Fresh Start

As anyone who actually looks at my blog would already know, it’s been quite a break for me. I think I set too high of a goal with a post a day… I have a lot on my plate right now. I’m going to get back into blogging but go at my own pace. Thank you to anyone who follows me!

Apology

I’d like to take a second to apologize to both my readers (as few as they may be) and myself. I’ve been beyond busy and stressed over finals and moving and everything else that’s been going on in my life and have broken my promise to myself to blog daily. Now that I’ve got a month off from classes and time to really contribute to my new blog, I’m hoping to turn it into something special. My hope from here on out is to have a new post daily! Thanks for being patient everyone!!

Saving Money Wednesday

As I put on last Thursday’s Time Management post, I am currently on the search for a place for Chocolate and I to live in… a month. Ouch!! Suppose I’d better get a move on.

We were really hoping to get a place with no roommates so we began our search by looking at one-bedroom apartments however they were all either (1) in a horrible neighborhood, (2) the gross place in the nice neighborhood or (3) much out of our price range. I sat down and calculated it out and I have roughly 400 a month plus utilities to contribute to rent and Chocolate has no idea what he has to contribute because his mother is still the head of all his finances (yes, I know, how sad) but thinks it’s somewhere around 100 plus utilities until next December when his car and student loans are all payed off and then he can pay what I pay (which means we’d both pay half and be able to put the rest into savings!) however I don’t want to work myself into a rut so I was trying to find a place for a little less than 400 a month… which isn’t easy considering I come with a boyfriend and a cat!!

And so it began, I checked housing sites everyday and replied to oh… I’d say 5-10 ads per day. I received answers to maybe 1 or 2 each day however they kept falling through for one reason or another. Talk about frustrating!

And then I found the answer to all of our house searching problems!!

I emailed a nice woman very close to my age who is an adjunct professor at the local University. She and her fiance had just bought a house and were looking for someone to rent a room for a year or so to help out with the new costs of getting the house ready for them to begin their life in. She was so nice.. and normal… and it was perfect. That she gave me the idea, not living with her.

And this was the idea…

The perfect apartment complex for Chocolate and I was just out of range. It was 510 plus all of the utilities for a one bedroom and we just wouldn’t be able to afford it. But the idea of renting from someone else and not getting to pick our roommates and living in another house that people smoked in or weren’t clean in… just ugh! And after talking to this nice professor, I got the idea. Chocolate and I would rent a TWO BEDROOM from our perfect complex. With our names on the lease, we would get to choose our roommate. If they weren’t working out for whatever reason, we could get rid of them and get someone new in who fit us better. We could keep The Muppet and I would get to decorate a kitchen, living room and bathroom for the first time ever!! It was the perfect idea.

Now that the tough part is over, we’ve moved onto meeting with people to see who’ll work best to live with us. So far, we’ve met with two people. One was an older woman who kept calling Chocolate and I “future husband and wife” and was extremely Christian. She was nice… but was clearly going to be too judgmental for us. Moving on… Sunday we met with a man who is attending the local community college. He is in his late 20’s (so close in age to us) and he seemed nice enough however he doesn’t work. I asked how he would be paying for rent if he doesn’t work and he got very offended and said he has money saved and not to worry because I’d get my money. I couldn’t see why he was upset although Chocolate said you’re not supposed to ask stuff like that… well too bad. If you’re living in my home, I think I deserve to know how you’re going to afford it when you don’t even work. The guy was nice though… he’s still being considered although not at the top of the list. Saturday we’re meeting with a nice girl I’ve been emailing with who just graduated and is working on her masters and then we’re meeting with a couple who’re students and seem very nice. They were honest and said they like to party but don’t bring their parties home… I liked them both and have high hopes.

By renting out a room in our own apartment, we will be paying much less than if we were renting from someone else. We’ll be saving money and we’ll be in control. And so this, is how I solved our living arrangement problems. Now to move on to how to inexpensively decorate the place…. 🙂

Progress Report

I woke up at 7 this morning, went for a nice jog (although it was pouring rain, boo hoo) and then did 30 minutes of pilates. After showering and getting ready, I went to the bank and then met with what will hopefully be the managers of my new apartment complex (finger’s crossed!!). I came back home and did some Bio II homework and am about to relax with a bowl of oatmeal and a banana (and some grapeseed oil… we’ll see what I think about that) and watch some Private Practice before I have to leave for work. I am very proud of myself for all that I’ve accomplished this morning!

