Can Friday Come Any Sooner??? Happy Friday Follow!

Ugh!!!!

I can't believe I let another week go by without posting on my blog. So much has transpired since my last post.

I went to a career fair on Friday to meet with some recruiters from several local biotechnology companies. It was an invitation only career fair (oo la la) so that made me feel somewhat special. I was able to really interact with several recruiters so I felt like this career fair was pretty much productive on my part. No, I didn't get any offers but I am more confident about my job search and expanding my network.

After that, my advisor from a summer internship way back in the day (2004 to be exact) finally responded to an email I sent him at the beginning of the month. I was afraid he didn't remember me since it has been so long but I just wanted to touch base on the status of the project I worked on while at University of Virgina (I LOVE that school!). He stated he definitely remember me and said that the research I worked on was wrapped up some time ago and that he is working on a paper that he has me listed at the second author! That is pretty good in my book to have my name published on a paper involving a project I only worked on during the summer. We will see how this paper plays out. Would be a nice addition to my resume...::smiles::

On Saturday, I went to a baby shower out of town. So that was a busy event in itself that lasted a few hours and left me drained. Sunday is Church day so I went to 8am morning service, did a little grocery shopping, ate dinner with some friends, headed to 4pm service, attended a birthday social, and finally went home.

So there goes my weekend. Sorry Erin for not getting back in touch with you about getting help with my blog design.

Anyway, this week was busy, busy, busy. Not going to get into the details to bore you anymore. I did manage to get some new bows posted on my Etsy shop! I finally got around to making my flower hair bows for the spring!

They are so cute! Zakiah gets compliments from lots of women about her bows (when she keeps them on her head long enough to be seen...lol).

Oh, and speaking of Zakiah...

She took her FIRST steps on Tuesday.

::tears::

My baby is walking. What more can I say?

She is ENJOYING her new ability. She squeals with delight when she steps (more like launches) toward me and Josh. So freaking amazing!!! So much joy! I love my baby!

Oh, and she cut her 7th tooth with tooth number 8 on the way.

Happy Friday Follow! I am pooped so I am going to bed (Finally)

Side note: Why must Zakiah get up at 6:30 in the morning? This is killing me (ok, not really) but I really need to learn how to go to bed earlier. Ugh!

Side note 2: I will try to post up a video of Zakiah taking her first steps sometime today.

Until then...be blessed!

Friday Follow Topic: To Coupon or Not To Coupon

When I go to grocery store shopping, I notice two distinct groups of people: those who use coupons and those who do not.

For a long time, I was one of those people who never gave a second thought to using coupons.

Now, I RARELY go shopping without them.

FYI...coupons=money!

Let me share my reason why I have to have those little pieces of papers:

Ok, so Harris Teeter is a fairly large grocery store chain in NC (and VA, I think).  This week, they are having this huge triple coupon event, where they triple the face value of coupons up to $0.99. So essentially you can save up to $2.97 with a coupon, although I never seen a $0.99 coupon. Anyway, this means you can rack up on a lot of free and cheap stuff.  Check out Southern Savers for an extensive list of free and cheap products you can get with coupons.

So I made my third trip to Harris Teeter today (because they only triple up to 20 coupons per day) and got some 2 packages of butter, mustard, relish, 4-pack of Dannon yogurt, 4 packs of rice, barbeque sauce, and two packs of gum. My total would have been around $25 before coupons. After my coupons were scanned, the receipt showed that Harris Teeter owed me $0.12! HA HA.

This was a first and the cashier and I looked at each other with confused looks. She did not know what to do but I knew that I could not get cash back. The manager had to come over and override something and told me to have a nice day after giving me my receipt. I didn't think my total would come out to be free. I thought I at least had to pay taxes. I am still confused how this played out but of course, I am not complaining.

I walked right on out with my free items.

I heart coupons. So much better than monopoly money! :)

If you want to hop on the couponing bandwagon, check out deals around your area at Hot Coupon World. You will be amazed how much money you are spending on your favorite items when you really do not need to do so.

Zakiah got her first balloon today. Harris Teeter gives away free balloons for the children.  She had a good time playing with it.

So my question is do you use coupons or not?

If you do, what influenced you to start using them?

If you do not, why not?

Do you think it is worth the time and effort of clipping and sorting and being called the crazy coupon lady by the long line of customers behind you waiting for the cashier to scan your pile of coupons? LOL

Happy Friday Follow!

Z and Her First Balloon!

It was such a nice day today! Too bad tomorrow will be cooler and rainy.  Zakiah was such a good sport while we went grocery shopping today.

Don't you love her new shoes? These are her first pair ever bought by her grandpa (my dad).  She wore them for the first time this past Saturday. Before then, she never wore a pair of shoes because we didn't think they were necessary.

With all the cute sandals coming out for the spring and summer, we could not wait any longer to put her in some shoes especially since she is really trying to walk. We got a silver pair too to go with her plethora of spring and summer dresses. Cannot wait to dress her up!

Fun, Fun!