No Columbus City schools today
due to snow and temperatures.
Wind chills could get to -10 today
with wind gusts.
--------------------------------
I saved a V8 tomato juice bottle
to make frozen fruit juice
from a can in. It's the perfect sized
bottle when it comes to ounces.
It's actually pretty looking once
the wrapper has been removed.
I let my frozen juice first thaw in the fridge.
Then use a liquid measuring cup
with a spout to be able to
pour it into the bottle.
The best juices to buy frozen in the cans
are ones that say 100% juice
like Old Orchard or even Juicy Juice
which I think are found in the isle
with other non frozen juices in the bottles.
There is a sugar content on those bottles/cans
but I think it is the natural sugar produced
by the fruits themselves and not
added refined sugar.
I've always had a hard time with
nutrition labels when it comes to
natural fruit sugar and regular sugar.
To help better explain the differences
go HERE to read more.
When reading a food label and seeing
the ingredients, they are listed in
order of the most used ingredient
to the least used.
When reading a nutrition label it can
be hard to figure out what has sugar in
it or not as manufacturer's use
different names for it.
If you see any of these in the ingredients
it means sugar:
A nutrition label usually shows
only one serving so be sure to read
how many servings that food item has
and times that by the amount on the food
label.
An example would be this:
I picked up a bottle of tea at Speedway
and saw that it had 25 grams of sugar.
Then I saw it had 4 servings.
4 x's 25 is 100 grams of sugar
for someone drinking that entire bottle!!
FAT
Fat has 9 Calories per gram,
and protein and carbohydrate have 4 Calories per gram.
FIBER
You think you're eating good choosing
breads that say wheat on them.
Not good! Most all breads are made from wheat.
In order for it to be healthy
for you it must say Whole Grains!!
To make white bread, the wheat
goes through a "bleaching" process
to remove the coloring.
Unbleached flour can give the coloring
of wheat bread.
So make sure your food items
say WHOLE GRAINS or
MULTIGRAIN.
-----------------------------
9:40am
We might go brave the cold and snow
today to get our taxes done.
Put the truck into 4x4 and do it.
Most employers send out the tax
info January 31st. So by doing it during
the week and before then, maybe
the wait won't be so bad.
We do have an appointment made from
last year for the end of February
but think we will cancel that and
try to do a walk in instead
and get it done and out of the way.
We used to do a rapid refund which
can be quite costly! But those were
the days where we were broker than broke
and needed the money yesterday.
We haven't been doing it to save money.
Plus by doing taxes now instead of
a month from now, we can get our return
back sooner and start working
on paying off hospital bills!!
We were hoping there was school today
so we wouldn't have to take kids
with us to H&R Block.
We'll just have to grin and bear it
as usual. I usually tell the kids to
bring a tote along of things they
can do. Also put in the tote something
to drink and a snack for them or
they'll drive you nuts saying they are
hungry or thirsty while waiting!!
Well I need to go round up all
the paperwork to take with us.
To keep all tax records in one place
I put them in one of those accordian
file keepers so I don't loose them
and label the front taxes.
I put them in chronological order
and take the whole folder with us
should they have any questions.
Plus it has all the information from
last year that they can use.
-------------------------------
3:15pm
Just returned from having our taxes
almost, notice the word almost.
Come to find out we can't get them
done til middle to the end of February
due to the loan we got with the house.
Kinda sucks and wish someone
would have told us this ahead of time
with all the waiting we did today.
Well at least most of our paperwork
is done. So have to wait
more than a month from now
to get the paperwork submitted.
Then another week to two
for money. So that really sucks!
And because Tony made $2,000 more
this year meant that we got $1,100 to $1,200
less back which also sucks.
That's a first because we usually
get back a little more each year.
Kind of bummed at the moment
but what can ya do.
I did have an idea to try to make up
for that amount but not quite sure how
much it would help out.
