Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner for the best comment of the week. My super smarty pants sister made the comment that the whole aspartame debate is just one more reason why she won't be going on a diet anytime soon! Here here sister!!!! I just have to fill you all in on how our lives have been since we quit the "juice". Greg, who is diabetic, had been having some serious health issues in the last couple of weeks. His blood sugar was running WAY high, his vision was blurring, he was dizzy and he couldn't focus on anything. This is the reason I started doing the research on what it could be. It was on some diabetic websites that I found that aspartame is particularly bad for diabetics because it raises their blood sugar, etc... So we quit it, actually pouring it down the drain (I must admit that I had one moment of hesitation when I had to dump my brand spanking new bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper). Greg was suffering for the first day without the caffeine, he doesn't do coffee, but he sucked it up. Within two days his blood sugar had returned to normal and all his other symptoms had ceased! Since he started working days he was drinking twice as much diet soda as he had when he was working graveyard and that's when the trouble began. So whether it was a placebo or not, we will never be drinking aspartame laced drinks again. We did discover that Hansen's and Jones soda companies both make diet soda's with splenda instead, as does Diet Rite, they have a bunch of flavors too. So that's that.
On to the next item, this is something that actually happened to my mother, Lonnie. Not some mom of a friend of a friend's cousin, but actually to my very own mother. My mom does online banking with Wells Fargo and a few days ago noticed that $800 was missing from one of her accounts. She called them and they said the money had been taken out of the account in my brother's name for a company called Navaho Networks. My brother is not on my mom's accounts and should not be able to authorize any sort of financial deal. She check out this Navaho Networks and found that they are a massive scamming company. My brother uses my mom's computer all the time and downloads games and music, etc... and when ad's pop up he just delets them. Well this Navaho Networks has a pop up ad that will ask you if you want to delet them, if you click on yes, the company will charge you $100. Apparently they have some phishing software that will go into your computer and get your baking info! If you read the fine print on the bottom of the ad window they say "if you delete this you will be charged $100", some people have had their phone bill charged $100 per click. Soooooo, needless to say double check all your pop up ads or just install a pop up blocker. Here is a link to one of the websites that let you know about the scam http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/047/RipOff0047978.htm. I guess when my brother logged into one of the gaming sites or something it opened the computer up to this parasitic company! $800 y'all, that's no drop in the bucket, that's lunacy, that's what that is! This is the second time that this sort of internet scaming has happened to my parents and both times it was with Wells Fargo, so I'm thinking that they don't have a strong enough firewall or whatever it is that other banks have that lead them to not be scammed.
Just some happy news on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. Have a good one!
Oh, I almost forgot, I was given a coupon for a free Shamrock Shake, hurray St. Patty's day, I love green shakes! That saved me $3 & change, yay me and my frugal self!
xoxo
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Oh man, I just went back and read the very first blog entry from waaaaay back in January! Was I naive or what? I actually said we weren't going to spend "on dime on non necessary things"! I almost wet my pants laughing at that, it's only been 2 &3/4 months and we've already broken that so many times I can't count!! So maybe I should amend that statement, I should say that we are going to TRY like the dickins not to spend one dime that's not necessary. I was soooo smug all those weeks ago with my silly little ideals, now that I'm jaded to the real world of temptation and self control, I'm not having as much fun. Wah! I made the HUGE mistake of opening the Bath and Body Works email today, I usually just delete them, but I was weak my friends. I swear the evil voice in my head was telling me that two large candles for $20 is a great deal (really, it is, they're $19.50 each!). I suddenly NEEDED some wall flower refills and some room spray and some lotion and shower gel, etc... I think you get the point. I simply MUST stop looking at these emails, I suppose I should opt out of getting them, but darn it, I like the torture of being a lookee lewis.
