too much to do but still on a french food kick....

I finally started school back up again at the end of August, and I've been so busy ever since. My first exam is this week and I feel like all I can do is study, study, and study some more. Too bad that's not all I have to do. Instead I have to cook, clean, and wash.
Somehow I managed to invite 5 people over for lunch wed. with a promise of duck. I love eating duck but it takes awhile to cook, so there does my being able to sleep in. The first time I ever ate duck was in Paris in a little restarunt right of the Champs Elysees Avenue. I have since cooked it twice for family, and wish I could eat it more often. Too bad it costs a little too much money to actually afford to eat it on a regular basis. Surprisingly duck is only $2.99lb, but you have to get about 5lbs just to feed four people. I'm also planning on making a dish with butterrnut squash, shitake mushrooms and cherry tomatoes all seasoned with rosemary and roasted. Basically we are going to be eating a thanksgiving style lunch just for the fun of it. I figured all the guys deserve it because the next day they will have to start their eight days straight. I also wanted to make escargot. I did a little research and discovered that you can actually uses snails form your garden to make it. Yeah! I can make Fancy French. But to  make sure that they don't have any poison you have to keep them in a jar for two days, so I decided it would be fun to make them for dinner one night. So my husband and I headed outside to collect snails. Normally we are over running with them, and they climb up the walls of the house, but I guess luck wasn't with me because the only ones we could find were the ones the climbed so high they died. Now i'm hoping for rain to bring out the snails just so I can try making escargot. 

It's been awhile...a bunch changed

So a bunch has happened since I last posted. I had to give up my glass of wine as a stress reliever because... I'm pregnant. We had been trying for several months and it finally happened. I'm offically 12 weeks along, and really excited. The morning sickness has been a pain, but getting better. I also re-enrolled in school. So it's going to be a busy few months. Hopefully I be able to write a little more in the next few days, I do have to say thank goodness for public libraries lending movies. I don't think I would have survived with only bunny ears and "all day sickness" without being able to go grab a few free movies that I could throw on whenever I felt really bad. Well 4am is going to ocme early so I better head to bed. Yeah I mnow have to get up at 4am to make my husband breakfast before he heads to work. Neadless to say I head back to sleep as soon as I possibly can. But I didn't prepare anything today so I'm going to have to do it all in the morning.... including cooking bacon (hopefully I don;t burn myself again!)

Making decisions is hard...

Before I got married I lived at home with my parents. This didn't necessarily set me up for running a household of two. There are a great deal of decisions that have to be made that I never really thought about. I expect that you walk in and the lights will be on, the cell phone bill paid, the TV to have cable, insurance on the car, health insurance, water, internet, and food in the fridge. I never considered that all of these items required a decision to be made about which company to use. They can be expensive.
We live in area that doesn't allow basic cable or at&t. We have to use dish if we want any service that allows the movie channels and so forth that I'm use to. Before I married, I had over 900 channels plus movies on demand with the click of a button. I didn't realize how much that cost. I looked into getting dish at the house, but I have to say it really wasn't worth the price to us. Instead, we opted for the rabbit ears to at least get the news. For the past four months we had 4 channels. Going from 900+ to 4 channels is a big difference. The 4 channels are free though (well after buying the adapter). This weekend a friend had an extra rabbit ear set that was different from the one we had picked up. After a couple of days of playing we now actually get 13 channels. We are so moving up in the world.
TV was an easier decision with an easy fix. We found a cheap way to get something that isn't a necessary but desired. We also borrow movies from the library (for free) for when nothing is on. And occasionally rent a movie from redbox. You can't beat getting a new release for $1, and we only keep them for one day. The electricity was luckily already on, he lived in the house months before we ever got married, so he had taken care of the situation. The water goes throught tha landlords. And we both kept our cell phones before the wedding. The tough one came to car insurance.
I spent weeks looking online at car insurance information, the companies, and the pricing. After getting really really fustrated and not understanding anything about it I left the house in a rush, we needed insurance the next day, and headed to nationwide. (They had the cheapest rate when I looked online before I started trying to buy it and it jumped from $100 to $300. ) I spent longer than normal at nationwide, because nothing would go right for me that day. I finaaly got car insurance at a great rate, and less than the internet ever quoted me.
Now it's time for another type of insurance, health. That's right I know have to get health insurance and his company insurance isn't that great so go public right. Here's the problem we will move every year or so for a while still. My husband works in construction, and we have to move when the next job starts up. So buying insurance that will only cover me in this area isn't a good idea. So it was recommended that I get something liek united health or blue cross blue shield. I've looked into them and they can be expensive or have no coverage. I don't really get sick and go to the dr. because I hate hospitals and dr.'s offices. So not having much coverage isn't that bad of a deal, excpet we are trying to have a baby. Guess what any insurance I can find that you are not required to visit a dr. in a certain area doesn't cover materninty, but they do cover birth control. Which I find a little off. Shouldn't people be praised for having children and raising them (especially if they are married). Insted the compaines are encouraging promescuity. They really wont cover anything if you opt to use a midwife instead of going to a dr. So what is a chrisitan woman to do. Luckily for me one of my sister-in-laws know about a christian ministry program that allows for medical coverage. It even helps with maternity care and midwives. The whole concept of the program is christians helping other christian with monetary needs due to medical issues. I've requested information and am considering this as a great option and an answer to my prayers.

