Bathroom Cleaning Excursion

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't posted anything for the past week.  I've been sicker than a dog!  It doesn't help any that my hubby has a URI and bronchitis too.

Fortunately, I've been in cleaning mode today.  I know that last time I said that I was going to clean my kitchen.  I actually did, but forgot to take the after picture for it and since I've been sick, dishes have been piling up and it pretty much looks like the before picture again.  I'm actually done with the bathroom though.  I finally got the stench out from under the sink and am now able to do the deep cleaning that I've been wanting to do.

I'm saddened to say that my living room is no longer the nice, clean living room as in the picture due to the fact that I've been camping out on the couch.  It's not anywhere near as bad as the before picture, but there is a game of Monopoly on the coffee table with properties all along the floor and the bottom of the box holding my money and properties while the top is holding my husband's money and properties.  At least there's not houses, hotels, and pieces spread out on the floor pretending to be Legos.  But along with the game, there's also a bowl, fork, and half drank glass of tea on the corner section of the couch from me and a random chair in front of the couch with two glasses on it.  Remember that liter of root beer?  Yeah.  It's right next to me.  Empty.  For the most part.  The Dr. Pepper was finished on Sunday.

So, yeah.  Back to cleaning the bathroom!    On my cleaning splurge, I found myself faced with a nasty, no, scratch that, gross encounter.  I had lifted up the seat to clean the toilet, and wouldn't you know that it just so happened that where I grabbed to lift the seat, there was a bunch of old pee that had the consistency of baking soda mixed with vinegar.  EWWW!!!  I dropped the seat when I realized what it was, sprayed bleach on my hand, washed it off, then used soap and a scrubby brush vigorously on my hand.  I went back to lift up the seat but this time, talentedly used the toilet brush to lift up the seat then attacked the stuff with the bleach three times.  After getting the toilet nice and clean, I went to the bottom of it to clean around the base of it.  It wasn't until I was wiping up the bleach that I noticed that the caulking around the base all but came off.  All that's left is about an eighth of an inch of the caulking.  Great.  Now I have to call a plumber to fix the leak under the sink as well as redo the caulking around the toilet (I would do it myself or have my husband do it, but the landlord has stuff against it or something.  I don't really know.)

Besides sticking my hand in old urine and accidentally taking off the caulking, there weren't any mishaps with the bathroom.  That's good!

I'll post the after pictures once I get around to taking the picture.

Have a great day!

DIY Eye Primer!

Hey guys!  Oh my gosh!  You know how in my tutorials I'm always emphasizing to use primer?  Well, I finally found a primer recipe online that has ingredients that the majority of you will already have!  It works well, not quite as good some primers that you can buy like the Urban Decay Primer Potion (which I have never tried) or the Ruby Kisses 24 hr Magic Primer (which is the kind I have), but it's still a good substitute for them when you don't have your primer.

What you'll need:
Lotion (preferably unscented)
Liquid Foundation
Translucent Powder
Container (to store your primer)

What to do:
Make sure that you clean your container.  Take one part lotion and one part powder and put in the container.  (For the lotion, I did an experiment to see if there was a difference between a thick or thin lotion because the majority of the recipes that I found said to use thick lotion or body butter, unscented if you're worried about the scent being on your eyes.  I made two primers, one from thick and one from thin lotion, and tested each one for a day and found that the thin lotion had better staying power but the thick had a better texture for applying and almost had the same staying power if the corners of my eyes didn't start to fade.)  Add in a drop or two of the liquid foundation (it's mainly for color so don't make it too dark).  Mix well, don't have any clumps, marbling (where you can see where lotion is and where color is), or powdery parts.  I used a tooth pick to do this, but you can use a spoon or even a bobby pin.  TAHDAH!  There's your homemade primer!

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures up.  I kind of got excited to find the recipe and made it right away.  The next time I need some, I'll be sure to take pictures so I can post them.

*Update:  It's been about two weeks since I made the primer and the one that I used thick lotion to make had actually dried out to being the texture of dried up toothpaste.  I don't know if it's just the kind of lotion that I used or what.  The one that I used thin lotion to make is starting to thicken up but not by much.  It went from being the texture of ranch dressing to dish soap (very vivid descriptions, eh?).  If there's any other changes, then I'll let you all know.

Have a beautiful day!

I finally went on my computer and drew up the idea I have for the bedroom closet.

Tada!  I'm not too sure as to if I want there to be a back or not.  I think it would be a little bit more stable with the back in.  I'm also not sure if I want it to be black or tan.  Black out match the shelf that we have that's similar to it, but tan would match the cabinet thing already in the bedroom (and can't get rid of.  Bummer.)  It looks like the only measurement that I didn't put down was the height of the shelves, which would be 1' 3".  This thing would find snuggly in the space on top of the shelf.

I know, I'm sort of breaking from my plans of a room a month, but I wanted to show my husband something that we can do with that wood he so desperately wants to make the entertainment center out of.  Like I said before, he's not a big fan of it because he wants to use--storage bins *dun dun duuun!*.  Didn't read why I don't like storage bins?  This is the link to read about those horrendous things!

*Update:  So today, my husband decided that we were going to use the wood that we already have to make a display rack for our bows.  I don't really mind, just as long as it looks good and not like some junky thing like the coat hanger he made.  Kudos for ingenuity though.  I'll eventually post a picture of that coat hanger.  It might be when I get started on organizing the living room.

Have a great day!

Operation Clean Living Room

 Operation clean living room was a success!  I love having a clean living room.  It would be so much better if it was a clean house!

 

So in my two day expedition to clean the living room, I found a shovel, three socks, a bag of sugar, a shirt shoved in the couch, a backpack, a nut, a soldering iron, a half drank beer, flower seeds (yes, flower seeds.  I didn't leave out sun in that), a liter of root beer and a liter of Dr. Pepper.  Apparently, the sodas and the beer were there before my husband came out to Utah.  He claims that the sodas are still good.  I'm  not going to touch them, but if he wants to, then he can finish them off.

 

So now that I made it out alive, the next adventure I'm going to make is to clean the bedroom.  Awesome.

 

 

 Before

After!!!

 

So wish me luck!

Plastic Storage Bins

I hate--no, that's too mean of a word--I despise those plastic storage tote things.  You know what they are.

