Couponing

I know I'll never be the couponer that Lorna is, but maybe one day. This is what I got today for $68.69. But keep in mind that $24 of it is the Prilosec. I also used some Extra Care Bucks and coupons. Jerome is on top of the Swiffer refill box.

1 - 10.3 oz bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid
2 - 40 oz Tide mountain spring laundry detergents
1 - 45 oz Cascade dishwasher detergent
1 - Crest 3D Vivid toothpaste - radiant mint
1 - 23 oz Olay body wash
1 - 2 mouth Bounce dryer bar
1 - 8 roll pack of Bounty Basic paper towels
1 - 12 double roll pkg of Charmin toilet paper
2 - boxes of 100 count Puff tissues
1 - box of 12 Swiffer wet mop refills
1 - 12.6 oz Pantene Color Preserve Shine Shampoo
1 - 12.6 oz Pantene Color Preserve Shine Conditioner
1 - Liter bottle of Listerine Advanced mouthwash
1 - 110 count Centrum Silver multivitamins
1 - 30 count pkg of Olay Regenerist Makeup Cleansing cloths
1 - 42 count pkg of Prilosec
1 - 5.25 oz pkg of Nutter Butter cookies
1 - 6.0 oz pkg of Chips Ahoy cookies
1 - 2.7 oz Secret deodarant

Another Update on School of Dental Hygiene

Yesterday Kaitlyn went for her interview at the OU Health Sciences Center. She looked amazing in her outfit with her black heels on. She dwarfed me! It didn't turn out so good in the end, however. They told her when she got there that she was lacking one class (which she knew and was planning on taking in summer school). The catch was she had to have completed it by SPRING semester. They told her to go ahead and do the interviews, take the tour, etc. She was devastated. She said she cried through her first interview. I can't believe that the people who are running the program even invited her up there for an interview! Did they not look over her transcript BEFORE sending out the letter? So this changes up several things and opens different options (what, I'm not sure yet). First, you only enter the program in the Fall semester - so this puts her off until Fall 2012. That means two more semesters of ???? classes including the microbiology class she was supposed to have taken. I don't know who to fault here - her advisor, who should have known this little prerequisite, or Kaitlyn, who changed her schedule around last fall so she wasn't taking two sciences at the same time, or me for not grabbing control of the whole situation and micro-managing it. She has to go to school and take a full load to keep her scholarship, might as well get a degree while she's at it.

Other options she may have are: just stay at the main campus and get a degree in zoology (what can she do with that?) This kind of messes up the living situation for the upcoming year. She and Michael and Kristen had it all planned out that they were moving to the city in May and all 3 living together. Okay, so maybe Kristen and Michael will share an apartment and Kaitlyn will visit a lot! Or if she gets her schedule set up right, she'd come down on certain days of the week for classes and stay with us but still live in the city with Michael.

Apply to another school (Baylor? - not sure how much out of state would be on that one!!!) and she would have to leave Michael here (don't think that will happen).

Change her major (again).

It's tough - she had the grades (3.92 overall GPA), the observation hours completed, the great letters of recommendation, and all the classes but one. Life is a school of hard knocks, but it's tough on the mom of someone who does the right thing, studies hard, has all the skills, and wants to excel. I just have to keep telling myself that this is a "Significant Learning Opportunity" for Kaitlyn. I believe things happen for a reason and I have to believe that God has a better plan for her and will help her figure it out over the next several months.

Update on College of Dentistry - School of Dental Hygiene

Kaitlyn got a letter in the mail yesterday asking her to please set up her interview appointment at the School of Dental Hygiene!!!! It will be one of the next 3 Fridays. She goes for 4 hours - there are three 30-minute interviews, a writing sample, a tour of the College of Dentistry - School of Dental Hygiene and some other stuff. We are so excited and she is nervous. I don't know why, she's at the top of her class with a 3.95 overall GPA and she just made a 91 on an anatomy test where the average was 70. Two girls she used to skate with are in her anatomy class with her. One was even assigned to her table (small world). Did you know they start cutting on cadavers the very first day of class? She said the "body" for their table was a 52 year old woman who was kind of overweight. Go Kaitlyn!!!

Champagne & Desserts

Tonight is the annual fundraiser for the University Women's Association (of which Jann is the president). It is called Champagne and Desserts - where champagne and chocolate and desserts are served then we see a play. This year's musical is "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." The fundraiser is for scholarships for OU students. Jann purchased me a ticket since I designed the invitation, tickets, name tags and place cards for the chocolates. Actually I was "volunteered" to do this. Anyway, Jerome thought he had died and gone to chocolate heaven with all the chocolates we had in the office today (that I drove 40 miles to go pick up yesterday). I personally sampled all 4 kinds - the chocolate mint ones were my favorite - tasted like Girl Scout cookies!!

