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Home > Archive: July, 2010

Archive for July, 2010

I vant to be alone....

July 24th, 2010 at 01:54 am

Everyone is gone.... I have the whole weekend to myself....what to do? what to do?

First, DH left to take his mom to Sacramento for her cousin's 50th wedding anniversary. What a good son he is. Unfortunately he will be staying in a hotel for 2 nights with corresponding eating out. Before he left, he signed papers for our refi. Yesterday he finished trimming out our new windows so the refi could go through before our 30 day lock was up.

I just figured out it will take us 2 years to recoup the money in reduced payments, but has anyone figured out how fast you recoup the money if you keep making the same payment, but you are saving because of lower interest? Now that would be an interesting comparison. Anyhoo, bottom line is we can live fairly comfortably if I have to stop working for some reason, say like my neck and hand/wrist pain get worse....

YD and GD have driven to San Diego (2 day trip with a toddler, thank the person who invented portable DVD players) to visit Marine SIL. SIL just called me to say GD was so excited to see him she actually started crying. What will it be like when he returns from Afghanistan after 7 months? It has only been 6 weeks since she last saw him. Makes me sad for her and all the other military kids.

In my frugalness I had given up one of my small indulgences, liquid hand soap from Bath and Body works. Yes I always bought it on sale, but still 3 for $10.00 is still expensive.

I went into Bed, Bath and Beyond to get a wedding gift for one of my friend's daughter (with my $10.00 off a $40.00 purchase naturally) and while waiting for my gift to be wrapped for free, I found some very nice smelling large liquid hand soaps for 5 for $5.00!! They had a very nice lavendar, which is my favorite, a grapefruit and fresh cotton. Those were the ones I bought anyway. They also had some other ones, like crisp apple and coconut lime. I am on my second jug from a double pack of SoftSoap from Costco that I purchsed with a coupon, so these will be a nice break from that. What can I say, it's the little things in life!

Which leads to my next issue, stopping at the library since I was in town signing the papers for the refi (well the title company anyway, I am not on the mortgage). I found a new book by Tracy Chevalier I have not read, Remarkable Creatures. I loved Girl with the Pearl Earring and Burning Bright. I picked up 3 more books from authors I am not familar with, but the descriptions sounded good.

So my plans for the weekend are working in my yard, organizing photos, organizing recipes, cleaning, laundry, and maybe knitting if my hands/wrists can handle it. I have a sweater about half done for GD that I need to finish before she outgrows it! I could also organize my fabric if I feel like it. Do you see a theme here? GD will be 2 next month and I have not organized any of the tons of photos we have of her. I really should make that my priority.

But for now, it's dinner, maybe some Starbucks Mocha frappucinno ice cream and the first 2 episodes of Pillars of the Earth (free on Direct TV, the real series starts either tonight or Sunday and I already have the DVR set, but I cannot wait until then, unless a Lifetime movie sounds better when I get back there and see what we have recorded!).

I did make those turkey meatballs earlier this week and threw them into Classico sauce with an added can of tomatoes and some added garlic and spices.

I used steak rub and fennel seed crushed with more chopped garlic and baked them. My two younger picky daughters liked them. MD did not like the gnocchi I cooked to serve with them from TJs. YD did though. GD liked the gnocchi, but made a really funny face when she put a piece of the meatball in her mouth with the sauce. What todder does not like spaghetti with sauce??

Okay time to get up and make dinner... but first I had better go water the front flowers.

This and That

July 20th, 2010 at 06:34 am

Man oh man, I really need to get wireless set up so I can stay up on everyone's blogs better. There is nothing worse than being away and catching up and missing stuff!

We submitted tax returns for the corporations we are partners in or own shares in or whatever the correct term is. The house was appraised and now I am waiting to hear if they need anything else from us. When DH took the papers into the credit union, the representative seemed surprised at the huge amount of papers. DH told her he would bring the pint of blood from our firstborn tomorrow! Ha Ha.

I figured up today that I have saved 85% of my salary since starting my new job in late April. My goal of having liquid savings to $50,000 by the end of the year seems almost doable. We are at just over $36,000 now.

Went to K-Mart yesterday to get a sandbox for our granddaughter and ended up finding a 24 box of crayons for 25 cents. I bought 4 boxes. They will be nice to have on hand since DGD loves to color.



We also bought 4-50 pound bags of sand. Then we stopped at Safeway for lunch fixins and I found Best Foods Mayonaise Light for $1.99, which is cheap! They also had Breyers and Starbucks ice cream products, buy 4 for $1.99 each. I think we have enough ice cream for the rest of the summer!

Today ran to Winco and bought fruit, veges, milk for granddaughter(nonlactaid stuff) and then DH ran to Costco for our milk, eggs, half and half, tomatoes, lunchmeat and butter. He also bought himself 4 pairs of black Kirkland brand jeans he wears to work.

Dinner tonight was a standing pork roast(purchased at Costco around the holidays)and mashed cauliflower/potatoes and grilled corn on the cob. A customer had taken DH and his employees a fabulous chocolate cake yesterday, so the leftover was tonight's dessert. MD and BF arrived right as dinner was ready for a visit from Reno. Tomorrow is lentil soup since it is middle daughter's boyfriend's favorite.

In organizing my pantry today, I discovered a whole lot of pasta and jarred Classico and Trader Joe sauces. Maybe I should change lentil soup to meatballs and spaghetti. I still have some ground turkey chubs I bought cheap a few months ago. I used them to make meatballs a while ago and you could not even tell they were turkey. I think it was the parmigian cheese that was in them....

Bedtime, what I am doing up anyway this late?

Lots going on

July 5th, 2010 at 03:52 pm

Since last post, flew up and spent 18 days in the Seattle area (Kent and Tacoma actually) where I saw 2 days without ran (this was in late June). My SIL, daughter and granddaughter flew up to see their BFF's and I could not stand that my granddaughter was on the West coast, so I flew up and stayed with my sister mostly and my brother a few nights too. DH came up and drove us all home 2 weeks ago (except SIL who had flow back to SC to prepare for training in San Diego pending Afghanistan deployment). YD then drove my car to San Diego to spend a week with her husband, leaving our sweet granddaughter with us for a week.


Here she is sleeping with her babies,a moose, a bear and yes a pig!
It was a hectic, fun memorable week. Thank goodness life is settling down a bit..... not....

We are refinancing our house, 4.5% for 30 years, no points through a credit union we belong to. The appraisal is Wednesday.

Yesterday was YD and SIL's 4th anniversary. Enjoyed going through some old pictures yesterday and listening to granddaughter "talk" to her daddy.


Rescued a little dog (5 pounds or so little fluffy white thing)yesterday and luckily found its home. It was found wandering in our neighborhood.

Had a sleep study late in May and now have a CPAP that I have gotten used to and thank goodness I am waking up without headaches.

Made a quilt for my elderly neighbor who has moved to Minnesota, along with my sister's grandkids each a quilt. Need to make 1 more for YD's BFF who is due on November.



This was for 3 year old boy, the main print is trains.


Love, love, love the Kitty Cucumber main fabric.

And lastly DH is still paying the bills, doing well, but spent way too much time preparing a wonderful 4th of July dinner for us, my mother, my sister (who was passing through Humboldt from the Bay Area on her way home to Salem) our neighbor (whose husband is a CHP and had to work) along with her 16-month-old (Ally's new best friend) and it is time for me to start doing more in that area like I did during the challenge with the same sister in February.