Fall Changes

This fall season has been wonderfully mild overall and gorgeous as usual. I love the changing leaves. I don't however love the colds that have been going around. I've been fighting with a cold for a few weeks now. I think I am winning, but you just never can tell with these persistent little guys. I think John has begun to get a little congested as well. Hopefully he will fight better than me. 

The squirrel that hangs out on our patio. We named him Wally. He likes to run up and down the wood from our place to the neighbors above us and back down again. 

We've had Star Wars on the brain recently. We had a Halloween party this weekend that we were dressing up for. I had found some discounted Star Wars costumes at a garage sale a few years back so we decided to dress up as a Storm Trooper (me) and Darth Vader (John). It was alot of fun. In preparation we watched the original Star Wars trilogy between last weekend and this one. I hadn't watched them through in quite some time. They were still good. It does boggle my mind though how one trilogy can have such a huge impact on our culture. 

For the same Halloween party I tried to make some cheesy breadsticks to bring. They were called Ooey Gooey Witch Fingers. The picture looked cool so I gave it my best shot. I've never made homemade dough before and I don't think it came out quite like it was supposed to, but I went ahead anyway. They did taste ok but most of the cheese snuck out of the dough while cooking. Sneaky cheese. Anyway, so they were not quite as ooey and gooey, but they did look like witch fingers, or monster fingers. I enjoyed them anyway. 

Next weekend we are going to Kansas for my friends wedding so we only have a 4 day work week. Work has been crazy so I need to work hard for these 4 days. Yay for 4 day weeks. 

Victory for the Customer!

I have definitely been an avid fan of couponing and money saving blogs especially since I have been married. It has been a learning process but I have come so far. I am still no where near as good as the people whose blogs I read, but I am still able to get excited when I can get alot of items for a really good price, or even free.


I recently had read that the new Gain dish soap was on sale at Walmart for $.97. There is a $1.00 of coupon that is around too making these free. I had been to Walmart twice and completely forgot about the coupon until last Saturday. I picked up a few items I needed and was happy to see the Gain still on sale so I picked up that too. Unfortunately for me my cashier would not accept the coupon for $1 off because it was over the $.97. Really? I told her that I know she could do it. (I read like 3 blogs where people bought like 8. I knew 1 was completely acceptable). I asked her if she could just adjust it down then instead of giving me the $.03 extra that proctor and gamble will give them back anyway. She said she would have to check with someone.


She walked away and came back a minute later and said "No, I can't do it." I was already too frusrated at that point to make a bigger deal about it. I honestly don't think she asked anyone. So I asked her to remove the item and I paid for my stuff and left. Honestly, I was way more upset than I needed to be. But it was the principle! I had to know what the deal was and if I was in the right or not so I would know for the future. I might not have been so upset if this wasn't the second time I have had trouble at this Wal-mart. The first time the cashier and even a manager was telling me that my coupon said buy one get one free, even though it said FREE. Sometimes they really just need to read the coupon. Do I really look like I am trying to pull a fast one? I must.


I checked their corporate coupon policy online and did not really state anything about overage with coupons. So I did what any frustrated customer does these days. I wrote a letter via their website to corporate addressing my confusion, the specific incident and how I do not appreciate being treated like a criminal. I sent it off and felt better that I had done my part.


Last week I was pleasantly surprised to be contacted via phone by the manager of the Wal-mart I go to. She was very apologetic and expressed that it definitely is their coupon policy to take those coupons. She said their were had a meeting about it and were having another with cashiers and managers to address coupon policies. It was good to hear from her. Even though I wasn't able to use the coupon before it expired it just felt good to be acknowledged and armed with knowing that next time I will stand my ground and have management backing me up. 


Victory for the customer!

Our Wrigley Adventure

We were blessed by some new friends to get to go to the last home game at Wrigley Field this year to watch the Cubs game. It was a chilly day and I certainly felt more like I was bundling up for a football game than a baseball game. Nonetheless we were prepared to go and have a good time.

We met up with our friends and took the train down there. We got in, got our seats and settled in for some typical Cubs baseball. The Cubs were losing 4-0 in the first inning. Before we even had a chance to eat things were looking sad. John and I each got a hot dog and shared a bag of peanuts, typical ball park food. Gotta love it!

As the game went on it did slowly get better and the Cubs began making a slow come back. It got a little exciting and definitely made the cool breeze less noticeable. Overall, we were just having a fun time at the ball park hanging with some new friends and enjoying America’s favorite pastime. That was, until after the 7^th inning stretch. It was about that time John started not feeling too good.

He left to go to the bathroom, like one typically does when your stomach is churning. Only a few moments passed and an Usher came and got me to tell me my husband was sick and they were taking him to first aid if I wanted to come. Of course I wanted to come. So we all took a field trip to first aid. Not too exciting down there but at least everyone was nice. I found out when we got there that John never made to the bathroom, but he was able to find a garbage and throw up 3 times. He was also incredibly cold and had the chills. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone. I am usually warming myself up on John, not the other way around. His hands were icy. Crazy!

So we just stayed in first aid til the end of the game. John was not looking or feeling so hot (both literally and figuratively). We met up with our friends and had to make the trek back to the car. I felt so bad for John because there weren’t too many options since we had walked and taken the train. He was a trooper though and made it. Not without another trip to the garbage can outside the train station, but at least he made it. Since he just got another round out of his system we figured he could make it to my parents house which was much closer than going all the way home. The bad thing is that we had his car, which is manual and I can’t drive. I felt so helpless because I couldn’t even drive him.

We did make it to my parents house and John just crashed on the bed. He was so cold and ill. We warmed him up with some blankets and hot tea. He rested. It was pretty evident that he was in no shape to drive home so I had to leave him at my parents over night while my dad gave me a lift home. He did throw up one more time before I left and then his temp went up, so that was good. It was hard saying goodbye to my husband and leaving him there sick. I wanted to be there taking care of him. But I know he was in good hands and there wasn’t anything more I could do.

The next day he slept in late and was feeling much better. He was able to work and able to eat dinner. He still seems to be recuperating some of his strength and his stomach is still a little sensitive but he is getting better everyday. We are guessing it must have been food poisoning from something he ate. It must have been from the game, his hot dog? Who knows. Either way, we’re happy he’s doing better and I think it’s a good thing we won’t be going to another game this year. It’s always an adventure!

He’s all better now!