Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Don't be Jealous

Awkward:

• While waiting for Chad to get out of class I overhear a couple getting in their car. "Babe, babe, babe..." Was three "babes" necessary to get her attention? She gets in the car and then he does it again, 3 times, and then again. I've never heard the word "Babe" be used so much in such a short span of time. I was openly laughing at them. The girl looked a little annoyed. At him, not me mocking her boyfriend.
• The names out here still crack me up. My new favorite, some 18 year old guy named Vegas. Classy job with the names people.
• Chad was running low on time for lunch yesterday so he heated up some leftover pasta, threw it in a plastic baggie and at it in the car on the way to school. No fork needed, just slurped it out of the bag.
• A Doctor dropped by yesterday to tell he was new in town and was an allergist. What he actually meant to say was he was crazy. He told me he could cure any allergy using acupressure. Most allergies he can cure after 1 visit: allergies to your children, vericose veins, Autism, and Poor Memory. I didn't realize these were all allergies. Or that you could cure them with some pressure along your spine, once. Thanks for brightening my day!

Awesome:

• Getting compliments on whatever you're trying on in the dressing room. Isn't that the best? Chad liked it to, so with 4 yes votes it came home with me. Love the sales at TJMaxx!
• We are only seeing patients 2 days this week! So happy :)
• Am I the last one to find out that Jillian is coming back to Biggest Loser in January? Overly excited for that one. Dissapointed I have to wait until January though. Hopefully it's better than the crapfest last season.
• Bunheads. It's like a crappier version of Gilmore Girls. But, after you've seen every episode of Gilmore Girls a bazillion times it's nice to mix it up a bit. Granted, it's not as good, but it's good enough!
• They have a sushi bar at our new favorite grocery store. It's just like the Kroger sushi. Now granted this isn't what we've been looking for, and Chad refuses to eat it, but I like it. I get the ones with the fake crab in it and while it's not fantastic, it doesn't leave me feeling sick and satisfies that craving. Once again, good enough!
• Chad's rock climbing class. Every Wednesday he picks me up from work dirty, exhausted, sweaty and very excited. Not only is this class perfect for him, he's making a lot of new friends to climb and bike with.

Cleaning with Pinterest

I L-O-V-E Pinterest. Just like everyone else. I have a board full of clothes that I will never own, desserts that I will (hopefully) never eat, at least not all of them, and one for the baby that is no where near existence.

I also have a board for cleaning. I hate that I'm supposed to have a cleaner for everything. One for the windows, one for the kitchen, one for the counters, and so on. I never seemed to have any of them and ended up cleaning everything with windex.

So I started pinning cleaning tips and how to make your own cleaners. Sooo much easier I thought. Except that they all called for things that I didn't have or really want to try to find. People said they were expensive but worth it because it made so much, and really cheaper in the long run. I'm looking for cheaper in the short run folks. At this point I'll just stick with my windex thank you very much.

Then I found my solution! Check it out! Vinegar. Hydrogen Peroxide. Baking Soda. Olive Oil. Done. I already have it all and it's cheap. Bonus.

I've got my vinegar solution that will clean anything, my hydrogen peroxide for the bathrooms, along with the Baking Soda if I need some extra scrubby power, and Olive Oil to polish up the few wooden pieces that we have. They work awesome!

So if you are looking for a way to cut chemicals or cut costs or just simplify the number of bottles hiding under your sink, give these a try!

Vinegar

          For 3 cups of water I put in 4 Tablespoons of Vinegar. This solution is fantastic, It cut through   and cleaned things up that other chemicals we've got hadn't touched. Who knew? I even sprayed it all over the floor and went over it with my Swiffer, sparkling clean floors!

Hydrogen Peroxide

 Buy a bottle of regular ol' Hydrogen Peroxide and replace the cap with a spray cap. I've used this on mirrors, the bathtub, and toilet. I wasn't so sure this would work as well as my beloved Windex on my mirrors but it's a champ and worked great!

The only thing that I couldn't get clean was the toilet. We have been cursed with gunky, gross, dirty apartment toilets. Hydrogen Peroxide just ain't gonna cut it. It your toilet hasn't been used and abused by dirty apartment folk it will probably do the trick though. 

Baking Soda

When the Hydrogen Peroxide just isn't cutting it use this! Sprinkle this around and scrub away. It'll help to get rid of any stuck on stains or problem spots!

