I need a fresh start!

Waterfall in Bar Harbor Maine 

First of all I had a manipulation done on my shoulder back in march as after my shoulder surgery I ended up with a frozen shoulder. So basically they put you to sleep and wonk on your arm to break up the scar tissue that has built up.  I am happy to say that I am actually going to my last physical therapy appointment in the morning and after 10 months I will be able to get back to my regular routines. I was going to pt 3 times a week for 2 hrs a day.

So my next set back was about 6 weeks ago I got this horrible rash/ welt on my leg. Now 2 years ago I had the same thing and both times my doctor ( and a few other doctors) put me on antibiotic after antibiotic trying to heal it up. Well none of those worked and one even gave me an allergic reaction. Both times I was finally treated with prednisone and the welts cleared up. This time however the on call doctor at my primary care office sent me to see a dermatologist who did a biopsy on my leg. Come to find out I have a rare skin disorder called Well's Syndrome or Eosinophilic Cellulitis. Basically something like a spider bite or a cut or a medication can turn into a large painful itchy cellulitis( to many white blood cells called eosinophils go to the injured area, causing swelling and itching). I guess my body just over reacts to certain triggers.  The treatment is prednisone for now. If it gets worse or more recurrent then we move onto another medication. So my last flare has finally healed (other then my skin being discolored on my leg which goes away in about 8 weeks) and then it happens.

The latest setback started as another spot on my leg and then a spot on my face and then another and another. I went to the dermatologist again thinking my Well's is at it again only to find out I have poison ivy on my leg and face.  I am itching like crazy and a little embarrassed by my blotchy face.

Any how I am turning 40 in December and I have decided that I am due for a fresh start. I had nothing but health problems in my thirties. Shingles, thyroid surgery, GI problems, shoulder surgery, hernia, Wells and poison ivy and I have decided I am ready for the fabulous forties. Please send any and all good karma my way and I promise I will be posting and back to projects asap.  I have decided I need to look into hiring a landscaper so I can avoid spiders and poison ivy for a while! Have a great day.

Maura

It's a bird, It's a plane, No It's an antenna!

So, back in December my husband and I made a New Years Resolution to complete one large project each month.  Our January task was to disconnect our cable and bring our phone and Internet bills down. Not everything worked out as planned.

 We hooked up our Roku mid December to make sure we could live with it. This is a streaming box and we pay under $20  a month for Netflix and Hulu Plus.  We disconnected the cable and I brought the cable boxes back to Comcast mid January. My husband hooked up the antenna, but after many hours of frustration. He was putting up the antenna and dropped a clip (important piece) in the snow. We searched for over an hour and finally asked a neighbor boy if we could use his metal detector to find it. No luck. I then emailed the company who makes the mounting kit to see if I could buy another and they were so kind, Or they thought we were so pathetic and they sent us 2 free ones (just in case). So he finally mounted the antenna and we found out we get 17 local channels. Check out this photo- NO CABLE BOX!  YIPPEE!  Just our tiny little Roku, our dvd player and our radio- for surround sound.

Now here is where things got tricky. We were hoping to change to Verizon for our Internet and phone but my husband was concerned about email accounts. We have had the same ones for about 10 years and he did not want the hassle of contacting everyone we know and every company we have accounts linked to these addresses. So we decided to keep the Internet with comcast which will be $60 a month (highway robbery) and to get an extra cell phone on our family plan for 9.99 a month. We will be using it as our home phone.   Our original plan was to pay $75 for TV, phone and Internet and we only got it to $90 but we are still saving $70 per month.

So on to the next project for February. My daughter wanted to change her bedroom around so we will be giving her room a makeover. Stay tuned for that update.

Thanks for following along with me
Maura

A Shopper's High? No a Savers High!

?

As you may or may not know. I am a semi- extreme couponer. I say semi because I don't want you to think I am as crazy as some couponers you may have seen on tv. I am a normal married mom of two who decided (after meeting with our financial planner a few years ago) that I needed to get my spending in hand. He actually looked at our spending and noticed that a large chunk was being spent at target and grocery stores.  I felt a little embarrassed and a little mad. I decided from that moment on I was going to cut back and find a way to spend less without missing out. So two years later I now thrive on saving money. That same high others get from buying things, I get from saving.

I used to be a regular couponer who would cut a few coupons from the Sunday paper each week and go to the store to buy our weekly groceries and household items. Now I actually take the time to plan a monthly menu based on the items I have in my pantry and freezer . Each week I check my menu and make my shopping list based on what I need to complete meals.  I also buy any stockpile items (items on a really great sale with coupons to match that I can buy and put away in my pantry) I also buy my fruits and vegis based on what is on sale that week.  I have cut my grocery bill from $150 a week to $90  a week (this includes my health and beauty supplies and cleaning supplies).  One week I may go a little over, then the next a little under but $90 is about average for our family of four.

