5 Essential Items For A Snow Storm

The past week brought the Eastern States one of the worst winter storms it's seen in decades. Days before the storm blanketed major cities meteorologist warned to be prepared. Grocery stores were taken down to the bare bones, thousands of flights cancelled, city curfews initiated and state of emergencies declared. So what are some of the essential items one should have prepared for when a storm hits? Granted we all know what goes first... water and food (eggs and bread always go first). A part from keeping hydrated and fed here are some items to have if you are caught in a major snow storm.

Portable Battery Charger

found here

 

If you've lost electricity then one of these portable battery packs is a life saver. Not only because it will let you keep yourself entertained by using your phone but it could allow you to call for help in an emergency. The one I've linked allows you to see how much battery power you have left on the charger so you know if you can finish watching that movie before needing a recharge.

Winter Weather Coat

found here

 

It's inevitable that either during or after a snow storm you'll go outside. Most likely it will be to dig yourself out of the mounds of snow but it could just be you want to play in it. Either reason you'll need to have a good coat that keeps your dry. A great snow coat to have is one that is insulated, waterproof and has a hood. North Face makes a ton of great options and their all filled with goose down.

Snow Boots

found here

 

These Sorel boots will keep your toes warm while you dig your car out of the snow or make snow angels for hours. Their waterproof, insulated with fur lining and keep the cold air out. They also come in a variety of styles and heights and look stylish with any kind of snow pants. I have a pair of the short Sorel boots and they keep my feet and legs warm and dry.

Books/Movies

found here

 

As long as the electricity stays on then movies can entertain you all day long when stuck inside but what about if the power goes off? Always have a thick book on hand to read. If you've got someone else with you then bust out a board game to play. Games can make the time pass and be entertaining. When I'm stuck inside because of the snow I always like watching movies that have people caught in the snow too. It makes me feel like everyone is feeling the same weather.

 

Snacks

found here

 

When you know a storm is coming everyone grabs the essential items like bread, milk, eggs, water and canned goods but what about the fun stuff? Stock up on some snacks like popcorn, candies, chips and maybe even some ice cream. If that sweet tooth hits or you sit down to watch a movie then you'll want something to snack on. We always have some cookies on hand to munch on during a late night movie.

 

Be prepared because you never know when that next storm could hit!

Five on Friday

1. I finally watched Silver Linings Playbook.

It was amazing. Jennifer Lawrence totally deserved that Oscar she won. I missed the movie in the theater and I just hadn't got around to watching it. Oh my goodness... I wish I would have watched it sooner.

 

2. On Wednesday night, I went and saw the classic film Groundhog day in the theater. Cinemark is doing a series of recent classic movies in the theater and this one was a part of it. I love Bill Murray and whenever this movie is on, I always find myself watching it. Did you know he considers this his best work? He does.

 

3. I've found my favorite Quest bar flavor... so far. I'm about half way through trying all of the 12 flavors and the Cinnamon Roll flavor is definitely the frontrunner.

 

4. The Olympics! I always love watching the Olympics and I'm hoping this year's will be great. I'm hoping Russia can keep all the athletes safe and put on a really good games. I'll be watching, that's for sure!

 

5. California is finally getting rain! We've been in a serious water situation out here. We've been in the rain season for months and hadn't got any rain until recently. The lakes are drying up, everyone is on water restrictions and it's looking pretty serious. The few days of rain we've had won't make a huge difference but any rain is good!

Weekend Review

First of all... let's all hope the government doesn't shut down. Since I work for them I'd like to keep getting a paycheck so I can keep paying my mortgage.

This past weekend was a fun one! I had a dinner party that I went to on Friday. I made a new dessert (which is one of the things on my 30 Before 30 list) and it was a complete success. I'll share all three of my new desserts as a 30 before 30 post but I'll give you a sneak peek...

After dinner, a group of us headed downtown and spent the rest of the night at Oishii Sushi and Karaoke Bar.

None of us had ever been there so it was something new and fun! They have these private rooms that your group can go into and sing karaoke. That way the whole world doesn't have to be subjected to your music choices and voices. I of course sang the famous, I'm a Slave for You by Brit Brit. Clearly. You can see some of my karaoke in all it's glory here.

I ordered and received a new Christmas tree that I can't wait to theme out!!

I got the 5ft, Smurftastic Blue Christmas Tree from Treetopia. I can't wait to have a new theme tree up this year! Don't worry I'll have my candy theme tree up again this year.

Then I saw an amazing sunrise! No filter...

Happy Monday!!!

Weekend Review

I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend! The end of summer is sadly here. I feel like it went by so fast. Faster than normal. This past weekend, I was greeted with a nice California sunset from my front door.

