5 things

My 5 things from this past weekend are.....

1. I made stir fry for the whole family this weekend. I had to make it in two separate pans and then combine it into one so I could cook enough. I fed 8 people! It was delicious!

2. One For The Money was a great movie! Katherine Heigl did a wonderful job! Go check out the books by Janet Evonovich!

3. I love game night with my family! Rook is my favorite game!

4. I love that movie! Technically I watched it Monday evening but it's so good I couldn't not mention it!

5. Finally, #5 is homemade bread. Mom got a bread machine for Christmas so now we make our sandwiches on homemade bread! Can't wait to try some other recipes too!

If you noticed, I did my list a bit differently. I actually wrote my "5 things" on a dry erase board, took a picture, emailed it to myself, then edited it in Paint. I think, considering I did it pretty quickly and on Paint, that it looks pretty good but my standards are pretty low lol. Let me know what you think! What were your 5 things from this weekend?

That's my Southern Soapbox! See you tomorrow!

Tired..

Forgive me... but I am going to complain. I woke up yesterday morning after getting six and a half hours of sleep (which is a lot for me) and I was tired. No surprise there. I'm always tired. So, I got up, got dressed, and went to work. I was still tired at work but that's nothing new either. When I came home from work I was SO excited to take a nap... at noon. Do twenty year olds normally look forward to taking naps? Or is it just me? Just as I laid down my phone rang. It was my sister. She needed me to go babysit my nephew because she had to stay at work late. Of course, I said yes, because I had nothing better to do and I almost never pass up a chance to babysit my AJ. So I got to my sister's house, expecting AJ to be down for his nap. He wasn't. He was VERY awake and very loud cute. I took him outside to play then FINALLY he was ready for a nap. And so was I. I put him down, then got another call from my sister. She needed me to make brownies for a friend of ours. So I made the brownies, then my mom called. She needed me to take the brownies and the food she cooked over to our friends house (our friend just had surgery so my mom offered to cook her and her family a meal). I took the roast, mashed potatoes, veggies and brownies over to their house and headed home to eat our own roast. Needless to say, I never did get to take my nap and by the end of the day I was dead tired. I think I went to sleep around 12:30am (a record for me. i usually go to sleep between 2 and 3am). 

What was the point in this post you ask? The point is... that is pretty much my life every day. Although, some day I do get my nap, others I don't. I'm really tired of being tired. It's probably the worst part of having fibromyalgia, for me anyways. I woke up this morning with 8 hours of sleep {EIGHT} and I almost slept through my alarm because I was so tired. UGH just once I would like to wake up and feel rested. I don't remember the last time that happened.

Ok, that's my Southern Soapbox. Thanks for listening reading. I will be doing my "5 Things" post soon. Sorry I didn't get it up last night!

Mississippi Came to town...

I must say, I love my family. I also must say, my family is INSANE, especially when we are all together. We're a little odd separately, but when we all get together.... well, let's just say Dallas will never be the same again :P.

AJ was so proud of himself for climbing, literally,
in the middle of our game of Rook.

One of the great things about my family is, when we get together we don't necessarily do anything special. As a matter of fact, we usually stay at home and play games. How can that be insane, you ask? One year we were all sitting around the table playing Apples To Apples. The adjective, or green card, was "playful" and my mom put down "my body" (if you haven't played Apples to Apples or don't know how you play, this probably isn't very funny, or in my case disturbing, to you). So now whenever we play Apples to Apples and someone doesn't know how to play, that is the example we use to explain. Great, huh? I think I need therapy. We also have a game called Rook that the whole family LOVES. We only play with 4 people. Supposedly you can do it with more but in order to do that we would have to read the directions and I don't think anyone has ever read the rules to the game, we have all been taught by someone in the family. I LOVE Rook! It's a card game that some what resembles Spades, or so I've been told. I've never actually played Spades. Simple things like hanging around the house and playing games all day are the highlight of my time spent with my family.

