Frugal Friday!

Wednesday, July 29th: Bonnie's dad, "Runnin' Rick," sang the National Anthem with a group of firefighter friends, known as "Fireforce," tonight at the Texas Rangers game. Kristen, Dave, Katelyn and I met Bonnie's mom, "Naked Nancy," Bonnie's brother, James, and his wife, Lori, at the ballpark. Runnin' Rick sounded so good and we were so proud of him! Not only did we get one of the cheapest tickets available in addition to the two free tickets from Runnin' Rick, but it was also $1 hot dog night, limit 5 per person. Limit 5 per person? Are you kidding me? America - this is why you are obese. There is no way most of these people would pay $14.75 for 5 hot dogs ($2.75*5), so why eat 5 just because they are $1 each? Ridiculous. People were waiting in line for 30-45 minutes just to score some $1 hot dogs. I was thinking of buying 4 and selling two of them to someone at the end of the line for $1.50 each. I could have made $1 for Dave and then it would have been like he bought one and got one free. I was also thinking of how I could have gotten taken to the side by security, they could have asked to see my ticket, it would have been no where near where I was really sitting because I was supposed to be out in the sun with all of those other people who paid $7 for their ticket, and then I could have gotten arrested for selling my hot dog without a vendor's license... all because I wanted to make $1 for my brother-in-law. Although the idea was genius, I decided I wasn't willing to take the risk.

Total Savings: 1 ticket for the section we sat in + 2 hot dogs - Original price: $27.50. My price: $9.00. Total Savings: $18.50 or 67%.

Please note that I am not encouraging you to steal, lie, or be shady. Please also note that had someone asked to see my ticket, I would have gone to my rightful seat, but it turned out that I wasn't sitting in anyone's seat so everything worked out fine.

Here are some pictures from our fun night...

Naked Nancy and Katelyn reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Dave and Katelyn

Bonnie and David Tie The Knot!

Well, the day that once seemed so far away has come and gone; David and Bonnie finally tied the knot on July 25, 2009 at Royal Lane Baptist Church in Dallas, TX. After much drama with a reception venue who suggested they give Bonnie her money back and go somewhere else because "it would be cheaper for us in the end" two weeks (yes, I said TWO weeks) before her wedding, the Lord opened the door to a way better venue with supreme customer service!

NOTES:
1. If you are looking for a wedding reception venue in Dallas, TX, I highly recommend The Starlight Room.

2. If you'd like to save a lot of stress by knowing WHERE NOT TO GO FOR YOUR WEDDING RECEPTION, I'll be happy to tell you.

3. Our make-up was done by a college friend of Bonnie's, Rayven. She's super sweet and really great at what she does. Check out her website and follow along as she turns her passion into a profession!

The day was perfect and so much fun! Bonnie was one hot bride and David was one handsome groom! The ceremony was sweet and the reception a blast! Bonnie's mom decorated the entire reception venue and it was so beautiful! She's just amazing... Here are some pictures from the event.

Frugal Friday!

Saturday, July 18th: I was blog hopping last night and found a post about a comfy t-shirt at GAP that was on sale. I think GAP is generally over priced, therefore, I only shop there when I am looking for something specific or when I’m looking for something that might be on sale – something that was considered stylish yesterday, but is no longer stylish today.

I ended up buying three items, one of which was the comfy tee that was mentioned in the post I read.

Pants: Original Price - $54.50. My Price: $10.97

Shorts: Original Price - $39.50. My price: $16.99. I'm not sure how they managed to get a picutre of my legs in these shorts prior to my purchase. Apparently, GAP uses photoshop.

Black Tee: Original Price: $18.50. My price: $7.99

Total Savings: $76.55 or 68%.

Thursday, July 23rd: I decided to be good this morning and bring my own lunch. NOTE: My own lunch = food that was leftover from a meeting yesterday that I boxed up and brought home for dinner and ended up having some left over for lunch. My friend and co-worker, Alison, wanted to go grab something for lunch and I recommended a new favorite place of mine, B.B.Bop Rice Bowls. I told her that I would be eating the lunch that I brought from home, but that I would go with her. If you’ve ever been to Chipotle, it’s the same concept. There are two sizes, regular and large. Regular is $5.95 and Large is $6.95. Alison asked me forced me to share the large with her. I agreed had no other choice but to say yes. We got a Large with brown rice, beef, corn, mushrooms, broccoli and green onions, in addition to the lettuce and cabbage that’s already included in the price. We got the Teriyaki, Tomatillo, and Chiang Mai Chili sauces on the side and took it back to the office to eat. Just to paint a picture of how huge the portion sizes are, I was only able to eat half of my half. The staff at B.B.Bop Rice Bowls are super friendly and really engage their customers. For someone who is all about great customer service, this is one of the reasons I choose to keep going back.

