June Cleaver in Disguise

I got up yesterday morning to the question of "Trash driving?"  That was from my youngest son wanting to know if we were going to drive around part of our neighborhood looking for items that people were throwing away and that we couldn't live without.

Disclaimer:
I have to admit that many times I pick up things that I can't use, but that I can sell in our next garage sale, like baby strollers, which was the case yesterday.  It's truly amazing the good "stuff" people throw away that others can use.  Even if I didn't have plans to sell it, I would pick it up to at least give to a charity to they could sell it and make a little money.

I went to the high school yesterday to help fit approximately 12, 572 about 35 band members for their concert uniforms.  Let's just say that teenage boys + trying on formal wear = a very interesting afternoon.

Conversation between us moms and the boys:
What size pants do you wear. "I don't know" was the common reply.  What size shirt do you wear?  "I don't know."  What size sport coat do you wear?  "I don't know.  I've never worn a sport coat."  "Okay, then take this pair of pants, shirt, jacket and vest, put it on and come back out of the bathroom.  DO NOT take anything off without us actually seeing it first unless it is way too small to even button.  Some did exactly what we said to do.  Some did exactly what we said not to do.  Some were just completely clueless about any of it.  One went into the bathroom with his "gear" and came out a few minutes later with his school uniform on (not the dress uniform, mind you) and said "It all fits, except the pants are waaay too long."  We said "Okay, then you are going to have to go back in the bathroom and put the pants back on so we can pin them to be hemmed."  Lord, give me strength.

Ya gotta love'em.

It was all worth it in the end, because this is how they look (except for the length.  We didn't have time to hem before I took the picture).


The tie and vest are a silver print and look really nice with the black tux.

The girls are wearing solid black, long dresses that are very flattering for every figure.

They have a competition tomorrow, so I'm headed up to the school again today to help finish hemming.  Ah, the joys of motherhood.

It's been a pretty good week for freecyling, curbsaling, embarrassing yourself because people are watching you pick through other people's trash, etc.

My first find was this table.

Unfortunately, I do A LOT of laundry at my house.  I'm always looking for ways to make it fast, easier and cheaper.  I found this recipe for homemade laundry soap on the Duggar's website (you know, the people with 19 kids).   I can only imagine how much laundry THEY do.  Fortunately, they have several washers and dryers in their house.  I have one of each and some days wish I had two or three of each.  My washer is front loading and I absolutely love it.  It doesn't use as much water as a top loader and the clothes seem to be a lot dryer when they come out.


I couldn't find the Super Washing Soda at any of my local stores so I ordered it from Alice.com.  Alice.com always has free shipping and they apply coupons when they have them.  I have found that they are fairly competitive on prices.


I save about $75 when I make a "batch" of laundry detergent.  Since I've got a kid going to college in 3 years that sure helps my budget to be able to save a little more.  When he leaves, I might just make him his own "batch" to take with him.

 Before I begin, I would like to say that I found a really cute picture of the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, but my computer was acting up and my frustration level was just too high to put it on this post.  I figured if I got so frustrated that I threw my computer out the window, that would negate any bargains I found today and in the near future.

Do you sometimes feel like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz?  I definitely had an Oz moment today.  I was doing all of my errands today, determined I was going to get EVERY SINGLE ONE done.  (I have a tendency to procrastinate, especially when I need to go to the bank.)

I went by Target and got a great deal on some paper towels.  I was cruising down the paper products aisle, against the outer wall.  Did you know that the end caps closest to the outer wall is where the clearance products are?  Anyway, I was standing there looking at some clearance items, hoping I could find something cheap AND that I had a coupon for.  I picked up some Suave shampoo (the large bottles in a double-pack for $1.75) when a lady came over, reached down and picked up a 12-pack of large rolls of paper towels.  She said they were marked $11.99, but were ringing up $6.79.  She had already bought one package and she was grabbing another one.  Needless to say I grabbed two packages (averaging about 40 cents per roll, if bought regular rolls).  Whoo hoo!!  What a deal!!  There was a man standing there and he grabbed the last two packages.  I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  Next time you are at Target, make sure you go by the clearance items.  You never know what you might happen upon.

Next I went to Kroger.  I got a few sale items, but nothing much worth mentioning, except a free bottle of Frank's hot sauce (50 cent coupon doubled and the bottle was originally $1).

I went by to deliver an Avon order to a customer that is absolutely my best customer.  I start to get worried when I don't hear from her every campaign.  She orders A LOT of Avon and is a really sweet person to boot.

