Any Suggestions?

I just got my electricity bill in the mail.

Ouch.

It went from 61.xx last month to 81.xx this month.

We do have a new computer and a new chest freezer but would those 2 things make the bill jump $20 in a month?

Is it possible that they didn't really read my meter this month? The reason I ask is the total use in kWh last month was 518 and this month it is 718. It seems kinda odd that it is EXACTLY 200 more.

Anyone have any advice?

Happy New Year!

We got home from Colorado Monday afternoon and this is the first chance I have had to get on the computer and type.

We had a good Christmas with the Colorado family. Hubbs wanted to stay an extra day but I had to get my ass into work and close out the year on Tuesday.

Let me tell you, it was COLD up there in the mountains. StepFIL and I sat at the kitchen table one morning and watched the temperature drop. And drop. It got down to 3 degrees around 7 a.m.

I am soooo glad to be back in semi-warm Arizona.

The boys got TONS of stuff and had more stuff to open when we got home.

Yesterday, I spent my day divided between opening the rest of the gifts, working, and putting all the toys together.

Today, we cleaned Monk Man and Bobblehead's "office" (play room) so all their gifts could fit.

All those Christmas' were fun and the boys seemed to enjoy themselves but next year is going to have to be different. I think I am going to put my foot down and demand on 1 Christmas at MY home. If the family can't or won't get along, then whatever. Stay home. Whoever wants to show up can.

I think I will let Hubbs break the news. I am too chicken to be bitchy to his side of the family and my family thinks Hubbs is the best thing since sliced bread.

Off To Bed

Well, I am off to bed to try and get some sleep.

The car is loaded up except for the stuff we need for tonight and in the morning.

Just in case I can't pry the laptop away from Hubbs, Monk Man or MIL, Have a Merry Christmas.

I will be back home by Sunday, if the weather cooperates.

Merry Christmas!

It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas

We just got our first few flakes of snow.

The boys might end up having a white Christmas tonight after all. Tonight is the 2nd round of Christmas. With my side of the family. Ugh. I should start drinking now.

We are heading up to Colorado in the morning and should hit the pass at the right time for the roads to be melted.

I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!!!

We are all packed, well except for Hubbs.....who decided to go out drinking last night instead of helping me out and getting HIS shit ready.

I am not too worried about him. He is an adult and can handle himself.

Snort. Who am I kidding?

1 Down, 3 To Go

FIL and StepMIL came over for the 1st round of Christmas. The boys got TONS of stuff. Inflatable Cars sleeping bags, DVDs, and a bathtub water slide thing just to name a few.

The WOW gift was a HUGE pop up Cars tent. This damn thing took up almost all of my living room.

I got some really cute pictures of the boys and Hubbs but I won't get them posted until we hook up MY computer again. Right now Hubbs' computer and the lap top are the only ones being used. I really don't want to put my pictures on either one so I will have to wait until I find a spot for mine.

Hubbs received lots of clothes and another BBQ set. I got clothes and new dishes. Pretty dishes. They are black with white squares on the edges.

We had an incident with Monk Man's mouth. See, he is like a sponge. We really have to start watching our mouths around him and not letting him watch our movies. He was in the kitchen and somebody asked him what he was doing. He replied with......"Just talkin about pussy."

OMG. What? A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed.

I got the honor of trying to discipline him and find out where the hell he heard that. We went into the bathroom and had a talk about the adult words he was not allowed to say. I told him that if I EVER heard him say something like that again, I would wash his mouth out with soap again. Then I asked him where he heard that phrase because while we do cuss, we don't say THOSE kinds of words around the kids.

Turns out, it is a line from Stepbrothers with Will Farrell. Hubbs and I both had guessed it was something he had overheard my brother say. Sorry Nunk.

Christmas All Week

Hubbs' parents are divorced and live in different states. My parents are a little strange. The 3 sets of families really don't get along so rather than spending 1 Christmas together (full of hate and discontent), we have 4 Christmas' (usually just as dramatic).

This is how this week looks:
Sunday: Grocery shopping. FIL and StepMIL are coming over to our place for the 1st round of Christmas at around 1. Pizza will be ordered and mass quantities of beer will be drank.
Monday: I have to work. Plus do laundry and pack.
Tuesday: I have to work. We have to go to Nonnies and Papa's for the 2nd round of Christmas. Dinner will be Tamales, rice and beans.
Wednesday: Momma has to work half a day. Then we have the 8 hour drive to MIL's. When we get there, the boys have 1 special gift to open (their holiday pajamas).
Thursday: Santa will visit MIL's. We will do the 3rd round of Christmas. Dinner will be extravagant and delicious.
Friday: Nursing hangovers and visiting family. Momma will be going shopping with Hubbs' brothers girlfriend. MIL will be enjoying some quality time with Monk Man and Bobblehead.
Saturday: Home? Maybe? When we DO make it home, we will have the 4th Christmas, with just the 4 us. Santa will have left gifts while we were gone.

Hopefully things will go smoothly. Probably not but a girl can dream, right?

I still have a shit load of things to do.
~Find the stockings.
~Laundry
~Grocery shopping
~Packing
~Bake cookies
~Make Fudge and Christmas Crack
~Put together the goodie plates
~Load up the car with the presents and our stuff
~Find the camera and pack extra batteries
~Keep the house looking decent
~Keep the kids semi-under control and from going into a sugar coma
I know there are more things but I can't think of them right now. Ugh. Off to start on my list.

Tiny Brag

I just watched Monk Man (3 1/2 years old) take the wireless mouse apart, pull out the battery, replace it and put it all back together.

I have been trying to get that damn battery replaced for 2 days now.

Amazing. This kid can figure out anything. Hubbs is the same way. He is always taking shit apart.

Right now, Monk Man is sitting at the laptop playing on www.starfall.com learning his ABC's. We have been working on it on and off for about a week and he is finished with A through D, and we are on E tonight.

I am in big trouble if Bobblehead is this smart.

Mini Vacation

I just realized that MIL has a Walgreens in her town.

That is where we are spending Christmas this year. Snowy Colorado. That is, if we can get over the mountains.

Score! I think I have been in 1 Walgreens my entire life.

I am soooo going shopping while we are there.

I just wish I could remember what other cool stores are in that area.

Hi. I am freezing

I can't seem to warm up today.



No, it hasn't snowed yet but it is bitter-ass-cold!



I have the furnace on, plus my little heater on my feet and I am still cold.



I have actual shoes on, socks too, a thick pair of jeans and a thermal shirt on.



WeatherBug says it will snow tonight down to 6000-5500 feet. But we are at 5000, so maybe.



I can't wait to get home, put my oh so sexy flannel Eeyore pajamas on and curl up on the couch, in a blanket, in front of the T.V.

Think it is going to snow today

It is 7 a.m. and it is still DARK. Like the middle of the night dark.

It was warmer yesterday than it has been in about a week.

Have you ever tasted snow? Duh, of course, everyone has. Well, you know that distinct kinda dirt aftertaste? That's what it smells like outside.

I really hope it dumps 6 feet of snow.

Work will be closed. Maybe. Bad drivers and bad weather are what keeps us in business. Plus, it will give me an excuse to sit on the floor, in front of the laptop, bundled up in a blanket, drinking my 3rd pot of coffee, reading the BHB since it is still there.

Yum

I am baking tonight.

So far I have made another batch of Christmas Crack and a batch of Peanut Butter cookies.

Safeway had a smokin deal on Toll House break & bake cookies. I was only going to get 1 package today but they all had peelies on them. So I bought 3. I have Chocolate Chip and White Macadamia Nut left to bake.

I have made Christmas Crack every single weekend since I found the recipe.

The boys want to help soooo badly but that isn't happening.

Oh! And I made Insulation Cupcakes this morning. I couldn't find white insulation foam so I grabbed a can of light yellow and am going to paint them.

They didn't turn out very pretty. They are lumpy and look more like a glob of whipped cream instead of a cupcake and frosting. Hubbs said that I can sand them down to make them smooth before I paint them so I think that is what I am going to do tomorrow. Well, sand the cupcakes and clean house.

