This & That...My Silly Life

Well, a lot actually.  The weekend went by way to fast, and I feel like all I did was work.  I have been continuing my clean out and get out projects.  Over the weekend I tackled my stock room and my pantry.  I think I may take this weekend off since I have not been able to do anything I wanted to do the past two weekends :(

So I showed you the picture of my stock room before last week.  Here is the after...


There is no possible way to hide all the stuff I have or stuff it in a closest, but to me it is a great improvement from a week ago.
Then I moved onto the pantry.  I wish I would have taken a before picture, but I was in work mode and totally forgot.  Anyway here is my clean organized pantry.


ahhh much better!  Anyway, I have got to buy me some new fabric storage bins because I keep stealing them from my laundry room and putting them in other places (LOL)  Speaking of...I did go to Wal-Mart today and picked up the ones I ordered and I loved them!!!  I am going to order at least 2 more sets for my bedroom closet.  The pantry needs shorter ones, so I am going to have to do some searching for some a little smaller.  At least the laundry room did get the two I put in the linen closest back tonight.

So that was my whole day Saturday.  I ended up with 8 bags of stuff to take to the dump so I got rid of that.  I also had several boxes to take off so I got that done.  Fun Stuff...I LOVE going to the dump (NOT)!!!

Anyway, I finally got the house straightened back out for my Pampered Chef party on Sunday.  I was super excited because I love my Pampered Chef (best stuff ever made for the kitchen).  Baby Kayleigh stole the show with her cute little self.  Love getting to see that precious little girl.  Highlight of my day was feeding her oatmeal...she was too cute!

I apologize for my lack of posting the past two days.  My weekend cleaning project too my whole day Saturday and my husband wanted to go see some friends Saturday evening.

Today was my Pampered Chef party, and we had a great time :)  Thanks to all the ladies who showed up...hope you girls got some good stuff!!!  That took up most of my day today.  After everything was done I had to work on dinner for Mark and me, and then get my order together.  To top it all off I have spent the past 3.5 hours working on some stuff for work (boo).  So my weekend has quickly slipped right out of my hands.  I didn't even get to watch my TV shows tonight :(

I promise to get everyone up to date on everything tomorrow.  Until then....goodnight!

My trusty Sperry's, the most comfortable shoe in the whole wide world.  So I am kinda a bum.  I really don't care to dress up and I am not real girly.  As I am sure you can tell from my favorite shoes :)  Anyway, I have had these shoes for 2 years and I pretty much wear them every day.  However, I think before too long I am going to have to send them to the shoe graveyard.  The hole on the bottom is great for air circulation, oh and letting water from wet parking lots seep into my socks...LOL  The soles are starting to come of the front part of them too.  I think I can hang onto them for just a little longer though!  I have got my miles and money out of these shoes.

On another note...tonight I bought my husband a present

windshield wipers for his hunting truck :)  What can I say...we are practical gift givers around here.  Actually he said he had to go buy some tonight and with my new Ebates addition, I decided I would take over that task.  A present for him, and a present for me.  Yep, these put an extra $1.26 in my Ebates account.  All I had to do was order them online and then go to the store to pick them up.  This is way too easy!!!  I signed up for my Ebates account on 10-6-11, and made my first purchase on 10-9-11.  Today is 10-28-11 and I have $16.37 in my account.  I will get my first check next month.  So you can keep ignoring my advertising of this awesome little site or you can jump on the train and start earning yourself free money.  No it's not a million dollars, but I can't wait to see what the grand total ends up be in 6 months or a year.


Other than that lets say HOORAY for the weekend.  It is a chilly rainy night here, but I am sipping on a cup of coffee and fixing to watch my favorite Friday night show (Blue Bloods).  Which I just figured out is not coming on...BOO TV BOO!!!  Tomorrow I will begin tackling my stock room, fun stuff...  Try not to spend your whole weekend doing house work ladies :)

So tonight I am cooking.  I haven't been able to cook much this week and a nice home cooked meal was #1 on my list tonight.  I am cooking Chili Beans...yummo!!!  I actually like to cook but after a long day at work I don't always feel like running home to the stove.  (you working ladies know what I mean)  While softball season is going on I often like to cook extra food so on the nights we have games we don't get in the habit of eating from a drive thru all the time.

