UNISOM - Say yes to UNISOM!!

Here's my "advertising" post, no not really, I AM NOT BEING PAID FOR THIS!! Lol

So I have been really REALLY battling with sleep, falling asleep and staying asleep is THE WORST for me!! I have tried Melatonin, I started with 3mg, and that seemed to help me fall asleep quicker for a few weeks, then it stopped working so I moved onto 5mg, and that seemed to help me again for a few weeks!

When the Melatonin stopped working I was considering going to try get some sleeping pills to try help me, but a friend of mine Carla told me about Unisom, and to get the pills that aren't gel, so I went to Walmart and found the UNISOM pills, there are different ones, but the Orange box stood out to me and they weren't Gel so I decided to try them!!

It's been 2 weeks now, and I haven't looked back since! I've been falling asleep within 30 minutes after taking it (the instructions say to take it 30 minutes before going to bed), and I have been sleeping the whole night and if I do wake up for some reason during the night, I will fall back to sleep almost instantly.

I work for a family, and the Mother is having problems sleeping too, I gave her two pills to to try out and the first night she said it worked, she did battle to get out of bed in the morning though (which I will admit happened to me too but on about the fourth morning, but after a few days it was fine!)

So if you are battling with sleep, I highly recommend you try this!!

Fiance Visa, NOA1, NOA2, Visa Interview etc.

I have seen a lot more people have been searching about "NOA2's" and Fiance Visa etc., and then come across my blog "NOA2 Makes it's appearance".... I've also been receiving messages asking about the process etc.

This blog post is in hopes that anyone else that searches for the Fiance Visa process etc. come across my blog and see this! If you do and would like to get some specific information or help, please email me, I'd love to hear from you and help you if you need it :)

sagia@mail.com

$1000 Reward ~ Please Help Find Lily and Return Her To Her Owner

**LOST DOG IN HOWELL, MICHIGAN, USA**

 **SHE NEEDS TO BE FOUND ASAP!!**

Please do me a huge favor and share this blog post of mine on your FB walls, twitter statuses etc etc. i really don't know what i would do if Max went missing, so i would like to do anything i can to keep this precious little face going around until she is found!!!!

Message from Lily's owner :

"STILL MISSING $1000 REWARD for whoever returns her to I'd safely!! My little Lily (Yorkie/Maltese-mix) went missing in Howell, off of Grand Oaks Drive and Grand River. She is a 2 year old female, 4-5lbs, black, tan and grey. PLEASE help me find her. I love and miss her so much. I can't eat or sleep, and I feel like my heart has been shattered. She helped me get through my fathers passing and I can't imagine being without her. Call me with any information.... I greatly appreciate any help at all to bringing her home. Thank you.

Tricia (989) 277 9632"

See more information through pictures on : www.facebook.com/PetXtras (they do an amazing job with Grooming too, so if you are in Howell area - go and try them out :)) )

French Fry Pie....

WOW!!

That's the first thing that comes to mind when taking the first bite of this meal... This truly is  "comfort food", it is SO good and a little bad (lol).

So this is another one of Budget Savvy Diva's meals. Easy and cheap :)) You can find the recipe here.

Apparently this hasn't received very much 'love' from people so I am telling you ALL now, YOU HAVE GOT TO MAKE THIS!! LOL... It really does taste delicious! Plus there is enough to have enough for leftovers, otherwise it can feed 4 people... You won't understand what I'm talking about until you have made and tasted this - seriously!!!!

Here is how mine turned out...

The plated product :))

Just out the oven and smothered in cheese - Mmmmm!!

How To Make A Blog Button....

I have been searching ALL over Google for an easy enough way to make a button for my blog, not sure if I'm just "dumb" or what, but all the instructions I found confused me when they said to save your picture to the server and used all these weird words to tell which server they use etc. etc.

SO finally after HOURS of trying to figure out a code to work on my blog for my button to show up, I figured it out - I got SO annoyed at one point I almost gave up, lol...

I decided to try and get some instructions made up and make a step-by-step tutorial for anyone that comes across this blog post, and hopefully it will help people like me, that get confused by some wording others use :)

So here goes....

