A Month of FREE Toaster Strudel

A few weeks ago I won a month (4 boxes) of free toaster strudel! Yippy! Being as I don't have small children yet to set a good example for toaster strudels seem like a wonderful breakfast. Fast. Handheld. Warm. Tasty! Today my coupons came in the mail. Lucky me I received an extra coupon by mistake! I love free things!

Doggie Parade

Bethlehem has an annual doggie day Halloween parade on main street each October. I have been looking forward to this parade since I learned about in in June, and it definitely didn't disappoint. The street was bustling with pet owners and their little furry friends (most in costumes). They had several costume contest categories including owner pet look alike, which I thought me and smokie would be a shoe in for with our gangly stick legs, small heads, and nervous demeanors, but then I realized it was just meant for people and their pets to dress in the same costumes.

Owner pet look-a-like

They also had categories like scariest costume. There was a chinese crested with a corpse bride owner that I'm pretty sure should have won.

Ugly little thing

Vicious

Me and Smokie wearing my sweater

Sculpture garden on our way to the parade

Target Savings!

Targets sale of $5.00 mp frozen chicken was ending tonight so I had to go stock up my freezer. I picked up a few other items while their too...

French vanilla coffee mate creamer was 1.79 - I got it for .29 cents! 

5 Kraft shredded cheese 8.0 oz bags originally 2.04 - I got them for .74 cents a bag!

3 bags of Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters originally on sale for 2.39 - I got them for 1.56 a bag (not the best deal but still a deal)
Chocolate fudge with peanut butter ice cream! 1.69!

I've just discovered the world of coupons so I get a little excited when I get a good deal. It doesn't really make a good blog post, but it makes me excited all over about my good deals. Plus, until I make some friends in the area or do something exciting, I don't have anything better to do than write about silly deals. 

Photo courtesy of C. Nordhaus!

Free Printer Ink!

Tonight we got free ink for our printer (and some free envelopes and yes even bubble gum and a snickers bar...all free). We recycle ink cartridges at Staples and they give you rewards to put towards other purchases. You can recycle up to 10 ink cartridges a month. Who has that many you say? We asked Walgreens for their old cartridges that they can not refill and made $100 in rewards at Staples between the two of us! Cha-Ching!! We got a heavily discounted printer (we could only use $30 rewards towards it) at the start of the summer, and now free ink! We are out of ink cartridges now and are hoping that we can find some store out here that will be as generous!

Photo courtesy of C. Nordhaus!

First Coupon-ing Attempt - Rite Aid

Today was the first time I tried coupon-ing! I got $29 worth of products for under $4!!  I could have gotten it for cheaper, but would have had to do 5 separate transactions (I also forgot to use a coupon which would have saved another dollar...oh well, and one of the +up rewards didn't print for some reason, another dollar...So what you see below should really have cost 2 dollars)

Transaction 1
Gain dish detergent $.89
price after coupons: FREE
Crest Toothpaste 3.49 on sale for $2.49
price after coupons: 1.49
Playtex Tampons 2/$8.00
price after coupons: $1.00 each
Cash Paid: $3.49 received $3 in rewards (should have been $4)


Transaction 2
2 KitKats 2/$4
price after coupons: $2.00
Total: $2.00 used $2 rewards
Cash paid: 0! and received $1 reward

Transaction 3
Garnier Herbashine Haircolor $6.99
price after coupons = .99
Garnier Fructis shampoo $2.50
price after coupons = .50
Dove shampoo $3.00
price after coupons: FREE
Toilet paper .99
no coupons
Total: $2.48 used $2 rewards
Cash Paid: $.48!

Nearly Free Boca Java!

A while back (on international coffee day) Boca Java had some great deals going on and I thought I would surprise Justin with coffee (the staple of all good graduate students)! Their website was having some problems and I could not get the order to go through though I tried multiple times. But when I checked my email there was an order confirmation! Surprise hazelnut coffee for Justin, and surprise hazelnut hot chocolate for me! And all for only $1.66 (shipping included!). Too bad my multiple attempts did not go through multiple times.

It arrived today, and mMm it is delicious!

Goal #10 - Make Samosas

When I lived in St. Louis I helped at an event called "A taste of Africa". They had the best samosas I've ever tasted. Oh boy, yum yum. Today I woke up to a clean kitchen and I thought to myself  "this kitchen could surely use some dishes to dirty it up!", so I decided to try my hand at samosas.

It was a disaster, mostly due to my impatience. Luckily my taste-buds are not judgmental when it comes to aesthetics. I still don't have the filling recipe how I'd like it (and probably never will), but they are tasty nonetheless. First goal accomplished!

