February Photo Challenge

Yes, it's March and I am just completing the February challenge.  The truth be known, I'm still not completely finished with this task as I had to order some larger photo cases. But at least things are organized and pretty now.

A few years ago I spread out all out photos.  The one that predate digital.  I sorted by subject.  And most of them were put into photo display books or scrapbooks.  But I had these left over photos.  They've been in these plastic boxes forever.  We always go to these photos for any kind of school project that requires .... well, a photo.  

The challenges begins.  I pulled out ALL the loose photos.  Doesn't look like many but it was MANY.

I sorted through them one by one.  And followed the rules of the challenge and threw away *gasp*  any photos that were 1. blurry  2.  duplicates  3.  scenery that I had no idea where ironman was when he took it b/c he is always taking scenery photos and 4. any photo that made me look fatter than necessary.

Here's where I must have gotten so involved that I forgot to take a photo of the empty photo cases as I sorted.  You can kinda see them in other photos.  

Photo cases:  $1.99 each from The Container Store.  Pictures fit in so nice and tidy.

            Then the case just snaps closed!  Bob's your Uncle.  But I couldn't leave it like that.  Just plain and all.  So I dug out some scrapbook paper and traced around the box.  Made a printable insert.

And now the box looks like this.  Ran the scrapbook rectangle through the printer.  Tricked it into thinking it was photo sized.  That way I could give each case a title.

You can also purchase a case to stack all your smaller photo cases in from The Container Store but I found it bulky and ugly.  I'm waiting for Michaels to put their photo boxes on sale.  Then they'll be all pretty sitting on the shelf.
Also, I haven't completely finished this project because I ordered 2 document sized plastic boxes for the 8X10 photos and the keepsake programs, etc.

The March Challenge is organizing your household binder.  But since I don't have a HOUSE to have to organize the info I'll just wait on that challenge. A place to keep all your paint chip information, wallpaper information, fabric samples.  Things like that.

The days are longer, people, time to look for a new house.  We have a human looking through our house today with a realtor  It has been 3 long weeks without ONE VISITOR. Maybe this is a sign that buyers are returning to the market.

Daylight Savings Time

This time change is going to push me over the exhaustion level.  It's going to take a week to adjust.

No news on the house.  It's still sitting there.  But apparently it's using a lot of electricity just sitting there from the look of last month's utility bill.  WOWZA!  I was SHOCKED.  We don't live there!  Why is the bill so high?  And it's not even HOT.

Maybe the house will sell this spring.  And maybe it won't sell.  Maybe we'll be living here in this rent house next spring.  

Feeling super tired today.  Too tired to post photos.  I'll do that next time.

Paper, paper, paper

All I've done this weekend is sort paper.  I have almost completed the February "I heart organizing" challenge - family photos.  I don't think that is a project that has an end.  I realize it's March and I'm just completing the challenge for February.  I am also still working on the January challenge.  There is no end.

I sorted through extra photographs.  The ones that are not in albums.
I sorted through the "print out" cookbook.  I took photos.
I started a new binder with patterns and clipart.
I sorted the coupon binder.  Not many new high value coupons this weekend.

Our house is not on realtor.com.  I need to talk to somebody about that.

Life is easier in ABC order

This is a good morning.  House to myself.  Candle and beverage and quiet.  Here's what I did!!

End of one month means purging my coupon binder, then adding the next month's new coupons.  So I got everything ready and went to work.   I decided that since I was purging and adding anyway I may as well rearrange some things that have been bugging me.  Like the labels.  I'm still not happy with them, but they are better than before.

Then I sorted through the expired coupons and added the new ones.

I decided to type and printed a new index page.  Once again, I hate microsoft word.  Can a word processing program be any more complicated?  I prefer AppleWorks.

