Traffic!?!?!?!

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! I am SO freakin' tired of traffic!! On my way home from school today I was on the 202 East and it was only 3:30 and traffic was bumper-to-bumper. I figured it was "early rush hour". Nope. It was an accident (just a minor bumper type accident, nothing serious, and for the record it wasn't impeding any lanes of traffic even to the minutest (is that a word??) degree. And as soon as we passed it traffic picked up speed. Good grief. So 1/4 of a mile later I merge onto the 101 South. Bumper-to-Bumper again. Are you kidding me??? 2 miles down the road (and 20 minutes later...) pass yet ANOTHER minor fender bender accident that was totally pulled off the freeway. AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! Why do you people have to slow down and look!?!?!?! That is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves!!! Rush hour I understand, "accident gazing" I don't get at all. That's 40 minutes of study time I won't get back...and this post makes another 5 minutes I won't get back...*sheepish look*

Since traffic just IS, and there is nothing I can do to change it, I know there is no point in being mad. I just had to express my frustration! I'm over it now. Until the next time...lol.

Time to study...

~Abigail~

Cholesterol

I had my Annual Employee Welness screening done last week at work. This is where my employer, for free, will check my cholesterol, blood sugar, body fat %, blood pressure, etc. I did it two years ago, and discovered that my cholesterol was high (228...it's supposed to be below 200). I wasn't too worried about it. Then about 10 months later in November 2007 my doctor did labs because I asked her to (they were checking my thyroid anyway, so I asked for a metabolic test too just to see if my cholesterol was still high or if it had been a fluke). It was higher: 253, and my triglycerides were 154 (supposed to be less than 100). What the heck?? I wasn't overweight, and didn't eat that terribly...why was it high? I have no idea. But my doctor put me on a "diet" and told me to exercise 5x/week, which I stuck to for about 2 weeks...oops. BUT I did FINALLY start doing something about it last November. Yes, us healthcare professionals are the BEST at ignoring our own health. I guess you could say I was in denial because I didn't fit the typical stereotype for "high cholesterol". Anyway, I started taking a supplement from Melaleuca called Phytomega: it claimed to naturally lower LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) and triglycerides with plant sterols and Omega 3 fatty acids. I also started taking a garlic supplement, just one tablet a day (from Sprouts, but I don't think that really mattered...garlic is garlic). So last week when my labs were drawn, I had been taking these two supplements pretty regularly (but not religiously...there were a couple weeks in December where I fell off the bandwagon...) for about 2 1/2 months. I am THRILLED with the results:

Total Cholesterol: 192 (supposed to be <200, mine was 253 in 2007)
LDL (bad) cholesterol: 116 (supposed to be <130, mine was 169 in 2007)
HDL (good) cholesterol: 63 (supposed to be OVER 55 for women, mine was 64 in 2007)
Triglycerides: 66 (supposed to be <100, mine was 153 in 2007)
Fasting blood glucose: 92 (supposed to be <100, mine was 101 in 2007--yikes)

Now all my labs are in the normal range!! And with only 2 1/2 months of being on those supplements. I am amazed. And the honest truth is that I did not change my diet or lifestyle at all(still do not exercise...). After nursing school I will have more time to exercise...that is my plan. Lol. 3 1/2 more months of school. Then? FREEDOM!! Sorta. There will be that whole "work" thing...but at least it will be the job I've always wanted. :-)

So while I don't recommend "treating yourself" for any health conditions, this is what worked for me. And had my cholesterol come back still high or even higher this past week after my attempt to lower it I would have gone back to my doctor so he could put me on a medication to lower it (that's what he wanted to do if the "diet" and exercise didn't work, only I never went back so he could check it again). But seems how those meds have not-so-pleasant side effects, I decided to try something myself first...and it worked. Needless to say, I will continue to take Phytomega and garlic daily. :-)

