Things I Think are Great...The Sequel

I'm one of those people who really, really like something, or just really don't. If I really, really LOVE something, I want to share it with everyone. With that in mind, here's some oldies and newbies that I think are just great. Maybe you will find one or two that you will think are great too.



We started using this vitamin one year ago. Originally we purchased it for brown eyes. I had read about it in one of the Autism books I had purchased. It came highly recommended. Brown eyes is a VERY finicky eater with textural issues as well. Often times I had trouble getting him to chew a vitamin. This product is great because it's a liquid. I mix it up with a little green tea...and down the hatch. The rest of the family takes this as well. I'm not claiming it's a miracle drug...but it's doggone close! Love it!!! We've seen fantastic results. I swear my memory and even IQ has improved since taking it. (I know, I know, you're wondering HOW bad WAS I to begin with?!! LOL!) I buy it directly from Kirkman Labs.Com. They also sell sample sizes, so you can try it for yourself for about $5. Not a bad investment in your health! Now this isn't new, but man I love it. Most of you with kiddos have heard of The Backyardigans. Out of all the kid shows out there, this is one of my all time favorites. I sometimes find myself watching it when I'm the only one left in the room...it's THAT cute! My personal favs are Pablo and Austin. Who's yours?

I first discovered this little gem 13-14 years ago while working in the dental office. We got free samples sent to us every month to hand out. I continued to use this even after I "retired." The fact that I would buy something I used to get for free speaks volumes. Now I can't find it in stores ANYWHERE, so I have to order it online. (I buy it by the case, but you can order it in singles as well.) It's hands down the BEST lip balm/chapstick I have EVER tried. But don't take my word for it try it yourself. Your lips will thank you. I get mine from Amazon.com.

This last item is one I just started using this past month. It's Bed Head Dumb Blonde Hair Reconstructor. It has really worked well for my hair...and it smells soooooo yummy!!! Reminds me of Pina Colada's...enough said.:) Also, If any one asks: "Have you been drinking again?" you can just reply: "No, you silly, silly minx. That's just my HAIR that you smell!" ha ha ha!!!

-This week I've been sorely tempted to put some in a glass with a little ice and an umbrella. A whole different kind of deep conditioning treatment. LOL!

Anyway, these are some things that I am liking right now. Maybe you will too. Note: I'm not getting paid a penny for my endorsements. But if you try one of these and really, really like it too...feel free to send me an I.O.U....;)

A River Runs Thru It...

Guess who's had a wee little bit of rain? This is our backyard: This new river in our backyard has been LOADS of fun for a certain Mastiff pup! I let her out this afternoon. As I started surveying the landscape, I heard sloshing water, I turned around...Ella was sticking her snout deep down into the muck, running back and forth, jumping up and down, and barking... WHAT A DORK!!!

Her laps actually helped slosh some of the water out of the beds. Perhaps she knows more about landscape maintainence than I give her credit for?! You can see where the rain has flooded and spilled over the flowerbeds:

The yard is so incredibly "sloshie" it is like walking on a sponge that is completely saturated! Yuck!!! I don't know how long it will take to return to normal. I do know however, that one part dirt and 3 parts rain equals....

100% fun for the pups! Even the most careful elderly dogs can't help but get dirty. We have had to walk everyone to the side of the house one by one, spray off feet with the hose, towel dry, and then let them in. Potty breaks require just a smidgen more work for the next day or two or week or more...

I shall now channel "Samantha" off of "Bewitched" (remember how she used to call for Dr. Bombay?)....ahemmmm...."paging Nita Margarita....Nita Margarita...come right away! Come keep me company on this wet, wet, cold day!!!" :)

Channeling Private Benjamin

It's been one of those weeks guys. Perhaps I will laugh about all this soon....but not yet. Between tilework, housework, schoolwork, etc. I feel whipped. Today, was the lovely crescendo to the opera that is my life....loaded up the boys and headed out to piano lessons. Drove for 45 minutes. 5 minutes before arrival...ol blue eyes starts vomiting...in his piano music bag. Brown eyes starts screaming bloody murder....repeat....repeat. I'm driving like Jeff Gordon trying to get us home quickly...yet safely. Took only 20 minutes to make it home. Between the vomiting and screaming, I don't think there was a police officer anywhere brave enough to pull us over! Upon throwing away piano music bag- latch on 10' gate broke. After getting children shepherded inside-let dog's out. Ella waded through muddy yard up to her elbows. Now I get to add bathing dog to my list of chores before her obedience class tonight. In my spare time I get to make dinner. Woohoo!

