another multi topic post

first,  I'll show the CVS deal I did this week- we won't run out of toilet paper anytime soon :)

The Kleenex and Scott were on sale and when you purchase $30 of it, you get back a $10 CVS gift card.  The paper towels were free with a coupon from the red coupon scanner box and is one that will print one time for every card holder.

I only had 1 manufacturer coupon ( I think I could of found more if I had looked harder but I didn't have time) but even still,  I got everything for $21.83 and got back another $10 gift card.  

To plan out  my CVS shopping,  I scan over the future ads posted at Slick Deals.Net in the Forums.   this site usually has the next 3-4 future weeks ads.
I don't plan to shop at CVS next week but I am going Thanksgiving week as CVS has lots of items that week that end up free with the extra care bucks refund.  So I will save that $10 gift card to roll on to those free deals.


that is our hall bathroom.  It had a 24 inch wide door on it which made it hard to get into if a person was using a walker or a wheelchair.  Our son is just an amazing handyman and he changed out the 24 inch door for a 36 inch wide door.

My husband changed out the toilet for a chair height toilet with grab bars.

it is really nice having family members that can do stuff like change doors and toilets and that happily do it!
about this bathroom,  the walls are pale yellow but I don't like the yellow rugs on the floor.  We had black ones in the past but they always looked lint-y.  We had white ones and they just got dirty fast.
Any decorating advice on what color or design of rugs would look good with yellow walls and black-white toile?


Grand daughter Andie was here with her handyman extraordinaire daddy. She like playing in the backyard dirt pit as much as her cousins.

Grand daughter Elizabeth was here that windy day too. She liked making bouquets out of catalpa tree leaves.  

Our weather has turned COLD and grandson JJ needed some long sleeve shirts.  I needed to drop some donations off at the thrift store so I shopped a little while I was there.  
I found lots of little boy long sleeve shirts and some comfy wind pants.

Notice the 5 tiny baby onesies on the top 2 rows?  They were just 10 cents each and since we are expecting 2 more grand babies,  I couldn't resist.  We don't know yet if these 2 new cousins are boys or girls and they won't be here until late spring.  

The waiting is hard but I am sure we will be so busy and the time will go fast. 

CVS deal and a delicious new supper recipe

I haven't shopped for deals at CVS in a few weeks but when I saw this Huggies diaper deal,  it was one I knew I should do.

I followed these instructions to print my coupons .  I also had a CVS scanner coupon that took off another $1.50.
I spent $19.13 for 4 packs of diapers and got back a $10 CVS card that can be spent on just about anything. (I will be looking for a future deal to spend it on)  I especially like that the Consumer Queen had all the details of this deal in one place and it took almost no effort on my part to.  Some deals are just so complicated but this one was easy.

Have you read The Iowa Housewife's blog?  She has cooking tips and beautiful food photos with the recipes.  I read a pork chop recipe she had last week and was sure my husband would like it.  So,  I made it yesterday and it is a keeper recipe.  It is a lot like a chicken rice recipe I have made for years but this one has bell peppers in it.  

Baked Pork Chops and Rice from Sue- The Iowa Housewife 

I cooked ours just like she did,  but used less salt and just used 3 large pork chops .

Thank you Sue~

So far this week.....

Yesterday was Election Day in the US.  I watched some of the news coverage about the results this morning, politicians on both sides were vowing "to get things done" 

I guess time will tell if they do. I'm not holding my breath though.......

I made out a short to do list on Monday and am thankful most of it is done and has been scratched off. 

We shopped at the commissary yesterday, which is a good but funny place to shop. 

The produce looked especially good and many of the things we wanted were good prices. Besides these 2 winter squash, we also bought yellow crooked neck squash and zucchini. I don't think we have ever bought 4 kinds of squash at one time. This is funny because my husband really only ate corn, green beans, potatos and salad when we got married, now he likes most everything. (Except cream cheese, sour cream and Ranch)

Most of the produce was priced by the pound. 

It was funny to me that our giant head of cabbage was priced by the head- it was just 33 cents for a head of cabbage that weighs almost 5 pounds. 

We will be eating lots of vegetables over the next few weeks.

And Even at the commissary, I use coupons! 

My daughter's Autumn mantel

She said everything is from previous years except for the burlap canvas.  She bought the burlap canvas at Hobby Lobby and made the design with her Silhouette.

The burlap canvas is hung in front of a framed mirror.

I think it turned out so nice! 

Thank you to everyone who left comments about my commenting problems. I have a gmail account and I am going to see about switching to it for blogging. Hopefully that will work out the glitch,  we will see........

Weekend doings and Blog Comment problems

First- I've been having trouble leaving comments on some blogs. I can add the comment and it looks like it was done but on blogs that have comment approval,  some of my comments don't go through and I get a long jibberish email saying this

Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

Mail Delivery Subsystem

To

3_RtUVAoJCS4cdgYVSfObniKRYY.MYW0bYRpYPecKYV.MYW@blogger.bounces.google.com

Oct 31 at 6:32 PM

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
and it goes on and one but that is the top of the emails.

It is very frustrating and I have been in contact with some of the bloggers.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to get my comments to go through or how to fix this?

I have certainly been annoyed by spam commenters. 
My blog comment settings seem to be working pretty good on filtering out spam right now- I don't have the word verification,  commenters have to be registered users and I only require approval on comments on posts more than 7 days old. 


now on to more pleasant topics......

we get most of our eggs from some country friends that home-grow them.  We haven't had any for a few months but they have new hens now.  The eggs are small but aren't the colors pretty? there are 4 shades of white, beige and brown.  The blue eggs are the bluest chicken eggs I've ever seen.

3 of the grands were here at the same time and they liked digging in the new dirt pit. 

When I helped my parents downsize, I got 2 very nice bundt cake pans.  I used this rose shaped one to bake a yellow cake

I frosted it with the chocolate frosting left from last week's acorn project. The frosting had been in a covered bowl in the fridge and was fine. Waste not, want not!

Costume fun-

This is my daughter in law Sheena at her job on Friday.  She is as pretty and as sweet as an angel too  

below- the 2 little pirates are granddaughter Andie and her cousin Lily.  I think the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy passing out candy are so funny~  the man is really named Andy but I am amazed he is happily dressed as a big rag doll. 

here are 2 of my grands in costume looking forward to candy.