This week started out a bit, well, I guess you could say "off", seeing as it started with this:

 guess I shouldn't have kept ripening it for two weeks...oops haha!

And that is what happens when your husband is lazy...he's decided he's not going to throw the garbage bag into the can anymore haha!

 We spent this last weekend renovating our entryway-what a time consuming project but SO worth it! I'll do a post on it later, once we've got it 100% finished :)

The picture of me in our yellow entryway is the before :) I loved it, but it was time for a change, The flooring was Tim's first project in our home that he did himself. I'm so proud of him, it turned out so great! 

 After we finished painting and installing the flooring in our entryway, Tim and I were beat. And our entire Memorial weekend was just about gone. We decided we were going to end the weekend with some fun, and fun we had! I think we were both pretty exhausted, so numerous times while we were in Meijer and Walmart we just thought things were hilarious and couldn't stop laughing :) We then went to Arby's for dinner as well as the theatre to watch "Mad Max". We bought a large popcorn, so we were quite full and bloated by the time the movie was done! I'm not sure how I felt about the movie-the picture was amazing, just beautiful. And there were parts I liked, but I think it could have been better. I will go see the second one though that I've heard they're going to make.

Don't you just love the sign that Tim is holding???? It's going in our entryway!!! I live by that saying. Seriously. It's the perfect piece to see when you first walk in our home :)

I ended this week with an AMAZING mail day!!! All the best stuff! I also got my food network magazine and bon appetit magazine :) Those mugs are from Anthropologie, one is London and the other is Paris-I'll do a post of pictures of them close up because they're so gosh darn cute! And Gesine Bullock-Prado is such an inspiration to me-I finished her book the same day I got it. And the shirt and movie! What a great day :)

Tomorrow I'm picking out some new glasses since my prescription is about 10 years old :)...then will be picking up some flowers for our yard, and then I get to babysit my nephew :) Just the best day. Hope everyone has a great weekend as well!

A change in my then fiancé, now husband :)

I wrote this back in February 2014 and May 2013 but never posted it, which I don't know why? I absolutely love going back and reading old posts-I think I need to show this one to Tim to see if he'll start making food again now that he is finally done with school and working full time at the same place, but as their Web Master :) I swear, he's the smartest guy I know.

FEB 2014: Tim is now working (at his "dream" job YAY) and going to school; however, since back when he quit his previous job nine months ago, he's been a completely different person. I wrote this post back in May, but Tim is still acting the same way. It's awesome. I'm so happy! 

MAY 2013: It was Tim's idea when he quit his job that he would clean the house and cook dinner each day while I work to pay the bills. When he quit, I was seriously worried we wouldn't have enough money-really, could we live on only my income??? I'm happy to say its been almost five months since he quit, and we're way better off than we were before.

Tim's had a complete mood change. It's amazing! He was so unhappy at his job-we just didn't realize how much it affected his mood. He's so much more optimistic, which is HUGE, because his family are pessimists. He's able to put his full attention on school; and in his free time, he can drum and play video games :) A weight was lifted off his shoulders, and he's been able to look forward to the future and how great ours will be.

I'm strangely able to save money-I'm saving more money than I was when Tim was working...that shows how much money I wasted on worthless crap.

Tim and I plan our meals for the week on Sunday, and I grocery shop on Monday by myself. This helps us stick to our small budget of $50/week on groceries-we try to make food with what's on sale for the week. It also helps me get rid of my urge to shop, since I am still spending money. I just have a list to stick to, unlike before :)

homemade taco seasoning :)

I wasn't feeling well; and when I got home, Tim was at school, but he had put out the pan with water in it and chicken noodle soup for me to make :)

The most amazing stromboli with homemade marina that you'll EVER have. He used to work at a pizza restaurant, so he knows how to make pizza. Oh my, it's so good (I made the marinara-he's not that advanced yet lol).

Another stromboli, but with MANY added veggies. I normally have carrots, celery, zucchini, squash, and peppers with feta cheese on my pizza. I have to say I like stromboli with pepperoni and onions the best. All those added veggies make it taste kind of weird. Not bad, but not awesome.

Delicious homemade chili :)

White chicken chili-this was so good! Tim's really good at following recipes, so all I do is find what we should have for dinner, write it out, and he makes it. I had never made this before-he did awesome.

He slaves away cooking, cleaning, and doing his schoolwork...

He's actually suggested going on walks, something we are still doing. It's been fun exploring where we live.

He's fixing people's xbox's, ps3s...etc. Seriously. So smart.

There's so many little pieces. Crazy.

Update FEB 2014: I'm so happy we decided back in January for him to quit his job. It was SUCH a risk knowing we could make ends meet and not much else, but we have now realized that it changed our lives forever. Tim is SO much more optimistic, which is great for our relationship. We've figured out things to do for fun without spending money. We are better with saving money, which is obviously better for us since we plan to do a TON of traveling in the upcoming years. 

Update: MAY 2015: We have since this was written bought a home, got married, and change careers. It's amazing how much can change in just two years! And wow, $50/wk on groceries? We spend anywhere from $75-150 depending on what we need now, I need to get back to $50! Yes, we make a heck of a lot more money now; however, reading this has really made me notice how much extra money we spend when we should be saving it. 

How much do you normally spend on groceries? How many are in your family? Any best tips on saving money? For sure mine has been to set aside cash when I first get paid. I keep it completely separate from my bank account. I think for saving money on groceries, I need to not only continue to make a list, but maybe I should start making a more detailed list of approximate costs and make sure it's under $50 before I go to the store. Any other ideas?

Comparison.

