get your sunscreen before summer hits!

I'm really bummed because last night I just bought a bottle of Coppertone sunscreen for my face for $7.99. I did have a $1 off coupon from who knows where but today I found a coupon for $3 off here. I hate it when that happens, but at least you can benefit from it!

Don't forget to get your Banana Boat coupons here as well!

free giveaways tomorrow

Burt's Bees is celebrating 25 years by giving away a free lip balm to the first 1,000 people to register between 9am and 12pm EST for the next 25 days. Go here to register. Good luck!

5/29/09 Update: I just discovered registration does not begin at 9am, but any (random) time between 9am and 12pm. I would recommend checking the site very frequently since I missed today's registration in the 20-minute period since I last checked and just now checked. Keep trying!

Also, don't forget to go here tomorrow and sign up for a free Mars brand candy bar. Only the first 250,000 people will receive a coupon.

Cub and Target this week

Tombstone pizza 3 for $9.99 (Cub sale price)
4 12" pizzas for 13.32
-(2) $1 off 2 pizzas
=$9.32 for four or $2.33 per pizza


Fruit Loops $1.99 (Target sale price)
-$1 off Fruit Loops (no longer available)
=$0.99 each


Rice Krispies $1.99 (Target sale price)
-$1 off Rice Krispies (no longer available)
=$0.99 each


Pop-Tarts 12-pack, Cheeze-Its, or Keebler Fudge Stripes $2.33 each (Target sale price)
Buy 5 get $5 off Target gift card
=$1.33 each


Hidden Valley Ranch Buttermilk dressing 2 for $6 (Cub sale price)
-$1.50 off purchase of 2
=$4.50 for two or $2.25 each


Hershey Bliss candy bars $0.99
-$1 coupon
= -$0.01 More free chocolate!


Wheat Thins $2.50 (Cub sale price)
-$1 coupon
-$1 coupon (in store—buy Wheat Thins and Crystal Light save $2, an added bonus!)
=$0.50 each


Crystal Light $3.69 for 4-pack and Crystal Light Skin Essentials $3.69
-$1 coupon
-$1 coupon (in store—buy Wheat Thins and Crystal Light save $2)
-$3.50 coupon for free Crystal Light Skin Essentials
=$1.88 for 2 boxes of Crystal Light or $0.94 each


Banana Boat sunscreen $6.49
-$2 coupon
=$4.49


Pepsi product 12 pack $3.00 (Target sale price)
-$1 coupon
=$2 for a 12 pack, what a deal!

wednesday weight loss

Ugh. Not so good today. I ate way too much over Memorial Day weekend. Pretty much since last Thursday I've been eating horribly, so it's no wonder I'm up a pound from last week. I should be glad it's not more than that, really. I seriously have been stuck around this weight for the past year. How horrible is that? I've been down a couple pounds, and up a couple pounds, but a year later there's been so significant change. So frustrating. Darren and I were going to go running tonight but we're making a trip to Brainerd instead. We haven't been to Brainerd together for a while, so it'll be fun. There are a couple good deals I'm looking forward to and I'll be sure to post about them tomorrow!

busy summer weekend

That three-day weekend just flew by! I can't believe it's Tuesday already. At least this will be a nice and short week, plus a payday week for both Darren and I. Gotta say payday weeks are more exciting than regular weeks.

Friday evening after Darren got done with fire watch we went fishing with my aunt and uncle for a little bit. Chris and Courtney came up to the cabin after that and we just hung out and played some Taboo. Darren loves that game so much. We stayed up way too late and spent the night at the cabin. I slept in on Saturday until Darren had to go to fire watch at 11:00. Mom came up to the cabin and I helped her do all the dishes so they'd be ready to go for the summer. Went home mid-afternoon and took a nap. I made a new recipe for supper called Mac N Cheese Taco Bake but I'd have to say it wasn't fantastic. Just okay. It had TWO boxes of Mac N Cheese so it definitely wasn't the healthiest thing out there. It did get Darren to eat Mac N Cheese, which is difficult because he doesn't like it. What's not to like?? Hopefully the next new-recipe attempt will be more succesful than this one.

