October 18, 2009

Considering a mini.

Sebastian is doing really well in his digital design class at school, he's getting better and better at it every day it seems.
He sends me some of his projects by email while he's in class, and I reply back what I think of them.
The other day, he sent me a picture he was working on as he went, so I got to see each step of how he designs something, it was really pretty cool.

Anyway, he really wants to go to college for digital design and video game design, and he's one of 5 students being given the opportunity to be 'looked at' by a technical design school in Tampa.
At the end of every week, the students and the teacher pick the student's best project from the whole week, and they email it to the design school contact, who then sends back his opinions and critiques of each student's work.
Sebastian has been getting some really good feedback from both his teacher and the teacher at the design school, and each year a couple of scholarships are awarded to 2 students from the digital design class, so when he becomes a senior and graduates, he just might get 1 of those scholarships.
He's really excited about this whole thing, he talks about it every day practically, so I am definitely encouraging him to keep doing his best work when we talk about it and when he sends emails home from class with his projects attached.

One of the things he's also been talking about is having another computer, perhaps a netbook like this Samsung Netbook which is on sale this week for $319.95 with free shipping, but no, I can't get that one, or get one this week, but we have been talking about getting him one to bring back and forth to school.
Even though most netbooks don't have cd-rom drives from which to install the graphics programs that he uses, external disk drives are available to add on separately, and his teacher has a program that can upload the graphics programs by either USB or an SD slot.

I'm really thinking of getting him a netbook for Christmas.
He really wants one, he could really use one so that he can do his projects at school and at home.
Another reason to get him a netbook so that he can work on his projects at home, is so he wouldn't be having to take up too much computer time of the one that the teens share now.
Mark loves to play WoW on it, and he's really great at sharing the computer, he either goes and plays a video games or watches a movie while Sebastian is working on a project, having a netbook would allow the both of them to be on a computer at the same time, and Sebastian would be able to work on his stuff for as long as he wanted without feeling guilty about how much time he spends.
Right now even though the teens both share the pc time really great, Sebastian said he always feels guilty if he spends a lot of time on it when he knows that Mark wants to hop on and play.
So yeah, I'm really seriousy thinking that I'm going to buy him a netbook for Christmas.
Yeah, that would mean that I would need to get Mark something of similar value, or something that he really wants in the same price range, but it should be do-able. (keeps fingers crossed I'm not jinxing myself)
Below the cut is one of the projects that he did last week that he really likes.
I asked him to pick out which one he wanted me to put up, and he chose this one.

Continue Reading �

---

October 1, 2009

I really miss Pete.

Pete from the corner store that is.
He lost the corner store back in December 2005, and the new owners, while they are nice, they have their prices a bit steep, almost as steep as 7-11.
I had to go up to the corner store and get some cat food and stuff, I didn't feel like walking all of the way to Publix, and their charge card/debit card thingy wasn't working right.
I knew what the problem was, the guy had a girl in there talking on the phone, and the phone line is tied into the POS systems, so if you try to run a charge while someone is on the phone, it will not work.
He kept trying and trying, said he didn't know why it wasn't working, so I told him to have her hang up.
He tried arguing with me, saying that wasn't the issue, but I know from all my years in customer service that IT was the problem.
He finally relented and had her hang up, and what do ya know?
It dialed in and went through.
I told him that they should probably get a dedicated phone line for the cash register because this will happen every single time if someone is on the phone.
He gave me kind of a snotty look after that, but whatever dude.

The guy at night is not the owner, the owner only works in the morning, and he's a nice guy, but the guy at night can be a total jerk sometimes.
He always has people hanging out with him too, like I think that was his girlfriend, and there's usually a couple of guys just hanging out in there, standing around chatting with him.
The owner doesn't like that, he told me the other day that he is thinking of reviewing the security tapes because the store is never cleaned how it should be when he comes in in the morning.
I didn't tell him about all of the people hanging out at night, I figure he'll see it all on the tapes.
But yeah, the jerky guy at night is the main reason I miss the old owner Pete.
Pete was cool, it was a family business, his whole family worked there.
He kept his prices low, he was friendly, the store was clean, and there weren't ever any weird people hanging out at night.

---

September 20, 2009

Technology and internet is a beautiful thing.

I love the internet and computers, I really do.
I think that it's been like the only thing that's kept me sane these last 10+ years.
I'm like trapped in my house, so being able to get on the internet and talk to people and be able to laugh and cry, to just be with people instead of the 4 walls, chat on forums, chat with friends on Twitter, to be able to work and make some money, and also be able to shop for just the right gift for someone for their birthday or Christmas, is really just so awesome.
I used to be able to spend hours shopping in a brick and mortar store for just the right gifts, but since all of the medical crap stopped me, being able to shop and look for that special thing, is just so awesome to me.
I think a lot of people take the internet for granted, we're all so used to having it, computers are practically in every single home, most people don't realize just how truly amazing it is.
You can make travel plans, buy plane tickets, order pizza and all kinds of other food, you can play games, watch videos, listen to music, get an education, find old friends and stay in touch with everyone through email for free which is way cheaper than calling by landline or cell, heck, most people don't even have landline phones anymore.

Anyway, I do like 95% of all of my shopping online, the only stuff that I can't buy online is my groceries, and that's only because it's not available in my area yet.
Starting next month, I will begin my holiday shopping, finding the things that the teens would like for Christmas and doing a lot of comparison shopping to find the stuff on sale to make sure that I get the absolute best prices out of all of the online retailers.
For a long time now though, I've been finding the best prices at Buy.com, they are consistently lower priced on every single item I've needed, even if it's just $5bucks lower, it's still a lot cheaper because almost every single item has free shipping too.
I take shipping prices into the calculation when doing all of the comparison shopping, and they really are lower in the long run.
I've noticed that some e-tailers are selling their products at super low prices, but then they get you on the shipping and handling charges, charging what the product would normally cost + a few bucks extra, so in the long run, you're paying exactly what you would have paid for the product + shipping costs anyway.
That's not much of a sale.

I'm not really sure what they want this year, maybe some more video games for their Xbox360, maybe that Batman: Arkham Asylum, that game loos A-maz-Zing! They also have a ton of other great Xbox360 games for some really great prices, and I know that there's been a price drop on the system and most games too, so I'll probably get them games and then some clothes, or whatever they tell me that they'd like to have.
I gotta start asking them what they want to have.
They aren't little kids anymore, I don't have to be sneaky and ask them to write a letter to Santa. ha ha haha

---

September 19, 2009

Parking, pictures, teens & shopping.

I've been up all night with insomnia again, and I was super bored around 2-3-ish am, so I went outside to see if anything was up in my hood.
One of my neighbors in the duplex to my left, had a party last night, and it looks like he was a good host and didn't let anyone drive home drunk.
The driveway is full of cars, about 6 cars can fit in a straight line from door to street, and 1 of his guests couldn't fit his Mustang in the driveway, so he had to park it in the street.
With all of the sidewalk construction, he took a risk parking there, somebody might have hit it because there are still barricades and tractors, and piles of dirt and sewer drain piping everywhere.
Well he didn't want his wicked nice and shiny blue Mustang getting hit, so he made use of the construction barricades, this guy was clearly thinking with his beer brain.
This is 1 smart guy.
Uh-huh.

Yup, he put those barricades to work letting people know to not hit his pretty blue Mustang...

Till the police came by at 7:45am and wrote him a ticket for parking in a construction zone and tampering with city equipment. ha ha haha
Man, he's gonna flip when he wakes up and comes outside to sees the ticket.
The cop let me take the pics by the way, and I asked him what the fine was for the things he violated, and he told me the total ticket is $1,200.00
Ouch!
I hope the party was worth it dude. ha ha hahaha

Later on today, like this afternoon, I need to go to the grocery store and grab some more food.
I always forget like 1 or 2 crucial food items when I do the food shopping, even if I have a list and the items are on the list, somehow a couple of things always get skipped over or forgotten.
For example, I bought the super yummy Bubba burgers that we love, and forgot the buns.
Sure I could just make the burgers without the buns and use bread, but then every time I even think of doing that, I start thinking about Eddie Murphy's welfare burgers (WARNING foul language, but hey, it's Eddie Murphy...LoL) and then I am laughing so hard while making them, that I can hardly breathe or speak while trying to tell 1 of the teens to go to the corner store for burger buns.
"We got McDonalds, and you ain't got none, cuz you mommas' on welfare". LMAO!

I forgot some other stuff too, and we need more lunch meat, soda, more bread, (for mommas' big, greasy, green pepper welfare burgers HA!) and some other stuff, it's on the list that I wrote out earlier this morning after the drunk car protection and the cop thing.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you why I wasn't blogging all of that much the last few days.
I'm having this weird random body part swelling issue.
It's probably water retention, I do take a water pill everyday for my high blood pressure, so water retention might be why, but the pills usually work good so, maybe, maybe not.
Anyway, all day on Wednesday, my feet and ankles were swollen up, on Thursday, my knees were swollen up wicked bad, it like actually hurt really, really bad to try and walk, and sitting down and standing up, like having to pee and then leave the bathroom, was so freaking painful I wanted to cry!
Then all day yesterday, my hands and face were swollen.
My face wasn't too bad, I didn't look like a Campbell's soup kid, but my hands, holy crap!
My hands were swollen up so bad, like sausages in a microwave about to explode!
They were swollen and painful, they were like all tingly, so typing was out of the question.
I just laid on the couch most of the whole day until the swelling went down enough to at least use the mouse.
Once they got to that point, I was at least able to check into the forums and stuff.

It is very unusual for my face and hands to swell up like that though, my knees and feet I'm used to, they do that every few months or so, it is water weight in those areas, but the only time my hands and face ever swell up is when I've either eaten peaches or drank a juice with peach juice mixed in, or breathed in peach fuzz.
I am allergic to peaches (in case you didn't guess..haha), like really bad allergic to them, and swelling up is what happens as the allergy attack, it's like my warning sign to get some Benadryl in me, (I use the children's liquid, it works faster than the adult pills) and if I don't get some, I will have trouble breathing in about 45 minutes or so.
I usually get it and everything is ok, and last night I did take some allergy pills, I didn't have any Benadryl, and it did work, just not as fast.
The point is though, that my face and hands have never been that bad, they have never swollen up to that big and tight before.
I was really worried that the skin on my fingers was going to either crack or rip open, it was scary man.
I also have no idea what caused it, there are no peaches in the house, no peach products unless 1 of the teens brought it in, but they know what happens to me, they wouldn't do that on purpose, and I have not had anything out of the ordinary food wise, and to my knowledge, nothing where it could have been mixed in like a juice or food product.
It's very odd, I'm just going to have to be careful for awhile I think.

---

September 15, 2009

I hope he's not claustrophobic.

The ortho just called about 15 minutes ago to let me know that medicaid has approved the MRI series that Mark needs to have done.
They are doing a series of 3 all in 1 day, it will take about 2, to 2 and a half hours, and it's this coming Monday the 21st at 12:50pm, and then we'll go in on Thursday the 24th for the follow-up visit where they tell us the results.

Now that he's 18, the docs are calling and wanting to speak directly to him, not me, not his mom, they want to speak to the legal adult age Mark now.
It's kinda crazy, my baby is 18, people need to speak to him because of the legal stuff.
He's all telling them "Uh, speak to my mom, I have no idea what you just said".
That made me laugh, and then I spoke to the nurse to schedule his appointments for next week.
Mark says he's not claustrophobic, but he's never been inside of an MRI machine before, I don't think he's ever been in something that size before, and the noises that machine makes, the noise alone can make somebody feel like the machine is gonna fall apart on top of you while you're in it.
I've had a ton of MRIs and I'm still not used to the noises it makes, it's freaky, that big spinning noise followed by the big banging noise, it really is enough to freak you out.

In about a half hour or so, Mark and I are going to walk to Publix and do the grocery shopping, and then cab it back.
I waited all day to go because of how hot it is outside, the later in the day we go, the less the sun is shining down directly on us as we walk, it's starting to set, so it's not so bad walking at this time of day.
We'll go and get it over with, then come home and chill out for the rest of the night.

But things are rolling along with Mark's doc now, we're going to start taking care of this stuff ASAP, I'm so happy about that, it gives me hope that he won't have to wait for years for treatment like I had to do.

---

August 30, 2009

Suuurrre, NOW I find it cheaper.

Do you know how many of these automatic RF switches I've bought over the years at $20 or more?
Man, too many.
And here Buy.com has them on sale for just $3.49 with free shipping as they do with like 99% of their items.
Unreal man.

We've had so many different games systems and VCRs, and DVD players, and when having 2 tv sets needing these switches, I've probably bought about 7 of them in the last 10 years.
We had a Sega Genesis, a Nintendo64, a Sega Dreamcast, a PS2, and now the Xbox360, so we've had to have these switches to be able to hook everything up to the tv but through the VCR or DVD player without having to constantly get up and manually switch the cable cords, but every time we switched out a game system or bought a new VCR or DVD player, something always ended up happening to the RF switch when hooking or unhooking it.
Something would always end up snapping off either end of it, or a cat would have chewed through it*, so I had to keep buying these switches in order to keep making sure that everything ran smoothly with no hassles, cuz let me tell ya, having to switch between a game system and a VCR so the teens could watch a VCR movie when they were little, was exhausting.
They'd go from playing Sonic the Hedgehog to wanting to watch the Little Mermaid, to wanting to play Star Wars Battlefront 2.

So needless to say, we went through a lot of these switches with each new game system that I bought them.
I have sworn, no, vowed, that the Xbox360 will the absolute last game system that I ever buy them.
If they want another system, they can get jobs and buy it themselves.

Continue Reading �

---

August 30, 2009

Too hot to move.

It was too hot to go anywhere today like I wanted to do, so it will all have to wait until tomorrow.
The temp was about 90degrees, but the heat index was way up there.
It's going to be like that all week too.
Temps in the 90's with a chance of rain every single day.
We are officially in the rainy season.

I wanted to go and do the grocery shopping today, get it all over with, but it was just way too hot to go out there.
Heck, it's hot just sitting in the house with the AC on and a box fan aimed right at me from less than 4 feet away.
I'll do everything that I wanted to do today, tomorrow after I get done taking Mark to the doctor's office.
Mark has an appointment at 1:30pm with the doctor to look at his back, it's been bothering him for quite a long time now, and I am horribly worried that some of what I have has passed onto him, so I'm taking him to get checked out.
After that, we'll go the pharmacy to get 2 of my scripts filled and if the doc gives him anything, and then we'll do the shopping.
We'll just do everything in one trip so we don't waste time or have to be out in the heat for too long.

Ok, time for dinner.
Later days!

---

August 23, 2009

Hoping he won't need one.

Sebastian got into most of the classes that he wanted to take this year, guitar, introduction to engineering, and digital design 2.
He has settled on wanting to work in computers when he grows up and goes to college, do programming, game design and programming, digital design, all of that stuff that goes hand in hand until you settle in doing just 1 of those as your career.

What I'm hoping that he won't need, is his own laptop.
What he told me last year when he signed up for these classes and did not get in, is that a lot of the students who did get in had their own laptops for the digital design, programming, and engineering classes.
As usual, we don't have the class supply lists yet, so he's going to school tomorrow with a Trapper Keeper, 4 spiral bound notebooks, 1 3-ring binder, 6 folders, and a lot of pencils.

If it turns out that he does end up needing his own laptop, all I can do is hope that I can find 1 really cheap and on sale like the ones that Buy.com has on sale again this week.
They always seem to have at least 2 laptops in their weekly deals every week, and at some very good prices.

Like this week, they have an HP 250GB notebook on sale for $499.99, refurbished, but at a pretty major $400 discount.
They usually cost about $1,000 bucks.
They also have a Samsung Netbook on sale for $329.99, so I'm like really, super duper hoping, that if it turns out that needs his own laptop, that I can find a decent 1 like these 2 on sale, or maybe even something a little bit cheaper.
But I'm really hoping that he doesn't need his own, I just cannot swing it right now.

---

August 22, 2009

Dove Body Wash with NutriumMoisture

I was recently contacted by Dove to try out some of their new Dove body wash with NutriumMoisture, and they were delivered about a week and a half ago.
I received the 3 new body washes, Gentle Exfoliating, Deep Moisture, and Sensitive Skin, and I've given each 1 of them a try.

The new Dove body washes help you keep your skin's natural oils unlike other body washes and soaps which can wash it away, and instead of helping to keep your skin soft, they can actually dry it out.
Most regular body washes cause dry skin damage, yuck!
The new Dove body washes also rinse completely away, they don't leave any soapy residue behind.
They contain soybean oil, Lipids, and Glycerin, and all 3 of these help retain the skin's natural moisture, and they absorb quickly, help smooth and soften skin, and help restore hydration naturally.

They are also the #1 dermatologist recommended brand, so that let me know that I could trust these to not cause any breakouts or a rash, that they really would be good for my skin.
After giving all 3 of them a good try, I used each 1 of them for 2-3 days each during my daily showers, I've come to really like the Gentle Exfoliating 1 the best.
I have very dry skin on my elbows, knees, and feet, my heels being the worst areas, and the Gentle Exfoliating has definitely made a huge difference in not only appearance, but the texture of my heels.
They are very soft, not all dry and cracked like they were, so now I can keep wearing my flip flops without Sebastian making comments about my cracked heels.
He would always tell me to wear socks or something because of how cracked they were.
Yucky I know, but not a single 1 of the lotions that I was using were helping to stop them from being so dry and cracked.
Now they look great, feel great, and it's nice to know they don't look terrible anymore.
I really like all 3 of the body washes, but I love the exfoliating 1 the best and will be buying it when I run out of these full sized sample bottles that I received.
Thanks Dove!

---

August 22, 2009

When the lights go down in the city.

Ooooh! I found a Dorcy LED Rechargeable Spotlight on sale for just $14.99!

During hurricane season, (June 1st to November 31st) the possibility of losing power happens every time there is a hurricane or even just a thunderstorm, so I am always well stocked on batteries, flashlights and candles, lighters, etc, so that when the power goes out we can see, so we don't have to sit here in the dark until the lights come back on.
Every summer I buy at least 1 new flashlight and at least 2 packages of batteries for it and the other flashlights that I already have.
But a spotlight?!
Oh man that would be awesome to have!
Those are so bright, you can see everything with one of those.
$14.99 is a great price for it too, they are usually $30-$40 for one of them, so saving about $15 is really awesome.
If we had a spotlight, that could be the main light source, and then each of us could have our own flashlight to take to our bedrooms at night, to go to the bathroom, and to go look outside to see if there's any damage to the house, or anything that we need to pick up so it doesn't get thrown through a window, ours or a neighbors'.
I might just have to pick that up when I get paid this week.
I can definitely use it.

---

August 20, 2009

No tax-free shopping days in Florida this year.

Sebastian goes back to school on Monday the 24th, and I won't have his supply list until this Friday the 21st, but I won't have the money to get any of the "special" supplies that are asked for or required by some of the teachers, until I get paid next week, or if I get some child support this week or next Monday or Tuesday.
That is an issue/gripe/thing that I have, but I'll save it for another post.

Anyway, like I said in the post below, I have all of the basics, pens, pencils, notebooks, folders, spiral bound notebooks, loose leaf paper, colored pencils, markers, graphing paper, erasers, etc etc, because I went and did all of the supply shopping last year, and so did a friend.
A friend of mine whose son was going to be a freshman, had gone to some store, I can't remember the name of it, and she bought her son all of the supplies he needed, but the store was having a wicked major sale on back-to-school supplies.
If you bought 1, you got 1 free.
On everything.
If you bought 1 notebook, you got 1 free.
If you bought 1- 12 count pack of pencils, you got 1- 12 count pack of pencils free.
Etc etc etc.
She got her son 1 of everything that he needed, and so she gave me, for the teens, all of the extra free supplies that she got.
I'm really glad that she did too, because now I already have all of that stuff so I won't need to buy anything except for the special teacher-required items, and with no tax-free school shopping this year, money is tight for everyone in the state.
Some stores are having really good sales because of the no tax-free shopping days and sales are down 8% this year and expected to drop another 4%, so stores are scrambling to get people in the door with their own back to school sales on supplies and clothing.
Sebastian doesn't need much, he has some new sneakers already, some new shirts, some new shorts, but I want to get him at least 2 more pairs of shorts, and like 3-4 more shirts, and he needs a new backpack.
He'll be starting school on Monday, so he'll have to use his old backpack until I get paid and can buy him a new one.
I found 1 on sale at Buy.com that I really like, and it's from a luggage maker, Samsonite, so it should hopefully, last him this year and next.
Kids are so rough on their backpacks, I don't get that.
I can buy and use the same exact purse every single day for years at a time, and not get it filthy or have it end up with holes in it, but a kid can take a brand new backpack and have it disgusting and full of holes in the first 5 months of school.
It's a Samsonite Urbanite Laptop Backpack, on sale for $29.99 down from $39.99 with free shipping, and I know it says it's a laptop bag, and even though he doesn't have a laptop, the fact that it's made for laptops and by Samsonite, tells me that it's a strong and sturdy bag and should last him a good long time.
I hope.

---

August 20, 2009

A 3 hour long orientation?

Tomorrow morning, Sebastian and I have to go up to the high school, be there by 8am, for his high school orientation and tour of the new building.
It will take 3 hours and it's mandatory.

This is a picture of the new building.

In the lower left of the picture, you can see the old buildings.
It was an open plan design, meaning that all of the hallways had openings directly to the outside, not just doors, but full and wide openings.
At the end of every school day, they had huge gates that came down and locked in place to prevent anyone from entering any of the buildings.
The new building is a closed building, they said they built it for security reasons, so that people can't just walk in or out of the school.

The orientation is mandatory, if a student does not go and listen to the principal talk for 1 hour, and then take a full tour of the building for the next 2 hours, with their parents also in attendance, they cannot have their class schedule.
That's really not right, making every student and at least 1 parent, have to walk around the entire building, look in every room, for 2 hours, or they can't have their class schedule.
It's going to be very difficult for me to do, but it has to be done, so I'll be going.
I was hoping that it was going to be only 1 level, not 2 like the old school was, but nope, 2 stories.

It takes me like 2 hours every morning to get up and get moving, un-stiffen, before I can start my day doing all that needs to be done, so I'm going to have to wake up at 5am, sit down and take my meds, wait for them to start working, and then take my shower around 6am, then wake up Sebastian, have him take a shower, and then leave the house by 7:15am so we can walk to the school to be there by 8am.
I'm going to have to take a diet coke with me and 2 extra pain pills in case I start hurting bad doing all of that walking to the school, walk around the building, and then walk home.
I'm going to be dead tired, sore, and wiped out when we get back home, but it has to be done, so I'm going to try and make the best of it.

While we're there, we need to go talk to the guidance counselor because Sebastian wants to see if he can get in to poly-tech, the technical high school, instead of staying at the regular high school.
He wants to do computer stuff, programming, game design, graphic design, and he can learn all of that at the poly-tech high school.
He is probably not going to be able to get into it for this school year, admissions are closed, but he will be able to get in for next year, so we need to talk to the guidance counselor about all of that, what he needs to do this year so he can pass the admissions testing for next year.
It's what he really wants to do, so I'm going to do everything that I can to help him get there.

I'm also hoping that tomorrow, after the orientation and tour, that they give us the back to school supply list so that when I get paid again, I can get him what he needs for school.
I have tons of notebooks, pens, pencils, folders, all of the basics, but if he needs anything special, I need to know so that I can work on getting it.

---

August 16, 2009

A long and trying day.

Today was Mark's 18th birthday and I hadn't slept on Friday night, insomnia, again, so I was up and doing things in the very early morning hours.
Just doing some general clean up of the house, trying to get myself organized and ready for the day.
The teens had plans for dinner for Mark's birthday, so Mark insisted that we go grocery shopping before they leave for dinner so that I didn't have to carry, lift, and put it all away on my own, so I called and asked Mindy if she could help me out with a ride, she said yes, (thank you! Again!) and off Mark, Mindy and I went to do the shopping.
Sebastian decided to stay here this time (he usually does the shopping with me) and wait for my friend Jon to call/show up with their fixed computer.

