To Do:

Lately, I have been really slacking. Slacking in cooking, housework and blogging!

I've been so busy with my long-term substitute job and when that ended the other sub jobs I took.

I've also been studying for the Special Education certification exam.

Since, today I have no sub job and I have already taken my exam(last Saturday). I have a free day!!

Oh and by the way...I PASSED MY EXAM!!

Out of the possible 300 points, I made a 273!

What a tremendous blessing!

So all that needs to be done is the paperwork to go through officially and I'll be Special Education Early Childhood-12th grade certified!

YAY!

I'm using today and possibly tomorrow, to get things done around the house.

Why am I posting it here...to get me motivated and keep me accountable!


To Do: 

Cleaning:

-Wash clothes
-Wash towels
-Wash rug

- Vacuum rugs and couches
- Sweep living room floor
- Vacuum kitchen
- Possibly steam clean it
- Pick up ornaments off of floor (thanks kitties!) and put up
- Sweep bedroom

- Clean master bath: shower, tub, toilet, counter
- Clean toilet in guest bath

- Organize and put away things

Fun:
- Make apple pie- for Saturday
- Make brownie bites (got a cool new brownie maker from my grandma)
- Wrap presents- for Saturday
- Put together gingerbread house
- Play with kitties with their beloved feather stick - kinda hectic with 4 jumping at it, but they love it!

Necessary:
- Take Max to the vet, for his neutering
- Get the few gifts I have left to buy for Christmas


That's it! That's enough on my plate for today and tomorrow! Of course catching up on some TV is thrown in there too!

Have a great Thursday!

Max and Owen

A lot of critter happenings have been going on at our house since I wrote last.


It all started one afternoon when Joey went to Petco to get turtle supplies. He had dropped me off at Target to get a few groceries. When he picked me up, he told me that they were having adoption days and there was a really cute kitten there!

Once he told me that the kitty reminded him of Burney, I had to go see it.

I was nervous that adding a new kitty would mess up the great, peacefulness we had in our house since we got rid of Daisy. (She went to live with my in-laws.) Nemo and Lucius were finally able to relax without having the diva/grumpy girl cat around.

We got to Petco and he was so little! We stayed about an hour and after holding him, I decided that he was too adorable and he had to come with us.

We adopted Max on October 13th! :)

On the car ride home

Nemo and Lucius meeting their little brother! 

We didn't have my mom's nice crate, so we improvised!

Nemo hissed at him for a few days. I guess he didn't know any different since when he (Nemo) came to our house, Daisy hissed at him. Lucius loved Max right away! Nemo got over being scared of Max and they now wrestle and snuggle!

Max is a snuggle bug! Sometimes a little too much, but he's a perfect addition to our family. 

Right now, his favorite thing to do is to wake us up early in the morning with snuggles and kisses to our face.

His personality is like Nemo's and how Yao was. He's very curious, adventurous and out-going.  

Our kitty count went up to 3. A perfect trio! :)

Then a week passed...

October 20th

As I was going to the store one day, I noticed a young cat walking near our house. It was by a house with two young boys. I called Joey and told him to check and see if the cat was still out in 10 minutes...to make sure it wasn't that family's cat. 

Well...10 minutes later he calls me. "I have the cat, now what?" Me: "Um....well...I figured it belonged to that family." Nope. 

We decided to keep him in our guest bathroom and put up "Lost Cat" signs to see if anyone called. 

No one. One lady, but her cat was older and calico. 

Joey and I decided to try to find this little guy a home. I didn't want to have him for too long, since I was afraid I would get attached to him and want to keep him. We can not have 4 cats. That's too much work. 

We posted on Facebook and looked into local shelters. I found one, by God's will, one random afternoon. I went into Petco and there was SPOT. They are all about finding strays homes. Perfect! I contacted them, and they have so nicely allowed us to foster this kitty.