Free Goodies From Faber-Castell

Today my usually empty mailbox welcomed me with a large, over-sized, stuffed envelope. I love surprises! The contents:

Twenty-four jumbo triangle crayons and a coloring and artivity book from Faber-Castell. The quality of both the crayons and book are amazing, and look how cute!

And I received these both for, yes that's right -- FREE! They were having a short promotional give-away and I took advantage (one of the many ways of achieving goal # 14). Justin and I are strong believers in expressions of art and creativity, and are excited to have arts and crafts time with our (foster) children. Sadly these wonderful products will have to sit untouched for nearly a year. (Unless Justin and I decide to have a little arts and crafts time of our own!)

One of My Favorite Years...My Life as a GVV

After graduating college a friend and I decided to give a year of our lives in service to others through Americorps. The result was one of the most influential experiences in my life--My life as a Gateway Vincentian Volunteer. A group of 7 volunteers from across the country came together to live in solidarity with and serve the poor. We lived with a group of Vincentian priests and brothers on the south side of St. Louis.

We lived as an intentional community to support each other through this year of growth and change. We each held separate social service jobs within the community -- community integration for drug addicts and those with mental health issues, case managing at a social service agency, doing home repairs for the poor, kindergarten aide for inner city school. I did a little of everything from my post at a small outreach facility of St. John's Mercy hospital. At the end of the day we had a community to come home to for support.  A community to laugh with, cry with, explore with, joke with, to change the world with.

Events I did on a regular basis:

• Taught English to recent arrival refugees and immigrants at International Institute of St. Louis. This was AMAZING. This was my favorite thing to do. I can't imagine how lonely it must be to arrive in a foreign country, not be able to speak the language,  have virtually nothing, and be expected to get a job in 3 months (even for the elderly). These men and women were so strong, yet so tired. They had endured so much already in their home country. I heard story after story that just broke my heart over and over again. My life (however bad I may think it is at times) is a walk in the park. Despite such sad stories, the atmosphere was always light. Most were eager to tell their stories, to have someone to talk to, someone to laugh with. I discovered that laughter is a universal language. I still keep in touch with a few students that I really connected with, and pray for those that I lost touch with when I moved. 

Me at International Institute

• Tutored at-risk inner city middle school girls at Marion Middle School. A most heart breaking moment occurred when I was being questioned by the girls and realized that even though I was single, only 22, and had no job, that none of those struck them as a decent excuse to why I had no children yet. They settled for "I'm just not ready for a baby". Teenage pregnancy is statistically the norm in the neighborhood I lived in, so I was glad to hear these girls agree that they too were not ready for a baby. I adored all the girls, but one "trouble-maker" in particular that I helped one-on-one every week. She used to ask me to be her Big Sister so we could hang out. She struggled so much with homework that it was easier for her to just blow it off and pretend she didn't care, though she was also afraid of what would happen at home if she got bad grades. I tried my best to inspire her and the other girls by getting them excited about an education (and letting them know that there are scholarships available to them - because lets face it, if you live in poverty spending money on school is not always realistic). 

• Escorted family practice medical residents on their community rotation. We would go to places like soup kitchens or food shelves and do blood pressure screenings and make referrals. There are people walking around out there with blood pressures off the charts who have to choose between food and medication. I saw a lady with a blood pressure of 240/110! Most people with high blood pressures were aware that their bps were high and had been on medication at some point, but when their prescription ran out they couldn't afford to get a new one. I saw things that no person should have to suffer through in a country as well off as ours. These were good people. Good men and women with unfortunate circumstances. Women with children and no one to rely on. Grandparents. People with mental illness because they couldn't afford to pay for medication to keep their illness under control any longer. Why? How? How could this happen in the United States? Why does it continue to happen, and what can I do about it? What will you do about it?

