I subscribe to a service that is kind of like a recycling program, you take things you no longer need, like say, a twin bed, or toddler clothing, and offer it to the group, that way it goes to someone in need instead of taking up more space in a landfill.

Lots of things can be found there. I've gotten a bed for Logan, Roller Blades for Parker, even some refurbished fitness equipment for myself.

But the item I have really been watching for, finally showed up the day before yesterday, and I missed out.

:o( SAD :o(

See. I have been looking for a baby gate. I need one for the door to Logan's room. His room is a good 20 degrees colder than the rest of the house and we have no idea why. the window is sealed, we cant feel any drafts, the heater is blowing hot air, and at a nice clip too, but his room is freezing. I need the baby gate so we can leave his bedroom door open, to get some of the warm air from the rest of the house circulating in there, but at the same time keep the dogs out.

My big issue is the type of baby gate. I need this specific kind so that Logan can get into his room without having to ask for help or re-set the gate each time, but they are damn expensive.

I has #SadPants

I very much dislike door to door salesmen. first of all, they are always, ALWAYS interrupting soemthing when they decided to ring the bell, and second, we have a very large dog who goes bat shit crazy when the boll tings, and that makes life pretty hellish .

The other night, yes NIGHT, it was after 9pm in the evening a door to door salesman rang our bell, setting off both the dogs and waking up Logan, our five year old. if that wasn't bad enough, they wanted to sell us a security system, and when Micah pointed to the wall where our wireless security systems were set up, they refused to take that as a no and leave but continued to try and talk us into upgrading. Finally, Micah let his grip go from our big dogs' collar - she was growling and barking like mad the whole time, and told the salesman that she - pointing at the dog now standing protectively between Micah and the sales man, growling - was the ONLY security system we need, and shit the door in his face.

How RUDE can people get? Why on earth would a salesman think that we would be willing to listen to his pitch when, number one, he comes at such a LATE time, and number two, refuses to take no for an answer.

I can tell you one thing, I will remember his company's name and recommend to ALL my friends not to buy from him!

Every two weeks, the Saturday after payday, we do our grocery shopping. Today was such a Saturday.

Unfortunately, this Saturday was also a crappy weather day.


This was taken on the way home this afternoon, this is a MAJOR double lane highway, down to half a lane, in the very far left you can see the snow plow and his huge plume of snow as he grades the road.

It was kinda scary, and I'm not a wussy winter driver!

To be truthful, if Logan did not have a Birthday party that he had RSVP'd to, we would have put our shopping off. As it was, I found some allergy bedding at a good price, and we all made it home in one piece.

This storm warning is supposed to end Sunday night, though Micah is *really* **REALLY** hoping that it continues until Monday so that he can call in a Snow Day at work!

Did you know that you can get your masters degree online? Because you can. it's hard to find a reputable school though, one with accredited courses, so I'm here to help.

Recently I spent some time researching Western Governors University, and found that it is the ideal place for a person interested in furthering their education to get an online degree.

But WHY online? Simple. Studying online allows a person to get their degree at their pace. When the kids are napping or down for the night, After you have finished your regular nine to five shift, when ever it is convenient for YOU!

Bonus, WGU is affordable, flexible AND you can accelerate the time it takes you to complete your degree!



*In exchange for my opinion, I was financially compensated for this post

Two nights ago I was on facebook and saw that one of my facebook friends had updated her status to the fact she was eating her last non-diet meal becuase she was set to start her new diet in the morning and was predicting a weight loss of 15 pounds in the first week.

I responded to her status message asking her if that was even safe, and she explained that she was going on one of those diets for quick weight loss, and had been on it in the past and had lost a lot of weight.

Then she had a baby and gained it all back and then some.

I checked out a few diets online, after talking with her, but no carbs? Not for me. I need bread to live. And one of them, actually, several of them said NO COFFEE. OMG I would DIE!

So yeah. Looks like I will have to do the old fashioned dieting, portion control and exercises, becuase I simply love food (and coffee) way too much!

I spent a few hours last night and even more hours this morning working on some photos of my great niece Kenya. When I finished - or sort of finished, there are more for me to go through, I decided to print out some - 30 or so, at a wee self printing machine a the grocery store.

It seems, however, that the picture printer at the grocery store has been ingesting way too many weight loss drinks, because it cropped my photos by about an inch (or more!!) on each side. And that`s SO not good.

Check this out :


The first one is the image I wanted printed, the second one is what came out of the machine :o(


How freaking horrible! The photos I printed are rubbish and I will not be able to use them, not only did the machine crop them so stupidly for some reason*, but the colors are quite off too**, Whites have a dark blue tinge and reds are brownish looking!

This weekend I am going to drop them off at Costco, where at least I know that if the photos don't print out like my digital copy says they will, at least I will be refunded my money.

