Stolen Phone

One of our cell phones was stolen over the weekend. I found out at 5 o'clock this morning and called our phone service provider immediately. The lady I spoke with suspended the phone number and informed me any charges to the phone prior to the time I'd called in to report it stolen would be our responsibility.

I was wracking my brain trying to think of how I could get an old phone, and thought about my sister and my MIL. But it was still too early in the morning to call either of them. Then I remembered my employer participates in a cell phone recycling program and people donate their old phones to us. We usually make from $1.00 to $4.00 on each phone turned in. So I thought I'd go through the current box of donations and see if there was a phone I could borrow for a few weeks. There was. Only it didn't come with the phone charger. It uses the same charger my phone uses, which was convenient, but my phone charger was at home. So I decided to ask some of my coworkers if they had a charger with them. I asked our janitor first, who actually lives across the street from our job. Her charger was the exact one I needed to use. I got the phone charged up and put my SIM card into it, to see if it worked and all the numbers dialed, etc.

Next step, buy a new SIM card. They cost $20. I went to the nearest phone store and explained our situation, and said I'd be buying a new phone in a few weeks, but just wanted to buy a SIM card for now. The guy takes my information, goes and gets a SIM card, puts it in and says, "There you go, you're all set." I said, "Thanks!" turned and caught myself, realizing I hadn't paid. I told him I hadn't paid and he said, "Oh, no charge." PTL.

So I got that all taken care of. Later on today I decided to call and see if any long distance phone calls had been made. So the representative looks and says no phone calls have been placed on the phone since Friday. I sighed a breath of relief... then she says, "However, yesterday they downloaded 14 ring tones and 7 games which cost $97." OUCH!! Then she says she is going to refund those charges as a courtesy to me. She said she could only reimburse the ring tones and I'd have to talk to someone else about the games, but she said just explain our situation and she couldn't make any promises but hopefully they could help me out. The next guy I talked to was more than happy to take the charges off. Wow. I was so thankful. Both of them told me that is the new thing that people are doing now, who steal phones. They download ringtones and games to try to drive up the bill as fast as they can to make trouble for the owner of the phone.

So a potential $120 more debt today, down to nothing. I feel very blessed and thankful to God for this blessing today.

Until next time.

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Necessity is the Mother of Invention

I got some more work done on ds1's room today. Finally felt well enough to proceed with the redecorating I've been doing for him in there. I still want to paint his room and I'm thinking of getting the paint matched to the cream color of his bedding, with some of the darker maroon for the door frame. Maybe.

Here is a laundry list of what we did in his room today:

Changed the door handle to one with a keyed lock, and just a round knob. Our cat Tiger knows how to open this type door knob, so ds1 had resorted to piling bricks against the inside of his door to prevent the cat coming into his room. He has one lone rat in there (in a cage) so he doesn't want the cats in his room. Since his room has a lot of mice activity, obviously the cats want in there.

The door stop was just hanging by what I don't know. So I tacked that firmly into place. I also put down a threshold. That involved locating the hack saw, no small feat... but I did find it, and hack-sawed the threshold down to 28 inches. Since the door stop goes all the way down to the floor, I had two choices. Either cut a little square into the aluminum threshold (lots of hack-sawing) or use the hacksaw to take out the bottom of the door stops. I opted to remove the bottom 5/8" of the door stops. I have an arrow pointing to the door stop in the picture to the right.

The threshold just barely fit under the door stops, so I had to tap it into place with the hammer. I tucked the carpet in his room under the threshold. I know this threshold isn't the kind one should use in between a bedroom and hallway... but it was the least expensive one ($10) and I needed one that was wide enough. It looks so sharp now!

Then we stripped his bed and got his bedding into the washing machine. We changed the litter pan on his rat's cage. Thanks to ds2 that was an incredibly easy and simple job. When we did the major cleaning on ds1's bedroom, ds2 put a garbage bag around the litter pan. What a great idea. I'm so glad he did that. I followed his example and replaced the bag. I changed out his blinds. I bought new ones from Lowe's, they were only $3.97. It's easier to replace them than try to clean them!

