Back to reality, out of the bayou.

Well, as much as I loved my mini Christmas vacation, I am glad to be back home. 

Before we left, I had started organizing and rearranging my house, and as silly as this sounds, I was happy to be back to continue working on it. The first day back, I was pretty much useless, but as the week has progressed, I find my house looking a little more amazing. My mother in law got me some awesome candles, so as I finish cleaning a room, I put a smelly good candle in there to complete the room. So far, I have tackled Jade's disaster of a room, put everything in bins, and made room for her to play. Then, made the man cave look outstanding! Hubs was even surprised at how things looked! 

My sissy got me a wall organizer type type thing to put by the front door, and I have to say, it was one of my favorite presents! It fits so perfectly by my door! Plus, since I am on this organizing kick, it helps me out a ton. Love love love it. Ok, so I got J's room, the man cave, the entryway and the kitchen and pantry done. Oh, and I also finished the master bathroom closet. It looks lovely. I don't have much more to clean throughout the house, but I feel like this is a never ending job. It really tires me out. 

I had never seen so many swamps in my life, until we went to Baton Rouge for Christmas. I'm pretty sure all of Louisiana is a swamp. I thought people had over exaggerated that fact! We drove for miles and miles on a highway located on top of a swamp.. and people had their houses on stilts in case of flooding from the nearby swamps. We even passed a few houses that had to be reached by swamp boat. Oh, and not to mention, most of the convenient stores had alligator heads for sale. ....cuz I totally wanted one. No, seriously, I really did. Who else can say they have a freakin gator head?! I have to admit, I had a blast. It was surely an adventure. Now I can officially cross Louisiana off my list of places to go. <3 

Now, I get to step back into reality, finish organizing my house and finish studying for school. Its really sad, I have been so scared to take one of my finals, that I have put it off for 4 months. For one, the dang test is $375.00 and I dont wanna have to pay for it twice. Another thing, its an Excelsior exam which have the reputation of being crazy hard. So, stupid me googled the test, and people have said they failed and it was the hardest test ever....... and it scared me away. I should really lay off Web MD and Google. When I look on Wb MD, I usually diagnose myself with off the wall things. You type in your symptoms and the worst case scenario always comes up first. I'm pretty sure I have been near death 5 times already, had HIV, cancer and prostate failure (teehee, and Im a girl!) all thanks to Web MD. 

Anyway, I'm pretty tired and possibly car-lagged.. I can't possibly be jet lagged, right??

Jade and the Beanstalk

Apparently I am not scientifically inclined. 

"Next time I'm getting daddy to help with my science experiments,"  Jaida told me after her second failed science project.

To be honest, the failed science projects were NOT my fault. Ok, maybe just a little, but I honestly have no idea what I did wrong. The first experiment, I'm not really sure what it was trying to explain, but it involved Sprite and hard spaghetti noodles. We did everything it said! We put the noodles in the cup, we added the sprite with food coloring and the noodles were suppose to float. Fail. They got soggy instead. Again, not sure what I did wrong. The directions seemed pretty self forward. 

The next experiment failure was the cats fault. We were learning about plants and how plants take water from their stems and deliver it to their leaves. So this experiment involved colored water and celery stalks. Everything was going fine until the cat got jealous of my affection toward the red celery stalk (since it had taken its lovely drinks of red water and turned slightly a pinkish red color) and he knocked it off my bar. It hit the floor, and the celery stalk was no more. Another failure.

So, this time, I honestly didn't expect much. We were doing an experiment with beans. One bag full of dry beans, another full of beans with a wet paper towel involved. Low and behold, my (I mean her, of course) experiment was a SUCCESS!! I was so excited, I took pictures. 

Jaida said the bean sprouts look like venus fly traps. Who cares what they look like! The experiment freakin worked! 

"I'm still having daddy help me next time. You are too excited over beans,"  Jaida said. "Next thing I know, you'll be trying to plant them to grow a beanstalk, which will not grow to give you a giant or a golden egg."

Proof of my amazing scientific skills.

Organization, Part 2

I'm trying really hard to finish organizing my house. I have been working so much lately, that I really haven't had the time to do as much as I wanted, but its a start. As soon as the holidays are over and I have a little less hectic schedule, I wanna get my whole house done. It makes me sleep better knowing I have a cleaner house. Is that weird? 

