Teach a man to fish

One of the hardest things about being single is not having a man to help when it comes to certain things around the house or the car.  I have been living in the states for three and a half years now after my divorce and up until this past September, I haven't had a man around to do any of these little things.  This is not the post where I tell you I have met someone, this is a little bit different than that.  

I am a very independent woman and have learned how to do a lot of things myself when it comes to stuff around the house.  I can put up shelves, fix broken doors, etc. around the house but one place that I have not been able to do any work is my car.  In reality, I am scared to death of my car!!  If I brake something on my car while trying to fix it, it can cost me hundreds, if not thousands to get it fixed.  That is a mistake I can not afford to make!

There is a place that I have taken my cars for any minor things that need to be done since moving back and these guys are very reasonable.  The only thing that bothers me is the fact that they are about half an hour away and I hate sitting in their waiting room due to not being able to leave while they are doing the work on my car.  Due to that, I have taken my car to Merchant Auto which is about a seven minute walk from my house.  My Step Dad took my car there to get spark plugs replaced and the transmission fluid changed when he was here in 2013 and I take it there for new tires and an oil change.

Well, after having one too many experiences with this place trying to over charge me or them straight up lying to me about services that need to be done (like telling me my transmission fluid needs to be changed three months after they changed it), I have decided I am not going back there.

The front light went out in my car and I reluctantly called Merchant because in all honesty, I had no idea where to go to get a new light bulb.  The guy told me the light bulb would cost me $20 plus installation.  I was okay with that but asked how much installation was going to cost.  He told me that after tax, my total would be $72.  So, in other words, they were charging me $50 to install the light bulb in my car.  I told him no thank you, I would just buy the bulb and call it a day.

The guy then proceeded to tell me that they do not have them in stock but I could buy the bulb through them and pick it up at NAPA.  I realized that I had seen a NAPA just a few miles from the house so I decided to go there myself to buy the bulb.  When I got there, the men working were so nice to me. I told them I wanted to get two light bulbs because my Step Dad told me to change both at the same time and the guys said they agreed and do the same with their vehicles.  The guy ringing me up told me the total after tax was $27.  I said to him that I needed two bulbs and he said, yes ma'am, that is the price for two bulbs.  I told him that Merchant had told me their price was $20 for each bulb and that I could pick it up from them and the guy laughed and told me each bulb was $13.

Funny how you realize that these auto places are crooks (I a referring to Merchant, not NAPA) and will do anything to make a few bucks.  I was so annoyed knowing that if I would have agreed to the price that Merchant quoted, I would have paid almost three times the amount for the light bulbs!!

My brother in law is living just down the street from me and he said he would change the light bulbs for me (what a great thing to have him here and he is always so willing to do things like this for me). There was only one catch to him changing the bulbs for me, I had to do it with him and learn how to do it myself.  You know how that saying goes, feed a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he will eat for his whole life.  Well, BIL taught me to fish that day!!

Here we are starting the process!  I had to take pictures to document the whole thing (so I had proof that I actually did some work on the car!!!).  

TADA!!!!  Who knew changing light bulbs only takes a few minutes and is so easy, even this girly girl could do it!?!?!  See my Icelandic flag :)

More proof that I was responsible for changing the light bulbs.  I did the right side while my BIL did the left side.  He walked me through the first one and I did the second one all by my lonesome!!

Getting your hands dirty sure is a moment of pride! Knowing you saved yourself $50 is another moment of pride.  But, knowing you can save yourself $50 every time the light bulb goes out for the rest of your life, that's priceless!

Do you know how to work on your car?  If so, how did you get started?

Kitchen Aid Red

I have been watching a series on Netflix over Christmas break called Hart of Dixie and I am loving it!  I decided to use the day to watch my show on my laptop while cleaning the kitchen cabinets.  I wanted to bring in the new year in a clean way and started with the kitchen.

Here is my laptop on a chair with my Molly girl in the background.  Isn't she the cutest thing ever?  She keeps wanting to go outside to pee but all she really does is go outside and then asks to come back in within a few minutes thinking she is going to get a treat.....I got so tired of letting her out on Thursday that I stopped giving her treats after she got her 5th errrrr 10th treat of the day.

Okay, so back to my kitchen cabinets....

My cabinets were a hot mess and needed to be cleaned and organized.

As you can see by the pictures above, hot mess!!!  And then, in the picture below, cleaned and organized....the best way to be (I am OCD when it comes to my silverware drawer, it needs to be perfect at all times with the correct size spoons, forks, etc in the correct slot). 

I started with my refrigerator and forgot to take a before picture, let me just say that this refrigerator was horrible before I cleaned it.  Everything was all over the place and there was a ton of stuff that needed to be thrown out after having a bunch of guests over in December.  Now, my fridge is nice and clean and, you guessed it, organized.

