Trying Something New--Getting Our Carpet Cleaned! (Writer's Workshop)

Every year my hubby hints about hiring a professional to come in and clean our carpets.  His mom used to have theirs done every year but my mom never once had it done that I can remember.  So, we are at opposite ends of this spectrum; however, this year, I finally caved deciding to give it a try when my hubby showed me the Spring Cleaning Special that Dan and Vanessa's Best Carpet Cleaning has going.  We get four rooms cleaned for $80.  (He considered the hallway and stairs two areas and charged an extra $10 for that plus tax.  My hubby is very excited about finally getting this done after living here almost 16 years now.  The hall and bedroom that we are having cleaned today was here when we moved in.

Here is the biggest test though:

Living room:  Dirt stain by our front door

Upstairs den:  cat stains and worn

We tried and tried to get the living room carpet and the den carpet cleaned but nothing worked.  We are anxious to see if the carpet cleaner can get this cleaned.  I think he'll get the living room one cleaned but seriously doubt if he'll be able to get the den spots out.  We'll see.

After it was cleaned, it looked like this:

Success on the living room!

This is a hopeless cause.

For cat pee, call a professional carpet cleaner first BEFORE trying to treat it yourself.  Live and learn.

Do you have your carpets professionally cleaned each year?

This post is in response to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop prompt:  Something new you tried. 

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Where Does Our Money Go?

Our 2012 Spending

In setting up a monthly budget, I started by looking at how we spent our money in 2012.  The percentages are based on our income after taxes.  We were given a the following guidelines at church to assist us in setting up a budget.  The Bible has a lot to say about money, part of which is being a good steward of the resources God has given us.

Suggested Spending Plan Guidelines:

10-15%  Giving (church and other contributions)
5-10%    Saving (emergency, replacement, long term)
0-10%    Debt (loans, credit cards)
25-38%  Housing (mortgage/rent/maintenance/utilities, Internet, Cable TV, Yard, improvements/repairs)
12-15%  Transportation (auto repairs, maintenance, gas, bus, license, payments)
5%          Insurance (auto, homeowners, life, medical/dental, other)
15-25%  Household/personal (groceries, clothes/gifts, household items, toiletries, cleaning supplies)
5-10%    Entertainment (vacation, trips, restaurants, babysitting, education, hobbies, movies, sports)
5-15%    Professional Services (medical, childcare, legal, counseling)
2-3%      Misc., small cash expenses

In the handout, I noticed that pets were not listed anywhere so I included them in the Entertainment category! Our miscellaneous item was postage but was so small it didn't even amount to 1%.  I was happy to see our budget is in line with the suggested guidelines, or in most cases, even better!  Now I just need to apply these percentages to our monthly income to get a monthly budget plan.  I love that big chunk of savings which includes our 401k contributions and bank savings.  As we get closer to retirement, I think we need to save as much as possible.

Do you have a spending plan (budget)? 

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My Hubby's Post About Mops

Gerard thought you might like to know whether a dry mop or wet mop works better and wanted to show how much hair and dirt our dry mop picks up. I'm just glad he takes care of all our cleaning and hope you enjoy this short video.

Participating in the vlogging with Mama Kat:  Today's prompt was "A Product You Love."

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3 Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

1. Laundry

   
   
   The Modern Mom gave a good tip this week on how to Keep Towels Colorful. She says to add 1 cup of salt to the washing machine the first time you wash your new towels and it will help them maintain the bright color for longer. She always has interesting tips! I tried using the staple remover one to keep the ring open while adding Abby's new Canine Citizen tag to her collection and it worked!

2. Fun Night

   I took a vacation day yesterday to get a mammogram, take Abby to get groomed and help with our church picnic for all the VBS and Sports Camp families. I had a fun time running the baseball game. It was an inflatable sports game with a different sport on each side. The baseball side had holes they were supposed to try to bat or throw the plastic balls through. The tee had air blowing through which held the ball up in the air for them to hit. We gave tickets for all the games that the children could turn in for prizes. Only a few got the balls through the holes throwing, no one got any through hitting it. We gave a ticket for playing, getting the ball through the holes, and for collecting the balls for us after their turn was over. It was a challenge keeping the kids waiting and the little toddlers from getting hit with the bat but we were successful.

