October 4, 2008

I want an Aldi store!

Do any of you shop at or know about Aldi stores?
The closest store to me is going to be in St. Petersburg, which is far too far to go to save money on groceries.
The cost of gas would eat up the grocery savings, but they (St. Pete) will be having a grand opening on October 27th.
I checked the list, and so far Sarasota is NOT on the grand opening list for stores in Florida.
I want one here! You hear me Aldi! Come to Sarasota!

I am going to keep my eye on that site and watch for Sarasota to make the list, and when it does, I'll be up, showered, and heading on over like mover NYC style to save myself some major money on groceries.
Fast and ready to hustle.

If you haven't heard about Aldi stores, check out the site, read up on this.
It's kind of like a Sam's Club, all of the shelves are loaded with the actual boxes the products are delivered in, just cut open so you can get an item out, they have their own Aldi select brands which are cheaper than the major name national brand grocery products.
Most of their select brands cost up to 50% less than the national name brand products.
Why?
Because all the fruits and vegetables are locally grown, the dairy products all come from local dairy farmers, same with eggs, and pretty much every other fresh product like meat and poultry.
All of their canned and boxed food items are all private label, and they only carry the top 1,300 most frequently bought grocery items which is just one of the ways they help the consumer save money.

Another way they help save you money is by not having baggers or bags.
You can bring your own bags or take empty boxes from the shelves, and bag your own groceries.
But they do have bags for you if you didn't bring any.
They have environmentally friendly paper bags for .5 cents, environmentally friendly plastic bags for .10cents, and insulated bags for frozen food for .99cents.
By not having baggers, their employee payroll costs stay low, and so that's another savings passed onto the consumer.

They take cash, debit cards, and EBT cards.
They do not accept checks or credit cards.
If they aren't getting bad checks, they don't have to pass those costs on to the shopper.
By not having credit cards, there's no slow down while people sign slips, and no processing fees from the credit card companies.
And because they have their own brands, there's no coupons for the cashiers to have to scan in and then bag up, and then cash out at the end of the night.
No time consuming-payroll- hours-wasting steps to do.

They also have a cart rental fee of .25cents.
This is so the employees don't have to fetch the carts from the lot.
You put a quarter in the cart's special coin box, that releases the cart for you to use, and when you're done, you simply take the cart back to the cart corral, attach the chain, and you get your quarter back.
They are also open for more limited hours.
9am to 7 or 8pm Monday through Saturday, and 12 to 5 on Sundays.
Being open during non-peak shopping hours adds to the employee labor costs, which then gets added to the cost of your grocery items.

I seriously want one of these Aldi stores in Sarasota.
I would shop there all of the time if it saved me more money on food than I am now.
Maybe when the one in St. Pete opens up, I'll find a way up there to check it out, and if it seriously rocks, I'll start a petition or something to get them to build one here.
I know that Sarasota is a pretty well-to-do community, but we do have a lot of poor sections of town, and a lot of middle class people too.
I'm sure that if an Aldi store opened up here, it would be busy all the time once word got out about how much money people were saving on groceries, especially now in our economic disaster time that Wall Street and banks created.

If you have ever shopped at an Aldi, is it as great as it sounds?
How are their select brands compared to the national name brands?

October 3, 2008

It's October right?

It's not even Halloween yet, but I'm already seeing some on line stores starting to advertise for the 2008 Black Friday sales, which start around November 28th.

I know that the teens would love to have Gears of War 2 Limited Edition for Christmas.
It gets released on November 7th, and I'm going to try and pre-order it for them so that they will have it in plenty of time for Christmas.
They love the first one so much they went through 4 discs already.
It's not that they are hard on the discs, I really believe it's a manufacturing issue because after doing some forum surfing, I've found other game players who've also gone through multiple game discs.
Hint hint Epic Games, your products are shoddy.

The teens haven't asked for anything else.
Yet.
But I'm a mom, so I'm going to get them things like new clothes and shoes, boxers, socks, etc.
I'm a meanie mom though.
I get some good medium sized boxes, and I put the boxers and socks in them, and then add some heavy stuff like candy or some smallish action figures in the boxes to make them weighted, feel like they have something big in them, and then wrap up like all the other presents.
Then I watch their faces as they tear through the wrapping papers to find underwear...LOL

I have no idea what I want, I'll probably get myself a few DVDs of movies that I love watching, maybe a bottle of my fave perfume, maybe some new sneakers or something.
I always have to get myself at least 1 present or the boys get upset.
I never used to get myself anything and unwrap it because I'm the mom, the holiday is about making the kids happy, but the teens always ask why there's nothing under the tree for me, and then they try to give me some of the gift cards that they got.
So now I always buy at least 1 thing for me, wrap it, put a bow on it, and I put a gift tag that says it's from them.
It makes them happy and that makes me happy.

So are you already looking for Black Friday deals?
Have you already written your Christmas shopping lists?
Have you started shopping already?

September 3, 2008

Scrubbing Bubbles toilet cleaning gel review.

I bought the new Scrubbing Bubbles toilet cleaning gel, after Sebastian and I saw the commercial, and seeing as it's his weekly job to scrub the toilet, he begged me to try it, he even found a coupon someone else had left on the shelf for $1 off, when we spotted it at Walgreen's while waiting on my prescriptions.

The site and packaging says the following:

- Continuously cleans and freshens with every flush
- Each disc lasts up to seven days
- Leaves no residue behind
- More hygienic than traditional clip-on bowl cleaners
- Safe for septic systems

Each tube of stuff is supposed to contain 6 gel discs, which you just push the button and hold it against the bowl, and pull away at the same time.
It's not quite that easy.
That first push resulted in nothing coming out.
The second push resulted in 2 gel "discs" coming out and semi-sticking, then falling off into the water.
The third push stuck, but the gel disc was more like a splat.

Then you're left with placing a plastic cap on the end of the tube, but it's got all this mushy gel stuff still sort of oozing out of the top of it, and putting the cap on causes this gel to ooze out onto your fingers.

The price was just $4.99, we had the $1 off coupon making it just $3.99, but was it worth it?
No.
It took 3 tries to get the gel discs to come out and stick properly, I only have 3 left, maybe 2, I can't really tell because of the mess that happened on the second push, and it's messy.
It's not as easy to use as they say, nor as clean as they say, this stuff got all over my fingers trying to put the cap back on.
And the disc that did stick, is almost completely flushed away already, after not even 24 hours, and they say each one is supposed to last for 6 full days?
I don't think so.

September 3, 2008

New weight-loss product?

I had never heard of these before, but I was watching some one of those morning tv talk shows, I don't recall if it was Mike and Juliet, the 4th hour of the Today show, Daytime, or whatever, but one of them was talking about MBT shoes.

Have you heard about these shoes yet?
Supposedly, they are calorie burning, muscle-toning, and posture-improving sneakers.
They are supposed to do the following:
*Makes training more effective and challenging
*Enhances the way you use muscles and joints.
*Improves posture and your circulation with every step
*Distribute pressure equally along the whole foot.
*They cushion your feet while challenging your muscles.

I don't know if they really do all of that, that's why I'm asking if any of you actually know anything about them, but honestly, they don't look too bad, and if they are super comfy which they look like they might be, then even if they don't meet all those claims, they might be worth the investment for me.
They kinda look like chunky platform shoes, but better for your feet.

September 2, 2008

Still no antenna yet.

Buy.com still hasn't put the antenna I want on sale yet, but they do have some really great other deals this week if you're looking for stuff to buy.

They have a Kingston 16gb digital high capacity card on sale for $49.99, it's usually $93.00, so that's an awesome buy.

I only have a 1gb, and I never seem to run out of room on my camera, but I'm sure other people who take gobs and gobs of pictures, could fill the 16gb up in no time flat.

They also have a 4gb Sandisk Sansa Fuze MP3 player on sale for a really good price.
I absolutely LOVE my Sandisk MP3 player, love it! So I always tell people who are looking for an MP3 player who don't want to or have the money to spend on a bigger name brand, to seriously try out the Sandisks, they are awesome.
Everyone I know who has one loves theirs, so I know it's not just me thrilled with mine, it's a great little mp3 player.

They also have an awesome deal on an HD DVD player with 2 free HD movies included, Bourne Identity and 300, for just $59.99, and it was $299.99, so yeah, if you need a new HD DVD player, you may want to jump on that deal like super fast.

They always have some really good deals on stuff, so I keep checking it, waiting for them to put the stuff I need on sale, and figured I'd share ome of the better deals with all of you.

August 29, 2008

Subs and sales.

One of the things I like about going grocery shopping with Sebastian, is that we get to talk.
We walk there and then cab it back, but the whole way there, it's just he and I talking about whatever crosses his mind.
Today we got to talking about his new social life.

