I haven't been couponing in earnest the last couple of months. I got behind and did some shops, but nothing fancy. At some point, if you are heavy into couponing and slack off, you get a little nervous about going in for a big shop wondering if you still have your chops...

muwhahaha...

I spent fifty seven cents at Target today. Fifty seven pennies man!!! The poor checker was nervous because it was obvious I had more coupons than the order was going to take. I told her to just stop before it zeroed out so her machine didn't lock up and that would be fine. Boy was she relieved! I think she thought I was looking for cash back...

Nope.
I'm not greedy.
Course I'll want those extra coupons back mind you...

What did I buy?

I thought you might ask:

24 bottles of Visine
10 energy bars
4 quarts of strawberries and raspberries
2 double paks of Listerine
12 bars of soap
10 boxes of bandaids
6 8 oz bottles of Purell

When the shops are this good I always find myself wondering how I can fall off the wagon and not shop like this all the time? Couponing is like riding a bike. You never forget how to do it really...but you don't know that until you get back on. It's a kind of coupon amnesia followed by physical therapy. The swift self kick in the pants you give yourself for loosing focus is the physical therapy part.

It's a shame that I get such a rush out of building a deal.
I remember when rushes came from hitting Dime Draft Night at the Metro, working your list of tasks for Sorority Hell Night (in your face Pledge Mom...still wonder how I did it huh??!!?), field training execises in a Lousiana swamp, or the guy you were interested in finally freaking calling for crying out loud...oh well.

I'm 40 now.
Times have changed.
I'm going back tomorrow for my consumer induced rush and will try not to linger over the fact that it's all just kinda sad really. None of the aforementioned BS being any sadder of course than the present.

Oh! A big bonus is that all of this stuff except for the berries is really useful to our military folks about now. See? When the buzz wears off I can count on a sense of service anyway.

Okay still kinda sad comparatively speaking.

Crossfit
I was in a little bit of a hurry what with all the shopping today, Girl Scouts and the boys PT class-- so when I came home between checking email, supervising the cleaning and vacuuming the car and changing for the gym I made the mistake of wearing some yoga pants which went on a little too easy, but I didn't pay enough attention at the time.

Here's the thing:

The WOD (workout of the day) was

880 run for warm up

40, 30,20 and finally 10 sets of

situps

wallballs (maniacal squats with a ball you throw over your head on the way up and catch on the way down at the end of your squat

Push press (barbells over head in rapid succession)

Step ups/Box jumps (think tall box you either step up and down on or jump up on and land two footed)

This particular exercise is a mental thing for me at the moment. If youbox jump and fall your shins will catch on the edge of this big wooden box...OWIE!!!...I have done this before...hence my being leery of this stupid box or rather my legs being leery. There are times when I swear I hear them tell my brain..."Wait, Wait! We're REAAAAAAAALLY tired right now are you sure you want us to jump up...seriously? Tell you what, Brain, we'll jump right on up there if you promise to short circuit the writhing agony type pain response if we give out and hit the edge of this box here. What do you say?"

No luck, mostly you just stand there and tell yourself to jump and your legs pretend they are deaf and can't hear a damn thing. I'm all about the step ups at this point. Though I think the trainers may be on to me, because while I have had my workouts scaled for the last month...today the trainers upped both weight and repetition...I may have to contend with jumping soon...ack.

Now.
Throw into all this mind screwing the realization the pants you are wearing are getting looser and looser as the workout goes on.

Paint yourself a picture.

Hope in the gym with 20 other sweaty harworking folks,

throwing her arms over her head,
going into repeated squats,
stepping up onto a high box

Repeat....oh say....
100 times!!!

I could not begin to fathom the importance of the right gym wear until I began Crossfit. I usually just throw on anything. As a matter of fact the clothes I generally wear is the stuff I disappear into here and in the gym. Out of habit, I have always worn my clothes too big...only now...well stuff's not staying on me so well. I think a lot of mamas wear stuff that keeps them flying under the radar. I know I have always subscribed to this. The problem with my philosophy is if I keep wearing this big stuff under the radar will be replaced by all over the radar. I'll be straining to press weights over my head and my pants will be down around my ankles...

Yup I think someone might notice.

Sigh.

It's going to sound strange, but I hate shopping. I like stocking the house with food and supplies, but I'd rather eat dirt than shop for clothes--well relatively clean dirt anyway and I'd need some sort of clean dirt certification.

Where was I again?
Oh yes.
Shopping.
That I'd rather eat dirt than shop pretty much sums it up.

JMJ

So I have been thinking that it is time to get back to lists. For staying on top of things I mean. Iused to use them all the time and a big ass calendar on the fridge I used one of those too...why do we stop doing things that are effective and sometimes seem to keep up with stuff that just puts rocks in our wagons? It's assinine and yet a fairly normal state of things for me at times...

I need lists for classes to go to and classes to hold, shopping and couponing, assignments for the kiddos and for my Marines shopping, for my homeschool group and my coupon group...IT sounds overhwelming but it isn't when I keep a list going...right now I fly by the seat of my pants and while I get things done I am feeling scattered. The week was a wild ride, mentally it kicked my ass and yet there were some bright spots.

Writing has been really helpful. I seem to be doing it all the time these days...I was in the middle of this blog and cooking at the same time...somehow dh got online and when he logged off my unfinished post went down with him...oh well...I had more time to think about what needs to happen and so for the week here I go:

1. I need to put up the curriculum I am not going to use and leave out what I am going to use.
2.Mini Packages need to go out to 1st Sgt Mike and lcpl Owen. (I get the impression 1st Sgt is a big papa bear where his grunts are concerned so I need to make sure I send him some things solo or he probably won't keep any of the stuff from the big box I am prepping.)
3. I need to file and cut coupons.
4. I need to shop and get rainchecks.
5. I need to make appointments for the dentist and the doc for the kiddos.
6. I need to file the extra coupons.
7. I need to gather stuff for the homeschool 101 meeting tuesday night.
8. I need to find Joanan's Brownie stuff.
9. I need to prep for their art museum trip on Tuesday.
10. I need to email reminders for Clip and Play.
11. I need to email the contact for our galveston bay fieldtrip.
12. I need to send off letters to the post card swap.
13. Jake wants a chapter of harry potter tonight.
14. I need to ramrod tae kwon do uniforms and snack bags and books for the boys while Jo is at scouts. They have to do it themselves, but they still need soooo much birdogging...geeeez.
15. I need to check Tiffany's work and send out links for her study hours.
16. Mis Sheila needs the catfood we collected when we pick up coupons on Tuesday.
17. I need a menu for this week...just a general idea of what is geting taken out of the deep freeze and what if anayting is still edible in the refrigerator.
18. I need to find all the library books and read the short books Jo and Matthew haven't seen yet.
19. I need to make brownies and set up a bake party for the 1/3 and 1/4 Marines.
20. I need to remind homeschool group about packages needing to go out and to sign up for whatever field trips they are interested in.
21. Joanna needs her room and closet purged and sorted.

Okay so I already feel better seeing it on a neat list...I would have liked an even number...yes, sick I know....

Onward and upward!!! Carpe diem baby!!!