Did I post about what happened to their computer?
It's one of the reasons we canceled/postponed our trip to Maine.
For several weeks, both of the teens had been complaining about some major lag when playing WoW, and even some lag when using the internet.
I did all the cleaning, deleting of stupid crap files, defragging, etc etc, and yet it still lagged.
I asked on the local forums what people thought could be causing the issue, and Jon replied that it was probably a blown video card, and if I wanted, he could get a brand new one, better than the one I had put in there a year ago, for way cheap and he'd install it for a wicked good and low price.
It was parts, labor, and a long drive from Orlando to Sarasota for less than the cost of the new video card had I gone and bought it myself.
I price checked video cards after his initial post on the forums about it being a blown card, and the same one he put in for me brand new, was priced at $199 and up at all of the tech stores in our area, so yeah, I got a helluva deal on the card and someone installing it for me.
He came here last Saturday, worked on it a bit, and then said he needed to take it home to fix it really good, so I said cool, he took it home, did the work, and brought it back early this evening.

When he got here, he must have wondered what was up, I looked a total mess.
I was sweating from running the vac on the rugs, doing some dishes, cooking Mark's hot wings for his birthday fave food like I do every year, and crying.
The birthday dinner plans that were made fell through.
Mark was upset but said he half expected it to happen, and Sebastian kind of lost it, so there was a lot of shouting, crying, and a lot of talking about all of the events of the last month.
It was not a good scene here, and then Jon knocked on the door while I was cleaning to try and de-stress myself while I bawled my eyes out some more.
I cannot fix what has happened, I can't make it better, and so I had to let the teens say what they needed to say, let their stress out, and Mark said something that made me feel better but horribly sad at the same time.
I'm not going to post it here, I'm just done trying to make it right when no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I show, it will never be enough, nothing will ever be the right thing or be good enough.
Every family has a black sheep, and I'm wearing the name tag.

After the computer was all hooked up and the teens were calmed down and ok, I finished making what I consider to be the best batch of super hot wings I think I've ever made for him.
1 bag of wing parts, 1 cookie sheet, 3 coats of cayenne pepper, twice baked, and then soaked in a 12 ounce bottle of the hottest sauce he picked out at the store today.
The wings were cooked so perfectly and the meat was falling off the bones, and Mark said it was the most awesome blend of hot and sweet I had ever cooked for him.
I got a thumbs up as he ate his wings and then went back for a bigger serving of seconds.
He eats his wings straight up, no ranch or blue cheese dipping sauce, just more hot sauce if he thinks he needs it, but this time he didn't add more sauce, he said they rocked as they were.
When he finished eating and I was cleaning up and putting the small amount of leftovers away, he gave me a hug and thanked me for the wings and for being a good mom to him all of these years even through some mistakes that I've made here and there along the way.
I know that it's gonna be ok around here.

After everything else was done and I finally sat down to chill out for the night, I realized that the furnace filters, I mean AC filter, was dirty again. It was so hot in here, you would have thought that I did have a furnace on with the heat cranked up to 99!
I know it was partly hot because I baked the wings in the regular oven, but as soon as the AC filter gets dirty, it stops pumping the cold air out as strong, and you notice the difference almost immediately, so I cleaned it out and it cooled off in here fairly quick.
I need to measure the washable filter that it comes with, and then I want to try and find a slightly thicker HEPA filter to put in it.
This house is so dusty, even more so with the sidewalk construction going on, that the filter gets wicked dirty wicked fast, and so I think getting a thicker, better filter might help cut down on the dusting issue a little bit.
I have to dust off the tv, tv stand, and coffee tables just about every other day, and I have to dust everything about every 4 days, that's how bad the dust gets in here.
Crazy dusty! ha ha

I just saw the clock.
It's finally not Saturday anymore.
Here's to hoping that Sunday is a better day for all of us ok?
I mean it, even if your day was rockin', I hope that today is even better.

---

July 30, 2009

I won a contest too!

Back on July 6th, I entered a giveaway at She Scribes to win an Only Hearts Club doll.
There were 139 entries and I only entered just once, that was it.
These are the super cute dolls, totally adorable, posable, and more real type of dolls, no unrealistic body figures, just real looking little girls that each come with their own pets.
I really love these dolls, they are just real dolls, no big boobs, no crazy body figures, just honest to good looking dolls that look like real pre-tween girls.

I had been talking about getting these dolls for my nieces for a long time, the dolls are just super cute, and I think that my nieces would love them, so it was such an awesome surprise to get the email saying that I won!
I went to Buy.com to see if they sold the dolls, and they do!!!
They may not be on sale right now, but they are not so expensive that I can't buy 3 of them one at a time for my nieces and their step-sister Kayla. I would never buy 1 child a doll and not give all 3 of the girls a doll too.
So even though my sister and I are on the outs, I am still going to go through with my plan to get the girls their own doll, and I'm already one up now, so whichever doll I get, I'll pick the other 2 that I don't have.

Have you ever seen these dolls?!?
They are just too cute!!
Check them out!
Kimberly of She Scribes told me to pick out 3 dolls in order of preference because there is no guarantee that I will get the one that I want first, so I had to pick 3.
So in order of preference, I chose Olivia Hope, Anna Sophia, and Lily Rose.
I don't know if the dolls will come in those exact outfits, but it really doesn't matter, I'm just excited that I won one so that I can now start buying the other 2 dolls so all 3 of my nieces can have one just like I've been wanting to do for months and months now.

So even though a lot of bad has been happening for me lately, something good has risen from it all and makes me feel better.
I can't wait to get whichever doll they send me so I can start buying the other 2 dolls for Susan, Skye, and Kayla.
I miss them like crazy, they are my girls, but if I can't see them, at least I can mail them a box full of cute dolls filled with my love for them.

So thank you Kimberly of She Scribes, you've made me very happy today, winning this is so much appreciated, I can't even express it, so really, just a huge thank you.

---

July 30, 2009

The winner of the Jessie Steele vintage apron giveaway is....

The winner of the Jessie Steele Vintage Apron in the pattern of Summer Lemons giveaway as chosen by random.org is comment #14!

And that comment belongs to...

Becca of Becca's Buzz!
Congrats Becca! I hope that you will enjoy your new apron!
I have already emailed her and she will have 48 hours to reply to my email with her shipping address or else I will draw a new winner.

I want to say a very special thanks to Single Edition and Jessie Steele for sponsoring this giveaway.
I had a ton of fun doing it, I learned some great recipes and tasty ideas from my entrants, and I look forward to having many more giveaways in the future.

Continue Reading �

---

July 23, 2009

The Goodlife Recipe pet food product review.

I had been buying the cats a fairly expensive brand of cat food for indoor older cats because Kali is now 12 and wasn't doing so well.
She started gacking (throwing up) up her food all of the time, her nose was always dry, she was lethargic and just not herself.
I took her to the vet and they told me to put her on a better cat food that had better ingredients for indoor cats.
I was buying a cat food that cost $16.99 for a 7lb bag of cat food, and with 4 cats, I was buying 2 bags per month.
She started doing better on this food, but she still didn't seem to have much energy, and her fur still wasn't as shiny and as soft as I knew it could be.

About 5 months ago, I saw a new cat food on the shelves at Publix, so I picked up the bag and a bag of the cat food that I was buying so I could compare ingredients.
The ingredients were almost exactly the same, it had the same concentration of each ingredient, and it actually had some good and wholesome ingredients that the other brand didn't have like whole grain brown rice, real vegetables, and garden greens.
The only other significant difference?
The price.
This new cat food is only $4.99 for a 7lb bag, a savings of $12.00.

Since I have been buying and feeding all 4 of the cats this new cat food, The Goodlife Recipe indoor cat formula for cats, (it is available for dogs too) all 4 of the cats are doing exceptionally well.
Kali is thriving, she no longer gacks up any of her food, her nose is always wet, she has more energy, and her fur is soft and shiny again.

Nova used to always have very coarse fur, even on the other pricier cat food, her fur was dried out, coarse, and she had dandruff.
It was really kind of gross petting her.
Now Nova's fur is soft, shiny, and beautiful, she has no more dandruff at all, and she also no longer wants to eat grass as much.
It used to be when we opened the door, she would stand there and meow until we got her some grass from the yard, she needed to eat fresh green grass to help with her digestion, not anymore, the Goodlife Recipe cat food has all of the fresh greens and vegetables she needs to be able to properly digest her food and not have any stomach upset at all.

Shahiro and Carmine are also doing very well on the Goodlife Recipe cat food.
They are happy, have soft and shiny fur, and have more energy to run around and play.
All 4 of the cats seem to be in better moods too, they are wanting to cuddle and be pet more.
I don't know if that has anything to do with the food, but it's something that I have noticed over the last few months since switching them all to the Goodlife Recipe food.

The Goodlife Recipe indoor cat food is just really a terrific cat food in my opinion, and the price really makes a heckuva difference too.
When you have to buy 2 7lb bags a month, paying a lot for pet food, especially in these tough economic times, you start questioning whether or not you can keep your beloved pets around.
Now that I'm only spending about $10.00 per month instead of $34.00 per month, I know that I can afford to keep my precious kitties with us.
So if you're struggling to keep food in your pets bowl during these hard financial times, check out The Goodlife Recipe pet foods.
They have all of the best ingredients to keep your pets healthy and happy for a fraction of the cost.
Just make sure that if you do switch your pets over, switch them over slowly by mixing the new food in with their old a small amount at a time and gradually increasing the percentage of new food to old until it's all new food in their bowl.
Switching them to a new food without doing it gradually, can make them very sick.
If you want to try out The Goodlife Recipe pet food, you can even print a coupon to get a dollar off, and considering it's already very cheap, saving an extra dollar will make you and your wallet happy.

---

July 20, 2009

Never ask what else can go wrong.

Because as soon as you ask that, something else will go wrong.
There is just so much going on around here, it's absolute chaos at times, I am completely overwhelmed at the amount of crap that I am having to deal with, and I made the mistake of asking the universe what else they felt like throwing at me, so the universe answered.

Last night, Mark went in the kitchen to get a snack, and grabbed the handle on the silverware drawer, pulled, and the whole drawer front came right off in his hand.
I was able to nail it back in place, I need to get some wood glue and some small vice grips to hold it in place until the wood dries.

Today, Mark went in to take a shower, slipped, and he so he grabbed the hand-held shower hose to keep himself from falling.
He didn't fall or get hurt, thank goodness, but the hand-held shower broke.
It snapped right at the screw on part of the hose, snapped it right in half.
I luckily, still had the old shower head, it sucks, it's a low flow and can't be moved, but at least we will still be able to take showers until I can go and buy a new hand-held shower head.

It's just one thing after another around here, it just keeps piling on, and I am so overwhelmed with everything, and it totally sucks that more and more keeps getting added to the pile of crap that I am trying to wade through.
I really hope that all of this madness ends soon, it's more than I can take right now.

---

July 19, 2009

Cleaning, cooking, and a toothache.

I've spent all afternoon cleaning the house, getting things picked up, doing all of the dishes and laundry, and I just started to cook the dinner.
The whole kitchen is clean, I scrubbed it top to bottom after doing all of the dishes, and the only thing I have left to do in there is sweep and mop the floor.
I'm going to do that after dinner and after washing all of the dinner dishes.

Even though I had already cleaned the bathroom last night, Sebastian decided that it needed to be cleaned again, so he went in and scrubbed the bathroom top to bottom, he even cleaned the tub!
The teens never clean the tub.
Ever.
So that was wicked nice of him to do, because I really hate cleaning the tub.
Mark is going to mow the lawn tomorrow, but today he cleaned up his room, picked everything up off of the floor so that I can just go in and sweep and then mop it later on when I do the rest of the floors.
The only room that I have left to do is the living room.
I need to pick everything up, dust everything off, polish the coffee tables, they haven't been cleaned really good in a long time and it shows, so I definitely need to do those.
I also need to Windex the tv screen, my computer monitor, and the teens tv and monitor, and the bathroom mirror.
I just want to get the whole house clean, it hasn't been really cleaned in a long time due to how I was feeling, having a dirty house really didn't bother me too much, I wasn't caring about it to be honest.
I spent most of my time either laying in bed, laying on the couch, or surfing blindly around the internet. I just wasn't giving a crap about much of anything.
Maybe the antidepressants are starting to work after just 5 days, because I feel like taking care of the house again, so maybe they are working.
___________________________

Tomorrow, I need to call around and see if I can find a dentist or an oral surgeon to take care of my tooth, and hopefully my cheap health insurance will cover it.
I think that medicare will cover part of it, and then maybe Humana will cover part of it too.
I know that Humana covers some things for me other than just prescriptions, so I should just call them and ask if dental is covered, and if they know of an oral surgeon who can work with me and my non-moving head.
If my insurance won't cover it, then I'll need to find one who can yank it for cheap because it's really starting to hurt pretty bad. It's loose now, too, instead of just having a hole in it, it's now also loose, so eating is interesting.
When I chew on anything, even trying to chew on the left side of my mouth, the tooth wiggles, and it's painful.
Gah.
Must get it out.
Soon.
____________________________________

I have a whole cut-up chicken cooking in the NuWave right now, it's almost done!
I baked them for 30 minutes, they were cooked all of the way through, and I just poured some super yummy Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce over each piece, and the twice baked potatoes are almost done too.
I made a super yummy Sunday night dinner for us, and then after dinner, I'll finish the cleaning that I started.
We've had a really good day here, nice, quiet, happy.

---

July 19, 2009

Not the neck!

I was going through my blog feeds, trying to catch up, when I saw on Charlotte's blog that she posted about my latest love, True Blood.
Well, not the show True Blood, but the books the show is based on by Charlaine Harris, The Sookie Stackhouse Novels.

Charlotte posted that Buy.com had them on sale for $28.97, they are normally $55.93.

I actually have this set of books on my wish list at another online retailer because they also put them on sale, but for $1.79 more than Buy.com has them.
I know, that's not a huge difference in price, but when you are trying to save money, every single penny counts.


















I started watching the first season of True Blood on Netflix because so many of my friends had told me how amazing the show is, and they were right.
We finally finished watching all of season 1, finishing the discs off yesterday.
Yes, even the teens are hooked on this show.
It has pretty much everything that someone would want to watch.
It has action, romance, thrills, horror, comedy, drama, and vampires!
It's a really fantastic show, I can't wait to be able to watch season 2, but I know that it's going to be a long time before season 2 is out on dvd and on Netflix, and because it's such a popular show, it will probably be awhile before I get to see all of the episodes in season 2.

I love all of the characters on the show, but I have to say that Lafayette is probably my favorite so far.
He is just so freaking funny!
They give his character some of the best lines to say, it's hysterical.
I love how you're never really sure what is going to happen next, who is trustworthy, who isn't, and they keep you guessing on a lot of stuff, like who the murderer was.
One of the characters was killing off any woman who had "been with" a vampire, and they were dropping clues here and there, but just when I thought I knew who the killer was, they go and show you something else that makes you change your mind and have to start guessing all over again.
I was really kind of shocked to find out who the killer was, the teens were surprised too.

And probably just like every other woman who watches True Blood, I have to say, the really old Nordic vampire, Eric Northman, played by actor Alexander Skarsgard, is an absolute hotty.

The man is really good looking as a vampire.
I don't think he's that good looking normally, but with the long hair and pale smooth skin, he looks really good.

I love to read, but I don't find myself having enough time to read anymore, especially when I have the internet, but if a book is really good, if it can hold my interest so that I stay reading and not get bored and hop on the net, then I'll read it start to finish in a couple of days.
I love reading vampire books, I read the entire series that Anne Rice put out, and just about every other book about vampires, and everyone raves about this set of books just like they rave about the show.

I'll probably either try to save up money to get this set after our trip, or I'll go to the library and see if they have them, and take out as many of them at a time as I can in series order.
I think our library lets you take out 6 items at a time, so I could take out 6 and then have 1 of the teens take out the last 1, so that I can have all 7 of them at once and I can read them in order from start to finish.
I want to see if the books are better than the show, or if the show is as loosely based on the books as people say it is.
The books are the basis for the show, but they took a lot of liberties and changed things up a bit to make the show, but the books are still a really excellent read people say.

---

July 18, 2009

I'm eighteen and I don't know what I want.

I've been so wrapped up in chaos and now planning a vacation, that it didn't even register with me, even though I was saying it every time I said that we were flying out on August 15th, Mark's birthday, that it was his birthday.
I mean, I know it's birthday, but it wasn't clicking in my brain. Ha ha.

So tonight, it finally clicked, and I was all dude, in 1 month, you're turning 18, so have you thought about what you might want for your birthday?
I reminded him that I'm doing everything that I can to take them to Maine to visit the grandparents, so he'll be there with his family for his birthday week which is totally awesome, I know that Great-Gram and Aunt Heather will love seeing him for his birthday, but I still want to get him something.
He said that he doesn't know what he wants yet, he's thought about a bunch of stuff, but hasn't nailed down what he'd like to have yet.

I would still like to get him a laptop, he's going to need one for when he goes to MCC in the fall. (Yes, I know they changed their name, but the new name escapes me at the moment)
So while he's deciding what he wants, I thought I'd go and check out what Buy.com has on sale this week.
They actually have 2 laptops on sale this week, it seems like they always have at least one laptop on sale every week, which is really good for people who are ready to buy one but don't have the money to spend $1,000 or more on one.

They have an Acer Aspire 5536-5165 Notebook for $479.99 with free shipping, and a refurbished HP G70-257CL Notebook for $499.99.
If I had the money to get him one right now, which I don't because taking them to Maine is my #1 priority right at the moment, but I will be trying to get him one when we get back, I would get him the Acer.

The Acer Aspire has everything that he would need to take notes, write papers, and it even has enough GB on it that he could install his WoW game on it.
Features
Screen Size 15.6"
Processor Manufacturer AMD
Hard Drive Capacity 320GB
Network Technology Wi-Fi Gigabit Ethernet
It comes with Windows Vista and a dvd writer, and all kinds of stuff, it would work very well for both his school needs and his gaming needs.
I am sure that when I am ready to buy him one, they will have another laptop on sale, or maybe they will even have this one back on sale again, I've seen this one on their weekly sale list every couple of months now.

Continue Reading �

---

June 22, 2009

A cut, a scratch, and a nip.

Sebastian and I went and got his hair cut at the corner barber shop this afternoon, he said it was just far too hot for long hair, so off it came.
We got his ears lowered, the barber knew exactly what we meant when we asked for that.
He looks much better, although I think his hair looks awesome when it's long.
It's a beautiful blond color, shiny, smooth, wish it was my hair.
He said that it feels much better, he'll grow it out again now for a year like he always does, and then we'll cut it off again next summer.

Then we went out to Publix to get some more food, the teens are eating a lot again, and we found the mouse that Carmine the kitty loves to play with, way up high on a store shelf.
I had to buy another one because he tore the last one of these Scratch Rattle and Roll Scratcher Mice to shreds.
He clawed and chewed at it non-stop until he got the 2 hidden bags of catnip out, and then proceeded to rip all of the stuffing out.
Every time I tried to throw it out, he sat at the garbage can and meowed until I got it back out, so now he has a new 1.
He's currently curled up in a ball laying right next to it with a paw on it, like he's hugging it.
When I put the new 1 on the floor and took the old 1 away, he looked at me like 'hey! wait just a minute, that's my mouse!', but then he saw the new 1, smelled it, realized there were 2 new bags of nip stuffed inside, and immediately began licking and chewing at the sisal back to get at it.
The other cats love the mouse too, but he really loves it.
He will chew on it and lick at it, until he gets the bags of nip, rips them open, eats his fill, and then he lets the other kitties chow down on some nip too.
One the last mouse, he also chewed the tail until he ripped through the fabric, bit through the plastic ball, and got whatever was inside of that out.
I have no idea what made the tail rattle, we never found the insides, just the demolished plastic ball that held whatever it was.
I think he may have eaten the tail ball contents.

Tonight while eating dinner, we watched Nothing But the Truth.
This was a most excellent film.
Reporter Rachel Armstrong gets a tip that a woman is a CIA operative, she writes a story, the paper she works at prints it.
The government now wants to know her source.
She refuses, and normally, this would be protected, the right to not reveal her source, but due to a 1982 law, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, if Rachel does not reveal her source, she faces jail time.
She chooses not to reveal her source which sets things in motion for her and the person whose identity she revealed.
It is only at the very end of the film that we learn who her source is, and wow, I was so not expecting that.
You should definitely add this 1 to your Netflix queue, it's really good.

Ok, I'm gonna goof off and play Sims for awhile.
Later days.

---

June 20, 2009

Comcast can suck it.

It absolutely amazes me just how many people still are not ready for the DTV switch, they've had over 2 years to get ready for it.
There's an article in Business Week magazine about the millions left behind, and the many reasons *cough excuses cough* that they did not get ready.
The elderly I can understand, a lot of them don't even know how to set the clock on a VCR, so setting up a converter box and getting the right antenna is a bit more confusing for them, and the cable companies know that so they wasted no time in convincing the elderly that they had to get cable or they would not be able to watch their shows.

But other people?
People like the Ortez family mentioned in the article?
Sorry, but I have no sympathy for them.
They are both on unemployment and receiving some help benefits, and they watch Law & Order, so I know because I'm a fan of the show myself, that the DTV commercials aired a minimum of 5 times per broadcast of the show.

They (the Ortez family) thought they needed to pay for cable to get digital service. "We are on public assistance and we really can't afford to get cable," says Ortez. "I didn't know, until I saw last week in the newspaper, that I could get one of those boxes."

Sorry Mr. Ortez, I'm not buying that excuse.
Not only did the DTV switch commercials air during L&O, but so did the converter box coupon program commercials.
That's how I learned about it.
The sign-up for the coupons began on January 1st 2008, so the Ortez family had plenty of time to sign up and get 1.
The Ortezs' are just full of excuses, or just plain stupid.

The couple was also confused by the delay in the transition. They thought the government decision to postpone meant they didn't need to take action. "We had heard that the whole thing got canceled back in January," says Ortez. "We didn't realize they were still going to do it until last week."

Sorry, but if they were still watching L&O last week as the article says, then they were still seeing the commercials multiple times during L&O, as well as during any other show they watched on any other channel for the last 2.5 years, and those commercials very clearly stated that the switch was being moved from February 2009 to June 2009.
And since when does postpone mean cancel?
It doesn't, they just have an excuse for everything regarding this switch, and they are claiming poverty as the main reason for not being prepared.
And maybe it's a good thing that the Ortez family can't watch tv right now.
They appear to be a bit addicted to the brain-jello box. emphasis mine.

Ortez says he hopes not to be without TV for long. He's trying to get his hands on a converter box so that he and his wife can start watching shows again soon. "Being that we are unemployed and at home so much it keeps us entertained and up with current events," said Ortez. "TV is such a big part of our lives. It's always been there for us. Now we can't even watch TV, it's really crazy."

I knew about it (the switch) for 2.5 years because I was watching tv and saw the commercials, I signed up for the coupon, got it, tried it with my antenna, realized that I needed a better antenna, and bought one.
I bought a Philips MANT950 Amplified HDTV Indoor/Outdoor Urban/Suburban Antenna, and it works perfectly now that the switch is in full swing.
Up until the switch happened, some channels worked better than others, I didn't have some channels for a long time, but now I have all of the missing channels and then some.
And they are telling us to keep re-scanning our converter boxes because approximately 10 new channels are supposed to be added in the coming months.
I paid $65.99 for it on sale, it's normally $75.99, and it's currently out of stock at every online retailer I've checked because people are realizing they are needing a much more powerful antenna than their old rabbit ears, but if you need 1 of these, and I highly recommend it if you have a converter box and not getting great reception, you can sign up to be notified when Buy.com gets them back in stock and puts them on sale.
I had a Terk low profile antenna before the switch, but it just wouldn't work well through the concrete walls we have here, so I had to get a new antenna.

