An Interesting Tip from another Blog

Hi. This is actually a comment made on the Hillbilly Housewife blog regarding stashing money at home... I thought it was a great idea.

Kim Says: When you can’t afford a safe: My grandmother took a clean dry mayonnaise jar, spray painted the inside of the jar creamy white, inside the jar she kept her “mad” money. This jar she kept in the dark back corner of her refrigerator, where no one ever saw it. The one thing she said was a must to go with this, was always have a real jar on mayo where everyone can see it! Depending on the color of paint, this could be a jelly jar, mustard jar, etc. I had a house fire in 2001, started in the kitchen, entire house was a total loss… but inside my melted frig, my mayo safe with my unburned money.

(Link to the original post)

To Parody Dave Ramsey...

"I'm Dirty Dish FREE!"

AND

"I'm Dirty Clothes FREE!"

(For those of you who don't know who Dave Ramsey is: He's a financial guy that Handsome Handyman listens to on the radio. He's written a few books, too. I like his down-to-earth approach to finances. Today I listened to his book Total Money Makeover on cd, so I thought I'd pay homage to him just a tad. People that go through his "baby steps" often call in to his show and shout "I'm Debt Free!").

Anyhow, last weekend we had some of HH's family here for a baby blessing. Everyone left on Sunday afternoon and on Monday I started layout for my design work. It has been a busy busy work week, and the dishes that were from the blessing luncheon mated with the dishes from all the rest of this week. The laundry seems to have done likewise.

So today I got everything all caught up! It feels great. I also had fun baking--I made corn bread mix & made up a couple of loaves, and I made chocolate chip cookies and put most of the dough in the freezer (64 ounces of future junk food. Yay!). And lastly I went grocery shopping.

It feels great to have accomplished something and have a clean kitchen again. The only downside to the day is that Chick accidentally broke my 2 cup glass pyrex measuring cup. I guess you win some, you lose some.

Living Room Lighting - Advice Needed!

Hello all. So here's the situation... as previously mentioned we have scraped the popcorn texture from the living room ceiling. We currently have 2 long fluorescent light fixtures in the ceiling (2 bulbs each). While they are great for evenly lighting the room & conserving electricity, they give off a cold light, and are not especially up-to-date looking. I want to replace them before we retexture the ceiling...Handsome Handyman is hesitant because he doesn't want to give up the aforementioned pros of these lights.

We also have 2 lamps--one table lamp and one floor lamp. They are both great for task lighting, but alone they are not bright enough.

To the 2 lamps I would like to add a plant uplight, some recessed lights, and ...? That's where I'm at a loss.

• HH says that recessed lighting won't light evenly enough--it's just straight down.


• The plant light will add some depth and drama, but not a ton of light, and certainly not evenly.
• We had a cool wall sconce that we left at the condo (grrr) and it helped a lot...but HH might balk at having to do that much wiring stuff to add in a new wall sconce or two--we already have plenty to do, he might not want to have his list grow longer.


• It was suggested having a ceiling fan/light combo, but we plan to take out the wall pictured above and have a half-wall bar/counter there instead, and there will probably be a fan in the kitchen, and some recessed lighting or track lights or pendants where the wall is now. So anyhow, two fans that close to each other doesn't seem so great to me.


• I like the idea of an art spotlight for above the fireplace, but that also goes back to the "lots more work for HH" issue : )
  

So I need to know--what kind of lighting do you like in a living room? Do you have any suggestions for my dilemma?

Here are some pictures of lighting that I like (though only the center pic is the only one that is bright enough & look how many lights they have going!), if it helps you. Thanks!!

EEK! I've been tagged

8 Things Tag ... watch out - you're next :)

8 things I am passionate about...
1. My chick
2. Handsome Handyman
3. Home improvements
4. Being creative
5. Shopping/ Frugality
6. My opinions
7. Childbirth, breastfeeding, childrearing
8. Baths & Hot chocolate (or cold chocolate, really)

8 words or phrases I use often
1. Oh, for pete's sake!
2. Is it time to sit on the potty?
3. I'm just so TIRED (that's just lately, though)
4. You're such a lovebug!
5. Don't grab Mama's glasses!
6. Hey, look at what I got!
7. Ok, go ask Daddy to get some for you.
8. I'm going to take a bath.

