A REAL Craig's List posting

FREE PET BOOYON (STUART)
Date: 2010-09-24, 8:49PM EDT

one of them booyon constricter snakes that squeeze real tight is caught in my bafroom. Its obviously someones pet booyon, because it didnt try to bite me or give no attitude when i fount it, he must have crawld through the pipes or sumthin, . I dont want to flush it back down the toilet cuz it might crawl out someone elses toilet and scare them half to def. its around 3 feets long as maybe longer, Im not calling the extermenishion cuz all they gonna do is spray that stuff that stanks forever.If you wanna come get it out, call me, I stay in apartment 18-D

I NEED IT GONE ASAP!!!!!


Gotta luve livn n Flrda!

Homemaking with Danny

(No, he didn't crash an actual homemaking evening like his Dad...)

It always feels good to have new things. New things doesn't necessarily mean from the store--but new to me. For example, Danny and I went to Verizon to do a little change-up. I was getting a cheap little $30 dollar thing to just have pay-as-you-go for emergencies and perhaps a new phone for Danny. Instead (because both of our phones are GOOD phones worth way over $30--we didn't want to spend money on a lame phone when we had good ones) we swapped phones. Mine wasn't compatible with the PAYG option, but his was. So, we left Verizon with "new phones" without paying a dime. Sure, now we have major identity crisis when a phone in our house rings--but it is kinda fun to have a new thing in my purse. And now Danny has to turn off the 7:00 alarm.


Second, I got a new couch. THANK YOU!!!! For all the contributors! Danny got it off Craig's List. It is only a year old and is in very good condition. Apparently, the couple was moving soon and needed it gone. On top of that, she mistakenly posted if for a hundred less than they talked about. Steal. I wasn't sure it was going to fit with room for me and my enlarging mid-section to walk around it--but it is AWESOME! Very comfy, clean, BIG, and MINE. Again...thanks--I LOVE the gift.


Third, after having the sister missionaries over every week since we got here, we decided we really needed to get some kitchen chairs. We gave them the two chairs our landlord left us (small desk-like chairs), I sat in our computer chair, and Danny sat on an end table. It worked--but we have been watching online for some amazing deal to pop-up. Again Craig's list came through. A dining set for $30 complete with 5 chairs and a table with an expando leaf. Perfect. We picked the piece of junk up and drove it home. Last summer (two summer's ago I guess--summer never ends here), if you remember--I bought some yellow striped fabric at a yard sale. Danny and I spent the better part of yesterday recovering the chair seats (we threw one of the chairs away--too dog chewed), Danny tightened all the joints, and using wood markers to touch-up the scratches (Bed Bath and Beyond for the markers...they work like a charm--thanks for showing them to me years ago mom). Now we have chairs and a table that matches--and it looks pretty good!
BEFORE

AFTER

This is pre-touch-up markers...


I'm going to miss Danny when he goes to work. Who is going to help me with my crazy ideas???!!!

Food Storage

Yes people.
The reason most of us have guilt.
We know the importance.
Some of us have benefited from being prepared with it.
But come-on...who REALLY knows how to make things from non-processed wheat!

...Oh...you do.

That's great!

What if you die and your husband is left to feed the little ones.

I know my "kids" would be eating a lot of wheat patties.
(And I'm not dissing on men here because I have no idea how to use wheat either. Danny and I guessed that you grind it and make flour. But if you don't have a grinder...use two rocks?).

We have a solution. Danny and I have been agonizing over our food storage since we got married (ultimate procrastinators) and have tried to come up with ways to be prepared--but none seemed totally adequate. Then--like all Hoffman's like to do--we came up with some crazy ideas that we think somehow, somewhere, sometime would work really well. One, consisted of meals like MREs that they use in the military. But ideas is as far as it got.

I received an awesome little book in the mail from my inspired mother that put all my insane ideas into an organized, rational, doable, tasty, one-day-at-a-time, husband/children proof, way of food storage.

Phew.

It is called:
It's In the Bag
by Michelle and Trent Snow

Long awaited debut...

We made a video a few days after we got here in Florida for everyone to see our new place--but alas it was too big for the site (or even email for that matter). I did take some pictures, but was so sad about the movie not loading that I forgot to put them up. Here they are. Still needs some work at this point. Apparently I still don't have any of the living room. I would take pictures right now, but...it is a little messy. Danny is organizing his tools. Tough guy. I will have to add pictures as we get rooms done. We just kind-of threw things here and there to create sanity.

