I Agree; Everyone DOES Need an Alice!

The other day while discussing how we could probably reduce our monthly spending by limiting our trips to the store (because how many times do you buy more than what you went after?) I discovered Alice, an online shopping sensation!

It’s free to setup an account and they offer FREE SHIPPING!! You can buy many of the items you would at your normal brick-and-mortar at discounted prices and some food items. Plus, Alice will show you competitor prices too! And, oftentimes there are coupons in effect so you save even more!

No, this is not a sponsored post. (But, hey Alice – I’d be happy to do one for you!)

I’ve been wanting to do more online shopping for our random things – toiletries, paper goods, etc. and Alice even has a reminder thing that allows you to set how often you typically buy these products and it will remind you. You can also choose to add your favorite regularly purchased items to “My Products” so you don’t have to search the next time you need to order.

Sometimes the prices are not a TON less, or possibly not at all less than say WalMart, but many times it is and the convenience is definitely worth something. Plus, I figure if I order more things this way it will keep me from lurking around the aisles in person and grabbing random things we don’t actually need, and that can really add up.

I placed my order on Sunday night and came home today to find my box of goodies

nicely packaged

with some freebies!

Here’s what I bought:

• Crest Fresh Mint Toothpaste (6.2oz) $3.06 – $1.00 Coupon = $2.06
• Crest Fluoride Toothpaste (8.2oz) $3.19 – $1.00 Coupon = $2.19
• Secret Deodorant (2.6oz) $3.95 – $0.50 Coupon = $3.45
• Quaker Instant Hot Cereal (8 pack) $4.39 – $1.00 Coupon = $3.39
• Lever 2000 Bar Soap (2 pack) $1.95
• Fiber One Toaster Pastry (6 pack) $2.39 – $0.51 Coupon = $1.88
• Alpo Dog Treats (16oz) $2.15
• Tax $0.82
• Shipping – FREE!

I had $4.01 in coupons and ended up spending $17.89 for these 7 items. I don’t recall specific prices in the local stores, but doesn’t seem to bad to me so far! I just don’t have time to clip coupons, read the paper and plan my trips around town to get the best price on stuff so this works out pretty well for my lifestyle.

I think the website could be a little better to navigate (part of it I think is due to the settings on our monitor?), but other than that my experience has been very positive and I look forward to doing more shopping this way. I want to start paying closer attention to prices on items in the store so I have a better idea of how much I’m really saving.

Oh, AND one of my favorite things…Yep! There’s an app for that! It needs some work as it was crashing for me a bit. But, not only can I do my shopping from my phone but they have a scanner where you can take a photo of a sku on a product and instantly see if they stock it! Fabulous! I’ve been going around the house scanning everything in sight like I am registering for a wedding!

Do you do this type of shopping online? What are your favorite sites from which to shop?

 

 

Dare to Give Homemade Gifts

 

It’s another edition of Kim’s Dare to DIY Blog Party and this week is about DIY gifts, which I :::heart::: tremendously. I’ve got a few things in the works this year but I realized I had better not post them yet so I won’t spoil the surprise. I will try to post on this year’s gifts after Christmas though. I will, however, share a couple things I did last year, hope you enjoy!

 

 Rice Krispy Treat Bags

 

  

Gifts in a Jar: Sand Art Brownies and Smores

Dare to Eat Cookies!

 

This is probably my favorite challenge from Kim’s Dare to DIY Blog Party. I have been waiting to do this since I read “Eat Cookies”!

So, ladies and gentlemen, (do men really read this blog? If not, they probably should, right?! Especially THIS post.) Anywho…I give you Alton Brown’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Wait…You’ve never heard of Alton Brown? Seriously? The Mastermind behind Good Eats? You must be kidding me. Surely the Meckleys aren’t the only household that has Good Eats on 24/7 and DVRs every single episode?

Oh. Okay. Perhaps we are. You might have found humor in my exageration but I’m only slightly ashamed to tell you that is the God honest truth; Andy has Good Eats on every single day. I nearly broke his heart when I accidentally erased everything on our DVR, which included the Good Eats 10th Anniversary show. Oops. Luckily he has forgiven me. For the most part.

