Frog In The Air Conditioner

Let me start this story with a little background....we live in a 109 year-old farm house.  Because this house is so old, there is no central heat or air conditioning.  Now, in the winter it's fine because we have electric/baseboard heat, but the summer is a little bit tricky.  We bought three really good window air conditioners and a dehumidifier that we use during the hot months.  I never really knew what a dehumidifier was until I moved into this humid climate, but trust me, it's essential. 

So, the tricky part is that we don't leave the window units in the windows year-round.  We take them out during the cooler months when they are not needed.  When it starts to get warm again, we put them back into the windows and do our best to seal the spaces around them so as to not let in any creatures, large or small. 

These window units are quite handy, but they are not without their additional downfalls.  So, lets get back to the story.  Last night my husband and I were reading our son his bedtime story in our room.  Our son was sweetly drinking his bottle and I was reading him one of the cutest little stories, Bats at the Beach.   From out of nowhere we hear the loudest croak which unmistakably came from a frog.  My husband and I looked at each other and I knew exactly what it was.  I forgot to mention, our bedrooms are on the top level of the house which makes this story all that much freakier. 

I told my husband, you better find that freakin' frog right now.  We knew that it sounded close and that it was definitely in the bedroom.  Here we were, looking all over our bedroom, for a damn frog.  What I was doing was not using my actual hands to look through various items, I was kicking things around the room, totally prepared to have said frog jump up at me when I startled it.  

I decided to leave my husband in the bedroom and I took our son to his room and put him to bed.  My husband came downstairs with terrible news.  He hadn't found the frog but was wondering if it was just outside the window of the air-conditioner and that possibly it wasn't actually in the house at all.  He told me that he turned the air conditioner on and that he was going outside to see if the frog was on the side of the house.  

He came back inside and told me that he did not have any luck finding it and that when he turned on the air conditioner it probably was startled and it hopped away.  Well, we went back to watching TV downstairs.  About an hour later we heard it.  Now, this was a new sound, but we both looked at each other and knew exactly what this new sound was.  What we heard was the air conditioner's motor chewing and grinding something furiously.  My husband turns to me and said, that was the frog in the air conditioner's motor.  

He runs back upstairs and I say, you don't need my help do you?  I hear him banging and messing around upstairs for about five minutes.  He comes lumbering down the stairs and says, get the keys to the shed and come outside with me.  I get said keys and run outside into the dark, in front of my husband who's carrying this 50 pound air conditioner.  I unlock the shed, fling the door open, reach around and turn on the light and run back into the house.  He comes back inside a little while later and tells me that he can see the frog's leg in the motor, but nothing else is left.  So, tonight when he gets home from work he's got another little project.  He'll have to take the air conditioner apart, clean out the frog, bring the air conditioner back into the house, and set it up in our bedroom window. 

I will never look at that air conditioner the same again.  Actually, I will never look at a frog the same way again either. 

Coupons

So, I know that I haven't posted for a while, but I have a pretty good excuse.  I started a new job a few weeks ago and the transition is stressful.  Well, they sent me out of town for training and it's just been very busy. 

Ok, now to the post...I have to vent for a bit.  Well, over the past few months (since my husband was laid off) we have been trying to save money where we can.  I decided to start couponing in January and I totally love it.  Now, I know that this trend has become quite popular since that show on TLC started, but I tell you, once you figure out the couponing system, it really works. 

What I do is a little different thought, I price match and coupon on top of that.  Now, I'm not extreme or anything, but it does help and there are some fab deals you can get.  I just devised a new coupon organization system and it's worked much better for me.  I have also come to find out that there is an entire "couponing underworld" out there.  Some people are obsessed and it's a full-time job for them, but I've found a balance that works for me. 

Well, here comes the complaining....I have noticed that when the Sunday paper comes, I compare mine to my mom's (lives in Omaha) and I realize that she gets more coupons that I do. So, we all know that I live in the middle of nowhere, right? Ok, so today I called the Omaha World Herald (the newspaper that we both get) and I asked about this discrepancy.  I was told that the coupon companies don't pay the newspaper to distribute their coupons in my area.  I'm so annoyed by this. 

Now I have to get creative.  Do I cancel my subscription and ask my mom to order two newspapers, one for her and one for me??  I thought that when I told the newspaper that I was going to cancel my subscription they would have offered to "go to bat" for me and advocate for more coupons (yes, I do realize we're only talking about coupons here).  All they said was, "do you want me to cancel that subscription and make it effective today or do you want this Sunday's paper before we cancel?"

Customer service is dead...

Clothes On The Line

My husband lost his job about 6 months ago.  Now, I know that this is a common story for so many families out there, but this time it hit home for me.  He filed for unemployment immediately, but he's never been the kind of guy to sit around and wait for something to happen.  Within a few weeks he got another job and has been working since. 

Since he has had the change in jobs, I have started to think about money a little bit smarter.  I began to wonder, "what are some ways that we could save a little money here and there without a total lifestyle change?"  Now, there are some things that I absolutely will not sacrifice on, i.e. the quality of my food.  As I have said before, I am a foodie through and through and am totally obsessed with food, recipes, reading cookbooks, etc.  That being said, I will not compromise much in this area. 

