Adventures in Traveling pt3 Cozumel

Our favorite part of the whole vacation was visiting the Mexican island of Cozumel. We had originally planned to take a taxi to a few spots around the island that I had researched before getting there but when we got off the ship we found it would be only a little more to rent a car for the whole day so that is what we did. Our first stop was Paradise Beach.


After spending a few hours there we jumped in our cute little rental car and headed to the other side of the island. When we asked the rental car guy the best beach and the best place for lunch he gave us a map and drew a line on it and said go here, it was on the opposite side of the island then most of the tourist stuff! We could not believe how beautiful the other side of the island was(the locals definitely know best).



It looked like this for miles and miles! And there were only a handful of people at each beach. They didn't recommend swimming on this side because of the rough water but it was by far the most scenic. We stoped for lunch where our rental car friend told us to, a little place called Coconuts. It was on a cliff overlooking the ocean! Cannot get much better than that.

Our view from Coconuts.
We are so thankful we got to go on this vacation and hope to have another opportunity like this again someday!

Adventures in Traveling pt 2-The Cruise

We didn't want to get off the boat! If you have never been on a cruise before and ever have the chance take it. This was Jason's first cruise and my second. We were on the Royal Caribbean ship Navigator of the Seas and it was HUGE(138,000tons). It could hold over 3,000 people!
My favorite part was dinner! The food and service was outstanding, we even tried escargot.

Yes-that is a snail. It was actually good. The scene from our seat was breathtaking.

After dinner we would do see a show in this beautiful theatre.

The shows were very good! I now think when Simon tells someone on American Idol they sound like someone on a cruise ship I will take it as a compliment!
Laying on the deck was sooooo relaxing and beautiful, all you could see was blue ocean.



There was always something to do, putt putt golf, basketball, drink coffee in the cafe.

Like I said, we didn't want to get off the boat.

Adventures in Traveling pt 1

What a week we have had! We just got back from a 4 day Cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Cozumel. There is so much to share about our trip I am going to break it up into 3 parts.
Part 1- Travel
Part 2- The Cruise
Part 3- Cozumel

We had an absolutly fabulous time despite a little snag. We flew down to Florida on Wednesday night on Skybus Airlines. Both Jason and I felt pretty sick in some way on the flight, we still aren't sure why, but once we hit the ground we felt much better-we think the cabin pressure was off but everyone else seemed to be fine. We planned to fly back on Skybus Monday evening after getting off the boat. BUT...on Sunday morning we found out that Skybus went out of business cancelling all flights from Saturday on. Now what are the chances that we a.)Were out of town b.)had flown Skybus c.)were in Mexico when they made the announcement! I mean come on....what are the chances. Luckily one of our family members on the boat had been watching one of the news channels and saw it go across the screen. We really thought they were joking when they told us. Determined not to let it spoil our vacation we emailed our friends asking them to do a little research so we would know our options-email was our best options considering it cost $13 a min to call out and .55 cents a minute to email. Luckily our friends had been working on this for us before we even know about it and reserved us a flight a day after we had planned and had made arrangements for us to stay with a friend in Miami.
Here we are with our friend Joey-we had a great time hanging out in Miami.


Our original flight was going from Ft Lauderdale to Charlotte to New Orleans to Columbus. We decided to get to the airport early and see if we could get a better conection. We ended up getting a connecting flight to Columbus from Charlotte without paying any extra! This was a total blessing. And guess who we ran into at the Charlotte airport?



Univeristy of Kentucky Basketball player Ramel Bradley! Jason reconized him as he was going into the bathroom and called out his name. I was really confused until I realized who he was. And can you believe Jason had his UK shirt on? How cool. Thank you Skybus!

Angel Food

I just picked up this months Angel Food stash. Ever since I started in December-again a tip from my good friend Emily-I have really enjoyed this program. For those who aren't familiar here is their link I think Jason would agree we have been eating pretty well these past few months and saving money while doing it. You get tons of food for only $30. Here is a sample menu(actually next months).

2 lb. Fully Cooked Meatloaf
1 lb. Beef Fajita Strips
3 lb. Breaded Frying Chicken
2 lb. St. Louis Style Ribs
2 lb. Lasagna Dinner Entrée
1 lb. Gourmet Sausage
1 lb. Fully Cooked Meatballs
16 oz. Broccoli
15 oz. Refried Beans
12 ct. Tortillas
26 oz. Pasta Sauce
16 oz. Pasta
6 oz. Pancake Mix
16 oz. Fresh Carrots
3 lb. Golden Yukon Potatoes
4 oz. Chicken Noodle Soup (Makes 64 oz.)
4 lb. California Oranges
1 Dessert Item

I also just came across a website that has meal ideas and recipies that use these items here. I think this is going to be pretty helpful.

Easter Fun!

We just got back from a great weekend with my family in Piqua. It is so fun celebrating Easter together. It was a little cold but that didn't stop the kids-Faith(8), Evan(4), Issy(4) and Abby(2) from hunting eggs outside. There was no shortage of food but we almost went without dessert, which in my family would be a DISASTER. To make a long story short my mom baked some brownies that spilled over into the oven creating a smoke filled house-they set off every alarm! Luckily I had an extra brownie mix on hand to bake before coming over-I guess I saved Easter?

I must say the best part of the weekend though was going to Meijer with my sister Amanda! She has recently gone a little coupon crazy like myself and we both got some great deals but she really did well thanks to a $6 coupon that printed last time she was there. Check this out!


All this for a total of $4.23(she saved over $40!) Way to go Mandy!

CVS'ing

So most of you reading this already know but I have been working the CVS deals(basically getting LOTS of free stuff) for about 6 weeks. And let me tell you it has been worth the effort, and stress at times. This was my latest trip to CVS. All of the items pictured should have totaled 15.07(carefully calculated so I could use my $5/$15 coupon!). I did make a last minute adjustment to add the lip gloss instead of the dish soap I was going to get as a "filler". BIG MISTAKE! The lip gloss should have rang up for 30cents but it rang up for 2.99 and I didn't realize it until the receipt printed out-I was suspicious because I thought I calculated everything and it was a few dollars more then I thought. So after a long 10 minutes we finally got it worked out. Here are my final deal numbers

Total Before Coupons 15.07
-10.30 in coupons
Total after Coupons 5.07
Used 5 ECB's(Extra Care Bucks from previous purchases)
.07 Out of Pocket
and I earned 7 ECB's

Not Bad Huh....

Check out this link if you want to know where I learned my tricks!

Oh...and here are my biggest lessons learned!
1. Always be nice to the cashier NO MATTER WHAT!
2. Plan ahead
3. Stick with the plan if possible
4. Have a back up-most likely they will be out of something!
5. Take your ad with you! I always forget what is on sale...
6. Avoid being in a hurry...that is when I make mistakes.

Blizzard of 08

What a weekend! Both of us got off work early Friday because of the snow but we didn't quite realize what we where in for! This is what was outside our door on Saturday afternoon at about 4pm.








20.4 Inches of SNOW(my dad didn't believe me until he saw it on Fox News)! Luckily we left the snow shovel by the door so we didn't have to get in the garage. It took Jason(Beth did a little but we only had one snow shovel and being the gentleman that Jason is he did most of it) around 4 hours to shovel us out! We must say though- other then the shoveling it was a great weekend being snowed in.