I Hope They Like it Spicy

I'm making some Taco Dip for tomorrow.  I really hope everybody likes it a little spicy.  I browned my hamburger and added the taco seasoning.  And then I added some more taco seasoning.  I guess I was thinking about other things, like how to include a random keyword I know nothing about in a blog post, or wondering why people are so resistant to eating healthy - I'm watching Oprah; she asked.

By the time I realized I had twice as much seasoning as I needed, it was too late to fix things - so we're just going to have extra-spicy taco dip.  Without olives, because I don't have any of those.  Good thing my recipes are flexible, huh?

Looking at the Sky on Friday - 51

I’m so glad there’s a meme like Looking at the Sky on Friday, because it means all the time I spend looking at the sky, and taking pictures of it, has a purpose! Click the badge for more info.

I know I usually get my Looking at the Sky post up a lot earlier, but it is still Friday, right?  I’ve just been busy doing other things – posting something about the book I just finished (see last post), picking Cory up from school, running by the library to pick up a letter of recommendation (for Cory for scholarship applications), washing dishes, cooking…  I haven’t had time to look into Outer Banks vacation rentals or figure out which photo(s) I want to post this week.  Oh, who am I fooling?  No sense in looking into vacation rentals – who has time for a vacation, anyway?

Luckily, I can look at the sky wherever I am, and it’s just as gorgeous here as anywhere else in the world!!

…though some people are flying off to those other places:

If you enjoy skies as much as I do, be sure to check out Looking at the Sky on Friday.

Later Never Comes

I've got this very useful Firefox add-on called Read it Later.  When I find an interesting site, but I don't have time to read it now, I just right-click and choose "Read it Later", and it saves it for me.  It's kind of like bookmarking things, I guess, though it doesn't feel so permanent.  It's for the stuff I want to read, but since I haven't yet, I don't know if it's something I want to keep forever, like my bookmarks.

Except that this very useful add-on is also very dangerous.  All day long I open new tabs.  If something says "click here to learn more about protein powder" or "1000 free Custom Shapes for Photoshop" I click - and then I go doing whatever else I'm doing.  Then, at the end of the day, when it's time to head off to bed, like now, I start closing tabs.  That's when I realize I never read all the interesting things I found today, and I start saving them for later - so I don't lose them.

The problem is - later never comes, because the next day I find more interesting things that I really, really want to read.  Someday.  Later.  And the list continues to grow...

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Thoughts on Coloring

I hate getting home from the store and realizing I forgot something.  If it's something really important, I can usually have Jeffrey stop and pick it up on the way home.  Rarely is it important enough for me to run back over to the store, and often I can just wait until the next time I go shopping.  This isn't really all that important...

Today I was thinking about looking at hair rinses to see if I might want to buy one, but I forgot to look.  I was thinking maybe it would be something I could use between colorings.  I used to color my hair for fun, but now it's because of those gray pigment challenged hairs that keep showing up.  You know they say gray hair is hereditary - you get it from your kids!

At some point in time, I suppose it will be time to forgo the hair color and just go gray gracefully.  I'm not sure when that will be.  When I'm old?  Define old.  When Jeffrey finally goes gray or needs hair loss treatment for men? After all, he is almost 4 years older than I am, so it wouldn't do for me to look older!  When Beth finally grows up, gets married and has a kid of her own, making me a grandma?

Is there ever a good time to stop coloring and just go gray?

Dessert Decisions

Image via Wikipedia

There's a special Spotlight Concert tomorrow night where the choir members and band members are going to be performing their pieces for Solo & Ensemble, which is this weekend.  It gives parents and friends a chance to see them perform, and it gives them an extra chance to practice and the opportunity to perform their pieces in front of an audience.

The Band Booster Association is running a bake sale during the concert in an effort to raise some money to help our band students attend a performance festival in May - the High Note Festival in Gurnee, IL - where they will perform before an adjudicator and then get to spend the rest of the day at Six Flags.  Sounds like fun, at least for those kids who like roller coasters and amusement parks.  My kid isn't one of them.  Sometimes I wonder how our kids can be ours, since neither one of them likes roller coasters, and Jeffrey and I love them.

Anyway, the cost for this festival is $50 per student, and we're hoping to help offset the cost to the families with a little fundraising.  Now, if I can just decide what to bake tomorrow.  I thought I'd make these Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Cups, but then I started scrolling down the dessert page on my recipe blog, and there are so many other things that look so good.  Sometimes I forget all the good things I've made.