Anyway, as I said in previous posts, dummy me forgot to take before photos, so all you are left with is the "after." The man cave closet made the best improvement.. But, there is so much stuff in there my hubs won't let me get rid of (i.e. action figures, 9 game systems we never use, some junk computer parts) that it makes it look packed and messy. But, I can promise you, this is a million times better than what it was. One of the things I cannot stand is still having cardboard boxes, even though we have been living in our new house almost 2 years. So, I got rid of the boxes he had in there, and divided things into cute baskets. At least now, all his nintendo games are together, his million miles worth of computer wires are together and his dolls. I mean, action figures. <3 

Then, there was my dreaded bathroom closet. I actually found a long, lost earring in there! Too bad I threw the other one away while this one was lost. Please ignore how none of my towels match. They totally use to. But, I seem to get alot of towels as Christmas gifts, and they never match my theme. Either that, or I change my theme so much, its hard to keep up with. My next goal after my home organization is done will be to match all my towels. I hope.

Sorry about the picture quality in these, it was dark, and unlike my hubs phone, my phone takes terrible pictures. Actually, my phone just sucks. Period. 

Bathroom closet looks much better!

Man Cave closet. Action figures right side, 2nd shelf, red basket. Teehee.

Germs

A couple months ago, Jaida was watching one of her favorite shows, Invader Zim. I'm not gonna lie and say that I wasn't watching it too, because since I became a mom, I have reverted back to kid state, and I'm pretty sure I have only watched enough adult type shows to count on one hand. So, hubs and I have grown to love Jaida's kid shows. Hubs even likes Wizards of Waverly Place. It is sad how much him and I laugh while watching that show together... I mean, with Jaida. Teehee. Anyway, my life seems to revolve around Jaida's show schedules. It is really kinda scary how much she likes Invader Zim. And how much it impacts her while the morals of the stories stick. So, a few months ago we were watching Invader Zim, and it was an episode about germs. In fact, I am pretty sure it was titled that. In the show, Zim gets a pair of glasses that allows him to see germs, and there are so many that he carries a disinfecting spray and sprays down everything while being terrified. It was actually pretty funny. Now, keep in mind this episode was seen MONTHS ago, maybe even close to a year ago. So, the other night, we are getting ready for bed, and Jaida tells me that she saw on Dateline NBC that they had a special camera that allowed you to see spills and gross stuff like germs. She is going on and on and on about this, and I'm half tuning her out, because frankly, I was tired... and I seem to do that to her alot. If you spent any kind of time with my daughter, you would know exactly my reasoning. Her 2 seconds stories usually end up being about 10 minutes long. She has so many "uhms" and "what was I saying?" in her stories, that by the time she is done, you are so confused, you don't even know what the story started out as. Therefore, I tune her out a lot, and most the time just nod. Usually, when I tune back in, she is still talking. 

But, back to the story (see how I just pulled a Jaida?  hahahaha)  

A few nights later, I was trying to take some pics with my hubs phone. His phone is way cooler than mine, his has a flash. And I happen to see a pic of our dog, only he has a huge blue spot on it. So, naturally, I am thinking Jaida put koolaid or something on him, so I open the pic, which turns out to be a video. As soon as I saw it, I realized what was wrong. The camera/video on the phone was set on "posterize."  In case you have no idea what I am talking about, I have the definition from Wiki:

Posterization is a process in photograph development which converts normal photographs into an image consisting of distinct, but flat, areas of different tones or colors. A posterized image often has the same general appearance, but portions of the original image that presented gradual transitions are replaced by abrupt changes in shading and gradation from one area of tone to another. 

Ok, so basically, when there is light present in a video/photo, the color is changed.. and they are pretty bold. For example, part of our dog was blue. And there were green spots on our hard wood floor where the light was reflecting...    Are you catching on to the theme of germs?   Let me just show you the video. Jaida had no idea that the camera was set on "posterize" so to her, she had just discovered a camera setting that showed "germs." She even tries to clean them.   

Darn you Invader Zim and Dateline NBC!!  She was freakin out while I was tuning her out during her story about germs. She kept telling me they were everywhere. The whole time, I was thinking back to the episode we watched, never really understanding the seriousness of her logic. She literally thought our house was covered in germs. 

Funniest. Video. Ever. (If you can stand the shakiness of the video, and her non-stop cleaning "germs" attempts) OH!!! & at the end, she doesn't say a curse word, she says, "Die you filthy germs."   yeah.... I had to listen to it a few times, cause she almost got her mouth washed out with soap.