 

These satanic things.  Why do I hate--sorry, despise--these things?  Here's a list:

1. They're bulky.  I don't care how much stuff you can put in them, these things take up valuable space when you store them.  They especially take up valuable space when you have to put something bulky in them.  Since the bottom is narrower than the top, you can't really use that space where it angles out with those bulky things.
2. They're ugly.  Just look at it!  It's a big eyesore!  Name one house that you've been to that has these for organization (and visible) and you though "What a pretty house!"  No.  Just, no.
3. They give a bad impression.  Every time I watch Hoarders, I see these things.  Automatically, I link these to hoarding (even before the show came out).  I have a big fear of becoming a hoarder and living in a house where it's an obstacle course just to sit on the couch.
4. I've had a bad past with plastic storage totes.  I would randomly put stuff in them and hide them away.  I'd wind up forgetting about them and wind up with a mess when I finally decided to organize them out.  I'd rather stay away from this.

Now these storage bins aren't all that bad.  There is a good side to them and pretty much the only way how I see them as useful.  They're great for seasonal stuff.  Put all of the ornaments for the tree in them, some wreaths, maybe even a tree, perfect for the lights though.  However, they must be stored right as well.  They can't be splayed out in a living room, garage, or anywhere at that.  Unless you have them stowed away in the attic, or neatly on a shelf in the garage, or anywhere out of sight (even from yourself), then they don't belong.

 

My mother actually uses these quite well.  My step-dad is in the Army and his uniforms take up a lot of room.  He puts them in a storage tote, and puts the tote easily accessible in his closet.  I find this acceptable because it's only one because my mom limited him to the one.  My mom also puts her seasonal clothes in a tote and takes them out to the barn so they can't be seen in the house.  She also has a storage tote for her shoes.  It's actually a pretty neat one that has wheels and is short enough that she can store it under the bed and pull it out when she needs it (out of sight even from yourself...unless you're actually looking for it.) 

This is somewhat what it looks like.

 

I think I learned from her about my feelings of these totes.

 

So let's refresh.

Reasons I despise totes:

• They're bulky
• They're ugly
• They give a bad impression
• Bad past

Acceptable uses:

• Only ONE is being used in plain sight
• They're not in the house
• They're not easily visible

Now you know why I'm not a fan of plastic storage bins!

Beginning Stages of Operation Organization

So last night, I talked to my hubby about allowing me to organize the house.  He agreed with me about how badly it needed to be organized.  Que happy dance!

I got to brainstorming.  My first priority was figuring out something to do with the living room.  I wanted something with not only shelving, but slots for me to organize on the shelves.  I like the idea of those fabric bins and they would be perfect for storing stuff in and out of sight.  Using those ideas, I came up with an idea.  I originally drew it out on a piece of paper, but it was a little difficult to see so I went on the computer and drew it up (with measurements to boot!)

Tada!  So it was a little less on the lines of an optical illusion, I color coded it.  Black is parallel with the wall, dark gray is perpendicular to the floor and wall, and the light gray is parallel to the floor/ceiling (which ever way you want to look at it.)  I'm going to use two of those bins in the left and right slots and use the middle slot to display stuff.  The TV and it's stand are going to slide on into the bigger part.  I threw the little foldable shelf in because that way, right as soon as one of us walks through the door, we can throw our keys in a basket and the mail on it.  I don't know as to whether I'll want to paint it or stain it black.  I'm more of a fan of painting so that might be what I go with.  As for the color of the bins, I'm thinking either chocolate or tan.  (I'm leaning more towards chocolate so it'll match the couch.)

The only problem with this is that my husband wants to use the wood we already have.  I think it won't be wide enough (it's 1' wide) because I don't want the table stand to be sticking out, but my husband doesn't want it to be even with the TV stand because "you won't be able to see the TV if you sit on [the couch by the window and up against the wall]."

This is the spot he was talking about.  Honestly, I don't see why he's always using this spot to complain about.  I don't sit there.  He doesn't sit there.  There's not really anyone who comes over, and if they do, they tend to sit on the other end of the couch.

 

I even came up with a plan for the wood that we have since I think it won't be wide enough.  I haven't gotten a chance to do it up on the computer yet, but I did draw it out so he could see what I was planning.  I was planning on putting it on the shelf in the closet.  He apparently didn't like that idea.  He wants to use the space above the closet for those plastic storage bins.  I'm not a fan of storage bins.  I might even do a post right after this one about why I don't like storage bins.  So when he said that he wanted to put those storage bins there, I cringed.

 

Hopefully, I can change his mind about the storage bins and sway him to the idea I have for the closet.  That way, I can get the width that I would like for the entertainment center and not have to do with plastic totes in the closet!

 

Wish me luck!

A Messy House

I really need to find a way to organize this house.  Remember in my last post about my nice little dry erase board and how my husband couldn't have dinner until he finished his before dinner chores? 
Click here if you don't.  Yeah.  Didn't work.  He did put his dirty clothes in the hamper.  Just only the ones in the living room and even then he still left a sock under the couch, two shirts under his uniforms in the corner, and a sock under the dining table.  He also didn't pick up the trash in the living room at all.

Sooo, I'm back to the drawing board (almost literally).  I've been looking around on Pinterest and I've gotten some ideas on what to do.  One pin that I saw that really caught my eye was a little station kind of thing.  It was a dry erase board, calendar, mail holder, and French memo board.  I might tweak it around to fit my needs like turning the regular calendar into a dry erase calendar (probably get four weekly dry erase calendars so I can have the full month and the weekly menu).  I definitely want to keep the French memo board in there, but change the mail holder to a key holder so that way we don't have to keep looking around for them.  There's a perfect place for it in the hallway.  It'll either be there or the one full wall in the dining room.

While at the idea of having an organized station, I've been trying to think of ways to get this place organized.  Believe it or not, we don't really have all that many shelves in this place.  There's the book shelf by the TV (about a foot and a half wide and five feet tall), the small shelf in the coat closet, some extremely deep shelves in the bedroom cabinets that are about ten inches tall but capable to allow me to curl up in a ball and squeeze in (and the shelves don't move), and the last shelf is in the closet in the bed room.  That's it.  Even our storage room doesn't have shelves (even though it should).  Oh, and of course there's the kitchen cabinets which are horribly placed, too narrow, and the spacing between the shelves are too short (to get the blender in without it on the stand, I had to twist and move it around and eventually put it on it's side and threw it in out of frustration).

