The Sewing Mom

The Olympics are almost over and then it’s time for football season! This is truly my husband’s favorite time of year. He’s been attempting to watch NFL preseason football games on television, but it’s difficult when we’re all wanting to watch the Olympics at the same time. Of course, I’m always on the computer while watching t.v., multi-tasking is what I call it. This would definitely not be a time when we would want to be without our television or internet service!

Do you have a good high speed cable or satellite service? If not, or if you’re thinking of changing providers, this is a great time to check out Charter Communications and their Back To School Deal. Order any Charter service online now and be entered automatically in the Charter Laptop-a-Day Giveaway. That’s right, Charter is giving away 30 HP Compaq Presario C770US Laptops, each one valued at over $600. Here are the computer specs:

New HP Compaq Presario C770US Notebook
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor
15.4″ WXGA Screen
2GB RAM -160GB hard drive
DVD Burner
Built in Wi-Fi and Ethernet
Plus a NEOtec Laptop Backpack!

Not only that, if you sign up online for one of Charter’s services, you will receive a $100 prepaid Shell gas card. With gas prices the way they are, who couldn’t use that?!

Check out the complete Sweepstakes Rules.

Tags: Charter, Charter Communications, Compaq, high speed, laptop

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I’ve spent the last two weeks staying up until midnight or later, every single night, watching the Olympics! Even so, I find I miss things. For instance, did you hear that the women’s softball team did NOT take the gold medal? I was shocked and very disappointed that I hadn’t even seen them play a single game. Why was it not televised? Or was it and I just missed it?

Anyway, I’m glad it’s Friday and I find out I’m not the only one with the Olympics on my mind and on my television set! Valmg has also been watching and with the Olympics in mind, has come up with this weeks Four Foods on Friday theme.

This weeks questions and my answers:

#1. What do you drink to rehydrate in the heat or after working out? I typically just drink water, but sometimes will add a Propel packet to my water to give it some flavor.

#2. What do you eat to help boost or create energy? I really like to grab a piece of fruit for the natural sugars, but will also eat a cereal bar now and then.

#3. What’s the healthiest snack you eat? Fruit. No question, it’s fruit.

#4. Share a recipe or instructions for your ideal three course meal. Well, that’s certainly not easy, because the only time I would eat a 3 course meal is if I go out to eat! But, my idea of a healthy 3 course meal would start with a green salad topped with almonds and strawberries and dressed with strawberry vinagerette dressing. Then there would be a broth and noodle soup of some kind, not a cream soup, too heavy. The main course would be steak and steamed vegetables.

Okay, now I’m really hungry, but if you’d like to join in on Four Foods on Friday, head over to Fun, Crafts and Recipes to give Valmg a shout out.

Tags: Four Foods on Friday, meals, meme

I really do enjoy a good glass of wine, do you?

I’ve enjoyed drinking wine for as long as I can remember. When my husband and I live in Southern California, we enjoyed going out to the hill country and touring the wineries while doing wine tastings. We never made it up to Northern California, the Napa Valley area, but I would still love to visit the wineries in that area. Some of our favorite wines come from California.

As we’ve moved around the country and visited other states, I’m always amazed to find small, family owned wineries just about everywhere we’ve gone. I have to say, there are some really delicious wines coming from some of these places. We’ve visited wineries in Ohio, Connecticut, North Carolina and Texas, plus many more. Of course, there were a few I wish we had passed on! In fact, here in Texas, we’ve enjoyed the wine so much that I joined a local wine club that brings us only wines from Texas wineries. I’ve been amazed at the quality and taste of these wines and it’s fun to be able to taste the variety of wines from right here in our own state.

Another very good wine club is the CA Wine Club which, just like the TX wine club, finds local, mostly family owned wineries in California and delivers those limited production wines to its members. Each month the club features a new winery and delivers to its members 2 bottles of award winning wine and their magazine publication “Uncorked”. Members also receive discounts of up to 50% on reorders, remember, their wines are typically not available in stores. The California Wine Club has been in existence for 18 years, so I have to say, they must be doing something right!

If you’ve ever considered joining a wine club, or, even if you haven’t, this is the time to do it. Join CA Wine Club now and receive your first month free, pay only the shipping charge of $13. That is a savings of $34.95, now that’s a good deal.

Tags: California, California Wine Club, CAwineclub.com, wine

I have purchased a new project that I really would like to get started on. The problem is, I have other things and responsibilities to get done before I can really go into my sewing room and have fun with my new project. So, to help me get a handle on what I need to do and feel better organized, I decided to make a list.These are my 13 things I need to do before I can hide out in my sewing room to work on my new project.

