I have been feeling like crap all day.  My stomach feels uncomfortable, and I'm just in a blah kind of mood.  I assume it may have to do with my junky food day yesterday.  I started out okay, had about a 1/2 cup of mixed nuts for breakfast and a 1/2 can of Campbell's Bean with Bacon soup for lunch.  But then when I went to work at 2, we had a carry in for a co-worker and I ate 3 small sugar cookies, tortilla chips and bean dip, pasta salad, some muskmelon, and some honey mustard pringles. :(  Yuck....carb city.  Then last night when I got home, I didn't want to eat anything because I felt like crap, but by 9pm I felt starved so I went to Burger King and got a double cheeseburger and fries!!! YUCK, yuck, yuck.  I drank only about 3-4 bottles of water.  I really need to get my water intake to be more like 10 bottles. It's hard.

On the plus side, I found out my friend at work who has been trying to get pregnant for 5 years, is finally pregnant!!!! :) Yay, I'm so extremely excited for her.  She has a child the same age as my youngest, and it's been challenging for her, she is eccstatic. 

By the way, my healthy lifestyle goals are due to myself being pregnant as well.  Only 6 weeks along, so I have told some close friends, and will tell the whole world once I'm safely past 12 weeks.  It's weird too, because I've had symptoms - extreme sensitivity to smell, fatigue, but my husband had morning sickness 3 times!  That is hilarious to me, and I'm greatful for it.  I've been nauseous a couple times, but no throwing up for me...maybe because I had my share with the first 4 kids.  My last pregnancy (8 years ago!!!!) I did not have morning sickness either, thank God.

I feel bloated, gassy, and just lazy.  I don't drink anything besides water but I was hooked on some energy drink packets by Visalus...they're packed full of vitamins but also contain a little caffeine and Rhodiola Extract - so I've been sluggish without those.

My kids are extremely excited about the possibility of a baby brother or sister.  I'm a bit concerned about my age, I feel like 37 is too old, and I thought I was done with my child bearing years.  However, I feel like I've been blessed with a surprise, and of course I'm praying for a daughter since I have only sons, but at this point, I'll be pleased with a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby at the end of it.

Today so far I've eaten an 8" Jimmy Johns veggie sub.  Maybe that's why I don't feel very well.  I ate it all at once, at 11:00 this morning.  I am no where near hungry still....I should probably eat an apple or something. 

Humidity

I'm hot and it's so humid. Today is not as bad as yesterday, but I would be eccstatic to have some fall-ish kind of weather right now. I've been having hot flashes and reel like I can't breathe in non-A/C areas. My husband has woke up two nights in a row (mornings, rather) around 4:30am, sick to his stomach and throwing up. Poor guy....I told him better him than me! ;). Thursday's are my difficult days because I work 2-7 and usually take kids along. We are having a carry in today for one of our co-workers who is moving to Texas. I need to go get some shipping done and coerce one of the teens to do dishes. Feeling a little nauseous myself.

Well it's about 11:30 and so far I've washed two loads of laundry, shipped about 7 ebay packages, washed the dishes, and have been rearranging my office.  I'm trying to purge through some stuff to minimize clutter.  Eventually we'll be decluttering each and every room of the house.  I keep debating if I should just cancel a bunch of my ebay auctions and take stuff up town to the consignment shop. 

I should get off the computer so I can work on my very long to-do list. 

Eating healthier

Trying to get healthier. I hope not to bore anyone to death but for now, I'm going to be journaling my progress towards better health. Today I did so-so. For breakfast I had a Vi shake w/ almond milk, ff/sf butterscotch pudding mix, 1 TBSP of peanut butter, and almond milk. I had 2 bottles of water and then for lunch I had a 6" veggie sub from subway, a water w/ neuro in it, then around 5 I ate the other 6" of the veggie sub. I had another bottle of water then I wasn't planning on eating anymore, but after a long & hot baseball game I ate 2 grilled burgers with pepper jack cheese (no bun or anything) and a minute maid frozen lemonade. I'm drinking more water. Looks like I need to eat some fruit. Today was not the best I can do. I did take my vitamin.