Chili Beans are the perfect food for those fall and winter nights.  They are quiet easy to make, affordable and you can FREEZE them to eat another night when you don't feel up to slaving at the stove.  I would advise you just go ahead a make big ol' pot full and save yourself sometime on dinner in the future :)

So lets start with the ingredients.  You will need hamburger, tomato juice,dark red kidney beans, light red kidney beans (or any beans those are just the ones I use), onion, bell pepper, canned diced tomatoes, and cheese.

1. Place your hamburger in a pan and brown
2. Drain the fat from your hamburger
3. Open cans of beans and rinse with water
4. add all your ingredients to one extra large pot :)
5. Cook your beans until your onions and peppers are cooked, add more tomato juice if needed

Simple as pie!!!

So lets talk about the cost of this nice good for your family dinner.

• 6 cans of Kidney beans @ $0.68 = $4.08
• 3 cans of diced tomatoes @ $0.95 = $2.85
• 1 onion                                         = $0.50
• 1 bell pepper                                 = $0.89
• 1 container of tomato juice           = $2.50
• 1 bag of cheese                             = $1.89
• 4 lbs of hamburger                      =  $10.00
• Grand Total:                             = $22.71

But it didn't cost me this much because I used deer meat instead of hamburger (free), and the bell pepper was some that I frozen from our garden this summer :)  So think about when you feed your family and how much it cost to order pizza out.  It really isn't that bad.  Mark and I are a family of 2 so the amount I made will last us several meals.  I would estimate us to get about 8 meals from this pot of beans.  If I had paid the price above that would make it $1.42 per person per meal.  Bet you can't get a whole meal at McDonald's for that.  But actually since I didn't have to buy the hamburger it ends up being $0.67 per person per meal.  A good amount will find it's way to the freezer tonight for the nights I don't feel like cooking.

So what's your favorite fall meal to cook?

• I had to go through all my files in the file cabinet and clean out all the old stuff, and shred it.  This was the daunting task, it only took 3 hours.  I didn't realize how much stuff we still had on file that we haven't had accounts for in years.  At last, my file cabinet has space again :)
• Start new files for the stuff I had piled in the basket that I didn't have space in the file cabinets for.
• Tidy up my sewing area
• Go through all the baskets on my self and throw out stuff I don't need any longer
• Straighten up my computer desk
• Vacuum and whala...computer room is finished :)
  
  
  
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Well it is almost that time. Softball is almost over. We start the tournament next week, and then we will be done with softball for the year.  It has been a lot of softball this year.  We started in April and either Mark or myself have been playing ever since.  A break is welcomed at this point!!!  They boys have had a rough past few games.  3 loses in a row :(  They have played really good this season despite the last few games.

If there is one thing me and my husband have in common it's sports.  We are both super competitive people...him a little more than me.  He hates to lose, it drives him crazy and he has been so ill the past few games (LOL)  I am the big mouth wife in the stands, I am sure the other teams and even umpires hate me.  I cheer all the guys on, yell a little too loud sometimes and often I get a little too emotional and talk a little junk.  I call out where every play is when they are in the field...what can I say???  I love it :)  My husband is not that kind of cheer leader when I play, which is probably a good thing!  I told him on the way tonight I will probably be the crazy mom when we have kids and they start playing sports...oh man can't wait to see me when those days arise!!!

Anyway, the constant 2 and earlier in his season 4 games a week (we were both playing at the same time for awhile) have really taken their toll on us.  We are tired!!!  The last 2 weeks we have had 8:30 and 9:30 games and some nights didn't walk in the door until 11:00...gezz  I would never wish an early exit for them in the tournament next week, but I can say I will be happy to see softball come to a close for awhile.  We both need a little break and some rest.  Plus these cold nights are freezing me to death!!!

Well hope every one's week is going well...sorry I don't have a fun post tonight, but I am tired and don't have time to upload pictures or do anything fancy.  So for today you just get a peak into my busy life.  I have to get to bed so I can get to work early in the am....lovely :)

So my Monday goes a little like this...

