This & That...My Silly Life

Last week I was off work all week...awesome huh?  Well not so much...

I spent majority of my time either in a home improvement store buying supplies or covered in sanding dust and paint from working on my bedroom furniture.  My hands look like they have been run through a meat grinder, but what can I say deep down I love my projects.  Even when they are a pain in the rear end!!!

Then there was the organizing of the closet and switching out everything to our winter stuff.   Taking stuff off to Goodwill.  Putting up the Christmas tree (which I despise).  Running around and getting ready for Thanksgiving.

And probably my only fun time was Black Friday shopping.  Even though it pretty much sucked this year I still love getting out and going.  Plus it's something Mom and I always do together.  Are you wondering what I got this year?  Let me show you  :)

 new jeans for my skinny husband
 Christmas gift for our nephew
 Muck boots for my sweet husband
 new T shirts for Mark
 Our new Wii and YES we got the blue one!
 and a PINK controller for me  :)
 games

 My favorite game...I LOVE LOVE LOVE the tennis!!!
 Cute doll for our niece


Kitchen and Bath towels that we need (don't know why the pictures came out so small)
 another gift for our niece
and assorted American Eagle clothes for Winston

So that pretty much sums it up.  I got some good deals on the things I wanted which made me happy.  Even if I worked myself to pieces over my staycation it's always better than a day at the real job!

I bet my mail man hates me!  Why???  Because he has been dropping off boxes at my house all week...yippee!  All the stuff I have ordered online is slowly trickling in and it makes me excited.  We are   D-O-N-E with our Christmas shopping.  Not to brag...we really don't have much to do.  Mark and I don't do gifts so all we really do is my brother and our nieces and nephew.  Usually we will get Marks parents a gift card to dinner, and I might buy Mom a small gift, but that is it.

Some may think that is weird, but it is actually pretty nice.  No stress for us worrying over what to buy for Christmas.  We feel like we get the things we want all year and there is no need to waste money just to buy something.  I guess you could say we do get stuff.  We have been wanting a Wii and I bought us one on black friday...Merry Christmas to us  :)  After all Christmas isn't about presents!!!

Anyway, I have been excited for the stuff coming in.  It's not all mine.  Some of it is stuff I ordered for Mom to give Winston (my brother).  Well we have to go through it and divided it up...some things I will give him and some things she or (Santa) will give him.

Here is what everything is looking like  :)


It's funny...I don't care if I have anything for myself for Christmas. I just like watching the kids and Winston open their gifts :)

So how is your Christmas shopping coming?

Ok, don't kill me...  I know you guys get tired of me talking about Ebates all the time, but it is so awesome I can't help myself.  So here is an example of why I am  in love with this awesome little site.

Yesterday, I had to buy the oil for my Mom's oil change and mine as well.  I went to Ebates to order it online from Advance Auto.  At Advance Auto you can pick up your order right in the store for no extra charge, it's quiet convenient  :)

The purchase goes like this.....

10 quarts of oil
2 oil filters

Total Spent:  $50.91

Ebates cash back   $5.50

Mail in rebate on the oil  $14.00

***After it's all said and done, I will have paid only  $31.41 for two oil changes or $15.71 for each car***

Do you know where you can get your oil changed for $15.71???  Yeah, I didn't think so!

I have changed the way I shop because of Ebates.  In a time where money is tight and every dollar counts, who can complain about earning a few extra dollars by hitting this site and doing shopping on your computer.  I have used store pick up through Ebates at Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, and Advance Auto.  I have made purchases online through Kohl's, Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, American Eagle & Tractor Supply and got all the items shipped for free.  So basically what it comes down to is making a few extra bucks on your purchases by using Ebates to get to the online retailer.  Add my credit card rewards points on top of that and it's just icing on the cake :)

My total cash pending (until the quarter is over and they mail my check) right now is $33.86 and I have some more coming from stores that haven't posted my cash back yet.  Hello...that is a LOT of money!


You can sign up today, just click the image

and the side view...

If you are wondering what it looked like before you can see it Here!!!

::::::So here is what I have learned::::::

Benjamin Moore paint is EXPENSIVE!!!!

