Soooo. We've been up to a lot of work on the house and yard, with a little CVSing thrown in. Our formerly office-style tiled ceiling laundry room now has a nice real ceiling with attractive recessed lights. And soon some cute shelves as well. And the side of the yard has a stepping stone path from the driveway to the back patio. And we put out grass seed to fill in some patches, including the huge bare spot left where the tree fell down. I love working on the house. I find it amusing how a year ago, my favorite store was Arden B, and now it's Lowe's. I may pinch pennies almost everywhere, but at Lowe's and Home Depot I start drooling and throwing things in my cart.

Only lost one pound this last week, but I've been "good," so hopefully that will just mean a bigger loss next week. And I haven't slipped up in 21 days, which is supposed to be the amount of time it takes for a new behavior to become habit.

I'm going back to school in the fall. It took me a long time to decide, but I'll give it another try. And I can meet up with Jen for lunch if she ever gets breaks. There are parts of the program I like, but a rather long list of things I don't. I might make a short trip or two to Maine, and can probably collect as much data as I did last summer, just more efficiently.

Monday weigh-in: I lost three more pounds! Or rather, somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5. I have not slipped up on my eating one bit and have continued gardening and home repairs, plus a little walking. My favorite walks are on the nights before recycling day so I can "help out the recycling crew" by taking some of the coupon inserts out of papers. So only 5-10 pounds to go! I might be able to have my first dress fitting in two weeks or so, it seems.

I've been having bad wedding dreams every few nights. Last night I had one where I was so behind in getting dressed/hair/makeup done that I walked down the aisle in jeans and a t-shirt and messy hair. I felt so dumb that halfway down the aisle I announced to the guests, "Just kidding, I'll be back in a little while." Then I left and it took me over an hour to get ready. I came back and walked down the aisle again, and when I got to the altar it was a different officiant because the first one got tired of waiting for me and left.

The RSVPs are rolling in. Meal count so far:
Filet: 19
Chicken: 3
Veggie: 1

I have to put a plug in for the chicken. You know how much I love filet, but I'm actually getting the chicken. You can get filet at most any nice restaurant, but the chicken was something different and very yummy. But don't worry, I won't shun you if you want the filet anyway.

I went to a party rental store and ordered chairs for the ceremony. That leaves the last big to-do item of reserving a rehearsal dinner spot. We've put it off so long because we haven't been to any appropriate restaurants in this area. We have one in mind and should probably eat there this weekend to make sure that it's good before booking.

I'm still waiting on the state to process my background check for substituting. As soon as the letter arrives in the mail I can start the following day. At this rate I'll only get in three or four weeks before the wedding and summer vacation. Hmph.

My seedlings have mostly emerged. I hope they look luscious and impressive by the time everyone comes for the wedding. The spring bulbs look very cheerful in the front of the house.

And your random cat picture of the week:


Nom, nom, nom, indeed.

It's been one week of dieting and I'm down 2 pounds. So with exactly 2 months (eek!) to go, I have 8-13 pounds to go. Piece of cake. Wait, no cake until the wedding. Of course, I'd prefer to have most of it gone a couple weeks in advance of the wedding so that I can be sure my dress will fit without alterations. I was thinking about buying a decent digital scale instead of the beat-up analog one I have now, since it's hard to distinguish small increments. It would be more motivating to know that I lost 2.4 pounds, if that was indeed the case (flip side, could have also lost 1.6 pounds). "But why not put it on the registry?" I thought. So it's there, and hopefully it will be gifted in haste so I can get my much needed pre-wedding use out of it (wink wink).

I stuck perfectly to my calorie plan, but actually didn't do any walks or strength training. I did, however, work in the yard/garden 2-5 hours every day except one. That one day I had a root canal (eek!). My teeth seriously suck...bad genes, and I brush of course, but am not good at flossing regularly. I also have to go back for the crown and 4 (eek!) additional fillings. This is my first round of dentistry since I was in Syracuse, which I know I shouldn't have put off so long. But I digress. These are the outdoor things I was able to cross off my to-do list last week:

Plant broccoli, cauliflower, raspberries, hazelnut tree, some strawberries
Hang netting over raised bed arches
Spray paint arches dark green so they're not as conspicuous as white PVC pipe
Further chop up and move around tree debris (almost all taken care of!)
Move more of my dirt pile to various beds
Install edging along beds in front and side of house
Water plants every other day
Chase/round up naughty kittens when it is time to go inside (4-5x daily)

