Results tagged “shopping” from KatScan

Getting ready to go grocery shopping.

By
Kat
on September 3, 2010 3:15 PM |
I have to go and do the grocery shopping this afternoon, there's no food in the house.
What I bought last night got eaten up pretty quickly because little did I know, Mark's friend Jeff was coming over, so I didn't have just the two teens to feed, I had the three teens and myself to feed last night.
Ugh.

I went to the corner store this morning after paying all of my bills and stuff, to grab a pack of smokes and a soda because I had a serious caffeine withdrawal headache, and Moe, the store owner and a few of his friends were all standing around smoking these new flavored cigars that he just got a shipment of in this morning.
I love the smell of a good cigar, but I definitely don't like the taste.
Moe asked me if I wanted to try one, I said nope, no thanks, love the smell, don't like the taste, I'll stick to my regular cigs thank you very much.

OK, gotta get going to the store, need to get the grocery shopping done.

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Back to school shopping almost done!

By
Kat
on August 18, 2010 12:25 AM |
I got Sebastian almost every single thing that he needs for back to school this year.
He has all of his actual school supplies, I shop for those year round when stores have stuff on sale.
Like about seven or eight months ago, Walgreen's was having a massive sale on school and office supplies, and so I got him I got 10 folders, 10 wire-bound notebooks, a trapper keeper, 2 packs black pens, 2 pack blue pens, 4 packs of pencils, 2 packs loose leaf paper, white-out, stapler and staples, and a calculator for just $29.00.

While we were in Maine, I went to an outlet store and got him 3 pairs of rocawear jeans, 4 cargo shorts, and 10 t-shirts, all for just $41.00.
All I have left to get him now is his sneakers, that's what's going to set me back the most, I know that those are going to be expensive, so I will probably spend all totaled on his back to school needs with the sneakers included, about $120.00-$150.00.
That's not too bad in my opinion.
I try to buy things all year round so that I'm not rushing around come the last week or two before school starts trying to get him everything that he needs to start school with.
It works out really well if I do it that way, buy items on sale all throughout the year, and then just put them away until school starts the following year.

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Need to save even more money.

By
Kat
on August 10, 2010 11:25 PM |
I really need to get my own wholesale club membership going because I cannot constantly rely on other people to get me to the place to do my shopping.
I need to start saving even more money, and buying things in bulk and getting discounts, being able to use coupons, and get really good deals, is what I need to start doing more of if I'm going to be able to continue surviving in this economy.

I don't have a lot of money to start with, so going shopping for food for the teens, for my family, is getting tougher and tougher these days.
I had my friend pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk for me today, and it cost me $5.89.
That's crazy!
A loaf of bread used to be just $1.29, today, that same loaf of bread cost me $1.90.
If prices keep increasing like this, we'll have to start getting even more creative with how I do the shopping

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Such a pain.

By
Kat
on August 4, 2010 11:41 PM |
I had the most horrible time finding a particular receipt this week and I really needed to find it.
I searched through every box, my folders, every drawer, all over my desk, in my desk, the coffee table drawers, freaking everywhere and I could not find it.
It drove me absolutely nuts!!

I really need to come up with a far better document management system for all of my receipts and other important papers that I have so that I don't lose anything ever again.
I even have a filing cabinet, but it's in my room and such a pain to get too, so I rarely use it.
Then I set up folders in a portable filing cabinet that has drawers, and that became a total pain so I stopped using that too.
There just has to be an easier way for me to store and save all of my important papers and receipts  without all kinds of hassles that I face right now.

I never did find the receipt, I actually had to call the store that I purchased it from, their corporate offices, speak to their receipts office, and have them try to find it by the date, then the amount spent, and then finally they found it through my debit card number.
It took about 45 minutes for them to find it.
Such a pain, I really need a way better system for this stuff. 

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Galoshes.

By
Kat
on June 28, 2010 3:56 AM |
Did any one else Mom or parents call rain or snow boots, galoshes?
I was just thinking about that when I was searching for some slip in
women's rain boots.

It is officially the rainy season here, it started on June 1st, (Sebastian's birthday) and goes through until November 30th.
All I have to wear are sandals, open-toed sandals, not exactly good shoes for rain, so I was doing some window/internet shopping to see if I can find some slip-on rain boots.
I need slip-ons because I cannot bend over to lace up or tie any shoes.
The only other pair of shoes that I own are a pair of fur indoor/outdoor slip-on slippers.
Those are not exactly good for rain either.
I wore my sandals all last year, all through the rainy season, and it really sucked.
Massive puddles everywhere, no matter where I needed to go, puddles everywhere and no semi-dry spots to walk on, so my feet got absolutely soaked in the nasty, muddy, and sometimes garbage and debris strewn puddles.
I do not want to go through any puddles this year, so if you find a pair of women's size 10 slip-on rain boots, (galoshes) let me know OK?
Thanks!

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Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Anywhere.

By
Kat
on June 3, 2010 7:31 PM |
Most cities and states now have bans on smoking in public places, restaurants, and even nightclubs and bars.
The second hand smoke is the reason, people don't like or want the second hand smoke.
That's where an electronic cigarette for smokers can come in handy.
It looks like a real cig, smokes like a real cig, has real tobacco like a real cig, even has the look of a real cig being smoked.
But the "smoke" that you see, isn't smoke, it's water vapor, so there is no second hand smoke for anyone to inhale, no smoke smell, it's just water vapor so it doesn't smell or bother anyone else.
It also, only contains tobacco, it doesn't contain any of the carcinogens or other nasties like real cigs have, it's just tobacco and water vapor.

I actually have a full product review and video coming up on these very soon, so if you're a smoker and you've been wondering about electronic cigs, just keep checking back, I'm going to tell you all about them and you'll be very excited about it, I promise.

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My collection of Disney stuff.

By
Kat
on April 23, 2010 9:54 PM |
I collect a few different things, like my Disney Happy Meal toys, and some porcelain Disney statues of Mickey and Winnie the Pooh, and my Disney villains promotional mugs.
I don't drink any coffee, but I still have a few of the mugs and they sit on the shelves with all of my other Disney collectibles.
I want to get a Jack Skellington coffee mug, and I also want to get a Cruella de Vil mug, and I really want this Disney villains mug!

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It has Chernabog on one side, and on the other, it has small pics of every single villain from every single movie.
I just love it!!
 I also really want this Magic Mirror Disney Villains coffee mug, it will go really well sitting next to my Evil Queen mug.
I also want Maleficent, Queen of Hearts, and the old hag witch from Snow White too.
I really love all of my Disney collectibles and promo mugs, just love them!





Comments off due to spammers.
37 spam comments since I posted this entry 2 days ago. 
Spammers need to get themselves a new hobby.

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Warm and good looking.

By
Kat
on March 10, 2010 1:45 AM |
One of the cats marked their territory on my small electric heater, the only thing that keeps the house warm during the winter when it gets really super cold here.
Yes, I'm super furious, but luckily it wasn't really expensive, it was only about $35, so at least I am not out a ton of money.
I noticed that whichever cat did it, did it after I came home from a friend's house that has dogs, and I had been with the friend and her dogs for hours, I had pet the dogs, played with them let them lick me, so yeah, one of my cats was all hell no, and made sure that if the dogs who licked me ever came in the house, that they would know that this was a house for cats, not dogs.

But now this means that I have no heater for the future winters if it gets super cold.
I saw an infomercial for a handmade wood and  electric fireplace, and I was like wow, I like that.
It provides heat and looks good, I like it.
But if I did something like that, if I was going to spend money on an electric fireplace, I would want a really good looking one that is also more functional than just a heater.
I found this one that would perfectly match my coffee and end tables that are a gorgeous dark cherry finish.
I've had them for about 8-9 years now, and they are still in totally awesome shape.
The coffee table is 5 feet long, it has a drawer and a hidden storage compartment.
If you have never seen the table before, you would never know that it's there, heck, I have forgotten that it's there a few times.
 The tables are all solid dark cherry like I said, and they have wrought iron legs, and a wrought iron shelf underneath each one, they are really beautiful tables.
Anyway, this electric fireplace that I found would look really good with my table set, and it has storage for a tv on top, my vcr and dvd player, and even more shelves for all of our dvds and vcr tapes.
The storage areas and the "fireplace" are all behind glass doors too, this would look so good in here with my tables and couches.

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It's a little more money than I will have in a very long time, but maybe an income tax return some one of these years could help pay for a really good looking and functional new addition to my furniture.

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There's so much to do!

By
Kat
on March 7, 2010 4:58 PM |
The teens and I have so much to do before we go to Maine, so many things to take with us because of how long we'll be there, so many things to take care of here at the house too, that it feels like I should just hire a long distance moving company to help me pack and organize it all.
I have to go to a store and buy myself a pair of jeans, I don't own any, I wear shorts or cotton capri pants all year round here, or I have been borrowing Mark's jeans when it's cold and I need to go somewhere.
While at the store, I need to get a few t-shirts, and a package of tube socks for the 3 of us to share.
I have to get help putting on my socks and boots while in Maine, but it's better than having freezing feet the whole time.
I need to make my list of everything that I need to take, medicines, personal care items, I need to get all of my medical cards ready for the airport, that's always so much fun going through security, so I just make sure that I have everything in my hand to show them.
I need to make sure that the teens have enough warm `clothes and socks too.

I also need to get the netbook and stuff ready to go, that will be in my carry-on, not in a suitcase, not even going to risk it.
I need to finish programming all of my contacts into my new cell phone, and learn as much about using it as I can, take the manual with me anyway.
And then I need to have Mindy come over so that we can go over everything about the cats feeding and stuff because she's watching them and the house for us while we're gone.

There's so much more too that I can't even remember right now, but I will, and then as soon as I remember it, I need to add it to the list so I don't forget it again.

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I finally ordered the netbook!

By
Kat
on December 8, 2009 2:11 AM |
It may not be an industrial computer, but I finally (been thinking about buying 1 since school started up back in August) ordered the netbook that I've been wanting to get for Sebastian, and I have been talking about it on my other blog, and debating with myself for months and months and months.
YAY!!!
I Twittered about getting the really awesome deal that I got thanks to Verizon, I mean, really, it's a totally sweet deal, how could I not publicly thank them?

The netbook is actually a really great one for the price.
HP Mini 110 series
  • • Black Swirl
  • • Genuine Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3
  • • Intel(R) Atom(TM) Processor N270 (1.60GHz, 512KB L2, 533Mhz FSB)
  • • 1GB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm)
  • • 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
  • • Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with a 5-in-1 Digital Media slot
  • • 10.1" diagonal WSVGA LED Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1024 x 600)
  • • HP Mini Webcam with HP Imprint Finish (Swirl)
  • • Wireless-G Card
  • • HP Color Matching Keyboard
  • • 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
  • • Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
When I got Fios installed back in July, Verizon told me that in 3 months, if I paid the bill on time and in full for those first 3 months, I would receive a gift certificate for $299.00 to buy anything that I wanted from a certain website, so my gift certificate came about a month ago, and I finally used it tonight.
The netbook's price was exactly $299.00, and then I bought a mouse and a carrying case for it.
The mouse was $12.79, the case was, $11.99, they had 20% off of them individually, not 20% off if I bought both together, but 20% off of them by themselves, and then I had to pay for shipping for all 3 items.
The subtotal was $324.77, shipping was $19.00, Florida tax was 24.07, making the grand total $367.84.
The $299.00 gift certificate was applied and so I only had to pay $67.85 in total.
I LOVE an awesome bargain like this!
W00t!! W00t!!


Today like around 9am or so, I am going to go to the pharmacy and pick up the scripts that are waiting for me, then go do the grocery shopping, and then tomorrow, I get to go see my other doctor and tell him about the issues that I am having with my feet and hope that it isn't diabetic neuropathy, because if it is, I know that he's going to put me on insulin and I don't want to be on insulin.
I don't have a problem with needles, no problem with needles at all.
It's that having to take insulin will further restrict me and what little freedom I have left.
Because of all of the health issues that I have right now, I am truly a prisoner in my own home because of my own freaking messed-up body.
Having to take insulin will just make me even more of a prisoner.
I know that calling myself a prisoner isn't good, but it's how I feel, my life is so restricted, I can hardly do anything because of the constant pain that I am in, being forced to watch myself, test my blood sugars constantly, will just make that feeling even stronger.
It sucks.

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And I lost a filling.

By
Kat
on September 16, 2009 7:21 PM |
Ha ha ha!
I was just saying to a friend in email that if I believed in all of that past life stuff and karma, I would say that I was a serial killer or something really wicked bad in a previous life because I am sooo being punished in this one.

My AC died for the 3rd time in 2 years on Sunday, I got a wicked bad ear infection on Thursday and am just now really starting to feel better, and when I woke up this afternoon after not being able to even fall asleep until around 9am this morning, I realized that I lost a freaking filling.

When my sons went out to dinner with their aunt, I had them stop at Walgreen's and get me some Dentemp so I could put that in the giant and gaping hole in my way back right side molar.
I can deal with a lost filling, at least it's not as bad as when I was a kid and got smacked in the mouth by the seat from the swing sets at the school playground, and totally broke my right FRONT tooth.
Yeah, I ended up having to have a cap put on it, and that cap lasted me from the age of 11 up until about 8 years ago when it finally fell off.
I haven't had the money to have that fixed, there's no way that I can afford it.
I asked a dentist about 5 years ago when I was having a tooth pulled how much it would cost to repair that, and he told me that I was looking at about $1,000.
Yeah, I just really do not have that kind of money to spend on 1 thing, a tooth.
1 grand can pay all of my monthly bills and buy groceries for 2 weeks, so yeah, getting my front tooth fixed is not going to happen any time soon unless I win the lottery.
But you gotta play to win, and sorry, I just can't even spare $1 for a single ticket these days.

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Hard to see them on the ground, her diamonds falling down.

By
Kat
on August 19, 2009 9:42 PM |
I'm not the kind of woman who has to be given a gift when the man I'm in a relationship with, has done me wrong, that his way of saying sorry is some jewelry like a pair of diamond hoop earrings or something.

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But I would certainly never say no to a gift like that.


I do think that some men out there are totally clueless though when it comes to being romantic, saying sorry, asking the woman they are totally in love with, to marry them.
I guess that's a good reason to offer those men some advice for times like that.
I always have found it funny when a woman will put her man on the spot in front of their mutual friends, at like a party or something, and as a way to show everyone that he really loves her, she'll ask him questions to see if he pays attention to her, knows her as well as he claims to, things like are her ears pieced, her favorite color, what side of the bed she prefers to sleep on, if she drinks coffee, tea, or soda to get going in the morning, and stuff like that.
I've seen guys  who really do know their woman very well, could tell you her morning routine right down to the second, and I've seen some other guys who have been dating a woman for over a year, totally blow it and not know much of anything about her, not even her favorite color.

About 2 years ago, I got to see a man who knew his girlfriend so perfectly, knew everything about her, knew what her favorite shape was, and even knew which jewelry designer she loved, that when he proposed to her, he had gone to her favorite local jeweler, specifically asked for her favorite designer, and then asked to see all of the rings in her favorite shape.
Every one of us women who were there the night he proposed, were amazed at how well he knew her, we all 'oohed' and 'ahhed' over the perfect-for-her-ring, and every man who was there, realized they had better step up their game and start learning all of that about their girlfriends if they were ever going to propose them.
The ring was truly perfect, he knew it would be because he paid attention to her, knew everything about her, he either remembered all of the important dates in her life, or he wrote them all down, but it showed that he paid attention to every smallest detail.
It was a really beautiful proposal too, I don't think there was a dry eye among any of us, the guys included.

I think that if a guy doesn't know things about the woman he's in a relationship with after 6 months, things like her favorite color, her birthday, if her ears are pierced or not, that he's probably never going to.
But if a guy is truly serious about her and just has a terrible memory, he needs to find ways to remember all of those things, write them down, get a calendar or small blank notebook, and start keeping track of those things, write them all down in that little book, her birthday, the dates of their 6 month and 1 year anniversaries, their wedding anniversary when they do get married, if they have kids, their birthdays, mother's day, Christmas, and the dates of graduations if she goes back to college, or gets a promotion etc.
If he knows these things and surprises her with even just remembering and/or maybe a little gift to go with some of those dates, she will always be happy.
Nothing annoys a woman more than a man who doesn't remember all of the important dates in her life.
Most of my girlfriends say this, that it's the not remembering things that drives us crazy.
I know that it's that way for me, I just want to know that he knows, that he hasn't forgotten the important dates in our relationship, and I'm totally happy. 
 

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Dove's Ultimate Go Fresh deodorant product review.

