Hanging Out The Wash

I am a bit of a clothes line fanatic. Let me share my reasons for hanging my clothes out to dry.

Cost:
Electricity: An average electric clothes dryer costs 30 to 50 cents per load in electricity. Consider how many loads of laundry your family does a week. We usually do 5 or 6 loads a week: 1 of sheets, 1 of whites, 2 of colors, 1 of towels and jammies, 1 of dog bedding. That is for two people and two dogs. If you have children then I imagine you do more than that.
Laundry Supplies: When you line dry your clothes, you can actually use less detergent and bleach than you normally would. The sun helps to bleach out stains on whites. You won't ever need to buy dryer sheets again. Most people use them to make their clothes smell fresh, but line drying makes your clothes smell awesome!
Preserve Your Clothes: Machine drying wears your clothes out alot faster than line drying. The intense heat shrinks your clothes and pulls them while tumbling. The fabric is stressed!
Keep the House Cool: It is 98 degrees outside and your a/c is on max. Why add more heat and humidity to the air inside your home?

So on this Earth Day, consider giving your dryer a rest, save some money (and electricity), and preserve your clothes by hanging them out to dry.

Watch for an upcoming post on easy ways to construct a clothes line and tips for gettin

Homemaker, Stay at Home (doggy) Mom, (future) House Wife, Unemployed...

Well the first day back from our vacation, I got notified that due to an ongoing consolidation of North American locations of my company I was out of a job. So as of late last week, I am a full time homemaker. My feelings are so mixed about this turn of events. I started my first job when I was 13 years old and, other than a few weeks during transitions, I have always worked.
Jason's advice is to enjoy this time at home and focus on my college work for a little while. I appreciate him so much. He is so supportive.

So for the time being I have a ton of projects that I am going to work on at home. I am excited for the opportunity to spend some time making our home a nicer, more organized, happier place. :)

A much needed weekend getaway

The last few weeks have been CRAZY busy. I will hit the highlights.

First off, Momma had surgery. Apparently her last surgery left her tummy weakened and she had to have some repairs done. She is starting to finally recover well. Since she was starting to get better, Jason and I went to Texas on a long weekend getaway. Ahhhh...

We left on a Thursday right after I got off work. We drove to Sulphur Springs, Texas where we stayed at the quaint Trail Dust Inn and Suites. I loved this place. I have a special place in my heart for hotel waffles. You know the kind where they have the little cups of batter and you pout it into the waffle iron and wait for the beep? I LOVE those things. And this one was probably the best I ever had.

We spent all day Friday and Saturday at the Canton First Monday Trade days. If you haven't ever been then you are missing out. Imagine a whole city full of flea markets. And not the Hwy 270 Pine Bluff version either. It is awesome! We found all sorts of treasures. I will post later with pictures of my favorites!
At the end of Friday, Jason took me to the Tanger Outlet Mall in Terrell, Texas. He bought me some new clothes that I really needed but hadn't wanted to spend the money on. He was is so sweet and complimented me on my choices. I picked out a beautiful Easter dress and I love how his eyes lit up when I walked out of the dressing room. I will never forget his smile.  :)
Speaking of his smile, I have to share a few pictures of us:

On Saturday night we came back to the hotel from Canton, took a nap, got cleaned up, and went out to...wait for it...DANCE!  I am 31 years old and have only been out dancing once before. I was thought it was so romantic. We got to the little club that was located adjacent to our hotel and were one of only 3 people there. The DJ was playing some current music. Knowing my limited ability to dance, Jason asked the DJ to play some old country, Hank Williams, George Straight, etc... We slow danced on the old wooden dance floor and, even thought I thought it weren't possible, I fell even more in love with him. He snapped a few pictures that night. This was his favorite:

And since it was only a few hours until April Fools Day, we pulled the ultimate prank: We changed our Facebook statues to MARRIED. We only planned on leaving it that way until our Mommas saw it and we could then all have a good laugh. Well it turns out that everyone and their cousin saw it first. We had people ready to kill us by the time we came clean around noon on Sunday. Once Jason's mom called, it turns out she was more upset with the fact that we HADN'T eloped. Maybe one day...

Gracie seemed to enjoy the trip. She was able to go along with us and stay at the hotel during the day. Harley got to stay at PawPaw's K9 Resort. He played well with the other dogs and seemed to enjoy himself. He was very glad when Mommy came and got him though. He was ready to be home.
We all had a good time and look forward to going back again someday.