Holly’s Happenings

Apparently when I was a kid I was as obsessed with music as I am now. Why do I say this? Well, let me put it to you this way. It’s been 25 years since I graduated from high school which means it’s been about 35 years since I was in 2nd grade. The reason I’m bringing this up is because this time of year ALWAYS brings back a song from a Halloween program that we did in the 2nd grade. After a quick websearch, I’ve found out it’s actually a poem, but my music teacher back then put it to music. But here’s the poem

Trick or Treat

Witches, ghosts, and goblins.
Stealing down the street,
Knock on every door way,
Trick or treat!

When your door is opened,
This is what you meet,
Scary creatures shouting,
Trick or treat!

I remember all of us kids up there on the stage in our masks made from construction paper singing this song, the melody of it is still in my head almost like it was just yesterday that I sang the song…LOL! Remember how it used to be cool to cut a couple of holes in a white sheet for your eyes and go trick or treating as a ghost? And my all time FAVORITE costume, the one I wore most often as a kid, was when I’d borrow a pair of pants and flannel shirt from my grandfather. Then my mom or grandmother would cut holes and sew patches on them in various places. We’d take a handkerchief and fill it full of paper then tie the ends of it around a stick. I’d put the altered clothes on and tie a piece of twine through the belt loops so use like a belt, mom would take black shoe polish and rub it lightly into my face and I’d proclaim I was the BEST hobo ever! LOL

Last night I had to stop at the store on my way home from my orientation to pick up break and milk. It never ceases to amaze me how intricately designed Halloween costumes are these days! They had every type of Halloween costume you could imagine for sale in the store! Long gone are the days of simplicity, replaced with what seems almost like a competition judged by cost rather than the imagination! Yes, I do realize that some kids and parents still do use their imagination and make their own costumes, but judging by the amount of empty space on the costume racks when we’re still four weeks away from Halloween, I’d have to say the people that do are getting fewer and farther between those that don’t!

Over the past 25 years I’ve lived in several different places! Some have been pretty decent places to live, a few have been places that would turn your stomach…LOL! In 2005 my husband and I decided that we had spent too much time living in the city and it was time for he and I to take the kids somewhere that we thought would give them a better quality of life! I honestly have nothing against the city, it truly serves a purpose! But I grew up in the country, basically in the middle of nowhere, and so did my husband, and we thought that our kids should get a taste of what life is like when you’re not in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city!

I won’t pretend that living out in the country has been a bed of roses, it’s definitely had it’s rough times. And yes, at first the kids absolutely hated it! But more than 3 years later, they both agree that they love living out here! We’ve lived in our current house just a few weeks shy of a year now, and I’ve grown to love the beauty of nature that surrounds this house! Over the past couple of months we’ve been a bit up in the air about whether or not we were going to continue to live here. A friend of my husband’s offered us the chance to rent his house, which isn’t too far from where we are right now and still is pretty much in a country type setting. But the more we’ve thought about it, the less we feel comfortable with moving into his house.

It kind of goes without mentioning that if you want to keep a friend, don’t do business with them! If we honestly thought that renting our friends home wouldn’t totally mess up our friendship with him, we might think more seriously about moving. But right now, I honestly don’t foresee us needing any moving services to move into our friends house. Yes, it would save us a little money, which is a good thing. But the more time I spend with my husbands friend, the worse I feel about the thought of having him as a landlord. He’s a great friend to my husband, and I think we really need to keep things that way! So, since there’s no moving in my immediate future, I guess we’d better get stocked up as good as we can on firewood!

Since before we took the kids out to their sisters house, my hubby and I have been planning to go out to dinner with my sister and her husband. At first we had decided on one restaurant, then we talked about another, and another and yet another…LOL! We finally narrowed our choice down to a restaurant that we all had heard about that was almost smack dab in the middle of both of our houses.