We tried hooking it up inside the house first, but again, it just would not pull the digital signals through the concrete, so my sister hooked it up outside, and now it works perfect.
We do get some sun spot issues in the afternoon, but we had that with the analog too.
Other than that, I am really pleased with digital tv.
It's a very clear and crisp quality image, and the sound is great too.
When friends come over, they think that we have cable because of how perfect the picture and sound are.
I get approximately 35 channels with the antenna and converter box, so really, why pay an arm and a leg for Comcast cable when it's this good?
The coupon was for $40, so I paid $9.99 + tax for the converter box, and the antenna was $65.99, so I paid less than $100 in total to be able to watch digital tv on 35 + channels, instead of paying Comcast anywhere from $9.99 per month (only for the 1st 6 months then it goes to $19.99 per month) for their lowest basic cable package, which is nothing but the local broadcast channels, up to $199.99 per month for their cable, internet, and phone premier package.
I pay $20 per month for phone, and $19.99 for DSL, and I'm still paying less than any of Comcast's bundle packages.
I never have to pay anything for my tv again, just phone and internet, so paying about $80.00 up front for the box and antenna is a much better deal than getting cable, and the biggie, I don't have to deal with their super crappy customer service either.

---

June 17, 2009

Purex 3-in-1 and Kiva.

I'm a huge fan of the new Purex 3-in-1 laundry detergent/fabric softener/anti-static laundry sheets, they make doing laundry so super easy, and they smell incredible.
They work just as well as the liquid detergents in my opinion, and I like them so much, I picked up 2 of the refill packages when I went shopping last night.
I like that I can just grab a laundry sheet, toss it in the washer with the clothes, and then just toss the clothes and the sheet into the dryer.
I don't have to add any liquid fabric softener to the dispenser in the washing machine, I don't have to throw any fabric softener sheets into the dryer either, just 1 easy step for clean and great smelling clothes.

Now Purex 3-in-1 laundry detergent has teamed up with Kiva to create the Purex Changes Lives Program.
It is so simple to help change someone's life!
Kiva, Purex 3-in-1, and YOU, will help moms around the world who are struggling to provide for their families.
When you submit the bar code from the back of your 20-count starter kit or 24-count refill pack of Purex Complete 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets, Purex will contribute $1 to the mom entrepreneur of your choice, allowing you to make a difference in the developing world and help empower a mom to lift her family out of poverty.
See?
Easy!
I bought the two 24 count refill kits yesterday, so that's $2 that will be contributed to the mom of my choice.

When you go to the site, you can choose how you want to help by sector, that means to see the moms by what they need to raise their family out of poverty.
The sectors are things like agriculture, clothing, food, retail, arts, housing, construction, and more.
After choosing a sector, you then click on the dots and read the mom's description of what she needs the loan for.
For example, they may need the supplies and cookware to make food items to sell, which will then be turned around to continue buying the ingredients to keep making food to sell, and enough money to support her family.
Or the mom may need the loan to buy fabric and a sewing machine to make sarongs to sell, which turns around and buys more fabric, thread, and other supplies, and supports her family.
Each dot represents a mom, her loan need, and the amount she needs to borrow.
I saw loans as small as $75, and loans as high as $525, but I didn't look at every single loan in every single category yet.

Right now, I have 2 refill packages, so that's $2 to loan to a mom, so I need to spend some time going through the loan requests, find one that just feels right to me, and then enter the bar codes from my packages, and the $2 will go to her loan request pool.
Once the mom receives the full amount of her loan request, Kiva helps fulfill her loan needs so that she can begin her business and support her family.

Purex is also offering coupons to help you help a mom.
If you go to the site now, even if you don't have a bar code right now but you found a mom you want to help, you can click on the "Haven't bought the product yet?" text link, fill out the form, and Purex will send you a coupon so that you can go buy Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets, and then go back to the site to enter your bar code to help that mom.
Just remember her sector and name, jot it down somewhere, and also spread the word so that more moms can get the loans they need to support their families.

I really love it when companies give back in a way that can make us all feel good, it's just a nice feeling to know that a few simple clicks after purchasing a product I use anyway, with a coupon they sent me, will help a struggling mom take control and support herself and her family to get out of poverty.
As soon as the Purex Insiders sent me the email, I got a huge smile on my face, I immediately felt good, this is something that I can easily do to help someone else.

---

June 16, 2009

My boring but money saving day.

Summers are quite boring around here, we really don't do a whole heckuva lot, so there really hasn't been anything much to post about.
The teens sleep half or most of the day, and then are awake most of the night and play video games.
I don't sleep much anyway, so this sleeping pattern gives us our family time.
We sometimes end up putting a movie in the dvd player at midnight or later, and stay up late watching movies and talking, and then if I do fall asleep, I get to have some really nice quiet me time until they wake up after noon or later.
I really don't mind them sleeping during the day or so late, it's very boring around here and it's off season, there are no jobs for teenagers here during the summer months.
It's way too hot to go outside, the temps are in the low 90's, but the heat index is over 100, there is really nothing at all for teenagers to do around here, and I can't take them to the beach or anything, so they might as well stay up late having fun and then sleep half the day away.
_____________________

This morning, I went to my pain docs and got my meds refilled, told them about everything that was going on, they noted it all down, gave me my scripts and I left.
My friend Dustin had taken me, so from there we went to the pharmacy, got them filled, and then he brought me home.
Then around 3:30pm or so, Sebastian and I grabbed the list and headed out to do the grocery shopping at Publix.
They are having a great sale this week, a lot of buy 1 get 1's, so we stocked up on a lot of stuff.
They finally had some ground beef for less than $3.49 per pound, they had it at just $2.99 per pound, and I have several recipes that I need it for over the next few weeks. So I picked up 3 pounds, and Sebastian wants my awesome enchiladas tomorrow night, so yay for beef on sale! LoL
I had my coupon from the Purex Insiders for the Purex 3-in-1, and Publix finally got the refill packages in instead of only having just the starter kits, so I picked up 2 of the refill kits in the Spring Oasis scent.
It just smells really nice and I love cuddling up with my baby blanket* right after it comes out of the dryer. It's so soft and smells so good.

The Glade fabric and air odor eliminator was on sale for buy 1 get 1, and I had coupon for $1 off, so instead of paying $3.99 each, I got 2 for just $2.99. W00t!
They had so many things on buy 1 get 1, chips, cookies, brownie mixes, cereal, all kinds of stuff, and no, I didn't buy all of that junk food, but I could not refuse the buy 1 get 1 on Pillsbury chocolate extreme brownie mix!

I did really good on saving money this time, I had a lot of coupons and Publix was having a terrific sale, so my savings were awesome!
My total bill before coupons, specials, and in-store savings = $270.66
My total coupons, specials and in-store savings = $113.25
Total bill after coupons, specials and in-store savings = $157.41!!!
Woo hoo!
W00t!!
I LOVE saving that much money!

That was my totally thrilling and awesomely exciting, but money saving day. ha ha
I told ya our summers are really boring.
Ok, gotta go do some dishes, wash out my Rubbermaid containers because I need them to put all the new food in.
Later days!

Continue Reading �

---

June 15, 2009

Touch and brush! I wants it!

The teens are just absolutely disgusting with their toothpaste, that is why they have their tube, and I have my own tube that I keep in the medicine cabinet and they are not to touch it, ever.
They do not squeeze from the bottom, they squeeze from the middle, they let the toothpaste goop up the cap really bad and they don't clean it off, and no matter how often I clean it off, they just goop it up again.
It always looks like this;

and this;

I just found a cat hair in their tube.
Gag!

I was sitting here clicking through the tv channels, just looking for something to have on in the background to keep me company, and I saw a commercial for the most awesome product that would totally end the toothpaste cap gooping issue forever, AND! it would also make sure that the tube got totally used up, it squeezes from the bottom, it uses every last bit of the toothpaste up!!!
It's called the Touch N Brush, and I want it! LoL

You stick it on the wall or mirror with the suction cups, it sticks to just about any surface, insert the tube of toothpaste, slide on the cover, and that's it, it will dispense the correct amount of toothpaste every single time just by placing your toothbrush in and pushing forward, it dispenses the toothpaste out onto your brush.
No messy caps, and it uses up the entire tube, no more wasted toothpaste, which means no more wasted money.
It's not electric, it doesn't require any batteries either, it uses vacuum force to get the toothpaste out.
It's only $19.99 + $7.99 s/h of course, but you also get a free sonic 4x toothbrush, and you can order a limit of 3 per shipping address.

I really do want this thing.
If I have enough money left after paying for my doctors appointments and prescriptions and stuff this week, I am so buying one, and I'll hook it up and test it out and then do a review of it.
I just love all of this stuff. hahaha

---

June 13, 2009

Distracting myself.

I figured that I needed to distract myself for a little while, to just stop thinking about everything for awhile because it's done nothing but send me further into depression, so I decided to go and see what Buy.com has on sale this week.
The mix of items is always unique, from computers to video games, to jewelry and all kinds of other stuff, they have a wide selection to choose from every week.

I found a heck of a deal on an HP Pavillion Notebook, it's just $569 down from $1,200, and free shipping.
I absolutely love that almost every single item they sell has free shipping.

Anyway, I saw the notebook and thought of Mark.
He's probably going to need a laptop for college, and while I don't have the money right now, I know that Buy.com is always putting laptops on sale, so I'm sure that when I do have the money, they will have a nice one that we can get for him.

This is a very powerful notebook, it has;
Microprocessor AMD Turion X2 RM-72 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
Microprocessor Cache 2.10 GHz
Memory 4096MB
Memory Max 8192MB
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics RS780M
Video Memory Up to 1918MB
Hard Drive 400GB (5400RPM)
Multimedia Drive SuperMulti 8X DVDR/RW with Double Layer Support
and so much more.
The customer reviews are excellent too, 5 out of 5 stars for a refurbished notebook, that says something about how good this notebook is in my opinion.

We're just waiting for the woman from SCTI to get in touch with us about his classes, she said that they don't start until the end of June or the beginning of July, so she will probably be calling in the next few weeks, and then we'll have to get him all set up with what he needs, he'll do the 2 classes at SCTI, and then go to MCC in the fall for their criminal justice courses.

---

June 7, 2009

A very lazy Saturday.

The Cooper clan didn't do anything at all on Saturday.
Not a damn thing.
I laid on the couch the entire day watching movies while the teens slept in late and then alternated between playing video games and watching movies with me.
I was so tired today, I don't know what was wrong with me, maybe I was still working off the effects of the medicine mix-up from the other day, but I could barely keep my eyes open.
I tried though, especially when Moulin Rouge! was on the CW.
That movie is just so bizarre that I love it.
All the weird imagery and the music, it's fabulous.
I can only imagine how good it would look on a HD LCD tv like this SyntaxBrillian that is on
sale at Buy.com this week for 54% off with free shipping.

That's a wicked good deal.
Eh, someday when things are better.
I have way, way too much going on right now to even think about buying a new tv set, but someday I will catch up with the times and get an HD LCD tv and start looking at tv the way the rest of you do. hahaha

What else did we watch?
Oh, we watched Gladiator, Red Dawn and The Road to El Dorado.

Mark went and spent the night at his friend Jeff's house, and so it was just Sebastian and I here at home all night.
We spent a lot of time talking about the Sims 3 which we still don't have because the shipping got screwed up even though I pre-ordered and paid for it way back in December.
Yeah, I am NOT happy about that at all.
Sebastian and I have been looking forward to this game for a very long time, it is one of the things that he and I do together, that we talk about and play together, and so not having it yet has really upset us both.
I wanted to have enough time to get it installed and learn how to play it, teach him how to play it before I have to go have my surgery so that nothing goes wrong with the game or the computer while I am away in the hospital.
They decided to ship it to FedEx, and then FedEx will ship it to my local USPS, but so far, the only thing that has been done is the shipping process has been initiated.
The game was released on June 2nd, and here it is, June 7th.
I am so not pleased with how they decided to ship this out, but because it's in the shipping process, I can't cancel it.
There's basically nothing I can do but wait.
I sent them an email asking about it, and they sent one back explaining how they shipped it and then said that if I don't have it by 6pm on June 16th, to email them.
Wow.
If that happens, I am going to be absolutely furious. .
And no, it is not Buy.com that I bought it from.
I have never had a bad shopping experience from Buy.com.
Ever.

---

June 4, 2009

My dark circles are getting better.

I have been using an eye cream around my eyes for about 2 months now, and am very pleased with the results.
I have always had very dark circles underneath my eyes, and over the last few years, I've started getting the bags to go with those dark circles, and the wrinkles too.
I am 39 after all, it's definitely about time to start looking my age.

I had never used any face creams or lotions because while my face isn't oily, if I used anything, I would break out almost immediately.
One day while browsing CVS.com, I spotted an eye product on sale, and I had a coupon for an additional $5.00 off, so I went and picked it up when I went to pick up Sebastian's migraine medicine, and I've been using it every morning and night since buying it.
It is working.
My dark circles are definitely lightening.
My bags are gone.
My wrinkles are most definitely less noticeable too.
I am very pleased with it and it costs far less than the more expensive eye creams that are out there at department stores and online.
It cost me less than $12, and one tube has lasted me for the last 2 months, and it will probably last me another 2-3 months, there's quite a bit of product in the tube.
It's very easy to use, once in the morning, and once again right before bed, that's it, and it helps to erase bags, dark circles, and wrinkles.
The more you use it, the more it works.
I love it, and I am not having to put something on my entire face which would cause my face to break out.

---

June 2, 2009

Sims 3 is almost here!!

I bought my copy of the Sims 3, the collector's edition, back in December, and I should have it in my hands in a day or two.
But if you're a simmer and haven't bought your copy yet, Buy.com has the regular version on sale this week for just $44.95.

You can get the Sims 3 and play in a totally open world.
No more being stuck in your house or having to wait for loading screens while your Sims go from one place to another, you can now walk out the front door, go across the street and get into an argument with your neighbor for being messy.
You can totally customize every bit of the game from the Sims appearance, to their personalities, giving each of them up to 5 different personality traits that will make every Sim you create a totally unique individual.

I am totally looking forward to getting it, installing it, and giving that open world a try.
I also want to test how the Sims can die or be killed.
I know that's a bit sadistic, but when you create a Sim that turns out to be a total butthead, you have to get rid of them before they destroy your whole family or life plan.

I bought the collector's edition because it comes with a special down-loadable sports car, the official Prima guide book, some Sims 3 music, and a USB drive shaped like the plumbob.

I cannot wait for it to get here!
It's going to be so much fun!
W00t!

---

May 28, 2009

Necessary evil shopping.

We went and got the graduation clothes shopping done.
We went to Walmart.
Ugh.
I would have gone elsewhere, but I needed really cheap, and really cheap just isn't happening at any other stores in Sarasota.

I just really hate shopping at Walmart, but it's a necessary evil in these hard economic times.
Not only do I hate them for what they did 2 Christmases ago, but I hate them for their very unethical business practices.
Example, Walmart sells a pair of women's black pants for $20.
The girl in Indonesia who makes them all day long, only makes $278 for the entire year, and all she does is sew those pants together for 17-18 hours per day.
Yes, the cost of living is much different there, but what she makes for an entire year still has her living in absolute poverty, and most of the time, she lives in a room with 15 other girls who also work at the factory and are basically slaves to the factory owner for the room they share so that they are not homeless.
They pay him to share a room with 15 other girls, so her pay is handed right back over to the factory owner.

I hate how once Walmart moves into a town, all of the small stores that were in business for ages, lose business and end up having to close.

I hate how little Walmart pays it's employees, how little they care for them, and the hiring and promotion practices of those employees.

Women who are far more qualified, who have been employed by Walmart longer, have a much higher education than their male co-workers, are often passed over for promotion, and earn less.

* female hourly workers earn up to 37 cents less per hour than their male counterparts;
* female full-time employees working at least 45 weeks earn on average nearly $5,000 less than male employees in yearly salary;
* women make up 72 percent of WalMart's total workforce, but only 33 percent of its managers;
* and women make up 92 percent of WalMart's cashiers, but only 14 percent of WalMart store managers.
Walmart gets around having to offer or pay health insurance for a majority of it's employees by keeping everyone but the managers, working part-time hours.
Part-timers are not eligible for health insurance, so most of their employees are on some type of welfare.
About the evil that is Walmart, watch this video, The High Cost of Low Prices.

But I really had no choice, I had to go where it's cheapest.
I try to avoid them like the plague, because I absolutely hate to think that my money helps support what they do.
Every time I step foot in a Walmart, I feel like I'm screwing the employees, hurting the city I live in, and putting an even bigger financial strain on the welfare system, because I know what they do and how they operate.
I know that how they run their stores hurts the towns they build their stores in, it hurts the people who work there, and it ruins the lives and business of other smaller stores that are forced to close because they cannot compete with Walmart's low prices.

Walmart forces artists, musicians, to edit their music or else they will not sell it in their stores.
That is their right to refuse to carry a product, but it forces artists to censor their music, to put out albums that have been totally edited, if they want to be able to have their albums sold in the nation's largest retailer.
They basically have artists over a barrel.
Edit your music or we won't sell it.
Green Day is refusing.
Good for them.

Walmart will no doubt win this battle, they have the money and the lawyers to win it, but it still sucks that because they have the money to fight it, and they promise jobs and tax revenue, that cities often cave in and let Walmart build wherever the hell they want to.

I hate myself for days after shopping there.
Mark now has what he needs, but the $75 I spent is helping to support an evil company, and I hate that.
I very rarely shop there, like once every 6 months, if not longer, but I would seriously love to never ever have to shop there again.
I need to find a cheap store here in town that can compete with Walmart's low prices, and just boycott them and their evil forever.

---

May 28, 2009

Going grad clothes shopping.

Mark and I are getting ready to go shopping for the clothes he needs to wear for graduation.
White button up shirt, dress pants, tie, new shoes.
I've opted to not get him a pair of expensive dress shoes, and instead just getting him a brand new pair of all white sneakers.
The info paper simply says shoes and socks required, no sandals, and he grows out of stuff so quickly that I would be wasting my money on a pair of dress shoes.
So he's getting new all white sneakers, which he'll probably grow out of by the end of summer, khaki pants, the white shirt, and a tie.

I need to go get myself ready.
I woke up kinda late, need to take a shower.
Later days!

---

May 27, 2009

Expensive hobbies.

I don't watch a lot of sports, occasionally I'll watch some football, I do enjoy hockey, I check out a few games on tv every now and then, but I have never understood golf at all.
Whenever it's been on and I've stopped clicking through the channels just to check it out for a few minutes, I am amazed at teh self control of the audience.
They are all quiet, they don't make any noise at all until the golfer sinks his ball.
Then they just clap politely.

From playing some mini-golf a few times in my life, I do know that it's a hard game to play, you have to have good concentration, good hand and eye coordination, and I do know that you have to try and sink your ball in as few strokes as possible.
I've never known anyone who was totally into the sport, but I think if I had a husband or boyfriend who was totally into it and spent a ton of money on golf training aids, ($7600???) I'd be pretty dang annoyed.

I know that everyone has their "thing", the hobby that they just love to do and the cost is way down on the list of concerns to them when it comes to doing their hobby, but I just can't see spending thousands on that hobby, unless of course you have a ton of money anyway and spending it on your hobby is not going to affect the family food budget.
I am a huge movie lover, I love to watch movies and I buy the movies that I totally love.
But I don't spend a lot on them, I try to find them on sale, I'll even buy them second hand, I get them at yard sales, and I've found some great deals on movies at stores that were going out of business.

Do you have a hobby that costs a lot to do?
Does your spouse/partner have an issue with how much you spend on your hobby?
Does it affect your relationship because of it?

---

May 26, 2009

School's out for summer, school's out and they're happy!

Today was the last official day that Sebastian had to be in school.
He had 1 last final exam first thing this morning, and so he went, took his test, and they released him by 8:30am, said he was done, so he came home.
He was totally stoked, still is.
Then Mark had to go up to the school to pick up his cap, gown, and his 5 tickets for the graduation, and Sebastian remembered that he still had 1 last book to turn in, so they both walked up to the school to take care of those things.
When they got back, they were so happy, "It's over!" they yelled as they came through the door, and they've been just kicking back all day since.

Tonight we decided to watch the last 2 Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, because we're all getting excited for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to come out on July 15th.
I swear, we've watched every trailer for it at least a dozen times each.
We've seen all of the Harry Potter movies in the theater since the very 1st one.
This year and this Harry Potter movie, may be the 1st time that we won't be seeing it in the theater.
I was going to say that it would depend on how I'm feeling after the surgery, but I realized that surgery is June 29th, and I may still be in the hospital on July 15th.
I know that sounds like a long time to be in, but with my 1st surgery, I was in for 18 days, the 2nd for 9 and a half, and this one all depends on how things go, if there are any complications and stuff.
So I'm hoping that the movie will still be in theaters for at least like 5-6 months after it comes out so that we can keep up with our tradition of seeing these movies in the theater together.
________________________

I was also really hoping to be able to send the teens to Maine for the summer or part of the summer, to visit with my family and work at Funtown like we had been talking about, but it's simply not in the cards this year.
But my sister is still hoping to go up for a quick weekend or a full week, in August I think she said, and so she's starting to get all of that stuff ready again.
She needs to find a good deal on the tickets for her and the girls, make sure her car seats are ok for whichever airline she decides to go with, and get some travel health insurance for her and the girls, some car insurance through her credit card for the rental car if she decides to get one, and make plans to try and fit in all of the friends and relatives who want to spend time with her and the girls every time they go up.
She still doesn't know which airline she's going to fly with.
Ever since Allegiant Air no longer flies in and out of the airports closest to where our parents live, finding really cheap seats is a challenge.
We used to fly out of the Orlando airport, and land in the Portsmouth New Hampshire airport, but now the closest airport is in Bangor Maine, which is actually in state, but it's like a 5-6 hour drive to my folks house, whereas the Portsmouth airport was less than an hour away, less than 45 minutes depending on who's driving. *wink*

I really wish I could send the teens up, but it's just not going to happen this year because of my surgery, lack of money and time, and some other stuff.
But I am going to try like hell to get them up there next year.
I'm aiming for February or spring school vacation time, or summer if that's all we can do.

---

May 25, 2009

A new leaf for single moms.

The fabulous Alaina of Ms. Single Mama, has worked with a jewelry designer on Etsy to create a gorgeous necklace for all the single mamas out there, to wear and not feel so alone.
The artist is Tres Joli, and they have done an incredible job on this beautiful piece of jewelry.

Quoting Alaina about the necklace;

"This necklace represents the growth, passion, love and strength every single mother carries for herself and her children.

Inspired by my readers and their input I worked with an Etsy designer to create this custom necklace. The larger leaf represents the single mother - finding herself again, the open leaf is ready for a new beginning. The second smaller leaf represents her child or children."

Currently, there are only 100 of these necklaces available, so if you want one, you need to go to Ms. Single Mamas site, and click on the paypal button to place your order and get more information.

I know she won't mind me showing it off, so here it is, our new necklace.

It is absolutely beautiful and I cannot wait to wear mine and take it with me while I'm in the hospital.
It will be a beautiful reminder that I am not alone, which has been one of the fears that I have been dealing with the last few weeks.
Thank you Alaina for the beautiful design, and for everything else too. *wink*

---

May 24, 2009

Stouffer's Easy Express Skillet Chicken Alfredo product review.

When we went shopping the other day, after making my way through the store getting the cheese, milk, cereal, bread, shampoo, body soap, the acne skin treatment for the teens, and some more ground beef, I made my way over to the frozen food section because I had brought with me a coupon for the new Stouffer's Easy Express Skillet meals.
The coupon was for $1.50 off, so I figured I would at least check out their price.
Publix had them on sale for buy 1 get 1 free, and the price was only $2.99, so with my coupon, that would make it $1.49 for 2 packages.
That's a heckuva deal, so I picked out 2 bags of the Chicken Alfredo flavor, and I cooked them up Friday night for dinner for just the 3 of us because Dustin and Stacey were unable to make it due to an emergency with his grandmother.

