The End of an Era

I've been playing the same game of Speedy Bubbles for about a week and a half now. Anytime I had down time or was just plain bored I would go and play for a while.

I realized today that I am going to have to turn off my computer in order to get it to Florida with any type of battery left to speak of, so I decided to sit down and finish until the bubbles caught up with me.

But they never did! I even increased my level to "very hard" and speed to "very fast" and I still ended up just throwing the game.

Here's my ending score. Pretty impressive, eh?

The Paint Spot

In a few words, this was a great night! (Click the picture to enlarge!)

Florida Here I Come!

I just got off the phone with my good friend Andrea, and the reality has sunk in: she's moving and we're headed to Florida in just a few days! I haven't even started packing!

Take a look at this forecast:

I don't care if it's a stinking monsoon I will go to the beach! So help me!

Also on the agenda we are going to Orlando to see:

Bon Iver!

And we're staying here:

Even though I am poor and broke... it's awesome to be able to take off with a friend to Florida! Can't wait!

Threat Level Midnight

You earn 20 coolness points if you can tell me what show the title of this blog is from. And coolness points go a long way when you're my friend.

Tomorrow is Pay Day. I capitalize Pay Day because I'm so friggin thankful for it. As we are on one income right now (mainly because I'm a failure) and we only get paid at the END of each month (you read it right, once a month) Pay Day is my favorite day of the month.

But this Pay Day is different, because this Pay Day ushers in our new, improved budget.

Actually, it just ushers in a strict budget in general, complete with spreadsheets and an itemized list of what we can spend.

Here are some things that we've done to save money:

• We have neglected to get a satellite dish, as was the original plan. I think we get along rather nicely with our rabbit ear antennae and Hulu.
  
• Netflix. I know this sounds weird, like "why are you adding another cost?" but here's a little secret that you may not have heard me complain about in the last day or two: We live in the middle of nowhere! I'm always wanting to go see a movie or go do this or go do that and to get to the nearest town requires at least a 20 to 30 minute drive. Now when I want to "DO SOMETHING!" we stream a movie. Best $8.99 a month we can spend!
• Limited our eating out. It's no secret, Dusty and I are foodies. We love eating out! However, the new and improved budget caps our "eating out funds" and lends more money to our "grocery" fund. And it's really that simple.
• Scour ads to "comp" at Wal-mart. For instance, this week I bought milk. At Wal-Mart it was $2.19. But if you tell them at the register, "At Kroger it's $1.98" they'll pull out the Kroger ad and viola! You've done comp-ed yourself.
  

Here are some things that I would like to do, but haven't yet:

• Find a cheaper cell phone plan.
• Become a crazy coupon lady. We were buying sunscreen recently and there was this lady checking out in front of us who had a stack of coupons about a foot tall. I was nosy and peeked at her receipt and she saved $137! Are you kidding me?!
• Sell Dusty's car. Note this hasn't happened yet and probably never will. But I can't remember the last time we used that thing. It's just been sitting in the church parking lot for months. Dusty has some good arguing points about not getting rid of it, so for now, it stays. And 9 times out of 10, Dusty is way more logical than I am.
  

So what are your money saving ideas? Any advice?

Go Over There

Hey to the 4 people who read this blog, I have written a guest blog for my good buddy Adam T. For those of you at my wedding, he was the really tall guy doing music.

Take a look at it over here. And please excuse him for putting my maiden name. I don't know who Emily Hamlin is...?

Peace.

What the What?

I've been debating on whether or not to blog about this, but after looking at my recent posts and noting the gross lack of substance in each one I figured why not?

I went to the doctor yesterday about some issues I've been having and he came to a conclusion that I never saw coming. He thinks my body is insulin resistant. I definitely had to look that up when I got home. Click here if you are interested.

Sounds scary huh?

Wouldn't it be nice to weigh what you did in high school? I take that back, even just a few years ago? That would mean I would look like this:

If my calculations are correct this was taken the summer of 2006. I could still fit into my favorite pair of Express jeans, Sarula. (Anyone, Sarula?) I could get used to that again!

I guess my tidbit of wisdom for the day is: You're never as fat as you thought you were. :)

So get off your butt and go walk or something!

Random Stuff

There is literally nothing to blog about. Well, okay, maybe a few things. But nothing coherent. Let's see...

I leave for Florida in a little over a week! I'm pretty excited to get to spend a few last days with one of my best buds, Andrea B before she relocates. And we're going to see Bon Iver, which is awesome, to say the least!

I have officially lost 6 lbs. following the Weight Watchers point system. It doesn't seem like much, and I haven't seen a vast difference in the way my clothes are fitting. But one thing I have started to realize is how poorly I've been eating! That's being remedied by lots of fruits and veggies.

I'm getting ready to start reading a book that I bought about a year ago. It's called Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire.

I have really high hopes for this book! The Lord has given me a heart for that region, not only for the people who live there but for the local church here in good ole U.S. of A to cast down the veil of ignorance that has been passed down from generation to generation and to develop a genuine capital "L" LOVE for the M.E.

So I'll let you know if it's any good. To read more about it click here.

Here is a recent picture of Dusty and me. We've been married for one year and 8 days. Impressive, eh?
Here's a recent photo of Gabby and her daddy, JP. This was taken at JP & Aubri's percussion ensemble concert and if I recall correctly they are dancing to Thriller while this was taken. I hate that Gabby's face is so bright, but she is smiling!


Ah and really that's about it. OH! Also, Rudy the Cat With Thumbs ventured outside for the first time today. He lasted about 2 minutes and then clawed the door until we let him back in. If you were a fly on the wall and heard D. and me talking while he was out exploring you'd think we'd just sent our only child to college:

Me: "I'm nervous..."
D: "Yeah, me too."
Me: "What if he doesn't come back?"
D: "He'll be back. We have his food. We just need to let him explore" *sideways glance at me* "Let's go see what he's doing."

And there you have an account of the slow life out here in the sticks.