According to the court order, I get a phone call to my son every day, approximately for 30 minutes. My phone call last night was frustrating and hilarious. The first part of the phone call was spent trying to get S's attention as his dad kept trying to talk to him in the background (this is a common occurence). Then I finally get his attention by talking about his birthday that is coming up and our visits. I get to see him on Sunday (8 hours) and again on Thursday (3 hours-I'd like to know who thought three hours for me on his birthday when I am the one that carried him and had to push him out after being in labor for two days was a good amount of time!). Andyway, we talk about what we are going to do on these two visits and all the stuff he wants for his b-day.
me: I am going to make some more homemade bread for this weekend, you want some?
s: yeah, and brownies.
me: I figured, I already have the stuff to make brownies.
S: and eggs. (he really loves hard boiled eggs-just the whites he won't eat the yolks.)
me: I figured that too. How many do you think I should bring?
S: 24.(giggling)
me: 24!!! are you kidding if you ate that many you would be sick
S: you can have some too.
me: I still think 24 is too many let's have less than that.
S: okay, then 12(giggling)
me: I guess I can handle 12(I will use the leftovers for egg or tuna salad for work)
S: I will eat six and you eat six.
me: So in one day you are going to eat six eggs, bread, brownies, and whatever else I bring?
S:yep.
Then there were more interruptions in the background and I had to struggle to get back his attention. Finally the word presents caught him.
me: I thought we would split the presents between the two visits.
S: presents?
me: are you listening, I thought we could do presents on both days.
S: does that mean I would get more?
me: no, I would just bring down some on Sunday and the rest on Thursday.
S: I want the ds games on Sunday, the rest on Thursday then.
me: of course you do.
S: I would also like a few little surprises.
me: what do you mean a few little surprises?! We will be lucky to be able to get all that you asked for.
S: just something small like a matchbox car or something. Just something that is a surprise.
(We tend to get him exactly what he asks for if it is something we can afford. When he lived with me we would get him surprises.)
me: I think that I can do that.
S: what will you get?
me: a surprise.
We go on about presents for a couple more minutes when his dad interrupts to harass me again. Then I lose S's attention again. Finally get him talking about his "helicopter" that he is building. He talks for a few more minutes and then get lost in the movie he is watching. I keep asking questions and eventually he answers them about his ball game, the dog and the cat. Before we know it, our time is up. I still enjoy my phone calls, just hearing him laugh and giggle, hearing his tales of life and make believe. Even with all the interference, I at least get to hear him, tell him I love him and hear it right back.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tweet
I decided to sign up with Twitter. I recently signed up for Facebook, so I thought to give Twitter a try. I am listed under centralil just like the Grocery Challenge. I only posted once and it may take me a few days to figure it all out before I tweet regularly, but we shall see. All this "connecting" is going to take some getting used to! Hopefully it will become a good way for me to keep in touch easily and not become a burden.
Site of the Week Saturday
This week for my site of the week, I would like to tell you about Amiyrah. She is over there at Four Hats and Frugal, and boy does she have her act together. She will share with you the great deals that she finds, her wonderful recipes, and her Military Woman series. She also has the most adorable son. Go check her out today.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Flashback Friday
I have been following our hostess Scary Mommy for the past few weeks with the Flashback Fridays. This week I have nothing to flash back on, so I will just post this link to Jill, go read everyone else's flashbacks. This could be fun, let's go.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Questions That You Don't Really Care What the Answer Is
Join us. Jennifer over at Momma Made it Look Easy has invited us to join her with her random questions on Thursdays, with the questions courtesy of Plinky.com. Actually, she said something along the lines of loving us forever, but that is beside the point...
So anyway here are a few of the questions she came up with this week.
1. If your life were made into a movie, what genre would it be?
It would totally be a Lifetime movie. No one else would air my life story cuz they would never believe it.
2. What would a road trip companion learn about you when traveling for the first time?
I don't stop. I only want to stop when the gas tank is empty and if that takes six hours, I hope you can hold it, or don't drink anything. I get cranky (pissed) if I have to keep stopping for potty breaks.
3. How do you get around?
I call my van the Serial Killer van. I get pulled over all the time in it. It had a broken windshield until about a month ago, it has rust all over the outside-including holes where it has rusted through, the windows leak, and all the blinds are broken so they can't be raised up without those big grip clip thingies. It is a total pig sty on the inside with an actual small garbage can(which of course is full), leftover clothes and such from the trips down to see my son, and of course empty pop cans from trying to stay awake all night driving down there. I would clean it out, but I am too lazy and it is too hot.
Now, go visit Jennifer with her questions of the day. I just wanted to make sure that you read mine first!!!
So anyway here are a few of the questions she came up with this week.
1. If your life were made into a movie, what genre would it be?
It would totally be a Lifetime movie. No one else would air my life story cuz they would never believe it.
2. What would a road trip companion learn about you when traveling for the first time?
I don't stop. I only want to stop when the gas tank is empty and if that takes six hours, I hope you can hold it, or don't drink anything. I get cranky (pissed) if I have to keep stopping for potty breaks.
3. How do you get around?
I call my van the Serial Killer van. I get pulled over all the time in it. It had a broken windshield until about a month ago, it has rust all over the outside-including holes where it has rusted through, the windows leak, and all the blinds are broken so they can't be raised up without those big grip clip thingies. It is a total pig sty on the inside with an actual small garbage can(which of course is full), leftover clothes and such from the trips down to see my son, and of course empty pop cans from trying to stay awake all night driving down there. I would clean it out, but I am too lazy and it is too hot.
Now, go visit Jennifer with her questions of the day. I just wanted to make sure that you read mine first!!!
Thankful Thursday
This week I am thankful for several things. I will keep my post to five however.
1. The last couple of weeks have come to an end. I have started getting things back under control.
2. The motor home is all but sold. The couple that wants to come and buy it will be here Saturday.
3. My son and I were both thankful that I made it for my trip and that we at least had the one day. He even told me that one day was better than nothing.
4. The rain has stopped. It is hotter than hell here with the heat and humidity, but it is not raining, I feel like Seattle has gone back to the west coast where it belongs.
5. As always, chocolate....Gotta have my chocolate. Course that might be why I have not lost too much weight yet...I may have to think on that! ;-)
1. The last couple of weeks have come to an end. I have started getting things back under control.
2. The motor home is all but sold. The couple that wants to come and buy it will be here Saturday.
3. My son and I were both thankful that I made it for my trip and that we at least had the one day. He even told me that one day was better than nothing.
4. The rain has stopped. It is hotter than hell here with the heat and humidity, but it is not raining, I feel like Seattle has gone back to the west coast where it belongs.
5. As always, chocolate....Gotta have my chocolate. Course that might be why I have not lost too much weight yet...I may have to think on that! ;-)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What to Cook Wednesday
I found a wonderful recipe today on another blog. So I emailed her to see if I could post it here. She said yes so here it is!
Valerie over at Frugalfamilyfunblog had a delicious recipe for a dessert using bananas. That makes all the bad calories disappear, right? It is fruit after all! She calls them "Banana Boats". Go check them out, then go buy some bananas and make yourself a treat this weekend over the campfire or even in the fire pit out back. I will totally be making these with my son next time I am camping down there for my visit.
Valerie over at Frugalfamilyfunblog had a delicious recipe for a dessert using bananas. That makes all the bad calories disappear, right? It is fruit after all! She calls them "Banana Boats". Go check them out, then go buy some bananas and make yourself a treat this weekend over the campfire or even in the fire pit out back. I will totally be making these with my son next time I am camping down there for my visit.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
One of Those.....
Ever had one of those days? That turns into one of those couple of days, that turns into one of those weeks, and then one of those couple of weeks? That is where I am.