Coupon Schedule 2012

In case anyone would like to know....  And, mostly for me so I don't forget!

Here is the coup schedule for 2012!

January

01 – Redplum, Smart Source (2), P&G
08 – Redplum, Smart Source
15 – Smart Source
22 – Redplum, Smart Source
29 – Redplum, Smart Source, P&G

February

05 -Redplum, Smart Source
12 – Redplum, Smart Source (2)
19 – Redplum
26 – Smart Source (2)

March

04 – Redplum, Smart Source, P&G
11 – Redplum, Smart Source
18 – Redplum, Smart Source
25 – Redplum, Smart Source
30 – Redplum, Smart Source

April

01 – Redplum (2), Smart Source (2), P&G
08 – No Inserts Scheduled (Easter)
15 – Redplum, Smart Source
22 – Smart Source
29 – Redplum, Smart Source

May

06 – Redplum, Smart Source, P&G
13 – Redplum, Smart Source
20 – Redplum, Smart Source
27 – No Inserts Scheduled (Memorial Day)

June

03 – Redplum, Smart Source, P&G
10 – Redplum, Smart Source
17 – Redplum, Smart Source 1
24 – Redplum, Smart Source

July

01 – No Inserts Scheduled (4th of July)
08 -Redplum, Smart Source, P&G
15 – Smart Source
22 – Redplum, Smart Source
29 – Redplum, Smart Source

August

05 – Redplum (2), Smart Source
12 – Redplum, Smart Source
19 – Redplum, Smart Source
26 – Redplum, Smart Source

September

02 – No Inserts Scheduled (Labor Day)
09 – Redplum, Smart Source (2)
16 – Redplum, Smart Source
23 – Smart Source
30 – Redplum, Smart Source

October

07 – Redplum, Smart Source (2), P&G
14 – Redplum, Smart Source
21 – Redplum, Smart Source
28 – Redplum, Smart Source

November

04 – Redplum, Smart Source, P&G
11 – Redplum (2), Smart Source
18 – Smart Source
25 – No Inserts Scheduled (Thanksgiving)

December

02 – Redplum, Smart Source, P&G
09 – Redplum, Smart Source
16 – Smart Source
23 – No Inserts Scheduled (Christmas)
30 – No Inserts Scheduled (New Year’s)

Stock pile is growing!

Ok so, I may or may not have gone overboard. Reminds me of the saying, "the glass is half full."  I mean, to some it is too much, to some it is not enough, but I am addicted to adding to it and will not be stopping till I have at least 200 rolls of paper towels. Yes, 200. I need them!!! Seriously. Last night, I came home with more Dawn dish soap. 4 more bottles, thats not TOO many. Daniel just looked at me and said, "Really Summer?!"  I just smiled and started putting them away. It may sound all obsessive compulsive or whatever, but I have found freakin uses for them, man! I have discovered how well they clean hard wood floors without leaving a greasy like residue. It's true! I have been trying to find a floor cleaner like that forever! And now I have plenty of it! I even used some in my lil portable steam/shampoo cleaner the other day to shampoo the backseat of the car. It worked wonderfully. That back seat was something scary. I'm not sure what Jaida has been doing back there, but my goodness, it looked like she had installed a soda fountain back there at one point, but it had leaked, and then maybe she tried to use marker to color the seat a new color because clearly her leaky soda fountain had ruined the original color, and then the worst part of the backseat was when I lifted up her booster to find things growing. I dunno. She had mentioned to me previously about her plans to "retire and live off her millions," but I think her and I are gonna need to have a long, stern talk about why the backseat of my car is not a good place to start her french fry/candy farm. Oh, and I know those disgusting fries were from Mickey D's, cause they were harder than a rock, and had no signs of decomp, although the last time we ate from Mcdonalds was about 4 months ago. Gross. I should probably opt to clean out my car a lil more often to prevent this kinda stuff from happening, but I will get to that later (haha! Procrastination at its finest.) 

Anyway, on to the stockpile pics!

 

And this folks, is my pride and joy right now... my paper freakin towels & TP!

Out of the mouth of a babe..