Anyway, Saturday evening after dinner we went down to Wildwedge and did some mini golfing and hit some balls on the driving range with Darren's mom. His dad works there part-time on the weekends so we got a good deal. I sucked it up mini-golfing but did better on the driving range. It's been a loooong time since I've hit golf balls, so it was kind of fun. No recurring shoulder damage, fortunately. Unfortunately, still have a nasty slice. Good distance, though: I topped out at 150 yards which is pretty good for me, especially since I haven't swung a club for about five years.

Sunday we both slept in, still trying to catch up on sleep from Friday night, so we missed church. I feel bad about how often we miss it. I hate setting the alarm on Sunday's because usually Darren has to get up early on Saturday for something, so Sunday is my only no-alarm day. Usually I wake up in time but last Sunday we were so tired. I didn't wake up until 9:15 and since church starts at 10:15 we would have been rushed getting out the door. Sunday afternoon was Darren's sister's graduation so that was fun for her. She was pretty excited. Sunday evening we had dinner at the cabin and Darren's parents came up to take a cruise around the lake on the boat, have a campfire, and play some games. We had the first s'mores of the season...yummy. I had one original and one with the Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies. Whoever invented s'mores that way is a genius. We spent the night at the cabin again and I slept horribly on the squeaky mattress. So nice to sleep in my own bed last night.

Darren got up early Monday morning to go fishing with his friend Al and after that we went home to get ready to go out to his parents for lunch. We stayed out there until a little after three and came home and mowed the lawn. An adventure, to be sure. Blair randomly mowed it last weekend so this was mine and Darren's first time mowing. We went over to my mom's and brought the rider over on the trailer, since the lawn is pretty big. Unfortunately it's very uneven so I had to drive very slowly and the rider still had a rough time. I went clean down to dirt on some of the little hills. Also just about tipped the beast over trying to mow the ditch by the highway. Plus, with all the wind yesterday, the dirt I was kicking up just kept blowing back in my face. I had to take a shower when we got done; I had so much dust in my hair, in my ears, up my nose...you get the picture. After we were presentable we went up to the Corner Store for supper since my sister was working. Came home and spent the evening on the couch watching Grey's.

Tonight we're going to hoe up the garden a little. The weeds aren't too bad yet so we need to get going before they get impossible. Darren said almost everything is up and sprouting, so that's very exciting for us. Hopefully we'll be able to can/freeze a lot of it for this winter and save some money. I know how much we spent on the seeds and plants so I'm hoping to keep track of everything we grow and get a rough estimate of whether or not we came out ahead. I know, I'm crazy like that. :)

welcome to summer

Summer is officially here. The cabin is getting opened up by my mother and sister as I type this, and Darren and I are spending the night there tonight after an evening out on the boat fishing. I love the cabin. It's always so peaceful and relaxing. The lake it's on isn't very big so there aren't usually a lot of boaters. It's almost always quiet. This weekend it will probably be a little louder, with Memorial Day and all.

I really hope Darren doesn't have any fire watch this weekend. He said last night that if they called and asked him to work he would. I'm so tired of stupid fire watch. At least he can't do it on Sunday because his sister is graduating. I would just like one weekend of us spending time together. He's been doing fire watch or at drill or shooting bow every weekend for about the last month. Ugh.

Oh, in other great news, Darren decided (again) that he wants to be a conservation officer. So now after he finishes his 2 1/2 years for forestry in the cities he's going back to school for ANOTHER two years to get a law enforcement degree. I don't have high expectations that this plan will last for too long. In fact, it will probably change about 4 times over the next 2 1/2 years, based on past experience.

circle series

I just found out a new book is coming out in one of my favorite series. Other than the O'Malley series by Dee Henderson, The Circle Series by Ted Dekker is probably my favorite. I'll definitely have to do a re-read of the other three before this one comes out. The first three books, Black, Red, and White are must-reads. The fourth book, which is actually book #0 (it's the beginning and the end--how crazy is that?) is titled Green and will be released September 1. I'm not a huge Ted Dekker fan outside of this series, so it's kind of weird how I like it so much, but I highly recommend it. If you've heard of it and it sounds like something you wouldn't like, I urge you to at least try it. I always made fun of Harry Potter until I started reading it. This is kind of the same thing. :)

updates

It's been a while since I actually wrote a post about what I've been up to lately, so here's an update.