I know it's nothing tragic. Just a blip on the ol radar of life. But man alive!!! I'm feeling much like Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin (when she arrives at basic training camp.) ...."Excuse me, there must be some sort of mistake here. This ISN'T what I signed up for. Where's the beach?!!! Where's the condo's???!!!"

Okay, that made me crack a smile. Maybe I'll be laughing about this sooner than I thought.

Tile....I'M SOOOOO OVER IT!!!

So much for a relaxing weekend. The tile saga continues in our home. We had more tiles "pop up." This is the latest area of tile needing to be re-laid: You just got to love to quality of workmanship that the original tile man did for us! Luckily for us the other tile that we redid awhile back is holding nicely. So, that gives us hope that this new area will now cooperate with us as well. Course who knows how much else will decide to "pop-up" like a children's book in the future. (Thanking the powers that be, that this waited until AFTER the appraisor arrived....What a nightmare THAT would have been!!!)

Speaking of nightmares....The neat freak in me is just cringing as I walk around the house. Every square inch (both upstairs and down) is covered with a fine dust. EVERYTHING!!! UGH!!!

Life just makes ya laugh and cry and bang your head against the wall sometimes doesn't it?! After this tile is all laid and the clean up is done, I'll be found hanging out with my old friend......''NITA...NITA MARGARITA!!!" She always knows how to cheer me! LOL!!!

Just Wondering...

While working out today, I heard some guy say the following on the televison..." I only have one T.V. in my home. There is no T.V. in the bedroom. If you need a T.V. in the bedroom, you must be doing something wrong, be too boring to be with, and shouldn't be dating in the first place..." or something to that effect.

Hmmmmm....wonder what he would think of Ricardo and I. We have a 32" T.V. Not only that...we have two laptops, and we dock our cellphones in our bedroom most nights. Just wondering...:) LOL!

Inspiring Idea

We have an old timey piano. I don't know who all had it before us. Or where all it has been. But I do know where it was made. I bet it has some stories it could tell! Also, I think it looks really cool! Like a piano you would find in an old saloon.

Why, sometimes I sit down in the "music room" and wait for Miss Kitty to bring me a drink while I talk with the Marshall.

I myself, don't "Tickle the Ivory"....well least not that I'm admitting to. HA! Sorry. Mind just went down to the gutter. It likes to do that. I'm twisted. I know. It's been mentioned before. Many times.

Anyways, the reason I'm taking all these piano pictures is because Ol Blue Eyes IS a musician. And a pretty good one. So I'm going to print off all of these pictures in black and white and frame and mat them.

And then we are going to put them up in his room. That way he can be surrounded by photos of his first piano and his long standing love of music...even when he isn't rockin the joint. I'll let you know when it's done and show you how it looks. Anyone got any suggestions?

Compulsive Cleaners Club...Now accepting Members

I told you about the appraisal. What I didn't mention is the hours leading up to the appraisal. After an entire weekend of tackling the laundry room, I had to tackle the fine details on my house before the appraiser arrived.



I stayed up late trying to get every last detail just right. Slipped into an exhaustion coma that night. Awoke early Monday morning, and discovered a few more things that I had overlooked.



Now don't get me wrong. We are not slobs. Far from it. I'm a bit of a neat freak, germ-a-phob with obsessive compulsive tendencies striving for perfection. I never achieve it...yet I'm constantly striving for it. Like those greyhound race dogs chasing the mechanical rabbit- I'm chasing after the ever elusive, perfectly spotless house. It's not an "issue"...it's "NECESSARY."



When we sold our old house, I knocked myself out trying to keep our house with four people and 3 dogs in model home condition. We showed our home 25 times. It nearly killed me! I'm cleaning baseboards, dusting light bulbs, etc. And there is ALWAYS one more thing that I notice I didn't do.



I can totally relate to the Friends character, Monica. I get her. I could never have a maid. Never! I would self destruct trying to clean the house spic and span before they arrived. Is any one else out there like this as well? Anyone? ....Buehler...?



