April 27, 2010

What a beautiful way to start out the day. This was at 6:48 am this morning on my drive to work. I believe something like this can set your day. You can have a great day if you choose to do so. And I am trying to consciously see positive things everyday.

April 26, 2010

Softball Monday! That means Barnaby's pizza and fried pickles. But more importantly, camaraderie amongst men. The boys lost the first game and won the second. It was very windy tonight and the other team seemed to figure out how to use that to their advantage. We, however, did not. They hit so many homeruns. But we won one, bringing the record to 3-1 for the season so far.

April 25, 2010

This is what my computer sees most of the day.

April 24, 2010

Uh-may-ZING! Jon made pancakes for breakfast this morning. Best pancakes I have ever had. They were apple streussel pancakes and they were phenomenal. Archer Farms brand. (That's Target brand to you and me.) I highly recommend them. And I am told the White Chocolate Raspberry are to die for as well.

April 23, 2010

Duke had to go to the vet today to get a booster shot and to recheck his ear. He had an ear infection when we took him in a month ago. He still has a little yeast infection going on in there. So we got a thorough lesson on how to properly clean his ear, and he has to go back in 2 weeks.

April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day! Go Green! Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!

I took a long nap after work today. Getting up at 5:30am is wearing on me. I'll get used to it though. It's only been a week and a half. I did it for years when I went in at 4am for POG. But it's been years since I did that. We grilled out tonight. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Just a bit on the cool side. But it's suppose to rain all weekend, so we wanted to enjoy the outdoors tonight. I made cookies to take in to our building services guy at work. He's been doing so much for us, and I appreciate all his hard work.

April 21, 2010

Today is my and Jon's 9th wedding anniversary! We started dating in 1997 and got married in 2001. We both worked today and came home and took a short nap. Then we drove to New Buffalo to Four Winds Casino for dinner. We got the buffet, which I must say is not quite as good during the week as it is on the weekends. But it was a bit cheaper. I'm glad we got to go and hang out for awhile, just us. But I wouldn't recommend the weekday buffet. There was a lot of choices, but just not that much that we wanted. But we had a good time. We didn't plan on gambling. We were just going to go for dinner. But we needed to go to the Hold 'Em room to get some information for Chris. And since that is located all the way in the back, my Cherry Bomb machine called out to me on the way there. I put in $1 to play. (It's only 10 cents a credit.) I won $3.20! Whoo hoo! Then we came home and I watched Idol. FINALLY, Tim was voted off! He was bad. I think he only made it this far because the little girls thought he was dreamy. Kind of like the Sanjaya effect from season 6.

April 20, 2010

Tonight was a looooooooooooooong night at work. We have been preparing for a big visit for about a week now. Tomorrow is the big day. Everything had to be clean and in tip-top shape. Julie and I had planned to go out to Fridays for drinks after work with coworkers, but we didn't get out of work until after 11:30. Look at the team leader office though! I've never seen it look so good!

April 19, 2010

I want to start off by saying Happy 10th Birthday Lauren!

Softball season started today. Which also means that Barnaby's pizza eating season started today as well. The guys won both their games by a 10 run rule. 13-3 and 16-4. Great job guys! The quicker those games are, the quicker we get to go eat pizza and fried pickles!

April 18, 2010

Was a beautiful day today! When I got out of work, the sun was shining and there were puff clouds all over the sky. Anytime there are clouds in the blue sky like this, it reminds me of the opening credits to The Simpsons.

April 17, 2010

Jon and I did a little planning for our Disney vacation for next year. Hopefully we can save up the money to go. As previously stated, our vacation fund went towards paying our federal tax return. Booooo. Going to have to do a few photography projects on the side to make some extra cash.

April 16, 2010

Monday is Lauren's 10th birthday, but we are celebrating tonight. We went to Mom and Dad's for her party. Girl cleaned up. Lots of cash! And presents! Her theme was tie-dye and peace signs. And she decorated her own cake. Happy Birthday Lauren!

April 15, 2010

It was such a beautiful day today. And I was off work. Didn't spend a whole lot of time outside, but I did have all the doors and windows open. Mostly I was doing bills, the budget, and rechecking my taxes. When I was outside, I decided to lift the cover off the hot tub to remove some excess puddling water that was lingering. I found a momma frog and her baby. This is the baby. It was not much bigger than a quarter. Happy Tax Day everyone!

