Tell me NY....

I will be visiting NY with my sister and best friend Felicia at the end of the month.  I have wanted to go to New York for so long.  Felicia and I actually talked in high school about wanting to take a Senior trip there.  Although that didn't happen we are excited to be going now.
I want to know about the glitz and glam that makes this city "never sleep."   So here are some things that I plan to find out for myself while in NY.


1)  Does NY really have some of the best pizza?
2)  What is so great about NY water? Does it really taste different than ours?
3)  Is the skyline really breathtaking?  After living in the mountains I really wonder how a city skyline can compare.
4) What is this frozen custard?
5) Are New Yorker's really as rude as people make them out to be?
6)  What does NY smell like with all the business's they have?




I know I have had many more but just can't think of them right now.  I'll add on to my list later.  I am also going to be in the audience of the Martha Stewart Show.  I'm excited to see what the show will be about, I'm hoping she does some really unique crafts and giveaways something nice.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

My favorite cookie is probably the Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie.  Since we are snowed in today, me and mom decided to make some.  They are so easy to make and don't take long at all.  There are two ways you can make these, either on the stove or in the microwave.  We like to make them in the microwave because they are just as good and take only 4 minutes in the microwave to make.  Here is how to make them:



Step 1: Get out all your ingredients and utensils.
You will need:  1/2 cup of peanut butter, 1 stick of margarine, 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 3 cups of oatmeal, 1/2 cup of milk and 3 tbsp of cocoa.

Step 2:   Mix all the ingredients together, except the peanut butter and oatmeal, in a large microwave safe bowl. 





Step 3: Make sure all ingredients are stirred well and then place bowl in the microwave, on high for 2 minutes.

Step 4:  After 2 minutes, take bowl out of microwave and stir well.  Once mixed well, put bowl back in the microwave for an additional 2 minutes.  Take the bowl out and stir well again.

 

Step 5:  Add peanut butter and oatmeal to mix and stir.  Once it's stirred well then you are ready to spoon mix onto wax paper to form the cookies.  We use a tablespoon to make ours but you can choose how big you want them.

Step 6: Let them cool and then they are ready to eat!  This recipe will make around 2 & 1/2 dozen cookies.  Enjoy!

What I'm Listening to

I just got done listening to the Carolina Hurricanes game on the radio.  They won in overtime 4-3 against the Thrashers.  Erik Cole scored the winning goal 2 minutes into overtime!

   

I'm pretty excited that I found this shirt at Marshall's last week. I haven't ever seen any hurricanes clothes there.  It was only $9.99 and I had a gift card.  Score!

The song that I am listening to on repeat is "Country Strong" by Gwyneth Paltrow.  Felicia and I are hopefully going to go see this movie soon.  I love the part from this song that says "You may fool me, and I’ll fall, But I won’t stay down long."  Here is the music video:

I am going with some friends to Winter Jam on Feb. 5th.  There are going to be several Christian bands there so I've been listening to some albums from the artists that are going to be there. Kutless is one of the bands that will be there.  They have a lot of good songs but one that I really like is called "To know that you're alive." You can listen to it here.

Another Teeter Trip

I went with my grandma and my aunt to a different Harris Teeter store on Friday.  It was a bigger store and they were pretty well stocked.  I got $81 dollars worth of groceries for $3.19 after coupons.  I was pretty happy about it since the Finish dishwasher detergent was regular $5.49 on it's own. It wasn't a very big trip though since I had used most of my coupons earlier in the week.  It is amazing to me how much these groceries cost at regular price.  This is why I only shop at Harris Teeter when they have coupon deals.  They will always double coupons up to .75 though so sometimes you can get a few good deals. Time for me to get together these weeks drug store deals.  It looks like there will be a lot of freebies!

This Week's Deal's

There are a lot of reason's to shop this week.  Starting with Harris Teeter's Super Double's.  From today thru Jan. 11th Harris Teeter will double up to 20 coupons per day to up to 1.98.  That means your $1.50 coupons will be worth $3.00!  I went this morning with dad and we did pretty good.  Together we bought $191.03 worth of groceries and spent a total of $21.73!!   We saved $110 in coupons and the rest in Vic sales!   I wish I could have taken a picture of everything but dad was in a hurry to put it all up and a lot of it was frozen or refrigerated items.  So I highly suggest getting out your $1 and $1.50 coupons and heading to Harris Teeter this week.

