LIFE HAPPENS...Capture Every Moment

Midweek Confessions

2012-02-02T22:22:00.000-06:00

This is getting ridiculous....I haven't blogged since last weeks confessions.....can you say L-A-Z-Y?! So, I'll get right to it.

~Life has been kinda overwhelming lately. It makes me want to just run far far away.
~Hubby went to night shift and it has thrown everyone off. He's grouchy for one & I've wanted to punch him right square in the face a few times this week.
~My sweet daughter got in trouble at school this week and got an in school suspension. If you knew my daughter, you would know why this was so shocking and disturbing.
~I hate folding socks so much that we end up with a basket o' socks to dig through.....ugh
~No matter what I do.....I can't seem to keep my house clean. It's starting to keep me up at night

What are you confessing?

Midweek Confessions

2012-01-26T21:29:00.001-06:00

~First one is a doozy.....I FORGOT YESTERDAY WAS WEDNESDAY!
~I'm on day eight with no soda and I honestly DO NOT miss it #shocked
~I haven't had ice cream in bed in like 2 weeks!!!!!
~I want to buy this fancy wrist garmin thingy that runners wear. I don't even run.
~I cooked dinner every night this week so far. Family is shocked & confused.

What are you confessing? I'm linking up with E!

Cropped til we dropped!

2012-01-19T13:29:00.000-06:00

On New Year's Eve we hosted a 24 hour crop at the store My bestie Tara came down & joined in on the fun. It's been several years since I've cropped for that long, but I was EXCITED! I had big plans to get lots done. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but I was pretty pleased with what I accomplished. It's amazing how FAST 24 hours fly by when you are having so much fun. We cropped, ate good food & snacks, had door prized & played games.

Here's a look at what I did:

Decided on an album color for my Project Life 2012. (We R Memory Keepers 12x12 2-ring album in Grape Soda)

Assembled my Project Life 2012 album

Put Put golf layout from August 2010

My friend's little boy with his drum set

Courtney's Halloween layout from Oct. 2010

Layout of our animals for my Project Life 2012 album

Finished putting all of Adam's football stuff in his album

More football stuff!

And again, more football stuff!!

Adam & Lauren's freshman homecoming pictures using my new favorite Authentique paper!

I also did alot of sorting and organizing of my pictures. They are such a mess! We had a great time....can't wait to do it again!

Midweek Confessions

2012-01-18T17:48:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been a week since I've blogged. And what a coincedence that my last post was last week's confessions. I have a good excuse....I've been busy. Really, I have. Sooooo....

~It's 5:30pm & I'm still in my pj's. When I'm done with this post, I will take a shower and put clean pj's on.

~I had a big to-do list today & didn't do much on it. I had big things planned like clean the stove & scrub the floors, but Courtney was home sick today & I decided she needed me to hang out on the couch with her. I did do a little tidying up & laundry, but for the most part, I've been a couch potato.

~I haven't had a soda all day, only water. It's killing me, but I'm determined to stick with water.

~I started another blog to "chronicle" my weight loss because we all know that it will make me lose weight. I will share it with you all very soon.

~I have bbq pulled pork in the crockpot, but I have no desire to make a side dish. #lazy

~I still have yet to finish week 1 layout of my project life. I'm behind and I don't like it. Maybe I'll work on that after dinner......maybe

~We went to St. Louis for the weekend with my sister and her boyfriend. We went to a hockey game & then to a bar. I tried so hard to keep up, but around 10:30 I really just wanted to go to our room & get a good nights sleep. I'm just not cut out to party like a rockstar anymore!

As usual, I'm linking up with E.
Happy Hump Day!

Midweek Confessions

2012-01-12T07:20:00.000-06:00

It's confession time....let's do it!

~My cousin had her baby on Sunday & I went to visit yesterday. She is so sweet & snugly that I wanted to stay & hold her all day. For about 5 minutes it made me want another one.

~I really don't want to go to work today. It's snowing for the first time this winter and I'd love to stay in all day in my PJ's and scrapbook in peace & quiet.

~I have a very soft heart for animals. I have 2 dogs & 2 cats and if I could I would rescue every animal that needed a home :-(

~My son gets his driving permit next week and I can't wait. Not because I want him on the road, but he can drive me around :-)

Not too exciting this week, but I will be linking up with E! Happy Hump Day everyone!