I have this goal all set up.  Every month, I'm going to focus on organizing a room.  Since May is already half over, I'm just going to take the rest of this month to focus on cleaning the house.  I'll even go as far to post pictures up of this still messy house.  I already cleaned the bathroom yesterday, but I had to do some unexpected/kind-of-expected cleaning.  I've been telling my husband that the bathroom has been stinking but he says either "It's a bathroom.  You have to expect it to stink." or "I don't smell it."  Yesterday, while I was cleaning the bathroom, I opened up the cabinet under the sink and the smell just "hit me like an elephant falling from an airplane while I run into a brick wall".  What was causing the smell was a leaking pipe and some carpeting that my husband had put under the sink.  The carpeting was catching all of the water and wasn't dry so it became moldy/mildew-y.  My solution was to tie a plastic bag around the pipes to keep it from dripping onto the wood and spread baking soda all on the wood.  It's already smelling better, not great, but better.

Anyways, here's my organizing plan:
May- Clean house to sparkling standards
June- Organizing living room.  Make it not embarrassing!

(The kind-of-messy-but-could-be-worse living room.  There's a

bookshelf on the other side of the TV.)

July- Organizing storage room.  It looks like a tornado whipped through.  UNACCEPTABLE!

(It already looks as if a tornado went through it.  The reasoning behind the bottles is that we don't throw them away but instead collect them up and take them to the recycling center for a cash refund.)

 

(I might organize this closet with the storage room.  I'm not too sure

when I'll do this for sure though.)

 

August- Organizing bathroom.  Don't let it look like what you do in there.

(You can see that baking soda under the sink and of course the stuff that was under the sink.)

 

September- Organizing dining room.  You want to eat in it not sleep in it!

(Yes.  That is a Coca Cola machine in our dining room.  My husband saw it at work and brought it home.  Why?  To keep his beer cold.  Is it used now?  Nope.  Just taking up quite a bit of space.)

 

October- Organizing kitchen.  Make it to where you'll actually want to cook in it.

(The dishes are my fault.  I won't blame my hubby for this one.  My get up and go got up and went after I did the laundry.  You can get a better look at that Coke machine though.)

 

(You can see my cute little dry erase board here!)

November- Organizing bedroom.  You sleep here not shovel here!

 

(Half of the closet.  There's sliding doors.)

 

(I did the laundry today.  That's why there's no sheets and pillows everywhere...and a laundry bag.)

 

(This is the cabinet I was talking about being able to curl up in.  There's three shelves but you can't tell past the suitcase.)

Whether you believe it or not, there is a reason for that order.  The living room is the most used and the first thing people see when they walk it.  That's where the "embarrassing" part comes in.  Once the living room is finished, odds are that there will be little to no room in the storage room for anything else making it look like a tornado stopped by and had a field day.  To get anything else done, that room would have to be organized.  The bathroom is a room that you (or at least I) see at least three times a day (and I'm including when I get ready to go somewhere and before I go to bed to take off makeup, take out contacts, shower, what ever).  The dining room would probably be the third thing that you see but we use it for a lot of things.  Currently, there's a finished puzzle on the table.  The kitchen is the second thing you see when you walk in and it's also used for cooking.  I can be patient enough with this kitchen to let other rooms take priority.  Last, the bedroom.  I'm not a big fan of letting people see this room because it's where I sleep.  I feel creeped out when people know what the room I sleep in looks like at that moment.  (I guess you can say I'm paranoid that someone has a photographic memory and during the night when I'm sleeping they will come in, avoid any obstacles, and stare at me.  Not do anything else.  Just stare at me.)

Now you've seen my lovely pig sty of a house.  Here's the hallway and where I'm going to put my organizer wall thing.  Like I said, I'll either put it here or the wall in the dining room.  (More than likely here because it's right outside our bedroom door so we'll see it a lot.)

 

 

I'll go on ahead and wrap this post up.  I'll make a post for each thing that I do on the lines of organizing everything.  I will go on and say though that one thing that I am working on is actually in the bedroom.  I'm starting to gather up the used toilet paper rolls and folding up my underwear and putting them inside the roll.  That way, it saves up some room in my drawers and I can easily see which pair to choose from.  I'll post a picture when I'm done gathering them up and the before and after picture.

 

Have a great day!

More Cracking Down!

Chores!  Chores!  Chores!

There's nothing that gives you a wake up call like telling your husband that when you get back home from your dad's, you want to come home to a clean house but when you do get back, the only main difference is that most of the dishes are done and the ugly, reeking couch is gone.  So along with cracking down on a budget, I'm also cracking down on chores.

Before I left, we already got a dry erase board that I would use to doodle on and write my day's chores.  When I got home, I found that this dry erase boards not only had my fading doodles still on there, but also the chores that I gave myself before I left.  Obviously he didn't use it one bit to his advantage except to change a description of one of my doodles from "Man-eating Pants" to "Man-loving pants".  I decided that since he didn't take advantage of this awesome thing, then I would!

I sadly erased all of the doodles that remained on the board and a few days ago, started a grocery list on it.  I wasn't a big fan of it being the grocery list along.  There was just too much valuable space not being used.  So, when I went grocery shopping for the week yesterday (yes, I went the day before, but that was just so I could have something to eat until the shopping...and baking soda for cleaning) and got some little legal note pads.  All I'm waiting for is either little magnet strips or a strong enough magnet to hold it up so I can put it on the fridge along with a pen on a string (there will be no excuse!) 

Today, I'm in between rooms taking an hour break (I'll call it my lunch break even though it's past noon) and I took that dry erase board and happily erased the grocery list from yesterday.  I drew a line right down the middle of it, put my name on one side and my husband's on the other and put down some chores!  For me today, I have (left) to do the dishes, clean the kitchen counters, sweep and mop the kitchen, and make dinner.  For my husband, I split his into two sections: Before Dinner and After Dinner.  In his before dinner section, I have that he needs to gather his dirty clothes and put them in the hamper (he has a bad habit of when he gets home from work, he just strips right at the front door and throws his uniform where ever and sometimes even change the clothes he has on under them right there.  So there's clothes every where...mainly socks) and to throw away trash in the living room.  For the after dinner section, I have him to take out the trash if needed.

