Holly’s Happenings

It goes without saying that Autumn is my favorite season! First you have the beautiful colors from the trees, add to that the cooler temps during the days and the chilly overnight temps that make for excellent sleeping!

There is, however, one small thing about Autumn that I don’t like, and that is the fact that it is always followed by winter. See, winter and I just don’t get along and we rarely see eye to eye…LOL! I dislike the cold, snow and ice that comes with winter and can easily foresee myself becoming a “Snow Bird” at a later point in my life!

I’m hoping to be able get out and about at some point today and get some good pictures and video’s of the beautiful fall colors around my area! Last Autumn I was kind of busy getting things moved in and unpacked, so I was only able to take a few pictures of our property, and although they were very pretty, there are places that aren’t too far from here that have some even prettier colors!

If I do get to head out, I’ll be sure to post some pictures for you, so stop back to see them!

It’s weekends like this past one that test my patience as a parent of teens! I don’t begrudge my kids for wanting to spread their wings and have a little more freedom, as a matter of fact, I expect it. But what I don’t expect is for a child to make plans that I approve, then call me in the middle of them and tell me there has been a minor change, then call me a little while later for me to find out that the little change has actually been a MAJOR change to something that I absolutely will not allow!

I totally understand that at just four months away from turning 16 my son is going to want to go out and do things with his friends, and I actually relish the fact that he actually is starting to have a fairly active social life! It’s made me feel a little better and a lot less nervous…LOL! But when he called me during the football game Friday night to say that his plans were changing from going out to a local coffee/sandwich shop after the game to going to a lounge at a local hotel, my foot went down with a resounding NO HOW, NO WAY! And I expected his reaction to not be a happy one. What amazed me the most was how quickly he went from being totally pissed off at me to actually understanding my decision!

Right now, I’m not sure what this week holds. I’d like to get some of the painting in the kitchen finished up and I need to get some major sock sorting and folding done. Have I ever told you how much I HATE sorting and folding socks? LOL How about you? How was your weekend and what do you have going on this week?

Good morning! I’m sitting here scratching my head this morning trying to figure out where in the world did this week went?? Honestly, it seems like we were up at the races the other day, but that was Sunday and it’s now Thursday! UGH! I’ve seriously let this week slip by me and now I’m in a situation where I have a TON of stuff to do in just a few short days! And I’m honestly not sure that’s going to be enough time to get it all done!

The kids start school in just a few short days and I still have a ton of supplies and stuff to get for them. I also have to take my daughter shopping because she has to wear uniforms for school again and she has NOTHING! But with as tight as finances have been lately, I just haven’t been able to get her anything! She and her brother both need shoes as well, UGH!! I’m REALLY going to have to get creative this week to get this stuff figured out!

The next couple of weeks are going to be busy as well! We’ve got moms annual Labor Day family reunion coming up on September 1st, that’s also the week of the fair that we all love going to. We’ll have to deal with getting the kids back on as decent of a homework and sleep schedule as possible, which is really going to prove to be a challenge because they’ve both been having some fairly significant sleep problems lately!

OK, I feel like I’m about to lose my mind thinking about getting all this stuff done….LOL! But I do work well under pressure so I have no doubt I’ll somehow manage to pull it off! Just cross your fingers that I don’t lose my mind trying to get it done…LMAO!

You’d never think it was mid August by this mornings weather! Normally this time of year, we experience drought and heat waves, but not this morning. It’s a chilly 51 degrees right now, which is WAY below normal for a temperature! Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not complaining one bit, I actually enjoy weather like this! I’ve said more than once that if I could find somewhere in the US that had temps like this year round, I’d move there in a heartbeat!

It’s so quiet here right now! The kids are still sleeping, the dogs are all lying on the couch sleeping and my hubby is kicked back in the recliner taking a morning nap, so it’s just me and my puter this morning. I opened the slider door and muted the TV so that I could hear what’s going on outside! That has to be one of my favorite sounds, especially in the morning!

It’s going to be a long day today. Today is the memorial service for Del, and yes, I will eventually talk about something other than losing him, thank you for bearing with me while I work through this! I try doing different things to get my mind off it and think about other things. For instance, yesterday I organized the office supplies on my bookshelf twice…LOL! I did it once in the earlier part of the day then after dinner I was straightening them up again and my husband looked at me and asked if I had remembered that I had done the same thing earlier. It wasn’t until he reminded me that I remembered I had. But I think getting today out of the way will help, or at least I hope so!

