So we finally got the new TV up and going. Sunday we decided (was spurrned into action) to clean our room. It was so FREAKING hot. Dan was gathering laundry and found some weevils. For some reason these little boogers like our clothes. Apparently I left some clothes on the floor for a couple of weeks and they decided it was a cold place to stay. It's weird though because there were only a couple live ones, but lots of shells. So Dan FREAKED out and we tore the room apart. So it got the best cleaning it's ever had since we moved in.
And since we were doing that, we also got the TV put up and took the cable box down. I have seriously debated about doing that because I love channel surffing. But cable is so expensive. We spend about $160.00 a month for digital cable and internet. We didn't want to lose the internet but decided to drop the TV part down. But that would take us to just he most basic of cable packages. Dan of course was ok with this as he can get almost anything he wants to watch through Netflix, Hulu, or downloading. But I can't Channel surf with any of those. And we don't have a support for Netflix in our room. We could hook up the lap top, but that wasn't really ideal if i wanted to play games on the lap top while watching TV.
so I whined when Dan took the cable boxes away. He stuck to his guns because this will save us money and we need to save money. So Dan, being who he is, went out to Wal-Mart and bought us a Wii. It does seem silly as we don't have any room to play Wii games really, but it's nice because at least I can watch some stuff on the Wii-Netflix, and I can play Mario Cart. LOL. (not very good though).
But I can get on the internet too, and I must admit the new TV looks Killer with the black Wii, and the graphics look totally awesome!
so we are making some changes. Now if we can get our A/C in and the Fence up before fall....
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Getting things done a little at a time.
We are finally getting Central Air. This is something I have wanted since we moved into our house almost 5.5 years ago. We have had a swamp cooler which as most Utahan's know, is no good during the REALLY HOT summer days. But we have managed with it so it just seemed pointless to spend a ton of money on something else.
This year however we put in brand new spanking windows. They have made a huge difference. our house holds the temperature better than before, and the noise levels are much lower when the windows are closed. In July there was a shooting in the park across the street. We thought the noises was from a bird tapping on our window. nope it was gun shots. Weird.
Anyway, the swamp cooler decided this summer to make bad noises. scary like it's going to fall apart noises. so we haven't used it. It's been freaking HOT in the house, but we've made due with fans. I thought for sure my power bill would be lower with the kids gone and no swamp cooler going. But, it didn't go down as low as I would have thought. (although after hearing about everyone else's power bill, I'm not complaining!).
We decided to pull some money from Dan's trust and put in Central Air. Bill and his friend will do it for $3600.00 and change. That includes a new Heater as well as the Cooling unit. The heater in the house now is currently the one that was original to the house. This is good. We've decided to take most of the Trust Money and put it towards upgrades on our house. We need: new garage door, fence all around the yard, and a new deck as the one we have is rotting beneath our feet. Since this is the house we plan to die in, I figure this is an investment into our future. We are very fortunate that we are not upside down in the house. Although the property value has gone down steadily for the last 3 years, we are still above our owing price. (This years property evaluation put us at $147K estimate and we owe about $137K.
We also have spoiled ourselves a bit. We broke down and bought a new TV for our bedroom.
The TV we have is Dan's old TV and who knows how long he had it before we got together. A few weeks ago we were watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1, and at the beginning it was so dark. I kept saying to Dan: "I don't remember it being this dark. Wasn't there a room full of people in this part?"
So then a few days after that, we watched it again on our Big TV in the basement, and sure enough, there was a room full of people. So we started looking at TVs. I wanted a flat screen skinny TV. I found a decent sale on a 32" with a DVD player. But when we looked at it, Dan was not satisfied. The guy at Shopko, where we were looking, showed us a 40" model by Toshiba that was on clearance for only $100.00 more. We looked at it and Dan fell in love. So we splurged. but then we needed all the extra cables, and a new DVD player and $650.00 later.... And we still have to hook it up. HAHAHA.
Another Plan is to paint the spare bedroom. I've been planning this since the kids moved out to Alaska. but alas, the money, time, and energy have eluded me. however I'm hoping to get Charlotte's son Josh out to maybe do the painting. He owes me some monies, and this would be perfect. I have some grand ideas, and so I hope he's willing and able to do them. My goal is to have this done by end of September. I hope to have the new fence and garage door done by then too. Plus Dan and I need to clean out our stuff from the Garage. We did my auntie Elaine's stuff a few weeks ago, and boy has that made a GIANT difference.