We met them at the restaurant at 6, they actually got there a few minutes before we did and were waiting for us. We sat down and my sister looked at me and said she wasn’t very sure I was going to be happy with the menu. We had heard that this restaurant had a great seafood menu, but amazingly they had just recently changed their menu and seafood was nowhere on it. It pretty much consisted of things like burgers and subs, which wasn’t what the 4 of us wanted to go out to dinner for. So, we drank a cup of coffee and talked it over and decided that we’d go eat elsewhere…LOL.

We ended up at another restaurant that hubby and I had been wanting to try and had such an amazing time! (More on the restaurant in another post!) We each had a drink, hubby and I were THRILLED to find out that they had Blue Moon on tap and my sister said that they make a fantastic strawberry daiquiri. Hubby ended up ordering steak and shrimp and I ordered Mahi-Mahi encrusted with macadamia nuts that was to die for!

I do wish that we could have taken the time to take a small trip or something while the kids are gone, I even seen some really great deals on laughlin hotels the other day that made me REALLY want to go away for a few days! But with the price of airfare being sky high, it just isn’t in the books right now ya know? But we’re enjoying our time while they’re gone even if we can’t do much more than go out to dinner a couple of times and enjoy a quiet cup of coffee together! We made the comment the other day that we’re feeling like honeymooners again…LOL! Now THAT is a good thing after being together almost 17 years!

While I applaud BoostMobile for getting back to me in less than 24 hours after I contacted their customer service department this morning, my recent phone conversation with their customer service department leaves me with steam rolling out of my ears! Yes, I know, it’s a crap ass prepaid cell phone company, I shouldn’t expect stellar service from them, but I also don’t expect to be lied to and told something that I know 100% for certain is NOT the truth, and THAT is what pisses me off!

While I contacted them via their website they were unwilling to “deal” with me via email and asked me to call them at 1-888-BOOST-4-U, which I did. I was fortunate enough to get not only a customer service rep that could clearly speak English, she was also a very pleasant person, UNTIL the lies started. I do not fault her, she is simply doing what BoostMobile and Nextel tell her to do.

According to her, someone downloaded an application to my Boost phone for a program called “Hookt”, although she could not tell me exactly when this was done because they only have access to the last 45 days of my account activity (BULL$H!T). She did however tell me that EVERY day since June 26, 2008 when Boost so lovingly gave me that wonderful $15 account credit, someone has used the Hookt application and that is why the account is being charged every day for it. Amazingly, the phone was never even turned on from June 26th until at least July 8th, during which time I was in 100% control of the phone. And since neither she nor I can find any account activity prior to June 26th (I’m supposed to have access to activity for the last 90 days, she’s supposed to have access for the last 45), neither one of us can tell exactly when this application was actually activated.

I’m DONE! Although I’ve enjoyed most of the service we’ve received for the past 4+ years from our Boost phone(s), my time with them is OVER! I’ve had argument after argument with them over the years for charges that I could prove weren’t warranted, but they’ve not once refunded the charges. Their services are BLATANTLY overpriced and frankly, they SUCK!

So BUYER BEWARE!! DO NOT invest a single penny or minute of your time with this joke of a company! Their services are WAY overpriced compared to other prepaid cell phone companies and they will charge you for applications, downloads and services that you don’t use even when you can PROVE you didn’t use them! When we get the phone back from Baltimore I will run over it with my van, put it in a box and ship the broken piece of crap to them! If you’re looking for prepaid cell phone service go with T-Mobile or Virgin, I know MANY MANY MANY people who are thoroughly happy with their service through them as well as their top notch customer service! They don’t put fraudulent charges on your phone and they DON’T give you credits on your phone only to take the credit back saying you’re using a service that you obviously aren’t! STAY AWAY FROM BOOST MOBILE!!!!!!!

You know, it’s almost kind of sad that it takes a family 2 weeks to adjust to being apart….LOL! I guess it’s proof that we’ve either done a good job of letting the kids know that we’re there for them or we’re simply a very boring family that spends way too much time together…LOL!

