Bye Bye Bloggers

So many of the blogs I read are ending. I have such a short "blog roll" already and now two of them are quitting! So, if anyone has read any good blogs lately, post them and I'll read (and if I like them) I'll link!

Wood Sugar!

My mom introduced me to Epic gum a few years ago and I just want to promote it a bit, since it's great stuff. The secret of Epic gum is it's use of Xylitol, a wood "sugar" that actually classifies as a sugar substitue. The great thing is that Xylitol is not a chemical, like many sugar substitutes (and real sugar, actually) but is a naturally occuring sugar in your body. If you want more info, click the links below.

http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/xylitol_natural_sweetener.html
www.epicdental.com

We are starting up our small group again tonight. I am excited to get together again with our friends! Also, since I can't remember the password to my weightloss blog (it's been a while since I logged on), I'm going to have to create another one. If you want to read it, shoot me and email @ jaime_schechter@yahoo.com and I'll send you a link. I'm going to try and update it several times a week, as I hope to have a lot to report!

Also, I am finally going to be a paid blogger. I have to wait for the company to start sending me a few assignments, so be warned, there may be a few more links on here in the future. Hopefully, I can tie everything together, so it doesn't seem random! I'm excited to start that. Have a fun evening! It's FlyLady date night and so I'm going on a "date" with my husband to Bible study with our small group!

Truck Pictures

Here is Andrew's "new" truck. We removed the detail from the side of the truck.

We removed it using a hair dryer and that's why I'm being silly. I can't believe I'm showing my silly side on my blog! *gasp*

2 acres

I spent the majority of my weekend mowing. I had no idea how long it would take to mow our property. The main problem is that our ground is very bumpy and strewn with endless metal objects left by the previous owner. I think I stopped over 20 times to pickup and move some sort of dangerous object or a large rock, etc. I know it will get easier every time because this stuff will eventually get all picked up, but for right now, it can be a bit overwhelming!! We are having our excavator haul off a bunch of junk. It needs to dry out a little bit before he can come to haul and grade.

A college friend of ours is coming to stay the night. We're having a small cookout which should be good! :)

I have been enjoying my elliptical machine. I have a very nice setup in the basement. I have a TV and DVD player, a matt, weights, and my elliptical machine. I have been renting and watching musicals from the Library. I really need to be familiar with more musicals (although I know a lot) so this is the perfect way to do it. It's amazing how fast 20 minutes on the elliptical goes while watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat! :) I'm done with that now, so I'm going back to the Library today for another one.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I keep meaning to do that, but it seems everytime I'm home, I'm either cleaning something or the computer is busy! :) So, they will come eventually.

Things to come

Yes, I will post recipes soon, as soon as I have time to quit making them and actually post them. My newest endeavor in the kitchen was to make my own pie crust last night, with organic, chemical free "crisco" (no, not the crisco brand that says it's 100% trans fat free, which is even more unhealthly, but this is a pressed palm oil made by spectre). I threw in some whole wheat flour for good measure. I am taking a meal tonight to someone in our church who has cancer and so that was my motivation for chicken pot pie and the healthy crust. We didn't eat until 9:00 pm last night, but (in my opinion) it was well worth it. The crust wasn't heavy or dry from the whole wheat, like I feared, but was flaky and tender. If I were to do this again, I would make the crust ahead of time and just refridgerate. It was a bit much for one night. It was hard to roll out because it was so crumbly, but I finally managed, even though my crust edges weren't that pretty! :) I'll try to post this and the salmon cakes soon.

My elliptical machine arrived last night. I have felt guilty for spending the money on it, but I'll just have to make sure I use it, in order to get my money's worth. As my mom said (in her wise counsel), maybe it will save on medical bills later in the life. Andrew will put it together for me tonight. I will hopefully take some pictures of it.