Over the weekend, I hosted a baby shower for a co-worker and spent tons of time prepping for it. I swear baby showers are stressful and expensive (more details coming soon).



I indulged in my new addiction to Alex and Ani bracelets...

And these boots... Thank you DSW for having them on massive clearance. I'm talking 120 dollars down to 73 and then another 70% off. Um yeah... they were basically a steal. Plus they fit my big, fat calves muscular legs.

Now to survive the rest of the work week. Ugh...



Weekend Review

The weekend started out hot, hot, hot! The city of Sacramento saw temperatures go into triple digits...

It got all the way to 108 degrees. Crazy! Thank goodness the humidity isn't anything like it is in West Virginia. That would have been way too much. Since the weather has been so hot, the best thing was to stay inside. What better way to do that? A trip to the mall where I treated myself to an Auntie Anne's original pretzel... 

Best idea of the day! Those things are sooo good. I hadn't had one in a long time so I thought why not?!? Now I already want another. When I was out indulging in my pretzel fix, I also scored a new shirt to wear around...

I tried it on with some Aztec shorts but everyone that I gathered opinions from wasn't a fan of them. Um... I bought them anyways because I liked them. I might even sport them on my Birthday next week. 

To keep the heat at bay I decided to cool down in the water. I used sunscreen and even came in after a few hours but still got red. This is my lobster red, panic face...

I'm hoping it turns into a nice tan but we'll see... next week I'll be outdoors a lot so hopefully my skin won't get burned again. Hope everyone in the Sacramento area stayed cool and out of the heat! 

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

It's time for another edition of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

The Good
I finally caught up on my television shows and movies sitting on my dvd shelf waiting to be opened and watched. 

I usually read the books before watching a movie but I watched Safe Haven before reading it. Is it worth going back and reading it even though I've already seen the movie? 

The Bad
Northern California experienced an earthquake on Thursday night. I was sitting on my couch reading some magazines when I felt this strange feeling. I thought I was passing out because I felt the room moving then I was like wait... I feel fine. Then it hit me... earthquake! So I immediately called my mom and let her know I was fine. Then I started getting calls/texts/facebook alerts asking me if I felt it too. Good news is I'm fine, the house is fine. It happened about 1.5 hours away from me. 

The Ugly
I was pursuing the isles at Target one day and noticed this new Cheerio cereal. 

It looked pretty good so I thought I'd buy a box and give it a try. The cereal itself is really good. It's kind of a mix between eating frosted flakes, honey nut cheerios and a bran cereal but all rolled into one. The more I started eating the cereal I noticed after I ate it that I'd have some.... gas. What was not unnoticeable though was the fact that the cereal made my gas smell like pure death. I've had to steer clear of it. Anyone want a half a box of cereal? Going once, twice... to the birds it goes. 

Weekend Review

This weekend was a relaxing one. It was also a HOT one. The weather in Sacramento has been heating up and this weekend was proof of that.

I of course treated myself to some In-N-Out. Yum! I never get tired of that place.

I went to Bev-Mo this weekend and guess what I found? Um... bacon soda/pop! I am a huge fan of bacon so this was a definite win for me. They had other flavors like Peanut butter and Jelly, sweet corn and turkey. I went with the bacon but maybe next time I go back I'll try out some of the other ones. A lot of people want to know how it was... it was actually pretty tasty. It left an after taste though which wasn't great. It was kinda like a cream soda but bacon. I'd buy it again but it's like $1.79 a bottle. 

I got my car back from the repair shop! They had it for eight days and and got it looking brand new again. I'm so glad to have my car back. I really liked the rental I had and miss all the high end gadgets it had, however I do not miss the gas guzzling it did. I was really surprised that the Fusion ate so much gas. It made me appreciate the awesome gas mileage that my Kia Spectra gets. 

It's as good as new! They even detailed the inside of my car and gave it that new car smell. They were suppose to tint my windows (I had been wanting to have it done since the California sun can be brutal) but they didn't have enough time so I have to tae it back in another day. When they detailed the inside of my car... I guess they forgot to put my protective mats back on top of my nice mats cause they weren't in my car! Oh well! I have my car back and it's good!

I also got to Skype with my mom! I'm so excited because she'll be here in a month! We are trying to get all of our plans lined up for while she's here! It's going to be a great time! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. 

Oh, Just Sitting On The Roof

This past weekend was a new one for me...

If you've been watching The Weather Channel or even the news then you've probably heard a little something about the torrential rain we've been having in northern California the past week. We got hit with rain storm after rain storm for days. On Sunday is when it got really serious around my house. 

