#26-#36

Loving Brandi Wilson is the easiest thing to do. I mean, what is there NOT to love? So, to continue my top #100 things I love about Brandi, here are #26 through #36.

#26: She has some of the neatest children on the planet. Each one has their special-ness, but I love how Brandi encourages them to just be them. :)

#27: I love that she loves Cadburry eggs. I think they're disgusting. :)

#28: I love how she doesn't sleep in the same place every night. Like one night she sleeps with her head at the end of the bed and the next night, she'll sleep with her head at the head of the bed. She even switches which side of the bed she can sleep on. Not me! :) And how she doesn't know which way she's going to sleep until she goes to bed. Who does that?! :)

#29: I love it that she loves a good bag. :)

#30: I love that she uses reusable shopping bags, but she has a lot of different ones from different stores. That girl likes variety! :)

#31: I love that she wants to put smiley faces on her "new-to-her" van. :) OF COURSE SHE DOES! :)

#32: I love that she loves cards -- ones I've made, ones I've just given her, ones in the mail, vintage ones. She just loves cards! :)

#33: I love that I think she really could be friends with anyone. But, I feel really special to be a good friend to her! :)

#34: I love how she writes. I'm convinced that she'll write a book someday. Her sense of humor and the matter-of-factness of her writing is just amazing. :)

#35: I love that she owns a pair of Sketcher Twinkle Toe shoes. :)

#36: She's such an inspiration. She gave me some Wonder Woman cups for my birthday and I feel like I should give them back to her. She's a Wonder Woman to me. :)

I love you, Brandi!!!

So I had this idea. . .

So, over the last week, we were snowed/iced in and I was doing a little research . . . well, just aimlessly surfing the internet. Well, that isn't entirely true. I had "Liked" this Krazy Coupon Lady on Facebook and so I was checking out her stuff.

I've always been curious how coupons were worth it. I mean, if it takes me an hour to cut out some coupons from Sunday's paper and I save a couple (and I do mean only a couple) of dollars, is it worth all the time and energy?

I have done couponing and just been excited to see how much money I saved, but extreme couponers are extremely good at the game of couponing.

So, The Krazy Coupon Lady does this for a living. I'm sure she gets paid by advertisers on her website and TLC just did a pilot show with her in it called "Extreme Couponing". There was a lady on there who bought 125 jars of spaghetti sauce for pennies!! Anyway, it works like this:

* The Krazy Lady researches deals and coupons and she puts them on her website like this from today:

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FEB082011

Target: Cheap & Free Clorox Wipes!

Posted by the krazycouponlady // Target // Comments (15)

There is a new $1.00/1 Clorox coupon on their Facebook Page. Just “like” them and then click on the Products & Offers tab to print your coupon. Stack this coupon with the $0.75/1 Target coupon to make Clorox Wipes only $0.79. Here’s how…

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes 35 ct. $2.54
$0.75/1 – Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, Excludes 9ct Wipes, Target Coupon – (target.com)
$1.00/1 – Clorox Disinfecting Product, Any – (facebook.com)
Final Price: $0.79

Also you can get the Clorox Wipes To Go for Free! Here’s how…

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes To Go $0.97
$1.00/1 – Clorox Disinfecting Product, Any – (facebook.com)
Final Price: Free

Note: Coupon print out at the top of the page, followed by an (ink-wasting) ad. To save on paper & ink, insert just 1/3rd sheet of paper into your printer. Print limit 2, expiration date 30 days from print out.

Thanks, Totally Target

She tells you different scenarios and gives you where to find the coupon, etc. So, it got me thinking . . . what if:

* I get people to give me their coupons. People get the Sunday paper and just throw those things away. I have for a long time!

* I paid attention to the Krazy Coupon Lady's website and when I saw something that was a stock up deal, I took advantage of it. She does most of the work. I just need to kind of know my stores' (or even just 1 store) prices because prices will be different all over the US.

* Then, I can operate a food pantry based solely on couponing! Yes, it might take a little while to stock up on stuff, but I think if I got serious about it (or found someone who was), we could be stocked up in a few months / a year.

* Then, I'm able to give the food away for free or close to free. I think it would even be cheaper than shopping at the food bank!

* Then today, I was thinking, what if this gets to be so awesome and it's working and I can take people in poverty (who are wanting to transition out) and teach them how to coupon. Or even let them come in and pay a little something for the food. Or what if they just paid me what I paid for the item? Then, if they brought a coupon in for the item, I take that amount off.