I took all the online advice to use a Polycrylic to coat the furniture and protect it....DON'T DO IT!!!!  It didn't dry clear, and it left drag marks on the furniture plus when I tried to sand between coats (I thought that might get rid of the milky color and the directions call for it)  it took places of paint off the furniture.  After coating all the drawers and two night stands I had to sand them all back down and repaint them.  UGH!!!  I really wanted to cry at that point  :(  I decided not to put a top coat on the furniture.  I wouldn't advise this for a piece going in a high traffic area, but this is going in my spare bedroom and I plan to put glass on the tops so it won't have a ton of use.  My advice if you do use a top coat would be to test it out on a small place first and make sure my situation doesn't happen to you.  This portion of my project has been a learning process and now I know what to do.  I plan to give step by step instructions with pictures when i get my other two pieces completed!!!

It takes a LOT of time to do all the steps involved.  Sanding, wood filling, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, painting and painting.  You have a lot of waiting in between.  It can't be done in a weekend, if your wondering.  You can't rush it.

You better know how to use tools :)  Sander, drill, putty knives, screw drivers and of course paint rollers and brushes.

So that's it for now, hope you all think it looks pretty  ;)  There is a lot of sweat equity in those two pieces!!!

My apologies for my lack of posting lately, but I have been super busy.  Plan to catch everyone up later this week.

So I herd that many of the Black Friday sales were going to go online early this year.  I tried the online thing last year and several of the stores had over loaded servers which meant no shopping!!!  I thought I would try again this year.

So far, it's been ok...  Kohls has had all their items already online for several hours now.  AWESOME!!!  That place is always packed and with so many stores opening early this year it is going to be tough to get all these deals.  So I have already purchased all the items I planned to go to Kohls for...pretty cool huh?

It is 2:29 am and I am waiting for Best Buy to go live.  They have their deals posted but they won't let you buy them yet  :(  I have a laptop I must have, it is super cheap and since I only do a few things on my computer I don't want to put much money into a new one.  I am scared to go to sleep because if it goes live and I miss it more than likely it will be sold out in no time....gezzz!  I am super sleepy...

So anyway here is what I got from Kohls....
pillows (3.99)
6 pack of kitchen towels (7.99)
10 pack of dish cloths (7.99)
12 bath towels (2.99)
8 pack of wash cloths (2.99)
1 sweater (9.99)
1 long sleeve t shirt (6.00)

well I guess I am going to go ahead and go to bed, it's almost 3 am and I am getting up by 6:00

night night!

Today has been a weird day.  I woke up way late.  Thanks to my migraine medicine once I woke up I couldn' sleep and then I ended up sleeping extremely late.  I still managed to get some stuff done though :)
I cleaned this bed room a little.  It's kind of a mess from switching closets and taking my dresser out.

Then I went to the shop and started sanding my dresser.  I got it sanded and filled the bad spots with wood glue.  So tomorrow I can sand some more.  There is no way possible this will be finished by the weekend.

Then I went hunting.  I have been wanting to go but just haven't been able to.  After getting pooped on by some birds while sitting in my stand I got a chance to shoot one....
I look at this as meat on the table :)
me and my trophy!

So then I came home and started working on getting our Christmas tree up. It's up and it has lights the rest will be done later.

Today I finished our closet Yay!  Minus some minor set backs.  I had a major migraine come on about 1:00 today and it really beat me down.  I took some medicine and laid down at 3:00 to try to sleep it off.  Woke up at 5:00 and it was worse.  I try not to take my migraine medicine because it usually makes me really nauseous, but I didn't have a choice.  I managed to cook a quick dinner (which almost killed me) and then took my medicine and went back to sleep until 8:00.  The medicine really helped and knocked the migraine out to the point I could get some work done.

:::Closet Before:::


Yes I know...OMG what a mess!!!