Stupid Railroad

Ugh! I am so frustrated with Hubbs' job, I could scream.

They are taking his retention board away on Monday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the non-railroad people: The retention board is for the guys (and a few girls) that don't have enough seniority to hold a spot on one of the regular boards. The retention board pays a small wage plus keeps the health insurance available. The people in charge instated the retention board a few years ago so all the new people with low seniority wouldn't quit.

At the time the retention board was instated, it was cheaper to pay these employees to stay employed with the railroad than it was to let them quit and have to hire and train new people. Well, now YEARS have gone by and it is no longer cheaper to keep the retention board.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shit.Shit.Shit!

Hubbs has to chase work again. The only problem with that is, there really isn't much work to chase. It is going to get really bad the first week of January. That is when the railroad is going to cut jobs nation-wide.

Luckily, Hubbs has almost 3 years under his belt. He will be able to work somewhere, just not here. Don't know where, don't know for how long, don't know much of anything.

To be able to work our local railroad station, you would have to have a minimum of 6 years seniority starting next month.

In the past, when the economy goes down the shitter, the railroad is the last to be hit and the first to recover. I don't see a recovery happening any time soon.

Uhhhhh........I just lost my train of thought.

Anyway, Hubbs faxed in his request for 21 days of unpaid leave. That will take him into next month so hopefully he can figure out a place to go that he can stay at until he can work the local station. If he can work it at all.

Our station has a 5 year primary recall. More railroad lingo: Primary recall is an amount of time that you HAVE to be available to work that station. So that means if Hubbs goes to, say Iowa again, and our station picks back up enough to need him, he HAS leave Iowa and come back here.

After his 5 years are up, he can go anywhere in the network and never come back if he doesn't want to.

The only thing that is keeping us from picking up and moving to somewhere he can hold a job is this stupid primary recall. Well, that and my job.

If, in January, things really look like I think they are going to look, we might be moving. Not sure where yet though.

These are the places we have been discussing:
Trinidad, CO
Sweetwater, TX
Denver, CO
and a few others that I cant remember.

It Snowed Last Night

Yay! I woke up this morning to snow on the ground.

It isnt much, maybe an inch.

But it is still snow. Bring on Christmas!

Red Bull Friday

Will there be one today?

Maybe, maybe not.

I'm not really feeling the whole "clean frantically all weekend while hopped up on legal speed" thing today. Plus my mom forgot to pick me up that case of Red Bulls while she was at Sam's Club yesterday. The same case of Red Bulls I have been reminding her of since Thanksgiving dinner last Friday.

Uuuhhhhhhhggggggggg. But there is so much I need to get done. LoL Just like always.

Must.Stop.Shopping.

Aaaaacccccckkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!

I just checked my email for the first time all weekend.

OMG! The deals are super amazing. B&BW is calling my name! So is Amazon.com!

I must resist the urge to spend any more damn money. I have already spent WAY too much, just because "it was a bargain".

DH is going to kill me if I buy anything else.

It is so hard to resist.

Must leave the computer. Now.

Stupid Car

I went out this morning to start the car and it, well, it didn't. The dash lights come on but nothing happens when I turn the key.

Piece of shit.

Hopefully it is still under warranty. If not, we are going to have to trade it in sooner than we expected.

The dealership is going to tow it right now.

That's one of the good things that came from me working there for so long. When I need something, they jump right on it.

My PSA of all PSAs: Please, please, please, don't buy a Chevrolet HHR. All they are are problems.

Back from Black Friday Shopping

Wow. I have never seen our Walmart so busy! The parking lot was packed.

I picked up my sister at 5:15 and got to Walmart about 5 minutes later. By the time we got there, all the carts were gone. I finally had to stand by the cart corral and wait for someone to bring a cart back. Luckily I saw someone I knew and offered to take their cart back inside for them. LoL

I went over my budget. I spent $241.52 but I had a blast.

This is what I got:

1 6 foot Christmas Tree $25.00
1 Bissell Vacuum $28.00
1 50 piece canister of Play-Doh $10.00
1 100 piece Mega Block Lego type things $10.00
1 Surge Protector $9.94
10 Bath Towels $1.50 ea
1 Hand/Stand Mixer $15.00
1 GE Microwave $25.00
1 28 piece Rubbermade Foodstorage things $7.00
2 Kids Sleeping Bags (1 Sponge Bob and 1 Wall-E) $15.00 ea
1 2 pack DVD (Ratatouille) $10.00
2 Toothbrush/Cup Sets (1 Sponge Bob and 1 Spider Man) $5.00 ea
2 Dog Toy Stockings $5.00 ea
4 Sippy Cups $2.96 x2 and $7.68
and 2 BBQ Rib Sandwiches $1.50 ea

I am on such a bargain high.

Black Friday Shopping

Hubbs finally gave in and told me that it was okay if I went shopping in the morning. He said he thought $200 would be reasonable. That's fine with me.

So I am getting up at 4 to get showered, dressed and a little coffee in me by 5:30. Since we live in such a teeny town, Walmart is the only store within a hours drive. That's fine with me too.

I got my Black Friday ad yesterday and have been planning my shopping trip.

This is what I am getting (hopefully) with my $200:
$49- Portable DVD Player
$10- Portable DVD Player bad and Car Charger
$28- Bissell Upright Vacuum in any color but pink
$25- GE Microwave
$15- Hamilton Beach 6-Speed Stand or Hand Mixer
$25- Christmas Tree
$10- DVD 2-Pack Assortment
$10- Trivial Pursuit Totally 80s
Grand Total= $172 plus tax

Since it is such a small town, I am not expecting there to be many people there tomorrow so after I find the stuff I want, I might just wander around to see if there are any other things I want.

Happy Freaking Thanksgiving

Well, the plan was to spend today over at FIL's.

Things never end up the way I expect them to.

Last night, we stopped by FIL's for a quick dinner and to spend some time with BIL. While we were there, my FIL's bulldog almost bit Bobblehead. He was just standing in the kitchen between Hubbs and I with his back to the dog, minding his own business. All of a sudden, the dog rams his head into Bobblehead's back, knocks him down and lunges at his face.

Unfreakingbelievable. This dog has been an asshole since they got him. He is a chronic biter. He has bitten step-MIL, FIL, BIL, Hubbs, the mailman (twice), all of FIL's friends, who knows who else, and now has tried to bite my youngest.

That stupid dog is lucky that Hubbs got to him before I did.

Anyway, we left shortly after we got Bobblehead calmed down. On the way out to the car, Hubbs and I decided that we didn't want to spend Thanksgiving trying to protect our kids from the asshole dog.

We stopped by Safeway on the way home and picked up Thanksgiving dinner. We spent $41.40 and saved $23.25. We bought a Rotisserie Chicken, a bag of Clementine Cuties (oranges I think), 2 more gallons of milk, stuffing, boxed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie filling, cream of mushroom soup, gravy powder and black and green olives. All the stuff WE like, not what everybody thinks we like.

We got up around 8 this morning and dinked around until about 10. Then I started making my very first Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, I am 26 years old and have never even helped with the holiday cooking. That's why we got a chicken instead of a turkey. I wouldn't even know how to get the damn thing out of the bag.

So I made a pumpkin pie, stuffing, green bean casserole, the chicken, gravy, a relish tray, and scalloped potatoes. By myself, with absolutely no help. It was super good. I am so impressed with myself.

Of course FIL is pissed that we missed Thanksgiving dinner. Ummm, control your asshole dog? Its simple.

All in all, today turned out pretty well. It wasn't the disaster I dreamed it would be and it was nice not to have to deal with the other people in our family.

I even got out the good dishes that I have never had a chance to use. Hubb's grandma Betty got us a set of beautiful dishes for our wedding present 6 years ago and I FINALLY got to use them.

I Just Had To Open My Big Mouth

Yesterday I was commenting on a blog I stalk about the lack of cold weather and snow making me feel not too into the holiday spirit.