The deals have been a little slim over the past couple months but this week was a jackpot week.  A local grocery store had many staple items like pasta, sauce, peanut butter, canned tomatoes, and cereal on sale with a Catalina. ( a coupon good on your next order -OYNO) If you bought $20 worth of participating items you got a coupon for 10 OYNO.  I actually had my husband do this deal and then I went shopping with a friend and did another transaction.  I am planning on making one more trip this week. So this week I went a little over budget.  I will be spending $120 but I will have 30$ to use next week on meats or fruits and vegis.  I told my husband I was having a Shoppers High and he said "That would make a great blog post". Hence the title of this one.

Oh I should also tell you we completed January's Resolution Project. I will post soon about that!


Have a great Day
Maura

Resolutions

 It is the end of 2010 today and I have made my New Years Resolution for 2011. This year my husband and I are going to try to get one major project done each month of the year.  To start with we are going to try to cut ties with our cable company, well we will still keep our internet but drop cable and phone service. My husband has been asking me how we can get our Comcast bill down. It is one of our largest bills and it just seems to keep rising. So this is what I came up with.

 We bought a Roku about a month ago (set top streaming box) and we signed up for Netflix and Hulu Plus (both free for the first month so you can try it out). So our next step is to buy a roof mount antenna and hope we get in most of the local stations.  If all works well we will be dropping cable and getting an additional cell phone to use at home (for 10$ per month). We figure we will cut our Comcast bill from $160 to $45.  Our cell phone bill will go up $10, our Netflix bill will be 9.99, and Hulu Plus is an additional 7.99 and My husband needs his baseball so MLB tv is 25.00 for the year or approx  $2.10 per month. So our total for tv, phone and internet will now be $75.00 per month which will be a savings of $85.00 per month or $1020.00 per year.

We have had the Roku set up for about 2 weeks now and no one seems to be missing cable.  My husband did use it once to watch football but only because we did not have the local channels yet. I will let you know how this all plays out once the antenna is in place but I am not for seeing any problems. Are you all tired of paying huge cable bills? Let me know what you think.

MAURA

Breakfast Freezer Cooking

This week Collin at Hip2Save is having a holiday Challenge to win some great giveaways. This weeks challenge was freezer cooking breakfast items and since I am having shoulder surgery Monday I am all about getting prepared (for my husbands sake and my own) for the upcoming weeks and months.

You needed to make 3 breakfast items that can be made ahead of time and frozen until you are ready to use them so I chose my 3 and got started this week. I first made pancakes. Now up until recently I always made them from scratch. How ever the last time I visited my mom she made boxed pancakes and my kids raved about them so now I just buy a box, add water, cook, Ziploc, and freeze. Then any morning The kids can pop them into the microwave and have pancakes for breakfast.

Please ignore my disgusting stove!

Next I made a half batch of the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls. Oh my goodness are these great. My family and neighbors can't get enough. You can bake them ahead of time and freeze them for later use. Like Monday mornings when no one wants to get up! I made them, wrapped the pan in saran wrap and then foil. I also make the icing ahead and leave it in the fridge in baggies to use later.

There were more but not all of them made it to the freezer!

Lastly I made banana crumb muffins. I have used this recipe from Allrecipes for a few years. I do tweak the topping recipe by adding oats and a touch more butter to bind. They are so light and airy and have just a little crunch out of the oven. If you freeze them and microwave later they are not quite as crunchy but they are still delicious.

I would recommend trying any one of these fresh out of the oven or frozen for later use. My kids think they are in baked good heaven. Now it is onto other meals. My kids have brown bag lunch for school and that means all I need is to get some dinners pulled together. I make a monthly menu so I just need to plan my menu around my frozen meal items. Let me know if you try any of these recipes! I hope you love them as much as I do!

You don't know what you've got till it's gone.

Como Italy 

Mr colonial cottage is across the ocean in Italy right now.  Hopefully sleeping.  He flew all night to get there this morning. He had a few meeting today and dinner tonight at 8 pm. He sounded so exhausted when I talked to him.  If you can believe it, his first day at his new job was in Como, Italy. Not bad for a first day huh!  I really miss him but I am so glad he found a new job so quickly. He actually took the month of August off and started looking for a new job in September. It took him all of 2 weeks to land a new consulting  job

 I feel pretty tired these days also. I don't know about you all but I do not sleep well when it is just me and the kiddos.   On top of that I am still going to physical therapy for my bum shoulder and I am waking up all night in pain. I had better stop complaining before you all stop reading!


Since I have all this extra time with my husband back to work, I have been trying to get organized for my upcoming neighborhood yard sale. It looks like we will have about 8 families involved and I am planning on putting my family to work that day. My husband and I will man all the goods except toys (the kids are taking care of that.) I even put my mother in law to work, she will be running the coffee/cinnamon roll stand. I am making a few batched in hopes of making a little extra dough ( no pun intended.) I am hoping we will have a pretty good turnout.  The weather has been lousy around here this week and is supposed to be bad for a few more days. I am hoping that mother nature is getting it all out of her system before the big day.

Does anyone have any yardsale tips for me? I could use any help I can get.

