Recycle any way you know how!

Wow, I'm slacking on my posts! I sometimes wonder who I'm really writing to besides myself lol. So I'm the queen of freecycle. I'm the queen of recycling my own goods as well. I have found a great amount of stuff these last couple weeks.


I've been wanting to decorate, but on our budget it's just not possible. So I freecycle. I get clothes for me and the girls, I get toys, I give away my junk as well. I will be posting a bunch of stuff today I'm pretty sure. I have managed to snag myself a bunch of little country style decor. Wooden heart shelves, wall baskets, door hangers, etc. I also got a HUGE framed pastel painting that barely fit in my car to hang over my "new" couch (bulk trash find). My neighbor is about to give me all her old crafting paints so I can decorate the shelves to my liking. This couch was put on the curb by my new neighbor. Our old couch was just that, old, and CHEAP. Just a note, if you buy furniture from Big Lots, you get what you pay for, seriously. I loved that couch, don't get me wrong. Our love seat is still fantastic, but the couch had been jumped on one too many times and the center of the frame was busted. You would literally sink 8 inches into a hole if you sat even CLOSE to the middle. We had a regular queen size bed pillow in the hole to prevent injury to Ebbie. So out that went when I saw this couch down the street. I walked down there, checked it out. It was a little stained up. But the cushions didn't even have butt dents in them. There was marker on the back cushions. I took them off, looked at the foam inside, no stains. All stains were exterior. I lifted the bottom and checked out under the springs, everything seemed to be in working order, nothing had been lost in the bottom either. There was one cracker under the cushions. I took my vacuum to get any crumbs out, cleaned under the arms where it gives way to the bottom. Took some laundry detergent and scrubbed at the few stains, most of them at least got a lot lighter. I then febreezed the whole thing and let it sit. I went to the store, got a burgundy king size flat sheet and made myself a sofa throw. New couch. It's actually quite comfy! Then I got this great idea. The throw pillows that matched the new couch were kinda tired, like kids had used them to beat each other for way too long. Besides, they didn't match or even coordinate with my other furniture (at this point, nothing matches lol). So I go outside and notice that the fabric on our old couch is still in good condition. Clean, unstained. I gutted the old couch. Took the fabric panels from the sides and back, cut open the cushions and took the stuffing. I will be making my own throw pillows today :)

As I said, you can recycle ANYTHING lol.
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So we got a kitten. His name is Khadgar. He is lovable, great to the girls, and he's helping balance out the hormones in this house. He's been here for 2 days now and I think he's quite settled in. Poor thing lived in a barn before here. He's 4 months old, never been bathed, no shots, nothing. At least he's litter trained.

I gave him a bath using dish soap last night because I read that the "grease cutters" in dish soap kill fleas. Yes, he had fleas. I think he might still have a couple, but not nearly as many. He didn't really like the idea of the bath, but he didn't fight too much. Then again, I mastered a LONG time ago the art of cat bathing. He did, however, let his feelings be known when I was scrubbing around his no no spot where there were a lot of biters. I have a nice gash across the back of my hand. Thank you for your mark of love Khadgar. But he's good otherwise. He loves to play, he doesn't cry all night. He loves to chase things across the computer screen. He actually listens when we tell him no (then waits till we turn our heads). All in all, he's great. I can't wait to find my kitty scissors so I can clip his damn talons. :)

Baby Weaning 101

Rule number 1: If you have the goods, don't be the one to put the baby to bed!