By
Kat
on July 31, 2009 2:58 AM |
Sebastian and I went to the store tonight after I got paid, dropped off my second prescription that I needed to pick up, and then bought some groceries and other things that I needed to get.
You know, the usual, toilet paper, cat food, food for us humans, and I had some coupons with me as I always try to do when I go shopping.
I had a coupon for $2.50 off 2 Dove Ultimate Go Fresh deodorants, and Publix had them on sale for just $2.29 each, so  it was $4.58 before the coupon, and just $2.08 after the coupon for 2 full size deodorants.
I chose 2 different scents because when we opened them to check them out, we instantly fell in love with how they smelled.

The Ultimate Go Fresh Energizing deodorant is absolutely fabulous smelling!
It is grapefruit and lemongrass scented, and OMG, it is so seriously the sweetest but softest smelling deodorant I have ever laid my nose upon.
Sebastian insisted that I buy that one, he said it smelled so good, that I should definitely get it, so I did.

The other one I chose is the Ultimate Go Fresh Cool Essentials, it's cucumber and green tea scented, and just like the other one, absolutely to die for scented!

The great thing about both of these deodorants, well the whole line of them, is that they stay on you, not on your clothes, they don't rub off on your shirt, it says so right on the lids, and I tested it after getting back home.
I put some on, one of each scent under each arm, rubbed my arms around a bit, and then took my shirt off and flipped it inside out.
Not a single spot of deodorant on the underarms of my black t-shirt.
That rocks!

These smell incredible, they are smooth rolling on, good for your skin, and provide 24-hours odor and wetness protection, so if you're the type who gets nervous easily, may have trouble speaking in public, sure, you could take a speech pill to help make talking to people easier, but using these new fabulously smelling and smooth deodorants, at least you won't be sweaty or smelly, people will actually comment on how great you smell.
I know this because after testing them both out, when I was in the kitchen making dinner, Mark came in to see what I was making, and he gave me a hug and said "Wow, Mom, you smell really great. Are you wearing a new perfume?"
I said nope, just new deodorant, and he was all wow, it smells awesome.
And they totally do.
So look for them at your local grocery or drug store, see if you can get them on a good sale price or use a coupon like I did, and you will be very pleasantly surprised by how awesome they are.
I can't hardly wait to shower every day and put on either of the new scents every day.
Wetness and odor protection, plus a really beautiful smell.
You can't beat that in a great deodorant product from a company that you can trust, and you can also print out coupons so that you can try them for a bit cheaper!

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Still not fixed.

By
Kat
on July 30, 2009 5:50 PM |
I still haven't gotten around to fixing that broken  faucets in the bathroom sink.
It's still sitting there all busted up, it drives me crazy to look at it every time I'm in the bathroom and have to look at it.
I have GOT to get it fixed one of these days, I have to.
It looks all redneck-y ya know?
I hate bothering my landlord for stuff that I can fix, I've looked it up before, the instructions on how to do it, it looks easy enough, I just need to get the faucet and set myself down to do it.
Just need to remember one crucial step, shut off all the water first.
I forgot to do that one time, and ooooh, what a mess I made! LoL

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So tired. Again.

By
Kat
on June 19, 2009 2:43 PM |
I've been up all night again, I knew it was going to happen, I even said so yesterday right before I went to take a quick 3 hour nap that turned into an all day sleep fest.
I seriously meant to only sleep for just a few hours because I know myself really well, sleep more than that, I'd be up all night again, not be on a good sleep schedule, and that's what happened.
Oh well.

At some point this weekend, I'm going to have to go back to the grocery store for all of the things I forgot.
I did have a list, but I forgot to put things on the list.
I hate it when I do that.
Sebastian won't mind though, it's another chance for him to poke his head inside the camper they have parked inside the store.
As soon as he saw the pop-up camper, he wanted one, he now wants to go camping and have that thing because then I could go camping too.
He knows that I don't like tent camping, I hate it, but I always said if we could go  rv camping, that I would totally go.
So now he wants one of those so that we can all take a cheap family vacation.
He knows we'll never afford to go some place crazy expensive, but camping is super cheap, so he's got his mind set on getting an rv at some point in his life.
He's a totally funny kid.

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In the fall when he really needs it.

By
Kat
on June 15, 2009 7:18 AM |
I knew that I would not be able to get Mark that HP notebook that Buy.com had on their weekly special, it's not on sale this week plus I didn't have the money, but I really don't need to worry.
They have a whole section of their site specifically devoted to laptop deals .
That's pretty freaking awesome.
They have every possible brand, every possible size, and every possible price range, and many of them on sale at some really incredibly low prices.
So I know that when I need to get him a laptop in the fall for college, I will be able to find him a really good one at a really good price from them. They make it so incredibly easy to find just the right one, he'll even be able to pick a color on certain brands and models if he wants to.

I started shopping at Buy.com years ago, like back in 2004 or 2005.
I started shopping with them because I was doing paid surveys for a company, and at the time, they only paid in Buy.com gift certificates, they now pay through paypal and Buy.com gift certificates, so that's cool they offer a choice now, but I still take the gift certificates.
I would cash out my gift certs from the site, they only gave us so many days to redeem them at Buy.com, and then I would just let them build up until I had a lot of them, and then I'd go shopping.
I've been loving shopping with them ever since.
I love their low prices, their fast shipping, and the fact that they have free shipping on almost every single item that they sell.
Not too many other online retailers offer free shipping on so many items, heck, most don't offer free shipping on hardly anything unless you spend like a minimum of $25.
At Buy.com, I bought a $6.99 DVD, and got free shipping, so yeah, I'll shop there over other retailers any day, especially when it comes time to get Mark his laptop because those suckers are wicked heavy and if I had to pay shipping, it would be like super freaking expensive.

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Not quite on target.

By
Kat
on May 15, 2009 6:49 PM |
Cross posted from my other blog because it relates to my surgery and personal feelings.

Mark and I went shopping this afternoon because Sebastian wasn't feeling well, and I've noticed something about who goes shopping with me and how much I spend.
If Sebastian goes, I stay on target, to my list, and don't overspend.
If Mark goes with me, I end up buying things not on my list, and spend more than I had planned too.
So guess how I did today?
If you guessed that I spent more, you'd be correct.

My total bill before coupons was $231.94
Total is coupons and in store special savings - $49.15
Total after coupons and savings applied = $182.79

I try to use as many coupons as I can, and take advantage of as many in store special savings as I can, because I only get $349.00 per month in food stamps, and with 2 growing young men in the house, that food money goes very quickly.
I try to avoid buying junk food items when I can, and I try to cook as many meals as I can without buying easy microwave foods because they cost more.
Sometimes. Publix always has a lot of easy foods on sale for super cheap, and I usually always have coupons to match those items, so sometimes I do end up buying easy foods. But anyway, whenever Mark goes with me he distracts me, he stands in front of me while I'm trying to look at and compare the costs of items on the shelves.
He's always talking to me about something totally unrelated to shopping while I'm trying to shop.
I ended up buying about 15 items not on my list today.
Ugh.
But, they were on sale, so I can't complain too much about it. It would have been nicer had I had matching coupons for those items, but oh well.
What did I buy that wasn't on my list? Chips, dip, beef jerky, some Oreo cookie things, Fun Stix I think they are called, more soda, another pound of lunch meat, some bread from the bakery, canned soup, about 5-6cans, and some canned spaghettios.

Speaking of spaghettios, next month begins the hurricane supply shopping.
I need to stock up on the canned foods that can be eaten without heating them up, and stuff like that.
I'm actually worried about hurricane season this year, not because they have predicted any yet, but because I'm having another spine fusion in June, and with the kind of luck that I have, this year will be the year that we get hit with a hurricane here in Sarasota, and I'll be in a bad state recovering from surgery, in the halo brace, possibly the trach tube, and we'll get smacked with a big one.
Sarasota is weird, in the 12 years we've lived here, this area hasn't been hit with a single hurricane, it's like we live in the outer banks twilight zone of storm free zones.
The most we've ever gotten here is a small bit of wind and rain, just enough wind to blow some trash cans around, maybe take out a really old tree, but nothing major.
But like I said, because of the kind of luck that I have, this will be the year that Sarasota gets nailed, and I'll be completely useless to deal with it, I'll have to rely on other people to help us pack up stuff and evacuate.
So far, the tropics look good, there's nothing at all out there, so let's hope it stays that way all through hurricane season which is June 1st to November 30th.

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This might be what I need.

By
Kat
on April 16, 2009 5:09 PM |
I was clicking around and saw an ad for a product called Stemulite.
So I clicked on it, read the site, watched the video and read some of the testimonials, and this may be what I need.
As most of my readers know, I rarely sleep at all, I'm lucky if I get an hour or two a night every single day of the week, and then for like one night a month, I will actually get about 6-8 hours of sleep.
I am always tired, I can't even lose any weight, and I'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.
I know that my immune system is shot from all of the surgeries and medications I take, but also because my body is not getting enough restorative rest.
Without sleep, your body cannot repair itself.
Stemulite and the people who have used it, say that within a few days of taking it, they are getting a full nights sleep, they wake up feeling better, they have more energy, and they are able to do more and work out longer and harder.
This may be what I need because I've tried all of the over the counter sleep aids, I've even taken prescription sleep aids, and nothing has helped.
This product says that it's all natural, and the people who have taken it seem to love it.
I may have to try this at some point.
It couldn't hurt, I've tried so many products and they haven't worked.

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Lazy Sunday.

By
Kat
on April 5, 2009 3:11 PM |
It's one of those lazy Sundays where we all just lay around on the furniture and do absolutely nothing but watch crappy tv shows and even crappier movies on tv.
I do need to go out a little later on and pick up some food from Publix, get more soda and cat food, some other stuff for them to eat during the long vacation week.
But for now, none of us have showered or dressed, we haven't done much of anything at all but watch movies on tv.
Currently, we're watching Great Expectations , the one with Ethan Hawke, not the older version.
Some of the scenes were filmed right here in Sarasota at the Ca d' Zan mansion of John and Mable Ringling.
My friend Shell and I got to tour it last year, it was amazing, so beautiful inside.
You'd never know that watching the movie, they really dirtied it up to make it look really old and disheveled.

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I don't want to wear a tent.

By
Kat
on April 1, 2009 11:01 PM |
There are times that I feel like I should be taking more nutritional health supplements, and trying even harder to lose weight even though exercise is totally out of the question for me right now.
Why?
Because shopping for clothes is a total nightmare for me.

Someone had linked to some plus size fashion website this morning on Twitter, and while I hate that term "plus size", I guess that's the term that fits my size.
I'm not huge or obese by any means, I run between a size 14 and 16, but that's considered plus sized, so those are the kinds of clothes I have to shop for.
Did you know that even size 12 is considered plus sized?

So anyway, I click on the link, (not going to link it, just search for plus size women's clothing, and you'll find many sites like this one) and everything I see is either the women in huge blowy dresses, or covered up in duster jackets, and bathing suits called swim-dresses, because they are made with a whole lot of material.
All of the tops and blouses, are also tons of material and huge, wild, and flowery bold prints, nothing has any shape to it at all, it's like they took a big piece of material, cut it a bit, made arm holes, and a head hole, called it a billowy-sleeve tunic, or a ruffled tunic, or a Georgette tunic, slapped on a big price tag, (gotta make up for all of the fabric used to make it so "billowy") and set it out for sale.

All of the clothes are the same way, dresses, sweaters, evening and formal wear, even the lingerie is big, has no shape to it, huge prints that draw even more attention to the amount of fabric you have on your body, and sorry, it's all just hideously ugly.
I mean, just look at this blouse, it's called a "boho blouse", the site I found it on says it's a top seller.
Are women really buying and wearing this hideous thing?!

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Every single plus sized blouse I found was like that one, huge, no shape, big and bold prints, just ugly in my opinion.
People wonder why I am always wearing black, it's because it goes with everything, for one, you can dress it up or down simply by adding a few pieces of jewelry and doing your hair and makeup, and because anything else in my size looks like that blouse above!
I can't stand those prints, I can't stand those loud colors and patterns, they are just awful.
The sad thing is that women who are plus sized don't really have a whole lot of options when it comes to clothes.
You either have to hunt around for all solid colors, or you end up with stuff like that, and I've seen so many women in them, and I have to look away.
Really beautiful women in really ugly clothing because there's no options for us.
We need shirts with some shape, just a bit of color, some nicer patterns and prints, not stuff like that, and we don't need yards and yards of fabric.

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Wish they sold it there!

By
Kat
on March 10, 2009 3:53 PM |
I absolutely love my NuWave Oven Pro, as a matter of fact, I am cooking with it right now, but man, I so wish that Buy.com had them, and also had them on sale , because I'd be telling each and every one of you out there to buy one of these, it's fabulous!
I have used it almost every single day to cook almost every single meal we have eaten, and the teens have been cooking with it too.
But they don't sell them yet. *hint hint Buy.com*

But they do have this really cool looking Smartshopper Grocery List Organizer thing, that you simply speak your shopping list into, and then on the day you go shopping, you hit print, and it prints out your list.
How cool is that!?!

groceryshopper.jpg It uses voice recognition software, comes programmed with over 2,500 items, you can add a quantity of an item, it has a coupon flag, meaning if something on your list also has a coupon, it alerts you, you can add any of your own specialty items to the master library making it totally customizable, and attaches to the fridge with magnets so you always have your grocery list right where you need it, in the kitchen!






I've seen these things go for as much as $250.00 at some retailers, but Buy.com has it on sale right now for just $39.99!
I know other people who have them or one like it, and they love how easy it makes their shopping.
They simply speak what they want to buy into it, add quantities, add in their coupons, and then when they are ready to go, it prints the list.
This would be so convenient for so many families because if a kid uses the last of the milk, they can push the button, say "milk", and it's added to the list.
The whole family could help make sure that all of the needed groceries are on the list every single week.

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This house is missing some flair.

By
Kat
on March 4, 2009 12:30 PM |
I love this duplex, I have now lived in it for 11 years.
I love the central location, the neighborhood, it's nice and quiet, people are nice for the most part, but the actual duplex apartment that we live in has no flair, no style, it's just kind of boring looking.

One of these days, my sister and I are going to get around to painting the inside like we've been talking about for such a long time.
We have such beautiful colors to paint with, and then once the painting is done, or maybe we should do this before we do the painting (?), I'd love to put up some really nice molding.

I found some really nice corbels that I think would look nice in here, I need to settle on just 1 design, but I like this one, and this one, but I am leaning towards this one.

 
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I found all of these at Inviting Home, where they offer beautiful products for the home at great prices.
They work hard to insure that you are knowledgeable about your purchase, find exactly what you are looking for, and the guidance and expertise needed to make a good purchase.







They even have a blog that is broken down into categories to make it even easier to find what you are looking for, to get decorating ideas, and they even have some great "green" ideas for decorating your home if you're trying to make your home and life more eco-friendly.


Inviting Home offers all kinds of information, and product inspiration to help you make your home more comfortable, more "green", more inviting, more of whatever you want your home to be.
I love looking at sites like this to get ideas, I swear, if I had a lot of money, like won the lotto or something and could buy my own home, I would be using their site to get decorating ideas and get step by step instructions to make my space the most functional and the most beautiful it can be.
They just have so much to offer at their site, there's so much information, ideas, products, it's really a great place to go to to start getting ideas for your new home.

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Trying to warm up.

By
Kat
on March 3, 2009 11:37 PM |
It started getting cold here again, while other people up north are getting snow, we're getting the cold that usually accompanies it.
I could barely move, heck, I can still barely move.
I really hate the cold weather, this is Florida dammit, it's not supposed to be or get cold here.
I had to go out a few times to get some stuff, and I only have sandals that I can wear, I still have a ton of trouble putting on any shoes, sneakers, my combat boots, so all I can wear are my sandals.
It was so cold, I was wishing I had a pair of those fluff or is it wool(?) lined UGG boots.
They aren't that pretty looking, but my feet were freezing, and I was so wishing I had a pair of winter boots that I could wear.
Those Uggs just slide on from what I hear, so they wouldn't be as hard for me to put on.
My feet are still are freezing and I have the space heater on.
No socks, I can't put those on either, so I have ths space heater aimed right at my feet and they are still so cold.

I was so miserable the last few days, my joints and muscles are all stiff and sore, and I've been in so so much pain, that I dug around in my drawer and looked in my little lock-box where I found a bottle of Somas that the pain doc prescribed to me months ago, but I hate taking them because they make me sleep and feel all yucky, but I was hurting so bad and couldn't move, so I took one and promptly passed out for 4 hours today.
When I woke up, I couldn't even think straight for like 4 hours after, I felt completely out of it, I felt strung out, and I absolutely hate that. 

