Scrabble

John and I played Scrabble last night which was quite enjoyable. Typically in scrabble - it is thrilling to pull out a 28 or even 36 point word...but my dear husband came up with a 99 point word. YES, 99 points!! I had previously put the word 'duce' (which I might add he challenged saying it wasn't a word and lost a turn because it was). Anyways, he added 5 letters to 'duce' to make it 'reducers' which hit 2 triple word scores so his 11 point word was multiplied by 9 for a 99 point word. Competitive as I am, I'm happy to say I still beat him by 5 points even with his 99 point word. :) Aren't game nights fun!!

Saving Money

I've been thinking a lot about ways to save money. Here are a few of the things I'm doing or have done recently...

1 - Purchase mail order subscriptions rather than going to the pharmacy for ongoing medication. Our co-payment for 1 prescription for 1 month is $50 x 2 prescriptions + $25 for another one= $125 a month Mail order prescription are 3 months at a time and cost $180 for 3 month supply for 3 prescriptions. Pharmacy 3 months is $375 - Mail order $180 = $195 savings EVERY 3 months for $780 a year!! That is HUGE!

2. A smaller effort is re-using towels that we dry off with after a shower. Some people might think this is gross - but you are clean coming out of the bath - so you should be able to get at least 3 uses out of a towel which = less laundry = less laundry detergent = less energy. Wahoo!

3. Finally, using less laundry & dish washing detergent. For the dish washer - I NEVER fill that extra compartment they have and only fill the regular compartment 1/2 full. Laundry - I use 1/2 the recommended amount and I actually believe I've seen an improvement - because I believe too much detergent builds up on the clothes. I might be crazy though.

Marinated Grilled Shrimp

SOOO good!
3 tsp minced garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup diced tomatos - finely diced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I always use a little more - I like it spicy)

1 pound fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined


Mix together, Marinate for 30min to 1 hr. Skewer and grill.

The Camera

Well, my new digital camera just came. I just took a few shots to see how it would do. Here is a picture of our completed playset that my dear friend Jill gave us when she moved away. We pressure washed and stained it and then added the roof. I think it makes it look mighty fancy!!
However, I think I'm a little disappointed w/ the colors and picture taking quality of the new camera. **Sigh** My other camera just took REALLY great pictures but they don't carry one quite like my old camera. We will see how it takes pictures of Joshua once he wakes up from his nap and make a better determination then. I will say I am VERY glad I ordered an upgraded memory card to go with the camera (which is shipping separately) because the card that came with the camera filled up in 7 - yes, 7 photos! Which is just ridiculous.

In other news, our grill works FABULOUSLY!!! Really, I mean it's SOOO much better than our other grill. I guess we have always had cheap grills so I assumed that they always had little oil/grease fires off of the drippings...but alas...our new(used) grill doesn't have any at all!! It cooks nice, slow, and evenly. Just perfect. Now I just have to get this camera thing worked out.

UPDATE: I've been trying the camera out and think that it's going to work just fine. It actually has lots of neat features and I think I just needed to play with it for a bit. Yay!

Ramblings

I don't have anything too profound to say. Today is the first day of school around here...so I woke up to hear the school bus picking up all the kiddies. It comes SOO darn early! My digital camera broke over the weekend! I had a feeling it was on it's way out...cause it has been acting up but it finally decided to throw in the 'lens' (HA) on Saturday. I feel SOO naked and handicap with out it though. For example, Joshua ate his first popsicle this weekend. Imagine, my cute little boy, holding on to that little stick with purple stain all around his mouth and on his teeth. ADORABLE...but I have no picture to show for it. Just my memoires. **Sigh** Anyways, I ordered another one through Amazon and it should be here today or tomorrow. I'm SOOO excited. I had to get a pretty affordable one but am lucky to be able to write it off as a business expense- YAY! But even a cheaper camera has twice the power of my old one because technology advances SO quickly and I think my camera is like 5 years old! I am anxious to show you the results of the new camera..I hope it's great!

Free Magazine!

I like to get my magazine subscriptions for free through Delta Skymiles- Magazines for Miles. Since I never have enough miles to purchase another ticket - but I always have enough for one of their magazine subscriptions. Anyways, I check on there frequently because they always switch what magazines they have to offer and I'm SOOOO excited because they just added "Everyday Food" magazine. So I ordered it and can't wait to start getting them in the mail!

What noise does a bunny make?