Doug and I have discussed this since he got home. It's time to wean Izzy. Ebbie was different, she was a bird type eater, she wasn't getting enough nutrition, she wasn't drinking enough fluids, and she was just THIN. So I let her wean herself... at 18 months. Izzy, however, has been eating fistfuls of table food since 10 months and has mastered the sippy cup and could win a gold medal. She only nurses when she's tired and then she goes to sleep. I've been having issues the last week or so at bedtime getting her to sleep because, well, I'm not really producing much milk since she's not really eating from me anymore. She arches her back and screams. It's been a struggle. Since Doug has come home, I've been having him test the waters with putting her to bed randomly without boob action (since he's without the goods) and she goes right to sleep for him. I had him put her to bed last night. She fought at first, didn't want to sleep. He let her cry for about 5 minutes, then went back upstairs, rocked her for a couple minutes and she was out. Here's the big kicker. She slept ALL NIGHT!!! When I put her to bed, she wakes up several times wanting more boob. Or she sleeps fitfully. I am now confident that should something happen to me, she will not starve, dehydrate, or die lol. The kids are now big enough that they don't NEED me and I feel better. The fun part is going to be seeing what his schedule is going to be like and when I have to put her to bed. I'm going to have to deal with the fighting for boob she will give me. I'm going to have to struggle against her screams and arching until she settles in from exhaustion and finally crashes out. I need someone here all day every day (or at least sleepy times) to take her to bed for me for a week till she is used to not having boob. That's not going to happen so I guess I will just have to make due. Either way, Doug is very proud of himself (as am I) that his daddy's girl will go to bed for him and not me. Ebbie is my mama's girl, he's got Izzy. We are content now. No more kids for us :) Who needs a boy in the mix to terrorize our girls? They do that to each other enough lol.

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So the wonderful knitted blanket is finally done. Well, almost. I'm finishing up the boarder stitches as we speak. I'll take pictures shortly. It came out very very nice and little miss Emma will be able to use this thing till she's 4 or 5, yay! It's nice and warm and pretty. Not overly girly, so I'm not pushing her to be princess-y. But she will be warm and snuggly and hopefully, this blanket will be her snuggly just as Ebbie's is hers. Ebbie won't go overnight ANYWHERE without her blanket that my godmother made her years ago. That poor thing has seen better days, but still she insists on having it on her bed on top of the sheets and comforter. It's a tie blanket and she holds on to one of the ties all night while she sleeps. Once I tested her and took it in the middle of the night, less than a half hour later she was screaming because she lost her snuggly. I think my next step will be making Izzy a snuggly. Right now she's still using a baby blanket, it's not too small. Yet. But it won't be long. So I think I'm going to get decorative and make her a toddler afghan to sleep with. I've been working on Ebbie's afghan for about 2 years now, if not more. But since she already has a snuggly, I've seen no rush for it. I guess to be fair, I'll have to make her a matching pillow just as I did for Ebbie lol. Pictures of those will follow as well :)

Random Monday morning ramblings

***Just a quick note. This is just my ramblings, I am NOT seeking assistance in any way from anyone, I do not want, nor need any charity, there are people out there way worse off than I am, help them, not me. We will be just fine :) ***

Well, the holidays are upon us. No matter how I work the budget, it doesn't seem I'll be home for Christmas again this year (sorry to my family who reads this). We don't have a Christmas tree, but I have a super idea for one, I'll go into that in a bit. Because of some last minute changes to our pay and some unforeseen things this year, our gift fund has depleted so it's going to be a slim Christmas for the girls, but that's OK, they are still young. As you know, I made Ebbie's Halloween costume, completely from scrap fabric that a loving freecycler gave me, bless that woman. I still have a ton of fabric left so I'm going to attempt to make curtains for the rest of the windows in our house. Because of our lack of money, I've had to be creative with getting items to decorate and such. Freecycle in itself is awesome. Along with that, it's amazing what higher rank military people will throw to the curb when they are moving! Some people are SO wasteful! Here were my latest finds:

• 3 curtain rods brand new still in the packages
• 2 very large heavy wooden mirrors, gorgeous but need to be refinished
• a folding suntanning style lawn chair, still had the tags on it (YIPPEE!!!!)
• A hallway runner that was clean and in perfect condition, purdy little thing :)
• A flowered area rug in gently used condition for Ebbie's room. Has a few stains but nothing major.

I also, just yesterday, received 2 large black trash bags of fall/winter/spring clothing for girls which I split according to size between me and my neighbor. Both of our girls are hitting growth spurts and well, yay for the military for not giving us a cost of living increase in pay. Anyhoo, the clothes were in SUPER condition for the most part and will be great for school, so thanks Raven! See, this is where I begin to ramble.....