I noticed that I had quite a bit of room left mainly on my side, so I started to make use of it.  Right under my chores for the day, I have a note saying "Is there something you want for dinner next week?  Write it here!" and I left some space for him to write (every Sunday, I write out the next week's menu and make a grocery list accordingly).  Under that note, I have another note saying "I have a grocery list going.  Don't have it?  Don't write it?  Don't complain!  (If it's not on the list when I go shopping, I won't get it!)"  Hopefully, this will get him in the habit of writing things down when we run low or are out.  Under his chores for the day, I wrote the daily note (a note that will probably change every day) saying "I WILL be doing laundry tomorrow.  So, anything you need washed, put in hamper!"  That way, he can't complain that I didn't tell him about doing the laundry when his uniforms don't get washed.

I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that this helps to motivate him to help out some more around the house (normally, he just takes out the trash and/or does half the dishes and laundry but doesn't fold the clothes.)  Hopefully, the "Before dinner" part will motivate him to do those few chores I give him so he can eat because I won't let him eat until he gets them done!

 

Wish me luck!

Cracking Down!

Hey everyone!

While I was out in Utah, I started thinking that my husband and I needed to find ways to save money.  What better way than to have a budget?  So starting today, I'm cracking down on this budget thing.  I figured that since May is half way over, there's no reason to start one right now so I'm getting a head start and working on next month's budget.  This includes saving receipts, keeping an inventory, finding a good bank, and cutting corners in some places.  Is my husband liking it?  Well, sort of.  He likes the fact that I'm going to start cooking more but other than that, not really.  He thinks it's only necessary to keep receipts if you bought gas.  Never mind cigarettes, snacks, drinks, or random toys that he finds.  I'm hoping that I get him into the habit of keeping those little pieces of paper that the nice cashier gives you.

I'm slowly teaching him the ways of money saving while grocery shopping.  He thinks the hard way and looks at the price and how much there is instead of just looking at the cents per ounce thing on the price tag.  For example, we were getting some baking soda today so I can get rid of the nasty stench emanating from our furniture in the bedroom, mainly the dresser.  There was Arm and Hammer for $2.69 for 32 oz and a generic brand for $.99 for 16 oz.  The way how he saw it was you get more with the 32 oz even though it costs more, but the extra cost is because of the extra amount.  The way how I saw it was you get $.084 per ounce for the 32 and $.062 for the 16.  It is cheaper to get the 16 oz generic than the 32 oz name brand.  Also, there was a comparison thing on the price tag for the generic with the Arm and Hammer.  He started to look at that and realized what I was saying. 

I've found that in most cases, the store brand is a lot cheaper (and better) than the name brand stuff.  There are a few cases, however, where I would choose the name brand over the store brand.  One of those cases happened today with spaghetti sauce.  I'm not a fan of Ragu or the store brand.  To me they taste like there's some or too much (whichever the case may be) vinegar or really watery.  I personally prefer Prego or Classico.  Classico tends to be cheaper so you can kind of guess which one I get the majority of the time.

Anyways, back to the main topic of a budget, today, I sat down with my dear husband to just go on ahead and get predicted costs.  It's kind of scary that he doesn't know the cost for things like phone, cable, electricity, car insurance, or even how much he makes!  He says that it comes out automatically from his account.  Personally, the way how I see it, it doesn't matter if it comes out automatically or not, you should still at least know where all of your money is going!  I personally don't like it, but he likes to use his card.  To me, it just makes spending money easier because you never actually see it unlike with cash, but he doesn't like to carry cash on him so he prefers the card.  Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think card is the worst thing ever (I even have one) because it keeps a record of how much went where.  It only works, though, if you actually use these records.  Otherwise, there's no point to it.

But yeah.  I do have to say, it is helpful to have templates to help you keep inventory and develop a budget.  I tried to post them on here, but it wasn't working right.  I don't really know why and I even tried doing it different ways but it just wasn't working.  If I do get it to work, I'll post them on here, but if not, I'm sorry.

Have a great day!

The Trip Back Home

Hey everyone!

Sorry for not posting anything for a week.  I’ll be honest; I was too lazy for a while to post anything.  But Saturday and Sunday, I can explain!  I promise!

So as you all know by now, I was in Utah with my dad.  Well, Friday was my last full day out there and my husband and I left the house at 8:30 in the morning.  We went and stopped by some family on our way out and said bye then we stopped at the store to get a tarp to put over some of my boxes that I had left at my dad’s.  We found the tarps alright, same with the bungee cords, but then my hubby saw the knives.  (He’s a knife fanatic!  He has about seven of them at the house—AND WANTS MORE!)  By the time we got out of town with that knife in hand, it was 10:00 so we missed our original window to leave at 9:30.

When we finally got out of town, we went up to Moab, topped off, got some snacks, and left.  We stopped a few times mainly to look for a CB antenna for my husband’s radio.  We got all the way to Cedar City and we stopped to use the bathroom (since neither of us thought to before we left the house).  On our way out of Cedar City, we were sticking our hands out the window and playing with the wind.  While we were doing this, a white Toyota drives past us and my husband started laughing.  I asked him “What in the [world] are you laughing about!” and his reply was explainable: “There was a kid waving at us.”  I thought that it was because he thought we were waving at him so I explained that to my husband.  About thirty minutes later, we had caught back up to this truck and my husband started waving at them when we passed them.  About ten minutes after we passed them, they passed us and started waving.  That’s what triggered it all.  We passed them and waved.  They passed us and waved.  We passed them and waved.  They passed up and waved.  This just kept going on as if it was a game!  One of the times I waved, the mother waved with the boy!  I just started laughing!  We were going to the Sportsman’s Warehouse in St. George and our exit had finally come and the truck was a few cars in front of us.  We got all sad thinking this was going to be the last time that we get to wave as we drove by.  So we took our exit and wouldn’t you know that the truck was taking the same exit?  We got a little bit excited and thought that we’d get another chance to wave when they turned.  We started to get in our turning lane and it turned out that they were turning the same way as us.  This started to get a little weird.  I told my husband “Wouldn’t it be funny if they were going to Sportsman’s Warehouse?”.  His reply was “I hope they don’t.  It would seem like we were stalking them then!”  The light finally turned green and we both turned and waved while turning.  Then we split paths.  They turned left while we kept going straight.  (Sad wave at this one.)

