An Extra $100 (2)

I can't seem to get enough of this game lately!

• $23 personalized notepad
• $17 cute dress at Target
• $15 another pair of Hanky Panky undies
• $20 city Christmas ornament
• $25 leather albums for dvds

Your turn! Play along!

Dinners

I once loved to cook. When I worked at my corporate office job I'd typically arrive home about and hour before Mr. Bella and cook dinner. I tried new recipes, I bought fancy ingredients, I made pretty displays on the table.....

But now? Not so much!

In the summer our dinners are pretty low key with garden veggies on the grill with chicken, steak, or fish. We also eat a salad nearly everyday because we get such good produce from our garden or the farmers market. We also eat salsa three or four times a week. Mr. B loves tomatoes and our plants always do well so we make homemade salsa. Yum!

This works because we all love salsa, boys will eat salad is it's swimming in dressing, and it's easy to grill a variety of garden goodies that most everyone will eat.....even if corn on the cob and potatos are a staple.

But now that school is back in session and this damned humidity will eventually go away I'm starting to hyperventilate at the thought of cooking. Between Mr. B and BB making dinner is absolutely miserable! MISERABLE! They both are picky about different things.

• it's too bland.
• it's too fancy.
• it's too spicy.
• you should have added (insert here)
• what is it?
• OHMYGOODNESS IS THAT GREEN STUFF IN THERE?
• do we have ramen?
• can i make a frozen pizza?
• what? carrots? i'm not eating it!
• what spices are on this?
• eww...i can taste (insert here)

It drives me mad! I hate when I cook something I know one or the other won't like, but I also hate eating chicken or steak with mashed potatos every night. Oh wait....they both agree on burgers and fries too. (Not turkey burgers...I hate turkey! What is bison? What did you mix in the burger? What kind cheese did you use?---they still can't be happy!)

So I have a couple of choices:

1. Make their same old thing every night and cook something decent for myself.
2. Make it and they'll eat it or be hungry.
3. Make them cook and be done with it.

But these choice won't work because:

1. I refuse to make two meals.
2. I can't buy enough peanut butter and ramen and then the dinner I made is wasted.
3. Well since I don't work I feel like I should cook and the guilt complex kicks in.

So I'm asking....what would YOU do in my shoes? I want them to eat the things I work so hard to prepare and that are healthy and decent and aren't burgers or pizza every night. But when they don't my feelings are hurt and I begin to hate being in the kitchen, which is a crying shame because I have all sorts of fancy and neat kitchen gadgets.

PRESSING ISSUE: Cleaning out childhood items

I'm not usually a weekend poster (rarely a poster sometimes it seems!) but I would love some feedback and conversation about this topic from y'all!

I'm cleaning out my childhood trunk of items. Mr. Bella built me a trunk when we were dating and I filled it with several of my childhood memories and goodies. It's huge at 4.5x2.5.x2.5 (in feet), and it's also full! It's not even everything. My trophies, tiaras, and cheerleading poms poms are all still at my childhood home, among several other things. It's doubtful I'll ever see these items again since my mother/uterus donor makes Joan Crawford look like Carol Brady.

Anyway, items I have are cheerleading uniforms, cap and gowns from high school and college, class pictures, ribbons, certificates, plaques, baby blankets, tons of sorority items, etc. Most of these I'm sorting in boxes by category for storage in the garage (our attic sucks!). But about half of the items need to go!

I'm of course keeping uniforms, caps and gowns, pictures, yearbooks, competition programs, etc. I have thrown away my seventh grade "published" book (it was a class project), several middle school writing projects (seriously? I still have have these?), love letters (hahahahahaha! They gave me one last chuckle), and duplicate items that I had for keepsakes.

