Breakfast from the Hubby

My sweet husband made me breakfast today! Now that I am nourished I can head off and enter the political process of our country by casting my vote in the SC primary.

Blessings in many sizes

Last night I received our regime fee bill from our new regime management company. For those of you who do not live in a condo you may not know there is a 'regime' which you pay monthly into to cover insurance, landscaping, and community areas. It sucks because you don't really have control over it but, I continually have to remind myself that if we weren't paying a regime fee we would be living in a house that had an extra insurance payment tacked onto the mortgage, so it's pretty much the same anyway...plus we don't have to mow the lawn :) Shortly after we moved in the regime fee went up because insurance prices went up (I know this because every one's mortgage also went up). So, we took a hit on the regime fee and then Sandor's hours dropped so he could go back to school, which gave us a sweet double whammy on the budget...thus leading to me needing to buy shampoo and conditioner out of the grocery money.

So, last month we got a letter in the mail saying the management company for the condo was leaving and we were getting a new company. That concerned me a little because the old company seemed to do their job well enough, so I was concerned that the regime fee may go up if we got a different company. However, I was pleasantly surprised when we got our bill in the mail this month and it was 40 dollars cheaper than before! Guess who gets to buy shampoo and conditioner and shower curtains out of a pot of money specifically for such items instead of out of the grocery fund! As they say, blessings come in many sizes, and this one while it may seem small is pretty awesome!

Pictures Pictures Pictures

After cleaning half the house this morning, I decided I was not in the mood to continue since that meant the bathrooms were next. Not that cleaning the bathrooms is that hard, I was just not feeling it. So after Sandor and I enjoyed a bit of lunch, I decided instead that I would start scrapbooking. My next page up was one of the weekend my mom, Brandy and I started and finished my mom's scrapbook of both our weddings. Now, scrapbooking pictures of scrapbooking just seemed wierd, but it was a fun weekend and I didn't really want to skip it. So I decided to find some old pictures of Brandy and I to add to the page since the first 4 pages of my mom's book was pictures of the two of us together. It freaked me out a little to use old pictures that I don't have a digital copy of so Sandor was nice enough to scan them for me before I put them in the book. Now, granted I may be biased, but man we are adorable!

Look at that Face

They are just so cute!

Kaylinn's a birthday girl

The Kaylinn dog turned 1 year old yesterday. Seems like just yesterday she was a tiny pup :) So in celebration I thought I'd post some of the first picture Brandy and then we took of her...oh, she was so so tiny!

Cool Blog Sites

I've gotten a bunch of fun blog recommendations this week so my 'other fun places to go' section has finally seen an increase in links! The Daily Coyote (compliments of Ad and Maia) is a woman in Wyoming's chronicles of raising a coyote that was orphaned outside her house when his parents were both killed. It's fun for people who find endless entertainment in animals and animal stories, and her pictures are gorgeous! My aunt showed me Three Beautiful Things which is a woman in London who lists out three thing that gave her pleasure that day. I thought this was a pretty awesome way to remember your blessings every day, so I may need to do this every once and a while if I'm feeling particularly gumpy! And the same woman started a new blog called Once around the park where she writes about her daily walk in 30 words or less. Being one who appreciates succinct writing and noticing beauty in the outdoors I was impressed.

My sweeties

How cute are my animals!

Living on a Budget

Life on a budget is an interesting thing. Sandor and I have been doing pretty good since we buckled down and forced ourselves to stop spending on credit cards even for justifiable emergencies. In fact since we cut ourselves off the only thing that went on the card was his car getting fixed which was a really really justifiable emergency and therefore slipped through the no credit card rule.

I get the brunt of the budget wound because I am the one attempting to only spend 120 dollars on groceries every other week - and the term groceries is used loosely here, it includes all paper products for the house, as well as random other household needs such as say shower curtains. In my gusto to save money I found the wonderful world of the Dollar Store, which has shower curtains among many wonderful things it sells for a dollar. Seeing that while I have not reached the point in budget land where I am actually washing the shower liners rather than buying new ones every 6 months, I decided to try it out. I figured a $1 curtain rather than a $3 curtain was worth a shot. I mean, hey $2 can buy another loaf of bread, so it's worth a shot, eh?

Well, I am here to tell you, that while the dollar store purchases have been worth a shot on a number of items, it is NOT on shower curtains. I accepted the fact that there was going to be a print on my shower liner since they had no plain liners. And I accepted when I opened the package that the liner felt like paper - I'm not exaggerating by the way - actually I think it felt thinner than paper. And I even accepted that the print which I didn't even want was upside down and therefore we had upside down swimming fishes in our shower. I trimmed it up to the size of our shower (we've got one of those skinny ones in our bedroom so curtains always have to be trimmed), and went to hanging my newest money saving item. And this is what I found...

Said $1 less than paper thin liner with upside down print was not even the length of the shower! So, when I put on the actual curtain and tried to take a shower the water runs down the liner onto the real curtain and promptly drips on the floor - pretty much the exact thing a liner is supposed to prevent. I tried really hard for 2 weeks now to pretend that it didn't matter, but after much work attempting to save those $2, I went to Walmart this afternoon and got myself a $3 one. Take it from me when I say, even if you are on a budget the $2 is not worth it. By yourself a $3 liner and call it a day!

Yes, I'm having issues already this year...

Ok, ok, I am being extremely slack with the whole posting thing so far in 2008. What do you expect when you take someone from hanging out at a beachhouse for a week and then make them to work again...it's not a pretty sight. So, after much badgering by Maia, I felt the least I owed those of you faithful friends who check this are some pictures from the beachhouse.

sweet dogs sleeping in each others bed - they are so cute together

the view from the back porch - hard to beat for sure!

of course there was present opening - it was Christmas after all!

Kaylinn and Dudley were not psyched about their Santa hats, but we LOVED them!

so dramatic!

morning walk on the beach

oh, how these dogs love to run

mom and dad doing the Christmas puzzle

Brandy and I making cookies - this is the first time Brandy has EVER made this Christmas cookie. My mom is a little psycho about the cookies, which makes it difficult for people who are not overly obsessed with cookie perfection to hold their own against her :) however, this year something went wrong with the chocolate and it wouldn't melt, so my mom decided we should just throw it all out, but Brandy stepped up to the plate to assist me in imperfect cookies. it was quite entertaining...and delicous!

foggy day at the beach

Sandor had so much fun doing the first puzzle that he decided to get us a second one to start - however he also decided to up the stakes. He got this puzzle that is a picture make a ton of tiny pictures so you can't actually put the puzzle together like a normal puzzle you have to find where that picture is on the big picture and put it near where it seems like it would go in the puzzle and then once you do that with enough pieces you can start to put it together! yes, it's as exhausting as it sounds.

the finished product...Dudley guarding the house - he loved sitting there and barking at all the cars turning around at the washout

Nicole got a cookbook for Christmas so she was very intent on 'making thing' - amazingly they were actually pretty tasty

Matt came home! He flew into Atlanta from Iraq on the 31st and his girlfriend drove him down to Charleston so we could see him before he headed to Tennessee with her

the remaining members of the New Years party shortly after midnight - sans Nikole of course, she is very adamant about her hatred of people taking pictures of her

Happy 2008!