About Me

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I have two kids - a girl and a boy - and live in north-central Minnesota, land of snow and ice. Well, for 9 months of the year, that is. I work full-time for a local government, and on my "free time" I enjoy cooking, baking, hanging out with my kiddos, and RELAXING.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Target and Cub this week

Cub

Strawberries, $3.50
-use Cub in-ad coupon to buy one, get one free
Final price: $1.75 each

Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ, $1
-use $1/3 from 5/22 SS
Final price: $0.67 each (I love to stock up on BBQ when it's cheap, because frequently I will go through a bottle or two at a time using it as a marinade.)

Suddenly Salad, $1

Heinz Ketchup, $1.67
-use $0.25/1 from 5/22 SS
Final price: $1.42

Hidden Valley Ranch, 16oz, $1.99
-use in-ad Cub coupon to get the sale price
Final price: $1.99 each

Pillsbury brownie mix, $0.99
-use $0.50/1 in-ad Cub coupon (actually a manufacturer's coupon)
Final price: $0.49


Target

Suave Invisible Protection Deoderant, $0.97
-use $0.75/1 from 5/22 RP
Final price: $0.22

Sure Deoderant, $1.50
-use $1/1 from 5/15 SS
Final price: $0.50

Suave body wash, $1.59, buy two
-use buy one get one free from 5/22 RP
Final price: $0.80 each

Old Spice Body Wash, $3.99
-use $1/1 from 5/22 Target insert (use two if you have them!)
-use buy one get one free from 5/1 P&G insert
Final price: $1.00 to $1.50 each

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

gestational diabetes testing

Last Wednesday I had to do the glucose challenge test, which is a screening tool for gestational diabetes. The clinic staff had recommended eating as normal before this test (which goes against everything I had heard from other people regarding their tests, but being as the nurses said it was okay to eat, I figured I would do it). Darren and I went to the clinic Wednesday afternoon, I drank the sugary drink (which tasted like flat orange soda), and we waited for them to check my blood sugar in an hour.

One hour and one finger prick later, I was given a piece of paper telling me to schedule a more extensive test at the hospital because I had failed the screening.

Probably I shouldn't have eaten a piece of cake that morning...I guess maybe cake shouldn't be considered a "normal" part of one's daily diet. Now how sad is that?

So yesterday morning I took the extensive version of the test. We arrive at the hospital around 7:15, me absolutely starving because I hadn't been allowed to eat since dinner the night before. We went to the lab where they took my "fasting" blood sugar. And no more easy finger pricks; they actually drew a vial. After they determined it was okay for me to consume a million grams of sugar or whatever, I was given another flat orange drink (this time double the amount) and sat down to wait. For three hours.

Hour one was rough. All that sugar hitting my empty stomach made me want to throw up. And apparently, that's pretty common. As soon as I got up for my 1st hour blood draw, though, I felt a lot better. Hours two and three were pretty unexciting. I watched some History channel, read some of my book, and watched Darren play Angry Birds on his phone.

After the three hours were over the hospital wanted me to go down to the cafeteria and eat before leaving. They said the results would be ready by the time we were done. We even each got a $5 gift card to eat down there, which meant a free lunch.

When we went back up, the receptionist/nurse said, "Did you feel okay during the test? You didn't throw up or anything, did you? I've never seen anyone's numbers so low." I said, "Oh, well that's good. And no, I didn't." Although I seriously felt like it for that first hour. Which was when my blood sugar was the lowest. Ironically, also the time when my blood sugar was allowed to be the highest and still pass the test.

So I'm not sure how my numbers could be so low the second time around, and high enough to fail the first time around. Unless it was that cake I ate. Lesson learned, there.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Cub this week

Some great deals at Cub this week:

Blueberries, buy one get one free with in-ad coupon (2/$4)
My primary purpose in going to Cub this week was to get blueberries, and of course they only had one carton left!

Miracle Whip 30 oz, $1.99 (with in-ad coupon)
-Use $1/2 from 5/15 SmartSource
Final price: $1.49 each

Duncan Hines brownie mix, sale price $1.00
-Use $0.50/1 printable
Final price: $0.50

Lawry's marinade, sale price $1.00
-Use $0.50/1 from 5/15 Red Plum
Final price: $0.50

La Banderita flour tortillas, $1.00

Kemp's sour cream, $1.67

Yoplait yogurt, sale price $0.50
-Use $0.40/6 printable
Final price: $0.43 each

Tombstone pizza, sale price $3.33 each

Ball Park hot dogs, sale price $1.99
-Use $0.75/2 from 5/1 Red Plum
Final price: $1.62 each

Brownberry wide-pan bread, $4.29
-Use "buy one get one free" coupon from coupon book (near front of store by weekly flyer)
Final price: $2.15 each (An okay price for multigrain bread. I'm out so I got the two loaves and froze them.)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

pharmacy shopping

I just started shopping at Walgreens and CVS. My first trip I got all this for $5.87!

Just to let you know how great of a deal this was, one bottle of the Clean and Clear body wash retails for $5.99. So it was like getting the rest for free!