BLOG BUTTON BASICS

The standard blog button is apparently 125px by 125px. I found that to be pretty small for me, but you can choose a size larger than this, some say not to go larger than 150 pixels wide, but I found 170 pixels wide to be perfect for mine and what I wanted mine to look like. Most sidebars are only 200 pixels wide, so if you use a larger blog button, the sides of your button will be cut off - and we don't want that. So for this tutorial of mine, I am going to be using : 170 x 170 pixels.

Step 1 : Design, Re-size and Create your Image You Want to Use on PAINT

First off to design and make your blog button, you will need access to an image editing software – an example would be Photoshop. You unfortunately have to pay for Photoshop, and I'm sure if you are a beginner to blogging you won't want to spend a lot of money to edit a picture. Doesn't mean you can't get Photoshop if you want to, by all means get it if that is what you would like to use :) There are quite a few free image editing software programs available though, so use Google to search for some.

I, however, would recommend using Paint and Photobucket - both are free (bonus!) and I find it pretty easy for anyone to use, and paint comes with your computer programs anyways....

I started by using PAINT, to resize my picture and edit it with text etc. (you can edit with whatever you would like to have on your Image).

Secondly your picture HAS TO BE SQUARE!!

See pictures and steps for the Design and Re-size steps in PAINT below (click on the pictures to make them bigger) :

 

Open your chosen picture in PAINT and add text etc to you picture.

Save your picture onto your Desktop (I just find this easier when I am editing pictures and need to get to them quickly)

1. At the bottom it will show you what size your picture is originally

2. Click on "Re-size"

3. A new screen will pop up

4. Choose the "Pixels" ("Percentage" should now NOT be chosen"

5. There are two numbers that are the same as number 1 in the picture - these are going to be

    changed

 

6. Change the numbers to 170 (or whatever number makes your picture suitable for you). And

    click "Ok"

7. At the bottom it will show you the new size of your picture.
    File > Save as

8. Your picture is now smaller and ready for you to move onto the next step : PHOTOBUCKET

Step 2 :Upload and Get Code on PHOTOBUCKET

This next step will get you your Button Code you will need to make your button appear on your blog :)

If you haven't used Photobucket before, it is really easy to download, and like I mentioned before, it is FREE! In order to do this step you will need to sign up. Once you have done that, upload your picture you just edited in PAINT.

See pictures and steps for the Upload and Get Code on PHOTOBUCKET below (click on the pictures to make them bigger) :

1. Click on "Upload" and upload your picture you just edited etc. on PAINT.
2. Click on the "Album" tab
3. Your picture you just uploaded should show up and look like my image in picture above

Move your mouse onto your picture
You will see a white box will show up around your picture with 4 codes below it in boxed areas

4. Click on the code in the box next to the "IMG Code" words. Once you click on it, the word
    "Copied" will quickly show up, so you don't need to right click and click paste like we normally
     do any copy and paste things

In my image above, I "zoomed" the code in for you, this is what the code should look like once copied :

[IMG]http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh610/YourProfileName/PicName.jpg[/IMG]

5. "YourProfileName" should show up here. So if you make your account sign in name
    "Jaded" the text in that area will be "Jaded" instead of "YourProfileName".
6. "PicName" should show up here. However you have saved your picture, that name will show
    up there, so if you have saved your picture on your computer as "Blog Button", the text in
    that area will be "BlogButton" instead of "PicName". ALSO MAKE SURE TO DELETE
   THE [IMG]and[/IMG] WORDS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE CODE

SO, your code will change from...

This :

[IMG]http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh610/YourProfileName/PicName.jpg[/IMG]

To this :

http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh610/Jaded/BlogButton.jpg

Get it?? :)) - I hope so!

GETTING BACK TO THE BLOG BUTTON INSTRUCTIONS :

Now once you have copied the code on your PHOTOBUCKET picture, do yourself a favor and paste it onto a Word document, just so it is easy for you to work on the actual code you will now have to use to make your code to use on your blog.

Step 3 : Choosing Your Code and Look of Your Button You Want on Your Blog

There are TWO different looks for buttons. One is just your image and the other your image AND the grab box for others to use, by copying and pasting the code belowonto their blogs. The most common one is the image and grab box, so that others can "advertise" their friends blogs on their own blogs.