Extreme Couponing

Have any of you caught that show on TLC - Extreme Couponing? I'm hooked! I love that show. I'm bound and determined to create a stockpile of the following items, for my family:
Toilet paper, Gatorade (or any sports drinks), Cereal, Deoderant, Toothpaste, Papertowels

I'm also looking forward to having plenty on hand of everything else I need, like dishsoap, fabric softener, laundry detergent, etc. I'd love to be able to send supplies to people in need, like the tornado victims, for instance. I'd also like to give to the local foodbanks, if I ever get the hang of it so well, that I have enough left over to give.

This week I tried my hand at it twice. Once at Kroger, once at Walmart. My first trip, at Kroger went like this:

3 Powerades
Dole Spinach Salad Kit
Voila chicken dinner kit
2 dozen eggs
Chi-chi's salsa
Chi-chi's tortillas
2 cans green beans
French's spicy mustard
Frank's Red hot sauce
Sister Schubert's dinner rolls
4 bags Knorr Rice sides
3 boxes curad bandaids
2 can's Maxwell House latte mix
5 pks Kool-aid
Total paid $21.28
Savings $21.27

Today at Walmart, I got all of this:


2 Boxes multi-grain cheerios
2 gallons milk
2 Purex laundry detergent
Infusium shampoo
Infusium conditioner
2 double packs Degree deoderant
2 Suave deoderant
4 pks Bar-S hotdogs
3 pks Ball Park hotdogs
All*You magazine
Febreze room spray
Country Time lemonade
2 Magnum icecream bars
2 Wishbone salad dressings
2 Suave body wash
1 bottle Palmolive dishsoap
1 bottle Dawn dishsoap
1 3-pk Ivory bar soap
1 Healthy Choice steam dinner
2 bags Snyders mustard pretzel pieces
2 bags Snyders cheese pretzel sandwiches
Final total: $72.56
Total paid: $47.44

I forgot to pricematch the Snyder's pretzels to an ad I had, so I spent $4 more dollars than I should have, but I think it's a pretty good start. I'd really like to figure out how to get it down lower than this, but I have to plunge in and start because the organizing, and reorganizing, and ad searching, blog scavanging was getting to my head!!!

Let me know what you think!

iPhones

I have 2 iphones up for grab on ebay. The 3GS is in excellent condition - works perfectly. The iPhone 4 is brand new in factory sealed box with a 1 year Apple warranty. Take a look! :)

New iPhone 4 w/ bonus accessories

OR

Excellent iPhone 3GS 16GB w/ Otterbox!

If these links didn't work, please just view all of my available auctions and you'll find them!http://shop.ebay.com/secondhandstyle1/m.html

Good morning. Today I'll be working on updating auctions. eBay finally changed the s/h options to include international first class. Before, I had to go to the p.o., so I just didn't offer that. Now, I am going thru all of my items that are less than 1lb, weighing it, and updating the auction.

Had a wonderful breakfast out with my husband this morning. Although now, I'm extremely sleepy.

The sun is shining but it's cold out. :(. C'mon Spring!!! Show yourself!!!

Check out my eBay items! I have some nice Gap shorts & stuff ending today. Summer IS coming!! http://shop.ebay.com/secondhandstyle1/m.html

Tweet, tweet....tweedily tweet tweet

This is only a test to see if I can blog from my phone

Organizing

I'd love some feedback...while I get going. I need some organization to this blog. I've seen lots of cute ideas from other bloggers - different idea posts for different days of the week, etc.

I know for sure I want one day to just show pics of what it had in store. I am thinking either Mondays, a photo recap of the weekend, or Fridays, on my thrifting adventures. I thought maybe a '2' for day. Tuesday, Thursday. I want to share my favorite bloggers, quotes, and stuff during one post (at least). Store front news - whats for sale on ebay....or maybe that should just be a separate blog so that I don't but those of you who don't want to be bugged. :) Crafts, inspiration, blah, blah, blah. I'm rambling.