Now, I have to share some horrors with you. I was doing some research on Aspartame, the artificial sweetner in all diet products and you should know that it's poison, literally! It turns into formaldahyde when it gets over 86 degrees, I don't know about you, but I generally run about 12 degrees higher than that! Greg has been getting really sick lately, high blood sugar, poor vision, etc. and I believe it comes from all the diet soda he drinks. Please check out this website
( http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html ) and make your own decision about it. I can tell you that my family will no longer be drinking diet soda, eating light yogurt and we'll be reading labels to make sure the products we buy don't contain this poison.
Stevia is a safe sugar substitute, its all natural and actually helps to level out the blood sugar level in diabetics. You can buy it at the health store and it will not slowly kill your family. I have no vested interest in whether you buy Stevia or not, I'm not a share holder in any companies, I just want you, my friends, to live and long and healthy life. It makes me sick that I've been feeding my family this poison for years, but at least I know now and will be pouring out any aspartame products that currently reside in my home.
Have a safe and happy weekend.
xoxo
Now, I have to share some horrors with you. I was doing some research on Aspartame, the artificial sweetner in all diet products and you should know that it's poison, literally! It turns into formaldahyde when it gets over 86 degrees, I don't know about you, but I generally run about 12 degrees higher than that! Greg has been getting really sick lately, high blood sugar, poor vision, etc. and I believe it comes from all the diet soda he drinks. Please check out this website
( http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html ) and make your own decision about it. I can tell you that my family will no longer be drinking diet soda, eating light yogurt and we'll be reading labels to make sure the products we buy don't contain this poison.
Stevia is a safe sugar substitute, its all natural and actually helps to level out the blood sugar level in diabetics. You can buy it at the health store and it will not slowly kill your family. I have no vested interest in whether you buy Stevia or not, I'm not a share holder in any companies, I just want you, my friends, to live and long and healthy life. It makes me sick that I've been feeding my family this poison for years, but at least I know now and will be pouring out any aspartame products that currently reside in my home.
Have a safe and happy weekend.
xoxo
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Take a chance on me
Hiya folks, sorry it's been so long since my last post, but I've been on a strict ABBA Sing Star training kick. Yup, you better believe that I threw caution to the wind and bought the ABBA Sing Star game with the gift card Sharon gave me. Forget spending it on the exercise machine, I'll get that with my garage sale money! I knew it was meant to be when we went into Target and the ABBA game was on CLEARANCE!!!! Oh be still my heart, I haven't felt such euphoria in a while, it was a perfect trifecta of free money + Target + clearance dream item = HEAVEN!!! Now I sing Waterloo at the top of my lungs and pretend that it's only because of the game, before I always had it in my head. Of course Mia loooooooves Mamma Mia, she thinks it's her song, but she also loves Money Money Money, what do you think that says about her? Anywho, thank you Sharon, you have made me happier than I could ever have hoped to be from a gift. I'm sure Greg would like to thank you too, but I'm pretty sure it would be meant in a sarcastic manner since I make him sing with me, although I have yet to get him to sing Dancing Queen.
Now on to some serious business.... I have another equation for you: Adam + Greg + Whiskey = spending spree on guitar hero based video game items. I'm not gonna lie, he also bought me a Sing Star game, I suspect it's so Greg can point fingers at me as a benefiter of frivolity(this is a different game than ABBA). Yes I make up my own words to fit my needs, just accept it. Adam and Emily and the kids came over for dinner as well as Rebecca and Noah (don't want them to feel left out) and we had a lovely dinner. As is the norm, Emily and I started the Sing Star battle Royale, although if you ask me it's not really a battle, it's more of a massacre with me being the victor! POW! That was a royal BURN on Emily, it felt a little mean and great at the same time. OK, so anyway, Adam and Greg were doing manly samples of Whiskey and some other nasty things when all of a sudden it became urgent that Greg get another Guitar Hero guitar so he and Adam could live out their hair band dreams together in a Guitar battle. Of course Greg caught me in the middle of singing and when I'm in the zone I'm unaware of other things, I sound like an angelic version of Edward Hung (the scary guy from American Idol a few years back, if that's his name). Anywho I gave a disapproving look, but when Greg is full of the liquid courage and Adam is giggling maniacally, I know there's not much I can do. They shot out of the house like two bottle rockets, I think I even saw them skip a little, but no hand holding happened in our presence. Although they did come back with one of those BFF necklaces that's a heart broken into two pieces where one says Best and the other says Friends and they put them around their ankles.....hmmmmm. OK, so I'm lying about that part, but it's a beautiful vision to think about. So it's now been established that Greg is weak against Adams powers of shopping persuasion so Adam...you are officially on Notice!
