Stuffed Animal Donations

A couple of days ago, a woman made a post in a local group I am a member of on Facebook looking for gently used stuffed animals.  Carleigh has a ton of stuffed animals that she rarely plays with and figured it would be a good time to go through all of them over the weekend.  It's for a good cause after all.  As I mentioned in my previous post, my house is unorganized.  This woman making that post saved my day and gave me the motivation to clean up one area of the house.

On Saturday afternoon, I took all of the stuffed animals from Carleigh's room and put them on the floor in Amelia's room.  There was more space in Amelia's room for all of the stuffed animals.  Carleigh came upstairs with me after that and I had her pick the ones she wanted to keep.  She decided to keep all of her Dr. Seuss stuffed animals, which I don't blame her.  Those are her favorite stuffed animals and they go along with the books she has.  I explained to her that other kid's would love to have even one stuffed animal as they might not have any at all.  So she picked a bunch to give to other kids.  I think it's really important to let your kid's go through their own toys for donating.  That way you can explain to them why you're doing it and it teaches them about giving too.  It's a good lesson for our young ones.

The woman who made the post on Facebook stopped by sometime on Sunday afternoon to pick them up.  She said I could leave them outside the front door and she would pick them up without hassling us.  I liked doing it that way since we didn't have to make sure we were home.

I'm looking forward to more organization and donations in the upcoming weeks.  This whole house needs it.

Hiatus

It's been over four months since I updated this blog.  I admit that I've abandoned it because I didn't know what topics to blog about.  Motherhood and gaming has kind of gotten in the way too.  My motherly duties and household responsibilities wear me out during the day.  When night rolls around, I'm ready to unwind and play some GTA Online with my friend's.

I'm starting the new year off with a makeover to my blog.  I'm trying to make it look more "professional", even though I'm not using this blog for anything but my ramblings and thoughts.  Below, you will find the topics I plan to blog about in the upcoming days and weeks.  These are topics that will actually keep me motivated and interested in blogging.

Upcoming Topics:

• Motherhood
• Wine
• Gaming
• Cooking/baking
• Home organization
• Fitness
• Photography

Those topics alone should keep me focused on this blog.  I'm sure there will be many other topics that will start popping into my head as the weeks go by.

Fitness is in there just because I recently got a gym membership to get out of my house a couple of nights a week.  Being stuck in your house with two kid's all week is exhausting.  I need time to myself.  It made sense to get out of the house and work on my fitness at the same time.

Photography will be pictures I take around my neighborhood/city.  I'm not a photographer by any means, but it's always fun to take pictures and share them with the rest of the world.

Since my house is so unorganized/cluttered in certain areas (the pantry... OMG!), I'll be using blog posts to show my before/after pictures of how far I came.  Maybe it will motivate others who are feeling overwhelmed.  Don't even get me started on organizing all of Carleigh's toys.  It's time to go through all of that stuff and see what can be sold/donated.  She has too much!

I hope to have another blog post up by this weekend.  Probably Sunday afternoon.

Our New Family Car

Since Amelia is taking her morning nap, I figured I would at least attempt to update my blog this morning.  I've got a slice of homemade cinnamon swirl banana bread and a cup of pumpkin spice coffee.

We didn't plan on buying another car so soon, but since I had one hell of a time trying to get a hold of the school district regarding transportation for Carleigh... here we are.  Honestly, I spent an entire morning trying to speak to someone, but was met with automated phone recordings and got no where.  Since the school district waited until the last minute to send out school information, this whole transportation dilemma wasn't a surprise to me.  I do not understand how these schools can be such slackers, wait, yes I do.  They take our tax dollars and then beg for more because they don't "have any money".  If only schools were ran like businesses...

Anyway, Heath has been looking at Jaguar XJ's for awhile and really wanted one.  He found the perfect one, but we weren't sure if we wanted to spend the amount of money the dealership was asking.  Heath continued to search for other XJ's, but we went right back to the one at the dealership.  Heath made an offer and they somewhat agreed on the price discussed.  So Heath went to the bank, got a cashier's check for the amount discussed, and we went over to the dealership on Friday afternoon.  Heath test drove it and told the dealership we wanted it.  We had two different people come in to tell us that we were basically stealing the car from them.  They made zero money on the deal.  They bought the car from an Audi dealership for a lot more than what we paid to take it off the lot.  The sales manager had to call the owner of the dealership to get approval for us to even buy it at the price that we did.  Who was going to say no to someone coming in with a check?  Seriously... lol  We are now happy owner's of two (yes, TWO!) Jaguar's.

We bought a 2006 Jaguar XJ8 Vanden Plas.  Here's some picture of our new sexy beast.  And yes, this thing is a beast.  It came with the 5% tint all around.  Huge plus!  It's a long wheel base, so it's about a foot longer than my S-Type.  There is so much leg room.  I thought my car was large, but no, this new car is the actual boat.