Here's the bottom line, I'm a mom of 5 boys - that has a story. I want to be a successful SAHM w/ a fun side-job. I'm looking for any hints and tips you have to offer.

Lora the mompreneur?

Journey to Mompreneurship.

I haven't blogged in FOREVER. Since the last time, I've resigned my position as an Aide to GED students, and have went more full time on ebay.

My grandpa passed away.

I went on a 2 week vacation away from my husband and kids to Mexico.

I can't remember if we'd done this before my hiatus, but we combined boys in a room, moved our room upstairs, and turned our old room downstairs into my ebay room/office. It's a disaster.

This is Spring Break for my kids this week, but we're hanging out at home. They went to Gatlinburg, TN while I was in Mexico, so we all had vacation already.

My goals right now, are to succeed in my ebay sales, but I'm working on trying to integrate this blog, my facebook, twitter, and any other avenues I can find to business ventures/advertisement. Eventually, I would love to own a popular blog that can make supplemental dollars, as well as web-write, and stuff. I don't know much about making money online except for ebay/etsy/etc, so I'm open to any suggestions.

In the fall, I'll be pursuing some college courses in business, as well as looking into any classes for social media.

Until later! :)

Ebay..............

All I've been doing all day is ebay it seems. I've been in a listing frenzy. I have a few things I need to come up with money for.

I saw an ad in the paper today for a full time floral designer at a local flower shop. I wonder if I could do it. It said the requirements were creative and outgoing - I'm both of those! I think I'm going to apply. Like I said, I'm tired of my job.

Tomorrow morning we have a football game, over an hour away. YUCK. It's 2nd to last game so I should not complain. I just am not looking forward to getting the kids all up and around first thing on a Saturday morning.

I'm going to hit the hay. First I need to show the pics I've been wanting to show you. The first one is a wreath I made from Dollar Store items. I had the grapevine wreath, but I glued faux leaves with my hot glue gun. The bow was made from a roll of ribbon from the Dollar Tree too. I think it's cute, it's on my front door.

The second, a super easy dessert I made the other day. I didn't post the after pics though....I went to bed earlier than everyone b/c I was exhausted and noone turned off the crockpot! I didn't wake up until almost morning and there was my beautiful dessert, burned to the crock! Anyway, it's easy. Peel, core, & slice 6-8 apples, toss in crockpot with a little cinn/sugar mix. Evenly pour box of yellow cake mix over the top (I only had white that day). Melt 1 stick of butter and pour over cake mix. Cook on low about 3 hours, or until apples are tender and top is browned nicely on edges. I cooked mine on high for 2 hours, had a little, then it burned up! :) Oh, don't forget to spray the inside of the crock or butter it. It helps with clean up.

Goodnight -

Fall Break

It's fall break for the kiddos & I. We slept in!!! I woke up with a headache though, I guess because I woke at my normal time then went back to bed for a few hours? I don't know. It's gone now though.

Today, I've been cleaning up & they have been watching movies. Karate Kid & Marmaduke. I love Marmaduke!!!! I need to watch the whole movie.

I'm working on ebay & getting some things ready for the shop. I have a sale going on this week in my store 50% off everything. I really hope to get rid of it all. I have a cute little Christmas tree I want to put in there and sell some ornies. I really want to make some stuff to sell but I never have time or space! I'm working on changing that.

It's chilly here! The leaves are blowing all over the place, it's definitely full swing FALL. I love the brisk air & the pretty colors, but I dread what's coming. I don't like winter. I hate being so cold, cleaning off the car, running the furnace, not being able to open windows, all of it. :( I'm sad about it. But, I have a cute idea for two old windows I have, I'll share those if I ever do it.