I also found out today that the medicine that my pain doc prescribes me every month is no longer available.
I have my Walgreen's account set up to notify me of changes with any of the medicines that I take, price increases, when generics become available, and discontinuations.
Today, I received an alert that the pain medicine Roxicodone 30mg, is going to become far more difficult to fill by any pharmacies in the entire US.
There were only 3 manufacturers in the US, and 2 of them got shut down about 2 months ago, and the third is having extreme difficulties keeping up with the demand from doctors and pharmacies, because the compounds to make them are becoming scarce.
No explanation was given for the 2 manufacturers having to shut down, but what this means is, that the pain doc and I are going to have to find me a medication that works exactly like those did.
After getting the notice, I called my Walgreen's that I usually pick them up at, and CVS, Bee Ridge Pharmacy, and about 20 of the Publix pharmacies between North Bradenton and Venice, and just for the hell of it, asked them all if they had any leftovers in stock or if they'd be getting any more shipments of them by the 12th.
Every single pharmacy said no, they were out, not getting any more shipments, and quite a few of them explained about the manufacturers shutting down and the only one left having trouble keeping up with demand.
A few of the pharmacies even told me to tell my doc to stop writing scripts for them because there is no way any pharmacy in the whole state is going to have any left in stock at all, and if they have some right now, they probably won't by the end of the week.

That really sucks, it's the only pain med out of about 30 that we tried, that actually worked really well and didn't mess with my head at all.
I hate the pain meds that screw up my head and my thinking, I hate that strung out feeling a wicked lot, hate it with a passion, and now we're going to have to try and find another med that works really well.
Maybe he can just prescribe me the lower doses, the 15mg or the 20mg, those are still being made, and he can just have me take more of them to equal the dose that I was taking, the 30mg.
If he prescribes me the 15's, I can just take 2 of those at a time and get the same effect.
I hope that we can do that instead of having to try an all new medicine, I think I've tried almost all of them, and almost all of them just screwed with my head so bad I couldn't function, I felt paranoid, my skin crawled, no one could touch me, I couldn't put my legs together while sleeping because it made my skin feel all itchy and crawly.
I really, really hope that that's what we can do.  

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Planning the day out.

By
Kat
on February 28, 2009 5:03 AM |
Here it is, a little after 4am on Saturday morning, and I'm still wide awake.
I honestly haven't slept much even though I was completely worn out from doing too much on Wednesday, and then feeling like I came down with something.
But I think I know what it is that is making me feel like complete crud, the cat urine.
Carmine's been peeing repeatedly on the carpet under my bed, it's just been soaking in, marinating if you will, and stinking like ammonia.
Ammonia can make you feel sick, it can clog up your nose, make you cough and gag, and yup, that's how I've been feeling for a few days.
I'll be so glad when the teens and I rip out the carpet in there today.

Here's the plan for today.
Wake up.
Eat something for breakfast.
Take a walk to CVS to get Sebastian his new migraine meds.
Come home and start tackling the bedroom carpet. To do this, the teens and I will need to dig out all of the boxes of stuff I have under the bed, salvage anything that can be saved if it's not all completely soaked in cat urine, and throw away anything that can't be saved.
Take off all my bedding and start the washer.
Take off and stand up the mattress and box spring up against the wall/closet doors.
Stand up the frame against the wall/closet doors too.
Move the alarm clock. table lamp, and filing cabinet/nightstand.
Move the bed risers to the tub to be washed in bleach.
Get the box cutter and garbage bags.
Start cutting away the carpet and padding underneath.
Bag it all up and throw it out in the trash cans.
Get a bucket of hot water with a combo of bleach and Clorox Green all purpose cleaner.
Scrub the bedroom floor.
Scrub it again.
Scrub it again.
Wash the floor 1 last time with the bleach/green cleaner combo, then let dry.
Then wash down the floor with Urine Gone and Pee Gone.
Let dry and do it again.
Re-wash bathroom and kitchen floors with the combo of Urine Gone and Pee gone, as well as Mark and Sebastian's bedroom floors after they clean all of the junk out from under their beds, throw away anything that may have been peed on, clean all of the floors thoroughly with the combo cleaners and let dry.
After all the floors are dry, set my bed back up.

The bathroom needs a deep clean again too after our mini-flood this past weekend.
I need to get in there and scrub the floor, the toilet, the tub, and the sink.
I think I'm going to have to replace the bathroom sink faucet really soon.
The "hot" knob, is starting to have to be turned really, really far to get it to shut off.
This is a sign that the threads are wearing down, and if I don't replace it soon, we're going to have a big problem.
I'm wishing I could afford to get a nice new Hansgrohe faucet set, but may have to settle for the clearance bin at the local hardware store.
Yes, I know, the landlord should replace it at his cost, but if I just go ahead and do it, don't bother him, he deducts it from the rent if I give him the receipt.
I like to not bother him with stuff I can do myself, he's a sheriff, a father of two young kids, his weekends are important to him, plus, he's been spending almost every weekend for the last 6 months trying to repair the damage my old duplex neighbors did so he can rent it out again.
Anyway, this is the faucet that is in there right now, and I'm pretty sure by looking at it, that it's the exact same faucet that they installed when they built the house in like 1979.
You can click it for bigger if you really want to see how bad it is.

Old1979faucet.jpg

















Oooh! I found a whole bunch of them on sale!
W00t!
I like this one, and this one, and this one too!
Those prices aren't too bad at all!
For some reason, I thought they were going to be crazy high prices, I've seen faucets before that cost well over $200, and there's no way I'd spend that much on a faucet in an apartment that I rent.
Now if I owned my own home, yeah sure, but not a rental.

Oh gosh!
I started writing this post at 4:10am, and it's now 5:02am!
I got so busy looking at all of the bathroom sink faucets, I completely lost track of time hahahah!

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When I needed it the most.

By
Kat
on February 24, 2009 5:42 PM |
I have been going through a rough patch these last few weeks, I'm stressed out and worried about the upcoming surgery whenever that will be, I had lost trust and faith in people due to some nasty people with nothing better to do than harass me online.
I'm no stranger that, but it's still never fun to deal with.
I've been tired but not sleeping, then sleeping when I should have been awake, having blood pressure issues, and just all kinds of stuff.

I lashed out at everyone around me, my kids, friends in the off line world, friends in the online world, I lashed out on the forums for my job.
I blew up, just absolutely exploded on everyone around me, I had reached my breaking point and exploded.
I felt terrible after I had done it, I deleted the thread on the work forums, I apologized to both my friends online and off, and have been trying to find other ways to deal with all of the issues that have come up in my life recently.
I've been doing a lot of laying down and listening to music, playing games, watching movies.
Maybe those things aren't exactly the way to deal with things, but they take my mind off of everything.

And then just when I needed to know I was cared about, that everything I do IS noticed, that people really do want me to be ok, people showed me that I was.
 
I told you how some friends all got together and sent me the NuWave Pro Oven that I had been wanting to get so that the teens won't have to eat junk food, and take-out or delivery food, while I recover from that upcoming surgery, and it really does rock, it's freaking awesome.
And then about 10 minutes ago, the FedEx guy knocked on the door.
Mark got up and answered it because I was laying down on the couch with 3 of the 4 kitties, (another stress reliever for me) and it was just an envelope.
The sent from address was from Publix, my local grocery store.
Inside, I found 3 gift cards for $100 each, but no note, no sent from name or address.
I laid there on the couch asking out loud, "Who sent these?!"
I couldn't figure out who sent them, I laid there racking my brain as to who could have sent them, and then I remembered an email I received earlier today in reply to 1 I sent out this morning, and this was written at the end of it;
       "Be on the lookout for something we sent over also."
So I *think* I know who sent it, I did email them, no reply yet*, but it has to be them.
They know who they are, so thank you, it helps me so so much, you don't even know.
Now I can go ahead and start stocking up on any meats that are on sale and stick them in the freezer so that the teens can cook for themselves with the NuWave oven, as well as get regular groceries too.
Money and food is always a source of stress in my life.
I have so many doctor's appointments to pay for, medicines that aren't covered by my insurance to pay for, and transportation to all of those appointments, that money left over for food is tricky.
I don't have a car and no license either, (Thanks State of Florida!) so getting everywhere I have to go is either by cab or friend with helping to pay for gas.
I swear, money issues is one of the things that keeps me awake at night.

So yeah, just when I needed it, just when I needed to know that people do care, that I don't have to lose all my faith in people for the stupid things other people do, people showed me that they do care, that I am not dealing with all of this stuff alone.

By the time I finished typing this, the people who sent the gift cards responded, it was them.
Thank you guys and staff, it is so very much appreciated.
 

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It's all so rushed, or is it really moving that fast?

By
Kat
on February 24, 2009 11:42 AM |
I'm sure most people have noticed how retailers start stocking the shelves for all of the various holidays long before the holiday is even close.
They start decorating for Halloween in August, Thanksgiving in September, Christmas in mid to late October, and then Valentines, St. Pattie's Day, Easter, they just rush through the holidays so fast, it makes us go faster.
We barely get done with one holiday before we move onto the next, and we all feel like pulling our hair out by the time New Year's comes around.

Well now that the major winter holidays are gone, they are already starting to get ready for the 4th of July around here.
I'm not kidding.
I'm already starting to see flags, stars, decorations, and summer time pool supplies for anyone having a pool party for the 4th.
It's not even March, Easter hasn't even gotten here yet, and stores are already starting to get things ready for July.
It's just all too rushed for my taste, slow it all down a bit, just relax a little bit, enjoy the days, enjoy the holiday that we're on, quit rushing to get to all of the other ones.
They'll get here when they get here.

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Is it time for new beds?

By
Kat
on February 19, 2009 4:55 PM |
As Mark was getting into bed last night, his bed make a wicked creaking noise, like it was breaking.
I said we'd have to take off the mattress and take a look at it today, I don't want him asleep and have the bed fall to the floor.
The bed frames are old, my sis bought them at a yard sale when we first moved here 12 years ago.
They were already about 10-15 years old then.
They are a solid pine set of bunk beds that can be taken apart and used as twin beds.
They've been a part for about 7 years now.

The teens are bigger now, taller, heavier, they may need new beds soon.
Their mattresses are still in good shape, but it seems that the really old bed frames are finally starting to fall apart.
Plus, the teens are bigger, taller, they are twin beds, but Mark is 6foot 2, and Sebastian is 6feet, so they are getting just a bit too tall for them.
I may have to start shopping around for new beds soon, especially if the wood is starting to break.

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Smooth Away product review.

By
Kat
on February 6, 2009 2:27 PM |
I was asked to try out a new hair removal product, and because of all my spine issues, not being able to bend, I said sure, why not!
I have such a difficult time shaving my legs due to my spine fusion surgeries, so I'm always on the lookout for new, easy to use, and good working hair removal products.

When the package showed up last week and I opened it, I had to laugh, it was a product that my teens and I laugh uncontrollably over every time we see the commercial for it.

In the big padded envelope was the product Smooth Away Hair Removal  with 2 Applicators + 24 Pads + Hair Inhibitor Moisturizer to use after your remove the hair.

Why do the teens and I laugh every time we see the commercial?
Because it's high grade sandpaper.
The Smooth Away pads are "covered with superfine crystals that buff away unwanted hair leaving your skin so soft and incredibly smooth."

Years ago, like when I was about 17, maybe 18, there was another product exactly like this put out by Sally Hansen, and I bought it to try it out.
I hated shaving because I was always nicking myself, I hadn't mastered the technique yet, and I lived in Maine where if you took a shower longer than 5 minutes in the winter, you would run out of hot water, and as most women know, cold water closes your pores, which pretty much makes sure that trying to shave your legs would be difficult.
The pores would be closed, my legs would be covered in goosebumps from the icy cold water, and so yeah, I'd nick my legs to death.

But when my Dad saw my purchase of the Sally Hansen product, he giggled, and said to me, "If you had told me you were going to buy some sandpaper to get rid of your leg hairs, I could have saved you some money. I have a whole box of sandpaper in the basement in all grades, I'm sure I've got one just like this down there, could have saved you your money."
Then he started laughing again.

But I had agreed to try out the Smooth Away and do a review of it, and so, I have tried it out.
I got it last week, and wanted to try it out for a whole week to be able to do a proper review of both the Smooth Away and the hair growth inhibitor moisturizer that came with it.
The Smooth Away does work, it really does, but it takes a bit of time to do it, much longer than shaving or waxing, much much longer than using Veet, but it does indeed work.

You take the handled buffing pad, and then remove the sticky backing from one of the Smooth Away pads, and stick it to the buffing pad.
Place about 3-4 fingers inside the handle, and start rubbing in a circular motion on the areas that you want to remove the hair from.
You have to rub in small circles several times in 1 area to remove the hair, so it does take a bit of time.
If you want to use this, I would suggest doing it the night before you need to be hair free, and set aside about an hour to do it.
I would suggest taking a shower, do not apply any lotion to your legs or arms, (if you remove your arm hairs) and then dry your legs thoroughly before starting.
The places you want to remove the hair from must be completely dry or it won't work, and it definitely doesn't work if you have any lotion on your skin.

I also tried out the hair growth inhibitor moisturizer lotion after removing the hair, and it's very silky, it leaves your skin feeling very soft and smooth, it has a very pleasant smell, and is a terrific moisturizer.
As for helping to stop new hair growth, it does an ok job as far as I can tell.
You have to apply it every day for several days after removing the hair with the Smooth Away pads, in order for it to get into the hair follicles and work, so after every shower, I applied the hair growth inhibitor moisturizer instead of my usual moisturizer, and I would say it doesn't stop new hair from growing, but it does slow it down.
I would wait about 5-10 minutes after removing the hair before applying the hair growth inhibitor moisturizer or any other lotion, so the skin has a chance to "calm down", or you may end up with a slight redness like I did the first time I tried it out.
My skin was slightly irritated, and so adding the moisturizer right away left it looking a little red.

As for exfoliating your skin, I suppose it works, it is a high grade sandpaper, so it does remove some dead skin from the top layer leaving you feeling a bit smoother after.
As for how long it lasts before you have to do it again, about the same amount of time as shaving, maybe a little less, because it's not lifting and cutting the hairs off, it's simply sloughing them away from the surface only.
You do get stubble when it regrows, but if you use the hair growth inhibitor lotion, they take more time to grow back and slightly less course hairs grow back, but there will still be stubble.

The kit I received comes with 2 handled buffing pad applicators, 1 for large areas like legs, arms, men's backs or chests, and 1 small handled buffing pad applicator 1 for the bikini line or upper lip and chin areas, 24 crystallized buffing pads, 12 large and 12 small,  and 1-4 ounce tube of of the hair growth inhibitor moisturizer, and 1 case to hold the pads and handled pad applicators, and it retails for about $29.99
They also offer smaller kits, with just the 1 large buffing pad and 1 small buffing pad, and only 10 crystallized hair removal pads. 
 

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This product does work, but it's not a good fit for me.
I cannot bend all the way down to reach my lower leg areas with a long handled razor, so trying to bend and reach down with my hand inside of a buffing pad, was impossible for me to do.
I managed to get to just above my calves with it, and then had to use my regular razor to remove the hairs below it. 

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Income tax refund shopping time!

By
Kat
on February 3, 2009 9:16 PM |
I am one of those people that loves to look at all of the things that I wish I had the money to buy, adds them to my wishlist, and then when I have the money, I make the decision among the 3-4 things I placed on my list.
But every time an online retailer says they are having a sale or they are Buy.com and always have weekly deals, I am so there checking them out.

Now that the digital converter box is is attached to the outside of the house, and all installed correctly inside, my tv is working and looking beautiful, I no longer really need to look at a new digital tv, so now I get to do some wishful shopping at other things I would like to have someday.

So now I'm looking at a laptop, this laptop to be exact, an Acer Aspire One A150.
I even like the color it comes in, the one pictured on the site, I don't know if it comes in other colors, but I like this sapphire blue one very much.
You can click the image to see it bigger, and also click the link to see other views of it.

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If I had a laptop, then on days when I'm not feeling well, having trouble moving around, sitting and stuff, I could lay in my bed and take advantage of our wireless router.

I could lay in my bed, be all toasty and warm under my comforter, have my kitties at my side, and get some work done.
My blogs have been totally neglected the last few days, and generally get neglected whenever the weather kicks me down, so having a laptop, I could work in bed.
I could post to my blogs, I could read everyone else blogs, I could stay on top of everything instead of laying in bed or on the couch feeling miserable and guilty because I'm letting people down.
I don't know if other people see me being absent as letting them down, it's just how I feel.
I have tremendous guilt when I'm not able to get my work done due to my health, or help people with things they need help with.