~Abigail~

The Grocery Game

Okay, so I just started participating in this really awesome game...The Grocery Game, to be exact. It's AMAZING!!! To cut right to the chase, I spent $38 at Frys last night and saved $57!! And today I spent $21 at Safeway and Saved $42!! Yes, those numbers are right off of my receipt. :-) So how does this work you wonder and how many long hours did I have to spend figuring out all the sales in order to save that much?? Easy. The Grocery Game compiles a list for each grocery store each week...appropriately entitiled The List (lol). I currently use Safeway, Frys and CVS (although I have yet to actually go to CVS with The List). So once you sign up, you get The List for each store, which lists ALL the sales--advertised and non-advertised--from the previous week (so The List comes out on Sunday and is good for Sunday through Tuesday at midnight when the NEW sales start.). Not only does it list all the sales, it tells you which coupons from which weeks to clip for sale products. I now have a Sunday newspaper subscription, which I scored for only $1/week (delivery, no less!). I'm trying to get a second newspaper delivered for the same price...we'll see if it works or not. So each Sunday I take out the coupon pamphlets from the paper and store them in my 12 month filing case which I have labeled with each Sunday's date (so Jan 11th, Jan 18th, Jan 25th, etc). Most coupons expire by the 12th week, so this filing case should be perfect, I'll just "rotate" the oldest week out once I get to the point where I have 12 weeks stocked up.

Anywho, to recap, The List tells me what's on sale and which coupons to clip. So all I have to do is select which products I want to buy off of The List and then it will give me my own personal shopping list for that store. From there I print it out, then go through and clip all the coupons I will need for that store (according to what The List tells me). I store all of the clipped coupons in a regular sized envelope labeled with the store's name along with my List for that store. So when I go to the store it's easy...I grab the right envelope, follow the shopping List and hand all the coupons to the nice person at the cashier (taking out any coupons for products I don't end up buying). And voila!

Let me tell you some of the deals I got this week to help the awesomeness sink in:
Cottonelle 4-pack toilet paper for FREE--how, you ask? Frys is selling the 4-packs for $0.99 all year until like November. I printed $0.50 off coupons from the Cottonelle website. Frys doubles coupons up to $1, so the $0.50 coupon turned into $1, but since the toilet paper was only $0.99 to begin with, it was FREE!!! You can use 3 of these coupons at once, so I got three 4-packs of toilet paper for free. I'll get 3 more each time I go to Frys. :-)

I got 2 cans of Hormel Chili for FREE because they were on sale for $1.00/2. I had a coupon for $0.50 off of 2. Doubled, that meant they were free. :-)

I got 8 boxes of 200-count Kleenex for $0.80 each.

I got 10 boxes of 10-count Quaker Chewy Granola Bars for $7. Yes, 10 boxes for $7. They were on sale for "Buy 2 get 3 FREE" and right by the boxes was a little coupon dispenser for "Get $1 off when you buy 2 boxes". So I bought 4 boxes and got 6 for free (the sale) and then used five $1 off coupons (one coupon for each set of 2 boxes). Pretty amazing, huh? (however this particular bargain was not on The List because the coupons were in the store as opposed to the newspaper...I heard about it from a friend who went shopping with her List yesterday).

I also got diced tomoatoes for free, and 48 cans of Tomato Sauce for 15 cents each--that was a raincheck from a sale a couple weeks ago (they were out by the time I made it to the store). A couple weeks ago I also stocked up on 93% Lean Ground Beef, because Frys had the 2lb packages for $3.94 (less than $2/lb!!!). I bought the limit of 4. They will be on sale again this next week (I happened to see the store ad), but I wouldn't have known about the meat sale had The List not told me because I do not normally go to Frys. I used to shop at Walmart because it's cheaper...but not now! By the way, there is also a Walmart "List", where you can price match all the sales from each store, but I don't care to stand at the cash register reading off a price for each and every item to the poor cashier. That's just me though, if you want to do that to save yourself a trip to each of the stores then more power to you! But I'm only doing Safeway and Frys, so it's not bad.

Did I really NEED any of this stuff RIGHT NOW? No. But the idea behind this game is to buy products when they are "at rock bottom prices" by combining sales with coupons and then when you NEED the product you won't have to go out and buy full price. You'll have a "stock pile" of groceries and household goods that you purchased dirt cheap! In essence, you'll never have to pay full price for an item again! It takes about 12 weeks to "cycle through" the sales and build a good stockpile as well as accumulate a back-log of coupons to use each week.

So what's the catch? There isn't one really. The cost to get The List is $10 every 8 weeks for one store of your choice, plus $5 every 8 weeks for each additional store. So if I choose to keep receiving Safeway, Frys and CVS, I will be charged $20 every 8 weeks. Then there is the cost of the newspapers. If I get 2/week at $1 each then it will cost me $16 every 8 weeks, which added to the cost of The List is $36 every 8 weeks. I saved more than at one store this week alone...my total savings from Safeway and Frys this week only was $99. So let's just assume I save $99 each week...that would be $792 in eight weeks. So pay $36 and save $792? Sounds to me like it pays for itself many times over in savings, even if I DON'T go shopping every week.

