Life By Lindsey Rae

I am planning on starting to blog again...and working on a new template...and in the process I just deleted my old layout. But, since it's nearly 3 AM, I think this blogging break will have to continue just a little bit longer...

I wish this would happen to me. But, I don't have a cat or dog door, so it's probably not likely. Still, I wish something like this would happen at my house.

Hello, again.

I realize it's been awhile since I posted anything. I can't figure out why that is exactly, except that I've just been keeping busy with a lot of more of the same things everyday.
I've been spending a lot of time working outside. Pretty much any day we have when it;s not pouring down rain I try to get out there and work. And, usually for 6 hours or more at a time, so if often occupies much of the day. There is lots to do around here, as the yard is so new and has being started from nothing for a lot of it.
I planted quite a few seeds indoors at the beginning to middle of March and they are doing well. I've brought them outside now and just trying to get all the places I need to plant them finished up! (I'm soooo slooowww at these things!)

I did take some pictures, but, I can't figure out where I put my camera at the moment. So, until then, I cannot provide any evidence that I actually have been doing anything.

On another note, tornado season is now upon us and for those somewhat further away who may have heard about the recent storms we had in Tennessee, just want to let you know that we are all good here at our house and did not have any damage. Our county mostly just had a lot of heavy rain and some strong winds.

(It did occur to me, however, that a strong winds in Tennessee is like an everyday breeze in Southern Albera. But, we are just not built for that here!)

The people in Murfreesoboro were not so fortunate as us to escape the worst of the storms and much of that area was hit quite badly with two deaths. Having lived in Murfreesboro for a couple of years, several years ago, I am familiar with many of the areas that got hit. I'm fairly certain the home of the lady I stayed with there is OK.

Here is a video from one of the local stations for any of my far away friends and family who might want to see what it's like.

I'll try to figure out where I put that camera at so I can get some pictures off of it and post again soon...Time to get back outside!

I just got the new 24" iMac this past weekend.
My "old" computer (I use "old" lightly, because I'd only had that one since October) was the 20" iMac and of course, it was perfectly fine and great. But, J suggested that when these new iMac's came out recently, I might upgrade to that since he had already talked to someone who was interested in the 20" we had.

I now realize that just four small inches can make quite a big difference.
Everyday, when I get up I turn on my computer and open the blinds in my office so I can see how things are out in the world. Throughout the day when I'm at my desk, I am able to watch out the window; see what's going on down the street, what the weather is like, see when the mail comes, if any bunnies run into the flower bed.
But, my monitor is so big now, I can hardly see out the window any more! haha.
I'm not complaining, though. Don't mistake me there. The new computer is pretty awesome.
And, the one benefit to not being about to see out the window is that people can't see me either....You know, when someone comes to the door to sell you something, it's easier to pretend you're not home if they can't see you as they walk up to the house. I'm always hiding behind the monitor. But now, it will be even easier. haha.

I went to the Nashville Lawn and Garden Show this weekend. It was fun! I got to check out lots of different things that interest me for my home and yard. Lots of beautiful plants and hard scape. Everything from seeds to stone to baby ducks. (I always like baby ducks....I've read that ducks are good for keeping down weeds in the backyard....would the HOA allow it???)

It's been sooo nice out the past few days. We got up to 80 degrees yesterday and today. I need to make this quick so I can get back outside and work on my flowerbed. Tomorrow it's gonna get a bit colder again and rain. But, I think from here on out spring has arrived.
I just feel so much better when it's like this!

I think cooking is a huge waste of time. I guess it's partially because I don't care about food as much as the average person and partially because being an artistic person if I'm going to create something, I like to be able to see it and enjoy after. With food, particularily cooking food, it's like you spend all that time making it and then it's just gone!
Also, I don't understand why everyone has such a problem with the fact that I don't have any desire to cook. I mean, if everyone was good at cooking, that would kind of steal the thunder of the people who actually do have that talent.

So, my kind of cooking is this "recipe" for Chicken and Dumplings from the Pillsbury website. I happen to have a lot of Pillsbury products right now, because at Publix there was some good sales on the stuff recently. Then with using coupons and taking advantage of rebates, there was the opportunity to make $6.50 to bring ten cans of biscuits home.
So, I went to their website to find a way to use some of these and found that by dropping pieces of frozen biscuits into a can of soup, you can make quite tasty dumplings.
I have a memory that once my grandma made dumplings for me when I was about four years old and I enjoyed it very much, for some reason. I asked many times for dumplings after that, but never really got them. I guess it was not popular with any one else in my house. Now I can make them myself by just thawing out a biscuit! hehehe.

