SWW 04-27-11

As always, this theme brought to you by Shannon

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So what if I...

• Got internet on my phone just a few hours after complaining last Wednesday. Just magically appeared. I guess "they" finally got to my "ticket". And I now am so very happy with my choice of phone, provider and my new bill!!! Buh-bye high-priced contracted plans!
• Want to get married again just for the dress, hair, makeup and party! I'm not sure I'll ever feel that glamorous again and I miss it!
• Ate 27 small Reese's eggs over the course of two days. Can't resist em!
• We may be adding yet ANOTHER dog to my immediate family. Two for us, two for mom, and now possibly one for grandma too! A three ring circus it will be I tell you!
• It has taken us nearly 6-7 hours to pack my mom's 1 bedroom apartment for her. Half of that being wrapping all the breakables in the kitchen! I am reminded again how much I HATE moving! Gah- such a pain to box up all your stuff!

Happy Wednesday! Friday is close!

Weekend Update 04-23-11, Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. 

We didn't do much Friday and Saturday. At least not much out of the normal I guess :)

Friday DH helped me unload like 20 boxes into my mom's house to pack her stuff. We had gone to two Craigslist ads for free boxes the night before. We scored big at a military house. Very nice boxes and already broken down, plus two bags of packing paper. Yes, we are now those people. Officially box-hoarding we-will-stop-by-the-side-of-the-road-to-pick-up-your-boxes people. Next I assume we'll be dumpster diving. Lol.

Why is my mom moving? Cause her house is on its way! And she got called out to work in Dallas for 3-6 months, so it will be done when she returns. Tonight hubby and I will pack up her small apartment and a friend will move it all to storage.

Friday night we had church and the choir sang. I am going to miss being in the choir I think.

Saturday morning we went yard sailing. We also met up with a guy who my mom bought a pet stroller from to pay and pick it up for her. To be honest, I think it's ridiculous!

There's a reason this dog looks humiliated

We didn't buy much. But we did buy THREE bicycles. Since buying mine last week and then selling my old one fairly quickly via Cragislist, we decided we might try our hand at bike "flipping" too.

We sold one of them to my mom right away. She has been wanting a cruiser style one. I even scrubbed and cleaned it for her. Now John has to replace the front tire tube. And then it's set. (Just to let ya know mom) :). 

The fun about toting three bikes on a rack behind your SUV, is that if not installed properly the rack will start to fall off your SUV, twice, and you will have to pull over and remove all the bikes and reapply it. And put a new scratch on your vehicle. But then you will realize that the top straps were not angled out wide enough and you should tie them off so they can't lengthen while you fly down the road. You will also be hot and sweaty because the A/C in your car is not blowing icy air, but rather mildly cool air, which cannot compete with 80 degree temps at 100% humidity.

But enough about that. We did get a very nice baby video monitor for $5! We love it when dad is in charge of selling the baby stuff ;) Our last one which was not quite as nice sold for around $100!

Saturday for lunch we drove 45 min to a nearby town we had a Groupon to, only to learn they are not open for lunch on Saturdays. Big bummer. We ate a local BBQ joint close to home instead. It was pretty good. Then we took a nap and did chores. I aired six bike tires, took photos and did a bunch of other cleaning stuff. I gave John his Easter basket Saturday night since I knew Sunday morning would be busy. But he did not give me mine... I found out why the next morning.

hubby's basket. that's beef jerky in the very back : )

Sunday was Easter! He is risen, He is risen indeed! I was up early since I had to be at church at 8am. While in the bathroom I discovered 2 plastic eggs filled with love notes and candy. I found about half of them before we left the house and the other half after we got home. And there is still one I've yet to find, bringing the total to 27. 

What a sweet hubby I have

Church was nice, and I enjoyed singing in the choir. I told a few more people it was our last Sunday, but there are some I've still yet to tell. But I am excited to get to be with my hubby during Sunday services now :)

For lunch we went to a local family-owned Southern soul-food place. Even though we had reservations we had to wait 30 minutes. But Maw Maw said the food was worth it. We were supposed to have family homemade lunch at Maw Maw's, but since mom got called away to work she treated us all to lunch out (since she wouldn't be there to bring her dishes to family lunch).