Project Life 2012: Title Page

2012-01-09T15:12:00.000-06:00

I know that many of you are familiar with Project Life, but just in case you aren't, go HERE to read all about it. Becky Higgins is the genius behind this concept & I L-O-V-E her for it. I'm working on a post that will tell you all about why I decided to do Project Life & I will also be showing you what types of scrapbooking products I use in my everyday projects. I am also going to include the types of albums & page protectors I use. But, for today, I wanted to start by sharing my title page. It's missing a picture because when I sent my pics in yesterday to be printed, I forgot to include it. I know.....DUH! So, the blank space is for a pic of hubby & I. I put a folded journaling card behind the pic of each child & one behind where the pic of us will go. This is where I wrote some things down like age, grade, hobbies, etc. I'm pretty happy with the way the title page turned out.

My album is going to be the weekly style & run Sunday to Saturday. I'm hoping to "pencil" in about 2 hours a week to work on the previous week's layout & any other things I want to add to the book. Since I will order my pics on Sunday, I will receive them on Tuesday. I am off on Wednesday so I think I will make Wednesday the day I get the layout done and posted on here. I am so excited about this project! I am already jotting down ideas for this album & CAN'T WAIT to share them all with you!!!

Goodwill goodies

2012-01-05T16:02:00.000-06:00

Courtney & I stopped in at Goodwill this week to see if we could find her some jeans. She seriously has outgrown every piece of clothing she has, except for the few things she got for Christmas. I was hoping to find her some things to get her through the winter. We found 4 pairs of Gap & Old Navy jeans and 2 Old Navy sweatshirts. I also found a bunt cake pan & 2 picture frames (not pictured). Total was $23.00...not too shabby!

I thought that we would find more, but the selection just wasn't there. I really thought that since Christmas just ended, there would have been more! Maybe next time!

Midweek Confessions: 1st one of the year!

2012-01-04T15:58:00.000-06:00

Happy Hump Day all! It's confession time.....my favorite time of the week! Let's get right to it.

~Hubby came down with the flu Friday night & was sick all the way through Sunday. I was secretly thanking God because this made me feel less guilty about spending New Years Eve at our 24 hour crop at the store. He was home sick in bed, so I sure as hell didn't want to be home!

~In relation to the above confession, I have absolutely no patience/tolerance for Hubby when he is sick. I get REALLY irritated & I want to punch him. Wife of the year, I know.

~If I could wear yoga pants & a t-shirt everyday I would. I would never leave the house for anything. I would sit on the couch with my laptop, read facebook, blogs & pinterest all day. All while HGTV ran non-stop on the TV. Dream on, right?

~I often complain about not being able to sleep at night, but secretly I love it because it's alone time I rarely get & I get to watch what I want on TV.

~I can sleep anywhere, anytime, any position. I proved it this weekend.

~I ate pez candy at 7:30 this morning. 5 packages.

Ahhhhh.....I feel better now. How bout you?

I'm linking up with E over at E,Myself&I :-)

One Little Word: 2012

2012-01-04T12:26:00.000-06:00

It's that time again :-) It's time to pick my word for the year. You can head on over to Ali's blog to see what this is all about. For me, it's about picking a word that speaks to me. Sometimes these words come to me even before the previous year is over and other times it takes me a few days into the new year to decide. Here you can go read about my words for 2010 & 2011. I wish I could say that I stuck to my words in the previous 2 years, but I really didn't. This year is going to be different because I can feel it deep down. I have very real passion that has ignited in me & I honestly don't know where it has come from! So, without further ado.....my word......

Strive

It took me a few days to really decide between two words & this one just kept sticking with me. Alot of personal things are changing within me and these changes are making me STRIVE to be a better person.

I will share a list of things that I'm going to STRIVE for this year in a few days. Today, I'm striving towards a clean house so, duty calls!

What word will you choose for 2012?

Clean & Organized 2012

2012-01-04T00:14:00.002-06:00

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*Warning* Long post ahead!!!! Ha!