He got asked on a date.
By someone he doesn't really like all that much, but he was polite turning them down anyway, which is good, is what I taught him to do, but then he told me about who he does like.
Which was even cooler.
I won't divulge her name, he trusted me with this information, he trusted me to talk to me about it all, so yeah, I feel pretty good right now.

Then we got to Publix, checked the vendor coupon rack, and the clearance table where I found a good deal on the conditioner I like to alternate with every few weeks, and I had 2 coupons for $1 off 1 bottle, and 1 coupon for $2 off 2 bottles.
I needed to use the 2 $1 off coupons, they were set to expire on the 31st, so I like to carry my coupons that are set to expire with me every time I go to the store just in case I find deals like this.
Anyway....
They had Loreal Vive for dry hair, 2 for $2.99, so I bought 4, and using my coupons, I got 4 bottles for just $1.98.
They also had some assorted Loreal hair color, not my color, so I passed those up, and they had a big basket of patio furniture covers on clearance as well.
I did notice that they had a whole bunch of patio chairs and tables outside the doors, on sale to get rid of them, it is the end of the season after all, time to get rid of the summer stuff.
They had a whole bunch of other stuff, and I probably would have dug around a bit more but Sebastian starts getting antsy if I spend too much time at the clearance table.

Then I went around and picked up all the food and stuff I had on my list, and then checked out.
We then headed over to Subway to grab some subs to eat at home for dinner tonight.
This wasn't my normal shopping trip, this was just extra food for the long holiday weekend.
The teens eat a lot normally, and with the long holiday weekend, I had to go get more food, plus we're having my niece Susan over for the day tomorrow.
Yay!
I love it when she comes to play for the day!

But anyway, I did have a list and some coupons, so here's how it went down today.
Total price before coupons;
$113.78
Total coupons:
$38.50
Out of pocket price:
$75.28

That's not great, but also not bad considering this was just a small weekend pick-up trip.
On my next shopping trip, it will be the big one, so I'm going through and making my meal plan list, recipes, and all of that like described below.
Ok, off to do more stuff.
Later days.

August 29, 2008

Coupon shopping at your grocery store.

Devilish Southern Belle says she needs help shopping for groceries and saving money using coupons, so I told her I would explain how I do it.
I'm not one of those CVS deal getters, or points people, I only shop for food at grocery stores and use coupons.
I probably could save far more money, get more stuff for free if I did did those other things, but I like to get in and get out, not spend a lot of time going store to store.
So here's how I do it.

I make out my weekly meal plan list, what I want to cook every single day for meals, and also add in extra foods like snacks, fend for yourself meals, and desserts and treats.
Then I make out the shopping list based on the meal plan list.
Then I go through the cupboards and fridge/freezer, crossing things off of the list that I already have on hand so I don't buy duplicates of on-hand items. (unless the item is running low and I need it anyway)

Then I go to my store's website to see the list of sale items for that week.
I use Publix, and they publish the weekly sale flyer on line every week.
I go through their list of sale items and add a check mark to anything on my list that is on sale.
If they have my item as a buy 1 get 1, I check it plus add a "+2" next to it.
I do this for the whole list.
Then I go through the flyer again, adding items they have on sale that I just want because they are good deals.

Then I go grab all of my coupons and go through my shopping list and add a "C" next to any item that I have a coupon for.
Then I go through the sale flyer on their site again, and matching any coupons I have to any items they have on sale that are a really good deal.
For example, do I have a coupon for say, Buy 2 boxes of General Mills cereal, save $3.00, and do they have it on sale buy 1 get 1? If so, I add it to my list.
Or they might have buy 1 get 1 on Campbells select soups, and I have a coupon to save $2 off 1 can? The price per can is $2.35, I save $2 + I get 1 can free, making my total price for 2 cans of soup just .35 cents.

I stack all of my going to be used coupons into a pile, grab my list, stuff it all in my purse and head out to the store.
When I get there, I stop at their rack of other sale flyers from vendors, and go through it to see if there are any coupons for anything else on my list I didn't already have one for.
If so, I tear out that coupon and add it to my pile.
My first stop is always the clearance rack or table, to see if any items on the table are on my list, because that's even bigger savings.
It's usually stuff like shampoo/conditioner, soaps, cleaning products etc, so if they're on my list and/or have a coupon, double, sometimes triple savings.

The least amount of money I've ever saved on a shopping trip has been about $20, and the most has been almost $100, so I always use coupons on every single trip to the store, and speaking of, I'm outta here.

August 27, 2008

I even fell for that stupid love song.

I was doing a combination of sitting at my coffee table and standing in the kitchen, working on my list of need to get items from Publix this week, listening to my mp3 player.
I was going through coupons and singing along, matching up the coupons I have with the items on my list and hoping that when Publix puts out the new weekly sale flyer tomorrow, that what's on my list and what I have coupons for, will be on sale so that I can get the most possible best buy on everything that I need.

So here I am going back and forth and room to room, opening the fridge and cupboards to check for needed items, seeing what I already have on hand that I can take off the recipe/shopping need list, flipping through recipes and jotting down what I want/need to make for each recipe for each day, seeing if I have coupons for those items, (thanks mom for the new envelope full you sent this week!) and be-bopping along, singing loudly, when I realized I have some fairly embarrassing songs on my mp3 player.
Like if a friend came in and picked it up, turned it on, and started scanning through my playlist, they'd probably start laughing at me.
I mean, I have a Kelly Clarkson song on there!

But then that got me thinking that we all probably have some songs on our ipods and players that we'd probably be a wee bit embarrassed if our friends found out, so tell me, what's the most embarrassing song you have on your mp3 player?

August 27, 2008

She shouldn't be driving. At all.

My ex-neighbor called me a little bit ago, wanted to swing by and pick up any mail that was still being delivered here until the post office completes the change of address switch, and she said she wanted to talk about something important.
Now knowing her as well as I've come to know her over the 4.5 years they lived right next door, my mind wondered what she wanted.
Did she need help at her new place to finish unpacking?
Did she need me to watch her son, did she want to sell me something because she had a bill to pay?
It could have been anything knowing her.

She finally gets here, honks the horn on her minivan, I grab her stack of mail and head to the carport.
She's disgusted she says, just look at this house!
Look at how clean the outside is!
Why didn't the landlord come pressure wash the house when we lived here?!
Damn him!
I just shook my head, shrugged, and said he's just been doing outside cleaning, gotta keep up on the lawn and stuff I guess.
But in my head I'm screaming, "He couldn't come pressure wash the outside of the house you crazy dirty woman! You had stuff, crap, boxes, weight benches, Halloween decorations, fish tanks, Gar-bage, all over the place out here, not to mention your actual garbage from inside your house that you'd pile out here, stack it as high as you could, use my trash cans when yours were overflowing and teaming with rancid meat and gallons of rotten milk! You wanted him to move all of that crap so he could pressure wash?!"

Then she starts telling me about the new house, they've only been living there for about 1.5-2 weeks now, and already, just as I suspected, she's already found multiple problems, leaks, the toilet runs, one of the windows doesn't close all the way, the air conditioner makes this weird rattling noise every night at like 3am that wakes her up from her sleep, when she can sleep that is, because she keeps hearing things she says, like an animal, maybe mice, or rats, in the walls. (This was said oh so dramatically, so I used multiple commas for effect)
I nod, not really sure how to respond to that.

She then starts telling me about her day, I'm patiently waiting for her to get to the "important" thing she needed to talk to me about, and she says that she just came from her new diabetes doctor, the one she waited 3 months to be able to see, and how when she got there they tried to tell her they couldn't see her, that they tried to call and reschedule her appointment, but when they called, her phone had been disconnected.
Here it comes I'm thinking to myself, she needs to either borrow some money to get it turned back on, or wants to sell me something so it can be turned back on.
She says she refused to be shuttled out, demanded to be seen, she had waited 3 months for this appointment and wasn't leaving until they saw her.
So they saw her and confirmed that her diabetes was seriously out of control.
They checked her levels and it was bad, so they wrote her a script for glucose and a monitor, but she told them she couldn't afford the monitor, so the doc gave her one for free, and then they gave her an injection of glucose and told her to go get her scripts filled immediately, taught her how to use the meter, how to inject etc, and then she left and came straight here.