So lately, I've gotten really tickled at some things Jade has said. It seems in the past week, she has had me laughing more than ever. I love things kids say! So random!! It amazes me how much the pick up, and how much they remember. The other night, we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. My hubs was steadily sittin there eating the peanuts, and Jaida got this disgusted look on her face. She finally spoke up and said, "You should really lay off the peanuts before you have a stroke."  Then, she turned to me and said, "He would look all gimpy, and half of his face would be all blah and hanging down, and the other half would be all happy saying LOOK AT ME!!!"  The look on her face during this conversation was priceless. She was so serious! I guess me being a nurse really has affected her. One time she told me her "urethra" hurt, and when I asked how she knew what a urethra was, she told me she remembered me studying "moo-moos" when I was in nursing school, and I had to label things, and I labeled "out loud" and she heard me stating parts. Then, she said she also knew what it was due to Hank Hill having a narrow urethra.  Unbelievable.

Today, we were doing our morning routines, and I had her in the bath while I was doing my hair and makeup. I heard her say, "Oh lord. It's happening again."  So I asked her what was happening, as I started at her through the mirror. She was looking at her hands and said, "well, it never fails. Every time I get in this dang water, my hands get red, then they turn all red and crusty."  Crusty?! How on earth do your hands get crusty J? So she points and shows me her "crusty" hands, which are wrinkled due to the water. She said, "Crusty, like old people get." Wow....  I tried to explain the difference between being crusty, and having wrinkles, and she waved me away and said they were pretty much the same thing. Ha. I dread getting old around her. I don't wanna get all crusty.

But, apparently I AM old and crusty, because as we were leaving for me to go to work, I looked over and saw my flowers had died and my lil garden had went capoot. So, I say, "Dang. I hope my flowers grow back. The cold weather has killed them."  And J tells me, "You should buy a flower blanket. OOO that gives me an idea, I'm going to invent something so we can retire and live fat off my millions. Oh wait, you are old and almost ready to retire anyway, so this won't really benefit you that much.... but it will me!!" Lil toot. I am not old. I am still in my 20's THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! I may not have much of them left, but dangit, I'm still here! Although, I didn't really have much of a comeback to her lil comment... I just sat there and sulked a bit.

I have been pretty busy lately! I've been working a ton so that I can start paying off bills. That silly book has really motivated me to get rid of all my credit cards and my debt other than our house. My goal is to have the house paid off in 15 years. Wouldn't that be the best thing EVER? My goal for the next few months is to get rid of allllllll our debt other than car and house. My goal for the next year is to have the car paid off and sock extra money to the house. I use to be so good about not having credit cards, but in 2009 when I first started wanting a house, the bank we got our mortgage loan from said we needed some cards to help get our credit up, so we got a few. And, I never let them get maxed out, but I took their advice and never really paid them completely off either. I pay a little extra each month, but I always use the cards again so its a constant positive for our credit. I am officially done with credit cards. I am so glad my Aunt Polly showed me this amazing book. I truly have a plan now! I am determined to stick with it. I WILL meet my goals this next year!

Another thing I have started doing is organizing my house. I am not really sure why this sudden burst of organizational energy came from, but I figured, if I was organizing my finances, I needed to straighten out the chaos I call my home. So, the first thing I did was organize my pantry. I've started getting tons of cereal and cookies from my extreme couponing habit, and I never seemed to have enough room. There was just sooooo much stuffed crammed in there, and it always felt like a chore to go in there to find stuff. I wish I would have taken a "before" pic, but I was lazy and my phone was soooo far away. lol

But here is the AFTER pic!  Much better!!!  

I am honestly not sure how long it will stay like this, but I'm hoping it stays awhile. Jaida seemed to appreciate it. Now she knows exactly where her  pop tarts are. teehee. 

I also went and bought a lil wire shelving unit and some cute baskets for the man caves closet. That was the one area I dreaded cleaning the most. That thing was packed to the ceiling with my hubs electronic pieces. There were little bits of this, and little bits of that. Sheesh. It took me awhile, but by the end of the day, I had it in order. We have been in our house almost 2 years, and I was on a mission to rid our house of packing boxes. There were tons in his closet. I got rid of the big, bulky boxes, and put the things in baskets. He was impressed! He could actually see where his nintendo games were, and his computer wires, and his silly lil action figures. lol   They are tucked away all nice and pretty in baskets. I'm going to continue organizing, one room at a time till its done! Maybe this will motivate my daughter to keep things tidy.

Anyway, I guess I've been on here a lil too long. I realized I have missed most of my show, and I need to start making dinner for my little patient. Hope everyone had a great Saturday! Mine has been fabulous and amusing!  

Until next time!

Celeb status!

