Garage Saleing June 4th

Yes, I've been out doing more. This is from Friday, June 4th. I had about 4 sales on my list, I saw the address of this one and thought it was where a friend that I had a falling out with lived, so I decided to wait until I was finished with the others and then walk by it. Turned out it wasn't where my friend lived and had some cool things.
This handkerchief was in a basket full of handkerchiefs, each for $1.00. The lady said I could have them all for $3.00, but I only wanted this one.

These were in separate boxes, the circly thing at the top was a lone clip-on earring for $2.00, the pin, I'm not sure what exactly it was, but it had a cute green stone in the middle, I believe it was $.50, and the leaf was $.50 as well.

These cute little ceramic thimbles each had a flower on the side of them. Sorry about the blurry photo, I didn't realize it was blurry until I took it off my camera. Anyways, they were $.50 all together.

This cute little plate was $.75 as you can see with the sticker I left on it.

The top cup is more ceramic looking and painted blue it was$1.00. Both the bottom cups have cute little gold handles and were $.50 each.

I also bought a couple books at the sale, one of childhood jokes for $.25 and one with some great pictures of America for $1.00. So I spent about $7.00 at this sale.

I've noticed (or at least it seems) that I only find one really good sale a weekend, but as you'll be able to see in the next post, I was wrong.

Only a month away...

I have been excited for my birthday lately. That's the kind of person I am, I may no longer be a little kid waiting to have a big birthday with lots of cake, people, presents, and balloons, but I still love my birthday. It's not an important number this year, 27, but I still get giddy around it (and other holidays, I have a hard time sleeping through the night on Christmas Eve). At least until I went to work yesterday and was informed that the shop will be closing at the end of June. I guess I always kinda knew she'd close sometime, cause we don't make a ton of money, some days we don't even have a sale, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with another shop closing. At least this time, we're going to have sales and hopefully sell everything off, I really hate packing stuff up.
I haven't told anyone in my family yet, and they don't read this blog. I did post on facebook, saying I learned of some depressing news, but no one's asked me what it is yet, I have quite a few family members as friends on facebook, so I'm not ready to jump out and tell them yet.
And it's not a huge loss to me, it's only going to be about $150 less every 2 weeks, but considering I've lost a 4 hr shift every week at the library because we're on the summer schedule, it really sucks.
I've always hated searching for jobs, probably part of the reason I don't do it until I have to (I should have been looking for another job to fill my afternoons, and of course make more money, then I'd have that one as well to fall back on). Looks like I'll be spending time reading the online classifieds AGAIN.
I guess I could look at the bonus of having nights off and being able to watch TV again, not that there's anything good anyway. I sure will be eating up any extra hours the library has to offer, course I planned on doing that anyway with (hopefully) people taking vacations over the summer.

I'd love something to cheer me up, don't know what that would be, as most things cost money, maybe I'll find something cool at Target (which is where I'm heading as soon as I finish this post), or at a garage sale this weekend for a great price.

This sucks.

I just found out that the store is closing at the end of June. Now, I know we weren't doing that great, but I hate finding out that the place I work is closing, this is the 2nd time I've had to go through this.
I'm very glad this time I have another job to work at and hopefully get more hours, but it still sucks. I'm kinda depressed about it now, I sure don't want to tell my parents because they will (at least my mother will) tell me I told you so, I don't really want to tell Kevin, he won't tell me I told you so, but he'll probably say something like I should've been looking for another job awhile ago anyway.
I might have to go ahead and apply for this job at the historical society that my mom wants me to apply for so badly.
And not that this is huge (it sorta is), I just realized I won't be able to access my library email, because for some reason, I can't get into it at home, that will suck.

Not only am I still wanting to go and do something fun and exciting, I want to do something to keep my mind off this new depressing news.

More Garage Saleing

So, I spent almost $32.00 at one garage sale today. And I found out a couple things aren't going to work for my purposes, but oh well.
This is a miniature piggy bank, it was $.50

This is an earring and necklace set, unfortunately, the necklace is a little tight for my neck, I figured I can always pass it along to someone else. It cost $2.50

Here are some pretty cool looking beads I picked up for $1.00

The four tiny boxes at the top I got for $3.00, the plate of grapes was $.50, the egg man was $1.00, the tiny group of items was $1.00, and the two fuzzy bears were $.50 GIVEAWAY ALERT: at least 2 things in this picture will be in the giveaway, one of them being a bear.

The two flowers were $1.00, I figure I can use them as embellishments on something, they're a really cute green and white plaid, the Hello Kitty clip was $.50, and the leopard clip, which I figured I'd use as embellishment was $.50

Am I the only person that buys necklaces and pins for the charms on them? The two necklaces on the ends were $2.00 each, and the one in the middle was $1.00

All these earrings were 2 for $1.00. I bought them all to use as embellishments.

You can't really tell, but the first pin is a bear with balloons and the second one is a mini angel with a sold sign on it, they were $.50

These were all $.50 each. I thought they'd make cool embellishments. I bought a smaller rose pin like the one above just last week at our antique mall, they match pretty well. GIVEAWAY ALERT: At least one of these will be in the giveaway, tell me what you like.

This little Christmas cup was $.50, add that to the cup I bought a few weeks ago, I now have a collection.

This shirt was $1.00, I tried it on after I got home, it doesn't fit that well, but if I start my 4 mile walks and doing sit-ups in the mornings like I plan to, it should fit nicer.

***EDIT*** If anyone wants this shirt, I will send it along in the mail. If there's more than one person I'll do a drawing. The lady said it was between a small and a medium. The reason it didn't really fit me is of the nice little stomach I've put on. The arms were a little tight on me, but I think it might be closer to a medium. The sleeves are probably 3/4 sleeves, the color's a little bit lighter than the picture. The white tank is connected to the shirt so it's all one piece.
***EDIT***

This skirt was $1.00 as well, the tag says XL, but it must be a child's size, because I could barely get it up over my legs, but once again, if I start my 4 mile walks again, it should fit me next summer.

