Life updates

I have been MIA for awhile. Sorry to my reader(s), lol. 

Last week was pretty awful. I prepped for a rummage sale all week long. I usually have one a year and I get loads of money from kids clothes. This money helps me get school supplies and clothes for my kids. We had the sale on Friday and Saturday but I spent every day last week pricing items and getting them set up in the garage. Even with having the sale on Friday and Saturday, I have a friend coming today to look at what I have left. I have already earned a few hundred bucks so anything additional would definitely help.

Also last week I had awful pains on the bottom of my foot. For a couple of nights I couldn't sleep because of the pain that was throbbing like a toothache. I knew as soon as it was getting bad that it was plantar fascitis, from my years at a doctors office. I read up on the treatment and started with stretching exercises, ice/heat, and Advil but nothing was helping. I could barely walk, even with wearing shoes with support. I think the combination of the rummage and the original injury that was preventing me to heal. I ended up seeing a nurse practitioner at my doctors office and she said my diagnosis was correct (of course!!). She gave me stronger ibuprofen and told me to freeze a full water bottle and roll my foot over it for 20 minutes every hour. With these treatments, my foot is slowly getting better. I am walking better and the pain is leaving me, thank goodness. 

Now for my weekend. The kids and I did some school shopping for backpacks and clothes. They got some stuff and I got these awesome shoes on sale for $17 at Payless:

I love things on sale and shiny things :)

When I went to put them away, I realized that my shoe storage area is beyond full. I may have to buy another holder. 

Hi, my name is Mendy and I have a flip flop addiction!!

The hubs and I went to Target. We, of course, bought more than we needed including this awesome peel and stick chalkboard that now has a new home on my built-in oven:

I think I am going to start putting a different quote on every day.

The hubs also got Fruit Roll Up's. It has been ages since I had one. It was just as yummy as I remembered but it also got stuck in my teeth just as bad as I remembered!

Finally, on Sunday we did our grocery shopping at Meijer and then hopped over to Lowe's to get some shims to help us with the stupid bathroom mirror frame that's been giving us fits. As soon as I walked in I saw this awesome sauce and couldn't help but taking a picture of it. I don't think I could use it because all I could think of would be rubbing someones butt.

How was your weekend?

Doorknob to Towel Holder

As I mentioned here, I have been working on my second bathroom. It has had it's complete makeover but the stupid frame around the mirror is giving us fits. Hopefully the new idea will help. Let me just tell you that all those people on Pinterest that acted like it was a piece of cake are lying liars because it is more like brussels sprouts!

Moving on, since I can't show you the bathrooms finished product I thought I would show you the doorknob towel holders we made. I decided to do this and went to Pinterest to find a tutorial on how to do it. I found one that said pour some liquid resin in the hole, let it set for 24 hours, and then drill a hole for your bolt. That sounded like a lot of work and the idiots at Lowe's were no where to be found to help me find liquid resin! So, the hubs and I came up with a new idea and it was fabulous! These knobs are also a find in my moms garage. Lucky for me she has a super old garage and my dad collected EVERYTHING and lucky for her I am getting stuff out of her way, haha!

Supplies needed:

Doorknobs

Hanger bolts

JB Weld

That JB Weld stuff is awesome but smells like a skunk wallered around in garbage (vomit!). Anyway, you take that JB Weld and it is like playdough, you roll it around to make a ball. You stuff that ball in the hole of the doorknob (I let the hubs do this because no one wants to stink like that). Let it set for a few seconds and then put the flat end of the hanger bolt into the JB Weld. It is already starting to set. This is what it looks like after you put the bolt in:

We let it set up for an hour or so then screwed it into the wall.

The hubs didn't even use a drill. He just used the pointy end and screwed them in. They are nice and sturdy. Here is the final product with towels I found at TJ Maxx:

What do you think? Isn't if fabulous? 

Pray for Zoey

I don't like to post things that ask for prayers because I don't like to put people on the spot and I don't want to assume that all of my 1 reader(s) has the same religion as me. But this is to help save a tiny, little life.