Last weekend I was pretty busy. Darren had drill so I was alone, but I stayed occupied. I went to get my china Friday night and then Saturday morning went down to Brainerd to do some shopping. Saturday afternoon I was at my mom's house. We had dinner and then my sister and I went to see Angels & Demons. Sunday I went to church and made some focaccia bread. Darren came home around 2ish and slept for three hours on the couch while I read. We had chicken fettucine alfredo for supper, only I didn't have any fettucine noodles so we used angel hair. Darren said it wouldn't be the same. I thought it tasted fine.

Monday night we sat around at home, I'm pretty sure. I can't really remember that far back very well. We've been watching Grey's Anatomy lately. We've never seen it before and are on season 2. I really enjoy it. Tuesday night we helped my mom put the boat in at the cabin, and last night Darren had fire watch until 6:30 and we just relaxed at home after that. Kind of a dull week so far. Darren was just complaining last night about how we never do anything in the evenings except watch TV. I wanted to tell him it's hard to do things in the evenings when he volunteers to work until 6:30, but I just kept my mouth shut.

Tonight he has to work until 6 (hopefully that will be the latest, anyway. You can never tell.) and then we're rushing to see the new Terminator movie at 6:35. I think we should just see it a different night, but he's so excited about it. It's opening night so it will probably be packed and we'll probably end up sitting in the front row. I'm not excited about that. I hate the front row. Especially on an action movie...I'll probably feel like puking a quarter of the way into it. I think his parents are seeing it with us so hopefully they'll save us a good spot. Chris and Courtney are coming too, I think. Hopefully everyone isn't there already when Darren realizes he won't get off in time and we can't come. I guess we'll see how this evening goes. I'm trying to be positive.

Darren's been doing some fishing lately. He loves it but always complains that he doesn't know how to fish. I guess there's an art form to it. Me, I just slap a worm on my hook and cast the line out. Nothing to it. I'm sure we'll be going over the 3-day weekend this weekend. Darren's sister graduates on Sunday but other than that we have nothing going on.

We got our tomato and pepper plants this morning and Darren got them planted. Our lettuce is sprouting up, too, so it's time to get that fence in before the deer eat everything off.

Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act

Every Friday from now through September Mars will give away free chocolate to the first 250,000 people to sign up here. You can even set up an email reminder. Limit one coupon per Friday and four coupons per family during the length of the offer. Mars makes M&Ms, Dove, Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Twix, and Milky Way, so don't forget to take advantage of this offer!

Free Oscar Meyer Beef Hotdogs

Go here to sign up for a coupon for a free package of Oscar Meyer hotdogs. Limited time only, so hurry!

wednesday weight loss

I'm officially one week behind on my weight loss goal. That means I need to lose 1.2 pounds this next week, instead of the .6 I've been supposed to be losing. Oh well. Darren has been trying to lose weight as well. Last night he got on the scale and couldn't believe how low it was. He thought it was broken. I weighed myself and unfortunately it wasn't broken. At least one of us was happy.

I only had a slimfast bar for supper last night and I woke up starving this morning. I don't think the slimfast drink mix is holding me over very well. I did just eat an apple but I'm hungry for lunch and real food. And chocolate.

jackpot

GREAT news. My aunt and uncle (the ones I lived with last fall semester) said we could rent from them! I'm so excited. We're getting an amazing deal. I did the math and we'll save over $13,000 over the course of two and a half years by renting from them instead of an apartment building. And I didn't account for rent increases, laundry, or the cable bill, so it's definitely a good deal! Plus, the best news of all, they have FOUR huge closets and a linen closet. Here's a little floorplan I made up for Darren since he's never really examined their upstairs that closely. (That closet off the bottom of the living room is upstairs; the stairs go downstairs underneath it and that's where our "front door" would be.)

The rooms aren't huge and there's no dishwasher, but I just keep telling myself "$13,000" and it makes it okay. :) The way my aunt and uncle's house is set up it's really easy for them to have a renter. They just put up a small wall by the base of the stairs. We'll have an outside door which will open up to a staircase and our "place" will be the whole upstairs. We won't have a garage for parking but it also won't be super shady and Darren won't have to worry so much about it being safe. I'm REALLY excited about it. Plus Darren will be able to bring his grill down. The city of Roseville doesn't allow grills on balconies so we couldn't bring it to any of the apartments. My aunt said they were also planning on leaving some of their furniture up there so we won't have to move/buy so much. It will be so nice. :)

wow!

