I hate the dentist.

Warning:  This post contains nothing but complaints.  If you are not in the mood to read about my fit about the dentist, please stop reading now.

Today I spent over 2 hours of my afternoon in the dentist chair.  He couldn't get me completely numb and so every time his assistant used the "spit sucker" and sucked air to make my tooth dry, it hurt VERY BADLY.  He finally used some other type of novocain that he only uses 10% of the time and it penetrates bone better.  That numbed me enough to get through the rest of the session.  Unfortunately I have to go back to finish up this part in 2 weeks.  Hours later and I am finally mostly un-numbed. However, my jaw is killing me and I can't open it the full way without wincing in pain.  I sure hope that in the morning I feel a lot better than I do right now.  

5 More Minutes...

Usually I'm really good about getting right out of bed when my alarm goes off.  I hit snooze maybe once and then 5 minutes later am up.  This morning I was so incredibly cozy that I could not bear the thought of getting out of bed.  It had started raining, actually storming, around 11PM last night and I loved listening to the rain all night long.  When my alarm went off, it was chilly and rainy and I just wanted to sleep some more.  I could have probably slept in for a few more hours until 10 or 11 AM, which is pretty unlike me.  Is it too early to retire?

Where's the slow motion button?

I swear that it was just Friday and Peter was picking me up after a long week of work and we were looking forward to a few days off.  And now it's Sunday night and new work week is upon us.  I sure wish weekends were 5 days and work weeks were 2 days haha.  No such luck though.  

We had a really nice weekend again.  And more productivity!  Saturday we ventured out to Lowe's to "go green".  Our intent was to change all of our light bulbs over to energy efficient cfl bulbs.  We spent some of the morning going through all of our rooms and writing down wattages and number of bulbs, etc.  We were all prepared to make the change.  I even had a $10 coupon off a $50 purchase at Lowe's.  We purchased our bulbs and a few other things and headed home.  After changing some of the bulbs I realized how much I disliked the clf lights.  They weren't bad in lamps where shades could take away the harshness of them....but in the ceiling fans and majority of lights we use, it was just way too sharp.  Peter and I are already stuck under fluorescent lights all day at work....so we're taking all the bulbs back.  We are already very conscious of our energy usage and try to be as sensible as possible.  We turn off lights we aren't using, keep the heat low, etc.  And we use solar lights outside.  There is so much a person can really do to be earth friendly and after watching a show on HGTV, I realized I didn't even think about much of it  For instance using pots and pans that are naturally stick free instead of using teflon chemicals.  It gives me more to think about for what we can do.  It actually really urks me when I see things that are so blatantly "earth unfriendly".  Like the fact that my co-worker uses styrofoam plates 2x a day and has her kids use them also.  She said "she doesn't have time to clean them and doesn't want to use dishes other coworkers have because they don't clean them to her standards".  That's fine, bring in a dish and silverware of your own and just wash them each day.  Duh.

Anyways....Saturday morning was absolutely gorgeous.  We had plans to do a lot of yard work after changing bulbs back.  But by the time we finished lunch, the rain poured in.  And I do mean poured.  So Peter and I changed our plans.  I finished baking cookies that I started Friday evening for the church.  And then we went out for dinner and shopped at Kohl's since I had a gift card and coupon and then went to Barnes & Noble to read for a while.  It was quite a nice evening. :)

Today's weather was dry so we did the yard work that we postponed from yesterday.  Peter cut the grass and weedwacked and I painted our porch furniture.  It was white and just got soooo dirty so I used some paint we had in the basement and painted them more of a taupe color to hide the dirt some (I hope).  It's not an actual outside furniture set and I don't think it'll make another year because the wood is becoming warped.  I hope to find some kind of good deal at the end of the season this year.  After painting the furniture, I pulled a bunch of weeds and finished planting grass in our bare spots with Peter.  Peter also detailed the car inside and out so it's looking mighty spiffy!  Unfortunately it's supposed to rain all week and that'll probably make it all dirty and water spotted again.  I, on the other hand, am looking forward to the week of rain because it will really help with our new grass!  We spent the rest of the evening just vegging out and gearing up for another week ahead.  

An Answered Prayer.

