My Bare-Minimum Company Cleanup

Tonight is the final dress rehearsal for the last opera of the season. Phew! My feelings about the opera for the past couple weeks? Picture the stereotypical teenager screaming, "You're ruining my life!" Yeah, I'm just a little ready for it to be done. :-P

My younger sister, who just recently moved to a city a few hours away, is coming down tonight to see the show! Since last night was my first free night since Friday, I had to do a little housework. Luckily, my sister already knows that I'm a slob, so no need to pull out all the stops there! But even so, there are a few things I ALWAYS do before ANY company darkens my door:

1. Vacuum the floor. At least SOME large surface of the house will be clean!

2. Clean the bathroom. For me, the biggest yuck factor when visiting a house is the state of the bathroom. So, at my house, I always sweep the floor, wipe down the sinks, and clean the mirrors. I get the toilet, too, if I have time.

3. Get rid of any visible trash. Clutter can be excused if it's actually real stuff. But that Taco Bell wrapper? Not so much. Not that, um, I'm actually using a real-life example from my house or anything.

When I'm in a hurry, I actually try to restrain myself from doing too much to the kitchen. Although that is the one room in the house that I MUST have clean on a day-to-day basis, guests aren't going to come over to hang out in the kitchen. So I just turn off the lights in the kitchen and pretend like I always fumble around in the dark when I make tea.

What is on your Bare-Minimum Company list?

Where's My Piece of Cake?

I like a good party.

And let me tell you, things are looking festive over at 5 Minutes for Mom! So I decided to get my groove on, grab a party hat, and join in the fun! Welcome to my blog!

So, a little about myself. I am a recent college graduate who is trying to help my husband follow suit. Any semester now! I am five months pregnant with our first baby, and am thrilled beyond words to be starting a family.

Here we are last year at Six Flags. I love my husband tons and tons!

I am a musician by trade. I trained for most of my life to be a violinist, but an unfortunate wrist injury in college caused me to pursue voice for the past few years. Nowadays, I sing with the city Opera chorus and work a day job. Eventually, I'd like to turn my focus more towards orchestral work and resume playing with the local Symphony, and teach private lessons, as well.

This blog mostly centers around my earnest and sometimes amusing attempts to get my domicile under control. I am particularly interested in being frugal, environmentally kind, and crafty (as in, make a huge mess of the house do crafts).

Here are a few of my favorite posts:

The Church of Google

Fun Things to Do in Oklahoma City

Cat Attack!

It's ALIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

And any one of my Works for Me Wednesday posts.

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Now, what would a party be without party favors? Let me tell you which ones I'd love to win!

1. USC61- A Sleepy Wrap baby carrier

2.USC58- Golden Canyon Heritage Candle

3. USC33- $50 gift card to Lindt Chocolate

4. USC22- Cushie Pushie breast support pillow for nursing moms

5. US57- beginner yoga kit

6. US7- Tupperware Prize Pack

7. US9- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

8. US49- $25 Starbucks gift card

9. US18- Goody Basket for Mom

10. US68- Scentsy Warmer with 3 scents

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Thank you for stopping by and joining in the fun! Now, to go find that piece of cake...

Getting Ready for Baby: The House, Pt. 1

Even back when Baby D was a twinkle in its father's eye, preparing for Baby D's arrival has largely been juggling logistics and making choices: how do the costs of midwives vs. doctors stack up? Do we want to start our family in Tulsa? Can we afford a baby? (the answer was NO, but that didn't stop us :-P).

The logistics that I am working on right now involve our housing situation for at least the first year of Baby's life.

Right now, we live in a one-bedroom 705-square-foot apartment. That may seem small, but the floor plan is arranged just in such a way that makes all the rooms huge. Of all the 700-square-foot apartments we looked at before getting married, none were arranged so spaciously. And the kitchen! I have to brag on my kitchen just a little bit here, because it has soooo many cupboards and so much counter space! I'm in love with my kitchen.

As great as the apartment is, though, it does have its downsides. The bedroom is more of an Everything Room, because all the craft supplies, school books and supplies, and everything else that is not Living Room/Kitchen-worthy has to live in the bedroom. The cat litter box is in the bathroom, because there is no other workable place to put it. Adam's mountain bike takes up a generous chunk of the living room space (I'm still trying not to be bitter about that :-P). And, last but definitely not least, we don't have laundry hookups in the apartment, which means that we spend $2.50 to wash and dry a single load at the apartment laundry facilities.

Since DH and I do not want to stay in the Midwest any longer than we absolutely have to, here are our housing options, once Baby comes:


*Stay in our current apartment

*Move into a bigger apartment or house with two bedrooms

*Move into a bigger apartment or house with washer/dryer hookups


I mention the washer/dryer hookups because I'm planning on going the cloth diaper route. Washing all that would be burdensome and expensive-- or would it? Read all about my logistics juggling next time!