When I had originally walked through the house and made the offer, I had asked my realtor and lender if they thought I was in a flood zone. They laughed of course and said they were about 99% sure that I wasn't. Well... guess what percent won? The one percent. Hello living in a flood zone. I thought, "Ok... no big deal. I'll get the flood insurance and be done with it." Everyone had assured me it hadn't flooded in my neighborhood in years and years. So far back that they couldn't even remember. To top it all of FEMA sent me a letter telling me that there had never been a flood claim filed for this property ever. EVER.

So Sunday comes along and it's been raining for quite awhile now. I decide to go outside and check the canal that runs behind my house, past the backyard fence. The canal is about 12 feet deep and there's a substantial amount of room above the concrete canal before getting up to my backyard. It's so deep I had even been telling people that the entire town would have to be under water for this thing to ever flood over onto my grass.

I get outside and what do I see? Oh the canal has already risen about 9 feet. Yep! I freaked. Sent photos to my mom, called Josh and then stood outside in the pouring rain, getting completely soaked and glass eye stared at the water rushing in the canal. My mom started telling me that I needed to get everything that I wanted of importance up high. That's when I think I really freaked out because my organization mind refused to organize. I told her, "No! I'm not moving everything in my house around today because it's not going to happen. It's NOT going to flood!" At that moment it was pure denial. Clearly, I should never be left alone again in a natural weather disaster.

So that's when I decided to get a trash can and fight the rising water. Nope not kidding. Oh did I mention that the streets were flooding as well and the water was inching up the driveway too? Yep. People were getting their cars out of the streets and up to their houses as close as they possibly could.

I did what any person in denial would do. I stood there in the pouring rain debating if I was tall enough to reach the roof if I stood on my car. I mean isn't that what all those people do when their house has flooded and their stranded waiting on FEMA to come rescue them via that metal drop basket from their roof? 

Many hours passed as I sat and worried about the water. Thankfully the rain began to let up and the canal stopped rising. It was insane how fast the water filled it up! We're suppose to get hit with more rain so let's hope there is not a repeat of Sunday.

Road Tales

While I'm still unpacking boxes, (yep... there's still tons of boxes to be unpacked) I thought I'd share some snapshots from the drive across the country and around the house. Once everything gets unpacked, I'll take some after shots of the house so you can see that I have real furniture and such. Ha!

When we set out to make the cross country trek, we decided to take the western route over the northern route. We figured it would be easier to cross that part of the country with a moving truck easier than it would be to cross huge mountains through Utah, Wyoming, etc. The drive through Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas wasn't bad at all. It wasn't until We began going through New Mexico and Arizona that it really started to heat up. When we hit the desert going into California, I thought we would die from the heat. We even had to stop because we were getting too hot. I truly learned what the term, "swamp ass"meant. My clothing was soaked in sweat. My pants, my shirt... drenched.

Now... with all that being said, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I drove across the United States. I got to see parts of the country that a lot of people never will. The sky was amazing during the day. The desert while hot was really breathtaking. We didn't have any bad weather and when we did, we had already stopped. It was definitely an interesting ride...

I also learned that Texas really does love steak. When we stopped at the Big Texas Steakhouse in Amarillo, they were offering anyone who could eat this 72oz steak and it's sides in under an hour the meal for free! I didn't even tempt that one...

I couldn't even eat that thing in a week! How about you? 

Oh Ben Franklin!

I knew I enjoyed and appreciated electricity but this weekend made me realize even more how lucky and grateful I am that I wasn't born in the old days before it was in every house hold. 


If you're on the east coast or if you've watched the news then you know that millions of people spent the weekend (and some of the hottest days of the summer so far) without power. Guess what runs those fans and air conditioning? Ohhh.. a little thing called electricity. 


So on Friday everything was going fine. I get my chicken into the oven and I can tell it's getting dark outside. Then I hear this random noise on my porch. 


I open up the door and can see the wind is whipping like it's the opening scene of The Wizard of Oz. A plant had fell off the porch. We got all of the plants off the ledge and out of the winds harm. Well then the trees started snapping like tiny twigs. It literally looked like a tree bomb went off all around town. My next door neighbor, a tree split in a half and fell on his front porch/roof. The roof of a front porch was ripped off by the wind, etc. 


It was insane weather. Then the power flickered. Then we heard the transformers pop all the way down the block one by one. Then everything went black.


My chicken came out of the oven and then we sat hoping the power would come back on. The house started getting so hot. I mean it was 104 degrees that day so naturally it's going to get hot fast. We even sat out on the porch while some of the storm was going on because it was cooler outside than inside. 


We kept thinking the power would come back on in the night some time. They had to be working on it. So we hunkered down for the night and hoped to God that it would get cooler. Well we got a few hours sleep and nothing! We finally got power midday on Friday. I had never been happier to have the AC. I didn't turn it off for a whole day. 


