Where's the Television?

Okay, so you remember how I mentioned in a blog a couple weeks ago that we were getting a new TV? Well, we were supposed to have received it on December 23rd - but we still have nothing. I called the store and was told they have a shipment coming in tomorrow but are releasing them to the people that ordered first - which I completely agree with. When I asked about how many were expected to come in and what number "in line" we were I was told by the gal that she doesn't know anything - only the owner has that information. I understand backorders happen, I also understand that the weather doesn't always cooperate. I guess I'm just irritated. Last week - if we had gotten it on schedule - my husband was off work and could have picked it up (because they charge $60 for delivery!!! We live about 5 miles from the store - go figure!) If it comes in tomorrow we have a dilemma because my husband works long hours and probably won't get off till the store is closed for most of the week. That means we have to try to go over the weekend to pick it up. I think - that if the store values its customers - it should deliver the TV for free. I actually think I will suggest that. Okay, I am done ranting now. : )

It's so hard to believe we are coming up on 2009 now. Where does the time go? Every year I come up with resolutions that I can't or don't keep. This year my resolution is to not collect any more clutter. That one is probably more do-able. This past weekend Layne and I started cleaning out our closet. We got rid of 4 garbage bags (and not even the small kitchen ones - we are talking the big 33 gallon black ones!) of stuff. And you know what it doesn't even look like we've done anything in there!! We have a really big closet and the plan is to get it cleaned out and then I can set-up an area to scrapbook in there. That would free up our spare room to actually make into a room instead of our catch-all area that has my scrapbooking supplies spread all over in it.

I don't have a tip for right now. Mostly just wanted to drop in and say hi. I will try to remember to post a link to another blog that I came across that has fantastic coupon links tomorrow when I post.

Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!! And Merry Christmas to everyone!! It's hard to believe that today is finally here.

April was so excited for it this year. She came up and climbed in bed with us about 3:30 in the morning. She asked us if we had heard Santa's bells & then told us that she say a big box with all the presents. She got so many nice things and it's funny cause its the things you think she won't be into that she spends the most time playing with. She got a rock tumbler which is right up her alley. She loves to collect rocks everywhere we go and she probably has 50 or more of them. Now she can polish them and even make jewlery out of her favorites.

Today we will spend the day with my husband's family. Just relaxing and eating. My favorite things!

Today's tip: For lunch we had a box of generic mac and cheeese. Instead of the normal skim milk that we drink I used some half &half. Let me tell you that made the difference. The generic mac and cheese was just as good as the Kraft! Our local grocer sells the store brand for $0.19 per box and the Kraft for $0.69 per box. If you eat 1 box of mac and cheese a week that is a yearly savings of $26.00!!

Have a Merry Christmas and be safe! God bless you all!!

Guess who's getting a new TV???

That's right, we are!! A 52" flat panel LCD television. Actually I am only excited because my husband is excited. He's wanted a new TV for longer than I can remember. I'm really indifferent about it for myself. The TV we have now is 30-some inches and is a huge contraption. It's almost 13 years old and still works great so we'll just move it into another room for those occasions when football is on and I feel like watching something that makes sense to me. : )

Can you believe that it is less than 3 days till Christmas? How does it sneak up so quickly on us? Thankfully we are done with our Christmas shopping - well pretty much done. We do have to go pick up a few groceries, by I'm designating my husband to go do that since he has this week off from work. See how nice I am?!?!

For Christmas Eve at my in-laws house I am bringing a vegetable pizza & cheese ball. The vegetable pizza recipe I got here. The cheese ball is a made up recipe containing cream cheese, dried beef, green olives, pineapple, and green onion. For Christmas day at their house I am taking a veggie and dip tray & a broccoli salad. The dip will be store bought. For Christmas with my family I am making some crock-pot augratin potatoes.

Today's tip: When holidays are coming make it easy on yourself, bring dishes that contain many of the same ingredients. A few of the dishes (veggie pizza, veggie tray, & broccoli salad) require many of the same items. I can buy the veggies and use them in multiple dishes. Broccoli is the only item I will have to buy more than 1 of. For the pizza I am replacing the tomatoes with radishes, because they last longer and because I can use the radishes on the veggie tray also.

