The coup d'etat of the 400 count sheets!

Can you believe it? We went to Linens and Things yesterday for this sale and we bought not one, but TWO sets of sheets at P's suggestion....one was 400 count sheets and one was 250 count. P won't admit it, but I know he likes the higher count sheets or else we wouldn't have bought them both. At any rate, that was a good chunk of our "home improvement" budget for this month...we're going to see how things go, but I'd like to replace all six of our pillows if we can and Linens and Things has them on sale for about $10 each. Ours are old, grungy and just nasty. We were also eyeing a quilt set on sale yesterday for $29.99 but we're going to look at what Bed Bath and Beyond has first. I washed them both last night and the lesson I learned is not to wash two sets of king sheets in the same load or you'll be drying sheets at 4:30 in the morning. They just get all twisted up and mangled and won't dry! We were going to give away all our old 200 ct sheets that came with beds in bags, but I just can't part with them, so P suggested that we just put them in another closet and save them for the pull out sofa when people come to visit. If I had a bigger linen closet, this would not be an issue. *sigh* Item number 58 for my dream house list...a walk-in linen closet. Anyway, I went through all the rest of our bedding and seperated out our pillowcases to go with our comforters and dust ruffles, and much to my surprise we pretty much have a full set of each one...it's just the fitted sheet that is missing thanks to Katie.

Today is going to be a busy day filled with laundry and cleaning. We worked on our budget last night for a while and set up a spreadsheet to track our expenditures over the month. We also went grocery shopping at Kroger (first major trip in a long time) and got all kinds of stuff so we eat at home. I even bought deli meat for sandwiches...I think that's the first time that's happened in about a year. I couldn't even remember what I used to buy! I finally just got smoked turkey and oven-roasted chicken. We also went to Cheddar's for a quick bite prior to shopping...we were starving. And we're going to TRY to make it our last dinner out until our anniversary on October 30. There will be lunches out, yes, but the main thing is that we have to get back in the habit of eating at home. We did so well for such a long time, and lately the last few months we're starting to order out a lot more. Granted, we're making healthier choices, but it's expensive! Now we get grilled chicken salads from Chili's to go rather than a super-sized #3 from McDonald's! It costs to eat healthy, as we all know! That's why no one does it and the impoverished sometimes are the most obese of all.

I guess you all can see the changes I made to my blog. I have Miranda on my laptop since it's a multi-purpose chat client, doesn't require to be downloaded and I can have multiple chat clients on it. I've had AOL and Yahoo on it for a while...but yesterday a pal of mine asked if I would add MSN Messenger to it since that's the only one she can have at work. And look what it started...I decided that I wanted to display my screen names on my blog, which meant that I had to change my AOL name since it has my full name on it. For security reasons, I'd rather that not be the case. So anyway, I played with the art yesterday and came up with those graphics by resizing, cropping, etcetera, and I was quite proud of what I did! I also added a mailing list for my blog. Please feel free to join it and I'll send out a notification whenever I post a new entry. It may be more convenient for some of you to join it rather than to continue checking every day. I am still LOVING my blog, don't get me wrong, and I hate it that I didn't get to post that much this week, but unfortunately with fire season approaching and C going on maternity leave, it may happen again. Anyway, just post your email address in there, and when I update my blog, I'll send out a quick notification with my blog address so you know it's been updated. I'm trying to set up one for my cross stitch site too, but I can't figure out how to add html code to it.

My husband looked at my blog yesterday for the first time in a while and said that he had no idea what I was complaining about regarding time since my blog looks so complex and involved! I reminded him that I set most of it up in July...but since then it just takes minor changes and maintenance to keep it going! I love having it...I just wonder what would ever happen if Blogger went down? Would I lose all my journal entries? Makes me wonder. At some point, I'll probably explore moving it over to Verizon, but that's a long way off, especially while I can't figure out how to add html code to it. Grr.

Anyway. My day today is going to be very quiet and uneventful. Mostly cleaning and getting laundry done, but I'd like to stitch this afternoon and evening.

First, Sunday Brunch...and let me just say how much I am enjoying doing this meme. It is fun and doesn't take that much time every week!

1) What size is your bed? It's a king.
2) Do you prefer fabric sofas or leather sofas? What do you have? I prefer leather, but I have fabric. I just think that fabric holds odors too easily.
3) What wood stain color is your favorite? (Pine, walnut, cherry, etc.) I love the colored stains...like blue and green. I just think that looks SHARP! But out of the traditional ones, I like cherry.
4) What piece of furniture is at the top of your wish list right now? P and I really want a real bed....not a metal frame that holds the mattress and box spring off the ground. I want a king-sized hardwood bed like a sleigh bed with an attached headboard...and not one just leaning against the wall. Ah, well. It's nice to want things.
5) Do you have a piece of furniture in your home that doesn’t seem to fit but that you can’t bear to part with? We have a hardwood breakfast nook table with leaves that collapse that I bought in college and refinished myself. I can't bear to part with it because I put so much time into it, but it just does NOT fit anywhere in our house. I think right now it's in the garage.

And the Weekly Bit! (Thanks, Naida!)

1. What is the first hour of your day like? What do you do when you wake up? Right now, the first thing I do when I wake up is to take my basal body temperature for fertility purposes...and right now my temps are all over the map which is quite frustrating. Then I get up, make a cup of tea (today it was English Breakfast) and come right in my office to start checking email before I eat breakfast...and usually my phones start ringing, and things start getting crazy, and I'm distracted and don't eat breakfast or walk the dogs for a little while. But that's my first hour.
2. What do you do during the course of the day? Are you always busy? Or are you able to take time out and 'smell the flowers' so to speak? My days are SO busy that I feel like I'm going to sleep five minutes after I woke up. I do make it a point to try to schedule lunch dates with my friends once or twice a week because it is the only time out of the week that I will stop and smell the flowers and relax.
3. What is your evening like? Do you go to bed early? Late? How do you relax? Usually I relax and wind down by stitching and reading. I try to work out at night when I can. I am a total night owl though...I didn't go to sleep last night until 2:30.
Now some word association...I say.... you think... Since I already read these and wanted to paste them in my blog first, I'm going to let my hub answer these!
apple: core
blue: green
pie: apple
rug: shag
fall: leaves
boy: girl
mean: Erica
open: closed
hamper: clothes

And Weekend Wonderings!

1. Are you one of those people who gets things done quickly, or do you put them off until the last minute? Depends. If it's something I want to do, I do it fast, but if I know it's going to be a huge hassle or I just don't wanna, I procrastinate.
2. Would you say you’re reliable and that people can count on you? Yes. If I say I'm going to do it, I do it.
3. When you’re going to meet someone, are you usually right on time, early, or a few minutes late? Haven't we covered this? I'm always late. My friend S usually adjusts 15 minutes past when I say I'm going to be somewhere. I'm really trying to change this habit though because I hate it...I hate it when I have to wait for people!

Okay, I'm off like a dirty shirt...so to speak! I have tons of them in the other room!