There's a stray cat that lives in the brush behind a house down the street. Jib has encountered him many times and they usually have a stand-off, sitting 15 feet apart while the stray moans/growls. But lately it has escalated so that Jib is growling back, and Jib has started chasing the stray off. Jib is very good at jumping over fences/on top of sheds/etc now. On one hand I'm glad he seems to be higher ranking than the stray so he won't get horribly beat up, but I hope there are no actual fights. I really like having the cats keep me company in the garden (the little ones are good and don't go past our immediate neighbors), but unless we build 6 foot fences there's no keeping Jib in. About half the time when he's roaming, though, if I call for him he comes running, leaping and bounding over fences to come to me. It's soooooo cute and makes me feel loved :)

We went up to Po-town for the Easter weekend. Saturday was my bridal shower. Ryan's mom and aunt hosted it, and it was just the female family members (them, Ryan's grandmothers, and stepmom). Ryan went with me even though it's not customary because I needed him to help keep me from going crazy, or rather, more crazy. I got a crapload of gifts, with highlights including: ALL of the china off the registry, the main silverware set, cocktail glassware (martini, Champagne, and margarita), party supplies for the pre- and post-wedding house parties, Victoria's Secret gift card, and a ton of miscellaneous little houseware-type things. It completely filled the back seat and trunk of my car. Oy.


Over the weekend I also learned that I can connect myself to Kevin Bacon in five degrees. Ryan's cousin (who I've spent many a holiday with, so I'll only count as one degree) has a friend (two) who has a friend (three) who went to private school with KB's daugher (four, five). So now you can connect in six degrees since you know me :)

Invites were mailed today! Keep an eye on your mailbox, unless you've been naughty rather than nice. Destination tally:
NY: 14
MA: 5
PA: 5
WA: 5
CA: 3
CO: 2
FL: 1
GA: 1
LA: 1
RI: 1
International: 2

Now that Easter and all of its candy goodness is over, I'm REALLY going to start my pre-wedding diet and exercise. I'd like to lose somewhere between 10-15 pounds. Based on past experience I know that if I stick with my plan (1600-1800 calories per day, long neighborhood walks 5-6 times per week, weight training 3 times per week, and an abundance of work in the garden), then my goal is entirely attainable. Keep nagging me about how I am doing. There is only a little over two months left!

Today I spent about 5 hours working in the garden. I planted my carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, turnips, and peas. I also started constructing a series of arches that I can drape netting over to keep the birds, rabbits, and squirrels out. Tomorrow I plan to finish moving my pile of dirt, plant my broccoli and cauliflower, plant my raspberries, and finish the arch system. Oof.

A couple new pics on Flickr, including my pricey dirt pile.

I'm scrapping the garden blog. It's enough work to write in here every week or so. Especially now that I'm getting pretty busy. Tomorrow is my all-day training session at the teaching place. Today I bought $225 worth of dirt. For real. 6 cubic yards, being delivered on Tuesday, to fill these suckers:



The big ones are 5' by 20'. That's ENORMOUS. The little ones are 2' by 2'. They're cute. I'm gonna have a bitchin garden.

The downed tree remains are now in "little" (i.e. big, but smaller than earlier) piles:
Ryan's dad came down with a chainsaw and cut it up. We put a "free" sign by the firewood-type pieces, and people claimed most of it. All the branches are left, though. The town will remove brush in small quantities, so we're going to put out some each trash day and it should be gone by the wedding.

We bought a ladder, providing new opportunities for the cats to be cute:

And I'll finish with my first flower of spring, a crocus from the bulbs I planted last fall:

Rain + wind =



The tree was on our property, but came within a foot or two of hitting the neighbor's house! I'm actually kind of happy that it's down, though, because now there's more room for my fruit trees. We wouldn't have cut down the tree for that purpose, but now that it's down, we have room.

Who wants a $20 T-a-r-g-e-t gift card for pretending to be pregnant? Yup, this is the deal that I did a couple months ago. I got another voucher thingy, but can't do it again myself. It only takes about 30 minutes (you have to go around with the scanner gun and zap the items you want to add), and they give you the gift card on the spot. First commenter who asks gets it!