We named him Owen since he is also the carbon copy of Nemo. Except his eyes are amber and Owen has short hair. We wanted to name him Omen, but I figured a cat with that name wouldn't get adopted. So Owen it was! :)

So each Saturday (for 2 weeks now) we take little Owen to our local Petco (which is a few minutes away) in hopes that he'll get his forever home. I am so very grateful that SPOT is allowing us to take him. They are so awesome, they have a cage, litter box and toys all ready for him when we get there. Owen's first adoption event he was very timid. It was some place new, with dogs barking and strange people. He sat in his clean litter box and slept. The second time was better. 

I am so glad we decided to foster him, I didn't want to just take him to a shelter to wait to have a home. We are able to foster, and he can be with friends and be comfortable.  However, our ultimate goal is to get Owen his forever home :)

After his neutering surgery. 

He looked so handsome in the scarf!

The sunlight made his eye color really pop in this picture.

We found out that he is between 6-8 months old, between Nemo and Max's age. 

Owen is such a sweetie. His personality is like Lucius' and how Burney was - quiet, calm and laid back. He does like to play with Max a lot. I think he's a little intimidated by Nemo, since Nemo looks big due to his fluffy fur. It took him a couple of days to warm up to us, but now he comes and snuggles with us and the other kitties. 

There you have it. 4 kitties in our house! It's a little crazy at times. Like meal time. The horde of cats come to meet me at the laundry room, where their food is. Lol! I believe God has brought Owen into our life for a reason. I trust Him that we'll find him a home!

Front to back: 

Nemo, Lucius, Owen, Max

Have a great weekend!

September Happenings

Wow...I posted at the beginning of September, and now October is half over! Time goes by so fast!

We had lots of things to do in September on the weekends.

The weekend after I posted about wanting a record player we went to our first auction.

I've never been to one, my only experiences are ones for church functions and Auction Kings on TV. I'm sure you can already guess this, but auctions are not as fast paced as on TV.

My cousin and aunt like going to auctions and always seem to find the neatest things. So that Saturday I asked Joey if he wanted to go. He said sure, there was a cool jukebox he wanted to see.

First thing, I notice when we walk in the building a box of comics up for auction. I had just read about someone's awesome score on comics from a garage sale. So I told Joey I would love to have them. Most of the comics were older and really cool looking.

We kept the comics in mind and kept looking around. Then BAM...there was a record player! Not only that, but 2 boxes full of records up for auction as well! Score! We decided to try for both.

The comics were one of the first things up to bid, since it was for St. Jude hospital. It was a medium sized box full of comics. Sold to us for $30!

It wasn't until about half way through they got to the records. We bid on those and got those for $30. The guy we were bidding against came up to me and wanted to buy one record album from the box. We didn't know anything about it and it wasn't valuable to us. It was more valuable to him. He offered $5 for it. Sold! So we really paid $25 for the records!

About 2 items later the record player went up to bid. The auctioneer started at $100...went down to $50....went down to $25. No one was bidding! He asked for any opening bid. Joey said $5! We went back and forth with one other guy. I was getting nervous! We had all these records, we needed a player! Joey bid $25, that was the other guy's stopping point! We won it too!!

We had the perfect spot for it. It's one of the first things you see as you walk into our house!

1950's record player

It looks so neat!

It works well too!

The starter to get it to spin, doesn't work, 

but give it a jump start spin and it works awesomely!

Speakers work great!

The 116 records (front box and the back red box)

There is all types of stuff in there!

Michael Jackson "Thriller"

Beach Boys "Endless Summer"

Carpenters

Ac/Dc

Janet Jackson

Diana Ross- I think

I can't remember all, but there's some good stuff. 

There's 2 Halloween "Spooky Sounds" records that I plan on using this year :)

The comics are in the middle. There is an old Porky Pig in there and lots of other neat ones.

I love adding to these to my collection!

I thought, and still think, it was such a blessing to find a great deal on a record player. 

Especially since I had just expressed wanting to get one. 

Another weekend in September we started working on the turtle tank.  The filter we had starting leaking. So Joey started researching online to get a replacement filter. As he was researching, he discovered that our 75 gallon tank was actually not adequate for our turtles. 

Red ears are supposed to have 10 gallons per inch of their shell. Well, we have 2 and our biggest (Nibbler- female) was was 7.5 inches long. Meaning she needed 75 gallon just for her! Yikes!