Thursday night me, my mom, my sister, AJ, Aunt Kathy and Mammaw all went to Tooties Pie Co. It's an adorable little pie place over in Frisco. It was FANTASTIC! AND they were having a sale. If you bought one pie, you got another one free! So I got a piece of Heavenly Chocolate and got Ryan a Cherry pie. They also have amazing sandwiches and paninis. I had a turkey and bacon panini. It was fantastic! They make this apple pie that uses 10 {Ten!!} apples! TEN! ANNNDDD it weighs SIX POUNDS! Holy crap! I think they should call Man VS Food to see if he can eat that pie!



To conclude Aunt Kathy and Mammaw's visit to Texas we went and saw One For The Money, but we didn't just go to any ol' theater. No! We went to Studio Movie Grill and ate lunch while we watched our movie! Whoever invented Studio Movie Grill is a genius by the way. The movie was AMAZING! If you haven't read the books, you should! There are eighteen total, starting with One For The Money by Janet Evonovich, get to readin'! They are hilarious. After we finished our movie and lunch we had to do something "different", and believe me, it was different. Right next to the theater is the neighborhood where Troy Aikman lives, and we decided to go look at the houses in that neighborhood since it wasn't gated (Hey, if they didn't want us to look, they would have stuck a gate there. So this is really their fault!). These houses are GIANT! What the heck do they put in those things? My entire family, aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts etc. could all live in one of those "houses" and never see each other! It was amazing. Seriously, how many rooms can one person have?

Well we are off to play some more games, so that is my Southern Soapbox for the day! Have a good night and don't forget to read One For the Money by Janet Evonovich.

Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday

Wonky:
    - I went to the bathroom the other day after having been gone ALL day and poor Rebel followed me back there INTO the bathroom. He stood in their while I went potty and then later on he laid in the bathroom while I took a shower. I don't know if this is just me but, any time I change clothes in front of Rebel, he seems to stare at me. Am I crazy? (don't answer that)
    - I saw on Twitter the other day that "Khloe Kardashian is a flawless role model". Seriously? First of all.... flawless?... really? No. Second, all the Kardashians are crazy and drama queens, not role models.
    - Our internet and cable has been driving me NUTS! Our cable will just randomly stop working and so will our internet. It's driving me NUTS

Woot:

    - Friday and Sunday we had the most AMAZING weather! It was 75-80 degrees outside, and it's almost February!

- I babysat AJ last Friday morning. He's getting so big! Maegan and I also had girls night Friday night :).

From left to right: My mom Sandra, Aunt Emily and Aunt Kathy

     - Mammaw and Aunt Kathy are in town!! We had so much fun Monday! The sisters ( my mom, Aunt Emily and Aunt Kathy) are crazy when they are together. Monday we went to Charming Charlies where we tried on some interesting hats (note the picture on the left where Mammaw is trying on a lovely (note sarcasm) hat. Mammaw also bought a purse AND I got 3 pairs of earrings for $8 and some brown boots for $10! So excited!

     - Ryan and I went on a date Thursday (I think it was Thursday) night to Carrabbas, then we went to Petsmart. He looked really nice in slacks and a button down shirt. By the way, if you've never been to Carrabbas, you should go! They have AMAZING Tomato Basil soup! We had fun talking and eating good food.

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox for the day! Have a good night y'all!

5 things

I am going to try to start doing something new on Mondays. I am going to list 5 things that I did or that happened this weekend. Hopefully most of them will be good things, but on occasion I may feel the need to vent about something, sorry but it happens. Also, I would like to point out that I have a HORRIBLE memory... so a lot of my "memories" will come from Facebook lol. I put almost everything important or exciting on Facebook. I know, that's horrible but if I don't then I wouldn't know what the heck I did every day.

Let's get started!

