Week Update

Last week was employee appreciation week at work.  We got a cookie and a card on Monday, 2 movie tickets on Wednesday and an ice cream party on Friday.  This is going to be a very bratty statement considering the company I work for doesn't have to do anything and they could treat us like a number, but I guess Tuesday and Thursday didn't count as part of the week.  It didn't feel like much of an "appreciation" week.  In previous years the management would travel office to office and serve breakfast to the employees, they've hired massage therapists to come to the office, among other things.  We got personal cards from our direct managers, but never heard anything from the other managers we work for or with.  Ok, I'm done being a whiner.  It was fun to hang out with everyone for the ice cream goodies.  Here are a couple pictures of the set up:

My cacti are blooming!  The yellow flower only comes around for a couple days a year.  It's almost open:

 Yesterday it opened up all the way:

 We have purple flowers blooming with our white flowers now:

I got my hair cut yesterday.  I really should get my hair cut more than once a year!  Debbie is so fun to visit with while she cuts my hair.  I had Doug take a picture yesterday morning when I got out of the shower:

 I cut this much hair off and no one noticed :(

I'm really excited to tell you that it looks like we'll get our debt paid off a couple months earlier than we thought!!  So cool!  I've been fairly elusive about how much money we've been dealing with, but we had $18,000 in credit card debt!  Yep, $18,000!! I have been cruching numbers for the last week and it looks like we'll be out of that debt at the end of August!!  Cross your fingers!!!  I was hoping to get rid of it by the middle of October, but I'm definitely excited for August!  I know Doug will be happy to not hear me say, "You spent $10 on lunch???!!"  Although I'm a penny pincher, so he still might hear it :)
As soon as those cards are paid off, I'm going to start working on our truck payment.  It's a beast of a payment!  I want to save money to get a new car when we get his truck paid off.  Saving money is easier said than done though.  Oh, and I really want to open an IRA, but I need to learn more about them and how they help at tax time.  With this freaking health insurance mandate that was upheld by the government today people are worried that 1000's in my industry will be out of jobs come 2014.  I want to get us in a position that if I do lose my job, it won't cause us to lose everything.  I only want to pay "normal" bills like electricity, water, gas, garbage, and our mortgage. 
Come on August!!

Battle Of The Lunch View

Doug sent me this picture on his lunch break today with a comment, "Time for lunch"

 Oh yeah!!  I sent him a picture to beat his picture - this was MY lunch view:

 I think I totally win!  What do you think???  hahaha



Grow My Pretty, And Your LIttle Tomatoes Too

My entertainment lately has been our plants and fruits (Doug has been working until almost 9 every night for a few weeks now).  Also, I've been trying to workout in the evenings, which I've done very well with this week.  Each night this week I have run (although a pitiful run) over a mile on my elliptical; then I do some stretching and some weight exercises.  It's very discouraging that I haven't lost even half a pound, but I'm trying to stick with it although I'm already ready to give up.  I returned the raspberry keytones I bought a few weeks ago.  They were amazing the first 3-4 days, but my body adjusted way too quickly and they stopped working.  I started with one a day and was pretty impressed, but then the results faded, so I went to 2 pills per day and then up to three.  I'm so bummed because they really worked for the first few days.  Oh well.

Okay, back to my original story....my plants... the seeds I planted a couple months back are starting to bloom:

 The plant on the left is getting really tall, but I haven't figured out if it's a big weed:  lol

 There's a little green growing in the other 3 pots:

 Oranges are still going strong:

 Anastasia has a few flowers after being re-potted:

 More strawberries on the way:

 Our lemon tree has done really well every year and this year is no different:

 Lots of tiny tomatoes:

 The upside down plants are finally growing tomatoes; they got dropped a couple times, but they're coming back to life:

Stupid 8-Legged Pests

Guess what time it is!!!... Couch on its side....

 ....cushions in a pile....

Yep.  Spider freak out time.  We had 2 spiders crawl up on the short side of our sectional, so I stopped sitting on that side.  THEN the other night a spider was crawling ON MY FOREHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!  That's assault brotha!!!!! (A line from the movie Billy Madison)
AHHHHHHHHH 
It was another pitiful display of spider freak out.  I cried (among other things).  I can't remember the last time a spider was crawling ON ME!! (maybe I've blocked it out)  Gotta love arachnophobia.
After being assaulted by the spider the couch came apart again; it was vacuumed (there were about 4 dead spiders under the couch) and sprayed with poison.  I think we've done this about every 6 months for the last couple years.  iccccckkkkkkkk

Chicken Recipe

I didn't know what to do for dinner the other night, but I saw we had a packet of onion soup mix.  The back of the packet had a chicken recipe to bread the chicken with the packet/bread crumb mix.  It worked really well and was very easy to do.  The recipe said to put mayo on the chicken then roll it in the dry mixture, but next time I won't use mayo.  I don't think it needed mayo; I'll probably brush them with olive oil to help the crumbs stick next time.

 I swear it looked much better in person!  It didn't help we already pulled some from the pan. 

I had to cook the chicken twice as long as the recipe called for.  I think it said 400 degrees for 20 minutes and I'm pretty sure mine were in there for 45 minutes.  It's easy for a weeknight meal and it's tasty too.

Rust-Oleum

If you're like me then you have gone through quite a few bathroom caddies.  They rust and end up looking gross.  We were about to throw another one away because it was covered in rust.  BUT we have left over Rust-Oleum from painting our security doors, so why not give it a try?!  I wish I would have taken a before picture of this bathroom caddy.  I cleaned about 80% of the rust off of it and then sprayed it.  The spray paint is working perfectly!  Who knows how long it will hold up in the shower, but so far so good.  Water is beading off of it, so I hope it lasts a very long time.