Today I talked to my parents on the phone and my mom was raving about how well my dad was doing.  She said she has never been prouder of him.  And when I talked to my dad, he was in great spirits and said he was doing wonderfully.   My mom said he's feeling a lot better and exercising a bit and is just all around more happy and healthy.  I think that since he's been eating smaller portions and less often and healthier choices, the strain on his heart and organs has significantly decreased.  I think we're all realizing this diabetes has been a blessing in disguise.  I was so glad and thankful to hear how well things were going.  Peter and I have been praying for them every night and it's really been an answer to prayer.  I can do nothing but thank God for this blessing.

Too much work.

Let's just say that working 7:50 AM to 6:35 PM is way too much.  Plus 30-40 mins commute time each way.  This all makes for a loooooong day at work.  Luckily I got a ton done and am working vigorously to get through all the piles on my desk at work.  But I sure hope to never work another 11 hour day again.  Whew.  Time to veg out.  

Home Landscaping

At the end of the Spring season last year I bought a bunch of clearance tulips that were bloomed for about 50 cents each.  I knew if I planted the bulbs they'd come up again this year.  While not all of them have bloomed yet, I am excited to see more color pop up with each day!  This is my flower garden in the front of the house.  There is actually something coming up that I'm not sure what it is.  I recognize the things I planted at the end of the year last year but not sure about this one particular thing so I've been keeping my eye on them.  I also bought a shepherd's hook at Lowe's last weekend and put the bird bath I bought last year from Kirkland's around Christmas time for real cheap.  It looks so great!

Here's a close up of the bird bath.  :) 

In the center of this picture behind the yellow tulips is the mystery plant that I didn't plant last year and don't remember blooming before.  I see my other perennials coming up that I planted but this one has me a bit confused haha.  I'm thinking it might be something that blooms biannually, which would explain why I've never seen it.  

I love yellow tulips :)

My phlox is finally bloomed also!  I'm so glad to see it all over the front and back yards.  So pretty :)

Here's a lonely little daffodil under one of our pine trees.  Pretty, but the regular golden daffodils are my favorite.  

We have vinca periwinkle growing in a few spots in our yard.  This is what we plan on putting on the hillside in our back yard.  I can't wait to start that project.  Originally we were going to hire our landscaper from last year who put in our retaining wall to do it, but have decided to do it ourselves.  We are having people help us too which will be a great help!  The more we thought about it, the more we couldn't rationalize paying someone to do something we could try ourselves.  It's not like it takes a special degree, tools, etc to do.  Just manpower.  

This is a bit blurry, but a closer look at the periwinkle.  

This weekend we'll be doing more yard work and I can't wait to get all our projects done!

Weekend Recap

Last night I listened to the rainfall until I fell asleep and awoke to the sound of rain still falling.  It was so peaceful and relaxing and I absolutely loved it!  It wasn't storming or a trickle of a rain, but just a nice and steady, smooth falling rain.  So calming.  It was a great way to end a great day.  

We spent the day running errands in the morning and then yard work and hanging out with Barney in the afternoon.  We went to pick up my contacts at GE Optical and while Peter had his exam (just to make sure things were still 20/20), I went grocery shopping.  Afterwards, we stopped quickly at Lowe's to get some more topsoil for our afternoon grass planting project.  Turns out that I'm really not good at estimating those sort of things, which I already knew, but was really re-enforced haha.  We bought 4 40lb bags at Lowe's and had to get 4 more 40lb bags from the nursery right down the street since we didn't want to go all the way out to Lowe's again.  The nursery is great, but more expensive so I always opt for Lowe's.  Even after 10 bags, we didn't cover all the areas that I had originally intended to take care of.  Oh well.  We nearly ran out of grass seed also so stopped at a good point and will take care of the right side of the front yard this coming week or weekend.  

I made a veggie tray and fruit salad with some of the produce I purchased and we had that and grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches for lunch.  Afterwards, we did the yardwork.  When we called it a day, we came in and had BBQ pulled pork and homemade mac n cheese for dinner.  I could smell the pork cooking all day in the crock pot and it was great to finally sit down and eat!  We watched "The Guardian" with Barney since he also recommended it.  And after the success of "Over the Hedge" we trusted his opinion even more haha.  "The Guardian" was a really good movie, parts unexpected, and had me intrigued the entire time.  After Barney left, Peter and I spent the rest of the night having a quiet time by ourselves.  

The rain stopped today as we headed out to church and never picked back up even though it looked threatening at a few points and was forecasted to storm.  After a great church service, we stopped at Lowe's again for more grass seed and used one of our gift cards from Christmas to have lunch at Damon's.  After lunch we returned home for a lazy Sunday afternoon.  

