Cool new Safty products

I was sent these amazing Hot Walkers to try out and review. It is one of many self defense products offered by Security Solutions.
I was thrilled when I received these. They are weights weighing one pound each that you can use while you walk or jog.
So what's so exciting about Hot Walkers? How are they any different than other weights?
I'm so glad you asked.
The top of the each weight opens up, one has a hole that you can store money or keys in then replace the lid. The other opens up to reveal that it is fully equipped with pepper spray!
The reason I was so excited to get these was because I go jogging almost every day and with the crime rates increasing my husband and I have been concerned for my safety. Sometimes My husband goes with me, but that is not always possible.
With Hot Walkers we both have much more peace about me being out jogging alone. They make me feel safer and they also add to my work out! They also have that convenient slot for storing things.
If you are like me and get a little uneasy at the thought of walking or jogging alone, I highly recommend this product.
They have a ton of other safety products available, including things to protect you and your whole family. You can see them all at their website . While you are there sign up for their newsletter and you'll receive free safety tips as well as product specials through your email.

It's Christmas!!!

I am so excited! My husband has agreed to go along with Cloth Diapers. It took me 14 months but I have finally got him convinced it's worth it. Sure, the savings with Lexi might not be much since she is already 14 months old, but we will use the same diapers with the rest of the babies when they come, so we will get a lot of use out of them. (Especially since we want about 3 more-babies that is.
When the diapers finally arrive on my doorstep it is going to be like receiving a brand new Rolex or a BMW- that is how excited I am about getting these diapers.
For money reasons I have decided to go with prefolds, they are the cheapest and dry the fastest. Sure the All in ones and pocket diapers are easy and nice, but for the price of one you can get almost a dozen prefolds!
I am super excited!! Can you tell?

Carrying baby

I'm excited to do this post, partially because it's a payu2blog assignment, partially because it's about something that I enjoy.
Although I am not as enthusiastic about this topic as my friend Beth from The Natural Mommy, When my daughter was little I did use and love baby slings.
There are so many different slings available now it's crazy! We used the Ultimate baby wrap with Lexi when she was really little, once she got bigger we didn't like it so much and only used the snuggli when we had to.
Beth loves her Maya wrap and also has a homemade sling too.
Slings are great for days when the baby is being exceptionally clingy and does not want to be put down, but you still want to get stuff done. They are also great for shopping or walks with a little baby.
Some slings can be used up to 35 or more pounds, but I don't know as though I would want to be carry around my 22lbs baby in a sling!
They do create a comfortable, secure environment for the baby which of course makes the baby happy and calm.
Make sure you check out Beth's post for a TON more information on the benefits of baby wearing!

My new site

In my last post I told you I was moving. I am so excited to have my own .com!! I feel cool now.
I plan on using my site www.beautyfromchaos.com to share my thoughts and feelings on everything. I also will eventually have a store up and running there (hopefully). I plan on selling hair bows, Taggy blankets, bibs,and burp clothes. Maybe even a few other things.
As I said in the last post this site will continue to be up and running for my payu2blog assignments. I thought rather than try to be completely creative and think of ways to use words like billet grilles in a post about my daughter or saving money, I'd be free to talk about whatever I want to complete my assignments.
So please, visit my new site, leave me a comment :) While you're there look at my blogroll and go tell Ashley (twentysixcats) and my mom (ain't no place) thanks for helping me get it up and running! And much thanks to my husband for making the banner for my new site!

Breaking the Silence

I've been so quiet on this blog lately. I've been enjoying blogging at my site, but I thought it was time to break the silence over here at ha ha made you look.
I can't believe it's October already! The year is flying by, seems like each year goes faster than the one before it.
Football season has started and I have to admit I'm kinda getting into the game. My husband and I have actually found ourselves sitting on the floor in front of our TV watching the game on Sunday afternoon. I'm really missing all my Tennessee football fans.
I remember when we first moved to the Volunteer state I couldn't believe how crazy those people were over their college school football team. Bright orange was proudly displayed and worn everywhere by almost everyone. I have even seen a house with bright orange shutters and a bright orange door. I thought those people were crazy.
Little did I know I'd fall in love with some of the biggest Volunteer fans there are. I'd even get to know one of the bodies behind the mascot, Smokey the dog. I have to admit for about 2 years of hearing Smokey I thought they were referring to Smokey the bear. I thought Volunteer goes pretty good with Smokey the bear right? Maybe the football team was also the volunteer fire department? So I was a little uneducated. I learned!
For all my VOLS fans out there-Go Big Orange.