Good morning, the weekend is quickly approaching isn’t it? I’m having one heck of a lazy morning, but it’s probably because I had a very rough night! After my little crying spell yesterday I called my friend Lisa and was talking to her. I felt kind of foolish for missing the kids so much, but she really helped me pull out of it by talking about how she felt the first time her kids went on vacation with her ex after they were divorced. She said she really felt lost and lonely those first few days and it took some time to adjust to the kids not being home, but after that she really enjoyed the time to herself.

I did pretty good the rest of the day, but then when I went to bed last night I just could not get my brain to slow down and stop thinking about the kids. Right after I went to bed they called, which didn’t help matters any, but I held myself together while I was talking to them. But after we ended the call I fell apart again and just absolutely could not get back to sleep and ended up staying up until a little after 3. I still couldn’t get to sleep and when the hubby’s alarm went off an hour later I got up with him for a little while. Finally around 4:30 or so, I was so tired I had no choice but to go to bed!

The alarm was set for me for 8:00 so that I had time to get up and wake up before having to get ready to go help my sister in law do some running around today. Shortly after 9 she called letting me know that she wasn’t going to be needing me today, she didn’t have to go to the appointment she thought she was going to have to. She said she found out late last night but didn’t want to call me because she was worried she’d wake me up…LOL! If she only knew, huh?

So now I sit here debating on what to do. Part of me wants to go back to bed and get more sleep, I’m on my 3rd cup of coffee and it’s not doing a very good job of waking me up at all! I could head outside and go for a nice walk, but it’s really humid out this morning and the mosquito’s are HORRIBLE. It’s times like this that I wish I had some sort of home fitness equipment like an elliptical or treadmill that I could hop on to get some exercise and help wake myself up and snap out of this funk!

I tell you, the past 13 or so hours have been the longest 13 hours of my life…LOL! I was sitting here at my computer last night around 8 or so when the news guys broke into the regular programming warning about some very strong storms that were heading right for our area. As I sat there and watched them talk about the storms, they jumped in telling the people that live in the area that my mom does that they need to take cover ASAP that the winds with this storm had registered near 100 MPH and there was rotation forming in the clouds. I quick called her to make sure she knew what was going on, which she didn’t because she was driving and not at home, so it was a good thing that I called her.

Within minutes after calling her, we got hit with the heaviest rain I’ve seen in a very long time. From the kitchen window I could see that the rain was coming down in at least 2 different directions and it was coming down so fast and heavy that I couldn’t even see across the side yard out to the trampoline. The weathermen then came on the TV and said large hail was being reported in areas close to mine so at that point I decided that I needed to wake my husband up because he was asleep in the recliner directly in front of the sliding glass door. Good thing I woke him up when I did because within minutes the sliding glass door became a flood zone.

The door was installed not too long before we moved in here and they never completely finished the installation. I was thinking what was unfinished was more cosmetic than anything, but I discovered last night that the top of the door was never sealed when the rain started pouring in through the crack at the top of the door. Thankfully I save the 2 1/2 gallon buckets that we buy ice cream in, so I started putting those under the “streams” of water that were coming in. But there were so many that it was basically impossible to catch everything, so I ended up with an inch or so of water covering a good part of the floor out here. We were grabbing sheets, blankets and towels to try and at least stop the water from running to other parts of the room.

After the storm finally passed and we got all the water back on we discovered that although we never lost power somehow the DVR had shut itself off and reset. I figured if we just kept hitting the continue option everything would be OK, boy was I wrong…LOL! We ended up having to call the satellite company to get things figured out, but thankfully they were really nice about it and were able to fix it fairly quickly.

When I finally sat back down at my computer I went to open a website and all of a sudden my computer went whacko! Before I knew it I had over 40 tabs open in my browser and the browser wouldn’t shut down by clicking the “X” or by the task manager, so I had no choice but to restart it. When it was powered back up I ran my anti virus/anti spyware program to find out that I had a total of 3 different “worms” on my computer. Excuse me, HOW did my computer get worms on it? I don’t visit odd sites, I go to the same sites over and over again. It was apparent that while I was gone on my trip someone had went somewhere on this computer that I wouldn’t have approved of.

So, at about 10 or so last night I started going through a step by step guide that included downloading 5 other programs in order to try and remove the worms from my computer. My own antivirus/antispyware program would not remove them, no matter what I did, and this was a guide that I had used once before on the kids’ computer with success, so I decided I’d do it on my own computer, hopefully with the same success.

To make a long story short, it did work, but it ended up taking nearly 5 hours to get everything ran. Yes, I could have put it off until this morning, but I also knew that the kids had an appointment this morning and I also didn’t want to shut my computer down knowing what was wrong with it, so I was up until a little after 3 AM.

