Friday, December 24, 2010

Friday, December 10, 2010

Flowers, Oh How I Love Flowers

1:32 PM 0 Comments
I love flowers and well, that's not really a secret is it? I post pictures of flowers here quite often. I'm a girly girl in so many ways and one of those ways is that I love love love love love (do you think I love it?) getting flowers. Heck, I even love going to the grocery store and picking up a couple of bundles and bringing them home and arranging them. Don't ask me how many vases I have because I don't even know! The entire area under my kitchen sink is full.

Now, I know that money is tight and that sadly, if you're like me, the flower budget is one of the first things that has to go. Which is why I was so excited when I was contacted by Valentine's Day Flowers. If you didn't know, they're a sister company of ProFlowers.com. After seeing some of the lovely flowers posted here on the blog, they've asked me to pass along some discounts to my readers and how can I say no to that? I can't! So, if you're in the market for some lovely flowers, whether it's for yourself or for someone else, make sure that you click this link to save yourself some pennies!

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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Christmas Dreams

12:31 AM 1 Comments
When I was a little girl, I fell in love with the book The Story of Holly and Ivy. It's about a little girl who lives in an orphanage and when all of the other kids go off to visit families for Christmas, she says she's going to visit her grandmother. By the end of the story, she's gotten the best present ever, a new family. I used to dream that I was that little girl. Not because I wanted a new family, but because in the end, all of her dreams came true.

As an adult, I have new dreams. I have dreams for my own life and now dreams for my boys. I want them to grow up to be good men. I want them to find what makes them happy and to go for it. I think that's my biggest hope and dream for them. I want them to be happy. I know that true happiness comes from loving the person that you are and it's my hope, that as their mom, I can teach them how to do that.

As Christmas approaches, more and more I think about what it is that I can give to them. Yes, they'll have presents under the tree. They'll have the fun of tearing open packages and seeing what Santa (and mom) has brought them. I'll get the joy in watching their faces. There's something wonderful about watching a child open a present, knowing that it was picked out just for them. More than that though, I'll give them experiences.

Like many families, we have our own traditions. Every year, the boys get new pajamas on Christmas Eve. Every year, I wrap them and let them open them, even though they know what's inside. This year, I waited with tons of other people for the midnight sale at Walmart to begin. It was important to me that I be able to continue a tradition that they said they wanted to do still.

After they open their pajamas and get into them, we'll all cuddle up on the couch and read The Night Before Christmas together. I started reading it to them when they were tiny and now they read it to me. We'll put out milk and cookies for Santa. The boys have let me know that they think Santa wants chocolate milk and homemade cookies this year. Every year, I ask them what they think he wants and every year it changes a little bit. One year the poor man had to drink both egg nog and chocolate milk. After that, he let us know one glass of drink is enough to go with his cookies.

Do my boys still believe in Santa? I don't really know and you know what? It doesn't really matter. It's all part of the fun we share together each year. I'm sure in a couple of years I'll know for sure but I don't think that will stop us. I remember the first year I didn't get a stocking filled with treats. Even though I "knew" Santa wasn't real, it made me sad. So, we'll do stockings here until the boys let me know they don't want me to anymore.

As for me, I still believe in Santa and I hope that all of you do too. Imagine if we took the Christmas Spirit that he embodies and applied it year round. This world would be a much better place.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

How To: 3D Snowflake

2:36 PM 0 Comments
Since I had a few requests on how to create the giant snowflake that's hanging on my wall, I decided to post the instructions. Since I didn't invent this, I knew there had to be instructions out there somewhere and sure enough....TaDa!



I do have to apologize for a) the length of this video and b) the fact that he has loud music playing the entire time he's creating the snowflake. For the abbreviated version, I suggest this video. He made me laugh.



Now, if neither of these works for you, I'd suggest this link. It has pictures and a video! If you do make one, please be sure to come back and link me to pictures! I want to make some smaller ones to go with the teacher gifts. I just have to find the time!