It's just the cleaning thing. I don't knock myself out cooking and serving up the perfect looking dish, making sure the presentation is just right. I don't fuss over my hair, make-up and outfit; coordinating everything to perfection. It's like how some dogs are "herding dogs" or "guard dogs". Somewhere in my DNA is the "cleaning gene". I clean when I'm stressed to relax. I clean when I'm angry to calm down. I clean....because ......well....because it's unthinkable not to. It's as natural to me as breathing. I'm going to research my family tree....I bet Mr. Clean's photo is in there somewhere. (I think I inherited my man hands from him as well....but I digress.)



So make me feel better today. Somewhere, someone out there must have this same condition. If so, raise your latex gloved hand holding a sponge....let me see you. Maybe we'll form some sort of cleaners club. Get together, have meetings, discuss the latest cleaning techniques. We can have Prozac for appetizers and a carafe of Vodka to wash it down...LOL!

Appraisal Anticipation

We had an appraisal done on Monday. I'm now waiting on pins and needles to find out what the numbers are. It's almost like playing "Deal or No Deal", I'm hoping that the case/house I'm holding is worth a Cool Mil. What do you think? Is this house worth $1million? I'm sure it is!!!! THIS house could pass the appraisal with flying colors...um, numbers?!? But we are awaiting the magic number on my OTHER house:

Yes, the smaller, more quaint house that we sometimes live in...just to keep us humble. :P See, in 2007 we had a pool installed. In late 2008 we got our new tax assessment....Wow! What a difference a pool will make on your taxes. So, our house value jumped up. Not that I'm complaining. ( To have your house actually go up in value these days is a wonderful thing!!!) But our escrow account wasn't anticipating the extra taxes, which equals extra money we have to have set aside in the acount. So now we have to pay $250more a month on our mortgage to make up for the escrow shortage-for this year and next. Lovely!!! We really weren't anticipating that either. It's not like we HAVE loads of money left over at the end of the month to begin with. Ya know what I mean?!! So we called our mortgage company to see if they would drop our PMI. We knew we were close to the 20% mark if not over it in paying down our mortgage. Seems that they don't automatically drop the PMI. You have to QUALIFY to have the PMI dropped. EVEN if you have paid off 20% of your loan, they now want to make sure that your house will sell for 25% more than what you owe, before they will cancel your PMI. Which is where the appraisor comes in. We had to fork over $350 for an appraisal (their choice of who). If our house is worth 25% more than what we owe, we can drop our PMI. Thereby, recouping the appraisal fee back in roughly 2 months by the drop in our mortgage payment without the PMI. Then we will only have to pay $150 more a month on mortgage. If we don't hit the magic number, THEN we are out the $350 AS WELL as paying $250 more a month. So you can see why we are sitting on pins and needles. The appraisor told us today, that house values are dropping and he can't get folks what they need in a lot of cases. Seems like a lot of folks are sitting in the same boat....seems like there aren't enough life jackets to go around for all of us. Like another remake of "The Titantic." "My heart will go on and oooonnnn"..(That's me- singing Celine Dion:)...hope I don't end up floating at sea on a stinkin iceberg. Oh, wait a minute....maybe we DO want to be floating on the iceberg?! Or do I want to be in the rowboat?! HOW long can I tread water at sea anyway?! Wait....This isn't a good analogy.....nevermind.

But anyways, we hope that the improvements we have made around here will bump up the house value. That way we can drop the PMI and not pay as much more a month as we are now. Anyone else confused at this point? Howie? Do I deal or no deal?! Regis? Can I phone a friend? Vanna/Pat? Can I Buy a vowel? Where was I... Oh yeah, it's all about the numbers at this point. But I'm really not THAT worried about the numbers. I was sure to point out to the appraisor (when he was here) that we have a guest house that is not on the tax roll:

Yeah, I think this little baby should bump the number waaaaaaay past the point where it needs to be! Now, let's hope the appraisor thinks the same!!!!

Weekend Warriers

What a whirlwind weekend we had here. We FINALLY got around to our 'construction project' in our laundry room. This is what we had before: Plain white walls. It's also something that you will not see a lot of in our home. (As you might have noticed from previous pictures:)

This is the only part of our project that brought us any worries. As we may be "weekend warriors", but we still don't like to mess with electrical stuff too much.

