Gotta Love Old Wives Tales

So my mom told me about this trick that she heard of for helping/preventing/reducing leg cramps when you sleep. So if any of you suffer from this or know someone who does, listen up!

Apparently all you do is put an unwrapped bar of soap under the fitted sheet at the foot of your bed near where your calves are… and.... there you go, no more or at least fewer leg cramps.


How does it work – I don’t know. But apparently, it really does.

It has worked for my mom for the past month or so and my mom was skeptical and kind of laughed it off when it was suggested. But later she gave it a try as medicine had not been working and she remembered when her SIL (who is a Physician’s Assistant) mentioned it worked. It was a "Well what the heck, nothing else seems to be working" kind of thing. Even my mom’s Dr. had heard of this and said that it has worked for some patients.

Google it. Short Article here. Even Snopes doesn’t have a definitive answer on this.



Seriously, no clue on how or why this works, but IF it does help even a little bit and for whatever strange reasons, that is HUGE for people who suffer from leg cramps at night.

I always think it is fun, these old wives tales that work.


Any old wives tales you would like to share with the blogging world that you KNOW works?

Talk to Me (Gardening Edition)

So I need a little advice about what to plant at our house. I am not very knowledgeable on this stuff. Since we have a condo we have to do most of our planting of flowers/veggies/herbs in planters. Last year we tried tomatoes and basil but this year we wanted to expand to a few other items.

We got one of those Topsy Turvy Tomato planters for Christmas and will be trying that out and planting tomatoes in that this weekend. We also know that we want to plant basil and one other herb, maybe dill?, in another planter. But we have two other containers open. Both areas will pretty much get full sun. One is a large container and we would like to plant a vegetable in that. We are looking for something that likes sun and will grow well in a planter. The second planter is a hanging basket. I would like to put some pretty flowers in that one. I would say that the area the flowers will be in get full sun maybe 75% of the day….there is a little bit of shade. I wanted to know what flowers grow well in planters and deal with a good amount of sun and limited shade.


So what I am looking for:
1. An herb to grown in full sun with basil.
2. A Vegetable that will be in pretty much full sun (little bit of shade) and that will work well in a pretty large planter.
3. Flowers that work well in a hanging basket with a good amount of sun.

Also, if you have any other suggestions for growing items in containers, please share!!


FYI - favorite flowers of mine: I LOVE lilies of any kind though I know these are not for hanging baskets, love sweet peas, daisies, and any flower with lots of bright colors or that are interesting to look at.


So are you planting herbs, flowers, veggies this summer? What are YOU growing and what tips do you have to make your garden grow?!

Get The GIST - Grace in Small Things (Mid-Week) List

I haven’t done this for awhile and sometimes you just need to take a moment and appreciate these "little" things in life. So I doubled up on my list of things that I feel grateful for today.


- Instant messaging with my mom

- That it is halfway through the work week…the weekend is getting closer!

- That it is absolutely lovely outside

- Having a stocked refrigerator (after 2 weeks of having an empty one) and actually cooking a healthy meal for T & K yesterday AND today

- Original Wheat Thins

- It is (Pink) Lemonade “Season”

- Sunny Spring mornings that have a fresh smell. It is delightful

- Watching my cats chirp and get excited about the birds outside the window this morning. They crack me up

- That my sister and I are meeting once a week to have lunch together during the summer

- I paid my second to last car payment for my car today! Just one more left and that bitch is mine.


Anything you are grateful for today?!

Dear Bugs and Other Creepy Crawly Critters:

Since we have to exist in this world together and since it is impossible to keep you out of our house I would like to suggest that we come to some sort of living arrangement. So may I propose the following?

That when you are in our house that you stay out of and away from items we use regularly, such as towels, wash cloths, blankets, near any food related items, or the inside of toilet paper rolls, and rather stick to places we do not frequent like vents, behind the stove/refrigerator, or in the back corners of the basement. I know the house isn’t that big but considering your size our house is like a state to you. Therefore, I believe that you should be able to find plenty of small nooks and crannies to settle down in without having to invade our main living space.

