Coupon Clipping!

Alright everyone.

My cupboards are empty and I'm preparing to go to the grocery store. I've been really interested in coupons lately. I've been able to see how much my family has been able to save on their journeys to the grocery store.

I found these two websites which I'm going to be searching and getting coupons from. I'd like to share them with you, and if you know of any other websites that have coupons I can print off, I'd love to know about them so I can bookmark them. I wanna learn the tricks of being a successful coupon clipper.

I tried calling Laura and she didn't answer her phone. I would appreciate any tips and tricks that you can share.

Thanks!

www.coupons.com

Smart Source

Craziest thing happened to me today.

So I’m sitting in my 9 am economics class and I can’t stop thinking about the new value menu cheeseburger the school is offering.

Around 9:30 I couldn’t take it anymore so I packed up and walked out of class determined to have a $1.19 cheeseburger and maybe even some 99 cent fries.

I get to the Crossroad(our cafeteria) and I’m looking around and there are no cheeseburgers. They were still serving breakfast and they wouldn’t be serving lunch until 11 am. I didn’t know what to do!

So I start walking towards the library and I stop in the middle of the hall way, tilt my head slightly to the right and look up and say, “ you know what, I could really go for a donut right now”. So I did! I went for a donut! I ordered a persing. The chef adds too much lemon extract. I don’t recommend them.

So I’m eating my donut that I don’t care for and walking towards the library and I see a couple to my left talking and the guy slides out of his chair and lays on the ground. She runs and grabs a bin thinking he’s about to throw up and I walk over there. I ask if he’s ok and she said no. He was arching his back and mumbling and doing a lot of weird things. I ran and I got help, he had stopped breathing. By the time I got back there, a random lady was giving him CPR.

Another guy and I gave him a blessing while he was receiving CPR. Another lady was calling the paramedics. And the lady who was with him from the beginning was stroking his hand and trying to talk to him. It didn’t take long for a huge crowd to gather around us. The guy started breathing on his own again and was conscious.

Just like any guy, I probably would of done the same thing, he started telling us that he was ok and didn’t need any paramedics. The school security who showed up made him lay down and reassured him that paramedics only charge you if they have to take you in. College kids are poor and finances are on our minds even in life or death situations! Did I mention my birthday is coming up?***

Paramedics finally show up and I left.

So that’s been my morning so far.

I went to accounting and felt really smart. Now I’m in the Library doing homework.

Oh! BYU –Idaho has a secret library lab that’s behind the computer help desk. It used to be a family history center, but I don’t think anybody knows about it. It has a completely separate entrance as the Library and both times I’ve been here, there have been probably 50+ computers free.

***Dad is coming to Rexburg towards the middle/end of March, this will save money on the shipping costs of my birthday presents.

P.S. I also learned that the guy who created pickles, the comic strip went to Ricks and is LDS. Sometimes he has pictures of temples or the ensign in his comic strips. The picture below shows a picture of a temple on the top left corner.

History

In my middle east class we listen to at least one “mosaic” a week. A mosaic is a website that takes news solely from Middle Eastern countries and makes it available to the world.

http://www.linktv.org/mosaic is the website to listen to the news.

Once we listen to the news we are then asked to go onto a major US news site such as cnn.com or foxnews.com and search through their website to try to find the same articles with an American twist on it. Usually you scroll down and click on "World", then "Middle East", they are then listed in order that they are posted.

While studying both the Mosaic and the US news I’ve concluded that everyone around the world is the exact same as us. There are nice people and there are not so nice people. Today I got on and it was speaking a lot about corruption in the Middle East. It caught me because we’re learning about the integrity which is enforced in the Islamic religion and also in the Arab culture. I thought to myself, “that’s not very Arab like” Then my epiphany about them being just like us hit me in the face.

Erica and I started talking about this and everyone is born with the light of Christ. There is the concept of the natural man which we have to overcome, but we are also born with the light of Christ, the innate capacity to love and care for others, even those whom we don’t know.

While watching Mosaic, Erica and I saw footage of innocent people being executed. The men carrying out the executions had no mercy, and seemed as if they had no emotions. One man was executed because a military officer wanted his hat. History has many examples of dictators oppressing their people and taking away their God given rights. Are these men going to be excused of their crimes because they haven’t received the Gospel? I personally don’t think they will.