Three weeks ago, my mom and I went to look at a motor home. I have been looking for one since I started making my trips. My mom started thinking it would be a good idea as well when I told her I was going to start camping because I could not afford the cost of the hotel every time. I got this full size van with a seat that lays down into a "bed", why not use it? She agreed that it was a good idea, until she went down in the summer and she was too hot. I continued to camp and we brought fans with us to plug in and blow on us. We made it through the summer last year, although my said she would rather have a camper. So we have been looking since the middle of last year. We found one about 150 miles from our house(there are no decent ones locally). We went and looked at it. It drove nicely, has nice tires, not really any rust, it just looked really good. It needed new exhaust, but that usually is not too expensive. The guy that was selling it told us that they took it down to Florida and Texas every year for the winter. They were selling it because he had knee surgery and could no longer climb into the bunk above the cab. He told us how everything worked and where to put the settings for all the stuff. I was not super happy with the camper, but was not totally disappointed either. It was old, and some of it was ugly, but that is cosmetic. I talked to mom and we decided to go for it. I paid the guy for it and started home. About 30 miles from their house it died in the middle of the road when I slowed down for the railroad track crossing. It started right back up, but I had to drive with two feet to get it home. This is when the bad feeling started. We stopped at a Meijer on the way home for a few groceries. It died in the parking lot when I stopped. I was not too happy about that. When I did finally get home, it died again. So every time I slowed down too much or tried to just idle it would die.
I took it to my mechanic and asked him to check everything over. I told him I was not planning on taking it on my trip that weekend (it was Wednesday) and that he could take whatever time he needed. I went down that weekend to see my son. My poor van was having some serious problems by the time I got into the mountains. It kept missing and not shifting properly, and it was running a little hotter than usual. My visit itself was nice. I don't know why my van is running so awful, so I do not put into overdrive and drive about 55. It keeps missing and chugging and just having a rough time. Then about 2/3 of the way home we have to take a detour because there was a vehicle fire on the interstate. Fortunately I have a CB radio and knew about it miles before hand and could exit early. I followed a state route north. I was shortly joined by the other interstate traffic. I was chatting with the truck drivers. We were only running about 35. I was okay with that though. If we are on an unfamiliar road (I wasn't-I had been detoured to this road multiple times before), then take your time rather than crash and cause another delay. Then some of the truck drivers say to take a certain turn-off. I say I am going straight, I know that it is faster. So three truck drivers say they are following me. We get back to the interstate and we are ahead of all the rest of the traffic. They thanked me and took off. They lost me pretty quickly from site although I have about a 6 mile range on my radio so we could chat a little longer. By the time I make it home, my car is driving just fine. Uuugggghhhh. How am I supposed to have it looked at if it won't do anything when I take it in?
I get home and my mom is out of state for work. I have to keep going to her house to check on her cat and house, pick up her papers and mail, and just keep an eye on things. I also had to get the motor home back to my house-which needs new exhaust, and the carburetor adjusted, but other wise ran okay for him, clean my car out from my trip, try to figure out if I would be able to watch my sisters girls and get ready for my weekend trip to Paducah to visit my cousin. all in four days, after work. All this while hoping to do a hounding deal or two. Boy was I frazzled by the end of the week. I went to bed early Friday night as I was planning on leaving around 6 am on Saturday. I get into the car, get gas and a breakfast sandwich and I'm off. Of course I am driving 55 with out overdrive again just to be sure.
Four hours later and with only about 15 minutes left in my trip, my van overheats. I pull of the side of the interstate, and the van is steaming like crazy. I call my cousin to let her know and tell her where I am so she can come and wait with me. I then call the help line on my cell phone to have them tow me to her house. My cousin arrives, the tow truck arrives, and off we go. Later that afternoon, I go out to see if the motor is cool enough for me to take a look at things. It is, so we get a pitcher of water to fill the radiator to see if I can see where the leak is, or if it is just the normal leak I always have. I fill it up and turn on the van.
No leaks. I am feeling pretty good. Til we go inside and I can't find my keys. They are still in the van.....which is now locked...UUuggghgghhghg. So I have to figure out how to break into my van, as I do not have lockout service on my cell plan or car insurance. Finally I get a window open to reach the lock and open the doors. I go back out about 2 hours later to see if the van will leak now when I start it. Yep it does. It pours out the bottom. I turn the van off and we go to the U-haul dealer to rent a truck and tow dolly or trailer to pull the van home. My cousin has only lived there a couple of months and so had no idea where to call for a mechanic. The uhaul folks don't have anything to pull my van home. So we ask if they know of anywhere that can fix my car reasonably, and not try to pull the wool over my eyes. They both recommend the same place so we go outside and call them. They could look at it, but they close in about 30 minutes. They will reopen on Monday, I can bring it in then. Great another missed day of work because I have a broke down vehicle. Oh well, I will just enjoy the day away.
We take it in Sunday night for them to look at first thing Monday. They finally call and say they can't get the part in until the next day. But they can rig it up to work for a while so that I can get home and have it fixed my my mechanic. Works for me. So I have my cousin come and get me and take my to my van. I pay and leave for home. It of course takes me hours because I am afraid to drive fast for fear of something else breaking. I do make it thank goodness.
Tuesday I spent catching up at work, since I had left early on Friday and then missed Monday. I go home and clean the camper out. It was not really dirty at all, just needed a bit of cleaning. I was bummed because I found a spot where water leaked in. Not majorly, but still some water damage. This makes me not happy as the guy made sure he sat on that particular seat while we were looking at it.
Wednesday I am still trying to catch up at work. Everybody was apparently busy while I was gone. Wednesday night I plug in the camper at my house and start loading it. All the outlets work, the air works, the microwave works. The fridge doesn't. At least on electricity. I don't panic just yet as the guy said they used it with the gas. I just keep loading it. All the while having this really bad feeling about it.
Thursday, I keep loading it, but the bad feeling just keeps getting worse. Friday morning at work, I wait for my mom in the parking garage to tell her I think we should take her car, as I have this feeling that if we take the motor home I won't make it in time to see my son. She pulls up in my sisters car. Hers would not start. Ooohhhhhh this is bad. Now we have no car to take down. We decide to leave work really early to get a head start so that we have plenty of time. We load ourselves into the motor home and start driving. I just have this awful clenching feeling in my gut telling me this was a mistake we should not be driving it. We make it out of town, then out of the state, then through the first leg of the trip. We keep going and make it through the second leg of the trip. Then we hit really bad traffic and a backup just outside of Louisville. The motor home is doing okay. Then just as we start to pull out of the backup, it starts smoking. I check all the gauges and everything looks okay. We pull off at the next exit and go to the gas station. I see smoke coming out the back the whole way.
At the gas station, I crawl under the motor home and see that it is leaking transmission fluid. I check the level and it still says that it is okay. We decide to get gas and some more tranny fluid. They don't have any. Okay, let's start driving and see what happens. there is a truck stop not too far down the road, I am certain they would have some. We only get about two miles down the road when it starts smoking big time. I pull off the side of the road and want to cry. It is after 6 so the chances of a rental place being open is slim. Same with a repair shop. Fortunately, mom thinks of the airport. We turn around and go to the airport, park the camper and go find the rental cars. I had called ahead to reserve a car. We check it out and go back to the parking area to get our stuff out of the camper. We have to get in, load and get out in less than 10 minutes or pay the daily parking fee. We made it!
