Where I've Been

I am here......it's just I am not all here.

I am just not myself lately.
Since my Daughter's meltdown I just haven't had any 'umph'.
My energy is just drained.  I guess you'd say my energy is being used up in the worrying about her.
I just know there isn't much of me leftover for much else.  I drag through the day and do the bare minimum I need to do like fixing food, bathing, moving clutter around in the house and planning meals.
Oh, I am just a great big ball of FUN lately, aren't I?

I do have enough "whatever" to sit here and read blogs though, but I just can't bring myself to call up enough brain power to comment much.  Yeah, I run my mouth on a blog post here and there but I'm getting into a very negative place in the space between my ears and yeah, nobody wants to read crap I write when I am in that spot.
So I just don't.

I am having a hard time focusing on anything much.....except for genealogy.

I took another blog I started to be a clearing house for rebate offers and turned it into a personal journal where I can post about the shit I've been through in life and family stuff and how I see the family stuff.
Most of that sounds very negative as well but I feel I need to vent it or explode some days.  Maybe it will help me work through some stuff I feel....maybe not.   I just know that I need to get this stuff out of my head some days.

I have always been a big fan of that show "So Who Do You Think You Are?" on NBC.  Saw all 6 of the 1st Season episodes a couple years ago and was HOOKED.  It got me to begin searching around for my family history.  Of course I didn't know WHAT I WAS DOING AT ALL! and over the last 2 years I would start and stop over and over again looking casually online for family. 

I found a distant relative who is something like 94 years old 2 years ago who had done a shit ton of research on 1 line of my ancestors.  This gentleman's great grandfather was the  younger brother of my great great grandfather....or we share a great grandfather born in 1825...his is a 2x great, mine a 3 x great.  He even charted the lines of all the descendants from this shared relative.  His great uncle(my 3 x great gf)was so prolific that the gentleman I am related to had to put my branch of this family on it's own web page. hehehehe

Here is a photo of my great great great grandparents, Hugh and Sarah "Sally" Vassar.  Hugh died in 1895(Sally in 1902)so this was taken around 1880.

I also found Hugh & family on the 1860 census(pre Civil War VA)with my then 5 year old 2x great grandfather, John "Jack" Alfred and his siblings living on a farm near Scottsburg, VA in what was then Halifax County. 

Anyway, finding out all that made me hungry for more crumbs of information, so about a week ago I dropped a wad of cash and finally joined Ancestry dotcom.
So this should speed up my search.
Especially since I am finding it the biggest SUCKHOLE for my time, bar none!!!

I can sit here for HOURS sifting through Censuses and crap....it is not funny the time I can waste!

The BEST(very sarcastic here!) thing is......Hubs could give a rat's ass about genealogy and family history.  Of course he doesn't know much about his family's past but he is all good with that.

I even spent some time trying to suck him in but searching on his families(Hey! I told him I'm doing this for our kids, so they know about their ancestors on BOTH sides!).  He put up with helping/being interested with it for one evening and now he is done listening to me talk about this.  I start and he gets this look on his face of annoyance.  Now he knows how I've felt all these years when he went on and on about his job or his co-workers(people I don't give a rat's ass about!)and was forced to pretend to be interested. ;-)
So I guess I have to shut up about it with Hubs and just tell my other blog and all of y'all instead.....until y'all get tired and stop reading me.lolol


Sluggy

March Food Spending Week 1+, Meal Plan March Week 2

I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by. These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's-1970's or earlier.

This week I give you the dream kitchen from 1955.....
Well you'll have to go HERE and watch a short film to see it.  It's a 13 minute film ad selling appliances and new homes from 1955.  It's very cute!  Then we can discuss what you saw.

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)

Last week's meal plan is in the books. Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Leftovers
MONDAY--Tacos or Taco Salad, Corn
TUESDAY--Veal Parmesan, Pasta, Salad
WEDNESDAY--Birthday Meal out-Red Lobster
THURSDAY--Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
FRIDAY--I can't remember what we had...leftovers?....but it wasn't take-out as I had planned
SATURDAY--Hubs got Burger King, he didn't like my plan lol

Friday Hubs picked up Daughter from college for Spring break.  I think we had leftovers.  I know we didn't get Chinese take-out as planned. 

The weekly food spending was $91.43. $20+ of that was stocking up on corned beef briskets at $2.29 lb.  No $100+ shopping trips for me this week!  