Anyway, I do a lot of cooking in my electric skillett year round for a few reasons.
It doesn't heat up the house, it can cook a pretty good amount of food, and it uses less electricity than the regular oven does.
I don't like using a frying pan on a burner on the regular oven, because it heats up the kitchen even though it's just a single burner, and the heat isn't distributed evenly over the pan.
Electric skillets distribute the heat evenly, are also very easy to clean too.

As for the Stouffer's Easy Express Skillet meals, the Chicken Alfredo flavor at least, was very tasty.
It had huge penne pasta, large chunks of white meat chicken, a lot of thick and creamy alfredo sauce, peas, broccoli, and carrots.

I cooked up both packages because it says right on the package that it's meant for just 2 servings, and there are 3 of us, so I dumped both packages in the skillet, (I did read the directions, that's what it said to do) and then started reading the directions again to see how much water I was supposed to add like almost every other packaged meal like this says to do, and it didn't tell me to add any water.
It didn't tell me to add anything as a matter of fact, it was so simple!
Open the package, pour contents into skillet, cook on medium-high heat with the cover on for 8 minutes stirring occasionally, and serve.
That was it, just that easy to do.
After 8 minutes, it was totally done, so I served it up by dividing the contents of the skillet between the 3 of us, giving the teens more because they can eat more than I can, and they gobbled it right up.
I'm not even sure if they actually chewed any of it.
When Mark finished, he asked if there were any leftovers, I told him no, and he was all bummed out and told me that he really liked that one, that it was better then the other chicken alfredo one that I usually buy.
Sebastian said the same thing.
I enjoyed it a lot too, the sauce was creamy and smooth, and the pasta mixed with the veggies was a good mix, so the whole meal had a very nice flavor and texture.
I would buy these again for sure, especially if Publix keeps them at a good price, even more so if I come across more coupons.

---

May 24, 2009

Catching up on my sleep.

I had been awake for about 3 and a half days with only about 5 hours of sleep during that whole time, so I finally went to sleep on Friday night around 12:30am, and slept through until 10am on Saturday morning.
I stayed awake for a couple of hours, long enough to make the teens some lunch and then start watching some old, but fun and cheesy movies, on a new station that we have here with the digital tv thing.
We have a station called This, and all it does is show old movies, classic tv shows like The Outer Limits, The Patty Duke Show, and Mister Ed, in the early morning hours, and the childrens' shows like The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Wimzie's House, until around noon, and then they show all of the old movies for the rest of the day.

It's a pretty decent station, so my plan was to try and catch up on some more rest by laying on the couch and watch Poltergeist II and Poltergeist III, and then Once Bitten, and then wake up and make dinner.
Well that didn't quite happen.
I fell asleep about 1 quarter of the way through Poltergeist 2, and woke up just as Once Bitten was ending.
By the time I had woken up, the teens had already made themselves some dinner.
They decided to just let me sleep because they knew how long I had been awake, and there was plenty of easy things for them to cook for themselves in the NuWave.
They didn't make a mess or any noise, so it all worked out ok.
Around 9pm, we decided to take a walk to the store to get some more food, we were out of lunch meats and needed some more milk for breakfast.
I'm still not totally caught up on my sleep, I feel like I need at least one more really good nights sleep, and then I'll be ok.

During my wide awake for 3 days and my sleep on Friday and Saturday, it seems that all of the blogs that I follow decided to do a lot of updating.
A whole lot of updating.

It's either going to take me a very long time to catch on on all of those, or I'll end up marking them all as read because of how long it would take me to read through them all.
But while I was doing a quick scan of my feeds to see if there was anything that I should definitely read first before marking them all as read, I did notice that one of the female bloggers that I read, had a post all about shoes.
I saw a wicked lot of pictures of wicked cool looking women's shoes.
High heels, low heels, flats, chunks, flip flops, oh so many cool looking shoes that I will probably never be able to wear again.
I've been stuck wearing flip flops for quite a few years now, and it's starting to get very depressing.
I miss wearing heels so much, and chunks too.
I still have 3 pairs of my fave shoes just in case I can ever wear them again, but it's not looking too much like I will.
*sigh*

---

May 21, 2009

Toofs, food, and freebies.

Last night my sister and my girls (my nieces) came over for a little while, and my sister had called me on the way to tell me to have my camera ready for when they got there.
She said that Susan had a surprise for me, so I made sure the camera had freshly charged batteries, and we all went outside to wait.
Just about 5 minutes later, they pulled under the carport and they all unbuckled, sis told Susan to get out and to "Go smile for Aunty Kat!"
So Susan got out of her big girl seat and out of the car, and as she made her way to me, she was giggling all of the way.
When she got close to me, she stopped, and sis had motioned for me to be ready, and then Susan smiled a huge smile.
This is what she had to show me!

She lost her front tooth! Her first big girl lost tooth!
She was so excited about it, and then told me that mommy gave her $1 for putting it under her pillow last night. (Sis is also an atheist, and we both have raised and our raising our kids without made-up stuff, if you don't believe in 1 fairy tale, you don't believe in any of them)
Sis and the girls also stopped at McDonald's to surprise us with dinner, and the teens were totally happy with that, even though they also wanted what I was going to make for dinner.
When I went grocery shopping the other day, and Mark and I got to the meat department, Publix had packages of huge turkey legs on sale for just $1.99 per pound, so I bought 2 packages with 3 legs in each package, and my plan was to cook them up in the NuWave for dinner.

Well sis brought McDonald's, so I left the turkey legs in the refrigerator and planned on cooking them tonight, Thursday.
They were perfectly fine, as a matter of fact, they were still frozen solid.
My sister and the girls left around 6:45pm, and almost an hour later, Mark asked if I was going to cook them up.
I told him that I could, but they could handle being in the fridge for 1 night and that I would cook them Thursday night.
He gave me the ol' puppy dog, please mom, I'm gonna starve to death if you don't cook those look, and he really didn't have a huge meal like he usually gets when he goes to McDonald's with George or whoever, so I agreed to cook them up.

The NuWave comes with 2 racks, a 6inch that flips over to become a 1inch, and then a 4inch rack, so I grabbed the 4inch rack, and placed all 6 legs on it.
They were packed on a bit tightly, but they all fit in there.

I set the power level to high, and pushed the timer button...

Because they were still frozen pretty darn solid, I set the cooking time for 30 minutes per side, for a total of 1 hour of cooking time.

I didn't even think of wrapping the bony end of the legs in aluminum foil like I normally do when cooking a whole turkey in the oven, I don't know why I didn't, you can use aluminum foil in the NuWave.
As a matter of fact, you can use any type of utensil, foil, parchment paper, or cooking pan in it as long as it fits.
If it fits inside the dome, you can use it in the NuWave.
But I forgot to cover the bony ends of the legs, so of course the skin and meat pulled back, but they still came out so freaking good!

Look at that gorgeous golden brown color!
I didn't eat any, and neither did Sebastian, but Mark took 1 and we will reheat the remaining 5 for tonight, and I will also make the mashed potatoes and gravy that is supposed to go with it.
I took a tiny piece of meat off of Mark's so that I could see how it came out, and it was super awesomely good.
The meat was cooked to perfections, and totally tender and juicy.
I swear, the NuWave is actually making me be a better cook...hahaha

One of the benefits of cooking with the NuWave aside from how quickly and perfectly it cooks everything, is the fact that it drains off the fat.
The infomercial makes a claim that I didn't believe, I know, infomercials are all hard to believe, and I fell hook, line, and sinker, for the NuWave. (But the NuWave really does do what the infomercial claims as far as cooking goes!)
But they claim that if you cook with your NuWave at least 3 times per week, that because it cooks and drains all of the extra fat, greases, and oils out of the food, that you will lose weight and lower your cholesterol.
I've now had the NuWave for 4 months as of today, I received it on February 21st, and I have monthly doctor's appointments where they put me through the wringer and test for everything under the sun.
I'm always being weighed, measured, and tested for all kinds of things, so anyway, because I have only been cooking in the NuWave, and have not used the regular oven even once since getting it, my cholesterol has lowered, and I have lost 12lbs.
I think if I could get my hands on the most perfect and best diet pills for me and my body type, and continue to use the NuWave for every single meal, I bet that I could lose even more weight.
I was shocked when my doc told me that I had lost 12lbs.
She weighs me every single month, and sometimes she tells me if I'm up or down, but she usually holds out for a significant change before saying anything.
12lbs is pretty dang significant in my opinion.
W00t!

And I've been up all night again, insomnia, again.
So I made myself useful while I was up.
I went through the fridge and took out all of the food that was in there in its original packaging, not sealed up good, and was going to spoil if I didn't get them packed up correctly, and so I packed everything up nicely with a whole bunch of my new Rubbermaid storage containers.

I put the deli ham, cherry tomatoes, salsa, the sliced cheese, the block of extra sharp cheddar cheese, the leftover salad from Tuesday night, the tortilla chips, the Werther's caramel and chocolate candies, the leftover sour cream, everything that needed to be sealed up and stored better, into the new Rubbermaid storage containers.
Doing this had an added benefit.
The fridge now looks all nice and organized.

If you're new here or haven't heard about it yet, in the post directly below this one, you can enter to win your very own 20piece set of Rubbermaid storage containers.
Entering and getting extra entries is really easy, so if you would like your own set of Rubbermaid containers, go read the how to enter rules and enter.

And now I think I'm finally tired enough to go to sleep.
If you do enter, I will verify your entries when I wake up and send you a notice that you've been entered.
Please do make sure that you do the required entry or I'll have to disqualify you.
I am only saying this because I've now had 3 people fail to do that 1 thing, and it has disqualified them.
I was even really nice about it and emailed them letting them know that they needed to come back and do that 1 thing.
Oh well.
Good luck and later days!!

---

May 19, 2009

Rubbermaid giveaway!

I'm having another giveaway here on my blog, and while it's not a piece of Wilmington NC real estate, it is something with 20 pieces!

Back in January, I won a 20 piece set of Rubbermaid's Easy Find Lids storage containers, and when I got them, I posted about them here on my blog.
It was a 20 piece set, 18 regular pieces, and 2 Produce Savers containers.
They are so great!
They are all stack-able, and because the lids all fit together, you can't ever lose a lid, the big lids fit all of the big containers, the small lids fit all of the small containers.
The lids all snap together, and then the lids snap to the bottom of the containers, I haven't lost or misplaced a single container or lid yet because of this, it's an awesome set!

I use the Produce Savers to store fresh fruit and veggies so they don't go bad.
The design of the Produce Savers does a fantastic job keeping everything nice and fresh.
I use all of the various sizes of the Easy Find Lids containers for snacks like potato chips, candies, salsa and other dips, because let's face it, the packages most of those foods come in, are not really made to keep the food fresh once you've opened them up.

I also use them for any leftovers that we may have, (Ha! With 2 teen boys, leftovers are only a dream! They may get leftover and placed in a storage container for about 2 hours before 1 of the teens polishes it off!) and they are microwavable and dishwasher safe, (I don't have a dishwasher, but it says they are dishwasher safe) and they are pretty stain resistant.
So far, not a single container has a stain in it.
I love my set so much, I use them for everything all of the time, and when Rubbermaid contacted me about another set and hosting a giveaway, I said heck yeah!

This is a different 20 piece set than the 1 I won in January.

This is exactly what is in the set that I am giving away!
The winner will get 2 Produce Savers in various sizes, 3 of the Easy Find Lids containers in various sizes, 3 Lock-Its in various sizes, and 2 of their Premier containers.

This is the exact set that 1 lucky winner will receive!

The prize:
Rubbermaid has offered up 1 of these awesome 20 piece sets to 1 lucky winner!

Rules:
The giveaway is only open to United States bloggers, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. (Sorry Alaska and Hawaii!) *sad*
This giveaway is only open to people who have blogs, this is a blogger only giveaway.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
No entering on behalf of others, using extra identities or others identities, no automated program entries, etc.
I can check and verify IP addresses and email addresses. *wink*
If you are caught cheating, you will be banned from this giveaway and any future giveaways on my blogs.
This giveaway is only open to those ages 18+ only.
All entries must be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday May 31st 2009.
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Monday June 1st, and email the winner and they will have 48 hours to claim their prize.
If I do not get a reply within 48 hours, I will pick a new winner using random.org again.

How to enter:
The required entry:
For a chance to win, leave me a comment telling me what you use your storage containers for the most often.
Do you use them for food only?
Or the kids crayons?
Or arts and crafts supplies?
Tell me how and what you use storage containers for the most!

For extra entries:
The following are all for 1 additional entry each, and you must leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do.
If you bundle entries in 1 comment, the comment will be disqualified and deleted.

1.
Blog about this on your blog and leave a comment with the url to your post.
The post must remain on your blog for the duration of the contest.

2.
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on Twitter, and then leave a comment on this post with the link to your Twitter post about this contest.
You can Twitter the following if you want to;
Kat is giving away a Rubbermaid 20piece set! Go enter for a chance to win! http://bit.ly/XkVO4

3.
Follow me on Twitter.

4.
Follow Rubbermaid on Twitter.

5.
Follow RubbermaidTwo on Twitter.

So there ya go, that is the prize, and it is an awesome prize, and what you need to do to enter, and what you can do for extra entries.
Please follow the rules, and good luck!!

---

May 18, 2009

Kellogg's Eggo Bakeshop Twists Strawberry.

When I did the grocery shopping on Friday, I had a $1.00 coupon for the Kellogg's Eggo Bakeshop Twists, Publix only had the 4 count package, they were $2.79, but with my coupon, I only paid $1.79.
I rarely ever buy stuff like this unless I have a good coupon discount, so I felt that $1.00 off was good enough to be able to try these out.
Personally, $2.79 for 4 of these is so not worth it in my opinion.
I can only imagine how much the 12 count package costs.
Ack!
They are not that big at all as you can see, that is a standard 9 inch paper plate, and 2 of them fit in the center of the plate with plenty of room to spare.

They are made for the microwave and heat up in just 25 seconds.
The directions say to then let them sit for about 2 minutes before eating.
You can view the nutritional information per serving here.
Not exactly good for you, that's an awful lot of sodium, calories, fat, and cholesterol, for just 1 of these pastries, but they are kind of tasty.

Mark refused to try them, and Sebastian tried 1 and didn't like them at all, he ate half of 1 and then gave the rest to me.
I liked them, they weren't bad at all, not great, but good enough to satisfy a sweet craving.
At the price per package and the count per package, it's not a good deal in my opinion.
If I didn't have a coupon, I certainly would not have bought them, nor will I buy them again without a good coupon.
The count, price, and nutritional information, is simply not a good value or a healthy breakfast choice for families on a budget.
The taste is not that spectacular either, the Publix bakery makes something like this that has a much better taste and costs less than these do for far more, so if I wanted to buy another breakfast pastry, I would go to the bakery before I would buy these again.

---

May 15, 2009

Presents for the grads!

Mark is graduating high school on the 30th of this month, and it's such a huge deal to all of us in our family, and I am personally just so so proud of him for doing it.
Today was actually his last full day of school, he doesn't have to go anymore, the principal said that he has completed his attendance requirement, so he's officially finished, and now we just have to wait a few more weeks for him to march in his cap and gown.
It's probably the earliest any of us will have woken up on Saturday in a long time, it starts at 9am, but the grads have to be there at like 7:30am, so we're all going to have to wake up by 5:30am.
Ack!

Anyway, I've been looking at things to get him, I don't want to give him cash, even though that's what most people will be giving him, but I'm his mom, I want to give him an actual gift, something special from me, so I checked out what Buy.com has on sale, and they have a ton of gifts for grads, so if you have a graduate in your life too, you should check them out, hugely awesome bargains right now!
They have several different digital cameras, quite a few different laptops, some mp3 players, and so much more at really great prices this week!

I've been talking about buying him a really nice watch for a long time, and they have an Invicta Mens automatic Topissimo stainless steel watch on sale for just $79.99, the regular price is $395.00, so that is a massive savings of $315.01 on a super nice watch!

It's self-winding and water resistant, and the red face on the steel is so totally him, he would love this watch very much, and I really would love to get it for him.
I've been looking at getting him a watch for so long now, but I was never able to find one that I really liked at a good price, but man, with a savings like that, I'd be so stupid to pass this up.
Hopefully the sale will still be on when I get paid next week, it should be because it's graduation season for several more weeks, so I'm definitely going to get this for him on payday if they still have it on sale.

Yay! I finally found him an awesome watch at a super awesome price!

---

May 15, 2009

Not quite on target.

Mark and I went shopping this afternoon because Sebastian wasn't feeling well, and I've noticed something about who goes shopping with me and how much I spend.
If Sebastian goes, I stay on target, to my list, and don't overspend.
If Mark goes with me, I end up buying things not on my list, and spend more than I had planned too.
So guess how I did today?
If you guessed that I spent more, you'd be correct.

My total bill before coupons was $231.94
Total is coupons and in store special savings - $49.15
Total after coupons and savings applied = $182.79

I try to use as many coupons as I can, and take advantage of as many in store special savings as I can, because I only get $349.00 per month in food stamps, and with 2 growing young men in the house, that food money goes very quickly.
I try to avoid buying junk food items when I can, and I try to cook as many meals as I can without buying easy microwave foods because they cost more.
Sometimes.
Publix always has a lot of easy foods on sale for super cheap, and I usually always have coupons to match those items, so sometimes I do end up buying easy foods.

But anyway, whenever Mark goes with me he distracts me, he stands in front of me while I'm trying to look at and compare the costs of items on the shelves.
He's always talking to me about something totally unrelated to shopping while I'm trying to shop.
I ended up buying about 15 items not on my list today.
Ugh.
But, they were on sale, so I can't complain too much about it.
It would have been nicer had I had matching coupons for those items, but oh well.
What did I buy that wasn't on my list?
Chips, dip, beef jerky, some Oreo cookie things, Fun Stix I think they are called, more soda, another pound of lunch meat, some bread from the bakery, canned soup, about 5-6cans, and some canned spaghettios.

Speaking of spaghettios, next month begins the hurricane supply shopping.
I need to stock up on the canned foods that can be eaten without heating them up, and stuff like that.
I'm actually worried about hurricane season this year, not because they have predicted any yet, but because I'm having another spine fusion in June, and with the kind of luck that I have, this year will be the year that we get hit with a hurricane here in Sarasota, and I'll be in a bad state recovering from surgery, in the halo brace, possibly the trach tube, and we'll get smacked with a big one.
Sarasota is weird, in the 12 years we've lived here, this area hasn't been hit with a single hurricane, it's like we live in the outer banks twilight zone of storm free zones.
The most we've ever gotten here is a small bit of wind and rain, just enough wind to blow some trash cans around, maybe take out a really old tree, but nothing major.
But like I said, because of the kind of luck that I have, this will be the year that Sarasota gets nailed, and I'll be completely useless to deal with it, I'll have to rely on other people to help us pack up stuff and evacuate.
So far, the tropics look good, there's nothing at all out there, so let's hope it stays that way all through hurricane season which is June 1st to November 30th.

---

May 15, 2009

Sorry, no can do.

I have to go grocery shopping, we have like nothing in the house, and I got our food stamps today, and I'm a wee bit irritated.
My old neighbor called me this morning and had the nerve to ask me to sell her some of my food stamps for .50cents on the dollar.
She knows that I'm broke, and that I have a doctor's appointment and prescriptions to pay for on Monday afternoon, so she thought she would be generous, and offer to buy some of them off me for half their value, like she's some sort of cash drawer and wanted to help me.
It's totally insulting, not helpful, and why on earth she would think that I would do that or be ok with doing that is beyond me.
I asked her why she would think I would do that, if I did that, we'd have less food money, and she was all "Well, other friends of mine who get food stamps but need cash often sell me their food stamps for .50cents on the dollar because then they have cash."
I said yeah, cash would be nice, but then I'd have less food money, a lot less, and I'll find another way to come up with the money I need before Monday afternoon, I always find a way, if I have to, I'll sell something else, like dvds or something that we don't watch anymore.
I'm having a rough time of things right now, I owe out more money than I have, and I'm trying to work so that my next pay is big enough to cover everything that I need to pay for, but I've also been sick, been depressed, and just all around feeling like crap, but I will find a way to do what needs to be done without having to sell off food stamps.
I really can't believe that she thought I'd do that.
No wait, I can.

---

May 13, 2009

Free chocolate Fridays!

Every Friday from now through September 25th, the Mars candy company, is giving away 500,000 coupons for a free candy bar!
All you have to do is go to the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act every Friday at 9am, enter your birth date, then email address, and then complete the registration form within 5 minutes, and they will snail mail you a coupon for a free candy bar within the standard 4-6 weeks.

The legal notice:

Offer valid from 9:00:00 AM ET to 11:59:59 PM ET on the Friday only of each week beginning 5/8/09 and ending 9/25/09 ("Offer Period"). Offer fulfilled as a coupon ("Coupon") redeemable for consumer's choice of one (1) single-sized package of any M&M'S® Brand, MILKY WAY® Brand, SNICKERS® Brand, 3 MUSKETEERS® Brand, TWIX® Brand and DOVE® Brand product (together, "Participating Products"). Offer good while supplies last. In order to claim your Coupon, you must submit your complete and correct name, address and email address ("Registration Information") within five (5) minutes of receiving the on-screen message requesting your Registration Information. Failure to submit your Registration Information within five (5) minutes will result in your Coupon being forfeited. Limit: 250,000 Coupons per Friday during the Offer Period. (They raised the limit from 250,000 to 5000,000 after the 1st Friday resulted in the site being bogged down by millions of visitors) Allow approximately 6 weeks for delivery of Coupon, which will be sent by US mail to the address provided as part of the Registration Information. Limit: one (1) Coupon per email address per Friday and four (4) Coupons per household during the Offer Period.

I absolutely love this idea!
A free candy bar?
Free chocolate?!
Yay!

It really is easy too, I got through last Friday, and all you have to do is go to the site at 9am on Fridays, enter your birth date, and then email address, and then fill out the registration form with your mailing address, and then they will send you a confirmation email letting you know that you got in, and they will be snail mailing you a coupon within 4-6 weeks.
Yum!
I love chocolate!

---

May 11, 2009

Smell and get stung.

The teens just left for the store, I needed them to go pick up something for dinner for us and some cat food for the kitties, and that's when I noticed what the landlord had been doing all day next door.
He planted some new flowers, a bush looking thing, and some nice perennials in front of the empty duplex.
I guess he's getting closer to finishing up next door, so maybe I'll be getting some new neighbors soon.

I used to have some bushes in front of my side, but all they did was attract bees, hornets, and wasps, and Sebastian is like deathly allergic, so we yanked them all out and haven't had anything planted there for about 6 years now.
I would love to have some beautiful flowers out there, but I can't risk him getting stung because of how quickly his allergy reacts to the stings.
His throat closes up, his eyes swell and close up, and we have to rush him to the ER.
I keep a supply of benadryl in the house, and we have to wait for 2 more bad stings before his pediatrician will give him an epi pen for it, but we try to avoid getting stung.

I just hope whoever he rents the place to will turn out to be nice this time.
And clean.
I'm tired of having mean, dirty weird people living next door to me.

---

May 7, 2009

Food, gack, and email.

I can once again put my search for the absolute best weight loss pill on hold for a little while, especially after today.
I spent the entire day, from like 2am until about 4pm, just gacking up my entire insides.
It wasn't fun at all.
When I finally stopped puking, I felt like I was going to die.
After hours and hours of puking, your body is just worn the heck out man.
No clue what brought it on, but I'm glad it stopped.

The teens just got back from going to Publix to pick up some Totino's pizzas, there's simply no way that I can cook or eat.
Yuck.

If I owe you an email, I'll be getting to it after I take care of some must-do stuff that I have been unable to do for a few days because I didn't have everything I needed to do it, but now that I do, that's my priority, and then I'll take care of all the emails.
Later days!

---

May 6, 2009

Nothing is wrong with the laptop.

