Oh yeah! About those Savings...

The LOOT

So, I told you about how I went to Borders last week and spent $27.23 and actually saved $94.62, right? Well, the picture above includes all but two items that I purchased on that wonderful shopping trip. The other two items were books. I wish I could have showed you a huge stack of books with that kind of savings, but bearing in my mind my recently admitted addiction, this is an amazing find for me. Here's how I did it:

Two books (technically two books, but they were both actually two books in one, so it's really four books) - Originally $8.99 ea - On Clearance for $1.98 ea

Eight packs of Naruto Trading Cards - Originally $4.99 ea - On Clearance for $.98

One Naruto Bookmark - Originally $4.99 - 50% Off

One pack of Naruto pencils - Originally $3.99 - 50% Off

One tin of Naruto Trading Cards - Originally $14.99 - 40% Off Coupon

Two Naruto Trapper Keepers - Originally $19.99 ea - On Clearance for (drumroll please) $.98 ea. (I kid you not. My exact words to the cashier when he rang up the first binder - "Are you SERIOUS!?! Do you mind if I go grab the other one?" It was an amazing moment.)

And THAT, my friends, is how you save almost $95.00 at Borders in one shopping trip. You just have to be obsessed with Anime and Manga.

Pictures as Promised

I am sorry I took so long to get the wedding pictures posted, but there was a bit of a hullabaloo over me posting these pictures elsewhere so I figured it was probably a good idea to wait a bit before posting them on here. Hope you enjoy them. In the pictures, Shayla and Titus are obviously the bride and groom. Ma is the redhead. The older couple is Shay's grandparents. And of course there was me. *grin*

Happy One Week Anniversary!

W-Day 3:48PM - Recap

Obviously the wedding is over now. Has been for four hours, actually. But let me just tell you - the stories I've got!!!

When I last left you, I was headed across the hall to help Shayla out with her makeup and hair. The makeup part went quickly and easily. We sorted out the colors Shay wanted to use and the perfect way to apply said colors. We went with light brown, blue, and purple. Very pretty. Once the makeup was taken care of, we moved on to the hair. Because Shayla has very, very thick, curly hair it needed to be blow dried. Since we had taken care of her makeup in her mom's room, Shayla just plugged her hair dryer in by her mom's dresser. And promptly popped the circuit breaker. Oh yes. The air conditioner shut off, the clock went black, and Ma and I just shook our heads and laughed. After the breaker was switched back on, Shayla dried her hair in the bathroom. Can I just tell you how much I wish that I had my camera with me when she finished?? She came back into the bedroom with hair straight out of the eighties! Hilarious!

An hour later, Shayla and I were shimmying her into her dress and pinning her in. Fixing a curl here, and a twist there. When all was said and done, we made our way downstairs to see the grandparents with 20 minutes before we were supposed to meet the Justice of Peace in the town park. Pictures HAD to be taken so with everyone else posing, I was doing my best to get them out the door and into their cars. My efforts did pay out eventually, though maybe not as early as I would have liked. (How do you say it, Mom?) We were "off like a herd of turtles"!

Ma, Shay and I were in the front car with the grands in the second followed very closely by Titus. All by his lonesome in the rear. I was in the front with the girls for moral support. Seriously. I was handing out tissues as soon as we sat down in those seats! When we finally made it to the park, we were passing flowers around, grabbing bags and cameras, telling each other where everyone else was headed. In other words, it was mild chaos. Down the hill we walked. Across the park. Coming from the other direction was the JP. It didn't take long for us to get started once I directed everyone to the best spot. (we had our pick and no one else seemed lucid enough to make the decision. *tongue in cheek*)

With the ceremony on camera (it only took a little over ten minutes), the pictures started. Thankfully, one of Ma's coworkers had stopped by with her really fantastic camera so she was taking pictures while I filmed the ceremony, then she continued taking pictures while I directed the majority of the groupings. Oh, and the best part? Amy (the coworker) was able to take pictures that included me. yay. *little happy dance*

After the pictures, Titus, Shayla, and I headed over to the town hall to get the application for a copy of the marriage certificate filled out. Once that was done, we headed home to change, then out to lunch at a really wonderful little seafood shack with Ma and the grandparents. Soooo much fun!

When lunch was over, we split up with Shayla's grandparents heading home to Massachusetts and the rest of us headed to town hall to pick up the, now ready, marriage certificate. From town hall we came back home where Shay opened the wedding gifts from her mom and we all visited with Shay's friend, Devon. Then, I came up here to write this. Oh yeah...while Devon was here, we all downloaded the pictures of the wedding from Titus' and my cameras. You'll see some of them in the next post.

