I keep meaning too

But I haven't made the time to work on my blog like I said I would. With school done, Christmas, and being sick, I haven't felt like doing much at all. Husband and I have been in a bit of a slump this week. We're not quite sure what to do with ourselves and all the time on our hands. lol It feels like our brains have gone to mush and it's only been a week since school let out!

I've been doing some reading, which has been nice. Husband has been able to play some Playstation games that he hasn't touched in months and he's enjoyed that. The girls are having fun with the new Christmas presents too. But overall, I think we're getting rather stir crazy. We've been cooped up because of illness so leaving the house could do us some good. Maybe we'll head to the library or walk around the mall. The girls have asked to go swimming, so we might do that too. Hey, we haven't taken the bowling yet, maybe we should try that. I'll do anything at this point. lol

So, what is everyone else doing to keep themselves sane? I need some ideas. :D

Wishing for a sunny day

You know, I don’t mind winter all that much. It’s nice to have a change in seasons. But I do prefer warmer weather and today I’ve been missing that. I miss going camping in the cool mountains and going on walks. My oldest keeps asking to go camping and I hate having to tell her we have to wait. When we bought our canvas tent this past summer, we’ve been so excited to use it. I can’t wait until the weather warms up again so we can go outdoors. Even though we enjoy the season change, we get a little stir crazy. lol

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Name 2 things you would like to accomplish in 2008.

*Lose another 20lbs and run my second 5k.

Soup
With which cartoon character do you share personality traits?

*A carebear - Tenderheart Bear because I try to be kind and loving.

Salad
What time of day (or night) were you born?

*Hmm, I'm not sure. I think I was born around eight, but I can't remember if it was morning or evening.

Main Course
Tell us something special about your hometown.

*Stacy Dragila is from my hometown and she took 1st place in the pole vault in the 2000 Olympic games. That was impressive!

Dessert
If you could receive a letter from anyone in the world, who would you want to get one from?

*He's in the world, not of the world, but I'm still going to say my Heavenly Father.

Join me by going to Friday's Feast home.

Have you heard about EarthFrisk.org?

Let me tell you about a new Search Engine I’ve been reading information on. For many of us, we probably use google the most often when searching the internet for something. At least I do, along with ask.com. But what I don’t like is every once in awhile I will get spam. Nothing too extreme, but still, I’d rather not come across any. So I’ve been reading about a new search engine called EarthFrisk.org. It’s a meta-community powered search engine that introduces CV, or Color Value. By the sounds of it, CV is trying to be more accurate than Google’s pagerank, allowing people to vote and comment on results. EarthFrisk has toolbars available for Firefox and Internet Explorer and you can even customize your own toolbar. My favorite part, less spam! Woohoo!

Stephenie Meyer - Twilight

It's been awhile since I've been so caught up in a book series. The last series I read start to finish was Harry Potter. But I kept hearing about this author, Stephenie Meyer. The first time I heard about her books was from a woman in the mall. She mentioned how great it was but as soon as she said the word "vampire" I was immediately turned off. Something about people sucking blood from other people that didn't settle with me.

So that was probably a year ago and although I didn't think much about it, I kept hearing good reviews about the Twilight books. I kept thinking "how can a book about vampires be so good?" It wasn't until last week when my SIL brought her copies over for us to read. Again, vampires? No, I don't think so. But Saturday night I was really bored so I grabbed the first book, Twilight, and dove in. I. Loved. It.

The first book is by far my favorite of the three. Yes, it's about vampires but it's not about the kind that sleep in coffins and only come out during the nighttime. It's about a vampire named Edward and his family. Edward meets a girl named Bella and despite how dangerous it is for them to be together, they only fall more in love. It's not anything like what you think vampires would be, which is probably why I found it so captivating to read. I couldn't put the first book down and read it in a few hours. The second book, New Moon, was the same way and I finished it on Sunday. The third book, Eclipse, took a little longer due to the holiday but I finished it Christmas night.

I'm glad I had all three because I would have gone insane waiting for the sequels. The next one won't come until Fall of 2008, but I have my fill for now. The books are geared towards young adults which makes them an easy read but they are lengthy, around 500 pages each. The only negative things I have to say about these books (which are similar to Beth's) is the idea that it's ok to lie to your parents, how easy it is to fall so deeply in love (we're talking hours), and how even though it's incredibly dangerous to be with this person it's ok because you're in love. That's messed up, but where I'm an adult and I see how wrong that is, the books aren't going to affect me negatively. I am, however, a little worried how some young adults, girls especially, might perceive these ideas and accept them as a-ok. It's not something I want my girls reading anytime soon, just for those reasons.

