No Sugar for this lady!!

       So i promised you an article on my no sugar life.  Let me tell you what, it is hard.  The first 3 days were the hardest days by far.  We have cookies and ice cream and any other kind of sugary treat you can find in our house.  I wasn't going to get rid of them and make my husband live this life too because that isn't fair if he doesn't want to do it.  So every morning so far my breakfast has consisted of grapes and strawberries, which are great but you get sick of them after eating them every day for 7 days (which I'm on now).  Many days i almost caved in.  Days i was sitting at the computer desk saying to myself, well i might as well tell everyone I'm going to fail because i want to have ice cream with my son and husband!
     For any one that has quit smoking, you know an addiction is hard but this is life. Life because everything has sugar in it! My co-workers decided we should go out to eat at Subway for lunch one day and i looked on the ingredient guide and noticed every single bread had sugar in it. WTH right?  Now what, no subway for the rest of my life right? Well, I am willing to give spinach a try and hopefully i can have salads from now on!
     There are some chips that don't have sugar in it and other little snacks that tend to keep me going throughout the day.  But working at a bank, I have a container full of suckers sitting in front of my eyes.  Just makes me stronger when i have to be around it forever!! You can always politely ask the fella next to you to not smoke around you but how do you ask 300 people at a wedding dance to not eat cake around you? Eh, you don't so this is why this is one tough adventure to embark upon.  I didn't think I could do this with all the snacks i couldn't eat.  Oh but wait!! My best friend Katie introduced me to this website.  I call it a life saver!  http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/  I have no doubt in my mind that I can't do this anymore.  Just take a look at some of these delicious desserts and you will never go back!!
 Yes those are cake batter pancakes! And guess what? They are good for you? Ugh, who doesn't want to eat chocolate cake batter for breakfast? So, I am here to help anyone who is wanting to do this lifestyle with me!  I encourage it to everyone! It's not easy.  But most things that become a lifestyle aren't always easy.  You wouldn't expect loosing 15 pounds would be easy right?  So, join the band waggon and do this for your body with me. I am here to support you all!  Together we can help change lives together!! You can ask me any questions you might have :))

More Money Saving Ideas!

So I just basically wanted to share with you all my money saving ideas that I have been doing.  Our original city bill, (which included water usage, electricity etc.) was always around $140 a month.  I decided to try and get it lower and quickly realized how easy it was. Our next bill we got in the mail was $104! In one of my older posts, I had mentioned buying Energy Saving Light bulbs.

**We Put these in all the lights that we have including the garage and the hood above the stove.  We always turned off lights in the house except for the one room we were in.  You don't really realize how much electricity you use when a light switch is turned on especially when it's a 60 watt light bulb! So all our light bulbs are now 13 watt usage.

**The next thing I decided to do was take advantage of the clothes line in the back yard.  I decided to only use the dryer one time the whole week. And that doesn't mean one day out of the whole week, just one time.  The only time i used it was for socks and underwear.  That really cut back the usage in our house.  I just have to figure out what I am going to do this winter!

**We went and got a rain barrel from my father in law and we hooked it up to the rain gutter so it would collect rain from the roof then i wouldn't have to use our house water to water my garden (which is another money saving idea, a garden).  I often visit online flea markets and garage sales to find items that I could reuse in my house.  Picture frames are a great one that you can just spray paint any color you would like.  Same thing goes with old furniture.  Just like my end tables in our bedroom and the chair i refinished.

I am not ashamed to say that i do everything to save money.  The more money we can put away for something we really want one day the better.  Like this next January, we plan on putting in all new cabinets and appliances in the kitchen! So we will make sure you keep you up to date with that! 

**I recently got rid of all the chemicals in our house and switched to just vinegar to clean everything with.  You would be surprised by everything you can clean with it.  Its just crazy.  Plus, saving money on all those nasty chemicals you have in your house that could harm a baby or animal that got into them!  I am currently trying to de-clutter our house and not make it look like a daycare with toys laying everywhere!  Anywhoo-

**I plan to dig out my bike this week and bring Carson to daycare and myself to work. BOOM, saving money on gas now plus it's a great workout!

When I come up with more money saving ideas, (like once i figure out this huge coupon saving thing), I will let you know everything! Plus anything to help out the environment is better also.  So ta ta for now!

Carson's new pad~

A long long time ago, as in before we bought this house, my father in law John and my oh so awesome husband Aaron, decided to check out the spare bedroom of the house and saw a little piece of the wall sticking out. The first thing that came to their wonderful minds was to rip it up and see what it was...Well folks, it was 5 layers of wonderful wallpaper! And not the "oh that's kind of pretty" wallpaper. It was the 1950's little people dancing around in the garden wallpaper. At least one layer was! So Introducing....the mess...

