Couponing trip 2/3/2015

Today I was in a deal mood, like, a super deal mood! I get these maybe once a week, where I MUST go to the store NOW (by myself, so I can REALLY DIG through the sales) and get stocked up on things for a great deal.

Today was a great day to do this, and you still have some time to get in on some of these if you so choose!

Today, I spent a total of $14.47 OOP, now, your miles may vary, because I have been rolling rebates at Menards and Target gift card deals.

True Skin Care - Anti-Aging Eye Gel - Review

There are a few things about myself that I don't particularly care for, I know overall I just need to get over that, but hey, it won't stop me from trying things that might help me!

Bags, I have bags under my eyes. I always have. In fact, it's hereditary, because my daughter was born with them. If we don't look like we have been awake for weeks on end, we look like we have black eyes, or maybe...just maybe...we are the walking dead.

The bags under my eyes are so big, that an airline would charge me extra to board the plane with them...

The bags under my eyes are so large, even Jerry Springer couldn't handle this baggage...

It's bad...

True Skin Care, awesome company by the way, send me over some of their anti-aging eye gel to try.

By reading the description on Amazon I truly hoped that this would work for at least diminishing the baggage under my eyes.

Win It Wednesday! 1/21/2015

The list will grow throughout the day, don't forget to check back and make sure you got them all!

Salsa Dance Workout - Review

Recently I received a Salsa Dance Workout DVD in the mail.

You aren't going to get a lot of pictures with this review, unfortunately, watching me attempt to salsa dance is really not all that photogenic!

 I have an interesting gadget that I received in the mail today. I found a random code that somebody had posted on Facebook, that made this bad boy free...it was only for a specific number of units and then boom, all gone.

I'll be honest, I had no hope for this product. Why? Because I bought some pet stain remover w/ wand light years ago when we were toilet training the cat, just to make sure that he wasn't having booboos. He never did, but that darn black light didn't light anything up. I walked around the house looking for anything that would light up, and nothing.

Crock pot chicken pot pie soup with super easy dumplings

 I love my crock pot. I love that I can stick food in it, turn it on, and be rewarded hours later with a  nice delicious meal...with hardly any effort.

You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I got a box of goodies from Influenster. One of those items was McCormick Thyme. Aside from the usual joke of having too much Thyme on my hands, I'll be honest I was stumped as to what to do with it. I cook almost every meal, but Thyme is not usually a spice we keep on hand, nor is it usually one that we will use.

As I was perusing the recipes, I noticed that a lot of people like to put Thyme in their pot pies.

Well, I'm a cheater when it comes to pot pie. So I made this recipe, just for you, I hope you enjoy it.

Wave 3 Coffee - coupon code inside!

I type to you this morning as I sit here with my cup of Joe.

This week I had the pleasure of receiving a bag of this new Wave 3 coffee. 

This coffee is touted as being an artisinal coffee that is roasted in small batches, is organic, and is fair trade. This coffee is supposed to give you a smooth wave of energy rather than a short burst. Although you typically won't see me do this, I'm going to copy and paste the benefits the company has listed on their Amazon page in regards to this coffee:

Organic Seeds Garden - Gift Pack - review

 Yesterday, I received this cute little box in the mail. I have been waiting all week for it (darned holidays), and have been on the edge of my seat.

Why am I so excited? I don't know if you guys realized by the header on this blog...but I love to garden! In fact, come spring/summer, you're going to be getting lots of garden updates, tips, tricks, and information.

We moved to town this year, and even that didn't stop us from having an amazing full garden.

What did stop us was stink bugs, and those stink bugs literally ruined hundreds of pounds of tomatoes. I was devastated. But we are currently in the planning stages of next year's garden, and we are currently tossing around several ideas on how to protect the tomatoes. We are also planning a new placement for the garden, where we can put even more food in, and make the most of our tiny town yard, and believe me, it's going to be epic, so hang around for that.

Enter the Seeds Garden - Gift pack.

Canning - Maple Bacon baked beans

One of the benefits of being married to a farmer is that I have coffee containers downstairs that are filled with dry beans. I realize that dried beans really aren't that expensive, but it makes for great food storage, and my husband is always bringing me beans home in the fall.

His favorite bean recipe is by far Maple Baked beans.

Earlier this year, my husband and I spent a couple months apart, while he started his new job and I stayed back with the kids while they finished school up for the year. Having this homemade food all prepped and ready for him was a huge source of comfort for him. I always make sure to keep some on hand.

The ToDo's family is back to routine

It's been a crazy past two weeks, crazy and wonderful two weeks.

My grandmother and sister (as well as my nephew and my sister's squeeze) came over for Christmas eve. We had ham (my first time ever cooking a non-pressed ham), mashed potatoes, orange fluff (nut free, yes it was), macaroni with corn (OMG, if you have never tried this, you really need to), pies, and cheesecake.

It was a great chance to show the family our new home, in our new town. And we were able to catch up on the last...well...forever. I think we need to make a habit out of this, it was a lot of fun.

December Freebies!

I'm quite surprised, I really thought it was going to be a slow month, and I ended up getting quite a bit of stuff! Now, I ended up working a ton this month, so in all technicality, it could have been a lot better, and it probably will end up cutting down my freebies for next month, but that's ok, I really do love my job.

Rimmel London Scandaleyes and Gentle Eye MakeUp Remover

In my last post, I told you all about my wonderful Frosty Vox Box!

I wanted to give you a more in-depth review on two of the products inside the Vox Box, the Rimmel London Products.