After having a fun game of traffic tag, we finally got to Sportsman’s Warehouse.  Our main reason of going:  It’s fun.  But we also wanted to go and look at bows.  So we go in and head straight for the archery section.  We looked at a few bows and picked out a few that we would like to try out and see how we liked it (When I said “we” it was mainly my husband.  I already knew what I wanted!).  We went to the gun counter to get a guy over there to help us, tried out a bow or two, and then I got hit with the hard stuff.  “I’ll leave the choice to you as to if we get the bows or not.”  No pressure or anything.  It’s just $600 that I have to decide if we want to spend or not.  A little over two hours later, I finally decided that we should get the bows.  It took some convincing, walking around, and deals but I finally decided on it.  We went back to the archery counter and had the same guy help us out again.  Since him and his manager (?) were the only two working the gun counter, he had to finish up some of the people there before he could get to us.  After an hour, he was finally done and got to us.  He helped us pick out the size of arrows that we needed and the size of tips that we needed.  He went into the back to grab our bows and only came out with my husband’s.  It turned out that the only ones left of the bow that I wanted was on layaway and on the shelf.  I know you’re not supposed to buy off the shelf when it comes to stuff like that, but I REALLY liked this bow!  It was the same kind that I shot when I was on the archery team in high school so I already knew quite a bit about it.  I decided to take the risk and buy off the shelf.  I picked the blue bow and the only other one was camo.  While the guy was working on putting my husband’s biscuit, sight, quiver and peep sight on, I was looking at the blue and the camo bow to see which one was looking better.  I scrutinized the crap out of both bows before I settled for the camo bow.  Here comes the guy again, I told him which one I wanted so he put up the blue one and went about to explain to my hubby how to adjust the draw weight and length and how to adjust the sight.  He fixed the draw weight and let my husband do some practice shots to see if the weight was where he wanted.  It took two times before it was right.  The store was about to close so the guy didn’t have time to cut our arrows so we had to plan another stop to do that.  So we got all our stuff and went to the front to check out when my husband asked “Is that the kid?”  At first I didn’t know what kid he was talking about but then I saw a kid walking in the door.  I told him that I didn’t know and he just humphed and went on about checking out.  Then I noticed that at the customer service desk was the mom.  I turned to my husband and was like “Oh my God!  That is them!”  That’s when my husband just yelled out to them to get their attention and started waving at them.  They pretty much had the same reaction that we had about seeing them.  The woman explained to the cashier why we were doing that and the cashier just started laughing.  We started to walk outside with them, got to know them a little bit (except the mom’s name.)  She told us that what caught their attention about us was the fact that we were playing with the wind just like they did.  So it was all fun.  We eventually split ways again.

Before we left St. George, we decided that it would be go to stop and eat somewhere.  We came across an IHOP so we decided that we were going to eat there.  We covered up the bows in the back seat with my blanket so that way there wasn’t a chance that anyone could even make them out through the tinted windows.  We walk in, my husband asks where the bathroom is, and I went with the hostess to the table.  I sit down.  He comes back.  The waitress takes our drink order.  She brings back our drinks, pretty normal stuff.  My husband got a little irritated that they brought out his salad not even two minutes before they brought out the rest of the food.  We started eating when one of the waiters was standing at one of the stations and started talking obnoxiously loud.  “So she was all like ‘I don’t want to go over to his place!’ and was all like ‘OMG what a slut!”, “What are you going to do for Halloween?” (Other waiter) “I don’t know” “Well, I’ve already picked it out!  I’m going to be a straight guy for Halloween.  It’s just perfect!”  Halloween?  It’s not even half way through May yet!  He eventually had to go and check on his table so that quieted him for a little while.  But once he was done with that table, he went back to the station and proceeded back to his ways.  “Do you know how to twerk?” (waitress) “How to what?”  “Twerk!  Like in those music videos?  Do you know how to twerk?” and he proceeded to twerk where everyone can see him.  I started to get annoyed by this guy to the point where I wasn’t even going to finish my food.  I asked the waitress for a to-go box.  As we were leaving, the obnoxious waiter said bye to us and I caught a glimpse of his name tag.  I plan on reporting him to IHOP because there is no excuse for that kind of behavior in a restaurant. PERIOD.  It is rude and unprofessional.

We finally left St. George after our experience at IHOP.  Both of us were already tire so about twenty miles from Las Vegas, we pulled into a Loves gas station and went to sleep.  We woke up the next morning all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to take on the last five hours of our drive back home.  We stopped by the Pawn Stars pawn shop while in Vegas and while we were still in the city, we went to the Bass Pro Shop to get our arrows cut.  While we were waiting, we looked around and the fish tanks and waterfalls.  I fell in love with the four ducks they had at one of the waterfalls.  We got our arrows and started looking at some of the other stuff they had.  That’s when we spotted the Duck Commander stuff.  I saw a coozie and my husband saw Si’s green cup and we both got them.  That was about all of the adventures that we had there.

We got back on the road and made it past the California boarder.  I was happy because at least we were in the right state.  We kept on trucking and my husband noticed the oil light was on and the gauge was bottomed out.  My dad told us that the truck did that sometimes so he got the part that he thought was causing it and gave it to us to use in case it happened again.  We drove about six miles with the light and gauge doing that and we were about thirty miles out from Barstow when my husband rolled up the windows and turned off the radio and was able to hear rattling in the engine.  We pulled over and he got out and checked the engine.  Come to find out, the piece that was going bad on the truck wasn’t the piece that my dad thought it was.  It was the oil pump.  We didn’t dare try to go any further in fear of the engine ceasing up.  He got on the phone and tried to call people to come out and get us.  Out of the six people that he called, three were at work, one didn’t feel comfortable driving with a trailer, one didn’t want to miss mother’s day dinner (which was five hours away from the six that would be needed to come and get us), but one finally came through.  We sat on the side of the road for a while when my husband got tire of being in one place for so long so he put the truck in neutral and we cruised down the hill we were already on.  We went a mile and a half doing this before he stopped us at an emergency call phone on the side of the road.  He called a tow truck to take us to Barstow and then we waited.  The tow truck finally came and we headed on to Barstow…with a fee of $400.  We start into Barstow and the tow truck driver was talking on his cell phone loudly in Spanish, trying to start up a conversation with us like he was a friend of ours that we hadn’t seen in years, and when we finally made it to Barstow, he stalled the engine while we were turning at a stop light.  He got it started back up and moving and then he started grinding his gears really bad.  I was so ready to get out of that truck.  We stopped in the mall parking lot and paid the man.  Now it was 2:30 and we had to find something to do until the other guys got there.  We went over across the street to the McDonalds and I got something to drink while my husband got a full meal.  I did steal some of his fries though.  The McDonalds was connected to the Barstow Station so we walked around all the little (emphasis on little) shops.  Eventually, the place started to seem too cramped up so we went back over to the mall where the truck was and sat outside of one of the stores which was going through some remodeling or something like that.  He called his parents and told them what’s going on and texted my dad and told him what happened with the truck.

