Days 10 - 12

It's been a very hectic three day run, but good and bad, but worthwhile throughout.

Day 10:
The shells went over well. This is Chris' first time bringing in 'goodies' since switching to this job site / contractor and it was a well received gesture. Feeding the troops goes a long way with this job, for a multitude of reasons.
I spent a great deal of the afternoon working on the baby shower centerpieces. With two weeks to go, it's sliding into crunch time. They're coming out well thus far; I hope that the momma to be likes them as well as I do.

We had a surplus of summer activity freebies that needed to find new homes. I could've started on Thursday and just packed my kids' weekend with crazy amounts of fun stuff to do, but I opted to share the wealth instead.
Freecycle doesn't allow coupon posts ( at least in GR it doesn't anyhow ) so I sought out families who I thought would benefit from the access, and offered some passes for Millennium Park to my near sister in law so that she'd have something fun to do with my niece over the weekend ( said niece's birthday is the 31st and they're really low on funds ).


Day 11:
I spent some time trying to help a friend fix her computer, and as a forethought, because my skills are far from professional, I contacted another friend who works with computers, and arranged for him to aid and assist on Sunday ( AND I have to go along, so that cuts into my "me" time, but it's worth it to help out friend A and see friend B ).

I mailed out some swap stuff and gifted a friend / hostess with a needed wood block and sent another friend a loaner stamp set for a swap project.

We had a slice of good news as well: I wasn't expecting the dollar bank reimbursements for anothet week and a half at best, and when I checked my mail, there they were. It wasn't an exorbitant amount of money, but there was enough to throw some into the 'medical extras' savings account ( we don't have dental or vision coverage, and we have to pay 10% of all ER and hospitalization ) and put some into the mortgage catch up fund as well.

Day 12:
Todays gives were mostly for my family.

I am not a late sleeper by nature. I don't like to stay in bed later than 8:00 / 8:30. But my husband wanted me to stay in bed with him, so I snuggled in and read while he slept. Ended up benefiting us both, but I'd prefer to hit the sack early for cuddly time, but it made him happy, which in turn made me happy.

After a slow start this morning ( we stayed in bed until well after 10:00 - thank goodness I have really good kids! ), Chris and I poked about around the house, made lunch and we packed the kids up and spent most of the day at the zoo. I splurged and paid for Chris and Jennah to ride the Zip Line, and had the line not been insanely long and the boys been over tired, I'd have talked Chris into camel rides, too ( we'll save that for next time ).
Before we went in, we spent a half an hour or so feeding the ducks and geese. Could've used up the errant burger buns at home, but the kids enjoy feeding the foul, and it always makes for good photo opportunities.

After the zoo, we ran some store errands, and our last stop of the day was at Toys R Us. The boys had birthday club coupons to use, and I found some Transformers Titanium guys that were marked down to $3 each. The boys ended up getting them for free, after the sales tax zeroed out as well.

In my possession was a decent savings discount card. Could've spent it, but I knew that we didn't need to. Instead of just leaving and letting it go to waste, I sought out someone who would put it to use. Finding someone who was going to spend fifty dollars proved to be difficult, but the woman who ended up being the recipient was most grateful. She was shopping from a baby registry, so the savings was being put to good use.

Now the kids are fast asleep, and I sent Chris out for a dinner-snack for him and I from Burger King ( also not something we normally do, but it's one of those days ), and we'll settle in on the couch and finish watching 'Valley of the Dolls' before heading to bed.

I hope that you're all having a wonderful weekend.

And now I will depart and resume mine.

Say goodnight, Gracie