Cutting Back

Times are tough. We're trying to cut back on our spending, just like everyone else. We've planted a garden, in hopes of reducing our grocery bills in the future. We don't go out for ice cream as much. We look for bargains when we shop. It seems our motto lately has been "Use a coupon when you go out, get a discount, or do without." So with frugality in mind, I had this idea that can save us about $15 a month.

What We Did This Weekend: Comfort Food, Green Thumbs, and a Pair of Funny Girls

Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends in our ward. We took them to Dan's Long Branch Steakhouse in Overland Park. We had been there a few times before and love the food. They have what Brookie believes could be the best chicken tenders in the Greater Kansas City Area. And I really like Big D's Country Fried Steak (the D is for Dan). And what makes a great meal even better is a great discount, and that was provided by Restaurant.com. They've been having some great promotions lately, so I was able to score a $25 gift certificate for only $2, which we used Friday night.

Saturday was an historic day in our household. We planted our first vegetable garden. Thursday morning a friend of ours let us borrow his tiller so we could prepare some ground our back yard. We marked off about 100 square feet and fired up the tiller. So Saturday, with the soil ready for our seeds, we were ready to plant.







Too bad the weather didn't cooperate. When it finally stopped raining, we went outside and dug out the edges of the garden to put down some landscape timbers for a nice border. Our soil has so much clay that the rain made it really difficult to work with, but we were determined to get our plants in the ground. Earlier in the week our mail-order plants and seeds arrived, so we were really anxious.

We were able to plant our raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, red onions, garlic, potatoes, peas, and corn. But working in the clay wore us out, so we didn't get everything in the ground yesterday. I don't know if anyone else feels like this, but we never think that things we plant will actually grow. We live in such an instant-gratification society, that I found myself wishing that we would see the little seedling popping out of the ground right away.

And, after a hard day of cleaning, laundry, and heavy gardening, how would you unwind? Us? We went and did some baby sitting. We babysat for some friends who went to dinner and entrusted us with their two little girls, both under two years old. They're so much fun. When we were putting the oldest little girl to bed, Brookie tied the sleeves of her pajamas together. We had a great time, and when they were both in bed, we watched the rest of the Royals game on TV.

So that's what we did this weekend. Exciting huh?

Our First Night at the New K

Brookie occasionally picks up side jobs at work. She's recently signed up to work a few track meets, which will mean a few extra bucks for us. Yesterday should have been the first meet, but it was canceled due to weather.

When she told me it was canceled I joked, "Great. Now we can go to the Royals game tonight." I assumed she would know I was joking because the weather was bad and although it was supposed to stop raining, it was still going to be very cold. But she sounded like she was up for it. So we started to plan our first trip to the newly renovated Kauffman Stadium.

Brookie left work a little early and when she got home, I 'left' early too. Mondays are busy days for us every week, so trying to get everything done in time for a Royals game on top of our normal routine made our schedule even tighter. We went to the new Hy-Vee (which is AWESOME) and picked up most of our groceries. Brookie dropped me off at home on her way to ALDI to finish the shopping so that I could start our soup for dinner. When the soup was done, we ran to the gym. After the gym, we went home, changed, and packed up our food for dinner.

One of the best parts about going to Kauffman is their policy to allow outside food. We brought some soup, Italian bread, salad and salad dressing, and a few snacks. It saved us a lot of money, and a whole heckuvalotta calories. Packing in our own food was smart. But it wasn't the smartest thing we brought last night.

Like I mentioned, the weather was not really conducive to watching a baseball game. It was at most 40°, and probably even colder. Of course, we packed two blankets a piece. We both had two pairs of pants on, along with multiple layers of shirts, hoodies, and coats up top. We were also happy to be able to use our Royals sock-caps (a game-day giveaway from last season). But the true genius of our cold-weather preparation was Brookie's inspiration to take our hot water bottles. Thanks to that little amenity, we were able to stay relatively warm all night.

This mid-week post is already longer than I intended, so I'll just say that we had a great time, and the stadium is beautiful. Below are some pictures and some video so you can check it out for yourselves. Click on the panorama I made to see it in a new window and be able to zoom in (once there you should be able to right click for the controls; and if it's a little fuzzy, give it a second to load up).

What We Did This Weekend: The Easter Bunny Brought a Wheelbarrow

Our weekend was pretty basic. You know the drill by now: Date night Friday, random stuff on Saturday, church on Sunday. So let's get to it.

Our date was going to be moved to Saturday between sessions of Stake Conference, but I found out that I didn't need to go to the leadership meeting that afternoon, so we went to dinner on Friday as usual.

We tried to find some new and exciting place to eat, but we ended up at Culver's. Part of the problem with trying to find new places, is that you're not sure what you're getting. My biggest concern is whether the portions will be large enough to fill me up. Nothing's worse than going to a nice restaurant, eating a fancy meal that's high on style and low on content, and stopping at Wendy's on the way home to grab a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger just to fill you up.

