Redbox free rental

I have SwagGrabber on my RSS feed. She posts a lot of deals and freebies, some on the internet and others in physical stores. She’s been posting about free Redbox rentals for awhile now but Jeff and I had never tried it.

Today we rented City of Ember. The promo code worked and the movie was free. Unfortunately, the movie was disappointing. Based on the preview, I was expecting some grandiose statement about life and about conquering environmental concerns, external conflicts, etc. For a kids/family movie, it was decent. But as an adult looking for content, it fell short. Oh, well. At least we didn’t waste any money on it.

If you have Redbox in your area and are interested in a free movie, check SwagGrabber’s website. She posts a free rental code once a week.

Lord, you know me.

I saw this text on another blog this week but had to post it here as well. This is such a comforting passage, especially at this time in our lives. I’m so glad Sabbath is almost here.

O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it

(Psalms 139:1-6).

Interview gone bad

Thanks to all who prayed for hubby today. 🙂 He did well, but the interview was a dud.

Hubby drove half an hour to interview with a mortgage company. He meets with the CEO and someone else from the company, plus a surprise guest – the recruiter who scheduled the interview. They all shake hands, exchange business cards, and sit down for the interview. CEO asks hubby to tell about himself. Halfway through hubby’s spiel, the CEO interrupts and asks if hubby has such-and-such technology experience or this-or-that technology experience. None of which was listed in the job description. When hubby said no, they shook his hand, thanked him for his time, and ushered him out the door.

Grr. We had to put gas in the car for this interview, using money that was supposed to be for food. The commute took four times longer than the interview.

Guess that was a closed door. 🙂 Hubby is still waiting to hear back on one other interview from last week. I’m waiting to hear if my unemployment claim will be accepted and applying for jobs. I’ve filled out 17 applications thus far and have received only one emailed response to tell me the position was already filled.

Something will come through. Right. Right?

Prayer request

If anyone reads this tonight or tomorrow morning, could you pray for my hubby? He has a job interview at 11AM with the CEO of a mortgage company. They are looking to hire someone ASAP and seem to be interested in hubby.

We really really need a job. If you could pray, I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

zzzzzzzzzzzzz…

It’s been a long day but it hasn’t been that busy. Odd how that works.

I woke up pretty late, exercised, and ate breakfast. Hubby moved his desk to the other side of the living room now that we don’t have the entertainment center taking up one wall. I spent some time this morning cleaning up all the cat hair that accumulated behind where hubby’s desk was. When you don’t move the furniture around for three years, there’s a lot of cat hair to be vacuumed.

This afternoon, hubby and I took some books back to the library. On the way back, we stopped by a couple geocaches. We located four and couldn’t find two. By that time, it was four o’clock and we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. After making homemade tortillas and guacamole, we sat down to some yummy burritos.

That was our day! I was ready for bed at six, but knew that I’d be up again in the middle of the night, wide awake. Not sure what’s going on with my sleeping schedule. If I actually get a response to the resumes I’m sending out, have an interview, and get chosen from several hundred other applicants (all real hurdles to overcome), I’m going to have a hard time adjusting to normal working hours.

That’s it. It was a good day, just tiring.

Sunday Exercise Roundup

Sunday
Week 6, Day 1 of the One Hundred Push ups program. Whew! That’s a ton of push ups and the total is still going up!
Running – We walked over to Walmart today (just under a mile). I tried running part of the way back but my legs felt pretty heavy today. Tomorrow is the start of Week 2 for my running program. I hope my legs feel better tomorrow!

Monday
Week 4, Day 1 of the Two Hundred Sit ups program. I feel like I’m going backwards! Since I had such a hard time last week, I decided to back off and work on building up my core some more. This morning was still difficult even though I backed down to week 4. I really hope it gets easier…
Running – Week 2, Day 1 of the Couch to 5K program. We don’t have a stop watch, timer, or any watches with working batteries so we’re guessing on the intervals! Today was 5 sets of about 2 minutes running each, followed by 50 minutes of walking. Hubby was using his cell phone (hour and minute display only) and would start us as the minute changed. Then he would have us run until 2 minutes later. Of course, he told me this after our workout was complete. No wonder I felt like I was dying. 🙂

Tuesday
Week 6, Day 2 of the 100 push up program. Only one more day and then the final test!

Wednesday
Week 4, Day 2 of the sit up program. Another really hard day. I don’t know why this is so hard.
Running – Week 2, Day 2. Another day of 5 sets of 2 minutes of running with 2 minutes of walking between. It’s hard, but I finish strong.

Thursday
Week 6, Day 3 of push ups. Last workout before the final test! I’m really excited to see if I can do 100 girly push ups in one set.

Friday
Week 4, Day 3 of sit ups. After one set, I quit. I just couldn’t do that many sit ups and knew I couldn’t finish the work out. I’m going back to week 1 on Monday. 🙁
Running – Week 2 complete! We took a different route today, heading directly south from our apartment. It was a nice run/walk with lots of houses decorated for Easter! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many Easter decorations. I like this route, as the bike lanes are wider so I don’t feel like I’m going to get run over every time a car drives by.

4/12 Weigh-in – 183.6 pounds
1.2 pound weight gain from last week, in spite of all the exercise. Bummer. I think it’s due to woman issues, but I’m going to watch my food intake closer this week. I’m going back to logging my food into Nutridiary so I can make sure I’m not eating too much/too little. I will lose weight this week!

God is so good!

We have had a great day financially, if that’s possible when both husband and wife have been out of work for 4+ months. 🙂

This morning, we deposited my husband’s check from that 2 week contract job he completed. When the teller handed me the deposit slip, I was surprised to see a $700 account balance. Our checking account hasn’t held that much money in quite awhile. When I came home, I logged into the online banking and found out that we did have $700. Between the check, some help from hubby’s dad, and a deposit from half.com, we had money to pay several more bills.

We are now paid up through the end of April. Yay! Every single bill has been paid in full, on time, and no credit cards were used. God is very very good. Also, I paid May’s car payment and realized that the payment brought our balance below $6,000. I love celebrating the small milestones. When I entered the payment in my spreadsheet, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we have now paid off 25% of our total debt. We are making progress, even though we’re both looking for jobs.

God is so good! He provides even when you least expect it. There are still big hurdles ahead, but when I see how God is helping us over the small hurdles, it’s much easier to have faith that He will help us over the large.

And my God will supply all your needs
according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus

(Philippians 4:19, NASB).

Homemade tortillas

Back to the homemaking topics… 😉

Hubby and I have been on again, off again vegans for our entire marriage. One of these days, we’ll make a permanent change in either direction. Maybe. When we eat out, we tend to eat dairy. However, I prefer to cook vegan foods at home.

I found an awesome vegan blog. I’ve browsed through some of the recipes and found a few I’d like to try. The tortillas were a huge hit. It took me awhile to figure out how to make them round, but they are tasty!

Next on the list are the Vegan Patties. I have yet to try my own patties but these sound delicious.

When hubby or I get a job (whichever comes first), we’re going to be eating like kings. We’ve had such simple, cheap food for the past three months, we’re ready for some more complex (IE more expensive) dishes! I think our orange chicken style tofu recipe will be first on the list.