Anyway, I really like this laptop, and I love Acer computers anyway.
I now own 2 Acers, mine and the one I bought my sons, they are great computers, never have any issues with them, they are wicked easy to upgrade and just a wicked nice product at great prices.
Buy.com's normal price is $389.00, and right now they have it at $50.00 off, making it just $329.00.
That's a really great price, plus, as always, free shipping!
I love how they always have free shipping on almost every single item they sell, that's a huge bonus, especially in today's economy.
Paying shipping on large and/or expensive items, can be a deciding factor in whether or not people actually buy the product, so yeah, free shipping is a major bonus.

Here's just a few of it's features which make me want this Acer Aspire One A150 laptop even more;
It has a 160GB HDD, 8.9" WSVGA, 802.11b/g, Webcam, Multi-in-one card reader, and it has Microsoft XP Home which I absolutely love.
All of our computers have been Windows XP home, and it's by far the easiest version of Windows to work with.
Another feature that is awesome for me because I'm still on weight-lifting restrictions and will be for a very long time to come, (another surgery coming up soon) it only weighs 2.2lbs.
I'm still only allowed to lift things that weigh 5lbs or less, so yeah, a super lightweight laptop would be awesome for me!
All of the reviews of the Acer Aspire One A150 are really, really good too, everyone who has purchased it, according to the reviews, absolutely loves it, the only negative thing most reviews are saying is that it doesn't have a dvd drive, but all of them that said that, said they used a portable usb dvd drive, and that made it perfect to use in their opinions.

So now when I get my taxes back, I might just have to get this laptop.
Even though it probably won't be part of the weekly deals anymore, it's still an incredible buy at $389.00.
My sister just got a new Dell laptop with about the same exact features a few months ago, and it cost about 4 times as much as this one, and the features are almost duplicate except that hers does have a dvd drive.
So yeah, total no-brainer, I'm seriously thinking this will be part of my income tax refund shopping.
This and a new cell phone.

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I love freebies!

By
Kat
on January 23, 2009 1:10 PM |
Times are tough these days, we moms have t be super careful with our money, we can't just buy anything like we used to, and companies are out there trying to help us save some money.

My mom sent me some coupons, and several of them have some free promotional products along with them.
Buy 1 and save $1, but also get a free smaller size of the product.
I love that!
One of the coupons is to save $1 on Febreze, and then get a smaller travel size of it as well.
There's a few more coupons like that too, and I love it when companies help me save money and give me something else for free too.

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They need to be trained better.

By
Kat
on January 22, 2009 8:15 PM |
I received a Visa gift card for Christmas from a friend, and I went to use it the other day.
I went through the regular checkout as I had other purchases and was going to use the card in full to pay for part of my purchase.
Now either the cashier doesn't understand how Visa gift cards work, or she wasn't trained very well on the  POS systems that the grocery store uses.
I think she wasn't trained correctly.

I worked in retail and grocery for many years as well as many other types of work, so I know those systems really well myself.
The cashier tried like 5 times to get it to take and she couldn't get it to go.
I explained it to her, enter the amount, $25, hit credit, hit enter, done, she said no, it doesn't work that way.
She finally gave up and had to call a manager over who did it exactly as I told her to, and it was done in like 3 seconds.
I looked at the cashier, her face turned red, and the manager explained it to her exactly as i had said.
The cashier apologized, but the line behind me was now long and the people were visibly upset, but hey, not my fault, the store should have trained her how to use the gift cards instead of having to call for help when she couldn't figure it out.

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Matching, Cabbage kids, and lava lamps.

By
Kat
on January 15, 2009 12:13 AM |
I forgot to post this earlier, got sidetracked with some pressing issues, but the bedding that I ordered for all of us came in today.
I didn't take pics of the ones the boys got, they just got solid colored comforters, Mark in red, Sebastian in blue, that's what they asked for and got, but I wanted a nice looking bedding set that matched.
An adult-ish looking set.
I've spent most of my life with matching sheets, but with a wide variety of old blankets, comforters that didn't match, but were warm, but they often got swiped by a child who "loved it", so it was time for me to have an adult set, something grown up looking and fully matching.
So I bought a wine colored jacquard set with comforter, matching pillow shams, and matching bed skirt as well.
It's really very nice, all of them are good quality, nice and thick, super warm.

I put the skirt on by myself, didn't lift the mattress up, just slid it on between the mattress and box spring, it went on very easy.
Then I put my deep purple/wine-ish colored sheets back on fresh out of the dryer, put the comforter on, and before I could even put the pillows in the shams, all 4 of the cats came running in and hopped on my bed to check it out.
They all sleep with me every night, I think that's because I don't move while I sleep, I can't, so if I don't roll around, they don't get squished or kicked off or anything.
Sleeping with 4 cats is like sleeping with an electric vibrating blanket.
They all purr all night long.
It gets sooo hot with them on my bed in the summer.

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Yes, I know my bed isn't centered in the middle of the headboard.
Long story, will fix it eventually.

Yes, that is a Cabbage Patch Kid on my nightstand/file cabinet.

Yes, that is a lava lamp on my nightstand/file cabinet too.
I love lava lamps.
During the first few weeks of my first back surgery when all I could so was lay in bed, I would turn it on and watch it warm up slowly, then the bubbles would start going up really slow one at a time, then big fat ones, then it would get faster, and then it would slow down again into  giant blobs.
It was soothing to just lay there and watch it while listening to music.
I would be in so much pain when I first went in to lay down, but after a little music and some soothing lava bubbles, the pain meds would finally kick in, and I'd forget just how badly I hurt.

Oh, and the little stuffed kitty sitting with the Cabbage Patch doll is what the teens bought me while I was in surgery.
They always buy me a little stuffed thing from the gift shop, the nurses put it in my hand when I'm back in my room to recover so when I wake up, I have it and know that my boys were there and thinking of me.

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Final update on ABC Distributing and an apology.

By
Kat
on January 13, 2009 12:55 PM |
As I had said, if this all turned out to be my banks fault, I would apologize to ABC Distributing in email and here on my blog, so I am.

Melissa from ABC Distributing has been working on this like she said to me in email, by phone, and even leaving a comment on my blog, and she finally got to the bottom of the excessive shipping/hold money in the amount of $146.04.

ABC's billing specialist spoke with someone from my credit card company, Demetria, and she said that they released the hold on 1/5/09.
Well no, they actually hadn't, I would have noticed it, I would have seen it, I scoured my online CC statements repeatedly because that is a lot of money to be held for so long.

After Melissa emailed me that information this morning, I logged into my CC records online, and what do ya know?
My account balance is magically $146.04 more than what I had in there last night, and really early this morning around 5:45am when I got up with the teens to go to school.
I've been obsessively checking my account balance since this whole thing started as I said in this post.
I have been super duper careful with my money since this all started, I've been checking the balance daily, on some days, I checked it nearly every hour, I went over it with a fine tooth comb, the find feature in my browser, I used a regular calculator and the calculator that comes with the accessories on my pc.
I had my son look it over, they did not release the hold on 1/5/09, they released it this morning sometime before Melissa emailed me around 9:45am.

I prefer to shop online because I don't handle large crowds too well, I absolutely hate going to places like the Westgate mall because of the large crowds of rude and pushy people, and I probably could have found these same comforters at the mall or another brick and mortar store, but I don't like having to go shopping at stores, I don't have the transportation to go shopping all of the time either, so shopping online is how I have to do things.
But when shopping online you do take a risk, and I'm usually very careful which retailers I shop with, I've only shopped at the most well known and trusted online retailers for years and years now, and this experience, while not ABC Distributings fault, it really turned me off.
I was very, very upset, I felt like I had been ripped off big time, and as I posted and other bloggers posted to their blogs trying to help me and spread the word, people who read those blogs started to leave comments about ABC Distributing , making me feel like an even bigger idiot for not doing my online shopping homework. (Thanks Charlotte)

But Melissa really did do what she said she was going to do, and that was to get to the bottom of this.
She emailed me, she called me for my credit cards phone number so they could call them, and they told her they had released the hold on the 5th, which they did not.
So my anger was entirely misplaced.
I should have been angry at my bank, and I am, they have already been called and I've yelled at them this morning after getting Melissa's email about it, and seeing the hold money appear in my account this morning, so I do owe ABC Distributing an apology for making such a huge stink over this.
What happened was not their fault, even though at the time due to the way the statements looked, it appeared that way.

So I am truly sorry to ABC Distrbuting for making such a huge fuss, and I apologized to Melissa in an email reply to her this morning explaining that it's such a large amount of money to lose or to be held for so long, especially in this economy, and she completely understood.

I also want to thank everyone for all of their help and support during this whole thing.
I was totally losing my mind at the thought of being ripped off, I had no idea what to do or how to do it, and so many wonderful people came here and let comments, Twittered it, blogged it, and helped me get some attention to this, which I believe, is why they investigated this so thoroughly and found the answer.
So to all of you who helped me, thank you, and to ABC Distributing, I am sorry for making such a huge fuss over something that was not your fault, and thank you for lighting the fire that made my bank really release the hold on the funds.

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The necklace won from Gemaffair.com arrived today!

By
Kat
on January 12, 2009 6:38 PM |
The necklace I won from GemAffair.com on one of their Twitter contests, arrived today, and it is so beautiful!
Katy included a personal note to me along with an informative sheet about jewelry and gemstones, what stone goes with which month for birthdays and anniversaries, but I really liked that she included the personal touch to say something about me.

"Enjoy your pendant and good luck w/powerball!
Katy & the GemAffair.com team"

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The pendant I won is a diamond journey pendant, but not one of the usual squiggle line journey pendants you usually see.
It's in sterling silver and shaped like a ladder sort of, not really sure what name this shape is called, but it totally suits me, I absolutely love it!
How did Katy know that I'm a sterling silver kind of girl?
No matter, it really is perfect for me, as soon as I opened it and saw it, I loved it!
You can click for bigger to see it better.

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Thank you so so much Katy and GemAffair.com, I love it!

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So sleepy yet not.

By
Kat
on January 9, 2009 11:08 PM |
Once again, my body is simply exhausted, I know I over did things today, so I tried to go to bed like an hour ago.
Nope.
My eyes wouldn't shut, my brain wouldn't shut off, insomnia strikes again.
I can take naps like nobodies business on my couch, but my bed seems to make me wake up.
It's not that it's uncomfortable, it's very comfortable, but it's not like it's one of those sleep number bed deals.
It's just a standard spring coil mattress.
Oh well.

So I decided to get up and do some organizing and stuff, and went on the hunt for a really good coupon organizer.
I don't like the little accordion folder I have, it's sloppy.
I want like a binder with clear pockets so that I can put all of my coupons in it and take it with me, and then as I go through the store I can just flip through it as I see things on sale and want and need, and see if I have a coupon for that item.
You wouldn't believe how much professional coupon organizers go for, it's nuts.
So I have a brand new binder that was left over from school shopping, 1 of the teens didn't need it, and I'm going to get some clear pocket inserts from like a card or hobby shop, for like baseball cards ya know?
And I'll just make my own coupon binder.
It's way cheaper to do it that way.

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Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.

By
Kat
on January 9, 2009 7:43 PM |
I try so hard to be good with my money, I am attempting to pay off some debts slowly, not buy things that we don't need, don't buy all of those impulse food or other items in the grocery store end caps and checkout lanes, and I always try to find the best buy that I possibly can on every single thing that I do buy.

I am completely current on all of my monthly utility bills, I paid off 3 old medical bills, I canceled the 2 magazine subscriptions that I had, I have been working on paying down 5 other old bills, 4 medical and 1 really old shop by catalog debt that I had with one of those big named catalog order places. (give you a hint, it's initials are F.H.)
I have owed on that one for like 6 years, and I am paying it off now that I can start counting on a pretty typical monthly income.

I've got my budget all worked out for every month, and I'm doing really good so far.
I know I splurged a little bit when I got my reimbursement, but I also took that money and paid my rent, all of this months bills, and paid off those 3 old medical bills, so I think I'm doing better than I have been in the past.
I'm trying so hard to get my finances in order this year, really get a good grip on them, pay things off, start putting some money away if I can, so that's why this situation burns me up so bad.
Like Jade said in my comments, "because not everyone always has an extra $150 that they can afford to have tied up", and that's my issue with the whole thing.
I really can't afford to have my money tied up like that, not when I'm trying so hard to tackle my finances this year.
I've even taken Oprah up on her offer to get Suze Orman's newest book for free, "Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan".
I'm going to download it, read it, and implement it.
I'm going to take control of my money as best I can this year, so I can't be having my money tied up, I can't be spending money on stuff we don't need, no more impulse buys, and I plan on using more coupons every single time I go grocery shopping.
I didn't take any with me last night and I should have.
Quite a few of the items I bought, I realized I had coupons for when I got back home.
D'oh!
I did save some money though, Publix was having a pretty decent sale, and I managed to save $17.87 in in-store and advertised savings anyway.
If I had brought my coupons, I could have saved an additional $13.00.
Oh well, live and learn, and get a new coupon organizer soon.

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ABC is investigating.

By
Kat
on January 9, 2009 2:16 PM |
Melissa from ABC Distributing left a comment on my first entry about this, and said the following;

  Dear Kat,
It appears that you are reading our statements incorrectly. Rest assured that we did not in fact charge you $141.88 total for S/H. The total amount we charged you for S/H was less than $18. The amount of $141.88 was the total amount for the product and S/H together. If your billing statement shows differently, please email me at helpline@ltdcommodities.com and I will further investigate this issue. Thank you, Melissa Martinez abc distributing

I'm not reading my CC statement incorrectly at all.
There are 3 charges in the debit column from ABC Distributing,

01/08/2009 01/08/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI 2800 LAKESIDE BANNOCKBURN US USA 5444009008603385576597 ($95.80)
01/06/2009 01/06/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI 2800 LAKESIDE BANNOCKBURN US USA 5444009006601061862937 ($46.08)
12/28/2008 01/05/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI BA 630935368885 ($146.04)

They are saying that the first amount, $146.04, is a hold amount, and that the other 2 amounts, $46.08 and $95.80, are the actual charges that I was charged.
That once they actually shipped the items, that this is what I was actually charged per item;

Invoice number 15219656-4 item JQI, JACQUARD COMFORTER SET, product cost $34.95 shipping $7.72 handling $0.40 tax $3.01 total $46.08
 
Invoice number 15220549-8 item K2G, KING COMFORTER SET, product cost $46.95 shipping $4.64 handling $0.40 tax $3.64 total $55.63
 
Invoice number 15228159-8 item VUO, DOWN FREE COMFORTER, product cost $32.95 shipping $4.19 handling $0.40 tax $2.63 total $40.17

Now I admit, that would make total sense, I know how holds work, but I have gone over my online CC statement with a fine tooth comb using the "find" feature in my browser to search for "ABC".
I went through the all transaction tab, all pending, all debits, all loads, and all fees, multiple times now.
In both the all transactions and the all debits sections, there are the 3 debits listed from ABC;

01/08/2009 01/08/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI 2800 LAKESIDE BANNOCKBURN US USA 5444009008603385576597 ($95.80)
01/06/2009 01/06/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI 2800 LAKESIDE BANNOCKBURN US USA 5444009006601061862937 ($46.08)
12/28/2008 01/05/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI BA 630935368885 ($146.04)

Those are all debits, anything listed in parenthesis is a debit, and in both all transactions and the all debits, they are in parenthesis.
I've also been keeping a very close eye on my spending, my balances every single day.
I've specifically made sure to not use this card for any other shopping.
I did withdraw my rent money for this month from an ATM, and made sure that I kept track of the ATM fees as well as my card fees for using the cash withdrawal option to get money instead of charging the rent.
If I withdraw cash, I get assessed a .95cents fee per transaction, and because the ATMs in my area only allow me to withdraw a max of $200 in $20 increments per transaction, I had to make 4 withdrawals to get my rent money out.
3 for $200 each, and 1 for $80 because my rent is $675 per month, so, my totals for withdrawing and fees is $689.80.
I spent nothing after doing that, and no money was placed back, but money kept going out.
The original charge of $146.04, then $46.08, and then $95.80.

I'm not crazy, I know how holds work, there is no hold amount on my statement anywhere, just the 3 debit amounts.
So, I emailed Melissa exactly what my CC statement says which is the above debit amounts, and hopefully she's investigating.
It is possible that my CC statement has not yet posted the hold amount, anything is possible, and if that is the case, I will apologize, but these items were purchased on the 28th, and have now all been shipped, and there is no change in my account balance at all, I am still seeing a total amount for this purchase at $287.92, which is exactly how much I posted in this entry.