Well, it is 8:40 a.m. and it is still dark, dark, dark outside. Weatherbug says it is 39 degrees with a 33% chance of precipitation.

Oh great.

At least if it snows I will get some cute pictures of the boys out in it.

Oh damn. It just started raining.

Bring on the chaos!

Typealyzer

So I found this neato little thing on Cheaper Than Therapy.

The analysis indicates that the author of http://mommycrisp.blogspot.com is of the type:

ESFP - The Performers
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.
The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Very interesting......

Plug in your blog on their site and see what they say about you.

Red Bull Friday Update

I made a little progress on my laundry piles. I lost count of how many loads I did but it is all washed and all dried except for 1 load.

AND instead of taking the clothes out of the dryer and tossing them on the floor next to the bed, I actually sorted them into laundry baskets. And the towels got folded.

I am getting better about this laundry thing.

On top of getting the laundry done, I got the grocery shopping out of the way and I wrapped the rest of my Christmas presents.

Hooray!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My shopping totals:

~~Walmart: $111.97 0 Coupons
I picked up the last of the Christmas presents for Hubb's grandpa and Bobblehead. Plus Monk Man needed a bigger pair of shoes and I found a pair of adorable Sponge Bob PJs for him and Cars PJs for Bobblehead. And they both needed new socks. The washer and dryer eat Monk Man's socks and Bobblehead just loses his. For some reason, Walmart didn't have my el-cheapo creamer that I love and they only had the Coffee Mate super expensive not as tasty creamer.

~~Bashas: Total before coupons= $40.41 Total after coupons= $26.61 Savings of $13.80
I bought 20 Yogurts, 1 bag of Meow Mix and 2 containers of Frozen Rolls. All on sale and had coupons for the cat food and rolls. I had to get a rain check (cheque?) for Kibbles and Chunks though. Monk Man managed to sneak in a bag of M&Ms (no coupons and not on sale). Bashas is still doing double coupons up to a dollar so I might have to hit it again, without the kids, and walk up and down the aisles to see if there are any smokin deals since I was in such a rush on Saturday.

~~Safeway: Total before coupons= $220.44 Total after coupons=$143.58 Savings of $76.86
Safeway is my grocery store preference. I usually do the bulk of my shopping there because they always double my coupons. Either I missed a bunch of deals from the flier or the stuff was just unadvertised. I got 4 12-packs of Pepsi, 2 for free, 2 brown sugars, 2 cake frostings, 2 salad dressings, 2 diced tomatoes, 2 bags of chocolate chips, 2 Martinelli apple ciders, a french fried onion, a mayo, 2 brownie mixes, 2 Pam sprays, 2 Christmas Pez and refills, 24 cans of Fancy Feast, 2 gallons of milk, a tub of sour cream, 2 tubs of ice cream, 4 chocolate milks, 2 Kotex pads, 2 4-packs of o-celo sponges, a London Broil, a bunch of bananas, 2 bags of salads, and a 30 pack of Budwiser.

So, all 3 stores totals before coupons=$372.82 Totals after coupons=$282.16 Total savings=$90.66

Not too bad for a day that involved the dreaded Walmart. I can't wait to see how well I do next week.

Thanksgiving is when????!!!!

My mom just called to give me my Thanksgiving Dinner assignment. Soda and my wonderful Green Bean Casserole.

Huh? Thanksgiving is a week from yesterday?

No! Get out!

I was really hoping we would go to Colorado for Thanksgiving at MIL's.

I wonder what I have to bring for Thanksgiving at FIL's.

Update on Last Week's Red Bull Friday

1) Paint the walls. --Didn't happen. Hubbs looked at me like I had 3 heads when I brought it up.

2) A backsplash behind the stove. --Didn't happen either. Hubbs wants to (say it with me in a whiny voice) "save money now".

3) Storage. --I didn't get this done either. I was VERY lazy.

4) Caulk the windows. --This didn't get done either. Hubbs was lazy too.

5) Grocery shop. --I did get this done. Yay. 1 out of 6.
**Bashas-Before Coupons=$122.99~~After Coupons=$81.70~~Saved $55.29
**Safeway-Before Coupons=$141.21~~After Coupons=$94.05~~Saved 47.16

6) Pictures. --I did take before pictures (before Hubbs lost the camera) but I don't want to post them unless I have something to post as after pictures.

Update on Mixing it Up and Red Bull Friday

My freezer was delivered this morning. Yay. Its still empty since I grocery on Saturday mornings. Plus I still have to figure out what I am going to keep in the fridge freezer and what I am going to put in the chest freezer.

I left work at around 3 yesterday. I went straight home to get started on the crazy mess. First, I cleaned out the used-to-be-play room. Hubbs took apart Monk Man's bed and took it out of the room sometime yesterday morning so I had a lot of room to clean in. I started on the toys first. And oh my hell were there toys. I dumped them all out on the floor into a pile and set out boxes. 1 box for stuffed animals and 3 for the others. I filled those all up, took 2 bags of broken and Crappy Meal toys out to the trash, AND I took a bag of baby toys to my moms for Ollie.

It only took about an hour and a half to completely empty the used-to-be-play room. Well, the clothes are still in it but I will get to those this weekend.

My living room was packed with boxes of crap. Sorry, no pictures. I was going to take them but Hubbs cleaned off the computer desk and lost my camera.

Then FedEx showed up with Hubb's computer. A day early. I was in the middle of running the vacuum and the driver was lucky my dogs think they are tough otherwise I wouldn't have even noticed.

Hubbs was at Wal-mart getting storage boxes for this weekend's divide and conquer.

When he got home and saw the boxes, all hopes of getting any real work out of him were gone. And so were my hopes of getting all of this done uninterrupted.

But he did manage to help in between trying to get it set up and all the programs loaded.

After the used-to-be-playroom was empty and clean, I moved on to the used-to-be-pantry. I had to put on my MP3 player so I couldn't claim not to hear Hubbs yelling, "Honey! Come here! Where does this plug in?" and "Honey! Come here! Look at this!".

I unloaded the food into laundry baskets and in piles on the floor so Hubbs could move the book cases into the now-a-pantry. Then all the laundry baskets got pushed into the now-a-pantry and emptied. Eventually all the food and stuff was in the now-a-pantry and put back.

By then it was time to pick up the boys. It was an interesting rest of the night. Bobblehead and Monk Man wanted to help. Ugh. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated the attempt, but at 3 and 1, they didn't really help until it came time to put their crap in the empty now-a-play room.

I think I made myself quit around 10, 10:30. But it was around midnight when I finally fell asleep. I think.

Tonight, I still have to go through my artsy-fartsy-craft stuff and put it all away in the now-a-pantry. And move all the clothes from the now-a-pantry into the now-a-playroom.

So that's whats in store for this week's edition of Red Bull Friday.

Clothes. Moving them. Washing them. Putting them away. Maybe. We did rent a bunch of movies on Wednesday.......

Tomorrow, I promise

to have a better post for you.

Today, I am leaving work early so I can switch my pantry and playroom without Monk Man and Bobblehead under my feet.

Why am I switching things up?

Well, Hubbs bought me a freezer for Christmas. Yay! And it is being delivered in the morning. Double yay! He paid cash for it, btw.

The pantry has a TV already set up but the playroom doesn't. So instead of having DirecTv come out and run another cable, I am moving the rooms around. Yeah, I don't do anything the easy way. The pantry would be better accessible in the playroom anyway.

Don't laugh. It makes sense to me.

I promise to take before/after pictures. And actually post them.

Doh

I am super far behind on posting.

I have some posts in the works, plus a RBF update.

Maybe this afternoon.....

