Peppermint Twists

4 More Months

2012-01-26T21:51:00.004-05:00

In exactly 4 months....

I'll be MARRIED!

Very exciting!

In the meantime, I need to stop eating and exercise!

I don't want to be a fatty on my special day!

(I fear I am running out of time!)

I did do 11 minutes of exercising while watching a workout video last night. I wanted to do the same thing today, only my legs are way too sore! I need to stretch for a few days before doing much more. It's sad how un-flexible I am.

I really WANT to do this!

I really NEED to do this!

And only I can motivate myself!

Besides,

First comes love,

then comes marriage,

then comes baby in a baby carriage!

And I am ready to start both marriage and a baby!

Want and need to lose weight to accomplish both those goals!

P.S. I am not having a baby right now - just want to start trying once I am married.

Kroger's Mega Coupon Event

2012-01-25T18:51:00.002-05:00

It has been a long time since I have had a really good/cheap shopping experience and I wanted to make sure I shared this one with you so you can go to Kroger and experience the same as me.I did this in 3 transactions. Could have been 2 if I had all my coupons in my purse (opposed to some in my car). I did technically do this all in one trip though - in between each shopping trip I would place everything in my trunk
and then organize what I was doing next.

Right now at Kroger when you buy any 10 participating items you receive $5.00 off which equals to $0.50 off each item.
You can only do this deal twice per transaction meaning you need to split up your order if you want more than 20 items.
I have messed up in the pass so I suggest you watch and count as the cashier rings up all your items. There will be a '<+' sign next to each item that qualifies.

Here's what I bought for $17.17:
(Keep in mind I do not pay tax on food in KY)

All prices are after the $5.00 off.
All coupons up to $0.50 are doubled.

7 Boxes of Mom's Best Cereal $0.99 each

Used 2 $1.00 off coupons = 4 @ $0.50/each and 3 @ $0.99/each

7 Red Gold Tomatoes $0.59 each

3 Kleenex Tissues $0.99 each

Used 3 $0.50 off coupons = FREE

13 Hunts Tomatoes $0.59/each

Used 1 $0.45 off 3, 2 $1.00 off 2, 2 $50 off 3 coupons

9 balance Bars $0.49/each

Used 3 $1.00/3 coupons = $0.19 each

1 Frank's Hot Sauce $2.09

Used $0.45 off coupon = $1.09

Non Mega Event items:

4 Reach Floss $1.05

Used 4 $1.00 off coupons = $0.05/each

Luna Bar $1.19

Used FREE coupon = FREE

Bare Naked Granola $3.85

Used $2 off coupon = $1.85

Bumble Bee Tuna $1.00

Used $0.50 off coupon = FREE

3 Tuna $1.59 (I thought this was $1.25 - wouldn't have bought it had I known)

Used 3 $0.50 off coupons = $0.59/each

Not bad for less than $20!
All items I bought are items I usually use with the exception of the Balance Bars which I am hoping Matt will like to eat.
Wish I had more coupons to get a few more items.

Happy shopping!

Hallmark Card Holiday

2012-01-21T09:39:00.000-05:00

Valentine's Day is on February 14th which happens to fall on Tuesday this year.

Even though I know it is barely a holiday and I really do feel it was invented by card makers like Hallmark and American Greetings to sell more cards, doesn't mean I don't like to celebrate it.

Unfortunately, this year (since it falls on Tuesday) I will be spending it alone.

All by myself.

Alone.

No special meal.

No card.

No present.

*Insert sigh*

I guess I'll just have to go to work and spend that day sitting alone on my couch with no one to comfort me but Wyatt.

Maybe I will get a pint of ice cream and eat my sorrows away.

*Insert another sigh*

(Matt and I will celebrate the weekend before - I'll be okay!)

None the less - I still like to decorate the holiday.

Such a pretty holiday with all reds and pinks for everything!

Speaking of holiday decorations... I have already decorated.

I actually got my decorations out when Matt and I put away my Christmas decorations since they were up in the attic.

My love tree!

I love it!

This year I decided to decorate with blue and purple beads along with my red heart ornaments.

(This is the same tree I will use to make my Easter tree - stay tuned.)

My table!

I have a bunch of different heart place mats and like to switch them out every so often.

I am hoping since I have it looking good I won't use my table as a dumping ground.

You can see a book I tried to hide on the lower right corner of this picture - prime example of my dumping.

And what you don't see is how this same chair has 2 coats on it along with my purse, lunch bag, and a curtain.

These are my masterpieces I spray painted about a month ago!

All I did for these were placed pinkish/purplish heart ornaments in with pink and red heart 'stones'.

They look better in person.

Really colorful!

In my bedroom, on my dresser ,I went from this:

(Saving the empty frames - which are always - for wedding pictures.)

To this:

This is my favorite decoration this year!

I used my hurricane vases I made (by gluing 2 pieces together) and placed a candle in the middle of more pink heart 'stones'.

I was going to throw away these candles! Can you believe that?

I no longer needed them for my Christmas decorating and had them in a bag to go to Goodwill when I decided to see what they would look like. Good thing I hadn't taken that bag yet.

Here's a closer look.

I have a few more decorations around my house but those all consisted of me just putting items out.

All of these are things I made and actually put some effort into them.

I spent $0 decorating!

My favorite price!

Hope you like!

Hall Closet

2012-01-19T22:05:00.002-05:00

I have finally (after living here for 6 months) cleaned and organized my linen/stock closet.

**Insert 'OOOOOOOOOH'!!!**

**Insert 'AHHHHHHH'(s)!!!**

Amazing, I know!

I had just been 'throwing' everything in here without worrying about what it looked like since it was behind a closed door, but now I felt the need to clean and organize.

(Mostly)

On to the 2 top shelves I have extra linens - not all of them - just most of the sheets. The rest are in another closet. Perhaps I should go through them and get rid of a few.

However, I have a hard time getting rid of anything. Never know when I will need them or when a ton of people will be staying at my house. (I wont have enough beds...)

Ignore the white curtains in the middle. I was trying to get them higher up on top of everything - couldn't reach and I was too lazy to get a chair to reach higher.

Next shelf down (from left top to right bottom) has:

Container of Plackers floss and razor blades (Random mix, I know.)

Container of miscellaneous items such as hair ties and makeup

Basket of hair products such as shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, hair gel, hand sanitizer, and lotion

Container of floss - a lifetime supply probably - about 40 packs

In the middle is 3 bottles of mouthwash and a whiting strip kit

Closer look into this basket:

Moving on to the next shelf..

Container of deodorants

Basket of body soaps and more hand soaps

Container of extra toothpaste and toothbrushes

Container of glow sticks

Extras on this shelf include Q-tips and Gentle Wipes

Closer look into this basket:

On the floor I keep:

Basket of pads/tampons

Loofah's

Container of band aids and first aid items

Toilet Cleaners

Shower head

There you have it... my linen closet.

Yes, I do stockpile to some degree. I like to have extra items so I don't run out and then have to pay full price for toiletries. Do I feel I can do better then what I currently do?

Yes, I do.

I don't like paying very much for these items and refuse to spend more then a few minutes checking out which store to shop at and what to buy. I also don't want to be one of those couponers who allow her stuff to take over her house. (See Extreme Couponers on TLC for examples.)

I feel my stockpile is the correct size for me and Matt.

I just wish I had more shampoo and conditioner. I only have a few bottles left. :)

Getting Married Is Work

2012-01-10T21:37:00.002-05:00

Planning a wedding is a lot of work.
No one told me this.
I thought it would be very simple.
I should have know it wouldn't be since I am not very decisive when it comes to making these kinds of decisions.
This is just like my home buying experience. Fun until it is me doing it.

I have made a list of everything that needs to be done and I'll cross them off as I go.
I might be missing some things so I will be sure to add these as they are brought to my attention. I'll post it on here once I am a little more sure of everything.

As of this evening Matt and I have settled on a date, pastor, and a guest list.
Whoo hoo!
And now we have 5 months to do everything else that leads up to our big day.

A few things I want to accomplish within the next 2 weeks are to find a location, book the location and ask the pastor if he will marry us.
I am hoping once we have these tasks done the rest will be easy and slide into place.
Ha!
I am sure dress buying will be a bit difficult since I am overweight.
I am hoping to lose one size before I start shopping though. I have started to eat less throughout the day and am making better choices. Now if I could just get my lazy butt off the couch and exercise I would actually start to see results. I really am trying this time.

I did start to read one of the wedding books I checked out from the library and learned how eBay is a good place to look for many items. It was saying how many people plan a wedding and then for whatever reason no longer need items and they sell them. So I checked it out a few minutes ago and sure enough - there are THOUSANDS of items on there! Maybe once I try on some dresses and know what I like I can search for it online and get a better deal. If I need table runners or anything like that I should have no problem finding those either.

That Was One Hot Date!

2012-01-09T21:30:00.005-05:00

I had me a hot date on Saturday!
He he he! ;)

I just wanted a catchy title! Did I catch your attention?

Matt and I decided to see a movie and go out to dinner.

A little Dinner and a Movie - do they still play that on Saturday evenings on TBS? Or was it on FX? Hmmm.... They used to play a newer movie while showing us how to cook something. You would also see behind the scenes footage and extras. I remember the guy from TRL (from way back when it first started - not Carson Daly) was on it with a blond lady.

We went and saw 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' and then to Red Lobster.
Such a nice evening.
We RARELY go to the movies! We go like once a year - a few times a year we do go to the drive-in if you want to count those times as well.
I usually feel it is too expensive and not worth it so we just don't go.
Poor Matt always wants to go so I suppose you can have pity on him if you want. :)

Let me tell you - it was such a treat!
I told Matt maybe we should go once a month. That's how nice of an experience it was for me. The movie theater by me is only $6.50/person for a matinee so as long as we don't waste money on food and drinks I can rationalize it sometimes. Or even better, if we go on Tuesdays it is only $5/person. The seats are so comfy there and the place is actually clean with no sticky floors. Prior to this weekend I had only been to this particular theater one other time.

Sometimes I am too cheap for my own good and I miss out on experiences. I gotta stop doing that. To me, this is one step in that direction. I figure we save so much money from renting movies at the library we might as well treat ourselves.

Anyways, the movie was good. I liked it a lot even though I do think the other ones are better. Of course they ended it with an opening for another sequel. I am sure they will make another one since these always do good at the box office. And I am also sure Matt and I will go see it in theater. I think we have seen the last 2 in theater if I am remember correctly.Red Lobster was yummy but an annoying dinner experience. The silver lining was that I felt Matt and I were on a real date instead of just hanging out. We got there and was told it would be a 30 minute wait so we obviously stayed and waited. Didn’t get seated for about 40-45 minutes. Once seated they were so busy it took forever for our waitress to bring us our drinks. We got our salads and bread quickly followed by at least 25 minutes of waiting for our food. Then more waiting for our bill and to go box. We did have a good waitress at least - not her fault the whole place was so slow.

Sunday afternoon we went to the movie theater again and saw the movie 'The Sitter'.
This movie was funny and stupid. Was a good laugh but wouldn't be one I would want to see again.

I had a really good "coupon" which is why we ended up seeing 2 movies this weekend. We got in for $4/person each movie thanks to a deal I saw on Hip2Save. Gotta love coupon bloggers. :)

I'm Engaged!

2012-01-02T18:58:00.002-05:00

On January 1, 2012 - approximately 10:30AM...

Matt FINALLY asked me to marry him!

I couldn't be happier!

We think we will get married in April or May. Not 100% sure on a date yet.

I know we will have to choose this important detail soon, but I am not going to let it stress me.

For now I am focusing on where we will tie the knot and who we will invite.

I already have some ideas floating around in my head and bookmarked on my computer and once I have some concrete information I will let you know.

Holidays Under Glass

2011-12-31T01:58:00.004-05:00

I can't sleep!
I suppose this is my fault since I decided at 4:30 - 5 PM to take a 4 hour nap!
I couldn't help myself!
In my defense, I didn't sleep well last night. Okay, maybe I am lying... You'll never know for sure though so let's just go with that. Sound good?
At least I got all my Christmas decorations, except for my tree, all packed up and ready to be stored in the attic. Good thing Matt will be here this weekend. :)
I had to go to Lowe's and buy 3 more Tupperware containers. (Not using all of the same containers I already had them stored in. So no, I did not buy more decorations.)

Yesterday, the weather was beautiful!
Today too! - 60 degrees!
In December....
In Kentucky...
Northern Kentucky....
Today I took Wyatt with me to do a little shopping and it was warm enough for me to have the windows down, wind in our hair and heads out the window. Actually, only Wyatt had his head out the window but you know what I mean.