Let's face it, we all want to be clean & organized right? I know I do, but I never do anything about it! I always try to set a "cleaning schedule" but I finally realized I was trying to do too much at one time. I am so happy that Becky over at Clean Mama is helping us all out with that!!! Hop on over to her blog & join us. She has a cleaning schedule that is easy to follow. I've tweaked mine a bit to fit my own schedule, but I'm pretty much going to follow what she suggests. Mine is a little more detailed to keep me accountable :)

Her concept is that there are 5 little things you can do everyday to keep your house clean & tidy. Then each day of the week you CLEAN a certain area/room of your house. She is also including 4 areas to be DEEP CLEANED this month. This month is going to be the Kitchen, Bathrooms, Bedrooms, Main Living Areas. Go HERE to see her January schedule. Once we are done with January, I will make adjustments if needed for February. If everything works just fine for me, I will keep things the same. You will notice that I don't do anything other than the daily & evening chores on Tuesdays & Thursdays and I do more than one of the weekly chores on Monday, Wednesday & Friday. This is because I work on Tuesdays & Thursdays and I'm gone for over 12 hours. There just isn't enough hours in the day on those days!
Here is my schedule for January:

DAILY CLEANING SCHEDULE:
Morning
Make my bed
Fix Breakfast for kids
Wipe counters & table
Sweep floors
De-clutter
Clean litter box
1-2 loads of laundry

Afternoon(M,W,F)
Phone calls/emails
Photography business work
Errands as needed

Evening
Dinner & dishes
Make lunches
Set out dinner for next day

WEEKLY CLEANING SCHEDULE:
Monday
Clean bathroom
Dust entire house
Wednesday
Wash rugs
Mop Floors
Vacuum
Friday
Change bedsheets
Wash comforters & blankets
Clean out refrigerator
Menu plan
Make grocery list
Saturday OR Sunday
Grocery shop
Prepare next weeks food

January Deep Clean/Organizing Projects:*
1. Kitchen
2. Bathroom
3. Bedrooms
4. Main Living Areas
*I'm not sure how much of these deep cleaning/organizing projects I will do. Mainly because my mom did ALOT of deep cleaning when she temporarily lived with us. I'm not saying that my house is spotless & sparkling clean, I'm just saying that a few areas don't need THAT DEEP of a cleaning right now :-) Kudos & big thanks to my mama!

My goal is to keep the weekends as free as possible since the kids sometimes have games & practices and I sometimes work an occasional Saturday. Most likely I will try and shop on Saturdays so that Sunday can be a free & lazy day to do whatever I want. Nascar season will be starting soon and there is nothing I love better than getting comfy on the couch to watch the race & eat a nice meal :-)

I do want to say that I'm not posting all of this to make it look like I'm going to be June Cleaver! I am DESPERATE (have been for a while) to find a good balance in my life & get my household under control. Up until now, our household has been complete chaos & I have felt like I'm drowning. In addition to the schedules I posted above for myself, I am in the process of making a schedule/chore list for the kids. I'm also going to make a chart to hang in the laundry room that will show which days I will do certain loads of laundry so that the kids know to get their dirty clothes in the hampers. If their clothes aren't in the hampers, they don't get washed.....by me anyways! If they miss laundry that day & need something, they will have to wash it themselves. I'm really hoping this will teach them that I am not their maid & I'm not going into their rooms to fetch their dirty clothes. Pray for me, will ya?!?! lol

I will keep you all posted on how it's going & SERIOUSLY, get over to Clean Mama NOW and see her wealth of information!
Happy cleaning everyone!

Midweek Confessions....a day late AGAIN

2011-12-29T23:04:00.000-06:00

Once again my confessions are a day late. I really have no excuse this time. Just lazy, so hear goes...

~I made myself a "to do" list for today & didn't do one thing on it. I sat around eating holiday leftovers & watching HGTV all day
~I'm totally addicted to HGTV & the DIY channel. Which is probably why I can't get anything done around here.
~I washed the same load of towels today that I washed yesterday because I let them sit in the washer too long
~I really need to get a laundry schedule
~I ate ice cream for breakfast this morning
~I can't wait for DH to start night shift so I have the bed to myself :-)

Another Christmas under our belt......

