Getting Motivated And Going Outside

Who does this look like?

I do believe one of my resolutions was to play on the computer less and go outside more.

That may, or may not, be happening.

I Can't Believe It

Todd and I were on our way to watch a movie on Sunday, Man On A Ledge, and we were stopped at a light.  All of a sudden, BOOM.  Yep, I was rear ended.  How old is my car, one maybe two weeks?  The lady who hit me was bending over to pick up her makeup case off of the floor and just happened to hit my car in the process.

The damage isn't horrible.  But I'm just upset because I just got the car.

From far away you can't even tell.

A little closer, and it looks like the other cars license plate bolts got my bumper.

Ouch!

And a couple of scratches to boot.

On the sunny side of things, nobody was hurt and things could have been much worse.

Because Sometimes Music Is Better Than Words

I've decided to include a music video post once a day starting February 1st and ending on Valentine's Day.  Let me know if there is a love song that you would like to hear.

That's How We Do

Whilst attempting to do laundry today, I walked into the laundry room and spied this. 

That's how we do quality home repair and maintenance right there.

Todd's handyman skills are hard at work. 

Somebody come and save me.

I Love This Guy

This morning Todd and I were listening to music, and he turns to me and says, "This is my song to you."

He's amazing, mushy and all mine!

Valentines Day Cards

Valentines Day is quickly approaching at t-minus 17 days (or something like that). Are you tired of buying the same old boxed cards for your kids to give away. Here are some clever ideas to get you started on how to make creative homemade Valentines Day cards.

via Pinterest (no home site was noted)

I thought these were cute, but I would have the kid pretend like he was holding a guitar and feed the sucker through so the sucker looked like a guitar.  You could say "Have a rockin' Valentines Day" or "You rock" or maybe "You rock my world" (that's probably inappropriate for elementary school Valentine's day cards)

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How easy are these!  You can buy a couple packs of glow sticks at the Dollar Store and call it a day.

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I thought these were little cuties.  It requires a little bit of work, but how awesome are the little felt hearts?

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This Valentines day gift looks like a little bit of work, but I love it.

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While I super duper love creative gifts and cards, this would probably be the route that I chose for my kids (if they were still in school).  Buy a boat load of mini cereal, a package of spoons, a little bit of ribbon, then print out, "I CEREALously like/love you" on a tag. Done!  They did add the kids names on the spoons, but I would skip that because I'm too impatient to mess with little beads like that.  If you have the patience for that, I say go for it and more power to you.

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I thought this Valentines day card was cool.  It is probably more appropriate for younger children, but the colors are really cool.  If you do decide to make this card, be sure to read the entire post.  Apparently there is duct tape, q-tips and a time limit involved.

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I saved the best for last.  This is the Valentines that I would want to receive.  I got a thing for superheroes.  As you know from a previous post, I used to run around in Wonder Woman underoos, but even before that I would jump off furniture and run down the hallway pretending that I was Ultraman (anybody remember that show?).

So there you have it.  A few ideas to keep you busy over the weekend.  If you come up with a cool idea for Valentines day, please share.  I'd love to see pictures.

By the way, I have an idea for my husbands Valentines day.  It's more adult (get your mind out of the gutter), and I will share a little later.

Happy weekend!

How To Wrap a Gift

With Valentine's Day quickly arriving, I thought it would be a good idea to post  "How to wrap gifts fabulously with style and class" so that you can impress your significant other.

WARNING:  This video is not family friendly and contains language that is inappropriate.  So if you are easily offended or have young children close by, you might want to skip this post.

Snort, snort!

This is me in 30 years.

I think I'll stick with gift cards.

How About This Weather

Boy was I surprised when I walked outside and it was 40 degrees and overcast.  I had just looked at the weather report the day before and it said that it was supposed to be sunshine and rainbows for the next week (well, maybe not the rainbows).  

So in honor of the crummy weather, here are a couple of awesome pictures,

and while it's not rain, it is snow:

(All pictures from http://www.snowcrystals.com/)

And While I'm At It

Here's another fluff post.

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The Atlantic Road stretches between the towns of Kristiansund and Molde in Norway.  It is 8 km long and zigzags across low bridges that jut out over the sea, and when the weather is good, you may be able to spot whales or seals.  How cool is that?

For more information on The Atlantic Road , be sure to visit this link.

I guess this is one more thing to include on my bucket list.

A Little Surprise

Picture from Pinterest

Ya, I got this look today when I returned from work. 

Sunday

So I spent half a day Sunday doing an itinerary for our next vacation.  Todd and I had originally planned on goint to Santa Barbara, but after talking it over, we decided we would rather head north.  Here is what I have planned so far. 