Injuries while driving

We traveled out of town on Christmas day and we saw a few wrecks. It’s never easy driving on snowy and icy roads, but we always try to be careful. I feel sad when we see someone off the road and the police are there trying to help. You think to yourself “that could have been me.” The saddest part has to be when you’re driving cautiously but someone else who is driving recklessly ends up hitting you and you get hurt. Some people say well it wasn’t my fault, the roads were bad. Uh, if you had been driving more carefully, this could have been prevented. That’s where lawyers come in handy, to make sure that if you get an injury, you receive compensation for what happened. Like the New Jersey attorneys and the ones here in my town, when someone is in the wrong, the situation should be taken care of the right way.

I love this time of year

I especially love the spirit that comes with the holidays. We have had a wonderful Christmas and I love the time we have with our children. They have truly made our Christmas special and more meaningful. The light in their eyes as they watched Christmas movies, made special treats, wrapped/unwrapped presents, saw the lights, and sang songs. It wouldn't have bothered me a bit to not receive any presents this year because I am filled with joy just by watching and being with my girls. I was more excited for them than for anything else.

This was the first year that we kept our Christmas presents on a smaller scale. We liked the idea of doing three main gifts for each child, resembling the three gifts that were given to Jesus Christ at His birth. Although some thought it was strange, it helped us to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Not to mention the decreased amount of stress! Our girls don't need much and what they did receive they loved. Their favorite presents included their own rocking chairs and a little camera. My favorites included the game Scattergories from my husband and one of my favorite movies, "North and South," from Kara.

I hope everyone who reads this also had a wonderful holiday and is enjoying their time with friends and family. :)

Do the work yourself

Do you ever wish you could take care of the repairs on your car all by yourself? When I get a bill from the auto shop, I do. It would be really useful to know how to take care even minor repairs because it would save us money and that’s something I love to do. The only problem we have is that we don’t have enough room to do much car work. We need some kind of body shop or garage to do the work and all the body shop supplies. It’s just not plausible for us right now, but it would be nice.

Yard decorations

Growing up, I remember one particular house that was right down the road from us. They always had a flag hanging in their yard and it changed as the seasons and holidays changed. I always enjoyed seeing which flag was up which day. I thought it would be fun to get my own flag or garden flags because the ones I saw were really cute. Now I can find out more on how to get my own. The selection at onlinediscountmart.com is so cute! They not only have ones for the seasons but also for holidays and general use. Any of them would be cute in your yard so take a look!

It has been a day

Have you ever had a day where nothing went as planned? Now given, most of my days aren't as planned as today was, but still. It was like a train wreck, just one thing after another. It started this morning when my SIL and I were going to head out to exercise. She ended up being late, which was fine, but I guess it threw everything else off.

I ended up getting home later, which meant we couldn't get some shopping done until later. Again, this would have been fine except for one thing. We went to Wal-Mart (yeah, I know, today is a terrible day to be at Wal-Mart) and everything was peachy until Miss A was not happy about being in the shopping cart. She let me know by flinging her head backwards, causing the top of her head to hit the top of the cart. Blood started coming out and fast, so I grabbed her and ran to the bathroom. It took awhile for the bleeding to slow but I couldn't see how deep it was, so I kept a paper towel and pressure on it while we ran over to the dr.

Thankfully, it was a superficial cut and didn't need any stitches. I didn't like, however, that my daughter was bleeding and yet we still had to wait an hour at the dr's office. Anyway, after that we were hungry so we grabbed some dinner. At this point, we thought it would be safe to go back to Wal-Mart and finish our shopping. (See, I should have realized that it was time to call it a day, but no.)

Well, I can finally say that after our second trip to Wal-Mart, we said the famous words "clean up on aisle seven!" for the first time. No joke, Miss J threw up in aisle seven. I felt like crying but ended up laughing because after everything, what was one more thing. My poor girls had had it, so instead of finishing our plans for the day (we meant to visit family then go on a date) we came home. They took a bath and were in bed by 6:30. It's almost 8pm now and I'm going to bed too. I'm all fun-ed out.

Something to remember

When you think about it, almost all of us have someone we look up to that is a celebrity. When we do look up to someone, we usually have some type of memorabilia of that person or from something they played in. But if you’re like me, you may not have any celebrity memorabilia and would like to. I know my husband would love the above picture of the Peanuts cartoon, signed by Charles Schulz. I can get a copy of this from millionairememorabilia.com. This website is so neat! They have memorabilia that includes movies, sports, entertainment, and celebrities. I had fun looking through their selections and so did my husband when I showed him. Their website is easy to navigate through and if you order through the holidays, you can get 15% off some of their listed prices. If you want memorabilia, you want to be sure that you buy from a company that is well trusted. I would never think to buy this kind of thing from let’s say, eBay, just because you don’t know who you’re working out. You don’t want to spend all that money and not have your reward authentic. So don’t just go anywhere, check out millionairememorabilia.com and you will see that they will give you an original, not a fake.

