Fragment Friday

*It's 11:10, and I finished my lunch at 10:40.  Yeah.  I kinda skipped breakfast.
*It's PAYDAY!!  Whoo!  Granted, I got pennies, but still, it's payday.  We're planning on going to dinner, and then the Goodwill Outlet after.  Don't know what I'll find, but hopefully it'll be worth it!
*I am cleaning the house today.  I've got a load of laundry in the washer, one in the dryer, and 2 more on the table waiting to go in.  Plus sheets and towels that haven't made it downstairs yet along with all the random socks I'm finding throughout the house.  (And then we wonder why we can never find Luke's socks in the morning!) Just sayin'.
*Ok, this Kaplan College commercial about the cute scrubs being the entire reason to have a 'medical' career is just annoying.  Like, seriously, doctors and nurses look down on you.  Hell, I look down on you.
*What do you do with dried Ancho peppers?  I could grind them up, I guess, but how?  Throw them in the food processor?

She called me because she knew I'd understand.  Shitty, but true.  Not shitty that she called, shitty why she called.  My BFF from high school was diagnosed with Leukemia last weekend, on my Birthday.  And this isn't all about me, at all.  This girl used to live behind me, we'd meet at the end of the street and hang out.  During high school we'd hang at Walmart on Friday and Saturday nights.  We went to Florida together our Senior year of high school.  She brought bean-o along because the boys were farters.  And she's going to beat this, I know.  It just knocked me on my ass, because I have NEVER been told someone close to me has the big C.  My cousin, but we aren't really that close.  A friend's wife from college, but I only know the husband.  Another friend from high school, but we weren't super close.  Yes, folks, this makes #4 (that I KNOW of) from my high school that has been diagnosed with cancer.  And we're only 19 years out of high school.  We're NOT OLD!  One was diagnosed 15 years ago, 2 of us were diagnosed 5 years ago, and then just now.  I'm really really bothered by this.  It's not fair. So of course I'm giving her all these resources, and I'm going to send her a box of hats and scarves since she's going to be losing her hair.

I went on a baking spree yesterday!

I made two loaves of Sourdough Bread, and then we actually had pizza with homemade crust yesterday.  Now, I'm officially out of flour, and can't do anything else until I buy more!  But, that's cool, because I'm back on my quest to remove store bought bread from our diet.  Charlie is all about saving money, but like I told him, if one day a week, I make several loaves, and I'm in the oven all day, we'll save money overall, because I'm only baking one day a week!  So our furnace won't be on as much!
Now, if I could only stop buying toilet paper.....  No, seriously, do you have that one thing or two, that you absolutely HATE purchasing?  For me, it's toilet paper and laundry detergent.  Now that we make our own detergent, the thought *has* crossed my mind to figure out something that can replace the tp.  I have some ideas, but am not sure if I want to take the plunge, and actually try and switch.  Charlie keeps coming back to the laundry, and the fact that we have our drain pipe from the laundry out in the yard.  Which might be the factor that doesn't allow me to do it.  BUT, in my defense, how is that different than cloth diapers?  So we shall see if I can convince the tree hugger to go even more tree huggery!

I'm having some major problems

The bestie and I went on a girls' weekend for my birthday, and we had a good time.  However, I got home, and just completely broke down.  Like I laid around all day yesterday, and didn't do shit.  And I am not feeling like my normal, happy-go-lucky self.  I don't know why.  We *are* having issues with our insurance company, but that's been going on since November.  So I don't know WTF is going on today.

Colder than a....

Fill in the blank as you see fit!  Brian and O'Brien say that it's a high of about 18? today, and I honestly think that it hit that last night sometime.  Thank God our house is warm and cozy, even though our furnace hasn't turned off for more than about an hour at a time since Sunday!
I've also been shirking my cooking duties- I haven't done anything cool from Pinterest, and I've just been slogging through just making whatever sounds good from our menu and the freezers.  Tonight is shrimp quesadillas to clean up the leftover shrimp from shrimp scampi last week.  I do occasionally splurge on shrimp- although not very often- that's $4 per meal just for that.  Leetle high, no?
I did, however, take one more step into self sufficient hood.  I made my own laundry soap.  Thank you Duggars!  It is sitting in my kitchen right now, because it's HEAVY, and Charlie hasn't taken it downstairs yet.  He's making noises about once he finishes his current container of coffee he'll load it up, and take it downstairs.  I'm like, whatever, just move it out of the way so I don't kill myself on it!  I haven't used it yet, like I said, I still have some Gain downstairs that I want to finish first.  Yay for saving money on both our laundry, and the Goodwill laundry I bring home to wash and resell on ebay!
It seems like I've been running around with stuff to do.  I hit Goodwill on Friday per my paycheck schedule.  :)  I've been posting on ebay like a fiend.  My goal is to make my student loan payment every month through selling.  If I can turn $50 a month into $350, we'll be doing well.  :)