Lunch for two and then some: Original Price: $6.95. Our Price: $3.50 (roughly).

Total Savings: $3.50 or 50%.

Psst!

Katelyn does not hold back when it comes to repeating words she hears. Sometimes, Kristen will say something to Katelyn and she'll pretend like she's so focused on her Miss Pattycake DVD that she doesn't hear her. Kristen tries again by saying, "Psst! Katelyn!" Katelyn has focused on the "Psst!" and really likes to say it. Here she is in action...

Hello? Is Anybody Out There?

Occasionally, I feel like my family is the only one who reads my blog. I know this isn't true because one of my friends will randomly say, "Hey I read your blog today." To which I respond, "Oh really? That's weird. Your comment must have somehow been erased. I'll have to contact the customer service team at Blogger again."

I understand that it used to be difficult to leave a comment on here, not to mention frustrating, but now the options are endless. Okay well they are limited to four, but compared to having only one option before, it feels like the options are endless.

One of the first things I learned about giving presentations is that you need to know your audience. Who is your audience? What's in it for them? What is it that you are saying that your audience needs to hear? Well, as of right now, my audience is my family. How do I know that my audience is my family? Because they leave comments. How in the world am I supposed to know you were here unless you leave a comment? P.S. Calling me to tell me that you read it is not sufficient. The Human Resources Representative in me needs documentation. I need something I can go back to. This is why I prefer to send e-mails versus calling people on the phone at work. I never delete any work e-mails. People try to come back and say, "You didn't send that to me" or "I never said that." Oh really? That's when I respond with "Not really sure what happened..." and attach the original e-mail that I sent to them or the one that they apparently "never said that" in. I won't be fooled. Tangent. Back to the original intent of this post. Can you please just leave a comment? Not only does leaving a comment give me an idea of who my audience is, but it also motivates me to keep blogging. Every Thursday night around 10:00 pm, I think, "Oh no! I have to write my Frugal Friday! My readers are going to be disappointed that the post they have been looking forward to all week is no where to be found!" Maybe I'm overreacting. I guess I'll find out...

Veni. Vidi. Wee-Wee

An Update From My Dad
July 3rd, 2009:

Man what a difference a week makes. Last Friday I was hoping to keep down lunch so I could get out of the hospital and today I'm free, untethered from drains, IVs, leg compression cuffs, catheter and on the road to full recovery. At each disconnect, You think "Man, if I can just lose this _____ (fill in the blank), I'm going to be so much better." I got down to the last disconnect and found it was replaced with a pad. The subject line of this update appeared in the comic strip 'Get Fuzzy' on Thursday, the day I got a clean bill of health on the pathology reports and had the catheter removed. You talk about God's timing. Plus, I recognized I needed to add a little bit of class to my ramblings about potty training and open robes. What better way than Latin? Mr. Doyle from high school Latin would be proud.

I didn't do it by myself. I had a lot of help. Okay, in high school Latin and in this recovery.

Nikki - still recovering from her last (as in the last one June 19th and the final one #6) chemo treatment hauling me to the hospital and staying with me. She was overcome with the accumulation of her 6 treatments and on top of it all she got an UTI and cough. Two things you really don't want much less together. And she did it in 106 heat.

Our middle daughter Jessica - she's seriously re-thinking being the only daughter in town. She came with Nikki and stayed after she went home and got up early (I'm talking she was by my side at 0630 Friday morning. She comforted me, held my hand, brought me Chickfila shakes, and endured my "open robe" policy. Being in the hospital you lose all dignity or if you don't lose it, you really don't care much about it.

Wally and Mary Huck - from prayers to presence. Mary fixed me my last meal before I began my 2 day all liquid diet before surgery. Homemade pasta - a labor of love.

Charles Parchman and Jim Archer - my prostate cancer mentors, conveniently forgot to tell me a couple of those steps in getting these things removed--like when they tell you "we're going to take this out, just take a deep breath". My lungs just weren't that big. I guess it's like childbirth--once you are through it, there are some things you just don't care to remember. Am I right ladies?

Bill Pewitt, my own personal "Red Box" brought us nine movies to watch--we've enjoyed seven so far.