My mom's puppy, Zoey, is very sick. On Monday, she was diagnosed with Parvo. She is a sweet, 5 month old, 5 pound ball of fire and is so precious. We are not sure how she contracted the disease because she never leaves her yard. The vet is doing all he can to help her which has included IV's, antibiotics, and surgery. If you are not familiar with Parvo, it can be deadly if not treated soon enough. Luckily, a few weeks before she contracted the disease she had some of her shots, which is helping. They think we caught it soon enough because she started showing symptoms (lethargy, vomiting) on Friday and my mom took her to the vet on Friday evening and Saturday morning. They kept her there and she has been there since then. They said she is fighting it but is now getting depressed. The poor little thing is in a cage at the vet, when she should be at home running through the house and the yard. My mom and daughter visit her every day and she perks up when she sees them. Every day my mom gets the same answers: she is a little better, she made it this far, we are doing what we can.

So, please pray for sweet Zoey and my mom. To help them through this and that Zoey will get healthy and be able to go home soon.

Thanks!!

Who's the biggest idiot I know.....

ME, that's who!!

I played a softball DOUBLE HEADER on Friday in a heat wave!

Here was the weather when I arrived at the softball diamond:

Check out the temp and the "feels like" temp! That 70% rain cloud was a lying liar!

Here I am waiting for my turn to bat:

I, of course, drank tons of water. Thank goodness I didn't have the use the port-a-potty! After 2 games, I was exhausted and ready for bed....at 9:45. Maybe I should have titled this post: the life of a senior citizen! I did stop at McDonald's on the way home because that's how I roll, got to add back on all of those calories I just burned off!!

Have a good weekend! 

Window to Mendy

Since I started this blog I wanted to be one of those people that can tell you what I did that day and it would sound all fantastic and exciting but my life is neither of those things. You know the bloggers that I am talking about. They are 24, single, live near a beach, and are constantly going to concerts. None of those things describe me. I am over 30, married, live in Indiana, and relax at home. 

To help drive this description home, I am going to show you a window to my life. Keep in mind it is summer and since I am a school employee, I am not working. 

Here is Thursday, July 18th!

I got up at 8:45am. Being that I am a senior citizen, I usually can't sleep past 9:30 :( After I woke up, I cooked my breakfast and watched my morning stories while reading my favorite blogs!

Chocolate chip oatmeal and some water in my Columbus Crew cup, GO CREW!!

Love these girls!

After awesome Kathie Lee and Hoda was over, I did chores and fed my people lunch. 

My lunch, carrots and dip.

We left for the pool at 12:30. Xander doesn't like swimming during the hot sun hours (he is his father's child) so he mowed a yard and then went home. Eve and I swam until 3.

Beautiful, crystal clear water!

That's Flat Ken, an uncle, for his surprise party! We are supposed to photograph him in awesome places and then email them to his wife.

When I got home I did some more chores, worked with the hubs on dinner, and spent some quality Pinterest time.

After cleaning up the dinner mess, the hubs and I sat down to enjoy some Doctor Who. We are currently on season 4 episode 12. The hubs has watched all of them but I am new to it. 

Source

We went to bed at 10 because the hubs has to wake up at 5:30am for work. While he slept, I had some more Pinterest time.

Hope you enjoyed a window to my day. Don't be jelly of all the excitement!

Another Pinterest day

Since I am on a Pinterest kick and stealing borrowing from my mom's garage, I decided to try another Pin. This was my Pinspiration:

How cute would this be by the front door for flip flops, especially since Emmett has decided, just this summer, that it's OK to pee on flip flops? I also found one at Hobby Lobby but who wants to spend money on one when you can make your own? I was thinking of painting it but not putting the wording on it so I could keep it by the front door in the winter for gloves and hats.

After cleaning the bucket up, and that took a loooooooong time, I realized how old it was and didn't want to ruin it by painting it. The "naked" bucket looks better, I think. I put it by the front door and it sits in front of my new burlap curtains. What better combo than burlap and an old bucket?

Please don't mind my floors, they are in desperate need of refinishing, know anyone that will do it for free?

The shoes won't stay lined up like this for long but isn't it cute?

I am not disappointed by my decision not to paint. I think it looks perfect and fits in with the theme of the room. What do you think?

New bathroom chandelier

As I mentioned here I wanted to get my bathroom finished this summer. We are getting there but seem to be having trouble framing the mirror, Liquid Nails basically laughed at us! But I couldn't wait to show you the awesome chandelier we put in there. I knew when I was ready for a chandelier that my mom's garage was the place to go. It did not disappoint. While searching I found 3 awesome ones. I wanted something that I could paint the whole thing like these on Pinterest:

I found some contenders for this but after doing research on the internet, I found out that you need to have pieces of it examined by an expert to see if it is crystal or cut glass. I guess if it is crystal then it could be worth tons of money and painting it could render it worthless. I didn't want to do that and wasn't sure where to take it to have it looked at in our small town so I went with the easiest choice that wouldn't need it:

I loved that it was basic but had that pretty crystal in the middle.

