susuwatari

I was going through my links and found this one. What can be better than mixing up band and video games? :p

Operation Debt Free finally onto stage 2. Stage 1 was paying off the car with all the horse money saved up throughout the years. Stage 2 is pay off credit cards with my Obama money. Stage 2 has been a game of waiting and contrary to my name I am not a patient person. First I had to wait on a special form from some strange stock my Dad had me invested in, which I got the week before taxes were do. Then I was waiting forever for the money to come in, only to find 6 weeks later that I had forgotten to sign some random page in my taxes. Got that signed and sent in so I could wait some more and then FINALLY last Monday I got my money! Woo!! I was rich for 1.5 days until a huge chunk got taken out by the nasty credit card with high interest rates. Now have put the rest of the money into my second credit card which will clear Monday morning. Then it is on to stage 3, clearing out the final and last credit card which is interest free. Then I can safely proceed onto my campaign Save Yo Money which may eventually (FINALLY!!) result in getting my first horse that I’ve been dreaming of since I was 6 years old.

Project Bikini 2010 was proceeding well until I messed up my leg on my trip to St. Martin and surrounding Islands this May. I got in a bit of a scooter accident and had a bum leg for 6 weeks. This has resulted in me backtracking from all the results I had gained before the trip, but never fear friends, family, and random stranger that accidentally got sent to this page, I have not given up. Well I don’t expect to be in a bikini by the end of the year but if I can fit into some of my cute old skirts that will be good enough for me. I am back to my daily exercises assigned to me by my tormentor friend Jerry, which currently is 30 sit-ups, push-ups (girl-version), and squats a day (to be upped when I can do them without whining). I also exercise with some friends on Tuesday and Thursday after work.

In conclusion not as much progress on either endeavor as I would like but, as I constantly relearn throughout my life, apparently the world does not actually revolve around my schedule. Who knew?

Once again here are some of my favorite recipes that I have found on the internets. The theme with this set (I’m doing themes now?!?) is simple, fast, and delish.

Ham and Cheese Turnovers I really like the simplicity of this recipe and how little time it takes. It actually feeds a lot of people or provides lunch for one person for a whole week. It is also very easy to play around with.

Malboro Man’s Second Favorite Sandwich I love how this is very easy and simple to make but yet tastes like restaurant quality. So far everyone I’ve made this for has loved it, and that includes some picky people like my mom and grandma.

Smothered Pork Chops The pork in this recipe stays so moist and I love the “gravy” with mashed potatoes too.

Mystery Rolls I love these rolls. They are so simple and quick to make and so so good. Beware this recipe is definitely for the Blue Cheese lovers out there as well as the butter lovers so it is in no way shape or form good for you, unless you count happiness.

The first room I started with in my house was the guest room which I have been working on this past year. One of the main reasons behind this choice is that I do not have much experience painting and if I was going to screw up a room, better it be one that I’m not in frequently. Also the room was painted this dark hunter green color, which I like for horse apparel but was much too dark for the small room. I used some twin sheets I bought on clearance as the base for my color choice in the room. They are white with little bright pink flowers and some bright green leaves. A challenge I have in the room is that it is small so fitting the furniture in there is interesting. This is especially true since, thanks to the generosity of my lovely Aunt Martha, I have a trundle bed which lets me have two twin beds to offer guests but the room must also be open to accommodate the second bed when it is pulled out.

Here is what the room looked like on my last walk through before closing May 2009:

I painted the walls a color called Green Apple. It turned out brighter than I thought and I was a little disappointed with it in the beginning but now that I have more furniture and decorations in there I quite like it. We also found out after putting the primer up that the ceilings were not actually white but white with a faint tint of hunter green. To say I wasn’t pleased would be an understatement. Here are some pictures of the room taken in the early fall midway through my changes. At this point the only main differences are that I (with the help of my then pregnant sister and my brother-in-law Wes) had painted the walls, moved my furniture in, and had gotten new curtains from the Shabby Chic collection at Target.

And now for the finale, at least for now. If you know me, you know that I have lists and plans for everything and June starts the year long transformation of my bedroom. I now have new bedding, which again is from the Shabby Chic collection at Target. I for some reason adore this line, I didn’t know I was that girly! I also have a new chair and cabinet I found on Craigslist. I actually got crafty and fixed up the cabinet all by myself. I’ll show that transformation in a later post as it is not totally done yet. I also hung up some photos and artwork. The fancy big photos were house warming presents from my Purdue Crew. Thank you guys so much, I love it and it was a total surprise! They are from the fabulous Alicia Bock’s Etsy Shop. I got the frames on sale at Micheal’s. Oh and beyond that my Dad and Mom gave me a fine tutorial on how to change electrical outlets without electrocuting yourself on Easter day.

Sometime in the future I would like to do the following:
- Change the lampshade
- Change the fabric on the chair
- maybe paint the chair wood white? I’m conflicted with this as I love the color of wood
- repaint the white part of the cabinet antique white to cover up some of the dings? I like the shabby look of it and am undecided on this.
- rip out carpet, my neighbors assure me that there is the same hardwood in the bedrooms as there is in the rest of the house.
- refinish the hardwood floors
- get white baseboards
- crown molding?
- once my cat Sano passes away I can get a cute rug for the room to add something to the no man’s land in the middle of the room that needs to be kept open for the trundle bed. Sano is a rug pisser, the annoying brat, so this can’t happen while he’s around.
- a fancy closet organizer for my basket weaving supplies that I never use
- replace blinds with something….probably roman shades.

By then I’ll probably want to repaint the walls and start all over!

