We ate, we drank, they got married!

We had a great time celebrating Matt's little sister's wedding this weekend! They are such a special family, and as if I didnt know this before, this weekend was a wonderful reminder of how blessed I am to be joining them in October. They have gone above and beyond to make me feel loved and included since day one, and this weekend was no different. It was an honor to be a part of such an important day for their family.


They love each other so much, and the impact they have had on so many lives was evident at the amount of people that came to show their love and support. We laughed, we cried, we danced...and here are some a whole lot of pictures to prove it.


Me and the roomie (who also was in a wedding this weekend. Tis the season) kicked off the weekend with some bubbly and a lot of hairspray.


At the rehearsal. Did I mention Matt's parents sang at the wedding? Not sure how they made it through, but it was probably my favorite moment of the weekend. I might have shed a tear. And I might have got called out for it by both dads at the reception. Thank goodness they broke their rule that they wouldnt sing at either kids weddings. Once they agreed on sister's, we knew we were golden!

One of the happiest father of the bride's I've ever seen!

Me and the bride. She was so gracious to all her guests. She comes by that honestly.

Us with Kara and Jason. We stayed close to all the Italian food. Delicious!

Matt did a great job toasting his sister. He wasn't a bit nervous to give his speech, and I so admire how outgoing and personable he is. It always makes me proud that he's my date!

The groom is the first grandchild in a large Italian Catholic family. When he came along, the time and attention that had previously gone to the son in laws and cooking huge italian meals suddenly turned to spoiling the new grandson, so the uncles jokingly called him "The Big Cheese". Great props in their toast to the bride and groom - "Big Cheese" and "Little Cheese" hats.

Finally the big day! Matt and his mom getting ready for pictures.

Speaking of the Big Cheese .... but I love him!

Counting down until the walk down the aisle. They were so calm!

Dress courtesey of Mrs. Smith.

It got a lot of compliments. So many that I may not return it.

They're married! And Matt's checking out his tux.

Like I said, one of the happiest fathers of the bride!

Pop champagne!

Taking a break from the dance floor. I think Matt stayed out there all night.

Joining father-in-law to be on the dance floor!

Singing the Phi Mu song.

Off to honeymoon! Congratulations!!

Wedding bells are ringing!

PTL (Praise the Lord) today is my Friday. We are getting ready for a nice long wedding weekend. Matt's sister is getting married and we are ready for all the festivities that come with a Southern wedding.

We love this couple and are so proud of them. They are two of the nicest people, so funny, thoughtful and hard working.

So excited to celebrate as you start your lives together! Congratulations!!!

Publix Report

Friday I set out with my carefully clipped coupons and my carefully researched excel spreadsheet to see how well I could do for the week's groceries at Publix. I didn't take a picture of the goods, so I'll just cut to the chase.

Total: $78.94

Manufacturer's Coupons: $9.00

Store Coupons: $2.20

Sales: $21.12

Paid: $57.82

Pretty good for my first trip! Would like to get where I'm saving as much as I'm spending, but that will come with time, right? And can I just say, shopping at Publix IS a pleasure? Everyone is so friendly, helpful and the store is so clean and organized. I got a hearty "Good Morning!!" and a little Sweet Home Alabama when I stopped in for some BOGO Peanut Butter this morning.

Some of my best buys:

French's Mustard: BOGO - $1.00 - had a .50 coupon that doubled, so FREE

Coffee Mate creamer - on sale for $1.50, had a .50 coupon - .50

Chinet Dinner Napkins - BOGO -$1.08 - had a $1.00 coupon -.08 cents

BIC Lighters - BOGO- had two $1.00 off coupons- paid .75 per lighter. They are normally $3.50 each. (This is a great reason to get two papers. When an item is BOGO, Publix lets you use one coupon per item, so you are paying a small fraction of the normal price.)

Sour Cream - BOGO - had .55 coupon - paid .44


It's a little more work to make your list and get the coupons together, but I think its well worth it.

Here's a couple good deals I'm excited about this week:

Eight O’ Clock Coffee, Whole Bean or Ground, Assorted Varieties, 11 to 12 oz bag (excluding Decaf) BOGO $4.99 - Get a $2/2 coupon here makes each bag $1.50. Great deal on great coffee!

Skippy Peanut Butter, Assorted Varieties, 15 or 16.3 oz jar, BOGO $2.49 - who doesn't like PB?

Glass Plus Glass & Multi-Surface Cleaner, 32 oz bot, BOGO $2.49-$1/1 Glass Plus Cleaner. Makes each bottle .25 cents

Two coffees, one PB and one glass cleaner is normally $15, and with these deals you'll pay $4.50. It definitely pays to stock up at the grocery's lowest prices.

You get the idea. You can see the full ad with matchups at iheartpublix.com. She really does all the work for you.

Long weekend+short week

High five if you had a great long weekend.

We cooked out with friends and both of our families over the weekend. I pulled out a mac and cheese recipe from my archives, and it was delicious. I'll have to share. And of course, made some refreshing cookie slop.

It seems Namath has gone vegan, so no meat for him.

We got brave and someone got a bath. And I do mean brave. Last time we attempted to bathe the beast, we took him to a local pet store that lets you bathe your dog yourself. He showed us his displeasure by, um, relieving himself in the tub. It was one of the more traumatizing experiences of my life. He's been going to the groomer ever since.

But, weddings aren't cheap, so in an attempt to save some cash, we decided to give it another go. We walked him around the block and he was too tired to do anything except enjoy the cool water. Success.

Captain got the sweet end of the deal - walk no bath. I think he was pleased.

We loved being outside this weekend. The humidity was virtually gone. Doesn't mean we didn't enjoy shade where we could get it, and some pool time.

Saturday night we grilled out with some friends and got to meet Drew's new lady friend.

Sunday night we ate with the Searson's and headed downtown to see the fireworks. (I had given up on my hair at this point in the weekend.)

We have a great spot we are able to watch from, so this has become one of our favorite traditions over the past few years.

Matt's sister's wedding is this weekend, which means a short week for us. We are so excited that it's finally here! The summer is flying by....

The Downhill Slope

Sometimes after a long week in front of a computer,

and running errands

a Thursday night relaxing on the patio with your favorite guys gets you in the weekend mindset.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and their refreshments.

Some of us preferred enjoying the great outdoors from the comforts of air conditioning.

We are ready for a long and festive weekend. I even got in the spirit and moved away from my nude polish.

Happy 4th!! Be back soon with recipes and the Publix trip report.

Round 2

I hit up Walgreens last night to see how far I could stretch the Register Rewards I earned off Monday's transaction.


Southern Savers alerted me that Walgreens was having another sale on top of their weekly sale, and I got really lucky that charcoal was included, one of the more expensive items I needed for the weekend.

Here's what I got:

(1) 6.3 bag Kingsford Match Light - on sale for $3.99, used $1 off coupon

(1) Playtex Sport - $5.29 - used $1 off coupon

(1) Reach Floss - on sale for .99

(1) Crest toothpaste - on sale for .99

(1) Bounty paper towels - $2.99

Total:$13.53

RR: $10

Out of Pocket: $3.53

Saved: $16.10

Loving the drugstore game so far! I have a LONG way to go to figure out the system. Clearly the Register Rewards are key at Walgreens.

I'm trying my hand at Publix for the week's groceries today or tomorrow. Here's to shopping being a pleasure!