Little Touches here and there

Since we moved into the house the last weekend in August I have not done too much in the way of decorating because we are planning on painting all the walls and re-doing every room. I am a cheapskate when it comes to spending money on little touches for the house so I tend to just keep putting off and putting off (because I never want to spend the money on it.)

We painted our kitchen walls a bright red back in December. Since then I have not spent anymore money on the house. When I went to Albany, GA a few weeks ago with my friend to see my daughter for the weekend one of the things we did that Saturday morning was go to yard sales. I managed to come across a deal on a 19" TV that I purchased for $10.00! We have TV's in both of our bedrooms but not in our living room so I thought this would be a small one for our living room.

Once I brought it home though Dakota decided to move all of his Xbox stuff out of his room and into the living room. The only problem with that is we didn't have anywhere to put the TV except on the floor. I've been looking at furniture pieces to purchase for the wall there and I haven't found exactly what I want...so I am actually thinking of building some bookcases there - just have to run the idea by Greg first. :-)

The only thing that was on this wall (as seen in this picture taken at Christmastime) are two storage pieces that hold DVD's and videos/computer games. I hate these pieces because they are major dust collectors!! Dakota pushed the ottoman from our couch over closer to the wall to put the TV and his Xbox on and all the wires were strung out across the living room every day.

This obviously was enough to make me go do something because I couldn't stand the mess anymore! So last Friday my friend, Mardi and I went out for lunch and shopping. I found this temporary solution to my living room/Entertainment center needs. I say temporary because I have another use in mind for this bookcase once I find something else or "build something" for this wall. The picture doesn't do it justice but it really is a pretty shelving unit I picked up from Hobby Lobby - on sale for 20% off (it was around $100.00) and then the two boxes on the 3rd & 4th shelves I also picked up from Hobby Lobby and they were 50% off - they are holding all of the DVD's, CD's and computer games that were on those other two stand-up pieces. Yeah!! I got rid of those!

The long narrow "umbrella stand" on the left I picked up at Kirkland's and it was 1/2 price at $14.99 - I will be putting long dried flowers or something in there - not umbrellas.

While I was on a roll, Mardi helped me find some cute things for my kitchen...
at Kirkland's this metal cross wall piece was 1/2 price at $9.99
at Hobby Lobby, these bookend/picture frames were clearanced for $2.20 a piece
at Kirkland's this "A" tile for my last name along with the easel was on sale (less than 12.00/pair)
Where my cookbooks are, I had my microwave over there on that counter and it took up the whole space. I moved it to another area and now I LOVE the way this looks so much better!!!

What's next?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I believe Obama's reign of terror has just begun. The swiftness and magnitude of the decisions he is making continue to astound me. I have heard from a couple of die-hard Obama supporters who voted for him and were so quick to jump to his defense and preach "change, change, change" during the election...now they are regretting their decision just a few months into his presidency.

Duh!? What the heck did they think? Were they not listening to the man?

This just came in my email today from American Family Association:

Now, according to several news agencies Obama is seeking to rescind the "conscience rule" which protects health care workers from performing abortions due to their moral or religious beliefs. If the rule is rescinded, doctors, nurses and other health care workers could lose their jobs or be punished professionally for adhering to their sincerely held religious convictions. Obama's proposal would take away their religious freedom.

The current rule empowers federal health officials to cut off federal funding for any state or local government, hospital, clinic, health plan, doctor's office or other entity if it does not accommodate employees who exercise their right of conscience. It applies to more than 584,000 health care facilities.

According to the Washington Post, Obama administration officials stressed that the proposal will be subject to 30 days of public comment.

It is so very important for you to voice your opinion on this matter. Go here and send a letter to the White House today!

YouData

I signed up with YouData a few months ago and have been pleasantly surprised with this program. It is completely free to register and set up a profile and doesn't take much time at all - then based on your profile, ads are sent to your YouData widget either on the YouData website or you can install it on your desktop. I chose to install it on my desktop and it opens up just like a messenger service like AIM or yahoo messenger would.

The best part is YOU choose if you want to view the ads/blogs displayed and you can see right away how much you are going to be paid for viewing these websites/blogs. All you have to do is click on them and the website or blog opens up and then you get paid. YouData pays you every single Friday via paypal!

I have made between $.84 - $10.00 a week every week through YouData. Go here to sign up now - you have absolutely nothing to lose!