I went by and paid for my van tag.  I don't want to see a policeman in my rearview mirror with his lights flashing because I didn't get my new sticker that costs over $54.  It's probably cheaper than a ticket, though.

I went by Jack-in-the-Box for lunch.  While I was there, I looked through my coupon book because I had a CVS extra-care buck I needed to use no later than Saturday.  As luck would have it, there was a deal for Colgate toothpaste, on sale for $2.99 and you get a $2 ECB.  Perfect.  I could use my $1 ECB plus my $1 coupon and actually make money on the deal.  I also bought two Snicker's bars because I had a coupon for 50 cents off 2 and they were on sale for 2/$1.  That's when my Oz moment happened.  I guess I got too excited about the Snickers.  I paid for my purchase, walked away from the counter and realized I hadn't used my ECB.  That was the WHOLE PURPOSE of going to CVS to begin with.  I guess now I have to go back and use my ECB.  Ughhhhh!!  Oh, well, at least we always need toothpaste.

Congratulations to the North Forney High School percussion ensembles that went to competition in Conroe, TX.  They got superior ratings for their performances and came in 1st and 2nd out of 9 groups.

Disclaimer:  This is not my house, although I would LOVE to live in a house like this.  Okay, maybe not quite so run down, but the older the better.

When I got back from grocery shopping (which is scary in itself), I was putting the groceries away and I suddenly heard a beeping noise.  I ignored it for awhile and then had to go check to see what is was.  Beeping sounds are pretty common around here what with all of the video games, watches, cell phone, etc. we have around here, but this was coming from the laundry room.  I went in there and my Kenmore washing machine was trying to turn itself on.  I turned it off and went back to putting up the groceries.  It kept beeping.  Finally I just gave up turning it off.  Right now it's in there beeping away, trying to turn itself on.

I guess there's a glitch somewhere that's making it beep and all of the lights come on, but in a way I wish it was a ghost who could do laundry.  Wouldn't that be cool?  It didn't bother anybody or anything, just did laundry.  It would be better than having a maid (well, almost better), because you wouldn't have to pay it and all of your laundry would be nice and clean and put away.

On another note, I saved around $10 with coupons while I was shopping today.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on the way you look at it) there was a coupon hanging on the Oreos shelf that was buy a package of Oreos get a package of Oreo cakesters free.  That was just too good to pass up.

Maybe that's why we have a ghost. It's interested in the Oreo.  It better hurry and eat some, because they sure don't last long around this house.

If energy drinks will help me keep up with one through five year olds at our church's mother's day out, I will keep them in business by ordering CASES of the stuff.  They have soooo much energy.  Don't you wish they had USB ports and you could download some of that energy and use it on yourself.?  I sure do.  It's only 3:00 pm and I'm already thinking about bedtime.  Mercy I'm gettin' old.

I remember when I used to could sit on the floor for HOURS and then I just hopped up and went about my merry way.  Now I have to push myself up after about 5 minutes on the floor and then it takes another 5 minutes for my legs to quit hurting and start moving like they're supposed to.

My mom and her sisters used to sit around and watch us kids running around and they would always say "I sure wish I had some of that energy."  I used to think they were crazy.  I thought "I'm always going to have this much energy."  That's what I get for thinking.

Swimming used to be THE activity.  We couldn't wait to go to the lake or the swimming pool.  Any old place would do as long as there was water deep enough to swim in and it didn't matter how cold it was either (water or weather).  We would just jump in and have us a good old time.  Now my kids want to go swimming when it's 85 degrees out and I'm like "Have you lost your mind?  That water's going to be freezing."  Give me a nice big hot tub any day.

There are a lot of good things about getting older, but if we had that energy to go with age, there would be no stopping us.  Maybe that's why RedBull is so popular.

There's nothing like dealing with health insurance companies to make your blood pressure rise to very unhealthy levels.  It's like this EVERY YEAR.  The first time one of us goes to the doctor, I end up coming home and calling the insurance company because the doctor's office either says we don't have coverage or the coverage isn't what we think it is.  This year there were two issues:  they didn't have information on whether my children had additional health coverage (they don't and probably never will because my husband is the one whose company has insurance) and we hadn't filled out our online health assessment, so we didn't have the $500 in our account that we were expecting.

