Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand!

- Traditional Gaelic Blessing

Free Popcorn and Cheap Movie Tickets

I've posted several times about ways to get free or cheap movie tickets... now how about some free popcorn to go with them? If you follow Regal Entertainment Group on Facebook, they post special deals each week that you can take advantage of at their theaters. This week, head on over here to score a free small popcorn - no other purchases necessary! It's a limit of one per person, so make sure to print one for everybody you go to the movie with. It's valid March 18-20, Friday-Sunday.

Mr. C really wants to see "The Lincoln Lawyer" starring Matthew McConaughey, so I think we may have a date night to go see it this weekend. I'll probably use either my free movie tickets from buying cereal or my tickets from Living Social earlier this month, making it a really cheap date! If you didn't take advantage of either of those deals, you can head on over to Groupon and get tickets to see The Lincoln Lawyer through Fandango for $6 a piece. This is a great price, especially since you can redeem it for any theater and showing of Lincoln Lawyer offered through Fandango. So, for $12 - the normal price of one movie ticket around here - you can get two movie tickets to a new release and two small bags of popcorn! Not bad...

Two Movie Tickets... $9!

I think I've blogged before about my complete love of Groupon... well, it seems that these group buying websites are popping up all over the place now! Another popular site similar to Groupon, Living Social, is having a great deal today where you can buy two movie tickets from Fandango for $9! You will receive a voucher to redeem on Fandango (which is partnered with a ton of different theaters) for two tickets of the movie of your choice. It does exclude 3D and IMAX movies, but all other tickets valued at under $15 are fair game.

Interested in snagging this deal? Go here: https://livingsocial.com/deals/28498?ref=conf-jp&rpi=6928373

Also, if you buy the deal and share it with three friends who also buy, you get it for free! 

Now the only question is what movie to see! Mr. C and I saw True Grit a few weeks ago, and although it was not the typical chick flick that I usually enjoy, I thought the acting in it (especially on the part of Hailee Steinfeld) was fabulous! It also had a lot of good one-liners to help balance out the typical western style violence and tear jerker moments. Overall, I would definitely recommend it!

Do yall know of any good chick flicks coming out soon, though? After all, it is my turn to pick the next movie on date night ;)

Doggy Trench... Worth $125?

First off, like I posted about before, Dillard's is having an additional 40% off their clearance this weekend. I convinced (read: duped) Mr. C into going to the nicer Dillard's in San Antonio that sells Lilly, and it did not disappoint. While I didn't find any clothing deals I had to have, I did luck out and find the Lilly "Checking In" Water Bottle for $5 (originally $20) and adorable Lilly PJ pants for only $10 (originally $60!) It is definitely worth taking the time to make a quick trip to Dillard's and stock up on gifts or pick up a few things for yourself!

Also, I think I have blogged before about how I belong to a couple of different online survey companies. I'm the type of person who loves giving my opinion, especially my opinion on new products to help companies shape the items they're making and selling, so I love doing these types of surveys. My favorite survey company, Pinecone Research, is looking for new members to join the panel by invitation only. Pinecone is great because they pay in cash (via a check in the mail or PayPal) for each survey you fill out, and their surveys generally only take about 10-15 minutes to complete. Each survey pays $3, which isn't a whole lot, but most of them also offer product trials if you qualify. That means that they'll mail you a new product to try out and then keep, and you'll get paid some additional money. The product trials I've seen have all been from reputable manufacturers and for things that you would already be using anyway, like laundry care products, food, and paper goods. Also, it's pretty neat to try out products that aren't on the market yet and get a sneak peek at new things that will be coming out! If you're interested in filling out their initial survey to see if you meet the criteria to join (they like to keep a diverse group of panelists, so you may not qualify right away!) leave me comment with your e-mail address and I'll send you the link!

Finally, how adorable is this belted doggy trench coat by Ralph Lauren?

Scout does need a new coat.........

[Picture courtesy of the Ralph Lauren website]

Puppies, Pillows and Burritos... Oh My!

