What day is it?????

I love the insurance commercial with the Camel who is dying for someone to say it is humpday......and that is today!!!!!

And today was our day off.  We actually slept in until 8:45 which is rare for this house.  We then hit the roads because hubs was just dying to get out of the house.  He likes to aimlessly ride around.  We looked at some cars, he looked at some towtrucks...apparently his dream is to be able to run his own business.  We had breakfast out together as a family.  It was nice not to have to cook.  We did a little thrift shopping at our local goodwill.  And then we went shoe shopping looking for my son a pair of shoes for back to school, and ended up finding some really cute sandals for the Princess too for like 5.00.

Since we have been home, i finally made it to the store alone and picked up some catfood and we have got to find a new cat litter because wow the ammonia smell in the current box is terrible.  Anybody got a recommendation for cat litter?  Speaking of kitties....the babies are a week and a half old and seem to be doing very well.  Only one has it's eyes open.  I finally caved and let my handsome son hold one.  Hubs was not thrilled.  But here they are.....

I have deemed them the chunky monkeys ....they cannot walk yet just sort of soldier crawl.  They are still in the corner of hubs closet.   I have spent the rest of the evening just trying to focus on one area of the house....per Shelley's wonderful suggestion to focus on one thing.....I am trying to apply that to at least the house for the moment.  I am trying to clean my laundry room which is also where my pantry and cat box are.  It was going well until i hurt my foot when my little stool broke.  So that will likely continue to be my focus for another day or so.  Would you believe also that I was able to incorporate the hubs help, i asked him while he was watching his movie if he would mind either sorting his tools or folding laundry....he ended up doing both!!!! We keep the tools in a cabinet in the laundry room and he had bought a new to him tool box weeks ago that has just been sitting in the living room while tools spill out of the cabinet.

Last week on our day off we took the kids to the state fair......we let them ride ponies, and this was the Princess's first ride she rode like a pro, didn't need anyone beside her and wasn't scared......

It was a really good time, but definately not frugal (although i did score a very nice muppets sippy cup for princess and some nice ladies razors for free at a Playtex display) , we did let the kids ride one ride, the princess insisted that she wanted to ride the very big Ferris Wheel.  And I thought, it will be much fun and a little romantic because one of my first dates with my hubs when we met when I was a teenager was at the state fair and we rode the Ferris Wheel.  Well 15 years later.......i did not enjoy the ride, and neither did the hubs.  I was proud of my handsome prince for getting on because he is scared of heights, but he hid his face in his daddy's side, the princess LOVED it....she was the only one not unsettled by the rocking and swaying when we stopped at the top....she thought it was great

We topped of the night with the hubs treating us to dinner at Crabby Dicks it was his treat since he didn't get to spend the week with our son for his birthday....we went out with some great friends.

And that is what we have done recently with our days off.  We are gearing up to have one final summer adventure by camping at a local state park next week and the hubs is taking the first part of the week off with us!!!!  We are also camping with a family friend.  She was the inspiration for this adventure because she is a young adult and her parents would prefer for her not to go camping alone.  The state parks are much cheaper then private ones.  Mr. B is loaning us his camper to stay in.  Hubs says he is getting too old to sleep on the ground.  Do you have any special plans that you are getting ready for?  How do you spend your free time? 

weight

UGH I have no pictures for this post...just a continued rude awakening for myself.  so I weighed myself this morning on my Wii Fit and what an ugly number I have gained 7.5 pds since the last time I weighed myself putting me at a hefty 268.  I had no idea I was not progessing in losing weight.  a wow moment for me. 

so I am starting over, I had a friend drop off a bottle of Skinny Fiber to me yesterday.  I don't know much about it, but it is safe to take with my current meds, so I may give it a shot. She assures me it is all natural etc etc . She got it as a free bottle with a purchase she made.  And while I don't excpect this pill to be a real answer, I thought I would try it while I continue to read my bible studies and work on changing how I look at food.  What if it works as a jump start and keeps me motivated.....idk we will see.