Wedding Dress

Doug and I have been married for almost 5 years and my dress has been hanging in the closet the entire time. As you may remember from a previous post, I will wear the dress on occasion while I'm at home (I should have run around the neighborhood while wearing it! Wouldn't it be fun to shop at Safeway while dressed up??!! LOL)  Shoot, I paid $500 for it, I’m gonna wear it! 

Anywho, I bought a Groupon for a wedding dress cleaning and boxing for $59 - they normally run $150+. I've had the Groupon for almost 6 months, but the expiration date was looming.  I finally took the dress in to be cleaned and boxed.  I really worried over the idea of taking my dress into a cleaner (who knows what they’ll do to it) and then I didn’t know if I could stand my dress being stored in a box.  What if I want to wear it again!!??  The gal was so nice when I dropped off my dress.  This is how lame I am…. I was having some separation anxiety over leaving my dress.  HAHAH  It sounds stupid just typing it, but I really did.  I won’t get the dress back for another week or two.  Sniffle.  I even took pictures of it before I left the store:



Sniffle. :)

June Already?

If I haven't said it lately:  people drive me crazy with their pets!  The owner of these 2 dogs thought it was okay to just leave their dogs tied to their NEV (No Emissions Vehicle - kinda like a golf cart).  It was about 97 degrees this day - at least they were in the shade, but the dogs looked miserable.  One of the dogs couldn't even sit because there wasn't any room.  And don't even get me started on the liability if the dog bit someone passing by.  UGH.  If you're going to park the poor things in a parking lot then just LEAVE THEM AT HOME!!!!!!  You don't need your animal at the restaurant, mall, pharmacy, grocery store, or home improvement store!  Now people are getting away with having their animals where ever they want because they are "companion animals".  REALLY??!!  Are you THAT lonely???  It makes me want to get a ridiculous animal like a snake or a poop-flinging monkey (I know, they aren't legal here, but I feel like being ridiculous).  I'll take MY animal into any business I want and see if I can drive these dog people crazy.  I'm sure they'll protest because it's not their dog, it's not cute and it's not a companion to them.  I'm done ranting for now :)

Doug and I made a salmon, rice and veggie dinner the other night.  He said it was picture worthy although it looked better in person - such a pretty dinner on our silly plastic plates: 

Doug the Angry Bird!  There are large Angry Bird characters at Costco if you're a fan.  Doug wasn't a fan of holding this bird and posing for me, but he's a good sport!:

On Saturday we went to Aaron's baptism.  It was so spiritual.  Aaron chose his best friend's dad to baptize him and he chose his uncle Mark to do his confirmation.  We're so grateful that Mark was able to fly about 3000 miles to fill Aaron's request.  While Mark was doing the confirmation and blessing he said he could feel Brian in the room; many people said they could feel him.  He blessed Aaron to be able to feel his dad's hand and spirit in his life although he isn't here.  It was very emotional; I don't think there was a dry eye in the room while Mark was speaking.

Afterwards we went to run some errands and while hurrying to get into Doug's truck I smashed the side of my knee into the bottom corner of the truck door.  Here's a picture of the lump that I have on the side of my knee now.  The swelling made it difficult to bend or straighten my leg and the pain woke me up quite a bit the first night.  It's been pretty sore for a couple days, but it's quite a bit better today.

I had the joy of jury duty today.  It was tempting to post all of this while I was sitting there.  We sat for an hour while we waited for instructions and then we were taken into the courtroom and jury selection began.  They went through about 30 people and after an hour and 40 minutes they had a jury and I was able to go home.  It's a drunk driving case that was expected to last 2-3 days.  The man's court appointed attorney said it's her first case, so I kind of feel bad for the guy but he shouldn't have been drinking and driving.

I stopped on the way home and bought some raspberry keytones.  They are the new craze since Dr. Oz mentioned them on his show.  My sister-in-law tried them and had very good results while taking them, so I figured I would give it a try.  They're supposed to boost weight loss - I'll give you an update and let you know what I think.  I've been very lazily trying to lose about 10 pounds and that 10 pounds has increased to almost 15 - updates to follow!

Replanted Strawberries

OUR 900th POST!!!!

I finally got dirt to finish replanting our berries.  They have so much room to grow now and I won’t worry the roots are burning in the shallow planter I bought.  After looking at these pictures I realize that I should move the 2 small runners more toward the middle of the barrel.

 I have to show you a picture of our oranges; they are getting bigger!!:

Here is our harvest of tomatoes and strawberry from yesterday:

I love growing fruits and veggies.  It’s so rewarding when they’re ready to eat.  Growing flowers and stuff is fun too.  Look!  Our first (dead) aloe plant is turning green again!:

Breanna’s Graduation

We went to watch Breanna graduate from her medical assisting program on Tuesday evening.  She spoke during the ceremony and she did a great job!  (Not a surprise though!:) ) 

After the ceremony everyone headed back to her parent’s house for desserts.  They have goats, so of course I had to go visit them.

We also had fun with the dogs, but they were so hyper!  We didn’t let them out of the pen.

The kids started catching tiny frogs, but they squished one too hard and it was bleeding so they were told to let the frogs go:

Shamu showed up for the festivities:

And last but not least is a picture of their super fun playset!:

Congrats Breanna!!