Our church did an outreach event this afternoon. As we were driving by our last house to visit, we drove by Sonic, and what did we see?
I felt like I met my superhero!!!!
Anyway, thought I'd share, while I'm sipping on my Happy Hour Diet Cherry Limeade!
~The Curry's
Hello to all of those that read our blog (which consist of maybe 5 people :) ). I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. From the move, to settling, to our house warming party. A lot! But for now, I wish to share a recipe with you. Tonight we had over some very special guests. They were Linda and Jon (our Real Estate agent and her husband, which he did a lot too!), and our broker, Jeanette. I call them our friends. Well last night, I did not know yet what to cook. But I knew I had a roast to cook, and thought, Mexican food sounded good. So I decided to try a new flavor, I have a Weber marinate seasoning and added a lil bit to it.
Tonight's Menu:
Chipotle Lime and Cilantro pulled beef
Jalapeno Honey Lime Vinaigrette w/a nice side salad w/chopped romaine lettuce, sliced red onions, tomatoes, and avocado.
Amy's Salsa :) (super yummy, a chunky salsa)
Pico De Gallo
Cilantro Lime Rice (like Chipotle's)
Homemade Guacamole
Grande Tortilla Chips: Salsa Limon- J and mines new love :).
Ok, well the last blog shared how our life may of had a few bumps in the road. Through all the bumps, God has still been there. These past couple of weeks we have been overwhelmed. As I've told you before Jason's resume has been out since August 2008. There were times we've been discouraged but we knew God had something in store. Well what has happened these past few weeks, have been a whirwind!
Jason has had a couple of interviews with Search Committees from about 3 churches. (1 in Louisiana, 2 in Texas) We were excited about these and Jason felt good about each of them. Our prayer was to go where God wanted us. A church in Irving, called and asked for a third interview (Jason had two prior interviews with them, one phone, the other in person with just him, this third interview, included me), we were pretty excited, and the search committee team we met were great, including the Pastor and Executive Pastor. We were not sure how it went, until..........
June 23, Jason called me and said "How are you?", I said "Good, how are you?", his response "I'm on cloud 9, Irving offered me the job." My response "Seriously?!?!". We were overwhelmed and excited. The next steps would be prayer and asking a few more questions. Jason wanted to talk to Keith (chairman of the search committee), and ask a few questions. He called him on Wednesday and they spoke, after prayer and talking with each other, we thought "God, this is too much, is this where you want us?" We knew it was. Jason called on Thursday to say "I am humbled and honored to accept." From then on, confirmation after confirmation, told us this was where we were suppose to be.
The next step was to be prepared for a place a live. I say, prepared, because we still had a meet and greet with the church, and they had to vote on us. So we decided to go Apartment Hunting, not fun! We then, for entertainment applied for a house loan to see if we were approved, and we were.Which then started a new phase.........housing hunting.
Through the house hunting process, we found an amazing lady who is a member of the church, Linda Stone. Such a wonderful lady, who has made this process so easy. We could not imagine doing this with anyone else! She has helped us with every step of the way, including helping us meet another great lady, Jeanette, who has been working on our loan. We plan to use Linda each time we move, regardless where! :) After a couple weekends and many phone calls and emails, I am happy to say we have found a house and are under contract. And as long as all goes well, we hope to sign papers end of August.
So, to conclude this story, Keith came and brought us info on the church, it was good to start to see what and who the church was. Next we met with Larry the executive Pastor and his wife, Carrie, we went to Pf Changs (very good!) and had a great tme. We had a meet and greet, where we met with the church family this past Saturday, such a precious/loving/fun group. Had a tour of the church, signed a contract for the house and then went to relax!The church gave us a great weekend with putting us up in a room at the Embassy Suites, such a relaxing and fun time. We really needed it! Then on Sunday, we met with more workers and volunteers and Jason got voted as the new Minister of Young Families for Plymouth Park Baptist Church!
We are so excited and scared at the same time. Jason has already worked two days and is blown away at how blessed he is, we hope to move in about two weeks to temporary housing and then in September move into our house! In the meantime I am finishing up my job at SWBTS, my last day being July 22. I am asked if I'm going to find a job, currently not right now, going to focus on the move and my RA, as well as getting involved and knowing my new church family. I hope also to blog a little more with recipes and life!
We right now want to pinch ourselves, because life is pretty amazing. Thank you all for your continued words of encouragement and prayer! (felt those prayers all the time!) Please don't stop praying though, please continue praying for us as we enter this next step in this thing called life.....
Well the last blog I wrote was about a recipe, almost 3 months ago! A lot has happened it feels like. April kind of flew by, finishing up classes and working, and Jason working as well. May was not the greatest month for us, Jason got "let go" from the seminary. That was on a Wednesday, the Monday before this we got a rock thrown through our window at about 3 a.m. Funny thing of it is, that J woke up from the sound, I did not. I woke up to J calling security and then we called the police. You may of seen pictures of our porch, w/the pretty swing and the outdoor plastic furniture and table. Well they took the plastic furniture, and left the swing, took the table but decided two doors down they no longer wanted it, but left our swing :). So Jason went and got it. But hey, that is life, and we were not sure why people needed to steal our furniture for, all we knew to do was to pray for them. Jason spent all day cleaning up the house, he's a pretty good guy.
