So yesterday was the first day of the fall semester. This happens every year it seems, but that first day, and sometimes that whole first week is just exhausting. I only taught three classes yesterday, but by the time I got home I was totally wiped. I sat down on the couch and fell asleep until Brad got home. Which since that was around 6:00 and I had done nothing for dinner, led to us having macaroni and frozen chicken strips for dinner. Thankfully, I think Brad kind of likes macaroni and frozen chicken strips :) We ate that somewhat frequently during our first year of marriage.
Today seems much better. I got home today and took the dogs running. We ran 1.5 miles and walked about another 0.5. When we got home I made some sweet and sour pork chops, which are smelling delicious in the oven right now.
Now to be really productive and get things ready to put in the crock pot tomorrow morning so dinner tomorrow night doesn't have to come out of a box :)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
On the road again
So this week I've been trying to get in the routine of running again. It's been quite a few years since I've really tried much running, so I figured I would try it and see if it caused much knee pain. My real motivation for running really is laziness, as odd as that sounds. I figure if I run instead of walk, I'll get done twice as fast :)
Monday I had both dogs with me and we did our usual 1.5 mile course, running for a bit, then walking. It took us like 20 minutes. Tuesday we went at it again, despite a little rain. On Tuesday we ran the whole thing without any walking and finished up in 16 minutes. Wednesday I had to work late, so I just did some walking at work. Today, I must admit I ditched the dogs and went by myself, and ran the whole thing in about 14:30. So far, the knee feels pretty good.
The dogs, specifically Lucy, are not the greatest partners. Lucy really really wants to come, but refuses to keep up. So I'm kind of dragging her down the road, which might be fine if I was in a little better shape, but I'm already working pretty hard without dragging 50 pounds on a red leash.
So with school starting on Monday, we'll see if I can keep this up. I'm usually only good about working out for like two weeks at a time.
Monday I had both dogs with me and we did our usual 1.5 mile course, running for a bit, then walking. It took us like 20 minutes. Tuesday we went at it again, despite a little rain. On Tuesday we ran the whole thing without any walking and finished up in 16 minutes. Wednesday I had to work late, so I just did some walking at work. Today, I must admit I ditched the dogs and went by myself, and ran the whole thing in about 14:30. So far, the knee feels pretty good.
The dogs, specifically Lucy, are not the greatest partners. Lucy really really wants to come, but refuses to keep up. So I'm kind of dragging her down the road, which might be fine if I was in a little better shape, but I'm already working pretty hard without dragging 50 pounds on a red leash.
So with school starting on Monday, we'll see if I can keep this up. I'm usually only good about working out for like two weeks at a time.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Walgreens Deals for 7/18
You know that you're kind of getting old when your birthday excitement includes going to walgreens to snag some good deals. Here's what I got today...
5 Pack Expo Dry Erase Markers (in some fun colors): $5.99 - Cat discount - $3 Walgreens coupon - $1 printed coupon = $1.09
Two 2 packs of Pilot G2 pens (my favorite pens) $2.38 - Cat discount - $2 Walgreens coupons - $1 printed coupon = negative $0.98 (free money for me!)
Colgate toothpaste = $3.50 - Cat discount - $0.75 printed coupon - $3.50 register reward (essentially a rebate that prints that you can use later) = negative $1.28 (free money for me!)
Since they won't actually pay you to shop at walgreens and you have to have as many items when you check out as you have coupons I also picked up some shampoo, conditioner, and two 5 packs of Bic highlighters to get me into the positive. All in all I paid $2.46 out of pocket ($1.01 of which was sales tax) and got myself some fun school supplies, and I figure I can donate the extra highlighters when they're collecting stuff at church. I think I need to start taking a calculator with me when I go, though, because both times at the register I had to run to grab something more to cover my coupons or make my total positive...bad math on my part...
5 Pack Expo Dry Erase Markers (in some fun colors): $5.99 - Cat discount - $3 Walgreens coupon - $1 printed coupon = $1.09
Two 2 packs of Pilot G2 pens (my favorite pens) $2.38 - Cat discount - $2 Walgreens coupons - $1 printed coupon = negative $0.98 (free money for me!)