So this month we were able to pay $1,000 CASH to have my van fixed and we payed off my credit card completely so I would say that even with our bout of frivolous spending, we did pretty well. Granted most of the money came from our tax return, but it was our money none the less and in the past we would have used it to go on some fabulous vacation, so job well done to us! The time has come for me to take Mia to dance so I will end this, but if any of yoooos wants to challenge me to a sing off, I'm up for it! I'm now training on the Medium level of difficulty so it will be more of a challenge for me to slay you all.
TTFN
xoxo
Now on to some serious business.... I have another equation for you: Adam + Greg + Whiskey = spending spree on guitar hero based video game items. I'm not gonna lie, he also bought me a Sing Star game, I suspect it's so Greg can point fingers at me as a benefiter of frivolity(this is a different game than ABBA). Yes I make up my own words to fit my needs, just accept it. Adam and Emily and the kids came over for dinner as well as Rebecca and Noah (don't want them to feel left out) and we had a lovely dinner. As is the norm, Emily and I started the Sing Star battle Royale, although if you ask me it's not really a battle, it's more of a massacre with me being the victor! POW! That was a royal BURN on Emily, it felt a little mean and great at the same time. OK, so anyway, Adam and Greg were doing manly samples of Whiskey and some other nasty things when all of a sudden it became urgent that Greg get another Guitar Hero guitar so he and Adam could live out their hair band dreams together in a Guitar battle. Of course Greg caught me in the middle of singing and when I'm in the zone I'm unaware of other things, I sound like an angelic version of Edward Hung (the scary guy from American Idol a few years back, if that's his name). Anywho I gave a disapproving look, but when Greg is full of the liquid courage and Adam is giggling maniacally, I know there's not much I can do. They shot out of the house like two bottle rockets, I think I even saw them skip a little, but no hand holding happened in our presence. Although they did come back with one of those BFF necklaces that's a heart broken into two pieces where one says Best and the other says Friends and they put them around their ankles.....hmmmmm. OK, so I'm lying about that part, but it's a beautiful vision to think about. So it's now been established that Greg is weak against Adams powers of shopping persuasion so Adam...you are officially on Notice!
So this month we were able to pay $1,000 CASH to have my van fixed and we payed off my credit card completely so I would say that even with our bout of frivolous spending, we did pretty well. Granted most of the money came from our tax return, but it was our money none the less and in the past we would have used it to go on some fabulous vacation, so job well done to us! The time has come for me to take Mia to dance so I will end this, but if any of yoooos wants to challenge me to a sing off, I'm up for it! I'm now training on the Medium level of difficulty so it will be more of a challenge for me to slay you all.