Next I went to work on the curtain idea I'd had. Ds1 doesn't use the flat sheet on his bed and his bed is too low to the ground for the bed skirting to work. So I took the skirt off the bed skirting and made a valance curtain. Then I took the flat sheet and used the decorative section which is supposed to go at the top of the bed near the pillows, as the bottom design for the curtain. A friend of mine recently commented on how much easier it was to sew when she ironed her seams. Since the material needed ironing, I decided to try that little tip. Wow. It really made a big difference.

Now the invention part... well, I didn't have any curtain rods. So I went out and got the baling wire. I don't know how anyone can live without baling wire. It's even better than duct tape!!

I put two screws in the wall. One for the valance curtain, the other one for the lower curtains. Then I bent the end of the baling wire and fed it through the top of the curtain. Hooked the wire to one screw then the other. Voila! I had to put a screw in the middle at the top because the curtains were sagging, but the extra screw took care of the problem. Ds2 was helping me by this time, and had put in several of the screws. I had him put two more near to the middle so I could put up the window sashes (I think they are called sashes - the piece of material that you use to draw back the curtains).

OH, and I figured out how to use my sewing machine's button holer. It is a Greist Automatic Buttonholer. Anyway, pretty nifty tool.



Now to start cleaning up the living room. We haven't done the "House Blessing" in three weeks! What a disaster area!

Until next time.

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The Too Big Swatch

The pattern calls for size US 6 needles. Since I don't own hardly any knitting needles, just to be safe I bought not only size 6, but also size 5 and size 7. I started the gauge swatch with the size 6 needles. Too wide. 1/2 inch to wide. I went down to the size 5 needles. Guess what? Still 1/2 inch too wide!! So then I went looking in my stash, I knew I had another pair of needles but wasn't sure of the size. They were size 3. So I started a third swatch. Well, the width is just a bit wider than 4", but now the length is almost five inches!!

Now what do I do? Do I just try to knit tighter? Won't that be a pain as I try to knit tightly throughout the entire sweater? Aren't I going to find myself off guard - heaven forbid - actually relaxing - and knit too loosely again?

You know what one of my pet peeves is? When people say loose when they mean lose. Like, I'd like to loose ten pounds. I suppose that could make some kind of sense, but it's not "LOOSE" people, it's "LOSE".

Okay, end rant.

Maybe I should try to find a forum that continental knits and ask there. I found a neat YouTube video today: Continental Knitting Demo

Okay I'm watching it again... she's talking about having more tension on the yarn. Maybe that's part of my problem? She also made a comment about how continental knitters knit more loosely as a general rule. She says that she always has to go down at least two sizes when starting a pattern. Like if the pattern calls for US 6, she automatically begins her swatch with size US 4.

I have not cleaned house or done dishes in days. Ds2 has been keeping up with the kitchen and he also defrosted and emptied the big freezer to make room for the beef. I just HAD to take a day off today and do nothing. I'm still not feeling 100% and I keep having a bit of a sinus headache. But my breathing is WAY better. I was having to use my Flovent twice daily (I can usually get by fine with only 1x/daily) and having to use my rescue inhaler (Albuterol) up to 4 times daily.

I am hoping to get some more work done on ds1's bedroom tomorrow. I am going to make a curtain for him out of the flat sheet, and I bought new blinds to replace his old filthy dusty ones. I also bought him a new locking door knob, with one of those things you put at the threshold of the door, under the door? Because the carpet in the hallway and his new carpet don't exactly meet up, so I want to cover that up.

I'm tired.

Until next time.

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Purl - Continental Style

Well, I started the gauge piece. I'm supposed to knit 30 rows, but I can already see I'm at least too wide. 22 stitchs of stocking stitch by 30 rows should equal 4 inches, but my 22 stitches by about 8 rows is 4.5" wide. So I'm going to move down to the next smaller sized needle.