Last night when Dustin and Stacey were here, they brought over a laptop much like this HP Presario that is currently on sale at like a huge savings.

Anyway, they brought it over because a friend had loaned it to them for a few days, and Stacey thought she screwed it up because no matter what site she went to, these "weird pop-ups" were appearing.
They asked me to take a look at it and fix it so their friend wouldn't get mad at them.

So I opened it up and connected it to my wireless network, and then hopped on the internet.
Immediately there were pop-ups, but they weren't of the malicious kind at all, it was Norton internet security popping up every few minutes to tell you to be careful downloading things from the sites that Stacey was going to.
Sites like Myspace, Facebook, etc.
I admit, it was totally annoying dealing with those pop-ups, but it wasn't the bad kind of pop-up, so I told Stacey she didn't do anything wrong, it's just the laptops security program trying to warn you about stuff.
Personally, I hate Norton because it's a major resource hog, and because of the annoying pop-ups.

But the laptop itself was extremely nice and I am pretty sure it was like that HP Presario.
It was heavy though, like really heavy.
I had it on my lap and I was like wow, this thing is heavy, and Dustin laughed and asked if all laptops were like that.
I told him no, most aren't, but this one is because of how much stuff it has in it.
It had all the bells and whistles you could possibly want in a laptop, dvd player, cd burner, the works.
I wanted to keep playing with it, it was super nice, but they had to go home and then take it back to the owner today.
I'd love to get a laptop someday just so I can do stuff from the couch when I'm having a rough day or not feeling all that great, I'd still be able to get stuff done ya know?
I don't know if I'd want one that heavy, but I'd want it to have a lot of memory and a cd burner, dvd player, all of the good stuff so I could also watch movies and play games and stuff.

---

May 5, 2009

Purex Complete 3-in-1 laundry care review!

A few weeks ago, I saw a thing to sign up to become a product tester for Purex, the laundry detergent, so I signed up.
I never heard anything else about it, so I assumed that I didn't get in.
Today, the FedEx guy knocked on the door and handed me an envelope that said "TOP SECRET", so I opened it up and was blown away by the incredible smell.

I read the letter, and it said, "Congratulations! You are 1 of just 200 people in the whole country who get to try a great new product from Purex to simplify and revolutionize laundry care! You're a Purex Insider!"
See, here's my cute little badge.

So what is this new product that will simplify and revolutionize laundry care?
It's called Purex Complete 3-in-1, and what it is, is 1 single sheet that is laundry detergent, fabric softener, and static control, all rolled into 1 easy step.

This is the basics of it,

I admit, I was so totally skeptical.
1 single sheet could clean, soften, and keep everything static free?
"Yeah right!" I thought.
But I gave it a try.
I took the load of dirty towels from the teens taking showers, some of their shorts, and their smelly t-shirts, and started to fill the washer and dropped 1 sheet into it first.
This is what the sheets look like;

The blue part of the sheet is the laundry detergent and some fabric softener, and the green stripe is heat activated by your dryer, and is also fabric softener and static control.

After you run your clothes through the washer, you move them and the sheet, into the dryer, and that's it, no cup of detergent, no cup of fabric softener, and no static control stuff either, just 1 easy step.

After the dryer stopped, I opened the door and was once again blown away by the incredible smell of the Purex, it really smells great!
I reached in and grabbed a towel, and it was sooo soft!
It wasn't sticking to anything else, and it was just incredibly soft, smelled so good, and was really clean.
I was very impressed, but wanted to try it again, so I did another load of clothes! LoL
The second load came out just as great as the first, clean, soft, no static, and smelled fabulous!
Why didn't someone think of this sooner!?!?
This really does simplify and revolutionize the entire laundry process down to 1 easy step, just 1 sheet does it all, and it does it really, really well.
I absolutely LOVE it!
I have a coupon to get a starter kit absolutely free, and I also got to share it with 3 friends after completing a short questionnaire, and so those ladies will be getting their starter kit free coupons in the mail very soon too.
I can't wait to go get the kit at the store, may have to wait a little bit, they aren't on sale until sometime this month!

---

May 3, 2009

I need to live in a bubble.

I went to the cardiac doc on Tuesday morning, picked up some food and came home.
Over the next few days, I started feeling super tired, like no matter how much sleep I got, it wasn't enough.
Then I woke up yesterday morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck..
Coughing, sneezing, sore throat, headache, body aches, stomach upset and all.
I have no appetite at all, and who the hell needs appetite suppressants when everything you eat tastes bad and then makes a rapid exit 30 minutes later anyway?

Sebastian had spent Friday night with sis, and when she brought him home yesterday afternoon, they stopped here first, picked up my debit card, and then went to Publix for me so that we'd have some food in the house for the teens to eat, and pick up everything else we needed too.
Cat food, toilet paper, lunch meats, bread, milk, cereal, and some cold medicine for me.
Sis picked up some Contac cold and flu, and it seems to be working ok for the cold part, but my stomach is still not happy.
I tried to eat last night, nope, not trying that again for a few more days, not a good experience at all.

The absolute worst places that one can go when you have a lowered immune system is the grocery store or a doctor's office.
Everybody is sick at a doc's office, and sick people go shopping for food and sick supplies.
I need to just live in a bubble with my own self contained oxygen system or something.
I'm so sick of getting sick, but germs are like unavoidable at the only 2 places I ever go these days.
The only places I ever go anymore are the docs and the grocery store, and I catch whatever other people have.
I am so glad though that Publix started putting out those containers of alcohol wipes at the cart entrances.
I grab like 4 wipes, and wipe down the cart handle, the baby seat, the baby seat belt, everything, and then I wipe my hands after locking my purse into the baby seat belt.
I always lock my purse in after almost having it stolen at the store once, so I have to wipe down the whole baby seat, the seat belt, everything, and let me tell ya, people with babies are disgusting.
There's always something nasty on the baby seats, I have to hold back my gags every time I'm wiping the seats down.
*gag*
Maybe I should just buy some hazmet suits for when I have to go out, at least until my immune system gets better..
I'm sick of being sick.

---

April 25, 2009

Food, friends, and lots of cleaning to do.

I have a ton of cleaning to do for tonight, all of the dishes, clean the kitchen and bathroom, vac the rugs, and then make a huge pot of spaghetti for dinner and a movie with Dustin and Stacey tonight.
We're going to eat my awesome spaghetti and then watch a bunch of movies from the 8 films to die for series.
Both Stacey and I are huge horror fans, and while some of the movies in this series are total cheese fests, they always have awesome gore and special effects, so it will be a lot of fun to eat and get grossed out. LoL

I better get cracking on the dishes, both sides are full up and some of them need some extra elbow grease.
Yuck.

---

April 22, 2009

Food, computers, and stocking up.

The other day, I said that I was going to make my own video of how to cook with the NuWave Oven Pro, and post it here and on youtube, and maybe get NuWave's attention, so I can get the new pizza kit they have. (Hey, it could happen)
Tonight, I made a 5lb chicken in only 1 hour and 15 minutes, it was perfect, I put bbq sauce on it for the last 10 minutes of cooking time, and it came out incredible, tasted way better than those rotisserie chickens you can get at a deli, super yummy.
My video was so packed full of info too, I even got the names of the 3 ways that it cooks correct from memory, not having to read them this time, conduction, convection, and far infrared.
The last 2 times someone asked me how it cooks, I kept forgetting their actual names, and said conduction, infrared, and the circular heat cooking method.
haha
But I really did pack the 4 minute video with a ton of information, instructions, and even rattled off some of the foods I've made in it since getting it.

Anyway, I made videos every step of the way, I edited them in windows movie maker, it was a really kick ass video, and then I screwed up.
I wanted to name the video the same name as I had saved the first part of the videos I had made, and I wasn't thinking clearly, and I deleted all of the smaller video clips I had used to make the final video, and even deleted them from the recycle bin.
I tried 3 different programs to restore all of the clips, but nope, they were already being overwritten by my computer.
Sometimes, not all of the time, as soon as you delete a file, and also delete it from the recycle bin, your computer thinks that it's freed up space, so it starts overwriting the space on your hard drive.
I did find all of the video files, but they had already been destroyed and partially overwritten.
*sigh*
I'll just have to do again the next time I cook something in it, which will probably be tomorrow night.

With hurricane season coming up soon on June 1st, I've begun stockpiling our supply bins.
I start getting a ton of canned foods that can be eaten cold, plastic utensils, paper plates and bowls, batteries, water, snacks etc.
I think I may have gone a bit overboard last year though.
When I opened up the bins that I keep in my closet, I found some stuff that I left in there.
I have quite the surplus of toilet paper and baby wipes.
I have 10/4 packs of toilet paper, and 10 refill packages of baby wipes with 1 brand new container of wipes still wrapped in the plastic.
Well, at least I won't have to buy any of that stuff this year, now I just need to cross those items off of my shopping list so I don't buy even more of them.
I just need to find my list now.
Hrm.

---

April 22, 2009

Flips are all the rage.

I keep seeing and hearing people talk about those Flip Video cameras, and how much people love them, everywhere!
I was watching The View yesterday, and Joy Behar was showing clips of her trip to Washington DC, the White House, and some of the other things she did on her trip, and the videos weren't bad at all, and she used one of these Flip Video cameras to do it.
You can watch some of those clips on their video page.

People everywhere, are talking about them, raving about them, and posting video clips like crazy because of those things, and Buy.com has refurbished ones on sale right now for just $79, the normal price is $179.00, so that's an awesome $100 off!

They do look pretty cool, and they have some great user ratings, mostly 4, 4.5 out of 5 stars, and customers are saying things like;
"Purchased a "reconditioned" flip ultra; it arrived in a sealed package and worked with no major problems."
and..
"I used the Flip 5 minutes after opening the box."

My friend Charlotte, actually bought 1 of these and posted a review on her blog about it.
I also have several other friends who have bought and love their Flip Video cameras too, so it's a cool and cheap camera if you are looking to get 1.

---

April 22, 2009

Paying it forward giveaway.

My good friend Jenn is having a giveaway for a gorgeous (I know this personally!) diamond journey necklace from Gem Affair.com, on her blog.
She's calling it the pay it forward giveaway, and you can go enter at her site and read the rules on how to win a ladder diamond journey necklace.

This necklace is absolutely beautiful, I know firsthand, because I own this necklace.
I won it from Gem Affair back in January.
And Jenn was the winner of my birthday giveaway that I had here on my blog back on March 1st!

This is a picture of the diamond journey necklace that Jenn is giving away, I took a picture of mine and posted it to my blog on the day it arrived.
You can click to see it bigger.

The rules to enter Jenn's giveaway are really pretty simple, and I am posting them here so you can see what you have to do and decide if you want to enter.

1. Leave me a comment telling me one positive thing about your fabulous-self. It can be about friendship, the work place, parenting or just the first thing that comes to mind when you think about "you." This is a requirement.

2. Since we're going to try and keep paying it forward, we ask that you please have a blog as the winner will be asked to then hold a contest themselves (however they prefer) promoting the notion of paying it forward. This is a fun way to spread some positivity throughout the blogosphere, because way too often we get caught up in our busy lives and forget just how wonderful we all really are.

It's that simple!

I LOVE the idea of paying it forward, and I am thrilled that Jenn has decided to do this giveaway like this.
She's right, we do get too far caught up in the bad things in our lives, and we tend to focus on the negatives about ourselves, (I did this earlier today. I was having a moment) so to enter her giveaway, you have to leave her a comment saying something positive about yourself.
I am not entering her contest, I am just spreading the word about it, but I really do think it's an awesome thing to do.
Spread some positivity throughout the blogosphere, we can all use a little pick-me-up right about now, so head on over if you have a blog, and leave her a comment saying something that you like about yourself.
It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it is about you, and it's a positive about you.

I have known Jenn through blogging for quite a few years now, and I was really touched by what she said about me in her post.
Like I mentioned, I was having a moment today, a moment of self pity and some self loathing, so when I read her words, I immediately felt better, and so thankful to have such good friends.
I always find it a bit odd or weird, when people say they admire me, tell me how strong I am, and other things like that.
I don't feel strong all of the time, I'm not always positive, things are very hard for me most of the time, but I have to keep going, I don't really have a choice in that.
There are times, like today, when I just fall apart, when I feel like I simply can't go on another moment, and so when I come across the nice things people say about me on their blogs as I'm reading blog feeds or Twitter, I feel better and humbled at the same time.
I am truly greatful to all of the friends I have online and off, who care so much about me, it's a really good feeling to know that I am thought of and cared about, so I thank all of you who are in my life, and like Jenn, you all have changed my life in ways I can't even tell you.

---

April 21, 2009

Eventually, both will happen.

Eventually, I WILL get some sort of life insurance to help pay for my "final expenses", and if there's anything left, for my sons to have.
Yes, I know, a very morbid thought and post.
But it does have to be done eventually.
I am not going to live forever, none of us are, and I have even come close to death a couple of times during my spine fusion surgeries, so this is a "thing" I have to think about and find a way to take care of.

What I need is a really good life insurance lead for a company that has super low rates, and takes on high risk customers.
I'm asking for the impossible I think.
I don't want to pay a lot in premiums every month, preferably way less than $20, but for good coverage.
My health is not great, it's not even good, and I dare to say it couldn't even be classified as "fair."
I am in very poor health, I admit it, and it took me a wicked long time to come to grips with the facts of my health situation.

I have been a smoker since I was 17, so for 22 years, I am stone deaf in my left ear, I have bad eyesight and wear corrective lenses, my entire spine is fused from C1 to S1, (the tip top vertebrae to the very end of the spine at the sacrum. You can view a labeled spine chart here: View Chart) my next surgery will be extremely invasive and totally life changing.
Right now, I have very limited movement of my head.
I can turn left and right, but only a very tiny amount, and I can put my head down, but not up at all, and it is currently stuck in the down position.
My next surgery will be removing the titanium rods that are attached from C1 to T3, they will leave all of the pedicle screws in place because they will be using those again, and then they will attach a metal plate to my occipital bone, which is the skull itself, they will use some sort of screws to attach it, and then they will re-attach the titanium rods to my spine, tighten the pedicle screws, stitch me back up, and then attach a halo brace to my skull.

I suffer from random but debilitating migraines, I have had most of my toes broken, my nose was broken twice, I've fractured my left ankle twice, fractured 3 fingers on my right hand and 2 on my left.
I've had a Pneumothorax, (collapsed lung), a second degree sunburn that left scars on my legs, a vaginal/anal fistula from pushing too hard during labor and delivery of my oldest son Mark, I've had about a half dozen ovarian cysts, my heart has stopped twice and was restarted, I have high blood pressure and take medication for it, and I have the white cell count of a person dying from Leukemia, yet I don't have Leukemia or any other disease or ailment, so the high white cell count is of unknown origin.
I have rheumatoid arthritis, and have been on varying dosages and strengths of pain medications for the last 10+ years.

I've actually thought about either donating or selling my body to science or to something like the bodies exhibit, because of all of the things wrong with me.
This post would have probably been better suited to KatScan, but because I have no life insurance, my final expenses would fall on my son's shoulders and lives, it fits here as well.

---

April 21, 2009

How would you say....

something like you need immigration lawyers, or ask for directions in Spanish?

I keep seeing commercials, on CW44 mostly, for that computer program that teaches you different languages, and I've been thinking that maybe I'd like to get a copy of the Rosetta Stone program to learn how to speak Spanish.
I don't know about the rest of the country, my friend Shell has told me that there are a lot of Hispanics moving to and living in Maine now, but here in Florida and where I live in Sarasota, it is heavily populated with Hispanics, and they work in almost every type of place you get customer service.

Most of the places I go, like Publix, make sure that all of their employees speak clearly and in English, but sometimes it is still very hard for me to understand them if they have a heavy accent.
And sometimes I hear a couple of Hispanic employees speaking to each other while stocking the shelves, and I wonder what they are saying.
Yeah, I'm nosy like that.
And there were the times that a Hispanic employee, a woman, was working in the deli at Publix, and she was making the subs on 1 of the days we went there.
I usually let the teens get subs when we go and do the big grocery shopping for helping me get everything, bring it in, and help me put it all away, as like a treat, a thank you for all of the help.

Back-up.

On several of my shopping trips, she would be working in the deli cutting meats, doing customer service, and I would order like a pound of the Publix brand Sweet Ham, or Publix brand roast beef, whatever, and she would talk back to me in Spanish.
I guess she was asking me what I wanted, like she didn't understand me or something, so I would repeat it, "1 pound of Publix brand Sweet Ham, sliced sandwich cut please."
Again, she would say something in Spanish, raise her hands up, and sorta shake her head like she was confused and didn't understand me.
I would keep repeating myself, and she would keep doing the didn't understand me thing until another deli employee would move into the slicing area.
The teens would be over ordering their subs, probably about 5-7 feet from where I was, and they would be sorta giggling at me and whispering to me to not make a scene at the same time.
But like I said, as soon as another employee would get close, she would suddenly understand what I wanted, and she'd cut the meats I ordered.
This happened a whole bunch of times, on almost every single trip to the store, and when I would buy meat from the deli, for about 1 and a half months.
I go to Publix approximately 3 times per week, and buy lunch meats 2 out of the 3 trips.

Then 1 day, I had already gotten the meats I wanted, the deli manager had waited on me that day, and then I went over and ordered all of us subs for dinner.
The deli manager was now waiting on other customers, and the Hispanic woman must have just clocked in, and she came over to the sub station to wait on us.
Again, she acted like she didn't know what I was asking for, 3 whole subs, white rolls, Publix brand sweet ham, white American cheese, mayo, tomatoes, onions, pickles, salt, pepper, and sub sauce on all.
All 3 of the subs were going to be exactly the same, we've ordered the subs like this a gazillion times over the last 12 years that we've lived here, and this woman is standing there shaking her head at me, hands up, making a confused look on her face, and saying "No comprenda."

I had had enough of this game, it happened every time she was working the deli, and it appeared to only be with me, and she would immediately "get it" when another employee or the deli manager would get close enough to hear us and me repeating myself over and over.
The Hispanic woman walked off to go to the walk-in meat cooler, and I ran over to the deli manager and asked her if the woman speaks English, she told me that she did, and I quickly explained what had been happening
The deli manager got as close to the sub station as she could, but not so close that it would look obvious that she was trying to hear us.
The Hispanic woman came back with a tub of sliced tomatoes, a tub of sliced pickles, and a new jar of mayo, so it's obvious that she did understand me because those are some of the things asked for.
Then she just stood there looking at me, and so I repeated the order again, 3 whole subs, white rolls, Publix brand sweet ham, white American cheese, mayo, tomatoes, onions, pickles, salt, pepper, and sub sauce on all, and once again, she raised her hands up, shook her head side to side, and said "No comprenda."
So I repeated it, and again, she shook her head at me and said "no comprenda."

The manager came over, yelled the woman's name, and asked her what the hell she was doing.
The woman suddenly spoke perfect English, crystal clear, "I'm waiting on this customer, making her 3 subs, all the same."

The manager said "No, what are you doing speaking to her in Spanish and pretending that you don't understand her. No comprenda means that you don't understand what she's asking for, why are you doing that?!"

The woman stood there, turning red in the face, giggled and said, "I'm just having some fun."

The manager said, "Fun? You think pretending that you don't speak English, that you don't understand what the customer is saying, making her repeat herself over and over, is fun? You think that's fun?! Do you know what I think is fun?! Watching people stand in line at the unemployment office. You're fired!"

The woman asked if she was joking, the manager said no, get out of here, you're fired, leave, now, and the woman almost started crying, said she was just joking, turned to me and apologized, said she was just joking, and she didn't mean to upset me.
She must have said sorry to me a dozen times, and the manager just kept telling her she was fired, to leave now or she'd call security to get her out.

As the woman walked off crying, I felt sorta bad, but not really.
This had been happening every time I went there, and it was really frustrating, I felt like I should have been able to speak to her in Spanish, that it was my fault that she didn't understand what I needed.
I know it wasn't my fault, Publix has rules for employees about speaking in English and clearly, but I still felt like maybe I should have tried to speak her native language.

That was about 3 years ago, and since then, Publix has hired even more Hispanic employees, some of them have very thick accents, it's very difficult for me to understand some of them, and it's like this almost everywhere that I go and have to use a customer service employee.
Grocery stores, 7-Eleven, Wal-mart, Target, Subway, and almost every single fast food place like McDonald's and Taco Bell.
Even just walking up and down the aisles at the grocery store, sometimes a Hispanic person will ask me something, in Spanish, I have no idea what they want, and I say as nicely as I can that I don't speak Spanish, and they look frustrated and upset, they try to say whatever it is in English, but they can't seem to figure out the words needed.

I'm one of those people that believes wholeheartedly that if you move to a new country, that you need to learn the language of the country that you chose to live in, to not expect the people who live there, have lived there all of their lives, to learn your language.
Like, if I decided to move to France, or Germany, India, China, wherever, I would start studying the language of the country that I had made the decision to move to, and I would learn it as best as I could before moving there, and then keep on studying it and learning it until I became fluent in it, had an excellent grasp on the language, so that I could properly communicate with the people of that country, buy my groceries or items for my home, or a sandwich from a store or vendor.
I would never expect those people to learn mine, to make my life easier in their country, the place that I chose to live in.

But it is becoming harder and harder to communicate with employees almost everywhere I shop now, or have to call for customer service help, and the language most widely being spoken is Spanish.
I am really feeling the pressure to learn it just so that I can get customer service at a place I have shopped at for years.

---

April 19, 2009

I should write to them.

The NuWave Oven Pro people that is.
I used to be in sales, a long time ago, in another life it seems like now, I did sales, I did sales training of new associates, I hired and fired people, I knew my stuff.
Anyway, I could totally sell this product for them.
I absolutely love my NuWave Oven Pro, it is so awesome, it cooks every single meal that we generally eat aside from some skillet meals, and I could totally be a sales person for them showing people how to really use it, not like the infomercial people do, but how normal every day people can cook with it.

Ever since getting it, I have NOT used the regular oven, not even once.
I took a board and laid it on top of the stove burners and put the NuWave right there because I don't have a ton of counter space in my kitchen, and we have been cooking with it ever since getting it, and I have not even opened the regular oven door again.

On the weekends, there's not a whole lot on tv, so we watch a lot of the infomercials and laugh at them and the super bad acting, but every time the NuWave Oven Pro one comes on, we watch it even though we have it.
The infomercial is totally cheesy, really bad acting, and they never actually show you how to cook with it.
Sure they throw some food in it, tell you that it will take 15 minutes for a frozen steak and 2 sweet potato halves to be done, and then they walk away to show you some salmon, or the turkey that cooks in just 2 and a half hours.
But they don't show you how it really cooks, how really easy it is to use.
Honestly, I should make my own video with this bad boy one of these days because it is just an awesome cooking appliance, and you do have to read the instruction manual carefully, but so far, I have not burned a single thing in it, and I will be making a turkey in it very soon.
I think that "chef" who tested it for Fox, simply didn't follow the instructions, because I have cooked a 10lb chicken in it, it fit perfectly with room to spare, and it cooked it all of the way through to perfection.

Last night, I had totally forgotten about dinner, so at about 7pm, the teens started giving me the feed us or die stare, so I opened the freezer, took out a package of chicken legs, and grabbed a box of shaken 'n bake, and made dinner.
In 35 minutes.
The legs were frozen solid, it took a minute or 2 to snap them apart from each other, I ran each leg under some water so the coating would stick, and then laid them out on the cooking racks that I sprayed with a light coating of non-stick cooking spray.
I put the dome on, pressed the cooking power button once, pressed cooking time once, pushed the 3 and the 5, and then pushed start, and walked away.
After 35 minutes, it beeped, and I went to check on them thinking they might need a few more minutes, they were frozen after all, and this is what I saw when I looked through the dome.

They were completely done, well done, all of the fat and grease had drained off into the bottom pan, and I served them up with some rice a roni I had made in the skillet on the counter top.

