Yup. Someone is still working on scrapping Christmas photos. ....and then the bowls that I love, of which I never got around to telling their story. :) Now it's done.



(I don't kow who gives blogger the right...but it drives me NUTS when it thinks it knows how to rotate my pictures better than I do, GRRRRR!)

So....I was watching the news last ight...(I hardly ever watch the news!)...and do you know what they said!!!???

They're going to be opening 20 Sonics in the Milwaukee area!!!!! AAAAAHHHH! You have no idea how excited this makes me, I LOVE sonic, and it drives me nuts that we don't have any up here....in the entirety of Wisconsin. I could sure go for a sunshine smoothie right now!

These two couples continue to be my favorites, I think they're just lovely!


This one is seriously smokin' hot!

This week I read Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach. It was good, but it was mostly about investing....I would like to read this one again once we're finished with our debt snowball and we can begin investing. He does have a helpful chapter at the end about how to get a 10% raise every year. If you think about it...most raises that we get are about 3-4%....which doesn't even keep up with inflation! Crazy, huh?

A lot more than I've noticed having more money this month....(cause we spent a bunch on Jason's dress clothes and new contacts and glasses...AND I worked a lot less)...I've noticed having a lot more time.....I mean...how many books have I read this month? how many hours have I spent at the gym? how much scrapbooking have I done? I think the only thing I've done less of is crafty projects...because I haven't been able to spend money on them. We're looking forward to going out for burgers July 1st...and to seeing a movie right away...but I think I'm going to try to shop less still and keep reading books and going to the gym more.

That being said...I'll need something else to read about next month...this month was devoted to finances, what should next month be? suggestions, anyone?

....think maybe I need to go grocery shopping?

"Parker and Emma's Mom said...
Thanks for the chance for some goodies!"


Parker and Emma's Mom, please email me with your address and I'll get the stamps out to you asap! :)


:) Thanks everyone for visiting and playing along!

:) Isn't he adorably geeky??! I love him. I think his new glasses are perfect.

I started reading this book by Dave Ramsey Monday and finished it yesterday. I liked it much better than the last...but sice I pretty much stalk DR's website, I already knew most of what I read. I did, however, learn Dave's story and how he went from wealthy to broke and back again...I had always wondered what happened.

I haven't been spending....but we keep talking about all the things we're going to buy/do once the month is over....so we'll have to work really hard to stick to our budget next month. Most of them are movies we want to see or places we want to go to eat. :)

A couple of pages from the past couple of weeks......do you think I'm feeling a little blue?

In celebration of WSW over at 2peas I have a set of stamps to give away, just leave your name in the comments to enter to win. I'll randomly draw a name on Sunday!

We found this TV series on Netflix, and I'm totally obsessed with it. It is super sci-fi fun. I think it's one of the best TV shows ever made, and I can't even imagine why they stopped making it. I don't know if it can be found at any old rental place, but if you have a Netflix account, you should totally check it out!

This isn't so much a spending update as an opinion update on the "Not Buying It" book.....mostly because I haven't been spending. I'm actually getting used to it...and feeling like getting rid of stuff instead of getting new stuff...odd, huh?

Back to the book....ugh. I like either to read books to learn new things, or for a good story. Any book I remember reading in the past few years has been of the educational or semi-educational variety. That, pretty much is what I expected from this book...I expected to learn how to live more frugally.

This book is just a bitter liberal woman's political ramblings....and the only reason I continue to read it is to see how upset it makes her that Bush won the 2004 election.

I don't think Bush is a GREAT president....but he IS our president and I think that people should show him more respect than they do. Also....It makes me very sad to think that even though our (probable) next president might end the war and improve the American economy, he will probably also kill millions more babies....that, to me, is a tragedy far greater than this war or expensive gas.

Yesterday was a little odd. I was reading my book and fell asleep...and as I was asleep I heard the phone ringing...and since I was asleep could not answer it....by the time the voicemail chimed I was half-way awake and debating whether or not I should check to see if it was anything important. After another minute I decided I could probably check it...only to be confused by a message in which a group of people shouted "Hey, did you move your bear?!?"

....what does that mean??????.....

I was so out of it...so I listened to the message again....same thing... "Hey, did you move your bear??!"