We decided that we wanted to move Carson into this room because his set up was just kind of weird. The only way you can get to his room is through the bathroom. So anyone that used that bathroom had to flush and pray he wouldn't wake up. Not a fan of that. So we bought some paint and were hoping to just paint over the little wallpaper there was..til i started to pull on a piece that was pulling up. Oops.

So now what sir? Well we found that at one point they must have had a window in the wall on the first wall picture I showed you. So there was no just sanding and priming. We had to take out that whole wall and replace it with some sheet rock. I remind you, we only had one week til Carson's Birthday Party and my friend coming to stay, in the spare bedroom. So we had to get this done! Well, we did it! So here is Carson's new bedroom!

We are not exactly done with the room yet. The built in shelves I still have to paint the trim white and I am painting the inside...drum roll please...orange!! Along with the inside of the closet! We are going to paint orange stripes in the room as well. The color kind of looks blue in the picture but its really a grey color. Aaron put all new carpet in the room himself and did all the sheet rock, taping and mudding himself also. We have a few little things left also like to finish the trim in certain place and getting a light switch cover and putting trim around the window. But its livable and Carson loves his new room! 





Meet the Family!

Well I would love for you to meet our little family and what a better way to do it then on the Kappes Blog!! So ladies and gentleman, without further ado, I give you the Kappes Family!

This is our little family the summer of 2011. We were getting ready to go to the Minnesota Twins game. We are huge fans so we try to get to a lot of regular season games throughout the summer. Carson got to stay home with his grandparents that day while we watched the Twins more then likely lose win the game! Go Twins!

This is Aaron Kappes. He Loves baseball and really sports in general. He is a pitcher and center fielder.  His brother Andy and him created an amateur baseball team last summer called the Fertile Bees.  Everyone needs to get out and watch one of their games this summer! They need all the fans they can get.  Anywhoo...Aaron is 24 years old and from Ada, MN. Yes, that is the very first town in the alphabet in Minnesota.  He was born and raised here, literally. He was one of the last babies born in Ada.  He graduated high school and went to NDSCS for welding where he now works for Trail King in West Fargo.  He is the lead welder with his brother being his supervisor. He loves to spend time with Carson and make him laugh. Aaron is a hardworking, family oriented guy who will do anything for any body. 

This is me and my best friend Katie. I am on the right. I love to spend time with my family, blog and especially take pictures! I love to photograph anything! Check out some of my work here .  I am an out doors kind of girl. I like to watch baseball and be in the lake. I love fishing and boating and have been spending my nice days planting my garden this summer! You will usually find me either making something myself or finding more ways to save money!  I am all about DIYing and am willing to share it with everyone else.  I am from Miltona, MN and graduated high school in Parkers Prairie.  I went to school at Josef's School of Hair Design . I currently work at Bank of the West and love my job! I would love to open my own daycare one day but who knows! Well that's me in a nutshell!

Carson Aaron is 1 year old today (as you read in an older post today).  He loves spending time with his mommy and daddy and loves being outside.  His favorite toy is his John Deere tractor! He loves puppies and eating! Carson is the best son we could ever ask for and is so loving towards his family. I can't wait for another year full of joy and happiness with this little peanut!







This is Chassis Kappes! She is 3 years old now but this is when we got her.  She loves treats and dancing.  She loves to play catch and guard the house during the day.  She is a great watch dog and friend to us all! She sleeps with us every night and loves to play with other dogs!

Room Remodel

Well, I got sick of the brown in our room and I really wanted a room that we could go into and feel comfortable.  I didn't get that feeling with ours.  It was getting there but I didn't get that wow feeling. So I thought I would try a new color. For some reason I LOVE yellow black and grey together. I saw this color scheme together and fell head over heals for it. http://pinterest.com/pin/40391727877726206/

I wanted to be able to feel like when I got home from work, this is exactly where I wanted to go to relax. Brown was just to dark for me. So here is our room before..

It was even filled with our old box t.v. (which is for sale by the way!!, need to get rid of it) and Carson's stuff from when he wasn't sleeping through the night! With a little paint and clean up, this is the after...





Aaron and I made the Mr. and Mrs. signs out of old barn wood! If you would like any signs let us know and we can make some for you as well! The black chair sitting there is the one sitting outside in this picture....

I just re-painted it and put new fabric on the seat and Wall-Ah! I Also found an old wooden ladder and repainted it white so i can hang blankets on it! We bought some old wooden side tables as well and re-painted them yellow to go with our room!

 I am really starting to Love this room. Next on the list it to redo the ceiling and put new sheet rock up. Then new carpet and I think our room Might be complete! Fingers Crossed...



Well, it has been a very long time since i have wrote on here on account that we did not have Internet. And, well, WE HAVE IT BABY! So I should be keeping up with this almost daily. I have had a lot of people asking me about when i would write my next post so here it goes! First of all, i would like to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my son who is now the big 1!

