APPLE TIME

I love living in New England during the Fall months! The Apples around here are ready and plentiful!! I picked up a bag the other day from a local farm and have been waiting till my Back wasn't killing me to bake. This morning I woke up sore but felt a little better than normal so I decided to go for it. The hardest part was just getting the Apples peeled and sliced and then the rest was a breeze. I can't tell you how great my apartment smells right now, I'm sure my neighbors are drooling and jealous!

I made a Apple Pie &

a Apple Crisp

WEEK UPDATE

Yes I know it's been a week since my last post so I'm just going to update everyone real quick and hopefully post again later!
After Saram's baby shower last Saturday the whole family ended up going back to their house for a little after party. It was alot of fun to hang out and catch up with everyone! Unfortunately I'm still on the same medication that doesn't allow me to drink so it was a sober party for me. Danni wasn't drinking either so the two of us hung out and watched everyone else get silly!! I was a little concerned about how everyone was getting home but most came with someone that wasn't drinking or had very little. As we were leaving one of our family members got a text warning about all the Sobriety Check Points set up in the area and their locations (a handful of the family works in law enforcement so we get all the head-ups!). Turns out the were holding one right on the main street that their house is off of.
Danni and I were the first to leave and neither of us were drinking so we weren't worried but all the same didn't want the hassle of getting held up in one. The whole process takes forever! As luck would have it we didn't pass through a check point at all so it must have been on the other end of the street. Massachusetts has been cracking down on drunk drivers and for the last few months there has been checkpoints at least 2-3 times a week and according to the news they catch an average of 300 people a night at these points!!
Sunday I kinda of just took it easy. I was in alot of pain probably from Saturday even though I didn't do or lift anything that would have caused it. It seems like my shoulder/neck pain is still the same(no worse but no better) however the last few months my back has been out of whack. I can't seem to catch a break, if a lay in a position to help my back it hurts my neck and vice versa I'm just so frustrated and don't know what to do. I'm suppose to being going back to work any day now but I know in my heart I still can't do the job, there are days that I can't even stand because of my back. I had an appointment this morning to see my Dr but his office called and rescheduled to next Wed.
I've been seeing this Dr since Feb and every single visit I've had with him has been cancelled and rescheduled by his office. I wonder if they do this to everyone or if I'm just a random coincidence? At least this time the turn around was fast(normally they reschedule at least a month away). Something has got to be done at this appointment or I'm going to look for another Dr because I can't take this pain anymore and I don't know how much longer Costco will hold my position. I've actually started surfing the net and looking at classifieds for a more office friendly position.
Besides my pain there hasn't been much going on around here this week. I did a little shopping and bought some new things for my apartment. As much as I want a house I know I'll be stuck here for at least five more years so I may as well make the place look good. It didn't look bad before I just haven't change much since I moved in and since I no longer have a car payment I used that $400 to buy some new things. First I bought a new microwave! My last one was bought in 1997 if you can believe that?! It still worked OK but sometimes when you took your food out and shut the door it would restart automatically hahaha so I figured it was time for a new one. I found a great one at Walmart that microwaves and also has a toaster element for cooking pizza and such for $74!! Woot Woot!!! I also bought a few other things for the kitchen like a new throw rug, potholders and dish towels.
Second I went to Target a bought new stuff for the bathroom(I didn't like anything at Walmart). I found a shower curtain I loved and built off of that. I decided to chose colors that I normally never buy just for something new and completely different from my usual taste. I picked out Reds and Browns and am very pleased with the outcome. After setting it all up it still seemed like it was missing something so I ran to Walmart the next day and found a few pictures to hang on the wall. I took some pictures and I'll post them later. The whole thing cost me about $300 which was a little more than I wanted to spend but I needed a new toilet seat and bathroom cabinet too so for all that I didn't do too bad. The last cabinet I had was white and was falling apart some and since I chose dark colors this time I wanted a new darker finished wood cabinet. I found a build it yourself for $60!
Along with all the shopping I did for the house I also got myself some new shoes. I haven't bought any for about three years and since I am planning on returning to some sort of employment I needed some new sneakers. I still need all new clothes but at least the shoe expense is out of the way. Actually my parents wanted to take me shopping for all new clothes for my birthday last April but I asked them if I could wait and do it when I went back to work so my Mom just told me to let her know when I was ready!
Today my back is hurting already so I'm just going to take it easy since I know it'll be a busy weekend. My friend Andy that just bought the house is having a House Warming/ 10Th Birthday Party for his daughter Alexis on Sunday and I volunteered to make M&M Cookies, Orange Brownies and Macaroni and Cheese. So tomorrow I'll be making the bakes goods(hopefully my back will cooperate) and then I'll get up early Sunday to make the Mac & Cheese. I'll be posting pictures of the party early next week.