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Monday, December 6, 2010

Christmas Is Coming

11:44 PM 2 Comments
Can you believe that it is now less than 3 weeks until Christmas? Where the heck has this past year gone? I'm not even sure where the last month has gone. I keep thinking I just wrote here and then I come over and bam! it's been something like three weeks. I need to do better. I'm doing pretty good with making the changes within the house and I'm going to keep doing that and I'm hoping to add in more blog stuff soon. If nothing else, I want to start doing my Wednesday photo posts again. Photos make me happy and happy is good. :)

Now, I know it's not Wednesday, but I just have to share some photos with everyone. I think I may..no wait, maybe I didn't. Ok, I need to give some background here. I've been divorced now for about 4.5 years. About 3.5 years ago, I moved out of the "family home" and moved to Buffalo. I didn't put up a tree for the two years I was there or last year because the apartment didn't have enough room and this house was in total chaos at this time last year. This year, when I went looking for my bin with all of our Christmas tree ornaments, I was dealt a pretty harsh blow. It's gone. The tote that held all of the boys' ornaments and all of the ornaments that I've had since I was probably a toddler. They're gone. As you can imagine, insert devastation here. Then, I took a deep breath and said no, I'm not going to wallow in this. Yes, it sucks in more ways than a person can imagine, but it could be so much worse. My friend Jenny just lost her husband and is looking towards a Christmas without him. There are people who can't give their children food, let alone presents or a tree.

So what did I do? I put out the word on Facebook that I was looking for anyone's spare ornaments. My father's cousin and his wife went through their ornaments and found some for us. I went digging through my holiday totes and found some that I'd gotten last year at Goodwill. I think I'd planned them for a craft project, but now they're happily shining on our little tree. We didn't put up the big tree this year. This house just isn't made for a 6' tree. We did have a great spot for our little 3-4' tree though. Now, without further ado...I'd like to introduce you to our tree....





Tree Closeup

Finished Tree

3D Star


Yes, those are popcorn strands. I sat on my couch, watching the boys play games, smiled and fed a needle through hundreds of pieces of popcorn. I thought about how thankful I was to my mother for giving me her ancient air popper so many years ago. When I needed it, it was right there in the cupboard. I also made that huge 3D star. I had no idea it would turn out as big as it did, but we love it no matter.

As we go into the holiday season and the crazy rush that sometimes happens, I want to ask my readers for two things:

1. If you have leftover ornaments that you're not going to use or that you just don't love anymore, look for a family who can use them. As I've said on Facebook, our family is hosting the "Ornament Rescue Program" for this year. If you have ornaments that you would like to share with our family, drop me an email and I can send you our address. If you have some that you just want to share, check out your local FreeCycle group.

2. The next time you walk by one of the bell ringers outside of a store, drop in your loose change. You have no idea how far that change can go. If you live in an area where those people don't exist, look around online. There are so many charities that can use a helping hand not just now but all year long.


Happy Holidays, everyone. Hopefully I'll be back soon!

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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Rayovac Rocks!

5:58 PM 0 Comments



Have you seen what Rayovac is giving away for Christmas? It's $1,000! The best part is that it's super easy to enter! You just have to go to Facebook and click on their like button. You can find them at Facebook.com/Rayovac.  Then, you just pop over to Rayovac.com and complete the entry form! How easy is that? Plus, did I mention that you can win $1,000? Imagine how far that would go towards the holidays or if you're like me, paying off some of those bills to lessen the stresses of life. What are you waiting for, go enter now! 


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**Followers who promote the Rayovac Mom Rocks the Holidays Sweepstakes may receive gifts from Rayovac.**

Monday, November 15, 2010

100 Fans Giveaway! - Closed

5:33 PM 8 Comments
Surprise! I found some items that I wanted to share with the fans of Katie's Craft Corner over on Facebook and decided not to wait until December to do our first giveaway!

Now, don't get too excited by the picture over there to the left. That isn't exactly what the winner will be getting. However, it does show a sample of the Inspiration Sheets that will be part of this prize.  What will the winner receive? Well, let me tell you!


  • Set of at least 10 Inspiration Sheets to fuel your inner crafter!
  • Small package of chocolates to give you the fuel to craft!
  • 1-2 handmade cards to either keep for inspiration or to send out to friends/family!
Entry to the giveaway is nice and easy.  All you have to do is make sure that you've "liked" my Facebook page and then come over here and leave a comment letting me know that you've done it and what your name is there.  All entrants will be verified and then a winner will be chosen using random.org. This giveaway will close on November 19th at 10pm est. Good luck, everyone and make sure you keep sending everyone you know to the Facebook page. I'll be doing 2 more giveaways if we can get to 200 fans by December 1st!

