Monday, July 18, 2011

Bye, Bye Dish!

I finally did it. I made the jump. For some, this may not be such a big deal, but for us, this is major. In all of our married life we've had either cable (for the first four years) or satellite (for the last 11 years). Now we have neither. It's not like we're couch potatoes or anything (at least not all day, haha). But we do like to sit down, relax and watch something just about everyday in the evenings.

With times being tight, we'd talked about getting rid of our service quite a bit. But Dish Network has been so good about giving us discounts everytime I'd call to talk about turning off our service, that we've always changed our minds. Well, this time we didn't!

I came close to wavering when talking to customer service, I'll admit it, but in the end I held firm. We can always get service again later if we so choose. But right now, I feel like we need to give life without TV a try. Not just for the money savings, but to see how much more productive we can be as a family.

Anyway, we haven't made the jump to Netflix yet. I don't know for sure if we will, but we're playing with the idea. I don't think we will for  a while though. Let's just give this TV turnoff a chance first. :)

Have any of you tried this? Are you thinking about it? Share your thoughts here!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Get a Free Coupon for Fresh Express Salad!

I've been a member of Vocal Point for a while now, and as a result I've enjoyed free samples and coupons occasionally. Today I got an email from them about another great offer, a coupon for a free salad kit! Get yours now!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Goodbye, World?

It seems the world is abuzz with news of Judgement day, the Apocolypse and even....zombies? It's been on TV, all over the internet and even the kids came home from school talking about it today. When is this all supposed to happen? Tomorrow! Don't ask me what time though, as I haven't a clue.

I don't know about anyone else, but I plan to just go about my day as usual tomorrow: weeding my flower beds, getting our garden in if the weather allows (assuming there's no earthquake knocking us off our feet and lifting those little plants and seeds out of the ground as soon as we plant them), and taking my 6 year old to her last soccer game this season. Doesn't that just all sound so exciting?

Should zombies start roaming the streets though, it seems the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has us covered here in the good ol' United States. They've been coming up with a Zombie Preparedness Plan to keep us safe. No, I'm not kidding. I came across a news story link from The Wall Street Journal floating around on Facebook and it clued me in about this plan. I was all for checking it out. You should too!

Okay, okay, so you've probably figured out by now that I don't believe the world is coming to an end tomorrow, and so it seems that opinion is shared by those agencies whose links I just shared (gotta love their sense of humor!).

But still, this whole thing has got me thinking. What would I do if the the world was ending? Would I do anything differently? Do I even want to know when our/my time is up? I guess the short answer is: I would want all my loved ones to know how much I love them (I hope they know that already, but I could always do better, I'm sure). I would want to keep living in a way that wouldn't make me too nervous to meet our maker (there's always room for improvement there too). And as for knowing when the clock stops--no, I wouldn't want to know when that day is (I'm sure I'd obsess and fixate and that just wouldn't be fun for anyone!).

Anyway, I guess my point is, none of us really know when our time is up--apocolypse or no. We all have a number that's waiting to be called. So we don't need to quit our jobs (unless we can afford to) or start freaking out about some magic number on the calendar (even the Mayan one). We should just go on with our lives, live them the best we can in a way we can feel proud of so that we don't have to worry about feeling ashamed when that final day should come. Oh yeah, and we should make sure to thank God for each day we're given. :)

God bless you all and may you have a fantastic weekend! And make sure you're always prepared for an emergency, as you never know when one will come up! ;-)

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

A Note for the Toothfairy

So my six year old, Ashlyn, lost a tooth last night. The Toothfairy was not prepared for this, as she had no idea that the tooth was so wiggly. But alas, an hour before bed that tooth popped out. Ashlyn was so excited, she scrambled for a sandwich bag to put it in under her pillow and then went to bed with no fuss at all.

So the Toothfairy scrambled in her purse for something to exchange for that tooth. Finally, she found seven quarters and happily put it them in a sandwich bag to make the switchout go more smoothly (a lesson learned after getting caught in her earlier years of making the exchange using the same sandwich bag).

She put her hand under the dreaming little girl's pillow, and carefully felt for the bag with the tooth. She found it! She pulled it out slowly, trying not to wake the sleeping child, and then just as carefully slipped in the bag of quarters. She cringed as the quarters jingled together, but Ashlyn slept on. The Toothfairy gave a sigh of relief as she tiptoed out of the room after a job well done.

She noticed something odd about the bag she now held in her hand. Something was in the bag with the tooth. She couldn't make out what it was in the dark so she tiptoed into the bathroom, closed the door and turned on the light. It was a note. How sweet! Ashlyn had written her a note!

She took it out of the bag and started reading the kindergartener's thoughtful words. She'd expected something along the lines of "Thank you for giving me money" or "Are you real?" or maybe even "I love you" but that was not what the mischievious little girl had in mind. Nope....instead what was scrawled out on that small piece of paper was "Dear toothfary, ples giv me 10 dolerz." And under that short little note was a smiley face.

