Mmmmm...THAT Smell

I was awake at 3 A.M. and couldn't fall back to sleep, thinking of all the post I want to tackle so I decided to get busy. I crawled out of bed at 3:45 but did some other things around the house instead.



Finally, I couldn't take it any longer, I was cold, the furnace is on HOLD at 64 till later in the morning so what I did was....I pulled out the space heater, took off the plastic bag , plugged it in and on she goes to heat up the computer room. I got the smell you get in the fall of the first run of the furnace. I have to keep reminding myself "it's only temporary", it WILL get warm again. :-)




We had flurries on Monday so I decided to dress a little wintery for the day.

Tub of Blue Kool-Aid?

Nope, this is a tub filling with blue jean water on RINSE CYCLE I've washed these jeans at least 4 times and this is the water I am still getting. Even my purse is turning blue from bumping along my hip. Today, when I was at Kroger I took a Clorox wipe to my purse, it cleaned up well.

Tippy Tuesday

I had such a busy day yesterday running around getting bargains and then my grandchildren came and then dinner time and then I had to fly out the door to work. (no I'm not a fairy) [or anything with wings] Anyhoo, I just remembered I forgot to share my Tuesday Tip so I will give you two this week:


When the bills come due, I write 10 days before due date on envelope and the amount. I paper clip the bills together in order of due date. This way even if your busy and don't get to them that "due date" you still have a couple day buffer. I've been doing this for over 5 years!

Next, how would you like a kitchen tip, something that can make your time with dinner prep a snap...I buy bulk hamburger and brown it all up in 2 frying pans, drain off as much grease as I possibly can. I even dab it with paper towels. THEN I freeze it in 1 pound containers. I have plenty of Tupperware square aways and I have found that a container packed full and making sure you get it in the corners too will do. Plenty of recipe's call for 1# and so I take it out and defrost it or let it sit over night in refrig. and its ready by dinner time. You can defrost 2 at a time or as much as you need.

What tips do you have to share?

Enjoy.

Bargains From Last Week

I think the pictures say it all, so I will let them speak.

As you can see, I was able to snatch up a bunch of yogurt and then 2 bundles of 216 ct. wipes all for a grand total of $7.52. I like yogurt and it's good for a snack anytime of day.

Below you will see 8 packs of Cheetos I even picked up a couple bags for my son-in-law, Jim, he enjoys HOT tasting food so the flaming hot ones are for him. I did try them and can not eat more than 2 at a time, so at that rate, they will be stale. I didn't want them anyway, just needed a sample. Then with Blake wanting fruit snacks I threw in a box and yahoo, my total was....drum roll please...44cents, FOR EVERYTHING IN THE PICTURE. To make things more exciting I used my gift card I got when purchasing the razors in a previous post. I just may take up shopping for others, oh, wait, I already do that for my church food pantry.

P.S. I just couldn't keep my hands still they had to have their 2 cents.

SPRING

I just love the sight of these trees, however; I could do with out the bees. When I take Lilah for a walk up the sidewalk the entire walk is lined with these beautiful trees and they smell so extraordinary! (Is that even a fragrance?) Go ahead and click on the picture it's beautiful enlarged.

Snakes Alive or dead!

I should warn you this one is rated GRAPHIC and if you get squarmy about snakes, you might want to pass this one up.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and so I decided to dig out weeds. My ambition didn't last long because out slithered a SNAKE, well, I of course had to chop it up, poor thing was still moving so I chopped and chopped till it finally was still. I didn't want to make the poor, ugly, scary thing suffer, I just wanted to kill it and throw it in the woods so the other snakes could see the danger of lurking around MY yard.

On my way thru the garage to get my camera (cause I knew you needed to see this) I found another one IN the garage! NO way...I knew I couldn't lose this guy or I'd turn grey over night with worry of where he went and when will he show his ugly face again. I GOT HIM!! I wasn't nice about it either, with each chop I screamed for him, (or was it for my fear of snakes) he tried to get away but I kept pushing him more toward the driveway and once there, I slid him and chopped him up on the rough cement driveway. Yip, I did, then he got to join his dead friend in the woods.

Don't worry my friends, if I catch you in my garage, I will restrain myself from grabbing the shovel. But you best be a friend of mine or your getting chopped up, you ARE now all forewarned!!!!

