Kudos Pampered Chef!

I believe I’ve mentioned a time or two how fond I am of my Pampered Chef products. Let me tell you a little story that explains WHY I love my stoneware so much.

Since Andy’s been doing like double time between work, working at home after hours, school and homework I thought I’d whip up some dinner the other night. Andy reminded me we had a bunch of hamburger in the freezer. Easy enough. They were in two pound packages so I thought I’d brown it all and divide it for a couple different meals, thinking about what a nice and efficient wife I was.

So, I browned the meat and divided it for the chili I was making to eat that night and put the rest aside for what we have deemed Mexican lasagna (some new concoction I recently came up with.) I prepared each respective recipe, if you consider tossing random ingredients together a “recipe” that is, served Andy his bowl of chili with a side of cheese quesadilla, and then tossed the Mexican lasagna into the oven (P.S. I used my Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker…this is important information.)

After dinner we settled in the living room, each on our laptops. Andy was pulling cases for work and attempting to work on homework. I was poking around the internet (as usual) and working on the designs for a couple orders.

Fast forward about an hour and a half later:

Andy (peering in the oven door): “So…how long does this caserole thing need to bake exactly?”

Me: “OH <BLEEP!> I forgot to set the timer!!!” :::grumble, grumble:::

Feeling bad about wasting food, wasting money, and how I’m an idiot for rarely using the kitchen timer when I bake, I jumped up, ran to the kitchen, whipped open the oven door to rescue my surely-burnt-to-a-crip dish.

But, wait a minute…it didn’t look entirely burnt to a crisp. Nope, in fact it was just the little bit of cheese and tortilla chips on top. A couple good stirs and it looked fine!!! I tasted a bit, and it really was fine! Then I remembered, I used my trusty stoneware that does not scorch food like other dishes would have done. Yipppeee!! Our future meals were saved!

I totally should have taken a photo to show you but like using the timer, I forgot. But, for what it’s worth, there’s my testimony.

P@$$w0rd$

Have you ever counted the number of passwords you memorize or use on a regular basis? I think about it every time I have to change one or I enter one incorrectly. Which often happens at work if I’ve been off for more than a weekend. The IT people must love me. (Hi, it’s me again! Yep, I took a couple days off and I’m completely stupid.)

Today I counted mine. Between the 5 different ones I use for work daily, the 4 related to the Internet and e-mail (thank goodness I’ve incorporated my various e-mails into ONE gmail account), 9 banking/investment related passwords, 2 for school, 2 for insurance, and 11 for various bills that equals 33 if you were counting. And the more I think about this the higher that number gets.

THIRTY THREE flippin’ passwords I use on a relatively regular basis. That is ridiculous! And that’s not counting login names or other random passwords for websites & other online memberships. Thank goodness some allow you to save your login info. I don’t trust doing that on a lot of sites, but some it doesn’t matter.

They’ve implemented some new security measures at work, which is a good thing, but we now have a page long bulleted list on the requirements of your passwords. Such as it must be so many characters long, include a letter, include a number, include a special character, not include your name or other common password items, can’t be the same as any password you’ve used in the past, must include a drop of blood. Okay, I made that last part up. But you get the picture. It’s enough to drive anyone nuts!

Sometimes I will keep a list of passwords I’m not overly concerned about but others I keep locked up tight in my own mind. (What happens if I have an accident and get amnesia??)  I’ve debated on making a super top secret binder at home (locked in a safe deposit box of course) that has all our login names and passwords. But my luck is Andy would lose the key…it’s been known to happen, ahem.

Have you ever counted?? What is your number? How do you keep track?

30 Day Shred Challenge?

Now that I have a brief break from school I am starting to think about what I will do with my “free time” when we’re totally done with grad school. Andy hopes to get back on his health/weight loss kick (he has lost about 16 lbs in 2009!) and we’ve been making better food choices, which I have enjoyed. Considering I’m a little up in the lb department, ahem, okay, truth be told I’m nearly to my lifetime max (eeek!) I should probably work a little harder at joining him this time.

I was poking around the Internet and found a couple interesting and inspiring blogs such as Ash is Fit & Oh She Glows. They got me thinking about jumping on the 30 Day Shred bandwagon for several reasons:

• The treadmill isn’t all that enticing
• I don’t care to join the gym (again)
• The weather isn’t consistently nice yet to go outside (and honestly, I don’t go out all that much when it is…working on it)
• The DVD is only 20 minute per session and there are 3 levels
• Comments and reviews have been very favorable
• Some of the results have been amazing

I won’t list the cons of this program. But, I will say right now that I know for a fact this DVD will kick my lazy butt from Day 1 and likely up until Day 30. If I make it that long. May is a busy month, at least on the weekends. But I’m still thinking about TRYING.