1. Get started on the two load of laundry that need to be done today.
2. Submit husband’s rebate form online to Staples
3. Gather and mail copies of utility bills for online survey ($5)
4. Make my bed
5. Clean kitchen counters
6. Dust and vacuum family room
7. Fill out forms for junior high to turn in at Expectations Night tonight
8. Water potted plants
9. Clean off desk - again
10. Balance checkbook - again
11. Vacuum t.v. room
12. Do exercises on Wii Fit (I’m 3 days behind)
13. SEW!!

Tags: organization, Thursday Thirteen, to-do list

Last week I splurged and I bought my very own Wii Fit. I was hesitant, after all, it is a video game, but I decided it might be fun even if it doesn’t help me to get fit. I’m here to tell you, after only one week of using my Wii Fit, I am not only hooked, I actually enjoy and look forward to working out!

The Wii Fit is super easy to use and this statement is coming from someone who is technically challenged. I turn the power on to the t.v., turn the power on to the Wii system and insert the Wii Fit disk. That’s it, it does the rest. The system charts your progress each day that you use it. The body test measures your BMI based on your actual age, weight and a few selected simple exercises. On the first day of use, I input my personal goal of losing 10 pounds in 3 months. The system now monitors this for me and lets me know how I’m doing. I love seeing the line on the chart take a slow downturn as I progress toward meeting my goal.

I can then choose whether or not I want to do any exercising for the day. I have chosen to exercise every day in the last 7 days except for 2. The exercises include yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance exercises. My favorites are the balance and aerobics. All of the games utilize the Wii Fit board and some also use the remote control which is very easy to operate. My daughter and I tend to do the workouts together, switching back and forth between our Wii characters, but it is not beyond me to go use it on my own. This will be a huge plus for me when she goes back to school.

Over the weekend, I was suffering from a headache that I simply could not get rid of it. I was feeling very blah, and decided to give the Wii Fit a go to see if would get my energy level up and diminish my headache. After a 30 minute workout, it worked. I felt better and my headache, although not gone completely, was much better. I’m very happy to have found a way to increase my energy level that is enjoyable.

OF course, an alternative to the Wii Fit would be sublingual B-12 which is an affordable and painless alternative to a B-12 shot. Vitamin B-12 is known to increase energy levels as well as help those fighting diabetes and dementia. So, if you need exercise, try the Wii Fit. For other diagnosis, you should try sublingual B-12 today.

Tags: sublingual B-12, sublingual B12, Wii, Wii Fit

I just want to go on record to say that I am completely disgusted.  You see, we’ve been having a problem with these little bugs getting into our food that is in our pantry.  These bugs are larger than a weevil, but I do believe they are more than likely related.

Two months ago, I completely emptied my pantry.  I tossed any food that was in open packaging and discovered what I thought was the source, bags of chocolate chips.  I then put anything that wasn’t all ready in Tupperware into containers or ziploc bags.  Even boxed mixes that had never been opened I slipped inside a ziploc bag for protection.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, my husband found these little buggers in the container of bread crumbs.  We promptly tossed it out and I went through the pantry again.  I didn’t find anything else, so I thought maybe it was just something I had missed.   Today told me I was wrong.

I found a ziploc bag, completely sealed with 2 never opened boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix inside the bag.  Bugs everywhere inside the bag.  I am pissed to say the least.

I proceeded to go through the entire pantry, again.  I found the bugs in sealed bags of cereal and an open box of pasta.  I have thrown it all out.  Apparently, ziploc bags aren’t good enough for fighting these bugs.  I prefer Tupperware, but since I can’t afford it right now, I’m heading to Target to get some Rubbermaid containers.  I’m going to try to find a large square or rectangular container that I can set boxes of mixes inside of and then seal with a lid.  I’m also going to get some containers for the cereal.

Food is just way to expensive to have to be throwing it out.  In case you’re wondering, living in Texas, it’s routine to have your home exterminated on a regular basis.  I have our house done every 3 months.

Tags: exterminator, Rubbermaid, Texas, Tupperware, weevil

I have been receiving the most annoying phone call for the past several months. My phone rings. I answer it. The automated voice on the other end says my vehicle warranty is about to expire and would I like to purchase and extended warranty now, if so, press 1. If I would like to be removed from the calling list, press 2. Of course, I press 2, but weeks later, the call comes again.

This is a problem for a couple of reasons, the biggest being that at no point in the call, and I’ve listened to it many times, does it ever identify exactly who the company is that is calling or which vehicle it is talking about. This is either a random marketing call or, a complete scam. It drives me even more crazy because the call comes in on my cell phone, a very private number and it’s listed on the “Do Not Call Registry”.

