Fire Lane

This post is dedicated to Korynn & Bryan (my firefighting in-laws) and as well as all those idiots out there.
(Korynn & Bryan...you're not the idiots...just read on)


I work in an out door shopping center. In this shopping center there is a Festival Foods, Radio Shack, Payless, and Target. Painted on the edge of the side walk of the shopping center is a bright RED line and there are signs posted EVERYWHERE saying "No Parking, Fire Lane". (See Image Below)

(Ours does not have the fancy yellow lines and writing)

About 20 feet away from this curb are pleanty of parking spots, and as a law abiding and respectful citizen I park in these spots no matter where I'm at or how long I'm going to be in the stores.

However, there are quite a few people who believe not only are they above the law, but are simply better than everyone else. They believe that they do not have to park in the regular parking spots for regular people, but that they are so mighty and special and that their poop smells like roses so they're able to park next to the curb (that is labeled FIRELANE).

Sometimes people run right in and right out, but today we had a lady who was parked there (and I am NOT kidding you) for 45 minutes! She parked her car on the Payless side of the cross walk and went into Radio Shack which is about 30 feet away from where she parked. This makes absolutely no sense considering the front parking spot was open and was only about 20 feet away from the door of Radio Shack. Part of me wanted to call the Police Department and tell them that there was an abandoned car left in the fire lane, but I didn't.

What really gets me is when people leave their children in the car and run into places while they're parked in the fire lane. As if having someone in the car means that you're not "parked". Heaven forbid that there was actually a fire and those poor kids were left in the car.

So why shouldn't we park in the fire lane. Well, the main reason is so that we don't get a ticket. Also, firemen need to be able to have a direct path to the area that's on fire and if your car is in that path...you might end up like this Mayor....

The fire hoses aren't able to bend when they're full of water, so if the direct path to the fire is through your car, then that's where they'll go. No matter if you're the Mayor or not!

So please, don't park in the fire lane. Be smart, and respectful. (And not lazy).

Food Tips

For all those who love to save a buck or two. I have a few helpful hints:

1. Always apply to recieve texts from food places (this is if you have free texting or don't mind to pay for it). They love to send you great deals and discounts! Papa Murphys constantly sends them to us.

2. Double check to see if your favorite restaurant/clothing store has a birthday list. Some places like to give you "free birthday gifts/meals"

Here are a few I've found.
- Red Robin. They'll send you a coupon for a free burger on your birthday. As well as a $3 off coupon on your next visit.
- Ruby Tuesday. They'll send you a coupon buy one entree get one free just for signing up.
- Childrens Orchard. Sign up for their mom's club and emails and they'll send you current updates about sales as well as a FREE toy on their birthday (upto $3.99)
-HyVee. This isn't that special but once a month they have what they call their "Red Hot Weekend Sale" and there are ALWAYS good prices. They advertise for this heavily so just keep and eye/ear out and you'll do great! We've gotten meat for about $1 per pound as well as $.77 Pepsi 2 liters (great for parties!).

A lot of these are pretty easy and I'm sure more restaurants have the same thing, as well as retail stores. Even payless sends you a 15% off coupon for signing up for their email list!

Any one know of any more great deals? Just lemme know!

Estate Sale

Our old neighbor next door passed away a couple of months ago, and ever since then there have been a lot of his family members over in the house non-stop on the weekends. We were quite curious as to what was going on.

So a few days ago the guy who normally mows the lawn next door came over and informed us of the estate sale that they would be having this weekend. It got me thinking, what exactly is an estate sale? I have came up with my own definition of one.

Estate Sale: A place where the family of a deceased person can sell off all their worldly possessions to other old people who will end up passing away and having their family selling their stuff (which was mostly bought at other estate sales) in another estate sale.

The fact of the matter is that these old people really don't need the things they get from estate sales, however, they get them anyway. I guess this is one way to get old things to continue to go down throughout the generations of time.

We, however, did venture over and wound up getting.......
          - An awesome pair of 1960's binoculars. They're super neat and came with a cool case. (Too bad we didn't have them when we went to St. Louis and were in our 20th floor hotel room.)
          - A 2 ton floor jack. I know this isn't as cool, but it definitely comes in handy when your husband does his own oil changes!

So the moral of the post is: Estate Sales are cool, so long as you don't end up having to get rid of the things that someone else has bought from them.

The Beginning

So after pondering for many weeks now on what I could do with all the awesome stories I've aquired through work and being a mom, I have decided that there's nothing better to do with those stories than to create a blog. Hopefully you'll be able to find something to: occupy your time, laugh at, learn from, and enjoy.

Once I feel that this blog is long enough I plan on printing it out and hopefully getting it published. Any ideas or comments are welcome, stories will be especially appreciated, and of course praise is encouraged.

Please join me through this awesome adventure and the ability we have to share with eachother through this online world. :)