In celebration of the cool weather, I'm making chicken & dumplings for the second time this month. YUMMMMY, I love it!

Time to read up on some other bloggers, and I'll probably post again later today. I have some pictures to share too.

Spell check. Oops.

Sorry, I'll try to be more responsible with the spell check button before I publish. I keep noticing spelling errors after the fact, because I just realized a spell check was available. From now on.....I promise!

FYI - poor spelling is a pet peeve of mine. I would hate to be a hypocrite. That is one job I think I'd enjoy...editing.

Wasted Wednesday

Today I did very little. I had noooooooooooo driving factor. I was consumed with being annoyed at the school. I wanted to list some items on ebay, and I did, but only a few. I got obsessed with those things. I cleaned a little, but that wasn't appealing. I wanted to make some tasty dinner, but didn't feel like it. It's a blah kinda feeling today. And it's a day that makes me think I need some sort of attention medicine to keep me focused.

Let's see....what did I do? I didn't end up working. The student didn't show up, and has to be rescheduled for Monday, so I have to go Monday as well.

I overdrafted my bank account and am afraid to tell Jamie. He will be so mad. You know why? Many frequent trips to McDonald's that I didn't figure in to my budget. WHY McDonalds? Because Monopoly...duh! I'm obsessed with winning money to get me out of the hole! It's gotta happen to someone - why not be me??? I have won some things this time around though. Fries mostly. An angus wrap. A breakfast sandwhich. A 3 month subscription to Pogo or something. And tons of Coke Reward points on the online portion. :) Nothing big, like that can drive me to work, or provide me a living, or vacation. Not YET. (I have to have faith, right?)

I cooked easy peasy chicken legs for dinner. Frozen corn and canned biscuits. For dessert, I made an apple dessert in the crockpot. It turned out so-so.

Tonight I watched Remember Me. Jeez, I wish I would have known what it was about. It was sad.

I think I'm going to call it a day. My kids are on Fall Break, yay!! No school tomorrow. It's rainy out. I hope it rains tomorrow too so that I can make them clean their rooms. Isn't that mean of me? If I help, it shouldn't take long.

Goodnight!

Ramblings from my Tuesday

So, this is going to be random. Just an overview of the day I guess. I worked. Blah, blah, blah. I'm really, REALLY-REALLY, tired of my job. The students have been bugging me, the fluctuating schedule, just IT in general. Time to change pace.

I opened an ebay store tonight. I sold some items over the last week totalling about $130, so that spurred my motives....

The house I live in is atrocious. We rent. There is a bazillion things that need repair. Tonight, I asked my DH to attach a furnace vent air freshner to the vent, and when he went downstairs, he discovered the water heater is leaking. NICE. No WONDER my freaking water bill was up to almost $67 this month. It used to be $30-$40. Ridiculous!!!!! So, we hauled some junk out to the curb for pick up with tomorrow's trash pick up, and I have to call the Landlord.

That means, I have to skip work tomorrow. I have to! I MUST. I have to get my house in order for strangers to be inside....because if I don't, they'll judge me. Right? I'm an idiot with my realistic fears. So what. They will, and who CARES? I hate worrying about what people think. Like they really think my house is immaculate when I am raising a brood of boys, and we are always on the go. And I work outside the home.

Ummm, lets see. What else? Oh, yeah. I totally was irate and PISSED to the max tonight. My oldest son, who is 13, got an F in gym. An F in gym. A flippidy, effing, freaking, $%^$@$^#^W$ F in GYM. I have monitered all of his grades this entire semester, every single week. He has had an A in there all year. The marking period ended on Friday. THURSDAY, it still said A. Today, his final grade for the record was an FFFFFFFF. For NOT DRESSING. Oh, he still participated when he didn't dress, SIX TIMES, but he didn't dress in his gym uniform. I was livid. LIV-ID. I emailed a nasty note to the gym teacher. To the SUPERINTENDENT. And to the principal. Then the phone rang. It was the gym teacher. The convo went a little like this:

Teacher: "I'm really sorry but Aaron knew his grade dropped an entire letter, each time they don't dress."

