Saturday, February 25, 2012

I made these last night, hoping for some salty, sweet goodness. 


 This is how mine turned out:


Sad to say, I was disappointed. I was hoping for some more saltiness. I also didn't really like the brownie mixture. If I make these again, I will most definitely make my own brownie mix. They were okay though.  UPDATE: I just tried one this morning, and it tastes WAY better than it did yesterday :)

We've got some sort of sickness in our home this weekend. Tim's been CONSTANTLY sleeping, and that leaves me with nothing to do but be on Pinterest :) Tim's been drinking lots of Theraflu, and I just bought some ginger, so I think I'll make some homemade ginger tea. Looks like today will include going to the grocery store and looking up more information on my camera. YAY :) Hope everyone has a great day! 

Friday, February 24, 2012

Obsessing over: EVERYTHING on pinterest! Here's a few things I love:


via

There's actually nowhere this picture takes you. It's kind of an obvious how-to-do craft :)

 via
I'm going to be getting a new computer, and I am so hoping I can make something like this for my work area!

via  
I would LOVE to be able to have enough time to can this much food. I would feel so awesome.




SO SMART! This shows how to correctly store produce!

Um, YES, you've convinced me-I WILL MAKE YOU VERY SOON!!!

Working on: I'm sitting my butt down today and am going to learn everything I can about my new camera, the Canon 60D. I was SO excited when I bought it, but there's so many buttons and things you need to learn to really be able to use it. I'm doing that today.

Thinking about: Too much stuff is on my mind: things I need to clean in the house; our down comforter needs to be washed meaning I have to go to the laundry mat (yuck!); the closets in our home that have been glaring at me all week-they desperately need to be cleaned, and I need to take stuff to Salvation Army; my workout needs to be done and would have been done already if not for darn pinterest; the possibility of us moving to Pennsylvania  in a couple months;  the fact that it's snowing again...and way too much other stuff.

Anticipating: We're waiting on hearing about Tim's dad's possible new job in Pennsylvania. He'd be working for a major oil company there, making almost double what he's making now, he'd get $30,000 for moving expenses (WHAT THE HECK!!! $30 grand just to move???), and actually be treated with respect. There's also a 72,000 sq. ft. gym-including four floors of workout rooms, including an olympic sized pool, a racquetball quart...etc They also have four restaurants on site, a movie theatre, and so much more. Best part? It's only 50 MILES from New York City; and there's so many other places to visit in Pennsylvania: Amish country, Hershey park, Gettysburg...etc. If he does get the job, we're planning on going out there to visit in April and possibly move right after that.

Listening to: Pandora-Did you know there are AWESOME workout stations on here? I worked out for longer yesterday because of the dance cardio workout station. I love it :)

Eating: Grapefruit and drinking lemon water. I plan on detoxing today and figured I'd start my day out right. Especially after eating almost an entire bag of Doritos last night...

Wishing: We had more money. After spending our tax returns on paying Tim's friend back, we're both broke. 

This is my wish list at the moment:

Camera bag-possibly one of these:





I want this too. It's so pretty!


Tripod
50 mm lens
Glasses-The ones I have right now are a couple years old and the wrong subscription. 
Mac-I use Tim's ALL THE TIME. I need my own, especially for editing pictures and whatnot-the laptop I have now is really slow.
Lightscoop-These are AWESOME. 
I need something done with my hair. It's getting to the blah stage.
Vacuum-The belt on ours broke and we're too lazy to fix it, so we're going to buy a new one :)
Ink cartridge or a new printer
Sewing machine-I would love to make another quilt, some pillows, or whatever else I want to make. The sewing machine I have right now smells like burning rubber when I turn it on. Yes, I have oiled it.

That's about it for today. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

I had a pretty darn good weekend. Thursday, Tim sold his truck. HALLELUJAH!!! 

Friday, I went to the dentist and got four fillings...
This is my attempt at a kissy face. My mouth was completely numb lol :)

Also Friday, Tim bought a car :) We had planned on buying a 2002 Saturn Vu that was really cheap; however, right when we got to the dealer, someone else JUST took it for a test drive and ended up buying it. We were heartbroken (lol). Tim ended up getting a 2006 Hyundai Elentra, which is super nice. Pretty much my car (I have a 2002 Hyundai Accent), but more luxurious. He's happy because it's the first "nice" car he's ever owned and finally doesn't have to worry about something constantly not working. I'm happy because now we don't have to take my car everywhere :)

Saturday was one of my best friend's son's 1st birthday.

