Cinco de Mayo & Game Night

Tuesday night we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with some friends at Iguana Grill. Despite the ridiculous parking situation and the hour and a half wait, I had a really good time! I really like the decor and the food was good too. It's definitely a little more "upscale" than our all time favorite, Habanero's, but I can definitely say we'll be visiting this place again.

Wednesday night our friend Stacy hosted Game Night. Tom couldn't make it so I brought Bailey instead ;) All the puppies had a great time while the humans got into some intense games of star wars Wii and Cranium.

Weekend of Outdoor Festivals

Friday night we went to the Crawfish Boil with some friends. We had a good time, got to sit outside, enjoy some live music, eat some crawfish, and kick back with a few tall cans. But I think that will be our last crawfish boil. We saw Shinedown, LL Cool J, Jason Miraz, and 311. LL Cool J was probably my favorite of the night....Jason Miraz was okay too.

Saturday evening we went out for Dos de Mayo and had some fine mexican food at Habanero's with some friends. Then, our friend Doug told us about "We Love Homewood Day" so we went to enjoy some more live music and outdoor festivities.

Now let me tell you why I had an identity crisis this weekend. Friday night the majority of the people at the Crawfish Boil were teenagers or in their early 20's. I felt a little old but then we would see the occasional couple with their baby (listening to 311....at 11:00 at night.....hmmmm) and wouldn't feel so old. Then Saturday night at We Love Homewood Day I felt like I should have been pushing a stroller and having my 5 year old run up to me and ask for money to buy ice cream. It was very family friendly, which was cool. I just felt a little out of place. Then I really had an identity crisis when I went into a pizza joint to use the bathroom and 2 girls in their early teens came in to check their hair. They put their phones down on the counter and I noticed I have the same exact phone. Then I was washing my hands and the one girl was like "Oooh, I like your purse!" and the other one was like "Yeah! I like your purse too!" Great.

So let's recap. I'm too old for the Crawfish Boil. I don't have babies yet (and am quite happy about this) so I don't fit in at Homewood Day. And apparently I have the same taste as 14 year old girls. Awesome.

Goals

I bet you've all been waiting patiently to find out how I did with my April goals, huh? Wait no more, the results are in!


1. Exercise/go to the gym 15 times I did it! Just barely! And it was tough. I may have even exercised 16 times if you count my 35 minute walk with Bailey around the neighborhood the other night (up and down hills, at a brisk pace).
2. Re-organize the pantry Done! See below for before and after pics!
3. Stain the bedside table on Tom's side Not done. Oh well, now I have a goal for May!
4. Lose 5 pounds Hmmmm. I'm not sure if I can confidently say I've lost 5 pounds since my first post on April goals. I can confidently say, however, that I've lost 10 pounds since trying to eat healthier.
5. NOT complain (anymore) about having to work this weekend I'm pretty sure that I no longer complained about having to work that weekend after writing that post.
6. Wake up early enough to drink my coffee on the balcony 1 morning before work Met! This almost didn't happen, mainly because it is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE for Tom and I to wake up even a millisecond before we absolutely have to. But on the morning of April 30th, we woke up early. I even had time to blow dry my hair and iron my clothes (usually it's either one or the other if I don't iron them the night before). AND I cut Tom's hair too. All before enjoying a nice mug of coffee on the balcony.


May Goals
1. Stain the bedside table on Tom's side
2. Lose 5 pounds
3. Exercise at least 13 times (15 was hard! Plus I doubt I'll be exercising while we're at the beach for 3 days)
4. Take the bags and piles and boxes of stuff we have sitting in the corner to Good Will
5. Submit proposal for conference next year (work stuff)
6. Declutter my "areas" every other day (my "areas" that tend to accumulate papers, coupons, etc tend to be 1) the kitchen table, 2) the coffee table, and 3) my desk/printer table). Tom will be so excited if I accomplish this goal!


Ok I think that's enough for now. I don't want to over-do it!!


Now enjoy some before and after pics of the pantry. The pics don't really do it justice. You'll just have to trust me, it's much better now than it was before! The "Before" pics are on the left and the "After" are on the right.

I even had a helper!

Arts Fest and Gnocchi Night

Last Sunday we went to Birmingham’s version of Arts Fest, “Magic City Art.” Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately (if you don't remember what happened last year), we didn't buy anything. There was some pretty cool stuff and I loved the atmosphere. Tom got a giant corndog for lunch. And there were lots of puppies there. Maybe next year Bailey will have calmed down enough that we could take her to an event like this....maybe.