I also totally forgot how to purl!! I went to try and find my favorite page on how to continental purl, but I cannot find it! It was on about.com but now it doesn't seem to be there anyplace. I searched and searched. Then I began searching for an illustrated or photo tutorial for continental purl, but had a hard time finding anything that was helpful. I finally found a site called knittinghelp.com which has a bunch of little movies to watch on how to do the stitches. I knew something was wrong with my technique because when I went back to the knit side, the stitches were twisted and tight. So I asked ds2 to help me make my very own photo tutorial. Okay, first photo. I'm holding the yarn on the front side of my needle.

I asked ds to stand behind me and take the pictures... um, that's not exactly what I meant... can you see the hay in my hair??

Okay, insert the needle through the front of the stitch.

I'm using my thumb to hold the stitch in place.

So as to not confuse myself, I took a picture of the yarn in the down position, so that I will hopefully remember that it has to go up and over the needle.


Okay, take the yarn up over the needle (or the needle under the yarn, whichever way you prefer to think of it). This part is very important. If you do this the wrong way, once you turn to the other side to do your knit stitches, it will be difficult to get your needle into the stitch. If you find it is difficult, if it seems like the stitch is just too tight, you have probably done this part wrong.

Now take your needle over the yarn, then through the stitch on the needle.

It's kind of hard to see in this photo, but the yarn is wrapped snug around the needle, ready to be pulled through.



Until next time.

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Thank You Thirteen, We Love You

I remember what beef tasted like years ago, when I was a child. In the past decade or so, it has started tasting really awful, a liver flavor. About a year ago, when dh and I were shopping we had a conversation with the meat guy and he said the reason why meat doesn't taste like it used to is because they don't dry age the beef anymore. They cut the meat and put it in plastic and send it to the store. It ages as it travels!

So on February 5th, we had one of our beef picked up... we called her "13" because her ear tag number was 5116.

The butcher told us "13" was on the lean side. Her hanging weight was 320 pounds. He said as a result, of course we'd get less meat back. The cost for processing was $204.00. Having her delivered to the plant cost $100. We estimate the cost for hay to be at least $1200. At least $150 in milk. $20.00 in water.

I picked up our beef today. We added up all the cuts of meat, and the weight came to 226. So with those figures, the meat adds up to $7.40/pound.

We barbequed rib steaks, round steak and two t-bones.

OH.MY.GOSH. OH. The taste. Incredibly delicious. I have not tasted meat this good in such a long time. I made a real pig of myself tonight. I must have eaten close to a pound of meat. It was so tender and so tasty.

The only problem with having such a "lean" and small beef is the cuts are all miniature-sized. SIL and MIL helped with money toward this venture and SIL is going to be so excited to see the tiny cuts of meat, lol. The t-bones you see in the photo to the left are about 8 ounces each and are about the size of a deck of playing cards, LOL!!!

I talked with the butcher today and he says to me, "Next time you do this, you should try to grow them a little bigger." ROTFLOL. I chuckled and said, "Well, how do I do that?" He didn't really have an answer, but instead told me how much the steer in the back weighed, the ones he just had delivered from a feedlot. And he also told me about raising his own steer and how they weighed in at 1100 pounds live weight. I asked him how much he fed his steer and he tells me *two* flakes of hay a day. Our three were getting *eleven* a day for the past four months!!!

I bought some yarn today, with a pattern included. I'm going to knit a baby sweater! I can't wait to cast on. I bought the size needles I needed, plus a size smaller and a size larger.

I also had an idea of what I'd love to do. I'd love to open a yarn store. I would just love to do that. My town doesn't have one, but it is one of the fastest growing cities and we just got a Starbucks, and it is filled with yuppies. I am sure it would be a hit. I was thinking I should start writing up a business plan and just see if I could get a small business loan.

Until next time.

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Maybe Dead Trees?

