Henry and Mudge

file://localhost/Users/debbiehsu/Desktop/Henry%20and%20Mudge%20Tic-Tac-Toe%20Menu.doc

Tic Tac Toe

Playdough Recipe

Happy Monday

I hope everyone is having a great Monday. My goal is to dedicate more time to this blog so be sure to check back soon.

Koi fish

Here is a picture to enjoy today.

Are you a member of Beezag?

Beezag is a fairly new site.  When you sign up it asks a series of questions to see what you like, what you are looking to purchase, and what your interests are.  Based on what you answer, you will have commercials to watch.  After the commercial you are usually given a discount to that item.  The best part of all is that you earn points for watching the commercials and you can earn points if you make purchases from the link provided.

Beezag is free to join and a lot of fun.  Most commercials are worth 60-100, but one weekend they were having a special where the commercials were worth 500 points each.  After earning 8,000 points you can redeem it for $8 sent via Paypal.

I usually get 1-3 commercials to watch per day, so it's not a "get rich quick" site, but it is a lot of fun.  You also have to check the site during the day because sometimes they send an email, but often they don't.

In case you are interested and you aren't a member, here's a link to join.  I think you should give it a try if you aren't a member already.



http://www.beezag.com/index.html?utm_source=beezag&utm_medium=1_1_1_a53ac00388ec4a8824b4f27dec2119b69c146a7f8b76b260&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=invitation
Beezag

I went from a Starbucks Junkie to a Folgers Lover

Ok, so would you rather spend $8 for two Starbucks drinks or about 300 (yes 300!) Folgers drinks?  Pretty simple question, but one that took me two years and more than $3,000 to figure out on my own.  For a while there I was convinced Starbucks was putting some sort of addictive ingredient in their coffee because my car was on auto pilot every morning and automatically drove to Starbucks.  I had to have it everyday and then it got to a point where I would sometimes have it twice in a day.

Fast forward 2 years to the end of 2009. It finally hit me and I realized how much I was spending on coffee and I had to stop.  I had a coffee maker at home, but it was stuffed in the back of the cupboard somewhere.  I decided to clear off a special spot on the counter for the coffee maker and decided to start making my own coffee.  I didn't even know how to make coffee, so I had to ask my Dad for advice.  He makes very good coffee, so I took notes on how he makes coffee.

I still felt a bond with Starbucks, so I went and bought a fancy Starbucks coffee measuring spoon.  In the beginning I even bought Starbucks beans and ground them myself.  I was weird, too because I had to buy my beans at Starbucks which meant I was going to Starbucks once a week to buy more beans.  I was still spending quite a bit of money on coffee and the temptation of going there was killing me.

I saw that Costco sold the large Folgers container as shown in my picture for about $8, so I decided to try it.  Even when I went to Starbucks I would never get plain coffee.  I always had to get the fancy Caramel Machiatto.  So, there was no way I could drink plain Folgers coffee.  I noticed that Coffee Mate makes all kinds of fancy creamers, so I bought a few.

For three months straight I didn't go to Starbucks.  My daughter, who was 8 at the time, was so surprised that I wasn't going to Starbucks anymore.  She loves to draw and made me a certificate to congratulate me on not going to Starbucks for three months.  I thought that was just adorable.

It's been almost two years since my Starbucks addiction and I'm still very happy with my daily cup of coffee from Folgers.  Since I'm making my coffee at home I can also leave the house 15 minutes later in the morning, which is a big deal to me.  I love my coffee and I love the fact that I'm saving so much money on it.

Yes, I still go to Starbucks occasionally.  This year I've gone about 5 times, but I'm using my Christmas gift cards for my coffee.  My goal is to see if I can go all year only using gift cards at Starbucks.  I figure with all the money they got from me during 2007-2009, I can afford to take a year off paying them.

For those of you that still want fancy coffee drinks at home, may I suggest the Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee machine.  I won one of these for my work and it is great.  There are many different flavored capsules for fancy drinks.  

Happy New Year

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and enjoyable 2011.  One of my goals is to post more often on this blog.  I'm hoping to give helpful tips to both teachers and parents.  I enjoy writing and helping others.  Tomorrow I go back to work.  It's always a pleasant sight to see those 20 happy faces of the children waiting for their teacher.  After being on vacation for two weeks, many of the students seem older and more mature when I see them for the first time.