Rain, Rain go away....

Well since the rain just keeps on coming & I cant get anything done outside, I guess Pat & I are going to have to buy a car today. LOL.

So we are headed to Queens yet again & regardless we are coming home with a vehicle. Whether we find one we can pay cash for or we have to try & finance one. But Momma should be driving home in a new expedition TODAY!! *Hopefully* Just in time too, cause my dear beater has been just about beat to death & Meg & Ant are getting ready to move & that thing has lots of room with the seats down so I will gladly offer my services!!

Anyways.. Here's hoping!! I will post pics of the new car if we get one!!

I've got sunshine....

So the spring is really starting to get me antsy.. It like sunshine is flowing in my veins...

I want to clean the yard, the house, all the closets, rearrange the furniture, start planting, break out the patio furniture, get the BBQ ready....
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I have talked Mr. Bloom into holding off on buying a house for at least a year until we have a CRAP load of money in the bank rather than "enough". Hopefully for our sake the market will keep going down.. Fingers crossed!! So with that decided I now want to get outside & get this yard cleaned up for lots of summertime activities, I am hoping!
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Anyways, I have been spending as much time outside with the baby & Lissi as possible. We went to a few garage sales yesterday. After my mother came here & showed me some of her finds, I got the bug. I spent a whooping $9... But Lissi got a white framed chalk board. My mom bought me a toy box bench that I am going to refinish in a washed antiqued white today & make a cushion for the top hopefully. I got a copper mini vase that is turning so it has that cool blue -ing effect & a wooden carved bird. I like to do crafts.. I meddle in it. I get it from my mom. Seeing something ugly & making it pretty.
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So I had this ugly wooden chair sitting by my front door painted ugly brown that I have been wanting to spray paint white for like a year, so I finally got to it yesterday. I always intended on leaving it outside so I wanted it to look worn & beat up, weathered, if you will. So once that was done, ( I have to do it once more today now that its dry) I threw the copper vase on it with some of my pine cones from my walks with Taylor in it, grabbed the wooden bird, a wicker basket which is pretty beat ( I am still thinking if I want to paint it or not) threwsome more pine cones in that & viola... a pretty little piece by my front door. All for a total of $6 bucks for the chair, the vase & the bird. I had the spray paint left over from the branches that we never did for the wedding.
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My mom also bought 3 white flower boxes, that she ended up giving me. They too are worn. I love little English gardens with the worn wood & funky planters. So I was researching this morning vine plants that grow down to cover the ugly lattice that is on my deck. Hopefully I can make our house look pretty this year, since we cant do anything to the actual house cause its a rental.
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That's the only thing I love about the thought of being home. I get to try & do all the things I have always wanted to do. I get to make memories with the kids. I want Lissi & Tori to help me plant a garden & then it can be theirs to show off to everyone. Pat is already getting his veggie garden itch, he was talking about it last night. I was outside yesterday restacking the stones around the gardens & cleaning out the leaves. Now if I could just get him to take the wood stove pipe out of the damn window........
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I am also getting a burn barrel from my mom so I can get rid of all these leaves.. I cant believe how much we have. A burn barrel & a leaf blower. That will help take care of most of the ugly.
I tried to rake for like 3 hours yesterday but it seemed like I got nothing accomplished except blisters!
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Anyways those are my projects for now. I hope to go to more yard sales this weekend with my mom to see what I can find... I will post once my "refurbs" are completed!

Four, Three, Two, One.....

What a crazy 3 days....