The kids had a half day at school today, and I had Mark look at the debits column, told him to find anything that says ABC, and even he sees 3 debits from ABC in those amounts, I'm not crazy, I know what I'm looking at.
I have to keep a close eye on my finances because I have to.
I'm a single parent, disabled, I only get so much money every month, I have to keep excellent banking records or everything get screwed up.
I hope that they can get to the bottom of it, if it's my banks fault and they didn't post the hold removal, I will apologize to ABC in both email and here on my blog, I'm not a vindictive person, I wouldn't just let them go on having a bad rap because of me, so I will post a full retraction and apology if this is my banks fault, so I really do hope that they get to the bottom of this and tell me what happened.

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ABC Distributing is a rip off.

By
Kat
on January 8, 2009 2:44 PM |
I sent an email to ABC Distributing customer service over the outrageous shipping charges they charged me for the 3 comforters, and they sent the following reply back;

"Dear Customer,
Thank you for writing abc distributing.
A copy of the shipping statement has been mailed to the mailing address provided.
Please review the information and contact us if you have any further questions or comments. We value your business.
If you have any questions in the future, please let us know.
Sincerely,
John Marquette
abc eCommerce Customer Support
abc distributing"


So they are snail mailing me an itemized statement that outlines how they came to decide the crazy high shipping charges that they have charged me for the shipping of the 3 comforters.
Two are full/queen sized, and 1 is king sized, but the 1 they shipped separately is mine, it's a queen, and they charged me $46.08 to ship a comforter and box that weighs 9.40 lbs.
I copied down the tracking number they gave me for UPS and went to the site and pasted it in.
The box weighs less than 10lbs, but somehow they determined that it should cost $46.08.
I can't wait to see that itemized statement on how they figured out that was the right amount to charge for that.

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I've sent boxes weighing 25-35lbs from Florida to Maine and it cost me less than $30, so how they got that amount for a box weighing less than 10lbs is sure going to be interesting.

Christine is mad about this as well, and to prove that I'm being ripped, she went to 2 different shopping sites and put 3 full/queen comforters in her shopping cart and went to checkout to see the shipping charges.
Go read the far better prices those sites gave her.

The even shittier thing about this if I return the comforters, all they will refund me is the purchase price, not the shipping charges.
That's how they make so much money.
Sure, you get a really good deal on what you buy, but they make their profit from the shipping charges.
So when the comforters get here, the 1st package is supposed to be here today according to ABC's shipment tracking they sent me, even though UPS has only received the billing information, but if when it gets here it's a total piece of shit and I want to return it, or all of them, I have to pay to ship them back and I will only be refunded the purchases price, not any of the shipping costs or the return shipping costs.
I'm confused about whether or not they will do reverse shipping charges if I send them back, it's confusing I admit.

To the people who recommended ABC Distributing to me in the first place, I could fucking shoot you right now.
Did you not pay attention to how much they charged you for the shipping of your bedding when you bought it?!

The first posts in this whole thing are here and here.

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Never ordering from ABC Distributing again!!!

By
Kat
on January 7, 2009 11:59 PM |
In the post below, I talked about the crazy high shipping charge that ABC Distributing charged me to ship just one of the comforters I bought for us, and now they are finally shipping the other 2 as one shipment, but the price is the exact same as if they were shipping them separately!

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Ok, so the comforters cost me $146.04, the 1st shipping charge was $46.08, the 2nd shipping charge is $95.80, so my total for the 3 comforters is $287.92.
That is crazy!
The shipping charges are almost exactly the same price as what I bought!
$287.92 divided by 2 = $143.96
It's only off by $2.08.
The 2 comforters in one shipment are being shipped at the cost of $47.90 each!

I would return them and get my money back when they get here, but their return policy is that you can return them, but ONLY for the price of the product, NOT the shipping charge.

"What is your return policy? "
"If you are not completely satisfied with all or part of your order, simply return it to us for a replacement, credit or refund on your invoice for the purchase price."
 
Never again.
Never.
I learned my lesson big time and the hard way.
Never buy anything from ABC Distributing ever!

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Not liking ABC Distributing very much.

By
Kat
on January 7, 2009 4:21 PM |
Several people had told me that they got some really great deals on new bedding from ABC Distributing, so I went and looked up, found, and bought all of us new comforters for our beds from them.
They were really good deals, good fabric, nice colors, great low prices.
That's about as good as the shopping experience gets.

I figured out their game and I am not happy.
I ordered 3 comforters all at the same time, paid for all 3 of them at the same time, and they tell you that shipping will be calculated at time of shipping.
So I figured that they would ship all 3 of them at the same time and I'd get one extra charge on my card for the shipping.
Not so.

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As you can see, they are shipping each of them separately.
The first shipment has gone out and I checked my CC online, they are charging me $46.80 to ship just one of them.
I have this gut feeling that they are going to ship the other 2 out separately too, and charge me $40-$50  for each shipment.
If that happens, I will never order from them again.
2 shipments at separate shipping charges I can deal with, all 3 shipped separately, I can't, especially at such high shipping charges.

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Kenmar Watches.

By
Kat
on January 4, 2009 8:08 PM |
I never did find Mark a really good watch like I wanted to get him for his birthday last year, so I'm still on the hunt for a good one.
I found some really decent Festina watches at Kenmar Watches.com, and I really liked how easy their site was to navigate as well as their wide selection of all kinds of watches.

festina_36913.jpg I really like this one, it's very nice, stainless steel, water resistant, quartz movement, and not bad for price at all.


Kenmar Watches is so easy to navigate and find what you are looking for.
If you know the brand name you are looking for, just type it in the search box and it goes straight there, and then gives you options on the side to narrow down your search to find exactly the watch, style, and price range you want.
They have a banner on their site that says if you order by 2pm EST, you'll be wearing your watch in 24 hours.
I may just have to test that out if and when I do order a watch for Mark.
He'll be turning 18 this year, graduating high school, so this is the year that I'll be buying him his first big grown up men's watch.

I think a nice watch helps a man look good, feel good, and be on time for things like job interviews, class or whatever.
Mark will be attending the police academy as soon as he can when school lets out this summer.
He has to take a few classes at MCC, and a few at SCTI, and then on to the academy he goes.
He has several references from officers and his Big, George, who was a detective in Washington DC for 25 years, so he's got some really outstanding references to help him get in.
He always knew that he'd be in some type of law oriented job field all while growing up.
He went back and forth between lawyer and police officer, and he's finally settled on police officer.
I'm very proud of him, so I'm definitely going to keep digging around the site and find the absolute most perfect watch for him.

I'm going to start asking him some questions here and there like silver or gold, what's your favorite out of the two?
Metal or leather? (for the wrist band)
Plain or fancy? (for the watch face)
If fancy, would he like a color like blue or red?
Sporty or fancy? (for the whole watch itself)
I really want to find him the perfect grown up watch for a grown up young man, but I also want it to be something that he will wear every single day.
If he doesn't like my choice, he won't wear it, he'll just put it away for safe keeping like he does with so many of the "fancy" things people have given him over the years.
I may even let him look around the site and find one he likes himself, I'll play it cool though and say something like, if some parents wanted to get their son a watch for graduation, which one would you think the boy would want? If it was you, which one would you actually wear?
I'll tell him it's for a job I have to do, and that way he'll help me pick one out without knowing it's for him.
Heh.

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After the new year!

By
Kat
on December 10, 2008 6:14 PM |
My surgeon wasn't there today, he was in surgery, but I saw one of the other surgeons and also spoke to his nurse Cindy, about the revision surgery.
I explained all of what's been going on with me, and the whole choking to death when I puke issue, and she agreed that we need to do this ASAP.

She asked me what I was doing in the next couple of weeks, and I told her spending Christmas with my sons, but I'm totally on a free schedule after the 1st of the year.
She said ok, said she'd talk to him about it, get his nurse Cindy up to speed, and Cindy will also talk with him about it, and then she'll call me with a date for the revision surgery.

I'm so freaking happy!!!!!
I know when, well sorta, it will be either in January or February, and it will also be back at the hospital I had my A/P spine fusion at in 2006, Mease Countryside.
No more icky, horrible, super religious St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa.
Yay!
This makes me way happy for a number of reasons, and I'll post about them at some point.
Things happened during my surgery at St. Joe's, and also the staff there was just really bad.
In ICU, the nurses were so freaking fantastic, but when you have several ICU nurses tell you they are trying everything they can to keep you in ICU as long as possible because once moved over to the women's floor, "You won't be cared for properly", speaks volumes about the kind of care the nursing staff provides over there, and they were right, a world of difference in the care received.

But anyway, we left the doc's with good news, and then came back down here and went and did a little grocery shopping, and I almost choked at how much milk Mindy's family goes through every week.
3 gallons!
OMG! I would flip out if I had to buy that much milk every week at $3.99 per gallon.
We go through a single half gallon a week, if I buy a gallon, it ends up going bad before it's at the halfway mark.

Then I came home and started looking for my external tape drives or hard drives thingy, whatever it's called, that I had tucked away in a drawer. I have some files stored on it that I need for my medical stuff from that surgery in 2006, but I can't find the dang thing.
That means one of two things.
I either put it in the giant box of spare computer parts, keyboards, monitors, internal hard drives, and other assorted computer stuff, that's in the closet, or I tossed it out in the trash when I ditched some computer towers about 8 months or so ago.
I really hope it's in the giant box of parts, I need those files.
Ack!

Ok, off to eat dinner and watch The Dark Knight  with the teens.
Later days!

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Black Friday craziness.

By
Kat
on November 28, 2008 11:57 AM |
People are out there shopping today, Black Friday, and taking advantage of all of the pretty good deals retailers are having.
One of the big chain furniture stores is having a really awesome sale today, and along with showing off their newest line of clean-lined modern furniture, they are also doing a gift card deal.
If you buy $100 worth of furniture or home decor, they give you a gift card for $100.
Considering this is a furniture store, shoppers can easily walk away with up to a couple thousand in gift cards.
It's a matching dollar for dollar sale/deal, and that's really awesome.
I wish I had the money to spend just to get those gift cards for later use, they have no expiration dates and none of those no usage fees on them either.
One of the guys on the local forums went out this morning and bought a new living room set, and walked out with $2,000 in gift cards to use later or give away as gifts for Christmas.

But I never go shopping on Black Friday unless I absolutely have to.
People get really crazy trying to grab up all of the good deals, and they will trample you to death just to get in the store.
A Walmart employee was trampled to death as he opened the store this morning.
He was bum rushed by over 200 people as he unlocked and opened the doors.
A woman at the same store, was knocked to the ground and had a miscarriage after being trampled as well.
People are savages when trying to get a good bargain.
The incident was caught on store security cameras.
These people are savages.

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Through winter snow, the scarf's a flying.

By
Kat
on November 8, 2008 1:59 AM |
Mark's Big and his wife Amy, gave me a gorgeous silk scarf a few years ago for Christmas.
It's this really beautiful long silk tie or scarf, whatever you call it depending on where you were raised.
The base color is white, and it has hand embroidered red and pink roses with various shades of green for the stems and leaves.
I don't wear it often, but when I do, I get tons of compliments on it.
I think Amy used to sell them at her store down in St. Armand's Circle.
She sold her shop for quite a nice profit last year sometime.
Amy used to sell a huge selection of products from all over for a bunch of high end items.
She sold a ton of really awesome beauty products that I could never afford, but she used to give me some products sometimes.
She also sold scarves like the one she gave me, silk ties shirts, dresses, skirts, wine, candles, all kinds of stuff. It was a really beautiful store right down in the circle.
I love going there, but I can't walk it much anymore, but when I do go, my last stop before leaving is always the Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop, for a small cone with some Phish Food.
Yum.

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All I've got is a photograph.

By
Kat
on October 26, 2008 6:01 PM |
I love taking pictures, I'm ok at it, not great, not nearly as good as this chick is, but I still love to take pictures.
I take my little Sony Cybershot with me practically everywhere I go, just in case I see something cool to take a picture of.
I would love to get a really nice camera someday, not saying mine isn't nice or that it doesn't take good pictures, it does, but I'd love to have like a really nice Nikon someday.

So I went in search of Nikon cameras and found this one which has a great rating, and also found this one which has an awesome rating, but wow, that's a lot of money.
And I also found this one because that's the one that Robyn is now using for her picture taking business.
Most of those super nice Nikons are expensive, like way too much for me to ever dream of buying, and they don't even come with a lens, you have to buy those separately. *blink*
But I kept searching for nice cameras, I was just using the term "Nikon" in Google, and I found Nikon rifle scopes,
They make rifle scopes?
Yuppers, they sure do.
Now those I could afford, but you can't exactly attach a rifle scope to a camera.
I'll just have to keep saving my pennies, or maybe with next year's tax return, I could afford to buy the D70 or something.

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Shopping confessions contest.

By
Kat
on October 26, 2008 4:23 PM |
I posted about eBillme's shopping confessions contest over on My Single Mom Life, so you might want to go check that out, and if you feel like stumbling it, that would be awesome.
Grassy Ass.

Oh, and one of these days, I'm going to be doing some cooking with all of those gadgets I have, and probably set the house on fire.
I saw the coolest new gadget on an infomercial today.
An indoor deep fryer big enough to do a 20lb turkey.
Thanksgiving deep fried turkey without the fear of a huge backyard fire, and I won't blow up the house!

Time to get some home insurance just in case I burn the house down eh?

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I'm all about saving money and maybe winning some.

By
Kat
on October 26, 2008 3:23 PM |
One of the reasons I keep my house so dark, as I posted about earlier, was because it saves me money.
Having your curtains and blinds open during the hot months let's heat in, making your ac have to work harder to keep you cooler.
I'm also a huge nag, just ask the teens, about turning off lights and other appliances like fans, computer monitors, etc etc, when people leave rooms.
I do have lamps in every room, but I like to keep it dark and only turn them on when we need to see something, or if someone comes by and says it's too dark in here.

And because I'm all about saving money, I have slowly been buying the new energy saving CFL bulbs, and when I replaced one in the kitchen this morning*, I noticed it had a sweepstakes thingy on the package.
You can enter to win $25,000 to redecorate your home, no purchase needed, so go ahead an enter.
If I won, I'd definitely go and buy some really nice but discount furniture to redecorate my home with.
I'd hit the sales, the build it yourself furniture stores, clearance sections, wherever I had to go to make that $25,000 stretch as far as possible so that I could do every single room.
Get both boys and myself new beds, new dressers, some new living room furniture, a new pc desk and chair for me, all kinds of stuff, and I know with that kind of money, I really could do every room in our house, and have money left over to do other things with.
I pride myself on thrifty.

*When I replaced that bulb, I noticed that I had replaced the 2nd bulb in that light awhile ago, probably about 3 months ago, and anyway, it has an old fashioned screw on light cover which collects dust and little moths and other bugs that are attracted to light.
I clean this out every time we have to change the bulbs, but with the new CFL's, they can last up to 5 years.
Yes, 5 years.
Sad to say, I admit that the only time I clean this light shade is when we have to replace the bulbs.
Can you imagine how many bugs are going to be in it in 5 years?
Ha!

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Weight loss products galore.

By
Kat
on October 26, 2008 12:51 AM |
In my situation, I am always trying to lose weight, always looking for the best ways to help me lose weight, control my appetite, curb my cravings for sweets and carbs, and it's not always easy.
I am currently using a product, I haven't noticed much of a change in weight or appetite suppression yet, but I'm still giving it a good try.
I am also attempting to find other people's stories of using it, product reviews, and I'm not finding hardly anything at all, but I am finding tons of other posts for  orovo reviews, and tons and tons of other weight loss product reviews, but none, or hardly none, for the one I am using.
Maybe it's because it's far too new on the market or people just aren't using it or something.
I'm really hoping that I will start to see some results from it soon or I'll just stop using it.
It's pointless for me to take a product that isn't doing diddly squat to help me.

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By next year this time, I may have 2 teen drivers in the house.

By
Kat
on October 25, 2008 9:29 AM |
Next June Sebastian will be turning 16, and will be legally old enough to get his drivers license if he keeps his grades and attendance up at school.
He's been studying and taking the practice permit tests online, and once he gets a booklet, he'll be able to study everything, and then go get his permit.
And then if Mark decides he's finally ready to drive, I'll have two licensed drivers in the house, and will be in some super serious need of some super duper cheap auto insurance to go with the super duper cheap car that we might be able to afford.
Or them to afford.

