Spring!

I love Spring and here in Arizona, Spring is only a month long before it's so hot you regret buying a black car. This Spring will be mine & my husbands first Spring as homeowners! Which I guess only sounds exciting in writing. In actuality, it means a lot of work! So far, we've pulled all the weeds and picked up all the leaves - and that alone makes my yard look a million times better! Weeds aren't normally a big deal, but since we have gravel instead of grass, they're way more noticeable, therefore I think the whole neighborhood looks at our yard with disgust (even though I know it's my next door neighbors yard that is truly the worst!).

Among the weed pulling & leaf pick-up, our trees have all started to blossom! Our two unidentified trees now have leaves again. Our peach tree has the prettiest pink flowers (I didn't even know peach trees had flowers before peaches), and our purple flowering trees look and smell amazing (too bad the bumble bees are always around them, freaking me out). To go with all our nice landscaping, we have to put new flowers in our flower box, hang our hanging tomato plant, and put a new plant in one of our pots - I'm waiting until May though, when I'm sure the threat of freeze is over.

Then of course, there is Spring Cleaning! The only area that we have to do is the garage since I keep my house pretty clean. We still have all our moving boxes, which we're giving to some friends who are moving in May, and giving them back their washer/dryer that we were storing. So that will clear up some space. I'm really excited. I love cleaning and organizing. It calms me :]

Hope everyone has a happy Spring!

All I've Got.

"All that I'm after is a life full of laughter; As long as I'm laughing with you. And I think that all that still matters is love ever after, after the life we've been through. 'Cause I know there's no life after you."

-Daughtry

Have you ever come across a song that really hits home for you? Of course you have, who hasn't? The chorus of Life After You by Daughtry is one that I am just so in love with. It corresponds with how I view my marriage. My husband and I don't have a perfect marriage - who does? But we do laugh a lot. I still look at him and wonder how it's been almost six years of marriage already, I still feel like we're newlyweds. I brought this up to him the other day and he agreed. This is the kind of marriage I always dreamed of, one like my parents had. Of course all my memories of my parents marriage come from the perspective of a child, but I remember there being a lot of laughter in their marriage.

I met my husband when I was 18, almost 19, and while he made me laugh when we were friends, I never would've picked him for my husband. But then I got to know his heart, and honest to God, he has one of the kindest hearts of anyone I've met, to a fault sometimes. But I really think it was all the good laughs he gave me that won me over! Seven years later, we're still laughing.

I believe without a doubt, that laughter is the key to a good marriage.

I have no idea why I wrote this blog :]

Sports Nut.

Growing up, I only liked one sport and one sport only: football. My father is a Detroit Lions fan and my mother was a Chicago Bears fan. Being a 'mommy's girl', that meant I too was a Bears fan. Somewhere around the ago of four, I also became a Buffalo Bills fan. I ask my dad how that came to be, and the only conclusion he could come up with was that I like the way their name sounded, which sounds like a four year olds logic I suppose. The Lions play every Thanksgiving, don't ask me how they earned that honor. Back in the days of Barry Sanders, it made sense, but as of late, I question it. The Thanksgiving after my mom died, the Lions played the Bills and my dad decided he's take my sister Heather and I to the game. The Bills lost, but I remember how cool I thought it was. We didn't have a lot of money back then, so going to a game, a Thanksgiving Day game no less, and staying in a suite at the Radisson was a real treat! Looking back now, I think of how my mom would've loved it - she was a die hard Bears fan and I can remember her screaming at the TV and screaming when they'd get a touch down. I have her Walter Payton pin and I look at it and smile, and realize how much I am like her. Only with a different sport.

When I met my husband, I was introduced to baseball. He is a lifelong New York Mets fan and I had only seen baseball once when I went to a White Sox game in middle school. To take interest in something he liked, I decided to pick a team and go with it. I made the unfortunate mistake of becoming a Yankees fan. That lasted about a day when I realized I didn't want to be some sort of bandwagon fan. So I watched a Mets game and realized why my husband liked them. I can't explain it, but they are the underdog team of New York, and I love rooting for the underdog. We went to a game in 2005 and I loved it even more. I picked a player - David Wright - who happens to be good looking and really good. I never imagined myself as a baseball fan, but I love it and I am glad my husband introduced me to it!

Then in 2006, I met Kelsey at school. She was a hockey fan, and even though I am from Michigan, I never cared about hockey and couldn't understand her fascination. She finally convinced me to go to a Nashville Predators game in 2007, a playoff game, which they lost and ended their season. I loved it though, the energy of hockey is unmatched by any other sport. The next season I went to more games with Kelsey and fell in love with it. The next year, I bought a half season and became slightly obsessed with the sport.