I have some wood projects planned for Christmas and I want to get started. Found a great deal for a Bandsaw on KSL and bought it. Now I just need to get things organized in the garage so I can play.
I need Beth and friends to sneak over to my house and organize my craft room for me. I can't seem to get the time or energy to do it. lol.
Just gotta get a little done at a time. But it's gonna take a long time....
This year however we put in brand new spanking windows. They have made a huge difference. our house holds the temperature better than before, and the noise levels are much lower when the windows are closed. In July there was a shooting in the park across the street. We thought the noises was from a bird tapping on our window. nope it was gun shots. Weird.
Anyway, the swamp cooler decided this summer to make bad noises. scary like it's going to fall apart noises. so we haven't used it. It's been freaking HOT in the house, but we've made due with fans. I thought for sure my power bill would be lower with the kids gone and no swamp cooler going. But, it didn't go down as low as I would have thought. (although after hearing about everyone else's power bill, I'm not complaining!).
We decided to pull some money from Dan's trust and put in Central Air. Bill and his friend will do it for $3600.00 and change. That includes a new Heater as well as the Cooling unit. The heater in the house now is currently the one that was original to the house. This is good. We've decided to take most of the Trust Money and put it towards upgrades on our house. We need: new garage door, fence all around the yard, and a new deck as the one we have is rotting beneath our feet. Since this is the house we plan to die in, I figure this is an investment into our future. We are very fortunate that we are not upside down in the house. Although the property value has gone down steadily for the last 3 years, we are still above our owing price. (This years property evaluation put us at $147K estimate and we owe about $137K.
We also have spoiled ourselves a bit. We broke down and bought a new TV for our bedroom.
The TV we have is Dan's old TV and who knows how long he had it before we got together. A few weeks ago we were watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1, and at the beginning it was so dark. I kept saying to Dan: "I don't remember it being this dark. Wasn't there a room full of people in this part?"
So then a few days after that, we watched it again on our Big TV in the basement, and sure enough, there was a room full of people. So we started looking at TVs. I wanted a flat screen skinny TV. I found a decent sale on a 32" with a DVD player. But when we looked at it, Dan was not satisfied. The guy at Shopko, where we were looking, showed us a 40" model by Toshiba that was on clearance for only $100.00 more. We looked at it and Dan fell in love. So we splurged. but then we needed all the extra cables, and a new DVD player and $650.00 later.... And we still have to hook it up. HAHAHA.
Another Plan is to paint the spare bedroom. I've been planning this since the kids moved out to Alaska. but alas, the money, time, and energy have eluded me. however I'm hoping to get Charlotte's son Josh out to maybe do the painting. He owes me some monies, and this would be perfect. I have some grand ideas, and so I hope he's willing and able to do them. My goal is to have this done by end of September. I hope to have the new fence and garage door done by then too. Plus Dan and I need to clean out our stuff from the Garage. We did my auntie Elaine's stuff a few weeks ago, and boy has that made a GIANT difference.
I have some wood projects planned for Christmas and I want to get started. Found a great deal for a Bandsaw on KSL and bought it. Now I just need to get things organized in the garage so I can play.
I need Beth and friends to sneak over to my house and organize my craft room for me. I can't seem to get the time or energy to do it. lol.
Just gotta get a little done at a time. But it's gonna take a long time....
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Diet Failure
So a couple of weeks ago Jill my co-worker was telling me about this diet that her mom saw on the Rachel Ray Show. It's called the CINCH! diet. It's designed by the same person who is behind the Flat Belly Diet. When Jill was telling me about it, I got very intrigued. It sounded like maybe something I could do. It was 5 days of nothing but Spinach, Plain Yogurt, Raspberries, Slivered Almonds, and Eggs. I told Jill I would do it with her because if I had support at work and at home, maybe I could shed a few pounds and steady out my blood sugars. I went home and talked Dan into doing it with me. I assured him that after the 5 days of 5 foods, the 25 days after that would be better because she then goes on to give you some recipes that will be good and healthy.
So we got all prepared. The book gives you the list of ingredients (Including approved spices to go with your 5 foods), and how much of each to buy. Dan and I went shopping and of course I doubled everything because the portions are very controlled. We read the portion of the book talking about the 5 days and how it works and how we should feel.