It's the 12th day of the month and I've already spent $250.63 my food budget for the month!  I have $49.37 left from my original $300 kitty for food.  I do have $176.80 leftover from Jan. and Feb.'s kitties which I will dip into if I need it, but I'll try my hardest to avoid spending that.


Going into March Week 2+ I have many leftovers.  Mostly it's just one helping of something and not enough for an entire meal plus 1 big dish of the casserole I made last week and now a good sized amount of leftovers from Sunday's dinner.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Roasted Turkey, Stuffing, Potatoes, Green Beans, Cranberry Glop
MONDAY--Leftovers
TUESDAY--Daughter's making dinner
WEDNESDAY--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potato
THURSDAY--Leftovers
FRIDAY--homemade Pizza, Salad
SATURDAY--Chinese take-out

This menu gives us 4 new meals, 1 take-out(at Daughter's request) and 2 nights of leftovers. 

Items needed to buy for this menu are...cabbage. I've got everything else here already in the freezer or the pantry, except for the unknown meal Daughter is fixing.

I am trying to get Daughter to limit what she cooks to items we already have the ingredients for.  I did buy some red and yellow peppers on Saturday and she wants to make "something" chicken so I am pulling for Fajitas.  We would need to pick up mushrooms and sour cream for that though, but I have the onions, cheese(found more cheddar stashed in the freezer so I am not out yet), spices, tortillas.....oh, and the chicken too. ;-)

My mission this week on leftover nights is to make sure the turkey leftovers get eaten.  I am not a fan of leftover turkey but the others will eat it.

We'll be buying milk as usual.

So far I don't see any stocking up opportunities, except for more corned beef.  

So what is everyone else eating this week?

Sluggy

Friday Fun!

I hope everyone has something awesome planned for the weekend.
Me?  Not so much.
The Daughter is coming home later today so I'm just trying to get some cleaning done before Hubs gets home with her.  Then I am off to nap and get ready for the many many hours of "what am I going to do with my life?" talks to follow.


I need some laughter today, so I am sharing this clip I found.  It's the original cast of Spamalot with David Hyde Pierce and Tim Curry.

If you are reading this Joe Z., this is for you.....




Sluggy

Kids and Money

SonyaAnn posted yesterday about her car insurance woes.
Her post was very timely to me, since we are going to be making some big changes in my family soon that will involve vehicles and insurance.

After our 3rd car-the one the kids used to get around in-was totaled last May, we didn't replace it.
At that time, #1 Son was finishing up his 2nd year of college and not home, Daughter was going to be attending college that Fall for the first time(so she no longer would be living at home and needing the car for work or school)and #2 Son was still almost a year away from turning 16 and being eligible to get his learner's permit.
So we didn't replace the car last year.

We put the money we got for the totaled vehicle, last May, aside and Hubs added the little bit of cash he got from his mother's estate with it and we planned to find a $5K or so "beater" car for #2 Son to learn on and use while he finishes high school.

Now let's throw a monkey wrench into the plan.

Daughter has been having second thoughts about her career path.
Ok, a bit more than second thoughts.  After finishing up her first semester at college with a 3.80 grade pt. average, and  after doing a job shadowing with our family doctor over Winter break, and after having her interview at the medical school that her college has a program with and passing that interview so that now she is guaranteed a seat in the medical college when she graduates with her Biology degree, after another 3 years of school, she has decided that she no longer wants to be a doctor.  She told her father and I this after she went back for her 2nd semester the end of January.

I was disappointed that she didn't even finish out the first year before deciding to do a 360 degree turn in her plans.  But it's her life, right?  We told her to slow down and not do anything hasty, but a couple weeks after returning to school, she had changed her major to education and found a new adviser in that dept.
So she suddenly is very sure she no longer wants to be a doctor and she is suddenly just as very sure that she does want to be.......a science teacher.
She says she has had this idea in the back of her mind for a very long time, however this was the first time we, her parents, have heard Daughter voice this career path.

Not to get into much detail here, but currently Daughter had abandoned the Teaching thing and is rethinking her life and may be moving back home after her 1st yr. of college is over.