We donate allot of items each year
and what I would need to do is start
keeping track of it all and it's value.
Sometimes meaning keeping a book
of each item, value and a photo.
So maybe I should start doing that
this year as well since I am still weeding
out the basement getting rid of things.
Kind of a pain in the rear but
may actually be helpful in the end.
And you would need to donate
to a place like a thrift store, Kidney Foundation
and places of the sort where they
give you receipts.
Once through the door when we returned
home I got the fish fillets in the crock.
This isn't a recipe I found, just
something I threw together that sounded good.
Put a little teriyaki marinade on
a sheet of aluminum foil.
Put more marinade on top of fillet
and sprinkled with Mrs. Dash seasoning.
Topped with green giant teriyaki veggies.
Wrapped everything up with
the aluminum foil.
Placed over top some
crushed up cans in the bottom
crock and a little water.
Set it on high and will let it
cook for a couple hours til supper time.
---------------------------------
I am reading, actually browsing,
my first digital book,
Atkins Diabetes Revolution.
Got an email yesterday saying
it was ready for download.
I had the option to check it out for
1 or 2 weeks.
It's just like looking through a book
with all photos included.
------------------------------
Just browsing through Meijers
sales ads for next week.
Don't have any coupon matchups
but will tell ya about any sales
deals I see.
Grapes .99 cents a pound
Meijer dozen large eggs $1.19
Meijer chunk or shredded cheese $1.67
Meijer chicken or beef broth
or condensed soups .50 cents each
Meijers pretzels or microwave popcorn
.99 cents each
Meijers Tortillas .99 cents
Meijer dressings .99 cents
Meijer Oatmeal .99 cents
Bagged or canned dry beans or peas
.99 cents each
Meijers steamable or regular
bagged frozen veggies
.99 cents
Meijer whole grain pasta
.99 cents
Meijers Natural applesauce 4 pack
sweetened or unsweetened
.99 cents
Meijer canned pineapple or mandarin oranges
.99 cents
Meijers bagged frozen fruit
$2.50
Meijer string or parmesan cheese
$2.50
Meijer yogurt .40 cents each
Buy 2 Ocean Spray 64 ounce grapefruit juice
2 for $4.00
get a free 5 pound bag of grapefruit
Organic broccoli
$1.67 each
3 pound bag of apples $2.50
Meijer dish soap 25 ounce
buy 1 get 1 free
Meijer High perfomance 2x's
50 ounce liquid laundry soap
buy 1 get 1 free
--------------------------------
Oh I almost forgot to add this from
earlier today.
You all know that our tax prepration didn't go
well and we should of took the bad sign
we got right before arriving there.
Out of thousands of places to stop
and grab a bite to eat around Columbus
we decided to get a quick bite of the
value menu at Burger King.
I know, not good for the diet.
Got our food, eating away taking
a moment to relax, sitting by the window
watching the world go by.
See this black Dodge pickup with lights
on top pull up
into the parking lot and felt a sudden
urge to puke.
It's my ex and he pulls in next to
our truck and has another guy with him.
We were in the atrium part of the
dining area and are not seen
from the rest of the restraunt.
We see him come in and head to
the bathroom.
We grabbed our remaining food
and darted out of the place before
he saw us.
What's odd about this.
He lives on the South end of
Columbus and we are up North and
stopped in a Clintonville Burger King.
-----------------------
Preview of some sales for
Walgreens next week.
64 ounce Walgreens 100% apple juice $1.50
Chicken of the sea tuna or sardines
.69 cents limit 3 with walgreens coupon
Jello .50 cents each with
Walgreens coupon
limit 4
.55 cents off 3 Jello
makes it .95 cents for 3 or .31 cents each
Anyone doing the chocolate covered
raisin contest:
Walgreens chocolate covered raisins
Buy 1 at $2.99 get 1 free
13-16 ounce
Buy 1 get 1 free Hanes
socks, underwear or undershirts
Stayfree $1.99
use the buy 1 get 1 free printable coupons
I don't remember where from
but it was recent.
