My Only Post on Leap Day

Last weekend, we had a great time in Trussville with my parents and sister. We celebrated Jenn's birthday (a little bit late), went to my friend Kayla from high school's wedding, and watched The Help (which is an awesome movie that you should see if you haven't yet!) and the Lion King (my favorite Disney movie ever). Overall, we had a lot of fun, and it was a nice, short getaway from house projects and other stuff for a few days. Poor Jenn spent a lot of the weekend studying. She's taking the MCAT  (the test to get into med school) in less than a month. I know she'll do great on it!!

Before the wedding on Saturday

Me with the bride! :)

We left Felix and Gabby at home by themselves again like we did a few weeks ago. Other than an overturned trash can and some bite marks in a Kleenex box, we think they behaved pretty well. Of course, all of their food was gone, so they were happy to see us again (so they could get more food!). Gabby got in trouble Sunday night for jumping on the loveseat (they're not supposed to get on the living room furniture), and so Travis got after her with the spray bottle. She went running, and he went running after her, and when he sprayed her, she HISSED at him....3 times! That was the first time we've heard her hiss since the first couple of days we got her. She then ran away into the dining room chair, but she immediately let him pick her up and started purring and cuddling. She's a mess! At least she doesn't hold a grudge for very long :)

Yesterday marked 2 months to go until the half-marathon we're running! I bought some new running shoes last week and some synthetic socks (1 pair for each of us) at First Place Athletics. My shoes were getting kind of worn out, so I'm going to alternate the new and old pair for a couple of weeks before just using the new pair all the time. The synthetic socks are supposed to prevent blisters, which we've been getting...especially on the longer runs. All I have to say is for $10-15 per pair...they better work good! This weekend, we're supposed to run 9.5 miles, so that will give the socks a good test I guess...

Mom is over halfway through her radiation treatments! Only a couple more weeks to go. Her biggest issue right now is just BAD itching. The area definitely looks like it would itch...it looks like a really, really bad sunburn. Hopefully, that will go away and get better really fast after she's finished with all 36 treatments. We need to be planning a big party to celebrate her finishing chemo and radiation!! Yay Mom!!

This weekend, if the weather cooperates, we are planning to start working on our flower beds. We are going to line the flower beds with some kind of landscaping stone/rock and mix some soil conditioner into the dirt. That might take most of the day on Saturday. It's hard to know since we've never done anything like this before. We're going to use the same stones around the trees in our yard and the mailbox, just to make everything uniform. Hopefully it will look nice! Once we get all of that done, we can start figuring out what kind of shrubs and flowers to plant. Our goal is to get everything planted by the end of March before it starts getting too hot outside.

Our big purchase for the week (seems like there's one at least every week!) was a network attached storage system. Yes, this was Travis's idea. It's something that has 2 hard drives that can store all of the files from both of our computers on it. It's like a backup system in case one of our computers crashes, and it also allows you to access your files away from home (I think). You'll have to ask Travis about the details...he's the tech guru in the family. We're not sure how much longer his laptop will live, so we wanted to get this thing up and running before it dies. It would really be a headache to lose all of our stuff in Quicken, budgets, retirement spreadsheets, etc., so we're trying to plan ahead and keep that from happening!

We've also ordered a weather radio online, although that was significantly cheaper than the network attached storage! With tornado season coming up really soon, we want to be better prepared than we were last year.

I did pretty good at CVS on Monday. I bought 2 tubes of toothpaste, a 4-pack of razor blades, and a pack of gum for $2.14. I started out with and ended up with $12 in ECBs. Not bad! :) 

Well, I think that's about everything new that's going on with us. We'll keep you posted on our house and yard projects coming up! :)

Happy Wednesday/Leap Day!

Erin

Running, Raisin Bran, and Other Stuff :)

We had a wonderful LONG weekend and are enjoying a short work week before another fun weekend. This weekend was our gospel meeting at church. We heard a great series of lessons on "Courage" from Nathan Williams. He was a great speaker and made several points in a way I'd never thought about before. I've never really thought of myself as courageous (I'm definitely more of a timid/cautious person), so I've got a lot of work to do! It takes a lot of courage to admit your mistakes, stand up for what's right, and practice self-control. I'm going to try to do a better job with all of that in the future!

On Saturday before the potluck, Travis and I ran our longest run yet...8 MILES!! I really wasn't sure I'd be able to do it, but somehow I ran the whole way without stopping. My time was 1:13:46, so that's about 9:15/mile pace. Right on track for a 2 hour half-marathon, which is what I signed up for as my goal time. I'm definitely not blazing fast (and not nearly as fast as in high school), but all I care about is finishing, so it's ok. Travis is doing great too! He finished probably 6 or 7 minutes ahead of me on Saturday. We've still got a little over 2 months til the race, so I feel pretty confident that we'll be ready for it.