The toothfairy had to clap a hand over her mouth so as not to wake the sleeping household with her laughter. She hadn't seen that one coming! Well, Ashlyn, you might not have gotten the ten dollars you wanted, you dear sweet girl, but you will get an extra hug, kiss and chuckle in the morning.

You've got to hand it to her though, it was worth a try!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Chickens Have Left the Building

We finally moved the chickens out into their coop last night. It's still not 100% done, but it's done enough they can go out there. Thank goodness! I wasn't too fond of waking up to the aroma of chicken manure in the morning. My garden might love it, but I certainly don't! Haha!

We still have to touch up the paint and get some weather stripping to help hold the heat in better, but they spent the first night out there as it is, and are doing just fine. Last night was freezing, so I was a little worried about the transition. The chicks are fully feathered, as they are all six weeks old now, so we figured that with the heat lamp on out there, they'd be fine. We were right.

Painting turned out to be quite the trial. Saturday started out nice enough and hubby was able to finish up the inside before getting started on the painting in the afternoon. I went out to help him, but had to come back inside to bundle up because the wind was bitterly cold!




We were making great progress, but before we could finish the rain started, then quickly turned to snow.

Thankfully it all melted pretty quickly and we were able to get the doors on and get it ready for the chickens' big move.



We filled up the feeders and waterers after getting the heat lamp installed out there. We've got it plugged in to a Honeywell Winter Watchman, which will turn the lamp on and off according to the temperature. Where they are so young and coming from a temperature of 68 degrees, we set it to come on when it falls below 60 degrees. Which basically means it will stay on constantly for now...


So now all that's left is the minor touch ups here and there. We took the chicks out in a box and put them in their new home.


So far so good. This has all been quite a learning experience, but one we've been thoroughly enjoying. We can't wait until we start getting some eggs! Of course, that won't be for a few months yet. We figure it will be about August. Still, we're one step closer on that path to being self-sufficient.

Trading Satellite for Netflix


So most of you know by now that saving money has been my main mission in life, especially since the economy tanked a few years ago. We've managed to keep our satellite service with Dish Network for years now, and I have to say that we are still happy with it.

We've downgraded our service quite a bit in the last two years and they've given us plenty of discounts too on top of that. We have two dual-tuner DVRs in our house and subscribe to the Dish Family package with our locals. It's a total of about 50 or so channels, and most of them are pretty good. We get channels like Nick Jr., Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Hallmark and several others that our family really likes. Still, even with the discounts, because of our two DVRs, we are putting out about $40 a month.

We were thinking of completely getting rid of the satellite (no small thing when you realize we've had a DVR for about 10 years now) and saving that money. We've heard good things about Netflix, and were told that for about $8 a month we can download unlimited content to our computer, Xbox or Wii. For a few dollars more you can also get DVDs sent to your door.

We're big movie fans. We don't do the pay-per-view though, unless they give us the free certificates for them (which does happen now and then). If it's not a movie we're sure we want to buy, then we usually get it from Redbox. So really, the idea of having new movies so readily available to us sounds great. But I'm wondering if there's a downside?

Have any of you subscribed to Netflix? What can I expect to find if we make this jump? I've heard we can download stuff to our laptop and then hook it up to our TV to watch it on the bigger screen. That would be great, since it would mean that we could still watch our favorite TV shows off the TV station websites. Am I right? Or is it more complicated than that?

Anyway, if we go ahead and do this (and we're about 80% sure we will right now), it would mean a savings of over $30 a month. It might not seem like a lot to some people, but for a family of seven, saving any amount of money is a big plus! They do have a free trial, so I guess we'd have nothing to lose on trying it.

So what do you think? Does it sound like a good idea?

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Building that Coop!

Hubby has been soooooooooooo busy these last several weeks building the chicken coop. It's crazy how big this has turned out to be. He's doing a great job though, with minimal help from me. I only help with the heavy lifting when he asks. In my defense though, I have little-to-no building skills. Haha!

I though some of you would like to see how this has been progressing, so here are some pics:

This is the wall with the main door:


Here is the window wall:


Here's the floor or platform of the coop:


He just got the trusses up after putting all the walls together:


Here's the wall where we'll have four doors that access the back
of the nesting boxes so we can gather the eggs.


Here's a view of the front when he got it ready for the shingles:


And here it is with the roof on. Still a lot of work to go, but it already looks great!


We've still got to do the inside (roosting rods, nest boxes, more trim on the outside and painting to do--oh yeah and then there's the chicken yard), but my hubby has accomplished a lot! I can't wait for it to be finished so we can move the chickens out there. They're a month old and that brooder he built for them is getting way too small.

If' you're interested in finding out more about what we've learned about the chicken process so far, I've written several articles on Hubpages:

What to Know Before Getting Chicks or Chickens
Supplies to Get for Your Baby Chicks
Raising Chickens for Beginners Part 1

No regrets on our part at this point. I'm really looking forward to this whole adventure!

