Friday, August 27, 2010

Back to School!!

In 11 days the kids are going back to school. Yep, at the Pagett house we are excited and looking forward to Hailey starting Junior Kindergarten! She is excited and has a bus orientation this weekend which Zoey also attended 2 years ago. The kids get used to getting on and off the bus, learn bus safety and the drivers take the kids and parents for a 10 minute ride to experience what it is like to ride a school bus. The safety video is whinne the pooh and friends but about 25 years old. I think we saw it in school!

The girls have been shopping for back packs, clothes, school supplies and we have been buying healthy food for lunches. We have mostly done the healthy food for ourselves but need the kids to join us in the fight! We are excited for Hailey for 3 reasons. She is going to school and we can't wait to see how she does. I know she is a smart kid and hopefully she follows in Zoeys footsteps and is a leader in the class. Second, we will save in babysitting which is a bonus unless we are both on afternoons which we would still be paying but still saving! Third and the most important, we will have no kids in the house for at least 2 days a week so we can clean the house, have a lunch date, sex....wishful thinking on my part! The point is is that we will have a little freedom to shop in quiet and buy Christmas gift without having to hide them.

I will let you know how that goes but since I haven't blogged in 2 weeks that just goes to show how busy I am. I am also on a new schedule at work so we will see how that works out for things as well. Fucking night shifts but at least it is only 1 week out of 7 weeks of rotation! I can handle that.

So cheers to the end of the summer and a nice hot one at that. I must say that I am sad to see it go but extremely excited for the hunting season to go full swing. I am counting the days......1 month to duck hunting....1 month and 3 weeks to moose hunting and the big one......10 weeks to the deer hunt!!!

Hope you had a great summer Drew.....i think you are the only one who reads this anyway!!! LOL

Paul

Friday, August 13, 2010

Mr. Clean Magic Erasers

Well I got home last night after working 10 hours plus a drive into and out of work so it was like a 13 hour day! I knew the stove was being cleaned and I had to cook my chicken on the BBQ which I had no problem with but my wife left everything soaking in soapy water. I had no elements and the range was up so you could clean under the burners. I decided I would finish the job while the chicken was cooking on the BBQ. Most things came off fairly easily but one burner has a black ring on the outside because we use it the most since it is the larger burner and at the front. I had hot soapy water but this was not coming off. I used some elbow grease and was getting no where. I decided to look under the sink because I thought we had a magic eraser. I found an original one but also found a box of some with a scrubber. I read the box and the scrubber was perfect for what I was about to use it for. Instead of using the whole eraser I decided to cut about 1/3 off since I was only cleaning a small area. Good tip for saving money and making it last longer!

I put it under water and rung it out. I looked at it and thought this would be my answer. At first nothing came off but then a little pressure and wow! Everything that was in the black ring began to come off and I was very impressed. I have used the original before and it works well but this one kicked ass! I love it and instead of scrubbing hard for minutes with a dish rag and scouring pad, this thing did it with speed and results quickly.

I highly recommend trying one out and it doesn't matter which type you use. They all work great and I'm sure you can get coupons online or check out the website to see if they have any offers. You can also try brandsampler.ca and they can get you free stuff or save.ca for coupons.

Check it out and save your arms!

P.S. A quick note about the BBQ chicken. I had nothing but chicken when I was done cooking so I was looking for something to go along with it. I found something very interesting and actually very yummy.....yes I said yummy! I found some english muffins in the fridge and decided I would toast them and put chicken on them. I also found my new favourite and amazing mayo in the fridge. Roasted garlic mayo! Awesome on anything you can think of. Burgers, sandwiches, fries for those who like to do that, any recipe that calls for mayo and garlic because this is the perfect blend for it and whatever else you do with mayo. A friend at work also bought baconaise.....yes bacon flavoured mayo and they said it was amazing. I will let you know how that turns out next time I'm down in the states and can find it! Anyway I had 3 english muffins, toasted with chicken and garlic mayo......great dinner!!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Media and your kids

We all read, listen or watch the news in some capacity in a day to day basis just to see what is going on in our area and around the world. We hear about new ways of getting sick and how not to be scammed out of money. Don't use this because we did a study and found that blah, blah, blah. If you took everything you saw in the news as fact you would be a freaking mess.

When the whole H1N1 pandemic broke out I was against getting the shot for myself or the kids because I thought it was an over blown issue. I then changed my mind and thought that this might be something more than what they are telling us. But before I went anywhere a co-worker of mine told me his wife worked in the lab that is producing the shot for H1N1. He told me that it was an untested shot and that no one in the plant was getting it because of the possible side effects. That made my mind up and we decided to skip getting the shot which turned out fine for us. Our neighbour got it and him and his kids were very sick for a week after getting it. I don't buy into the hype to easily and am very skeptical anyway. I have worked in the media for some time and know how these things get blown up when they didn't need to be.

The best thing to do from the public view is to be skeptical on everything. Don't think that the media is out to put fear in you because they are trying to inform you to make your own decisions. Maybe not the case in the USA but in Canada it is more reporting on what is happening or what has happened. A good example is the giant hogweed story I read and then blogged about. I was shocked to read it and was genuinely worried about it but I did the research after reading the story to come to my own opinion. I have yet to see giant hogweed and probably won't see any this year but at least I know what to look for and can then understand what it is and what it can do.

The best thing to do is not act on the first impulse and inform yourself before doing anything. They had an equal billing issue with Enbridge that affected 100,000 customers having been under charged all year and having a big bill in July. My first impulse was to panic and think oh great since we are on equal billing. Our July bill came and I was paying more so we had a credit and our gas bill was $16.57! I didn't need to worry and call Enbridge and bitch like I thought about doing. They have more than 100,000 customers on equal billing so it was a small percentage who got screwed. Well not screwed but were being under charged each month. They still used the gas so they have to pay but Enbridge will not charge interest for not paying the full amount and has given them around a year to pay it off. Reasonable and a compromise I think.

Anyway, be informed before you start worrying about something you only know very little about. Remember that the news stories on average are only about a minute and 45 second long. Not enough to get you all the information.....just the scary stuff that gets viewers to watch!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Back from vacation

Well we have gotten back from a week of vacation and I'm also back to work as well. We tried to do as much as possible without breaking the bank. We went to the cottage, water park, zoo in Peterborough, bowling and Niagara Falls. We had a blast and the girls had a great time too. Thankfully in Niagara Falls a large number of the attractions are free for kids under 6! We only had to pay for ourselves. I didn't know this until Sunday and think we may have to take a trip during the week for a last fun trip so they can go on more rides!

Anyway, I will be brief and keep this short for now. Not much to talk about but our trip and that is a lot of typing that I can't be bothered to do right now.

More to come once I get back into the swing of things!