I certainly don’t expect to “lose 20 pounds in 30 days” as some reports claim. Honestly, I’m just looking  to DO SOMETHING physical on a regular basis. I’m a total cybergeek hermit. I’m not lying. Ask Andy. I’ve never been much for exercising. No, I take that back. When I was a 10 year old tomboy I did work out often, using weights even. I was convinced I was going to make the wrestling team when I got to junior high. Yeah, don’t ask. I was obsessed with WWE wrestling (back when it was WWF Wrestling, and “real.”) Like I said, don’t ask. That was :::gulp::: literally twenty years ago. Wow that sounds bad…

But I digress…Come on lurkers, SPEAK UP! What do you think? Have you tried the 30 Day Shred? Want to join me? What got you motivated, and more importantly, KEPT you motivated to be active?

SOMEBODY help me stop being so lazy!!!! (Yeah, I know, that’s MY job. I’ve got to really want it.)

5 Minute Rule

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, so I’m told.

That’s the approach I’m taking to doing housework today – little bites 5 minutes at a time.  Just to try it and see how it works.

While poor Andy is sitting in class today I’ve got the entire day off to do anything I want. Yipppeee!!! =) However, whether I WANT to or not, I need to do a little around the house. Wonderful husband that he is, Andy usually has the house sparkling if he has an entire day with me away. Mostly it’s because he gets bored and he has an insatiable urge to improve things.  I too, have insatiable urges, but more so to design, to create, to make things…not to clean! =) So, my free days typically escape me as I dabble in various projects in the workshop for hours on end. I’m trying *not* to do that today. Not all day at least.

However, there once was a time when I would get on a cleaning and reorganizing kick and would cover every nook and cranny. Somewhere along the way I sort of lost those urges. (Thank you in part to Google, I’m sure.) Those were days before I had a side business, before I was getting an MBA, before I had all my wonderful toys in the workshop. And yes, before I had Google to lead me into the depths of any topic, any subject, any tutorial or crafting project known to man. The bittersweet thing about the internet is that you will never reach the end. Never.

So, back to my original point, I’m enjoying the day doing as I like but then every once in awhile I set the kitchen timer for 5 minutes. In those 5 minutes I must do something productive towards the housework. Note: I am not timing my free time. =) That’s a little too much structure for me.

Here are somethings I’ve either done or plan to do in my 5 minute increments:

• Unload/reload dishwasher
• Swap out laundry
• Declutter counters & table, wipe down
• Dust
• Vacuum
• Mop
• General pick up

Doesn’t seem so daunting when I look at my list and the 5 minutes seem to fly by pretty quickly. I think I might like this idea. =) I’m considering applying it to my (non-existent) exercise regime.

What would you do in 5 minutes? How do you get motivated to clean or do something not so fun when you could be doing other things??

Deep Breath….

And exhale….

I’m currently sitting in the breakroom at school watching the other students rush off to their classes that officially began one minute ago. Instead of following them I’m sitting here, closing my eyes from time to time, soaking up the long overdue sunlight, feet up on a chair and a slight smile on my (exhausted) face. Why you ask? Because for the first time in 17 months I DON’T HAVE CLASS THIS (MINI) SEMESTER!!!

And it feels great.

So why am I in the building at all? Good question. Andy has class so I dropped him off but I’m still a half hour away from heading to the new piano bar to celebrate Renee’s birthday with her and Dave and a few other couples (Andy will be joining us later). I thought I’d hang out for a bit and take advantage of the wireless internet.

Tomorrow when Andy heads to class around 7:30 am I can sleep in if I want, or get up and do whatever my little heart desires. Ahhhh…..what a wonderful feeling. For once I’m looking forward to remembering what it once felt like to be bored, to have absolutely nothing pressing to do, no homework hanging over my head. Those days are coming very soon.

May is going to be a crazy month with graduations and weddings and our final MBA class will start the last week of May but we’re almost done. Yay for us! I haven’t even had much time to think of what I will do with all my new time. I’ll save that for another post.

Have you ever been this busy for such a long period of time? What did you look forward to doing with your free time?

Graduation Announcements!!

My apologies for the delay in posting these photos…Renee nicely reminded me that I promised to post photos of Veronica’s graduation announcements once Veronica received them. (Which, she finally did, but we were nervous for a couple days!)

So, without further ado…here are the lovely announcements I made for my favorite friend in Texas.

Notice her two sons are the ones announcing her graduation – how cute!!

These were mailed in a contemporary clear envelope (terrible photo…I really need a new camera) sealed by a classic West Texas A&M University seal.

Now I need to start thinking about graduation announcements for Andy & myself. And…another fun upcoming invitation project is for my friend’s New Moon movie premier party – SUPER excited about that! So, stay tuned for more to come, especially now that I should have more free time as school winds down. (But, no promises until after May…that month is already overbooked with weddings, graduation parties, and more!)

How Cute Are These??

Aaliyah has been really good lately so we asked her to spend the night last weekend since we (amazingly) had a free night. Christy stopped by to drop off her overnight bag and of course little Alyssa came too. She is getting so big and is FINALLY talking around me. She has the cutest little polka dot coat and when I saw those Stride Rite  shoes shown above they reminded me of her. I poked around the website and found other fun shoes for kids. Since I doubt I can get away with wearing fun shoes like that (aside from my awesome polka dot rain boots that Andy loves so much…or not) I thought I’d post a couple of my favorites here.