Olive Oil

I was most impressed by this trick. I put a little Olive Oil on a rag and used it to polish up our coffee table and desk. They look great. All shiny and beautiful. Super easy. Who doesn't have this already in their pantry? Just remember that a little goes a long way! 

What about you? Help us all out and share any tricks you've picked up along the way!

Labor Day is for....

 Labor Day is for.... Eating!!!  :)

We didn't have any sweet BBQ's or parties to go to over the weekend so we decided to have our own! We had a ridiculous amount of food and it was glorious. Mmmmm!

It was our 2nd attempt at Queso. This time went much, much better. We had nachos for dinner tonight smothered in left over delicious queso. Every meal will now have queso until we run out and cry.

 

 

We bought a Pomegranate and juiced it. It gave us 1/2 cup. Not a lot of bang for your buck here. No wonder Pomegranate juice is so freaking expensive!

Our house was literally 90 degrees by the time we were done cooking everything, our A/C couldn't keep up to save it's life. We were a hot, sticky, full and happy mess!

We hope you had a fun Labor Day as well, full of food, fun, family, and hopefully no work! ;)

Workless Monday!

Happy Labor Day!

I'll take any reason for a day off work! We were originally planning on going camping this weekend. Up to MOAB, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, somewhere sweet.

Yeah.... we stayed home instead.

The last time we went "camping" without a real game plan we ended up at Nikki and Matt's for a few days. We camped on their couch and played lots of Pretty Pretty Princess. It was a good time.

Unfortunately if we decided to bail on this camping trip we weren't going be an hour from someone we know. We would be out in the middle of nowhere with the bears. And the mountain lions. Plus we were planning on doing some night photography but the full moon killed that dream. We are re-planning for when the moon is cooperating and we aren't so exhausted. If Nikki and Matt were closer we would have totally "camped" there again this weekend.

After our crazy last week it was nice just to stay home. I cleaned, Chad studied. We watched movies, gave the pup a bath, took a long Sunday drive and just relaxed. It was awesome.

 

Rukia frekaing out from her bath. Girl hates to be wet.

We weren't able to go to the annual Labor Day party in Wacousta, we are a little far away, so we are having our own "party" just the two of us. Veggie burgers, potato chips and dip, deviled eggs and Strawberry Shortcake. Any excuse for potato chips.

Happy Labor Day!

Five Things {I'm digging} Friday

1. Sobe Coconut Water. OMG, so freaking delicious. The other two flavors are equally as yummy.

2. Master Chef. I just discovered this show and it's super addicting. The judges are awesome/scary and the contestants are pretty cool. I love the blind lady and the woman who named her baby boy "Danger". What a cool mom.

3. There's nothing I love more than lists. And really what's the best kind of "list"? A calendar! I even splurged and bought some new colored pens to fill out our glorious new calendar! I'm super jealous of Chad's new planner and all of the scheduling he gets to plan out. Nerd alert.

4. New Pajamas. Yes, they are too hot to wear right now. Yes, it is a one peice jumper thing. Yes, it is super ridiculous. Yes I am in love with them. And yes, I'm posting a picture of me trying on said pajamas in the dressing rooms of TJMaxx. Yes I was too embarassed to come out and show Chad the ridiculous pajamas and am now posting it online for literally everyone to see.

5. Breakfast. I am not a breakfast person. Why wake up early to eat when you can sleep longer? We are making a better effort at eating breakfast every morning and muffins are the way to go. Their easy, taste like cake, and can be eaten in the car. I made my mom's awesome Blueberry Muffins on Sunday and we've had them every morning, we finished them off yesterday morning. It looks like another batch is in our future!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

This week hasn't been the most exciting. We've mostly been trying to keep up with our new schedules. One car worked out just fine the past two semesters but it's getting a bit more complicated now that Chad is taking 16 credits. It's also hard for him to pick me up from work when I get bored waiting around and start to wander to nearby stores. Granted, I did text him, but I didn't know his phone had died. Woops. It made for a stressful Tuesday night. We think we've got our schedules figured out so hopefully next week will run a bit smoother.

As for this week it's mostly just been running around, lots of driving back and forth, schopping for school supplies, more shopping for last minute surprise school supplies and killing bugs. We are happy that Friday is almost here.