***EDIT*** If anyone wants this skirt for their child I will be happy to send it along. If there's more than one interested party, I'll draw someone.
Like I said, the tag says XL, the colors are pretty much the same as in the picture. When I shimmied it on, it sat about my knees, I'll measure it when I get home and edit this again. It's really cute, the lady said it'd never been worn.
***EDIT***

I also bought some strands of beads, and some tiny wooden hanging signs. There were 2 reasons I went to this sale: 1. Jewelry galore, she did have a ton of this and 2. buttons, my Treasured Tin Swap partner likes vintage buttons, so I thought maybe there'd be some, there were buttons, but they weren't very cool. This sale was yesterday and today, I'm glad I didn't go yesterday, there probably was much more stuff there, and I sure didn't need to spend over $30 there.

I'm going to a couple more tomorrow, hopefully spend a little less. I did get $50 out of the ATM today, after taking $40 from my paycheck before depositing it, but I do believe I get paid from the library today, so I can handle it. I do need to step back on my spending, I will be working less at the library, unless I pick up at least one more weekly shift, or substitute for people going on vacation. We'll see, I like garage saleing though. Kevin got me started on it again last year, and it's not as much fun by myself, but it's still fun.

Yay!

Pardon my excitement, but I'm so tickled that someone wrote something about our library. I mean I know it's great, but I work there, so I'm a little bias. Check it out.

More pictures

So here are the shirts I bought on Tuesday. I hope the pictures aren't too dark, I took them in my bedroom, which is dark all by itself because of the dark chocolate curtains I have up, plus the dark brown bedspread they are on. I tried to lighten them up in Picasa, I hope it worked.
First up, is this swirly blue T-shirt, it was about $7.00.

This one's more green than the picture shows, think more of a kelly green. This was about $4.00

This one's more of an olive drab green, it's a cute little sweater, only think I don't like is that it's got too wide of a weave at the top, and will show anything through it, so looks like I'll be wearing my black bra or another shirt underneath it. This was about $9.00

This is more of a magenta colored shirt, not quite sure why it turned out so orange. It's about the same color as the sweater below. It was $4.00

This one's about the right color. It's a cute little sweater that I figured I could wear over tank tops to get around the no tank top rule. It was about $11.00

Those are the shirts/tops I got at Target, keep in mind all those prices were on sale. Now, I know Target claims they have pretty good cheaper stuff, and I admit it is cheaper than some places, but most of the stuff I look at are going to be pretty plain T-shirts, so it makes more sense to just shop at Walmart, course I didn't find any of these tops at Walmart.

These next pictures are from my trip to the mall today. Our mall pretty much sucks, I will be one of the first to admit that, I have no loyalty to our mall. It did used to be good with more than just clothing stores and jewelry shops. We used to have a KB Toys, I don't know if they exist anymore but it was a pretty cool toy store; we also used to have a Baskin Robbins (those don't seem to exist anymore), and a nice cookie store, plus a bookstore and a music shop. The toy store went out a long time ago, we lost the Baskin Robbins awhile ago too, now we have a Cookies Etc, which isn't too bad. The bookstore, was Waldenbooks, but since we got Borders, they moved out and we got a black-lighted mini golf place instead. The music store, Sam Goody went out a few years ago, we got an exercise equipment store there, and then they moved out as well. We used to have a Hardee's where you could sit in a bi-plane and eat, that moved out and a Diamond Dave's moved into half of it with a small pizza shop in the other half, then Diamon Dave's moved out as well as the pizza shop and now we have a hair salon there. We also used to have a nice Sears, first they got rid of the clothing and filled up with more appliances, then we lost it altogether and a Halloween boutique comes in every year. We can still get Sears appliances at the Kmart in the south part of town. Our movie theater became a dollar theatre, I hear it has pretty good movies, but I don't go to movies that much anymore.

So now, we have clothing stores, shoe stores and jewelry stores plus a few eateries and misc stores.

I went to JC Penney and Younkers today. My tennis shoes are completely shot and I was very pleased to find the exact same shoes (they've been great to me) on sale at Penney's. I've always liked Penney's, they seem to have some pretty cute stuff when I go there, though I did limit myself to only the shoes even though they were having a sale. The shoes were about $50.00 on sale, normally they're about $70.00

My next stop was Younkers, I still had my $50 gift card from Christmas, but I haven't found anything cute yet. They were having a sale plus an extra so much % off stuff, so I figured it couldn't hurt, my main reason was to get some longer skirts for work, you'll see those below, but I figured I should check out the sandals as well.

These are made by Provo. The lady I talked to, says she wears them at work all day and can still walk at the end of the day. These are in a bronzey color, I got this color because 1. I alread have black sandals, 2. they looked great with the skirts and 3. it was nice to get a different color, it really brightened stuff up nicely. These were about $43.00 with the sale and extra %15 off. Normally they're $70.00, great deal there.

This is more purpley than the picture shows (yes those are my feet, I had the skirt on my bed, and stood on my bed to get a good picture). I got this one because it's a little more dressy than any of the other dresses and skirts I have, plus it's a springy dressy. It was about $20.00 with the sale and the extra 20% off, regularly it would be $40.00. Sounds like a good deal to me.

This skirt is the whole reason I went in, I saw it on their website, and hoped they had it in the store. It hits about the top of my feet, and makes me feel so good (I'm wearing it now and plan to wear it to work tonight. It was about $24.00 on sale and with the extra 20% off, normally it would be $48.00, also a great deal.

Even with my gift card and the sales I still spent $43.00. That is totally the reason, I don't shop at these stores when things aren't on sale. Like I said before Penney's usually has cute stuff, but I do have a very hard time finding good stuff at Younkers, now I don't have to worry about my gift card.

