halloween with my favorite pirate!!

My precious nephew was a pirate this year for Halloween and it was his first time trick-or-treating! Talk about a cutie pie... if he came to my door, I'd give him the whole bowl of candy! Corben was a little skeptical of going door to door to say "trick-or-treat" and get candy but I think that his Aunt Bethy convinced him to keep going for the greater good. =) Meaning of course to satisfy my sweet tooth!

Here is the cutest pirate you'll ever see...

We went to a fall festival before we went trick-or-treating and he liked the games more than the candy!


Corben trick-or-treating... you know this is the cutest thing...
The pirate and his loot!!

a penny-filled pantry

I have always been somewhat frugal and I think this comes from my upbringing. I was taught to work hard and to take care of what God entrusted me to have. I know that money doesn't grow on trees, although I've often suggested this idea to God, but I also know that I was blessed with health and a drive to do well (aka "achiever" for those of you who speak "Strengths-talk"). So I find it funny that I'd never used a coupon before in my life until this year. I mean, I remember my mom using coupons when I was growing up and I'd use the occasional coupon at the mall, but I never thought about using coupons for groceries until this year. I went on a girls weekend trip with my college roommates early this year and while we were there, one of my roommates, Whitney, was telling me about how she uses coupons to get a lot of her toiletries for free. That was it. I was hooked. I went home and googled everything I could about coupons and how to get groceries for free. Its like a game. And it definately has a high. I mean, you go in, get a bunch of stuff, watch your total go up to like $75 dollars, feel your stomach knot up, have the cashier scan the coupons and turn to you and ask you for something like 45 cents!! Bam, you're high! And, on a rare occasion, I've had cashiers look up from the screen with a puzzled look and say "I don't know if I'm allowed to do this or not, but its telling me I owe YOU money, so here it is!" The most I've ever "made" grocery shopping is a little over $2. I actually have a cashier "friend" at one of the grocery stores I go to and she pretty much cheers me on at the register! How fun is that?! She will ask the bagger and I to guess what the total will be before she rings up the last coupon and she will make a big production of it (drum roll noises, a little dance, etc) and then scan the last coupon and all I can do is grin (because remember, at this point I'm high) and laugh and take my mostly free groceries out the door. I learned all the coupon policies at all the different stores, learned the lingo and what works and what doesn't, who "stacks" coupons, what "ExtraBucks" are, and when triple coupon days are. Brandon and I started using a budget for the first time this year on a regular basis and we set our grocery budget each week at $15 and I don't ever go over that. We can honestly feed ourselves and have enough toiletries and other household items for under $15 a week. This spring when we learned that I was going to have to take a pay cut and we were losing some of our support (when we moved to plant the church we had to raise our own support like missionaries) I was so worried. And so wrong to doubt God. This is what my pantry looks like today...

Ask me if I can squeeze one more thing in there... ok, no I can't! And I have several cabinets just as full! God took me by the shoulders and gave me one big shake one day and said "Hello! Don't you see I will always provide for you? Can't you trust me by now? When have I ever let you go hungry?" And I was humbled and in awe. My awesome God had shown me that I didn't need to worry about the money we would be without, in fact, we don't even miss it! We have more food than we ever had before the paycut and my cup overfloweth! How sweet it is to know that I am taken care of by the ultimate Provider.

Here's a little something I like to call my "free closet" not because I got the closet for free, but because everything in the closet was free!!

I have enough toothpaste, dish detergent, aluminum foil, paper plates, etc, to last us a lifetime! God is so good to provide all this!!

Here is my most recent triple coupon trip to Harris Teeter. I got all of this plus a 1.5lb pack of chicken and a frozen pizza (not pictured) for $4.76.
In case you can't tell, that's 10 cans of carnation evaporated milk, 2 bags of No Yolks pasta, 1 bag of Wacky Mac pasta, 3 packs of Starkist tuna, 1 pack of Ortega tortillas, 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk, 1 roll of Viva papertowels, 1 bottle of Heinz katsup, 2 cans of Scrubbing Bubbles, 3 cans of Swansons chicken broth, 2 seasoning packs, 1 pack of yeast, 1 jar of relish, 4 muffin packages, a box of spaghetti, a box of macaroni noodles, tic tacs, and poptarts! Yay for free groceries! Let me know if you are hungry or need toothpaste because I've got it!