I've come to the conclusion that I work too much. Well, I really don't work too much ALL the time.. but, I work 40 hours over the weekend, then I volunteer to work at the clinic 2-3 days a week. Working at the clinic tires me out more than working my 16 hour back to back shifts. I'm not sure why that is, cause I am only at the clinic 9 hours, I guess I just interact with more people and do more stuff. Oh, and I don't get fed like I do at my weekend family's home. They love me. I truly couldn't have asked to work at a better house. I feel like they are my new 2nd family. They are so awesome! I have never been as comfortable at a clients house as I am with them. As much as I miss the clinic, I don't think I will ever go back permanently.  I am just trying so hard to get extra money to get us out of debt, which is why I have been spending extra time at the clinic. I loved it for the 4 years I was there, but it was definitely time for a change.Now that I am home with Jaida most Monday-Thursdays and I have the chance to home school her and be with her all day, I love it. I don't think I will ever go back to a Mon-Fri job. However, after my RN is done (a few months left to go!) I would like to cut back hours a bit to where I have a little bit of my weekend to do fun stuff with my fam. The foster mom from my weekend job says she would like to open a Pediatric Nursing Home. She would be an amazing director! She is one of the best moms I have ever met. Hopefully if her dream comes true, I will be able to work for her one day! Best. Job. Ever.

Random thought. One of my girlfriends gave me an idea that I will be using for birthdays and Christmas' to come! Her daughter posts the things she wants/likes on this website called Pinterest. Cutest freakin website EVER. I'm going to use this for Jaida and I throughout the year, that way, when Christmas or a birthday comes around, I don't have to rack my brain thinking of things...  cause you know, when I really want to give people a list for myself, nothing comes to mind. With this site, I'm just gonna post things I love and let people decide what to get me. Plus, the site has the cutest freakin ideas humanly possible.

Speaking of Christmas! I can't believe how excited I am this year! I have no idea why! I feel like a little kid in a candy shop. I am especially excited for Jaida to open her presents. I feel like this is gonna be the best one ever. I have been able to get her almost everything she wants.  I love seeing her smile. Nursing school was really the best decision I ever made. It has really helped us to create a plan. Another upside to Christmas this year is that we are going on a lil  mini vaycay to Louisiana to see family. I love going on trips. (even if it is for only 3 days)  It will be our first traveling Christmas. I'm excited!

Another random Summer thought. It's really my ADHD kickin in... So, Jade and I are local celebrities at our local mall!!! lol

No, but we REALLY are!!!  It started out like this: We took some Old-timey Southern pictures recently, and instead of wanting to be a cute saloon girl or a southern belle, my child wanted to be a gun slinger. Yep. You read that right, a freakin gun slinger. Not that I minded at all, because I am super obsessed with outlaws. So obsessed that my cat and dog are named Frank and Jesse James.

 Anywho, my silly child had the man who was taking our pics laughing so hard it was unreal. He thought she was the cutest thing! She wanted to look like a bank robber with stolen money in hand. So he decked us out in outlaw-wear. He gave her a bag of "money." We took our pictures, bought them and left. Well, apparently, he liked our pic soooo much, he is using us a display in the store. (right up front!)  so, I went and saw it for myself yesterday. He told me that he had so much fun taking our pictures, and Jade made him laugh so much with her obsession with being a bank robber, that our pic was his favorite ever!!!!!  Isn't that awesome?!   Our freakin pic will be traveling around with him when he goes to other malls. Jaida is so excited, she thinks she is all that now. (as if she didnt think that before..... now its just way worse.)

So here is our infamous pic!!:    (taken from my nieces camera phone lol)

Cute huh?!

I thought so too!!

Anyway! I'ma get back to work. They aren't paying me to blog!

Till next time!

Duct tape?!

Ok, can someone please tell me why I'm wiggin out over free duct tape?! Its not like I ever use it.. ok, so maybe I use it a LITTLE, but not alot... to the point I got all excited and did a happy lil "free duct tape" dance. I guess if anyone ever needs duct tape, I'm their girl! ha