Which bring me to the Olympics. I was so happy that Team USA made it to the gold medal game, as no one really expected that. Even though they lost the gold, they won silver, which really is an accomplishment, and I was really proud. And it made me happy to hear people talking about hockey. I hope that game brought more people to hockey and maybe created some new fans of the sport. I was sad for the Olympics to be over, but I am happy that NHL will be back in action this week.

Seven years ago, I was football fan. These days, I am sports fan.

Just 2&1/2 years until Summer Olympics, haha.

Bronx.

I have hardly had anytime to update - 2 weeks ago my husband and I got a puppy. My husband has wanted a dog as long as I've known him, while I am a 'cat lady'. I could live my entire life never owning a dog and be perfectly happy. We had 2 dogs and 2 cats growing up and I liked them fine, but I've just always liked cats more. My husband likes bigger breeds, particularly German Shepherds and Huskies, while I like smaller breeds, especially Pomeranians. Since I already have three cats, it was his turn to get an animal he wanted. We had contemplated it in the past, but we already had the max allowable pets at our apartment complex, and secondly, we didn't think it was fair to have a huge dog in a 900 square foot apartment. After we bought a house, it became possible to get a dog, but we wanted to wait until after the holidays so we could go home without worrying about a dog.

So for the past two months I have been scouring the classifieds and pet finder for a puppy. Normally I wouldn't mind adopting an adult dog, but with the cats, I wanted a puppy. We did find one Husky puppy for adoption in the next town over, but after doing some research, these dogs just really aren't good with cats, often killing them, so that was a no go. So I decided to try to find a German Shepherd. These dogs are impossible to adopt as puppies - they get adopted so fast. So buying one was our only option. I found some in Phoenix (3 hours away), but they were crazy expensive since they were AKC registered, something I really could care less about. I'm not breeding my animal, so why pay for a piece of paper. I finally found some pups in Tucson (1 hour away) and showed my husband immediately - and he liked them. They weren't papered, as the mother dog was not papered, but they were fully blooded Germans and that's what we wanted.

I called the owners and decided to drive up that day (Feb 11). The puppies were perfect - they were 10 weeks, had their shots, and had the black & brown markings we wanted. My husband took about 30 minutes picking out the perfect puppy and finally settled on one. We already knew we wanted to name him Bronx after my husbands hometown in NY. He was shy and scared the first day, but is already a great dog! He sleeps in his crate with no problem, the past three days he has not had an accident in the house. The only time he will have one is if we're gone for more than 2 hours (in his crate), but when we're home he goes and waits by the back door. He loves to play - he caught onto fetch after day one of being with us. He is still a little curious about the cats, but is learning to leave them alone. Leash training is a little more difficult, but he is getting better. And he just loves my husband, follows him around whenever he is home.

It's a lot of work, but I love him so much already and I think he will be a great dog!

Money $aver.

I LOVE saving money. One of my biggest areas of not totally watching how much I spend is at the grocery store. I am always in search of a great deal and use coupons frequently - but my problem lies within the fact that I buy more than we need, averaging about $170 every two weeks on groceries.

The other day I was in search of coupons on the internet when I came across this blog - The Krazy Coupon Lady, and I'm telling you, this blog is filled with deals. My favorite part of the site is the grocery store match-up, where she posts advertised sales from leading chains with coupons she finds either online or in the paper, and tells you how much you're saving, etc. I shop at Fry's (which is also known as Kroger and Smith's, among other names) and today I sat down, looked at the match-up, printed coupons, and *gasp* - planned 14 meals for the next two weeks and made a list. So instead of my over buying and overspending, I spent $117. That's nearly a $60 savings, which if you break it down, is $63.50 a week. What I saved is a whole week of groceries.

She also posts match-ups for CVS, Target, and Walgreens. I've learned that I don't need to buy all my things from one place. Before I went grocery shopping, I hit up Target and used coupons I had to buy things they had on sale - cat litter and dish washer tablets. The tablets were on sale for $3.99 and I had a $1 off coupon that was mailed to me from here the Home Made Simple website. Every few months they will mail out a coupon book full with coupons for cleaning products.

One of the things I've learned since moving out to AZ where everything is more expensive - never buy anything that isn't on sale or you don't have a coupon for. It really saves you money in the long run. Another great thing about Fry's? For every $100 you spend, you get $.10 off gasoline. So I make sure I use that too.

Anyway, I was just really excited about my savings and since my husband seemed not so interested, I thought I'd blog about it. Have a great day!!

From Small Space to Large Space.

