Saturday, July 31, 2010

Going to bed is like having a sleepover with my best friend!

Last night when going to bed Kendall, who was exhausted, asked jokingly if we could have a night where we just go to bed. On several occasions I have wished for the same thing, just to get in bed and go to sleep. However, i wouldn't trade that time just hanging out with my best friend for anything! We will lay in bed for over an hour and joke with each other and just laugh about things that aren't really funny at all.

I LOVE that time with my hubby. Since he's at work from 5 in the morning til sometimes as late at 8pm I don't get the same amount of time together during the day as we used to. This isn't a bad thing, it just makes those times just hanging out with my best friend having a little sleep over so much fun! I am sure gonna miss that over the next year.

Today Kendall and I are going to be having a date day of sorts :) We are going to shopping with our spending money for this pay period and then we are going to go play putt-putt and go go-carting! I'm quite excited for it!! Here is us this morning while getting ready for the day!


It's going to be a great day!
Erica

Thursday, July 29, 2010

This week is going by very fast

Currently listening: Sufjan Stevens - Come on! Feel the Illinoise!

Man, it's already Thursday!! I totally thought it was Wednesday! I was so surprised when Kendall told me it was Thursday lol. definitely a good thing though. That means the weekend is here a lot sooner. Which mean Kendall doesn't have to work!! YAY
haha.

I'm very excited because in about a week and a half we get to go home for a week! I can't wait to see my family and everyone again. I miss everybody so much!! However, going home also means that Kendall is leaving soon, which isn't as exciting. However, its all a part of this life, so i'm okay with it. I just want to get it over with. Thank God i'm moving home to be around my family, I would go crazy if I stayed here!!! There is very little to do here. When I actually move home i'll be looking for a full-time job to keep my busy and to help us save some more money.

Kendall and I have decided that for the next 3 years we are going to save money like crazy and we will hopefully be able to put somewhere around 100,000 dollars down on a house in Bloomington!! If we play our cards right we will have our house totally paid off before we are 25. and then we will be completely debt free for the rest of our lives! With no mortgage think of how much money we can save!! I'm very excited. I'm also very glad to finally have some focus with our money.

Budgeting money is such a pain in the butt, but i've started to realize the benefit of keeping track of it. When you have a successful budget (which can take several months to truly be successful) you really have control over where your money goes. About 2 weeks ago I finally started actually writing all our expenses down in a checkbook register on excel. It has amazed me how much money we spend that isn't budgeted in! Fast food, extra items at walmart, even extra groceries, It has all totally surprised me. I didn't realize how far off our budget we actually went. Needless to say, we will be doing a lot better in the future! (of course in a little over a month Kendall leaves and our budget changes again! ha)

well have a great day!
Erica

Monday, July 26, 2010

A trip to Sea World!!

Currently drinking: Starbucks Peppermint, white mocha with soy :)
Currently listening: Matt Wertz - Heartbreaker

This weekend Kendall and I made a spur of the moment trip to Sea World. It was so much fun!! It is about 3 hours south of us, a bit of a drive, but we loved the time we got to spend together. It's always fun to do different things with our time together. I have never been to Sea World before, so i absolutely loved getting to go!! We went on a few water rides and a roller coaster which was very fun. We also saw all kinds of animals, the penguins were fun :) Unfortunately all the pictures I took that day are on my camera, which i don't have a cord for... so i can't get any of them off of it to post on here. At the end of the day we spent the most time in the water park portion of Sea World, which was by far our favorite! Overall it was a great trip, much worth it.

This morning I had some extra time so I decided to make my first homemade pie!!! It was cherry!


I was quite impressed with how it turned out!!! and it tasted fabulous! I took a few freedoms with the recipe and it turned out quite tasty. Kendall really enjoyed it. :) I was really proud that it turned out so well.

Well that's all for now!
Erica

Friday, July 23, 2010

Family Day

Currently Drinking: McAlister's half sweet-half unsweet tea

Yesterday Kendall's battalion had a family fun day at the Fort Hood Recreation Area. We didn't know this place existed, but it was gorgeous.

It is located on a Belton Lake, about 30 minutes from our house, on base. There are tons of hills and a beautiful lake. It was very fun. There was a water slide and an area where you could go swimming in the lake.

Last night I also made a fabulous homemade pizza. I'm quite proud of it. It was really healthy and a huge hit with Kendall!

I bought a pizza crust that you just added water to (I would have made it from scratch but i didn't have all the needed ingredients). I then just piled on tons of fresh veggies we both enjoy: Green onions, red peppers, yellow onions, rosemary, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Then I just topped it with fresh cut mozzarella cheese :)
It was quite tasty! I will be making it again soon!

Have a great day!
Erica

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Starbucks now has FREE wifi!!!!

I believe my life just got so much better!! Starbucks is one of my favorite places to just sit and hang out and now they offer FREE WIFI!! I'm so excited. because i can just come and sit here whenever I want and I don't necessarily have to buy anything. Which makes me very happy.

Currently Drinking: Soy Strawberry and Creme Frapp (it's very very tasty!)
Currently listening to: Wakey!Wakey!

Today I have the car again, which is really nice. I love being able to actually leave the house. It's so frustrating when you have to sit in a house with only 1 room of furniture ALL day. haha. Things are really good right now. I exercised today, which i haven't done much lately, and I feel so refreshed. Everything is looking so positive. I love this feeling. So i will definitely be working out more often. Even if it's just for a little bit of time.

