It was rough this week, not being able to check out blogs while at work. :-(
I adjusted pretty well to my new office. I don't love it, but it will do. I was really busy this week, so the week went by pretty fast. That is a good thing, since I love my weekends so much. LOL!
Chance is in town this week for R&R, but we have not seen him. I don't know what he is doing, but I guess he is enjoying his time away from Afghanistan.
Tomorrow, Hubby and I will head to Galveston for our annual day "at the beach" for the Galveston Mardi Gras. It is supposed to be a nice day, so it will be perfect for watching parades, catching beads and catching up with some friends I haven't seen in a while. I will try and get some festive pics to share.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Blocked from Blogger
I am pretty bummed out. Today we got to our new office and I found out that I can no longer access Blogger from work!! No fair!! I will have to check in when I get home from work everyday. I am going to miss spending my lunch hour with you all.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Boys and their toys
Chance will be home tomorrow for a couple of weeks R&R. We are so excited that he will be home, but no more excited than he is. LOL! He will get to see his son, Jacob, and I know they will both be beyond thrilled to each other. It is so hard for daddy and son to be apart for so long. The rest of the family, of course, misses him but we all understand where he is and why he is there. It is hard for a 4-year-old (as of 2/15) to understand why daddy is gone for so long.
Hubby decided that he wanted to clean and detail Chance's car for him, as apparently guys love really clean cars. Now, you would not know that by looking at Chance's car. LOL! The outside is perfect, but the inside it SO junky. We have never seen it neat. Of course, a lot of what is in there is "soldier stuff", but a lot was also trash. So, Hubby wanted to clean it for him.
When Chance deployed to Afghanistan, he left his vehicle (Nissan Murano, so it is not a car) at his mom's. He had talked about leaving it with us last summer, but I knew that would not be the case as his mom cosigned the loan on the car. Plus she is the best parent. Yes, my friends in our family there IS a best parent. In her own mind for sure, but that is what she is. But off of that and on to the real story here.
I KNEW that Chance's mom WOULD NOT agree to letting Hubby take the car for any reason. Why? Because she despises him. That's okay, since he despises her right back. I don't know why she despises him, but he will always dislike her for the lack of parenting she gave the kids when they needed it and some of the things she allowed to happen to them when she was married to their stepdad. He did not have a problem knocking our kids around and she did nothing to stop it. Her reasoning, "They have to follow his rules."
Anyway, Hubby had Samantha ask her mom if he could get the car. Surprise! Surprise! She actually said yes to him picking up Chance’s car and cleaning it. Color me shocked! Of course, she also wants it brought back to her house so she can pick Chance up from the airport on Friday. We do not know what time he is coming in and if she has her way, we won't find out, but that is okay. We have learned to deal with stuff like that. We will just see Chance when he gets time. And if we don't, well, that is okay, too, as long as he gets to see Jacob a lot.
So, yesterday, Hubby drove me to the park and ride to catch the bus. Then later in the morning, drove to Samantha and John’s, where he left his car and John drove him to Chance's mom's about 1/2 hour away. She had told Samantha that she would just leave the car outside the garage for Hubby to get. While Hubby and John were on the way over, BioMom (the kids mom) texted Samantha that the car would not start so she just pushed it out of the garage.
How NICE of her to not worry why it wouldn't start and to leave that to Hubby to deal with. He and John jumpstarted it and it was fine. Ummmm...yeah....you can't leave a car sitting in a garage for 4 months and expect it to start right up. Oh well. (Bob told Samantha to tell her mom to start it once in a while after Chance goes back.) Hubby took the car to our house and washed, waxed, cleaned out and vacuuumed Chance's car. He said it took 45 minutes just to get all the trash out and an hour to vacuum it. He also had a couple of bags of laundry in it.
Then, Hubby picked me up after work and we went to Samantha's to pick up his car. We left her place at 6:10 and got home at 7:05. Yep, it took 55 minutes. The traffic sucked.
I am so glad I ride the bus to work.
Last night, Hubby did some of the laundry that appeared to be dirty. This morning, he took the car to Walmart for an oil change. Tonight, when I get off, I will follow Hubby to BioMom's place to drop off Chance's car. At that time of day, it will probably be at least a hour and a half trip.
This really seems to me to be a whole lot of trouble, but that’s my Hubby. He thinks that a clean car will thrill Chance. It probably will, since it has been a pit the last few times we have seen it. If not, at least it thrilled Hubby to do it.