Whirlpools and bananas.....

This was the best weekend ever! Saturday I cleaned the kitchen and dining room. It looks so nice. I've been tossing or giving away lots of stuff to free up some space. I don't know why I hold on to so much junk!! Anyway, the kitchen and dining room were spotless - which was a great feeling.

Saturday night my husband & I had a little get-a-way at a local hotel. We had a whirlpool suite, which was wonderful. After we checked in & took our bags up to our room we decided to go gamble a little to pass some time. Let me just tell you I am not a gambler. I will put in a dollar and try to finish as soon as possible. Yesterday must have been my lucky day. I put in a total of $3 in 2 different machines and won $55. How awesome is that!!! I think we were there for about 10 minutes before I won, then we left right away & went back to the hotel. We sat in the whirlpool and watched movies. It was so relaxing!

Today we picked up our December Angel Food package. As I was putting things away I noticed that we didn't have room for some of the items - my husband received a ham last week and a turkey the week of Thanksgiving from his work - so those items are taking up a lot of room in our little chest freezer. I had some bananas in there so I decided to use them up instead of wasting them. I made a loaf of banana bread and 1 1/2 dozen muffins for our breakfasts/snacks this week. Yum!! I used new recipes, the bread recipe uses sour cream. We haven't tried them yet, but if they are good I will post the recipes.

Today's tip: Do you have fruit that is ripe and may go bad before you can use it? Pop it in the freezer to use later in breads, muffins, or desserts. You can do this with any fruit, except for citrus fruit. It's a great way to stretch your dollar and not waste food!

Christmas Gift Bags

Last night we completed the gift bags for my husband's workers. They turned out pretty good. They were inexpensive, but a little time consuming. The cd's turned out great, we put classic Christmas songs on them by Elvis, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, etc. The chocolates we rolled up in wrapping paper and we tied the ends with string, like those "cracker" packages you can buy. The homemade potpourri we put in snack sized ziploc bags, along with the instructions for simmering it. Of course the candle, candle holder, hot chocolate, & candy cane we didn't have to do anything with. Here are a couple pictures of the bag & contents:

My husband also has some temp workers that we are giving mugs to. The mugs each have a packet of hot chocolate, a candy cane, and some chocolate candies (mini twix and m&m's packets). Here is a picture of the mugs:

Overall things turned out pretty good. It's always a scramble to get them something because it's hard to get or make anything nice when you have a budget of $5 or less per gift. We were able to assemble these gifts for just under $2 each. Now we need to start getting ideas for next year!

13 things you may or may not know about me

1. I love lists. Ask my husband - he thinks it's crazy and makes fun of it. I don't know why I love them. I just do. I have lists in probably about every notebook in the house, on my desk at work, scribbled on papers in my purses. I sometimes make lists just for the sake of making lists. I like the way they look.

2. I love and collect old books. My prized possession is a 1st English edition of 'Les Miserables' that I picked up at a yard sale 12 years ago (approximately) for a quarter.

3. I like the art made by Michael Parkes. It's dark but hopeful. We have 2 of his prints framed in our house - 'Gargoyles' and 'Rock Dove'. You can see his work at www.michaelparkes.com.

4. One of my favorite bands is Aerosmith.

5. I love to play Guitar Hero - and I hate to brag, but I am pretty darn good. (Unfortunately we don't own this so I can only play when we go to my brother-in-law's house.

6. My favorite food is sauerkraut. Honestly, I love it so much that sometimes I sip on the juice. I know that may gross many people out - but it is really THAT good.

7. I am that student that sits in front of the class and raises there hand all the time to answer the questions. Yes, I am a bit of a nerd.

8. I am addicted to reading books and websites that give tips about organizing your home, but for some reason I can't accomplish it myself. I am a pack-rat and hate it, but can't seem to get over that. Is there a 12-step program or support group for people like this???

