Frugal Friday............the May 31st Edition

Not much going on around here this week except lots of storms and rain.

Oh, and two days of tornado warnings...eek!

We didn't go much of anywhere(Rite-Aid, Ollie's, Weis, Red Robin and meet-ups with buyers)and spent the week cleaning and decluttering mostly but we still had a few wins........


* Hubs picked up the Friday Freebie last week at Weis(PMITA)Markets.....

a can of wet dog food.
Whoopee....but still something Chester might enjoy. ;-)

* I found money!

.06¢ at Rite-Aid when I went in to pick up an Rx.

And .03¢ at Ollie's by the bubble gum machines on my way out.

*  I sold more diapers this past week......

6 more packages last Friday............

And 4 more packages on Tuesday.
That makes $50 this past week, $30 the week before and $35 the week before that one so $115 in sales for May for things I got for free at Rite-Aid.

I don't put these sales toward the grocery spending for the year like my other "small economies" but put it aside to use at my discretion.
Woot!

* Hubs went on Monday and used my .30¢ worth of gas points and filled up his car.

*  I used some cheap canned peaches and pantry items I had to make a Peach Cobbler for Memorial Day dinner.............

*  Hubs and I hadn't been out to eat in awhile so we went to Red Robin when running errands on Thursday.

We got that tower of onion rings something we've never gotten there but have wanted to try.  It was yummy.
Thursdays in May at Red Robin have been Throwback Prices meaning select items on their menu were 1990's pricing.  The onion rings were part of the pricing so now you know why we finally got those. lolz

The onion rings were $3 off, the RR beer Hubs ordered was $3.99 off and the Bacon Cheeseburger I ordered was $3.99 off.  Of course Hubs had to be a jerk and order a burger that was regular price because I was paying. lolz

Here's what our bill came to before the Throwback Thursday discounts.  It was over $38 for 2 burgers, a beer and onion rings.......eek!

And here's what we paid.............

$10.98(plus the tax on that amount)less due to the sale so $27.43.
And I used a gift card bought last year or the year before(I can't remember which)to pay.

That's about it from here.

What frugal wins did y'all have this week?



Sluggy

Random Things Lately

Here's a post about my thoughts on random ideas floating around in my head and comments on photos on my camera roll.
There might be a gem or two among them all or not, you decide.  ;-)

* Janie asked about Gouverneer Morris and the use of a whalebone as a catheter--if that was a common homemade remedy at that time.
Though I am no expert on Colonial era medicine(such that it was)I suspect that among learned circles at that time, this may have been a known possible course to clear a blocked urethra in a man.  To me, the thought of inserting a hollow bone(no matter how slim)into my penis just makes me shudder and I'd say it would also affect most men in the same way too.  But in the days before surgical cures for internal distress this might have been looked upon as a last resort of treatment.  Maybe.....

But, I suspect that there was a lot of DYI surgery and medical treatments going on during Morris' era.  Firstly, just finding a "doctor" in America may have been difficult depending on your location.  Morris may have had access to one being as he was in a settled area but if you were beyond the coastal regions in what would be termed a "wilderness" area you were on your own.

And if you know anything about the history of the practice of applied medicine you know that "modern" medicine only dates back to barely a couple of centuries beyond our current time.  The practice of medicine is barely out of it's infancy in many ways in 2019.  The book I read on The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 was eye opening in this regard.  Also my visit to the Apothecary Shop of Dr. Hugh Mercer who practiced his craft in the mid 1700's in Fredericksburg Virginia pre-Revolutionary War was enlightening.
Remember that back in these American Colonial times doctors were treating people with leeches and bleeding as a way to restore the four humors in the body and a doctor was responsible for killing George Washington in this way.

* I took this photo of the box one of my pieces of luggage I recently purchased came in............

It reads, "CAUTION: DO NOT WITH SHARP INSTRUMENT".
My reply, "I CAN'T EVEN!"

*  Here's an item I noticed in Rite-Aid last month when I got paid to take all those ELF brushes home...........

Clear Mascara.
I had never even heard of clear mascara before seeing this.  Why would anyone other than someone who was an Albino use clear mascara?? lolz  Well I googled it and there are uses for it, though making your lashes appear longer, the obvious use for mascara, isn't one of them.
Just proves you can learn something new every day.

