Flu Fever

So the flu panic has taken the nation, and rightly so I suppose. I started thinking of all the myths and opinions that are out there regarding catching/not catching the flu. Here's what we're doing at Casa de Estes:

1. Wash hands all the time. In public bathrooms, pre-dispense the paper towels before washing hands. Afterwards, use paper towel to turn off sink, open door, and turn out lights with. Then throw away paper towel.

2. Get sleep! We don't do too well (we meaning me) minus sleep. I try to get 8 hours a night. I know it's tough if you have kids or your spouse has a different schedule, but I know it helps keep me healthy. If I go more than one night without nearly 8 hours I feel really run down. Darn the internal clock luck!

3. Eat somewhat decent food! We cook almost every meal during the week. During the weekends we eat out probably twice (Friday and Saturday nights). We try to keep it healthy, or at least include a ton of veggies in the dish. If we eat too much fast food we get cranky (seeing a trend?)

4. Drink orange juice! I really don't know how effective this is for me because I only drink a small glass, but I do almost every morning with breakfast.

5. Get your flu shot! I'm alone on this one as Tony braves the season without one. I'll be poked tomorrow right after school...yay.

6. Clorox wipes for the classroom and Clorox spray for the house. On doorknobs, light switches, sinks, and toilets.

7. Hand sanitizer: before lunch and snack time (yes I teach Kindergarten).

8. Rule around me: if you sneeze or cough on your hand....you wash them IMMEDIATELY.

What about you? What's your method of staying flu free this year?

Someone Else's Super Easy Fettucine Alfredo

I can't take credit for this (as usual) but you should try it. It's VERY easy. You can season it however strongly or lightly you wish. You can make it with chicken, shrimp, or by itself. I got it from here and her picture is way more appetizing and better (can you tell I work with 5 year olds by the way I'm typing?).

Ingredients:

1 box or package of fettucine

1-2 boneless chicken breasts

1 tablespoon olive oil (like I ever stick to that)

salt and pepper

For the alfredo sauce:

3 tbsp. butter

2 cloves garlic smashed (or the equivalent in the jars of minced garlic)

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to boil for pasta. While you are waiting, cook the chicken breasts. Heat the oil in a skillet at medium high heat. Season and cook until golden brown. Remove to a plate and let rest for a few minutes. Cut into small strips. Cover with foil to keep warm while you prepare the sauce.

Cook pasta until al dente.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cream, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Mix in the parmesan cheese and cook until completely melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve pasta with sauce and topped with grilled chicken strips.

***Warning: this recipe does not bode well for leftovers. It results in a mystery sauce-less pasta.***

If you make it let me know how it goes! :)

P.S. someone PLEASE make this recipe. It looks killer (in many ways).

Things That Make Me Smile

Long time no post...go figure!

Here are a few things each day that make me smile and keep me sane:

1. The 'delay start' button on my washer. I love that on laundry day I can set my washer to start washing the first load while I'm finishing up at work so that I can come home and immediately put them in the dryer. It's like I'm cleaning house while I'm at work and that alone is why I will forever love GE.

2. My wonderful husband who while in College Station for work surprises me with two FABULOUS A&M shirts from the tent sale happening that day. Not to mention he got it spot on which type of 'colorful girly' shirts I'd love. He's a keeper.

3. Coupons from the wonderful coupon tree at HEB that I will use every week and that don't expire for a month. Watch me take a handful and smile!

4. Catch up phone calls from great friends I don't get to see everyday. I always seem to miss the first call but I feel so happy after I get off the phone with them.

5. Setting the dishwasher as I leave for work in the morning. See #1 as to why this makes me smile.

6. My amazingly high up and huge king sized bed. Getting into it is my favorite part of the day (Tony's too) because it's like a pile of cotton in the air (it's seriously high in the sky.)

7. Sweet notes from the hubs packed in my lunch that I sometimes just mistake as a napkin ;)

8. Savings accounts that grow. Amen.

9. Baby Schnauzers that cuddle up with me in the cotton ball bed late at night and the husband who has grown to be ok with letting that happen.