I went to Target this weekend and got some great deals. I got all of this...

for $28.10! Retail value was $73.15 so I saved $45.05, which is 62% savings! I was pretty impressed with myself. Kraft is having some great coupons that you can match with Target's coupons to save big $$$. :)

Some of my favorite deals:

Kraft BBQ (which I actually got at Cub) reg. $0.89

-$1 coupon

= -$0.11 Yes, they actually paid me to take their BBQ sauce.

Oscar Meyer weiners (Cub again) Last week sale price 2 for $4

-(2) $1 off coupons

= $1 per package

Cub foods cheese on sale for $0.88 per 8oz package, with coupon from Cub weekly flyer (expired)

Crystal Light reg. $2.69

-$1 coupon

-$1 coupon

- coupon for free crystal light (value $3.50) (Crystal Light Skin Essentials only)

= $0.69 for 2 boxes Crystal Light drink mix

Miracle Whip reg. $2.69

-$1 off 2

-(2) $1 off coupons

=$1.19 per bottle

Kraft salad dressing reg. $1.99

-$1 off 2

-(2) $1 off coupons

=$0.49 per bottle

Ritz crackers reg. $2.54

-$1 off

-$1 off

=$0.54 per box

Triscuits reg. $2.04 (on sale at Target)

-$1 off 2

-(2) $1 off coupons

= $0.54 per box

Hershey Bliss candy bars (by the checkouts) reg. $0.99

-$1 coupon

= -$0.01 FREE CHOCOLATE!

Quaker True Delights granola bars reg. $2.89

-$1 coupon

-$1 coupon

=$0.89

Nabisco 100 Calorie Snack Packs reg. $2.79

-$1 coupon

-$1 coupon

=$0.79

Noritake china

My great-aunt gave us her Noritake china as a wedding gift and my aunt and I just went and picked it up Friday night. We brought along the wedding pictures for her to see, as well. I think she enjoyed our visit. The china is absolutely gorgeous, and worth more money than I would ever consider spending on plates. It was a very generous gift and I'm very excited about it. :) Here are some pictures.

It has dinner plates, salad plates, soup bowls, dessert bowls, and cups and saucers for 14, so it's a pretty big set. I also got three nice serving platters of different sizes, two deep dishes, a gravy boat, salt & pepper shakers, and a cute covered dish.

I also got a teapot (which is just about the cutest thing ever) and a creamer and sugar bowl.

Here's a close-up of the pattern.

I asked my great-aunt what year she bought it and she couldn't remember so I got the pattern name and number (Salisbury 9723 if you're curious) from the back of the plates and looked it up today. It's discontinued now but was made from 1979-1982 so she probably got it somewhere in there. She said a bride had ordered it and then when it came in couldn't afford it so the owner of the place where she ordered it from called my great-aunt to see if she wanted it. My great-aunt said it's only been used once or twice so it's in excellent condition.

I did a little internet research on Noritake and found out it's been around since the early 1900s when Japan started selling it in the US. Noritake is actually the name of a suburb of Nagoya, Japan. Just an interesting fact for the day. :)

Free DiGiorno Flatbread Melts

Go here today for a coupon for a free DiGiorno Flatbread melt. The first 100,000 people to register will receive a coupon in 6-8 weeks.

improvement

I really like what I've accomplished on my blog today. I love the clean white look with pops of color. The only thing I would like to change is spread my two columns further to the sides to create more white space between them and my posts, but I have yet to figure out how to do that. I think it looks to busy with all those words jam-packed in there. I did manage to increase the width of my post area by editing the html code (with help from many other bloggers) but am not sure if I can increase the white space. A project for Monday, anyway. This blogger has some handy gray dividers but I'm pretty sure I can't do that, since they weren't in my html code and it will be impossible for me to add them. I'm satisfied with my layout, for the most part. I spent a long time today looking online for a simple 3 column look and after about four different changes found one I liked. I added my own header, so that was fun. I found a really good site with a lot of nice headers, so I may change it up every once in a while. I would also like to start labeling my blogs...another to-do for Monday.

