04.12.09 Easter Brunch at Ruby Tuesday and Dessert

03.19.09 Lunch at Ruby Tuesday, Dinner at Wendy's & Snack

02.12.09 Breakfast, Lunch at Ruby Tuesday and Dinner at Home

Didn't get much sleep...woke up around 9:30am since I needed to head over to pickup my mom and sister so we could go out to the funeral home and church to rearrange things.

Printed out all the directions from Google Maps that I would need and grabbed a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar and hit the road.

Arrived at my mom's and loaded up grandpa's photo frames of pictures, his self portrait, a nice suit, belt and some accessories. My sister arrived at the last minute and we hit the road about 10:40am for the 11am appointment at the funeral home.

There was road construction galore so we ended up being about 10 minutes late. We got there and were greeted by a really nice man named Barth who took us through the whole process and assisted us in deciding certain things.

We finished up the appointment around 12:45pm and headed to Ruby Tuesday to get a bite to eat since my last coupon expired that day. We were all starving but realized we were almost out of gas so we stopped at SuperAmerica and I used my $25 gift card that I won at the party several nights ago.

Got to Ruby Tuesday, ordered and headed straight for the salad bar.

My salad

Soup and Broccoli

Cottage Cheese

Left Ruby Tuesday at 1pm and headed to our 2pm appointment at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Arrived a bit early so we sat in the waiting room for awhile. My grandpa attended the church for 30 years and would have wanted the service to take place there. Met the pastor, great guy...he has been there for about 6 months but he visited my grandpa in the Care Center regularly. So we set things up for a showing, service, communion, a luncheon, and then the service at Fort Snelling since he was in the war. 

Finished up around 4pm and headed back to the funeral home to change some details and coordinate between the two. Left the funeral home to go buy a wrinkle free dress shirt to go with his suit and came back to the funeral home to drop it off around 5:45pm.

Left the funeral home to drive my mom and sister back home. 

Got them back home and hugged my sister Sarah goodbye and gave her my last B1G1 Free Ruby Tuesday coupon so her and her boyfriend could go out for dinner. Went into my mom's house to burn a CD of memories of my grandpa to work on. Hugged my mom and said goodbye and headed home.

On the way home I called ahead to have Dave and Angie put the Trader Joe's Eggplant Parmesan in the oven. Arrived home around 7pm, changed into my comfy clothes and there was about 20 minutes left of the eggplant parmesan so I fried up lean ground turkey and threw a cup of tabbouli in with it and seasoned it and also steamed some broccoli. Plated dinner and had Angie place SF orange drinks on the table and we prayed and ate.

My portion

For dessert I dished us up cups of Edy's Cookies N' Cream, again. It was so good though!

After dinner we watched the latest episode of CSI Miami and I fell asleep a lot sooner than I wanted to...11:30pm and I will be working Friday through Tuesday nights 6pm - 6am so I need to sleep in tomorrow!

02.11.09 Breakfast, Lunch at Ruby Tuesday & Dinner at Denny's

Got in 8 hours of sleep 10pm - 6am. Woke up and got ready to go to my aunt Elsie's house. Grabbed a Banana Bread Larabar to eat in the van on the way over.

Arrived at my aunt's house and went into her office space and started transferring files off her old computer and then disassembled it and got the space prepped for the new one we were going out to get at Best Buy.

Left for Best Buy around 10am and got there and found the computer package she wanted...HP A6750y, 22" monitor and 3-in-1 printer. The sales associate was a rather petite girl so she needed to get a male associate to bring the computer and monitor down from the storage area. Also bought an ethernet router and a flash drive. 

After we loaded everything up my aunt treated me to lunch at Ruby Tuesday! One of my absolute favs!!!

Chicken White Bean Chili

Plate of Salad

Cottage Cheese with Sunflower Seeds

After we ate we headed back to her place and I unpacked and setup her new computer and copied all of her files back onto it. She just went from Windows XP to Vista so it was pretty simple to configure it.