so I have to be realistic and be honest and say that I really need to just drink water and stay away from beverages with calories, so it is time to be creative and find fruity ways to flavor water.  other than that I have to study study study because I have got to make some changes.  if I gain 10 more pds I will have gained back all the weight I lost almost 3 years ago after my daughter was born.  ugh I am so unhappy with myself.  I struggle making changes when there is no one to walk through it with me, but I have to put on my big girl panties, get over myself and get to overhaulin my heart.  pray for me Please pray very hard this is a huge battle for me.  Oh and I go today for my second opinion about a medical issue today that may have a strong possibility of carrying surgery with it.  the Lords will be done at this point.  I want to surrender. 

A week of solutions!!!!!

So this week has been pretty great in my opinion.  Vacation really gave me a renewed vision, I came back relaxed and rested and had a much needed break from the domestic things.  So I have a whole new outlook and vision for the house.  We have some decluttering to do...starting with getting rid of a big table in the great room so i can make a reading nook for us and the kids.

So this week I made the dog a bed out of an old blanket, It was a nice Nautica blanket or something but it was left in one of the Uhaul trucks and we needed to throw it away, It had a bunch of holes in one side with stuffing falling out.  So i cut it up and washed it.  Then a few weeks later I finally cut up the blankets ends...folded it over a few times and tied the cut up ends together.....i think it turned out nice. 

I went grocery shopping at like 8 o clock at night with both kids and survived.  I saw a post for freezer breakfast sandwiches over at http://exploringdomesticity.blogspot.com/   so I made some but I did Canadian bacon ones..... and i used block cheese and i did not use the liquid egg stuff...i put 12 eggs in a bowl added a little milk, whisked it and then followed her instructions for cooking them...12 eggs still cut into 15 pieces

They have been a hit....I made 12 sandwiches and I froze them it has solved the problem of having breakfast available when i a rush...much cheaper then the 14.00 i can quickly spend in one trip to McDonalds.  Hubby would always come in to work starving because he is rushing when he gets a call and didn't take time to make himself something to eat, and wanted a solution from me, and now I have one!  Good news is I won't have to make them again for another week or two!!!

We have two extended birthdays this week, we decided to go homemade to conserve funds after a 350.00 car repair, and I have a possible health issue that may require surgery so I want to make sure we conserve funds and are prepared if I have to miss some time at work. 

Pop Pop (Mr. B) is turning 61 tomorrow and he has rented the caboose for some steam train in PA so we are all meeting in the morning and 25 of us are taking a train ride at noon!!!  We made him some Ginger cookies (actually my handsome 8 year old boy made them!!!!!

 

                                                               
I packed them in a take out container from a local pizza restaurant and had the kids make a home made card so no extra funds spent there.

My husbands Aunt Vi is having a birthday as well, we will not be attending due to our other plans but hubs will so we took another picture from shutterly that I had not used of a picture taken at the birthday party/family reunion last year and framed it with a frame I scored at a thrift store for a buck

 I also had a breakthrough in personal time management I discovered some organizing tips over at http://justagirlandherblog.com/   and I printed out her template for Time Blocking and I have been using it for two days now, and it is working for me, I have accomplished much....and it has helped me stay more focused.  And it helps me to really plan a project instead of hoping i remember to do something or that I have time for it. 

Oh and for myself I found some press on nails i had bought weeks ago and forgot to use ...so I took 10 minutes to put them on....just for fun  A few weeks ago I found these at a Claire's outlet.  I enjoy them!!!!  So that was a quick minute just for me, then I painted the Princess's nails for her.  So all in all a good week. I will do a separate post tomorrow or Monday about the activities we planned for our days off...it really was a great week!  Oh and I also did the picture clock project in my previous post.  So I feel like I have been a busy and productive problem solving girl this week.  What about you?  What have you been up to?

Avon Picture Clock

So being an Avon rep I get sneak peeks at upcoming items that will be available in a future brochure, and often we have a chance to purchase these items at a "demo" price so that we can purchase them, and show them to our customer etc.