Sunday night we went over to our friends Anne & Brian's house for Gnocchi night. Anne made the dough and we all helped roll the dough into little gnocchi pieces. I made a kick-ass salad to go along with dinner. Here is the recipe. I substituted balsamic vinegar for white, used sweet onion, and omitted the poppy seeds because I didn't have any.

Welch Lab Event

Yesterday we had Tom's lab over for some drinks, food, and good company. We've been to several lab events in the past, but had yet to host one. I'd say it was a success! Bailey made some fast friends - she LOVED our friend Doug's kids and was really interested in licking our friends Mick & Britta's baby. That was the first time that she's really been around kids (since she's come to live with us at least), so it's good to know that she's kid-friendly. She was exhausted by the end of the day. I think it's safe to say she had the most fun out of everyone!

A Day in the Life.......

......of Bailey in the "kennel" is apparently not as bad as one might think. Tom and I had to put Bailey in the kennel last weekend when we went to Ashley & Tony's wedding. It was the first time we had to leave her. I found a place, Creative Dog Training in Homewood, that was actually open on Sunday so we could pick her up when we got back and it seemed to be pretty great. They take the dogs out for "play time" every day and depending on the package you buy, you can choose to have multiple play sessions.

Tom and I felt really bad about leaving her in the "kennel" for the weekend but felt okay with Creative Dog Training. All weekend, however, we continued to feel guilty about leaving her there, hoping that she wouldn't think we had abandoned her and often wondering what she was doing at any given moment.....picturing her just lying in some "cell" looking all sad and lonely.

Fastforward to Sunday afternoon when I go to pick her up. I am brimming with excitement and feeling semi-guilty for arriving 30 minutes after they opened. I pull up and the dogs are out for their "play time" in the doggy play area. I see her right away and her and this brown dog are wrestling/running/biting each other. By the time I get out of the car and walk in the door the two are side-by-side drinking water out of the bowl like they're BFF.

I tell them I'm there to pick up Bailey and the guy brings her out on her leash. She could CARE LESS that I was there to pick her up. She was soooooooooo excited to just be on her leash and going somewhere and have more than 1 person paying attention to her! Her tongue was hanging like a foot out of her mouth the whole ride home and she had dog snard ALL OVER her coat. From the looks of it, she was having so much fun that I actually felt bad picking her up when I did!

I was so impressed with Creative Dog Training, that I was looking on their website after we got home (while Bailey was sprawled out recovering from her exciting weekend at my feet) and I found their Daily Pictures page! They take pictures every day of all the dogs staying with them and then post them on the web! How cute! Bailey must have been on the run constantly because she's only in like 3 pictures out of 120....and there couldn't have been more than 15-20 dogs there.

Lake Guntersville

This weekend we went to our friends Tony & Ashley's wedding at Lake Guntersville, AL. Ashley entered the PhD program at UAB with Tom and Tony was already in the program when Tom got here. Tony is actually from Pittsburgh and also is a PSU alum.

We decided to make a weekend of it and drove up to the lake Friday night. We got there just in time to watch the Penguins score a crap goal and send the game into OT and ultimately beat the Flyers with a bunch of Pittsburgh fans. Luckily, the weekend got better from there!

The main lodge at the lake was beautiful! We got there at dusk on Friday, just in time to take a few pictures. We hung out with a bunch of friends in the Chalet Friday night.

Saturday we woke up and ate the best breakfast buffet ever! Then we enjoyed the view and the weather before heading over to the wedding. Even some ladies from the Red Hat Society enjoyed the view. Tom didn't see this, and didn't believe me that the Red Hat Society existed when I told him about it. Luckily I snapped a photo for proof!
Check out the groom's cake that Ashley had made for Tony as a surprise. How cool is that?!

We all had to take advantage of the wonderful view for a photo shoot.

And we decided to take a BA (Bad Ass) picture with a few of the Penn State alum (oh, and a bunch of Tony's friends/groomsmen went to Penn State too - so imagine my excitement when they played the Penn State Fight Song during the reception!)

Tony's grandma made all of this fabulous candy/dessert as favors. I love the fruit candy that actually looks like mini fruit!

