Happy Anniversary!

Today we celebrate our 5th Anniversary of marriage! We spent our anniversary traveling to WV for some family time and attending a Reds game later this week. We look forward for many more to come because we have a lifetime commitment to each other. Joey and I are thankful for both of our parents examples on marriage.

According to history the 5th Anniversary gift is Wood! So check out our wooden frame that will be on display in our house very soon. Yes, another Pinterest project completed!

Check out the cool card that looks wooden...thanks to my favorite card maker!

Happy Anniversary!!!

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Spaghetti Dinner for $3.50

Tonight's cheap dinner....drumroll please....Spaghetti!

At our house we try to eat cheap dinners for the 3 of us while leaving the possibility for leftovers. We aim for dinners $5 or less as much as possible.

Tonight we are eating spaghetti, salad, and garlic knots!

Here are the totals:

-$.99 bag of salad (for the boys!)

-$2.50 Classico spaghetti sauce (no coupons but on sale)

-FREE Smithfield ground turkey from a recent Harris Teeter Super Doubles

-FREE Muellers Pasta from a coupon deal last fall (pasta has a long shelf life)

-FREE Garlic Knots from a recent Super Double Coupon deal

Total $3.50

No need for anything else because we are having ice cream for desert for .75 each at a local creamery!

Needless to say bath time came early for our son tonight...but worth it after a yummy healthy dinner and leftovers for tomorrows lunch(baked spaghetti).

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Bathroom Shelving

Another Pinterest project completed today thanks to Sarah's brother Jimmy and Joey. Our counters in the master bath have been full of clutter for the last 4 years and we needed some organization. So thanks to Pinterest we bought Spice Racks from IKEA. They are around $4 a rack and located in the Kitchen storage section of IKEA. Any excuse to go to IKEA is worth it! I love it along with the 3 ceiling fans that were installed upstairs today too! Thank you Jimmy and Joey!

BEFORE                                                                    AFTER

Pinterest idea: http://suiterevival.blogspot.com/2011/10/bathroom-tour.html

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Coupon Saturday Deals

We ran a few errands today to get some good deals.

At Harris Teeter we got 2 packages of Ballpark Hotdogs (Saturday special and I used a coupon) for a total of 49 cents combined and 2 boxes of brownies( used a coupon) for a total of 44 cents. I was excited to use some Pepperidge Farm Cookie coupons but the selection was slim. I was able to get 3 bags of cookies for a total of 79 cents! A grand total of $1.42 for hotdogs, brownies, and cookies.

I did a quick run into Bilo for meat with my mom since they were having a sale. I bought 3 marinated Smithfield Pork Tenderloins and 2 packages of pork chops for $8.20. Just trying to stock up the freezer and use up some $2 off coupons for Smithfield Pork.

Not bad for a Saturday!

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Family Dollar Deal = Donation

We found a great deal at Family Dollar Store today. We bought 3 Men's Speed Stick deodorants for 21 cents! The Speed Sticks were marked at $1 each and I had a coupon for a $1 making the deodorant FREE just pay tax! Great Deal to take to the Men's Shelter later this month when we drop off other supplies.

 

I used the coupon out of 7/8/12 Smart Source from the newspaper(we bought 3 copies of the paper).

I found the deal on MoneySavingMom.com

(I LOVE that site!)

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Pickling Peppers

Fresh peppers from the garden can mean only one thing...it's time to try pickling peppers. After researching recipes online, seeking advice on Facebook, and asking family members for advice it is time to start pickling!

 Cut up your jalapenos (with gloves on!) or you will have burning hands for days...I decided to add onions and carrots to the mason jars for added flavor, color, and texture.

I filled half of the jar with water and the other half with apple cider vinegar (check website at the bottom for a very cool, easy way to do this without measuring.  I poured the liquid mixture into a hot pan, while heating I also added garlic and pickling spice to the liquid.

After heating the mixture to a boil (and  opening up mine and Sarah's sinuses).  I poured the mixture    back into the mason jars and put the lids on tight to start the sealing process.  I put the mason jars in a pot of boiling hot water for about 30 minutes until the lids were sealed tightly and not popped up.  I set them on a hot pad and left them alone to settle for a couple days.

                                                      

The finished product should be left to sit for 4-6 days and settle.  This batch was a little too sweet with too much pickling spice, but the jalapenos still packed some heat.  Overall, they were very good!  Next time I will use more vinegar, more salt/garlic, and less pickling spice.  I'm looking very forward to doing this again, it was a lot of fun!