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Sunday, November 14, 2010

Changing for the Better

9:17 PM 3 Comments
These days I don't seem to sit down regularly to write. It's ok because I'm busy making other changes. Changes that will free up my time and free up my mind.

I've been working on my home. I've been cleaning daily and doing a load of laundry daily. Is the house perfect? Would I let anyone in the house if I didn't have a choice? Nope, not yet. However, it is better. I've purged a lot of stuff out of my kitchen. I think I've purged 4 bags of unneeded groceries, alone. Seriously, how many bags of flour does one family need? I'm glad that I can help people as I clear out what I don't need.

I'm also proud to say that I'm nearly all caught up on my dishes. A while ago, the dishwasher here just stopped getting things clean and I wasn't keeping up on hand washing dishes. Now, I'm just about all caught up which makes me smile every time I open a drawer or cupboard and can immediately find just what I'm looking for. This is also going to make Thanksgiving a heck of a lot easier.

I've started with the kitchen and the laundry. Tomorrow, I'll be back in the kitchen and with any luck, I'll get it all finished up. Justin will be visiting Tuesday-Sunday but I'm not going to let that stop my progress. In fact, he's going to help me winterize the house and do some things that I need an extra pair of strong hands/arms with.

Now, let's just hope that the furnace in this house hasn't died. The thermostat has read 60 all day long and hasn't shut off for hours. I don't want to have to tell the leasing agent something is wrong with it. The owners have no desire to do repairs on this property plus the laundry room (where the basement access is) is really, really far from being at a point where people could go into it.

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Thursday, November 4, 2010

No Time Like Today

12:34 AM 0 Comments
Failure is something that I think most people are afraid of. Failure is something most of us accuse ourselves of on a regular basis. I know that it's something I deal with almost daily.  I look around my house and I tell myself that I'm a failure as a housekeeper. I read other people's blogs and I think I'm a failure as a blogger because I don't write every single day and it's not mind blowingly brilliant like the things people repost on Facebook. I tell myself that I'm a failure...or not the best...parent because I can't give my children everything that I think they deserve.

Then, I stop. I realize that this is the worst kind of thing I can do to myself. Talk about a horrible self-fulfilling prophesy in the making. If I believe these things, I will become these things. As you may have noticed from this blog, I've done a lot of soul searching and some soul finding lately. I realized what I've been doing to myself. That's right, to myself. I'm not blaming a single other person. I chose to let their words hurt me. I chose to let their actions affect me. My decisions, my fault.

It's ok, though. I forgive myself. Now, it's time to move on. Part of what I realized is that yesterday is just that. It's yesterday. It's the past. It's gone. Was it perfect? Nope. Will today be? Probably not. Nothing is perfect. That's ok though because I'm not looking for perfection. I'm looking for progress. I'm looking for growth. I'm looking for a smile and a laugh and a renewal of joy. The best part? I'm finding it. I'm forgiving myself for the past and focusing on today.

That's right. Today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month or even next year. Just today. Why? Because today is right now. Today is the day that I'm living in. Today is the day where I smile while I'm doing dishes because I'm blessed to have dishes to do and food to dirty those dishes. I can't change yesterday and I can't live tomorrow right now.

As FlyLady would say, I'm not behind. I just need to jump in where I'm at. Only I can make the changes within myself and those changes will make me a better mom, a better person and a much happier girl. Life is hard sometimes but it doesn't have to be a miserable experience. I don't have all the money I want or heck, even need. I don't have all of the cool new gadgets or toys and that's ok. I have something even better. I have a smile. I have a laugh. I have friends who love me. I have two of the most incredible boys in the world. I have today.



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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Perfectionism and the Holidays

12:51 AM 3 Comments
One of the big topics of conversation around my house right now is finances. Honestly, it's a word that strikes fear in my heart. With the holidays coming up, it terrifies me even more. We're still struggling. In fact, with the increases in the heating and electricity bills, we're struggling even more than we were a year ago. We're making it but in some ways, we're just barely making it. Making it even worse, we're looking at moving right around Christmas/New Years and the added expenses for that freak me out.

Those of you who know me know that Christmas is a huge deal for me. I spend months coming up with the perfect gifts for people. I work hard to make sure my boys have a perfect Christmas with me. I spend time thinking and deciding what dish I should take to the family dinner because I want to make the perfect choice. Ut-oh...Does anyone else see a pattern here? Perfectionism has snuck in yet again.