I feel that the gospel doesn’t make someone a good person. I’ve known many people who do not belong to my faith, some even who are atheist, and are amazing people. On the other hand there have been prominent members of many different religions who live two lives, one of a publicly religious person, and another they pray the public never finds out about.

If Hitler had heard the Gospel would he had spared the Jews? Would he had shut down his concentration camps and let everyone go home. I don’t think he would of.

I think that Hitler and other Tyrants of history have surpassed the concept of the natural man. I feel there are many people alive today who have accomplished the same, Osama Bin Laden being one of them. The natural man isn’t being born with the desire to murder, torture and oppress.

When we are born we have two guiding lights in our lives: the natural man being one and the light of Christ being the other. They pull is in opposite directions and the more we give heed to one, the less influence the other has on us.

To the extent that the persons earlier mentioned lost the light of Christ and succumbed to the natural man, we can equally lose the natural man and in the same magnitude that they had become bad, we can become good.

All of our lives are going to be written in a history book of some sort, whether it be journals, textbooks, etc, What will history say about how you lived your life? :-)

Mid-terms are this week.

Most of my classes don't have mid-terms but we've been having Exams throughout the whole term. I took my second Middle East Exam today. I got a 97%. I was happy with that. I have my second accounting exam on Friday.

Because it's half way through the term, second block classes are about to start. Erica and I both have a second block class. It's Old Testament.

I was really nervous about this class because I feel like I'm swamped with school work with the classes I have now. I have to take this class though so it's not an option to not take it.

I've made goals though to work smarter and not necessarily harder. I do spend a lot of time in the Library and even though it doesn't make sense, I feel that I can be just as productive without being as busy.

Here are some of my goals. I'm going to read all class material before the topics get taught in the classroom.

During class, my A.D.D. mind starts to wander and I draw a lot of pictures. I'm going to pay close attention and take good notes.

I'm going to learn the material thoroughly as it gets taught so I don't feel the need to cram for tests or exams.

So those are pretty much my goals and I feel that it will work. I also got a tutor for my Business Statistics class. That's the only class where I feel like I'm starting to fall behind.

Everything is going to be A Okay

Cheap Date Idea

Erica and I are poor, very poor. Last year after midterms or after a stressful day at school we would want to eat somewhere fancy.

Here is our cheap date idea.

Whatever you get at Olive Garden comes with free bread sticks. They are delicious and for a college student, are a gourmet meal by themselves.

If you buy soup, it costs around 5-6 dollars and is unlimited. They usually have about 4 options and you can switch the type of soup you get when you get a refill.

So for around 11 dollars you get unlimited amazing soup and bread sticks for two people. So for under 15 dollars, you can include a tip and eat really good food.
This is only recommended for someone you've been dating for awhile. It would not go over well to take a girl to Olive Garden and tell her she can only have soup.

Here's another tip, if you have a really nice waiter or waitress, they have to go containers made especially for soup. We've had waiters give us an extra bowl each and extra bread sticks to go.

I have the most amazing girlfriend

Today was valentines day and Erica and I have spent the weekend home in Oregon.

Because we see each other every day in Rexburg we decided to try to spend as much time with our families as possible this weekend.

We didn't see each other at all on Friday. It was rather difficult. I missed her a lot. The next day though, my parents and I went to Erica's beach house and spent the afternoon with Erica's family. We ate a wonderful lunch and dessert. We played ping pong. I LOVE ping pong. There was also pool and a bunch of little snacks. It was a lot of fun.

Today is Sunday. Erica came home a little early so I could have my valentines date with her. I decorated the living room and made it all cute.

I had the dinner table in the dining room set up with paper plates and mix matched mugs full of water. I was trying to trick her and I think it worked.

So for our date we watched tootsie and I made Erica dinner. We were also going to make a pie together but didn't have time. We are going to postpone that event for Rexburg.

When it was time for us to exchange gifts, I told her that if she lined up all the possible presents in the world the first being the one gift that was more romantic than the others, mine would be last in the list. My gift for Erica was very functional. She reassured me that her gift for me was functional as well. :-) We're good for each other.

I got her pie pan as well as a book that teaches you how to make all different sorts of pies. I'm really excited about it. It's a little late in the mail though.

She got me a huge bamboo cutting board with a built in strainer. I LOVE it. I've been shopping around for a collapsible strainer and no one in my apartment has a cutting board. It really is the perfect gift. There's a picture below of it.


