Five and Dime Post

This post is going to be just a little bit of this and a little bit of that and some of not really anything :)

Had an awesome weekend.. as always.. with my honey... spent Friday in the jeep on the freeway stuck in traffic most of the day.. lots of time for just visiting and holding hands and being together :)

Made another load of stuff to goodwill.. the last of the loads from storage.. feels so good to have that cleaned out.. one more trip to the dump soon... almost have enough ready to go... the dump and goodwill are two of my favorite places to go.. I love getting rid of stuff!

Worked in the shop this weekend which is always good... a bit frustrating now since we are so much further behind than we wanted to be. Had planned on being done and making things by now.. but.. life happens. We are getting closer... have the dust collection ran from the sander and router table and from the miter saw up and across the ceiling to the dust collection.. now we need to add on the table saw, band saw, jointer, planer, and drill press and than it will be good to go. We did get the new (old) heater, from my dad up and running and it works great.. so much quieter than the one we were using. Will sand it down and give it a coat of paint this week and get it installed. Also planning on adding insulation into the rafters this week / weekend.. should be a lot cheaper to keep it warm this winter.

My plans this week include lots of house keeping stuff. I want to move the furniture around a bit.. into a better set up for laying on the couch and snuggling while watching movies. I love this time of year :) Also want to get the cupboards in the kitchen all emptied out and cleaned out.. lots of food in there we are not eating anymore.. and this is a great time of year to donate to the food banks. Noticed the fridge could use some cleaning up too.. shelves wiped down and what not. Will have to pace myself and see how my shoulder goes.. and will have to save some of it for Dave to help with... thankfully he enjoys this type of stuff too :)

Wanted to share a couple of things I saw this week and thought were fun. A friend blogged about 25 uses for coffee filters.. oh and you can use them to make coffee too :) I am going to be trying a couple of these.. love the microwave soup one! Also found a new blog this week that is local and interesting... Journey Beyond Average I love finding local blogs.. I keep a list on the right hand side of the blog of the ones I find and I enjoy!

Scale update.. it is still moving down... down... down... slowly but surely. Which works for me!

Big Four Ice Caves

This was a wonderful weekend, we did not get a LOT done around the house.. we did get the garage cleaned up and ready for finishing up the dust collection.. and we did get the closet redone in the back room so I can get some stuff organized back there. Other than that we did nothing but relax and have fun. We went out on the bike on Saturday and headed to La Conner for some Awesome fish and chips, we walked around and did some shopping.. just a nice time together. Saturday night we had a late dinner at the Olive Garden and just some more nice time to sit and visit and home for some snuggle time while watching some tv. I love these weekends we just spend time reconnecting with each other :)

Lots of caches right here on the island.. but we are going to save those for another day

Sunday we decided to go do some geo caching, which I am so happy to be getting back into. We headed up Mountain Loop Highway which is one of our favorite places to go for a drive, or hiking or camping... it is so beautiful out there and we have had a lot of fun there. Yesterday we added one more awesome day to list of ones we have had out there. We started out just getting some quick and easy caches in some short interactive walks at a couple of places.

I did find the biggest Wish Rock I have ever seen :)

After some of these trails and caches we decided to head up to the ice caves... it just a mile hike up and a mile back... well if you stay on the trails it is just a mile each way. We are not well known for staying on the trail... always just want to see what is around the corner. So off we go. Figure by the time we went after a couple of caches up at the top and one in the middle.. that we added another mile or so to our walk :)

Such beautiful colors out here today and it was not too warm or too cold.. just perfect!

Had to take a little trail to the left so we could pick up a cache at the corner there :)

Under the new (since we were there) bridge caching before we cross it and head up and the trail.. will have to go back for this one as we did not find it. :(

There is a cache in there we will head back for too... never good to get all of them in one area... this way we have to go back here someday :) Hard to tell in the picture.. but this is big enough for Dave and I to both climb around inside of.

Almost out of the woods.

This is safe viewing distant... those little holes down there are the entrance to the caves themselves.. and are about 20 feet tall... but there are signs saying it is not safe and things can fall on you.. there are signs here and at the base before you even start.. also there are signs reminding you that there is no cell service.. has not been for miles. Just last year a little girl was killed and mom hurt when they were down near the mouths of the caves... then I read that the dad was trying to get something done about the safety.. or get the trails closed... I just do not understand why people make bad choices and then think it is not their fault... Be careful and read the warnings and pay attention to them.. it is not safe or smart to ignore them.. and if you do and something happens.. man up and be responsible for your own choices. I am horribly sorry for their loss... I am also sorry for all of the places and things that we as people can not do or see because some people made bad choices and it causes places to be closed.

With this all being said.. we did go a bit closer.... we did not go into the caves... and we did not (even though one picture looks like it) place ourselves under the edges of the cave either. We did walk on the snow/ice but only on the outside where it touches the ground and is an inch deep. I do have to say.. it is very tempting... then again.. it is just not worth it.

This is as close as we got... it looks like Dave is right in there but he really is not... this was a shorter cave and was so cool you could see the waterfall behind it.. this was the hard one for me not to go into.. it was just so amazing.

This trail is full of so many beautiful colors and textures and lots of water and fun stuff. Was a wonderful hike.. easy trail... will do it again .. in the spring for sure.. I bet there is a lot more snow up there in the spring.

Link to Big Four Ice Caves Here

Link to Geocaching Here

Points that Equal Money

I know there are a lot of different places out there... search bars you can add that give you points for searching.. like swagbucks.. which I use.. and I like.. I do get paid from them regularly.. about $5 every month or so.. would be more if I used it more... it is not much but I do not use it too much either. If I remembered to log in there more often I could easily make more... they have videos you can watch and earn points.. you can search and earn points and all types of things. If you are interested in signing up with swagbucks there is a link at the very bottom of the blog.. scroll all the way to the bottom there is a swagbucks box.. just click on the signup button on the bottom right.