• Brought groups of volunteers to prepare and serve meals at The Bridge. The Bridge is a place were low income or homeless individuals and families can go for breakfast, lunch, dinner, shelter from the elements, community, and access to social services. I felt so entirely out of place at The Bridge in the beginning. Here I was a young, white, female. I certainly did attract a lot of unwanted attention, but was surprised to find how quickly I made friends to stick up for me. By the end of the year it was one of my favorite places to be, and I still drop in when I visit St. Louis.  I spent most of my time out of the kitchen socializing with the guests, serving coffee, and lending a listening ear. I was always struck when I would meet people my own age. Here I am with a roof over my head, enough food to eat, financial security. Why is my life so different than theirs? Could that just have easily have been me if I were born into a different family?  I miss the friends I made there and hope they are doing well now. My favorite person to see was someone who wouldn't even remember me now. He always sat alone, never talked to anyone, but was always smiling, always high as a kite, always paranoid.  I don't know why I felt so connected to him, maybe because he was ostracized and forgotten even among societies ostracized, maybe because I felt for the circumstances that brought him to this point in his young life, maybe because I was the only one he would talk to. I was only able to have one sober conversation with him, but that is the person I see. That is the face I see when I think of the homeless. Not someone who threw away their future to drugs, but someone kind-hearted, gentle, lost, alone, trapped in their circumstance without someone to lend a hand, someone who hit rock bottom and used an unfortunate coping mechanism, someone who still wants to be loved. 

Centenary Church - Bridges

• On a lighter note I also tutored kindergarteners and 1st grader refugees and immigrants with The English Tutoring Project. It was fantastic! They were so cute and so eager to learn. One little girl asked me to be her mom (because her mom "wasn't very nice")- break my heart. She also asked if she could be my flower girl when I get married. She was so starved for positive adult attention. She always wanted to hold my hand, and would light up inside whenever I acknowledged that I listened to her and remembered things about her. 

My 1st graders

• We also had lots of fun along the way.

A fall day at the park

Pillows have many uses

Moonlight Ramble - 20 mile night bike ride around St. Louis

Me and Christine!

Memphis Marathon

What is my life about?

In my life I try to act in the spirit of servanthood and kindness guided by compassion and love, to pursue justice and honor simplicity, to live spiritually and celebratively, creatively, and imaginatively, with reverence for all life and creation, to sustain my vision through the struggle, to reach for the best in myself and help others reach for the best in themselves, and to walk with the marginalized of our world.

•  To give without looking for appreciation or results.
•  To give beyond what is easy or comfortable.
•  To identify with the poor, suffering, weak, lonely, innocent, uneducated, confused, misfits, unloved.
•  To live in such a way to appreciate the gift of life in each moment and the wonder and beauty of little things.
• To live simply amidst the rushing stream of society’s materialism, consumerism, workaholism, experientialism, individualism.
•  To live mindful of our fair share of earth’s resources and the needs of others less fortunate than ourselves.
•  To live mindful or needs versus wants.
•  To live with reverence and respect for all life on the planet.
•  To make decisions based on love rather than power, comfort, or ease.
•  To respect the fundamental rights of all and work to see these rights upheld.
•  To be aware of the effects of my thoughts/actions/choices on others.
•  To work for a fair balance to the disparity between the rich and the poor; the powerful and oppressed in our world.
•  To live in “right relationship” with others - within our home, family, workplace, and world.
•  To let my life always sing Gods love for others

25 short-term goals while I'm 25

Here is a list of goals that I am trying to accomplish while I am 25.

Photo courtesy of C. Nordhaus!

1. Donate blood
2. Find at least one organization to volunteer with in Lehigh Valley
3. Become better at planning dinner
4. Complete foster parent courses and homestudy
5. Wake up earlier
6. Floss my teeth more
7. Grow my own cilantro
8. Read a book a month
9. Find a use for homemade paper
10. Make samosas
11. Find a good (and easy) bread recipe
12. Try "freezer cooking"
13. Read "The Connected Child"
14. Buy everything we'll need for a child (0-5) for $500 or under (wishful thinking? maybe, but we're so resourceful!)
15. Find a reasonably priced but spectacular 3 bedroom apartment/house to rent for the remainder of Justin's graduate schooling
16. Send more snail mail
17. Make a trip to Minnesota!
18. Continue to stay on track with savings goals
19. Eat a malasada
20. Give more
21. Go tubing down the Delaware river
22. Spread more kindness
23. Have a date night at least once a month
24. Eat more fruits and vegetables
25. Live to 26

Uneventful

I ask myself why I have a blog...nothing exciting happens in my life. I suppose more than anything else this blog represents the hope that someday something will be happening in my life that I will want to be writing about. I have already had such amazing experiences in life that have given me the perspective with which I am trying to create my life. This blog is about the process of shaping my life with that perspective. 

Photo courtesy of C. Nordhaus!

Who am I currently? I am...

• 25
• a wife
• a dreamer
• a sister
• a daughter
• a friend
• lover of italian greyhounds (namely my own dear smokie)
• a crafter
• a daydreamer
• an introvert
• an idealist
• lover of board games
• humble
• a master of clinical psychology
• not physically coordinated
• happy