---------------------------------
6:55pm
Supper turned out really good!
All 4 food groups and nutritious for you.
Had a side of fettucini alfredo with the fish
and veggies.
--------------------------
I just got the ambulance bill
for my trip to the hospital in November.
Anyone care to guess how much
it is to ride in an ambulance?
I think next time I'll crawl!
My insurance hasn't covered
any of it so far, so need to be making
a phone call Monday to them about it.
It says they submitted it to the insurance
but obviously they haven't heard back from them.
Anyway it was almost $700!!
And the best part, they included
$70 in there for mileage for
about 4 miles to the hospital.
Kinda makes me feel like I rented
an expensive U-Haul to go to the hospital
at that rate.
So if the insurance doesn't cover
the ambulance I'm gonna have
double that in hospital bills for myself alone,
not including Tony's stay recently
for almost 4 days.
And like I said earlier, we're being shorted
about $1200 on our tax return compared
to last year.
This will be interesting is all I gotta say.
Time to go work on more ideas
for the cupcake contest!!!
------------------------------
.
Remember me telling you the deal
I got on the battery operated Spinbrush toothbrushes.
I stocked up on about 6-8 of them.
I came up with this great idea of a
use for one of the extra ones I had.
I now use it for my face.
I use it to exfoliate the dead skin
and to cleanse my face.
Sometimes I just run it across
my face to massage (and help tighten- ha ha) my skin.
I get a lot of dry skin in the Winter
and this is helping a lot!
So I just wanted to pass on a
new use for those battery operated toothbrushes.
Sure is much cheaper than
purchasing a Nutri Sonic Face Brush
that runs $90 to $100!!
due to snow and temperatures.
Wind chills could get to -10 today
with wind gusts.
--------------------------------
I saved a V8 tomato juice bottle
to make frozen fruit juice
from a can in. It's the perfect sized
bottle when it comes to ounces.
It's actually pretty looking once
the wrapper has been removed.
I let my frozen juice first thaw in the fridge.
Then use a liquid measuring cup
with a spout to be able to
pour it into the bottle.
The best juices to buy frozen in the cans
are ones that say 100% juice
like Old Orchard or even Juicy Juice
which I think are found in the isle
with other non frozen juices in the bottles.
There is a sugar content on those bottles/cans
but I think it is the natural sugar produced
by the fruits themselves and not
added refined sugar.
I've always had a hard time with
nutrition labels when it comes to
natural fruit sugar and regular sugar.
To help better explain the differences
go HERE to read more.
When reading a food label and seeing
the ingredients, they are listed in
order of the most used ingredient
to the least used.
When reading a nutrition label it can
be hard to figure out what has sugar in
it or not as manufacturer's use
different names for it.
If you see any of these in the ingredients
it means sugar:
- Agave nectar
- Brown sugar
- Cane crystals
- Cane sugar
- Corn sweetener
- Corn syrup
- Crystalline fructose
- Dextrose
- Evaporated cane juice
- Fructose
- Fruit juice concentrates
- Glucose
- High-fructose corn syrup
- Honey
- Invert sugar
- Lactose
- Maltose
- Malt syrup
- Molasses
- Raw sugar
- Sucrose
- Sugar
- Syrup
A nutrition label usually shows
only one serving so be sure to read
how many servings that food item has
and times that by the amount on the food
label.
An example would be this:
I picked up a bottle of tea at Speedway
and saw that it had 25 grams of sugar.
Then I saw it had 4 servings.
4 x's 25 is 100 grams of sugar
for someone drinking that entire bottle!!
FAT
Fat has 9 Calories per gram,
and protein and carbohydrate have 4 Calories per gram.
FIBER
You think you're eating good choosing
breads that say wheat on them.
Not good! Most all breads are made from wheat.