They were perfect.
They were plump and juicy, and incredibly tasty.
I asked the teens how they were, and the most they could manage was a few grunts, some "mmms", and a couple of thumbs up.
After they finished eating, I asked again for a more verbal reply, and they told me the chicken was really fantastic, they loved it, that I needed to make them more often exactly the same way.

This afternoon, we were watching some cooking shows on PBS, like Every Day Food and a few other cooking shows, and one of them was about burgers, so the teens decided that we were going to have bacon/blue cheeseburgers for dinner tonight.
I didn't have any of the stuff to make them, so the teens went to Publix and picked up the Bubba Burgers, an onion, a package of ready cooked bacon, a tomato, some regular cheese, and also some lunch meats for later on in the week.
I already had a package of blue cheese from when I went shopping the other day.
I also had them pick up a pound of roast beef sliced sorta thin, so I could test out the NuWave's claim to making beef jerky in 1 hour.
My mom used to have a food dehydrator, and I would borrow it from time to time to make the teens some jerky and dehydrated apples, orange slices, banana chips etc.
It would take all night to make jerky and dried fruit.
The NuWave says it can make it in 1 hour, so I'm going to give it a try.
I had them grab a bottle of teriyaki sauce, I'll marinate the roast beef while the burgers cook, and after I clean up the NuWave from dinner, I'm going to make some jerky.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, the NuWave infomercial has been updated, they have added a special pan for cooking frozen pizzas, which I do admit is a bit odd to do with the NuWave right now, but that new pizza kit looks like it works, and it also has a cutting board and some other new utensils to go with it, that aren't available on the site yet.
I am going to write to them and share my experiences with it, maybe make that video, and maybe they'll send me the new pizza kit stuff.
Hey, it could happen!

---

April 17, 2009

A lot of awesome sale items this week.

I've become like addicted to checking out Buy.com's weekly deals to see what they have on sale, and I am rarely ever disappointed with their great deals.

This week they have the same mp3 player that I have and love, the SanDisk Sansa Clip 1 gb mp3 player, for only $14.99.
It's normally $69.99, so that's a huge savings of $55.00!
It is a reconditioned one, but it's a really great mp3 player, so being reconditioned is not an issue in my opinion.
I absolutely love mine, I use it all of the time, every night when I'm laying there not sleeping due to insomnia, I listen to it off and on all day long, I just love it!

It plays mp3, wma, secure wma and audible audio file formats, and it also has an FM tuner with 40 preset channels, but it's really easy to set it to your radio stations, it has up to 15 hours of play time, and recharges using a usb cord and your computer.
You can also use it to record yourself notes with a built in microphone.
I haven't used that feature on mine yet, but I'll probably play around with it at some point.
It can hold 250 mp3s, and 500 wmas, that's a TON of music.
It has really good user ratings, and like I said, I absolutely love mine, it's so easy to use and has a very bright display, you can set it to shut off after so many minutes too, which makes it perfect if you use it to fall asleep like I do, it just shuts off.
Just don't roll over on it like I did one night and then not be able to figure out why it needed to be reset.
Oooops!
Anyway, it's a good deal on a good mp3 player, so if you need one or know someone who wants an mp3 player, you should check it out.
It's as good as those bigger name brand ones that cost a whole lot more.

---

April 16, 2009

Meds, food, and trying new things.

The plan for today was to get up early and go to CVS, get Sebastian's migraine meds, and then go grocery shopping at Sweetbay because it's right there, I didn't want to go all the way in one direction to get his meds, and then turn around and go all the way to Publix which is in the other direction, which would have wasted a lot of time today.

I let Mark stay home from school today to be my shopping helper, but he got up at the usual time, walked Sebastian all the way to the street the school is on*, and then he came home and we were gonna go.
Well when he got back, I was still wicked way tired, so I told him to go back to sleep for a few more hours and then we'd go.
I woke up at 10:30, and started making my list, woke Mark back up, and then I was going to start getting dressed to go.
Good thing I decided on getting a late start because the school called about Sebastian.
He ended up getting a wicked bad migraine and needed to come home, the nurse said he was completely pale and near tears sitting in the nurses office, so I told her to definitely send him home.

I waited for him to get home before I went shopping, and decided to have him go with me instead of Mark.
When he got here, I gave him the last pill in the bottle, and 2 Tylenol, and one of my diet sodas so he could get the caffeine to help with the migraine.
Then he and I headed out to CVS to get his meds and then shopping.
One of the things I like about CVS over Walgreen's is that they are super fast getting prescriptions ready, they said it would take 15-20 minutes, but they had it ready in 7 minutes.
I barley had time to go around and find the things I wanted to buy while there.

They had the Venus Embrace razors on sale for $7.99, I had a coupon for $2.00 off, (thanks Mom!) and buying them earned me $4.00 in CVS extra care bucks, which I am still learning how to use and what they are all about, but seeing as I have to get Sebastian's meds at CVS** every month, I figure I might as well learn all about the ECBs and start taking advantage of their program.
So the razors were on sale for $7.99, you earn the $4.00 in ECBs making them $3.99, and I had $2.00 off, so I really only paid $1.99 for them.
That's a really great deal, I think, I'm still really not sure how this whole ECB thing works, but I'll figure it out.
I also wanted to try the Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew eye roller thingy because I always have really big dark circles under my eyes, and they had it on sale for $12 with the card, and I had a $5.00 off coupon, so I only paid $7.00 for it.
I also bought a big package of Excedrin Migraine, they had it for $10.99, I had a $4.00 off coupon, and I want Sebastian to give these another try.
The Tylenol does work, but it can take up to an hour to an hour and a half for them to kick in, that's far too long when he's battling a big one, so I want to see if these will work better for him.
So after we picked up his meds and bought the stuff, I gave him one of his pills and 2 of the Excedrin right away, and by the time we were done shopping, his migraine was gone, so I think they do work a bit better than the Tylenol even though he was complaining last month that the Excedrin didn't really help.

After CVS, we went and did the shopping at Sweetbay.
I got almost everything on my list, they just don't have as much selection as Publix in my opinion, so probably this weekend I'll have to go to Publix to get the rest of the stuff I couldn't get there.
And while I was gone shopping, Mark snapped the handle off of the cold side of the bathroom faucet.
It's not his fault even though he doesn't know his own strength, this is an old house, and I swear these fixtures are the exact same ones that have been in here since the day this duplex was built in 1976.

So for now, it's duct taped until I can go buy and have someone help me install some new bathroom faucets.
*sigh*

Looks great huh? *LoL*
If it isn't one thing breaking and needing to be fixed or replaced, it's another.
That's just the kind of luck I have.
I was just telling someone this morning in an email, that if I believed in all that past lives and reincarnation stuff, I was probably a really horrible person in a past life and this life is my payback or punishment for it, because if something can go wrong in my life, it most certainly does.
I like hardly ever get a break from the chaos.
Oh well.

Continue Reading �

---

April 16, 2009

Tummy flips are mending.

On Monday, Mark got a card in the mail from a relative, it had $50 in it, so he decided to order dinner for all of us.
He ordered from a place that makes a wide variety of food, so he got wings, and Sebastian and I ordered some burgers.
The burger was really great, but by Tuesday morning, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach a thousand times.
My muscles hurt, they kept tensing up, and I kept on running to the bathroom.
Over and over all day and night Tuesday, and pretty much all day Wednesday too.
It totally ruined my plans for today.

I had planned on going and picking up Sebastian's meds and then doing the grocery shopping.
Nope, the sight of food made me feel ill, the smell of it made me run to the bathroom.
And then Mark calls me in the bathroom this afternoon and asks me how he can remove blackheads from his face.
He's standing there popping all his zits and trying to squeeze out a huge blackhead.
I flipped the toilet lid and just let my stomach drain itself of whatever was left in there, which shouldn't have been much considering how many times I've puked since Tuesday morning.

I'm finally starting to feel better.
My stomach still hurts, but at least the sickness has stopped.
I am pretty sure it was food poisoning as Sebastian said his stomach wasn't feeling all that great either.
He wasn't anywhere near as sick as I was, but he said he just didn't feel right either.
I am hoping that by the time the teens get home tomorrow afternoon, (Thursday) that I'm feeling much better, we really need to do the grocery shopping and get some more cat food and cat litter too.

Oh, we did watch a most gory and awesome movie called The Midnight Meat Train.
Vinnie Jones stars as the butcher, and he is absolutely terrifying!
Bradley Cooper is decent in his role as the photographer on the hunt for real and gritty images for an art gallery show, and the rest of the cast is likable and they do a good job with the script they were given, which really wasn't all that great.
But what the movie lacks in script, it more than makes up for in action and special effects.
This movie is NOT for the squeamish at all, the very violent scenes are up close, in your face, and disgusting.
I am a HUGE horror movie fan and even I cringed and had to cover my mouth a few times to hold back squeals of terror and disgust.
The Midnight Meat Train is probably one of the best adaptations of a Clive Barker story I have ever seen made into a movie.
So if you like horror, guts, gore, check it out, but don't say I didn't warn you about the up close shots of the killings.

---

April 14, 2009

Good home cooking.

Oh, the other awesome thing that happened today, was that the UPS guy showed up and brought me this box that weighed 10lbs!
I was not expecting that weight at all.
As he was walking to the door, he was carrying it with 1 hand, the box didn't look big at all, it actually wasn't big at all, but when he handed it to me, I was all whoah!
I have a weight lifting limit, still, because of my spine surgeries.
I am not allowed to lift anything heavier than 5lbs, basically I was told by my surgeon, if it weighs more than a gallon of milk, ask someone else to carry it, and I haven't lifted more than 5lbs since September, so when he handed it to me, it was quite a shock.
I am not sure who sent it either.
Well, I mean, I know it was a book publisher, I get a lot of books from publishers, but this is one that I have not dealt with before, so it was kind of a surprise, but a very nice surprise!

Anyway, the books (yes I said books, it was 2 of the exact same book) I received were The Good Home Cookbook: More Than 1,000 Classic American Recipes.*
These are HUGE hardcover books just chocked full of tons of home-style family recipes!
There's everything in here according to the table of contents;
breakfasts
lunches
appetizers
salads
soups
fish and shellfish
poultry
meat
grilling
pasta and rice
veggies
breads and toppings
pies, cakes, and cookies
other deserts and sweets
drinks

I browsed through it a few times, and there are just so many recipes, all "grandma style", real old-fashioned cooking.
There's not too many people out there that still do everything from scratch, companies make things so much easier for us now, (ready made pie crusts, cake mixes in a box add eggs, water and oil) but if you're looking to learn to cook and bake from scratch, this is THE cookbook to have to learn how.
For example, say that you wanted to learn how to make biscuits from scratch, not from the pop-open refrigerated can from the doughboy, the recipe and full directions are there.
(** recipe below cut)
There are just so many recipes for so many great foods, cooking charts for meats, fish, poultry, veggies, you name a recipe grandma used to make, I'm gonna bet it's in there!
I can't wait to go through this whole book and actually make some of these.
I miss my grandma's and my mother's homemade food so much, they did everything from scratch, my mom still does, but us younger generations, companies just make everything for us, so all we have to do is add water and an egg or 2, and voila! dinner and desert in 30 minutes!
_________________________________

I am seriously going to need to find Mark a new bed very soon, or at the very least, go shopping for twin sized bed frames.
He has grown so much from the small 6 year old boy when we moved here in 1997, and he and Sebastian looked so tiny on their solid pine bunk beds.
My sister got the bunk beds at a yard sale, bought new mattresses, and that's what they've been sleeping on for the last 12 years.
Well, Mark is over 6 feet tall, he weighs about 170, and so that bed is just not the right size for him anymore.
The frame has started to crack under the weight, and his feet hang off from his height.
It's definitely time to get him a new bed or bed frame, and while I'm at it, I should probably just get 2 of them.
Sebastian is not far behind in the height and weight department.

Continue Reading �

---

April 10, 2009

Stolen credit card numbers and people really suck.

I've been watching my Amscot credit/debit card account like a hawk for a few months now, I kept seeing all these "test" charges showing up, $1 here, $1 there, for things like iTunes, Napster, and today, Snapfish.
I don't have an iTunes account, I don't have a Napster account either.
I do have a Snapfish account, but I haven't logged into it in over 8 months, until today that is, after I saw the above 2 charges.
I wanted to see if they had like a service charge for having the account that would explain those 2 charges, but no, they don't, AND I have never used my Amscot card at their site.

I called Amscot a few minutes ago to have this card canceled and get a new one, I was prepared to have to pay the $25 fee for closing this card and getting a new one, but the customer service agent told me that I didn't have to pay the fee because they were switching things up, and all I need to do is go in to my local branch to have it all taken care of.
When I go in, they will take this card, give me a new temporary card, transfer my balance over, and in about a week, I'll get my new card in the mail.
I will need to contact SSDI and switch over my direct deposit information because it's not just the card being swapped out, it's the whole account, they are changing everyone's accounts to the new system.
He said the new system will be a lot better, it will stop all these fraudulent charges right away, it will have text capability to check balances, less fees for transactions, a whole bunch of new features he said, so I need to get up there and take care of this.
I have a check from the Airborne class action suit to deposit anyway, so yeah, I need to try and get up there as soon as I can.

---

April 5, 2009

Internet window shopping.

I am trying really hard to stick to not spending money on things I really don't need, trying to start saving for that 8 month emergency fund, but I can't help myself from looking at Buy.com's weekly sale items.

They don't really have anything that I truly want or need this week which is good, but I still saw some stuff that looked interesting.
If I was going to buy something this week, it would be the Cables To Go 7 Port Aluminum USB 2.0 Hub because I have so many things that need to be plugged into the usb slots, but I only have 3 slots on my pc.
It's normally $44.99, but they have it on sale for just $17.99, so it's a huge savings of $27.00 for something that probably every single computer user with gadgets needs to have.
It's really annoying having to unplug an item to plug in and charge another item, and if they all need charging, well, you can see the problem.
It always seems like all my stuff needs to be charged at the same time.

It's small enough that it won't take up a lot of room on your desk either, but it can have 7 different items plugged into it at one time so you never have to unplug 1 item to plug in and charge another.
It has some good reviews too, out of 5 stars, it rates a 4.5 from other customers, so if I was going to buy something this week, that would be what I would get.
But I'm really wanting to try and save my money right now.

---

April 3, 2009

I DO love them ya know.

I've gotten a couple of strong comments both in the comments and by email on the post below.
Things like I'll miss them when they've grown up and gone from my home, that if I hate having them home so much, why don't I send them to their grandparents for vacations, or why don't I tell them to go play outside, go hang out with their friends all week, stuff like that.

It is NOT because I don't like having the teens around at all.
I LOVE the teens, they are my everything, but they are teenage boys, brothers, just 2 years difference in age, they both want their space and privacy, they want to do what they want when they want, they are still growing so they eat, a lot.
On weekends, they can easily eat a whole pound of lunch meat, a whole loaf of bread, all of whatever leftovers we had, drink a gallon of milk, and devour pretty much anything that isn't nailed down.
So home 24/7 for a whole week?
It gets a wee bit expensive to feed them.

They are brothers who both play video games, they both want to play the same video game, at the same time.
This causes bickering and arguing over whose turn it is and for how long.
They have a computer to play WoW on, surf the net, whatever, and an Xbox360 to play a crapload of our other video games on, but in typical sibling fashion, they both always seem to want to play the exact same game at the exact same time.
Let the arguing begin!
After 24-48 hours of listening to that, yeah, I don't like it, but it doesn't mean that I want to send them away for their vacations, I love them, I do enjoy the good and fun times we have together while on their vacations.
We hang out and watch movies, we get to talk about anything and everything, we sit and laugh over really silly stuff, and we play games together.

I'm sorry if the post below sounded like, or seemed like I hate having them around.
I really don't hate having them around, I adore them even with all of the fighting and bickering, even if they eat everything in sight, even if I have to remind them a thousand times to shut off lights, fans, computers and video games when they are not being used.

The teens are probably THE best thing I've ever done in my life.
They have grown up to be really awesome young men, (even if they do bicker like all siblings do) they are kind, caring, and generous.
Generous of their time and with their love.
They are compassionate, empathetic, and incredibly loving.
So no, I don't want to send them away, I was just mentally preparing myself for the week to come, what was in store for me because of the whole sibling bickering that goes on.
I never want them to go away, even when they get older, which isn't too much longer now, I never want to spend a day when I don't see them or hear their voices.
They are my everything.

---

April 3, 2009

It's gonna be a long 9 days.

The teens are officially on spring break from now until Monday the 13th, the day they go back.
It's going to be a very long 9 days of them eating everything in sight, saying how bored they are, fighting and bickering, playing video games, fighting over video games, and so on.

I'm already tired just thinking about it.
I'll end up going food shopping at least 3 times during the 9 days due to excess food and milk consumption, I'll have to remind them repeatedly to shut off lights, fans, video games and computers, so they don't waste electricity and my money, and I'll probably break up at least a dozen arguments.

I feel a headache coming on.

---

April 3, 2009

Cut back and be greatful.

I'm not a big fan of her, but Suze Orman was on the Oprah show today, and she had a recession rescue plan for people, because things are really starting to get very, very bad for everyone.
She says to be greatful for what you have, not what you had.
That you need to really cut back on your expenses in order to survive this crisis.
Cable? Gone.
Cell phone? Cut those bills as much as possible.
Home phone? Ditch it if you can.
Eating out? Stop doing that, and so much more words of advice.
I really recommend you read the article I linked if you're starting to feel the crunch, or worrying about when it's going to hit you, and it will hit you.

Oprah had people on there today who had done everything right, had savings and retirement plans, kept their bills low, only used credit cards for emergencies, paid those cards off as soon as they got the bills, paid more on their mortgages, and paid all of their bills in full every single month.
Then the husband got laid off.
Then the wife.
Neither of them could find another job in their field or any job for that matter.
One of the husbands even tried to get jobs at all of the fast food places in town, and none of them would hire him, too over-qualified, plus, they couldn't afford to hire anyone else and were letting people go themselves.
Both the husband and wife had now been out of work for 1 full year, had gone through all of their savings, were having to dip into their retirement accounts, using their credit cards to keep the lights on and buy groceries, and now were in debt to their credit card holders.
And they had done everything right.

Those of us who live paycheck to paycheck, man, we're gonna be screwed when this gets worse, and Suze is convinced it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
She had been on the show in 2007, and told Oprah then that it was coming, start prepping, it's coming, and she was right.
Now she is saying "Things will get better, get worse. ... [In] the next two or three years, it will start to turn around," Suze says. "But I'm so sorry to say it will be, in my opinion, 2015 until every single person feels hopeful again."
That is a wicked long time friends, it's really time to get serious about this.
She says that we need to start living on half of what we bring home, that means really cutting out all of the extra stuff, cable, extra cell phones and cut those bills down, eating out, hair cuts, manicures/pedicures, going to the movies, cut all of your expenses down to half of what they are now, stash the other half, and don't use any of your credit cards, use cash for everything.

This is something I already do.
I don't have cable, I have a pre-paid cell phone that I only add money to it when I need it, I don't get hair cuts, I rarely ever get manicures, once every few months I'll get a pedicure because I can't take care of my feet myself, we rarely ever eat out, like maybe once a month, and I have cut down on all of my bills.
I am so strict with the teens about water and electricity usage, I make them take shorter showers, turn off all lights, computers and video games, fans, etc, when they leave rooms, there's no long distance on my home phone, only have it because I have dsl, but my expenses are super low.
I'm paying my monthly bills right now, and my water bill is $22.71, I got my electric bill down to $119.24, my phone bill is only $12.71 because I cut out all extras, my dsl bill is $28.95, I still can't pay that one online, but oh well.
We do have Netflix for entertainment, $14.99 per month, I pay for Xbox live which is $50.00 per year, and I also pay $14.99 per month for the teens to play WoW.
My total bill expenses are $217.75, that's not too bad at all.
Then I have all of the other stuff, cat food and litter, toiletries like toilet paper, shampoo/conditioner, soap, dish soap, laundry soap, etc etc.
I probably spend about $375.00 a month in bills and household expenses, plus my rent of course, I'll figure it all out to the penny using the monthly expense calculator from Suze Orman, which once you fill it all out honestly, it will give you advice on how much money you need to put away every single month in order to have at least an 8 month emergency fund for when things get really bad.
I plan on sitting down and doing this, getting all of my bills together, all of my income together, and figuring this out.
I don't want to be one of those people, one of those families, who are now living in tent cities because things have gotten so bad.
I really am worried about this stuff, I'm disabled, a single parent, I don't have a whole lot of income coming in, I wouldn't survive in a tent city with my health the way it is, I have to get a handle on my finances and really prepare myself for whatever is to come my way.
I don't like being a worry-wart, but things are bad out there people, and single moms have it even harder, we're doing this alone, we don't have a partner to get out there and try and find a job, that extra person's income to sock away for the emergency fund, it's just us, and it's frightening.

---

March 30, 2009

Antsy pants.

The teens and I ended up going to Ross because I totally forgot that the Beall's by our house closed down a few months ago.
Oh well, we still got some good deals.
They both got 2 brand new pairs of Dockers shorts, normally $45.99, on sale at Ross for just $12.99.
We also found Sebastian a pair of sneakers that are normally $89.99, on sale for just $16.99, for a total of $73-something after taxes.

We also stopped in at EB Games and traded in a bunch of games that they have played and beat, to get a game that they really wanted to have.
They traded in enough games to get a used copy of Resident Evil 5 for $53.73, and they still have about $10.00 left over on their card for another day.

Then we went to Panera so I could get a Frontega chicken panini that I have been craving for ages, and then onto Publix to get the teens what they wanted to eat, chicken tender subs, some more soda, and then home so I could put my foot back up again.
I will be posting a picture of my hobbit-looking foot on KatScan in a few.
It's really gnarly looking, and I'll also post an update on how that is going.

---

March 30, 2009

Is insomnia hereditary?

Last night was a really rough night, for Mark.
He could not fall asleep no matter what we tried, and I don't give the teens any medications other than what their docs prescribe, so I didn't give him 1 of my sleeping pills to try and help.
It was far too late to try that route anyway.
Poor kid was awake the entire night though.
I finally drifted off to sleep around 4:30am, and woke back up when the alarm went off to find Mark just sitting on the other couch with giant bags under his eyes.
I asked him if he got any sleep at all, and he said no.
I feel so bad for him, insomnia sucks big time.
So he stayed home from school today, and finally fell asleep around 10am.
I'm not going to let him sleep all day, I'll wake him up when Sebastian gets home at 2:38pm, and hopefully he'll be able to sleep tonight.

The teens start spring break this coming Friday after the school day ends, April 3rd, and don't go back until April 13th.
It's basically 9 days in total including the weekends.
That should be fun.
Two totally bored and nitpicking at each other teens for 9 whole days.

When Sebastian gets home, we also need to head down to Beall's and pick them up some new shorts.
They have grown so much just since school started, they both need new shorts again, so we'll take a cab down there and pick them up a couple of new pairs of shorts each, and Sebastian says he needs some new shoes, so we'll see if they have any there in his size and that he will like.
Should be interesting hobbling around shopping. ha ha

---

March 29, 2009

Moving pictures.

I just found one of those digital picture frames I covet, on sale at Buy.com in their weekly deals, and I want it.
It's an Aluratek Hi-Res Digital Photo Frame, normally $139.99, their price is $99.99, and after the rebate, just $79.99, and free shipping.

It has a nice quality wooden frame, built in speakers so it can playback music while you run your pictures in a slide show, or have no music at all, up to you.
It has 256MB of built in memory, which is great because a lot of the digital frames I have looked at need memory cards, or have to have a usb thumb drive attached in order to show the pictures.
The LCD screen is 10.5", so your pictures display in a really nice size, and it's true color, so however you took the pics or cleaned them up, is how they will look.
It also has room for a memory card in case you want to have more pictures in it than just what the built in memory will hold, but 256 is pretty darn good for most jpegs.
It supports all kinds of formats, too, like picture / video / audio formats such as JPEG, MJPG, AVI, and MP3, so you can have just pictures, or play a little movie, and have music too.
And the other cool thing is that you don't have to just have it on a table, you can hang it on your wall, and turn it on only when you want it to run through the slide show.
So it will look like a normal picture in a frame on the wall, nobody would really notice it until you turned it on with the remote control it comes with.