It was a great wedding and we're hopefully going to be able to go back to Lake Guntersville soon for a weekend getaway. The breakfast alone is worth the 2 hour drive ;)

Little Miss Bails

We've had Bailey for almost 5 months now, and I couldn't imagine not having her in our lives. When we first brought her home, I felt really guilty about keeping her in her crate all day when we were gone, being gone all day, and then keeping her in her crate to sleep as well. I kept thinking things like "At the shelter, at least she would have people walking by her every day, she would at least get to see human life throughout the day" and "Here she only gets to spend a total of 5-6 hours out of her crate every day, poor thing."

Now I know better. She is so spoiled and her life is so much better than it ever could have been in the shelter. Sure, she may get to see more people at the shelter, but how many of them scratch her ears, play tug-of-war with her tuffy ring, throw her Orbee snowball for her, or let her sneak up onto the couch to lay down next to them?

I'm not even sure if the shelter we got her from is a "No kill" shelter. After having her for 5 months and talking to a ton of other people who have rescued dogs, I can't imagine getting a "purebred" when there are so many good dogs in the shelter in need of a home.

This is a pretty big deal for me, because I've grown up with border collies and have come to LOVE that breed. One of the reasons we waited so long to get a dog was because I had my heart set on a border collie. Now that doesn't seem to matter so much. It's amazing how strongly I feel about rescuing shelter dogs. Enjoy some pics of our little adoptee :)

She might be a little OCD. She brought her toys out of her toy box one by one and then lined them up in a neat little line. She is so special ;)

By the Numbers

Despite having to work, this weekend turned out to be pretty good. Hope everyone had a happy Easter!!

Hours worked: 3

Hours on call: 13

Hours spent sitting on the balcony (drinking coffee, adult beverages, or reading): 6

Pages read in my book: 110

Walks with Bailey: 3

Loads of laundry: 3

Pedicures: 1

Pantrys reorganized: 1

New recipes tried: 3

Dinners at Guiseppe's Cafe: 1

Barf piles that Tom had to clean from Bailey: 4

Junk cleaned out of the spare closet: 1 box

Number of times I went to the gym: 1

Brand new toys destroyed by Bailey in less than 5 minutes: 1

Bees/wasps killed while sitting on balcony: 2

April Goals

I decided to set some goals for myself this month. Here they are.

1. Exercise/go to the gym 15 times
2. Re-organize the pantry
3. Stain the bedside table on Tom's side
4. Lose 5 pounds
5. NOT complain (anymore) about having to work this weekend
6. Wake up early enough to drink my coffee on the balcony 1 morning before work

That's all for now. Tune in at the end of the month to see if I was successful.

How to grocery shop like a pro

Or this post could be called "How I save a ridiculous amount of money at Publix"

I decided I would share some of my secrets with you. I'm not going to lie, it involves a little bit of prep work so if you're one to do ALL of your household shopping at ONE grocery store, without a list, this post is not for you.

If you don't have a Publix in your area, that's unfortunate. Some of the same principles might apply, but chances are your grocery store isn't as awesome as Publix so you won't score as great of deals (I don't know what I'm going to do when we move back to the northeast....maybe have a career change and open a Publix franchise just so I can still shop there). I digress......

Step 1: The Flyers

The sales run Wednesday through Tuesday, our mailperson drops off the flyers on Wednesday (sometimes Tuesday if I'm lucky). I go through the Publix flyer paying particular attention to the items that are "Buy 1, Get 1 free" (or BOGO or B1G1), because these are where you're going to get your best deals. Fortunately, Publix rings up all BOGO items at half price, so you don't have to buy 2 of the same item to get the sale price.


Step 2: Coupons

Publix doubles manufacturer's coupons up to $0.50. Most grocery stores have this same deal, some only double up to $0.35 and some double up to $0.55. Also, if you buy 2 of the same item, you can use 2 of the exact same coupons (or 3 items and 3 coupons, etc etc). I wasn't aware of this before because on all coupons it says "one per item" and I never realized that you could buy multiple items and use mulitple coupons.

Sunday Paper - This is my main source for my coupons. I go to the dollar store and pick it up for $1 every Sunday. It's cheaper than getting the "weekend package" delivered. Thanks to wonderful websites/bloggers like this, you can often see beforehand what coupons are going to be in the paper. This way, if I see something that I know we will use (for example a $1.50/1 Kraft salad dressing coupon when I know it goes on sale at publix for 2/$3), I'll pick up 2 copies of the paper.