I have the teaching job. Well, they never really "offered" it to me; I went back yesterday to turn in most of the rest of my forms, and the guy just said, "Okay, just make sure to get fingerprinted and bring this form back. The next training session is March 17 from 9-4, right here." So I don't even know how much I'll be getting paid (though I've heard rumblings of about $80 a day). It will be a wonderful thing to have an income again- my savings account has been going down, down, down. You would think Ryan's salary would be enough, but we've got a 15 year mortgage and a 3 year car loan (and $300 gas bills during the winter!!), so we're somewhat overextended. The reduced grocery budget is going along swimmingly, though.

We have our DJ booked and have a tasting scheduled with the aquarium caterer on Friday. Next up is addressing the invitations (going out at the end of this month) and beginning to write the ceremony. Oh, and all the little home improvements before everyone visits.

We were thinking about a co-ed party at our house on the night before the wedding (Friday) instead of bachelor and bachelorette parties. Cornell people visiting from out of town probably want to hang out together, and I don't think the separate parties would be wild and crazy to begin with. Plus, as an added challenge, we can do the CVS egg hunt in the backyard while it's dark (with flashlights) :D

Hahahaha. I don't think this is the right place for Christ to get ordained. The research continues...

I just had my interviewish thingy at the substitute teacher staffing organization. I say "interviewish thingy" because it seems to be the closest to an interview that I'll need, yet it wasn't an interview. Even on the phone when I was scheduling it, the guy called it an "information session." I showed up, filled out their application, and the guy took a look at my resume and made a little chit-chat about Penn and asked a couple questions like, "How many days a week did you want to work?" and, "Magnolia, now where is that?" The next step is getting fingerprinted. Unfortunately, he said that it will take 4-6 weeks before I'm actually teaching because of the state processing my background check and certification :/ So that puts me at teaching April and May, and the last week of May I will need to take off to get ready for the wedding. Oh well, what can ya do?

So Ryan and I spent (what I consider to be) quite a bit of $$ on groceries in January ($375), which led me to want to trim our grocery spending in February. Now, we did "inherit" a lot of meat and stuff from January, but I am quite pleased to announce that we spent less than $100 for food in February! $99.40 to be exact :P That's through the magic of combining sales and coupons. And the spending even includes a bunch of wet food for the cattens. We don't have any meat to pass on until March, so the March goal is $225. That should be a piece of cake, so I might even shoot for $200. I know, I'm crazy, but it's a fun little game to me and makes me feel less guilty about being unemployed.

Oh, Jen, Ryan wanted me to ask if you could adapt the LOTR theme for dulcimer.

He was kidding (I think!).

Have you ever felt your life had a higher calling, but you weren't sure exactly what?

Do you like power trips?

Do you want a good story to add to your collection of life experiences?

Would you be comfortable reading and speaking in front of a group of approximately 75 people?

You know how on Friends, Joey married Monica and Chandler?

Do you want a cool thank-you gift that did not come from CVS?

Do you want to come to our rehearsal dinner?

That's right- it's legal in New Jersey and we are recruiting for someone we know to get ordained online and perform our ceremony. Getting ordained is free, and while you probably have to read some stuff and take a quiz, I doubt it would be too difficult. Or if you don't want to volunteer yourself, suggest someone else. Then we can all gang up on that person and force them to do it.

I've got the ball rolling on the teaching thing. I had to leave a message for the recruiter because he was on vacation the last couple days, but it sounds like he will be back and able to meet with me next week. I've also: ordered transcripts, asked two Penn people for reference letters, and had half my tuberculosis test (have to go back on Monday to have my arm checked). All that's left is updating my resume and going shopping for some interview pants. Yay pants, boo resume.

I will try to explain the cute Valentine story. All y'alls will probably not appreciate it as much as the Slickdeal community, though. So you need to know- "ECBs," or "Extra Care Buck" are the coupons that print at the bottom of the CVS receipt after you buy a qualifying item. If you get an ECB for $4, you have to spend the entire thing or lose the part you didn't spend. Sooooo, I told Ryan that I didn't want him to spend a bunch of money for V-day, but that I did get him a card, so he should probably get one for me. I suggested he grab some ECBs and get it at CVS :P So I guess on his way home from work he stopped there and had a $4 ECB but picked out a $3 card. So he had an extra dollar to spend. All on his own, he figured out that the best thing to buy would be a $1.29 Gatorade because they spit out a $1.29 ECB (effectively free). The kicker is that he tore off the $1.29 ECB and tucked it into the card he gave me :D

Ok, if you made it all the way through that paragraph and actually paid attention, you deserve a gold star.

Gee, if I made a special money saving blog there would be pretty much nothing left in here!

