Saturday morning we woke up to our share of the winter storm we had been warned about. Sure, it's a bit of a pain, but look how beautiful it is!
I had to shovel a path from the stairs to the gate to even get it open,then from the gate to the car, and to the garage and chicken coop. Behind that blue tarp is the front of the chicken's run. and from there down the whole 45 feet to the coop,it had drifted to well over 2 feet deep. I got the hens fed and watered, gathered eggs, then started digging out the car. In some areas in the drive, it was between 1 and 2 feet deep, but at the top,thanks to snowplows, it was over 3 feet. I shoveled most of it,and a good spot to turn around, but left the areas that weren't as bad. That little Pontiac is awd and goes through the snow like a champ.
We took off about an hour after I was done, to visit Lisa's mother and do some shopping. The roads were still a bit snow covered and slow rolling, but we made it just fine. She asked us to stop and get her some nutrition drinks on the way, and while we were there, I stocked up on 2 packs of safety razor blades, 88 cent sale dish liquid, 3/$4 pain relivers & aspirin. We went to her moms place for a few hours, had a great visit, and headed out for more shopping.
One large grocery chain had a lot of 10/$10, 5/$5, and buy1/get1 sales on things we normaly eat and store, so we filled the cart with those and headed to the next one. There we picked up more good sale items to use and store, but were dissapointed that they quit carrying washing soda. They had everything else we use to make our laundry detergent, but not the soda. We got the Fels Naptha,Borax,and Castile soap, but now we have to find someone else who carries the soda. When we find it,we'll just get4-6 and not have to worry about it for about a year.
After we left there, we had to stop at the drug store for Lisa's prescription,and pick up a few small sale items we needed there too. While Lisa looked through the sale makeup, I went to the area that has bandages and first aid to price check a few things we were low on. I noticed a lot of clearance signs, and picked up a bunch of bandages,iodine, lighted pointed tweezers,and small 81 piece first aid kits at 75% off! The tweezers rang up at $1.25, the kits at $1.50, and the bandages at $1.00. I restocked and added to our first aid supplies for under $10 total. They also had batteries 40% off, so I got two 8 packs each AA and AAA. First aid and batteries are some of the things I *really* hate being low on, so I was happy to spend a few extra dollars at sale and clearance prices to restock my cabinets. We had one last trip to the pet store for dog food, where we decided that when I get paid for some side work this week, we'll buy 2 more, and keep a constant rotation of 3 going at all times. One open in the bin, and 2 behind it in full bags. With money being so tight the past year, some weeks buying dog food was hard at $30 a bag. Now that I have a little extra cash coming in, we'll set up the 3 bag rotation so if things get tight again, we'll at least have the other 2 to fall back on. We store and rotate everything for us, so why not dog food. It makes perfect sense. We got the food, came home, put it all away,and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We got to see Lisa's mom, and restock a lot of things we needed and/or were low on,so it was a good day. I checked back today to see if there were any more of those first aid kits,but they only had one...ahh well. I picked it up and will give it to the kids since I doubt they have anything at all at home.
We've been talking a lot about the diet change, and both of us are on board and doing fine with it. We talked about saving to join a local gym, and someone at Lisa's work offered her a treadmill for free. We picked it up Friday after she got off work, and I wanted to stop at goodwill just to look around. In the back sporting goods area, there was a $10 exercise bike,(cheap because it was missing a bolt in the seat), and a $15 rowing machine. Lisa had enough of their little stamps to give us a 30% discount, so we ended up getting both for $17.50. We flew home, unloaded the treadmill,and went back for the other 2. We ended up rearranging the living room to set it all up in since the basement ceiling is too low for me to use the tradmill. The ceiling is only 6'9. I'm 6'3 and the treadmill adds another 3". That only left me with 3" of headspace, so anything over a walk would be out of the question. It all fit just fine in one end of the living room, and we've been using all 3 this weekend. I'll keep watching goodwill for weights since I see them there once in a while,and we will be all set on our own home gym. We can both now exercise together in the comfort of our own house, save the money required for a 2 year membership, and be able to use it anytime we want. I'm gonna like this. Diet change and exercise together all the way. Lisa is already feeling great, and as of last Thursday hit the mark of losing 50 lbs!!!! She's done such an amazing job that she has inspired me to do the same. I'm not really overweight, but I am out of shape a bit thanks to being off work so long. So with changing our diets and exercising together, it will be another fun journey here at the W house....amd we do love our journey's.
