Craig is my Best Cyber Friend

I'm a fan of craigslist. I mean, a BIG fan. I could spend all day on there looking for furniture to redo or furniture that is in great condition. When Landon and I first got married, that's where we shopped to furnish our small 1 bed 1 bathroom apartment. We got our couch, dining room table with 6 chairs, and our small accent chair all on craigslist. They were all in great shape, and our small little apartment began to look more like home.

Now that we are about to move in to our first house, I started looking on some other furniture websites and furniture stores. I may be spoiled, but holy cow! Furniture at retail price is expensive! (compared to craigslist). So I went back to craigslist. I knew I wanted a new dining room table, one that looked more "grown up". After days of searching, I found one for $150. It was beautiful and worth well over $150. I sold my other dining room table (made a profit of $15) and was very pleased. Next, I needed some sort of love seat to fill up my larger living room. I wanted it to match my couch, but knew that in all reality, I might should just look for a whole new set. I didn't want a "hodge podge" of furniture. I ended up fining the exact love seat that goes with my couch (keep in mind I bought my couch almost 2 years ago)! Now, all I need are the cute pillows I found at Pier1.:) (I will probably end up spending more on the pillows to go on the couch and love seat than I did on the actual couch and love seat.

We have been very blessed to have found the things that we need (and will use for a long time) at such a great price!

Run Down of each room and the amount of money we have spent on furniture:

Living Room:

• Couch: $100


• Love Seat: $125
• Red Accent Chair: $75


• Coffee Table & Media Cabinet: Free (gifts)

Dining Room:

• Table & 4 Chairs: $150
  

Master Bedroom & Guest Bedroom:

• 2 beds: Free (gifts)
• 2 tall dressers: Free (gifts)
• 1 small dresser: Free (gift)

My next goal is to find night stands that I can redo. So to total up the furniture that is in my apartment right now, we have spent a total of $450. Now you can understand why it is hard for me to buy a couch at retail price for $700 when my whole apartment is furnished for less than that!

What are some great buys you have found on craigslist???

Growing Up

Landon and I are coming up on our 2 year anniversary. It's only 2 months away! It's hard to believe that 2 years ago, I was planning to marry the man of my dreams. Landon and I have grown up and changed a lot in the last 2 years. We have fallen more in love in the trials and the successes that we have gone through together.

We are now about to face our next exciting moment in our life together. A house! Over the last month, we have been looking more seriously into buying a house. We finally went out with a realtor to see what was available. We found a few that we liked and even put an offer on one. Someone else had put an offer at the same time, and the seller took the other offer. We were a little disappointed, but we knew our house was out there somewhere. I found another house online that I really liked, but after talking to our realtor, we found out it was already in contract. Again, disappointment! Once again, back to the internet. I found a few that I liked, showed them to Landon, and he told our realtor. Our realtor said we could go look at them the next day, but I had to go pick up our new dining room table. Landon went to look at it and loved it! I was going to look at it the next day, but our realtor called and said someone was putting an offer on it, so we put an offer on it even without me having seen it! I went the next day, fell in love, and then played the waiting game. We finally got the call the next night around 10:00 that they accepted our offer!! We were/are so excited!

We are supposed to close April 7th if all goes well. I can't stop thinking/dreaming of how my first home will look.

the day of LOVE

a couple weeks ago, husband told me that he had a surprise date for me for valentines/birthday (which is a week later) in which he was very excited about! he said we would be going on Sunday the 13th. I had no idea what the surprise might be, and i didn't even want to try to guess because i LOVE surprises.

about a week ago, we were walking around the Denton Square and went in to a little boutique. he told me that for our date, i would need a new dress, but he wanted to pick it out. So he picked out a black and white, one shoulder dress (pictures to come). i absolutely loved it, and i was even more anxious as i had to wait a whole week to be able to wear it. finally, sunday morning rolls around, and the first think landon said when he woke up was, "do you want to know your surprise?" he was just an anxious about it as i was. he ended up telling me that we would be leaving around 2:00 for oklahoma city where our wedding photographer and dear friend would be taking some fun "valentine" pictures of us, and then we were going out to a nice dinner with her and her husband! i was SOOO excited! i absolutely love photography, i love our photographer, and i love photos with my husband:)

the day ended up being a wonderful day! our photographer's husband and landon had never met, but they hit it off right away. it was a great evening with friends and each other!

to top it all off, he sent me flowers at work on valentines day!! I am truly blessed:)

snow and ice!

last year, husband and i didn't get to REALLY enjoy the snow days because we were both hourly workers. therefore, snow days last year=no pay. this year, we have been able to enjoy them A LOT more knowing that our pay check will not change! we are getting paid to sleep in and snuggle! today marked day 2 of no school, and we already got the call that tomorrow is also cancelled due to inclement weather.

yesterday we spent the entire day with some friends who live in our apartment complex, starting from breakfast, all the way to dinner with black ops, biggest loser, and a game of spades in between! we did venture out to the grocery store, but came back and didn't leave again.

today, we slept in, cooked breakfast, ran some errands, and now we are back home. it is WAY too cold to be out much, but we are getting a little bit stir-crazy...especially that husband of mine:) we may venture out to a movie or the mall later.

tomorrow, our options are endless! landon will probably work on some of his homework at some point while i watch hgtv or read a book, and then we will probably have to get out again to keep our sanity!

stay safe and warm! right now it's 18 degrees with a windchill of 3 degrees! brrrrrrrr!