So he researched more on what we could get and found a fantastic idea!!

A stock tank. Like one for water for cows and horses. Yep...you read that right! 

We headed to our nearest Tractor Supply store. Got a stock tank we liked and could hold the amount we needed. Loaded it and moved the old stuff out!

Before:

Please ignore the flying shark! Lol

Wooden thing- a turtle tank we built in 2010...started leaking :(

On top was the tank we replaced. 

After:

Ta-Da!!

The light is supported by a stand that is under the tank, so it'll never tip over.

I love it!

 It takes up a little more length room, but it's not as wide.

Since this picture:

- We  Joey made a dock from plexi-glass, tile squares, and PVC pipe.

(The turtles love it and it looks nice!)

- We added another heater (can't really see it)

We were pretty busy the rest of September! I'll post soon about what's been happening this month. 

I hope your having a great weekend!

Our Geek Room

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I've been wanting to post about this, I just had to take some pictures first!

About a month or two ago Joey and I decided to move the futon out of the guest bedroom.  I wanted more seating in the living room and our guest bedroom was underutilized. We've only had one person stay at our house the 3 years we've lived here...Joey's sister. There was no reason to have a whole room that was empty most of the time.

So we started thinking...or should I say Joey started thinking. "Why don't we move the arcades into that bedroom?" Then I knew I wanted an area that would house my comic books and hang the ones I bought at Comicpalooza on the wall!

My husband has great ideas! Even better is, he follows through with them...unlike me. :)

So we moved the arcades into the room. I got the bookshelf we replaced with the cabinet in the living room. Here's how it turned out!!

My framed X-Men vs. Avengers from 1987!

I got these for $6 at Comicpalooza.

I got  frames from Dollar Tree- $4.

I backed and sleeved them, for protection.

Overall cost: $10!

I am SO happy with the results too!

Eventually we are going to frame the current series Avengers vs X-Men and hang them around these!

My comic book area!

The silver table is from the patio- 

it's been too hot to go out, so I brought it inside to keep it from getting weathered. 

-The clock on top came from IKEA. 

It was an "as is" purchase for $2. Sadly, it doesn't work.

-The dragon is from the Collector's Edition box of Skyrim.

It was on sale, for  like $10 more than just the game and we got the dragon, a cool map, art book, and the game!

Middle Shelf

- The black box holds my comics. 

- The green owl is from the dollar spot in Target! It holds my bookmarks :)

- My preserving supplies are there- the sleeves and backboards.

- Then my graphic novels (mostly X-Men) are on that shelf.

Bottom Shelf

- World of Warcraft Collector Edition Art books for Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm

- Skyrim art book

- The brown box houses our playing cards

Joey's keyboard is in here, it fits perfectly in this space.

We had to have a functioning clock, so we used Joey's old one.

Top Shelf

-Our World of Warcraft Trading Cards

- Joey's Magic trading cards

Bottom Shelf

- My old Gameboy with games- lots of memories attached to that. 

I think my dad had as much fun with it as I did!

- Also in the basket, is my Gameboy Advance and games

- In the white flower pot, random World of Warcraft cards that came in our Collector Edition game expansions. 

Last, but not least...our arcades!

As soon as I was about to take a picture, Nemo decided he wanted to get in the picture!

I promptly got him down after this was taken!

The one on the left is being worked on. We re-did it, originally, to sell it. However we liked it better than the first one we re-did (on the right). 

It's nice having both for our youth girls/guys nights.

There you have it! Our geek room! Not for everybody, but it makes sense and fits in our house!

Just in case you were wondering the before, I have a picture! Not to worry! What kind of blogger would I be if I didn't take a before shot!? 

It was ok, but not a commonly used area in our house. 

Now, I love going into the room!

So if you have a room in your house that isn't used too much and you would love change the function of it, go ahead! It's your home, use the rooms in a way that best suits you and your family!

Busy Bee

I've been working more and more around the house. Cleaning, shifting decorations, and getting things organized during my last days of summer!

I hung the beautiful canvas that my father-in-law got us. One more thing off my summer goal list! Yay!

 Before:

I love painting, done by Joey's grandma. 