So I don't have a ton a money to replace my closet with one of those super swanky closet systems, but I think I made some major improvements.  I switched our closets to our winter clothes which really helped.  It gave me a chance to go through all the clothes and get rid of the stuff we no longer needed.  It also gave me a chance to have a bare closet to get some other stuff organized.  We keep our gun cabinet in the closet, and it takes up a nice amount of space.  I like it in the closet because it just doesn't match our furniture in any room so if your wondering what that big green thing is, it's our gun cabinet :)  (duh we live in the south)

:::Closet Now:::

 I added all these extra large storage bins at the top of the closet.  They are hard to find in this size 14x14x14, but I ordered them online from Home Depot (through Ebates of course).  I also rearranged my shoe racks and organized those which gave me extra hanging space on the bottom left of my side of the closet.  I moved the blue cart in the corner, it was on the wall to the left of this picture  this will give me the space to put a 3 bin clothes basket if I would like.  (haven't decided yet)
Here I just organized Marks shoes.  I put his dress shoes on the top shelf since they don't get worn often.  Plus it is really tight on this side so there was no room for storage cubes.  There was also an old vacuum in the corner taking up space so that is off to goodwill.  I also bought 2 sets of tiered hangers for Marks jeans (wanted to try the out first) they are ok, even though they have the swing out handles it is still hard to get to your pants.  I wont be purchasing any more of them (if that tells you anything)

Here is what it cost me for this organizing project....
3 packages of the large storage cubes (Home Depot) $19.97 each   Total:  $59.51
2 packages of the medium storage cubes (Target)   $12.99 each       Total:  $25.98
1 pack of tiered pant hangers (Home Depot)           $15.99                Total: $15.99
1 wire hanging shelf             (Home Depot)            $9.99                  Total:   $9.99

Grand Total :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::  $111.47

I guess that's not too bad, for an organized closest.  Sure beats thousands of dollars :)

Well that's it for tonight.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a smooth day with no problems!

Hello everyone :)  Sorry I missed posting last night, but this weekend has had a million twist and turns.  As we all know plans don't always work the way you want them to!  So here is how the story goes...

Friday night, I came home from work and started on my bedroom furniture.  It was around 11:00 when I came in the house.  Then I had to start working on the Thanksgiving meal grocery list.  Has anyone else noticed how much more Thanksgiving dinner will cost this year?  So I checked between 3 different stores to try to find the best deals on everything I needed.  Either way, at 2:00 I just couldn't continue.  I was so tired so I went to bed and planned to get up early the next day.

:::side bar:::  I am big on making plans and sticking to them.  I like to make a schedule for getting things done and I had my plan for my day Saturday.  My plan was to get up around 6:00 am, finish my grocery list and clip my coupons and go grocery shopping early before everyone hit the stores.  I also had to go to the bank and go pick up some supplies from Lowes, stop by Target, and then to Ace to get the paint for the bedroom suite (so a LOT of errands).  I wanted to be home early so I could finish sanding where I had primed my bedroom suite the night before so we would be sure to be able to paint today.

BUT...this is how my Saturday actually turned out.

Didn't wake up until 9:00 am (guess that's because I went to bed at 2 am)  So that made me ill.  I started working on finishing my list and clipping my coupons.  Then it was 11:00 and Mark called me and asked me to go give the hunting dogs some water.  I go to the pin and pour the water in the bucket and the dogs jump and knock it over....of course all over me so now both my legs are soaking wet.  I haul another bucket of water and yell and scream at the dogs to get away.  Whew, they have water so as I was walking back to the house what do I see???  My husband coming down the path from eating lunch with our neighbor.  I was SOOO mad...  1 because he could have stopped and gave the dogs water and 2 because I had made his lunch for hunting the day before.  But before all this my Direct TV box had stopped working and I had figured it was broke AGAIN.  So all these things sent me over the edge...BIG TIME!  I was mad that I had to go change clothes it's almost 1:00 and I haven't even made it out of the house, and my freaking Direct TV box is broke for the second time in 6 months.  I lost all my shows I had recordeded (I usually watch them on Sunday) and no TV in my room which means I have to go to the bedroom to watch TV.  I know to most people this don't seem like a big deal, but to a person like myself who is OCD and had a plan this sent me into a melt down.  I called my husband was a total _____ to him.  And no it wasn't just him who made me mad, it was all the things that had happened at once and I just used him as my punching bag.  After I fussed at him I went and sat in the floor and started crying (yes I know you probably think I am psycho)  I was having a pity party for myself.  Then Mark walks in the door and was like...April what is wrong with you?  Then I started crying even more and explaining all the problems my day had encounted.  He just thought I was crazy.  He tells me all the time I need to just let stuff go and not try to plan everything ( I can't help it)