My coupon binder is all clipped, clicked and ready.  The only problem:  ugly black cover.  It was a freebie, though.  Turns out it's not a view binder that you can slip in a new outside decorative sheet.  I can live with the black for a while.  But as soon as there's a binder sale I'll be stocking up on colorful ones!

Now if I could just sell my house.

Words with Friends

I'm addicted to a digital scrabble game.  Is that crazy?  I have to leave my ringer on so I can hear with L.T. makes a move.  Come on girl, it's 5:43am.  I know you're up and it's YOUR TURN.  I've won twice.  She's won a zillion times.  But it's the journey, not the destination.

Our house is still for sale.  Like a broken record.  Still for sale.  I heard a lady on The Today Show say that Open House attendance is way up.  And that is always a sign that buyers are ready to buy.  Oh really?  Listen, I hope she's right but so far we have not seen any change.  Nothing is selling.

To join the blog party, here are the books I'm reading right now.  FYI

    It Sucked and Then I Cried
by Heather Armstrong.

The funniest most TRUE book!  She also has a blog I read every day


By Emma Donoghue
Ma and Jack.  Living in a one room garden shed.  Jack has never even been outside.  Not a criminal book .  Told from the view of a 5 year old boy who has never seen the outside world.  And then they are rescued.   But that's just the beginning.

I preordered this book

Haven't had time to read it.



This book?  WOWZA!  I did NOT read the back synopsis.  I don't like doing that.  I knew Anna Quindlen's books and bought it for that reason.  I kept thinking, "something is about to happen."  You get pretty far into the story before that SOMETHING happens and wowza........... unexpected.  And the ending leaves you thinking about those characters for days.  We need a sequel


And because we love her:


Ree!  Come to Shreveport!!!!!



Still here.  Waiting for my house to sell.  I'll let you know..........

When will the madness end?

It's a holiday weekend around where my house is sitting waiting for a buyer.  You'd think there would be some house shoppers looking around.  But so far we have had ZERO realtors bring clients through for a week.  When it's a holiday weekend, for some reason, it makes the waiting time slower.

Today I'm making labels since I finally got a refill for my Dymo labelmaker.  I have a teacher friend who doesn't have cute labels for her office supplies.  And , in my opinion, she NEEDS them so I'm going to make doubles.

I'm also ready to start my family photograph organization project but I had to order a few things from Amazon.  Only four arrived last week with a note that the other six are on backorder.  And I just can't start a project unless I have every single needed item.  So that will have to wait.

The Engineer is going on a trip next week and, naturally, needs money.  So I'll put some money in his account today.

And while I'm doing all this, I'll be waiting for my house to sell.  Nothing else I can do!

Drink Machine Etiquette

After I.T. girl and I went to the dentist we stopped into Newk's for some takeout.  We also decided to visit the beverage station for cola.  What is the etiquette for filling your ice and then drink and then adding a lid and a straw?  We had three cups to fill as we were also getting a drink for Dancer Girl who was not with us.  There are only 2 ice dispensers at our Newk's location.  Fill your cup with ice, move down to your liquid of choice then set your cup down so you can add a top and a straw.  The place was quiet.  Very few customers.  A lady was so frustrated and impatient with me filling 2 drink cups.  Even though she had the other machine and I had already stepped out of the way.  She pushed past me and slammed her cup into the machine to fill with ice.  Muttering to herself the entire time.  I just ignored her.   When you order "just water" at Newks they will sell you a bottle water, or give you a little clear plastic cup to get water from the beverage dispenser.  I noticed that was the kind of cup she had.  The "FREE WATER" cup and yet she was filling her little cup with cola. Is that going to break the bank at Newk's?  No.  It just shows that some people have no class.