In order for it to be healthy
for you it must say Whole Grains!!
To make white bread, the wheat
goes through a "bleaching" process
to remove the coloring.
Unbleached flour can give the coloring
of wheat bread.
So make sure your food items
say WHOLE GRAINS or
MULTIGRAIN.
-----------------------------
9:40am
We might go brave the cold and snow
today to get our taxes done.
Put the truck into 4x4 and do it.
Most employers send out the tax
info January 31st. So by doing it during
the week and before then, maybe
the wait won't be so bad.
We do have an appointment made from
last year for the end of February
but think we will cancel that and
try to do a walk in instead
and get it done and out of the way.
We used to do a rapid refund which
can be quite costly! But those were
the days where we were broker than broke
and needed the money yesterday.
We haven't been doing it to save money.
Plus by doing taxes now instead of
a month from now, we can get our return
back sooner and start working
on paying off hospital bills!!
We were hoping there was school today
so we wouldn't have to take kids
with us to H&R Block.
We'll just have to grin and bear it
as usual. I usually tell the kids to
bring a tote along of things they
can do. Also put in the tote something
to drink and a snack for them or
they'll drive you nuts saying they are
hungry or thirsty while waiting!!
Well I need to go round up all
the paperwork to take with us.
To keep all tax records in one place
I put them in one of those accordian
file keepers so I don't loose them
and label the front taxes.
I put them in chronological order
and take the whole folder with us
should they have any questions.
Plus it has all the information from
last year that they can use.
-------------------------------
3:15pm
Just returned from having our taxes
almost, notice the word almost.
Come to find out we can't get them
done til middle to the end of February
due to the loan we got with the house.
Kinda sucks and wish someone
would have told us this ahead of time
with all the waiting we did today.
Well at least most of our paperwork
is done. So have to wait
more than a month from now
to get the paperwork submitted.
Then another week to two
for money. So that really sucks!
And because Tony made $2,000 more
this year meant that we got $1,100 to $1,200
less back which also sucks.
That's a first because we usually
get back a little more each year.
Kind of bummed at the moment
but what can ya do.
I did have an idea to try to make up
for that amount but not quite sure how
much it would help out.
We donate allot of items each year
and what I would need to do is start
keeping track of it all and it's value.
Sometimes meaning keeping a book
of each item, value and a photo.
So maybe I should start doing that
this year as well since I am still weeding
out the basement getting rid of things.
Kind of a pain in the rear but
may actually be helpful in the end.
And you would need to donate
to a place like a thrift store, Kidney Foundation
and places of the sort where they
give you receipts.
Once through the door when we returned
home I got the fish fillets in the crock.
This isn't a recipe I found, just
something I threw together that sounded good.
Put a little teriyaki marinade on
a sheet of aluminum foil.
Put more marinade on top of fillet
and sprinkled with Mrs. Dash seasoning.
Topped with green giant teriyaki veggies.
Wrapped everything up with
the aluminum foil.
Placed over top some
crushed up cans in the bottom
crock and a little water.
Set it on high and will let it
cook for a couple hours til supper time.
---------------------------------
I am reading, actually browsing,
my first digital book,
Atkins Diabetes Revolution.
Got an email yesterday saying
it was ready for download.
I had the option to check it out for
1 or 2 weeks.
It's just like looking through a book
with all photos included.
------------------------------
Just browsing through Meijers
sales ads for next week.
Don't have any coupon matchups
but will tell ya about any sales
deals I see.
