Maid Update

There are three reasons I'm letting the maid go:

1 - After the first cleaning, she just does surface cleaning. Like, I can spray/wipe the toilet and use a swiffer myself.

2 - She wears totally inappropriate outfits. Last time she was wearing tight jeans and a glittery spaghetti strap tank top and no bra. Good for her that she has a nice body, but when she is so blatant it makes me question her motives.

I could have tolerated the first 2 things a while longer and given her the benefit of the doubt, but the third thing is the real clincher.

3 - After the last time she was here I noticed I was missing some prescription pain killers. I don't know for sure that she took them, but I know I didn't finish them and we haven't had anyone over since the last time I checked the bottle. Also, the bottle was definitely moved during the course of the cleaning, pushed to the back of the top of the fridge and hidden behind some other stuff.

I don't have proof that she took them, but I have too many suspicions to be able to feel comfortable having her over again.

Healthy Eating Plan

I am trying to find a balance between quick cooking and healthy cooking. We usually get home between 7-7:30 and DD is supposed to be in bed by 8:30. I want to do a family dinner where we all sit down at the table 3 nights/week.

Sound impossible? It probably is. DH and I have both put on weight since we moved out here. I figure it's the combination of 3 more hrs/day sitting (commuting) and more fast food meals (sadly, eaten in the car during said commute).

This weekend I browned 3 lbs of ground beef. Last night I used 1/3 of it in spaghetti and we can have it for lunch leftovers at work. I put the rest of it in the fridge.

Tonight I used it to make tacos for dinner. I made my own taco seasonings with herbs, tomatoes and green peppers that I grew (recipe to follow), and we had wheat tortillas, organic cheese, and local corn. On Wed. I'm going to use the rest of the meat in beef and bean burritos. It's a heavily beef week, but I think less variety will make things faster. Next week will be chicken week.

Stan Livingston's Tacos

chopped garlic
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp each of oregano, garlic salt, onion salt, paprika, chili powder
pinch of ground red pepper (I left that out)
2 tomatoes, chopped
3/4 C water
olive oil
I added a green pepper chopped up very fine

You add all of that to drained ground beef and let it simmer for a while. Right before I served it I added fresh oregano and cilantro.

Whole Foods

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/meat-poultry/qualitystandards.html

Finally, a place to shop for humanely raised meat! Organics are good and fine, and although I knocked them in a previous post, we actually had already made the switch to organic milk and yogurt (which imo, if you only switch to one organic thing, it should be milk, and if you only do it for one person in your family, it should be your daughter).

There are lots of places to buy organic food, but just because something is labelled organic, doesn't guarantee anything about how the animals were treated. It looks like Whole Foods is setting standards for compassionate treatment of animals, and has plans to do even more.

They're opening a store that I'll be driving by twice a day on my regular route, woot! I just hope it doesn't smell like a health food store. Whenever I walk into one I lose my appetite. I don't even know what it is, maybe the vitamins?

I'm also thinking about trying distilled water for a couple of weeks, but I'm still a little divided on that.

What Not to Watch

There are 5 hours of What Not to Wear on tonight.

Heeeelp meeeeeeee!

A Real Trip

I used to write home about all of the embarrassing things that happened to me. My family would like this one -

I was putting gas in the car and decided to step over the hose and wave to my daughter in her carseat in the backseat. I cleared one leg, but my back leg hooked on the hose and I started falling. I kept shaking it and raising it to get it loose, but it wouldn't come free!

So not only am I tripping in a gas station with all these people around, but I'm also terrified that I'm going to rip the hose out of the car and spray gas everywhere. At the last second when I realized I was going to fall for reals, that all the leg manipulations weren't going to free my leg, I saw the luggage rack on top of the car and grabbed for it. I got it!

I held on for dear life, and managed to hang on through my impact with the side of the car. I ended up face flat against the car, dangling from my one arm, foot still caught on the hose.

My daughter wasn't the only one laughing at me.

It was okay though - because I had the most embarrassing moment of my life in high school, and I don't think I will ever top it. I was lined up to get the rebound from the other team's free throw at a big high school basketball game. I thought I saw her shoot the ball, and started to go into the key. She hadn't let it go though, and I didn't want her to get a free shot. I figured if I kept my feet on the floor I could lean in a little and catch myself on my feet a second later when she shot.

She never shot the ball.

I just slowly...
slowly...
fell into the key and landed on my hands.

My coach fell off the bench laughing. Everyone in the stands was laughing. They had to stop the game because the refs were laughing. The girl didn't make her shot because she couldn't stop laughing. The coach got it on VHS and played it for all his classes. The whole school laughed.

At least after all that I don't get truly embarrassed by things. Tripping at the gas station is so minor. Nothing can top my whole hometown laughing at me.

-Not when I forgot to buckle my belt or do up my zipper and walked in front of a full auditorium of students when I was in college.
-Not when I fell in a parking lot walking to lunch with my co-workers and landed sprawled on my belly.
-Not when I was trying to be cool talking to a guy in the mall and walked right into a pillar.
-Not when I tried to jump over the wet concrete patio stairs at my house and whacked my head on the overhang and landed on my back in the front yard.
-Not when I was boating with a guy I was trying to impress, and as I smiled at him over my shoulder getting off the boat I missed the dock entirely and fell right into the lake.
-Not when I was trying to cross an icy parking lot entrance on foot and kept falling so many times I finally had to crawl the rest of the way in front of a whole bunch of gawking drivers.
-Not when I sent a kiss-up email to my boss and accidentally copied the whole company on it.

And that's not even all.

Maid to Order

I've been looking for someone to help out with cleaning my house, and last week I finally found a listing on Craigslist by a woman offering cleaning services in my area. I was thrilled! Living out in the country, I was sure I'd have to either clean my own bathrooms (read: have messy bathrooms) or pay way too much for a professional service.

So I called her up and set up an appt. for her to come over and look at our place and give me a quote.

I've had a couple of other experiences with house cleaners. They're usually immigrants that don't speak much English and/or are generally unobtrusive, nonthreatening, almost shy. They usually show up in a t-shirt and jeans, don't say much and get right to work.

Well, this new cleaning lady showed up Monday, and ...

Totally Hot.

She wore a cleavage shirt and jewelry and she's tan and has nice hair and a nice bod. She looked and sounded prosperous and educated. She has no kids and probably a very clean house.

But here's the thing - I feel like I should pre-clean for her, because she is too cute to know about our messes. I don't want someone like that to know how sticky my dining room floor gets after DD spends 2 weeks dropping peaches, cooked carrots and oatmeal on it.

This woman is not inconspicuous or anonymous enough to clean houses. She reminds me of the moms in my moms group - the exact women that I don't want to see that I haven't dusted since we moved in, and that my bras are hanging up to dry in the laundry room. I still hired her to come over twice a month to do the kitchen and bathrooms, but somehow her hotness has tainted my happiness at finding a maid service.

At least for once my frugal DH isn't complaining about paying someone money to clean for us. ;)