Confessions of an Unorganized Momma

How easily one forgets..

2010-11-13T10:25:00.001-06:00

It is truly amazing how easily one forgets how difficult calorie counting can be and how much mindless eating you can do. Yesterday as I realized I was getting sick I thought “Hmm… some hot chocolate would be really nice for my sore throat. Maybe I can the hubby pick some up at the station.” Then I realized that if I had some (I’m not talking typical Swiss Miss hot chocolate, I’m talking gas station out of the machine hot chocolate), a) I wouldn’t know how many calories I consumed & b) I would more than likely consume half if not all of my calories for the day in that one single cup of hot chocolate. I realized it was time to forget that idea and just cope with the throat. I think I have some tea but I’ll be sure to stock up on it for future colds. MUCH lower in calorie and really all I’m going for is something warm on my sore throat. I mean really, even hot water would work but flavor is nice.

I’ve also realized how hard it is to feed the baby without wanting to take a bite myself. Definitely need to find more finger foods for him so I don’t have to help feed him and feel like I should “sample” it. I’ve managed to stop myself from sneaking a Cheez-it or a bite of baby’s lunch so far and I intend to. Breakfast and lunch for me right now are Slim Fast but I think I’ll switch to a higher protein, lower carb protein shake. This allows me to easily control my calories and gives me a large allowance for snacks and supper. I can even sneak in a pop if I want to so for now I’ll continue this route and see how it works for weight loss. If I deprive myself too much, I’ll never succeed and with the holidays coming up I need all the help I can get.

I’m also using Daily Burn to track my food and workouts (I also track my workouts on Daily Mile). If I’m unsure of the calories of my meal, I’m actually entering the recipe so that I can be as accurate as possible. I know it’s not perfect but as long as it’s close it works for me!

Rethink Your Shrink: Weigh-in #4

2010-01-27T17:13:00.001-06:00

Woof have I been busy! I’ve taken on another job so I work full time hours from home now. Yeesh! Plus I try to parent my boys of course. lol I didn’t get any shredding in. :( But I did my couch to 5k! I managed to run a half mile at a time on Sunday. I’m sure that’s the most I’ve ever ran/jogged in my life. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the scale since I’ve been dipping into the ice cream lately, but I managed to lose 2.4 pounds! Woohoo!

I am officially down to 170, so I’ve lost a total of 8.4 pounds so far! Yay for breastfeeding and exercise. We also might have added someone to our “half marathon team” so it won’t just be my hubby and I running. One of my gal pals may join us. Gotta love convincing someone else to be as crazy as you are. hehe

Rethink Your Shrink: Weigh-in #3

2010-01-20T14:58:00.001-06:00

I have not been blogging about this journey nearly as much as I would like to, but it’s all for good reason. I am too busy working! :) And of course caring for my boys. I have been getting my Couch to 5K workouts and squeezing in my 30 Day Shred workouts a couple times a week as well. I am still not controlling my diet too much, but I am ~~attempting~~ refraining from over-eating every chance I get.

I wasn’t expecting any impressive numbers for this weeks weigh-in. Boy was I surprised when the scale showed 172.4! I was 176.1 last week, so I lost nearly 4 pounds!! And am down 6 from when I started. Woohoo!!

This has more than made up for the rollercoaster ride our household has been having with bills and reduced hours at my husband’s work. I also should be starting a full-time position tomorrow that will allow me to continue to stay home but help contribute financially. Wahoo!!! That should help the grocery bill a little bit!

Rethink Your Shrink: Weigh-in #2

2010-01-13T22:17:00.001-06:00

I have been such a slacker with my blog this week. Yeesh! My diet has been less than perfect this week so I was definitely hesitant to look at the scale today. I was expecting a gain, but surprisingly I still managed to lose a little. Last week I was 176.6 and today I was 176.1 for a loss of 0.5. Small, but I’ll take it. So far for the Rethink Your Shrink challenge I’ve lost 2.3 pounds!

I’ve added Jillian Michael’s 30-day shred in this week in addition to the Couch 2 5k plan, so hopefully that will help with the loss. I’ve gotta blast some of this fat away so I’m a little thinner for my little guy’s baptism next month. I’m also going to attempt to be better about drinking water. I have been really bad with that. I usually am.

The Monday Project #1: Project “Me”

2010-01-08T10:35:00.001-06:00

Wow! What a slacker I have been this week!! Not so much with exercise but with blogging. It’s time to post my ~~homework~~ Monday Project and I’m just getting around to it. Yes, that’s me, always waiting for the deadline. In my defense, I have been busy with work and kids. It definitely did not help that my hubby couldn’t come home Wednesday night because the weather was lousy. It was nice here at home though. Well, as nice as it can be in Minnesota in January.

This week we are taking a look back and figuring out why we are here. I definitely know most of the reasons why I am where I am right now. One of them would be the beautiful baby I see swinging across the living room. Relax, he is literally in a swing right now. I have 2 boys and I gained 50+ pounds with each pregnancy. I lost all of the weight with my 1st. I had a pretty active retail job during college and after college. That helped to make it so I didn’t really have to exercise or watch what I was eating too hard to maintain a pretty decent weight. I’ve always been relatively thin, but have always had body issues. Probably doesn’t help that my mom always called me “bubble butt”. She swears it wasn’t because my butt was large, but only because she thought I had a cute little “bubble butt”. haha I guess it’s because she has almost no butt. Her butt is very flat, maybe that’s an effect of aging. I remember even at an age of 7 or so, thinking my thighs were too big. In retrospect, I’ve always had muscular thighs and I think I honestly looked down at that muscle and thought it made my thighs look fat. When I look back at pictures of me at that age, my thighs were definitely NOT big. If only the little me could see the big me now. What would she think?!

So, I gained my 50+ pounds with my first pregnancy and really did very little to lose the weight. I continued to breastfeed when I went back to work, so I’d grab a Slim-fast for breakfast so I’d have breakfast as we dashed out the door. Then I’d grab a Slim-fast for lunch so that I could go pump for the next day. I believe the combination of the Slim-fast, breastfeeding, and going back to my active job helped me lose weight and get me back to where I started, which was about 5-10 pounds heavier than I wanted to be. If only that version of me, could see me know. Yikes!

A couple of years ago, I finally left my retail job for a desk job. That was the beginning of the end. haha I worked at that job for about 6 months and tried to eat right to maintain my weight, but that didn’t work very well. Then I became a SAHM and that combined with TTC baby #2, suffering a miscarriage, and then getting pregnant packed on the rest of the weight. The day before my 2nd son was born, I tipped the scales at about 211 pounds. Yeesh! I remember actually having fears I wouldn’t be healthy enough to actually survive labor and/or not have the strength to push him out. I ended up needing a c-section, so those fears really didn’t matter. I lost 35 pounds right away. It was so nice to see the weight “melt” off without trying, but frustrating that I couldn’t keep the weight loss up because of recovery.

That has what has brought me to today. I’ve lost all of the baby weight that I feel will just “fall” off of my body and now it’s time to do the work on the rest and then tackle the extra weight beyond where I started when I became pregnant a year ago. I hate seeing myself in pictures and refuse to be this size for very long. I want to be happy with how I look and how I feel and I know I have to do some work.

The biggest obstacle I need to overcome is diet. I am such a sweets addict, it’s ridiculous. It’s literally a disease like alcoholism for me, only it deals with food. I have to learn to control that. Food is my major problem/weakness along with portion size. I need to learn self-control. I’ve already seen from this week that I am going to have to start counting calories and/or tracking portion size if I want to see continued results. Exercise will help, but it will not do it alone.

I have my husband on board to do a half marathon with me, which will help motivate me to at the very minimum hop onto the treadmill. Heck, I did my run last night and he didn’t! He has better willpower than me, so I truly think getting him on board for this was the best thing I could have done. I need someone to push me, without being too pushy. Plus, he could stand to lose weight and he knows it. It’s a win-win!

Weigh-in Wednesday

2010-01-06T16:07:00.001-06:00

Wow! Where did the week go? Today’s the day to find out how badly the remainder of the holiday season was to me (or is was I bad to it? lol). I was pleasantly surprised when I saw I had lost some weight. I didn’t technically start exercising until Sunday and I haven’t actually started counting calories. I can’t get the hubby on board with that and I REALLY need his help on that, so for now I will continue to watch what I eat without feeling overly restricted and keep up with the exercise. I have cut back, so I should definitely see results.

So, drum roll please………..

Starting weight: 178.4 lbs.

Weight today: 176.6 lbs.

Total loss: 1.8 lbs.

Not too shabby!

You don’t want to miss this!

2010-01-04T12:56:00.001-06:00

The crew over at The Sisterhood of the shrinking jeans has an awesome giveaway to kick off the new year. They are giving away two, yes TWO, gift cards to The Healthy Pantry. I wasn’t familiar with the Healthy Pantry until I saw this giveaway, but let me tell you I am very familiar with it now. Their meal kits look amazing and are just the thing I need to jumpstart my weight loss. So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to Shrinking Jeans right now to check it out for yourself!

Oh where, oh where

2010-01-04T10:38:00.001-06:00

Oh where, oh where has my energy gone. Oh where, oh where can it be? I am dragging butt today. I definitely need to get a workout in while my monkey is napping so I’ll hopefully have a boost for the afternoon. Hopefully the baby will cooperate. I tried my first green smoothie today. It was, well, very green! lol I had to add extra fruit to somewhat counteract that. I may have to add less green tomorrow. I’ve finished half of it and feel no energy boost that I’ve read about. Of course, it doesn’t help that the baby didn’t fall asleep for the night until 2. He was fighting sleep with everything he had. He’d even fake me out by falling asleep and then waking up within 15 minutes of my head hitting the pillow. Silly guy!

I’m not sore from yesterdays run/walk yet, so that’s encouraging. Now all I need to do is wake up and find my motivation so I can get some work done. Maybe I’ll have to try the 2nd half of my smoothie to see if it contains the “boost” I need. hehe

I survived!