Five

This weather! Well at least Friday and Sunday's weather. It was 75 degrees outside! I was wearing capris and a tank top! It was amazing. The kind of weather where I read a book OUTSIDE, just because I can. WOOT!

Four

Saturday Maegan and I killed ourselves at the gym. That was FUN! Haha... ya...

Three

After Maegan and I got home from the gym I took a FAST shower and went on a DATE (like a real one where we both look pretty and go eat and talk and WOW) with Ryan. Crazy right?!After our date we went back to Ryan's apartment and watched White Collar. Is it weird that going to Boomer Jacks and watching White Collar was a perfect date night? We had fun and laughed and snuggled... and Jixer licked me until I thought I was going to drown. Does it get any better?

Two

Sunday I went shooting with my dad and brother in law. I sucked, they didn't.. yay them, boo me. I hit maybe 8-10ish out of 25 clays (granted this is the 3rd time I've gone shooting but still.. I suck). They hit all but like 2 of theirs. Yes, I'm pouting as I write this.

One

The best part of my weekend! Friday morning Andrew (my brother-in-law) had to go to work early so I got to babysit AJ! He's getting SO BIG! He wasn't awake when I got there at 8:30am so I took a nap on the couch. The joys of "working" for relatives, you don't have to be professional (I have only done that in one other house, and that's because I was recovering from mono). Anywho, after he woke I had to feed him breakfast, and after he ate breakfast I had to rent a fork lift to pick him up. He ate one WHOLE banana, a WHOLE blueberry muffin, a handful of Cheerios AND TWO cups of milk! Little Piggy! I love my Stinky Monkey. Then later that night Maegan and I had girls night! We watched The Vampire Diaries (which meant swooning over Ian Somerhalder.. YUM) and we watched Friends while eating raw cookie dough. Friday was a pretty good day :). 

I hope you've enjoyed my  edition of "5 Things" and hopefully I will do enough entertaining things to keep this up lol. That's all for my Southern Soapbox! have a good night!

Progress at the gym!

So, Maegan and I have been going to the gym 3 times a week for about 2 weeks now! The scheduling isn't perfect but we always get in three work outs every week. We went shopping at Old Navy to get some new work out clothes because we both only had one pair of pants to wear and that was getting difficult with working out three times, but I stayed caught up on laundry. Now I have 2 pants and 2 capris and now I look all snazzy when we go work out.

On our first day we were doing 20 mins on the elliptical, now we are just doing 10. My goal is to go a mile in 10 minutes, which so far I have been doing. After the elliptical, which sometimes I think might kill me, we go do weights, starting out with leg extensions. We do two sets of  15, then we go around the corner and work on our arm flab. We are only lifting 5lb free weights. We want to tone, not look like The Hulk. We do bicep curls, arm raises, where we raise them from our sides up to shoulder length, keeping our arms parallel to the floor (I hope that makes sense...) and lastly, we raise the weights above our heads. We do two sets of 15 for each arm work out. Sometimes, because we're wienies, we will do our arm routine once, then go do the rest of our work out, and come back and do our last set of arms. So after we finish our set for our arms we stretch our legs, arms and back, which is my favorite part of working out. It feels SO GOOD! After we stretch we get one of those big exercise balls, and I resist the urge to dribble it across the gym, and do some crunches. We do 30 crunches, leave our balls, and go do some leg machines. The leg machines that we do put you in VERY compromised positions, but at this point we just want to not die and finish our work out. I'll have to look and see what the name of the machines are when we go work out today but, on both of them you sit down and put your legs on these little cushions. One of the machines you push your legs out into a spread eagle (again, awkward, especially since it's mostly guys in this gym) and the other one you start in a spread eagle and you bring your legs in. It works your "saddle bags" really well! Each of us start on one of the machines, do 15, and switch. Once we have both 2 sets of 15 on each machine, we go back to our exercise ball for 30 more crunches. We repeat that process 2-3 times. After we finish our legs and crunches we go down our last set for our arms and walk over to the treadmills. We hadn't done the treadmill to begin with but decided to add  it in for some more cardio and it serves as our cool down. We walk at about 3.5 MPH for 18 minutes. Why 18, why not 20 you ask? Well, I'm glad you did! Some where in the middle of our 20 minute treadmilling we jog for 2 minutes. Yes, we only jog for two. We are wienies, remember? If we did it for any longer we would fall on the treadmill, and then we would look like a cartoon character that goes flying off the back of the treadmill. As fun as that sounds, we rather not. After 20 minutes has passed we walk a VERY slow pace of 2 mph. I can crawl faster than that, but we do that for about 3 minutes in the hopes that our heart will no longer be trying to jump out of chest. Our whole work out takes between an hour and an hour and a half, depending on how slow we're moving.