Friday, March 4, 2011

We're Going to Watch Hockey Tonight!

Our kids are so excited, and I have to admit I'm looking forward to it too. Tonight we're going to watch the Grizzlies as a family with our good friends and neighbors. The best part is we don't have to pay a cent for any of our tickets, though we do have to get there early to make sure we get them.

We got free entrance to a few Griz games, Real Salt Lake soccer Games, Utah Blaze football games and Rocky Mountain Raceway too. We also got a season pass for each of us for Seven Peaks Water Resort. Normally we don't do things like this because it's too expensive for all of us. But we decided to go ahead and jump on the deal when it came up on Groupon for the Salt Lake County Pass of All Passes for about $40 each.

I'm not telling you this to rub it in. I just found out that City Deals is offering it too! So if you want to get in on the family fun for a great price, I'd jump on this deal before it's gone.

Utah county has a similar deal going too. You can find it here.

As for us, we're going to go enjoy some good fighting...er, I mean playing tonight. I've only been once before, but I really had a great time. It was exciting, interesting and very entertaining. So if you haven't gotten your passes yet, jump on it now before they're gone!

Friday, February 18, 2011

We're Getting Chickens!

I'm sure I've mentioned here before that we've been working to become more self-sufficient. We started canning and preserving a few years ago (easy, fun and so delicious). But we've decided we can do more than grow fruit trees and plant a garden. So.....we've decided to get some chickens.

We have a huge yard (almost half an acre), our house is in a residential agriculture zone so we don't have to pay for any permits. We only have to make sure we stay within the allowed number of chickens for our lot size (probably about 12) and we have to build their coop at least 50 feet away from any structure. No problem!

We did some online research and then we got a book: Raising Chickens For Dummies from Amazon. Right now we're trying to decide what breed of chickens we want. We know we don't want any roosters (I'm sure the neighbors wouldn't like that much, especially since they already get annoyed by our rebellious and overly energetic dog--who's nearly 8 but still acts like a puppy). We'll probably go for the chicks, but that will mean waiting several months before getting any eggs.

At best, we'll get more eggs than we need and sell the extra to neighbors, all the while decreasing the amount of those pesky squash bugs and other pests in our yard (which will be eaten up by prowling chickens). At worst, this will all be a great learning experience--whatever the outcome--for us and our children. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I hope....

Hubby is building a coop this weekend based on the information we've gathered from our research thus far. It's all very exciting. We'll see how it all works out though. I'll be sure to keep you all updated!

Getting Back to Life

So I decided, after several weeks of moping about and being decidely unlike myself, that it was time I realize all the blessings I have and move forward with my life. It's amazing how, once you decide that you need to move on, and then tell yourself that life is good, how it actually really does change your perspective and mood! Positive thinking really is a powerful thing, and I just confirmed what I already knew, but had momentarily forgotten :)

It's good that I remembered it too, because these last weeks have been trying, to say the least! I won't go into the family drama (extended family), but I'm sure everyone knows how stressful life can be after a death. There's a lot of adjustment and the whole greiving process that everyone goes through in their own way.

We've had influenza here (bad idea on skipping those flu shots this year!) and a multitude of other illnesses, several of which our sweet baby girl has fallen victim to. We had a week of no sleep, and she got her first taste of antibiotics after her respiratory infection gave her a nasty ear infection. She's finally sleeping again now, so hopefully we can get her immunity built up.

Every week for the last month I've had someone home from school because of being sick. Yuck! Where's that Immune Fizz when you need it (a drink we used to buy, but haven't been able to get for a while)? And I can't believe how much homework there is for each day a kid misses! Yikes! I had to send my son back to school while he was still sick or he'd have never caught up. His grades still haven't all recovered. That's okay though, because I know he's still the smart and responsible kid he was before he missed two days of school.

Anyway, through the trials of being sick and losing loved ones and the others stressors that come with life, I've had to try harder to see all of the many things that we've been blessed with. I have a great husband who loves me and I love him. I have five beautiful, mostly healthy and very good (though not perfect, by any means haha) children. We get to stay in our home after a successful loan modification. My husband still has a job, when so many others have lost theirs. We have good friends who are always there when we need them most. We have God in our lives.

I'm sure I must sound mushy about now, but I have to say that even with the trials our family has been going through, I still have so many more good, compared to bad. It can be hard to remember that when the other stuff in life becomes overwhelming. I just have to keep in mind that saying, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans," and make sure that my plans stay flexible! I'm also counting on the belief that our trials only make us stronger. So watch out world, because I'm really getting a workout! But I'm sure I'm not the only one :)

I know a lot of people out there are going through much worse right now. My only advice to those people is to try to stay positive, be strong, ask for help if you can't do it alone, have faith and the rest will follow.