work in progress

My blog is currently a work in progress as I attempt to switch to a 3 column format. If you've seen some weird things on here the past couple of days, that's probably why. I finally found a 3 column template I like, after many unsuccesful attempts. Unfortunately my widgets went with it, so they will need to be replaced. I'm off to lunch now but hopefully will get everything up and running this afternoon.

another wednesday weight loss

Decent this morning. I actually did weight pretty much the same as last Wednesday, but last Tuesday night I ate a 200-calorie slimfast bar for supper and last night I ate a huge plate of ham, twice-baked potatoes, corn, and salad. So I would have weighed less if I hadn't pigged out last night. It was yummy, though. :)

I didn't work out yesterday because my leg was still hurting but I did work out this morning and Darren and I are going to go for a run after work, so long as it's not raining or he doesn't have fire watch. I haven't ran in months, so it will be interesting.

rough couple of days

I've been so tired the past couple of days. I have no idea why. Last night I went to bed around 9:40 and was still tired when I finally forced myself to get up at 7:40. It was horrible. I think I need some caffeine. It's too bad I don't really like coffee all that well. I only like it if it doesn't taste like coffee. Maybe some diet pepsi vanilla will do the trick. I need something, that's for sure.

Last night I went up to Hackensack to rent some movies (at Darren's request we're watching all the Terminator movies before the new one comes out) and found out the movie rental store was closed on Mondays. I was so angry for wasting my time doing that. But I was more angry because I was planning on making that ham and twice-baked potatoes but had to postpone it because I wouldn't have time due to the whole movie-run. So now we still don't have the movies we wanted to see and I still have to make ham and twice-baked potatoes. Oh well. We watched Grey's Anatomy last night. We're just starting season one and we both really like it so far. I've heard from several people that it's really good and it will be fun to see something we've never seen before.

I keep injuring myself while exercising, so that's not good. My hip flexor keeps hurting like crazy after my 50 minute cardio party workout. (That's the muscle that contracts in your hip when you lift your leg to kick.) I was wondering if part of it might be my two pairs of workout shoes since they're five and three years old, respectively, and the arch support is shot. They make my feet hurt every time and I thought it had something to do with my leg until my mom said this morning she remembers me complaining about my leg hurting last summer. So ugh, it's probably some permanent recurring injury, like my shoulder is. I'm pretty sure it's just the insane amout of kicking that causes it because it never hurts during my other cardio workout, and there's way less kicking in that.

Darren went running yesterday morning so I'm hoping we can start running some in the evenings now. I'm considering running the 5K this summer in PR and I need to start working up to it because there's no way I can just up and run 3 miles right now. Maybe 2, if I run slow and am lucky. I can count on one hand the number of times I've run 3 miles all at once, so that's not promising. I'm not much of a runner. Definitely prefer the elliptical or workout videos.

Okay, I feel like I've rambled enough and I'm so tired that it probably doesn't make much sense. Time to find that caffeine...

weekend plans

We have a busy weekend again. Darren has fire watch with the DNR tonight and then tomorrow morning we're planting our garden with his grandparents at (ugh) 8 am. Two Saturdays in a row now I've had to get up early. After that he's helping my aunt and uncle put in their dock with some other family members. Tomorrow night one of my friend's is having her college graduation party so we'll probably stop by there for a while. Sunday is church and then Darren's parents' house for lunch and my mom's for supper in honor of Mother's Day. So yep, there's the whole weekend. We might try and get out on the lake and do a little fishing if the weather is nice enough. I bought my license last weekend so I wouldn't have to deal with all the people this weekend. Darren doesn't have to get one, something about active duty in the military or being a veteran or something or other.

This week just flew by! I can't believe how busy we are all the time. Especially Darren. He didn't get home until about 8:40 last night from fire watch and then got up at 5:45 this morning to go till up our garden with his grandfather. Hopefully next week things will slow down, but I doubt it with summer coming on.

I got the floor swept at lunch, clean sheets on the bed, and I wiped down the counters last night so my house is all cleaned again. At least for another two days, until I start all over again on Monday. It's nice to be able to clean on my lunch breaks, though, so I can spend the evenings with Darren (whenever he's home, anyway) instead of cleaning and doing laundry.

