Working: Report cards came out a couple weeks ago, which resulted in lots of parents/teachers referring their children for testing. That means I have many new cases and lots to keep me busy during the day...and sometimes at night. It's okay though, I would rather be busy than sit at the office all day watching the clock tick. Remind me of this in April, when I am pulling my hair out.
Being Sick: On election day my district had off, so after voting, I went back to the doctor. I was feeling sick again and my cough was back in full force. They determined I had walking pneumonia and needed a Nebulizer treatment, some stronger antibiotics, a steroid, an inhaler, and some more cough medicine/codeine. Here I am in the doctor's office:
All those drugs seemed to do the trick. My cough is now sporadic and I am not nearly as tired as I was a few weeks ago. When I went back to the doctor last week for follow up, and he suggested I have some blood work done. So then I went BACK to the doctor this past Saturday for blood work. Luckily it only took 10 minutes. I'm still waiting to hear about my results; hopefully I won't have to go back when I get them. In the past month I have been to the doctor's 4 times. Let's hope my insurance doesn't drop me!Reading: On Saturday Britni and I went to brunch and she graciously lent me a few books, including Twilight. The rest of the weekend I pretty much had my nose in the book. I finished it the other night and can't wait to see the movie with her tomorrow! After that I will start reading New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series. I'm officially hooked!
Playing Wii Fit: On Tuesday I headed out to Virginia for Katie's Wii Fit party and had a blast! We played Wii Fit, enjoyed healthy food and drinks, and left with THE BEST goodie bag ever. You can read about the night (and our goodies) here. While you are at Katie's blog, be sure to enter the giveaway for a Wii and a Wii Fit! Although we already have a Wii Fit, I plan on putting my free one(!) to good use and giving it to my parents for Christmas. They have wanted one since they played ours a few months ago so this worked out perfectly! Oh, and I got to meet Katie. She is just as cool and sweet as she seems on her blog!
Clipping Coupons: I finally got sucked into the coupon world and am now CVS-ing like it's my job. It is actually quite fun and it helps to keep my brain working! The other day I bought 2 Glade scented oil candles (had a b1g1 coupon and a $2/1), 3 Glade scented oil candle refills (had a b2g1), 2 Glade scented oil plug ins (had a b1g1), and a Glade scented oil refill. The original price for all these Glade products was $29.83. I also bought 2 toothpastes (b1g1) and only paid $2.38 out of pocket with all the sale prices courtesy of my CVS card, my coupons, and the $15 in ECB's I had from the Duracell batteries I bought earlier this week. I got $10 in ECB's back to use next time. Since I am still new at this, I didn't add up the right prices and ended up 17 cents (I should have spent $30 insteadof $29.83) away from getting another $5 in ECB's. I think if I go back this week and buy another cheap Glade product it should get me those $5 in ECB's, but I don't know for sure. I guess we will find out! Anyway, if you are interested in how to "CVS" visit Money Saving Mom's blog; she has a section on the right side of her blog titled "Start Here".
Prepping for the Holidays: Can you believe it is almost Thanksgiving? When we return from NY after Thanksgiving it will already be December. Then Alson has two weeks of finals, I have three weeks left of the 2008 part of the school year, and it is Christmas vacation for both of us! Since our time will most certainly fly in the coming weeks, I have been trying to accumulate/buy as many presents as I can. Alson's family decided to do a "recycled" Christmas this year (i.e. gifts must be used items or new items from recycled materials) so we have been gathering used books from random sales around our neighborhood since we moved here. Last week I bought a few other things for his family members so I am so close to being done with their Christmas shopping. After getting all their gifts, I wrapped them in newspaper (at the MIL's request) and put them under the decorative tree in our living room/dining nook. My family is almost done as well; we bought a lot of stuff at the outlets when we went to the beach a few weeks ago.
Cooking: To try and save money, I have been cooking dinner almost every night. Although I cooked a lot before, we also went out 2-3 times a week. We now are trying to limit ourselves to one night a week (including weekends), so that means I am in the kitchen cooking up a storm most nights. Plus, we've got a nice little system; I cook, Alson cleans. I have been taking pictures of some of our meals, so stay tuned for some recipes and pictures.