It was very yummy and I just had my leftovers for lunch.

When we got home John consented to a short photo shoot :)

I should have gotten close-ups of the accessories : (

Sunday afternoon and evening we napped, then visited my grandma for some leftovers for dinner :)

Next weekend we plan to take off from work and church and just enjoy some "us" time. We do have two events, a graduation and a game night with friends. But we plan to sleep in both days!

Oh, and Ernie says Happy belated Easter :)

Whip Dip (Recipe)

So I just randomly overheard a lady at the beach last week telling her friend about this recipe, and decided it was good enough to try, and then share :)

VERY simple!

You can also make this as low-calorie as you like.

You only need 3 ingredients:

1 8 oz block cream cheese

1 regular (not the large one) tub of whipped topping

Vanilla extract to taste

I used full-fat cream cheese (I've had that block in the fridge for some time and it needed to be used)

and light whipped topping

Only about 1 tsp extract. I think it could be great with almond or amaretto extract too.

I think the lady at the beach used light or fat free cream cheese. Add Splenda if needed.

Using a hand mixer beat together on high.

Store in the fridge.

Mild but tasty dip for pretzels, fruit, or whatever you'd like.

Happy Friday and Easter weekend! HE is risen, just as He said!!!!!

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SWW 04-20-11

As always, this theme brought to you by Shannon

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So what if I...

• Still have no stinking internet on my phone. I have decided not to stress as their is apparently nothing more I can do but wait up to 11 days. That will be up to this Sunday. :( But I still love the new phone.
• I am sitting in the lobby or day room of several places lately for hours working on my laptop and I know the staff are wondering what the heck I am doing. Welcome to the mobile office world.
• Teared up while watching Animal Cops yesterday. You would too if you saw this poor dog. Animal Planet on the TV for 4 hours was also quite distracting :)
• My husband invents words. Last night's was "jobal". As in, related to your work.
• Had to walk through the grocery store last night saying "I will not buy a Reese's egg, I will not buy Dairy Fresh chocolate milk" repeat...
• I now own a pair of Life Stride heels. They are actually quite cute and SO comfortable. No way I would ever be able to wear heels of any other kind to work all day, especially when I'm gonna be on my feet a lot. These were a yard sale find for 50 cents!
• I am starting to think of my dogs more and more as kids. Such sweeties!
• I bought a gift for my mom's new dog. It was on sale and so cute! Now her Graycie has a playmate, a mini dachshund puppy named George :)

Happy Wednesday! Friday is close!

New purse

Five bucks baby!
Mint condition. I do love a light colored inside!

Testing the google blogger app

My new bike!

Weekend Update 04-16-11

What a lover-ly weekend...

I'm starting with Thursday night this week, a "college" style weekend, if you will. (Since the weekend begins on Thursday night at most college campuses, especially my Alma Mater Florida State, woot woot!)

I start then because, we had a yummy dinner at The Melting Pot again. When I made our reservations for our anniversary I saw they were having a special promotion in April for a free cheese fondue for two in honor of National Fondue Week. So I booked us a table!

The free fondue was their house cheddar. It has a beer base and garlic. It was okay. Probably would not get again. Then we skipped meat and just had a dessert course after that. This time I remembered to take a pic before we demolished the plate totally. We had the chocolate s'more fondue. Yummy! They flambee it too! I tried to get a pic but it did not turn out right.

 This time we did not sit in the secluded "Lover's Lane" area. That was unfortunate because the table right across from us was an upper-middle-aged grandma, her younger sister and her daughter and son-in-law, who were also old enough to have grown children. Well, apparently grandma doesn't get out much or doesn't handle wine well or is a lush. Because she was being OBNOXIOUS. Our nearby Civic Center was having a Sugarland concert that night and the restaurant was packed. So there was definitely a continual din of conversation. But win-o across the way didn't know that in a classy restaurant you keep your voice to a polite level and behave like a lady. Instead, she was raising her hand in the air and snapping her fingers while shouting her waiter's name and for him to bring her chocolate. While her table-mates continually tried to sush her, she would just "Shhhhhhhh" back loudly like a third grader and then say "I'm not in a library" and then laugh as only the annoyingly intoxicated can do. By the time we left she was really getting out of hand. Anyway.