Sunday night after church, we had a few people from church over for pizza and games at our house. It was a lot of fun. We ordered pizza from Marco's, which is probably about tied with Papa Murphy's for our favorite pizza. Much better than Domino's or Papa John's! We also learned a couple of new games, so that was fun. So far, we're 2 for 2 on having people over once a month in 2012. I hate to make it a "checklist" type of thing, but if we don't plan on doing it about once a month, we'll get busy and forget or not make time for it.

Yesterday, Travis had the day off for President's Day, so we went to Lowe's and Home Depot for a few things for our various house projects. Our big project yesterday was patching some of the drain pipe in our flower beds that had holes in it. It really didn't take too long...we just had to cut out the bad sections and replace it with new sections of pipe and then re-bury it underground. It turned into a messy project though because we've had so much rain lately and the flower beds were pretty much full of red mud! Hopefully, in a few weeks we'll get around to lining the flower beds with stone, filling them with some soil conditioner and mulch, and planting shrubs and flowers! Right now, they are still completely empty. 

Speaking of house projects, remember that to-do list from a few weeks ago? Here's how we're doing!

1. Hang the rest of the blinds we bought (6 *now only 4* windows to go!)
2. Hang pictures in the study (we know where they're all going to go...we just haven't hung them yet)
3. Repaint the window seat in the study (it's pink right now...definitely doesn't match)...we've bought the paint...just gotta do the painting!
4. Organize the guest bedroom closet (which has turned into the "junk" closet unfortunately) (haven't started this one yet)
5. Hang curtains in the breakfast room, study, guest bedroom, and our bathroom
6. Replace ceiling fans and light fixtures throughout the house (most of them are brassy gold...yuck)
7. Plant new shrubs in our flower beds
8. Plant the dogwood tree that Baugay gave us (DONE!)

So, we're getting there! Other things that could be added to the list are installing the key pad for our garage door opener, replacing the cabinet handles in our kitchen, and painting/touching up the trim in most of the rooms.

We'll just do a little bit at a time! Most of you have probably figured out that we don't work very fast, but that's ok. It's not a race, I guess!

I'm working tomorrow and Thursday, and then on Friday we're heading to Trussville for Jenn's belated birthday celebration and Kayla's wedding. Should be another great weekend! I'm assuming we'll be leaving the kitties behind (since Felix just LOVES to travel), so who knows what we'll find when we get back Sunday afternoon. I bet they love having the house to themselves for a few days...they probably sleep on the couch and tables, and do everything they know they can't do while we're here! Haha :)

Last week, I caught them napping on our nicely folded laundry. It was a nice, warm place to sleep I guess :)

KISSES!

Aww :)

By the way, if you are wanting to make an easy dessert for a potluck, this one is always a winner...Chocolate Trifle! It all got eaten at the potluck before I even got a bite. Oh well...I've made it and eaten it plenty of times before :)

Yum....I love chocolate!! :)

Oh, and one more thing: Can't end this without mentioning my awesome trip to Publix on Saturday night. I bought 10 boxes of Raisin Bran (one of my favorite cereals). They were various sizes and flavors, and they were all 50% off. After coupons, my total was $10.64. Best part is...I'm sending in the 10 UPCs for a $10 rebate!! Can't beat 10 boxes of cereal for 64 cents :) I love Publix and couponing!! As of next month, I've been couponing for 3 years now. It's definitely the way to shop :) We are able to buy way more stuff (and better quality) at Publix with coupons than at Wal-Mart, where I used to shop. Now, I try my best NOT to go to Wal-Mart. You don't save money there, in my opinion! Ok, I'll end my soapbox :)

Hope you're having a great day!

Getting closer!

I can finally see the light at the end of tunnel with all of this painting. Hooray! We got the study and guest bedroom pretty much finished up this past weekend. They are both the same color (taupe), and they look great! Both of the rooms have window seats, and one of them needs to be painted white (it's currently pink--the old room color), but that could even be done after we move in.

This weekend, we are going to try to start AND finish the guest bathroom. It is currently painted "sky blue", which matches the counter top the previous owners put in. We're going to re-paint the room a light gray color, and eventually I'd like to replace the counter with something a little more neutral. 