I really wish that the seasons weren't so screwed up here in Florida.
Tourists come here from like right before Thanksgiving, and go home right after Easter.
What that means is, if your teen needs a seasonal job, they have to be able to do it during the school year, during winter, whereas up north, seasonal jobs are when school is out, during the summer.
I really am putting some serious thought into both of the teens going up north for this coming summer to visit with the family, and be able to work.
They could work at the amusement park like I talked about awhile ago, make tons of money, and then come home in time for school to start, buy a nice used car off of some little old widow who kept her car in perfect condition with tune-ups and oil changes right on schedule for the entire time the car was owned, for about $500 or less.
I'm not even joking about that.

The old people here, mostly the widows, sell their perfect Oldsmobile's in mint condition for really super cheap prices just to get rd of it.
Most of the time, they don't know and don't care about Kelly Blue Book value, they just have no need for the car anymore, and want it gone.
I went car shopping with my old friend once when her van "Scooby" was acting up, and we just drove around the retirement villages and neighborhoods where only old people lived, and there would literally be at least a dozen cars for sale at any given time, all in impeccable shape, tune-ups, oil changes, all of the paperwork and receipts in the glove box organized by year, new tires, non-stained, super clean upholstery, almost like brand new cars, selling for anywhere between $100 to $700.
The widows never sold the cars for more than that because they'd get penalized on their benefits or something for earning a large lump sum of money, but they didn't need the car anymore anyway.
They bought new ones.

My friend ended up getting a Mercury, can't remember the make and model, but it was a mint condition car with less than 10,000 mile on it, for $300 cash.
It was so nice, it had an awesome working AC in it, and we loved that because that was one of the reasons she needed to get rid of Scooby, his ac croaked, and you do not want to be driving around in a van with no ac in Sarasota in the middle of July.
Talk about sweat!
Aieysh!

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Idle hands up all night.

By
Kat
on October 24, 2008 4:23 AM |
I must have caught up on sleep over the last few days while I wasn't feeling well, because as you can see, it's now a little after 4am EST, and here I am wide awake again.
*sigh*
So I've spent most of the night forum posting, reading blogs, and just looking at stuff for the upcoming holidays.
Did you know that a good majority of internet retailers are already starting to advertise for the 2008 Black Friday start of the holiday shopping season?
They are.
Tons of sites are leaking out links for all of the black Friday sales.
The black holiday sales start on the Friday after Thanksgiving, so that's the 28th of November this year.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I was thinking about this, and talking to my sister about it yesterday too.
Because I just had surgery, I can't bend over to pick stuff up, and I can't lift anything over 5lbs, so what the heck am I going to do for our Thanksgiving dinner?
I decided that I'm just going to go and get a Honeybaked ham for our dinner.
They don't just do hams, they make all the side dishes too, so I can go there and get a ham, mashed potatoes, a veggie side dish, stuffing if we want it, a broccoli rice casserole, or garlic mashed potatoes.
That actually sounds really yummy right now, I love garlic mashed taters!
They make a ton of different sides you can buy separately, or order in like combo packs.
I may end up doing the Honeybaked thing for Christmas too if I am still on restriction then as well.
I have another post-op appointment on December 10th, so if he says that I still can't lift more than 5lbs, I'll end up having to get my holiday meals already done up for me.

I usually do the whole prepared holiday dinner from Publix, the turkey, 2 sides, 1 stuffing dish, 1 cranberry, and 1 gravy bowl, and the whole thing has already been cooked, you just have to heat it up, even the turkey, but if I am on lift restrictions, then I won't be able to do that.
If I go with the Honeybaked, the ham doesn't have to be re-heated, it's actually super tasty cold, especially the glaze crusty stuff they put on it.
It is so damn yummy.
Yeah, I'm totally going to do the Honeybaked thing for Thanksgiving.
I am drooling just thinking about it now.  eat.gif
The teens could help me re-heat all of the sides in the microwave or oven depending on what the directions for heating say.
The sides are, of course, much lighter than the meat, so I could help the teens get them in and out of the oven and not have to bend over to do it either.
See, the teens know how to cook in the oven, but they get nervous doing it alone because they think they'll get burned on the racks and the walls of the oven. 
But if I stay in the kitchen and just stand there with them, they aren't as nervous reaching in and taking stuff out.
I know, kinda silly, but I guess they just like the idea of me being there just in case they get burned.

They are totally getting better at cooking now though.
Because of my current situation, they have had to do all of the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping, and they have been cooking up some pretty tasty stuff.
I can't wait to get the George Foreman grill that I'm getting to do a product review on, and the boys will be able to cook on it so much easier.
They love to eat food cooked on a grill, but I have a wicked phobia about grill cooking.
The teens are afraid of getting burned by the oven, I'm afraid of getting burned by a grill.
meh.
I am always afraid that the flame will spring up suddenly while I'm like flipping a burger, and it will catch my hair on fire, or the propane tank will explode from the heat or something.
I know, it's a totally irrational fear, people have been cooking over fire since the cavemen first discovered it, people go camping and cook over fire, and practically every weekend, people all over the whole hood are bbq'ing, and no one ever gets burnt to a crispy, but I can't help it, I'm a total fraidy Kat.
haha

So yeah, I'll be getting the new safe and easy to use and clean George Foreman grill, and I'll be able to bbq and all kinds of other super yummy foods on it, and the teen food inhalers will have grilled animal flesh and grunt like their caveman ancestors did.
Yay!
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I ended up with boys.

By
Kat
on October 23, 2008 12:28 PM |
I used to have a massive collection of Barbie dolls and accessories when I was younger.
I had the camper, the corvette, the townhouse, hundreds of pieces of clothing, and just about every version of the doll as they made.
I started collecting certain dolls though when I got older.
I collected the holiday Barbies and the designer Barbies, the ones who had their gowns made by real high fashion designers like Christian Dior, Calvin Klein, and others like
Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren, and Oscar de la Renta.
I kept all of these dolls in their original boxes, and saved them at my mothers house.
My plan was to give them to my daughter(s) when I had them.

I ended up with boys though.
*sigh*
So I gave all of my dolls and accessories to my best friends daughter.
I gave Shell's daughter Jamie all of my collector Barbies.
She loved them when she saw them, I still remember Jamie's face when I gave them all to her.
She was still just a little girl, and I had given birth to Sebastian, and so Jamie was about 6 or 7 I think, and she loved them. Her eyes lit up when she the dolls in their gorgeous holiday designer gowns, they were so pretty.
They really were too. You can probably look them up on places like ebay, I bet they are all worth some money now.
I don't regret giving them to her, I was just looking at stuff today and remembered all of the dolls and stuff.

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*Wah* complaining again.

By
Kat
on October 22, 2008 5:18 PM |
I feel like crap still.
The last few days have just been miserable for me.
On top of my neck surgical issues, I have a cold that is making me just absolutely miserable.
I have just been laying on the couch curled up in my blanket, sipping on some juice, eating yogurts and jello, just trying to stay hydrated, and trying to keep some food in me to help me get over this.

I really can't wait to start feeling better so I can go and do the things I need to do.
I really would like to be able to go grocery shopping so I can get more food in the house that the teens can cook easily.
I also need to go get a pedicure in a bad way.
My toes are in dire need of rescue.
I also would like to go and get started on the DNA testing that I need to have done which will help the doctors be able to better help me.
If I can get an accurate diagnosis for either Townes-Brock syndrome or Riley Day syndrome, my doctors would be able to get me on the correct medications to help me feel better at least.
If they know for sure what is wrong with me, they will be able to help me.
I'm so tired of being sick.
I've spent years and years being in pain, getting sick constantly, having blood pressure issues, swallowing issues sometimes even with just liquids, the way my toes are formed, the issues with my back, my arthritis etc etc etc.

I just want to finally start feeling better, feeling normal.
Spending all of this time being sick or in pain or whatever, has just sucked.
At times I get severely depressed over it all.
Like this morning, I was just laying in my bed just bawling my eyes out over all of this.
I hate my life right now.
I hate all of this crap, I feel like a complete loser because I can't do anything anymore.
I can't cook much, I can't clean much, I can't do hardly anything, and I'm so freaking over it all.
I'm supposed to tell my doctors when and if I start getting depressed so they can help me.
I don't want to take an anti-depressant, I know that's what they would do.
They would put me on another med to alter my moods and I don't want that.
What i want is my life back.
Hell, I just want a life that sorta resembles what I had 8+ years ago.
I want to be happy, to go out with friends, to be able to play and have fun, live.
I just want to be ok.

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It's been a sucky day.

By
Kat
on October 20, 2008 3:18 PM |
It's official, I have a cold.
I knew I was coming down with something yesterday after sneezing for like 20 minutes straight.
I have spent the whole day today laying on the couch and wrapped up in blankets and just resting.
I came out and laid on the couch before the teens left for school, and Sebastian covered me up in his big comforter, fluffed his pillows behind my head, and gave me his baby blanket and his Sully to sleep with all day.
It looked as though I was sleeping with all kinds of baby bedding.
It was wicked comfy too.
It really did look and feel like I was swaddled up like a baby.
Kali and Shahiro kitties slept with me almost all day, they love it when I lay on the couch with all kinds of blankets.

I hate having a cold or whatever.
It sucks.
My body already aches so much from surgery, to get a cold on top of that is just plain miserable.
The teens are going to go to the store and get some more juice, yogurt, pudding, and jellos for me to eat while they are at school.
They also need to pick up some regular Tylenol for their use.
Sebastian has had some small headaches for the last few days, and we ran out, so they need to pick up some more.

My old duplex neighbor stopped by a little bit ago, to see how I was doing.
She had just come from her doctor's appointment and getting her scripts filled at the Walgreen's by my house, so she was close enough to stop by and see me.
She said she really misses me, to call her if I need anything at all like giving the teens a ride to the store, or whatever I need.
She said I looked like crap.
It's not an insult, I really do look like crap today.
My skin is pale and clammy, my hair is a mess, I have huge bags and dark circles under my eyes, just miserable looking and feeling.

I hate how screwed up my immune system is, I catch everything, and flu season is coming yet I can't have a flu shot because it could make me sick because of my low immune system.
I'll probably catch it this year.
That will suck big time.

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No cold! No cold!

By
Kat
on October 19, 2008 10:52 AM |
When the teens go food shopping today, I've added to the list, some more acne treatment for them, and a big bottle of cherry Nyquil for me.
I really think I'm starting to come down with a cold.
I have been sneezing all night, I'm stuffed up, and more achy than usual.
It sucks.
Sneezing is as bad as vomiting when your neck is like this.
Every sneeze makes my neck jerk, even in the brace, the jerk sends waves of pain down my entire spine.
I should know that's how it's going to be, I have those rods the entire lentgh of my spine, head to tail bone, every movement effects the entire rod/spine contraption.

I am handling this whole thing really pretty well, I deal with it alright for the most part, but man, when I'm stomach sick or having a sneezing fit like I did this morning, I don't deal with it ok.
I hate that this is what I have to deal with for the rest of my life now.
Every movement is a full body movement, it's not easy at all.

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Living in the bible belt stings sometimes.

By
Kat
on October 15, 2008 10:50 PM |
Living here in the south, I know that I am outnumbered being an atheist, that's ok with me.
I try to make light of the situation as best I can, but sometimes it can get to be a bit much. People are always blessing me, saying they'll pray for me and stuff like that.
So there are times that I enjoy wearing one of my funny t-shirts out when I go shopping.
I would love to get this one and wear it out, plus it would make a nice addition to my small but growing collection of funny religious shirts.
When you're wearing a shirt like this, all those people who want to bless you or pray for you, just look at you instead.
They have a look of horror on their faces, but at least they aren't saying anything to me.

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How do you store your perfume?

By
Kat
on October 12, 2008 11:30 PM |
I just bought a new bottle of perfume, Carolina Herrera - Carolina Herrera - Eau de Toilette Spray, because I love the smell of it.
The fragrance notes are Jasmine, Tuberose, Sandal, and Amber, and they smell so amazingly wonderful together, and I absolutely love Jasmine as a top note, it smells so good, and it works with me and my skin type and natural body oils.

I have several other favorite scents like, Chloe and Tresor, and they may not be super expensive perfumes, but I hate it when a scent goes sour before I can use it all up.
So I want to know how and where you store your perfumes.

Eau de toilette, cologne, Eau de parfum, EDP spray, Eau de Printemps, Elixir de Parfum, and pure perfume oil, and so on.
I know that all of them should be kept in their original boxes because they are specially designed to keep out all light, sun and bulb, and you should keep them in a cool, dry and dark place, but where is that best place?

I know some women keep them in their closet on a shelf, others keep them on their dresser, or in a drawer in their bedroom or bathroom, (bad idea as bathrooms tend to be humid from the steam created from showering an bathing, and this creates heat that can turn your scent sour) and some women keep certain ones in their refrigerators.
Like cologne actually can keep for up to 3 years if kept in the fridge, but most women who know that, also store all of their scents in the fridge, and not all of them should be that cold, but which ones?
Cool doesn't mean fridge temps with certain scent creations.
Like pure perfume, should never be kept in the fridge, because the oils in it can actually congeal, and when you take it out to use it, even after just one night in those temps, the scent has soured, and smells like vinegar.
If any of your scents smell even the slightest bit like vinegar, throw it out, it's gone bad.
Most scents have a shelf life of 3-4 years if stored properly, so how do you store yours?

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Stupid.

By
Kat
on September 23, 2008 8:12 PM |
I gave myself a scare last night.
See, I have bolt wounds on the side of my head from where I was bolted to the table during surgery, (I promise I will explain how it all went soon) and the nurse had cleaned them really good yesterday and put some Staphaseptic on them.
Well last night I reached up to the left side of my head to rub my temples, they sorta ache a bit, and this chunky thing came off in my fingers.
It was sort of like a scab but yellow-ish in color, and had some small hairs attached to it.
I didn't scratch it, I just rubbed my temples, and to have this thing fall off, it was really gross.
Then it started bleeding and it wouldn't stop, so I had Sebastian do his best to put a band-aid on it.
The nurse came today and took the band-aid off, cleaned it, and said it looked good, but man, it was super scary having it bleed like that.

I had ordered the new HDTV antenna that I need to be able to watch tv with the converter box, and it came today.
It's much much bigger than I thought it was, it really needs to be mounted outside, but I tried to hook it up today anyway.
Bad idea.
It's too heavy, I couldn't get it to work, it probably does need to be mounted outside on the wood shutters, and so yeah, by the time I gave up on it and put it back in the box, I had really over done it and now I'm paying for it.
 But there is a good thing about doing that, something pulled in my neck and now my head is staying up much better, straighter I think. hahahaha
Maybe I pulled the muscles where they need to go?
Don't know.
The pain is subsiding a bit now and I need to eat something.

Oh, speaking of eating, I sent the boys grocery shopping with a list and everything today.
They came back with a ton of wrong items, items not on the list, and a whole bunch of items that were on the list, didn't get bought at all.
They tried I suppose, this is a lot of pressure on them, I know that, so I really can't complain too too much that they screw things up a little bit.

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It cheered me up.

By
Kat
on September 3, 2008 12:59 AM |
I've been way stressed out for the last month, this whole thing is life changing.
Losing 90% or more mobility in my neck, never turning left or right again to look at things, is HUGE, a really big, life-altering change.
I'll be completely fused the entire length of my spine after this, it's big, so my mind has been pre-occupied with it.

At bedtime tonight, Mark asked me if there were no other options besides surgery, that he's worried about how all of this is going to affect me, mentally.
I explained to him that for the first few weeks, and even now, I'm still having some WTF  holy shit moments, but this is THE only option.
That I had to weigh the pros and cons.
On one hand, I would be able to turn my head, but in a few months, I'd be dead.
On the other hand, I won't be able to move very much or very well, but I'll be alive.
Pretty easy choice I'd say.
And I told him that I'm not done here yet.
I still have so much to do.
I asked him to try not to fight as much with Sebastian for the rest of the week, let's try to have some fun, be happy.
He asked me what we are doing on Sunday, the day and night before.
I said I was planning on having a talk with them.
He asked about what, and I said to say all the important things that need to be said in case something goes wrong.
I love you, grow up to be good men, treat women with respect, love, honor, cherish them, love your children, play with them, educate them, be there.
Do something you love to do every day of your lives, never regret a single moment, regret means you didn't really live at all.
Have a career you love, not a job you do just to get paid, be proud of what you do.
Know how very much I loved you, and always did my best with you, to raise you up right, to make you happy, that you were the center of my life, my reason for continuing to keep going.