Maura

 Disney World Mom's Panel



Have you heard about the Walt Disney World Mom's panel?  I filled out my essays yesterday and would love to be a part of this group. It is a voluntary position. No pay. However you do go to WDW for training and get a trip for 4 to WDW. You also need to be willing to answer 25 questions a week from people planning a trip to Disney World. You must be over 18 and must have traveled to WDW within the last year. There are a few other restrictions you can read about it and apply here.  If you are thinking about applying, do it fast as there are only 20,000 applications accepted and they go fast.

I love, love, love Walt Disney World.  I have been 4 times and I know that many people go every year but I just can not afford to do that.  We have taken the kids twice now and have such an amazing time!  I also love planning my trips. I think you really need to put the effort into planning to get the most enjoyment out of Disney World.

1 in 20,000 are not such great odds but I hope and pray I make it to the second round. Oh did I forget to tell you?  You need to get through 3 rounds to be on the Mom's Panel.  Let me know if you've applied too! Good luck!

Things have been a little crazy at the Colonial Cottage! Check out the video at the end of this post!

I know summer can be a little hectic, but this summer has been over the top for me.  hence, that is why the  CC has been a little less bloggy.  So we started off the summer with swim team for two. Both my kids were  on the local swim team, which they loved but it was 3 days a week and I did not want them worn out before a two hour practice, so on those days we kept it low key. Then we would squeeze activities in on the odd days.  We did this from June 7th to August 7th.

ready at the start

back stroke

Also this summer almost my whole family (i am from a family of 8 kids) decided to vacation nearby.  We were at the mercy of everyone elses schedules for about a month.  Don't get me wrong it was great to spend time with everyone and to reconnect with everyone but we were also looking forward to some family time. Just my husband, the kids and I.

Well a couple weeks ago my sister called and said she had rented a cottage in maine (the same place we would rent as kids) and offered us an extra room for a few days.  We were headed to Damariscotta ME. later that week so we decided to go.  I have very fond memories of the cottages, and was looking forward to a little me time. 

the floating dock in the morning

All was well until the day we were leaving. I was laying in bed in the loft at the cottage. My husband thought it would be funny to "surprise" me by throwing a T-shirt over the railing at me to get me out of bed.  Well, I just saw something black flying at me and I jumped up. Only problem was that my arm was trapped under the blankets.   Being the trooper that I am (ha ha) we still continued on to my mom and dads.  My son tried to catch turtles and learned to skip rocks.  My kids went to the whale back midden which is where the local indian tribe put all their oyster shells I guess Harvard now studies that area. We also went out to eat at the pemequid lobster coop (best seafood ever) and watched the lobster boat races from our picnic table. We had so much fun in their little town and were very sad to leave.  

The prettiest little turtle pond 

 whale back midden 

Lobster Boat Races

 So I went to the doctors since I got back, and he said partial dislocation of my shoulder so No more driving, swimming or biking but also no more carrying laundry baskets!    I have 2 1/2 weeks more in the sling and then I go back to see if I need an mri and/or surgery. My husband is being a real trooper as I am pretty limited with only one arm, and the kids are being great too. I guess the fact that my husband is unemployed and home does come in handy! This typing with one hand is for the birds though!  I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and is as ready for back to school as I am!  9 days and counting. Oh and I have another giveaway coming soon so keep on reading.

Maura

Oh and before I forget this is what my son has been up to.

Hip Hip Hooray for Me!

I know, I know I really should not be cheering for myself but after 10 days with no dryer and piles and piles of laundry building up I finally tamed the beast and fixed my dryer!

The story goes like this. About 10 days ago my dryer stopped heating. I noticed after I put towels in and ran the dryer 3 different times thinking I had forgotten to turn it on each time. Well after ordering a new heating element and replacing that my dryer still would not heat (Boo Hoo). So this time I bought two new parts a thermostat and a thermal cut off fuse. (I forgot to mention I don't have a parts store nearby so I had to wait for the parts to arrive via snail mail.) I first changed out the thermostat and I still had no heat but as soon as I changed out the thermal cutoff fuse I could smell the heating element going! It kind of smells a little when you put in new parts so it is a good idea to let the dryer run a few minutes before putting clothes in there so they don't stink when you take them out.

Why am I so excited you may ask. Well for two reasons. First, my husband will be out of work on july 30th and I am trying to be frugal these days and I also love the fact that I spent 85$ on parts to repair it and I would have spent 150 just to have someone come out and look at it. Second I love that feeling of knowing I don't have to rely on someone I do not know, to tell me what is wrong with something (kind of like when I bring my car in to be repaired). Dryer repair is not as scary as it looks. This is actually the second one I have fixed. The first was at my last house and the heating element went on that one.

I know it sounds crazy but I have never been so happy to see a load of laundry in my dryer!

We have a winner!

Sorry I am a half hour late. I was having dinner with the neighbors and just remembered about the big giveaway. So I asked the king of colonial cottage to pick a number from 1-18 and the lucky winner is #2!   B. Fox of bekafox.blogspot.com She is also a new follower. Beka I will be in touch tonight! I hope you have fun picking out something cool at CSNstores.com ! To everyone else thanks so much for being a part of my first giveaway and for following along with me at A Colonial Cottage! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.