I should be well set with work now too. What with 5 new tops, a new pair of shoes, 2 new pairs of sandals and 2 new skirts, I shouldn't have to worry any time soon. I sure am gonna hate it when my credit card bill shows up, but they were kind of needed purchases. I needed new shoes, I needed something else to wear on my feet for the warmer months and I did need more t-shirts, the skirts were just a bonus, but I sure won't be buying any new clothes for awhile.

Some purchases

OK, these are a little out of order, as I still haven't figured out the order to upload them.
I've been pretty busy running around since Saturday. Saturday I went to 5 garage sales and found some pretty good deals, those pictures are further down. Sunday, my mother and I went to a scrapbooking store in a town about 30 min south of here, I will be posting those items on my Frog Palace blog. Monday, Kevin and I went back to Ankeny to go to a really good Chinese Buffet, then we traveled to a park/dam and really wished we didn't have to go to work that night. Tuesday I went to the Salvation Army where I was very disappointed in what they had. This is the 2nd time I've been to the store in their new location and I was disappointed the first time as well, I thought this time I might be surprised, not so much.
Then I wandered a little further on down the street to Target and picked up 5 shirts that were on sale. I've been on the lookout for t-shirts lately, as I found out we're not allowed to wear tank tops at the library, which is most of my summer wear. I also bought these cute sandals pictured below, we're not allowed to wear flip flops either, so I've been looking for some cute sandals, I saw these and decided to buy them. There's only one slight problem that I'll have to get used to.
Aren't they just cute on my feet?

My problem is that they have about 4 inch heel on them. I don't walk around on heels that much, but I decided they were really cute, and I asked a group of ladies what they thought, they agreed that they were cute, so I bought them. I do have a pretty long dress that I bought in Hawaii, that would look great with these, and I know Kevin will like them. I've been practicing walking around my apartment in them, and today, I'm planning to wear them to the store (I'll also bring along a pair of flip flops in case they prove to be too much for my feet), I think with practice I'll be OK. My mother never encouraged me to wear heels, I never played dress up in her high heels because she never wore any. It makes me wonder if she had encouraged me and I had been getting used to walking on them throughout the years if I could walk fine in them. Who knows?

So, I just succeeded in gathering my mail in my new sandals. I live on the 3rd floor of a Victorian house, so that's down and back up 2 flights of stairs, one being a curvy one and the other being kinda steep; out the back door, down 4 more steps, walk through my backyard, past the driveway and up to the front porch, up 4 more steps and back. It was a little slow, but I wasn't in a hurry, I may have to change my plans of wearing them to work tonight as it's a little chilly and it looks as if it might rain, and that will definitely spell disaster on my walk home.
Anyways, here are my purchases from Saturday, I don't know exactly what I'll do with a few but they were just too neat looking to pass up:

This is from the last sale I was at, it's a velvet painting. It's a painting on velvet. Unfortunately, it's got a couple spots where the paint came off, but it's still really gorgeous looking. I have it propped in my kitchen at the moment, as the hanger on the back needs to be replaced. It was $1.50.

This cute little tea cup I found at my second sale. It was only $3.00 with the plate. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I've been reading Tales from an OC Cottage and she's showed some of her tea cups, and I think the idea of just having a cute one jumped out at me. I kinda wish I had a glass cabinet in my kitchen to put this in, I may have started a collection, uh oh, I sure don't need more of those.

These beads were found at the same sale as the tea cup, I don't know what I'm going to do with them either, but I'm sure I can come up with something. These were 10 cents.

These, I'm not exactly sure what they are, but you shake them and they make some kind of musical noise. I honestly didn't know they were in the box. I just bought it because the box was cute. GIVEAWAY ALERT: I might put these in the giveaway, it depends on what kind of box I decide to use, because they're kinda heavy.

And here's a picture of the cute box. It was only $1.50

On Saturday, I spent a grand total of $6.35, that is $3.00 for the tea cup, $.10 for the beads, $1.50 for the painting, $1.50 for the box and $.25 for a vase that's not exciting, but I decided I needed another small one.

I did end up spening about $70.00 at Target the other day. The shoes were $25.00 and the shirts ranged from $4.00 to $11.00, and they were all on some kind of sale, I'm glad I didn't buy them when they weren't. I also bought a $5.00 movie I've been looking for for awhile.

I know I shouldn't be spending $$, but I needed t-shirts, I believe the sandals were a good investment, you can't pass up a good deal at a garage sale (even if you don't know what you're going to do with an item), and a $5.00 movie once in a while isn't bad.

Lonely

I really want to do something fun and exciting.
I've been trying to go to more garage sales now that the season is started, but it's just me going to them, not so much fun.
I'd love to have a cool thrift store or antique store to go to. Or a flea market, I've never been to one of those.
I was going to go to this cute little group of stores (sorta) we have here in town a few blocks from my house. It's called the Shoppes on Grand, and it's on Grand Ave, big surprise there. It used to be a whole bunch of separate little stores, now it's all one big one, but there's lots of little rooms. It used to be a house, so there are a lot of little rooms. And it's a great place to go every once in awhile, especially with a friend around lunch time, because there's also a tea room there and they have great food.
I think I'm really missing human interaction lately. Other than my 2 jobs, I really don't interact with people that much. I love the people I work with, especially at the library, where it's not just me for a certain time period.
But, I don't really have any close friends here. My best friend lives in Des Moines, which is about 45 min south from here, so I don't see her very often. Another good friend lives about 45 min north of here, she does come to town pretty often, but I've been working Mon - Wed mornings at the library and every night I'm working at one place or the other. I don't get to see Kevin that much anymore, usually only on Mondays (cause he works 6 days a week, 12 hr nights, and Sunday is his night off), last week he said, he wouldn't be surprised if they were working 7 days a week starting this weekend, I'm holding onto the hope that that's not true, but even if it isn't, he will be working 7 days a week really soon.
I don't do much outside of my apartment, I go to the grocery store, walk to Target and Walmart, but that's all by myself. My parents are trying extremely hard to know about my life more, but I really don't see why they need to know, it feels like they want to know what I'm doing every minute of my life, and that's a little annoying.

my weekend

This weekend was Kevin and I's 3 year dating anniversary. We set the date for May 1st, because neither of us could remember exactly when we actually started dating. We didn't get to see each other on the first because I had to work that afternoon and he had to work that night.
Sunday morning I wake up to him coming in my door with bags full of things. In these bags were:
A 5 quart Dutch oven

A 12" Frying pan

A 2 quart saucepan and

A 3 quart saucepan.

