MY RANTS AND RAVES

Holy schmolly! I can't believe it's the 14th of March already. But as it goes, time sure does fly by. A day off and absolutely NO plans! Wow! My first inclination was to stay in bed for as long as I could. Wrong-a-roo! First off, my ol' bones just won't stand for it and Xoe certainly wasn't going to buy into the "oh let's stay in bed all day" philosophy! 7:30a.m. up and at 'em. No schedule today...just takin' it slow and low!

After dawning my bathrobe I took her outside for her morning "discharge" and back in the house we went with her in "full charge" mode. After throwing open the shutters and letting the awesome morning sunlight in, making the bed and hoping in the shower, I decided to give my hair a break from the normal hairdryer routine and let it air dry. I vowed to clear away at least a half a dozen magazines from the ever growing pile that sits by my favorite chair in the living room.

I turned the TV on and used the guide to select some smooth jazz to set the mood. Armed with a stack of mags in one hand and a large glass of lemon water in the other, I sat down at the table and began to plow through the magazines zipping out pages of interest for later reference and recycling the rest in my recycle bin. I moved Xoe's crate next to my chair and soon found her going through the my recently discarded magazines. Ha!

The six inch stack of magazines soon became a half inch stack of articles, recipes and the like that I'll later use as reference, blog material, etc. Xoe loves to nibble on toes so the 'squirt bottle' has become my new best friend when it comes to nipping infant k9's. Now 9:00a.m. I decided I'd get some breakfast in my gullet. Two pieces of toast, a half orange (organically grown and hand picked from my oldest son's trees) and a cup of pomegranate green tea. I was going to take time to think about each move I made when it came to the preparation. Instead of ripping off a piece of paper towl to throw my toast on and later just toss in the garbage I pulled down my favorite little "XO" pink plate and my pink "XO" mug. There! A little less waste today...a small thing, I know. I stood in the sunny bright kitchen looking out into my back yard as the morning sun bounced off the blue water of the swimming pool. As I ate I noticed the rose trees were getting new blooms and the geraniums were starting to show some color and I imagined how I'd like the scene out my kitchen window to look. I've always thought it would be nice to have an array of beautiful floral images out every window view in my home....awwwww...how nice that would be!

The nipping of small spiked teeth at my toes quickly jolted me from my daydream - where was that squirt bottle! I cleaned up my breakfast dishes and put away the bread and the other half of the orange made it's way to the refrigerator.

Ok, 9:15a.m. - I decided to take the stack of miscellaneous to the computer and start plowing through them. First hit on the list was a collection of music created by Hallmark on iTunes. I launched iTunes and took a look! If you'd been a fly on the wall you'd probably be laughing your butt off! As the "Jeremiah was a bullfrog..." crocked through my speakers, I couldn't help from throwing up my arms and shaking my air dried hair all around. Xoe stopped what she was doing and looked at me with a half cocked head and perked ears...I scooped her up while the music continued and we danced around in the sunshine coming through the sliding glass window in the computer room. Ok, ok, ok....gotta focus...what's next. Well, I decided that I needed to update my blog and was feeling so refreshed this morning that I decided what better time than now to add some daily ramblings to my blog...why not?

While Xoe is entertaining herself I decided to update my book list on Amazon.com. I found some books "must reads" in one of the magazines and once done, then bam! another page dealt with and recycled. You know, I'd really like to be a part of a Book Club...I've always loved to read and have "cheated" lots during my commuting hours by listening to books. Now I'd love to have a new Kindle2...guess I'd better get to saving, eh? Wish my girlfriends would be interested in a book club...oh well. Maybe I'll research and see if I can join one that is already in full swing and make some new friends in the process.

Next came updating a "must see" list of movies. A post for my 'frugal/freebie' list is my next 'to do' and I continue on the pile before me. Wow, it's now 11:30a.m. - where has the morning gone? I don't know why I continue to ask questions of that nature...after all, it's not like I've been sitting around doing nothing at all? My paper pile is slowly diminishing but still has quite a way to go. So many great ideas and so little time! A couple of more posts to my blog and then I'll have to move on to something else.

I found this one GREAT tip that I just had to write about. When growing up our family was always getting together for birthdays and holidays and my grandmother would always make cakes. My favorite (and still is) white/yellow cake with chocolate frosting. She would use toothpicks to hold the two round sections together. The family "mantra" would then be "whoever gets the "tooth pick" does the dishes". Ha! Well, the dreaded "toothpick" has taken on a new "glory" form for me. I FOREVER fight with finding the "end" on the packaging tape roll. Now that I'm older and it's harder for me to see up close - it's such a frustrating process trying to use the packaging tape. Well........I found this AWESOME tip - stick a toothpick to the cut end of the packing tape so you can find the 'end' again the next time! I know, I know....brilliant! Just wish I'd found this (or thought of it myself) earlier!