The car has mink floor mats.  That's right, PETA.  Our Jaguar has MINK(!!) floor mats.  No one is allowed to put their dirty ass shoes in our car.  I took this car out to do my errands on Saturday.  Since I had to go to Sam's Club and Albertson's, I wanted to see just how much room this car had after I put all of the bulky stuff in it.  I might just "steal" this car to go get my groceries and Sam's Club runs done all of the time now.

On Sunday, we took the new car for a cruise through Red Rock Canyon.  It was the most comfortable ride through the mountains we have ever taken.  Amelia slept through most of it and Carleigh was enjoying the views.  We will definitely be going back up there in the cooler months to take a hike on some of the easier trails in the area.

These are just a few of the pictures taken during our scenic drive.

Now that we have our second car, I can give Carleigh a ride to/from school every day without worrying how the school district will screw it up.  I really hope things get better and the school can redeem themselves.  I am not very impressed with their track record so far.  But thanks to their inability to answer phone calls, we have a lovely new car parked in our garage.

One Car Family

Heath & I recently decided to go down to one car.  The decision was mostly made because we had one car rotting away in the garage.  We sold the GTO.  Heath's car was a two door and did not fit our family of four.  My Jaguar is a four door, so yeah, we kept my car.  Obviously!  Heath had an offer on his car about an hour after posting it for sale.  He accepted the offer and the car was gone the same day.  It was so weird to go down to one car, but really, why would we need two cars if I rarely drive during the day when I'm home with the kids?  The GTO was worth more money to us gone than keeping it.  We paid off three credit cards with the money we got from selling the GTO.  We are so much better off financially with having only one car.  We will get a second car when needed, but as of this moment, one car fits us best.  There's so much extra room in our garage now too.  No complaints!

We also recently got rid of our cell phones.  We've had T-Mobile for ten years, but over the last two months, our cell service had dropped exponentially.  We tried to work with them to get the issue fixed, but no matter what happened, it just wasn't going to work out for us.  There's really only one cell tower in our area with a lot of people trying to use it.  T-Mobile's coverage map shows us as "excellent", yet we would rarely have any service.  Heath's iPhone always showed "No Service" or "Searching" and my Galaxy S4 showed one or two bars and on the Edge network.  Totally unacceptable since we are supposedly supported by 4G LTE out here.  We had a land line hooked up on Friday afternoon.  Going down to zero cell phones was weird, too.  But really, it's saving us so much money per month not having smartphones!  We will pocket almost $200/mo now.  Seriously, saving money is boss.

Our next goal to save extra money per month is to refinance our house.  We want to get rid of our mortgage insurance.  When we bought our house, we got an FHA loan.  The mortgage insurance is on the pricey side and we'd like that money in our pocket instead.  I'll be making the phone call to our mortgage company tomorrow to see what could work best for us.  It would be nice to have so much more extra money every month.

We went to Carleigh's open house for school on Friday.  My little girl is getting so big.  She's on the school schedule that doesn't start until September, so while most of her friend's start school tomorrow, she has to wait a few more weeks.  She qualifies to ride the bus since we live a couple of miles from the school.  The only thing left for me to do is call the school district to verify the drop off times for after school.  Our school district only shows the drop off times for full days.  My fingers are crossed that they aren't doing screwy scheduling for half day kindergartners.  If they don't drop off for half day kids, then guess what?  We will be off to buy our second car sooner than expected.  Oh well.  ;)

This blog was a little bit every where and I apologize.  Heath & I shared a bottle of wine with our salmon dinner tonight, so I feel a little out of it while typing this up.  There's just so much going on here right now.  So many changes and it's just crazy.  A good kind of crazy though.  I'll update this again when I'm more sober and able to make more sense.

Homemade House Cleaners

I know... it's been awhile since I've update my blog.  While I was away, I decided to experiment with homemade cleaners for around the house.  Of course, I turned to that nifty little website called Pinterest to find good cleaners.  I started making my own homemade cleaners to save money and not smell the harsh chemicals from store bought cleaners.  So far, I've only made two different household cleaners.  A granite cleaner and a regular, 409 type cleaner.  Both have done an exceptional job at keeping my house clean.  I'll be making my own laundry detergent in the near future.

My granite cleaner is made from this recipe found on One Good Thing by Jillee, minus the essential oil.  I haven't bought any essential oils yet, but I probably won't because I don't feel that my cleaners need it.  So here's the recipe:

1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
3 drops of Dawn
Water

Every household should have these ingredients in their household already.  I really love this cleaner.  It leaves my granite counter tops very shiny.

My all-purpose/409 type cleaner was found on Macheesmo.  There are four different recipes for homemade cleaners at that link.  But I use the all purpose recipe for my sinks and toilets for the time being.  It works great, but I do want to try the Bath, Sink, Tile Cleaner recipe as well.  Here's the recipe for the all purpose cleaner if you don't want to click the link.

3 Tablespoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon washing soda
1/2 teaspoon castile soap
2 Cups hot water

Cleaning my home has become more enjoyable now that I make my own cleaners.  Once I get my own laundry detergent made and run a few loads of it, I'll give it a review and post the recipe here as well.

Not Getting Paid

I started my part-time job a month ago.  It's an OK job.  Nothing spectacular.  I wasn't looking for a career job, just something to do to cover the smaller bills with my pay.  On my first paycheck, I only received 20 hours worth of pay.  I work 20 hours a week, so my paycheck was suppose to be more than 20 hours of pay.  When I talked to the office assistant (not sure of her actual title), she said that wasn't right (umm.. duh), and that she would tell the manager and get me a check by Wednesday with my missing hours.  Wednesday came and went and there was no check.  I told Heath I wasn't going into work until I got all of my missing hours.  I am 40 hours short.  Not one or two hours, but a huge chunk.  If it was just a couple of hours, I wouldn't be so upset.  The next pay period is the 27th and I'm afraid that my hours will still be short on that one.  So, I am refusing to work until I get all of the money that is rightfully owed to me.  I'm calling in sick on my scheduled days.  I've talked to other employee's and was told this kind of thing has happened to them in the past too.  This isn't a first time "oops!", this is an ongoing problem and that's why I refuse to go in until I'm paid for the work I did the past couple of weeks.  This is a company that's pretty much impossible to get fired from.

It's just beyond irritating.  If I don't see all of my money on the 27th, I'll be making a call to the labor department.  I'm currently looking around for a new job, but it's hard to find a place that will work around my silly schedule.  On weeknights, I can only start work around 5:30pm or 6pm.  The 5:30pm schedule would have to be for a place really close to our house.  Weekends aren't that big of a deal, it's the weekdays that I need to be very flexible.  I really do hope I'll see the correct amount of hours/pay on my check next week though.  I don't mind working where I do.  But I do mind when people try to screw me over.  We have bills to pay, you know?  If I didn't pay my bills, or didn't pay exactly what I was suppose to pay, I'd be charged late fees/interest.  It would be nice if I could charge this company a late fee and interest for paying me late.  That would be nice.

On Monday night, my in-law's fly into town.  Oh joy.  However, they already know they are not welcomed at our house when Heath is at work.  So I won't have to entertain them all day.  That's not my job.  You fly out to Las Vegas and not verify with us if those days work first?  Cool.  Enjoy casino hopping.  They will be here a few nights a week for dinner after Heath is done with work and then on Saturday & Sunday.  I don't want them here every night for dinner though.  I'm not going to entertain people who feel so entitled to believe they are welcomed in our home whenever they decide to fly out here.  What's so hard about calling someone and saying, "Hey, we are thinking about coming to visit you guys on X dates.  Do those days work for you?"  Common courtesy goes a long way.

Tailbone Injury

On Wednesday night, while getting ready for work, I managed to injure myself.  I always sit on the stairs to put my shoes on.  When I sat down that night, I missed the step somehow and slammed my tailbone right into the edge of the step.  Ouch.  It hurt so much.  It took awhile for me to get up and try to walk it off.  I went out to my car to head out to work.  When I was backing down the driveway, that small little bump gave me more pain.  I continued to drive, but every little bump I hit, I could feel the pain.  So I decided to turn around and go back home.  I was hoping if I just relaxed and slept it off, things would be fine the next day.

The next morning, I was still feeling the pain.  I had to text Heath and have him come home because the pain was so intense when Amelia fell asleep on me.  I could not move.  When I did try to move, I felt pain every where.  It was awful.  In order to get up, I had to roll Amelia off of me and then slowly move around until I could tolerate the pain just enough so I could stand up.  My pain doesn't hurt when I'm standing or walking, only while sitting or bending over.

Once Heath got home, I went to the ER to get checked out.  I got some x-rays done.  The results came back negative.  There was no fracture.  I ended up spraining/bruising my tailbone.  I was given some pain medication and a work note for 72 hours and sent on my way.  The hydrocodone I was given works, but it makes me feel nauseous.  I hate it.  But like I said, it helps with the pain.  I cannot wait until I don't feel the pain anymore.

I'll be going back to work on Tuesday.  I only work part-time, so my next scheduled day after my work note expires will be Tuesday.  At that point, I'm still going to avoid driving certain cars.  I have a hard enough time getting out of my car, which is a sedan that doesn't sit that low to the ground.  I have a feeling I would get stuck in the Corvette's, Mustang's, and Camaro's.  I think I'll try to stick to the SUV's and bigger sedans.  I just want to go back to work.  My job is only part-time as it is and I hate not going.