The fair comes to town!

Last year was my first year ever going to the State Fair. I'm a sucker for funnel cakes so off we went...

After going last year I spent approximately 364 days looking forward to this year's fair! I don't eat fried foods, mostly because I get yelled at by my pancreas if I do (that's a story for another day), but also because for every bite of fried goodness I eat, I'm busy calculating how many miles that means I'll have to run. Anyhoo, the State Fair is the one time of year that I actually want to eat fried foods. And let me tell you this, if you like it normally, you'll love it fried, and the State Fair's got it.
Yep. Deep fried ANYTHING. You probably can't see it in that picture but this stand has a halo and angels around it. Nah, just kidding, but there is a HUGE crowd of people trying to get in line to get fat...er... I mean, get a fried "something-yummy-on-a-stick." Brandon and I tried the fried Snickers bar this year and yes it was so good we went back for a second one! In case you've never seen a "fried-goodness-on-a-stick" as I like to call it, here is Brittney eating hers. And yes the reason we don't have a picture of us eating our TWO "fried-goodness-on-a-stick" is because they were gone THAT FAST!


Among other fried goods were other assorted candy bars, mac-n-cheese, cheesecake, pecan pie (which is on my list for next year), pickles, veggies, cheeseburgers (yes cheeseburgers! battered and fried my friends, battered and fried!!) and of course, my favorite funnel cakes!

Here is Stu's fried cheeseburger... one of the few things in life that prompts me to say "yummy and gross."


Here's my funnel cake stand!

Ok, I promise we did more than eat while we were there... although that was the main reason we went. We went with Cole and Brittney and Corben, and Stu (the intern at church) and Jenna, Cole's sister. We saw some giant bunnies, kinda cute, kinda scary. We saw some animals and some best-in-show fruits and veggies, including GIANT pumpkins and watermelons. We kindly refused all of the "fattest-woman-in-the-world" and "snake-woman" and "two-headed-lamb" exhibits as guilt steered us away. I mean really, I had no desire to pay fifty cents to go in and look at a fat woman who gets pointed at all day. Nightmares of carnies filled my head...

Anyways, here are some pictures of our adventures at the fair!

In the parking lot, before even entering the gates!

This is our "I'm-so-excited-I-finally-get-to-eat-a-funnel-cake" look... and someone's grandma, just not ours...


Me and my precious nephew, Corben!

quarter century birthdays

It seems like 2009 has been flyyyying by! Brandon and I both celebrated our quarter-century birthdays... yes! we are both 25 now! Wow! I don't feel that old and I think if I could, I might just choose to stop time right here because I've got it pretty good!

This is Brandon and I at the Japanese steakhouse where I chose to celebrate my quarter century birthday!



I knew that I wanted to plan a surprise party for Brandon's 25th birthday because it was such a big birthday, it seemed like the perfect time to surprise him! I worked really hard to keep everything a secret (with the help of family and some good friends) and even had to "white lie" a few times (about why I changed my facebook password etc...) and Brandon had no idea... until party day when I "BUTT DIALED" him!!! For those of you who don't know what "butt dialing" is or missed the recent commercial about it, "butt dialing" is when you accidentally call someone without realizing it, usually from putting your phone in your back pocket and sitting down. Minutes before the party, I accidentally called Brandon and he overheard me talking to my brother-in-law, Cole, about the party... WHOOPS! Butt-dial aside, everything else went off without a hitch! Brandon's brother, Brad, did a great job of getting him out of the house all day playing golf for his birthday so he wasn't suspicious. Brittney and Cole helped me a TON by helping me run errands, pick up last minute things (like the dish for the strawberry shortcake that I HAD to have!) and bake and cook ALL DAY. Brittney and I managed to make meatballs, cupcakes, mini pigs-in-a-blanket, cut up fresh fruit with homemade yogurt dip, strawberry shortcake, and a party mix! Brandon's mom, Joan, picked up dozens of wings from Outback (since we had these for our wedding and Brandon LOVED them!) and believe it or not, most of the food was GONE!! I owe a huge thank you to everyone who helped out and who came to Brandon's party and helped make it such a memorable birthday for him... he told me afterwards that it was by far his favorite birthday ever! Woohoooo! Success!!