2010-01-03T21:50:00.001-06:00

Well, I survived my first workout! The hubby and I are doing the Couch to 5k program right now to help get us ready for our half marathon. Today was Day 1 for us and we’re both still standing. We hauled the treadmill out of our storage area and lugged it into the living room. We officially have no excuses not to use it, especially since it stares us in the face the entire time we’re in the living room. Of course, when I suggested doing this months ago, the hubby didn’t like the idea. I guess when it’s his idea, it’s better. hehe He wrote out our treadmill workouts on a calendar for the next 8 weeks and we plan to do them the same day. I think right now we’re working towards working out in the evening. This is helpful for me as I have someone to make sure the boys are happy while I jog. I plan on supplementing with a Jillian Michaels DVD on my off days as my body needs the extra help. This baby was very, very hard on my body. It doesn’t help that he was almost 10 pounds!! Yikes!

We hopped on our Wii Fit tonight to lock in our weights so we can see our progress (nothing like having the TV tell you that you are obese). The hubby isn’t necessarily dieting, but the exercise alone should help him shed some weight. Hopefully he’ll adjust his lunches at work to help as well. Tomorrow I’ll be trying my first green smoothie as I attempt to incorporate some healthier food into my diet. I washed up my Romaine so it’s ready for the morning.

Have we lost our minds??

2010-01-01T18:04:00.001-06:00

So, this morning I went over to The Sisterhood of the shrinking jeans to check out this Fitness Friday post. I became instantly ~~insane~~ inspired. While I’d love to join everybody and meet up in San Diego, I just don’t feel that’s feasible with an infant at home. I was a little disappointed at the thought of missing out on the opportunity to train for a 1/2 marathon. Why? I’m not so sure as I have never been a runner and am so incredibly out of shape it’s ridiculous. After trying to figure out how I could make it work, I realized we have a fabulous little marathon about 80 miles away from where we live and it would be just as rewarding to participate in it. In fact, family and friends could actually witness my participation first-hand!

I am definitely not the most dedicated person. Probably the only thing I have ever been dedicated about is breastfeeding so I realized I had to get someone else on board to run the 1/2 marathon with me. My hubby and I had just discussed that we both wanted to lose weight and get in better shape since we are approaching **cough cough** the big 3-0, so I decided he was going to be my ~~victim~~ partner. It took a bit of discussion and convincing, but he is in and he is definitely far more dedicated than I. We’ll both hold each other to it and he’s making sure we tell everybody so we are held accountable.

So Saturday May 22nd, 2010 we will be running in the Fargo 1/2 marathon! Are we nuts, or what? :) The hubby is even talking about tackling the full one next year!!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T17:22:00.001-06:00

I’m on day 2 of Rethink your Shrink and to be honest, I’m not officially “dieting” yet. We still have 2 more holiday functions to get through over the next couple of days and I honestly have not one bit of healthy food in the house. So, the calorie counting and hard-core exercise has not started, but the preparation and diet mentality is still there (along with a little splurging before I start good behavior lol). Of course, today I managed to puncture my foot with some type of sharp instrument. I honestly can’t tell you what it is, as it was in my grandmother’s sewing kid and I’ve never actually seen one of these before. The bottom of my foot is quite tender so I may have to start out with a modified exercise plan if it’s still bugging me on Monday. I’m definitely not letting it be an excuse to not exercise considering my legs, arms, etc still move. :) But running and aerobics may be out of the question. I’m really hoping that by Monday it’s feeling better since I’m babying it now.

Anywho, since I am still in the diet mindset I thought I’d participate in the “Premiere Edition” of The Thursday Three over at Shrinking Jeans. Our “homework” (did I mention I hate homework?) is to:

Write down 3 goals you have for yourself for this challenge.

I will lose 10 pounds.
I will blog 5 out of the 7 days of the week about the challenge.
I will workout no less than 4 days a week.

Track your goals.

I set up a ticker on my blog for my weight los so I’ve got that one down.
I think the blogging is easy to track since I’ll have “written” record of when I have blogged about the challenge.
I intend to “schedule” my workouts, though I will have to allow a certain amount of flexibility for a nursing newborn. Haven’t quite figured out how I will schedule them yet.

Come up with a NON-FOOD reward.

A NON-FOOD reward? Does Starbucks count? haha When I reach all of my goals, I will treat myself to a pair of new workout shoes. Mine are pretty raggy. Though I’m not one to treat myself.

Now I’m off to over-indulge a little at the in-laws for New Years. Then I get to come home and make my healthy grocery list so I can start the new year off right! Does anybody do the Green Smoothies? I think I’m going to try those as a way to incorporate some of my fruits and veggies into my day. I haven’t picked a recipe yet, but they look pretty simple

I’m back and ready for the new year!

2009-12-30T11:56:00.002-06:00

Wow! It’s been a while, huh? I took a bit of a blogging break to have a baby and now that he’s 7 weeks old, I think I’m as adjusted to having two kids as I’ll ever be! I’ve been trying to find a way to balance housework, work, and myself and it’s just not working but I will get there.

This year I’m going to focus on trying to find the balance and losing the “baby” weight (and the non-baby weight haha). I’ve got quite a bit of work ahead of myself, especially with the weight loss. I’ve got a good 50 pounds to lose and only about 20-25 of that is left from my pregnancy. I’ve already lost 30 pounds, but I’m afraid that’s about all the weight that’s going to melt right off considering I lost all of that in the first couple of weeks. I guess that’s the benefit of having a 10 pound baby! Yikes! I’m still nursing, so I have to keep that in mind while eating so I don’t interfere with my milk supply. I refuse to wait until I’m done nursing since I nursed my son for 18 months. By that time, I’ll be ready for another baby!! Well, maybe I will. haha

I’m still formulating my official weight-loss plan but I will be counting calories and exercising. I’m also joining Rethink Your Shrink over at The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans. I’ve got Couch to 5k bookmarked, so as soon as my hubby frees up some room for my treadmill I can try that, but in the meantime I have some Jillian Michaels workout DVDs calling my name.

My hubby’s also looking to lose some weight, so I’ll post his successes if he joins in.

So, what are you waiting for?

A Cheerful Giver: baby carrier giveaway

2009-08-11T15:03:00.002-05:00

Kristin over at Bits and Pieces from My Life has a great giveaway going on. She’s giving a baby carrier to a lucky reader and the best part is she’s even giving a choice as to which carrier that can be won! Stop by and leave a comment on her blog to earn an entry and check out other ways to earn an entry too.

I am in need of a baby carrier for the new baby that will be arriving in a few months, so I am super excited about this. Good luck to everyone!

Tackle it Tuesday 8-4-09

2009-08-04T09:10:00.002-05:00

We put new shingles on the house this past weekend and while I wasn’t on the roof at all (I am 6 months pregnant after all), I still consider it my tackle. :) I picked up lots of shingle mess (unfortunately there is still more out there) and many nails. I also had the pleasure of cooking for the crew Saturday and Sunday. We are so glad to have the project done. The shingles were in pretty bad shape and we didn’t dare to keep them on the house much longer. The kind people that had this house before us shingled over the previous shingles so my poor hubby (and some of his family/crew) developed some pretty nice blisters. Now we get to paint the house, though I’m not sure when we’ll tackle that.

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For more Tackle it Tuesdays, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Free Sample of Splenda

2009-07-29T13:36:00.000-05:00

Click here to get a free sample of Splenda. You get your choice of Splenda No Calorie Sweetener with Fiber, Splenda Flavors for Coffee Hazelnut, or Splenda Flavors for Coffee Mocha.

Free sample of Diamond Vodkas

2009-07-29T12:28:00.000-05:00

Click here to request a free sample of Diamond Vodkas. I’m not a vodka drinker, but this would go nicely in a gift basket.

Free PediaSure after MIR

2009-07-29T11:23:00.000-05:00

Click here to get information on how to get PediaSure free after mail-in rebate.

Free ABC’s of Safety Coloring Bood Download

2009-07-29T10:18:00.000-05:00

Click here to download a free ABC’s of Safety coloring book from HensonFuerst Personal Injury Attorneys. Gotta love those free coloring books!

Fabulous Freebies 7/29

2009-07-29T08:27:00.001-05:00

Free Kiss My Face Bath/Shower Gel (have to click confirmation link in email to complete offer!)

Thanks, Thrifty In Dallas!

Free issue of Dog’s Life magazine
Free copy of The Full Plate Diet (First 20,000 to respond)

Thanks, Utah Deal Diva!

Free Magic Trick

2009-07-29T07:13:00.001-05:00

Click here to receive a free magic trick from Fitz Magic. I’m really curious to see what (if anything) shows up. Apparently they have had a high demand for the free trick so they are trying to come up with a new one to send out that is a little more cost effective. They do say you can still sign up, it will just take a little bit of time to get it to you.

Free Space Camp CD & Poster

2009-07-29T07:13:00.000-05:00

Click here to receive a free Space Camp CD & Poster (U.S. residents only!). There doesn’t appear to be an age requirement to the offer.

Free sample of Underjams

2009-07-28T12:09:00.000-05:00

Click here to receive a free sample of Underjams Night Wear.

Free Toby the Train coloring book

2009-07-28T11:03:00.000-05:00

Click here to receive a free Toby the Train coloring book from Norfolk Southern Corporation. I love getting these since my 2.5 year old doesn’t really “color”, it’s more of a scribble. He also has a tendency to tear pages out or up.

Free sample of Goodnites

2009-07-28T09:57:00.001-05:00

Click here to receive a free sample of Goodnites Underpants.

And then click here to receive a free sample of Goodnites boxers.

I was able to sign up for both with no problems. Now, if I can just potty training jump-started so I could put these to use some day.

Fabulous Freebies 7/28

2009-07-28T08:38:00.001-05:00

Free Greenies Sample (for dogs) – this may be an existing sample offer as it told me I had already received the sample when I filled out my information
Minute Maid Frozen Treats Coupons
P&G samples and/or coupons – I’ve been a member for a while but forget to check in on the deals available to me.