Help me out, will you?  What do you think I should bake tomorrow for the bake sale?  What would you most like to have?  Pretend there's some kind of multivitamins you can take so that you can eat any dessert, and the calories don't count.  In fact, while you're pretending, pretend that taking those vitamins and eating dessert means you lose weight and get in shape, too.  Sorry, I got a little carried away there.  I just need something for the bake sale.

Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Alvin and the Chipmunks. All opinions are 100% mine.

I remember seeing the previews for the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, cleverly called 'the squeakquel' - well, I thought it was clever, didn't you?  This wasn't a movie that I felt just had to be seen in the theater, but now it's coming out on DVD, so we'll most likely end up watching it.  It's packed with action and nutty fun for the whole family - and cute little chipmunks, of course.  There are even girl chipmunks in this one, the Chipettes, a beautiful talented trio discovered by Alvin, Simon, and Theodore's ex-manager Ian.  I can just imagine the trouble the boys get into.

I've been having some fun with the 'Get Munked with Alvin and the Chipmunks' application at munkyourself.com.  You get to create your own chipmunk - choosing clothes, accessories, etc, and then record your own sound or choose a clip from the movie.  I'm not sure what this clip was about, but it's exactly how I feel sometimes.





Besides the 'munk' yourself thing, there's plenty More Munk Mayhem you can get into at foxfamilyflicks.com.  There are games to play, downloads to download, and music to sing along with.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel will be available everywhere Tuesday, March 30 on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download. You can buy it now through pre-order.  The Double DVD pack comes with "The Squeak Along" Bonus Disc, with more music, mayhem and all-new singalongs! TWICE THE FUN for the PRICE OF ONE!  Check it out and see if this is one you want to add to your home movie collection - and have some fun with the chipmunks while you're at it.

How Often Do You Change Your Sheets?

I change the sheets on our beds every two weeks.  One week (this week) I change our sheets, and the next week I have the kids strip their beds so I can wash their sheets.  I guess I could do them all at once, but I like to alternate so I don't have too much extra laundry at a time.  There always seem to be enough clothes - how do these kids wear so many clothes in one week, anyway? - without adding sheets from 3 beds.

I'm not asking just because I'm changing our sheets today, though.  Changing the sheets reminded me of something Jeffrey heard on the radio a while back.  Apparently, there are places in the world where people change their sheets 3 times a year.   This must have been the article they were referencing.

3 times a year?  Really?  Who would actually admit that?  And, say you only changed your sheets 3 times a year - how would you decide when it was time?  I have a hard enough time keeping track of whether it's the week to change my sheets or the week to get the kids' sheets, but at least I know it's time to wash somebody's sheets every week.

Whether it's every week or 3 times a year, I'm sure there are as many opinions about how often you should change your sheets as there are about diets that work and diets that don't.  So tell me - how often do you change your sheets?

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Looking at the Sky on Friday - 50

I’m so glad there’s a meme like Looking at the Sky on Friday, because it means all the time I spend looking at the sky, and taking pictures of it, has a purpose! Click the badge for more info.

Even though the time changed, I’m still getting to enjoy the sunrise in the mornings.  It is dark again when I have to get up and when I walk out the front door, but it doesn’t stay dark the whole time like in the middle of winter.  So I guess I can live with it.  (Like I have a choice, right?)  Also, the sunrises are at their best after I get back home, and I can just step out onto my deck and get some shots.

Here are a couple I took Wednesday morning:

Well, I took more than a couple, but figured you didn’t want to see them all.  It’s so much fun to use a digital camera.  You can take as many pictures as you want without worrying about wasting the film, don’t have to wait to get them developed, and don’t need any special scanning software to get them onto the computer so you can share them with your friends!

If you enjoy skies as much as I do, be sure to check out Looking at the Sky on Friday.

A Reminder

With the warmer weather, we are beginning to see more and more people out walking on the streets.  I think now would be a good time to remind everyone that, where there are no sidewalks, pedestrians should be walking on the left-hand side of the road or street - FACING traffic.  That way they will be able to see when a vehicle is coming their way, and be able to get out of the way if they need to.

Like I've said before, I live in a very small town, so we don't have a lot of traffic.  It may not be a huge safety issue here, but it still bugs me to see someone walking down the wrong side of the street.  It seems that the majority of people in this town are really trying to bug me!  Seriously, more often than not, the people who walk in this town choose to walk on the wrong side of the street, often 2 or 3 abreast, sometimes with earbuds in.  They have absolutely no clue when a car comes up behind them.

I suppose it is their choice, and probably nothing bad will happen.  Still, people, if you don't care about your own safety, could you at least face traffic when you push your baby in that fancy uppababy vista stroller? Give the little person a chance to grow up!  (See photo example of how NOT to do it)

Is It Spring Already?

