{2016} {Resolutions}

2015 was a great year for us. We celebrated our first anniversary, we got a cat (then found out she was a boy), we moved out of our first home to a new home that we love, and most importantly, we learned to take time for each other.   It was not without speed bumps, like any other year. There was the time I almost got scammed out of a lot of money, there were lots of learning curves and life lessons, there was a fire that hit too close to home, and there were mental health days to recover from our rocky weekends. But that is life, and we always came out stronger and better for it.     I made a 'skeleton' of at the beginning of the year for 2015. It was more of a model for the year rather than a checklist.   Spend more time in prayer and reading with Jackson - well. We do pray together daily and when big things arise that warrant it, but this is still a work in progress.  We don't yet make time to sit down and read together like we should. 2016, we're working on this one for sure.   Plan less, take more adventures - We nailed this one.  I have weaned myself to no longer depend on my planner.  We picked up and went to Holiday World, we spent weekends galavanting in antiques and driving until we got tired.    Date Jackson more often - This has become a Friday night thing for us. Yes, we usually end at the grocery store, but it's the fun dinners and shenanigans that come before that matter.  :)   Save more than we spend, and give more than we save - this one was hard, and we didn't nail it completely.  We did give more than last year, but the saving more than we spend... yeah... That will be another 'rollover' for 2016.    Spend time with my Nana - This was hard, too. My life is so busy (yes, because I make I that way). There for a while, I was spending one Tuesday a month with her. Then, life snowballed to be uncontrollable and I lost track of time. Again, 2016 will hopefully be better     As for 2016... here's another skeleton for our year, because I feel like we function better with a 'skeleton' rather than resolutions   

 

Rest-Of-Winter Checklist

This Christmas was wonderful. We had lots of time with family and friends, lots of love, and lots of yummy food. Most importantly, we had lots of time to celebrate our Savior's birth. Christmas/December Checklists are a-plenty in December... I sometimes forget there is winter after Christmas is gone.  I think our December Checklist is the first time I have ever crossed off everything on a checklist!
Put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving

Go see the Opryland Lights

Build a Gingerbread house

Make an ornament

 Get new jammies for Christmas

(hers)(his)

Watch The Snowman

So here are our goals for the rest of the winter:

Drink lots of hot cocoa

Purge our unworn clothing from 2015

Rework our filing system to decrease clutter

Plan our 2nd Anniversary trip 

Organize the tops of our closet

Make the man cave more manly.

Our First Gingerbread House

Every year we say we are going to build a gingerbread house. This year, I walked into Joann's for a calligraphy book and there they sat.  Jackson sweetly obliged. :) 

no gingerbread houses were harmed in the making of the picture above. ;)

Tackling Debt in 2016

2015 was a dumb year for us, financially. We made some big purchases, moved, got a cat (and all of the shots and fixes that come with it), and loved eating out a little too much. We have debts, but they're not particularly large ones: Small credit card (less than $3k), Washer and Dryer (less than $2k), a little left on Jackson's car (less than $800), my car loan (less than $10k), Jackson's school loan (less than $10k), and Jackson's tool loan (right at $10k).  It's not a large sum until you add it all together: It equals about $35k in debt.   That number hurt. The little ones all separate from each other are easy to chew, but $35k was a little hard to swallow. Here's our plan of attack for 2016 to get his car, the credit card, and the washer and dryer all paid off. If I write it, it will happen, right?  1. Pay the minimums - that sounds crazy, right? If we're trying to pay stuff off, shouldn't we be paying extra? Well, yes.  We are going to pay the minimums on everything except for the smallest loan.  My plan was to pay $150 on our washer and dryer per month (three times the minimum) but it doesn't make sense when there is a light at the end of the little car loan! Our first plan of attack is to pay the minimums on everything we're paying extra on and dump it all toward the car. That would equal almost $180 extra on the $92 payments per month... meaning the car would be paid off in less than 4 months. First debt, check. 
2. Spend our Tax Refund Wisely - by spend, I mean apply it to some of the debt. Years prior, we have not necessarily been smart with it. Our first year married, our refund hit while we were on our honeymoon. What did we do? We bought my new NikonD3100, a humidor for Jackson, and some other goodies.  Last year, we paid off the credit card and applied the rest toward his tools.  This year, the goal is to apply it to the credit card and go back to only using it for gas and groceries and paying it off to build credit. 3. Snowball it - If any of you are familiar with Dave, you'll know this one. After the car is paid in full, we will apply the $272/month that was just freed up to something else! The credit card would be my pick. There's currently a balance of almost $3k on it.  After we apply our tax refund, I plan to chip away at it by paying any extra "overtime" we get and what was snowballed from the car.  Hopefully that will get that one paid off in no time.   4. Run home - After all of the car and the credit card are paid off, we will snowball it again to pay off the washer and dryer in the six months or so to follow.  Once all of that is paid off, we will snowball it to my car to total a payment of  $520 per month. After my car comes snowballing it to the tool bill to total a $1000 payment per month. Then we tackle the school loan to total a $1200 payment per month until we are debt free! 
Now, there's not just the payoff side of things, there's also the matter of not racking up any more debt. So unless it is an emergency, we will save from here on out for the things we need.  For example, the tires we just put on my car... boom! Charged for points and paid off immediately. ;) 

