Lazy Weekends

I sure do love weekends like we just had!!! Even better when they follow up a week where I got to see 2 great friends & my mom!

Friday:

after D got home from work, we ordered pizza (with free cheese breadsticks thanks to a quick google search) & grabbed a Free Redbox (no secret to that one: just used the code they emailed me.) Has anyone else seen Ride Along? It's hilarious. We both laughed through the entire thing. Kevin Hart is a genius. We also discovered we had a free HBO weekend, so D set about recording every movie he possibly could. I also had to record Girl Meets World, but more on that later. 

Saturday:

D had to help a friend's parents' who are moving. That led me to a morning of blog reading, Daily Yoga, and dishes. I also started the process of emptying out our water softener. I scooped and scooped, until I could reach no further. The dog seemed to think I was crazy. When D came back, he finished the job, including having me help him clean off a nozzle and reload new salt into the machine. We are really hoping this takes care of our nasty staining brown water problem. Next, we headed down to our friends' new place, which is gorgeous. We helped them move some stuff around, and then S & I scoped out updates to one of their bathrooms while the guys did...well, idk really. We grabbed some BWW with them and called it a night. 

Sunday: 

After a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls, I jumped in the shower & we headed out to scout some hunting land with the same friends from the night before & my FIL. It's a good thing we had plans to see them again too, since I left my cell phone in their kitchen the night before!  We spent some time riding 4 wheelers around in the woods. Idk what we accomplished, but it was fun. After returning home, we watched one of our recorded movies-R.I.P.D. It was okay. I had never heard of it, but it's very similar to the MIB series, but with Ryan Reynolds. We both grabbed quick showers & downed some nachos while settling in for movie number 2: The Wolverine. Loved it. 

All in all: we had a fantastic weekend & we hope you did too!!!

#JambaJuice

As some of you may know, I'm a part of this social media network called Influenster. Through this outlet, I was able to get a FREE Jamba Juice at home smoothie kit. I was first introduced to Jamba Juice while MayTermming in Hawaii. Like all things Hawaiian, I fell in love. Unfortunately, JJ is not really a thing here, so I haven't had one since 2006. (Side note: Target Cafe has 2 flavors, neither of which I have yet tried.) You can imagine how pumped I was to find a free coupon and a coupon for $1 off in my #SurfsUpVoxBox last week. They're super great. Here's how they work:

1.  Go to WalMart. Search through their frozen smoothie section. Come up empty handed. Drive to Kroger and find these bad boys (hopefully in a more organized fashion). Consumers choice: skip the extra WalMart run; you can also find them at Target. Wherever you end up, make sure you grab some apple juice if you don't already have some. 

2. Rush home and gather the goods. Ignore the small child inside you wanting to pick up fast food. It'll be worth it. The goods: Blender. Juice. Smoothie pouch (I grabbed Caribbean Passion like in the pic and Razzmatazz).  

3. Put the fruit & a cup of juice in the blender. Blend. (There's directions on the pouch about speed and time if you're picky and/or a smoothie virgin.)

4. Load into a big cup (like my 24 oz Tervis) and enjoy!!! Your other option is to split it into 2 cups and enjoy the suggested serving size with a friend. I'm not about to share my JJ with anyone. 

And that's it. They're delicious. And healthy. And easy. And did I mention delicious? Maybe a touch pricey, since you're only getting 1 drink out it, but you can always look for coupons, and use your Kroger card for gas points or your Cartwheel app & RedCard at Target. 

Disclaimer: I received the above product for free from Influenster.com for review purposes. However, all opinions are 100% true to my own feelings. Want in on free stuff? Shoot me a message. 

ReVolution Update: June

So I've been way too lazy with the old blog! I haven't posted anything since March! I definitely want to remedy that ASAP. Here's another New Years Revolution update

1. Household Chores: totally fallen by the wayside. I'm going to have to get my act together for the summer!

2. Lose Weight: my target was to be down 15 pounds by May 31. I was doing amazingly well, and then I just quit. I even gained back about half of what I lost. New goal: be down 10 before school starts  on August 11. 