For some reason, I've been crazy LAZY this week. I'm not sure what the eff is going on. I wish I could get back on my Vyvanse. When I took that, I never sat still. Although, the whole point of Vyvanse was to calm me down. And, it took me down a few notches from my normal hyper self. But, I got SOOOOO much more stuff done when I was on it. My house was always clean, I was motivated to get off my couch and do activities with my daughter, her movement didn't drive me crazy, etc. I must be a lil bass-ackwards, cause I literally worked 40 hours from Fri-Sun, Monday I was so energized I organized and cleaned my house (although you wouldnt be able to tell that I did if you looked at it today,) got my daughter caught up on school work, made dinner, AND went to bed super late..... just to get up Tuesday and go to work at the clinic and not be tired!  It was amazing.. but my ball of energy has slowly stopped rolling, because today, I feel like crawling back in bed and sleeping for a week. It sucks to feel like this today cause my work "week" starts now. I work 8 hours tonight, a 16 hour tomorrow, a 16 hour on Sunday, then a 9 hour on Monday. (The Monday shift was one I volunteered for earlier this week during my energy high.)  I could slap myself for it now.

I'm pretty sure I have taken this extreme couponing thing to a new level. I realize I need Coupon-Anonymous. I counted my coups last night, during my nightly "clean-up and organize my coup binder venture" and I have about 4000 coups. And, it seriously breaks my heart when one expires. I feel like I am burying one of my pets. Isn't that pathetic? Anyway, NOW I freakin need a new binder thats bigger, cause my lil 2" binder no longer closes...thanks to all my coups. Maybe I'll tell my hubbo to buy me a binder for xmas. That would probably be the BEST gift ever..  so, if you are reading this hub, you now know. <3

I know that it JUST started getting cold here in Texas, but I'm ready for spring. I need to get some pictures of my kiddo, and I just don't like the ugly background of dead leaves and funky leafless trees. I took some super cute xmas pics of the family I work for, and it got me wanting to get back into my photography a little. Maybe not for strangers, but my family and my close friends. I love taking pictures. I found a backdrop set that I wanted to get, but I gotta make a lil money first before I wanna start buying stuff for my camera.

Speaking of money, I started reading the Total Money Makeover, and it is seriously changing the way I look at money. What an amazing book!! I have already started working on my "money makeover" and hopefully within 6 months, Danny and I will have NO more debt other than our house & car payment. Of course, I am going to start working on paying both of those things off early, but for RIGHT NOW, I am paying off everything else. Even if it leaves me no money to have fun with. I am determined!

You know how earlier I said I was lazy?  Well, I am too lazy to upload any pics today OR continue writing/typing/whatever. So, until next time!  This is so sad!

A lil bit of this, and a lil bit of poop.

As if I don't work too much, I volunteered to work at the clinic today. I love love love my clinic job... well, I did till today!  Ha, okay, I still love it, but I shoulda stayed home today. LOL  Today, the toilet decided to back up. Not just ANY toilet, the toilet right by the desk I was working. The doctor I was working for went in to do his business *gross* and the toilet died. I guess whatever he had living in his colon decided to poison the toilet and all of Temple's water supply. It was awful. First it wouldn't flush, then it did and decided to vomit it back up... THEN he went BACK into the bathroom an hour later (even though he knew the toilet was dead) and used it again.... only to back it up DOUBLE.. and now there is poopy coming from the drain vent on the floor. This has now become a health hazard. I'm waiting for the plumbers to get here in Hazmat suits. What a crappy day! teehee...   But all jokes aside, that was the worst smell I have ever smelt in my LIFE. I had lotion and tissues up my nose to block out the funk.

The weather has gotten unbelievably cold. There can never be a happy medium here in Texas. Not sure how we went from 90 degrees down to the low 30's in like 3 days. I'm freezing! I don't do well in the cold... hence the name, Summer. I'm not looking forward to going grocery shopping tomorrow.

Speaking of shopping, I am totally excited that I got 9 packs of razors (12 razors in each pack) for FREE yesterday. I love coupons. I won't have to buy razors for awhile. I wish I could pay for gas with coupons. LMAO. I wish I had more coups for food.... I cringe at the thought of paying all that money for food. Too bad we can't live off toilet paper or dish soap! (I have plenty of those things!)

I got bored and cleaned my entire house yesterday and organized it. There are a million other things I SHOULD have done, but I was in one of those "nesting" moods, and felt the need to organize. I made Jaida help, and by noon, she was conked out. We should have homeschooled yesterday, seeing as how I volunteered to work today, but I felt like my house was a cesspool. Ok, maybe not THAT bad, but I feel like it was disgusting. There were dust bunnies on my ceiling waving at me. ...It was awful.

