And like so many other things I choose to spend time on, I find myself overwhelmed/obsessed with it. It is absolutely intoxicating and a (positive) outlet for my time. Though I do randomly think, "I really should be knitting..."
When I first started, I was going after everything I had a coupon for. Now, let me qualify that statement... I was not going after things my family did not use- I was only clipping and using coupons for things I ordinarily bought. Smart huh? Not exactly.
I missed out on an AWESOME deal that still haunts me. The John Frieda deal. Target put John Freida stuff on clearance, and with the high dollar coupons that I looked at (but did not clip and threw away) I could have gotten a bunch of it for free. To make matters worse, the darn expiration date for those ill fated John Freida coupons is still not up, so weekly (if not daily) I am accosted on the couponing blogs about how I can STILL get free John Freida. sheesh.
But let's let bygones be bygones, and talk about the deals I HAVE scored. I have grown past the "get everything I have with the coupons" stage to the "let's check the deals this week and see what I can get for free or almost free." I have gotten 8 sharpies, 60 pens, 6 scotch tapes, 3 tylenol precises (they were $.27), 3 ben gays, 4 milka chocolate bars, 4 green giant frozen vegetables, a couple of heinz vinegars, 4-4 packs of dove men+care soap (they were $.79), 4 free men plus care deodorants, several free body washes from dial, 12 sally hansen nailpolishes (they were $.04) some jiff peanut butter, 6 boxes of ritz crackerfuls (they were $.74), 2 free reams of printer paper, 23 free toothpastes, and more.
Unless stated otherwise, all of the above items were free. I know you are anxiously awaiting to hear about my progress, and I cannot wait to tell you about it!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Home Sweet Home and Corby Schaub
Last night my sister and I along with a few of our Jonesboro friends traveled the 2 hours south to Little Rock to see our friend from back home Corby Schaub. We had a great visit as always, though it started out kinda slow... we were all tired, as Corby was on the tail end of a long rock and roll tour, and I am a Mom therefore I am tired. Despite slow beginnings, it ended with a bang as Corby and crew gave the performance of their lives. It makes me so proud that each time I see them play they are better than the last.
The show was like a build up to my upcoming trip home to Texas- seeing Corby was almost like the movie Independence Day where the long ago crashed alien ship starts to tingle and move when the new ones start to come in. Corby and I both felt it- he said he was going to have the best show of the tour, and I was even more excited about my trip home than I already was (if that is possible) just being around him.
This experience is a rare one, and one that I share with very few people in my life. Corby is one of those people and always has been. I must interject that I am blessed to have a wonderful family, the best husband, and great kids who know me inside and out. They love me unconditionally for who I am everyday despite any and all glaring shortcomings and flaws. I cherish these people God put in my life everyday and make a concerted effort to be "put together" for them from dawn til dusk. Truth be told at times it is exhausting to try so hard every day to be what others need of me. That's why nothing can substitute for friends from home.
Friends from home can be proud of and appreciate who I have evolved into while still loving and remembering the person I used to be. Only friends from home ask you questions like "Are you OK with your career? I swear to everyone that you should have been a musician. Hell it's not too late." Friends from home can say things about ex boyfriends that simultaneously floor me and crack me up. "I never knew Will well," Corby said, "But he seemed like the life of the party." He hit it right on the head. "You can imagine how happy my Dad was about that," I said. Corby just cracked up, agreed, and went on to say that he thought Will was a perfectly logical dating choice (I know, right?).
We spoke about the Band Turkey Dinner. We laughed about bundt cakes and our strong aversions to them since the Fredericksburg right of passage which is the Cake Walk. We remembered heart breaks, life changing events, and the resulting repercussions. We talked about the worst losses in our lives and our biggest hopes and dreams. We reminisced about the Peach Jamboree, road tripping to the soundtrack of George Strait, and how to this day any random 80s Strait song on the radio can make me and this certified Rock Star both long for the hills of home.
Corby knows who I used to be and who I still am somewhere deep inside. Corby knows about my indiscretions, bad decisions, who I may-or-may-not have given Mono to in high school. He worries about me, and looks through my put together facade to see the real me. It is unnerving and yet somehow so very comfortable to shrug off everything and just be, if only for a few hours in a super loud club on President Clinton Avenue with Corby, my sister, and 600 of our new found best friends. I am so thankful for him in my life, and for all the other "Corbys" I have, Emil, Shawn, Angie, and Ava.