Joshua has been working very hard on all his animal noises...he knows a sheep says..Baaa, a dog say...woof, woof, a kitty says..eeeoooowww, and dinosaurs say...Roar. But did you know that sweet little bunnies also say..."ROAR!!!" Every time Joshua sees a picture of a rabbit or walks by this sweet rabbit in our house he says..."ROAR!!!" We have tried to tell him that a bunny says..."Hop, Hop, Hop" but he clearly thinks that bunnies are really scary, mean creatures that say, "ROAR!!"

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I'm anxious for fall - so I decided to make some Pumpkin Bread and, of course, had to include Chocolate chips!!
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
1 & 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
2 eggs
1 & 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bread pan. Combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips.
Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes. Dust w/ powdered sugar.

Little Blessings...

I'm soooo hopeful right now...because a few days ago our grill broke. Well, really it has a gas leak cause one of the lines split - not the safest way to grill. Anywho, we went to Home Depot to get the part to fix it and found that it was basically un-fixable because everything was welded into place, yada yada yada. So I've been totally bummed cause 30% of my cooking, if not more, is done on the grill. AND... we are pretty strapped for money right now, so there is no way I can justify buying a new grill and not grilling until Christmas will make life pretty tough. SOOOO...lo and behold I get a random email today saying someone is selling their gas grill. (Now, in all my years no one has ever tried to sell me their grill - so what are the odds that it happens 5 days after we find our grill is un-salvageable.) So I called right away and found that they will sell it to me for $10 more than the part that didn't work that we are returning. It's a better brand than our grill and they said they have only used it about a dozen or so times as compared to ours that has been used like 300 times. Wahoo!! So Joshua and I are headed to go check it out in about 30 minutes. This really seems like a little blessing from God as an affordable way to replace our grill. So hopefully it's all this lady says it will be - stay tuned!!

Update: We are now owners of a new (rather used) grill! I have yet to get it all hooked up to see how it works but more on that later.

A Fancy New Dress!!

So, I decided to attempt to make a dress and I would have to say it came out pretty well and only cost me $7 (and most of that is because of the cost of the pattern).

Houseplants

When my mother passed away I received lots of beautiful plants. Well, 2 of the houseplants I received were dish gardens and they are starting to outgrow their dish. So I'm planning on separating them to make more room and a new plant. So frugal as I am...the painted pots I saw were TOO expensive. So I decided to paint a regular Terra cotta pot. I first put the cream base coat then added the flowers. I'm not a very good painter AT ALL. But I figured these turned out ok. I'm going to put a mini-plant in the tiny pot and gift it to a friend so she can re-pot as she would like.

Rice Krispie Treats

I have always thought that Rice Krispie Treats were NOT the marshmallow kind but like this....
It's how my mom always cooked them and they are delicious. Here is the recipe...


Rice Krispie Treats

1 bag butterscotch morsels
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups Rice Krispies

Melt butterscotch then stir in peanut butter. Mix in Rice Krispies to well coated and put in greased pan. Cool in fridge to set. Eat!!

Consignment Sales!

Today marked the official start of the Fall consignment sales. I'm totally bummed that I will be out of town during 2 of the 'major' consignment weekends so I had to get my fill today. I was lucky enough to find 8 adorable outfits for Joshua, his halloween costume (which is SOOO cute - but will have to be a surprise), a few simple toys, a great pair of shoes, and a rocking chair. Joshua is really big into chairs right now, so I wanted him to have a rocking chair for our family room. I need to repaint it but it was SIGNIFICANTLY less than anything else I've seen so far. Eventually, I would like to find him a little table & chair/s so he can color on & do little crafts on. So far I haven't found anything cute enough or capable of being refinished so it can look cute - in my price range - which is pretty low. :) Total I paid less than $3 an item - which is actually being skewed a little high by the high priced chair at $10.

Joshua...

in one of his new favorite spots. This is where he likes to have his afternoon snacks.

Thoughts on my Mom

My mom is always on my mind and heart. I would have never believed how much I could possibly miss someone! Anyways, I wanted to share a few fun things about my mom. There were a few things when going through her stuff that I wanted to make sure that I kept. Most people would find them pretty silly - but they were so important to me. The first was her cookie cutters. I have so many memories of making cookies with my mom with them I wanted to hopefully be able to make the same memories with Joshua.

The next thing is her button box. I don't know why this is one of those items that was always fun for me to play with. I remember always going through my mom's buttons. My mom was an excellent seamstress and made all my clothes when I was small. In fact, I wish that I still had some of those clothes but at least I have some buttons. I took a picture of some of the more "vintage" buttons from my past. The cute little girly ones are ones that I remember being on some of my clothes that my mother made. Especially the multi-color one. I remember those big leather buttons being on tons of my parents clothes - I guess it was the 70's style. And then I found the one interesting tree button. It almost looks like a coin. I don't remember it at all...but it's awfully interesting - see why buttons are so much fun to rummage through. Of course, the most important part of her button box is the container. Which is an old ice cream container from when we lived in Canada.