*  And speaking of drugstores............
I've been having to peruse the CVS ads seeing as I still have ECBs to use.  I hate CVS ads!  It's so difficult to figure out a scenario to do a deal using their weekly ads because nothing is organized in a way to make sense.  My brain spins like a loading internet page that refuses to complete looking at their ads.
And this makes me insane too.........

When they have a Deal where you have to buy 3 items to get the ECBs but the sale is a BOGO50% off.  I can handle this at Rite-Aid since on the third item I'd get a 20% Wellness discount but not at CVS.  I'd have to buy 4 to get 50% off 2 of the items but pay full price for the other 2 and I am buying ONE MORE THAN I NEED TO TO DO THIS DEAL which means I am spending WAAAAY too much money on this!
It just makes me gnash my teeth.

*  And speaking of CVS I started watching this Vlogger as she does a CVS deals rundown since I still have ECBs to use.  I noticed that she looks and sounds like someone I've met!

At least to me, the "Savvy Coupon Shopper" is pretty much a doppelganger for SAM the blogger. lolz

*  I thought this was cute.  It was the paper on the sample size ice cream cones DQ gave out for free back in March while we were on vacation...........

"I am a Coneacopia of Happiness."


*  The Rhododendron bush is finally in bloom.  Too bad it waited until after Daughter's graduation to blossom fully.

*  I am so OVER selling locally on the FaceBook sites here.  Ok, let me rephrase that...I am so over dealing with the people who also use that selling sites to buy.

Can someone please just tell me one thing..........What is wrong with people???

My ads are very brief  and to the point, but include all the pertinent information needed.
I have been selling diapers and pull-ups of which I have various sizes.  I state what I have, what sizes, how many I have, the price and where I will meet.  I also say I update the post as soon as something is PENDING or SOLD and remove it if sold.

Invariably someone will message me and ask, "Is this available?"  That's it.  Well, I can't tell you if "IT" is available if I don't know what "IT" you are interested in buying! lolz  Let me just state for the record that this is maddening!!!

I also had someone ask me, "Until when is the size XX pending".  I said, "Until they pay me."  Right?  This bitch flipped out on me and called me a few choice words such that I had to block her. lol

Then I had the one who messaged me in SPANISH?!  What do I do with that?  OMG, I don't speak Spanish. lolz
Someone writes an ad in English please reply to it in English.....this is NE PA not San Diego CA.  If you read it(in English)you must understand some English so respond in English even if it's broke and I can work with you.  That's just common courtesy.

But the best one is the one who was going to meet me just off the interstate exit, 5 miles from my house, as they were passing by on the interstate down to go camping south of here on Friday and gave me a window of between 4 and 4:30 pm.  So I asked her to text when it got close to the time whether she was going to be there closer to 4 or 4:30 as I didn't want to be sitting for 30+ waiting on her, which was agreeable to her.

So I load up the car with her pull-ups, turned on the car and at 3:45 I sent her a text asking if she was going to be there at 4 or later before I actually drove to the meet-up spt.

I get this reply, "Wont be that way til tomorrow".

No "I'm sorry", no details on when tomorrow or anything else, etc.
And would she have even texted me she wasn't coming today if I hadn't asked first?!?  So rude.

So I replied, "If you want them tomorrow you'll have to come to my house.  It's 5 miles off the exit. LMK".
Of course I didn't hear back from her, not that I'd have responded if she had. lolz

And to piss me off worse, her Avatar or whatever you call her photo on Facebook is a selfie with mouse ears on it.
Grow up people!


*  Hubs and I went to the Amish Grocery Outlet recently.  It's fun to poke around in there as you find interesting food items sometimes.

I had to pose with this pickle item because well, I AM a Hot Mama. teehee

And Hubs found this can of brains.....pork brains to be specific and with milk gravy.
Um, no thank you.
My mother would have been all over this item putting it into a plate of scrambled eggs.  She actually did this on one occasion without letting us know of the "secret ingredient".  meh.

*  The POD people came and took away Daughter's pod.............

When we dug out the boxes in the closet in her bedroom we found this though and it doesn't belong to us............

A box of electronics that belong to the Fiancé.  So we told them what was in there and they want some of it and want me to ship it to them.  I am uncomfortable shipping electronics not in their original boxes(I have used shipping companies for years as an eBay seller and I know the horrors. lol).  I figure we can just bring it with us when we go there in January for the wedding, right?  The financé lived without this stuff for 2.5 years(how long ago he left here)he can wait another few months for it.


