Day 14: Plum

A few months ago I bought a GAP coupon on Groupon. I thought it would be no prob to use the coupon in 3 months because I always go to the GAP...right? Nope. I had yet to even go to the GAP over the last few months and my coupon expired on Friday! I panicked and told John we had to go use it ASAP. I still couldn't that it had been at least 6 months since I had been to the GAP. (This is very unusual since my entire wardrobe normally consists of 95% GAP.)

Have any of you been to the GAP recently? If so, have you noticed anything particular about their prices? Maybe that they are EXTREMELY high?? Every sweater, (including turtlenecks), were all around $50, business pants were $65, and plain white t-shirts were $15. Seriously! When did all of their prices get jacked up? I am still completely appalled. Who would pay $15 for a plain t-shirt when you can get the same shirt at F21 for $3? What happened to my fave reasonably priced clothing store? Am I getting that cheap or are their prices way too high?

Regardless of my sticker shock, I did buy this SUPER cute bag! What do you think? I am all about purses with adjustable straps now days that am walking a lot more...and it being plum? It was meant to be.

Tips Galore!

A few weeks ago I saw this post on Chris' blog. I had NO idea they had a cake decorating tool box! I HAD to get it. All of my cake decorating supplies were currently in zip lock bags. (They were in a box before the move, but I got rid of the box to conserve space, but still...how tacky is a brown box?)

Like the thrifty shopper that I am, I waited until I got a 40% off coupon from Michael's until I made the purchase.Needless to say this has been one of the best purchases I have made in a long time.

Since we are on the decorating subject, last week was our last French class so I made French inspired cupcakes for everyone. (I also made some small French flags that I stuck in them but I didn't get a photo.)
The French class was a great introduction to the language but we didn't really learn how to converse with each other. John and I will be starting the Rosetta Stone this summer, so hopefully that will give us the extra practice. 3.5 months until our trip...time to book some tickets!

Santa Barbara Mini Break

For John’s birthday I decided to surprise him with a mini break to Santa Barbara. Not the most original idea I know, but since we were out of town the weekend before I only wanted to go somewhere for one night. Since SB is only 1.5 hours away it was the perfect location!

I did my best in not giving him any clues because I knew he would guess it…I mean really…how many options were there? Well apparently A LOT. He first thought I was taking him to Vegas, then Arizona to hit some DDD’s.

Once we got on the road and started heading south I thought for sure he’d figure it out, but he didn’t! He first thought I was taking him to a Dodger game…then he thought I was taking him to Ojai! At first I thought these were fake guesses, but they weren’t!

I actually threw him off a bit by driving past SB and stopping in Ventura. I wanted to try to sell some of my clothes back to Buffalo Exchange. All of the consignment shops in SLO only give you store credit, but BE didn’t. Let me say that I’m SO glad I took my stuff there! They took about 10 pieces of mine and I got $50 in return, (or $70 in store credit). That is way better than I’d make at a garage sale.

I was also excited that we got to stop in Ventura because we had recently read about an authentic Italian restaurant in town that we wanted to try. It was called Sicily by Gino’s and it was REALLY good. We got a prosciutto and Parmesan cheese pizza.We even got to talk to the owner, which is always cool, and she told us how they only use the freshest ingredients. We told her you could totally tell, as the quality of the pizza was very similar to the pies we had in Italy.

During our lunch I finally let John know where we were going, and he said he really had no idea. Being the planner I am, I handed John a map of SB that had all the places we were going to go during the weekend. The main spot was Williams-Sonoma. For his b-day I got him a gift card there, along with my mom, and his mom! Every month when the dude gets the WS catalog he drools over it. Since we don’t have a WS in SLO, I thought it would be the perfect gift to combine with the mini break!

After lunch we headed back north to WS. Needless to say John was like a kid in a candy store. I can’t tell you how many rounds we made in there before I told him we needed to make a list to help narrow it down. Once we did that we were able to focus a bit easier. (Granted if I had told him ahead of time, we could have looked through our kitchen and seen what we wanted to upgrade.)Next we checked into our Motel. I was a little worried about this place, but it got a good rating on tripadvisor.com, and so far that site has never let me down. The only problem was that NO SB hotels let you book a room for one night. Isn’t that LAME?? I can’t tell you how many places I had to call. Most of them told me to call back the week of, and hopefully they would have a room. Luckily for us the Agave Inn had a room.

It was a sweet deal as most of the rooms had recently been renovated. I was glad John liked it too, as I’m sure it would not have passed my mom’s and sister’s standards.

After a mini rest we headed downtown to do a bit of walking and shopping. Williams-Sonoma didn’t have a few things we were looking for, so they told us to check out Sur La Table. It was our first time in that store and it was AWESOME! John found exactly what he was looking for and I even found a cupcake doughnut pan!! (You can bake doughnuts in it as well, but I want to try cupcakes.)

Next we headed to The Palace Grill…our favorite restaurant in SB. It NEVER disappoints. I’ve blogged about it before, and honestly I don’t know why I just didn’t repost this entry as I’m having de ja vu rereading it!