2a. Drink more water: I have been doing better. I bought a Tervis from my alma mater and that really motivates me. I want to be downing 2 a day minimum. Plan: drink 2 Tervis' of water before getting anything else to drink. 

2b. Go to the gym: this majorly slacked off for the semester with weekly meetings and tutoring 2x a week. However, I went 6 times in June before we went on vacation, and I've added a 30 day yoga challenge to my summer routine. 

2c. Take a Vitamin. Fell off that wagon too. Time to get back on it. 

3. Spend less: that didn't go well at  the beginning of the year. We had a TON of unexpected expenses. I did a great job limiting my Starbucks trips this Spring, and I am trying to cook more dinners at home here in the summertime. 

4. Read the Bible. This just isn't happening. Period. I'm probably going to have to restart this goal next year. 

How are you doing with your ReVolutions?

Weekend WrapUp

This will be a boring one folks!

Friday: we got another day off from school because Mother Nature has had it out for us! At my house, we got less than 1" of snow. At my in-laws, which is in the county I teach for? 4". That's right folks. FOUR. We live 45 minutes away. So I spent Friday grabbing some free wi-fi, and a great lunch, at the local Panera. Caught up with a student from last semester, graded a few projects, mostly piddled around. Friday night we, gasp, had dinner at home and caught up on some TV. 

Saturday: IHOP & errands for breakfast!  My hubby & his dad have been working on rebuilding a truck D bought. Not the new one that I told D we would have til he died, but a beater that will, hopefully, cut down on the fuel bill. It also gives us an extra 4 wheel drive, and an extra car so we can stop borrowing D's Nana's. I think we had her car for 2 months this fall. Thanks Nana!

So while they worked, I did the sort of procrastination I'm good at. I cleaned the house & watched reruns of Will & Grace. I also may have taken a nap. I grabbed a pizza & a free RedBox, which gave us our evening plans. By the way, watch Captain Phillips. It's great. Maybe a touch long, but great. I also went to bed before 10:00. I told D it was to prep for Spring Forward. In actuality? I was just sleepy & didn't want to watch whatever he had recorded. 

Sunday: I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast (I have a great recipe: open pop can. Bake. Smother in icing from the can) before grabbing my laptop & heading to the local coffee shop. While there, I finished up grading 1 of the 2 projects I have (42 power points of the same material). I also relearned a valuable lesson about headphones at the coffee shop. Luckily, D was headed into town so he dropped mine off for me! Grabbed some DQ & headed home. Once there, and post ice cream, I spent a while digging these plants out of my flower bed. Idk what they are called, but they are big balls of grass. The previous owner planted them along the side walk, which left them taking over the walkway & they were enormous! I'm exhausted now, but they are gone! And, yes, I was able to spend time outside 2 days after it showed. It snowed Friday & then Saturday & Sunday were over 60 degrees. 

Tonight's plan: popcorn for dinner, bad tv, or maybe a movie, and early bed. That alarm clock will be way too soon, since I'm sure I won't fall asleep at what my body thinks is 9:00. 

How was your weekend?

Midweek Confessions

It's that time again! As always, don't forget to go check out the link ups over at emyselfandi! 

1. I'm not a Downton Abbey watcher. Or a Scandal watcher. Or an Orange is the New Black watcher. What do we watch in my house? Duck Dynasty. Two and a Half Men. Big Bang Theory. The entire CBS Monday lineup. Shows about cars. Shows about gold mining and trucking and I don't even know what. And most recently: Modern Family. High brow stuff? No. Entertaining? Generally. 

2. We haven't had a home cooked meal this week. I haven't been to the gym. Well. I did on Monday, but not to work out. More on that later. I feel disgusting. 

3. I made my test copies for first period at 8:15. Class starts at 8:25. The worksheet they did after their test? A student assistant (not mine, but my classroommate's) made those WHILE my kids took their test. Oops. 

4. I started my day yesterday by waking up, getting in the car, and heading to the gym. Impressive? Not so much when you know that I did so in order to shower. We didn't have any electricity (line down across the road at the elementary school)     I also left my washrag there. 

What fun things have you done recently? 

Winter Wonderland!

So we got some snow. Lots of snow. Be prepared for some pictures folks!