Yesterday I decided it was nice enough to go outside and get a few things done I had wished I had done a few weeks ago. Plus, my boss allowed us to go home an hour early - love days like those! (Went home early today too... shhhh!)
So what did I do? I scrubbed and vacuumed my car for one! It was nice getting in there this morning and knowing it was clean. Wyatt sat in his car seat while I vacuumed since he kept trying to go to the front yard- just goes to tell you how afraid of it he is. (He's not!)
I even straighten my garage and swept it.

While doing all this, I decided to finally get some spray painting done. I had done 2 coats about a month ago on the 'stands' for my cheese domes turned cloches and had left them to sit in my garage waiting for me.
Waiting for a day when it wasn't too cold to go out there.
I primed and painted them several coats of black. I am debating if I want to make them shiny. I am sure it will take me a few months to decided. It will probably be Spring by then which is fine by me.

This is where I should be posting a before and after picture. Evidently I forgot to take either of these pictures.
What a slacker I am!
Please forgive me.
Sometimes I am hopeless!
When looking at the pictures below, you see the shorter one is a stand all by itself and the taller one is a wooden candle stick with a candle plate on top of it (2 pieces). The taller one still needs to be glued together.

For fun, here are a few future looks I will have in my home:

Thanksgiving

Christmas

(Will remove gold and add green balls)

4th of July

Memorial Day

Labor Day

I love them!

Once Matt takes down my Valentine's decorations Ifromt he attic will be on the hunt for something red and/or pink. I am hoping I already have something to go in my new decorations. If not, I will probably go buy something.

I plan on using these to decorate each holiday/season. :)

P.S. I know I am very late to jump on this bandwagon...

Christmas - A Bit Late

2011-12-29T21:28:00.003-05:00

I had a wonderful Christmas!
The best yet!

Everyone keeps telling me I say that every year, but it is true. Each year seems to be outdone by the previous years.
Or maybe I just feel that way since I am living in the present and I am feeling happy and filled with bliss. Just thinking about this past weekend puts a smile on my face.
It was wonderful!
Magnificent!
Even though time flew, I feel I actually enjoyed my time and I didn't just watch it go by like the way I usually feel.

Thursday, when I got to TN, Matt and I did our usual dinner of Chick-Fila. Yum!
Drawing a blank on what else we did though. I am sure it will come to me once I am done blogging... always seems to work out that way.

Friday I went shopping with my mom and then with Matt. Afterwards we picked up Wyatt and took him to Matt's mom's house where he met her dogs - Coco and Rusty. Wyatt and Rusty liked each other for the most part. I really think he fit in well. He seemed to know they were 'his kind' (apricot toy poodles). He he he!

Saturday was Christmas Eve!

Matt and I went to visit his dad. I think the cemetery looked beautiful with all the wreaths. When we were leaving we saw a rainbow through the clouds - it hadn't rained. Made me think wonderful thoughts...

When we got back to my mom's house it was time for dinner. After dinner we went to church. Then Matt and I exchanged presents. We have been doing this every Christmas Eve since we have been together. I am like a little kid so it will be tough when we start exchanging presents on Christmas day instead. I'll be sure to wear my brave face even though I'll be having a mini fit in my head. LOL! (Yes, I am THAT person who likes to shake all her presents.)

Sunday was Christmas Day!

I opened presents with my family and then hung out until noon when I left to go to Matt's mom's house for Christmas dinner. Had a nice day there as well.

I am going to list what I got - more so I can remember then for you to actually know. Of course, every year I take a picture so I can remember and I save it on my hard drive. My mom used to take pictures as well and I still enjoy looking at those too. It is neat to look back on each Christmas and remember opening those specific gifts and how I felt and blah blah blah.
Moving on to the pictures...

From Matt:

Season 6 Everybody Loves Raymond
Seasons 6 and 7 Boy Meets World
Seasons 1 - 3 How I Met Your Mother
Perfume
3 Purses
Food chopper
Snow Cone Maker
80 single portions of Popcorn

From my brother:
(not pictured)
Seasons 2 and 3 Dexter

From my mom and Greg:

(I forgot to take a good picture at first)

Pandora bracelet with beads
Triple A Membership
Set of 2 Casserole Pans
Roasting Pan
Baking Sheets
Cup
Snow Shovel
Gardening Tools
Framed photo of my mom and Toby

From Matt's mom:
(See in first present picture)
Popcorn maker

From Matt's sister
(Not pictured)
Ring

I made out like a bandit this year!
:)

Matt and I bought and then exchanged 'stuff' we bought the day after Thanksgiving along with a few other items. We were planning on buying these items either way so we might as well buy them for each other.
Makes sense to us!

Tastes just like movie theater and Target's popcorn!

Miss Me???

2011-12-29T20:41:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago - on Saturday night - was just like any other night for me... Matt was here and we were watching TV while both of us were on our computers. (We are such nerds!) I was looking at projects from Tip Junkie moving from one blog to the next and sometimes going to other blogs that were on the sidebars of the blogs I was looking at.

I do this all the time so I had no reason to be cautious.

All of a sudden I get a pop up. I thought it was odd, but clicked on it to make it go away thinking it was telling me I had just won something or it wanted me to do a survey. Meaning I didn’t even read it! Next thing I know my whole computer is messed up! It kicked me off the Internet, wouldn't allow anything I clicked on to come up, and it slowed the entire processor down.

Couldn't open Mcafee.

Couldn't open Windows Defender.

Couldn't even open Microsoft Updates.

Ahhhhhhh!!!

So frustrating!

I had gotten a virus/worm/malware somehow!
I immediately disconnected from my Internet so the hacker or whatever it was couldn't mess with my computer. I kept trying to fix it, but I was unsuccessful. This is the second time in the last year I have gotten a virus/worm/malware. Why/how does this keeping happening?
Matt's first response was to ask if I was on a porn website! Really?!?! A porn website??? No, I was not on a porn website!

Thankfully I am still friends with the computer guy at my last job and he was willing to fix my computer. This is the second time he has helped me with this. He is awesome!

I had not one, but two virus/worms/malwares! Two! OMG!

This is why I haven't blogged. My only Internet access (with the exception of work) has only been from my iPod. So glad I have that to at least check my email and the blogs I have been going to for a long time.

Stay tuned for my Christmas update.

Oh So Pretty...

2011-12-13T23:25:00.004-05:00

Last night while watching 'Everybody Loves Raymond' on DVD I decided to wrap my Christmas presents so I could enjoy them under my tree before giving them to the people I bought them for. By this time of the month, I should have all my wrapping done - not sure why I keep procrastinating with everything I want to get done.

Usually I use a mix of different wrapping paper with ribbons and bows - the cheap-o kind of ribbons and bows. For the past few years I have been mostly using red, white and green since I wanted to match my tree color scheme.

This year I have decided to be different.

Change is good.

Exciting!
Thanks to my vast amounts of gift wrapping supplies (I have a problem) I was able to choose a new color scheme.

I decided on blue and white with red, silver and gold accents.

I chose two different rolls of wrapping paper. One is blue with while snowflakes and the other is blue with penguins. I feel they complement each other. Plus, neither of these rolls were opened meaning no one has seen this paper from me. (One day I will have more than one Christmas tree and I will have to remember how pretty white and blue are together....)

A few years ago I bought about 15 rolls of ribbon very inexpensively at the Dollar General after Christmas. I have been saving them for who knows why. I would guess for a special occasion, but I honestly feel every Christmas is a special occasion so that can’t be why. ~~Maybe I really am a hoarder~~.

Anyways - I decided this was the year I would use them. I didn't realize how little ribbon was on each roll so I will probably be using most of them since one roll seems to only be enough for one present. No wonder it was so cheap!
I will try my hardest not to collect all the ribbon back what the presents are opened.
Who am I kidding... I probably will!

Do they have a support group for people like me?

It took me HOURS to wrap all my presents since I was trying so hard to make them pretty and obviously I was watching my show. Not all of my items have nice pretty boxes so I had to use make shift boxes for some and for others I am wrapping as good as I can with the packaging the gifts are already in.

I am FAMOUS in my family for using food boxes to wrap my presents in! Makes the presents look nicer AND makes it harder for people to guess what is in it! Knocks two birds out with one stone!

I don't know how to make bows so mine look like I was tying my shoe laces.

I did try to get fancy with this red bow. What do you think?

By next year I need to watch some YouTube videos and learn how to make them even prettier!

Only 12 days until Christmas!

Tennessee Titans

2011-12-11T21:43:00.001-05:00

I went to my very first professional football game!
Tennessee Titans against New Orleans Saints - from my title of this post I am hoping you know we were for the Titans. Sadly, they did not win. The score was 22 to 17.
Still had a nice time though. Very exciting being at a game!

Matt was able to get a pair of tickets to today's game for free ($60 value each) from his employer which made this an inexpensive outing for us. We ended up parking a little bit away from the field - parking $10.
And we had popcorn, soda, and 2 sandwiches (like the Mc Rib) for a total of $25.
Not bad at all!

Walking from our parking spot to the stadium we were with a bunch of people who were also going to the Titans game. Even bigger crowds once we got to the entrance where we stood in line - then had to separate into appropriate female/male lines. This makes sense, but I was a little worried Matt and I would lose each other.
Let me tell you; they actually pat you down! I had no idea. And they check your purse. Both of us got through no problems of course, but just so you know, the male lines went much quicker then the female ones. So glad someone in front of us was telling someone else or I would have been standing in the wrong line the whole time!

We had seats on the top tier of the stadium.
We walked so much to get up there! All up hill!
Here's the view we had when looking to the right. (I took these pictures on Matt's iPhone since I forgot my camera.... he only emailed me these 3. I guess I did tell him he only had to send 3...)

I liked the loud crowds and how everyone got all decked out in there favorite team colors!
I was a bit surprised to see so many New Orleans fans in Nashville! Seemed to be a ton of them!

We left the game at the end of the third quarter since I had to go pick up Wyatt from my brother's and then drive back home to Louisville.
Took a few pictures on the way back to the car:

They had the roads blocked which made this a good opportunity to snap a few pictures! :)

Movies and Deals Galore

2011-12-04T22:02:00.001-05:00

Had a wonderful weekend watching a TON of movies... and have even more to watch! (Seems the library got all the movies I had reserved at once - picked them up today.)

It has been a long time since I have rented any movies from Redbox, but I figured Matt and I would keep this weekend cheap and relaxing (mostly accomplished). Plus, there were a lot of movies I hadn't seen that the library does not have.
Of the movies I rented, here is how I felt about the movies we watched together and the ones I watched alone:

MONTE CARLO - cute girly movie... worth renting
30 MINUTES OR LESS - was alright... I thought this would be funnier then it was... rent if you have nothing else to see
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS - this is the same movie as the one with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher... skip
GREEN LANTERN - decent... kinda boring... take it or leave it
HORRIBLE BOSSES - LOL funny!.... definitely rent this one.. I laughed several times!

I still have Smurfs and Crazy Stupid Love to watch. These 2 plus Horrible Bosses I got with 3 free Redbox codes - mine, my mom's and my brother's since they weren't using them! (Join Redbox's text messaging of deals for 1 free code at the beginning of the month.) Meaning I will have seen 7 movies from Redbox within 4 days for about $5. Not a bad deal at all!
At Kroger I bought 1 box of 3 bags of popcorn (already forgot the brand) for $1.99 minus a $0.55 coupon AND it has 1 free Redbox code! Loving it!
Last time they did they deal each box had 2 codes and a coupon for free soda when you buy 2 more boxes of popcorn. I must have bought about 20 boxes last time. Good deal worth taking advantage of if you seem them at your store. They expire 2012 September 30.

Speaking about good deals... I went to Kroger Friday after work to pick up my movies and a few groceries.
When I first walked into the store I saw 2 Kroger employees grocery shopping and they both had several logs of cookie dough. I figured they must be on a good sale or there were coupons next to the items. When I finally made my way to that section I noticed there was no price on them. I looked for coupons as well. Nothing
Just when I was about to walk away a Kroger employee went and grabbed one. I looked at the cookies - and without me saying anything she told me I should get some since they were on sale for $1 each.
So I did. And they rang up correctly.
10 of them! 4 different kinds!

Going to bake some in the morning to share with my co-workers.

Another good deal we scored was at Meijer.
Last week when I was in TN my mom printed me 2 coupons for $2 off Tyson fully cooked whole chickens. She had seen on one of the blogs I look at that Meijer had them on sale for $4.99. Made them $2.99 each. I had forgotten about the coupons. Bought 2 last night and then 4 more for $3.99 each (after coupons) today (the sale had gone off).
I didn't even know these were Tyson chickens, but sure enough they say so on the cardboard part.

Matt and I already separated the meat and freezer saved them all into several bags. This will feed us for a while.

