Fill in the blank Friday!

My go to outfit for a dress up occasion like a wedding is my blue and cream dot smocked dress.  I LOVE it!

This week has been HOT, busy and exhausting.  I got back in the swing of things after being on vacation last week and I missed my naps. Bad.

When it's suppertime and I'm feeling lazy, I'll usually eat scrambled eggs and toast or a bowl of cereal. I love brupper!  :)

My favorite pair of shoes is my Birkenstock sandals.  I've had them for years.  They are so comfortable and have formed to fit my feet. If I HAVE to wear shoes, I'm usually wearing them.

A random item I own that is completely unnecessary but I could never part with is probably my little red rocking chair my granddaddy made me when I was a baby.  I sat there and rocked my babies until my butt wouldn't fit anymore.  I still try to sit in it sometimes.  :)

My favorite person is I don't have just one!  How could I pick just one favorite person when I have such amazing parents, sister and husband?  So I'm picking FOUR!!  :)  Four people who love me, keep me grounded and make me laugh.

If I were writing my own blank, it would be:  In the summer, I miss my long-sleeved t-shirts the most.  First cool morning we have and one of 'em is ON!!  Old Navy makes the best, the softest and the most comfy long-sleeved tees.  I probably have one in every color!

How long did I make it??

FOUR days!  Four days without spending money!!  :)  I thought I'd go longer than that but I used up my last little bit of hairspray this morning and I thought I had some more under the bathroom sink but I didn't and with this hot, windy humidity like it is, I have to have hairspray.  I'd be scaring them babies to death at work if I didn't.  :)  

BUT!  I used a coupon and got a can for $2.50.  I had to get a box to mail something in because I couldn't find a FREE one the right size but it was only 48 cents so that's almost like free.  

Frugality isn't so much not spending money, you have to sometimes, it's about spending your money wisely, looking for ways to spend less and get more.  Four days of me spending NO money is huge.  Especially from where I've come.  When I went to work in Macon in 1999, our office was right across the street from the mall and I would go to the mall EVERY SINGLE DAY at lunch.  If I wasn't buying Winnie the Pooh beanie babies at The Disney Store, I was buying stuff at Origins.  Or clothes or shoes or whatever.  Just as long as I was buying!  Talking about this makes me feel like I was a junkie or something!  But in a way, I guess I was.  And my drug was shopping.

I've been getting my groceries at Aldi lately.  I LOVE Aldi!!  I have loved everything I've gotten there except for the lowfat turkey hot dogs but lowfat turkey hot dogs are pretty gross no matter where you get 'em.  Some of my favorite things from there are the milk (I buy the skim and it is SO FRESH!  And it stays fresh a lonnnnnng time.  I don't know if they ultra-pasteurize it like Horizon but it tastes like organic milk to me.  And for $2.49 a gallon, it's a steal!), the blue cheese and gorgonzola cheese crumbles (they are huge!  And so creamy and tasty. That's the kind I'm using in my buffalo chicken dip now!), the canned soups (their minestrone and lentil are the best canned soups I've ever had), the veggie chips, crackers, cereals and ice cream are delicious, their frozen chicken breasts are right around $5 a bag and taste just as good as Tyson for way less and the marinara sauce ain't half bad either.  I've been happy with everything I've gotten there!  I've never spent more than $35 there and each time, I've gotten a ton of stuff, enough to feed me for at least two weeks.  I also love that you bring your own bags and don't leave there with a buggy full of plastic.  We have GOT to get more stores on that wagon!!

I was there today getting a few things, milk, wheat bread, oatmeal and granola and I noticed this.  I've been in there five or six times since they opened but I never paid much attention to this.  Aldi has brands we ain't never heard of (Happy Harvest, Friendly Farms, Edenvale, Millville) and this one just tickled me!

Their medicine/vitamin/pain reliever brand is WELBY.

As in Marcus Welby, M.D.  Ha!
I'm showing my age here but if you're over 40, 

you know who I'm talking about.

Dat's him!  :)

What I'm loving Wednesday!

A Baby Shower!

We had a baby shower lunch at the office today for Niki, Dr. Patrenos' nurse, and her FIRST baby girl on the way, Morrigan.  Niki's leaving us to stay home with her four children and we are really going to miss her!  Already do, actually!  Here are a few pictures from our fun time with her and her little boy, Judah. 

 Yummy food as always!

Michelle brought a delicious quiche, Lisa S. made chicken wings, a veggie tray and salsa, Dr. Rollins brought a huge bowl of juicy summer fruit and a vegetable tray, Norma got us some Georgia Bob's chicken salad and crackers, I made buffalo chicken dip and brought flatbread crisps and Cheryl made the sherbet punch that was absolutely divine -- good, cold and sweet, just like we like it! 

 Lisa P. made these adorable and most scrumptous

red velvet cupcakes with pink cream cheese icing. 

I love the little diaper pins!

The gifts!

We all pitched in and got her a high chair and she got lots of sweet little baby girl clothes, socks, diapers and a baby book.

 Niki, all smiles opening her gifts and

Judah, lookin' all grown up with his baseball cap on. 

