The Best of 2013 ... January to April

Instead of one crazy long post I thought I would break the best of 2014 into 3 post of the next few days.  Yup to make it easier plus I'm slammed at work and the house so I'm running out of time to post things I've done ... LOL.

Here are a few of the highest viewed post on my blog January to April 2013!

Baked Butternut Squash Fries

Viewed 1204 Times

Championship Chocolate Chip Bars

Viewed 1231 Times

Low Carb Pepperoni Chips (Not prett but tasty)

Viewed 1561 Times

Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan $5 meal

Viewed 1326 Times

Crock Pot Hamburger Soup

Viewed 1919 Times

Super Hero Valentine Pops

Viewed 1505 Times

Pop-Pop Pop-ular Teacher Gift

Viewed 1505 Times

Homemade Bath Bombs

Viewed 3346 Times

Ladybug Valentine Fruit Cups

Viewed 3346 Times

Mickey Mouse 1/2 Birthday Party

Viewed 1591 Times

Mickey Mouse Party Rice Krispy Treats & Crayons

Viewed 7288 Times

Lava Lamp Experiment

Viewed 1598 Times

Thank You Gift - Easy Lemon Sugar Scrub

Viewed 3751 Times

Mad Hatter Tea Party - Clock

Viewed 1446 Times

Mad Hatter Tea Party - Caterpillars

Viewed 1258 Times

Pizza Wonton Cups

Viewed 6722 Times

Pepperoni Pizza Rolls

Viewed 1085 Times

Homemade Yellow Cake Mix

Viewed 4421 Times

Sweet 16 New Driver Kit

Viewed 6720 Times

Race Card Themed Party

Viewed 6408 Times

Sturdy buttercream frosting

Viewed 6408 Times

Star War's Light Saber Invite

Viewed 1041 Times

Yoda RSVP Cards & Ewok Gummies

Viewed 1165 Times

Princess Leia & Darth Vader Cupcake Toppers

Viewed 1219 Times

Light Saber Napkin Rings & Fruit Roll Ups

Viewed 1837 Times

Star Wars Party - Pool Noodle Light Saber.html Tutorial

Viewed 4385 Times

Star Wars Party - R2D2 and C3PO Water Bottles

Viewed 1094 Times

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Adventures in Finding a House Cleaner

Since I work from home some weeks 7 days, leaving a little time for me time or for keeping things tidy.  It seems to never get done, well not to a great level.  Everyone assumes since you work from home you should have more time to do things.  It seems that the theory never works since you are always close to your computer it seems easy to always hop on to get just one thing done (that always turns into several things).  So when my boss suggested that I get a house cleaner I thought you know she is really on to something.

Well finding said person is the hard part.  Oh how I would love to find the pictured person above, cape and all but no such luck so far.

First Gal - Very nice, BUT she would hop from rooms like a bunny and only doing part of a job then hop back!  Doing so she would do what Rick called surface cleaning, nothing was moved and just the front of things would be cleaned.

Then came the list of working interviews -

• Guy that through all the laundry on the bed and didn't mop the floors.
• Girl that came a few times but was always late, would text me 20 or 30 min after scheduled arrival time that she would be late.  Worked over a 1/2 hr that I ended up paying for then the next week left a 1/2 hr early but took all the money for the full 2 hours.  Last straw was emailed 30 min after suppose to be here that she needed to change days.  Very nice but not reliable and TALKED too much (did I mention I work from home).
• Girl that didn't even show up
• Girl that showed up 4 HOURS late (mind you that was after pushing the time back before that).  THEN proceeded to be so slow and work 3 hours instead of 2 and wanting to be paid for that.  DIDN'T even get the front room or dinning room done (MIND you my house is only 1100 sq feet NOT large at all).  Oh yeah and did I mention she took one of my GOOD towels as a cleaning towel and it now has bleach marks.  YUP she hid it under some clothes in the dirty clothes hamper.
• Girl that showed up 10 minutes late (that was after the email she sent about how she liked I put in ad being on time ... LOL).  Brought her daughter not knowing the working interview meant you would actually have to work!  Very nice did a pretty good job but was rushed (could tell had plans and did not plan on working). Daughter was nice but started to clean to and did like a child would clean.  She also didn't fold laundry, mop the floors and left the dirty towels in my kitchen sink!  Oh yeah didn't load or unload the dishes either.
• Girl that didn't even show up, mind you after texting for a day or so to make sure she had the info and day that worked for her.

Several that replied to the ad but then when I replied back to set up a time never would reply (YUP about 30 of those).  One who replied she would show only if I paid her cash and a few other odd questions that made me creeped out and didn't reply to her.