How are you planning to meet your money goals in 2016?

Opryland, oh Opryland

As mentioned a trillion times before, Opryland is so special to us, especially at Christmas.  It was where Jackson asked me to be his girlfriend, where we took prom pictures as we watched it flood, and where we got engaged.  
Needless to say, this is an annual tradition for us. This year, they switched up the lights a bit, so the new was just as fun as the old. :)

2015 Gift Giving: Our Families

Shopping for my family is hard. it always is.  I grew up with a bunch of "I have everything"-ers and "oh just a gift card is fine"-ers.  Jackson grew up in a family of hint droppers and list makers.  Needless to say, this year was fun to shop. haha. 

Mom - Calligraphy Supplies & Michael's Gift Card Dad - Keyless remotes for his new car & Amazon gift card Sister - New Converse

MIL (prints), Jackson is going to make pallet frames
BIL - Monogrammed Humidor , Cigar Gift Card
SIL - Harry Potter Books 1, 2, and 3
FIL - New Brown dress shoes  

2015's Handmade Ornament

One of my favorite crafts for Christmas has been making new ornaments.   Last year, I made this ornament from sand from our honeymoon. 

This year, I used our moving announcements to make an ornament for our new home. The little metal tag with our new address is on the way from the same shop that did the one last year. :) 

Here's what you need: 

A cute announcement (babies, moving, save the date)

Scissors

a clear ornament

optional: paint

Cut your announcement into strips

Wrap the strips around your pinky finger

I uncurled mine so I didn't have to have as many to fill the globe, but you can leave them in tight curls if you wish. :) 

Put the curlies in the ornament

Paint your saying on the outside

reattach the top and hang! :) 

2015 Gift Giving: Husband

Since getting married, it has been so hard surprising Jackson for Christmas. I have the perfect solution for surprising the person with whom you share a bank account! I bought a gift card on our grocery order for each of us to use on each other - that way, you stick to a limit and it's a complete surprise! This year was smaller since we did the Xbox as a huge gift, but I still managed to snag some fun items. 

We already got his Xbox One C.O. Bigelow Body Wash and Body Spray I also snagged him this awesome Volunteer Traditions Tervis

10 minutes + $10 = Ugly Sweater

We had an ugly sweater Christmas party for our church class Sunday.  I hate ugly sweater parties. Mostly because I hate buying sweaters and figuring out what is "ugly" and what's not.  Also, side note, Walmart has made a killing on the concept of the ugly sweater. Jackson bought one that had an ugly cat and said "Meowy Christmas" on it.... for $20! I refused to pay that much for mine, so I went the creative route.

  Here's how you can make yours: Supplies Plain sweatshirt Brown paint  (I used two different shades) White paint Black paint (I used gold  for the string of lights but you could use black) Thin paintbrush Jewels Hot glue gun One foot and two hands (you may need an extra hand while both of your hands are covered in paint) Here's How Plug in your hot glue gun to get it nice and hot. First, dip your foot in paint. I used the darker shade of brown. Stamp it toe-side-up on the middle of the sweatshirt.  Wash your foot so you dont track paint through the house. I skipped that step. Oops. Next, dip your hands in brown - I used the lighter of the two. Stamp those as the antlers. Let it dry for just a second.  Use the gold (or black) to paint a string for your lights.  I was artsy and looped it around the finger-antlers. You don't have to get that fancy, but have at it! I started by hot glue-ing a red jewel for the nose because Rudolph... duh... Next, I went from one end of the string to the other gluing "lights". By the time you're done, your foot should be completely dry. Use your thumb in white paint to make the eyeball. I used the tip of my pointer finger to make the black part.  Viola! You have a quick, cheap, easy tacky sweater!! Plus it's kinda cute. ;)

Welcome, Sweet Baby

Monday, I had a trip for work to Knoxville. No big deal, right? Right. Until my best friend texted "Thunder Cats Are Go" which, for all you Juno fans, meant it was baby day! They were going to take her Wednesday for sure until Lou's blood pressure got too high.  I bawled my eyes out because it was supposed to be an overnight trip... enough so that I got to come home. :) I pulled into the parking garage and received the text from Jackson saying she was here! I rushed into the waiting room just in time to see Heath showing the video of when they showed Lou the baby.  Tears, again. After an hour and a ballin' grilled cheese from the hospital cafeteria, we got to see her.... and hold her! :)  

 

Welcome to the world, sweet baby. I am already head over heels for you and can't wait to see you change the world.