Yesterday I mentioned my monthly Kroger trip and let me just say, it was disappointing.  Where are all the sales?  Where are the BOGO offers?  Wow.  I think the only deal I got was the 90 calories snack bars.  I got 4 boxes for 11 cents each.  I got one box of keebler cookies free with purchase of a gallon milk.  I had so many coupons and that is good.  But wow, nothing like it used to be.  And the cantalope?  TWO DOLLARS EACH?  Not to mention the celery and green onions and garlic.  The garlic was 3/$100.  And I used to get 10/$1.  I was too worn out to document my purchase with a photo.
Receipt details:  Shelf Price  $212.97  (oh my)
                               - coupons         59.89
OOP total                                    153.08
91 items sold
Oh my gosh.  I haven't spent that much in months.   Looking back through my receipt I do see that I have a lot of fruits and vegetables.   That always brings the price up.  Oranges were $1 each.  Ridiculous.
Most expensive item:  Glad Trash Bags - $6.99, had a coupon for $1
Best deal:  Fiber One 90 calories bars:  Shelf price:  2.29
                                    on sale for $2.11
                                    had coupon for 50 cents that doubled to $1
                                   had Kroger coupon for $1 off
                                    Grand total:  11 cents a box. I bought 4 boxes

I also see that I got 3 boxes of Instant Mashed Potatoes for free.  Forgot about that.  They were on special for $.99 and I had 3  $1 coupons.  So, free.

Then I also had the $5 off bonus from my customer loyalty card.  (Although I'm not that loyal.  I hit all the stores every week!)

Got home and remembered ICE.  I always forget ICE.  I'll have to get some before Ironman gets here.

No news on our house.  It dropped off the MLS but we re-signed the contract.  We are now officially the only house for sale in our entire town at that price.  With 4 bedrooms (and we have 5)  with 4 1/2 baths.  With a fence backyard.  2 story.  With a guest house.  New appliances, new carpet, fresh paint.  Professionally decorated.  Move in ready condition.  And we still can not sell it.

Epic Shopping Today

Today I did some epic shopping.  Here's the photos.  Yes, I took photos.

I had several coupons that expire tomorrow.  So I went to CVS today.  The only thing on my list that I couldn't find was the Cascade.  Ended up with Charmin tissue, 2 body washes, 2 Jif peanut butter, 1 Dawn Dishwashing Liquid and 1 Orbit Gum.  Had to buy the gum because my coupons were MORE than  my purchase price.  The checker was unsure of how to delete a coupon so it was her idea for me to just buy some gum or candy at the register.  Here's my grand total:

Up until today, my most epic shopping trip was a total of $1.09.  So, I beat my own record.  Tomorrow is my monthly grocery haul.  Can't wait to see how I do because I have many high value coupons to use.

In other news, Dancer Girl is going to another dance on Friday.  Suddenly the dress we bought several weeks ago isn't "right".  The whole deal with us when buying that dress was that she would wear it to two different functions.  But now she really, really wants a new dress.  She went online and kept pulling up dresses to show me yesterday.  So after my CVS trip I decided to go into Kohls and just look at their prom dresses.  My main goal was to narrow down the choices so that when I take her this afternoon shopping I've already scouted out dresses for her to consider.  And look what I found:

This dress is very similar to the one she pulled up online.  They didn't have many dresses left that were the black/pink combo.  So I was happy to find this one. And then I looked at the price tag.

It's a little blurry.  See?  I need a new camera.  Basically $68.00 on sale for $20.40.  PLUS I had $5 in Kohl's cash that I contributed to the cost.  That means it was $15.40 plus tax.

Now to our house.  This blog is about selling our house.  The other news I include is just there to entertain myself.  We lowered the sale price today.  We have a showing tomorrow.  We think the couple coming to see the house tomorrow is NOT a repeat visitor.  They are brand new.  Ironman is at the house today while the contractor replaces one of the windows.

Yesterday on CNN I listened to a woman discuss how to sell your house in this economy.  She said two things;
1.  Improve your curb appeal by planting flowers and primping the yard.  (really?)
2.  Lower your price.

That was her advice.

For buyers her only advice was to make sure your credit score is extremely high and that you have a significant down payment.