Thursday, January 31, 2013

Organizing Ain't Cheap!

Ok, so TheSmellyArmpit is suppose to be about making your life easier right? And recently, I was talking to my sister about one of the greatest inventions for a cartrasher like me. Oh, you don't know what a cartrasher is? You can spot one by peering into their vehicle. There could be a number of indicators to give you a heads up that a car belongs to a cartrasher. One is the dashboard seems to be made out of mail piled up as high as the top of the steering wheel. I don't fall into this category of cartrashers. Another cartrasher is someone like me, food on the floor, toys scattered everywhere, sticky candy or half eaten items on different areas of the vehicle, trash littered here and there, shoes and socks and sweatshirts in one corner, drink straws with and without lids stuck under seats, well you get the disgusting picture. That was my SUV until a week or so ago when we got a Mountainsmith "travel" organizer!


Here's what their website says about it... "Organize your car, garage, or basement with our category leading storage organization system with color coded cubes to keep your gear where you need it most and a protective ballistic hauler to carry it all in. Available in three sizes - Modular Hauler 2 / Modular Hauler 3 / Modular Hauler 4."

I got the one that has 3 totes in it - one for toys, one for food, and one for diaper supplies. I also got an additional cooler tote that folds up nicely and fits in the hauler when not in use. This was SO handy this week because I had 30 minutes to spend between dropping off my two older kids to preschool and when I had to have my littlest at his one year checkup. Luckily, Walgreens is right next door and milk there is on sale right now for $3/gallon. So I got two gallons which fit PERFECTLY in this cooler tote!!! Left them in the car during the appointment and they were still plently cold by the time we got home from the appointment.

So what else to I like about this organizational tool? My car looks WONDERFUL. I can easily pickup a stray toy and throw it in the toy tote which I leave the lid unzipped and tucked back. I'm keeping the hauler behind the passenger seat and the toy tote sticks out a little just behind the console which is a perfect location when wrangling stray toys! The middle tote is filled with snacks and different food items for on the go, and the diaper supplies. This is a great location for it since my baby's carseat is here so if we are heading into a resturant, playground, church, etc, I can just grab a diaper and wipes out of this tote and put them in my purse as I'm getting my little baby out of the suburban.

Ok, so for any other cartrashers, I highly recommend this product! I think it's going to make life much simpler for any roadtrips we go on in the future and definitely has already helped me keep my car looking better. I even vacuums it today! Alright, I had to since a whole canister of Pringles got spilled and then stomped all over the carpet. Still, cartrashers take note this Mountainsmith product is great!

Where to buy? You may be asking. Here are some of the places that carry them... Mountainsmith.com, the Container Store (where we foudn it), the Sierra Trading Co,

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Big Blurr

I don't know what has happened here lately. I feel like I'm in some hyperspeed timewarp. Is it because I'm living in my dream home, my children are happy and safe, my husband loves me tirelessly? Maybe. It is because I'm finally being still in the backyard watching my daughter twirl to the music in her head while the windchimes knock together in a faraway place? That's probably when I notice it in the least - the grains rushing through the hourglass. My husband and I holding hands, and I notice the wrinkles and spots and veins becoming more pronounced. Whispers from yesterday reminding me of a different place and giggles of my little baby reminding me of today. Such a span of distance, I have come and hopefully many more miles to go. I hope to always be continually thankful for what I have been given, where I came from, how God has moved through my life and weaved His tapestry of the minutes, hours, and days I've lived. I'm thankful for His mercies that are new each morning. That when at the end of the day, my emotions and body are spent but know full well that never has He and never will He forsake me or leave me. I'm thankful for the promise of eternity with Him in His glory that will not be bound by time. I'm thankful for my savoir and God - Jesus.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Where Has the Time Gone?!

Ohhh I've got to start publishing again on here. People need to know TheSmellyArmpit's tips for making their homes, health, and hearts a little less stinky. :) One great way to help your budgets, and therefore you home, is by couponing! I'm loving the website mylitter.com. Over the weekend I went through my coupon binder with the coupon matchups from this website. Tonight I finally had an hour to spare to make the big trip to the store and stocked up on things we love to snack on like Pringles and Goldfish crackers. :) How much did I spend on these??? Well, the pringles are usually $1.50 at Kroger but I with coupons and the Mega Event(buy 10 participating items and get $5 off) the pringles were $0.75each. Goldfish... ohhh those tiny snack crackers that my kids can eat by the ton. These are regularly $1.99each and with the Mega Event plus sale price, I paid $0.79each! Oh, yea! Total amount spent $87.69. Total coupon and sale savings $60.14 which comes out to be 41%!!! Yipppeeee!