It was sunny and warm today, so I just had to get outside for a while.  Gotta enjoy it while I can, because it's supposed to get cool and rainy, and maybe even snow a little this weekend.  I'm not the only one, because there were people out everywhere - taking walks, visiting with their neighbors while the kids played in the yard, grilling something for dinner.  Everyone is coming out of their caves, blinking in the sunlight.  People like to complain about winter, but I think it just makes us appreciate it more when spring finally comes around.  But maybe that's just me. 

I do have slightly mixed feelings about spring this year.  Sure, I love the sunshine and the warm temperatures, being able to get outside and open the windows, but spring means we're getting closer and closer to Cory's graduation.  When he was a little bitty cutie pie, I told him to stay little; I liked him just the way he was.  He did not listen.  Now he's all grown up, going to be graduating from high school and then going off to college, where he'll have to find a job to pay for it, and where he'll be away from home and on his own.  How in the world did that happen?

I wonder if there's a way I can slow down these next few months?

I'm Looking at Cheap Glasses from Zenni Optical

I keep meaning to order some glasses from Zenni Optical.  I've mentioned them before - the site where you can order eyeglasses for as little as $8.  Considering I don't usually get away without spending at least $300 when I buy glasses, the low cost Zenni Optical offers is really hard to resist.  Last year Jeffrey, Cory, and I all got new glasses.  We ended up getting them at Walmart and Sam's Club, and not necessarily looking for the best deal because, for the first time ever, we had vision insurance.  So, at least part of the cost was covered by insurance, and we got the rest back by using our FLEX plan, or whatever they call the health care savings plan.  We did have them note our PD (pupilary distance) on our prescriptions when we had our eyes checked, so we'd have all the information we need to order glasses online, so we could maybe get a second pair.

I haven't been entirely happy with the glasses I picked out, so I'm thinking it just might be time for that 2nd pair.  Oh, I can see fine, and they look nice, but I feel like I've had these adjusted so many times and just can't get them to feel right.  But there's no way I want to go spend a couple hundred dollars just to get a new pair, so I'm seriously thinking it's finally time to try some from Zenni Optical. 

My brother was just asking the other day if we had ordered any yet, because his glasses broke, and he needed a new pair.  I said no, but I do know of people who have ordered and love them - even better than the glasses they got from their local eyewear place.  (Drew of BenSpark.com for one)  I also just read this completely unpaid review by Eric Hammer, where he most definitely recommends Zenni Optical for cheap eyeglasses.  He's been buying all his glasses from Zenni for the past 8 years and never been disappointed.

With Zenni it really is possible to get quality eyeglasses for a reasonable price.  How do they do it?  They manufacture their own frames and sell directly to the consumer, eliminating the middleman.  They don't sell designer or name brand frames.  Also, they don't have a huge advertising budget, relying mostly on satisfied customers to spread the word.  There are additional charges for bifocals, photochromatic lenses, or higher indexed polycarbonate lenses, but I can tell you those charges are substantially less than what they charge at Walmart or Sam's. Just getting polycarbonate lenses at all costs about $80 at Walmart, and they're included at Zenni.


Every order comes with:

• High quality stylish frame
• Thin and Light 1.57 index lens
• Anti-scratch coating
• Full UV protection
• Lens edge polishing and beveling
• Quality Hard Eyeglass case
• Microfiber Lens Cleaning Cloth
• Zenni Optical's Guarantee

What do you think of this pair?

Shipping is $4.95 no matter how many pairs you order, so I need to find some I like (maybe these - they're $9.95) and then get Jeffrey and Cory to pick some out, too - because we might as well order them all at the same time.  

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I Guess I Just Don't Get Designer

I keep getting these emails from 6pm.com - OK, I signed up for them, but that's beside the point.  The point is, they keep telling me about all these great deals - 60, 70, 80% off.  Sounds great, right?  Except that even at 80% off, most of these things cost more than I'd ever want to pay.  I mean, I just can't convince myself I need to pay over $100 for a pair of shoes.  I shouldn't have to sell my timeshare or my firstborn to look good, should I?  (though sometimes selling the firstborn is mighty tempting)

What makes these so great?  The designer's name?  Who's Marc Jacobs?

I felt the same way when I went to New York with the band last year.  So many of the girls just had to find those designer handbags.  Coach?  What's that?  Is $50 really a good price for a purse?  Must be, because these girls were so excited, but I just didn't get it.  I buy mine for under $10 on clearance at Walmart.  I can get excited about that.

How about you?  Do you get designer this and designer that?  Am I just cheap?