3. Shopping Success

   On my day off yesterday, I did a bit of shopping and got a light bulb and a package of 7 pens with various ink colors--both items were buy one, get one free at Rite-Aid! The ink pens I will use for the inductive Bible Study I am starting on the book of Job.  The pop I actually went for isn't on sale until next week so got some Root Beer for my husband at Marc's--a 2 liter for 99 cents.  I got 20% off on my printer ink at Office Max and found a pencil case that goes in a 3-ring-binder to keep all those pens in!

Didn't learn much this week.

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7 Things We Learned This Week (Olympics, Tips, Soldiers, Eagle, Shopping, Animals)

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

1. Olympics

   For the first time in the history of the Olympics, our USA teams have more female athletes than males!

2. Soldiers and Suicide

   According to the June 23, 2012 issue of TIME, "More U.S. soldiers have killed themselves than have died in the Afghan war." "Every day, one U.S. soldier commits suicide." This is so sad.

3. Eagles

   Over at Jodi's Journey I learned some interesting facts about the eagle. I knew they fly above storms but didn't know that they can live to be 70 BUT to do so, in its 40s, it goes through a painful process of change that lasts 150 days. It loses its beak, talons and feathers and wait for them to grow back and lives another 30 years or so.

4. Household Tips

   Over at The Modern Mom I found Some Things You Never Thought Of that are helpful tips. The one I plan to try next I have to put keys or dog tags on a ring is to use a staple remover to hold it open instead of my nails. Another tip I'm going to try is using a microfiber cloth to prevent frost from forming on the windshield (if I can still remember by then). She gave several other great tips too--definitely worth checking them out!

5. Funny--Shopping Math

   See this video for how to shop for free that I found at Marythekaytheblog:
   

6. Animals
   

   

   Persian Onagar

   We saw a new animal at the Cleveland zoo yesterday--a Persian Onager. It's a fast wild horse, also referred to as a Persian donkey. It grows thick fur to adopt to cold weather and is fast.
   
   

   

   How to walk a possum

   
   We also found out that a possum's tail is muscle and it's fur feels like a dog's. I got to pet a possum named Pearl and an armadillo named Monte at the zoo yesterday when we went to eat breakfast with the animals. The volunteer held the possum's tail when she put her down on the table or the ground to walk around.
   

7. Pet Olympics Begin Today

   There are over 130 pets involved in this, including our three (Spunky Doodle, Manny Boy and Abby) to a small extent. Here is the schedule of events you may like to see for the weekend:
   FRIDAY, JULY 27
   Opening Extravaganza ~ http://www.roosdoins.com/
   Parade of Athletes ~ http://posiedorg.blogspot.com/
   Welcoming Speech ~ http://frankiefurterprice.blogspot.com
   SATURDAY, JULY 28
   Swimming ~ http://sargespeaksout.blogspot.com/
   Window Nose Art ~ http://jazzis-world.blogspot.com/
   
   SUNDAY, JULY 29
   Crazy Sleeping Singles ~ http://oskarsblog.com/ and Synchronized Snoozing  
   Bouncing http://bouncingbertie.blogspot.co/uk

Please note I may not visit your blog as often as usual because I will be spending time supporting the pet Olympics in Blogland. These bloggers who are hosting the events have put in lots and lots of work to make this happen and so I hope you will support their efforts too by checking out these special events with all the pets.

(We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.)

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6 Different Ways To Fold Napkins

I didn't realize there were so many different ways to fold a napkin until I went to our Women of Wonder meeting this month at Parma Heights Baptist Church,  I included links to the video demonstration I made for each one. You need to use cloth napkins that are not slippery so they hold a fold.  Abby (our dog) was barking while I was doing this.  She wanted to go for her walk.  Hopefully the printed instructions here will be helpful.

