Getting close

Most of the documents for our dossier have been notarized and all we need is our police clearance letters. We will be stopping in at our police department in the morning and hopefully, we will receive the letters early in the week. Also, I need to get the pictures developed that we may use in our dossier. Hopefully by the end of the week, I'll be able to get everything certified. I need to first e-mail copies of all the notarized docs to my adoption consultant at the agency.

But I Do Love CVS

My last post was more-or-less about hate, but this one is about love, my love for how much I can save at CVS. This week I made 3 shopping trips to CVS (that's a record for me) but even better I saved $54.00. Last Sunday, after having to chuck all my make-up and buy new stuff, because I became allergic to something in my current make up, I noticed they had a buy one get one free sale on Almay Cosmetics (which is hypo-allergenic, which my doctor recommended)I bought Almay Foundation, Blush, Mascara, Eyeliner, and Eye Shadow. I had 4 $1 Almay coupons, I had a CVS coupon of $4 0ff $20 and another CVS coupon of $10 . I saved 30.00 on that shopping trip, plus I got a couple CVS coupons back to use later. Friday, I bought some mouthwash and some personal female products. It should have cost $24 plus tax, but I had 2 $2 coupons and $1 coupon, also I had a $4 off $20 CVS coupon and a $3 CVS coupon, so I saved $12 and paid just 13.82 and also got a few CVS coupons, including $8 extracare bucks that you can use on anything. But I had really wanted to buy some Neutrogena face powder, which was advertised as being 40% off, so I decided to stop at another CVS a block away (I was in downtown Chicago, so there's a CVS or Walgreen's, it seems on every other block) So, I got the Neutrogrena powder, which is usually $10.99 , but was 40% off . Since I wanted to use that $8 off coupon, before it expired and I knew I'd be a buck or so under $8, I grabbed some breathmints (always comes in handy) for 1.99 and went to the cashier. It came up before coupons $8.59, so after the $8 extracare coupon, I spent only 59 cents. I wish I would have had a Neutrogena coupon, but I had not clipped any coupons for this before, because I was happy with my brands of make-up, but that was before I developed a makeup allergy and needed to splurge on all new makeup , but I am extremely happy with my savings. At this pace, I am going to beat last years record on money saved on coupons and rebates (I don't count store sale price differences or anything, like some do. Maybe I should but that would be too time-consuming and it is much easier to just jot down savings from coupons and rebates.

Another Reason to H*a*t*e My Employer

My company was bought late last year and this year when those of us who kept our jobs started working at the new company, we were all in consensus that we were not a bit happy and if it wasn't for the economy, we'd have been out of there. Well, I like the others are hanging in there and was in fact having a surprisingly good work week. Well, WAS is the operative word. Since Kevin and I have decided to move forward and continue our adoption to Ethiopia with the same agency, were also told that us having to re-do our entire home study was a misunderstanding; it would not need to be redone. We could just get a new employment letter discussing that the current company I work for is "the company" that bought my "old company" and my salary as of 2007-2008 was "X" and my benefits included such and such. Well, with the old company, the office manager and later the managing attorney signed the letter stating my income and benefits, but this time when I talked to the office manager. She said she'd have to check what the company policy is regarding this (okay). I gave her a copy of the actual letter that was everything that must be included in the letter. Well, she came back to me the next day (Friday) and gave me a letter. All she could provide me was my salary and my current salary. My agency says the salary in the employment letter must match the home study EXACTLY. Doesn't matter that it is more, it has to match to a "T". She said that since I am no longer with "the old company", she does not have access to such information. In addition, she also said she is not able to include benefit information, because she does not have access to that information. I did say I could provide her with that information and she still said she couldn't do it, because my benefits are none of her business. After I called my husband (who luckily was on his way to work since he started work late that day), I totally ranted and raved to him. Of course, I went out of the building, where no one could hear me from work and to get a signal for my cellphone. Now, of course, Kevin said we'll work everything out, and that we've had so many hurdles and this is just one more we'll get over. I have no idea what we'll do, I've got to send my adoption consultant as well as my home study social worker an e-mail about this major problem. I so cannot wait for the economy and especially, the job market to improve, so I can get out of where I am. What's a shame is before the company I was working for was bought, I was extremely happy with my job. Nowadays, my co-workers who were also my former co-workers realize that our complaints we had before with the old company were nothing compared to our complaints now. We really had it good before.

Things Are Looking Up