Your not going to beleive what I did afterwards....I picked up my 5 year old nephew and took him for a ride to the park, once there we took a walk in the woods. I knew he would do a lot of talking so he could scare away any snakes. Thanks Joel for being there when I needed you most.

After our trail walk we went to both playgrounds and he and I had a lot of fun. I love nice spring days, they make me happy.

After this post, I know your ready for a pretty sight so here comes one. Look above (next post).

How To Get Cheap Snacks

Print off some Target Market Pantry Fruit Snack coupons for 1.00 and if you can't get the FREE ones at the store cause they're all GONE, get the 10 pack for 59¢. Some reason mine rang up 52¢ but get a few of them so you have enough for the TEAM. 59¢ divided by 10 (in each box)=LESS THAN 6¢ a pack! How cheap is that! Sign up for an early snack week or just hang onto them till your week. Am I brilliant or what!!!???

I actually sent this to my daughter as an idea for Blakes soccer team snack she will be providing one week. Anybody can get into the game though.

What A RELIEF!!!

And I'm not talking about R-O-L-A-I-D-S (remember that commercial "how do you spell relief: ROLAIDS") ok, nuf being silly.

Today, I spent a while on the phone I had to call several billing departments because back on Dec 24 I had a procedure, had to go back and have a biopsy (I'm fine) more bills due to testing the biopsy and then the insurance denied it cause they said I had other insurance that needed billed FIRST but I really didn't. We're thinking it was the option to use cobra when Sam quit his job he held in Lafayette back in '07, we never made a payment for the insurance and naturally we never used it.

ALOT of phone calls and aggravation to get the insurance to bill the right insurance company, man what a hassle, let me tell you, I've been working on this since February. I don't mind paying my bills when they come due, as long as I am responsible for them; and I didn't feel I was this time so today I figured enough time had passed and so I was checking thru several of them with phone calls and the news is: I DON'T owe anything. NOTHING, ZIP, ZERO and that makes me happy! We would have had to pay $560+ $180+$62 =$802.00 that we get to KEEP!

Thank you God for what I used to call LOUSY insurance.

6 LONG Weeks

Here is Sam carrying his 20 pound computer bag. Today marked his 6 weeks and now he can lift and carry away anything he wants, yippee, he can even carry the dog up the stairs at night now. She's too spoiled, let me tell ya!

Tippy Tuesday

I am going to start a Tuesday post giving you one of MY "tips" as I call them. So far I have several wrote down and I hope to continue this each week. This one is really amazing, I just learned it on Sunday. Actually *I* did not, nor will I attempt this because it involves styrofoam. (see Lori's Weird Tidbits a few post below this one) Anyway, I witnessed it and it actually worked by 2 different people! This is so cool..

If you have a styrofoam plate with food and you want to cover it, put an extra plate on top and SPIN it, it creates a vacuum, but make sure not to hold the rim of the bottom plate or you will be letting air in and no suction will be had.

BTW: This is my hand but I am not touching it, just close enough for the demo.

Let me know what you think. What tips do you have?

They Heard Me!!

Do you remember a few post back how messy Sam's sandwich was; well apparently they heard my cry for pride, what a remarkable improvement!! Thank-You "sandwich builder". Also, if you notice I am having a sweet tea from McDonalds and here is a great example of how stryrofoam annoys me, see I had to ask for a iced coffee cup. (They give you stryrofoam for the tea unless you ask) BTW if you love sweet tea this is for you.

Bargain Shopping

I went to Target last week and bought 4 of these

I sent one with Jennifer to Erie

total cost: 56 CENTS or 14 Cents EACH

They'll be great for a sweet addition to Sam's lunch or a healthy snack for me.

Next bargain I show is from Target also:

These razors each came with 2 blades.

Lori's Weird Tidbits

I'm in a rut, nothing is coming to mind, I haven't done anything too exciting lately so I don't know what to blog about so all I can come up with is this: Yesterday while getting my hair cut the stylist and I got to chatting as we always do and something was said about finger nails so that got me to thinking about some weird facts about me:

I can't stand to have my fingernails touched. When Sam cuts them he must hold my finger tips on the sides or I cringe and squirm. One time I went for a manicure but cringed when they attempted to file my nails, I said "Just paint them and I will be fine with that".