And speaking of savings and coupons: maybe I don't write as much on here because I spend too much time looking for the deals. No, just kidding. Seriously though, since I started using coupons (like a crazy person) in the past few months, I cannot believe the amount of money I have saved. I get many of the groceries I buy for pennies or free or even make money on them. If I would have known how it all worked and how much I could save before, I would have been clipping coupons long ago. I hate to think of how much money we could have saved if I would have known all the things I know now.

Like tonight, when we were having dinner I pointed out that almost everything we had was free or nearly free. Pasta was about $0.20 or $0.30. Biscuits were free (money maker). We had those Green Giant steamer vegetables that are normally about $2.99 and I got for $0.09. The butter was free. The tin foil was free. The Pam we used on the tin foil was free.

It always tastes better when it's free.

This past weekend, I was excited to be able to be able to take advantage of the opprotunity to enjoy two of my favorite things all at once: art and history.
Fun, fun fun. And, not only any art and history, but European Medieval art and history, mostly based around its relationship to Christianity in that time period. Now, what could be more interesting than that? :)
The Frist Center for the Visual Arts here in Nashville is hosting an exhibition of Medieval Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art from February 13th to June 7th. I went on the 13th because there was a lecture I wanted to attend that night.

One of the pieces that had on exhibit that I found particularly interesting was a prayer book or book of hours that belonged to Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain.(She was the sponser of Christopher Columbus's exploration of the New World.) A book of hours was a personal and portable book for devotion and prayer and recitation of psalms.
I was reading a book about Juana la Loca, who was the daughter of Isabella, during this time, so it made it particularly appealing.

I also saw a floor mosaic from the Roman Empire that I recognized from seeing before in one of the books I read on mosaic art. So, that was kind of fun to then see it in "real life."

So, yep, if you are in the area, it is definitely recommended.

I bought my husband rocking chairs for Christmas. And, it was kind of a big deal for me because I spent many, many....many hours researching many, many rocking chairs before I bought them. Kind of like before I bought curtains. I thought about curtains a lot.
I have a very difficult time making decisions and as a result I often spend many hours researching things. Going to lots of stores, looking at a ton of websites...reading a lot of books (although I did not read any books about rocking chairs...a lot of things I get books from the library about). It is not easy to not be able to make a decision.

I really wanted to get what my husband wanted, which were extra wide chairs, but, I also wanted to make sure that they were somewhat modern looking and I really wanted black. Partially because I like black and it would look good with the house and partially because the neighbors across the street have white ones.
Eventually, though, all I could find in the proper size at a price that suited my cheapness (and I wanted to use my "own" money, 'cause it's more fun to buy someone a present when you don't have to ask them for money to buy it) were white ones.
I had decent expectations, since the reviews others had given these particular chairs were good, but, when they arrived on Christmas eve they were damaged! I was so upset about it! I really wanted to get a good present for J, because he always gets me such nice things. I suppose it is the thought that counts, but when you spend so long trying to find something and then it comes damaged on Christmas Eve...there is not much hope in replacing it in a timely manner.

Anyway, my husband liked the ones I got, but as they were damaged, we had to return them and decided to get something different. We recently found these at Sam's Club and thought we might try them. They are fairly wide (which was a requirement) and J thinks they are comfortable. They were twice what I paid for the others, so he sort of did have to buy his own present after all, but what can you do when you sit at home and build rock walls all day? (No, just kidding...I do other things to...sometimes...really. I also spend hours and hours trying to make small decisions. hahaha).


As you can see, these are not black. They are teak, which I think is probably the best for outdoors and will last a long time. But, I don't know if I like the color of the wood. I thought about painting or staining it a black, but, I don't know if you should stain teak.

So, now I can sit outside and watch the little lizards run by. It is actually a good spot, I think. I sat out there the other day when it was only about 35 degrees and read my mail and when the sun is out that location gets fairly warm.(To tell the truth, I think once it's summer I'll probably be scared to sit out there half of the time, because I'm too afraid of the bugs!)

I also want to get a hummingbird feeder and put it somewhere near this area. I have "my room" (my office/art space/mess) where that big window is, so I think it would be nice if I could look out the window and maybe see some hummingbirds...and bunnies. I only had one bunny in the flowerbed last year.

I guess I feel happy that it's February because that means the dang cold weather will be over that much sooner. Winter is just so depressing.
I hate being cold. The only thing good about it is that there are less bugs.
Actually, when I really think about it, I'm not sure which is the worse of the two evils: cold or bugs.
I think I'll go with bugs though.
Really, that's actually a pretty easy winner.