This evening after eating dinner Peter and I went for a walk around our neighborhood.  It was the perfect weather for a lovely stroll.  Warm, but still a crisp breeze which I really enjoy.  It was a nice time to just enjoy the weather and have a nice chat with each other.  Upon returning home, we sat outside for a bit and discussed our plans for landscaping projects that we'll be doing in the coming weeks.  It's very exciting to see all the work we've been doing and to talk about all that we have planned to do.  I really like sharing ideas and planning our house and lives together.  

We had devotions after returning inside which was also really great.  It's nice to be able to connect with each other and the Lord each evening for a little bit.  It really puts my heart in the right place before going to sleep and I can really see the connection that we've been building just in the past 2 weeks.  I also really enjoy coming together as husband and wife in prayer for each other, our family and our friends.  I can't explain how comforting it is to be able to present my worries, anxieties, fears, gratitude, etc to God.  It's such a blessing to be able to do so.  

So after a great weekend, it's time to go back to reality.  Work tomorrow which means bedtime now.

The Early Shift

We had an early work day today of 7:30-3:30 so I had a nice long evening and took advantage of it by planting all of the flowers I purchased on Monday.  This year I decided not to do a big mix of various types of flowers and opted for all petunias.  They did the best last year and so I didn't want to mess with the others that didn't do as well.  I bought various shades of pinks, purples and mixed them with white.  I filled all 11 flower pots I have too.  It looks great!  I even put my big planter pot on our front porch this year.  I had spray painted it last year but it was after I did all my planting so it didn't get used.  It matches our house so great too since it was originally a beige shade and I spray painted it with the same can I used on my light switches in the living room which was a bronze/brown mix.  I didn't spray it solid so some of the beige would show through.  It pairs lovely with the shutters and trim we selected last year.  I was so excited!  I also did some sporadic clean up in different areas of trimming down plants, etc.  Peter joined me in working on trimming branches of the trees that scrape against the house.  I am so pleased with all the work we've been able to get done so far and it's still early Spring!  I've taken a bunch of "before" pictures so that we can compare when all is done. 

Rainy Days and Mondays

Thank you Karen Carpenter for inspiring my blog title this evening haha.  

It seems that the busyness that is my life has left far less time for blogging than it used to.  I used to journal pretty much everyday which has accumulated dozens of notebooks and am glad to have an electronic way of doing it now.  I'm very much a product of my generation in regards to this haha.  But I also like it because it doesn't hurt my hand as much as writing vigorously for an hour does.  This is actually a big plus.  So let's see...what have I been up to?

Well last week was  very crazy blur of work and errands every day.  Between our weekly chiro appointment, Tuesday night Bible Study, and picking up/dropping off Matthew at the airport, we did not have much time to do anything else.  It was good to see Matthew for a little bit though.  We had dinner with him on Thursday and Friday and it was just us 3 both times and none of Peter's coworkers/bosses which was an added bonus!  

After stopping by Giant Eagle for my follow-up appointment, Peter and I did a few errands of going to the bank, post office and stopping at Lowe's.  I did a ton of yard work on Saturday and am so excited to have ripped out some huge roots and tall grasses from our yard.  It took a lot of work but was soooo worth it!  It was the perfect day for doing work like that since it was sunny but not like beating down and had a nice breeze in the air.  I am prepping a few areas that will get grass seeds this week.  I also put up our bird bath that had fallen over and planted a few violas around the base of it.  Peter and I are now thinking of doing the back hillside ourselves with the help of a few people.  We are thinking it's not that hard and might as well at least try.  I am so excited to do this!  Only a few more days of intense working in our front and back yards and things will be great.  I was looking through some pictures and already the house has improved greatly since we've moved in.  I'll have to post a timeline when all is done.  

Peter and I had somewhat "Spring" colors on (pink and green) so we decided to take a random picture.  It actually turned out quite nice!