Itinerary:  Oregon Trip

Day	Event	Time	Misc.
Friday	Drive to Shasta, CA	4.5 hours
Saturday	Drive from Shasta  to Florence, OR	7.5 hours	Sea Lion Caves $12/person Sandland Adventures ½ hr tours $28/person 1 hr tours $50/person 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM Sand Master Park Sand sculpting 6/16 10:00 AM-6:00 PM
Sunday	Drive from Florence, OR to Newport, OR Drive from Newport, OR to Silverton, OR	1 hr. 45 min to Newport 2 hrs. to Silverton	Oregon Coast Aquarium $15.95/person 9:00 AM-6:00PM Oregon Garden $10/person 10:00 AM -4:00 PM
Monday	Drive from Silverton, OR to Silver Falls	30 mins.	Silver Falls State Park $5 parking
Tuesday	Drive from Silverton, OR to Ape Caves, WA	2.5 hrs to Cougar, WA	Ape Caves $5 parking pass 9:00 AM-5:00PM
Wednesday	Drive from Ape Caves, WA To Multnomah Falls Drive from Multnomah Falls to Ramona Falls Drive from Ramona Falls to to Bend, OR		Multnomah Falls (near Portland) Ramona Falls $5/car 7.1 mile hike (difficult) Canyon Creek Meadows $5/car
Thursday	Drive from Bend to Bly, OR
Friday	Stay at Mom & Dad’s
Saturday	Stay at Mom & Dad’s
Sunday	Drive to McArthur-Burney Falls Drive to Chester, CA	4 hours to Burney Falls 1 hr. 45 min to Chester	Burney Falls
Monday	Drive home	3.5 hours
Tuesday	Day to recuperate
TOTAL

We haven't picked a month to go yet, but I wanted to get this done because a) it's on my list of things to accomplish in 2012, and b) it's nice to get it done ahead of time.  I didn't include cost in my blog itinerary, but I have it on my actual itinerary.  I want to compare how much I budgeted and actual cost after the vacation.
Have you ever vacationed in Oregon?  If so, do you have any suggestions on places to visit?

Organizing Personal Finances

In my quest to become more organized this year, I ran across a couple good ideas for organizing my personal finances.

The first thing I came across is called a cash envelope system.  Apparently a man Dave Ramsey recommends this system to help budget your money.  While I don't listen to his show, and haven't read anything about this, I really love the idea of not spending more money than I have.  Credit cards = evil!  Really, should you be purchasing something that you can't pay cash for (minus houses and cars and really big ticket items).

The idea is to set aside cash every month (budget), keep it in a little envelope system, and when the money is gone...you can't spend any more.  I found a shop on etsy that sells the envelopes, and while they are quite expensive, and I wouldn't spend the money on the envelope, you can get the idea (I'm cheap and will have my mom make me one). 

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The next thing that I found was a little device called NeatDesk .  It takes receipts, business cards and documents, scans and digitally files the information.  It is pretty pricey, and I am looking for a sale or some way to get a better deal, but I think that the idea is a good one.  I would love to throw away all the little receipts and various other papers that float around and clutter my purse and home.

And of course, because I want to keep my personal finances organized, I might need a purse that helps me with this.  The Vera Bradley Mandy might just work for me.  The style and color I want aren't on sale right now, bit I know if I just wait a bit, it will eventually go on sale.

Hopefully you find something useful in this post (men might not care too much about the purse, but you can always carry around a murse...man+purse=murse).

What system do you use to organize your finances?  Any suggestions?

I Don't Want To Brag

That's right, be jealous.

Daily Routine

That is all.

Not Your Average Fish Tank

Check out these pretty amazing fishtanks.  I think I will need one of each.

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(I'm not quite sure how you would clean this, and I don't think the fish would appreciate having toothpaste spit on them everyday, but that's just my opinion.  It doesn't make the idea any less cool.)

Todd swears he came up with the idea for the first fish tank, and says that someone stole his idea. 

Okay, honey...whatever.

I Blew Up My Computer

Not literally, well okay, maybe literally.  I didn't use explosives to blow the thing up, but I did love it to death until it "blew up".  I was right in the middle of doing my blog reading for the evening and it just went pop and then black.  No power, no nothing.  It was pretty old (2003ish) but I loved that thing, Windows XP and all. 

If you happen to own anything electircal or mechanical that you really love, you might want to stay clear of me this year.  I seem to be the kiss of death for anything electrical/mechanical. 

On the bright side, if you want to sabotage someone that you really dislike, I'm for hire...cheap.  I've got to pay for a new laptop somehow!

RIP old silver laptop computer.

How Awesome Is This?

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This image was made entirely with food.  Unbelievable. 