Boy gifts

I know what girls like, because well, I have two girls. But for some reason, I have the hardest time figuring out what boys like. Trying to find gifts for boys has not been easy this year. I had to buy a present for one of my nephews and all I could think of to buy was some cars. Thankfully it turns out, that my nephew wanted more cars, so that’s what he’s going to get. It’s just funny that I’m so clueless about buying boy gifts. I guess I need a boy! lol

"Bring Him Home Santa"

I heard this today for the first time. It's beautiful and my favorite Christmas song this season. My eyes tear up every time I hear it play. Stop and think for a minute when you listen to it. You won't regret it.

The song is titled "Bring Him Home Santa" and their website is bringhimhomesanta.com. If you download the song, 50% of the proceeds will go directly to the St. Jude's Children Research Hospital.

They do what works

It’s been months since I’ve heard anything about Tiger Woods. A few years ago, almost a day wouldn’t go by that I didn’t hear his name somewhere. It wasn’t until these past few days that his name came up again and I’ve seen him on TV. When I do see him, he’s always followed by a commercial or ad for href="http://www.theworldofgolf.com/manufacturer/index.asp?q=Nike">Nike golf. It’s kind of funny that they use celebrities to help sell their products.

It's just not my thing

Twice this week, my SIL and I have gone and had a smoothie after our workout. As we were waiting, out topic of conversation turned to coffee as we saw a sign for a hot latte. I’ve never actually tried coffee, but never plan to because I can’t take the smell. I can’t eat or drink something if it smells terrible. So don’t expect me to have one of those espresso machines in my house. lol

No pain no gain?

So I mentioned that my SIL is in town and how we wanted to get together to exercise. We had one week free gym memberships, so we've been using those this week to work out. The first day we ran a 5k and I didn't do too bad for not having run in two months. The second day we ran about two miles, lifted weights, and did an ab workout. It felt good to do, but today I'm feeling it. All those muscles I've been learning about this semester are feeling the love. lol It's been fun though and I find that I've really missed running. It's been a positive way for me to release some stress and frustration this week. One of these days it would be nice to have a gym membership all the time or even a personal trainer.

Holiday travel

Traveling during the holidays is pretty common. I have friends who are leaving town for Christmas. Some are going across the country while others are headed out of state. My little family will probably take a small trip out of the city on Christmas day. It would be nice to take a family vacation this time of year. We have friends in other states and countries that we’d like to visit, so maybe one of these times we’ll do that. If you are making travel plans, remember to look up dialaflight.com for hotels, travel ideas, and flights; like flights to Canada or anywhere else. Have fun traveling!

New changes

I just wanted to point out that I've created my own domain name. So please change your links to me. Expect more fun changes in a few weeks. :)

I love Netflix

And you will too! 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a one year free subscription for Netflix's two at a time DVD rental. PLUS you can win popcorn for a year from Orville! The best way to spend my time after the kids are in bed is with popcorn and a movie. This would be such a fun prize to win and you could win too so go over and enter!

Wordless Wednesday

One day

One of these days we’d like to own a truck. My personal preference is a Nissan Titan, but my husband wants a Honda Ridgeline. Buying a truck isn’t going to happen any time soon for us, but we like talking about all the accessories we could get if we did buy one. We know we want a truck bed liner, fog lights, roll bars, and running guards to name a few things. Even if we never buy a truck, we find it’s still fun to talk about.

The disposition of a child

Yesterday, my husband and Miss J were watching a movie about the birth of the Savior. For some reason the actual words were in Hebrew, so my husband needed to explain what was happening to our three year old. The part came where Mary and Joseph tried to find shelter at the inn. Here is what happened after that:

Husband: Look, there's no room for them at the inn. They can't stay there.
Miss J (adamantly) : But daddy! Daddy! There's lots of room at our house! They can stay here!

I marvel at the pure innocence and sincerity of a child. Miss J continues to teach and remind me of what's really important. I thank her for that. :)

It's cold outside!

It’s been so cold outside that we are glad to have indoor heaters that help keep us warm. I’m glad we have them, yes, but they need to be replaced. There’s something wrong with the wiring in some that cause them to turn off and on as they please. I do not like this especially when my girls play nearby and could get burned. I would much rather have gas wall heaters or even a natural gas fireplace rather than our electrical heaters. If you’re like me and wanting to upgrade the heat in your home, take a look at products.desatech.com. I liked their selection and wouldn’t have a problem buying from them especially where they have free shipping on select heaters before Christmas!