TTFN
xoxo
Thursday, March 12, 2009
New Sven
Howdy y'all, I thought you might be interested to hear that I have a new Sven. I worked out with him for the fist time yesterday and his style is much more reserved and subtle. New Sven and I are working on a plan of attack for me to still be able to work out after I have my surgery. That's right, it's official, I have a date for surgery!!!! May 19th will henceforth be known as the day of the Crack Heard 'Round The World! That is the day they will break my foot, carve off the unwanted bone growth and screw it back together, all while I will be blissfully under some wonderful sedatives and pain killers (oh happy day!). So New Sven was showing me some exercises I can do that do not involve me standing at all. These moves are called pilates children and they were created by people called Satan Worshipers, can you all say that? Satan Worshipers, very good. New Sven had me on the ground doing some very innocent seeming moves and while I was doing them I could definitely feel the burn, but I wasn't at puking point or anything like Old Sven had me at. Well today I am sore in muscles I didn't even know still housed themselves in my body. Did you know that I still have stomach muscles under all my fluff? It's TRUE! I KNOW, I was shocked to find that out too! I'm not, sit in the chair and cry because I hurt so bad, but I definitely feel like I did some work. I like this style much better, I feel like after I have a workout the Old Sven way I need two days off to recuperate, but New Sven has made me feel tender, but not in pain so I can still do the exercises today. Three cheers for New Sven! Chip chips, AHOY! Chip chips, AHOY! Chip chips, AHOY! So now the plan is to make my back strong like bull so all my sitting around after the surgery doesn't make me a weak backed wussy girl. New Sven also said he wants to take a picture of me to use as inspiration to other people. Do you think it's normal for him to want me to be naked lying on an aerobic ball with only sweat socks on? OHHHHHH MY LORD, I'm dying with laughter right now, just that image is so funny and frightening to me I don't know whether to laugh or cry! Oh man, I really do crack my own nonsense UP! OK, the picture part is true, but not the naked part (just in case some of you sickos thought I was serious, you perverts, you know who you are!) So I'm back on track with the gym and although I may have hurt Old Sven's feelings, I just think New Sven is the man for me.
Confession time.....Greg bought an air filter machiney thingy, it's was muy expensivo, but darn it all if it's not the greatest thing ever! It turns out that all the sickness I've had over the last few months is mostly because of all the pet dander and dust that was in the house. I feel 1,0000 times better, so I'm now classifying the machine as a NEED. We also bought (I know, we suck at not buying things) a food vacume packer machine. I bought a big ball of turkey at Costco and we sliced it up (YES, we bought a meat slicer too, shhhhhh!), anywho, we didn't want the turkey to go bad so we vacume packed it up and froze a bunch of it. I'll have you know that turkey costs $8.99/lb on average and Greg goes through at least four pounds a month (he's a Turkey eatin' fool!), so if you add up the savings on buying in bulk and storing it, it pays for itself really. Hehe, heehe (akward laughter). In total between the two machines we paid about $160, that's only about 4-5 months worth of deli bought turkey and these things are for life!
Don't you all see how I've changed? By now I would have bought tons of needless, home decorating items and purses and shoes, etc... but now I'm making informed, thoughtful decisions on how to spend our money.
As one last item I would like to give a very warm and heart felt shout out to my very dear and thoughtful friend Sharon. Sharon sent me a very kind gift of a Target gift card to spend as I see fit on MYSELF as a congrats on making it two months. Sharon, I'm sorry I had to say thanks this way, for some reason I can't get through on your cell phone. I know I should email you too, and I will, but I just wanted everyone to know how thoughtful you are. I don't know if you heard the faint sound of whooping and hollerin' on Saturday, but that was me at the mail box! You RULE the school! I have to buy an exercise thing for home and now I have some extra $$$ to lay down for it, hurray! Although I did spy a big tea jug with a spout that I likee very much!
I'll talk to you all soon, have a happy St. Paddy's day!!!
xoxox
Confession time.....Greg bought an air filter machiney thingy, it's was muy expensivo, but darn it all if it's not the greatest thing ever! It turns out that all the sickness I've had over the last few months is mostly because of all the pet dander and dust that was in the house. I feel 1,0000 times better, so I'm now classifying the machine as a NEED. We also bought (I know, we suck at not buying things) a food vacume packer machine. I bought a big ball of turkey at Costco and we sliced it up (YES, we bought a meat slicer too, shhhhhh!), anywho, we didn't want the turkey to go bad so we vacume packed it up and froze a bunch of it. I'll have you know that turkey costs $8.99/lb on average and Greg goes through at least four pounds a month (he's a Turkey eatin' fool!), so if you add up the savings on buying in bulk and storing it, it pays for itself really. Hehe, heehe (akward laughter). In total between the two machines we paid about $160, that's only about 4-5 months worth of deli bought turkey and these things are for life!
Don't you all see how I've changed? By now I would have bought tons of needless, home decorating items and purses and shoes, etc... but now I'm making informed, thoughtful decisions on how to spend our money.