And Then There Was Light, Or Not

You know I'm trying to organie the house (a slow process), so I was thinking about putting lights above our bed.  I wanted to get as much stuff off the floor as possible.  Only problem is I'm having a heck of a time finding lights that I like and that are affordable.  I need your help. 

I included pictures of lights that I liked below.

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I thought this one was pretty, but it may be a little too big, and definitely too expensive.

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I thought this one might be good because it would match different kinds of decor.  This is probably the one that I would pick out of all of them, but alas, too expensive.

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I thought the same of this one, but I think I like the one above a little more.  Again, too expensive.

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This one is pretty awesome, but I thought that if I forgot to swing the arm back after I was done reading at night, I might end up poking my eye out (kind of looks like a weapon).   Also, too expensive.

I really didn't want to spend more than $30, but all the lights above are $80 plus.  If you have any stores that I can get a good deal at, or any idea of how I can find these cheaper, I'm open to suggestions.

Pallet Ideas

Do you have any extra pallets around the house?  Or, maybe you have access to some pallets.  I found a website that gives you some ideas how to turn pallets into furniture.  Best thing about these projects, if you have the pallets already, you can make the furniture for almost next to nothing.  Now you're speaking my language.

Check it out, it's pretty cool.  I included my favorite projects below.

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Underwater Park, Really?

Six months out of the year, Green Lake is one of Austria's most beautiful hiking spots.  During cold winter months hikers can enjoy the beautiful scenery, but when the weather warms up snow on the mountaintop melts and creates this underwater park.

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Don't you think it would be pretty amazing to visit?

Oh, Dear

and it is a holiday after all.

Fugg Love

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I have to admit, I have another love besides my husband.  I love Uggs, but they are so unreasonably priced. They are so wonderful with their fleece insides and their leathery outsides.  It's like wearing a slipper, but in public, and nobody cares because they are disguised as boots.

I've been lusting after a pair, but the cheapskate in me just will not allow me to spend that kind of money.  So what's a girl to do?  Buy fake Uggs (Fuggs).  Todd hates them and thinks they are, well, fugly, so I know that he really must love me because he bought be some Fuggs for Christmas.  I'm in heaven.  Now I can prance around everywhere in my awesomely comfortable fugly Fuggs and not worry about ruining a $150+ pair of boots.  Does life get any better than that?

My Fuggs

Book Recommendations

One of my resolutions was to read a book a month.  I haven't even picked a book up yet.  It's not because I don't want to, it's because I'm really needing some recommendations.  I'm up for most genres, so if you could just throw some suggestions out there I would appreciate it.

I do have a couple in mind to start, but I need to buy them still.  This is what I am thinking of reading so far (let me know what you think if you have read the book):

1.  The Hunger Games (I must read this before the movie comes out in March)
2.  Catching Fire
3.  Mockingjay (All three of these make up the Hunger Games Trilogy)
4.  Water For Elephants
5.  The Help
6.  Poisonwood Bible (I'm not sure about this one)
7.  A Million Little Pieces  (Not positive about this one either)

I would love to hear your thoughts.  Share...please.

What Do You Think?

Does Austin need one of these?

http://www.etsy.com/shop/BeeBeeKins

I think yes, maybe Valentines Day?

Game Day Treat Ideas

I'm not a huge football fan, so when it comes to football season I'm kind of whatev.  I will tell you what will get me to sit down and watch a football game... FOOD!

I ran across this site the other day and it had some cool ideas for snacks.

From 20goingon80.com

blogged on 11/18/11

Superbowl isn't until February (I think), but maybe you can try some of these unique ideas out before hand.  If they turn out, you could think about using them for your Superbowl party.  Just a note - if you do make these, and you do have a party, you must invite me.

Guess What I Got?

A new (used) car.  It's pretty stinking AWE-SOME!  It's a little Hyundai Elantra, 2008.  It has quite a few miles, but is still under warranty.  Want to hear the best part - 33 miles to the gallon.  That's right, be jealous.  I think the newer ones get even better gas mileage.

Here are some terrible photos that I took. What do you expect? It was dark out.

 

Pretty cute ay!

Remembering Cheryl

It's been about 4 years since my Aunt Cheryl died, she was 54.  She was diagnosed with MS in her 30's.  She was and awesome auntie, the life of the party, a beautiful person.  She was always willing to offer a shoulder to cry on and/or help you in any way she could.
While going through our family videos, I found the little clip below.  It was Christmas time, I would guess about 7 years ago.  Cheryl is the one singing, my dad is the one playing the harmonica (I use the word playing loosely) .  This clip makes me laugh every time I watch it.

I miss her every day!

Oh Ma Gawd!

I'll take two.