Well I had a credit on my account (thanks to some wonderful customers who placed orders) and this clock caught my eye.  It basically holds wallet size pictures or smaller.  I had wanted to do a more home made project like this with individual frames, but let's face it I can only handle so much home made at a time, so this was pretty and convenient for me.

Here is the before 

It happens to go with the colors in my house because half the house is in a sea foam green kind of color that I would like to change, but I don't have the ambition so I am trying to embrace it and just decorate.  Anyway here is the Avon Hanging Picture Wall Clock that will debut at 24.99 in brochure 17.  I went through the house to find pictures that were meaningful to us that I had not put out.  I have some pictures I have printed from www.shutterfly.com just laying in envelopes around the house.  I realized I didn't have alot of pictures of my husbands family out.  So I placed in the frame pictures of various family, both his, mine, and a picture of us when we renewed our wedding vows almost 10 years ago. 

I didn't take pictures of the rest of the process...but the clock seems to be a nice construction, the backs of each individual frame were easy to remove, each back has little pegs that hold each picture in it's place once you put in in the frame.  It runs on one double a battery.  I used the white papers that were in each frame as a template to cut my pictures to fit.  I then hung it on the wall in what we call our living room over our family picture.  I then got some scrapbooking stickers out and put a simple phrase on the wall.

I literally just put the stickers on the wall and they peel off easy should we move, or I want to change the phrase.  It says Worth Every Second.

I love it.  It was just the creative project I needed.  I also got to bless my husband with it...I am learning to keep my house on purpose and with a purpose :)

Look what is new at our house this week!!!!!

can you see them? That's right we have baby kittens.  The mom is Swirl.  She was a stray kitten my kids grandfather had wandering around his property near Christmas time last year, and my daughter and I saw her, she was the only one that would come to us when the kids went for a walk, and Pop Pop M just had to say it would make him feel so good to know it had a good home.  So we brought her home and she was a Christmas gift from Pop Pop M.  

She has always been on the smaller side and I knew she would eventually come into heat (obviously being a female,)  When I tried the first time to schedule her to get fixed though, she was of appropriate age but did not weigh enough.  So what are you gonna do.  While waiting for her to get bigger (do you remember that I have a two year old daughter) well she went through a phase of getting to the main door faster then me and would open it) and you guessed it the cat got out.  This happened a handful of times, we were concerned she could have gotten pregnant and guess what...SHE DID)  We just got back from vacation and we could finally tell that yes she was pregnant and two days later we had kittens.  The hubs revealed he does have a heart and gave up half his closet for her to lay in cause she revealed she desperately was trying to get in his closet.  That is where she nested.  Yesterday morning...we had three kittens.  It's going well so far. In eight weeks though....off to the vet she goes.  I plan to make her appointment in the next two weeks.  :)

So this week had definitely been full of exciting new adventures.  How is your week.  Anything new at your place?  I would love to hear about it......Comment below if you would like.  Thanks for stopping by.

Vacation Snapshots

We went to Rhode Island with a very good friend of mine that we call Aunti P and her daughter.  It was a business trip for her, but I babysat her daughter and got to take my kiddos....and i just had to pay for half the gas and mine and my kiddos activities.  The hotel was covered and that was AWESOME cuz we stayed at the Marriott and the gentleman that gives Aunti P the perk program or something gets Elite member access so we got to access to a lounge where we could get breakfast and snacks and appetizers each day.

Anyway here are some of my fav pics from our trip: 

this was the view of the pool from our room...the pool went through the building and inside the building there was a hot tub in the pool area...we definitely frequented that. 