nice jewlery

I'm not a big fan of spending a ton of money on jewelry. Really the only expensive pieces I have are my engagement ring and wedding band. The only thing we've spent money on is the engagement right. Our wedding bands were my parents. I love sentimental value!
I saw these really nice wedding bands on this site and I love them! I'm not saying I would spend that much money, if I didn't have sentimental wedding bands and I was getting married, then I'd think about it.
They have some cute gold bracelets too.
I'm actually kind of funny about jewelry. I used to get so jealous of a friend of mine because her husband would buy her expensive necklaces, earrings, and rings just about every time they celebrated anything. I knew deep down inside I would probably make my husband return it if he ever spend that much money on a piece of jewelry.
I don't know why I'm so weird about that. When we spend money I really want it to be on something that we can keep and I want it to be worth it if we're spending a lot of money on it.
My husband often gets mad at me because I think eating out and going to see movies or renting movies is a BIG waste of money. really anything that involves going out and spending money (unless it's shopping!) it wasteful to me. I guess that's just my frugal brain...

red ants

After reading Joanna's blog about spider print bedding I had a thought of my own. Why don't they have animal print bedding that looks like red ants? Have you ever noticed the multi colors of red ants? Probably not because most people either stomp on, or move away from a red ant when they see it.
Our front "yard" is really our driveway/parking spot. It's mostly sand and gravel, and it is completely full of ants.
Often when we sit in our car we count the ants on the windshield, one time we counted 9.
That is how I learned to admire the coloring of red ants. Sure, I'd much rather curl up under a blanket that looks like a butterfly, but red ants are pretty.

Cooking

I think I like cooking. I haven't decided. Sometimes it's great and sometimes I hate the chore.
The days that I hate it I blame it on my ever so picky husband. I'm serious, he's picky (I still love him though). The majority of our meals consist of meat and potatoes or pasta. Veggies are made for Lexi and I, the only "veggie" Eugene will eat is corn.
The days I like cooking are days that I am actually able to find a recipe for something exciting that my husband will actually eat. I had one of those days the other day. I made homemade scalloped potatoes with kielbasa in it. It was pretty good if I might say so myself.
Another thing that helps me like cooking is fun cookware. I really like my square stone baker that I got from Pampered chef. Another Pampered Chef thing I can't live without is my veggie peeler- it rocks and it's pretty cheap. I stumbled upon some berndes cookware the other day. I bet a nice set of that would make me like cooking. I'm sure they are worth every penny.
My mom used to cook some of the best food, all from scratch of course, none of the boxed food ever came in our house. I wish I had paid more attention while she was cooking, I bet I would like cooking more now if I had. I'd atleast be able to cook some more food!

The great (phone) debate

Phones. cell phones, cordless phones, old rotary phones, touch tone phone, pay phone, car phone and now the iphone...
There are too many phones to choose from.
Eugene and I have had cell phones since August of 2002. We signed a 2 year contract with Verizon and have kept renewing it every time it runs out.
The only time we have had a home phone was the brief period of time when my mom lived with us and she wanted one. I think that lasted maybe 6 months.
At first it it was awesome to have cell phones. The luxury of being able to call whoever, whenever wherever you were was great. Driving down the road and want to know better directions? Call someone with the internet and ask them to look some up for you. Out at the store and can't remember what the good CVS deals are? Call Beth, she knows. (Yes I've done that).
I've always loved my cell phone. There's only one problem, well maybe 2.
Minutes. I'm terrible at watching my minutes. I go over regularly. I used to have 400, then that plan moved up to 450. I went over so many times we had to just switch me to 950 minutes. Yes, I have 950 day time minutes and I still go over.
I didn't used to be this bad. When I was working I didn't use my cell phone very often so I stayed in my plan most of the time. Once Lexi was born and I was at home all the time my phone became a good friend.
The second problem is the battery, that's not as a big deal but like a cordless phone battery you have to charge it a lot.
When we switched my minutes from 450 to 950 it extended my 2 year contract to February. Eugene's ends in December. We were debating about what to do. We've been tossing around the idea of getting a home phone possibly with unlimited long distance and local calls and getting rid of my cell phone. That way I can call whoever I want whenever I want with no minute restrictions! The down side is that we will soon be having a second vehicle which means it will be possible for me to be on the road alone with Lexi. I don't like the thought of driving around unless I have a phone in case of emergencies.
I think we finally devised a plan that will help us with all the people we call. We will get a home phone, with just a basic local calling plan. Then I will get a Cingular (A&T) pay as you go cell phone .The people I talk to the most are April (my sister in law), Beth, my mom and my sister Bethany.
April has a home phone with unlimited long distance, so she will be able to call me on my home phone with no additional charge to either of us and we will be able to talk all day if we wanted.
Beth has a Cingular cell phone, so we'd be able to talk from cell phone to cell phone without using minutes. Therefore it will be free to both of us.
My mom and Bethany have Verizon, Since we will be keeping Eugene's cell phone with Verizon they will be able to call me on his phone using mobile to mobile minutes which equals FREE. If they need to get a hold of me during the day we all have the internet and can email or IM.
So I think we cheated the system. Of course we still have to wait until February to start this, unless I convince my husband to take my phone for 2 months, then we can start in December.