I think I wanna start doing the Biggest Loser diet thingy again. I say this as Im eating a snickers bar. But seriously.. I am gaining too much weight, and I hate to sweat or exercise. I did well with it before! I'm tired of being chunky. I blame it on my Aunts yummy Thanksgiving dinner! I wish I liked meat more. Lots of people seem to be doing amazing on the Atkins diet.

Well, it looks like I need to get back to work. I'm not gettin paid to blog, although, that would be awesome!

Until next time!

Uti & a thousand chances...

Had to take bear bear to the doctor yesterday.. Turns out she has a UTI. Poor baby. However, she is still in good spirits. She loves going to see her doctor.. Well, she likes being at the clinic period. She acts like I still work there and as if she can just go where she pleases. First thing she did was go to her old spot sitting in between the receptionists. Normally they give her some kind of little job (whether its stamping papers, stapling stuff or shredding..) It makes her feel important. She also always wants to help stock exam rooms. Ha. Since I dont work there anymore, I feel like the new employees are gonna wonder why some strange lil girl is stocking their exam rooms. Lol

Im guessing Jaida has been extra sensitive lately due to her infection, but she got mad at her dad the other night and said she "was never ever talking to him again." In her defense, he is a grouch sometimes and doesnt think before he yells. He also doesnt think of how it will affect a 6 yr old girl. We decided to start giving her some simple chores so she can learn responsibility. He asked her that night to clean the area in the kitchen where the dog bowls are. So, she, trying to show him she could do a good job, attempted to wash the dog food bowl mat in the sink. (the dishes were a tad piled up cuz I was having a lazy day)  anyway, she put water on the mat to wash it, and some water fell on the floor and daddy got mad. He asked her why she always had to create bigger messes than there was originally. She didnt even have a chance to prove that.she would have cleaned up the water, cuz as soon as it hit the floor, he got upset. But to his defense, she is well known for making messes and not cleaning them up. So, anyway, his comment hurt her feelings, and she cried. I told her that boys were just born rude, and they never think before they speak. She said she had given him a thousand chances, and she was never talking to him ever again. So the rest of the night went a lil something like this:

Daddy: Jaida, would you like some ramen?

Jaida: Mommy, tell daddy yes, I would.

Mommy (me): daddy, Jaida says yes she would.

Daddy: J, you cant be mad at me forever.

Jaida: Mommy, tell daddy yes I can.

Me: Yes she can daddy.

Until he tricked her into talking, and she got mad at herself. Lol

Anyway, I need to get back to my 16 hour shift at work! Till next time!!

Chrim-urtain & A Dancing Queen

Ok, so hubbo and I have this "thing" about the holidays. For some reason, if I put up my Christmas tree BEFORE Thanksgiving, we get in some pretty huge fights. Never fails. It has happened year after year... I put the tree up, because I just CAN'T wait, and we fight. And, these are not fights over the tree, they are BIG fights. Fights that usually involve me going to stay with my mom a few days. And every year, I tell myself, next year, I will wait till AFTER Thanksgiving, but that is virtually impossible for me. I have no idea why. But it happened again this year. .....We fought. It's a never ending cycle.

This is how I know its the tree's fault; the one year I actually put it up the day after Thanksgiving, we had a PERFECT year. It is definitely the tree, I am convinced. Anyway, the tree didn't even know what was coming this year, as it lived a short life. My fat 17 lb cat decided to end our cycle of fighting and squish the tree. Literally. He broke my poor lil trees arms. They were ALL (yes, I said ALL) bent downwards. It was so bad, the ornaments just slid right off. It looked worse than the Charlie Brown tree. It started out soooo pretty!!

See?? 

I liked this years tree better than all the previous tree's we had ever decorated.  Fatness apparently did not share my feelings. 

So, now without a tree, and my closet space being limited, I hung a bow on my curtain and created my Chrim-urtain. haha I WAS gonna hang ornaments all over the curtain to be funny, but I didn't wanna take the chance of Royal Fatness messin that up too. He's a scrooge!!!! So, here is my Chrim-urtain:

I guess since we won't be in Texas for Christmas anyway, it works. I still miss my stinkin tree. Stupid Jesse James.