For years now, about 4 1/2 of them, we've lived here in the commonwealth of Virginia. And for the 4 years prior to moving here where we are now, I had virtually no close friends, it was hard to get anywhere, hard to do anything, and everything was just a struggle. Moving here into this military housing, though it has it's downfalls, has probably been the best thing for me. I've become part of a helping, sharing circle of friends. Every day I meet someone new in my neighborhood. Now, when I go grocery shopping, I see people that I know, not just nameless faces that I may have seen before. Now I have people to talk to in person when things just aren't going right. Also, with this circle of friends, we have a hand me down system. Seems most of our kids are not the same size. One person will pass something on to the next person with a child about that size, then they, in turn pass something to another neighbor for a child of the next size down, etc. And because most of us have multiple kids, we end up with the stuff back lol. But because of the hand me down system here, everyone takes really good care of the clothing to pass on. Ebbie has gotten some really cute outfits from a couple of our neighbors and I will not even go into how many clothes she just got from Raven yesterday. Granted, some of them she won't be able to wear till she grows more, but still, she's got something to grow into now and that's more than she had before. All that said, the holidays still look grim.

Who really WANTS to give their child wrapped up hand me downs of clothing and toys for a birthday or for Christmas? No one does, but some do because it's the only way they can give them a Christmas. I had to once with Ebbie, though I sacrificed a bill to buy a couple of "new and shinies" to give her as well. This year looks to be like that. It looks as though I'll be cleaning out Ebbie's room and placing stuff in my closet to clean up and wrap for Izzy, and Ebbie..... well, lets hope some nice freecyclers come through for her. Most of our holiday budget is for food and well, you know how important that stuff is. But here's where my craftiness comes in to play :) So for our christmas tree, I'll be getting a large piece of white paper. I will quickly sketch out a tree on it (i'm no artist so this should be interesting). Ebbie and I will then paint/color it. Izzy is going to have fun with finger paints while Ebbie and I have fun with glitter, glue, paint, etc. We are going to MAKE a decorated tree :) Besides the fact that it will take up less space and won't topple over onto our increasingly mobile toddler, it's a great family project! I've even figured out a way to put a string of lights on it lol. And just think of the ease in taking down the tree! What I'm going to do as well, and this may seem packrat-ish, is take a small box and put everything in that after the holiday is done and label it with the year. They will be my scrapbook boxes. Later on, MUCH later on, I will create a family scrapbook and include these items along with the kids school stuff. I think this is a great idea for a family tradition. I'm excited about it lol. No bugs from a live tree, no watering, no fake tree parts falling off the tree, no fluffing the tree, no falling tree..... I see no problem with this LMAO.

So anyway. I'm hoping that in some way, our Christmas will still be fulfilling and fun. I will miss the family however (hint hint, we're only 3 hours away people, come visit!).

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Now here's my dilemma. I'm going back to school. I'm doing a certificate program. I've been thinking about doing this for a couple years now but haven't had the money, or time, or whatever (procrastinator extraordinaire) to get it done. I'm doing medical transcription. I have 2 options. I can get a student loan for $3K and do the course and get all kinds of great little perks, or I can do it through the military and do it free. Now here's the 2 differences:

Military Program:

• Free if dh does a certificate program as well
• I would have to buy the foot pedal and headset
• Access to the website to take my certification course online after completing program
• 12 Months to complete course
• FREE

Paid Program:

• Free laptop
• All items supplied, headset, foot pedal, books
• Access to website for certification, AND free certification
• 18 months to complete course
• 24/7 student assistance plus access to student forums
• LIFETIME job placement assistance (they set up interviews with their partners till you get a job, then do it again if you need, anytime)
• costs $2276 right now with "economic disaster discount" (LMAO)

