It's been just about a week since we bid farewell to my mom, who is safley back in Ohio enjoying the snow, and tomorrow we're gaining a new visitor for the week- my cousin, Jake- so I figured I'd get you caught up on the happenings around here before Jake shows up and all hell breaks loose.
The lemon tree is coming back to life, in fact, thanks to the warm and cold weather we've got ourselves some baby lemons. But, we are also finally getting some limes! In fact, I got to pick one this week.
Asa and I headed into Tampa- where a whole lot of things were happening at once. There was all kinds of Chinese New Year stuff, plus Gasparilla.. and some left over remenants of that one week the Bucs were in the playoffs.
Asa and I were down by Armature Works, and they had some special fairytale characters out as well. The Cinderella pumpkin was new!
Anyway, we were down there for a grand opening give-away. A brand new Tiff's Treats was opening downtown and the first 100 people in line got free $50 gift cards, plus if you ordered ahead you could get $2 dozen cookies. We arrived about an hour before opening and we're probably somewhere around 50-60. We got our wristbands for our gift card and waited for the ribbon cutting.
They also handed out free warm cookies to everyone in line. So, it was a total success, we each got a $2 dozen, we each got a free cookie, and we each got a $50 gift card to use later!
We then took our cookies over to Waterworks Park to have a picnic lunch.
If you notice, we have some chicken salad there, and it's our monthly free chicken salad we got from waiting in line for Chicken Salad Chicks grand opening in August. Not only do we get free chicken salad every month, but the day we picked it up was customer appreciation day and we got extra scoop of free classic carol!
See, we kind of love free stuff around here. We won't go super out of our way for it (unless it's a grand opening that piques our interest), but if it's near us- we're there. This week was also free chicken nuggets at McDonalds, so everyone went and enjoyed their six piece (I donated mine to Peyton who was going to buy extra).
Asa and I both had free coffees at Aroma Joes in the app, so we rode our bikes down there for that.
And, we managed to get a free $100 Wawa gift card from our credit card rewards with GTE, so we've had free Wawa subs twice this week (and it's double points this month AND the subs have been on sale for $6 any classic sub-- we also love stacking free stuff!)
I also convinced Asa to go to the grand opening of Asto Ice Cream since we were close by at Wawa anyway. You only got a free scoop of ice cream- nothing extra for the Grand opening, but it was free, so we'll take it! I got Tampa Guava Cream Cheese and Asa got Peanut Butter Banana pudding. Both were good, but his was amazing.
However, Asa barely likes desserts (how awesome is he that he went to get free cookies with me, though?) Sometimes, this makes me sad- because I love desserts and nobody in this house is ever down to share them with me. But, that means when we get free desserts, he often just takes a bite and gives me the rest. So, it's like I got two ice creams for free!
Of course, all this eating out means more walks to walk it all off. Good thing the weather has been nice.
In addition to all that, I've also been crafting. I finally got around to making us our napkins I've been talking about doing since our anniversary. (Nobody needs to know where I got these napkins from.) I did take a picture of the logos and then do my best to adjust brightness/contrast so I could clean them up enough to print them in vinyl. It was a journey for some of them.
In more crafting news, Asa and I have both signed up to volunteer at the library. I'm going to be doing my first couple Crafting with Corinne classes at the libary in March, and I'm starting with Mickey Ears. I had to do a basic pair to show off what we'll do during class, so while they're boring compaired to what I usually do, they're good to show people the process.
I also finally got around to putting the velcro on the covers for the couch to make them removable. It also just tightened up the covers, and it looks pretty good out there.
In one of my crafting genius moments, I also constructed a dog wheel chair this week. Phenom jumped off the couch, and has been having trouble with his back right leg ever since. He'll wake up fully rested, doing zoomies around the house because it feels better since he rested it, but then by lunch time he's scooting his butt across the floor to get anywhere. The poor guy might be nearly 16, but he still acts like a puppy, and he just does not want to sit still. I figured if I could just get him a little walking aid so he could still be mobile while it heals (so he's not dragging his butt everywhere by mid-day), he'd be much better off. I looked into doggie wheelchairs, but they are so expensive, so to Youtube I went to learn how to make one. I literally had everything to complete the project in my garage (I swear, I'm not a hoarder!) I even stole the wheels off the power washer (Sam, next door, even helped me get them off) And then I took some measurements and went through several prototypes before I finally got something that worked.
Four prototypes later, Nooms had a working wheelchair. I used everything from my drill to my glue gun to my sewing maching...
...to my cricut, because of course I labeled it for him. Nooms is his nickname, but then when he has his sweater on he's "sweater nooms", when he has his hoodie on he's "hoodie nooms", when he gets a haircut he's "fancy nooms" so obviously, when he's in his wheelchair, he's "wheelchair nooms" (It also helps everyone to know which way the middle support is supposed to velcroed so it doesn't catch any fur).
He doesn't use the middle support when he goes outside, then he just has on the front harness and the back strap- but he can in fact navigate and use the facilities outside. It's a big improvement for him. He's so happy, he's running around and wagging his tail a whole lot. Hopefully it helps him get better.
Last night Asa and I had a date night at International Plaza. We even treated ourselves to Grilled Artichokes, the first time we've had that experience. Once you figure out how to eat them though, they're pretty good.
We've had some cooler days and some warmer days around here lately.
But the cooler days are nice for grilling out and hanging out on the patio couch with a good book.
So, like I said, Jake will be here tomorrow. He's coming specifically for the Championship Sunday pizzas, which have been determined.
As always, I leave you with Waterstraut pet pictures.
Next up: Jake's visiting for the first time in three years! We're super excited to have him.
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