Below I have the two different codes you can use, depending on the type of button you want...

1. Just the Image Code

<a href= “http://www.YourSiteURL.com”><imgsrc=“http://www.YourButtonImageURL.jpg” /></a>

Copy the above code and paste it into your open Word document (remember to press enter a few times, you don't want your picture code and the above code to be joined together).

Now that you have the above code in your open Word document, you are going to first edit it and then use your picture code by copying and pasting it into the above code.

“http://www.YourSiteURL.com” - where it says "yoursiteurl", change that to your BLOG address. For example I will use my blog address : southafricangirlinamerica.blogspot.com.

“http://www.YourButtonImageURL.jpg” - where it says "yourbuttonimageurl", change that by copying and pasting your photobucket IMG code. For example http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh610/Jaded/BlogButton.jpg

So the code for just the image will change from....

This :

<a href= “http://www.YourSiteURL.com”><imgsrc=“http://www.YourButtonImageURL.jpg” /></a>

to this :

<a href= “http://www.southafricangirlinamerica.blogspot.com”><imgsrc=“http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh610/Jaded/BlogButton.jpg” /></a>

KEEP THE " " DO NOT DELETE THESE!!

You would now use the edited code (eg. one in blue) to past it onto your blog. Go to your blog, go to "Layout", and click on "Add a Gadget" and choose the "HTML / Java Script" Gadget. A new screen will pop up, copy and paste your edited code in there and click save!!

Your button should look like this :

2. Both the Image AND Grab Box Code

<img src=“http://www.YourButtonImageURL” alt=”YourSiteTitle” /><div style=”width: 125px; height: 125px; overflow: auto; border: 1px solid #666666;”>&lt;a href=&#34;http://www.YourSiteURL.com&#34; target=&#34;_self&#34;&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;http://www.YourButtonImageURL&#34; alt=&#34;YourSiteTitle&#34; width=&#34;125&#34; height=&#34;125&#34; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</div>

Copy the above code and paste it into your open Word document (remember to press enter a few times, you don't want your picture code and the above code to be joined together).

Now that you have the above code in your open Word document, you are going to first edit it and then use your picture code by copying and pasting it into the above code. There are few more things to change on this code too, but see all the blue changes. It should make sense if you read through number 1 :))

Once all your editing of this second code choice is done, the code will change from....

this :

<img src=“http://www.YourButtonImageURL” alt=”YourSiteTitle” /><div style=”width: 125px; height: 125px; overflow: auto; border: 1px solid #666666;”>&lt;a href=&#34;"http://www.YourSiteURL.com"&#34; target=&#34;_self&#34;&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;"http://www.YourButtonImageURL"&#34; alt=&#34;"YourSiteTitle"&#34; width=&#34;125&#34; height=&#34;125&#34; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</div>

to this :

<img src=“http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh610/Jaded/BlogButton.jpg” alt=”southAfricanGirlInAmerica” /><div style=”width: 125px; height: 125px; overflow: auto; border: 1px solid #666666;”>&lt;a href=&#34;"http://www.southafricangirlinamerica.blogspot.com"&#34; target=&#34;_self&#34;&gt;&lt;img src=&#34;“http://i1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh610/Jaded/BlogButton.jpg”&#34; alt=&#34;"SouthAfricanGirlInAmerica"&#34; width=&#34;125&#34; height=&#34;125&#34; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</div>

"YourSiteTitle" has been added to this code to change, this is the title of you blog, eg. my blogs name is South African Girl in America, so I replaced "YourSiteTitle" to "SouthAfricanGirlInAmerica" 

KEEP THE " " DO NOT DELETE THESE!!
 
You would now use the edited code (eg. one in blue) to past it onto your blog. Go to your blog, go to "Layout", and click on "Add a Gadget" and choose the "HTML / Java Script" Gadget. A new screen will pop up, copy and paste your edited code in there and click save!!

Your button should look like this : 

Good luck!! I hope this helped you out - if not, please comment on this and ask anything you need.