2011-12-27T13:27:00.000-06:00

First I want to say that I SUCK at trying to load pics in a certain order! Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Ours was busy as usual, but good. I can't remember if I posted last year about how most of my entire extended family got the flu after Christmas last year??? If I didn't, here is the lowdown: We spend Christmas in my grandparents basement. There are close to 35 of us. As you can imagine, it gets hot down there. BREEDING GROUND FOR GERMS. When it was all said and done, over 30 of us ended up sick. It wasn't food poisoning because some people didn't even eat there and some didn't get sick until 4 or 5 days later. So this year we decided to get t-shirts to wear this year that say "I survived the Formea flu, Christmas 2010" Not everyone is in the pic below, but we wanted a group pic of everyone in our shirts. So far this year, no one is sick!!!!!

My cousin's little girl Ryland:

My mom got us a new microwave for Christmas!!!!

My Grandma got us a new set of dishes:

I always let the kids open one small gift on Christmas Eve. This year they each got a new book:

Not the best pic of our tree:

New cardinal shirts:

The ONLY thing she begged for all year...new iPad!!

New Carhart bibs & coat & Scheels gift cards!!

Can you tell my kids are country kids? LOL

My cousin's little girls...so cute!!

Some of the great grandkids.....

I took tons of pics, but decided to share only a handful since I couldn't get them to load in order! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and an even better New Year! I'm ready for 2012!! Lots of changes headed our way!!!

Midweek Confessions....a day late

2011-12-22T11:15:00.001-06:00

It's confession time! Head on over to E, Myself & I to join in the linky fun! My confessions are a day late because yesterday was absolutely insane. I didn't have the energy to even think about posting. So...here goes:

~I've spent more money on myself in the past 2 weeks than I have in a very long time.

~My van is full of wrapped Christmas gifts because I'm afraid if I bring them in the house & put them under the tree my mom's cat (who is living with us temporarily) might pee on them.

~I'm really, really ready for my mom's cat to go home

~My house is a total shit pit right now and I really don't care. I will probably care on Saturday morning when I get up and freak out because it's not clean.

~I still have a few last minute gifts to buy.

~I went back to bed yesterday morning after the kids left for school & I slept in longer than I should have. I'm too embarrassed to even tell you what time I got up.

~I ignored 5 phone call yesterday

~Oh, I can't forget.....I ate ice cream in bed again last night. UGH!!

Anything you want to confess? hahahaha

Randoms...

2011-12-18T13:20:00.000-06:00

I had an ENTIRE DAY OFF on Friday so I decided to finish my Christmas shopping! I didn't finish, but I made a pretty good dent in my list!!

I started my morning off with a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks(forgot to take pic) & a fresh manicure!!! It's been ages since I've gotten one & I wanted to try some dark, sparkly polish for the season. It's not the best pic, sorry.....

I considered buying myself a pair, but decided against it hahaha......

Love this t-shirt...........

Cutest mini chair at Target. I put this on my mental list of photo props I want.....

And for those of you that don't know me well, I L-O-V-E m&m's. There is only one kind I don't like and that is the pretzel ones. So, when I see new ones, I have to try them. Verdict on Cinnamon m&m's.....they are "so so". They really don't taste very "cinnamony".

I can't post anything I bought just yet since my little munchkins sometimes read this blog. I don't want to spoil their Christmas morning surprises!!!

Are you all ready for Christmas yet????

DIY T-shirt

2011-12-14T14:53:00.000-06:00

On DH's side of the family, we draw names for Christmas gifts. He has 7 brothers & sisters and all of us are married with the exception of 1. There are also 12 grandkids. So we put everyone's name in a hat & everyone draws a name. Whoever you draw is who you buy for. Courtney drew her cousin Anna and she decided she wanted to make her a basketball t-shirt. We went to Hobbly Lobby & I let her pick everything out (except I talked her out of a white t-shirt).

We got very simple iron on things....even though I don't own an iron. Ha! Had to borrow one!

Very simple....position and iron....

This is the back. Her nickname is "Boog", like booger without the "er" LOL

and this is the front.....

She also made her a necklace to go with it! Very simple and inexpensive!

I am making more homemade gifts so I hope to get a post up of those by the end of the week! Happy crafting!

Midweek Confessions...It's a party!

