Show Us You Life - $$$ Tips

Will and I are incredibly blessed to be able to start our marriage debt free. We both still drive cars our parents bought us and neither of us have any school loans to pay off. BUT we still have expenses having just built a house and basically starting from scratch to furnish it, so here are some newlywed $$$ saving tips from the Loflands!

I am not a great saver, I rarely check our account, but I married a financial advisor so he has to set an example of being financially sound. For these reasons I recommend....

- Not using credit cards! We almost exclusively use debit which forces us to only buy within our means. We do have one, but we only use it for big purchases - large pieces of furniture, airfare, etc. We also make sure that we already have the money to pay it off before it's actually due, and then do a happy dance when we see how many bonus points we've earned! (We use Bank Of America and you get bonus points that can be "cashed in" for gift cards - that's how we got my cute Pottery Barn desk in my craft room!)

- Even though newlyweds are generally just cooking for two, I definitely recommend a Costco membership! All the frozen foods (meat, etc.) last basically forever and most of their produce is organic so buying in bulk is okay because it lasts much longer too. We buy most of our staples there - milk, cereal, meat, pasta sauce, granola bars, AND their prices on movies, TV's, books, magazines, and wine are cheaper than buying them at Target or somewhere!

- Check craigslist for furniture! If you are furnishing a new house/apartment, you can find some awesome pieces super cheap! The West Elm daybed in my craft room retails for like $500 and we got it for $200! And it's definitely a piece I'm keeping forever - it will go great in a nursery when that room is taken over by a little boy/girl someday. Also hit up neighborhood garage sales on the weekends, we haven't had much luck on our end but I read about a lot of people that do!

- Don't splurge on celebrating every single holiday or anniversary! When we first got married it was like "Woo, we've been married a week, let's go out to dinner and celebrate!" And then "Woo we've been married two weeks let's go out to dinner to celebrate!" It's easy to get caught up in fancy dinners with expensive drinks when you have your own income, but it's such a waste of money in my opinion! We generally eat out once or twice a week and we'll spend like $50 max. We definitely splurge on special occasions, but our 2 month and 1 week anniversary or something like that is not a special occasion I've learned, ha.

- Don't forget about Birthdays and Christmas! If there's something big we both want, we have no shame putting it on our Christmas list for mom and dad! Soon enough they'll forget about us and be buying for their grandbabies anyways so we are milking it while we can! :)

Ok that's all I can think of....I'm sure there's a lot better ways to save and we're not the best, but we have been able to build up quite a little nest egg over the past two years, and we are pretty proud of ourselves! And we still have manage to have a lot of fun together! Vacations, going out with friends, and date nights are our favorite! You gotta live a little :)

Anniversary Party!

My parents returned from the great blue seas on Sunday, and we had a Anniversary dinner at our place Monday night! Will and I hosted my parents, my brother Nathan, his friend Ashley, and her adorable little guy Ty. We grilled steaks, watched baseball, and looked at about 300 pictures of the Caribbean! Didn't make me miss PSV at all....

Nate and Ashley got my parents this really pretty cross that this guy in our hometown (Southlake) makes.

I have been so excited to give them the gift I worked weeks on, but of course, it didn't come in in time! So we got them a card with a promise it would be here soon, ha.

I also made these cookie balls, and everyone has said they're great so I thought I'd share the recipe. They're also SUPER easy and fast!

I made a half batch and got about 18 cookie balls but here's the recipe for a full batch: One package of Oreo's, one 8oz. package of Cream Cheese, & one 16 oz. bag of chocolate. (I used white because it's my favorite!) Crush Oreo's in blender or food processor. Mix in cream cheese until batter-esque consistency has formed. Roll into 1 in. balls and refrigerate for an hour or so. Melt chocolate in the microwave for 1 min. and then 15 second intervals until melted. Coat cookie balls with melted chocolate and put back into the fridge. Take them out a little bit before serving to thaw and that's it! SO so good!

Anyways....TODAY their gift came in and I am so excited to share it! My mom and dad saw a preview of it on the computer but it's way better in person! I "borrowed" a bunch of pictures from their house and put together a book on my mac celebrating their 30 years together! My mom used to put pictures in albums, but life happens, and now most of them are just in boxes. So I dug out some classics and made a memory book. Another reason I love the mac - it was so easy to do! It just took me a few weeks to surreptitiously collect photos, and I was being OCD about the layout.