Me: "I understand there are rules, but had there been an update on the online grading system, I would have taken care of this on my end, and my son wouldn't have gotten an F!!!! Never once did you notify me, in any way - shape - form."

Teacher: "Well, this rule has been in place for 30 years, and Aaron was well aware of it."

Me: "I don't CARE! The rule is ridiculous. A detention at most would be a satisfactory consequence for a child that doesn't dress for gym. He participated and had all A+'s. Now, he's ineligible for sports!!!!!"

Teacher: "I am sorry but I cannot update my grades online each and every night."

Me: "Well, you updated it weekly, all along. You could very well have put his "non-dress" grade drops in too"

Teacher: "Aaron didn't dress at all LAST WEEK. I didn't enter grades from the week until Friday evening."

Me: (in my head, and not outloud....OMG I'm gonna make my kid wear his uniform to school every day for the rest of his life, that little brat let me yell at the teacher, the principal, the superintendent {where I'm EMPLOYED} and it was his fault and he KNEW IT!!!)

Really, I could use a brown bag to breathe in right now. I'm freaking out all over again. 13 year old boys. Seriously?

I'm blessed. I know that I am, but it doesn't always feel like it.

Good night.

Lazy days...........

Jeez, I miss my family! I like living here sometimes, but I wish I lived near my friends and family. Sure I have friends here, but not my 'old pals' and my family. My sister who lives closest to me (1 hr & 15 minutes away) is the person I see most frequently. Her and I can drive 1/2 way to each other and it ends up being in a town that has everything we could need. ;)

Yesterday, we met for lunch at Papa Vino's. (Her choice, NOT my fave). After lunch, we shopped around, mostly browsed, I didn't buy anything. She got a super cute pair of peep-toe red heels. Next we went to the movies! We saw "Life As We Know It" which was AWESOME in my opinion. I loved it. Some favorites about the movie - 1) it made my die laughing in lots of scenes. 2) the relationship was very realistic 3) awesome soundtrack, Just Breathe by Pearl Jam, in particular 4)there were some hilarrrrious 1-liners. My favorite was shortly after a married guy tells his buddy who's falling in love that he has always lived vicariously through him, he was his last single friend, etc: "Do you know what it's like to be married? Imagine prison. Then, don't change anything!" It was great.

I am procrastination. Right now I should be either packing up ebay stuff, or cleaning the kitchen. Neither are appealing at the moment. I'd rather skim around blogland. Which brings me back to the movie. Apparently, single women who are too old and should be married, must be bloggers. There was a silly reference where he asked the girl, as if it was an insult, "let me guess, you blog too!"

I think bloggers are THE BEST!!!! I've found some really awesome blogs here....it's my favorite past time!

Children in our world

Every Sunday morning, I meet my BFF at Walmart for our weekly grocery shopping trip. We have breakfast at McDonalds first then shop, covering the WHOLE store. Today, did the same thing. Checked out. We had driven separately because she has to work today and just incase I needed to stay longer, or whatever, we drove ourselves. On the way home, she's a little ahead of me & calls because she says there is a little boy walking down the road. In his shorts and tee-shirt, with a backpack. Looks to be 8 or 9. This road, is a double lane road, the speed limit is only 40 mph, but there is no sidewalk. I told her to call the police. She does, but keeps going home b/c she has to get to work. I get up there, and see him. It's a little 1st grader I KNOW because I subbed for him a zillion times in Kindergarten. I whip around and stop. I get him out of the road, he was IN the road, not on the grass or anything. I ask him what he's doing, he is teary eyed....doesn't know. Doesn't have a good reason why...I ask where is his family and he says he lost them. Then I ask where he lives, tell him how dangerous it is on this road. Ask what's in the backpack. Books. :( Incase he wanted to read. I ask what teacher he has this year, he tells me he thinks he can get himself back home but he lost his dog. I ask if that's what he was doing, looking for his dog and he said yes. I asked if he was running away and he said no. Poor baby. I hated to tell him the police were going to give him a ride. He asked me to drive him. The police finally showed up....the poor little guy was crying and pitiful. He had to be freezing, it was only like 40 degrees out this morning. I called his teacher. My heart is broken for him. He has a rough life at home, from what it appears.