$MONEY$MONEY$MONEY$

over the last (almost) 2 years of marriage, husband and i have been trying to figure out our money. our first year was a bit rough seeing that we both only had hourly jobs. we wanted to be on a budget, but we felt that we didn't even make enough to have a budget. we simply just tried to survive. it was rough, but we did survive!

now that we both have full time jobs and are nearing the end of our second year of marriage, we have started looking into the future. we have talked about things we want to happen in the next year, 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years. we have talked about buying a house, buying a new car, and starting a family to just name a few. all of these things require money, and more money that we have right now. together we have finally been able to come up with a budget in order to make these dreams of our reality one day. this first month is kind of our trial run. we just made up some numbers and are both doing our best to stay within that budget. we might be WAY off, but at least it's a start.

the way i viewed our money was like a hole. i felt that each month we started at ground level. as we spent money, we dug a hole. at the end of the month, when we got paid, we simply filled the hole back up to the top, but there was not ANY extra. we were right back where we started, ground level. now, i'm hoping to see a little mound at the end of the month. i'm hoping the mound of dirt gets a little bigger every month until it's Mt. Everest (ha just kidding), but really.

a few things we have started doing to save money is:

1. cook more. i have started cooking more, and when i cook, i cook big meals so that they last us for several meals. i'm so thankful my husband doesn't mind left overs!

2. i have started couponing. it's very new to me, and i'm still not completely sure of what i'm doing, but i do know that i saved $36 last week on my grocery trip, and that's enough to keep me going at it. i follow www.couponcloset.com and get a lot of ideas from her.

3. use cash. husband and i never used cash. we only used our debit cards. for me, when i use my debit card, i'm not seeing the money, so it's not as big of a deal to me. now, i am using cash for groceries, clothing, and entertainment. the rest goes on the debit card. cash is easier to manage.

what are some things you do to save money? i'm open to more ideas!!!

christmas sweaters, tacky or not?

last week, one of the fourth grade teachers was talking about her daughter's high school, it was "tacky christmas sweater" day, so this got us on the topic. We were talking about how there are some pretty hideous ones out there. One of the teachers finally spoke up and said that she has a closet full. The only problem is that she doesn't wear them as "TACKY". She wears them because she really likes them. oops! It's funny to see the people who wear them because they genuinely like them, and the people who only wear them to christmas parties and to be funny.

Last night we had a "tacky christmas sweater" party. I have decided that I am going to wear the sweater I wore to school next week. I can't WAIT to see how many GENUINE compliments i get on it:)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

all in a week's work

Work Work Work. It has it's ups, it has it's downs.

We'll start with downs just so I can end on a good note!

1. I gave my first office referral. I'm pretty sure I turned apple red in a matter of 2 seconds, and if you looked closely, there was probably steam coming out my ears. That's how mad I was at this particular student. Don't mess with me!

2. I'm suffocating this week with everything I have to do after school, AFTER the official work day. I guess being a teacher is really a 24/7 job.

3. I feel like my 2nd year of teaching will be so much better. Right now, I'm just trying to survive. Next year, hopefully I'll be out of "Survival Mode" and into "Awesome/Creative Ideas Teacher". I'm doing what I can!

4. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (that's me falling asleep because I'm seriously that tired all the time!) I feel like I could fall asleep in the shower, eating dinner, driving home (5 minutes away), etc

UPS:)

1. I have a student who raises his hand almost every day and says "Ok, I have 2 questions. One about what we are talking about and one that's not." He has asked anything and everything from Santa Clause, to ET, to Adam and Eve, to God, to anything else you can think of. I seriously just have to stop and laugh! LOVE. THAT. KID.

2. JEANS are a teacher's best friend!!! This week, we got to wear jeans on Monday if we worked a special event that night (which of course I did), We got to wear jeans Tuesday if we payed $2 (I could barely afford that one on my teacher salary). We get to wear jeans on Friday because it's Friday. WE GET TO WEAR JEANS EVERY DAY NEXT WEEK BECAUSE IT'S THE WEEK BEFORE THANKSGIVING!!! Can you tell how excited I am about that one?

AND BEST FOR LAST!!!!!!!!

3. Monday, I walked around the corner from the library to see my principal carrying a vase of 10 brightly colored GERBER DAISES (my very favorite flower!). Jokingly I said, "Oh, I'll take those." He handed them to me, and he WASN'T joking! My sweet, wonderful, romantic, thoughtful, loving husband sent me flowers just because he loves me! These absolutely made my entire week!!!!!!! He is the most wonderful man I know!