My girlfriend Paulina came up from LI on Thursday. It was so good to see her & amazed me that we picked up right where we left off. Like we never missed a beat. That is what I love about my friends, no matter how much time passes, once we are together its like I saw them yesterday & when they need me, they know I am here regardless of how much time has passed. Being able to know that the same person I left is the one I will be seeing helps me remember that all my friends are genuine people. So this visit was good for me. I always love having my friends here to share & see my life now.
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That same day Alyssa had her friend Savannah over for a sleepover also, which lasted till Saturday afternoon. It was fine though because she is the sweetest, most polite child I have ever encountered. They behaved so well that I was the one who offered the second sleepover on Friday. It was funny cause there was a point where they were sitting at the dining room table, playing, laughing, talking silly & just being goof balls. I was standing in the kitchen washing dishes & I found myself smiling because for a minute it was like I was watching myself & my bff Becky when we were there age. We were the same, always giggling, inseparable, had our own language, just a couple of girls who loved nothing more than to just play together. It was at this moment that I was so thankful that Alyssa had this in her life. Some of my most treasured memories as a child are because of Becky. So I of course felt compelled to send her an email telling her this & thanking her for being that person in that part of my life.
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On Saturday I was lucky enough to have all of my girls at the house. Lissi, Tori & Taylor...I love it when they are all together. Nothing brings me more joy. So the girls & I all went outside to enjoy the sunshine. They played school while Taylor watched them all run around. I attempted to start cleaning up the yard. Then we drew all over the driveway with chalk, a welcome home sign for Pat because he was working all day, drawings of the earth, peace signs & save the trees... LOL. I was the same way when I was there age. All about saving the world. I used to drive my parents crazy with what is & isn't biodegradable. What needs to be recycled. I even started a recycling program at my school with friends.. Newspapers, cans, etc. & styrofoam was banned from all aspects of my life. So it is funny to me to see my girls right where I was at that age. Then of course it was in the house for 3 hours of I'm bored, what can we do?, let's stare at mom for an hour... So we played the Wii, did arts & crafts, watched some Drake & Josh, watched silly videos on youtube, put silly glasses on Taylor & take pictures... We even stopped so the kids could visit Grandma & Pop which came with a bonus visit cause Aunt Emily & Uncle Kevin were there with Mia & Bub. So that was nice for me cause everyone is so busy I hardly get to see Em & the kids... At some point my friend Ellen was here too & was subjected to the kids "new person in the house hover" that they have perfected, but she didn't mind, I warned her before she came so she knew what she was getting into. It is always nice for me to have a little adult conversation.

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Pat ended up not coming home till about 9:40 which he was lucky to get in that early because his boss was nice enough to give him the MDX to drive home. Otherwise he would have been taking the 9 train & not getting home till 11:30. By the time he got home, Tori had left, Alyssa & Taylor were asleep & I was almost asleep. But I of course, stayed up with him. We cuddled on the couch for a little & watched TV so he could unwind, then it was off to bed where for some reason Patrick who usually just passes out before his head hits the pillow, was so chatty.. LOL. I was of course trying to stay awake to talk, but while he was talking he was being cuddly again & I love being held so I must have fallen right asleep. I don't remember any part of the conversation.. Just the alarm blaring at 5 this morning & Pat kissing me on my forehead telling me he should be taking a 1pm train home.

So there it is... 4 kids, 3 days, 2 friends, & 1 very loving husband...

Company is coming!!

Just wanted to write quickly that thanks to facebook I have been getting in touch with alot of friends who because of life we just kinda drifted apart.

One of my girlie's, Paulina who I was super close with, emailed me last night asking if she could come for a night.. I of course, said absolutely & now she is coming today for the night!! I am so excited, we have so much to catch up on!! About 7 years worth of gossip!

So I am cleaning (any excuse to use the vacuum again) & happy as can be!! I will post all about it tomorrow!!

It's Time...

So after my walk yesterday & again today.. I am ready to quit.

So I went on the NY quit website, set my quit date & signed up for my patches!!

I am ready, ready to leave the embarrassment of smoking behind, ready to put that 7 plus dollars a day to something healthy, ready to ensure I live a long & healthy life for all my girls. I know I may not succeed the first time, but I am determined by the end of the summer to be done with smoking FOREVER!!

Now my warning is .. I will be pissy, I will be cranky, I know I will have a short fuse, I will more than likely eat my way through this but hopefully not, I have smoked everyday since I was 12. That is more than half my life, & because of this I have probably lost half of that time in years on my life & spent enough money to own 2 houses outright.

So bring on the 24th, bring on the crank, bring on the bitch, bring on the healthy me!!

I signed my hubby up too... If we can make it through this without killing each other.. We can definitely make it through anything!!

Some fresh air, sunshine & a lesson learned....

So I put my little munchkin in the carriage & down the driveway we went...

We walked down Pine kill Road towards 209... We walked along the creek (stream?) ah hum, water, cause that is my favorite part of living here. I used to spend lots of money to come upstate for the weekends just to see that, & now it's right outside my front door. So we left at noon & I figured we would walk down Pine kill till 1 then turn around... the walk was easy & the scenery was beautiful & the sun felt fabulous on my face. Taylor was loving it too. Little squeals of excitement, wide eyes & smiles. As we were walking I was thinking, who gets to see this in LI when they take their kid out in the carriage? This is gorgeous!!

