Friday Night With the Super Shopper

My friend, Jolinda, invited me to attend the Super Shopper class she presented this evening. I thought that she had already taught me everything she knew about saving money on groceries, but I learned even more! Not only is she a wealth of knowledge but a great teacher, too. I've been using the methods she teaches since she invited me to be her protege for the following news story (click on the video link once you're at the site):

http://www.krem.com/news/local/stories/krem2-112008-super-shopper.1d1239e53.html

Jolinda treated me to DQ afterwards and then we chatted in the driveway until after 11 p.m. I was gone a lot longer than I expected to be so Greg teased me about being at a shopping class for 5 hours. When I tried to tell him how much fun I had and that I laughed a lot, he said we should take the coupon comedy show on the road. Yep! I'm the Super Shopper's Sidekick, the Ed McMahon to her Johnny Carson.

P.S. I really do have enough peanut butter to last a year and a half!

Greg, a Literary (if not hairy) Character

This is a fun backstory to how Greg became a literary hero:

http://blog.annettelyon.com/2009/01/how-not-to-name-character-or-hairy-ape.html

Hmm. Hairy Ape character? Hairy, but not ape-ish.

Snowdown at the Rocking GK Corral

The Rocking GK is the latest casualty of the abundant snowfall over the past month. On Friday morning the roof of the barn at my dad's ranch caved in under the weight of the snow. Greg, Kat and I went out to inspect the damage which is very much. Two beams went through the roof of the "cowboy condo" (horse trailer/living quarters), crushed the roof of the John Deere tractor (it still starts, fortunately) and parts of the roof are sitting on top of the boat. The Sea-Doo's survived unscathed. It's just a big mess and will probably require a crane of some kind to lift off all the pieces.

View from a distance:
Dad and Jason searching for extension cords--trying to get heat to the horses' water troughs:

What a mess--at least the John Deere still starts:

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

We've been experiencing a bit of snow up here in the Northwest. We stopped counting at 30" at our house. Just when we think we can't possibly get anymore snow, the news reports more downfall. The prediction for Christmas day is another 8-10 inches!

Sledding is the only great thing about having a steep driveway!

Our neighbor Jamie (aka "Mullet Man") took Katherine and me for a ride on his 4 wheeler:

From our driveway looking down the street to the East. The 3 brown dots are our neighbors who were out shoveling their driveway.

Christmas Traditions

Constructing a gingerbread house has become a Stevenson family tradition. To alleviate some stress, I buy the packaged kit.

Katherine absolutely loved decorating the house and even took over icing duties after my hand cramped. Most of the candies were placed by Kat and she would have continued decorating all night but we ran out of icing.

We also discovered another help to construction: hot glue gun. It's the best way to ensure the walls stay standing and the roof doesn't slide down:

Holiday Magic!

Twilight-ed

Me, Edward, Jolinda and Kelly

Most of you know I'm not a Twilight-ee. I read the first book, was uninspired by the writing and the storyline, and then didn't think much more about it until near hysteria hit among my friends about a year later. I've listened to my friends rave about the romance between Bella and Edward and I've tried to understand it, but I can't. My reputation among the card/scrap/book groupers is of a non-fan and detractor of the series, but I am still liked (I think) enough to have been invited to the Twilight movie bash and midnight viewing. Although not a memorable movie, the party was fabulous.

Posing with a fab party favor: chocolate & caramel covered apple

Lisa, party planner extraordinaire
Example of the decor at the party. Lisa and her sisters transformed the party room at the theatre into a black and red feast for the eyes, and I'm not including the Edward actor in that statement.

The theatre reserved a room for the party goers to view the movie at midnight.

My New Obamaccount

I am so excited! Thrilled! Elated! In January, after the inauguration of Obama, I will have my new Obamaccount that will pay my mortgage AND miraculously fill my gas tank. It's like the loaves and fishy thing all over again! And that was something that I just read about in the Bible. But this is real, it's now and so fantastic!

I'm compiling lists of things to do with all the extra cash I'll be saving once Obama is paying off my mortgage and keeping the big black beast all gassed up. Oh wait! I'm not going to have any extra dollars because my taxes will be higher! I guess that's okay. I mean, I shouldn't be selfish. Instead, I'll willingly give my money to Obama because he is much more enlightened than I and will know better how to spend the money I earn.

For a long time I felt that paying tithing, saving for Katherine's college and using my resources for good, charitable purposes, and of course selfish things like getting my hair cut or buying deodorant, were noble and necessary. Maybe I was wrong. I suppose I can cut my own hair (at least the front) and isn't it tres European to stink just a little? When I lift my arms and take a whiff I'll be reminded that some poor soul who has been oppressed and cannot work definitely needs the cash more than I do. Who am I to judge if someone needs their ciggies, Jack Daniel, cable TV, and acrylic nails? Really I should count my blessings that I don't have addiction to substances (legal ones, anyway, I really never have tried drugs so how would I know) and that my nails are so brittle from rounds of chemo that acrylic nails won't stick to my deformed nailbeds.

It's been really HARD to work at a job for all the 6 years I've been battling metastatic breast cancer so I could have the health insurance to cover the treatment costs. But there are others who have it worse than I do. I mean, I know a person who is going on disability because she gets headaches. That's got to be tough. I say, "Obama! You take care of my friend with the headaches! And while you're at it, give her good medical coverage, and make it better than mine because I've been soooo greedy!"

That's why I'm so glad that Obama will be making those decisions instead of someone like me. He's such a gift to the world. Whenever he speaks its like a beautiful wrapped package, all sparkly with perfectly creased corners on the paper, and the gift inside is his words. The supreme one warms us all with his soothing voice and the gentle lift at the end of his phrases seems to release thousands of people from the force of gravity. His words are so beautiful and yet so powerful that people (and not just ordinary people, Oprah-types, too) cry tears, buckets of tears.

I cry too. I don't expect to stop crying for about, let's see, 4 years!