Yesterday's great "Deal Shopping" deals

2 reams of paper for around $1:
-Buy 2 reams of HP paper at Staples using (2) $1/1 coupons printed from Coupons.com (use zip code 99011).
-Total was $$11.02 after tax and coupons. Rebate form printed after receipt.
-Enter rebate info online @https://www.stapleseasyrebates.com/img/staples/paperless/pages/Landing.html for 2 rebates @$4.99/ea=$9.98.
Total after coupons, tax and rebate: $1.04.

3 free tubes of Colgate 6.4 oz toothpaste @ Walgreens:
-Use "Sale price $.99" coupon on back of this week's Walgreens sale flyer from the Spokesman Review.
-Stack with 3 Colgate coupons found in March MaxiSaver coupon booket found at the entrance of FAFB Commissary. (Um, not allowed to post Commissary sale prices publicly. Not sure if this applies to coupons found there. Until I know for sure, I'm gonna play it safe).
-Add Plackers flossers on sale this week for $2, comes with a $2 Register Reward
Total after coupons & tax: $1.48, with $2 Register Reward. Makes this a $.52 money maker. I used the $2 Register Reward to get free Plackers flossers in the next transaction.

Groceries at Fred Meyer:
This weeks FM sale flyer (from Sunday's Spokesman Review) with "7 Day Coupons" was what made these deals!
-2 lb. strawberries @ $1.50/lb=$3
-10 8-oz pkgs. Tillamook shredded cheese $1/ea=$10
-2 Challenge butter for $5. Stack this with 2 "Save $1 on 1" coupons printed from Coupons.com last week (No longer available, but there is a .55/1 coupon available there this morning, print twice, still making this a good price). =2 Challenge butter for $3, or $1.50/lb.
-2 18-pack eggs for $3.
-2 FM ice cream at 6/10 or $1.67/ea=$3.33.
Total before coupons: $48.58
Total after coupons: $22.34

Yes, it took a morning of running around Spokane. Yes, it took a bit to match coupons with sales. But it's worth it! I love it! Email me with questions! :)

Off we go....

Well, it's official. We're moving to Altus, Oklahoma in July. Now, the first things most military spouses think of when they think of Altus are sweltering heat, bugs (including huge hairy tarantulas), mold, and having to drive 40 miles to see any semblance of a city. Altus, where tornadoes come through often and the power has gone out every single time we've been there. Altus, with its lack of LifeCenter-type churches. And mountains. And evergreens. And winter wonderlands. Sigh. Spokane feels like an Eden compared to Altus. And saying goodbye. Oh, how I wish that weren't a regular part of this life. But wait, haven't I always felt this at moving time? And hasn't God always taken care of us?
~Pulling myself together~.
Okay. It feels good to get that out, but I'm really trying hard not to dwell on it. I signed up for this life and I've gotta make the best of it for me, my children and our family! The plusses:
-More family time. The possibility of J not having to deploy at all, being home during holidays with time off.
-Old friends! Jenn Miller from Scott and Becca Watkins from Fairchild will both be moving there around the same time as me! Plus Altus is the hub for training for 2 AF jets-that means lots 'o friends coming through for weeks at a time! Maybe our house can be a place for them to be refreshed and hang out!
-WAYYY closer to family! A few hours drive to see my parents, sibs, and J's sibs as compared to a minimum 2 days drive now.
-New friends! From what we've heard, the military families stationed at Altus are a very close community-everyone's there with nothing to do, so they get together and have fun!
-The possibility of owning again. We don't know where we'll live. But we are playing with the idea of buying a house and fixing it up. This sounds really fun to both of us.
-Sunshine!
-The opportunity to live out our faith that God has a plan for us.
-Meers burgers.
-A longer growing season-maybe we can have a little veggie garden!
-Possibly more opportunities/time (shift in priorities) to make crafts or start the quilting project I've been dreaming of.
-A fresh start. I love getting rid of junk that I've been holding on to. This usually happens around moving time and leads to a more peaceful, organized life.

