What A Week I'm Having!

I started out the week with a 3 mile run on Sunday morning. Get this! I ran without music or my Garmin! I just headed out and ran the route in my neighborhood, knowing it was about 3 miles. I managed to get 'er done in under 30 minutes. It felt tough, adding those hills back in, but I persevered! Thinking about all of my From Fat To Finish Line friends running their races that day (Rik, Katie, John and Jen did full marathons and Carly and Lealah did half marathons) made my 3 miles seem like chump change. Can you imagine running more than 8 times that distance????


This week I only worked Tuesday and Wednesday at Mill Neck Manor School For The Deaf. The only bad part of the two days was the hour and 15 minute commute each way. However, it WAS a gorgeous part of Long Island's "Gold Coast," where the very wealthy have their beautiful mansions perched upon hills facing the Long Island Sound. *sigh* The kids were absolutely adorable. It's pretty hard to see toddlers coming in with their parents, learning to deal with their disability and live with their cochlear implants, but it's also comforting knowing there are facilities like this with so many caring and capable staff members trying to make these kids lives as full as possible. I'd love to learn some sign language to be more prepared and capable of communicating with these kids when we return.


What made it an even better week was payday!! My first paycheck was a sight for sore eyes. What was really surprising was that I was only paid the training rate for the first week and then I got regular pay this week! I'm not sure if there's any work for me next week, but I'm hoping that work will be a bit more regular until their slow period kicks in after Christmas! I called the bus company yesterday to thank them for the job opportunity and to let them know that I have started working elsewhere. The woman appreciated me returning her call and said she would save my application, just in case. That's good to know. Never burn any bridges!


Thursday I had to hit the stores to grocery shop. I usually go to Dollar Tree to get things like snacks and cleaning supplies. Sometimes they get brand name items, like Ritz Bits or Chips Ahoy cookies, but it's hit or miss. Well, I hit the jackpot! (AND they accept manufacturer's coupons now, although I didn't have any for these products.)

This would have cost me at least $16+ in a grocery store! I forgot to take a picture of the Fiber One Chewy PB & J bars I got too!

Do you all know how much those things are in the grocery store? The Biscoff Biscuits are at least $3 and the Lay's Stax are around $1.50 each. I'll probably be heading back there for more next week! Fingers crossed they still have them!! Then I went to my local grocery store and found the Pumpkin Spice CoffeeMate! The 32 oz. size was on sale for $3 and I had a coupon for $1.50 off 2! Set for creamer for about a month!! I did fantastic with my store coupons yesterday, but I did even better last week, having a coupon for 5% off my entire order, $12 off $120 coupon,  $5 off $75 (I got 12 of these coupons by spending $25 on an Entertainment coupon book that my nephew was fundraising with! Spend $25 to save $60- DUH!!) and $5 off a $30 purchase. As long as the total is above the minimum requirement, they take it! I saved $32 with just those coupons!! That's how I've been able to just work part-time all of these years. I am a coupon queen!

On top of all that savings fun, I received the 13.1 necklace I won from One Happy Stamper!



I LOVE IT!!! (picture courtesy of One Happy Stamper)

Then, to top the week off I found out I won the Liz's Granola giveaway from Mary over at A Walk In The Woods! It includes 36 individual servings of 3 different flavors, Treacle & Pecan, Pink Apple & Cinnamon, and Belgian Chocolate. Well, you can probably figure out which will be my favorite! Thank goodness they're in individual bags! I need portion control when it comes to granola. I am interested in finding out what a "treacle" is, though! I think after winning these giveaways I'm going to have to come up with a giveaway of my own. What do you think it should be? What have I mentioned that you would be interested in trying?