I was going to make a ham this weekend until I remember it was Mother's Day. So maybe next week I'll get on top of that. I was thinking baked ham with garlic mashed potatoes. Yummmm. It sounds so good right now, especially since I know that if Darren's not home for supper I won't cook anything and will be eating the leftovers, which consist of refried beans, baked beans, over-cooked chicken, and four-day-old fried rice. What a spread.

wednesday weight loss...on thursday

So I missed yesterday's weekly weight loss post because I spent all day at my mom's trying to fix her computer. She had some kind of trojan virus and I spent hours sitting there trying to get it off. I think it's finally gone.

Great news: yesterday I made my goal! Yes! Hardly ever happens, but yesterday I was down .6 pounds from last Wednesday, which is right on track. I was so excited, and a little surprised, to tell the truth. Although the night before I had only a slimfast meal bar for supper since I was rushing around Brainerd getting groceries and necessities. I always get more motivated when I actually start to lose weight, which makes me work harder to lose even more weight. It's a wonderful cycle. In contrast, it's a vicious cycle when I start gaining weight because I get upset about it and eat more. You can see where this is going.

In other (horrible) news, Darren's truck is at B&L again. We've had a vehicle there almost every day this week! His truck was there on Monday to have the power steering hose fixed, my car was there Tuesday for an oil change, and now his truck is there again today because some belt is just shredding to pieces, apparently. I'm so sick and tired of our vehicles. Which reminds me, I need to find some electrical tape for my washer fluid hose...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Not even sure what Cinco de Mayo means...well, I know it means "Fifth of May." More like I'm not sure what it stands for. What's the important of it? A quick pop over to Google will have the answer. Oh, nothing too relevant to Americans. It's all about the Mexican and Spanish war/independence. We don't really need to much of an excuse to celebrate in this country. Hey, a country declared independence from another country, let's celebrate!

I'm going to Brainerd after work for groceries and a stop at Target. I also need to pick up a Gander Mountain gift card for my step-father; his birthday's in a week and a half. Not really a very exciting trip at all. I'm trying to not spend so much money. We had to pay the car insurance last month and now with Darren's truck breaking every five minutes we haven't been able to save much money for a while. We're trying to build up a nice little nest egg for when we're in the cities. Hopefully we won't have any trouble finding good jobs, but just in case...

This week is all planned out already. Tonight Darren is planting trees with his uncle. Tomorrow night he's working at the DNR, and Thursday night is the first softball game of the season. Friday he's working on his grandma's deck. I don't think we have anything planned for the weekend yet. Hopefully it will be nice out so we can get outside.

Darren got the water fixed today, hallelujah! We spent the night at my mom's last night. It was a big hassle for him and I'm not sure I understand why. It's hardly easier to live in a house with no water! But he made a big deal about staying at my mom's. Maybe that's what motivated him to get the pump working again today. It lost it's prime (whatever that means) and apparently that's easy to fix so we didn't have to call a plumber. We cannot afford any more things breaking in the near future. The truck was $2500 to fix. Ridiculous...and it would have been about $700 more if Darren hadn't found the manifolds somewhere else. I can't believe how much they charge! We got it fixed again yesterday after all the leaking/dying and that was another $90 for the power steering hose and labor (fortunately it wasn't oil that was leaking). Darren thinks maybe he should forget about forestry and go to school to be an auto mechanic. :)

the weekend when everything broke down

Seriously. Everything.

Friday afternoon we went down to Brainerd with Darren's grandparents to get the seeds for our garden. We're both pretty excited about it. Hopefully we'll enjoy it and it won't become this big hassle all summer long. His grandparents took us out to eat at Bonanza afterward, which was very sweet of them. When we got back Darren had to go back in to work for a while hauling trees out to the sites where they needed to be planted. He got home around 8 or so and we were both pretty tired so we just sat around and went to be early. I did try to make another loaf of focaccia bread and realized the bread machine is broken (broken thing #1) and that's why my last loaf didn't turn out. Fortunately I realized it early enough to salvage the ingredients and mix it up by hand, which was interesting. It turned out ok, but there were some hectic moments where I was trying to get the bread dough off my hands so I could look online and see how long it needed to rise. At least now I know I can, in fact, make real homemade bread. Darren really wants me to make some sourdough bread like his cousin but I don't have her recipe.