Stressful day at work and BUSY (nothing new)

Got off work had a ton to do at home but decided to go hunting since I didn't get to Saturday. Went hunting sat in the woods for 3 hours... I did see a deer, and I did shoot at it, but I missed (my luck) Then I have to be interrogated by Mark as to why I missed the deer ((eyes rolling)) Finally get home @ 7:30

Luckily I didn't have to worry about dinner since we had leftovers (Thank Goodness)

But....I did have to worry about the 5 loads of laundry I didn't get to this weekend, and Marks uniform since he has a game tomorrow :( At this point 2 loads are folded, a load is in the dryer, a small load waiting to go in the dryer and a load washing. No big deal, it's not like I have a job to go to tomorrow...SIKE! During the few minutes of down time I decided to start cleaning the spare bedroom that has been ravaged by hunting season and any other junk. So I manged to get the closet organized and pack a bag of stuff to take to goodwill. Get all the junk off the bed, put Mark's over sized bow case away and folded all the hunting clothes that were piled all over the floor. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I worked in there for a little over an hour. More work is needed, but it is an improvement! More junk to be carted off later!!!

Mark is in the bed sleeping... I am writing this blog and waiting on laundry. Oh and since nothing got put away from our dinner I guess I will be cleaning the kitchen, putting everything away and loading the dishwasher before bed. Hmmmm, and then Mark wonders why I don't want to get up in the morning. I have no clue...LOL

Oh, there's my cue....the dryer just started buzzing. Back to work for me so I can hopefully get in the bed by 12:30. Gezz sometimes working full time all day and being a wife, cleaner and picker upper is stressful.

So today I have been doing some online shopping for a few things I needed. One being my bins for the organized linen closet.

These are the ones I chose. They were a decent price and since Target wants to charge an arm and leg for shipping I had to get them at Wal-Mart (since they didn't have any in the store)

Then I was nice enough to order my Mom a stock pot. For some reason they are all way too tall in the stores these days. Tall pots are not as easy to cook in, so I also found her a good average size pot at Wal-Mart.


By the way...Target's online shopping SUCKS!!! They are the only folks I know who charge an arm and a leg for shipping and don't offer shipping on orders over a certain amount of money. Thank you Wal Mart for offering site to store for FREE....it's awesome!!!

And the last item was for Mark :) We disparately need some heat in our shop, we have been putting off this purchase for awhile but I am giving in!

No more freezing during cold weather at night while sitting around in the shop. This big boy heater will be shipping to the store for us to pick up in the next 5-7 days...maybe in time for the weekend :) I hated to part with the money cause it sure wasn't cheap, but we will get plenty of use out of it and it is something Mark has really wanted. Did I mention it will color coordinate with his lawn mower??? LOL I LOVE my hunny :)

So I have been talking about Ebates and you guys really need to sign up!!! I have $6.65 in my account right now! I had to buy the stuff from Wal-Mart online because it wasn't available in my store. I earned $1.00 on that purchase (free money) and it shipped for free. Then I know the heater is in stock at the store because I looked at it a few weeks ago, but since I could ship it to the store for free and buy it through Ebates I did....and earned $7.50. Since it was free to ship why wouldn't I earn a little extra cash? HELLO FREE MONEY!!!!!! So now my Ebates account will be up to $15.15 just by going through their site to buy my stuff online. It is so great and I am in LOVE. Every dollar counts people...I can't wait to get my first check :) I am always looking for ways to save money, and I can't believe that in a few short weeks I have already earned so much.

So sign up!!! Click the link below to get started

Tackling this mess of a closest!!!

This is my linen closest. I use it for storing all of our sheets, comforters, extra hand towels, and old curtains and linens that I want to keep in case I decide to use them later. About two years ago we bought a king size bed and those sheets take up a lot more room and I had a ton of sets for full size beds that I needed to sort through. We still have full size beds in our guest rooms but we didn't need 20 sets of sheets for them any longer. So I started to sort through everything.

Which turned into a mess all over the hallway....yikes!!!!