Final stats

Well friends, the January Grocery Experiment culminated this week with 28 lbs. of wonderful beef in our freezer, purchased from friends at church with some of the leftover January grocery money! Their family raises beef not too far from here. Yeah! It was really a fun experiment, and quite a challenge. Towards the end there we were eating some pretty interesting things. I'd have to say the most uh, interesting, thing was Sweet & Sour Lentils. Let's just say we won't be having that one again. I didn't even make the girls eat it after I tried it myself. ;)
Grocery totals:
Ok, so the final amount we spent in January was $140.76. A bit disappointing, but good nonetheless. We cheated a bit and used grocery money for entertainment-type things such as pizza for the girls and babysitter, a family ice cream run to McD's, beer at the Class 6, lunch between running errands and preschool, and one more Costco run for bananas and milk.
Some of the recipes we did enjoy:
-Spicy Tuna Melt Pie from the 5 Dollar Dinner Mom. (well I enjoyed it. I probably won't make it again because the rest of the family didn't really like it at all)
-The Ultimate White Chicken Chili from Laura Euler's blog, served in sourdough bread bowls from the freezer. This was a huge hit! E, who doesn't like "spicy" at all, asked for thirds! YUM!!! Also, to save a couple bucks I bought dry white beans and cooked them in the Crock Pot first.
-Salsa Chicken from SparkRecipes. Another huge hit and a keeper! (See recipe below)
-Buttery Soft Pretzels from allrecipes.com. A treat we all really enjoyed.
-Baked French Toast ( I used the leftover sourdough bread insides from the bread bowls, placed in a greased casserole, and poured on a mixture of eggs, milk, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla. I let it sit in the fridge overnight and baked the next morning at 350 for about half an hour. This was delicious!)
-Granola from the recipe Sharon used when the boys were little.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken:
-2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast
-2 Tbsp. taco seasoning
-1 cup canned diced tomatoes
-1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
-1/2 cup finely diced celery
-1/2 cup shredded carrots
-1 cup salsa
-3 tbsp. fat free sour cream
Put chicken in Crock Pot. Sprinkle with taco seasoning. Spread tomatoes, onion, celery and carrots over top, then cover with salsa. Pour 1/2 cup water over mixture, cover and cook on low 6-8 hrs. Shred chicken with 2 forks. We put this inside warm flour tortillas and put the sour cream on top.

Now on to the next challenge!

Grocery Update #3

Thursday is my usual grocery shopping/errand day. Today was no different. I usually scan the local sales fliers and plan which (if any) stores I'll be visiting for the week before I go. The Commissary is the one store I always shop. We are so blessed to get to shop there!
-On Tuesday I made a trip to the Com-izzle for milk and popcorn seeds-$6.07
-Fred Meyer today for .68/lb apples and .33 cans of tuna-$5.75
-Commissary today for the rest of the groceries-$18.35

Which brings us to a total so far of $100.69. Past the limit now, but oh so close. Can we make it with only one more buying of milk????

Grocery update

Since January 6th (last grocery post) I've made a few trips to pick things up from the store:
-Yoke's for their awesome cereal sale ($10.80 for 10 boxes of cereal)
-J got soda for our "Pizza and Movie Night ($2.46)
-Commissary for a few things before the last snow storm and to use some coupons that were about to expire and burning a hole in my coupon binder! ($9.92) I was SUPER excited about this trip because it was over $20 worth of groceries for under $10!
I'd like to mention (and I think most of my friends know) that I love using coupons. However, I try not to use them for things that I wouldn't buy otherwise. I've noticed that a lot of coupons are for junk food, which I try to keep to a minimum. That being said, I've found some fabulous deals in the past few months and will continue in my couponing hobby!
-We're up to $70.52 for January groceries. We're about to run out of popcorn (anyone who knows us knows this is a staple at our house :) and milk. I'm smelling a Costco trip coming up....

The experiment continues!

Well let's see. We are still under budget for January and have been enjoying some fabulous meals! I knew that my little experiment would require a lot more cooking from scratch and that's proven to be true. I added a "bulk cooking day" to my week last week and we ended up with a pot of vegetable soup, cabbage rolls, a pan of rolls, loaf of bread, and 3 pounds of homemade meatballs. It was definitely a lot of work but sooo worth it!