My hubby tried to wake me up before he left for work, but it just wasn’t meant to be. I told him just to set the alarm for 9 and I’d get up then, what a HUGE mistake that was! When I got up with the alarm, I walked out to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee and noticed a “puddle” in the family room. My first thought was that the puppy had an accident before hubby left for work and he didn’t realize it. It would have been nice if it were that simple. When I got out to the family room I realized it was raining really hard again and the sliding door was once again leaking! So, off I went to try and scramble up some more towels or sheets or anything I could find, this time it was running down the door, so buckets weren’t going to catch it.

NOT the way I wanted to start my day, hopefully it gets better, but I have a feeling I’m going to get a stern lecture from the kids’ doctor this morning over an argument I had over the phone with his nurse. Oh well

Good morning everyone! It’s Friday and it is going to be a GLORIOUS day here in NW Ohio! According to the weatherman, we are going to have a high temp near 77 degrees today! That will be the warmest day we’ve had since October 22, almost 6 months ago!

I have the window open this morning and am loving listening to all the birds and wildlife outside! I think one of my favorite things about spring is being able to open up the windows and hear the birds talking in the mornings, it’s such a pretty sound! I’ve also seen some new birds at my feeders this morning, but they’ve been too quick and I haven’t been able to get a picture of them yet. But I’m going to keep trying and hopefully will be able to get at least one picture of them today! My little chipmunk has been visiting this morning as well! I can see that I’m going to have to get a bag of peanuts in the shells to keep around for this little guy. He’s been picking up all the seeds that the birds knock off the feeders and seems to be happy with that, but since I cater to my birds and the occasional squirrel, I might as well cater to my little chipmunk friends as well!

Not sure what is on deck for today. I’ve got a couple of loads of laundry that need to be done and I really need to get my floors mopped as well. The area around my desk and bookshelf could use some organizing, it’s getting a little out of hand again. Other than that, I’ll have to see what the hubby has in mind. He is off work today and gets a 3 day weekend for the first time in several weeks, so I’m sure he’s going to want to enjoy the weather a little bit if he can!

I’m trying to decide exactly what I’m going to do today. It’s going to be drop dead gorgeous, weather wise, so I thought about doing some work on the yard. But I have no idea what my husband did with the rakes and stuff, and I’m not so sure I even want to begin that task. I also have the new to me kitchen cabinets to prime and paint, which is going to be a chore, but something that also really needs to get done. Then, there is the never ending mountain of laundry that I have in the laundry room. Although I did several loads to catch up over the weekend, I swear the pile got bigger rather than smaller! I also need to give the puppy a bath today, she’s starting to smell not so good…LOL!

Monday is the day that I usually declare as my “day off”, a day where I just kind of chill out and do whatever I want to do. But with so much to do around here, I don’t think that’s going to happen today. Right now I’m just going to enjoy my coffee and the peace and quiet since all the puppies are sleeping…LOL! Since this kind of quiet doesn’t happen that often around here, I try to take advantage of it when I can!

So what are you up to today? Is your weather going to be nice too, or are you still stuck with crappy weather? OH, speaking of weather, as I said it’s possible it will hit 70 degrees today, they’re calling for temps in the 40’s and the possibility of snow this weekend…LOL! We have had 58.1 inches of show this season, which currently puts us as the 6th snowiest winter on record. But we’re only 1.3 inches away from the number 5 record, and it’s just the beginning of April, so there’s still a chance that we can meet or beat the #5 record of 59.4 inches of snow before we’re in the clear! And that record is 39 years old!

It’s FINALLY Friday!!! WHOOHOO!!! And after yesterday, I’m TOTALLY ready for it to be the weekend!!! Sorry I haven’t been around much, I started not feeling too well late Wednesday evening and by yesterday morning I was JUNK! I spent the bulk of yesterday resting then gave up and went to bed after making dinner last night around 7:00 or so.

I’m feeling better this morning, but have a fairly major headache. It doesn’t feel like one that’s going to transform into a migraine, thankfully, but it’s definitely a pretty bad headache! I’m hoping I can kick it fairly quickly because I have a MAJORLY busy day ahead of me today! My sister and brother in law are going to be here bright and early tomorrow morning to help hang the kitchen cabinets we got from them last weekend. I’m so excited because the one thing that this kitchen is lacking on is cabinet space! We got two 36 inch uppers, one 30 inch upper, one 30 inch lower and a 6 foot tall pantry cabinet. Then next weekend we’re going to buy a 6 foot counter top and mount it on some pedestal legs and mount that to the wall under the upper cabinets that we’re putting up this weekend. All in all it’s going to add some significant storage area to the kitchen, which we’ve needed since we moved in here last fall!

