Free Coffee

When does a free cup of coffee end up costing 86 dollars and some change?

When that free cup of coffee is at BAM and you decide to do a little browsing on your way out the door.

Is it bad that my four-year-old calls BAM the library?

Where I Tell Santa to Go

Here are some of the places I tell "Santa" to get great gifts.

Many of these toys are made in Europe--mainly Germany--so you don't have to worry about toxic paint; many of them are made of wood and other sturdy material and they don't cost much more than Mattel or Playschool toys.

I have ordered many Christmas items from here and have never once been disappointed with the quality or service.

Both magazines just ended their free shipping, which is when I strive to order...but, alas, I missed both of the magazine's free shipping; I'm kicking myself and hoping they'll run another free shipping promo soon. I like to order for my nieces and nephews in K.C., have their presents shipped straight to my Mom and Dad's, so we don't have to haul a truckful of Santa's stuff to K.C.

Both mags offer giant candy canes that are made with a 100-year old recipe, using real sugar cane and natural dyes. Mmm...they're good! Many of the exact same items can be ordered through either company, so I go with the one that offers the best shipping deal; most of the time, the product prices are exactly the same, as well.

Check out this company (for adults), and then shop 'til you drop! Only 37 days and counting.

One of These Days...

I'LL GET MY LIFE BACK.

UNTIL THEN...

Lazy Saturday

Thank goodness, the humidity is starting to wane and fall is peeking around the corner. We've had just enough rain to bring the grass back to green, to help the trees make beautiful rainbows of color in the weeks to come and to knock off the Crepe Myrtles' blooms with every droplet. After the rain stops, the yards, driveways, roofs and streets are dotted in all colors of Myrtle confetti. It's beautiful. My Japanese Maple is starting to turn from deep, purplely-red to burnt orangey-red and the tomato plants are looking exhausted from tirelessly birthing Romas for us, weeks on end. I think I'll put them out of their misery tomorrow.

Cotton is just starting to peek from its hard shell and I cannot wait 'til the day it all pops open like so much popcorn! It looks like fields of pure, white, fluffy snow that never turns into nasty, brown, melted mush. Last year, when the cotton popped open, I about made hubby wreck the car as we were driving down the main thoroughfare here in HSV. I'd never seen cotton blooming before and it caught me by surprise. I was lost in la-la land, gazing out the window, when I realized that the fields were white and it caught me off-guard being from the Midwest--my mind instantly went to "snow," except it was probably still 80 degrees outside. It took a minute but my brain overcame my midwestern-ess and went south--"Cotton! I suddenly and loudly blurted out, look, it's cotton!" Well, needless to say, I about scared hubby to death--he jumped and almost lost control of the car; he then looked at me like I had lost my mind.

As of late, the weather has turned off slightly crisp and misty, especially in the mornings. This morning was no exception. Usually, we sleep in on Saturday but today we had the school's Booster Club Pancake Breakfast to attend at one of the local Applebees, which interestingly enough, is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, which is right next to Kansas City, Missouri. I know exactly where the building sits. Small world. So, we were up at 7:30a.m.--slightly earlier than usual, except for Number Four; he goes to be early and wakes early. Must be a mutant gene.

We go eat the yummo pancakes that were cooked by someone else, served by someone else and cleaned up by someone else. Worth every bit of the $5 per plate not to have to scrub syrup off every little thing Numbers Four and Five could possibly touch on their way to the bathtub.

We hop into the car, avoiding getting run over by all the nutty, obsessed, Alabama fans hurriedly heading off to Tuscaloosa and Number One mentions that since it's becoming cooler outside, she needs to go shopping for long sleeve shirts, as she's just recently gone through a growth spurt--at least her arms and feet have; now if those legs would just grow. Ooh, shopping, I say, we haven't really done that in a while--you ask your Dad, he'll tell me "no".

Hubby agrees to take us shopping as he needs to look for some new "basketball attire" since he'll be coaching soon; furthermore, today was a great day to go to the mall, since probably 75% of the town was either at the Alabama/Arkansas game in Tuscaloosa or watching it on ESPN. Still haven't figured out the madness about college football here--I think they are slightly nutty!