I've been wanting some better cookware for awhile now, and Kevin will probably say I don't have any reason not to cook now.

We then went to Ankeny and ate lunch at a Chinese buffet. After that we stopped at Walmart where I picked up:

Some wooden spoons and

a spoon rest.

We then headed south again, stopping to look at some car dealerships on our wat to Des Moines where we went to Bass Pro Shop. I've been wanting to go to it ever since it opened, and I was a little annoyed when he went with his friend on Labor Day. That was pretty cool to go into and look around, I would have liked to stay longer, but he did promise a friend he'd help with some truck maintenance.

After we got back, he dropped me off and went to help his friend.

I had planned on cooking him supper for my present to him, and those pots really came in handy.

I cooked Lemon Dill Bluegill (that's what I had in the freezer) and loaded mashed potatoes. I unfortunately forgot about the prep time, so I started at 5:30, thinking I'd have everything ready to eat by 7. It didn't really happen that way.

I started peeling potatoes, and realized I didn't have a potato peeler, so I had to borrow one from my parents. I used my new dutch oven to cook them, which took a bit longer than I expected. But, while waiting for them to cook, I did get the rest of the ingredients for the potatoes and the fish ready. After cooking the potatoes, I realized I was supposed to mash them up in an electric mixer, which I also didn't have, so I mixed them in a bowl with a fork, to squish them. Then they were supposed to bake for 30 minutes.

While they were baking I got started on the fish, all that turned out OK, and I got to use my new fry pan for it. I should have taken a picture, it was pretty cool looking with the water in it, and the lemons floating on top and then the bluegill on top of that.

But, it all turned out ok, and it was a really nice anniversary.

Here are the recipes if anyone wants to try them out.

Taken from Taste of Home's Contest Winning Annual Recipes 2006, Loaded Mashed Potatoes

5 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used about 8 potatoes)

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

3 TB butter

salt and pepper to taste

3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheddar cheese blend, divided

1/2 lb sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled

3 green onions sliced

1. Place potatoes in a Dutch oven and cover with water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until tender. Drain and place in a mixing bowl. Add sour cream, milk, butter, salt and pepper. Beat on medium-low speed until light and fluffy. Stir in 2 cups cheese, bacon and onions.

2. Transfer to a greased 3-qt baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

Yield: 14 servings

Taken from Taste of Home magazine February/March 2001 Lemon Dill Walleye

1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 TB butter or stick margarine

4 cups water

1 TB snipped fresh dill OR 1 tp dill weed

3/4 cup fat-free milk

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

1/8 tp pepper

2 lbs walleye, cod, halibut or orange roughy fillets (I used quite a bit of bluegill)

In a large skillet, saute onion in butter until tender. Add water and dill; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 4-5 minutes. Add milk, stir in lemons and pepper. Top with fillets. Cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Transfer fish to a serving platter and keep warm. Strain cooking liquid, reserving lemons, onions and dill, serve with fish.

Need some advice

So, today I went to get my eyes checked (has been almost 4 years), and I was chatting with the optician about how my current medical insurance didn't cover eyes, so that's why I hadn't gotten it done. To which he talked about eyes being the most important and how money shouldn't matter, etc, etc, etc. Which I get, eyes are very important, but when you don't have a lot of money, the things that cost the most, don't get done.
Anyways, I was checking out new frames because my prescription changed (I asked my mother to come along for another opinion), and we didn't have any, because I have a tiny head (I usually end up with kids glasses). Afterward, I was going to schedule a dialation (where they put drops in your eyes, and the pupils get bigger, so they can see parts of the eyes, they explain it, but I never really understand.), anyways my mother said I should wait and see about costs at the Wolfe Eye Clinic (the place I used to go) because they have my family history and other things. To me it sounded like she just didn't want me to go to this cheaper place. She is against change (which is where I get it from), but she also said it was an optician and this place and an optometrist at Wolfe. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between them. But I was also saying that the Wolfe place is in the middle of nowhere, and she said how location shouldn't have any impact on where I went. Pretty much meaning, she would drive me out there. Only thing is, I know she will complain the whole way out there and back about having to drive me and other stuff.
I'm trying to figure out how much of her argument is against change, and how much is what I should actually listen to.
One of the funny things is, if I lived anywhere else, anywhere I went wouldn't have all my family history either, so I think part of that argument doesn't work.
I honestly am not sure what to do. I know I will have to call Wolfe and see what their prices are, and figure it out from there. But I really don't know what to do, any suggestions?

Hawaii 1-8-10

No pictures for this one, sorry.

Got up more or less early, went for breakfast, packed. Mom and I went shopping. I bought a small piece of fabric, should have bought a sexy sleep thing for Kevin to enjoy. Looked at a shop with a lot of cars like mine (I collect metal model cars, like bigger versions of matchbox and Hotwheels, and this shop I could have spent hours in, it was so cool.). Mom bought some neat things for me for Christmas next year (I've already forgotten about them, let's hope mom doesn't loose them before then). Wandered through a lot of shops with cute clothes, should have bought some. Got back on ship, ate lunch, had a nap, felt sickly from boat moving way too much, took medicine. Went to look at pictures, ordered some. Went to shops, got postcard and napkins, ate supper. Packed More. Left our checked bags outside at midnight.

Some Memes

Found some new memes to play with.