Grapes .99 cents a pound
Meijer dozen large eggs $1.19
Meijer chunk or shredded cheese $1.67
Meijer chicken or beef broth
or condensed soups .50 cents each
Meijers pretzels or microwave popcorn
.99 cents each
Meijers Tortillas .99 cents
Meijer dressings .99 cents
Meijer Oatmeal .99 cents
Bagged or canned dry beans or peas
.99 cents each
Meijers steamable or regular
bagged frozen veggies
.99 cents
Meijer whole grain pasta
.99 cents
Meijers Natural applesauce 4 pack
sweetened or unsweetened
.99 cents
Meijer canned pineapple or mandarin oranges
.99 cents
Meijers bagged frozen fruit
$2.50
Meijer string or parmesan cheese
$2.50
Meijer yogurt .40 cents each
Buy 2 Ocean Spray 64 ounce grapefruit juice
2 for $4.00
get a free 5 pound bag of grapefruit
Organic broccoli
$1.67 each
3 pound bag of apples $2.50
Meijer dish soap 25 ounce
buy 1 get 1 free
Meijer High perfomance 2x's
50 ounce liquid laundry soap
buy 1 get 1 free
--------------------------------
Oh I almost forgot to add this from
earlier today.
You all know that our tax prepration didn't go
well and we should of took the bad sign
we got right before arriving there.
Out of thousands of places to stop
and grab a bite to eat around Columbus
we decided to get a quick bite of the
value menu at Burger King.
I know, not good for the diet.
Got our food, eating away taking
a moment to relax, sitting by the window
watching the world go by.
See this black Dodge pickup with lights
on top pull up
into the parking lot and felt a sudden
urge to puke.
It's my ex and he pulls in next to
our truck and has another guy with him.
We were in the atrium part of the
dining area and are not seen
from the rest of the restraunt.
We see him come in and head to
the bathroom.
We grabbed our remaining food
and darted out of the place before
he saw us.
What's odd about this.
He lives on the South end of
Columbus and we are up North and
stopped in a Clintonville Burger King.
-----------------------
Preview of some sales for
Walgreens next week.
64 ounce Walgreens 100% apple juice $1.50
Chicken of the sea tuna or sardines
.69 cents limit 3 with walgreens coupon
Jello .50 cents each with
Walgreens coupon
limit 4
.55 cents off 3 Jello
makes it .95 cents for 3 or .31 cents each
Anyone doing the chocolate covered
raisin contest:
Walgreens chocolate covered raisins
Buy 1 at $2.99 get 1 free
13-16 ounce
Buy 1 get 1 free Hanes
socks, underwear or undershirts
Stayfree $1.99
use the buy 1 get 1 free printable coupons
I don't remember where from
but it was recent.
---------------------------------
6:55pm
Supper turned out really good!
All 4 food groups and nutritious for you.
Had a side of fettucini alfredo with the fish
and veggies.
--------------------------
I just got the ambulance bill
for my trip to the hospital in November.
Anyone care to guess how much
it is to ride in an ambulance?
I think next time I'll crawl!
My insurance hasn't covered
any of it so far, so need to be making
a phone call Monday to them about it.
It says they submitted it to the insurance
but obviously they haven't heard back from them.
Anyway it was almost $700!!
And the best part, they included
$70 in there for mileage for
about 4 miles to the hospital.
Kinda makes me feel like I rented
an expensive U-Haul to go to the hospital
at that rate.
So if the insurance doesn't cover
the ambulance I'm gonna have
double that in hospital bills for myself alone,
not including Tony's stay recently
for almost 4 days.
And like I said earlier, we're being shorted
about $1200 on our tax return compared
to last year.
This will be interesting is all I gotta say.
Time to go work on more ideas
for the cupcake contest!!!
------------------------------
.
| |
I got on the battery operated Spinbrush toothbrushes.
I stocked up on about 6-8 of them.
I came up with this great idea of a
use for one of the extra ones I had.
I now use it for my face.
I use it to exfoliate the dead skin
and to cleanse my face.
Sometimes I just run it across
my face to massage (and help tighten- ha ha) my skin.
I get a lot of dry skin in the Winter
and this is helping a lot!
So I just wanted to pass on a
new use for those battery operated toothbrushes.
Sure is much cheaper than
purchasing a Nutri Sonic Face Brush
that runs $90 to $100!!