However it looked tiny...and was off center from when we had the striped couch under it. 

After: 

Notice a chair is also gone?

That huge blue chair was a freebie. 

We never sit in it and it takes up so much room.

So it got moved to the front room, until we can get it a new home!

I am so thankful that he got us that painting! It fits so much nicer over the couch and I love the colors!


Yesterday I organized and cleaned up the office. Got rid of boxes and the random stuff that got placed in there. Took about an hour and a half...not too long and had a big impact. I actually want to spend time in there now! That night, I put the finishing touches on our geek room! Details coming soon!

Today I went to Michael's. We just got one in our town :) They have all their baskets 60% off, plus today and Saturday they have an additional 15% off of sale items coupon. Yay!


I wanted to get a basket for our records. Joey's mom gave us her collection- that I believe were her parents. They weren't stored the best they were in a crate we had (slanted sideways). So off to Michael's I went!

What a nice blessing it was! I found one that would fit all the records. For $8.49!! Regularly 24.99! Yay!

I love Johnny Cash, we were given 2 records of his! Folsom Prison and San Quentin! They are my favorite ones! What a great mother-in-law to think of us when she wanted to get rid of the records! :)

I'm on the lookout now for a vintage stereo cabinet with a working record player! Hopefully, one day, I'll find one for a good price and it'll come home with me!

That's what I've been up to lately! I'll post about our geek room soon! :) I'm excited about it!

This weekend we are planning on going to a local auction tomorrow and possibly the comic book store! Yay! Sunday will be a day of relaxing.

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

WIWW

I don't have many pictures to share with you. Just two. One isn't even of my outfit!

I started these posts to help motivate me to dress cuter, and motivate me to put more effort into my outfit.

Instead of helping, I feel it more of a burden,to remember to take a picture...or 3 to make sure I get the best one to post. Kinda vain on my part. I love Lindsey's reason at The Pleated Poppy of wanting to post her outfits. Her reasons seem pure. While mine are not. I want to look good. I turned this into a "look at me" moment. I shouldn't be that way. Everything I have is only because God wanted me to have it, in order to give glory to Him. It's not about me, it's about my amazing Creator.

So that said this will be my last What I Wore Wednesday. I might still post pictures of outfits I like, to remind myself what I paired together. However I don't want anything about it to be vain.


Here is my last WIWW!

I found this dress on clearance at Target!

It's a small and fits perfectly! 

Which normally doesn't happen!

Navy dress: Target

Belt: thrifted

Shoes: old- falling apart :(

(Charlotte Russe)

This was Monday

I washed my hair, let it air dry, then straightened my bangs.

I was so happy with how it looked. 

Bangs look good, and I have my pretty natural curls!

Shirt: Macy's

Shower curtain: garage sale! 

Love good garage sale finds!

That's it!  I hope you are having a great Wednesday! 

Changing it Up

So while I've been away from blogging this summer, I have been completing some things off my Summer Goal List!!

Lets see:
- I dyed my hair black, semi-permanent first and then when it started to wash out I realized I love it! So this time I used permanent!

- I hung the kitchen prints above the window in the kitchen.

Ack! Bad lighting and a little lopsided! 

Here's a closeup of them!

I love them! Super cute!

I got them from HERE

I downloaded them, and sent them to Walgreens to get printed.

Instead of regular prints, I got them done as a collage option- using only one picture- that way it had an automatic white border. No mat needed! :)

I got some frames from Dollar Tree and WA-LA! 

 Back to my goals...

- I filed all the papers in our filing cabinet. I had stuff from 2011 still waiting to get filed! Wow!

- I got some wall file things to organize the papers I need to file or shred! So much better than a box lid!


- I bought some rugs for the guest bathroom! I got them for a good deal at Kohl's. I also added some new photos to the frames. Not so expensive touches made it so much nicer!

 Oh! I also cleaned out our junk drawer! It defiantly needed it! Took about 10-15 minutes and made me feel better!

During

We had like 20 pens in there, multiple random tools and just a bunch of junk!

 Not necessary!

After

Soo much better!

We also made some changes we made around the house, furniture wise

Before

See how all the consoles are out in the open. Trying to dust them was a nightmare.