Here is the birthday boy!

Here is the yummy strawberry shortcake dessert that I was so excited about making for Brandon!

Here is a picture of some of the food from the party...

Some of the party guests... thanks for making this a special birthday for my hubby!
My 25-year-old hubby!

3 sweet sweet years

Brandon and I celebrated our third anniversary this week! Wow! Time sure has flown by! It seems like just yesterday I was making invitations and wedding favors, going to dress fittings, and picking out new dishes! Now, I come home to MY HUSBAND each night in our comfortable house in our comfortable life! Lord, thank you for choosing to bestow favor and blessing on this little family!! I love my life so much I thought it was about time I started blogging and telling everyone else about it! Blogging is kind of like Twitter to me... does anyone reaaally care enough about me to want to know what I'm doing all the time? Probably not, but I get this itching to write from my Mama... so, I started a blog.

I guess blogs are like public diaries or long facebook status updates so I'll start with what is new in the Delk house. Each year for our anniversary we go on a trip. We didn't start out with this intention but I like it. I want Brandon and I to truly celebrate our life together and cherish this sweet gift of marraige that was given to us by God. By setting aside time to save for, plan, and take a trip together each year we are making our marraige and our relationship a priority. And I like that. For our first anniversary we took the long trek to stay at a local bed and breakfast- only 15 minutes from our apartment but still a night away together! Last year for anniversary number 2, my good friend from college Sierra was kind enough to plan her entire wedding around our anniversary so we could go to NYC! Just kidding, but lucky for us, her wedding was 3 days before our anniversary and since we were going, we decided to make a trip out of it! We stayed for a few days at Sierra and Ryan's condo in Hoboken, NJ and spent our days shopping, eating yummy food, and celebrating with Sierra and Ryan! It was a great 2nd anniversary trip and one I'll never forget.


This year for anniversary #3 we took a couple days to go to Charleston, SC. If you've never been, go. This little city won my heart! We stayed in the historic distric and were within walking distance of pretty much everything! We shopped and ate our way through the city, wandered around a spooky graveyard that was ancient and very cool, walked along the battery and the water, went to the farmer's market Saturday morning, and spent hours admiring the beautiful old homes. It was a very romantic city and the perfect weekend getaway with the love of my life. Here are some pictures:

This was right outside the entrance to a graveyard we walked through... morbid, somewhat... cool, very.

Whoa, flashback honeymoon! We might have worn these outfits in Jamaica! We were going for the romantic nostalgia here... check out the yumminess...

Now, to my love, my better half:

Brandon,

I'll never forget the night we met. I went with my brother to a chilly Friday night football game at Liberty University and he introduced me to this handsome stud that I immediately knew I was going to marry. See, some people may be skeptical about that but I had prayed and prayed for God to smack me in the face with my future husband because so far I hadn't been sure about any guy I dated and I wanted to know with certainty if I was going to spend a lifetime with someone. I got home from the football game and promptly went into the office to tell Mom about my night. Before she could even ask I said, "Mom, I met my husband tonight." I couldn't stop giggling and even though you didn't remember my name, I remembered you. And I pursued you. And I got you. Remember how giddy we were when we fell in love? How we would walk and talk and sit on "our" bench in Wyndhurst (which you will still need to aquire for me at some point in our lives...) for hours? Remember the time you visited me at school in Blacksburg and I took you to where they filmed Dirty Dancing? That same day you got a flat tire, the fix-a-flat exploded on your nice clothes, you threw up from something we got at dinner, and your car got towed? Remember me saying it was the worst day ever and you denied it saying you had never had more fun in your life?

At times it still feels like we are honeymooners, doesn't it? Sometimes I pull up in the driveway and I can't believe this life is mine. You are an incredible man. You are funny, and sweet, and real, and loving, and mine. The first couple of months (or years) we had to get used to living with each other and I look back on those fights and laugh. Now, we're like a well-oiled machine. We work well together and I can't imagine spending forever with anybody else. You are my best friend and my soulmate. You lead our spiritual lives, our finances, and just like I said in my vows to you on our wedding day "where you go I will go and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. (Ruth 1:16,17)"

Here's to another hundred years together. I love you Babe.