Fuller Follies

Another one bites the dust....

2012-01-01T21:11:00.000-05:00

Wow!!! My last post was January 25, 2011. This year has been amazing and I hope the next will be even better.

1. We finally sold the house in St. Augustine.

2. My sister had her second baby, a little girl.

3. My two nephews are thriving and getting into normal 2 year old trouble.

4. My sister and her husband moved in next door.

5. My parents in-law suite was completed, after arguing constantly with the superintendent.

6. My husband has had a wonderful job and we are hoping it stays that way.

7. My sister-in-law, her husband and my nephew moved into my Grandma's old house, so now they are closer.

8. I have reached my 10 year mark with my job and we are still going strong there. :)

9. Not so good part of the year is that I gained weight. I am back at the needing to lose 80-90 lbs.

Now I am not going to beat myself up. I know what happened and I can blame it on the fertility drugs, the depression (which I am over), lack of time but they would just be excuses.

So here is where I am at, I WILL NOT be going on some diet program, I am doing this my way. I find that when I do diets I tend to cheat with my foods. Before the holidays began I ate what I wanted and it was the full fat versions of whatever I made. I found I ate less and was more fulfilled. I wound up losing 15 lbs. over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since I need to lose 80-90 lbs and it is safe to lose 1-2 lbs a week. I figured I could do it this year, 52 weeks in a year is really not that long.

This is my way of getting my life back without help from others, I did this to myself and I WILL get myself out. I do not plan on blogging everyday but I will try. I am trying to make foods ahead of time that are healthy but not skipping the fat. Now by fat I am talking real butter, coconut oil, olive oils, peanut butter, eggs (not egg beaters), whole milk or coconut milk.

I am not asking anyone to follow me on this journey or follow my lead. Everyone is different and what may work for me may not work for others. For instance, I can not have artificial sweeteners, it is only asking for an instant U.T.I. I do however use Stevia, Sucanat and Agave. I will stick to Organic fruits and veggies, I feel better when I stick to a mostly vegetarian diet.

I have been using recipes from other blogger websites. I love The Pioneer Woman site and I have adjusted some recipes to make them a little more vegetarian. :) I know she will be so disappointed but conversion is necessary. I also follow The Nourished Kitchen, Heavenly Homemakers, A Cozy Kitchen and for personal inspiration and I love how she writes Enjoying the Small Things.

I am not making this as a resolution because when February rolls around those are out the window. I do believe in new beginnings and that it is never to late to start something. So I toast the New Year with a new way. I will try to lose at least 1 lb. a week and if I don't I will not beat myself up. It took me years to learn these bad habits and I am assuming in 2 years I will change them.

Love,
Renee

What a ripoff......here a bidder there a bidder

2011-01-25T15:20:00.000-05:00

Some of you may search online auctions and good deals daily, I know I am one of those. Well I found the biggest of ripoffs and if people would do their research before it would save them some money.

I was researching iPads because of the convenience of them and how they would work at the trade shows my hubby and I go to. So I entered into a search engine something like "best iPad auction" and it came up with these weird auction sites I had never heard of.

Quibids and Arrow Outlet. Anyone else hear of them, you may have seen them on ABC, MSNBC.... yada yada yada. Well it just goes to show you that the media does not know a thing about saving money. Sure you can probably get a good deal but at what expense.

Here is how it works, I watched one auction go on forever and added up what the cost was. RIDICULOUS!!

I was looking at the iPad on arrow outlet and the starting bid was $0.00. Each time you bid it raises the price by .01. You have to pay for each bid ahead of time and you can purchase them in what are called "bid packs". For instance I would first purchase 100 bids at $49.95 and then they give you a bonus of 5 more, each time you place a bid now you are paying .48 cents for each bid and each bid only raises that auction by one penny?!?!

So back to the iPad (32GB with Wifi, to be specific), if you go to their ENDED auctions to see a real time price one just recently closed for $122.57 on 1/24/11 @ 11:00 p.m.

This auction again went up in .01 cent increments that you paid .50 cents each for. Right now with just the bids that I figuratively bought (105), just by myself I could get the amount up to $1.05. WHAT?!?! This item sold for $122.57, that means that there were 12,257 bids placed and each bid was paid to them at .50 cents a piece. Arrow Outlet just made $6128.50 in bid fees alone and say they only "sold" it for $122.57 (but they do include free shipping, hardee har har).

Let's do the math:

So let's just say there were 20 people who bid on the iPad mentioned above:

12,257 / 20 (people) = 612.85 (amount of bids needed to try to win per person)

each bid cost .50 cents

$.50 x 612.85 (bids needed to win) = $306.43 (Unless you bought their bid pack of 1000 bids + 75 for free for $499.95 and only paid .47 cents per bid)

OK so $306.43 to buy the bids, then you win the item for $122.57 (but the shipping is free), your total is $429.00. You only saved $201.00 and your eyes are now bloodshot from staying up late constantly raising the price up penny by penny.

If you would have bought the 1075 bid pack at $499.95 + $122.57 = $622.52 (you only saved $7.48) I am going to assume people are buying lowest packs because at first it may not seem like you would need that many to bid. Which means if you did you lost money now instead of saving it. (You can buy the same iPad on Best buy for $599.99 and be guaranteed the item and not have to look like a zombie at work the next day)

Now granted there are way more people bidding on this one item but you can see how it can add up really quick.

The other scam they have going on is the bid packs you can win by bidding on them, again one penny at a time. You can win a 100 bid pack and pay $8.53 for it. Again:

853 bids placed to get it to $8.53.
You pay .50 per bid and it only raises this auction by one penny at a time.
Again 853 / 12 (people) = 71.09
71.09 bids each person may have had to make to try to win
So each person spent $35.55 and only one person won. (they still give you the option to put the bids you made though towards buying it at retail cost.) You are bidding to win bids to bid again.

Say you bought the 40 bids at $19.95 and you try to win the 15 bid pack to get more bids. The last auction went off for $1.30 (130 bids to get this, they made $65.00 off your bids and did not have to provide you an item that you can physically touch, just more bids. (Again if you won, if not you are out the bids and now have the "option" to buy more)

The auctions have this never ending process as well. The clock can get down to 1 second and someone can out bid you over and over. The clock turns red on the final 15 second count down, in that 15 seconds someone can out bid you over and over again. So an auction that says it end in 1 hour (let's say 1 hour starts at 12:00 p.m.), this "last 15 seconds" can go on until someone gives up, runs out of bids or money and go well on into 3 a.m. the next day.

Now granted they do provide the product at a discounted price if you win and you can win some good deals. I think if people stepped back and averaged out what they won compared to what they spent they would be shocked.

Pampers Village: Connect with real parents like you!

2011-01-19T20:28:00.001-05:00

On Pampers Village, you can share tips, support, and experiences with real parents like you. You’ll discover more about parenthood through articles, videos, and online tools, and receive offers, samples, and coupons!

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Days 18-34

2011-01-13T19:10:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally reached the New Year!!! Shepherd attended his first New Years Party at the Meyers house. He loved the people, kids, music and especially his car-car (as he knows it by). This kid LOVES this little car, he can be screaming his lungs out and tired as heck, you stick his little butt in that car and total silence.

December 23rd they came back to cute the expansion joints in the concrete on the sidewalk around the house. They also covered back up the pipe for the plumbing, now we don't have a moat between the two houses. LOL

Not much went on from days 18-26, it was mostly waiting for the concrete to cure and then it rained. This further delayed construction and on day 27, 1-5-11, we finally got the concrete block delivered.

Granted that it rained for a couple more days after that and then on day 29, Friday 1-7-11, they started on the block.

This lead into the weekend which no work was done and then they started again on Monday 1-10-11 and by Tuesday 1-11-11 they were done, they did come back the next day to clean up the slab. They were excellent concrete masonry guys, clean, quick and thorough. This link has a great do it yourself how to concrete block yourself.

When I got home today I saw they delivered the roof trusses today so soon we will be in the framing game.

Day 16 & 17 we have concrete and plumbing lines

2010-12-23T14:51:00.000-05:00

Tuesday 12-21-10 was REALLY boring and nothing happened........well, maybe we had fun with Scooby. You have got to love this little dog and disregard my annoying high pitched doggie talk. We do not know why he does this but if I have anything that has a hint of a smell to it he will roll into it. We did not know this and I was getting ready for work one day and I sprayed my coconut perfume on me and the mist lightly fell to the floor. I went into the closet and got dressed and came out and he was rolling upside down on the carpet mat I had at my sink. Well, yesterday my hubby got a yoga ball to help his back and I just took it out of the package and he jumped up from where he was and started rolling on it. LOL

but what a day it was today Wednesday 12-22-10. The concrete truck arrived and they poured all morning. They then did the next step which is to screed the concrete, again Wikipedia comes to the rescue for those unaware of what that term means. For those wanting a more in-depth article about screeding, using a Darby, edging tools and then a broom finish you can go to this article. It is more of showing the steps on a smaller scale and why each step is needed. The guys used a concrete trowel machine which puts a nice finish on the concrete.

