Date night

So I am super excited to say that last night Josh and I actually had a date night, where we go out of the house. We make date nights in the house and watch movies and do something neat for dinner, but seeing as it was the end of the month and we had been so good and disciplined with our budget we had a little wiggle room to splurge on a movie. So, we decided to go to the summit and look around before we saw the new Bond movie. We thought we might be able to pick up a few Christmas present for the family there, no luck. We did however venture in the ATT store. We have netflix (our way of not getting cable) and had the Bond - Casino Royal just a few weeks ago. That was probably my favorite Bond. This Bond - Quantum of Solice was pretty good too. Some parts were hard to follow, but Daniel Craig is by far my favorite Bond. I hope they keep him in the spotlight for a little while. OO, and my free twizzlers that I got on Thanksgiving day (prior post) were real tasty, I snuck them into the movie of course. O which leads me to something else. Movies here are way cheaper than back home. Josh and I went to an evening movie for 14 bucks. That is crazy talk. We also filled up my gas tank at 1.50 a gallon which was about 17 bucks. CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY and Obama wants to give us a stimulus package for what, Gas is down more money is already in our pockets. Politicians are stupid, I should make that into a bumper sticker or something.

Ok, so the reason we went to the ATT store, I have been wanting a new cellphone for Christmas. Well months ago I had done all the research and narrowed it down to a couple that I liked. It was time to actually go to the store and play with the phones to see which one I liked the best. Well, in a prior visit to a store all by myself I learned that one of the phones I had on my list, the Blackjack II, had been upgraded and now had a newer version called the Blackjack Epix. Well, it is a super new phone now right so good news and bad news. Good news the Blackjack II that I wanted is on sale better now 79.99 (as of right now). I am waiting on Heidi to let me know what the December deals are so I can shop around and get the best deal. More good news the new Blackjack Epix is awesome, way better than its predecessor. So, that leads to the bad news, the Epix is 199 bucks. Yeah pretty big difference. You know it just came out so it is at its highest price point. I know in a couple of months too it will go down and I will be so ticked off.

This leads me to my readers. What would you do in this situation? I am curious. I went last night to play with it more to make sure I really wanted the newer one and yeah I do. It is way better. So, let me know what ya'll would do in my situation.

Cheap Skate #1

Josh has told me that I should post some of my savings tips and bargain finds on the blog. I am not sure how well I will be able to keep this up, but I will do my best. If it seems like ya'll (my readers) want to know more that might help me keep it up.

Ok. Last week I was getting my weekly freebies from CVS. I am always sweet with the cashiers. Sometimes they know I am going for the free stuff and offer up any information they might know about future freebies. Well, this cashier was a godsend. She asked me if I was aware of the Thanksgiving ad that had an entire page of freebies. I said no. She proceeded to give me that ad so that I could be prepared Thanksgiving day. This was awesome because I only get the Sunday paper and the following Sunday paper did no have this ad included. So, if it hadn't been for this cashier I would have had no clue and missed all these freebies. I should say they were more then freebies, CVS paid me 30 dollars to take these home.

So, I probably have your attention now with the 30 bucks. This is how it works. CVS is a drugstore that has a reward system called "extra bucks." Every week there are promotional extra bucks that make items free, but Thanksgiving day I hit the mother load. How it ends up that they pay you to take it home, if you have coupons. If you use coupons you still get the full price for the item in extra bucks. Extra bucks are like gift certificates that you can use to purchase whatever you want at CVS. Most times I will break up my orders into multiple orders so that I can turn around and use some of the extra bucks to purchase more freebie items and in-turn get more extra bucks. CVS posts an ad online every week of their deal and there is always an ad in the paper. Also, you can use a website that I use couponmom.com. You have to register which sometimes you get some junk mail, but it is all from her. Again though it is totally worth it because I use that site for a bunch of things. She does a lot of bargain searching for me sometimes, especially on those weeks were I don't get the paper.
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Attached you'll see a picture of most the freebies I brought home at 2am. Yes you saw correctly, 2am. the sale start Thanksgiving Morning at 1am. You know if I would have waited till the morning they would have been all gone, they were all gone once I was done checking out. It was really fun there were about 10 other women in line that were just like me, only there for the freebies. I have no clue how CVS makes money, but hay I am cashing in while I can. In the picture you'll see I got Aussie Shampoo & conditioner, 3 G2 drinks, Johnson and Johnson lotion, Tampons, 2 tubs of toothpaste, Twizzlers, and lots of make-up. I also got a set of ear buds, but Josh has already stole those.