Plus in the entertainment center top left was where we housed all the games for them. 

We ran out of space (I moved them before I took the picture) plus the heat from the receiver (below that space) had a hard time getting air circulated. Not a good thing.

P.S. Yes, we are watching The Dark Knight

We saw DKR the Friday night it came out.

Went home and had to watch Batman Begins.

The next day we continued in watching The Dark Knight!

We wanted to find a solution so all the games and DVDs can be housed in the same place as well as the consoles be in some type of closed storage.

 After

Our solution from Target!

See I even have a decorating cubby! YAY! :)

Our dvd trilogy/seriescollection

Our dvds

Then our game collection

All housed in the same place!

I love it!

Inside houses our consoles!

I LOVE that dust won't get to them as easy!!

Joey likes that too!

We made other changes, moving furniture and such, but I need to take pictures in the once guest room (no it's not a baby's room). It's hard to get pictures, but I'll do it soon and post about it!

I hope your having a lovely Tuesday!

WIWW

Wow! I haven't linked up to What I Wore Wednesdays in a while! I've been taking pictures, but I don't remember to write a post till Thursday. It's not "what I wore Thursday" so I wait. Vicious cycle. :)

This was my birthday night (June27th)

I got ready so we could go out. 

Then I realized...I was really tired and just wanted

 a quiet meal at home and chill with Joey!

 So I changed!

COMFY!

Petite yoga pants!! 

I finally found some at Kohl's!

So all you little people like me, now you know where to go!

Pants: Kohl's

Shirt: Kohl's I believe

Necklace: The Rusted Chain

We ended up getting Vietnamese take out and caught up on The Guild!

It was a nice, relaxing birthday! :)

So I knocked off something on my summer goal list!

I dyed my hair black! 

I love the contrast it gives!

It makes my skin look lighter and brings out my eyes.

It's a semi-permanent.

It's starting to fade a little. I did it about 4 weeks ago.

It's doing great with as much as I wash my hair!

Then I got new glasses the week after!

I love how they look a lil retro!

They're dark purple!

Fun!!

This picture was from last Tuesday.

My sister-in-law and I went to Ikea!

Got to love that place!

We had fun walking around, shopping and talking!

I hope your week is going well!

Of course I am linking up to The Pleated Poppy!

Comic Books!

So my new favorite thing that I LOVE to do is read comic books! It all started with seeing The Avengers.  After seeing The Avengers (twice - it was awesome), I thought about getting into comics to see if I liked them.

I told Joey and he found out that on May 4th it is Free Comic Book Day!! Yep! A day where you go to the comic book store and they have free issues out for you to pick from!

So when May 4th rolled around, we went to the nearest comic bookstore. Then we went to 2 other stores!

Here is what we got!

I had watched a show by Revision 3 called Variant, which talks about comic books. 

He talked about the Avengers vs. X- Men as a really good series. So I bought those 2. 

(One is a Variant cover - or rare- since they didn't have #1 in normal)

The other 5 were free!!

I was SUPER excited. 

The more and more I read about Avengers vs. X-Men, the more I wanted to know about a certain character that shows up in the story. I've never heard of that character before. 

So in order to get the back story on that character I got a few graphic novels (which are a bunch of comic books put into one bigger book- can be much cheaper than buying them separate).

A few weeks pass. I get the new Avengers Vs. X-Men every 2 weeks when they release. 

Then one day I hear on the radio about Comicpalooza! Joey heard about it too. It's Houston's Comic Book Convention, like our ComicCon. Um, yes please!

So off we went to Comicpalooza! It was SO much fun!! There were famous people doing autographs, panels, booths with cheap comic books, and classes. 

Here are a few people we saw:

Kevin Sorbo 

From Hercules the TV show

George Takei

From Star Trek

We didn't go talk to them, since it was pretty costly to get an autograph or picture with them. So I just stood at a distance and took pictures. Lol

This place was an awesome people watching experience. I maybe weird, but I love people watching. 

There were all kinds of people. Some were dressed up as super heroes, steam punk, there were roller derby girls...all kinds!

We saw this guy, I though his costume was impressive.