My Dad has not asked too many questions when it has come to the rest of the construction. He just wanted to know when they were going to dig out for his 10x10 shed.

They dug a small trench to keep the concrete hose from flying all over the place, I am sure the neighbors will be happy to hear that too. What a great way to texture the outside of your house then a concrete hose flinging it in a lovely pattern.

They were trying to find the plumbing pipe to tie into that line coming from the street.

One of the many awesome plumber guys digging the trench line out for the plumbing.

This is what I found in my yard when I came home. They put the tractor on my yard and not on my parents yard. Thanks guys!!

This is from the front yard going down the right side of the yard to the back to tie into the newer plumbing pipes.

FINALLY!!! Dad has his little 10x10 concrete pad for the future shed he has always wanted. LOL

You can see the recessed shower more now. A recessed shower basically means that the water line sits below the slab. The pan does not require a rubber pan and you can just prep it with what we call "mud" mix and the float it out then tile it. They are trying to get the codes changed because the original idea was that the water would just drain back into the ground. Now they are finding that there is a lot of mold associated in FL. in showers with pan water wicking back up the wall board. There are so many arguments out there as to what to do to prevent the mold. You will not find recessed pans in all downstairs home, it is not required. You will however, never find them in an upstairs showers.

After the inspector comes in and inspects the pipes they will finish filling in the dirt and then pouring the rest of the concrete.

This is the concrete trowel machine, it even has a cup holder. LOL (seriously)

Dad's future shed.

This is the name of the guy who is doing the remodel.

Construction continues Days 9-15

2010-12-21T14:19:00.002-05:00

Day 9 starts us off with a sprinkler on the dirt to help compact the dirt after the grading, pretty boring day in the land of construction at the house. LOL

Day 9 12-14-10

Day 9 side view

Day 9 in the trenches (a little construction humor)

Day 9 another boring wet dirt view

Day 9 BORING

Day 10-12 they dug some more ground behind the slab area for the back "Lanai" area (fancy word for porch). LOL They also dug out more footers for the Lanai and the frame work was laid down for the concrete for the Lanai as well.

A better view so you can see the main slab for the addition in the background. The frame work in the foreground is for the Lanai and the sidewalk that runs around the house.

Dad inspecting all the grading.

You can see my house next door. :)

The recessed shower. It will be 33 square feet, handicap accessible.

So Day 13 which falls on Saturday 12-18-10 they did the termite treatment to the ground and covered it with a vapor barrier. Most of the pictures are taken at weird angles because we are not allowed to walk near the sprayed area. Plus I do not want to track it back into the house. :)

This is the sidewalk coming to the side where the existing Master Bedroom window is, The AC unit for the addition will sit to the right of this window and a little back.

You can tell it rained all day Saturday right after they sprayed and laid the barrier.

Day 15 Monday 12-20-10, today was REBAR day. The best way to explain Rebar is this:

When the slab is loaded and force applied to it, the top of the slab directly under the load will be put in compression. However at the bottom of the slab. the concrete will pull itself in tension.

Put the ends of your fingers together than flex your wrist up. You will feel the pressure at the top of your fingertips and you will see a gap open at the bottom.

That is what is happening in a slab. Concrete is strong in compression, poor in tension.
Rebar, or steel, is the opposite. By combining the two, you develop a product that is superior and complimentary to the strengths and weaknesses of the individual materials.

Plumbing pipe going to the shower, sink and toilet.

Hopefully tomorrow will be concrete day!!!!

What is the true meaning....

2010-12-15T21:14:00.000-05:00

Every year since I was a little girl, Christmas seemed to be about one main concept-the birth of Jesus. I think along the way people get lost once the stores start the "Holly Jolly Christmas" music. It becomes more about what are you getting so and so then it does about celebrating Christ's birth. The past two years has taught me so much and one of things I hold close to my heart is FAMILY. We have had our ups and downs with anything and everything you can imagine. On December 22nd last year my husband had to have back surgery due to a herniated disk and was out of work for 6 weeks. After the 6 weeks was over the Dr. said he would probably need more therapy and need to be out of work for a little while longer. His work had decided that they needed to let him go and we became a one income family on a two income family budget.
We have cut and cut and cut, then cut again everything that we could out of the budget. Granted he has a job again but it was about August before anyone would hire him, he can never again lift anything over 30 lbs. Try telling people that is a job interview, it goes over really well-NOT! We are slowly and I mean slowly recovering, but it puts a real scare into you. We rarely if ever go out to eat, date night has become Netflix and homemade popcorn (which hubbie tells me tastes way better than the movie theater popcorn). But we count our blessing such as we at least have a home to watch a movie in. We have our family, friends and most important each other.

I remembered that my paternal grandmother had told me a story about the Depression. She said during hard times people need their families closer to them and wants and needs are more clearly defined. She said that she started asking herself do I really need it or do I just want it. This is something I started really doing more and more. Such as I really want a new Keurig coffee maker, food processor, Wii...etc. We need groceries, gas money and our jobs.

This Christmas we decided to do something different, as a family we decided this year not to exchange gifts and we have told friends the same. We have asked that we all just get to spend time together and enjoy what we already have in life, each other. To put it in a different perspective, if I get you a $20.00 reindeer and you get me a $20.00 Santa Claus are we any better off in our friendship or family because of that thing. I would like to think you would say "No" but some may say yes. We are so consumed as a society as to what possessions we have as to what relationships we have. If I were to die tomorrow I can not take those things with me, but the love from family and friends would lift me spiritually higher and higher.

I know to some this will be a cheesy post and they have every right to feel how they want. I know what is important to me and that is all that matters. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday that is filled with LOVE, HAPPINESS, FAMILY AND FRIENDS. May you remember the real reason for the season!

Love to all
Renee

Haul out the plumbing...wait that is not a Christmas song!

2010-12-14T11:35:00.000-05:00

Well, the building has begun and we could not be happier, this means soon we will hear the sound of hooves on the rooftop. OK so the sounds of little Shepherd toddling around the new addition instead of hooves.

For those who are not aware of what is going on here is a quick synopsis. My husband and I live next door to my parents. My sister and her husband currently reside in Daholonega, GA (look it up a cute little town with a "rich" history). My brother-in-law just graduated, we are so proud of him, so they are moving to Orlando. Mom and Dad decided to keep the family close as in same house close. So they are building a new suite onto the house to accommodate them and then my sister, her hubbie and my nephew will live in the main part of the home. Building started on December 6th with the dropping off of the wood to build the frame for the concrete to be poured.

Day 1

Day 1 Survey

Day 2 was not that eventful, since they started digging to lay the pipe for plumbing.

Day 2 Start Digging for Plumbing Lines

Day 2 Plumbing

Day 2 with Ebony supervising the job at the end of the day

Day 3 they moved more dirt around and cut the cable, Internet and phone lines (whoops). Granted the cable line was only supposed to be on the side of the yard they were not digging but the cable company ran three lines to the house when there was only supposed to be one. Lazy cable people!

Day 3 more dirt (nice Bobcat)

Day 3 more dirt

Day 4 was pipe day, the plumbing for the shower toilet and sinks has been laid and awaits inspection. The Inspectors came on Friday 12-10-10 so now they can move onto grading the land on Monday 12-13-10.

Day 4 Shower Plumbing sticking out of the ground

Day 4 the toilet and shower

Day 5 or what would be officially day 8 on Monday 12-13-10. They started to grade and prep the ground for the concrete to be poured. Although the weather has not been behaving lately with the cold snap they will probably pour the slab Thursday or Friday.

Well, that is it for now but I am sure we will have more to say at the end of the week.

Renee

Huge giveaway from Today's Mama and Gamestop!!!

2010-11-22T20:35:00.001-05:00

Today's Mama is having a huge giveaway! The grand prize is on TodaysMama: an XBOX 360/Kinect combo pack, the Special Edition DSi combo pack, the Special Edition Wii combo pack and a $1000 gift card to Gamestop. WOW!!! My hubbie would fall out of his chair if I won this. You go to her site and copy the questions and link up.

Holiday Wish List Meme

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

For all of us to be together safe and sound.

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?
I wake up and put the overnight casserole in the oven in the morning and all the family comes over (we live all live on the same street) Then we open presents one at a time while breakfast cooks.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?
To finally have a baby, we have been trying for 9 years.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
We decided to try to make gifts this year with what we already have.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Hungry, Hungry Hippos

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
Letting breakfast cook while we open presents one at a time.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?
Banff, Canada

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?
Super Marios All-Stars
Donkey Kong Country Returns
Gran Turismo 5

Toys For Tots

2010-11-08T20:56:00.001-05:00

Gobble, gobble, gobble. Wow, is it really that time of year, it is really flying by faster than I can stand.

Right now we have a full schedule of parties, I love it.