My caller i.d. isn’t identifying the number, it says “unknown”. The next time I get a call from that number, and I’m sure I will, I’m going to use reverse phone lookup to track down exactly who this is and then I’m going to report the company for harassment. The service from TraceNumber.com can be used on land lines as well as cell phones and will look up the name and address of any unknown phone number. So, if this nuisance is calling from the United States or Canada, I should be able to identify who they are.

For now, I’m just going to enjoy the fact that my phone has been quiet for the last couple of days!

Tags: phone number, prank call, reverse phone lookup, telemarketer, tracenumber.com

We live in the northeast suburbs of Dallas and I really can’t complain that there aren’t places to go shop or that the stores I really like aren’t available. But, with gas prices the way the are, I have to say, driving 30 minutes to get to the fabric store makes me really have to think twice about going. When we moved here a little over a year ago, our realtor informed us that there would be quite a bit of new construction going on near the main highway that cuts through our town because new shopping centers were in the plans for the area. She wasn’t kidding!

Here we are a year later and let me tell you, my daughter and I drove past the area of soon to be shopping centers and we lost count of just how many new and used bucket trucks we saw working in what used to be fields of nothing. We saw so many different types of trucks in action that I do believe their drivers must have shopped at Al Asher & Sons to buy their trucks. There were digger trucks along with cable pulling and transport trailers. There were plenty of bucket trucks and crew trucks too. Al Asher & Sons delivers all over the U.S., so chances are good that these trucks came from them. I can’t believe how much work has been done in such a short span of time.

The walls of the shopping centers are going up and windows are being installed. There are a few buildings that we could all ready tell what they were going to be just by their well known shapes and architectural signatures. There are even tall signs near the road letting us know what stores are coming and, although I haven’t yet seen a sign for my favorite fabric store, I’m not giving up hope.

These new shopping centers are definitely going to cut down on my gas consumption

Tags: Al Asher & Sons, bucket trucks, trucks, used bucket trucks

My daughter and I have spent the last week and a half doing some back to school shopping. We’ve successfully purchased her some new clothes, including jeans and that’s not easy to do when we’ve just recorded our 12 consecutive 100+ degree day. We’ve also been busy buying supplies like pens, pencils and paper. The biggest and most difficult item to get was her binder and messenger bag. She had trouble deciding exactly what she wanted, but, after a few attempts, she’s got it, a nice new messenger bag that she is very happy with.

Now we’re on to the next step of getting ready for back to school. Organizing and labeling. I always like to make sure she has everything for that 1st day of school and that it’s all ready to go long before she gets on the bus that first morning. I also like to make sure that what is hers, remains hers and so I’ve always labeled everything. When she started kindergarten I used a permanent marker to write her name on everything, just the way my mom did when I was in school.  It’s great if you have beautiful handwriting, but I don’t and so it can start to look a little tacky.

Then I discovered one of my favorite inventions ever, the label maker! Oh, what my mom wouldn’t have given for one of these babies! It is so cool that even my daughter helps out by typing in her name and printing the labels. Then I peel them and place them on each item. I’ve even learned that unlike my hand printed name in my clothes (tacky), I can use the DYMO LetraTag printer to print out my daughter’s name onto DYMO’s iron-on tape. I love this little machine!

My daughter is a perfectionist, so it’s nice that she can have all the Color labels to coordinate just the way she wants them to, unlike all the tacky labeling I had as a kid. I sure do hope she knows how good she’s got it!

Tags: DYMO, label, LetraTag, Organizing, school

I’m taking my daughter shopping for back to school clothes, including shoes, and then we’re going grocery shopping.  The shoe shopping will be interesting.  Since she was a little girl, I’ve always tried to buy her quality shoes.  I had trouble with my feet as an adult and I still believe it came from buying myself cheap shoes.  I want to do my best to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to my daughter.  I have to tell you, I used to love buying those little bitty shoes!  Now I get to buy them for my granddaughter.

I’ve got dinner going in the crockpot this morning.  It will feel good, after a full day of shopping, to know dinner will be waiting for us when we’re done.

This is one of my favorite recipes, it’s so simple, it’s done in the crockpot, and it tastes delicious.  What more could you ask for?

3-4 lb. boneless pork loin roast

1 medium onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, peeled

salt & pepper

1 c. chicken broth

Brown roast in skillet in 1 tbs. oil (approximately 10 minutes), sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place onion and garlic in the bottom of the crockpot.  Set roast on top of onion & garlic.  Pour broth over the top.  Cover and cook on low setting for 8-10 hours.

Tags: crockpot, pork roast, recipe, shopping