Triple Time!

Shannon's back! It's been so good to have him back. While I got a lot done while he was in Ukraine, it's very good to have my hubby back! We've been catching up on things (bills, sleep, etc) and just enjoying some time together, although we have both been busy and not resting too much. Perhaps that's why I'm catching a cold and Shannon wasn't feeling too great today. Oh well, maybe the weekend will help us relax!

Harris Teeter is having triple coupon days again, and I did the best I have ever done between yesterday and today.



2 bottles Windex
5 bottles Shout
1 Scrubbing Bubbles
1 24-pack Luzianne tea bags
1 lb brown sugar
5 lbs white sugar
Hungry Jack pancake syrup
JIF peanut butter
2 Suave deodorants
1 Suave conditioner
4 Zone nutrition bars
1 50-count Ziploc baggies
1 Pilsbury cake mix
4 boxes Barilla whole-grain pasta
Snyders chips
Skintimate shaving cream
2 peaches
1 large coffee creamer
1 California Pizza Kitchen "Pizza for One"
1 watermelon

Total: $12.71 (and 4.99 of it was the watermelon!)
Total before coupons/sales: $79.62
Coupons tendered: $48.73

Add this to my Kroger trip for the day:

1.7 lbs yellow squash
2.3 lbs grapes
8 oz mozzarella cheese
8-pack Kit Kat
8-pack Reeces
Total: $6.98

And my Walgreen's trip for the day:

20 sq. feet Reynold's Wrap
3-pack Scotch Brite sponges
Total: $1.35

Total for the week's groceries (thus far): $21.04

And...I didn't even use all my coupons! But we're going to Asheville tomorrow for Bele Chere and I won't be going shopping. So...the savings end here! It sure was fun though...especially my first transaction...my balance due was $.62. That was fun. :-)

A Lazy Week (or Maybe Not-So-Much, Actually)

How has it been a week since I posted? That just doesn't seem possible. I feel like I update fairly often, but once a week doesn't sound like that much. Oh well. There's not much I can do about it, at least not when our lives are as (not boring, not boring...) relaxed :-) as they currently are. Actually the truth is that this past week has not been relaxing for me. Shannon's been gone so I've been trying to take care of all the little things that need to be done so that when he gets back we can enjoy our last 3 weeks of freedom without having to tie up loose ends. So...what have I done this week?

*Finally got 65 wedding pictures printed...I'll get started on our album before our first anniversary!
*Menu-planned and grocery shopped.
*Cleaned all (ok, ok, not all, but most) of our windows. The cobwebs and 10 years worth of dirt and grime are gone!
*Designed a wedding program for Bonnie and Brian. Hopefully I'll go get them printed tomorrow and can start tying them together.
*Baked banana bread.
*Made a summer squash pizza. Yummy!
*Visited the local library, farmer's market, electric company, bank, Lowe's, and Goodwill.
*Got my grade back from my summer class...I got an A-...yay!
*Negotiated my way out of a fine from the water company. We received a bill on Wednesday that was due the previous Monday. The first guy I talked to wouldn't tell me anything because apparantly Shannon hasn't added my name to the account. The guy wanted Shannon to call him. Hello! He hasn't even called me! Fortunately this man's superior was much more understanding of the fact that I wanted to pay our bill and helped me know how much it was (my previous payment had actually cleared the bank but wasn't posted on the bill they sent me!).
*Bought our tickets to Hawaii next summer! 12 glorious days in Kauai and Maui! Woohoo!
*Got new pictures printed for our frames in the living room.
*Finally unpacked the last elusive box of mysterious stuff.
*Went running twice.
*Pruned my rose bush.
*Accumulated 11 mosquito bites.
*Balanced our checkbook (Shannon usually does this...yay me!).
*Got a spare key for our apartment made.
*Sent various emails that were needing to be sent.
*Bought Shannon some birthday presents.
*Oh, and did I mention I worked 45 hours too?

So, while I was sitting here feeling that I didn't accomplish much while Shannon was gone, now I feel much better! Tomorrow I'm relaxing and going out for lunch and then rock climbing with a couple of gal pals. Then tomorrow evening I'll continue reading Atonement, my current reading-for-pleasure. Monday I'm playing Bunko with some girls, and Tuesday I'm making spaghetti (Shannon's all-time favorite meal) because Shannon comes home! The past week was spent taking care of loose ends...the upcoming couple of days will be spent relaxing!

Cakes!

