Is is just me?

Or does anyone else love this commercial?

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

Every time I see it, I start laughing. Oh, and that guy is HOT!

Really busy week, but I am off Thursday and Friday, so will post about last weekend. It turned out not to be too bad.

Happy Wednesday, All!

"I have a favor to ask. But you can say no."

Don't you hate it when you get a call from someone saying this?

I do.

My MIL called me at work today. (I don't know why she didn't call Hubby at home, but she didn't.) She gave me the favor line. Then told me that Meredith (our oldest) called MIL to tell her that Billy (Meredith's hubby from whom she is separated.) sent her a text that he could not take the boys this weekend because he needs to study.

You're a dad now. You study around your kids.

Whatever.

OF COURSE, MIL said yes. She would be happy to take them. Then she immediately calls me, because she had something special going on at church and wanted to know if Hubby and I would take the Theo and Wyatt on Saturday night and Sunday.

Well.....I love my grandkids. I love having them visit. I don't love MIL volunteering to take them, then calling us to bail her out. This is what started a giant feud back in January.

She said that she hopes that Billy doesn't start doing this all the time, since he did the same thing a couple of weekends ago. I told her that he would as long as she keeps agreeing to keep the boys. Of course, MIL "just wants to help". I told her that Billy has family, too, that can help out and that it is his responsibility as a dad to take his boys once in a while.

I also told MIL that she should not say yes when she has other plans. She said she didn't have any plans.

Ummmmm.....then why are you calling me. (No, I did NOT say that out loud.)

So, of course we are going to take them. We really love having them. If Meredith had called, we would probably have been thrilled to say yes. It is just this thing with MIL volunteering to do it, then us having to step in because she had plans.

It is a good thing for all that Hubby and I don't ever have plans. Huh?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I DO have to complain about it!

For her Fall semester in college, and her last, Samatha will not have much of this:

Why?

Because her mom waited until May 18 to fill out the FAFSA. And who knows what she did, but Samantha was not offered any money, except for student loans. Sure, she can take out a loan for her last semester, and she will. (She has only taken out one small loan so far.) But I know that with her GPA, she would might have gotten something else if the FAFSA had been filled out sooner.

Well, that and if her mom had not been so selfish about wanting Samantha as a dependent. BM (biomom) had worked 2 jobs a big part of last year, so I imagine had a pretty nice income, with a pretty nice tax bite. I totally don't blame her for wanting a little tax relief, but not at the expense of her child's financial aid.

Oh, oh, oh and get this, BM's accountant did not file a tax return for Samantha as she did not make enough money to have to. Ummm...what about the refund of some of the taxes that she paid in, Mr. Accountant?

Oh, well, I just had to get it out and I am not going to worry about it anymore. When Samantha told me all of this last weekend, I told her to go talk to the FinAid office to see if she could keep her work study that she is currently in. The school can offer whatever they want and maybe she will luck out.

I also told her that if she comes up short on tuition money, that her mom will need to pony up the dough.

Sluggy lied!

I won a Boring Box giveaway over at DON'T READ THIS; IT'S BORING!

For several weeks, Slugmama taunted us with how boring the box would be. But I kept entering anyway, fighting it out with Marilyn. LOL! There were other entrants, of course, by Marilyn and I wanted that box BADLY.

I received it late last week and Sluggy lied! It was not boring at all! It was chock full of goodies and we will use every singly thing in the box. Here is a shot. You can't see everything, but you can see that it was packed full!!
Thanks, Sluggy!! You can bet I will be entering any other contest you put up!

13 lbs of Blackberries!

Through one of my favorite websites, PickYourOwn.org, that I wrote about previously, I found a pick your own farm not to far away that we didn't know about. It is a farm and they only have pick your own produce. I was only looking to get more blackberries, but they also had peaches, peas, tomatoes, cantalopes, zuchini and herbs to pick.