CVS was a good score today as well.
Buy any 3 American Greeting cards and get $3 ECB back. (Just like RR at Walgreens.) I read on Hip2save you could buy 3 $0.99 cards and use a $2 off coupon. It worked! This ended up being a $2 money maker! We both did this transaction on our own CVS card along with 10 pack of candy canes for $1.27 and you get back a $1.27 ECB. Luckily we rang up with the store manager, who without asking us or telling us what she was doing, printed us each up a $2 ECB since the $1.27 ECB did not print out! What a nice manager!
We made some good money on this trip. :)

Deck The Halls

2011-11-30T21:52:00.001-05:00

Although Christmas decorating always seems to be a work in progress for me, I have decided to post pictures of some of the decorating I have already done.

Here is my tree with most of its ornaments on it.

Notice I used my 3 strands of candy garland - the new one is on the bottom. The candies are a little larger then the 2 strands my mom gave me from hers and then my childhood. (Didn't find a use for the popcorn garland this year - I'll string it across the room or something next year if I do not have an extra tree to decorate.

These are a few new ornaments I bought last year after Christmas...

(Matt likes frogs so I wanted to make sure he was represented on my tree.)

This is my fiber optic tree I bought back when I was in high school from the Dollar General by my grandparent's house.

I am going to add a stand of beads and a few candy ornaments. I'll have to remember to take a picture of it once it is complete. The lights are not going on this tree. I am tempted to string them up on my bedroom wall...

Above my kitchen sink.

(Mom, did you notice I changed out the curtain? I have decided I no longer like the ones that are in the kitchen. Still want to change out the other windows. I was thinking I need help learning to use my sewing machine.)

Bookshelf.

Table next to the couch.

I tried to fill up these jars nicely. I think I need to keep trying with the front one.

At first I placed glass balls I had from my first Christmas, but they seemed to big. I threw those out. They break way to easily. Not even Goodwill would want them.

Now I have this... the small balls in the back look nice.... I don't know what to say about the front jar. Somehow I wanna use the lollipops in my decorating. Not sure how. Maybe I can string them together or something. Any ideas?

A few weeks ago I bought 'The Elf on the Shelf' when Barnes and Noble had a 50% off coupon on any one book.

I plan on reading the book this weekend and (even though I do not have children) displaying my elf.

A few months ago when we went to the Glendale craft festival I bought these 2 mini trees with the intention of giving one to my mom and one to Matt's mom.

I did give the apple one to Matt's mom on Thanksgiving (she has an apple theme in her kitchen), but I selfishly kept the other one for myself. I am still willing to give it to my mom though. We will see. Interested?

Last night I made the gingerbread house I bought last year.

Gorgeous!

I love it!

Looks awesome!

Can you tell it isn't real?

It is just material which came with stickers to stick onto the house once constructed.

It fits in so well with my candy theme.

I enjoyed making this masterpiece.

(Am I using that word too loosely?)

It was much easier then your traditional gingerbread house.

The only drawback to it was that it didn't come with extra stickers. Meaning I basically had to follow the picture on the box. I would have liked to have been a little more creative. That's okay though. What can you really expect out of an item that was originally priced for $5 from Wal-Mart?

Happy Birthday, To ME!

2011-11-29T20:03:00.001-05:00

Yep, I am another year older.

Or wiser as I like to think of it.

Sounds better to be a year wiser then a year older. Although being older is better then the alternative of course.

This year for my birthday we ended up spreading it out over a few days.

I got to eat out LOTS!

Got birthday ice cream cake from DQ.

Matt bought me a grill (which I had to leave at my mom's since my car was full). He also bought 'half' of my new lamps from Kirklands - I had a $30 giftcard to go towards them.

Mom and Greg bought me a Costco membership, a new Crock pot, and a necklace from an Indian Reservation in Phoenix.

My brother got me a 4 in 1 Tupperware food carrying case (we do a lot of pot lucks at work).

Love everything!

Matt and I also went to see the new Twilight movie: Breaking Dawn Part 1!

The movie is good... not nearly as good as the books. Of course I feel this way about each and every movie this series puts out. I felt this movie left too much out and added in too many unnecessary extras. For example, what's with the chess game? The movie should have explained that Edward was trying to keep Bella busy so she would be too tired for lovemaking at night. That is why she didn't know she was tired from being pregant.

I did spot Stephanie Meyer, the author of the books, in the audience of Bella's and Edward's wedding. :)

And you know we went to the Opryland Hotel to walk around.

A very good birthday indeed!

Wow, 6 Years Together!

2011-11-27T23:30:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was mine and Matt's 6 year anniversary.
Crazy to think we have been together for 6 whole years!
Seems forever ago while at the same time seems like it was just a few days ago...

We started the day with doughnuts before driving about an hour to go to Costco with my parents and my brother (my mom bought me a membership for my birthday - thanks mom!) and then we drove another hour to meet my grandparents to eat lunch at Cheddar's.
After lunch, Matt and I went shopping, ate dinner, and walked the Opryland Hotel. (We found Cars 2 on blu-ray for $10 like I was hoping we would)

Opryland Hotel is a wonderful place. If you have never been, you need to go. ASAP. Actually, you need to go twice. Once during the Christmas holidays to see the place all lit up and then again during the warmer months to see the hotel how it usually looks. It is beautiful!
Ever since we moved to TN years and years ago I have been to the Opryland Hotel at least once a year - so probably for about 20 years now.

First it was me, my mom, and my brother. This was back when Opryland theme park was open and my mom always bought us season passes. I miss that place. I'm not sure how old I was when it closed, but I remember being sad. I loved most of the rides - The Hangman (your feet dangled on this roller coaster), Chaos (an inside roller coaster with black lights and speed), and Screamin' Delta Demon (you went up, then the ride consisted of sledding down a 'tube'). Who ever decided to remove the park and put a mall in its place needs to be re-thinking that decision. Now where are we suppose to go? They should have just moved the park to the other side of Nashville or something.
--- Sorry, I got off subject.---

Then just me and my mom. My brother no longer wanted to go so just us girls would go around my birthday and walk around.

Now it is me and Matt. We usually always go right after Thanksgiving.
I took Matt here on one of our first dates so it seemed fitting to go here on the day of our anniversary. (Still might look into getting married here.)

I took a few pictures:

We took a few pictures in front of this tree, but since none of they came out good, you will never see them. They are only for my private collection. I think I have a picture in front of this tree for several of the past years. I will need to look for them one of these days.

I love how trees look when you point the camera up in front of it. Gives it a new perspective. Seems like it reaches the sky don't you think?

Here's the same tree from far away - or at least from the top of the stairs.

I just thought these trees were pretty so I wanted my picture next to them.

Outside in front of the hotel.
For a few years now we have barely ventured outside. Last night the temperature was still in the 60's which made it easy for us to be outside and snap a few pictures.

I do wish the hotel would update some of there lights since they never seem to change. I don't think this will happen any time soon though. Especially since the flood of 2010 didn't help change this.

They did have a few new sights for the kids to see:
Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda!

I thought this was a nice touch opposed to just Santa. Plus, the hotel was smart and spread out the characters.
We still plan on going back to see Madagascar on ICE - it was WAY too crowded to go yesterday.

After the hotel we stopped for ice cream and went on home. We were out for over 12 hours and I can assure you I was once again pooped!

Ducks Lay Eggs?

2011-11-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

Did you know ducks lay eggs?
I didn't
Suppose I should have known they did since chickens lay eggs and chickens are birds just like ducks. Makes sense to me now.

Matt's family has a duck who lives on there property. Yes, they fed the duck and give the duck a place to sleep.
I guess you could call the duck a pet...
Maybe not though since Matt might serve it on the dinner table one of these days....

There used to be 2 ducks - they think one got ate by a wild animal - now there is only one.
One duck.
Who now lays a daily egg. (Never did before.)

You can't tell from he pictures, but the eggs are a light greenish/gray color.
I took several pictures trying to capture the color but it never worked in my favor. You'll just have to take my word on this one. The egg seems to be around the same size as a chicken's egg. I'll have to try the egg next time I am there.
First alligator, now duck egg - who knows what I'll try next!
Matt cornered the duck so I could hold it.
Very soft.
Wish the duck wasn't so scared of me.
I kinda felt bad we cornered it just so I could hold it.

P.S. The duck pooped on me while I was holding it so I guess you could say he paid me back .

Black Friday Shopped Till I Dropped (Almost)

2011-11-25T22:52:00.001-05:00

What a day!
Even though Black Friday started at some stores as early as 10 PM on Thanksgiving, Matt and I decided to go out at 6 AM this morning. And boy am I glad we waited. We got everything we wanted with the exception of a fire pit for $30 from Target (and if I don't find this particular one tomorrow, we might pay $40 for the one at Lowe's) and Cars 2 on Blu-ray for $9.88 from Sam's Club.
We will be looking tomorrow for both of these items while out shopping.

We went to:
Target
Best Buy
Home Depot
McDonalds (Breakfast)
Wal-Mart
Sears
Sam's Club
Kohl's
Shoe Carnival
2nd Wal-Mart
Belk
Ruby Tuesdays (Lunch)
Lowe's
2nd Lowe's
Sonic (Drinks)
Home
Met a guy selling DVDs from online site
3 Walgreens
Home

And now I am pooped!
Tired.
Exhausted.
Sleepy.

As you can see, we went to TONS of stores!
(I'll post pictures later.)
Between the 2 of us we spent around $600 with all our shopping! We never spend that much! Never!
In our defense, $150 bought a grill, $70 bought 2 pairs of shoes, $70 bought tools, and so on and so on. We did buy a bunch of stuff for each other for Christmas while still managing to buy a few Christmas gifts for other people. I am hoping to almost be done after this weekend. Fingers crossed! Even though I had fun I am still sick of shopping amongst the crowds.

I do have to show you mine and my mom's Walgreens shopping.
I took one picture of all the stuff we bought at 3 stores... we both checked out 7 times!

8 Colgate Toothpastes $3 - $1 coupon
Receive $3 RR

8 Preparation H wipes $2.75 - $2 coupon
Receive $2.75 RR
6 Dentek Flossers $2
Receive $2 RR

3 Advil PM $0.99
Receive $0.99 RR

2 Therma Care $2.49
Receive $2.49 RR

2 Speed Stick Deodorants 2 for $5
Receive $3 RR

2 Energy Strips $3.99
Receive $3.99 RR

2 Boxes of Kleenex $0.99
No RR (filler items)
My mom spent $10.58 OOP and still has about $15 RR.
I spent $11.50 OOP and still have about $18 RR.

I hope to buy a few more tubes of toothpaste tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T21:24:00.001-05:00

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

And ate lots of food!

I sure did!

Ate so much around 1 PM that I am STILL full! Did eat a little more a little while ago and now I am debating to eat a little more food. I probably shouldn't though.

Now I gotta get ready to go shopping tomorrow morning!

I have 8 stores Matt and I plan on shopping at tomorrow morning - not too early though. I am done with waking up in the middle of the night to shop. No big items this year for us.

Hope you enjoyed this pictures as much as I did.

Where's Winter?

2011-11-22T20:13:00.001-05:00

I'm not complaining.
Please let me stress this.
I AM NOT COMPLAINING!
I like warm weather.
But I gotta say, 70 degrees on November 22 is not normal for Louisville, KY!
What is going on?
Maybe global warming is real...
Maybe Mother Nature is feeling sorry for giving us so much rain this year....
Maybe this is God's way of keeping our homeless in somewhat good spirits...
Who knows!?!?!?!?
The temperature is nice, but I don't think it is worth these tornadoes I have been hearing about. Luckily it doesn't seem any of them have done anything horrible. On the plus side, I am liking not having to have my heat or air on though. Saves me money!

So while it might not be feeling like Christmas, I sure am seeing and hearing it!
Since Monday, 106.9 is now playing all Christmas, all day! That's right! So I am now listening to Christmas music to and from work which is awesome! Puts me in such a good mood! I was singing in my head during a commercial "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer" and guess what? It came on right after the commercial break - how freaky is that?

Also as of Monday I have seen houses decorated for Christmas and the lights have been turned on! Seems to happen earlier and earlier every year. I'm not one to talk though since I spent all yesterday evening decorating my tree and adding a few decorations around my house. (I'll take some pictures and post them sometime in the next few days. Right now I am too lazy to do that.)
Last year I bought icicles for the outside knowing I was buying a house. I thought they were LED lights. I evidently bought regular lights that are 40% more efficient. Or so they claim. I am still debating if we will hang them up. My co-workers have told me how expensive it was to run Christmas lights so I might not. I love them though....

It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas....