Little Lost River

This book is little known and is by a new author. I have to admit the only reason why I read the book is it is by an old college professor of mine. I took an advanced composition class with her and never got to read her own writing. They always say those who can't do teach. Well whoever said that didn't read this book. I honestly couldn't put the book down, and have recommended to several other people. I don't want to give to much away, so I wont say much more. But this is a book worth adding to any bookshelf. It's a great story of two female friends who go through life changing situations together.
Here's the description of off amazon.com:

" Set in Boise, Idaho in the early 1980’s, Little Lost River is the story of two young women who come together in the wake of tragedy. Cindy Morgan is still reeling from the loss of her mother when an accident leaves her boyfriend missing and presumed drowned. When Frances Rogers happens upon the accident site, she stays with Cindy until help arrives. In the aftermath of that night’s events, as Cindy faces her future with a determination often misunderstood as indifference, Frances becomes her source of both support and compassion.
Cindy and Frances are determined to find their own lives unencumbered by conventional expectations, but their path to adulthood is neither easy nor clear, and the future that each girl finds is not what she expected or planned. One generation follows another, and in the end the girls learn that life moves on its own path, that 'transformation is what takes you forward. It’s the only constant thing.'"

trading books

I love to read and have somehow collected 4 bookshelves full of books. Don't get me wrong this is a good thing, unless you are like me and tend to move a great deal. I have moved 18 times in my life and packing up all those books, moving them, and unpacking them if worth it as long as the books are good. I have, however, seemed to collect what I call guilty pleasure books (books that you love to read, but don't admit it to anyone). While at one point I have enjoyed reading these books they no longer give me the same feeling. My mother-in-law (wow that's still weird to say after 4 months) told me about this website that allows you to trade your books with other members. I have since joined to different websites and both have their ups and downs. My favorite on is bookmooch.com. You get points for posting books, trading books, and getting comments when people receive books. The points you get for trading books are given to you the moment you agree to trade the book, even before it is mailed. This site allows you to trade for more books than you actually give away. People also set up deals to get ride of more books by allowing you to get 3 books for only 1 credit or other variations. The down side, for me at least, is that the books I'm looking for are not always available. So I joined paperbackswap.com. This website gives you 2 credits for the first 10 books you post and the 1 point for every book you give away. So you basically only get 2 extra books for every book you give away, but it is a little more known so finding the books you are looking for yields positive results more often. You don’t get the point until the book is shipped (if you buy the postage from them or until it is received if you buy postage on your own. Also members can not give back points to the people swapping books so it’s not as good of a deal as the bookmooch is. It cost about $2-$3 to mail a book and while you may be able to pick up some books at the ½ price bookstore for the same price but I figure sometimes you’re getting better books. Overall, it doesn’t require you to dig through unorganized bookshelves and you get to clean off your shelves at the same time.

Walmart is it really worth it

I use to love Walmart. When you grow up in a town that has a grocery store, walmart, and not much else you learn to do all your shopping there without thinking about it at all. Now that I have more options and can really choose were I spend my money, I have learned to hate walmart. I always forget how much until I go back in to pick up a few things. I'll admit walmart has some great deals. Including their $5 sodas and the snack food section that they have is good variety (better than anywhere else I've found). But the poeple that work there are usually rude, and now when you shop you have people asking you to sign up for the credit card while you shop. Maybe they should spend the money and have them asking people if they need help instead. Getting back to customer service that is severally lacking. The greeters still stay hello to you at least 50% of the time and if your lucky they will even look at you when they say it. I finally broke down and went to walmart today to pick up snack stuff to place in lunches, when I went in I realized I needed onions as well and didn't want to make another stop for just them. It was my lucky day I guess because they were on sale for $.49 instead of the dollar plus that they normally are. Instead of just picking up one as planned I went ahead and grabbed a couple. At that price I couldn't help it. I continued my shopping and went to pick up a movie I wanted to see Remember Me. I had looked online and at Walmart it was on sale for $12 and I had a coupon for $8 off. I could own the movie for the same as renting it. But when I got to the electronics section the move was $20 not what I was expecting. I finally spoke to an employee to find out that it is typical for items to be cheaper online than in the store. You can't get the online price in the store because walmart doesn't compete with itself. If someone else advertises it for a cheaper price then they will match it (Well, I don't know about you but if someone else charges less at walmart I'm going there just to avoid Walmart even if it is out of my way). So I finished my shopping minus the movie I was going for, and headed to check-out. The lady started ringing everything up, and then the last item came. Remember those onions that were a great price so I picked up several. Yeah that comes back up again. They ring up as $1.52 a lb. not the $.49. Now a couple of cents different I might not have said anything just so I could get out of the store, but that is a major price difference. So the cashier had to walk all the way over to the produce section and look because she didn't believe that they were on sale. I think if I have to buy anything else at walmart I'm going to start a list of what it costs on the shelf and check it against what they ring up at the register. I just wonder what I have missed not only at this visit but also on others. How much money do they really make on people who just let things ring up and expect them to be right. This isn't the first time I've heard of items on sale ringing up as the original price.
One positive note after all my ranting and raving I saved $9 by using coupons.

saving money

I never understood how difficult it is to go shopping with coupons. I'm used to being handed the debit card a list of groceries needed and no spending limit. I'm married now and all of a sudden I have to go shopping every week for all of the groceries and doing it on a budget. Shopping with coupons doesn't just require picking up the Sunday paper after church and cutting out the ones you need. It's also looking online for the everyday brands that weren't in the paper. Then comes the hard part... shopping. First, you have to remember what coupons you have and how much they save you. Then you look at if your better off using the coupon or buying a different band. There is also store coupons to consider. By the time I go through the store and try to save as much money as possible I just spent 2 hours in the store. But I have nothing else to do and it's worth the $20 I saved this week around. I'm sure I'll get better at the whole proccess (and maybe cut down on the shopping time).