Frosty Vox Box from Influenster!

It's true what they say, the best things in life are free!

I recently received a Frosty Vox Box from Influenster. This is my second Vox Box (the first being the Vaseline Vox Box) from them. If you aren't on Influenster yet, you need to check it out here. It's super simple, just sign up, and link your social networking accounts. The website uses the number of friends/followers you have to determine your "reach" and that helps determine your chances of receiving a Vox Box. The more reach you have, the higher your chances. But it doesn't just end there. You can also review products you have already tried via the website, and unlock badges. Badges help up your chances of receiving a Vox Box as well. There are "snaps," or questions that help Influenster learn more about you to see which products would be best to send to you as well. It's always good to make sure those are all filled out (quite quick process really). I haven't been terribly active with the site, unfortunately, as I have so many things going on at any given time, but I have still been able to get a free few products to try from them. Randomly you may get an email with a survey to prequalify for a Vox Box. If you qualify, you will get an email within the following couple weeks letting you know you got in. It's super easy, super fun, and super rewarding.

Without further ado, I bring you the Frosty Vox Box.

My favorite thing about this box is it is a grouping of several different products to try! And I'll be reviewing those here in the near future on my blog. But today, it's all about what's inside! So come take a peek at my Vox Box!

Walmart Beauty Box #2 - Winter

Finally I have received a day to get stuff done! No visitors, no special events, no crazy chaos in the house. So, now, I can update you on the Walmart Beauty Box that I received last week! 

Liztek PSS-100 bluetooth speaker - review

It feels like it's been forever. I feel like I have been away from my blog for so long that I should be writing you a Christmas letter (like we are so distant, I only write once a year or something, and have to catch up on every single goings-on in my home). LOL. But seriously, life has gotten away from me this week. On Monday, we spent ALL day, and I am seriously not exaggerating on this, all day fixing a bearing on my husband's truck. What we thought would take 15 minutes, took all day. First, we had to get the thing off of there, which proved to be harder than we first hoped. Then we had to drive to the state capital to get a new one, make a few other pit stops (IE groceries), we had to go to his work to put the part on, test it all out...and we got home after dark. Then on Tuesday I spent all day baking. Again, I'm not exaggerating...literally from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to bed, I was baking. I baked pies, and cheesecake, and cookies. Preparations for the Christmas holiday. Then on Wednesday we decided to stray from our hermit ways, and we had company over. My sister, her son, her boyfriend, and my grandmother all came over for Christmas dinner. And as luck would have it, they went to leave, and the car wouldn't start. Just ends my the day perfectly. But after about 12 minutes she got it, thank goodness for her, Christmas has been saved. And then of course, yesterday, it was Christmas, and we got to watch the kiddos open presents, and I got to make a butt out of myself for youtube...um...yeah...haha. So now, today, I feel like I have neglected you. So now, I'm back! And here with a great product!

I received this product about a week ago. It's a Liztek PSS-100 bluetooth speaker. I have wanted to get a bluetooth speaker for years! Our cell company has the things littering their store, and the sound is always so amazing, but the prices are over $100 for a lot of them, and you wonder, is a speaker really worth that money!? This speaker states the regular retail price is $129.95, but shows the sale price at the moment as $36.95. 

Insta Natural - New Vitamin C Moisturizer, Vitamin C Serum, and Retinol Moisturizer - I'm in heaven!

Insta Naturals has been so wonderful, they sent me a few more products to try out. The first two they sent me were the Vitamin C Serum and the Retinol Moisturizer. 

Kroger Stardom - Cucumber, Mango, and Black Bean Salad

Bzz agent teamed up with Kroger Co again, and asked some people to test out a new mango recipe (I guess they can tell by my card history that I have purchased mangos before). I don't remember buying mangos, but that's another story. I searched high and low at our local King Soopers store, only to find that there were no mangos in the store that day. So, I scurried over to the frozen food department and grabbed some frozen mangos.

I love frozen mangos, they are so handy. You can throw them into a smoothie while still frozen, you can put them in the kids lunch and they will thaw enough to eat by the time it's lunch period, and you can thaw just as much as you need in the fridge the night before. Plus, freezing seems to make the fruit sweeter, and it does not affect the texture of the fruit at all. This is strange, because you can't freeze many fruits and vegetables without affecting the flavor. 

So, I didn't get to preview the recipe first, I had to either accept or decline. I figured why not, I can try anything once. I was surprised to see the recipe contained beans (straight from the can) and cilantro. 

Without further ado, here goes. 

Killer Within - by Jeff Gunhus

You may remember recently I wrote about a book that was sent to us by Jeff Gunhus. It was a book that reminded me a lot of some of my favorite series like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.

I promised you I would tell you about my thoughts on another book, and today, I'll make good on that.

This photo is a screenshot of the book as it is listed on Amazon (I wanted it to be clearer than a cell picture)

I am done! I'm sick of it!

Don't worry, I'm not done with you! I'm not done with blogging! I'm not done with awesomeness!

I'm done with my weight, totally over it. back in 2010-2011 I lost 50 pounds and was at a stunning 120 pounds. Over the past few years I've crept back up to 147 (half of what I lost, I have gained back).

Killer deal on dog treats at Target!

If you got the Sunday paper, you may have noticed in one of the coupon inserts, there was a coupon for Target, buy 2 Beggin Strips (25 oz or larger) and receive a $10 gift card.

I wasn't sure what the original price was, but $10 is a lot of money, so I thought I'd check it out.