Rose

Rose (easy) Rose

Fold all four corners of open napkin to center.
Fold new corners to center.
Turn napkin over and fold all four corners to center.
Holding the center firmly, reach under each corner and pull up flaps to form petals.  Reach between petals and pull flaps from underneath.

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13 Things You Should Know About Cucumbers

I got these items (facts?) about cucumbers in an email and thought they were interesting. I don’t know if they are true or not, but thought I would share them with you.; Can you vouch for any of them?

1) Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

2) Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

(I think this is true—cucumbers do perk me up.)

3) Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing spa-like fragrance.

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Wife v. Husband On Bed Making (Writer's Workshop)

Okay, does this bed look made to you? I think it’s made, but Gerard laughs and says I’m funny because I don't really make the bed. I think I do it as quickly and easily as possible by just straightening what is crooked and flattening out the crumpled things. Does it look good to you? It looks fine to me and it took less than a minute! Yup, all there.

But my wonderful husband says to do it properly, I should take everything off first and then put it all back on. This seems very unnecessary to me and takes three times as long as you can see from the video below. Even then, I have to adjust it to get the sides even or practically do it over because when he does it, he sometimes gets the bedspread on the wrong way and I have to redo it anyway—and then, I have to do it his long way!

I make the bed Monday through Friday and he sometimes does in on the weekend. Usually, I just make it as I walk around it on my way to the bathroom and then on my way to my closet. You see, every minutes counts for me because once my chores are done and I'm already for work, my extra minutes are spent on the computer before I leave and I want as much computer time as possible to visit and comment on blogs, do my link ups and maybe even a quick post.

Hope you enjoy the video where our dog cheers me on and supervises Gerard:





Gerard tells me most people do it his way. Since he was right about cleaning the trash can, he thinks he’ll be right about this too. So, how do you make the bed—my way or Gerard’s way? Please let us know in a comment.

Related posts you might enjoy:

What A Bargain!
5 Reasons Not To Make The Bed Every Day

This is an old post I linked up to Mama Kat's Writers Workshop today that answers the prompt: Share a disagreement you're having with someone and let your readers be the judge.

Head over to Saturday Samplings to find other outstanding posts from this week.

What Are You Going To Do--Clean A Trash Can? (Writer's Workshop)

This is my most Popular Post of 2011 for this blog with 21 comments and 111 views. Join in with the Best of 2011 Blog Hop over at A Pause on the Path.

You're not always right...no you're not...no you're not...no you're not....tell us about a time you were wrong. This is Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop prompt that inspired this post.

When my husband decided to clean our kitchen trash container, I laughed. It just struck me funny that he would do that but not change the filter on a vacuum cleaner or wash the litter boxes. He seemed to think it was a perfectly normal and sensible thing to do that everyone does.

I on the other hand, I am doubtful that most people do this, not that I minded. I actually think it’s wonderful that he does the cleaning at our house and am happy that I do not have to. So, we are taking a survey by our readers to see if Gerard is right (that most people do wash their trash containers) or if Karen is right (most people do not wash their trash containers).

Please let us know if you do or don’t in the comments. We're curious!

UPDATED 2/10/11:

Well, according to the comments we received, I am shocked that I was wrong about this and Gerard was actually right! Most people do wash their garbage cans. I stand corrected (however, I think if we had a bigger response, it would prove me right. Maybe some people just don't want to admit they don't do it)!

Vacuum Cleaners Need Cleaning Too!

Gerard Vacuuming With Our Tri-Star

We bought a very good but very expensive Tri-Star vacuum cleaner in 2003. Several parts broke and we were too lazy to take it into the center to get it fixed so bought a cheap Dirt Devil last year to use instead of getting the Tri-Star fixed. We did take it in several times before.