Ideas and recipe courtesy of: The Purple Foodie - http://purplefoodie.com/pickled-jalapenos/

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Very Hungry Caterpillar

So today at school and at home we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. My students love this book and so does my toddler at home. My son, Trey loves the repeated story lines by finishing sentences..."but he was still hungry."

We needed a quick activity that worked on fine motor skills, so I grabbed some tissue paper, glue, paper, and a marker. We first crumbled the tissue paper and then glued the tissue paper on the paper to make it look like a caterpillar. Super easy! Then we added legs and antennas with a marker.



   One of my students caterpillars                                  My son's caterpillar Pin It Now!

Alternative to Oatmeal Bars

I have been experimenting with oatmeal recipes because our family is addicted to store bought oatmeal bars or as our toddler says "cookie bars!" we love them and stock up on them with coupons throughout the year...but we are out.

I started searching oatmeal and zucchini and I found an awesome recipe for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Zucchini Muffins. They are delicious, easy, and semi healthy! The muffins can be frozen and heated up in the mornings for a healthy breakfast on the way to work.

Little man helped me make these and has ate 2 of them already! He loves chocolate like his Meemo!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:

1/3 Sugar

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup of Oats (Old fashioned)

1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder

1/2 tsp of Nutmeg

1/2 tsp of All Spice (or use cinnamon)

1 Tablespoon of Splenda Brown Sugar (optional)

1- 1.5 cups of shredded Zucchini

2 Tablespoon of oil (or sub. apple sauce)

1 egg

3/4 fat free milk

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

1. Oven to 400 degrees. Fill muffin pan with liners.
2. Large bowl stir dry ingredients
3. Small bowl combine zucchini, egg, oil, egg, milk
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients
5. Stir in chocolate chips
6. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 20 mins.
7. Cool and eat or freeze muffins for later...ENJOY!!!

Recipe Adapted from: http://www.fitness.com/recipes/61/zucchini_chocolate_chip_muffins.php

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Awesome Squash Casserole

Today we tried out an awesome recipe for Boston Market Squash Casserole for dinner and to freeze for a later. We are trying out recipes to use up the zucchini and squash and that can be easily frozen. This recipe is a definite winner and very easy to make. We loved the squash, zucchini, cheese, and corn muffins combination. It does take a little time to bake, but so worth it!

Joey said we should eat this at Thanksgiving...I could not agree more! Check out the recipe we used at: http://www.food.com/recipe/boston-market-squash-casserole-77201?scaleto=8&mode=null&st=true

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Free Walmart Deals

Free Deals with coupons

Today we did a quick run into Walmart to get some necessities and freebies! I had coupons from P&G Coupon Insert for July for $1 off cascade making the 97 cent miniature packs of dishwasher cascade FREE! I bought 20 of them. (I bought 20 coupons off of eBay for $1.10).

My next deal was to by Bayer Aspirin that was $2.22 and I had a coupon for $3. Making the Aispirin free plus overage of .88 cents to go towards my other groceries. I bought 14 of the aspirins. I would have bought more but I didn't want to clear the shelf.

Our total was $96 and went down to $19. Not too bad since we bought 2 packs of pull ups, wipes, milk, 2 OJ, 2 Blueberries, strawberries, Oranges, Onion, eggs, deodorant, a bag of popcorn, 20 cascades, and 14 Bayer Aspirins.

(I did price match the milk, eggs, fruit, and pull-ups plus used coupons on diapers, wipes, and deodorant.) We love good deals!

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1st Trip To The Movies

Standing in Front of the Theater

Today was Trey's 1st trip to the Movie Theater at 2 years old (He will be 3 years in 3 short months...oh my!). Mommy and Daddy both had the morning free and decided that a free children's movie would be the perfect venue for his 1st movie experience. He did awesome! He ate popcorn and watched the entire movie of "How To Train Your Dragon." I think we found a new family activity for The Chapman's!

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4th of July Parade

We decided to go to Harrisburg, NC and take in their 4th of July parade! We had a great time with some of our friends from church. The parade started at 9am and it was definately HOT when the parade ended around 10:30.

We enjoyed many of the festive floats! Trey enjoyed waving his flag and clapping for floats and getting a few pieces of candy. His favorite part was seeing the 3 fire trucks. He loves them so much! What a fun morning!




Fire Truck

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Workout Shirt From Pinterest

So I completed another Pinterest project today!

 I wonder how many people actually complete the projects they pin! So, I used an old T-Shirt and started cutting following directions on Pinterest.

It only took me about 15 minutes or less to cut the shirt the way I wanted. This is so easy to do and I love the razor back shirt design. I did add two slits on the bottom sides of the shirt.