Terry Sewell, Fran Johnson, and Stephanie Seiler from Bethany UMC - Terry brought by banana pudding and Stephanie a shrimp dinner at just the right times for their dishes. Fran came to the hospital as part of BUMC hospital visitation ministry. Glenn and Renee brought "sunshine salad"--a meal we once shared with them in Corpus Christi many years ago. I told Glenn I thought it was all downhill from here on my recovery. He got really excited. He thought downhill as "Can I have his Rolling Stone t-shirt collection?" but I meant "it only gets easier from here." Sorry buddy, but you are in line for one of my jackets.

My daughters Kristen and Brittany kept vigil by phone and their blogs. If you are interested in visiting their blogs, Kristen and Dave's is http://www.mcmemos.blogspot.com/ and Brittany's is http://www.getreadyeurope.blogspot.com/

Marvel at the self sufficiency of the Brittany youngest one and her ingenuity with her Frugal Fridays--makes you believe in oaks and acorns (the nut doesn't fall far from the tree); and marvel at the sweetness of Katelyn, our granddaughter by Kristen and Dave--sure Katelyn is sweet, but she is my fierce potty training competitor.

Brittany and her two friends, Ali and Pita are here this weekend and have brightened up our home. Kristen and Katelyn will visit next week while Dave is in Atlanta.

My folks, who live in Beaumont, wanted to come to be with me but the heat, the distance, and the wear of the drive were just too much. It didn't matter, I still felt their presence and look forward to limping in (you've got to sell it) to her kitchen the next trip we make there to soak up some belated home cooking.

The older we get and the things that come with the older we get, you come to appreciate those things that sustain you--family, friends, church, and good medical insurance. I want to throw in a plug for my doctor, the world-renown Randy S. Fagin, M.D. Men, if you and your prostate are soon to part ways, Dr. Fagin is who I would recommend. Yes, I did come out with a huge bruise looking like they dropped me off the table but he said that is all typical--just blood pooling under the skin. I might should have kept some of those witty comments to myself.

We hope this is the end of both of our medical updates. We want to just relax and recover for a while. We look forward to spending time with these family and friends and the others who sustained us with thoughts and prayers.

Thank you all so very much. God has surely blessed us both.

DAVID

Frugal Friday Addendum!

Although I don't frequent Starbucks, I do treat myself from time to time and you better believe I will be treating myself on the morning of Tuesday, July 21st! White chocolate mocha with non-fat milk and no whip, here I come!

Print this Starbucks coupon and present it to your neighborhood barista to receive one free pastry with the purchase of any beverage on the morning of July 21st. Slight catch: The coupon is only good until 10:30 am on July 21st, so plan accordingly.

Who: You
What: Free pastry with the purchase of any beverage
When: Opening - 10:30 am on July 21st
Where: Participating Starbucks
Why: They want you to discover the deliciousness that is their pastries.
Personal Note: I'm a fan of the reduced-fat coffee cake bread.

Frugal Friday!

Thursday, July 16th: I haven't partaken in one of my guilty pleasures in a while, shopping at The Limited. I decided to go during my lunch break today to look for some work pants. Well, I didn't find any pants that I liked, but I did find some shorts. Pants, shorts, kind of the same thing, right? Oh well.

Regular Price: $44.50. My price: $11.89. Total Savings: $32.61 or 73%.

Frugal Tip:

I love my Real Simple magazines. Plain and simple, I just love them. They always have really fun organizing tips and recipes. The thing I like most about the recipes is that they all have pictures to go along with them. This is really beneficial to the visual readers. I don't know about you, but compared to recipes with no pictures, recipes with pictures make me way more excited to cook. I'll compare it to a picture book for a kid. What kid wants to look at a book with no pictures? Not me. I'd be running around the room in no time. Because I cannot bare to part with the articles that I might need to reference one day, and I definitely cannot get rid of the fun picture recipes, I have been hoarding neatly storing my magazines until I figure out what to do with them.

On another note, we were doing some Spring cleaning at work the other day and I found a binder in the trash pile. We've all heard the saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure," and I hit the jackpot. Did I mention that I also love sheet protectors, aka slick sheets? Is that weird? When I saw that the binder had slick sheets AND dividers numbered 1-10, a light bulb went off in my head. Oh man, this is going to be good. I brought the binder home and started tearing out all of the juicy recipes that were making my stomach growl and all of the organizing tips and articles that put a skip in my step. After I had compiled all of my pages, I trimmed the torn edges and put the recipes in one binder and the articles in another. I sorted the recipes into 9 different categories: 1. Breakfast 2. Lunch 3. Bread, Soups and Salads 4. Sides 5. Veggie and Red Meat (ironic, I know.) 6. Chicken 7. Seafood 8. Pasta 9. Dessert. I'm still working on my "fun tips" binder, but I finished the recipe binder today. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I don't normally toot my own horn, but toot toot!