We get back on the road. I call to reserve a hotel room for two nights. We get down there safely. We enjoy our single day with my son. One day is totally not enough. I want to start out as early as possible on Sunday while sleeping in just a bit from the exhaustion of my stress. Off we go back to the airport. We load our stuff back into the camper in the 10 minutes and do not have to pay the parking fee. We return the rental and hike back to the camper. Now to just make it home. The stinking camper did not smoke a single time on the way home. I decided on the way home the camper was going bye-bye. I do not want it. I will now sell the camper and try to sell my van, which is starting to need a gob of repairs if I want to keep driving it. I still owe on it so if I cannot get at least that much I will just keep it and use it for local trips. It seems to do fine here where there are no hills and mountains. I am going to take the money I get from the camper and buy a small vehicle that is really good on gas. I will still camp out, it will just be in a tent. In the meantime, I will rent cars to make it down there. I figured the amount of gas and wear and tear on my moms car which already has 200,000 miles on it compared to renting a car and the gas it would use. It will be about $25 more expensive to rent a car. The wear and tear on my mom's car would cost me that much. Her suv is a gas hog so the rental fee and gas would only be about $25 extra dollars-to drive a new car that most likely will not break down anywhere. I will take it. I just won't be able to do that and pay for a hotel every time. So I would like to have a small cheap car before I have to start staying at a hotel again.
In the meantime with all of this going on, I lost my flash drive for work with all my documents for work saved on it; My phone broke, I can still use it, but it really needs replaced now; I lost my umbrella and of course it has been raining a lot. I also misplaced several more items at home that I have no idea where they went.
Today, things are turning around. I found two people already that want to look at the camper, I found my flash drive, I found my umbrella, and I have managed to finally get caught up at work! I think this may be the end of the "one of those days"! And it is about time, is all I can say!
So that is why I have been out of commission lately. So how are you doing?
Three weeks ago, my mom and I went to look at a motor home. I have been looking for one since I started making my trips. My mom started thinking it would be a good idea as well when I told her I was going to start camping because I could not afford the cost of the hotel every time. I got this full size van with a seat that lays down into a "bed", why not use it? She agreed that it was a good idea, until she went down in the summer and she was too hot. I continued to camp and we brought fans with us to plug in and blow on us. We made it through the summer last year, although my said she would rather have a camper. So we have been looking since the middle of last year. We found one about 150 miles from our house(there are no decent ones locally). We went and looked at it. It drove nicely, has nice tires, not really any rust, it just looked really good. It needed new exhaust, but that usually is not too expensive. The guy that was selling it told us that they took it down to Florida and Texas every year for the winter. They were selling it because he had knee surgery and could no longer climb into the bunk above the cab. He told us how everything worked and where to put the settings for all the stuff. I was not super happy with the camper, but was not totally disappointed either. It was old, and some of it was ugly, but that is cosmetic. I talked to mom and we decided to go for it. I paid the guy for it and started home. About 30 miles from their house it died in the middle of the road when I slowed down for the railroad track crossing. It started right back up, but I had to drive with two feet to get it home. This is when the bad feeling started. We stopped at a Meijer on the way home for a few groceries. It died in the parking lot when I stopped. I was not too happy about that. When I did finally get home, it died again. So every time I slowed down too much or tried to just idle it would die.
I took it to my mechanic and asked him to check everything over. I told him I was not planning on taking it on my trip that weekend (it was Wednesday) and that he could take whatever time he needed. I went down that weekend to see my son. My poor van was having some serious problems by the time I got into the mountains. It kept missing and not shifting properly, and it was running a little hotter than usual. My visit itself was nice. I don't know why my van is running so awful, so I do not put into overdrive and drive about 55. It keeps missing and chugging and just having a rough time. Then about 2/3 of the way home we have to take a detour because there was a vehicle fire on the interstate. Fortunately I have a CB radio and knew about it miles before hand and could exit early. I followed a state route north. I was shortly joined by the other interstate traffic. I was chatting with the truck drivers. We were only running about 35. I was okay with that though. If we are on an unfamiliar road (I wasn't-I had been detoured to this road multiple times before), then take your time rather than crash and cause another delay. Then some of the truck drivers say to take a certain turn-off. I say I am going straight, I know that it is faster. So three truck drivers say they are following me. We get back to the interstate and we are ahead of all the rest of the traffic. They thanked me and took off. They lost me pretty quickly from site although I have about a 6 mile range on my radio so we could chat a little longer. By the time I make it home, my car is driving just fine. Uuugggghhhh. How am I supposed to have it looked at if it won't do anything when I take it in?
I get home and my mom is out of state for work. I have to keep going to her house to check on her cat and house, pick up her papers and mail, and just keep an eye on things. I also had to get the motor home back to my house-which needs new exhaust, and the carburetor adjusted, but other wise ran okay for him, clean my car out from my trip, try to figure out if I would be able to watch my sisters girls and get ready for my weekend trip to Paducah to visit my cousin. all in four days, after work. All this while hoping to do a hounding deal or two. Boy was I frazzled by the end of the week. I went to bed early Friday night as I was planning on leaving around 6 am on Saturday. I get into the car, get gas and a breakfast sandwich and I'm off. Of course I am driving 55 with out overdrive again just to be sure.
Four hours later and with only about 15 minutes left in my trip, my van overheats. I pull of the side of the interstate, and the van is steaming like crazy. I call my cousin to let her know and tell her where I am so she can come and wait with me. I then call the help line on my cell phone to have them tow me to her house. My cousin arrives, the tow truck arrives, and off we go. Later that afternoon, I go out to see if the motor is cool enough for me to take a look at things. It is, so we get a pitcher of water to fill the radiator to see if I can see where the leak is, or if it is just the normal leak I always have. I fill it up and turn on the van.
No leaks. I am feeling pretty good. Til we go inside and I can't find my keys. They are still in the van.....which is now locked...UUuggghgghhghg. So I have to figure out how to break into my van, as I do not have lockout service on my cell plan or car insurance. Finally I get a window open to reach the lock and open the doors. I go back out about 2 hours later to see if the van will leak now when I start it. Yep it does. It pours out the bottom. I turn the van off and we go to the U-haul dealer to rent a truck and tow dolly or trailer to pull the van home. My cousin has only lived there a couple of months and so had no idea where to call for a mechanic. The uhaul folks don't have anything to pull my van home. So we ask if they know of anywhere that can fix my car reasonably, and not try to pull the wool over my eyes. They both recommend the same place so we go outside and call them. They could look at it, but they close in about 30 minutes. They will reopen on Monday, I can bring it in then. Great another missed day of work because I have a broke down vehicle. Oh well, I will just enjoy the day away.
We take it in Sunday night for them to look at first thing Monday. They finally call and say they can't get the part in until the next day. But they can rig it up to work for a while so that I can get home and have it fixed my my mechanic. Works for me. So I have my cousin come and get me and take my to my van. I pay and leave for home. It of course takes me hours because I am afraid to drive fast for fear of something else breaking. I do make it thank goodness.
Tuesday I spent catching up at work, since I had left early on Friday and then missed Monday. I go home and clean the camper out. It was not really dirty at all, just needed a bit of cleaning. I was bummed because I found a spot where water leaked in. Not majorly, but still some water damage. This makes me not happy as the guy made sure he sat on that particular seat while we were looking at it.
Wednesday I am still trying to catch up at work. Everybody was apparently busy while I was gone. Wednesday night I plug in the camper at my house and start loading it. All the outlets work, the air works, the microwave works. The fridge doesn't. At least on electricity. I don't panic just yet as the guy said they used it with the gas. I just keep loading it. All the while having this really bad feeling about it.
