So Glad It's Over.....But Still Lots to Do!

Forgive me if I haven't been around to read your blogs/leave comments or respond to comments you may have left on my blog.
It's all I could do this week to just keep cranking out some new blog posts.

Nope, this has NOT been one of my favorite weeks!
Nothing bad going on here but just a really long "Things To Do" list for me....and it's not over with yet.

I was chosen to take part in a focus group back in January.  I've done one other one before this.  That one was an online chat format thing and it lasted for 2-3 hours.  Then I was done and they sent me a little check.
Well this one is a tad more involved.  It is a 5 week commitment with a 1 week break in the midst of it, so I am in this thing for 6 weeks total!  I have tasks to complete each week but I never know when a task will be thrown my way and even better, I have a limited amount of time to complete these tasks.  And they aren't easy peasy, just fill in this questionnaire type tasks either.  I am having to actually use my brain and do some w-o-r-k....ACK!!lol

We are at the end of our 3rd week and we've already lost 1 member.  If you drop out and don't finish this thing you get ZERO $.  At this point death alone will keep me from completing this assignment!

Along with the group taking up my time, I'm under the gun to get the taxes finished so I can file the FAFSAs.  I was hung up until earlier this week with all that paperwork, but #1 son's college finally sent out his 1098 form(showing what we paid them for tuition).  Now I have all the supporting documentation...rah!
At this point in time, I have the federal done tentatively, the state, the local as well as the 2 teens state returns.  Hubs needs to do their local returns Saturday, I need to do their federal returns(those will take a nanosecond)and then we both need to sit down and go over all the returns to check for errors.
After those are finalized, we can fill out the FAFSAs on Sunday.  Yes, that is our wild and crazy partying weekend plan.....filling out FAFSAs.
After it's done we may hit the bottle of Southern Comfort, if I don't open it sooner. ;-)

Add in a 2 hour session being drilled at the Dentist on Wednesday, followed by a 3 hour session working on taxes and it's no wonder I am just not feeling peppy this week.

Top the week off with a sick teen, chopping an iceberg the size that took down the Titanic(this one is in front of the door to my storage unit)so I could get the spare bags of dog food for our mutts, and then chauffeuring around the BIL most of today so he could run his errands.
I did finally get all that food to the food bank...that was the bright spot in my day.

A nice big haul, thanks in large part to the fine folks at Rite-Aid! 8-))

Well it's almost 5pm and I've got to throw something together for dinner.    Daughter's boyfriend was over on Monday evening so I cooked a large platter of pork chops with a plum glaze, stroganoff noodles and yellow beans and red bell pepper sauted in olive oil.  The only people who actually ate the meal were Hubs and I.  I could have killed daughter, BF and #2 son!!  So I have pulled my best Joan Crawford this week to show them it's not nice to fool with mother......I've offered up that leftover pork chop meal every night or some variation of the pork chops in new dishes(pork fried rice with stir-fry veggies, pork alfredo with peas, etc.)  Neither of the teens have taken me up on my dinner ideas and they have just fended for themselves from what's in the pantry or freezer.....grumbling and protesting all the while mind you.  This is great!  I don't have to cook(since I haven't felt like it this week that's a good thing!)and I don't feel guilty for not cooking for them because they are saying don't cook!lol

Another good thing is I have NOT gone to the grocery store this week(except for that stuff I bought on the gift card at Shop-Rite, so I haven't spend any cash).  Hopefully I can hold out until Sunday and stay out of the grocery store and accomplish my No Spending on Groceries Week for February.
Heck, maybe we can go TWO WEEKS without grocery shopping!  That would be awesome.

So I've got my weekend all planned out and if things go well, I'll have all the paperwork done until May when we'll have more school stuff to do....but nothing as bad as FAFSAs and all that mess.
My time will be freed up a bit and I can go back to my first love....Rite-Aid! ;-)

So what is everyone else doing this weekend?  I haven't even begun to think about Valentine's Day either.  We generally don't "do" valentine's day here.  We don't go out or anything since the restaurants are a ZOO then!
Do y'all have any special plans for the 14th?

Sluggy