Gotta Get Away

I just watched a commercial for vacations.  Yes, I know, I usually don't pay any attention to commercials, so I'm not sure why this one caught my attention.  Maybe it was the scenery and the gorgeous beaches and the people obviously having a great time.  Ah, yes, one of those vacations would be nice.

It won't be happening anytime soon, with work and a kid in school, and Jeffrey and I still haven't figured out where we want to go for the 25th anniversary get-away we're planning to go on, never mind anything in the meantime.  I'd love somewhere with a beach, but Jeffrey doesn't get too excited about beaches - and he'd need to get crackin' with the fitness equipment between now and then, big time.  Hey, I'd feel better about hitting the beach if I hit that equipment myself.

Maybe we should just go to Alaska?  No need for toned beach bodies there.

Looking at the Sky on Friday - 49

I’m so glad there’s a meme like Looking at the Sky on Friday, because it means all the time I spend looking at the sky, and taking pictures of it, has a purpose! Click the badge for more info.
 
I had to go pick Cory up from play practice this afternoon.  He drove home, which is good, because he needs the practice.  Overall, he’s a really good driver, but he just doesn’t want to drive very often, so he doesn’t have his license yet.  I guess that works out well for us, because we don’t have to pay for extra car insurance or go looking for used cars so he has something to drive.  On the other hand, it would be nice if I didn’t have to go pick him up when he has after-school activities.
 
But that’s not the point.  The point is, he was driving so I was looking at the sky.  Yes, I look at the sky when I’m driving, too, but I’m sure it’s much safer when someone else is driving.  I took a couple pics from the van and then a few more once we got home.

I liked this one best:

 
 If you enjoy skies as much as I do, be sure to check out Looking at the Sky on Friday.

We Have Suction

A while back I noticed that my vacuum cleaner didn't seem to be picking things up the way I thought it should, the way it used to.  It still seemed to be picking up an entire cat in every room, but the hose just didn't seem to have any suction like before.  And, every once in a while, it would simply shut itself off, and I couldn't turn it back on for an hour or two.  Not good!

I looked for the owner's manual, which I still haven't found, to see if there was anything in there to help me fix it.  Finally, I had my husband look at it - because that's what husbands are for, after all.  He found the filters, which were very, very dirty.  Of course, once he showed me where they were, they were really obvious, and even well marked - but I had never gotten down and really looked.  Apparently, the cell mass of all the dust and dirt had exceeded the capacity of the filters, and they desperately needed cleaned, so I hosed them down in the kitchen sink and let them dry.  And when I put them back in and used the vacuum cleaner the next time?  Suction! 

My vacuum cleaner works properly again, and if you're having the same problems with yours, check the filters.  It's very important to clean the filters on a regular basis - unless you're looking for an excuse not to vacuum.

It's The Little Things

I washed the towels yesterday afternoon.  I was in a bit of a hurry because Cory had just called and told me he needed me to go pick him up at school.  I missed his call, so I only had about 15 minutes before I had to leave by the time I called him back and found out what he wanted.  So I rushed to get the towels into the washer and lock the boys in the basement before I had to leave.  Then I grabbed clean towels out of the hall closet, for us, thinking I could grab the kids' towels when I got back.

But we got back, and we went to the library, and we had dinner, and I cleaned up the kitchen after dinner, and...  And I never thought about those towels again until this morning, when Cory told me how he had been so busy cleaning up after one of the cats before he could get into the shower that he didn't notice there were no towels until after he had taken his shower.  I did remember the gmat prep courses, I mean bath mat, but there were no bath towels, wash cloths, or even a hand towel in there.  So he had to jump out of the shower all dripping wet, go out into the hallway, and grab a towel.  Good thing there was nobody around, huh?

Just goes to show how important some of the little things mom does around the house are, and what happens when they don't get done!

Heads or Tails – a Past Theme

The theme/prompt for THIS week, March 9, is:

EDGE - "Any Past Theme"
Make any kind of post using any form of the word "Rumor"

 

I briefly thought about choosing all the themes I’ve missed so far this year, and then I came to my senses.  Instead I just chose one -  "List 3" from February 2 - Make any kind of post listing 3 things from any category you choose.  The other missed themes will just have to wait.  Or I could just cheat and list them here, since there are 3!

• February 9 – HEADS - “Chain”
• February 16 – HEADS or TAILS - “Light or Dark”
• March 2 – HEADS - “Cup”

There – I’ve listed 3!