Here's reality. Life isn't perfect. Holidays will never be perfect no matter how little or how much money I have. Some silly thing will go wrong or one cousin will pick a fight with another cousin. Perhaps this year one child will suddenly realize that another gets more spent on them at grandma's house. Yep, that's life. It's reality. Life isn't perfect.

So why do I try so hard to make it be? It all goes back to being abandoned by my own parents and my fears that my children will somehow think I love them less because I went to Buffalo for two years or because I don't live with them now. I want them to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are the most important pieces of my life so I try to create this perfect environment for them at the holidays.

I know, even on a good financial year, that I will never be able to buy them everything that they want. However, this year, it's killing me to know that I might not be able to buy them anything. I have nieces and nephews who expect me to give them something really great and personal because I do every year. This year, they might not get that. With the move coming, I've already told my boys that we won't be decorating this year. They're ok with that because they understand the work involved. My youngest, heaven love him, was concerned that without them there wouldn't be presents. He was worried that maybe Santa (I swear he plays along for mom's sake.) won't know we're still celebrating without them. I reassured him that there would be so now I have to find a way to make that happen.

Will Christmas be the perfect event that I always try to push for? No and that's ok. Perfection shouldn't have ever been my goal, even subconsciously. What it will be is ours. It will be us, together as a family. We will still read The Night Before Christmas together on Christmas Eve. We will still put out milk and cookies for Santa. They will still have something to open on Christmas morning, even if it's not the huge stack of presents that every kid dreams about. Who knows, maybe after opening their presents we'll go out and have a snowball fight before we go to see our family.

What's important is that Christmas is about love and family and I am so blessed to have both in my life. My boys may not remember what they got for Christmas 2010 but they will remember that their mom loved them enough to bake cookies with them and to cuddle with them to watch classic Christmas cartoons before tucking them into bed. They're going to remember that I loved them enough to give them me.

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Reasons I Collect (Part II)

12:15 AM 2 Comments
Fear. It seems lately that every post I write somehow comes back to this one little word. Then, I looked at it closely and realized it's not just a little word. It's a four letter word that starts with the letter F. Perhaps this is the real F word that I should have grown up knowing it was a "bad word."  It's far more damaging than the other one, after all.

So, why am I so very familiar with it? Well, I'm going to let you in on some "secrets" that I'm sure others would prefer I kept all to myself. I'm not going to hoard those secrets though. I'm going to let them out and I'm going to be real about how they've made me into the person that I am today. After all, we've agreed that hoarding is bad and that this is my place to clear out the bad emotion along with all of the stuff I've spent my life collecting.

Growing up, I was raised by my grandparents. They were/are good people but it's not the same as being raised by your parents. I envied my friends who had two parents at home and grandparents to go visit. I didn't have that luxury. I had a father who took off on a trip across the country and who went on to father 2 more children who he treated as if they were gold, while my sister and I were worth less than a copper penny. I don't remember him being a part of my childhood except for two occasions.

On the other hand, my mother was around. She was around to tell me that she hated me and wished I'd never been born because I'd ruined her life. She was around to kick me out of her house and to tell me not to ever come back after my younger brother blatantly disobeyed me while I was babysitting and took off and called her at work with some story. The fact that I had adult witnesses didn't count for anything. She was around to make me promises of doll houses and Disney World that never happened. She knew they wouldn't happen but she told me them anyway. As a child, I believed her.

I learned the fear of abandonment at the age of perhaps 2 when I was left with my grandparents. I was taught that I couldn't trust my own parents by their actions. Do you know what happens when you learn you can't trust the very people who should be teaching you about trust and love? You have a hard time trusting anyone. I learned when I was young that people prefer little girls with long blonde hair from listening to them always comment on my sister's hair and ignoring how I looked. I never thought I was pretty.  I thought the boys in high school didn't want to date me because I wasn't as pretty as the other girls.

Remember how I said I surround myself with things because they can't abandon me? This is where it all started. It continued with me marrying the first man who I honestly thought loved me. Now, I'm not saying that he didn't, but I will say that when you're 19, you shouldn't marry the first man who you think loves you. The marriage wasn't meant to last and I don't regret it. However, I do regret that my low self-esteem and fears just continued to grow throughout that time. My collecting really kicked into gear about that time, as well.

After the divorce, I moved 8 hours away from my boys and everything got worse. I started collecting more items because I couldn't handle the pain of being away from them. Since they were born, they were my world. Heck, they still are. I would do anything for those two. My fears that they would think I was like my parents drove me to surround myself with even more items.