Another tip I should mention is to read the fine print for each extra buck item. A lot of times you can get more than one item. For example, the extra bucks on the G2 were good on 3 per household. So that means you can get free and get extra bucks for all three. Even better if you had three coupons for them all. I hope you see how this works. Please if you have any questions post them and I will post a follow-up for this edition of Cheep Skate. I hope I can keep this up.

Update by Shana

I know we haven't been good at all with the updating. I am learning a few more things though that I can do to update. I just figured out that I can take pictures with my phone and email them to myself to post here on the blog. That is a huge leap in technology for myself. The picture you saw on here a few days ago of our first snow was taken on my phone. I know bravo.

Well, Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I am excited for some days off. Josh and I will be celebrating Thanks with new friends we have made here. We are all sharing the responsibilities of cooking at their place. I hope I am good and remember to take my camera to take pictures.

Bogie and Zoe are doing well. Zoe is in love with a pure-breed boxer named Calvin. Bogie isn't jealous at all. He seems to like the relief of her gone every now and then when she goes on a date with Calvin. So, obviously Calvin is a reformed christian (you know I am joking right) so we are very pleased with her choice of companion. Not to mention she has chosen a pure-breed, we always knew she liked the high life. Well, that is enough of my story telling. Seriously thought, Zoe loves running in the fields with Calvin they are so funny to watch. Maybe one of these days I will get a little video of them doing so.

Josh and I rearranged our living room, that could be a picture too I guess. We like it. It will only be this way though until the weather changes, warming up, because we are using the couch to block our tiny balcony. I will work on that picture thing here.

I played matchmaker this month. I introduced my friend Heidi to a great lad here named John. I think they would be great for each other. I guess it is a good thing I am not their parents and we believe in arranged marriages because that would be a done deal. O well. I probably went over board with that statement so I will stop now with that.

My parents are officially divorced this week. O well, life goes on right. God is sovereign and he isn't surprised by any path people choose to take here in this life.

I still love my job, and Josh says that the Fresh Market he is working at right now is the best one he has ever worked at.

Ok, as if this post wasn't already long enough, I have some great praise to give to our Lord and Savior. Josh and I have always been great budgeting fools, which we give praise to God for giving us the wisdom to do so. We praise God for the wisdom in our budgeting and the opportunities financially to let Josh go to school fool time, while still being able to pay for it all out of our current income. We have found our self praising him alot lately when it comes to finances. Our economy is in trouble, but we haven't felt much of the pressure because God had convicted us early on to not live outside our means. We have been faithful to him in our tithe and he has been faithful to us in his provision. I hope we never forget this lesson. I hope this encourages my fellow believing readers that even when times are tough, God still calls us to give what is already his. This Christmas season I hope you'll give even more as a Christmas gift or offering to our Savior.

Forgotten Picture

I just realized I don't think I posted this picture after our Stringer camping trip. At the time we didn't know Caitlin was on her way to becoming a Stringer, obviously we had our suspicions. So, I guess it was good that we waited to post this picture because now it has the caption "The New and Improved Stringer Family."

I've been tagged too?

Can I be tagged by a co-contributor to this blog - a.k.a. my wife? Anyway, Shana tagged me and I normally skip these kinds of things to blog about more important stuff - like Guns N' Roses, Dr.Pepper, and junk like that *note the sarcasm.

Ok....7 Random things..uhh...about me.

1. Without DVR/TiVo there are only two shows on TV I make time for: Smallville and The Unit - in that order. (By the way, Doomsday just showed up on Smallville last night. Seriously, Clark has to learn to fly).

2. I can't stand it when people come up to the meat counter talking on their cell phones and/or smacking their gum as they try to talk to me. It's like I'm inconveinencing them by helping them.

3. I collect Authentic (not re-made) Coca-Cola stuff - particularly bottles. I wish I had space to put some of it in our apartment.

4. If I had one wish it would be to have the powers of Superman. I'm not kidding.

5. I would like to learn how to play the guitar.

6. I love the winter (it snowed last night) but I don't like being cold. I have bad circulation in my fingers and they turn white and go numb. It happens a lot at work since I work in 40 degrees. I'll take a picture some time.