Dogs - ticks

Our puppy, Raven, loves to roam through the woods behind our house. With that roaming comes a price! TICKS! Ugh....we have not had to deal with these before.

Our other lab, Jet, never roamed like this little monster...guess that was because we got him (our first lab) from an abused home and it took months of loving on him and caring for him before he did anything without fear of punishment.


Now though, we have to do a nightly search through our black-furred animals for these pesky blood suckers

Image by kafka4prez via Flickr

- I am so glad Greg doesn't mind doing this kind of thing! I was searching online today to see if there was some kind of medicine I could purchase to help with ticks and I found a couple of good deals I thought I would pass on in case anybody else has a problem with fleas or ticks.



Save up to 50% when you buy the best flea & tick products at PetCareRx. They are running a special during the month of March.
During St. Paddy's week - here are the specials they are offering -

Use promo code IRISH2009 to receive $10 OFF orders of $75 or more.

Or you can use promo code LUCK2009 for $15 OFF orders of $100 or more!

*This offer is valid from 12:01am EST on 3/16/2009 until 11:59pm EST on 3/20/2009.

After researching, this looks like a good shampoo to try....anybody have any luck with this?
Adams Flea & Tick Shampoo (12oz)

Surprise! Surprise!

I've been doing some Merchandising work the last few months. I picked up a merchandising job working in a local CVS store (of ALL places...LOL) back before Christmas. I received an email last Friday from the lady who runs the company - she was saying there is a big job coming up in March and she had picked up some extra stores and she was just giving us a heads-up to make sure we were available. I sent her an email and asked her if she had picked up any additional stores in Pensacola (where I live) and if so could I work them. She sent me the list back and informed me that "yes, actually she HAD picked up some additional ones and she would love for me to take all of them if I could." There were 18 stores on the list!!! I was thrilled at the news!

I called Greg to tell him I had picked up 18 CVS stores I was going to have to merchandise in March.

His response "So, what does that mean?"

I'm a little baffled by his flat response. What do you mean "what does that mean?" Are ya kidding me? An extra bonus of money is what that means!

After a few more seconds of me realizing he's not too thrilled about this news I got off the phone and stewed for a few minutes. To make a long story short....after several phone calls back and forth between my two daughters, myself and my dear husband - the girls realized how upset I was at his lack of response so they realized they all better let me in on a little surprise they were holding back from me

I'm going to Hawaii on March 18th for 2 1/2 weeks

Felicia and Greg had been planning it and bought me a ticket as a surprise! Greg sent me a text message after Felicia told me the news and it said "Now you see why I wasn't happy about the job :-)" What a sweetie!

I contacted the lady this morning about the CVS jobs and told her about my surprise trip and asked her if she should re-assign the stores to somebody else or would I have enough time to do them. She said she was supposed to give us the work on March 15th. She doesn't want to re-assign the stores because she doesn't want to train anybody else so she told me to do what I can do the two days before I leave and then she would come in town and complete the stores for me!! Wow! Praise the Lord!

Wordless Wednesday - smiles for big brother

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Works For Me Wednesday: Cheap Drinks

Image by Wade From Oklahoma via Flickr

My husband and I are hot tea drinkers. We keep a ziplock bag filled with tea bags and splenda packets in our car, along with travel mugs. Anytime we are driving and get thirsty we can pull up to a convenience store and using our own supplies, go in and get some hot water from their coffee/beverage area and make ourselves some hot tea - and it doesn't cost us anything except what we already paid for a box of tea bags and sweetener packets.

This is what Works for Me. For more Works for Me tips, visit Kristin at We are THAT family.

Excuse me Baldie

Image via Wikipedia

I was talking to my daughter, Felicia, on the phone a couple days ago. She lives in Hawaii and we were discussing my upcoming trip to visit her. While we were talking she was shopping in Walmart. She began to tell me this funny story about a conversation she and her husband had. Her husband is 23 (or 24?) yrs old and has very thinning hair so he just shaves his head and keeps himself bald most of the time. He's in the Navy and that hairstyle, or lack thereof, works out for him anyway.

Felicia was telling me how she and Will were joking around with each other and saying things like...(this was all in fun)

Will "well, if you left me who would want you with your three kids and, and...."

Felicia "You're one to be talking baldie!"

Now remember Felicia is on the phone in Walmart and relaying this conversation to me....right when Felicia said that to me "You're one to be talking baldie!" a bald-headed man walked by her and said "HEY!" and put his hand on his head.

Felicia just about died! She said "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry...I was talking on the phone! I wasn't talking to you!" I heard the whole thing from my end and as she is profusely apologizing I am busting a gut laughing.

Sportsmen's Spectacular 2009

Our church held its 8th annual Sportmen's Spectacular Banquet on Saturday night. This is one of our biggest community outreach events we do. This year's menu was quail, venison and pork (on a personal note...yuck!!! I ate ChickFilA before I came....LOL) but all the hunters and their families loved the menu. Greg and I were responsible for taking the pictures again this year. It's fun tag teaming working together doing this!

The speaker this year was an old friend - Mike. He used to be the Associate Pastor at our church several years ago until he left to move to AL and start his own church. He came up with the idea of the Sportsmen's banquet 8 years ago. Greg used to work very closely with Mike at the church and was instrumental in pulling off this first banquet. It was great for them to reconnect this year.

Greg actually couldn't wait to see Mike because the last time they saw each other about 5 years ago, Greg weighed 150 lbs more. He knew Mike wouldn't recognize him - he was right! He came up behind Mike and grabbed him and when Mike turned around to see who it was he said "hey man" but there was no recognition in his face. It was only after a few seconds and the smile on my face that he realized it was Greg and the shock appeared then. We had a great laugh when Mike grabbed his wife and said "Hey Lori, do you know who this is!!?" She was completely embarrassed that he had put her on the spot like that and after trying to stumble her way through it, she finally looked at me for help. Only then did she make the connection.

Mike's wife, Lori


Okay, so back to the banquet.....I don't know what all the final numbers were but I think there were close to 1000 people served and I know there were many who made decisions to give their heart to Christ.

There was a taxidermist set up with some incredible pieces!!

I don't know how anybody could kill these?? Why stuff them and have to look at it everyday? Yuck! To each his own I guess.

Dakota and his great-grandmom. She hasn't seen him in awhile and was shocked at how tall he has gotten. :-)

Me and my grandfather...

Dakota and his best friend helped at the drink table. (Can you believe they are the same age? Dakota has hit a growth spurt this year!

Taking a Sunday Drive

Saturday it was 75 degrees. Sunday morning when we woke up it was in the 30's with a wind chill of 26 degrees. Slightly different weather conditions!

We turned on the Weather Channel while we got ready for church to see what the weather forecast was for the day. We were both surprised to see all of the snow that had fallen in Birmingham, AL!! That's only 3 hours from us. I casually told Greg "too bad you are on call this weekend, it would be fun to drive up there and eat lunch, see the snow and come back home."

His response - "Let's go!"

Did I hear him correctly?!? I told him don't play with me now, because I will take you up on it!

We asked Dakota about it and his first response was "I don't want to miss church." So, we compromised and agreed to go after Sunday School.

We didn't even have to drive all the way to Birmingham before we were in the snow...I think we were about 2 hours from home.





Stopped at a rest area....Dakota was FREEZING and wanted "back in the truck! Quit taking pictures mom!" :-)







We ate at a Cracker Barrel in Prattville (I think) and while we were in there we saw two families we knew....they had done the same thing we did! Gotta love us Floridians - we'll drive 2 hours away just to eat lunch in snow flurries! LOL

Two WEEKS?? Where I've been

Image by anguila40 / Alejandro Groenewold via Flickr

Has that much time really gone by since my last post?!

Oh my goodness - time is FLYING by these days!

Last year, in an effort to cut expenses, I began researching on the internet how to save money while grocery shopping and using coupons. That's when I discovered the "game" of shopping at CVS and Walgreen's and getting a whole lot of products for very little money out of pocket.

In the process of learning about shopping with coupons and bargain shopping I also realized there are a ton of samples/freebies out there that are yours just for asking! Between the samples I have received and the sweepstakes I have won this last year I feel immensely blessed.

In an effort to share these deals/findings with you I started my other blog - Addicted to Savings - in August 2008. I really have become "addicted" to finding the deals and freebies and passing those on to others, not only through my blog but in real life. I have been physically helping others learn how to shop frugally and cut their expenses. This has been very rewarding over the last year!

I praise God that I have had this to keep me busy and focused this past year because it has been an extremely rough year on a personal level. I can't discuss the details on here other than to say that my blogs, and reading the hilarious, sweet, insightful, thoughtful blogs of others is what has kept me laughing and from delving into the despairs of depression when things where at their worst.

I had pretty much dropped out of everything at church (choir, running the Women's ministry, leading Bible studies) and was only going on Sunday mornings because Dakota wanted to go. If it wasn't for him, I would not have gone most days. I was tired of walking around with a smile on my face and saying "fine, everything's okay" when asked how I was doing - when in reality I just wanted to scream and cry.

Around Christmastime I decided enough was enough. It was time for me to get back to living, get back to praying and get back to doing the work God has put me here for. I re-joined the choir and have started slowly getting back involved at church.

In doing this, I think there must now be a huge blinking "AVAILABLE" sign on my forehead because the last few weeks I have been so incredibly busy ministering to those around me. I know we go through situations in our life so we can minister to those around us. I praise God that in my time of despair and healing I was still able to learn something (shopping and saving money) that I can now use as an open door into the lives of others and minister to them where they are. So if I am not posting as much on this blog....it's because I have gotten back to living and just don't have as much time these days. :-)

⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

And the Oscar goes to....

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held their annual Oscars Awards show last night.
Let me begin by saying I am not a fan of these types of shows. I think 90% of Hollywood lives on another planet the majority of the time and are not in touch with "the real world."

I was working on my blog and catching up on email last night while my husband was watching TV and flipping through channels. He would stop on the Awards show once in awhile when they were about to announce the winner for Best Actor or Best Actress or something like that.

They would bring out 5 actors or actresses to announce the nominees before announcing the winner. What struck me as hilarious was listening to what was being read (off the teleprompter) and watching the nominee's face while he/she was being praised for her awesome, amazing, wonderful, glowing, outstanding performance in a movie! Are ya kidding me here?? It's a movie for crying out loud! LOL
The way they all carry on you would think these people had just discovered the cure for cancer or something!

Actors nominating actors for an award....like I said - they live in another planet!

Addicted to my DVR

Image via Wikipedia

Image via WikipediaSince we signed up with Direct TV back in September and got a DVR I have gotten completely addicted to this thing! I think that is a bad thing though because I now am watching more TV than I used to. After Greg goes to sleep I will watch TV from about 10-midnight every night.

I justify this by saying "oh I can skip right through the commercials" which shaves off about 15 minutes of every hour's worth of TV programming.

Some of my favorites that I have set to record weekly are:
Brothers & Sisters
Burn Notice
CSI Miami (I am probably one of the few people that really like Horatio Caine...my husband can't stand him! LOL)
CSI Vegas
CSI New York
American Idol My favorite so far is Danny Gokey
Wife Swap
** Edited to add-- The Beast - forgot about this one until I laid down to watch TV last night and saw it on my playlist. I am amazed at how much Patrick Swayze does in this show as sick as he is!
I love the fact that I can watch these shows online if I (or my DVR) happen to miss an episode!

Anniversaries

My twin daughters both celebrate their wedding anniversaries in February. This was not planned. Felicia and Will had a big wedding on Valentine's Day 5 years ago. Tina and Bryant eloped three years ago before he left for Iraq...they didn't even pay attention to what the date was.

It was only afterwards when Felicia pointed it out to Tina that their anniversaries were 3 days apart did Tina realize what she had done. We jokingly refer to that as "the twin thing."

Happy Anniversary Will and Felicia - congratulations on 5 years together! I love you both!

This is their family a couple years ago before they moved to Hawaii.

Allan and Nathan in Hawaii (now) - they are 5 and 3 yrs old

Will and Felicia in Fall 2008 before baby #3 was born

My 3rd grandson - Shawn William born in December 2008

Happy Anniversary Bryant and Tina - congratulations on three years together!! I love you both!!
Even though Bryant and Tina eloped, once he returned from Iraq, they had a small wedding on the beach for friends and family (because WE all wanted it!) - they did it to make us happy.

Now they have their Bailee-boo (Daddy's little girl)...

The many faces of Bailee...

Tina, Bryant and Bailee came in town this past weekend. Since I was out of town in Gatlinburg until Saturday I only got to see them real quick when we met for lunch - as they were on their way out of town.

Bailee is turning into such a "drama queen" - she cracks me up! I love all the faces she makes!