Anyway, I went through everything and decided on the sets I wanted to keep. Then I invited Mom over to see if she wanted what was left. She took some and then the rest I put up to use as scraps for my sewing machine (that I haven't learned to use yet) and a few sets went to the trash. Don't worry those were old and ratty :)

So after starting my project I decided I wanted some of those fabric bins to put one the shelves to organize a little better...off to Wal-Mart I went. Of course they had none...UGH!!! So I come home and stole two out of my laundry room (temporary) to put my hand towels in one and some set sets in the other. I am going to try target next week because I know they have a ton of the fabric bins,

and this is what my closest transformed to...

AWESOME!!! Now I have some space left over :)

and here is a picture of the bins that I have to replace at a later date.

Have you started any organizing projects lately?

Cheers to the weekend my friends :) I am super excited for tonight because my girl fiends and me are going out to have a yummy girls dinner date...woohoo!!!

As for the rest of my weekend, I have a small project I will be undertaking this weekend. I will share it with you all tomorrow or Sunday. (can't give it away)

Enjoy your Friday night. I gotta run because I hear a Margarita calling my name ;)

Have you herd the saying the only two things certain in life is death and taxes? Of course you have, I have herd it a million times. I don't believe the taxes part though....ever herd of tax evasion? You can not evade death!!!

So you might consider this post strange, but from time to time I like to help people understand the need for certain things in life that are easily forgotten.

I am almost 29 years old, and while I don't plan on parting from the world anytime soon you just never know. I think people my age and younger often think they don't have to worry about death and sadly that is not the case.

How many people do you know who have been killed in a car accident before their time? How many people will develop cancer before they reach the age of 40? Death comes in several forms and at any age, it doesn't discriminate. So what is the point of all of this??? LIFE INSURANCE!!!! Most people my age don't even consider life insurance because they don't believe they need it, but you do!!!

I bought my first policy outside of work (to me work policies are just bonuses b/c if you switch jobs or get laid off most of the time you lose them) the year after Mark and I bought our house, I think I was 26. I really wish I would have bought one earlier...mostly because the younger you are the cheaper the rate. I am a worst case scenario type of person and always try to plan ahead :) When we moved into this house I knew if anything happened to either of us the mortgage and monthly bills would be overwhelming, and that scared me. I would never want my sweet husband to have to leave our home that we worked so hard for if something happened to me.

So I sat down with Mark and told him we needed to buy life insurance outside of work. At first he probably thought it was a waste of money because life insurance is NOT cheap! However after thinking of all the things we had accumulated and the home we worked so hard to have he finally understood why I wanted to protect our investment. And that is exactly what life insurance is...protection!

Your need for life insurance can be based on several factors. For us it was pretty simple... Right now we have no children so there is no college funds or anything of that nature to worry about. We simply decided to take out a 30 year term policy (term is cheaper) that would cover our mortgage and other small expenses. That way if anything was to happen to us the mortgage would be paid and the other could stay in our home. We decided on 30 years because we have a 30 year mortgage on our house. My premium is higher because of my Asthma but I pay $82.00 a month for $150,000.00, and peace of mind! We can convert our term into whole life (expensive) at any time during our 30 year term. Whole life is really the best, but it is very costly.

So I am telling you, it is important to have life insurance! Think of the people you love in your life. Would you want them to suffer if something happened to you? I choose to have the peace of mind that the ones I love could continue the life they have now (in regards to monetary expenses) if something awful was to happen to me. It makes me feel good not to have to worry and know they will be taken care of.

So here are some very important questions to ask yourself...
1. Do you have a mortgage? If so you need life insurance
2. Do you have children? If so you need life insurance (will the person left to take care of them be able to provide the life you wanted for them? More than likely not if two incomes were taking care of them)
3. Do you have loans that you have a co singer on? If so you need life insurance (you wouldn't want to put someone who helped you in a financial burden)
4. Do you have family that would be burdened by your burial cost? (of course, no one plans on paying funeral expenses when they are young)
5. Is there someone (parents, significant other) that you would like to be able to assist financially? Think of things and money these people have invested in you over your life, wouldn't it be nice to do something special for them?

