she lives here!  She belonged to someone at some point and she has taken up residence here.  Yes we feed her.  She sleeps on our front door mat every night.  She also runs up when you pull in the driveway and she follows us around the yard.

The END!

Thanksgiving

I have posted and shown my Fall/Thanksgiving decor and shared about Thanksgiving but I am going to post the links to each because I am linking up with The Bunnie's Bungalow and Its So Very Cheri

~My Fall/Thanksgiving Decor Post~

~My Thanksgiving Traditions Post~

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Sayings

My great friend Sus is starting a new game!  Two weeks ago I won!  She posted in her blog that the first person to know the the actor that said a certain line and the movie it was from would win a prize.  I answered correctly and I recieved a little goodie package in the mail a few days later!  It is the first blog contest I have won.  I enter many giveaways but the blog gods have not been on my side for winning!  Here are my goodies!

The gummies were gone within an hour 15 minutes of me opening the package!  I love gummy candies!  I always need gum for my purse and I always keep pens and note paper by the computer so I can write important blog reminders!  Ha!  You don't want to forget an awesome blog address or etsy store!  So ladies be on the lookout for her to post today for your chance to win.  Isn't it so much fun to get personal letters and packages instead of bills and junk mail!  Happy Sunday!

P.S. Also don't forget to go and buy papers for the coupons.  I buy two!

Saturday Things Worth Sharing

Old Navy is having $1 fleece scarves today!  Today only and you can buy up to $5.  I also found a coupon on oldnavyweekly.com so you may can score a coupon on top.  I like to have a lot of differant scarves to match different colors!

Don't forget to go buy your Wii games!  If we go back today I am going to have strength at the Dollar Bins!  Luckily for Maggie they have put their doggie winter clothes out at the 1-2.50 section!  Will post on that later! 

Also, they are having a giveaway for $25 to be used at The Monkey See Boutique.  Go and check out the details!  Click on the "giveaway" 1st.  They have some ca-uuuuute stufff!  I would like one of everything Dear Santa!

Maggie is hoping I win this giveaway so she will receive some new bling for Christmas! These handmade pet tags are super presh!

If you want something that will make you laugh go read this and keep reading her blog!  I found it this morning and was very entertained! I entered the give-away for the camera strap cover cause I soo need one! Yes in-deedy I do!  After that click on her archives and read 1-800-shoot me! I laughed out loud!

*I may be adding to this throughout the day!*

What is everyone doing on this pretty Saturday?  I would love to hear! 

Show Us Your Life~Thanksgiving Traditions

This week at Kelly's Korner everyone is sharing their Thanksgiving traditions.

Every year we have two seperate Thanksgiving's.  One in Macon, Ga where Cas's family lives.  His Mom and one of his Aunt's(nurses) and Brother-In-Law(cop) all have the same weekends off so it depends on the weekend they have off.  One year we didn't make it because we had Auburn/Alabama tickets!  They have Thanksgiving and Christmas other weekends than the actual holiday since the family is rather large and that way everyone can go to the other side of the family on the holiday.  At Cas's family Thanksgiving we have tons and tons of food.  So much that you will feel full just looking at it.  Everyone is assigned dishes to bring and it is an all day long buffet!  You eat until you look like they Turkey in the Thanksgiving Day parade!  There is one Granny, 5 sisters, their husbands, 11 grandchildren and their spouse/signifigant others, 3 great grandchildren and two more on the way!  That equals lots of people!  There is never less than 30 people in one house.  We take turns eating at the tables.  You must wear your deoderant cause your gonna be close with one another for the day!  I don't have many pictures :( but I do know this picture was taken for us last year.  We had a cousin-in-law do a mini photo shoot for us so I could send out Fall cards with our new address on them!

This was us last year in Macon on his Granny's front porch

Then we go to Birmingham for actual Thanksgiving to spend time with my Dad and his wife.  We have a much smaller crowd there!  2 parents, 3 children (me and my two step-brothers), Cas and my step-brother Tom is getting married so that is one more.  We also have a family friend that joins us so usually we have 6 and now we will have 7!  We all fit around one table in the dining room.  We have the usual turkey, green beans, sweet potatoe casserole, etc.  We also have two types of dressing.  One is a southern dressing and the other is more of a northern dressing.  The guys watch football all day of course.  I like to get up and watch the parade and I start scouting the sale papers for the best deals on Black Friday.  I make my list of where I have to go 1st and what is most important to try to get for fear they may go quickly.

This was us last Thanksgiving in Birmingham

 

Cas setting the table

My Dad cutting the Turkey.....the skin is my favorite part!  I know it is fattening!

 

 This is Calico.....she literally came up to the dining room window while we were having our Thanksgiving meal two years ago.  We were eating and I looked over and there was that extremely scrawny, at the time, kitty sitting in the window out in the cold.  Luckily for her there was turkey leftovers and I with a soft heart for animals!  I snuck her some of the goods!

That is right you go ahead and thank me......."Thank you for convincing those parents of yours to take me in and spoil me...meow meow.......I am sorry for the times I have bitten you and clawed you....I shouldn't do that you fed me and these people gave me a forever home.....meow meow!

This year the Auburn/Alabama game is on Black Friday so Cas will be with the boys and I shall be hunting for deals or window shopping!

This is just a few weeks away!  We are doing Birmingham Thanksgiving and Macon Thanksgiving all the same weekend this year. Lots of driving!

What is your favorite thing about Thanksgiving?  What is your favorite recipe?  I just love some southern sweet potatoe casserole with the brown sugar and or marshmellows!

Five Question Friday

I am playing along over at My Little Life!

1. What is your dream job?
Teacher or event planner
2. What song could you play over and over?
Right now?  Hmm probably Party in the USA just because it is upbeat and I can sing to it!
3. Do you prefer to talk on the phone or text (or email)?
Calling is quicker than texting but I text a lot if it is short.  If it is long and I don't want to call then email because I can type fast!
4. What is your must have beauty product?
Lip Gloss-I like the Bigelow?? stuff at Bath and Body Works

5. What is your favorite Michael Jackson song?

The day of his memorial service I could't get "Man in the Mirror" out of my head!  I actually like a lot of them!