Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Ok, well maybe I'm not quite ready for snow here in Missouri, but in Breckenridge, Colorado---LET IT SNOW!!! Hubby just made our lodging arrangements, along with ski rentals & lift tickets, for a pre-Christmas ski trip! We're going out with one his coworkers & his wife along with my cousin & his girlfriend. It's going to be wonderful!

In a little more than 30 days, I'll be staying here...

A 3-Bedroom, 3 Bath townhome with ski-in/ski-out access!

We'll be spending our days skiing the slopes of Breckenridge along with a snowmobiling trip one afternoon...and we'll be spending our nights drinking hot chocolate, lounging in our private hot tub & hanging out with some great friends!

Now...if only I can figure out how to keep my hands & feet warm!

Women of Faith Wisdom

I learned so much at the Women of Faith weekend that I'm still trying to process all that I heard. We had some amazing speakers and it was definitely one of those..."are you speaking right to me?" weekends. I decided it would be impossible for me to put everything into words, so maybe a quick-or not so quick-list of the major points will at least let me put something down in writing. My actual notes ended up being on my phone for lack of a better option...

~Strengths are not necessarily what you're good at...a weakness is an activity that weakens you, even if you're good at it.

~Disappointment in my family, my friends, myself hold us back from trust; there are times when I still pray but I just don't ask for anything for fear of being disappointed by God.

~Has God ever messed with your schedule? Remember God is sovreign, there are no accidents.

~Do you dare to trust the heart of God enough to tell the whole truth? I don't have to pretend that everything is ok; God doesn't expect that.

~As Christians I can sing a song that not even angels can sing, the song of the redeemed

~Not forgiving is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.

~There are times when God will take you to a place that seems like a prison, just to set you free.

~Our trust issues are the foundation of most all fear that we experience in this life. In response to that we only give what we can afford to lose, but Jesus came to give us LIFE not just EXISTENCE.

~Putting our dreams to death and trusting that God is good, this might ultimately be the most real act of worship.

~As a sheep with Christ as my shepherd, it's not my job to get myself home. My job is to fall so in love with the shepherd that I can't help but hear his voice.

Wow, just pulling those points out of the notes on my phone bring back so many thoughts from this past weekend. Most importantly, God thinks we're amazing...and who am I to question that?

Thrifty Tuesday~Shutterfly Style!

This week instead of featuring a successful trip to Walgreens or Price Cutter I decided to talk about another of my favorite thrifty sites...Shutterfly!

I started using Shutterfly a few years ago for photo prints and photo books, including the guest book for our wedding! I have never once been dissatisfied with the quality or speed at which I received my order. I've got a large stack of Shutterfly photo books on one of our living room tables and I just love sitting down and looking at all of our past vacations and other family events put together in a beautiful photo book.

One of my favorite things about Shutterfly is that in addition to great quality & speedy service, you almost never have to pay full price for your order. They always have some sort of promotion for various products in addition to free shipping or a percentage off your entire order. This makes great photo gifts even more affordable...and this year, they have a special for bloggers which can result in 50 free Christmas cards...go check it out for yourself @ http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Since Nick & I got married, I have been using Shutterfly for our Christmas cards. I always get compliments on them and I just love the variety of new designs they release each year. I've just started looking at all the options for this year and I'm so excited to pick the photos and design for this year's creation. There are some fabulous colorful & whimsical designs for this year!

In addition to Christmas cards, just this morning I ordered some invitations for my annual Christmas cookie exchange! The group of ladies continues to get bigger & bigger so premade invitations is definitely the way to go...they even have a Cookie Swap specific invite!

I can't wait to get these in the mail!

Now the decision process begins, if only I can narrow down the photos and design to use...of course, whatever I choose I know they'll be fabulous! Check out Shutterfly for your favorite photo cards & invitations!

Imagine: Women of Faith 2010

While it only consumed one day of the weekend, Imagine: Women of Faith 2010 consumed my entire weekend by invading my thoughts and my heart. My mom invited me several months ago to attend a women's conference in Kansas City the first weekend in November--I agreed, as we had never attended anything like this together and I figured it would be a good time with her. As the weekend neared I honestly had some reservations thinking it would be so nice to just stay at home and relax...oh I'm so glad I listened to God and made the trip.

I'll share more later in the week about the truths that I learned over the weekend. I've got a ton of notes on my phone that I have to process before I can put them down into coherent sentences.

Mom picked me up not-so-bright and early on Friday morning (it was definitely still dark outside when we left at 6:00 am). We headed to KC and met up with some other women from her church, most of whom I already knew in some way or another. We attended the conference from about 10 am to 3, checked into our hotel, had a nice dinner as a group, and then went back for some more conference.

The entire group at dinner...it was seriously a fabulous time! I can't wait for next year!

Praising Jesus with Mary Mary and hanging out with thousands of wonderful Christian women is fabulous, but spending it with my mom made it all the better...

Ok, seriously please ignore my ghostly white face...not sure why I decided to reflect the camera flash! But please do note my mom & I's outfits...as she came in the door on Friday morning I couldn't believe what she was wearing---think we might be related by our matchy, matchy outfits? Love it!

Mary Mary was around the entire weekend and wow, they are so fun & energetic but most importantly SO REAL!!!

Saturday was another full day of speakers & worship & fellowship. My sister-in-law, Millie, was even able to join us for a little while during the day. She & my brother are living in KC while he attends law school so it was great to hang out with her for a little while. Unfortunately she had to head back to work so it was a short visit; but good nonetheless.

Me, Millie, & Mom

Saturday afternoon, Natalie Grant, gave a short concert...while she was 8 months pregnant! Man, that girl can sing! She finished off with an acapella version of It is Well With My Soul and it was absolutely breathtaking. I still can't believe how beautiful it was...and all while 8 months pregnant!