February 1st is my two year anniversary of when I became a permanent resident in the US. For anyone who has never been through the immigration process, let me tell you: it is not the most simple of things you can do. There is a lot of paperwork. A lot of fees. When I filed, I had to fill out 7 different forms, get a medical exam from the worst doctor on the planet who had the WORST, incapable nurses in the universe. (I'm surprised I didn't get a disease from the TB test they attempted to give me)and get full biometric information done. (Fingerprints, mug shot...enough to make you feel like a criminal). And pay nearly about $935 to file and make several trips to Memphis to the immigration office to get assistance and interviewed.
It's a difficult process, because there are a lot of little things they don't tell you that are very important. For example, with the fees, in that total $935 there are actually six smaller fees for each specific forms. But, if you were to write a check for the whole thing, your application would not get processed. You have to write seperate checks for each fee. But, nobody ever tells you that. So, these little things can mess a person up. Fortunately, everything went smoothly for me, and I think it took only about 8 months to process.

The craziest thing is that a few months after I filed, a lot of the fees nearly tripled and now it costs nearly $2090 to file!

So, since it was coming upon my two year anniversary, I had to remember that sometime within 90 days prior to this date, I had to file another form to extend my residency. Basically, this is to remove the conditions on my permanent residency: they want to make sure you didn't get married to an American just to get a green card. So, we had to gather a LOT of evidence to prove this. Since I am a Canadian citizen, it's probably not such a big deal for me as it would be for some coming from other countries that they might have more reason to question their motives, but it's not worth it to take the risk and get denied. So, we gathered nearly everything they suggested. This includes anything showing joint assets, any insurance policies you have together...and a lot of copies of various statements throughout the time you are married to show consistency, pictures of you together through the time period, evidence you are living in the same household, copies of wills, affidavits from people who know you saying they know that you have a good marriage, joint tax returns, etc, etc, etc. I had been gathering evidence for the past few months, but the day before we mailed it, I ended up staying up ALL night compiling it into chronological order and highlighting and labeling and writing explanations for everything. It's a big job, but immigration is really not something to mess around with...you want to do it right the first time or it can get complicated really fast.

This form...one form....cost $545 to file! That's a lot of money for one form! Good thing my husband loves me...

I got my letter back from them acknowledging that they received our payment and that my residency has been extended for one year. I have to wait for them to send me another letter telling me when I will go for more biometrics (more fingerprints and another mugshot) and then after that, they will continue to process things and then I am eligible for my 10-year residency. Meaning, I won't have to worry about anymore immigration stuff for another 10 years, unless I apply for naturalization, which I can do after February 2010. I'm not positive if I will do that yet. I think I may, just because I can still retain my Canadian citizenship. I figure if I can be a duo citizen that will pretty much just give me the best of both worlds.

I've heard some people say they don't want to get American citizenship because when you do, you have to swear allegiance only to the US, so it makes it seem like you are giving up allegiance to Canada. But, you don't ever have to give up your Canadian citizenship. So, I'm not exactly sure how that works. I will have to investigate it further. Once the conditions on your permanent residency are lifted (or you get your 10 year extension) you pretty much have the same privileges as if you were American...only you don't get to vote and you always are supposed to carry around your Alien Residency Card (green card) wherever you go. Not such a big deal. Just like carrying your license, I guess.

Until I get my new green card, I have to carry around a letter with my old green card saying my status adjustment is in process. This is a bit more inconvienent. Only because my wallet is a bit full. Which is ok, if it's full with cash...but mine happens to be mostly receipts and coupons.

It's really, really cold today. And, it's gonna be really, really cold tomorrow. Tonight's low is supposed to be 0 degrees and that's the coldest it's been in 6 years. I guess that's why I don't remember it ever being this cold before. They've had a severe weather warning out for the past few days. (Although it seems like in Tennessee there is always a severe weather warning for something). I guess 0 degrees is really only about -18 Celsius. Having lived many years where we got down to -30 or below on a regular basis, -18 shouldn't seem so bad. Maybe it's the humidity making it so cold. Either that or I am loosing my Canadianess!

This past October, I took some plant cuttings for the first time.

I very much wanted to try to propagate some new plants and did a lot of research and reading about it before I started. I just wanted one to grow! Even just one I would have been happy.

I started with 27. Yesterday I was fixing to compost the last three of them that seemed to have not made it. These three had dropped their leaves so they didn't have much to keep them going. I threw out two of them and then was about to get rid of the last when I noticed that it had suddenly started to grow again! Can you see the little leaves starting to come out?


I was so surprised to see it and thought it was pretty neat that this little stick would stay alive.

