Repairing Drywall Cracks in Textured Drywall

Posted by on December 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Repairing drywall cracks in drywall, due to foundation settling from the extreme heat we get in Texas, started before my husband fell through the ceiling and we had to learn about repairing large ceiling holes in a textured ceiling. If you have ever had cracks in your foundation and needed to know how to fix or repair cracks in drywall, let me tell you right now, doing these repairs yourself is a pain in the butt.

Having to fix foundation cracks is a costly project, plus the cost of repairing or replacing broken brick on the exterior of the house, and replacing shrubs or bushes that were destroyed in the process. Getting our green grass to grow back again isn’t a big deal at all, and we’re not the least bit worried about regrowing grass right now. I know people who decided to fix their cracked foundation themselves, rather than hiring a foundation specialist to do the repairs, but that is one do-it-yourself project that has “Hell No” written all over it.
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Grandma’s Cooking Ham Roll Ups in Grandma’s Kitchen

Posted by on December 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment

What’s cooking Grandma? Grandma’s kitchen is a favorite place to be at Grandma’s house when the kids and grandchildren are in town, and one of Grandma’s recipes that continues to be popular is Grandma’s ham roll ups recipe with broccoli.

Being a Grandma is wonderful, and passing along to my children and grandchildren many of their favorite recipes that have been prepared for them over the years is an added perk. People that haven’t learned how to make ham roll ups, or broccoli ham roll ups, are really missing out on a great recipe.

I would guess that many of the recipes given to me over the years originally came from my Grandma or great grandmother, but I can’t be sure of that. Cooking in the kitchen with my mother as I was growing up usually meant we were baking cookies or other sweet treats, as she preferred to be cooking in the kitchen by herself when preparing or cooking dinner meals for a family of eight, and that was ok.
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Categories: Activities, Adult Children, Family, Grandchildren, Grandma, Grandpa, Holidays, Parenting, Recipes, Relationships - Tags: , , , ,

Spiked Coffee Recipes Taste Better Than Beer

Posted by on December 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

We love drinking coffee and it’s not because of any health benefits derived from coffee. No, that would be too simple. Regular, home brewed coffee tastes good to me and Grandpa, but nothing tastes better than when we create our own recipes for spiked coffee. Spiked coffee, in all of its goodness, tastes a lot better than beer ever could.

Grandpa enjoys his crown and coke on occasion too, and we’re not opposed to doing a little wine tasting from time to time either, but neither of us are big drinkers either way. Getting together with friends over the holidays usually includes trying a new brand of wine with dinner, or as an after dinner drink, but I don’t think I’ll ever become accustomed to being a wine drinker.

There’s nothing wrong with drinking wine, if that’s your thing, but I’m more of a mixed drink type person. Margarita’s with Mexican food is an all-time favorite, but offer me a cup of coffee with Baileys Irish Cream, Kahlua or whiskey in it and it’s all good from there on. I’ve seen some spiked coffee recipes online that recommend adding vodka to coffee, but that’s one I haven’t tried. Yet.
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Do It Yourself Ceiling Fix to Repair Large Ceiling Holes

Posted by on December 19, 2009 · 6 Comments

What do you do when there is a hole in your ceiling needing to be fixed? Not just any ceiling fix either. No, I’m talking about fixing a large hole in the ceiling. A verrrry large hole. See, my husband fell through the ceiling and we now have a large ceiling hole above our living room/den and we have to patch the hole. Yes really.

My husband fell through the ceiling while working in the attic recently, because air-conditioning men we hired to replace one of our air-conditioning units left loose air ducts, so my husband was in the attic trying to tighten them when he slipped and fell through the ceiling.

Thankfully he wasn’t seriously hurt, no cracked or broken bones to speak of, but he did get some pretty nasty scratches and bruises. Oh, the curse words were flying everywhere for sure, but at least he was ok.
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Getting Out Of Debt On Your Own – Personal Finance Blogs to Help Get Out of Debt

Posted by on December 14, 2009 · 1 Comment

Getting Out Of DebtGrandpa and I have been working hard on getting out of debt, or more specifically, getting out of credit card debt, on our own. Like many other Americans who are dealing with debt from credit cards and/or loans etc, working hard to reduce or eliminate debt from credit cards became our New Year’s Resolution after Christmas last year.