I’ll admit, I had a VERY difficult time being away from the kids that first week! I spent more than one night crying myself to sleep and was constantly worrying that they were OK and wondering what they were doing. It’s now the end of the 2nd week of them being gone and let me tell you, I am TOTALLY enjoying myself!!!! It’s not that I don’t miss them, it’s just that I’ve finally realized what a HUGE gift this is and I need to make the most of it! My husband even commented this morning about how much more at ease I have been lately and we’ve been able to enjoy our time together!

And speaking of our time together, we’ve made our final decision about what we’re going to do while the kids are gone. After checking into many different kinds of get aways and Las Vegas vacations, we’ve decided that we’re going to save the money that we would spend and just do a few small things close to home then maybe take the kids somewhere after they get home, before school starts back up.

It’s kind of a bummer, but we’re really enjoying our quiet evenings with a good cup of coffee! We even went out to the American Legion with one of his co-workers the other night, our first “date” in a VERY long time! But we just can’t justify spending the money we would for a 2 or 3 day trip when it could be put on the bills or something like that. Does this mean that we’re officially penny pinchers? LOL

When I was a toddler it was discovered that I had feet and leg problems. I was pigeon toed, knock kneed and my right foot came way out of stride when I was walking. Because of this I spent MANY years in leg braces and corrective shoes. It didn’t bother me too much until I hit 7th grade. That was the first year that gym class was a requirement, which meant my parents needed to buy me a pair of sneakers.

For most kids, sneakers were a common part of their wardrobe, but for me, that was not an option. There was no such thing as corrective sneakers, so my parents simply would not allow me to have a pair. But since sneakers were a requirement for gym class, my parents “gave in” and allowed me to have a pair, but only if I promised them that I would only wear them for gym, which of course I promised them I’d do. But, I was also the “typical” teen, because even though I promised them I wouldn’t wear them outside of gym class, I did…LOL! From the moment I got to school my not so pretty corrective shoes came off and those oh so coveted sneakers went on!

I did eventually outgrow the bulk of the problems with my feet and legs, with the exception of my right foot swinging way out of stride when I walk. And corrective shoes and leg braces haven’t been a part of my life for many, many years. However, wearing cheap flip flops or sneakers simply isn’t an option for me. If I do wear them, within a short amount of time, my feet and legs are in pain.

Fortunately today there are hundreds of options for footwear that is not only comfortable but they are also very trendy looking! One of the brands that I look for when I’m shopping for shoes is Merrell shoes. They offer several different types of footwear (i.e. shoes, sandals, clogs, boots) in many different styles and they are SOOOOOOO comfortable! It’s been a few years since I’ve owned a pair of Merrell’s, mostly because they are hard to find in my area and I’m a bit leery of buying shoes online. But the last pair I owned was a pair of clogs similar to these. They were probably the most comfortable pair of shoes that I have ever owned and even though they were clogs, I wore them year round, even in the winter with several inches of snow on the ground. The only reason I’m not wearing them now is that when Harley was a puppy, he decided one of them would make a great chew toy. Hopefully I’ll be able to replace them some day!

My daughter is 12, but quick to remind me that she’s just a few days away from turning 13. From the day she came into this world she has been a little on the petite side. When she was born, she was so short that we actually had to purchase a couple of preemie outfits so that she had something to wear that wasn’t falling off her tiny frame.

Other than having a case of double pneumonia at the age of 4, she has been the picture of health. She’s out going, active and participates in several different sports in school. Yesterday she had a doctors appointment and was weighed and measured for the first time in a few months. She was THRILLED to find out that she finally passed the 5 foot mark, even if only by 3/4 of an inch, but she was very upset to find out that her current weight was 110 pounds. Even though the nurse showed her that she’s actually right on the mark for her height and weight, she was not happy!

When we left she immediately went into the “I have to go on a diet, I need to exercise more and you REALLY need to buy me some diet pills so that I can lose some weight”. While I do empathize with her feelings, I spent the bulk of the night trying to convince her that she really is not overweight! We went online and I found other charts that showed her that for a girl of her height, her weight is perfectly fine. Although she didn’t buy that part, she did agree with the fact that at 12 going on 13, diet pills probably aren’t her best option.

