Amy Currioman

I love a great party, don’t you?  I especially love a party where the host or hostess has made the effort to set a particular mood with a theme, like a luau, or a sports related theme.  Especially fun is when there are playoffs happening and the host or hostess has decorated with the theme of that type of sport.  And of course, great themes like Easter, or St Patrick’s Day are fun too!

Around where I live, though, there just are not very many places you can go to get great party supplies.  I have to travel over an hour away to get to the nearest PartyLand store.  PartyLand is a really awesome store that has so many great discount supplies for parties.  I like to go there and browse around to get ideas for my parties, and I usually end up buying some great stuff even if I’m NOT planning a party!  I got a great red top hat there a few months ago that I like to wear sometimes to my Red Hatter meetings!  It really is a fun place to shop.  And I understand that there are great discount party store franchises available for PartyLand.  Franchises are great business opportunities for those of us who would like to be self-employed because the company has already done a lot of the work for you, and they provide a lot of training and do a lot of the marketing.  They provide step-by-step instructions and support.  I think a PartyLand franchise would do very well in my area; I wish someone would open one up near here!

Over the past couple of days the local weathermen have been predicting severe storms – predicting severe thunderstorms, hail, and even tornadoes.  At my house, we’ve had some heavy rain, but I haven’t heard any thunder, and haven’t seen any hail.  Yet when I went out yesterday I was hearing people talking about the horrible thunderstorm and how there was a tornado watch where they live, which really isn’t very far from where I live!  Apparently it all happened after I went to bed.  I didn’t think I was that sound a sleeper, but maybe I really am!  I would have thought that the dogs would have woke me up because they don’t like the noise of thunder, but they didn’t make a sound.

Even before the economy started to go bad, I was all about coupons and saving money. I have never been one to waste money, never one to “flaunt” anything. There is a big difference between “cheap” and “thrifty” and I pride myself on finding ways to save money. After all, if I save a dollar here and a dollar there, then I might have enough money saved up to buy someone I love a nice birthday or Christmas present that I might not have otherwise been able to buy!

With a little bit of luck, my coupon clipping saves me a few dollars every week at the grocery store. My hubby teases me about clipping coupons to go shopping, but I don’t mind.  I feel good about saving money!  When shopping online, I try to find online coupons to use at my favorite stores.  I recently found a website that offers online coupons, price cuts and clearance sales on women’s, men’s and kid’s clothing, shoes and jewelry and many other items.  The website is called bestonlinecoupons.com. One thing I really like about this site is that it offers coupons to my favorite stores, such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Pet Smart, Kohls, and Old Navy.  I’m sure I’ll be checking out this website for great deals frequently!

Recently my DS has complained that he does not seem to have as many blue jeans in his clean laundry. Of course, I ignored him completely, since he never puts his laundry away, if I don’t put it away for him in his dresser, it just goes onto the lateral filing cabinet that I call the “spare bed” in his bedroom.

This morning I did not have to get up at my usual 3:45 am to go to work, as school was closed due to a teacher’s workshop day, so I had the luxury of sleeping late – all the way until 7am! Not bothering to pull up the window shades or turn on the lights, I started to get dressed to take DH to a doctor’s appointment. I grabbed the top pair of jeans from the stack of jeans I had put in my closet, and I marvelled at how the jeans I was putting on had “real” pockets, and how nice they conformed to my butt, not too tight, not too loose. I knew I had lost a few pounds recently, but I didn’t realize I had lost that much!

Putting on my shoes, I noticed that the jeans were a little bit longer than usual, so I “hmpphhed” to myself and cuffed them up without giving it any more thought. Years ago it was the style to wear jeans that were too long, and it was simply second nature to simply cuff up any that were too long.

All morning long, I was enjoying this odd pair of jeans, wondering where they had been hiding for so long – these are turning into my favorite pair! Got home from the errand running, decided to treat myself to a short nap. That’s when I made the discovery, as the jeans fell to the floor at the side of my bed – I was wearing a pair of my son’s jeans! LOLOL! I never would have imagined that his jeans would fit me! He is about 7″ taller than I am, and although we weigh the same amount, he sure looks a lot thinner than me because of the height difference!

I told my DS about the discovery, and I think he was insulted to think that I can fit into his jeans! LOLOL!

Now, I have decided to buy ALL of my future blue jeans from the men’s department – they are usually half the price of women’s jeans, they fit me better, and they have REAL POCKETS! To me, a “make or break” decision on most of clothes is based on their pockets (or lack thereof!)

So, for those other gals out there that want jeans that fit well, cost less, and have REAL POCKETS, meet me in the men’s department!

I’ve made a point lately of trying to find ways to save the environment as much as possible.  I try to research the companies that I do business with and try to pick the ones that are the most environmentally responsible.  That’s why I was so interested to find out that there are some web hosting service companies that make a real effort to “go green.”  I found out about these green web hosting companies when I visited the webhostinggeeks.com website.  I was looking for reviews and ratings on web hosting companies, and found exactly what I needed on their website.

I also was very pleased to see that at the bottom of their website they have links to a lot of helpful articles about web hosting.  I liked that because I could learn a lot about web hosting without having to search a lot of different places.  The articles are written in “layman’s terms” so that made it a lot easier to understand.  If you are interested in learning more about web hosting, or are thinking about finding a new web hosting service, this website is a good place to check out.