Ok, so now you are saying to yourself, "Yea, right. Who has time to sit around and clip and organize coupons for 30 hours each day." NOT ME! I've got 3 kids 4-1/2 and younger. I've got a house to clean. I've got receipts to organize for this past year tax returns. I've got a bedskirt I've been trying to sew for 3 weeks now. Ok, you get to the picture. I don't have time to clip coupons.

But... I do have to time to

1. Use a giant three ring binder and a 3 hole punch to put coupon packs in the binder.
2. Use seperators between coupon packs from the Sunday paper and label the seperators with the paper date that the coupon packs came from.
3. Look up coupon matches on sites like mylitter.com . They usually will list the date the coupons were in the paper with the publisher like RP for Red Plum or SS for Smart Source. Now just get out your handy coupon binder, flip through to the appropriate date, pick the coupon pack for either Red Plum or Smart Source, flip through until you find the coupon your looking up and clip!

TAH DAH! Easy as 1-2-3!!!

Hope this information is helpful and you're on your way to saving more money in the new year!!!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Dad-isms

"To dream is a blessing and to set a goal is an way to reach a dream."

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Things Toddlers Say

Yesterday morning we had oranges for breakfast. I said, "Do you guys think we should plant an orange tree in our yard?" My little girl replied, "No, no, Mama. We should plant a pink tree!"

Friday, January 11, 2013

One more thing...

I've got something else to say before logging off tonight. I broke 4 ribs clean through on Dec 17th. I should still be in pain since it was only 3-1/2 weeks ago. It should still hurt to laugh or lift things. I am a little tiny bit sore sometimes but nothing noticable. I believe that my God is a healer. I believe nothing is impossible with God... especially something as minute as broken ribs in the larger skeem of things. I believe He has healed me quickly. I'm so thankful for the mercies and blessings that Jesus has shown me in life such as physically not being hurt as bad as I could have when the ladder slipped and mentally through help with counseling and spiritually that I can read the Bible any time and anywhere I want in this country. We are a blessed nation and I'm hoping that our hearts will all return to Him but know that the only person I get to decide that for is myself. Still luckily I can pray and pray for our nation. So there's something else I'm thankful for, prayer. Just the priviledge of getting to talk with God. Anyone else amazed by this??? Oh, yea! I knew there'd be some hand raising for that! God is so good. I don't understand everything in this life and am not suppose to, but I do understand to some extent that God's love is never-ending and He will never leave nor forsake us even in the dark hours of life and the bright sunshiney days too. Praise God for His unfailing love toward this failing soul.

Food Diary - January 11, 2013

Breakfast - Fried egg, two pieces of toast with butter and cherry(oh so yummy) jellie, one orange

Snack - don't remember. I don't think I had a snack but a glass of milk

Lunch - ham and cheese sandwich with only one slice of bread but lots of meat, 1/2 cup cranberries, a spoon full of olives(YUM!)

Snack - 200 calorie pack of fudge striped cookies and a pecan sandie cookie... uh oh my tummy is starting to growl and it's 1:30am...

Dinner - DATE WITH MY MAN! So really should this count? Ok, good. I didn't think so either. Let's just skip this whole part, shall we? NO? Oh, bloggysphere you are such a good accountability partner... So for dinner I chose the pork tenderloin and the chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream... WORTH. EVERY. CALORIE. Which reminds me. I got my dessert after the concert had started and ate a couple bites and then would turn back around to listen to Aaron Tippin sing and then turn around again between songs and take a bunch of bites and then finally he said something about it was ok for me to hurry up and eat my dessert while he was singing because otherwise my ice cream was going to melt. LOL WOW! First off this country music legend was down-to-earth enough to speak directly to this fan and secondly, yep, that's how close I was to the stage! WOW! He even said something about handing my dessert to him to finish it. Obvious, I'm a complete stranger to this person because anyone that knows me knows not to even joke about messing with my chocolate.

Snack - Hmmm... You know what? I haven't had my after dinner snack and was so excited at the concert (and nervous at sitting so upclose) that I only finished off the salad, one piece of pork tenderloin(that was cooked perfectly), and oh yes the entire chocolate dessert. BUT I did restrain myself and not lick the plate clean. WOW this food diary is really paying off. Think of all the calories I saved by not cleaning the plate entirely! And with that, I deserve a snack! Mmmm rice cake here I come! hahaha


Night all!