We stopped & looked at the water (since we don't know the correct terminology), I took a few pictures, she had a bottle, we picked some pine cones, since they are my favorite thing to use as decorations at Christmas time. I was laughing at myself because I used to spend so much money on Pine cones every year & here on our walk was more than I could ever think of what to do with. So we filled the whole basket under the carriage with some nice ones!!

We made it down to a little bit before the one lane bridge when 1 came & we turned around. Now at this point I had made a mental note that converse are stylish yes, but not good for walking.. My toes were numb. Upon walking back I was starting to realize that the walk home, not so easy.. Sun was still fabulous, scenery still gorgeous, Taylor still happy, breathing a little harder... sweating, ah crap, the whole walk home is little hills you never notice driving, but I felt them walking. I pushed on... what choice did I have. We of course took a few more detours & rests on the side of the road to "take pictures" & " look at the water" than we had going down the road. I was at this point cursing myself for smoking my whole life & being so damn out of shape. My brother in law runs up & down this road like its as easy as taking out the garbage.. I envy his lungs... I can barely walk it for 2 hours... LMAO.

So we make it back, the house is in view & I feel proud, proud that I did what I had set out to do, proud that I have yet to collapse, proud that I took advantage of this gorgeous day & didn't let the fact that there are no sidewalks scare me, proud that I got Taylor out of the house & in the sunshine, proud that even on my walk I saved money by picking up some pine cones! Then I see my driveway... Ugh... I don't know if you know what my driveway looks like, but here is a picture.. It's steep & long especially when you can barely breathe. But instead of walking, I ran, I pushed the carriage up it running just to prove that I could ( & to get to the top as fast as possible). Then we sat, mommy sat, or you could say threw herself down on the porch steps laughing at how out of shape I am. Taylor was smiling too cause she thought me trying to catch my breath was hilarious!!

But tomorrow at noon... we will be out there again!! Tonight I will be calling the NY quit line for free nicotine patches... Today's walk taught me it's time to attempt to quit!!

From Facials to Frugal...

Now being cheap was never in my nature. EVER. It still isn't. I didn't care if you could get an item somewhere else for cheaper, I never price shopped, I was never a coupon cutter, I never bought store brand. I never did thrift stores or garage sales.. You would have never caught me there. I was a full price, name brand, label whore, to put it as accurately as possible. Until this year. I don't know what snapped or what changed. Maybe wanting to save money, maybe growing up, maybe not having money like I used to, but something did, and you know what I learned? That life continues on & you can dress nice & your home can be nice & you can still have things you wanted. You may have to wait, you may have to do your research, you may have to cut a crapload of cupons or even get it second hand but eventually you will have it.

Kids stuff .....

For the baby, I don't mind the hand me downs, she only uses everything for so little time anyways. I appreciate them actually. I love finding things in great condition on http://www.freecycle.org/ & knowing I saved our family close to $100 a pop. That is 100 closer to owning a house. I love the consignment shop my mom showed me in Middletown, the stuff is like new,so cheap, & alot of name brands. I have yet to hit the one in Port that my mother in law raves about but I plan on getting there this week. For Lissi, well she is tougher, since I have no relatives in her age range. But I have been getting great name brand finds at the consignment shop. They look new & some even have tags on them.. She will never know. But usually, she ends up becoming the one who provides all the hand me downs, which is fine cause I know I am saving my cousin $. Plus her grandparents spoil the crap out of her so that leaves me hardly ever having to buy her very much. I don't ask them to do it, but I cant stop them either. I have tried, there is no stopping her & her Pappy from shopping sprees. But I also have become an Amazon shopper where you can buy things that are used but are like new for a fraction of the cost, so when Lissi wants a certain game or toy I will shop it on Amazon.

Groceries & household items.....