So, today I was bad and skipped church. But, in my defense, I had two things that I absolutely had to get done before 1:00. They were:


and


Today was my friend Bonnie's bridal shower, and I was in charge of making the cakes. So, when I got up this morning I needed to figure out if you can write with cream cheese frosting, how to make lime green frosting, what to do for a cake board, and so on. I finally did figure everything out. I think it helps that I watched my mom make cakes for the first 17 years of my life, and then I've watched her make a few more since then. So, I knew how to improvise. You can do a lot with cardboard, wrapping paper, and masking tape, for example. I used those to make my frosting bags and the cake board. I looked online when my frosting was looking rather Christmas-y instead of lime-y. Charity gave me some leftover flowers and ribbon, so the cakes had decorations and weren't so boring. The first cake was a carrot cake and the second was chocolate with white frosting. Did I worry that I didn't have a frosting recipe? Nope...my mom has taught me: a little milk, powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and a touch of salt is all you need. Mix it until it tastes good! So I did! I was pleased...what do you think?


The bride with her maid-of-honor, shower-planner, and flower-arranger (Charity).

Finally...pictures of the new place!

But first some pictures of the old place:




And here's our new home! You can click on pics to enlarge them.


The living room, before and after


The kitchen, before and after:


Our bedroom:


The "hallway" before and after:


The bathroom, before and after:


So, can you tell that we downsized? I think that the new place is about half the size of the old one. It's ok though...it feels cozy. And it helped us to weed out some of the stuff that we didn't really need and wouldn't be taking overseas with us, so we lightened up early. For example, we got rid of our tv, dvd player, vcr, and stereo and are just using computers for cd's and movies. And we have pretty big closets...all of our luggage, trunks, filing cabinets, games, linens, shoes, and a chest of drawers and most of our clothes fit into the three closets that we have. Wow!

I actually really like our new apartment. It has high ceilings, so it makes feel bigger. We have 6 windows, so we get lots of light. There's an overhang, so I have a bird feeder hanging outside the kitchen window. Our kitchen sink is so deep that I have to bend over to pick up silverware out of the bottom of it. And we have a place next door that gives free bread to students twice a week, so I won't have to buy bread (or bagels, hot dog buns, English muffins, etc) again as long as we're in school. Awesome.

I think that most of our apartment problems are fixed. We got mail today...yay! Our old mailbox (which had a beehive in it) has been replaced. The cabinet door in the kitchen now closes so we don't have paint chipping off onto the counter (or into our food). The molding in the laundry closet (it's too small to be called a "room") has been repaired and now isn't dropping dust and paint chips onto everything. Our closet door has been sanded down so it now fits the frame and closes. The toilet doesn't run. Our back door will unlock and lock. Our air conditioner works. And hopefully the leak will not leak again. It's been a busy two weeks, but with only one more small miscellaneous box to unpack, I think it finally feels like home.

Now I just need Shannon back!

Settled In

Well, it's been awhile coming...about 12 days, I think. You would think that when I'm on vacation I'd have more time to blog, but it just didn't work out that way. I've spent the last 12 days packing, moving, unpacking, organizing, cleaning, shopping (for things to help with organizing), cooking, selling stuff, changing our address, finishing up my summer class, getting things in our apartment fixed, and correcting other peoples' errors.

It has been a busy, busy week and a half. We had a yard sale because since we moved into a place half the size of our old one, we obviously needed to get rid of some stuff. When we moved in, our air conditioner didn't work. Today our electricity got turned off (and turned back on) because they didn't transfer the utilities here into our names, even though we had asked them to. Organizing is expensive. I think that between last Wednesday and Friday I had been to Target, Walmart, Lowe's, and Home Depot between 2 and 5 times each. Buy, bring home, try it out, it doesn't fit/isn't big enough, return it, buy a new insert item here, repeat the process over again. I'm sick of the store. And apparently, since nobody has lived in this apartment for 10 years, the post office does not recognize it as an address. So hopefully by next week our mail will be delivered to our mailbox.

Today I may have to go back to work. Not sure on that yet...I know that the Waltzes are getting back today, I'm just not sure what time. So my hope is to get the windows cleaned...they have cobwebs in between them and the screens. Shannon and I usually turn the air conditioner off at night and open the windows, but we haven't been doing that because quite frankly, I'm afraid of what might crawl in.

Shannon leaves for Ukraine on Friday. I don't think we've been apart for more than a night since we got married, so this will be interesting! I'm excited for him though, albeit jealous.

The cobwebs are calling. Pictures to come.