Our Piggy Bank

Since the beginning of our couponing, we decided to make a little piggy bank of all our receipts from shopping trips and circle the total savings listed at the end of each one. Added up today, our total was $598.
That should make for a delightsome Christmas break filled with many adventures. We also splurged on a king sized bed for $100 out of our little piggy bank, so kiss the air mattress good bye! Bed time never felt so good. The piggy bank makes the head ache of couponing worth it.

Cluck Cluck

Thanksgiving was fun and weird this year. I still feel like it's summer, so it has not registered at all that its the holidays. Going to China in late January and missing a bitter Utah winter, and then moving to Miami in the fall has thrown off my whole seasonal clock. Anyway, we had our pals Marianne and Brad over and we indulged in some serious Thanksgiving goodies.

Danny was the turkey man (I just can't handle a. the pressure of making the turkey and b. i hate touching any meat that includes bones)
I took care of the sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cheesecake, cranberry sauce, and little turkey treats.
Marianne and Brad made tasty mash potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie and green bean casserole.
We were pleased with all of our culinary skills. We also indulged in a delightful game of dominoes, a new found favorite.

My Dad

 Is a little bit crazy

a little eccentric 

 a Grampa

also a great grampa!

 gets a little silly with his wife

 keeps it real with the grandbabes

 did i mention he's goofy?

 is a good dad

 is handsome and has cool suits

 

is old enough to be in this black and white photo (on the far right, unless its his twin bro)

 

is 75 :) 

 11/16/1936 was a great day in history.

Happy Birthday Dadda dear! Hope it is splendid and filled with 75 years of delightsome memories. Wish we could be there to party with you! 

Thanks for the laughs, the lessons, and the example you have given me. 

You've made life not only possible for me, but you make it better.

Love you.

Into the Everglades

Had a ball biking through los Everglades yesterday.

 We jumped off our bikes to walk along a path, and ran into this guy blocking the trail. What a chump.

 A gator waiting to attack the approaching biker.

 And he's coming for the camera

Pint sized gators! I wanted to abduct one.

Slithery snakes crossing our bike trail. We were really hoping to see some pythons that apparently are causing a ruckus in the EG lately.

 sneaky gator

 endangered birds

Random Acts of Kindness

Friday I went with Danny to campus so I could take a practice LSAT (since I'm taking the real one there). When we got home, we were about to walk into our building with this pint sized old man wearing a fisherman's hat came running full speed at the door... to open it for us. Our hands weren't full or anything. In this city of "ilookoutformyowndon'tlookatmedon'ttalktome" I found this somewhat puzzling and stood there with my mouth gaped open.
We of course said thank you, and went past the elevators to check our mail. Returning to the elevators, he was standing there, waiting for us and holding the doors. We pushed our floor number and he didn't push another number, so we assumed he was going to the same floor as us.
"it's cold today, huh?" he said in a peeping voice.
"Yeah, yeah its a little cold. Not shorts weather" said I, pointing at Danny's shorts [side note, it was prob 75 deg]"Where are you from?"
"Chicago" he replied
"Chicago? Its much colder in Chicago!"
He laughed.
The elevator stopped at our floor.We got off. He didn't. He just didn't want to inconvenience us by having to stop on his floor on the way up.

Get excited

Going into the Everglades tomorrow. Pray for us not to be eaten by alligators, sharks, and or pythons.

Dear Mom,
We may be poor, but we are not starving!
Some days I feel like barfing when I think about how much money it costs poor Danny to go to school! But luckily we are learning how to coupon which is keeping food on our table since I'm only working part time since studying for the LSAT controls my life. We might not be getting to go out much, but we are happy as clams knowing that we have a full pantry and fridge.
Yesterday my grocery shopping totaled up at $116.98.
I spent: $30.08
got these dreams for free!

we even have vegetables. Even though I have to force-feed them on Dan.

We have enough TGI Friday frozen meals to last us until we can become contestants on the Biggest Loser.

I get tickled to death when blue bell goes on sale AND i have coupons for it! Normally its a little pricey, $7 each.

This is the fullest our cabinets have been in the history of our marriage. That is not an exaggeration.

We now have 6 half gallons of milk and 2 half gallons of soy milk, each purchased for $1. Milk here is usually $4 a gallon.

I never buy cereal unless I can get it for $1 or less.

These babes were $1 each at Publix yesterday after coupons. Normally $2.93.
Even though things are tight, we are seriously stoked out of our brains to be getting such awesome deals in this city where the cost of living is about the most ridiculous thing on earth.

Other things to be happy about: the LSAT will be over in 3 short weeks, Danny has 1 more test until all he has left are finals, it's 79 degrees and sunny right now, HP 7 comes out on dvd today.

Happy Veterans day one and all!

Crazies all around

I know I've said before that Miami is full of crazies. Nevertheless, here is another demonstration.

Last night Danny and I went to pick up some photo prints at Walgreens, basically right outside our complex. The weather was calm and cool and it was nice to stretch the legs after an evening of studying. We walk up to a man standing behind the desk at the photo center. He stares. We stare back.
"Yes?" said he.
"We want to pick up our pictures, under Danny Masters."
"Mnfdskj fdkjh skskjdfh" mumbled softly under his breath as he picks up the phone.
I stare at Danny. He stares back at me. The guy leaves. We stand there staring some more.
A customer comes up behind me, literally pushing me out of the way with her arm telling me that her stuff is on the counter. I laugh because I am so surprised that I literally got pushed and because she's old. I'm annoyed. I feel like I'm in China again. I look at Danny to make sure he saw the lady.
He says, "I feel like I'm in China right now."
I laugh.
Another Walgreen's worker comes behind the counter.
The crazy lady refers to the worker as "mommy" and "baby" in consecutive sentences which I don't really get.
"How you doing mommie? You got my pictures ready baby?"
The worker is non responsive.
The lady asks again if her pictures are ready. The worker shakes her head slightly which I assume means no. Danny tells her that we are picking up photos. She stares at him. He tells her his name. She starts looking. She can only find two of our orders. She looks at us inquisitively.
"Well... can you keep looking? We got emails telling us they were done."
She doesn't respond but keeps looking.
The crazy lady asks me if I bought my shoes in America.
"Yes."
In a very New York accent, "You're kidding me?? Those? Look at mine!"
I look down. We are wearing eerily similar shoes. I look back up and can't help but notice her yellow/brown teeth, a couple of which are missing, and her pink lipstick which is smeared outside of the line of her lips.
"How much did you pay?" she asks
"$5."
"No kidding?? Where?"
"Payless."
"OMG. Mine were $22!"
I smile. I'm feeling softer towards her.
"Is this your boyfriend honey?"
I look at Danny. "No this is my husband."
"OH!! How cute! That is so cute. You are an adorable couple."
We both laugh. Even though we are feeling about five years old having been told we are cute for being married.
"Where are you from mommie?"
"Oklahoma."
In an ultra boisterous voice "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOklahoma where the wind comes sweepin down the plane. Where the whk dsfkj sdfkjs can sure sfdjk fdshjk, OOOOOOklahoma!"

Everyone in the store is looking at us.

The demise of me...

Blue bell mango ice cream. So creamy. So dreamy. So wonderful.

Halloween Photo sesh

Halloween's past:

 2008- ninjas

 2009- Wolverine and Storm

2010- Mario Kart characters

2011- Chinese
(Me a chinese girl and D was chinese take-out.)

























Ok now I'm ready for Christmas.