I follow several cooking blogs but have found the 5 dollar dinner mom to be most helpful with this experiment. I thought I'd forward some of the recipes we've been enjoying on to you!
-Cabbage Rolls (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cabbage-Rolls-II/Detail.aspx) Used ground beef from the freezer and cabbage from the Rosauer's sale .49/lb.
-Vegetable Soup (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cabbage-Fat-Burning-Soup/Detail.aspx) Used the rest of the cabbage from the Rosauers sale and the rest of the veggies I had in the fridge. This is a super yummy soup, perfect for snacks and lunch.
-Homemade "Hot Pockets" or as we've been calling them "Dinosaur Breads"-Make ww bread dough and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Fill 2 pieces with homemade chicken mixture (I put cooked chicken, cream cheese, fresh spinach and some Longaberger seasoning from Sandy in the food processor). Bake @ 350 degrees till lightly brown. The girls love 'em!




-Orange Sesame Chicken with roasted asparagus (http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/12/aleas-orange-sesame-chicken-butter-tossed-asparagus.html) (Chicken and asparagus were from the freezer. We thought this was good, but a bit sweet. I'd probably add less sugar and some vinegar next time to make it more of a sweet & sour sauce, and some thickener).
-Baked Pasta -pasta & sauce from my pantry stash, ground beef & cheese from the freezer. I had a lot of leftovers I didn't want to throw out so I added a bowl of split pea soup and some kidney beans. I was a bit apprehensive that the fam wouldn't like it but they LOVED it! ;)
-And of course, the ultimate healthy, low-cost, super yummy comfort food: a pot of pinto beans! I know, l know, the #1 complaint about beans is the uh, GI upset they can cause. I find that if I soak them overnight then cook them slowly all day in the Crock-Pot that effect is greatly diminished. We eat a LOT of beans around here. I think it's a good way to cut down on meat consumption, therefore keeping cost and fat in check. And they're a great way to get fiber!
We had bean/rice/chicken/salsa/guacamole/cheese burritos yesterday. SO good! Although we do have a continuing discussion going on around here about "Chipotle"-style burritos (J's fave) vs. "Real New Mexico" burritos (once you've grown up on New Mexican food there's no comparison). Opinions?

Well friends.....

...I'm back. At least for today.
I've had a couple of you mention to me lately that you'd like to see the posts re-appear so I'm giving it another go. Of course I'm dealing with all the feelings of perfectionism and procrastination that usually follow me around...but I'm not going to give them much thought. I'm reminded of what our pastor said in church on Sunday about how to follow a daily Bible-reading plan. What do you do if you skip a day? Just jump right back in. Okay, I can do that. And I'm not going to hold myself to any kind of standard for this blog. Ok, let's jump back in!
So as you probably know I'm frugal, and I like couponing. Nothing too crazy, just like matching coupons with sales and keeping a small stockpile.
During a long road trip last month we were listening to a financial podcast and I had a brainstorm. Background info: Our good neighbors PCS'd (moved away) last month, leaving us with the abundance of all the groceries they couldn't take with them! Also my mom got us lots of groceries when they were here for Thanksgiving. Back to the brainstorm: "Hey! Wouldn't it be fun to try to use what we have and keep the January grocery budget to $100?!?!" So that's what I'm doing.
Today was my first day of grocery shopping for the month, and I gotta say, I'm not sure that I'm going to meet my goal. We just so happened to run out of several staples so far so (assuming the family is not willing to give up certain things for a month) I replaced the old stand-bys of Half & Half (cream for coffee!), coffee, peanut butter, and milk. All these things are considerably less expensive per unit at Costco so I just replaced them. Anyway, here is what I got. My total for the month so far: $46.74. Hmmmm...like I said, I'm not sure I'm going to meet my goal!

This is minus the 4 gallons of milk.

Miri's Decoration!