As you can see it is an ugly brass mess. My mom guessed she hasn't used it in 20+ years, if she used it at all. My dad had a habit of picking things up on his travels so who knows when/where it was last used.

First I had to clean it and it was a dirty, ugly mess. 

Gross dirty water from 20+ years of storage!

I didn't take any pictures of any of the steps in the middle but I will tell you what I did. First I wrapped and taped up the crystal part. I then hung it in the garage to spray it with primer. The primer is important or the paint might not stick. After that was dry, I did 2 coats of gloss black spray paint. It ended up beautiful and I am so happy with it. We used to have a cheap old light in the bathroom and now there is this beautiful chandelier. Here is the after:

I thought about getting some more crystals, I hear you can get them at Michaels. What do you think? 

Internet, you're funny

I have been reading the funniest crap on the internet lately, here is just a minor touch:

1.  Someone was having a rummage, posted it on a Facebook rummage page, and the title was: Adoption rummage. Someone commented on the post to ask what "Adoption" meant. The person responded that all of the proceeds of the rummage were going to their adoption. The original person asked: "Adoption of what?"

2.  Sadly someone in the next town over was shot. Someone posted on Facebook that they wanted to have a candlelight vigilante for him.

3.  I try to laugh when on Pinterest I click something to follow the link and the link goes NOWHERE!

4.  I also try to laugh when you click a Pin for the recipe and they don't tell you the recipe, the blogger just has pics of their meal.

5. Why is it that everyone believes EVERYTHING they read on Pinterest? It makes me think of this commercial:

6.  I recently got this email from Kmart after a purchase. I purchased a quart of gloss black paint and a bag of cat food but here is what they recommended for me after the purchase:

WTH do I need sealing gun wax sticks for?

As for my photo challenge I have done awful. July 5th was water and my plan was to take a picture of the sparkly pool but it rained all day and I was not taking a picture of rain. July 6th was sunshine, still more rain! The 7th was the market and it was still raining so I was not going to go to the farmer's market in the rain. The 8th was a memory and I forgot to do it, ironic? Drink was the theme for the 9th and again, I forgot! Which leads to the 10th, the theme was outside/nature. We had some flash flooding so I took a picture of my front yard:

The 11th was treat:

Snickers ice cream bar...yummy!!

The 12th was travel. I am not traveling right now except to the pool so there will not be a pic for the 12th!

Throwback Thursday: First Job

It's time for Throwback Thursday again with The Life of Bon. This weeks theme is First Job.

My first real job was at Hardee's. I hated working there, then, but I'm not so sure now. Can you imagine having a job that didn't really matter? You could do what you wanted when you wanted and it was forgiven because you were a "stupid teenager." There were so many positives and negatives to working fast food.

Positives:

Free food, when I was sneaky.

Worked with some other great kids.

I basically chose what shift I wanted to work.

Negatives:

I always smelled like grease.

People are rude to fast food workers.

My car always smelled like grease.

Here are three of my funniest stories from my 2 years there. 

Slap box champion

As I worked there longer, I wanted the open shift on Saturday and Sunday. I was a teenager and could still stay out all night and not be tired (those were the days) but then I was getting off work when my friends were waking up. Bonus!! I had already earned my money for the day while they slept. Anyway, I opened and instead of working the cash register, I was the biscuit and chicken maker. This was great. I didn't have to deal with the rude customers. I would go in, start making the biscuits, and at a certain time I would start the chicken. (Side note: I hate to touch raw meat) The chicken breading was a dry powder, a liquid mess, and then the dry powder again. After those three steps, the little chicky would fry. It was during this time that the cooks and I would slap box in chicken powder. We had tons of fun, always made a mess, and usually got in trouble. But we were 17, who cares, right?