The only one that seems to be alive is the apple tree... the citrus trees have crispy yellow leaves... the peach tree is totally leafless... I do hope they come back to life as it grows warmer. The garden is still alive. I am hoping to find some time to work on it this weekend. I need to do some weeding, and those radishes need to be removed.

Until next time.

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Milk Time

[Place your cursor on the bottom right corner of the right page to turn the pages of the book]

Once upon a time there were five puppies who loved their raw goat's milk. All five puppies were very good and anxious for their milk so they all learned to sit and stay seated until Mommy poured the milk. It sometimes took a minute or two for them all to get seated at once, but they were able to do it. Good puppies.

Mommy finally poured the milk for the good puppies. But now Mommy had to take a picture of all the good puppies, so they had to wait longer for their milk. Mouths were watering and one puppy, the only boy, gave Mommy a mournful look, begging with his eyes for Mommy to say, "OKAY!" so everyone could have the delicious milk.

Finally, Mommy said, "OKAY!"

All the puppies started lapping up their milk quickly, except for one little puppy who had learned many weeks ago that Mommy leaves some milk in the bucket. When Mommy saw that this little puppy had learned that, she began leaving this little puppy's share of milk in the bucket. None of the other puppies have figured this out, even the little boy puppy, who is very smart indeed.

The End.

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He's Got The Whole World In His Mouth

Last night, ds2 was bouncing an earth made of beach ball material in the air and LJ was bouncing all over my bed trying to get it from him. Ds2 bounced it into the living room and there went LJ, tromping off the bed to get it. We were not sure if the "world" would make it, due to LJ's teeth, but he very gently grasped it betwixt his canines and brought it right back to us.

I had a chance to take LJ with me in to work on Friday. I was only there for about a half an hour and I think I'm going to see if I can get permission to start bringing him to work with me on Mondays. I'm going to start working Mondays beginning the last Monday of this month.

Almost everyone who meets him gushes and exclaims at how beautiful, and how well behaved he is. I met a friend of dh's on Friday, and his wife was there, too. I was trying to get LJ back in the truck and so dh was on the passenger side calling to him, while I was on the driver's side. Dh's friend was on the driver's side and goes, "Awwwwwwww" looking at LJ. His wife came around and said, "What?" He pointed to LJ and the wife starting Awwwwing, too. LOL. They kept saying how beautiful he was and they asked what kind of dog was he. I told them he was a pitbull and that we had always said we would NEVER own a pitbull, but we were asked to foster him and we fell in love with him. They said their dog had just run away a couple weeks ago, I got the impression they had a pitbull, too. They asked how old he was and they commented on how well behaved he was. I told them we are pretty big Dog Whisperer fans and I attribute LJ's good behavior to him. They like Dog Whisperer, too, so they could relate.

The only problem that day was due to a mistake I made on Thursday. I hadn't thought that far ahead, about bringing LJ into town with me. So when the hens gave us 15 eggs, I gave each dog one egg. LJ must have gotten some of the other dogs' eggs, because boy did he have bad gas all day long on Friday.

It was so funny. I was in one coworker's office and LJ had gas. I told her and apologized and explained about the eggs. She was nonchalant and said, "Oh, that's what dogs do." Okay. Good. No fuss. But then by the third time and the smell was filling her entire office she said maybe we'd better get going now. LOL.

Until next time.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

I went in to work today for a few minutes, and discovered that dh had conspired with his mother to have flowers delivered to my job. It was supposed to be a surprise, but of course I was at home sick. We don't usually celebrate holidays... but the past few weeks have made me realize how just much I love my dh and a couple of weeks ago I told him I wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day this year, and asked him if he could get something for me. I have learned that it is better to ask, than to have expectations, and end up feeling disappointed because my mind wasn't read.

The flowers are really beautiful. I changed the water tonight, and cut the stems diagonally.

Thank you dh and to my really sweet MIL.

Until next time.