We are finally going to be able to grade our yard next week or the next. We've been waiting for the cable company to come and bury our high speed internet cable. I called them and bugged them about 10 times, so that might have helped the speedy process. I let them know that they were holding us up from finishing up our outside grading. The excavator is going to come early next week, if there is no rain. It will be nice to be able to plant some grass seed!

We are also, finally, finalizing our mortgage. I've been on pins and needles getting this worked out. One company wouldn't finance us because our upstairs isn't finished. I told them this was ridiculous, since most people have an unfinished basement too, but it was no avail. So we had to agree to a higher interest rate at the bank where we had our construction loan. It will work out in time. We'll probably refinance eventually, but I'm just glad we can get started paying this thing off (even if that will take a while). I'm mailing the final papers back today.

The rest of our time has become engulfed in a crazy obsession with Battlestar Galactica. Andrew has always watched this TV show, and I tried to watch it a few times, just to see what the fuss was about, but could never really get hooked. Well, a few weeks ago, we started out from the very beginning (I have bought Andrew all of the seasons, for different birthday's/occasions) with the miniseries. It's amazing how much more I enjoy it when I understand what is going on. Normally, I have an intense dislike for Science Fiction shows. I'm not a fan of aliens! However, this show not only has Science Fiction elements but it also includes human relationships, human emotions, politics, ethics, etc, so it makes for a very interesting show. We are close to ending season 2 and season 3 has yet to be released on DVD, so our obsession will soon end! It's been a fun thing to enjoy with Andrew and now I can watch the upcoming episodes with more interest, since I know what is going on. I can't believe I have enjoyed it so much. I guess it's just a lesson to all of us (but mainly to myself) not to dislike something like this, until you've actually given it a chance!

A Slice of Heaven (not)

This won't be long.

Last night, as I was chopping an onion for our crock pot chili (for tonight). I turn to look at Andrew and listen to what he was saying.

Slice . . . . . . I howled with pain (Andrew hates it when I cry loudly), and discovered I sliced open my left pointer finger. No stitches required. I thought I was going to die, Andrew assured me that I was fine. It was our shapest knife, so the cut wasn't too big.

This is a reminder that I'm a big wimp when I comes to pain. I got light headed when I saw the sink full of blood and again this morning when I changed the bandaid in the shower! I try to be brave but my body (blood pressure) just reacts without any consideration for what my brain wants it to do!!



We bought a truck! I'll post pictures when I'm at home (by the memory card with the pictures) and when my finger doesn't throb when I type (tomorrow???).

Have a Happy Monday!!

Happenings

I certainly still feel pretty busy, but life has settled down for us, since we're able to be in one spot and have our own place. It's quite nice! I've been enjoying myself lately while cooking (and sometimes while keeping house). The best thing we had this week was Salmon Cakes. I'll try to post the recipe on here this weekend, it's at home.

We are in the midst of trying to find a vehicle (a truck) for Andrew to buy. He has some contacts through his work, but nothing has worked out for us yet. We are going to look at a truck in Indiana tonight. It's a Sonoma, I think. He has been needing a vehicle for some time and we are able to just outright buy one (yeah for the power of cash when bartering with car sales people) with our tax refund and savings. I hope this one we see tonight is the right price and has good features. I like it because it is an automatic transmission (aka. I can drive it). So we'll see.

I've been doing well with my eating (we've been having yummy stuff, so it's not hard) and have just started an exercise plan that I hope I can stick with. I've lost approx. 8 lbs so far. Our bathroom scale isn't very good, so it's hard to see exactly what's happening. I finally ordered my elliptical machine yesterday. I thought I would walk more outside, but it's been so cold lately that I haven't been doing anything. I would like to do something for 30 minutes per day, so I may have to break that down into two sessions, to fit into my schedule. Andrew is going to help me set up a little workout spot downstairs, this weekend, in preparation for the arrival of my elliptical. Eventually, I also need to add a weight bench, a exercise ball and exercise mat, since the floor down there is concrete.