So, off we go to "the upscale mall," where we can usually only afford to shop off the clearance rack. We always go into Dillards first b/c if you hit them on just the right day, you get an extra 50% off the lowest clearance price. But today wasn't one of those days; however, Number One did find a cute top "on sale" but not on clearance, then managed to sweet-talk Daddy into contributing 100% of the total price, even though she's supposed to buy all her own clothes, outside of required school gear (she gets $20/wk and is learning how to budget her money--no we're not meanies). Girls are born, sooo-knowing how to work their Daddies, aren't they?

I suggested we hit the one of the local Salvation Army stores, the one that's our favorite b/c it always has many a great deal. Today, we hit it extra big and were able to find two to three outfits for four of the five kids, an awesome stereo for our pool, a kid's Mickey Mouse, 16-piece picnic set w/backpack and a never used, yoga/fitness mat--all for only $60! WOOHOO! Nobody even had time to whine, not even Number Five. Number One bought herself four fall/winter shirts and two pair of designer jeans, barely worn, for $17! She was tickled pink. Ha, ha.

One of these days, I'll blog about our ultimate place to shop: Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, AL. Only 20 minutes shy of Huntsville. The things people never go back to claim amaze me!

Later in the afternoon, Number Four went to a birthday party at Pump It Up and now wants to have his party there, as I'm sure do ALL the first grade boys. After reading this article, I think I might be heading there myself, real soon!

The rest of the day, we just hung out: hubby washed cars, kids played in the hammock, on their bikes, dressed up like Hannah Montana (she's soooo IT), played Bball--just acted like kids. I was *supposed* to vacuum the pool but I just enjoyed the day. There's probably a tomorrow, so tomorrow, I'll clean the pool.

We had Idaho instant mashed potatoes and chicken salad sandwiches for dinner and nobody complained. I'd never made instant potatoes before; quite tasty and E-A-S-Y. I may never peel & boil another potato again. How DO those little granules that smell funny, suddenly *poof* into edible, white mush that tastes like potatoes?

Lazy Saturdays...is there anything better?

Apology

Remember "mother and wifely duties" I mentioned last evening? Well, they sort of jumped in the way today and I'm totally lacking any energy to Blog "the story that brought me back".

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

The sun will come out...

Tomorrow.

And too dang early, I'm sure.

Blog, top of my list, check.

Information

Write this phone number down and don't lose it.

It's a free information number.

And, no, it's not too good to be true; it works--I used it today.

The only drawback and the "catch" to the "free," is that there is an advertisement you have to listen to before you can get the number you need. The advertisement is only about ten seconds long but if you're in a hurry, maybe paying $43 to get a computer-generated voice and/or a rude telephone company employee to get you a telephone number, is worth the big bucks.

It, of course, works for cell calls, as well. Duh, that was a stupid statement.

800-373-3411

Extreme Blogover

Changing my whole blog was not nearly as confusing as I thought it would be; it was just time-consuming. Best part about the whole process was that it was totally free. My kind of "Blogover".

Browsing through all the template options out there was an infinite process. I then had to make sure the template I finally chose was formatted in XML for beta; sometimes after copying and pasting the HTML code, it still wouldn't work--definitely frustrating.

I really wanted to go with something Red or Purple but I finally chose to go monochromatic with simple lines because I thought pics would get lost in a busy template.

My favorite features are the audio/video clips on the right side, under "Generation Rising," and our local news on the left under, "Keep Current".

If somebody would find a way to add an audio loop for Blogger, I think I'd feel my blog as totally complete. Something soothing like smooth Jazz or coffee shop Tunes. Anyone know if copying an HTML code for a MySpace audio loop might work on Blogger?

To AdSense or Not to AdSense? Comments, please.

There will probably be no blog the rest of the weekend--I need time away from my blog. It's starting to feel like a job.

Stay and browse for a few. There is plenty to keep busy.

Random, Random-ness

I was awake at 5 AM this morning. I'm RARELY awake at 5 AM.

