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Monday, April 11, 2011

Ox? What?

So I was catching up on blog reading (to avoid painting...) and ran across one of Cindy's posts that mentioned the Chinese Zodiac.

Of course I had to go look mine up...evidently...i'm an Ox.  Yep, I would say that's fairly accurate. Hmmm...


Born leaders, Ox people inspire confidence from all those around them. They are conservative, methodical, and good with their hands. However, they can be at times chauvinistic and demanding. In fact, the strength of an Ox person comes out in great shows of deternination, obstinance, and defense for what they believe in. Although they enjoy their private life and doing things on their own, Oxen are strong, dutiful and reliable. They construct firm bonds with their home and family, and while not the most romantic of the animals, Oxen make affectionate, faithful partners and lovers.
Chinese Horoscope
Chinese Horoscope

Chinese Horoscope
Chinese Horoscope
Chinese Horoscope
Honest, Loyal, Popular, Sincere, Steadfast, Reliable
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Stubborn, Impatient, Inflexible, Narrow-Minded, Sulking
Chinese Horoscope
The following occupations best suit the Ox personality.
PAINTER ¤ MECHANIC ¤ ARCHITECT ¤ FARMER ¤ ARMY OFFICER ¤ BANKER ¤ REAL ESTATE AGENT ¤ ARCHEOLOGIST ¤ MANAGER ¤ ENGINEER
No one with an Ox personality is afraid of hard work. Some notable Oxen include Napolean, Vincent Van Gogh, Walt Disney and Richard Nixon.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Sunday deals...

Well, MY Sunday deals.

As usual - went out to breakfast at IHOP and Sonia hooked us up - no charge for the drinks - woo hoo! Thanks Sonia (hey, that's almost $5 these days)!

Onward to BJs - would you believe I didn't go with coupons? I know...weird. I did however use one that they had at the front door.

Today's scores were mostly for Gigi.

Clearance finds: 8oz drop in bottle liners 200/$4. I bought 3 boxes. She's not up to 8oz yet - she's only 9 weeks old (today!), but hey, she will be in no time. I also got the only box of 8oz bottles on clearance. $2.50/4 - except 1 was missing, except for the cap (weird, but whatever). They also had 184ct boxes of Pampers sz 2 diapers for $31.99 - regularly $42.99...went to look in the diaper section and they're on clearance because the box has a new design and "plus 5 free" or something like that. Whatever - $11 off? Yep, i'm going back because I DIDN'T have my coupons. 

They also had a coupon for $5 off a case of Shell motor oil. Remember when oil was less than $1 a bottle? It wasn't that long ago. Oh and the F350 takes 15 QUARTS - seriously, it's like $150 to do an oil change on that thing. Luckily...it only has to be done twice a year and the guy at International Harvester gives us a deal on that mega pricey oil filter every time we go in. *whew* Anywho - one of the suppliers hooked Mr. Paisley up at work when he was out servicing one of the thingies at work. The hubs said something like "I'd hate to have to service this thing, it's bad enough doing my personal truck" and they got to talking and the guy gave him 5 gallons of Rotella (oil). SUHWEET! That, plus one case with a $5 off coupon (also has a $2 instant coupon on the Rotella) means all the oil for 2 oil changes is only $28! Rock on...

My other deal was a 3 pack of mop head covers for my new Shark Steam Mop (2 rectangle, 1 triangle) on clearance for $14.40. Looking at them on Amazon, it appears to be a deal. I probably didn't post about my Shark Steam Mop deal since i've been MIA for a few weeks. I was told it was the best thing ever for the new wood floors (yeah, that post is coming...sit tight) so I looked at it at BJ's. $99.99. Really didn't want to pay that much for it. Saw that it was on sale for the same price at Kohl's in the Sunday paper, but then got a catalog in the mail from them with the infamous peelie for 15%, 20% or 30% off when you use your Kohl's card. WOOT! This time I got the 30%. SOLD - so off I went on my lunch break and got me a new steam mop. I've only used it twice thus far, but holy crap was I impressed when I did the kitchen (which I have to say has been neglected for a while...). So not only did I get it for $69.99, but I also got $10 in Kohl's Cash. Sweet...Kohl's had 2 versions for that price. One with the XL water tank and 2 pads with the rectangular head or the regular one which has the rectangle and triangle head plus 1 extra rectangle pad (so 3 pads total). I got the one with the 2 heads. The kitchen didn't use half the water in the tank so I'm pretty sure I made the right choice.