There are survey sites, I do some of those too .. My favorite does not seem to have a link I can share... but if you email me ( Michelle_Ballard@hotmail.com ) I can send you an invite to join... I like them because I get an email when there is a new survey to fill out... and biggest deal.. NO spam mail.. and if you fill out the info surveys first then almost ALL of the ones they send you are ones you qualify for.. I hate spending time answering stupid questions just to be told I do not qualify and it was all a waste of time. This one does not do that.. and it pays ok.. 1100 points = $10 in my paypal account.. took a couple of weeks is all.

Now I have found Superpoints... and I am in love. I have been doing this for just over a month.. I have cashed in $50 ... 500 points = $5. Yesterday I got over $2 .. today I only got about 65 cents. Totally works for a real nice dinner out every month.. or some other treat. The thing on superpoints is that they send points to your email.. all you have to do is click the link and you have points. If you want more points you can click on the super button and win points. Just for signing up you get like 3 or 5 spins a day... becoming a basic member you get 30 spins a day.... get people to sign up and become basic members under you and you collect some of the points they collect and you get 50 spins a day... get 5 people to sign up and become basic members under you and you are a hot shot plantinum member and you get 100 spins a day :) (Great big thanks to everyone who signed up under me )

The people who sign up under you only need to fill out enough profile to become basic members.. that is all.. they do not need to collect their points.. or play the super button or do anything. I mean if they do it is awesome because then you get more points too.. but they do not need to. I had over 5 people who were sweet enough to sign up and become basic members so that I could have the 100 spins.. a couple of them are collecting their points and some are not doing anything with it.. but I am just as thankful to each of them.

I am going to share some invites with you all... and I would love to have you join me. It isn't going to pay any bills for anyone but for ten quick minutes a day while I am sitting checking email and enjoying my coffee I am making some $$ for some of those little extras :)

Here are some invites. I will update these often ( as I remember to) All of the invites are single use.. if you miss out on the ones listed here just email me Michelle_Ballard@hotmail.com with "Superpoints" in the subject line and I will email you your own private invite :) If you are on Superpoints and have an invite to share.. feel free to leave it comments and hopefully someone will grab it up :) I will try to go through and delete superpoint invites from comments as they expire... or if anyone uses one it would be great to let me know so I can delete it out of there :)

Please if you click on one and it does not work.. let me know.. then I can get it out of there and replace it with a new one... thank you :)

Updated on 12/25/11

Invite Here (worth 25 points)

Sign up under my friends here ( once you get enough friends.. help them out it will help you too )

Be sure to leave a comment with the invites so I can get them posted in here.. or people can copy and paste them right from the comments!

Invite (waiting for one)

Invite (waiting for one)

Any questions feel free to ask :)

~Michelle

Mentally Changing Our Lives

Today I was talking with a friend of mine who is also doing the HCG Liquid Diet that we have been doing and we covered some topics I wanted to write down here. She is on her second week of phase 2 the first round.. and we are getting ready to start phase 2 round three next weekend. I have learned a lot while on this diet.. one.. people hate the word diet. For me it holds no bad meanings or history or anything so I use it. I can understand that for others it may be an evil word...for whatever reason... so I am ok with them not using it. I think this word is one of the reasons I started thinking about the mental aspect of my life. How to me when I say I am on a "Diet" it means I am focusing on what I am eating and how I am living and trying to do it as healthy as possible. When other people use or hear the word diet they may remember a time when they were starving or they lost weight and then gained it back it may make them feel fat. I can understand that if when you hear the word or see it and it makes you feel bad that then chances are slim that you will have success in what you are attempting.

I have always believed that as humans we believe what we are told and what we see, and picking what we hear or see so that we do not have to face truths. I know that is how it is for me and I watch it happen with others. Example for me.. instead of looking at my whole self and telling myself I was getting fat.. instead I managed to find one thing I did like.. say my shoes.. each day and really focus on how cute they were and I would tell myself many times throughout the day how cute they were.. that way I did not have to see myself for what I was. This list could be endless. I found that by making cupcakes instead of cake I was lying to myself about what and how much I was eating... my bowls and plates and cups got bigger... that way I could pretend I was not eating more... I mean it still looked the same on the plate.

This diet I am on now is teaching me a lot about how I do things.. making me really sit and think and look at myself and how I got where I am and how I am going to get where I want to be and to STAY where I want to be. Number one is being open and honest with myself about me. One thing I have decided is that instead of telling myself I "can't" have fast food or whatever it is. I am just going to say I do not want it. When I use the word "can't" it right away makes me want it even more than I did before. The truth is.. I can have it.. but I really do not want it... not as much as I want to be healthy. In taking this approach I feel stronger... I am the one with the power.. no one is telling me I "can't" .. I am deciding I do not want it.

I need to stay focused on the here and the now with an eye on tomorrow. Keep working towards what I want and keep being honest with how I got where I am. I need to keep my eyes open to everything.. not just what I want to see. I need to take the good and the bad and work on a balance. I need to face those habits I have and change them. I have been thinking of food as a comfort.. and yet... it does not really comfort me when it makes me fat and unhealthy and keeps me from liking myself. This diet is changing how I look at myself and how I deal with things. It is teaching me a lot about myself and how I work. It is helping me to get focused and learn new habits. In the process I am also losing some weight. This "diet" is working well for me!