Saturday, June 28, 2014

WEEKEND RAMBLINGS JUNE 28

SATURDAY MENU:
Lunch: turkey sandwiches on 12 grain bread with pepper jack cheese
Supper: Grilled hamburgers and corn on the cob

We have been having wet, rainy weather of late and have not been able to get much done outside or do much outside.  I try to get walks in with the dogs between fronts.  I'm watching the radar screens more than the TV shows some days so I can plan accordingly. Matt was telling me that they have a ramp that trucks back down into so they can use a forklift to load and unload.  After one of the intense storms this week he said the store manager told him the ramp was flooded up to the electrical socket and they were going to have to manually pump the water out of it.

Jordon hasn't found a job yet.  I'm amazed that Walmart hasn't called they're in such desperate need of people but if I recall right it took them about 2 weeks before they called me after I put an application in there.  Hopefully soon because he's getting bored sitting around the house all the time.  He has been running on a daily basis to get in shape so that's a good thing.

Firework madness has started and poor Tip is cowering and panting heavily under my computer desk as I type.  I need to give him another dose of Rescue Remedy.  I need to order more, between the thunderstorms and now the fireworks I've nearly used all the bottle I have.  I found it on Amazon for about $8 less than I paid for it here in town so I'll definitely be ordering it online.

Grocery Budget:
I went over my new weekly food budget ($100 wk for the 3 of us) by about $20 but I also had over $20 worth of cleaning/non-food items.  I still need to go to Hugo's and pick up a whole chicken (or maybe a couple) as they have them on sale for $4.98 per chicken.  The cheapest Walmart had them today was $9.98 for a whole chicken so definitely worth picking up a couple for future use.  They also had pork loin chops on sale at half Walmart's price.  I'm noticing that buying for 3 people is a lot more difficult, either things come in packages of 2 or family size.  I had $6.05 worth of coupons.  They do not put coupon flyers in the papers here like they do most places on Sunday so I have to print any I can find off the internet.  Now that I'm feeding three of us I need to watch my food budget big time especially with several trips planned in the 18 months.

Gardening News:
The one good thing about the weather is that our tomatoes are starting to produce baby tomatoes.  There's probably over a dozen baby tomatoes on it and a bunch of flowers yet.  Our 2 plants should produce a nice harvest for us this year.  Aren't the baby tomatoes adorable!




 Bad news is something is destroying my basil.  I tried moving the planter but it doesn't seem to be helping. I've looked frequently and can't find anything on the leaves that could be eating them either.

Chives are doing well, I need to get a larger plantar for them as they're quickly outgrowing the small watering can we used to plant them in.  I made mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives in them last week and it was so nice using some of my own chives.  The baskets of flowers we put around the deck railing are blooming beautifully.  Matt's made frequent mention of the fact that it's pretty interesting how after we put out planters and did some yard work all of a sudden several neighbors went out and bought flowers and planters too.  It can only be a good thing for people to be growing things in my opinion especially food.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Weekend Ramblings Jun 21-22, 2014

Saturday:
Lunch: Taco Bell
Supper: Grilled pork chops and scalloped potatoes

Sunday: 
Lunch: Bacon Sandwich with leftover pasta salad
Supper: Pizza Burgers and salad

I can't believe I have been so busy that my last post was about Mother's Day weekend.  Many things are going on here in our home.  Most important of which is that my youngest son Jordon has moved in with us. He was ready for a life change and couldn't find another job in Michigan so he decided to come out here and see if he can get work here.  I'm sure he'll have something soon since everybody is hiring.  He arrived Tuesday afternoon after a 24 hour bus ride which he says he'll never do again.  Apparently having some guy he didn't know sleeping on him for 8 hours was a bit disconcerting and the roads are in such bad repair everywhere that it was impossible to sleep.  He has recovered nicely though.

To celebrate his arrival we took him to the shooting range Saturday and shot for most of the day.  Both him and I got burned and I ended up with a little sun poisoning even with sunscreen on.  With the crazy weather we've been having I haven't been able to get out in the sun much and I paid the price this weekend.  Jordon went running the day after he got here, only about 2 miles, and just that short amount of time outside he was sunburned. Matt also got the four wheeler working today so they were able to play on that a little bit this afternoon. I imagine they'll be out in the next weekend or so playing on that and Matt's dirt bike.

Matt is getting itching feet and wants to do some traveling so we have a trip to Italy planned for fall 2015!!!  I'm so excited!  Matt has been there with a group of friends but would like to take me there to see it.  I'm reading books on Italy.  We're still looking for a good package deal and have decided a guided tour would be best.  I started a savings account to start saving for the trip.  I'm thinking November might be good as it will be our 7 year anniversary of our first date, makes it romantic.

We've been doing a lot of yard saleing and finding some neat things.  This weekend we thought we'd have some luck considering how many sales there were but really found almost nothing.  We did find a glass gallon jug that we bought for 25c to put mead in when we get ready to rack it.  Last weekend I found a Kindle for $50 at the pawn shop in town.  I use the Amazon Kindle App on my tablet but they won't let you borrow books unless you have a Kindle of some type.  With Amazon Prime you can borrow one book a month to read and then return it at no cost.  Not all books can be borrowed but there are a lot I would like to read but doubt I want to buy so it's a great deal since I have Amazon Prime anyway. The one advantage to the Kindle is it has Whispernet which allows you to download a book anywhere.  I need WIFI access to download with my tablet so it can limit but typically isn't an issue.



I got a small bonus from work so I decided to use it to buy a twining rug loom.  Actually I bought the deluxe package which has the rug size frame and a placemat size frame and then you can combine the sides from the rug frame with the tops of the placemat frame to get a table runner frame.  I quickly realized that I was going to need an easel to keep from having a lot of back pain after working on it so I bought a cheap $20 artist easel at Walmart and Matt added a board to it to support the frame and I have a working easel.  Here's a picture of the rug I'm working on.  I've gotten double this amount done.  Unfortunately we've been so busy I haven't had much time to work on it.




Ramblings of Thanksgiving

I hope everybody had an awesome Thanksgiving.  We took Jasper with us to Indiana for Thanksgiving.  I'm so impressed with how well ...