So, yeah. Busy day. Beautiful day. Congratulations, Titus and Shayla. May you have a lifetime of happiness together!

W-Day - 8:15AM

After my last post, I wandered downstairs to find Ma up and making coffee. Chatted with her for a few minutes before heading out the door for breakfast. I've been craving some Dunkin Donuts since we got up here this past Saturday. yummmy! On my way to DD, Shayla texted me her order. (shhh! don't tell Titus. he's against Shayla having DD right now. Something about it makes her hyper. I don't know WHAT he's talking about.) I'm not sure if the weird looks that I got while in the parking lot of DD were because I am all dressed and ready for the wedding, or because Titus' car has VA license plates. Probably both. Anyway, managed to get breakfast without any problems then headed back home. I was hoping to get the PT Cruiser through a car wash, but the wash wasn't open yet so I stopped at Market Basket instead. Grabbed Lysol cleaning wipes, Glass wipes, and paper towels.

When I got back to the house, Ma and Shayla were already putting Shay's bouquet together. Once I finished up my doughnuts, I helped out. Let me just tell you...this bouquet is GORGEOUS!! Ma did a phenomenal job. While Ma and I labored over the flowers, Shay took pictures so I'll have some nice ones to share at some point. Probably late tonight or late tomorrow. Don't worry...I won't forget.

After breakfast and flowers, Shayla and I went outside to do a little bit of cleaning on Titus' car. It looks SOOO much better now! Not quite night and day, but pretty close.

Shay's in the getting ready stage of the morning and I'm gonna be needed for hair and makeup soon. Maybe we'll be able to get Ma to take pictures of this part.

It's W-Day (Wedding Day) - Post 1 - 6AM

Good morning, lovebirds! I woke up about 45 minutes ago to the continuing sunrise. It's looking like we're going to have a sunny day. Yes, there are clouds in the sky, but the world will not end because of clouds today. I think Ma, Titus, and Shayla all stayed up late last night, but having learned my lesson from my own wedding, I went to bed around 11pm. Of course, by the time Joseph called me to say good night, it was 11:45pm.

Anyway, just wanted to give everyone a hearty wake up before I start on my makeup. Hopefully it won't take long and I'll be able to sneak out of the house to grab breakfast before anyone else gets up and misses me. Then, I'll be taking the "getting ready" pictures during the parts I won't be directly helping with.

Wish me luck!

Where in the World is Hannah aka Loser Lucy??

Where have I been? Gone. Away from home. Away from my husband. Away from my puppy. BUT...with my younger brother. With his fiancee. With his future (tomorrow) mother-in-law. In New Hampshire.

Shayla (remember her from last summer and over Christmas time?) lives in New Hampshire. She grew up here. She's getting married up here. Hence the reason Titus and I are here. I mean...it does kinda take a bride AND a groom to have a wedding. The wedding is tomorrow. (Which you would have known had you been paying attention earlier when I mentioned Titus' mother-in-law.) Anyway, right now is the first time I've been online long enough to even get on Blogger to write about it, this week.

Today, we (from now on, "we" will refer to Titus, Shayla, and I) went into N--- to Borders (a story for another time), visited TJ Maxx to find a sweater to go over Shayla's wedding dress (it has a halter top), and stopped at Wal-Mart to purchase the flowers for her bouquet and Pepsi for the after-wedding party. Did you know that there is no sales tax in New Hampshire? I didn't before this week and let me tell you...it's AWESOME!!!

Shayla wants red, blue or purple, and white in her wedding bouquet so I bought red roses, white chrysanthemums, blue (silk) hyacinths, and red/purple/blue ribbons. We'll see what works out best. oh! and there are supposedly these really cool red and white wildflowers on the side of the road near the house so I have to go out tomorrow morning and pick some to see if I can work them into the bouquet. Yes, mom, Rachel, and Alicia...you read that correctly...I am creating Shayla's bouquet. Of course, she'll have the last word about the exact arrangement, but I'm pretty sure I can manage to put something together for her. Flowers and hair DO seem to be the extent of my creative streak. Granted, I CAN do makeup too which is good because all three of those areas are falling to me. (PLEASE pray for me!!!)

The wedding is going to be super small. Just Titus, Shayla, Ma (Shay's mom), and Shay's mom's parents, and I will be there beside the Justice of Peace. Shayla and Titus figured the smaller the better which worked out well for them with the JP cause it cut his fee in half when they told him it would be no more than seven people. Gotta love that!