2011-12-14T09:52:00.000-06:00

Happy Humpday everyone! I'm linking up with e,myself & I this week, and well, every week from here on out, for midweek confessions. If you haven't visited her blog, you should....you won't be disappointed! So, this week...I confess:

~I was actually glad that Courtney is still feeling lousy and staying home from school again today. Not because I'm a horrible mother who wishes pain & misery on her child, but because I needed an extra day home to get things done. #motheroftheyear

~I ate ice cream at 11:30pm last night. In bed. This is becoming a problem.

~It's December 14th & I'm not done shopping. Not even close.

~I hate putting laundry away. We live out of clothes baskets 90% of the time

~I haven't cleaned my bathtub in over a month. GROSS

~On the flipside, I pretty much clean the toilet every other day. Sometimes daily.

What are you confessing this week? ;-)

1st bump in the snowball road

2011-12-08T11:17:00.000-06:00

I was totally waiting for something to derail our debt snowball progress, and it happened yesterday! It's nothing major, but it cost around $235. I posted about getting our emergency fund in place & using the extra $400 to pay off our first debt. Well, I was only able to use $200 of it towards that first debt, which is still progress, but not what I was hoping and planning for. I had to spend $105 to have my house treated for fleas & spent $135 on treatments for the animals. Yes, you read that right....FLEAS!!! UGH!!!!! CAN YOU FEEL MY FRUSTRATION?

A couple of months ago my mom temporarily moved in with us and she has an inside dog and a cat who goes in and out. I have 2 cats that also go in and out. I also have 2 outdoor dogs. I keep my animals treated and so does my mom, but somewhere, somehow, someone started a cycle of fleas and we aren't sure who or how. My mom moved to her new house last weekend and she took her dog, but we are keeping the cat for a couple of months. She had her dog treated before taking him to the new house, so hopefully she didn't he didn't take any fleas to the new house. We've seen a few fleas here and there on the carpet and I found a few on one of my cats, so my skin was crawling. I can't stand the thought that there might be fleas on things. I have a huge phobia of bugs & things and this is no different!!!

I called the exterminator and they came out yesterday and treated the house. They basically spray the floors, carpets, baseboards & closets. I had to strip all the beds and spray the mattresses with a special spray and wash all the bed clothes. It only took them about 30 minutes to treat the house and it took about 2 hours for the floors to dry. Once dry, I have to vacuum as often as possible. I was totally vacuuming every 30 minutes yesterday afternoon! I also vacuumed the mattresses and then I sprayed and vacuumed the living room furniture. Each time I vacuumed I had to take the canister outside and empty it so that the little suckers don't jump out of the vacuum. They are smart, from what I hear :-)

I vacuumed again this morning and I left a note for my son to vacuum again when he gets home from school. My husband thinks I've totally lost it, but he just doesn't get my phobia. My daughter was sent home with headlice in 2nd grade and I went totally psycho treating her and the house. This flea fiasco brings back nightmare memories! So hopefully my efforts will pay off and the fleas will be gone. The exterminator guarantees the work for 3 months, so if I see more, they will come back out and spray again. So, cross your fingers that it works!

If you're wondering what I did to treat the animals that cost me so much, I'll tell ya. Each cat got a pill that kills any live fleas on them within 2 hours. Then I put medicine on their neck that is for one month of preventative. Once I shoved the pills down their throats (ya, that was fun), I put them out in the garage. The dogs get a pill that kills what is on them and also is preventative for one month. So, no medicine on their necks. The vet recommends the pill for dogs over the Frontline, so we'll see if it works. He said that since it's cold out, there shouldn't be too much of a problem of them getting fleas from the yard. Once spring hits, he recommends treating the yard.

I tell ya...........pets are expensive! But, so worth it!

Midweek Confessions....

2011-12-08T07:04:00.000-06:00

Ok, I realize it's Thursday which isn't really "midweek", but hey, I was busy yesterday. I am joining in on the fun over at E, Myself & I this week. She is going to make a linky to start next week & I'm so excited! So, here goes.....

-Despite being on a "diet", I ate McDonald's for supper last night & then proceeded to eat milk at cookies at 11:30 pm while blog stalking.

-My 12 year old put up all of the Christmas decorations & decorated the tree. My mom helped her put the actual tree up. I had no desire. Ya, mother of the year.