In other house-related news, we are now the proud owners of a programmable thermostat, a weed-eater, and lawnmower. Actually, Travis is the proud owner of the lawnmower and weed-eater since I'm hoping not to ever have to use them! :) The thermostat is up and running after Travis installed it Monday night. It looks nice and it shouldn't be too hard to use. He's hoping it will save us some money on our power bills this summer. The yard is looking pretty rough with the weather warming up some-what and all this rain we've gotten, so the grass/weeds really need to be cut soon. We're hoping to rope Andrew into giving us some landscaping advice sometime in the future....we need help! We've got enough other projects going on right now, though, that we'll probably wait until next spring/summer to start planting bushes and flowers.

Yesterday, I spent some much needed girl-time with Emily Smith. I really enjoyed lunch and the afternoon just hanging out! We need to do it again soon :)

Today is the last day of a class that Travis has been taking this week for work. It's on "Rotorcraft Fundamentals", and it's being taught at UAH by one of their professors. In case you were wondering, a helicopter is a type of rotorcraft. (I didn't know that until recently!). The project that Travis is working on at work involves helicopters, so he said the class has been really helpful. 

Yesterday, I got a good deal on a magazine for Travis. You probably know that he's pretty interested in personal finance. He keeps meticulous records in Quicken, we have a budget spreadsheet in Excel, and he enjoys reading books like "Stocks for the Long Run" (haha). Well, yesterday on Eversave, they had a deal where you could get a year's subscription to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine for $6. But, I had a $5 credit on the website just for signing up a few weeks ago, so I got it for $1!! That's like 8 or 9 cents an issue!! I love getting good deals :)

Time to get to Kohl's (for another deal--I have a $10 coupon on any $10 or more pre-tax purchase, so I'll just have to pay tax if I can find something I like for $10!!) and head to the gym after that. I've been going about 4 times a week, so gotta keep it up :)

Hope you're having a fabulous week! 

Summer is winding down...

This summer went by so fast! Now it's time for fall weather and football season to start. We had a great time at the bed and breakfast last weekend. The day before we left, last Wednesday, Travis got sick, so I was afraid our trip would be ruined...but he slept the whole way there on Thursday and felt better by the time we got there. Yay! For our first time at a B&B, we definitely picked a good one! We didn't really know what to expect, but Pat and Phil (the owners) were really great. They were friendly but also gave us our space too. Ashley and Seth came along with us, so we got to hang out with them while we were there. Ashley has gotten big into couponing, so she brought along a gift certificate from restaurant.com to use at Shane's Rib Shack about 20 minutes away. The four of us ended up eating supper that night for about $15 total! Way to go, Ashley! Both mornings we ate a 3-course breakfast which was fantastic! I would go back just for the breakfast alone.


On Friday, we went to Amicalola Falls State Park and hiked up to the falls. Amicalola Falls is apparently the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi. It was a good way to burn off some of that breakfast. We definitely got a good workout in because my calves were sore for the next three days! The waterfall was really pretty, and the view was the top was as well.


Friday night, we ate dinner at Charlie's, an Italian restaurant in Ellijay. It was awesome! I'd say it was better than Olive Garden, and I really like Olive Garden :)

Saturday, after another big breakfast, we packed up and headed the outlet mall in Calhoun, GA. It wasn't anything special, but Ashley did find some clothes for work, and I think Seth got a shirt, so we'll consider it a success. Overall, we had a great trip, and we're definitely planning to go back!

This week has been super busy so far. We had a short gospel meeting at KSR that ended Tuesday night, then we had Andrew over for supper last night before church, and then tonight we're going to the Copelands' for supper. One night, it would be nice to stay home and do nothing, but I guess that'll have to wait until next week! Kinda related...Travis said what I cooked last night was one of the best meals I'd made in a long time! We had BBQ sandwiches, okra, steamed squash, baked beans, and apple pie a la mode. It was the first pie I think I've made since we've been married, and it turned out pretty good. We've got about 3/4 of it leftover, so I'm bringing it this weekend, Mom!

Speaking of this weekend, we're hitting the road again. Friday night after work, we're going to Trussville. Then, Saturday, we're going to the Alabama game in t-town (Roll Tide!) and then back to Trussville that night. We're planning to come back up here sometime Monday. Should be a fun weekend! Aunt Gale and Uncle Bill are coming from Richmond, and Jenn will be home too!

Best week of the semester :)

This really has been the best week of the semester so far. Travis and I have spent an entire week together, and we still have 2 more days before he has to go back to t-town! I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Last Friday, he drove up to Baugay's from Tuscaloosa, and due to several problems on the interstate (wrecks and sinkholes), it ended up taking him 3 1/2 hours instead of 2 1/2. So, we ended up missing supper at the Hesters' house unfortunately. Instead, we ended up cooking a frozen pizza and going to Publix for groceries. Fun, fun!