I feel bad for the people who still don't have it. If it wouldn't have came back on then I wouldn't have been able to be at home. It was miserable hot. So I'd like to give a big shout out to Mr. Benjamin Franklin for figuring out electricity! 

For real... thank you Ben Franklin and AEP for getting the power back on in my neighborhood! I would have cried if not. 

The Good, Bad & Ugly

The Ugly...

Have you seen the weather lately? I don't know about where you live but it's been balls freezing cold every single day here for as far as my over worked mind can now remember. Winter started way too early and now it feels like it's never going to go away. I'm also extremely over snow. It can stop now.

The Bad...

I have become addicted to shopping for cute jewelry on ebay. I can't help it. I find so many cute rings and bracelets. I like them so much I don't even want to share my links to them haha! However I will show off a cute bracelet I found...

It's cute, right? Sadly, even though I'm addicted to jewelry on ebay, I've curbed my spending and just follow the auctions drooling over the items till they end. 

The Good...

My savings plan and get out of debt plan for 2011 has started off on the right foot! I've been able to meet all of my goals for the month of January. I've also chipped away at my book reading goal (50 for the year) and have finished 3 books and currently started reading my 4th. Now if only I can keep this up for the rest of the year! 

Two Fall Favorites

Top 2 Favorite Things About Fall

1. The Great Pumpkin House. If you've never heard of the pumpkin house then you're missing out! It's a house that's local to me and every October they carve thousands of pumpkins and display them outside their house. They have themes which range from every state outline to sports team to religious symbols and much more. They also do music/light shows with the pumpkins. It's really a sight to see. I blogged about it last fall here.

2. Fall Foliage. I love seeing the leaves change. I love the vibrant colors and seeing all the different hues of orange and red. Since West Virginia is a mountain state, we've got tons of trees to show off the fall. It's makes the cooler temps more enjoyable and knowing that we're going into the winter months. 

I almost picked baking because because once the fall hits, I bake cookies, brownies and muffins non stop! 

My Charlton Heston Moment

This week has been crazy. I've been so busy and on the go. Actually, this whole month is packed out schedule wise for me. Besides working all this weekend, I need to pack! The Florida trip is creeping up fast and I've got so much to do before Monday!

Ahhhhh!

Ok first up, as you've seen in pictures on the good ol' blog here, I've got very blonde hair. Growing up, I was a natural blonde. Around my junior year of high school my hair started to become more naturally brown. Well I remedied that my freshman year in college and started the wicked cycle known as highlighting. Over the years my hair went from having a little brown in it to full out blonde. Recently however, I've wanted to not have to worry about the up keep and I've decided to start going back slowly to completely brown hair. 

Plus, it's really expensive to be blonde! Each time I go to the salon it's 100 dollars! That's 100 dollars that could be going into my savings account. So today when I went to the salon, we started putting low lights into my hair and leaving more of the brown that had grown in (over the last 3 months). I couldn't just go straight to a full head of brown hair. I think that would have sent me into shock. Not to mention I freaked a little bit. So here's to the beginning of less up keep, saving money and going back to brown!

Apart from running around town like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to get things scratched off my to do list, we've been dealing with crazy weather! Last night I was awoken at 2:00am because the lightening and the thunder was so bright and loud! 

Seriously people, it made me think Moses was outside my house beating his big stick on our concrete screaming, "YOU WILL NOT PASS!"

The power got knocked off several times. When the power was on, the lights kept flickering like some bad horror movie and with every crackle of thunder it felt as if the house shook. I'm just glad we made it through it and was able to witness the monsoon that took place today at noon.

Moving on... I meant to mention this the other day but as you have it, I got busy. If you've been following for awhile then you've heard me talk about Miss Miranda, a friend and fellow blogger. Well if you haven't heard or haven't been over to Miss Miranda's blog lately, then you've missed her announcement! She's started her own blog design business called, Little Sailor Designs! If you want to see some of her work, check out her blog or even place and order then head on over there! Miss you Miranda! 

So there you have it ladies and gents. Once Monday comes, I'll be in Florida! I also plan on tweeting a ton while there with great photos and such so make sure you follow me! Jmomiller

Weekend Omen

Friday afternoon when I got into my car, I should have taken this as a sign as to how my weekend was going to go.. Exhibit A:

Notice the abundance of the 6's? Uh oh. 

A few not so great things happened this weekend maybe I'll talk about them later but let's now focus on the positive, shall we?

-Um...I watched Kendra Wilkinson's reality show for the first time over the weekend and I've never laughed so hard in my life. Love her show now! She's a riot!

-The weather here has been fantastic and this week we're suppose to be in the 70's with sun! All I have to say about that..... ABOUT TIME! 

-37 days till vacation in Los Angeles and only 45 till we're off to New Mexico!!! 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Tomorrow I have first for this blog coming so stop by and check it out!