2011-11-20T20:13:00.001-05:00

I wish my weekend wasn't almost over.
It's already 8:30 - I feel like it should still be Friday evening!
Why do weekends seem to fly by as opposed to my workdays that seem to crawl?
I imagine most people feel this way. Now if we can only get our employers to implement a 4-day work week with a 3-day weekend...
At least this work week will only be 3 days since I am off Thursday and Friday. I am so looking forward to these days! Nothing like watching TV and stuffing myself followed by Shopping and stuffing myself some more. I love the holidays!
At work we are having a Thanksgiving lunch on Wednesday - had one last Tuesday as well. :)

(Ipod doesn't take very good pictures...)
Matt and I did a little shopping this weekend to include this razor that was marked to $38.something and I had a $30 off coupon which made it cheap! So now I have a Christmas present for Matt (I am posting this knowing he will see this since he was with me when I purchased it.) I saw the deal on Frugal Makes Cents yesterday and thought we should snap it up. Refill cartridges are kinda expensive - only worth it if he likes the razor.

Check this out:

Yep, that is my Christmas tree and boxes of ornaments. Matt helped me bring them into the house from the garage so I can start decorating for Christmas this week. I am so excited! On the downside, I saw how many Christmas decorations I really have and I have decided whatever I no longer like or use this year will need to be sent to Goodwill. I want to make room for a baby so I need to part with a few things (which is turning out to be harder then I thought it would be - I really am a closet hoarder.) Meaning I need to try and stay away from all the lovely new shiny Christmas decorations at the store. Maybe I need to join a support group like 'Holiday Hoarders Annoymous' or 'If It's On Clearance I'll Buy It Annoymous'.
Or on the other hand I can keep telling myself I don't have a problem.
I think I will stick with the second option. Seems to be a better fit for me.

So now I am by myself watching re-runs of 'How I Met Your Mother' while surfing the web and waiting for my iPOD to sync but since it is taking so long I am tempted to unplug it (even though you are not suppose to).
By the way, does anyone else think it is annoying you cannot move your music properly from iTunes to other devices without putting it on CD'S?
With my old 4G iPOD I could unblock folders and find all my songs and move them to a folder on my desktop. With this iPOD touch, I cannot do that. Apple must have blocked it. This sucks because some of my songs cannot be played from my iTunes which means with the exception of on my iPOD I can no longer play these songs. Apple should have to fix this issue! Even with the songs I can play on my iTunes, when I move them they mostly all convert to a MP4 file. WTF??? Makes me so mad!

Thank You Kitchen Aid!

2011-11-17T20:25:00.001-05:00

I gotta give a shout out to Kitchen aid.
A big one!Thank you Kitchen aid!I am so thankful for you all processing my rebate!
Do you remember I had bought a Kitchen aid mixer once I sold the washer and dryer that came with my house? When I had bought it there was a mail-in rebate for $30.
I forgot to send it in until the night it was due.
Too late to mail it in since the post office was closed by then. I decided to send it in a day late hoping for the best, but expecting not to receive anything.
I happily opened the mail the other day and saw the check!
Whoo hoo!
I am so very happy!
It was so quick too - less than a month I think!

Kitchen aid, if you are reading this, you have a new lifelong customer!

Dinner In A Pumpkin!

2011-11-13T20:22:00.001-05:00

Who would of thought you can create a meal inside a pumpkin???

A pumpkin!

You know, the thing must people carve and place on their front porch!
Not me!
I saw a recipe on some one's blog and Googled it. Let me tell you, there are MANY different ways to prepare this with different ingredients. I read a bunch of comments and decided to blend 2 that sounded good to me and had good reviews.

Here is what I settled on....

Ingredients:
Pumpkin - Small
1 pound ground beef
1 medium chopped onion
Green beans
Corn
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 cups cooked rice
Olive Oil
Pepper

Directions:
Cut a circular opening on the top of your pumpkin (a lid) and set aside.
Discard seeds and loose fibers from inside. (Save seeds to bake.)
Coat the inside of the pumpkin with olive oil and pepper. Place pumpkin in a casserole dish to catch any drippings from going into the oven.
In a large skillet, fully cook the beef and onion.
Meanwhile, fully cook the rice.
In beef and onion mixture; add soup, mushrooms, soy sauce and brown sugar. Cook for a few minutes making sure everything is mixed together.
Add rice, green beans and corn into mixture.
Scoop mixture into pumpkin.
Completely cover with tin foil and bake at 350° for 1-2 hours. You should be able to easily stick a toothpick through your pumpkin when it is fully cooked.

I wasn't very impressed with it. Everyone else seemed (or at least claimed) to like it.

If I make dinner in a pumpkin again I would not use brown sugar, soy sauce, or cream of chicken.

Just Wanted To Write ANYTHING!

2011-11-02T21:59:00.003-04:00

I moved into my house back in late July after painting and installing new flooring and ever since then I have been looking for the perfect kitchen mat(s). I either wanted a few small ones to place in front of my sink, refrigerator, and stove or I wanted a big one to take up all that space. (I can no longer use my blue floor mats with my green counters... reminds me.... I need to find fabric to re-cover my chair cushions...)

You would think this would have been an easy task - it has not been.
I saw some small ones I liked at Kohl's, but even with a sale and a coupon, $29.99 each was too expensive.
I then bought a large one from Target, then decided it wouldn't look good so back to the store it went.
Found some at Sam's Club that I thought might work - didn't feel the color was right.
Finally my luck turned.

While at a Target near my brother's new place about a month ago I found some good ones.
When I placed them in the spots I wanted them I was not in love. I had packed them up to take back, but something told me to test out 2 of them. So I did. Now, about a month later, I have all 4 that I bought out because they have grown on me.
Check them out:

And guess what? The price was awesome!
They were originally $15.99 each (more then I would have wanted to spend) - marked down to $3.99 each!
Bargain!
I think these ones will make me happy for now. Hopefully Wyatt will like them as much as I do since I am hoping he will lay on one of these rugs. I'm doubtful though - he loves my bed WAY too much!
Ha ha ha!

P.S. Obviously I have absolutely nothing to blog about if I am writing about my floor mats!

P.S.S. I do have 2 projects lined up to work on... just need to stop being lazy and do it.
P.S.S.S. I plan on decorating for Christmas probably the weekend before Thanksgiving (maybe sooner). I should start having a few blog posts coming up.

P.S.S.S.S I did mow the yard yesterday and today I put away all fall Halloween decorations and started organizing my other holiday seasonal stuff.

Wyatt On Halloween

2011-10-31T21:43:00.003-04:00

Hope you had a wonderful October 31st!
I did!
My Halloween adventure started when my boss let us all off an hour early so we wouldn't be on the road while the trick or treaters were out so I took advantage of the extra time to run to Meijer to buy 3 more bags of candy along with a few other items.

10 bags total
$2 each at Meijer = $20
- (4) $1.50 off 1 bag coupons
- (4) $1.00 off 1 bag coupons
- (2) Buy 2 Get 1 Free coupons
Grand total for 10 bags of candy = $6 plus tax
Very glad I waited until yesterday and today to buy my candy - I knew if it was in the house I would eat. Which I did. And will continue to do since I saved myself a few pieces.
Where I live trick or treating was 5 - 9 PM.
Such a big stretch of time! 4 hours! Some of the surrounding areas were only 5 - 7. I think it should have been 5 to 8. After 8 it just seemed so dark outside! (I was glad to see some parents actually walked with there kids.)
I got my first trick or treater at 5:40 and I ran out of candy at 8:05....
Tons of kids!
I will need to buy more candy next year.
Had fun though. Saw some good costumes. Lots of nice children thanked me.

I decided to sit in the house to pass out candy since it was a little chilly. I turned a DVD of Everybody Loves Ray on and watched as kids came to my door. I was sure to greet them before they knocked or rang the bell.
Took a ton of pictures of Wyatt before all the action started:

I don't think he likes all the pictures, but I think he poses for me hoping it will be over quickly. :)
Isn't he adorable??? These are all his costumes from previous years. I only made him wear them long enough to snap some pictures.

Here he is wanting in my lap.

He kept doing this all night - watching all the action!

Happy Halloween!

Halloweenie Decorations

2011-10-23T20:45:00.005-04:00

I'm very excited for Halloween - I am looking forward to passing out candy.
In a few years I hope to be excited because I will be walking my children around the neighborhood to get their own candy. I already know I will be dressing my child up as a different animal each year. Well, the first year I want my baby to be a pumpkin. A FAT pumpkin! Then Wyatt can wear his pumpkin costume and I can take a million pictures of the two of them together. Then I would make a slide show with those pictures and the song running with it would be "Let Me Tell You About My Best Friend..."
So cute!
Now I just need a baby...
And a pumpkin outfit...
Then I will be good to go!
:)

Last year was my first Halloween that I was actually home and had kids who lived around me so I decorated my door (I lived in an apartment) and bought full sized candy bars to make the kids who knocked on my door feel special.
***I think I bought 6 6-packs since there wasn't a ton of kids who lived near me so it wasn't very expensive. My neighborhood kids will not be getting that big of a candy bar this year.
I had 6 trick-or-treaters.
6!
I was so disappointed.
Thought for sure I would get at least 36!
I kept waiting for a knock on the door that never came (well actually it only came like 3 times for those 6 kids).
This year I am sure I will get lots of kids... and I will be prepared.
Prior to today I had a fake pumpkin on my front porch and 2 hanging decorations on my door and wall next to my front door.
I knew I wanted to have some more decorations so my house was appealing but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. On my lunch break earlier last week I went to the Dollar Tree to see what I could find. I found a bunch of good things.
Check out my decorations:

2 Tombstones - was going to get 3 but didn't want to overdo it.
Blowup skeleton
Flat skeleton
Paper pumpkins

My mom also gave me this light up pumpkin:

My house will definitely look more appealing now. I'll post a picture once it is decorated.
Now I just need to buy some candy and fill my pumpkin bowl. I am waiting to do this until closer to Halloween so I do not eat it all. I already know I will have a hard time not eating a lot of it.
I haven't decided if Wyatt and I will just sit outside and pass candy or if I will stay inside and wait for them to knock. I am thinking being outside will be much easier. I know my dog will bark each time someone comes.
I am also debating what to dress Wyatt up in. He has several costumes which he hates and he also has shirt costumes. The shirt might be a better option since he will be more willing to wear it all evening.

Easy Peasy White Gravy

2011-10-17T22:06:00.002-04:00

Matt loves sausage white gravy and biscuits and had told me he wanted it for breakfast one day this weekend. Told me I should buy a packet at the grocery store to make it. (Packet is $1.17 at Meijer.) I figured this was a simple request so I added it to my shopping list.

One of my co-workers overheard me on the phone and was appalled! Okay, maybe appalled is too strong of a word...
She did tell me I should make it from scratch though since it is so simple to make.

So I did.

It was easy.

And it tasted delicious.

I figure I might as well post the directions on here in case anyone else wants to know how to make this simple breakfast gravy.

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients:

1 Pound of Sausage
2 Tbsp of Butter
2 Tbsp of Flour
Pepper
Onion Powder
Paprika
Red Pepper Flakes
Milk

What to do with those ingredients:

Cook sausage.
Once cooked add butter and continue to cook for about 2 minutes or until butter is fully melted.
Stir in flour. Make sure your sausage looks dry. Add more flour if needed. (I used 3 Tbsp which I think was too much since it got a little thicker then we would have liked it.)
Add all pepper, onion powder, paprika, and red pepper flakes to taste.
Pour enough milk to cover 1/4 of pan and mix.
Continue to add milk until your white gravy is the consistency you want.

Serve on biscuits.

YUMMY!!!

Very easy to make and cheaper than buying the $1.17 packet from the grocery store. Next up, I need to learn how to make homemade biscuits. I wonder how hard those are to make???

On a side note, while at the Glendale festival Matt and I tried this coffee.

I don't even like coffee and I thought this stuff was good.

It claims to be 18 servings and you only need 2 tsp. However, that is for 6 ounces and who really only drinks that small amount? We both had a mug full and each used 3 spoon fulls.

At $20 for 3 packets, we will need to find something else to drink once these are gone.

Fort Duffield in KY

2011-10-16T13:01:00.000-04:00

I have driven by this place before and we finally decided to stop here and check it out after going to the Glendale Festival. The volunteers here have maintained the grounds and have even built a few replicas of some of the buildings.

This fort was established during the Civil War.

Was never attacked.

In 2 weeks it will be 150 years old.

Crazy!

These are small replicas - the size of the rooms are correct, but the height is not. They were small spaces and we were told about 6 men would bunk in each cabin. Not sure how 6 men actually slept in these since they were tiny.

We met a very nice volunteer worker who told us all about the facts surrounding the place.

We were told these replicas are 15 and 18 years old.

This is how weapon materials were stored.

This is how the roof of the building looked - it shows how the fire warmed up the entire house instead of burning down the place down. I would go into detail, but I do not want to mess up what I was told since I do not think I can adequately explain it.

I don't remember everything we learned.