I haven't really been getting THAT sore after workouts. It might hurt a little, but not so much that I can't move or anything. I am still able to go do stuff, pick up my nephew, clean the house etc. My advice if you are wanting to start working out: build yourself up to things. I know everyone goes in there and is all gung ho and that's great, but remember that you DO have limits and unless you want to bed ridden for a few days because you can't move after your work out, I strongly suggest you pace yourself. Remember, no matter how little you are doing, you are still lapping all the people that are sitting on their couches. My other advice is to take music to listen to. Music is a HUGE motivator for me!

So, that's my Work out, Southern Soapbox. I hope this helps some of y'all get started. I'm off to get ready to go to the gym!

Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday!

It's Wednesday! You know what that means (and if you don't, well... read the title of this post.. duh)!

Wonky:
   - Every night.. well morning.. I lay down in my bed with my sweet giant horse of a dog and my neurotic cat. Well, really... they're both a bit nuts, but anywho. Every night George, my sweet little neurotic kitty feels the need to knead my boobs. I have NO IDEA why but I really wish he would stop. I push him to the side and then he just snuggles with me. Can't we just skip the boob kneading step and just cuddle? No?
   - I have a very... wonky... guilty pleasure. It's called extra crunchies from Long John Silvers. I will drive through LJS and just order a Dr. Pepper with a side of crunchies. YUM. I swear I'm a fat person stuck in a little persons body.
   - Ryan walked into work the other day to see that his desk was no longer there and his position no longer existed. Thankfully, he still has a job... but basically got demoted in title but has to do more work, with no raise of course. His wonky, not mine.. but I'm still going to complain about it.
   - Creepy stalker guy. We have a creepy stalker guy in The Colony, Tx. He walks in to people's unlocked houses and strokes the ladies hair while they're sleeping. He did it to this little girl and she thought it was her daddy. When she realized it wasn't her daddy, she screamed. Needless to say, I am being retaught how to use the 12 gauge pump shotgun and tomorrow am going to buy pepper spray to keep on my key chain. Even more wonky.. my sister told me about this and then my mom went to a bible study, leaving me in the house alone, I didn't go back to sleep for a while.

Woot-tastic:
   - This past weekend Ryan and I hung out at Meagan, Chris and Brett's apartment. The boys played video games and Meagan and I oogled stuff on Pinterest.
   - Considering the fact that it is almost February and we are still having 60 degree weather on occasion... WOOT!
   - NEW SCHOOL! I will be enrolling in a new school for the fall semester! I'm really excited. It's further away but I'll get to ride horses and they have a program specifically for teachers! I'm really excited!
   - The kids I babysit... all of them are awesome and all of their parents are awesome! The kids are sweet as pie and the parents aren't crazy.. well at least not in the bad way. Can I just babysit for forever? It's starting to look like I can't :(.
   - We have been going to the gym three times a week for the last two weeks! That's the longest I've stuck with any work out "program". I love spending that time with my Saster! And I am starting to feel the difference already! Goes to show you that spending 90 minutes in the gym three times a week and working your butt off (literally) is how you get it done! I'll be posting another "gym" post soon to let y'all know what all we're doing!