Last week the Dirt Devil quit working. Gerard vacuums every day so this was just very upsetting to be without a working vacuum cleaner. It would go on but would not pick up anything. I looked in the instruction manual troubleshooting page. Sure enough, there was a "won't pick up" problem listed with the solution being that the filter should be cleaned. Oops! Gerard never cleaned the filter since we bought it! It says we are supposed to tap it against the trash can until the dirt stops flying out of it. Well, before we gave this a shot, we got a call from Tri-Star saying their office nearby us closed and now they come to the house to provide the annual maintenance for our Tri-Star. I set up an appointment for them to come and fix ours last Saturday.

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The Envelope Tip Experiment

Did you ever seal an envelope and put on the postage only to realize you needed to change something? Or add something? I read this little trick in an email about putting the sealed envelope in the freezer for a few hours. It said you can easily open it by sliding a knife under the flap and reseal it.

Well, I had an occasion to give this a try. Tuesday since I had the time, after stuffing the envelopes to my Sunday School class with the newsletter, I sealed them up, put on the stamps because I had two that were loose and didn’t want to lose them but waited to mail them until Wednesday.

If only I just didn’t seal them, I could have avoided this problem:

When I got home and finally read the church bulletin, I discovered the time was different than usual for one of the upcoming events that I had mentioned in my newsletter. I’m so glad I didn’t actually mail them! First thing I did when I got to work a half hour early was to put the sealed envelopes in the freezer for an hour (and take a picture for this blog post). When I got them out, I must say I was disappointed in this tip. They did not open easily and you can certainly tell they were once opened and resealed because I needed to put tape on them to close them up again. I had to use the letter opener to slide it under the flap and it only worked for a small part of the way. I found cutting it along the seam with scissors worked best. It was the easiest way and also looked the neatest. I had 14 to do so had plenty of chance to experiment.

Here’s my tips for mailings:

Do not seal them until you are ready to mail them! I’m still learning this step. I do it for work mail, now if I could only remember to do it for my personal mail too!

It’s always best to let them sit a day or two. Something else may come up to add or you may realize you want to change something. This is why it is best not to seal them right away.

Refrain from putting the stamps on until after they are sealed and ready to go. You may decide not to mail them after all or maybe need to change an address. Also, especially with cards, sometimes you find the card does not fit in the envelope.

By following these tips, you can avoid having to open and reseal envelopes because the freezer tip doesn’t work all that well. It just goes to show you that you can’t believe everything you read, but it was worth a try. Have you come across any tips that don’t really work? What about some that do? I’m all ears!

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7 Things I Learned This Week--Part 31

Tribe Trades

I am very disappointed in the Indians trades: Cliff Lee for minor leaguers and Victor Martinez for minor leaguers. It's obvious the Indians ball club just doesn't want to pay the big bucks to keep their good players. For more of my thoughts, see Zemeks' Updates. I'll be cheering for Boston the rest of this season!

Facial Animation--Crazy Talk

From Daisy the Curly Cat this week, I discovered how people cat get their pets mouths to move with the words they use when talking for them in a video! There's special software available to use for this called Crazy Talk. Be sure to check out Daisy's Monday Riddle post here for a cute demonstration.

Pink Driver's License

Ohio has changed their driver's licenses to pink! Some men aren't happy with that and some people thought the machine messed up and tried giving it back to get it redone. When one lady got her new license and saw it was pink, she wondered if the men got blue ones--but no. Everyone gets pink now because apparently it's a harder color to copy.

Fly Predators

At Red Pine Mountain since horses make lots of poop, they get lots of flies but they have a solution--they actually buy fly predators! I never heard of such a thing before. Visit Red Pine Mountain to read all about it and see her horse dressed up rolling on the ground!

Biopsy

Had a biopsy on Tuesday. Went well in that they were able to get the right area. Actually took pieces of tissue. Wasn't painful at all since they numbed the area and just went into the breast with a needle, just noisy. Every time the technician went for a chunk it sounded like a big stapler. (The results of my aspiration is that the cysts are not cancerous, now have to wait to hear about the biopsy results).

Best Buy Recycles

While stumbling which I don't do often,I found the Woman's Day site that has lots and lots of useful information. One thing I found out there that especially caught my interest is that Best Buy recycles electronics! Check it out here first, they only take certain things but charge $10 but then give you a $10 gift certificate.