On Sunday we went to church and then out to eat at CiCi's Pizza.  Peter had never been there and we had a promotional card from my sister.  We paid $10 for it for some fundraising she was doing and you get buy one get one free on either a pizza for take out or a buffet if you are eating in.  And it's only $4.99 for the buffet.  And we get to use it 7 times so it more than pays for itself.  So Peter and I had pizza, salad, etc for $5 for the two of us. :)  After lunch, we went to Barnes and Noble and read for a while.  I ended up buying another Nicholas Sparks' book-"At First Sight".  I read "True Believer" which is the book right before AFS so I wanted to see how it all ended haha.  After arriving home in the afternoon, I took a nap and Peter played his new PlayStation game-"Need For Speed".  Peter grilled chicken and I made fresh green beans and this chicken herb rice for dinner.  After dinner we watched a really creepy movie - "The Wicker Man".  It had Nicholas Cage in it and we thought it was going to be totally different based on the little bit of info we read on it.  It was a good movie since it kept our attention, etc. but just kind of made me think of "The Village" so it was just like creepy/bizarre.   I didn't mind that it rained on Sunday because I would have been more tempted to go back outside if it was nice and needed to not do that since my back was hurting a good deal from the work I did on Saturday.  I am pumped that this week is going to be nice including the whole weekend and I fully intend on getting lots more done outside.  

Signs of Spring

In the past week or so, I've been seeing my flower beds coming to life!  My tulips are getting bigger and preparing for their appearance pretty soon.  

The crocus flowers that were here when we moved have sprung up again.  Although not as many this year since we redid a lot of the area where they initially were.  However, they are still around the huge tree near the road which is nice.  Day lilies will take over in a month or so which are nice until they die and are just blah.  

Daffodils are appearing everywhere.  They are in our upper yard (where we haven't worked on yet) just sprouting up out of nowhere again which is beautiful.  Last year I took some of the flowers and transplanted them to my lower flower bed in the level part of our yard.  Only one has bloomed so far but there should be more soon.  That part doesn't get as much sun which is what's causing the delay.

This is the lonely one:

They are also on the hillside where were are planning to rip up this year.  We are going to get new steps put in and have all the vines and crap ripped out of the hillside and cover it in Vinca Minor - Periwinkle.  We chose this ground cover because it's evergreen so it'll be nice year round and it's good for slopes.  Plus it has flowers in the spring so our entire hillside will be just a sea of pretty purple flowers.  It'll look like this only larger.  I can't wait to hear back from our landscaper on when he can come, etc.  

Peter and I have lots more to do this year in the yard.  But really we have done so much that there's really not much left to do after this year.  We'll take care of the back hillside and first flat area and I don't think we'll worry about the part very high up, at least not for a while.  Sometimes I wish our yard was all level because it'd be huge!  It's weird all broken up into multi-levels though.  Oh well :P  

Our plans for this year include:

1.  Making a fire pit in the upper part of the yard where it's flat with the big huge stones we took out of the old retaining wall last year

2.  Fixing up the front landscape.  Last year we got the wall put in and did the basics but now it's time to pretty it all up.  :)

3.  Planting a little more grass in the areas that aren't as lush as we'd like

4.  Cutting down a tree near the driveway

5.  Possibly adding more gravel to the driveway to make it nice and filled in and level

6.  Transplanting a few plants in the front

7.  And of course adding annuals to my flower pots, etc.  

I am still amazed at all we did last year with the wall, flower beds, staining the deck, etc etc etc. Last year I planted a lot of perennials so it'll be nice to just see them spring up this year!

And so ends another weekend...

What a great weekend! Let's recap.

On Friday I was supposed to go to a girls' movie night with some gals from our Tuesday night study group. Unfortunately by the time I got home from work, I was exhausted. I had a very tiring day at work so I called and told them I'd have to take a rain check. Then I fell asleep for a little while while Peter went and got us some dinner. We had our own pizza and a movie night at home. We had yummy Papa John's pizza and watched "Legally Blonde 2". I just watched the first LB last Sunday afternoon, which I've seen before. But I have never seen the second one. After the movie, we just lounged around and hit the sack early.

I actually slept in til 9:45 on Saturday---I couldn't believe it! Usually I'm up around 7:30 or 8 on the weekends and then am up for like 2 hours and fall back asleep for an hour and then get up haha. I knew that I was just completely spent from the past week. We got up and out the door about 10:15 to head to the church for Clean Up Day. We were going to get there at 10, but no one cared that we came later. It was from 8-12 and they invited anyone to show up for any/all of the time. Peter and I painted the yellow strips on the steps between the two buildings and also the white arrows and 2 handicap signs in the upper parking lot. They couldn't find the larger handicap stencil so we didn't do them all. We volunteered to come back next Saturday to finish up if they find the stencil. It was a beautiful morning to be outside and helping on Clean Up Day. There were plenty of folks around doing yard work, fixing gravestones, redoing steps and railing and doing just general dusting and cleaning inside. It was nice to get involved and help out.