Well that's my Wonky and Woot-tastic Soapbox for the week! See you all soon!

Wonky & Woot-tastic Wednesday!

Sorry, it's a little late. Kinda Wednesday-Thursday yes I just invented a new day.

Wonky:
   - I don't know if anyone else does this but Ryan tells me it's really weird. I can't sleep with my back to the door or without being completely covered up. As for the back to the door thing, I want to be able to see whoever, or whatever, is coming in my room. I don't think that's very odd. Although, I do realize that if someone does break into my house and come in my room, seeing them won't do very much, except then I'll know my impending doom. Anywho, the whole being covered up... well now that I start to type it out, it is pretty weird. I'm afraid that if a burglar comes in my room and sees my foot or arm hanging out of the blanket, he'll grab it. Ya, that sounds really stupid now that I've typed it out...
   - If you don't already know this, I have a small obsession with The Vampire Diaries. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend you do. It's on Netflix. More specifically I have an obsession with Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev. I know more about them than I know about some of my friends and family (sadly that is not an exaggeration).  I'm really sad that TVD didn't win a PCA for either of their categories and am sad that Ian didn't win best male actor in a TV drama. BUTTT on the plus side, NINA WON! Yay Nina Dobrev!
   - While we're on the topic of obsessions, I'm also a bit addicted to Pinterest. The more I'm on there the hungrier I get and the more I want to go shopping. There are SO many things that I wish I owned that I probably never will. I also find these things that I would have NEVER thought I would like, but then fall in love with. It's weird.

Woot-tastic:
   - Well, I have to say it. THE VAMPIRE DIARIES! I'm so excited. They were on hiatus for WAY too long but they came back last week and MAN was it worth the wait! I'm really excited for tomorrows episode. Again, if you haven't seen this show you DEFINITELY should! It's NOTHING like Twilight.

   - Ryan and I had a date night! Or at least that's what I'm calling it. I looked cute and he wore a tie and slacks!! Then we went to Frys Electronics to return a headset he bought, got dinner at Golden Chick and had coffee at our favorite place, Saxbys. We're romantic like that. We went back to his apartment and watched movies on Netflix. I think it's fun to get dressed up and go do every day things. Hopefully we will have a REAL date night soon though!
   - While we're on the topic of Ryan. Can I just say how amazing he is? I know I give him a lot of crap for being boring and a nerd but I REALLY do adore him. I was having a flare up last night and ended up staying at his apartment because I couldn't drive home and he took such good care of me. He rubbed my hands and this morning he made me breakfast before he went to work. He made me a Carnation Instant Breakfast drink lol. He's amazing. I'm easy to please, most of the time.

Day one at the gym!

Today was a busy, productive day! I woke up late, as usual (be jealous but don't judge!), but after I woke up I ran to the government building and picked up the registration tag for my dad's truck, then went to Target for some much needed work out clothes! Major bonus... they were on SALE! I have two pairs of yoga pants but they're either too short or too long. So either while I'm working out I look like a complete dork (or more so than usual) with pants that are caught somewhere between Capris and normal length pants.. or the other option is that I wear the ones that are too long, trip on them and fall flat on my face. I have enough coordination issues, we don't need to add pants to that equation.

*quick break* ALABAMA WON THE BCS CHAMPIONSHIP! For those of you who don't know, I was born in Alabama :)

Ok, back to my day! I went to Target to get some normal length pants. Sadly, they only had one pair in my size so I got those and 2 new sports bras and a long sleeve shirt. Everything was on SALE! Epic! I'm happy. Of course after I bought my new clothes I had to put them to good use! I met Maegan, my sister, at the gym we signed up for on Saturday. We were a little pathetic. We did the elliptical for 15 minutes. I went about 1.1 miles, which I thought was pretty good. Then we went and did some ab work, which we thought was REALLY easy (then again, maybe we weren't doing it right? who knows) and lifted some free weights to work on our arm fat. Then we decided it would be a good idea to ride a stationary bike. Ya, we were dumb. That thing was heck in a hankie! My heart rate got up to 180 bpm! It was exploding out of my chest. We only did the bike for 20 minutes but that 20 minutes was WOW! After we finished the bikes we went back and did our abs and arms again. By then, we were POOPED! Our total workout lasted about an hour and a half.

