Eventuality

In just under a month, I will be a stay at home mom. Well, mostly. I'll still work Mondays at Scheu Plumbing, and I have some other opportunities lined up to work from home.

BUT, for the most part, I'm hoping to find lots of ways to save money. Ways to use coupons creatively to get stuff for free or cheap. Homemade Christmas gifts. Homemade... mozarella cheese? Dishwashing detergent? Homegrown zucchini? Tomatoes?  Who knows?

I know some of it is overly ambitious since I have a baby who will soon be a toddler. And then who knows, maybe another baby eventually. But I figure I can aim high and if I miss the bar at least I'll have tried.

It will be fun. It will be rewarding. It will help us get out of debt. If I find a cool creative way to tie it all together and market it, maybe I'll start a blog akin to MoneySavingMom.com.

For now, 4 more weeks of work at Flipside. Then we'll see how things go.

Stupid spammers!

Guess I have to turn back on comment verification! Stupid spam commenters, I don't even know what they hope to gain from leaving viagra filled comments on MY blog, anyway. Jerks.

Maui, Day 1

Today has been fabulous. We naturally woke up early (thanks, Time Zone!), and leisurely made our way around the island. Now we're enjoying dinner and drinks and taking in the sunset.

TGIF

For the first time in a long time, I actually get to sleep in. Like I really don't have anywhere to be until a grad party at 7.

I'm writing from my phone on a nearly dead battery. Better post tomorrow... :)

How To Spy On Your Dog

After getting a note and a stern talking-to from my neighbor about my dog's "constant barking", I started to despair over having to crate my poor mutt all day long while Aaron and I are at work.

And then I thought, I should observe this before I change up her routine. Make sure that I'm not just throwing her in a 3x3 box at a time of day when she wouldn't be barking anyway. If only there was a way I could RECORD the sounds from the backyard... old school tape deck from a thrift store? Call the house from my cell phone and listen in all day? No, the cordless phone battery would die.

AHA! Rock Gtalk on my laptop, hook my corded headset to my blinds by the open window, and voila! I am spying on my own backyard. Not only that, but I'm able to listen right from my desktop at work instead of having to wait until I can come home to check. I just have to explain to my coworkers why they might hear a dog barking coming from my speakers...

If you want to try the same setup, here's what I did. There may be an easier way, but I am loving the flexibility of this:

• Step one, if you don't already have two gmail accounts, go ahead, make yourself a second one.
• Step two, go to www.logmein.com and create an account and install it on your home computer.
• Step three, sign in to Google Talk or enable Voice and Video chat in Gmail. Make sure you use your secondary account to get all signed in on your home computer.
• Step four, plug in your headset and rig it so you would feasibly hear loud noises such as clapping coming from the target area, then drive to work or wherever you're going.
• Step five, open Firefox and go to www.logmein.com, and in another tab, open your primary Gmail account. You'll have to enable Voice and Video chat in this account as well.
• Step six, once you're logged in to Logmein, open up the Dashboard for your home computer and click on Remote Access.
• Finally, From your primary Gmail, "Call" your secondary Gmail account and accept the call via remote access to your home desktop.

Now you are listening in and able to see if the neighbor's claims are fact or fiction. Of course, if you work somewhere that is a little more stringent on installation or your coworkers would raise eyebrows if your dog DOES actually bark, you can always make adjustments.

Option 1, plug in headphones to the work computer so nobody can hear it but you.

Option 2, instead of "calling" from your primary Gmail, use the secondary Gmail to "send voicemail". I think this option only works in Google Talk, so you'll have to have that installed on your home computer. I discovered this only lets you record 10 minutes at a time, so you would have to log in remotely every once in a while and grab another 10 minute capture. Plus the audio files take up a HUGE chunk of gmail space, so you might want to actually set up a third account to do this. Now I'm going to make Google mad at me... sorry, guys, you're just too dang useful. ;)

Option 3, go old school and just use Audacity and set it to record all day, but you don't get the same super-sleuth MacGuyver satisfaction of being able to listen and sit smugly as your dog does not actually bark all day while you're at work.

I am feeling better by the minute.

Joe and Nathan are crazy!

I can haz haircut?