First of all is a party we look forward to more than any other party. Well, I guess a little background is in order. About 11-12 years ago my parents paid off the mortgage on their house and wanted to celebrate, it was around the time of Thanksgiving. Being the charitable people they are they decided to have everyone bring a toy and to donate them to Toys for Tots. It started with about 50 people and we wound up getting over 75 toys for the cause. The next few years they had it at their house and then the cops started getting called on us well before the 10:00 p.m. noise cut off time. Plus the party kept growing bigger and bigger and the last time we had it at the house it was up to 100 people. We had some friends who had great connections at the Maitland Art Center and were able to get us a really good deal. That first year there it was about 200 people and well last year it was around 400 people. We invite people with the only requests being, bring one new unwrapped toy and one side dish. We provide the DJ, live music, open bar, BBQ, bounce house, chocolate fountains, video game van, etc. The Marines have been in attendance almost every year. The first year and two years ago when it fell on their annual ball. I LOVE this party and I hold it very close to my heart. I would not ever wish upon any child to wake up Christmas morning to nothing under the tree. Granted there is so much more to the season than gifts, but to some kids imagination and belief can be smashed with this one thing. Even something small can make a difference, think about when you were a kid and how you would have felt if you woke up Christmas morning with nothing under the tree. I encourage everyone to buy at least one toy this year and find a donation center to drop a toy off at. Toys R Us is a huge one that you can buy toys at and then donate them.

I feel so privileged every year to be able to go to the main warehouse in Orlando to meet the wonderful men and women that serve our country in more ways than one, the Marines. Our party falls around the same time as when the families are signing up to get donated toys. When we drop off the toys at the warehouse the day after there is always a line around the building of parents with children waiting to fill out the forms.

I have included a link to find a drop off location near you. It is never to early to start, if they do not have enough toys they have to turn families away.

Toys for Tots

Halloween

2010-10-25T20:40:00.000-04:00

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Halloween!!!! I love to decorate and scare people, but this year I decided to have a Ghoul's night party. I usually have Ghoul's Night once a month and this was perfect timing, I was feeling crafty.

Let's start with the goodies I needed to do all the projects.

The first project was a modge podge pumpkin. I got this idea from Maddycake Muse and The Other White House

You cut the napkins in strips and put modge podge on the pumpkin, I used ceramic white ones from Hobby Lobby, they were 1.25 each with my 40% off coupons.

This is the final project finished, two medium and one large. I put these aside because I will be using them on another project later.

Onto the next part of the project:

First I took these dowels, very cheap at any art store.

I spray painted them black matte and let them dry

I then took these little blocks that were at Hobby Lobby for $1.25 each and wrapped them in the same napkin as the pumpkins I did.

I drilled a hole in the middle of them a drill bit the same size as the wooden dowels, I used 3/4"

I put glue on one end and inserted it into the drilled hole and let dry overnight. I set them aside for part of the project.

My next part was very easy, I bought these sculls at Dollar Tree, they are making the rounds on blogs. I also took some jewels I had leftover from some project, they were the perfect size. I took them out of the package and pushed one into one of the eye holes. They fit perfect and I did not have to glue them good thing because all the modge podge by this time was drying enough to where I could peel it off my hands. :)

So they look like this when the jewel is in the eye.

Are you tired of reading yet, I swear this only took 1/2 a day to do all of this.

The next part of the project was to take (you guessed it) Dollar Tree pumpkins and paint them Black Matte:

You may have to touch it up a little, due to the Styrofoam and the plastic orange coating on it, it will pucker close to the stem. See here:

I took some round jewels and started from the center of the pumpkin and used glue dots to secure each jewel:

You can make your own patterns, I am a little OCD so I followed the middle going up then down.

OK not bring all the elements together:

The damask pumpkin, the skull, black pumpkin and wooden dowel tower. You will need a drill with bit of whatever size dowel you used. Again I used 3/4" so I used a 3/4" drill bit.

I drilled a hole in the black pumpkin first since it will go on the bottom. I drilled at an angle because I wanted it to look a little Mad Hatterish. Very carefully slide the pumpkin on and grab the skull next.

Doing the same with the skull, drill at an angle and carefully slide it onto the dowel.

Luckily my ceramic pumpkin had a hole in the bottom of it, so I just had to punch a hole through the napkin and slide it on top. You can secure the black and white pumpkin on top but I choose not to so I can store it easier. Just be careful when you are moving it because it will fall off the top and break.

I made two of these total for centerpieces.

My next project was taken from Hostess with the Mostess website, very quick and easy.

Take Dollar Tree rings that have sculls on them. Use the small glue dots again and pink jewels and put them over one eye.

Then take the sculls and slide them onto the stems of wine glasses

Now comes the fun part of putting it all together:

Drink station:

I put some glow in the dark bones into a lantern, some over sized grave markers behind the drink tub. I wrapped the blue tub used from the the previous bridal shower and wrapped it in black fabric. The "toxic" sign, another Dollar Tree find. I stretched cobwebs all over the place (again from the Dollar Tree).

The hand looked a little to manly for my Ghoul's night so I added pearls to it and a silver candlestick. I have not had a chance to polish the candle holder in awhile and the tarnish worked great for it.

Dollar Tree crows, I put one on top of the grave marker and one on the Toxic sign. I wrapped pearls around the crow to add a little feminine touch to it.

As you can see from this angle, behind the tub is a black light. My crappy camera can not get what the effects looked like.

I ran a burgundy curtain I had laying around down the center of the table, I had two panels and they worked great.

I used acrylic diamonds on the table to add to the glitzy.

I took some of the leftover Dollar Tree skulls and put them into a tall vase and put some purple jewels in the bottom of it. I ran some diamond beading around the edge of the vase.

The dessert bar:

Dollar Tree find number 5,046 (smile). This menu was only $1.00 and I love it!

See, here is a better shot

I want to paint the candle holders black and rub a little bronze into them but I ran out of time.

Here is my fireplace but again, my camera sucks so I stopped here because the battery ran out and the light was bad. :)

Breakfast at Tiffany's Bridal Shower

2010-10-25T18:56:00.000-04:00

I have a friend who is such a beautiful person inside and out. I wanted to give her a shower that sparkled as much as she does. She was just married this past weekend and I just now had time to post the shower we had over a month ago.

She preferred brunch and other than that I had free will to do whatever I wanted. So I had seen all over the Internet "Breakfast at Tiffany" themed showers. So here is what I did......

I started with making a monogram on Power Point

Then for the centerpieces I used blume boxes with a damask ribbon and a sheer ribbon behind that.

For the favors I got the favor boxes at Dollar Tree, 15 gowns for $1.00. The glass diamond paperweights I got on efavormart.com.

For the dessert bar, I used pearls, silver accents and some acrylic diamonds I found at Michael's. Plus some of the glass jars, silver jars and silver candy dishes I already had. I made the labels with the same background as the monogram label and same font.

For the food, since it was a brunch and I did not have all day to cook the day before (I work a full time job), I did overnight casseroles. I made:

sausage, egg and cheese casserole

tomato, basil and cheese tart

blueberry french toast

parfait buffet

fresh fruit and salad bar

For drinks I was going to do mimosas but I am not into people coming to my house to get tanked and then drive away. So we did fake Mimosas, this is my favorite and the bride requested it again on her wedding day. She requested I bring them again to the bridal suite so we could toast before she walked down the isle.

I got the tub from Home Goods at the end of Spring sale (I LOVE this tub). I did not get a picture with the drinks in it though, but I do have a picture of the bottles below. We mixed the drinks with orange juice and it made a sparkling foo foo drink.

This is my Florida Room and it is where we have all the parties. It has AC but all the windows also open for those rare cool Florida days. I am going to paint those windows after we finish the Master Bedroom and Bathroom. I hate the orange color on the walls. Anyways, back to the shower. All the table linens, chair covers and chair sashes came from efavormart.com. I tell you what this website is the best for prices on linens and it is good quality stuff. The napkin rings came from eBay and the come in all different colors. The plates, we bought 3 years ago for my sisters wedding. We have 200 of them and love them, they go from table to microwave to oven. I can not remember the website but I just remember typing in plates and wholesale. They work great since it is a basic beige color, we use them year-round for all parties.

Party time...or not...Red Coconut Club

2010-08-29T16:19:00.000-04:00

Well my hubby and I have some friends, Brenda (not my sister) and Frank, who still love to p-a-r-t-y. Now being that I myself use to party like a rock star, but now that I am 36 and I feel like an old lady, it is not something AJ and I do anymore. We love the fact we have each other and we love to dance but just not at a bar until the wee hours of the morning.

This is the entrance

It was Frank's birthday and they had the VIP area reserved at the Red Coconut Club (R.C.C.) at Universal Studios. I love this and all of Universal's clubs for two reasons, they are clean and they are NON SMOKING!!! :)

This is the VIP area, the railing is where the dance floor is.

This is the dance floor, very Miami flavor to the whole club

I am not a smoker and I always hated that one thing about bars. The fact you would come home from being out all night and smell like a ash tray. Not here at R.C.C., nope they have no smoke in the air, thank you Florida Laws, because if there is food served then you can not have smoke.