If there's anything I've learned in the past three months since becoming a homeowner is that it's expensive. My husband and I went from an 800 square foot apartment to a house more than double that. And now I am finding I need more furniture. Yesterday the hubby and I made a stop at Lowes since we had a gift card from my parents as a housewarming gift. We'd decided long ago that we wanted an outdoor fire pit. We looked around, and a few caught my eye. But we decided to get a chiminea instead, which are very popular out here. Here is a picture of the one we bought:

So that's one thing off the list of things we need to buy! In my kitchen, there is a counter that overhangs into the dining room, so now we need bar stools. These are the ones I'm considering:
I like the red because that is the color theme we are going for in the kitchen, and I also wanted stools with backs on them. The material is microfiber, which I know is a good fabric for cat owners. While I like them a lot, the hubby is not sold on them (yet!).

Another piece of furniture we need - a table for the front entry way. It really needs one, it is so empty by the door! I really like this one from Target:

Nothing fancy - just something to put there!

There are so many other things we want to buy - patio furniture, a grill, and God knows what else. It's expensive moving from a smaller place to a larger place and buying the furniture to fill it up. I keep telling myself that it doesn't all have to happen at once. I can buy a piece here, buy a piece there, and one day it will all come together!

So Over It.

After our experience this year, I am pretty much over traveling, or rather flying! On Sunday the 20th, the hubby and I headed up to Phoenix to stay in a hotel since our flight left at 6:30am the next morning and we weren't sure about traffic & making the three hour drive so early! The day started off fine, the airport wasn't too busy, security wasn't a nightmare, and we waited only a little bit before they started boarding. Then it got bad. Our flight took off 30 minutes late, but I wasn't too upset since we had a 2 hour layover in Minneapolis/St. Paul. About an hour into the flight, a flight attendant came over the PA and asked if there was a doctor on board. Apparently, a older man in his 60's had collapsed near the bathroom. He had an oxygen tank, and as he was walking out of the bathroom, the tubing got caught in the door, cutting off oxygen, and causing him to pass out & fall. The flight attendants and a nurse gave him CPR & mouth to mouth for about 30 minutes, when the pilot finally came over the PA to announce that we were making an emergency landing in Denver so the man could get medical help. Yeah, I was annoyed, but I couldn't be mad, it wasn't his fault. So we landed and proceeded to sit there for almost 2 hours while were waiting to re-fuel and be taxied onto the runway again. Long story short, we missed our connecting flight and ended up home almost 2 hours later than planned.
The time home was wonderful though! I got to meet my nephew who is six months now, and is oh-so-adorable. He is a a happy baby for the most part and has the cutest little grin! I love him so much already :] I also got to meet up with Bestie while in the Mitten. Her husband grew up about an hour away from me, so they drove down and we went to lunch. And it felt like we’d never been separated. It felt good to talk to someone who understands me and I can be myself around. And of course, her baby is becoming a boy! He will be two in February and he has changed so much since I last saw him! Along with that, it was good to be around my family, especially my sisters who I love dearly and miss so much.
As if getting my Michigan weren’t annoying enough, I would soon find out that the trip home would be 10x worse. Our flight was supposed to leave Chicago at 6pm, so we of course arrived 2 hours early, went through security fairly fast, and were waiting for the plane to arrive, when an announcement came over the PA: Our flight coming from Atlanta, was being diverted to Indianapolis due to the weather in Chicago, which wasn’t bad AT ALL. They said they couldn’t keep the runway clear from snow, which I don’t understand because it was barely coming down. As soon as they announced this, I knew we were in for a long night, as our we only had a 40min layover and our connection flight was the last one out of Atlanta to Phoenix that night. They immediately rebooked us for a flight out of Atlanta the next day at 1:30pm – a whole 16 hours later than our other flight. I was seriously annoyed, but what could I do? Nothing. We kept getting updates saying our plane would land in an hour, oh then another hour, and on and on. Our flight finally landed at about 10pm. But then the flight attendants had worked their allotted hours and we needed a new crew, who had to fly from O’Hare, which took and hour. It’s in the same city for crying out loud! After much waiting, we finally boarded the plane and took off at 1:30am, arriving in Atlanta at 3:30am. We hadn’t eaten dinner, because we didn’t know when we would board and didn’t want to miss the call to board, and when we got to Atlanta, of course everything was closed. We ended up sleeping on benches on the airport; it was pointless to go to a hotel only to check out seven or eight hours later. The only plus to our big mishap – we got to sit in first class on our 4 hour flight to Phoenix. Free movies, a meal, and larger seats – if I could, I would always fly first class! It was so nice. We finally made it to Phoenix and then had to drive 3 hours home, ate dinner, and went to bed since my husband had to be up at 4:45am for work.
I could understand having a traveling mishap on our way there, but to have such luck on both travel days? Like I said, I am over traveling…until next year :]
Hope everyone had a safe holiday, and here’s to a new year!