 EVERYTHING was edible on the cake!



He ate his first piece of cake so nonchalant :) 


 This tub had duckies in it :) HE LOVED IT!


 Tim playing musical chairs :)

 We took Tim's car to the car wash.

 For the first time, I made homemade bread. This is one of our many ideas in trying to save money. And it's such a TASTY, good idea! :)

 Nutella, peanut butter, and jelly is Tim's new favorite sandwich :)

This is freezer strawberry jam I made this past summer-I seriously ate like half a loaf of bread today. I LOVE HOMEMADE BREAD!!! 

Saturday night, my mom and brother came over, and I made stovetop-popped popcorn with butter and parmesan cheese, my new favorite way to eat it :) I hope everyone else had a good weekend!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

My bosses gave us each a box of Hershey's Pot of Gold chocolates today at work. It was so nice. I told Tim not to get any chocolates so we can save a little bit of money, and I ended up getting some from work :)

I got out early today from work so Tim and I could spend at least a few hours together before he goes to work tonight at 9. He called me at 3pm today and let me know he just woke up (he accidentally set his alarm for 12am, not 12pm lol). He hurriedly did the dishes before I came home, which was SUPER NICE. We decided on not getting each other anything this year because we had spent so much money for the supposed-to-have-happened-but-didn't concert this past weekend (see previous post). I made valentine sugar cookies, which I would gladly post a picture if I hadn't just got done exercising when I made them and looked like crap :), and Tim made grilled cheese and tomato soup, one of his specialties.

We started talking about our finances today. Tim owes some money that he wants to pay off right away, thus stretching our budget to the max. We both decided to use our income taxes to pay this off, along with all the other money we've saved up (minus a little bit for emergencies). We also sat down and figured out our meal plan for the next two weeks. One major thing for us is to eat leftovers. We rarely eat leftovers, which is such a waste. We're also planning on, for example, making our own garlic bread, eating salads to helps us fill up, loading up on ramen, and I'm going to do my darnedest to use up our groceries/canned goods we have in our cupboards. It definitely sucks that we have to use our income taxes as, trust me, I had PLENTY I was going to do with that money, but Tim will feel so much better once he's debt free.

I felt a lot better because my main problem is Tim not helping make dinners. We decided that Tim would make two dinners a week for starters, and we'll go from there. Coming home from work at 6:30pm and having to cook dinner gets old when you do it everyday. I think this'll make me a little bit less stressed.

Does anyone have any cheap meals they'd be willing to share? Or any good websites with cheap recipes? Or any good websites for coupons? I'm looking to start clipping coupons, but I'm not sure where to start.

I'm listening to this today: http://noisetrade.com/katieherzig. I absolutely LOVE noisetrade. If you've never gone to it, DO IT! It has free music on it, and Katie Herzig is awesome; however, this song is ONLY available today!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Tim and Emily's mini adventure

Tim and I planned this weekend to go to and watch Scale the Summit in concert. We got a super cheap hotel room, packed our bags (including valentine conversation hearts-yes, i ate most of the bag on the way there), and were on our way.
This was at the beginning of our trip.... 

So we FINALLY get to our hotel after three hours of driving when tim's friend calls (him and his girlfriend were going to the concert with us). Apparently the band had a fight, and they canceled the concert (we later read on their Facebook page that they had "car issues"). So, we spent over $100 including food, gas...etc to see them, and pretty much wasted our money. HOWEVER, that wasn't going to get us down!
We found this cute little pizza place called Genos, where we ordered Garlic knots and an Italian hoagie pie. YUMMY!
I'm going to try and make garlic knots at home. We'll see how they turn out. They were so good, and the marinara was definitely homemade. SO GOOD!



Our Italian Hoagie pie. YUMMY! 



Getting gas before the SUPER LONG drive home! What should have taken us three hours took us over four hours...
Driving home we saw this, oh, about 10 times. Half of these weren't just going in the ditch accidents either-some had ambulances and even news station vans. I hope everyone was okay! That's what happens when you're going too fast on snowy, icy roads.