Crying makes me feel better...  So finally I got myself together and left about 3:00.  I didn't get home until 6:00.  I unloaded my car and then to work on my furniture.  Yeah...so that was my Saturday  :(  I got my furniture done, and a few folks stopped by to hang out for a bit.  I wasn't much in the mood given my day, but I guess Mark wanted to hang out since he has a basket case for a wife (LOL).  Then I had herd on the news that they were going to replay Revenge at 2:00 am since it was over shadowed by Tornado coverage the other night.  So I stayed up until 2:00...no Revenge I actually stayed up until 3 but it never came on.  Then I figured out why this morning.  They said 2 am Saturday and I was trying to watch it at 2 am on Sunday...good job April (real smart)

I got up this morning around 10:00, Mark had cooked me breakfast (he loves me) and brought me breakfast and coffee in bed.  Then off to Wal Mart with Mom.  We planned to spray the furniture today, but it was extremely windy.  Mark said we could paint it in the shop...very nice on his part because he is curious over his shop.  So his dad came over and they started spraying the furniture.  Lets just say it looked pretty decent.  It still wasn't dry this evening so it's hard to really tell.  I must say that is the way to go, they got 3 coats on paint on the furniture in about 2 hours.  It would have taken me about 2 days if I painted it by hand.  So I will check it out tomorrow and let you know how it turned out.

This evening I got the bags of stuff ready for Goodwill.  We have a dentist appointment in the morning, but I hope to get a chance to get this stuff over to Goodwill and out of my house.  Plus I need to get it out before Mark decides to try to take stuff out of the bags.
This is my stuff that is ready to go. It will probably be more, but this it all I have ready now. It's in the way so I need to go ahead and get it out.

Other than all that, I worked on our closest a bit tonight. It is still a mess and no where near organized. I am off all week and I have ton's of stuff to do. Me and my projects really make life stressful. I had a long list of stuff to work on this week, but I know it is not realistic. My main goal is to get the closet done, and get the other furniture sanded primed and maybe painted by the weekend. I really don't know if I will be able to finish that stuff. I guess we will see.

Goodnight everyone and hopefully I will have some furniture pictures for you tomorrow :)

Here we go...  tonight I primed the two night stands minus 1 drawer that was not ready.

Here's a looksy

Sorry, the picture is blurry. I had paint all over my hands so I was having a hard time taking the picture. So this has been my Friday night. So much fun (ha ha)

Anyway, tomorrow I am going to pick out my paint :) I was planning on painting everything by brush...but My wonderful father in law has a sprayer and is really good painting with it so he kindly said he would spray it if I wanted. I am thinking I might go that route. It will leave a smooth finish and will be much easier with all the nooks and crannies. I kinda feel like it is cheating :) But I have put a LOT of work into this and I want it to look as good as possible.

decisions decisions....

I hope!!!  This bedroom suite remodel is quiet a chore.  One night stand is ready for primer, the second I sanded and put my first coat of wood filler.  Tomorrow a light sand and a second coat of wood filler.  I was going to wait and try to paint all the pieces at one time, but I need to see how this is going to come out.  I am ANXIOUS!!!  So I figured I would try the two night stands first.  Tomorrow night I will finish what's left on the second night stand, and then hopefully prime them Saturday.  I need to go pick out my paint (some form of black) and then I will hopefully be able to paint Sunday.