CVS 6-10

This morning when I woke up I saw that the Bananas I had bought last week were turning brown. I remembered seeing a pretty easy recipe for Banana Bread over at The Sparrows Nest so I thought I'd give that a try. Thanks Mrs. Wilt for the recipe! The bread was real yummy!!

After finishing baking I had to go to Physical Therapy. My shoulder is starting to feel a little better but my neck is still killing me. We started working on body supporting exercises today like push-ups. We did some girly ones but they worked out OK and didn't increase my pain so I'll continue to do those at home as well. The therapist is trying to strengthen me up so when I hopefully go back to work next month it won't be a huge shock to my body. Let's see if it works!

After therapy I wanted to run to CVS to pick up some pics I ordered online. If you sign up for their online photo, they give you the first 50 prints free. While I like Costco pics the best I ordered these anyways since they were free. The colors weren't great but whatever!

Here's what I got today....

TRANSACTION 1
2 Honey Nut Cheerios Cereal $3.33Each
2 Total Cereal $3.33Each
1 Lucky Charms Cereal $3.33
1 Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal $3.33
50 Photo’s FREE
Total $20.00
Coupons - $16.50**
Total OOP $3.50

TRANSACTION 2
1 Case CVS water $4.99
2 Nivea Shaving Gels $2.99Each
1 Nivea Men’s Body Wash $4.99
3 Reese’s Cups $0.79Each
Total $18.33
Sales - $1.87
Coupons - $6.50
ECB’s - $10.00(adjusted down to $9.96)
Total OOP $0.00

DAYS TOTAL $38.33
DAYS SALES - $1.87
DAYS COUPONS/ECB’S - $32.96
DAYS TOTAL OOP $3.50

SAVINGS OF 91%

**On the first transaction I ended up getting an additional $9.50 taken off my order due to their mistake. I tried to explain it to the cashier and then the supervisor and they still didn’t understand so I gave up! The confusion was with my photo’s, since they were free they had their usual barcode(to charge $9.50 for pics) on them plus an additional coupon barcode(to subtract the price so they would be free). Well the kept scanning just the coupon and never actually scanned in the original barcode so in effect the took an additional $9.50 off my total. Normally I don’t like to “scam” anybody and always tell when something like this happens but I tried and nobody understood so oh well!!

Want to see more CVS savings?

Visit the Centsible Sawyer's CVS Superstars or Money Saving Mom's Super Savings Saturday!! You can find both of their links in my list of favorites!!

A LOOK OVER THE LAST WEEK

First up is my beautiful niece Nevaeh. My sister Danni made her a nice breakfast of mini pancakes with fresh blueberries and syrup. I watched Nevaeh pick up a pancake and then ever so carefully squished it all in her mouth! She is so darn cute!!

"What Titi?? See it all fits!"

As you can all see, Miss Mia is adjusting nicely. She has a great playful personality that comes out more and more each day. She's a great companion to have around.

I spoiled her a little with a whole bunch of new toys which she loves!

Earlier in the week I had read from Andria over at Boy Crazy how she makes these Glazed Orange Brownies and they're a big hit. Turns out it's a Paula Deen recipe and I absolutely love her so I thought I'd give it a try. They came out great!

MOTHERS DAY/NEVAEH'S 2ND BIRTHDAY

Today was a great day!! We all got together at My sister Danni's house minus a few that were either working(Valerie) or had to work early am(Laura) or were celebrating their wedding anniversary(Eddie & Betsy). My Brother n Law Dave cooked 2 Pork Panines and made some Spanish Rice and White rice, I made some homemade Macaroni and Cheese in the Crock pot, Adam made a Pasta Salad and Andy made a Potato Salad. I also brought over a double batch of Homemade Peanut Butter M+M Cookies and a Fresh Tangerine Cake. It was my first time trying this cake recipe and it was Delicious. The entire family enjoyed at as well, in fact every last piece was eaten!! Here's what it looked like....

Happy 2nd Birthday Nevaeh!!!!

This is the present I got her...

A Dora The Explorer Tricycle!

And of course being the responsible Titi I got her a matching Dora Helmet...

Safety First!

It was alot of fun. When the food was ready the men served all the women their plates which was nice and much less chaotic then everyone trying to squeeze into the kitchen to make their own. After supper David opened a bottle a wine that we all shared and then we had cake and did Nevaeh's presents. She wasn't super interested in opening gifts so Mommy had to help her and she was a little scared of the helmet I bought her. She wouldn't put it on but laughed like crazy when we all tried it on. After the excitement wore down I caught her giving the Dora helmet a kiss!

She'll get used to it when she learns she can't ride her bike without it.

So Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful woman in my family and

Happy 2nd Birthday Baby Girl!!!!