....so I pressed 8 to call back the person who had called me...it was Jenny. She was in Salina with the fam+jeremy and Joanne...and I guess Dad had been asking people all day, "did you poop your pants?"...and they didn't want me to feel left out, so they all called to ask if I had pooped my pants.

Hm.

I'm supremely jealous not to be there to watch the kiddos do crafts at the river festival, but I have been assured that I will get to see pictures, which is some sort of consolation, but I still am sad.

In other news, when Jason got home I was telling him this story...and he wanted to listen to the message...and I was like..."hey...I should listen to it now that I am AWAKE and see if it says "Hey, did you poop your pants!!?"

We listened to it...and, no. It still sounds like a bunch of people asking if I've moved my bear. :)

You can tell I've actually been scrapping this week cause of the extreme mess in my bedroom. Since I'm not spending money this month there are several projects that have been put off until July....but since I have enough scrappy supplies to last me an entire lifetime, and I had a whole week to use them, I figured...why not!? :)

It's probably terrible that I have all this paper and stickers and what-not and only use them when I can't buy stuff to work on other projects...but I've just been really into other things lately....my projects for next month include making a new thing to cover our big arch window and making a headboard. :) Can't wait!

Last night's show started off pretty slow for me...first two dances weren't great, next two were pretty good, and #5 left them all in the dust. This one totally blew me away, I loved it, my favorite of the night! (sorry the videos are so long...I couldn't find videos of JUST the dances, so you get to see the whole segment)


And I think this one might have been everyone else's favorite, they were SO good! It gets my #2 vote for the night, for sure.


Anyway...I LOVE this show! I totally dance around the living room during all the commercials, and Jason sits at his desk, working on things, saying "so you think you can build a website." :) He's funny like that.

I have two computers on my little two foot wide desk....Big Mac, which I use on a daily basis....and Mademoiselle Rose....who just sits there and hasn't been on for MONTHS....seriously...months. I was sitting here doing whithersowhatever on Big Mac...and MR just TURNED ON! It was really weird...started up completly...I went to plug her mouse in, so I could get some photos I've been wanting (I was just too lazy to turn her on) and just as suddenly as she had turned on, she was off. It was weird.

At the grocery store I caved a little yesterday....Sweetie's favorite brand of cappuchino was baing clearanced...50% off and I didn't wanna miss out on it. Also...there are certain times when a little chocolate IS a necessity.....sad part is...it's already all gone. :( I might need more before the week is up!

Jason also had a craving for fast food last night, so, on our way home from getting some wasp spray I let him get a 99 cent Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy's.

Somehow it's turning out to be a really expensive month even though we're trying to just purchase necessary things. Jason's dress clothes and a $260 trip to the eye doctor are mostly to blame. I'm ready for the month to be over so that I can go shopping, though! :)

Know what one of the first things I did this morning was?

Scrap. That's right.

Weird, huh?

Yesterday was Jason's Dad's wedding. :) My Sweetie is great, if the whole table wants him to press his forehead into a pile of heart-shaped sequins, he will. :) I love this man!

These really are impossibly good...I could snack on them all day and all night.

Last weekend my grandma sent me an email with some recipes, and one of them was a dessert with mango in it. Since Mango is not one of the fruits I had been eating all my life, (and in fact I had never bought one myself) she sent me some mango instructions, so when I went to the grocery store earlier this week, I bought one. So today I followed the instructions and took pictures, so that hopefully you can feel confident about eating a mango if you've never had one before...

"If you have never bought a mango, I will give you some ideas. The red/yellow ones are my favorite. Pick one up and hold it in the palm of your hand, wrap your fingers around it. If it feels hard like a bowling ball, put it down and try another. You, of course, don't want to squeeze the fruit in a store, but you do want to know if it will be good. So, with it in the palm of your hand, lightly check and see if it has a little 'give' to it. It shouldn't be soft-soft, just give a little under light pressure." (I found that she was very right about this, some were very hard and others very squishy, mine was just right. :) )

"Now, if your aren't experienced with a mango, first thing is to peel it with a potato peeler. They are really slick on the inside, so hold on good."

"They have a most unusual seed. The mango is oval shaped, and the seed runs from almost the very top of the fruit, to the bottom, but it is a very flat seed."

