Frugal Friday - Free Bagel!

Visit Einstein Bagels between 2/1 and 2/7 to redeem your FREE Bagel & Shmear coupon!

Bermuda, Bahamas, Come on Pretty Mama...

I find myself apologizing often for taking so long to post and I'm going to stop doing that. One of my new mottos for 2010 is "I'll get to it when I get to it." As much as I want to blog, I haven't really found any convenient times. In the past, I would have stayed up way too late creating a post, but now, I'm going to say, "I'll get to it when I get to it." And here I am, blogging on a Saturday night because my immune system got distracted at some point and let down its guard.

Last time I wrote, I was leaving for a cruise with my family. I asked multiple people, multiple times, to go through a packing checklist; I didn't want to forget anything important. One of the items someone reminded me of was a camera. Well, I broke my camera back in October and decided this was the perfect time to buy a new one. I did a little research and found out the Best Buy was advertising a great deal. I got this camera, this case, and a rechargeable battery for about $200. Score. I got to Austin around 10:00 pm the night before the cruise and asked Callie and my parents to go through the packing list one last time, thinking that I could run to the grocery store to get last minute things.

Dad: Pillow?
Me: Check.
Callie: Passport?
Me: ....Passport? No...
Dad: You're kidding!
Me: No... no one told me I needed that!
Dad: Please tell me you're joking.
Me (almost in tears and straight up panicked): NO, I'M NOT JOKING! Do I have to drive back to Dallas?
Dad: Start driving.

Thankfully, the Lord instilled a calm spirit in Callie and she was able to think logically and speak softly. We looked at the rules and regulations online and realized that because we were going on a closed-loop cruise (leaving and returning to the same port), an original birth certificate would be an acceptable document. Phew! My dad happened to have the original at the house and a huge wave of relief swept over us. I wasn't able to find humor in the situation until we reminisced the next morning. The cruise was great! So much fun and laughter I could hardly go one day without almost peeing in my pants. Callie got to see first-hand that the people in my family really are the way I have described them. She realized that the voices I use to impersonate them are definitely exaggerated, yet accurate. Throughout the cruise, I took all of these great pictures, but when I got home I couldn't find the USB cord to transfer them from my camera to my computer. I had my parents looking all over the house and I was looking all through my stuff. Nothing. It wasn't until tonight, when I was looking for the link to my camera online, that I realized the reason no one could find the cord. THE CAMERA DIDN'T COME WITH ONE! So here I've been, waiting to update my blog until I find my cord because I didn't want to have a post without pictures, just to find that I've been looking for something I never had in my possession. Story of my life. I guess this means I need to stop looking and just buy one. Pictures to come...

The laughter continued into the days following the cruise. If you recall, last year was the first annual Bradberry Christmas Dance. It was also where you heard about the pine cone. The traditions continued this year, but we decided to give the dance participants some options. If you weren't up for dancing, you could karaoke instead. Success. Videos to come...

That's all I've got for now. I will get you up to date in my next post.

FREE iTunes Holdiay Sampler

iTunes is allowing you to download their Holiday Sampler for FREE! There are 20 tracks - that's right, 20 FREE tracks - by artists such as Amy Grant, Lady Antebellum, Weezer, Barry Manilow, Sarah McLachlan and many more, but hurry because this offer ends on December 17th!

If you don't have iTunes, you can download it here. You can find the Holiday Sampler icon on the iTunes Store homepage with a yellow, "FREE" tab on the top-right corner. Enjoy!

12 Days of Whataburger

Whataburger knows what's up! In the spirit of giving this holiday season, Whataburger is celebrating the "12 days of Whataburger" by giving away one FREE ITEM every other day through Christmas Eve. Redeem this coupon on Wednesday, December 16th for one FREE TAQUITO. December 16th is day 8 of 12, so I'm a little behind, but better late than never, right?

No matter where you live, I'm sure you can find some hungry homeless people on a corner near you. How fun would it be to print off multiple coupons and pass them out on your way to/from work? The answer is "SO FUN!" I like to give stuff to the homeless people with creative signs. For example, I would totally give a coupon to someone holding a sign that says "I bet you can't hit me with a quarter." If I saw that sign, I would make a paper airplane out of my coupon, tape a quarter to it, aim for the milk crate he's sitting on, and fire. Pure bliss I tell you, pure bliss.

Bingo, Hockey and Turkey, Oh My!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last blogged. What has gotten into me? A lot has happened, but there are two events I'd like to reminisce. I went to Shreveport with Kristen and Katelyn, and I went to Austin for Thanksgiving. We had such a great time visiting our Great Aunt Ann and playing bingo with her and her friends! You can read all about the rest of our trip on Kristen's blog.

While in Austin, I went to a hockey game with my parents and good friend, Sean, enjoyed some great conversation and laughter with friends from high school, and ate a delicious and not-so-nutritious Thanksgiving meal with my parents and Jessica's in-laws. My dad got tickets to the Texas Stars hockey game (owned by the Dallas Stars) from a guy who used to work with him. It was $1 hot dog and $2 beer night, can it get any better? Yes, because we also saw a fight and a shoot out.