It’s a sad fact of today’s society that many young girls are pressured into feeling that they are overweight, when in fact they really are not. Too many young people are obsessed with being as thin as they can with no care or concern as to what future problems this obsession can cause for them. As parents it is our responsibility to make sure that our children are given information about how important it is to eat nutritious foods to keep their bodies healthy! When they become adults, if they still feel they need to take supplements to help them with weight loss, the choice will be theirs.

OK, I know that I’m NOT a young chickie, and that honestly does not bother me! But I’m NOT old, nor am I disabled! So imagine my surprise when I received an envelope in the mail yesterday from The Scooter Store that said “Open this envelope to improve how you measure your independence”, and the other side urged me to call now to get a free magnifying ruler* (*limit one per household)

COME ON, how do these companies get peoples names and addresses to mail this crap to? I also get letters telling me about medicare insurance and something else, that I obviously am not even close to old enough to qualify for…LOL! And while I was chattin with my BFF Beth this morning I found out that she got something in the mail today from the AARP, and she’s only 32!!!!!

People, people, people! You wonder why your company is having financial problems? Could it be because you mail these types of things to THOUSANDS of people that have absolutely NO use for them or are way too young to qualify? Or do you just model your business choices after our Government who sends not one, but TWO letters to people who qualify for stimulus checks this year when one simple post card type of notification would have been more than sufficient!

Anyway, I just thought that was funny, and I hope you do too!

I’ve worn glasses for all of my adult life, I’ve accepted that it’s part of life, and for the most part it doesn’t bother me. About four years ago I let the eye doctor talk me into getting bifocals, which turned out to be a nightmare. I’m not sure if it was because of the style of the frames and location of the bifocals, but I absolutely could not wear them without getting major headaches! They tried to adjust the location of the bifocals two different times, but it just didn’t help. At that point, I resorted to wearing my prescription glasses for everything but reading and computer work, and that worked out well.

But lately it’s been getting more and more evident that that isn’t going to continue to work out. At this house my computer is set up in the family room, as is my husbands. It’s a decent sized room, probably 18 foot by 18 foot, and besides our desks it also holds a recliner, the dogs couch, the wood burner and a large entertainment center with a 36 inch TV.

My desk sits directly across the room from the TV and I’ve found that if I wear my glasses so that I can actually see the TV well, I cannot do work on my computer at the same time because my glasses make the print on my monitor very small and blurry. But when I take my glasses off so that I can see what’s on my monitor clearly, I then can’t read anything that’s on the TV screen…LOL!

My husband says I need to invest in a good pair of magnifier reading glasses, which he’s probably right. But then I’ll have to go back and forth between the reading glasses and my prescription glasses depending on what it is I want to be able to see. I’m thinking it’s time for me to save up my money and look into getting LASIK surgery because this is just annoying!

Growing up, I lived on a VERY large farm that was filled with livestock, fields and TONS of chores. But I love the way I grew up and don’t think I’d have fit in growing up in the city. But on a farm, animals really aren’t your “pets”, they all were there for a purpose and reason, none of which was supposed to be “fun”. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t name my favorite pig or steer, nor does it mean that I didn’t treat some of the animals like they were pets, I just didn’t let my dad know…LOL.

When I first started dating my husband he had a dog, whose name was Bosworth, but we called him Boz for short. Boz was a sweetheart of a dog and my first experience of actually having a dog as a pet. From the get go, I LOVED Boz, he was just so sweet and wanted to be wherever the hubby and I were, which wasn’t always easy considering that he weighed about 120 pounds…LOL! Boz was a part of our family until the summer after our son turned one. That summer we were all out in the yard playing and our son walked up to Boz to pet him and as he got beside him, Boz nipped at Keith. It wasn’t hard enough to break the skin or draw blood, but it was hard enough that it left a mark that turned to a bruise, and it was totally unprovoked, our son hadn’t even touched Boz.

