Silly Sunday

Ok today I'm playing along with Silly Sunday. I won a bottle of Champagne with this joke.. Enjoy 

 A little old man and a little old lady sat on their front porch rocking away their golden years. 

 Suddenly the little old lady got up, walked over and smacked the little old man in the head then sat down again. 

 The little old man asked "What was that for?" 

The little old lady said .."that was for Forty Years of BAD sex!"

 The little old man thought about that for a little while then got up walked over and smacked the little old lady in the head and sat down. 

 The little old lady asked " What was THAT for?" 

 The little old man said "That's for knowing the Difference!" 

 For more fun check out the rest of the posts on Silly Sundays at Comedy Plus.

http://comedyplus.blogspot.com/

A Touch of Spring

Spring is in the air and everything is in Bloom.

Moving Green

By its nature moving to a new place is not the most environmentally friendly thing to do. Between the moving boxes, wrapping paper, moving truck , and the gas to run it.  Sometimes you don't have a choice ...but you can make it easier on yourself and the environment with a little work.

Well for the last couple weeks I've been working on Step 1 of Environmentally friendly moving (to the extent it can be).

The First step is to reduce the amount of stuff you have to move in the first place!  I've been going at this particular step with a vengeance!

My Hubby and I met after we had both been in the Air Force for several years.  We had been to many different countries before we met and both had quite a collection of stuff.  After we got married the collection continued to grow and for every move our attitude was we will just go through it when we get there...it will be easier since it all has to come out of the box anyway!

Well I'm done with that attitude cause it doesn't work!  Once you get to the new home you start with well we might need it some day so we'll get rid of it later....

This time I'm getting rid of it before the move.  I"ve already started with the Clothes... I've gone through my clothes and the kids have gone through theirs and now I have a hugh box of clothes that won't be moving with us.  I've also been going through my kitchen stuff.  If I haven't used something while I've been here ...its gone since the likelihood that I will ever use it is nil!  Book are on the chopping block too ... they are heavy and how often do you reread a book?  Most these books have been with us move after move and they sit on the shelves collecting dust so out they go!

I'm going to start with a Hugh Yard sale (even though I hate having yard sales)... since moving is expensive we can use some extra cash.  The next step will be books to the library everything else on freecycle or donate.  Nothing is coming back in the house once is has been targeted for removal!

Getting Ready For the Move

Being part of a Military Family means every so often you have to uproot the family and move to the next base.  This can be view to ways.... Ugh I'm moving to a new place  or ...  Woo Hoo I'm MOVING to a NEW place!

Your attitude about a big change like this can either help your kids with the move or make them feel worse about leaving the place they've grown to like and move to some place new.

Thanks to the internet it's a lot easier to get your kids excited about living in a new place.  The first thing we do when we find out where we are going is to check out the schools within commuting distance to find which will offer our kids the best opportunities.    With my son getting ready to enter Middle school and my Daughter in High School we can also look up and let them explore the classes offered at their soon to be new school.  The can also check out which clubs and after school activities are offered which will help them make new friends sooner.

Of course lets not forget our old friends ... Thanks to e-mail (I don't let my kids on facebook yet) and skype they can talk to their friend when ever they want.  My Daughter is still talking to friends from our time in Arkansas.

You can also check out things to do in the area your moving to.  My son has taken a liking to Lazer Tag and was concerned he wouldn't be able to play any more.... But a quick google search quickly calmed that fear.

Your children look to you (yes even when they don't seem to be) if you look at your move as an adventure ... a chance to explore a new place .... then your kids will too.  Don't get me wrong they are going to have their sad moments about leaving friends behind,  who doesn't?  You can make all the difference to how hard it will be on them just by having the right attitude!

Sun Surf And Snails???

So as you know we are getting ready to move to Florida.  Ahh the fun of moving to a new place.  The excitement and adventure of a new place is one to be relished.

But in every life a little rain must fall.  Right now mine is all the interesting news happening around Florida.  First its the Burmese pythons killing off all the indigenous wildlife... then its the sink holes swallowing people and now its the Giant African Land Snail starting an invasion of southern Florida. 

According to Reuters news feed they can "grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster." and eats "pretty much anything that's in their path and green."

If they move up the state to the pan handle (where we will be)  its going to be a heck of a fight having my garden.  I wonder if a dog chews on one will it make him sick?  Ughh!! one more thing to worry about.

Well I'm still excited about moving.  Its kind of a pain in the butt ...but there is a lot to be said for exploring new places and I can't wait to see what we find!

10 Things I learned So Far About Juicing

Ok I"ve had some ups and downs so far on this juicy journey and I've learned a thing or two.  Well in case your thinking of giving it a try here is what I've learn so far.