*  I was out relaxing on the deck and was looking at this pine tree in the yard.........

This massive pine tree was just a twig(I was taller than it)when we moved in almost 19 years ago.  Just guesstimating now it's got to be 30 foot tall and the branches make it 20 foot wide.
I was just staring at it this past weekend and noticed that it was "giving me the finger".

All these new shoots growing on the ends of the branches look like middle finger salutes!
Am I crazy or do y'all see it too?? lolz

Anything interesting going on in your life lately?


Sluggy

A Homemade Cake Mix Recipe

I wanted to make something dessert-like for dinner last night(I don't usually make desserts but it was a Holiday Weekend).

I had 4 cans of peach slices I got very inexpensively at a Rite-Aid back in March down South.  Regular price was $1 per can, .80¢ per can with my Wellness store discount and they had .50¢ off stickers on them so .30¢ per can.
(I had to buy them at that price, right?)

So I decided to make a dump cake peach cobbler.

But I didn't have a cake mix(as I don't keep these around anymore)so I turned to a recipe to make your own dry cake mix.
It's just flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.....easy-peasy and items most everyone has on hand anyway.

Cake Mix Recipe

2 1/4 Cup flour
1 1/2 Cup sugar
3 1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt

I sprayed a baking dish and set the oven to 350F.
Mix the ingredients above, add 1 stick of butter(1/2 Cup, melted),1 Cup of milk and 1 Tablespoon of vanilla and stir it all up.
Pour batter into the baking dish.
Open 2 cans of peaches(15 oz. each), reserve liquid.  Spoons peaches into batter, spreading evenly.
Add 1 Teaspoon of ground cinnamon and 1/4 Teaspoon of ground nutmeg into reserved peach liquid and whisk, then pour it over the peaches.
* I also sprinkled roasted almond halves on top since I had some and it sounded yummy.
Bake for 55-60 minutes.
Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream or plain.

Not a great photo and I forgot to take one before it got dug into so not so pretty either. lolz
It tasted good though and cost under $1.50 to make including the fruit(more with the ice cream). ;-)

Costing out the ingredients to make my own boxed cake mix using normal regular shelf prices for this area came to .66¢ which is less than buying boxed cake mix, even on sale here.(Clearance prices it might be less to buy a boxed mix but really, this was quick to throw together from ingredients in my pantry so you can do this instead of waiting for a boxed cake mix to go on sale.

Now if you want to make a regular yellow cake from this dry mix recipe, just add these wet ingredients too--1 1/4 C. milk, 1/8 C. veg. oil, 1 stick of butter(melted), 1 TB vanilla and 3 eggs.  Blend the wet ingredients then add the dry cake mix ones.  Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.


Sluggy

Don't Forget to Enter the Giveaway!!

All you readers who are non-winners of a giveaway yet, be sure and enter the Giveaway!  I only have 4 valid entries so far and the Giveaway ends this Friday.  Enter today, enter every day until Friday.

The Link is HERE.

Maybe more to post later.......

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Goodbye To Food" Edition....

Tuesday we splurged on lobsters as it was the night before I went on my Elimination Diet.

This is what my plate has looked like the first three days.  I am down 9 lbs.(probably mostly water loss)but I am so over potatoes....lolz

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--T-Bone Steaks, Corn on cob, leftover sides(beans, salad, rolls), Cukes in Vinegar

2. Monday--Shrimp Stir-Fry w/Noodles

3. Tuesday--Lobster, Corn on cob, leftover sweet potato wedges

4. Wednesday--Chicken Alfredo Fettuccine

5. Thursday--leftovers or FFY

6. Friday--leftovers or FFY
7. Saturday--what ever Hubs cooks

And this is what actually happened--(everyone else here not me after Tuesday)

1. Sunday--T-Bone Steaks, Corn on cob, leftover sides(beans, salad, rolls), Cukes in Vinegar

2. Monday--Shrimp Stir-Fry w/Noodles

3. Tuesday--Lobster, corn on cob, leftover sweet potato wedges

4. Wednesday--leftovers or FFY

5. Thursday--leftovers or FFY

6. Friday--leftovers of FFY
7. Saturday--Salmon, grilled asparagus

Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 3 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 0 nights of Eating Out/Take-Out. 

Here's what my Wed.-Sat. looked like.......