Moral of the story: Save money by making your own recipe book - a recipe book that contains only the recipes you like. The slick sheets are great because they guard the recipe from any flying food. Not only did I save money by not buying a recipe book that doesn't have pictures for all of the recipes, not to mention a recipe book that includes recipes with ingredients that I don't care for, I also reduced my carbon footprint by reusing trash and making it my treasure.

The Return of the Pine Cone

My long-time readers might recall the introduction of the pine cone. If you don't remember, or haven't had the pleasure of reading about it, you can find the story here. In my last pine cone entry, I left the pine cone in my dad's work boot. I have some catching up to do.

I went back to Austin in April for my Dad's 60th birthday and my dad was super sneaky. I left Austin on Wednesday morning and when I opened my make-up bag on Thursday morning, there was the pine cone. Oh, you're good, Dad.

I went home for Memorial Day weekend to float the river with some friends. While there, I put the pine cone inside a sock in my dad's sock drawer.

In June, my sisters, Katelyn and I participated in our 2nd Annual Great-Granny-A-Thon. My parents met us in Houston on our first night. They left that night for Beaumont to visit my dad's parents. The next day, we drove to Kroger where my Granny paid to fill up my gas tank. I pulled the lever in my car to open the gas tank and got out to remove the gas cap. What do I see in my gas tank? The pine cone. My dad put the pine cone in my gas tank.

I called my dad and my mom answered the phone:

Mom: Hello?
Me (panicked): Mom? Can I talk to dad?
Mom: Yeah, one second.
Dad: Hello?
Me (panicked): Dad?
Dad: Yeah, what's wrong?
Me: Well, we're at Kroger right now trying to get some gas and I tried to open my gas tank and it won't open. What do I do?
Dad: Well, it might be because of the heat. Wait a couple of minutes and then try again.
Me: Okay. Do you think there might be something stuck in there?
Dad (not remembering that he put something in there): No, no. Just be patient.
Me: Okay... so you don't think there might be A FREAKING PINE CONE IN THERE?!?!?!?
Dad (Laughing hysterically): Oh man! HAHAHAHAHA! That's funny right there! I don't care who you are, that's funny right there!

My parents came to Dallas the next week for a conference my mom was having. We went to this great place in Old Town Coppell called Hard Eight BBQ to celebrate Father's Day in addition to Dave's birthday. My parents left Dave's gift in the car and I had the pine cone with me, so I offered to run out to the car to get it for them. I'm such a great daughter. While in the car, I slipped the pine cone in my dad's bag.

My sister, Kristen, came home last weekend with a gift from my dad, for me, Ali and Pita. I opened up the bag to find 3 pine cones, all different sizes. He said the size went with each girl by height - Ali got the small one, I got the medium one, and Pita got the big one. Apparently, he found them somewhere in nature (not store-bought), but he won't give up his secret. The original pine cone is still on top of his dresser. The picture below is my pine cone.

A True Friend

What is a true friend? Some might say a true friend is someone you can call at any hour and talk to without any thought of time in your mind. Others might say a true friend is someone you can really be yourself around. I agree with those things, but I think it goes deeper than that. I say a true friend is someone who will peel the dead skin off your back after you've been sunburned. Bonnie wins my true friend award!

I guess our apartment is extra dusty this week.

* WARNING * THE PICTURE BELOW IS GRAPHIC, MAYBE EVEN DISTURBING
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Frugal Friday!

Tuesday, July 7th: So there is something that I have known about for a long time, but I tend to forget how easy and great it is! It's also FREE, all the time. I never have to pay for it. Normally, I tell someone what I want and they give me the product/service I request. This situation is a little backwards though, because I start the transaction by giving something to someone and I get something even better in return! The great thing is that there is no bartering involved. Are you confused? Let me explain...