Overall we had a good experience, but definitely not as great as last time. Our former waiter had drunk-granny's table. We had a guy who was polite but who would go about 20 minutes between passes to our table. This was a problem because our bowl was not hot. I finally discovered on my own that our burner was not on after asking the hostess to look at it as she ran by. Then it was not turned warm enough, but I changed that myself. It was good, but I don't recommend going on a busy night. Maybe they were just short-staffed. 

The company was lovely though :)

Friday I worked my half day as usual, came home and did some chores, then took a nap. A glorious nap. That I would not have gotten up from except I had asked a friend to go to Zumba class with me.

I tried out one of the classes at one of our local community centers. I didn't want to go alone. Good thing my friend/bridesmaid Hayley came, because we were the only two who showed up! The instructor said she only has a few regulars and they all couldn't make it. That class gave us a run for our money! We were pantin', sweatin', runnin' and smellin'! But it was great! I so wish I could have a free pass to unlimited Zumba! I loved doing it regularly when I lived in Tallahassee. And I felt so energized and accomplished when we were done! I must get back into exercising. If I can only remind myself of that feeling when I don't wanna get my fat butt up!

Friday is also weigh-in day. I am down another 1.5 lbs, which is on track according to my doc. If it stays that way it'll be great. It's the dreaded plateau I am afraid of...

Saturday we... (you guessed it) went yard-saling. I had a great week! I got a dress ($3), 2 pairs of shoes (75 cent), a new bike (literally, not even used, $50), 3 shirts for the hubby ($5), a fabulous Guess purse ($5), the cutest outfits for the pups (that didn't fit, good thing they were only $2) and some Space Bags ($1) for organizing the winter clothes under my bed the dogs have been nesting in :).

I'm most excited about the bike. I am picking it up this evening since we were in the hubby's car and it would not fit Saturday. It's a hot pink mountain bike! The bike I have is decent, but sometimes the gears don't shift properly and the front right brake pad rubs a little. It makes it kinda hard to enjoy riding. For future reference, I do not recommend buying a used bike. Fixing even small problems can cost just as much as buying a cheap-o new one.

Hopefully with selling my old one on Craigslist I will only pay $10 or $20 out of pocket to switch to this new bike!

My dress- love because it's great for work. Just below the knee, has sleeves, nice cotton stretch jersey fabric. So many of my summer dresses are sun dresses and I have to wear a jacket or leggings to make them work-appropriate.

My lovely work bathroom. Crappy cell phone camera. Don't know why my hair looks so dark.

Closer

Saturday afternoon I went to the beach with my bestie Sarah. Grand time, except the gale-force winds that pelted us with sand like a blizzard and finally forced us away. We got some sun before mother nature blew us out. Then we got pedicures! Nice girl's day out.

In the evening the hubby and I watched The Sentinel through our ClearPlay.

Sunday was church and our "Easter" choir debut. I very much enjoyed singing for the congregation! Looking forward to doing it again Good Friday and Easter. We got several compliments so I think it went well even though some of our members are "vocally challenged", lol.

Sunday afternoon I did not want the evening to end and was not ready to face the work week. So I made hamburgers for lunch, took a walk with the hubby and ate dinner outside. And did lots of cuddling with these guys:

Makes me laugh

I also cut these off someone's bush on our walk. Flower thief strikes again! Now my living room smells of fragrant lugustrum! (Sp?)

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

BTW- "Jorge" is a liar. My phone's internet is not working. After another call I was told it can take up to 11 days for them to complete their investigation! So not acceptable! Six phone calls later I am really tired of going through the automated system and have decided I will just wait. But I intend to get more than the $5 credit they gave me on my bill. What a joke.

SWW 04-13-11

As always, this theme brought to you by Shannon

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So what if I...

