Things

I know, material things are just things. But I'm also grateful for certain things because they make our lives easier. And they make chores a little more bearable. I won't go as far as writing "fun" but material things help me out a lot. For instance ...

1. I'm thankful for the kick ass Dyson that we got as a wedding gift from The Man's best friend and Vero! The Man vacuums so much now! I'm not exaggerating. He likes to point out all the hair we can both see through the canister. Whatever. It gets him to vacuum a lot (I'm not joking, The Man vacuums at least once a week. Usually more!!!) He likes gadgets and this one is a fine one for him to play with and enjoy. As the former sole vacuuming person in the house, this was a welcome addition.

There's just seems to be this fascination in us being able to see the gross stuff we are vacuuming from our floor over the mysterious vacuum bag that came from our Hoover.

2. I'm thankful for Gertrude who came to us a few months ago and is great addition to the family! I started to write about her back in April when we first got her but I deleted the entry because I felt like I was showin' off. Well, whatever. She's a few months old now and I really am grateful for her! Some of you may remember Cupcake, my old but kind-of-sturdy black Pontiac Sunfire. I swore I would drive her into the ground because she was paid off! And by golly, I stuck to my word and done nearly drove her into the ground! The passenger window had become fickle, sometimes not rolling up. NOT good since I drive a lot for work. And then Cupcake simply cut out on me while I was driving on Mission Blvd. Well, we debated if we should make the repairs and when The Man looked up her safety ratings, he came up with a really good case for buying a new car. With all the driving I do, he rationalized that I will have a pretty great chance of one day being in an accident. Morbid, I know, but he's right. Since he loves researching online for gadgets (and yes, I consider cars a really expensive gadget) he researched every night for about eight to ten weeks on different cars. Yes, while I was planning for the wedding ;) I was really big on fuel efficiency (I had no idea that gas was going to be $5/gallon or I would have argued more about it!) and The Man was really big on crash safety ratings. I really wanted a certain car and would not budge. Then he showed me a video on a crash test for my #1 pick. The video went on to say that the driver would likely incur "brain hemorrhaging" should he/she be hit from the side at 45 mph.
The Man knows how to argue his case, let me tell you. But I still need something fuel efficient, I argued back! He was exasperated by then and said, "Well I really don't think you will care much about fuel efficiency when you're missing a limb or something!!!" Point taken. So there went my #2 pick, as well.
Not to worry, he also had to compromise. I test drove his #1 pick and did not care for it. We ended up with his #2 choice which was my #3 -

Her name is Gertrude. Gertie, for short. Dirty Gertie when she's not clean or is acting up. The reason why I named her Gertrude is because her voice is kind of stern and formal. The Man did not care for this name. He wanted me to name her something more exotic. I had named our GPS "Sabine" because she had an Australian/British accent and the named sounded appropriate. Oh well, I'm driving it so I'm naming it! Gertrude has proven to be an awesome car. The Man is less anxious about all my daily driving and I feel pretty safe, too. She has butt warmers (for the life of him, The Man does not understand why chicks dig butt warmers! I told him butt warmers rule!) and a great A/C which Cupcake, sadly, had a hard time with - not sure if it's because it was a black car or just getting old but Cupcake was H-O-T! Didn't matter if it was winter or summer, if it was sunny, she was an oven. As I mentioned, Gertie is a stern sounding car but she also gives clear and accurate directions and is extremely useful for my job. It costs quite a bit to fill 'er up but I actually fill her up less frequently than I did the Sunfire. Phewww!

3. We finally, FINALLY, started using the slow cooker Kim & Ryan bought us for our wedding! Our home gets super hot during the summer, especially whenever we use the oven or stove so this appliance really comes in handy right about now. It doesn't make our house one big oven ... thank goodness!

What's moded is that I haven't bothered to look up recipes to get the maximum benefit of this great slow cooker. What are we using it for, you ask? To cook the pups' chicken! I know, I know, you think it's ridiculous. Well, they won't eat just kibble ... they have gone two days straight without eating. We mix up some chicken with it and problem solved! They eat. So if anyone has a great recipe we can use so that we can make a nice meal, please let me know! I've had people tell me, "Oh! Just throw some chicken, onion, garlic, carrots and potatoes and you've got yourself a meal!" I am not that secure in my cooking, people. I like exact measurements.
The reason why we finally unearthed this great gift, along with the rest of our fantastic wedding gifts, is because The Man has finally unpacked all his stuff. It's hard to explain since it's not like we moved into a new place. But if you could have seen what it looked like when he finally moved in all his stuff - it was something else. We still have one room that needs some serious help :( Anyway, we are finally finding a place for everything and putting everything in its place!

4. My Sonicare toothbrush - I've had this for a while. It's a great contraption, I tell you. After I got three cavities, I take my dental hygiene very seriously. Those cavities were my first ever, by the way. I conveniently got them right after I was taken off my parents' insurance and I was working at a job that did not provide medical or dental!

Those have been my only cavities and I think a lot has to do with my Sonicare toothbrush. I'm not keen on the idea of wearing dentures ... I'm not a hater, I'm just trying to keep my real teeth for as long as possible.

5. OK, I know this one sounds ridiculous but I forgot how much I loved this product until we stopped using it and then recently bought it again:


I used to work for Bath and Body Works back in college. I loved all their stuff and wore it all the time. As I got older, I stopped using many of their products. But there are two that I love - their hand soap and their antibacterial gel. We ran out of the hand soap a couple months ago and never replaced it because we both hate going to the mall. Instead, The Man bought some soap from the grocery store and we used that. No biggie, it totally worked. Last Saturday, we happened to need to go to the mall and walked by Bath and Body Works. Whooohooo, they were having a sale - 3 antibacterial products for $10. I bought some hand soap, of course!
Oh my word, the Midnight Pomegranate is di-vine!!!! It smells so good, it makes our hands smell good and because BBW stuff is strong, it makes the bathroom smell good! All that scent-y goodness in a squirt of hand soap. Awesome.

So these are a few of my favorite things. Please remember that if you have a good slow cooker recipe, send it my way! The Man and I will be very grateful.

Oh, and me joining the bandwagon a little bit late ... here is MY weemee!

Taken from one of Daisy's Mama's entries!
No, no, I'm not dillusional. I know I'm no angel! But I try to be good. Most of the time. And out of all the expressions to choose from, this one seemed the most calm. Happy without going overboard. What I really dig is that she's tan so it's pretty accurate representation! Now if only they made slated eyes an option ...