Now, I'm back living near them. Not near enough, but a heck of a lot closer. I'm making..yes, making myself go out from time to time to meet new people with similar interests. It's not easy. I know that when I go out, I come across as this confidant person but deep down, I am terrified that these people will reject me. It's so much easier to stay in my house surrounded by my things than to risk that. I need to risk it though. I need to get out there just like I need to continue purging items from this house.

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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Reasons I Collect (Part I)

12:49 AM 2 Comments
In realizing just how much I had accumulated, I was forced to stop and think about the reasons why I accumulate things. I realized quickly that there wasn't one solitary, single reason for it. Like a lot of things, my "need" to accumulate is caused by multiple things.

Tonight's focus is going to be on my icon over there to the left. I'm lonely. I currently live in the middle of nowhere and while I love it here, it only causes me to be that much more separated from the people who I could go out with. I live over an hour from my family and they make little to no effort to come see me. In fact, they recently gave me a hard time about the fact that I so rarely go over there. Well, I have my reasons for why that doesn't happen as much as even I would like. I'm not going to go into those here because those are private to them.

Now, I'm sure there are people who are saying, "Ok, but you could invite them over to see you." Of course, I could. However, the state of this house won't allow me to. My pride gets in the way of letting anyone come over here. It gets in the way of letting others know what it's like here. I know that part of it is the fact that my own mother has been known to make nasty comments about my "housekeeping abilities" behind my back. I don't want to give them fuel. I believe I said it before, but fear is another of the reasons and there's so much under that heading that it's going to need it's own post.

So, what about friends? Don't I have friends? For the first time in a very, very long time, I'm going to say yes. I do have friends. Have some of them already judged me? Perhaps, but I think that if they read this, they would maybe take back those judgments and see things through different eyes. So, why don't I go out with these friends? Well, the whole middle of nowhere thing and fears (See? There it is again.) thing keeps me from doing that. Most of my friends live nowhere near me. I haven't made any local friends because of the fear issue.

Ok, now that I've gone on and on about being lonely and being separated from everyone, what does this have to do with why I accumulate? I accumulate to surround myself. If a room is full, it doesn't feel empty and not feeling empty means I don't feel so alone. Not so alone means I don't feel so lonely...or actually, I give myself the illusion of not so alone and if I'm honest with myself, I'm very lonely a lot of the time.

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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Perfectionism

1:54 AM 1 Comments
As some people know, I'm a "collector." What do I collect? Well, a lot of things, I suppose. The honest truth is that up until the past year or so, I didn't realize just how much I had collected. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while got a look at some of it when I showed you "The Wall" photos as I was working on clearing pieces of it out.  What you didn't see what the boxes that got moved into the laundry room and stacked there. What you didn't see what the ongoing general state of my house.

Well, don't worry, I'm not going to terrify any of you with pictures of it now. However, I've decided that it's time that I got real, not only with myself but with all of you who have stuck by me. One of the steps in any recovery is admitting that there's a problem. I've done that. I've looked around this house and realized that part of my panic about moving is taking all of this with me and starting another disaster in another house.

Like I said yesterday, I'm not perfect. I never will be. What I've done up until now is let perfectionism get in the way of doing anything at all. I've looked around, become overwhelmed and said to myself, "You can't get this house perfect so why even try?" There are other reasons for why I have so many items. It's very likely that I'll be writing about that later this week. One thing seems to lead to another, doesn't it?

Last night, I laid in bed and I couldn't sleep. My mind went round and round and round about this upcoming move. I kept thinking about how I'd never be ready; how I would never have everything packed and organized and ready. Suddenly, I realized what I was doing to myself. I was setting myself up for failure. I was telling myself I was a failure at something before I'd even begun. I know how dangerous that can be. If I continue down that road, I'm going to sink into a debilitating depression and I'll be right, nothing will get done and I won't be ready. Perfectionism at its absolute worst.

I don't need to be perfect. I just need to be me. I just need to take it one day at a time and one project at a time. I need to remember that I may not be able to take on an entire room but I can take on a countertop or a desk and then look at it and feel good about what I've done. I need to remember that while not everyone will understand, there are those who will try and those who will want to help me. I am not alone in this problem or in this world.