What is in it for you? Well for starters I won’t kill you or let my cat kill you making your already incredibly short life even that much shorter. Um, do you really need more of a reason than that?!

I know that we need to cohabitate and I know God put you on this earth for a purpose and I respect that. And believe me, I do not like killing one of God’s creatures (mainly because it is just gross), no matter if you have a ridiculous amount of legs or you are gross looking or you just freak me out even though you are smaller than a quarter. But when I am taking a shower and reach for my wash cloth and you come crawling out of it, or if it is 3 in the morning and I am half asleep and go to the bathroom and you are hanging on the toilet paper roll and catch me off guard I have to say that I will NOT think twice about crushing you. At that point it is just self defense.

In summary, stop scaring me and stay away from me and the things I use in my house and stick to the dark yucky places and then we won’t have to kill you. I really think this could work and I know you will do the right thing.

Best Regards,
Jenn

P.S. Belle wanted me to tell you that she 100% disagrees with this letter and is mad that I wrote it because she actually enjoys when you come out and visit as it gives her something to do.

I Think Their Search Feature is Broken

I did a search on the Food Network website for “Chicken and Spinach with Pasta”

These are a few of the recipes that showed up on the second page of the search.

- Veal & Sage Meatballs and Pasta with Gorgonzola Sauce
- Pumpkin Ravioli
- Creamless Fresh Pea Soup with Snow Pea Salad
- Chicken Liver & Shiitake Custard with Edamame Sauce
- Mama’s Best Ever Spaghetti and Meatballs

Hmmmmm......

It seems, my dear Food Network, that though your suggestions are, um, interesting they are not really what I was looking for nor did they meet my search criteria. Better luck next time…instead I am off to allrecipes.com !

Quick Movie Reviews

I have seen a few new(er) movies the last couple weeks. Here are my quick movie reviews.

Star Trek – AWESOME! Seriously. MUST. See. This. Movie.
Star Trek fan or not, this is entertaining. Moves very fast, lots of action, great effects, and funny. SEE IT – at a theater near you.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Long. Too long. After nearly 3 hours I was like, “is that it?!” Too much hype. Favorite thing about the movie, the house he grew up in. That house was gorgeous, I LOVED it.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – Good movie, better than I expected. If you have seen the others, this fits well into those ones.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People – Funny & sarcastic but I am not sure that I would watch it again, at least not right away. It was entertaining at the time, and that was enough for me. Megan Fox was only mildly annoying, while Kirsten Dunst is always annoying to me.

Taken – Liam Neeson kicks major ASS in this movie. I love him. I love his voice. Good movie. Got chills a few times watching this. Made me a little sick to my stomach thinking of how real this is with women.

Talk To Me....Cereal Edition

So, we like cereal in our house, a lot. At any given point we have about 6 different boxes of cereal on top of our refrigerator. This is because T. and I have completely different likes when it comes to cereal.

My Top 5: (I am a plain girl)
1. Cheerios
2. Kix
3. Frosted Mini-Wheats
4. Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch (this is my getting crazy cereal)
5. Corn Flakes

Terrys Top 5: (Don’t know exactly his top 5, but I am close)
1. Cocoa Krispies
2. Boo-Berry
3. Artificial flavoring sugar cereal with marshmallows
4. Chocolate cereal with marshmallows
5. Raisin Brand

I never had chocolate cereal, fruity cereal or marshmallow cereal growing up. I did some experimenting with different cereals in college but eventually cleaned up my act and went back to the straight cereals. I don’t like to talk about that time in my life, sugar cereals can bring out a different side of you.

But this weekend Terry picked up a cereal I just had to try, I seriously couldn’t resist.

S’morz Cereal.

I would just like to say this cereal was made by Angels and flown down from heaven on a fluffy cloud and given to us as a gift from God. It is simply perfection. I have never been a fan of these types of cereals, just not my thing. But this, this is truly amazing.