He won't be the baby much longer!

Welcome August

Here's a picture I took today of Willow Lake in Centerville.  It's one of my August scavenger hunt pictures.  

Water.

I thought it was just so calm and peaceful and it reminded me that summer is winding down.  I'm not going to say it's "already August!" because I don't really feel like the summer has flown by.  I've had a great summer!  It's been HOTTTTTT, true, but we've also had some awesome thunderstorms and I had an amazing birthday and I've watched lightnin' bugs dance in my backyard, I've eaten homemade peach ice cream, cooked about a bazillion squash in my kitchen, grew actual vegetables that I could eat, saw some really good movies, read a couple of good books, took down a TREE all by myself, made good use of my clothesline and just enjoyed a whole peaceful, quiet week at home.  Oh, and naps.  I didn't mention the naps.  

School started back here today.  That really doesn't mean much to me since I don't have school-aged children but I'm sad for the kids.  Summer's over for them.  They went back too early!!  They still had lightnin' bugs to catch!  And honeysuckle to eat!  And creeks to jump in!  

I go back to school on the 23rd.  I've been out since May 5th!  I've had a lonnnnnnng break and I'm getting anxious to get back and at least finish this leg of my journey.  I'll graduate after this semester.  Where I go after that, I don't know.  I'm praying about it.

And I'm welcoming August, with its heat and still plentiful vegetables and somewhere out there, there's still gonna be a bowl of homemade peach ice cream. 

I'll give summer up in.....OCTOBER!!

My frugality project

I'm always looking for a project or experiment.  My South Beach project, my Old Lady project, my Wen experiment (which by the way is working out great IF I don't use it.  Ha!  If I use Wen every day, my hair looks at me like Droopy Dog.  

                                                What??

It makes my hair TOO soft, too silky to hold a style.  Oh, it looks fine, it just won't hold body or curl.  If I use it a couple of times a week, it's great.  It's just enough conditioning to keep down the frizzies and combined with some volumizing shampoo, we've gotten to be good friends.).

So I've been thinking a lot this week about another project.  An experiment in frugality.  One of my friends on Facebook posted a question this week, "How long could you go without spending any money?"  Except for necessities: gas, groceries, medicine, bills.

I got to thinking about that and thought it'd be fun to try it.  I've been at home this week, cleaning my house and doing yardwork, watching movies, cooking and reading and guess what??  Aside from my $7.50 movie ticket today, I spent NO money.

I am already a million times more frugal than I used to be.  I try to reuse everything, make do with what I have and if I bring something into my house, I try to get rid of something.  Give it away, usually.  But I wasn't always this way.  Seven years ago, I set out to live a simpler life.  To live with less.  And I have never been happier.  Less truly is more.

I'll be honest, having your husband in prison causes a woman to find other ways to fill that void.  Even though I have never had Larry home with me, his absence is a canyon-sized void in our home.  When I was much younger and having a much harder time with our situation, I tried to fill that void with shopping.  I became a compulsive shopper, an excessive spender.  And guess what?  Most of that spending was of the plastic kind.  I was spending money I had not even earned yet.

I was 23 when Larry was transferred to Walker County, up near the Tennessee line and I drove the 242 miles one way every weekend to see him.  On my way home through Atlanta, there were two malls that called out to me.  Those of you who knew me back then know that I had the clothes!  I had the shoes!  I had the expensive pocketbooks and I had the entire line of Clinique makeup!  I used nothing but Clinique.  I had the $60 perfumes, too.  The ones that made Larry's nose run and his eyes water.  A complete waste of plastic there.  Ha!

I never wore the same thing twice to see Larry.  And before I knew it, I was in a hole.  I had thirteen (13!) maxed-out credit cards.  I was nearly $20,000 in credit card debt.  I was drowning in it.  I would pay my $200 credit card payments then go charge another $200-$300.  I never filed bankruptcy but I did seek help from Consumer Credit Counseling and maintained my excellent credit score.  But it was hard.  It was really, really hard.  I worked in credit, as you all know, and I could not let my credit score suffer.  How could I advise someone about his/her payment when I couldn't even manage my own?  I couldn't.  So I lived at home much longer than I should have.

I finally bought a house I could afford.  Well, kinda.  I brought all that debt with me.  Since then, I've been blessed with a few windfalls that have gotten me completely out of debt except for my car.  No mortgage and no credit card debt.  I have learned my lesson.  No more charging.  No more buying things just for the sake of buying them.  I can't stand clutter anyway. 

And I really can't stand shopping anymore either.  It feels like such a chore when I need new clothes (my South Beach project, wooo hooooo!) or if I need to buy a present for somebody. 

So this frugality project of mine shouldn't be all that hard.  I'm starting Monday, August 1st, and I will go as long as I possibly can without spending any money needlessly.  NO clothes.  NO shampoo.  NO makeup.  NO soaps and body washes and lotions.  I will use what I have.  I will eat what's in my pantry and my freezer. 