I'm on the fence about several things such as the millennium edition Barbie that was a graduation gift. It's still in the box. I don't think it's worth anything but I really don't care to keep it. The givers are very dear to me but they'll never know and probably forgot they gifted the item anyway. I also have doilie type furniture toppers in pink and green/white that my grandma crocheted. Do I keep these? I'll never use them again! I have my childhood strawberry shortcake sheet set. I also have the blanket but it's at childhood home and should be trashed if aforementioned "mother" hasn't done so already.

I also have a plethora of stuffed animals. A plush eeyore that was signed by friends upon graduation, a personalized eeyore in cap and gown for high school graduation (backstory: eeyore was my first stuffed animal and from my hero: my pappy! I carried it everywhere and he still exists today although he looks a bit rough and is held up by a doll stand. Anyway, my first stuffed animal turned childhood love set me up for YEARS of gifts of eeyore items.) I have a few of my sorority mascot stuffed animals, I have a bunny from my grandparents that I loved. It was an Easter gift and said grandparents have passed. I also have my original Mickey and Minnie from my first trip to Disney World so many moons ago. I'm unsure of these items because they are so big and I'm afraid of them being ruined if stored improperly. I also have a childhood Alf and Spud McKenzie (hey--I live in the South) they are at said childhood home and I'll probably never see again.

I have a handful of pictures and such drawn for me by children I loved over the years. What to do with those? A handful of trinkets from BB when he was a little tyke, which I'll probably keep. They fit in a gallon sandwich bag. I have a slew of picture frames that are cute and were great in my single girl apartment and would look cute in a kids room one day, but that day is far away so I think I should move past them now.

I started the project yesterday by sorting and doing an initial toss pile and maybe pile. I'm working this morning and finishing up soon so Mr. Bella can demo the wall in the "nook" of the den and make me a built in space for my studio.

So tell me! Where is your childhood/high school/college memorabilia? What did you keep? What did you toss? Where are the keep items? What do you think are important item and how did you store them?

Send your family and friends over to weigh in on the subject! I'd love to collect lots of thoughts!

Whew!

Y'all....I'm so worn out lately! Brother Bella is back to school and getting in the swing of everything has nearly exhausted me. However I now have seven whole hours to myself during the day to which I can repaint/redecorate/rearrage/repurpose to my hearts content.

Well that isn't exactly true, you see, Mr. Bella most always comes home for lunch so therefore I have small three or four hour increments in which to finish/hide/clean-up after a project in order to keep my madness on the downlow until it's finished. Definately a challenge I'm willing to work through.

Good advice

Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you!--Elsie de Wolfe

Bummer

School started back today but it was only a half day. Geesh I'm already tired! I couldn't do high school again. Or college! All of the college students arrived in town last weekend and holy cow Target is wiped out!

So onto the point of the bummer blog title:

BB went to the lake with some friends after school. He was there for about two hours before coming home because we had ticket to our local minor league baseball team. He got gas on his way to the lake and put his wallet in his center console. He cracked his windows and locked his doors at the lake. He's close to the car but around the bend where it can't be seen. When he and his friends went back to their cars his window was all the way down. He opened the door his glove box and conole were open and his wallet was lying in the front seat.

UGH! Some punk ass bastard forced his window down and found his wallet. They stole $45 of his hard earned babysitting money from last weekend and a $25 gas gift card he'd received for his birthday. Seventy dollars is a lot to me so you can imagine what it is to a sixteen year old kid! Fortunately they didn't take my debit card (I'd given it to him to pick up school supplies that afternoon) or a few other gift cards he had. They apparently didn't go thru the whole wallet, just found the cash and the gas card was with it. At least that didn't take the whole thing and have his ID and such. Also fortunately was that they didn't steal his new Oakley sunglasses he'd bought with some birthday money. They were beneath his ball cap in the floorboard and I suppose after finding the wallet the punk ass bastards felt no need to look under there. However I'm surprised they didn't take the cap because it WAS pricy and the could have sold it I guess.

Ugh! Anway...

I was so sad for him. But what do you do? He didn't do anything wrong. How often do people put their purse under a coat or wallet under a seat? He didn't even do when he arrived, he'd done it far away at the gas station.