Directions courtesy of: http://dollarssenseandmore.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/diy-tank-top-fashion-on-a-budget/

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Monster Burger for the 4th

So, when we were trying to decide on burgers or dawgs for our 4th of July cookout we decided on not multiple burger(s), but one giant, monster burger!

The simplicity of this burger could be found in any "Grilling for Dummies" book.  All that you need is 4 burger patties (we used 85/15 Angus beef) some cheese of your liking and bacon (we used 8 slices).  You can season your beef however you like (garlic salt, hamburger seasoning, etc).  For our Monster Burger we used Colby and Muenster cheese.  You can use any kind of bun you like, we used a Hawaiian Sweet Roll that normally is pulled apart into four dinner rolls, but I thought (and is where my idea came from) "why not put the burgers on the whole roll and then cut it from there."

We layered the burger patties with bacon and then the cheese and did this four times.  The toppings of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and whatever condiments you choose to put on is all in what you prefer.

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Target Freebie

I love Target Mobile Coupons!

 I always search the clearance racks to find some good clothing deals. Today, I found a Tank Top on clearance priced at $3 and I had a mobile coupon for $3 making for a free tank top! (Don't forget to bring a reusable bag to get 5 cents off to help cover some of the tax at Target)

Gotta love free deals!

Wanna sign up for the free Target Mobile Coupons sent to your phone, then TEXT:  OFFERS to 827438

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Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog!  We hope you enjoy our adventures of tailgates (recipes), timeouts (activities, couponing, and cool ideas/things to try), and travels (our little adventures)!

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Noodles And Oodles of Fun!!!

This is a great activity to keep your toddler busy...who knew that expired stockpile noodles, several poker chips, and an empty baby wipes box could be so much fun!

I've used similar activities in my Autism classroom to help work on sensory and fine motor skills development.

I filled a conatiner with old expired noodles and hid the poker chips (or other small items - bouncy balls, army men, etc) of different colors inside the noodles for kids to dig through and find.

After finding the coins or other objects, he placed them in the empty baby wipe container.  He pretented to make baskets with the poker chips.  He did this activity 2 times in a row and then again 15 minutes later for Daddy when he got home from basketball, yelling for him to come watch him play his "new game!"

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Homemade Laundry Detergent

Our stockpile of laundry detergent was running low and there were no good deals to be found. We decided to experiment and make our own from scratch after researching the web.

Ingredients:

     1 box of Borax (4lb 12oz box)

     1 box of Arm & Hammer Super

     Washing Soda (3lb 7oz)

     1 container of OxyClean (3lb)

     6 bars of Fels Naptha soap (5.5oz each)

     1 box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (4lb)

     1 bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener

     (55 oz purple bottle-lavender scent)

The longest time was spent grating the soap with a cheese grater (it really did look like cheddar cheese, but I'm sure the taste was a lot worse - I couldn't get Joey to try it!)

To mix the ingredients we made a Chapman Assembly Line of all the boxes and containers and poured a little bit of each ingredient into our 20 quart/5 gallon bin.  We mixed the ingredients together with a wooden spoon after each round of the assembly line.

Our finished product!  Instead of scooping out of the large container we filled up the 3lb OxyClean container with the mixture to make it easier to access for Sarah (it even came with a scoop in the container!)You use 2 tablespoons full of detergent mix for each load of laundry.  We decided to try it out with Joey's really nasty smelly sweaty clothes from his golf trip (if it will work on those, it will work on anything!)



Idea adaped from and courtesy of Pinterest and http://www.howdoesshe.com/cheaper-and-better-diy-laundry-detergent

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Zucchini Pizza Boats

With the abundance of zucchini from our garden we were looking for various different ways to make use of our favorite summer vegetable aside from our ranch zucchini chips, this really hit the spot!

Recipe:

They were very easy...we took zucchini and sliced them in half lengthwise, scooped all the middle out with a spoon and finely chopped the insides up. We took the insides and put them in a pan with a little olive oil and garlic and cook for a bit until sauted. Put one small can of tomato paste and garlic, a table packet of sugar or Splenda, oregano, basil, and parsley (or substitute can of pizza sauce) into a pot and cooked until simmering.  Mix in the sauted insides of the zucchini to the pot and continue to simmer. Add some shredded cheese at the end to thicken up the sauce. While you are preparing the sauce you need to rub the zucchini boats with olive oil and garlic salt and pepper and place in the oven at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  After you take out the zucchini boats fill them with the sauce mixture and cover with pepperoni and your favorite (we used fresh mozzarella chunks) cheese, bake at 425 for 10 more minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Recipe adapted from: http://hungryfitness.com/

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