Tobacco

Our house smells like it.

No we didn't take-up smoking, and no it isn't the apartment's fault. Our neighbors smoke--but alas, that isn't the issue either.

It is our fault. Choice, actually.

Danny and I love the "free" section on Craigs list. For a couple of reasons:
1. We get free stuff we need and want.
2. We get free stuff that we sell on E-bay.

This was the latter.

5 boxes of 200+ books. From a smoking home. Once we were there however and the old man was so eager to help us out--we couldn't resist. Now there are dryer sheets in-between book pages, books in ziplock bags, and ziplock bags inside of scented trash bags (all dollar store items), and scented trash bags stacked in the bathroom.



I sure hope Ebay-ers like westerns.

Ahh. *smile*

Potential and Pregnancy

This was going to be a really fun post.

POTENTIAL:
Perfect day.
Surfing beaches.
New suits (well--Goodwill new).
Goggles.
Sun hat.
Boogy Board.
Danny excited.
Camera.

PREGNANCY:
No memory Card.

Aside from being clumsy of late--I am also quite forgetful. I am pretty good about writing lists--but please don't expect them to be detailed. I have a hard time now expressing what I am thinking if I am even a little bit tired. Alas, my memory card was still in the computer from the last time I took pictures.

We decided to find the nearest Costco to see how bad the drive was going to be and headed an hour south. But why waste a day trip without visiting a new beach? So, we went to Juno beach in Jupiter--which apparently has surfing. I have literally never seen waves this big in real life (I have never been to Hawaii--hint hint...my birthday is coming up). Every wave made me lose my balance (remember "clumsy"). After a few nasty ones really knocked me down and I was having a hard time even standing up straight, I let the waves to Danny and his boogy board. After a few runs he was better than I ever was. Don't get me wrong--he got wiped out plenty of times where he came up sputtering and walking like a drunkard--but he did quite well. It was a lot of fun. We played for a few hours and then went to Joann's and Costco.

Oh, we also watched 17 again. Sorry for all the fans out there--we weren't impressed, even with Clear Play. We did watch Emma a few days ago though--and loved it (well I loved it, Danny said it was a good chick flick).

There is one thing more exasperating than a wife who can cook and won't, and that's a wife who can't cook and will. ~Robert Frost

I have seriously had my doubts the last few weeks. I have baked all my life, but I have burned almost everything in the oven since moving here.

1. Ah! Altitude change, you might say. Wrong--I made those changes (I impressed myself knowing that I had to change ingredients per altitude--learned that by exploding bread in Denver a few years back--never make THAT mistake again).

2. Burners aren't working properly. WRONG. I noticed that the top burner didn't get hot--obviously that is the problem. I called my landlord and asked if he could come and change it. He called me back and said he looked up my oven model and the top only comes on for the broiler. Some baker I am. I had no idea.

3. Dark pans hold in more heat. True. But not the problem. I also adjusted for dark pans.
EVERYTHING IS BURNING!!!

4. You live in Florida--your apartment must be adding to the heat in the oven. Wrong. We blast the AC. Nuf said.

5. Something is wrong with the oven. CORRECT! I actually thought this at the beginning and tried to adjust the temperature a little--but it made no difference. So I ruled it out--an oven can't be THAT far off right. WRONG. We bought a little thermometer for the oven today at Target (no I didn't have a coupon--but I felt this was a necessity. I was going insane.)




Try 100 freaking degrees TOO HOT!
I'm impressed things turned out as well as they did.

Couponing

Our new hobby.
If I was excited--Danny was ecstatic.
The expression he got when he handed two packages of Oreos to the cashier along with a follow-up coupon--and didn't have to pay a dime--was priceless.

Cashier: "guess you don't owe nothin!"
Danny: big grin. I worked the system.
And we all know how much Danny likes to work the system.


We decided to keep a running total of all we save using coupons, sales, or deals (these are on things we would have bought anyway--unless they were free, like the Oreos).
Currently, since we moved here, we have saved $121.38 on all purchases. Which comes to 40.23% of what we actually paid.

Want ideas? Go here www.savingmyfamilymoney.com (or any other site like it). BUT...it does take a little work.