Cleaning Vases

At My Library blog I found a good tip for cleaning those narrow vases that are hard to get to the bottom of. Use a couple Alka-Seltzer tablets!

4 Things I Learned This Week-Part 21

Twitter

I just discovered how to add video and pictures to Tweets on Twitter: For video: http://twitvid.io and for photos: http://twitpic.com. Just use your Twitter ID and password and then upload you video. There's more ways too that are mentioned at mashable.com.

Short tweets are more likely to be retweeted than long ones.

Pool Shark In Diapers

If found this video at Living Life to the Fullest. I used to have a miniature pool table like this one when I was a kid. This kid is really good!

Wallpaper

Ever hear of heat-activated wallpaper? I didn't either until I saw it on New York Renovator. Wonder what it does? Well, the sample shown there was a green vine type print and when it got warm, pink flowers would show up! Do you have any heat-activated wallpaper? Have you even heard of it before this?

Lots of Tips

I came across a whole list of great assorted tips at Jodi's Journey. Easy things that will take care of ear mites, fleas, wet dog, headache, sore throat, toenail fungus, stuffy nose, bee killer, arthritis relief and more! Worth checking out--you're bound to find something there you could use. (I haven't tried any of these yet so can't guarantee they work.)

Ice Cubes Come In Handy For Carpets

From moving our furniture around when we had our insulation installed, there were little dents in the carpet where some of our heavier pieces were. I put an ice cube on the dent and waited for it to melt, hoping the cats wouldn't hit it off. As soon as I put down the ice cubes, the cats came to see what was going on. The dent was still there. I tried it again, this time completely following the directions which include dabbing it with a paper towel after it melted and then vacuuming over the spot. It revived the carpet fibers and the dent is gone!
I got this tip from Modern Mom.

5 Things I Learned This Week of 2009--Part 16

Household Tips

Have any carpet dents from heavy furniture that you moved? We did after moving furniture when we had our house insulated and I found how to fix them at Modern Mom. All you do is put an ice cube in the dent, after it melts, blot excess moisture with a towel and vacuum.

Get A Free Gravatar

While reading through the discussion forum set up on Problogger for his blogging tutorial, I discovered that I can get a free gravatar at http://en.gravatar.com that will connect with my email address and show up by my name next to comments I leave on forums that are enabled for that. I'm not quite sure how it works exactly, but I see my picture is now by my comments left on this discussion forum. Not sure if I want to show my picture or my cat's--big decision. For now, I show mine.

Twitter

I discovered http://justtweetit.com this week through reading 13 Twitte tips and Tutorials For Beginners. Just Tweet it is a directory where you can find others on Twitter with similar interests as you and also you can submit your information into the directory if you wish. Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kzemek.

Question: Now that I'm on Twitter, I'm not sure if posting at 5 a.m. is the best time to do it. Does anyone know what the best time would be to get the most exposure on Twitter. I have it set that whenever I update my blog, a tweet is automatically generated with the post title.

Hockey Blog

I just discovered a great hockey blog through participating in a discussion forum at Problogger. It is packed with lots of up-to-date information and is just a fantastic blog for any hockey fan. Gerard subscribed to it. It's called The Hockey Writers.

Blog Design

Ana at Chica & Pumuckl designed both my blogspot blogs and was kind enough to add a navigation bar to this one for me. I went to her How To Create Pages in Blogger post to get the instructions on how to set up my pages. It's a great "How To" post. If you don't have a navigation bar on your blog, you may want to add one to unclutter your sidebars some. Thanks for your help, Ana!

6 Things I Learned in Week 9 of 2009

Web Sites

It's absolutely free to list items to sell on Craig's List. I just found this out when reading www.craigs list posting tools.info.


When participating in discussions on www.zootoo.com, I discovered a new site, www.catchannel.com where you can create a CAT FANCY cover with a picture of your cat! This is one I did with Spunky Doodle.