I didn’t have to say anything to my husband, we had talked about what would happen if it ever looked like Boz would bite someone, especially the kids. We had already made arrangements with a friend of ours who lived on a farm that he would take Boz if this day ever came, so my husband called him up to make sure he was home, which he was, and the kids and I said our goodbyes to Boz as my husband loaded him into his truck.

It took a few years before we were ready to think about getting another dog, Boz had been with my husband for over 5 years when we had to get rid of him and I didn’t want to push the issue, but I did know that we would eventually have another dog. That day came unexpectedly when my husband had seen an ad posted that someone was giving away an adult terrier mix. Now my first thought when I heard terrier mix was a small to medium sized dog, so I was very shocked when we got to the house and this terrier mix weighed about 80 pounds. My husband and the kids were INSTANTLY in love with the dog that we would come to know as Dudley, but I sat in the background trying to motion “NO WAY” to my husband as he talked to Dudley’s current owners. I was outnumbered 3 to 1 and we left that day with Dudley in tow. He had a difficult time adjusting to living with us, he had been with the people we had gotten him from since he was a puppy, so they were the only home he had ever known. He would sit at the window in the front of the living room looking outside and he would start crying, almost as if he was crying for them to come and take him back. Eventually he did adjust and accept his new home and by that time he had completely won me over!

We lost Dudley almost 7 years later, but he was the dog that changed my heart about dogs! Since then we’ve had just one other dog until the four we have now. When we were living in the inner city I had the cutest chocolate Lab mix named Coco. Coco kept me from sinking into a deep depression and it broke my heart when we had to find a new home for her. But because of how dangerous our neighborhood had become, we had to get the kids out of the inner city and where we were moving to did not allow dogs and we had to move for our own safety! Coco is still with the family we found for her, I went back and visited her a few times at first, but it hurt so much because each time I went to see her I didn’t want to leave her, so I had to stop going to visit her.

And now we have the fearsome foursome….LOL! Never in my life did I think that I could love a pet the way I love these four! They are a constant source of unconditional love and keeping up with them provides enough exercise that I don’t have to worry about working out on fitness equipment….LOL! I love to hug them and give them kisses, but I love getting kisses back from them even more! When I’m down, just spending some time snuggling with one or more of them always makes me feel better. Yes, four dogs is a handful, but I honestly cannot picture what life would be around here without them around! And if you look at this picture, you’ll see why!

I was so disappointed when I found out that I had accidentally ordered Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Thankfully Netflix has a REALLY fast turn around because Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix came today and let me tell you, I’m just blown away with how awesome it was! I had heard that it was completely different from the other Harry Potter movies before it, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised!

It’s a bummer how each movie cruises ahead a few years from the last one, it’s funny to think of how young Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the first movie compared to where they were in this one. They’re so grown up now and their worlds are so totally different than they were when we first met them!

Anyway, if you haven’t caught this movie yet, be prepared because it is much “darker” than the others have been. But unlike other movies that have sequels, Harry Potter is not following in their path. The first movie was still by far the best, but The Order of the Phoenix definitely comes in second! It’s very action filled and it’s hard to figure out what’s going to happen next. It also had a somewhat emotional moment with the death of one of the long term characters, but I’m not going to say who in case you haven’t see it yet!

It’s been a long day and I’m still having problems with my neck and shoulder, although nothing compared to what my gal Kat is experiencing! I need to wrap things up and get some sleep. See ya tomorrow!

OK guys, listen up! And yes honey, I’m talking to you too! We ladies love the lives that we have with you, but you kind of seem to be lacking in some things. Namely, gift giving. They holiday season is behind us and I’ve heard from many of my friends that their men gave them Christmas gifts consisting of things like vacuum cleaners, dish washers, DVD’s, washers, dryers and many other gifts that although are nice, simply aren’t what we’d like to recieve as a gift for a holiday or other special occasion.