Basically after having a meltdown at school she wants to finish up the year and come home.
Now she is talking about going into Engineering at this point and transferring to someplace close to home and living at home and commuting to school.  But it's not a 4 year degree in Engineering, she is talking a 2 year Associate degree and/or Job Training to be a engineering technician.....like the kind that comes to your house and fixes your electrical wiring or some kind of mechanical engineering.

The bottom line is though she is real good at being a student and taking tests, etc. she does NOT want to do it for any longer than she has to.  She wants to get out there and work with her hands AND her mind.
At least that's what I am hearing this week.....

Not sure if her new educational plan will pan out or if it's just another "idea" that she is trying on, but I do know that she'll be moving back home for now.  I have suggested that if she doesn't know what she wants to do yet, to get a job and work for a year and take some time to think hard about what to do next.

One thing for sure though.....she'll be living here and she'll need a vehicle to get to work and/or school.

So now I have to figure out if SHE needs to buy the car in her own name and have her own insurance policy or if we need to buy another car and keep her on our policy(and she can make car payments to us once she gets a job).

And where does all this leave #2 Son and his needing a vehicle to get his first part time job?.....driving himself to all his band rehearsals and performances?......driving to a local college in another year if he participates in the High School program where Seniors take college courses?

Paying for 5 cars and 5 drivers on our car insurance policy plus all that gas and maintaining all those cars?
Just kill me now......

Sluggy

My Rite-Aid Trips on Saturday...Short & Sweet

I have +Ups that weren't expiring until 3/11 so I wasn't going to darken Rite-Aid's door last week.
Until I saw how miserable the R-A ad for the week of March 4-11 was, so I hopped up into Rite-Aid last Saturday afternoon to use some +Ups...

1 x Stop Pain spray on sale=$6.00
2 x Right Guard Deo on sale($2.99)=$5.98
1 x Cella cherry w/20% disc.=$.26
SubTotal....$12.24

Coupons Used
1 x $3/2 Right Guard items IPQ=$3.00

$12.24-$3.00=$9.24
I used $9 in +Ups and put the .24¢ on my gift card.
I received 2 x $1 +Ups back for the Right Guard items.
I'll submit for a $6 refund on the Stop Pain spray thru the SCR, making my "cost" $1.24 for these items.

(Spent $9.24 in +Ups and gift card, get back $8 in cash and +Ups.)

Then I went home and got my Pantene ManuQ I had forgotten to clip from the inserts and got this.....

2 x Pantene conditioners on sale=$7.00
2 x Right Guard items on sale=$5.98
SubTotal....$12.98

Coupons Used
1 x $3/2 Pantene ManuQ=$3.00
1 x $3/2 Right Guard IPQ=$3.00
Coupon Total.....$6.00

$12.98-$6.00=$6.98+ $.06tax=$7.04
I used all my +Ups that were expiring in the next 2 weeks.  I couldn't use either of the $1 +Ups I got in my previous transaction however, as when the tax would come off when I used one, it would put my total in the -.02.  I could have added another Cella cherry to use one of those $1 +Ups and then put .24¢ on my gift card but I didn't feel like doing that.
So I used $6 in +Ups and put the $1.04 on the gift card instead.
I received $4 in +Ups back(2 x $1 Right Guard, $2 WYB2 Pantene).

This transaction "cost" me $3.04".  (Spent $7.04 in +Ups and gift card and got back $4 in +Ups.)

Now if I was smart and more on the ball, I would have gotten to Rite-Aid earlier in the week when they still had that new "Ice Shine" variety of Pantene.  There was a double dip last week....with the weekly Pantene Deal($2 +Ups WYB2 any variety)and the monthly $1 +Ups Deal(WYB1 Pantene Ice Shine variety).  I could have gotten $4 in +Ups back instead of just $2 if I had bought that new Pantene variety, making my Pantene FREE and the Right Guard .50¢ per item.  But they were cleaned out by Saturday of course so my Pantene was $1 a bottle.
Oh well.
Still a good price.  ;-)

Now let's analysis why I bought what I did--
The Stop Pain was bought soley to turn $6 in +Ups back into cash.
The Right Guard deo/body wash because we are running low on men's deo and wash.  There are 3 stinky guys in our house.....'nuff said.
The hair conditioner was for #2 Son as he is almost out and requested more.
The cherry candy was obviously a 'filler' item.....cheap and chocolate.....2 very important criteria for me!lol

So what is everyone else buying at Rite-Aid this week?

Sluggy