For the month of August, we are going to cut out any unnecessary spending. Of course, this scares this shop-a-holic, believer in retail therapy to death. But I’m hoping that this will help us keep more of our hard-earned money. I’m an impulse buyer but only on items under $10. If an item is $15, then I will fret for weeks about buying it but in the meantime I might spend a $100 on smaller items.

During the month, we are also going to do some major decluttering in our home and in our storage. August is the hottest month in Mississippi, so I might have to do some of this in the middle of the night just to beat the heat. But I really want to get as much done as possible.

I just need to tackle a little each day and then hopefully I can start seeing some progress which will motivate me to keep going.

Sometimes I wonder just how I made it through a day without being able to search for something on the Internet. How did I find answers? I guess I just lived in blissful ignorance!

I can’t imagine not being able to look up information like bug bites, diaper rashes, or even Chicago personal injury lawyers. Ok, that last one I admit I’ve never actually searched for but I’m sure I would find a lot of results if I did.

I used to be really good at searching the Internet. But I’m beginning to lose my touch as I’m not as efficient as I once was. It does really depend on what you search for. I have a lot better results searching for phrases than one or two words. Sometimes I have trouble finding the exact wording of a problem or the word I choose will be used in a different context so the results are not what I need.

I guess before the Internet maybe I didn’t have as many questions or maybe didn’t care about answers. I’m not sure which but I know now I can’t imagine being without the ability to search for answers.

Probably the most stolen office supply is pens. They just don’t walk off your desk but are usually ‘borrowed’ by a co-worker who then proceeds not to return it. I’ve worked in some offices where people actually taped their name to their pens.

I never went to such extremes but I do have a few ideas as to how to keep your pens. You can always get personalized pens so that way you can easily spot yours should they leave your desk. But here is a my personal favorite. I keep my good pen really close to me like either in my hand, in my hair, or on my keyboard. I keep the mediocre pens on my desk in a pen holder. When someone wants to borrow a pen, I offer them one in the cup and not my good pens. If they make a move for my good pen, then I either cut them off or stop everything to make sure they return it. Yes, I love my good pens and want to keep them.

It’s worked well. I’ve only had a few go missing when I would forget to take the pen with me when I left my desk. But if you get the reputation for keeping track of your pens, your co-workers will get used to it and almost return them automatically. It may take a while for that to happen, so keep a close eye on your good pens.

I bought Rae a golf set a few months ago. It naturally broke the day we bought it. I know it wasn’t like buying Cobra golf clubs but still I would have thought that they would have lasted longer than a few hours.

She hasn’t really played with it since we got it. I just knew she would have a lot of fun with it but I was wrong. Next time I will bypass the cheap, plastic $3 set and get her something a little more durable.

After weeks of searching, I found Wii Fit at our local Wal-Mart! I was so excited to get it home to play. Now I can stop looking at Ephedrasil Hardcore and other dieting pills since now I have Wii Fit.

I might have a lot of faith in Wii Fit to help me lose weight, but I do think that it can help you keep motivated. You can set goals for yourself and then everyday you can find out how close your are to it.

Wii Fit reminds me a lot of Brain Age, which I love. The toddler also loves Wii Fit and wants to play every time I do. That’s not surprising since that it was the case with the Guitar Hero guitar, the DDR dance pad, and the Rock Band drums. It would be unlike her not to want to play.

Besides from having to share my playing time, I really enjoy Wii Fit. It made those months of searching for it worthwhile.

I have been miserable this past week. We have reached triple digits and it is unbearable. August will be worse than this. Some relief from the heat would be nice.

I would rather seek out foreclosure help than deal with these hot temps. The house does not cool off until about 6pm. That’s the trouble with window units is that it takes a while for them to cool a large area. I think I need to relocate the TV to the bedroom and just hang out there during the day.

Our best way to beat the heat inside our home is to leave. We usually go to my mom’s or town. Town becomes an expensive outlet, so we usually opt for a nice afternoon visit at grandma’s.

The heat will get worse before it gets better. June spoiled me as it was a very pleasant month. It almost made me forget just what we were in for come July and August. I’ve had a rude reminder this week with the hot temps.

Wanting to block the sun from coming through your windows and find that the mini-blinds aren’t getting the job done? Well, I had posted about using aluminum foil on windows. While it works well, it’s not an option for some people because of where they live. We have it on our back windows where we have no neighbors, so no one sees it.

While cleaning up the other day, my husband found a movie poster that I just can’t bear to part with but have no place to hang up. It has Kevin Sorbo on it (hubba hubba!) from the movie Kull the Conqueror. My husband found a spot for it in the bedroom no less! Just take a look:

He hung it in the window. Surprisingly it does help to filter the light coming in. Now I get to look at Kevin Sorbo everyday and have a cooler bedroom. What more could a girl ask for?

Country living is great but services really do lack. We really have only one option for broadband and that’s satellite Internet. It’s OK but definitely not the same experience as DSL or cable. It is much better than dial-up!

I keep hoping that one day we’ll have DSL or cable out this way but nothing so far. I remember from class that for DSL you had to be located within 3 miles of the switch. Not sure if that is still the case today with such advancements in technology.

It’s been a trying week with our satellite Internet as we can’t download but so much within 24 hour period. It just really stinks especially during E3 week – a video game summit held in Los Angeles each year. I’ve been covering it from home for my 451 Press blog – WiiRally.com. Between downloading screenshots, videos, and other assets, I exceeded our allotment so therefore the fair use clause of our contract was enabled for 24 hours. Basically you are back to dial-up speed. That makes it nearly impossible to get much work done.

We are back to normal, so I have a lot of catching up to do this weekend as I’ve been neglecting my other blogs trying to stay on top of E3. Next week should be calmer – oh wait, there is another gaming conference next weekend but it won’t be on the scale as this one, though.

For us to go anywhere, we have to plan and then do some more planning. When we first got married we had looked into some different Vegas vacations ideas. 13 years later, we have yet to make it to Vegas. So if we plan to ever make it to Vegas or anywhere, then we need to plan ahead.

The first step will be is to decide when we want to go. Next will be to find out just how much it will cost us. Third we’ll have to figure out how long it will take us to save the money. It’s fun to plan vacations and even more fun to actually take the trips. The better plan we have, the more likely we are to actually go on vacation. A lot of times we won’t have the money or something comes up. Although I hate to plan, for vacations I gladly do it.

Our next game console will be an Xbox 360 mainly because of Rock Band 2. My nephew recently got a playstation 3 that really makes my husband want one. Of course, he also wants the 360, so we’ll have to do one at a time.

There’s more out for the 360 that we want to play right now. I’m looking forward to playing Rock Band 2 and having the option for downloadable songs. We really enjoy playing video games. In fact we might play as much as we watch TV. Our Nintendo Wii is great but games definitely have a party feel to it, which I love those types of games. But sometimes it’s nice to play other games as well.

Rock Band 2 is set to be released in September, so that is when we will need to buy our Xbox 360.