April 14, 2010

I'm extremely unhappy with Uncle Sam right now. We had to drain our vacation fund to pay him. No wonder I waited until the last minute. Or almost. Tomorrow is tax day. Booooo. Well, Jon and I decided that we plan to go on our vacation on April 15, 2011. So we have exactly one year to save up for it. And one year to get skinny for it. I put a countdown clock on our desktop to remind me everyday exactly how long we have to save money and exercise. We'll see how that works...

April 13, 2010

Today was my first day opening as a GSTL. The opening process has become so much more simpler than it was when I was doing this about 5 years ago. Smile.

Tonight, I went to Jen's to watch Idol. Because Adam Lambert was the mentor and I'm in love with him. As much as a straight married woman can be in love with a gay man. The picture is of my girl, Daisy, Jay and Jen's dog. She has been pretty sick lately, but appears to be on the mend. I got lots of kisses again tonight. (I might be her favorite doggy Aunt.)

April 12, 2010

fail

April 11, 2010

Jon and I got some cleaning done around the house, today. The weather has been nice lately, and I would have much rather worked outside today. But I went to a viewing today for a co-worker, whose mom died this past week. I visited Miss Daisy today. She's been feeling a little under the weather lately, and we've been sending prayers her way. After I got home, Jon made dinner and then I sat at the computer and edited pictures for about 2 hours. I think they turned out pretty darn nice.

My new adventure at work starts tomorrow. I'll once again be running the front end. I did it for 3 years when the store first opened, but it has been about 5 years since I've done it. I'm sure it will all come back to me, like riding a bike...

April 10, 2010

Jon and I met Jay and Laurie, along with Chris and Laura, at Four Winds Casino tonight. We all hopped in my car and drove to Redamak's for dinner. As much as we wanted to eat the buffet at the casino, we didn't really want to shell out the $60 it costs on Saturday nights. The truck that was parked next to me in the parking lot at Redamak's had a toilet paper roll mounted to the dash. I cannot even fathom why that is necessary. It's kind of hard to see in the picture because of the reflection. After dinner, we went back to the casino to gamble a little. Over all, Jon and I lost $26. We would have spent less, but I was hoodwinked into betting $10 on one hand of blackjack. And I lost. (But I got my revenge. I filled up a free glass of lemonade, took one drink, then threw it away.) It was great to see Jay and Laurie. We only get to see them once or twice a year. Glad we could get together.

April 9, 2010

All night my cat has been acting like a crack head. We gave the cats some cat nip tonight and Pooper has been tweaking ever since.

April 8, 2010

So, I'm broadening my horizons in terms of music. Lately, I've been listening to the music channels on Comcast, called Music Choice. 46 different channels of non-stop, commercial free music. Mostly, I've been listening to the Classical Masterpieces channel. But I was scrolling through the channels to see what was available and came across Classic Alternative. Now 'Alternative' is the moniker they gave to music that didn't really fall into main stream music. Mostly your independent groups, college radio, grunge Nirvana-types. So I was really interested in seeing what they were gonna call classic alternative...

REALLY? Weezer? From 1994? That's the year I graduated from high school. Classic? I don't even know what to say to that.

April 7, 2010

This is why nobody can ever lose any weight at Target. There's always this kind of stuff laying around.

:-)

April 6, 2010

Boy, do I like to save money. Jon and I went grocery shopping tonight. We got over $240 worth of groceries for less than $170! We shop for 2 weeks at a time, rather than the customary once a week. It's kind of a chore and a pain in the ass to carry the groceries into the house, since we aren't fortunate enough to have an attached garage. So we just try to get more done in one shot. Plus, since I work there, it's pretty easy for me to pick something up if we run out. Like milk. We buy so much milk, its unreal. For a household with no kids, we go through a lot of milk. I bet we drink 3-4 gallons a week. I guess that isn't something too horrible to be addicted to. And it's skim too! The above receipt reflects several discounts. As a team member, I get 10% off everything. And because we use our Target Check Card (NOT a credit card, comes out of our checking), we earn rewards coupons quite a bit. So there is an additional 10% rewards discount. AND all through the month of April, as a team member, I get an additional 10% off anything that is Target brand. Add on the fact that I am the coupon queen, and you can see that we saved $70.13. We actually saved a little more than that. There is a separate receipt where we bought a few other things, but had to be rung up separately because we were ad matching another store's ad price. I gotta say, if you don't grocery shop at Target, give a try once. After running the Price Accuracy team for a good 2.5 years, I know that we competatively price our groceries. And I have personally compared prices on stuff I buy all the time. If we have to run to Meijer for something, I check out some prices on stuff. Target is cheaper on so many things. Okay, I'm done with my plug for Target. Okay, one more plug. Target's bakery makes these sinfully amazing Archer Farms blueberry muffins. I made the mistake of checking the nutritional value one day, and found out they were 560 calories each! Well, the bakery also makes blueberry muffin bread. It is amazing. And each slice is less than 200 calories, so you can indulge and not feel so bad. Lightly toasted in the toaster with a little butter... Like I said, sinfully amazing. It will be making an appearance in Ludington this fall.