Ava, remember the time we were running out in your pasture and my brand new shoe got sucked off in the mud? I thought I was dead for sure. Angie- remember showing sheep? I know you do, but I just wanted you to know I think about that every once and a while and smile fondly. Emil- thank you so much for being my computer math partner. And I also remember dancing with you our senior year to Journey's "Faithfully" while all the freshmen girls watched and swooned. Shawn- being a manager with you in 8th grade was possibly some of the funniest times in my life! That and fake slapping Leslie Lees in front of a packed house in the San Angelo dorms. I love you guys, and though you may not be in Fredericksburg when I get there, I'll be thinking of you.
The show was like a build up to my upcoming trip home to Texas- seeing Corby was almost like the movie Independence Day where the long ago crashed alien ship starts to tingle and move when the new ones start to come in. Corby and I both felt it- he said he was going to have the best show of the tour, and I was even more excited about my trip home than I already was (if that is possible) just being around him.
This experience is a rare one, and one that I share with very few people in my life. Corby is one of those people and always has been. I must interject that I am blessed to have a wonderful family, the best husband, and great kids who know me inside and out. They love me unconditionally for who I am everyday despite any and all glaring shortcomings and flaws. I cherish these people God put in my life everyday and make a concerted effort to be "put together" for them from dawn til dusk. Truth be told at times it is exhausting to try so hard every day to be what others need of me. That's why nothing can substitute for friends from home.
Friends from home can be proud of and appreciate who I have evolved into while still loving and remembering the person I used to be. Only friends from home ask you questions like "Are you OK with your career? I swear to everyone that you should have been a musician. Hell it's not too late." Friends from home can say things about ex boyfriends that simultaneously floor me and crack me up. "I never knew Will well," Corby said, "But he seemed like the life of the party." He hit it right on the head. "You can imagine how happy my Dad was about that," I said. Corby just cracked up, agreed, and went on to say that he thought Will was a perfectly logical dating choice (I know, right?).
We spoke about the Band Turkey Dinner. We laughed about bundt cakes and our strong aversions to them since the Fredericksburg right of passage which is the Cake Walk. We remembered heart breaks, life changing events, and the resulting repercussions. We talked about the worst losses in our lives and our biggest hopes and dreams. We reminisced about the Peach Jamboree, road tripping to the soundtrack of George Strait, and how to this day any random 80s Strait song on the radio can make me and this certified Rock Star both long for the hills of home.
Corby knows who I used to be and who I still am somewhere deep inside. Corby knows about my indiscretions, bad decisions, who I may-or-may-not have given Mono to in high school. He worries about me, and looks through my put together facade to see the real me. It is unnerving and yet somehow so very comfortable to shrug off everything and just be, if only for a few hours in a super loud club on President Clinton Avenue with Corby, my sister, and 600 of our new found best friends. I am so thankful for him in my life, and for all the other "Corbys" I have, Emil, Shawn, Angie, and Ava.
Ava, remember the time we were running out in your pasture and my brand new shoe got sucked off in the mud? I thought I was dead for sure. Angie- remember showing sheep? I know you do, but I just wanted you to know I think about that every once and a while and smile fondly. Emil- thank you so much for being my computer math partner. And I also remember dancing with you our senior year to Journey's "Faithfully" while all the freshmen girls watched and swooned. Shawn- being a manager with you in 8th grade was possibly some of the funniest times in my life! That and fake slapping Leslie Lees in front of a packed house in the San Angelo dorms. I love you guys, and though you may not be in Fredericksburg when I get there, I'll be thinking of you.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Rain Rain go away
As I sit here and watch the rain come down, I have to think about Canada. Oh, those happy little Canadians upstream that are probably thinking what a nice spring they are gonna have. Warm in front of their fireplaces, eager with anticipation. Down here in the Delta, we hope their spring holds off just a little longer, as the Mighty Mississippi is overburdened as it is, pushing tributaries backwards, and we are watching the waters rise, rise, rise.
In 1927, the worst flooding in American history started this same way- unseasonably wet winter for us, lots of snow melt in Canada. Build the levees higher, that was the verdict. Most of the levees built were breached, and the ones that held did little but hold water in- not keep it out.
Of course, we are so advanced and smart in now and have the Corps of Engineers looking out for us, and something like that could never happen again (remember New Orleans?)... And as papers talk of comprimised levees, and cresting points this weekend, it rains.
The one thing no one has mentioned is if it rains in Canada, our waters rise. If it rains in Kansas, our waters rise. The Mississippi drains half the U.S. if not more, and when it rains anywhere to the North, we end up with it.