After returning home we dug out one of our big overgrown grass shrubs that both of us hate haha. We had 3 and are now down to 1. After this spring, they'll be all gone! I think I would have just stayed outside and worked in our yard a bit since we had a torrential downpour last night which made the ground nice and soft for digging things up, etc., but Ashley was coming so we needed to shower and clean up. I was glad to get the second grass shrub gone and can't wait to get back out there and clean off the deck and deck furniture and plant my annuals again. Perhaps I'll do that next weekend. After our showers, we met Ashley for lunch at the new chinese buffet place in Monroeville. Immediately afterwards, Ash and I headed to Giant Eagle to get her contacts and my eye exam, etc. She had to leave shortly to meet her friend for bridesmaid dresses so Peter joined me to help me pick out glasses. I ended up buying new glasses, prescription sunglasses, and contacts. And I got all of the extra things for the lenses for both pairs of glasses like scratch resistant, no glare, etc. And I even got a protection plan on them for 2 years incase they break or my prescription changes, etc. It all came to $700 since my frames were like high end Banana Republic and Saks 5th Ave ones. I usually am very conscientious about prices, etc but since it was all being reimbursed, I just didn't care. It felt so weird because I kept looking for the cheaper options, etc and then was like what for? I get fuel perks on these too so I might as well live it up haha. GE has some kind of membership thing though for $74 which saves you a lot of money so I did do that just because I didn't want to be outrageous. It pays for itself and then some with all the discounts. Without that, my total would have been over $1,000. I definitely wouldn't have gotten high end frames or prescription sunglasses if it wasn't all reimbursed by my company though. I had my eyes dilated also which wasn't that fun haha. I hadn't had it done in the last 2 years though so I figured just get it done while I was there. We went grocery shopping while waiting for my glasses to be done and I couldn't read anything and parts of the store were sooo bright. I have to go back next week to get my sunglasses and contacts, etc. After shopping, we came home and had leftovers for dinner and just vegged out. I actually got a really bad headache from my eyes being dilated and took a nap. My headache got so bad that I was getting nauseous. By the end of the evening I was feeling better though.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day! We went to church this morning and then stopped at the mall so I could run into Bath & Body Works. I had a gift card from returned lotions I got for Christmas from my boss. I don't use their lotions as much as the body sprays so I basically just wanted to swap them. They were having a sale of buy 3 get 1 free so I got 4 and only paid $1.07 out of pocket haha. Sweet Pea, Wild Honeysuckle, Coconut Lime Verbena, and Cherry Blossom were the 4 fragrances I bought. Barney texted Peter this morning and we made plans for him to come down for lunch so we stopped at Giant Eagle to get hamburger and buns and then headed home and had a great lunch with him. They grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and I made macaroni salad. It was quite yummy. We watched "Over the Hedge" after lunch since Barney told us it was one of his favorites. It actually was very funny so we were glad we watched it.

After Barney left, Peter and I hung out a bit and cleaned up from lunch. Then we folded a bunch of laundry and I cleaned out my closet a bit. I wanted to put all my scarves, gloves, etc away for the season since I doubt I'll need them again. In the process I decided to clean up my tub of sweaters too and came up with over a dozen to give to the local Salvation Army. I haven't worn them in like 3-4 years and figured it someone else could get better use out of them. So I'll have to bag them and drop them off this week. It was great because my sweaters fit a lot neater and more organized which is something I love haha.

This evening Peter and I did Day 1's devotional from our "Going Higher" campaign at church. It was a quick and easy 5 minute devotional but was a really good time to just connect with each other and know that the rest of our church family is doing the same for the next 28 days. Then we vegged out and packed lunches for tomorrow. Neither of us were really hungry for dinner since we had lunch around 3 and ate a lot so Peter had cereal and I made a milkshake for dinner haha.

Now the evening is quickly coming to and end as Monday morning is fast approaching. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. ;)

The hustle and bustle of life...