Thanks, Thrifty In Dallas!

Free sample of Flixsticks (and coupons)

Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

Free sample of L’Oreal Revitalift

Thanks, Northern Cheapskate!

Free Microflex Gloves
Free Caffeinated Soap (First 4,000)

Thanks, Free Sample Freak!

Tackle it Tuesday 7/28

2009-07-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

I really, REALLY wish I had Before photos to make these pictures actually look like Afters. The hubby and I tidied up the garage in preparation for some sheetrock to be delivered so we can insulate and finish it off inside. Bye, bye garage, hello master bedroom and storage (possibly future bathroom)! There is still a giant heap of garbage right in front of the garage door that will be removed Wednesday when the dumpster for our reshingling project arrives. That will help 1/2 of the garage look less messy. The other half will get tidied up a bit more when the hubby uses the lumber to fill in where the garage door is and make it a full wall. I am excited to get our bedroom finished off (at least sheetrocked) so we can start getting the baby’s room ready.

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For more Tackle it Tuesdays, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Free Emeril’s Original Essence

2009-07-27T15:41:00.001-05:00

Click here to receive 2 -0.25 oz. samples of Emeril’s Original Essence. Bam! (hehe Had to throw that in there)

Free sample of ideal

2009-07-27T13:48:00.001-05:00

Click here to receive a free sample of ideal No Calorie Sweetener. There is sound/music on this page so you may need/want to adjust the volume before you visit.

Please Pray for Baby Stellan

2009-07-27T12:22:00.002-05:00

Hello all prayer warriors. Baby Stellan needs our prayers. Please take a moment to pray for his health and strength and to give his family the strength to be his support.

For more information and updates about Baby Stellan please visit My Charming Kids.

Free Fiber One Samples

2009-07-27T12:00:00.000-05:00

Get a free sample of Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal and Fiber One Oats & Chocolate bar here. You’ll also receive $5 in coupons! I know I’ve signed up for a Fiber One sample in the past, but this one went through fine for me so it must be a new offer (or I signed up for the previous sample elsewhere).

FreeYoplait Whips Coupon

2009-07-27T10:58:00.001-05:00

Sign up for the Betty Crocker Newsletter and receive a coupon for a free sample of Yoplait Whips! The offer is void for residents of CA, ID, LA, MN, NJ, NV, ND, or TN but you can get a printable coupon for $0.60 off 3 cups an flavor of Yoplait Whips Yogurt here. I happen to be a MN resident, so I just took the printable coupon instead of the newsletter sign-up.

Fabulous Freebies 7/27

2009-07-27T07:37:00.002-05:00

Free Mocha Monday @ McDonalds

Thanks, Mindi (Moms Need to Know)!

Free office supplies sampler from Print Runner

Thanks, Free Sample Freak!

Your Magic Spice Sample

Lacoste Perfume Sample

Menu Plan Monday 7/27/09

2009-07-26T21:26:00.006-05:00

Monday: Roast Chicken

Tuesday: Pork Loin (haven’t decided how I’m going to make that yet)

Wednesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Thursday: Leftover Pork

Friday: Homemade Mac N Cheese – need to find a good recipe

Saturday: Teryaki Chicken

Sunday: Leftovers or else grill

I got a free bag of potatoes at the grocery store this week, so I'll be using those for a side dish. I haven't decided how I'll prepare them besides baking them.

I didn’t get anything done with my blueberries last week, but I need to get our deep freezer cleaned out so I have some pumpkin puree I need to use up so I’ll try to make something with that. We’re shingling the roof this week, so I’ll be making some treats for that.

I will post recipes/links to recipes throughout the week, so check back for those. I'm only so organized (I call myself Unorganized Momma for a reason after all). lol

For more Menu Plan Monday, check out OrgJunkie! You won't regret it!

Fabulous Freebies 7/26

2009-07-26T09:17:00.003-05:00

Here’s a list of some fabulous freebies floating around the blogosphere today!

Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

Free Boss Orange Sample
Free Nescafe Sampler Pack
Free Teeccino Sample (w/Newsletter Signup)

Thanks, Thrifty In Dallas!

Free True Lemon Sample

Thanks, Northern Cheapskate!

Free Screen Cleaner

Thanks Free Stuff 4 Free!

I’m excited to get mine in the mail (except the Teeccino, I didn’t sign up because I just don’t care for it). If you know of any freebies that I missed, let me know and I’ll post them tomorrow!

Chi Chi Designs It Birthday Bash Giveaway

2009-07-25T22:29:00.002-05:00

Patricia over at Chi Chi Designs It has a GREAT giveaway. Patricia is turning 29 on July 27th and is celebrating HER birthday (and her blog launch) by giving US this great giveaway. Isn’t that awesome?

What you'll win:

A customized blogger template similar to the one pictured above.
Custom header with your choice of vector image (choose below)
Customized featured content gallery
A 125x125 promotional banner to match
A 125x125 ad banner to match
Matching favicon
Matching post banner
Color coordinated body
Grab banner code
Image scrolling code
Ad code

What you'll need:

A blogger blog
A free image hosting account (like photobucket)

How to enter:

Stop over to Chi Chi Designs It and check out this post for all the details about this giveaway.

Thanks Patricia and Happy Birthday!!

"Top 10 Reasons I am Excited to Stay Home with My Family this Coming Weekend."

2009-07-24T10:18:00.002-05:00

I’m going to take advantage of my hubby being home and learn about Cozi. I definitely could use more organization in my life.
The weather is supposed to be nice so hopefully we can enjoy some lake time, even though I have a pregnancy rash (PUPPP) that seems to be aggravated by the sun and it’s heat. :(
I will have a car to go grocery shopping!! When the lease was up on my Jeep we said good-bye to it since I never go anywhere. It’s nice when there is a vehicle around to go places though.
The hubby is going to get rid of the ugly garage door and sheet up the hole and put siding there since the half of the garage is our future bedroom!
I seem to be more productive on the weekends since I don’t have my work email to distract me. Hopefully I can FINALLY get caught up on dishes again.
I’m excited to hopefully sneak in a nap sometime this weekend! :)
Did I mention I am excited to grocery shopping in a town with a Wal-Mart?
I’m excited to see my hubby and my little monkey spend some time together. They don’t get enough of that during the week.
I just plain ol’ enjoy the weekend. There’s really no schedule so anything goes.
I’m hoping to clean out the garage a bit in preparation for the big dumpster that will be parked in our driveway next week while we re-shingle the house!! Woohoo!

I’m participating in the NotAtBlogHer09 party, Blog Hop '09, and Happy Blog Nerd Bash. Cozi is sponsoring the 15 moms who get the most comments to their “Top 10 Reasons I am Excited to Stay Home with My Family this Coming Weekend.” post with $100 each. Check out Mom of 2 Boys, Wife of 1 for more details and PLEASE leave a comment! ;)

Meet Unorganized Momma

2009-07-24T09:40:00.001-05:00

I really hate “About Me’s” because I never know what to write. I enjoy reading them, but I never feel I have anything interesting to say. So grab a little caffeine so you stay awake through mine. ;)

My name is Shanna (Shanna, like banana and I have seen Shanna’s Show a couple of times but only learned about it a few years ago). I am a 26 year old work at home mom. I’ve only been staying home for about a year now, so I consider myself a newbie to it still. I’ve been working from home for about 6 months now. I work for a great web design company in Texas called Pithy Productions, Inc. I do their customer service, some project management, and whatever else they ask me to do. My boss is great and she is from Minnesota just like me! She also authors ebooks about the open source ecommerce programs, so if you are in need check out osCommerce Manuals.

I am from Minnesota and have lived here my whole life. I was born in the southern part of the state but have lived in the northern part of the state for the majority of my life. I married my high school sweetheart and we have one son Ashton who is 2.5 and another boy due to join us in November (he’s due right before hunting opener so hopefully he’ll come just a little early). We moved back to the town we grew up in last August so I could stay at home. We bought a little fixer-upper that has kept us my hubby busy.

I love frugal living, couponing (though I am still learning), blogging, and otherwise avoiding housework. I am no domestic diva, but I can cook! I just need to get better about the cleaning, but then again I do call myself “Unorganized Momma” for a reason.

I just finished a move back to Blogger so there’s still a little dust in the corners and some cobwebs to clear out. Feel free to leaf through my old posts if you have time. Please do check out my “Top 10 Reasons I am Excited to Stay Home with My Family this Coming Weekend.” post and PLEASE, PLEASE pretty PLEASE leave a comment. I’d LOVE to win the $100! I have the details about how you can participate in the fun in that post so there’s even more incentive to check it out! :) Also, please check out my Journey for Jess post and feel free to spread the word about the journey. She was a very special little girl.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you stayed awake and if not, I COMPLETELY understand! I'm participating in NotAtBlogHer09, Blog Hop 09, and Happy Blog Nerd Bash. Join in on the fun!

Journey for Jess

2009-07-24T09:29:00.000-05:00

Journey for Jess is a cause near and dear to my heart. Jess is my husband’s cousin. She lived a very short life but made an impression on so many people. Here is her story:

Jess Marie was born on January 7, 2004 weighing 8 lbs, 7 oz, almost 3 weeks early. Her first months of life were filled with lots of sleeping and eating and she was a pretty simple baby to take care of. At about 3 months of age, unbeknownst to us, Jess had her first small seizures. On September 1st, 2004, at about 8 months of age, Jess had a 17 minute tonic clonic seizure that prompted her first ride in an ambulance and visit to the ER. Thought to be a simple childhood seizure, she was discharged home with an appointment to have an EEG done in a week. Two weeks later, she had her second tonic clonic seizure, the same day her EEG report reached her pediatrician's office. The report indicated that Jess' brain did in fact have a seizure pattern. She was started on a seizure med, spent the night in the hospital and was discharged to home. November 5th, 2004 Jess had an uncontrolled tonic clonic seizure that led to the administration of multiple medications, spinal tap, and eventually a referral to a pediatric epileptologist and her first Life Flight airplane transfer.