This is the upstairs area

Anyways back to the fun, they are open at 6 p.m. - 2:00 a.m., we kicked out at 1 a.m. AJ had one beer and I drank water out the wazzoooo because you have to yell to talk to each other and yelling equals thirsty. LOL

They had a live band called The Herb Williams Band, they played until 11:00 p.m. They knew a lot of songs and actually sounded like the real bands. Then after the band was done the DJ rocked the house until 2 a.m.

All said and done it was a fun night out with friends. :) A huge bonus was AJ danced for about 2 minutes and I got to see him back in his comfort zone. He is such a good dancer and I love to watch him, he can do freestyle, hip hop and a some old school dancing too. AJ and I also had fun before everyone arrived, we walked around the shopping area of Universal's, talked a lot and laughed a lot. I love that man of mine. :)

What do babies dream of

2010-07-27T13:31:00.000-04:00

Well now you have your chance to finally know what babies dream of. Adele has answered all of this in simple photography. She sets scenes while Mila is napping and places her in a dream scene. Here are some examples but you have to go see the website. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

Attack of the 50 foot baby

Space Baby

Surfer Baby

How can you not SMILE when you see these pictures. She explains how she does it and it doesn't take a long time and the baby is never disturbed.

What a cute idea!!

2010-07-27T08:27:00.000-04:00

I love cheap and functional projects. I also love scrapbook paper, but sometimes I can't figure out what to do with some of the sheets. Well Carol, from Frugal Life blog, came up with this wonderful and creative idea. Best of all most of the stuff comes from the dollar store.

She took a stack of pictures from the dollar store, you know the wrapped canvas ones.

Spray painted the edges brown and trimmed some coordinating scrapbook paper. Glued the paper onto the canvas and walla, you get this......

A quick, easy and cheap wall hanging. I have seen stuff like this sell in stores for 6-8 bucks per canvas. Since scrapbook paper has so many varieties the possibilities are endless.

I must go create this!!!

Lucas's 1st Birthday

2010-07-26T22:10:00.001-04:00

Wow has this much time passed!!! My little nephew is 1 and I just realized how much time flys by. My SIL went with a Baby Sesame Street party, I love me some Cookie Monster. True story, when I was around 3 years old, my Mom and Dad were doing things on opposite ends of the house. Well they both had a problem at the same time, so my Mom said "Hurry and go get your Dad". I went back to get Dad and he said "I have a problem go and get your Mom". Well I went back and forth with them saying the same thing and wound up crying not knowing what to do. They finally figured it out and found me crying and they bought me a Cookie Monster doll to make up for it, I still have it but he is missing an eye.

It was his 1st birthday so we kept it simple and sweet, after all you can give a kid sensory overload. LOL

Again, I am very bad about taking pictures because I am always running around the whole party, maybe when Brenda moves here I can put her in charge of that. :) Love you little sister!

I at least got a few pictures of the cake and Angela and Sydney before the crazy started.

Here was the best one, the others are blurry because of the smoke coming off the grill. Yummmm, honey did a great job grilling again. Love you babe!

This was one of the cakes. I have been working 40 hours a week and I had a UTI so it is not the best cake I have ever done. I had another idea in my head but I had to change it due to time restraints.

Anyways I still love it because of Cookie Monster.

Even though he gave me the most trouble I still love him. His arms kept falling down, we live in Florida and it was so hot. So I used a cookies to hold up his arm.

Elmo on the other hand was easy and worked really well, The only issue I had was I ran out of white icing and did not get to cover the rest of the cake board under his feet, as you can see here. :)

I used the stand up Teddy Bear pan from Wilton and cut off the ears and nose. For Cookie Monster I cut into the head a little to form a deeper mouth so it would look more 3-D with the cookie in it. I was baking cookies for the ice cream bar and just took a little dough and made smaller cookies. After they cooled a pit some around him and broke on up to look like he was eating them. The eyes are rolled fondant with black icing for the eye balls. Elmo's nose is fondant as well. The arms and legs are butterfingers, leftover from the crushed ones we made for the ice cream bar.

All the letters and numbers on the cake are made from rolled fondant and I used Wilton's letters and numbers small cutters.

This was his smash cake and I got the little figures from Party City, they are actually candles but they worked as decorations. The reason why I did not do a way over the top smash cake was one reason only, red dye is so hard to get out of clothes, carpet, hair...etc. I decided to go with the cookie monster blue at the very bottom and we removed all the figurines, it worked out very well.

Now, onto the ice cream bar. I had everything out already because I did not want to try to set it up while kids were running through the house. Very bad idea!!! As soon as the kids saw it, granted the ice cream was still in the freezer, it was all over. I felt so bad, one little girl was pouting because her Mom wanted her to eat first, then she could swim and then have ice cream. Sounds fair to me but when you are little and the table is at your height you figure why not.

Again this is not as decorated as I wanted it but being sick for a few days it still worked.

This is it partially together. I still had to put the cherries in the bowl and rearrange a few things. It is hard to see but I found little Elmo candy heads for the kids to put on the very top of the sundae.

Cookies in case someone wanted an ice cream sandwich instead or cookies in their ice cream. I love Oatmeal Raisin cookies!!!

At the beginning of the line we have all the good stuff. Toffee bits, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, Baby Ruth, Nestle Crunch, Oreos and Butterfingers (all crushed). Next to that fresh blueberries, strawberries and pineapple.

Next to that (not pictured) Reese's Pieces and M&M's and walnuts.

My favorite new cute item, the ice cream topper carousel, from Sur La Table. They no longer make them and you have to locate one by calling different store and having it shipped to you. Anyways, we put different sprinkles and colored sugars in them. You can put hot fudge in the cupcake part, but I figured little kids and dripping hot fudge in the sprinkles. Ummmm NO!

Now onto the real fun!!! Smash cake time!!!!

Here is Lexi and Lucas, she is the little cheerleader. Come on Lucas you can do it!!

Tammy, his Mom, put his hand in it after he looked at it for a long time, not knowing what to do.

He still hasn't really tasted it, he just keeps opening and closing his little hands. Testing out the consistency of it, looks like Elmer's paste glue. You know the stuff we all use to eat, OK maybe it was just me. I can still smell that stuff to this day and it still smells appetizing. LOL

Now Sydney is in on it. I love that kid he is so adorable! Lucas is tasting it and wait for it, wait for it, I think he likes it.........

Yep there we go this is how I eat my cake. :)

Lexi don't get to close or he might make you wear it too. She is a cutie!

Here is Sydney again, this kid just smiles at me and I want to buy him a car. :) All of his sisters and brothers are like this!!

Ooops, where is the cake go, Tammy took it away, smart woman! The rest of the party he was wired and laughing as he walked around about 100 mph. I love this kid, his eyes, personality cheeks and toothy smile!!

July 4th (I know I am late on the post)

2010-07-26T21:23:00.000-04:00

We had a lot of people over for the party, about 50 or more. We kind of had an open house which works really well so the house doesn't get so crowded, everybody seems to congregate in the kitchen. We will have to rearrange the floor plan for the next party. It did not flow as well as Easter did. I, as usual, forgot to take photos and the only one I have is from a dessert I made. I saw this little goodie in Williams and Sonoma, my personal toy store, and it was only $9.99 and I had a little spending money for it.

It is called an Apple Pie Mold and they have different ones, they do not seem to sell the others online, just the apple one.

This side does not have a leaf cut on it.

This side has a leaf cut out on it

So to make the pie(s) you need the following

You need parchment paper, 1 egg scrambled (not cooked), pastry brush and pie filling. Tape the parchment paper down to the countertop if it curls up. Then place the dough onto it and if you have homemade dough start rolling it out.

Take your dough and if it is premade, pull it out a little- just not to much you do not want it to tear.

Press one side of the back of the mold into the dough. Unless you are planning on frying it then you do not need the side that has the leaf cut out. You will want to make two of the side that does not have a cut out

Then turn it over and make an impression of the other side.

When you get done you will have two leaf cut outs and two non leaf cut outs. Again unless you are frying it and then you will have 4 of the non-leaf cutouts.

Carefully pull the leaf cut out off the parchment paper. The lift one of the non-cut out pieces off of the paper.

Put it on the side that has no crimp marks on it.

(Ignore this picture and the fact I did it the wrong way)

The piece should be on the non crimp side this was the first one I made but the only picture I have of the filling and egg wash.

Put about 2-3 Tablespoons of filling in the pie holder, then go around the edges with a little egg wash-this is the glue.

Then place the one with the leaf cut out on top and fold the apple mold back in half.

Press down to seal and then open it back up.

Remove from the mold and then do the next one.

It seems like a lot of work but I made 16 of them very quickly since I bought pre-made dough already rolled out. Wal-mart has their own brand that is about $1.27 per box and there are 2 in the box.

Now after you make them you HAVE to freeze them before baking. So I made these the weekend before July 4th. All I had to do the day of was pop them in the oven frozen and bake 10-15 minutes. It worked better because they were more fresh and the dessert table always had fresh hot apple, cherry and blueberry pie.

The bad part was as I got them out of the oven they were devoured and I did not get to get a picture of them cooked. Well there will be more parties and so many opportunites to use them other than pies. If you have kids you can make PB&J sandwiches and seal them for kids who like Un-Crustables it is a cheaper version. Plus this means you can make it with real whole grain bread and natural peanut butter with a less processed jam.