Without further adieu, Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

(these are just a few pages)

newlyweds!

babies/awkward family photos

vacations!

graduations and weddings!

Thank you Mom and Dad for setting an example of marriage for me and Will, and thank you Apple for making this book so awesome!

Happy Wednesday!

Today has been a...

wake up early and make Nutella filled chocolate Ebelsviker pancakes kind of day...

sippin' diet strawberry limeade outside kind of day...

landscaping galore kind of day...

watchin' hubby mow the lawn while I sit on the driveway sunning my legs kind of day...

out with the Dill in with the Basil kind of day...

(actually it just died so we had to replace it - we do like dill)

leaving the windows open all day kind of day...

no TV day...(until now, GO MAVS!)

and...

a one month mark until our TWO year anniversary kind of day! CRAZY!

ppst...remember these guys? Look at them now!

baby birdies! so sweet!

Happy Day!

I finally decided to de-Easter my house today. Only took me three weeks, no big deal :)

Here is my summer friendly kitchen table now.

I wish I kept fresh flowers out all the time; that is my new summer goal!

I saw this idea online, and now I can't remember where so I'll just tell you. Take a garden stool, flip it upside down, and voila - super cute umbrella holder!

(Now I just need to get an umbrella)

Will and I went to Nadeau today and FINALLY found the last piece of furniture to complete our master bedroom! We have been looking for something to go at the foot of our bed for months. We saw these last time we went to Nadeau, but they only had one and didn't know if/when they would get more. Today they had 6! I LOVE THEM!

Happy Saturday!

Show Us Your Life - How I Met My Husband

I actually did a post on this a while back when I first started blogging, so I'm going to send you there! Most of you probably have never read it because it's from 2008 when my only follower was my mom, ha :)

Enjoy the love-fest and head over to Kelly's Korner for more!

Our Story

Birthdays and Vacays!

Yesterday was my brother's 27th birthday!

Happy Birthday Nate!

Friday we went out to celebrate with my parents and some friends at Cafe Medi. We had to celebrate early because my parents were not here for the real deal - they are sailing the high seas right now! I am so jealous! They are on a cruise for their 30th Anniversary which is today! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Last night we went out to celebrate again with more friends at Del Frisco's in Ft. Worth. YUM! We had a good time, and Will and I didn't make it home until 11 o'clock last night. Needless to say, that is way past my bedtime so I have been pretty tired today!

Mediocre birthday pic. Why don't iphones have flash??

Nathan and his huge birthday dessert (with a candle).

------

Another exciting bit of news:

Will booked our flights today for Myrtle Beach! We are going in late July with our friends Jon and Joanna and I am so excited! I have never been before, and I am so ready to lay in the sun for a week and not worry about a thing!

Countdown until Summer...33 school days left!

Field Trip Extravaganza!

Yesterday was the 2nd grade field trip to the Texas Discovery Gardens and Butterfly House!

First the kids each planted sunflower seeds in little cups that they got to take home with them. Then we walked around the garden area looking at different types of plants, flowers, trees, and seeds. We also went to the butterfly garden and the kids got to see nearly every stage of the butterfly life cycle which we studied a lot earlier this year...they loved it!

After lunch we went to the butterfly house which is a huge glass building that is temperature controlled and houses hundreds of butterflies. It was incredibly hot and humid but so beautiful!

I'm working on a slideshow of the 123 pictures I took plus some other people's pictures as a gift to all the second graders. This was their first field trip ever and I really want them to remember it!

Show Us Your LIfe - Teacher Gifts!

Being a first year teacher, I was pretty excited about the concept of "teacher gifts!"

And I have to say, my kiddos did not disappoint!

Chocolate and gift cards are GREAT, but I think the my favorite gift so far this year was the adorable t-shirt one of my students made me. Being a new teacher, it definitely made me feel special and that I'm actually doing something worthwhile for these kids, ha!

I have worn it to school since then on spirit days, and I know it also makes her feel special that I'm showing it off so it's a win/win gift I think!