9. I love musicals and stupid-comedy type shows. My favorite all-time musical is 'Sound of Music'. I watch it every year around New Years. My favorite comedies are 'Spaceballs', 'Weather Man', 'Napoleon Dynamite', and I'm sure countless others that I'm forgetting about.

10. I hate watching tv. Once Layne went out of town on a fishing trip for over a week (don't remember exactly how long cause it was 8-10 years ago) and when Layne came home the tv was still on ESPN because I hadn't even turned it on while he was gone. I really would love to get rid of the tv altogether. Don't need it. It turns your brain to mush.

11. I am a news junkie. I crave news. My honest-to-goodness favorite magazine is 'Time'. Does it get any better? I love coming home on Fridays to a new 'Time' in the mailbox. And I seriously read it cover to cover.

12. I HATE fashion magazines. Weird? Yeah, maybe. They are really kind of pointless. If there is nothing to read in a magazine then why bother? Plus they stink. There's usually so many perfume samples in there that the magazine smells like a whore. Sorry, but it's true.

13. I love to play jokes on people. A couple examples: #1 A guy I used to work with irritated me. He was always trying to pass work onto me. I didn't want to do anything really mean or that would make him know I did anything so a girlfriend and I went into work late one night with about 30 rolls of aluminum foil and wrapped his desk, phone, chair, computer, headset, etc in foil. Not joking- everything was wrapped in foil. I even have pictures somewhere to prove it. #2 One year for Christmas I went to a second hand store and found some of the ugliest sweater vests known to man. I bought 3 of them and gave one to my husband and each of his 2 brothers from "Santa". They came complete with an old man smell to them. I love to do little things like that. It's what keeps me going.

Whew. I'm sure some of you think I'm nuts. I may have offended a few people, which I am sorry for - that was not my intention. Hopefully you'll keep coming back to my blog!

A lot about nothing

Tonight we had breakfast for supper. French toast and bacon. It was very good. Actually I'm not sure why we don't have that more often. I'm very peculiar about the way I eat French toast. Which I guess I never thought about till tonight, even though I've done it as long as I can remember eating French toast. I always cut it into 9 pieces, 9 squares to be exact. There is always one piece (from the center) that has no crust. I eat all the others and then eat the crustless piece last. It tastes better that way - probably not really, but to me it seems to. Perhaps I'm just a little obsessive/compulsive about it.


Can you believe there are only 9 days until Christmas?!? Tonight we worked on putting together the gift bags for Layne to take to work and pass out. I have the items for the potpourri drying in the dehydrator right now. Tomorrow night I will post pictures of everything.


The weather here has been crazy cold and full of snow. It's getting a bit old to be honest. It's not that I hate winter, cause I actually prefer it over summer, it's just that I'm tired of scraping the windows of my car. And since my car is old it also takes FOREVER to heat up! But it's paid off, so I guess I can put up with the inconveniences for now.


Another financial bonus is that I paid off a credit card! Several years ago I got myself into some credit card trouble. It started innocently enough - as it usually does - then I was put on complete bedrest during my 26th week of pregnancy. That meant no income which meant my bills were being put on a credit card. Not cool. I had every intention of paying it off when I went back to work - but that didn't happen. It never crossed my mind how much daycare, diapers, etc were. Then I lost my job due to an outsourcing, blah, blah, blah. To cut to the chase I ended up with credit card debt and no way to keep up with compounding interest. It was an expensive lesson but it will forever change the way I look at credit cards and spending money! It could have been worse - at least I am able to get it paid off. In less than a year I will have no debt. That will be a terrific feeling!

Remember the tip from the other night? About the candles in the freezer? Well today's tip is also about candles. You see all those pretty candles at the stores full of sparkly glitter and then you see the price tag and find they are almost double the cost of a plain colored candle. You can jazz up those plain colored candles with nothing but a hot towel and some glitter - seriously! Get a towel nice and hot and then wrap it around your candle for 30-60 seconds. This will make the candle pliable. Take the candle out of the towel roll it in some glitter. The candle will cool down in a minute and you will have a beautiful candle! Place in your favorite candle holder and put it on display.