So how do join? Go to www.thegrocerygame.com and sign up for a 4 week trial for only $1. If you sign up PLEASE put my email address in as the referral: maybaby16@gmail.com. Then go sign up for a Sunday newspaper subscription for $1/week at edgej.azcentral.com, promo code EDGEJ. I'm trying to get a 2nd subscription using Scott's name, but I don't know if they're going to allow 2 subscriptions at the same address for the special price of $1/week. If it works, I'll attach an EDIT to this post.

Oh. I forgot to mention how long it took me to prepare my List and clip the coupons for my shopping trip this week. One hour. Yep, 1 hour and I saved $99...that's like earning $99/hr. Pretty good if you ask me.

So there you have it. The Grocery Game. Play if you'd like, it's kind of addicting...like trying to see if you can spend less and save more each week...I'm sure I'll get better at it as I go, but it is rather addicting...hmmm, the only addiction I know of that SAVES money rather than wasting it. Interesting...:-D

Happy saving everyone! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!
~Abigail~

Bummer

Once again, it's a no-go. After setting everything up and all but signing the contract to bring with us to the showing tomorrow evening, our realtor called us and said it was all off (concerning the home I wrote about on Saturday morning). The listing realtor's assistant made a mistake when inputting the home into the MLS system...she was off on the price. $100,000 off. Apparently the "2" on the paper looked like a "1" to her when she entered the price. BIG bummer!!!

*Sigh*

Another house...

Once again, I'm trying not to get too excited. But I think it's too late for that...

(FYI: we didn't get the house I ranted and raved about in the last post, the bank accepted someone else's offer over ours)

But I've found another one. Let me go back about a month: we went to see a house in the PRIME Mesa location...equidistant from each of our parents homes, work locations, and church...like I said: prime location. It was a nice home with an OUTSTANDING floorplan. But the pool was cracked, the garage door was broken, some of the roof tiles were missing or displaced and the entire exterior of the home needed painting. We decided it needed too much work and didn't pursue it any farther. Fastforward to two days ago: I found another house with the exact same floorplan as the house above (WHICH I ABSOLUTELY LOVED!!!!) in the same neighborhood. This one is right in our price range, does not have a pool (which is a good thing), and it DOES have a fireplace (a plus!). There are no pictures, but according to the listing remarks it has corian counter tops, neutral paint throughout and newer appliances. The problem? The owner is having difficulty with the tenants not allowing people in for showings. Which means we can't go see it until sometime next week. GRRRRRRR!!! This one won't last long...it's not a short sale OR a foreclosure. It's just a normal sale!! Those are few and far between right now!! I am SO frustrated that the tenants are being stubborn and not letting people in!! When our realtor called them to schedule a showing they said she had the wrong number (HA!), so she had to call the listing agent who then contacted the owner who is now having to deal with her bratty tenants. Nice. I'm just crossing my fingers that all other interested parties are being turned down for the time being as well...

SO...I need to talk to Scott, but he is sleeping still (he didn't come to bed until 4am!!). So I am writing here instead. I wonder how stupid it would be to put an offer on a house we haven't seen yet? At least we know the floorplan and have seen the "arial veiws" from the map...and no one can stop us from driving by and looking at the outside (so there!!). We could make it a contingency that we have to see it before the offer is finalized...and we would have the whole 10 day inspection period to back out without losing our deposit...I KNOW we love the floorplan...and from the listing it sounds nice...I JUST WISH WE COULD GO IN!!! I plan to talk to our realtor this afternoon when we meet with her (to see 4 other houses) what she thinks about putting an offer on it without seeing the inside first...Hmmmm. I don't want to lose out on this one! It is seriously the best deal in the neighborhood! (Trust me, I've looked). And the reason it is in our price range is because the owner bought it back in 2003 before home prices skyrocketed. Prices doubled in that neighborhood by '05-'07. Not kidding. She's listing it for about 10K less than what she paid for it, so she wouldn't be losing much (compared to what other people are losing in their home sales right now!!). And I'd be willing to go above her asking price (since we'll be asking for her to pay closing costs and we'll probably want all the appliances to stay) to ensure that we get it. Gah, it's so frustrating that we can't go see it today!!! *frustrated noise*

I've been praying for peace and a quiet spirit...I get so worked up about stuff and can't control my excitement, and now my worry that we'll lose this one...I'm just praying that if this is the right house that everything will fall into place, and that we won't do anything stupid (like put an offer on it without seeing it...unless it's NOT a stupid idea...I dont' know!?!?! Wow, I'm not making any sense...). I know if it's the right house things WILL fall into place, but I don't have much patience...and I worry WAY too much!! Father, please tame my heart and my crazy imaginiation and "what-if's" and give us the insight we need to make the right decision!