But in this particular project, it couldn't be avoided. Although, no worries; we are all just fine. Not even a minimal shock was encountered. (Well except for the fact that the project went so smoothly, we finished on time, and on budget...THAT was a shocker indeed! HA!)



So we started with plain white walls. The laundry room is only 7x6feet. I wanted it to appear larger. So, I designed the following plan:

We took beadboard. (Note: it's unfinished in this photo...but not for long!) We ran the beadboard up 6' tall. (This brings your eye up-giving the ILLUSION of extra space.) We did 5"baseboard along the floor and ran another piece of 5" baseboard up along the top of the beadboard-giving it a more complete finished look. And now for the surprise of all surprises....I LEFT THE ROOM WHITE!!! No, really I did. In fact, I painted the beadboard and baseboards a super high gloss white in oil base paint. Although, you know me, I couldn't leave it entirely white, had to give it a little color-but just a dab. I used some leftover wallpaper and put it up strategically around the room and spackled all around it. TRYING to make it look like stone popping through the walls. I REALLY, REALLY like the way it turned out. But I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Take a gander and tell me what YOU think:This is a close up of the top portion of the wall. My faux stone look. ;) Or I guess my faux-paux stone look, if you don't like the look of it! :)

See how the tall beadboard brings your eye up. Makes the space a little less claustrophobic.

And check out these crisp, clean white walls. Ooooooh! So shiney! So CLEAN looking. And what better look for a room where you wash clothes, than a CLEAN look. ha!


I gotta say, I have already tried out the new laundry room. I've done up 3 loads of clothes today. While doing laundry is never a fun task, this room makeover has made the task ALOT more pleasant! Isn't that what it's all about? Making life just a little more pleasant?!

As you might have noticed in the above pictures, my laundry room opens up to another small room. This 4x6' space was originally meant to be a PANTRY on our floor plan. Can you imagine? WHO needs a pantry that large? Well, not us. The pressure to keep it fully stocked with food would be enough to put yours truly into an early grave. So, when we built the home; we had them leave this room bare-except for the phone and electrical outlets we had them install in here. We got a lot of strange looks when we made that request I'll tell ya. But we took what was supposed to be a pantry, and turned it into a home office space. How's that for thinking outside the box?! (We did not do this project this weekend particular weekend however. We're not THAT ambitious! ) Anyway, since it connects to the laundry room I wanted it to have a cohesive feeling. So we did a similar design. Actually, it's almost the same exact design...except I antiqued it. Instead of a clean crisp feel, I wanted it to have an old world feeling. Like a French chicken coup feel. (Not that I have ever been to France, or frequented chicken coups often....but I digress.)

Here's the desk area. With my homemade bulletin board. The desktop will EVENTUALLY be redone in a nice granite....but that is a long, long way down the road. It works just fine for right now.

I bought these cheap bookshelves (and I mean cheap-$15 each) at a discount store. And I refinished them. Any of you who are fellow Christopher Lowell fans, will know this next step. I took these melamine shelves, sanded them, added crown molding on top, primed them and then refinished them in this antique finish. Here's one:

And here's the other:











Notice the open wicker baskets? Remind you of chicken nests? Notice the chicken and birdcage accessories? Are you feeling it yet?!! (Or are you noticing all the clutter I need to organize and put away?! LOL!) Anyway, I painted the ceiling chocolate. It really makes it nice and doesn't close in the space at all. Ricardo also put up a small ceiling fan in this room for me. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm all about ceiling fans and air flow! Gotta have it!!! AND to take it to the final step, REALLY make it FEEL old world...I did one more thing. I painted the walls chocolate, then crackle finished the walls with a white top layer, (note: it says that the treatment is not recommended for walls-but I like it alot in this space...and I'm a rebel; no one tells me what I can't do! ha!) Here's a close up of the crackle:

Do you like it? NOW it has that old French chicken coup feel huh? I think it took it to the next level. Again, it has the tall beadboard and crown molding. So, even though the rooms are opposite in look they do flow easily on the eye from one space to the next.

So that is our weekend project. And, this is the two spaces I spend many, many hours a week in. I know it may not be everyone's style, but it is really cozy and comfy to me. Makes paying bills and doing laundry ALMOST fun!