I want to give him the money back but I feel that's not helpful. I don't think he needs to be taught a lesson since he didn't do anything wrong, but maybe this will make him more honest and trustworthy. Maybe it will be moral building. Not that I think he's going to steal anything but in the event he would find a wallet or something.....

UGH! I just feel so bad for him. People suck sometimes and I hope karma is hot on the tail of the/those punk ass bastard(s).

GRRR!

I spent the afternoon at the lake with fried chicken and margaritas. It was the great makings for a new Kenny Chesney song.

Then the lake went and ate my sunglasses. My brand new sunglasses I bought last week when we were out of town because they were so fabulous and on sale and definately not because I needed sunglasses.

Dangit Lake! Dangit!

Good thing the margarita was around to console me.

And now Bex is on a quest to find the same pair for me since a similar store is near her house. What a friend!

Bella Barometer

FEELING: pissy and frustrated

READING: does she or doesn't she

LISTENING TO: beer in mexico, kenny chesney

EATING: chips and salsa

DRINKING: margarita

(seeing a theme here?)

WANTING: to find a car already

SHOPPING: for a new purse and contact lenses

NEEDING: a massage for my achy back

TO DO: fold laundry, paint nails, shower

THINKING: i need a maid

WASTING TIME: watching TLC shows

Hideee Ho!

Well lookie who it is making an appearance on her own blog? Fancy me showing up here. Let me catch you up in bullets, then I'm out to visit family and the mountains for the rest of the week.

• My brown polka dot J. Crew flip flops are on their last flop. This is precisely why I don't pay full price for anything! Had I paid $40 at J. Crew and worn them a season I'd have been a bit terse! But I got them (new with tags might I ad) for $3 at a garage sale.
• We are not moving. I'm neither happy nor sad really. We did find a great house in a great neighborhood that was on the river with it's own pool, playground, tennis and basketball courts, and walking trails....but we do love our little home here. It kinda sucks for Mr. B, but we know something else will work out. And when BB graduates in two years we'll probably for sure hit the road to new city.
• Speaking of BB....we bought him a Jeep Cherokee. His birthday is tomorrow and he'll be sixteen. FREEDOM! Errr...for me, not him. I'm no longer a taxi. Oh I kid, kinda. Truthfully I think I might miss driving him around just a little bit. He'd often talk to me then. Anyway, he has a sweet new ride.
• Speaking of sweet new rides, I won't be getting my ML320 last week as I would have if we did move. Instead it will be another 6 months to a year. I can hold out. Really I can.
• Especially since Mr. B has a bee in his bonnet over a Tahoe or Yukon. Geesh....I'll be driving my little silver bullet sporty coupe forever! I guess we all have the car bug.
• I got a job offer for a full time nanny. These people are paying bank I tell you! Seriously, it's nearly my corporate salary once taxes were taken out. The thing is, I don't want to work full time. I love taking care of babies (he's 6 weeks old) and it's not really a "job" to me but I need my time now that I'm so used to it. I think I'll do it part time though. We're hammering out details.
• I got a manicure last weekend and chose Linkin Park after Dark for my nails. It was totally the trend five minutes ago to do dark short nails. It's a dark eggplant-ish purple but looks rather black. I actually kind of like it. It seems fun and sassy. It's very different for this french manicure girl.
• I found a new grill for Mr. Bella. It's the Chargriller and it's half charcoal (he loves charcoal) and half gas, and also smokes. Oh Yum Yum YUM how tasty are the things on it.
• I'm nearly finished with the Southern Belle Society magazine. Praise the Lord! I'll be taking a mental health day with a massage and margarita when it goes to print.
• My shop just negotiated it's second brick and mortar contract!! I'm in two shops. Yippieeee!
• Hmmm....while compiling this post in my head on my way home from Sonic Happy Hour (I'm a regular...I need help!) I felt there was so much more to share. Apparently not.

See y'all on my return next week!