I keep meaning to blog more often, however, I find myself back to doing another Monday through Monday, 7 day blog…

Time is flying.  Before long, we’ll have been here 2 years, we’ll have owned the Lexus a year and then it’ll be our 2 year wedding anniversary.  Time flies so much faster when you’re a grown up.

Or, perhaps, it’s just as get older, you place a higher value on time, and pay closer attention to it – and how quickly it flashes by.

Last Monday, I was out all day.  It was the Monday after the Sunday before lol! Coupons come out on a Sunday and, for a change, I did my coupon match-ups quickly and spent the day visiting a number of CVS, WAG, Target and Kroger.  It was successful and fun – I always enjoy picking up some good bargains and being out and about.

My coupon binder is making a slow, but steady comeback and I’m perusing the match-ups with more scrutiny.  (This weekend, we also did a few bits around the house this weekend to aid my stockpiling.  But more on that later!)  We finished the day off with a nice roast chicken dinner – using the first of my supply of organic free range chicken that I picked up at Whole Foods a while back, deee-licious!

Tuesday, we dropped the Griffon (otherwise known as our Saab) at the Saab and Volvo specialist for her 60,000 Mile service.  She’d been sluggish lately, she’s konked out a time or two in the last 6 months, but mainly, we were both convinced that all her filters needed changed, she was tired and fuel efficiency was down.  In spite of the fact that she only had 58,000 miles on the clock, she’d been shouting at us to take her for a service for about the last 2,000.  It was time.  In fact, it was past time!

After we took the car for a service, we took me to get some work done.  No, not the plastic kind.  I’d finally built up the courage to call the dentist and start on my treatment plan.

Appointment no.1 involved 2 fillings.  It was probably, in fact it was, the best dental experience I ever had, even though a piece of equipment managed to stick to my lip and cut me!  The last few days have been a bit up and down.  One of my fillings has been fine, the other has been pretty sore and sensitive to both hot and cold – it’s driving me insane, and yet, I have to go back for more! LOL!

Wednesday, we picked the Griffon up, she was like a new car! (Even Col says, so it’s just not just in my head!) I took a nap (my teeth were bothering me) and woke up to my new camera on the doorstep! yay! (Not so much yay for everyone else mind you! LOL!!)

For dinner, I tried a new cheesy chicken tortilla slow cooker recipe from allrecipes.com – which Col enjoyed, before we headed out to the Aeros game with the Bartons and the Maddens.

The arena had more staff in it than they did fans, but it was a fun game and we totally kicked the arses of every Icehog that skated out in the arena.  It was a great exhibition game – lol!!

Thursday started off with a weight management appointment with my doctor before I headed up 290 to the Premium outlets.  The Maddens were taking the Bartons out for a shopping trip and I decided to tag along.  I was very well behaved though and bought very little that wasn’t for Averie’s birthday, or stuff that Lynsey asked me to pick up for little Rachel.  I did manage to pick up a few strappy tops for this upcoming hot weather for dirt cheap from American Eagle and some more from Gap.

Friday kicked off our 2011 Rodeo experience with an afternoon in the sun (again with Magz, Sam, Paul and Sandra), sipping on margaritas, watching horseback competitions before heading in to the big arena for the cattle competitions and to see Ms Jackson perform live.

Well, it was supposed to be live, but I am pretty sure that she faked it here and there.  She wasn’t as good as I expected, in fact, I don’t think we heard one, full, complete song from her.  She did a little of a bunch of songs and threw a relatively unknown Michael song in for good measure.  I expected better…but she wasn’t terrible.

The competitions before-hand, however, were great fun.  I loved watching them last year, the mutton-busting and the kids chasing farm animals around the arena – it’s just enthralling.  This time was just as good.  We were up in the nosebleed section (600’s) for this one though so i’m looking forward to Rascal Flatts (100’s), Lady Antebellum (300’s) and Kiss (300’s).  Yay!

Saturday I dragged Col to Walmart.  I’ve put it off for a while cause I don’t like to traumatise the poor guy on a weekend.  But it needed done – he had to lift shelves for me! LOL!!!

Yes, I finally got some pantry shelves for my back hall.  Being a couponer, I’ve started to build up a SMALL stockpile (yes, by your standards it may seem insanely huge, however, by pretty much every couponer’s standards it’s a pathetic excuse for a stockpile!) and as such, I needed shelves to organise it and keep it tidy.

I got 2 6ft bookshelves for $23 each and when we got home, Col set about putting them together, while I tidied and cleaned ahead of our Sing-off Party that night.

Ok, ok, hubz doesn’t like parties, so I must resort to calling it a social gathering, but either way, it was fun!

We had the Bridge Brigade (I finally got to meet Crystal’s hubby Chris and she brought along her 4 kids!), we had Magz, Sam, Paul, Sandra, Ann, Paul K and Stephanie – and of course Col and I.

It was great fun! We made sausage rolls, ate pizza, Crystal brought homemade caramel squares (which I quickly hid so Col could enjoy some as they disappeared fast!) and we sang until the wee hours of the morning.  Well, aside from the Maddens – but they always refuse to sing…one of these days Samuel…one of these days!

Sunday for lunch, Col decided he wanted more sausage rolls – so I made sausage rolls and chips for lunch (typical home-style lunch!) before we went to the Aeros -v- Heat game.  It was a good game, solid, strong performance.

The ref missed a few crucial calls that led to frustration on our part, and, as a result, Aero after Aero ended up in the box lending aid to the Heat scoring the winning goal with only a minute or so left in the game.

After the game we met up with the Maddens and Bartons (the poor Bartons holiday got taken over by us!! LOL!) in Chuy’s for Mexican and Margaritas (whoot!) before heading back to the Maddens for a game of Ligretto (Note to self: buy ligretto cards!)

Monday was an exciting day for us – we ate out! ha! yeah, like that’s something new, right? Well, it kind of was.  Or, at least, we ate out in a place that we’ve not eaten out in for about 3 years now here in Houston and boy was it worth the wait!

The day started off with us dropping Col’s car off for a service – it was past time for her too and, since we’d gotten the Griffon done the week before, we didn’t want Lexie to get jealous! LOL!

After dropping her off, Col dropped me at the SLB campus in Sugar Land for my SSA Board Meeting (which was fun as always!!) before heading over to find a desk to work at until I was done.

For lunch, we went to Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian churrascuria, which is on the OMG side of expensive (hence, not having gone in 3 years) but it’s cheaper for lunch and was a special occasion so it was worth it.

To start, you have these, almost like mozzarella filled Yorkshire puddings, and an all you can eat, HUGE salad bar with everything from olives, bread and cheese, to salad, antipasto meats and smoked salmon and then you move on to the piece de resistance!

You are sat next to a little disc of card, one side is red, one side is green…when it’s red, no one troubles you, when it’s green, the gauchos come to you and present their meat for you to have.  There’s about 12 different cuts/types/mixes of meat and it’s fantastic!

After our lunch in Fogo, we couldn’t eat for 9 hours – NINE!! I also slipped a nap in before Col had to wake me out of my rem-sleep (which he tries to avoid doing if possible) to go and pick Lexie up.  Lexie had a good overhaul, her fuel system flushed and is back loving Col again! haha!!

We spent the evening catching up on our arm-long list of TV shows that we watch and had fallen behind in and taking it all rather easy really since neither of us could move!

Until next time…