Tassimo

I love love love my Tassimo I just thought I loved my old coffeemaker.  Well, I did – until I got the Tassimo.  Here is the info straight from their website.

Tassimo is the only home brewing system that gives everybody exactly what they want, from coffees and teas to hot chocolate and rich cappuccinos and lattes.

It makes coffee in a flash – no standing by the coffee machine with cup in hand.  In the afternoons, when I start to feel that drag – push button and in a flash, I have a cappuccino or a latte – YUM!  Lots of people have wondered if it that much more expensive.  It is, yes – a package of Starbucks pods cost about $10 or $11 for 12.  But, before the Tassimo I was brewing a 1/2 pot of coffee and only drinking one or maybe two cups and pouring out the rest.  Now I only make one cup and that’s it – no wasting coffee.  In a pinch I buy the packages at Bed Bath & Beyond with a 20% coupon.  But, I try to make a larger monthly purchase at Coffee for Less.

A new Bed!!

Finally, finally after nearly 10 years of coveting King size beds – we got one!  Todd has always maintained that we didn’t need one, that a Queen size was big enough.  He likes to be able to reach out in the middle of the night to touch me, make sure I was still in the bed I guess, lol!  Neither one of us is the type to curl up together while we sleep.  We always start off with at least our toes touching, but now there is quite a bit of space to cover in the bed to make that happen!  I love it, the space, the bed itself, and the mattress.  Wow, I didn’t realize how bad that old mattress was until we got a new one!  Getting a bigger bed required new bedding, so that was fun, shopping for something new and cool.  I spotted this duvet cover at Tuesday Morning and fell in love immediately.  It reminds me of something my grandmother might have had way back when retro flowers were cool.  I looked at comforters and duvet covers at several more places, but couldn’t get this one out of my mind.  So, this was it.  I still need to add some trim to the edge of it because it is not quite big enough to cover the mattress.  Next up will be some paint color on the walls.

The Instyler – My Review

Let me start off by saying that I was skeptical, very skeptical. We’ve all seen the commercials, that crazy looking head of frizzy hair turned into a sleek styled head of hair with just a swipe of the Instyler. Well, it may not be quite that easy – but it really works! At least it did for me. And those of you who know me know that is a pretty big deal. Have you EVER seen me with straight hair?!?!? No, never, because let me tell you I’ve tried it all. I even tried to iron my hair once. That might have been the worst. I’ve tried to blow dry it straight, I’ve tried flat irons, I’ve tried straightener products etc. Granted, maybe I didn’t give it enough effort with the flat iron or the hair dryer, but I am just not willing to spend hours on my hair each morning. With the Instyler, I sectioned my hair into two halves and started with the bottom layer on the right side, slowly working my way to the top layer. It was slow and I had to make two passes on each section. I think the trick is to go very slow and not get a big chunk of hair on each section. I definitely need to practice because I can’t seem to do the back well at all, and I think with practice it won’t take the hour that it took me the first time. But, I am pleased with my $35 Instyler, for the first time in my life I look in the mirror and see a girl with straight hair that is NOT frizzy!

Rip Riders

These are the COOLEST riding toys I’ve seen in a while. Lael’s friend Shelby had one that Lael has ridden at her house and just kept talking about. She talked about it so much that Caeden got excited about it. He had only seen it in action, never actually ridden one. But, he and Lael both asked Santa for one, and they must have been good because he brought them each one. They are the biggest hit with all the kids in our cul-de-sac. There are only two of them, and all of the kids want to ride them. I tell them they have to take turns and that somebody can ride the turtle bikes, the scooters, skateboards or bicycles. They do, but unwillingly….then as soon as a Rip Rider becomes available, it’s Game On!

Snow Ice Cream

It has been a crazy winter so far – waaaayyyy more snow than I am used to. We were starting to wonder if we had been transplanted back to NY, but then came to our senses when the snow melts almost immediately. This snowy afternoon I decided we would make snow ice cream. I put out a couple of bowls to catch some snow, to ensure that it was clean snow when we started making it. What I didn’t count on was the kids finding the bowls and figuring that I was just being nice about making it easy for them to create snowballs. HA, not exactly my plan. So, we had to make snow ice cream with snow that I scraped off the patio table, the grill, the chairs etc. Oh well, it looked clean enough!

The twins were both so excited about the prospect of making ice cream. I got all the ingredients and we started mixing and pouring. Lael, being the impatient one – kept taking taste tests…….she would make a face each time, not quite tasty! But, when we finally got all the sugars and milk in and mixed up – she decided it was yummy deliciousness! Caeden took one bite and decided it was horrible and could not be persuaded to give it another try. Lael ate all of hers and most of his bowl.

 

Frozen Lake Guntersville

Scottsboro is part of my territory for Safeguard.  I enjoy making in spections there, because that means that I can usually make a stop at Unclaimed Baggage.  Today, I was on the other side of Hwy 72 at a house that is on Lake Guntersville.  I knew it was really cold, but I didn’t realize how cold until I took a look at the lake and saw that the edges of it were frozen.  That is cold, really cold.