She said for a few minutes, she didn't feel anything, but then it started to hype her up, that the whole drive here, she felt like she was on speed.
I started thinking about the one time my dc gave me a glucose injection, how it made me feel, and how other diabetics I know who have injected too much, have the same reaction I had that one time.
You get all hyped up, feel like you could run a marathon, lift a milion pounds, you feel awesome.
For about 20 minutes and then you crash hard.
Because the crash can hit you quickly and you get wicked way tired, almost to the point of passing out, you really have to be careful.
I didn't tell her any of this, she's still talking about her appointments, the bills, how her son is doing at his new school, when I see it happening.
Her eyes are rolling in the sockets, her eyelids start drooping, she's slurring her speech, and has started to drool.
She goes to start the car back up to go home, says she'll call me from her cell later on, but she was starting to feel tired so she wanted to get home, but oh yeah, she needs to go grocery shopping and her son is at school, so can I go with her. *slurr, drool, eyeballs rolling back*
I ask her to come in the house, cool off, take a short rest, she's not looking or sounding good I tell her, she's sugar crashing, she shouldn't be driving.
She says no, she's fine, can I go with her to Publix right now.
No, I tell her, come in the house, you shouldn't be driving, your eye lids keep closing, your falling asleep sitting here, please don't drive, come rest, it'll be ok but you need to rest, please come in the house and I've got some juice, you need some juice and to sit for a little bit.
No she says, she's slurring really bad now, cranks the key again but the car is already on, says she's got to go, go home and nap, she'll call me to go shopping later or take her son when he gets home.

Their new house is about 10 miles from here, you have to go down some really busy 8 lane roads to get there, lots of traffic lights etc, and all I can think is she's gonna crash, she's going to get in an accident and be the cause of it, and somebody is going to get hurt and I know she let her car/travel insurance lapse, it hasn't been paid since May, they couldn't afford it, and so when she gets in an accident and hurts somebody or really bangs up their car, she's going to be in trouble because of the no insurance thing, they will either give her a ticket or arrest her, most likely arrest her because this will be the 4th traffic stop, the 4th time being caught with no insurance, and they warned her that the next time they caught her, she'd go to jail.
I told her if she insisted on leaving right now and going home, to please call me and let me know she made it in the house safely.
She hasn't called yet, I tried calling her cell and got no answer.

August 24, 2008

New tv or antenna?

I'm still checking the weekly deals at Buy.com and keep hoping that they put an hdtv antenna on sale soon, like before February 2009 when I'll absolutely need it.
It's either that or get an all new htdv like this one, a Westinghouse 46"inch LCD hdtv.

I can't afford that one, but maybe a smaller one at some point.
But that one is rather nice.
Whatever tv I do get, it would need an Integrated ATSC / NTSC Tuner to be able to pick up all the new hdtv signals.
The whole reason I need a new tv or a stronger hdtv antenna is because of the mandatory switch to hdtv that all tv stations are doing.
I kind of understand the whole thing, but not really.
I don't understand why people are being forced to upgrade to hdtv.
Not everyone has cable or can afford cable or satellite, so all of the people like me who can't, are being forced to by new tvs, new antennas, and that converter box, which I have, but it doesn't pick up all the channels.
As a matter of fact, it barely picks up any.
So maybe by February I'll win the lotto or something so I can afford a new tv like that one, or someone will put the kind of antenna on sale that I need.
I need an indoor/outdoor amplified UHF/VHF/HDTV antenna, that can be mounted anywhere, and hold really strong.
I only have wooden shutters on the outside of my cement house, I can't really mount it on the cement, so I would need it to hold to the shutters, and be able to run the cable through the window somehow.
I'll keep looking and hoping for one.

August 20, 2008

Normal schedule finally?

Both the teens have now gone back to school again, hopefully there will be no more gaps between days.
This entire house needs to get back on the school schedule and stay there.
It was a long summer of staying up late, sleeping in half the day, and basically being as lazy as possible, but now we all need to be back on schedule and get cracking on what needs to be done.

I'm happy to report that the acne products I bought for Mark over the summer have worked really well, his skin looks good and clear, he's happy, so I'm happy.
The both of them have started taking more interest in their appearance over the summer, so hopefully they will keep that up all year.

When they get home this afternoon, we might need to go to the store, I haven't decided yet, but I bought hurricane supplies, not actual meals, so I think I may need to go back and get some real food for dinner.

August 16, 2008

So much for that idea.

I was planning on going grocery shopping, but then the skies opened up and the heavy rains started. coming down.
And my neighbors who are moving, have parked all of their cars and trucks loaded with stuff. underneath the carport.
Yay.

August 15, 2008

Birthday dinner and shopping.

Dinner with the family was a really good time as always.
Susan and Skye were so damn cute.
Skye, who hate vegetables, actually ate one of the Chinese green beans in less than 3 minutes this time.
That's a huge accomplishment for her, even though we did have to nudge her a little with other little food treats.

Susan absolutely loved her first aid kit I gave her for her birthday.
I know that's weird gift, but she has a little animal hospital toy I gave her for this past Christmas, and it's her most favorite thing to play with.
She is also always playing doctor with all her stuffed animals, putting band-aids on people, just all kinds of little doctor bandaging fun, so when she saw the kit and opened it to all those different sizes of band-aids and eye patches, and finger splints, and butterfly band-aids, she was in little doctor heaven! It was far too cute.

After dinner, we went to the dreaded Walmart because they are the cheapest place to buy stuff, and with the state not doing the tax free holiday week like they do every year, I had to go where it was the cheapest to buy clothes.
I got the boys all their new shorts, t-shirts, socks, boxers, and new backpacks.
My sister bought their new sneakers for them to help me out.
And I managed to find a new pair of Dr. Scholl's sandals, not the same style, but they were mighty comfortable, easy to get on, and on sale.
Then we came home and Mark and Sebastian started playing the new video game Mark bought with some of his birthday money.

We'll be heading to the grocery store tomorrow morning to stock up on food and stuff.
Tropical Storm Fay is due to head this way by Tuesday, so we'll stock up on all kinds of canned goods and stuff in case the power goes out.
Later days.

August 14, 2008

Digital picture frames.

If I didn't have to still get the teens all of their clothes, shoes, and backpacks for school still, I would totally take advantage of Buy.com's weekly sale they are having right now.

They have a Nextar 7" digital picture frame on sale for just $39.99.
They are normally $120.00, so this sale price is a HUGE savings of $90 off the normal price.
I want to get two of them, 1 for each grandparent's house, and then every few months, fill up a small memory card with all new pictures, and mail it off to them with the super easy instructions for taking out the old one, and popping in the new one.
It would make it so the grandparents have fresh pictures of all of their grandkids every 4-6 months, that would play in a rotation on their desk, coffee table, or nightstand, all of the time.

It features:
* picture Rotation And Review
* slideshow Functions
* black and Acryllic Frame
* supports Jpeg Pictures
* compatible With Sd", Mmc, Ms Cards And Jump Drives

Buy.com is also offering free shipping on this item, so I could get two of them, for less than the price of one, and pay no shipping on them.
They only have a limited stock, so by the time I do get the money for them, they won't have any left, and then the price will go back up, which is my standard luck.
Oh well.
I will keep looking at the weekly deals.
I'm still waiting for them to put up HD tv antennas.

August 11, 2008

I won't be using those again.

I had to go use the bathroom, but when I got to the door, it was partially open and the light was on.
I knocked and Mark answered, I said are you almost done, and he said yeah, you can come in, I'm just cleaning my face.
So I went in to grab a couple Q-tips to clean my ears while waiting on him to leave.
That's when I saw what he was doing to his face.
He had my Rubis tweezers and was using them to pop his zits.
I screamed at him, "What are you doing?!?"
He said he was popping his pimples and using the tweezers to do it because he doesn't have any fingernails to pinch the puss out with.
I was all what????
Not only is that disgustingly gross, but so so bad for his skin.
Popping pimples makes scars, it leaves your skin with those pocks when you get older, your face looks disgusting when you are much older.

I explained all of that to him, told him to never ever pop his pimples, to just wash his face really good with the acne bar soap I bought him, then wipe his whole face down with the Stridex pads, and then to dab some of the acne cream on the pimples and white heads, with a Q-tip every night before bed.
Between doing all of those things, the pimples will dry up over night, the white heads will be gone, and the pimples that hadn't formed into heads yet, will just dry up and never turn.
So he said ok, which is what he says every time I catch him popping his zits and telling him what to actually do, and then he just does it again anyway.

But now that I've caught him getting pimple juice all over my good tweezers, I certainly can't use them again to pluck my hairs with!
So I'll be investing in another new one, and I'm thinking that I want this one this time.
These are the ones I had been using and loved.

I'm grossed out now.
*gag*

August 9, 2008

We both nearly pee'd.

After it stopped raining, Sebastian and I headed out to go to Walgreen's for my script, and Publix for some snackage and sodas.
On our way, we walked through the apartments up the street because our street doesn't have any sidewalks, and I finally got to snap a pic of the violet car.
It's not the best pic, it was taken with my cell phone, but it really is violet, I've never ever seen a car this color before in my life.
It's so purple-y fantastic!