The first is a fill in the blank. I found this one on Little Owl Arts
1. The first thing I do in the morning is Roll over and wish my boyfriend was in bed with me.
2. Every night before bed I Set up my music to listen to
3. My favorite thing to do when I'm having a bad day is Listen to music, always calms me down, especially Bruce Springstein, or Bob Seger
4. Something that makes me cringe is Millipedes, we had one on the wall by the bathrooms the other day at the library, and I sure didn't want to go near it.
5. Social situations Something I really need to get used to.
6. I like to collect Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars, art supplies, frogs
7. Weekends are for Relaxing, hopefully with warmer weather going to garage sales, and of course because of warmer weather mowing the lawn

And the next one is called the five Spot. I found it on So Completely Random.
5 family members you can't live without?
1. 1 aunt on my mom's side,
2. 1 aunt on my dad's side,
3. my boyfriend (that counts right?),
4. my guinea pig,
5. because of financial situations my parents
5 girlfriends you can't live without?
1. Karli,
2. Loretta (I don't have 5 girlfriends)
5 foods you can't live without?
1. Pizza,
2. donuts,
3. ice cream,
4. water
5 favorite movies? This will be hard, how to narrow it down to 5. Umm,
1. Die Hard movies (I know that's 4 different movies, but it's counting as one),
2. We were Soldiers,
3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine,
4. SAW movies (also counting as one),
5. Finding Nemo
5 favorite TV shows?
1. Third Watch,
2. Supernatural (or at least the first 3 seasons of it, I could care less about the 4th season),
3. Angel,
4. The Amazing Race,
5. New York Undercover
5 biggest pet peeves?
1.People who smoke,
2. people who call voicemail/answering machines and either hang up after the message has gone through, or talk like you're going to pick up,
3. People who are too lazy to park or do other things legally,
4. People who can't come to the library and pick things off the shelves themselves,
5. People who suck at driving
5 places you visited and loved?
1. Hawaii,
2. Lake Okoboji,
3. Kevin's parents place,
4. Washington D.C.,
5. The Ledges
5 places you want to visit?
1. Ireland
2. California
3. Texas
5 memories that you will never forget?
1. When I first saw Kevin
2. My first motorcycle ride
3. Hawaii vacation
4. The first time I went to D.C. and we got to see the Darwin's Rhea (big bird kinda like an ostrich) dance.
5. Childhood vacations at Lake Okoboji
5 things you love about your house/location?
1. Love my neighborhood (within walking distance to a lot of things)
2. Love that it's an old house (very gorgeous)
3. Love that I'm close to work (within walking distance to my jobs)
5 things you wish you could change about your house/location?
1. Wish I lived farther away from my parents (live on the 3rd floor of their house, and we are way too close in distance, and not far enough away in relationship)
2. Wish I didn't live in an old house (they have a lot of problems)
3. Wish I lived in a different town (should have gone away to college, and experienced somewhere else)
4. I'd love to have a bathtub (my bathroom isn't near big enough for one)
5. I'd love for my bedroom to not have windows facing east (it's kinda hard to sleep in that way, I even have mini blinds and very dark chocolate colored curtains, they still don't shut out all the light)
5 projects you are working on or want to accomplish this year?
1. The constant of my collage group atcs
2. making money (that counts right)
3. paying off my medical bill
4. hoping to become more creative, or do more artwork
5. Cleaning my apartment
5 material possessions you can't live without?
1. My ring from Kevin
2. My mp3 player (I couldn't live without music)
3. Chapstick
4. My wallet, that counts right?
5. My cell phone, though I'm noticing not as much lately
5 reasons you blog?
1. Hope someone else likes reading about my life
2. Like sharing my art with people
3. Like meeting new people I never would have otherwise
4. A good way to get advice
5. I've always found it's easier to write than to talk about certain things with people.

I've been very disappointed with some things lately.
One, I don't think I'm buying Levi's jeans again. It used to be I could wear a pair of jeans practically every day and they would last a year or so. In January, I needed some new jeans to wear to one of my jobs, so I bought a pair, there are parts that are already wearing through. That's not acceptable, especially considering I paid about $25-$30 for them.
Another, I bought some bagels at my grocery store last Saturday, I had eaten 2 of them, today I went to eat another, they were moldy. They weren't very expensive, but I would think they should last more than 5 days. They were bakery items instead of trucked in, but still. I had 4 I had to throw away today, it was very disappointing.

What are people thinking?

For one of my jobs, I work at at toy store in a strip mall, and right next to the toy store is a Pizza Hut where you can only pick-up your pizza or have it delivered.

Tonight it's raining, and sometimes pouring. I have seen 2 people pull up and park (in the fire lane), leave their kids in their car, leave the car running and go in to get their pizza. This is the perfect crime of opportunity for a person. It makes me wonder if the parent/adult would think it was worth it to stay out of the rain, if their car happened to be stolen. Now both times these people left their car, yes they could see the car, but they were also away from the car for at least 5 minutes, and if the person was walking toward the car, and then walked in front and got into the driver's door, I highly doubt the adult would notice, I'm pretty sure you could do it fast enough if you wanted to.

Unfortunately, I know this doesn't just happen here. I've seen people do it down town as well and pretty much anywhere in town. Now, I know we don't have a ton of crime in our city (most likely more than people think), but we have had armed robberies at gas stations, one just a block away.

Not that I'm wishing something would happen to anyone, but I really wish there was some way we could get people to realize that cons will not outweigh the pros in these situations.

A few weeks ago, when I was working at the library, one of our full-time staff comes inside the library with a kid screaming his head off. We found the mother, but she didn't seem in the least bit concerned.

I got my degree in criminal justice and I have read about what people will do just because there's an opportunity. I don't think in any way there's an excuse for them doing these crimes, but I do think the victim is partly to blame in these situations.