Hubby decided that he wanted to clean and detail Chance's car for him, as apparently guys love really clean cars. Now, you would not know that by looking at Chance's car. LOL! The outside is perfect, but the inside it SO junky. We have never seen it neat. Of course, a lot of what is in there is "soldier stuff", but a lot was also trash. So, Hubby wanted to clean it for him.
When Chance deployed to Afghanistan, he left his vehicle (Nissan Murano, so it is not a car) at his mom's. He had talked about leaving it with us last summer, but I knew that would not be the case as his mom cosigned the loan on the car. Plus she is the best parent. Yes, my friends in our family there IS a best parent. In her own mind for sure, but that is what she is. But off of that and on to the real story here.
I KNEW that Chance's mom WOULD NOT agree to letting Hubby take the car for any reason. Why? Because she despises him. That's okay, since he despises her right back. I don't know why she despises him, but he will always dislike her for the lack of parenting she gave the kids when they needed it and some of the things she allowed to happen to them when she was married to their stepdad. He did not have a problem knocking our kids around and she did nothing to stop it. Her reasoning, "They have to follow his rules."
Anyway, Hubby had Samantha ask her mom if he could get the car. Surprise! Surprise! She actually said yes to him picking up Chance’s car and cleaning it. Color me shocked! Of course, she also wants it brought back to her house so she can pick Chance up from the airport on Friday. We do not know what time he is coming in and if she has her way, we won't find out, but that is okay. We have learned to deal with stuff like that. We will just see Chance when he gets time. And if we don't, well, that is okay, too, as long as he gets to see Jacob a lot.
So, yesterday, Hubby drove me to the park and ride to catch the bus. Then later in the morning, drove to Samantha and John’s, where he left his car and John drove him to Chance's mom's about 1/2 hour away. She had told Samantha that she would just leave the car outside the garage for Hubby to get. While Hubby and John were on the way over, BioMom (the kids mom) texted Samantha that the car would not start so she just pushed it out of the garage.
How NICE of her to not worry why it wouldn't start and to leave that to Hubby to deal with. He and John jumpstarted it and it was fine. Ummmm...yeah....you can't leave a car sitting in a garage for 4 months and expect it to start right up. Oh well. (Bob told Samantha to tell her mom to start it once in a while after Chance goes back.) Hubby took the car to our house and washed, waxed, cleaned out and vacuuumed Chance's car. He said it took 45 minutes just to get all the trash out and an hour to vacuum it. He also had a couple of bags of laundry in it.
Then, Hubby picked me up after work and we went to Samantha's to pick up his car. We left her place at 6:10 and got home at 7:05. Yep, it took 55 minutes. The traffic sucked.
I am so glad I ride the bus to work.
Last night, Hubby did some of the laundry that appeared to be dirty. This morning, he took the car to Walmart for an oil change. Tonight, when I get off, I will follow Hubby to BioMom's place to drop off Chance's car. At that time of day, it will probably be at least a hour and a half trip.
This really seems to me to be a whole lot of trouble, but that’s my Hubby. He thinks that a clean car will thrill Chance. It probably will, since it has been a pit the last few times we have seen it. If not, at least it thrilled Hubby to do it.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
WooHoo! Bread is on sale!
After feeling so unfrugal for paying $2.69 for a loaf of bread, I was so happy to open my Kroger email and see this in the new ad...
How perfect is that? Well, it is still not the cheapest bread I can get, but it will make Hubby happy. I will get several loaves and freeze them.
It takes so little to perk me up. LOL!
It takes so little to perk me up. LOL!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
I paid $2.69 for a loaf of bread.
Yes, you are seeing the correct price...that is not a typo.
Most people that know me know that I am pretty chear...errr...frugal. I spend the least amount of money that I can manage on everything I buy. And I am not afraid to ask for a discount or better price if I think I can get it.
For years, we bought bread at the bakery thrift store. It was cheap and it tasted fine. I forget what brand it was. But it would get stale pretty quickly. So, I started buying Kroger brand. It was inexpensive and tasted good, but it would mold pretty quickly. So, I tried Sunbeam. It was almost as inexpensive as Kroger brand and seemed to be on sale all the time and it tasted good. But it fell apart.
So, Hubby asked me, quite nicely, if I could please buy Mrs. Baird's bread. It is good, does not get stale or moldy too quickly and does not fall apart. It also costs $2.69 when not on sale. When it is on sale B1G1, I will get a couple of loaves and freeze one. We used to freeze a lot of bread, but it seemed to get stale faster if it had been frozen for a while. Maybe it was our imagination...I don't know.