Jason has also been going back and forth to J'Ville to help his dad remodel his parents house and for Memorial Weekend we got to go to KS and see family! Including our nieces :)..... who we get to see in a few days! This past Friday, Jason and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. We cooked at home and had a nice meal, did not feel like going out, have had a rough couple of weeks and a night at home and a movie was the perfect recipe. I can't believe its already been 5 years, and they have been good years, some rough days/weeks/months at times, but we have been through it together, and there is no one else I would rather go through these times than Jason :). He's my best friend. We honestly have made it because of God, when we were going through the bad and good times, I would think, "how do people make it w/out God" for us, its unimaginable.
A quick update on our status, I have decided to no longer continue school. My RA(rheumatoid arthritis) has been one big factor in this decision, working full time, being a wife and a student. Has been too much for me. Jason is actively seeking ministry positions, and we are currently praying where God wants us. (he has had a few interviews, so that is good!) In the month of April, we sat and talked and felt God calling us to childrens ministry. This is something you could say we have been saying "no" to or didn't think we were called to. The more we talked about what God wanted us to do, we knew that we were called to Childrens ministry. So, after J's resume being out for about 8 months, and never getting any phone calls, we are now getting phone calls and emails. I guess when you finally do what God calls you to do, things start happening :). So we are ready to do full-time ministry, and I will either stay at home and help J, or still help J and only work part-time due to the RA.
Keep praying for us, we will be having some decisions to make soon about what we are to do and follow where God wants us.
So, I had a roast that I needed to use. I created a pretty good yummy recipe, I'd like to share it w/you:
Roast (I had a 3-5 lb roast)
2 packets of Taco Seasoning
1 can of Chipotle Tomatoes or Hot Rotel
I cooked this in a crockpot all day (started from a frozen state, so I cooked it on HIGH for 7-8 hours). Cook until Tender. Once the meat was tender, I broke it up and let the meat soak up the juices. (cooked for about another 30-60 minutes)
To serve, I had tostada shells, then spread refried beans on the shells, added the meat, topped it with cheese. Cooked in the oven until the cheese melted. Topped with lettuce, gaucamole, sour cream, and salsa. Pretty good!
Served with rice.
Anyway, just a thought if you need to revamp a roast recipe.
~Tonya
I have an article on my coupon blog to explain the beginning of the coupon game.
Link here.
~Tonya
Some have asked me for coupon help. I am currently working on "Step by Step" how I do this. First off I learned by doing all of this by joining the Grocery Game, www.grocerygame.com. It is a big help. But I will hopefully w/in a week have the instructions all laid out of how I have acheived by only paying 75% for my groceries on average. You can go ahead and see my savings by clicking on labels "coupons, grocery games".
I am also starting a new blog for this, click here.
Thanks,
Tonya :)
Well some of you have emailed me asking me the "results" of shopping, I got guesses of $38 , $15, and $56.43 :).....
Well heres the results:
McCormick Taco Seasoning-----20 at 12.5 cents a pack
Rosas Refried Beans------------20 at .50 a can
Lysol Wipes (BOGO)------------------4 at 1.00 each
Frenches Mustard-------------12 at FREE :)
Pace Picante (full size 16 oz) ------23 at .50 a piece (my husband fell in love w/me all over again)
Hormel----------------------------8 at FREE
Nestle Cookies (Break n Bake) ------------12 at 1.00 a pack
Triscuits/Wheat Thins-------------------24 at .89 box
Gold Fish---------------------------------11 at FREE
Kroger Pam------------------------------1 at 1.99
Pam Olive Oil----------------------------1 at 1.89
Nestle treasures-------------------------1 at 1.00
Vitamins--------------------------------1 at 5.99
Ragu----------------------------------10 jars at .25
Ragu-----------------------------------2 jars at .50
Hunts----------------------------------4 cans ( 8.oz) at .10 each
A Total of 154 Items
So original cost before savings would of been $300.00
After SAvings and before coupons-----------$200.00
After Coupons (drum roll please)------------$75.00
Each item averaged .50 /item :)
I saved 75%... it still amazes me. Alone in coupons I saved $125.00, isn't that just crazy??? Well if you want to know more of the "secrets" shopping with coupons, let me know.......stay tuned til next time!!
Jason and I truly praise God after each of our grocery runs. God has blessed us with the "grocery game" that I am now been trained because of the website (http://www.grocerygame.com/) and am able to do it on my own. We are able to have food on our table each night, share with others (including Ms.Ella at Krogers), and be able to pay our bills and not worry.
Have a great weekend!
~Tonya (and a very proud hubby)
These are the pictures of what I bought. Yes ....... I did buy a lot, for only 2 people. But I do share :). The point of the "grocery game" is to stockpile. So I stockpiled on a lot of items. I will not need to buy these items again in a long long time.......so here are the pics of what I got.......Guess how much!! (Everyone expect Amanda can guess, b/c she went shopping w/me)
So here is all I got........Can you guess how much??????
| McCormick Taco Seasoning | 20 |
| Rosas Refried Beans | 20 |
| Lysol (BOGO) | 4 |
| Frenches Mustard | 12 |
| Pace Picante (full size 16 oz) | 23 |
| Hormel | 8 |
| Nestle Cookies (Break n Bake) | 12 |
| Triscuits/Wheat Thins | 24 |
| Gold Fish | 11 |
| Kroger Pam | 1 |
| Pam Olive Oil | 1 |
| Nestle treasures | 1 |
| Vitamins | 1 |
| Ragu | 10 |
| Ragu | 2 |
| Hunts | 4 |
