It seems like this past weekend I ran into brain trusts everywhere I went. I needed to make an exchange at Vicki's Secret. Conversation goes like this:
Me: I'd like to exchange this bra (in my hand) for the one in the bag
Brain Trust: So you want the bra (in my hand)?
Me: Yes and I'm returning the one in the bag
BT: So you're bringing back the one in the bag? You don't want it?
Me: No, I'd like to exchange it for the other one
BT: OK so you want to get this other one?
Me: Yes, I'm bringing back the one in the bag, and I'm getting this one (in my hand). That'd be the exchange.
Seriously? Was it that difficult? Was I saying something wrong? Is it me?
Bring on the next Brain Trust:
I bought 2 new tires Saturday because Friday the back right tire was flat, for the 3rd time. That said to me that it was time to buy new tires. Either that or find someone who knew what the heck they were doing to patch it. So, decision made, buy 2 new tires. I typically only buy 2 at a time so it's not such an expensive endeavor all at one time. Made some calls, got some quotes, did some comparison shopping, and got a great deal on tires. Took the car, had a conversation with the guy that went like this:
Me: Do you move the front tires to the back?
Car Guy: No, we put them on the back because that's the safety recommendation
Me: OK (thinking to myself that there's no need to specify that the 2 back tires need to be tossed and keep the 2 front tires since it's the back tires that are bad and the front tires are fine and they put the new tires on the front)
I leave with my new tires and I'm $500+ lighter in the pocket because they did some other stuff to the car that needed to be done (why is car repair so freakin' expensive?!?!), go on about my day and night, and wake up Sunday morning to the front right tire being flat. Ugh! They put the bad back tires on the front! And go rid of my "good" front tires! Seriously? Are you kidding me? You can't hear that leak from the bad tire? You didn't inspect the tire to see if there were any problems? Oh dear Gawd!
I'm seriously losing faith in people fast!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Making a house a home
I spent the past weekend making his (Mr. VIP) house OUR home. I shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped some more (and I still have a few more things to get), but I made it my personal obsession mission to turn his house into a home. It was a great space before and I'd done some very basic decorating (read buying curtains and picking out paint) when he first moved in over a year ago, but I'm pretty much living there and the house needed to feel like a home. This desire was woken up in me I think when the bestie moved. She gave me a great baker's rack and silver clock that I put in the kitchen and that got the ball rolling. I finally had some money that I could devote to the house. I set aside a small budget to finish off 3 rooms and made a list of some things that I wanted. My 2 most prized finds are the the accent/console table we put by the front entry and the print that we found for the dining room. But really, everything just works so well together in all of the rooms. I came home from being gone a few hours last night and it all just made such a huge difference. It's not bare or bachelor stark, it really feels like people live there. I loved it so much I just wanted to sit there and look at it all for hours, maybe even sleep in there. I wish I had "before" photos to share with you, but I don't. Here's a listing of everything that I've gotten:
3 small pictures for the kitchen (they're all so cute together!)
baker's rack (a free gift from my bestie and it couldn't fit in there more perfectly and allow us to have more storage for all of my baking crap!)
silver clock
Still want:
Back Porch
new welcome mat for the back door Kitchen
kitchen mat by the sink (I saw it and it fit PERFECTLY-the colors, the motif, and it was like $5!)3 small pictures for the kitchen (they're all so cute together!)
baker's rack (a free gift from my bestie and it couldn't fit in there more perfectly and allow us to have more storage for all of my baking crap!)
silver clock
Dining Room
Print (when we both saw it, we knew it was perfect. And I got a great deal...$80 print for $40)
Tealights sconces
Den
Accent table ($150 table for $80-gosh I love a deal and it was EXACTLY what I wanted!)
mirror
bowl (for the accent table)
candle holder & candle (for accent table)
floor vase
floral arrangement (I was really worried about this arrangement because when he saw me working on it, he looked at me like I had 3 heads, but we found a spot and he likes it)
hanging coat hook (I hadn't been able to find one I liked or was willing to pay the $$$ for and he was going to make it cuz he's crafty handy like that, but then I found one and it works and it was cheaper than what he could make it for!)
big clock (I had intended it for one wall, but he suggested over the mantle and it's perfect there)
floor lamp (got such a fantastic deal...$99 lamp for $25)
set of 3 candle stands & candles
Still want:
welcome mat for the front door
fruit bowl
vinyl lettering for above the dining room door
something to fill the bowl on the accent table (I know what I want, just gotta find it)
new pull knob for accent table (I'd like brushed nickel to match the curtain rods in the room)
These things on the "want" list I'm going to take my time with and not kill myself trying to find. I've got a couple of places I want to check out for other home decor stuff, but If I had to stop today I'd be really really satisfied with the rooms. Did I mention that I LOVE it?!?!