" Look at the mango. One end is a little wider or flatter than the other. Cut just a little off of the flat end so it will be stable when you stand it up on that end. Standing on that end, turn the mango so the narrow part of it is on your right and left, and the wider part runs from next to you to away from you."

"Now, the seed is no more than 1/2" wide. With a sharp knife cut clear through to the bottom of the fruit, 1/4" on either side of the center. That leaves you with 2 flat (on one side) oval discs, and the center part with the seed."

" You can also cut a slice or two off of either side of the seed---but I used to give that part to George to eat. He loved them."


(This is where I smooshed off the remaining flesh from the seed under hot running water so that you can see what the seed really looks like.)

"Alright, now lay the 2 discs down on your cutting board and slice them crosswise into maybe 1/3 inch slices.They make a wonderful fruit to just cut up, like above, and serve in dishes as a dessert by themselves, no sugar needed."

I had really not been having a hard time until last night. My trip to the grocery store earlier this week without buying snacks or sweets was ok. (probably because we sill have some snacks and sweets sitting around in our cabinets!) Last night, though, after Jason came home from work we spent about 40 minutes trying on everything in the closet trying to find something for him to wear for his Dad's wedding this Saturday....to no avail. I had already tried things on and found something I could wear earlier in the day, so I had no excuse. But Jason sort of needed something to wear...so we went to the mall.

The mall is my weak spot. I don't go all that often, cause I really don't have anyone to shop with. (Jason doesn't like shopping at all.) I think we spent about an hour and a half looking in pretty much every different store and trying things on. Jason really isn't a suit kind of guy...he's a graphic designer, so old and stuffy isn't really his style, he likes to look young and hip and with-it. :) Anyway...we finally found an outfit for him that we decided was lovely...BUT in the process I had seen about a million different things that I wanted. Sigh.

I wanted them, but I'm more stubborn than a mule, and so, since I had decided I wasn't buying things, I kept my resolve, BUT I didn't feel good about it. After we got home (at 8:30) (without having caved to wanting to stop somewhere to grab a quick bite) and made supper and sat down to watch last night's "So You Think You Can Dance" just to find that it had not recorded, I was even more depressed, and my mind, for the rest of the evening. dwelled on all the things I want, but don't have....my favorite Summer TV show, new adorable clothes I saw at the GAP, and also a baby. Heh.

So, I think that as long as I stay away from the mall and Target for the rest of the month I'll be ok. Also...on the 15th of the month I'll have to resist the delicious add-ons offered by my scrapbook-kit-club. We'll see.

And now...a rant....

Earlier this week I got a library card and checked out "Not Buing It" by Judith Levine. She and her boyfriend guy decide not to shop for a year...they still buy groceries and such things...just not all the unnecessary stuff...much like we're trying for this one month. In the April chapter she writes, "Either we keep on shopping until the earth collapses under the weight of our trash, or we stop shopping and the economy collapses under its own stagnation."

Speaking of not buying it...I don't buy that. I think that there are great ways to consume without trashing the planet and great ways not to trash the planet without sending the economy into a downward spiral.

1. Recycling-When Jason stayed with my family several summers ago he was more than a little put off by the lack of recycling going on in good old Salina, Kansas. He saved all his empty bottles and flattened cardboard boxes in his bedroom, looked up where a recycling center in Salina was, and we took the loot ourselves to the center and sorted items into various bins. He he he...he would even swipe some of my family's garbage-can bound recyclabes and save them.

Up here, it's even so much easier than that, we keep two ugly old boxes right by our kitchen, one for glass metal and plastic, and one for paper and cardboard, and every Saturday Jason takes out the garbage and recycling, one bag of garbage and two of recycling, throws them in their own dumpsters, and two thirds of our waste can be re-used. Sure it's not beautiful, but I think it's a lot prettier than three garbage bags in a landfill.

2. Buy used for goodness' sake! By now each of you knows about my love for craigslist...not only cause you can get great stuff for cheap, but by buying something used you avoid all the wonderful packaging that will be thrown away while also saving the resources used to produce a new whatever-you-just-bought. I think it's definitely a win-win. (same goes for Goodwill or Salvation Army) (also by shopping at Goodwill and Salvation Army you are supporting good causes)

3. Your trash can be someone else's treasure. Sure, by giving your clutter and trinkets to Goodwill or Salvation Army, or selling them at a garage sale, they're just going to end up cluttering someone else's home, BUT they won't be in a landfill (yet) and hey, it might be JUST what someone else is looking for.