Giveaway from Bentobloggy for CSN!!

2010-07-13T15:58:00.000-04:00

I love CSN Stores, everything under one Internet "Roof" that you can possibly buy. I also love Bentobloggy, because she always has such wonderful and cute ways to get kids to eat their veggies. She is having a giveaway right now for a $40.00 gift card and all you have to do is become a follower. It is really like getting two prizes, once you become a follower you will always see her recipe and food ideas. So go on over to her blog Bentobloggy and enter now. :)

I am so stealing this idea!!!

2010-06-30T15:10:00.000-04:00

I do not like clutter, see previous post below. I feel that when you are organized you can stay on track time wise. I am always trying to find new ways to store stuff but still make it look good. When we bought this house I had intentions for every room and we are slowly working on one room at a time. We have this one room in the house, we shall call it Renee's Room, that I love to be in. The problem is that I HATE the color. It is a tangerine pink orange, basically puke color. When I am in the room I just want to paint it, I use this room to grow my herb garden in, it is a Florida Room and with its huge windows it gets a lot of light.

My problem is that I can not settle on a color, I love the french cottage look with a mix of traditional and a little Americana country. LOL So I was skipping through my google reader and happened upon an idea. AJ and I love board games and we hope that with the nephews in and out of the house, this room will become a indoor (but feels like outdoor) playroom. We love to be outside but please in Florida it is impossible to tolerate the humid heat from 10-4. So I was thinking maybe a reading and board game room. We have a large table in there and a couch I love to read in. The board games though take up shelf space and the boxes they come in do not hold up well. So Beckie from Infarrantly Creative has this cute idea that can also function as art.

Makes perfect art!

Plus all the pieces to the games store on the back of the frame.

Perfect for my room, wall art and storage, check and check. Here are a few photos, for the how to and materials needed click here. Now I just need to find my power tools, pick a wall color and I am ready to go!

Renee

I WOOOONNNN!!!!!

2010-06-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

I follow quite a few blogs, but one of my fave is from the Bird and Berry. She has such wonderful ideas and prizes, being one that I have looked at for awhile now and I won one. I am Mrs. Organization and I have that motto, A Place for Everything and Everything In It's Place. I know I am a dreamer, because we don't have kids and I know that one day I will be ripping my hair out and loving it at the same time. LOL

Well Jill had a contest for a Cansolidator from Shelf Reliance and I have been WANTING one for years.

So I came home one day to this:

Come to MAMA!!!!

So I opened the brown box and found this inside:

Then opened this box to find all the goodies inside:

So I looked over the instructions, very short and sweet, my kind of project:

You put together the railings first, which is basically the frame of it:

After the rails you put the sides on, you start with the first one on either end, you pick:

Then you add the other railing to the other side. You can't really see it close up, because my camera is

misbehaving, but there are numbers on the railings (this will come in handy on the next step:

Then you select any can in your pantry, I selected a larger can, yeah this can did not last long I love pineapple. OK, back from pineapple land, you line up the can against the side to see what number the can lines up with:

You pop the next side into the number so the can fits kind of snug, but not so snug it won't roll. Before I started the next side I tested it to make sure it ran through before moving onto the next. The directions do not say to do this but I am a little retentive:

So you just continue on the path using large cans and small cans to measure spaces until you get to where you are out of side. Trust me you will have enough if you use all small cans or all large cans:

I am still building my new pantry so I have not had a chance to put it in there yet. I am using it though, it is just in my temporary pantry the armoire:

Please ignore the kitchen, we are getting ready to rip everything out and rebuild it. I really dislike the cabinets from the 70's painted white and the drawers that no longer work. I will keep everyone updated!!!

Love to all!!!

Renee

Seriously, why did no one tell me about this!?!?

2010-06-17T13:31:00.002-04:00

AJ and I were driving last night to go set up one of his shows at the mall, on our way there we were listening to the radio and talking. Well, the guys on the radio started talking about desserts, umm hello, my favorite subject. The one guy said his girlfriend has to go to this place every time she is in Winter Park (we both got excited, we are driving right by there at the current time) and they have the best frozen yogurt ever. By this time we are both reaching for the dial to turn it up and shushing each other. They kept talking about all the different flavors (all non-fat, even better) and toppings, seriously give me the name radio guy! He finally gives the name but can not reveal the address since they are not one of their clients. He did however say it was close to an ABC liquor store in Winter Park, OK thanks now I can pull over and ask the local drunk where it is. So we are driving down 17-92 close to the Winter Park Mall, in fact we already passed the Mall, but we are keeping our hungry eyes open. No ABC in site, so we get to the venue and set up and then leave. AJ drives down 17-92 on the way back and now we are really looking and we almost gave up but what do my eyes see an ABC, not being much of a drinker, I was never in my life happier to see one. I see it and AJ literally passed it and said yep there it is, well now we know where it is. WHAT!?!? Are you out of your mind, I am PMSing and you had better turn around. LOL

So he teased me and went a few blocks down before turning around, he even mentioned that there was a Stone Cold Creamery not much farther. (I love that place, but please non-fat yogurt any flavor, some I have yet to taste, turn around and get me to that yogurt place!) So we arrive and not only is there a Starbucks and a Planet Smoothie there too, my other favs, but this new love of my life called Yogurt Land!

So you walk in and they greet you, the environment is very clean and very IKEA feeling with a Japanese twist. They ask you if you would like a sample cup, they give you these little cups, probably between the size of 1/16 and 1/8 of a cup. Then they release you into the wild land of machines. All of the yogurt machines are built into the wall, the machines are filled in the back where you can not see, I am dreaming of little Oompa Loompa's singing and filling these machines.

Oompa Loompa doo pa de do

I've gotta another flavor for you...

OK, maybe not but getting back on track. So you can try as many as you like and find your favorite or favorites. You get a cup from the back of the store and you find your favorite on the wall and put as much or as little as you want in the cup. Now let's talk about these cups or as I will call them pint, larger than a pint and "why are you even bothering with the non-fat". I got the pint size, since it is the smallest, and hubbie got the "larger than a pint". I found the coconut flavor and the pineapple flavor divine and AJ got the strawberry flavor and the dark chocolate flavor. The cool this is they have three handles on each machine and the handle on the right is one flavor and the one on the left is the other flavor, the one in the middle mixes both the flavors together, if you want. The best part is they seem to have a Oompa Loompa mixologist back there because ever flavor that was together in the machines went together really well. So mine was more like a pina colada and AJ had chocolate covered strawberry. Now comes the super cool fun part and dangerous, but we will get to that in a minute. They had crushed candies of all sorts, fruits, chocolate syrups, caramel syrups, crushed graham crackers, nuts, cereals, you name it they had it. (Their topping list is on their website under menu)

So I added to mine, walnuts, white chocolate chips, pineapple, coconut flakes, Ghiradelli White Chocolate Syrup, graham crackers and caramel sauce. Hey I see you judging, yeah you in the back row, I would just like to say that this will probably be a once in a huge blue moon thing so sit down and stop judging. :) Now, hubbie I do not even want to know what he put in his, but if it is related to chocolate anything it went in there.

So now comes the dangerous part, you have to put your cup on a scale at the register to be weighed. It is .30 cents an ounce, mine wasn't to bad since I did not fill the cup. Mine was more like a sampling to see if it would be a new special place a total of $3.25. AJ on the other hand, umm yeah, the total cost for both of us was $10.56, next time he will be getting the smaller cup. He swore to me that he did not know there was a smaller one, I am on to you Mr.

The other thing to know is that they do not sell drinks there, they do however have a water fountain, like the ones you see with fruit punch in them, but with cold water and cups for free. I should have probably used the water glass to get the yogurt in instead of the extra large posing as a small cup. All in all I would go again in a heartbeat, but maybe after our waistlines and wallets recoup a little. Their current locations are Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Texas, Utah and even International (Guam, Japan and Mexico). If you go on their website you can search location for one listed by you.

Over the shampoo

2010-06-16T11:31:00.005-04:00

I know it sounds like a weird title, but I really am done with the shampoo. I have noticed that the more I wash my hair the greasier it looks. Not only that but my hair will not do anything, oh the joys of living in Florida with humidity. People that come from up North to visit the great state of Florida may think that we have no style but after a few days at Mickey Mouse land with humidity reaching its peak they realize why we stick with boring straight hair, nothing says fun like hair spray and gel leaking into the eye. :) Well that is unless you have curly hair and then it is just frizz. Anyhoo, anyone who knows me, my hair is fine and straight and will not hold a curl. My scalp has become an obsession, all day I want to sit on my hands to keep from itching it. Arrggghhh! The funny thing is I have no dandruff, just itchy scalp. So I started to search and search for solutions until one day I was going through my google reader and low and behold on one of the blogs a solution. Baking soda and Apple Cider Vinegar or has been titled No More 'Poo! I love the back to basics website and I think she may have saved me, after finding this I did more research and started on my quest this morning. I took a shower and washed my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar! I even scrubbed my face with some of the baking soda as it fell on my face (keep your eyes closed while pouring on your scalp). My hair felt a little lighter and bouncier, granted they all say the first three washes are basically cleaning out all the gunk from the other shampoos and after 2 weeks it will look fabulous. I thought that the vinegar smell would be strong all day in my hair, but honestly I can not even smell it. From what I have read on other sites some people boil the apple cider vinegar with mint leaves and put it in a squeeze bottle. From what I have seen, after your hair has been without 'poo for awhile and you use this, your hair will become less and less greasy! Shampoo basically strips all the healthy oils out of your hair and your hair over produces the oil to compensate. I will blog in two weeks to see where I am at with the no 'poo thing. I can honestly say that yesterday morning I used shampoo and everyday by 4:00 it looks all greasy (yeah it is that bad). I will have to see how it goes over the next two weeks. For those of you not will to go without the 'poo, some people combine baking soda with the 'poo or there is another product called WEN and I did use it for awhile and loved it, I did not love the cost though!