April 5, 2010

Have I mentioned that I'm itching to get all the deck stuff out? I think that this summer, our deck is going to have to host some Euchre, Texas Hold 'Em, Gin and Tonics and cigars. My daffodils are up. Everybody's are. And I checked to see if my lilies were gonna come up this year. I see stems budding out. So I think we may have a winner this year. Currently, the Butler-Duke NCAA basketball game is on. I don't follow college basketball, but I guess I'll pull for Butler since they are from Indiana. Speaking of Butler, their coach is 33 years old. And he looks really young. And he has a great job, a career actually. I'm 33 years old. And as old as I get, I still see myself as young. Not young like a kid. But young like I'm not a full fledged adult yet. Like I couldn't be old enough to coach a college basketball team. That's an old person's job. Make any sense to anyone other than me?

April 4, 2010

Happy Easter everyone! Since it was my weekend to work, I got an extra Sunday off today because we are closed. Yay! Jon and I went to my parent's house for dinner this afternoon. The weather actually turned out to be pretty decent. It was a little windy and slightly cool. But the sun was shining for a lot of the day. Lauren and Morgan got to do an Easter egg hunt in the back yard. My dad hid all the eggs. Well, almost all of them. He had put all the eggs in a pitcher and was hiding them in the back yard. Apparently, halfway through this process, someone rang the doorbell and he set the pitcher on the grill. Then...forgot about it. But there was still a fair amount of eggs and candy hidden in the back yard. Chris was walking around, giving Morgan little hints on how to find the eggs. She was moving a little slower than Lauren because every time she found an egg, she had to make sure everyone knew about it. And also had to open it to see what was inside. So Lauren was really pulling ahead on quantity. That is, until Morgan found the pitcher on the grill. Jackpot!

P.S. I didn't get an Easter basket.

April 3, 2010

Fired up the grill today! Yesterday, Jon and I said, "Let's fire up the grill tomorrow." So the plan was that I would pick up some stuff from work to grill today, then come home and we would cook out. Then it rained, was windy and kind of cold. So we planned on not grilling. Then the sun came out and TA-DA! We grilled some burgers. I bought some solar lights too. And some colored glass tea light holders. I can't wait to get the deck set up with all the lights and the gazebo. Did I mention that this week?

April 2, 2010

My hair is getting long. Keep growing or cut it. Summer's coming. What to do, what to do...?

April 1, 2010

So, did anyone pull any good April Fool's pranks? I wanna hear about them.

It was a record breaking 81° today. Jon pulled out the adirondack chairs from the shed. Not quite the usual backyard oasis, but it was nice to sit outside today. I can't wait to get out the gazebo top, patio table, chairs, lights, planters and such. Duke is enjoying the weather, too. He gets to run around outside more and more lately. He needs to lose 10 pounds. But he always gains it in the winter because he's not running around as much. He'll lose it in no time. I think Jon and I are going to have to get our bikes out this year. We didn't pull them out of the garage last year. My mom wants to ride bikes around Notre Dame campus this spring. Sounds like a good idea to me!

March 31, 2010

Since the weather is getting nice, we're gonna have to get out and start working on the lawn. These are the oak leaves that seem to want to hang on for dear life throughout the winter. I assume, now that buds are budding, the crispy, dead leaves are finally being pushed out and falling into our yard. Too bad the tree isn't ours. Cut 'em all down, I say! And to all you tree huggers out there, try living on an acre surrounded by trees. After one autumn and one spring clean up, you'll agree with me.