-I wish I could spend our $1,000.00 emergency fund on a new camera lens instead of saving it for an emergency. There are days that I really don't like Dave Ramsey.

-Monday was my day off and I had BIG plans to get alot accomplished. Guess what? I did NOTHING. I slept late, blog stalked, watched tv........you get the picture.

-I really want to spend $210 for backstage/after party passes to spend New Years Eve with Bret Michaels. Yea, not gonna happen.

So, you all have anything to confess? Hop on over to E, Myself & I and join in the fun!

Baby Step 1: $1,000 Emergency Fund

2011-12-06T15:01:00.000-06:00

DONE!!!! DH and I finally found a time that both of us could go to the bank and open up a savings account. I know you are thinking "you are 41 & 36 years old and just now opening a savings account"? Well, we have had a savings account a couple of times before, but we of course never really put money in it to SAVE & we never kept the minimum balance in it.

DH got his last farm check for the year to the tune of $1,400.00. We put $1,000 in savings for our emergency fund and $400.00 in checking so we can pay off the first debt on our debt snowball!! It feels soooooooo good to get these first couple of things crossed off our list!!!

Oh, and the bank gave us a handy dandy 3 ring binder to hold our bank statements. I think I was more excited about the binder than anything else! Ha!

Kitchen "Intervention" Part 3

2011-11-30T22:58:00.000-06:00

My "tupperware" cabinet before

more tupperware

AFTER!!!

I don't know about you, but I seem to have alot of bowls and plates. Why? I have no idea. Now that I look at this picture I think I need to get rid of some! We don't use all of them so I don't know why I have so many. I got rid of alot of misc pieces of tupperware & rubbermaid so I dwindled it down quite a bit and put it in the pantry.

I was hoping to get to the rest of the kitchen, but this upcoming holiday season has proven to be extremely busy. I have a few days off in December that are looking to be fairly low key, so I'm hoping to get the rest of it done.

Kitchen "Intervention" Part 2

2011-11-19T23:11:00.001-06:00

Ok, here is part 2 of my kitchen overhaul! This is the cabinet above my stove & I don't know what I was thinking putting my spices up there because I could barely reach it! Everytime I needed a spice I would get frustrated because I had to get the step stool. I emptied it, wiped it out, sorted & purged through everything & decided to move them to a lower cabinet. I had things in there that expired in 1995!!! Holy crap.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I put my casserole dishes in there because I don't use them everyday.

This was the cabinet that held my plates/bowls/casserole dishes, etc:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I decided to make it my spice/baking cabinet. MUCH EASIER TO REACH!

This is my lazy susan. Why do they call it that???? I absolutely HATE this cabinet! Things fall off and get stuck behind it and it drives me crazy. I completely emptied it & decided I wasn't using it for food anymore. I decided to use it for small appliance storage instead.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I LOOOOOVE it now! I put my small, medium & large crockpots in there. My can opener, blender & quesadea (sp?) maker also.

I will share part 3 tomorrow.....right now my bed is calling my name! DH is gone hunting and I get the bed ALL TO MYSELF :-)

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Kitchen "Intervention" Part 1

2011-11-18T20:26:00.003-06:00

So I recently discovered this FANTASTIC blog called Healthy Branscoms. I have seriously spent the past few days reading & reading & reading her blog. I can't get enough of it. I feel like she is writing exactly what I am thinking.....for real. So, you must hop on over there and check it out! You won't be disappointed, I promise. I came across THIS post on her blog last night and I was seriously DROOLING over her clean, organized kitchen. I've been so frustrated with my kitchen lately and this made me want to clean out my cabinets at 11:00 at night. Anyways....I decided to tackle the kitchen today since I had the day off. Well, after my appointment with the chiropractor. First thing I did was take before pictures of EVERYTHING in the kitchen so I would have before & after pics. I was thinking that I would finish the entire kitchen today, but once I started I realized that wasn't going to happen. This will be a 2 or 3 day adventure. I have to work the weekend, so I will most likely have to finish next week on my day off. Unless I have enough energy to work on it tomorrow evening. I never in my life thought I would look forward to cleaning my kitchen on my day off!!! Ha!