Anyway, I was planning on sharing a meal with john, but he talked me into getting my ‘ole stand by…because he wanted to eat it! I’m really glad he talked me into it, because it was really good.John also got the blackened fish.
He also LOVES the bread pudding here. I think it was the biggest yet.In case you were ever wondering what is the proper way to eat bread pudding...here is John's in instructional video.

Even though we were stuffed to the brim we decided to stop off at an ‘English’ pub which was on the same block. John was pumped because they had Hoegaarden, and I got a cider. I was a little miffed because they didn’t have any legit English cider. Seriously…if you want to be an authentic pub, you need to have authentic drinks.After some enjoyable people watching, we did a bit more walking/shopping, and then went to Pinkberry!! I was so excited to go again, AND to get mochi on my yogurt. Let me tell you it did not disappoint AGAIN! I am really falling in love with that place. DANGER! DANGER!I got the DEAL OF THE YEAR on these sunglasses. They were regularly $98, but marked down to $54, and then $29. However when the clerk range up the price it, of course, range up as $54, BUT He gave them to me for $29! I then used a 30% off coupon and a $10 off coupon bringing the cost down to $11!! Deal of the year, I’m telling ya. (I'm trying to look tough in this photo).

We decided to get an early start on Sunday as we had a couple of rentals to look at back in SLO. Our first stop was to a bakery that I had found online. The baked goods weren’t that good, but once John saw some of the breakfast food he insisted we eat there. (We were heading to our fave Sambo’s).It was really good. I got the breakfast burrito and John got banana French toast. (John was also photoed out his morning...hence the reason he is not in this food photo.)
We stopped for another café and some more baked goods before we finally hit the road.

It was amazing how much fun we had in 24 hours. I’m actually mad that we don’t go down to SB more often…especially when we know of so many good places to go. 1.5 hours really isn’t that far. I think we will head back after we move.

GOOD NEWS!

This past week John and I headed up to San Francisco for my semi-annual visit with my awesome neck doctor, Dr. Lisa Orloff. I must say I was somewhat skeptical about this visit, because during my last ultra sound, (6 months prior), she did see a suspicious area, (but it was too small to biopsy). Had she not seen that I wouldn’t have been so worried.

However I had no need to worry because she didn’t see any thyroid cells, (aka cancer), in my neck!!! The suspicious spot she saw last time had not grown, which makes her think it is just scar tissue! I cannot tell you what a relief it was to hear the news. Over these past 6 months I had been totally prepping myself incase I had to have another surgery. Being the planner I am, a lot of things were already semi planned in my head, and now I have to erase them all.
Here is John in the doctors office. Notice all the neck paraphernalia on the counter. There is a great neck poster on the wall, but it didn’t make it in the photo.
My check-ups will continue because my blood work is still showing signs that there are thyroid cells in my body. There are not supposed to be ANY in my body, but the first blood test I got back after my surgery the number was 1.7. Three months later it was 1.4. My doctor said that it is good it is going down, but each test can fluctuate by a few points. So even if it is back to 1.7 after my next test, that won’t be bad…just as long as it’s not higher. I am very interested to see what my next test will show in May. The Dr. also said I would need another ultra sound, but I asked her if I could have it in 8 months instead of 6 and she said no prob. Why you may ask? Well I want to have it after Paris of course! I need to save those PTO days!

Let me put it to you this way…this is the first good news regarding my thyroid in THREE YEARS! Did you hear me? THREE YEARS PEOPLE!!! I was, and still am in shock. John on the other hand was so excited, he was acting like he just had 5 shots of espresso.

After my first appointment, we had a few hours to kill until my next one, (yes another one was to come), so we headed to Union Square to do some shopping. John really wanted to go back to H&M again ever since he bought some sweet pants in Atlanta. What do you know? He totally scored again!

I actually started shopping for myself and then remembered my ‘NO UNNECESSARY CLOTHES PURCHASING UNTIL PARIS’ pack I made with myself. Duh! How could I forget?

After our shopping excursion and a quick lunch, we headed down to San Mateo to see my fourth orthopedist. Yes…you read right, I said fourth. I decided that this would probably be the last one I saw, as the other 3 didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear, and seeing 4 different doctors is already pretty ridiculous.
This dr. was suggested to me via my sister’s physical therapist. He seemed like he knew his stuff, however he couldn’t offer me any suggestions of what I could do to help heal my Achilles. He did tell us of a podiatrist down the street that performs radio shock therapy to some patients with tendon problems. We got out of the appointment at 4pm. I called the podiatrist at 4:05, and we were meting with him at 4:30! I was SO thankful he was able to see us. There was no way I wanted to have to take another day off for another appointment. John was SO excited for the third appointment!
The doctor basically told me to do the opposite of what I've been doing, because the other medical professionals have been treating my injury as an Achilles injury when he thinks it is a foot injury. Can you believe it? He told me to wear at least a 1 in heel lift all the time, to stop wearing my brace when I sleep, and to go back to physical therapy and have them treat me for my foot, (not Achilles). He also said that he would not recommend surgery! Yeah! I can’t believe I never thought of going to a podiatrist in the first place. Of course the orthopedists are going to want me to have surgery…they are surgeons! Duh.