So, we splurge on bread. There, I have admitted it. Hubby does not ask for many particular brand names, so on this, I relented and tamed my frugal tendencies.
And yes, I bake bread and it is delicious, but we like store bought bread for sandwiches. There, I have admitted that, too.
Most people that know me know that I am pretty chear...errr...frugal. I spend the least amount of money that I can manage on everything I buy. And I am not afraid to ask for a discount or better price if I think I can get it.
For years, we bought bread at the bakery thrift store. It was cheap and it tasted fine. I forget what brand it was. But it would get stale pretty quickly. So, I started buying Kroger brand. It was inexpensive and tasted good, but it would mold pretty quickly. So, I tried Sunbeam. It was almost as inexpensive as Kroger brand and seemed to be on sale all the time and it tasted good. But it fell apart.
So, we splurge on bread. There, I have admitted it. Hubby does not ask for many particular brand names, so on this, I relented and tamed my frugal tendencies.
And yes, I bake bread and it is delicious, but we like store bought bread for sandwiches. There, I have admitted that, too.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Home away from home...
I posted here about the blanket I made and sent to Chance in Afghanistan. He had let me know that he received it and it was keeping him warm. He just posted a pic of his "home away from home" on Facebook and I thought I would share. This is the blanket I made for him.I feel rather special, as he tagged me in the pic. LOL! (His bed was NEVER this neat when he lived at home.)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Go watch this video....
Sluggy posted the funniest video! This pretty much like it is in Houston. LOL! Although, we DID get some ice last week.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Where is the weekend?
This week has seemed SO long already! Maybe it is because we had a 3 day weekend last weekend. And maybe it is because I will have a 3 day weekend next weekend. I am taking Valentine's Day off just because. Hubby and I will spend the day together. It is not like we don't spend every day that I am off together. LOL!
We don't have any plans yet. We NEVER go out to eat dinner on Valentine's Day, but we might go out for lunch. We get gifts for each other, but they are always small tokens. Like I will get him some Valentine's Day boxer shorts. It is a tradition. One of us will always buy flowers, but they are for both of us. We will probably go get them together. And no, we don't get expensive bouquets. We will spend no more than $20 for flowers at Kroger.
We are expecting a hard freeze tonight and since it has been drizzling all day we will probably have icy roads again tomorrow morning. I don't think our office will be closed for the whole day like last week, but I am hoping we can come in late. I sure don't want to be sliding around on ice tomorrow.
Hope everyone is having a lovely day.
We don't have any plans yet. We NEVER go out to eat dinner on Valentine's Day, but we might go out for lunch. We get gifts for each other, but they are always small tokens. Like I will get him some Valentine's Day boxer shorts. It is a tradition. One of us will always buy flowers, but they are for both of us. We will probably go get them together. And no, we don't get expensive bouquets. We will spend no more than $20 for flowers at Kroger.
We are expecting a hard freeze tonight and since it has been drizzling all day we will probably have icy roads again tomorrow morning. I don't think our office will be closed for the whole day like last week, but I am hoping we can come in late. I sure don't want to be sliding around on ice tomorrow.
Hope everyone is having a lovely day.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The winner of the $30 CSN giveaway is......
Me! Seriously, I used Random.org and it picked my comment. How funny is that?
So, I had Random.org choose another number and this time got the real winner...
Marilyn's Money commented, "Blogged entry #3, its kinda a little like a daily entry if I kepp splitting up my tasks! "
Congratulations Marilyn!! Looks ilke splitting up your entries was a good strategy!
I will email you your gift certificate information when I get home from work this evening.
So, I had Random.org choose another number and this time got the real winner...
Saturday, February 5, 2011
My Ice-cation
This is why I didn't have to work on Friday. I know a lot of my bloggy friends have lots of snow and ice but we just don't get this in Houston. All week, we heard the weather forecasts of snow and ice for Thursday night and Friday. My boss, of course, thought that everyone was making a big deal out of nothing. He often thinks that. LOL! But Thursday evening, our company made the decision to close on Friday due to predicted icy conditions. I am so glad it did! All morning the news showed scenes like the one above. All the road were covered in ice and even though the highway department had put down something to prevent the ice, it didn't work. There were hundreds of accidents as people got out on the roads.