Relationship Tuesday

This week is another challange, although a bit different from two week’s ago. This week, I challange each and every one of my readers to go an entire two weeks without getting in a single argument (no matter how miniscule). I mean nothing. To some, this will probably be easy-peasy and for other’s, damn near impossible.

For Chocolate and I, I think it’ll be interesting. Easier on him than I as it’s usually me getting upset about the minute things. I’ll update everyone on how it’s going for us, I want to hear the same from you all!

Relationship quote of the week:

“I’m lucky I’m in love with my best friend, lucky to have been where I have been, lucky to be coming home again” -Jason Mraz & Colbie Callet

Update: Coconut oil: A success!!

Went to the store and got the coconut oil last night. It cost about 9 dollars and was found in my grocery store’s organic section. I melted about three spoonfuls of it (which was way too much) and Chocolate dropped in three drops with a regular spoon. We waited 20 minutes and then repeated. After three treatments of coconut oil, I still felt a bit of pain but was really tired. I went to sleep and my ear hasn’t hurt once all day. Now that, my friends, is what I call success!

Health Crazeee

Monday, yet again. This day always sneaks up on me. Today I started my new job and since I don’t have to be there until 11 on Monday’s, I was planning to wake up, work out, clean up around the house a bit and then get some studying done. Because I didn’t plan out anything last night, I instead slept until 30 minutes before I had to leave. Talk about a major fail. When I was doing it, I was thinking I was happy to have the sleep because of my ear but now I’m just super disappointed in myself. But hey, that’s life. Some days you win, some days you lose. Today was a loss, tomorrow I can aim higher.

At my new job, the gramma of the little girl I’m watching (Baby K) had on Dr. Oz. I’ve seen him before on Oprah but had never seen his show and let me just say… I fell in love!!!

Today’s topic was about losing weight and ways to help you. He was talking about how it’s really difficult to stick to a weight loss plan when you’re always hungry (I couldn’t agree more!!) and he had some solutions to help fill you up.

The one I am going to try out is the grape seed oil. You drink a tablespoon of it in a glass of water two hours before each meal and it helps you to not binge. I think it’ll be helpful because my problem is often that I wait until I’m starving to eat and then end up eating everything and their brother. Seriously. It’s pathetic. And then I get all upset when Chocolate says something about how I’m overeating and going to give myself a stomach ache and it’s like “seriously?! listen to the boy for once!”.

I’m going to pick up the grape seed oil when I get out of class tonight and I’m going to try it out tomorrow. Along with that, I also hope to actually work out tomorrow and then get some school work and cleaning done. My fingers are crossed, my recipe for success is going to be getting everything ready for tomorrow tonight… wish me luck!!

Oh my lanta, my ear!!!

I woke up around 3:30 AM last night with an intense pain in my ear however with the beginning of a new job this week +finals + house searching, I really don’t have time to go to the doctor… plus I’ve been getting way too sick, way too often as of late.

So I hopped online to see what I could find about natural earache remedies and found something on pinterest!! According to one of the pinners I often repin from, melted coconut oil is supposed to greatly help with ear aches. They avoided an entire trip to the doctors because of it…. it got rid of the infection!!

Because I forgot drinks and pie for Chocolate when I went grocery shopping today, I have to go back. While there, I’m going to get some coconut oil and see if it helps any. I’ll let you all know!!

 

 

 

**In case any of you want to read up on natural ear ache remedies/ see my source, here it is: http://youpinspireme.blogspot.com/2012/03/ear-infection-remedies.html**

The Dream

For the past oh.. month or so, at least twice a week but usually more like four or five times, I have this horrible stupid dream. I have no idea what it means however no matter whom I talk to about it, I can’t seem to kick it and after I wake up from said dream, I always feel rather unsatisfied.

In the dream, I am with Chocolate however he isn’t Chocolate. I keep calling him Chocolate and everyone around me believes that he is the real Chocolate however to me, he always looks like someone else (sometimes someone famous, sometimes someone from my life, more often than not, someone I dislike). For whatever reason, the dream really bothers me. I suggested to Chocolate that maybe the dream means that he’s not who I think he is… he didn’t so much love my interpretation.

Whatever the cause of the dream, I’m getting gosh darn sick of it. Little people in my brain who control my dreams, knock. it.off!!!

Education Thursday — Time Management

For this week’s Education Thursday, I’d like to talk about something that may not appear to play into Education but (believe me) it really does. I’m going to be talking about Time Management.

Time management is a touchy subject for me right now because I’m at that stage of uber-busy-ness where I just want to pull my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs and then go to sleep and wake up in a month… yeah, I’m that kind of busy. I know you’ve all felt it before, lemme tell you what’s contributing to it for me.