If you want to waste time

Here's a fun little test for you. Click here and see how well you do. I got a 100% the first try but some I had to think about. lol Our brain is intricately amazing and this test proves it. Have fun and remember to post how you did! :)

Finals are here

Two finals remaining; one on Monday and the other on Tuesday. I'm amazed at how fast this semester has flown by! I have learned many new ideas and concepts and have loved it. The only thing that I have struggled with is my anatomy and physiology class. That test is on Monday and I'm praying I pass. Other than that, I'm looking forward to our break and the upcoming semester. I have hardly been on but soon I will be back. Then, maybe I can get some comment-love. :D

A home gym

A few weeks ago, I happened to stop by my brother’s house for a bit. He apparently has one of those home gyms and it looked really nice. Their gym was in a small room but it had everything you would need to do a full body workout. My husband would have been in heaven if he had seen it. One of these days I hope we can have our own.

I'm running out of time

My SIL will be here next week and I haven’t done any exercising since the last time she came. I remember back when we were looking at ellipticals I told myself that I was going to use it at least three times a week. I have been using it, just not as often because of homework and finals coming up. Only a few more days left of school and then my elliptical and I can become good friends again and hopefully I can keep up with my SIL.

Well wouldn't you know

Miss J and I were talking today about how Heavenly Father created us. She then proceeded to tell me that He started by drawing us on a piece of paper. Then used candy to put us together. LOL

So, I can understand the whole drawing idea. After all, many artists sketch out their artwork ahead of time. So that's seems logical. But the candy is a little harder (no pun intended). Maybe it's because most of us are really sweet? :D Either way, it was a priceless conversation and made me smile.

Touching

I received this is an email. The email said this is a 12 year old boy that called a local Houston radio station. This really did happen, I looked it up, and I love how true the message is. Things like this make me stop for a minute and really think. God loved us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son. Let's not forget this message, especially during this time of year.

Looking for a loan?

Have you been looking to buy another car? If you are, you’re probably going to need a loan. Auto Loans can be tricky if you’ve never had one before. There are different types of Loans you can purchase like a Personal Loan. With help from bestleadinglenders.com you can find the right loan for you with no application fees and instant online processing. They will provide you with the lowest available rates on auto loans which can help save you money. When I purchased my first car loan, I didn’t look around for the best rates. I wish I had because I ended up spending more on interest than was worth it. So it pays to look around!

Look at the pretty snow!

We've finally had a decent amount of snow. It's beens snowing since last night and everything today is white. It's really pretty on the ground and on the trees. I think it may be time to buy the girls some snow boots so we can go play in it. They have been so excited to build a snowman. And snow means Christmas is coming! I'd rather have a white Christmas than a brown one. Plus, it gives me a good reason to drink hot chocolate with marshmallows. :)

Book your hotel online

The last time you went out of town and booked a hotel, did you use hotelreservations.com? If you didn’t, next time you should. You could save up to 70% off your next trip. Trips can be very expensive so visit Hotel Reservations and start saving your money now. They even offer up to a $100 rebate for booking through them! Even if you need more than a hotel, take a look at their resorts and vacation packages and you will be glad you did.

Anyone know of a cow that lost an eye?

Who would have guessed that looking at cow eyes would be worse than looking at cadavers and frogs?? It's true for me anyway, it was disgusting. We were supposed to take it apart layer by layer and identify what we saw. Let's just say I may never eat pink and red Jell-O again, seriously. I did glance at the eye a few times but it was terrible. How can people from Fear Factor eat those? Ewwww! Thankfully, today was my last lab. So yay no more dead things to look at!

High definition

Not too many years ago, I remember high definition TV just starting out. I used to work for DirecTV and I would get so many phone calls from customers asking if there were more high definition channels available. At the time, there were only a few channels but I told them it wouldn’t be that far into the future before high definition became really popular. Sure enough that time has come. Almost everything is in high definition and you can purchase equipment like HDMI cables to make what you have now, compatible with high-def. Just another amazing advancement in our technology.

Phone equipment

There is nothing worse than trying to call someone and not being able to get through. Not too long ago, the people who own our apartment complex were having some terrible phone problems. Not just with their phones but with their phone service too. We’d try to call and get someone but we’d be hung up on or reach an error. It was really frustrating for us especially when we had something important to take care of. I don’t know what kind of phones they had but I wonder if they had had phones from Talkswitch if that would have helped. Talkswitch has great phone systems that include the VoIP technology that has been really popular. You can find all of their producst at neobits.com along with over 15 other brands of phone systems. The great thing about Neobits is that they can install locally in your area because of their wide spread customer service base. With a small business, there’s nothing worse than having a phone and phone system that does not work properly. That’s not the way to get and keep customers, I know from experience. So keep on top of things and take a look at neobits.com to help improve your business needs.