I have been wanting to get one of these for a really long time to not only have for myself, but to test it out so I can buy one for each of the grandparents, and then fill them both up with pictures of the teens, and then send them with the instructions on how to turn it on and off with the remote.
Make it as easy as possible for them to use, so all they would have to do is turn it on and enjoy the pictures.
There are much cheaper ones out there, but this one has the built in memory like I said, so it's the one I would definitely like to buy for the grandparents.
When I go to buy theirs, I have to make sure it really is as simple as turning it on and off, or they could get frustrated with it and never use it.
Well, not my parents, they are pretty good with their computer, but Great-Gram is very old, refuses to use a computer, and does not have any electronics in her house that are harder to use than a VCR.
We all (all the kids and grand-kids) wanted to pitch in and buy her this email to phone machine thing, so that we all could send her emails over the phone, and the machine would print them out when she pressed a single button.
We would have always supplied and replaced the paper and ink, Aunt Heather sees Gram several times per week, but when we discussed it with Gram, she said it sounded far too complicated to use, so no, do not buy it for her.
*sigh*
So now that I have my taxes back, have paid back my loan and paid off a bunch of bills, I think it's finally time to get one for myself and test it out so I can buy the Grands theirs too.

---

March 28, 2009

Sad way to find the happy memories.

Wednesday morning when Mark and I went to get my script, food, cat food and litter, I also needed to pick up a sympathy card for my Uncle Bill's family.
On Tuesday morning, my cousin Billy, Little Billy as he was called, Uncle Bill's son, was taken into a hospital in Pennsylvania for kidney failure and cardiac arrest.
He was not a good candidate for kidney transplant, and dialysis would have only prolonged his suffering.
By 2pm that same day, he passed away.
That's why I needed to pick up a sympathy card.

I didn't find one at the Walgreen's or the Publix we were at, and didn't really have a whole lot of time to look that morning either.
So when Sebastian and I did the shopping yesterday afternoon, I had more time to spend, so I looked through all of the cards they had, it would have been totally wrong to send online greeting cards at such a time, but my regular Publix had some nice ones, and I found a really nice one to send to my Uncle Bill and his family.

The last time I saw my Uncle Bill and Little Billy, was like 21 years ago I think.
I know that it was Thanksgiving, I was just a little kid, and we had driven to Pennsylvania from Maine for the annual gigantic family holiday dinner.
We'd spend about a week there visiting everyone, I do remember that it was always a lot of fun and there were so many people there.
The table would stretch all of the way from the front door to the dining room stairs, it was huge.
I do remember that the yearly trip down there was always so much fun, Nana, my Aunt Josie, Aunt Ruthie, Aunts Barbara and Lorraine, all of the Uncles and cousins, just a really wonderful time every year.

While Mom and I were chatting back and forth through email about Little Billy, I started remembering all of those good times.
Little Billy's death was a sad way to recall all of those great times I had as a kid.

---

March 26, 2009

1 of 4 called me back, plus food.

Early this morning, I posted that I needed to call our families 4 doctors and set up appointments.

Call my cardiac doctor and set up an appointment for surgery clearance testing.
Call my primary care physician and set up an appointment for surgery clearance testing.
Call Sebastian's neuro and ask if he can call something in for breakthrough hellish migraine pain.
Call the teen's doctor and set up an appointment for Mark, because he's getting wicked back pains again.

I called my cardiac doctor, spoke to a nurse, she said that Jenn the appointment setter would call me back.
She did.
I called my primary care physician, left a message with the girl who answered, for the appointment setter to call me back.
No one did.
I called Sebastian's neuro, had to leave a message on his voice mail because it went straight to it, no rings.
He did not call back.
I called the teen's doctor, left a message with the girl who answered.
They did not call back either.

So out of the 4 calls I made, only my cardiac doctor called back, I have an appointment on April 6th at 10:30am for a cardiac stress test and surgical clearance, as well as see if I have any type of blockage or something because of my feet swelling.
My surgeon saw that my feet were swollen on Wednesday, they weren't even that bad really, he asked if that happened a lot, i said no, but when it does they get pretty bad.
So he said he wanted the cardiac doc to run some sort of dye test that would determine if there's any blockages in blood flow, and if not, then it's a water issue, and my dose of high blood pressure meds may have to be upped.

After waiting as long as I could, I decided to go do the shopping that we needed to do.
I left Mark in charge of taking the phone messages, gave him a notepad and a good pen, told him to take the first date and time they offered if they called back, and I'll work out transportation to those appointments later.
When we got back, no one had called back.
Gah.
Now I have to call them back in the morning again. *bangs head on keyboard*

When we went to Publix, it was a nightmare!
It was like every old, mostly dead, blue-haired, snowbird was in there shopping, and they were all in a wicked bad mood, maybe in need of a deep and thorough enema, because yowza, they were all just really snappy, grabby, pushy, and yelling at everyone they came in contact with.
They didn't take a number at the very busy deli, but demanded to be waited on, they stopped to chat with other old, mostly dead, blue-haired, snowbirds, right in the middle of the aisles totally blocking shopping traffic, they knocked things off of shelves and didn't pick them back up, they made the poor woman in the bakery cut a loaf of bread 3 times because the "thickness wasn't exact", and they kept trying to cut in the checkout lanes.

Ok, this turned into a rant and I didn't intend it to be that way, but I'll be glad when season is over.
Hurry up Easter!
They all go back up north after Easter...LoL

---

March 24, 2009

Wasting time by law, migraines and money.

There hasn't been a whole heckuva lot happening around our house the last few days, same old same old I guess you could say.
The teens have been getting up and going to school, coming home and helping me out around the house because I haven't been feeling well, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with Mark.

Mark took his graduation test, but we don't have the results yet, so he has to go to school every day by law.
The teachers though, tell him in a round about way, that he doesn't have to be there except for Mondays and Fridays, because those are the 2 days that the test results might come in.
So they say to him,
"Mark, I can't tell you that you don't have to be here because I could be fired and lose my pension and all of that, but technically, you only really need to be here Mondays and Fridays for the test results, but by law, you have to be here every day. Do what you think is best for you to do."

So, I've been sending him Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and giving him Wednesdays and Thursdays off until we get his test results back.
He doesn't do anything all day long as far as education goes, he can't.
Well he can, but whatever he does, it doesn't count toward anything because he already took his graduation test.
He's basically taking up a desk, eating lunch, taking naps, and playing video games on the computers all day long.
The other students ask why he doesn't have to do any work, and the teachers say that Mark is done with school but fulfilling his attendance by law, but none of the teachers want him there because he's not doing anything and the other students see him not doing anything, so they want to do nothing, too, so the teachers repeat the above to Mark, and so I let him stay home as much as I can get away with.
So far, no truancy officers have shown up at my door, and if they ever do, I'll explain what's going on and they can confirm it with the school, that we are simply waiting for the results of his graduation test.
These results are totally holding him up though.
He can't apply to the tech school until he gets the results, so that means he can't sign up for the summer classes that he needs either.
They said it would only be a few weeks, but it's taking a long time, and I really hope they get the results soon so that when he goes to the tech school, the classes he needs won't be full up.
That would really suck because he really wants to take those classes over the summer so he can go to college in the fall.

Sebastian is still dealing with the migraines, they aren't happening as often anymore, he was getting them 3-4 times per week, and now he's down to about once a week, so the meds are working for preventing most of the migraine attacks, but when he does get one, it's bad, and so I give him Tylenol and make him lay down in his dark bedroom with a cold compress and wait for it to pass.

Does anyone remember the Airborne class action lawsuit?
They didn't admit to any wrong doing, but they agreed to pay out for a max of 6 packages per person with your proof of purchase from select retailers.
I had filed for it and I had my receipts because I only ever bought it at Walgreen's, and I save all of my pharmacy receipts for my taxes, so proof of purchase was easy to prove.
Well anyway, when Sebastian came home, he got the mail and in it was my settlement check for $34.95.
Saweeet!
And we all got paid several days early from work, so yay!
It's a good money week for me.
I had been panicking all weekend about money because I had a doc appointment with a co-pay on Monday, I have my surgeon appointment with a co-pay tomorrow, and I have several prescription co-pays to pick up tomorrow, too, and I don't have to worry now.
Plus, I'll finally be getting my income tax refund on Thursday the H&R Tax website says.
I have no idea what the hold up was, I filed quite awhile ago, like as soon as I got my forms, but it's finally going to be deposited on Thursday the IRS and H&R says, so yay!
Now I can pay back a loan, pay off some bills, and pay some of my medical bills from my surgery off too.
I don't owe a lot to my surgeon, it's under $1,000 which is awesome, but my refund isn't quite enough to pay the whole thing off.
I'll be able to pay off half of it, and then I can make small monthly payments to pay off the rest of it, and then I won't owe anything to anyone again.
I love it when I don't owe any money, when I'm all caught up on bills, have everything paid off and up to date, it's such an incredibly good feeling.
Does anyone else get all excited when they don't owe any money and are totally caught up on bills? ha ha

---

March 21, 2009

Talent I wish I had.

Last year I had posted about wanting to buy Sebastian a graphics tablet that Buy.com had on sale, to get him for his birthday.
Well my friend Charlotte had 1 that she never used, it was brand new, so we made a deal, and Sebastian got an awesome new graphics tablet to use.

Buy.com has another tablet on sale right now, a Genius G-Pen F610 Graphics Tablet for $69.99, down from $129.99.
That's a really great price for a really cool computer tool.

These graphics tablets are so cool, I wish that I knew how to make stuff with them, I would love to be able to draw on the tablet and make some cool stuff like Sebastian does, but I just don't have that kind of artistic talent.
This is a digital birthday card he made for me using the tablet and some other tools like photoshop and some other stuff.
I don't know how he does it, but it doesn't take him long at all to make things with it and photoshop.
You can click it for bigger, but it's really big, like 1366x768 or something like that.

He found a cake image online, then he used the tablet and pen to draw some designs on it and also to write the lettering.
He's so good at this, he says it's easy, and he tried to teach me but I kept doing it wrong and got frustrated.
He said "Not everyone is good at this stuff Mom, if you ever need graphics for your site, I can make 'em for you."

The tablet does look really easy to use, and so if you have a kid with artistic and computer talents, these tablets would make a great gift to help them better their skills.
Or maybe it's you who's good at this kind of stuff, and it's plug and play, so really easy to set up too.
I just wish he would spend more time doing this stuff, making things, building up his portfolio for when he goes to college.
He's in all senior classes for computers at school.
He's the only sophomore in the digital design class, the only sophomore in the graphics, design, and marketing class too, and he gets all A's and B's.
If he spent more time on this stuff than on playing video games like WoW and GH3, he could build up one heck of a portfolio for school.
But speaking of GH3, there's a free demo out for the Metallica version that is due to come out sometime soon, like on the 29th of this month.
We downloaded the demo yesterday, it only has 4 songs, but wow, it looks amazing, and Sebastian had so much fun trying to play the songs.
He made me stay in the room and watch him play so that I could warn him when Kirk Hammett's guitar solos were coming up so he could try and be prepared to move his fingers really fast...LoL
The game really does look amazing, the characters really do look like the guys from the band, and even had some of their little gestures that they do, like how James Hetfield grimaces and points to the audience, and how how Lars Ulrich makes weird faces while he plays.
If you have an xbox 360, a live account, and GH3, you should definitely download the demo and check it out, it's really pretty cool and now he wants the game when it's released even more.
I wouldn't mind having it too, the music is really awesome.

---

March 18, 2009

Cheap clean hair and a dirty shower.

The teens did it again.
They ran out of shampoo and forgot to tell me, forgot to write it on the list that's on the front of the fridge, and forgot to tell me all 3 times we've been to Publix in the last 5 days.
I'm broke until tomorrow, and they need to wash their hair for school in the morning, so I made some shampoo.

I took all of the freebie sample-sized packets of various shampoos I've gotten and collected over the last 6 months or so, and squeezed them all out into their shampoo bottle.

I had about 30 or so of those packets, all different brands, and just kept cutting them open and squeezing them into the big bottle until they were all emptied out.
I had packets of 3 different kinds of Dove shampoo, Sunsilk, Tresemme, Herbal Essences, and a bunch of other brands too.
I used a funnel to get them all in the bottle and not waste any of it.

When I was finished, I shook it to mix them all together, and I ended up with almost a full bottle of shampoo.
I'd say it's about 3/4's full.
Now I don't have to buy another bottle of shampoo for awhile, so I saved money.
I love saving money!

After I took my shower this morning, I pushed the button on the Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner because I know the teens don't ever do it, and it did it's usual 10 beep warning, a bit quiet, but I didn't think much of it until it started to spray the cleaner.
Or should I say, didn't spray the cleaner.
It sort of just trickled out slowly kind of like one of those low flow wall fountains do, just a light stream of liquid came down.
I checked the bottle it's almost full, I just replaced it last week, so it must be the batteries are dead.
I went looking for more double A's in the usual location, nope, none.
So I went looking where they may have ended up.
Yup, 2 were in the guitar for GH, and 2 were in one of the controllers.
Instead of charging the rechargeable batteries and packs for their games, they took the only alkaline ones I had in the house.
Now I need to add batteries to the shopping list.
But hey, at least I don't have to buy more shampoo.

---

March 18, 2009

Movies, music, and hospital stays.

I just got back from doing my CT Scan so that my surgeon has the most recent images of my neck for when I see him next Wednesday, and he can decide how to proceed with the next surgery.
I see my new pain doc on Monday, and hopefully everyone will be on the same page and we can get things going in the right direction for the next surgery.

Being in the hospital is boring, once they wake you up from the medically induced coma anyway.
The rooms are blank and boring, and the only form of entertainment is the tv.
It's usually on a wall across from the bed, and the channel changer and volume controls are in the control box on your bed.
The control box makes your bed go up and down, and it's also where the speaker is for the tv.
I'm mostly deaf in my left ear, so having to try and listen to the tv through that little speaker is kind of a pain in the butt.
I have to either lay it on the pillow next to my right ear, or hold it there.
Now, I've been giving some thought as to how this next one will go.
I'll be in that big halo brace, screws and metal attached to my skull, I have no idea how much movement I'm going to have, or how painful it will be to try and hold things, and yeah, holding that speaker control box up to my ear might be hard.

I was looking over the weekly deals that Buy.com has on sale this week, and I found this.
An 8GB MP3/MP4 1.8" Media Player, for just $39.99, normally $149.99, that's a huge savings, and it just might be what I could use.

It's called a V-Bop, it's like an mp3 player, plays mp3, mp4, WMA, and WAV files, and it has 8 hours of playback time, just like the better known name brand (think of the fruit) mp3/WMA players, do.
I've compared the two, Buy.com actually has both on sale this week, the V-Bop and the Apple iPod Nano, and while the iPod can hold 16GB and the V-Bop only 8GB, they actually do the same exact things.
Both charge through a USB flash drive, both last for 8 hours, both play the same formats, except the Nano doesn't support or play WMA files.
It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that the Nano does, but it does basically the same things, play music and videos.
The Nano is normally $194.99, on sale for $169.97, and as I said, the V-Bop is normally $149.99, on sale for just $39.99.
If you're just looking for a very basic player, then this is it.

If Buy.com still has this on sale next week when I get paid, then I'll snap one up so I can take it with me to the hospital because then I could watch movies on it and use my earbuds with it, I'd be able to hear everything really well.
Yeah, it's a small screen, but I could prop it up on the blankets and be able to be entertained while I lay there instead of straining to see and hear the tv.
And most of the stuff they have on tv is boring anyway.
The hospital I was in last time, had a channel that did nothing but show the hospital's church room.
Seriously.
I'd fall asleep watching one thing, wake up, and someone would have switched it to that channel.
Kind of annoying that they did that, and I know it was a religious hospital, St. Josephs, but still, if I fall asleep watching watching the sci-fi channel, leave it alone.
There's nothing creepier than waking up to some guy preaching.
With this, I could load it up with some movies I like to watch and music I like, and not be bored.
I did use my mp3 player the last time, it totally helped pass the time, but being able to watch movies and hear them would be really great too.

---

March 15, 2009

A late birthday surprise!

The plan for today was for my sister and her husband to come on by with the girls, (my super cutie nieces) bring us all some lunch, and then sis and her husband would go out for awhile, out to eat, go see a movie, do some shopping without the kids in tow, and the teens and I would babysit.

Last night, sis called and asked if we'd like some Chinese food for the lunch, we all said yes, of course, and that they'd all be here around 1pm.
Sebastian and I got up a bit early, went to Publix, grabbed some juices, and some snacks that the girls can have, (food allergies) and then we came home and finished the cleaning we started yesterday.
Sis and the girls got here at 1pm, no husband, he's not feeling well at all today, sis said he woke with a migraine and his stomach was bothering him, so she decided that she and the girls would come anyway.
They brought a ton of Chinese food with them, and a present all wrapped up in some really pretty Disney Princesses pink wrapping paper.
The girls had also made me some beautiful paintings, and they came in, handed them to me, wrapped their little arms around my legs, and yelled happy birthday.
It was so stinkin' cute!
They made me open my present before we could eat, Susan and Skye were all excited for me to open it up because they said they helped mommy pick out 1 of them.
Sis gave me some super cute black linen shorts with a nice embroidery on 1 of the pockets, a black peasant style t-shirt, and a black retro-tattoo-ish kinda Betty Boop t-shirt too.
That's the 1 the girls said they helped pick out, and everything in black because it's my favorite un-color.

Then we all sat and ate the food and watched Santa Claus Is Comin to Town again, because the girls are absolutely fascinated by the Burgermiester Miesterburger.
They love that character, Susan said today that he must have had no toys when he was a kid, and that his mommy and daddy were really mean to him, so that's why he hates toys now, hates laughing, playing, "happy".
Interesting idea, maybe she's right, it's never truly explained why the Burgermiester Miesterburger hates toys and kids, but Susan's explanation sounds good.

Then after that, I showed sis and the girls how much the kitties love the video catnip, and they laughed and laughed.
Shahiro was especially funny today, she was back on the side table, watching intently, and then she dove at the tv, paws outstretched, meowing loudly, hit the screen and fell to the floor.
It didn't deter her, she tried again and again, and Nova just kept standing up on her hind legs and pawing at the screen, same as in the pics I posted yesterday.

After that, sis went out to Barnes and Noble by herself for awhile, the girls stayed and played with us.
They ran around the yard, dug through all of the toy boxes, ate some chips and salsa, drank more juice, and just had a great time as always at Aunty Kat's house.
They love coming here so much, that as they were getting in the car to leave tonight, Susan told sis she wanted to live here. hahaha
They are just such awesome little girls, I love it when they come to visit me, it just cheers me up and makes me smile.

---

February 28, 2009

Too early to start cleaning.

I've been awake all night again, can't sleep, but hey, what's new about that?
Nothing!
I'm feeling tons better and have so much to do today, but it's far too early to start, I'll wake the teens, and they need all the rest they can get because we've got some heavy duty cleaning to do today.
They are gonna be tired tonight!

So because it's so early and I can't do much of anything that needs to be done, I figured I'd go and see what's on sale this week.
I found this 7-port LED USB hub, which would be totally useful for me.

I have 3 USB ports on my pc, but I have a whole bunch of things that use the ports, so every time i need to use 1 of the different electronics, I have to unplug something else.
I have my Cannon scanner, my printer, my photo printer, my mp3 player, my picture keychain, my camera, , and a couple other things that either use the USB ports to upload, or use them to charge the items.
One USB hub would be perfect.
I could always have all of the USB cords plugged in so at any given moment, I could just plug in what I needed to use, instead of having to unplug 1 or 2 things, find the other USB cords, plug those back in, when done, find the right USB cords to plug the other stuff back in.
Yeah, totally confusing and a total time waster too.
It's not a bad price either, but not right now.
I'll just add it to my list of things I want when i get ahead on bills and other things.

---

February 27, 2009

Last few days update.

Ok, now that I'm starting to feel somewhat human again, I'll give you an update on the goings on around the Cooper household.

As you know, Mark took his graduation test, the test giver said he passed, we have to wait a few weeks for the official state grade, but basically he's done with school.

I also took Sebastian to the neuro who did a bunch of tests, asked a ton of questions, and then gave him 2 different medicines to try.
We will go pick those up tomorrow morning at CVS and start him on them.
He has to take both every single day as they are preventative migraine medicines, so we'll start and see how it goes for him.
I really hope they work, if they don't, we have an appointment in a month to do a check up, report if they work or not, if not, we'll try 2 more the neuro said.

I don't know if we're going to be able to keep Carmine the kitty who adopted us.
I fully believe that he is a feral cat as we have tried and tried to get him to stop peeing all over the house, but he simply will not stop peeing everywhere.
He used the litter box for the first month or so that he was here, but he's now resorted to peeing on the carpet in several spots, and if you have cats and have or ever had a cat that peed in other places other than the litter box, well you know the smell is pure nasty ammonia.
He has taken to peeing on the carpet underneath my bed over and over.
The smell in my room is so nasty and strong, I haven't been able to sleep in it for several days now.
Tomorrow, the teens and I are getting the box cutter and tearing out that carpet.
We have to, we don't have a choice.
The carpet has been ruined by some of the flooding that happened anyway, and most of it got ripped out after the last big huge flood that we had about 2 or 3 years ago.
Now it all has to come out because he has peed all over it and the smell is absolutely disgusting.
We've been trying to train him, every time we caught him peeing someplace other than the box, we picked him up, rubbed his nose in it, and put him in the litter box.
He just will not stop peeing there, and then he has tried to pee other places, too, like the bathtub, and tonight, he peed on the kitchen floor.
I simply cannot have a cat that pees everywhere.
No amount of enzyme urine stain cleaner can get rid of that smell no matter how good they claim their product is.
If we can't get him to stop this, the other cats will start peeing in other places too, and then the smell will be in the entire house and none of them will ever ever stop peeing in those places.
I hate to have to get rid of him, but a feral cat will never learn.
I will take him to the humane society, I'll pay the $50 or so bucks they want to take feral cats, and hopefully they will know what to do with him, give him to a no-kill shelter, or give him to a family that wants an outdoor cat.
I really hate to do that, I love him, the teens love him so much, he's beautiful and so loving, but a feral cat who pees is simply no good.
If anyone knows what to do, knows how to make him stop peeing, please, please tell me what to do, it's breaking our hearts at the very thought of having to get rid of him.

In NuWave Pro Oven news, it rocks my socks something fierce!!!
So far we have cooked frozen chicken breasts in just 16 minutes, 8 minutes per side, a steak, which came out absolutely fabulous in just 7 minutes per side, oh my goodness, it was simply incredible!
I cooked some of those Barber Foods stuffed chicken breasts, the broccoli and cheese ones, and they were totally cooked perfectly in just 7 minutes instead of the 45 in a conventional oven, with no turning at all.
Tonight we cooked some bourbon marinated salmon fillets (they were on sale for just $6.99 for 3 big fillets) in just 4 minutes per side, and they came out perfectly!
I also made to go with the salmon, some corn on the cob halves, and by the time the salmon was done, so were they, perfectly with no turning, from frozen.
Tomorrow night I'll be making some frozen hamburgers, it says they will cook in just 3 minutes per side, and some french fries which the chart says will be done in just 6 minutes with no turning using the baking sheet that it comes with.

The teens absolutely love the NuWave, they think it is simply incredible and easy to use.
Both of them have been helping me cook every night because I haven't been feeling well, and they have done so good at it.
They got the food out, they sprayed the cooking racks with Pam, they put the food on, read the cooking time chart, set the power and time, and flipped the food.
It is far too easy to make good food in no time at all, and clean up is an absolute breeze.
It all comes apart really easy, and washes up in seconds.