Seriously, that wasn’t my list.  Here’s the list I would’ve posted on February 2, if I had actually made up my mind before Tuesday night, when it was too late.  Yes, I know someone told me it’s never too late for Heads or Tails, but I figure if I don’t get it done by sometime on Tuesday, then it’s too late.  Anyway, without further ado:

3 books Cory and I just had to buy at Barnes & Noble, because they were $2 each, and because they were just so nerdy:

1. Battle Cries: The most stirring speeches from history’s greatest warriors, activists, and revolutionaries by James Inglis
2. The Compleat Cast of Characters in Literature (Sparknotes)
3. Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters

(links are to Amazon, because I couldn’t find the first one on the Barnes & Noble website)  I don’t know how much we’ll use these books, but we just couldn’t pass them up!  Now, if we’d only found books on eczema or politics, we could have easily passed those up.

Heads or Tails is a fun weekly meme created and hosted by Barb (aka Skittles) – feel free to join in!

The Quest for the Black Jeans

Cory really likes black jeans - not a dark black, more like a very faded black.  He had a pair that he completely wore out.  First there were rips in the legs, which we sewed up so he could continue wearing them, but then they ripped out by the back pockets.  First he just got some cool boxers to wear under them, when the rip wasn't too big, but then they just ripped so badly there was no wearing them - decently, anyway.  Since then we've found him another couple pairs, but they've either ripped out by the back pockets again or had some other problem.  Either that boy has bad luck with black jeans or he's just extra hard on them because he wears them all the time.

Anyway, we went on a quest for new black jeans on Sunday, along with getting our hair cut and going to Sam's for a bunch of stuff.  We had 20% off at Kohl's, so we started off looking there - but no black jeans.  He did find one pair on the clearance rack, but they were too short.  So we went to the mall and looked at JCPenney and Sears, but no luck there, either.   They did have some black jeans at Penney's but either he didn't like them or they didn't fit right.  He tried on a size larger than he usually wears, and it looked like he was going to need to start taking weight loss supplements or start an exercise program - and here I thought men's jeans came in consistent sizes.

We were beginning to think Cory would have to give up on those black jeans, and he was getting very frustrated.  So we stopped and had dinner at Olive Garden (yum!), and Cory and I walked over to Kmart while we were waiting for our table.  No black jeans there, either.  Then, after dinner we decided to try one more store - the Target we had driven by earlier, but not stopped in.  There, he found a pair he really liked, but they were $35, and a pair he liked, though not as well - but they were only $16.  He settled for the $16 ones, which fit really nice and look good.  Even better?  There was no sign, but they were on sale for $11.88!

Now, if we'd only looked at Target the first time we went by, we could've saved ourselves a lot of time and frustration.

Anything Worth Doing

Sometimes, the reason I'm good at things is the same reason I'm not so good.  I'm good at making web pages work and dealing with all the little details.  I'm good at putting together a wall calendar for the school district, again with all those little details.  I'm good at typing up the minutes for the Library Board meetings.  I'm good at all those things because I'm a perfectionist, and I'm willing to work at it until all those little details are right.

Then again, I'm not so good at those same things - because I'm a perfectionist.  Why?  Because it takes me so long to do things, because I can't publish or share, because I'm not finished until it's perfect.  Whether it's a book review, a murad review, or even a facebook status update, it has to be perfect.  Even after I post, I read it and edit, or delete and start over.  Imagine my life before computers - one messed up word, and the entire sheet of paper ended up in the trash can! 

Also, because all of this takes time, I put off doing things - until I have the time to do them right.  Some things would never get done if I didn't have deadlines, or friends who push me to just do it.  My friend Peggy is a good example of this.  We work on a Feast of Tabernacles website together.  She doesn't have the knowledge or the patience for all those details.  What she does is throw together the web pages with all the information, and then she uploads them to the server.   Then she knows I'll have to take care of all the details, because I won't be able to stand them until I tweak them all so that they're right.

And now, I've got some tweaking to do...

Looking at the Sky on Friday - 48

I’m so glad there’s a meme like Looking at the Sky on Friday, because it means all the time I spend looking at the sky, and taking pictures of it, has a purpose! Click the badge for more info.

My mornings have been getting brighter and brighter.  I get up every morning at 5:45 and go for a 2 mile walk, and all winter long I’m walking in the dark.  Hey, I’d rather walk in the dark than rely on fat burners, so I do it, but I really appreciate it when the days start getting longer.  I get to enjoy the sunrise instead of a dark, star-filled sky.

Unfortunately, Daylight Saving Time is scheduled to start next weekend, which means my mornings are going to be a little darker again, at least for a while.  I enjoy the stars, too, but I’m really ready for some light.

If you enjoy skies as much as I do, be sure to check out Looking at the Sky on Friday.