The weather this weekend is going to be WONDERFUL for the first time since shortly after we moved in here in October! They’re calling for temps in the low 60’s and sunshine! So my other plans for this weekend are to start getting some of the work done on the yard and flower beds. Nothing has been done to them in over 2 years and to say that the outside of the house is a MESS is a complete understatement! It’s probably going to take the bulk of the spring, summer and early fall to get things in order around here! We also need to start working on this driveway and get some major gravel brought in to try to get the serious mud problem under control!

So, the next few days are going to be EXTREMELY busy! I plan on taking some before pictures of the kitchen today, then I’ll take some after ones once we get it finished off with the counter next weekend. I’m also going to head outdoors and take some before pictures so that once we start making progress out there I can share the pictures and show you the difference!

OK, gotta get these kids moving and ready for school. Have a GREAT day!

I often share with you the many things I see when I look out the windows here. If anything, the view for the past several months has been VERY consistent, and this morning definitely isn’t an exception…LOL! Before you look at the pictures, please keep in mind that the temp here yesterday was in the upper 40’s. ENJOY!

If anyone out there knows how to get in touch with Mother Nature, could you PLEASE tell her that if it doesn’t stop snowing SOON, I may end up going off the deep end like Jack Nicholson did in The Shining….LOL! And if there is anyone out there with several dump trucks that would like to come haul this away for me, I’ll let you have it for free ;o)

Well, the landlord is supposed to come here today to check things out and see whether or we have a broken pipe in the leech bed. I know that there is definite water leakage out where the “crock” is that comes up in the yard because when we get decent snowfalls, like the one we got last night, the snow in that area of the yard is the first area to melt. And the other night, when I took Sage out to go potty, my son was taking a shower and you could hear the water almost as if it were gushing out of the crock. But I’m not sure, with as much snow as we got over night, if he’ll be able to come down and do anything or not, he might have to wait a day or two for the snow to melt before he can do anything.

He also talked about the things that he really wants to get done on the house this year. He said his main “goal” is to get the kitchen done since it’s so outdated and just does not have enough storage and cabinet space! He said that he had used a guest pass for our local directbuy to see if it would really be worth his while to go ahead and join. He was impressed with what he seen, but considering that he wants to be as cost effective as he can when he does the remodel in the kitchen and other rooms, he thinks he would be better off just going to one of the local home improvement stores. I also suggested the company that my sister works for and told him that they have an “Open to the public” sale every Saturday, so he thought he might go check that out as well. He’s not trying to be cheap, he just doesn’t want to put major money into the remodel because of the fact that they already owe more than what the house is worth, and I can’t say as I blame him. I wish we could get a loan and buy the house now, before any major work is done on it, because I know the more work that is done, the higher the price of the house will be. Then again, the hubby was telling me last night that he wants to move close enough to town that we can actually get cable service and have other options for TV, internet and phone.

Good morning everyone! TGIF and Happy Good Friday to those that celebrate it! In true NW Ohio fashion, spring is starting on an ugly weather note this weekend. The weathermen have changed their minds 3 times over the past two days about the storm that is heading our way. Initially they were saying that our area was going to get hit with about 6 inches of snow. Then they changed it from 6 inches to right around two inches. This morning all local stations are now saying we’ll get anywhere from 5 to 9 inches of snow. I’m so ready for the snow just to be GONE, as in FOREVER! Yes, I know that I always have the option of moving somewhere that it doesn’t snow, but I’m not ready to do that right now!

What I am ready for is getting things taken care of outside! We moved into this house in October and didn’t have the time to take care of things outside before winter reared it’s ugly head! We didn’t even have time to rake up all the leaves and debris that were in the lawn, but considering that we’re surrounded by acres and acres of woods, I doubt we’d have ever truly gotten the leaves taken care of..LOL! So to say that the yard is a mess it a complete understatement! On top of that we need to fix and expand the deck that is outside of the sliding glass door. It’s totally unstable, one of the corner support beams broke, and it’s way too small for my liking. We’ve built two decks before, so I know that putting one up here won’t be a major task. I just want a deck big enough that I can set a nice patio furniture on. And speaking of patio sets, I found some GORGEOUS teak patio furniture that would look so nice and fit right in with our wooded surroundings!

But with the way our winter weather went, I have the feeling it’s going to be quite a while before I’m going to be able to rake and clean the yard, let alone worry about building the new deck. It’s not even April yet and we almost always get smacked with at least one heavy snow storm in the first half of April. can you say UGH!