We get to Walgreen's, and we see this mother looking at the big huge display of weight loss pills they have right at the front of the store, there's like 3 or 4 different brands on it, and she's standing there comparing them all while her son who looks to be about 12, is blowing up this big balloon.
We go out back to the pharmacy, hand her my script and my ID, and then sit down to wait the 15 minutes for her to fill it, and start people watching.
The kid has now successfully blown up his balloon, and is now kicking it up and down all the aisles of the store while drinking what looks to be a half gallon of milk.
He's going up and down, up and down, up and down each and every aisle.
Then there's this really loud *BANG!* as the balloon pops, followed by a really loud girly girl scream that came out of the 12 year old boy's mouth.
Sebastian and I are laughing hysterically, 2 old women who are in line at the pharmacy counter are clutching their chests, the pharmacist has this pissed off look on her face, and she calls for a manager to come back to the pharmacy for "a disturbance".
When the manager arrives, she tells him about the kid, and he goes off to find the kid and tell the mother he can't be doing that inside the store.
As soon as the manager is out of her eyesight, she smacks her kid upside the back of his head which sets Sebastian laughing even more now.

We get my script, and the pharmacist tells me to not take these pain pills with the pain pills that Doctor Moreno gave me on Tuesday.
I tell her I know that, and that Doc Moreno only gave me 3 days worth of pain meds until I could get to see Doc Riegel on Friday, yesterday, but I waited until today to pick them up.
She looks at her computer screen, and says oh, sorry, I thought he gave you 100 of the Lortabs, but now I see he only gave you 20 of them.
Yup, he covered me for 3 days, because my appointment with Doc Riegel had to be changed because he was in Philly all week, Friday was his first day back, and both docs are aware of what they gave me and how many they gave me.
I told her that my scripts would probably be changing in a month to the same ones I had taken back in February 2006 through May 2006, the harder stuff, I am going in for a laminectomy and fusion from C1 all the way down to T2, so she may want to go through my records and see what those were to make sure they have them in stock because last time they didn't, and I had to use a different pharmacy.
She said ok, and then typed it all up in my account file on her computer, wished me luck during the surgery, and we left.

Then we walked up the sidewalk to Publix where they are having some sort of kid's day activity things going on.
We grab the snacks and sodas we came for, and are heading out the door to leave, when one of the manager ladies that we've known for like 11 years now, calls Sebastian over to take on of the kids goody bags they are giving away.
He said he doesn't want it, it's for little kids, but she gives it to me and says there are snacks in it they she knows he'll like.
So I take the bag and we leave and start going through the little bag.
There's a coloring book, an activity book, a notepad, some crayons, a balloon, (aha! this is where that kid got it!) an apple, a mini Slim Jim, and a small bag with what looks like one Publix bakery sugar cookie, and a ziploc bag with some popcorn.

I tell Sebastian I want the apple, and he can have the Slim Jim and the cookie.
I think it's a totally fair deal, he gets 2 snacks, I get 1.
Well he opens the bag with the cookie in it, there are 2 of them, and he starts laughing that he got 3 items to my 1 item, that he got the better deal.
We're now about half way up Clark Road walking back home, and he is laughing like a maniac, his face is beat red, he can barely breathe he's laughing so hard.
Then he asks me what else is the bag, I tell him, the popcorn and the crayons, coloring books and stuff, the apple I'm going to eat when we get back home, that's it.
Then I see it, he also sees it, and he reaches in and grabs it before I could.
One package of Sargento cheese and cracker dipping sticks.
I tell him that's not fair, he got 2 cookies and the Slim Jim, he's already had 3 snacks compared to just my 1, he says I can have the popcorn, I don't want the popcorn, I want the cheese and crackers.
If only you could have heard him laughing, seen his face, you would have been laughing too.
He was like a little 3 year old with the most toys, he's jumping up and down, laughing, clapping, and saying he has more than I do, ha ha, his face is red, he's choking from laughing so hard, and now I'm laughing because he was just too cute and funny, and his laugh is contagious.
We both finally had to stop walking because we were laughing so hard, and he tells me to stop laughing because he's gonna pee, and I'm already laughing so hard I feel like I'm going to pee, and then he says, "Oh crap! We have to eat all of this before we get home or Mark will want it! Mom! I'll share the crackers, we have to eat them NOW!"
He has this most serious look on his face, like it's a matter of life and death that we eat them before Mark sees them, because Mark will want them and then we won't have them.
He went from laughing so much he had to pee, to completely dead serious in just a few seconds, and he starts ripping the the cover off the package and shoving a cracker stick in the cheese and forcing it in my mouth right there in front of a little shopping plaza on Clark Road as cars are whizzing by and people are staring at us.
The whole scene just cracked me the hell up, I was now laughing so hard that I had to pee something fierce, then he starts laughing again and crossing his legs telling me to stop or he was going to pee himself, he has little tears running down the corners of his eyes, and I could not stop laughing.
So there we both are, standing there all bent over and laughing hysterically, both of our faces are red, we're both choking and inhaling rapidly trying to breathe through the laughter, right in front of all of these people who are just staring at us big time now, like we're a couple of crazy people.
They were laughing at us which embarrassed Sebastian, but he just kept laughing even more.
Every little thing set him laughing harder and harder.
I finally composed myself enough to start walking again, he's behind me, and I can hear him giggling like a lunatic all the rest of the way home.
We get in the door and Mark comes to greet us and find out what all the noise is, and Sebastian just flies past him to the bathroom, doesn't close the door all the way, and we can hear him in there still laughing crazily while he's peeing, which made me start laughing again.

OMG, I haven't laughed like that in ages, just silly nonsensical laughter, and it was awesome.
I needed that.

August 9, 2008

Of course it's raining.

I have to go out today, I have to get to Walgreen's, and it's coming down so freaking hard out there right now.
It's been going like this since early this morning.
I really hope it lets up soon, I have stuff I have to go do.

August 3, 2008

Now I need new sandals.

Thanks to Kali and Shahiro, I now have to buy new sandals.
See, they are always rubbing on, licking, and chewing on my sandals whenever I come home from anywhere and take them off.
I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it may have something to do with my diabetes.
When I get even a little bit sweaty, my skin smells very sweet, like candy almost, it's weird, I've heard it's not a good thing to smell like that, but it's not an unpleasant smell at all.
I find it rather pleasant myself.

Anyway, the two cats have rubbed on, licked on, and chewed on my sandals, so when I was at the grocery store I was having problems.
I couldn't figure out why my right one felt so weird, it just didn't feel right, and I was so busy walking around and getting what I needed, I didn't stop to take a look until we were almost done.
I finally looked down and the left side of one of the sandal straps on my right one, was completely unattached!
I couldn't very well leave it like that, it was driving me crazy, so I had Sebastian undo the stitching on the other side of the strap and take it off.
I placed the strap into my purse, and maybe I'll fix it or just go and buy some new ones if I can remember where I got them.
They are Dr. Scholl's, and they were so so comfy!
I loved these sandals!

I can't be having the kitties destroying my shoes all the time, so maybe I could find and take them to some kind of sneaky vet or a charlotte north carolina dentist, and get their little incisors filed down or coated in like rounded plastic caps or something.
I can't lose good and comfy shoes and sandals because they like the taste of my sweet sweaty feet.

August 2, 2008

Why me? No really, why me?

My neighbors will be moving, yuppers, gone in just a few short weeks.
Not only will it be good to be rid of them, but also rid of some of their friends.

One of them, her name is Nikki, is always coming to my door trying to sell me stuff, like yard sale type items, but she personally goes door to door trying to unload them.
She just brought over some crib bedding and asked me if I'd like to buy it seeing as I have kids.
For the millionth time, I told her that yes, I do have kids, but they are almost adults now, I have no use for crib bedding.
Oh, she says, I forgot.
Yeah, ok Nikki.

It will be really nice to get rid of the whole lot of them.

July 24, 2008

So that's where all my shirts went!

I decided to start going through Sebastian's clothes first today.
I had to dig through all of the clean clothes piled up on top of his dresser first, then I could get into the drawers.
We ended up with 2 big garbage bags of clothes that no longer fit him, and all of them are still in good shape, so I'll be donating all of those to the Goodwill.

But as I was going through his clothes, I found out where all of my missing company logo shirts had gone to.
He swiped them.
Over the last few years, I've gotten quite a bit of free t-shirts from various blogging companies, a few forums I'm a member of, and a whole bunch of t-shirts with movie and band logos on them.

