Jan 18th, 1932 - Jan 14th, 2010

Grandpa French passed on Thursday.  Today he would have been 78 years old.    

Below, the true essence of Thomas Rodney French, which is how I will always remember him:

We miss you, Grandpa. 

Retail Me Not

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been using the website Retail Me Not to earn discounts for my online shopping lately.   I tried the site for the third time today and for the third consecutive purchase/fee, I've received a sizable discount just by searching Retail Me Not for a discount code.  I'm just so excited that this website exists and that the codes really work!  I do as much online shopping as I can because I find that I can often find the same items for a better price.  Well, add in coupon codes that really work for anything from ten dollars off the order to free shipping and you've got yourself a great deal :)  

So far I've saved the following amounts with a code:  

-For an Adobe Digital Edition of The Road for-- savings of $3

-For the registration fee for my half-marathon --savings of $10

- For wedding save-the-dates from Snapfish --savings of $20 dollars in shipping!

Grand total = $33.00 for things I was going to buy anyway - coupon or not.  

Check it out.  http://www.retailmenot.com/

Running with Coupons

I did it.  I entered the Country Music Half Marathon held on April 24th, 2010.  I've been talking about it since I broke my sesamoid and had to bail on my half marathon training during college.  I'm really stoked and wanted to share my goal for two reasons:  

1.  to invite anyone who'd like to road trip with me

2.  to help keep myself accountable. 

 I'm registered and paid in full, so if anyone wants to join me, I'm not messin' around!  The official training program starts at the end of January so 'pre-training' begins immediately :-) 

I noticed that the price had jumped quite a bit since last year and the year before (I've been checking the website with apprehension for the past five years it seems) so I did a quick search for "nashville half marathon coupon codes" and found a coupon website for the second time within the past week.  It's called "Retail Me Not" and I've now used it twice - once for an Adobe Digital Edition of The Road and now for the half marathon.  It saved me two dollars off of my ten dollar book and TEN dollars off the price of the race.  I highly recommend checking this site out if you're buying anything online.  It rates the coupon codes with a success rating and allows you to give feedback about whether or not it worked for you.  I figure, it can't hurt to try a code and I don't feel bad about taking advantage because they are published publicly somewhere and compiled onto one site for easy access so I don't have to search high and low for them.  

Here's the URL if you're interested:  http://www.retailmenot.com/

Happy running and shopping :-) 

Snowperson

We got to see our first snow since we moved into our house and it was accompanied by two snow days - today and tomorrow. I love a good snow as long as the only plans it ruins are plans to go to school. After sleeping in for a bit, a light breakfast and some reading in front of the fireplace, I left Matt inside to nurse his injured back while I tackled my first ever snow-covered driveway.

The pseudo-country kid that I am, I never had to shovel or mow. This was work for manly men and tractors. Both immediate neighbors had some high school students use a snow blower to clear their drives for $15 bucks. I know this because one of them is currently my student and he came to my door while I was still in my robe to ask if I would enjoy the same service. #1. Embarrassing. #2 No way. Snow blowers are for wussies and this is a right of passage I felt I must endure. So for an hour today, while kids everywhere made snowmen and snow angels, I played with the shovel and made clearing a driveway women's work :)

'Tis the Season

Happy Christmas to all who celebrate the season! Ours was full of food, drink, family, celebration, travel, more food and some much needed time away from work. We started on December 2nd by decorating the whole house with Christmas details. A week and half later, we hosted a tacky Christmas sweater party and I'm pleased to announce that all who were in attendance were dressed with superb tackiness and that my new recipe for mulled wine was a hit! The next day I was off to Rocheport for a day of wine, Christmas martinis and cookie decorating with the girls - quite a cheer-filled weekend.

We followed traditions 25 years old for Saint Louis celebrations - Christmas Eve with my dad's side, new pajamas from mom afterward, Santa on Christmas morning, family prepared brunch and then festivities at my mom's side. JAM packed. Next stop? Bowling Green, Kentucky. We left the dogs with my mom and dad, who took very good care of them, and went to Kentucky where the pace slowed down a bit. We spent some time with Matt's mom and stepdad, Tony, and his sister, nephew and dad. The pace slowed down, but the food sure didn't! Tony shared a little of his Mexican heritage with us through some of the delicious meals of authentic Chilaquiles and Enchiladas - delicious. On top of this, Matt wanted to hit up all of his old haunts in Bowling Green, which involved more eating that I like to admit. One that I will fess up to and talk about in more detail is our trip the The Loveless Cafe during our day trip into Nashville (about an hour away from Matt's family).

Oh, Loveless Cafe... About a year ago, Matt and I saw the owner of this fine establishment on the Food Network show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay. She's famous for her biscuits and Bobby was there to challenge her. The show served as pretty stellar advertising and while I'm a sucker for a good biscuit, the whole place seemed full of southern charm. We vowed to make a pilgrimage to chow down during one of our trips to Kentucky/Nashville.

We hunted it down on the last day of our trip. After an hour and 15 minute wait, we were seated. Starving, we threw down coats, purses, gloves and tackled the menu. While I was practically salivating over all of the country-style goodness they offer, a man in his late fifties walked by and leaned in to ask, "Are ya comin' or goin'?" When he found out we had just been seated, he asked another question. "Can we join you? We'll buy your lunch!" Well, before I could even say a word, Matt had agreed and Val and Ed Wicker sat down to share a meal with us. At first I was miffed. I thought these two fogies were going to ruin my Loveless experience, but I was wrong. Ed was very confident (arrogant) and VERY used to getting his way, but also charming as all get out. He definitely worked his magic on us as we ordered, talked about where we're from, what we do - they even tried to help us decide on a honeymoon location. I'm intrigued by them and continue to think about their story. From New Orleans, they are well to do Southerners who were engaged only one month after meeting one another. Less than a year after meeting they were married and have been happy every since. She's a 1st grade teacher. He's in financial planning. They have two kids, two grandchildren and a beloved black lab they adopted after Hurricane Katrina. After a delicious free lunch and an hour or so of chatting with these two, I was thoroughly pleased with my Loveless experience and recommend it to all travel through Nashville.

Tacky Christmas - December 11th, 2009.

Handsome - Christmas Eve at Chipley's 2009.

New Pajamas!

Christmas Day at French's.

Loveless Cafe :-)