So very often I focus on the bills or the kids when I have a little extra money. It is honestly very difficult for me to spend money on myself, and even more so when the purchase isn’t something that I’d need or use on a daily basis. But there has been something that I’ve wanted to buy for a long time, something that I knew I would use often, but it wasn’t an inexpensive item, so I’ve had a hard time justifying the purchase.

I recently won some extra money and told myself that this time I WAS going to use part of it on something for me. I thought about it for a few days, but just couldn’t decide what I wanted to buy. I needed some new clothes, but not badly enough to tell myself buying them was necessary. Being a female, there is always the thought of buying a new pair of shoes or a purse, but my mother bought me a new pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago and I got a new purse for Christmas, so those weren’t necessary purchases. See what I mean about having a hard time purchasing something for myself? I ALWAYS talk myself out of buying something. But yesterday was different, kind of…LOL!

I went to the store yesterday to buy stuff that I needed to bake some cookies. Although I LOVE baking, I do not like my mixer! It’s your general, every day hand mixer and it just does not have enough power! For many, many years I’ve wanted to buy a nice stand mixer, but it’s one of those purchases that I just could not justify! Yes, there are inexpensive ones, but what person that bakes a lot has not dreamed of having a nice Kitchen Aid stand mixer? But even their basic model costs around $200, and it only has 275 watts of power, which isn’t that much more than a hand held mixer. So I went to the kitchen appliance aisle and started looking at mixers. Yes, they had the Kitchen Aid one for $200, but I noticed something else that caught my eye! On the shelf above the Kitchen Aid mixer they had a Sunbeam stand mixer. Its price tag read $89 and change, less than half the price of the Kitchen Aid, but how did it compare in the important areas?

It had 350 watts of power, compared to 250 watts, it had 12 different mix speeds, the bowl position was adjustable and it came with regular mixing beaters as well as special beaters for dough mixing, which is a must have for me! I picked the box up and put it in my cart and went about the rest of my shopping, I was going to spoil myself for a change! After I had gotten everything on my list I looked in my cart and seen the mixer and had a sudden guilt attack. Yes the Sunbeam mixer was half the price of the Kitchen Aid one, but I could still think of several other ways I could spend the money. So I headed back over to the aisle I got it from to put it back.

About that same time my cell phone rang, it was mu husband and he was on his lunch break and called to see what I was doing. I told him that I had gone to the store to pick up the things I needed and then I told him about how I almost purchased the mixer. He asked me to tell him about it and after I did he said “Don’t you dare consider putting it back on the shelf, you’ve wanted a good mixer for as long as I can remember, the bills are paid and there is NO reason for you not to do something for yourself for a change”. I did try to argue with him, but in the end he prevailed. Yes, it was something that I have wanted for a very long time, but it’s still difficult for me to justify it…LOL!

So, if you don’t see me for the next few days it’s because I’m making cookies and bread with my new mixer…LOL! I don’t want to go too overboard on the baking though, because if I do I’ll end up having to go out and buy myself some home gym equipment to work off all the weight..LOL! But I love to bake and after mixing up a batch of peanut butter cookies with my new mixer last night, I’m VERY happy I finally did something for myself! Is it the mixer I’ve dreamed of owning? No, but it’s perfectly fine for what I need and it was less than half the price! And, it’s VERY pretty!! SEE!!

Yes, it’s FRIDAY!!!!! Do you know where your week went?? LOL To me it seems like this week went by WAY too fast! And with the way the weekend is looking, I have a feeling that will also go by very quickly!

Today isn’t going to be too busy of a day for me! Mostly house stuff to get done, once again I have an enormous amount of socks to sort and fold, UGH! I swear, I would pay someone to do this job for me…LOL! I would rather stand at the sink for 24 hours a day washing dishes than sort and fold socks! I also need to get my filing cabinet moved to make room for the puppy! From what I am understanding, we’re going to go get her this evening. We still haven’t chosen a name for her, it’s just not something that you can do without first spending some time with a dog, ya know?

I do have to run into town at some point before the hubby gets home from work. He was not too pleased with me last night when he found out that I didn’t go yesterday and get the permanent plates for the van. Since the temporary tag is expired it can’t be driven, and I won’t drive his truck because it’s just a HUGE pain, and he’s not been too happy about not being able to drive the Honda for work. The cost of gas is getting totally out of hand and his truck uses WAY more gas to go back and forth to work than my Honda does. So I have no choice but to go today and get my plates. I’ll also have to pick up some sort of puppy bed while I’m in town as well.