How prophetic- Northern problems always wash downstream, leaving them with hope while forcing us into despair. Isn’t that how history usually goes?
So I sit here, and watch the rain.
In 1927, the worst flooding in American history started this same way- unseasonably wet winter for us, lots of snow melt in Canada. Build the levees higher, that was the verdict. Most of the levees built were breached, and the ones that held did little but hold water in- not keep it out.
Of course, we are so advanced and smart in now and have the Corps of Engineers looking out for us, and something like that could never happen again (remember New Orleans?)... And as papers talk of comprimised levees, and cresting points this weekend, it rains.
The one thing no one has mentioned is if it rains in Canada, our waters rise. If it rains in Kansas, our waters rise. The Mississippi drains half the U.S. if not more, and when it rains anywhere to the North, we end up with it.
How prophetic- Northern problems always wash downstream, leaving them with hope while forcing us into despair. Isn’t that how history usually goes?
So I sit here, and watch the rain.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Aunt Caroline Dye
I have an atypical Park Interpreter station here at Parkin Archeological State Park. The largest part of my job seems to be researching Arkansas History. Arkansas is an exceptionally colorful state, with complex and vivid stories about things you wouldn’t believe, not even if I told you. This is one of those great Arkansas stories- the story of Aunt Caroline Dye.
One of Arkansas’ biggest Blues legends wasn’t even a Blues singer at all. “Aunt” Caroline Dye, of Newport Arkansas, passed away September 26, 1918. Born a slave in Spartanburg South Carolina, immigrating to Arkansas some time in young adulthood, much of the rest of Caroline’s history is the stuff of Arkansas legend.
Well, I’m going to Newport just to see Aunt Caroline Dye.
Well, I’m going to Newport just to see Aunt Caroline Dye.
She’s a fortune teller, Ooh Lord, She sure don’t tell no lie.
Hoo Doo Women, Johnny Temple
Caroline’s exceptional abilities started as a young child. When she was 10 years old and still a slave on the plantation, she was helping to set the table for Thanksgiving Dinner. She started insisting that they had not set enough plates, that Mister Charley was coming. Charley was the Plantation owner’s brother, who was thought to have been killed four years earlier in the Civil War. Sure enough, later that day Charley came walking in the door. The family couldn’t believe it! He relayed the fact that he had been wounded, taken prisoner, and had not had the chance to come home until that day. No one ever knew how she could have guessed such a thing, and all her little coincidences really started to be noticed after that.
“White and colored would go to her. You sick in bed, she raise the sick. ... Had that much brains — smart lady. ... That’s the kind of woman she was. Aunt Caroline Dye, she was the worst woman in the world. Had that much sense.” Band Leader Will Shade
Hers is an interesting Arkansas story- the story of an uneducated, African American woman who amassed a small fortune as a wealthy landowner, rental property entrepreneur, and most importantly, as a seer and rumored hoodoo woman- all of this while being unable to read or write. She is one of the most prominently featured women in the Delta Blues- though she herself was never a musician. The great Blues artists couldn’t keep away from her legend in their songs, too numerous for me to list them all here.
And she told my fortune as I walked through the door.
And she told my fortune as I walked through the door.
Said, “I’m sorry for you Buddy. Ooh Lord, your woman don’t want you no more.” Hoo Doo Women, Johnny Temple
Caroline became famous all over the Midsouth for her otherworldly abilities. She never advertised or charged for her services, but everyone always paid for them, one way or another. Affluent people from far and wide sought her services and feared her verdicts. Many prominent people would not make major decisions without at first consulting her, and if they could not bring themselves to consult her because of whatever reason, they did their best to avoid her altogether.
(Of Dye in her heyday) “…it is doubtful that even the name of President Wilson was more generally known.” John Quincy Wolf, Arkansas Folklorist
Speaking of the President, there was at least one Governor who took complete stock in her abilities. Governor-elect Donaghey refused to be inaugurated on either the 13th of the month, or on a Friday. He declared he had no desire to take the oath of office on “hoodoo” day. When asked when he thought the inauguration would take place, he replied “Probably Thursday the 14th or Monday the 18th. Wednesday the 13th, would of course be a bad day. Friday would never do.” New York Times article, published January 6, 1909.