On a less tragic note, yesterday was my daughter's dance class. They are practicing for their recital. It is sooooo cute!  At first, I was pretty sure my daughter was the whitest, most nonrhythmic child alive, but compared to some of the girls in her class, she is a dancing queen. She is just so tall and lanky and not so graceful. It was funny watching her start! She has gotten so much better. I just love her teachers. Oh, did I mention she is in hip hop classes? She really loves it. She use to be in ballet and tap, but as I mentioned previously, she is the energizer bunny, and those classes were too slow and boring for her likings. I think its awesome, because she comes home and practices her dances. She cannot wait for her recital. I got to watch them work on their dance yesterday, and they all look so adorable!! They have come a LONG way from the first few hip hop classes. To be honest, I wasn't sure Jaida would make it, but she has surprised me! She got fitted for her recital outfit yesterday, and I got to see the outfits they will be wearing. It reminds me of 90's Hip hop. So adorbs!!

She will be in the pink jacket. How freakin cute is this?!

I'll be sure to post plenty of pics of her recital and her progress..  

She is getting so big, so fast! She is all about leg warmers these days. It was pretty chilly yesterday, and she insisted on wearing her dance shorts with leg warmers. She reminded me of a soccer player:

Anyway, I guess I better get going and finish her homeschooling. I told her I was only gonna be gone a second, and 30 minutes later, I'm still in the office.  Poor kid. 

Until next time!

All in a nutshell...

You would think that I would have soooo much to say, as this is my first blog. After all, I apparently wanted it, I created a place to blog, I worked on my "about me" section (which by the way, took almost 4 hours to think of ways to describe my life) and I had so many things I wanted to say... until this moment. ha.  It's like my brain froze. As soon as I got to this moment, my brain died. I guess I can write a little about my favorite thing in the world, Jaida. Jaida-boo (or Bear-Bear, or JJ, or my favorite, Jaida-potata) is my rambunctious 6 year old daughter, who thinks she is at least 17. She is probably the reason I wanted to start this blog, because she makes my life so interesting.  Every day she makes me laugh. I don't ever wanna forget her silly little moments... so I created this to remember, and to share. 

It's funny how fast time flies. I swear, just yesterday she was a brand new baby, crying all the time. In fact, she cried so much, it instilled such fear in me that I decided one child was enough. But today, my 6 year old beauty was helping me clip coupons and talking about trying to catch good sales. Oh, yeah, another tidbit about myself, I have become addicted to couponing.. mostly in part to my mother in law. I have become her apprentice, it seems, as she is my Jedi Master! HA. Sorry, my husbands nerdyness rubs off on me sometimes. I have become so addicted to stockpiling and couponing, that my hubbo has forbade me to buy anymore dishsoap. (I have 19 bottles of Palmolive & Dawn dishsoap) I started out trying to get more stuff, but the sale on dish soap was so dang good, that I NEEDED all 19 of those stinkin bottles. See, thats the addict in me. If only I could discover a NEED to do laundry.. or clean a lil more. After all, I apparently have enough dishsoap to clean my entire house a FEW times.. but meh. Since I have only been at this coupon venture about 3 weeks, and I'm now not allowed to buy dishsoap, I gotta come up with a new obsessive item. Maybe I'll focus on laundry detergent now, although the thought of doing laundry all the time makes me shudder. Oh well, a good deal is a good deal I suppose! I still find humor in the fact my 6 year old has taken this as a hobby as well. We need more extracurricular activities. 

One thing I have learned about kids, is that they say some of the funniest and random things. Mine talks so much that I have to tune her out.... although, when I tune back in she is still going. She has just started this phase where she is the nosiest thing alive. She tries to include herself in adult conversations (going back to "she thinks she is 17..") and I have really had to watch what I say. I also have to screen what is on tv. She use to LOVE Justin Bieber... I'm talking love-love. The kissing posters in your room kinda love. Well, a reporter decided to let it be known that Justin is probably fathering a kid to a random girl, (whom is not Selena), and Jaida did not take that well. All day long, I have had to listen to what a cheater he is, and how you are not suppose to have babies with ugly girls who are not Selena Gomez. I tried to tell her that the tabloids lie, but she is utterly convinced he is a "dirty cheater." Well, there went to JB poster she had going in her room. She even decided to tell me that he lied when he sang "One less lonely girl."  Hmm. I'm not sure how I like this "grown-up" daughter of mine. I thought 6 years olds were suppose to like rainbows and unicorns? Not mine... mine likes Zombies and Monster dolls. Is that weird?

Anyway, I should probably get some sleep. We have some pretty big home school tests coming up this week, and I need (I mean SHE needs) all the rest possible. She is definitely not a morning person... I, on the other hand could jump outta the bed ready to run a marathon. 

Until next time!