Back to school shopping

I went back to school shopping for clothes for the first time without my mother. Yep. It's the first time I went on a spending spree since high school or college (for clothes that is... I've been on spending sprees for lots of other stuff). After 10+ years, I needed some new clothes. I did go to GoodWill a couple of year ago, but I don't think that counts.

I set out early in the morning (the benefits of being a crummy sleeper). Most of you know that I HATE shopping, but today was a pretty decent day. I found a lot of cute, inexpensive tops that I can mix and match. I've never been a shoe fan, but the ladies at work are, and they are slowly converting me. I found a few pairs on clearance, including a pair of sandals. It is my 3rd attempt at replacing my old, scummy sandals. Finally I found a pair that are comfortable!

I did have a hard time finding pants (as I always do). I've learned a few things:

1. If you are in between two sizes, and you take both of those sizes into the dressing room with you, always try on the higher size first. It makes you feel better to have one size fit, then having one that does and one that doesn't.

2. Labor Day weekend is a great time to go shopping. Lots of great sales. Not a lot of kids out.

3. The people that are sewing pants now seem to think all of us are over 6 feet tall.

4. Try on your clothes BEFORE you get them home.

5. Make sure you don't buy too many pieces that look the same. I came home and washed all of my clothes, hanging them to dry, and found out that I had 5 new cream/white ruffly shirts. Good thing I have lots of different cute shoes to dress them up with!

PS- Dan is in need of a new wardrobe as well, so he is going out tomorrow. Of course, I will be supervising.

The Green's visit Vancouver

I think this is my first blog entry, so I'll try to make it exciting. Up to this point, Susan has been responsible for putting up new entries on a pretty regular basis, but she's busy crafting (with a little dancing as we listen to some Death Cab for Cutie), so she left this one up to me.

This past Monday, Jaimie, Dale & Jackson came down to Vancouver for the day. We had talked about visiting the Portland Zoo, but with the rain, we had to make other plans. We spent the afternoon going to Whole Foods to pick up some chicken for dinner, hitting Starbucks for some mocha lite frappachinos, and then shopping at The Learning Palance, where Jackson ended up getting some flash cards and other fun learning activites.

At our apartment, Jackson was having fun with our stairs: climbing up, getting carried down, climbing up, getting carried down, climbing up, getting carried down, climbing up, getting carried down, and on and on. Living in a one floor house in Monte, he loved the new adventure of climbing the stairs of our apartment. For the next few hours, we were hanging out and playing with Jackson. At some point we realized that no one wanted to cook, so we got pizza from Papa Murphy's.

Of course, the night wouldn't be complete without playing some Mario Cart on the Wii. Playing while Jackson is awake is always fun because he tends to gravitate towards Susan so she has a few more obstacles than the rest of us.

He likes it. He really likes it!

Dan has been very adventurous with foods lately. When I met him, he would basically eat only apples, chicken, and chocolate. The first things he added to his diet were vegetables: Asparagus, artichoke and zucchini (green vegetables only!).

Lately, he's been trying more fruit. He still doesn't like any berry except a strawberry ( :0( I love 99% of all fruits). But, this week, he found another fruit he likes. PLUMS!!! (but only if they are very ripe)

And please note that I LOVE my new camera. It take nice close up shots.

Today is the Day

Today is the day that Daniel and I will melt. It's supposed to be 103 degrees. I guess we are sleeping downstairs again.

At least there is an excuse for not turning on the oven!

Beach Scrapbook Page

This summer I have been spending a lot of time using my cricut cutting machine. I mainly use it to make cards and for scrapbook pages. Here are my latest pages, dedicated to a May trip I took to Pacific Beach with my family.

My next mission is to learn how to incorporate stamps into my crafts. I only have one stamp, which I got today. It is in the second picture, in the circle. It's a stamp of lines that you use so that you can write about your page - not too adventurous.

The only problem with making crafts is that as I progressively get better, I look back at my older stuff and think it looks really junky.

Fore!

Lately, everything we've been doing has to do with sports! We have recently made 3 trips up north. Two of them were to go golfing with my brother, and the third was to see the Red Sox play the Mariners (I'll post on that later.).

The first trip we made up north was up to see Dale, Jaimie and Jackson. We spent a couple days at their house. Usually we get fast food breakfast from the local burger joint, but we wised up this time and made our own biscuits and gravy as well as scrambled eggs with Cougar Cheese (smokey chedder from WSU's creamery). Dale and Dan went golfing (to get ready for a local charity tournament) and I went along to drive the cart. It was my first time driving, and man, it was fun.

Here is a picture of Dale with the gorgeous Oaksridge Country Club behind him:

Dan lining up for a shot:

And here I am driving the cart:

We went on to have a great time at the charity tournament, though our team had no chance of winning. The tournament went to support the Aberdeen Police Guild which gives to various charities around the Harbor. We had six people on our team, and I drove a cart around again. It was great fun, until our cart died on the 10th hole. Luckily, it's located pretty close to the office, and I quickly got a replacement. Jaimie spent the day helping raise money with a marshmallow chipping contest. I felt pretty bad for her because it was a cold, drizzly day (unlike our practice day that you seen in the photos- it was nice and sunny that day).

Dale and Dan were complaining that their arms hurt after about 10 holes. Now that we are home, Dan is complaining about his hip as well. Man, getting older is a blast!

Safeway Marathon Madness

I fancy myself as a frugal shopper. Sure, Dan and I fly over to the East Coast more than the budget allows and we drive all over to watch Pearl Jam. In order to do this, however, we have to save money here and there. During my summer vacation, I try to stockpile up on products we can use (during the school year I don't seem to have time to shop around). I think this is my best savings yet (91%). Here is a picture of the loot:

I spent.......... $5.80! That's it. I got over $56 worth of groceries for only $5.80. And the best part? I got a coupon good for $10 off my next shopping trip. Good on anything! Sure we got a few free things we would not normally buy or use, but we can donate them to the local shelter. $5.80 is more than we usually pay for the two ketchups alone! Here is what we got:
2 jars of salsa
1 jar of cheddar salsa dip
1 box chocolate special K (Dan wants to try it)
2 boxes of yogo bits (little yogurt covered balls... got them for 16 cents each)
4 boxes of pop tarts (going to the shelter... got them for free)
2 bottles of heinz ketchup
2 boxes of green giant broccoli with cheese sauce
1 package of kraft singles
1 package of wacky mac noodle
1 box of barilla pasta plus
2 containers of betty crocker frosting (made carrot cake cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting)
1 box of electrisol dishwasher tablets

Go team!