Of course, there is such a thing as good debt, such as paying for a mortgage that creates home equity – which after a period of time allows homeowners to sell their house at a nice profit if the housing market is right for homeowners to sell their home. Right now, the housing market sucks due to the economy, so there’s no way we’d be able to sell our house even if we wanted to, at least not for the kind of money we’d want and need to get for it.

Anyway, in order to help us meet our goals of getting out of debt completely, we made the tough decision to really tighten our financial “belt” so to speak and focus our time and energies on paying off all credit cards and loans as quickly as possible. One debt-inducing expense each year has been the amount of money that is often spent buying Christmas presents for everyone on our xmas list. We are generous gift givers, to a fault.
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Categories: Activities, Adult Children, Books, Discipline, Family, Gifts, Grandchildren, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandparenting, Health, Holidays, Parenting, Relationships, Shopping - Tags: , , , , , ,

Grandma Nana – Nicknames for Grandma and Grandpa

Posted by on October 13, 2009 · 4 Comments

Grandma NanaGrandma is my chosen nickname, even though I considered a variety of grandma and grandpa nicknames including “nana” when I found out I was going to become a grandparent for the very first time.

For a little while I struggled coming up with a nickname for myself because, to be honest, I truly felt I was too young to be a grandma. There’s a joke about being too young to become a grandparent, but I don’t remember how it goes anymore. Something like, “don’t call me grandma”, I think. Maybe my memory is starting to go, I don’t know.

Nana is a nice nickname I guess, but it just didn’t fit with my personality. It comes across to me as an old fashioned nickname and I’m not old fashioned one bit. Some nicknames for grandparents that I’ve seen just sound ridiculous to me. Nicknames like Busha, MomMom, PopPop, Oma and Opa, Meme and Pepe just don’t fit.
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Celebrate Grandparents Day – How to Celebrate National Grandparents Day

Posted by on October 5, 2009 · 2 Comments

Celebrate Grandparents DayDid you celebrate Grandparents Day this year? This year, 2009, marked the 30th anniversary of National Grandparents Day on Sunday, September 13th. According to a recent poll, millions of Americans and Canadians are said to have celebrated Grandparents Day and it made me wonder if the holiday celebrating grandparents is getting the attention it deserves.

Do you celebrate Grandparents Day? What things did you do to celebrate and honor your grandparents or great-grandparents on or near Grandparents Day? Did you visit your grandparents, send them a card, play games, take part in any activities or buy your grandparents a gift at all? It’s common for preschool and elementary schools in the U.S. to participate in making arts and crafts for grandparents, sing songs for and about grandparents, and some grandparents visit their grandchild’s school on the holiday.

Another poll about Grandparents Day showed that many adults have never heard of Grandparents day, don’t know anything about its origin and history, and don’t even know when Grandparents Day is observed. So, when is Grandparents Day and why do we celebrate National Grandparents Day in the first place?
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Categories: Activities, Adult Children, Books, Custody, Family, Genealogy, Gifts, Grandchildren, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandparenting, Holidays, Parenting, Poems, Shopping - Tags: , , ,

Research Your Family Tree, History and Family Genealogy Records

Posted by on October 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Research Your Family TreeIf you don’t know how to research your family tree in order to find genealogy records of your ancestors, or if you want to create your own family genealogy history for your children and grandchildren, there are many ways of finding the ancestry information you are seeking.

Have you ever wondered, What does your family name mean?, or what your family crest looks like? I did and that is just two reasons why genealogy research became a hobby of mine. Thanks to the internet, researching the roots of your family tree has become a lot easier. There are many online resources available to help create your family tree as I have been doing for a few years now, and I now know what my family name means and what my family’s crest looks like.

My family has never been very open and vocal about our family history, and getting the silent treatment anytime I’ve tried to ask questions about my own grandparents or most recent “ancestors” has always bothered me.

I was somewhat nervous as I began tracing my family tree through census records, obituaries, genealogy websites and databases, vital records, cemeteries and death records, because I wondered if I would find some deep dark secret the family wanted kept secret.
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Categories: Adult Children, Family, Genealogy, Grandchildren, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandparenting, Technology - Tags: , , , ,

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