New Year's Resolutions/Goals

It's mid January, and I've been thinking a lot about my new year's resolutions.  I've slowly come to the conclusion that I don't do resolutions, I do goals.  It's a different connotation- goal vs. resolution.  A resolution implies, to me, that you WILL achieve it.  And if you don't, then you're a failure.  A goal, implies that you would LIKE to achieve it, but there's no fear of failure if you don't eat your eleventy million servings of veggies a day.  If you had 7, that's great!  Tomorrow, you can try for 15.  It's a different way of looking at things.
My goals that I've set out for myself this year are a good mix- things I can easily term resolutions, because I will achieve them, and goals that truly are goals- I won't achieve them completely this year, but I will get a super good head start on them, and then NEXT year, they can be my resolutions!
*My weight loss.  I need to continue that.  I've lost 40 lbs recently, and I'm pretty steady at where I'm at now.  I'd like to jump start that again, and start dropping the pounds again.  I've signed up for the mini again this year, and will do at least 2-3 more 'fun' 5k's.  I'll walk/run the mini, and then walk the Color Run, and probably the Glo Run.  Not sure about the 3rd race I'm planning yet, there's a ton, and I'm not sure where I want to go.  :)
*Organizing and streamlining our house.  It's a decent size house, and we're not exactly a huge family, but at the same time, we have an entire room that SHOULD be our office, and it's not.  It's filled with crap that I've accumulated from Goodwill, because I'm trying to start a resale business.  Which is going well, I just have a huge amount of crap to go through.  And then of course, I'm a yarn fiend, so that needs to go as well.  Either into gifts or sell it/give it away.  I'm a huge fan of all things Amish, and they only bring things into their houses that are useful and necessary.  Everything has a place, and everything goes IN IT"S PLACE!  I have a problem with that right now, and I realize that I have to reorganize, get rid of stuff.
*Wrestle the budget under control.  That's one of my biggest problem areas right now.  I have no problem picking up a Diet Coke after work, or McDonald's on my way home.  That's a huge expense every week, that I basically fritter away.  That needs to stop.  I also want to get my one credit card paid down, and work it with my business.  Basically, shop for supplies for the business with it, pay it off with profits.  That way, I can see what's working, and what's not.

Done (almost) with 2012

I am so glad that 2012 is almost over.  It has sucked in so many ways, and I'm truly hoping that 2013 is going to be better.  I mean, honestly, I'm not sure how it can be worse than 2012.  Right?

I'm still decluttering, and it's going ok.  I mean, no one's buying a lot of stuff on eBay right now, but that should start picking up here shortly- I made a trip to the outlet this morning with Luke, so now I've got some new stuff to post and try to sell.

And of course we were snowed in the day after Christmas.  We got 11 inches of snow in about 6 hours, and everyone was shut down- except the malls and stores.  And even some of those were closed.  This is our view from our front porch, inside of course.  :)  Insane, isn't it?  They're calling it Snowpocalypse 2012.  Or Euclid, according to The Weather Channel!

I think things might finally be settling down with my inlaws.  Charlie spent the entire Christmas day with them, and I was at home.  Which was wonderful.  Apparently, his mom said something about how I was missed, and my sil made a comment that she wished I was there so we could talk urban homesteading.  And yes, that would have been cool, but I am not up to dealing with that right now.  After the whole thing blew up, she wrote an apology that she hopes we can start over.  And I'm all for that, but Jebus Christmas, respond to an email that my husband sends you about possible plans to hang out together!  I am not planning on going up there until *next* Thanksgiving- definitely not Easter.  And I'm not even sure about Luke's birthday party.  I've told Charlie that I won't be there, so don't expect me to help you.  I really don't want to see them at all any time soon.  I *wish* I had great inlaws, but such is life.  I am sometimes jealous that other people have wonderful inlaws that treat them like part of the family.  I get people who act like their sons hung the moon, and I'm expected to bow and scrape.  Oh well.  I will get through.  :)