I was washing the dishes one day in the kitchen sink and looked out my kitchen window.  Duh, I thought...we have this refurbished (by me) super cute, red clothesline outside that I never use.  It came with the house and was rusty and unusable when we moved in.  We sanded it, painted it red, replaced the lines and it was ready to use in a day.  That was about three years ago and I can count on one hand the number of times that we have used it.  

So, here's my goal...as long as the weather's nice, I will hang the laundry out to dry on the fully functional clothesline.  Just a reminder...we do live in the country, so for those of you thinking, "OMG, what an eye sore" just remember, no one really sees it and, if they do I hope that they think how smart and frugal I'm being.  Maybe they will even buy into this idea too.   

Re-purposing

Before we moved in to our house we worked for a few days to clear the overgrown areas outside.  We live on a small acreage which is surrounded by farmland.  Our house had been abandoned for a few years and was in serious need of some TLC.  As we cleaned the overgrown areas outside, we found some random items here and there.  We found old bricks, glass bottles, pop cans, tires, you name it.  One of the semi-useful items that we found were old, metal milk crates.  When we found them I put them aside and sort of forgot about them.  This weekend I rediscovered them and found a use for one in my country kitchen.  I scrubbed it with water and soap and began to reorganize my pantry.  I re-purposed this crate as an organizer for pasta, rice and other grains in the pantry.  I love this simple, rustic idea.

Re-purposed Milk Crate

When I find random items on our property I always find my imagination begin to run wild with ideas about the origins of the people that left them here.  For example...so, this place used to be a farmstead and they had dairy cows and they sold their own milk to the townsfolk and carried the milk into town in these crates, and on and on....  What is probably the truth is that when the house was abandoned, random teenagers brought these milk crates (that they found in their grandparents basements) to this unoccupied house and they put empty beer bottles on top of them and shot at the bottles while they continued to drink more beer.

Chalkboard Label

 

Camper Spring Cleaning

This past weekend we began to officially get our camper ready for the upcoming camping season.  Well, I should say that my husband is doing most of the work.  Before we had our son we were able to do all outside activities together, but now my unofficial role is to watch our son while my husband does the "outside" work.  It's still pretty chilly outside so my son and I are cooped-up inside A LOT!  We definitely have Cabin Fever and cannot wait for warmer weather. 

Anyway, we bought our camper in 2003 when we moved to Nebraska.  Before we bought this camper, we had a "pop-up" style camper that required a lot of setting-up and taking-down.  When I was growing up we only camped in tents and it was perfectly fine.  I should also say that when I was growing up we only camped in Colorado.  Now, this is notable to mention because if you know much about the climate differences between Colorado and any Midwestern state, you are familiar with this equation : Midwest + Humidity = LOTS OF BUGS!!! Needless to say, since we moved here, we ditched the old-style camping of tents and pop-ups and had to get an actual hard-sided camper.  

The only way that I was ever going to be able to enjoy camping again for the rest of my life was to cough-up the money and get one of these campers.  I told my husband that there was no flippin way that I was going to be violated by those bugs and humidity and even pretend to have a good time in those stupid tents in this climate!  Of course, people do camp in this climate in tents and other temporary shelters, but not me.  I love my queen-sized bed, my bathroom, sink, shower, dining room table, air conditioning, DVD player and kitchen in my camper.  Our camper it pretty modest, but it does the trick.  Trust me, those three years of monthly camper payments were so worth it.  

Tornado Alley

Yesterday I was reminded again that I live in Tornado Alley.  I seriously cannot believe that those two words are in my vocabulary.  I tornado literally touched down about a mile from my house yesterday.  I wasn't home, but that doesn't really make it any easier to take.  We didn't suffer any damage this time, but it's way too close for comfort. 

Ever since I was little I have been afraid of severe weather.  Thank you to my grandmother who jump-started my unnaturally healthy fear of thunder and lightening.  She was terrified of thunderstorms and they literally paralyzed her with fear.  If we were at her house during a storm we would have to hide in the closet, in the dark with that tiny, little radio.  And so, a neurotic child I became whenever a chance for storms was on the horizon. 

When my husband and I would visit his family in Nebraska during the Spring and Summer there were always severe storms.  I would be a total nervous wreck and no one else would even flinch.  However, one time we were at my in-laws and the storms must have been bad enough for even them to be concerned.  My mother-in-law told me to go down to the basement, crawl under a desk and put a pillow oever my head.  I was totally freaking out.  Needless to say, we were fine and the storm passed, but I'm sure that I aged at least a year from the stress.  I used to be so relieved when I was able to leave Nebraska and go back to Colorado where my hypervigilance could take a break. 

Now, I live in Nebraska and tornado season is upon us.  I live on an acreage, in a really old farm house.  We literally have a storm cellar outside our front door.  This totally freaks me out... I told my husband that a storm would have to be pretty bad for me to go in that cellar because I'm sure there are lots of creatures with 8 legs living in there.  I also told him that the cellar door is so heavy that if he was not home to help me, I wouldn't be able to lift it myself.  He then tells me that if I'm home alone and a tornado is coming, that my adrenaline alone will lift that door.  Here's another thing....I seriously cannot believe that we have to have this conversation. 

Yes, I know that "hate" is a strong word and that your're not supposed to use it and...yadda, yadda, yadda, but...I hate living in Tornado Alley.