Colgate toothpaste = $3.50 - Cat discount - $0.75 printed coupon - $3.50 register reward (essentially a rebate that prints that you can use later) = negative $1.28 (free money for me!)
Since they won't actually pay you to shop at walgreens and you have to have as many items when you check out as you have coupons I also picked up some shampoo, conditioner, and two 5 packs of Bic highlighters to get me into the positive. All in all I paid $2.46 out of pocket ($1.01 of which was sales tax) and got myself some fun school supplies, and I figure I can donate the extra highlighters when they're collecting stuff at church. I think I need to start taking a calculator with me when I go, though, because both times at the register I had to run to grab something more to cover my coupons or make my total positive...bad math on my part...
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Walgreens Deals for 6/26
Now those that know me well, know that I love saving money. Some might even say I'm cheap...okay, I'm definitely cheap. So lately I've been following this blog at www.moneysavingmom.com. It goes through ways to use coupons go get items free or nearly free as well as posting links to printable coupons and freebies. They are always talking about the great deals you can get at Walgreens, but I had never really tried it out. Today I stepped up to the plate and it was FANTASTIC. Good deals just make me happy. So here's what I did:
1) Reach toothbrushes: I got two marked $1.50 each. There was an in-flyer coupon to make them $0.99, so that subtracted off $1.02. I also have a Cat discount card for Walgreens which takes 15% off everything, so it took 15% off the original price subtracting $0.30. Then, I had a $2 off 2 coupon for Reach toothbrushes, leaving the grand total at $-0.32...meaning they paid me to take those toothbrushes off their hands :)
2) Dove deodorant: I'm hooked on the fancy Dove clinical deodorant which unfortunately is like $7 normally, even at walmart. So there was a deal that if you spent $15 on Dove products you got $5 in "walgreens bucks" for your next purchase. They had my deodorant on sale for $5.99, which was pretty good to begin with, and then I used my Cat card which brought them down to $5.09 a piece, and then I had three coupons - two for $2 off and one for $1.50 that I had printed online. So I got all three for $9.77 and got $5 in Walgreens bucks, so it was like getting all three for $4.77...and I had the $0.32 overage from the toothbrushes, so really only $4.45.
3) I decided to go ahead and spend my $5 while I was there, so I got two bags of Lays potato chips that were onsale for $1.99 ($1.69 after Cat discount) and a Hallmark card, and since I had my $5 to pay with, all that only cost me $0.52.
So I spent like $11.33 out of pocket, for things that normally would have cost me at least $30 at Walmart...and all things that I would have been buying (eventually) anyways. So that was my fun for the afternoon. Obviously I don't need to buy three deodorants every week, but it was such a deal I just couldn't resist. I may have to look into more Walgreens stops in the future...at least when I can match up good sales and good coupons.
1) Reach toothbrushes: I got two marked $1.50 each. There was an in-flyer coupon to make them $0.99, so that subtracted off $1.02. I also have a Cat discount card for Walgreens which takes 15% off everything, so it took 15% off the original price subtracting $0.30. Then, I had a $2 off 2 coupon for Reach toothbrushes, leaving the grand total at $-0.32...meaning they paid me to take those toothbrushes off their hands :)
2) Dove deodorant: I'm hooked on the fancy Dove clinical deodorant which unfortunately is like $7 normally, even at walmart. So there was a deal that if you spent $15 on Dove products you got $5 in "walgreens bucks" for your next purchase. They had my deodorant on sale for $5.99, which was pretty good to begin with, and then I used my Cat card which brought them down to $5.09 a piece, and then I had three coupons - two for $2 off and one for $1.50 that I had printed online. So I got all three for $9.77 and got $5 in Walgreens bucks, so it was like getting all three for $4.77...and I had the $0.32 overage from the toothbrushes, so really only $4.45.
3) I decided to go ahead and spend my $5 while I was there, so I got two bags of Lays potato chips that were onsale for $1.99 ($1.69 after Cat discount) and a Hallmark card, and since I had my $5 to pay with, all that only cost me $0.52.
