What an unplanned, budget friendly weekend....

.......except for when I went to Target on Saturday and bought something very similar to this and this (both on sale of course).

But I'm not going to talk about that because it has nothing to do with this post O:)

Saturday afternoon I ran into Publix (my FAVORITE grocery store ever) to get a loaf of bread and stumbled upon a "Meet the Managers/Open House" promotion they were running. They gave you a sheet of paper and you had to go around and get like 6 or 8 of the managers to sign it, bring it back to the front, and they would give you a coupon for a free item. Well, you know me, and that I wouldn't turn down the opportunity for a free item, especially at Publix. So off I went and literally less than 5 minutes later I had all my signatures (the managers were all standing out in front of their designated areas). I reached into a bag full of coupons and pulled one out for a "Free Rotisserie Chicken!" A $7.50 value. It was yummy too. I saw some other lady's coupon and hers was only for a free OJ. I got lucky.

Then on Sunday I went back to Publix for my regularly scheduled shopping trip. I spent $29.56 and saved $62.36. Woooooo :)

THEN I ran into Food World real quick because they had Tilapia on sale, and they happened to be running Triple Coupon special! They tripled any manufacturer's coupon up to $0.55! I didn't get a whole lot but what I did get was dirt cheap or free. So yay.

On another note I was a little worried last night about Bailey. She was so good this weekend that it scared me! Surely she must be getting sick. Surely something is wrong. There is no way she would lay in one spot for longer than 5 minutes, let alone lay in one spot while I got up and went into another room for a few minutes! But alas, her energy bursts have returned. Maybe our unexpected visitor scared her the other night! Maybe she came to the realization that she could be replaced if she's not good. If only she were that intelligent........

Unexpected house guest!

So when we finally got home yesterday (at 7:15 PM!!), I took Bailey outside to do her business. While we were walking out our neighbor asked me if I knew who's dog was running around in the parking lot. I didn't, but there are a couple people who let their dogs off their leash (so jealous), so I figured the owner was near by. When we were walking back in, the dog was still there and my neighbor said she hasn't seen anyone else outside. It was already dark, and I didn't want the little guy to get runover, so I lured him with some treats I happened to have on me and picked him up. He had a tag with a phone number on it so the girl offered to call the owner. So I was holding Graham (that's what his tag said, at least) with one arm, I had Bailey on the retractable leash and her poo bag in my other hand, and the girl was trying to read the tag to get the phone number. While this was going on Bailey was doing 1 of 2 things, jumping all over me to try to get to Graham, or slinking away to eat the cat food that these annoying people keep sitting out for these stray cats (that's a whole other story). No one answered so the girl left a message for Graham's owner and I brought him upstairs. Bailey was going crazy trying to sniff Graham. She was nuts, but harmless. Graham on the other hand was quite mean. He showed his teeth and growled at her. Brat. Regardless of his meaness to Bailey we kept him until his owner finally called us back. She had let some friends come over to borrow some furniture and apparently they "forgot" to lock up. And Graham escaped. Here's a photo of little Graham Cracker cuddling up with one of Bailey's toys.

Fab Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! Although I'm not sure how fabulous it will be because 1) it's raining and 2) I have a looooooong day of work ahead of me. But at 6:00 it will be super fabulous! This past week went by in a blur. It was pretty busy at work. And Wednesday night we met up with some new friends from the neighborhood for happy hour. This weekend should be pretty relaxing. We don't have anything major planned (and I don't have to work.........because I quit my second job! More on that later). Tomorrow will be full of errands followed by a haircut (yay) and I'm not sure what Sunday will bring yet. I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll leave you with some before and after pictures of Bailey's newest toy (which is now destroyed).

Tennis Ball Day 1

Tennis Ball Day 2

Springtime!

Happy Spring everyone! Friday was officially the first day of spring, although it's been beautiful here ever since this day. I love, love, love springtime, especially in Alabama. The weather is so gorgeous in March and April and you can do all kinds of things outside. Living in PA I would always get the warm weather bug in March but unfortunately have to wait at least 2 more months (and endure 1-2 more snow storms) before it was actually nice enough to wear flip flops and tank tops.