4. Wednesday--potatoes

5. Thursday--potatoes

6. Friday--potatoes
7. Saturday--cucumber, tuna, potatoes

There were so many leftovers that I didn't make the Chicken Alfredo Fettuccine again so it moves to this week again.

What got put into the freezer last week.....

* 2 portions of Salmon

What got taken out of the freezer and used last week.....
* 1 portion of salmon

* 1 bag of Stir-fry meal
* 1 pack of raw shrimp
* 5 T-Bone steaks

A trip to Weis, a trip to Price Chopper and a trip to Wegman's brought the food/toiletries spending last week to $103.89 and my May total to $407.72.

Over budget.....that's what happens when you buy live lobsters(even on special)and specialty potatoes at Wegman's at full price. ugh.

I have closed out the May food spending so anything bought in the next 4 days will go onto June's tab.

My savings percentage last week was an abysmal  25.31%(without Rite-Aid trips)and May's monthly savings total came to 46.34%(w/out R-A). 

I have 0 more food shopping/spending days in May(4 days left but I am finished shopping).

Leftovers going into this week.....corn casserole, that's it!

Here is this week's "food plan".....

1. Sunday--Brats w/Onions, Corn on Cob, Cukes in Vinegar, Potato Salad, Peach Cobbler

2. Monday--Steak, Grilled Asparagus, leftover Potato Salad

3. Tuesday--Fettuccine Alfredo w/Chicken(I'll have Chicken on Salad)

4. Wednesday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes

5. Thursday--Sourdough Grilled Sandwiches, leftover sides

6. Friday--Roasted Turkey Breast, Stuffing or Potatoes, Green Veggie TBD
7. Saturday--?

This week will see 6 new meals cooked(if I feel like it), 0 nights of leftovers/FFY, and 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating Out and 1 night of ?.

What needs buying for this menu? corn on cob, salad greens, cabbage, slicing cheese and sandwich meats(maybe on that one).  We are out of fresh veg so I'll go Tuesday and hit the restaurant supply store.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week? 

Sluggy  

A Survivor's Story....Part Four, Nancy Has a Happy Ending

Read Part 1 of this story here PART ONE
Read Part 2 of this story here PART TWO
Read Part 3 of this story here PART THREE

So Nancy Randolph, pariah of Virginia Colonial Society, set out from her homeland.
Nancy left on foot and went to her childhood home of Tuckahoe Plantation. By 1800 Tuckahoe was an abandoned relic of it's former glory.  Years later Nancy said she slept at Tuckahoe among the ruins for awhile before walking from one to another plantation in the area seeking shelter and food. She was taken in briefly at these stops before walking elsewhere.  She ended up at Monticello being cared for by her brother and his wife, Thomas Mann and Martha Jefferson Randolph, who lived there with Martha's father, Thomas Jefferson.

By 1808, wearing out her welcome at Monticello, she found a little money from somewhere.  Perhaps her sisters Virginia or Mary got their husbands to bankroll Nancy on this journey or her brother Thomas Mann Jr.  We will never know from whom but Nancy obtained the price of pass and traveled North, to New York City in 1808.

She was staying at a boarding house in Greenwich village when she ran into someone from her past.
That someone, who had been a friend of her long dead father, Thomas Mann Randolph Sr., was Gouverneur Morris.

Born into a prestigious New York family he was the son of Lewis Morris Jr. and his second wife, Sarah Gouverneur.

He studied law at what would become Columbia University and then served in the provincial NY Congress.
His family's loyalties were divided once the revolution started.  He and his half-brother, Lewis Morris were for the rebels yet another half-brother, Staats Lewis Morris was a loyalist and a Major General in the British army.  After the Battle of Long Island the British seized New York City and Gouverneur's' mother, Sarah Morris, an ardent loyalist, gave the family estate over to the British for military use during the war.

Gouverneur Morris was appointed to the NY delegation of the Continental Congress in 1778.  He was on a committee to reform the the American military forces with George Washington.  He pushed for reforms to the financing and the training of the troops after witnessing conditions of the military during their Winter encampment at Valley Forge.  He signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778 and went on to serve on the committee that drafted the Constitution(and was a signer of that document as well).  He is thought to have drafted the the Preamble to the Constitution himself and is often called "the Penman of the Constitution".  He also helped draft the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War.
Afterwards he was an emissary to England then later to France, replacing Thomas Jefferson in that role.  He was in France during the French Revolution and kept a diary of that historical time and his first hand accounts of it.  Gouverneur criticized that revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette.
Upon his return to America in 1798 he won a seat in the US Congress and served there until 1803.