So I spent like $11.33 out of pocket, for things that normally would have cost me at least $30 at Walmart...and all things that I would have been buying (eventually) anyways. So that was my fun for the afternoon. Obviously I don't need to buy three deodorants every week, but it was such a deal I just couldn't resist. I may have to look into more Walgreens stops in the future...at least when I can match up good sales and good coupons.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Vacation - Part 4
Okay, where were we...
Friday and Saturday of vacation were our big snorkeling days. We started out at trunk bay at 7:30 in the morning on Friday...even beat the lifeguard there. Also beat the guy who collects the money, so we got to go for free. Trunk Bay is where the cruise ships stop and is the most "touristy" beach with a snack shop, lifeguards, and what not. There is also an underwater snorkel tour. It's pretty short, but kind of cute with little plaques underwater telling you about different kinds of fish and corals. We snorkeled around the tour and also out and around a little island off that beach. We got to see a turtle here as well, and it was beginning to seem you could see a turtle everywhere you went. We chilled at this beach for a while, but we hadn't brought our cooler with us, so once we got hungry we headed back to the car and went down the road to Jumbie Beach. The parking was full here (only like four spots) so we went up the hill and parked at Peace Hill. There's a hill (clever name, right?) you can climb and see some ruins and where there used to be a big Jesus statue. Jesus fell down during a hurricane and the park didn't want to put him back up. We ate lunch up there with a nice view in all directions, and then walked down the hill to Jumbie. I really liked Jumbie....not a very big beach, not fancy, but good snorkeling, not too busy, and a nice view. We saw several turtles at this one and even made a movie with one that seemed very curious about us. After a long day at the beach, we decided to just do some sandwiches and salads from a deli this night for dinner. I got this sandwich called a pink cadillac that was kind of slimy but super tasty. It had cream cheese, salsa, guacamole, turkey, and cheddar cheese on pumpernickel bread. Awesome combo.
Friday we went out to the farthest beach on the North Shore Road where you can swim out to Waterlemon Cay...yes, it's really waterlemon and not watermelon. It was a decent little walk to the beach (at least if you're carrying your beach chairs and cooler), and then from the beach it was a good quarter mile swim or so out to the island with some decent currents. We made it out there and started to swim around the island, and I started to doubt my swimming abilities when I hit some strong current. So I turned back to the little beach on the island and on my way there saw a HUGE tarpon! Seriously, at least five feet long...he was one big guy! But he seemed thoroughly disinterested in me since I was swimming amongst millions and millions of these little silver fish...so many little fish you could hardly see where you were going. So I relaxed on the beach and waited for Brad to make his way around. When he got up to the beach he said it was the best snorkeling he'd ever seen and that the current wasn't too bad once you got to the back side. So off we went for my first lap and Brad's second lap around the island. He was right - the back side was awesome. So many colors of corals, so many fish...it was beautiful. After lap number two, we swam back to the beach, very hungry and ready for lunch. At this point it started pouring and blowing, to the point that I was hiding behind a tree. We scarfed down our sandwiches and packed up, and by the time we were about half way down the trail, the sun was shining again :) We headed over to Francis beach, the next closest beach on the north shore road, and settled in for an afternoon of reading. It was a nice peaceful afternoon...except for the little black bugs that devoured my right arm leaving me with like forty-some bug bites. When we headed back to Lavender Hill to clean up, the rain started up again. The place we were planning for dinner was mostly outside seating, so when we got to the Banana Deck, there was no one else there. They found us a table in the covered part up by the bar and we had a nice quiet dinner watching the rain. We had this awesome chicken quesadilla appetizer and then both had some good ol' american cheeseburgers.