Anyway, I've got a list of things to NOT forget to do/take tomorrow so hopefully my part will go smoothly. My part being: get everyone out of the house alive and well. don't forget the tissues. pack the Tide to Go pen (they're getting married in a park and Shay is accident prone). flowers. hair. makeup. oh yeah! and Pictures. That's my job - to film the ceremony then to take as many pictures as I can get Titus and Shayla and her family to stand still for. (MORE prayer needed on THAT one!!) THEN, there's the belated graduation pictures to take with Shay and her grandparents once we get home from the wedding. Somewhere in there we'll throw in a little after-wedding party, more packing of Shayla's stuff, and tons more pictures along with short tempers, and, I'm sure, a few tiffs with me as the buffer. It's gonna be fun.

All that to say - here's my prayer requests for ya'll for tomorrow:

1. NO rain!! (it has rained EVERY day we've been up here this week.)
2. I don't forget anything that I need to do/take care of.
3. NO fights, tiffs, or lost tempers. (Shay's family is Irish and French...yeah, this one is VERY necessary.)
4. Flowers, hair, and makeup.
5. A good time had by all.

Promises. Promises

At the end of last month I told Darlyn that I had enough stories to last me through all of this month's blog posts. That would be a post a day. As I'm sure you've noticed...that certainly did not happen. I can't even tell you why not. However, I am writing a post now and will write another as soon as I'm finished with this one.

This particular post is here to serve as a warning of a post to come. Today I visited Borders with Titus and Shayla in order to use up a 40% off coupon that I received in my email this week. I must say that this particular trip was definitely the highlight of my time here in New Hampshire so far and I've only got one day to top it so I'm pretty sure it's going to show as the best day EVER!

Here's a hint:

I SPENT - $27.23

I SAVED - $94.62

My promise? I solemnly promise that I am up to no good. Oh wait! wrong promise!

I promise that when I get home from New Hampshire (probably late Saturday night or sometime Sunday afternoon), I will write a blog post to tell you all what I bought at Borders today that allowed me to spend under $30 and still save almost $95. *pinky promise*

Are you jealous yet?

Oh, Friday! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1. Last work day of the week

2. Casual day at work. (my coworker and I are conspiring to wear our new company shirts to work together tomorrow. We may be the only ones, but at least we'll match and we'll make all of our other coworkers jealous over our great coordination. :-)

3. An entire day to enjoy my new CDs! I just picked up my CDs at the post office this afternoon and I LOVE them!

4. I'll have two hours in the morning before work to read my "new" Barbara Cartland book. My sister, Alicia helped me find it online while I was down visiting her. I ordered it on Monday and it was delivered today.

5. After work, I get to come home. Maybe run a load or two of laundry. Then I get to head up to PA for the weekend.

6. I'll see my Mama-san and my leetle seester and my Daddy and my leetle (taller) brother and my dog, Jack.

What is the best part of tomorrow/this Friday for you this week?

All sorts of Grand Plans with no Follow Through

I had definite plans to write a blog post each day of this month. I was not going to fail in doing this. And then, yesterday happened. *smirk* It always does.

Work went fine. Well, as fine as work can go after a week's vacation and a long weekend on top of it. Of course I didn't want to work. Who would? Still, most everyone seemed happy that I was back at work and my work hadn't piled up impossibly high - just ALMOST impossibly high.

After work I went home and found myself relieved to not have to teach any piano lessons since my normal Tuesday students were still traveling home from their long weekend away.

Then, just about the time I was going to start my blog post, Ashley got home and all my plans went out the window. See, Ashley was in a rather bad accident yesterday on her way home from work. She just recently bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee and hadn't been having any problems, but for some reason, yesterday her breaks decided to lock up at the worst possible moment. She ran into the back of the car in front of her and all but totalled her Jeep. Since the airbags in her vehicle deployed while both of her hands were on the steering wheel, her right arm was very sore and starting to swell. Immediate reaction from Joseph, Titus, and I - get Ashley to the ER or at least the Urgent Care center near us to get x-rays on her arm. So, Ashley and I headed out for Urgent Care. Of course, when we got there we discovered that the place had closed 30 minutes before our arrival. We went to dinner instead. Now, let me mention here that it was not Ashley's idea to get her arm x-rayed. She has broken her right wrist two or three time before and kept saying that it didn't feel as bad as it had when she had broken it before. "Better safe than sorry," I kept telling her.

We never did make it to the ER after finding Urgent Care closed. Instead we went to Target after dinner to pick up Alice in Wonderland. I did, however, make her all but promise me that she would visit Urgent Care in the morning if her arm was still hurting. Sheesh! I'll tell you...getting that girl to see a doctor is like pulling teeth without painkillers!

So, if you think about it today, please pray that everything works out quickly for Ashley. She needs a rental vehicle or a daily ride to work, she needs to get things sorted out with her insurance, she needs a day to relax after such a bad accident, and she needs to find a new vehicle - again.