Thankful

I am so thankful for the year we have had and the life we have.   Dear Jackson, I am so thankful that I have such an incredible husband with whom I share the ups and downs of life. We make an amazing team and have learned so much about ourselves and each other this year.  I have loved taking adventures with you, building a new home, and expanding it by four paws. Thank you for teaching me to let loose a little, that it's okay not to take myself so seriously, and that at the end of the day, as long as we are using our marriage to glorify the Lord, we have had a successful day.

  Dear Feeny, thank you for bringing fun and energy to our home. I have loved seeing you grow from a 2 pound baby to a 10 pound monster who wrecked our blinds. Thank you for teaching me patience, the different levels of snuggling, and how important we are. Thank you for loving us and depending on us to care for you and give you your every need. 

Dear fireside crew, this year has taught me that it is so important to have people to share life with.  We have played truth or dare, hide and seek, and true or false to our heart's content. We have broken down walls, talked about opinions, argued, and come to learn that our brothers and sisters are great and it's because we are all different and have different opinions.  

  Dear Briana, I am so glad you got the job and came to work with me this year. Our friendship has grown exponentially and I am so thankful. You're my partner in crime, my giggle fest plus one, and a text away from a sweet reminder that God is in control. Love you big!

  Dear Dad, Thank you for your always amazing love for both Jackson and I. Thank you for your encouragement, your wisdom, and for being five minutes down the road.  I am thankful for the example you are, and for setting my standards high for how I am to be loved.  I could not ask for a better support system and I know you're always there to catch me if I fall. 

Marks the Spot

Eleven years ago, I saw him for the first time. Ten years ago, I fell in love with him.   We will always have the soccer field where he asked me to be his girlfriend. We will always have the stairwell where our chase around the soccer field ended with the best kiss to that date. We will always have the corner of the hallway where we ate a lunch of Goldfish and Dr. Pepper every day. We will always have the band room where I wrote "carpe diem" on his hand and made faces across the row to each other. 

This perfect tag from A Vintage Parcel marks where our love began, and I will for sure be ordering more as big momentous things happen in our lives.  *I was not paid for my opinions, I just loved the finished product that much! *

Friendsgiving 2.0

(See Friendsgiving 2014) This weekend we had our 2nd Friendsgiving. Jackson and I hosted it in our new apartment.  We had so much yummy food; I made the same macaroni from last year minus the bread crumbs. So much better!! Since last year, Hamlin got engaged, we subtracted a crappy boyfriend, and added a Feeny.  This year, we spent hours playing Cards Against Humanity and laughing so hard our stomachs hurt. 

Life Lately

Life has been oh so busy this week. Here's what we have been up to:   I turned 24, that was fun. ;) Thank all of you for your sweet birthday wishes. We are doing some raincheck celebrating this weekend because we were so busy last weekend there was little time to celebrate. 

We took Feeny to be fixed this week.  It was a lot less expensive than I expected, so that was nice, but his restrictions are a little obnoxious.  For example, we had to go out and buy a $30 bag of "Yesterday's News" (seriously, look it up. its ridiculous).  He ended up pooping in our side bedroom because he hates it.  Also, he's been either a terror or a snuggly mess.  There has been no medium setting on this cat. 

I went for my annual appointment on Wednesday and we're thinking I have a thyroid thing. Common, treatable, and not a big deal.    Christmas lists are hard. Making them and making them for others.  I'm not thinking I'm going to tough the Black Friday crowd this year. I'll play the Cyber Monday game.    We are hosting Friendsgiving this weekend. I have some serious cleaning to do, that's for dang sure. I've finally de-cluttered the kitchen table, cleaned the bathroom, and thrown a couple of loads in the washer.  

  We got our Kroger 123 Reward Checks this week. What up $45 free grocery dollars for doing our normal shopping.   I'm hoping I get to rest a bit this weekend. I'm plum wore out. Hoping all of you have a great weekend, too!

24

Happy Birthday to me! 
23 was so wonderful to me.  It came with lots of trials, lessons, and changes, but I'm so thankful for the year as a whole.  
Five of my favorite things that happened in year 23: 
We moved to our new home We got our Feeny  We went to Chattanooga for our first Anniversary We were iced in for a week and had best friend sleepovers We went to Holiday World
So today, I am enjoying a morning at Christmas Village, an afternoon with my family, and dinner with my sweet husband.  Tomorrow, we are breakfasting, pottery painting, and dancing the night away at a friend's wedding! 
I hope you have a great weekend!

My Day as a Housewife

Yesterday, we got a call at 10:02am saying that our internet would be out until 2pm.  They sent us all home to work from home for the rest of the day! Score!
(I disregarded the 11am e-mail saying the internet was back on. I was already home, right?)
I got so much done. Not even just work work, but housework, too. Laundry, check. Change the sheets, check. Vacuum, check. Unpack another 2 boxes, check (no judgement!). Snuggled the cat, check.  All while getting my work done.  It was my dream come true.   In a perfect world, if only I worked from home.... All of the laundry would always be done The apartment would be spotless I would probably have a craft-type side business I would never (or rarely) feel burned out. I would save a load on gas and lunches I would never wear grown up pants I would probably have seen every episode of Reba. I'd probably spend way too much money online shopping. I would spend more time on Pinterest than necessary.  Nap time would be part of my schedule (seriously, so tough fighting naps)