So guys, here’s what I’m going to do for you. I’m going to give you a list of items that ladies would LOVE to recieve from you. In other words, these are sure fired ways to make us ladies happy. And if you know us you know that if we’re happy, YOU are happy too….LOL!

1. Jewelry - The old saying is true, diamonds are a girls best friend!
2. Lingerie - Thinks like teddys, corsets, and other romantic gifts.
3. Date nights - Yes, we still love to go out on a date with you (even after 17 years sometimes…LOL)
4. Day spas - These are quickly becoming the new girls best friend!
5. Flowers and chocolate - Yes guys, these are not just meant for Valentines Day. We love chocolate, you should know that by now! And flowers, do I really have to say anything else?

There’s a few to get you started, you should be able to get more ideas from those! But PLEASE no more of the household appliance type gifts unless we SPECIFICALLY ask for them! Use some creativity and I’m sure you’ll come up with something WONDERFUL!

Tomorrow is our primary election here in Ohio and I am just SO sick of all the political ads on TV with the candidates proclaiming all of the wonderful things they can do for the state and my area! The fact of the matter is that EVERY politician is full of smoke and hot air when they want your vote! They will tell you what you want to hear just to reel you in and then once they have your vote, they drop you like a hot potato!

Our current President proved that when he was running for re-election! He made a last ditch effort and pulled off a late night stop the night before the election here in NW Ohio. He filled peoples minds full of false hope and promises that he would not forget us if he was elected to a second term as President. Amazingly, he hasn’t come back once since that night and he hasn’t fulfilled any of the promises he made either!

This crop of candidates are no different, so the vote comes down to figuring out which one offers the most believable batch of lies. Yes, I know how negative that sounds, but it is honestly how I feel. I do know that I will be voting for Hillary Clinton tomorrow because I feel she is the best Democratic candidate left in the field. But I wish that both candidates would stop saying they are going to do things that they know they are incapable of doing just to garner votes!

So, to wrap this up, if you are one of my readers and tomorrow is your states primary election, be sure to do your part and get out and vote! Don’t sit back and think that you are just one vote and it won’t matter, because it will! I honestly don’t care who you want to vote for, I just care that you get out there and vote!

OK, so we moved into this house almost 5 months ago. My oldest child did not change school districts, nor did his bus number even change. But the frustrations that we’ve experienced because of his school transportation has been ridiculous! First, it took them over 2 weeks to change his bus stop from the old house to the new house. Then, once they did get it changed, he some how got bumped back to the old house, so the bus stopped stopping here. Once we finally got that fixed his bus driver went on a 2 week vacation and the sub driver started off by showing up over 20 minutes earlier than his regular driver did. The day after that, my son was out at the end of the drive on time and the bus drove right past the house without slowing down or stopping. Finally, on the third day with the sub driver, things seemed to be back on track, albeit 20 minutes earlier than we were used to. Once his regular driver came back from break, we were back to the time that we had been used to the bus coming.

Shortly after Christmas break, they split my sons bus route, and he once again missed his bus because it came 20 minutes earlier than normal. After that day, we were ready at the earlier time again. Things have gone well for almost two months, until this morning. I leave the house by 7:00 to take my daughter to her bus. As I got about a mile or so away from our house I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed a bus with flashing red lights. I looked at the clock and it was 7:02 AM so at first I thought that it couldn’t be my sons bus. Well, I was WRONG! Once again his bus showed up more than 20 minutes earlier than it had been with absolutley NO notice. So, I get on the phone and call the bus dispatcher. Sure enough, they’ve once again split the route and his scheduled pick up time is 7:03 AM. When I explain that his bus has been coming at approximately 7:25 AM I’m then told that’s not his normally scheduled pick up time and that he needs to be ready and waiting for the bus at least 5 minutes before his scheduled time of 7:03. I say that’s not a problem, but that some sort of notice or warning about the changes would have been appreciated, especially since we live about 20 minutes from his school and when I ask if it’s possible for parents to be notified of changes like this, I’m told “We don’t that”. EXCUSE ME? You keep changing the time my son gets on the bus, substitute drivers keep driving past the house without slowing down or stopping, what do you want me to do, set up some sort of digital signage that will let your drivers know where my house is and let me know when your drivers are close to my home?

Ok all you parents with teens, getting our kids up and ready in the mornings is bad enough, but having to have them ready 20+ minutes earlier with NO warning to me is asking a little too much, what do you think?

I’m so amazed about all of the amazing things you can purchase online and what amazes me even more is the fact that I can go to one site and find almost everything I need and/or want. That’s why buy.com rocks this country girls world! Buy.com offers one of the biggest selections of the top rated name brand items you can think of at the most amazing prices! Did you know that you could go to Buy.com right now and purchase a 4GB iPod Nano for only $140.49? What’s that you say? That’s exactly what you’ve been looking for and the price is better than every other one you’ve priced? Well then stop reading this and go find out exactly why buy.com rocks for yourself and grab that iPod before it’s gone!

While you’re there be sure to check out Ryan Seacrest’s Deal of the Day, see What’s Shakin’ with Howie Mandel and watch is own Buy.com videos, and be sure to take a peek at their weekly deals! They also let you know what their competetors prices are on the items you are searching for, and sometimes their competetor might be a little less expensive, but make sure you check and see if they also offer FREE shipping like Buy.com does. If they don’t, then get back to THE best Internet Superstore there is! Buy.com also offers first time buyers $10 off any purchase of $10 or more, how awesome of a deal is that? Say they offer something you want and/or need for $12, it’s yours for just $2 with that great deal!

While you’re checking things out, take a peek at the commercial I made telling why I think Buy.com ROCKS! It’s kind of corny, but I had a TON of fun making it, so if you enjoyed it please be sure to let me know. But whatever you do make sure you head over to Buy.com and let them ROCK YOUR WORLD!

Good morning!  I figured I’d come in here and update you about our first night sleeping on our wonderful memory foam bed from BedInABox.com.  I had been told by a couple of people that I knwo that have memory foam mattresses that it would be a pretty major adjustment after sleeping on nothing other than inner spring mattresses all of my life.  Not that it’s a bad thing, just that memory foam mattresses are completely different.

The initial comfort factor is just AMAZING!  No matter what position you lie in you just feel completely supported!  After going through the “OOOOOOO and AHHHHHH” stage it was time to settle in and go to sleep!  It took no time at all and I was out cold!  I remember waking up a few times in the night, mostly because I was a little too warm.  But over all it was a very good nights sleep.  Even with the waking up part, I still feel more rested and like the quality of my sleep was better.  But, and yes there has to be a but, for the first time in the 16+ years that we have been together, I was snoring so loud that I woke my husband up….LMAO!  Now, the thing that makes that even funnier, I was sleeping on my stomach at the time…LOL!  He also had a night where he woke up several times, but he said that he didn’t have a difficult time falling back to sleep when he would wake up.  He also said that he did feel more rested this morning even with waking up a handful of times.

It’s definitely going to be something that is going to take some time getting adjusted to, but I do not foresee ever being able to sleep on anything else…LOL!  Of course, there will be times where I have to sleep somewhere other than my own bed, but here at home, from this day forward, I will ALWAYS sleep on a memory foam bed from BedInABox.com!  They have a top notch quality product at an amazing price, and to me you simply can’t go wrong with that!

Yes, I know that grammatically that title makes no sense. BUT, it did get your attention, didn’t it? If your answer was yes, then I achieved what I wanted to! And now that I have your attention, I can talk to you about something that is important as well as a cause that I feel is very much worthwhile!

If you could help kids learn important things about life by giving something that you no longer use, would you? There is an non profit company called Car Angel that you can donate boats, cars, motor cycles and even RV’s to. They, in turn, take the proceeds from your donations and use them to videos for children and teens that can teach them some of the values that you and I grew up with. You can also choose what specific charity you want to have the proceeds from your donation to benefit. Since they help many different types of people, you are sure to find a charity will suit your taste.

Car Angel has given away more than 2.4 million videos, free of charge, to individuals as well as churches and organizations. The one that I want to share with you is a documentary that shows exactly how drug addiction can change your life.

And imagine that you pull up next to me at a stop light. You look over, admiring my car and notice that I’m motioning for you to roll down your window. You roll your window down trying to imagine what I might need when I lean out the window and ask you, “Pardon me, but would you have any Grey Poupon“?

I was recently asked if I would try two of Grey Poupon’s newest mustards and give my honest review.  Since I’ve always been a mustard gal, I was very glad to be able to take part in this product review!  I waited anxiously all week for my delivery to arrive and it finally came yesterday!  When I opened the box I was thrilled to find out that I had been given a jar of Grey Poupon hearty spicy brown as well as Grey Poupon harvest coarse ground mustards.  The hearty spicy brown is an AWESOME mustard made with yellow onions and the harvest coarse ground is made with whole mustard seeds.

For my first try of the mustards I took the recipe that is at the Grey Poupon website for Saucy Summertime Hot Dogs and made some alterations to it with ingredients I actually had on hand.  The recipe calls for chopped tomatoes, dill pickles, onions and pepperoncini, you  then mix in 2 TBSP of Grey Poupon hearty spicy brown mustard.  I took some red, green and yellow bell peppers that I had and sliced them, then sliced some sweet onion and banana peppers and sauteed all ingredients in a little bit of butter before I mixed in the Grey Poupon hearty spicy brown mustard, then topped the hot dogs with this.  I also added a little bit of shredded cheese to mine.  Let me tell you, it was AWESOME!  Even my hubby and son said that they loved it!  Here is a picture of how the hot dogs turned out.

For dinner tonight, I wanted to make something that would allow me to use the Grey Poupon hearty coarse ground mustard.  Although they have many recipes on the Grey Poupon website, I couldn’t find one that I thought my whole family would eat, so I decided to try out something that would be my own creation.  I decided that I’d take the hearty coarse ground mustard and add some honey and melted butter to it and use it as a “glaze” for part of a ham that I had in the freezer.  After mixing the three ingredients together I drizzled them over the ham and baked it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes or so.  (Yes, it was a precooked ham)  The result was a kind of sweet kind of spicy flavor that my family was a bit leery to try.  But after I convinced them that I had no doubt they would like it, we all sat down to dinner.  I’m THRILLED to say that dinner ended with four completely clean plates!  Here is a picture of my ham before we sat down to devour it!

Since I’m a mustard gal, I had no doubt that I would enjoy trying out these two varieties of Grey Poupon mustard.  What I didn’t know was hot only how much I would enjoy them, but how much my family would enjoy them as well!  I like adding new options to the foods we eat, and it’s always a good thing when you have two kids who are VERY picky eaters, who enjoy the new options as well!  So if you’ve been looking for something new to give your favorite recipes a kick, I highly recommend  both of these varieties of Grey Poupon mustard!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for many of the advances that have been made in many areas because of modern technology. But when it comes to advancing consumer technology, well, it confuses me! I mean, HDTV, Plasma TV, LCD TV and then then necessity for things like HDMI switches and cables. Come on, just give me a TV that is easy to turn on and find the channel that I want to watch, that’s all I need! Sometimes it seems like consumer technology is advanced only to confuse the consumers into buying things they don’t necessarily need!

There is no doubt, after cutting my leg on it again, that replacing my current bed is now at the top of my priority list! After I made my video the other night I went into my room to look for one of my daughters shirts that is in the ironing basket. I had neglected to pull the sheets and comforter back down after taking the pictures I used in the video and as I was walking around the end of the bed to the ironing basket I brushed up against one of the corners and the end of the spring that has popped through grabbed my leg and gave it a good bite!

I honestly never thought that much about traditional spring coil mattresses until the springs from this one started popping out and biting me! So now I’m more determined than ever to replace this bed with a memory foam mattress and never return to a spring coil mattress again!