I filled out my health assessment (which, by the way, is a big waste of time for me and money for the company) a few minutes ago.  One of the questions was "What is your blood pressure?"  Well, when they took it in November for the mandatory health screening is was "108/71".  Today it's "through the roof/heartattack waiting to happen".  Another very important question was "How many alcoholic drinks do you have on a daily basis?" and they were kind enough to tell me how many ounces qualified as 1 drink.  Normally I go for weeks without taking one sip of alcohol, but today I want to have several.  They are driving me CRAZY!!!! 

On the up side, at least I found out before it was too late to take the online health assessment to get our $500.  On the down side, I have a 14 year old home with strep.

One of my friends on Facebook mentioned having hot chocolate and Kahlua.  That sounds really good right now.  Maybe I'll have some and go take my health assessment again.  By then at least one of my answers will have changed.

I keep repeating those words to myself, but it doesn't seem to be working.  It also doesn't help that I keep making recipes that are really good and really high in calories.  I have a high school reunion coming up (I'll just keep how many years my little secret) and I would love to lose about 10 pounds.  What with the rain, the cold weather and the good food, I'm not losing weight very fast.

I was thinking about going to play KENO with some ladies from church, but I just didn't get everything together in time to go.  We were going to all make a different kind of fudge for everyone to try.  I found this Cappucino Fudge recipe on Recipezaar.com.  Can you say heaven in every bite?  Even better, it's easy to make.  It took me about 20 minutes or so and was well worth every minute.

I think I'm going to drag my recumbant bike exerciser thingy into the middle of the living room floor.  Maybe if I see it sitting there I'll actually use it.  Nah, probably not.  Maybe tomorrow.

I made these last night and we were practically licking our plates to get the cheese sauce off (not really, but only because we were trying not to teach our 10-year-old that licking your plate is okay, although it totally crossed my mind once or twenty times).

I got this from The Living Proof Ministries blog.  If you haven't visited check it out.  It's written by Beth Moore and her daughters and is very uplifting.

Sunni's Cheesy Enchiladas

Ingredients:
(I always half this recipe)
24 flour tortillas
2 lbs. ground beef
2 lbs. Velveeta, cubed
2 cans Rotel tomatoes
4 (8-oz.) cartons sour cream
¼ cup butter
2 med. onions, chopped
1 dash garlic salt
Salt & pepper to taste

Brown meat with one chopped onion. Add garlic salt and salt and pepper. Drain. Coat large sauce pan with non-stick spray. Add sour cream and tomatoes, mix well. Add butter and heat on medium heat. Add Velveeta, stirring constantly. Add the remaining chopped onion. Turn heat to low and simmer for about 5 min. The cheese/butter should be melted by this point. Add a portion of the sauce to meat. Spoon meat mixture into tortillas. Lay in casserole dish, seam down. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas. Cover and bake for 15 min. at 350 degrees.

We have a family of four (two really big eaters) and this was enough to halve and put one pan in the freezer for another night.  You could also make some Spanish rice and serve some chips and salsa to make it go even further.

Hubby and I were planning an entire dinner party around it.  Conversation:
"Now how many people can we feed with one recipe?"
" If we add rice and chips and refried beans we could invite another 3 or 4."
"How about margaritas with that?"  (Once again, not really, but they would be good since we would be going totally Mexican.)

If you try them let me know what you think. Did you want to lick your plate, too?

I have two very sweet, loveable OUTSIDE dogs.  Do you know what happens when you bring two very sweet, loveable OUTSIDE dogs inside because it's so cold?  They cry and moan and try to escape from the area I set up for them.  Because, number 1 they want to be in the same area of the house as us and number 2 because they are bored.  In turn, my oldest son and I get no sleep because they are crying and moaning and actually escaping from the area I set up for them.

My oldest dog Spot (very original, huh) is very vocal.  He is a shepherd mix (in other words, a medium sized mutt) and he "talks" a lot, especially when my husband is around.  I don't have any idea what he's trying to tell us, but sometimes I think that's probably for the best.  It sounds like a high-pitched whining and can make you cringe like nails on a chalk board.

My other outside dog is a Basset Hound named (and tell me if you don't think this is a perfect name for a Basset Hound)....Tallulah Belle.  She is not only vocal, but very smart.  When she's not crying or moaning because she's bored, she's trying to escape and run rampant through the house.  Last night we caught her actually opening the baby gate.  It isn't attached to the wall and she figured out how to use her nose to gradually slide it open.  We managed to fix that (thanks to my oldest son's obsession with Duck Tape.  "Mom it will fix anything"), but then she managed to push it open a different way, so at 1:30 this morning we were chasing dogs through the house trying to corral them back into their area.