This same student also got me a chocolate ruler that say's "#1 Teacher" and I refuse to eat it! It will sit on my cabinet until it molds!

I also really loved a Hallmark Christmas ornament that was a little backpack and had my student's picture in it. I hung it on the classroom tree and then on my own over Xmas break.

Stay tuned, teacher appreciation is in two weeks! :)

Inspiration Folder.

I used to have an inspiration folder on my laptop where I collected decor ideas for our house while it was being built. I realized since I got my mac, I hadn't created a new one. So today I did - here are some new images I have collected that serve as current eye candy/aesthetic inspiration...

I {need} this nook. And oversized chair.

An ode to my love of libraries.

I love the tub and the blue/gray combo.

white...

so precious!

classic all over.

I love any and all photo murals.

Someday I will have a white kitchen. And the pops of blue in the floor and green in the cabinets/accessories are perfect. And the glass cabinets. And the farm sink, although I prefer the traditional white. I do not like the lighting but that's about it.

I really do love my house, but it's fun to peek in the folder and dream! :)

Impressive.

One of my students made this during centers.

It's completely symmetrical, I love it.

I know I can be easily amused sometimes, but I was pretty impressed by this.

Personal Day!

Yep, I took the day today. I was only going to take a half day because I had a dentist appt. this afternoon, but the sub I really wanted only likes full days so really, what was I suppossed to do? :)

On my day off I...

Slept in until 8:30!

I know that doesn't sound late, but that's three hours later than I normally wake up.

Watched T.V. all morning and didn't shower until 10! Pride and Prejudice was on Oxygen, I couldn't get away.

My mom came over and we went to see The Last Song. It was good but the book was better. They always are.

Lunch/home to floss and brush/Dentist - not too exciting but no cavaties, yay!

Will and I went to vote in the run off elections.

Dinner and now we are relaxing!

I also cleaned out my inbox finally. I only have FOUR emails in my inbox right now! I'm going to try hard to keep it that way, but we'll see what it looks like this time next week, ha.

Two more days at school and then field trip on Friday! I love this week!

Friends, Fun and Floats!

Saturday night my best friend from high school and her boyfriend came to spend the night! Katrina and I met in french class freshman year and have been friends ever since - she's really the only high school person I keep in constant contact with, and even though we don't get to see each other that often, we always pick up right where we left off!

Here we are in our PJ's getting ready for board games - a must when we get together!

And just as a frame of reference - here's us at my wedding looking much more refined :)

Anyways, we (along with the Will and Aaron who I didn't get any pictures of) ended up staying up until 2am playing Scene It? Squabble and Apples to Apples. We get very competitive, ha! (Two bottles of wine and SNL definitely helps keep the energy up as well!)

Katrina and Aaron, Will and I had so much fun and we can't wait for y'all to come back soon!

This morning we said goodbye to our guests and headed to church and then lunch with Will's family. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we have lunch with Will's parents every Sunday. Will's grandmother used to cook Sunday lunch every week, and after she passed away Will's mom took over. I like the tradition and she is a really good cook!

This afternoon I layed out in the backyard (our community pool isn't open yet) and read while Will watched the Masters. We topped off the afternoon with a sweet snack - Dr. Pepper floats!

The Dr. Pepper factory is located in Waco, TX which is where Will and I went to college - Baylor University. Dr. Pepper floats are big at Baylor; they have "Dr. Pepper hour" and they serve free floats in the student union building - I definitely had my fair share of floats during my time there! I think Dr. Pepper is a southern thing which I never realized except for when my family would go on vacation when I was little and my brother could never get one at restaurants. So is Blue Bell ice cream - AKA the BEST ice cream ever!

I'm currently watching Will install a shelf under his TV in the office to hold the cable box...it's been pretty entertaining. That's all I'm going to say about that. I am excited to be able to watch TV while I blog though!

Friday Night

Our Friday night date night : Dinner at S & D Oyster Co. in Dallas. Will has been coming here since he was a little kid. They have the best hushpuppies!

Followed by Season One of Arrested Development.

During our weekly Starbucks outing this afternoon, one of my fellow Crosbians teachers insisted I see it so we picked up the first season on the way to dinner. She's right - it's hilarious!

We are party animals! Ha.