Thursday, I keep loading it, but the bad feeling just keeps getting worse. Friday morning at work, I wait for my mom in the parking garage to tell her I think we should take her car, as I have this feeling that if we take the motor home I won't make it in time to see my son. She pulls up in my sisters car. Hers would not start. Ooohhhhhh this is bad. Now we have no car to take down. We decide to leave work really early to get a head start so that we have plenty of time. We load ourselves into the motor home and start driving. I just have this awful clenching feeling in my gut telling me this was a mistake we should not be driving it. We make it out of town, then out of the state, then through the first leg of the trip. We keep going and make it through the second leg of the trip. Then we hit really bad traffic and a backup just outside of Louisville. The motor home is doing okay. Then just as we start to pull out of the backup, it starts smoking. I check all the gauges and everything looks okay. We pull off at the next exit and go to the gas station. I see smoke coming out the back the whole way.
At the gas station, I crawl under the motor home and see that it is leaking transmission fluid. I check the level and it still says that it is okay. We decide to get gas and some more tranny fluid. They don't have any. Okay, let's start driving and see what happens. there is a truck stop not too far down the road, I am certain they would have some. We only get about two miles down the road when it starts smoking big time. I pull off the side of the road and want to cry. It is after 6 so the chances of a rental place being open is slim. Same with a repair shop. Fortunately, mom thinks of the airport. We turn around and go to the airport, park the camper and go find the rental cars. I had called ahead to reserve a car. We check it out and go back to the parking area to get our stuff out of the camper. We have to get in, load and get out in less than 10 minutes or pay the daily parking fee. We made it!
We get back on the road. I call to reserve a hotel room for two nights. We get down there safely. We enjoy our single day with my son. One day is totally not enough. I want to start out as early as possible on Sunday while sleeping in just a bit from the exhaustion of my stress. Off we go back to the airport. We load our stuff back into the camper in the 10 minutes and do not have to pay the parking fee. We return the rental and hike back to the camper. Now to just make it home. The stinking camper did not smoke a single time on the way home. I decided on the way home the camper was going bye-bye. I do not want it. I will now sell the camper and try to sell my van, which is starting to need a gob of repairs if I want to keep driving it. I still owe on it so if I cannot get at least that much I will just keep it and use it for local trips. It seems to do fine here where there are no hills and mountains. I am going to take the money I get from the camper and buy a small vehicle that is really good on gas. I will still camp out, it will just be in a tent. In the meantime, I will rent cars to make it down there. I figured the amount of gas and wear and tear on my moms car which already has 200,000 miles on it compared to renting a car and the gas it would use. It will be about $25 more expensive to rent a car. The wear and tear on my mom's car would cost me that much. Her suv is a gas hog so the rental fee and gas would only be about $25 extra dollars-to drive a new car that most likely will not break down anywhere. I will take it. I just won't be able to do that and pay for a hotel every time. So I would like to have a small cheap car before I have to start staying at a hotel again.
In the meantime with all of this going on, I lost my flash drive for work with all my documents for work saved on it; My phone broke, I can still use it, but it really needs replaced now; I lost my umbrella and of course it has been raining a lot. I also misplaced several more items at home that I have no idea where they went.
Today, things are turning around. I found two people already that want to look at the camper, I found my flash drive, I found my umbrella, and I have managed to finally get caught up at work! I think this may be the end of the "one of those days"! And it is about time, is all I can say!
So that is why I have been out of commission lately. So how are you doing?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thankful Thursday
This week I am thankful for:
1. chocolate-definitely have to include it again this week...
2. my day lilies-they are a beautiful site when I walk up to my house
3. the fact that it is almost Friday, and then the weekend
4. my past weekend with my cousin-it was a fun visit
5. I don't know what else. I am feeling a little overwhelmed this week...
I will tell you about my overwhelming times from last week and this week a little later. Thank goodness for scheduled postings, or I would not have had any postings last week either.....
1. chocolate-definitely have to include it again this week...
2. my day lilies-they are a beautiful site when I walk up to my house
3. the fact that it is almost Friday, and then the weekend
4. my past weekend with my cousin-it was a fun visit
5. I don't know what else. I am feeling a little overwhelmed this week...
I will tell you about my overwhelming times from last week and this week a little later. Thank goodness for scheduled postings, or I would not have had any postings last week either.....
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Out of Commission
Sorry I am out of commission here. I will be back as soon as possible. Life happens.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Site of the Week Saturday
This week I would like to highlight a blog that I just love. You can find a wealth of information for catching those great deals. You can get wonderful (and funny) fur baby stories. You can also find great pictures of those fur babies and of nature. She is a wonderful gal over there at Frugalsuz's place. Her web site is frugalsuz.blogspot.com. Go check Frugalsuz out over there at Hounding with Frugalsuz. She is also active on the Grocery Challenge passing along great ideas. She is just an all around great gal.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I Made Bread - Again
And this time I took pictures of my ugly bread!
This is the bread when it was rising. It looked more like spreading than rising, but whatever, it worked out in the end...
And meet Blue and Magenta, my friends when I cut myself while trying to cut the bread...... 
This is the bread as soon as I was done shaping it.
This is the bread when it was rising. It looked more like spreading than rising, but whatever, it worked out in the end...
This was the bread when it was done baking. I wish I had scratch and sniff, it was heavenly. The loaf on the right stuck to the mat I was using so it kinda just fell on to the baking stone. It was a little misshapen, but this is my ugly bread after all.
And this is me cutting into the tasty ugly good smelling bread.
And here is the wonderful yummy insides of the bread. Oh, the smell......Have I mentioned that it smelled absolutely divine?
And meet Blue and Magenta, my friends when I cut myself while trying to cut the bread......
Hope you enjoyed looking at my ugly tasty bread. It is super easy to make following the recipe in the bread book that I got the other day: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. It was easy to mix, easy to make, easy to smell.....wait that was not part of making it. It was easy all around, especially easy to slice my finger open. Man, that knife is sharp.....
Thankful Thursday
For Thankful Thursday this week, I have a lot to choose from.
So, I pick these five:
1. Kid hugs and kisses
2. Sunshine
3. Cats and Dogs
4. My van is still running
5. I got a motor home
So what did you have to be thankful for this week?
So, I pick these five:
1. Kid hugs and kisses
2. Sunshine
3. Cats and Dogs
4. My van is still running
5. I got a motor home
So what did you have to be thankful for this week?
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
What to Cook Wednesday
Here is another recipe for you. Like last week, I do not have any special name for it, unless I should call it an a la Centralil recipe!
This week's recipe is an egg/tuna/chicken salad recipe. Since it is starting to warm up, this is a great dinner that is not too heavy, but is pretty filling.
I use can tuna and chicken because I can almost always find that fairly cheap around here. It also makes it easy to throw together. No precooking the chicken, and no cutting it up before hand. You most definitely could use "regular" chicken though. I have before when I had chicken already on hand.
1. one can of chicken or tuna (if using)
2. 2 hard boiled eggs
3. 1 generous tablespoon of mayo (if not using meat, just use 2/3 of a tablespoon-eyeball it)
4. 1/2-1 teaspoon of mustard (I use plain old yellow mustard-start with the 1/2 tsp and add more if you think you want more)
5. celery seed
6. onion powder
Using a pastry blender if you have one, cut up the eggs in a bowl. If you are using the tuna/chicken add it. Then add a pinch of celery seed and a dash of onion powder. Put in the mustard and mayo and mix. Serve with crackers or on bread.
This week's recipe is an egg/tuna/chicken salad recipe. Since it is starting to warm up, this is a great dinner that is not too heavy, but is pretty filling.
I use can tuna and chicken because I can almost always find that fairly cheap around here. It also makes it easy to throw together. No precooking the chicken, and no cutting it up before hand. You most definitely could use "regular" chicken though. I have before when I had chicken already on hand.