At least, that's what Elena called it!
We decided that it's important for our family to dedicate our children to the Lord-a public statement to acknowledge that these children belong to God, and they are on loan to us to raise and teach them about Him. At our church that means the family gets up on stage during the service and our pastor prays for the baby and family. We got to do Miriam's dedication on Sunday, the 24th while my parents were here! They went up with us. After the prayer Brad (our regular pastor Joe was out of town) gave us a certificate of dedication and a letter for Miriam to open on her 12th birthday. I'm curious about what it says! We just realilzed why Elena kept looking behind us-she was watching us on the big screen! While we were waiting for the service to start, I took the camera to a lady sitting in the front row and asked her to take pictures for us. Turns out she is a professional photographer. Haha! Funny, thank you Lord. So a big thank you and shoutout to Jackie. :)

A first

This has never happened at our house before, ever. With either child. So I was pretty surprised when I turned around and saw this:

Teething, diaper rash, and injuries

We are in full teething mode. M has been working on 4 yes, FOUR molars at once for the better part of a week. And whenever these girls get teeth, they always, ALWAYS get horrible diaper rash to go with it. I've read that babies' saliva gets more acidic to help break down the gum tissue for the teeth to break through. Unfortunately, this also affects um....other parts of the GI tract. And her poor little gums! They are opaque, bulging and look bruised! I wish I could massage them and help that little toofie out.
M is also kind of our little scrapper. She regularly gets stuck (can't take her to a store without having to "save" her from having some appendage stuck in the cart), smashed, wrestled (by E), fingers closed in drawers, etc. etc. Then she cries, gets comforted, and keeps on going with a smile and more determination than ever! Here's a picture of her first black eye, a self-inflicted wound with a board book

The Latest at the Tanner house

Our little baby is 1! We are trying to figure out how to do the whole Christmas/birthday thing. I think the plan is to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, and her birthday on Christmas day, since it is, after all, her special day. Her first birthday was a smashing success! Perry & Katie flew in that day to visit and were gracious and took many many pictures so we could focus on making the party happen. Here are a few that we got.

Ahem! Here we go again

So I was just on Facebook reading a friend's post about how she has to catch up on 5 months of blogging. And I wrote to her "try seven!". So here we go again. Let's give it another whirl. Although I do find Blogger to be difficult to work with. It's too hard to figure out (especially since I have been using it very rarely!). And I just tried 3 times to put a new background up with no success. So let's just jump in and if there are any readers still out there, bear with me please. :)

AAhhhhh...Summer in Spokane

The winter was long, cold, snowy & a bit depressing, but summer is making up for it! As I told Jared last night, I am rather fond of summer in Spokane! Here we are in mid-to-late June and we haven't used air conditioning in our house yet! Heck, we don't even own one yet! Although we're buying 2 small window units from friends who are moving to England today. Anyway, my point is that this is the mildest summer I've ever seen and I like it! I love being able to spend hours outside without getting too hot, keeping the windows open, not breaking 90 degrees! Kids just got out of school this week, in NM I remember getting out in early May and starting up again in mid-August. And the flowers! There are some gorgeous peonies around our neighborhood, as well as hostas, iris, and many beautiful tulips through the spring. The outdoor pool on base opened last weekend so hopefully we'll get a few good swims in before our season of travel begins.

It's also the season of moving, or as we AF families call it, "PCSing" (permanent change of station).

Yesterday my Bible study group got together at the park on base and said good-bye to two of our own, Krista and Michelle. Krista and I were pregnant together and had our babies just a few days apart. She is a Spokane native and ironically, they're headed to Cannon AFB in the 505! Michelle is a more experienced mom of 3 who I've turned to for advice and help. She was so gracious to help in those early weeks of new baby, toddler & husband deployment. I'm always sad that people always seem to move just as I am getting to know them. I will miss them. God bless you ladies.

Notice the necklace grabbing. Jared and I realized the training of Elena began wayyyy too late so we've started teaching Miriam not to pull on necklaces.

Pictures with Bridget while big sister was begging off swing rides from anyone who would listen to her.

My first summer hat!

Krista & Michelle

Happy Birthday Jared!

Thanks for the tips, Karin & Sarah! Although this evening I'm too beat to actually use them so I'm just uploading new pictures and however they land, that's how they're gonna stay! 

Yesterday was Jared's birthday! Our friend Jonathan Schultz (from the family who introduced Jared and I, AND brother of Sarah and Karin, the blogging-picture-extraordinairres) joined us for a lunch of Navajo Tacos. Then 3 families from our neighborhood joined us for a rich chocolatey confection of Devil's Food cake with chocolate ganache and milk chocolate curls on top. If you have known Jared for any length of time, you know he loves chocolate. So this was my attempt at outdoing any previous birthday cake. We had vanilla ice cream with it. Jared says it was the best birthday cake ever, in the frosting department. :) So next year I'll tweak the cake part a bit and maybe we'll have the perfect combination! 