10. Little hugs from my Kinder kids throughout the day from those you least expect it from.

11. Overwhelming random feelings of contentment and happiness that just come up out of nowhere throughout the day.

12. The jazz stations on AT&T U-verse that I play as I cook dinner. Thank you for my sanity.

13. Guilty pleasure TV like 'Operation Repo,' 'Flipping Out,' and 'The Office.'

14. Delicious leftovers from a great dinner the night before.

15. Church early on Sunday mornings with a pastor who inspires us to think, thank, and grow.

16. Bluebell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

17. The Friday afternoon drive home

18. The feeling of knowing my career is making a difference in little one's lives.

19. Hot showers after a long day. I can feel the day just washing away.

20. Cool breezes and the changing of seasons. Such a wonderful relief to 100+ degree days!

21. Clorox wipes. The sole reason for my classroom not being a petri-dish. Thank you baby Jesus!

Thank God for the little things! :)

Omelet for Two A La Barefoot Contessa

This recipe is good. Don't get me wrong, it is not good FOR you. But it is good.

Every now and then we like to have breakfast for dinner. Most nights we try to have a big meal with leftovers for the following day, but since today is a holiday (HAPPY LABOR DAY PEOPLE!) we decided last night would be the perfect night to have breakfast for dinner.

I made this recipe probably a year ago and then thought nothing of it. It was good, but we don't have breakfast for dinner that often so it just got filed in my recipes to keep and that was it. However, good ol Ina Garten popped up on my DVR with this recipe again and watching it made Tony and I drool. I added it to the grocery list for this week and here we are.

Here is what you'll need.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound good thick cut bacon
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 1 cup medium diced Yukon-gold potato (or regular old Russet and I just used one medium potato)
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
• 5 extra large eggs (see, I told you it wasn't too hot for you)
• 2 tablespoons milk or cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions or green onions (white and green parts)
• 4 ounces shredded cheddar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the bacon cross-wise in 1/2 inch slices. Cook the bacon in 8 inch oven safe saute pan over medium high heat for 5-7 minutes. (Here is where I veered off. We like to have refried beans with eggs so I cooked the bacon in a small pot and saved the grease to use as seasoning for the beans.)

Drain the bacon on paper towels and discard the fat from the pan (or be a genius and save it for refried beans out of a can). Add the butter to the pan and then add the potato and the yellow onion. Cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, tossing occasionally (or stirring if you can't toss like a pro), until the onion starts to brown and the potato is tender but firm (?).

Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl, beat the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper together with a fork. Stir in the scallions and cheddar.

When the potato is cooked add the bacon to the pan and pour the egg mixture over all of it like above picture.

Place the pan in the oven for 15-20 minutes (it feels so scandalous to put a oven pan in the oven!), until the omelet puffs and the eggs are almost cooked in the center like above picture. Sprinkle with a handful of cheddar and bake for another minute. Serve hot directly from the pan.

As I said before, we served ours with refried beans (blame it on my Hispanic side) and also with biscuits. It was a feast! There's something so fun about being in your pajamas and eating breakfast for dinner that you need to do every once in a while. Also, the part I dread the most about omelets is taken out of this recipe: no flipping it over! If you make it, let me know what you think!

We Love Deals

I'll start this post by saying one thing: Tony and I watch our money VERY closely.

During our time in college we weren't always this way. In fact when we met, we ate out pretty much every meal and bought what we wanted. God must have known that this wasn't who we needed to be because when Tony graduated and took his job in Georgetown we became a long distance couple. Now always being the nerd that I am, I love listening to talk radio. I can't help it, but I do. I listen to it every single morning on my way to work and most afternoons on the way home. I don't know what it is but if I'm in the car by myself I like to listen to actual people talking about real things. If I'm with someone else I can listen to music non-stop. Anyway...

Each weekend we would take turns visiting each other. I of course, tiring of College Station, would offer to come visit the Austin area more than I would make Tony come visit me. New restaurants, outlet malls, and tons of things to do in a big city: yes please!