I did that one first since I was talking about fingernails but I should have said this first:

1. I hate Styrofoam, can't stand the feel, sound or ewww, it's getting me squirmy just typing this. Blake does not know this one yet, I told everyone that if he knows this he might drive me nuts with it, just like Seth tries to do but fortunately as soon as his mom tells him "Seth, put that away" he is an excellent listener. At church, or parties I always get a regular plate or cup, and I am willing to wash it too.
2. I have to put lotion on my hands after I get all comfy and situated in bed for the night or I don't sleep well. I even wake up sometimes to apply more.
3. The covers MUST be up to my neck and I have to lay on my LEFT side to fall asleep.
4. which brings me to this: I have a sleep machine that I take everywhere I sleep it's a soft hum and it annoys the H E double toothpicks out of Jennifer! She told me I couldn't use it in Tampa at Thanksgiving and instructed to to take extra trazodone, the only reason she won was because I wanted my grand kids to SLEEP. Fortunately that was just 1 night in a hotel. In the condo our bedroom was on the opposite side of theirs.
5. IF I forget it, I MUST turn on a radio but not on the "station" it has to be between stations or I will not fall asleep; I will be singing songs to myself for a very long time.
6. In winter, I wear loooonnnng socks that go up to my knees, they're men's and they're white
7. I can not sleep in pajama pants because the legs ride past my ankles and makes me uncomfy. Only if I am at somebody's house and cold I will wear my sweat pants but just till I get the bed warm.
8. In summer it's important to me that my socks and shirt are the same color. RIGHT SHARYN? If I don't have the right sock color, I'll wear white socks but not the winter ones, (just in case you were wondering). I did that back in the 70's tho!
9. I love shrimp and would eat it 6 days a week, I need to have burger of some sort once a week.
10. Dr. Pepper is my favorite pop
11. "SODA" is not in my vocabulary, it's POP!!!
12. Absolutely no ice but if *I* insist...I only want 2 ice cubes, not three and if it's at a restaurant I'll order LIGHT ICE if I want any at all, and basically that's just too keep the straw down in the cup. Donna remembered this after years and years of no contact. I thought that was funny, we must have been out to eat too many times?
13. I follow the sun around and open and close the blinds as I desire. Right now it's not 80 degrees out so I like the blinds open wide for all the sun to shine in.
14. In the summer time when it is 80 and above I pride myself and brag about how cool I can keep my house w/o turning on the a/c. and definatley not the furnace. Sometimes we are wearing sweatshirts inside and it's 85 outside.
15. Panda Bears are the cutest but that's not so weird and I am sure you already knew this if your a loyal friend or follower.

These are just some of the weird facts about me. Maybe I will post more as they come to me.

I'd like to know what other weird/interesting facts you come up with about me just send them in email and not here. (not sure if I want the world to know what your thinking on this subject) Now that you know all this about me do you still wanna be my friend?

Show Some Pride

Doesn't it just aggravate you when you order your meal, get it home and it looks like this! I'm not referring to all the greasy food, it's the presentation. They put this little sliver of cheese on your fish fillet and half of it ends up melted to the box! How about 3/4 cup on tarter sauce. Now I know my sister would love that much sauce but that really is an unreasonable amount if you ask me and BTW nobody asked me but I AM TELLING YOU. These things don't seem to happen when you eat there it's just when you take it home.

Run Jump Play

Fake eyes...it was either red or black so I chose black!

Joel, my just turned 5 year old nephew (not blood, but we still I consider him our nephew) had been asking me to take he and Blake to this amazing fun inflatable play place. It's been several months since I took them and he's been wanting to go again.

Finally, after Blake's cold was gone, our vacation to California and Joel's annual ski trip to Utah we were able to go. Both boys loved it and *I* had just came down with some awful bug but I went to the doc the day before and was told "I was no more infectious than some of the people in Kroger" and given some potent Amoxicillin so I wasn't going to make these 2 guys wait any longer even if I did feel awful.

They had a great time and I was so glad they were able to manage all the obstacles of climbing and sliding with out me, last time Blake needed a bit of help climbing up the big slide and Joel was a little reluctant sliding down it by himself the first few times but this time was different....NO HELP NEEDED. Joel's hair was so funny you can see it best by clicking on the top picture.