• Finals are in less than two weeks
• I’m in the process of applying to the school I want to transfer to
• I found out two weeks ago that come Fall, my boss won’t need a sitter anymore (although she hired me January 1st saying she’d need someone for at least 2 years) therefore putting me into a job search frenzy
• I found a new job however I’ll be taking a 30 dollar a week pay cut (which I’m sure doesn’t sound like much but it feels like much to me!)
• My rent is up June 1st and I need to figure out where Chocolate, The Muppet and I will be living come June (not as many places love cats as ya’d think)
• Teach is getting married in a little over a month and I still haven’t went in to order my Bride’s Maid dress
• Chocolate’s birthday is in a month and I have no idea what to get him however I want to get him the perfect gift
• The Muppet has been pooping blood, we took him to the vet two weeks ago and they gave him a $125 prescription to make the poop not so runny but they said there is nothing they can do for him other than Blood Tests and an X-Ray (both of which are extremely expensive, I had them run blood tests in January and they were able to find nothing although it cost me $360 for them to come to that conclusion)

SO!!! Needless to say, I have a lot on my plate right now. And I’m not trying to sound dramatic. Believe me when I say that I’m very happy with my life right now. I don’t feel unhappy or depressed, I simply feel a tad bit overwhelmed ( can ya blame me?!). I know there are people out there with much worse going on and I feel horrible for that, I’m lucky to be happy and healthy I just have a lot on my plate.

And it is at times like this that time management is beyond important. As much as I want to just sleep and sleep and sleep, it is right now that I need to jump in with both feet and plan out every second of every day so that I’m getting the absolute most out of my time.

I begin by looking at what I need to do.

• I start my new job on Monday. My new hours will be Monday- Friday, 10-4 or 11-5 depending on if the baby has playdate or not.
• I have finals in two weeks. I need to study for them. Need to.
• My house is messy and needs to be cleaned.
• I need to figure out where Chocolate and I will be living in a month.
• I need to get my dress for Teach’s wedding.
• I need to finish filling out my application for my next school.
• I need to budget enough so that Chocolate and I can afford rent, food, and gas. Our three necessities.

As I said earlier, I have a lot on my plate right now. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that bathing suit season is essentially here and I haven’t worked out in 2 weeks and don’t have the time to make a plan to do so. Which, to me, is a top priority. So what do I do? I plan out a time budget and I follow it strictly.

I like to make lists. For my last Chem test I made a list and I figured if I studied for 13 hours for the test, I would get an A. We got our grades back yesterday and I got a 96… while more than half of my class failed. I was extremely proud of myself and my hard work… and all because I made that list.

So the solution to all my stress seems rather obvious to me. I need to plan everything out in a nice, HUGE list, being sure to include an hour for exercise (because if makes me feel better about myself and because it increases energy) and to include 8 hours of sleep because that’s how much my body needs in order to function.

And I just now did that. At the bottom, I’ve posted a picture of my list that I now have hanging in my bedroom however I’m just going to type what it says because the picture is difficult to read.

Monday- Thursday

7-running

7:15- Pick Your Level Weight Loss Pilates (it’s on Netflix which I get through Chocolate’s PS3)

8- Shower &hair

8:30- Breakfast

9- Chem for 45 minutes

9:45- Bio for 45 minutes

10:30- 10:45- Cleaning

11-5- work

6- class

Friday

7- Running

7:15- pilates

9:15-GYNO

11-5- work 

In Bed By 10 Every Night!!

Because I don’t have work until noon tomorrow, I’m leaving my mom’s at 10:15 to go and get my dress for Teach’s wedding. I’m going to figure out what Chocolate and I are eating all next week in a few minutes and then go through my coupons tomorrow and go shopping Saturday. Today, I went and looked at an apartment complex Chocolate and I are considering moving in to. We would get a two bedroom and then rent out the other room so that we could afford it. That’ll be a better situation than we’re currently in because we would decide who we were living with so if said tenet(s) didn’t clean up after him/herself then we could get rid of ’em. My concern with this idea is that I’d have to furnish the living room and kitchen of this apartment plus it would be all carpet which, with The Muppet, isn’t the best of situations. The other place we’re considering is a place with an engaged couple near where we currently live. They would be deciding everything, they could get rid of us however they’d be responsible for furnishing the rest of the house. I am going to have to figure out which I’d rather do soon. Very soon. I started my application for my next school but then decided to hold off submitting it because I want to wait for this semester’s grades. I’m also about to work on a budget. I hope that covers everything.

Damn, I’m good.