Also, totally off topic but I have a new obsession it is called the Farmer's Market. I use to go to them about once a month but now I find myself going once every weekend! I bring my little collapsible cart with me and start with the fresh herbs, basil, rosemary. Last month I bought 4 HUGE basil plants at $1 each and 1 rosemary plant, this sucker was 3 feet tall for only $3.00. Every time I go I get fresh tomatoes and garlic and on the way out there is a guy who sells the best bread evah! I go home chop up the tomatoes, some garlic a little onion, basil, rosemary, salt, pepper and some olive oil. Walla instant Bruschetta, so easy, I think I will post this after Saturdays excursion to the market. On a side note though I would LOVE to have a true Farmer's Cart a la France:

The only problem is these suckers are about $180.00, maybe one day I will get lucky and trip upon one in a thrift store. A girl can dream!

One toe on the edge...

2010-03-19T11:01:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had one of those days, months or years.......well I am having them all at once.

My whole life I have been raised one way and now I am on the edge of doing everything the complete opposite. (To all who are reading this is not one of those feel good stories with a happy ending, lol)

It all started when we moved to Saint Augustine for my job transfer. We moved up there loving the area and had thought that we would be there for a long time, like as in forever. We first had to sell our house in Orlando and in the meantime we moved into a condo rental. Once the house sold we bought the house we wanted to live in (again) forever. I loved that house and so did AJ, it had everything we wanted and more. It had a lovely kitchen and huge backyard with no pool, my two requirements when we were looking. We owned a home with a pool before and I did not want another one. :)

We lived there very happy until I got notice that due to the unfortunate circumstance that building houses in that area had pretty much ceased. Everything in Jacksonville and St. Augustine pretty much halted overnight. So about that time AJ's job had started cutting back and they took a LIFO approach to it (last in first out). My job gave me the opportunity to move back down to Orlando and take my job here back. So we packed up and had to move back in with my parents until we could lick our wounds and figure out what to do. We still had to sell the house up in St. Augustine, yea right. So we talked to a realtor and she said nothing is selling, everyone is renting right now, you are better off renting it out. We found a property manager who was very reasonable and who could show up at midnight if there was an issue with the house.

So we had thought that in about 6 months most of the stuff would straighten itself out and we would be able to start listing the house and move on. What is that country saying about if you want to here God laugh tell him your plan. God has a reason as to why things happen and when and it is not ours to question why, all will be revealed in time.

Well we were only able to get rent paying half of the mortgage and we had to come up with the other half. My wonderful parents were letting us live with them rent free so we could pay off a few bills. In the meantime the house next door to my parents went up on a foreclosure auction and we were able to get it for next to nothing. We had now not been living in the house in St. Augustine for a year and we had not had a tenant for 6 months and the house was now going to be in a short sale process. This process is, for example, when you owe $250,000.00 on the house and the current market value is at $150,000.00 and you get the bank to approve the $150,000.00 for another buyer, which takes 6-8 months and a lot of paperwork. We had an offer and everything was clicking right along and the bank approved it and the buyer walked away. Arrgghhh. We put up the house again, now at the "bank approved" price of $150,000.00 and got the new offer, hopefully we will close in 60 days. That is the story of the St. Augustine house and the short sale.

So in September of 2009 AJ stated complaing about his back more and more and he finally went to see a orthopedic doctor. They did a Cat scan that showed a herniated disk and they tried therapy, hot and cold, massage, physical...etc. None of these were helping and because his job is bending, pushing, pulling and lifting about 6 hours a day it was exasberating the problem and the Dr. said they would now try epidural steriod shots, once a week for 3 weeks. So in November was when this started and before his third shot he was not getting better, it was getting worse. He was only sleeping 1-3 hours a night and getting up and down all night and then sleeping on the couch to the lazy boy to the bed. So after talking to the Doctor he said the last resort is surgery and the sooner the better before he herniated another disk. Even better news was that he would not be able to work for about 2-6 months and no they could not narrow it down any closer until he started therapy 6 weeks after the surgery. So December 22, 2009 he had the surgery to remove the herniated spot on his back, luckily they got it before it got anymore inflammed and herniated another disk. Since it was the end of the year and we were close to our deductible we only had to pay 350.00 out of pocket,everything else was covered. 6 weeks later he started his therapy and noticed a difference in the feeling in his arms and legs which was a fantastic sign, before the surgery the nerve on the left side of his body was pinched so bad he was dropping stiff. His left leg hurt all the time and he was having random spasms that added to the no sleep, now they were virtually gone and with time as the nerves healed it would disappeat completely. He was also himself again, not so grumpy, tired and hard to be around, he was my AJ again, loving, funny and wanted to do stuff. His therapy though was 2-3 times a week and costs $50.00 each visit. His job was keeping his position open just in case he could return in the first 2 months. When he called them to say he was allowed to work in February but only 5 hours a day and it had to be sitting for 3 of those hours, they decided to let him go. Which would be a blessing because with no work we had no money, at least now he could claim unemployment and we could eat again. Well that was about 6 weeks ago and we have yet to see a check from unemployment. When he called they said that since he was let go for medical reasons and that they were investigating it before they would pay any money. He still needs to claim his weeks and they will pay in one lump sum at the time the investigation is done. In the meantime he is looking for work and trying to get a job but no one is hiring for desk jobs and certainly not for 5 hours a day. So luckily my old employer was having some issues with his employees and was looking to outsource the work to AJ. My old job was working with a sports authentication company, we bought and sold sports memorabilia, authenticated signatures, graded sports cards..etc. He was looking to sell most of his stuff on Ebay and we have an EBay store and AJ lists and sells stuff for him and AJ gets to keep a percentage of each sale. It will take about 3-4 months to where we are making a profit but it is a start, such that even if he gets a job he can still do this and I can help out too.

So now back to why I have one toe on the edge..... We are drowning and I feel like everytime I swim to the surface I get one gulp of air and I am dragged back to the bottom again. We have fought this idea with every ounce of will power and have tried to think of so many solutions that we are out of options. AJ and I have always been they type of couple that never really fight, if we ever do I am more the person who is irrational and screams and yells. Go figure and Irish, Taurus, redhead with a temper, never would have guessed. :) I have learned over the eight years we have been married to just let it go and not yell but try to have a rational discussion and it gets me a lot farther and AJ tends to listen to me better when my face is not beet red and spinning around like crazy. LOL We have sat and talked and talked until our mouths just want to fall off and we have written down and tried to plan on how to pay back all this stuff. We also learned in the interim of all this that they bank can come after us for the $100,000.00 difference on the house. We also have racked up the credit cards due to him not being out of work and having to pay for therapy and other stuff when the money wasn't there. I have been raised that if you do not have the cash you don't need it, but when it comes to your health I am sorry but I am going to charge something if it means my husband getting better. So now the lake is getting deeper and I am tired of trying to swim to the top, we have decided to claim bankruptcy, sell one of the cars (since AJ works from home), my Dad decided to let us use the truck, since he has the smart car, in case AJ needs to go somewhere or he gets another job. It has been the HARDEST decision of our life and we really do not want to do this. I decided to put this on my blog to help me, mostly because I don't want people to think bad of us and even if they do I do not have the will anymore to really care. I am tired, depressed and really in the mood to hit something. AJ has been such a help in taking care of the stuff at home so that is a huge weight off my shoulders. He works at the computer about 8-11 hours a day listing items for sale on Ebay and it is picking up. Hopefully we will hear something on Monday about the unemployment (I really hate that word, to me it means defeat). What really gets me though about this whole thing is that AJ and I are really hard workers. He has been working since he was about 14-15 years old. He always bought his own clothes, food, etc., because he said his Mom really didn't care about him. I always worked for my Mom and her business when I was younger during the summer throughout high school and even through college. Both AJ and I have had jobs where we worked 80 plus hours and have never asked the goverment for help. I have always paid my bills on time and paid them off and kept them down, had a savings, yada yada yada. We have been paying into the system forever and the one time we need it he is being investigated. We stopped the fertility treatments back in November due to the fact we knew all the stuff AJ needed was going to cost money and we wanted to save for that but the money goes faster than you think. I could sit here and go on and on but I hope you understand and know that we need a fresh start, we need to be able to breathe again and not feel so hopeless.