Over the next months and years of Jess' young life, she experienced countless head drop seizures and a few more tonic clonic seizures, including a six hour tonic clonic that left her dependent upon a ventilator to breathe, for two days. She tried over a dozen ant-seizure meds, a special epilepsy diet, had two brain surgeries resulting in a complete corpus callosotomy, and through all of these interventions, she continued to have daily seizures. All without a known cause, as her brain structure was normal and there were no signs of infection or inflammation.

On June 15, 2007 we awoke at 5AM to find that Jess had been seizing in her sleep (a time that she usually was seizure free) for hours. Over the next two days we would learn that Jess' brain was deprived of adequate oxygen for an extensive period of time, and was dying. Jess Marie was pronounced dead on June 18th at 9:39PM. Her heart and kidneys were donated to a baby and a grandma in need, and our angel girl went to sit in the lap of Jesus and be our guardian angel forever.

Jess' life was filled with so much more than seizures. She taught us the importance of cherishing the moments we have with those we love. She taught us how important hugs and moochies and cuddling are, and the power of a smile and a laugh. She was the most perfect gift we could have received for those three and a half years, and we will never forget, and never be the same because of her love and her life.

Jess’ parents and brother Noah have been on their Journey for Jess for 2 weeks now. To follow their journey, check out journeyforjess.blogspot.com.

Cherries!!

2009-07-24T08:23:00.006-05:00

Aren’t they beautiful!? I have never purchased or even cooked/baked with fresh cherries, but they looked so good at the grocery store the other day that I couldn’t resist. Unfortunately I didn’t get around to popping them in the freezer quick enough, so I lost about half of them but I did make a pretty good cobbler out of the other half.
Here’s the recipe:
Fresh Cherry Cobbler
4 cups fresh pitted cherries (about 2 lbs uncleaned)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
FOR THE BATTER
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
Combine in a large saucepan the cherries, 3/4 cup sugar, corn starch and water. Let stand at least one hour and up to several hours, stirring occasionally. Cook and stir till slightly thickened and bubbly, about 5 to 10 minutes at a good boil. Add 1 TBS butter and set aside. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Put the 1/2 cup butter in a 9 X 13-inch glass baking dish and put the dish in the preheating oven. While the butter is melting, mix the batter by combining flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and milk. When the butter is completely melted, remove the pan and pour the batter into the melted butter. The batter will immediately begin to cook, which is what you want. Carefully spoon the cherry mixture evenly over the batter. Return dish to oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until batter sets and is browned. As the cobbler cooks, the batter will begin to rise up around the cherry mixture. Serve warm (or at room temperature) with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

I also made Triple Chocolate Cherry bars. I’ve been slowly accumulating all the ingredients. I never had them on my shopping list at the same time, so it took a while for me to remember to get all of the ingredients. I did have to make a couple of substitutions because I didn't have the EXACT ingredients to follow the recipe.

Triple Chocolate Cherry Bars

1 box Devil's Food cake mix
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 bag (12-oz size) semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup) I guestimated instead of measuring.
1 container Betty Crocker® Whipped chocolate frosting

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease and flour 15x10x1-inch or 13x9-inch pan, or spray with baking spray with flour. In large bowl, gently mix dry cake mix, pie filling, eggs and chocolate chips with rubber scraper; break up any undissolved cake mix by pressing with scraper. Carefully spread in pan. Bake 15x10x1-inch pan 25 to 30 minutes, 13x9-inch pan 35 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Frost with frosting. For bars, cut into 8 rows by 6 rows.

**I made mine in a 9x13 glass pan and it really would have benefited from being in a 15x10 pan. They are pretty high like cake and it would have been nice for them to be thinner like bars. They are still delicious though. ;)

Success!!!

2009-07-23T18:52:00.001-05:00

One thing I really wanted to accomplish with my move back to Blogger was to have the ability to use an offline blogging tool like Windows Live Writer. I was having trouble getting it setup to work with my Wordpress blog and my browsers weren’t liking the latest versions of Wordpress so I found myself in a pickle. I am no programmer. I can pick apart code a little bit, but when the PHP is giving an error in Internet Explorer, I am lost. So now I am a happy camper. :) I have a new template, I have the ability to post from my browser, and I can use Windows Live Writer. There does seem to be an issue with the template I am using and how Internet Explorer 8 views it. I am working on that, so bare with me please. You can always subscribe to an RSS feed to get around that. Also, with the move I made I lost comments to blog posts made while I had the Wordpress blog. I apologize to those of you who took the time to visit and leave me a comment. I’m hoping to figure out a way to migrate that data over, but for now it’s lost. :( I’m still migrating posts over and cleaning out the cobwebs, so bare with me. This is still a work in progress.

I'm Back!!

2009-07-23T14:55:00.000-05:00

I'm back on Blogger! Something went wacky with my Wordpress on my GoDaddy account and it was extremely difficult to post easily. I decided I'd go back to my roots and go back to Blogger until I can figure out a better solution, so pardon the dust! I'll be migrating my old posts that I couldn't export from the WordPress blog over here and updating things around here. So I guess this blog is officially like my house... a work in progress! It's unbelievably nice to be able to post normally again. It was worth all the hassle of changing DNS settings. I'm a true DIY gal so the only help I utilized was Blogger's instructions on IP addresses. I love the sense of accomplishment that comes with doing something successfully!

Baked Spaghetti

2009-07-22T15:02:00.000-05:00

I don't actually have a "recipe" as I always wing it each time, so this is just a rough guideline of what I put in my Baked Spaghetti.

Thin Spaghetti Noodles (cooked)- amount is up to you, I just grab a handful or so and throw it in the pot.

Can/Jar of Spaghetti Sauce - adjust the amount of sauce as you like. I like to keep it saucy so that the leftovers are not too dry.

Diced Tomatoes - Sometimes I need to make the sauce stretch a little farther so I add in some diced tomatoes to do that.

Sugar - I use Hunts spaghetti sauce (or sometimes store brand) and I find that it benefits from a little sugar

Seasoning - I add fresh Basil & Thyme from my garden and anything else I feel the sauce needs

Ground Beef/Pepperoni - This varies each time. Sometimes it's meatless, sometimes I include one or both of these.

Mozzerella Cheese - Use how much ever you want.

Mix everything together except for the cheese and put into a pan. My batch tonight is pretty large so it's going to go in a 9 x 13 pan but usually I use a smaller pan.

Add the cheese and put in the oven to get everything hot and the cheese all melted. I usually use 350 and I would guess it's in there for around 20 minutes.

Tonight I'm going to whip up some garlic toast since I have some extra loaves of bread on hand. I mix a little butter, garlic powder, and salt together and spread on slices of bread. YUM!

Menu Plan Monday 7/20/09

2009-07-19T20:58:00.005-05:00

Wow! It has been ages since I did a MPM and I am long overdue. I have been majorly slacking on my blogging and it's time to get back on the horse. I'm 6 months pregnant, so if I don't do it now I'll never do it! :) I will post recipes each day. I'm not organized enough to have them with me when I organized MPM! I am an Unorganized Momma for a reason. ;)

Monday: Tuna Noodle Casserole

Tuesday: Chicken Enchiladas

Wednesday: Baked Spaghetti

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Chicken "burgers"

Saturday: Pork Loin (haven't decided how I'm going to prepare this yet)

Sunday: Leftovers

Treats for the week: (I think I'll do a baking day this week so stay tuned for that!)
Cherry Cobbler
Triple Chocolate Cherry Bars - I'll be putting these in the freezer for when company drops by.
Blueberry Bread/or Muffins - I got a great deal on blueberries at the grocery store so I'd like to do something with them.
I MAY make some grape jam/jelly since we are running low and I have the ingredients, but we'll see how the day goes.

For more Menu Plan Monday, visit Org Junkie!

Update

2009-02-26T11:57:00.000-06:00

I think I am all moved in now. I've still got changes to make, but my blog is all setup and in place. My blogspot link will redirect you. If you want to avoid that, please feel free to bookmark me or you can become a follower at my new location. I have the widget all set up now. I can't find a way to just transfer the information over. Come check it out!

Sneak Peek!

2009-02-24T14:19:00.000-06:00

Alright, so I hate keeping secrets! :) If you would like a sneak peek at the big changes, click here. It's nowhere near ready, but it is a start. I am very, very excited and will continue working on this.

Where DOES the time go?

2009-02-24T07:10:00.000-06:00

I have been such a slacker lately. I haven't been blogging. I haven't been taking care of my coupons very well. I've been lousy with housework...... okay, so that's kind of normal. I have been busy working, but that's no excuse. I do have to say that there are some BIG changes in the works for this blog. Okay, so I think they are big. I can't even tell you when they are going to happen, because I'm not even sure. Soon, I hope! Do I have you curious yet? Good! :) I promise this blog will be bigger and better than ever....... okay I HOPE it will be. hehe There's only room for improvement here, right?

Chicken Enchiladas

2009-01-27T17:47:00.009-06:00

10-12 flour tortillas
12 oz Sour Cream
2 cans cream of chicken soup
4 chicken breasts (cooked and then chopped) **I usually use leftover chicken from a roast chicken
1 pkg shredded cheese (cheddar, colby jack, or whatever you prefer)
1 can green chilies
1 can chopped tomatoes
** I have subbed Rotel or a can of diced tomatoes with chilies in them and it's been just fine.

Mix sour cream, soups, and chicken together. Spoon 3/4 of mixture into flour tortillas and roll up. Place in 9 x 13 casserole. Add cheese, tomatoes, and chilies to remaining mixture and pour on top. Back at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Serve with any garnishments you desire. We usually just eat them as-is.

Spring Cleaning for Normal People

2009-01-26T16:42:00.000-06:00

Money Saving Mom is hosting "Spring Cleaning for Normal People over at Biblical Womanhood. This is a great opportunity for you to get motivated to clear out the clutter before spring. I am extremely excited about this because I need the push. We've only lived in this house for a little over 5 months now, but it is full of mess and clutter already. I guess that's what happens when you try to fit 1400 sqft of stuff into a 900 sqft house. Check out Biblical Womanhood for more information and participants. Even if you don't want to participate, you'll find lots of great tips there.