Frugal Shopping

I'm trying so hard to be frugal with my shopping. This is difficult for me because I am an impulse buyer and I love to shop.
I've been going through Crystal's Supermarket Savings 101 course and it has me thinking even more about saving money and stocking up my "pantry". I did manage to buy 3 weeks worth of groceries for $100, but we will still need to buy milk, Orange juice and bread as they run out. However I'd like to stock up my cabinets, as well as get my household items.
She is very frugal and does all her shopping with $35 or less a week. This includes groceries, cleaning items, toothpaste, deodorant and all the necessities. She does a lot at CVS and Walgreen's, which I have recently started taking advantage of their deals. You can get a lot of stuff free or close to free if you spend a little bit of time couponing and checking out their flyers as well as the forums (like families.com).
We subscribed to the weekend paper, to make sure I'd get all the Sunday coupons- in the past I have bought the paper and not gotten them all. Today my goal is to sit down and look at the sales ads, comparing sales and Extra Care bucks (CVS $$) and coupons. Hopefully I'll get a list of some free or close to free items and be able to stock up. I noticed RiteAid (Eckards) had a lot of good free items.
My husband thinks I'm crazy; sure, he enjoys that I save us money and get free stuff, but he doesn't understand why we need 10 tubes of toothpaste. My thoughts? "if it's free, why not get it?!" He thinks I need some coupon rehab, kinda like a drug rehab program.

Car space

So far our Ford Taurus has been a good purchase for us. We bought it right after Lexi was born last year because it was very evident that our little 2 door Hyundai Accent was not going to be big enough to haul around all the stuff needed to take a baby on a trip. After all, we could barely fit the car seat in the back seat.
This last camping trip we had a lot of stuff and we didn't even bring a tent, stove or any other camping gear. We had a cooler and some food, as well as our luggage, small stroller and bedding.
We barely squeezed all our stuff in the empty space (which included the trunk and the back seat next to Lexi.)
This trip really made us realize there's no way we could travel in this with 2 children. Unless we strapped some things to the roof. We thought about getting a cargo bag for on top, but last year on our trip to Maine with my mom we learned those leak really bad in the rain unless you have a roof rack on the top of the car. (It's really not fun riding from TN to Maine getting wet. My step dad got so wet he looked like he rode on the roof).
I don't think you can just put a roof rack on your car like you can put a truck rack on your truck can you? I think it's one of those things that needs to be put on when the vehicles is made.
So maybe we could purchase a trailer of some sort to avoid the cost of purchasing a mini van or maybe a semi truck.
cccccccccccxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (That's Lexi's input)
I was the youngest of 5 and I remember riding to the campground sitting on my sleeping bag and my legs propped up on coolers (and we had a huge van). So how do you travel? Do you have problems fitting everything in the car?

Family Reunion/camping trip

My sister and I had so much fun camping over Labor Day weekend that we decided we wanted to make it an annual event and try to get more people to join us. Two of our aunts were supposed to join us but they both had to back out at the last minute.
We don't have any plans set in stone yet, but we're hoping to go to either Cooperstown, NY or Huntington Beach, SC (near Myrtle beach). No matter where we go hopefully all our family will pack up their tents, camp stoves, sleeping bags, fishing poles and fishing tackle and then we'll have a great time enjoying our family!!

The most over used profession in America

Lawyers.

No one wants to take the blame for their own mistake so they sue each other, accusing neighbors, doctors, car salesmen, farmers. Yah that one cracked me up.

I did a google search on the word "sued" I got 19,800,000 results. That's a lot.

I think we've gone overboard. Dr's actually have to perform c-sections on some pregnant women, just to avoid being sued. Churches have to serve packaged food to the children in the nursery to avoid a lawsuit. That's pretty insane if you ask me.

There are 31 pages of attorneys in my phone book, I don't even live in a big city. I'm sure there are more ads in New York City in the category of medical malpractice attorney New York City does seem to be the place to file lawsuits. Unless of course you're sueing a farmer.