Bonnie spent the night at my apartment tonight and right when she arrived, I decided that we needed to go to Walgreen's to get some Cortizone 10. Why did I wait until she arrived in her pajamas to decide that I needed to go? Because it's more fun that way. At 11:00 pm we drove down the street to Walgreen's. We were a little nervous to see a lady sitting on the trunk of her car with some guy rubbing her leg, and another guy chugging beer on the other side of the parking lot. Shady. We kept driving through the parking lot and turned around to go back towards Tom Thumb. You know how much I hate Tom Thumb, but it was the most convenient place to go at the time. I was really hungry so we stopped by McDonald's first; drive-thru, of course. So we get up to the window to order:

Lady at McDonald's: Hi, welcome to McDonald's. Would you like to try our new mocha coffee tonight?
Me: (Thinking - Really? It's 11:00 pm.) Not tonight, but thank you for asking. I'd actually just like one McChicken sandwich, please.
Lady at McDonald's: That will be $1.08 at the first window.
Me: Great, thanks!

I drove up to the window.

Lady at McDonald's: $1.08.
Me: Here you go.
Lady at McDonald's: Did you know you the first person to say thank you?
Me: Really?! That's not okay.
Lady at McDonald's: Yes. I say, "You want mocha?" They say "No! I don't want that!"
Me: That's not cool. I really do appreciate you for asking.
Lady at McDonald's: Yeah, I tell my boss, "This girl the only one who say thank you."
Me: Well thanks for your help. You have a good night, okay?
Lady at McDonald's: Okay.

After we left McDonald's we went across the street to Tom Thumb. As we got out of the car, we saw a guy walking his cart over to the cart return in the parking lot. We also noticed a Tom Thumb employee bringing carts into the store. She hollered at the guy, hoping that he would bring the cart to her, but he kept walking to the cart return. We could tell that she was upset, so Bonnie and I gathered the 3 shopping carts left in the parking lot and stored them safely inside. As we were walking past the cashier she stopped scanning items and yelled, "Did you girls bring those carts in?!" We said with excitement, "Yes, we did!" She had a huge smile on her face and said in her Northeastern accent, "Oh girls, I feel the love! I feel the love! Thank you so much!" We responded, "Hey, not a problem!" We walked over to the medicine section and got my long-awaited Cortizone 10 and walked back to the register. There was only one register open so we went to our new friend. She thanked us again and said that she was the only one at the store and had so much to do before she could close up. Apparently, the 10 o' clock crew left without doing their "chores" and she was left to clean up after them. We were glad that we could help her, even if it was as small as bringing in the carts from the parking lot.

Now to pull all of this together, from the first sentence... If you haven't figured it out yet, kindness is the free item this week! It's FREE to give, and you feel like you've scored the deal of the century when you are kind to someone else! I found an article titled, "The Untold Value of Kindness: Practical (and Surprising) Reasons to Be a Nicer Person" and wanted to share some parts that stuck out to me.

Allan Luks, former executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of Health and the author of the book "The Healing Power of Doing Good," found that helping contributes to the maintenance of good health, and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders both serious and minor, psychological and physical. Among the most significant of Luks' findings was a "helper's high" that 95 percent of the volunteers reported feeling. The "helper's high" reduced stress and released endorphins, the body's natural painkillers. After the high subsided, volunteers reported feeling an extended period of improved emotional well-being.

Kindness is catchy! The Seattle Times recently reported that kindness has a way of catching on. From patrons at a local restaurant randomly paying for another diner's meal, someone buying someone else a coffee at Starbucks, and a man handing out free bottled water and juice to visitors at a local beach, kindness evokes more kindness. "In the modern world, we have a lot of relationships that provide reciprocal benefits: I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine ... those sorts of contractual relationships," says William Talbott, philosophy professor at the University of Washington. But, he continues, "We can say, 'I just want to do something good for you without the expectation of getting anything in return at all.' And what a thrill it is to be on either side of that statement -- the giver or the receiver."

My challenge for you for the upcoming week: Be Kind! I'd love to hear your stories, too!

In the spirit of kindness, take advantage of this 10% off coupon at Barnes and Noble and get after that summer reading!

And the Rocket's Fireworks' Red Glare...

This past three day weekend was much needed and enjoyed! Ali, Pita and I drove down to Austin on Thursday night and stayed with my parents. We got up early Friday morning to float the river at Don's Fish Camp, just outside of San Marcos, with my friends from high school. I'm pretty sure my dad insisted that I wear a long sleeve shirt and a hat. Instead, I decided to use sun screen and was determined to come home without a sunburn. I'm not really sure what happened, but I know for sure that I got what I like to call "tube burn." My back, the back of my thighs, and my triceps, were burned. Not because I didn't put sunscreen in those places, but because the tube burned them. Trust me, I've been burned plenty of times, but I've never been in as much pain as I was on Friday. Caveat to the tubers: watch your back. If I could go back in time, I would not wear a long sleeve shirt, but I would bring a small towel to put between me and the tube.