Here is the cabinet from up top. As you can see, all cleaned up.

My messy cabinets before.

My messy cabinets after.

There is a neighborhood squirrel who comes up on to my patio and knocks on the glass.

He has been knocking on my window for awhile and it wasn't until recently that I found out the next door neighbor has been feeding him peanuts.  Makes sense, he is coming to my house to beg for some yummy food.  So, knowing this, I decided to give him some almonds and now he is a regular and even though he doesn't allow me to come too close, he isn't very scared either.

I was crouched on the floor taking these pictures and he wasn't scared at all.  The only thing between us was the glass and he didn't freak out.

Isn't he adorable?  We really like him and don't mind him knocking on the patio glass.

One last picture of a clean and organized kitchen cabinet before I go.  

Do you do something to bring in the New Year?  I know some people who believe that you shouldn't have any dirty laundry when bringing in the New Year.  I like to make sure my sheets are clean, but then again, I like clean sheets all the time.

Just in case you were wondering why I named the post Kitchen Aid Red.....my whole kitchen has the Kitchen Aid Red color throughout.  I really love it and can't get enough of it!  The kitchen is the only place in the house that has that color whereas the rest of the house is all light colors with some turquoise, pink, olive green, and browns.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Pondering

Its been almost two years since I posted last...I think it's time I come out of hiding!

We have been living in Virginia Beach for two and a half years and are really enjoying life.  I am finishing my last semester of school on May 8, 2015 and will be graduating with my Bachelors in Business Administration.  These last three and a half years have been hard with school and the boys and life and etc etc etc but they have been worth every minute. 

My boys are no longer babies. Tyrique is going to be 18 years old in February and has moved out all the way to my sisters house (which is only about 50 steps away but more on that later).  Tyrique has also grown into a very tall young man, he is 6'4" and well over 200 lbs.  He is almost a foot taller than me!!!  He is gorgeous and wants to join the military in the next year or so but wants to get a little bit of college under his belt before joining the Navy.

Markus is 14 and will turn 15 in May.  He is in the ninth grade and wants to be a Pediatric Surgeon when he grows up.  He is very determined in life and has been busy planning his future and trying to decide what colleges he wants to go to when he graduates from high school.  He is such a sweet and gentle child and is always willing to do anything for anyone.  

Kobe is no longer the pacifier baby you seen in the picture on the left of this blog.  He is a little over seven years old and in the second grade.  He loves sports and WWE is his favorite thing in the whole wide world.  Kobe is quiet and loud all in one.  He is very much like an only child due to being so much younger than his older brothers.  Kobe can play quietly for hours with his toys or he can wrestle with his cousin and big brothers.

Our little Silky Terrier Molly is going to be four years old in March and is the sweetest little doggy.  She loves kids (which is not common for little dogs), loves to lay close to her mamma, plays with her toys (she has a toy box of her own that is stuffed with all kinds of doggy toys), and loves to go for bike rides with Kobe and I.  Molly is all of 5.5 lbs and has gorgeous hair and the sweetest disposition.

My social life has been pretty active since moving to VA Beach and I love it.  I will tell you guys more about me and what I have been up to in another blog post.  I just kind of wanted to give a little update and test the waters in regards to blogging again.  I really missed blogging and even closed this blog for awhile due to my divorce and moving on with life.  This blog is my life though and I want to be able to continue blogging despite a divorce or changes in my life.

Here's to a New Year and a fresh start on blogging about our life again.  

Mirror Mirror on the wall

This summer I started refinishing old beat up furniture and found a love I had no idea existed.  I have this obsession with buying cute little tables and painting them and giving them a new life.  I bought so many little tables that everyone around me was starting to make fun of me telling me I was going to be living in an apartment full of tables.  So since there were enough tables to go around, I decided that I needed to do something different this time.  I came across this mirror that was so beautiful but yet, so ugly!!  The color was horrific but the details in this mirror are amazing.

The mirror started off with this weird gold/copper color that looked so dirty.

I love this color from Valspar, it is called Twilight Meadow and it is to die for!  I have used it on so many projects and it always comes out perfect.

Here is what the mirror looked like after receiving two coats of Twilight Meadow.

See how purdy she looks with a little bit of love and this gorgeous color to make all the details pop.

Did you notice this flower in the other pictures?  Me neither!!  I didn't notice half the details until I started to paint the mirror.

It's hard not to love this beauty!!

I finished this mirror some time ago but have yet to hang it up.  I am waiting for the table that will go underneath it to be finished (or ummm....started) but that's a whole nother story in a whole nother post...imagine that, another post!!!!  I want to get into blogging again but I'm not making any promises because on Monday I start my first semester of my Bachelor's Degree and this semester is going to be a little bit more work than the last few semesters were.