*exhales*

Peter and I have sure been busy lately.  Work has been completely nuts for me but it makes the days go by faster which is really nice.  I can remember the days I'd take books to read or recipe cards to write out or something to occupy my time.  Now I'm lucky if I get 5 minutes to take a breather during the work day.  We've been having a trouble employee at work in regards to them working enough hours etc.  It's a shame because it's an executive level employee.  I've been recruited as some sort of "spy" to monitor her time, etc.  I'm actually glad for it because she hasn't been working nearly enough time.  She is actually out of PTO and will end up paying at the end of the year.  She is working very short days around 9-2, if that.  She continually has crazy stories, etc of what's going on and has been caught in several lies already.  We'll see how it all pans out in the near future because according to our CEO "her days are numbered."  

In other news,  this past Saturday I cleaned the whole house.  It was a good feeling when I was all done and I took my time and watched tv here and there throughout the process as well.  I even got a few loads of laundry done which is always a nice preparation for the coming week.  I really don't mind doing laundry though because we have 2 hampers that we sort it in and I ask Peter to throw a load in for me and he does, puts it in the dryer and then brings the basket back upstairs.  I fold the clothes and put them away.  Sometimes he even helps with that.  It's a good system and I am thankful for his help.  He even made lunch for us on Saturday while I was cleaning which was so nice of him. :)  

On Monday I was able to catch up on emails with some friends and family which was really nice.  Sometimes I get so busy that things like that tend to fall by the waste side.  I also got in a phone call to my dad to check in on how things were going at home.  I know that the past 2 weeks have been extremely hard for him and even for my mom too since she's trying to change his diet as well after finding out he has diabetes.  I had such a hard time over Easter weekend at home and held back tears a few times.  I was so excited for my dad when he told me that he has lowered his blood sugar level even  more!  He started around 300 (normal is 120) and after dinner that night it was only 100!!!  I'm so proud of him and for my mom and her patience and helping to make foods that he can eat.  They are going to see a nutritionist in a week so they should be able to find out more about what he can and can not eat, etc.  I know how hard this change has been for my dad who loves food and I think about him so often throughout my days now, especially when I eat.  I can only continue to pray for him and hope that he is able to control his diabetes with his diet.  

Last night we finally made it back to Hebron's Tuesday night group.  We grabbed dinner on our way home so skipped the meal but go there right before 7 for the study.  We had been MIA in our study for a while because of being sick and run down and then so busy at work that we needed rest.  It felt really good to be back out but when we got home around 9:30, we were definitely ready for sleeping.  After unwinding a bit and catching up on Monday's "Bachelor" we did just that.  They are doing a new series on Tuesday nights titled "Going Higher" and all of the studies are joined together for a lesson and then break up into study groups.  Our group was good, but there were a few older folks who were kind of stuck on arguing their points.  But all in all it was good and Peter and I both learned from it which is what we're really seeking anyways.  We had a really nice chat in the car on the way to work about it this morning too.  

After work today we had our weekly chiropractor appointment and then headed home where Peter made a yummy dinner for us.  While he was doing that, I was looking at the Giant Eagle ad for sales starting tomorrow.  I finished my shopping list just he finished dinner.  After dinner I made an appointment to get new contacts/glasses this Saturday while my sister briefly visits.  I have an extra $1,000 added to my BOF at work which can be used to be reimbursed for any sort of medical type expenses.  Contact and glasses count so I figured I'd get new glasses and I'm in need of refills on my contacts.  If I don't use the money it just gets forfeited.  Plus I already have $1,200 in my BOF from the regular year, not including the addition.  So in total I have $2,200 to spend between now and June 30 for things to be reimbursed.  Don't be surprised if you get a basket of medicines from us for Christmas this year haha jk.  Anything like prescriptions, copays, and even over-the-counter drugs count too.  So we'll definitely stock up our medicine cabinet since it's all going to get reimbursed.   Last year I had the $1,000 addition also but had paid some in health insurance premiums before we got on Peter's plan so we just got reimbursed for that.  Since I am on his plan now and he pays no premiums, I'm actually finding it harder to spend the money and am anticipating forfeiting probably the entire $1,000 addition and then some.  

After making my appointment I noticed that I had somehow missed last week's GE ad.  And lots of things were on sale that we use.  I decided it was worth it to go out at 8:30 PM to get a few things and Peter so nicely came with me.  We returned by 9 with a full trunk of groceries.  I was glad though because today was the last day of the sale since GE runs on a Thurs-Weds week for sales.  So we ended up saving a lot and needed all of the items we purchased.  We would have ended up spending a lot more if we just waited and went tomorrow.  

Now it's almost 11 and it's time to hit the sack.  2 more days til the weekend!!