Today's trip to the grocery store:

• 10 boxes Green Giant frozen veggies
• small box Bisquick
• large box pancake mix
• 3 tubs Betty Crocker frosting
• 4 cans Progresso beans
• 3 boxes Pop Secret popcorn
• 1 Philadelphia Inquirer (because every girl needs 3 copies)

Total spent: $15.52
Earned: $13 coupon toward next visit
Net: $2.52 :D

I've been thinking about doing some substitute teaching in the surrounding school districts, maybe 4 days a week or so. I'm finally starting to get bored around the house, and there's only so much wheeling and dealing to fill my time (unless I start getting 10 copies of the paper). There's a staffing place I'll be calling early this week to set up an interview. I'm sure I'll be accepted, though, because 1) they hire people who have as few as 60 college credits, 2) I have a lot of teaching experience, 3) they especially have needs for science and math subs, and 4) I'm just all around God's gift to schools. It's in my nature.

Yesterday at CVS (well, actually 3 CVSes) for a $4.46 profit:

The paper was for more coupons :)

I'm having trouble deciding the best way to divvy up my stockpile when you guys (and others) come down for the wedding. One idea was gift bags with items I "matched up" to people as best I could based on personality, etc. But I want stuff to go to people who need/want/could at least use it most, whereas others might think it was weird to get a bag of drugstore stuff. Especially the guys- unfortunately there is less "fun" stuff for them, whereas most girls would welcome free makeup and hair stuff (I think). Poor guys will probably end up with pain relievers, toothpaste, and shaving cream.

Ideas? A giant free-for-all? Hide the stuff in the backyard like Easter eggs? Gift bags? Or feel free to comment with stuff you would like from the following list, and I can reserve them for you.

Makeup (all types, especially eyeshadow as you can see from the above pic)
Shampoo/Conditioner
Styling products
Body wash
Body lotion
Face wash
Razors
Shaving cream
Pain relievers (oh lordy do I have tons of pain relievers)
Toothpaste (tons of it too)
Energy drinks

On a completely different topic, I start volunteering in the cat room at Petsmart tonight! Cleaning litterboxes, feeding them, and giving them snorgles, pets, and attention. I will probably be doing two three hour shifts per week. Unfortunately they only have volunteers during evenings and weekends, so it won't relieve my daytime boredom, but more kitties is a good thing. I wish that I could also be a foster parent for kitties that aren't ready for adoption yet, but Ryan won't let me because he thinks I would get too attached and wouldn't want to give them back. What do you think- should I go behind his back and do it anyway? I'm sure he'd just be pretending to disapprove if he came home and there was a cute kitty.

Today was a good wheeling and dealing day. I got all this stuff for 60 cents, including the stamp I need to mail in my rebate! And I didn't even set foot in a CVS!



I implore you to get in on some of these deals. Duh, they're free! (except tax) Free after rebate right now:

Walgreens (now through end of February):
Garnier Fructis shampoo or conditioner
Chapstick Naturals (costs $2, $2 coupon for next purchase spits out at register)
Clear Care contact solution convenience pack
Maybelline Lip Seduction lip gloss/lip plumper
Softsoap Spa Radiant body wash
Venus Embrace razor (my stores were both sold out)
Speed Stick 24/7 deodorant

Rite Aid (now through Saturday, different items each week):
Garnier Shine Burst shampoo or conditioner

Nice thing for all y'alls is that no special coupons are needed to get in on the action. Of course having manufacturers coupons sweetens the deal (they covered my snacks, makeup, and tax). Just be sure to pick up the booklet and/or flier in-store to make sure you purchase the exact product specified. And for Walgreens you will need the rebate form inside the red booklet. Happy wheeling and dealing.

How is this for a mass of cattens? Snorgle, snorgle, snorgle!

The topic in the forefront of all of our (mine and Ryan's) minds? The garden shed. The rinky-dink metal hut we received with the house is dented up big time and starting to rust. I'm determined to build a cute shed that matches the house: white with light blue trim, gray roof. We bought a book on building sheds and made blueprints. It's going to be 6' x 8'. Then we made a parts list and headed to Lowe's and Home Depot to price it out.

It's going to cost almost $700 :-O That is, unless I can find helpful blog readers (cough cough). I need a volunteer (or volunteers!) to go here and request a coupon to be sent to you, then mail it on to me. Various CVS goodies await for willing participants :) Then the shed will "only" cost $630 :/

In other news, I made roast beef for the first time last night. It turned out perfectly. But now when I see Choco running around I picture a beef roast with a head, tail, and four legs. Especially with his ample midsection. I've taken to calling him "Roast Beefs."