We were out Wednesday all day, for a snowstorm that had covered my driveway by 2:30 PM. To start: 

 I hit the gym. And Kroger. And Panera. And I made it home about 1 hr before this:

Seriously, snowflakes starting falling when I was 10 min from home. 1 hour on & my driveway was invisible. 

So the rest of the evening, after a couple of conversations verifying that folks got home okay, D & I spent the evening just relaxing. And watching a really terrible tv show about people that dig up ginseng in WV. 

We awoke to 

 

And 

And 

We spent a lot of the day digging out,, with a brief bit of time watching Blood Diamond. We borrowed a tractor for some of this

And, because it was a 2 phase storm, I had to redo these

Yes. That would be the car I had completely clean, and the concrete pad D had shoveled. Before we got several more inches of snow today!

 I also found time for 

Crock pot chili and 

Funfetti cupcakes! Calories don't count on snow days right?

All in all, we got about 17" of the fluffy white stuff! How'd you spend your day?

Weekend Wrapup

I thought I'd take a cue from Karla over at Forever Newly Wedded & do a quick Weekend Wrap Up post.  (And omg I might have 3 posts in 3 days yall, big deal!!!)

Friday:

• I got a super exciting mid-afternoon text message from D asking if I wanted to go out to eat with our friends S & S and their hilarious little boy W.  I may have texted back an answer while turning on a timer on my cell phone for my students to study before a quiz.  I don't think anyone noticed, but the minute I did it, I felt guilty.
• So off we headed, after a quick post-gym shower, to Buffalo Wild Wings to enjoy a night.  From there, we ran over to Toys R Us looking for a very specific monster truck W has been wanting.  No truck was found, but I wanted to show S the app on my phone that I use for price checks & price matching.  My phone? Nowhere to be found.
• Back to BWW we went, and the waiter had my phone in his pocket.  He seemed nice enough, like in a, "Oh, as soon as I saw it I knew you'd be back way."  It just seemed strange that he didn't give it to the manager or the hostess.  I probably wouldn't be so cynical if S hadn't had a stolen cell phone at a nearby restaurant.  (The story: she left her phone at a restaurant I'll leave nameless.  She called later that night asking about it.  They identified exactly what it looked like, where it was found, and where it would be, so she could pick it up the next day.  When she arrived, they "looked everywhere" and it was gone.  They suggested she must have left her phone somewhere else.)

Saturday:

• Pretty easy day for me!  I spent the early morning straightening up a little & doing our finances.  I snagged a free box of delivered snacks from Graze.com using a coupon in our mail.  (Try it, use code VALPAK, or check my facebook/twitter feed for a sign up that gives me $1!)  I'll cancel the shipments once our free box arrives.  I don't want to pay for delivered snacks.
• I also ran out to Advance, the bank, & Wendy's.  Again with coupons from the mail, I snagged $10 off at Advance, and 2 free chicken sandwiches.  I also deposited a hefty $1.50 check at the bank.  Woohoo.  Moral of the day: check all those obnoxious coupons you get in the mail & in your newspaper.  They pay off.
• The afternoon consisted of me cleaning & fixing my laptop (thank you Google!), while D & his dad worked on the beater truck we bought a few weeks ago.
• Saturday night we cuddled up and watched Into the White, about a couple of German & English WWII fighter pilots who shoot each other down in Norway and then have to work together to survive.  It was really neat, though not the best movie I've ever seen.  It also has Ron Weasley in it.

Sunday: 

• We started off by heading out to breakfast & to buy some new mechanical something.  A saw of some kind?  All I know is that we saved 50% on it, again with a free coupon in the mail. 
• Breakfast set my stomach on a bender, so I spent most of the rest of the day lesson planning and working on graduate school between bouts of laying down and taking Tums.  Seriously, my stomach is insane.  
• D made me some nice hot chocolate, because I thought I was feeling better.  Turns out, that was not the recoverer's best choice, but I haven't had hot chocolate all year, so oh well!
• D did random garage things most of the day, and he washed the disgusting salt off of our cars!

So there's our weekend in a quick summary!  How was yours?

Wow...That was a lot.  Here are some fun pics I took with my cell phone, in an attempt to not do work.