I know this cereal has been around for awhile, but it is new to me. For me, it is a perfect sweet treat at night. The box we got Saturday night is just about empty, I will have to make sure we are fully stocked on this stuff as T & I can’t get enough.

It is fun living on the wild side some times.

What are your top 5 cereals?

Wine On The Go!

So T & I went to the store Saturday night, yeah that is how we spend our Saturday evenings at 9:30pm, grocery shopping at Meijer….pretty wild, huh?!

Well we were just killing time and perusing items, as we didn’t feel we had enough junk in our cart yet, and that is when we found these wonderful things! Mini handheld boxes of wine. Brilliant!

These little boxes of wine hold 3 servings, er…really 1 serving as it is probably just 2 glasses of wine. They can fit easily in your refrigerator, cooler, purse, or beverage holder in your car. They also have an easy to swill from, closable top if you just don’t feel like dirtying a glass. They are also great if you want to go to a party, but just don’t feel like sharing with others. (Sorry, get your own handheld box of wine.) Actually it would be the perfect amount of wine if you just want a couple glasses at night (or hey, chug straight from the box), but don’t want to open an entire bottle of wine because then you will drink the entire bottle of wine. Don’t tell me you don’t do that either.

So if you are looking for a convenient, easy to hold (see how easily it fits in Terry's hand), box of wine to take with you on the go, then I believe this product is for you!

Seriously, absolutely brilliant!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

To the most beautiful, caring, amazing, strong, funny, and kindhearted person I know. There are not enough I Love You's to truly express how much you are loved, and there are not enough Thank You's to makeup for all you have done. You bring so much joy to those around you and a person should be lucky to know you, let alone to be your daughter!!

We love you SO much! xoxoxo

Jenn, Kristen, & Terry

(Belle & Sebastian also send their love and thank you for all the treats you bring them!)

And to all my friends who are mother's, Happy Mother's Day to you!

Put Cough Syrup In Front of Me And I Revert Back to a 5 Year-Old

A Co-worker brought in some Robitussin cough syrup to help break up the congestion I have and help my cough. The minute I smelled it I instantly remembered having to take this stuff as a child and just how much I hated it. I had to psych myself up into taking it... why couldn’t I just be an adult and take the stupid medicine without making a big deal and making the funny faces both before and after. I mean I really felt like running into another room yelling “NOOOOOO! You can’t make me take this medicine. I don’t CARE if I get better!” Then throwing myself on the floor with my hands over my mouth.

I refrained from doing that (as I don’t know when they vacuumed last) and took the damn medicine. And just as I remembered, that stuff still tastes absolutely horrible. True, it works great….but you think they could make it taste better!

Schools Out For Summer....or Until Summer Classes Start

Big KUDOS to my husband and sister who have finished their current semester of classes! I am so very proud of both of them. T. is working full-time and going to school full-time. This is the first time in about 14 years he has been in school and he did a wonderful job! And K. is working and is going to school full-time and the classes she is taking are these hard math classes I have never even heard of! She too has done an amazing job!

I am truly impressed by these two and so proud of them!! Way to go!

Where did you go Chapstick Brand Spearmint Chapstick?!?!

Three months ago I went to the store to pick up my usual monthly supply of a few tubes of Spearmint flavored Chapstick brand chapstick. I loves me my chapstick and go through it really fast. Over my now 29 years of life (take away a few in the beginning as I was not concerned with the prevention of chapped lips and locking in moisture), I have found the one & only chapstick that I adore and I truly do not like to use anything else. So it was a bit of a surprise when I went to the back of my local grocers and didn’t see the Spearmint flavored Chapstick in its usual spot. I actually reached out to grab it and it was gone. After a mildly frantic look through ALL the chapsticks on the rack, I came to the reluctant conclusion that it wasn’t there. I then thought maybe they were out in this section of the store and so as I made my way to the checkout I casually perused each checkout aisle, as that is a good place to find the chapstick, but nothing. “WHAT?!” After another brief panic attack I composed myself and picked up an original* barf chapstick just to get me by.