Seriously! It's Saturday!! :)

I'm so glad it is the weekend. Yesterday, I skipped out on working (at work or at home), and went shopping. Not huge shopping, but this huge wharehouse near here, I can hardly resist. The best deals I got were 10/$1 packs of Hallmark tissue paper. Both Christmas and plain white. I got a ton of Goodies Hair accessories 2/$1. I'm making ghosts with the white tissue paper, and I'm going to sell some of the hair things on ebay. I also bought a rake for $5.

The kids wanted to rake the leaves so bad with the new rake. So I let them ;). They raked piles, buried each other, raked them again, buried each other...it lasted quite a while. I decided we needed to build a scarecrow. Tell me if this is morbid or wrong. I have a box of my late stepdad's old clothes. I have had it for 6 years now, I'm supposed to make a quilt for my mom. Well, he was a contractor so I knew there were jeans and flannels (scarecrow wear) so we used one of his shirts and jeans and stuffed them with leaves. I don't think he would care! But I wonder if my Mom might? I want to send her a picture, but not sure if it's wrong. I can share with you though - I will put one up later today, we still have to make his pumpkin face.

Last night our two oldest boys went to friends houses overnight, our 'middle child' went with a friend to the football game, and DH & I had a nice quiet evening with just the little two. We took them to McD's for a happy meal since they were the only ones home. They were excited!

This morning, we were supposed to go to G's football game, but he woke up sick to his stomach. Probably all the candy & junk he ate at the football game last night, but I'm worried it's the flu. Just 2 short weeks ago, 3 of the other boys and DH had the stomach flu. 2 kids had escaped it....now they both have diarrhea and G thinks he's going to barf. Is this round 2, or the end of the first session? Jeez!

Monthly Menu

I've decided to start cooking hot and homemade meals for my family every night. I don't always do this, I used to just make stuff that was quick and easy...but for over 3 weeks now, I've been cooking, and they love it! Not to mention, I have saved a lot of money on groceries. I actually have always enjoyed cooking but I don't enjoy the mess involved, because I'm the one who gets stuck cleaning it. Most of my recipes come from myself, mommyskitchen.net, Southern Plate, or Pioneer Woman. Items in red mean I've already made them this month. The (*) means I'm planning on making those this week.

Here's my menu for October.

Monterey Chicken

Upside down Supreme Pizza

Fried Porkchops

Beef Stew

Pizza Bread

Baked Spaghetti

Ham, Baked potatoes, glazed apples

Spaghetti & meatballs, salad & toast

Fried Chicken Strips

Ground beef stroganoff

Slow cooker chicken & rice

Pintos & ham w/ cornbread

Easy Peasy chicken legs*

Beef Tips

Friendship Casserole

Salisbury Steak

Pulled BBQ pork sandwiches

Baked Ribs

Quesadillas

Ham & scalloped potato bake

Chicken & dumplings

Hashbrown casserole*

Swiss steak

Potato Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Biscuits & gravy night

Italian Beef sandwiches*

Chili

Lasagna

Goulash

Chicken & Rice casserole

Desserts

Butterscotch cake

Pumpkin bread with struesel topping

Blueberry donuts

Canned biscuits donuts

buckeye brownies

pumpkin carob cookies

Self talk

4Lora is patient, Lora is kind. Lora does not envy, Lora does not boast, Lora is not proud. 5Lora is not rude, Lora is not self-seeking,Lora is not easily angered, Lora keeps no record of wrongs. 6Lora does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7Lora always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.