Weekending

Good Monday morning, friends.  It's cold and rainy here in Nashville today, so it was extra difficult to get out of bed this morning.   Our weekend was the bomb dot com. Too bad I don't have many pictures.   Friday night, we cut the seeds out of our little decoration pumpkins. They're still sitting uncooked on a baking sheet.  Whoops.  We ran and grabbed Zaxby's for dinner because the can-opener broke earlier in the week and I couldn't open the cans I needed to make dinner.  Double Whoops. We came home and caught up on Code Black and had a restful night in.    Saturday, Jackson went with Heath up to Gainesboro to visit the youth that were on a retreat.  They had a great time full of sweetheart kickball, wink, and football.  I went to Dad's and had some deep couch sitting all day long.  Boomer isn't doing too hot lately, so I hung with him most of the day.    Funny story - all Jackson wants for Christmas is an Xbox One.  His 360 is d-e-a-d dead. Way dead.  So I told him any Christmas money he gets we can use to buy one. Jackson's brother (who recently started working at GameStop again) called me to inform me that they had a rockin' deal right now that blows black Friday deals out of the park and would save us almost $200 not counting his trade-ins.  So we packed everything up and took it across town to trade it in.  They gave us $77 for everything (including games, all of my Disney infinity characters, his xbox and controllers). All in all, it only cost right over $200, so we went ahead with the promise that any Christmas money pays it off.    After GameStop, we went to Tom & Chee which always has the best grilled cheeses ever. Ever. Then we went grocery shopping and home to rest. 

  Sunday was busy busy for us.  We went to church, grabbed oil and a filter for my car (on a gift card! What up free oil change!) and then to Lifegroup.  Then we went home, watched the Titans win, changed my oil, and then rested for 2.5 seconds before going back across town for a fire.    I hope all of your weekends were wonderful and full of life!! Let's kick this week in the rear!

Adulting

My sweet, sweet parents have no idea what I mean when I say "adulting". I usually use it in the following sentences: "Adulting is hard" "I'm adulting so well today!" "Seriously, this is adulting" Adulting has been hard but so rewarding lately. There are certain parts of life that, before I got married and out on my own, I didn't realize were considered adulting or would make me feel so grown up. Most of the time, I end up feeling one of two ways:

 

-When all bills are paid, extra was chucked toward debt, and there's still money to play.

-Every time I look at our washer and dryer and remember how much we paid for them. -When everything is organized, cleaned, put up, and it's relatively light outside.
-Every time I get everything crossed off of the planner

-When I have to go to work and just want to sleep

-Every time I have to make my own doctor/dentist/eye doctor appointment. 

-When I have to wash my own laundry. -When I have to spend money on things like new blinds because the cat tore them up. -When pajamas look so much better than going out.

It's a thin line, friends. A thin, thin line.

Friday!

Here's a little bit of random from my week. I hope yours was just as full and eventful.   1. Halloween is the best at work. People dress up, lots of food, lots of dessert, and very little work! Briana and I were Charlotte's web - I was Wilbur and she was Charlotte. We made her costume out of polyfilled tube socks hot glued to a black shirt with webbing under the arms. We had a Lucille Ball, a minion, a pirate, someone from Orange is the New Black, and a zombie. 

 

2.  Mom and Dad found a hidden chunk of family photos. For your enjoyment, Halloween 1992:     3. I finally found something for Mom for her birthday.

    4. Paid an extra $100 on Jackson's car! And I'll have extra birthday money to put toward it. What up, paying that off ASAP! ;)

5. November is Sunday. Which means Mom's birthday, my birthday, Christmas Village, Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas! Not that I'm rushing any of it, I just love this time of year!    

Reassessment Day

Last week, I put in my planner a Reassessment Day to take a new look at our finances. Friday was that day, friends. Here's what I learned about our finances in the last 6 months: Kitten shots hurt ($295) Moving hurt (truck rental, application fees, cat deposit, microwave: $905) Our eating out habits sunk us ($1240.32)   Insert all of the shocked, crying, angry emojis here. The last 6 months has been a free for all. In our defense, we did move which pushed the eating out, but over $1200 worth!? And it would be different if we weren't buying groceries, too. If that was our eating budget period, maybe I'd be a little okay with it. But no... I buy almost $100 worth of groceries and household items (paper towels, cleaning stuff, medicine) a week.   We also bought a washer and dryer and are paying 3x the minimum to get them paid off in 1/3 of the time! They're no interest, so that's a blessing for sure.  (I know Dave, I know.) We have 6 months left on Jackson's little car paying almost $60 extra per month on that. We've saved up for car registrations and tags in the next couple of months, and we're working on saving for the bachelorette shindig I have to throw in March where my bride is wanting to go to Gatlinburg. As far as our Baby Step 1 Savings? yeah... See "Moving hurt".    So my plan of attack:

1. Pay all of the extra we can on Jackson's car to get it paid off quicker. There's less than $1,000 left and that is $150 a month we can put other places like our Baby Step 1!
2. List a whole lot of the stuff we found while moving that we just don't use anymore; put all of that into savings.
3. Institute a "cash only" eating out budget. Cash envelopes are hard for us because we're always running opposite ways and I don't want Jackson to need an envelope and not have it. But, when we eat out, we're together 99% of the time. So this will be a good place for that.
4. Allowances. That's right - like we're ten.  We have a monthly spending budget, so I am splitting it right down the middle and putting it in cash money. When it's gone, it's gone, but that way we don't always have to ask if we can spend that extra bit. We can save it for something big, or we can dip into it for that Friday Dunkin run. ;)
5. Learn patience. A lot of my struggle is that I want our debt paid off now. and that just isn't going to happen. Learning patience and not letting our money run me or our family will help my sanity a little. Understanding that I will be provided for no matter what... it seems to be my daily needed reminder.

 

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