1. one can of chicken or tuna (if using)
2. 2 hard boiled eggs
3. 1 generous tablespoon of mayo (if not using meat, just use 2/3 of a tablespoon-eyeball it)
4. 1/2-1 teaspoon of mustard (I use plain old yellow mustard-start with the 1/2 tsp and add more if you think you want more)
5. celery seed
6. onion powder
Using a pastry blender if you have one, cut up the eggs in a bowl. If you are using the tuna/chicken add it. Then add a pinch of celery seed and a dash of onion powder. Put in the mustard and mayo and mix. Serve with crackers or on bread.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Challenge Update
I have not really done anything specific in the past week or so to save any money. I have done the usual of leaving things unplugged, not turning on lights until dark, trying not to waste any food and using up all my leftovers. The one thing I was able to finally do is turn off my furnace. I had it set on 58 degrees and up until last Thursday it was still coming on at night. Not every night, but several. I decided I don't care how cold it gets in my house by morning, I will not let it run again. It is June and I do not want the furnace to still run.
I do have a few plans to hopefully save some money and energy this summer. I have already started sealing around some of my windows. I will finish the rest of them. I also plan to put some of the reflective stuff on my windows in the kitchen. That room gets really hot with the sun shining in all day in the summer. I will put up the "cling" and keep the heat out. I will still be able to see out, but the reflective outside with block the heat of the sun from coming through.
Some of my projects this week include pulling out the refrigerator and cleaning the coils on the back and underneath. I will also clean up the air conditioners so that when the time comes to put them in, they are already clean and ready to go.
So what about you, any big plans on how to make your home more energy efficient to save money?
I do have a few plans to hopefully save some money and energy this summer. I have already started sealing around some of my windows. I will finish the rest of them. I also plan to put some of the reflective stuff on my windows in the kitchen. That room gets really hot with the sun shining in all day in the summer. I will put up the "cling" and keep the heat out. I will still be able to see out, but the reflective outside with block the heat of the sun from coming through.
Some of my projects this week include pulling out the refrigerator and cleaning the coils on the back and underneath. I will also clean up the air conditioners so that when the time comes to put them in, they are already clean and ready to go.
So what about you, any big plans on how to make your home more energy efficient to save money?
Monday, June 8, 2009
My Relatively Cheap Weekend
I am glad to say that I only spent about $260 this weekend. That is really cheap! I splurged-I did buy my son a new ds game-he wanted star wars(we got the kids lego version). I don't mind getting him something once in a while that stays with me. I do get tired of buying things that he wants to take back to his dad's. I realize that he just wants to have his toys, but why should I spend my hard earned money on something that I will never see again. I spent almost $22 on the game. High but not as high as if we had purchased it new. We bought it used.
We also went on the waterslide again. Boy am I sore from that. My son wanted to go down the slide backwards like one of the other boys did. He does not like to go down alone, so we are riding together face to face and right after we start, he panics. He grabs a hold of me and knocks me over, so I am crashing into the side of the slide trying to keep him from getting hurt. We both wound up with scraped elbows. On another trip down he wanted to go behind me and he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backwards on top of him. I was so worried that I was going to drown him when we got to the bottom. On yet another trip down, he was in front of me and we really had some speed going down and when we get to the bottom, we both lose our footing, I am under the water trying to hold him above the water. Well, he doesn't put his feet down so we both went under. Not a big deal to me, but it really bothers S. I finally was able to stand up and get him up on his feet and he just keeps goofing off like he is drowning. Goofy boy. Then this other boy wants to ride down with us and S is okay with that. I try to hang onto the mats and still hold on to S but not run into the boy. S has got his legs locked so I know that he will kick the boy in the head if he doesn't pull his legs up. I pull them up for him, and we still ended up with S's knees plowing into the back of this boy. (I never did ask his name) We tried all sorts of ways with S in front, me in front, and this other boy in front. Inevitably, someone got a bump or a bruise. I have ended up with sore arms from holding S up out of the water at the end of the slide, a sore back where I got plowed into and from hitting the side in some of our more daring tries. I also have bruised and scraped elbows (both) and knees (both again), and had a head ache all day yesterday from plowing into S and hitting my jaw on his head. He had a headache too. Even the bottoms of my feet are sore. I have blisters and bruises from walking up the concrete path to get to the top of the slide. But boy was it fun! I will however be buying sandals of some sort to wear so my feet don't get torn up again.
I only ate out once this weekend on the way down. Around dinnertime, I realized I did not pack anything that I could just eat that would be a meal. I only had snacks that did not have to be cooked. I stopped at Subway to try a sandwich I had heard advertised on the radio. It was the Tuscan chicken melt. It was very good. I am not usually a fan of subway really, but I will definitely consider this sandwich again if I need sustenance on a trip...That is already cooked anyway.
It was the last trip for my poor old van. I am just really glad to have made it home. I think the transmission is ready to go and I am not sure what else is wrong with it, but it just was not running well. Thank goodness---I FOUND A MOTOR HOME FINALLY!!!!!! I have it at my mechanics being checked out so I did not take it this weekend until I get his blessing. I hope it is A-OK so I can take it to see my son next time. I bought it about 150 miles from where I live and it drove pretty much okay on the way back. A few little things, but it is an older model so it will be cheaper and easier than my van to work on and get parts for. It is a 1976, so there is not really any electronics to go bad. Either it will run or it won't. I can't wait to take it down and show my son, he will be just as excited as me!
We also went on the waterslide again. Boy am I sore from that. My son wanted to go down the slide backwards like one of the other boys did. He does not like to go down alone, so we are riding together face to face and right after we start, he panics. He grabs a hold of me and knocks me over, so I am crashing into the side of the slide trying to keep him from getting hurt. We both wound up with scraped elbows. On another trip down he wanted to go behind me and he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backwards on top of him. I was so worried that I was going to drown him when we got to the bottom. On yet another trip down, he was in front of me and we really had some speed going down and when we get to the bottom, we both lose our footing, I am under the water trying to hold him above the water. Well, he doesn't put his feet down so we both went under. Not a big deal to me, but it really bothers S. I finally was able to stand up and get him up on his feet and he just keeps goofing off like he is drowning. Goofy boy. Then this other boy wants to ride down with us and S is okay with that. I try to hang onto the mats and still hold on to S but not run into the boy. S has got his legs locked so I know that he will kick the boy in the head if he doesn't pull his legs up. I pull them up for him, and we still ended up with S's knees plowing into the back of this boy. (I never did ask his name) We tried all sorts of ways with S in front, me in front, and this other boy in front. Inevitably, someone got a bump or a bruise. I have ended up with sore arms from holding S up out of the water at the end of the slide, a sore back where I got plowed into and from hitting the side in some of our more daring tries. I also have bruised and scraped elbows (both) and knees (both again), and had a head ache all day yesterday from plowing into S and hitting my jaw on his head. He had a headache too. Even the bottoms of my feet are sore. I have blisters and bruises from walking up the concrete path to get to the top of the slide. But boy was it fun! I will however be buying sandals of some sort to wear so my feet don't get torn up again.
I only ate out once this weekend on the way down. Around dinnertime, I realized I did not pack anything that I could just eat that would be a meal. I only had snacks that did not have to be cooked. I stopped at Subway to try a sandwich I had heard advertised on the radio. It was the Tuscan chicken melt. It was very good. I am not usually a fan of subway really, but I will definitely consider this sandwich again if I need sustenance on a trip...That is already cooked anyway.