Mom & I--matchy, matchy again...but this time on purpose!

The conference wrapped up about 5:00 last night and mom & I headed home. I was totally worn out from the long 2 days, so I was certainly glad for "falling back" last night. I took full advantage of the extra hour of sleep.

Today was a pretty standard Sunday, except I served for the first time in our church's nursery. Hubby & I both signed up to volunteer but I was the only one put on the schedule for the day. It was pretty darn easy for my first experience--don't worry, I'm not naive enough to think it will always be that way!

We've spent the rest of the day lounging around before heading off to small group. Overall, a fabulous weekend and I'm ready for another week!

Thrifty Tuesday...on a Thursday

Well, as hoped I made my weekly visit to Walgreens last night and my haul was just too good not to share. So....you get two Thrifty Tuesday posts this week!

And one quick note on couponing, you might think that you have to stock up for several weeks to have enough coupons to make a difference. That's not the case. Almost everything I bought last night had a coupon that I had clipped at some point in the last week and all but 2 of them came directly from my Sunday paper.

I've also talked with my grandparents who both receive the local Sunday paper and they're going to be saving their coupons for me! This means that I'll have triple or even quadruple the coupons when it comes to some of the really good ones...and believe me, there were some really good ones this week!

Now...on to the loot! 2 large boxes Cheerios cereal, 3 sticks Secret deodorant, 1 stick Gilette deodorant, 1 Oil of Olay Body Wash, 1 Large Oil of Olay Lotion, 1 Small Oil of Olay Lotion, 1 box Domino Powdered Sugar, 1 box Domino Brown Sugar, 1 40 load bottle Downy Fabric Softener, 2 Carefree Women's Personal Hygiene, 1 Febreze Air Freshener, 1 Febreze Home Collections Candle, 1 Maybelline Falsies Mascara, 1 Maybelline Eyeshadow...all for...

!! $21.83!!

With my out of pocket of $21.83, I was able to save $61.43 with coupons and advertised Walgreens savings. See, I told you it was too good of a trip to pass by! And just to clarify, this is all stuff that we use on a regular basis, maybe not the exact brand but we definitely use these products regularly, most of them every single day!

Going to the Big D

This past weekend was a fast-paced and chaotic but tons of fun with family! My mom's dad has always been a Dallas Cowboys fan...always. I think it began when he was stationed in Texas in the Air Force, but I honestly couldn't tell you exactly when he became a fan. All I know is that my grandpa is a diehard and that has been passed down to my brother who is also a diehard Cowboys fan.

Through thick & thin, bad years & good, they both LOVE to watch the Cowboys and it's become quite contagious with the rest of my immediate family. My parents are fans & my sister-in-law realized being a Cowboys fan was a requirement for marrying my brother. Hubby & I...well, we certainly enjoy football, but I wouldn't necessarily call us diehards when it comes to any NFL team. We just love watching a good football game...and in the spirit of football & family time, we became Cowboy fans by default this past weekend.

More so than the game, I was most excited about some good shopping in Dallas at The Galleria. I had been saving some extra cash for several months, so I couldn't wait. I think overall I came away with close to 10 new shirts, a couple new pairs of leggings, and a new pair of jeans...might seem like I spent a ton but Forever 21 became my friend as did the sales rack at Nordstroms...I think I did incredibly well for myself!

My mom found a fabulous hotel right across the street from The Galleria that had been completely redone and remodeled in the past year. It was a Le Meridien property and my parents are members of the Starwood Preferred program so all of us also got upgraded to corner suites...free of charge! The property was wonderful and we couldn't have asked for a better location.

Our living room...complete with my shopping spree on the coffee table!

Our separate master bedroom...fabulous!

Sunday was the main event...Dallas Cowboys vs. Jacksonville Jaguars. The new Cowboys Stadium is seriously a sight to be seen and it quite unbelieveable!

We walked around before the gates open and were even able to watch some of the players arrive in their fancy, ultra-expensive cars...Porsche, Mercedes, Bentley's...yup, we saw it all! They also have a paver program where you can have one engraved. Last year, my parents bought one for my grandpa and we were able to find his. However, my parents also have one that includes all of our names but we didn't have any luck finding out paver...we're gonna have to get better directions next year!

Inside the stadium is just as crazy as outside; it's HUGE!!!! Hubby & I went exploring and ended up near the middle of the stadium...we still had many more stairs to reach the top! We decided to head back down since our seats were all the way at the bottom!
Are you ready for some football??

The entrance of the Cowboys' players was definitely a production!

The whole group...hoping for a Cowboy victory!

Hubby & I from our seats

Unfortunately the game didn't turn out quite like we'd hoped. However, we still had a great weekend. If only we didn't have to drive home 6 1/2 hours in the car after the game! I still feel like I'm catching up from being gone all weekend!

Thrifty Tuesdays

With our busy, busy weekend I haven't yet had the time to play the coupon/ad matching game. However, when the grocery store ad came out last week I knew I would have to make time for a quick trip! So...yesterday over lunch I ran to the closest Price Cutter and cashed in on what I considered a great trip!

4 cans of Green Giant green beans, 2 boxes Kellog's Fiber Plus bars, & 2 packages Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta...all for...

!! $2.26!!

Yup, I consider that a pretty good trip; especially since one box of the Fiber Plus bars is normally at least $3.00. Now, if I could only find a few minutes to do my coupon-matching for Walgreens...it promises to be another great week!

And on an unrelated note...GO VOTE!!! I went this morning before coming to work and there had already been several at my precinct exercising this freedom. I truly believe it's our obligation as citizens of the United States of America to participate in the process of electing our officials and voting on the important issues!