I know it's rather morbid to think of these things, but at the end of the day you need to. Your an adult and you need to take responsibility for the things in your life and the people who count on you. If your young and none of these things apply to you I would still recommend life insurance if you can afford it. You can get a much better rate and I can guarantee that in some point in your life some of these things will apply to you!!! Get it while it is cheap! Even buying my policy at 26 I had wished I had bought life insurance earlier.

There is nothing wrong with being ready for whatever life may hand you. Live everyday like it's your last but at the same time have the peace of mind that if it is your last you can rest in peace!

Just what I needed after a long day....some cookies. OMG I got these lemon filled cookies at Wal-Mart the other day and they are delish, and only $1.48 for a big pack. Yummy and cheap! I did buy these cookies for Mark's famous "snack pack" for hunting, but it will be okay if I have a few :)

And the "snack pack" is a little lunch I make for Mark each Saturday to take hunting. All the guys joke about his snack pack, but I know they are jealous that they don't have one ;) This week Mark will have a sandwich, some cookies, a pack of crackers and some vienna sausages...yep I am a good wifey!!!!

Speaking of being a good wifey I have got to run tonight. Mark had a softball game last night and has another one tomorrow so I have to get his uniform washed this evening. Oh and not to mention my favorite new show Revenge comes on tonight.

Love this show!!! If you haven't watched it you should, it is well thought out and something different from all the other shows on TV. It has quickly made it to my must watch list.

First you make a cut down the sew line on collar where the line goes down to the sleeve. You only have to cut through the collar part and then you can rip apart at the seam the rest of the way down.


Once you get to the sleeve part you will have to make another cut along the sleeve and the rip apart all the way around. I don't use the sleeve part. (I try to get rid of all the parts that have sew lines)

Here is one of my rags :)

scraps left over from shirts

and a lovely pile of shop rags for my sweetie!!!

So save yourself some money the next time you have some old T Shirts. Cut them up and do something nice for the hard working man in your life :) Mine loved his new shop rags. I love the white t shirts because I can wash his rags with Clorox and get them super clean!!!

We were laughing at Mark because he SUCKED!

fun times!!!

So I know everyone has their opinion on hunting but I could really care less! First of all hunting puts meat on my table and my Mom's table and second if their were no hunters deer would be way over populated. Every time someone hits a deer they want to blame it on a hunter. Let's set that straight right quick...I have hit 5 deer on my car and all were at night. Hunters don't hunt at night! Deer move all during the day and night and they don't move because I am sitting in a tree stand in the middle of the woods. No I did not run them to your car...they are animals they roam around...duh! Also since many people don't know this time of year deer are more active because they move about a lot more when the weather is cooler and also their mating season starts when the weather gets colder, and last but not least they are out grabbing a ton of food for the winter. So for all of you haters you can thank my Husband....this is one less deer you have to worry about hitting your car this year. (end of rant...lol)
So have you ever herd that you have to mess up to clean up? I have herd this a million times. I have been cleaning random stuff since I have been off work and my house has turned into a mess and a half. Hunting season is always the worst because stuff seems to be all over the place. This is what my two high traffic rooms looked like this morning :(

Gracious!! As you can see the guitar hero stuff is out, a ton of stuff from where I was working on my computer and a hunting vest and a mess on the table....this is terrible!!! I would never claim my house in this condition...



So I am happy to say as of this afternoon my house is 100% back in order. Wonder how long that will last? If you are married or live with a man I am sure you know they always leave stuff sitting around. Drives me crazy!!! I am guilty myself sometimes, when I am tired or had a long day I sometimes leave things out of order. For the most part I try to put things back in their place :)

Mark and I are on vacation today and tomorrow basically because we needed to get a few things done. Number one on the list was to replace the roof on our screened in porch...fun stuff I know.

Anyway, you have to know my husband...he hates projects. I on the other hand love them :) We went to Home Depot to get the supplies and he was already aggravated before we ever left the store (great). For some reason he thought it wouldn't take but two or three hours and boy was he wrong. It took about 8 1/2 hours and by the time he came inside he just went straight to bed. Here are some photos of the process.