Gouverneur Morris was a man of 55 who had never married when he had his chance meeting with Nancy Randolph in NYC.  Gouverneur is known to have had many affairs and liaisons, over the years, the most notably with a French writer, Adelaide-Emilie Filleul, marquise de Souza-Botelho(who's mother had been a mistress of King Louis XV)and an Early American Boston novelist Sarah Wentworth Apthrop Morton(whom he was sleeping with as late as 1804).

Gouverneur, one of the leaders of the American Revolution, remembered Nancy Randolph as a child(he was 22 years older than her)at Tuckahoe plantation riding her pony, shadowing her father and a grown-up Thomas Jefferson when he visited the family. They began a correspondence even after Nancy left New York to travel to Rhode Island, and then to Connecticut and found menial work there.

Gouverneur wanted to help Nancy in a real way other than friendship.  At that time Gouverneur had a hard time keeping a housekeeper(he thought them all lowly born and crude plus they couldn't get along with the chef and coachman he brought back from Paris with him)so he offered Nancy the job.  It was strictly an employer/employee friendship situation when Morris went to fetch Nancy from Armrstrong's Tavern in April of 1809.

But love seemed to bloom between them and Gouverneur didn't hold Nancy's checkered past against her, and 6 month after the employment arrangement Gouverneur Morris sent for a preacher on Christmas Day of 1809 and married Nancy Randolph on at Morris' estate, "Morrisania" located in what it today Bronx, NY, in front of confused and shocked Christmas day dinner guests there.

Evidently it was a good marriage for the both of them.  Gouverneur wrote in his diary upon returning from a trip to Albany, "Dear quiet, happy home."  Two years after wedding Gouverneur, Nancy gave birth to a son, Gouverneur Morris, Jr. in February of 1813.
Nancy Randolph Morris has landed in a soft, safe place and have the love and life she never thought possible.

Their happy home was shattered in 1816 when Gouverneur Morris, mostly retired from politics, died after accidentally causing internal injuries to himself(which led to infection), attempting to use a piece of whalebone as a catheter to clear of urinary blockage at the age of 64.

He was buried in the cemetery of St. Ann's Episcopal Church, the oldest church located in present day Bronx, the same chapel that was built on the family Morrisania land in 1841.  The Morris family crypt holds many Morris family members, including his father, Lewis Morris, a leader in the American Revolution and Governeur's half-brother Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Ann Cary "Nancy" Randolph Morris raised her son, Gouverneur Morris Jr., as the widow of a much revered American statesman, and reigned over Morrisania until her own death in 1837.

But there is more to tell of this story next time in Part Five.


Sluggy

It's Official!!!

Daughter sent me this text while her and the BF were on the way back to Louisiana.

The boyfriend gave her an engagement ring so it's now officially, she is getting married!!!

This wasn't a surprise as they were already planning their wedding/reception but he had to wait until they were physicaly together to give her the ring. lolz

The wedding is in January of 2020 in Louisiana so Hubs and I have to make arrangement to get there from PA in the middle of Winter.......this should be fun. HA!

I am so happy for her and she's on her way to having the life she wants.

Is it too soon for me to start buying baby clothes? ;-)


Sluggy

Frugal Friday......the May 17th & 24th Edition

I didn't get the time to post last Friday about our frugal wins that week so today's edition is chalk full of two weeks worth of frugaliciousness!
Aren't you excited?!? ;-)

Here goes........

* While at Weis May 10th I got that Friday's freebie........

* While out to Weis(PMITA)Markets last Friday to buy the graduation cake, I got the Freebie.........

Only the coupon didn't come off making it free.  I had my brother and an ice cream cake sitting in a hot car so didn't go back in and stand in line to get my money back so Hubs is taking the receipt/item/printout from their FB page that shows it was free today to get my cash back. ugh.

* Grocery Deals the past 2 weeks?  I can't think of anything I bought that was a great buy other than these..........

The after shot of 3 lobsters gotten on sale at Price Chopper. 8-)))

*  While out running a few errands after Daughter's award ceremony I found money!

A penny in the line at Dollar Tree.  The woman in front of us dropped more change but she picked that up. 8-(

* At the graduation in the lobby of the hall they had a table set up selling items......flowers, water bottles, stuffed animals, balloons, and a large assortment of University clothing.  There was also a Starbucks in the courtyard of the building that was open so you could fulfill your addiction there.  We all resisted opening our wallets and buying any of this stuff.

