Livin' the Dream in Lima

I did this once back in February , so here goes! Reasons Why I'm Happy Today 1. The wonderful invention of skype . I got to talk with one of my BFF's who currently lives in South Korea (go read about her life here ) this morning! For a glorious 52 minutes and we even got to see each other. It was practically like sitting in the same room. I even gave her a tour of our new house. 2. My mom gave me her Kindle . Okay, she didn't give  it to me. She's letting me borrow it for our trip to Disney. (We leave Saturday!) It will be so nice to read on the plane without lugging around actual books. Let's just see if I can figure out how to work it before then. I wonder how many books I could charge to her amazon.com  account without her realizing? 3. This week is SUPER DOUBLE COUPONS at my local grocery store. Usually they only double coupons up to $0.50. This week they double coupons up to $1.00! This means I got $58 of groceries for just $34, a 41.3% savings...

Like that's not a mouthful, haha. So, a few months ago, I applied to host a " House Party " for Breakstone's Sour Cream. Basically, different brands offer "party packs" to people, who then in turn open their homes to friends & family to try out new brands and products. Well, I got chosen, and we had the party on Sunday night! Breakstone's has come out with several new flavored sour creams and sour cream dips, and we were supposed to try them out. Unfortunately, our local grocery stores only carried two of the seven varieties, so we only got to try two of the new flavors (chipotle and ranch).  We decided to go with a Mexican Fiesta theme, since we were sampling chipotle  sour cream. Yes, it's a bit of a stretch. But everyone loves Mexican food! Chips & salsa! We served our favorite cherry salsa from Door County. Here's what was on the menu: Chips & Salsa Roasted Corn Dip  (<-- this is delicious!) Chicken & S...

My Business Man and I decided to welcome the weekend a bit early with a date night tonight. We really know how to live it up. I even changed out of my sweatpants to go to dinner. We ate here:  Because we had one of these: I wouldn't try to print this one and use it. It expired in 2009. Almost 2 years ago. They might catch on. And accuse you of coupon fraud. Did you know you can go to jail for that? Read about it here . The thing I love most about Ruby Tuesday's is the salad bar. Yum-o! So many delicious options. And such a plethora of fresh veggies that we don't normally have at home.  Oh, and the croutons. I love their croutons. Can you tell by my salad? I also had some chicken quesadillas which were super cheesy. My Business Man was embarrassed that I took a picture of my salad so I decided spare him the torture of my mad photography skills in public places for the rest of dinner time. Never fear, I was able to break the camera back out later i...

So what does a business man's wife do when her Business Man goes away on business?  Oh, the endless opportunities... *She might go to Meijer for a super-couponing adventure... All this for just $18.31! Saved over $24 due to combining coupons with sales. Boo-ya! All these items (except the fish) were free! Usually I would not  buy Party Pizza, but it was one of my Business Man's favs before I moved out here. Although I couldn't bring myself to purchase the "pepperoni" or "sausage"... the little chopped-up chunks of "meat" freaked me out a little. He'll have to suffer with plain ole' cheese. Don't mind the huge glare in the middle of the box. I haven't quite mastered the art of successfully photographing my groceries. Hmmm. I also got my favorite cereal on sale, 2 for $5. Not the best deal, but usually it's $4.29 a box so I got a couple today. *When she gets home from the store, she might do somet...

I think I mentioned that a few weeks ago I took a couponing class . (I know what you're thinking. A whole class? Don't you just clip, cut, and save?) Trust me, it's a whole different game. Stacking coupons, doubling coupons, pairing coupons with sale items, pairing coupons with store rewards. I haven't gone completely coupon crazy (yet!), but I have scored some deals. The most recent deal (and probably most exciting to date) occurred at Rite Aid this week. Rite Aid has a "Wellness Program" where if you buy certain items, you can earn "UpRewards" which are treated like in-store cash. This week, a certain deal in their ad was that if you bought one can of Lay's Stacks Chips (costing $1.00), you would receive $1.00 in UpRewards. Now, that equals free chips! (And yes, free chips is part of their "Wellness Program". Doesn't make much sense to me either.) Leaning Tower of... Chips? Since I already had $6.00 in UpRewards, I bought...

Today has been a wonderful day. Thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr., I had no school. Keep on reading to get to the good stuff... As a teacher, I fully embrace all those little holidays that schools take off, but most businesses do not. While my Business Man got up and headed to work this morning, I was privileged to stay in our warm, cozy bed and get a late start to my day. It was great to have a catch-up day, because my Business Man and I were gone all weekend at a super-fun weekend in Indianapolis with some of his friends from college. (Woot woot for Merlinpeen!)  Today was spent getting a lot of chores done, and some fun time in the kitchen as well. I also got my long run for the week in, on a Monday! (That never happens.) It's funny because in college, Monday's were always Long Run Days. But now, in the real world, they tend to fall on Saturday's or Sunday's, based on the sheer fact that those are the only day's with enough free time to run long. I'm...