Carousel Candles

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So Today...

So today.....today was not the usual day. Today was unusual. It started out with the usual stuff, guy bangs on door, hubby wakes me up and goes down to move the van and car so he can plow.

On his way back up the postman gave hubby a package with a laptop power cord in it. For the last 4 days I have been using hubby's itty bitty netbook. The power cord for my laptop went out and died. Luckily hubby had enough sense to find a replacement right away on Amazon and had it sent.

Later I went to leave to spend some time with the family and I could not find my van key. No big deal I went to check hubbys coat when I remembered he moved the van. Not there. I asked hubby if he knew where my key was and he came over to check his coat pocket, then my purse, and then the floor. Not there. So he bundled up and went to check the vehicles, I saw him out the window start checking the ground after he had searched the vehicles, not a good sign. He spent a good 15 minutes out there and checked with a neighbor that is always shoveling.

You got it. No key. And of course this is not the type of key you can just get a copy of. It is one of those keys that has a micro chip in it. Hubby of course feels horrible but I cant blame him or be angry, what would be the point?

I took his car out for the day. And he kept me informed of his research. He called the chevy 800 number and they transferred him to a local dealership. The dealership told him that he would have to bring the van in and it would cost 45 for the key and then 75 to program it. Though there is a problem with that, besides the money, we dont have a key, so we cant get the van there. Unless of course we get a flatbed tow truck, more money. Hmmmmm, what about a metal detector? I put word out on Freecycle in our area and within 30 minutes a kind and generous stranger who happened to live right behind us, came over and help my husband scour the dark plowed parking lot with huge piles of snow, while it is still snowing.

An hour later my husband came in and he was frozen and still no key. So we called a lock smith. The locksmith thinks he can make us a key. I sure hope he can. Tomorrow morning 100 or so dollars later we shall find out. Wish us luck. And pray for us that the plow guy is not in a pissy mood that we can not move the van and bury us in snow.

Thank you kind and generous stranger :)



Labels: Life With My Kids

The Internet

The Internet. It is quite amazing. We can connect with people all over the world or meet ones of like mind in our own backyard. We soak of knowledge like a sponge on the internet, half of it true and half of it false. We can research religions and see videos of the deepest darkest places in the world. I love the internet.

Here is what I do not understand though. Artist's videos are posted on television and then to YouTube and other sharing sites. Yet most you can not share. You would think that the artists would want their videos shared far and wide on every site possible. But alas, the most popular of videos you must go directly to YouTube to watch. Lame. Seriously, it's lame.

Embedding disabled by request. Lame. If you want your videos and music to be viral, you must let the masses embed it to their websites.

Labels:Random

Eco Bride to be on Offbeat Bride

I love to read OffBeat Bride. Some of my readers know that I was married on Halloween and we had a Renaissance wedding. Some weddings featured on OffBeat Bride I absolutely love and some are not my taste but I think you will enjoy this bride that was featured just a couple of days ago. This woman and her fiance decided to recycle 400,000 aluminum cans to pay for their wedding!

Read the beginning of the interview below and continue on at OffBeat Bride!

Andrea, what made you decide to do this?
In the beginning, this was one of those crazy ideas that popped into my head at 1am and I kind of brushed off. When I started sorting our recycling the next day, though, I started to play with the numbers. We set aside aluminum anyway, since one of Pete's hobbies is smelting aluminum in the summer months, and just with the cans from his shop and various friend's offices / homes / shops, we can get a pretty significant number built up. While our stash was nowhere near the 400,000 we'd need to pay for the wedding, I figured with 7 months and some serious effort, it might just be possible. Long story short, a combination of chutzpah and hope.

Why cans?
Two big reasons — environmental impact and cash. Aluminum is the recyclable that has the largest positive environmental impact — each recycled can saves about 7 kWh....... Finish Reading HERE

Labels: did you know

Hello Greenies

Hello Greenies,

Happy New Year! This year I will teach my children how to be grateful for everything they have. They have too much and they take it for granted. This year is a year for organization, baskets galore will be brought in, everything will get its own place and it better stay there!!!!

This year is a year to de-clutter. We have way to much stuff. Donations to the Salvation Army will be made, stress will be released, everything will become calmer.

Maybe this will be the year in which we will finally find a 3 bedroom where we want to live, maybe not, but we can always hope. Right now we survive, our living areas and bedrooms are quite large. We have even looked at a 3 bedroom that is smaller than this and decided against it. We need the space whether it is called a 2 bedroom or not.

I am starting college this year for the first time!! Whoo Hoo! I am excited! I will be attending part time on Tuesdays and Thursdays while hubby goes full time on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I am enrolled in three classes this semester, Judo, Screen Printing, and Math 102. I only need one math course for my art degree, so when I pass this class I will not have to take another!

I've got two new game obsession on Facebook. Top Fish which is awesome! Ive collected 7 seahorses! I have tried 3 other aquarium games and I either dislike playing them or they freeze my browser. Top Fish so far, it is still in Beta, is awesome to play and has not frozen any of the browsers I use. The other game my MIL got me into is called Cafe World. I am still not sure about this one, it moves a little slow for my taste, but I still find myself checking it everyday!

Willow is crawling, she has been for about a month now, and she is pulling herself up. She is a little doll! I think she will be an early walker like her sister. Guinevere was walking full on at 9 months!

I am reading before I go to bed each night. The book I am currently reading is the Mists of Avalon, which was recommended to me by a stranger when I was at the bookstore, and it is amazing! I love it! There is actually a movie based on the book that I had seen awhile ago called The Mists of Avalon. I didnt realize it until I started remembering pieces of the movie while I was reading the book. When I described it to my hubby he confirmed there was indeed a movie and we had seen it before. We have started watching the movie again, in pieces, while I read the book, and there is a ton they left out. I really enjoy reading the book!

This year I will start a new venture, I will be helping my MIL with the online part of her candle business Carousel Candles. We will soon have an Etsy shop going and I will be writing at the Carousel Candles blog at least once a week. I believe in the business, she has done everything she can to make it eco friendly, these are the only candles I have come across that my son does not react to asthmatically. And there are sooo many scents! I will be highlighting the different scents on the blog. We will also be sending out candles to bloggers to review!

Christmas here was absolutely wonderful. Grandma Matilda was missed but we know she was enjoying being healthy again and watching from above with her husband and son. We gathered at Aunt Mikis this year and had a really great time on Christmas Eve. Christmas day the kids were up bright and early following Santa's magically snow footprints around and unwrapping a mountainous amount of gifts. They had so much they refused to open some until the day after and even the day after that. They got as many toys as they already had in their room. So we emptied their room and now hubby and I will sort through those toys and keep some and donate the rest. Later that day we visited my mom for more gift opening and my brother and step brother were in town! It is good to see them and see how they have grown. My mom did a very good job this year, there was no awkwardness and everyone got along. My favorite gift this year from my mom was a GPS system for my van. I am always getting lost and I have panic attacks when I get lost.

Later Christmas we visited Aunt Maryann for ham sandwiches and dessert. Then we came home and everyone was too exhausted to do anything but go to bed.

I wonder how we will all become greener this year. On one side of the spectrum there are people who will learn to live a simpler life and depend more on themselves. And on the complete opposite side of the spectrum there will be greener technology developed and put into use.

There is a full year ahead of us, how will you use it?

Labels: Life With My Kids