Our Friday/Saturday definitely didn't go as planned, but we made the best of it and ended up still having a lot of fun! Our pizza just ended up costing about $15 a slice (if you add the money we lost in our hotel...etc). Good thing it was good lol :)

Monday, February 6, 2012

detox weekend

I've been feeling gross lately. Gross meaning gross physically and just feeling disgusting with myself and how I'm living (meaning my food choices, laziness.etc). Whenever I start feeling like this, I know it's time for a detox weekend. Detoxing makes me feel clean (especially on the inside :D), I notice a change in my skin (clearer), I feel more energized, and BONUS-I'm not interested in crappy food after my detox is done!

The weekend started out with my getting AWESOME deals at the grocery store-I purchased more fruits and veggies than what is shown on this page for UNDER $20! I was SO HAPPY! (fyi-never juice bananas-it doesn't work. tim actually uses bananas in his protein drinks, they just happened to be in the picture.)
Juicing my first concoction. I know there's specific ways on how you're supposed to juice. This past summer when I was a juice fanatic, I did it properly. Now that it's winter, however, it's almost impossible to buy the specific fruits/veggies I need and stay under budget. I know there's specific fruits/veggies you're not supposed to mix together; however, this weekend, I didn't care. I just wanted juice. I do believe this concoction had spinach, celery, carrots, pineapple, pear, and cucumber. YUM!!! (By the way, it's takes a while to get used to certain juices. Stay with it!)
FROTHY! (TMI-the froth always makes me gag-yuck)

Ready to drink my first juice of the weekend! 
This is all the skin..etc leftover-they say you can keep this to use for soup and whatnot-have you ever smelled this? I wouldn't use it in my soup, especially because I put fruit in my juice.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS clean your juicer IMMEDIATELY after using. If you don't, all the food will dry and get stuck, making it almost IMPOSSIBLE to get off!
my weekend "food"-lemon water CONSTANTLY-when you detox, you HAVE to drink A LOT of water! I normally drink either lemon water or peppermint or green tea. Those are three of the best things to drink while detoxing. The drink on the right I do believe was pineapple, grapefruit, orange, and cucumber. It was so pretty! Slighty sour too :)

Okay, I cheated :) So my brother was spending the night with us, and I had already planned on making pizza before I realized I would be on a detox. Well, everyone knows how AMAZING pizza smells when it's baking; and while my self control may be good, it's not that good. I decided to make my own mini "healthy" pizza. It had red and yellow peppers, carrots (surprisingly good-weird, huh?), tomatoes, onion, and feta cheese. It. was. awesome. I'm totally making it again.

My cat has nothing to do with my detox, but she looked so cute-there was a bird right outside, and she got SO excited :)



All in all, my weekend was AWESOME. I'm feeling more energized than I was; and overall, I just feel more healthy. I would highly recommend a detox.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

5 things I love about my life:

1. Tim cleans. Like really cleans. He got it from his mom. He may not know ANYTHING about cooking (minus grilled cheese), but boy, he can clean. And one of the best things to come to is a clean house. We're still working on the whole dinner made thing.

2. He just called me from work to let me know he'd be out of work early. Funny thing? He was supposed to work until 5:30am. Now he gets out at 3am. That's nice, but I'll be sleeping. I wouldn't have even noticed. I love that he called me for something like that :)

3. At work, we actually have instant messaging. It was created as part of our scheduling system. Best part of my day? Instant messaging my friend, H, about anything and everything.

4. This?
Will be in my mailbox tomorrow, along with a 32g SD Card. I'M SO EXCITED!!! I've been saving up for a year (and now I'm broke lol)!
5. Next week, Tim and I will be going downstate for a concert. Best part? We were having a tough time finding a hotel for under $100. BUT, we decided to be adventurous. Travelocity has this "top secret hotel" thing where you don't know the hotel, just the ratings and if it has a pool...etc. We were looking at a specific hotel that we were JUST about to purchase but decided to go the cheap route. Well? I'm happy to announce that we got the SAME HOTEL we were about to purchase but for $50 less! Travelocity is AWESOME!