Score some free Valentine photo cards!

2009-01-26T14:20:00.000-06:00

Go get your six free Valentine photo cards here. Use the code Valentine at checkout. The code is good through February 1, 2009. I found that even though it is free (yes, even free shipping), it asks for a credit card. I left that portion blank and it went through just fine. I'm so excited to have a few Valentine's to send out. I don't need more than 6, so this is just perfect. They have some pretty reasonable prices.

Thanks Money Saving Mom & Jaycie!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-01-25T21:30:00.002-06:00

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

Time for another Menu Plan Monday! Where does the time go?

Monday: Tuna Casserole
Tuesday: Chicken Enchiladas with homemade tortillas
Wednesday: Meatloaf and Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Thursday: Impossible Cheeseburger Pie with homemade biscuit mix
Friday: Meatloaf Sandwiches
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Roast Chicken

Visit here for more Menu Plan Monday. Happy planning!

I'm Experimenting

2009-01-22T10:11:00.000-06:00

Don't adjust your monitors! This is the same blog. I'm just experimenting with a new blog layout. My previous one is not 3-column and I really wish it was. I know nothing about creating my own and I'm not paying for one yet, so this is what I am using until I decide what I want to do. There's not enough room for my long title, but otherwise I like it. One day I'm going to have some fancy schmancy graphic up there any ways. For now, this will do. I'm on the hunt for something better though. If you know of any designers that have some cute free templates, let me know.

I'm a WAHM

2009-01-18T18:12:00.000-06:00

Wow, sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I have been dabbling in freelance work on Odesk. I've actually done pretty well considering I joined the site a little under 3 weeks ago. My goal is to average at least $50 each week. So far I'm holding tight to that goal. I'm just looking to supplement my husband's income with a little spending cash. Our Jeep lease is done in one month, so that payment will be gone and we won't be replacing it at the moment because I hardly go anywhere. So that will also ease the burden on our finances. Our savings is going to be depleted soon once we get our electrician to settle on an acceptable billing amount. He estimated verbally that our project would cost $1500 and he billed us over $3200. The supplies alone were over the $1500 he estimated. My husband called and told him he needed to come down some and our electrician still hasn't called back. We told him we budgeted the $1500 and we simply cannot afford $3200. So, I started working (which I had been planning to do ever since I started staying home) to earn money to either help with bills or to replenish savings. I refuse to pay the electrician until he comes down and I will not be paying in full since we do not have the money. We're super irritated.

So anywho, I've been busy with a tedious project and have been utilizing my spare time to work on it. I'm finished now, so I should be able to fit my blogging back into my schedule.

Target Deals 1/07/09

2009-01-09T14:52:00.001-06:00

Pampers Jumbo Pack $9.00 -$1.00 Manf. & $0.50 Target coupons = $8.50
Pampers Jumbo Pack $9.00 -$1.00 Manf. & $0.50 Target coupons = $8.00
Kandoo wipes $2.84 -$1.00 = $1.84
Huggies Wipes $2.39 -$1.00 = $1.39
Pampers wipes $8.99 -$1.00 Manf. & $1.25 Target coupons = $6.74
Johnsons Baby Wash $2.19 -$1.00 & $0.75 Target coupons = $0.44
Kandoo Bath Wash $2.84 -$1.00 = $1.84
Plastic Tote Carrier $1.00 (from the dollar spot)

Total OOP $30.24

Kmart Deals 1/07/09

2009-01-09T09:01:00.000-06:00

Kmart doubles is going on this week. I LOVE Kmart doubles. I have never really been a Kmart shopper, but when doubles is going on I am. And I am in heaven because my Kmart is doubling up to $2 next week!! I'm trying to get my mother-in-law to come shopping with me. Check your circular online to see if your Kmart is participating next week. If they aren't make sure you go in this week for doubles up to $1.

I did 2 transactions at Kmart.

Here is my first transaction.

Jergens Natural Glow Moisturizer $2.99 -$1.00x2= $0.99
Colgate kids Diego Toothbrush $1.99 -$0.75x2=$0.49
Colgate Kids Toothpaste $1.99 -$0.75=$0.49
Glide Floss $3.79 -$1x2= $1.79
Crest $3.79 -$0.50x2=$2.79
Crest $3.79 -$.75x2=$2.29 I was mad because I thought these were supposed to be on sale 2/$5. I'll have to return or get an adjustment next week
Carefree pantiliners $1.29 -$1x2= $0.01 for some reason it only went to $0.28 when doubled instead of $0.29
Pampers Clean N Go wipes $2.99-$1.00x2=$0.99
Pledge wipes $2.50 -$1x2=$0.50
Glade Candle $2.50 -$1x2=$0.50
Oust Air Sanitizer 2/$5 -BOGOFree coupon=$2.50 for both ($1.25each)
Slim Jim's 16 count canister $2.99 -$1.00=$0.99
Pringle's Stix $3.49-$1.00x2= $1.49
Hormel Compleats $2.00 -$1.00x2= FREE

Total OOP= $17.85

Transaction 2

Ziploc Zip n Steam Bags $2.99 -$1.00x2= $0.99
Carpet Fresh 10.5 oz $2.49 -$1.00x2= $0.49
Wet Ones $2.29 -$0.75x2= $0.79
Multi-Grain Cheerios $3.79
Kix 2.99 I had a Save $1 when you buy 2 (I messed up and didn't mean to use it but Oh Well)
6.78 -$1.00/2 x2= 4.78 (2.39 ea)
Cheerios $3.49 -$1x2= $1.49

Total OOP = $8.87

Total saved with both transactions (not factoring any sale prices)

$34.28

Menu Plan Monday

2009-01-04T20:30:00.000-06:00

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

Wow, another week gone and another Menu Plan Monday! I think we'll utilize some goodies from the freezer this week to help clear out for my grocery trip on Wednesday.

Monday: Meatloaf (from freezer) & Mixed Veggies
Tuesday: Roast Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, & Corn (carry-over from last week)
Wednesday: Meatloaf sandwiches (leftover from Monday)
Thursday: Spaghetti & Meatballs, garlic toast
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Sunday: Leftovers

I'm off to plan my Kmart doubles/Walgreens/Target/grocery trip on Wednesday (I'll post my bargains by the end of the week. I'm pretty excited because it should be kid free!!! :) For more menu planning ideas, head on over to Menu Plan Monday.

Coupon Inserts 1/4/09

2009-01-03T15:22:00.000-06:00

There are 5 coupon inserts in tomorrow's paper! You heard that right! There are 3 Smart Source and 2 Red Plum inserts. If you are new to couponing or your supply is dwindling, I suggest you buy a paper tomorrow. It's pretty rare to have that many inserts in a Sunday paper at one time.

Mindi over at Moms Need To Know has compiled a little preview of the coupons she thinks are noteworthy in tomorrow's paper. Check out her site for some great information. She does this every week, so if you're curious what coupons you might see in the paper, bookmark her site.

If you want to see all of the coupons you might expect in tomorrow's paper, check out Taylortown Preview. It took 5 hours for this week's list to be completed. You can also buy coupons there.

Keep in mind that the coupons tend to vary by location, so you may not see all of those coupons in your paper. It's best not to get your heart set on any one coupon. From my experience, the majority of the coupons they list come in my paper, but often the value might be different or some are missing altogether. I know I can't wait to get the paper tomorrow!

Happy Clipping!

Menu Plan Monday

2008-12-28T22:47:00.001-06:00

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

I've been on an unorganized hiatus for a while, but I'll try my hand at menu planning yet again. I'm hoping to get better at preparing my Menus in advance in 2009. I hope I can finally tackle it. I'm starting a diet this week, so hopefully I can watch my calories and portions in the process.

Monday-Chicken Fajitas
Tuesday- Venison Roast & Mixed Vegetables (I'm not gonna lie, I've never prepared a venison roast and I'm not looking forward to eating it)
Wednesday- Venison Stroganoff (made with leftover Venison roast)
Thursday-Just me and Ash, so we'll probably just have leftovers
Friday- Blackened Chicken Salad (whether the hubby likes it or not we're having salad)
Saturday-Roast Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Corn
Sunday- Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

For more Menu Plan Mondays, check out Org Junkie.

Kmart Deals 12/28

2008-12-28T20:26:00.000-06:00

I didn't find too many fabulous deals for myself this week at Kmart. Their prices are a little high when items are not on sale, but I found a couple deals I couldn't live without.

Gillette Bodywash $3.49 on sale (Reg. price $4.49 and Walmarts reg. $3.97)
-$2 coupon
Total OOP = $1.49

Rimmel Mousse Foundation $4.14 on sale (Reg. price $8.28, was 50% off)
-$1 coupon in Beauty Book (I actually stumbled upon some while in the store)
Total OOP = $3.14 I'm excited to try this stuff at that price!

Downy 51oz $5.00 on sale
-$1 coupon
Total OOP = $4.00

Total before coupons $13.48
Total after coupons $9.48

Walmart Deals 12/28

2008-12-28T20:17:00.000-06:00

I had a small, but really successful trip to Walmart today. I didn't really need anything, but had some coupons that were expiring so I was deal hunting.

Huggies CleanTeam Bath Wash $2.50 on clearance
-$1 coupon
Total OOP = $1.50

Russell Stover Assorted Chocolates 10 oz. $2.24 on clearance (was $4.48)
-$1 coupon
Total OOP = $1.24

Tide 40oz $5.00
-$1 coupon
Total OOP = $4.00

Dawn 15oz $1.12
-$0.50 coupon
Total OOP = $0.62

Gift tags 100 ct $0.50 on clearance (was $1.00)

Crest toothpaste $2.48
-$1 coupon
Total OOP = $1.48

Total before coupons $14.77
Total after coupons $10.27

It's that time of year again...