So for now, I hope you enjoyed my Mirror Mirror on the wall (or sitting on the carpet leaning against the wall....same thing!!  Right??).

Life is good

It has been so long since I have posted on here but I have had a few requests for an update and for me to start blogging again (not making any promises there), I figured a blog post was better than nothing!  A lot has gone on in the last few months.....a lot!!  Where to start?

Let's start with my schooling....Thursday was the last day of my summer semester and the end of my fourth semester in school!!  I can't believe I have finished a whole year worth of schooling already...I feel like I just started!  I have one more semester and then I will be done with my associates degree...as in, I graduate in December!!  I am applying to go to East Carolina University in January and I plan to get my Bachelors Degree through them as well as my Masters.  School is a lot of fun, it's hard work but definitely worth it.

Now the boys, my boys are doing great!  Tyrique and Markus have been gone the whole summer and won't be back for another week and a half.  I miss them so much but they are having a blast!  Tyrique has grown about 7 feet in the last year...uh, I mean, a foot or so....he is 6 feet 3 inches!!!!  My baby boy has almost a whole foot on his Mamma!!  Markus is almost as tall as I am...or was when he left, he may be as tall as I am by now!  They won't stop growing, how are they gonna stay my babies forever if they keep growing?  Kobe didn't go anywhere this summer, he has spent it here with his Mamma.  He is starting kindergarten in the fall.....as in, I will have one in elementary, one in middle and one in high school!!!  Kobe went to Kindergarten Academy this summer and did great.  He is so excited to start school.

Now on for our big news....we always have some sort of big news!  We have decided to move again (shocker huh!)!!  We live about an hour or so away from Virginia Beach right now and really miss living in Virginia Beach so we have decided to move back there.  The place where we live now is very small and it is very limited in regards to things to do.  We drive to Virginia at least once a week to do something and with all this driving back and forth, we may as well live where we love being!  We found a place right by where we used to live so the boys are going to be going back to their old school district and have friends that still live in the area.  We are all really excited and feel like we are going home!!  We never really felt like we fit in here or like we were home!  Now we are yet again moving....I know, we move a lot!  Hopefully this will be the last time for a while but who knows what life has in store for us.  The one lesson that I have learned in the last two years is that I should have just gone back to VA Beach when I got my divorce....except, maybe I shouldn't have because then I wouldn't have gotten to spend the year with my family in Iceland, wouldn't have met the people I know now and maybe wouldn't have gone to school!?!?!  No, things happen for a reason and I feel blessed with what I have right now.   We are doing good and are all healthy and happy and that is all that matters in that end :)

I wanted to tell you guys one thing...I have been re-doing furniture the last month and I plan to write a blog post or two about that one fine day (maybe after the move) and show you guys the pictures.  I am totally loving re-doing furniture....who would have thought it would be so much fun!?!?!

I hope you are all doing good!  I have been reading your blogs, I suck at commenting though....school kinda limits my online activities.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Five Question Friday

Wow, it has been so long since I have posted that blogger has changed everything around....wonder if I even know how to do this anymore :)

I decided to join in on 5QF since it is fun and easy and doesn't require much thinking...I do too much of that when it comes to school lol

If you want to join Mama M for 5QF just press right over here.  Have fun!

1. How often do you shave your legs in the winter?

Not as often as I should, I would say about once to three times a week....that's a lot compared to last winter lol

2. Valentine's Day cards for your spouse: funny or romantic?

I don't have a spouse but if I was getting one I would probably go for romantic and funny...two cards never hurt no one :)

3. What are you most looking forward to about spring?

I am looking forward to May, I finish this semester in May and then I start my last semester at this school before I will have my associates degree and move onto get my bachelors degree.  This winter has been rough in school as I am taking so many credits trying to graduate in one year with my associates and this summer is going to be my last crazy semester but it will be nothing like this semester right now.  I am taking 23 credits and my classes are rather overwhelming right now which sucks....plain out sucks :(  It's okay though, I just need to work harder and I will pull through this just like I did last semester :)

4. What's your favorite way to pamper yourself?

By getting a pedicure and getting my hair done.  I love having pretty toes and try to keep them pretty at all times and getting my hair done needs to be more of a priority too.  I am going to get a hot stone massage soon that I got for my birthday...I'm really looking forward to that :)

5. Does your tax return go into savings or do you spend it instantly?

This year I am not receiving any money back but if I was it would be going straight towards bills and maybe to pay for a trip home to Iceland next Christmas.  I am really homesick right now because I just became an Auntie two weeks ago to a beautiful little boy and I want to go home and smother him with kisses and love but since I can't do that I am just going broke buying him clothes and toys :)  

Wordless Wednesday part II

Continued from last week...

I love these pics of my Mamma and sister :)