Pot Pie Review: Marie Callender

Okay, it is time to get off my blogging butt and write something on here! Here's a little post I wrote last week, when pot pie was heavy on the brain. I wanted to put pictures on here and such, but it seems that the only time I am inspired to blog is at work (shhhhh, don't tell!). So, I finally gave up on the pictures and decided to post as-is. Enjoy!

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Lately, I have been on a huge pot pie kick. Evidently, Baby D needs a good amount of artery-clogging country food in his/her diet. I've been having one almost every day for lunch, so I thought, What the heck! This might be good blogging material! So, without further ado, let's take a look at the one I'm eating today!

Note: all pot pies are microwaved and eaten with a side of cottage cheese.



Marie Calender's Chicken Pot Pie

Crust: AMAZINGLY browned on top, exceptionally gummy down below. Somehow, the box is manufactured so that you get a beautiful, oven-browned crust when you heat the pot pie inside. It was great!

Filling: Generous chunks of chicken, good veggies. This pot pie had a very unique onion flavor, and it was very strong! I'm still trying to decide if I liked that or not.

Gravy: I will not lie, I was kind of scared when I first cut into the pie. The gravy is nuclear yellow, a shade not known to nature. It was also a tad bland.

Microwave Performance: Hot on the outside, cold on the inside. Perhaps I should have heated it up longer.


Overall: Let me level with you: I was raised on the cheapie 50-cent pot pies, so that is the taste that I am accustomed to. Marie Calender's is more of a gourmet dish, so that kind of threw me off. I would probably only ever eat this pie for the crust, which is the best I've ever had on a microwave pot pie. Unfortunately, even though I can have Marie Calender's for free at the place I'm house-sitting right now, I probably won't eat it again.

My rating: 3 (out of 5)

Full disclosure: Marie Calendar did not bribe, coerce, hire, or in any other way make me do this review. Opinions are cheap, and mine is no exception.

A Riddle for Monday

My office has a day-by-day calendar that includes bits of random trivia or puzzles on the back. On Saturday, there was a riddle. I thought about it all weekend, but couldn't come up with the answer (maybe I'm just a little slow), so when I changed the page today and saw the answer, I was astounded! So I will pass on this little riddle to you:


Three brothers share a family sport:
A non-stop marathon
The oldest one is fat and short
And trudges slowly on
The middle brother's tall and slim
And keeps a steady pace
The youngest runs just like the wind,
Speeding through the race
"He's young in years, we let him run,"
The other brothers say
"'Cause though he's surely number one,
He's second, in a way."


Can you figure out the answer? No googling allowed! ;-)

Saturday Evening Blog Post: February Edition

I am pleased to be participating in Elizabeth Esther's Saturday Evening Blog Post for the first time! This is a fun little carnival in which you proclaim what you believe to be your best post from the preceding month. (And seriously, how can I resist the opportunity to display this delightful picture on a post?





Ah, Norman Rockwell, how you've influenced me.

Anyways, the selection I bring to you is What I Learned About Romance Today, posted on- when else?- Valentine's Day. Enjoy the post, and be sure to check out what other people are writing about on the Saturday Evening Blog Post!

WFMW: Water-Drinking Tips

For most of my life, the extent of my liquid intake was my morning coffee and water with my meals. And I was very happy in my camel-like ways. And then.... I got pregnant.

So you could imagine my response when my midwife matter-of-factly told me that I must start drinking half my body weight in ounces of water every day: "Are you kidding me???"

But after a mere couple weeks of this oceanic experience, having drunk over 1,400 ounces of water already, I am ready to share my water-drinking tips with you. Ready to float away with me?


1. Put your day's worth of water in one large jug. This has probably been the biggest help, because I can see how much I've drunk and how much I still need to drink. If it's getting later in the day, I can tell at a glance that it's time for more "bottoms up!"


2. Use a large glass. When I used a mug, I failed pretty badly. Since it held less water, it gave me a false sense of drinking more than I actually was. Switching to a 12-ounce glass helped immensely! Now, I only have to drink eight glasses, as opposed to sixteen a day.


3. Flavor that water! I will be honest with you: Tang is my new best friend. I don't know why it's easier to drink water when it's not, well, water-flavored, but that's the way it is. In order to not completely rot my teeth out, I use about half the recommended dose. Lemons are also fantastic! Those who are unable to keep fresh lemons during the day, take heart! My mother has informed me that there's this great product called True Lemon-- crystallized lemon sold in packets that tastes just like the real deal. I'm very interested to try it! I've also heard that mint, crushed strawberries, cucumbers, or a small amount of juice helps make water irresistible!


4. Drink it at room temperature. Maybe I'm just weird, but I find it difficult to drink large amounts of chilled water from the fridge.



Is there anything I've missed? Please leave a comment! Remember, I still have about 18,200 more ounces to go till this baby is born! :-D

Be sure to check out the rest of the carnival fun at Rocks In My Dryer!