I do need to pick up some parchment paper to cook pizzas though.
The pizza flipper it comes with, yeah, that's a must.
You need to place the pizza, cheese and sauce side down on the paper, cook it for just 3 minutes, then use the flipper to turn it ride side up.
It will cook the pizza without flipping, but the crust doesn't get as crusty as we like it, so yeah, next shopping trip, I'll get some paper and it will make the pizzas perfectly.

It is just so easy to use, easy to clean up, and the food tastes incredible.
The teens could not stop saying how good the salmon tasted tonight and the steak last night, they love it, so I know that after the next surgery, they will be eating good and healthy food all cooked by themselves.
Thank you guys so so much for getting it for us, you've made a huge difference for us.
They are not afraid of using it like they are the really old and temperamental oven that we have, they love it, they love cooking with it, it's really awesome.

---

February 22, 2009

NuWave Pro Oven product review.

Like I posted yesterday, I received the Nuwave Pro Oven as a gift from some friends, and I used it to cook our dinner tonight.

I had a really good reason to test it out tonight, we had a bit of an accident here at the house.
I had posted to Twitter how good I was feeling so I was going to do some house cleaning.
It's been awhile since I've felt good, so I wanted to do all of the dishes, the laundry, and vac the carpets.
Within minutes of posting that, the bathroom flooded, which subsequently had spread to the back bathroom and hallway.
The landlord is trying to fix up the duplex apartment next door after the old neighbors moved out about 6 months ago.
He's had to do an insane amount of work, they really trashed the place.
He had torn up the carpets and decided to never put any back down again after what they let their pets do to every full room of carpet in there so no other tenants do that again, and today, he decided to power-wash the terrazzo flooring in there.
He hooked up the power washer to the sink or tub faucet in the bathroom, and proceeded to wash the floors, suck it all up in a wet vac, and he dumped it all down the toilet drain and then left.
This old duplex is still on septic, it can't handle that much water going down the toilet that fast, and so, it all backed up into our side of the duplex.
I spent the entire afternoon soaking up water with towels and then doing all of laundry, having to wash all of those towels.
So by the time the teens and I had finished cleaning the house, it was nearing dinner time and I was no longer physically feeling so great.
My back, neck and shoulders were fried, and not to mention, I was so busy cleaning up the watery mess, I had forgotten to thaw out the frozen chicken breasts for dinner.

The NuWave Pro Oven says that it can cook from frozen in less time than thawed or fresh, in a regular oven, so I decided to test drive it tonight.
It's all digital, you just place your food inside, check the chart for cooking times, set the temperature and time, click start, and it cooks your food.

I got it all set up and placed the frozen chicken breasts on the cooking rack making sure the drip pan was beneath, and set the cooking temperature to high power (350degrees) which was 1 button, set the time for 16 minutes which was 3 buttons, and clicked 1 button to start.
A total of 5 button pushes to make dinner.

Within just 3 minutes, they were thawed and starting to cook!

They were starting to turn a nice golden color at about 8 minutes.

And just like the infomercial says, all of the fat and grease drips off of the food and into the drip pan below, making your food healthier because it's not sitting in it's own grease.

At 16 minutes, they were completely cooked all of the way through, but the teens wanted some BBQ sauce on them, so I opened up the NuWave, poured some on, and set it to cook again for just another 3 minutes to bake the yummy sauce onto the chicken breasts.

I made a side of Pasta Roni fettuccine alfredo to go with it, and wow, it was so good!

When the infomercial says that your food cooks in less time, has less fat and grease, and the meat is tender and moist, they are NOT lying.
The chicken breasts were so full of flavor, they were tender and juicy, and was definitely done in far less time than if I had cooked it in a regular oven.
If I had cooked them in the oven, it would have taken about 45 minutes, the whole house would have gotten hot, I would have had to bend over and keep checking to see if they were done, which stresses my neck and back out, turn them over so both sides could get brown, and then I would have had the baking sheet to clean up which is always a mess after making anything with BBQ sauce.
BBQ sauce sticks to the baking sheet something fierce, and I usually end up having to soak it for about an hour or two in order to get it totally clean.

When dinner was over, it was time to clean up and wash the NuWave.
It was SO easy to clean!
The top dome comes off of the digital cooking head simply by turning it counter clockwise, and the dome itself doesn't get dirty because the food didn't splatter at all, it simply had some condensation in it, so I just rinsed it out under the faucet head.

The drip pan was also super easy to clean, just a few wipes around with my dish stick, and all of the fat, grease, and BBQ sauce drippings just came right off.
No sticky mess!

The baking rack was also wicked, wicked easy to clean because I had given it a light spray of no-stick cooking spray, so again, just a few wipes over the rack grids with the dish stick, and it was totally clean.

Overall, the NuWave Pro Oven is awesome!
It is super easy to use, cooks in less time than the regular oven, really easy to clean, and the food comes out moist and full of flavor, just really, really great.
I absolutely love it and can see us using this for everything that we would normally cook in the oven.
It is so easy to use that the teens will not have any problems at all learning how to cook with it, so when I do go in for my surgery and begin recovering at home, they will be able to eat food that is good for them.
No more take out, junk food, no more microwave meals, no more cold lunch meat sandwiches or subs every night for months on end, they will be eating good and tasty food that they cooked themselves.

---

February 21, 2009

Friends, food, and cooking.

I have had a day here and I can't stop crying.
Ok, I sorta can.
I've been crying off and on since this morning over all kinds of things.
I'm like a pressure cooker right now, slowly letting out steam every 20 minutes or so.
A few days ago, I blogged about all of the stress and other things building up in me, my lost trust in people, my lost faith in people, I felt like I was losing my mind.
I still do sorta feel that way.
It's just one thing after another, all of the little and big things keep piling onto all of the things I already am trying to deal with.

Today though, some of my faith in people has been restored.
Through kindness and generosity, true caring from friends, and that set me off crying again.

The teens and I walked to the store late this afternoon, and when we returned home, we found this big huge box at the front door.
My son Mark brought it in, we put all the groceries away, and then I opened it.
It was the NuWave oven I've been wanting to get to help make it easier for my sons to cook and eat good food while I'm having surgery and after.
After both of my last surgeries, they ate nothing but junk food, microwave food, take out, cold lunch meat sandwiches day after day for months, except for a few meals that Mindy brought over, and a few times that my sister stopped by with some stuff that didn't need any cooking too.
The teens fear getting burned by the regular oven, they are getting a little better about it, but they still are afraid to reach in and take out hot items.

There was no card inside the box, only a packing slip with one person's name on it, so I emailed her and asked her why as well as to say thank you.
I asked why because I know that when I blogged about losing my trust and faith in people, I had written even friends I usually could trust and talk to, and I know that it hurt her.
I was in such a bad place last week, I was angry, hurt, felt betrayed, and I lashed out at everyone, and I know that was wrong, but shutting down and shutting off from everyone was the easiest way for me to handle what I was dealing with.
I didn't know any other way to deal with it than just shutting down and blocking everyone out until I could sort it all out.
I did apologize to the close friends who I know I hurt with my words, but I was and still am, feeling very badly about hurting them simply because I couldn't figure out how to deal with any of what was happening.

But the NuWave wasn't just from her, about 12 people all pitched in and bought it for me and the teens, to help us all out when I have the next surgery, so the teens will be able to eat real food, not all of the junk food and microwave crap that they ate after both of my last surgeries.
I would link to them all, but I don't know if they want me to do that, they know who they are, but I want to say thank you and thank you, and thank YOU, and thanks to the woman who thought the whole plan up, contacted others and got it all going.
It was wicked nice of her to be thinking of me, wanting to do something to not only cheer me up, but also help the teens and I after the next surgery so they will be able to eat better and easier.

It is the NuWave Oven Pro, the exact one that I wanted, it came with all of the things that the infomercial and website says it does.
The instructional DVD, the pizza flipper, 25 recipe cards, 2 recipe booklets, the extender ring kit, 2 cooking racks, a round baking pan, and the Twister blender.
I can't wait to try it all out, I'm sure I'll do a product review of it, I love kitchen gadgets as most people know, and this really is going to help make it so much easier for the teens to cook good meals for themselves after my next surgery and during my recovery.
It's not big and scary like the oven, fits perfectly on the counter top, and from reading the instruction manual, seems very easy to use.

---

February 19, 2009

And green can be big like an ocean, or important, Like a mountain, or tall like a tree.

I remember when being "green" was considered un-cool, people who recycled and cared about the trees were called tree huggers and hippies, but now everyone is going green, now it's cool to do.

People are really starting to become more earth conscious, care about their local environment and the planet, but if you're just starting out, how do you find the best ways to get started?
I found a great site full of going green tips to help you get started on saving the planet, recycling, and saving money as well as the trees.

At Green Hangout, you can find all kinds of tips to help you go green at home, at work, you can get green lifestyle news to help you get started.
They have product reviews of the best green products out there, companies that are helping you go green for less but still get great quality products.
You can even report "Green Violators", companies that are ignoring the green initiative.
And if you're really new to all of this green stuff, they even have a green terms page to help you figure out what all of the words mean.

They also have forums where you can just read along to find new ways of saving money and the planet, you can post to share ideas, find resources, and even vent frustrations about green issues in your community.

I know I have some issues with recycling in my community, they no longer allow us to recycle a whole lot of stuff.
They will only take corrugated cardboard, for example, they refuse to take other forms of cardboard like soda boxes or beer boxes, magazines, phone books, and much much more that we used to be able to recycle.
They have a huge list of items they will no longer let us put in the recycle bins, and if we violate the recycle rules, we get fined.
Heck, we get fined if we accidentally swap the red and blue bins one week.
Red is for cans and glass bottles, no plastics, and blue is for corrugated cardboard only.
Everything that is on the list of do not put in the recycle bins, has to go in the trash.
They are forcing us to put recyclable items in the trash instead of recycling them.
To me, that is totally wrong.
If it's an item that can be recycled, we should be able to put it in the bins, not in a trash bag, and they shouldn't fine us for doing that.
It's kind of crazy that they are keeping us from doing as much recycling as we possibly can.
This city prides itself on having the cleanest and whitest sand beaches in all of the world, yet they are forcing us to put more and more stuff in the landfills than we should be.
If it has a recycle logo on it, if it's a box or plastic with a logo, then they should, instead of forcing us to put it in the trash, force us us to recycle it.
This city is so pretty, we get thousands of tourists every year, we even have new hybrid school and local transportation buses, so what's the deal on recycling Sarasota?

Seeing as my city won't let me be green with my trash and recyclables, I have to find ways to be as green as I can in other ways.
Changing to all CFL bulbs, using my cloth grocery bags, using less chemicals to clean my home, washing in cold water, using less, wasting less, and whatever other ways I can find and do.
That's why this site is so great, it is helping me find other ways of being green.

---

February 18, 2009

Maybe it would work for an xbox?

Buy.com is always having awesome weekly deals and great sale prices on all kinds of items, jewelry, electronic items and more, and this week they have something that I'm wondering if it would help.

They have a Cables Unlimited Super Laptop Cooler, for only $15.99 and free shipping.
It connects through the USB ports, and helps to keep a laptop cool, but maybe it would work to help keep xbox 360's cool too.
They do make an intercooler for them, but I heard from many people that it didn't work, and not only did it not work, but it actually caused their xbox 360 motherboard to heat up even more, and melt, rendering their 360 completely useless.

I have no idea if it would work or not, but I do need something to help keep it from overheating,
Buy.com also has another cooler that looks like it may work even better because you actually lay the laptop on top of it, and so I assume you could lay an xbox on top of it the same way, and it could continuously blow cool air into the grids the same as the intercooler does without actually attaching to the xbox, not powered by the xbox, which is what causes the intercooler to make it overheat and melt the motherboard.
It's an extra component being powered by it, so it heats up even though it's supposed to cool it down.

I'll have to do some more investigtaing, read reviews on both items, and hit up the xbox forums to find out if anyone else has used a laptop cooler to help keep their xbox from overheating.
Right now, we're just using a small portable box fan, and we leave it on the whole time the xbox is on and for about an hour after we shut it (the xbox) off to help cool it down even faster so the motherboard doesn't have a chance to overheat and melt the motherboard.

---

February 17, 2009

Pains in the neck and shoulders.

I've been up all night again, just couldn't sleep at all, so I decided to be productive.
I did some light and easy cleaning over night in the kitchen.
I tackled all of the drawers and threw out some broken or just really old and worthless cooking utensils, ratty dish towels and pot holders, split up sets of measuring cups and spoons, and found some stuff that I had long forgotten about too.

I found the set of hooks I bought and meant to use for a home decorating project, my old wallet which had all kinds of pictures of the kids in it, some rubber stamps from when I used to try and be all crafty, and 3 boxes of kid's Valentines cards that we never used.
I don't know why I kept those.
Maybe I thought that eventually we'd use them.
I threw out all the old and useless junk, and then put the cards back in the drawer along with the hooks, the stamps, and old wallet.
I didn't know where else to put any of it.
*shrug*

Today is the day I can finally call the neurologist about Sebastian's migraines.
I tried to call yesterday, but it was a holiday, so no one answered the phone, just got the same message that he would be out until February 16th.
So around 9am, I am going to give his office a call, and try to get Sebastian in as soon as possible.

Both of the teens are still complaining that their necks and shoulders hurt from carrying the groceries home on Sunday.
The bags were heavy, I'm not denying them their pain at all, I know back pain, but they have to go to school.
I gave them each some Tylenol just now, and I'm hoping that they will survive the day at school.
They had a 3-day weekend due to the holiday, so they have to go.
I keep telling them that if I haven't died from my back pain yet, they certainly won't die from carrying some groceries home.
I know that they did hurt pretty badly on Sunday night, but they've been playing GH and other games and not complaining about the pain, they didn't start really whining about it until bed time last night, and now this morning.
They just want to stay home.
Sorry boys, you're going to school!

---

February 15, 2009

Snackage, money, and diamonds.

These Chex Mix chocolate chunk snack bars are awesomely tasty.

I bought them because they were on sale and I had a $1 off coupon, so I only paid $1.50 for them,
I would never have bought them otherwise, no matter how much Sebastian begged me to get them.
When he saw them on sale today, and then he dug through my coupon envelope, he said; "Mom, you gotta, you said if they were ever on sale you'd buy them, plus you have a coupon. Pleeeease?"
So I bought the 1 box, and they really are pretty tasty.
I don't like regular Chex snack mixes, they are too dry and have some weird stuff in them, but these have chocolate, and chocolate makes everything taste better.

I didn't do too bad shopping today, I saved $87.50 using coupons and in-store specials, and sale flier coupons.
I would have liked to have done a little bit better, but eh, that wasn't too bad.
My total bill before the coupons was $226.50, and I got it down to just $139.00.
__________________________________

I am slowly working on numbering the entries for the contest, to make it easier when I draw the winning comment number on March 1st.
So far, there are 109 comments, but not all of them are entries, there are a few comments from myself and Katy from Gem Affair, so I'm only numbering the actual entries.
You can still enter to win the diamond necklace, so go leave me a comment and enter to win!

Ok, off to number some more entries, (I only got up to #50 last night) and then read some blogs and stuff.
No school tomorrow so we can all sleep in.
The teens are wicked excited about that especially after having to carry home a ton of groceries today.
The cloth grocery bags were loaded to the top and wicked heavy, but we all made it back home in 1 piece despite the teens saying they felt like their arms were going to fall off.

---

February 15, 2009

Food, cooking, and shopping.

The teens and I are getting ourselves woken up and ready to head out to Publix to do the grocery shopping.
We're all going this time because I have only enough money to buy food, not take a $10 cab ride back home, so we're taking all of the cloth shopping bags, and the teens are taking their backpacks, and we're going to get everything and carry it all home.

We've been sitting here this morning watching all of the infomercials that are on Sundays, and I am still coveting the NuWave Oven Pro.
I really do want it, and will probably buy 1 before my next surgery because it will help the teens be able to cook for themselves a lot easier.

I can't help thinking about the risks of the surgery, I don't mind the halo brace so much, it will suck, but if it helps keep my head straight, then I don't really care so much.
But the whole trach tube thing, yeah, that's got me a bit freaked out.
I won't be able to breathe, eat, drink, or speak through my nose or mouth, only breathe through the trach tube, I'll be fed through a feeding tube in my stomach.
It does have it's benefits though.
I won't need to diet or take any sort of diet pill, my food will be some liquid goop shoved through a tube directly into my stomach, so I'm like pretty much guaranteed to lose weight.

But I was thinking about the teens, I won't be able to eat, I will probably have a very hard time doing things like cooking because of the halo brace, and the teens, while they do know how to cook, the oven still freaks them out.
So I was watching the infomercial for the NuWave Oven Pro, and how it is less intimidating than the regular oven, they'd be able to eat good and healthy foods, real food, not microwave nuke 'em bad for them crap, and so yeah, I think at some point before the next surgery, I'll buy it.
I'll test it out, teach the teens how to use it, let them cook with it all of the time before I go, and then they'll be used to it, will be able to cook for themselves when I get back, and probably get really good at it because it's so easy to use, like no brainer cooking.

Ok, gotta get myself ready, brush my hair and get dressed, get my list and coupons, and head on out to buy some food that the teens will inhale.
They have tomorrow off, no school because of the holiday, so I need to pick up some easy to eat and lunch meat stuff for sandwiches and stuff like that.

---

February 9, 2009

Celebrate my birthday contest!!

**EDIT**
Too many people are NOT following the rules.
As of right now. 10:20pm EST Monday February 16th, I will not be counting anymore of the entries which do not follow the very simple first rule of this contest.
This is the rule, follow it or your comment entry will NOT be counted.
1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
Go to GemAffair and pick 1 thing that you'd like to have, come back here and leave a comment telling me what it is.
If this is not done, your comment entry will NOT count.
_____________________

My birthday is coming up on March 1st, and I want to celebrate and share my birthday fun with my readers.
So, I'm having a contest to give 1 lucky reader a present from me and Gem Affair, to help celebrate the big 39.
Yup, I'm going to be 39 this year, I'm seriously thinking this will be the last birthday I acknowledge, at least publicly.
I'm not growing old as gracefully as I had hoped, and just thinking about my body getting worse with old age, makes me cringe.

So anyway, I want to celebrate it up big and I want to share my special day with you.
Katy and Gem affair have so awesomely agreed to be my contest sponsor.
The winner will be selected randomly using random.org, and this is what 1 lucky reader will win.
It's a diamond two-piece oval pendant with an 18-inch chain.

It comes packaged beautifully in a gift box, and will be shipped directly to you from Gem Affair, it will be gift wrapped and include a note.**

I won 1 of the Twitter contests that Gem Affair had, and I absolutely LOVE the diamond journey pendant that I won.
It is sooo beautiful, and it fits me perfectly both in actual fit and style.

So now that you know what the prize of my celebrate my birthday contest is, here's what you need to do to win!
For each 1 of these that you do, you NEED to leave a SEPARATE comment for each.
Each 1 of these equals 1 entry, but the first one is a must do.
The more you do, the more chances of winning you have!

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. Please give me your username so I can verify.
4. Follow me on Twitter. Please give me your username so I can verify.
5. Follow Gem Affair on Twitter. Please give me your username so I can verify.

EDITED**
For 5 additional entries for each, do one or both of the following, and leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do, I will add your +5 entries to your entries.

1. Blog about this on your blog linking back to me and 1 link to Gem Affair.com. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Subscribe to this blog using my RSS feed.

The winner will be drawn from all of the entries on Sunday March 1st, my birthday.
So come celebrate with me and you could win this beautiful diamond pendant!
The contest is open to both US and Canadian residents only.
______________________________________

So that I don't run into a snafu with my winner, and don't like being called a liar, thief, and criminal, here's the skinny:

Giveaway is open until midnight, February 28th, 2009.
Winner will be chosen at random and announced on March 1st, 2009.
Winner will be contacted by email and/or Twitter and will have 48 hours to respond.
Please use your real first name and a valid email address when entering.
I am not responsible for incorrect contact information.
You must respond from the email you used to enter in order to be eligible to win!
If I contact you through the email you used to enter, and it bounces back as invalid, I will choose a different winner, so please make sure that your information is correct.

Too many people are NOT following the rules.
As of right now. 10:20pm Monday February 16th, I will not be counting anymore of the entries which do not follow the very simple first rule of this contest.
This is the rule, follow it or your comment entry will NOT be counted.
1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me which piece of jewelry you'd love to have from Gem Affair.com.
Go to GemAffair and pick 1 thing that you'd like to have, come back here and leave a comment telling me what it is.
If this is not done, your comment entry will NOT count.

Continue Reading �

---

February 9, 2009

Trade in old cds and get cash or new gadgets in return!

I used to take my old and used cds and DVDs and trade them in at a local music and video store.
Boogie Woogie which was in the same shopping plaza as Publix, used to take used CDs and DVDs, and either give you cash for them or let you trade them in for other items that you wanted, but due to the failing economy, they had to close down all of their locations.
That was back in May 2008, quite awhile before any of the news of the Wall Street fiasco started to make the news, but local establishments were already beginning to feel the heat of the failing economy.
I haven't been able to find any other place to sell my used CDs and DVDs since, other than online auction sites, but you're lucky if you get a buck a piece on some of those sites.

I have now found an awesome place that will take your old CDs and DVDs and books, and give you cash or let you trade them in on other stuff you may want.
Abundatrade.com is the place to go to unload your used stuff and get cash or gadgets in return.

You can do it 1 of 2 ways.
You can go to their site and either enter in the 12-digit UPC code or the 10-13-digit ISBN number, and they will calculate the trade in or cash value for you.
To test it out, I entered in the ASIN number of the nearest to me DVD, which was The Nightmare Before Christmas 2-disc collectors edition which retails for $20.99 on Amazon, and they calculated it's trade in value at $7.67. (I am NOT trading it in, I love this movie, just testing the system out)

The other way you can do it is to just box up all of the items you want to trade in, they give you the shipping materials to send them in, and when they get them and calculate the value of everything in your box, they let you know how much it's all worth.
If you submit a tracking number when you ship it to them, they will give you a FREE used CD just for helping them track your package.

The value of your items is based on the current online market value for each item you are looking to trade in.
All items must be in good physical shape, and if you have all of the items that go with it, like the jewel case, the booklets and manuals, the more it's worth.
You should read the FAQs to learn more about how they calculate the value and the shipping methods etc.
The current market value has nothing to do with the popularity of the band, movie or book, it is based soley upon current online market values.
Oooh, the FAQs say they even take video games.
Awesome!
I know we have a ton of video games that we've beat and don't play anymore, and I could unload all of the old PS2 games that we haven't played since the teens got the xbox360 2+ years ago.
Saweeet!

If you box up and ship a lot of items, and for some reason they decline some of them, they will send those items back to you, or you can choose to leave them with Abundatrade to recycle.
Nice.
The online market value calculator is only an estimate, they will inspect all of the items you send in for damage or to see if it has all of the booklets and original jewel case, and that may either increase or decrease the current market value.

The items you send in can be used to purchase brand new items, gadgets like iPods or cameras, tvs, computers and gaming equipment.
You can basically trade in all of your old and used CDs, DVDs, books and video games, and get new items in return.
This seems like a great way to get your kids that stuff they have already listed as wanting for Christmas without having to save every penny for the next 10 months, you can just send in all your old stuff and get some new stuff.
It's like finding money you didn't know you had!

I have so many books, video games, CDs, and DVDs, this is going to be my new place to trade stuff in.
Check it out!

---

February 4, 2009

What to buy?!

Due to a mix-up and a misunderstanding on a purchase I made at an online retailer back in December, Buy.com's customer service department has been in touch with me regarding that purchase and the snafu.
It's a major long story, but Buy.com wanted to make sure that I was happy with my purchase and their company, which I am, I've been shopping with them since 2004.
So anyway, their customer service department sent me a gift certificate today for $30.00 to buy anything I want.
Yay!
So now the question is, what do I want to buy?!

I've been going through all of their weekly deals and sale items, and they have so many awesome items on sale, and at first I didn't think they had anything this week that I wanted, but then my friend Holly pointed out