Wednesday, October 24, 2007

nature center

Last Saturday, Dust, NJ and I went to the Ernie Miller Nature Center in Olathe. I am always looking for a new place to take NJ for a walk. It was small but nice. I was used to the Springfield, MO Nature Center which is quite large.

The one thing that was interesting was that there was a birthday party going on. That was a new concept for me---birthday parties at a nature center. There were people dressed up along the pathway in costumes portraying nursery rhymes/stories. When we passed Johnny Appleseed, I thought he looked familiar. And I was right. We ran into his wife coming out of the nature center. We will have to tease him about being Johnny Appleseed.

Is a birthday party at a nature center a geeky thing to do? Maybe for a pre-schooler it would be cool. Who knows, NJ might have one there some day.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

frugal

I have been analyzing my purchasing behavior. I realized that I am kinda wishy washy when it comes to spending. Sometimes I am very frugal and other times I make excessive purchases. I make the stupidest mistakes financially sometimes and sometimes I am extremely cheap.

We got professional photos taken at Target for the holidays. I was talked into buying the Christmas cards-(4x7). I probably should have taken a picture at home and gone through Wal-Mart.com for the Christmas cards. Wal-Mart is around 12 cents a picture, i think. Oh, well.

NJ has some clothes that are too small for him. I had him wear these around the house. Maybe I am being too cheap and should go out and get him some more shirts/pants at Target. I tend to make bad decisions on clothing for myself. I have clothes that don't look right on me but I didn't try to return them to the store either. I usually end up realizing that the clothes aren't right for me after I have washed and worn them.

Dust has mentioned that my philosophy on grocery shopping is buying only what I need for the week. (Just in Time inventory) It is probably just me being cheap. I used to only put $5 of gas in my car at a time. Is that being cheap? Since I've been married to Dust, I always fill my tank to full. Mostly for the convenience. I was able to get by with only putting $5 at a time in my car during college because Dust drove me around.

I wish I could find a balance. I don't want to be too cheap but I don't want to make foolish excessive purchases either.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

fam time

Miss Carisma visited us this past weekend. We were able to squeeze some fam time in around Dust's studying. Dust took Monday and Tuesday off work to study and have fun with little sis.

Yesterday, we went to the Overland Park Arborteum/Botanical gardens. The landscaping was excellent! I liked the mini-waterfall and the streams that bordered the paved walkway. We did go on some walking trails. NJ had a bumpy ride in his stroller when we got off the asphalt and went into the woods. He was sleeping so maybe the ride kept him asleep. It was nice to get some sun and exercise.

Miss Carisma and I rented a movie on Monday while Dust was studying. The movie was called, "Mozart and the Whale." It was a romantic comedy about two people with Asperger's syndrome. I liked it.