Where have I been

Wow!  It's been over a week since I last wrote anything here.  I'm glad to say it's not because I've been lazy and just haven't done it.  Life has been extremely hectic for me.  We had a new person start at my work last week so I have been swamped training her, then working late to catch up on what I couldn't get to during the day.  I haven't had any chance to even breathe really.

My Mom came in town this week to spend a few days with us before she and her friend, Kaye, go on a road trip around the Southern states looking for quilting blocks on large barns.  I told them they sound like high school girls going on a road trip.  They laughed.

We went to the Summerville Flowertown Festival today.  The kids had a great, and so did the adults.  It was packed for a Friday.  We couldn't believe it.  We were glad we didn't go on Saturday.  Saturday we will head to Charleston and walk around there a bit and see some new sights.

I have not been good keeping my 2010 goals.  I haven't worked out in nearly 2 weeks, which is really sad.  I havent' written another story in even longer than that.  I now understand that trying to live the live of an author and have a full time job and spend quality time with the wife and kids is more difficult than I thought.  Sure, there are plenty of distactions (like a new iPhone) but that shouldn't be an excuse.  I need to do better.

But with this it's time to sign off for another day. 

By the way, I have found out that my life is only going to get busier.  At my day work we have signed a new client.  I have been told by my CEO that I will be assigned as the project manager.  I'm really excited and I hope I don't bomb on this first assignment.  I need a gold star on my resume for this implementation.

So add that to my Young Men's President church calling and I will be really occupied for a while.

Coupons and Foreign Currency

For the past several months Jessica has been "couponing."  This means she'll spend a lot of time reviewing websites for super deals, finding coupons, and then using those coupons to obtain mega savings (like 75 to 90% savings).  At times she'll ask me to take some coupons and purchase some groceries.  I know she does this with hesitancy for the same reason we don't give Easton a cup full of Chuckie Cheese tokens at one time -- I'm bound to do something wrong and miss the who purpose of the deal I was to be buying.

Several weeks ago I was asked to purchase about 10 boxes of Special K Fruit Crisps with enough coupons and $5 gift cards, that basically made this purchase free.  I hesitate looking at coupons because I understand them as well as understanding foreign currency - not at all. 

I was given the instructions ahead of time to just give the cashier the coupons and the gift card and I would receive an additional $5 gift card from the cashier and I would only pay around $3.  I followed the instructions to the T but ended up paying around $7-8.  I left the store and called Jess and told her about it.  She said I needed to turn around and go back to the store and request to see the coupons as I had given her enough to where I would have only paid $3.  Believe me when I say she knows because she does her research (a sign of a great couponer).  I returned and spoke with the cashier and sure enough some of the Target coupons did not scan.  The cashier was really nice and gave me $4-5 in cash.

In the words of my wonderful wife: "That $5 will feed our family a full course dinner."  And that is definately the truth with couponing.