Jono took a picture of the whole family for us!

Right before digging in

The chocolatey goodness

Wow, has it really been 2 months?

HHmmmm, apparently is HAS been 2 months since my last post. Shady, as Jared would say. I was emailing my friend Sarah tonight and saying how I am behind on blog posts and I don't do them because I am overwhelmed with how much I have to catch up on. But these little girls are little now! So here I go-one small post for now while I'm up and alone! I really don't want us to be those distant acquaintances up in Washington, and it doesn't have to be perfect, right? :) By the way, does anyone else have issues moving pictures within each post? I always waste so much time fighting with Blogger to move pictures into the order I want them on the post. Let me know how you do it!

So these are some of our Easter pictures. I love the back of their dresses, and look at that furry little mullet sticking out of that Easter bonnet! In the last 4 weeks or so Miri's hair has begun to grow and it's gotten lighter. Maybe from the sun, but that's about when Elena's hair started growing too. My baby is growing up! While Auntie B was here in early May Miriam rolled over for the first time, and now she's a creeper! I often lay her down on the floor to play on a blanket and just a few seconds later I'll look again and she'll be rolled over, facing a totally different direction and gnawing on some toy. She's definitely teething, too. Nothing has popped out yet though.

These girls LOVE each other. Miriam lights up when she sees her sister and Elena is good at entertaining her and making her laugh!
The "girls" on Easter morning. Too bad we didn't get a family picture that day. Daddy looked so handsome too!

Cabin Fever

The long winter has encouraged lots of creativity when it comes to keeping little ones occupied. Elena found her own way to stay busy yesterday, which I was astonished to find after turning around for just a few minutes! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She also got to clean up the floor after the fun of coloring on it. God bless whoever invented washable markers.

The winter just keeps lasting and lasting and lasting...

Yesterday morning (April 2) we woke up to this view out our front door:

It's officially the snowiest winter on record for the city of Spokane. We have been told (numerous times) that last year it snowed in June! We've loved having a real winter but are SOOO ready for spring.

We're Back!

Well, friends, as some of you know, Jared left January 19th for his first KC-135 deployment. He deployed to Manas Air Base in Kyrgystan-14 time zones ahead of us here in Pacific time. He came home safely to us on Tuesday. Thank You, Jesus! It was a big day for the Tanners, and we are SO happy to be together again. It was a rough 2 months for me as we were apart, and I was a single parent to a 3-week-old who didn't sleep through the night yet and a 2-year-old potty training toddler (shout out to the Petersons-NOW I know why Tracy's story of going through deployment with a newborn and potty-training toddler seemed to be such a significant memory for her). God definitely designed the family with 2 parents for a reason.

I must say, though, that we had an incredible amount of help, offers of help, and support! Our small group gave Miriam a welcome party, complete with presents and food for the freezer so I didn't have to cook as much, our new friends the Halpins made a commitment to come over on Mondays and Fridays to give me a break and bring us dinner. Amber (Hum) came to visit-it was like a mini vacation! Our Blackhawk family (squadr

on) checked in on us, visited, called, and encouraged. And our wonderful neighbors checked in often to make sure we were okay, had us over, came to visit, and went to lunch with us! When Jared left Elena was in diapers and Miri was a newborn, now Elena is (almost completely) potty trained, Miriam is sleeping in her crib, and I have gained some parenting confidence! Thank you for your prayers and support. In true Air Force fashion, we already have the dates for the next deployment. New Mexico, here we come!

No, those are not the same baby

The picture on the top is Miriam at 2 days, the one on the bottom is Elena at 8 days. I think we have an idea of what Miriam will look like when she gets older! I love how cute my babies are! :)

Look What We Got for Christmas!

Miriam Sonja Tanner

was born on December 25th at 3:16 pm. She weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long. Adri and Miriam are doing exceptionally well and are feeling great. We are home and love having our little girl here! She is truly a blessing. 

Miriam at just a few hours old

Miriam, Mama and Elena snuggling

Eebs LOVES her little sister!

Ready to go home from the hospital

Elena, Daddy and Miriam getting to know each other

Elena and Miriam meeting each other for the first time