Funny Home Video

I felt that this was worth sharing. It's from Thanksgiving, when Scout was nervously watching this stuffed Tiger every time she walked by it. My sister, April, and I decided to capitalize on that and capture the hilarity on film.

Wind

Note to self: Buy more earplugs. Lack of sleep on a windy night makes Kim a tired girl.

I'm off to the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens to hang out with Eliz. Should be a fun day.

Aaron is fishing with some buddies. If they end up catching anything, he'll have a fun day, too.

Hopefully Scout doesn't get blown away.

Happy Scout Day

One year ago today we brought home this loveable mutt. :)

Ahhhh.

Finally in my new comfy pajama pants and slippers, with my feet up and a fire going. This has been a stellar Christmas.

Please, Christmas, don't be late!

One of my favorite Christmas songs is still The Chipmunk Song. You know, the one that says "we can hardly stand the wait, please Christmas don't be late"? 

I remember when I was a kid, it felt like Christmas could never come fast enough. Time seemed to actually slow down after the hoopla of my November birthday and Thanksgiving, just to taunt me with the nearness of Christmas.

Aaron has this theory that when you're young, time goes by slowly because it's so relative to how long you've been perceiving time. I'm really starting to believe that. Every year it seems like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas gets shorter and shorter. I'm just now starting to feel like it's "Christmas time."

I have other friends who think that it goes by more quickly as an adult because of all the responsibilities; presents, decorations, celebrations...

Whether it's one or the other or a mix of the two, I definitely feel the effect this year. I still listen to that Christmas song, but it seems more whimsical now if only because I would rather say "please Christmas, slow your roll."

TGIF.

Happy Friday. Enjoy.

Nor Cal

Things I love about Nor Cal...
1. It really doesn't matter what you wear
2. Playing board games almost every night
3. Wrasslin' and throwing things at siblings and cousins
4. My "bonus" family... to be utterly cheesy, I've got the best of both worlds.

Goodnight, moon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, we're finally technically on our way up to the lovely Orland, California. It's about 530 miles from here, and 25 miles from Chico, California. You know, that big bustling city of CHICO.

More Before & After

Aaron and I tackled our first "all by ourselves" project of refinishing a table that we bought from a family at church. I'm SO glad we finished it! :) Okay, my mom ended up helping a little bit, but for the most part we really did do it by ourselves!

Doh! Aaron had already commenced with sanding before I took pictures.

Scout-tested, Kimbo-approved.

Ta-da!

Completely decorated with Ikea goodies, sans the napkins and rings.

Guess where we are!

Eating lunch early is apparently the only way to get into the Blue Bayou today. There is a really cool Jack Sparrow playing around all throughout New Orleans Square. Apparently it's his last day. I think he beats the guy my dad saw in Yucaipa in August.

New and Improved

We got some good quality decorating time in on the living room on Saturday, plus my Dad and Aaron installed a ceiling fan (and LIGHT SWITCH) in our bedroom! :)

I got sad yesterday when I realized I didn't take "before" pictures of our living room and dining set. You'll have to take my word for it if you haven't seen it, but this is 1,000 times improved:

The couch we bought in September, the same day as the brown and blue pillows. The striped ones came with the couch (on Saturday). My mom and I went shopping and found the pictures at Home Goods and the rug at Lowe's (of all places).

Scout is being a good sport about staying off the pretty new furniture - well, at least when we are in the room. ;) She's been caught napping on the couch now on two separate occasions when either me or Aaron were in the office.

New chairs we found at Sears (2 for $49!!!). The material is a bit "greenish" but that's okay, because my kitchen accent color is green. We took the leaf out of the table and angled it. It makes a huge difference as far as space goes. I think next weekend we're going to try and tackle refinishing the table in a dark color to match the legs on the chairs.

Excuse the mess, we were working on projects ALL weekend. One of those projects is a virus-infected Toshiba you see on the table. *shakes fist at viruses* Sorry, Lori, we'll get your compy back to normal soon!

Pictures!

Alright, I have finally managed to get the pictures that I have of the house up on Picasa. I really haven't taken any of it with everything set up inside yet because I'm just not happy enough yet to document it. But soon... very soon. :)

Look, it's a REAL stove now!