This weekend was full of signs that Spring is here. I was able to drink my coffee on the balcony both days (although I had to wear a sweatshirt, but still totally worth it). I filed our taxes Saturday morning. We washed the car earlier today, although I'm sure it will be covered in pollen again by the end of the week. We took Bailey for multiple walks/runs outside. I bought another basil plant. I stained our little balcony table that was quite weathered. And we celebrated a belated St. Patty's Day with some friends. It was pretty low key compared to some of our other St. Patty's Day celebrations. We enjoyed some grilled pizzas, 1 carbomb (how responsible of us), some games, and good company.

Remember the indestructible Tuffy Ring......

.....from this post?

Turns out it's destructible.

But I have to give it some credit...it lasted about a month, which is about 10 times as long as any of her other stuffed toys.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I love this day. Mostly because of the association with the color green, which is my favorite color, and the association with the beverage beer, which happens to be one of my favorite beverages :) While there will be plenty of green in my day, there will likely be little to no beer. But that's okay. Because we'll be heading over to our friend Stacy's this Saturday for our annual St. Patty's Day festivities. Plenty of pictures to follow, but here are a couple to get you started!

Also, if you would like a good laugh, please check out this video. About 3 years ago there was a leprechaun siting in Mobile, AL. The amateur sketch is my favorite! And if you would like a catchy tune in your head all day like I now have in mine, check out the remix.

For the love of beer

March has been a beer themed month for us so far. At the beginning of the month our friend David hosted Sunday Night Dinner and this month's theme was beer. The main course was beer can chicken on the grill and we brought beer & cheese bean dip. Everything was delicious! I hate that the group picture turned out blurry :( I wish I still had my old camera, but it is no longer with us due to it's own little beer incident.

Last night our friends Anne & Brian hosted a Beer Tasting for our friend Matt's birthday. It was perfect, because we love sampling different brews and Matt is the closest thing to a Beer Connoisseur that exists! We each brought some fine beers and sampled light to dark. We started with Whites, then moved on to Fruit beers followed by Ales and finishing up with Porters. We also watched this video, and realized how incredibly awesome (note sarcasm) Alabama representatives are when it comes to beer. It just goes to show that if this guy can get elected to the House of Representatives, you can do anything you put your mind to! No Mr. Holmes, the beer we got DON'T drank pretty good!

25 Random Things

So, if you've been on Facebook at all, you have probably seen people filling out "25 Random Things" and "tagging" people in it so they have to fill it out too. Initially, I refused to do this. And I still refuse to do it on FB, but my curiousity got the best of me and I decided to see what 25 random things about myself I could come up with. So, here they are.


1. I hate board games.
2. I LOVE the tv shows Gossip Girl and Friday Night Lights
3. Cheese gritz is my favorite southern food (My co-worker's recipe only, I’m picky)
4. I cry easily
5. I had a purple trapper keeper with stars on it in elementary school.
6. I don’t like chewing gum after the first 5 seconds. The texture weirds me out.
7. On snow days in middle school I loved playing Legend of Zelda on super Nintendo with my brother.
8. I call my dog completely random and ridiculous names that I’d be embarrassed if I accidentally used them in public.
9. I love blogging.
10. I will never, ever run a full marathon ever again. People that enjoy that are crazy.
11. When I was 4 my Grandpa Borys accidentally broke my favorite purple headband in half. To be funny he broke it up into a million tiny pieces and asked if that was better. I sobbed for hours. In my little mind I thought it would be okay if I fixed the 2 broken pieces with a piece of tape. When he kept breaking it, it destroyed me.
12. I’m pretty anal and get anxious if things don’t go according to plan.
13. I love, love, love my family reunions on my dad’s side and hope that we continue them as long as I live.
14. I knew Tom was “the one” the minute we started dating. (And by “dating” I mean watching Dumb and Dumber and drinking Labatt’s Blue….it was college, we were broke)
15. I can’t even count the number of kids I have worked with who have passed away in the short 4 years I have been a PT.
16. I love making our budget.
17. I had to wear a head gear to school when I was in 5th grade. My first trip to the orthodontist was in 2nd grade and I didn't get my braces off until the end of 8th grade. My teeth were horrendous!
18. I will be really sad to leave Alabama (Surprise! I didn’t see that one coming!)
19. Dancing in THON was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Who would of thought I would be able to stay on my feet for 48 hours straight, let alone stay awake for 48 hours straight….2 years in a row!!
20. I once dangled a fake skeleton foot out of a 16th story window with an extension cord and a sign attached that said “Beer Please” to our neighbors below who were having a party……ahhhhhh Study Group.
21. In grad school I had 3 great friends and we referred to ourselves as “Study Group” although we actually did little to no studying when we got together. (See # 20)
22. I cut open a dead guy. His name was Elvis. Elvis the Pelvis.
23. I've never had a spa day.
24. I once worked in a group home where one of the residents would randomly say things like "The dragons are playing games in the sky!" and he would stare at the wall, while tracing an imaginary line with his finger and saying "Hamburgler!"
25. My high school basketball coach broke my nose during practice.