Friday and Saturday of vacation were our big snorkeling days. We started out at trunk bay at 7:30 in the morning on Friday...even beat the lifeguard there. Also beat the guy who collects the money, so we got to go for free. Trunk Bay is where the cruise ships stop and is the most "touristy" beach with a snack shop, lifeguards, and what not. There is also an underwater snorkel tour. It's pretty short, but kind of cute with little plaques underwater telling you about different kinds of fish and corals. We snorkeled around the tour and also out and around a little island off that beach. We got to see a turtle here as well, and it was beginning to seem you could see a turtle everywhere you went. We chilled at this beach for a while, but we hadn't brought our cooler with us, so once we got hungry we headed back to the car and went down the road to Jumbie Beach. The parking was full here (only like four spots) so we went up the hill and parked at Peace Hill. There's a hill (clever name, right?) you can climb and see some ruins and where there used to be a big Jesus statue. Jesus fell down during a hurricane and the park didn't want to put him back up. We ate lunch up there with a nice view in all directions, and then walked down the hill to Jumbie. I really liked Jumbie....not a very big beach, not fancy, but good snorkeling, not too busy, and a nice view. We saw several turtles at this one and even made a movie with one that seemed very curious about us. After a long day at the beach, we decided to just do some sandwiches and salads from a deli this night for dinner. I got this sandwich called a pink cadillac that was kind of slimy but super tasty. It had cream cheese, salsa, guacamole, turkey, and cheddar cheese on pumpernickel bread. Awesome combo.
Friday we went out to the farthest beach on the North Shore Road where you can swim out to Waterlemon Cay...yes, it's really waterlemon and not watermelon. It was a decent little walk to the beach (at least if you're carrying your beach chairs and cooler), and then from the beach it was a good quarter mile swim or so out to the island with some decent currents. We made it out there and started to swim around the island, and I started to doubt my swimming abilities when I hit some strong current. So I turned back to the little beach on the island and on my way there saw a HUGE tarpon! Seriously, at least five feet long...he was one big guy! But he seemed thoroughly disinterested in me since I was swimming amongst millions and millions of these little silver fish...so many little fish you could hardly see where you were going. So I relaxed on the beach and waited for Brad to make his way around. When he got up to the beach he said it was the best snorkeling he'd ever seen and that the current wasn't too bad once you got to the back side. So off we went for my first lap and Brad's second lap around the island. He was right - the back side was awesome. So many colors of corals, so many fish...it was beautiful. After lap number two, we swam back to the beach, very hungry and ready for lunch. At this point it started pouring and blowing, to the point that I was hiding behind a tree. We scarfed down our sandwiches and packed up, and by the time we were about half way down the trail, the sun was shining again :) We headed over to Francis beach, the next closest beach on the north shore road, and settled in for an afternoon of reading. It was a nice peaceful afternoon...except for the little black bugs that devoured my right arm leaving me with like forty-some bug bites. When we headed back to Lavender Hill to clean up, the rain started up again. The place we were planning for dinner was mostly outside seating, so when we got to the Banana Deck, there was no one else there. They found us a table in the covered part up by the bar and we had a nice quiet dinner watching the rain. We had this awesome chicken quesadilla appetizer and then both had some good ol' american cheeseburgers.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Vacation - Part 3
My plan was to get up early on Thursday and hit Trunk Bay before it got busy (and if you go early, you don't have to pay). When we woke up, it was raining...so we decided to sleep a little longer to see if it would clear up. When we got up, it was still raining, so we packed up our things and put on our suits and decided to head towards the beaches any how. We started at Hawksnest, the closest beach to town on the North Shore Road. It was raining, but not too hard, so we grabbed our chairs and our snorkels and set up camp. We headed out on the reefs and saw our very first turtle! Of course, we didn't have our camera with us at the time since it wasn't very clear and we thought we wouldn't see much, so I headed back to shore to get the camera while Brad chased the turtle. By the time I made it back with the camera, Brad had lost the turtle...as it turns out, this was just the first of many turtles we would see, with some more shy than others. The rain picked up so we decided to pack up and head down the road. We stopped at Cinnamon Bay, where it was still raining, so we left everything in the car except for our snorkels and headed down to the beach. There is a little island just off shore here so we snorkeled around the island in the rain. Lots to see everywhere we went...saw pretty much all of the fish on our little identification card :) We packed up and kept driving, figuring the rain was a good time to do some exploring. Since it was pouring, we parked where we could see the water and ate our lunch in the car. We were near some ruins of a sugar plantation, so we figured we were already this wet, we might as well get out and walk around. The camera was waterproof, so a little rain couldn't stop us :) By this time, it was midafternoon and I was ready to be dry, so we headed back for some warm showers, dry clothes, and some reading where the pages don't get wet. For dinner, we walked around town trying to decide what sounded good and ended up getting a pizza and some ice cream and eating in front of the tv...maybe not gourmet, but it was tasty and relaxing.
