We super suck.

There should be more hours in a day.

Truvy here. I am working on organizing my life and I promise to pencil this blog back into my schedule. I miss ranting to the interwebz. =)

In addition to a hubby, home, and child, I am getting full time hours at work due to the holiday rush's beginning, as well as trying to start my own crafty mama business. And the short adorable monster has 6 teeth coming in and an itchy rash on her booty. Oi!

And now for a goody. =) I was perusing the local Walgreen's ad and found some splendid deals! Check your local ad since deals tend to change from area to area. The BEST is on Vitamin Water and Smart Water...I saw Smart Water at Walmart last night for $1.58....I said "no thank you" and moved on. But this week at Walgreens, both brands are $1 each. When you buy 3 you get a $2 Register Reward (RR), making them 33 CENTS each! Another notable deal is on Suave products. I tend to have a decent Suave stash in my coupon binder. Anywho, buy $10 worth of product (check your ad for types and sizes) and receive a $3 RR. Perfect opportunity to stock up on lotion, body wash, deodorant, etc. And just in time for chapped lip season, you can get Blistex Revive and Restore Lipcare for FREEEEEEEE. One of my favorite words! You pay $1.99 and get a $1.99 RR right back. =) Last but not least, I have been lusting over the fancy Lysol No-Touch Soap Pump. Pay $11.99 at the register and get a $5 RR, making it only $6.99, which is cheaper than I have seen it at Walmart. Need an idea for all of those RRs? Break your orders into multiples. Say you get 12 waters and $10 worth of Suave. Do a trasaction of just waters...receive $$8 in RRs. Use that to pay your Suave order. If due to coupons your order is less than $8, toss in the Blistex or some candy to use the rest of the RR up. Use any RRs leftover on the grocery items on sale or rack up some of the deals in the Christmas section. =D I can't wait til Thursday! Come on payday!!

And one more nifty thing I found in my email today. Vocalpoint (vocalpoint.com) is giving away 100 $25 American Express gift cards to spend at small businesses on Small Business Saturday (the day after Black Friday). check it out here: vocalpoint.com/SmallBizSat



Ouiser has been working her tailfeather off as well. And her adopted cat (the cat adopted her when she moved to the neighborhood) has been rewarding her with......gifts....... Lol. Hopefully she will get a chance to hop on and update at some point.

<3 Truvy

One If By Land, Two If By Sleigh

*mount horse*

The holidays are coming! The holidays are coming!

Truvy here. =)

I am so freakin excited that I should probably be locked up. The holidays are my favorite time of the year! I am currently crocheting a variety of pumpkins. In a couple weeks I hope to move onto Christmas items. =)

A decent amount of the Christmas shopping is already done or at least planned (pictures for Christmas. perfect!!) and I already know where my tree is going. =D

Stay tuned for more holiday posts of awesome coming soon!

<3 Truvy

I'm A Mess

Truvy here. We suck. Too much craziness (and laziness) going on lately.

Let's see...what's been going on......Oh! I know! So, gross but weird fact about me....I had my first post-partum period when Lil Bit was 5 months old. I had my second post-partum period when she was 17 months old. A month or so before the second reared it's insufferable head I had made an appointment with the endocrinology specialist down here to figure out what was going on. So of course I started 2 days before my appointment. Well, he ordered blood tests and put me on birth control. By the way, my brith control is awesome 24 days of the pack. It's chewable and minty and sweet!! The last 4 days of the pack.......it's chewable and tastes like seafood roadkill that has been laying in the sun for 3 days. Anyway, back to the point. Two weeks later I went for a follow-up for the lab work. Turns out I'm fat. Who knew!? My cholesterol is a little high, so is my blood sugar. I'm still waiting for word on the follow-up labs for the blood sugar deal. Bleh. So I am now on Metformin as well.

I am also on a 2000 calorie a day diet. Doable. But the kicker? I am supposed to have 1000 healthy (no breads, excessive sugars, etc) calories for breakfast, 500 for lunch, and 500 for dinner. How do you get that many calories into 5 seconds before you rush out the door? How do you pack 1000 calories into any amount of time without eating any type of bread? The doctor said to have a single boiled or scrambled egg and a bowl of oatmeal. That is not 1000 calories. So one day I doubled up the oatmeal. I could barely finish it, let alone eat anything else. This will be challenging for sure.

Health tip of the day: Do you know how much water you are supposed to drink? Say you weigh 200 pounds. You divide your weight by 2. Leaving 100. That is how many ounces you are supposed to drink. I calculated it all out. You know those 16.9 ounce bottles of water? I'm supposed to drink SEVEN of those each day. And somehow not have to invest in a life raft. On a good day at work I can get in maybe 7. One before break, one during and after break, one after lunch, one during and after next break, and take one home to drink on. I may squeeze in another when I take my pills at night. Unless I have delicious soda. Mmmmmmmmm.