• Have had to call customer service three times to try and get the Internet working on my phone. I love this new phone so much more than the old one that it's worth it. But having to wait 4 hours between each reset to see if it will work is not fun.
• Have spoken to many foreign lands on my phone adventure. But "Jorge" swears what he did this time will work. We'll see...in 4 hours :)
• Eating my lunch outside in the sun made me sleepy. Isn't getting out of the office for sunshine and fresh air supposed to wake you up?
• Always have something I need to take to a thrift store to donate. But I wait til it builds up a little to make a run. Always purging is good, right?
• Put off balancing my checkbook to blog first
• It seems like babies and pregnant women surround me everywhere. Blogs, church, Facebook. I guess I'm just at that age. But I'm not joining the club yet.
• Thought I might be joining the club, then realized I had never stopped my birth control after 3 weeks. So THAT was the reason "the monthly visitor" didn't come. Lol. Had to laugh at myself.
• Am too tired to think of anything more fun or witty to say today. I told you lunch made me sleepy! Can I please have a nap now?

Weekend Update 04-09-11

Busy Monday at the office as usual, but I'm grabbing a few moments for a quick blog.

We had a nice weekend! Friday afternoon I met mom at the beach. It was crazy foggy and misty, yet the sun was shining and it was pretty warm- almost hot. This is such a weird weather phenomenon. I didn't really get much sun because of the fog, but I did relax. Friday evening the hubby and I used our Groupon to a favorite cafe of ours, Jordan Valley (Greek food). Then we came home and watched Transformers. We rented for free from the library thanks to the hubby!

Saturday we yard-sailed. Not too much selection this week. I got a gold chain-mesh clutch. And a Eureka steam mop that I had to order a pad for, but it was only $1 (the mop). And that was it :) I went grocery shopping. Cleaned a little. Watched Transformers 2. Then Saturday evening friends of ours had a dinner and games party. Italian potluck- yummy spaghetti, lovely Mediterranean salad, garlic cheese bread, Italian creme cake and ice cream. Good conversation, playing Apples to Apples, Uno and XBox Kinect. Love the Dance Revolution game! Too funny to play and watch :)

Sunday was relaxed too. We had church, then a huge Sunday lunch at my grandma's: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, asparagus casserole, carrot souffle and homemade biscuits. We spent the afternoon lounging on her couch, watching Turner Classic Movies station and reading our books. We stopped by a Blockbuster store closing and picked up six movies. We watched one (Music and Lyrics) and I decided even with the ClearPlay, I never want to see it again. I am surprised how poor my memory is about how a movie I've seen several years ago really was. 

We finished off the night getting ready for the next week- sweet hubby helped me with cleaning chores and I made lunches for myself. 

I did rearrange the walls some- I think the mirror over the fireplace looks a bit bare! It was so busy that now it looks too simple. Hmmm. I'll let it stew for a bit.

Fireplace before

Fireplace after

Shelves over couch before- right

and left

Over couch after- ignore hubby's head in bottom left :)

The kiddos and I christened the new recliner too :)

Love them soo much!

Happy Monday ya'll!

SWW 04-06-11

So what if...

• I think that this "knee-high socks with boots" style looks retarded. Especially the ones with lacy frilly tops. I just don't get it.
• The sight of a freshly organized room makes me smile. And if I did it, makes me feel really satisfied. 
• The sight of a room I've organized and cleaned being messed up by others makes me upset.
• I have like 8 or 10 more CEU's to go before I can renew my license. And it's due this month.
• I honestly doubt there's a decent work-from-home job that I'm fit for. Somehow they all seem like scams to me. Or they are all based on sales. I HATE sales. (Unless of course it's at a store!)
• I love Easter time because that means Reese's eggs. IMO these are THE BEST combination of peanut butter and chocolate that Reese has. Better than the regular and big cups, mini's and pieces. The closest to this balance is the smaller individual cups that come in the 8 pack. Yes, I LOVE Reeses and have tried them all. The giant egg isn't bad either, but kind of a ridiculous size. The pumpkins and trees in the fall and winter are pretty good too. But the individual egg is the best. Wow I'm a fatty. Lol.
• I have said 10 times that I'm gonna start looking at work-from-home RN jobs, but have yet to do it. Soon!

Quick update- band fill went very well. No complications. I can still eat reasonable amounts and am down 5.5 pounds. Next appt for another fill is May 12.