So for those of you in Bloomington reading this, we are trying to get Kendall some leave around August 9th so he can come home and say goodbye to everyone before he leaves. But we will only be home for a week. Just trying to give you all a heads up. We aren't for sure on the dates yet though cause he has to put in for leave. We will keep you updated!!


So I've decided to add a new section to my blog, my things I want but probably will never get. :)

For right now the things I'm wanting lately.


Degree 6 clothing. completely eco friendly.


TOMS shoes. if you don't know about them go to www.toms.com. For every shoe you buy they give a shoe to a child who doesn't have any.

well that's all i have time for today!!

Erica

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A good week so far

This has been a wonderful week so far and I just see it getting better as it goes on. It started off with giving Max an amazing new home!! We found another military family that was PERFECT for Max. He now has other dogs to play with and she has been giving me updates of how everything has been going. It's so nice to get to hear how everything is going and get the occasional picture of him :) like this one!



it definitely makes me miss him. but we were still blessed that he has a wonderful new home.

I have also gotten a lot accomplished this week. I have our money budgeted, balanced, and already planned. By having our money planned out like this it helps me feel a lot more secure about how we spend our money. PLUS we almost have our emergency fund rebuild, which makes me happy!


Many of you have asked for pictures of our current place of living. So i finally cleaned the house and feel comfortable enough to show it off a little haha. Here are those much awaited pictures.


This is our kitchen


Our living room, we only have furniture for one room. So all we have is the rug...


bathroom


Our entertainment area. My favorite part: The colored baskets, I can hide all kinds of things in those and it looks super cute!!!


We use two different comforters cause we can't seem to share in the night.

Well this is our home for the next two months. It's nice, a little smaller than we are used to, but we like it. Plus, we really don't NEED that much space for just the two of us.

Well, have a great day!!
Erica

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Deployments, Dogs, and 99 cent tea.

Life has been so crazy lately. But definitely a good crazy. We're planning for a lot of new coming up! As I believe I said in my last blog post, Kendall is deploying within the next few months. We are trying our best to look at it as a positive rather than a negative. He's getting to visit some new places and I get to go home for a while. Plus thanks to the new forms of technology, we have email. so conversation isn't too far away while apart.

I was originally thinking I was going to move home mid August to go to school, however I realized that by making the decision to leave early I was saying that school was more important than my time with my husband. Not what I was thinking at all!!! So I have now decided to stay until he deploys, giving us more time together! We are really going to try to take advantage of this time together and visit new places and just have a lot of fun!! I think this week we are going putt-putting and to the batting cages on our date night!!


However, there are some disappointments with these changes as well. A month ago, Kendall and I rushed into buying an incredible puppy! We were so excited to get one and didn't think about the consequences of that decision. Now, you might be thinking "didn't that happen a few months ago with the puppy Addie?" Addie was a totally different situation we would have definitely kept her had she not been too aggressive for us. She wasn't a bad dog, but more aggressive than I could handle. Max, our new husky, is an AMAZING dog!!! I'm actually mourning the idea of having to give him away, however we know it's the right decision and here's why:

When I move home, I have decided to move back into my parents house to save money while Kendall is gone. Not only will this help up save TONS of money (i'll get to that in a second) but it will also help me not live alone for a year. Not only is living alone not safe, but it will also remind me everyday that I miss Kendall and I don't think that will be healthy for me.

As for saving money, We did that math and if I lived with my parents as opposed to living on my own for that year by the time it's over we can have our car totally paid off AND have almost $30,000 in the bank!!!! That's really hard to pass up! Think of the down payment on a house we can have when kendall is out of the Army!!!

The only negative of moving into my parents house is the "no dogs" rule. They considered letting Max be an outdoor dog but they really don't want to deal with having a dog again. So then the choices were either keep Max and live on my own and therefore basically pay $30,000 to keep the dog (Cause we wouldn't be able to save that much money.) or Give Max to another loving home, live with my parents, save that money, and once Kendall is out of the Army settle down in Normal and get a dog then.

We want to make the best decision for us and our situation. We feel that with this decision we will being making the most responsible. So, Dave Ramsey, you would be proud!


OH! and the 99 cent tea, McAlister's deli has this deal where you can buy this cup for 5.99 and you get 99 cent tea the rest of the year! it's great cause this is where we come for internet and you have to buy something for the internet. So it'll save us LOTS of money!

Erica

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Lots of changes

Our little family of 2 plus our new puppy Max have had several changes lately. And we only have more to come!! Haha recently we moved down to Fort Hood Texas. I love the area down here. The landscape reminds me of home except that there are little peaks everywhere. I love that you can see the entire sky here again unlike Georgia. It's quite pretty.

We hit a few snags along the way with this move. Kendall had received orders for hometown recruiting. So we were going to be home for 3 weeks before our move!! And then he got there and was told his orders were wrong. So instead of 3 weeks we got almost a week. But we are very thankful for the little time home we got.

After Kendall in-processed he received his unit and was told he is deploying in September. So a lot more changes are to come. I will be moving home during his year away. I will be returning to school while I'm home and taking care of our new husky puppy Max. Please continue to pray for us as the transitions continue!
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