I sanitized, brushed down and skimmed the pool, had oatmeal, toast and coffee by myself on the back porch, while watching the birds flit around in the sprinkler that was watering our so-far-pesticide-free Garden.

Today is the end of the pesticide-free garden. Worms are eating some stuff so I'm off to buy Seven, which I've been assured by a local, well-known Cotton and Pumpkin Farmer whose kids attend the same school as our kids, is about the best pest repellent, as well as, the least pesticide-containing pesticide you can put on "crops". Apparently, some of the organic stuff is worse than Seven. I've heard that--weird, huh?

Now, if I could just get hubby to go out and start peein' around the garden to keep the rabbits out of it.

No doubt my boys would do it but they'd probably kill the whole garden as much as they pee in a day.

I've also read to sprinkle used cat litter around the garden. We don't have a cat anymore. Would it be too weird to put an add in the classifieds for used cat litter? :0) Wednesday's adds are free.

Did you know that Starbucks keeps their coffee grounds to give away for your garden? I picked up a bag of grounds that must have weighed 50lbs and we tilled the grounds into our gardening soil. Our veggies are rapidly growing--maybe it's luck, maybe it's the grounds, maybe it's because our land used to be part of a cotton plantation.

Occasionally, we have a cotton plant sprout up from nowhere. They're ugly--look like weeds.

I am HOOKED on Lipton's Raspberry White Tea, which is new--at least to me.

I made our coffee WAAAAY too strong this morning. A good reason to add more sugar, no?

I bought three HUMONGOUS bars of vegetable soap for $21.00 at Target three months ago; three months later, I'm still using the same bar of soap and it's NOT getting any smaller! I was hoping when I bought the soap that my "investment" would pay off. Paying $21 for three bars of soap is too crazy not to be an investment...or, at the least, an experiment.

Did you know, Vegetable soap leaves your skin moisturized so you don't have to use much lotion, which saves you money in the long run.


A fun blog women should read about SBE's.

Gave the dog a bath yesterday and then pried his feet from the edge of the pool so we could throw him in...just to show him how to get out in case he accidentally fell in--we had a dead rabbit in our pool recently because he jumped in at night and couldn't find his way out. I found him...it was GROSS! More chlorine sanitizer, please!

Our dog is so petrified of water, even knowing the way out, he would still panic and drown. We keep him locked out of the pool area when we're not out there but you never know what ornery dogs will do.

We saw two 4-D movies this past holiday weekend and I LOVED them.

I think the kids did too, but who cares?!?

I've been on an Oatmeal-For-Breakfast-For-My-Health-And-Weight "Diet" for about three weeks.

I've been on an Eat-As Many-Prunes-As-I-Can "Marathon," so as to counteract the Oatmeal Diet for about a week.

For the third (or fourth?) week, we've had money leftover at the end of the week--all thanks to our new budget plan. It's been surprisingly easy and we have some savings for the first time in a long time.

We haven't had any ants in our house this year so far.

My Coffee Buddy is coming to visit June 10th and I CAN'T WAIT! Coffee here we come.

My kids are visiting my parents in Kansas City for a week and a half, come June 23. Two days ago, only four school-days into summer vacation, I could not wait for that to happen; however, yesterday was much better.

Time-Out from the pool and the wooden spoon sitting on the outdoor table are amazing little encouragers to good behavior.

Huntsville's jobless rate dropped to 2.1% last month. Be sure to check out the handsome Mattress King. Remember when Elaine dated him?!?

Our backyard neighbors have a sort-of cute Lab puppy they inherited from someone. He had a bad habit of barking NON-STOP whenever there was a single noise in our backyard. There was only one time a day when there was no noise in our yard--2AM or the middle of winter. Two weeks ago, he was sent off for barking/obedience training. It was supposed to last one week. He's still not back. What does that mean?

I'm ready for a new hairstyle. I've had the same one for about four months.

For Mother's Day, I was given a "rare" hosta. The green leaves, or sometimes variegated leaves, have a blue paint stroke on them. Seriously, they look like someone took an artist's paint brush and brushed a stroke of blue onto each leaf.