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Homemade Egg Noodles

I have been making homemade chicken soup since I got sick last Friday... well, three batches and I have one more chicken thawed out. I've been making chicken salad sandwiches with the extra chicken.

On the first night that I made chicken soup, I also made homemade egg noodles.

The recipe I followed was from my old La Leche League cookbook. Very simple and easy. I paid ds2 to milk, feed and water on Saturday night, while I stayed inside and made dinner. Chicken vegetable soup with egg noodles.

Especially since our hens are laying again. They were on strike again and didn't lay for about three weeks. We actually had to break down and buy eggs from the grocery store (four dozen).

Anyway, crack two eggs in a bowl, scramble well. Mix in 1 teaspoon salt. Now mix in some flour - between 1.5 to 2 cups until the dough is pliable. Don't knead, just mix it together well. Roll it out on a floured surface until the dough is about 1/8th of an inch thick (or thicker if you prefer a thicker, more dumpling-type noodle). Use a pizza slice cutter to cut the noodles to your preferred length and width.

I like to strain the broth from my soup temporarily, bringing the broth/stock to a boil to cook the noodles. They take seconds to cook. You can tell when they are done because they float. You can also remove a noodle from the pot and taste it for doneness.

Until next time.

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I Lost My Balloons!

Not today. When I was five years old.

My Grandpa brought some balloons over to our house for me. I don't remember if it was my birthday... it could have been my birthday as the weather was fair out. There were several and they were helium balloons.

I don't know what possessed me, but while my mom was napping on the couch, I took my balloons out in the front yard and let... them... go... Ohhhh!! I was very upset, I ran in to rouse my mom, and I remember crying and crying about my balloons. I seem to recall that she didn't get up, so I ran back outside and watched them float all the way up into the sun.

I had nightmares for YEARS and YEARS over my lost balloons. Even today, when I see balloons floating away, it conjures up feelings inside me. Feelings of great regret and angst from what I said to myself as a small child and for years during those nightmares, "How stupid could I have been? Why didn't I just reach out and grab them? Why didn't I just grab the string?!" I wonder if perhaps my mom said those very words to me? I seem to recall trying hard to wake her up and she wouldn't get up.

Anyway, so ds1 and ds2 are both sick with the cold that I had, except that theirs turned into really bad sore throats, with coughing. I decided to take them in to the doctor instead of wondering and hoping they were going to be okay. Ds1 had a rash on his face which really made me wonder what was going on with him. He wasn't quite as sick as ds2 yet. Ds2 was dying of the sore throat pain. We tried all kinds of over-the-counter meds, none seemed to do much for him.

While at the clinic, waiting to get my ds1 and ds2 signed in, a little boy was holding onto a Valentine's Day balloon... helium filled... he was moving his arm up and down, bobbing the balloon in the air, and suddenly... he let go of the balloon!! Oh no!!! The balloon floated up, way up high to a part of the clinic that had very high ceilings. The poor baby starting crying and his heart was just broken. His pregnant mother was talking to someone at the clinic and did not even notice the crying, sobbing, angry little boy at her feet. I couldn't stand to hear him crying, so I went over to the mother. I asked her first, "Do you speak English?" She said she spoke just a little bit of English. So I went on and asked her if she bought the balloon for her little boy and did she know how much they cost? The lady that she'd been talking to translated as I spoke to her. She said someone had given her little boy the balloon, so she didn't know how much they cost. So I offered her a five dollar bill and asked her if she would please buy him another balloon and I asked her to please tell him that she was going to buy him another one, so he wouldn't cry anymore. He seemed to cheer up after she told him she was going to get him a new balloon, and I patted him on the head and told him it would be okay now, mommy will get a new balloon for you.

Another lady who worked at the clinic saw him crying, and she tried to see if they had a ladder, but couldn't locate one. She ended up getting two books for him to take home with him.

The physician's assistant did a quick strep test and the results came back showing positive for ds1, of which they say his rash is a symptom. Both boys are now on antibiotics for the next ten days. The PA asked ds2 if his throat feels like he is swallowing glass and he said it did. She said she had this same cold just last week, so she was really empathetic to the pain they were in.