He smiled at me, said he knew all of those things already, that I've been talking to them about all of those things for years now.
I told him yeah, but they are the important things I'd want you to remember, my last words if this ends up being our last conversation, which it won't, because I'm coming home!
He smiled and hugged me, told me to definitely say all of that stuff on Sunday, not saying it may just make the bad thing happen.
They are terrified that this is going to go wrong, I don't really blame them, it is pretty scary to think about, but I trust my doc and his staff, it's going to be ok.

So anyway, what did I do to cheer me up?
I bought a cadoobage kid for myself.
My mom and dad bought us some when we were kids, but someone stole mine years and years ago, and this one called to me after browsing page after page of them.
All of them uniquely different in some way, eye color, hair color(s), style, face, smile, with and without teeth, but this little face said "Kat, I'm the one you want to 'adopt', pick me!"
So I did.

cabbagekid.JPG


She has green eyes, and two front teeth, and a wicked cute smile. And now that I've "adopted" her, they removed her from the website completely.
The detail page she was on, is now empty, taken down just an hour or so after I bought her.
She really was one of a kind, and now she's mine.
Click the pic to see her cute little face.



Yes I know, I'm 38 and I bought a doll, but it really did cheer me up when I saw that face.
I had been browsing the site because it's been 25 years since they began making and selling them, and I was feeling all wishy-washy nostalgic.
My mom and dad bought us ours from the very first time they started selling the plastic headed ones, the first batch, and mom even got in a bit of a fight with some other lady who tried to take the ones mom had in her arms.
Hee hee, go mom!


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Black is the absence of color.

By
Kat
on August 27, 2008 5:22 PM |
If I do get told after surgery that I can't sit on my computer and blog, surf etc, for long periods of time, I know what I'll be doing.
A wonderful book publishing company has been sending me a ton of books that look really good and interesting to read.
I'll be able to lay in bed or on the couch, and read all of them.
They sent, just this week, 7 new books, all of them really do look great.
I know they send them to me to read and review and then post about, and even though I am a very quick reader, there's no way I can read that many books in a week.
It's only Wednesday, and they sent me 7 new books.
The same employee at this publisher is the one who sends them all to me, I told her what genre I prefer to read, but I'll read pretty much anything except for romance novels, I really don't like romance stories at all.
But I love this girl who works there, she's really awesome at her job, outstanding customer service, because when I emailed her the list of authors I like, the genres I prefer, she either made a note or a mental note, because she's been sending all of the types I really like.
So thank you, I will be starting to read them all pretty soon!

Now for the funny story about my black wardrobe I said I would share.
Yesterday evening after dinner, I forgot that I needed to go to Walgreen's to pick up another script that they had to order, but it was ready now, so Sebastian and I headed out to go get it and a few other things I needed to pick up like some more shampoo for the boys, and a couple new box fans because we had two of them burn out in the same week.
So anyway, we stop at the corner store for some drinks to have on our walk because it's incredibly hot out.
The owner Sam is there and he has a few friends of his hanging out behind the counter with him.
As I'm paying for our drinks, one of the guys starts talking to me.
He asks me why I always wear black, do I have any clothes that aren't black, and if I do, how come I never wear them.
He says he's always seeing me walking all over the place several times a week, and was curious.
I tell him it's just the color I prefer, I do own other colored clothing, but I rarely wear them.
I just don't like other colors, call it a phobia or whatever, but don't call me goth or emo, it's just the color I prefer.
Then he asks me if I'm hot all the time because of the black clothes, they attract heat ya know, he says.
I tell him that while it's generally true that black does make most people hotter because black absorbs more light energy than say white, and light energy does equal heat, not all people are effected by that general rule of science.
Before my blood pressure started being so high all of the time, I could sit outside all summer long dressed in a black shirt and not sweat a drop, but now?
Oh man, like right now, I am sitting in my house, the AC is on on 68, I have a fan aimed right at my face, and I'm sitting here in nothing but a t-shirt and light fabric shorts, and sweating to death.
I didn't tell him all of that, but then I did tell him that black isn't even really a color, it's the absence of color.
The guys just looks at me and says what?
"I said, black is not a color, it's the absence of color. Black is the total absence of light, therefore, it is the absence of color. The colors of light are red, green, and blue (known as RGB), black has no light at all, so it is the absence of color.
He sat there totally dumbfounded.
I asked if he has access to the net, he said yes, so I told him to go look it up when he got home, just go to google and type in "black is the absence of color", and he'll be able to read it for himself.
The additive color theory says that when all of the colors of light are added up, the end color is white.
The subtractive color theory says that on a molecular level, when using actual pigments to color a tangible object with, like crayons or paint, when you add all of the colors of light, red, green, and blue, when combined the end color is black.
But in the natural world, black is not a color, and not all people are effected by black attracting light energy, and in some rare cases, some people actually get colder when wearing black because their skin reacts to light energy differently than the majority of people.

Sam the owner starts laughing and says I told you she was too smart for you!
I said we had to get going, things to do, we were walking there and I needed to pick up some things and head back home before it gets dark, the light will be leaving and we'll be left with the absence of it, and I winked at the guy who had asked, and then we left.
As the door was closing, I hear the guy say to Sam, "I think her intelligence just increased her hotness factor by another 50 points. She'll never go out with me man!"

As Sebastian and I are waiting at the corner for the walk light to let us cross, he says to me,
"Guys are always checking you out, they like your hair, your eyes, your pretty face and your butt. But that is the very first time I've ever heard a guy say that they think you're hotter now that they know you're smart.Would you date him?"
I said I don't know, I don't even know him. He might be a really nice guy, but I don't even know his name. He may have seen me walking all over the place, but today is the very first time I've ever seen him, so how would I possibly know if I'd go out with him?

Sebastian thought about this the whole time we crossed the 4 lane road, and when we got to the other side he says, "Well not only does he think you're pretty, but he now finds you even more attractive because you're smart. Most guys don't like super smart girls, so when you find one that does and he wants to date you, you should grab onto him because the chances of finding another guy who likes you for being smart are pretty slim mom. If he does work up the courage to ask you out, you should definitely say yes, plus he seems like a nice guy."

I dropped it right there, I didn't feel like explaining for the millionth time that I'm just not interested in dating anyone.
I like being by myself because the majority of people annoy me.

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I think I love it.

By
Kat
on August 27, 2008 11:44 AM |
I was clicking around a bit ago, just link surfing, and saw a link on a fellow blogger's blog for Swiss Army luggage.
I had absolutely no idea that they made luggage, I thought they only made knives. hahaha
So anyway, I found a bag on the site that I like immediately felt that oooh must have love it feeling in my gut.
It comes in all black too, so I wouldn't have to have it in this green color which they call emerald, but no no, that's like pea green, really, it is.
I really do like this bag.
I wants it.

swissarmyshopperbag.JPG

I really think I love it. It's cute, stylish, it has a lot of space, interior zippered compartments, a front zippered pocket for access to right-away needs like keys or a cell phone etc.
And the fact that it comes in all black is ideal for me.

Oh, I do have a funny story about my all black clothing to share with you, but I'll save it for another post.

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The 2 hour entry.

By
Kat
on August 26, 2008 2:27 PM |
The lab only took 2 vials of blood, which I was surprised about, the primary doc's PA, said they were going to take 8.
The guy only took 2, so I questioned him about that, he said they did not need 8, only 2 for the amount of tests she checked off on the lab work-up sheet, and oh by the way, pee in this cup.
So the blood draw was quick, not feeling faint or weak at all, then I went and peed in the cup, and they had those alcohol wipes in the bathroom for patients to use to clean and sterilize their pee-holes before peeing in the cup, and they had the ones that smell good.
No, no, I'm not weird, honestly, there are certain alcohol wipes that smell not much like alcohol, but more like a lemony candy sugar mixed with alcohol smell.
I love those ones!

Then I came home and ate my chocolate donut that was ever so patiently waiting for me in the fridge.
Actually, I ate 2, my bad, but I was hungry dammit!
Then I went out to the kitchen and cleaned out the microwave.
I ran that bowl of soapy water in the microwave for an hour the first time, then changed out the water and added a dash more dish soap, and ran it again for another 30 minutes, so when I came home and got to cleaning it, all the nukified on crud was liquefied, and just wiped right out.
Now, if cleaning the whole house were as easy as that.
I actually want to get (at some point) one of those little hand-held home steam cleaners, you know what I'm talking about?
I want one of these Scunci ones.
It's a small, portable, home steam cleaner for doing grout and tiles, the toilet bowl ickies, the baked on crud on the stove top, it would make cleaning the microwave even easier man.
Want, maybe that will be my xmas present to myself. (?)

Oh yeah, I finally got Twitpic all figured out, that is my actual link, but I finally figured out how to get the image info to post with the pic.
All of my failed attempts are viewable in the Twitpic badge in the sidebar over there.
On most of them, it's just the pic, but the last one that says "Sunset", yuppers, I got it to post the name of the pic.
I was putting that info in the body section of the text message, it needed to be added to the title.
I'm basically blogging how I did it so that I don't forget it.
Take the pic, label it, then address the text message to go to my Twitpic email addy, then click on the more button (left) and choose insert subject, as much info as I want to write, and then click send.
Twitpic completely ignores everything in the body section of the text message, so that's why the names of my pics weren't showing up on my page or in my sidebar badge, or on the public Twitpic/Twitter time lines.
Just the links to the images were showing with no info.
I was totally frustrated with it, and about to give up on yet another pic to post service.

See, for my last surgery, I used Flickr to post pics and blog by phone to post on my blog, but Flickr stopped working for me, just stopped, will not work from my phone at all, but it will post the test thingy from the website only.
Christine then suggested I try Utterz, so I tried to set it up for this blog, but it refused to accept my xmlrc stuff, so I tried to set it up for MSML, and it was going, it was accepting, but then it came back and said that my blog was pornography.
No, I'm dead serious!
See?!? Click that for bigger!

utterzsaysMSMLisporn.jpgThere is absolutely no porn on My Single Mom Life, but ya know what?
I don't feel like contacting Utterz and asking what the hell reason they have for stating my blog about being a single mom, talking about teenagers and new hair in armpits, qualifies it as pornography.
I just don't have the fight in me today.

I still haven't slept, no lay down and rest either.
This afternoon has been a busy one of sitting here trying to write this post since 12:20 this afternoon, but it's been one thing after another.
Emails non-stop, messages, questions, comments coming in, Entrecard people wanting to advertise their so completely not relevant sites on my single mommy blog.
My plan was to figure out Twitpic, which I did, make this blog post which I'm still trying to do, and then go wash the dishes that didn't get finished this morning, and then maybe lay down for an hour or so before making dinner.
But now I've had to start another load of laundry, I have a mountain of emails to reply to, messages, posts, comments etc, before I can do anything else.
I'm not mad or anything, I realize I may be coming off as mad, but it's not anger, it's tired...LOL
So anyway, this post that I started writing at 12:20pm, will now finally be published at 2:27pm.
You would think with the amount of time it took, it would be far better quality content in this here post, but eh, I've been awake since 7am yesterday morning.
Ya gets what ya gets.

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All wound up and feeling good. For now.

By
Kat
on August 26, 2008 8:15 AM |
I haven't had anything to eat since midnight last night, I had to fast for my blood draw at 9:30am, (did I post this already?) and I'm starving!
I ran to the corner store just about 30 minutes ago, grabbed some donuts, (Yum! A chocolate frosted cake donut awaits my return in the fridge) some soda, some other goodies, came back home, and in like 20 minutes, I'll go hop in the shower and get cleaned up for them to suck my blood out.

I could not sleep for anything, and as a matter of fact, the later it got, the more hyped up I got.
So because I couldn't eat, I did other things to pass the time.
I did a lot of net surfing, forum reading and posting, RSS blog reading, and then I got like this wave of enthusiasm to clean my house.
At like 4am.

I did some dishes, I sprinkled the carpet powder down in all the rooms, (I love the smell of it)  I cleaned off the stove top and all of the counters.
I wiped down and cleaned out the toaster, wiped down my crock pot because it sits on the counter and tends to get splashed when I cook sketti sauce in my electric skillet.
I wiped down the entire outside of the microwave, not just the parts you can see, I actually moved it, cleaned under it, behind it, washed the back splash on the whole counter where I prep and cook.
Changed out the like 10 month-old burnt out light bulb on the stove head, put a large bowl of soapy water in the microwave to loosen all the nuked on crud, and I will wipe it all out and clean it really good when I get back, folded the last load of laundry that was in the dryer after I set it on de-wrinkle for 20 minutes.
Changed out the hand towels in the bathroom, turned on the Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner after running the shower for steam for 5 minutes, cleaned the toilet bowl and the seat, both upper and under, and the lid, brought back in all of the trash cans after the garbage men came, and made a quick list of things I need at the store later like more spray cleaners, and some floor cleaner which I'm out of.

I have no idea where this burst of energy came from, but I did all of that stuff and am still wired to go.
I'm sure I won't be so hyped up after they take about 8 vials of blood outta me.
I mean, no food since midnight combined with exerting all of that energy, I'll probably come home and pass out for 2-3 hours, and then when I wake up, I will be totally drained and the motivation will be gone.
Dammit.
I was on a serious house cleaning roll man, I haven't wanted to truly deep clean the house in months, I got that burst, and it will literally be sucked out of me by the time I get back.
I want to keep going!
I'm hoping I'll still be good to go, I want to really get down and clean the whole house super de-duper good.

And I've decided what I want for my Christmas, er, Halloween present this year!
I want  The Nightmare Before Christmas (2-Disc Collector's Edition) + Digital Copy
I absolutely love that movie, I have it on VHS, but I want it on DVD, and I want the collector's edition version.
I know every single song by heart, I sing along to it, I love watching it, it's a gorgeous looking movie in all it's dark Halloweenie goodness.
It will be mine, oh yes, it will.

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Just when you get one kid's acne cleared up...

By
Kat
on August 25, 2008 12:22 AM |
The second teenager starts breaking out.
So now I'm back looking at the best acne website to find a good treatment for his skin, because what works for Mark, is not working for Sebastian.
Different kids, different skin.
At least Sebastian's isn't that bad yet, I have some time to try and find one product that will work the best for his face.
I'm going to order a bunch of sample sizes in various products if I can, and test each one for about a week until we find one that really works for him.

Sebastian was incredibly funny tonight too, he made me take a picture of his armpit hair, told me I could post it.
He's all proud of himself for finally growing a few pit hairs.
Pit hair and acne, ahh, the joys of teenage boys.

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Doesn't he get hot?

By
Kat
on August 19, 2008 12:26 PM |
I think it was about a month or so ago, that they announced that they were closing down a whole bunch of Starbucks coffee places.
That must have been in other states or bigger cities, because Sarasota opened up like 3 more around here.
I don't drink coffee, but the amount of coffee places around this city is remarkable.
And they are always busy, people are in and out of them constantly.

There's this one place down at the Publix plaza, they have tables outside and there are always people sitting there using the free wifi and drinking cup after cup.
There's this one guy who's always there using the wifi and drinking his coffee, and he sits there in long pants, a heavy shirt, and a dress jacket.
Even in the 90 degree heat.
Just looking at him makes me sweat.
I always want to ask him if he's hot or if he's one of those people that are always cold.
That would probably be rude though.

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Downgraded.

By
Kat
on August 18, 2008 7:02 PM |
What was a category 1 hurricane, has been downgraded into a tropical storm again.
It'll be about 45-50mph winds, some rain, nothing major.
But all the Sarasota schools are closed, there's no garbage pick-up tomorrow, and all county government offices will be closed as well.

The kids first day back to school was today, and now they get a day off already.
I understand the whole better safe than sorry thing, but they canceled school at 2pm today, made the automated phone calls to parents, and they could have, should have, waited until later tonight to make the call on closing school.

Things are fine here, we have plenty of food and water should the power go out, I did all y hurricane shopping on Saturday, and we have plenty of candles, a big flashlight, a 24 our glo-stick for emergencies, plenty of stuff, but I doubt it will get that bad.

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No fix shoes, no!

By
Kat
on August 13, 2008 6:06 PM |
So I took my awesome comfy sandals to the little Korean lady to fix, and just as I suspected, she refused to fix them.
"No fix, need new shoe! No fix!"
So while I was at Walgreen's getting Susan her birthday first aid kit, (she's going to love this thing!) and we needed a new one for our house too, I found their flip flop aisle and tried on a few pairs.
I found a cheap and comfy pair that will have to do until I can find another pair of those awesome Dr. Scholl's that my freaking cats chewed up.
Then Sebastian and I headed into Publix to get all of the stuff we needed, and then headed back home by cab because we bought more than we could carry.