I know you can still see the shell form in the second picture, but I did a second application of wood filler so it is pretty much gone now.  I am going to have to see what it looks like when the primer goes on.  If there is one thing I am worried about it is the little dings and dents.  I have sanded and filled, but on a piece like this with all the curves and grooves it is really hard.  I know it's not going to be 100% perfect, but I hope it comes out nice and better looking than before.  I really just don't know...  This is all new to me.  I can only hope for the best.  Stay tuned for more results....

my car search for the year.  Once again...  I really thought that this would be the year for me to bring a nice new shinny car home, but I don't believe that is the case.  After months of research, price comparing and looking I have decided to end my search for this year.  I found the car I loved, but it just didn't work out.
Why won't these people sale me a car at the price I WANT to pay???  My perfect car turned into a tornado car you can read about that here (funny but not funny)

So here is the car I wanted so badly
white or silver would have been perfect  :)  I liked the silver best.

Pretty little Mazda CX9  ZOOM ZOOM

I guess there is always next year....

I second guess myself all the time.  I went between wanting a new car but not wanting the car payment.  It's a hard decision.  My Honda has been hard to get along with this year and has given me a lot of trouble, but everything is working now (besides the radio which works when it wants to) so I will just keep on driving the wheels off of it for now.  It will probably be the end of next year before I start to search again.  Unless one of these dealerships want to GIVE me a car before then :)

So for now I say bye bye to my car search and hope that next year things will work out better for me.  Maybe I can be a good girl next year and save some extra money so I won't have to worry about a big car payment messing up my monthly budget!

You can't always get what you want...

This forged cutlery :)  I have been eyeing this for 2 years and it is super expensive.  Lucky for me Nena worked it out where I can buy it for 60% off.  This bad boy is coming to my kitchen and I am SOOOOO excited.  I love my color coated knives and I know these are going to be 100 times better.  Upgrading my kitchen utensil's one thing at a time.  I can't wait for it to come in :)

Other than that it's Monday, and I am already ready for this week to be over.  We are changing insurance at work and I have spent most of my evening filling out the paper work for Mark and myself....yuck!  Come on Friday!!!

It has been a busy weekend for me...whew!  I think this is the first time I have sat down today. 

Saturday I woke up early because I had a ton of errands to run and a hair appointment at 12:30.  I had some grocery shopping to do and I wanted to go to Kroger.  Since they closed the one here I had to drive to Raleigh, it was worth it since they had a good sale on some things I really needed.  So off to Raleigh to go to Kroger, then to Harris Teeter (they had some good sales too) and that completed my grocery shopping.  Since I was in the area and had 30% off I stopped by Kohl's.  I found two pocket books on the clearance rack that would make a perfect Christmas gift and one as a gift to myself  :)

Back to Wake Forest where I had to make a stop at Home Depot to get the items to start working on my bedroom suit remodel, and then to Target.  After all that I was starving so I ran to Sonic grabbed a hot dog.  I scarfed it down in 5 minutes and ran in to get my hair cut.  Then I had to come home unload and put up a trunk full of groceries.  After that I dropped off some Pampered Chef stuff and then came home and sat down for about 10 minutes.

Then I went hunting, and when I got home I changed clothes and we went to the shack to spend some time with our friends.

Fast forward now it's today.  I wanted to get up early and start working on one of the night stands.  I was itching to try out my new sander.  I promised I would only work on it until 1:00 since my house was a total mess from not having time to clean Saturday.  So I got up and went to the shop to get to work.

Hello Everyone :)  I have been running all over the place all day, and we will be leaving for the evening in just a bit.  I will have to update more tomorrow.  Main thing on my to do list was a hair cut today.  I have been meaning to go for so long but it seems I never talk time our for myself to do these sort of things.  So here is my new haircut...
Sorry for the bad picture, but I am not a photogenic person so this was the best I could do (LOL)

Hope everyone enjoys their Saturday evening,I will update tomorrow.

Or not...  I wanted to get a start on my cleaning this week so I didn't spend my whole Saturday cleaning the house.  I really didn't get too far, but I did clean one thing that has been driving me crazy for the past month...my refrigerator.  I hate cleaning the fridge because you have to take everything out, then I have to take the shelves and drawers to my bath tub to wash, then I have to dry them, then pile everything back in.  Did I mention it means I have to get rid of all those left overs that have been accumulating?  Yuck!  Anywhoo, my fridge was in desperate need and I have been planning on cleaning it for the past month, but with all my other little projects it has been on the back burner.