Food Lion actually has a few free deals this week.  I plan on heading there later today to get free hot chocolate, 8 pk of water, ronzoni pasta and butter.  That is pretty good for Food Lion since they rarely have more than one item a week that ends up being free.

Rite Aid is the drug store to shop at this week.  They have free aquafresh toothpaste, peanuts, wet ones wipes, Gas-X and Visine. They also have a lot of buy one, get one deals.

For those of you who made a resolution to save more money this year, start getting your newspaper with coupon inserts in them.  Where I am from they come on Saturday which is cheaper than the Sunday paper.  Once you have a saved up plenty of coupons you can go to http://www.ourcouponhome.com to find the coupon match ups to every store.  The key is matching your coupons to the sales.  It can be a lot of fun and it is an easy way to save a lot of money!

Job Search

I have been looking for a teaching job since probably October now.  I have interviewed for 2 positions and didn't get either.  For one position a retired teacher was hired.  It is hard to compete with people who have years of teaching experience.  Interviewing for positions has been a great learning process though. I am currently working at my old job at National.  It has been nice working with my old work friends. I have been helping train the new training class this week which I have really been enjoying. I have been applying for other jobs as well. I have applied for tutoring positions and after school program instructors.  I was invited to interview with Mad Science, an after school science program that teaches science to students all across the triad.  The more I thought about it I wouldn't benefit after all the travel that was required for the position.  So now I am about to start substitute teaching which I am pretty excited about.  I think it will be a great way to get my foot in the door and for different principals to know that I am looking for a full time teaching job.  Hopefully the next time I post about a job will be because I have found one. =)

It's a New Year

Thank goodness for a new year!  Last year was definitely not the best year for me and I am looking forward to making this year amazing.  It's been almost a year now since me and Lewis broke up and it still hurts sometimes, especially around the holidays.  But now I am ready to move on and start being a happier person.  I've realized that I have let my past control opportunities I could have had and it's time for me to let go of the past and move forward.  So I have a whole list of resolutions for this year and I know some of them might not be too realistic but I'm going to try and see how long I can keep them.

First, I want to start eating breakfast everyday.  I never eat breakfast and I know how important it is to a healthy diet so I'm going to start eating something every morning.  I also have been reading that having a good meal in the morning will help your appetite throughout the day. Since I want to gain some weight I'm hoping eating breakfast will help.  If anyone has any good breakfast recipes, let me know!  One of the first recipes I want to try is Paula Deen's Homemade Cinnamon Rolls.

Second, I want to get in better shape. It's pretty sad how quickly I get wore out so I'm going to try doing some sort of workout everyday to get into better shape. And I know those of you who know me are thinking that I don't need to get in shape. I'm not trying to loose weight, I'm trying to get stronger and gain more energy.

Next, I want to read my bible everyday and start memorizing verses.  I made the resolution last year to read my bible everyday and I got slack pretty quickly.  I would put it off till the end of the day and then I'd be too tired so I told myself I would just pray instead.  Although praying is important I really could have benefited from picking up the bible a little more last year.  I really want to start memorizing some scripture too because I want to be able to answer people's questions if they are ever questioning God. Last year I actually had several people question me about different things and I would have to look up bible verses to be able to tell them. It would be nice to have verses memorized so that people wouldn't have to wait for me to find an answer.


I'd also like to learn some new things this year. It would be nice to start playing the piano again or pick up my old guitar and learn a few songs.  I'd also like to learn to speak Spanish better.  I've took so many Spanish classes and now to think I can barely remember a few phrases.


And most importantly, I just want to be happier.  I worry way too much sometimes and I need to start seeing the good things that are right in front of me.  It is going to be an interesting year, especially now that I am job hunting and ready to start my career.  I want to make the best of every moment and stop stressing about the little things.