Finders Keepers, person who threw it out wishes it was now theirs...

Over the weekend while walking a dog, I walked by someone's recycling bin that had 2 decent sizes plastic/ ceramic looking flower pots. I kept walking and thinking to myself "is it worth taking those home since I have no flowers pots?" . After putting the dog back in the house, I got into my car and drove up to the recycling. I sat there for a second and said what the hell if its crap then I'll recycle it myself.  Recycle and I'll reuse.

Before

  I went to a local hardware store and brought myself some spray paint. Now that was the difficult part; trying to decide what color I want to spray paint this pot. I mean there are so many different colors, textures, etc. and I have to choose ONE!?  Well I did I went with Smoke Gray:

I wiped the outside of the pot off with a paper towel before spray painting it, I didn't want clumps of dirt under the paint, that wouldn't look so nice. After about 5 minutes of spray painting both, I let them both air dry for a while and this was the final results:

I must say I think it looks pretty darn good! Now I need to find some flowers or plants to put into my pots and I'm going to sit them outside my front door on the porch! PERFECT! I love D.I.Y's!





 

Now if you're like me I'm pretty messy when it comes to anything so I had spray paint all over my hands.  Nail Polish Remover! That's the key to getting it off your skin!  I  have another DIY in mind be back soon!

Luck?

Today at one of my daily dog visits, I let the two pups out in the yard to do their thing. For some reason today I decided to look down and noticed a few patches of clovers laying in the grass which two things came to mind:
  1. I remember when I played soccer and we would be sitting and "listening" to the coach, but while sitting there we would all pick the grass and clovers and just play with it.
  2. Man the chances of finding a four leafed clover are slim- people say its lucky, I say you're lucky if you ever find one.

Welp today was my day, I literally looked down thought I saw a four leafed one, looked closer and realized oh my God it really is one!! I don't know if everyone gets excited about finding one (if you ever have) but it sure made my day! I really love doing DIY's and I'm trying to figure out how to preserve this clover: more to come once I figure it out.

Seriously need motivation to work out

We all want to get into shape, be toned, loose weight, look good, etc. Throughout my day I am constantly thinking about how I need to get to the gym or do Insanity DVD workouts or complex's. Mind you, I HAVE a gym membership I pay $20.00 a month for, I HAVE the insanity DVD's that I borrowed from a friend who isn't using them right now and I HAVE a small weight room/rack in our basement, my husband lifts weights 6 days a week.

Does anyone else see a problem here?? I have all these options to work out yet for the life of me can not get myself motivated enough. Instead I get pissed off at myself for not having the motivation or the will power to make myself just do it! At least twice a month this is what happens:

• I Feel bad about myself and how I want to look better and toned up. I go to the gym for 45 minutes or so in the morning Monday- Tuesday- Wednesday and then maybe Friday and then maybe next Wednesday, then not at all. 
• I start the insanity DVD workouts, because hey I'm already at home and I can just go in the basement to do them. Problem is I actually feel embarrassed doing it in front of my husband...I'm not embarrassed about anything with him, but for some reason this DVD workout makes you look funny, I can see myself in the giant mirror in the basement and it ain't pretty haha. 
• Problem 1: the only time I have time to work out is when I'm done work (somewhere between 4:45-7:00pm) Harry works out when he gets home at 5:00pm and I help spot him.  His work outs are ~45 mins, which means then I am down there for another 40 mins to do this DVD for myself. So then I'm in the weight room for 85 mins?! no thank you.      {see this is how i think}
• Problem 2: I'm honestly just to tired to do it, all I want to do when I get home from work which consists of driving ~100 mi./day and walking 10-13 (+/-) dogs a day.... I want my feed rubbed and I just want to lay on the couch.  
• Problem 3: I am an early bird getting up at 6:45/7am and normally start work 7/7:30 most days--depends on clients we have that day-- but there is no way in heck i'm getting up before 6am to work out. I need to know I won't be rushed trying to get to work on time. 
• Problem 4: I like the work outs to be short and fast and done quick, who wouldn't (ex: barbel complex's, Tabatas, etc)

As you can see I list all of the things that keep me from doing it and quiet honestly they are pathetic. I want to teach myself to want this, but I don't know how to besides forcing myself to do it. Is that how you get the routine down?   I think some of my issue is the fact that I get off work at random hours. Sometimes I'll be done at 2:00pm, 4:00pm, 7:00pm and the later it gets the less I will work out.