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Monday, October 11, 2010

The Need to Write

10:32 PM 2 Comments
Another Monday and another post with me starting off by asking where have I been for weeks that I haven't posted. The truth is that I haven't been anywhere. I've been right here telling myself that I ought to post and yet making every excuse why not to. The other truth is that I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'm not perfect and neither is this blog. In some ways, this blog is a reflection of who I am. In other ways, it's a reflection of who I want to be.

I know that I'm not perfect and that so many of the changes that I want/need to make rely on me making them. I can't wait around and assume that someone else is going to make them for me. No one will. No one can. If I want to change things, I have to change. I need to stop remembering when I juggled everything and then some and focus on the small changes that I can make now that can lead to bigger changes down the road.

I mailed out my graduate school recommendation packets the other day and that was huge for me. I actually stood at the mailbox and had to tell myself to do it. Once I did, I felt this huge burden lifted off of me. Those packets were now out of my hands and I had made that happen. I had made the phone calls and wrote the emails that led to people saying they would be happy to write me outstanding recommendations. Wow, go figure. People really do like me and notice the work that I do.

Letting go of fear isn't an easy thing to do. Letting go of the need to be in control isn't easy either. Yet, I'm slowly working on both of those. I'm letting go of the things I've surrounded myself with because I'm realizing that things don't matter. It's the people around you, it's the memories and the moments that matter. I started holding onto everything out of the fear that everyone had let go. It's a scary thing when you look back at your life and realize that almost every man in your life has turned and walked away as if you didn't matter. It's scarier to realize that you've filled a house full of items because items can't walk away.

My journey towards having the home I always dreamed of is starting now. I've purged over 400 pounds of items out of this house in the past year and I'm still going at it. I still have a lot of stuff to go through and a lot of stuff to find new homes for. I want the kind of home that my children can come into with their friends and nobody is tripping over anything. I don't want to tell my boys, "Not yet. Wait until we get the house cleaned up." It's going to be a long journey and sometimes I'm going to struggle, but I know I can do this and I know there are people who will hug me when I need a hug and push me when I need a push.

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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Playstation Move

12:14 PM 0 Comments


This post brought to you by PlayStation(R) Move. All opinions are 100% mine.


Click HereImagine this....You're sitting at home with nothing to do. Ok, well you probably have something to do but none of it appeals to you. I mean, who wants to spend all day cleaning and working? Now, what if suddenly there was a ...*poof* and in front of you stood a genie who offered you the brand new PlayStation(R)MOVE? What would you use it for? 


If it were me, it would be used all the time. It would be great for those nights when I have the boys here and we're in the mood for some fun gaming. It would be great for those mornings when I want to sleep in. The boys could easily hook it up and have some fun while mom catches up on a bit of sleep. Plus, since it's a controller that works on body motion, it would be a great way to get some exercise while having fun. If you're like me, that's not something easy to find. The bowling game looks fantastic for all of these!


Now, I don't expect a genie to pop up and hand this to me, but if we owned a PlayStation 3, I'd seriously considering adding this to our system. At $99, that's less than a gym membership, a day at Cedar Point or the cost of a nanny. 




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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

5:11 PM 2 Comments
Yet again, I'm behind over at Sunday Shutterbugs. However, today I found the perfect picture to handle both of the themes! This photo was taken over four years ago now when I visited England. Oh how badly I wish I could go back. I fell in love with the land over there and want to spend more time exploring places like this. This was taken in Hastings on a very foggy, rainy day but I never regretted getting soaked to the skin because I had the chance to see this. Oh, in case you're wondering, this week's themes are Rock and Rain. I wish we did more things like this with our resources and anyone who says to come in out of the rain has never experienced the pure joy that being in nature can bring.


Hastings Castle


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Tackle It Tuesday

4:48 PM 0 Comments
I soooo meant to post this last night and I have no idea what happened that I didn't do it. Yesterday was a good day around here. I got more cleaning done in the kitchen and started tackling the laundry monster that has been threatening to take over our house. It makes me smile and feel good inside to see things coming together and to actually accomplish things.

The big thing that I'm going to need to accomplish has started arriving. What is it? My grad school application. The department portion landed in my mailbox yesterday and it has me a little bit freaked out. I have no idea who to ask to write these recommendation letters. Ok, actually, I have ideas on who to have write them but I have to track down their contact information plus hope and pray that they remember me well enough to do these. I guess I'll know soon enough. I'm putting contacting them down on next week's to do list. At the same time as doing that, I'll need to be pulling transcripts from various schools. I need to call WMU again to find out if I should have everyone send everything to me and I'll send it all in one big packet or if it's better for everything to come directly to them. There is so much to this whole going back to school thing and honestly, it's freaking me out just a little bit. Well, little bits is how it's going to get done. They're far less overwhelming than looking at the whole thing.