Internet - Let's see. Smartsource. Coupons.com. EatBetterAmerica. Betty Crocker. I don't usually spend much time, if any, perusing the internet coupon sites. Mostly because of awesome posters on other sites (see below) who have already done all of the internet searching for me. And not all places accept internet coupons anyways. Publix does, but there is this one cashier that is convinced that they don't, so I simply pass by her line whenever I'm checking out.

Publix Coupons - Yes, this store is so great that they put out a bunch of their own coupons. They have 2 monthly "sale/coupon" flyers that sit at the front of the store, and they also have a couple of their own magazines on different topics (family, enviro friendly, etc) that often have coupons in them.

Here is where you can score big. Publix allows you to "double up" 1 publix coupon and 1 mfr coupon on a single item. For example, I might have a Publix coupon for $1 off Fresh Express salad blend. I also happen to have a manufacturer's coupon for $0.50 off Fresh Express. Let's say the sale price is 2/$4. My mfr coupon doubles to $1 and when used in combination with my Publix coupon, I now have $2 off a $2 bag of salad = FREE :)

Publix also has a "Mystery Item" for sale every Sunday and Monday. It costs $0.01 when you buy $10 worth of groceries. They put a "mystery coupon" in their ad in the Sunday paper, and it can be anything from a loaf of bread to toilet paper to pasta sauce to sweet tea to pizza to soda to cereal etc, etc, etc. So awesome.

Competitor's coupons - The Publix I shop at accepts the Piggly Wiggly coupon that is in our "Birmingham City" coupon books. There are 6 PW coupons for $5/$25 and 6 for $5/$50. I've heard rumors that other Publix stores will accept all competitor's coupons (including Target, Winn Dixie, etc) but mine only accepts the ones from the Pig.


Step 3: Other websites

After I skim through the flyer and mark what we need, I go to the Publix Forum on Hot Coupon World (dumb name, I know) where this wonderful poster has done all of the grunt work. She (at least I'm assuming it's a "she") types in all of the ads, then lists any available coupons (internet or regular) that are available for that item. Sometimes I won't have the coupons that she lists or I'll find some coupons that are not on her list, but for the most part, this is how I find the internet coupons available for certain items we need.


Let's recap: It's easier than this post may make it seem.
1. I look through the flyer (easy enough)
2. I go to the HCW website to see what coupons are available, then simply click "print" or pull them out of my coupon organizer.
3. I go to Publix, and use my $5/$25 Piggly Wiggly coupon.
4. I scan my Publix Upromise card so I can put some pennies toward my tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loans.
5. I brag on my blog about how much I saved at Publix (Note: I don't really post about it to brag. Whenever I tell Tom how much I save he's like "You should Blog about that!!")

I also do other easy (although not always convenient) things to save money when grocery shopping like:

• Buy fruit & veggies that are in-season
• Buy household bulk items (paper towels, TP, dish detergent etc) from Sam's Club
• Buy meat (chicken, fish, beef, pork, etc) when it is super on sale and freeze it
• Buy milk, cream cheese, and bread from Aldi because it's super cheap and tastes the same
• Try to only buy things when they're on sale and store them in the pantry for later use.

One last question before I post this blog:

Have I turned into my Mom yet?!?! :)

Days like today are the reason I quit my second job.

Today was gorgeous. Sunny, breezy, and low-mid 70's. A perfect spring day to spend outside. A month ago I was still on the schedule at my second job for today. Last fall I started really dreading my weeks when I knew I had a 6 day work week. I also began to take on more responsibility with my primary job, including coming in on weekends just to get caught up. And obviously, my primary job takes priority. But I also hated missing social events and beautiful Saturdays and having to wake up earlier on Saturdays than I do during the week. I missed being able to have a lazy Saturday, run errands, or even clean and be productive around the apartment. And then we got Bailey and I hated not being able to hang out with her on Saturdays as well. My 2nd job was really great money, and only 1 Saturday a month, but to me, right now at least, I value my time over any money I would make. I resigned last month and don't have a single regret.

So because of my newfound freedom, I got to go enjoy UAB's Springfest and watch Tom and our friends engage in some fun intramural sports. And Bailey got to come too! They played kickball, dodgeball, and ultimate frisbee. And they won Kickball! See the absolutely ridiculous "trophy" below (that broke before the end of the afternoon!)