1.  It turns out it's more filling then I thought it would be.

2.  Don't Experiment until you've tried out some of the recipes out there.  I haven't had anything so bad that I've thrown it out but I think part of that is my refusal to waste it!  Can you say TOO much Garlic???

3.You go through A LOT of Apples.  Yep apples is used in alot of recipes to cover up the flavors of less popular veggies.

4.  So far No matter what I"ve mixed it with ...Beet juice tastes like Dirt.

5.  You can get a heck of a lot of juice out of a cantaloupe!

6.  Clean your juicer before you drink your juice.  The longer you let those little leftover pieces sit the harder they will be to scrub off.  Especially off the blades!

7.  If you put a plastic bag in the part that catches the leftovers it makes clean up and dumping into the compost that much easier.

8.  You can't juicy a banana.  Lucky for me I read this before I tried to actually juice one.  But it makes sense ... they are just too soft.  Same goes for Avocado.  So when I want some banana added I throw my juice concoction into a blender with the banana.

9.  When juicing kale, spinach or other leafy greens I get the best results if I make a tight bundle or ball out of them before I place them in the juicer.  Otherwise they just get shredded and spit out the other side.

10.  Planning ahead helps a lot.  I have a problem when I get off of work that I want something NOW and I don't want to have to wait.  This was a little problem since although juicing is fast you still have to wash everything and somethings have to be cut up to fit.  Now I get them ready in the morning while I'm getting my breakfast juice ready.  Since I use oranges for my morning juice I take a little and dip anything that needs to be cut up like the apples into the orange juice. The orange juice will keep the cut edges from browning.  Not that it matters since you will be juicing it but it does look more appetizing while your are making it.

Long Distance House Hunting

You have to love the modern age. Where else could you sit in one state and house shop in another with out ever leaving you house. Think of the time and money saved thanks to Realtor posting the houses they are selling online. We started out with 82 possibilities....

  82 possible house are for sale in our price range.  Put in what we are looking for 3 bedrooms or more and 2 bathrooms with our price range and ....  BAM  We just cut that list in half.  Now we check out all the pictures ... This is the tricky part ... They are only going to show the best possible pictures they can  but the pictures they chose to show can say alot.

For example there was one house listed as a 5 bedroom 3 bath and they had only 4 pictures ..one of the front of the house , two of the kitchen and one bedroom.   IT"S A FIVE BEDROOM HOUSE ... what the heck is wrong with it that there are only 4 pictures and 2 of them are the kitchen???  Ok too many left to chose from drop that one off the list!

The you have the wonder of Google Maps you can literally scope out a neighborhood with out actually visiting it.  Check it out that one is right down the street from a hotel ...hummm 16 year old daughter + hotel during Spring Break = Dropped from the list!

We got the list down to 22 possible choices and during the kids Spring break they went to visit Grandma, Grandpa Aunts and Uncles while MOM drove down to Florida.  I stopped off in North Caroline and picked up my Dad for an expert opinion from someone who has been buying houses a heck of a lot longer then I have and off we went.

OUR poor Realtor  ...two days 22 houses plus 3 more the hubby saw online (he couldn't come on the trip he had to work).  I was able to knock off about 10 of them because the yards were too small.  There is no way those yards would work with too big dogs and 2 kids lol.

In the end we narrowed it down to 2 definites with 3 possible backups if the first two don't work out.

I'll let ya know how it goes from here!

One Man's Simple Idea

A Tucson resident makes a simple change and enhances his neighborhood.  Check out the Video:




When I was living in Tucson I always wondered why there wasn't more ways to capture the rainwater that fell during the Summer and Winter months. There was enough falling to create flash floods shouldn't there be enough to water your plants or vegetable garden during the dry months. Brad Lancaster thought outside the norm and changed his neighborhood for the better.

WAY TO GO MAN KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!

Long Week

Well I drove down to Florida to look at house.  Saw some good, some Bad and Some UGLY!  But nothing that really screamed Welcome Home.  

I didn't get to continue my juicing ...very hard to do on the road.  Do you know what I discovered?

If you start drinking juice all the time (as in juice fast) your tummy shrinks.  I couldn't eat nearly the servings I use to.  Definitely a good thing but I also discovered that what I normally would be eating doesn't agree with me any more.  The food you can get while driving .. you know pizza, hamburgers etc.  Sits like a lead brick in my tummy.  I felt horrible and its not so easy to find fruits and veggies at rest stops and gas stations.  When you do find it ... its very pricey!  No wonder you see so many overweight long haul truckers!

Well I'm back home now and I decided to wait till after Easter to get started again and lucky for me I have today off.  It makes it easier to take inventory and start anew.  So for the next 10 days I will clean out my system of all the junk food I ate while driving down to Florida with lots of fresh Fruit and Veggie juice then decide where to go from there.