As one last item I would like to give a very warm and heart felt shout out to my very dear and thoughtful friend Sharon. Sharon sent me a very kind gift of a Target gift card to spend as I see fit on MYSELF as a congrats on making it two months. Sharon, I'm sorry I had to say thanks this way, for some reason I can't get through on your cell phone. I know I should email you too, and I will, but I just wanted everyone to know how thoughtful you are. I don't know if you heard the faint sound of whooping and hollerin' on Saturday, but that was me at the mail box! You RULE the school! I have to buy an exercise thing for home and now I have some extra $$$ to lay down for it, hurray! Although I did spy a big tea jug with a spout that I likee very much!
I'll talk to you all soon, have a happy St. Paddy's day!!!
xoxox
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Hello; my Name is Sabrina & I'm a shopaholic
Howdy y'all! Did you know that your butt gets bigger when you eat a whole box of Girl Scout cookies? It's a good thing that I'm here to do this sort of life changing research for you!
I'd like to thank my homies who commented on the last post, it does a girl good to know she's entertaining enough to keep people reading!
OK, before I tell you all the truth, I'm going to preface it with all my excuses, ready? Here they go:
Greg and I rented a dumpster to embark on our Spring Cleaning, starting with Emma's room. We gave her a large amount of time in which to clean her room and told her that if it wasn't done by this date then we would do it for her and she had no say in what went missing, and she chose to let us do it. So while I was sitting in front of Albertson's selling cookies, Greg decided to clean the Harry Potter closet. Boy oh boy did we ever have a lot of crap under there! When I got home the house was littered with objects that I had not seen in years and there were piles of scary nonsense everywhere. Thank you Kid's Cuisine for making easy frozen entrees for children. By Sunday we had filled the dumpster up with items from the closet AND Emma's room, I think we may have found where Jimmy Hoffa was buried! Our kitchen was so piled with crap on every surface that.....(confession item #1 is coming) we went out to breakfast because we couldn't possibly cook! We even took my parents out for breakfast because we had to bribe my mom to do massive quantities of laundry for us. You see, she has a sweet machine that is soooo much bigger and better than ours and you would not even believe the amount of laundry we found in Emma and Kayleigh and Mia's rooms, very scary. So we bribed them with fried tidbits of heaven, delicious. As we labored through the afternoon on Emma's room Greg's back started to give out and I was beat up, I needed to have......(confession #2) curly fries and a taco (or two) and a LARGE Dr. Pepper! I know I should be ashamed but damn it we were working hard and needed the sustenance and the kitchen was still scary. Then my parents called and invited us to dinner and who are we to say "no" to free food? Nobody, that's who! So we went to German food and enjoyed teasing Emma about all the stuff she'll never see again. So now that we've broken the seal I'm finding it hard to put a stop to my spending!!! I actually bought a coffee today!!! Yes, I said it, I totally drove out of my way to go to Dutch Brothers and get a coffee! I even justified it by telling myself that since I had to take Emma and Mia to the doctor (they both have sinus infections it turns out, my bad!) I needed the reinforcement. You see, it was a last minute apointment and I hadn't had the opportunity to make my own....blah, blah, blah.... People, I even bought Emma a Taco on the way to Kumon yesterday! I have a major problem and I need to reel it back in. I'm so ticked off at myself, I knew that I was becoming way too complacent and this is what it's come to. It seriously has only been two months, but it feels like it's been FOREVER and I actually feel justified in this frivolous spending, like I deserve it because I can go for most of 60 days without throwing my money out the window, what kind of thinking is that?! It's crazy thinking, that's what it is. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday with my mom and I totally was going to buy something I didn't need, WTF? I DON'T NEED ANYTHING!!! I bought Kayleigh a shelf and I almost fainted with pleasure at spending some $$$. Just between me and you I did buy Mia a $6 toy, how is that gonna teach her a lesson on not getting everything you want? I have to get back to being more militant like I was in the beginning. This being said, it's not as bad as it used to be, our bank account doesn't go down very much after the bills are paid, but boy have I been coming up with some doozy ideas on how we can spruce up the house. Luckily my car needs some repairs so now we have a goal of what to spend any extra money on, but I seriously think I need to for a support group.