Regardless, let me tell you, as usual, Alton is on to something with this recipe! While watching this episode I realized the reason my chocolate chip cookies were often flat is probably because I used too much baking soda. Baking is not like cooking, you must be very precise in your measuring.

Andy & I made these babies a few weeks ago and he insistedwe go out and buy not onlly the proper ingredients, but a large scoop so we could make giant cookies. As it turns out,  we should’ve bought a Pampered Chef scoop because the $11 scoop from the Kitchens store was junk so I made Andy return it. The PC scoop is on my Christmas List if any of you wants to send us a gift.

But I digress…we made the giant cookies and they were everything I had hoped for and more!

Here’s what you need:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• #20 ice cream scooper (or Large Pampered Chef Scoop!)

I agree that buying the proper ingredients makes all the difference; these cookies are amazing! I’ve decided these are the difference-makers:

• REAL vanilla extract
• DARK brown sugar
• BREAD flour

Believe me, you will taste a difference! This is what you need to do:

• Melt butter. Set aside.
• Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. I think this is the first time I’ve ever sifted ingredients since my 7th grade home ec class, but I do it because Alton said to do it!
• Cream butter and sugars on medium speed.
• Add the eggs, milk and vanilla until well mixed.
• Slowly incorporate the flour mix until thoroughly combined.
• Stir in chocolate chips.
• Chill the dough (Another difference maker!!)
• Scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
• Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe from the Food Network.

Mmmm….these are my absolute favorite! Andy’s too!

 

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Ever since we got this house it has been Andy’s dream to get a giant tree to put in front of the window in the great room. Last year we got a “normal” sized tree for the dining room but I told him we needed to hold off on the giant tree, $500+ just wasn’t in the budget for another tree. While out shopping last weekend we decided to check Craigslist and we found a 13′ tree that was a much better fit for our budget!

We decided to put it up the other night and I must admit, it does look pretty nice!

 

 

Even the boys were pretty tired by the time we got it up and running.

 

Who Has Spoiled Dogs??

I do! I do!

Although, I don’t know if I’m more spoiled, or the dogs with Handy Andy’s new contraption. He decided that since neither one of us enjoys going out in the snow to let the boys in and out, he would put a little door in their fence so we could put them out through the window in the basement.

Most people would stop there. Not Handy Andy. Nope. He thought we needed a ramp so the boys could walk up and out themselves so we don’t have to pick up their chubby butts and toss them out. So, now we’ve got this in the basement: 

 

 

 

 

It works pretty well!

Vinyl Decals for Makenna’s Room

Our good friends the Wilsons were expecting a new bundle of joy on December 18th.  For their gift I did some custom decals for the baby’s room, which coordinated with their gender-neutral bedding set. And because I love them so much, I even put the decals up for them too. Well, I should clarify…Daddy-to-be-Dave was a fabulous assistant while Handy Andy and soon-to-be Mommy Renee supervised.

Dave & Renee wanted something simple, that would grow with the room and the baby over the years. They settled for a a few geometric shapes on each side of the window and a cute quote above the changing table/dresser:

Renee also wanted the baby’s name above the crib but because they didn’t know if they were having a boy or girl we’d have to wait awhile. Renee had one request, she asked us nicely if as soon as we got the text message with the baby’s name, would we please put up the name before they came home. Sure, no problem we said.

The design for the name decal again was pretty simple for the most part but they wanted it in brick red letters outlined in brown. She kept telling me there was no rush on the name decal, we had plenty of time. But,  I was a little nervous wondering if the machine or materials would give me trouble the day I needed to get it done ASAP. So, I told her I would make a decal for each name they picked out, “CARTER” and “MAKENNA”, and we’d just use whichever one we needed. That way they would be there, ready to go and I wouldn’t have to worry about having issues and not getting it up in time.

We put the decals up just before her baby shower on November 7th so her family from out of town could see the almost finished room. Then I wrapped up the name decals and gave that to her at the shower and told her to be sure to put the decals in the closet so I’d know where to find it when the big day came.