It was the last trip for my poor old van. I am just really glad to have made it home. I think the transmission is ready to go and I am not sure what else is wrong with it, but it just was not running well. Thank goodness---I FOUND A MOTOR HOME FINALLY!!!!!! I have it at my mechanics being checked out so I did not take it this weekend until I get his blessing. I hope it is A-OK so I can take it to see my son next time. I bought it about 150 miles from where I live and it drove pretty much okay on the way back. A few little things, but it is an older model so it will be cheaper and easier than my van to work on and get parts for. It is a 1976, so there is not really any electronics to go bad. Either it will run or it won't. I can't wait to take it down and show my son, he will be just as excited as me!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Site of the Week Saturday
I would like to highlight a blog today. It is the website of a good pal of mine. She is a super hound and an even better friend! She is always generous and kind, so I thought she deserved to be my first Site of the Week! Annie over at Chi-Annie: at the table is the wonderful person I am talking about! Go check her place out! Lots of fabulous shopping tips, cooking tips, recipes, you name it she's got it. Go on, get over there!
Friday, June 5, 2009
I Made Bread!
Ok, I really did make it, but I took zero pics. I took zero pics because I did not want my first and very ugly bread to be posted out there for the world to see. I made the dough on Tuesday night. That part was easy enough. Then last night I followed the rest of the instructions for shaping, letting it rise and baking. I tell you, my bread was just ugly compared to the pics in the cookbook. But let me tell you, that was some tasty bread. I say was, well, because it is gone. I ate a couple of slices and brought it in to work. My mom and all of my co-workers had some. It was a success. I will make more when I return from my trip this weekend, and this time I will show you my ugly bread. And be proud of my ugly tasty bread!
Flashback Friday
Flashback Friday is brought to you by Jill over at Scarymommy.com
I apologize! This post is long and rambly (is that a word?) and I only chose it because I am feeling sentimental today with my visit coming up tomorrow. You don't have to read it if you don't want to!
(Originally Posted) Tuesday, December 23, 2008
A Bond Between a Mother and a Son
Bear with me. This title may seem like it has nothing to do with my post, but hang in there and you will see the relevance.I tried to have a little fun teasing my son this past week. He was again reminding me what he had asked for for christmas. I was visiting this weekend and I got lots of reminders. And questions of if we were going to go and buy him some presents. I told him no of course. I was not buying any presents for him in front of him. We did go shopping and he had a lot of fun. I left him with my mom for a few minutes to pick out a present for me. Mom said he was very proud and impressed with his decisions. When he was done picking for me he wanted to go look at toys while my mom went to pay.And so it began, can I have this and this and this. No, No, NO! It is only a few days until christmas. My mom and I discussed this behavior after dropping my son off at his dad's. We have come to the conclusion that he does this because his dad puts him up to it. Not always in a fashion that points directly to him. More of a sneaky, I will pull one over on them type of thing. My ex will take my son to walmart, take him to the toy section and let him look at the toys. Now, there is nothing wrong with that. I do the same thing, because he likes to look at the toys and dream, "if I had lots of money". The problem begins when my son asks for something. Instead of saying no and being done with it, my ex says well sure you can have it if you buy it. Or he will say something along the lines of he does not get child support, so he can't afford it. Like my son should even be in a discussion about whether or not my ex gets child support. Or lastly, he tells my son, sure you can have it, just tell your mom to get it for you. Your mom should buy that for you. Then I take my son to walmart because he wants to go and "look". I end up with some sort of no I am not buying that for you today discussion with my son, because his dad said he should ask me. Not very nice for my little boy who thought that he would get a toy. Here is where this phenomenon gets interesting. This does not pass on to other stores. Since my ex only goes to walmart and lowe's, I can take my son to kmart and avoid the battles altogether. So, we now just go to kmart. It is as if my son does not realize that he could ask at other stores. I know that he wants "stuff" from kmart because he will point out toys that are "neat" or stuff he just wants. But he does not beg for them. I tell him we are just looking and that's what he does.Anyway, we ended up at walmart because none of the other stores had the present they (my mom and my son) were looking for and we ended up looking in the toys section while mom paid. We did make it out without any purchases. After all, it is almost christmas. Oh, but the "I can't wait" was fun. It was too long and too many days according to my son. I can still remember the agony of waiting those last few days.After mom was done paying he wanted to take my mom to see the games that he wanted for the nintendo ds. He was trying really hard to figure the best way to get them all. I could buy this game, Grammy could buy this one, Auntie could get this one, Uncle could get this one, and maybe Papa (grandpa) could get this one. And could he get one from his cousins. We then explained that since his cousins belonged to Auntie and Uncle, they would not be buying him an expensive game, and since Auntie and Uncle are married, they will not be buying separate games. He can get one from their whole family. And Grammy had already bought him some presents. We then discovered that he thought Santa would bring the ds and not bring any games. We quickly told him that Santa does not bring a game system and nothing to play on it. Well, that made him feel much better. So Santa brings the ds and a game, mom will get a game and Papa will get him a game, or two since his will be coming from GameStop.My son asked me last night if I had his presents yet. I told him no I forgot I was supposed to get you anything. Did we talk about that, did you say you wanted presents. I thought you did not want any presents this year. He informed me that he knew better, he knew that I would have presents for him. I asked him how he knew that and the answer he gave me touched my heart.He said to me that he knew I would bring him presents because I always do what I say for him, and I don't let him down, and I don't give up on him. He knows he can trust me.All that from an eight year old. I really wished right then that I could give him a great big squeezy hug. Instead we finished talking and I finished shopping when we were done.All of this behavior and especially the conversations makes me feel as if I have an unbreakable bond with my son. I figure I must be doing something right. After nearly two years of limited visits, monitored phone calls, and constant hearing of negative name calling talk about me, my son still loves me and trusts me totally. I know that his father said more than once before he got custody that if he had custody it would be the opposite of when I had him. My son would like him and want to stay with him and not like me and not want to go with me. I look at our situation and see that no matter how much he wants it not to be true, my son still loves me and wants to come home. And home is with mom, not dad. Even after almost two years, I am still Home. I am the rock and the safety. Most importantly, I am the love. I know that some folks may not approve of how I raised my son, and that is part of why I lost him, but how many of those that spoke ill of me could have said the same were they in this situation? How many people in general can say that they know their children have complete faith and trust in them? Even though I have not fixed this problem, my son knows that eventually I will. He still has a faith that mom will make it all right. Because he is my son, and my heart, I will make it all right. That is part of the unbreakable bond between a mom and her child.I would like to add a small disclaimer. I do know families that can say their children trust them completely. I know several that cannot, but I do know of tight strong families. My sister is one of them. I also have the feeling based on the posts from the pound, and their blogs, moms there could also say it. (Right Jmo, even when your child grows up and leaves home, they know where the heart is!)