Aren't they so cute?! I just can't get enough of them...

I also got to hang out with my good friends from high school, Jordan and Jennifer. We went to a local coffee shop, Motzart's, to catch up, talk about life and laugh. I'm a fan of constant laughter in conversation, so I can always count on a good time with these two! After coffee, we went to Barnes and Noble to get Jenn a book. While there, Jordan and I tried to convince her to buy a new favorite book, Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea. Let me warn you before you take my advice and buy this book for yourself. Chelsea Handler is completely inappropriate and vulgar. I think she's hilarious, but someone like my mom would be appalled that Chelsea Handler would be allowed to talk the way she does on her hit show, Chelsea Lately. Jenn passed on the book, but I decided to buy it the next week at Target for 30% off, so she'll get to borrow it over Christmas! Holler.

We also spent Thanksgiving day with Jessica's in-laws, the Conquests. Kristen, Dave and Katelyn were spending time with Dave's family in Waco, and Thanksgiving would be lame with 3 people, so we were thankful for the invite from the Conquests. Jessica volunteered my dad to carve the turkey. Why would she do that when my dad has no idea how to carve a turkey? I assured him that it would be okay and directed him to this YouTube video. He totally owned that turkey and fooled everyone into thinking this was his 100th time to carve a turkey.

Since we didn't have Thanksgiving leftovers, I made the easiest meal ever for dinner on Friday night. It's called something like Beefy Cheesy Ravioli and Kristen sent me the recipe. I also made my mom's favorite salad with cranberries, apples and walnuts. Even Evan liked the meal and he is a super picky eater!

That's all I've got. We are going on a cruise next Thursday, but hopefully you'll hear from me again before we leave.

Let the Games Continue..

I last blogged about the adventures of the pine cone in July, and the story ended with the original pine cone in my dad's possession. After 3 months of waiting, the story continues. Two weeks ago, my parents took some time off from work to visit friends and family and made a stop in Dallas Friday night. I headed over to Kristen and Dave's Saturday morning for some much needed family time and laughter. I got in my car to head home and noticed some brown things in my seat. I took a closer look and realized they were pine cone remnants. My dad was standing in the drive way waving, with a big smile on his face. I said, "Dad... I feel like there may be a pine cone in here." To which he responded, "Huh?" I looked in my console. Jackpot. I found the pine cone. I held it up and smiled.

That night, I went over to Bonnie's house to get ready for a Halloween party. I grabbed my make-up bag and headed towards a mirror. I opened my bag and found another pine cone, the original one. I laughed.

The next day, I went to the gym and was about to put my sunglasses in their rightful place before I headed in. I looked up and saw another pine cone. Is he serious?

I called my dad.

Me: Dad! I found another pine cone!

Dad: How many is that?

Me: What do you mean how many is that? I've found three.

Dad: Keep looking.

Me: WHAT?!

I grabbed my ID card from the cup holder and walked inside. When I came back out to my car, I put my ID card back where I got it, but this time I saw something I hadn't noticed before. I saw that there was something inside the clip of my work badge. What in the world? It was the world's smallest pine cone...

It's been almost a year since the pine cone made its debut. This Christmas will be filled with more excitement and quite possibly more pine cones. I'm thinking it may be time to assign this pine cone a name. The star of a game that's this fun must have a name. Any ideas?

Frugal Friday!

Thursday, November 12th: My colleague (and now friend), Michael, introduced me to some sweet money saving websites after he learned of my love for great deals. The websites are similar in content, but one is better organized and I choose to plug that website. Spoofee strives to provide consumers with the best deals everyday. 7 For All Mankind jeans for 40% off? Yes please! Restaurant.com 80% off coupon? Absolutely! I was hanging out with Kristen and Dave tonight and told them about the steal at restaurant.com. It seemed too good to be true. Too good to be true, because you can already get a $25 gift card at Restaurant.com for $10 without a discount code. Dave mentioned that he had gotten some gift certificates from Restaurant.com before and reassured me that it was a pretty good deal. You basically get more food for the same price you would typically pay for dinner for two. You may be thinking, "How does it work?" Let me explain. Restaurant.com helps restaurant owners promote the new and unique aspects of their restaurants while providing diners with great value in a fun, new and cost effective way. Local restaurant owners entice you with cheap gift certificates and hope that you will visit more than once. I wanted to try it out and realized this would be the best time. I refined my search to restaurants in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. After browsing 21 pages of featured restaurants, I settled on two gift cards. I bought one $25 gift card to Maestro's and one $25 gift certificate to Sweet Basil. One piece of advice: Make sure you read the restrictions before you purchase. For example, here are my restrictions for the certificates that I purchased: The certificates are only valid on dine-in service, tax and gratuities are not included and 18% gratuity is added. I have to spend at least $35 at Maestro's and at least $50 at Sweet Basil. No problem! I feel a girl's night coming on... So how much did this cost me? I paid a whopping $4.50 for $50 worth of gift certificates! Are you kidding me? How is this legal? Is this legit? Yes, yes, it is! I read the terms and agreements to be sure. Try it out!

Original price: $50.00. My price: $4.50. Total Savings: $45.50 or 91%.