So, like I said, rather than chance it, we decided to go to Culver's for dinner. One factor in our reasoning was that we're planning on a weekend trip to St. Louis later this month for a game between the Cubs and the Cardinals, so we wanted to keep it cheap this week. Another reason we chose Culver's is their nutritional information chart. We don't have to guess how many calories we're consuming. They let us know exactly how many fat-filled calories we're shoving in our pie holes. Most people look at the menu when they're deciding what to have for dinner. We check out the nutrition facts.

Saturday Brookie had a meeting at church in the morning, so I stayed home and cleaned house, so that when she returned, we could go to Home Depot for supplies. The weather was great Saturday, so we took advantage and bought some things we needed for our first garden. I generally dislike spending money, but my dislike turns to disdain when we're spending on stuff that is as fun as a wheelbarrow.

So, yes, the Easter Bunny did find us, but had to come a day early, and left a wheelbarrow full of chemicals to keep the critters out of our plants (and hopefully moles off our property), landscape timbers, and a pair of grass shears.

After we mapped out our future garden (4'x20'), I moved dirt, and Brookie used a hand-tiller to till the ground. Hopefully we'll be ready to plant some time this week. One positive aspect of 'working your land' like we did Saturday, is that we burned enough calories for a rare trip to Sheridan's for a few scoops of frozen custard (oddly enough, Sheridan's doesn't have a nutrition facts sheet).

Sunday was the concluding session of Stake Conference. It was a broadcast session from Salt Lake City for us and 61 other stakes throughout the mid-west. So we got to hear the prophet again this weekend.

After stake conference, we talked to our families, and wished them a Happy Easter. Sunday evening we had ourselves a pretty good Easter dinner: green beans, baked potatoes, and a pork tenderloin roast. Mmmmm. When your food is that good, who needs Peeps?

And that's what we did this weekend.

Not the App for Us

I was looking at a great site for finding apps for your iPhone or iPod touch, and saw an app called iLoseWeight. I've already talked about the LoseIt! app that has greatly affected our lives, and this new one peaked my interest so I took a look at the details. But I didn't need to look far. Based solely on this screenshot, I can safely say that this is one app I won't be downloading.

What We Did This Weekend: Running Out of Shoes Before Conference

The biggest portion of our weekend was spent watching and listening to the 179th General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are four sessions, five if you count the priesthood session, two on Saturday and two more Sunday. Growing up, I went through three phases in how I approached conference.

1) Excited that there was no church on Sunday! More Sesame Street for me!

2) Dreading conference because my mom was going to make me listen to those boring old guys in the dark whose monotonicity put me in a deep, deep sleep twice a year on a Sunday afternoon.

3) Excited to hear the prophet and the other brethren and what they had to teach us.*

*So excited to hear it, in fact, that I fought with my brother once during conference because I wanted to watch in peace, but he wouldn't cooperate. And when I say fought, I don't really mean arguing. I mean WWF-MMA-throwing-people-across-the-room-and-oh-by-the-way-you-had-better-watch-out-or-you-might-have-your-ear-bitten-off-title-bout kind of fight, if you catch my drift. That was the session of conference the weekend before I left on my mission. Ah, the memories.

I've stayed in that third and final phase ever since I arrived there. It is really nice to be able to log in to lds.org and watch each session over the internet with Brookie. It makes for an extremely nice, spirit-filled weekend. But, my guess is that we'd better enjoy it while we can, because I can only assume that when we have children of our own, it may become more difficult to sit still for eight hours of conference addresses, as they will likely go through the same progression I did.

So General Conference, that's what we did Saturday and Sunday.

Friday night we went out with some friends of ours.* We met them at Waldo Pizza (any date-night that involves Waldo Pizza is successful in my book), and it was awesome, of course. I stopped to let Brookie out of the car at about 7:20pm, and she went inside to put our name on the waiting list while I looked for a parking spot. I finally found one at 7:35pm**, and she let me know that it was going to be about a 45 minute wait. But, like the sign says that sits near the front door, "It's Worth the Wait."

*Luckily they were some very patient, good-humored friends, since there was a little confusion about at which Waldo Pizza we were meeting that night.

**I must have just missed a dozen spots while I circled in the xB for 15 minutes. I would drive through the small lot and no one would be pulling out or even walking to their car. Then, on my next lap, I'd pass six or seven cars that had just parked and were getting out and going into the restaurant. Of course, Brookie watched the whole thing and had a good chuckle from the sidewalk by the front door.

