I'm a stay at home mom. I volunteer every day at my daughter's school, and enjoy making things. I have an online shop with my jewelry and papercraft creations (although it is currently empty!), and I'm learning to knit!
I hope to find lots of neat stuff and meet some cool people here . . .
I'm very sorry for what you're going through with Oona. I've been there (dog with terminal cancer). It's hard. I hope that this last week with her is a good one (as good as it can be).
I hope that time and special memories will help heal. A couple times I've had half-dreams where my old dog visited me, and it seemed too real to just be a dream. It makes me sad and miss him more, but I'm glad to have had a visit from my old friend.
We had a paid-off '95 Accord (I loved that car . . . in 10 years we only had to do maintenance) and were rear-ended at a high rate of speed. We have no reason to believe the car would have had any mechanical problems any time soon . . . the value of no payment is more than we think. The car was totalled, and their insurance didn't want to give us much for it. (We had just liability since the car was 10 years old.) My husband works for a local auto group and kept extremely good records of all maintenance, and he had the manager at the Honda dealership write a letter estimating what our car was worth before being wrecked (we took extremely good care of that car). So the insurance gave us maybe another $1,000 or so.
We had to get another car. Even with my husband's connections we couldn't find a good newer-used Honda (or Toyota). So we ended up buying new. We had savings, but not enough to pay for a brand new car in full. So we had to finance and got it paid off in a couple years.
Full coverage would have helped when getting the new car. It's debatable whether or not the added expense of the insurance is worth it. WE are very safe drivers, but someone else was being careless and hit us (with a cop sitting next to us, and another two cars behind him!). We could go another 10 years without an accident, or we might get hit today driving to a birthday party. But we have enough savings to get a new car today, if we need to.
There is much to consider. It's not an easy question to answer. Look at all your options and possibilities, crunch some numbers. If something happened and your car was totaled today, how would you handle it? Best of luck. Even though our car is paid in full, we continue to carry full coverage. In a few years we'll sit down and have a discussion as to whether or not we'll continue. ... View related article.
Yeah, when I was a kid (I now round up to 40!) it was World magazine. But that's gone. I really enjoyed that magazine, too. Cricket magazine was a good one, too. They've greatly expanded since I was a kid. My daughter is younger, and she gets Spider magazine. Here is a link with a chart showing their various magazines; what they focus on, and what age groups: http://www.cricketmag.com/kids_home.asp
My daughter also reads Highlights, although I don't know if a 10 year old would still be interested in that. Best of luck -- hope you find the perfect magazine for her! :-) Lisa ... View related article.
Dang they're cute! I might not think they're so cute if they were eating my grapes, but since we don't see them in our neighborhood, they're cute (from afar!). ... View related article.
:-) My daughter's birthday is the day after Thanksgiving this year. No need to go overboard with a two year old. She'll probably have more fun with the paper and boxes than the toys!
The pieces all stick to the fridge (unless they're carried away, which wasn't a problem in our house), and it occupies the child while the grown up is cooking/cleaning in the kitchen. And the educational part is good, too.
If you planned on spending more than that, maybe just put it into an existing savings account, or start a 529 for college. Best of luck, I hope she has a wonderful birthday! ... View related article.
Have you checked a Home Depot/Lowe's type store? I was in Home Depot a few months ago, and came across what seemed like a large assortment of brooms/brushes/mops/dusters.
And Target has a nice selection, too. I feel like I've seen one recently where you remove the dust cover and toss it in the washer (don't remember if it was cotton or microfiber). Don't look by the floor cleaning and other solutions (that's where you'll find the Swiffer disposable things), but instead kind of where they have laundry baskets. Somewhere near there they have sponges, cleaning cloths, and nearby should be mops and dusters.
I don't use coffee creamers, but this is a clever idea! My husband has a Keurig. Might be able to use those K-cups this way (and there is already a hole poked in it from the machine!). ... View related article.
Once I rec'd a small appliance as a gift, and it had no instructions. I searched online for the manufacturer, and contacted them (I think I called, but e-mail will probably work, too). I explained what happened; they were very friendly and immediately sent me a manual. You should give it a try! ... View related article.
