A little stress never felt so good.

Its been a little bit since I have posted anything. After we found out my husband got the job I have put all my efforts and energy into selling our current home and finding us a home in our new location. This is the first time I have done everything by myself. Not that I am incapable, because I have been rocking it, but I have a lot of questions and I am trying to not stress out my husband at his new job. I am sure I am driving my realtors and my mortgage lender batty!

I could not be more proud of my husband. Twenty two months ago my husband moved from Asset Protection to Operations in Walmart. He had been in operations about 9 years ago, but decided that he wanted to try something different. My husband is an over achiever and is at every thing he sets his mind to. (I am not just saying that because I am his wife) When we decided it was time for me to stay home and he needed to make more money he switched over. There hasn't been a calm day since then.

I took on the role of sole ownership of every single responsibility in the house. Only because I WANTED him to never have to worry about a single thing at home and focus ALL of his attention and energy at work. Period. It has finally paid off.

Adam went from an Assistant Manager to Co-Manager to Store Manager in a short 22 months. For those of you that do not know much about retail or the world of Walmart that is UNHEARD of. (Did I mention he is an over achiever?) He has been non-stop for 22 months. Its been an exhausting journey for all of us.

That is an impressive sign! Not the plastic ones everyone else uses.

I am also pretty proud of the realtor name on that sign.

Now that we finally have our own store (You better believe its a WE. WE have all earned it) its time to move. AGAIN! Fourteen months ago we were living in a RV and now we are selling and moving. We didn't have any intentions of moving this quickly. I had anticipated we would stay here a minimum of three years and then we would have our own store. That has created a stress all in of itself. HOWEVER I have THE BEST realtor in the Birmingham area. I am serious. Don't believe me? Her name is Kelley Shaw Smith. She is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. She helped us find the house we are currently living in. She helped us look for a house while we were living in Cullman and would be sending me homes at all hours of the night. Answering my texts NO MATTER WHAT. Was always so patient and kind and never gave up. Even after the 300th house she sent me and I said...no...no...no. NO! I apologized and she said "Jennifer its my job not just to sell you a house, but to FIND you a house you love."  Then one morning bright and early she sends me a texts that says "I think I found a keeper. It just listed." I took a peak and made the trek. Our current home was on the market for less than 24 hours when we made an offer. THE KEY to finding a good home is having the BEST realtor who works for you. Don't EVER settle for less than Kelley Shaw Smith quality!

Its all about the realtor you pick. It makes the difference.

We found a house where we are moving to YAY! (YET AGAIN a good realtor makes the difference.) House was on the market LESS THAN 24 hours.  So begins the journey of getting this house closed ASAP!

Isn't she a beauty! She looks bigger than she really is. What I like most...its only a few minutes away from my husbands new store! Thank goodness! AND...wait for it....I maybe able to have chickens and bees! YES!!!

Thanks for reading! Hopefully I will have an update for you soon.



Confessions from a new "Label Reader" part two

Several blog posts ago I wrote about food labels. Hopefully some of you are looking at what you are putting in your tum tum after you read that. If you aren't I encourage you to do so. In that post I said something about not being able to find the Velveeta ingredients online so I FINALLY went to the store and took some pictures. BTW no store really WANTS you to take pictures of their stuff. Unless you are a professional don't try this at home.

There she is. In all her "Melts better and 45% less fat" glory. I think the commercials calls it "liquid gold" doesn't it? (wait isn't that suppose to be breast milk that is liquid gold)

First of all let me clarify something. I HAVE eaten this and on occasion I do CRAVE my mothers queso dip. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Its true.

Did you know that this stuff comes in unrefrigerated? (I worked for a grocery retailer I know. I have seen it come in on pallets off a HOT NASTY truck and it didn't melt. Wait...it just said it melts better than cheese) That should speak volumes. I am not sure why they put it in the refrigerated section. Maybe to make you feel better? I think in some places it is just on the shelf.

I am not going to bust this down and link up every single ingredient like I did in my first post, but what I do want to do is link the ones I can't pronounce or know what it is without a science degree....anyone have one of those?

Sodium Phosphate--After looking this one up I remembered what it was. It sounds delicious.

Modified Food Starch--My favorite part of that article " the word "food" in its description interjects some ambiguity into the mix" What in the CRAP are we eating???

Calcium Phosphate-- Do you ever suffer from any kind of stones? There is your culprit!

Maltodextrin-- FILLER

Sodium Alginate--comes from brown algae. Very salty.  

Sodium Citrate--Check out the side effects

Apocarotenal--That explains why velveeta is yellow.

Things I just learned from writing this:

1. I now understand why we all have health issues. This isn't food. Healthcare starts with the food we put into our bodies. Not treating the symptoms later.

2. Why are we demonizing cheddar cheese? Not all fats are created equal!   The Dr who came up with the "Low Fat/No Fat" diet...died of depression. No lie. Your body and BRAIN need fat to survive.

3. I may possibly never buy that again. I need to find another way to make my moms cheese dip.

Now for the "No preservative" Ketchup.