Up next will be the bathroom, our bedroom, and then the spare bedroom. I've found the shower curtain I want for the bathroom, I just have to convince him that Paisley isn't too girly, especially b/c I plan to pair it with stripes (I think it will look good, but may get an execution fail) and know some of the other accessories for in that room I'd like, but might hold off on purchasing anything else for now. Gotta crunch some numbers and see where I am. I did set a budget for this little project of mine and I'm ok with waiting for the remaining 3 rooms. Although I do get impatient and want things all done and all finished when I set my mind to it. I will have to force myself to practice some patience.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Back in the saddle, er kitchen
It's so nice to be back in the kitchen regularly. I try for us to cook most of our meals at home, except on the weekend. Sometimes I'm more challenged with making that happen. WAY more challenged. But the last couple of weeks, I've been back on the bandwagon. Not only is it definitely cheaper than eating out all the time, I like having the control over what I'm cooking and the ingredients I'm using. Since we're trying to eat better, it's been really great. And I find that my stomach just does 10,000 times better when I'm incorporating veggies more into my diet. Don't get me wrong though, I still LOVE my sweets, my processed foods, and my carbs. You know, if it's bad for you, I pretty much love it. But I'm trying the whole moderation thing :) I've gotten into the routine of trying to do our shopping on the weekend (preferably Saturday) and planning out our meals. It makes my life a little easier, and alot less hectic. On Sunday I've been cooking our dinner and at least one other meal for the most part that we can eat during the week. Since Mr. VIP eats dinner at his 2nd job 2 nights/week, this planning and prep makes it so much easier. And I've even been going so far as to make sure his breakfast and lunch are packed the night before. And I'm usually able to take left-overs for my lunch. Which is really helping the old pocket book! Now, June Cleaver I'm not, so this probably won't last (hey, Mr. VIP-don't get used to this!), but for now, it's working for me.
Memorial Day Weekend
My weekend was uneventful for the most part. I worked at the club both Saturday and Sunday night. So I welcomed Monday with open arms since we had the day off for Memorial Day. I truly wished I'd had one more day to just veg out.
I did my normal Saturday run errands routine. Mr. VIP rented a wood chipper and he and his dad spent 10 hours chipping all of the wood from when we had the pine trees cut down. Yes, you read that right...10 hours!!!! He was exhausted and pretty beat up by the end of the day. But I certainly am happy to say that the majority of those damn trees and brush are gone. Yay! Now, if he can just get his lawn mower fixed to be able to cut the grass! And then we just need to get a fence up so I don't have to walk the dogs anymore. Oh please oh please oh please fence fairies, please come visit us soon!!!!
I had decided we should grill out on Monday, just the two of us, and no big "to do" or anything, but I just feel like on those "summer" type holidays (Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day) you are obligated to do some sort of cooking out. So I got us some country style ribs (love those things!) and we grilled those along with some corn on the cobb and asparagus. I also made us a cucumber and tomato salad (minus the onion) as well as a caprese salad. You see, in my running around on Saturday, I mistakenly on purpose went to Trader Joe's and spent WAY too much money on all of their fabulous things they have there. One of those things was one of those rolls of mozarella that has the proscuitto rolled up in it. I decided that'd make a nice spin on the traditional mozzarella and tomato (caprese) salad. And I was right. So we had a delicious late lunch. Oh and I also bought all the stuff to make this corn, habanero,black bean, lime salsa at TJ's. This lady in the store was giving samples and it was delish. And it's going to be my new favorite go-to party dip. YUM! Mr. VIP and I ate almost the whole bowl!
Let's see, back to Sunday...I'd been having probs with my iphone and had taken it to AT&T on Saturday. The boy told me I'd have to take it to an apple store so they could either repair or swap it (it's one of the older phones & AT & T didn't have a replacement). He told me I could go to the new apple store at The Avenues of West Cobb. So on Sunday, after breakfast, Mr. VIP and I headed out to west Cobb....where we quickly discovered the new apple store could handle everything BUT the iphones. Big Fail! But our trip was not for nothing. We headed into Kirkland's and found lots of lovely things for the house decor-wise that I'll be trying to go back this weekend for. We found a beautiful print for the dining room, finally found a floor lamp we both liked that didn't look totally cheesy and was on sale, and I went ahead and bought a mirror for the den and a print for the kitchen. When I go back I'm also going to pick up two other complimenting prints for the kitchen. So, all in all, a good trip! And yes, I took my iphone to Perimeter by my office yesterday and they swapped out the phone so all is right with the world again.