While we were waiting on our back up to get there, we got the bright idea to put a tarp on the back window of the truck to block out the sun and sit in the truck.  Without the tarp, the truck was too hot to sit in, with the tarp, it was warm but not too terribly warm.  We sat there for a while in the truck when our rescue team called us.  Would you believe that their radiator cracked when they were forty five miles out of Barstow?  Fortunately, they were able to redneck it with rubber cement until they got to us.  So, while we waited for them to get there, we walked to the O’Riley’s to set aside the stuff we’d need to fix their truck.  They finally showed up and the guys all went to work on the truck while I laid down in a tree.  The stuff finally dried and we were on our way to get the other truck.

We got to my dad’s truck and everything was looking good.  The trailer was pulled up to the truck, the ramps were lined up, and my husband was in it, ready to crank the engine to get it up on the trailer.  He turned it on and started to head up the ramps.  The front tires made it up and then the right tires started to go over the edge and up the wheel well of the trailer.  So he backed up some and started back up the ramp.  The back tires just barely started to go up the ramp when the engine died and wouldn’t start back up.  Great.  That means that the engine probably ceased up.  So I had to hop in the driver’s seat while the guys rocked to truck onto the trailer.  It worked—until the truck bottomed out on the trailer.  My husband got the bright idea to try and pull the trailer out from under the truck a little to have more rocking room.  This worked but only until the back tires were entirely off the ramp.  Luckily, this guy came out from the cantina that was part of the mall.  (We were in front of the cantina doors and everyone at the bar was watching us.)  He offered some muscle to help us get the truck onto the trailer.  So back in the driver’s seat I go.  It took a few tries, but the truck was finally on the trailer.  We strapped it down, loaded up, and were on our way.  We made sure to stop every twenty miles to check the seal and fill up the coolant.  We finally made it to one of the guy’s apartments where we unhooked his truck and attached my husband’s.  We took the other guy and his girlfriend (I was asleep when they got her) to the barracks on base, took the truck and trailer to the airfield to drop it off there for the night, and made it home at 3:00 in the morning.  It wasn’t until we got home that my husband realized that he was the last one with the truck key and it’s nowhere to be found.

So what was supposed to be a twelve hour drive with a stop in St. George and Las Vegas, turned into a forty two hour trip with a stop in St. George, two in Las Vegas, one on the side of the road, six hours in Barstow, a truck throwing a temper tantrum about having to be back in California, another truck throwing a tantrum about having to get the truck throwing a temper tantrum about having to be back in California, and a long day.  I kept telling my husband “It could be worse” and it’s true.  We could have been dressed up in drags and on the side of the road.

The moral of the story: Expect the unexpected, always look on the bright side, and don’t drive a Ford near Barstow.

Have a great day!

Quick Catch Up

Hey guys!

Sorry for not posting anything for the past few days.  I've been camping and there's no wifi when you camp.  That, and no signal where we went camping.  SO...time to play catch up!

May 3
I was really excited for this day and couldn't wait for it to come.  I had to wait patiently for ten pm to roll around though.  After spending a month and a half away from my husband, I finally got to see him again!  Woot woot!  I had a small haul from Wally World.  Just some Suave dry shampoo and John Frieda heat protection spray.  I can already tell you that the dry shampoo is awesome!  I haven't gotten to try the heat protection spray yet.  (I'll do a post on these eventually.)

May 4
STAR WARS DAY!!! (May the forth be with you!)  Yeah, I'm a Star Wars fan and it didn't celebrate like we normally do by watching all of the Star Wars movies.  We did however celebrate with some brisket, camping in the middle of nowhere and a dog named Chewbacca!  She certainly deserves the name.  When we got her, she certainly smelled like a wookie and it wasn't until after naming her that when we would eat, she would stare at us and make wookie sounds.

May 5
We celebrated Cinco de Mayo by napping all day and eating breakfast burritos.  There was also some fried chicken and shooting some guns.  Other than that, there wasn't much else to today.  I certainly can tell you that in the morning, I'm taking a nice, long, hot shower.  For now, I'm just tired and wanting to go to bed.

So I'll catch you guys tomorrow!  Have a great day!

Stoichiometry! Answer to Part 2

Hello once again my fellow stoichiometrists (I don't even know if that's a real word.  I doubt it, but that's just what I'm going to use.)  Yesterday, I left you with a problem to try to solve on your own:

How many grams of H2SO4 are needed to make 350 mL of a 0.179 M solution?

Did you have any luck solving it?  If not, don't fear.  Stoichiometry is something that takes practice (like any other thing) but not just any kind of practice, but perfect practice (the more you get right while solving the right way, the better you'll get).  It doesn't help to practice something the wrong way.

Here's the solution:

0.350 L H2SO4 * 0.179 mol H2SO4 * 98.077 g H2SO4 = 6.144 g H2SO4

 1 L H2SO4            1 mol H2SO4

If you got 6.145 g, that's ok.  It all just depends on how you rounded (depending on the periodic table you used and if you used three places after the decimal, the actual answer was 6.1445 g).  In a later post, I will explain how, even though the last number was 5, I got 6.144 g instead of 6.145 g.  So stay tuned for that post!  In the mean time, I'll give you guys a rest to let your brain stop smoldering.

