Simply Jeanne

I was suppose to return to work yesterday but I didn’t.  There was no work because the weather was nasty.  Ice and snow… gotta love it!  It seems like every time I make a comment about how little snow we have this winter, we get some the very next day.  I need to stop making comments like that!

The ice looked really pretty on the trees so Ken and I took a ride on the back roads around mid-afternoon to get a few pictures.  The back roads weren’t the greatest so we had to take it slow.  The only bad thing about our ride… whenever I found a photo opportunity and wanted Ken to stop right away, he couldn’t stop quickly without sliding.

Here are a couple of pics from yesterday…

So today the weather was a lot better and I returned to work.  The puppies were so sad when we left this morning… I almost felt guilty leaving them.  I think they got use to having me around all day.  They were my little shadows practically the whole week and a half I was home and even when I had to keep my foot propped up they found a way to stay close.

Work went pretty well and my foot was no worse for wear (except when the bandage decided to adjust and pulled on the stitches).  It actually felt good to get out of the house (even though it was for work)!

Now I am looking forward to Friday when the stitches come out, I get to wear a regular shoe again, a shower won’t require sitting on a step stool, driving my car and being able to tuck my right leg under me when I sit.  Do you know how hard it is not to sit on your leg when you’ve been doing it forever?!?

Tonight I made berry butter that was featured on The Pioneer Woman’s Food Network show.  Since I have a syrup phobia and usually use just butter, I think berry butter would be a tasty addition to pancakes, waffles or french toast!  It was so unbelievably quick and easy to make.  Instead of using blackberries and raspberries, I used blueberries and strawberries because those were what I had on hand.  The strawberries didn’t blend quiet as well as the blueberries so I hope it turns out okay.

Now I can’t wait for the weekend to make some pancakes and try it out!  I’m also thinking about trying her french toast recipe, (included on the berry butter page link).  Sounds so yummy!!

Approximately two weeks ago I decided I would seriously try to start saving money with coupons to see if I could do it.  I did a couple of internet searches and found some websites that had a lot of helpful hints.  Once you get into it and get yourself kind of organized, you can actually save decent amounts of cash!

I couldn’t go on the first official coupon shopping trip so I sent Ken to the grocery store.  I made a list of what he needed to pick up and gave him a handful of coupons.  With the exception of him picking up a couple things not on the list (that I did have coupons for) and him spending an extra $4.00 on a chicken purchase (which could have saved $5.00), he didn’t do too bad.  Most everything was either on sale and/or I gave him a coupon for.  Total savings that trip… $14.56.

Tonight we hit a few more stores and bought all this and saved $15.11.

And then stopped at Bath & Body Works, bought these and saved $7.68.  I only paid $1.33 for both of these lotions!!

A grand total of $37.35 in savings this week!!  Amazing!  I guess when you really set your mind to it you can save a good amount of cash.

A couple of things I have been doing…

1. Pick up our local Saturday paper.  It has all the sales flyers with coupons for the local stores.
2. Pick up a Sunday paper.  Lots of coupons in there!  (With the exception of the Detroit Free Press)
3. Added The Krazy Coupon Lady website to my feed reader.  There are a lot of updates per day but it’s good stuff and sometimes she even links to where you can get free stuff.  (Which is the case with the Pink Chiffon lotion from Bath & Body Works.)
4. Bookmark the website Coupons.com.  I find myself going there several times a week.
5. Use the coupons when stuff is on sale and save more.  There were a couple of things we needed this week that I had coupons for that weren’t on sale, but in the long run, we still saved something.

I do have to admit though, I need to get a little more organized.  They say you should get a binder with baseball card sleeves and categorize it but I haven’t gotten to that point yet.  I’m having a little bit of trouble seeing myself walking around the store with a binder full of coupons.  LOL!  Also, I think at the rate I’m going I’m going to need a pantry to store all this stuff I’m buying.  :-)

I never anticipated when my foot doctor told me about the surgery that I would be so… incapacitated. From what he told me, what I expected, he was going to remove approximately 1/4 inch of tissue to remove that foreign object. The whole process was not what I anticipated.

First of all, I was to be at the hospital at 8:30 in the morning and the actual surgery would only take a 1/2 hour. I wasn’t wheeled into the operating room until right around 12:30 p.m.  Dang!  I could have easily had a couple cups of coffee that morning!  Next I was a little shocked when I saw how big the bandage on my foot was.  It was huge!!

When I came out of recovery and was back in my room, Ken told me the doctor said he removed a shard of glass from my foot.  Not a sliver… a shard!  I guess that kinda explains the huge bandage.

More shock… doctor’s orders were I was going to be off work for a whole week.  I thought I would only miss a few days at the most.  Throughout the past week I hobbled along with the occasional help of a cane Ken had loaned me… from the couch to the computer to the bathroom (again and again and again).  I normally really like being at home during the day and rarely ever get bored but when all you can do is basically sit, it gets really boring.  Also throughout the week I would make comments to Ken about how I couldn’t believe I was having such a hard time walking and once even said it almost felt like I had stitches in my foot.  Ken replied, “I would think so.  The doctor said he had to make an incision this big (about an inch)”.  Now everything (the huge bandage, a week off work and the major hobbling) makes sense!

So yesterday I had a follow-up appointment.  I was anxious to get the bandage and stitches removed and I would get the all clear to return to work.  I even took my shoe and sock.  My bubble was burst when the nurse told me the stitches (five of them) weren’t going to be removed yet, I still had to wear a smaller bandage AND I can’t go back to work quite yet.  Two more days off plus the weekend and I should be good to go.  Well, all this time off work totally shot the plans I had of going with Ken to Vegas in February because any sick/vacation/personal time I had left was getting burned up!  Good thing Ken hadn’t paid for my plane ticket yet.

Besides going bonkers from doing basically nothing, I decided to finish reading a book I started way back last April and totally getting into couponing.  I’m almost done with the book and the couponing… I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.  :-)