Aaron Tippin at Dosey Doe's

Ok, tonight I went on an incredible date! Ok, I know!!! I know! I already got to go on one date this week! (remember me talking about the lunch date yesterday?!) Well, we went on ANOTHER date tonight to a place called Dosey Doe's here in Houston. It's such a COOL place! Great accustics and very neat atmosphere. It's a 160 year old Kentucky tobacco barn that was moved piece by piece and reassembled to make this dinner and a show venue. Incredible!

When you first get to Dosey Doe's you get seated and order your entree and delicious dessert picks. It's family style seating so you get to know your neighbors. We sat across from Suzanne and Don who go to D.D.'s several times a year. They were fun to talk with as we waiting for our food. I had the pork tenderloin and sweet hubby had the catfish with crawdads. Both dishes had great presentations and were delicious!

Then around 8:30pm the lights were flickered on and off and the owner of the joint introduced the band onto stage and Aaron started singing. I can't even remember what he sang first but the set included Blue Angel, Big Boy Toys, That's As Close As I'll get to Loving You, There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio, Kiss This(was the song he closed with), He Believed(LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SONG!), Workin Man's PhD, and You've Got To Stand For Something. I think that's all the songs. IT WAS WONDERFUL! I loved hearing a bunch of the stories behind the songs and made them that more meaningful. I also loved hearing how he and his band go and sing to the troops and even when over Christmas this year went to Germany for the troops.

Then after the concert, they had where you could buy Cds and stuff AND get to meet Aaron Tippin and have a picture with him! I don't know why in my head I thought I could be normal and talk like a normal person and then as we stood next to the star to get our photo, I started giggling like a school girl and my face felt like it was on fire. Then I think I spurted out something like, "Oh, this is so cool!!!" which the picture was snapped. And everyone started laughing. So Aaron Tippin said, "Oh, I gotta give you a hug." Or something like that. AND Aaron Tippin gave me a hug. LOL! Then my awesome husband so protective of me said to be careful because I have a couple broken ribs. :) (which I completely forgot about) And Mr. Tippin asked how that happened. So I said, "Oh I'd like to say it's because of wrestling a bull or a bar fight but I felt hanging some decorations." ha! My hot man said about the bar fighting idea, "Oh, you should see the other guy." And everyone started laughing again as the line moved up and the next group of people got to get there picture made and we headed out the door.

So without further adieu, here's the pictures from the night...



Our sweet babysitter took our picture before going out...

HUH?! Is that Aaron Tippin just 3 feet from us?

Why yes! See how close I was to the stage... that's my boot.on.the.stage!

Waiting in line for an autograph and photo with Aaron Tippin...

Me squealy and giggly and all dorky with my handsome man and the famous singer... PS He gave me a hug after this photo!!!

The windmill in front of Dosey Doe's...

The tour bus...


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Food Diary - January 10, 2012

Ok Blogosphere, I'm wanting to have some accountability for my diet. And I don't mean I'm "dieting". I'm not talking about for example ever giving up chocolate as a diet... which would have to be pried out of my cold dead hands before that happens. I'm talking about discussing what I eat each day and breaking bad habits through a daily food diary on my blog.

So here goes...

Breakfast - cantaloupe, giant bowl of frosted flakes with milk

Snack - Bed wetter special sized Dr. Pepper from McD's. Oh, good job MageeMommy, you didn't order the 2 (or even one) apple pie screaming to be released from the misery of living in the kitchen of a fast food resturant with those annoying beepbeepbeeps 24 hours a day or the potential horror of being left in the warmer for past its expiration hour and mindlessly tossed into the trash. [PS When I type in italics, it's me pretending you totally read my mind in the moment and are praising me for a job well done of not consuming an additional unneccessary 1 billion extra calories.]

Lunch - SHOGUNS! Ok, people. How often do I get to go on a lunch date with my husband and adorable little 1 year old?! Plus, it was Mommy's Day Out(aka Preschool day) so I deserve a break and another thing... oh, yea, this is suppose to be a food diary and I'm trying to divert your attention. So at Shogun's I ate a rainbow roll(sushi) which was very yummy and I'm assuming nutritional. la la la... What about dessert?[Again PS that's you talking.] Oh, dessert. Why, that's silly! I mean let's move on shall we? Alright, FINE! I had a giant slice of frozen chocolate coffee ice cream cake. THERE, are you happy?! This food diary idea is stupid. Wait, I can eat my cake if I want to. PLUS, my 1 year old had at least a half a teaspoon of the cake; my date got a dirty look as he picked up "his" spoon from my dessert plate and fed the baby. Who told the waitress that he was suppose to get a spoon?! They should really work on training their waitstaff better at that place.

Ok, moving on...