2008-12-26T14:58:00.001-06:00

Time for those New Year's resolutions. I always refuse to actually call any idea I get this time of year a "resolution" but rather a goal. I always have the goals but rarely the follow-through to acheive the goal. This year I absolutely HAVE to achieve my goal. I absolutely NEED to lose weight. I don't want to because it's work and aside from losing weight after having my son, I've never succeeded. Do you think I could start breastfeeding again to help since that's how I did it last time? hehe

So, Monday I start a diet. I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet. I think I am going to just keep track of what I eat, calories, portions, etc. and exercise. I know it sounds extremely e~~xcruciating~~ fun. You're probably jealous. The goal is 35 pounds, but I'd settle for 20. Heck, I'd even settle for 10 at this point. I just NEED to lose weight, after all I think I have 2 pairs of pants that currently fit me beside my sweats. I am going to see if I can get hubby on board, but I'm not sure that will ever happen. He knows that he could stand to lose some weight too. I won't hold my breath though.

I'll post any healthy recipes I come across and personally try/enjoy. Wish me luck.

OMG Oreo Balls!

2008-12-23T13:22:00.000-06:00

While I was cruising the internet for some fudge recipes/ideas, I somehow stumbled upon a recipe for Oreo Balls. I had never heard of them and they looked simple enough. What a mistake to make these, they are DELICIOUS!

Oreo Balls
1 package regular Oreos (or a store brand if you're watching your budget)
1-2 package(s) Cream Cheese
1 package chocolate chips + 1 T. shortening or Almond Bark for dipping (I used a mix of the two)

Crush Oreos in food processor (or put in baggie and crush). Mix in Cream Cheese (I again used the food processor for this part). Put in fridge to chill for a couple of hours. Once chilled, form into small balls. Dip balls in melted chocolate using a fork, toothipick, or whatever works for you. Place on wax lined baking sheet and chill. Eat and enjoy!

I only used one package of cream cheese, but they may have benefited from a little more. I would really like to try Mint Oreos with this recipe. I also used a mix of Almond Bark and chocolate chips for the dipping chocolate. You could use white chocolate or make any other alterations that suit your fancy.

Walmart Trip 12/20

2008-12-23T09:17:00.003-06:00

I'm finally getting around to posting about my Walmart trip on Saturday. I can thank my fudge making extravaganza for hogging up my time on Saturday. I'm not going to itemize my receipt because there were only 4 items that I used coupons on and those were my "bargains." The other items were things we needed and didn't have coupons for.

2- Oil of Olay Regenerist Cleansers $6.44 ea.
1-Glade Scented Oil Candle $2.77
2-Glade Scented Oil Refills $2.00 ea
1-Green Giant Steamers Mixed Vegetable $1.00
$20.65 before coupons
-$5 off any 1 Regenerist Moisturizer or 2 Regenerist Cleansers
-$2.50 off Glade Scented Oil Candle
Buy 1 Glade Scented Oil Refill get one Free
-$0.50 off Green Giant Steamers
$10.65 OOP after coupons

Plus there is a rebate on Oil of Olay Products, so I will actually gain money on that purchase. Gotta love that!

I wish that was my actual total, but I bought other things so my total was $102.xx before coupons and $92.xx after. The cashier even commented about how it pays to coupon.

An Award!!!

2008-12-22T13:36:00.005-06:00

My blog received an award!!! Alright, so I received it a month ago and am FINALLY getting around to posting about it. **hides in shame** Better late than never, right?

I received my lovely award from Berleen. She's a fellow Minnesotan and a reason for Thursday Thunks. She has an amazing sense of humor. :) Thanks Berleen. Sorry it's taken me so long to post this!

From Awards

So, here are the rules to receiving this award:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.

2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions:

On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget. Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are my 5 nominations (in no particular order):
1. Tara (Deal Seeking Mom) - Tara has a wonderful blog with lots of ways to stretch your budget. She has great information on getting deals at CVS and Walgreens. I've learned a lot and am still learning from her blog.

2. Niki (Free2BeFrugal) - Niki always has lots of frugal tips and freebies in her blog. She also has yummy Meal Plan Monday menus.

3. Crystal (Money Saving Mom) - Crystal also has a lot of frugal tips in her blog (are you noticing a pattern of the blogs I visit yet?) as well as freebies. Crystal's on a bit of a holiday blog break, but I'm definitely looking forward to her posts in the new year.

4. 5 Dollar Dinners- 5 Dollar Dinners has a lot of frugal recipes and tips. She even breaks down the cost of the recipe so you can see how much each meal costs. She has a lot of fun recipes if you're looking for something new.

5. Marcy (Stretching A Buck) - Marcy has a lot of great tips and loads of printable coupons.

Now, on to the final part of the award. Here are my 5 addictions.

1. Sugar. Any sort of sweet or baked good or anything with sugar in it.
2. The internet. Blogging, Facebook, Message Boards. I spend way too much time on the net.
3. My son. I just love hugging and kissing my sweet boy. He's amazing.
4. Cooking. I love to cook/bake. I hate cleaning up, but I could cook all day if I had a need to make that much food.
5. Starbucks Peppermint Mochas. I no longer live near a Starbucks, but when I get near one my car instantly pulls towards it. :)

Thursday Thunks

2008-12-18T17:55:00.003-06:00

1. If you had to have a brain transplant and had to choose between a cat brain and a dog brain, which would you choose?

Well, cats usually seem a little smarter, but I think I would have to choose a dog brain. I'm really not a cat person anyway. Dogs always seem to have fun. I know my dogs sure do.

2. Why do you think bananas are shaped the way they are?
Easier to grab? Besides most of the other fruits are round or roundish so why not stand out and be different.

3. Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip?
This one really depends upon the mood because I will eat both. And if you're referring to what I call them, I think I use mayo interchangeably wheter it's mayonnaise or Miracle Whip.

4. Do you use keyboard shortcuts?
Very few. An occasional function key and the dreaded CTRL, Alt, Delete when the computer's being a POS.
5. Are you a member at InsanityCafe Forums & Arcade? If not, you should be.
No I'm not and I don't appreciate being told what to do. ;)

6. Where I live it was a low of -19 degrees this morning - what was your low last night/this morning?
You know, I didn't watch the weather this morning so I'm not sure. It was no warmer than -10 this morning so the temp was probably pretty close to the -19. Why do we live in Minnesota?

7. Do you like hard boiled eggs?
Not really. I really dislike the yolk.

8. Have you ever drank green beer?
No. Beer makes me feel green. It tastes awful so I don't drink it.

9. Whats your favorite cleaner?
Whoever is doing the cleaning for me! :D I really like using The Works if I'm cleaning the bathroom. Otherwise a bleach spray for most other cleaning projects.

10.White or whole wheat bread?
Both. I bake my own, so it just depends upon what flour I feel like using.

11. Everyone has some type of phobia - whats yours?
Arachnaphobia. Spiders=ewwwwwwww.

12. Aren't you glad there weren't any Christmas related meme questions?
Yes, I worked retail for over 6 years so I am very Bah humbug about Christmasy (hehe) stuff.

For more Thursday Thunks go here. You won't regret it.

YouData

2008-12-18T15:14:00.000-06:00

I was reading Free2BeFrugal and stumbled upon Niki's post about YouData. I had seen the site before, but was hesitant to sign up. Today I decided what the heck. I saw by Niki's post that you would be paid weekly to your PayPal account and in Niki's first week she earned $9. Now that is by no means a large sum, but that's 1/4 of our water bill or 1/2 of our Netflix bill each month. Or if you want to relate it to groceries, thats a few jugs of milk. I signed up and tried out the service. I was pleased that you had to give very little personal information. No mailing address, no social security number. An email address and a mobile phone number are the only personal details they asked for. I was also pleased at how simple it is to earn money. In about 15 minutes I earned $5.86. I downloaded their ad player and visited the links they provided. I was pleased to see that they are not an affiliate program where you need to refer people to make more money. So, by telling you about this program, I in no way benefit monetarily. I recommend you go check out their site and consider sigining up. It's certainly worth a try.

Couponing

2008-12-18T13:20:00.000-06:00

I have discovered a new obsession. Coupons! I am just starting out, so I still have a lot to learn. The stores that are close to me do not double coupons, so my goal is to make a trip once a month to a town where grocery stores do. I also hope to strategize those visits with Kmart doubles, if there is an even that month. I did my first Kmart doubles a couple weeks ago and I had a blast! I intend to me more organized for the next round, if there is a next round. I'm not normally a Kmart shopper, but they doubled coupons up to and including $2. I got Dove shampoo for $0.79 and the conditioner was free! I got free Diego band-aids for Ashton too. I'm going shopping tomorrow and already have some coupons ready. I hope to post my savings on here after each shopping trip. I'm a little bummed that the next couple batches of newspapers will not have coupons, but look forward to 2009's coupons.

One resource I want to mention is AFC. I have found this site to be extremely helpful in addition to many of the frugal blogs I visit.

Wow!

2008-12-15T16:13:00.000-06:00

Has it really been nearly a month since I last posted? Where has the time gone! Thanksgiving came, then my son's 2 year old birthday, and then a week of Ash being sick. Now here I am, I caught his bug although so far I think I am doing a lot better than he was. I promise to have some new and hopefully interesting posts now. I am back and nothing is going to bring me down now! hehe

Is it over yet???

2008-11-21T07:15:00.000-06:00

Ugh! So it's my birthday today. I ~~dread~~ HATE my birthday. I hate when people make a fuss over me and I hate what my birthday stands for. I can't wait for it to be over. I don't care about age. That doesn't bother me. I'm 26 now, no biggie. But my birthday is a yearly reminder that I was an unwanted child. 26 years ago, some lady (and yes, I do know her name and have spoken to her once but that's a whole differnet blog lol) threw me into foster care. After some indecision on her part she finally decided to give me up. So I sat in foster care for 10 months. As I look back, I can't believe my parents still wanted me since I was practically a toddler by the time they got me. So, happy fricken birthday to me I guess. And Thanks I guess to the lady who didn't want me. I'm going to have to assume my life is better without you.