I do know all these mounds and trenches were man made and were made within a quick amount of time.

45 days I think.

Cool cannon!

Going here was tough. From the spot we parked we had to walk what claimed to be 1/4 mile but we think was 1/2 mile STRAIGHT UP!

Straight up a hill!

I thought I was going to die! I had to stop twice because I am so out of shape.

Very embarrassing!

But it is what it is!

(I'm sneaky - this is a scheduled post!)

Glendale Crossing Festival 2011

2011-10-15T22:17:00.000-04:00

Matt and I had a WONDERFUL day!

This has been the first day in a long time that we spent most of the day out doing something other then shopping.

Got lots of walking in as well.

I have decided to break up what we did into two separate blog posts so I have more to talk about. He he he!

We started off the day with this yummy bacon casserole which is the exact same recipe for the sausage casserole, but obviously with different meat.

Duh!

Was yummy and this loaf portion was just enough so we didn't have any leftovers.

I had read about the Glendale Crossing Festival (which ended up being less then an hour away) so we decided to head out there for fun and food.

I had lots of fun walking around looking at all the crafts. Oh the crafts! Even bought a few items that I forgot to take a picture of - guess I'll have to show you them later.

So glad we went!

This town was very cute with all of the old buildings...

Someone even had a lama at the festival.

I want to make these cool looking pumpkins!

Doesn't look hard at all!

I am hoping Matt and I can talk his mommy into making one of these adorable blankets for our future baby.

How cute are they?

Someone bought the green one - at least it was gone when we walked by them a second time.

More neat crafts...

I wanna make some of these Hill Billy Wine Glasses!

I LOVE this idea!

And I am pretty sure I can buy them items at the Dollar Store.

Look very easy to make, right?

I saw many other crafts I would have liked to buy or make, but I enjoyed walking around looking more then I did taking pictures. Although now I wish I had taken more pictures since I am unable to remember all the lovaly things I saw.

Can't wait to go to the festival in the Spring!

I Finally Used It!

2011-10-13T21:35:00.003-04:00

After buying a KitchenAid mixer (about a month ago), I have finally taken it out of the box and used it!

So pretty, right?

Will look even better when one day I have stainless steel appliances.

I should have used it sooner - it is AWESOME!

A
W
E
S
O
M
E
!

More cool then I could every describe!

No wonder Boggers always seem to bake so much. It takes all the work out of it!

Well worth the money!

I literally just dumped the ingredients into the mixer while it mixed.

I made some oatmeal butterscotch cookies. Would have also made chocolate chip cookies, but I ran out of brown sugar. I'll stop at Kroger tomorrow and get some more.

Now I need to start looking up recipes to use my mixer more often.

Yesterday I did a little decorating for Halloween in my living room and kitchen:

I'll leave you with 2 pictures of my cute little baby boy:

Ryan's New Apartment

2011-10-13T06:39:00.001-04:00

Features:

Third floor
1 bedroom
1 bathroom
About 600 square feet
White walls
Gray carpet

Kinda blah....

Kinda cute....

Good fit for him FOR SURE!

I am excited for my brother to have his new apartment, but I can assure you I do not miss apartment living.

Let me give you the full tour of his new pad.
This is before any furniture was brought into the place.

When you walk into his apartment, you walk into a big living room.

If you look to your left(right in the picture) you see the kitchen and the dining area. Neither are big spaces but since he doesn't do much cooking and has no kitchen table, this space is perfect. He does need some stools for the bar. (On the other side of the sink which you cannot see.) He should search Craigslist for a good deal.

Continue walking straight through his living room and you will enter his bedroom which I somehow did not get a full picture of the space. In the closet on the right is his laundry area. His bedrooms has 2 big closets and a bathroom to the left.

Off the living room is his outside area. This is actually a decent sized area. Would be nice to have a few chairs out here to sit and people watch. LOL! - maybe I am the only one to do this.

Even has a storage closet which is nice. I would recommend anything kept out there should be kept in a Tupperware box - will help keep bugs out.

So that's the full tour.
Hope you enjoyed!
Maybe next time I visit I will get some pictures of the place decorated. If I do, I'll post those pictures if he allows me.

Long Weekend Recap

2011-10-11T20:52:00.002-04:00

(Without pictures due to my camera battery charging.)

I am sure I have mentioned this before, but I LOVE 3 day weekends!
All weekends should consist of 3 days!
I would be in a good mood more often if they were. Too bad my employer doesn't allow me to work 4 ten hour shifts. I would enjoy that!
My office could save so much money if they closed an extra day and they wouldn't have to run so much power.... I could go on and on about the pros for the employer and the employee, but I won't.

This weekend my brother moved into his very first 'big boy' apartment. Probably not the phrase he wants me to use, but it is the one that comes to mind when I think about the situation.
Me, Matt and Greg helped him move all his stuff into a third floor apartment.
Thank GOD he doesn't have as much stuff as me! I was winded just going up the stairs a few times - No elevator! Evidently my face was beat red... sadly shows how out of shape I am. Everyone continued moving stuff upstairs while I did the inspection checklist. I did remember to take pictures of all the defects in the apartment so my brother has proof when he moves out of there one day.
Ryan - I'll email them to you tomorrow.I'll post some pictures of the actual apartment tomorrow as well.
After moving all of his stuff and checking all the keys to make sure they worked he took us to lunch at a buffet. Yummy fried chicken!

Matt and I then did some shopping where I got some new rugs for my kitchen (I'll show you later) and a few new Christmas decorations (early, I know).
I was then pooped!
We went home and I went to bed soon after.
Of course then my poor Wyatt had diarrhea all night so I didn't get much sleep. I'm sure you didn't want to know all that though. (He had gone to the groomer early that day.)

Sunday while at Matt's house we rode on his 4-wheeler. This was my first time on it.
So much fun!
Why haven't we rode it before? I want to rider again!
I held onto him so hard when he drove fast. I was a little scared at moments. I guess that is the kind of rush big boys get on motorcycles. Matt said the 4-wheeler wasn't even going 20 miles per hour so I know a motorcycle would be too fast and scary for me.
You gotta know your limits. I know mine now. :)

Yesterday Matt's mom and sister came to see my house. While here we did some shopping and eating out. I took them to Chuy's for dinner and Culver's for dessert. I think both places were a hit.
She brought me a plant and laundry detergent (house warming gift from her culture). Very sweet of her!
I'll try to blog tomorrow. I am even lazier then usual lately. Not good - I know!

Kentucky Derby Museum

2011-09-28T21:21:00.000-04:00

I hope you took advantage of Museum day on Saturday.

We did.

We should have gone to 2 museums, but we stayed home watching movies instead. (Worth renting: Something Borrowed and Limitless; The Setup was alright - might be your kind of movie, but wasn't ours.)

We went to the Kentucky Derby Museum which I had wanted to go to ever since I had gone to Churchill Downs last year. I am glad we got to go while it was free since the only thing we really liked was taking the tour of the outside. I think this would have been a lot more exciting for me if I was into the Derby. Not really my thing. I can see why people get excited about it though.

I did take a few pictures for you to see:

Doesn't this look like something the evil Queen would have worn in Snow White???

What with being pointy at the top and all...

This is the path the jockeys take with the horses along with the owners.

Our tour guide said the owners never miss this even if they have to walk in there fancy clothes/shoes through rain and mud!

And now for some randon ones...

Did you know the Derby has never missed a season?

Crazy considering it has taken place during 2 World Wars!!!

Liking Walgreens Today

2011-09-25T21:36:00.000-04:00

Walgreens has some GREAT deals this week!

I haven't shopped at Walgreens since before I moved so probably back in May or June - long time for me.
1. I didn't really need anything since I was pretty stocked
AND
2. Walgreens hasn't had any spectacular deals

This week everything has changed. I haven't been buying newspapers since they have gone up to $2 each and the Dollar Tree no longer sells them, but thanks to printing coupons online, getting 1 coupon insert in the mail each week and getting one of my co-worker's coupon insert from the mail each week I had all the right coupons.
Matt and I went to 3 Walgreens and did (I think 10) transactions total.
One transaction was newspapers and another was Nicoret gum for Matt so those 2 didn't really count even though we did use Register Rewards for both of those.

Here's what I got as far as RR's are concerned:

Men Razor $8.99
- $5 printable coupon (no longer available) (had 2)
= $3.99 plus tax
Get $5 RR

Women's raoz or 4-pack refill $8.99
- $5 printable coupon (no longer available) (had 2)
or
- $4 off coupon from newspaper (had 2)
= $3.99 plus tax
or
=$4.99 plus tax
Get $5 RR

Walgreens pads $2
Get $2 RR

Optic White Toothpaste $7.99 when you buy 2
- $1.50 off coupon from newspaper (had 2)
or
- $1 off coupon from newspaper (had 2)
= $5.49 plus tax
Get $6 RR

There are many other FREE items, but these are the only ones I wanted/needed. Check out there ad to see if anything is good for you!

P.S. Keep scrolling down - I posted 2 posts this evening!

To Me, From Me

2011-09-25T21:19:00.001-04:00

Look what I got:

Whoo hoo!
I cannot wait to start using this bad boy!
We saw it on sale for a good price at Meijer Saturday night - the one about 35 miles from my house - and I decided not to buy it even though I had been wanting one for about 2 years.

Once we got home I kept thinking about it and figured I might as well do some research on it because we could always go back tomorrow and get it. Well, while doing research I found a $30 mail in rebate for that particular model.
Awesome!
The catch - purchase had to be made between July 17 and September 24! Saturday was September 24!
Wholly Molly!
Was it fate that brought me to my very own Kitchen aid mixer???

So after much debate with myself Matt and I left the house at 10:30 (with Wyatt) to check out the Meijer by my house. Of course they didn't have it in stock. Go figure! I decided since this store didn't have the Kitchen aid mixer it wasn't meant to be. Matt talked me into driving to the further store telling me I should buy it now while it was on sale instead of waiting until later when it would be back to its original price of $299.
True!
Plus, I had just sold the washer and dryer that had came with this house for a little less then the cost of the mixer.
Fate?
Hmmm...

We ended up checking out a little after 11:30 PM
I got my mixer - now all I need is a recipe!
:)

Candy Corn Wreath (Being Ate By A Spider)

2011-09-23T17:27:00.000-04:00

I made this!

Last year on the cover of Woman's Day Magazine was an image of a candy corn wreath.

I knew instantly that I wanted one for my house. Candy corn and pumpkins are what I associate Halloween with.
You can see my original posts HERE and HERE.

We took foam wreaths from the Dollar Tree and completely covered them with black electrical tape.
To hang the wreath we tied wire around it.
We then glued on candy corn candies onto the wreaths in the same direction one row at a time. Make sure you go through your candy first and either eat or discard the pieces that aren't perfect or close to perfect.
Spayed the wreaths with a clear sealer so they wouldn't attract bugs.
The magazine ended with this product.
I didn't feel it was complete. Took me almost up to Halloween to finally find the perfect item for my wreath - a black spider!
He is perfect with his orange stripes. Last year I glued him onto the wreath but during the move he fell off. I have now re-glued him and it looks great!
Just need some black ribbon now!

Too Crowded?

2011-09-22T21:31:00.002-04:00

While living in my old apartment I had made SEVERAL wreaths... I LOVE WREATHS!
(And I displayed them all over my second bedroom!)

Well, they have been laying on one of my bedroom floors waiting for me to repair and hang them up ever since I moved into my house back in July. For whatever reason I have been avoiding doing the job each and every since day.
Yesterday I finally did it!

Here they are:

Do they look too crowded?
I kinda think they do, but I have to contain them to one room (and really one and a half walls) so my choices are limited. I will display them in my living room or kitchen whenever the holiday deems one of my wreaths.
I plan on making a fall one for my door one of these days. :)
Already have the wreath and the fall decorations - just need some fall leaves or flowers now.

Vents

2011-09-22T20:52:00.000-04:00

I should have taken a before picture, but I didn't.
Sounds like me.
Yep.
I'm always in a rush to get it done and/or too lazy to get my camera out.
Anyways...

There are 3 air vents that are on my wood floors. One was white and the other 2 were tan.
I planned on buying wood ones to match my floors but did not see my color at Lowe's. I figured I would try painting them brown - the same brown I painted my chocolate bunny - before I bought the wood ones and stained them.
If they looked good - I saved money.
If they looked bad - I was already planning on spending the money.

Well guess what?
They look great!
No, they are not a perfect match, but for me they look as good as anything I could have bought.
Before I spray painted them I cleaned them. They were SO dirty! Yuck! I cannot believe I was breathing that in! Of course, I might be exaggerating about how dirty they were. My rag wasn't completely black. (Thank goodness!)
I sprayed about 5 or 6 coats to make sure the new color was the only color you could see.
I painted the bottom of the air vents first which I recommend so you do not mess up the paint on your good side.
I did do as I am recommending and good thing since all 3 vents stuck to my cardboard when I turned them over to paint the other side.