The only other thing that I have to do is be to brat gurls school by 4:00 to pick her up from track practice! I’m so proud of her with how she’s doing with this. I know that she was totally disappointed about not making the basketball team and she really wants to participate in sports. I think track is a good choice for her, but from my own experience with running track in high school, I know that it is DIFFICULT! When I have gotten to school to pick her up the past couple of days they have still been out and running and I’ve seen big improvements in her. Yesterday she was actually running rather than just jogging or walking. The coach really pushes them, but I’ve explained to her the reason why he does that, and I think she understands a little more. I also had a card and a few things she needs for track when I picked her up yesterday. The card was one of those “You can do it” cards, just letting her know that I had faith in her ability to do this and that I knew it was going to be hard for her, but for her to just do her best!! I think that made her feel better too!

So, that’s my day. Nothing spectacular, just the normal, mundane mom stuff…LOL! But I like it when things are “normal”, it’s much less stressful! What are YOU up to today?

YAY!! It’s finally Friday, and I tell you, this week dragged BUTT! I honestly didn’t think it would ever end! Not that it was necessarily a “bad” week, it just just one of those kind of weeks that you want to be over with! Although, after seeing the weather forecast for this weekend, I’m also not sure if I want the weekend to be here either…LOL! We have more snow coming in later today, over night and into tomorrow and could see a grand total of anywhere from 5 inches to another foot of snow. Can you say YUCK??

I had something totally cool happen yesterday though! Considering that I haven’t worked a “full time” job in a while now, I try to do what I can to minimize our household expenses and grocery bills. This entails things like doing quite a bit of my cooking and baking from scratch and keeping the heat down and turning lights off behind everyone. During a recent phone call with our telephone company I found out that they are now offering satellite TV service which would put my phone, internet, wireless and TV expenses all on one bill. So I listened to their “proposal” and took notes about the service they were offering as well as the prices and told them that I’d call them back with my decision.

We’ve been with our current satellite TV company for almost 2 1/2 years and have been very happy with them. Their customer service has always been polite and helpful when I’ve called in and we’ve not had a single time where they couldn’t answer our questions and/or fix any problems that we were having. But when I’m hearing that if I were to switch to another satellite TV provider, get more features AND save almost $30 a month, well, I was seriously tempted to switch. So, I got on the phone and called my current company and explained to them about the offer I had, the features I would get if I were to switch and how much money I would save per month if I did switch. What I was “offered” over the phone was a $10 discount on my bill for the next year, and also a years credit for DVR service if I ordered a DVR right then and there. I asked about the cost of the DVR and was told it would be $100, plus an additional $49.95 for installation, both of which would be required to be paid by credit card at that time. If I couldn’t do that, the offer would be rescinded. I took just the $10 discount because hey, it’s saving money, passed on the DVR because we couldn’t afford it right now, and ended the call. I sat here for a while thinking about my options and got a little upset, well, not a little, I actually got very upset!

So, I got online and went to their website and sent them an email stating that after considering my options I felt that it would be in my best interest to go ahead and switch my service to the other satellite TV provider because of the savings and because I would have more features. Within half an hour I had a reply back from them with a phone number to call and a PIN number that was set up specifically to me, they wanted me to call at my earliest convenience because they valued me as a customer and even though I do have other options they would like to talk to me to see what they can do to keep me as a customer.

In the end I ended up with “almost” the same service that I would have had if I had switched to the other company at the same price that I would have paid with the other company, BUT, I had to agree to a 2 year service contract. I’m not a fan of contracts, but I’m even less of a fan of change. The other company was offering DVR service on two TV’s, I ended up only getting it on one, but I did not have to put out almost $150 in advance, I received it at no charge other than a $19.95 installation charge.

Overall I’m OK with what I ended up with! I really have been happy with our current provider and did want to stay with them, but the $30 difference was enough reason for me to change, and I would have if my company hadn’t offered me something that was at least close! And now I have the ability to tape shows that I really need to watch! This works out great when nights like Wednesday night come up! I’m following American Idol for one of my other blogs and during Wednesday nights show I had a bazillion other things going on so all I could do was turn up the TV volume and listen to the show from parts of the house where I can’t see a TV from. Now I can just record the show and play it back after things have settled down if I need to!

OK, shutting up now, I REALLY need to get busy and get some stuff done! I have a laundry basket full of socks that are calling my name…YUCK! Have I ever told you how BADLY I hate sorting and folding socks?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a heat wave!  Just a few days ago I was complaining because it was BITTER cold!  So much so that we actually ran our wood burner several days straight to try and help the furnace keep up.  We ended up having to buy a cord of wood last week because we had almost used up what we had bought shortly after we moved in here.