While I was in the car for that 2 hour commute to see my love I would listen to talk radio (duh). On Friday afternoons around 12 I would always come across the same show. People would be calling in with real life stories of families living on the edge of financial disaster, marriages and families divided over budgets and one spouse's love to spend all they have. It was somewhat like a train wreck, except that this was a train wreck you could somewhat relate to. This was a train wreck that had a mirror facing at you. The 3 hour show was filled with various stories with the same message: people were overspending, not saving, being financially irresponsible, and were stressed out behind closed doors. While I was fortunate enough to not be in as much financial trouble as most of the people calling I could easily see how my spending habits in college would lead to a life similar to many of the callers. It was scary.

On those Friday shows there was also an added twist: every Friday the host would have callers who had paid off all their debts and switch to a cash only lifestyle call in and scream at the top of their lungs "IM DEBT FREE!!!!." As corny as that sounds I teared up and still do every single time I hear them scream those words. Sometimes it's just one person screaming it, other times it's a whole family with little kids screaming with such joy and relief that it's all I can do to just tear up and not lose it altogether. These are people who go to drastic measures to get out of debt. Sometimes they take on more than one job. They sell cars they shouldn't have bought and buy clunkers just to get to work. These people eat rice and beans for months and sometimes it takes them two to three years to pay off their debt. But they do it. And they're better off because of it. It's amazing.

This show is called the Dave Ramsey Show.

I'm so thankful that God opened my ears to this show. I'm even more thankful that God opened Tony's ears to this show. He had been traveling on his Friday turns to see me and had caught it a couple of times before we realized we were both listening to it. When we had that realization it opened up a new chapter in our relationship. We realized we didn't want to be poor. We didn't want to be that couple that had the awesome cars or great clothes but were sweating out our bills at home. We wanted financial freedom and a life we could have fun in. We wanted to change our family tree. We decided we were going to start being smart with our money and holding each other accountable when one of us was going crazy with our money. I'm convinced this was God shaping our future.

Fast forward three years and here we are. Paid off cars, no credit card debt, savings, a beautiful home that we can truly afford, and a blessed life. It's not a cake walk everyday, but we're partners in this for life. We've become such great partners in this that it's taken a new spin:

We've become great negotiators.

Now anyone who knows me knows I look like I'm ten. The braces don't help either. So that being said most sales people blow me off instantly. What they don't know is that I'm about to make them take a second look.

It all started off slowly. When we were buying our new home we researched the HECK out of homes. We looked in hundreds of new homes, read every homebuying article, a few books, and watched a ton of shows. We listened to Dave Ramsey for hours and made many a checklist on things we wanted/needed in our first home. We assigned good cop (me) and bad cop (Tony) to each other when we went in to sign the contract to build our home. We got the price we wanted and they threw in free pendant lighting ($300 value) and we thought we were on top of the world.

Fast forward to December 08: we were moving into our new home and we were searching for appliances. Again, researched the heck out of them, went to every appliance store in the city comparing prices, taking notes, etc. We managed to get the BEST deals that Christmas because we did our homework.

Vacation 09: After many hours on the phone with Expedia for hotel changes due to the current Swine Flu hitting Mexico we were switched to a new hotel. Somehow it was a nicer hotel than we paid for the first time (blame it on the price drops due to the flu). Anyway, after nice words and humourous exchanges with the Expedia man I somehow was able to get almost $200 bucks refunded back to us just for asking. Tony was floored and I had a good laugh at our good luck. Our vacation was amazing and we sure loved having that extra cash in our pockets.

My mom's moving here next month and asked if I would mind calling Pods to price their services. So I did and was floored when I heard their first price. It was almost $3k!! I started joking with the guy that I was poor and this wasn't going to work and just laughingly asked if I could get a discount. He "hmm'd" and "well let me see" and a few minutes later said he could take $100 bucks off the price. I laughed and said thank you but that it was still too high. I asked if they gave out any other discounts and he asked if I had any memberships to anything. I laughed and said the only membership I have is for a gym. He "hmm'd" again and asked if he could put me on hold. Five minutes later the guy comes back and takes off another $500 on top of the $100 JUST BECAUSE I ASKED! The entire time the guy had been on speaker phone and Tony is just shaking his head in disbelief that once again we're getting a discount just for asking.

