Researching Homeowners Insurance Rates

The money that we shell out every month for our current homeowners insurance rates is really getting out of hand. This next up and coming weekend I plan on researching online other insurance company rates and see what I can come up with that will help reduce the amount of money that goes out each and every month. With the thought in mind that Christmas is really right around the corner I am getting anxious about how we are going to manage purchasing all of the gifts that we are obligated to hand out each holiday season.

I’ve been trying to cut back in any way that I can and the Internet is a great tool to help me with the overwhelming tasks required to make our budget a bit easier to tackle.

House Cleaning Services

Something that would make a good gift for anyone who is left responsible for the cleaning and the upkeep in their residence, would be to have a professional house cleaning service come in to have a good cleaning. It could be a once time luxury or for any length of time that the gift giver decides upon and how much money they want to invest.

I mean let’s face it, at some point in your life there are gift giving occasions that something like this would be appropriate and appreciated. Although I have a feeling that if I were to do something like this that the person would think that I thought that she wasn’t a good house keeper!

I myself wouldn’t have a problem with the other woman house cleaning services. In fact I would welcome it. It sure is better than getting more body lotions and oils that seem to find their way to me a lot. I have more lotions and potions that I would or could ever use in one lifetime. Those gifts end up being re-gifted to some other sucker, more often than not!

Pool Heaters, A Great Idea

Last fall my hubby knew my birthday was coming up and he wanted to do something extreme that I have been wanting for the last 15 years we have been together. His plan was to make that it happen by installing an in-ground pool in our backyard with a hot tub. I unfortunately had a business trip I had to go to right before my birthday, but it ended up working out perfectly for my hubby’s surprise plans.

When I had left after taking our daughter to her grandparents house, he jumped on the opportunity to install an in-ground pool while I was on a business trip for 2 weeks. When I had arrived home, hubby wouldn’t let me even come close to the backside of the house so I couldn’t see what was back there. The next morning after we picked our daughter up he escorted us to the backyard with his hands covering my eyes and counted to three, when his hands dropped I couldn’t have been more surprised, impressed and so excited at the same time.

I have been so excited to finally go out to the back yard and take a dip in our own in-ground pool since last fall when my hubby installed it. We have been getting it ready for this upcoming summer and we just finished cleaning it last week and are now starting to talk about the possibility of a hot tub as well, but came to the conclusion that we simply couldn’t afford it.

Hubby had a clever idea for us to search on the net for pool heaters and we took an a beautiful spring evening to search for one for or pool. We came across a site that offers raypak pool heaters at an awesome price and it didn’t take log at all for us to find the perfect one for our pool. When it arrived, only 3 days later, hubby and a few of our friends had gathered in the backyard to install our new pool heater, and we now can enjoy our pool even on chilly days and/or evenings with no worries. Life is good.

Heating For Our Outdoor Patio

Hubby has been working real hard the past few years in order for us to have a quality outdoor patio.  We really do enjoy being outside as much as possible in the warm weather months.  Our garden keeps getting bigger and bigger each year which requires a lot of work, so it is nice to be able to kick back when the sun starts going down.  Sometimes it does get a bit chilly so I have been contemplating on purchasing an outdoor patio heater, but I want one that looks nice along with our other things that Hubby has put together.

I have been seeing a few Bistro Table Patio Heaters that I think would suit us just fine, seems they run on either propane or LP, and I love the ones with the hammered bronze effect.  The idea of being able to use the table top is an awesome feature.  Guess I’ll have to run it all by Hubby before ordering it, just in case…….. hey he has been talking about checking out some gas garage heaters also.

table heater for patio
bistro table patio heater with hammered bronze effect

An Ideal Birthday Idea For Hubby

Hubby has a birthday coming up in a few weeks and I was thinking of how is back is always giving him such trouble.  I seem to spend a good amount of time rubbing his back for him and I have to admit that it would be a relief not to spend so munch of my time on his aches and pains so that I can deal with my own issues, mainly menopause, ugh..

I’ve been told by several people of a company that sells the Human Touch Quality Massage Chairs, these chairs are said to replicate the proven techniques used by professional massage therapists and chiropractors and are great in providing back pain relief which Hubby desperately wants and needs on a daily and nightly basis.

This company uses the most advanced robotic massage technology and systems in their massage chairs and I like the fact that it is a whole chair, not just a pad that you put on top of your chair or couch to simulate the hands and techniques of full body massage like the expert massage professionals.

 Massage Chairs really looks like something Hubby would really enjoy and use, and maybe even share with me at times.