He was posing for a picture already, so I just snapped a photo. 

One of the cutest moments was the little kids seeing guys dressed up as Iron Man and Captain America 

and the look on their faces when they got to take a photo with them!

So adorable!

We even saw a little Hulk getting his picture taken with Iron Man. :)

One of the classes they had was Intro to Belly Dancing. 

I thought what the heck, I don't know anyone, so if I look silly...who cares!

 It turned out to be super fun! 

The lady teaching it was great, she didn't allow any creeper guys to just sit and watch. 

If they were there, they participated. :)

I didn't drag Joey to this one.

He looked at the booths while I was in the class.

We went to a few panels. 

Some were tech/gaming talk and we went to a Tv star's panel as well.

It was really fun!

My favorite part, though, was the $1 comic books!!

Yes...$1!! So we stocked up. Usually comic books are $3.99. 

So this was a great deal!!

We added 23 comic books to our collection.

We bought 2 sets of comics.

X-Men vs. Avengers from 1987 and Hellfire Club (X-men) from 2002.

Each had 4 issues, they were $6 each (half off).

We also got some comics for Joey. 

(He's read Hulk vs. Avengers, Scarlet Spider, and Cable so far)

*Fun Fact: Scarlet Spider by Christopher Yost takes place in Houston!!*

That night we laid all our comic books out. 

This is what we had :)

Since then I have finished all 4 graphic novels that are in the bottom right. 

And we have added 6 comic books since this picture. 

Mostly my Avengers vs X-Men comics, Scarlet Spider, and a few Hulk vs Avengers

If you can't tell I am defiantly a Marvel fan. 

And I love the X-Men back story. 

(There's a rich history!)

Since I ran out of X- Men graphic novels, Joey recommended a graphic novel he's had. 

It's a DC graphic novel.

I'm reading that right now.

He got it from a friend a long time ago it's called Kingdom Come.

It has the Justice League

(Superman, Wonder Woman, Aqua Man, etc.)

We'll see how it ends! 

Now that I've started reading comic books, I'm hooked! 

I can read through a comic book or graphic novel much faster than a book. 

Some of the Avengers vs X-Men I finish on the way home from the comic book store.

(Joey driving, of course)

The stories are so good too! 

So I can't wait to get the next issue or the next graphic novel!

So there you have it, my new hobby...comic books! :)

Favorite Things Friday!

Happy Friday!!

I thought it would be fun to write a post each Friday (at least the Fridays I remember...) about my favorite things!

Today is the food edition!!

I like to eat. Sadly, my body is not nice to me if I just eat whatever I want, how ever many I want, and when I want. Thankfully I started using the app, My Fitness Pal...it helped me see how many more calories I was eating a day. Now I can eat what I want, but I do so more consciously. If I liked to exersise, I could eat more of the food I like! :) That's my logic anyways!

Anyways, onto some of my favorite food!

Had this for lunch today!

Whataburger...

one of the reasons I'm thankful to be a Texan!

Whataburger Jr, fries and a chocolate shake.

Their fries are SO good, as are their chocolate shakes!

My mom got me hooked on this flavor!

I love that it is only 5 calories and it's not a soda!

Raspberry lemonade is delicious!

Another drink I love are these!

I get the Diet Sparkling Cranberry. 

It's fizzy, it's only 10 calories!

It is a perfect size for a snack. 

Like with a stick of cheese. 

I haven't gotten these in a while. 

The store wants $3.99 for a 4 pack. Yeah. NO!

They are on sale at Kroger this week for $1.99! 

So I got me a pack. Yum!

(I'm thinking about going back and getting me another pack...or two)

Other things that are my favorite lately... that I buy each time I go to the store. 

- Oreos

- Blue Bell  Homemade Vanilla- I stir in Hershey's Chocolate syrup. Yummy!

I do eat healthy stuff too! Promise! :)

One of my favorite fresh snack is either Red bell pepper, cucumber, grape tomatoes or carrots and ranch dressing. I have carrots right now. Plus, if we don't eat all them and they go bad...the turtles get them. They love carrots. 

Hope you enjoyed favorite things Friday! Have a fabulous weekend!