When I first saw that I was like "YEAH! Good Job Hunts for stepping up and making a healthy option for moms like me". First of all...Its NOT refrigerated. Red FLAG! Second...That ketchup is good for TWO YEARS! excuse me? Anyone leave a tomato on your counter for a few weeks? Yuck! What did they do to those tomatoes that they are good on the shelf for TWO YEARS! They aren't tomatoes folks. That's all I am saying.

Then I read the label:

I love that they used vined ripened tomatoes...I guess its better than getting the green ones. How else do tomatoes grow?

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! Ok, so maybe that ISNT technically a "preservative" but excuse me...you are taking advantage of people who think are making a "better choice".  Smashing that on the very top of your label makes you, in my book, a LIAR!

There is that Natural flavors again...why are they so afraid of telling us what that is exactly??

Is anyone else bothered by companies selling us food that is making all of us sick?! Don't believe me? Go back and read the side effects of the ingredients I just showed you. Don't believe me still?? Do a little research.

People!!!!! its.our.food.

I went and spent over $100 on real food at the grocery store a few weeks ago and the food went bad faster than I could eat it. I am not used to that. I am all about shopping 1 time a month. Real food goes bad FAST. That's how you know its real food. We HAVE to change the way we look at food. Your families health and your children's health depend on you.

Make it happen momma!



Living in a bubble.

I am hoping this is a reality check for some folks.

Not that life needs to be all doom and gloom, but hiding out avoiding the news needs to stop. Before you exit out the side door please PLEASE just hear me out. I promise I will keep it light.

I think my most favorite thing people say is "I don't care about politics". Fine. Whatever. We all have things that we are "Interested in": Books, gardening, hiking, climbing. Its America. We do what we want. We live in the GREATEST Country in the world. That's a FACT. Don't believe what anyone else tells you. We didn't get to be the biggest powerhouse by licking envelops.

This isn't about declaring a side or running for an office.

I don't expect you to know what or who a "Majority Whip" is.

Really, I could careless if you know how many seats there are in the House or Senate.

HOWEVER if you are GOING to CHOOSE a SIDE...you better bring it.

Those of you who say "I don't vote. I don't like either candidate" Move. Its usually the ones that DONT vote that have the most crap to say. (I do want everyone to vote, but vote because you KNOW who you are voting for and not just because his or her butt looks good in jeans) There are people who DIED fighting for the RIGHT to vote. You don't like voting? Get the heck out! I am serious. Go. Move to Cuba...Move to Ethiopia. I don't care. We don't want you here any more. Yes I understand that is your right NOT to vote, but there are people all around the world who WANT to vote and they CANT! Go live in a country where you don't have to worry about voting.

You do more research on pinterest than we, as a country, do for electing people to represent us. We are not paying attention to who is making decisions that are effecting and affecting our entire life. If you are one of those people who DONT VOTE...

Get out!

I had a conversation with a friend today and asked her what her thoughts were on the IRS email scandal and she literally had no idea what I was talking about. (notice that link ISNT Fox News) Really? ok...so I backed up a little bit. Have you ever heard of Lois Lerner? Crickets...Ok. Lets start over. How about the ObamaCare website issues? (COUGH Train wreck) Still nothing. I am in utter shock and disbelief. A Loss for words doesn't even come close to describing my frame of mind.

I don't care if I share the same opinion about a specific topic with someone. I don't. Life is generally more exciting when we don't live in a society where we all are EXACTLY the same and have the same views. Not all of us want to drive a jacked up pick up truck with mud tires.  Its not about being a Liberal Democrat or a declared Tea Party conservative. Those are terms created by people who want to put us in separate groups to divide us as a nation.
Divided we fall. Remember that.

A tree is a tree no matter where it lives.

When water freezes it is cold.

If I take something that isn't mine I have STOLEN something.

Is anyone following me?

The truth is the truth no matter who is reporting it. No matter what side of the fence you sit on. Breaking a law shouldn't be different just because of a title you hold or what tax bracket you fall into. The only way you KNOW if the people you have VOTED for (since by now if you are living in this country you have voted right?) is actually doing the things you sent them to do is to PAY ATTENTION!

We have GOT to start educating ourselves about what is going on in our country, or some day you are going to wake up and its going to be nothing like the country you remembered as a kid. I get its not all fun to watch. Some days I would rather watch the grass grow; however, ignoring it doesn't make it go away it makes you ignorant and uneducated.

We have grown adults who have no idea who our vice president is. We have children who have just graduated from high school that have no idea why we celebrate the fourth of July! (Are you kidding me? What in the CRAP are we teaching in schools?) I bet everyone knows how to use a condom and what it looks like. Should we take bets?

GO VOTE! (please educated yourself first)

Teach your children to want to VOTE!

If you don't know who to vote for? Listen to LeLand Live on SuperStation 101.1 they start at 4 pm central time OR read yellowhammer News! They both are great about breaking it down to any level you are at. One day when you decided to pick up a newspaper or watch "real" news you have a clue what is going on. (Unlike a certain someone who seems to never know what is going on unless he watches Fox News. At least he is watching the right one. Opinion)

Pick a side and let me know why.