I painted other stuff too:

Oh - I do have a picture of my before air vent - the ones in my bedrooms:

Are you watching or did you watch 'Parks and Recreation' and 'The Office'?
I am!
Right. This. Very. Second. - Actually, I have been writing this during the commercials. :)

Made By Me Apple Foods

2011-09-18T15:00:00.000-04:00

Remember how Matt and I went apple picking last weekend?
If you don't, read a few posts below because we did go and we had fun!

Thursday night I decided to make applesauce and a pie.
Yummy!
They were both very good!
For both recipes this was my first ever attempt.
I did okay....
I'll do even better on my second attempt.

Here is my applesauce which I followed the recipe from Joy of Cooking found on my favorites toolbar.

My pie I found a recipe on Allrecipies. It wasn't the prettiest thing, but it was yummy!

Next time I will make the pie in a cake pan since it is higher and I think the pie would be ever better with more filling. This was supposed to hold 6 cups of apples. YA RIGHT! I am lucky if it held three cups! Maybe they have bigger pie pans then me....
It's a mystery...

Goodwill Goodies!

2011-09-18T00:30:00.000-04:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Goodwill?

At least the ones in Tennessee.

The one in Kentucky where I live are dirty and overpriced so I don't even bother going there anymore. (I have been to several on a few different occasions So yes, I have gave them a fair shot.)

Between last night and today I went to 3 Goodwill stores and came home with the best stuff ever!

Mostly holiday decorations as you can see.

I do need to go through all my decorations soon and get rid of some of it...

Here's the best find of the day!

I already have 3 strands of this candy garland from my mom and now I have another one. The ones I have are glittered (or at least were once upon a time ago) and these ones are plain - not a big deal at all.

I would like one more to fully decorate my tree. Hint, hint, hint! When I was growing up I always loved these on our family tree. My mom's mom bought them for her tree - my mom is guessing in 1978.

Boy was I excited to find this for $0.99!

At another Goodwill I found popcorn garland; 2 strands for $2.99!

If you look at the end pieces on both strands you can see the hooks are the same which I assume means they are the same brand. I need more popcorn garland now for my other tree.

One of the Lifesaver candies is marked with 'Hong Kong' - I am guessing this is where they were made. I'll have to check my other strands.

If you ever run across these at yard sale or Goodwill or anywhere, buy them for me.

After about a year of looking I finally finally found a cheesecloth (multiple ones actually) - one for me and one for my mom which is not pictured.

Ever since I bought my Cricuit I have wanted a glass box to decorate.

Got this one which included lights! Just have to remove the ugly bow.

Matt and I ate at the Pancake Pantry since we had seen it on Man VS. Food.

We weren't very impressed. To be fair, I don't think we are really breakfast people.

We wont be eating here again. Wasn't bad, just wasn't the restaurant for us.

Only Half Ugly Now

2011-09-13T21:57:00.003-04:00

I had an ugly lamp...

Who doesn't?
Yep!
Gold and maroon - screamed 1980's.

Not the look I was going for in my bedroom. Even though I have lived with the ugly thing for a few years.. Not sure why, I have no excuse.
None.
Zero.
Zippo.
Zilch.
Nada.

Actually I do have a few excuses...
I'm cheap.
It was free.
I didn't care.
It wasn't hurting anyone.
I was living in an apartment.

I finally decided to correct the lamp issue. The evening I decided to do something about the lamp it was misting outside and the temperature was just right for me to be in the garage - with the door open for ventilation.

got adventurous and wandered the whole yard while I worked! I think he
is loving his own yard and I'm loving the fenced in area!

Back to the lamp - I primed it using the same spray paint I used on my other items and allowed it to dry.
Then, using a $1 can of black spray paint I painted on 2 coats. I did this so I would use less of my more expensive color. My mom saw this wonderful nibble of advice a long time ago out there in Blogland; who knows where.
It worked like a charm!

I love that you can do this with a solid color when it closely matches your final color. You should do this whenever you are painting. You can't tell a difference!
I only needed one coat of paint of the final color.

Base looks good now!

I even went as far as resurfacing the bottom with new felt. (The old felt was no longer sticking as good as it once did.

My lamp shade is yellowish and does nothing for my beautiful lamp base which means something needed to be done.
I wanted to buy a new lamp shade or disguise the current one, but I haven't found a cheap one I decided to use ribbon to make this one decent at least until I find something better.

However, none of my ribbon looked good on it.

Maybe ribbon is not the way to go...

I just need to find a new lamp shade!

Here's my pretty base with its ugly lamp shade.

It's Apple Picking Time!

2011-09-11T22:19:00.000-04:00

First and forth most - SOLDIERS, POLICEMAN, FIREMAN, AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO PROTECT US - THANK YOU!!!

Second, a big shout out to G - HAPPY 55th BIRTHDAY yesterday!!!

This weekend was great! I got to spend time with my parents and my Matt!
Friday my parents were here and we just went to dinner and relaxed.
Saturday everyone was here. My mom and I worked on my plants outside the hosue while Matt and G worked on finishing more work in the house (seems to never end). Since this was G's birthday we had ice cream cake and went out to dinner. YUMMY!

Today Matt and I did more work on the house and apple picked.

We went to Joe Huber's Farm which is where we picked strawberries a few months ago.
Had a fun just like last time. Lots of people here today!

(This is the exact tractor we rode to the apple trees and back.)

When we got there we took the tractor 'ride' to the area where you can pick apples. So many apple trees!

If you go, walk as far away from the drop off zone as you can. This, we decided, is where all the plentiful trees are located.
This was mine and Matt's first time picking apples. Every time I picked an apple it seemed like two would fall off from somewhere else on the tree even though I was trying to be careful. Guess I wasn't as careful as I thought I was. Oops! Before that I was getting on to Matt for dropping so many apples. :)
We tried an apple while picking. Not sure if you were allowed to - we made up for this by buying 30 pounds of apples.
We bought enough for me, his mom and his boss. I am going to try a few different recipes this week. I'll be sure to blog about them.

Fun times!

OH!
I almost forgot to mention... Matt spotted a bird's nest in one of the apple trees.

The mama bird should convert her babies to apples due to the mass quantity! LOL!

We drove by pumpkins! We could have picked some today but we decided to wait since we had 3 bags of apples to carry! We do have plans to come back to the farm later this month... we want more apples and want to go explore there Cartoon corn maze!

Completely off subject:
We ate lunch at Winston's today and I must show you the burgers and fries we ordered:

This burger is HUGH! We both had to remove one patty just to eat it!

Very delicious AND I have leftovers for tomorrow!

Traveling Vietnam Wall

2011-09-09T22:31:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you see something that really touches your heart.
And I mean really touches your heart all the way to the core.
Today, for a team building activity with my co-workers, we went and saw the traveling Vietnam Wall here in Louisville, KY.

The wall is amazing! So many people put a ton of time and effort into making it beautiful for everyone to come and see.
I am too young to know anyone by name on the wall but it was a great sight. We should all pay our respects to the brave woman and men who sacrifice EVERYTHING so we can live in the land of the free. Engraved on these walls are the names of the soldiers who didn't make it home from the Vietnam war.
I hate to say it, but I don't think I would have went and saw it if I hadn't done it with my co-workers. A big thanks to my boss for coming up with this idea!

Here's the wall:

On the wall are all 58,195 soldiers who lost their lives to the war.
That's a whole lot of names, some of which are still not on/in American soil. The speaker told us 2 bodies were found as of today! Big round of applause from the audience when we were informed of this wonderful news. They are currently in Hawaii I believe he said where they are undergoing tests to identify who they are. I am sure there families once notified will begin to feel peace knowing they are now home.

I thought this represented the American soldier well.

Did you see the white cap above the left boot?
Someone left a small bottle of Jim Beam. LOL!

This is the post card between the boots.

And this is the sign next to the display.
Wonderful quote - maybe I will get this up on my wall one of these days.

They had a casket/box where you could write a letter and it will be sealed for all eternity under the ground to rest with the soldiers. It was a beautiful box.

Teeny tiny helicopter.

Today at 3 PM was the opening ceremony.

It was a good ceremony which brought tears to my eyes at one point - very touching and very sad. All of the speakers either served int he war or lost a loved one to the Vietnam war or the current war we are fighting.

Not only was the traveling Vietnam Wall here, so was a small replica of the 9/11 memorial wall for all the people who lost there lives on September 11, 2001
This hit closer to home for me since this is a war I have been living through within my lifetime (like all of you).

Where were you when the terrorist attacks happened?
I was at school...
I remember being in my homeroom class and a boy named Eric telling us about the first plane followed by the second plane hitting the World Trade Center - he was an aid in the period before and had seen it online. At the time I thought he was joking. Who would tell such a horrible thing? Looking back I should have known he wasn't messing with us.
In the next period we were informed by our teacher what was going on.
One girl ran out of class crying because her father was in the Pentagon. (He ended up being fine - wasn't near it.) Our school didn't allow us to watch the news even though each room had a TV and other schools in our county were watching it. I grew up in a military town so I am assuming that had something to do with that decision.

Check out this car:

You should go to this event if you live in the Louisville area - closing ceremony is this Sunday.

Soldiers - Thanks for all you have done and continue to do! I appreciate what you are fighting for!

GOD BLESS!

Blog-o-lishes

2011-09-09T18:56:00.000-04:00

First of all I would like to point out that this is the second day in a row that I am blogging.
"That's Blog-o-lishes Baby!"
You should be channeling Austin Powers when you read that previous line.
Ha ha ha!

Tuesday evening I decided to tackle my craft area - I was just too lazy to blog about it sooner then today. Maybe one day I'll learn to blog on the same day I do something.... maybe not....

Remember I bought 2 inexpensive bookshelves from Target a few weeks ago?
Well 2 weeks ago Matt assembled and placed them in my guest room. I figured the guest room was the best place for all my stuff since no one will hardly be in that room and I'll probably end up bringing my stuff out into the living room anyways when I am working on projects that way I can plop myself in front of the TV. Not to mention I already promised Matt he can use the third bedroom as a ~~Man~~ TV room (at least until that room is needed for something/someone else).
After about an hour and a half of sorting and getting rid of a few items, I am currently here with my bookshelves:

They are still a work in process, but I feel good that now everything is out in the open for me to grab.
I should be able to be more creative now since I know where everything is and they are no longer stored in a box.
I might paint the purple and pink buckets either blue or brown to match everything else on the shelves since I am wanting everything to look very matchy.
I do think I ~~need~~ want two more brown baskets to go on the large bookshelf to help them look more as one unit then two. Or maybe that will make my bookshelves looks to crowded...
We will see.
The only items on the bookshelves I bought were the 2 brown baskets which I got half off at Hobby Lobby last weekend for $6 each. Not bad!

Did you notice the silver items on my shelf?

If you are curious as to what are some of the items I have in some of my buckets/boxes continue reading.

In one I am storing all my yarn... now I just need to start crocheting some dish towels.

Here's all my thread, fabric string and rubber 'string'.

Miscellaneous supplies such as my glue gun are in one of the brown baskets.

All my candles - I heart candles!

My Wii is stored on my bottom shelf for now. Hopefully I'll be using it soon which will free up some space.

Not counting everything I already had, this cost me about $50!
Let's hope I get crafty in time for the holidays!
I already have some ideas rolling around in my head!
He he he!

Paint Makes The World Better

2011-09-08T21:42:00.002-04:00

~~Last week or maybe it was 2 or~~ probably more like 3 weeks ago I went around my house collecting stuff for Goodwill that I no longer needed/wanted. I came across a few items I thought maybe I would like to hold onto in case I need them again in the future.
Nope.
Wrong thinking.
I remembered that I had promised Matt I would not keep extra stuff around the house that I was not using. I don't want to be one those people (a hoarder) who keeps items in the garage in Tupperware. That turns into the lady who has a garage full of stuff and then becomes a lady with a house full of stuff and then maybe a lady who has multiple storage units of stuff. It would just be a never ending cycle!
Plus why should I spend $5 to buy a box to house stuff I might or might not ever use again!?!?!
Not doing it anymore.
I will be the first one to admit I have done this for years and years claiming I would use the items once I had a house.

Well guess what?
I have a house!
If I have no need for it now, I'll never have a need for it.

So what do I decide to do?
I decided to make a few items useful by changing their appearance.
Good idea, right?
I thought so too!

I had a trash can which I need for my hall bathroom, 2 cute tin jars which don't match my décor, and a bread basket that I love but hate the gold color.
Spray painted them all a nice nickel color after priming them and now I have these beauties!