I want to replace the TV in my second bedroom.  It's 20 years old (a purchase from my old life, a TranSouth office that I closed) and has started doing the vertical line thingy.  I can hit it on the side and it plays fine.  For a while.  I read online that all it needs is resoldering the part in the back that has come loose, the vertical hold.  I can do that!  I have a soldering iron!  I can solder!  I've seen me do it!!  :)  So when it gets to the point that I can't pop it upside its head to get it to play, I'm going to take it apart and try to fix it.  And if THAT doesn't work, instead of going to Walmart or Best Buy to get a new one, I'll get one secondhand or better yet, get one Freecycled.  Maybe an exchange for a little blue sofa I have stored in my building out back?

If anybody wants to join me next month, please do!!  I think it'll be fun.  At the very least, it'll be educational.  :)  You never know what you can do until you do it.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Imagine, guys (if there are any guys reading my blog!), having dinner at a restaurant with your wife of 25 years and you're looking over the menu together, trying to decide what you want.  All of a sudden, your wife blurts out what she wants.  A divorce.

That's what happens to poor Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) in this movie.  She tells him she cheated with a guy from work, David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon) and that basically, it's his fault because he took her for granted.  I went to see it today and I loved it.  (I know I say I love every movie I see but I DO.  The only movie I ever didn't like was "Brokeback Mountain" and not because the guys were gay.  Because they were pathetic.  I felt more sorry for their wives and children than for them.  But, anyway, I DO love every movie I see.  I check them out carefully, wait for months to see them and I am very rarely disappointed.)

So Cal and his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), separate and he tries to move on with his life.  He meets ladies' man, Jacob (cutie patootie Ryan Gosling), who changes his look and his wardrobe to give Cal back his manhood and make Emily "rue the day she ever decided to give up on him."  

But Cal, who hasn't dated in years (Emily was his high school sweetheart and the only woman he'd ever been with), bombs at dating because he can't shut up about Emily.  He does get better at it, though, but he's never happy.

This movie is hilarious, sweet, romantic and sad all at the same time.  I cry a lot at movies and this one did it to me, too.

This scene right here got me.  Cal had been sneaking over to the house at night to fertilize the flowers and snip the dead blooms off, trim the hedges, that kind of thing.  He's watching through the window when Emily calls him to "help her light the pilot light in the basement."  So he walks her through the process, all the while standing in the yard, looking at her through the dining room window.  She wasn't in the basement, she didn't need help lighting the pilot light.  She called him to just hear his voice but her pride would not let her tell him that so she made up a reason to call.  He stood out in the yard with tears in his eyes, she had tears in hers and Lordy mercy, so did I.  Why do people have to be so stubborn when it comes to love??

And why is that I can't see Julianne Moore on anything without seeing her as Frannie (and Sabrina!) on ATWT and Kevin Bacon as Tim on GL??  AND Marisa Tomei is in this movie, too.  Marcy on ATWT!  God, I'm old.

The movie's great and has a wicked little twist at the end that's hilarious.

Go see it this weekend.  And take somebody you love.

Fill in the blank Friday!

Today's FITBF is about going back to basics.  I link up with Lauren at The Little Things We Do blog every Friday.  She picks the blanks.  It's become something I really enjoy doing!

So here we go.  Some basics about me.  :)

My favorite color is pink.  Girly, pretty, happy pink.  And I LOVE pink and brown together!  However, I do not love pink lips on me.  Toenails, okay, IF it's a hot pink or coral but light pink, no way.

My travel destination of choice is a beach.  Any beach.  Sand between my toes and in my butt.  LOVE.

My favorite type of food is Mexican.  I LOVE buritos, fajitas, enchiladas, quesadillas, salsa (as long as it's not too hot), beans, rice, guacamole, all covered in CHEESE.  Yum!!

My happy place is my sofa.  My soft, overstuffed, comfy, incredibly nappy sofa.  Ahhhhhh!

My favorite saying is "That which does not kill me, makes me stronger", quoted by German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche in 1888.  I'm a strong, strong girl. Just sayin'.  :)

My dirty little secret is now, y'all don't think I'm crazy here but sometimes, I think inanimate objects have feelings.  Like this towel I used this week to clean out my little gardening shed.  It was FILTHY and I didn't want to bring it into my house, much less put it in my washing machine so I threw it away with some other things I was tossing.  This towel is a ratty little thin towel (the kind I actually prefer) and has been with me since I ordered a set of them from Fingerhut when I was 20.  So, yes, it's 24 years old.  And, yes, I made payments on them!  Fingerhut was awesome back then.  Anyway, I ordered a set of towels and wash cloths and kept them in my hope chest.  I have been using them almost exclusively since I moved into my home eight years ago.  Oh, I have lots of fluffy, expensive, thirsty towels in my bathrooms but I would just rather use these.  Call me crazy.  I like a thin towel.  Long story short, I hurt its "feelings" and I felt guilty about it so I got the towel out of the trash, hung it on my clothesline, let the Good Lord wash it with all that rain we got yesterday and now it's fine.  It's laundered and back in my bathroom, folded up with the rest of them.  :)

Something my friends might say about me is after that last blank, probably that I need to go to the nervous hospital!  Ha!