We will be hitting the gym again on Wednesday! Hopefully my body isn't falling apart tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, guess what! I got a new nannying job! I will be watching a sweet little baby on Monday and Wednesday mornings! I want to get another nanny job or maybe just a part time job. If I can make enough money, Ryan and I can FINALLY get married!

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox for the day! Have a good night and ROLL TIDE!

Wonky & Woot-tastic Wednesday!

Scarf- Target, V-neck Sweater- Old Navy, Skirt- Delias, 
Leggings-Charming Charlie, Steve Madden pumps- DSW

It's Hump Day! Well, actually, Hump Day is almost over. With that said, it's time for Wonky & Woot-tastic Wednesday!

Woot-tastic (things that make me go WOOT!):

- Miss Congeniality was on TBS the other day! When I was younger like... 10ish? I watched this movie (and at the time it was a VHS) SO many times that I memorized it. Not soo woot-tastic.. when the networks play movies they always cut scenes, which bugs me.
- As you may have noticed from my two previous posts, my mom, my sister and I (Please notice to correct use of 'I' instead of, incorrectly, using 'me') madehomemade dishwasher detergent and homemade laundry detergent! We, of course, had to hurry and load the dishwasher and washing machine to use them AND they worked GREAT!!! So excited! WOOT!
- While I was trying to watch watching the meteor shower I realized how much I know thanks to my parents. My parents are a plethora of knowledge! My dad has taught me a bunch of different constellations and several little facts about space. School didn't teach me why the North Star is always (well, pretty much) in the same spot, my dad did. Slightly sad though, that school didn't teach me that but I take pride in how much my parents have taught me. Thanks Mumsie and Papa Bear!

- I made such a pretty salad today for supper! It was romaine lettuce with sliced strawberries and some blueberries, then I took half of a lemon and squeezed it over the top for the dressing! It tastes SO yummy and is really healthy too! Yay for healthy!






Wonky (things that are awkward, or weird, or just bad...) :

- I hate it when I'm babysitting and the parents are supposed to be home ANY SECOND... and I have to pee. For some reason I think it's really awkward to have them come home while I'm in the bathroom.
- The fact that I posted the above statement on facebook, then went to the restroom.. and the kids parents came home while I was in the bathroom. Can you say ironic?!
- I was walking in the gas station and saw this group of teenagers, maybe 16 years old, all huddled in a group outside the door. They kept looking inside at this girl, who couldn't have been out of high school. The girl they were looking at, was inside buying beer. I've noticed that when someone has a fake ID and are trying to buy beer or cigarettes, they never have their ID ready when they check out because they're hoping the cashier doesn't ask them. Anyone that is actually old enough always has there's out and waiting, because they don't care.
- I stayed up until 1:30am (no really "staying up" since I'm usually awake at that time anyways) for, what was supposed to be, the best meteor shower of 2012 and what was the first meteor shower of the year! It was supposed to have 100 stars per hour (the average is about 20-40). I was so excited! I didn't even see ONE star. NOT EVEN ONE! I stayed up until 4am freezing my little butt off and not one stupid star shot across the sky. I was a little bummed, can you tell? If not, just go look at my Facebook statuses.

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox for the night! What wonky and woot-tastic things happened to you this past week?

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent!

I'm so excited to be sharing this with y'all! My mom, my sister and I made homemade dishwasher detergent (and laundry detergent, for that "recipe" click here) today! We just ran the dishwasher with it! I got this recipe from Being creative to keep my sanity!

So here's what you need!