So this week's grocery shopping trip (where I might have a little room to actually buy plenty of nutritious snacks) I plan to ensure healthy and yummy snacks and meals for each day. Luckily in the produce section at WalMart they have these mini veggie trays w/ a small cup of ranch dressing (I didn't even use all of it), a stick of cheese, a handful of almonds, some carrot sticks, and some broccoli. Perfect to take to work for my 15 minute breaks. Or just purchase on my way to the break room. (Yes, I'm a slave to the Wal.) Maybe even add in a banana every once in a while.

I'm growing more and more optimistic, even though I have this weird thing where I am super picky about food. Most fruits and vegetables I can't handle. I like apples, bananas, sometimes oranges (don't like the pulpiness), green grapes, broccoli, carrots, spinach, lettuce, onion only when deep fried in ring form, peas, potatoes, and I think that's pretty much it. I'll eat tomato sauce, but not tomatoes. And if there are bell peppers, you can forget it. Or olives, or pickles...unless it is sweet relish in tuna salad or potato salad.

I am a mess. No doubt about it. But I will hopefully be here more to vent, entertain, and inform.

On a different note, I have recently discovered the art of crochet. And I am hopelessly hooked. Teehee. Ouiser and I are happy hookers, yes we are. Stay tuned for potential pictures of our endeavors.

<3 Truvy

Moving on a Beer Budget....EPIC FAIL

Ouiser here. A few weeks ago, NQH and I found a nice little house in the country. Nice yard for Wee Man to run around in, MUCH larger than the mobile home we'd been living in. So we decided to go ahead and rent it.

With our cash in hand and hope in our hearts, we set out to plan the perfect MOVING ON A BEER BUDGET.

Little did we know...

Five days later we FINALLY got everything in the house. Now it looks like a house threw up in my house. This house is now my worst nightmare. As for the budget? pfffrrtt out the window it went...

Wednesday---

Enlisting in the help of our babyminders, Chris and Lauren, we start boxing things up to be taken over. We'd planned on staying at the trailer til we got everything moved as the big bulky stuff would be the last to go. We started out strong on Wednesday afternoon until around 6pm, when we discovered that the water in the trailer had been cut off already. Okay, no biggie, we've got the air conditioners we bought earlier, just pop em in and we're set right?

WRONG!

The outlets in the den and the masterbedroom were kaput. No air. Too hot for us to stay so we end up going to...

THE MOTEL

It was a Super 8. Nice room, comfy happiness abounds. Granted, there went 130 bucks. And Wee Man WOULD NOT SLEEP. Sleep just was NOT gonna happen. He cried and whined ALL night because I'd forgotten to bring PILLOWMONKEY with us. Pillowmonkey is a mini pillowpet in the shape of a monkey. He loves the thing and sleeps ON it. Without Pillowmonkey, the world will end. The End.
I even resorted to reading him The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock. It worked for about ohh...ten minutes. I finally had to put him in bed with me. NQH slept on the other bed. By slept I mean snored. Loudly. Enough that between Lumberjack Man and Wee Whiny Man. Mommy's Schmidt Level was creeeping up.

Day Two-

Eating, packing, moving, sweating. More eating. We had another helper that day and to celebrate getting all the big stuff over to The House From Hell, we went to Logan's for dinner.

One Hundred and Thirty Dollars Later...

Mommy hasn't eaten her dinner. She's too busy trying to keep Wee Man from stealing things off her plate, too busy trying to keep him entertained. He's whiny. The sound of everyone's voices is grating on my last nerve. Wait, I HAVE NO NERVES LEFT...Mommy's in Code Red. One more whine and Mommy's gonna SNAP.

My dinner when I did finally get to take a bite of my steak? SUCKED DONKEY BALLS.

At least the potato was good. I think anyway.


DAY THREE

Late start due to NQH having his physical therapy appointment. Mommy gets some retail therapy at Borders.

I bought "Go The F*** To Sleep"

I thought it was fitting.

Eat, go back to the trailer to get the rest of the stuff packed.

And the electricity, which was supposed to have been turned off at noon, but wasn't as of 6pm finally gets cut off in the middle of trying to get the rest of the stuff packed. At 8pm.

Get the stuff to the house. Take one look around and go "Fuck it".

We go back to the motel. It's the weekend rates.

One Hundred and Thirty Dollars Later....

Wee Man sleeps, Our helpers sleep, NQH sleeps. I FINALLY sleep.

Day Four.