So, keep in mind that was just over a week ago on the 7th and Baby Wilson was expected slightly over a month from now on December 18th.

Yesterday Renee e-mailed me around 8AM and asked if I’d send photos of the room as-is without the name decal so I did. I thought it was a little odd that she never replied but thought maybe she was in meetings all day. Then, a little after lunch I got a text that Dave & Renee  were blessed with a beautiful little daughter. Turns out that Renee noticed something didn’t feel quite right with the baby so they saw the doctor around 9:30 AM who promptly got them in for a c-section and at 11:31 little 5 lb 1 oz Makenna was here! I’m sure yesterday morning must’ve given them quite the scare but thankfully, I’m told both Mom & baby are doing very well.

Needless to say I was also surprised at Makenna’s early arrival, we certainly didn’t expect to finish her room for another month! Not a huge deal…Andy & I only had plans to go pick up our 13 FOOT CHRISTMAS TREE that he has not stopped asking for since we moved into our house (I’m sure we’ll be posting more on that later!), but we were already pretty tired from our early morning gym schedule. So, we followed our mantra of MSH (Make Sh- er,  I mean Make Stuff Happen)

On the drive over to the Wilsons we were discussing how Dave promised he would leave us a marker so we knew exactly where they wanted the decal placed but I assured Andy there was probably no time and that was likely the last thing on their mind yesterday; we’d just have to do the best we could and hope it was right.

I should know better…never underestimate the Wilsons. We walked into Makenna’s room to find this:

 

Look closer…

Correct name decal out, ready to go. But wait, look even closer…

A note telling us exactlywhere the decal should line up. And P.S., it was signed  :::heart::: Makenna.

Now, I’m going to apologize for my poor photography skills because I took the next shot at a bad angle.
Renee, if you’re reading this at the hospital I promise the decal is on straight, centered over the crib.

And here’s another shot from the door:

Welcome home Makenna and congratulations Dave & Renee, you done good! 

Who You Gonna Call?

In the spirit of the season, I give you the Ghostsbusters Multi-Track video.  This makes me very happy. It scored me my first smile of the day when I heard the radio peeps talking about it so I immediately had to look it up and share it with you.

Happy Halloween!!

Fall Festival Party

The Meckley’s threw a Fall Festival/Wine Tasting/Halloween Party last weekend. Andy went all out with a fog machine, strobe light and a great Halloween playlist. The fog machine was awesome, but we had to disable the smoke alarms all through the house!

 

Only a few of us dressed in costume, but it was a fun night anyhow. I told Andy you know you’re getting old when everyone tells you that you threw an awesome party, you feel like you threw a good party, when everyone leaves you get things picked up and then get settled into bed and when look over at the clock you see that it’s not even midnight! Oh well, we all had a good time and I prefer that to our previous knock-down-drag-out-nights followed by a 2-day hangover. The party pretty much died down quickly after watching the Hawkeyes add another notch to their helmets after the nail-biting game against the Spartans. (Yay Iowa!)

Here’s a little run down of our menu and other fun photos:

Caramel Peanut Butter Apple Dip

 

A bag of caramels
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
Splash of milk
Splash of vanilla creamer

Cheese & Fruit for the wine

Cheese Dip
1 box of Velveeta cheese
2 lbs. of browned breakfast sausage

Everyone’s favorite Buffalo Chicken Dip

Apple & Pear Crisp Fake Out
Thanks to Kimba’s recipe
on A Soft Place to Land
Sadly, I don’t think anyone ate any of it! I had a bite later but need to
make it again because I know it’s super delicious.