To find out more about stoichiometry, I suggest going to one of these websites:

chemistry.about.com

chem4kids.com

chemed.chem.purdue.edu

chemteam.info

Have a great day!

Stoichiometry! Part 2

I left off yesterday with the beginnings of stoichiometry and how to solve one of the easy problems.  Today, I will show you how to do the second question.

To jog your memory, the problem left was:

b) How many grams of sodium chloride are needed to make a 200 mL of a 0.5 M solution?

Time to solve it.

First, let's get rid of all of the unnecessary words in the problem.

b) 200 mL of sodium chloride  0.5 M solution  g of sodium chloride = ?

Pretty easy.  Now, what is sodium chloride?  Sodium chloride is NaCl.  Now that we know this, it's time to find the molecular mass.  To do this, find sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl) on the periodic table.  If you have a problem finding it, here's a picture of where it is located on the periodic table (the one I am using is from chemistry.about.com):

Ok, now look for the atomic mass for each.  Some periodic tables differ with this.  For some, the atomic mass is above the elemental symbol and for others, it is below.  In the one that I am using, the atomic mass is located below the elemental symbol.  Here's a picture to help you out.

We now know that sodium's atomic mass is 22.989768 (we'll say it's 22.990) and chlorine is 35.4527 (We'll say 35.453 to give us a nice rounded number).  To calculate the molecular mass, just think of NaCl as an equation.  Sodium is Na and chlorine is Cl.

(Na) * 1 + (Cl) * 1 = Molecular Mass

Plug in the atomic masses.

(22.990) * 1 + (35.453) * 1 = Molecular Mass

Now do the math!

22.990 + 35.453 = 58.443

Do you remember the units for molecular mass?  (Go on ahead.  Take a peek back if you forgot.)  The units are g/mol.  So now we know that the molecular mass of sodium chloride (NaCl) is 58.443 g/mol!

We now come the the question of "What on earth is 'M'?"  "M" is the molarity of a solution (the concentration) and is moles per liter.  (Did you catch that?)  Let's now look at what we have:

200 mL of NaCl, 0.5 M of NaCl, and 58.443 g/mol of NaCl

We actually have all the information that we need to solve this problem!  "But how do we finish it!  There's mL and a random M that have nothing to do with the rest!  We can't possibly solve it!"  Au contraire!  Remember what the units of molarity are?  I already told you so go back and look (I even gave you a hint).  The units for molarity are mol/L!  All we have to do is convert mL to L!  To do this, just divide by 1000.  Why 1000?  That's because there are 1000 mL per L.  It's just that simple.  So now we have:

0.200 L of NaCl, 0.5 mol/L of NaCl and 58.443 g/mol of NaCl

Time to turn it into an equation.

0.200 L NaCl * 0.5 mol NaCl * 58.443 g NaCl

                        1 L NaCl          1 mol NaCl

Time to solve!  The L and mol will cancel out leaving us with g.

0.200 L NaCl * 0.5 mol NaCl * 58.443 g NaCl

                        1 L NaCl          1 mol NaCl

Now multiply!  (Since anything divided by one is the same, we don't need to worry about dividing).

0.200 * 0.5 * 58.443 g NaCl = 5.8443 g NaCl

Now we know that 5.8443 g of sodium chloride are needed to make a 200 mL of a 0.5 M solution!

Time for the "homework" question from yesterday.  As you recall, the question was:

There are 13.2 g NaCl in a bowl.  How many moles are there of NaCl?

I'm just going to do the solving part.  To find out how or why I did the steps I did, go back to yesterday's post.

Stoichiometry! Intro and Beginning Problems

Solution:

13.2 g NaCl *    1 mol NaCl    = 0.226 mol NaCl

58.443 g NaCl     .

Time for today's problem for you to try on your own:

How many grams of H2SO4 are needed to make 350 mL of a 0.179 M solution?

Just work on that problem and I'll give you the answer soon!  Hint:  Depending on how much you already know about Chemistry, there are actually two possible answers but the difference between the two is just a mere 0.001 (depending on if you use the entire atomic mass or just three places after the decimal like I'm using.)  In case you don't have a periodic table of your own, here's a link to the one that I'm using.

Periodic Table

Have a great day!

Stoichiometry!- Intro and Beginning Problems

I took Chemistry in tenth grade and I remember that at the beginning of the semester, he said "Eventually, stoichiometry will become a cuss word and haunt you in your dreams."  How right he was.  By the middle of the semester, just about every problem we had to solve had something to do with stoichiometry.  Eventually, stoichiometry was everywhere.  It was in my Algebra II class, my English II class, and even in Theater II.  Any word that ended in "-ometry" made me want to run in the opposite direction and just keep on running.  I finally was able to suck up some courage to fight the beast.  I walked into that classroom, sword in hand, and slayed it.  I got a few scratches while I was at it, but I made it out alive.  I started to see the lighter side of stoichiometry and no longer feared Chemistry.  I started to get braver and braver to the point that I chose Chemistry as my major in college.  To help those from getting those scratches that I had to get, I decided to be the shield and not only major in Chemistry, but to teach the subject.  I'm still working on my degree, but it doesn't mean that I still can't teach a few things here and there.  After all, it is a known fact that if you struggle with something, try teaching it to someone.  By walking them through it, it helps you to understand it a little better (especially if it's something that you're good at and just need to enhance it a bit more.)

So.  Stoichiometry.  Yeah.  What is it?  By definition, stoichiometry (stoy-key-om-eh-tree) is the calculation of quantities of chemical elements or compounds involved in a chemical reaction (dictionary.com).  In simpler terms, how much of something in a reaction.  An example of stoichiometry is:  A cup contains 30.2 grams of water.  How many moles of water is that? and How many grams of sodium chloride are needed to make  200 mL of a 0.5 M solution?  Problems can be more complicated that these two, but for now, I'll just start with easier ones.

Now, how exactly are these solved?  The same way how you eat an elephant: one bite at a time.  So let's begin by separating the two problems to where it is easier on the eyes.

a) A cup contains 30.2 g of water.  How many moles of water is that?

b) How many grams of sodium chloride are needed to make a 200 mL of a 0.5 M solution?