We visted the Providence Place mall, this is where we had lunch for my son's 8th bday..he wanted Taco bell he loves the Nacho cheese flavor tacos.

we went to see Despicable Me 2 and took pictures of the kids with other movie posters like the Smurfs 2 and Turbo

We also had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the night of my son's birthday and went to Build a bear.  Dinner was delish....i ate the chicken enchiladas off the skinnyicous menu...and I simply could not go to the Cheesecake Factory and not have cheesecake.  I had the Tiramisu flavor...it was DELISH>>>>>

They sang my baby Happy Birthday and brought him a shot of ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream with a lit candle.  It was fun.  Anyway  these are not all the pictures.  I will have to continue this in a part 2 kind of post on another day.  We had a great time.  I am certain I went over my vacation budget but the verdict is out until I get a chance to scrap all the metal I have because that was supposed to replace the funds i spent on vacation, but our truck was out of commission prior to the trip (still is) .  Though I may have gone over budget I am certain though that I did not touch bill money and I absolutely put nothing on credit...So I am at least good in that aspect.  I have to sit down and do all the budgeting now that we are back to reality.  What new things did you do this week and take pictures of?  Were there any special celebrations?

Another week is almost over

It is Saturday 5 pm and here we are

all packed and ready to go.  It is finally here, we are headed to Rhode Island for the next 4 to 5 days. I am almost certain I have forgotten something....but I have no clue what.  Got extra batteries, the camera, busy things for in the car.  I set a budget, I know we will spend a little for my son's birthday celebration.   Monday is my son's 8th bday. We have no hotel expenses because this is a business trip for Aunti P and we are sharing her hotel room and watching her daughter while she works. The hubs does not get to make this trip.   We are waiting for the hubs to get in so we can have some family time before we leave tomorrow morning at 530 am.   I am a little bummed that the hubs isn't coming but maybe it will give us a chance to miss each other a little and appreciate one another when we get back! 


This week had its good things like the trip to the dollar tree and the things we did with some of those items, and I also came home finally to the new (free) air conditioner that we scored two weeks ago.  The people installed it and taped it up good so there are not leaks and they gave me a cover for winter.

I was so excited that night when i got home because it was not hot that i cooked a real dinner for a change, and I also made home made popsicles : recipe  http://www.theprudenthomemaker.com/index.php/chocolate-pudding-popsicles

they were delicious the kids loved them...but we ate them all and I am not making anymore before we leave.  I also made home made granola and yogurt

Here it is I made it!!! The granola was the best.....as for my yogurt i went with the greek method...next time i might let it culture longer and i like to add strawberries and a little vanilla with a little raw sugar on top.  My little ones ate it too....my hubby doesn't eat yogurt.  I also got that recipe from the Prudent Homemaker blog.

The challenges this week brought us was that our car that we just got out of the shop (right after the truck broke down) is broken again, the brake lines are frozen or something.  However my boss was super nice and let us drive one of his truck this week, I just have to pay for gas.  So that was a blessing.

I guess that is it.  Thanks for dropping in and reading.  I hope each of you have a great week.  I hope to use my nook to post and update about our trip later this week.  So my next post should be from the great state of Rhode Island :)  I am looking forward to the break from things of the home :)

Dollar Tree Finds!!!!!

So we are getting ready to pack for a 4 day trip to Rhode Island with a close friend and her daughter for 4 days starting this coming Sunday.  She tells me it is an 8 hour ride.  Also the hotel has an outdoor pool on the roof I think.  So I have been thinking of things we might need that I don't have before we go.  I stopped in to my local Dollar Tree and found a few things:

I found stereo headphones which i thought would be perfect for the car ride when the kids want to play their individual electronic games music or whatever for the ride so they can each listen privately to their own stuff.  (and the driver can have a little peace) they also had the over the ear headphones...but for my littles i thought the headband style would be good.  I already ordered some popsicle molds from eBay but since they have not arrived, I was anxious to try the recipe for chocolate pudding pops over at www.prudenthomemaker.com I picked up two sets of the ones pictured here.  I also found a pair of flip flops for me, which i thought would be great for putting on quickly and running back and forth in the hotel with three little ones while my friend works.  They even have a little sequin and ribbon bling....(i do like things that sparkle :)  I also found sunblock in SPF 30 I bought three bottles, no doubt that should be plenty to apply and reapply during the trip.  They are 4 Fl oz bottles. 

