Hello!  I hope you had a productive Saturday!  Today, we had our second Spanish lesson! 

Si, I decided to make sure my kid learns Spanish, so she, me and a friend of ours is taking lessons, from a private tutor on Saturday mornings!   Cheap!

Sorry for the Internet Pic, I didn’t take my own!  Oh well.  So the lessons are kind of fun and my kid is catching on quickly and at least we are learning some!

Then it was off to shop for her graduation dress.  Yes, middle school here in So. Cal makes a big deal of it!  Where I am from, there was no middle school, you went all the way from grade one to grade eight in the same school.  I don’t remember any party or promotion from grade school! 

I am happy to celebrate, but it costs me a fortune.  AND her birthday is tomorrow so I spent some money on that.

I feel kind broke again!

Very hard to get a head when life happens daily, no?

Hasta manana!  Buenos Noches!

Happy Friday.  I took the day off today to try to get some things done, my daughters birthday is Sunday and I haven’t done a thing, although, pretty low key for sure.

I thought it would be great to grab some of the quote today, there are a gazillion on Pinterest. 

TGIF! 

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Please tell me this is true!

Now I know this next one is!

This next one reminds me of my daughter!

This is my problem!  I have the worst timing in life! 

This is a riot!  How many of us can relate to this?

You can say that again!

Absolutely!

Rah Rah!!!

Okay, just a few more.  These are good!

Jerry McGuire!  Show me the money!

Oldie but goodie!

Buddha

Must add a Keep Calm…

And my favorite find!

Funny!

Like yesterday, there are gonna be days that I don’t have anything to blog about or more importantly, I am off  playing… taking some much needed downtime.

I know you know what I mean!

Between work and coming home to my “second shift” as I call it, some days its just nice to pour a glass of wine, light a candle and pull out the iPad!

Here are a few things I like to do on my iPad during my “downtime”.

These are all FREE apps.  You CAN pay to make them better, like have longer play times,  a more “rich” experience, but I play for free. 

When they run out of points for a specific amount of time, I’m done… I move on to something else until I can come back and play for free s’more!

There is so much to do on my iPad that I don’t have to pay to keep busy!

BINGO!  Yes, I do, I play Bingo.  I know!

I love this.  There are so many “rooms” to play in and every day you can go back and get more points to play some more!

SugarCrush.

This is addictive!  And not easy!  Trust me, this is NOT bejeweled!

Its so tempting to buy stuff for this, but I don’t do it.  I just wait and then come back.  That is key!  Patience.

Puzzles anyone? 

Okay I was thrilled to find puzzles, because I love them and I have no room to do them in my condo.   What a great solution.  I am in the middle of this one now:

But I did these:

And…

And this one too:

So if you happen to come by and my post is not new one or two days, its because I am off playing on my iPad.   Trying to relax!

Not spending money, but just laying low, and staying under the radar!

See you tomorrow or…. at least the day after.

Random Number One:

The forecast thru next Tuesday.  I know what most of the images are, but what on earth are the squiggly lines for Thursday?  Weird!

Random Number Two:  I forgot to do my 52 Week Challenge on Sunday!  That is the Second week in a row!   I am going to do ANOTHER I.O.U and promise to catch up next week!  Yikes!

Random Number Three:  The auto payment for May came out of my checking account. It’s official, I’m in auto payment now.

Random Number Four:  My kids C02 car did really well and didn’t fall apart.  I was able to be raced 2 times per the instructions!  We half expected it to fall apart!  Yay!

Random Number Five:  Books I am currently reading.  I have a few going!

This one I pick up at home when I can:

This one I will probably finish in the next day or two on break at work:

This next two I bought last weekend because I need to figure some personal issues out!

and:

I have to tell you, having a chronic issue or two sucks!  I am still trying to figure it all out!

Random Number Six:  I love my new grill pan!

It’s the small things for me!

In other news, not a lot going on lately.  Just keeping my head down and trying to make it thru the first year!

I wish you good health reader.

Now you probably don’t get too excited over a new pan.  But I’m beyond excited to try this!

I stopped at this store this today:

I felt so extravagant!  A brand new pan!  Have you ever been to this store?  It’s a cooks dream, every single gadget you could want! 

I cook very simply, but I do think that having good equipment makes all the difference.

And getting rid of a trashed, beat-up grill pan that was given to me, used, years ago  is just the ticket to make our meals better at home.

The grill pan I use almost daily is trashed and not only that, it’s not right for my stove top!  It has ridges on the bottom!  I did not know that until the woman at the store helped me find this new one!  (It was also warped).

It’s beautiful and it is flat on the bottom.    It’s smaller but I can make two batches.   Oh and I won’t need Pam!

I got out of that store with with just my pan!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

So Friday my kid decided to tell me about a science project that is due on Monday.  Great.

After a bit planning, we found a solution that meets all the requirements.

We got to work!

You know me and decoupage!

We turned a water bottle into the body of our hot car using the material from my jar project.  My kid is obsessed with every thing Pacific Ocean~!

We used straws, tea lights, material, paint brush handles and just about anything we could find to turn that bottle into a real C02 car! 

It really has to work!  After we figured it out, she customized her ride with stickers!

She added a surfboard to the top with a surfing dolphin too!

It really came out cute!  Love the wheels!

The bottom is the front of the car, the back where the  hole is,  holds the C02 that the teacher will pierce to make it go!

Cross your fingers it works!

Happy Friday!

How are you doing? 

As you know, I base my life these days on monthly payments and the countdown (60 payments) to financial freedom!

This month seems so long because I made a trustee payment early in June for May and next Monday they are taking ANOTHER payment out for May!  So basically, two payments.  Gah!

I always look forward to making another payment because its one more step in the right direction! 

To make time pass as pleasantly as possible, I try to stay busy, do very inexpensive or free things, be as creative as possible for someone with no talent and I just try to be happy and grateful for the life I have.

Today, I want to focus on the beautiful things that I am grateful for at home and on the web.

(Because in reality my life consists of cat poop and litter,  hairballs, dirty dishes, laundry, stopped up toilets, work stress, teen drama, health, financial, environmental issues, … Pinterest, take me away!)

Let’s get out of here if only for a moment.

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One of my coworkers is from Vietnam, it is so pretty.  She’s going for a month in February.  Lucky!

 
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Ahhhh Oregon, home sweet home!

 
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Oh my gosh, check out the following website.  Does this person really get to travel all over and take these beautiful pictures? Who is that lucky?

 
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This is one kitchen that I could walk into and just feel completely at ease.

 
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It’s a little classic meets country. Minus the ducks with blue bows!  Love the plants in the window,  Beautiful.

How can I not include flowers?

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Abundance!  That is a beautiful thing.  Especially in Spain!

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Southern California Baby?  Maybe!

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Okay, I can’t resist this pic!  More flowers. 

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Okay, I don’t know if this is “beautiful” but it sure is cute!   On second thought, I actually think whimsy is a thing of beauty.  It gives your mind time to relax!

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Must add some Zen

 
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Me thinks I have posted that pic before.  I must love it!

I am going to leave you today with More Oregon!

Back to reality, the cat box awaits!

Have a great day!