So wish me luck I have 3 more scheduled for "Working" Interviews ... lol I'm sure the right one will come along and help me out so I don't loose my mind.  But in the meantime it sure does make for comical talks with my co-worker.

Oh and the best part was the snarky email I received from a person who thinks they are the Craigslist Police :).  

Just Fyi...No one wants to clean another persons filth for a measly $10 an hour. That's an insult.

For Mr. Snarky: Last time I checked Minimum was is $9.19!  People work fast food, pick up garbage and other things making just minimum wage.  So offering $10 hour for vacuuming, dusting and folding laundry REALLY sounds like a nice gig to me.  You can take your snarky email to yourself.

And I leave you with a smile! LOL have a GREAT day!

Merry Christmas

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We had a great low key two days.  I worked just a little bit on Christmas Eve, due to I lost my voice and since a good part of my job is calling people it just didn't work out ... lol.  We stopped by my parents house to exchange gifts an went to our first Christmas Eve Candle Light Service.  Santa parachuted down from the ceiling and our Pastor told a funny Christmas Eve Story he made up about our city.

Candle Light Service

We even got a Santa Picture in!

Cole wrote a note to Santa,

I whipped up some cookies for him too!

Christmas Day we opened gifts, then off to the movies we went.  We started this tradition last year and I hope we can keep doing it every year.  This year we went to see Walking with Dinosaurs, the boys enjoyed it ... me not so much lol I fell asleep.  We ended our night with a simple dinner and then we loaded up in the car for Fantasy lights!  It was a perfect way to end Christmas!

Christmas Gift Time!

Family Movie Time!

Fantasy Lights!

I hope you all had a wonderful day with friends and family!

What did you do for Christmas?

PowerRocks Review (Preview of what is to come)

I'm so excited to be able to try out the Powerocks Magic Stick.  You would think with all the devices in this house and the number of charges I have that I would always have a full battery on my phone or iPad.  But of course not with kids things disappear like cords or the plug in to the cord.  I am constantly running around, looking up beds and drawers to find a cord or the missing link to my world .. LOL.

I was so excited to get a email asking me if I wanted to try out the Magic Stick.  I've been reading about them on other blogs and reviews.  I love they are small and portable.  I can hide it in my purse where no one in the house will look.

They come in cool colors!  I of course asked for the hot pink one to be sent to me.  Of course with that color none of the boys will take it (well it's a thought at least). They have a handy USB port for quick charging, when fully charged it will give you two full charges for your unit.  They are compatible with Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Blackberry, Amazon, HTC, Nokia, Soy, Kyocera and more!

Wait for my review when mine arrives and I give you all the details and of course some pictures!

I was not paid for this review these are my opinions and experiences, I received products to try and to tell how I liked them. No monetary or any other form of compensation was given to me. I review products free of charge to give my experience and opinion.

Tis the Season ... Homemade Butterfingers

Another easy and yummy recipe that can be whipped up and given as a gift.  Who doesn't LOVE homemade candy!  I found some cute Christmas themed bins that I found at the Dollar Tree and packed it up and gave it to the family my women's group adopted for Christmas.

I hit up Winco bulk section for all that I needed.  I've seen this recipe on many sites but I'll give credit to the site I pinned it from, Plain Chicken.

Ingredients:

1 lb. candy corn
16oz jar peanut butter (I used Peter Pan Honey Roasted peanut butter)
16oz pkg. chocolate candy coating

Directions:

Melt candy corn in microwave on high 1 minute. Stir and continue cooking in 15-second intervals til melted, stirring after each interval. Stir in peanut butter. Spread mixture in an 8x8 pan lined with parchment. Cool completely. Cut into squares. Dip in melted chocolate candy coating. Lay on waxed paper to set.

ALEXIS NOTES: I went to the bulk section and picked up candy corn (thanks to the little scale thingy I was able to get the right amount .. I doubled the recipe).  For the chocolate I used chocolate melts these are my favorite and are cheaper then chocolate chips in a bag (16oz equals 2 cups).  I used a silicone mold that I have that made the perfect bars.  I also experimented and used a snowman and gingerbread man silicone mold.  Have fun with it!

Are you already for Christmas?

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE. 

Merry Christmas Eve

Click here to view this video

This is a funny 7 Second Video of me and my co-worker Teri at our last event.  We had a Flip Book station.  To make the book you made a 7 second video of funny faces, the camera then took like 50 photos that then was made it a flip book that made the photos come to life when you flipped through the book!!

Merry Christmas All!

God Bless you all and I pray you all have an amazing day!