Sorry if you were looking for something more cheerful today, but I promise I have a more cheerful post for later.

Thursday Thunks

2008-11-12T21:48:00.002-06:00

Welcome to the November 13th version of Thursday Thunks!

1. Have you ever pooped in the woods? If I did, it has been blocked from my memory!

2. You are starving. You have not had anything to eat for days. In front of you is poison ivy, a live hissing cockroach, and a rotten stinky piece of some sort of mystery meat to eat. Which would you pick and why?
I'm going to have to go with the cockroach. I am very allergic to poison ivy, so I don't want to know what would happen if I were to eat it. Even if I was starving, I can't imagine a rotten, stinky piece of mystery meat being good for me since I'd probably get sick. So as diguisting as eating a cockroach would be, I think it's the safest choice.

3. Bottled or Tap water?
Both are fine. I'm not much of a water drinker, but usually it's tap water.

4. Your dream job, what would it be and why?
I'm living it! I'm a SAHM and it was my dream to be a SAHM.

5. Do you have any snow globes?
Yes I have a couple of them, however I don't really know where they are. As I think of it, I know they are in the garage and it's getting pretty cold out so I probably won't have snow globes for much longer.

6. Do you like your bed? If not, what kind of bed do you want?
My bed is okay. It's a pillowtop mattress. A King bed would be nice, but other than that I haven't ever slept on a bed that was a lot better than my current one.

This Thursday Thunk was brought to you by Kimber, the color purple and the number 13.

Wordless Wednesday - Boys & their Toys

2008-11-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

From Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes for Mom,

Tackle it Tuesday

2008-11-10T21:23:00.000-06:00

After a busy weekend of cooking for hunters, I am back to blogging. With all the cooking and baking I've done lately, my spice cabinet has become overrun with clutter and mess. I don't know how long this tackle will stay tackled, but it was quick and easy and worth it.

From Tackle it Tuesday

There's the mess. And...... drum roll please......

From Tackle it Tuesday

Isn't it pretty?! For more Tackle it Tuesdays, check out 5 Minutes for Mom.

Thursday Thunks

2008-11-05T22:53:00.002-06:00

The election is over... what do you think? Yay!!! It's finally over!!!!! I think it is just great that we have finally elected someone of another race into the Presidential office. It would have been great to have a woman V.P., but I think this is even better. I just cannot wait until he gets sworn in!
Tell us about a snowman. A snowman is made of snow. A lot of snow men have three snow "balls" that make up their body. Aside from that, the construction of the snowman is up to the person building it.
What brand of ketchup do you buy? Honestly? Whatever brand is cheapest. I usually buy a generic/store brand.
Do you use a cookbook? Sometimes I do. Sometimes I look up recipes on the internet. Sometimes I don't need a recipe. It just depends upon what I am making.
Do you blow-dry your hair or let it air dry? If I need to go somewhere and look relatively nice, I blow-dry my hair. Otherwise, if I am just hanging out at home I will let it air dry.
When was the last time you were sick? So long ago that I can't even remember.
What is the strangest letter of the alphabet? Q It has to have a "u" with it to make a word. It's like it is afraid to be alone.
Who was the last person you bought a present for? My niece Katelyn. What was it? Some pajamas, some preschool activity books, and some markers. Will you buy me one? Umm..... I guess if you really think those things would be of use to you.
Why are we ending at 9 questions? Because everybody else tries for 10. :)

I've been a little wrapped up in getting things ready for deer hunting this weekend, that I haven't had time to blog. I thought this might provide a little entertainment while letting you get to know me. Thanks for looking. Find more fun at Thursday Thunks

Wordless Wednesday

2008-11-04T21:35:00.003-06:00

I had a hard time choosing photos for this Wordless Wednesday. I took around 20 photos of Ashton and Rosey playing in the box. He had so much fun with this box. No animals were harmed in the making of this Wordless Wednesday.

For more Wordless Wednesdays, check out 5 Minutes for Mom.

Tackle It Tuesday

2008-11-03T22:13:00.002-06:00

I am not the world's neatest person and you've probably already figured that out by the title of my blog and seeing some of my earlier posts. I live in a mess and although I don't like it, I generally do not feel compelled to do anything about it. For some reason, lately I've been wanting to do something about it and I'm just going to keep going with that. My (our) bedroom is a mess. Alot of the mess is my doing and some is my husband's. But in all honesty, it's mostly my mess. In my defense, I am a lot neater than when I was living at home with my parents. Back then you couldn't even tell I had a floor. At least now you could sort of see it.

I know you want to see the before shots. Please excuse the stark white walls and the ugly carpet. This is how we bought the house. We are actually going to be building our master bedroom in the garage, so we're not going to bother decorating this room and then redecorating later.

From Tackle it Tuesday

Unfortunately I didn't go and "make" the room extra messy for the pictures. This is the way our bedroom has been for at least a month. Notice the fire extinguisher in the last picture? One day I teased my husband that if there was a fire in the kitchen in the middle of the night that we would not be able to get out of the house any other way than our small windows so he grabbed the extinguisher. haha

So..... (drum roll please) here are the after pictures.

From Tackle it Tuesday

You will notice that the bed is still unmade and the pile of jeans are still on the floor. I'm not big on making the bed, neither my husband or I see the point so I didn't bother. The pile of jeans belong to my husband. They are his work pants and he needs to take them to work tomorrow so they can get cleaned. It's nice not having to wash those for him. I didn't vacuum the carpet either. I didn't want to wake my son since our room is next to his. I figured my husband would be happy enough with these results. :) The whole job took less than an hour and now our room is nice and tidy. Even the closet is neat!

For more Tackle it Tuesdays, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-11-03T06:11:00.000-06:00

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

Nothing to exciting on the menu this week. I am just starting to work on my menu planning. I need to start planning well in advance so I have the ingredients on hand for new recipes.

Monday-Thanksgiving Casserole - I call it my Thanksgiving Casserole because it reminds me of the goodies that we have at Thanksgiving (of course we have turkey instead of chicken, but it's close). There's no actual recipe I use for this, but it's chicken (cooked, I cut it up), a box of chicken stuffing (prepared to box directions), a can of cream of chicken soup and sometimes I use mashed potatoes and/or corn. I basically layer the ingredients potato, corn, chicken. cream of chicken (I add some water to get a gravy-like consistency), stuffing. I bake it in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 350.

Tuesday-Chicken Fajitas - Still looking for a good recipe for this

Wednesday-Meatloaf and mixed vegetable

Thursday-Spaghetti & meatballs w/garlic toast - I like to cook my meatballs ahead of time and then freeze them, so I can just take some out of the freezer whenever I need them. My husband loves meatballs, so even if spaghetti doesn't sound exciting he'll be excited about the meatballs.

Friday-Leftover meatloaf so I can have a night off. :)

Saturday- It's the first weekend of deer hunting, so I'm bringing some Chicken Tortilla Soup over to the In-laws' house and I'll enjoy whatever goodies they have there. :)

Sunday- Deer hunting is still going on, so Ash and I are either fending for ourselves or eating at the in-laws.

Check out other meal planning ideas at Meal Plan Monday.

Halloween is just a memory now

2008-11-01T08:44:00.000-05:00

Well, Halloween is over and the candy hangover has subsided. It was my little man's first Halloween dressing up and "trick or treating." Last year he dressed up but did not go trick or treating since he could not walk or talk and we didn't give him candy (we still don't). This year, we dropped by relatives' houses on the way to grandma and grandpa's house. My husband didn't get home until 6 last night and by the time I got him fed and he got cleaned up and ready, it was too dark to take any pictures of them trick or treating so all I have is indoor shots.

From Halloween

We took the picture above a few weeks ago when we got his costume.

From Halloween

There's my little guy last night looking at his cousin dressed as a firefighter.

From Halloween

He finally looked at the camera!

From Halloween

He has an obsession with his fingers. If he has a hangnail or anything like that on his finger he's got to pick it. Especially when we are around other people. hehe

We only stopped by 5 different places, but he still got quite a bit of stuff. Grandma spoiled him and had a goody bag ready for him.

Adventures in cookie decorating

2008-10-31T09:11:00.002-05:00

So since I've become a SAHM, I've wanted to get in touch with my Martha Stewart side in the worst way. I love to bake and I love to cook, I just hate the clean up. I've been just aching to make and decorate cookies. Some women love to shop, I love to eat food! So, Wednesday night I rolled out some cookie dough and yesterday I tackled decorating. The first attempt at making frosting did not go so well. I had found a recipe for royal icing the other day but yesterday changed my mind and decided I wanted to frost the cookies. So, when I started making the first frosting recipe I did not follow the directions AND I tweaked the recipe a little. BIG mistake! I ended up with a royal icing type mix. hehe So, I made a batch of buttercream frosting. That turned out fine, but of course, buttercream is a little tempermental. It gets soft to quickly (I did not have shortening, so I was working with true buttercream) and it gets too cold to quickly.
Imagine a girl who has zero cake/cookie decorating experience working on decorating cookies. Do you have that mental image in your head? Great, 'cause that's me. I've dabbled in it many years ago, but I think I was 10 years old the last time I attempted and the frosting was too runny then too. I do have to say, that deep within me is a cake/cookie decorator. I just need to ~~dig for her~~ practice a little. All in all, the finished product doesn't taste horrible and looks okay, so I'm happy. Now of course, I would have loved to use more than one color while decorating, but I have to remind myself that I need to take baby steps.
I spent most of my day decorating and still have a few cookies to decorate, but I ran out of buttercream so I quit for the day. I do have to say, they are mighty delicious. I've eaten WAY to many. Here are some pictures of some of my favorite from yesterday. I just spent my time experimenting since I wasn't really making the cookies for anybody but my family.

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

Obviously I ran out of room for the word Halloween on this one, but I ws proud of how semi-neatly the writing turned out on this one. As I got to the end I stopped caring about neatness. lol

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

This bat didn't turn out quite how I wanted it to, but I still like it.

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

This cat and the moon below were dipped in the icing-ish concoction that was made with my first batch of flopped frosting. They turned out pretty good.