Does anyone else think we sue each other too much!?

Payu2blog assignments.

Well, They're keeping me busy at Payu2blog! I was afraid I wasn't going to get too many assignments since I had 14 on my very first pay period. But apparently they like me. On my 10 new assignments that showed up today are little stars. When you view the individual details they all have a comment like this " The sheriff is looking out for you. You have been given an extra assignment. Thanks for all of your hard work."
Maybe it's because of my lovely usage of the words incontinence products. I am aware that I didn't use that in it's proper context but I didn't feel like writing a whole blog about bladder control issues or trying to figure out some other creative way to complete that assignment.
Anyway, I just wanted to warn you readers that I have 10 more assignments to complete, including this one that I am using to complete my hydroxycut link. I'm a cheater, I know.
So be waiting for my 9 more fun, exciting (or should I say awkward) words

We Won not just one but 3 vacations!

A few weeks ago my husband and I went to the Life and Family tour at the local even arena. We weren't sure what was going to be there, but we had free tickets so we figured it would give us something to do on that Saturday.
When we got there we realized it was a bunch of vendors trying to get you to buy their products... the perfect place for people with no money right?
The first booth that suckered called us in was the Charlotte observer. They offered us a deal we couldn't refuse. Friday-Monday paper for only $8 a month. Since I normally get the Sunday paper every week anyway we figured why not. Plus they gave us a $10 gift card to walmart and no money was needed that day. Perfect.
We managed to give enough looks that people new not to try to get us to buy anything as we walked past their booths for a while. Then some guy asked us if we signed up to win a trip to Orlando yet. OOH! Win a vacation?! you got our attention. So we signed up, then continued walking around forgetting about it.
About a week later I got a phone call. It was the people giving away the vacation. 20 people out of 950 won, and guess what? Yup, we were one of the 20 people. YAY! So as they are telling me all the stuff we won (6 days 5 nights in a 4 star hotel, all accommodations paid for 4 people, 2 5 day tickets into Universal studios with the fast pass included) I'm quickly typing it all into a word doc so that after I get off the phone I can tell my husband. Then they tell me that we were chosen out of that 20 people to win an additional trip to Las Vegas. WOW! 2 vacations?
That's when I realized there had to be a catch. no one just gives away that many vacations. The guy started telling me what we would be responsible for, we'd have to get to these destinations, pay the tax and go to a brief orientation...
Then I remembered an episode of my favorite show The King of Queens where Doug took Carrie to a ski resort for their anniversary. He had one the trip just like this. Turns out it was one of those places that wants you to buy a timeshare, so they make you listen to their little "orientations" all weekend.
The guy on the phone tells me he has to switch me to another guy who will get my address to send me the packet of information. The whole time I'm on hold I'm debating the situation in my head. 2 vacations, and all we have to do is listen to them talk for a little bit. We don't have money to purchase a time share anyway so it's not like we'd be tempted to buy anything...
The second guy gets on the phone. That's when he told me of the 3rd vacation I had won. a trip to Aruba!! OH COUNT ME IN! I can handle someone trying to pressure me into buying an Orlando vacation home if I get 3 free vacations out of it!!!
I'm so super excited by this point that I can actually ignore the thousands of times the two guys said "welcome to Orlando". Then he asks me for my credit card information..
Wait. what? I have to pay to go on my FREE vacations that I won?
Oh yah, tax. Ok, can't be too much right?
$398.
but $398 for 3 vacations is so super cheap! too bad we don't have the money. We don't even have a credit card (we're working on only buying things if we have the CASH to purchase them). So yah, I finally win something and I can't even have it.

Diapers and diaper and more diapers

I was so excited to have a baby.

What could be better that having a blessing from God in your own house? A bouncing baby girl. How exciting. I knew having a baby would cost money, I'm not dumb enough to think that we wouldn't have to change our spending habits in order to afford all the diapers. However, I am a firm believer that if you wait until you "can afford" a baby, you'll never have one. Unless of course you're married to a very rich man, or come from a family with money (I am neither).

When Lexi was born we were given so much! I couldn't believe the amount of diapers we received as gifts, not to mention all the other important things you need for a baby. We didn't have to regularly buy diapers until Lexi was almost 9 months old. We honestly only bough about 5 packs for her between birth and nine months, and 2 of those packs were because we had gone on a 2 week long trip and didn't want to take all the diapers we needed along.

Once she hit 9 months and our supply had run out we started purchasing them weekly. Boy did this add up! I'm sure we spend about $40 a month on incontinence products.

