One Week To Go

Here it is, the last week of the Think Big Challenge. I've come a long way and got quite a bit done, despite the loads of distractions and problems that hit me along the way. I'm amazed I added a whole new HALF of Idea Queen.....one that features the e-Cookbooks and the family-related ebooks. 17 Ebooks total have been added to this new part, and I'm hoping to at least double that this week. Which means I need to get busy!

I'm excited to have found all these ebooks....they really are interesting ebooks. Of course I had to dig through a lot of crap to find the diamonds, but it's been worth it. The ones listed really are of good value.

I read each of them personally and wow.....talk about some major improvements around here. I especially liked Organize Your Home and Money Saving Ideas. I picked up a tip from that ebook that's now saving me $20+ a month! It doesn't seem like much, but if you think about it....that's $240 a year. I can't wait to apply some of the other tips and see how much I can save. ;)

Looking forward to adding more of these cool ebooks to the list!

Stop the ride I want off!

OMG. Seriously just omg. I would like to say since the last post on this blog that things have slowed down a bit. Unfortunately it seems things have gotten a tad more crazy. I won't go into details because they are a tad personal, but let's just say it's drama I'm far too old for.

I'm trying so very hard to keep a hold on my Think Big Challenge. Even with everything flying at me from every direction, I like to think I've been doing a pretty good job with it. I've don't at least something every day, so that's saying something. So far with the challenge I've accomplished the following:

- Updated Recipes For Mom (yes I still have that site! It's been awhile!)
- Added new e-cookbooks to Idea Queen
- Updated recipe pages on Idea Queen to provide a one-click purchase to the e-cookbooks.
- Added a brand new section on Idea Queen with another new ebook to match it.


Yeah that list looks pretty pathetic for more than 2 weeks. Although you know, I wouldn't have gotten even half of it done if not for the kick in the rear from Becky's workshop. Even still, I really wish things would stop spinning. This week has it's own set of distractions, as one of my closest friends is moving in down the street from me. Since she is my best friend, I'll of course be helping her move. Thankfully most of this will be done at night, and I'll have my days to work.

Either way, I'm tired of the all the personal drama. Stop the ride, I want OFF! If things go back to mundane and routine, I'll be ever so grateful!

Life Getting In the Way....

Talk about bad luck and "one thing right after another". I'm about ready to just scream. I want to work, I really do. But life keeps getting in the way.

The major problems started over the weekend on Saturday night when my heat went out. Yes at temps below zero in my neck of the woods, my heat had a "bite me" moment. Luckily I had friends over, and they helped me pack up the kid and gave us a warm place to sleep for the night.

Sunday posed it's own set of problems. After trying about 20 different service people over several hours, I finally found someone to fix it. Late that afternoon it was FINALLY fixed and the house was warm again. Since I had left the water running the night before, no frozen pipes. Hurray! At least not until the next day.......

Just when I thought I was in the clear, Monday I woke up to no water. The main pipe had froze over night, despite the fact the house was warm. Another round of phone calls, and we had water again just before the kids went to bed. Yes it took THAT LONG to not only get the guy out here, but for him to fix it. I can't wait to see the bill from that one.

Now I think, alright no more problems. I got heat and water, we are good. HA! Yeah right. Today I try to do a load of laundry, only to find out THAT pipe is now froze. A few hours and the space heater took care of that, but then the drain pipe was froze. The people who worked on my pipes last apparently decided we needed a hole in the floor behind the washer. Which of course, caused the pipes to freeze up. Lovely.

So because of the hole I said to heck with it, and ran the washer anyway. Hey it's draining down to the crawl space and right now I don't care. Not good long term, but 2 loads of laundry aren't going to hurt it. That is of course, until I realized my washer has a loose part on the lid, so I had to rig it to get it to run. Lucky for me my dad is a Maytag employee and can fix that fairly easy (with a free part to boot! Woo hoo!).

I'm more than done with all this. From no heat, to no water, to no laundry, to broken washer.....it can stop ANY time now. I'm really really beginning to hate winter in Iowa with a serious passion. Or at least temps like this. All I want right now is to be able to work like normal with out so much of "life" getting in my way!