Ok, lunchtime! Hmmm...what's it gonna be...nothing like a little 'breakfast' for lunch...I decided on a bowl of whole grain cereal with a little brown sugar and some 1% organic milk and a "refresher" cup of pomegranate green tea. ( I used the same tea bag again for the 2nd cup). By the way, before you throw out that "hard as a rock" box of brown sugar that you've had in the back of your cupboard from the last time you baked something, you can soften it again. Just put the brown sugar in an airtight container and add a slice or two of bread to the container. Leave overnight. If not completely softened, add fresh bread (keeping the old slices for your bird feeding bag) and do again.

Ok, so much for a "day in the life of me" - it's mid-day and now I need to shift gears. Time to be a little more productive...ok, set up my FREE online checking account and will make $100.00 in 45 days - doubling my money! Just like that! I'll move that FREE money to a savings account! Cha-ching! Take Xoe out, get mail...open mail! $15.00 rebate check received! Woohoo! Stock statement...ugh! Another hour gone by...crazy!

Signed up for Shell Saver Card. Painless. Check online re: tickets to Sacramento's Quilt Festival. Sweet! Only $8.00 and I have a 50% off coupon. Woohoo!

I started cutting up an old sweatshirt that had paint on the front and I'm going to use it to make a tee-shirt (or 2) for Xoe (using the ribbing on the sweatshirt, etc.) and then the paint stained parts I'll cut up for rags. Well, I need to finish clearing off my table so I can set up my sewing machine, et al. I picked up one of those 3 drawer rollie-carts @ Target on sale so I guess I'll put that together and organize more of my "office" area. Maybe then things will be more at my finger tips and I won't need to occupy the table with all my papers, etc.

Vacuuming and dusting complete; scattered dog toys reclaimed; now time to think of dinner. Ummm...really not hungry and I'm not wanting to cook. Guess a quick trip to the store is in order. With my expiring coupons in hand, I headed out first to Office Depot where I picked up a 4GB flash drive (reg. $19.99) for $9.99 (50% off) a 4GB SDMemory Card (reg. $24.99) for $9.99 (60% off) and last but not least an 8GB flash drive (reg. $34.99) for $17.99 (50% off) less $12.98 gift card brought my out of pocket expense for all 3 to $27.93. $86.00 dollars worth of merchandise for $28.00 - not bad. One for me and 2 stocking stuffers - not bad!

I hit up the grocery store for some basics - milk, bread, lettuce and a bag salad mix (dinner). Got home to find Xoe in the yard on a 'potty break' and it was fun to have her run up and jump all over me when I got out of the car.

The day closed with random channel surfing which ultimately landed on a re-run of The Mentalist. Lights out at 9:00pm - the day is done.

Given the state of our economy at present I decided to start the year off by evaluating our expenditures and getting ruthless on the spending.

First to go - monthly subscriptions: audiobook club - gone; eMusic subscription - gone; yearly savings for the two - $359.28. Next I dropped the coverage on a vehicle we own that isn't driven. Yearly savings - $800.00; I went through all my receipts and submitted several OTC purchases to our FSA plan - reimbursement received - $93.00 and some change; Next was to call and drop our cable and switch to another company - during the conversation the customer service person talked me into adding our phone service and going with their "bundle" which saved us $36.00 a month for the next year over our existing cable/internet plan AND the cost of our phone line with AT&T of $17.00 a month. Yearly savings - $636.00. I dropped the 2nd phone line we had completely - another $204.00 for the year.

Next came cutting back on eating out - limiting it to only 2 x's a month on pay day. I've spent a lot more time and energy on cooking from scratch/watching sales and using coupons whereever possible.

January housekeeping issues aside, Mike and Todd took another trip over to Colorado so Mike could fulfill his elk tag. It was a quick trip - snag 'em and bag 'em. Mike got an elk and the two of them made it back in a wham bam, thank you ma'am trip of 3 days.

They saw some beautiful country and had a great time. I know Mike really appreciated the trip and everyone (especially Todd) for the opportunity to do this hunt. (Pssst...they are already talking about snagging Grandpa to go with them on the next trip!)