I also was given a HUGE, decorative, outside thermometer by my hubby. Our Dollar Tree thermometer broke during the freeze in March. We didn't need the thermometer because I bought a new Dollar Tree thermometer but hubby thought the big one would look nicer. It would. It does. We tried to take it back yesterday to buy something more practical, although I'm with Tammi in that gifts should not be practical. But this time, we were going to be practical. Hubby lost receipt and Target's policy is that, without a receipt, they will not refund anything over $40, which is just crazy. $100 sounds more practical, don't you think? Return policies should definitely be practical. Anyway, the thermometer was $60 although, it looks like it was cheaper online. What's that about?

When you come to visit, please be sure to make mention of our lovely, outside thermometer to make my hubby feel better about not keeping track of receipts.

I like gardening and plants but I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. We bought this house last year with an acre yard. It's ALL landscaped, which we loved until we had to start weeding and trimming. It took us three hours, two Saturdays ago to weed JUST AROUND THE POOL AREA!

I have Jackson Vine. I love it. It's hard to find if you want to buy some. It's usually given--a southern-hospitality thing, I suppose. It grows as fast as a weed. I cut ours all the way back into the ground and two days later, it was two or three feet tall. I'm not kidding at all. Want some?

We got a new car, at least new to us, this week--totally unexpected. Another blog about this later. The picture is just a suggestion; actual vehicle may differ in color and price...and does. :0)

Our old car. It's for sale. If you're interested, please let me know otherwise, we may be eating PBJ for awhile. It does NOT look like the picture; we have five kids for goodness sake. It comes equipped with stains on the carpet, handlebar marks down the sides, no rearview mirror--it recently fell off but we still have it! It smells not so bad and the AC and heat only blow on high. We've replaced almost every major thing on it in the last two years, except for the motor...knock on wood. Brand new TV and DVD player included and possibly a kid or two.

If you're a Mom (or not) AND a blogger (or lurker), check this out.

And this.

Random Friday. I think I like.

Although, it ended up being much longer and much more work than I intended it to be.

So many links, so little time.

Comments are solicited, please.

Have a GREAT weekend!

EMERGENCY 51

Remember the show, "Emergency 51," that used to be on television sometime in the 70's, if I remember right?

My brother loved the show; watched it all the time and wanted to be a firefighter...until "C.H.I.P.S." came on, then he wanted to be a police officer.

I liked the show because even at such a young age, I knew a hottie when I saw one and that show had TWO! *Sizzle*

"John" must have been the hotter of the two, because I can still remember his name. (Mark, who's the other guy?)

Well, this blog has NOTHING at all to do with that show.

Being that HSV is home to The Redstone Arsenal (more info), we are a major player in the defense of our nation and having found out just recently that we are now #2 on "the list", up from #3 just a year ago; furthermore, having had more than one person tell me since moving here that most families here DO have emergency plans in place; furthermore, having a child in third grade that completeted a project this year outlining their family's emergency plan, I decided that I would look up a website that is burned into my brain from the huge billboards here in town that advertise, "Are You Ready, Alabama?"

Having an emergency plan in place is a very wise idea in this day and age. If you live in a hurricane state, it is just one of the routines of your life, as we found out after moving to FL a few years ago and had much practice with that emergency plan as three hurricanes hit our area the first year we lived there. Since then, I keep an emergency box stocked "on the ready" but now instead of hurricanes I'm preparing for, it's mostly just tornadoes...

The "Be Ready" Plan suggests having duct tape and plastic sheeting ready for "chemicals" but I'm of the opinion that I'd rather go quickly than have some gas or vapor seep through the plastic slowly. I don't think plastic sheeting is going to stop chemicals any better than duct-taping your windows keeps them from blowing in during a hurricane.

Anywho, here's a link to hook you up with a Family Communications Plan; you might be surprised to find how much better you feel knowing that if a disaster strikes your area, your family members will know what to do, where to go, who to call. Now that I have a pre-teen and a teenager that are away from home often, this plan allows me one less thing about which to worry.