I have thought about switching to Cloth diapers, Beth uses them for her two so I know I'd have support if I needed it. The problem is we haven't seemed to have the money needed to get started with them (plus my husband's not a big fan of this option).

So for now we shop around and use coupons to get the best deals on the diapers, maybe with Eugene's end of the year bonus we'll buy some cloth ones, or maybe she'll be potty trained by 18 months. (I'm sure since she started crawling at 12 months, and got her first 2 teeth at 12 months she'll jump right ahead to being potty trained....)

My boring Kitchen

So Ashley's living room has made me realize how boring my kitchen is. I had every intention of making curtains like I made for the rest of the house, but we haven't had the money to look for material. Our whole apartment is painted this khaki color, the carpet is tan, the trim and doors are while. That's the color scheme for every room in the apartment and we were told we can't paint the walls. I don't know if we'd be allowed to paint if we covered it up when we left or not but that's a lot of paint and money that I feel would be wasted since we're only planning on being here a year. So that means all the style has to come from my furniture and decorating. The living room would look nice if we had a couch, right now our "couch" consists of two lawn chairs. The bedroom is OK, it at least has curtains. But the Kitchen... I don't even like to go in the kitchen. Of course this is the room where I do most of my work, the washer and dryer are in there, and of course the oven is in there, so there are my two main chores for the day.
My goal for when we get money is to spruce up the kitchen, this will include curtains, a tablecloth, a curtain for the unsightly shelf we use as our pantry and microwave stand, and of course cloth napkins. Now if I can just find a color I like and material that will make the kitchen look inviting and fun!

Vacation part 2

I had an idea about our family vacation next summer. I was thinking that since my family lives in maine, maybe one of them can start a Maine bed and breakfast and we can go stay there. I figure out of 4 siblings surely one of them can start their own business and afford to let their family members stay there for free, right?! It's not like we're poor pastor's kids or something!

How unhealthy are americans?

The way our bodies work hasn't changed much since they were created but the food we eat has changed drastically. Fast food, easy food, microwaveable meals, eating out, precooked. These words describe most of our diet. Most people know Trans fat is really bad for you, but did you know that if there is less than .5 gram of trans fat per serving they do not have to put it on the nutrition facts? If you see the word hydrogenated in the list of ingredients that means it has trans fat in it. There is a lot we would need to change in America if we wanted to see the obesity rate go back down, see less cancer and disease as well as have healthier citizens. We would first have to start eating healthy to get all the junk out of our bodies, we would probably have to close all fast foods chains and take all junk food off the shelves in store while replacing them with raw fruits and veggies.

A few months ago I was watching a TV show about how unhealthy we are because of choices we have made. This particular guy was talking about the colon and how important it is to keep our colon healthy. Did you know that colon cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.? Toxins from the food we eat cause colon cancer as well as other problems. Constipation is the biggest problems Americans face with their colons. With constipation, the toxins are setting in our colons longer than normal and our bodies absorb the toxins. The longer we are exposed to the toxins the higher our risk of disease. Did you know that the average American only goes to the bathroom once per day, where as every other countries average is 3 times per day. Even if you only go to the bathroom once per day you still have 3 meals worth of waste building up, which is why it is healthy to go 3 times a day. The point the guy on the TV show was trying to make was that in order to be healthier we need to detoxify, there are a few ways to detoxify, one way is a colon cleanse. A healthy colon weighs 4lbs, some autopsies have found colons weighing more than 40lbs, John Wayne and Elvis were two of the people mentioned on this show, one had 40lbs of waste in them and one had 60. can you imagine that? you could do a colon cleanse and loose up to 40lbs!! Talk about instant weight loss!

To my Mailman- and mail people everywhere

I've really been feeling sorry for my mailman lately. The news said last night we've had 20 days straight of over 90 degree weather and it's supposed to continue through the weekend. I went for a short walk yesterday afternoon and almost melted from the heat. I can't imagine having to work in it. Especially construction workers, landscapers and people who do majorly strenuous work outside all day- I don't know how they do it. Then I got to thinking about mailmen (sorry I'm not politically correct by using that term) They have to drive around going like 5mph all day, most of the time with no air conditioning and even if they had it why would they turn it on since their windows have to be down in order to put the mail in the mail box. Then you have places like my streets and many streets around where they have to actually walk up to the door and put the mail in the little black mailbox on the wall, or apartment buildings and trailer parks that have cbu mailboxes. That just puts them in the heat a little longer. I hope and pray for people who have to work outside that it cools off a bit soon. 74 degrees would feel wonderful right now.