I Did it Again

 

 I used my slow cooker again today.  I know this doesn't look so appealing...lasagna, but it wasn't bad.  It was missing a cheesy flavor and will know to add more next time I make it.  But it is nice to load the cooker up and not worry about it, yet have dinner at dinner time. 

On another note, look what's going on in front of my house:



They are putting sewer lines in the woods.  I can't believe that this is happening.  When we moved here 34 years ago it was all country with horses in the back, pigs, wild dog packs and eventually wild bores.  Now, there will be sewer lines next to my house.  This causes me anxiety. 

Don't know what I'll make tomorrow.  I'll have to work on my menu, too.

I'm Slow Cook'in

I'm doing it.  I'm slow cook'in...finally.

This is the first time I've used his new crock pot.  I saw it on the clearance rack at Target for $17.  I was debating whether or not to buy it, but I did and when it rang up at the register $14 I was pleasantly surprised!!  I have an old crock pot that was my mother's (I burned my up on the stove), but I haven't used it in a long time.  I was planning on using my mom's until I saw this one.  I guess you could say I've updated!

I'm trying to go back to the frugal livestyle.  I was very good at it when the kids were younger.  Then as we slowly earned more money I slowly felt a little richer and didn't 'frugal' as much as I should have.  Now I'm spoiled!  Hahah.  One thing I've started doing and I should have done this a long time ago is to recycle paper.  I usually threw away paper that was printed on one side.  Now, I made dh aware that we are using paper that can be printed on the clean side.  Let's see if he listens. :)

I have an esty shop, but I haven't put anything in it yet.  I'm crocheting some dishcloths right now.  Eventually, I want to make some baby things and whatever else I think might sell.  Here's a link to my shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/OntheBayDesigns  I'm slowly learning how to open this shop.  It's hard being the producer, merchandiser, advertiser, photographer of a shop.  LOL

That's it for now...gotta go check on my cooker.

Time for Spring Cleaning

First I wanted to mention that one night I was making meatloaf, well, at least I wanted to make meatloaf, but I didn't have any bread crumbs or crackers to add to the ground meat.  As I was looking through my cabinets to see if there was possibly anything I could come up with to add to the meat, I had Stove Top Stuffing.  Well, why not I thought to myself.  It had spices in it so I thought it would give the meatloaf a nice taste.  And I was pleasantly surprised to find, after it was cooked, that it was very good.  So, I may be adding Stove Top more often to my meatloafs!

Wednesday I sat down with my slow cooker recipe book and went through it to figure out which meals I wanted to make.  I have got to get back to cooking, no other way around it.  So I decided to make beef stew Thursday night.  But, I didn't have some of the ingredients so I knew I'd have to run to the store, but I had other errands to run to also, so by the time I got home and ten remembering I had to take the cat to the vets there was no time for me to start my dinner.  Dh and I didn't get out of the vets until 8:30pm!!  Our appointment was for 7:10, but they had a couple of emergencies and it put them behind.  We left there $500 more in debt.  What do you do...pets medical costs are worse than humans.  Miss Puma (our cat) had ears that bleed because of tumors and it's costing more and more to treat her condition.  Anyway, I'm hoping that today I can get started on my stew.

But the spring cleaning bug is starting to hit.  I'm tired of seeing piles of dirt and clutter.  Want to make the house pretty again.

This and That

There have been a few thoughts going through my head, but let me tell you, last Wednesday night I was sick!!  And it hit me without any warning.  Dh and I had gone out to eat.  It was good, we enjoyed the food.  We came home, did stuff around the house, got ready for bed.  We went to sleep and then a couple of hours later I woke up with a grumbling tummy.  And that's when it hit. It was the flu, or something.  Let's just say I thought about dying and going to the hospital all in the same thought.  I was so weak I could hardly stand.  Awful, awful, awful.  The strange thing is that I've had this happen at least once a year for the last couple of years...so, is it the flu or something else?  I'm feeling a lot better, but still tired.  But I'm trying to push on, you know?

Money is totally tight these next two weeks.  We really have to watch the spending for sure.

I've been volunteering at the pregnancy clinic every Tuesday.  I go in for a couple of hours.  It's okay....

I've been talking to an old co-worker...we have made plans to get together to eat lunch but twice I've had to cancel on him.  I do think he doesn't believe I want to have lunch with him.  Once, I had to go to the doctors with dd, and then I got really sick and had to cancel.  Let's just hope all goes well this week and three's a charm.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

MIA

Sorry I've been missing in action.  I've had a busy schedule since the beginning of the year.  I haven't hardly had a day to relax..well, what I consider relax.  I'm so tired now that I'm gonna make this short.  Some of the things I've been doing is running to meetings with CMA.  I started volunteering at the pregnancy clinic and dd has been diagnosed with hypoglycemia, so she's allowed me to go to a couple of doctor visits with her.  We think life is stressful and 'bad' until a health issue comes up and it changes your life style dramatically. 

I'm not a morning person by any means...I'm a night and owl and I've been having to get up early in the mornings.  I'm dead tired at night.  So I'm gonna hang up now and get some sleep.  Tomorrow is clean the house day and hopefully get my paperwork organized and start working on the taxes.  Boooo!

Susan G. Komen and Other Stuff

Well, well, well, can we all really believe?  After many, many years and $700,000 a year in grant money SGK has decided to cut their ties with Planned Parenthood.  I can't hardly believe it.  In fact, I don't.  I think SGK is going with this publicly, but I still believe they are sneaky little mice and are doing something with PP under the table.  You don't play footsies with someone for years and sit on the board of directors then all of a sudden cut ties with them.  (Nancy Brinker, CEO of SGK has been sitting onthe board of PP for years.)  So, give me the proof, show me by your actions and then maybe I'll believe.  Can pro-life people actually believe that something major is happening this year with the pro-life movement?  I pray that's true.  It's awesome to see we are moving in the right direction with protecting unborn babies. 

On another note, my ds's car was totalled by the repair shop.  He loved his car.  He still has his police car to use, but he can't drive that out of county, so he's kinda stuck near home.  Haha...but, praise God that his car was parked and nobody got hurt.  Blessings!

Car Accident

I wanted to wait until I got pictures to post before I wrote this.  The other night, I think it was Wednesday at around 1:30 in the morning I was watching tv when all of a sudden the tv went off and right outside my bedroom window there was a large 'light' and a loud boom!  That's never happened before.  I knew something happened to the electricity, but didn't know what.  We have our computers/tv on backup battery packs, so when the electricity went off all the battery packs started beeping.  I went around the house with my flashlight turning everything off.  I looked outside through the living room window with my flashlight to see if the electric wires went down and I down at the end of our driveway the pole was leaning.  I went to wake up dh and told him what happened.  I said I was getting my clothes on (because I was in my pjs) and going outside to see why the pole was leaning.  As I stepped outside onto the porch I heard someone screaming.  Dh didn't have his shoes on and he was talking to me, but I was yelling at him that someone was screaming.  Now, it's very dark down here at the house without lights.  So all I had was the flashlight.  I proceeded to walk up the driveway, all the while I was scared because I didn't know what I was getting myself into, in the dark, yet I knew I had to see what was going on.  I got to the top of the driveway when I saw a car had crashed into the telephone pole.  I didn't see anyone outside the car, yet they were yelling for help.  I ran down the driveway, into the house, got on the phone and called 911.  Then I went back up the driveway.  By this time dh was getting his shoes on.  When I got back up the driveway I stayed on the other side of it while I shined my light into the car.  I told the person in there that I called for help and he said thank you, but he was screaming in pain.  His leg was pinned under the dashboard.  The driver's door wouldn't open.  The guy was screaming in pain, asking us to help get him out, but we couldn't and we just kept reassuring him that help on the way.  It seemed like forever before rescue showed up.  But, they did get there and started cutting him out of the car.  When they got him out of the car, his leg was mangled.  I didn't smell any alcohol on his breath, so I don't know if he fell asleep or what.  Here's pictures of the car:



I didn't take these pictures.  Rescue did and I got it off their website. 

Cell Phone Accident

Ds was at a hockey game with his sister having a grea time when he got a phone call from the city police officer that he knew informing ds that his car just got totalled. Ds loves his car.  The thing is that his car was minding it's own business, parked in front of the house when a teenage driver dropped his cell-phone on the floor of his car and, yes, you guessed it, went to reach for it, crossed lanes and hit ds's car. 

DS called the insurance company.  Today he had his car towed to the repair shop.  The mechanic said it's gonna be 'close' as there is a rod in there, that if bent, may have to total the car.  DS is hoping it's not bent.  And wouldn't you know, ds makes his last car payment in June.  But isn't that always the way?

Steeple Chase

Today our motorcycle group went on a steeple chase...hence, a church visit.  Once a month we are trying to visit a church that none of us attend, to let the community know that all bikers are not bad.  In fact, there are Christian bikers that spreads the Word of God. We were welcomed in the church and had quite a few people asking us about our association.  That's awesome. Here's a picture of our group that the preacher took of us:

After church we went to eat at a pizza place called Cetrone's:

I asked the waiter to take the picture, but he said he doesn't take good pictures so he went in the back to find the delivery guy.  Hahaha.  The guy wanted to know where the pictures were going.  Strange.  We had a great day!  We couldn't ride of our motorcycles, of course, but we had a great time anyway.