Receipt bin

If your family is like mine there are plenty of receipts around, possibly in varying places around the house.




A few years ago I came up with a solution to our receipt problem....




This is a magnetic note paper holder. It use to have note paper in it, but once it was all used up, I started putting receipts in it when I got home from shopping. It quickly became our designated receipt bin. It is on the side of the fridge and when unloading shopping bags, the receipts are immediately taken care of. If it's a debit receipt, it is logged in the check book before it's put in the bin. I go thru all the receipts every few months and file the ones we need to keep and then the rest go in the recycle bin!
This has saved a lot of trouble when it comes to returning things, we ALWAYS know where the receipt is. It definitely works for us!

Spam filter/firewall thing-a-ma-jig

The firewall/spam filter at Michael's office (USAF base) is super sensitive to outside email addresses (such as yahoo, hotmail, anything without a ".mil" at the end, etc.), which makes sense since it's a military installation and all. But, folks, it's super annoying.

Michael works at his desk most of the day and rather than calling him to ask questions or to remind him of things, etc. I simply shoot him an email and he usually replies within just a few minutes (don't worry, I'm not interrupting him all day long - just a couple emails). Well, a while back he wasn't responding to more than half of my emails for over a week and come to find out he wasn't ever receiving them. I understand that this thing is strict and doesn't allow any emails to even get to the recipient if the subject or email address seems spammy. But, my subject lines were always normal things (ex. "Jacob's dr. appt", "Reminder: friends tonight") not spammy or explicit, etc. Needless to say, both of us were highly annoyed.

For a while after we discovered this, I would send each email twice and he'd usually get one of them, and I resorted to calling if it was actually important since I feared he would never receive the email anyway. Then I started using these funny little subject lines that have never been rejected in the many, many months since I started doing it.

Here's how I come up with the subject line:
* pick the first color that comes to mind
* pick an animal that most definitely would NOT be that color

Examples: purple tiger, blue cat, pink turtle, etc.

It works like a charm and it's fun! So, if you have trouble with your military (or DOD employee) spouse's email spam filter thing, feel free to copy my idea and see if your emails get thru!!

My flat iron can do more than straighten my hair!!

After getting dressed recently I noticed a place where the hem was turned up on the denim skirt I had on - it was like that when it came out of the dryer. I was just going to leave it that way because I definitely was not going downstairs, pulling out the iron and board and waiting for the iron to heat, all to iron a 6 inch spot on my skirt (and then put it all away, as well).... that's when I realized I had just unplugged my flat iron and if I turned it all the way up, maybe it would be hot enough to fix that little spot!

I quickly plugged it back in and turned it on before it had time to cool off, waited a minute and then placed it on the spot and 'ironed' the hem of my skirt and it worked perfectly! I'll say this works for me!!

I've since used this little trick on another skirt with the same issue and I'm very happy with my results!

A toy actually worth buying

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer is hosting a themed edition of Works for me Wednesday this week and I just had to join in this time!

The theme is toys that you have purchased or been given that were actually worth the money spent on them.

My oldest 2 are boys and while the standard Matchbox cars and jet planes are absolutely wonderful, I have found that when they are 'bored' or in need of a change of pace, we break out this:It's a good ole Magna Doodle. But it HAS to be the real thing made by Fisher Price. We have tried the cheap-o store brands and they just don't hold up very well. The Magna Doodles the boys currently have were purchased after Thanksgiving last year and have held up very well. And let me say, they have not been treated the best. They've been dragged around by the cord that attaches the 'pen', thrown, stepped on and just plain abused, but they're still hanging in there.

We use these for everything from learning time (shapes and letters), drawing fantabulous drawings and guessing games (I draw something and they have to try to figure out what it is) and they have provided HOURS of entertainment!

For Christmas they are both getting new ones, so I went out last weekend and bought 2 new Magna Doodles (Target had them on sale for $13.99)!