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

I'll probably mix up another small batch of buttercream and decorate the few cookies that are left. This particular sugar cookie recipe is not the type that should be left unfrosted.

Thursday Thirteen - Things I need to do

2008-10-30T08:21:00.001-05:00

Thirteen Things about Shan

When I was trying what to do a Thursday Thirteen about, the first thing that came to mind was the fact that I probably have thirteen other things I should be doing. I'm not one for remembering to put together a "To Do List" and well, I am the unorganized momma for a reason. ;)

1) I need to get my Christmas card list put together so I know how many to order.

2)I need to color my hair. My roots are showing extremely bad and it's really quite disguisting.

3)I need to put one last coat of paint on the walls of the bathroom. If I was a better painter, I probably wouldn't need to do this. :)

4)I need to vacuum!!!!

5)I need to figure out what we are having for supper.

6)I need to balance my checkbook.

7)I need to get my little guy's Halloween costume ready for tomorrow. (He's going to be a chicken.)

8)I need to do some laundry.

9)I need to put icing on the Halloween cookies I made last night.

10)I need to do something with the Hamburger in the fridge. (Today is the sell-by date.)

11)I need to get caught up on the shows I missed when I was baking the Halloween cookies last night.

12)I need to organize my freezers. They are such a disaster right now and I can hardly fit anything in them.

13)I need to clean up the kitchen after my cookie rolling from last night. What a mess!

So, what do you need to do today? Check out Thursday Thirteen for more fun!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-29T08:49:00.000-05:00

From Wordless Wednesday

Some pictures just don't need explaining! :)

Tackle It Tuesday

2008-10-28T08:30:00.000-05:00

Well, this morning in honor of Tackle it Tuesday, I decided to tackle the bathroom tub. We are in the middle of a bathroom renovation (I will post about it when we are done) and the tub is one of the few things we are not replacing. I painted the bathroom on Monday and dripped tan paint in the tub. My husband got paneling adhesive and caulking on/in the tub as well. It was pretty gross. On top of that, the husband must have decided to pull one of the loose tub floor grip strips off so there was residue from that on the bottom. Yuck.

My tools of choice for tackling this project were: The Works Tub & Shower Cleaner and a Scotchbrite Scrub Sponge.

From Tackle it Tuesday

Here are the before shots.

From Tackle it Tuesday

Pretty gross, right. I love using the Scotchbrite sponges because it takes a lot of the work out of cleaning the tub. I pretty much only use the green scrubby side. I have always loved The Works as my tub cleaner, but there are many other products out there that work just as well. The spot where my husband took one of the tub floor grip strips off was the worst to clean and took quite a bit of elbow grease, but I got it off.

And now for the after!

From Tackle it Tuesday

Isn't it pretty?? I'm pretty proud. Hopefully this weekend we can get the rest of the bathroom looking nice!

Makeover Monday

2008-10-27T11:54:00.005-05:00

Well, it's the start of the new week and I have vowed to tackle the housework that has gotten out of hand lately. My husband and I are not very neat people but we both hate mess. The problem is we both will just throw things somewhere and not put them where they are supposed to be. We gotten used to being lazy about things and it's a pain. It frustrates me to no end because why should I bother cleaning when I just have to tackle not only the messes that my son and I make, but then I have to clean up after my hubby too. So today I decided it was Makover Monday and todays project was the kitchen. Now, I know better than to tackle the ENTIRE kitchen, so I just focused on "The Corner." We have a corner in our kitchen that just collects stuff. The mail, receipts, coupons, garbage, etc. all seem to just get tossed here and it becomes a huge, disguisting mess.

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

Believe it or not, the above picture is actually a "clean" version of "The Corner." I had already moved all of the clutter to the table when I realized it would be an excellent blog topic and photos would be nice. Please ignore the ugly counter/cupboards and white walls. We are slowly picking away at projects in this house and unfortunately the kitchen is not high up on the list. :(

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

Here is the organizer I used for this project. We actually used this in our previous home. My husband wanted to eliminate "The Corner" in that home, but it was unsuccessful. I always said that we needed labels on the shelves and cubbies. How can you have a nice area if there is no organization to where everything should go?! So, this project was entirely free since I already had everything on hand. A nice bonus to go with a clean corner. :)

I happened to have some blank white shipping labels leftover from something, so I used those to organize each shelf. I drew out a rough drawing of the organizer on a sheet of paper and planned what would go on each shelf and then made labels to indicate what area of each shelf was for what.

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

I think it turned out pretty well. The empty shelf on the bottom is for all of my husbands junk that he takes out his pocket every day. His wallet, cell phone, etc. SHOULD all go there. Hopefully he will set it on the shelf, since it's not to far from where he normally sets it. When I was going through "The Corner", I noticed all of the spare change that my husband refuses to put in the jar in our bedroom. I decided to make a mini spare change jar for him.

From Confessions of an unorganized momma

I happened to have a small jar that I emptied over the weekend to use. I was going to be all creative and cut a slit in the lid so it was like a bank, but I just didn't have the right tools and I value my fingers to much. :) I took a black permanant marker and wrote "Spare Change" on the jar and placed it on the organizer. We'll see how long the organization lasts.

Paint + Carpet = Mess

2008-10-22T08:39:00.002-05:00

I'm sure you can tell by the title that this is going to be a fun post. :) Last night, my little guy was in the kitchen and I could hear a tearing noise. I thought to myself "Oh great, what is he destroying now!" I went into the kitchen and he was tearing the label from a gallon of paint I had on the floor. No big deal, right? So I quickly grab the can of paint away and as I do that, it spills because apparently whomever was painting did not secure the lid properly. I'm not going to name names, but I'm pretty sure that person is very sorry that she didn't double check the lid before she placed it on the floor. So, my poor little guy is sitting in paint. He was wearing a pair of paints that we had just bought him (they were nothing special, but it's the idea that he had never worn them before that bothered me the most). I stripped his pants and scurried him and the "girls" (dogs) into the livingroom and quickly trapped them in there. I looked at the floor wondering what I needed to do to save the floor and hopefully prevent my husband from killing me. Now, keep in mind, that we have absolutely hideous carpet in the kitchen that would actually look better with paint on it. But I was not about to paint the entire floor before supper!! I decided I needed a squeegee and something to squeegee the paint into. I couldn't find my squeegee, so I used a small cutting board and an ice cream pail to catch as much paint as possible. Being the tightwad I am, I pit the paint back in the can. I figured the floor wasn't that dirty, so the paint could be used again. After I took as much as I could off the carpet, it was still a mess. I grabbed a wet rag and started scrubbing, but soon realized that was going to take FOREVER and I still needed to finish supper. So I then decided to pour water on the paint and use the shop vac to suck it up. This worked quite well if I do say so myself. My hubby didn't even notice when he got home. I can see the spot, but it is definitely an improvement. And the pants you ask? Well, I through those in the washing machine right away and it looks like I may be able to salvage those too. What a day!

Procrastination... my own worst enemy

2008-10-21T14:39:00.002-05:00

Well, if the title of my blog doesn't give it away, I am quite possible one of the least organized people in this world. Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme but I am definitely unorganized. Not only am I unorganized, but I am a major procrastinator. One example would be, I just filed the Sales & use tax for my husband's landscaping business today. It was due 3 months ago today. Thank god he only does it part time and he had done very little this year. It was pretty easy to do because of that.

Of course I had to dig through a box to find the documents I needed. It was ridiculous. We moved into this house 2 months ago and it has been a nightmare. There is no room that is safe to put one of our file cabinets, so I have been even less organized than normal. I'm hoping once the hubby builds our third bedroom, I can put the file cabinets in the closet or something.

Anyone else live in a shoebox? I know I am not the only one. Our old house had much more room for my unorganized mess. I could at least see the file cabinets.

Who knew I could paint stripes!?

2008-08-28T10:19:00.003-05:00

It's official!! We've moved to the middle of nowhere and I can now stay at home with my son. We sold our house in the "city" in a week and a half and bought a $40,000 house in our hometown. So now, I am stuck in a small town. The nearest Starbucks is an hour away. Heck, the nearest fast food is 30 minutes away. But, I get to spend my day trying to be a housewife with a toddler trying even harder to get attention. I now bake HOMEMADE bread!! hehe I bake bars and other treats for fun and to compensate for that, I exercise while my angel is napping. What a contrast. I still do not keep a perfect house, but it's a lot better. I spend my afternoon making sure supper is ready when my husband walks in the door. Only to have him finish supper and either sit on the couch or head to the bathroom. Makes me feel appreciated. He does occasionally tease me about "painting stripes" when he talks to me on the phone during the day. Believe it or not, he is not referring to me redecorating the house. For years, this term has been used on his mother. The woman cannot sit down. She does more housework in the hour after she gets up in the morning, than i ever do in a week! She is amazing! So, for him to tell me I'm "painting stripes" is the biggest compliment I could ever receive. **sigh**

Yeah, I'm the mom, so what?

2007-10-14T18:00:00.001-05:00

So last night, as I was laying on the living room floor trying to sleep with my son, I thought to myself "Why am I the one that gave up a nice bed to try and get him to sleep? Why is it automatically my job?" As I lay there I thought to myself, it took the both of us to make this wonderful child but I had to push this child out of my body, walk around sore for a week, bleed for 2 months, breastfeed for going on a year now, and on top of all that, I have night duty too? Yeah that seems fair.

Who needs toys when I can have rawhide?!

2007-10-05T15:35:00.000-05:00

Why is it that when a child is surrounded by toys, they choose to play with anything and everything else? My son, for instance, is at the moment mesmerized by a box of paperclips. He doesn't even have the box open, but instead is shaking and touching the box. I think toymakers should reconsider the toys they make and start making toy leaves, toy paper, and toy rawhides for kids. I'm sure that they could even be made without lead paint. I know I'd buy them because those are some of Ashton's favorite things to try to play with and put in his mouth. It's amazing how much of a struggle it is to pry things out of those little fingers.