Weekend

This weekend was ....well, kinda boring. There really wasn't much going on or to do without spending a lot of money - which right now is in short supply. So I decided to start a little project. Last week I was reading Miriam's Blog (her entry for November 19th) and she was talking about her coupon binder. When I was at the store Saturday I was sifting through my coupons and thought at the time how much easier it would be for Miriam to find what she was looking for since she made her binder. (I had actually even seen a gal at the store who a binder open on top of her cart, so I'm sure she was using the same method!) I knew I had a few binders and dividers at home so I decided (at the store) that I was going to copy her idea and make my own coupon binder. The only thing I needed to buy was the plastic pages, which I picked up for $5.77 for 35. When I got home I started assembling my very own coupon binder! I have to say, my husband thinks I'm crazy and kept asking if I "was really going to take that thing into stores". To which I smiled and replied "yep". So I'm sure I'll be going to the store myself from now on. Which actually is probably a great deal for me!! I'm very excited to tackle my next shopping trip now that I have my very own binder! (Thanks for the fabulous idea, Miriam!!)

I've been checking out all the leaked ads for Black Friday. To be honest, there's really not much out there that looks too good to me. I did see a couple things but the savings weren't that great that it would be worth putting up with the crowds or getting up that early.

I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving, especially having 4 days off. It will be nice to have that much time off when I'm actually feeling great (knock on wood) and am not stuck in bed unable to move. I should hear back this week from the University Hospital about when my appointment will be. It will really be nice to know what I'm dealing with. I feel like people think I'm a bit crazy when I'm having a "flare up".

I think we have figured out what to give the people that my husband supervises at his job. He picked up some really nice mugs today and we are going to fill them with a packet of cocoa, a chocolate covered pretzel rod, a coated marshmallow, some chocolate candies, etc. Kind of a chocolate theme I guess - can't really go wrong with that right? It is mostly women, only 1 or 2 guys.

Okay, I have a problem. Apparently I am unable to properly bake the premade brownies you can buy. We bought a pack last week and I tried making some of them the night we bought and the rest tonight. Both times they ended up burnt. Tonight I even shortened the baking time by 10 minutes. Guess that's what I get for trying to take the easy way out.

I need to brag for a minute. I walked past April's room earlier and I could hear her reading. I peeked in and she was reading one of her Magic Treehouse books. For anyone that doesn't know these books are Chapter books and usually about 80 pages. April is 6 - yes you read that right, 6. That is absolutely amazing to me that she can read that well. We had bought books #1-8 from a book order at school and have been reading them. The first one I had started reading to her, but she stopped me after about a paragraph and she read the rest to me. Needless to say, I am very proud of her!!

Today's tip: Want to have a bunch of different kinds of holiday cookies but only want to bake 1 kind? Host a cookie exchange. Invite several friends and have each make a few dozen of one kind of cookie (you can request each person bring 2 kinds if want even more of a selection). When everyone gets to your house lay out the cookies on a table or counter. Each person gets to pick up a specified amount of each cookie. For example: Invite 5 people and ask that each person makes 6 dozen cookies (just for easy figuring). That means each person would bring 72 cookies. This means each person would still be taking 72 cookies home, but it would be a dozen each of 6 different kinds. It's an easy and fun way of getting a variety of cookies while only making one! We did this at my girlfriend Jessica's house several years ago and it worked out fantastic!!