Tonight was the night...no excuses!!!!

Before :(
And after :) I never knew I had all this space (LOL)

Isn't cleaning your fridge a pain in the butt? I sure think so!

Now it's done, and I also managed to get one bathroom clean. I feel good that I got a few things done this evening. Now onto making my grocery list and trying to hunt down some coupons. I have a busy day tomorrow and finally an appointment to get my hair cut (much over due). I never seem to have the time to do things for myself.

The closet project is on the back burner this weekend. The supplies I ordered online have not arrived yet. Maybe next weekend...

Let me start off by saying I absolutely love my husband.  I couldn't imagine a day with out him.  But...sometimes he does things that aggravates me.  So my post tonight is you know your married when...


I just cleaned this bedroom up the other night and he is already using the bed as a coat rack (again)
it's such a hard job to close the drawer back
my all time favorite THE TOILET SEAT IS ALWAYS UP!!! This really makes me ill when I wake up in the middle of the night to potty and fall in (don't even pretend it has never happened to you)
When I spend all this time folding clothes and putting them away neatly only to find everything in disarray the next time I open it.
When I go in the pantry and find empty bags, boxes and these cookies. I mean really...the trash can is right there! Put it in the TRASH!!!!

Yep, those are my little aggravations. I am sure Mark probably has a list of things I do that gets on his nerves as well, but he ain't the one cleaning and washing all the time. So if I leave something out I will be the one to clean it up. Anyone else have this problem?

I have come to the conclusion that it all beings with Mom's. They baby their boys their whole life and then someone else gets to pick up the babying when they get married. If I ever have a son I am not going to baby him and do everything for him! (or so I say now) I watch my Mom do everything for my brother as well. I tell her all the time that she is ruining him for some poor girl one day. Why do we continue the cycle? It only makes our lives harder :)

At least I know I am needed! 

I needed a quick and easy meal to prepare tonight. My husband had some things to do and then a lodge meeting this evening so I had to make sure supper was finished before he left. So tonight one of our favorite meals....Mexican Lasagna :)

This meal requires the "Deep Covered Baker" from Pampered Chef. If you don't have it you are seriously missing out!
1st place your chicken breast in the baker and pop in the microwave for 12 minutes. (mine were still pretty froze)
While my chicken was cooking I got all my ingredients together. For this meal you need the following... A pack of chicken breast, crunchy corn tortias, 1 can of enchilada sauce, 1 pack of shredded cheese, 1 onion, 1 package of cream cheese, and refried beans (optional, I didn't use beans)

You can dip or bast your enchilada sauce. I choose to dip so I pour my sauce into the white pan for dipping. Go ahead and cut your onion and place your cream cheese in something to warm in microwave (I used my measuring cup)
Once your chicken is cooked you should drain the juice (I save mine for stock) and then you need to shred it (I use these Pampered Chef salad choppers)
After you chicken is chopped take it out of the baker and place it in a bowl. Then you begin to form your lasagna :)
Dip your tortias on both sides
then begin to layer them in your baker
Then spread your cream cheese (which you warmed in the microwave for a few seconds) onto the tortias.
If you desire the refried beans you would put them on top of the cream cheese. Since I did not use the beans I sprinkled my chicken over the layers. (don't use all of your ingredients on this layer...it will be two layers total)
Then sprinkle on cheese and onions.

Repeat all these steps for a second layer. When you are done with the second layer place one extra layer of the tortias on top and pour any remaining enchilada sauce on top and then sprinkle a bit more cheese on top.

Pop it in the microwave for 11-12 minutes and waaalaaaa!
Time to eat!!!!

This is a really simple mean. It took me 32 minutes from the time I put my chicken in the microwave until the time I put the finished product in the microwave to cook. I don't count the time it spends in the microwave because I can just walk away. You don't have to worry about it burning since the microwave cuts off!!! You can also prepare this meal the night before and stuff it in the fridge to cook the next day. I know I plugged the Pampered Chef products quite often, but they are my #1 tools in the kitchen and they are life savers! How else can you make a meal from frozen chicken in 32 minutes? Try it for yourself sometime :)