I really gotta start coming up with a plan and SERIOUSLY START STICKING TO IT... no funny business!!   I'm thinking I'll do a count down, which might make it fun. Harry and I have a wedding to go to in San Diego for his cousin's wedding....JUNE 1st ...T-minus 7 weeks.... Holy crap that's so soon... better get started... TOMORROW!  

Mortgage, bills, fees OH MY..

Like every morning I have my normal routine, which starts off by waking up, let the dogs out, then feed them, then go check my 10-14 emails I get throughout the night while I'm sleeping, mostly always junk mail and today 3 bills...

So before I forget to pay them I sit down at my computer and start punching in numbers and sending my payments: 

Verizon bill- check

Peco bill- check

Student loan- check

Ugh every time I pay my student loan I think to myself, it's got to be close to $10,000 I still owe by now.  Nope, very wrong, still about $13,500..

I swear I put money in and it never goes down, that's how I honestly feel.  THAT'S when I turn to Harry and ask him to help me brainstorm where can we save money. I mean once or twice a month, at least, I'm trying to figure out ways to lessen our bills and every time I just feel like I'm paying more. 

Yeaaah... I know rates go up, bill amounts go up, property taxes increase.. but seriously and all at the same time!?! It's just so frustrating to know that pretty much both of your income combined per month all goes to payments and then left with maybe $100.00 at the end of the month. Anyone else in the same boat?

Currently I'm trying to find information on consolidating my student loan to try and get a lower fixed rate, but that's not going all that well. Trying to refinance our mortgage isn't sweet as pie either...

My husband will call me "a Jew at heart" aka frugal, I always thought myself to be a saver and not a spender. The more and more I think about it, I really am very frugal (which I've learned isn't always a bad thing, I mean SOMEONE has to save money, unlike Harry whose a spender)

Maybe we will win the lottery and not have to worry about any of these....IF ONLY

And so it begins...

For the past few months or so I kept thinking about projects that need to be done around the house such as:

• new bathroom
• new kitchen
• enclose the breezeway
• plant a garden
• clean out the garage
• finish the unfinished basement, etc. 

I'm sure you get the idea. I am a huge fan of making lists, as my husband will tell you, and I will write all these things that I want to get done or things I need to do or want to do. Then I realize 5 days later my list is no where to be found and I MAY have crossed about one thing off the list out of the 10 To Do's on there. Sooo I figured blogging would help me get most of my projects done when I want to get them done, as well as keep me busy from being bored sometimes.   I barely have time to do anything because of work, but I love what I do! I started working for Pugs and Kisses Pet Care back in July of 2012 while I was also working at a Pet Hospital. I loved working at the hospital helping animals, from simply giving a vaccine to doing anesthesia in surgery {always heart pounding every time}.  However, the company I worked for is a corporate company and I started to feel that they were quantity over quality and I am in no way, shape, or form concerned about how much money we make over the pets life. Soo with that being said, I started slowly making my way out of the hospital and onto the streets walking dogs and pet sitting. IF you just so happen to be located in the Bucks County PA area, be sure to check out our facebook page (which ALWAYS has adorable and cute pictures of all our clients) and our website:

• www.pugsandkissespetcare.com
• Pugs & Kisses Pet Care - Facebook

 With that being said, my job is not a normal 9am-5pm kind of job, but then again anyone who works with animals knows its NEVER a normal hour kind of job. But we do it because we LOVE them! The only downside to working as a pet sitter/ dog walker, is that...
1) You work by yourself all day and you lack socialization with other people for most of the day
2) you start to find yourself talking to the animals while you walk and then realize that sometimes people start to look at you funny... haha but I could care less... and I KNOW we all do it. (we all even have "voices" for our pets)

Now "voices" for our pets makes me think of my husband, Harry. Harry has a very soft spot for dogs and always will.  We have 2 Australian Cattle "kids" of our own,  siblings named Pogue and Mahone. They will actually be turning 4 years old in MAY! .... going back to the "voices", Harry has a voice for each of them, Mahone tends to come out sounding like Mickey Mouse and Pogue.... not really sure what it would be called, but sounds like a raspy voiced Mini Mouse, there is no other way I can describe it, you just have to hear it for yourself to know what I mean

2009

Pogue                      Mahone

                                                               2012