Today when I visited Kids Are My World I learned where to get those little animated pictures that I sometimes see on others blogs. Personally, I find them a bit distracting after awhile and I don't think I'll be adding any because you do have to download their program, but I may change my mind about that at some point. Anyhow, here is the site: SweetIM.

Household Tip

I finally found out how to get my faucets to sparkle and get rid of the soap scum and grunge from The Modern Mom. She recommends using sponge and dab full-strength fabric softener (she uses Downy) on stained areas. Let sit for 15 minutes, then wipe with a damp cloth.

"My Funny Dad, Harry"

When I went on www.shelfari.com this week I checked to see who read the book I wrote, "My Funny Dad, Harry" and to see if they wrote any reviews on it. I was pleased and surprised to find out that several had it on their shelves with a little heart on it which means they marked it as a favorite! That really made me feel good that even people I don't know personally liked it that much. Shelfari is a great site for readers. You can search for a book and find out who else on there read it and what they thought about it. You can also discuss it with others either through notes to them or in discussion groups.

John Grisham

I was surprised to learn that John Grisham's book, "Innocent Man" is non-fiction. It's about several men being wrongfully convicted for murder. I learned that if ever I get arrested, I shouldn't say anything without an attorney present. This is a very sad book. This is why I am against the death penalty!

How To Save Money On Lunches

I know some people who work go eat out for lunch everyday but that's not me. (I save that luxury for Saturday.) The cheapest sandwich I can find is a hot dog for $1.25 but I am not big on hot dogs and they certainly do not fill me up. The next cheapest is a $3 sandwich. Salads are just as much, but I'm not big on salads either. Pizza is high too, $1.00 for just one slice (it may even be more than that by now.) Domino's Pizza has a pretty good deal--small personal pizza and pop for $3.00; however, I don't like to drink pop regularly and that pizza really is small--like 8 bites in all but it's good! Restaurants in downtown Cleveland are way too expensive for my budget-$8-$10 is the cheapest, plus I don't want to spend my whole lunch hour sitting and eating when I already practically sit all day at a desk.

Buying lunch out every day adds up to quite a bit so I take my "sack" lunch to work. A sack lunch is one you take it in a bag each day in case you are like Gerard and don't know what that is (he laughed when I called it that one day). To save money, we don't buy lunch bags. I reuse bags that are that size that we get from other places, such as the brown bags from Octane Cafe' where I buy our protein bars, Malley's bag from our Christmas candy, Dunkin' Donut bags from work on Fridays, and any fast food bags we get on Saturdays. These bags, if folded properly, last 1-2 weeks. I have to make sure I am the one to put them away though, because otherwise Gerard just bunches them up and they take up so much more space that way! Gerard packs his lunch in one of those lunch cooler containers so the bags are all for me.

Another savings tip is to order pizza on the weekend, but do not gorge yourself on it. Save some for lunch through the week. On Mondays and Tuesdays every week I bring two slices of our leftover pizza in a tupperware container for my lunch and heat it in the microwave we have at work along with Dannon's Light-n-Fit yogurt. I also bring a fiber bar or protein bar too those days for snacks. It makes a very good lunch. Sometimes, I'll even throw in a banana or an orange for a morning snack. Once the pizza runs out, I settle for a sandwich.

I have given in and started buying the protein bars from Octane Cafe' since I started working out regularly again, but they are not cheap so I don't eat them every day. They are very good though and give me some additional protein in my diet for my muscle toning. I just wish they didn't cost so much (Over $2 each--they raised the price of them last year)!

What do you usually eat for lunch? Do you reuse bags too or am I the only one who does this? Oh, by the way, I also fold and pack my garbage neatly before throwing it away when I eat at those fast food places on Saturdays--it's right up there with making the bed--see if you missed it.

6 Things I Learned in Week 1 of 2009

Sadly, I learned that the Carousel Dinner Theater in Akron, Ohio has closed. I feel bad for all the people who worked there and for the season ticket holders who now will not see any of the shows scheduled. Gerard and I only went twice but enjoyed it both times when we saw "Annie, Get Your Gun" and "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers." Their last performance was sold out.