NERVE TEST

I just like to start out today by saying Thank You to my many new readers that have stumbled across my blog in one way or another. I've enjoyed reading many of your blogs over the last few months and it feels good to know that more and more people are reading mine everyday. So a big Thank You to all of you in blog land and keep leaving me those comments!
I was excited this morning to find that my tax money had been deposited to my checking account. It couldn't have come at a better time! I have already paid all my monthly bills, done my monthly grocery shopping and had finished my Mother's Day gifts so wasn't in "need" but I had forgotten to get my niece Nevaeh a birthday present. She is turning 2 on Monday however we are combining her birthday party with Mother's Day on Sunday since the whole family will be together anyways.
I've been wanting to get to Target lately to check out their grocery prices. I have read from many of you some good deals you can get there so I wanted to check it out for myself. I did get 2 boxes of Kraft Live Active cereal for 98cents! I had printed out 2 coupons for $3off each so this was a pretty awesome deal. Other than that I just got birthday stuff. I can't tell you guys what a got for her just yet since my sister Danni reads this blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise. I'll tell you about it on Monday and post some pics. I hope Nevaeh likes it!! As I was checking out I heard someone call my name and turned around to be surprised by an old high school friend I couldn't believe he recognized me but he said I look exactly the same. Turns out he moved back to our hometown and invited me to stop by sometime. Nice to see you Gabe!!
My next stop was a quick trip into Stop & Shop to get a few ingredients I needed to make Nevaeh's cake on Sunday. It's a tangerine cake that requires freshly squeezed tangerines so I needed to get some of those and some cream cheese for the frosting. I've never made this kind of cake before but I found the recipe in a Paula Deen magazine and I absolutely love her and have tried many of her other cake recipes and am always pleased. Danni requested anything but chocolate cake so I figured I would try something that wasn't just white. I'll post pics after I make it on Sunday and tell you guys how it turns out.
Now it was home to quickly unload the car. I had a nerve test at 3 and was cutting it close and it was starting to pour. Once that was done I was off to my appointment. Along with all my shoulder/neck pain I also have pain in the elbow and loss of feeling in my ring and pinkie fingers. Today they were testing my right arm to see if there was a pinched nerve in my elbow. Have you guys ever had one of these??? OUCHIES! The first part of the test was shocking the arm and hand in various places via small electrical pads. This was uncomfortable but really no big deal. The second part of the test requires needles to be stuck in various muscles(3 in neck, 6 in arm, 4 in hand to be exact). Then they send electricity through the needle to see how it affects the muscles. This hurt alot especially the soft part under my upper arm, between my thumb finger, and in the neck. I almost cried!
Of course when the test was over the guy said that everything was pretty much normal. Now I know this is good news but every test I seem to have comes back normal and I'm still in awful pain. So I just wish that one of these tests would show something significant wrong so they could just fix whatever it is that pains me and I could start to live normally again!

M&M COOKIES

Now I love M+M's as much as the next person and with the great ECB deal CVS has been running lately I've bought alot of them. Most I've given to my niece Nevaeh, who absolutely loves them, and the rest I've been munching on but how many M+M's can 1 person possibly eat??!!

Today I went to the fridge and grabbed all the ones I had left, some plain, some peanut butter and some wild cherry and I made a batch of cookies and threw them all in together. It's a yummy treat and a great way to use them all up.

Boy will Nevaeh love these!!

SHOCK ME

I had another session of Physical therapy today. It was most of the same as on Monday except today she worked more on my Rotator Cuff muscles versus my neck ones. The were really sore, so much worse than any of the others. I had no idea where the majority of my pain comes from since its spread out through out my neck, shoulder, and upper back area but when she started her manual massage there... Yowzers!! It was killing me, I'm not sure how I didn't end up crying it was that bad.

The girl kept asking me if I had metal in there. After the forth time I was like I'm positive there is no metal unless they accidentally left something in there, Why do you feel something?? She wasn't sure what she was felling but that that something still isn't right in there. She suggested a anti-inflammatory patch that was applied by using a different type of electricity machine. I said sure, why not?! I've got nothing to lose at this point and am willing to try anything. When she came back she placed a medicated patch on the area she had just been working on and I noticed what looked like one half of a metal snap button. Then she placed just an ordinary patch with a metal snap thing further down my arm above my elbow and hooked one up as positive and one as negative. I guess the concept was the med would enter my body and be pulled down through the affected area as the electricity flowed. This concept intrigues me and I'm interested to see if it works, so far its been four hours and I still feel my same old everyday soreness.

The day following therapy is usually bad since the aggravated all the muscles the day before so I decided when I got home to bake some Pecan, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies just in case I was sorer that normal tomorrow and aren't able to do it. Tomorrow night all the family and some of my friends are getting together at my sisters house for my(and my friend Andy's) birthday celebration and even though it's my party I love baking treats for others and the family especially like my cookies.