Crock Pot Yogurt

2010-01-05T08:47:00.003-05:00

I LOVE yogurt, it has so many great benefits to your body. Especially at this time of year with tummy bugs going around it is a great way to balance out the natural bacteria again in your body. The only problem is the expense, wow! Well, I found a blog from a lady who decided to do one year of using her crockpot for her dinners. On one blog she actually made homemade yogurt. I am posting the link and I am going to try this!!!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html

Also I am posting a site for a book that is online and it has TONS of crockpot recipes. :)

http://www.northco.net/chenke/nest/WCLowFat_LowCalCrockpotRecipes.pdf

2 week wait....

2009-12-15T14:36:00.003-05:00

Well we are now on the two week wait to see if I might be preggo, if not we will have to wait 8 weeks to start all over. So while we are waiting I thought about cooking. I know I do not have kids and it seems I would have tons of time to just whip meals out. Well, when you buy a foreclosure and you are fixing, building or installing something every night, as well as Christmas is around the corner...well you get the hint. I LOVE my crock pot (slow cooker) to some. Nothing like taking 10 minutes in the morning to throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and come home to a wonderful smelling house. Well this morning did not go as I had planned. I saw a london broil in the fridge that I got a really good deal on, I thought I had bought it last week when I went to the store but with my brain lately I forgot I had bought it on 12/7. So when I opened the package, the smell hit me and after gagging I wrapped it up in several grocery bags and stuck it back in the fridge until Thursday when the garbage man comes. So I went to the store at 6:55 a.m. since I had already chopped and seasoned everything before I opened the package of green meat (YUCK!). I swear I am a good cook, ask anyone who knows me. LOL So I went to the store and my selections were limited but I found a nice chuck roast. Hopefully when I go home tonight the house will be filled with a lovely smell and all I have to do is make a vegetable. :)

My go to site for crock pot recipes is. http://www.crock-pot.com/Recipes.aspx
You can select which meat you have and it will give you tons of ideas. I do this when I look in the freezer and see a few meats that have not been used yet. When AJ and I shop we go to Costco or Wal-Mart and buy a bulk of meat on sale and freeze it. We don't eat meat every meal, I am more of a vegetarian. You can make desserts, pasta...etc. in a crockpot all year. Plus it has a huge bonus, during the winter time you get a hot meal and I have made some pretty good soups in it before. During the summer you don't heat your kitchen up and living in Florida where the weather changes from warm to hot and then to the "Are we in hell" HOT! Although during the summer we like to grill more than anything else. I love, love, love grilled veggies and fruits. AJ loves to grill fish and of course steaks. :)

TIME TO PLAY THE GAME AGAIN....

2009-12-02T14:34:00.001-05:00

Well, this round did not play out like we thought so back to the, well, umm, stirups again. :)I started the Femara last week and last night was the last dose (for this cycle). Tomorrow I start the ovulation testing again (yeehaw) and Friday morning I go for another Ultrasound. If they find a viable follicle then I get to take home a shot again. Last month for the first cycle we wound up spending $500.00 between the meds and 4 Ultrasounds. Sheesh!!!That is all to report for now. :)

Oops!

2009-11-09T15:10:00.002-05:00

This can get confusing at this point when they give you three drugs and only two have instructions. On Saturday I had another Ultrasound, since they found a follicle on Thursday, I got the all clear to do the HCG shot, Ovidrel, (only 1) on Sunday night to give to myself in my abdomen. Before I left though they gave me a presciption for one other drug I can pick up from CVS. The other two I was given there because they have a fertility pharmacy on site. :) The two I picked up are Ovidrel and Progestone (these are the ones that go in the umm well not orally), sorry to the guys reading this LOL. I was told the Progestrone to start that on Wednesday and the shot for Sunday night. The other prescription I thought was subsititute for the progestrone that could be taken orally. So fast forward to today (Monday) when I was scratching my head when they only gave me two pills of Estradiol. The progestrone they gave me at the office there are 20 of those. So I called the office and they just called me back at 3:00 p.m. and said I was supposed to take those two little pills, one Saturday and one on Sunday before the HCG shot. Arrgghh, they wrote only two of the meds down and every time they talked it was only regarding two meds not three. The little pill was supposed to make the lining in the uterus more receptable for a implantation. So I am already paranoid about maybe this not working and maybe miscarrying since most people that go through this you are throughly warned there is a higher risk of miscarriage. The nurse said not to worry though that since my lining was fairly good they did not forsee a problem. So no I have to make sure though that I DO NOT miss my progestrone. I was also confused because I was told to keep doing the ovulation tests until I see an ovulation. When I spoke with the nurse I expressed to her that everything I read said that I should have ovulated this morning but NOPE NEGATIVE again. She said "Oh you are still doing those, when you give yourself the shot you will ovulate there is no need to do the tests and that you should ovulate within 24-36 hours, the tests don't really work right with the Ovidrel. Also, do not do a pregnancy test for 18 days snce the shot will show you that you are pregnant with the hormones you just injected." So they were going to tell me this when, this is my first time on this particular medicine so a little more info from them would be great. :) I am supposed to take a home preg test in 18 days and if negative I go see them to do a blood test. If all is negative we start over again.

Next Phase....

2009-10-27T09:31:00.002-04:00

Onto the next hurdle or stirup, whatever.....

So I had my appointment last week on 10-19 to go over the HSG results while AJ was there so we can all decide on a game plan. LOL
First of all I think our Dr. just came off of a all nighter at the hospital, he looked like he had not slept in 72 hours. He asked why we were there and I basically had to review with him. I guess he was confused since I they had another Dr. in the same office do the HSG because mine had a family emergency that day. (Dr. talk for a golf game he wasn't going to miss)
So back to the office talk, he said everything about my HSG went great, my tubes are no longer blocked and my uterus looks fantastic. So we scheduled another appt. for when I am on cycle day 3 for a blood test and another ultrasound. So I had my visitor visit me and I had my Dr. appt. yesterday to do the blood work and the "FUN FILLED" ultrasound. Let me tell you when you are on day three and you have an internal sonogram, not so much fun. :)
He basically went over what I already knew, I have major PCOS on both ovaries but supposedly this fertility meds they are putting me on has a greater success rate then Clomid. This medicine is called Femara and is actually used on women who have breast cancer. They have found that it helps women with PCOS get better results and less side effects.
Dr. McNichol also is having me take 4000 mcg of Folic Acid due to the fact that Spina Bifida runs in the family and I am to take it one month before and three months into the pregnancy as well.
Day 9-15 I do an ovulation kit tester to see if I have an LH surge, if I do I use these (umm how do I out this politely) inserts of Progesterone (and no I do not swallow them they go in another area) 3 days after the surge. On day 12 I go back to the Dr. for another ultrasound to see if a folical burst or did not, if there is one that has not they will help it along with another drug and 2 shots I have to do myself and only do them at night. Then I go back on day 20 for another blood test to see if it all worked. If not we do this two more months, then onto the next thing which involves a lot of shots, more ultrasounds and more drugs.

The good news is that the blood tests they did in the clinic came back all normal. The ones they set out to a lab have not come back yet, they said one week.

HSG over with, onto the next hurdle. :)

2009-10-06T14:56:00.003-04:00

I had my HSG yesterday and there was some blockage in both tubes. They were able to clear them both, so now I go back on the 19th to see what the next route is. I am not really sure what is next, other than drugs and shots like they had discussed earlier with me. The other good news is they thought my uterus was folded in half, which would have required surgery to fix, well it is standing like it should, nice and tall. LOL So now onto the next adventure. :)

No HSG for me please :)

2009-09-02T15:07:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I went to get my HSG yesterday. More like tried to get it done. I was supposedly still in my "cycle" and the Dr. acted suprised. Because most normal women finish on day 5. You do the test between day 6-12, I was scheduled for day 7. Well, news flash Dr. I am coming to you because I am not normal. ;P So I wasted more of my lovely "vacation" time at yet another Dr. appt. I was told if he tried to do the HSG that is would push the flow upward and cause my mild Endometriosis to go to severe, it can also flush everything into my abdomen as well. Once you go to severe you can't go back. So back on birth control I go for another two months and then schedule my procedure for day 7 during the start of the new pack. I should have named this blog site "My life in Stirups" instead of Fuller Follies. Also another fun thing I wasn't told was that it may or may not cause Labor like pains, so it would be better if I had someone drive me just in case and to take (4) 200 mg Ibprophen before I go. So I had to basically reschedule it for 35 days out from now.