I didn't get any other deals today.

A big steelhead trout fillet for $13 (dinner tonight, plus lunch for both of us tomorrow)
1 bunch of bananas for the iguanas $1.29
1 bag of collard greens for the iguanas $2.99
1 24pk of BJ assorted soda (so Mr. P will stop drinking my diet root beer) for $4.99
1 bag of Tyson individual wrap chicken breasts 6.5lb for $16.99 - yes I know it's cheaper to get the 10lb bag for $19.99, but the individually wrapped ones taste SO MUCH BETTER. Seriously...plus I get the 10lb bag for when i'm making chicken noodle soup cause I use up a lot of them at once. The individually wrapped ones are only for when we're having marinated chicken of some sort for dinner (which is pretty frequently).  I'm willing to pay more for them.
1 double box of Wheat Thins (gonna make buffalo chicken dip) for $5.99, plus a $1.75 coupon from the front of the store.
1 box of whole white mushrooms $3.49 - stuff shrooms anyone?
That's it - not an exciting shopping trip except for the baby scores.

My other score is paint for the master bedroom. Sherwin-Williams is 40% off this weekend. The bedroom is going to get a little darker. Color matching some Bher paint chips - something along the lines of what is already in there, only a few shades darker for each color. Needs a little change...and NON FLAT paint (what was I thinking?) with all the furniture out of there, I can't believe how BAD the walls look...and we don't have kids! It's just 2 adults who sleep in there. Yuck.
 


Here's a sneak peek - we took advantage of the $10/$50 Lowe's coupon from Facebook last weekend, plus the $10/$50 that printed on the receipt to do a little bit of landscape work in the back. 



 I have 6 of these little hanging buckets that now house white begonias.



Speaking of the back yard...here's another of my deals I haven't had time to post. Lucked into it two weeks ago at BJs. The Fiskars Rain Harvesting System. We've looked at it every year for ??? 4 years? 5 years? when they put them out with the Spring Gardening stuff. They had 3 on clearance for $40. SOLD. They're normally $99 at BJ's. Super excited about that one. Don't you know that as soon as we got it hooked up, we had MEGA RAIN and now I have 58 gallons of rain water to water said landscape additions.
and since you can see it in the background...one of the Amaryllis is in bloom back there behind the gate.
I'll be cutting that in the morning and putting it on my desk at work.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Adventures in babysitting...

I've been away far to long...

Things are crazy here at the Paisley Cottage. Trust me when I say there will be quite a few posts coming. It's that time of year (hello...Memorial Day party is just around the corner).

This past week has been interesting. My mom is officially retired! Today was her last day - there's a retirement luncheon tomorrow at Cheesecake Factory (yummo - nice pick!). Yesterday was her birthday. All week my dad and I have have been sharing "baby duty". My sister-in-law went back to work just before Spring Break and her mom was here to watch Gigi, but she couldn't stay forever and there ended up being a week with no one to watch Gigi! Lucky for me, while my supervisor is a tad bit annoying at times, he's pretty flexible when it comes to my work schedule. Thus, I've been up at 6 every day this week in order to zip on over to my brother's house to hang out with the most adorable, super smart, baby on the planet. 

Gigi will be 9 weeks old on Sunday - time flies! She's still tiny - 9 pounds 14 ounces at her appointment yesterday afternoon. Poor baby got her shots. It was traumatic. I had her in the cutest little DKNY pants and kimono wrap top (easy to get on / off) and don't you know, she barfed all over after her shots. Poor sweetpea...she's the sweetest little snuggler ever. 

As much as I dislike getting up at 6am, i'm pretty sure that after the past 5 days, i'm going to miss getting her up in the morning. It's a good thing they live just a mile or two up the road. Of course I might also missing rolling into work at 11am. Makes the day just fly by...

Anywho - grandpa was driving in from "the country" to take over baby watch until mommy got home from work. 

Gigi loves to be walked around, bounced and taken outside...I can get her to sleep in just a few minutes outside in the morning. I think she likes the breeze. It's been REALLY nice here in the mornings. Not so much the afternoons...crazy hot

She's started to laugh and she smiles a lot. She's just so cute I can't stand it :-)  Did I mention she has TWO dimples? Yep...she's a doll. She's also started sucking her teeny tiny little thumb. Although not for very long...she doesn't really want it if there isn't food in it LOL.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend - I'm going to "sleep in" tomorrow....