Behold, the Giselle Toddler Pediped Sandals.

These cute little sandals are available in brown or white.

Ooooh! I love, love, LOVE these pink & brown Mary Janes! =)

The site says these shoes are ”Approved by the American Podiatric Medical Association for contributing to the healthy feet of children.” And, for anyone interested in some sale shopping (and who isn’t?) Stride Rite is offering a 1999 Price Sale where they will roll back their prices to the prices in 1999. Nice!

How important is it to you to get good quality shoes for your little ones? Do you think they take care of them enough to justify the price? Do they grow out of them too fast? These are just a few things that I thought about since we don’t have kids to buy for yet. What are your thoughts?

Thank Goodness!

Here’s a little update with my rant towards USPS…Surprisingly and thankfully, this story has a happy ending.

USPS did in fact deliver the package to the wrong address. Luckily, those who received the box by mistake were kind enough to hand deliver the it to Veronica; because they were out of town the past few days it took awhile. :::sigh:::

I guess this will be a lesson for me. Going forward all VIP/expensive shipments will be insured, tracked, and mailed via a reliable carrier.

Thumbs Up OnStar / Thumbs Down USPS

Good news first….

So I’m on my way to Kim’s Pampered Chef show and a somewhat familiar dog walks up to me in the driveway with no leash or owner in sight. Obviously, dog-lover that I am, I get out of the Yukon and call the dog over and check its collar. I call the owners but get a voicemail so I keep hold of the collar and head for the house to see if Andy can take care of things so I won’t be late to Kim’s. Two steps towards the house and I hear a honk. Uh oh. Did the Yukon just lock itself? Yep. It sure did.

Now, you might be thinking no big deal, right? Just grab Andy’s keys and unlock it. Sure…if he hadn’t LOST them last month!! Oh yeah. So I’m a bit annoyed, going to be late, and have a strange dog by the collar. Luckily I’ve got my cell phone handy so I call OnStar as I hand over the dog to Andy. Two minutes later they’ve got the door unlocked! Yay OnStar!! =) I may seriously consider subscribing to that service once our free year is up.

Okay, now for the bad news…

Remember I was all excited about Veronica’s graduation announcements but wouldn’t show you until she got to see them first? Yeah, well, long story short, I mailed them Monday via priority mail and she hasn’t seen them yet. =( I sent off the 6 lb priority mail INSURED.  The package contained announcements that took MANY MANY HOURS to create. (Can you tell I’m bitter yet?!) Since these were a gift I chose to insure them for barely my cost of materials (yes, probably my first mistake) instead of the regular retail value. Delivery confirmation says they were delivered on April 1st but Veronica hasn’t heard anything yet. She went to the post office today and they basically told her “maybe it blew away (6 lbs? Doubtful)…nothing we can do…try the other location…wait 30 days to see if it shows up…etc.” So, basically no help. We don’t have 30 days to wait, she graduates in early May.

All I can think to do is call in reinforcement (friends, family & co-workers) to help me redo the entire order ASAP at my expense and hope I can get my insured value back; although I just read online that “Insured mail must be accepted by a postal worker” or something, suggesting I should have taken it to a local PO. Instead, I had them pick it up. Not sure if I have the pick up confirmation letter or not (again, my mistake.)

I’ve posted on one of my online network groups and found about 5 other girls who have sadly had similar experiences with no positive results. Is the UPSP THAT UNRELIABLE? Apparently so. =(

Has this happened to anyone else? Any suggestions??? FedEx & UPS are so much more expensive, but I guess it may be worth it. I was offering free shipping on most of my items but now I may not be able to afford to offer that going forward.

GRRRRR!

Hangin’ Tough!

Last night I fulfilled one of my life long dreams. Well, I’d venture a guess it was potentially a life long dream when I was 10 years old. It took twenty years but I finally got to go to a New Kids on the Block concert!! =) I was probably 10 or 11 years old the last time they were in town and I wasn’t one of the lucky ones who got to go. So, when I first heard they were coming back in town I squealed like a 10 year old girl and immediately got tickets.

The best part was that I got to go with my BFFs (Best Friends Forever, for those of you not up on your 80s acronyms) from elementary school. Natalea drove down from Cedar Falls on a Thursday night to hang out with me and Stephanie. It was SO MUCH FUN!

I wanted to get some retro NKOTB t-shirts for us on ebay or something but never got around to it. I thought about getting a shirt at the show but even now as a working adult $45 is a little much to spend on a shirt I could make myself. (Thanks to my new handy dandy heat press.) Amongst the crowd I saw neon spandex and crimped hair. I’m guessing if I looked hard enough I’d find jellies and hot loop bracelets.

Oh what a night…yet I was in bed by 11:30; I am indeed getting old.

NKOTB tickets in the nosebleed section: $30
2 overpriced drinks at the concert: $12
Rocking out to the originators of the boy band phenomenon with some of your oldest friends: Priceless