For those who aren't sure what an HSG is, it is also called a A hysterosalpingogram is an X-ray of the uterus and fallopian tubes which allows visualization of the inside of the uterus and tubes. The picture will reveal any abnormalities of the uterus as well as tubal problems such as blockage and dilation (hydrosalpinx). If the tubes are not blocked by scar tissue or adhesions, the dye will flow into the abdominal cavity. This is a good sign but it does not guarantee that the tubes will function normally. It does give a rough estimate of the quality of the tubal structure and the status of the tubal lining. Some cases where the tubes appear to be blocked where they join the uterus, may in fact be normal. Often blockage at this location may be due to spasm of the opening from the uterus into the tube or from accumulated debris and mucus blocking the opening. This can be managed by passing a very thin catheter into the fallopian tube either at the time of hysterosalpingogram or during a hysteroscopic procedure.

Sometime if there is a blockage, during the procedure, the dye can force the tube open again.

Back to the Drawing Board

2009-08-18T18:16:00.002-04:00

Well on 8/24/09 we will start with a fertility endocronologist. My OB/GYN said she has taken me as far as she can take me without a specialist. So hopefully this will help, if not we might have a house in a few months and can start the home study for adoption. Well, that is all for now, long day at work and the bed looks to inviting. :)

2009-06-11T21:34:00.002-04:00

I love doing wedding cakes. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to come up with an idea and follow through with it. I love this cake and I think it is one of my favorite ones I did so far. Thank you so much Becca for trusting me to go crazy and do whatever I wanted. I just hope you were truly happy with it and that it tasted great. :)

Quack, Quack

2009-06-11T21:20:00.000-04:00

AJ’s sister Tammy just had her baby shower this past weekend. It was a wonderful party and she had a lot of people there. Now granted this is not the best cake I have ever done, but it had to travel from Longwood to Avalon Park. I swear his tail wagged all the way there and it made me so nervous. The 3-D cakes are a little more nerve racking then anything else. I am finding the more I do these, the more I am learning.

Weddings, weddings, weddings....

2009-03-09T16:09:00.005-04:00

Well, Saturday my friend Stella got married. It was a beautiful event and everyone had a great time.

She looked gorgeous and it was hard to not show emotions and keep it together.

After all how often do I wear make-up and do my hair. (smile)

Well the cake turned out ok, I would have loved to added more flowers but with time and other issues, well anyways.

This is the groom's cake, he loves NASCAR. Don't be too impressed, these were frosting sheets on a race car shaped pan cake. I did not have to do anything but bake, ice, peel and stick the sheets on. HUGE timesaver.

Mom and Dad came out to support their "other daughter", they had a great time and loved being there.

Brenda and Marvin were able to make it just for the weekend, it was wonderful to have them there for extra support. Plus, they helped me cut the cake. :)

Shelby (junior bridesmaid in pink), Trisha (bridesmaid in the middle), Me on the far right.

Bridal Shower

2009-02-14T19:36:00.005-05:00

Ok so here are the pics from the shower I did a couple of weeks ago. I did a candy bar with a bling bling cake.

This was one of the cakes, not my best work since I was kind of rushed. I still like the diamonds on the top of it though.

The smaller cake had the larger pink diamond on it.

This was the candy bar (pink and green of course).

The label on the silver jar is what we used for candy labels.

LEEP Procedure

2009-02-14T15:20:00.004-05:00

Well it is done and I feel blessed. I won't find out anything until the 23rd of this February. As I was wheeled into the procedure room they gave me a sedative so I was a little loopy. My eyes were playing tricks on me or so I thought. When I looked to my left I saw a guy standing there that looked so familiar but since I could not get my eyes to adjust and I was going into la la land..... Anyways, after the procedure was done and I was waking up I saw that same guy walking towards me. I was finally getting my focus back and I realized it was Jared Day (Angel's husband). I felt much better knowing that someone I knew was helping with the procedure and felt very blessed to have him in the room. Maybe that is why I have had no pain since yesterday, a little sore but no major pains. Thank you so much Jared for coming to say Hi after the procedure so I could see who it was and that it wasn't the drugs. Sorry I did not recognize you at first with the sedative goggles on. After this procedure hopefully we will be given the ok in May to start trying again. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers around that time. Love to all!!!

Girls who like cars.....

2009-02-12T13:05:00.006-05:00

Ok, so I love cars, blame it on my Dad. My favorite car has always been a Mustang, a truly American car. When the car purrs to life I love it! I have a few favorites throughout the years..

The 64 Hard top

The 66 Fastback

The 69 Boss

The 84 SVO

The 89 5.0 LX (my Dad use to own one of these in a convertible, wish he still had it)

The 2007 Shelby GT500 (beautiful design but for a Shelby it should have more power)

The last car is a concept car that they are trying to release and if they do it is mine. No AJ you can not have this one and I will figure out a way to install baby seats in the back. :) Here are the pictures and some of you may think it is stupid but in the right shade of blue or pink, hey I am still a girl.

I still have one more love for cars but it is a truck, I would love to own a 1948 Ford Truck (fire engine red of course) with the wood floor in the bed of the truck.

Update on Brenda.

2009-02-09T16:12:00.002-05:00

Brenda went through the D&E very well. Mom had called to say she is doing well and resting. It is at times like these that I am so thankful for family. Sorry this is going to be a short post since I have bronchitis myself and the codeine is kicking in again and I am sleepy. I stayed home today to try to rest and recover before my LEEP procedure this Friday. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love,
Renee

Cakes, cakes and more cakes

2009-01-28T19:55:00.011-05:00

These will all show the cakes I made first up until this past Christmas. Hopefully you will see the progress I have made since 2004. :) I won't bore you with all of them since I have so many but I think this will give everyone and idea. I have gotten a lot better especially with the flavor combinations. After all it is not what it looks like that matters, it is more the taste that does.

This was a cake we had to do for my first class, it was a stacking test and a buttercream icing roses test. I made a "Mad Hatter Garden Party" It was ummmm, interesting.

This was for St. Patrick's Day almost 3 years ago, it barely made it to the party, it was 2 feet high and shifted the whole ride there. When we cut into it, it fell apart.

This was Brenda's Birthday cake in 2005

These were my roses I made out of gumpaste during my second series of classes.

This was another test cake we had to do with scrolling on the sides.

AJ's dads Birthday cake 2 years ago

Ann McCullough's bridal shower cake, it was a Luau.

Then shortly after her Baby Shower cake, she had a carousel theme.

My Aunt Karen's birthday cake from 2 years ago, she loves pink roses.

This was an Easter Cake I did this past Easter. The flowers are all gumpaste.

This was for a Black and White Themed New Year's party we went to this year. I actually loved this cake, even though it was simple.

I just did this cake in November for a 50th Wedding Anniversary for friends of my Mom and Dad's. It took me three days 1-2 hours each night to hand make the flowers. The two cakes were put on different plates because the two tiered cake was a loaded carrot cake with walnuts, a toasted walnut cream cheese filling. The other was a butter cake with a strawberry cream filling. So just in case of allergies.

Ticker's and Updates on Biopsy results

2009-01-17T06:50:00.004-05:00

As you can see we have a race. :) My sister Brenda and AJ's sister Tammy are both pregnant. I know Tammy will deliver first but it looks like race. The other ticker is my journey into weight loss. As you can see a lot is gone but I just got over the hump. I started on Novemeber 1, 2008 with this weight loss clinic and lost 30 in the first month. Yes that is a big 30! Trust me when I say it was NOT easy during the holidays and I did allow myself one bite of a cookie (very small), I let AJ pull a piece off and give it to me. The reason I started this whole eating right thing was in part of my fertility Doctor. After almost 7 years of trying for baby it has taken it's toll on my body. Between the drugs and procedures I look like I should have had 3 kids by now. Besides it really is not good to try to get pregnant when you are heavy anyways, to many risks especially with all the issues I have. Well, between 3 different doctors they have finally found all the problems. I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), Endometriosis and endometrial hyperplasia. So even when I was on the Clomid it would have never worked without trigger shots and other pills. My pap came back abnormal as well this month and they had to do a uterine biopsy. I went the other day to get the results and the cells are worse than they were two years ago. Part of this could have been prevented if I did not skip last years pap. Now they have to perform a LEEP (loop electrosurgical excision procedure), basically a more invasive biopsy and scraping the abnormal cells, the samples go to Pathology. I do not have cancer but I am in the precancerous stage, it is a warning sign and some of it can be fixed and reversed. After that procedure two months later I have to go back to break up the scar tissue so we can try again. For the next two years I have to have a pap every 3-4 months depending on what the test results from the LEEP show. We can keep trying in those two years, hopefully I will have lost the rest of the weight by the end of April (I am shooting for a goal of my 35th birthday that month). Well that is enough depressing news for now. :) I am keeping a VERY positive attitude about all this. I do feel very blessed though since I never really get sick or hurt and if this is my only issue I can be thankful. If nothing comes about by the end of this year though we are going to start the paperwork for adoption. :) I will post pictures of the weight loss though soon, so keep an eye out. LOVE TO ALL!!!!!!

Once upon a blog....

2009-01-15T13:00:00.001-05:00

Well even though AJ and I do not have much to post from our day to day life little things do happen along the way. :) This is basically a venting blog for me and a way to share my cake decorating success stories and total disasters. Also I can vent on the fun of infertility, trust me I won't go into to many gorey details. Other than that any little funny thing that comes along will probably be thrust into this blog of ours.