Now for the last 3 months I have been keeping an eye out for my favorite chapstick when I go to different stores and for the last three months it is no where to be found. I have gone to my usual grocery hangouts: Rite-Aid, Meijer and Walmart but alas no Spearmint flavored Chapstick brand chapstick anywhere. They have original*, cherry, vanilla, vanilla mint, strawberry, even the pink breast cancer tubes of chapstick (I wonder what flavor that one is) – but the spearmint is gone. As I have now become very worried about this I decided to go to their website and see if they had (dare I even think it) discontinued that flavor! Well, as of 1:34 p.m. on this Thursday, May 7, 2009 it is still on their website…phew!!!

But that still doesn’t explain the unusual disappearance of the product off the shelves. I do have a couple theories, though. Like maybe Terry buys out all the spearmint chapstick in Bowling Green on a weekly basis as some cruel practical joke to play on me because I like to schmear this stuff on my lips and then when Terry kisses me he gets mint flavored chapstick all over his lips. I don't see the big deal, his lips need moisture too. Or maybe it is some government cover-up because that particular chapstick contains something supernatural that the government doesn’t want us “common folk” to be exposed too. Or maybe there are some little chapstick trolls that have taken a liking to this flavor and now they are out taking all of them off the shelves at night. Whatever it is, I am on to yous and let me say this…I need it man, I am jones'n and need that spearmint flavored goodness.....now!!! (just breathe Jenn)

I still have a couple more stores to check out in BG, but if still nothing I am going to be expanding this search into the greater Perrysburg/Toledo area. However, IF you are out and at a store or checkout and just happen to see the lovely Spearmint flavored Chapstick brand chapstick (pictured above) PLEASE tell me which store! I have been trying some of the other flavors and they do not even compare to the awesomeness of the spearmint. Maybe I will take out a Craigs List add to find my chapstick. That might work.

UPDATE: As of 7:46 p.m. on this Thursday, May 7, 2009 it is still on their website. Again, PHEW.


*What kind of flavor is original?!?! Original isn't a flavor unless they are referring to the fact that it is the "original" flavor of this wax product. I don't like it, you can't have a flavor called original.

Still Down With the Sickness

I just wanted to say sorry for my lack of blogging, but I haven’t been up to it. I am on day 12 of being sick and I have a feeling there could be a few more days of this before I am better, though today is the first day I actually feel & sound more like myself instead of a contagious, coughing, moaning, mucus filled zombie! And this is not like a little cold with the sniffles, it is straight up I am sick. I look, sound and feel like shit 98% of the day. I will be happy when this cold is no more, though I am hoping I can continue to convince people to do chores around the house for me, you know in the off chance I may still be contagious. yeah right.


I decided to list the 10 stages of my sickness because I am boring and I simply can not think of anything else to blog about.

Stage 1: Conjunctivitis in both eyes. (Days 1-8) This is the fun stage where people do not even want to come near you. And at night you wake up every few hours and after blindly making your way to the bathroom after tripping over your cats that lay in the middle of the hall you have to peel apart your eyes because they are fully stuck together. As this lasted an entire week and medicine didn’t help, I don’t think this was pinkeye…it was viral. Positive – I think the eye mucus acted like a conditioner on my eyelashes, they look great! Thicker and longer.

Stage 2: Sore throat. (Days 1-7) All I have to say is UGH. We all know having a sore throat just sucks. Nothing you do makes it feel any better to swallow, talk, eat or even breathe for that matter. And Chloraseptic Spray - blech. I would much rather gargle salt water then use that stuff. Of course being the big baby I am I won't gargle with salt water and therefore probably prolong the pain just so I can complain that much longer. Oh well, it is how I roll.

Stage 3: Can’t sleep. (Days 1-present) Fact: I am tired. Fact: When I get better I am sleeping for an entire day.