I think that's pretty much it. The Wedding I worked Saturday night ended up being my deacon's son's wedding and my priest came so needless to say there was plenty of guilt about not going to church :) Oh and did I mention how I went to HS w/ the deacon's daughter, who proceeded to get wwwwaaaaaaaaaasssssssstttttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddd? Yeah, that happened. And the event I worked Sunday evening was a bar mitzvah for an Argentenian family. They had lots of non-English speaking family there. And the mom was not so nice. And they were supposed to leave at 11pm. And she decided she didn't want to leave. So, we had to wait. Boo! But yeah, that's about it for my weekend. Nothing too exciting going on around here folks.
I did my normal Saturday run errands routine. Mr. VIP rented a wood chipper and he and his dad spent 10 hours chipping all of the wood from when we had the pine trees cut down. Yes, you read that right...10 hours!!!! He was exhausted and pretty beat up by the end of the day. But I certainly am happy to say that the majority of those damn trees and brush are gone. Yay! Now, if he can just get his lawn mower fixed to be able to cut the grass! And then we just need to get a fence up so I don't have to walk the dogs anymore. Oh please oh please oh please fence fairies, please come visit us soon!!!!
I had decided we should grill out on Monday, just the two of us, and no big "to do" or anything, but I just feel like on those "summer" type holidays (Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day) you are obligated to do some sort of cooking out. So I got us some country style ribs (love those things!) and we grilled those along with some corn on the cobb and asparagus. I also made us a cucumber and tomato salad (minus the onion) as well as a caprese salad. You see, in my running around on Saturday, I mistakenly on purpose went to Trader Joe's and spent WAY too much money on all of their fabulous things they have there. One of those things was one of those rolls of mozarella that has the proscuitto rolled up in it. I decided that'd make a nice spin on the traditional mozzarella and tomato (caprese) salad. And I was right. So we had a delicious late lunch. Oh and I also bought all the stuff to make this corn, habanero,black bean, lime salsa at TJ's. This lady in the store was giving samples and it was delish. And it's going to be my new favorite go-to party dip. YUM! Mr. VIP and I ate almost the whole bowl!
Let's see, back to Sunday...I'd been having probs with my iphone and had taken it to AT&T on Saturday. The boy told me I'd have to take it to an apple store so they could either repair or swap it (it's one of the older phones & AT & T didn't have a replacement). He told me I could go to the new apple store at The Avenues of West Cobb. So on Sunday, after breakfast, Mr. VIP and I headed out to west Cobb....where we quickly discovered the new apple store could handle everything BUT the iphones. Big Fail! But our trip was not for nothing. We headed into Kirkland's and found lots of lovely things for the house decor-wise that I'll be trying to go back this weekend for. We found a beautiful print for the dining room, finally found a floor lamp we both liked that didn't look totally cheesy and was on sale, and I went ahead and bought a mirror for the den and a print for the kitchen. When I go back I'm also going to pick up two other complimenting prints for the kitchen. So, all in all, a good trip! And yes, I took my iphone to Perimeter by my office yesterday and they swapped out the phone so all is right with the world again.
I think that's pretty much it. The Wedding I worked Saturday night ended up being my deacon's son's wedding and my priest came so needless to say there was plenty of guilt about not going to church :) Oh and did I mention how I went to HS w/ the deacon's daughter, who proceeded to get wwwwaaaaaaaaaasssssssstttttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddd? Yeah, that happened. And the event I worked Sunday evening was a bar mitzvah for an Argentenian family. They had lots of non-English speaking family there. And the mom was not so nice. And they were supposed to leave at 11pm. And she decided she didn't want to leave. So, we had to wait. Boo! But yeah, that's about it for my weekend. Nothing too exciting going on around here folks.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Weekend Re-Cap
I was a busy girl this past week/end. I was home sick in bed, curtains closed, lights off with a migraine on Monday so that doesn't count. Tuesday did the usual work thing/suzie home-maker thing and cooked a delicious beef stir-fry dinner for us. Wednesday I began working on my frosting for cakes I was baking. I like to start my frosting a day or 2 ahead of when I need it because it can be a time consuming process. I went and played in my softball game, where my team won with an 18-7 victory. It was nice to win and we played great defense and my team was patient with their batting since the other team's pitcher was pretty awful. The only bad thing that happened during the game was one of my players/friends got hit square in the knee with a hard-hit line drive on the very first pitch. BUT thankfully, she's ok.