Awkward:

• An old lady showing up to her apointment 15 minutes early and deciding the best way to pass the time is to sit and stare at me. Seriously, a whole 15 min of some old lady stranger just staring right at my face. Every once in a while I would make awkward eye contact and smile. She would keep her same straight face and not budge. No smile, no "hi", nothing.
• We are becoming true Utards Utahns :) I couldn't help myself! I want Cafe Rio EVERY SINGLE DAY! I swear, instead of a grocery budget we now just have a Cafe Rio budget. I discovered their nachos last week and OMG, they are fantastic. They always look at me strange when I ask for hot enchilada sauce on them, but by the time we're done they always decide it was a great idea. Your welcome Cafe Rio.
• The Vulcan Dental Arts sign outside of a dentist office. Is this for real? Am I missing something here or is this Dentist way too hardcore of a Trekkie? No way I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out here...
• Learning that if we decide to go back country camping in Bryce Canyon we need Bear Proof Containers. Stringing food up in trees doesn't work anymore because the bears are becoming used to people!?! What!? I wasn't preparred to deal with cockroaches so I'm sure as heck not equipt to deal with freaking Bears!
• Our very last patient at the nursing home weighed at least 600 pounds. He was sitting on his bed with his feet dangling over the side. He decided he was going to lay back as the Dr. worked on his feet. He layed back and his gown went back with him exposing everything. Giant balls all the way to his knees. TMI? Yeah, it was too much for me too. Be happy you didn't have to see it. I'm just glad he wasn't wearing any shoes that I had to take off. Phew...

Awesome:

• Raspberry Lemon Truffle Cupcakes. From Kneaders, duh. What baked good to they make that doesn't taste like fairies dancing across your tounge? Even better than the cupcake place here that won Cupcake Wars.
• The giant Costco size bag on M&M's sitting in the kitchen at work. I always have a pocket full of M&M's at work now :)
• Three Day Weekend coming up! Woot! Chad's school schedule has really thrown us off so we are excited to rest, do something fun and study/clean. Well, we are excited about the first two.

Monday, Tuesday Fail

I had a beautiful post for you Monday. It was glorious really.

Ok... it wasn't that exciting really, but it had a rockin' recipe for Blueberry Muffins. My mom's Blueberry Muffins. Our Christmas Blueberry Muffins :) Mmmmm

Thanks to CTRL Z you don't get to see it. Stupid CTRL Z. Instead of undoing the last thing I did it just undid everything, leaving me staring at a blank page. Excellent. Then blogspots handy dandy autosaver saved my blank page. Thanks so much.

While I could have just re-wrote the darn post it seemed like a lot of work. Plus it was 11pm and that's when cranky, sleepy Danielle comes out to play. It's best if she just goes to sleep/relaxes and doesn't actually try to do anything productive. It's best for everyone, especially Chad ;)

Yesterday I also had grand plans at writing something super awesome. Except I really didn't have anything super awesome. And.... Chad and I didn't make it home for good until 9pm. We finished eating dinner around 10. Tuesdays are shaping up to be killer days. Hopefully we'll get into the swing of things and our schedules will smooth out a little bit.

I hung out for an hour after work until Chad's class ended and he picked me up at 5, I then dropped him off at school and rushed home to make dinner and wait for the maintenance man who never came. I was welcomed with lots of tiny little ants all over the counter and stove top. Sweet. I sprayed them all with whatever chemical concoction was available and just left them there to die. Gross, I know. Our once small ant problem is spreading around the kitchen. Grrr.

I went to pick up Chad at 7 and after running some errands and getting some more school supplies we finally made it home. The ants were gone. Seriously, all of the previously killed ants had disappeared. Now there were still a bunch of live ants running around but my dead ones were gone. Where did they go?

The ants are just the tip of the iceburg though. We've got these beauties outside on our patio.

Not the best picture but that is a black widow. Chad got some better pictures on the real camera. sorry :(

And cockroaches that keep sneaking into our house. They like to run in when I open the door. Gross. I've also been informed that scorpions will come out to play as the weather cools down. I am not preparred for scorpions. Or running into one of these for that matter.

Yup, that's a freakin' tarantula. We ran into him hiking at Zion's. He was actually pretty cool.

I was not properly prepared for the bug situation here. Because, for real, it's a situation.

We discovered poor Rukia had ants all over her last night. EEEEWWWW. We finally figured it out when we saw her food bowl c-o-v-e-r-e-d in them. No wonder she wasn't interested in eating any of her food.

Chad stayed up late last night trying to remedy the situation while I passed out early. There is lots of RAID in our future.

Not only did he attempt to fix our ant problem, fingers crossed it works, but he put dinner away, took out the pup and hauled the trash outside for pick up. After being in class from 9 until 7. All while I slept. Did I mention that he also made half of our dinner? He's great like that. :)