After dinner the plan was bowling, but first, please indulge this digression:

Back in Provo, Brookie and I were out for a date, and we had a hankerin' for a nice, big, juicy hamburger. We decided on Fuddruckers (since we had a Fuddruckers gift card in-pocket). I guess I can't speak for Brookie, but I, at least, really wanted a Fuddruckers hamburger that night. We pulled into the parking lot and my mouth was already watering. I could already taste the beef, their freshly baked buns, and their equally fresh toppings. My hamburger-day-dream was dashed, however, when we sauntered up to the counter to order and the manager told us they were out of beef. Whaaaahhht? Out of beef? But you're a hamburger place; how can you be out of beef? Isn't that you're whole thing? Beef? Those are just some of the thoughts that went through my mind as we left and walked across the parking lot to a nearby Applebee's (keep in mind, this is before the invention of the Quesadilla Burger, so going from Fuddruckers to Applebee's – especially when we had a Fuddruckers gift card – was a let down). Needless to say, I did not ring the bell on my way out of Fuddruckers that night.

Now, back to Friday night: I was really excited for bowling. I'm no professional-wanna-be, but I enjoy bowling. And besides, we'd figured out in the car that by bowling for an hour, we'd burn about 230 calories, which amounts to another slice of pizza. As we walked into the bowling alley near the Ward Parkway Mall, there were some good signs, the best being the no smoking notice posted on the door.

Inside it was apparent that it was "Bring Your Weird College Friends in Costume" night. It was really busy, so I guess you could say the place was hoppin'. Apple juice seemed to be the drink of choice, as there were pitchers of it on every table, and plastic cups of the amber nectar in each hand. We made our way to the front desk to pay for some good old recreation, but the man working behind the counter didn't acknowledge us. It was obvious that we were neither in college nor in costume, so I guess he thought we were lost, and that we would soon figure that out and leave. We overheard him say something to one of the patrons also waiting at the desk (who definitely was college-age and might have been in costume too, though I can't be sure about that), but what he said was a little ridiculous, and caught me off guard:

"We're out of shoes."

Then he disappeared. He never spoke to us, just went away (maybe he was out of juice, and went to get some more). The four of us, now a little dazed, wondered how a bowling alley with at least six open lanes, could be out of shoes. The only thing more absurd would have been that they were out of bowling balls pins. So we went back out to the cars, tried to think of another bowling alley in the area (and one that would have enough shoes for all the bowlers), and ultimately called it a night.

And that's what we did this weekend.

Oh, and by the way, kudos to everyone that commented on my last post. It takes guts to fess up to being duped by an April fools gag (even if it was an awesome one). I know there were quite a few visitors who fell just as hard but were too embarrassed to let us know.

The Announcement (No– Not That Announcement)

Brookie and I have had a tough time with this decision. We've recently been given a great opportunity, and the announcement is that we're going to take it. I have been offered a job as the Assistant Creative Director for Applied Creative, Inc., an advertising agency based out of Scottsdale, AZ.

This opportunity kind of came out of nowhere. But it's kind of funny how stuff happens at just the right time. Ever since I was looking for jobs after college, I have received weekly emails from Monster.com (mostly because I'm too lazy to delete my account with them). Since I had a good job, I had just been deleting them without opening them. But for whatever reason (chalk one up to curiosity, I guess), I opened one that came about five or six weeks ago. There was a job posting for Applied Creative for this position, and based on their stated qualifications, of which "creativity" seemed paramount to formal education, I touched up my resume and portfolio, and sent them off.

We were a little surprised when we got a call back requesting an interview less than two days later. I explained that I was living in Kansas City, but that my wife had some time off coming up because of Spring Break, so we scheduled an interview, rented a car, and planned a nice trip around the event.*

*Our sincerest apologies to our friends in Arizona if they are upset that we came to visit them with ulterior motives. We truly would have eventually come just to see you, but this interview gave us the excuse we needed.

So, that Saturday morning when we got up early and drove into the greater Phoenix area, we actually did have time to visit a few Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, so we didn't lie about that. And, we really did want to catch a Spring Training game while we were in town, so we probably would have gone up to Phoenix anyway. But our real reason for going was to interview for this job with Applied Creative.

I hate interviews. I used to think I was good at them, but maybe I'm less charming than I once thought. It was the typical routine. I arrived and announced myself to the front desk, they issued me a visitor badge, and ushered me into a room with three waiting executives, ready with their interview questions. I did my best, but in the end, I didn't feel very qualified, so I assumed that would be the end of it. But they called back Friday and offered me the position. We couldn't believe it. I guess they must have seen something they liked during our interview.

Brookie and I love it here in Missouri, and we've made some great friends. But they offered me a salary that would allow Brookie to stay home if she wants. And you really can't beat their weather. So we've decided to accept their offer. I'll begin my new job May 1, so we'll be moving to Scottsdale this month.

We're a little worried about selling our house, but everything else has kind of fallen into place, so we have faith that this will too. We're sad to see our time in Missouri come to an end, and we're very, very sad to have to say goodbye to all of our friends. But, just remember, you can always see what we've done this weekend by checking our blog. We're just excited that there won't be any more weekends that involve snow.

Click here to see our favorite part about this whole thing.