We had such a great birthday celebration this weekend! The first birthday party was at the Kappes Casa! It was a Minnesota Twins themed party since we are obsessed with them, Carson is forced to be as well!

Our great friend Katie came from Montana and she helped me slave over a hot stove to get these cupcakes done just in time!!

Lots of family came to watch Carson eat his cake and open presents!! Our next stop was my parents house for his 2nd 1st birthday party :) He had a cars theme at this one!

He also had lots of friends and family at this party.  For everyone that doesn't know this already, Carson has an obsession for wheels. Whether it be a tire or a steering wheel. He loves touching them, moving them, or turning them. So needless to say, he loved my family's new side by side!

Carson got a smash cake at both parties. The first party he just dipped his finger in it so gently and slowly started grabbing at it. The second party, he knew what to do and just started digging in! It made for many laughs! He is to precious!

We couldn't ask for a better little man! He makes us laugh every day and to see his personality grow each and every day makes our lives complete! We love him with all we have and would give him the world 10 times over if we could!!

Home Made Suds..

Here is the post you have been waiting for! I have made my own laundry soap! No more paying up the wazoo for laundry soap!

You will need a box of borax which is around $2.00 in the laundry isle.

You will also need a large box of Washing Soda. It is not the same as baking soda. This was also about $2.00 a box.

And finally you will need a washing soap. I decided to go with Fels Naptha. This was less then a dollar in the laundry section. All you need are these three ingredients, plus water :)

First you take 6 cups of water and poor it into a pan. You should grate up 1/3 of the bar of soap (The Fels Naptha) but i just cut it into chunks. That is all of the the washing soap you need for this much laundry soap. So wrap it up and save it for the next batch!
Next you pour a 1/2 cup of borax into the pan and a 1/2 cup of the washing soda and stir it until it is dissolved.

This is what it should look like when all dissolved.
Next you pour the soap mixture into at least a 2 gallon bucket. I used a 5 gallon bucket though.

Then you pour in 4 cups of water and mix. Then you add one gallon of water plus 6 more cups and mix well. You let this mixture sit for 24 hours and it will turn into a gel type substance! And TaDa! You have home made laundry soap! You only need to use 1/2 cup per load. Happy Cleaning!  

Mason Time.

Here are a few more things i decided to do with my mason jars!

This is our new table runner and center decor! I cut a strip of burlap and used that has a table runner. I placed some mason jars on the table and stuck my flowers from my wedding with the vase they were in, into a mason jar! And those are our wedding flutes we had as well.

I also made a little date jar for Aaron and I. We are always trying to think of ideas so I decided to think of 50 ideas and fold the paper and wrote on the back if we had to go to Fargo for the date, a summer date or an anytime date. I was pretty stoked for this and can't wait to use it!

I also just used them for decorations around the house.

There are a few of our mason jar uses. I am going to attempt to die the jars a blue color next. We also used some jars to hold cotton balls and Q tips in the bathroom!

Wine bottle MADNESS!

So I have been trying to collect wine bottles and my sister pulled through for me and got me like 10! So I have been doing projects hehehe!

Then decided to just try getting the labels off with warm water and it worked pretty swell. They actually just kind of peeled off!

TaDa! Now it's time to paint! I picked up some chalkboard spray paint from Menards. And I LOVE IT. It dries so smoothly and quickly.

This is what the bottle looks like after we painted.  I am going to get some chalk and write Faith Hope and Love on the bottles but of course I forgot a final display picture so I will update that soon!


 

New Door!

We finally went looking for a door for our guest bedroom! We went to Menards first and found the perfect door for our house! AND it was on clearance! This door was only $65 regular $160. Here is a before shot of the room that had no door.

Here Aaron had to make the door opening larger and he cut chunks of blocks to fit the inside of the door.



Here is a closed shot.

And the finished project with the trim! Good job boss :)



Saving moneys...(:

Just a short little note...we decided to switch our light bulbs to the energy saving light bulbs!!

We went from a total of 300watts to 65watts in usage for our kitchen light. There are 5 bulbs in just that one light fixture! I totally recommend these for everyone!

And here is just one of our many money saving tips :)

My little Project

So I decided to do a little project i found on Pinterest. You can follow me here on Pinterest if you would like! I needed some storage room for my craft room i am creating..

First i got an extra piece of board from the trim Aaron was putting up.

Then you need a hose clamp. You can get these at Menards for a dollar a piece.

Then as many mason jars as you would like for the board. I got these from a great co-worker of mine! Thanks Barb!

You screw the hose clamps to the board.

Then screw on the jars to the hose clamps and as my son's daycare lady always says TADA!

Now i have a place for all my little things laying around :) maybe i could decorate the board and spray paint the jars! Endless possibilities!