As always, this theme brought to you by Shannon

Living room re-do and need to re-do

So yesterday our good friends came and bought our furniture from us! So glad to have more room in the living room. Now that I've had a color change (red furniture is gone) and have a smaller scale couch and chair, I think re-arrangement of the wall decor is in order.

I think the walls are too busy with small things. I would like fewer pieces that make more of an impact.

I did re-arrange the furniture.

Before

After

After

After

I moved the entertainment center out from the corner and put the bean bag there instead. The large photo to the left of it is now off center. I think the mirrors over the chair are too small and busy. The fireplace is also busy- 7 photos on the wall and multiple smaller items on the mantle. I also have two small-ish display shelves over the couch.

My problem is- moving the large print and the shelves means more holes in the wall as these have to have screws. As a renter holes are a big issue. More to patch and paint when we leave. So I am reluctant to move these.

I also don't want to get rid of the small decorator items I have out, but I don't really have anywhere to store them. The office is in use as you saw on my previous post :) I already had to take about 5 things off the wall in the office.

I'd really like to put this lovely somewhere- but it would mean another hefty nail hole.

I'd like to put it over the fireplace or the couch. Fireplace would be easy. Couch would mean moving shelves.

Your comments are suggestions are appreciated!

Weekend update times two

So I never posted about last weekend. And now I can't remember what all we did  :)

I do know that we went yard-sailing. Or worked, in John's case :) I got just a few things:

Super cute overnight bag. The color is a little off in the pic. The polka dots are light green. $2.50

I think this was supposed to be a beach bag. But I'm using it as a purse this week.  $2.50

3 sets of earbuds, thoroughly Lysoled, $0.25. Pink windbreaker in a bag, $1. I told DH this is for when we hike the Grand Canyon someday :) The hairband is mine :)

This weekend was: church Friday night, estate auction Saturday, church Sunday.

Saturday DH did not want to rise as early as YSLs require :) So we went to an on-site estate auction. A realtor bought a home with stuff left behind. So all the contents plus some extra items from other sellers was auctioned off.

I once again learned, I am not a big fan of auctions. Especially not outdoor ones in the heat. I do like that you can sometimes get some great things at low prices. But sitting through the auctioning of tons of items you are not interested in is quite tedious. We arrived at this particular one about 9:15 and I left John there sometime a little before noon. I had enough. When I went to pick him up at about 2, I also picked up our new couch and chair that he bought for $100! That's right, out with the old. In with the new-to-us. :)

We didn't pick it because of serious design-love. We got it because it's leather and easy to clean and I won't have to constantly have blankets over our furniture to minimize the dog hair and dirt tracking of little paws.

Unfortunately that made us have two sets of living room furniture in an 1100 sf apartment! Thank goodness the new owners are coming to get our old stuff tomorrow, as right now my living room looks like this:

So cozy, don't ya think?

We also purchased three shelving units for $10 at the auction. Just pressed board bookshelves, but they have helped us transform the eBay/office/laundry room. I don't have a before of the awful mess it was. But taking out the chair to our living room set and adding shelves gave us SO much more space. Now when I open the door I smile, instead of rolling my eyes :)

View from the door

View from the corner of the room. With space to grow!

Saturday evening we spent an hour or so hanging out at my friend's pool. The water is still icy though! We also watched a documentary that was recommended to me, Temple Grandin. It is about an autistic woman who made great advances in the treatment of cattle. Claire Danes does a wonderful acting job as the lead. 

We had church this morning, and now I am home blogging. It seemed the thing to do since DH is watching the "finals" online of his computer game (Star Craft 2) that he plays. Oh what fun. For him.

But I may be saved yet. My mom just texted me about a rendezvous at the dog park. Cause Lawd knows I do NOT want to sit around the house all afternoon when such great weather is right outside my window. This is the kind of weather for sharing with people, not being holed-up in your house staring at a computer screen!

I was saved! We had a nice time at the dog park and also took some photos. Most were rejected by the subject, but I am posting a few of my faves.

My beautiful momma. Lookin' down right fabulous. Can you believe she's over 50? (Now she'll kill me)

Saw a friend of ours and her dog Buddy

Eby enjoying running free

Cousin Graycie

Ernie's face looks like a madman. He was just hot and tired :)

Happy Monday everyone!