I have to give thanks to God for the fact that I didn't get as sick as the boys. I am sleep deprived due to them being sick, and being up during the night with them, but I did not get the sore throat and I am able to keep going and doing everything I have to get done. Like milking for example. It would be very difficult to be as sick as the boys are, and still get milking done every evening. I have taken the entire week off at work. I don't have the comp time to do this... but I will make it up. I am going to work for a few hours from home tomorrow to try to get some of the billing completed.

Until next time.

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Sick Again Already

I normally don't get sick for a year or two at a time. I was sick with a head cold back in October and now here I am sick with a head cold again. I know why, because I haven't been taking care of myself properly. By that I mean I haven't been getting enough sleep, and have been drinking coffee just to stay awake.

My typical day for the past couple weeks has been getting up at 3:30am, I'm driving and away from home for 11.5 hours, coming home milking, then getting to bed at 9pm if I'm lucky. On Friday night I started feeling like my throat wasn't right. Just a bit scratchy. This has been my last 24 hours.

5am - 7am Cleaned kitchen, swept floor. The kitchen wasn't too bad, but it did take me 2 straight hours! I have not been able to "shine the sink" this entire past week. Daily upkeep makes a HUGE difference in weekend cleaning time.

7am - 7:15am Threw hay.

7:15am - 9:30am Sleeping.

9:30am - Noon Finished knitting the scarf I started on Friday. Don't remember what I was doing but I was up and awake and busy.

Noon - 3pm More Sleeping.

3pm - 8pm Awake. Helped ds2 clean coils on the outside part of the air conditioning unit. Cooked dinner (chicken soup with homemade egg noodles). Paid ds2 (who was not showing any signs of being sick yet) to milk. Watched a terrible Pay Per View movie called _Crank_. Yuck.

8pm - 2:30am Sleeping.

2:30am - 4:00 Hungry, warmed up some chicken soup. Computer time.

4:00am - 7:15am Asleep.

7:15am - 7:30am Threw hay.

7:30am - 8am Tidied up, vacuumed ds1's bedroom. Washed his bedding. He did very good this week. Not even *one* dish in his room! And he used his garbage can all week long. Very nice job.

8:00am - 11:00am Not sure what all I did... but do remember one outstanding thing. I sewed with my new machine. I made a cover for the top of the sewing machine cabinet, to keep it looking new. My new machine is incredible and amazing. I can only say the smoothness of it makes me think of cutting through butter. The motor is quiet and it is so smooth.

11:00am - 3:20pm Back in bed, more sleeping.

3:20pm to now Some computer time. Also dragged the old three story rat cage off the porch. Started my clothes in the washer. Heated up some cream of chicken soup for ds2 who is now sick and very thrilled about it. He's the weirdest person. He longs to be sick and looks forward to it. He got lucky this time. Normally he doesn't get sick. He's been sick maybe 8 times in his 17 years. I attribute his strong immune system to two things. Extended breastfeeding, and no vaccinations.

I was stressing because our air conditioner is not working. It is icing up on the coils. We cleaned the coils both inside and out. We were so excited to see how dirty the outside coils were, because we were sure that was causing the unit to ice up. But alas, once we got it all nice and clean, the unit still started icing up and is not cooling the house down. It just runs and runs and runs. I have learned more about air conditioning units in the last few weeks than I've ever known in my entire life. What with dh not being here, he is the one that usually keeps up with the maintenance on the a/c unit.

Speaking of another thing dh does, the oil changes on my vehicle. Now that ds2 is sick, he isn't going to be able to change the oil this weekend for me. I think I'm already past 5000 miles. Agh. Now is not the time to start falling down on oil changes - my odometer just turned over 200,000 a month or so ago, and now it's close to 204,000. We've been very faithful with oil changes at 3000 to 4000 miles for the entire time we've owned it. It has been a wonderful, reliable vehicle. I would always recommend Nissan Pathfinders. Mine is the 1996 model. Very lovely vehicle. The nicest I've owned in my entire life.