*after talking this over on twitter, it has been determined that I need to either go in and manually pic a crop for the photos or go to photo shop and resize the pictures there to what size I want them to turn out. I'm going to go the resizing route.

** you cant see the color issues in the photos I have provided becuase i just used my crop tool to crop the photo the way the printing machine did, instead of dragging out the scanner to scan the actual printed copy.

Last night I bought a Christmas gift. Christmas IS only 11 months away you know! In my opinion, it is a super good idea to start shopping right after Christmas ends because, One : you can find some super awesome deals, and, Two, it's much easier to spend 20-30 dollars a paycheck on a gift throughout the year than it is to pay for the whole shebang in December.

It's also a really good idea to keep all gifts in the same location, that way, come December, you aren't missing anything.

And, no, I can't tell you what i bought, becuase I am uncertain if the giftee reads this website, suffice to say, I was browsing through FaceBook, saw a sidebar add that looked interesting and clicked over. I knew immediately that this was a gift for someone special in my life :o)

I CAN tell you that if you were looking for a pony, phentermine diet pills, or a duck in a tutu, you will be disappointed come Christmas morning!

My kids are very used to seeing little piles of shed dog hair piled up in the corners of the house. No matter how often we brush the dogs, sweep or vacuum, the hair is a never ending battle.

(We have one dog (smokey) and one cat (Tigger) who should be on hair loss treatments, we also have a smaller dog, Sammi, who sheds very little even though she is a long haired dog).

I was busy sweeping the kitchen and hallway and took the time to get the broom under the stove and under and behind the fridge as well as opening the closet doors going downt he hall gathering the hair that often gets left behind.

My niece, Krysta was following behind me and as the pile of hair grew and grew and grew, her face got more and more concerned. Finally she asked me "Aunty, why is your dogs throwing their hair all over the ground?"

It was hilarious.

Better still, later int eh afternoon I asked her if she wanted to color, and when she told me yes, I asked her *What* she wanted to color. She told me Dora so I Google'd Free Dora coloring pages and clicked the link. I don;t think she has ever seen a printer print anything so she was overjoyed as she watched the first page come out, and as it finished she reached to get the paper, but i told her to wait, there was more. She looked at me, confused, and asked "Is the colors coming out now?"

I love this age. From two to about six, kids are the cutest funniest thing in the entire world. They see things SO differently!

My neighbour just stopped buy so that her son could give my son (Logan) an invite to his upcoming birthday party AND to tell us that the central vac they are giving us - GIVING - As in FOR FREE- is ready to be picked up.

I am so excited about this.

See, she got a new central vac and was too lazy to take the old one away, I asked her about it and she told me that it worked the last time she used it, but she just wanted a newer one. I asked if I could have it and she said YES! I guess she had been bugging her husband for months to get it out of the garage and was pretty happy that I wanted it so that she had room to park in there again.

We still have to pick up the little couplings and joiners and what-nots, but its a damn sight cheaper to do that then to pic up the entire set! Now I can use the money we would have pent on the central vac on some xenadrine rfa x. Or wait! Maybe the central vac will encourage me to vacuum more often, becuase its a known fact that housework burns calories!

Labels: excitement, free, home improvement

Thursday was my first day of babysitting the girls, and I have to say it is going pretty good.
I was worried that I would be super tired becuase I have gotten VERY used to going back to bed after sending the boys off to school, and sleeping till noon or later, but so far so good.

Right around 2pm Thursday and Friday, I got real tired, but that lasted for about half hour each day, and I have found that when I feel that tiredness come on, if I get up and do something - sweep the floor, load the dishes, that type of thing, it really helps with the tiredness.

In the evenings I've been OK too, able to stay up as late as we normally do, without troubles, though Friday night Micah and I rented some movies and I fella sleep halfway through the second one, where as normally I am good to go until 3 or 4 am.

I won't deny that my Google search history includes best eye creams, becuase I have more prominent dark circles right now, but as a whole, it is going better then even I expected, and I figured it would be good.

One slip up happened on Friday afternoon. I was holding the baby, she is probably 30 pounds, and I crouched down - like a squat - to pick something up, while holding her. I'm not sure if you have been lucky enough to ever hear a baby giggle, but if you have, you can understand why I continued to do squats while holding her, becuase I would do just baout anything to keep a baby laughing, and Brooke found it absolutly hilarious. I've NEVER heard her laugh so hard!

So I did Squats, and lots of them, about ten minutes worth and I was going up and down pretty fast. While doing them, and afterward too, I wasn't in pain, My legs never got that burn-y shaky feeling like my muscles tend to get while I exercises, so I thought nothing of it. Until I tried to get out of bed this morning.

My Thighs are ONE FIRE, OMG.

So yeah. no more squats with the baby. Even if she giggles.

...

OK, maybe just a couple!