Now dh is trying to get me to do the military one, he is telling me "We have enough debt!". He's not seeing that we would still have to pay out of pocket. Now, I did convince the guy to include my headset and foot pedal. But the other perks do not exist. I would have to scour for a job. I would have to pay in 2 years to get certified (the program registers you, but you need 2 years of job training to be certified), you get less time to complete the course. My thoughts are this, and they are probably slightly skewed because of my stubbornness but..... : We are paying off all debt besides cars with our income taxes. That frees up almost $500 a month. I have 18 months to complete the course, so if I should get a student loan, it could be up to 19 months before we pay the first payment of the whopping $30. They give me a free laptop, which I would use specifically for school work. I would be able to take it with me and do work in the Dr's office, sitting outside, whatever,...... or run to my room and hide from the kids when they are being too loud. This is a very useful tool! All my stuff would be supplied without me having to have a tantrum. LIFETIME JOB PLACEMENT ASSISTANCE. The way they explained that to me is they have signed on with a large group of partners in the medical field. When someone finishes the program with an 85% accuracy rate on average, the partners agree to interview them and take them on as an employee. So the school would set up several interviews, I would get a job from jump, I would get a PAYCHECK from jump, and then after 2 years of steady working (so many "hours"), I would be able to go to this website (different one than that the military provides actually), take the online certification test, and they would mail me my certification bumping me up from registered transcriptionist to Certified Medical Transcriptionist, which also raises what people will pay you. Now I do understand wanting to avoid more debt. Fully understand that, but somehow, I really like the program that's non military. It seems more oriented towards getting you into a career instead of just giving your spouse a hobby while your man is at sea. Doug is not happy that I am seriously thinking of going against his wishes for this, but ...... Is it selfish that I want to have a career at home? Something I can do to FINALLY do something financially for my family? So we can NOT have anymore holidays like this one coming and all the prior ones since we've been married? So we can DO things that involve leaving the house because we can actually AFFORD IT? Is that really selfish? I see it as doing something for my family, and also, (fingers crossed this never happens) in the event my marriage should fail or something happens to Doug, I could still provide a decent life for my children and still be able to be home with them to help with homework, chaperon field trips, etc because this career allows you to work when you want and still get paid. Why don't all house wives do this? I can't help but want the paid program, especially since it's one of 2 of the paid programs, there's standard, which is almost like the military's, then there's professional, the one I've listed everything for. I still think I'm gonna go ahead with the paid one. I want a career, not a hobby.

Sweet Sweet boredom

People take boredom for granted, don't they? I used to HATE being bored. Well no longer do I feel that way. Now I embrace it, snuggle with it, make out with it. Just kidding lol. I do, however, enjoy being bored. You know what bored means to me? It means my cleaning is done, my laundry is caught up, there are no dirty dishes, the yard is picked up, the trash is taken out, and the kid(s) is/are asleep. That's what it means to me. Yes, I do love boredom. This gives me a chance to go through my DVR and check out all the recent episodes of everything I have missed. Usually a 6-7 hour marathon of tv watching.


Speaking of which. I sat down a couple days ago and caught up on the last 3 weeks of House. As I did this, Izzy slept. I knitted. Little miss Emma's blanket is coming along nicely. Her initials are now in the blanket. It actually came out quite nice. It's amazing though, if you knit, how something that could look like this: E R C, even on graph paper, can come out looking like this:





Yes. That's what it takes just to make a 4 inch tall set of initials knitted into a STANDARD blanket. I'll not even begin to think if I had decided to get all fancy with some sort of pattern. Something tells me it would have been pattern interruptus to create initials, then it would have been mass chaos as I began to try and figure out the exact columns for the pattern again. My my, it hurts my brain just thinking about it! I do, have pictures of the blanket thus far. It's about 2 or so feet long right now, it's going to be close to 4 feet long when I'm finished. It's actually probably closer to 3 feet, but I'll use man measurements for a moment. Meaning it's about 6 feet long right now :) Here's a couple pictures :



Wonderful said blanket in it's, so far, entirety.





Said "illusion" lettering to include her nifty adorable little initials in the blanket :) I wish Sara had internet so she could take a peek at this precious blanket. It's very warm and soft as well. I've been using it to keep me warm while I knit lol.