Whats For Dinner? Microwave Corn On The Cob Here...

What's for dinner?

Tonight it was MIcrowave Corn on the cob here - yup I said MICROWAVE Corn on the cob. It takes just 4 minutes to cook and it tastes DELICIOUS - just as it would taste when boiled.

I know that a lot of people that read this will say "corn is supposed to be boiled, not microwaved", well yes it is normally boiled, but if you are in a rush and need to make and have dinner quickly, this is perfect!!

A friend of mine on Facebook shared a link that showed some pictures and instructions of how to do this, and I have a TON of Corn in the fridge, so decided I'd try this out :)

Here are my instructions :

Hope you enjoy it if you decide to try corn this way sometime!! If you do leave a comment :))

Amazing Vegetable Stir-Fry...

Not too sure what came over me this afternoon, I don't normally just have an idea of throwing things together and adding sauces and spices etc., but I thought about looking at what veggies I had in the fridge and felt like a salty sauce, so decided to throw the veggies together in a saucepan and cook some rice.

I think my spontaneous idea came from my friend Nikki's post. She made a broccoli and onion stir-fry with a peanut-lime sauce. It looks really yum, and she even has a video on how to make it :))

Here is how my stir-fry turned out :

I threw in some broccoli, baby carrots that I chopped in half and some red peppers. I would have added more peppers but I only had red peppers :( I did boil the carrots in the sauce pan until they were soft, then drained the bit of water that was left and added the rest of the veggies with some new water - only a little though. Put a lid on it, and let the veggies cook until they were soft. Drained the water and then added some Soy Sauce and sprinkled in some garlic powder. Let the sauce cook a bit and served it over rice.

It was AMAZING!!

Crock Pot Mac 'n Cheese AND 1 Minute Brownie....

I made the most AMAZING Mac 'n Cheese today - it was soooo yummy and cheesy with a hint of spicy HOT!! :)

I got the recipe here. I have been following Budget Savvy Diva on FB for quite some time now, check her out by clicking on "Budget Savvy Diva on FB" in red. I am busy working on putting some of her recipes onto my blog too (the links) as requested by a few people, for you to go and have a look at and try - all YUMMY and the best part FRUGAL recipes!!

She also has a Recipe Book that you can go and pre-order on Amazon, it will only be available in 2013 - worth the wait though - trust me!! Go here to pre-order it!

You've GOT to try it, just too amazing not too :))

I sent her a picture of my Mac 'n Cheese, check it out here.

After eating my delicious bowl of Mac 'n Cheese, I saw she had posted a 1 Minute Brownie Recipe and just had to try it - definitely got my chocolate fix sorted now :)) I added Ice Cream to mine. Here is her recipe though : One Minute Brownie Recipe.

300 Followers On Pinterest....

WOOHOO!!

I officially have 300+ Followers on Pinterest as of late last night!! Yay!!

Follow me here.

Banana Nut Muffins...

I was bored today, so I decided to "whip up" some Banana Nut Muffins. I am however, embarrassed to admit that they were NOT from scratch they were from a BOX!! Haha, I seem to have become very American....

It was one of those boxes of add Milk, Oil and Eggs... They turned out pretty awesome though, and made the apartment smell soooo good!!

1 Year + In The Howell Apartment....

This post is a little late but I'm posting it anyways.

I can't believe that today, we have been in our apartment for exactly 1 YEAR AND 5 DAYS!! I can't believe how far the apartment has come, it's gone from EMPTY to "full", we got a Puppy (Max) for me (late Bday present), we've had our first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Valentines Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, My Birthday and a ton of other days here in this apartment! I have bought a ton of things to fill up the apartment, it's been slow but fun at the same time....

The bedroom still looks WAY too bland for my liking, so I still need to get a few things for that, and the second bedroom I call the olden day room (lol), because Dustin has all OLD looking (YUK!) furniture in it for his "office" and TV - yup apparently an office needs an old TV too!

Although I would have preferred to live closer to my USA Family (ex Host Family), because I know the area well and formed many memories there will amazing new friends I made, and because there is A LOT more to do there, I have started to like Howell, but still say it's like a one horse town!