Saturday we both got up at 6:15 because Darren was going to an archery shoot with Troy and Troy's dad, and that's what time he needed to set the alarm. Of course it woke me up, too. I worked out nearly killed myself over the pain in my feet. My arch support is totally gone in my shoes (broken thing #2). After that I took it easy all morning. I did make a trip up to Godfrey's and got a great deal on chicken: $4.88 for a three pound bag! I bought two. I would have gotten more but Darren always makes fun of me. Plus we still have about five pounds or so in the freezer. In the afternoon Darren put some fence posts in the ground so we can put a fence around our garden to keep out the deer, and I filled in some holes in the yard. When we got inside I threw Darren's clothes in the washer and we sat down to watch a couple episodes of Friends. Halfway through his mom called to remind us that Brittny's grand march was at 4:30 and that's when Darren realized his phone was still in his pants pocket. In the washer. So that got ruined (broken thing #3). He freaked out about it for a while and dug my old phone out to use. We rushed out the door to grand march and saw Britts. She looked very pretty and it was fun to see all the girl's dresses. Chris and Courtney were there so we talked to them for a little bit.

We stopped at the cabin on the way home so Darren could check out the dock to see if he and some other guys could put it in. As soon as we got home he went out the door to go shoot some animals with my brother. He got home about 6:40 and we thought if we rushed we could make the 7:05 X-Men movie with his parents. So we ran out the door and about five minutes down the road when Darren goes to call them and say we're coming he realizes he doesn't have his (my) phone. He was so paranoid he dropped it outside and it would get rained on but I was pretty sure he left it on the table in the house. Anyway, we ended up turning around and going home and sure enough, it was safe inside. I do understand where he was coming from, though. I wouldn't want to break two phones in a single day, either. I made fun of him for it for a while and we just hung out at home that evening.

Saturday night Darren's (my) phone rang at 1 in the morning. Never a good sign when that happens. The adreneline starts flowing and you just about have a heart attack wondering what's wrong. Fortunately it was just my brother with a flat tire up at B&L (broken thing #4). Not sure why he called Darren instead of my mom, but oh well. Darren ran up town to pick him up and I couldn't sleep until he got back and told me everything was okay, which was about 35 minutes later. I don't know why it took so long...Unfortunately on the way there and back Darren's truck kept dying when he would slow down (broken thing #5). And we just got it back on Friday after being in the shop for about three weeks. It also smells like it's leaking oil. Darren was not happy.

Sunday we went to church and on the way home had to stop because there was a dead tree down in the middle of the road. There were already some people there and Darren got out to help so it got cleared up in no time. It wasn't very windy so it's kind of weird that it blew over. We had hot dogs on the grill for lunch and Darren went to softball batting practice from 1-3 while I baked a cheesecake and then sat on the couch. :) We made some baked terriyaki chicken for supper. It was super putzy and not very good, so I think I'll toss that recipe. It took so long that we were almost late to go see X-Men at 7 in Hackensack. We both really enjoyed it. Afterwards we came home, cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed, too tired for cheesecake!

This morning Darren had to get up at 4:15 for work and I just tossed and turned after that. I skipped working out and finally got up at 7 only to have my warm shower jerked out from under my fingertips. The stupid water pressure stopped working again, so we don't have any water upstairs and only a tiny little trickle downstairs (broken thing #6). I went outside down the driveway (in Darren's robe) to the pump and hefted the beast-of-a-lid off to check it out but since they fixed it last time I'm not sure what's going on anymore and I was afraid to touch it. It was still making noise like it was working, where before it wouldn't make any noise at all and we'd have to click these two things together until it sparked and started working again. I hurt myself trying to get the lid back on, so I was pretty unhappy by that point. I packed up what I needed and went to my mom's to get ready. When I got there she said we probably should go back and shut the power to the well off so the thing didn't burn out by running all day. It was about 7:40 by the time we got back to her house so I quick got ready for work. We headed up town and I dropped Darren's truck off at B&L while she dropped off my brother's keys to get his tire fixed. I swear my family spends enough money there to support him for six months. Then we came to work, and here I am. Kind of a discouraging weekend, huh?