At 12:30 this afternoon, I finally let them go outside to stay for a little while in the backyard.  They do have houses with straw and the sun is shining.  I will let them in a little later and we'll just pray tonight goes a lot better.

Oh   My   Goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Every time I think about writing a new post for this blog, my brain starts going in a million different directions.  I can't post about everything all at once can I?  I need to save something for that day when I have writer's block, which I'm afraid will come a lot sooner than I expect.

I guess I will go with what's at the forefront of my brain.

I'm sad/glad Christmas is over.  I'm sad because I just love the generosity of people during the holidays.  Christmas seems to bring out the best in people.  It also makes people think about the "Reason for the Season".  They might not think about Jesus much throughout the year, but they do at Christmas.  I wish everyone had the Christmas spirit all year long.

I'm glad it's over because I feel overwhelmed by the decorations in my house.  I am a minimalist and don't like a lot of clutter.  When I put out all of that "stuff" I enjoy is for a few days, but by New Year's I am ready to see it go.  It also doesn't help that I just don't really like most of the "stuff" I put out.  It's a lot of cutsy, knick knacks and I want ELEGANT (i.e. like Martha Stewart came in and decorates my house).  I have a sister-in-law that has the most beautiful decorations.  Her tree looks like a designer decorates it and she has beautiful wreaths and greenery and bows and ornaments and (you get the idea).  My husband said maybe we should get some ideas from her and I told her we would also have to get some money from her.  As much as I would like to, I just can't justify spending a whole lot of money on decorations that will be put out for about a month, so I guess until I get rich (LOL) I will keep using cutsy decorations.  At least my family doesn't care, as long as there's a tree up with presents underneath.

I would love to see pictures of your decorations (cutsy or elegant).

How in the world can it be so cold in North Texas?  I was watching the news last night and the weatherman had a graph of last year's temps vs. this year's temps.  It was 86 degrees last year on Jan.3.  86 DEGREES  What happened?  Okay, I really don't want ti to be 86 degrees in January, but I also don't want it to be 44 degrees in January like it was yesterday.  I need to become independently wealthy so I can move to a warmer climate, like Jamaica or the Virgin Islands.  Do you know what the current temperature is in Jamaica?  81 degrees.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
82° F | 69° F	80° F | 66° F	80° F | 68° F	80° F | 71° F	86° F | 71° F
Chance of Rain 20% chance of precipitation	Chance of Rain 20% chance of precipitation	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Chance of Rain 20% chance of precipitation
Is that perfect or what?  Unlike this post because for some reason when I copied the 5-day forecast it messed up something and now I can't figure out how to fix it. Oh, well, at least you get the idea.  I think I'll just go hang out in my laundry room where it's nice and warm from drying all of those clothes.

2010..... Twenty ten....It sounds so space age. How many of you thought we would be zipping around in flying cars? Living on the moon? Having robots clean our houses?

The first two sound okay, but that last one? The one about having robots clean our houses? That sounds AWESOME!! I have to admit, I do have a Roomba vacuum. It is my favorite cleaning apparatus. I had forgotten how much I liked it. Unfortunately it died over a year ago. The battery just went kaflooie (That's one of my new space age words.). For Christmas, as a complete and total surprise to me my husband had the battery refurbished. (How wonderful is he???) Now I can vacuum any room, any time and not even have to be there. Just put it down, push a button and leave.

I vacuumed the master bedroom first. I won't go into gory details. Let's just say it picked up a lot of stuff. The best part is it can go under beds and get all of the dust bunnies and other miscellaneous items. I found two washcloths under the bed before I started Roomba. I have no idea how they got under there. Sometimes it's best to have a don't ask, don't tell policy in my house.

Next I ran it in the boys' rooms. The game room is next, but I have to make the boys pick up all of the stuff off the floor first. Since I made them help me clean their rooms, I thought I would wait a few days to torture them again, alhtough my youngest might be game, because he was amazed at how much stuff it picked up in his room. He's a clean freak until it comes time to take a bath. The child would rather rot than take a bath. (My highschool English teacher would have marked up this paragraph with so much red you wouldn't have been able to read it. Not proper writing style at all!!)

Speaking of writing, I'm really going to try to do better about writing on my blog. I have a list of daily computer chores and that it one of the things on the list. "Write on blog". I won't be as witty and charming as Big Mama (I just love her), but I will try to be somewhat entertaining.

Hope you had a wonderful New Year's Day. Although this warning is a little late, whatever you did on New Year's Day is what you will be doing all year long. At least that's what my Mama always says.