Every time I did the laundry and *know* I had washed, dried, and folded those shirts, and placed them in my pile on top of the dryer until I would go to put them away, they vanished.
I was never really sure where they went, but I would always see him wearing one of them every so often during the school week, but he would always say he was just borrowing it for the day, he wouldn't take it again once he put it in the laundry basket.
But I never did get them back.
All totaled, I found 17 of my shirts in his dresser drawers.

When I looked at him after adding another one of my shirts to the pile I was taking back, he just smiled and got a little red in the cheeks, then threw his arms around me and said I was his homie.

July 24, 2008

Time to sort it all out.

With a month left to go before school starts, it's time for me to go through all of the teens clothes and shoes they currently have, and figure out what fits, what's still in good shape, what doesn't fit but is still in good shape that can be dropped off at the Goodwill, and to figure out what exactly they will need to start school.

I have this tall standing wine rack that I got from Publix a few years ago, they were getting rid of it, it was a display rack, so I took it and instead of using it for wine, I've been using it for shoes.
It makes an awesome shoe rack, see?

It's a bit messy right now, it's covered with old jackets that are too small and need to be donated to Goodwill as well, there's some shoes on there in great shape that no longer fit, we can donate those too, and there are about 8 pairs of shoes on the floor under and around it, that the teens have just dropped on the floor instead of putting on the shoe rack.
*eyeroll*
So I need to have the teens go through all of those shoes and jackets, try them all on and find out what fits or doesn't, then bag up everything that doesn't and donate it all.

There's a pair of boys soccer cleats on that rack that Sebastian wore maybe 3 or 4 times for a summer soccer program 2 years ago, and they are in incredible shape, they are practically brand new, and if someone wants them, they can have them.
I'd be happy to send them to a mom whose kid is doing soccer and needs some cleats.
They are Nike Versatract, US size 7.
You can click for a bigger picture to see just how good of shape they are in.

They retail for about $25-$30, and they are really like brand new so if anyone is interested in them, contact me.
First come, first get.

July 23, 2008

On the edge of 17.

Mark will be turning 17 on August 15th.
It's so hard for me to believe because I remember like it was yesterday bringing him home from the hospital after giving birth, how small he was, I remember every little detail of him over the last 17 years.
My baby boy is almost a man, well, he's already man-sized, standing at 6foot 2inches tall, broad shoulders, a deep and booming voice that confuses people when he answers the phone. *laughs*
He's a great kid young man, despite the fighting with his brother, despite the rolling eyes he gives me, he's just an awesome human being.
Smart, caring, compassionate, a free-thinker.
He's way cool in my most humble mom opinion.

Anyway, (stop recalling his kid cuteness before I make myself cry) his birthday is coming up and all he wants is money.
That's typical of most teenagers, they want cash so they can go and buy their own things, so he doesn't have to politely say thank you for that sweater that a great aunt spent 2 months knitting for him, so he doesn't have to hurry up and make a list of things he might want, and also so that not one single person has to pay the full price of a video game he wants.
He said if everyone gives him like $20 bucks, then he can add it all up and get a couple of games, or just one game and put some money away for something else he wants, or to go to the movies or whatever.
I'm cool with him just wanting cash, it works for me so that I don't have to go hunting for that game he wants at busy back-to-school shopping time with hundreds of frantic mothers and screaming kids yelling they don't want to try that on, or hoping that it gets shipped in time for his actual birthday.
Cash works, cash is good.

But I do know that we'll be going to the movies that day.
It's on a Friday, and it's also opening day for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the first ever animated Star Wars film from LucasFilm. (click that link to watch the trailer)
He doesn't read my blog too often, so I think I can safely say what I'm planning to do.
I'm going to go to Buy.Com and and see if they have one of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars Visual Guide books as part of their 10% off the price of Amazon books promotion they are running, and if they do, I'm going to order it within the next two weeks, and give that to him on the morning of his birthday.
Sort of a hint kind of gift. *wink*

I'll give him a card with cash in it too, just like he asked for, and then I'll go hop in the shower, get dressed, and then tell both of the teens to take showers too, tell 'em we will be going out for dinner like we always do on their birthdays, so they need to be cleaned up and ready to go when Aunt Jo gets here after work.

Then I'll have to make up a reason to leave the house at a little before noon, tell the cabbie over the phone to take us to the mall but not say anything when he actually picks us up, and then take both of them to the theater for a matinée showing of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
I know he wants to see it, he's a huge Star Wars fan, and he's been talking about this new animated movie for several months now.
He has a good-sized collection of Star Wars action figures, and even though he no longer plays with them like he used to do when he was younger, he still keeps them in really great shape, all tucked away in a box nice and neat, and he has never opened that collector's edition Boba Fett I got him about 4-5 years ago for another one of his birthdays.

I kinda want to see it too, I have always liked the Star Wars films myself, and I'm really curious as to why the MPAA gave it a PG-13 rating for sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language and momentary smoking.
When did they start giving movie ratings based on smoking!?
Over the last few years, I've really taken issue with a few of the MPAA's ratings of some films.
I just don't agree with some of them, and what good do they really do anyway if you go to see a really dark, really violent, rated 'R' movie late at night, and there are parents who bring really small children, like kids under the age of 7, and babies(!), and these kids are scared, crying, and throwing a fit because what they are seeing is terrifying them, and the parents, instead of getting their kids and leaving, tells the kids to shut up because they are watching the movie?!
Babysitters people, babysitters.
And if you can't afford a sitter, then don't go to the movies until you can afford one.
Not only is it cruel to subject your children to images and sounds that will give them nightmares for the next 2 months, but it's not fair to every other person in that theater who specifically waited for a late showing so they could avoid screaming and crying children who are totally ruining their movie going experience that they paid a lot of money to go see.

July 23, 2008

No Tax-free holiday in Florida this year.

Source

State lawmakers decided against the tax break, saying the state couldn't afford it.

Finding clothes you like is the easy part, but paying for them is getting a little tougher. The week-long sales tax holiday won't be giving shoppers a break this year.

"The state of Florida gets almost all of its money from sales taxes. Sales tax revenues are down, down, down. As a consequence, we can't afford to pay our bills. And so this little holiday amounts to a significant amount of money, and this year frankly, the state of Florida just couldn't afford it," says Representative Keith Fitzgerald.

The sales tax holiday simply suspended paying state sales tax on any back to school items like clothes, shoes, backpacks, and all school supplies, under $50 each, to make back-to-school shopping a little easier on Sunshine State parents.
The state has decided to suspend the sales tax holiday this year because the state needs the money.
Well if the state didn't spend our tax revenue dollars on stupid crap, they wouldn't have to do this to parents who struggle to get their kids ready to go back to school.

This news is definitely sucky.
I have two teenagers who go back to school in about a month, and I have a lot of clothes, shoes, and a ton of supplies to buy for each of them.
It was always hard doing the back to school shopping anyway, it costs a lot to get kids ready to go back, and now it's going to hurt Florida parents even more.
Right smack in our wallets.
Ouch.

I know I'll be doing some major price comparisons before going to any stores.
I'll be going through sales flyers looking for the best and lowest prices, checking out all of the sales and comparing each store against one another for the best possible prices.
Two kids in high school with huge lists of expensive items, not to mention the new shoes and clothes they both need as they have both grown a lot over the summer, is going to be very hard.
I'll probably be going store to store, buying items at each store that has the best prices.

Hang in there Florida parents, let's hope the teachers won't ask for any big-time expensive items this year.

July 22, 2008

Can it be replaced? Please?

Mark didn't mow the lawn yesterday because it started to rain a little bit, so he had to wait until this evening to do it.
And then the rip/pull cord on the mower broke.

We had to borrow the neighbors lawn mower in order to finish our front yard.
So can the rip cord things be replaced, or do I have to buy another mower again?
The mower itself is still in good condition, the cord just broke, and it's now inside the cord storage area thing, I can't pull it out to tie the two ends back together, or even if it can be tied back together.
Do they make cord repair kits?
Is it it even called a lawn mower rip cord repair/replacement kit?
Help!!!!

July 21, 2008

I need an awesome HDTV antenna!

I am still searching for a new and really good/powerful HDTV antenna for our house because of the switch to all digital broadcasting that's coming in February 2009.
The antenna I have isn't strong enough to pull in the digital signals through the concrete walls of our duplex.
I search all the different on line shopping sites, and I'm constantly checking out Buy.com to see if they ever have one on sale as part of their weekly deals.
So far, no such luck, but I'm going to keep checking because this is something I really need to have because we don't have cable, I refuse to pay for cable, so yeah, I need to get a good one before February.

So as I was checking out their weekly sale looking to see if they had one, I spotted something I would like to have.
Some Panasonic noise canceling headphones.

