Vacation

I am on vacation from work this week. I have some use or lose vacation time that I needed to use. I haven't done anything too exciting. I have enjoyed sleeping in a little and being able to take a long lunch.

Yesterday I went to lunch with my sister. We got sushi at Yoko.
After that we went to Anderson's. I got my favorite brats from House of Meats, spinach and feta chicken brats.

I don't have any big plans for the rest of my vacation. I am going to the farmer's market on Saturday and babysitting some of the nephews and niece that night.

Free fun

While I did spend some money today I also got a few free surprises. This morning I went to breakfast with K and my stepson, C. Later we went to Petsmart and Best Buy. Petsmart had 15% off with a coupon. We got C speakers at Best Buy. 

Then my mom picked me up and we went to one of the best stores ever, Costco. I got a glorious Sherpa throw, a cardigan, frozen vegetables, and chicken ravioli. So random and yet so wonderful. Plus, tons of FREE samples. 

After that I headed to Verizon because my iPhone 5 cord wasn't working. There appeared to be a little hole in the plastic right near the end that plugs into the phone. On the way I got a free car wash at a new car wash that just opened today.  Luckily Verizon swapped my cord out for a new one. Free surprise number 3.  I thought I'd have to buy one. Well, Verizon was right next to a Starbucks and I remembered I had a free drink from my gold card. (Which I will lose because I'd have to get about 15 stars in the next month not to). 

Then I stopped at Old Navy. Nothing free there, but they did have buy one get one half off tops. I got twos sweaters and two tank tops. This is one of the sweaters: 

Source:

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=60790&vid=1&pid=647258012

Pool time

This weekend Toledo Unleashed group had a fundraiser at a pool. Toledo Unleashed has been trying to get an off leash dog park in Toledo for many years. They finally have a location and are pretty close to starting construction. I believe they just need approval from city council. The best part is the location is about a mile from our house! 

Reagan and Angel had a blast. At first they ran all over meeting the other dogs and hopping in the shallow end. 

As more and more dogs showed up we retreated to the deeper end. It was much less crowded down there. Both dogs took a couple minutes to decide it was okay to get in the deep end. Angel never jumped, she basically laid down and slid in. Reagan jumped in every time. She could almost jump out to where we throw the toys ( my mom came to help). 

I'm so glad we went and I look forward to the dog park. I will definitely be volunteering during the building process. 

House Dreaming

K has been home from the hospital for almost a week. He has not really walked around too much. With the temporary replacement he cannot put any weight on his right leg. He is also having some muscle spasms, especially when he is trying to sleep. Hopefully he only needs to have one spacer put in and the infection is gone after 8 weeks.

I actually lost 2.2 pounds this week! I think most of it was going up and down the stairs all day. I am also more active in general. I am the only one who can take out the doors or do anything around the house right now. I want to try to keep this level of activity up after K gets better.

I have been watching a lot of House Hunters on HGTV. Last night they featured a couple looking for a house in the Toledo area and tonight there was a couple looking for a house in my sister's Chicago neighborhood. I always start searching on Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com after watching the show. I think it is so interesting to look at what type of house you can get for your money. I really enjoy looking at houses over a million dollars. I can dream, can't I?

Hip replacement paperweight

 This post of supposed to publish 8/23. I think I just forgot to hit publish, oops! 

K went today for his pre-op. His surgery is Tuesday! It would be impossible for me not to be nervous about any surgery, but I'm trying to remember this is going to be the beginning of the end of this horrible ordeal. I've mentioned it before, and I'm not going into too many details for various reasons, however his hip was supposed to be fixed last January. He called me between pre-op appointments and told me they are going to let him keep his old hip replacement. What a great paperweight.

I was traveling again for work this week. It was not a fun trip. One of those ones where something went wrong everyday. Most of it involving driving and cars. All I have to say is Enterprise made everything right and Illinois tollways need to except credit. And whoever came up with those unattended coin baskets is an idiot. I have an Ipass (electronic pass for paying tolls) and the instructions say not to use it on any other cars besides the one you register it for. According to the very rude woman working at toll plaza 21, "everyone else uses it on rental cars." Aside from technically not being able to use my Ipass in another vehicle, the only other problem is that it's better if I have receipts to be reimbursed for work. Oh well, I'm back home now and getting some cleaning done before we head to Cleveland next week. 

One thing I do when I travel is get food from salad bars at grocery stores. Some grocery stores have really good salad bars! Whole Foods is probably the best and most expensive. However, some bigger Kroger's  and Pick N Save/Copp's have pretty good salad bars too. It's usually better to go at lunch since most of them do not fair well throughout the day. 

This was one from Schnucks. It was good other than I made the mistake of getting fat free ranch dressing. I'm much better buying a bottle of dressing I actually know I like. 

There was also a Red Mango yogurt where I was traveling. I'm a big fan of Red Mango. With all the local froyo shops opening up it's hard to know if one will be good. So when I'm traveling it's nice to see a Red Mango since they are a pretty consistent brand.

I've also been hitting up Target to check out the clearance clothing. If you haven't been to Target in the last couple days, you should check it out. It seems as though half their clothing is on clearance. 

I think I might even head there today since we need paper towels and a few other little things. 

Surgery

K's surgery went well. He had a lot of pain, which is to be expected when you have an infected hip replacement pulled out. He is home now and cannot bear any weight on his right leg until after his next surgery in November.

The only problem with this has been that our house has tons of stairs. You have to walk up cements steps just to get the front door. He has been staying upstairs for now since the bathroom is up there. Angel already jumped on him once so we are trying to keep them downstairs till he is a little stronger.

We also had the fun of paying $200 dollars for one of his medicines since there is no generic offered. FUN FUN FUN. We also still have a pending charge from Hertz on our account for $200. When you rent a car there they hold $200 no matter what (even if you use a credit card). I had no problem with this as long as the charge was canceled. They are supposed to take the pending charge off within 1-2 business days (though I've gotten answers that varied) of when you drop the car back off. Well, it has been a week and a half since we dropped the car off and they haven't canceled the charge. When I call Hertz pushes the blame to Citi and vice versa. I was also told to call corporate, but they closed for the weekend about 20 minutes before I was told that. Moral of the story, I will not be renting from Hertz for personal reasons again. I don't use them for work very often either because they are usually fairly expensive.

Anyways, I am happy K made it through his surgery, even if it has been pretty stressful. My eating habits and exercise have definitely suffered. I have been able to walk the dogs with my mom quite a few times. Plus, I think I am focused more on helping K than eating because I'm bored.