Ryan picked out his wedding band yesterday and will be ordering it as soon as he gets sized today. I have to admit, it's so cool that I almost wish I were a guy. Not only is it only $54.99, but I get 7% cash back by buying through a link from SquishyCash. On top of the normal 1.5% from my Discover card :) We have to make sure that he gets sized properly because tungsten carbide has a melting point of 6100 Fahrenheit (!) and cannot be resized. It's also highly scratch resistant (8.5-9.5 on Mohs hardness scale!). I told you it was so cool.

Our wedding invitations have been shipped and should arrive Monday or Tuesday. It was kind of crazy looking at the online proofs, like, "Wow, I guess we're actually getting married, huh?" They of course look more official than our DIY save-the-dates.

I also ordered part of our favors yesterday. The other part is DIY and ribbon/etc to jazz up the presentation. I'm keeping what they are a secret, though. But they're related to us, not boring or overdone yet also tie into old-timey wedding tradition, useful, and attractive. And to top it off, not expensive but have a practical value that far exceeds the purchase price. I'm just too clever.

My birthday was pretty boring, but I didn't feel like doing much. We got a housepla- oops, not supposed to discuss. What I did feel like doing was going to Wegmans for wokery and a mini ultimate chocolate cake. Supposedly Ryan's dad is shipping me some new pods for the Aerogar- nevermind. Sigh, most of what I'm thinking about these days is the forbidden subject.

Here's a cute picture, just because:

I spent $280 at Wegmans today. Bet that's higher than any of all y'alls; definitely shattered my personal record. That was the deposit for the wedding flowers. Yup, the ones we had our consultation for last August. I'm just a little slow getting things done nowadays.

I started with a new therapist this week since the one at school "nicely" kicked me out (aka suggested that it would be more appropriate that since I'm not on student status, plus it would be closer to my house). Comedic highlights:

Her: "So where does your family live?"
Me: "Washington state."
Her: "Wow. You couldn't really have chosen anywhere farther away. Unless maybe you moved to the Jersey shore or something."

Her: "So, your fiance- is he an ecologist too?"
Me: "If he was we wouldn't have just bought a house."

My birthday present from Ryan showed up today. But I can't discuss it here, as per rules established in my previous post.

I started a gardening blog today. It's aimed at other gardeners, so there won't be any inside jokes or help wanted ads for housesitters, but in case you're interested, it's here.

If you're not interested, then you're also in luck, because all the gardening talk will take place there instead of here.

Sigh. I wish it were spring and I could get started on the outdoor garden. The Aerogrow herbs are 0.5-2 inches tall right now. I keep staring at them and it's like watching paint dry. I mean, they're growing fast by plant standards, but I'm impatient.

Gardening and CVSing are all I'm interested in doing these days. Unfortunately I'm not very interested in wedding planning. We should probably sign with the caterer and florist soon, though. Not to mention find an officiant. I hate calling places and playing phone tag. Ugh.

I'm taking this semester and summer off from school, having gone off the rails of the crazy train and all. Well, the spring off was my idea, but apparently then you automatically take summer off too. There's no way I could be an effective student these days. It's going to be nice once I can get out into the garden, but for now I've got cabin fever. I'm going to pick up an application to volunteer with the kitties at Petsmart in the next few days. No school also means no stipend, so I feel extra compelled to do some heavy duty slickdealing. I thought about some substitute teaching a couple days a week, but I'm not ready for it yet.

Ryan and I did plan out our honeymoon, although we haven't booked anything yet. We're spending 2 nights in Cancun followed by 4 nights in Cozumel. On the mainland we'll being going to Chichen Itza and Xcaret. On Cozumel we'll dive for two full days then do miscellaneous sightseeing, snorkeling, or relaxing since you can't dive the day before you fly. I am looking forward to the honeymoon.

Speaking of which, if anyone has some free time in the first week of June and doesn't want to spend money on a wedding gift, how about being a housesitter for us for two or three (or four...) days? You can snorgle the kitties to your heart's content and raid our cabinets for snacks. Mainly I'm worried about my garden not getting watered for a week. (The cats are self-sufficient with enough food, water, and litterboxes). It would suck if it was a hot week and I came back from the honeymoon to find a backyard full of dead plants. You have plenty of time to think about it :P