Harvest Snack Mix
I adapted a recipe I found somewhere online. (Sorry, can’t remember
where!)
This is what I *think* I did:
Mix 4 tablespoons melted butter with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves. (P.S. Note to self, DO NOT try to ground your own whole cloves in your Magic Bullet. You will ruin the plastic cup. Those suckers must be pretty rough or something. Not sure how or why, but I really messed up the cup and I had to toss it.) Then add a bag of popped microwave popcorn and 2 cups of pretzel sticks. Mix well, put in cake pan and toss in oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool, then add in however much you want of candy corn (or pumpkins as you can see), chocolate stars, I threw in some kind of Ritz mini-bites that had frosting, and a cup of Banana Nut Cheerios because I knew they’d never get eaten otherwise. Then again, nobody but me ate this mix. I kinda like it. 

And, last but not least on the menu, my favorite food item of
the night:

This was really fun. Not really easy to eat, and no one really ate much, but it was a great addition. Find a plastic (or in this case styrofoam) skull. Wash well. You could add plastic wrap as someone mentioned at the party but I did not. Mix 2 blocks of cream cheese with whatever seasonings, I used garlic salt & onion powder. Spread on skull and cover with torn pieces of
lunchmeat. I left the eye sockets, nose, and teeth uncovered and popped two
large olives in the eye sockets. Dave decided the head needed a little more so
he added a festive knife:

 

Andy added dry ice to the punch:

  

And to drinks (P.S. we learned you should not add to beer!)

 

I forced my tall blonde babe to dress up like Fred so I could
be Daphne. I pretended for a moment Tiger was Scrappy. Our wigs were terrible, looked nothing like the photo on the front of the package, but oh well, you get the idea, right?!

Of course I had to dress up the boys:

 

The Willetts were super cute all dressed up. Karen even made
Lena’s costume!

 The Duitsmans were great sports. They came from a wedding and
added accessories to their outfits to be in costume, though Tom almost
immediately took off all his cop gear. Amber made a great Flapper girl.

 

Demitrios decided to don my wig:

 And The Elliotts and I had a good time hogging Andy’s remote later in the night so we could kick some old school tunes and reminisce back to our Junior High and High School days. :::singing::: One, Two, Three and To Tha Four…Because I’m Real…Meet Met at the Alter in Your White Dress…

 

And speaking of back in the day, Schmeed even brought us a
bottle of Mad Dog. Funny! That brought back some memories. I never knew it was a form of wine!

All in all, a great night with great friends – some old, some new…Love you all!

A Good Marriage

Okay, so I’m guilty of posting this late and back dating it, but I’m trying to stick with my weekly schedule of Thankful Thursday one way or another.

This week I am thankful for having a good marriage. No, a GREAT marriage and a wonderful partner. On November 1 Andy & I will be celebrating our 1-year anniversary and I couldn’t be happier. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had so many consecutive days of being happy. And as he always says, “we’ve got a lot of life to live.” I can only hope so.

To celebrate we will be headed to the beautiful little town of Galena this weekend to walk downtown, maybe do some shopping, tour a mansion, enjoy a little wine tasting, maybe catch the Halloween Parade and I cannot believe it,  but Andy agreed to a Haunted Dinner & Ghost Tour! =) See, I told you he’s the best!

What are you thankful for today?

Update: Choice Home Warranty Makes Good on Promise

It’s Thankful Thursday people and today I am thankful for social media and how it helped me reach the right person who could help resolve our issue with Choice Home Warranty.

Awhile back I posted a “Buyer Beware” warning detailing the experience we had with CHW. You can read in the comments of that post the discussion that went on between me and Mr. James Moss. I am very pleased to let you all know that Mr. Moss did in fact make good on his word and we received our refund a couple days ago. Mr. Moss was polite and never made me feel like he thought I was trying to pull one over on them, unlike the other rep I had been dealing with who refused our claim through the Better Business Bureau.

Thanks again Mr. Moss for listening to your customers and helping us resolve this issue.I think home warranties can be a great thing, especially when selling your home.  I hope that CHW will take this opportunity to research its current process, attempt to pinpoint where the communication chain between the customers and the customer service reps failed, and work towards improving the process so that this does not happen with other customers.

* * *

On another note, I am NOT thankful for this “unseaonably” cold weather we have been experiencing! But I am thankful that by this time next week Andy will be home from the Ukraine. =)

So, what are you thankful for today?

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