The Basenji 500

Just about every night Bailey gets a sudden burst of energy and decides to sprint around the apartment at FULL SPEED making laps around the coffee table and the dining room table. I finally got it on video:

And this is where she wishes she could run every day:

She is still learning how to play "fetch" apparently.

Fab Friday!

It's Friday! Yay! I'm not as excited as I should be, considering I have to work tomorrow at my second job, so I decided I would blog about some upcoming events to keep my spirits up while simultaneously reminding myself why I will benefit from tomorrow's profits!



April 18th - Ashley & Tony's wedding on Lake Guntersville

May - 2nd Annual Trip to Destin, FL with Tom

May (???) - Atlanta (Or Nashville??) Beer Tour Trip with friends

June - Pacific Northwest trip for Mags' 30th Bday Bash

July - Birthday Week! I don't know what it will entail yet but something fabulous, I'm sure

August (???) - Possible 2nd Annual Orange Beach trip with friends

September - Cousin Laurel's wedding in Indianapolis

November - Jay & Nicole's wedding in Pittsburgh

Hail Storm

One day last week we had a hail storm right after we got home from work. It came on kinda quick, and it was unseasonably warm out (hence, the hail?) so we watched it from the balcony...until it started blowing at us and into the living room! Bailey thought it was pretty interesting. And OF COURSE she tried to eat it!! These pictures kind of suck, but you get the idea.

Phew, that was close!

So tonight we got home from work, let Bailey out of her crate, and welcomed her by petting her and trying to keep her from jumping, like we always do. She usually runs back and forth between the two of us, and when she calms down, we put her leash on and one of us takes her out.

Well, tonight, she started saying hi, then she darted off for the kitchen and kept sniffing around and wouldn't come back. So we walked into the kitchen, turned on the lights, and immediately saw what looked like mouse poo. :( I thought "GREAT, we have mice!!" We tried to figure out why there seemed to be so much poo, all spread out, especially because we hadn't seen any signs that we had mice until now.

That's when Tom walked into the 2nd bedroom, turned on the lights, and said

Um, where are the chins?

And I was like

Very funny, like the chins could get out of their cage.

Tom again

No, seriously. Where are they?! I must have not fully locked the cage when I fed them this morning.

Me

WHAT?!

We spent the next 5 minutes frantically searching the apartment (after we immediately put Bailey back in her crate, of course). We looked EVERYWHERE and then finally focused back in the kitchen. By this point I was sick to my stomach and was sure that one, if not both of them would be dead :( We moved the microwave, crawled up on the counter, and peered behind the fridge to see Chimu and Quito, huddled together between the fridge and the wall! Tom slowly moved the fridge back while I watched them to make sure they didn't get smooshed, and I shooed them out one by one for Tom to get them and put them back in their cage.

I am seriously surprised that they are still alive, especially because they like to chew on EVERYTHING and I thought for sure they would have chewed right through the refrigerator coils or plug! They're back in their cage, resting peacefully afer their full day adventure out and about!! Maybe next time they'll think twice before they come rushing out of their cage!

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah! It finally has snowed in Alabama! And more than just a light dusting. Unfortunately, (or fortunately considering they don't have salt trucks down here), it's just slightly too warm for it to stick to the ground. There is definiltey a few inches worth of snow covering our car, imagine if it was 10 degrees colder and there was that much EVERYWHERE!?!! Birmingham would be in lock down mode. I'm sure it will all be gone by this evening, and at the latest tomorrow morning, so we took advantage of it while it was here.