7. I do a pretty good impersonation of Barak Obama. I'll make a video about it sometime.

People I tag:
Dr. Mohler - hey, he might read this. he reads everything else.
Mark Jansen
Scott Bowden
Chris Jordan
Charles Shadburn
Other dudes of wives who don't normally blog (except Chris J., he blogs sometimes but should still consider himself tagged)

I was Tagged

7 Random Things About Me

1) I really do love living in Louisville.
2) My parents are going through a divorce right now.
3) I no longer pay for cable. I am proud to "stick it to the man" by watching all my shows in great clarity on my computer. Most recently, my screen went out and learned I can hook my computer up to our flat screen and watch them like real TV on the big TV.
4) Even though I am a bargain hunting, thrift store wearing fool, I really like nice expensive things too. I just don't have or do much in that category.
5) I love to swim, and get to do it a lot since we moved to KY.
6) I have never been afraid to be seen in a bathing suit, even when I might feel fat. I grew up in Florida and I pretty much grew up in a bathing suit.
7) I really want a nose piercing.

I Tag:
Josh
Danielle
Alexis
Taffy (I double dog dare you)
George George George of the Jungle
Brian

FREE DR.PEPPER TO ALL!!!

Axl Rose finally did something right. Guns N' Roses finally released their new album "Chinese Democracy." Dr. Pepper owes everyone a free drink! Check it out.

A Great article from Voddie Baucham. This is a bit of what its like going to Southern. We've already been warned that churches won't hire grads from here because we're deemed heretical Calvinists. To say that "if you're a Calvinist you don't believe in evangelism" is about the most ridiculous, uneducated thing anyone could say and it is obviously from a misunderstanding or lack of any desire to understand the doctrines of grace (that was a super-huge-run-on-sentence). I could go on, but I'll just encourage you to read the article. It kind of sums it all up. I'm also very encrouaged that in the article when Voddie gives a list of "names," there are several people on that list - who are prominent in the SBC - who are profs here or somehow otherwise affiliated with the school.

Thanks to Brian Baise for passing this article to me via his "hump-day blog."

This Chick Julia Nunes and her Ukulele

There's this girl Julia Nunes on YouTube who makes her own videos of her songs and her cover songs on the ukulele. She's really good. She's been on Good Morning America and even opened for Ben Folds. I saw the first video here the other day and thought I'd share. It's a "stop-action" video of her and her friends taken with photobooth on her mac. She explains how she did it at the end. I'll post some other of her videos too. Enjoy.

Maybe, I will.


Survivor - Destiny's Child


Build Me Up Buttercup


All My Loving - The Beatles

Fantastic Video - Advent Conspiracy.

Hilarious

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

(stolen from George's blog) (again)

Who Is This?

This, of course, is Snake Eyes. This picture is from G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Coming August 7, 2009. Are tickets on sale yet?

Winter Is Here.

This is the drive up to the school where we have church. If you look close at the base of the tree you see snow. That's right. It snowed a little bit last night. Winter is definitely here.

2 Things - One Bad. One Good.

Bad.









We ate at Skyline Chili for the first time tonight. Apparently its great. Apparently people are wrong. I'm willing to give anything (especially food) a chance. But not everything gets a second chance. This is one of those things. Just not good at all.

Good.

Tonight, after Skyline, we're watching Casino Royale. I've seen it. Shana hasn't. We're watching it in hopes of going to see the new Bond movie that came out today. I really like this move. But I especially like the beginning. It's very creative. And Chris Cornell has one of the best rock voices of all time.

Heidi was here.

We had so much fun. We went mountain biking, swimming, grocery shopping ,went for a picnic, watched the movie Expelled, and ate lots of good food. O did I mention the talking. We did lots of talking, but that is what we always do. It was a lot of fun. I was so excited that she came to visit. We have been good friends for almost 9 years. WoW that is a long time. I feel old.

Josh had to work a bunch, but we made due. John hung out with us too so the only pictures I have are of them and me not in them. Actually, after I posted this picture I made it large and saw Josh in the background being silly. So, click on the picture and you'll see Josh in the background behind them. Now that I think about it I don't think I got just a picture of Heidi and I. OOPS. Well, John has some pictures of all of us so when I get those I will definitely post.

Halloween Night

For Halloween we really didn't do anything. A street next to the seminary goes all out though. So, Danielle, Alexis, and I decided just to go take a look. Here is what we found.