Ok... I know I've said it before, but I PROMISE I will be blogging more now! My excuse for not blogging much (ok... at all!) for the past month or two is this:

Mr. C and I adopted a puppy! Meet Scout, our new Mini-Jack (Miniature Pinscher/Jack Russell Terrier) puppy! He is so much fun, even though he is definitely a handful at times. Scout is way too smart for his own good a lot of times, and is in the "terrible twos" stage where he's gotten a little 'tude with us. Just yesterday, he jumped up on the couch and when I told him "off" he proceeded to dramatically flop down, look at me and bark. All in all though, we're having a great time with him, and he's totally spoiled!

I do have two great deals to share with you today!

First, if you live near a Dillard's, try to stop in ASAP! They just marked all of their clearance an additional 40% off, and there are great deals to be had. Our Dillard's here had tons of cute shoes and boots (originally $100-200) for less than $20. While I love shopping their clothes and shoes when they have great sales, my favorite department to shop for bargains is the home department. I've bought all sorts of great gifts, decor items, bedding, etc. for a fraction of the cost. I've been wanted to get some new throw pillows and freshen up our living room for awhile, but with the new puppy I did not want to spend $80+ a pillow in case they fell victim to a teething pup. Well today at Dillard's I found three fabulous Michael Kors pillows (each originally $70+) for only $12! I also found the softest black zebra throw for $15, and this adorable crown spreader for $4! I'm thinking about heading to the other Dillard's near us this evening with Mr. C "so he can get some new dress shirts..." and so I can see what the other Dillard's has in their home department! ;)

Mr. C is OBSESSED with Chipotle. When we lived in Pensacola (where the closest Chipotle was six hours away...) he had major withdrawals and would literally go to Chipotle first stop whenever we went home to visit family. If he could, we would have Chipotle for dinner probably every night, and lunch most days as well. I was so excited to learn that you can score a coupon for buy one, get one free Chipotle (burritos, tacos, salads and bowls) by going to the fan page for the new show America's Next Great Restaurant, liking it, watching the quick promo video and then printing your coupon! Looks like Mr. C and I may be going to Chipotle for dinner tonight!

(Images from here and here)

Slow Cooker Love!

So sorry for the total lack of posts in the past month and a half or so. You all know how crazy the holidays can be, and then when you add in the stress (and fun!) of moving to a new place, it's quite an adventure. Mr. C and I are slowly but surely getting settled into San Antonio, and we've both fallen in love with the city already! It's such a neat place with lots of culture to it, and the food is absolutely to die for. I'm a huge fan of Tex-Mex (especially since it's so corn based and usually pretty gluten-free!) and San Antonio is the Tex-Mex capital of the world. Now, I just need to find some good Pilates classes to make sure all of this great food doesn't go straight to my butt!

Speaking of food, one of my resolutions this year is to use my slow cooker more often. I love the fact that you can plop everything in there, turn it on and forget about it while you go about your day. There is nothing more satisfying than coming home after a long day out and about to dinner already cooked and waiting for you! Even better, I've been using the Reynold's Crock-Pot Liners, so when we're done I can just pitch the liner and not even have to clean the pot. Really, the main reason I hadn't used my crock-pot more than a handful of times in the first year of marriage was simply because I thought all crock-pot recipes involved boring old chicken in some bland sauce. Totally not the case!

I found the most amazing blog called "A Year of Slow Cooking" where Stephanie, the blogger, made a resolution to use her slow cooker everyday in 2008. The result is this wonderful blog filled with outside the box recipes for everything from main courses to drinks and desserts, all made with the crock-pot! I've already made quite a few of her recipes, and have the Margarita Chicken cooking as I write. I think my favorite so far has been the Thai Beef. This took literally five minutes to put together and was as simple as opening the can of coconut milk, opening the bottle of peanut satay sauce, pouring both onto the beef and making sure it was good and saucy, and finally dumping in a bag of baby carrots. Then I hit "cook" and walked away for eight hours. Like magic, that evening I had a delicious and healthy meal. When we were done eating, I pitched the liner, put the crock-pot away and my kitchen was still completely clean. That was the moment I fell in love with my crock-pot.

Do yall have any good slow cooker recipes? I'm always on the hunt!