I have been buying store brand cereal, which honestly, tastes the same. That saves us about 10-15 a week since Lissi & I both pile off a box or 2 each a week. For Lissi's though I have to put the store brand cereal in the regular honey nut cheerios box, she would eat it otherwise, though she has no idea that its the store brand. I always get the Sunday paper & cut out the coupons. Lately I have been looking at all the store adds to see who has what & next shopping trip I plan on hitting each store that has it the cheapest with the coupons.... even if this is an all day event, a penny saved.... I also learned that it is easier & you spend less when you make a list. Go into your kitchen & look at every cabinet & take not what you do & don't have. Then make of list only of what you need. If you plan your meals for the week also this helps save $ & cuts out the unnecessary buying. I bought a membership to Sam's club for $40 this is good for Alyssa's school snacks & drinks & for Taylor's formula & diapers even electronics are cheaper there. If you calculate how much you spend a month on snacks & about how many of those snacks you buy you realize that this saves you a crap load, not to mention less trips to the store. http://www.craigslist.com/ is also a great website to find little odds & ends you may need for your home inexpensively, as is the back of TJ MAXX, Home Goods, & Target in the clearance section. It will go on sale at target it always does!!

Beauty products....

These were my biggest $ drainer. Pedicures, waxing, facials, makeup, hair cuts & color. Well, I realized the only reason I want a pedicure every 2 weeks is that I have really dry feet. Gross actually & the only thing that made them nice was a pedicure or so I thought until I sat down & realized it is the $4 callus eliminator treatment I get every time. So I went on the web, looked up the callus eliminator, price shopped & got 2 bottles for $10.95 on amazon with shipping. These two bottles will last me um, 2 years. Luckily I paid attention every time I got a pedicure & know how to do it. The polish lasts me up to 3 months beautifully so this saves alot of $.

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Facials.. as much I miss them they aren't necessary, I bought an exfoliator, a bar of perfume free facial soap & my dove moisturizer which I love love love! Honestly my skin looks better than it has in years & all these items last at least a month if not more totaling $ 19.

Makeup... I love love love bare minerals.. LOVE IT, but it is very pricey. So I found a decent alternative called raw minerals & so far I have gotten 3 free trial sets out of them for the cost of s&h $3.95 All you have to do is use a different name every time. Same address & cc is fine, but name has to be different. So, I am Ginette Munro, Elena Bloom, & La La Luni.. Seriously! The trial kit contains 2 over the facial powders one light & one for the summer, the bronze glow, & the mineral veil all in the normal size containers, along with a 4 brush set. 3 of them will last me almost a year seeing as how I hardly wear makeup & they tend to last for a while normally. So a years worth of facial make up which is the most expensive for $11.85 not bad. http://raw.glow.com/dms974/?gclid=CI3b0fDPqpkCFQpinAodymxWqA

My new colorist has become my brother.. Poor thing having only older sisters, this is what we taught him. He does great color from a box... He even helps me pick out my color!! So instead of $120 for color I now pay 9.99 for a nice box o' brown from CVS. I get it cut by my Nan's in Queens for $20 including the razor & flat iron. NICEEEEE!!!

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I even found a new way to get rid of the nasty old blackheads that I hate my skin for... Elmer's Glue... I am not even kidding. I saw it on the Ellen show one day & thought its worth a shot. Hell I have seriously like 20 bottles of glue in my house & the Biore strips are like $10 for what 6? Guess what .. it works!! Just put a coating on your nose & let it dry then peel it off.. You will see!!
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Even gym memberships are unnecessary if you have cable. I have the fit TV on demand that is free & dvr so I can either record the workouts I want to do or order them on demand for free. This convenient because I hate going to the gym, I always feel like everyone is staring at me knowing damn well I have no idea what I am doing there.. So this way I get to do it on my time schedule in the comfort of my own living room without the embarrassment. Also now that its nice out I can take Taylor for a walk in the carriage everyday to get some fresh air & sunlight. This is proven to be very good for you mental health as well.

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Teeth whitening... EXPENSIVE... but when you are a gross smoker like me.. It's much needed.

So I wait for the crest white strips to go on sale.. & make sure I have coupons. These are good for maintaining. But I also found a website where again you get a free months trial of their whitening product for just the S&H which is 2.95... So of course I have about 6 months worth of that & it is good.. It is time consuming & tastes nasty but you see results immediately. http://micro.moviestarlook.net/s-gTWnonbrand_VPC_tw/lp?gclid=CIO8v_fQqpkCFQudnAodtC_cpQ

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So as I am typing this I have just done my own pedicure, tweezed my eyebrows (cause I don't really have any anyways so what is the point of paying $6 a month?) & have Elmer's glue hardening on my nose, once that is done, I am putting Little Miss in the carriage & we are out for some sunshine.... Yes it is beauty day today & it cost me a nap!!