4. Gift-giving....don't give clutter that people only keep around because they're packrats or because they feel bad throwing a gift away....because eventually, all of these WILL be trown away. Instead give something that can be useful or used-up...these might not seem like the most exciting gifts, but neither is your 123rd elephant figurine. (this being said, I'm sorry for all of the useless gifts I've ever given any of you)

...and really, I'm not even a hippie-tree-hugger, I just believe in being good stewards of the planet the Lord has given us.....but...I probably waste water...I leave it running while brushing my teeth, do TONS of laundry, and take long showers, so I've got to do something to help out, right??!

calls this the giant dishwasher breathmint. :)

Sometimes I do really stupid things that totally embarrass me...so what am I gonna do...post them here for your amusement!

One thing is that I open my cell phone and listen for a dialtone! Usually no one is around when this happens, so it's not so bad, but I'm pretty sure I still blush when I do it! :)

The other one is worse...cause it's something I say to people...he he he. The past couple of times that we've gone to movies and I buy the tickets the ticket lady says "enjoy the movie!" and I reply to her with "you too!" Heh...all the time when I go to the store or whereever...people are like "have a nice day" and I say "you too" so it's like a habit....poor movie ticket girls...I always laugh at myself after I realize what I've said.

I called this morning to close a credit card that has not been used in a couple of years...cause it's probably a little dangerous to have all sorts of credit you could never repay if you happened to "need" it for an "emergency." It went a little something like this...
"I understand you want to make some changes you your account"
"yeah, I'd like to close it"
"ok, while I process that do you mind answering a few questions for me?" (meaning) "before I close your account I'd like a chance to try to talk you out of it"
"go ahead" (meaning) "I'd like to see you try"
"why are you closing your account with us today?"
"I'm not using credit cards anymore"
"what other card are you going to use in case of an emergency??!" (with such urgency!)
"I have an emergency savings account"
"and what rewards does this savings account give you for your money"
"I earn interest"
"what do they give you, .25%?" (what...is this even something...are there accounts that give you a quarter of a percent??)
"no, I earn 4.5%"
"what about cash back on your gas purchases, grocery purchases, even phone bills, you can earn 3% back on all of these, that could be up to $200 a year on your phone bills in a year!" (obviously she has no faith in my ability to do math in my head...or she thinks that people pay a small fortune in phone bills)
"I'm really not interrested in any rewards"
"you don't want to earn 3% back on your purchases?"
"No, I just want to close the account."

My love of old things...much like my love of collecting things, I blame on my mother.



I love old furniture, old cars, old people, just do. They all have great stories and so much character.

I totally adore all the pretty old things in my mom's house. We have very different tastes in old things, but we both love them. She likes older flowery-er things...while I'm a fan of the 40s-50s-60s retro-kitchy stuff. I love my mother's taste and decorating style, it all looks wonderful in her house...that being said, my house will never look like hers.

I prefer things like aluminum Christmas trees, vintage cameras, key-wound robot toys, and bold colors and patterns to the softer colors and dainty patterns of my mother's collectibles. I do, however, have the beginnings of a collection of pretty, pink, flowery, glassware... :) so we will eventually see which side of the fence I end up on.

...or in not spending, as the case may be.

Jason and I are going to try for the entire month of June not to spend money on anything that isn't necessary. This means we're paying bills, buing groceries, and buying gas. We're not going to buy snacks or desserts or go out to eat or to any movies. I have GOT to quit perusing craigslist...there was TONS of great stuff on there for good prices today and I wanted it ALL!

Anyway...any bets on how many days I last? I am such a shop-a-holic, and I don't see this going well...I have a feeling I am going to be facing withdrawl symptoms in only a matter of days. Even today looking through ads in the Sunday paper was hard cause I have this thing where I like to spend money.

Hopefully I will not be posting failures anytime soon...I will be impressed with myself if I can last at least two weeks...and if I can make it for two weeks it will give me the confidence to last the rest of the month, I think...but watch out July! :)