Next Tuesday evening, I am going to begin to take voice students on Tuesday nights, as well as Mondays. My original hope was that several of my Monday night students would switch to Tuesday, so Monday's wouldn't be so full. Only one has switched so far. I have promised Andrew that I will only take 8 students total (the plan was 4 on Monday and 4 on Tuesday) and right now I have 7. I definitely realize that I have overcommiting disease, so I need some sort of regulation (or regulator) in my life, so Andrew has to approve if I am going to add any more students. We are also starting up our small group from church again on Friday nights. It's been so much fun and can't wait to get together with our friends again. The only other thing I've committed to was to take over being "coach" of the 3 & 4 year old classroom, just for the summer to give the current coach a break.

All for now. If we buy the truck, I'll post pictures, and hopefully we'll have more inside and outside (which isn't very pretty right now) shots of the house soon!

Pictures!!

I will begin the picture segment of my blog with a lovely shot of our pup, Dewey. We were trying to capture him smiling, but we didn't quite get it. It's a cute picture anyway.

Dewey leaping in the air!

The office. The only thing that needs finished are the windows!

The bathroom with the beautiful curtain that Susan made us.

Our bedroom with Dewey messing up the neatly made bed. Notice our new bed skirt, also made by Susan.

A view into the living room. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the piano.

A picture of the kitchen. Sorry, it's kind of dark.

The mudroom/laundry room.

My shiny sink!

Not sure why Andrew took this one, but it's of me, the sink, and the Bar Keepers Friend that I used to make it shiny.


Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures this weekend, when Jenny and her boyfriend Luke came for the weekend. I'm not sure why we didn't get around to it but we'll have to take twice as many next time.

Somewhat Boring Life . . .

So here's an update on our somewhat boring life (which has been such a nice change). Andrew continues to plug away at his new accounting class. I'm not sure the course work is more challenging but it certainly is more time consuming. We've definitely been watching much less TV than before and I've had lots of good time to sit in the office and read while he is working on homework.

My sister and her boyfriend are coming this weekend for a visit. They are arriving Friday and leaving Sunday. If our plan works out we'll have tea on Saturday noon, supper at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse (Andrew and I have never been there) and then we'll catch the Red's game. Unfortunately, you can't make reservations for the Boathouse but you are only able to call ahead and find out available times and we might not go to the Red's game if it's too cold. Right now, they are saying 39 degrees, which is up four from yesterday.

I've primarily been working on getting my Flylady routine's in place. So far, these are my routines. I think I'm about ready to move on to weekly routines as well, but I don't want to go to fast (and crash and burn).

After Work Routine:
Start load of Laundry
Unpack Flylady "Office in a Bag"
Supper (Prep, eat, and cleanup)
Load Dishwasher
5 Minute Room Rescue
15 minute Filing (This will drop off, as soon as the pound of paperwork we're buried under is flung).

Before Bed Routine:
Shine Your Sink (Which lead to washing the dishes, putting away the dish drain dishes, and wiping counters)
Laundry to Dryer
Start Dishwasher
Prep Lunches (all but Sandwich)
Water Plans
Lay out tomorrow's clothes
Think about what's for dinner (put meat in fridge to dethaw, etc)

Morning Routine:
Let Dog Out (Brr, it was cold this morning)
Shower, fix hair and face
Swish and Swipe the bathroom (I clean the toilet and sink with a spray of Clorox and a paper towel each morning)
Morning Devotional Time
(By this time, Andrew's out of bed)
Make Bed
Get Dressed
Finish Lunches
Empty Dishwasher
Fix Breakfast
Fold Clothes and put Away

My morning routine is a bit too long, I think. I was about 5 minutes late for work this morning. I'm trying to figure out another way to fold the laundry, as I've never actually done this before in the morning, it's just in the plan. If you're totally confused, you can check out www.flylady.net or feel free ask me questions. It's so much fun!! I'm going to try to remember to take pictures and post soon!