Aunt Caroline Dye she told me, "Son, these women don't mean you no good." Aunt Caroline Dye she told me, "Son, these women don't mean you no good."Said, "Take my advice and don't monkey with none in your neighborhood" Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues, The Memphis Jug Band 1930
Celebrated by many, feared by most, Caroline Dye is an excellent example of a strong Arkansas woman having a profound effect on our history. Through the Delta Blues, many of her lessons are still available to the masses. An atypical muse, Caroline influenced some of the greatest blues songs ever written, maybe even the best blues song ever written- W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues.
Now dat gyspy tole her, “Don’t you wear no black,
Now dat gyspy tole her, “Don’t you wear no black,
Go to St. Louis, you can win him back”
St. Louis Blues, W.C. Handy
Do you believe her? Get out sometime in our own backyard and explore history here in Arkansas- Aunt Caroline would tell you it’s a good idea.
One of Arkansas’ biggest Blues legends wasn’t even a Blues singer at all. “Aunt” Caroline Dye, of Newport Arkansas, passed away September 26, 1918. Born a slave in Spartanburg South Carolina, immigrating to Arkansas some time in young adulthood, much of the rest of Caroline’s history is the stuff of Arkansas legend.
Well, I’m going to Newport just to see Aunt Caroline Dye.
Well, I’m going to Newport just to see Aunt Caroline Dye.
She’s a fortune teller, Ooh Lord, She sure don’t tell no lie.
Hoo Doo Women, Johnny Temple
Caroline’s exceptional abilities started as a young child. When she was 10 years old and still a slave on the plantation, she was helping to set the table for Thanksgiving Dinner. She started insisting that they had not set enough plates, that Mister Charley was coming. Charley was the Plantation owner’s brother, who was thought to have been killed four years earlier in the Civil War. Sure enough, later that day Charley came walking in the door. The family couldn’t believe it! He relayed the fact that he had been wounded, taken prisoner, and had not had the chance to come home until that day. No one ever knew how she could have guessed such a thing, and all her little coincidences really started to be noticed after that.
“White and colored would go to her. You sick in bed, she raise the sick. ... Had that much brains — smart lady. ... That’s the kind of woman she was. Aunt Caroline Dye, she was the worst woman in the world. Had that much sense.” Band Leader Will Shade
Hers is an interesting Arkansas story- the story of an uneducated, African American woman who amassed a small fortune as a wealthy landowner, rental property entrepreneur, and most importantly, as a seer and rumored hoodoo woman- all of this while being unable to read or write. She is one of the most prominently featured women in the Delta Blues- though she herself was never a musician. The great Blues artists couldn’t keep away from her legend in their songs, too numerous for me to list them all here.
And she told my fortune as I walked through the door.
And she told my fortune as I walked through the door.
Said, “I’m sorry for you Buddy. Ooh Lord, your woman don’t want you no more.” Hoo Doo Women, Johnny Temple
Caroline became famous all over the Midsouth for her otherworldly abilities. She never advertised or charged for her services, but everyone always paid for them, one way or another. Affluent people from far and wide sought her services and feared her verdicts. Many prominent people would not make major decisions without at first consulting her, and if they could not bring themselves to consult her because of whatever reason, they did their best to avoid her altogether.
(Of Dye in her heyday) “…it is doubtful that even the name of President Wilson was more generally known.” John Quincy Wolf, Arkansas Folklorist
Speaking of the President, there was at least one Governor who took complete stock in her abilities. Governor-elect Donaghey refused to be inaugurated on either the 13th of the month, or on a Friday. He declared he had no desire to take the oath of office on “hoodoo” day. When asked when he thought the inauguration would take place, he replied “Probably Thursday the 14th or Monday the 18th. Wednesday the 13th, would of course be a bad day. Friday would never do.” New York Times article, published January 6, 1909.
Aunt Caroline Dye she told me, "Son, these women don't mean you no good." Aunt Caroline Dye she told me, "Son, these women don't mean you no good."Said, "Take my advice and don't monkey with none in your neighborhood" Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues, The Memphis Jug Band 1930
Celebrated by many, feared by most, Caroline Dye is an excellent example of a strong Arkansas woman having a profound effect on our history. Through the Delta Blues, many of her lessons are still available to the masses. An atypical muse, Caroline influenced some of the greatest blues songs ever written, maybe even the best blues song ever written- W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues.
Now dat gyspy tole her, “Don’t you wear no black,
Now dat gyspy tole her, “Don’t you wear no black,
Go to St. Louis, you can win him back”
St. Louis Blues, W.C. Handy
Do you believe her? Get out sometime in our own backyard and explore history here in Arkansas- Aunt Caroline would tell you it’s a good idea.
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