Red Bull Friday

I got a head start on my Red Bull Friday list. I got the cleaning bug last night after work. This weekend I am focusing on the Kitchen.
Yesterday:
1) The floors were nasty. I have white tile and it shows messes like you wouldn't believe. Plus I have really slacked off on cleaning the kitchen. I mopped. Then I put the mop away and pulled out my cleaning toothbrush and scrubber thing to get what the mop missed. And I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. I got all the junk off the tile from under the cabinets. I got all the grease from under and in front of the stove. I got the yuck from just under and in front of the fridge.
2) My fridge is supposed to be a bright white. It was brown and sticky from about halfway down. So I got out the baby wipes and scrubbed the fridge doors. It is bright white again.

This weekend's list:
1) Paint the walls. They need a fresh coat of paint. When we first painted (4 years ago) we went with cheap, low quality paint. You can totally tell. I scrub the walls and the only thing that comes off is the paint.
2) A backsplash behind the stove. I am seeing a nice copper color, easy to clean.
3) Storage. When we ripped out the old kitchen we left a good sized wall up. Right now I have a bookcase sitting against it that holds my baking stuff and spices. I want to turn the bookcase so that it sticks out into the kitchen and put another bookcase flush with the hall. It would leave a space of about a foot and a half between the 2 bookcases. I plan to put my mop and broom in the space.
4) Caulk the windows. A whole lot of cold air comes in the kitchen right now. We have newish windows (well, 4 years old) but there are teeny gaps between the window frame and the sheet rock.
5) Grocery shop. The best time for me to go grocery shopping is on Saturday morning. I can hit up Safeway and Basha's (and sometimes Wal-mart) without having to stand in line or take both the kids. I usually take one or the other but I almost can't handle both of them. So my lists are made, my coupons are pulled, I am ready to go!
6) Take before and after pictures. And post them.

New House

So Hubbs and I went to look at the house.

It was beautiful. It was huge. It was overpriced.

Hubbs misunderstood Jimmy. They are asking $165,000.

Ouch. Sorry, we can't afford that. Especially since there are things we would have to do to it.

The attic needs new insulation blown into it and the kitchen cabinets need to be replaced.

I went to see another house today at lunch that was closer to our price range.

It was a wreck. The entire house would have to be gutted. Floors, roof, walls, ceiling, plumbing, electrical, everything would have to be replaced.

It was on the market for $54,900 and would need another $50 to 75k to get it in good shape if we did most of the work ourselves. Even more $$ if we were to have the work contracted out.

Sooooo, we aren't going with that house either.

I think what I am going to have to do is get my trailer under control and be happy with what I have for the next year.

Hubbs took a voluntary lay off for the next 30 days before he goes off chasing work again Since he is going to be home with nothing better to do, I am putting him to work. There are a few things that need to be done that I can't do myself. He is going to be a busy dude for the next 30 days.

The look on his face when he gets his "honey-do" list is going to be priceless.

Red Bull Friday Update

I got more accomplished this weekend than I expected to get done.

**yay**

But it is making me feel a little manic. Oh well. It will pass I'm sure.

I will get to what I accomplished in a minute. First I have to share something. Hubbs and I are going to look at a new house tonight. I am a little scared to own a real house. I was looking forward to having the whole next year to ease myself into this whole idea.

About the house and neighborhood:
The house is 3 bedrooms, 2 bath and on a supersized lot. Its like a lot and 3/4. The house was gutted and completely remodeled. New Berber carpet, updated appliances, everything is new except the bath tub. FIL lives across the street and around the corner. It is half a block from an elementary school, 4 or so blocks to the Jr. High and 5 or 6 blocks from the High School. I am pretty sure Hubbs said that the seller is asking $100k.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that 1)I like the house and 2) we are able to get a loan or convince the owner to carry the papers for us.

Now on to all the stuff I got accomplished:
1) I got LOTS of cleaning done. The laundry even got put away.

2) I made Christmas Crack, Hot Cocoa Mix, and Sugar Cookies. Everything turned out delicious. I brought a Tupperware bowl full of Christmas Crack into the shop today and everybody said that it was awesome!

3) I went grocery shopping. Took Bobblehead with me because Monk Man wouldn't get up from his nap with Hubbs.

4) I wrapped 15 presents. That's about half of what I needed to get wrapped but there are still a few more weekends.

AND, I started a new blog. I need to get all of our shit organized, even more so that there is the slim chance we are getting a house. I need to get our finances under control and I really just want to get my shit together. So I made an all new blog for organization and control. I will post the address as soon as I have an entry up. I am kinda slacking on it already. Whoops

Bath and Body Works

Antibacterial Sale-4 for $10

Plus a free shipping code: FREESHIP60

It says on orders over $60 but I only spent $37.50 and the code worked for me.

Click on the link below to start shopping!

Bath & Body Works Veterans Day Sale

Red Bull Friday

Hooray for Fridays!

My boss is taking a mental health day so I have a ton of time to screw around on the Internet this afternoon.

Big plans for this weekend. It has started to get really cold and the temperature drop has put me in the Christmas spirit. I have a TON of stuff to do before the holidays.

So this weekend's Red Bull Friday to-do list:
1) Clean-
LoL This is always on my list of things to do.
Hubbs hinted that if we are out of debt in a year he will be ready to buy a house.
**claps** I am so excited about this.
I CAN be out of debt in a year, plus have a decent down payment saved up. I think. Well, if his job keeps going the way it has been going that is.
Soooo, I need to start going through all of our crap we have crammed everywhere and decide what I am willing to drag to the new house and what I am throwing away.

2) Bake-
We decided to go out for dinner last night so I didn't get to bake/cook anything.
Starting tonight the oven will be occupied for my "trial run".
I am a horrible cook so I need the trial run just in case. My first attempts usually turn out burnt, or with missing ingredients or just taste like ass. This way, if anything does go wrong I have time to tweak it or find a new plan.
Sorry kids, its cold cereal and fast food this weekend.
(Just kidding....or am I?)

3) Grocery-
I have decided that I don't hate shopping as much as I thought I did. I still hate clothes shopping (yeah, I know I'm not a normal chick) but grocery shopping has been so much fun lately. Its like a game to try and beat my % saved from my last receipt.

4) Christmas Gifts-
The Christmas presents are bought (for the most part) and sitting in my pantry. I just need to wrap and label them. And I need to start putting together the hand made stuff.

In the Mood Tonight

To do some holiday baking/cooking that is.

Like you couldn't tell from my last 2 posts.

I will let you know how it all turns out.

Christmas Crack

Borrowed from the Bargain Hunters.

Ingredients:
1 lb (2 sticks) butter
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c light brown sugar
~ 1 sleeve saltine crackers
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350

Line cookie sheet (one with sides!) with foil and spray with Pam. Lay out crackers in a single layer and set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in both sugars and stir to dissolve. Let this cook, stirring fairly often, until it's bubbling. Let it bubble for about 5 minutes, then pour over crackers and spread as evenly as possible.

Put in oven for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle on chocolate chips. I've never measured, but it's probably around the size of a bag--3 or 4 big handfuls. Let it sit a few minutes and the chocolate chips will melt. When they're soft enough, spread them evenly over the crackers.

Put the whole thing in the refrigerator to cool. After it's hardened, take it out and break it up into pieces.

Eat. It is recommended to have supervision for this step, otherwise you run the risk of eating it all yourself.

Homemade pepperment hot cocoa

Ingredients:
2 c. dry milk
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c cocoa powder
1/2 c powdered coffee creamer-peppermint flavor

Mix everything up in a bowl. Transfer to a jar and tie a festive ribbon around it.

Duke and the Door

I was at the bank today making a deposit for work and Hubbs calls my cell phone. He wants me to come by the house, right now. That's it, he didn't say anything else, just come by the house, right now. What the hell right?

So I drive home all nervous. I was expecting anything from the cops being there to someone driving through the front door. Honestly.

Well, when I got home it wasn't really all that bad. I mean, yeah, its bad but I can deal with it.

Our lab, Duke, gets really excited when he sees cats. He runs around in circles, whines and jumps against the front door. Well, our front door is a sliding glass one. Half of it moves and the other half doesn't. Duke got a little too excited this afternoon and broke the stationary part of the door.