The first cabinet I tackled was the "junk" cabinet. I was so tired of this cabinet & I hated to even open the door to look inside. I made the executive decision that this cabinet will no longer be a fixture in this house! Here is the before:

Empty & wiped clean:

AFTER!!!

I decided to put all of our drinking glasses in this former CRAP cabinet!

This is the cabinet above the sink. It's one of those cabinets that really doesn't serve a great purpose for me because I'm only 5 foot tall & I have to get a step stool everytime I need to get in it. So, I decided to put things in there that I don't need to access everyday. Here is the before:

Here is the after:

I decided to make it our "alcohol" cabinet even though there are times that I could access it everyday!!. I put my wine glasses, martini glasses, beer steins & shot glasses in there. They are up out of the way & my kids have been told that they are off limits. YES, I've caught my daughter drinking milk out of my delicate wine glasses before!

I will post the rest of the cabinet makeover in the next couple of days. Stay tuned!!!

The guilt almost killed me...

2011-11-16T12:38:00.000-06:00

Ok, I'm being slightly dramatic, but it was eating me up inside. Let me start from the beginning.......

My husband's company deposits money into a Medical Reimbursment Fund every week. The amount that goes in depends on the number of hours worked. This is not money that is deducted out of his paycheck, it is simply money that the company gives him. FREE MONEY! Who doesn't love that?? We can use this money to pay for expenses that are not covered by insurance, which is nice because we don't have dental or vision insurance. We have excellent health insurance, but we still have a deductible to meet and some out of pocket expenses. In September I submitted a claim for $700 and received it around the beginning of October. I had a little battle with my inner self because I WANTED to buy a piece of photography equipment for my business, but I also knew we had approximately $700 in small medical bills that really should be paid. When I say small, I mean $30 here & $90 there...it all adds up quick. I went back and forth for a few days & I ended up going to Best Buy & purchasing the piece of equipment that I WANTED. The minute I swiped my debit card I knew that I shouldn't be buying it. I felt guilty and it only got worse. I had 30 days to return it, so I kept it for about 2 weeks. And guess what? I only used that piece of equipment ONCE and I didn't even really NEED it. It didn't make much difference in my portraits so I knew I could get by without it for now. So, 3 weeks after purchasing it, I returned it and got my $540 back. I had to wait about 3 days for the money to be credited back to my account and as soon as it did, I mailed off those medical bills and IT FELT SO GOOD!!!!!! If I didn't pay them when I had the chance, I was going to have to add them to the debt snowball and I really didn't want to do that. A few years ago I would have just gotten whatever equipment I wanted and paid the bills later....I can't believe that I used to think that way. It sickens me now to think about it!!!

MAD about debt

2011-11-15T16:05:00.000-06:00

So, I posted HERE about getting out of debt and the more I look at it, the madder I get!! Most of our debt is STUPID debt! Little things like medical & dental bills that I just ignored. These should have been paid a long time ago! Then there is the phone (not my doings, I must add). DH did ALOT of talking on his cell phone for some reason and his bill was $900.00. Of course he "has no idea how that is even possible"....blah, blah, blah...whatever. I had been planning on adding him to my at&t account when his contract was with Verizon was up, but this little stunt did it a little sooner. I guess we all have crap that happens, but this really made me angry. Ok....I feel better now that I vented!

DH & I discussed our debt a few nights ago and he suggested that we take our tax return that we will get in the spring and pay off my van. At first I thought we shouldn't because it's the highest balance we have, but it is also the biggest payment and the highest interest rate out of all of our debt. So, I'm actually thinking about moving it to the top of our debt snowball. I did some figuring and if we do that, we will have all of it paid off in less than a year. HELL TO THE YEA!!

Also, how many of you use the envelope system? I'm on the fence about using it. We tried it once before & it didn't work, but I wasn't as determined then as I am now.

Free iPhone app "Debt Free"

2011-11-14T11:10:00.001-06:00

I found a free iPhone app called "Debt Free" and it's so cool! You enter all of your debt information and it calculates when you will be debt free. Each time you make a payment on one of your debts, enter the info and it updates to show you your progress. This is going to be very handy for me!

Go check it out if you have an iPhone. I assume you can also get it for the iPad, but I don't know for sure. I don't have an iPad :-(