I have been on a hiatus from couponing because I have been out of town or had visitors for over a month. I got back into the swing of it last weekend and bought more newspapers to re-stock my coupons. I got 12 toothpastes, 5 deodorants, 2 packs of floss, and 1 pack of cough drops for $1.69.

What a rush! I know it sounds lame, but seeing a savings of 98% on my receipt makes me giddy.

I am teaching a coupon class next month for my office at work. I hope it goes well!

I wanted a new front door because the old door had a window on it. I normally love windows, but I am a chicken and won’t answer the door when I’m home alone unless I recognize who is standing on my front steps. If I look through the window, then folks know I am home. I want to be able to hide if I don’t recognize the person, unless they are 3 feet tall selling boxes of cookies. I’ll answer my door for them.

Here was our original door. This picture was taken the day we closed on the house and it was the first time walking into OUR home.

Bob’s parents visited 2 weeks ago, so as their housewarming gift to us, they got us a new door and lock. Mr. Spryn even installed it with the help of Bob. Thanks, in-laws!

The old owners had blue accents on the house including the shutters. Luckily I found a can of paint in the garage that matches the rest of the accents. After 3 coats, the new door was looking pretty good! Now I have a small peephole to check for weirdos. I’m talking about anybody related to me.

Out of nowhere Bob said “I want to get my pilot’s license”. I can’t think of anything I did recently that could annoy him enough to want to escape my presence at 150+ mph and several thousand feet above me. He booked a trial flight with Cessna.

I am adamantly against Cessna planes. It seems like every day when I check cnn.com there is a news story about a small plane that crashed and it seems that 90% of the time it is a Cessna. Given my luck with flight delays and mechanical problems on commercial flights, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of riding in a Cessna. It was bound to be my death wish. See that mosquito? They call it an airplane.

First, the instructor explained what every doohicky on the dashboard was for. I was pretty smart because I already knew what the GPS was. Who needs training?

The instructor took off down the runway, and once we were airborne he flipped the controls over to Bob. After 30 minutes of instruction on the ground this clown of an instructor thought Bob could actually fly the plane. Thank goodness Bob has spent countless hours playing video games to prepare himself.

Shortly after takeoff I spotted the Flatirons Mall that I go to. Hi Dillard’s and Macy’s!

Bob flew over my office buildings as well.

Standley lake is in this picture. If you knew where to look, you could see our house in this picture:

It was a hot day- 102 degrees to be exact and the plane didn’t have air conditioning. We also encountered a lot of updrafts due to the heat. Updrafts make the plane feel like it will topple over at any moment. I didn’t like it, but mustered up a smile. If the plane were to crash, I’d want investigators to find my camera so people would think I died on a happy flight.

After about 45 minutes in the air, we were safely on the ground. I was glad to be alive, and glad I didn’t have to use the plastic grocery bags and ziplock freezer bags I stashed in my purse.

Bob, his parents and I came home from eating dinner out and I smelled something burning as soon as I walked in the door. In fact, being a typical Dron I said “mmmm it smells like burning marshmallows”. We put the dogs in the back yard and I threw Paco in my car outside, then searched the house. Mr. Spryn found our garage filled with smoke. No fire, just smoke.

Bob called for help, and it must have been a slow night because 3 fire trucks showed up and 3 or 4 police cars.

I was excited to see ladder 3 arrive. I think of them as my work-out buddies. Several days a week at 3pm that fire truck is parked in front of my gym and a bunch of volunteer firemen are working out. I always feel safe knowing they are there if I ever go into cardiac arrest while working out hard walking rapidly and lifting 8lb hand weights.

They arrived within two minutes, maybe even sooner than that. Turns out it was just an electrical issue with the light in the garage. Neighbours lined the street and walked by to “get their mail” at 9pm. I went over to the sidewalk and met two neighbours that I hadn’t met yet- Debbie and Doug. I think they were disappointed that it wasn’t as big of a deal as all of the commotion made it seem.

I flew to Rochester last weekend for a long-overdue visit home. My cousin Amy and her husband Bryan just had their first baby- Paityn! She was just 2 days old when I saw her. Amy is already grooming her to be a cheerleader. My mom made her cry and she does have a good set of lungs- perfect for cheering!

Some of my friends headed down to Port Bay for a day to hang out. The fellas took the row boat out for a ride and the girls filled water balloons and launched them at the boat.

After a stand-off, Nikki and Brendan went after each other with water balloons.

We took my dad’s boat out into the lake and hung out for a little bit.

The next morning I went out fishing with daddy papa. We each caught three bass! I knew I’d catch something because I was with the fishin’ magician.

On my way to the airport I had to stop at Bill Grays. Mmmmm.