Over the weekend, the weather was very mild, but nothing compared to what they are calling for today and tomorrow!  We actually have a chance here in NW Ohio of breaking a high temperature record that was set over 100 years ago!  The record high temp for today is 61 degrees set in 1907, they are calling for a high temp today in the mid 60’s and near or at 60 degrees tomorrow!  And considering that the temp was 57 at 5:30 this morning, I have no doubt we will hit the mid 60’s today!

I have short sleeves on and have opened a couple of windows in the house already!  It’s so nice to smell the fresh air!  Fortunately this house has a very open floor plan, so it doesn’t get that stuffy closed up smell a house normally gets in the winter time!  But I’m definitely taking advantage of being able to open windows and let the fresh air in while I can!

This is king of long, but looked like fun!

What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? Dove body wash for the girls and Irish Spring for the guys

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? Nope!  I refuse to pay the price they want for it this time of year!

What would you change about your living room? I’d change the spot that they drilled the hole for the DirecTV, other than that, I like it the way it is!

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? I’m the dishwasher, and I have no dishes in me…LOL

What is in your fridge? Milk, cheese, leftovers from last nights dinner, potatoes, onions, grapes, tomatoes and TONS of condiments!

White or wheat bread? Wheat, specifically Hillbilly bread.

What is on top of your refrigerator? A shelf that I need to hang in the living room, my daughters Pyramid that she got an A on and a lid to a small tote.

What color or design is on your shower curtain? Green and pink circles in the back bathroom and a violet floral print in the front bathroom

How many plants are in your home? NONE, I have a brown thumb!

Is your bed made right now? Are you kidding me?  Why would I make something I’m going to turn around and mess up again?  LOL

Comet or Soft Scrub? I’m a Comet girl!

Is your closet organized? NOPE!

Can you describe your flashlight? Which one?  I have one that will light up an airport runway if their power goes out and I have a small black one.

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home? Glass, I HATE drinking from a plastic glass!

Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? SURE DO!

If you have a garage, is it cluttered? No Garage, but we have 3 sheds that are VERY cluttered!

Curtains or blinds? BOTH!

How many pillows do you sleep with? Just two, I switch them up so I use a different one every other night.

Do you sleep with any lights on at night? TOTAL darkness!  Lights keep me awake.

How often do you vacuum? Although we have wood and linoleum floors, I use the vacuum on them about once a week since a broom and/or dustmop doesn’t get all of the dog hair.

Standard toothbrush or electric? Battery operated Oral B’s!

What color is your toothbrush? Pink!

Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch? Nope

What is in your oven right now? The pan I use when I make taco shells.

Is there anything under your bed? A folding table, TONS of dust bunnies and even more dog hair!

Chore you hate doing the most? Folding Socks!

What retro items are in your home? The shower curtain in the back bathroom.  I’m not a retro type person, so that’s all.

Do you have a separate room that you use as an office? NOPE!  not any more!

How many mirrors are in your home? Three, one in each bathroom and one in my daughters room.

What color are your walls? Varies from room to room.

Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home? Three dogs and several BB guns that look like small hand guns.

What does your home smell like right now? Don’t know, my nose is totally stuffed up!

Favorite candle scent? Apple Cinnamon

What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now? Dill, sweet and bread and butter.

What color is your favorite Bible? Black?

Ever been on your roof? Not this one yet, but was on the other one at the old house for almost a week straight when replacing the roof.

Do you own a stereo? Yup!

How many TVs do you have? We have a total of 7, but only 5 are hooked up right now.  The other 2 are stored in case one goes out.

How many house phones? Four, 2 corded and 2 cordless

Do you have a housekeeper? Yup, his name is hubby…LOL!

What style do you decorate in? Style???  Decorate??? I don’t know what you are talking about?  LOL

Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints? Doesn’t really matter

Is there a smoke detector in your home? Yes, but we didn’t unpack them until yesterday morning after hearing about an overnight first on the news that killed a mother and 3 children.  There were no smoke detectors in their home.

In case of fire, what are the items in your house which you’d grab if you only could make one quick trip? The dogs and lock box first, after that what ever I could safely grab.

Since I am not sure who reads here right now I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you want to do this or not.  If you do, please let me know so I can come and read your answers!

I’ve put this off for over a week now, I’ve given the excuse that I have other things to do and have avoided getting it done, but no more!  Today is the day I tear apart, de-clutter and clean the living room so that I can start getting the Christmas decorations out.  So wish me luck and cross your fingers.  And if you don’t hear from me for a few days, call out the National Guard…LOL!