I just talked to ds2 and asked him how long he thinks we can go without the air conditioner. Reason being, it is stressing me out because I'm sick, he's sick and I don't want anyone coming into our home without a bit more work on our part. The boys' bathroom still needs some serious attention. It is a terrible mess. I wouldn't want to have someone come over and need to use the toilet and see that disaster area. Also, ds2 did some decluttering in the livingroom yesterday, cleaning out a shelving unit and threw away four bags of "stuff". It was really annoying as I was on the computer for the first time in days and he kept asking me if he could throw this or that away. He was behind me, so I had to keep turning all the way around to see what he was talking about. He did a great job decluttering though and even cleaned up and vacuumed the living room after he was done. So the living room is fairly clean. Except he put four bags of garbage on the back porch, which is the main entryway to our home. And the garbage can is already full. So I have nowhere to put that garbage. Plus 2-3 loads of bedding and clothing from last week's cleaning of ds1's room is still sitting on the porch.

See I was thinking I need to get someone out immediately, since it is already starting to heat up here. But ds2 said he didn't think we'd call anyone out for a couple of weeks at least. That really takes a big load off my mind. Because now I don't have to force myself to clean the boys' bathroom, the porch, etc.

It's time like these that I embrace my faith, refusing to let life get me down. This is all I need, is to be sick. I have always thought the reason I rarely get sick is because of my devotion to getting the proper hours of sleep for my body. I have been running myself ragged the past couple of weeks, and now it's time for me to cut way back on the things I'm doing. As much as I hate the thought of it, I am going to have to. There is also the worry of getting so very ill like I was back in the summer of 2002.

Did I mention here yet that my job finally approved my extra day each week? That's what you call cutting back, yessiree. ;-)

Seriously, we need the money. Speaking of money, I haven't had time to look at our money for weeks again. I have no idea how much we owe and to whom. I should get off this computer now.

One more thing. I'm doing all I can to keep this virus from getting any worse than it is now. It basically feels like a head cold and I'm just really tired. Every time I exert myself physically I start to sweat and then I get really worn out tired. Even sitting at the sewing machine made me really tired.

Until next time.

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Room Makeover

Yesterday ds2 and I tackled ds1's room. Dh and I removed the carpet several months ago, and we never got it replaced as planned. Yesterday, I couldn't take it another minute. I made up my mind I was getting flooring down for him one way or another. Initially I was thinking linoleum since carpet can so easily be dirtied, but since the subfloor was now dirty and stained, it wasn't going to be easy or cheap. I considered buying sheets of particle board and laying a new subfloor, but that would take more time and money. Then laying the linoleum tiles one at a time. I started thinking carpet, even without padding underneath would be better than just subflooring. Anyway, ds2 got that laid. It cost $75.00 from Home Depot. Not bad! I also bought ds1 a new set of bedding, and a new rat cage.

He always gets mad at whoever tries to clean his room - because he thinks he does an appropriate job. But he does not, so we have to help him stay on top of it. In the past few weeks I'd fallen short on that responsibility, so things had gotten a bit out of hand in his room.

But now it's all pretty and nice. He was very thrilled at his nice new room. His room is getting added to the FlyLady routine.

Until next time.

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Leanin' Tree Cards

I went into a little shop (downtown in the big city) on Thursday just to see what they had in the store. When I got in there, I saw an elderly man and assumed him to be the owner. I have this thing about supporting small business owners, and immediately started wondering what little trinket I could buy that wouldn't damage my credit card too much. You know I have the same feeling at yard sales. This obligation to "buy something" and not just be a "Lookie Lou".

As I browsed, I came across these incredibly beautiful cards...