Saturday, we did some cleaning around the apartment before eating supper with Travis's family (minus Emily, who is in Europe!) and Tyler's family that night. We had never met Tyler's parents or his little sister before, so it was great to meet them and spend the evening together!

Sunday, we went to church and ate lunch with Travis's family. After lunch, we went to two CVS's looking for deodorant deals. I finally found the kind I was looking for at the CVS on Hughes, so I got 6 for about 40 cents each! Sunday night, Andrew and Gary came over and we ate pizza and hung out.

Monday and Tuesday, Travis and I spent a good bit of both days painting the basement at his mom's house. We had fun with her, Alisha, and Tyler, and I think I got a lot better at painting by the end of it all. The basement really looks good! Monday night, I ate the best pizza I've ever had..seriously. It was from Papa Murphy's, which I'd never heard of before, but we're definitely going to have to go there again soon. They make the pizza in front of you, and then you take it home and cook it in the oven. It was awesome! Wow, didn't realize I'd eaten so much pizza over the break! Oops :)

We also got a new tag for my car...I'm now officially a 47er :)

Wednesday, we spent most of the afternoon working on taxes (not fun!). We figured out that we should be getting almost $400 back, so yay for that! Guess that will be going towards the new car and/or future house funds like the rest of our money :)

Yesterday and today, we went our separate ways. Travis went on a canoe trip with Alan and Gary up at Shoals Creek, and he came back looking like a lobster. One day, I'll convince him that sunscreen is a good thing. One day. They had fun though and didn't freeze or starve, so that was a bonus.

I headed down to Smith Lake to hang out with my parents since they were going to be there for a couple of days. I can't believe it had been over a month since I'd seen them last! We started painting the screened porch today, and it looks a lot better already. Hopefully next time we go to the lake we can stay longer. The weather was absolutely perfect today!

Apparently, the 2 P's of spring break this year were pizza and painting :)

Got some bad news tonight...Granny was taken to the hospital this morning in Birmingham and is in ICU right now. Her heart stopped a few times while she was in the ER, and she's getting a pacemaker put in on Monday. That's about all I know right now. Mom and Dad were heading there tonight to see her...they left the lake house early when they found out late this afternoon. Hopefully the pacemaker will get her heart working right again and she'll be able to go home!

Tomorrow night, Matt and Maggie are coming over for supper, so we're excited about that. I love having people over!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings!

Snow + Game Night + Valentine's Day = A Fun 4 Day Weekend

Well, I'm back in Tuscaloosa again :)

I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week at the hospital. I put in some pretty long hours....10 hours Tuesday, 10 hours Wednesday, and 8 1/2 on Friday. I'd rather do that though and get more days off! Work is going pretty good so far. I'm getting the hang of the computer systems we use, and I'm getting more comfortable doing "nurse" things without somebody watching over my back all the time.

I drove down here Thursday afternoon and got here around 5:30 PM. Travis and I warmed up some meatloaf for dinner, and then we watched our Netflix movie, The Proposal, later that night. It was pretty funny for the most part!

Yesterday, we woke up to find NO snow...even though they'd been predicting 2-4 inches. However, I checked online, and Alabama had still cancelled classes for the day, anticipating that snow would fall later in the morning and afternoon. Yay for snow days :)

The snow started falling around 9 AM or so, and it fell pretty hard, but it just didn't stick very much...at least, not around our apartment. Around noon, we drove to Publix, Walgreen's, and CVS, and the roads were fine. Typical Alabamians overreacting about winter weather! Oh well! I just hope UA doesn't make them make the day up later in the semester...

Speaking of Walgreen's, I got a free 8x10 collage yesterday online by using the code VDAY at checkout. The code may still be working, so try it out if you want to make one too! I made mine with pictures from our trip to Pasadena, and it turned out really cute!!! You can upload pictures to Walgreen's website, and it shuffles them around for you into a collage. Can't beat a free picture...I didn't even have to pay tax when I picked it up :)

Last night was supposed to be the Valentine's Day scavenger hunt, but Alisha decided to postpone it because of the snow/cold weather. I think we're going to have a St. Patrick's Day scavenger hunt instead in a few weeks! Once we found out the scavenger hunt was cancelled, I decided to invite everyone over for a game night. Jess, Alisha, and I played Yahtzee, and Travis, Jason, Tyler, and Caleb played Settlers of Catan. We all had fun! We also made hot chocolate and coffee for everyone...yum :)

Tonight, I think Travis and I may cook something together for Valentine's Day (a day early). I'm not sure what we'll make yet though...any suggestions?