I pulled up in the driveway, get out of the car, walk up to the gate and look around. There is glass EVERYWHERE. The door exploded. There is glass on the patio, there is glass in the yard, there is glass in the living room.

Nice. Thanks Duke.

Tonight, after I get off work, Hubbs and I get to drive for an hour to Home Depot for a new front door. Yay, tiny happy dance for getting to go visit Home Depot. Sucks ass to have to drive for 2 hours round trip.

Oh well. That is how things have been going lately.

Oh and BTW, Duke is fine. He didn't get cut or anything. It just scared the shit out of him and I don't expect him to come out from under the bed any time tonight.

Happy Halloween

Even though I am fighting the stomach flu and have missed 2 days of work, I took the boys trick or treating. I didn't want them to miss out on the fun because I felt like shit. So I sucked it up and hit 3 houses, my mom's, FIL's and a family friend who passes out kick ass candy.

So here are a few pictures. BTW--Monk Man picked out the costumes. He wanted Bobblehead to match him. They are SOOOO CUTE!

Here is Monk Man-He wouldn't let me put make up on him.


And 2 of Bobblehead-He had no choice in whether or not he was getting make up.



And a few of them together




And there is Ollie in the top corner.



Wow, the date is STILL wrong on my stupid camera. I am so technologically challenged it is silly.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

Help?

I have started writing then deleting this post at least a dozen times in the past few days.

We got some bad news this weekend. FIL is dieing from Muscular Dystrophy.

OMG. Typing that makes me want to throw up.

What a scary phrase.

Its worse than cancer to me.

Cancer, I can deal with.
Cancer, we have been through that.
Cancer, I know something about that.

But Muscular Dystrophy? I know squat about it. Zip. Nada. Nothing.

I am sad and pissed off. But that is totally not a new combination of feelings for me. I am already used to wanting to cry one moment and then wanting to punch something in the next moment. Welcome to the story of my life.

I guess it was more than coincidence that Hubbs decided to come home from Iowa with us. I can't imagine how much harder it would be on all of us if he was still that far away.

So I looked it up on webmd. Bad idea. I know better than to even THINK about that website. I skimmed the pages and pages of information on Monday, spooked myself, closed the window and haven't gotten the nerve to look up anything else about it.

The details that I have managed to drag out of Hubbs are hazy. All I know is that it is bad. FIL isn't doing well at all.

And I have to be tested to see if I am a carrier. It is pretty much a given (from what stepMIL says) that Hubbs is a carrier but since I know nothing about my birth parents, I have to be tested. I guess I determine whether or not we need to worry about Monk Man and Bobblehead developing it.

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

The possibility of my little dudes getting this makes me want to throw up too. But I can't bring myself to blog about that yet. I am lucky to have been able to get THIS far tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now for help. If any of you have experience with Muscular Dystrophy, tell me about it. Please? I want to read YOUR stories. I want to go to the websites YOU recommend. Either leave the information in the comments or email me. I am sure my email address is somewhere in my header. Maybe. Thanks in advance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So if I don't post much for a while, or you don't see me lurking on Babycenter.....I didn't drop off the face of the earth or get smothered in my sleep by my children. I'm just dealing with family issues.

Either that or you might be getting a million posts per day. You never can tell with me.

Hand-made gift boxes

I was blog stalking this afternoon and ran across this nifty idea.

Homemade Gift Boxes from The Toby Show.

I am sooo not crafty but this looks like something I can handle.

Check it out!

Grocery Shopping

We went grocery shopping this morning. Hubbs went early in the morning to buy stuff for his yummy green chili.

Poor guy. I think he is intimidated by the pantry because he bought things we already had. Oh well. At least he is trying to save us money and I don't have to cook.

He went to Safeway. Total spent: 71.58 Total saved by club card: 11.97

The bill was so high because he bought meat--Roasts and deli pastrami.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to Walmart for Halloween costumes. I hate that place. Monk Man decided that he wanted to be an "Army Guy" again and that Bobblehead HAD to match him.

Total spent: 66.99 Total saved: 0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to Bashas. I usually do pretty well there. I actually didn't buy a single thing that wasn't on "the list".

Total spent: 64.14 Total saved with coupons and club card: 52.69
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The last stop for the day was Safeway. Again. I HAD to hit the buy one get one free cleaners and get soups.

Total spent: 133.47 Total saved with coupons and club card: 57.76
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not too bad right?

I HAVE to tell you about my score at the OshKosh outlet in Gretna, Nebraska. I spent 179.13 but saved 196.61!!!! That was the first time ever that I saved more than I spent.

I guess I should post something

huh? We have been home since Saturday and the poor blog has been neglected.

So sorry. (I am noticing that I apologize a lot lately)

Ugh. Where do I begin.

Well the trip started off okay. We made it to the car around 6:30 in the morning. Stopped at McDonalds on the way to the highway to get the kids breakfast and coffee for me. We made good time to Gallup. I stopped at the Burger King for a pee break (damn that coffee and those Red Bulls) and filled up my gas tank.

We just cruised along until we hit Shiprock. I pulled into town and got stuck in traffic. I didn't move an inch for 2 HOURS! Why? Some stupid political parade. By the time we got out of Shiprock it was pouring rain and the boys were awake and fighting like normal. It rained from there all the way through the mountains to MIL's. It kept raining until we stopped for the night in Aurora (Colorado). Luckily when we got up the next morning the rain had cleared up.

We made it through Denver ok. Dude, those twisty roads are SCARY! The minute we hit Nebraska it started raining again. Nice.

Oh, and it gets better.

We ended up getting a flat tire somewhere in the middle of a corn field. Luckily I found a gas station. Unluckily, the gas station attendant didn't speak much English. When I asked her where the nearest dealership was, she gave me the deer in headlights look and told me, "I don't know what you are telling me".

Huh? Give me a break. Ummm, do you have fix-a-flat? "Don't know". So I finally found the fix-a-flat, put it in the tire and went to find an air machine. Well, I guess I didn't read the directions as well as I though I did.

PSA: If you have to put fix-a-flat in a tire, don't add any air. Your tire will explode. Yes, your tire will look flat still. Just drive around slowly for 10 or so minutes. Fix-a-flat expands when it warms up.

No, my tire didn't explode. Don't worry. Luckily some toothless dude was watching me (shudder...creepy) and ran over to stop me before I added any air. I DO know how to change a tire but I convinced myself that driving on a fix-a-flat'ed tire was better than driving on my doughnut tire. Plus changing the tire would have required more time and attracted much more attention. Seriously, how often do you see a chick changing her own tire? I didn't want to give the creepy guys more reason to gawk.

So now we are back driving. And driving. And driving. The plan was to meet Hubbs in Lincoln but with all the potty breaks, and then the tire incident, we were still hours away from Lincoln. Hubbs was so excited to get to see us, he drove all the way to Aurora (Nebraska) to meet us. We caravan'd (spelling??) the rest of the way to Sioux City.

So that's the story about getting there. Later I will tell about what we did while we were there and then the drive home.

We are Home

We made it home on Saturday. Never doing THAT again!

I don't have much time for the computer today so I will blog some more either tonight or tomorrow.

We made it

Well, we made it to Iowa.

Soooo not having a good time. Seriously.

I am ready to come back home.

Interesting Article

about how bloggers make money.

Last week, the blog search engine Technorati released its 2008 State of the Blogosphere report with the slightly menacing promise to "deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind."

Bloggers create 900,000 blog posts a day worldwide, and some of them are actually making money. Blogs with 100,000 or more unique visitors a month earn an average of $75,000 annually—though that figure is skewed by the small percentage of blogs that make more than $200,000 a year.

The estimates from a 2007 Business Week article are older but juicier: The LOLcat empire rakes in $5,600 per month; Overheard in New York gets $8,100 per month; and Perez Hilton, gossip king, scoops up $111,000 per month.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ummm, wow. Per month???? Nice.

If you have been living under a rock (like I am) and have never checked out Overheard in New York, you should. It made me giggle.