Snack - cantaloup with the kids after picking them up from MDO

Dinner - Made a TexMex medley with chicken, corn, beans, tomatoes, onions, red peppers, and green peppers. So there. No carbohydrates since I ate the giant cake at lunch(ok I know the corn and beans but I mainly ate the other stuff). I did make noodles for the kids because being perpetual motion machines(yes, they do exist and they are all in toddler form) they need LOTS of carbs!

Snack - peanuts and water... and this is what I'm reduced to... nuts.

Things Toddlers Say

Today as we were playing with bubbles in the backyard in the beautiful sunshine, the air was full of tons of small bubbles. As my four year old was laughing so hard and popping as many floating orbs as possible, my little two year old stepped back, took it all in, and stated, "Ahh is so cuuute!"

And so is she.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Real Food Experiment

Ok, Melanie over at her new blog... Real Food Experiment issued a challenge. Well, not really a challenge, but it feels like one to me! See she is switching from junk food to real food this year and her family is along for the ride. I'm going to see how far her coat-tails take me and the first stop is the “health inventory" she asked her readers to take.


So here's mine...


My current exercise habits:

I don’t exercise... sigh. BUT I'm going to have to start this week so I can join my sister in a 5k in 3 months. Even if I have to walk the whole thing I don't care! I will finish it!!!!


My current eating habits:

1-2 cups or extra large Dr. Peppers or sprites or some other sugary drink daily

8-32 oz water per day

Breakfast daily - bread item(or cereal), fruit, and most days a protein

Morning snack - probaby lasts between breakfast and lunch haha processed foods

Lunch - deli meat, crackers or chips, cookies, dried fruits, occassionally carrots/broccoli/califlower etc

Afternoon snack - cookies cookies and more cookies - hmmm I'm seeing a problem here

Dinner - eating fast food 3-4 times a week eek! it's hard seeing that written out or a healthy meal with a starch, protein, and veggies

Afterdinner snack - ok this is where I lose it and could probably drop 10 pounds in 4 or 5 weeks just changing this... I usually eat a least one bowl of cereal, or half a bag of chocolate chips, or a half a bag of chips, last night it was chocolate and carmel covered popcorn... sighhhh! It's like I can't help myself.


Right now (January 2013), I am experiencing the following, and am hoping my change in what I eat and starting to go back to the YMCA will change the below:


Energy levels are up and down and all over the place

Headaches if I don't get my daily caffeine fix

Complection looking worse than usual

Belly flab overhang so my jeans don't fit. Also such a big belly I've been asked how far along I am one too many times lately. lol

Oh, yes, and my face looks a bit puffy too.(especially around my eyes)


So after sweet baby #3 was born and after gaining well over 50 pounds with him(I stopped looking at the scale at the end of the pregnancy), I think it's time to get my body back! I'd like to find out shirts don't fit because they're too tight over my chest verses too tight over my big ol' belly! haha And I'd like to start being more concience of how my eating and excercise habits will shape my health in the decades to come in my life especially with family members with diabetes, heart disease, cancer, you name it someone in my family's got it. I'd like to be around and up and moving for my grandbabies someday!

Stay tuned for this little experiment and hop on over to the Real Food Experiment to join in on the fun! Next up on the list... MEAL PLANNING!!! woot woot!

Toddler Devotional

Today's devotional, in the devotional book for toddlers that they gave to our youngest for his baby dedication in church, was about how we can talk with God any time. It seems so unbelieveable and hard to grasp that the Creator of the universe would stop and take time for me. I'm dust in the wind but He cares about this bit of dirt. :) And God cares for all He created even in the midst of pain and suffering and a world that doesn't make sense. I love the Bible verse that went with today's devotional ... Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Sometimes those answers are a long time coming but they will be answered with "great and unsearchable things". AMAZING! I love the hope that God gives us through His word and that I never need to feel lonely because He is here with me at all times. Never will He leave me nor forsake me. Praise God for His goodness!

Things Toddlers Say

Today, my preschooler pointed out one of my teeth in my smile was broken. It's more like the very edge is getting bumpy and see-through with my enamel going down hill. He asked, "Why?" I said, "Well, I'm getting old and as things and people get older they can start to break. It's just a part of life. No big deal." So he exclaimed, "I'm not broken! I'm brand new!!!"

Friday, January 4, 2013

Things Toddlers Say

Today's devotional for toddlers was about what are we going to be when we grow up. It talked about becoming what God has created us to be whether that be a fireman, nurse, teacher, or any number of professions. So after reading the devotional, I asked the kids what they would want to be. My little girl replied, "A bunny!" And her brother? She said, "Brother wanns to be a scary pumpkin!" Brother agree, "Yea! A scary pumpkin!!!"