Trouble in Paradise

He didn't call me in-between 7 and 8 on his way to work, he probably just forgot.
But, my mind kept telling me, I'd see his truck show up around 8 and we'd get to hang out tonight. That didn't happen, so I figured, maybe he's sleeping.
I missed a call from him at 8:30, that had to mean he wasn't at work, right? I called him back and he answered, he couldn't be working if he answered, right? No, he was just able to talk for a few minutes.
They said they would be working less, but already working 4 days didn't last a week, now it's 5 days of one thing and 1 day of another, unless he misspoke and it's actually 4 days of one thing and 1 day of another, but I doubt it.
You never can believe anything they say. They said last year after the workers came back (after a 3 month lay-off) that it wouldn't happen this year, well it didn't, they laid them off for 5 months this time.
The things I would love to do to the people that make the decisions. They wonder why they're such in a hole after the workers come back and why they have to work them 7 days a week, 12 hour days when they lay them off for 3+ months in the winter and know they're going to be selling a lot and need the workers there.
He hates what he's doing now, I started hating his job when it meant he had to work nights, and then more when he had to work 6 days a week, and if possible, even more when he had to work 7 days a week.
But they have all this money, so they can treat their workers like crap and they don't give a damn.

So, tonight instead of cuddling with my boyfriend as we would both like to do, I have to settle for a giant frog and The Boss on my stereo.
Of course, The Boss does wonders when you're pissed or sad or whatever. I grew up listening to him, Born in the USA can soothe the most annoying feelings I have, and tonight I need that soothing feeling.

My weekend

I am not a very happy person.
My plan for this weekend was to leaver Thursday night after work to go to my boyfriend's parent's house for the rest of the week and Easter and to return this afternoon in time for me to work. That would mean I took off Friday night and this morning from working at 2 of my jobs.
I called my boyfriend Wed night after getting off work to find out he was going storm chasing with his friend and was coming back on Saturday. I was upset to say the least. So I got to have a few personal days to myself.
Saturday comes, I keep waiting for him to call. I called him once asking what the plan was, and didn't hear back. I called him later in the day to find out he was working on his roommate's deck and that he was planning to leave again that night and go storm chasing again. I hung up on him and threw my phone across the couch. I was so pissed I was shaking.
He called me back and left a voice mail saying it was storm season and he would be doing this, and I knew this , that's the way it always was.
I called him back saying I was more pissed this time because I had been looking forward to this trip and that I took off work for it. I don't make a lot of money, so I can't really afford to take off work, but since it was for a nice trip, I decided I could.
So, I got a couple more personal days to myself. I did have a good cry in the shower that night. Sunday, I went out to brunch with my parents, and I was in a very bad mood. I have a tendency to zone out and be in my own little world when I'm pissed. I was on the verge of tears the whole time. I did go into work, when I found out my plans had been cancelled, I called the library and asked if they still needed people for Sunday (even though it's closed, people still come in to take care of items coming in and other things that need to be done), so I did get to work for 3 hours and that helped me take my mind off things.
Today, I moped in bed until about 11AM, then I hung out with a friend until I had to be at work at 5.
I'm still on the verge of tears, I'm still really pissed. I've tried listening to music, eating comfort foods and hanging out with other people, but I'm still pissed. Tomorrow, if it's not raining, I'm planning to go for a walk. If that doesn't help my mood, I don't know what will.

I hope everyone had a better Easter than I did.

Pizza Dip

Saturday, I went to a Trivia Night with my dad's side of the family and my dad said to bring along snacks to share. I've been toying with the idea of trying this recipe I found in a December 2009 issue of Family Circle, so I decided it was the perfect time to try it.
It has pepperoni, olives, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, cream cheese and mayonnaise. Basically, all I had to do was mix it up and throw it in the oven. Here's what it looked like before I baked it:
And here is the picture of it on the table ready to be eaten. Sorry about the poor quality, but my aunt was itching to try it out, as she had smelled it the whole 20 minute drive to the trivia place.

Everyone said it was really good and I had to post the recipe on Facebook. It makes me want to make more recipes.

Anyways, here it is for you all to try:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup light mayo

1 cup moz cheese

8 oz sliced pepperoni, chopped

10 large black olives, chopped

2 ripe plum tomatoes, chopped

4 crusty Italian loaves cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients except bread in a medium bowl. Spoon into a 6-cup baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until lightly brown and bubbly.

Serve with bread for dipping.

Now, I didn't use light mayo, put in more than 1 cup of moz cheese, only used about 4 oz of pepperoni and got sick of chopping so I ripped them up, I used a 2.25 oz can of sliced olives, and I picked up 2 small tomatoes at the grocery store. I also think I could have baked it a little longer, I just mis judged the time it would take to bake and what time we had to be out the door.

If you try it, let me know what you think.

Who Wants Free Paper?

I am giving away this giant pile of paper. Go here and here to read the details.

Welcome Spring!

It's the first day of spring and this is what I saw when I woke up this morning:

SNOW!!! About a couple inches covered everything, the sidewalks were icy on my way to work. Thankfully, by the time I got off work, most of it had melted away. Now there's just a tiny bit to remind us all, you never know what Iowa weather will bring