After that we went to a McDonalds and the boys were so thrilled that we were going to one with a play area but unfortunatley there were absolutely no parking spots we had to settle on a "boring" one. Through out the day, Joel and I traveled 80 miles together, as we had more errands to tackle, fortunately he didn't catch my bug. Blake however might have, because he ended up with a fever 2 days later of 103.4

You can barely tell but Joel is all smiles and lovin it!

Blake gets a push in "the bathtub swing"

Joel kept asking for me to take his picture, he is definitely a cutie

Blake gives a wave as he comes in for a landing!

This was another slide they found it to be boring after long it was a shorter ride

Useless Info...Tiger Sharks, DID YOU KNOW

In the upper right hand side is a box that contains "useless info" but I wanted to make this one a special post it said that embryo tiger sharks fight and the sole survivor is born. Now that's some sibling rivalry. Is that what they call "fighting for your life"?

Blake Spends The Night

Blake, after story time calling mommy and daddy to tell 'em good-night. He is covering his eyes because the flash was going to be too bright since his room was lights out at this time. Yes, I had to have panda bears even in Blakes room. I'm in love with pandas FOR SURE.

In preparation for our big day on Wednesday, Blake spent Tuesday night with us. Sam picked him up on his way home from work and dinner was ready when they got here. We were both thrilled to have him since he does not like to spend the night anywhere mommy isn't . This time he was as thrilled as we were. I think I can count on one hand how many times he has spent the night here w/o mommy. After bath, we had popcorn and watched some SPROUT T.V. and then grandps read the good night story, he called mommy and daddy to say goodnight and he fell asleep in no time. Good thing, cause I was not feeling well.

He brought a picture he colored to show us and took EVERY single thing out of his bag, he had his blanket, duck, teddy, clothes, toothbrush toothpaste, p.j's and the list goes on and on. He even brought a cookie for Joel in the morning.

TWINS?

Alright, now that I have your attention Their not really twins but here are Blake and Jayde in matching t-shirts from our San Diego Zoo trip.

It was funny cause when we were giving Blake his shirt I first pulled out the small one and showed him what we brought him back from California, he was all but happy, saying it is too small and won't fit him. Then when he wasn't looking I switched out the smaller one and asked him to just let me put it up to his chest and see if it is too small. He was baffled how that could happen!! It was kinda funny the look on his face.

The Doctor Visit

Sam went to see the doc last Friday and after pressing on his tummy in various spots it was determined that he is healing quite nicely. His bruise is finally gone and all the steri strips are still intact. Of course he was reminded to let them fall off on their own time, last night he told me 1 or 2 are starting to start to pull off on the ends. It's been 14 days.

He was reminded to not lift over 5 pounds, I've been taking his computer bag out f0r him every morning. I know he is not following orders because he carried it to the basement office and back upstairs, I gave him a small lecture (what else can I do). I took it to the scale and it weighted 13.5 pounds. I asked him if there was stuff he could leave at work and he said he'd leave some things there today. Then I told him not to fill his bag up with more.

Thanks for your calls, emails, and concern. Now if he just doesn't get a hernia with that computer bag.

Blake Quizes Me on Grandpa

The other day I picked Blake up from the Y and while we were sitting having lunch he quizzed me on grandpa's recent appendectomy it went kinda like this:
REMEMBER HE IS 4 YEARS OLD, and his surgery was 10 days prior to this conversation, and he has seen grandpa to talk to himself about it but won't talk to Sam about it (don't know why)

B: so gramma, how is grandpa doing after his surgery? (doesn't he sound go grown up?)
M: He's doing alright
B: Can he do stuff?
M: Well yeah, Blake, he can do stuff
B: Like what can he do?
M: Ummm, he can put his socks and shoes on now
B: what else? gramma, tell me what he can do
M: He can drive, he can go to work
B: I know that because he is not home but what can he do
(by now I'm kinda getting annoyed because I don't know EXACTLY what Blake is looking for me to say, he's seen grandpa and he knows he can walk but what does this little 4 yo mind want to know)
M: he can brush his teeth, shower, eat meals, watch t.v., talk but he can't pick up Jayde (over 5#)
B: can he do the dishes
Me: yes, but it hurts to bend over to load the dishwasher
B: OK, gramma (and off he goes, I guess I finally answered all his questions and his lunch is over)

Ugghhhhh, Why didn't he just ask about the dishes in the first place!??

Kids can be so funny and that's one thing I love about them.