We also decided to get to get plants because both of our roommates went home. She got a really cool bonsai tree. It's way cool. I'm shopping around for an aloe vera plant. These plants will be our roommates until next term when we get new roommates.

This has been an amazing weekend. Tomorrow we have a long drive back, but the long drive is hardly a sacrifice for being able to see our families and spend time with each other in Oregon.

My Economics exam is over

I got an 86% on my economics exam. I was really disappointed because I felt like I did well despite feeling unprepared.

I've already done the math though and it's still likely for me to get an "A" in that class.

Update on my weight loss

Last week I was weighed at the Plasma center at 216 lbs. That was the week we ate all of those cookies. Today I was weighed in at 212 at plasma. That is four lbs.

I've been eating smaller portions. Particularly with my cereal. I only eat 1 cup like it says on the back. By lunch time I'm usually starving but I don't binge at lunch.

I've been doing pulls everyday for the past week. It's been said to the be the single most beneficial exercise for upper body. It also works the abs. I've been doing pull ups in three different types every day and Every other day I record it in excel and am going to graph my progress. I've already almost tripled what I was able to do when I first started out.

We might win dinner for two!

So Erica and I were walking to the Library and we found a sign that said we could win a dinner for two. We had to tell about our best engagement or worst date story and which ever was best or worst would win.

So Erica and I decided to get creative and make up our stories.

Here are my two stories. Erica's can be found here.

Story # 1

I knew Erica ever sense 3rd grade. She seemed perfect and I thought I loved her. Our senior year I finally got the nerve to ask her on a date. She said yes. The next weekend we planned on a simple movie then dinner. In the theater I would randomly get whiffs of a horrible smell. I shrugged it off but then Erica released the loudest fart. The ground shook and the whole theater was looking at us. She looked at me and yelled, "DEREK!" and walked out. I went home alone that night. No girl, no dignity and $15 poorer. Erica hasn't spoken to me sense.

Story #2 ( this story is influenced my Uncle John and Aunt Anne. Something similar happened to them, I just changed it around a little bit.)

I was 17 and Kris was my first girlfriend. I invited Kris to an employee party for the grocery store I woekd at. before the party we ate at a local Thai restaurant. During the drive to the party Kris kept complaining of stomach pains. We were about 15 miles from the party and she's screaming at me to go faster. We hit a bump in the road and Kris soiled ehrself in the front seat of my dads Mercedes Benz. We never did make it to the party that night and I had to pay for the professional cleaner to clean my dad's car.

Wish us luck!

So...something weird happened last night.

K something weird happened last night and I want to share it with everyone.

I went to bed last night and I was all cozy in my bed. Eli moved out and so I'm the only one in my room.

At 5:30 am. I wake up to someone shaking my leg. I felt a hand grasping my foot and shaking my leg. I wake up look at the foot of my bed and see a person standing there. I sit up and as my eyes adjust the person is no longer there. It disappeared.

I then felt like I needed to get out of bed. I got up and I ran outside. I felt as if I was needed for something. Maybe there was a fire or someone walking around that shouldn't be there so I ran outside and I looked across the parking lot to Erica's building and no it seemed calm and like there was no problems. I looked around outside. (I was in shorts and a t-shirt walking around on the balcony.) There was no fire and I didn't' see anything.

I go back inside, said a prayer, and felt like I could go to bed. So I went to bed.

So here's the thing. There is no doubt that I felt something grabbing my foot and shaking my leg. I don't know if it was all in my head or if someone was intentionally waking my up. It seemed as if I woke up for no reason because I didn't see an immediate result of me getting out of bed. Maybe there was someone outside and I scared him off or maybe it was a test to see if I could do what I felt like I needed to or it could of all been in my head.



I just don't know

My Accounting Exam is over!

I was way worried about todays exam and have been studying all week. I ended up getting a 95%. :-) not too shabby.

My economics exam is next...

I haven't been able to blog

I haven't been able to blog. I shouldn't be on my blog right now either :-/ I have so many exams to take. Studying for them is consuming my life. I'm so glad that Erica likes study dates. The library has become my home.





I've taken one. It was in Middle East and I got a 96%
I'm taking my accounting exam tomorrow. I need to get an A. This is one of my major classes
Economics on Friday. I need an A in this one too. It's also a major class.
Business Stats next Thursday. This is a major class as well... I'm shooting for an A.

This picture kinda describes how my brain feels. :-)