A Bond Between a Mother and a Son
Bear with me. This title may seem like it has nothing to do with my post, but hang in there and you will see the relevance.I tried to have a little fun teasing my son this past week. He was again reminding me what he had asked for for christmas. I was visiting this weekend and I got lots of reminders. And questions of if we were going to go and buy him some presents. I told him no of course. I was not buying any presents for him in front of him. We did go shopping and he had a lot of fun. I left him with my mom for a few minutes to pick out a present for me. Mom said he was very proud and impressed with his decisions. When he was done picking for me he wanted to go look at toys while my mom went to pay.And so it began, can I have this and this and this. No, No, NO! It is only a few days until christmas. My mom and I discussed this behavior after dropping my son off at his dad's. We have come to the conclusion that he does this because his dad puts him up to it. Not always in a fashion that points directly to him. More of a sneaky, I will pull one over on them type of thing. My ex will take my son to walmart, take him to the toy section and let him look at the toys. Now, there is nothing wrong with that. I do the same thing, because he likes to look at the toys and dream, "if I had lots of money". The problem begins when my son asks for something. Instead of saying no and being done with it, my ex says well sure you can have it if you buy it. Or he will say something along the lines of he does not get child support, so he can't afford it. Like my son should even be in a discussion about whether or not my ex gets child support. Or lastly, he tells my son, sure you can have it, just tell your mom to get it for you. Your mom should buy that for you. Then I take my son to walmart because he wants to go and "look". I end up with some sort of no I am not buying that for you today discussion with my son, because his dad said he should ask me. Not very nice for my little boy who thought that he would get a toy. Here is where this phenomenon gets interesting. This does not pass on to other stores. Since my ex only goes to walmart and lowe's, I can take my son to kmart and avoid the battles altogether. So, we now just go to kmart. It is as if my son does not realize that he could ask at other stores. I know that he wants "stuff" from kmart because he will point out toys that are "neat" or stuff he just wants. But he does not beg for them. I tell him we are just looking and that's what he does.Anyway, we ended up at walmart because none of the other stores had the present they (my mom and my son) were looking for and we ended up looking in the toys section while mom paid. We did make it out without any purchases. After all, it is almost christmas. Oh, but the "I can't wait" was fun. It was too long and too many days according to my son. I can still remember the agony of waiting those last few days.After mom was done paying he wanted to take my mom to see the games that he wanted for the nintendo ds. He was trying really hard to figure the best way to get them all. I could buy this game, Grammy could buy this one, Auntie could get this one, Uncle could get this one, and maybe Papa (grandpa) could get this one. And could he get one from his cousins. We then explained that since his cousins belonged to Auntie and Uncle, they would not be buying him an expensive game, and since Auntie and Uncle are married, they will not be buying separate games. He can get one from their whole family. And Grammy had already bought him some presents. We then discovered that he thought Santa would bring the ds and not bring any games. We quickly told him that Santa does not bring a game system and nothing to play on it. Well, that made him feel much better. So Santa brings the ds and a game, mom will get a game and Papa will get him a game, or two since his will be coming from GameStop.My son asked me last night if I had his presents yet. I told him no I forgot I was supposed to get you anything. Did we talk about that, did you say you wanted presents. I thought you did not want any presents this year. He informed me that he knew better, he knew that I would have presents for him. I asked him how he knew that and the answer he gave me touched my heart.He said to me that he knew I would bring him presents because I always do what I say for him, and I don't let him down, and I don't give up on him. He knows he can trust me.All that from an eight year old. I really wished right then that I could give him a great big squeezy hug. Instead we finished talking and I finished shopping when we were done.All of this behavior and especially the conversations makes me feel as if I have an unbreakable bond with my son. I figure I must be doing something right. After nearly two years of limited visits, monitored phone calls, and constant hearing of negative name calling talk about me, my son still loves me and trusts me totally. I know that his father said more than once before he got custody that if he had custody it would be the opposite of when I had him. My son would like him and want to stay with him and not like me and not want to go with me. I look at our situation and see that no matter how much he wants it not to be true, my son still loves me and wants to come home. And home is with mom, not dad. Even after almost two years, I am still Home. I am the rock and the safety. Most importantly, I am the love. I know that some folks may not approve of how I raised my son, and that is part of why I lost him, but how many of those that spoke ill of me could have said the same were they in this situation? How many people in general can say that they know their children have complete faith and trust in them? Even though I have not fixed this problem, my son knows that eventually I will. He still has a faith that mom will make it all right. Because he is my son, and my heart, I will make it all right. That is part of the unbreakable bond between a mom and her child.I would like to add a small disclaimer. I do know families that can say their children trust them completely. I know several that cannot, but I do know of tight strong families. My sister is one of them. I also have the feeling based on the posts from the pound, and their blogs, moms there could also say it. (Right Jmo, even when your child grows up and leaves home, they know where the heart is!)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Thankful Thursday
I am going to be thankful on Thursdays. Well, I will be thankful everyday, I will just post some random bits that I am thankful for from the past week. This week I am thankful for:
1. It has finally stopped raining here today(after raining every day this week).
2. I get to see my son this weekend.
3. That there is such a thing as Diet Pepsi. I don't know how I would ever wake up every day without it.
4. Chocolate
5. Coupons- I love those money saving little bits of paper.
So what are you thankful for today?
1. It has finally stopped raining here today(after raining every day this week).
2. I get to see my son this weekend.
3. That there is such a thing as Diet Pepsi. I don't know how I would ever wake up every day without it.
4. Chocolate
5. Coupons- I love those money saving little bits of paper.
So what are you thankful for today?
May Totals
Sorry I did not get these posted yesterday. Things have been very disorganized in my life right now. I will have to work on that. Anyway...The totals:
Items: 306
OOP: $262.69
Savings: $530.09
Merch Total: $799.78
Savings %: 66%
Nothing to complain about here. I saved 66% while building up my stockpile. I have filled my freezer and cabinets this month for a fraction of what I would have paid a year or two ago. That makes me smile!
Items: 306
OOP: $262.69
Savings: $530.09
Merch Total: $799.78
Savings %: 66%
Nothing to complain about here. I saved 66% while building up my stockpile. I have filled my freezer and cabinets this month for a fraction of what I would have paid a year or two ago. That makes me smile!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
What to Cook Wednesday
I would like to post a recipe for my lovely readers today. (I just love you guys! I am glad you come around.)
You could use this recipe with any meat as far as I can tell. I have used pork roast, chicken and turkey. I guess that you could make this in the oven too, but that is not how I have ever made it. I always use either my crockpot or my nesco cooker.
Italian Pork
1 Pork roast (or meat of some kind)
1 Bottle Fat free italian dressing
1 packet Italian dressing mix
1 onion chopped (can be chopped to what ever size you prefer-me, I like bigger chunks)
2-5 pepperoncini's (optional)
a bit of water (optional-see directions)
Place pork roast into cooker. Throw onions and pepperoncini's on top. Dump the bottle and mix of dressing on top of the whole mess. If I use my nesco cooker, I add a bit of water by filling the empty bottle of dressing about 1/4-1/3 full and shake it up to get the last of the dressing out and dump that in as well, but not if I use my slow cooker.
Since I am gone at work all day, I cook it on low or on the slow cook setting on my nesco. If you wanted to have the meal sooner or were not planning on being gone all day before you get to come home for dinner cook it on high or about 350 til the meat is fully cooked(this will depend on how large your roast is-check it with a meat thermometer).
When the meat is done cooking or when I get home, I grab two forks and start shredding. This is wonderful on some crusty rolls or hoagie buns. Serve with a salad and/or a fruit and dinner is ready!
I hope you enjoy this as much as my family does.
You could use this recipe with any meat as far as I can tell. I have used pork roast, chicken and turkey. I guess that you could make this in the oven too, but that is not how I have ever made it. I always use either my crockpot or my nesco cooker.
Italian Pork
1 Pork roast (or meat of some kind)
1 Bottle Fat free italian dressing
1 packet Italian dressing mix
1 onion chopped (can be chopped to what ever size you prefer-me, I like bigger chunks)
2-5 pepperoncini's (optional)
a bit of water (optional-see directions)
Place pork roast into cooker. Throw onions and pepperoncini's on top. Dump the bottle and mix of dressing on top of the whole mess. If I use my nesco cooker, I add a bit of water by filling the empty bottle of dressing about 1/4-1/3 full and shake it up to get the last of the dressing out and dump that in as well, but not if I use my slow cooker.
Since I am gone at work all day, I cook it on low or on the slow cook setting on my nesco. If you wanted to have the meal sooner or were not planning on being gone all day before you get to come home for dinner cook it on high or about 350 til the meat is fully cooked(this will depend on how large your roast is-check it with a meat thermometer).
When the meat is done cooking or when I get home, I grab two forks and start shredding. This is wonderful on some crusty rolls or hoagie buns. Serve with a salad and/or a fruit and dinner is ready!