Then she decided we should call Comcast and cut back on her Cable TV and get her setup with high speed internet. So I called and got her Cable bill knocked down $20 and the high speed internet special was $20/month for 3 months and they said we could go pickup a self install kit. She got me a Quaker Chewy Granola Bar for the road.

So we headed over there about 3pm since they closed at 5pm and while Elsie was in Comcast picking up the self install kit I got a phone call from my mother about my grandpa.

The Care Center that was my grandpa was staying at called to inform us that he was in really bad shape and might only have a few hours at most. 

So Elsie came out with the install kit and I told her the terrible news and I rushed to get her back home.

Then I went to pick up my mom from an appointment and we hurried to get to the Care Center.

We arrived at 4:55pm and were grateful to see that he was still with us. The nurse had told him we would be there by 5pm and he held on for us to be there with him and say our goodbyes...he couldn't speak and he has been blind for a long time but we could tell he knew we were there because he squeezed our hands. 

Sadly, he passed away at 5:12pm and it was really hard for me because I have never actually seen someone die before my eyes. My loss was a great sorrow. My grandpa was a very religious man and he is at peace now.

The Care Center wanted us to pack up his things and bring them back with us. Grandpa set up a prearranged funeral so the Care Center called them and got everything in order. We loaded his belongings in the van and brought them back to my mom's house.

My mom hadn't eaten all day so we went out to Denny's to collect our thoughts and talk about everything.

Garden Salad

Chicken with Double Veggies

Ciabatta Toast

After dinner we headed back to Elsie's to tell her about what happened and to finish up with the computer stuff. She gave me a lovely Valentine's Card that cheered me up and also thanked me for helping her pick out and setup her new computer. I had found a Valentine's Day Card for her with a English Spaniel that looked just like her dog Springer on it and a small tin of assorted chocolates.

Drove my mom home and I had a massive headache from balling my eyes out so she gave me some extra strength Tylenol and I headed home and to try and get some sleep.

Got home and decided I needed a bowl of ice cream so I dished up a cup of Edy's No Sugar Added Cookies N' Cream. What a rough, sad day for us all :(

01.31.09 Breakfast at Jamba Juice, Lunch at Ruby Tuesday, & Dinner at Home

Got in 9 hours of sleep! 12:30am - 9:30am! Beautiful Day Out! 45 Degrees:)

Had to run out to two banks...needed to withdraw money at one and deposit it at another. 

After that I headed to Jamba Juice again, since it was the last day my printable coupon for steel cut organic oatmeal was good...a cup for a buck. I got the Fresh Banana Steel Cut Oats and a Strawberry Nirvana sixteen. (450 cal, 4g fat, 9g fiber, 16g protein)

After breakfast I went to Cub Foods because Amanda (our dog) needed dog food. I also bought two cans of Healthy Valley Organic Chili ($1/2 coupon = $4), South Beach Mocha FiberFit Bars ($2 off coupon at South Beach Site = $0.50), 2 jars Smuckers Natural Peanut Butter $4, 1 box Cinnamon Puffins $3, 1 box Peanut Butter Puffins $3, 2 Boxes Murray SF Shortbreads ($5 - 0.50 = $4.50), Calorie Countdown ($4 - $1 off any milk coupon from Murray Shortbreads box = $3), Grocery Total = $22

I was on my way to Rainbow next but was diverted by a World Market Going Out Of Business Sign!!! I loved that store...they have the most beautiful gift wrap and exotic foods...there is no other store in Minnesota like it! Everything was 10-40% off and the whole store was pretty much picked over...I bought Green and Yellow Curry $4, 2 Cans Pacific Organic White Bean Soup $4, 2 Cans Pacific Organic Chicken Fajita Soup $4, 2 boxes Lite Harvest Zesty Lemon Cookies $7, and a bar of 99% Cacao Dark Chocolate $2...Total was $21.

Ate one of the South Beach Mocha FiberFit Bars...