Our Christmas Cards

I wasn't going to order Christmas cards this year because we couldn't find time to take a decent picture to put on them.   Then, it came to me in the middle of the night. We took a picture with Santa at Holiday World!   Sure, we were in short sleeves and sunglasses, but hey! There's Santa!! So I logged into Shutterfly and found an adorable layout, plugged our picture in, and ordered them! They even have matching address labels so I don't have to write my address a million times!  

 

I am so pumped! I can't wait to see all of your Christmas Card creations!!

December Checklist

Since it's December, that means it's Winter, yes?  Fall was so busy for us, and I feel like September was just here. Here's to hoping time will slow down a little over the Winter.    

Go to Gatlinburg

Pick our pumpkin from the pumpkin patch

Take fall pictures

Spend time outside

Have our second Friendsgiving

Plant Mums

Burn lots of fires

Decorate the inside and outside

Go to a football game

Make Chili

December Checklist

Put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving

Go see the Opryland Lights

December came and went last year and we just forgot. It's a special tradition for us; it was our first date and where we got engaged. :)

Build a Gingerbread house

Make an ornament

Here is my Savannah ornament from last year

 Get new jammies for Christmas

Watch The Snowman

2015 Gift Giving: Four Legged Friends

Some of our favorite gifts to give are our pets' gifts!! This is our first year with a pet of our own, and we can't wait to spoil him. You know, because we don't do that every day already... 

Rawhides; Wand ; play center; Personalized Coton Colors Ornament for Feeny What is Santa Paws bringing your fur baby?!

2015 Gift Giving: Roomie Christmas

My three best gals and I still do Roomie Christmas. I like to get them all something similar but sweet, so here are my gifts for this year. 
Lotion (1)(2)(3), Mugs (H)(T), Hot Cocoa Jars
What are your best gifts for your best gals? 

That Time we Bought our Groceries Online

A Kroger in Nashville has started "Click List" which is their online grocery shopping.  Score, right? You go online, add anything and everything you need to your list. You schedule your pickup and they give you a rough price of every item on your list.   Pros:  You can schedule pickup for a time that is convenient for you. We can't shop hungry and end up with five packs of Oreos.  We don't waste money on last minute "Oh I need that because I saw it" things. You can add forgotten items up until midnight of the night before you pickup.   When you get there, you press the button like at Sonic, tell them your name, and they ask if you have paper coupons and how you're paying.  They bring your groceries and the iPad for you to pay.    After comparing the prices, I was charged about $5 over what was quoted on the printout you get after you finalize your cart. I was given an organic item which is about $1 more per pound, I was given a different weight, different lean percentage meat which was more than $1 extra.  All in all, it was fun, but I probably won't  be doing it again.  I love our Kroger store and really enjoy grocery shopping.    

(via)

* I was not compensated for my opinion, just wanted to share!*

Thanksgiving 2015

This year, Jackson and I had one of the best Thanksgiving weekends yet.    Wednesday night, we stayed up late just being together. Thursday, we went to my aunt's house for my Mama's Thanksgiving.  My grandmother was in from Branson, my sister was in from Chattanooga, and we had a swell time.      After that, we went to Jackson's Mama's for their Thanksgiving. After lots of food and sweets, we played a few rounds of UNO.   Friday, we woke up to go have breakfast with some friends at the awful Waffle (house). We went and picked up our groceries (that we ordered online... won't be doing that again) and went home. We were hungry after a bit, so we went exploring only to find the coolest Blue Coast right down the road. We kept driving into Williamson county and parked and walked around the Antique shops in Nolensville. We will definitely be going back and spending a Saturday down there.

  Saturday, we got up, and made homemade waffles for the first time in a long time.

  Then we went to my Nana's for my Dad's thanksgiving and then went to Jackson's brother's for pizza and chill time. :)

  Yesterday, we went to church and napped to our little hearts' content.   My quality time love tank is so full it can't hold another ounce! Here's to kicking off my last full work week of the year!