Aprons & Joshua...

I'm making some Apron's for my MOPS Steering team members...I think they are coming out pretty cute. It's a pretty simple project...but kind of hard to find enough of the black aprons. My next project is to make an apron from scratch (sounds like baking doesn't it)! ;) I just need to find a free pattern online so I can start making one...anyone know of one?Also, I don't know how he did it...but as I was in the living room - I heard the back screen door shut. I ran back there and Joshua had somehow gotten the back door open, then opened the screen door, walked down 3 brick steps, and was getting in his sandbox! Aye yay yay!!

Bread Update

As you can see...my bread turned out perfect. It is a Oatmeal Honey Bread - DELICIOUS!

Oatmeal Honey Bread -Bread Machine

INGREDIENTS
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 1/3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
DIRECTIONS
Place ingredients in bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer.
Select Light Crust or Basic setting, and press Start.

A day at home...

Today Joshua and I are hanging out at the house. My first goal of the day was to try out my new bread machine...bread is currently in the machine and it's been rising for hours. I don't have the manual for the machine so I'm not quite sure if I'm doing it right but we will see. I tried ordering the manual from the manufacturer and they seem to be at a loss of how to get one. Oh well.


Then, I had to get some publicity out for our upcoming MOPS meeting. I hope we have lots of new faces join us this year!!

So now Joshua is napping and I decided to make a burp cloth for one of John's co-workers. I hand stitched the letter (freehand) which probably wasn't the best idea. I think I will look for a letter pattern next time but since I don't have an embroidery machine I figured it was ok. Then, I tied a ribbon to it and added one of my new homemade cards and Voila! a complete little gift.

A good buy & note cards...

I like to occasionally wander into our local Goodwill store to see if they have any decent furniture that would be good to refinish. So today, I decided to take a peek in and found a Williams-Sonoma Bread Machine. I don't think it has ever been used as it is clean as could be inside. It's really fancy and I can't believe I got it for a total of $10!!! By the way, if you have any good bread machine recipes...please share them!

I also have been trying to do a few more crafts recently - especially as Christmas gets closer and we are on a tight budget. So I found this great idea on another blog for making home made note cards & envelopes from old magazines. I was quite skeptical about the envelopes but figured I would give them a try and I think I am addicted!! They turned out pretty cute considering my magazine choices are pretty slim right now since I JUST decided to recycle my big basket of magazines. What do you think?

Digital Scrapbooking...

At one time, I was really interested in digital scrapbooking...however, I couldn't really afford the software. Well, I just ran across this website offering free digital scrapbooking software - with NO catch. I downloaded it and made the title bar to my blog. You can also get lots of awesome backgrounds and elements to go along with the software here. I have to say, the software is very user friendly, FREE, and so you really can't go wrong.

Attachments...

This is the age in which a lot of toddlers start to attach themselves to something for comfort...like a blanket or teddy bear. Our son has decided his attachment is to a ball. He now sleeps with a little mini-basketball under his arm and will cry if it falls out of his crib. The funniest thing is to see the PURE JOY that lights up his face when he snuggles up with his ball. He also talks to his ball as he falls asleep. It sounds like...."asberberdy do dah ball, ball, ball". Yet another adorable trait of our little cutie!

Hot, Hot, Hot

It's been SOOOO hot lately we decided to get out Joshua's pool and let him hang out. He LOVED squirting us and everything with the hose...although sometimes he would get himself - thus the cute face as water is dripping off his chin. What a cutie!

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow would have been my mother's 58th birthday. It will be hard not to be able to spoil her tomorrow as I always liked to try to do. She was just so very special. I am however so thankful to know that she has a perfect body in heaven and can dance and sing and not worry about one thing! (I didn't mean for that to rhyme)

This has been on my mind a lot today because I have an acquaintance, who's husband has been in the hospital since April battling cancer. Today he is having one leg and one foot amputated. My mother's short stay in the hospital would have most likely ended up in having part of her arms or legs amputated as the strong medicine she was on constricted the blood flow and they couldn't even get a pulse in her hands or feet. I'm so thankful that she never had to endure any physical suffering here on earth. As sad as I am that I never got to say goodbye and that I miss her so incredibly much - her suffering was short if at all. So in my mind the hardest but best birthday gift I could ever give my precious mom was to tell her that it was okay for her to go and to know that she is experiencing unparalleled and indescribable joy in heaven. Happy Birthday mom!!