Thursday I worked from home and in between getting some work done, I began baking the cakes for my friend...A yellow cake in the shape of an owl and a chocolate sheet cake. Mr. VIP and I went off to play in our kickball game (loss by 1 lousy point), where my team played fantastically with only 8 players when we should have had 10 on the field. Came home and finished decorating the cakes. They turned out so well!
Friday morning I had to wake up extra early to get to the office to decorate a co-worker's cube since he had turned 40 the week before and were taking him to lunch. Went to a delicious lunch at Six Feet Under and then after job #1, headed to job #2 where we worked for another 5 hours (2 rehearsal dinners). Thank goodness that Friday night was the only club day. That didn't mean that I didn't have work to do though. I got up early (earlier than I wanted anyway) to head off to help the Bestie with her moving sale. It was hot hot hot out there, but they got rid of alot of stuff. Even Mr. VIP's parents made a purchase of a couch and loveseat.
By the time I got home around 4 I was exhausted and not feeling so great. Another headache was trying to visit so I took a nice long nap and woke up starved. Mr. VIP headed out for Cuban and it was so good. Sadly, we couldn't think of anything else to do to actually enjoy each other's company in a fun setting for the first time in a long time. We couldn't agree on a movie and the mini-putt courses closed at 10pm. So...we headed to Wal-mart to get that task off of my errand list. Sunday, I woke up, laid around for a little bit while Mr. VIP went out to tackle the yard and then I headed out to run my errands (shopping mostly)...Garden Ridge to see if they had a console table for by the front door (had one, just gotta keep looking to see if I find anything else), Target (found a new nail polish I'd been searching for), lunch at McAllister's Deli, Pedicure (it was MUCH needed), BJ's Wholesale club (time to stock up on meat and toilet paper), and Publix.
Mr. VIP was exhausted from his long day battling the yard so I just made us a quick spaghetti dinner and the sauce turned out so fantastically. I swear you just can't get good spaghetti in a restaurant. If I'm in the mood for spaghetti, it's better to just make it myself. I also cooked dinner for today, Texas Hash, and couldn't keep out of it. I put together our dinner for Tuesday evening as well. We're going to enjoy Taco night, but I decided we'd have pulled pork tacos so I'm going to put the pork on this evening in the slow cooker with some onions, stewed tomatoes, cilantro, and jalapenos. It should be soooo good. I may even decide to throw some blackberry or peach preserves in there to balance out the jalapenos. My mouth is already watering. I also packed up breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Mr. VIP to take with him today. I made him a breakfast sammy (in a pita pocket-note to self, NEVER buy pita pockets again), a salad for lunch, and put some TX Hash together for him. Throw in 4 pieces of fruit and 2 snack bars and he should be set for today. He's working both jobs today so it's helpful for him to take his dinner with him when he heads out the door. I'm such a good girlfriend!
So now this week is off to it's regular start...Work, softball, kickball, dinner with the Bestie (last one before she moves on Friday-ok, that just made me tear up a bit), and work at job #2 Saturday and Sunday. Thank goodness it's a 3 day weekend! I have to start thinking about what we'll grill on Monday too! Ugh!
Thursday I worked from home and in between getting some work done, I began baking the cakes for my friend...A yellow cake in the shape of an owl and a chocolate sheet cake. Mr. VIP and I went off to play in our kickball game (loss by 1 lousy point), where my team played fantastically with only 8 players when we should have had 10 on the field. Came home and finished decorating the cakes. They turned out so well!
Friday morning I had to wake up extra early to get to the office to decorate a co-worker's cube since he had turned 40 the week before and were taking him to lunch. Went to a delicious lunch at Six Feet Under and then after job #1, headed to job #2 where we worked for another 5 hours (2 rehearsal dinners). Thank goodness that Friday night was the only club day. That didn't mean that I didn't have work to do though. I got up early (earlier than I wanted anyway) to head off to help the Bestie with her moving sale. It was hot hot hot out there, but they got rid of alot of stuff. Even Mr. VIP's parents made a purchase of a couch and loveseat.