8 things I have learned from my past...
1. If I pay full price, I'll have buyers remorse
2. Throwing things out of anger will just break your favorite toys
3. People don't really change much...we just need to love them "as is"
4. I'll love it once I get there, I just need to get out the door
5. It's true--you'll feel better if you just get to work
6. You get more flies with honey (yes, I want flies)
7. I won't regret time spent reading with my Chick
8. Making lists works wonders

8 places I would love to go see or visit...
1. Italy
2. Puerto Rico
3. A hair salon...it's been WAY too long
4. Value Village : )
5. My bed...or the bathtub. I'd settle for either
6. Victoria
7. Hong Kong...while we still have family to stay with there!
8. San Francisco

8 things I currently need or want...
1. A rotating compost bin
2. A new motor for the jeep window
3. Energy
4. House Moulding...put UP
5. A lot of time before this baby comes...the more the better
6. New doors (they're on sale at Lowes...I'm so tempted!)
7. A paid off mortgage
8. To lose weight (but actually not currently...in about 2 months)

8 people I tag...
1. Kriste
2. Heather
3. Katie
4. Kim
5. Amanda
6. Polly
7. Bonnie
8. Susie

This Diamond Ring...

doesn't fit like it did before.

I can still get my wedding ring on and off, but it sure doesn't slide on like it usually does. I'm thinking that the time has come to set it aside (temporarily, of course...I do still like my husband).

Ahh, pregnancy. I think my stretch marks from last time are starting to get red again, too. Fun times. But actually I like being pregnant. It's (mostly) fun to feel the baby kick. It's fun to go in for the checkups and hear the baby's heartbeat & find out how much both of us are growing : ) and SOMETIMES it's fun having the big belly. {I think I've mostly gotten past that point...I could barely shave my legs today!}

Anyhow, I will miss wearing my ring.

A Temple in Rome, Italy!

I am so excited about the announcement that there is a temple being built in Rome! Italian members had to go to Switzerland to attend the temple, and in the case of a marriage they were married civilly first. Anyhow, they had (have?) a law that the police could search any building at any time--which meant that we wouldn't build a temple there due to the sacred nature of the temple. I'm not sure if the legislature has changed, or if there are members on the police force now? But at any rate, it's exciting.

I'm SO curious what it will look like. I know the church tends to use local materials and keep reasonably close to local architecture...but of course it can't look like it's just an extension of the Vatican! At any rate, it's just more incentive to take a trip to Italy...it's been way too long.

Follow Up to "Why is your bumper in my tire?"

So last weekend's exciting run-in with the police didn't end as I thought it did.

Today Dave went and got the mail and there was a $1065 ticket for "Not yielding to an Emergency Vehicle."

So, if any of you local folks know of a good, honest, reasonable lawyer in the area that would handle this kind of thing, please let me know via email. We will definitely be contesting this.

Not the greatest weekend--especially when combined with our Jeep breaking down (leaving Dave stranded in the rain on a Friday night) and costing $1500 to fix, and all sorts of other "sand beneath the clamshell" things.

My prayer tonight might honestly be "Hope you know, I'm having a hard time." (See Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk in the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference).

Crazy Prego Dream

I dreamt last night that I was at my parents' house visiting with my sisters, M. & J. We decided to take a sneak peek at the baby (who wasn't and isn't born yet), so we took him out. It was a boy named Stephen (not a name that's anywhere on our list of possible names to use), and he had a full head of brown hair. He looked to be about 9 months old and could sit up on his own.

M. decided to feed him baby food peas, which he loved and it seemed like a good idea. Then, as M. was getting ready to walk out the door, she handed Stephen to me. He had a bare bum, and we noticed that he was starting to poo. That's when I realized our mistake: by feeding him we were making it so that he'd be passing meconium when we put him back in my womb! I freaked out because I might not be able to have a home birth if there was meconium in the amniotic fluid.

As if that would be my problem, if all the rest of it were true!

A project that's actually ALL DONE!

I actually completely finished Chick's first year scrapbook! It's the only scrapbook that I have completed (the others I keep working on here and there). I'm relieved to have it done, since soon I'll have a new "first year" book to start.

My policy is to do a full album of the first year, but after that I'll only do a layout or two per year (as an overview, unless there's a really special occasion). That's the only way that I can think of to keep things equal among kids--everyone says that the more kids you have the less the late comers get.

Anyhow, hooray for productivity!

Little Chick

It is so much fun having this little Chick around...she keeps us on our toes for sure! It's funny to see the similarities between us & her...here are two recent incidents.

Handsome Handyman is crazy for black olives. The other day I gave Chick a quesodilla that had some beans, black olives, cheese, and (of course) tortilla. Do you know what she did? She opened it up and just ate the black olives!

I am crazy for baths. Yesterday Chick was sitting on my lap at the computer and she was saying "Bat". I couldn't figure out what she was saying--she was signing too, but for some reason I couldn't understand the sign (I kept thinking she was signing "coat" but she wasn't saying coat). Finally I recognized the sign and realized that she was saying Bath for the first time. So I put her in a bath, and she played happily for probably an hour.

While we're on the subject of signing, I LOVE Signing Time! It has made our life so much easier...previously mentioned confusion aside, it's nice to know what this little Chick is thinking of things. Her spoken vocabulary is growing crazy fast each day lately (Last night she was repeating "Hey Dude" with HH), but her signed vocab is at least four times larger, so she's really able to communicate effectively.