The other three items pictured are peel and stick Jumbo Stickers from Main Street Wall Creations.  I got one set for my son for his birthday (the dinosaurs) a set for my daughter (the flowers) and the other one is for me.  the stickers are supposed to be moveable, non damaging to walls etc. 

facebook.com/mainstreetwallcreations is the link on the back of the package.  Turns out the ones I got for the kids have stickers on each side.  Here is part of what we did with the ones for my daughter....

This is a dresser that was mine when i was a little girl.  The green paint came from a bad make over attempt a few years ago however I am not dedicated enough to figure out how to strip it off.  So we put some of the stickers on the dresser to give it a little character.  I forgot to take a before picture....sorry (just gotta use your imagination and picture it without the flowers and colored dots)  When i realized there was a double side we put a few on her wall too...(no pic yet)

Here is what I did with the one for me (it was only one sided ) 

It is over my bedroom window.  I thought it would be nice to see for inspiration to keep going each day...remembering that things can be simple and bring happiness.  As for the decals i bought for my son you will have to wait to see what he does with them, they are an addition to his birthday gift that he will not be given until next Monday when he will be 8.

I thought these items were super finds at a dollar.  I really like the wall decals.  So what amazing discoveries did you make recently?  Do you have a Dollar Tree in your area, have you ever visited to see what they have.  You never know what could be waiting :)

Kind of a Productive week.

I have to admit I am still struggling with all the changes.  The weather has come pretty hot so half the house is hot, I haven't gotten the new air conditioner yet, I have left two messages but no return call yet.  So the kitchen is hot and I am enjoying domestic things even less this week.

We had a few things go wrong at work this week, who needs reality tv....there is drama in a day of renting uhaul trucks....who would of thunk it.  Our personal truck also broke down while the car was still at the shop.  Thankfully it was done so the hubs towed it home for me but it doesn't have ac.....yes i know there are worse things but I am spoiled.   So when the truck broke down my daughter and I were in route to have a girls day, but since that idea was tanked I rearranged my bedroom from this....

to this

moving everything around really opened up the room, and i put almost all the things that were out of place in a place...hubs came home and really liked it. He said he was proud of me or something like that. I was happy i could please him.......I still have a few out of place things like the ladder and the lamp.  And I would like to make a faux headboard and get a new comforter that would tie the colors in the room together but i have not found anything yet.

I also sucessfully made some white bread and actually enjoyed a breakfast sandwich on it......

For the 4th we did not do anything too special, I had to work, but I have to give my son some props he was bored and he wanted things to be festive so while at work he made this and as tired and cranky as we all were from heat and morning fights how could i not hang it up.  He was so creative and used what we had out of stuff at work.  It was from his own mind and I dare not stifle his creativity.  We went home and I had to run  back to work one more time but in our travels a neighbor invited us to their cook out so we visited for a bit, The princess had a hot dog, and I had my first ear of corn on the cob for the season....it is so my fav.  I also treated the kids to Sweet Frog.  It was good, and I will be going back.

 

 I have been over to the Prudent Home Maker blog at http://www.theprudenthomemaker.com/

and she has a link to a recipe for making home made yogurt and granola....that is next on my list to try and make.  I ordered a thermometer and a yard of cheesecloth from ebay because i would like to try making greek yogurt.  I also have some popsicle molds coming from ebay because I want to try her chocolate popsicle recipe too....the rest of this week has been mostly research.

I have been following also the http://creativehomekeeper.com/ and toying with the idea of making a schedule.  The hubs and I fought earlier this week about how I feel responsible for everything and it's alot of pressure and how i feel like he has compassion for the kids and none for me.  It didn't go well though, he just assumed i was calling him useless and lazy but I never said those things. So since all I can do is pray for him right now I thought maybe making a schedule up and attempting to follow it might help life feel less chaotic. We shall see.  