The 2012 Macanudo Cru Royale Collection – Sampler

Even though I have been a smoker of cigarettes, I have never tried to smoke a cigar. I have been offered on numerous ocassions to try one through out the years and always have turned the offer down thank you very much. Now don’t get me wrong I love the smell of cigars, always have, but smelling one and inhaling one are completely different. My grandfather always smoked a pipe or a cigar. I remember that enjoyed getting a variety of cigars throughout the years, getting him a present for Christmas and his birthday was always about picking out a different cigar for him to try. With as many kids and grand kids as he had, you can bet his humidor was always well stocked. And I remember that he always liked macanudo cigars the best. And now when I see cigars for sale I still find myself looking at all of the varieties with my late grandfather in the back of my mind and I always look to see what is going on with his favorite – the macanudo. I think he would really like this macanudo cru royale collection 2012 cigar sampler.

macanudo 2012 sampler
macanudo cru royale collection 2012 cigar sampler

I don’t think I’ll ever try a cigar. There are a lot of woman out there that do enjoy smoking them which is cool. What I’d really like to do is to stop smoking cigarettes all together. Something that I’ve been thinking about more and more of these past couple of years.

Another Day Of No School

School has been closed a lot lately what between all the snow days and now today is President’s day, the kids have been stuck at home a whole lot lately and I am praying that tomorrow they will go back to school and life can become normal again.  Hubby is back on his feet and I’m feeling much better (after being able to catch up on some sleep) and I’m somewhat ready for the week a head.

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I usually do love it when school is closed – when it is closed here and there, but day after day after day and especially being since the Christmas holidays just ended a month or so a go.  My kids are great and I treasure any time that I have with them, just wish money wasn’t so tight and the weather so crazy, and schedules so screwy, so that we could take them more places.  My teenager can be a challenge to get to participate in anything family oriented and I usually regret even trying to include her, but we do manage once and a while to keep everyone somewhat satisfied.  There is so much out there to explore and I want my kids to see all that they can see with us to explore it with them.

One day maybe I’ll go sign up for some college courses that I am interested in, I think I would enjoy learning now that I will have to pay for the education out of my own pocket.  Too bad that youth is wasted on the young!

Background Playsets Chesapeake Va

When the kids were real little we wanted to buy them a playset for them to see and enjoy on Christmas morning. We figured we could just trot on down to Toys-R-Us or possibly Walmart pick one up and bring her home and keep stored in the garage until Christmas eve, which is when hubby planned on putting the darned thing together. I always feel so bad for the Dad’s on Christmas since they are the ones that usually spend so much time putting things together before, during and after all the excitement is over with with the gift giving and receiving that is so exciting for kids.

Weren’t we surprised when we could find a single playset in town. We were told that these playsets are considered summer merchandise and that they wouldn’t be getting any of those products until March or April. We really had no idea that this would become an issue. We ended up finding a used playset – can’t remember how we found out about it. These were the days when we certainly had computers but not anywhere like we do now or else we could have searched online and found the perfect playsets chesapeake va or even have one customized for that matter.

Playset
Backyard Playset

It all worked out though and hubby was up real late that Christmas Eve putting that playset together in the middle of the night all by himself and it was one of those real cold Christmas Eves, but he never complained and the kids were totally surprised and thrilled that Christmas morning when we had them look out the back window. It was worth every bit of time and effort put into that wonderful playset.

 

Groceries

Depending upon where you live in the U.S., the store where you buy groceries can be very different from the grocery stores in other parts of the country. In some states you can buy liquor in the grocery store. In Virginia, you can buy beer and wine, but not liquor. I hear that in Tennessee you can’t even buy wine in the grocery, but you can buy beer except on Sunday mornings.

Close to my house, the best grocery store is Food Lion. We are lucky that it is one of their larger stores. The produce section is especially nice – a huge variety and all the vegetables and fruits are fresh and bruise-free. We have a large selection of meats and several aisles of frozen foods. I try to limit my shopping to once a week, but it is so convenient that I can run by there any time.

When I was growing up, the two main grocery stores were Giant and Grand Union, and if you were willing to drive all the way into Rosslyn you could shop at a Safeway store. I don’t think there are any Grand Unions anymore – they disappeared, Food Lions sprang up and now we have Wal-Marts, too.

Natural Latex and Organic Cotton Mattresses

It seems that more people in my immediate family are experiencing some type of sleep issues. My one sister was just diagnosed with Narcolepsy and is no longer able to drive for fear of falling asleep while being behind the wheel. This has made a huge impact on her and her family that they are trying to adjust to upon hearing the news. My other sister has never been able to sleep at night so she has always been a night person that has no problem sleeping during the day light hours. I haven’t had a good night sleep since the day that I became a mother!

Our mother has recently been experiencing problems sleeping and has decided to shop for an organic mattress boston style that she found online at an organic mattress store. I myself had never heard of an organic mattress but I’ve been reading up on the subject and I’m liking what I’m hearing.

When we finally get all of our paperwork together here at the house (hopefully by the end of the month) we are going to get our taxes done. I’m sure that we will be getting a good amount of money back again this year and on the top of my list is going to be an organic mattress. Check out what thecleanbedroom.com has to say about these Natural Latex and Organic Cotton Mattresses, you might just learn something.