Keeping semi busy:

I've been meaning to update my blog... not that I've been doing anything exciting. Occasionally I have a thought that I think would make an interesting post, but then I forget about it. So, no deep thoughts tonight!

Here is some of what I've been doing lately:

Before:

During:

After:

In this one you can see where I stopped (bleached on the left, not on the right). I still need to do a few spots over, and continue on into the table area, and around the trash can in the laundry room.

And this is how I did it: (I actually did the counter top tiles first and thats what gave me the encouragement to do the floor tiles)

Oxi-Clean plus toothbrush

Notice how perfectly white the groute is? WOW!


I LOVE OXI-CLEAN! WOOOHOOOO! I love their laundry spray too. It gets out virtually everything, without a lot of scrubbing, and does not kill brain cells like the regular bleach (I hope!)

This is the next project I tried to do:

(for those of you who can't tell I put up curtains in our main room to try and keep just a bit of the draft down from the window. I joined an 8' and a 6' pole together, hung 4 brackets, put up 3 panels of the cheapest, somewhat thicker curtains I could find. None of the furniture matches, so I figure its ok that the curtains don't either! Unfortunately is was still a lot more then I was expecting to spend so I didn't get curtains for the window next to the table.

I'm annoyed because it didn't work right and I'm going to need to figure out a way to redo the two brackets in the middle. GRRRR. I was mad so I just put it up and didn't even drill the poles to put the end ball things on it, because the screws on those are bigger then the pre-drilled holes. GRRRRRRRRR!!!!

I put this one in so you can see Mama's flowers. You can also see some of the other junk in the room too, but just ignore it!

Even though it didn't work out quite the way I wanted it to, at least I got an injury so I know I was working hard :)

This Thursday felt like Christmas/my birthday again! Melanie sent me a package with the things that were too big to go in my suitcase. I thought she would bring it up herself which would've been more fun, but its still really exciting to get my fun birthday/Christmas presents:

The new tea kettle is awesome! Its heavy duty: holds more, and keeps it warmer longer. And its cute!

I also used my new shiny presure cooker ( took a picture before I used it because it was so shiny and pretty!). It was way fun, although it kindof scared me because it was louder then mom's when it released the pressure.

I made a sausage soup for dinner in it. I didn't go grocery shopping again so I used what needed to be used from the freezer. It was pretty good with sausage, potatoes, green beans, carrots and onions from our garden (I think I've just about got all of them dug up now, its hard to tell with the snow!), and some Chinese noodles as tomorrow is Chinese new year! I also made some herb bisquits (think I will do it plain from here on out because I like to use up the homemade jam and it doesn't go so well with herbed things), and we had what I like to call "sweet juicy goodness" ie mandarin oranges for our fruit.

This is me enjoying my other birthday presents today (I've been meaning to send thank you cards to all my wonderful family for the fun gifts that I've been using, but it hasn't happened and to be honest I can't really remember which things I got for Christmas and which for my b-day, so consider yourself thanked!). I wore my shiny silver bangle bracelets, used my new church bag, and because it was snowing, my new umbrella got used too! The umbrella worked great keeping the cars from splashing me on the way home, good thing its so big!

I have such a giving family! While writing this out, I was amazed at all the gifts given to me. So thank you to all, and I think I forgot a few things, so remind me what they are so I can be appropriately thankful :)

I haven't yet used my mill, but I'm excited too once I get some grain for it. I have played in my piano books a bit, but find I'm easily frustrated with my lack of skills :) Melanie still has my first aid kit, but fortunately I haven't had to use it yet. I'm saving my beautiful dinner napkins for a special occasion. My New Mexico picture book is on our coffee table and I look through it often. I listend to the City of Ember and enjoyed that! I haven't used the meat thermometer yet, that will probably wait until warmer temputures and I'm using the grill. I use my christmas pj's, as the top is especially warm and soft! I like my lotion, chap stick, toothbrush, too! My hex set it is my tool box and my fun socks are being put to good use. Cathy got me a new coat last weekend, that is nice and warm, even if I'm constantly leaving feathers around (I picked it up for a great deal last weekend, and Cathy then told me she was giving it to me for my birthday)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

The only problem is now I will have to come up for new things to put on my list next year :)