Needless to say, we went with Pods. :)

This weekend we set out to buy the second of two nightstands for our bedroom set. If you know Tony then you know we don't buy something unless we can pay in full. Thank you Dave Ramsey for the hardest part of financial freedom: waiting. We set out with a number in mind that we were not going over. We had seen the nightstand on sale a few holidays ago and when we saw that it wasn't this weekend we knew we had good cop/bad cop roles to play. The older man who helped us immediately told us no, nothing they could do. He said if we spent $1500 on furniture he could take off $100. We said thanks but no thanks, we're going to need a discount or we just won't buy today. He said there's nothing they could do, it was already at a great price and asked if we wanted him to watch the price and let us know if it went on sale. We said yes and gave him our contact info. Again, we thanked him and began to walk away. He must have sensed we weren't playing because he asked if he could quickly go talk to his manager and of course we said yes. When he left we sort of smiled at each other and again went over what number we would accept. He came back a few minutes later and said "I found JUST the guy I needed to ask and he said we could do it."

BINGO.

Today we went looking for an entry table. Finding the right entry table has been the death of me. They're either too small or too dang expensive. I am not a fool and I'm not paying $1500 bucks to stick a picture of my dog on top of that table. Anyway, of course we found the perfect one for our entry...and of course it was one of the only items that wasn't on sale in the warehouse. We went back and forth and realized the only way we had a shot at getting it was to ask if they could discount it for us. We busted out our cell phone and ran numbers of the highest price we pay and the smallest discount we'd accept. It was my turn to be the bad cop. I went and found a sales lady and flat out told her we were interested but we needed a discount. This store was using star stickers to indicate items on sale 20% and I said we'd buy it if we could somehow get a star on this item. She went back to her manager and the best they could do was take off 8%. Now the whole time she's telling us how great of a discount this is I know exactly what Tony is thinking because I'm thinking it too: No way lady. No way.

We thanked her but told her our highest number was about 12% more a of discount off than what she gave us and walked away. We circled the warehouse "looking at furniture" and watched as she went back to her manager. She finally came back and gave us an 11% discount. Again the entire time she went on about how this never happens I knew what Tony was thinking: Nope, still a no. Again we thanked her and said we'd just hope it was on sale in a few weeks if it was still there and walked out of the store.

Now I'll admit, at this point I was bummed. I had never actually had to WALK OUT of a store from a negotiation but a deal with Tony is a deal. As we walked out we consoled each other saying that we'd find a better deal somewhere else. As we were getting in the car I said "I should have asked if she would take $20 off her lowest price." Tony said "Well, why didn't you!?" I said "well, why didn't YOU!?" We got in the car and I stopped him and said "Go in there, and tell her exactly this 'I know you said [x number of dollars] was your lowest price, but my wife will kill me if I don't ask if you can take $20 off that.' " He gave me one strange look and I repeated myself again. He got out of the car and went in. 10 minutes later he came out holding a receipt and we were now the proud owners of a great entry table!!

I can't say we'll be successful all the time. I know that at some point I'm going to have to walk away without what I wanted to buy. Sometimes as low as they can go is not low enough and that's ok. What I can say is that I'm sure not afraid to ask for a discount on major items. I'm not the least bit bothered to use a coupon or order something online with a discount or free shipping. Heck, Retail Me Not is the first place I check when I'm looking to buy something online. I think most sticker prices are inflated and I'm very aware that we're in a recession. I'm totally using the fact that it is a buyers market right now to our full advantage. I think everyone should try to get the best deal possible and if that means asking if the item you want could be discounted any lower or included in the big store-wide sale then so be it. What's the harm in asking right? We work hard for our money so we need to make it work hard for us! And trust me it is...

Here is a picture of our new entry table. More to come on this new decorating project...