I am convinced that I was the last person to hear about the LOLcats. It is a pretty safe bet that YOU have seen them.

Perez Hilton.......eh. I can live without celebrity gossip. Really. I have only been to his blog a handful of times. I WAS impressed though. It just isn't my thing.

I wonder what kind of $$ Mama Drama Uncensored brings in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So task of the week: Whenever you visit someones blog, clickity click on the advertisements that show up. Your clicks might buy mama a new Coach bag.

For the Record, I don't have any advertisements on my blog (I don't think I do at least) so I don't make any $$ off of it.

Yet.

Maybe some day I will get around to it.

Ugh

I am almost all packed and ready to go. It took me 4 straight hours last night and another half hour this morning.

At 4:00 a.m.

Yes, I think I am out of my mind too.

Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed I don't crash the HHR. Oh, and if you could will the boys into sleeping the whole way, that would be awesome.

We are leaving for Colorado as soon as the sun starts to come up. Maybe 6, 6:30ish.

Sorry, no new posts for a week. Waaaa. Ok, I have 1 scheduled for tomorrow. And I will try to hijack Hubb's laptop while he isn't looking if I get a chance.

Red Bull Friday

Uuumm, it is after 4:00 and I am just now getting to my Red Bull.

Today was NUTS!

We are leaving in the morning (butt crack of dawn) for Iowa. I am going to be out of the shop for a week and everybody is freaking out a little.

The one week I decide to take a semi-vacation the shop is booked. Solid. Figures.

AND, I still have an assload of shit to do when I get home.

1)I have 2 loads of laundry to wash and dry.
2)I still have to pack up the clothes.
3)I have to go to Walmart. Monk man's underware keeps disappearing and he only has 5 pairs left. Plus he needs a couple more pairs of socks. And Bobblehead has been wearing Monk Man's hand me downs. Well Monk Man was a spring baby and Bobblehead is a fall baby. That means shorts, no long pants. Anywhere.
4)I still have to pack everything else that has been sitting on my kitchen table for 2 days.
5)Lastly, I have to pack ALL of the shit in the HHR tonight after the boys go to bed.

Oh crap. I just realized that I don't have anyone lined up to check on the dogs & cats. Or get my mail. I could totally scream. Aaaahhhhhhhh!

Well, they are shutting the shop down on me. I will post more tonight if I get a chance.

GM Employee Pricing

is a joke. Seriously.

Years ago I worked at a dealership and learned something interesting about the so called employee pricing.

Wanna know how it really works?

The dealership figures out how much the employee discount would be and adds it to the MSRP. It only looks like you are saving a bunch of money. But you really aren't.

Such a scam.

Anybody want to know any other trade secrets?

Semi-Vacation

On Saturday, the boys and I are driving to Colorado to pick up MIL and possibly stepFIL. From their house, we are going to see Hubbs in Iowa. We wont be back home until the next Saturday, maybe even Sunday.

No shit? No shit.

I am excited but kinda not. I really miss Hubbs and want to see him but Iowa is so far away. We are driving the whole way.

Why not fly? Because I don't trust my kids. Especially in such a huge place with so many people around to irritate. Plus I am a chicken and am scared to fly.

I can't wait to actually get there. It will be 8 or 9 days that I can pawn the boys off on their grandparents, whenever I feel like it. I can actually go out to dinner with Hubbs without worrying whether or not I will get too drunk to find my Mommy Hat when the kids need me.

I think one night I will leave the boys with MIL and check out a strip club. **ducks** I have never been to one and am curious. Ssshhhhh, don't tell my mom.

BUT......I am going to miss my computer. I am on a roll with my book, as long as the boys are sleeping or not making an assload of noise.

I am going to miss my dogs. Even as stupid as they are.

I am going to miss work. Yeah, I am going to miss it a lot. Tomorrow I will try to remember to post about why I love my work.

Are you having a bad day?

I know I am.

In an attempt to not flip out, I have been cruising the loldogs.

And smoking. A lot.

I can't wait for bed time.

Good news

for fans of "I am Legend".

Here is the article.

I loved the movie and am really excited to hear about a prequel. I can hardly wait.

No festival for me

I am really bummed out. I am going to have to miss the Standing on the Corner Festival this weekend. You might remember an excited post about it earlier this month.

Bobblehead has a raging ear infection and Monk Man has a sore throat. PLUS both of them have been exposed to Whooping Cough. My brother (who works at the hospital) was exposed earlier this week and he brought it home. They both have been vaccinated for it but, well, you know.

So we are staying home to be on the safe side.

Maybe next year.

I am still planning on running away from work for an hour tomorrow to see my friend's band play. Luckily it is at 2 in the afternoon and the boys are under someone else's care.

Email Funny

My cousin sent me this email. I can totally see Monk Man and Bobblehead pulling this on me in a few years.
***********************************
A 6 year old & a 4 year old are upstairs in their bedroom. 'You know what?' says the 6 year old. 'I think it's about time we started cussing. The 4 year old nods his head in approval. The 6 year old continues, 'When we go downstairs for breakfast, I'm gonna say something with hell & you say something with ass.' The 4 year old agrees with enthusiasm.

When the mother walks into the kitchen & asks the 6 year old what he wants for breakfast, he replies, 'Aw, hell, Mom, guess I'll have some Cheerios.'

WHACK!! He flies out of his chair, tumbles across the kitchen floor, gets up, & runs upstairs crying his eyes out, with his mother in hot pursuit, slapping his rear with every step. His mom locks him in his room & shouts, 'You can stay there until I let you out!'

She then comes back downstairs, looks at the 4 year old & asks with a stern voice, 'And what do YOU want for breakfast, young man?' 'I don't know', he blubbers, 'but you can bet your ass it won't be Cheerios!'

I got a lot done today

1) I just finished up 2 loads of dishes but I have 1 load to wash still.

2) I just put the 3rd load of laundry in the dryer. Everything is washed but nothing is put away.

3) I didn't get the carpets cleaned but I did cook dinner (Baked Mac & Cheese) and made Iced Tea.

Hooray for me!

Oh! And I made Monk Man Windex the sliding glass door.

No Red Bull Friday?

There was no Red Bull Friday this week. I have been fighting a killer sinus infection for a week now.

I went to the doctor Thursday because the sinus infection just wasn't going away on its own. Ohhhh the pain was horrible. The whole left side of my face was swollen, my throat was on fire, my jaw ached and my teeth were throbbing. I was given a prescription for a Z-Pack and sent back to work. At this point, I was popping Advil like they were candy and it was barely taking the edge off the pain. On Friday I had had enough and called the doctor to get a prescription for pain pills.

He gave me Darvocet. They took 5 hours and 4 pills to kick in.

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that I am allergic to them because I spent all day yesterday (Saturday) with my freaking head in the toilet. I was fine as long as I was laying on the floor, not moving. But when there are 2 dogs, a 3 1/2 year old and an 11 month old demanding my attention, laying still on the floor is just a fantasy.

After the first hour of puking I did call my sister to see if she would come get Monk Man for a few hours so I could lay down when Bobblehead was napping.

When I got up, I took half of a pain pill with a huge glass of milk because maybe taking them on an empty stomach wasn't the greatest idea. Well, the milk didn't do any good because as soon as I swallowed the pill I had to run to the toilet again for another hour.

I am back taking Advil. The pain is noticeably less than it was 2 days ago so maybe I will be able to function today.

This week only: Red Bull Friday is on Sunday

Here is the to-do list:
1) Dishes.
I may have not been able to eat but the kids still had to. I have about 4 days worth of dishes sitting in the sink and on the counter. Gross. I hate to have to admit that one.
2) Laundry.
I need to wash about a weeks worth and put away about 3 weeks worth of clothes.
3) Spot Clean the Carpet.
Momma is Sick?=Eat wherever you want.

I am not feeling too ambitious today and I don't want to over do it so I only have 3 things today. As usual, I will update tonight or tomorrow at work on what actually got done.

Off to turn on the cartoons to keep the boys occupied for a while so I can clean! Now where did my MP3 player go?