I've been hearing that Oprah and Dr. Phil are stealing my idea by having people live for a week not buying anything that isn't necessary. I have half a mind to forward them my blog address and tell them to make their people do it for a year and THEN they can call it a show! I could go on forever, but I have to stop because I think I may be delirious, I think I have a fever. I'll talk to you later.
I'd like to thank my homies who commented on the last post, it does a girl good to know she's entertaining enough to keep people reading!
OK, before I tell you all the truth, I'm going to preface it with all my excuses, ready? Here they go:
Greg and I rented a dumpster to embark on our Spring Cleaning, starting with Emma's room. We gave her a large amount of time in which to clean her room and told her that if it wasn't done by this date then we would do it for her and she had no say in what went missing, and she chose to let us do it. So while I was sitting in front of Albertson's selling cookies, Greg decided to clean the Harry Potter closet. Boy oh boy did we ever have a lot of crap under there! When I got home the house was littered with objects that I had not seen in years and there were piles of scary nonsense everywhere. Thank you Kid's Cuisine for making easy frozen entrees for children. By Sunday we had filled the dumpster up with items from the closet AND Emma's room, I think we may have found where Jimmy Hoffa was buried! Our kitchen was so piled with crap on every surface that.....(confession item #1 is coming) we went out to breakfast because we couldn't possibly cook! We even took my parents out for breakfast because we had to bribe my mom to do massive quantities of laundry for us. You see, she has a sweet machine that is soooo much bigger and better than ours and you would not even believe the amount of laundry we found in Emma and Kayleigh and Mia's rooms, very scary. So we bribed them with fried tidbits of heaven, delicious. As we labored through the afternoon on Emma's room Greg's back started to give out and I was beat up, I needed to have......(confession #2) curly fries and a taco (or two) and a LARGE Dr. Pepper! I know I should be ashamed but damn it we were working hard and needed the sustenance and the kitchen was still scary. Then my parents called and invited us to dinner and who are we to say "no" to free food? Nobody, that's who! So we went to German food and enjoyed teasing Emma about all the stuff she'll never see again. So now that we've broken the seal I'm finding it hard to put a stop to my spending!!! I actually bought a coffee today!!! Yes, I said it, I totally drove out of my way to go to Dutch Brothers and get a coffee! I even justified it by telling myself that since I had to take Emma and Mia to the doctor (they both have sinus infections it turns out, my bad!) I needed the reinforcement. You see, it was a last minute apointment and I hadn't had the opportunity to make my own....blah, blah, blah.... People, I even bought Emma a Taco on the way to Kumon yesterday! I have a major problem and I need to reel it back in. I'm so ticked off at myself, I knew that I was becoming way too complacent and this is what it's come to. It seriously has only been two months, but it feels like it's been FOREVER and I actually feel justified in this frivolous spending, like I deserve it because I can go for most of 60 days without throwing my money out the window, what kind of thinking is that?! It's crazy thinking, that's what it is. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday with my mom and I totally was going to buy something I didn't need, WTF? I DON'T NEED ANYTHING!!! I bought Kayleigh a shelf and I almost fainted with pleasure at spending some $$$. Just between me and you I did buy Mia a $6 toy, how is that gonna teach her a lesson on not getting everything you want? I have to get back to being more militant like I was in the beginning. This being said, it's not as bad as it used to be, our bank account doesn't go down very much after the bills are paid, but boy have I been coming up with some doozy ideas on how we can spruce up the house. Luckily my car needs some repairs so now we have a goal of what to spend any extra money on, but I seriously think I need to for a support group.
I've been hearing that Oprah and Dr. Phil are stealing my idea by having people live for a week not buying anything that isn't necessary. I have half a mind to forward them my blog address and tell them to make their people do it for a year and THEN they can call it a show! I could go on forever, but I have to stop because I think I may be delirious, I think I have a fever. I'll talk to you later.
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