COCONUT PINEAPPLE BARS

I baked some Coconut Pineapple Bars today. They came out all right just not what I expected. After I mixed together all the ingredients and I went to get my 13x9 pan I remembered that I had used it to make something for a party and it hasn't been returned yet so I was forced to use my 11x7 pan. This threw the estimated baking time way off. It seemed like the edges were down almost 20 mins before the middle. They ended up tasting OK but I'm not sure I would make them again.

OUT LIKE A LAMB?

What did I do this past weekend?

Not much. Friday night I baked some Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies. I completely forgot that there was a Jack and Jill for a co-workers son until a friend texted me to make sure I was still going. Of course I was right in the middle of cookie baking. I only had about half hour baking time left but it was already 8:00. So now I was confused and uncertain about what to do. After a few text back and forth, I decided to stay home for a variety of reasons:

1-I was still baking

2- I'm not even sure if I had anything to wear. Being out of work the last year I gained alot of weight and right after Christmas I went through all my clothes and donated anything that didn't fit. Which turned out to be almost everything with the exception of a few pairs of sweatpants, which I live in.

3-I did have a little extra money due to me gold trade-in but I figured I didn't even know the couple so I may as well stay home and save the money. My budget is extremely tight as it is and a night out drinking is just not in the cards(nothing wrong with enjoying a nice bottle of wine at home though ha ha)

4-The friend I was planning on going with was unsure how long he was going to stay and was possibly going out after and said I should take my own car. I didn't actually mind going to the party but for an hour or two it probably wasn't worth my time to shower and try to find something appropriate to wear.

The rest of the weekend I spent just hanging out at home. There wasn't much to do so I just kinda layed low and it was a good thing since my pain level was fairly high. Saturday I was suppose to go to The Home Show at the Big E with Mom, Dad, Danni, Dave and Nevaeh. I found some coupons online for $3 off each ticket(reg $10) and printed enough for everyone. Once I woke up on Sat though I had a slight headache and my shoulder/neck were killing me but I wasn't going to cancel because I don't really spend as much time with my parents as I should. Within 10 minutes of waking I got a call from Danni and she said my Dad wasn't feeling well and they were all canceling. I was relieved to say the least!

Sunday was more of the same laziness. I did make a nice Pork Loin 5 Rib Roast in my crock pot along with Red Potatoes, Carrots, Mushrooms, Green Beans, Celery, Onion, and garlic. It was so yummy!

Today I just had a few errands to do, Post Office, Cvs, Bank etc...

and now I'm in for the rest of the night. Good thing cuz here it is the very last day of March and it's raining and snowing again!

I thought the old saying was out like a Lamb??!!

OH MY HEAD

Today was a bad day and I have nothing to report. I woke up to a slight headache, which happens about four times a week. I think it may be disc related, hopefully I'll find out soon. I tried to take some Motrin and drank and ton of coffee to try to get the caffeine fix. Nothing worked. I knew I needed to bake the cake for tomorrow so I decided I would do that next before things got worse and I'm so glad I did! I ended up with the worst migraine. I tried to sleep and it just kept getting worse till finally I was very nauseated. YUCK! I slept most of the afternoon and thank god it finally subsided around seven. What was actually great was that a friend had come over and had cooked ribs he had marinated overnight and some homemade potato salad and I was starving now that I was feeling much better. Boy was the food yummo!

Here's a few pics of my Carrot Cake. It came out awesome!!

CHOCOLATE CHIP DREAMS

Baking is one of my all time favorite hobbies. I enjoy baking cookies, pies, cakes and breads for my family and friends. I don't actually consume any of the products. I know all of you are laughing out there due to the enormous size of my butt, but its true. I really just like being able to take a few ingredients and put them together and make something that tastes great! Even though I'm in pain a lot I have continued to bake just not as often as I normally do. The whole process just takes longer than average trying to avoid any movement or lifting that may cause more pain or injury. Today I'm starting my baking for Easter. I told my mom I would make some Chocolate Chip Cookies and a Carrot Cake. So today I'm starting with the cookies, which at my current pain level should take the majority of the afternoon but hey what else do I have to do?!

My dream is to be able to open a small neighborhood bakery. Nothing huge and fancy just a nice homemade shop that sells Delicious treats to take home to your family. I think I would be so much happier doing this, making my own hours, being my own boss. My sister loves the idea and wants to come work with me but she's also had her own dream of a sandwich and homemade soup shop. So who knows maybe we can open some sort of small dual takeout shop. Oh to have a pipe dream, unfortunately I don't think we have enough credit to get it going but we're not gonna give up. Who knows it make take us another ten years but I'm going to do it!