After our 5 hour float, Ali, Pita and I came back home to eat dinner with my parents. My mom's body pretty much crashed this past week and she wasn't feeling well, so my dad bought her a salad to eat while we went to Fuddrucker's. After dinner, we met back up with my friends for a night out on 6th Street to celebrate Kirsten's 23rd birthday! Happy Birthday Kirsten! I can't remember the last time I stayed out, much less up, until 2:00 am. I was surprised that my RLS didn't kick in. Maybe beer keeps it under control... I'll do some responsible experimenting and get back to you with a conclusion to my hypothesis.

We spent all day at the house on Saturday and it was so nice to lay around and do nothing. The highlight of the afternoon was when we went to Sam's Club with my dad. For as long as I can remember, my dad and I have had our father-daughter dates at Sam's. It's a perfect place for us because we get free food while we score big on bulk item purchases. For dinner, my dad cooked a mean brisket and some ribs, my mom made her famous potato salad, and I made my almond and garlic green beans. It is always such a treat to have a home-cooked meal, especially with my family. After dinner, we met back up with my friends for the fireworks show at Auditorium Shores. I was in charge of finding parking among the other 100,000 people who decided to head out to watch the show. Jenn remembered that a shuttle picked up from Barton Creek mall last year. Perfect. We were right on time for the 8:35 pm shuttle. One slight problem. The the last bus ride back to the mall was at 9:50 pm, but the fireworks show wasn't going to be over until 10:00 pm. Nice work Capital Metro. Oh well. If we didn't get on, we would miss the show.

The arrow in the picture above is pointing to where we sat. The fireworks picture is, obviously, where the fireworks were.

Afterwards, we walked about a mile down the road to my favorite restaurant in Austin, Chuy's, to eat some chips and creamy jalapeno while pondering on how we were going to get back to the car. Thank you to one of the dads for coming to our rescue!

I'm thankful that I still have such great relationships with my friends from Austin and look forward to the next time I'm in town!

Frugal Friday!

Saturday, June 27th: Today was such a fun day! Bonnie and I ventured out to the Coppell Farmer's Market this morning for some fun. It was a lot smaller than I had imagined it would be and we didn't purchase anything, but now I can say that I've been to the Farmer's Market. After we got ready for the day, we met one of Bonnie's best friends, Laura, in Mockingbird Station. We ate lunch at Cafe Express, visited some stores and saw a movie. While walking to the movie, we were lured in to Ann Taylor Loft. I've been casually looking for some black sandals for a while, but haven't fallen in love with any. I finally found some that were cute and best of all, comfy! On another note, I lose my sunglasses at least twice a year and happened to misplace mine yesterday. Fortunately for me, they had some really cute, black sunglasses on sale too! When I was checking out, the sweet girl said, "You know we have a great deal on our sunglasses right now, 2 for $34.00..."I'm no fool. I replied, "That does sound like a good deal, but this pair is an even better deal!"

Sandals-Regular Price: $29.50. My price: $12.99. Sunglasses-Regular Price: $24.50. My price: $9.99.

Total Weekly Savings: $31.02 or 57%.

After my sweet purchases, we walked over to the Angelika to see Away We Go, with John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. I highly recommend seeing it; it was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time!

I am so thankful for the gift of laughter. I always have so much fun with Bonnie and I feel like Laura and I have known each other for years. Today, we were the annoying girls that you look at and think, "They need to shut-up. I wonder what is so funny..." We spent the whole afternoon saying/laughing about completely inappropriate things and it was awesome. I love hanging out with them because we can carelessly say the things that everyone else thinks about, but would never talk about it. It's just great.

Peewee

My dad called yesterday and left me this message: "Well we had a big outing this afternoon. Your mother took Peewee and I up to HEB and I got to ride around in one of 'em little motorized shopping carts. People do look at you different when you're in it. They say, 'Get out of my way,' but you can't reach stuff on the top shelf. I'ma hafta start makin' it where I can do a better job. I need those good lookin' women to come over and say "Can I help you?" But I think bein' an old man is gonna be pretty fun. Later."

My dad lovingly named his pee bag "Peewee." He said he took it with him everywhere and dragged it around like a little puppy. Unfortunately for Peewee, and fortunately for my dad, they parted ways this morning.

I'm leaving for Austin today to float the river with friends on Friday and take care of my parents on Saturday. Ali and our friend from Little Village (preschool at our church), Pita, is coming too! It should be a good time had by all.