15 June 2009
By alison
In Home
Last year, as an end of the year gift from a student, I received a beautiful planter filled with colorful flowers. I found the perfect place for it on our back deck and enjoyed looking at them until they died…about 4 weeks later. Apparently flowers do well when watered, something I only remembered to do every couple days or so.
This year I am determined to prove that I can keep plants alive, not only because I want something pretty to look at on our deck, but because I want to prove that I can be trusted with the plants I’m hoping to plant in the front of our house this summer.
So I headed to Meijer for some potting soil, then grabbed a shovel, the empty planter, and some flowers given to me by a couple students this year and started planting!
Here is the final product.
I realized once I finished that I should have added more soil before I put the plants in because they look pretty low in the pot, but I didn’t think pulling the plants out and trying again would help my chances of keeping them alive.
I watered the flowers yesterday after planting and again today, but only after Tony came home from work and reminded me. The potting soil I bought says Miracle Grow on the bag. I’m thinking that’s what it might take for these flowers to make it to the end of the summer!
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17 March 2009
By tony
In Biking
Today it finally feels like spring is here! I hope this isn’t another michigan weather tease, i don’t know if I could take any more of that… I got my bike back out again this week and even biked my commute today. My times were respectable at 24, 25 minutes for the five mile trip, but it’s obvious i’m not in the same shape I was last fall. My best times from last year were in the 15-16 minute range. I wonder how long it will take me to get back to those times. My garmin is out of comission, so I’m in the market for a bike computer of sorts. hopefully one that can track best times. For now i’m using the stopwatch on my cell phone. If you’re into the details, check out the bicycling page. Happy Spring!!!
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24 January 2009
By alison
In Family Night
Scrabble night started with dinner of Lipton noodle soup with alphabet letter noodles. I was going to take a picture, but I put so many letter noodles in it was impossible to spread the letters apart enough to see what they were. The soup was almost as thick as mashed potatoes!
We followed dinner with a game of scrabble…
…while we ate scrabble tiles- rice krispy treats cut in little squares and decorated with frosting letters- for dessert.
My highest word score was 36 and Tony’s was 42!
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07 January 2009
By alison
In Married Life
04 January 2009
By alison
In Shopping Deals
Tony and I have always been ones to get giddy over a good deal. When we open presents on Christmas morning, at least one of us will say, “Do you mind if I tell you how much I spent on that gift? I got such a good deal!” In fact, Tony and I returned one of my my Christmas presents yesterday because he found a better deal online. I’m glad we share the same enthusiasm for saving money, or I’d be pretty upset that my new favorite toy was taken away from me in order to save$15, and that I have to wait a week to get my new one. But think of all the things we can do with $15!
In order to try to save as much money as possible and to keep in line with my New Year’s “word” (more on this later, but it’s along the lines of a New Years resolution) I decided to sign up for a $1, four week trial of the grocery game. In short, this program matches store deals to coupons to give you the maximum savings. One of the stores I am signed up for is Walgreens. This afternoon, armed with my coupons, grocery game list, and a pair of scissors in my purse, I ventured out to Walgreens to see what I could do. Here is what I brought home:
Two tubes of mascara, two packages of girl stuff, three containers of Ajax, one bottle of shampoo, one bottle of hand soap, one package of 25 Electrasol dishwasher tabs, and one small package of m&m’s (which I threw in just so I could use another coupon) came to a total of $47. 03. What did I pay? $2.09. Yes, $2.09!! What’s even better is that after I send in $1.50 rebate my total out of pocket expense will be $0.59!!
I’m looking forward to playing my newfound game at Meijer later this week. From what I understand grocery gamers can save between 50 and 60% each week on their groceries. I’m excited to see how it all works out and if it’s worth continuing “the game” once my initial trial period is over. I’ll be sure to keep you posted!
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