I love my little earbuds, but I can still hear everything even when my mp3 player is cranked all the way up, so some new headphones that would cancel out, block out all the noise, would be really awesome.
I'm so tired of listening to the blip blip blip of the video games, the bickering back and forth, the conversations that take place in game, it's all just getting on my last nerve.
There's something like just 3 weeks left until the end of summer vacation, and I know I'll make it through, but the noise.
Oh the noise!
I just want to be able to stop hearing it all, and 3 weeks just seems like such a long time when you're already feeling slightly crazy from all of the various game playing sounds.

They have them for a really good price too, like an awesome price. They have knocked off $125 of the price, and are selling them for just $75.
That's an awesome deal, but I really need to save as much money as I can for the new antenna and other things we need.

July 17, 2008

It's the small things that amuse me.

The other day when Sebastian and I went grocery shopping, I finally bought a new plunger.
Yes, a new plunger after 10 years of living in this house.
The plunger we had seemed to not be working anymore, the rubber plungy part was old, stiff, and starting to crack a bit, so I bought a new one for just $2.99.

We did need a new one, not just because the old one was broken, but because that morning when I took my shower, I noticed the tub was not draining as normal while I showered, and even after getting dressed, it still wasn't drained.
I came back from the store and it had finally gone down, but I ran the water because I knew it was clogged and I didn't want to hear either one of the teens complaining that it was clogged.
"Mom! The tub is clogged up! What am I supposed to do?!"
*eyeroll*

So I ran the water to about ankle deep and started plunging away with the new cheap-o plunger.
It had a really tight seal, like really tight, I had a hard time breaking the suction from the tub a couple of times, but once I got a few reps of plunging done, the water drained out of the tub like it had been blasted with some sort of air tools pipe cleaning thingamabobber.
I was shocked.
The water in the tub has never gone down that fast in all the years we've lived here.

Then just now as I was washing my hands at the bathroom sink after peeing, I noticed how slow the sink drain was not draining, and decided to try out the super cheap plunger on the sink drain which has been the bane of my existence since living in this duplex.
Drain-o, Liquid Plumr, special stuff you sprinkle in the drain at night and it eats away the gook, all of it has gone down those pipes, and all of them would work for a few days, so I tried the new plunger.
7 plunges with a sink halfway full, and then I watched.

It went down in a flash!
Yay!
I don't know what kind of magic powers this $2.99 plunger was made out of, but I'll be damned if it isn't the best little plunger in all the world!
I will take care of it, I will keep it clean and in a safe spot, I will love it and call it Dave.
Dave the cheap plunger is my new bestest friend appliance in all of my house.

July 15, 2008

Keep on dropping.

Sebastian and I went to do the grocery shopping late this afternoon before the rains kicked in.
About an hour after we got back, it started and hasn't stopped yet.
I was quite happy to see that some prices have dropped on some foods though.
Bread has dropped .40cents in a week, we got some good deals on ground beef this week at just $1.99 per pound, bananas were on sale too.
I hope the food prices continue to drop, having to buy groceries every week is becoming super expensive.

While we were going up and down every aisle, Sebastian found a gold chain on the floor.
The stamp on it said 18k, and it was a very nice chain, about 20inches in length, a necklace.
It looked like the clasp broke, and it was very light feeling,so whoever lost it probably didn't even know it fell off.
He took it up to the service desk and turned it in, they thanked him and took it in the cash office in case someone comes looking for it.
Then we called a cab and had to wait bout 40 minutes for it to get there.
The driver they sent for us never showed up, so Sam had to send a totally different cab to get us.
I bought 2 more cloth grocery bags again, so now we have 4 of them.
It is amazing how much they can hold too.
You can fit the equivalent of the contents of 3 of the plastic shopping bags in each one, and they aren't heavy either.
They have a fold down hard bottom, so the weight of the food inside gets balanced out evenly.

I rented the Tin Man miniseries from Netflix, so we're watching disc 1 right now.
It's pretty good so far, I rented it because it got some decent reviews.
It was a 4 part miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel.
I'll post my thoughts about it after we watch the whole thing.

July 12, 2008

Birthday shopping for Mark.

Mark turns 17 this coming August 15th, it's so hard to believe my first baby boy is almost a fully grown up man.
He's 6 foot 2 inches tall, built like a linebacker, and just a really super awesome young man.
I'm so proud of the person he has become.
He's kind and caring, compassionate, generous, respectful, all the things moms want their sons to grow up to be, I really couldn't be more pleased with who he has become.

I've started looking around for the perfect gift to get him, to let him know how special he is to me, something he can have and use for a long time.
I don't want to just get him another video game, or give him money so he can buy another video game or just blow it on crap like most teenagers do.
So I got to thinking I'd like to get him a watch, a really nice one, not some cheap thing either, a really nice timepiece he can have and wear, and then hand down to his son someday.

So I went on a search for watches finding many sites with many nice ones, and one of my Google searches took me to a link for an AP Royal Oak watch.
I really like the way they all look, but my word, I'd have to win the lotto to ever afford one.
One of the watches I found had a buy it now price of $121,500.00.
!!!
I was all no freaking way could a watch ever cost that much, I know some do, but I just thought that price was far too much money for that particular watch, so I went to the watchmaker's website and I was right.
That watch brand new is only $25,500, and that ebay seller is seriously marking up the price.
It is a limited edition, but if the real site has it for a much lower price, then anyone who buys that watch at over 100 grand, is stupid.

I can't afford an AP watch, but I will find him a really nice one that I can afford.
I think he deserves something nice so I'm going to keep looking.
I know what I can afford to spend isn't really a lot compared to most people, but if anyone finds a really nice looking watch for about $150 or maybe a bit more if it's a really nice one, please let me know ok?
Thanks.

July 12, 2008

Saving junk.

I love watching the antiques roadshow on PBS.
Today's episode, they were talking about old beer bottles and beer cans, and how much they are worth.
They even had a lady who saved a bunch of wine bottles like from being part of some wine of the month club, and she thought they were worth a lot of money.
They were indeed old wine bottles, but they weren't worth anything at all.
She was a bit disappointed, but at least she knows she can throw them away now, they guy told her they'd never be worth anything.

But this show always gets me thinking about all of the things the boys hold onto and they hope it will be worth something someday.
Mark has, saved away in a box and airtight plastic bag in my closet, the entire baseball card collection of the very first season of the Power Rangers.
He has every single card in the series, even the holographic special ones which were pretty hard to find.
He's convinced that this collection will be worth a lot of money someday, and I honestly don't know.
They are all in really good shape, he never played with them, just collected them and organized them by number.
Maybe they will be worth something someday, I have no idea, but I'll keep holding onto them for him and maybe someday they will be.
I'm sure most kids got their cards and played with them, mothers probably tossed them out when they found them on the bedroom floors, or they got ripped up and stuff, so it's hard to say just how many full sets are still out there.

July 11, 2008

They have their own.

The teens need to leave my mp3 player alone!
Both the boys have their own mp3 players, but they like mine, or is it the music I have on mine?
Nah, can't be that because I put all the same mp3's on their players as well.
I have a Sandisk Sansaclip mp3 player, it's only a 1gig, but it's an incredible little player, very easy to use.
While I was browsing around Buy.com's weekly items they for sale, I noticed they have an 8gb Sandisk Sansa mp3 player for just $20 more than mine cost!
That's an incredible bargain!

The Sandisk players are so so easy to use, you just connect it to your pc through the USB cord it comes with, and add your music by drop and drag, or copy files to the location.
To charge it, just leave it hooked up, it charges through the USB, so no having to buy batteries for it.
The menu controls are easy to use, it has a really bright screen so you can read it in any light, and the volume controls are easy to manage too.
The 8gb has video and picture capability unlike the 1 gig, so you can store your pictures on it, even videos, and watch them at a decent playback rate.
It can play mpeg, AVI, DAT and quicktime, ASF, WMV and VOB formats too.
Pretty much any format your video is in, it will play it.
Heck, my pc can't even play all those formats unless I convert them first.
It also has an FM tuner/recorder and a voice recorder in case you want to record some notes for yourself.

This is a really good deal at just $59.99, and if the teens didn't already have mp3 players, I'd snag a couple of these up for them and put them away for Christmas.

July 10, 2008

Green bags are cheaper than the food that fills them.

Right about now I could use one of those walk in tub things where you sit down and the door keeps the water in, but you're not like laying in the tub because I actually can't.
Yeah.
Shopping with Sebastian seems to be getting harder, or is it more annoying?
I think it's becoming more annoying.
He questions every little thing I purchase, has to know what it's for and why.