Transition nap phase

Miss A is starting to think she doesn't need a nap. Noooo! It was hard enough adjusting to Miss J not wanting to nap and she was 2 1/2. Miss A isn't even two yet so naturally, I think the idea is nutso. Although, on one hand, it could be nice. Maybe she would go to bed easier and stop waking up in the middle of the night (she can sleep through the night but lately she's been up a lot). But on the other hand, she still needs a nap most days. So I'm thinking of putting her down every other day instead of every day. That way we get the best of both worlds. We'll see how it goes.

Better to insure

One thing I really liked having when my husband was employed, was having term life insurance and medical insurance. Now we don’t have either and it’s not a very pleasant feeling. We recently were able to get insurance for our girls but hubby and I still don’t have any. It’s weird because my whole life I’ve had insurance and now I don’t have anything. I’m thinking here soon we’ll have something figured out, I’d rather have something than nothing.

My cranky bed

I’m starting to think that our bed is making us feel worse. When we bought our bed, it felt great. But now, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve actually had a decent night’s sleep. I’m beginning to think it’s our mattress because I’m so sore in the mornings. Of course a lot of things have happened since we bought the bed, like both of us being in school and the girls getting up during the night. I hope it’s just a lot of factors and not our bed because I’d rather not replace it.

Nothing exciting

I need to apologize. My blog has been far from exciting recently which means b-o-r-i-n-g in my book. I'm sorry, I've just been so distracted and busy that I can't think of good stuff to blog about. I'm still sick but keeping busy. In a few hours I'll be done babysitting then I can start on homework. Hopefully soon I will have a more amusing or at least interesting blog.

A massage sounds really good

Since we've been sick this week, my muscles are all cramped up. I might take a nice hot bath later to relax in if I can. I’d rather use Massage Chairs to ease the pain but I don’t have a really nice one. My mom gave us one she had, that we have attached to our computer chair but sometimes it doesn’t do the trick. I really like the HT 7450 Zero Gravity Massage Chair from humantouch.com. This chair uses the Quad Roller System which includes techniques like percussion, rolling, compression, and kneading. Just reading about this chair makes me melt. Any really massage chair from humantouch.com would be very welcomed into my home!

Fun baby shower

Today I threw a baby shower for a good friend of mine. It turned out to be a lot of fun and I'm glad I could do it for her. Another friend gave me a Hawaiian Wedding cake recipe to use at the party and it was delicious! I've never made one before and oh, it was so good! All it took was a regular cake mix that you bake like normal, poke some holes in it, then add crushed pineapple to the top. For the topping, you add pudding, milk, and whip cream. Mmmmm! The best part, it was super easy. Now if only I knew a way to serve you all some here on my blog. :)

Credit cards can be a hassle

You know, credit cards can be kind of funny. Just recently we ordered a new credit card through Wal-Mart because if we did, we’d get an additional $20 off our purchase. Seemed like a good idea, until we received a bill, without the credit but with a huge interest rate, all before the cards even showed up. So we mailed off a payment and after a few more weeks, finally received our cards. But then another bill showed up, still no credit, and it said we were past due. Ugh! I’ve never been late on anything! Anyone, as soon as we get this all straightened out, and pay it off this weekend, we’re saying goodbye to that card. Besides, we like 0% purchase credit cards or ones with a really good interest rate on balance transfers.

Thankful Thursday

First, I'm thankful my girls slept through the night. I'm thankful they both slept in a little and are content with a movie at the moment. I'm thankful my husband is also getting some sleep and for all the help he's been to me this week. I'm thankful for comfy pajamas and the yummy raspberries I had to put on my cereal this morning. Lastly, I'm thankful for the yummy ice cream I have in my freezer that is waiting for me to eat later. :)

What are you thankful for today? Remember to link up after you post, over at Kara's.

Need a loan?

In just a few years we will have our van paid off. I find myself almost counting down the days! It’s our last loan that we owe on and it’s going to feel so good to have it paid off. We’ve thought about buying a second car at that point, something cheap. If we did, I’d first look around and Compare loans to make sure we got the best price. With help from nationsfinance.co.uk I can do that. They have a lot of information about loans, including unsecured loans and homeowner loans, so they’re a good resource when it comes to this kind of thing.