Make sense? My mind is really going full speed with this thing just wondering if it could work.

Anyway, if you would like to give me those coupons that you would normally throw away, I would love to take them to practice with. I'm going to start trying to play the coupon game with every intention of starting a food pantry this way.

Wish I Was a Foodie . . .

Last night, I watched the movie, Julie & Julia. It was a cute little movie and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. But, it made me realize something about myself.

I AM A PICKY EATER!!

So, Aaron's been telling me this over the past few weeks. We went to Bonterra one night and I tried something new -- some kind of Ravioli with Rockefeller Sauce. I took one bite and knew it wasn't for me. The texture was fine and it looked delicious, but it left an after taste in my mouth that I didn't like. Now, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Bonterra and it's food. That night, I just decided to try something new and it wasn't my thing.

Then, there's other restaurants. I usually don't venture away from something that I know I'll like -- like steak. And, I always order the same thing when I find something that I do like. For example, when I go to

Chili's: Chicken Enchilada Soup & Caesar Salad. Sometimes a turkey sandwich and sometimes Quesadilla Explosion Salad. But, I think that's it.

Or how about Sharon Allen's: Medallions with loaded sweet potato & caesar salad.

Olive Garden: Pasta e Fagoli Soup & Salad

Rosa's: Nacho Salad or sometimes the Taco Plate

Chick-Fil-A: Chicken Sandwich, Fries (sometimes fruit), DP, Polynesian Sauce & Honey Mustard

Anyway, you get the point. But, after watching that movie, it made me wish I was more of a "foodie". I really don't enjoy eating. I don't savor every bite. I either like it or I don't. And sometimes, I decide whether I like it or not based on how it looks.

Here's a list of foods that I don't like . . . just for fun:

* Mushrooms -- they make me sick

* Cottage Cheese -- can't do the texture

* Fish -- just don't like it

* Any type of seafood -- although I did try calamari & octopus while I was in Cambodia

* Sushi

* Weird mixtures of things like in soups or casseroles

* Fried Chicken -- don't like pulling the meat off the bone

* Peppers

* I'm sure there's more . . . I'll try to keep thinking.

Anyway, I wish I enjoyed food more. Or was a little more adventurous with food. I wish I could go to Bonterra and let Joel feed me. Just can't do it. Or maybe I could let Joel because he might push me to try something new, but he might take it easy on me. . . probably wouldn't just walk in and say "Let the chef feed me." Nope, probably not.

On another trip to Bonterra, I ordered the salmon. I know, I'm not a fish person, but it was the only thing on there that I thought MIGHT be ok. I was pleasantly surprised. It had pesto drizzled over the top and it was really good! But, as I got to the end of it, I had had enough and started to get grossed out. But, I would probably order Joel's salmon again.

We were with a party and someone said, "This isn't really your kind of food, is it, Rachel?" My reply, "Nope." They asked what "my type of food" would be. I'm not sure. I like Chinese food (well, certain things) and I like Mexican food (again, certain things), but I don't have anything that is my absolute favorite. Then, we started talking about how we grew up. I grew up mainly on microwave food. My mom didn't like vegetables, so we didn't have them in the house. I was in high school before I ever tried broccoli, which I really liked!

Back to the movie -- I loved how Julie was determined to cook every recipe in that cookbook! She didn't look at the ingredients and decide she didn't like it before she cooked it. . . unlike me.

I'm realizing that my kids are a lot like me . . . or maybe I've become like them. Yeah, that's it!! They take one look at something and decide if they like it or not. Evan's more adventurous with his food. He will most of the time at least try a new food. He does like broccoli and cottage cheese, which are 2 things that Payton and Jaxon won't touch. I think Payton & Jaxon are the pickiest eaters on the planet. Jaxon just wants to eat waffles and chicken nuggets. Payton is just picky and he has been since he was a tiny baby. He never moved past stage 1 baby foods because he didn't like the texture. And, he would only eat sweet potatoes and apple sauce -- stage 1 foods only. Jaxon was kind of the same way, although he did move to stage 2 and stage 3 baby foods.

I want my kids to eat healthier. I want to cook healthier foods. So, I guess that all depends on me. . . oh great. Think Julie could come cook at our house for a little while? If that were the case, I would have to get much better with my facial expressions when something is put in front of me. Guess I'll have to change my eating habits and get over some of my little quirks.

Thank you Juile & Julia for proving that my husband is right -- I am a picky eater. (Sure hoping he doesn't read my blog anymore!)