Holidays Adventures 12/24/10-1/2/11

Ben and I had quite the adventure going to and from New Haven and Iowa for the holidays.  We tried to fly into Moline, Illinois on Christmas Eve, then drive to Harlan.  Our flight to Moline was cancelled (probably due to a large amount of snow in Moline), but we were able to fly to Omaha instead.  Then, since we had to change our car rental to a one-way (instead of the round-trip from and to Moline) Hertz tacked on another $500 to the bill!  Ben's mom, Sheri, picked us up instead and we went to Harlan and stayed there until Monday, 12/27.  Then we all went to Waukee to visit some of Ben's cousins.  After that, they gave us a ride to Altoona where my mom and Bob picked us up.  We were in IC that night through New Year's Day, and then we went to Moline to fly back home.  I was very happy to to be back with my Mom again, I've missed her a lot.

While we were in Iowa City, on 12/29, Ben and I went back to Shambough Auditorium where we met in september 2005.  We talked for a few minutes, and then he got down on one knee and proposed!!!  While I was volunteering at the Book End just an hour later, he drove out to the mall and bought a ring from Greenberg's.   It is white gold with a princess-cut diamond solitaire--exactly what I wanted.   We went to dinner at Red Avocado (our favorite IC restaurant) to celebrate.  By the way, my sister Megan got engaged at the beginning of December, and they plan on getting married in early-mid June 2012 in Iowa City somewhere outside.

My great-aunt Lois passed away on 12/31.  She was 92 years old, and had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.  I wish I could stayed in eastern Iowa for the funeral, but my plane tickets were non-refundable and Ben needed to get back to work today (Monday).

Our flight back home on Saturday was delayed by over three hours, so we changed our flight to Sunday.  We received hotel and food vouchers to spend, and we stayed the night at Jumer's Hotel and Casino.  I had never been to a casino until then.  We didn't gamble anything though.  It was interesting to watch.

Our first flight yesterday morning was delayed by 48 minutes, so of course we missed our connecting flight in Detroit.  We didn't have to wait too long for our back-up flight.  After we landed at JFK in New York, we had to walk down the plane's stairs (because the parked the plane far away from the airport), and take a shuttle bus to take us to the airport.  It was raining at the time.  Then we found out our checked bag had been put onto another flight, and we had the options of waiting more than two hours for it, or it could be shipped to us for free in 2-3 days.  We chose the latter option.  I really hope they don't lose the luggage!  What a day we had!

While we were in Iowa, New Haven had a blizzard, but the temperatures were so high afterwards, there is not much snow anymore.  I'm glad we didn't experience the blizzard because not only were the winds terrible, but I think the city received well over a foot of snow over the course of about two days.  I was so happy that we didn't have to dig my car out from the parking lot at Ben's office.

I really enjoyed being back in Iowa, and I wish we could have stayed longer, but I am happy to be back home since I have been living here full-time since mid-July 2010.

Please feel free to share any wedding suggestions. :)

My CVS Trip Today

This was probably my last trip to CVS in Iowa City for awhile. I will continue doing the deals in New Haven.

Key:

BOGOF=Buy One Get One Free

(C)=coupon

ECB=Extra Care Bucks

OOP=Out of Pocket

CVS pantiliners 50c

CVS panitliners 50c

Head & Shoulders $5.99

Head & Shoulders $5.99-BOGOF (C), but the limit was $4.74, so this wasn't free

Papermate 10 pk pens 99c

Caliber scissors 99c

Biotrue multi-purpose solution 2.99

Trident Layers gum 1.49-CVS (C) for one package free, limit was $1.29 though, so it wasn't free

Used:

$10 ECB

$1 ECB

Subtotal: $2.41

Tax (7%): $0.59

Total: $3.00 OOP

Received:

$0.99 ECB for Caliber scissors

$0.99 ECB for Papermate pens

$1.00 ECB for CVS pantiliners

$2.00 ECB for Head & Shoulders

$2.99 ECB for BioTrue

All in all, a good shopping trip. I just wish the second H&S had actually been free, and the gum as well.

Onward to studying, cleaning, and packing!

Books!

I am moving out of state in just five days!

I have 60 books left that I am selling on Amazon. I do not want to take all of them with me....so, please help me reduce my inventory. Here is my storefront: http://is.gd/dkrEG

Thanks for looking!

csnstores.com Contest

One of my favorite blogger's (Deal Finding Chik) is giving away an $80 CSN gift certificate! I would love to win this because I will be needing more furniture when I move from Iowa to Connecticut in a month.

Here are the details from her blog

"""CSN Stores have generously offered to give away an $80 Gift Certificate to one of my readers! This gift certificate can be used at any of their 200 stores!! Each person has up 4 chances to enter!

1) Leave a comment letting me know your a Follower Deal Finding Chik.

2) Leave a comment letting me know you "like" Deal Finding Chik on Facebook.

3) Leave a comment letter me know you Subscribe to Deal Finding Chik.

4) Blog about this Giveaway and leave a link to your post.

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Only 4 entries per person are allowed and all other entries will be deleted before the winner is chosen. This giveaway will end Friday, June 18th, at 9PM CT and I will announce the winner on June 19th!! **Please keep in mind that once you receive your certificate that may be shipping charges and if your a Canadian resident, then there may be an international fee for certain products.

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Good Luck!"""

Go *here* to enter your comments in order to enter the contest.

Trees

I like to make tree jokes because my boyfriend's last name is Oakes. Yes, I am 23 years old. I am not going to share any of those jokes in this post though because I am just promoting Odwalla's 2010 Plant a Tree program: http://www.odwalla.com/plantatree/

When I was in 4th or 5th grade, I planted 3 "helicopter" seeds in the middle of my backyard, thinking that only one would survive (kind of like implanting more than one fertilized egg in artificial insemination, or whatever that's called). All three seeds grew into trees, so I regularly trimmed two of them, so only one would grow up completely. About 13 years later, that tree is taller than my two-story house, and it's beautiful. I love it, and I think it's very funny that my dog, Willy, likes to chew on the helicopter seeds that my tree now produces.

Odwalla's program is simple: "For the past 2 years, along with your help, Odwalla has made a commitment to our state parks by donating money to help plant trees. It’s pretty simple. We provide the trees, and you get to decide how much support each state gets."

I just planted a tree in Iowa through Odwalla earlier today, and I invite you to do the same thing. "One acre of trees is need to offset the annual CO2 from a typical passenger car." It's very easy to do, you don't need to consume Odwalla (I don't), and it's free.

Someday I hope to be a tree...

Note: I added the photo of an oak tree on 6-3-10.

First Post!

Besides LiveJournal, I've never had a blog before, I thought it was about time to make one though. Hopefully blogger.com is not a website that will die in a year or two, and delete all my posts.

Why the name "The Adventures of Danielle 05"?

My godfather, Mark Egleseder (or is it Egelseder?), was known for saying, "Just think of this as an adventure." That quote has gotten me through some tough times, and it was my senior quote in my high school yearbook.

My name is Danielle, surprise, surprise.

I graduated in '05, and I later met the love of my life, Benjamin Oakes in '05.

In this blog, I hope to keep friends and family updated on the happenings of my life especially once I move away from Iowa. I also will try to post my weekly deals at CVS, which are totally awesome, and I hope to inspire others to score great deals like mine. I also want a central place to save fashion stories or photos that I love. I have been interested in fashion for several years now, and have worked at a women's clothing consignment store for the past 3+ years.

Don't expect a lot of postings, I may lose interest in doing this, who knows?

I would love comments, so feel free to post them! :-)