Good.  Since the spare words in the paragraph are gone, it's much easier on the eyes to find the problem and aren't anywhere near as intimidating as they looked with the long paragraph.  So...now what?  Let's take these one problem at a time.  We can easily make problem a more friendly by just taking out of it what we need.  By doing this, it becomes:

a) 30.2g H2O  moles of H2O = ?

That's friendlier now that all the useless other words are out of the problem.  But now what?  Well, to finish this, the periodic table is needed.  (Yes, we're doing chemistry that involves using the periodic table.  Imagine that!)  Using the periodic table, you need to find the molecular mass of water (grams per mole of water).  Don't let that sentence intimidate you.  It's easier than you think.  On the periodic table, find Hydrogen and Oxygen (atomic numbers 1 and 8 and symbols H and O).  (Hydrogen should be the easiest to find as it is the first element on the periodic table.)  Here's a picture of where they are on the periodic table (I'm using a picture from chemistry.about.com periodic tables differ slightly but all have the elemental symbol.)

Now that you have located Hydrogen and Oxygen on the periodic table, look for the atomic mass for each.  Here is a picture showing you where that is at (as previously stated, periodic tables differ slightly.  Some have the atomic mass while others don't and some have the atomic mass above the elemental symbol while others may have it below.  In the one I am using, the atomic mass is below.)

As you can see, the atomic mass for Hydrogen is 1.0079 (we'll round up to 1.008) and Oxygen is 15.9994 (we'll round to 15.999 to give up three places after the decimal).  Now for water, the formula is H2O.  That means there are two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom.  To find the molecular mass, think of this as a math problem.  Hydrogen is H and Oxygen is O.

(H)*2 + (O)*1 = Molecular Mass

Plug in the atomic masses for the corresponding element.

(1.008)*2 + (15.999)*1 = Molecular Mass

Now solve.

2.016 + 15.999 = 18.015

Yay!  Now we have the molecular mass!  So what to do with this.  Notice that the answer doesn't have any units.  I didn't put them there to make it simpler to calculate the molecular mass without worrying about units just yet.  So were you paying attention?  I actually already said the units for molecular mass.  In case you weren't paying attention, go on ahead and look back.  I'll wait.

Find it?  If you were too lazy to look back, I'll just go on and spoil it for you.  The units for molecular mass are grams per mole.  That means our answer for the molecular mass is actually 18.015 g/mol.  It's now time to put it to some use.

No matter what you're trying to find through stoichiometry, there is a flow that it goes in:

Moles A <=> Grams A <=> Grams B <=> Moles B

Since we are only dealing with water, we only need to worry about Moles A <=> Grams A.  In the problem, we were given the grams of water and we are looking for the moles.  So this is what we are doing:

Grams H2O -> Moles H2O

We know the grams so it now looks like this:

30.2 g H2O -> Moles H2O

Time to use your brain.  What do we know that has moles in it?  Need a hint?  Try the molecular mass!  Remember (grams per MOLE.)  But it also has grams.  That means we need to cancel out grams.  How do we do that?  If a grams is divided by a gram, isn't it one?  (Yes.)  So we have it as moles over grams.

30.2 g H2O -> 1 mol  H2O

               18.015 g

Change the arrow to a multiplication sign.

30.2 g H2O * 1 mol  H2O

             18.015 g

Time to solve!  The grams would cancel out.

30.2 g H2O * 1 mol  H2O

              18.015 g

The final step is to multiply and divide.

30.2 H2O * 1 mol  H2O

         18.015

30.2 mol = 1.676 mol H2O

18.015                            .

So now we know that a cup with 30.2 grams of water has 1.676 moles of water!

Congratulations!  You just completed and solved your first stoichiometry problem!  For right now, I'm just going to do question a.  Check back later for how to solve questions b.  In the mean time, get some practice in!  Solve this stoichiometry question:

There are 13.2 g of NaCl in a bowl.  How many moles are there of NaCl?

You can either comment or email the answer to me and I'll tell you if you're right.  Or if you just want to keep the answer to yourself, I'm going to give the solution when I do the walk through for question b.  (I made up the question myself, so don't think you can cheat and just find it online you sneakies!)

Have a great day!

Golden Eye Tutorial

Hello everyone!  Today, I'm going to be showing you how to do a golden eye.

Step 1:  Prime the eye.  ALWAYS prime the eye!  If you just so happen to not have prime (like in my case), you can just simply use a matte white eye shadow.  Granted, by using the white, you won't have long wear, but at least your colors will have a little bit more of a pop than using nothing.  Also, this would be a good time to pin back your hair to keep it out of the way.

Step 2:  Apply a bronze color to the center of your lid and spread to the rest of your lid.  You can choose what brush you like.  I used my large flat eye shadow brush.

Step 3:  Apply a copper color to the outside corner and a gold color to the inside corner.  You don't have to worry about blending just yet, but if you wish, then you can go on ahead and blend.  Once again, you can use any brush you prefer but I used my small flat eye shadow brush.

Step 4:  Apply a silver color (can be matte or shimmer) to the brow bone.  I repeat, you can use any brush you wish.

Step 5:  Apply a navy/dark blue color to the crease.  I suggest using a crease brush with your eye open to get a smooth, rounded crease.

Step 6:  If you haven't already, now's the time to blend using your blending brush.  Make sure to blend in small circle motions and not windshield wiper motions.  This is also the time to re-apply any colors that you wish to be stronger or have faded while blending.  When you do this, pat the color on.

Step 7:  Apply the same navy/dark blue color starting from the outside corner to the center of the lower lash line and from the inner corner, apply the same gold color to meet the navy/dark blue.  I suggest using an angled eyeliner brush to help make this step easier.  If you do use the brush, pat on the color, don't rub.

Step 8:  Apply navy or black eye liner to the top lash line  and water line and smudge if you would like.

Step 9:  Apply either navy or black mascara to the lashes.  As an extension to this step, you can fill in your eyebrows using a brow pencil or eye shadow matching your eyebrows.  Once you are done with this step, wipe off all fallout and apply concealer under the eye.

Voila!  Now you have yourself a golden eye that is good for everyday or even nightly wear!  I'm sorry for the bad lighting again.  Once I get back home, I'll redo this along with any others.  This will also give me a chance to show the difference between using primer and not.  While I am also redoing this, I will post pictures of what the look is instead of just letting you guess by looking at the final step picture.

Have a  great day!