* The only meal we ate out while all the family was here that week was dinner after the diploma ceremony.  Would have been so easy to just eat out but I didn't want all those extra bills.  My brother offered to pay for Chinese out on Sunday but I said no and grilled us steak and corn instead.

* I sold diapers too..........

7 packs of diapers sold on Mother's Day for $35 in my wallet!

*  And this week I made this much on Thursday..........

6 packs sold for another $30!

*  I got a refund at Rite-Aid for something I returned...........

$3 in cash to go into my R-A refund/post coupon envelope.

* I found more money!
This week when we went to Price Chopper to pick up the cheap live lobsters I picked this up.........

Another penny by a register. Not much but it spends just as well as a $100 bill. ;-)

* Speaking of money, the Ibotta rebate and bonus for one of our motel reservations for our March trip to SC/NC came through.  I made that reservation in February and it was pending since the trip so took 3 months to hit my account. I got a total of $30.51 between the rebate, bonus and 2 other bonuses for multiple items bought in Feb.  I am still waiting on $21.93 in rebates for the other two motel bookings from that trip.

* When Daughter went through her stuff and decided on what to take and what to trash she left these..........

Large rawhide bones and knuckles that she brought here 3 years ago for Cinnamon but her dog never chewed on them.  They were all excavated from the bottom of a large toy basket she had for her dog here.  She gifted them to Chester since he will gnaw on them.

Chester promptly claimed one of the knuckles, drug it into his bed and started gnawing away.
I think what's in that photo above will be a lifetime supply for our Chihuahua as his tiny teeth don't make much headway. lolz

* Other than running errands(grocery store, Rite-Aid, diaper meet ups)I have stayed home this week and worked on taking back and emptying my house.

Free entertainment and exercise! hehehe


That's it for the last two weeks here.

What frugal wins did y'all have over the last 2 weeks?

Sluggy

May Giveaway Time!

I am way late this month getting around to the Giveaway(just a few things going on around here......hehehe) but it's finally HERE!
Yay!!!

Here's what you can win if you are selected this month.........

1 x Centrum silver women's vitamins
1 x Aquaphor lotion bottle sample size
1 x Suave shampoo
1 x Lysol toilet bowl cleaner
1 x Suave deodorant
1 x Cover Girl liquid face make-up
1 x Colgate Optic White toothpaste
3 x Oreo candy bars
1 x Trident gum
1 x Schick disposable razors
1 x Rite-Aid dry mouth lozenges
1 x Colgate toothbrush
1 x Wet n' Wild eye make-up palette
1 x Cover Girl mascara


Close up shots of the goodies..........

Around $50 worth of regular retail goodies(depending on where you shop for this sort of thing).
Lots of May necessities here--things to get you ready for Summer(razors, hair, deodorant, make-up, dental needs), vitamins for all that outdoor activity coming up, lozenges to keep your mouth from getting dry when you are yelling at your kids/grand kids, gum and chocolate to feed your soul and something to keep your bathroom smelling good. lolz

* This May Giveaway Box of goodies is open to any and all readers WHO HAVE NEVER WON A  GIVEAWAY. 

There is a limit of ONE ENTRY PER NON-WINNER YET PERSON PER DAY for this Giveaway.  Come back every day and enter though!

Please tell me in your entry what your big plans are for June...........if you can and what do you can........your best buy at the grocery store last week........your best money saving move.......or something random about yourself that we don't know.........that sort of stuff.
No boring "enter me, thanks" entries.  Be creative!

I'll leave these giveaways open until Friday, May 31st at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. On June 1st  I'll mark all valid entries on slips of paper and have Ex-College Boy draw the winner.

*Please note these rules*
I'll post the name/ID of the winner on this blog on June 1st and that person has 48 hours from the time stamp on that post to contact me privately via email(my email addy is listed on my "About Me" page, as well as on my side bar).

If I am not contacted via email, I'll attempt to contact the winner via the email they supplied with their entry(or gave me to add to the Giveaway Data Base)and if that email is not responded to within another 48 hours I'll pick another winner.

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.  As the cost of postage to foreign countries has gotten too high I am sorry to say I can no longer afford to mail boxes outside the US.  These giveaways are not sponsored by any companies.  I pay for it all(the cost of items given away and the postage to mail it all)out of my own pocket.