Today's annoying all through the whole store question was, why was I buying those cloth shopping bags.
Well dear have to know everything son, all the plastic bags are gunking up the planet, and because they are only .99cents.
I figure if I buy 2 bags every time I go to the store, by the end of summer I'll have more than enough to use no matter how much shopping I have to do.
I hate the colors they come in, brown and this bright green color, but they'll do.

I'm just so tired now because it was so hot out, and the store didn't even feel cool inside and I'm sure the AC was on, but man, it was just sticky in there.
Oh, and the prices on everything just seem to be getting higher and higher.
I swear to you, just last week, on Thursday when I went shopping, Scott 4 roll pack of toilet paper was $2.99.
Today it was $3.55, an increase of .56cents in just one week.
Totinos frozen pizzas that used to be 4 for $4, are now 4 for $7.00.
I didn't buy any this week, I usually buy a couple because the teens can cook them for themselves on nights when I just can't move, but at that price, nope.
I bought the cheapest lunch meat that was on sale, and some Peter Pan peanut butter that was buy 1, get 1 free, and a jar of jelly, and 2 loaves of bread.
They will learn to love pb&j if it kills me.
And I'm really upset that they've been advertising this ice cream like a gazillion times a day, and when I went to buy it they didn't have any.
I know I don't need it, trying to lose weight and all, but it sounds so so tasty.
I guess I should be happy they didn't have any.
My ass certainly doesn't need it.

July 10, 2008

The lazy blurry days of summer.

During the summer, I can't seem to keep track of the days.
We don't have to get up at a set time to be anywhere, so all of the days just sorta blur.
I realized about an hour ago it was Thursday, I honestly thought it was Friday for some reason.

Anyway, the teens slept in a bit later today, and I haven't done much of anything myself except for another load of laundry, and a wash of the dishes.
I've cleaned practically every room of the house so far this week.
I'm keeping track of my new doctor-approved diet plan on my personal about me blog, and cleaning and staying busy is one of the side effects of the Zylene.

In a little while, Sebastian and I are going to head on out to Publix to pick up some food and other household products we need.
I've been on a cleaning spree so I need some more cleaning supplies.
We definitely need some milk, more lunch meats, bread, tp, cat food etc etc.
I'm going through twice as much food as normal because of them being home.
I don't mind them sleeping late at all, because the longer they sleep, the less food they are eating. hee hee
So I need to go hop in the shower and fix my humidity frazzled hair, and then we can go.
I need to double check my shopping list too, see if I have any coupons I can use, and then off we'll go.

July 7, 2008

Back to school readiness.

The teens go back to school on August 18th, so between now and then, I have to get everything in order.
Health physicals need to be done, eye exams, hearing tests etc.
Things like vision and hearing can be genetic, so it's important to get the teens tested every year for those problems.
Sebastian already wears glasses, so it's time for him to get another exam and a new prescription if it's needed.
Mark will need to be checked to see if his vision is still 20/20.

He has vision like a hawk.
He can read street signs several blocks away, people crossing the street on foot at night in dark clothes, great, great eyesight.
I hope it stays that way for him.
Both Sebastian and I have to wear vision correctors, Sebastian with his glasses, and me in my contacts.
Sebastian would like contacts, but he's very afraid of putting anything near or in his eyes still.
It takes awhile to work up the nerve to do it yourself that first time, and even the first few times.

I need to have their spines checked out too.
Their primary doctor can do the scoliosis exam as part of the physical, and I know how to check it as well.
You should always have your child stand facing you, not away from you, and have them bend forward like they are going to touch their toes.
From the front view, not only can you see if there is a rib hump, but any shoulder unevenness as well, because their fingertips will not be level if there is a curve.

I need to get them measured for correct shoe and clothing sizes, and then wait for the school to wait until the last possible minute to tell us what supplies they will need.
There is nothing more annoying than getting that list the first week of school.
The tax free shopping week is already over by then, so now everything we have to buy is at full price with no tax break discounts.

I usually do buy all the basics during that week though.
Pens, pencils, binders, folders, reams of paper, and the backpacks etc.
It's the specialty items that we never know about until later, and those are usually the most expensive and the ones we could really use the tax break on.
I really wish Sarasota County would force these teachers to have their lists ready for the tax free shopping week.
It's not fair that we have to wait to buy the $50 calculators and other expensive items that first week of school after just spending a ton of money on everything else.
And if we don't get the items they request that week, the kids lose points.
How fair is that?!

July 5, 2008

Climb, slide, and crush.

Today when my sister Jo brought Mark back home, she picked us all up in her new car, and we went to grab lunch at McDonald's and let the girls play in the indoor play-place.
She traded in her Chrysler Town n' Country Minivan for a new Mazda5.
It's better on gas mileage, and it has enough seats, as many as the minivan did, so that we can all go out together and not be cramped in a tiny little car.
It's really nice, have you seen these?
They look very small from the outside, but the inside is just as big as her van was.
It's kinda crazy how that is, but I swear it's the same amount of room on the inside.

They completely remodeled the McDonald's on Bee Ridge road.
It's been done very nice, and it's much cleaner than the old one they had at this location, and oh so much better with the indoor AC.
I rarely get to see the girls, so it's always nice to spend even just a couple of hours with them and watch them laughing and having fun.

Susan on the slide.

Skye climbing up the tunnel stairs.

Then we went over to Big Lots to see if they had any good and sturdy bunk beds for the girls.
They didn't, but they did have a really nice glider/rocker office chair, that I want.
Most chairs have lumbar support, that bulge in the back cushion at the bottom which is good for most people but not me.
This chair doesn't have that, it curves in at the bottom.
It was so comfortable, and only $159.00, so I might have to go back there this week and pick one up.
It was beige suede microfiber too, very soft, and the color matches my sofa and love seat.

They also had a ton of other stuff, I've only ever been to a Big Lots once before and it was just disgusting inside, so it was nice to see this one was neat and clean, organized, and the staff was busy helping people and cleaning things up.
They even had an electronics department, and if you don't know what a Big Lots is, it's basically an outlet store of items from all kinds of stores that either didn't sell the items or the package was damaged during shipment to it's original store, so some of the electronics boxes looked a little banged up.
I saw printers, cameras, desktop pcs, laptops, something that looked like a used cisco router because the box was so banged up, but we were in a hurry so I really couldn't check it out more, ethernet cables, headphones, mp3 players, so so much stuff, and it was all way under price from most electronics stores, like way cheap.
When I go back for the chair, I'm going to make sure I have just a little bit more time to at least look around the electronics department.
I won't buy anything, I don't need any computer stuff right now, but I want to look and see what they have in case I ever do need another part so I can go there first before going to a specialty store and spending too much money.

July 4, 2008

Perfect every time.

It is so far, a nice quiet day here.
Mark will be going to my sister's house for the night, Sebastian will be staying with me, and I'll have to figure out what the heck to cook he and I for dinner.

I have the most awesome recipe for sweet n' sour chicken poured over rice, but every time I make it, the boys refuse to eat the rice.
It's because I am probably the only person alive who can screw up instant rice.
I love rice, and I know the boys do like it, they eat it elsewhere, so I know it's the way I personally cook it.
So maybe if I had one of those rice cookers, I wouldn't mess it up so bad.
Lucky for me, Buy.com has one on sale this week as part of their weekly deals.

They have a Fujitronic 10-cup electric rice cooker, for just $26.99
The regular price is $54.99, so that's a huge $28 dollar savings.

It comes in either a flower or turtle pattern, and is a multi-function use pot. It can make perfect rice, porridge, or soup. Has an automatic keep warm function, a non-stick inner pot for easy cleaning, and helps make even terrible rice cookers like me, be able to cook perfect rice every single time.
At the sale price, it is definitely something I can afford to pick up, and then maybe the teens will eat my most awesome sweet n' sour chicken with rice dish.

July 3, 2008

It's a bit of a challenge.

First, I just want to give a screaming loud shout of thanks to Christine for installing MT version 4.12 for me over on my new blog.
It still doesn't have a name yet, but battles were never won in just a few short hours!

I swear, getting a whole new blog and an upgraded CMS, is like buying tons and tons of discount furniture and trying to cram it all into a tiny little house.
You just had to have it because the price was so dang good, but now it's going to take a few days to fit it all in the house the right way.
Version 4.12 is not like the version of MT this blog uses.
This one is still using 3.35, and I'm completely used to it, it's like a perfect fitting glove.
4.12 does things a whole lot different, and it's going to take me a few days, or a few weeks, to get the hang of just what it is they've done with everything.
For the life of me, I cannot switch up the sidebars.
I messed with it for like 2 hours I think, and got nowhere.
Oh well.
I will have plenty of time tomorrow to learn things.