Here are a few things we thought were far out. It has been forever since I have used that phrase. The entire street was flooded with people and almost every house was decorated with some kind of Halloween stuff. It was alright.

Sorry for this formatting, I am doing this for the first time on Josh's computer and not that it is much different, but I definitely can't tell where my pictures are to format them in this.

Wishlist.com

It is getting that time of year again. I get so excited too. So, in recognition of the gift giving season I wanted to tell you about a website Josh and I have been using for over a year. To the right of this blog under links of interest you should see our linked wishlists. They are wishlists. It is an actual website that sustains your wishlist. It could also work as a registry. It is a really cool place to keep your running wishlist. Josh and I use it all the time. It comes in handy whenever our friends and family are looking to purchase a gift for us for whatever holiday or reason; they know exactly where to go. A bunch of my girlfriends also have these wishlists. On that note I will say it is good to let people know that you have a wishlist. Many times I have searched through my girlfriends wishlists and found they are wishing for something that I have stored away in a junk box. I was able to relieve myself of something I didn't want, and bless my friend at the same time. It is a lot of fun. It is also great for when those birthdays come up, ideas for a hospitality gift, or a thank you. I hope you'll make your wishlist today, or just check out ours. Have fun.

Dreams

Watch this first, then read...


I watched this and was really convicted. Not so much about sexual sin but about trading in the passion I've had for Christ for other things. Not other big things that I'm passionate about, but many small things that amount to a lot. I had a radical dream of sharing Christ with everyone that I knew. I used to be really unashamed. Really. I don't think I'm ashamed so much as I am conveniently unpassionate. I can be passionate when it is convenient for me to be passionate. But what about being passionate for Christ in the mundane. Being passionate for Christ always. I'm also reading Shadow of the Almighty right now. It's the story of Jim Elliot. That guy was passionate all the time. He was particularly deliberate about the essentials and made no provision for the things that didn't matter. I imagine that he wouldn't have stayed up late last night watching "House" and "The Mentalist." Not that those things are necessarily bad, but they are definatley in the category of a non-essential. May the Lord strip me/us bare of the baggage of this world. Satan has duped us into the American dream and American ideals and American habits and American security. How many times have I planned my life around a TV show or a movie premiere? Other than church or school, how many times have I planned my life around the cause of Christ? Around my passion and dream for Jesus? I was amazed at the people who were in Chicago for Obama's acceptance speech. They looked hypnotized and awe struck over this man. I had made a video about it. Didn't post it. I bet I look the same when it comes to the things of this world.

Now you should watch the video below by Shane and Shane.

watch this...

I saw this on George's blog. You should watch it. Just do so with the caution that it may cause you to be thankful for your salvation...

Obama's Campaign

I have to hand it to President Obama and his campaign organizers, they took every measure to make sure people knew to vote and who to vote for. I took this picture off of my TV screen while playing Madden '09 on a study break. The game gets constant updates for advertisements. Its usually movie ads or something like that. But this caught my attention:


In other Atheist news...This is coming to an American City near you! And you thought that this was a "godly" country.

Cool Healthcare Video.

Bottom line - Be responsible. Take care of yourself. Stop eating junk. Start getting exercise. Make time for these things. It benefits us all.

Prank Backfires...

Laughed so hard I cried.

It's Never Good When...

...A news story starts like this:

Would-be cleaners take note: A blowtorch is not a good substitute for a broom.

Here's the full story.

...inevetable

I guess I should brush up on my reading.

Go Redskins!

I'm just sayin'....

For the last SEVENTEEN elections if the Redskins win their final home game before the election the incumbent party remains in the White House. If the Redskins lose the other party moves in. So - If the Redskins win tonight on Monday Night Football (at home) McCain will win the election tomorrow. Right?

Has God turned his back on America yet?

Paper Writing

I am currently writing a paper for my Written Communications class - the easiest intro level class you can take at SBTS. This is a simple 8 page research paper. I got to pick my own topic. I chose the Emerging Church or Emergent or Emergent Chruch or Hardest Chruch To Define Ever or Most Ridiculous Church Movement Ever. To guys who wrote a great book called "Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be)" said, "Trying to define the Emerging Chruch is like trying to nail Jell-o to the wall." I couldn't agree more. The easiest class = The hardest paper.

Yum. Jell-o.

From My Friend Mark...

H