Exercising Tid Bits from a personal trainer who I met with for the first time:

• Touch the muscle you are working as you work it if you can.
  
• It's good to sweat, so you should wear a sweat suit while doing cardio and then if you get too warm, you can take off the jacket
  
• Stand and walk around a bit between sets when working the legs.
  

(I also am learning some things about posting from Blogging For Dummies. Several times I've wanted to make a bullet point list in a post but didn't know how. That's one thing I learned how to do this week from reading this book.

I never realized photobucket had such cool features to use with your photos until I saw this post at Purrchance to Dream. You can put your photos in frames or on posters and use a lot of different effects. Here is a sample picture of mine that I played with so show you.


When reading Daily Blog Tips, I found out that it's a good thing to link to older posts in your blog not only as a help to the readers but also in light of search engines. I've done this some when I do an update post or if I am referring to something I've written in the past. That's when that search widget comes in handy--I love it! Anyhow, I will plan to do a post about what I think are my my most popular in 2008 and some early posts that I think were good but didn't get a lot of comments perhaps because it was early on in the life of this blog.


According to a post I read about apples at Health Nut Wannabee Mom, eating apples may help prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinsonism. I never heard this before but really think I will add those Delicious Red apples to my diet this year.

Thanks to my wonderful blogging friend, Mountain Woman at Red Pine Mountain, I learned that I can have my blog connected to Facebook so friends on facebook can follow it there. If you are on Facebook, look me up and join my blog "neighborhood." It's the Networked Blogs badge in the right sidebar.

Monster Stickers Now Gone Thanks to Modern Mom

I decided to try again to remove the monster stickers from my dresser that I put on when I was a kid a long time ago when I found these instructions on how to do it at Remove Wall Stains at The Modern Mom:

STICKERS - Our kids love putting stickers everywhere and the easiest way to remove them is to soften the adhesive with heat using a blow-dryer. Do it for 10 to 15 seconds, then peel. If necessary, just repeat the process. For stubborn gunk, dampen a cotton swab with laundry pre-wash stain remover and rub until it penetrates the residue, then use an old credit card or spatula to scrape it off. Wipe the area with a damp cloth and let dry.

I am pleased to report that it really works! Now my dresser is monster free and it only took about 20 minutes, if that, once I got all my "tools." Thanks, Modern Mom! For more great tips, stop by her blog at http://wondermom.info/. Here is a short video showing me actually doing it.

This post is linked to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop in response to the prompt: Has the internet inspired you? Share a tip, recipe or craft you attempted after seeing it posted on the internet.

Things I Learned This Week--Part 16

We went to the zoo on Saturday and met a new little animal that one of the volunteers was holding. It's about the size of a chipmunk with very big eyes and a membrane that makes it so it can glide through the air 60 feet like a kite. The big eyes are a sign that it is a nocturnal creature. It's comparable to our flying squirrel. She said it lives in Australia. Any guesses? It's called a sugar glider but does not eat sugar. It's very soft with sharp teeth and claws. Picture is from Wikipedia since I didn't have my camera with me. Check out this link for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Glider.



I really need to get back into regular exercising and strength training so starting January, I'm back to the gym again. Take a look at this video of me and Gerard attempting very simple band exercises:


At The Modern Mom I found a whole list of "Stain No-Nos" which included some things that I never knew I shouldn't do such as "Don’t rub soap into fresh stains, it will only set stains" and "Don’t tumble-dry stained fabric, the heat will only set remaining stain permanently." The source she noted was "quick & Simple."

Also from Modern Mom's "Remove Wall Stains" post, I learned how to finally get the monster stickers of my dresser when I was a kid. It really works! I will be doing a separate post about this with pictures and me actually doing it. You just heat it up a little with a blow dryer, rub some liquid laundry detergent on it and use a spatula to scrape it off. (See post with demonstration video Jan. 8)

I found this video at My Christian Diary which is a new site I found through an Entrecard advertisement and just had to share it here: