Go Ahead and Laugh at My Expense!

First let me start off by saying that today is my BESTEST best friend’s birthday. Love you my bestest!!

 

Today is her birthday but we all got together on Saturday and went to Maggiano’s on International Drive and then we headed to Old Town for some good ol’ family fun.

The kids rode Go-Karts and did the trampoline. The guys got to look at old cars and relive a little of their childhood. What did Kathy want US to do? She wanted us to get slung out of a giant sling shot. Not once, but twice. Might I remind you that we are over 40? LOL!

They video tape the whole thing and I have posted it here for your amusement! So go ahead and feel free to get your Monday laugh in at our expense.

This was the first ride! Watch the hair. It’s hilarious!

Getting ready to go on a second time! HAVE MERCY!

 

This was our second ride. You can see that I relaxed quite a bit. LOL!

It was SO FUN! What are we going to do next birthday Kathy? Bungee Jump? LOL!  NOT!

My husband guesses that it slings you up about 300 feet. WOO! HOO!

What crazy thing did you do this weekend?

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

The 5 Minute Junk Drawer Makeover!

This is because we all love before and afters no matter how small.

My junk drawer in my kitchen was really starting to become a catch all. So, I went to Walmart and got small plastic containers. They came 3 in a pack for just over a dollar which means I have some left over to do another drawer in my bathroom.

But let’s just cut to the chase.

Here’s the messy before….

…and the organized after.

(Please don’t ask me why the dried peppers were in the drawer because I really don’t have a good sound answer. LOL!)

Why do I put stuff like this off?  (Because I’m a procrastinator!) I feel so much better now that this is done. It really only took about 5 mins.

So what quick thing can you accomplish today?

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Friday Funnies! Are We Really That Stupid?

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

I’m ready to laugh today, so help me out and link up your funnies. Just make sure they are family friendly. You can link up a funny story, video, picture etc.

 

My funny today came with the purchase of this lamp.

What? You see nothing funny with this lamp?

My hubby purchased this lamp for his desk. No, that’s not the funny part.

THIS is the funny part.

These are the “instructions” for the lamp.

First let me point out that it’s in 3 languages.

Are you ready to get started? Have you found your language preference? Good. Let’s begin!

Read carefully this is important!

Got it?

Okay. Let’s look at the parts list to make sure we have everything. Take your time. You wouldn’t want to mess this up.

You okay? Are you sure? You wouldn’t want to move on without making sure you had your LAMP in front of you. You know, Part A.

Here’s where it gets complicated. Don’t rush this.

Reread if you need to. You wouldn’t want to make a mistake here. That part is crucial.

But don’t worry, you have plenty of time because apparently this can take anywhere from 2-5 minutes to accomplish.

I’m pretty sure my hubby did this in about 20 seconds.

Did we really need 2 pages to tell us to screw in a light bulb?

Which brings me to my earlier question. Are we really that stupid?

This cracked me up so I just had to share. Have you ever come across something like this?

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY MY FRIENDS!!

Click on Mr. Linky below to visit the other links!

The Tooth, the Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth!

Our youngest son lost his first tooth yesterday. It was kind of bitter sweet but the story leading up to it was quite humorous.

His tooth had been very loose for quite some time. The whole family with exception to my 8 year old son, had taken a crack at it with no luck. That was until yesterday.

I go out back to see my hubby in his workshop. I look out into the yard and notice a cardboard box laying flat on the ground. I asked my hubby why it was there and he said it was a mock operating table. Huh? Apparently I had missed the part where my 8 year old had my 5 year old laying on his back trying to get his tooth out.

Obviously  that wasn’t working for them so they took it inside. I heard some commotion over at the dinner table so I asked what was going on. My 8 year old proudly announces that “they” had just taken out the loose tooth.

Here’s the child in question.

 

Excited I go back outside to tell my hubby.

We don’t do the tooth fairy thing but we do give a little sunthin’ sunthin’ for a tooth . Me? I was like, give him a quarter. My husband? Nah, give em’ a buck. It’s his first tooth. So the discussion went on a little bit back and forth without really coming to a conclusion. I walked back inside to take a picture of the toothless wonder and somehow ended up discussing payment of the tooth with my 8 year old.  He then proceeds to tell me, “Oh, don’t worry about it. I already gave him $2.00.”

I was like, “Huh? I’m sorry what? YOU gave him $2.00? Seriously? Um, thanks honey, but really, that is a one of the small joys that we parents get to do.” (Am I really having this conversation with my 8 year old?  Really?)

The one that lost the tooth? Clueless about the whole money exchange. I could have given him a penny and he would have been happy.

Do you have any weird tooth losing stories?

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY!

Just Paint It!

I love wood furniture. We have a lot of it. The problem is, none of it matches.  Which is okay if it’s at least the same “kind” of wood.

Let me introduce you to what we will call “Exhibit A” a.k.a our Dining Room.

Here are all the pieces of furniture in our dining area.

Let’s start out with the table. The main thing in the middle of the room.

(Please excuse the handsome young man counting his stash of moola!) LOL!

Nothing fancy. We don’t do fancy. We do practical. Fancy give me a nervous twitch.

Next we have this cute little table.

 

Then there’s my grandmother’s antique table.

I love this table.

 

Then we have one of my hutches.

 

And last but not least a brown mirror with a wooden shelf above it.

What’s the common denominator here?

If you guessed WOOD then you are correct. Give yourself a cookie.

Now if you scroll back through you’ll notice all the different “kinds” of wood.

That’s the part that drives me crazy. So what’s a girl to do? If you guessed PAINT you are once again correct and deserve another cookie.

I’ve decided that I like the whole gardeny shabby chic look. So that’s what I’m going to try to accomplish here in this room.  Oh and I’m trying to talk my hubby into painting the walls white.

The table is being left alone (for now). The hutch is getting painted for sure. The mirror and the shelf too. The little table will be painted an accent color and I’m leaving my grandmother’s antique table alone.

Any suggestions on paint colors? I want light and airy. Throw your ideas at me!

Have a FABULOUS day!

P.S. Still working on the profile pictures. Stay tuned!

Friday Funnies! How would YOUR dog do?

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!

How are all my peeps today? Did you have a good week? Are you ready for some giggles? I sure hope so. If you’d like to join in the fun, feel free to post a family friendly funny and then put a link in your comment for others to find it. It can be a funny video, picture, joke, story, etc.

My funny today could come in handy if you were ever in a bind and needed to know just what dog to ask. LOL! Enjoy!

How many dogs does it take to change a light bulb?
 

1. Golden Retriever: The sun is shining, the day is young, we've got our whole lives ahead of us, and you're inside worrying about a stupid burned out bulb?

2. Border Collie: Just one. And then I'll replace any wiring that's not up to code.
3. Dachshund: You know I can't reach that stupid lamp!
4. Rottweiler: Make me.
5. Boxer: Who cares? I can still play with my squeaky toys in the dark.
6. Lab: Oh, me, me!!!!! Pleeeeeeeeeze let me change the light bulb! Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can I? Pleeeeeeeeeze, please, please, please!
7. German Shepherd: I'll change it as soon as I've led these people from the dark, check to make sure I haven't missed any, and make just one more perimeter patrol to see that no one has tried to take advantage of the situation.
8. Jack Russell Terrier: I'll just pop it in while I'm bouncing off the walls and furniture
9. Old English Sheep Dog: Light bulb? I'm sorry, but I don't see a light bulb!
10. Cocker Spaniel: Why change it? I can still pee on the carpet in the dark
11. Chihuahua: Yo quiero Taco Bulb. Or "We don't need no stinking light bulb."
12. Greyhound: If it isn’t moving. Who cares?
13. Australian Shepherd: First, I'll put all the light bulbs in a little circle...
14. Poodle: I'll just blow in the Border Collie's ear and he'll do it. By the time he finishes rewiring the house, my nails will be dry.

HAVE A FUN FILLED DAY!

How I Saved $50.00 on Our Electric Bill!

I think people were starting to think I was crazy because I’ve been so excited about getting our next power bill. You see I’ve been doing a little experiment and I couldn’t wait to see how it was going to turn out. The timing was perfect and it couldn’t have happened any other time of the year.

First let’s think about what uses the most energy in your home.

1. The Air Conditioner

2. Your Dryer (if electric)

3. Your Stove

When we first moved into our home we were using all three. It was cold and the heat stayed on most of the day, every day for a month.

I do about 5 –6 loads of laundry a week. So my dryer gets a workout.

I cooked and used my stove every day minus a day here or there if we had leftovers.

With all that said, here was the first official electric bill

$285.59 (YIKES!)

As the next month approached the weather got nice enough to not use the heat. We may have used it once or twice but that’s it. Everything else stayed the same.

Here’s our second bill, this time not using the A/C.

$143.89 (NICE!)

Now I know that not using the heat or air conditioning is going to be hit or miss because of the weather but I couldn’t believe how much lower our bill was because of it.

Now the 3rd month I decided to stop using the dryer and line dry our clothes. We didn’t have to use the A/C but maybe once or twice this month either.

I just got our 3rd bill and it’s…

$93.80 (Woo! Hoo!)

I knocked $50.00 off our bill by simply line drying our clothes.

These bills are based on a 2400 square foot home and doing laundry 5-6 times a week. If you only do laundry once or twice a week you probably wouldn’t notice much of a difference.

I know that a lot of you can’t line dry your clothes and so this doesn’t help you one bit but for those of you who can but don’t, I encourage you to give it a try if you need to save some money. With the rise in gas and food prices I’m trying to do all I can.

Oh and my Hubbalicious was pretty stoked about it too!

If you have any money saving tips, I’d love to hear about them!

HAVE A SUPER FABULOUS DAY!

I'm linking up with

The Profile Picture: Take 2

I seriously LOVE getting your opinion on things. I know that most of you voted for me to keep the current picture. BUT I also liked a couple of the suggestions that a few others made. One said to take a new picture with a different hat, another said take a new picture with the same hat. So what I feel like we’ve determined is that I look good in hats and therefore one should be on my head in any and all profile pictures. Ha! Ha!

So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to have my super wonderful daughter take some new pictures of me, similar to this one but more updated to now. Gray hairs and all. LOL! Oh wait, that’s what the hat is for. YES!

When we are finished I will post the choices for my profile picture on here. I am still going to throw in the current one just because it is a favorite.

How’s that sound? I know you’ll be honest with me. That’s one of the things I love about you gals!

So be on the lookout for the “new” me.

The Profile Picture!

For those of you who have been follow me along in this blogging journey know that my profile picture has not changed since I started over 3 years ago.

Here is the profile picture in question.

I can’t tell you how many compliments I’ve had on the hat I’m wearing. People have actually come to visit my blog based on my picture and the cuteness of the hat. Really. They’ve told me so.

So here’s my question.

Should I keep the current 3 + year old picture because it’s now kind of a trademark OR should I put a more current picture on there?

If the majority chooses a more current picture, I’ll get to work on trying to find a few and then let you choose.

Thanks for your help!

HUGS!

P.S. I haven't worn this hat since this picture was taken. LOL!

Back on the Road to the Simple Life

Okay, maybe life will never truly be simple, especially in today’s world. But we can do things that can make our life seem a bit simpler.

Back before our boys were born we led a very hectic life. Our daughter went to public school from K-3 grade. With that came rushed mornings, afternoon pick ups, soccer practice twice a week, games on the weekend, play dates squeezed in there and that was just “her” schedule we were dealing with. Add the things I had going on and what my husband had going on and I can tell you the road we were on was crowded. Crowded with the busyness of what we thought life was supposed to be. You know, keeping up with the Jones’ mentality?

Fast forward to the birth of our boys. By now our daughter was being homeschooled, we let go of our obligations of volunteering at church (there are definite seasons for this but you need to know when to stop)  and no more sports.

*insert deep breath here*

The key is being careful not to fill your life back up full of “other things” just because you feel like you “have” to be doing something. People may look at us and think we have no life. Quite the contrary. Our life is quite full. Full of quality time together. Full of spontaneous trips because we don’t have a bunch of obligations. Full of fun and laughter because we have the time to just goof off. Full of some quality friends because you have the time to nurture them.

Recently I’ve been hanging my clothes out to line dry. It started out as an experiment as to how much money we could save. (More to come on that!) But now, I find myself truly enjoying it. It gets me outside in the fresh air and sunshine and I love it. If I was busy with other things, I wouldn’t be able to experience this.

This life that I talk about probably isn’t for everyone. Some people thrive on being busy and that’s okay if that’s what you want. There are some people that want to slow down but don’t know where to start. I suggest starting with prayer. Ask the Lord to direct you and reveal areas in your life that may be adding to the busyness of your life. Learn to let go and be okay with it.

These are my thoughts for the today!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Friday Funnies! Bedside Manners

Happy Friday Everyone!

How was your  week? Good I hope! Are you ready for a few laughs today? If so then you’ve come to the right place. If you’d like to share a family friendly funny then feel free to link it up below. Hopefully the linky thing will be working this week.

I found this joke and it just gave me a good chuckle!

Enjoy!

Bedside Manners

Susie's husband had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months. Things looked grim, but she was by his bedside every single day. One day as he slipped back into consciousness, he motioned for her to come close to him. She pulled the chair close to the bed and leaned her ear close to be able to hear him.

"You know" he whispered, his eyes filling with tears, "you have been with me through all the bad times. When I got fired, you stuck right beside me. When my business went under, there you were. When we lost the house, you were there. When I got shot, you stuck with me. When my health started failing, you were still by my side. "And you know what?"

"What, dear?" she asked gently, smiling to herself.

"I think you're bad luck."

HAVE  A  FABULOUS  DAY!

The linky thing doesn't seem to be working again. OY! I'll post the three that have been submitted since I can see them but if you have a funny leave it with your comment okay? Sorry about this!

Kid's Prayer Bloopers
Things We Say Wrong!
Funny Animals!

80’s Flashback and Letting Go

When I was around 11 years old my parents bought me these roller skates.

I thought I was so cool.

I guess back then they didn’t believe in knee or elbow pads because I remember many a fall on the hard sidewalk.

I taught myself how to skate and picked it up pretty quickly. Stopping on the other hand was a whole different story. If you look at the picture above, you can see that they must not have believed in stoppers either. Someone in engineering thought, “Hey let’s make a contraption the has wheels on it but offers no way to stop. Better yet, let’s give them to children!” Oy!

So how did I stop? I’m so glad you asked. What I used to do is, if I had to stop (which eventually I did)  I’d either skate full speed onto the grass and hope for the best or sometimes I’d use the side of a car, sorry Mom. Other times it was handy to have someone bigger than you standing by. The key is to not tell them you are going to use them as a stopping point. LOL!

Also notice that these were OUTDOOR skates. This was obviously thought of by a parent who thought that pointing this out was more important than putting stoppers on them.

All this for a bargain price of $17.99.

So why did I keep the box all these years? I dunno! The skates have been long gone. But now the box is too. Yes, in my urge to purge and simplify, I’ve gotten rid of my box, but the memory lives on in my mind and now in yours! So be sure to remember in case I forget.

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY!

Cute Re-Purposed Projects!

These projects were spawned off of me doing another deep purge of the clutter in our home. I’ve recently read 2 super duper books that have me on a mission. I’ll share more about those on another post.

But until then here is what I’ve been working on.

The first is a re-purposed pillow.

 

This cute pillow started out as two tank tops which now look like this.

I think it came out really cute!  And it was SUPER easy.

One of my other projects has to do with baby clothes that I’ve been holding on to for way to long. For some reason I associate an article of clothing with a memory but I’m pretty sure I’ll still have the memory after the clothing is gone.

These are the results of my BFF and I brainstorming while looking at a bag full of baby clothes.

Here’s the first one.

It’s a plastic bag holder!

I LOVE this. And it is totally functional. The bags come out with ease.

 

All I did was sew up the legs and keep the middle part unbuttoned to pull the bags out.

The next one I did the exact same thing but used this one to hold my clothes pins when I hang clothes out to dry. It looks so cute hanging on the clothes line! But right now you’ll have to settle for it hanging from my arm because I forgot to take a picture of it on the line. LOL!

So what do you think? Have you re-purposed anything lately. If so, what’d you do? I’d love to know.

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY!

Today I’m linking up with:

Friday Funnies! Air Band or Hair Band?

Happy Friday Everyone!

How was your week? Are you ready to pause for a moment and get in some giggles? If you are then you’ve come to the right place. If you’d like to share a funny please do so and link up below. It can be a family friendly video, picture, joke, story, etc.

My funny today is of my two sons. Unbeknownst to us, our oldest son was goat roping our younger son into doing this. I don’t think he minded. He discovered some jammin' tunes on the keyboard, grabbed the wigs and went a little crazy. This is just one of many videos.
Oh and for the record, we don't have MTV on our tv so I have no idea where they get this kind of behavior from. Certainly not from me! *snicker snicker*

Enjoy!

Not sure what's up with the linky thing not displaying the other links but here they are so far. I'll just add them as I get the m so make sure to check back and visit others.
1. Don't interrupt me while I'm reading a book.
2.Lose weight, change shampoo.
3. Too much cologne.
4. Conference call 
5. The phone message 

HAVE A FABULOUS DAY!

And the Winner of Mom's Best Recipes is....

# 137 Who wrote "My mom used to make a yummy skillet pleaser called "Souper Hamburger Supper" with macaroni, velvetta, green pepper and hamburger. Thanks for sharing!"

 

Congratulations #137 who is Anonymous. LOL! I have your email though so I'll be sending you a confirmation email of your win.

I have to say I had so much fun reading all the answers to my question about your favorite recipe of your Mom's. Most of you included a sweet story along with it and it was so fun to read. Not to mention some of the recipes you all mentioned. WOW! I was wanting to hunt you down for the details. LOL!

Thank you Gooseberry Patch for allowing me to be a reviewer and give away your wonderful books!!

Organizing My Blog!

You know it’s bad when you can’t find what you’re looking for on your own blog. With that said, I’m going to be spending a few days organizing my labels and such and making it easier to find and navigate things. I’m going to be adding things to the navigation bar under the header so it will be easier for you AND me to go back and find relevant things like craft ideas and furniture makeovers and such. So bear with me. I probably won’t be posting the rest of the week with the exception of Friday Funnies, because BOY do I have a funny for you.

But by next week  I hope to bring a little more sense to my labels and tags. It’s been driving me crazy for a long time so it’s time to spring clean the ol’ blog!

 

Don’t forget to enter my current giveaway.

HAVE A GREAT DAY MY FRIENDS!