Last stop was Rainbow because it was the last day of the soup sale. Got six cans of soup ($13.50 - $5/4 - $2 - $1 = $5.50), Kemp's has come out with a No Sugar Added Ice Cream Sandwich! $3.50, and Cheese was on sale, got 4 - 8oz bags for $4! Total = $13

Since I had everything cold in a freezer bag I stopped by our old place to work outside for an hour since it was a lovely 45 degree day! 

I shoveled and chipped ice so I could open the door to get inside our screened porch in the back. I got our Amana Grill and Dave's Welder and Tool Chest out and loaded the Welder and Tool Chest in the back of the van and ratcheted the grill to the rectangular platform on the back of the van. Then I went inside to the kitchen and packed up more of our kitchen stuff we were missing and our Michael Graves Dish Drainer.

Drove home to the new place and unloaded everything. Dave and Angie were feeling much better so we went out to Stillwater so Angie could shop for khaki pants for work at Kohl's. I helped her find 3 pairs that fit her well...she's a size 8 petite and also found her one pair of comfortable jeans. Also, I found two pairs of sweater tights that actually fit me...long enough:)

While we were in Kohl's, Dave surprised us by picking up our friend Anna...a funny, older lady that used to live in the same apartment complex as us about 7 years ago in Stillwater. We all went to Ruby Tuesday for a late lunch and ate really well.

I had the White Bean Chicken Chili Soup, plate of salad, one more plate with a mini salad and cottage cheese with sunflower seeds, and a Diet Coke.

After that we went to Walmart and got a few things we needed...Tuna was 68 cents a can...best price I've seen!, Lean Ham, and Yogurt. We then dropped Anna off at her place and went home since Angie needed to get some sleep since she works at 4am tomorrow morning.

Dave and I dropped her off and went to Carmike to see Bride Wars. It was a really good movie! Lots of funny scenes...Kate and Anne did a great job! Chris Pratt was Anne's fiance...he was Amy's brother on Everwood...and Steve Howie was Kate's fiance...he was Cheyenne's husband on Reba. Kate's brother was Bryan Greenberg...he was Nick Garrett from October Road. 

I'm glad we had to chance to watch it on the big screen...this was the first movie we've gone out to see this year.

Stopped at Target on the way home since we were out of cough drops $1...also bought some body wash $4, Sugar Free Sweethearts $2, No Sugar Added Del Monte Peach Cups $2, and two South Beach Diet Pizzas ($5 - $2 off coupon = $3) = $12

Came home and baked the South Beach Diet Pizzas and ate those for dinner and watched the latest Giada at Home off our DVR.

Going to bed earlier since I have to pick up Angie at 8am and work at 6am Monday morning!

01.25.09 Sunday Brunch at Ruby Tuesday

Slept in and got 9 hours of sleep. Woke up and got ready to go since we were invited to one of our new friend Gary's birthday party and needed to go out and buy a gift for him.

Dave & I went to Ruby Tuesday since we had a B1G1 free coupon. One of my favorite restaurants due to the fresh salad bar.

We ordered Crab Cakes since we had the coupon and it was just the two of us.

I had a plate of salad and the White Bean Chicken Chili Soup.

Another plate with a mini salad and cottage cheese with sunflower seeds.

 What a great brunch!

01.01.09 Lunch at Ruby Tuesday (RuTu)

We picked up Angie around 2pm and she had a Christmas Light display from Target that she wanted to take home and strip for the lights. She loaded that in the back of the truck. Angie's brother Cody was also with us today because his dad had to work.

We drove out to the Ruby Tuesday in Stillwater and had a very nice meal. 

During our meal my mom sent me her first text message. It was really exciting and unexpected! I'm going over to her house Saturday morning to help her out with her new printer and faxing. She really wants a new cel phone that has a bigger keypad and a camera...she's on our cel plan so I need to find out when she's due for a new one.

Had a $25 gift card which paid for about half of our meal. Dave and I had the White Bean Chicken Chili Soup (228 cal, 8g fat) and Garden Bar, Angie had the Broccoli Quiche and Garden Bar and Cody had the Shrimp and Fries Kid Meal.