We got up at 6:30 Saturday morning and after taking our time piddling around (LOL!) we left at 7:40 and got to the farm at 8:15. I was all perky and ready to pick, telling Hubby that we would get some peached, too.

So we got 3 buckets, each supposed to hold 5 1/2 - 6 1/2 lbs, and headed to the field. I had offered to get some for my best friend's mom, so we needed to get 4 more lbs than I wanted. We started picking......it was hot. We kept picking.....it was hotter. After about 45 minutes, I was ready to quit! I was SO hot! I don't know why I didn't think to take a water bottle, or some wet towels to cool off, but I didn't.

Hubby, on the other hand, tolerates the heat much better than I do, so kept saying, "We can pick a little while longer." Finally, after about an hour and 15 minutes, I was ready to leave him in the field and go find shade....and water. I think he realized that, so he said he was ready to go to.

We picked 13 lbs of blackberries. After taking 4 lbs to my other mom, and putting aside about a half lb for my MIL...that's all she wanted.....I was able to put up 8 bags of blackberries in my freezer. So, I am set for jam making when the weather gets cooler. Well, some of them will make their way into cobblers.

Here is one of our bags of berries:

I told Bob to never let me do that again! Next year, we will go at the first of blackberry season and not wait until it is boiling hot outside.

Go see A.Marie!

She is giving away FOOD!....Chocolate food!

Run to My Money Mission Online and sign up by June 22 for the chance to win BC Missississippi Mud Bar mix and a baking pan.

She is waiting for you!

Going for more blackberries!

Hubby and I talked about it last night and we decided that we did NOT get enough blackberries last weekend. I got 8 pints, but I know I will need more. So we are going on Saturday to a different farm where we can pick our own blackberries. They charge $2.75/lb, so not cheap, but cheaper than buying them by the pint. I don't even want to admit how much I figured out THAT cost me last weekend. LOL!

This place also has a lot of other pick-your-own stuff. Peaches, tomatoes, green beans, herbs and I don't remember what else. We will be going early Saturday to beat the worst of the heat.

I will try to remember to take my camera.

An abundance of delicious produce.

That is what we got this weekend! I have been jonesing for some blackberries to freeze for my next jam-making sessions. I was low on blackberries last year, so didn't make much and it is MY favorite, so I had to be stingy with it this year.

We have a few pick your own places close enough to drive for the day. I found them on one of my favorite sites: PickYourOwn.org You can search for pick your own places by state, then county. There are also great preserving instructions, as well as calendars of when different things are in season. I use this site all the time. (The home page is a little odd, just scroll down to start looking for a farm.

I had found one place that is only about a 30 minute drive and we decided to go pick blackberries on Sunday morning. I was thinking about it Saturday night and decided I wanted more than just blackberries, so we decided to go to our favorite local farm. The one where we picked strawberries a while back.

It was a gorgeous day, though really hot!! We headed down and had a lovely time, picking out fresh corn (Hubby's favorite), tomatoes, green beans, green bell peppers, onions, watermelon, lettuce, new potatoes, celery and, of course, blackberries. The blackberries here ended up costing more than the other place would, but we stocked up on a lot of produce as well, and only spent $41.

Then we stopped for lunch at a little place we had driven by a hundred times and never gone in. It was an Italian grill and they had a buffet. Perfect for Hubby! I ate a delicious cheeseburger while he chowed down. Then we headed home and I started putting up produce. I froze all but 1 pint of the blackberries. We will be eating shortcake with them. Yum! I shucked 10 ears of corn and froze some of it, prepped about 5 lbs of green beens. Tonight I need to blanch and freeze most of them. Then I seeded and diced 8 HUGE bell peppers. I now have 4 quarts of frozen diced peppers in the freezers.

It was a very productive weekend. But now I am thinking that we need to go to the other place and get some more....cheaper....blackberries. Hubby is up for picking. I might as well take advantage of it.