*Heavy sigh* In the meantime, I'm going to go see Bride Wars with Susan (Scott's little sister--she's 17). I like Anne Hathaway...I hope it's a good movie...the previews look hilarious!

Tomorrow I will be going to church (finally) and then doing homework for the rest of the day (as I will also be doing this evening when we get back from looking at houses).

~Abigail~

Ringing in 2009!

Happy New Year!! Hard to imagine it's 2009...but it is! It's going to be a busy year, but full of new and exciting adventures and accomplishments, I know it. We put another offer on a house today. It is really nice in in a GREAT Gilbert neighborhood and right next to a bunch of stores...the kind you'd WANT to be next to, so yes this is a good thing (the neighborhood itself seemed really quiet). The house is adjacent to a big park and playground/BBQ/Ramada/Basketball/grassy area and also has a pool somewhere in the community along with its own K-12 and Junior High schools (didn't see the pool or schools, but looked it up on the HOA website). Not that we would need the schools at the moment, but it's just a plus for the community and probably makes the home of greater value for resale (and for the record, at this point we are still planning to homeschool our kids). Anywho, I am quite excited about this one and I hope it works out. It is a bank-owned forclosure home built in 2004, and needs minimal repairs (one window is boarded up and would need to be replaced, and the carpet in the living room is messed up). We would also need to buy the main appliances (refridgerator, washer/dryer and possibly a stove--the one that is there is white and old and the microwave and dishwasher are black and newer so I'd probably want to buy a new stove to make everything match). The floorplan is amazing, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the kitchen/family room/dining room area. It is SO open and BIG and would be PERFECT for entertaining. It is a central location about 7 miles from my work, and about equal distance from each of our parents and our church. Scott's work really isn't close to anything we've been looking at...but at least this house is within a mile of the freeway for him. :-)

There are SEVERAL other aspects of this house that I LOVE, but I'd better stop explaining so that I don't get myself too worked up about it. I don't want it to be too huge of a disappointment if it doesn't work out. But it's so hard not to get all excited!! (I obviously AM excited already!!)

*Sigh* OUR house is out there somewhere, and I know we'll find it eventually, whether it be this one or not. But since I can't see into the future (wouldn't that be a cool super-power? Lol), as of today I hope it IS this one.

Houses aside, Scott and I had a great time partying with our friends last night and ringing in the new year!! Now, by "partying" I mean playing board games, snacking on tator-tots and chocolate-fountain type snacks and drinking Coke. I had a few sips of Scott's wine after midnight (we forgot to break it out sooner--too caught up in our game). Oh, and if you haven't played the game Quelf before, go check it out. It's pretty much hilarious! Not really for the shy/easily embarrassed like myself...but I think I started to warm up after a little while. I'd play it again. :-) And Scott wants to buy it. Here is a quick recap of our game last night: Angela ended up with inside-out pants and was only allowed to talk with her thumbs in her mouth while simultaneously touching her shoulders (I know you want to try it--try crossing your arms), Matt probably spent a good 20 mintues acting like a weeping-willow tree while humming a sad tune AND exclaiming "I need my pills" after each drink he took during the entire game, Andrew had to translate everything he said into another language of his choice (first he chose spanish, then switched to pig-latin...lol!), Scott had to say "Holy _________, Batman!" each time a player moved his/her piece and he couldn't use the same phrase twice, Kim had to talk about her home in Sri-Lanka each turn, Travis ended up with the empty game box under his shirt for the entirety of the game, and we ALL had to sing a wish to a genie named Ned while clapping our hands and saying his name 3 times at the beginning of each turn. Yes, it was quite the game!! I luckily didn't end up with anything too strange like the others...yay me! :-D

I think Scott is about ready to head home now...we've been at his parent's house for a few hours and he's been playing Rockband with Susan. :-) If you think about us, please pray for our house situation!! I am excited about this one we saw today, but I know that God has a perfect house out there for us and we have to be patient! If you know me at all you know I am NOT very patient. You may think I am because I can be very quiet about my IMpatience, but inside I am SOOOOOO not a patient person!!! Something I need to work on...and something tells me I'll be working on it for a loooooong time...

Goodnight, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
~Abigail~