I have been dismayed at how expensive cards are starting to be, even from Walmart. You can get cheapie $0.99 cards, but if you want even a halfway decent nice one you're looking at three dollars and up. I bought a Hallmark Valentine's Day card for my dh there yesterday which cost $3.34.

I have found that you can get a fairly nice card from "dollar" stores, but they are mostly pastel and vanilla-type cards. Not bad for a dollar, but if you want something spectacular, try and find an outlet that sells Leanin' Tree.

While at the feedstore yesterday, I noticed they had the Leanin' Tree Valentine's Day cards for sale (the other little shop didn't have them in stock yet). Then I realized they always sell Leanin' Tree but I hadn't taken much notice of the cards on previous visits since they sell mostly the cowboy/cowgirl versions, which wouldn't be something I'd be interested in giving (the one I linked to is mild, some are rather risque or disgusting). I bought two of the Valentine's Day cards (which were not cowboy/cowgirl).

This morning I decided to go online to the Leanin' Tree site to check them out. The cards I saw in person retailed starting at $2.49, but online, they are all $1.85. Plus they have an offer if you buy 20 cards, you get 10 free. I'm seriously considering buying my cards here this year. I have always wanted to be organized with sending birthday cards to family, but I usually only get cards sent to my mom, and my three of my four sisters. I always send Mother's Day cards to my mom and all my sisters, my mother-in-law and my grandma. My MIL bought me a "card organizer" for Christmas. It has a folder for each month, with places to write birthdays on each folder. Anyway, I figure the cards would end up costing me $1.465 each ($1.85/each for first 20, plus you get 10 more free, $6.95 s/h). Maybe I could finally get it together this year! They do restrict the offer somewhat, you can't buy Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's Cards. But that leaves Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays, get well cards, anniversaries, etc.

Which reminds me. I made this really cool Christmas gift for my mom one year. I took photos of everyone in the family, or got photos from them to scan, and then I put together a calendar (found online from Microsoft Templates which uses Word) with photos for each person for that month, and their name on their birthdate. My mom LOVED that calendar and has since asked for another one each year. (I'm the bad daughter, I have never made her another one since). Okay, hold up. I just went to Microsoft Templates to see about downloading the 2007 photo calendar and they have two available - one Monday through Sunday (*WHO* uses a calendar that goes Mon-Sun?), but they BOTH require Word 2007. I barely got Word 2003 last year. Sheesh.

I was thinking about creating a calendar for my mom, for a late Christmas gift. I did recently order color cartridges for my printer... but now it would really become a labor of love since I'd have to use this 2005 template, and repopulate the dates... or maybe there is someplace else online to download a template similar to this one? I have downloaded this one, in case Microsoft Templates stops offering it.

I bought this card for a friend of mine who just got both her legs broken by a spooked horse bucking and kicking while she was removing the saddle from its back. :-(

The card in real life is just breathtakingly beautiful, and the envelope has the same colors and design in washed out colors. The picture you see at the site hardly gives the card justice. And I paid $2.79 (plus tax!) for it - which I still think is a great price compared to what I'm seeing at Walmart.

I only have 10 more minutes before it's time to feed.

I'm also doing this romantic Valentine's Day card thing this year. I did it once, years and years ago. You take your card to your sweetie, address it, put your stamp on the envelope and then insert it into a larger envelope. Put appropriate postage and address to (one of the places) Loveland, Colorado. Loveland will hand cancel your stamp, and send your card on its way. I think it's a cool idea. I emailed several friends about it, but there was no response. Oh well. Maybe it's just me that thinks it's cool. You can read more about it here: Get a Valentine Postmark.

I did tell three of my coworkers about it as well. One by email. She's new. She didn't respond at all. The other was a coworker who just turned 64. She said she would never bother to do something like that because her husband wouldn't appreciate it. The third person is one of my younger coworkers, I think he must be 25 now. He is newly married (about six months) and his wife is pregnant. I think he might do it, I told him his wife *would* appreciate it, since women tend to appreciate things like that.

Time to feed!!

Until next time.

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