Crazy Busy

The holiday months are here! Phil and I do not have a free weekend until after the 1st of the year! This weekend my best friend gets married in Chicago. I am very excited and can't wait to celebrate with her! We will enjoy Thanksgiving with phil's extended family in Holland before heading back here for Phil to preach on Sunday. The following weekend we are going to a concert with friends and then I have a cookie exchange and the CSC Chrisgiving Dinner. After that i leave for Washington D.C. for work and then fly into Detroit for a few days of relaxing and catching up with friends and family! After that is Christmas and a trip to Florida with the parents/grandparenrs! I am getting a headache just thinking about it!

This past weekend was BEAUTIFUL! I have to keep telling myself how on Saturday we sat our in the sun in our T-shirts at the Purdue vs. MSU game each time I look outside and see the wind and rain! ICK!

This evening we will head to Hobby Lobby in hopes of getting a Tree Skirt, Garland, Red Bows and a Wreath for our front door! Last year we were given a lot of decorations and we bought a tree for the inside of the house. This year my goal is to make the outside look festive as well.

I will not decorate for Christmas until the Sunday after Thanksgiving but I can be prepared!

Prayers and Christmas Cards

Children's Mott Hospital in Ann Arbor Michigan is close to my heart for several reasons. 4 years ago in August my very ill cousin, Gregory Flynn, went into surgery at Childrens Mott at the age of 35 years old. This was his 3rd open heart surgery of his life. The surgery lasted 12 hours and was much more complicated than they expected. While in surgery his liver began shutting down and there was still a lot of fluid in his stomach. He spent a month and a half in the hospital in a coma. My parents, and grandparents, along with my aunt and uncle and Gregs wife and 12 year old son Eric spent everyday in the hospital waiting room. We met several incredible kids and incredible families while we were there. We celebrated with kids who had heart transplants finally come through and we grieved with families who lost their children after battles with cancer and rare heart defects. Greg is still not 100% better but we pray daily for him and his condition.

This weekend I am asking you to pray for and send a Christmas card to an adorable little boy who has spent many days at Children's Mott.

Noah Biorkman , is a 5 year old boy who is in the last stages of a 2 1/2yr battle with Neuroblastoma Cancer. His family is celebrating Christmas next week and Noahs request is to get lots of Christmas cards..Let's get him some.

Please send cards to:
Noah Biorkman
1141 Fountian Viewcircle
South Lyon,Mi 48178

Let's see how many cards we can get to this Little guy!

If you would like to learn a little bit more about Children's Mott and Noah watch this short video. Noah's clip begins at 4minutes. The entire video will bring you to tears!

Quick and Easy Pancake Recipe

Phil and I love to eat breakfast for dinner as I am sure many families do. We both like pancakes but I personally hate making them. They are messy, they take forever and you can't just make it and sit down to eat. It is frustrating. I came across this recipe for German Oven Pancakes on a blog that I read frequently - Grocery Cart Challenge.

Last night we tried it out. It was delicious. We topped them with a bit of syrup and powdered sugar. We served them with Bacon and Hashbrowns. Best of all....It took 25 minutes and I didn't have a huge mess to clean up and thw whole thing was done at once. Which meant we could sit down and enjoy dinner together. Rather than me running back and forth to flip pancakes etc.

Here is the recipe in case you would like to try it out.

German Oven Pancakes
6 eggs
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Butter

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees
Put the Butter in a 9x13 glass pan and place in Oven to melt
Once melted slide around the pan to coat with butter
Put all ingredients in a blender
Blend until smooth
Pour into pan and Bake for 20 minutes
Serve with Lemon Juice or Syrup and Powdered Sugar

YUMMY!

Leaves Everywhere

Here are some pictures of the massive leaves in our yard. We have decided to rake only one time each fall. This past Sunday was the day we chose. It took us 3 hours Sunday afternoon and 1 hour Monday morning to rake JUST the backyard! Phil had blown the leaves off the front yard and the driveway earlier that week.

I love fall but it is ALOT of work!

This is our backyard the day before a wind storm! The next day all of these leaves plus all of the Sycamore leaves were down!


Finally All Done! They are stacked the whole length of our yard about 4 feet high!


These leaves are HUGE

Very Fun Very Busy Weekend

We have been going non-stop since Friday. Friday afternoon Rachel and I baked 6 dozen cupcakes and made colored frosting for the K-5 Service Project night at church. We did get to cuddle with Baby Beau in between batter mixing and tin filling. After Beau was picked up, Phil and I headed over to the Christian Student Center for their Halloween Party! We had 25 students show up. It was a great party! Rebecca and Elizabeth planned a scavenger hunt and had pumpkins for us to paint. There were also several delicious treats!




After the party, Phil headed out to the garage to paint cardboard boxes to look like the outside of an ambulance for the CSC trunk or treat car and I popped 6 batches of popcorn with the Whirley Pop! We finally got to bed at 1am.

Kelsey and I headed to the gym at 9am on Saturday. I was not a fan of this when my alarm went off at 8:40 but I felt really great afterwards and had a lot of energy to tackle the day! I am contemplating quiting the gym and buying an elliptical machine. I have found a few that I really like under $1000. I would then use the gym membership money towards piano lessons for myself! I need a creative outlet again!