I have also still been pushing myself through my personal bible study, and having talks about God and some of the things that I am learning with the kids.  I love that my son is talking so much more to me this week.

 I will also be doing research on crockpot cooking in the next week.  Per a wonderful comment on the blog this week I really think it may be a good idea for me to consider this method of cooking, that way dinner is done when we get home.  I was at work today and discovered a link to http://www.crockingirls.com/

so I am a little excited now about trying some more new things.  We have a bbq that is being put on by our boss to attend tomorrow after work.  So I am excited about not having to cook!

To save money this week I reused a large pretzel container from Bj's to store a 5 pd bag of flour in, and for the 4th of July Walgreens offered a free 8 by 10 collage print so i made one up of my son and daughter and wrote a birthday message on it to my son from his sister..saying how glad she is that he is her brother..so that will be like her gift to him.  And it was free.  Bought a bag of apples to slice myself instead of buying pre sliced ones.  I think that is is.

How was your week?  What new adventures are you about to embark on?  What things are you researching?

Have a safe and Happy 4th

I pray everyone has a safe 4th of July.  When i was walking the dog this morning I was thanking God for all the families that serve and protect our country, and praying for them for healing and struggles they must have at times when some of the families are seperated from each other for long time periods.

That being said, I have no plans today.  I am suppossed to work, but our personal truck broke down on me yesterday (on our day off) I was able to nurse it home.  We have no clue what is wrong with it.  It's going to have to be taken to a shop I guess.  We do have another car, but it was already in the shop...has been since we started this budgeting plan, it is supposed to be done now (after a month), but I can't seem to get to it.  It is at my boss's shop and my husband does have a tow truck but 4 of us don't safely fit in it to get from pt A to B and I don't know anyone to keep the kiddos for me right now, got to wait for availability.  And with the hubs being on call 24/7 he hasnt been able to tow the car home.  He was supposed to have off yesterday but a customer offered to pay him and his step dad 100 plus for driving a uhaul and a vehicle to Bowie Md.  Each of them when the day was done brought home 90.00 and the guy even gave my son 20.00 so i think it worked out in our favor.  It will help pay for the truck repairs I guess.

Anyway I hope everyone enjoys whatever celebrations they participate in! 

Oh and I don't think I ever mentioned it before because I wasn't sure if I was going to keep going or not, but I also sell Avon and if you shop from my personal site today we are offering free shipping on any size order......check it out www.youravon.com/melindatoomey   enter code JULYFS at check out! Happy shopping...thanks a bunch if you decide to check it out.

Discovery! Home made tooth whitening made my own formula for pennies!

So my sister in law shared this with me.  You only need a few ingredients that you probably already have on hand.  A few months ago I wanted to try Crest Whitestrips but couldn't decide if I wanted to spend the money on them or not.  What if they didn't work etc.  Well when my sister in law shared this, I decided to try it.  I didn't take before and afters I wish I had...there really was a difference after my first use of this.

What you will need :

Pictured is regular Hydrogen Peroxide that you can pick up at Walmart for like .88 a bottle.  Baking soda like .54 at Walmart.  Whatever your regular tooth paste is.  A small containter for mixing and a teaspoon or something for measuring.  (I used a baby spoon that I have left over from my daughter baby food days)

Mix 1/8 tsp of peroxide, with 1/8 tsp of baking soda, 1/8 tsp of water and a dab of your regular toothpaste...mix thoroughly with spoon or i just mixed it all together with my toothbrush and it looked like this

I just dip my toothbrush in and start brushing.  I dip my toothbrush in it a couple times throughout the course of brushing then spit and rinse.  I am sure you can mix more or less of the ingredients depending on your preference or sesitivity to the taste of the paste.  I didn't find it intolerable i just rinsed with mouthwash when i was done to make sure I was extra clean.  You can do this as often as you brush till you reach your desired results then just use it maybe once a month or so for maintenance.

Hope it helps someone! It sure did me.