Since I’ve made these changes my foot hasn’t felt sore. I’m really hoping that is a good sign. I’ve also been using this cream that the podiatrist prescribed to reduce the swelling and I think it’s working! I have no idea how a cream reduces swelling, but I don’t care! I’m just mad that someone didn’t prescribe this to me a year ago!

Overall our 24 hours in San Francisco was very successful and a lot of fun, (after the good news of course). It’s almost like a mini vacay for us because we were on our own cruisin’ in the city. John and I were both completely exhausted the rest of the week though. I always knew the thyroid issues would end some day, but it never really felt like that day was so close. 2010 is starting out pretty sweet!

What was that? I can't hear you!

A few weeks ago Forever 21 opened here in SLO filling the old Gottschalk's building. Two of my friends checked it out and were pretty impressed with the selection and prices so we went to go check it out yesterday. We walked in and it was HUGE! The entire building as well as the old home furnishing section was FILLED with clothes and accessories. It was SO overwhelming.

Once the shock wore off I then wondered why I had an instant headache…oh right!! It was the MUSIC PLAYING AT A LEVEL 11!!!! My god! Do they think young women are deaf? I know this isn’t a new trend…when I walk by Abercrombie I get knocked over by the sound waves and that awful perfume smell. But for some reason I didn’t expect it at this store.

I’ve heard they play the music that loud so that the parents will just hand their kids their credit card and wait outside. I’m sad to say that if I were a parent I would probably do that, but the loud music has never been a concern for me because most of the stores that use that sales tactic are out of my price range. Forever 21 however is a bulls eye for my price range.

I understand if the man behind the curtain wants to give his consumers the feeling of partying while shopping…I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that you have to SCREAM at your shopping companion to communicate. Um…what fun is that? I guess they don’t want you to get advice from each other of which pair of jeans looks best. They just want you to buy them both...am I right?

I am also WELL aware that I am getting older, which is only 10% of the problem. I wouldn’t say this store is 100% a teenybopper store either and they should really think of ALL of the ages of people that shop there. Here is my solution…on certain nights of the week they should turn the volume down a tad. Just a tad! I would be much more willing to spend an extra hour or 2 in there perusing if I wasn’t so irritated by the blaring music. However I hate to admit that even with the music I was able to find quiet a few things to purchase.

Thanks to my Facebook buddies I was told to shop on their website. DUH! Although I was excited to have an actual new store in town vs. shopping online…oh well…I'm supposed to be in on a spending freeze anyway.

Instant Fashion Designer

Look what John and saw at Michael's today:
It's a personal screen-printing machine! How cool is this? One of the employees at Michael's even gave us a demo, and the end result looked pretty good. The image looked like one you would buy on a shirt in a store. Could you imagine making your own custom shirts? How cool would that be? It's very tempting. We will see if we are still thinking about it in a few days.

Sleep Please

So much to blog about and so little time. Seriously...looks like I will be back in the work force soon, although I have yet to know the actual start date. The offer letter said my start date would be June 15th, but my friend who works there would like me to start as soon as the IT guys sets up my computer. That is fine with me if she knew when that was. I know it's not her fault, but I'm just hoping for at least a few days notice. My preference would be to start on the 8th...who wouldn't like an extra week?

I feel utterly exhausted from this past weekend. (Although I know it's an accumulation of the time in Humboldt and the rest of last week). I have been going full speed for the last few weeks and I think it's caught up with me. Lucky for me my awesome husband told me I should go get a massage so I obeyed him and made an appointment for tomorrow!!

We had a great visit with the Steinbuck's for our annual Memorial Day Weekend reunion. I think the two kiddos are even more work then they were last year. I blame that and the fact that I am a year older to why I am so pooped. Even John is feeling it despite his two rounds of golf. When we got home today he laid down on the couch and within 10 minutes the dude was asleep!




We didn't do too many monumental things this past weekend, but we were going nonstop. Rebekkah and I did get in some awesome shopping just like the good 'ole days. I always forget how much fun I have when we shop together, and now we are so good we can even do it with both girls in tow.

We hit up the Carter's outlet in Pismo which was a necessity for me since I had to buy baby clothes for four babies. I still can't believe how much cuter clothes are when they are miniature. I really wanted to buy everything in the store.

We also found some killer deals at Old Navy. Their big sale was $1 flip flops which everyone was buying...except me. The checkout lady looked at me like I was crazy, and I was like 'listen lady...the plastic flip flops hurt my feet. I need cloth. I can't help it if I'm a flip flop snob. Your sale brought me into your store right?' Well I didn't go into that much detail, but she understood my point. I'm still in shock over the mark downs. I got a bunch of shirts for $2 and a sweater for $3! Then I saw some shirts for $9 and they were way too expensive for my price range. You really can't compete with $2. I even found found a new pair of dress pants that were labeled $29 and got rung up for $9! Don't you love it with that happens? I know I really didn't need any new work clothes, because a wise woman, (Molly Alice Atkinson), once told me that one of the best things about starting a new job is that your existing wardrobe turns into a brand new one since none of your co-workers have seen your clothes before. She is one smart cookie I tell ya!