I'm in town until Monday afternoon, so I'm really excited. I wish I could have a 4 day weekend every weekend until May...but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much! 12 weeks until Travis graduates!!!!! We can do this :)

Quick Update

Well, it's time for another week of classes! I survived midterms...and I've got finals week after next. My clinicals are going really well. I got to extubate my patient on Thursday, so that was pretty cool! Travis has been sick for almost the past week with congestion and coughing. Hopefully he'll start feeling better soon!

We had fun at the game on Saturday. It rained on us walking to the stadium, but once we got there, it stopped and didn't start raining again til we got home after the game. Perfect! I actually got sunburned pretty bad on my face...I guess I just wasn't expecting to get any sun since it was so cloudy and nasty outside. Speaking of rain, I'm ready for it to stop raining for a while. It's rained here every day for the past week and a half at least!

We had a pretty good shopping trip at Publix today. I got 3 free reusable Publix shopping bags with some coupons I had, and they had chicken breasts for $1.99/lb so we stocked up! I'm going to make an apple pie tomorrow afternoon to take to Gary and Alan's apartment tomorrow night for dinner (they're cooking for us!), so that should be fun. It's been a long time since I've made an apple pie, but I think I've found a pretty good recipe online. Well, that's about all that's been going on...hope you have a great week!

My poor forgotten blog needs an update!

Today, I bought all of this stuff at CVS for $8.69!!! My receipt says I saved $51.44!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just had to share! Couponing is helping us save money and buy better stuff at the same time....I love it!

The summer is flying by. In another month and 2 days, we'll be moving back to Tuscaloosa for the school year. I can't believe it's going by so fast!

This weekend is the Dvorak family reunion, so we're looking forward to that. We'll actually be staying in town (well, in North Alabama) for the weekend. That's practically a first for this summer. We tried out a new homemade ice cream recipe (strawberry) last weekend with my family at the lake, and it was pretty good, but we're going to make some changes to hopefully make it over-the-top good!

Travis found out yesterday at work that he got a 6% raise, so that was really good news! I'll brag on him since he never brags on himself :) He hasn't had a whole lot to do this summer at work, so that's been kind of frustrating for him, but it's not for lack of trying to find something...I think it's just hard since he's only there for a few weeks at a time out of the year. Whenever he starts work full-time after graduation, I'm sure it will be much different!

Well, there's my quick update. Hopefully it won't be another month before I update again...but who knows, with time flying so fast! Hope everyone is having an awesome week!!

I'm so excited!

I think this means I'm getting old. I just saved a bunch of money on my grocery shopping today, and I'm super excited! Overall, I went to Winn Dixie, Publix, and CVS and spent $61.39 total. Here's what I got:

• Pantene shampoo, conditioner, and hairspray
• Lysol toilet bowl cleaner
• 4 packages of Ziploc bags (sandwich and freezer sizes)
• 2 bottles of hydrogen peroxide
• Colgate toothpaste
• Colgate 360 toothbrush (Travis's favorite kind of toothbrush!)
• 2 pkgs of Secret deoderant
• 1 bottle of All laundry detergent
• 2 bags of Doritos
• 1 bag of Ruffles potato chips
• 2 boxes of Klondike bars
• Carrots
• 2 boxes of muffin mix
• Fresh strawberries
• 3 packages of Crystal Light mix
• 2 boxes of cereal bars
• 6 2-Liters of Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Dr. Pepper
• 1 bag of salad
• 1 cantaloupe
• 1 package of french onion dip

YAY!!!! So I spent $61.39, and my receipts show that I saved $67.98...that's 53%!!!!!
I've been doing a 4 week trial on a website my mom found, and it basically gives you a list for the different stores in your area of what the good deals are for the week. If you cut coupons from the Sunday paper and use them on top of a sale price, you can save a lot of money! That's what I did today!! The idea behind the website is that you want to stockpile items when they are at "rock botttom prices"...that way you don't have to pay full price when you need something like shampoo, laundry detergent, or Ziploc bags. And the website tracks the prices of different items in each store, so they know what's really a good deal or not. They say that a certain item, like Pantene shampoo, tends to go on sale about every 12 weeks...so you want to be sure that your "stockpile" will last you until the next time it goes on sale. Obviously, this won't work for things like milk and produce, but you really can save a lot of money on toiletries, makeup, and other household items!