Angela, Rachel, Vicki and I went to the church at 11:30 to set up for our 2nd annual Trunk or Treat. The theme this year was Board Games. We had 76 community members join us. It was a wonderful time of outreach to our community. I am so glad that the weather cleared up for us! Here are a few pictures:
Mindy and her Hungry Hungry Hippos Car

The Students and their Operation Car

Our life group (Vaughts and Asbills) as Twister

Jamie as the Ace of Hearts

The Boyds and their Chess themed car


Saturday everning I was missing my family a lot. This is only the 2nd time that i haven't spend Halloween with my family. Last year Phil and I were able to drive home and join them for the festivities. We have a bonfire in the driveway and a Chili contest with our neighbors. My neighborhood back home is my favorite place and on halloween it is even more fun. My sister decorates the house and goes all out for this holiday. At times her need for tradition can be frustrating but today I was reminded how much fun she makes the parties. I am getting teary just thinking about it. Our evening wasn't a complete flop though. The Martins had us over to their house for a party. We had lots of yummy food and were able to hand out candy to a few trick or treaters while playing Cranium! It wasn't dark until about 7:30pm which was weird for halloween. Usually daylight savings time falls before the holiday but this year it didn't. Trick or Treating when it is light out is just strange. We have ALOT of candy leftover. Phil took it over to the CSC for the students to enjoy because we do not need it around here!

The Best Time of Year

Fall in Indiana hasn't been as wonderful as I had hoped it would be! Lots of cold (44 degrees), rainy and gloomy days. Last Tuesday however we had a taste of real fall. It was short but fabulous nonetheless! Phil and I took advantage of the 70 degree weather and headed over to our favorite park, Happy Hollow. We picked up Jimmy Johns Subs on the way and had a picnic under the canopy of colors. I love the changing of leaves! Here are a few pictures that we took that day!






This weekend I was able to take a trip back to Michigan! Driving through Indiana into Michigan this time of year is simply breaktaking! I love the drive from Lafayette to Fort Wayne and the drive around Ann Arbor Michigan! Lots of colors!
Saturday my family drove up to Rochester to eat at Red Knapps. Afterwards we drove around the northern part of Rochester looking at the pretty colors! Here are some great pictures I was able to snap.






Here is a quick picture of one of my favorite stores back home. Ninos! I was able to find a 5 lb. bag of sticky rice for Gina's birthday!

Price Comparison and Couponing

Phil and I are on a strict budget. Not necessarily because we have to be but because we want to be. We want to be debt free. This summer we paid off my car and we are currently making VERY large payments towards his student loans in an effort to get rid of them in the next year. We each have fun money to spend during the month on things we want and need - Movies, Clothes, Out to eat with friends, starbucks trips, etc. We have decided to cut back on our fun money until June in order to save up money to reroof and put a new deck on our house!

Back to the main reason for this post. We choose to be frugal and I choose to use coupons. I don't need to buy name brands (2 exceptions - JIF and Smuckers). I can't tell the difference between a Kroger, Meijer or Kraft block of cheese. I prefer Meijer brand Crackers. This week I was working on my shopping list for Meijer. I was able to get a few things for a really great deal. For Lafayette! However I am making a trip home to Michigan this weekend where I wil pack in the great deals! Here are just a few comparisons from Indiana to Michigan at Meijer:
Michigan Indiana
Pears .88lb. .99lb.
Straberries 2/4 2.99 a package
Brocolli 1.29 1.49
Chicken 1.49lb. 1.99lb.
Soup .44 .50
Doritoes 1.79 1.99
Mayo 1.59 1.99
Kraft 2.14 1.58 (one thing that is more in MI...weird)
TOTAL 13.62 16.51

These little price difference don't really look that bad until you see the totals! 3 dollars difference! Crazy!

The price of Chicken blows me away. Meat actually in general! It is so stinkin expensive here in Lafayette! Everytime I go to Michigan I stock up on Roasts, Ribs and Chicken. How can't I!?! It is so much cheaper! My mom NEVER pays more than 1.60 a pound for ground beef. Here we are lucky to get that price. The lowest I have EVER paid for chicken here was 1.69 lb and that was for Kroger brand!

Sometimes my couponing makes me unorganized. This week I was at Kroger picking up a few things for Lifegroup. They had a package of bandaids in the clearance for 1.69. I picked them up because that is cheap for bandaids. I didn't have amy coupon book because I was just running in for Milk and one other thing. Today when I was gatherin my coupons for my Miejer trip I found a coupon for .40 off of Bandaids. That may not seem like something to get mad over but coupons are doubled at Kroger and therefore I would have been able to get those bandaids for 89 cents! Oh well!

One final reason why I love Price Comparison and "shopping around" if the price of Milk. It is amazing how the price of this product varies by store. We bought our milk this week at Kroger out of necessity for 2.29. At Meijer it is never more than 1.98 and they have it this week for 1.75!

So be frugal. Use coupons even if only for a few items and compare your prices :)