So, it seems that out of those 27 I started, a total nine seem to have made it. I'm very happy with that result. Now, I just need to keep them alive and hope they will be able to survive after they are eventually transplanted outside.

First post of the new year.

Not much to say really. Just the usual going on around here. J has had a few days off for New Year's, which is nice. I get my days really mixed up when he is off, because I think it's the weekend when it's not. We had almost forgot about preparing our lessons for church because time just seems different when schedules aren't the same.

Church starts at 1:00 PM tomorrow for the rest of the year! Thank goodness! That early morning stuff is just not the way to go.

I think that I am going to start keeping track of all my savings from my new found couponing skills. I need to find figure out or find the best method for in a spread sheet. I know, I really hate shopping, but I love getting good deals.(Especially the free stuff). And I'm getting good at it!
I might blog it on a separate page.
I'm not as good at it as some at it, but I think you'd still be amazed at what a coupon can do when used correctly. Yesterday I got around $182 worth of stuff and paid about $5 after my savings. I think I could have got it down even a couple dollars more, but I forgot to used 2 coupons I had. That's always disappointing. (It's hard to keep it all straight sometimes). But, if I get enough good deals anyway, I might let it go.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. We did. It was pretty uneventful, however, as it was just the two of us at home all day. When you don't have any one else around, that's kind of how it goes; much like a normal day, I guess.
Christmas is a bit disappointing to me now that I am older, because, I feel like the commercialism of it is so terrible and discouraging. I almost wish we could just do it a different day and not have to participate with the rest of the world with all the ridiculousness that goes on. If we could keep it about what it is supposed to be about, that would be much more enjoyable. It almost feels like just another obligation when all you see is media saying we need to buy and buy and buy. This year, I thought it may have been extra bad, because on one hand I would hear the ads proclaiming all the things we "need" to buy and on the next, I kept hearing these stories on the news about people not being able to afford gifts because of the economy and then even that they were not able to get as much credit to buy gifts because of the economy! Crazy! I don't want to hear about it anymore. It would be much more enjoyable to turn on the TV and hear a story about Christmas and Jesus and not just Christmas and spending money.

But, speaking of presents and all that, I did get some good stuff. haha. I was excited. One thing I got (and just tried out today) was this compost tumbler. It has the ability, when used properly, to make compost in 14 days. That's not going to happen in this current climate, but, in the summer, it will be fun to get some compost for my yard. I like the idea of being able to reuse things (because I'm cheap). Plus, I've been doing lots of reading on composting recently and so I am ambitious about it. It would be exciting to get some benefits from it. I really enjoy watching the plants grow and it will be great to give them a little extra something so they can do better.

I would also like to try a small vegetable garden this year, so this will come in handy for that. Although, at this point, I don't have any idea where we would...or could...possibly put it. It may have to be more of a container garden for this first year, until we get the whole backyard completely figured out. The soil is so terrible and nothing but clay and gravel (and even some boulder sized rocks hiding under the first inch or so of dirt); I'll have to at least make a raised bed somewhere. I do have the one I've been working on recently, but I originally planned on making it a flower bed. So, I'm not sure. Anyway, whatever gets planted will now have compost to help it out!

Due to recent medical emergency in our household I have not had too much of a chance to post anything for awhile. I have been pretty busy lately with extra things. But, we are here and still alive and relatively well, all things considering.

And, I have recovered my missing diamond earing, which I thought I lost forever at the hospital. Not as important as just being here and alive, but, still good since it is always better to have two earings instead of one. :)

For Thanksgiving, Jerrod got me Cracker Barrel, which was pretty nice, because it's my favorite! hehe. Really. We brought it home, which was even better, because we didn't have to deal with all the people and could just hang out together and wear pajamas for dinner...or at least I could, since I didn't even have to go pick it up!

The weekend is over and I made out like a bandit with the sales. Nothing big and great; I mostly went to the drugstores and grocery stores and got a lot of free items with the sales. Actually, I profited on a lot of the things I bought, after I used coupons....In total, probably around $50-60. I mostly got a lot of hair and cosmetic products, soap, lotion, razors, chocolate bars, toothpaste, nail polish, cake mixes...those sorts of random things. I think in total, I got over $300.00 worth of free items and then got back nearly $130.00 in store reward dollars that are kind of like store coupons that can be used to buy any merchandise within the store....but expire...the unfortunate part. (The goal is to then take the store dollars and roll them into something else...by purchasing another item that will give you more rewards dollars. Only certain items do this that are special sales for the week or month. So, if they expire within 2 weeks to a month, and there is nothing that come up in that time, you end up not being able to roll them very well and not profit as much.) Anyway, anything I had to pay out of pocket (to cover tax on the free items or on the remaining balance on the nearly free items) I was able to pay with my gift cards that I had from store rewards for filling prescriptions at the pharmacy or by using previous rewards dollars that I'd saved up to use during the Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales.