I stayed nice and cozy at home and just experienced those accidents by television. The safest way to do it.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
You have to put it into perspective
I decided to track our grocery spending in January. Not my savings, just my spending. I like to keep our spending below $300 a month for no other reason than that is just a number I picked. That amount covers food, cleaning supplies, paper products, pet supplies, HBA, otc meds and makeup. So it is everything spent at the grocery store, drug stores and dollar stores. I only exclude prescription meds from the total.
So, I totalled up our spending at the end of the month and almost had a heart attack!! My total was $449.98. What??!! How the heck did we spend that much money??!! Don't worry, spending that money did not cause us any problems. We have the money to spend, I just don't want to. I guess that makes me cheap...I don't care.
Anyway, for a couple of days, I have been really bummed about spending that amount. Then I started looking at it. Well, first off, $102.82 was spent by Hubby on extra trips to the store for food he needed for a couple of camping trips and a couple of times he just wanted something we didn't have. So, shoot me for not having stockpile boudin. LOL! So, that made me feel a little better, since I only spent $347.16. I spent about $30 on makeup last month, which is out of the norm, but I was running low on some items and caught a good price and had coupons. So, that made me fell a little better
I also had to buy some Osteo Biflex. That stuff is expensive!!! I did buy it at CVS when it was on sale B1G1 and I used up all the ECBs I had been saving as well as a couple of high dollar coupons, but I still paid $23.99 out of pocket for 2 big bottles. It is 4 months worth, so I won't have to buy it again for a while.
I also did a little stocking up. When hamburger was a good price, I got 15 lbs of it. And most of MY groceries and other stuff I buy go right into the stockpile. Oh, and I have been buying goodies to put in Chance's care packages and I certainly don't begrudge that money at all.
So, after looking at more than just the total, I decided that we did just fine. Hubby and I talked and I think this month, we will only be buying needs and not doing much stockpiling. That would cut down on the spending. We will see how that goes.
So, I totalled up our spending at the end of the month and almost had a heart attack!! My total was $449.98. What??!! How the heck did we spend that much money??!! Don't worry, spending that money did not cause us any problems. We have the money to spend, I just don't want to. I guess that makes me cheap...I don't care.
Anyway, for a couple of days, I have been really bummed about spending that amount. Then I started looking at it. Well, first off, $102.82 was spent by Hubby on extra trips to the store for food he needed for a couple of camping trips and a couple of times he just wanted something we didn't have. So, shoot me for not having stockpile boudin. LOL! So, that made me feel a little better, since I only spent $347.16. I spent about $30 on makeup last month, which is out of the norm, but I was running low on some items and caught a good price and had coupons. So, that made me fell a little better
I also had to buy some Osteo Biflex. That stuff is expensive!!! I did buy it at CVS when it was on sale B1G1 and I used up all the ECBs I had been saving as well as a couple of high dollar coupons, but I still paid $23.99 out of pocket for 2 big bottles. It is 4 months worth, so I won't have to buy it again for a while.
I also did a little stocking up. When hamburger was a good price, I got 15 lbs of it. And most of MY groceries and other stuff I buy go right into the stockpile. Oh, and I have been buying goodies to put in Chance's care packages and I certainly don't begrudge that money at all.
So, after looking at more than just the total, I decided that we did just fine. Hubby and I talked and I think this month, we will only be buying needs and not doing much stockpiling. That would cut down on the spending. We will see how that goes.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
CSN Stores $30 Giveaway!
CSN has some great modern furniture with prices to fit any budget. Personally, I don’t need any furniture right now, but they have some dinnerware by Thomas Paul that is just GORGEOUS! I may have to put that in the budget on down the road. But I know that some of you may be thinking of doing some redecorating and CSN would be a great place to start.
CSN Stores has graciously offered to host a $30 giveaway for one of my readers. How cool is that?
For your chance to win just go to CSN and find something that strikes your fancy, and come back and leave a comment telling me what it is. Please leave an email address if it is not publicly available on your blog.
If you are a follower, you get a second entry. Be sure to leave a second comment.
And just for fun, if you blog about this giveaway you can get 3 EXTRA entries. Be sure and leave 3 comments letting me know you did.
You can enter through midnight February 6, 2011. On Monday, I will pick a random winner and announce the winner. This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only.
NOTE: $30 gift certificate (does not cover any shipping costs but you can use it on ANY product from ANY one of CSN’s stores.)
It brought tears to my eyes.
I just read the most beautiful tribute to a daddy and I still have tears in my eyes. I wanted to share with all my friends, so go see Judy at We may be poor, but we are happy and read this beautiful post. Judy visited my blog today and I am so glad she did!
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Happy Tuesday everyone!
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