I am still deciding if I want to change the color of the trash bin to white (my entire bathroom is white and it looks a bit out of place)... but other than that I think my items turned out wonderful! Already have the other 3 items on my bookshelf which I'll show you soon.
Another successful painting job done by this amateur painter. :)

BobHadABabyItsABoy

2011-09-06T17:59:00.000-04:00

I decided to sit down and finally post since my fan base (probably about 4 people) keep bugging me that I haven't wrote in over a week.
Oh the horrors!!!
I don't see them writing either!
Boo ya!

However, all I can think about is the Target commercial with the music teacher singing the school list.
(After a quick Google search, maybe I can get it stuck in your head as well)

Denim
Graphic Tees
Leggings and
Tunics
Well Denim
Backpacks
Headphones
Hair Gel
Denim
Converse One Star Shoes
Denim
Shaun White Hoodies and
Denim

You know the one I am talking about?
Such an addicting song!
Once I hear the word 'denim' it is all I can think about!

I also like the one with the teacher especially when she says 'Clark' - the hamster's name since he is being noisy and he stops moving around in his cage. And when she says 'Glitter, so much glitter'. LOL!
And the other one with the coach who with his back to school list says 'the students will need a jump drive - not sure what that is but they will be jumping.'
Ha ha ha!
Whoever thought of those commercials did good!
Normally Target commercials aren't funny at all.
Check them out HERE.
I'll probably end up remembering these FOREVER like the -BobHadABabyItsABoy commercial.
Remember it!?!?!?
If you don't you can probably find it on YouTube.

So now that I have wrote a bunch about commercials I guess I have officially blogged and will wrap this up now.
I tell ya, I do not lead an interesting life.
Want a weekend recap? It's all I have to offer at the moment. Maybe I'll finish spray painting and then I can post some pictures of that.

Friday I drove to TN and my dog puked in the car!
Thankfully I always have a blanket in his car seat so the mess was mostly on it and what didn't end up on the blanket I cleaned up with the blanket. Matt took me to Chick-Fil-A at my request. YUM!
I think that is all I did. Was such a long time ago I already forgot!
Saturday we shopped and ate. I think that was all. I have such a bad memory!
Sunday we hung out at Matt's house and smoked some salmon, ribs, and 3 whole chickens - one of which his mom packed up for me to take home so I'll be eating chicken salads for dinner over the next few nights. (My mom gave me lettuce and tomatoes so I am god to go.)
Yesterday I bought a new piece of furniture which Matt and I picked up. It's currently in my mom's garage until they come to my house and bring it in the truck.
Again - no hurry! :)
It is a sofa table but I am going to use it for a TV unit. You'll see. I can't describe it good enough. It is perfect for my house! I am hoping I can sell my current TV 'holder' to help offset some of the cost from this new one. I plan on listing it on Craigslist maybe today.
I came home yesterday afternoon.
It was a wonderful drive since the rain brought in the most perfect temperatures. Didn't need air or heat on - just a little outside air ran through my vents the whole way. Wyatt threw up again. AND ate it! Yuck! I tried to stop him but I was driving! Wasn't much I could do. I kept trying to roll his blanket down so he couldn't see it - didn’t work though since he still got to it.
Is he testing me for parenthood??? Hmmmm....
Once home I opened the windows in my house. I LOVE airing out the house! I LOVE not paying to run my air conditioner even more!
I did end up weed eating my entire yard! Yep, front and back yard! I even did around parts of my fence! Then swept!
Such a feeling of accomplishment!
Of course now I feel like I need to mow.... but I just did that a few days ago and refuse to do it so soon.

Sharks & IKEA

2011-08-29T18:39:00.000-04:00

I hate how quickly the weekends seem to fly by. This past weekend was no different.
Friday after work I did some shopping for about 4 hours!
Long time!
I was looking for some new work shirts which is no easy task since I am so LARGE! I have got to lose weight! Got to! No way around it!
But of course it doesn't help to complain if I don't do anything about it.
Duh!
I have certain reasons a to why I want to lose weight which I won't get into on here and yet that still doesn't seem to be enough motivation for me to actually step away from the fridge and put down the bowl of ice cream!
On a happier note -
Saturday Matt and I went to Cincinnati to go to the Newport aquarium (technically in KY) and to IKEA.
I was very excited for our adventure. I am very fortunate to only be about 2 hours away which makes this trip into a nice one day experience.
On our way there we stopped in Florence, KY for lunch since my stupid Garmin took us off the interstate just to drive for a while before getting back onto the same interstate. (I had changed my Garmin to be set to pick shortest distances. It is now back to fastest route.)
We ended up at some outdoor mall where we went into Border's where everything is currently 50% to 70% off - still no good deals though - and to a few other stores. Didn't buy anything! Amazing!
We decided to eat at a place called Hoogy's. Ever hear of it? We thought it would be a sandwich restaurant but it ended up being a bar-b-cue restaurant similar to Famous Dave's but not as good.

We order a meal for 2 and it allowed us to order 3 meats and 3 sides from a small list.
Here it is minus one onion ring Matt was eating (and you can see the one I had started to eat.)

Wasn't as much food as we thought it would be since we were able to eat it all and neither one of us were stuffed.
Food was decent.
Won't eat there again. Not worth the money we spent. We were both wishing we had ate someone else. The only saving grace this restaurant had was how yummy the onion rings tasted! These were probably the best I ever had!
Yummy!
We also had a good waitress.

This is a mural on the wall. They had horses painted on the wall to make it look like they were in a barnyard. They had real tails though. Very neat looking.

After eating we headed to the aquarium.
I didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are the ones I did take:

We got to 'pet' a sting ray, a couple different sharks, and a star fish which was cool:

I liked watching the penguins get fed. We sat watching them for a while.
They paint - or at least walk on paper. Very expensive though.

(click the picture to enlarge it)

Overall we both liked this aquarium but thought the Chattanooga aquarium was WAY better. This one seemed small since we finished in less than 2 hours. Tickets were $22 a person! Luckily we got a discount that made them $19 a person. Paid $4 to park.
Walking around the aquarium we did get to see this beautiful view of downtown:

I got a Carmel apple and Matt had a snow cone for a special treat from the little shops right there. Very cute area - had a guy on stilts making balloon animals, a guy doing magic tricks, and 3 people playing all sorts of instruments for tips. We both thought this reminded us of the beach.

Next stop was to IKEA. We went here last year and had an enjoyable experience and this weekend was no different. We shopped and found some good deals:
Glass bowl $2.99
2 small flower pots on clearance $0.99 each
2 smaller flower pots on clearance $0.49 each
Plant water bucket $0.99
2 Plants $1.99 each
Scrub brush $5.99
3 packs of 4 picture 'frames' $0.99 each
4 packs of candles on clearance $0.69 each

After shopping we ate at their restaurant where Matt and I both got the meatball meal with side salads. (They are known for their Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes.) I meant to take a picture but I forgot. If you look at my last year's post you can see what it looks like.

Sunday we went to a flea market nearby my house.
I got 2 aloe plants for $1 each and some cucumbers and banana peppers from a local farmer there.
Matt even found himself a few items to purchase.
We had fun walking around and looking at everything. Seemed to be one giant garage sale. We plan on going there again.

The One With All The Pictures

2011-08-21T22:45:00.001-04:00

I finally got off my lazy butt and got a few things done that I had been putting off for a couple of weeks.

It's about time, right?

(Too bad I was too lazy to actually blog about it.)

I figured I might as well get some things checked off my 'to do' before Matt got here since we had more things to do this weekend while he was here. Plus, I wanted to make sure we were able to spend some good quality time together being as this was our first weekend alone together in my house. Really it was our first weekend alone period.

And just so you know, we did have a nice time.

Ohhhh.... do you remember this movie?

Both Matt and I LOVED Harry and the Hendersons!

A few months ago we watched it on Netflix and it was just as good as we remembered!

While at Target we spotted it - I even got in the way of a father and son looking at the movies just to holler out 'Harry and the Hendersons!'

Needless to say we bought it.

Anyways....

Wanna know what I/we did the last few days???

Hmmm...

Do you?

Huh?

Do you?

Huh?

Okay, I'll tell you...

Since you BEGGED!

LOL!

Wednesday I -
Painted a second coat on my kitchen walls.

Cleaned the kitchen and brought in my kitchen chairs from the garage after adding felt to the bottom of the legs.
Cleaned the wood laminate floors.

Painted the spot that got dented on my bedroom wall.
Even started to weed eat the backyard

Thursday I -

Mowed most of the yard - until I ran out of gas.

Re-arranged my guest bedroom.

Still need to work on the soon to be TV room (third bedroom).

Clutter is currently everywhere!

Friday I -

Mowed the rest of my yard.
Painted my laundry room.
Painted my master bathroom.

Not sure why the wall looks weird... doesn't look like that in person. Either way I still need to paint a second coat which I'.ll probably do tomorrow after work.

While I painted Wyatt 'rested'.
Must be very tiring being him....

This weekend while Matt was here we (and when I say we I mostly mean Matt) -

Removed the laundry dryer vent line under the house.

(This mess was underneath the house and was FILLED with lint! The hard lines are the new lines.)

Re-installed the piece that comes out from under the house -saved me $9 since I was able to return a piece previously purchased!

Installed new dryer vent line under house. My laundry room is located in the middle of the house so Matt had to run about 12 feet of hard line.

Switched out the old washer and dryer with mine. What should have took 20 minutes ended up taking like an hour and a half. :(

We had to make sure we installed it correctly to the parts Matt had installed the day before underneath the house. Then when we went to plug in my plug it had 4 prongs whereas the old dryer had 3 prongs which meant the outlet in the wall only supported 3 prongs!

Matt decided to switch out the 2 plugs but then got confused about something and we had to call G.

Problem solved though!

Matt should have went with his gut!

As for the washer, we did remember to replace my rubber hoses with metal hoses ($10 each at Lowe's). You should too if you haven't already.

Now my laundry room is a thing of beauty!

At least it is on its way and will be after I do a little decorating.

(Dryer can't go as far back as the washer since the air vent goes down - as shown in above picture. I'll probably pull out the washer to make the appliances look even.)

I did do some organizing in here which included bringing in my mesh wire rack (used in both my old apartments) to hold all my small laundry items.

(Oops - forgot to put the light switch cover back on!)

Here's what's inside my cabinets - I organized when I first moved in:

Small kitchen appliances.

Extras such as tissues, toilet paper, light bulbs, paper plates and Christmas dishes(???).

Unlikely combo - I know.

Extra laundry detergent, dryer sheets and hand sanitizer (Matt got me a pack of 6 or 7 or 8 of these for Christmas last year or the year before - will probably last me YEARS!)

Assembled my charcoal grill.

Switched out my curtains in the living room with the ones I ordered from JCP last weekend that got here Friday - quick turn around.

Went from this:

To this:

I think I will need to order the brown valances to complete the look I am after.

What do you think?

Added my new area run to the living room floor.

While we worked you can imagine what What did the whole time...besides sleeping and eating of course...

Yep, he curiously watched us the whole time he wasn't hiding from us! :)

Although we did a lot - not everything got done.

Next weekend we will insall the trim for the base boards and assemble my new bookshelves.

I got BIG plans for these!

Saw a WONDERFUL idea in one of the homess I viewed while searching for a house to buy.

Good Girl

2011-08-16T22:23:00.000-04:00

About a week ago I started noticing a medium sized white dog in my neighborhood - usually hanging out around my neighbor's and my house. (Probably because we gave her attention and feed her.)
One day I went down to pet her and she hunkered down as if she had been beat. Now she hangs out with me and Wyatt every day after work when we are outside. She just lays in the grass near us or she tries to play with Wyatt.
(If you saw my last post you would have spotted her in one of the pictures.)
Last week when I took Wyatt on a walk she followed us. Then the day after that I placed her on a leash since I didn't want her to get hit by a car.
Friday morning when I woke she was laying in front of my backdoor.
Guess she likes us.

I learned yesterday she likes to play fetch with sticks. I was picking up some larger branches to trash them when she got all excited and tried to take them from me. I broke a piece of one off and she fetched it a few times - you could tell she was having a fun time.
She is a very sweet dog.
Very loveable.
She knows how to sit, give paw, give other paw and to give kisses. Smart dog. Obviously she belonged to someone at one point. I hate that someone abandoned her. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want her.
I wanted to take her in, but Matt feels two dogs are enough for us.
I placed an ad on Craigslist last Thursday night for found dog but no one claimed her. Sunday I placed a new ad on Craigslist for free to good home.
I so badly wanted/want her to find a good home.
The first guy who emailed me asked if I would meet him to 'get rid of the dog'. I didn't like the way he worded that so I KNEW I would not be emailing him back. I got three other emails about her. Only one would I have considered actually emailing back to come see her.