Long busy week

This week has been crazy busy so far, and it's looking to be busy for the rest of it and into Sunday.
It's spring break for the college kids and below. I honestly thought everyone got a spring break week, but as I was hanging out with Kevin yesterday, he said they got a couple days around Easter, but never a whole week. People have been saying at the library how it's so nice and quiet with the college kids gone. Anyways, Monday, I worked at the library like usual, got done around 1PM, found out I had two movies waiting for me to check out: the 2nd Transformers and Star Trek, so I checked those out and popped the Transformers movie in when I got home, had to stop it to go get my hair cut. I got 8 inches cut off. I'll see about getting a picture taken so you all can see before and after shots. Started off in the movie where I left off when I got back home, had to go to work, and watched the rest of the movie when I got home again. I really don't like watching movies in segments, so I'm trying to find some time to watch it in full, but I know it's going to have to be soon, as I'm sure someone else is waiting down the list for it and I won't be able to renew it.
Tuesday: went to work at the library, when I got done, I found a text from Karli, asking if I wanted to go to lunch. We went to Pizza Ranch and then to Kmart and Earl May afterwards. Got back home about 3 and worked on my one world one heart art piece until I had to go to work, head over here to see it. Went to work and came home.
Wednesday: Kevin showed up about 3AM, I woke up kinda early and did my laundry, also scanned some ATCs (artist trading cards) for my collageatcs Yahoo group. Kevin got up about 1pm, and we went to a restaurant with some friends for lunch. Afterwards we went to Lowe's to get a present for his brother, who's birthday was yesterday. Then we went to the mall to get my ring fixed, the sapphire was a little loose. Finally we had just enough time to go get a DQ blizzard and drop me off at work. Work was pretty busy, then I went home to bed.
Today, I found out I won Susan's giveaway on her blog. I have to open the shop at 9:30 this morning and afterwards get to go on a picnic lunch and play with my friend, Loretta's puppies. Then we're going to go to PetSmart, after that I'm not really sure.
Tomorrow, I have to open the store again, and then sometime in the afternoon, my dad needs some help with computer stuff. There's also supposed to be a storm bringing rain and snow Friday night into Saturday morning. I read in my daily weather email that it's looking like 3 to 5 inches of snow.
Saturday, I have to open the store again and then I have the rest of the day free. Somewhere between Fri and Sat I need to work on some Trivial Pursuit ATCs for another Yahoo! group I'm in. I was thinking they were due in the middle of April, but was kindly reminded the other day, that they're due on the 1st, OOPS! I also need to finish up my one world one heart art piece so I can get it in the mail on Monday, I believe it's almost done, just needs a little more texture.
Sunday, I have to work at Hilton, the NCAA women's tournament is going on Sat through Monday, so I'm working some practice security from 8 to 1, and then a game from 4:30 to 6:30 that night.

I really hope next week slows down a bit.

Hawaii 1-7-10

Great day today. Woke up early to go snorkeling, which was great. Got to see sea turtles and lots of fish.

Came back to ship, had lunch and a nap. Got dressed to go to manor house for a tour and see a lu'au. Got to the manor house, got picture taken, took train ride around compound. Came back had a great supper of chicken, salad, purple sweet potatoes, pork, beef, mahi mahi, and lilikoi (passion fruit) chiffon pie. Went shopping in stores. Bought flower earring for $3.70 (I had originally seen earrings like these when we went to Pearl Harbor, but had told myself I didn't need another pair of earrings, and later, decided I did want some like that and had looked at pretty much every shop we went for some I liked), and a frog for $5.21.

Watched the Lu'au. Very cool day.

The lu'au was so cool, it was a bunch of people doing a dance about a guy leaving his girl to go to a new land and hardships that happened inbetween. Ross said not to take any pictures as we weren't supposed to use our flash and they wouldn't come out, but all my pictures turned out rather well, some of them look kinda like they're glowing in the dark. I'm very glad I didn't listen to him.

UGH!!!

I love it how my parents think I have no life. If I'm not working (and they always want to know my schedule) than I'm obviously not doing anything else. I must just be sitting here and doing nothing. My dad got a new computer recently (it was supposed to be a birthday present, his birthday was in Feb, and it finally came on Wed), anyways, Kevin came back and we spent Wed afternoon and Thurs together, but my dad calls on Thurs in the afternoon, and I happened to be in Des Moines and not hear my phone ring. Then he calls last night after I get home from work, and my phone was in the other room and I still didn't hear it ring (I wasn't ignoring him, I really didn't hear it ring), and then called about 10 minutes ago, and was annoyed when I told him I had something else going on this morning. You'd think they would want me to have a life. But, I've noticed my parents tend to have that effect on me, they love saying things that would get me upset. On Wed, when the computer was supposed to be delivered, they wanted to make sure I was downstairs (I live on the 3rd floor of their house), waiting for it, because it would have to be signed for. Granted I was downstairs doing laundry IN THE MORNING, any time after that, they would have been SOL, but since I wasn't working, I obviously had nothing better to do with my time.
Today, I do have an art project I am way overdue in making (it's from the OWOH giveaway on my other blog, that was almost a month ago, and my life got in the way, I've finally started it, go over to that blog to see how far I haven't gotten, it's at the bottom of the post), and I need to do something at the mall, plus I need to go grocery shopping. My parents are only happy that I work part-time, when I can help them with stuff, they'd be so screwed if I worked full-time (which I'd love to do if I knew what I wanted to do).
OK, now that I've ranted and gotten that out of my system, I have stuff to do.

Hawaii 1-6-10

Too much moving around today. When we can feel the boat moving, I feel like I'm drunk. It's weird when the floor moves.

Got up pretty early, had breakfast and went to get in line to get on the boats that would take us to shore. We got in line about 8:50 and finally got ashore about 9:50. It was an experience I'd like to pass on in the futres. Found out later that because the swells were so bad, they stopped letting people off at 10:00. After getting to shore, we went to the seahorse farm tour and found out the glass bottom boat had been cancelled. The sea horse farm was pretty cool. We got to see little baby seahorses, seadragons and even got to hold seahorses.

The best part was seeing the frog fish.

Went back to the dock and decided to eat fish for lunch and go to the local farmer's market. Had shrimp, crab stuffed shrimp and coconut shrimp. Wandered through a very hot farmer's market. Stopped at the Whaler's General Store, found Kevin a Ford truck with a Hawaii surfboard. Also bought a seahorse keychain and poster at the seahorse farm and collected coral at the beach.

Got back on the boat about 3:00, relaxed for the rest of the day.

Hawaii 1-5-10

Nice day today. Got up pretty early to go on Volcano and Rainbow Falls. Saw trees planted by famous people and big Japanese garden. Went to Rainbow Falls, didn't see any rainbows by tgot some nice photos.

Went to a botanical gardens, not very neat, but got some great pictures.

