Image by Human Health Advice

Y’all, this child has thrown my life into a tailspin. Annie’s pregnancy was so easy…this one, not so much. I started getting heartburn on a regular basis during my first trimester…along with several other issues which we won’t tackle here because no one likes reading about bodily functions. Ahem. [Read more →]

This is so ridiculously easy and so ridiculously yummy. I can’t believe I haven’t been making this for YEARS! I have heard of “one pot spaghetti” before, but I didn’t really like the ingredients…so, I used the general idea and make this puppy from scratch. Scratch cooking is a thing of beauty. It’s even MORE beautiful when you only dirty one pan. It’s a spaghetti miracle.

I usually like making my Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce, but this is a fabulous recipe to have on hand when you need spaghetti at the last minute…because I know that happens a lot to me. Sometimes I’m just sitting around and think “Man, I need some spaghetti NOW.”  I hear it happens to a lot of other people too. [Read more →]

Some of you might have missed my Facebook post on Wednesday – but Barry and I closed on a house! Below, we’ve given you a video tour but I’ll give you some details up here in case video isn’t your thang. We wanted to show you inside…and then again when we finish (which will likely be over a year), we’ll do an “after” video.

We were able to finally purchase a house – a foreclosure from Wells Fargo bank. The house was a reverse mortgage and ownership had been granted back to the bank after the man passed away. The house has been vacant for two years as the bank went through all the legal processes.

When we first saw this house, we loved it. The neighborhood is great – very well established, quiet, close to the interstate, but still in the country…and everyone knows EVERYONE on the street. The bank was asking $115,000 which was out of our budget. Still, we went to see it. [Read more →]

image by lierne

This week you’ve heard from Stacy discussing the importance of good customer service and Leigh Ann sharing her experience of moving cross-country.  I’m going to round out this series by talking about the best ways I’ve found to deal with customer service issues, what to do if you can’t get satisfaction, and use a story that will hopefully illustrate the points.

The Situation and Steps I Took

I’ll use the example fresh in my mind of a recent hotel stay.  I travel fairly regularly, and there is one hotel that I stay at so often that I know almost all the staff by name and they have assigned me “my room” I’ve been there so much.  On my last trip there, I had a problem.  I was traveling on a flight that landed a bit after 10pm.  By the time I got my luggage, picked up the rental car, bought some drinks/snacks at a grocery store for my stay and got to the hotel, it was about midnight.  I went to the check-in desk and met someone I didn’t recognize.  She told me my room had been given to someone else because I didn’t check in early enough and because the hotel was oversold.  Mind you, I stay at this hotel constantly, had the room reserved with a debit card and had called three times (total) to book/confirm prior to my trip.  This should not have happened.  There was a convention in town and the best they said they could offer was to place me in a room completely on the other side of the city.  Not good enough.  So in addition to what Stacy and Leigh Ann have already shared, here’s my take on how you can get the most out of your customer service issues: [Read more →]

It’s Fix and Forget Friday! Woohoo! Joining us today is Jami from The Young Wife’s Guide. Take it away, Jami!

I love soup. Soup of any kind. I could eat it for lunch and dinner everyday and never get sick of it. Okay, maybe eventually, but it hasn’t happened yet.