Luckily last night when I was outside petting her my elderly neighbor came outside and I started talking to him. I got the best news - Him and his wife decided to take her in! (Best case scenario!) They named her Hope and were planning on giving her a bath today. He even talked about allowing her into the house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he does allow her in the house. Normally I see her outside when I let Wyatt out before work but I did not see her this morning. I am assuming he allowed her to sleep in his garage.
I am so happy she found a home. :)

Like I said before - She's a WONDERFUL DOG!

I'm Gliding

2011-08-11T22:28:00.000-04:00

Had my doctor appointment first thing this morning which went well. My doctor and I talked about my feet and my weight and then I gave urine and blood. Maybe next week we will know something about the swelling in my feet. I did learn you should only eat 10 calaries per pound you want to weigh. For example, I wanna weigh 150 pounds so I should only be eating 1500 calories. Hmmmm..... Explains so much doesn't it?

After the doctor I stopped at Kroger where I bought myself a little something.

I saw it when I was checking out... looked it over... walked away... turned around....felt it...looked some more... decided I deserved it... was 50% off.... asked the cashier to hold the cart while I loaded it.... rang up... placed it in my trunk/back seat... drove home... unloaded it into the house....went to work....

After Kroger I dropped off some movies I borrowed from the library and thought while I was there I should change my address on my driver's licence. Cost me $12! And I had to take a new picture which by the way did not turn out so good!

Next stop was to the DMV to change my address followed by voter registration for change of address as well.

Feels good to have this all done. Had I not needed to go to the doctor and then the library I would have continued to put this off.

I then went to work for a little over 3 hours.

When I got home I assembled my little something into a big something.

I paid $60 for a two person gliding rocking chair that looks good on my front porch.

I put it together ALL BY MYSELF thank you very much!

I went from all these parts (should have took a picture of the actual parts).

To this!

Wyatt and I have already enjoyed the glider this evening.

I made sure all the screws were nice and tight with the handy tools that came included with this bad boy.

Big box, huh?

And I fit it into my car by myself as well.

After my assembling we went on a nice walk and now while I am blogging, Wyatt is licking his paws as normal.

What a life he lives!

Switching Rooms

2011-08-10T22:07:00.000-04:00

Two nights ago I finally switched bedrooms.... I was sleeping in my middle bedroom (which I have designated as my guestroom) since I wasn't going to place a bed in my master bedroom until I bought a new king bed.
Well my mom decided we were going to place the bed I am giving to her into the master bedroom until I actually do buy the new bed. (Not sure why I let her do it - it worked out though.)

Right now it is just on the floor with no frame which is great for Wyatt to jump on it. He isn't very good at jumping onto anything else.

So when I got home from work I placed new sheets on both beds and switched the comforters and pillows.
What a difference! Now all I need to do is buy a king bed and a new comforter to match my new bedroom. :)

Here's some pictures of both rooms from all angels. Remember, I haven't done any decorating and I still need to buy new curtains amongst many other items.

Guest bedroom:

Master bedroom:

(You can see where the pipe leaked.)

It is so nice sleeping in the master bedroom with its ceiling fan and bigger space. I think even Wyatt sleeps better!
Hopefully now 'llI have more peaceful rest!

Can hardly wait until I have stuff on the walls - will seem more homey!

In other news, I finally made a doctor appointment for the swelling in my left foot/ankle.
I am not sure why it is so swollen, but it appears I am retaining water. I am sure my weight has something to do with this. I need to stop being so lazy and just start exercising and eating better. I went to the grocery store and bought myself some healthy fruits and vegetables for snacks. I am going to try and cut out as much salt as I can. I know I will not be able to stop eating it completely, but I figure if I can cut it at least in half I am better off then I was.
When I go to the doctor I am going to request blood work done.

Wyatt and I did walk around the loop around my street twice this evening.

He is laying next to me pooped!

Fingers crossed this cooler weather (mid 80s) is here to stay so I can walk every evening. No more excuses! I'll never change me weight if I don't do something about it. I am going to promise myself a vacation if I do it!

I'll start off with a small goal of 20 pounds... and then maybe I'll give myself a weekend vacation....

Seeing Copper Means Water Leak

2011-08-08T22:14:00.003-04:00

What a weekend I had!
(Sorry these postings are so out of order. I am now wishing I had been posting this whole time, but since I have not, I cannot stress over it. I have been too busy and then too tired to deal with posting.)
I do have to write about this past weekend now while the details are all still fresh in my head. See the blog posting below this one though since I wrote about my first week in the new house before I typed this one up. Of course now I'll have to fill in all the gaps later.
Friday night my parents got here and then Matt arrived Saturday morning.
Saturday started off our weekend of work and multiple trips to Lowe's. A typical weekend for me these days. LOL!
That morning my mom and I went to Lowe's to buy baseboards and quarter inch moldings along with a few other things while Matt and G finished the flooring in the hallway. Mom and I then painted all the new and old floor boards. Before we could paint the existing baseboards we had to remove all the nails, remove the caulk, fill in the holes where the nails had been, sand, and then wipe clean.
What a job! Do it yourselfers never tell you these things! They always make it seem easy!
Now that it is over with I am very glad we used the existing baseboards that were still good.
I had bought 3- 12 inch baseboard and 9- 12 inch quarter inch molding and they equaled to over $100. I would hate to of had to spend even more money replacing them all. Of course it would have saved some time. It is a trade off I suppose.
Saturday went well. It was a long day, but it went smoothly.
Sunday was a whole other day.
Matt and G were cutting and installing the baseboards while my mom and I pulled weeds from my flower beds. I then mowed the entire yard with some help from my mom. Not such an easy task to do in the middle of the day with over 90 degrees with a push mower. Matt and I bought an electric weed eater on one of our many trips to Lowe's so my mom taught me how to use it and we got the front and side yard looking good! Even edged the driveway!

At one point I was in the house and heard a sound. I thought it was running water. I asked Matt if any water was running. He said no. So I thought maybe it was the shop-vac making weird noises so I unplugged it. Could still hear the sound. Next thing I know I am on my hands and knees in the hallway yelling to Matt to turn off the main water. Water was leaking onto my carpet. Of all the spots G could nail a hole into the wall he hit the one pipe we would be anywhere near! Stupid stud finder - evidently finds wood and metal.
G cut a hole into the drywall and we could see what happened. The nail was driven all the way through a half inch copper pipe!

I stayed very calm.
It was an accident.
I was a bit nervous inside.... felt like I should cry, but didn't knowing I didn't need to.... somehow knew it would be okay.
I can even laugh about it now.
Thankfully Matt does heating and air and know how to torch 2 pieces of metal together. This is what he thought he would do prior to us going to Lowe's. We loaded up the cart with a $50 torch thingy and another thingy for $30 and then went to look at some other thingys. Some guy started looking where Matt was looking and must have looked into our cart. He started talking to Matt. Turns out he is a plumber. Gave Matt wonderful advice on how to repair our accident. What would have cost us close to $100 ended up costing about $10.
GOD was looking out for us!
AND it worked!
G even said he would kiss the guy if we saw him again. :)

I do keep checking on it every so often. It will be another 2 weeks before drywall goes back over it so I am sure if it is good over the 2 weeks it will be fine forever.
All baseboards are installed now. Quarter inch molding will have to wait until next time.
Matt was able to connect my dryer vent properly outside. When we went into the house to switch out the old home owner's washer and dryer with mine I accidentally broke the dryer hose.
Matt said it would be okay if I could pull some from underneath the house up into the house. I told him there was lint in it and it felt moist. He got to it and started removing lint and removing more and more. I grabbed the shop-vac and he had the hose all the way in there and it was still sucking up more lint. Matt said he thinks lint must be all the way through the hose and he didn’t feel it was safe to dry clothes until he replaced the hose.
No laundry washing for me.

I do have a new digital thermometer on my house - it is temporarily though. Matt wants to install an even better one.
What a weekend, right?

We did all go out to eat at Mike Linning's here in Louisville.
Whether you live here or you come and visit, you should eat at this restaurant. It is SOOOO good! Make sure you order a plate of onion rings!

Today I finished weed eating the back of my house and cleaned up some of the branches out of my yard. Talked to 2 of my neighbors as well. Had a good day. :)

Neutral

2011-08-08T22:11:00.000-04:00

I don't even know where to start on talking about my house.
Since I promised to show some pictures I might as well start today.
I finally painted the kitchen.
(Ignore the mess.)
I went from this:

To this:

And finally to this:

I decided to paint it the same color as the living room and hallway since I was not sure when I would be able to change out the green counters I currently have in there. Plus the neutral color should help it sell when I am ready to move to a bigger home in a few years.
Now that it is all painted I can truly tell you I am very glad I went with this color. I think it will look wonderful once decorated! I do have a few areas that need to be touched up though.

As for the actual painting process, let me tell you - What a pain in the you know what!
I started painting with the leftover paint I still had but had to stop and get more paint from Lowe's before I even got the largest wall fully rolled. (Guess I should have known I would need more.)
When I got to the store I had to wait for the guy to finish up with the people he was talking to. When he came to me I told him I wanted a gallon of paint. He said he had to go get the lady who mixes the paint. When he came back from looking for her he said she was with someone and would be over soon to help me. I waited 20 minutes before she finally came to me! The whole time the cashier at the customer service desk kept paging for help in paint. Not because I was asking her to, but probably because I was just standing at the paint counter the whole time. When I checked out with her she said - "You're finally done!".
I know!
Took forever!
(I don't blame her though... I know how it is to work when the store is short staffed - not fun for the employee who tends to get blamed even though it is not their fault.)

At home I had left the paint roller and tray out and by the time I got back it was beginning to dry out. The roller didn't work as good as it had so I had to move onto the paint brush. Took me forever to finish. The kitchen was hard because there was so much cutting in.
Like I said, I am happy with the finished product.

In other news...
I have already gotten some house warming gifts - haven't even had a party! Wasn't even expecting anything!
Matt got me 4 seasons of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' (only missing 1 now), Season 5 of 'Boy Meets World', and a inside/outside thermometer.
Matt's dad (Matt) got me a $250 gift card to Target.
Mom and G's friends, Tony and Karen got me a $30 gift card to Kirkland's.
My mom and G have paid for many tools to work on the house.
My friend, Linda and her granddaughter got me a popsicle maker.

I am very thankfully for all my gifts.
My friend/co-worker Natalie gave me a pregnancy book for my 'new adventure' as she called it.
I appreciate the gift, but it was a bit odd.
I'm not even married yet...
And Matt doesn't live here yet...
I still have a year or so before I'll even consider becoming pregnant...
I will save it for when I do need it though. She said it was the best book when she was pregnant since it tells you everything you need to know week by week.
Odd though, right?

Out With The Old

2011-08-03T17:24:00.000-04:00

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: This is a very boring/random/informative/etc post.
Proceed with caution.
You have been warned.

Removing carpet and carpet padding was not horrible.
The lady who lived in my house before me was not dirty so the carpet didn't throw around a bunch of dust or hair or anything.
I pulled the carpet where the air vent was to pull it up so my brother could start cutting it into long strips. Once cut we rolled them and placed them in the back of the truck to be disposed. The padding we placed into large black garbage bags - not strong enough to roll.
We removed carpet from 3 bedrooms and the living room. We were able to do all of this in one day.
Removing linoleum from the kitchen was a little harder.
Start with one piece and pull. Some areas came off in big chunks while other pieces came off in small chunks. You could tell where the glue had been since those areas were much harder to remove the linoleum. One area seemed like someone had knocked over the glue bottled so we had to scrap with a scrapper and we had to use our nails to pull up little pieces from that particular area. This took a few hours total time to complete which we did over two days.

Removing hard wood floors was awful - at least in my house.
Whoever installed them not only locked them into place, they also nailed and glued them down. At first my mom and my brother could not get any of it up. I was pissed off enough with the wood so I took a crowbar and was able to pry one piece up. (They gave me the nickname of 'Hercules' - think of the Klumps from the Nutty Professor. You saying Hercules, Hercules, Hercules... while clapping?) My brother was then able to remove some of the wood. Around the doors was another story. Seemed impossible. We bought a hand saw and still didn't have any luck. A few days later while my brother was there alone he was able to saw all the wood away. Amazing!
Again, he said this was HARD to do! I am thankful he did it and not me though.

Removing wallpaper borders was a pain in the you know what!
After using 3 different solutions I now know water and fabric softer works the best on removing wallpaper along with something to score the wallpaper. It took me 4 days which consisted of HOURS to remove it from three bedrooms! Whoever installed the wallpaper border must have used so much glue or something (must have been the same person who installed the wood floors). It was awful!

Baseboards were removed from the kitchen, living room and hall - all done by my brother and G. Looked easy enough. They both used a razor blade to cut the baseboards from the wall before using a crowbar to remove them from the wall.