I have to work PRAISE WHICHEVER DEITY YOU SO CHOOSE TO WORSHIP. EVERYONE has finally grated on my nerves enough that I'm ready to bite folks heads off. I take it out on my customers instead. Fun times for all.

Day Five.

Everything's moved in. My house looks like a house threw up in it. We sleep in our own bed. Now the fun begins...

Monday...now...

SPIDERS SPIDERS EVERYWHERE!!! We killed a metric assload of the evil eight legged bastard freaks BEFORE we started moving stuff in, We sprayed for them...

AND THEY'RE EVERYWHERE. I start digging through boxes to find my monitor cord for the desktop computer. THEY'RE IN MY BOXES. I kill one in the kitchen. I kill two in the baby's room. I killed HOPEFULLY TWO in my boxes in the bedroom. This was good for a good fifteen minutes of screaming, running in circles and crying hysterically as um...I'm scared of spiders. Seriously. I refuse to unpack another box. End of story.

What should have been something simple has now turned into a nightmare. Til the spiders are gone. I shall not sleep.

Let's not even talk about the corn...

Day 1...FlyLady BabySteps Challenge

Allllrighty! I finished the last of my note cards just now. =) About to go actually DO Day 1's mission. And hem a nightgown. And update my calendar. =) I love being off of work.



If anyone would like to join me in the pursuit of a effortlessly tidy home, feel free. =)

<3 Truvy

Maidless Mondays: I Knew I Grabbed The Purple Sharpie For A Reason...

Ok. So my life is kind of a train wreck at times.....like, always. Lol. I overextend and overcommit and feel like I am pulled in a million directions at once.

I have written before about the genius that is flylady.net (if you have not checked this site out DO. IT. NOW.). The system works if you work the system, as they say. I always get excited, get started, and do too much...every single time. I'll write out the 31 Babysteps on my calendar, not allowing myelf room to fall behind and get back on the band wagon.

So tonight I have a revelation...notecards.

So here I am with leftover notecards from God only knows when and a purple sharpie. I am about to write 1 Babystep per notecard. That way, I can go through them daily, but if I hit a bump in the road, I can put things on pause, and even rewind if needed. =)

You can find the Babysteps here: http://www.flylady.net/pages/begin_babysteps.asp

Note: I am only writing them down b/c when I get on the computer, I tend to stay there for a while. =p So if I say I'm gonna hop on real quick to see today's BabyStep, I may get off in 3 hours. Lol. So notecards are more of a discipline thing I suppose. Use whatever method works for you. =)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to begin FlyLady's BabySteps and get on the right track to FLYing!

<3 Truvy

Maidless Monday - It CAN Be Done!

Okay, so I started on Maidless Monday at my house on Sunday night. =p I hopefully will continue for a few more hours since I am off Sunday and Monday. =)

First off, my house is a complete disaster area. I get stressed when I try to think of where to start. I think I've mentioned this before, but I am a FIRM believer in the FlyLady method (flylady.net)!! Tonight I used the Bingo system (http://www.facebook.com/flyladybingo) to do a quick clean WITH RESULTS! I decided I would do a 6x5 Bingo...6 tasks, 5 minutes each. I wrote down my tasks.

1. Unload and reload dishwasher.

2. Clear table.

3. Clean kitchen.

4. PUPA (pick up and put away) living room.

5. Reboot laundry.

6. Swish & swipe. (http://www.flylady.net/pages/focus_jul.asp)

Easy enough.

I posted on my personal facebook what I would be doing and decided to call the numbers on my personal wall. That way, if something popped up, like a baby who decides midnight is morning, I could put a pause on my list and not have to keep up with someone else's pace.

First I called #3...something that really needed to be done, and something I knew would look like I made a dent in it to get me motivated. The rest of numbers went 2, 6, 5, 4, 1. I saved the dishes for last...they have been..........neglected...so I knew they would take a little bit of scrubbing time. Took about 20 minutes actually, but it was DONE!

The best thing about this is that you don't see a huge pile of muck in front of you. You set small goals for yourself. A little at a time. And you would not believe how much you can do in 5 minutes!!! Seriously, pick something that you have been dreading (maybe going through the closet and decluttering clothes, or cleaning out the storage room, or that lovely pile of mail accumulating on your desk...you know the one....the kids have put up mini falling risk signs around it b/c it's bound to become a landslide soon). Set a timer for 5 minutes. ATTACK!!! When the timer beeps STOP. Do not touch anything else. Then walk away, grab a snack or something to drink. Then go back and look at what you have just accomplished. Be amazed!!!


Your Maidless Monday Mission is to apply the story of the tortoise and the hare to your housework...instead of rushing and ripping through things, take things a little at a time. You are much much less likely to burn out.

<3 Truvy