Valentine's Day

Jann brought me tulips to put on my credenza for Valentine's Day. I'm sure she did it because she is tired of looking at my half-dead poinsettia from Christmas. It was the one I had placed on the altar at church in memory of Mack. Jerome wanted to be in the picture too since he's a Garden Gnome and all.

I also sat him on one of the few small patches of snow left in our backyard. Looked like the Matterhorn to him, I'm sure.

Jerome the Garden Gnome

This is my new friend, Jerome. Jerome is a Garden Gnome and he's going to start appearing in a lot of my photographs. Since my girls don't like me flying up photos of them, I'm going to let Jerome become an honorary Jondahl and he's gonna be in my photos every now and then (maybe even every day). We'll see what kind of trouble he likes to get into. At least he brings me flowers whenever I see him! Today, he patiently sat on my calculator while I played on facebook.

I recently cleaned up my desk area (dusted even!). Now I have it all organized.

Fun Saturday

Saturday was a fun, busy day. I finally went back to Zumba class (hadn't been in 2 weeks because of the snow/ice). I made a decision NOT to go to the Affair of the Heart this weekend. Too many other things to do. Joe and I went to the city early in the day so I could go and watch the Oklahoma Challenge Ballroom Dancing Championships. I sat in the ballroom of the convention hall and watched for an hour or so while he went down to his office and did some work. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the couples dance. I wanted to get out there with them!! It was the Latin competition, which is my favorite - Cha-Cha, Rumba, Swing.

We then left and went to the Oklahoma City Stockyards to meet up with some friends. We were going to eat an early dinner at Cattleman's Steakhouse but I think everyone else in town for the PBR was thinking the same thing. The wait was going to be an hour and a half so we left and went to Texas Roadhouse which was a couple of miles away. The couple (who are both young enough - late 20's - to be my children) brought 2 of their children, a boy and girl (from different marriages) who were both about 6. The little boy brought me a dozen pink roses and gave them to me. He was sooo cute! After we ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse, we all went to the Professional Bull Riding event at the arena. Here are some pictures -- Sorry the pictures aren't real good quality. We had great seats up in the suite but far away from the action. I had to zoom all the way out and my camera is not that good. This is the gate where they let the bulls go back inside.
Here's one of the riders/bulls.

Another rider/bull.
Joe and I in the suite.

The Express Personnel Clydesdales.

Another Prayer Shawl Completed

I worked with one of my Zumba teachers at OU almost 20 years ago. Last summer she somehow tore her aorta in her neck and can no longer teach zumba and I don't know if she's gone back to work at OU yet or not. Anyway, I made this prayer shawl for her. The colors are crimson and white. I'm going to take it to my "circle" on Sunday and have it blessed then I'm going to take it to her. Joe was not supposed to get me in the picture, I just wanted to show the pattern on the shawl.

Snowpacolypse - Part Deux

Well, it snowed again last night. The weather people were calling for 6-12 inches as another massive snowstorm moved in. We only ended up with about 5 inches and it was really dry and light. I could actually shovel it off the patio without killing my back! Jann and I stayed home today. Last week we stayed home for 3 days and then worked on Saturday to make up some work. I'm ready for spring.

Sprung a New Leak

Well, I got to enjoy my new bathroom about 60 days. It has sprung a new leak; this time in the slab. They cut open the area in the closet again to check it out. At least this time I got my clothes out (sorry, Kaitlyn, they are on your bed) of the closet before mold grew on them. Joe and I are so disappointed. This means that they can probably fix it; but because the house is old and the pipes are copper, it will most likely spring another leak on down the line somewhere. We are probably going to have to look into the pipes being put up overhead in the attic. We'll see what the insurance company says to that.

Boredom is setting in....

I saw some little dresses similar to these in a craft mall last weekend. So naturally I thought, I can do that. Anyway, these are little girl dresses made with bandanas and tied with ribbons at the shoulders. They are a little big for Audrey, but I will send them on before summertime. I'd say she probably still won't be able to wear them until maybe the next spring/summer. I know that Heather's mom made Lily some cute little dresses out of pillowcases. Same type of idea.

Snow Day

One of the Texas girls in Kaitlyn's sorority took this picture this morning. Her mother re-posted it on Facebook. I "borrowed" it. We are currently inbetween bands of snow. We have about 7 inches on the ground, it's 8 degrees with wind gusts up to 50 MPH and a -19 degrees wind chill. It's cold. There's blowing snow and drifts everywhere. Pretty much every one was told to shut it down for today. There is nothing left in stores, etc. I think we all learned our lesson from Christmas 2009. None of us had to work today, probably won't be able to get there tomorrow either. They are saying this is the coldest it's been here in Oklahoma since 1996.