Brain Fart

Ok, I mentioned in yesterday's post that it was my Bank of America account that had gone to collections.

It wasn't. Whoops!

It was actually my Chrysler Visa.

LoL I have a sinus infection and it is
kicking.
my.
ass.

I am blaming my mistake on the drug induced haze I have been in for 3 days now.

I just paid off another account

It doesn't feel as good as the other payoffs have felt.

The Backstory:
Bank of America issued me a card with a $10,000 credit line. Me, being the dumb ass that I can be sometimes, I spent it all. Twice. Things were fine until I got married. The post office wouldn't forward the credit card statements to me, they sent them back to the credit card companies. Before I realized it, I was so far behind in monthly payments there was no catching up.

So the BOA account got turned over to collections. For too many years they have been taking a monthly payment out of my checking account. Yes, I gave them my banking information. I didn't know any better. They were threatening lawsuits and court ordered payments and I freaked out. Not one of my better judgement calls.

Fast Forward to Today:
The collection agency called me at lunch right before I was leaving to come back to work. The girl that was managing my account offered me a settlement of $1480 which was 40% of what I still owed.

I jumped at the chance to get this account gone. I didn't take any time to talk myself out of it. I didn't even take the time to check the checking account balance. I just said "Yes, that's what I want to do. Can you take the money out of my account today?"

After the phone call was over I transfered the money from savings into the checking account. Then I texted Hubbs and told him. I was a little worried that he would be pissed for not discussing it with him first or something but he was okay with it.

Now, an hour later I am feeling buyers remorse. Seriously, I want to throw up. But we happened to have the money sitting in savings for this type of thing, paying off credit cards. It will be an extra $130 a month that I can throw at another account or put in savings. That should make me feel better, but it really doesn't.

With the current state of the economy and all these banks failing and needing to be bailed out, I would really feel better with the money in savings instead of someone else's pocket. I know the money will be replaced soon enough and we still have a good amount in the savings account (should anything happen) to get by on if we had to.

Gah! If I would have known 6 years ago, what I know now.............I guess you (I) just have to live an learn.

I hope someone out there learns something from my mistakes. If just 1 person is helped by something I have blogged about, it all would be worth it. KWIM?

What a Strange Disease

Morgellons

Link to Newsweek article

It starts with painful, stinging lesions appearing on the skin. Out of these lesions, colored fibers start coming out of the lesions. Hair loss and short term memory problems are also affects of Morgellons.

I mean no disrespect to anyone who has this, but how freaking bizarre is this?

Is this something any of you have heard about? This sure is the first I have heard regarding this.

Anyone want to take bets on how long it is before my (hypochondriac, I am not a doctor but I play one in my head) mother decides she or someone else in the family has this?

Red Bull Friday Update

I actually managed to get most of my Red Bull Friday crap done. Granted it DID take all weekend, 3 Red Bulls and a nap.

So Friday I expected to:
Find the Wii Game
Clean the carpet with soap
Work on the book
Sewing
Cutting and Glueing
Sleep in
Mop the kitchen

In reality, I:
Found the Wii Game--It was in a Spongebob case.
Cleaned the carpet, with soap--Yep, cleaned the 2 recliners while I was at it.
Worked on the book--I didn't write much but I did get a new chapter started
Cutting--I cut but didn't get around to glueing or sewing.
Slept in--Yes! I slept in for an extra hour and a half on Sunday
I even mopped the kitchen.

I know I spelled glueing wrong. Spell check didnt help in the least. Someone please tell me how to spell glueing correctly?

Random Political Stuff

~~Do you know who you are voting for?~~

I know who I am voting for. I have known for months. But I'm not telling, and I would prefer it if you didn't tell me either. Not being rude, I just don't NEED to know. It wouldn't change the way I thought of you even if I did know.

~~Guess how I picked my party.~~

By animal. See, I was in 3rd grade when we were told to choose our political party. At that age I didn't understand what the different parties represented. I still really don't understand it all. I liked elephants more than I liked donkeys. So thats how I ended up a Republican.

My grandma Vi almost has a heart attack every time someone reminds her about me as a Republican. The rest of my family are hard core Democrats. She tries to shame me into changing parties. I think it is funny so I stay what I am.

An Invitation

Our little town had a song written about us. It is our "claim to fame" and we are very proud of it. We actually have a "Standin on the Corner" corner.

L. O. L.

I will go take some pictures to prove the obsession if I can get someone to watch my kiddos for long enough to make my way down town.

A little back ground:

A long time ago (well a long time for me at least) the Eagles made a cd with a song called "Take It Easy" on it. Well that is the song that is about our little town.

It is a common misconception that the Eagles actually wrote the song, but Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey really wrote it. The Eagles just sang it. I found some info on Wikipedia about it.

Every year for the past 10 years, our town has thrown a "Standin On The Corner" festival. Its more like a really really big block party. Here is the official web page. If you click on the link you will see a banner of pictures at the top of the page. Look at the 2nd picture. I can't count how many times people have asked if that is me.

For the record, no, it isn't me. The original picture was painted before I was born. But thanks, it's flattering, that girl is a babe.

Well, it is that time of year again.

The "festival" starts in 2 weeks, on Friday the 26th and lasts until early Sunday morning.

There are vendors, food, live music (local bands, famous bands and semi-famous bands), a beer garden, dancing and TONS of people. People travel from all over to come party with us. Whole city blocks are shut down so we can party in the streets.

So I am inviting you to come party with me. If not this year, come next year. Bring your kids. It will be a blast.

Interesting Article

about the way that the Rockband and the Guitar Hero games have affected the music industry.

Check it out HERE

I am sure I have mentioned it before but music has a very important place in my life. The only time there isn't music playing is when we are sleeping or have certain family members over. **cough**the deaf ones**cough** Otherwise the computer is blasting something, or a cd player is on, or I have my mp3 player stuck in my ears. There is music on at home, in the car, at work, sometimes in my head.

I LOVE the Rockband and Guitar Hero games. I suck at it them but I have sooooo much fun. They are one of the few games that Hubbs will actually play with me.

The music is very familiar and with the exception of a few of the genres, it is music that I either listen to now or have listened to in the past.

Plus the games suck.me.in. I start playing and before I realize it, too much time has passed.

It keeps the boys entertained too. The bright colors and the sounds really capture their attentions. Some of the songs (like The Hand That Feeds and Hit Me With Your Best Shot, ones the kids have heard thousands of times) Monk Man can (try to) sing along to. And both boys dance around the living room until they pass out, whether they know the songs or not.

That is my idea of multi-tasking, oh hell yeah.

Awwww, who am I kidding

All that stuff I just posted down there.....Yeah, it probably wont get done.

Well, maybe some of it. Until the kids go to bed.

Then I am going to just sit around and play the Guitar Hero games all night.

I just realized

it is RED BULL FRIDAY again.

Hooray.

So whats in store for tonight?

Well, I need to tear apart the living room so I can find a Wii game we rented last Friday. The only answer I get out of Monk Man as to where it is is "What Wii game? I wanna play the Wii!"

With Hubbs home last week, a lot of beer got spilled (how many times do I have to say, "Don't put your beer on the floor when the kids are up"?) so I need to clean the carpets. Again. Maybe I will use soap this time since there seems to be more spots showing up since the last time I cleaned it.

And then of course, there is always the book that needs to be worked on. And Christmas presents to be sewn (blankets) or cut and glued (scrapbook crap and note cards).

Maybe I will make the boys stay up with me tonight so I can sleep in tomorrow...... Fat chance but it is worth a shot.

Gross! I just looked over my shoulder and the kitchen looks like it needs to be mopped too. I wonder what I can bribe Monk Man with get him to mop the kitchen.

One Word

This post is being brought to you by Fix it Mommy and Dr. Pepper Addict



Alright, so here is the deal. I am supposed to answer the following questions with one word answers...yeah right!