1 Box Borax (4lbs 12oz or 76oz)(2.15kg) found in the detergent isle

1 Box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (55oz or 3lbs 7oz) found in the detergent isle

1/4 cup of Citric Acid (we had to get this at Sprouts) **NOTE: the recipe from the other blog says you can use 24 packages of unsweetened lemonade drink mix BUT it does stain your dishwasher and she suggests to use citric acid instead, so we did. I just thought I would let you know that you don't HAVE to use the Citric Acid, but we did.**

3 cups of Epsom Salt found in the pharmacy section

Lemi Shine rinse aid (this recipe does not work well without it) you can find Lemi Shine in the dishwasher detergent isle or you can use vinegar as a rinse aid. If your dishes are coming out with spots (which I HATE) then you need to use a rinse aide. 

Step One (and only):

             Mix the Borax, Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, salt and citric acid together in a large bowl and mix it all up! After you're finished mixing, put it in a container of your choice. We used a $5 container from Walmart and the whole batch fit inside perfectly AND *bonus* there's a little pouring spout (which I think is cute.. but I'm weird)! The soap will get hard spots over time, so far, there hasn't been a way around that. We did put 3 marshmallows on the top to help absorb moisture, so maybe that will help? We shall see!

To use:

          Put 1 tablespoon of detergent along with some Lemi Shine (follow the directions on the bottle to get the correct amount) and run your dishwasher! Enjoy your clean dishes!

In total this costs about $12 to make and with only using 1tbs for every use it's going to last a while! Yay for saving money! (If you want to check out how to make your own Laundry Detergent click here!

That's my Southern Soapbox (haha.. soap...)!

Homemade Laundry Detergent!

Today has been a VERY productive day! I woke up this morning (at 10:30.. that's not the productive part) and went to run errands with Maegan and my mom. We ran to Walmart to get stuff to make our own Laundry Detergent (and for the dishwasher detergent click here!!). We got the idea from Being Creative to Keep My Sanity. She has instructions but I also took pictures of the process, so if you want to go over there and check it out that's great, but I will also post the instructions, with pictures!

How long does a container of $10 laundry soap last? It seems to disappear SO fast! With this homemade soap, a little goes a LONG way! You only use 1 tablespoon per load, it costs $20 to make and it lasts about 9 {NINE} MONTHS!!! Talk about saving money!

So here is what you need!

 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

3 bars of Fels-naptha soap, found in the detergent isle

2 small containers of oxyclean or store brand oxyclean (try to get about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg)) found in the detergent isle.

(this is optional)

(You can also use Zote soap, it is found at Home Depot)

You should be able to find all of this at your grocery store. We got ours at Walmart, and bought another batch at Kroger (not sure about Target).

Oh, also, you want to get a cheese grater or a food processor and a cutting board.

This detergent is fairly mild smelling, it is not over powering. If you love a strong scent you may have to add a fabric softener to each load but I, personally, LOVE the smell! I want to figure out how to use the naphtha for a potpourri haha.

Step One:

            Grate three bars of Fels-naptha soap. Just like you would cheese. I found it a bit difficult to use the cheese grater because once the soap got small my fingers started to get dangerously close to the grater. The other blog also suggests using a food processor, but we didn't try that (if you do, let me know how it turns out).   I think the grated soap looks really pretty and it smells WONDERFUL!

**Don't worry the Fels-naptha will dissolve in your washer even if you only use cold water like we do.**

Step Two:

            Dump everything else in a 5 gallon bucket lined with a trash bag! We got our bin at Walmart. Mix everything up (at this point your house should smell amazing, as should you!). After you've mixed everything up just choose a little container that you want to store it in. We used a glass jar, like the ones you put cookies in, and keep in above the washing machine. I used my new label maker to label everything, but will hopefully get something prettier for the jar.

Seriously, the most "difficult" part of this soap was grating the little bars. It's so much cheaper and is a lot stronger than regular soap.