Yup, it’s Friday!  Can I hear a great bit WHOOOHOOO???  It’s been a fair week, nothing horrible happened, but it’s also been a semi stressful week as well!  My son’s first high school grade card came this week with some extremely bad grades.  (Who know there was such a grade as an F-?)  I get a letter yesterday from my daughters school that she has 2 missing assignments and 2 late assignments in her reading class, which is very rare for her, she’s an honor roll student.  We also discovered that the clarinet I bought for her in eBay a few weeks ago is a MAJOR piece of junk!  Her old clarinet is VERY old, like 15 years old, and she was having a difficult time with it, basically it needs a complete overhaul.  So I went on eBay and got her a brand new clarinet, thinking that it HAD to be better than what she had, even if it wasn’t a top of the line instrument.  WRONG!  Pads are already falling off the new clarinet, we’ve had to glue 2 of them back on.  On top of  that, the upper register notes are VERY difficult to play, even for me, so there’s obviously some sort of air leak going on.  Fortunately, I contacted the seller I bought it from and they are more than willing to exchange this one for another, so I need to get it shipped out to them sometime in the next week.

I did manage to get my Christmas shopping started this week, which is amazing because I’ve always been a last minute shoper when it comes to Christmas shopping!  I ran up to Michigan and met my mom and sister at Kohl’s.  They were having a sale and on top of that my mom had a coupon giving her an additional 30% off the total price of her purchase.  I snagged up a cute corduroy winter coat for my daughter for  $17.50 and some jeans for less than $7.  Mom grabbed some shirts and sweaters for the kids as well as a winter coat for my son, so she’s getting her shopping started as well!

I’m hoping to get the house in order enough over the next couple of days that I can start getting out my Christmas decorations either this weekend or the beginning of the week.  I’ve accepted the fact that I won’t be able to put my Christmas tree up for a few more weeks, but that doesn’t mean I have to wait to put everything else up now, does it?  LOL  Hubby will, of course, have a fit when I start putting my decorations out, he always does!  I just hope the dogs don’t chew up my decorations!  If they do, then I’ll just move them outside to the shed until Christmas is over…LOL!

First, GOOD MORNING! Can you believe we’re just one week away from Thanksgiving? I just cannot believe how quickly this year has gone! The trees outside are almost bare and the ground is covered with leaves. Before you know it, those leaves will be covered with snow! As much as I dread snow, I do also like it. But it can go away after New Years and stay gone as far as I’m concerned…LOL!

It was a CRAZY morning this morning. I had a heck of a time waking up and the kids, OMG, waking them up was like trying to take a binky from a baby…LOL! My daughter was VERY grumpy this morning and my son simply didn’t want to wake up at all! Good thing he did get up and moving when he did though, because his school bus showed up 15 minutes early. The bus driver ticked me off though, he didn’t blow the horn and had shut the flashing lights off just as we realized he was out there. Thankfully he noticed me turn the front porch light on and off so he stopped and put the lights back on and waited for my son! But come on FIFTEEN minutes early? WTF is up with that?

Today is the Great American Smoke Out, and I am giving it my best shot to quit smoking today! I am 42 years old and have smoked for better than 2/3 of my life and frankly, I’m very sick of smoking! I’m sick of the smell, I’m sick of the cost, I’m sick of the nasty dirty ash trays, I’m sick of ALL of it! I’m not 100% smoke free today though, because of the kids’ moods this morning I did bum a smoke of my hubby before he left for work. But one smoke in almost 5 hours, that’s like a worlds record for me…LOL!

I’ve spent the morning picking up around here and trying to stay away from my computer. Mainly because my computer is the place that I smoke probably 99% of the time, so my thought was that I need to stay away from it as much as possible today. I found a couple more fans and summer items that needed to be put down into the crawl space, so I got adventurous and decided to put them there myself instead of waiting for my hubby to come home from work. Since this was the first time I’ve been down in the crawl space I decided to look around…LOL! It’s your basic crawl space, nothing special just some cob webs and stuff. But I couldn’t believe that my husband hadn’t noticed the box of bulk cable that the guys had left down there when they were installing the dishes for our satellite TV. So I came up and put a call into the satellite company to let them know it was here and they said they’d have someone stop by and pick it up when they were in the area. Wasn’t that nice of me?

Anyway, as for the rest of today I plan on just keeping busy and getting things done that I’ve been putting off the past few weeks. I have some cabinet doors to paint and I REALLY need to get my sons room in order as well. I figure the busier I keep, the less I’ll think about smoking!!