Vacation - Part 2
The adventure continues...
We got up on Wednesday and walked into town to pick up our rental car. It was a snazzy bright yellow jeep wrangler. It was really pretty nice, so we headed off to town with me shouting reminders of "drive on the left" and trying to read the map of how to get to the grocery store with all the one way streets. We made it to the store and bought our snacks and sandwich supplies for picnic lunches for the week and worked on making our way back to Lavender Hill. We decided that was maybe enough driving for the first day and planned to walk a "short" trail to the beach. While the trail was only about a mile long, hiking in the tropics at noon takes a bit more effort than we planned for. I'm pretty sure all of my sun tan lotion was sweated off by the time we made it to Salomon Beach. We made a mental note that we need to be in better shape and do some training before we go back to St. John. Our first snorkeling adventure was great...saw all kinds of little fish and some pretty good sized parrot fish. The reef was really close to the beach so it was easy swimming and there was some nice shade to relax in on the beach. Once we got our snorkeling fix in, we wandered a little further down the trail just to see what all we could see. We saw another beach, Honeymoon Beach, as well as the Caneel Bay Resort - where the rich people stay. We hiked our way back to Lavender Hill to clean up for dinner and walked into town for our first meal out. We saw this cute place just down the street that we hadn't heard about before coming, but it looked good. It was Cactus on the Blue and we had a great meal. We started with a salsa sampler - four different little things of salsa with chips. There was a guacamole, a mango pineapple salsa, a pico de gallo, and some kind of roasted tomato salsa. There were fabulous! I love chips and salsa and I was starving from all the hiking and swimming, so it was a great start. I followed with some chicken tacos and Brad had some kind of flank steak. There was really no food left on the table when we finished :) We then wandered around some of the shops by the ferry dock, scoping out who had the best t-shirts. We retreated to our condo for our nightly routine of reading up on beaches and trails for the next day, watching the cubs, and reading our novels. It was so wonderful to just have some time to read. I read two novels, four magazines, and the better part of my two books about st. john during the trip.
We got up on Wednesday and walked into town to pick up our rental car. It was a snazzy bright yellow jeep wrangler. It was really pretty nice, so we headed off to town with me shouting reminders of "drive on the left" and trying to read the map of how to get to the grocery store with all the one way streets. We made it to the store and bought our snacks and sandwich supplies for picnic lunches for the week and worked on making our way back to Lavender Hill. We decided that was maybe enough driving for the first day and planned to walk a "short" trail to the beach. While the trail was only about a mile long, hiking in the tropics at noon takes a bit more effort than we planned for. I'm pretty sure all of my sun tan lotion was sweated off by the time we made it to Salomon Beach. We made a mental note that we need to be in better shape and do some training before we go back to St. John. Our first snorkeling adventure was great...saw all kinds of little fish and some pretty good sized parrot fish. The reef was really close to the beach so it was easy swimming and there was some nice shade to relax in on the beach. Once we got our snorkeling fix in, we wandered a little further down the trail just to see what all we could see. We saw another beach, Honeymoon Beach, as well as the Caneel Bay Resort - where the rich people stay. We hiked our way back to Lavender Hill to clean up for dinner and walked into town for our first meal out. We saw this cute place just down the street that we hadn't heard about before coming, but it looked good. It was Cactus on the Blue and we had a great meal. We started with a salsa sampler - four different little things of salsa with chips. There was a guacamole, a mango pineapple salsa, a pico de gallo, and some kind of roasted tomato salsa. There were fabulous! I love chips and salsa and I was starving from all the hiking and swimming, so it was a great start. I followed with some chicken tacos and Brad had some kind of flank steak. There was really no food left on the table when we finished :) We then wandered around some of the shops by the ferry dock, scoping out who had the best t-shirts. We retreated to our condo for our nightly routine of reading up on beaches and trails for the next day, watching the cubs, and reading our novels. It was so wonderful to just have some time to read. I read two novels, four magazines, and the better part of my two books about st. john during the trip.
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