The dogs are finally not covered in mud having had their day at the doggy spa and seeing how it was a beautiful spring day last Sunday I decided to do a photo shoot documenting their cuteness. Why? Because I’m one of those pet owners. 95% of the photos I take are of my pets, which I’m sure makes my parents weep joyful. Anyway let the fun begin. First up is Mr. Hobbes who ironically was the easiest to photograph seeing as the words sit and stay mean nothing to him.

What he does have is cute down to an art form. The stinker!

Ok next up is Freya.

Umm ok let’s try that again.

Hello Freya look at me!

Why you little punk. Fine let’s try it on a down.

Just look at me and we will be done!

You brat. Fine I’ll get some cheese. Now say cheese…

I would have liked a little less pathetic begging but I’ll take what I can get.

Jeez we’re done now no need to be grumpy about it! Meanwhile this joker was causing some of the distraction for Freya meowing pick me pick me I’ll pose!

I know that I’m due to actually write a post but I saw this and had to put it up.

The parental units will be arriving at mi casa on Thursday and I have yet to clean. Well I did a round of dishes and thought about cleaning but that is about it. You see I was quite busy looking at horse pictures online for 4 hours and then reading a book followed by some light dozing all day. CLEARLY I had no time to clean! I was beginning to feel a little panic stricken about it so I of course got back on the internet to read some blogs because that will totally help me clean. Hey my house may still be (literally) covered in mud (thanks to my two filthy mud covered dogs) but look I found this totally awesome video to watch. Maybe I can distract the parents with this and they won’t notice the dog footprint tracks on the floor?

p.s. They did it all with glow sticks, how awesome is that!?!

So as I mentioned at the beginning of this year I was not happy with how things were progressing in my life. Mainly I had managed to get myself into a tidy sum of debt and thanks to Obama and the fact I bought a house in 09 I have an opportunity to get a large portion of it off my shoulders, hence Operation Debt Free to be completed in 2010 which will result in the follow-up campaign Save Yo Money. The reason I was so upset is: one I’ve been ignoring how bad it was because I wasn’t at a place where I could make much progress fixing it and it was a bit of a shock to actual look at the reality of it; and two I was going to have to give up the horse fund I’ve been protecting all these years. If you had talked to me in November or December you would have been hearing how 2010 is the year of the Horse. Once again I find myself putting aside my heart’s dream since I was 6 years old to make the responsible choice. I’ve prayed and thought long and hard about it and I know it is the right choice and in the long run will leave me in a better place, but it was a bitter pill to swallow. Why am I talking about this now is because stage one has been a success. The horse fund was plundered and the car has been officially paid off. Actually I thought I paid it off last week but something didn’t work and the transaction fell through, but the second attempt was a success and I no longer have monthly car payments to worry about. As soon as I get my Special K form in the mail, the second stage of this plight can be undertaken. I may actually have some fun doing my taxes this year!

Now on to Project Bikini 2010. I have been exercising this week with my co-worker Jerry who is crazy and evil and I decided as of today is trying to break me. Today we worked on shoulders. Oi la vay. Sob, he mocked my piddly 8 lbs weights (after I felt rather proud of myself for not grabbing the 3 or 5 lbs too!) as he rolled over with his 25 lbs and 40 lbs monstrosities. To say we are at different spectrums of fitness levels would be an understatement. Let’s face it, I was out of breath just WALKING to the gym. I totally get bonus points though, as when I got home the weather was so beautiful that even after feeling sore and tired I took Freya on a long 30 minute walk. Something else that may be a shock for all is that I have been soda free for weeks. I gave up all soda for Lent and have held true. I actually am planning on avoiding it even after Easter. This does answer the question that has plagued many upon meeting me, and that is nope it wasn’t the caffeine I’m this hyper naturally thank you very much. :p

As part of Operation Debt Free and in cooperation with the project Bikini 2010, I have been cooking a lot more than usual. To make it more interesting each week I’ve tried to cook at least one if not two new dishes. I thought I would share the ones I’ve liked enough to make it into my recipe book. Christina and Wes can attest that I am the biggest critic of my cooking. To make it into the book it has to be very good or at least adequate but really easy and quick to make.

Blue Cheese Burgers I don’t own a grill so this was made on a pan. It is NOT good for you but it is oh so yummy! I did have some problem keeping the burgers together as I was cooking, definitely get the higher fat meat like they say.

Irish Beef Stew I of course left out the carrots because I am still 3 and not a fan of vegetables. They call it a stew but it is not really thick, it is more like a soup. A yummy yummy meat soup. Wes likes this one because it means I bring over all the leftover beer for him to drink.

Heidi’s Steak Diane I was a little nervous about this one but figured hey if I don’t like the sauce I can just eat the steak without it. This is one of the only trial ones I’ve made for Christina that turned out really good. If you follow the directions the steak is cooked well-done (Christina’s preferred) so if your like me and like it more medium rare you may not want to cook it as long.

Fettuccine with Creamy Italian Sausage Sauce This is one that tastes even better as leftovers! It makes a huge amount and I ate this for lunch for basically the whole month of January and I still love it.

Christina and to some extent Wes have suffered through many of my experimentations with good grace. That I believe is because every once in a while I find a gem like these Heart of Darkness Brownies (which I found in the book in the background).

Yep that is home-made brownies which have chocolate chips and chunks of Snickers in them topped with marshmallows and a caramel sauce. SO GOOD! Also VERY messy and time consuming to make. I made this for Christmas for my family. I knew I had made something awesome when even my Grandma was scarfing them down.

Now my basement is flooded thanks to my sewer line backing up. Soon I’ll need to make little scuba gear for my cats to get to their food and kitty litter. Luckily the water hasn’t hit that part so far. Now I’m waiting on the Roto-Rooter guy.

UPDATE: The root clog has been destroyed. Thank you for my Birthday present Mom and Dad! I can now take a shower, go to the bathroom, do dishes, and wash clothes in my own home! Woo!