But, for now, I have a washing machine that's waiting to be started and more cleaning/organizing/purging to be done!

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Monday, September 13, 2010

Menu Plan Monday

9:47 PM 0 Comments
It's Monday and after looking at this week's weather, I can say that Autumn is certainly on the way. It's looking like a rainy, chilly week and honestly, I'm thrilled! I love this time of year. I love pulling out the crock pot recipes and making chili.  I know I could do that year round but something just always makes me wait until Autumn. This year isn't any different.

Sadly, the boys are back at their dad's and until I move into town, I'm on my own during the week. I'm trying to remind myself that it doesn't mean I can't eat good food too but it sure is harder to cook for one than it is for 3 or 4. Am I the only one who has noticed that?

Anyway, my menu for this week is going to include something a little special. My birthday is next week and Roger was really upset when he heard no one was going to be celebrating it. So, I've decided to have a little mini celebration this weekend for the three of us. Nothing extravagant, but something special for us.

Monday - Breakfast for dinner
Tuesday - Steak w/ veggies
Wednesday - Pesto Chicken
Thursday -  Pasta
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Chili (w/ brownies & icecream for dessert for my birthday)
Sunday - Steak (I bought 2 and need to use them both up!)

Looks yummy! Now, I just need to stick with it!
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

reboost

11:49 PM 0 Comments
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.


Who do y'all use for your cell phone service? Living where I do, it was a bit tricky for us to find a provider that had coverage. In fact, after a year of dealing with AT&T's poor service, we ended up switching to Verizon. So far, it's working pretty good.

Those of you who know me know that I don't follow the latest cell phone trends. Keeping that in mind, it wasn't much of a surprise to find out that there was one that I hadn't heard of. Boost Mobile wasn't an option when I was looking for a new provider because I hadn't heard about them. That being said, tonight, I'm going to tell you what I've learned about them.

One of the coolest things is their Re-Boost. First, it has a cool company themed name and second, it just means that it's super easy to reload your phone with minutes. In fact, there are three different ways to do it. You can do it over the phone, you can do it online or you can do it in person at a store that offers the service. Plus, you can use your debit/credit card and set up a one time payment or a recurring payment. There's also the option of picking up one of their cards and registering it with your account. How simple is that?

They also have tons of phone options for you to choose from, including the Blackberry. With the blackberry or other phones, that they offer, you can easily keep up with your Facebook page, Twitter account or other forms of social media/networking. Personally, I don't currently do this but it has crossed my mind that it might be fun to be able to. After all, doesn't everyone want to know about the fantastic sale on groceries that I found or the fact that I'm chasing my cat around the neighborhood yet again? C'mon, y'all know you do! If I switched to Boost, I might get one of the cool phones that allowed me to keep the world informed of my exciting life. ;)

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Visit my sponsor: Reboost

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

11:45 PM 3 Comments
I'm on a blogging roll this week and loving it! I hate when I neglect this blog. I don't know why I don't take the time sometimes to write. It's something that I love doing and hopefully some of you love reading it.

Now, I think it was two weeks ago that I made an attempt at catching up on my (almost) Wordless Wednesday posts. Of course, I totally slacked off last week and now I'm 6 photos behind again! Well, with any luck, I'm going to post 3-4 of those in this post. They won't be new photos because along with blog slacking, I've totally slacked in photo taking, as well.

Ready? Here we go!



Fireworks
Orange - I'm still mastering taking photos of fireworks. Almost all of mine turned out  fuzzy, this year.

Sky High
Open - This is open air! This crazy great-grandma was something like 80' up in the air without a net or harness!

Parked
Park - This lovely is permanently "park"ed at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo.

Roger
People - This year is one of my favorite people, Roger. I think he was in kindergarten when I took this. I love this photo.

Quiet
Quiet - I took this the same day that I took the above photo of Roger. I believe they were taken at the zoo in Battle Creek.

Sunfield Post Office Library
Quarter - This is a picture of the hours at our local post office. I'd say it's open about a quarter of the time a normal post office is.



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