By the time I got home around 4 I was exhausted and not feeling so great. Another headache was trying to visit so I took a nice long nap and woke up starved. Mr. VIP headed out for Cuban and it was so good. Sadly, we couldn't think of anything else to do to actually enjoy each other's company in a fun setting for the first time in a long time. We couldn't agree on a movie and the mini-putt courses closed at 10pm. So...we headed to Wal-mart to get that task off of my errand list. Sunday, I woke up, laid around for a little bit while Mr. VIP went out to tackle the yard and then I headed out to run my errands (shopping mostly)...Garden Ridge to see if they had a console table for by the front door (had one, just gotta keep looking to see if I find anything else), Target (found a new nail polish I'd been searching for), lunch at McAllister's Deli, Pedicure (it was MUCH needed), BJ's Wholesale club (time to stock up on meat and toilet paper), and Publix.
Mr. VIP was exhausted from his long day battling the yard so I just made us a quick spaghetti dinner and the sauce turned out so fantastically. I swear you just can't get good spaghetti in a restaurant. If I'm in the mood for spaghetti, it's better to just make it myself. I also cooked dinner for today, Texas Hash, and couldn't keep out of it. I put together our dinner for Tuesday evening as well. We're going to enjoy Taco night, but I decided we'd have pulled pork tacos so I'm going to put the pork on this evening in the slow cooker with some onions, stewed tomatoes, cilantro, and jalapenos. It should be soooo good. I may even decide to throw some blackberry or peach preserves in there to balance out the jalapenos. My mouth is already watering. I also packed up breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Mr. VIP to take with him today. I made him a breakfast sammy (in a pita pocket-note to self, NEVER buy pita pockets again), a salad for lunch, and put some TX Hash together for him. Throw in 4 pieces of fruit and 2 snack bars and he should be set for today. He's working both jobs today so it's helpful for him to take his dinner with him when he heads out the door. I'm such a good girlfriend!
So now this week is off to it's regular start...Work, softball, kickball, dinner with the Bestie (last one before she moves on Friday-ok, that just made me tear up a bit), and work at job #2 Saturday and Sunday. Thank goodness it's a 3 day weekend! I have to start thinking about what we'll grill on Monday too! Ugh!
Baking Machine
I have been a baking machine during the month of May. Tommy's niece had an early birthday party a couple of weeks ago and she requested a butterfly shaped cake. It turned out so well even if I do say so myself. I had another friend of mine request an owl shaped cake and a sheet cake for her daughter's 7th birthday this past weekend. I'm really proud of how well the owl turned out. It's one of the best so far. The sheet cake tasted sooooo good too. I didn't want to give it to her it was THAT good! I used Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake and Perfect Chocolate Frosting recipes and let me just say that they both lived up to the name. Now, Martha Stewart let me down with her yellow butter cake recipe, but hey, it's cake and it had frosting so in the grand scheme you can't go too wrong. I usually don't bake from scratch. I'll do it here and there, but honestly, boxed cakes have come so far and to me, they're just as cost effective and time efficient as a scratch cake. Now, there are some cakes that are just better from scratch so I will continue on with those, but I'm still a fan of the box. I can't wait to get in the kitchen again. I'm really excited to make a cake for my bff's little boy in July. It's still TBD, but I'm looking forward to it. Oh and I just bought all of the flavor extracts to make a 5 flavor pound cake that I first had at my grandfather's funeral. Is it sad that I get so excited about cake and baking?
Getting Too Old for This!
I've been working like crazy during the month of May. Actually, April and May were pretty hectic months for me. My grandfather passed away in April (on his 85th birthday) so I was gone for a week with a long drive both ways (12-14 hrs). I came home and turned around and packed to head to my company's annual conference that we host, this year held in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area for 4 days. And then I've worked. And worked. And worked. May is a really busy month at the club so lots of opportunity to make money so of course I've taken every shift offered to me (except for 2 Thursday nights). And all of this travel and work is really taking a toll on this old girl. I'd like to one day really soon, be in a position to where I don't have to work 2 jobs all the time to afford to live. It's really rough on me. I'm not home, so the house goes to a complete mess. I'm traveling between job #1 and job #2 so I'm not able to eat as healthily as I want when I have limited time to grab something/eat. I'm on my feet 4-7 hours straight and it just kills my body. When I work a Friday or Saturday night, I'm pretty much NO GOOD to anyone the next day, which just doesn't work when you're trying to keep house and have a life. The last 2 weeks the headaches have increased with frequency...almost daily. I know it's because I'm physically and mentally exhausted, not eating right, not drinking enough water, and not getting enough rest. I look forward to a day where I don't have to work so much....whenever that will be.
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