Went to see volcano. I didn't find it very exciting. Bought a postcard and postcard book fo $5.50. Walked through lava tube, that was the coolest. Went to Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory. Bought milk chocolate Toffee macadamias for myself for $3.95. Bought Macadamia nut white chocolate flavored chip cookies and dry roasted macadamia nuts for Kevin for $4.17. Had vanilla macadamia nut ice cream, not that exciting. Got back on bus. Got to wear one of my new dreses and new shrug today, I thought I looked pretty good thought they made me look bigger (that could have partly been because I had a bikini underneath and the ties on the bottom made the dress fan out a little). We went tot see the lava flow, also not that exciting.

Hawaii 1-4-10

Nice day today, Woke up late at 7 this morning. Mom and Dad were already out. Went to the Aloha for breakfast, had tomato with cheese, cottage cheese, pastries, waffle and milk. Went back to room to found out Atlantis submarine excursion was cancelled (we were supposed to go down in this submarine and look at stuff on the ocean floor and underwater) due to wind. We decided to go on Lahaina On your Own tour instead. Got on bus at 9:30, reached Lahaina about 10:20 (I saw a whale jump out of the water and flip over on the bus ride there, it was pretty cool). Was greeted at Hilo Hattie's store and received shell lei. Bought very cute dress on sale for $9.99 instead of $34.99 and beautiful postcard of Olowalu for $.25, total was $10.67. Walked to Hard Rock Cafe and bought Hawaii pin for $5.21. Wandered on to another shop where Sharon bought me a nice crocheted shrug and some more cute postcards (I have found on my vacations, some of the cheapest and best souveneirs are postcards). Went to oldest banyon tree and decided to split up for lunch. We saw this cool shipwreck on our way to the banyon tree.
Mom and I went to Pacific'O where we had fish . Went to Whaler's General Store and bought underwater camera, water, and dolphin pin for Karli. Wandered past beach and saw crabs. Went to a couple (3) local galleries. Bought 3 postcards of banyon tree for $1.88. Went to get gelato, got a bunch of tastes before finally deciding on mango and passion fruit lolikoi. Went back to ship and found these towel creatures on our beds.

Dad and Ross, who don't like just wandering around, didn't enjoy the day as much as Mom and I did, I think it was a nice substitution for our submarine dive. It was better than sitting on the ship and doing nothing all day.

Hawaii 1-3-10

Well, I have no pictures from the 3rd of January, most likely because it wasn't that great of a day, so I'll post January 4th right after so you can enjoy a picture.
Not very exciting today. We didn't have anything until 3:45PM today. So we got up, ate breakfast, went to sun on the deck, planned to go to a movie at noon, but at 12:30, the movie still hadn't started, so we left to have lunch. After lunch, we went back to sunning on the deck. At about 3:30, we left the boat to go get on a bus for our sunset cruise and whale watch.. Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the boat dock and boarded. Unfortunately, it was very rough and windy and everyone except Ross got sick. I was only nauseated. So, none of us ate the included dinner. I did see some whales, but mostly I sat with my eyes closed at the back of the boat. After arriving back at the cruise ship, Don, Ross and I had supper. Then we watched TV before heading to bed.

I love my house

I was reading this blog today, and I left a somewhat long comment on this post saying how she will definitely get through restoring and fixing her house.
I kind of know. My parents bought our house in 1987 when I was 3 years old, and it was in need of restoring. A picture on the wall of their dining room shows it shortly after the purchase. It is a 3-story Victorian built sometime in the 1890's, when my parents purchased it, it had a regular front porch covered in vines and was white, and very noticeable that it needed some love. It was rented out by the room back then, I remember moving some furniture in through a door in the corner of the house that is not there anymore, I remember when we took out a wall and found our oval window in a closet (of the room my brother wanted because of the oval window), I remember when we took down another wall and found stairs leading up to the 2nd floor (from there they did continue up to the 3rd floor). What I don't remember is the state of the inside of the house and the horrible tenants my parents had to deal with until their leases were up, or the countless hours we all spent restoring the house. I have seen a picture of my mother and brother working and me holding a box of graham crackers.
Now, I believe our house is as done as it's going to be, it's got a wrap-around porch like it used to, it's got original paint colors, we have beautiful wood floors, all of them varnished, we have a gorgeous fireplace surrounded by tile and a beautiful wooden mantle, we have built-in shelves, we have a marble sink on the second floor with a claw-foot bathtub in the same bathroom.
As I was typing my comment to Paula, I thought I should go around and take pictures of my house, so everyone could enjoy it, I'll work on that this week. I'm pretty sure you'll like, I do (but I'm bias).

It's coming!

Spring that is. Yesterday, I heard birds singing, and as I walked home from work (after the sun had been shining for 2 days), I actually saw grass poking out. YAY!!!!

My dad said the weather people said we had gotten 70+ inches of snow this winter, and the snow from our first big snowstorm in Dec, when we got over a foot, is still hanging out. I am so ready to get rid of it all. BUT, it needs to melt slowly or we are going to have some major flooding this summer, and considering Iowa had a bit of flooding a few years ago, no one wants more, some cities haven't even fully recovered from that flood.

I'm pretty sure everyone's ready for more sunshine and warmer weather, which I've heard we're getting next week.



Anyways, I was thinking about my birthday the other day (because my friend Karli's is next Sunday and she was planning a get-together). I was thinking it'd be fun to do something extra special for my birthday this year. Of course, it's not like it's a big birthday, I'm turning 27, but still. I haven't really done anything big in the past few years. A couple years ago, Kevin, Karli and I went out to the ledges for a nice afternoon in the water and some food. I don't think I did that much last year, Kevin did come over and give me this nice computer. We were going to go to the Good Guys Car show that weekend (my birthday is July 2nd, and they always come to Des Moines the weekend around the 4th), but he had the whole weekend off, so I said we should go to his parents house, cause he doesn't get to see his family that much when he's working.

Anyways, anyone got any suggestions for something fun I should do? I don't know how many of you know much about attractions in Iowa, so generalizations will be fine. I do have some time to think about it.