***PLEASE NOTE***

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.

If you're not a registered Blogger User with your contact information on your User page, please put your email addy in your comment or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment so I can get a hold of you. If your Blogger associated user profile is a GOOGLE one with those Google Circles nonsense I CAN NOT CONTACT YOU as Google Circles doesn't show your contact info.

If I can't contact you then you can't win.  I am still having to disqualify entries due to this issue and I sure don't like doing that.  Thanks!

So let's get the MAY Giveaway started.  Good Luck to all you non-winners!

Sluggy

All Three are DONE!

My brother arrived on Thursday to attend Daughter's graduation.

On Friday Daughter said she was getting an award(she had told me about this a month ago)and the ceremony was that afternoon.  She had said before this that it wasn't a big deal and she didn't want us to go so I had just filed the info in my head.  Suddenly on Friday she said she wanted us there.

So we gussied up and went downtown to the school's theater.

There were three Chemisty awards and she won one!  She was awarded the Outstanding Research Award in the Chemistry department.  She is with her professors in this photo, Drs. Bradley and Mencer.

 Since there is no Master's/PhD programs at her school she was able to do research and attend and present at professional conferences as an undergrad.
One of those research papers she co-authored/presented was written up in a professional Chemistry journal and was also featured on the front cover of the journal. (That's what she is holding a framed copy of in her right hand in the photo.)

Here she is with her Uncle.
This Award also came with a check too.
Her "this isn't a big deal" thing turned out to be a big deal after all! lolz

We had some errands to run(and Daughter went out with her friends)then it was home to make dinner.

I picked this poster up at the Dollar Tree on the way home.  The only place we had wall space for it was in the front hallway(since the living room/dining room were a disaster with all her stuff packed in there.
Daughter's Boyfriend arrived late Friday night.

Everyone was up early on Saturday for Breakfast and it was a busy, busy day after that.

Here she is all dressed before leaving for the ceremony.
The BF had driven with Daughter and we met him outside later about half an hour before the doors opened.  The line snaked through the handicapped parking lot next door.  On the way to get into line my brother and I both spied a gold ring on the ground but he beat me to picking it up. lolz
We finally got inside about 45 minutes after waiting in that line so I got a bit sunburned as it was a gorgeous sunny day.

Program....check!

Row of family(and BF).....check!

The graduating class and professors processed in from the door right behind us but I couldn't get a picture of Daughter but I did get the school banner as it came in.

After awhile the six whole Chemistry students were degreed.  Daughter graduated Cum Laude.
I told her I was just so happy she graduated Thank de Laude! 8-)))

After 3+ very long hours on crappy seating it was finally over and we took photos outside.

Can you tell I am happy and proud(and also giddy at the thought of getting my house back?!)?

A pose with her Uncle. 

And her little brother.  Daughter use to torment and tease him mercilessly when they were younger.  But now, I reminded him that he can hold it over her that he got his degree at 22 while she didn't get one until she was 27.

And finally with  the boyfriend.

We hightailed it over to the Mexican restaurant for dinner as we all were starving.  I splashed out $10 for this fancy drink(Daughter drank TWO of these since we were paying. lol).
Dinner was low key and I don't remember much of it after drinking this on an empty stomach. lolz

Then it was home for ice cream cake and champagne and presents.  We gave her the requisite Graduation Check like both her brothers got.

Sunday morning it was leftovers for breakfast as Daughter and BF had a long drive to TN...........

I had her pose by the poster before leaving.....

All the goodbye hugs were done and it was time to get into the car.
Cinnamon was very excited for her car ride with mommy and daddy........

Checking the GPS and the song playlist before driving off..............

And then it was all over and Daughter and her dog were gone.

And a few hours later Chester was conked out and recovering along with all the humans in the household.

Then Monday morning my brother hit the road back to Virginia.
But not before posing with his new little buddy Chester..........

So now it's back to taking control of my house again.  Daughter and her dog(and the BF for awhile)were here one month short of the last 3 years.
Three years but for a good reason and now she's edumacated and onward to the rest of her life.
Will I miss her?
Yep.
But it's time for her to spread her wings and fly.

And Hubs and I are officially DONE with educating our children(and mostly paying for it too).
FAFSA can KISS MY LILY WHITE FAT ASS AS I NEVER HAVE TO DEAL WITH THEM AGAIN......PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!

8-)


Sluggy