Stage 4: Bad cold (Days 4-present) including; coughing, sneezing, runny nose, congestion, fatigue, slight fever, itchy ears, and just generally sounding and looking like complete shit. I like to refer to myself as a “hot mess”.*

Stage 5: Severe pain in sinus cavity, from forehead to jaw. (Day 7-present) There were a couple days where this pain was almost unbearable and nothing worked, even my teeth and gums hurt. Good thing about this, between the medicines I am on to help the pressure and the fact that every time I try to eat something I feel extreme soreness in my mouth I have not eaten much and have loss 6 pounds this week. Um, not noticeable but still awesome.

Stage 6: Phlegm phase (Day 7-present)…and the grossest of phases. The things coming out of me and the amount of stuff coming out of me is just disgusting and a bit sci-fi. I don’t need to say anymore. (Secret confession that you really didn't care to know: though this is the stage of sickness that is the grossest I study everything that comes out of me. Color, consistency..etc. Totally gross, I know that - But I can't help it.)

Stage 7: Sinus Infection Stage. (Day 7 -present) Yep, full blown sinus infection and I blame my doctor and her inability to care about her patients on more than a monetary level.**

Stage 8: Uncontrollable coughing. (Day 7-present) I currently sound like a sea lion hacking up a fish along with some seaweed that got stuck in my throat. Annoying for all in ear shot.

Possible Stage 9: Womanly Infection stage due to a high doses and 10 days of antibiotics. I am trying VERY VERY HARD to avoid this stage by eating as much yogurt as I can each day. Bring on those yogurt cultures!

Stage 10: ALL BETTER, FEEL GREAT! YAY (Day = unknown)



Side Notes:

*When you are sick when “swine” flu is going around people make reference to this, alot. I am not talking about the funny comments from people in the office or my friends but I am talking about complete strangers making reference to it. Few examples: Lady at coffee shop: Hesitated taking my money. She said “so you are, um, sick?” As I kept trying to hand her my money I smiled and said “Yeah, thank goodness it isn’t that swine flu.” She took the money, but with a bit of hesitation. Lady at drugstore “Oh you poor thing, you sound horrible.” I smile. She says “so do you have a cold or is it the, a flu?” Me, “just a regular old cold.” Lady “oh that is good, with all the talk of flu’s in the news you don’t want to get that.” Lady at Time Warner: “How are you?” Me “I am good how are you?” Lady “Oh you sound sick, it isn’t that pig flu, haha.” Me: “Nope.” Lady “Haha, just kidding!” *sigh*


**I am beyond frustrated with my doctor. I have gone to the same office since I moved to BG. However a few years ago my doctor moved to FL. and I was moved to another doctor in the office. From the beginning I never really got along with him or his Nurse Practioner (which is the lady I see), they both always seem too busy and very disinterested in what they are doing. Case in point I specifically asked when I went into the Dr. on day 1 if this could be something else other then pink eye as I was getting a cold and had a sore throat AND I had pink eye once before and this has different symptoms. She simply said no, didn't even look at my eyes (her student did that) handed me a perscription and said this will work and you will be fine. Obviously this wasn't the case. She never told me "well maybe it could be something else I can't tell right now, if it doesn't get better in a few days come back", she simply didn't listen. And this is not the first (or second or third) time. I have looked into a couple other doctors in the area referred by friends, but they both are not (and have not) been excepting new patients the last couple years. I don’t just want to change to a new doctor without knowing whether this doctor is going to be better, I prefer to be referred by friends who know what the doctor/s are like. Therefore I have stayed where I am. But after things in the past and how little she listened to me and I feel her inability to treat me properly I am ready to switch. I want to find someone who will take the time to listen to concerns and encourage questions, someone I can feel comfortable with. Is this too much to ask? I don’t think so.

Do you feel comfortable with your doctor? If you have a doctor in the area that you love and don’t mind sharing their info, please let me know!

Joke of the Day

Some people said that the day a Black man would be President would be the day pigs fly.

Well we now have a Black man as President and swine flu.