*Use at your own risk*

If you have questions just let me know, but you might want to check out the other ladies blog too. I'll copy and paste some questions that she answered below.

-This detergent is safe for HE washers and should be added to the barrel instead of the dispencer.
 -This detergent is safe to use on cloth diapers and sensative skin.
-It does not have a strong scent, you can add laundry crystals to the batch to add fragrance.
-Some of my followers have used other bar soap instead of Zote or Fels-Naptha. I have personally not tried it but from the feed back I get it sounds like any bar will work.

Again, I got this from Being creative to keep my sanity, so check her out too!

That's my Southern Soapbox (soap.. haha get it?.. Lame joke, sorry) I will also be posting directions for homemade dishwasher detergent! Stay tuned!

Our New Years Celebration

Hard to see everyone but there they all are. (From Left to Right:
Travis, Anita, Ryan, Chris, Meagan, Brett, Travis, Johnathan, and Anthony)

We had so much for New Years! Me, Ryan, Meagan, and Chris all went over to Brett's parents house and brought in the new year. It's a tradition that we have to go over there, eat steak and lobster, set off fireworks and chill in the hot tub. As the years go on, we have slowly started going to bed earlier and earlier lol. This time we were all calling it a night just after 2am! We're such wusses lol. I had a lot of firsts this new years eve! I had my very first bite of lobster and scallop (yup, I have never had it before... and there are many things wrong with me). The scallops were pretty good and the lobster wasn't bad. It wasn't amazing, but I would eat it again.









After we ate supper everyone just relaxed. Some people watched TV (which means that they probably watched about 4 different shows at once (Mr. Murack, Brett's dad, likes to channel surf) and some of us, like me, played pool! ANNNDDD some of us (like me) WON their very first game of pool! I have only really played like twice, and it was against Ryan so it doesn't really count. He lets me cheat. So, I guess I should say I won my first honest game of pool lol. We were playing straight (not even sure exactly how that works. I just shot when they told me to lol). I knocked my own ball in and thus, I was named CHAMPION! After I finished beating the guys at pool (hehe) we got ready to bring in 2012 while watching the Ball drop and then, of course, toasting with wine (no, not champagne).

 Since there were so many of us we decided, to heck with being classy, just use Powerade cups! So we all toasted in the new year with our delicious wine and our Powerade cups.


Now, onto fashion! I am so proud of what I wore for New Years Eve! It was so cute, and something I have NEVER worn before! I am going to have to get better pictures though, but that will have to wait because the shoes I worse are currently in Ryan's backseat (I took them off to watch fireworks so I would sink into the ground with my heels). I do have some pictures. The one up above, with my super classy Powerade cup (which totally completes the outfit) was taken just before the ball dropped. You can sort of see my top. It's a cream loose fitted tank top with gold sequins (I have never owned anything with sequins before) that I got ON SALE from Express. It was a little chilly that night (about 50ish degrees in the great state of Texas) so I layered it with a black cardigan! I think the Cardigan came from Kohl's but I've had it for FOREVER. Below you (might be able to) see my black leggings. Ok that's not completely true. It's actually two pairs of black leggings lol. My leggings were WAY too thin, so I went to my sisters house to borrow some, but hers were just barely too thin. So, I doubled up! It worked, no one could tell and I looked cute. Problem solved! The thick pair of leggings came from Charming Charlie (my crack store) and the thin pair came from Target. The booties, which I know you can't see (again, will get you better pictures ASAP) are ADORABLE. I love them. They are from Charming Charlie as well. Oh and that handsome little man came from my sister and brother in law :P and is, by far, the best part of the outfit.

God I look terrible

Happy New Years from me and AJ!

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox. I hope you all had a GREAT New Years! I have to go clean out the fridge (blah) but I will be posting pictures of another outfit that I wore later tonight. Oh, and tomorrow I will be doing Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday! See you all soon!