9-1-1

My next awesome story is a doozy. One of the cooks and I were having a discussion. I said I was right and he said he was right. He then says "if you don't stop arguing with me I am going to call 9-1-1." Being that dumb teenager mentioned before, I continued to argue. He picked up the wall phone (the kind with push buttons, not electrical, and had a cord...it was 1993, what do you expect) and dialed 9-1 and hung up the phone. After he hung up, he picked it right back up again, dialed the last 1, and hung up again. Of course, being the awesome GCPD, they called right back. The looks on our faces had to be priceless. We were scared to death, so naturally we took off running. We decided to hide in the freezer. After discussing what to do and the shift manager opening the freezer door and yelling for us, we had a plan. We thought it would be smart to go out the little freezer door that goes outside the store that's used for deliveries. When we opened the little door, we saw the police car pull in. Oh, shit was our thought, what do we do now? Hide, of course. The shift manager ended up finding us and we had to get a serious scolding from the nice police officer. We were both written up and were not allowed to use the phone anymore!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

My last story is just great. A man came through my drive thru and ordered a bucket of chicken. We were out so we had to cook it. Once at the window, this man was severely intoxicated!! He was slurring his words, telling random stories, and was quite entertaining. Everyone got in on this fun. The cooks came up to chat with him and egg him on, other cashiers were talking to him, and the shift manager was my age so she even got in on it. At one point while he was waiting the power went out. No power=no chicken fryer. He was getting frustrated but not violent until he says "I'm going to have to get my gun out." We all laughed, of course because we live in a town of 8,000 people, gun violence is not an issue. He reaches under his seat and whips out his gun. I'm not sure how we did it but about 10 teenagers fit on the floor, and quickly, in the drive thru area. The manager crawled away and called the police. Of course, since "gun" was mentioned we got all of the PD's finest. City police, a couple of county sheriff's, and a few state police officers (they mush have been chillin' together at city hall) fly into the parking lot and run at this man's van with guns drawn. Pretty sure GCPD had never drawn their guns before, it was a humorous site. The poor man was arrested for public intox and had to leave without his chicken! The poor police then had to ask 10 teenagers their story and had us all write it down. I bet those were interesting. 

Hope you enjoyed my crazy stories. What good first job stories do you have?

That's me, back row center! I had to take a snapshot of my yearbook!

Winesday Wednesday

It's Wednesday and I am not feeling well. I am very nauseated, thank goodness I don't work over the summer because today is going to be an awful sick day :(

So, here are a couple of funnies to help us laugh through the day!

Kathie Lee and Hoda call today Winesday Wednesday and you know how much I love them:

But as I mentioned here, I love this hump day commercial:

I hope you have a better hump day than I am!

I'm a busy little bee

I haven't blogged in awhile because I have been a busy little bee.

When summer started I had a list of household things I wanted to accomplish and I have been slaving away trying to get one finished.

The hubs and I have been working on redoing the kids bathroom. Just some paint and cosmetic changes, nothing major. I have been in a hurry because we have a friend coming from out of town to visit on July 10th and I wanted to get as much done as possible. 

I have repainted, scrubbed everything, got some new artwork/decorations, new shower curtains, and new light fixtures. I attempted to do this with a very small budget and that mission was accomplished. The only projects left for today and tomorrow are framing the mirror (the boards are cut but need hung and painted), hanging the new TP holder, and getting the towel holders up (I have 2 old crystal doorknobs for this job).

I will post before and after pictures next week after everything is finalized. The bathroom looks like we have spent tons of money and we didn't!

It feels so good to get something accomplished.

What have you accomplished this summer?

Happy Summer!!

Throwback Thursday: 4th of July

Linking up with The Life of Bon to bring you:

Today's theme is throwback Forth of July and mine is short but super sweet!!

When I was in my early twenties my friends and I used to camp out at our city park. Even though it was illegal, there was LOTS of drinking going on and as long as you didn't cause a ruckus the cops just let it slide. One morning some drunk hilljack a few campsites down stepped out of his tent and bellowed:

"Happy Birthday America! Thank God the North Won!!"

Soak up that one ladies. Pretty sure he was unsure of the wars that American's have been in and what we fought for. I'm also pretty sure that the Forth of July is a holiday for him to be off work, drink lots of beer, and light lots of illegal fireworks he bought in Tennessee. I would love to hear his rendition of The Star Spangled Banner and The Pledge of Allegiance.  If you even want to know where our education system is lacking, check the history department in Indiana. 

On a better note, here is my pic of the day. The theme is 4th of July:

Quickly done patriotic nails!