I hope you enjoy this as much as my family does.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
It's Color-Time!
I have changed around the colors on my blog. I am trying for a more summery feel. If you think any of the changes make things hard to read please let me know so I can change it. I would love any feed back on the changes you may have!
Political Post Follows
IF you don't want to read anything political, then please skip this post and move along. If you are not interested, that is fine.
This touches me personally as many of you know from reading my site. The following is a message from the site ParentalRights.org. I want to pass this message along to you as many of my readers have children or hope to have children some day. Please read this and educate your self further by visiting the site parentalrights.org. We must stand together and making a stand, or just being aware of this. Here it is:
The Message
A parent’s right to raise their children as they see fit is a time-honored American tradition, but today it is being threatened. The Supreme Court’s Troxel v. Granville decision in 2000 undermined a 75-year heritage of Constitutionally-protected, fundamental parental rights, which 8 of the 9 justices abandoned. At the same time, a growing body of international law fuels activist judges to legislate foreign standards from the American bench, while treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child would subject parental decisions to government oversight and international review.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (MI-2) has proposed HJR-42, the Parental Rights Amendment, to stop the erosion of parental rights in American courts while simultaneously defending our laws from international invasion. Please, visit parentalrights.org to learn more about the Amendment, and to join their email network by signing the petition to protect parental rights.
This touches me personally as many of you know from reading my site. The following is a message from the site ParentalRights.org. I want to pass this message along to you as many of my readers have children or hope to have children some day. Please read this and educate your self further by visiting the site parentalrights.org. We must stand together and making a stand, or just being aware of this. Here it is:
The Message
A parent’s right to raise their children as they see fit is a time-honored American tradition, but today it is being threatened. The Supreme Court’s Troxel v. Granville decision in 2000 undermined a 75-year heritage of Constitutionally-protected, fundamental parental rights, which 8 of the 9 justices abandoned. At the same time, a growing body of international law fuels activist judges to legislate foreign standards from the American bench, while treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child would subject parental decisions to government oversight and international review.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (MI-2) has proposed HJR-42, the Parental Rights Amendment, to stop the erosion of parental rights in American courts while simultaneously defending our laws from international invasion. Please, visit parentalrights.org to learn more about the Amendment, and to join their email network by signing the petition to protect parental rights.
Update for Several Days (Where Have I Been?)
Wow, I feel like I have been out of commission here for a long time even though it has only been four days.
I have been to the grocery stores several times over these last few days taking advantage of sales and q's that were about to expire. I now have a completely full deep freezer. I did not fill up the freezer on the fridge as it runs more efficiently when less than full so air can circulate. I also found Parmalat milk. I was looking and asking for advice on The Pound to see if anyone had suggestions as I could not find it. Well, this weekend I found it. I bought a couple of the containers. They are not big containers, but they will be perfect for my trips. I also have been taking advantage of the Vitaminwater10 q. It expires in a few days so if you are hoping to use it-hop to it. Most of the stores here have had the water on sale for a dollar, so I only pay a few cents tax. Gotta love FREE!
I also got gas this weekend. It cost me $75 to fill my tank. The gas prices have leveled off here for a couple of days now. The prices jumped a total of $.74 in nine days. Wow. I am sure it will continue to rise.
I plan to have my May monthly totals tomorrow. I did not have time to sort everything out last night as I went to the store again to get more vitamin water, and some flours and an oven thermometer so I can start making my bread. I plan to start the bread process tomorrow night for bread in five minutes a day. I hope that goes well! I will let you know. I also was getting my van ready for the weekend trip. I pulled everything that was washable out to wash last night. I was still washing this morning and I have two more loads tonight. (We have blankets, sleeping bags, sheets, pillows, throws, left over clothes, etc in there.)
As for the update on the Yesterday's news cat litter: My cats would like to tell you
"we do not like this stinky cat litter. We will not use it and you can't make us." This is a first for me as my cats have eaten just about any cat food and have used all cat litters that I have put in the box. I think that one of my kitties tried it, but only once and as far as I can tell no more even checking it out, pawing it, nothing. But we do have really full litter boxes for the other two. I will have to dump it for this weekend so my poor kitties are not trying to go in just the two litter boxes all weekend. I don't know what to do with the other half of the bag either....
I do not do the weekly meal plan because more often than not I do batch cooking on my Sunday at home for about two weeks worth of food. This Sunday, I was out looking at a motor home. It was about two and a half hours away, and it was owned by this wonderful older couple. They were very crafty and handy and we sat for about an hour talking shop about building, sewing, knitting, painting, crocheting, and quilting. Finally we made our way home. So no batch cooking for me.
In an effort to save money by not eating out, I will not buy pizza at lunch today even though that is what I wanted. I found some leftovers in the fridge that I might have needed to throw out if I did not eat them today or tomorrow. They became my meals for today. No extra money spent on food, and no waste. A win-win! Woo Hoo!
I will be back tomorrow with monthly totals and all that good stuff. And I will hopefully remember to take pics when I do the bread start tonight. Then the baking begins tomorrow!
I have been to the grocery stores several times over these last few days taking advantage of sales and q's that were about to expire. I now have a completely full deep freezer. I did not fill up the freezer on the fridge as it runs more efficiently when less than full so air can circulate. I also found Parmalat milk. I was looking and asking for advice on The Pound to see if anyone had suggestions as I could not find it. Well, this weekend I found it. I bought a couple of the containers. They are not big containers, but they will be perfect for my trips. I also have been taking advantage of the Vitaminwater10 q. It expires in a few days so if you are hoping to use it-hop to it. Most of the stores here have had the water on sale for a dollar, so I only pay a few cents tax. Gotta love FREE!
I also got gas this weekend. It cost me $75 to fill my tank. The gas prices have leveled off here for a couple of days now. The prices jumped a total of $.74 in nine days. Wow. I am sure it will continue to rise.
I plan to have my May monthly totals tomorrow. I did not have time to sort everything out last night as I went to the store again to get more vitamin water, and some flours and an oven thermometer so I can start making my bread. I plan to start the bread process tomorrow night for bread in five minutes a day. I hope that goes well! I will let you know. I also was getting my van ready for the weekend trip. I pulled everything that was washable out to wash last night. I was still washing this morning and I have two more loads tonight. (We have blankets, sleeping bags, sheets, pillows, throws, left over clothes, etc in there.)
As for the update on the Yesterday's news cat litter: My cats would like to tell you
"we do not like this stinky cat litter. We will not use it and you can't make us." This is a first for me as my cats have eaten just about any cat food and have used all cat litters that I have put in the box. I think that one of my kitties tried it, but only once and as far as I can tell no more even checking it out, pawing it, nothing. But we do have really full litter boxes for the other two. I will have to dump it for this weekend so my poor kitties are not trying to go in just the two litter boxes all weekend. I don't know what to do with the other half of the bag either....
I do not do the weekly meal plan because more often than not I do batch cooking on my Sunday at home for about two weeks worth of food. This Sunday, I was out looking at a motor home. It was about two and a half hours away, and it was owned by this wonderful older couple. They were very crafty and handy and we sat for about an hour talking shop about building, sewing, knitting, painting, crocheting, and quilting. Finally we made our way home. So no batch cooking for me.
In an effort to save money by not eating out, I will not buy pizza at lunch today even though that is what I wanted. I found some leftovers in the fridge that I might have needed to throw out if I did not eat them today or tomorrow. They became my meals for today. No extra money spent on food, and no waste. A win-win! Woo Hoo!
I will be back tomorrow with monthly totals and all that good stuff. And I will hopefully remember to take pics when I do the bread start tonight. Then the baking begins tomorrow!
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