Sebastian decided to go home with my sister tonight because Matthew has invited him back over to play again tomorrow, and it's just easier for Jo to take him home with her, than it is to try and pick him up really early in the morning again.
He will be home tomorrow night though.

Mark and I went and did the shopping, ate dinner, and watched a bit of tv, and now he's playing his video games again.
It's all good, he earned that play time tonight.
He picked up, carried, and put away all the heavy stuff from shopping, and then he changed out the litter boxes, took out the trash and recycles without me asking him to do any of it, so yeah, play on young man, play on!

Ok, I really need to go catch up on some work and stuff, and then maybe try and learn some more new stuff.
Later days!

July 2, 2008

We're all busy tomorrow!

I was getting ready to head out right after dinner to do a little grocery shopping and to stop at Walgreen's for a few things, and to see if they had any lipovox so I could check out the ingredients after one the girls on the local forums posted about taking it and it's helping her lose weight, and just as I grabbed my purse, it started down-pouring.
It figures.
I'll just have to try again tomorrow after I get home from the doctors.

Sebastian will be gone all day tomorrow, he's going to work with my sister so he can spend the day with his friend Matthew again.
Matthew is the brother of the boy Greg, that my sister takes care of.
Sebastian and Matthew get along so well, they both like the same video games, the Sims, and Cary (Matthew and Greg's mom) takes them to the mall and let's them go to the movies and stuff.
The two boys always have such a good time together, so I never say no when Matthew asks if he can go over.
It's up to Cary and my sister, but they hardly ever say no.
I'm just glad that Sebastian has a really good friend he can go do things with this summer.
Things in the neighborhood haven't been so good over the last few weeks.
I can't remember if I posted about that yet or not, but I'll check my archives and if not, I'll post about that later.

Mark is going with his Big George tomorrow at 11am, so when I get back and he gets back, I'll take him to the store with me.
I have to have someone go with me because I can't lift the bags of cat litter and cat food, etc.
And then we'll just cab it back and he can carry all the heavy stuff in, and help me put it away.
Mark isn't a fan of grocery shopping, but he has no choice tomorrow.
Heh.

I wanted to also tell you all to go check out my sister's blog.
It's called Jo's Mojo, and even though she doesn't post often, she does post some pretty cool stuff.
She's getting better at blogging each time she posts. (she'll get the blogging bug, everyone does )
You just have to go see what her and my niece Susan are doing!
It's a little project for a plant nursery so she can make a few bucks when the neighborhood she lives in has this HUGE community yard sale, and as a way to do fun and crafty things with the girls.
Go check it out, she took some awesome pictures of their progress step by step.
Most of the pictures are clickable for bigger so you can really see the stuff.
Check out the mean faced tree!
My niece Susan just loves to do stuff like that, she loves to be helpful, and she is just too darn cute in some of those pictures!

June 27, 2008

Coral and over cast.

My medical tests went off without a hitch, and much faster than the estimate they had given me.
They said it would take any where from 2.5 hours, to a possible 4+ hours.
I went in at 10:30am, and was out by 12:15pm.
I really, really liked the seated/open MRI machine.
That was awesome.
They had a huge flat panel tv in the room with it, it was on the Fox news channel, *gag* but eh, it was better than nothing.
They did my neck MRI first, then I had to sit sorta sideways while they did the shoulder MRI.
Then I went in for the CT, and when it was done I went out and waited for Mindy to pick me up.

Then we stopped off at Publix really quick so I could get the cat food, toilet paper, paper plates and trash bags I didn't go get yesterday.
Just as I was heading out the door yesterday afternoon to go, it started raining a little bit.
Rather than risk getting soaked, I just waited.

I took the above picture while waiting at the medical park for Mindy.
These bushes of flowers were all over the place, and they were just so pretty and bright in today's over cast skies.
I love that beautiful coral color of the flowers.
I have no idea what kind they are, but they are just really pretty I think.

I barely got any sleep last night, perhaps 3 hours, my alarm never went off, so I woke with a quick-start panic to my day.
Mindy's clocks at her house were all off by like 20 minutes, so she was running late as well.
We had a good laugh about that though.
It's kinda funny that we both were totally screwed up this morning.

Tomorrow, both our families will be getting together to spend some time hanging out.
Maybe the beach in the morning, a little bbq in the afternoon.
The teens can all drive each other crazy playing video games.
It'll be nice to be leaving the house to do something fun, rather than the usual leaving the house to go do sucky stuff like doctor's office visits.
I need a just take it easy kind of day.
I'm always doing stuff, so it will be really nice to just chill out for a few hours.

Well, off to try and catch up on all my blog and forum reading and stuff I do with those.
Later days.

June 25, 2008

Do you straighten your hair?

I absolutely LOVE my hair when I straighten it, it is so soft and silky.
It looks awesome!
See, check it out!

Hee hee, I just love how it looks!
Anyway, if you do straighten your hair, what kind of flat iron do you use?
I have a wicked nice one that I find so easy to use, but a lot of the Tampa girls from the local forums, swear by their Chi's.
They all have a one, but a different model number.
So basically one of each of these on this page, http://www.misikko.com/fachiceflir.html.

We have several threads on the forum's 'secret' girls forum, about make-up, girly stuff, hair care items like shampoos, conditioners, styling products and flat irons.
I think I'm the only one who has a flat iron that isn't a Chi, but that's ok.
The girls are always super awesome with helpful tricks and stuff.
When I told them I finally got one, they were psyched to help me find the right styling products for me, because my hair is so thick and naturally wicked curly, they've seen it in real life, and they were always telling me to get a flat iron.
They may all use Chi's, but all the styling products can be used with all models of flat irons, and they gave me some great advice for products just right for my hair.

After they all gave me input on products they use, I went and bought the ones that the majority of them recommended, and tried them out with my hair and flat iron.
The majority of them recommended Chi styling products, and yes, they really did work awesome on my hair.
I'll have to do it again since I bought the stuff and show you, it comes out so much better now than that first time I did it.
So yeah, what kind of flat iron do you use?
Do you have a Chi or something different?
What is the best styling product you've found works best for your hair and the flat iron?

June 24, 2008

I have to switch to digital anyway.

Oh man, I really wish I had some extra money right now.
Buy.com has an awesome sale price on a Westinghouse 26inch LCD HDTV right now that I would so love to have!

A 26 inch set is the perfect size for our house, it's the same size I have right now with my regular tv.
It's a refurbished one, but that's ok, I don't need to have a brand new one, used and reconditioned is a-ok-fine with me.
Heck, the tv I have right now is used.
It was given to me by my sister's boss when they bought a new tv for their house.
And this one looks good.

The Westinghouse has a 26" screen, with 16:10 aspect ratio, and can produce 16.7 million colors with a resolution of 1366 x 768.
That sounds so saweet!

It also automatically finds and switches to the best digital source for the cleanest picture, so no more of that messing around with the remote that came with my converter box, the tv will just find the best channel for me if I choose, for example, channel 40, the local news channel, which is so hard to tune in with the converter box.
It has two HDMI inputs so that if I hook up the dvd player, it will still give me the cleanest picture.

I can't afford a new tv right now, not in the foreseeable future either, but I hope when I do get some extra money, Buy.com will have another really good deal on a digital tv.
I'd really like to have one before the analog broadcasting stops completely in February 2009.
It's so hard to tune in channels right now with the converter box.

My antenna isn't strong enough to pick up all the local channels clearly, so it gets frustrating trying to watch the local news and the picture chops up or disappears completely.
I will have either a new digital tv or a much stronger antenna before the switch happens though.

June 24, 2008

Save some, spend some.

I wish I had had some extra cash on me tonight, because Publix had this huge shelf section filled with all sorts of clearance items.
They had so much stuff on it like some really nice place mats, their cute little matching salt and pepper shakers, table cloths, candles, soaps, laundry detergent, baby items, and holiday items.
All of it marked way, way down.
I always look at the clearance section, and if there are any good deals on food items like canned foods or pastas, I snag those right up because I like to keep my cupboards stocked with the basics.
I did grab a couple different spices they had on the shelves, and I asked the manager who was stocking even more items on it, why these were all so cheap now.
He said they had decided to no longer carry that particular brand of spices and herbs any more, so they had to make room on the regular shelves for the other brands and a new brand they now carry.
I bought 4 bottles, cinnamon, oregano, basil, and garlic salt.
All 4 bottles were normally priced at $2.99 each.
I got all 4 of them for exactly $2.00
Bargain-o-rama baby!

I picked up some more lunch meats, ham and Genoa salami, more bread, a pound of burger so I could make spaghetti later in the week, and some subs for dinner tonight.
Summer is sub and lunch meat season at our house.
It's amazing how much teenagers can eat.
I just went shopping on Thursday when I g