The Best Birthday Present EVER!

I turned the big 4-0 last October, and came away feeling... about the same. Still me. The best gift I got-- in fact the best gift I've gotten in years, was from my husband. He gave me a beautiful dark gray floral printed super-soft heated throw blanket. The last few winters, I've taken to putting a heating pad in the bed while I wash my face and brush my teeth, so that I wouldn't have to freeze when I climbed into my cool sheets. Even when we had flannel sheets on the bed, I sometimes did this. 

Mine is actually dark gray with a floral white pattern.

Good Riddance, Phone Bill!

A couple of months ago, I was complaining to my family about how CenturyLink, (formerly Qwest, formerly known as something else that I can't remember) had raised my bill-- not by just a little, either. It had gone up from $65 for internet and phone to $85!!  

Of course, this happens, and for years we always called and whined and insisted they give us a better price and they usually got us on a better deal, but I'm tired of that game, so I was saying that I wanted to switch ISPs (since in our area, CL's download speeds are notoriously horrible) and get rid of the phone. I was debating whether to buy another cell phone to have stay home or to just be rid of the phone... I hadn't decided what to do at that point.

They were so excited to tell me about how their phone bill is now only about $3 in taxes a month, since they bought an Ooma! As soon as they had gone home, I went online and researched it for myself, and the tax amount for my area is $4.45. That's it. 

Quick Easy Healthy Smoothie

I've been making lots of smoothies lately-- mostly with honey or sugar, frozen strawberries and tropical fruit that I buy in big bags at Costco, yogurt and milk. However, in an effort to add a little secret veggie goodness, I did this last week and it worked great! I took my husband's juicer and made carrot/spinach/apple juice, and froze it in these cute ice cube trays I got at the DI. I would like some normal trays, too, but they didn't have any that day. I toss a few in each batch of smoothie and you can't see, smell, or taste the veggies, but it does my heart good to think my family is getting a little extra something...

Peanut Butter and Secret Snackiness

Following my post about healthy food, this may seem odd, but I'm going to share with you my secret favorite sneaky snack. First, you have to buy good stuff like quality peanut butter, only the best milk chocolate chips (I use the Guittard brand... so good... and so large...) and your favorite graham crackers. Can you guess where I'm going with this? Good.

This week, in the interest of healthier eating and not so much preservative-nastiness, I picked up some Kirkland brand natural peanut butter at Costco. It's ingredients list is mercifully short: peanuts and salt. Good enough for me! It has to be refrigerated, because of the said lack of preservatives.

Tonight I made my favorite snack and put it on a plate that had only recently exited the dishwasher, and to my amusement, the pb has slowly started oozing over the edges of the crackers. This is in large part due to the fact that I love me some pb and took a nice thick layer.  So good, though I will have to adjust to the flavor of the new peanut butter. My favorite brand is Jif, which is kind of costy for a budget-crazy family, so I've been settling for the WalMart store brand. It's probably a good thing to shift to a healthier brand, but it does taste a bit different.

Our dishwasher should like it, though. For about a year, many a finished load of dishes has included an unclean butter knife with nasty, crusty, baked-on peanut butter that the hottest hot water and soapiest soap couldn't manage to dislodge. I always have to wash my pb knives by hand; the poor dishwasher can't seem to win the battle of the peanut butter. My husband pointed out that if it doesn't dissolve in the dishwasher, what is it doing to our insides? Good point...