Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The Best of 2013—January Edition

2012 was a fine year. It had its ups… and it’s downs…

2013 has only graced us with its presence for less than 2 months, but so far, they have been two very good months! I want to use this blog to remember things. Remember the great moments, the great meals and recipes we made and the great things we accomplished. I’ll start with January. I’ll write up on February in another week or two.

New Job!
After 6 years with Hy-Vee, Patrick got a new job as a Digital Success Consultant at McGraw-Hill! Hy-Vee was good to him and our family for the last 6 years, but he was ready for something new. Being a retail establishment, Patrick worked weekends (usually only Saturday though) and holidays were always chaotic. The only day Hy-Vee ever is closed is on Christmas. That’s it! In his new position, Patrick has the usually Monday-Friday hours, weekends off and paid Holidays. He started towards the end of January and he really likes it so far. We may or may not have had a few late night publishing debates after a few beers/glasses of wine. By the way, custom, online publications is the way to go. Go GRT!

My 15-Minutes of Fame
I’m thrifty. REALLY thrifty most of the time. Unless it’s something made by Kate Spade. I have a tendency to indulge on KS. Even on sale, it’s still very much indulging! Nonetheless, my thrifty self was VERY excited when Hy-Vee rolled out their Fuel Saver program in December. Long story, short, each week the grocery ad will have several items that when  you purchase will give you pennies off per gallon. Every time you buy these items, you can bank the cents up on your card and eventually redeem them for cents off per gallon of gas. I started banking up in December and was able to fill up our Subaru for $26 dollars, saving $1.20/PER GALLON and $17 that trip! How can you not be excited about that? Well, while visiting the Hy-Vee website, there was a form asking for feedback from customers about the new fuel saver program. Being the dork that I am, I filled out the survey and even included a photo I took at the pump!

That's right! $1.95 per gallon! I can't remember the last time it was that cheap!

About an hour later I was emailed by a marketing person at Hy-Vee corporate, asking if I would be in a Fuel Saver commercial. I laughed out loud, but agreed to do it. One week later I was at the Locust Street Hy-Vee with a camera crew filming my testimonial. I felt like a huge dork, especially since two ladies I know who work there witnessed the entire ordeal! The marketing person just asked me a few questions, and they filmed my answers. It was pretty candid and not scripted. After it was done, I was informed they had filmed 30 people or so the last few days and they would use about 15 in the commercials and they handed me a $100 giftcard to thank me for my time.

Two weeks later the emails, texts, facebook messages and calls started pouring in. They used my testimonial in an ad!
I just tried to pull the link up on youtube so I could link to it from here, and it’s gone! The other 3 are still there but not mine! Hmm! Nonetheless, I had my 15 minutes of fame!

Other than the two things above, most of January was spent hanging out with friends, trying out new recipes in the kitchen and trying to stay warm with all the snow storms! Below are some instagram photos from Jan & Feb so far!





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