I'm getting so sick of shopping! The problem is that I was sick of it before I started. But, what can I do? On top of the fact that there are things to get for Christmas, I also can't resist the fact that I now am aware of too many good deals and there is just too much things I know I can acquire for free or nearly free! I'd like to take advantage of that...it's nice to know you have extras of things you use so you don't have to buy it when you run out (and it's not on sale) and also, because I am hoping to donate some things to the food bank.
I read recently that the food bank is 80,000 lbs short on what they usually have or need to have or something like this. I don't know what it was exactly, but anyway, they need some donations.

But, I don't like going out in the traffic...and it's getting busy near my house, since we have the big retail area. And, I really don't like the customer service, or lack of it, that seems to be what you get at most places. I can only think of about 3 places that I actually feel they consistently have good service at. I feel like most places have more mean and grumpy people working there than usual right now! It's so frustrating to have to deal with that all the time. This makes a good argument for why a person should do their shopping online whenever possible.

Today at church, we sat beside someone who was a visitor, who seemed to be around the same age as myself. After sacrament meeting, we talked to him for a bit and asked him what had brought him to our church this morning. He said, he had found a copy of The Book of Mormon, laying there in a Goodwill store, and so he got it and brought it home.
He had never even spoke to the missionaries before or anything. He just found the Book of Mormon and had been reading it and decided to find the church and come! We introduced him to the missionaries after and I think they are going to be starting to teach him this week. We thought it was very neat. Jerrod and I talked after about how when these sort of things happen it shows us how the Lord truly does prepare people to hear the gospel and these things don't just happen by accident.
Jerrod joined our church when he was 18 because after reading The Book of Mormon, he gained a strong testimony of it's truthfulness. He felt that it, along with the Bible, really do testify of Christ. When he knew The Book of Mormon was true, he knew that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was also the true church. So, I think from his experiences, he really knows what a difference it can in peoples lives when they read it.

I would say I'm behind with keeping up with my postings, but I've already said it so many times before, I won't bother with that.

I am still sick...or more accurately, sick again.
I did start to get better and then my husband got whatever I had, gave it back, and now it seems I have it again. I did go to the doctor about a week ago, because I had to get a prescription refill and so I had her check me out then. However, this was when I was getting better and so there wasn't much for her to find. She gave me some antibiotics in case I did get worse, but said not to take them unless I needed to. I do think it's just a cold and I don't really want to fill it if it's not going to help. I'm just run down from it now. I have this cough and it's making me feel like there is a brick on my chest.

Anyway, in other, better news, I have been utilizing my money-saving skills recently. Although I've considered myself "cheap" for a long time, I am now figuring out how to really save money by combining sales with coupons in the right way at the right time. It's a lot of work, but boy, do I get a lot of free stuff! The last couple weeks there has been a good sale at Kroger, so I tried to stock up on some groceries. I went 3 times to the grocery store and the first time, I paid around $1.70 for almost $20 worth of groceries. The second time and third time combined, they ended up paying me a dollar to get over $150 worth of stuff. I have to say, I did a pretty good job with my shopping last week.
This week there is a good deal on Duracell batteries at CVS and I got $60 worth of them free. That's pretty useful. Who doesn't always need extra batteries?

Some things are hard to save on...fresh foods, like milk and bread and fruits and vegetables....the perishable stuff is more difficult, but, I think getting a stockpile of non-perishable things is really beneficial:
It's good to have extra stuff for food storage. Our church has recommended for a long time that we have extra things on hand, in case of emergency. Also, it's nice to have things for when they ask people to donate stuff, when our church does projects and that sort of thing. And also, I think, occasionally the library collects stuff for the food bank and in turn, for every item you bring in, you get a dollar towards your overdue fees. So, I have to stockpile for this. hahaha.

My husband thinks I am a bit crazy about my money saving ideas sometimes. I know I put more effort into it than the average person, but I can't help it!
I could be the richest person in the world and I think I would probably still be cheap. It's like, if I know there is a possibility that I could get something for less and I don't, then I'm being wasteful and throwing something good away. I'm starting to think being frugal is a talent...you have to have the desire to want to do it and then you have to have the skills! haha. It does get tricky with the sales and coupon combination things sometimes. But, the good thing is, there are a LOT of crazy coupon ladies out there who figure out the deals and post them online. So, for the most part, all the math is done. Now, math...is not my talent.