We got ready, and.........
YUCK!
Her measurements sucked! For the breakfast portion you make 1 egg with 1/4 cup of egg whites. That's pretty simple to understand and measure. But then you add 1 cup of Fresh or Frozen spinach to those eggs and scramble them. Anyone who has ever compared fresh to frozen spinach will understand my mistake.
1 cup of fresh spinach does not equal 1 cup of frozen spinach. I don't know, maybe she was thinking ounces, but she said cup. I'm not a spinach fan in any form other than fresh leaves. But to save money I bought a mixture of both. Put the frozen in my eggs and had to add egg whites so that it was scrambled eggs w/spinach and not spinach w/a bit of egg. AND it tasted just AWFUL!
Next was a parfait. It was plain no fat yogurt with fresh raspberries and almond slivers. not bad right? WRONG. Plain no fat yogurt is not very good, and the suggested spices did not punch it up one bit.
Next was the only edible meal. Spinach Salad w/a balsamic-citrus vinaigrette, topped w/raspberries and slivered almonds. It wasn't bad. Wasn't great, but wasn't bad. Last is the smoothie. Same ingredients minus the spinach. But no good flavor. It was definitely missing the sugar.
It made me sick to my tummy. I was all I could do to gag it down. Poor Dan felt the same way I did. I decided that I wasn't going to force myself to do it if it made me dry heave to the point of actually vomiting.
So I feel like a failure. I am still going to try the recommended recipes for the last 25 day part and see how that goes, but no cleansing of the body for me. *shudders*
I will say this though. I stopped drinking soda of any kind completely on Monday, and I have not had any carbonated drink since. I'm pretty proud of me. I can feel the effects a little in that my body hasn't gotten used to not getting that caffeine fix in the morning w/my diet Pepsi, but I don't really have much of a craving for it. Now I think it's just habit, and since I have no more soda in the house, and force myself to only do water at work, it's going to get easier. Hoping it will then help it to be easier to give up other bad for me stuff like chocolate and sweets. I'm not as optimistic , but really who knows???????
So we got all prepared. The book gives you the list of ingredients (Including approved spices to go with your 5 foods), and how much of each to buy. Dan and I went shopping and of course I doubled everything because the portions are very controlled. We read the portion of the book talking about the 5 days and how it works and how we should feel.
We got ready, and.........
YUCK!
Her measurements sucked! For the breakfast portion you make 1 egg with 1/4 cup of egg whites. That's pretty simple to understand and measure. But then you add 1 cup of Fresh or Frozen spinach to those eggs and scramble them. Anyone who has ever compared fresh to frozen spinach will understand my mistake.
1 cup of fresh spinach does not equal 1 cup of frozen spinach. I don't know, maybe she was thinking ounces, but she said cup. I'm not a spinach fan in any form other than fresh leaves. But to save money I bought a mixture of both. Put the frozen in my eggs and had to add egg whites so that it was scrambled eggs w/spinach and not spinach w/a bit of egg. AND it tasted just AWFUL!
Next was a parfait. It was plain no fat yogurt with fresh raspberries and almond slivers. not bad right? WRONG. Plain no fat yogurt is not very good, and the suggested spices did not punch it up one bit.
Next was the only edible meal. Spinach Salad w/a balsamic-citrus vinaigrette, topped w/raspberries and slivered almonds. It wasn't bad. Wasn't great, but wasn't bad. Last is the smoothie. Same ingredients minus the spinach. But no good flavor. It was definitely missing the sugar.
It made me sick to my tummy. I was all I could do to gag it down. Poor Dan felt the same way I did. I decided that I wasn't going to force myself to do it if it made me dry heave to the point of actually vomiting.
So I feel like a failure. I am still going to try the recommended recipes for the last 25 day part and see how that goes, but no cleansing of the body for me. *shudders*
I will say this though. I stopped drinking soda of any kind completely on Monday, and I have not had any carbonated drink since. I'm pretty proud of me. I can feel the effects a little in that my body hasn't gotten used to not getting that caffeine fix in the morning w/my diet Pepsi, but I don't really have much of a craving for it. Now I think it's just habit, and since I have no more soda in the house, and force myself to only do water at work, it's going to get easier. Hoping it will then help it to be easier to give up other bad for me stuff like chocolate and sweets. I'm not as optimistic , but really who knows???????
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