We waited for the cab for over 40 minutes.
Sam had told me 10-15 minutes on my initial call, so after 25 minutes, I called back.
He said the driver would be there in 2 minutes.
I waited 10 and called back.
By this point Sam was furious that the driver he sent for me kept picking up flags instead of getting the calls, he was yelling into the radio, screaming at the guy in English and Arabic, and when the cab finally showed up, I was sweating bullets.
My blood pressure was up from the heat, I was minutes away from passing out.
When we got to my house, I went to pay him, and he said, "No, this trip is on me, it's my fault you waited for 40 minutes. Sam won't let me take your money, he said that it's on me."

Hahahaha!
Dumbass.
If he had just gone after the call like he was supposed to instead of picking up flags, Sam would have let him take my money.

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Need new shoe, not fix, new shoe.

By
Kat
on August 13, 2008 12:14 PM |
The teens and I need to head out today and do some shopping at Publix, get some stuff for the house that we need, and I also need to drop my sandals off at the little shoe repair store that's at the same plaza.

I know the lady is going to look at me like I'm crazy, the sandals are pretty beat up aside from the straps having been taken off by the cats.
They chewed through the strings that are sewn on, and the straps fell off.
But these sandals are massively comfortable, I love them, they are perfectly broken in, and considering that next month it will be even harder to put on normal shoes like sneakers, I need really comfortable sandals.
I just want the straps sewn back on nice and tight, and the little Korean lady is going to tell me that I need "new shoe. need new shoe, not fix, new shoe."
But sorry dear, I cannot find these anymore anywhere, I've looked at the store I bought them at, I've looked at other stores, no getting new shoe, fix old shoe, take money from me.
Hahah!

I wish I had woken up earlier to get started on all of this, but oh well, I didn't.
I'm going to take a quick shower as soon as Mark is done, and then we'll get ready to go.

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I can't miss it!

By
Kat
on August 9, 2008 10:07 PM |
I was feeling really down last night when I posted that I might not go to Susan's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow afternoon, I was in a bad place, dealing with all kinds of stress and worry about bills and stuff.
And I haven't had a chance to go shopping for baby gifts for her present yet.
She's not a baby anymore, but she has to have child safe toys, know what I mean?
She's still at that age where you just don't give a little girl a toy with tons of tiny pieces.
I know what I'm giving her, but I'm going to give it to her on Friday night when we all go out to Chinese to celebrate both her and Mark's birthday.

She loves to play doctor, people doctor, animal doctor, couch doctor, she's always fixing things up, she loves bandages and band-aids and stuff, so I'm getting her a first aid kit.
My sister told me to get it for her, so don't look at me like I'm a crazy person. *laughs*
She really does love first aid kits, so I found a smallish one, it seems to be the perfect size for her, and I'll remove the fingernail clippers, the tweezers, any lotions or things like Neosporin and stuff like that, and that way she'll be safe.
She will absolutely love it, I know it's the perfect gift because she always wants to play doctor when she comes over, she's the reason I don't have any more band-aids in my first aid kit now. *laughs*

Anyway, I will not be missing her big special big girl birthday party, she's my little buddy, I have to go and celebrate with her, take some pictures of both her and Skye, so I can add some new pics to my digital keychain.
I love that thing!
It can hold 107 pictures, and I uploaded what I thought was a lot, but it was actually only 59, so yeah, I have plenty of room left to add new pics of my girls.

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She said she felt guilty.

By
Kat
on August 9, 2008 6:50 PM |
My neighbor, the lady who generally drives me crazy on a daily basis, the lady who has been calling me 3-4 times a day since they moved in a little over 4 years ago, the lady who said they are moving out in a few weeks, went shopping today for her husband and her son's birthdays, and back to school shopping, and bought the teens a ton of back to school supplies.
Pens, pencils, erasers a gazillion folders, a ton of wire bound notebooks, compasses, glue sticks, pretty much every single supply item they might possibly need including index cards, which I was told, if they end up not needing those, for me to just use them for writing my recipes on.

I was just sitting here looking at my list of things to do, when there was a knock on the door, when Sebastian opened it, in came my neighbor's niece, the woman we babysat for last night, carrying 3 large bags of school supplies.
I was shocked, I still am, and I went over to thank my neighbor lady, to tell her that she didn't have to do all of that, that I just had to wait a few days for my check, and then I was going to go shopping.
She said she felt guilty that they were moving out, that she wouldn't be around when I had my surgery, and that she knew I had a ton of things to take care of before my surgery, and so she wanted to take one of those burdens off of me because she felt so bad that she won't be here to help me during my recovery.
She said she's going to make sure I have her new phone number though, so that when I am in recovery, I can call her for anything, and if she can, she'll come over and help me.
I cannot get over how much stuff she bought.
There are literally 50 of those pocket folders, 50 wire bound notebooks, and a ton of stuff, just look at this pile of stuff.
It's every possible writing utensil they will need, colored pencils, highlighters, pencil sharpeners, roll-on white out things, eraser-mate pens, mini-staplers, stapler removers, scissors etc. etc.
Click for bigger.


schoolsupplies.jpg

She also said she's not finished, she wants to know what size shoes they wear, she wants to go buy them their new sneakers to go back to school too.
Shocked doesn't even begin to describe how I feel.
Seriously, if you knew all of the problems that she and I have had over the last few years with our kids getting into fights, her and I, the car parked sideways in the driveway, all kinds of incidents and disagreements between us, her doing all of this is so out of character for her.
It's truly out of character for her, it's usually her wanting stuff from me, me loaning her money so she could buy her son back to school items last year, me loaning her money to go grocery shopping, putting gas in her car, letting her son sleep over here on nights her husband gets drunk, my boys mowing their lawn or taking out their trash because her husband and son won't do it, it's never been her giving anything to us.
Maybe this is like re-payment for all of that stuff, maybe she finally realized how much taking instead of giving shes done over the years, and wanting to pay it back, I don't know.
I am greatful for all of it, it has taken a tremendous load of stress off of me because I was pretty panicked about how I was going to buy all of their supplies plus clothes and shoes, plus pay for all the upcoming doctors appointments and regular bills before I go in for my surgery.
My list of things to do and things I have to buy, is pretty freaking huge, so this is an amazing help, it's definitely helped me a lot, I just wasn't expecting it from her.

Maybe people can change, even those people you would never in a million years think they would, can change.
Heck, just the other day we got into a petty little tiff over the smell of gasoline getting into her house, she thought we ran our lawn mower and Mark put it away hot in the shed, but our mower is still busted so it wasn't us, the guy next door on her left side, was out there mowing his lawn and weed whacker, and he dumped some gas on the driveway.
She apologized when she realized it was him and not us, but it's things like that that have been going on practically since the day they moved in.
But whatever, it's a huge help, I'm really, truly greatful for it, it's helped take away one of the big things on my list.

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Running late today.

By
Kat
on August 8, 2008 12:12 PM |
I'm still not feeling great, I think it's the stress of everything, it's upsetting my stomach, making me not sleep, but making me excessively tired.
I have mega amounts of stress right now.
So much to do, things to take care of, plans to make, money to not make.
Ugh!
It's piling up on me, my mind can't stay focused, and I haven't been able to even keep myself feeling ok or not worried about stuff long enough to get my work done.
It will get it done, but I really need to get my head on straight first.
I honestly think I need to just sit down and have myself a long decent cry, to let all of this stress go as much as I can.

I need to go get in the shower, I have an appointment with Dr. Riegel today at 2pm, thank him, all that jazz, and tell him I can't pay him today.
I am totally broke until Wednesday.
Nothing I can do about it right now, I'll have to tell them I'll pay them on Wednesday, they can take the payment by phone or something.

Sorry to be such a downer, but I just have so so much on my mind, back to school, medical shit, all of it is picking away at my brain, and I'm tired and stressed out because of all of it.

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Costume planning already?

By
Kat
on July 29, 2008 7:46 PM |
Every year, the local Tampa crew has a huge Halloween costume party bash, and this year will be no different.
There is a girls private forum, and some of the girls have already started planning their costumes for this year.
One of the girls found a site that has some racy-sexy nurse costumes and then a few of the other girls found some more sexy costumes they want on the same site.
I do like some of them, but I would need to lose a lot more weight before I would even consider wearing one of those costumes.
Like a major lot of weight. *laughs*
At my current weight, the only one I would even consider wearing is the FBI agent costume.
It's a zip front jumpsuit, and the only skin it shows is cleavage.
I could do that one right now, but I would need to be back down to my pre-pregnancy weight for any of the others.
Maybe by next year.

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Only 165 days left till Christmas.

By
Kat
on July 12, 2008 8:28 PM |

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Best Bath Store.com provides excellent customer service.

By
Kat
on July 10, 2008 3:40 PM |

On July 5th, I posted about ordering some product samples from the Best Bath Store website.
They came yesterday! That was some super fast shipping, just 4 days.
They used USPS priority shipping, just for product samples, a $4.95 purchase.
That's incredibly awesome!

I ordered the 5 max samples that I could, and I wanted to tell you how I like them so far.
The sample sizes are just small cuts off of a full size bar, about the width of a middle finger, and about the length of your thumb.
I tried each one separately, washing my hands with each one, lathering up and smelling the very full lather, drying off, and then giving a good smell of my hands too, to see if the scent lasts after drying off.
They do last even when dried off.
Now onto my thoughts on the individual scents.

I absolutely LOVE the Summer Citrus body bar!
It smells so so good, and it lathers up super nice.
I also really loved the Orange body bar, it also smells really good, very orangey, and lathers up nice as well. Yes, I know orangey isn't a word, but it really does smell exactly like oranges.
I wasn't crazy about the Rose Geranium body bar though.
There's something in it that smells unpleasant to me.
I can't put my finger on the exact scent though, but I just didn't like it.

Mark used the Acne Facial bar, and wasn't crazy about the heavy tea tree scent, but it lathered up nice, and didn't dry out his skin. His skin felt smoother, and this morning his skin seems to be a bit clearer, the pimples he did have seem to be fading.
He also dabbed on some of the Acne Treatment Gel using a q-tip, and it definitely dried up the whiteheads he dabbed it on. They are healing and fading very nicely.

I also wanted to point out their most excellent customer service.
As I also told you in my post, I used to buy a handmade soap from a fellow blogger, it was Jasmine and Pink Grapefruit scented, and it was to die for! It smelled so yummy, I wanted to eat it.
Anyway, Best Bath Store has a contact form on their site, so I used it to inquire about that scent, whether they've ever made it in the past or if they'd ever try to make it.
I didn't expect a response from them for several days, it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend after all, but Justin who is the CEO, emailed me back within an hour about my inquiry.
To my complete surprise, Justin emailed me back with the following;

"Natural soaps take several weeks to cure after they're made, so it'll probably take about a week to order ingredients / figure out a formula to make this soap, then it'll be 4 weeks before we know how it came out. We'll try a few formulas out in parallel and mark them as A,B,C and you can let us know which one is best.
I will keep you updated as we attempt to create this new soap."


They are actually going to make this soap for me, and let me be the product tester to make sure it smells right.
How freaking awesome is that?!?!
I have a feeling I'll be ordering a ton of products from them if they can get this scent right, plus I'll be buying the acne soap and gel for Mark because it actually works better than anything else we've tried so far, without over-drying his skin.

So if you like using natural products and homemade soaps and lotions, go check out the Best Bath store. They make some great products and their customer service is outstanding!


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Robitussin rules!

By
Kat
on July 9, 2008 12:27 PM |
Last night after my direct deposit came in around midnight, Sebastian and I grabbed the flashlight and went up to 7-eleven in search of cough medicine.
I was practically gagging the whole way there.
They had Robitussin for coughs, or the green Nyquil.
That was it.
So I bought a bottle of seriously overpriced Robitussin, a package of Halls cough drops, and bought the teens a soda and a beef jerky each.

When I went to pay, I grabbed the wrong card.
D'oh!
It kept getting declined, I was all confused.
I kept saying the direct deposit just went through, it's there, I don't know why it's being declined.
Then Sebastian goes; "Mom, that's your paypal card, your money is on the Amscot card."
Oh yeah! lolz
So I swiped that one and whatdoyaknow?
It went through no problem.
I can be a total dumbass sometimes.

I came home, took a huge swig of the Robitussin, and then sat down to start paying the bills.
By the time I finished that, the cough syrup kicked in and I was finally able to sleep.
I passed out cold and didn't wake up this morning until about 10am.
That was so nice.
The last few days without sleep due to hacking to death, sucked.
Now I need to finish the stupid child support crap.
I'll be glad when I'm done with it all.
It's pissing me off having to answer all those none of their fucking business questions.

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Depend on Depends?

By
Kat
on July 8, 2008 9:50 PM |
Holy crap this chest cold is bad.
I do pretty good during the day, but at night, at night it's a different story and I'd like someone to explain to me why that is.

I really was ok all day, only a few coughs, then about an hour ago, I just started coughing and it hasn't freaking stopped.
I had a coughing fit that lasted about 10 minutes, and in that 10 minutes, I pulled the muscles in my back, snapped my neck 3 times, gave myself a headache from all the blood rushing to my head while I leaned over the toilet because I was coughing and gagging, and I nearly pissed myself 6 times.

Can someone tell me why you feel worse at night?
Why do coughs become harder and more frequent in the night time hours?
I'm not laying down, I've been sitting up, but every night since Sunday now, the coughing, or should I say hacking up all of my internal organs, has been much worse at night.

I won't be able to sleep properly again tonight because every time I lay down, I can barely breathe, and the coughing gets so strong I puke.
I am broke right at the moment, so when my deposit goes in around midnight, I'll be taking a walk with one or both of the teens, up to 7-eleven to buy a small bottle of seriously overpriced Nyquil just so I can sleep through the night.

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Name this blog contest!

By
Kat
on July 7, 2008 1:52 AM |
As you all know by now, this is my new blog all about me.
Man, that sounds so narcissistic. LOL
But it's not like that, this is more like my personal space to really say my thoughts, a place to discuss my health and stuff without cluttering up My Single Mom Life.

I bought the domain name which is just my name, (hey, it's all about me right?) but it needs a catchy blog name.
Ya know, like My Single Mom Life - Sleepless in Sarasota, it needs a name that's easy to remember, something people can use to link to instead of katjcooper.com, it needs a name that fits who I am, what this space is meant for, and something catchy.

So here's what we're going to do.
Yes I said 'we'.
This contest has a sponsor!
JustB(coz) is a relatively new blogger, she's only been blogging since March of 2008, and she'd like to offer up to the winner of the contest, a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com.
I think that's a really generous offer and a really sweet prize.

Here's how it's going to work:
If you want to enter to win the $50 gift certificate, all you have to do is leave your suggestion for my new blog's catchy name in the comments of this post.
In 1 week from today, on Monday July 14th, I'll choose from all of the suggested names the one I think fits me and this blog the best, and declare the writer of the new name, the winner, and JustB(coz) will be given your email address so that she can send you the prize.
Easy!

That's it, help me name my blog and win $50 to spend on anything you want.
So put your thinking caps on and come up with a new name for this blog!

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Free product samples from Best Bath Store.

By
Kat
on July 5, 2008 6:24 PM |
By
Kat
on Saturday July 5, 2008 6:24 PM | | Comments (0)
Best Bath Store.com has some free product samples that you can pick up and try out.
You're allowed to select up to 5 of the products they are offering, and then just pay $4.95 for shipping, that's it.
So here's what I picked up.
Acne Facial Bar
Acne Treatment Gel
Orange Body Bar
Rose Geranium Body Bar
Summer Citrus Body Bar

I picked up the acne products for Mark, and I picked the soaps for me.
I love homemade soaps, and I really love the fruit scented ones the most.
I've never tried any of the products from the Best Bath Store before, but if their soaps are really good scented and  lather up nice, don't cause any irritation, I'll probably buy them again.
I used to buy the most awesome handmade soap from a blogging friend of mine who had her own homemade soaps and lip balms and other stuff, and she made the most awesome smelling soap I've ever used in my life.
It was Jasmine and Pink Grapefruit, and it was incredible.
Every time I would wash with it before going out, people would be like OMG Kat, what kind of perfume is that, it smells incredible! I'd have to tell them it was just soap, not perfume, but man, if I could find perfume made with just Jasmine and Pink Grapefruit, I would so buy it and wear it all the time.
I guess I'll have to look around this site and see if they either make that scent already, or if they take scent requests.
If they do take requests, I will definitely send one in.

I posted this site up in case any of you may be interested in trying out some samples too.

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