I am running out of shampoo and conditioner!!!

I cannot believe it!

I have probably not bought shampoo or conditioner in 6 months. Maybe longer...I don't remember. My stockpile was FULL, with 25 - 30 bottles of each before Christmas. It would last forever!

Not with 3 adult kids shopping my stockpile! I gave them goody bags at Christmas with lots of HBA. Whenever they come to visit, I send them home with a bag. I was just not paying attention to how many were going out, while none were coming in.

Then, this weekend, Chance came to visit and before he left, I loaded him up with HBA and groceries. And I noticed it......

My shampoo and stockpile is SO SMALL. I only have about 10 bottles of each!

I told my friend I only had 10 bottles of each and she looked at me like I was crazy.

She is not a stockpiler.

I gotta go shop. (Well, when I get off work.)

Soldiers Surprising Their Loved Ones: The "Best of" Mix

I saw this amazing video and just wanted to share with my friends. I appreciate all our military does for us and love to see them coming home.

What a great weekend I had!

I finally got around to finishing this.

I got to spend time with this handsome young man! (I didn't take any pics, so swiped this off his Facebook. LOL!Thursday afternoon, Hubby called me at work to say that Chance was on his way to our house. He had a 4 day weekend and was coming for a visit. We were totally excited, since we have not seen him since Christmas! I was getting all my news from his Facebook, MySpace and whatever his sisters heard.


He spent Thursday night with us, so I left work an hour early. I got to talk to him for about an hour and a half, all by myself, while Hubby went to a doctor appointment. Then that evening, our daughter, Samantha, and her boyfriend, John, came over and we went and ate Chinese. Then back to our house for visiting until I was about to pass out. LOL! It was only 10pm, but I knew I would have to be up early.

Friday, I worked, of course. Chance went and picked up our grandson, Jacob, and then the two of them and Hubby went to visit with MIL. She was so excited to see Chance and Jacob. (She sees Hubby all the time, LOL!) The visited into the evening, then Hubby came home and Chance came to pick up his stuff to go spend the night at MIL's. She was so excited! He stayed and visited for about an hour.

The next evening, Hubby, Chance and Sam went to an Astros game, so I had a relaxing evening at home. On Sunday afternoon, Chance and Jacob came over and spent a couple of hours before Chance had to head back to base. He had gotten to see his aunt and uncle while at MIL's, so they all had a nice visit. It was so fun to see Jacob and he was excited to see us.

Sadly, Chance's divorce is final (yes, at 21). Happily, he is not bitter about it and seems a lot happier than he did when they were married. He is still a great daddy and sees Jacob as often as he can.

We were discussing his cooking, which he claims is not that good and I asked if he would like for me to find him and easy cookbook. He said that would be "awesome." I told him I would find one and some weekend, his dad and I would come visit and I would give him some cooking lessons. He thought that was even more awesome. He really does know how to cook some. I think he just is bored with what he knows how to cook. He is great at following recipes. He made blueberry pies when he was 9 and they turned out great. LOL!

I loaded him up with groceries and HBA and he was thrilled. We all had a pretty thrilling weekend. LOL!

I was just reading at AllYou.com

and saw the "Marriage Saver" ideas. This one cracked me up:

Marriage saver: Outdoor stove

HE: Likes cooking with cast iron
SHE: Won't let him use cast iron on their glass-top electric stove
SOLUTION: "My husband really wanted an outdoor gas camp stove, so for Christmas I got him one. Now I let him buy as much cast iron as he wishes. It may be extra money, but it is well worth the price if it gets him to cook once in a while!"—

What cracked me up was the "..I let him buy...." Now, I know that a lot of us girls take care of the finances, but I just wonder why an adult needs to be allowed to buy something?

Of course, if finances are tight, purchases should be discussed, but really.

Hubby is NOT my kid. He does not need for me to "let" him do anything.

Maybe others have a different opinion, but this makes me just shake my head.