1. Where is your cell phone? Desk
2. Where is your significant other? Iowa
3. Your hair color? Blond
4. Your mother? Nuts
5. Your father? Awesome
6. Your favorite thing? Music
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your dream/goal? Debtless
9. The room you’re in? Office
10. Your hobby? Music
11. Your fear? Failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
13. Where were you last night? Bed
14. What you’re not? Shy
15. One of your wish-list items? Jeans
16. Where you grew up? Arizona
17. The last thing you did? Email
18. What are you wearing? Jeans
19. Your TV? Flat
20. Your pet? Protective
21. Your computer? On
22. Your mood? Happy
23. Missing someone? Yep
24. Your car? Sucks
25. Something you’re not wearing? Socks
26. Favorite store? Ebay
27. Your summer? Stressful
28. Love someone? Yep
29. Your favorite color? Purple
30. When is the last time you laughed? Constantly
31. Last time you cried? Friday



Now for passing on the award!
The rules of this award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated

Now...for the nominations...drum roll please...



1) Alabaster Mom

2) Mom On The Rise

3) Cheaper Than Therapy

4) Woman In Pink

5) RockSTARRMom

It seems

even Trent Reznor himself gets the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). I wonder if he found the "any" key.



Picture isn't mine, Amy Randazzo gets the photo credit.

I guess the BSOD is there on purpose. It is part of the show.

It made me giggle though.

Do you remember

what you were doing when the Twin Towers fell down?

(A thread on the Bargain Hunters board prompted this post.)

I had just woken up and walked into the living room. My mom was sitting there, in front of the TV with her mouth open.

I remember thinking, What The Hell? and feeling like I wanted to throw up.

We were glued to the TV for the rest of the day. And the days after that.

I was supposed to have classes at the college that day but they cancelled them. Not that I would have gone anyway, the TV had me sucked in for days.

So tell me, what were YOU doing?

Today is the type of day

that I wish I had not banned myself from using the F-bomb on the blog.

What the hell was I thinking? Semi-Family Friendly? Pppfffttttt

**sigh** A bunch of F-bombs would make me feel so much better.

I think when I get off work in a few minutes I will blast some Nine Inch Nails and sing along to THOSE F-words.

Ya know, get it all out of my system before I have to turn into "The Mommy" again.

Well, I am at home

But the dude is still on the loose.

Monk Man's daycare lady's husband works for the city and had some new information.

The police found the handcuffs in my neighborhood but not the dude.

I am willing to bet money that he is long gone to Mexico by now. At least I hope so.

You had better believe our house will be locked up tight and I will be anally overprotective for the next few days. Because I wouldn't be me if I didn't over-react about something once a week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a side note, the dogs got into my pantry while I was at work.

They managed to eat a good part of my stockpiled Nilla Wafers. 3 damn boxes.

I can't decide if they are the smartest or the dumbest dogs on the planet.

I really hope they don't get sick. But if they do, I hope it is outside and not on the carpet.

Shitheads.

Dude is still on the loose

Its 1:30 and the dude in handcuffs is still running around town.

When I went home for lunch the police were looking around the lower income housing, 4 blocks away from my house. So I figured, hey, they have found him. Awesome.

I was totally wrong.

As I was pulling off of my street, an hour later, they had moved up 3 blocks. My block is next.

I stopped in at the gas station to get a Dr. Pepper and asked the cashier if she knew what the hell was going on.

This is where the story gets even freakier.

She told me that the dude murdered someone about 3 months ago. The police found him at a family member's house this morning after being called on a domestic violence issue.

So, ok, hold on. Let me get this straight. There is a murderer running loose in my neighborhood? The cops have been looking for this guy for 3 months and lose him the day they finally catch him?

Does anyone else see something WRONG with this picture???

I am sooo staying at my parent's house if this dude isn't caught before I get off work tonight.

With my luck the cops will catch the dude in my back yard after my dogs have torn him up. And he will sue me.

Gah. I have GOT to get my mind off of this. I am off to read YOUR blogs.

Mondays are Craptastic

**This is just a vent. Take it with a grain of salt please. Normally, I respect and even like our local cops. They really are good guys, most of the time.

First thing this morning the police were at the shop. Apparently one of them had opened his patrol car's door and the person that he had arrested took off. The cop asked me, "Have you seen a black man in handcuffs anywhere around here?"

"Uhhh, no? I think I would have called you guys if I had seen something like that."

Yeah, there is a dude running around town. In handcuffs. God only knows what he did to be arrested in the first place.

Scary shit.

They have been looking for him since around 7:45 and here it is after 10:00 and the police are still looking for him.

They even have the Sheriff department helicopter flying around looking for him too.

The helicopter alone is giving me some major anxiety. Not to mention the police cars speeding up and down the streets and the officers stopping in to ask if we had seen anything yet.

I wish they would hurry up and find this dude.

The update I was supposted to make yesterday

Monk Man's surgery went fine. It was over before I even knew it. The surgical staff was awesome. FIL went up with me so I wouldn't fall apart.

He had some nasty bloody drainage Friday afternoon when he woke up from his nap and a little more Saturday morning but nothing today.


His attitude has been a little better. The melt downs have been shorter, less frequent and not as intense.

Thanks to everyone who kept us in their thoughts and prayers. It is much appreciated.

Hi!

I am still here! Hubbs got home from Iowa on Saturday morning and between him and work, I haven't had much computer time.

Ummmm, whats happened the past week......

We went to the woods on Sunday for the Elk's Club Chili Cookoff. I think next year we will try the whole camping with kids thing. Maybe. It rained for about half the day but Monk Man loved it until I made him take a nap in the car because he was getting cranky as hell. Bobblehead couldn't have cared less about being out there.

We took my family out for dinner at the Outback on Monday. All of em. How many is all? Well, there was me, the 2 kids, Hubbs, my brother, 2 sisters, Ollie, my Kookie Cousin and her 2 kids, my Grandma I, and Spanky and Nonnie. I grabbed the bill before Spanky (my dad) noticed it on the table. Ouch, it was almost $300. But we had it in the checking account so we didn't charge it plus my parents have treated us to so many dinners, it is only fair that we pick up the tab once a year. At least that's how I am justifying it.

After dinner we headed over to Best Buy to look around and to wear the kids out so they would fall asleep for the hour long drive home. That was an expensive look around. We ended up getting a Playstation 3 and a few games for Hubbs, a Sponge Bob game for the Wii that Monk Man wanted and the newest season on DVD of House for me.

Yesterday (Tuesday) Hubbs got the trampoline (that was sitting on the front porch for a week waiting for my neighbor) set up for us. Hooray! Monk Man and I bounced for the better part of an hour yesterday evening, until the mosquito's started eating me alive.

Today, I am just working. How freaking exciting.

I took a mental health day for tomorrow so I can spend it hanging out with Hubbs and the kids and preparing myself for Friday. Hopefully one of us will come up with something interesting (and cheap) to do. Otherwise we will be camped out in the living room in front of the TV all day. But that's okay too.

Friday is a big, scary, super stress day for me. Monk Man gets his ear tubes at 9:00 a.m. I know it really isn't a big deal and I am going to freak out about nothing but worrying is what I do best. (I think I have said that before?)

Plus, Hubbs is going back to Iowa again. That sucks too. I mean the money he is making is awesome and we are finally getting back on track with this debt elimination thing.

But

I really miss him and I hate that he has to leave again. He is having to miss out on so much.

So, keep me in your thoughts on Friday. I need all the good vibes I can get so I don't completely fall apart. Saturday I will update on how the surgery went and whether I maintained or not.

Freezing Eggs

This is how ya do it:

Crack your eggs into a ice cube tray. 1 egg for each tray compartment. Break the yolk and mix up. After the eggs are frozen put them into a freezer bag.

Use the frozen eggs in whatever you would need a beaten egg in. Omelets, quiche, scrambled, breakfast casseroles, you get the picture.

Maybe if I start to feel super ambitious this weekend, I will find and post some recipes to use the eggs in.

No promises though. I have a ton of cleaning to do before DH comes home for his week off, and I dont like housework.