I'm feeling in a bit of a funk today. You know how it goes, looking too much at other people's lives and comparing it to your own. What I look at is how much other people are traveling. I love traveling. I feel destined to travel. It's an itch I have. I just need to see new things, taste new things, and experience it all. 

Tim and I definitely plan on traveling, but he's not as interested in it as much as I am. I think we just need to go somewhere amazing, and hopefully he'll realize he needs it as much as I do :) We have different ideas for what we feel our money should go to at the moment: he is very much into buying music equipment to further his career in drumming as well as thinking of the future by fixing up our home. I'm all for that, but my dream right now is to travel. Travel all the time :D I've heard countless times where people say "We'll go next year." and then next year comes and goes, and before you know it, you've missed the opportunity. Well that's not going to happen to me. It can't.

So rather than being all "Oh, woe is me. Boo hoo hoo, I feel sorry for myself", I've decided to start a travel fund. So far I've got $300 saved up. I'm hoping to add $100/month to it until there's enough saved up to go to either Iceland or England. Those are in the top five places I'd like to go, and I know Tim would love either of them. 

I'm hoping also that in the mean time, Tim and I start to see the area around us. Tim is very much a home body-he'd much rather stay at home and watch tv/play video games. I also like doing that; however, we do it all the time. Even if we don't spend money, I'd like to stay active. Now that summer is almost here, I'm sure we'll be taking lots of walks, and Tim talked about getting a couple bikes :)

I also have quite a few things on my bucket list I'd like to do besides travel. I've been wanting to see Dave Matthew's Band in concert for about the last 10 years. Last year I had planned on buying tickets, but it was never the "right time". This year I made up my mind, I was going to go see them. January went by, February went by and I lost my job, March went by, April went by and I started a new job, and then I put my foot down. And bought tickets and booked our hotel room. And I am so excited! 

 I think when it comes to comparing myself to others, yes, I wish I was traveling abroad as my job; however, I don't think that will ever happen. So, I'm focusing on everything great in my life and I'm consistently trying to think of ways to make it better, even if it's just something simple like enhancing a chocolate chip cookie recipe with walnuts and blueberries, which I did this weekend. And they were awesome :)

About a month before our wedding, Tim and I and a bunch of our friends participated in Warrior Dash. For those of you that don't know what it is, it is a 3-mile run with about 9 different obstacles/challenges throughout. I seriously conquered my fear of heights about five times! Tim was such an encouragement to me throughout the race when I wanted to give up...who needs marriage counseling? Just run the Warrior Dash :) It was the perfect time for us to run a race because it forced me to prepare ahead of time since I haven't run since middle school, which helped me lose those 5 pounds I was told to lose to fit in my wedding dress :)

We were so covered in mud by the time we finished, but it was so much fun! I think we're going run it again this year but this time going through as fast as we can :)

No, the girl on the left doesn't have a goatee, it's just mud :)

I had gotten my first test-run spray tan for our wedding a few days prior to running the race; you should have seen my body after the race! Mud and spray tan don't mix haha, I had a bunch of areas where the mud rubbed off the tan…oh well haha!

Strawberry Scones

Tim and I went to our first wedding as a married couple yesterday :) Not that that's very exciting haha, but it brought back memories of our wedding. I watched our wedding video yesterday morning and listened to our wedding music as I made Tim breakfast. Pancakes and turkey bacon. I just love mornings like this. It had rained all night; when I woke up, our home was 75 degrees, so I opened all the windows and let the breeze come in. Just perfect. Then add in pancakes for breakfast, and it makes for the perfect start to a day. You know what else makes for a perfect day? Strawberries. Mixed with heavy cream, butter, lemon zest..oh boy...are you salivating yet?

If a recipe has butter and heavy cream, you know that it's going to be good! Ignore the orange, wrong recipe :D

These didn't raise as much as I had hoped, but Tim tasted them and said he liked them even more than the cranberry/lemon scones I previously made, and he doesn't necessarily care for strawberries :) I personally loved them-I almost think they could take the place of strawberry shortcake. Almost. Just look at that lemon zest. Strawberries and lemon zest were destined for each other. And glaze. 

These are slightly sour surprisingly because of the strawberries, but add that glaze on top and all sourness is forgotten, it's perfectly balanced. These make for a delicious dessert, but I've had them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner... 

Fresh Strawberry Scones (adapted from Popsicle Blog)

ingredients

1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped

4T sugar

A bunch of lemon zest (eyeball it-you know how much you like-I love the zing it brings, so I put in the zest of a whole lemon) 

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

6T unsalted butter, in cubes, slightly softened

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 extra T sugar to top

directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment (or just use a nonstick pan). 

Chop strawberries into small pieces. Zest your lemon. Toss the strawberries and lemon zest with 1/2T sugar and set aside to macerate. Combine remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add butter and combine using a pastry cutter or your hands. Probably a pastry cutter, it's pretty messy. Unless you love using your hands, then go for it. Then you can lick your hands afterwards, which is very rewarding. Add the strawberries and heavy cream, and stir until it all holds together and the dry ingredients are just combined. 

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to get everything sticking together (note: my dough was still pretty sticky after kneading due to the wet strawberries [duh!]. Don't worry, they'll dry out a bit in the oven :D). Either roll your dough out with a rolling pin or just use your hands. You want your dough about 3/4" thick. Cut into wedges, circles, whatever you want. You can seriously use whatever cutter you have, but scones are primarily wedges or circular :). Transfer to the cookies sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle tops of scones with the 1T extra sugar and bake an additional 5-10 minutes until the tops are golden brown and spring back when you touch them. Place on rack to cool.

glaze

Mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1T milk. Add more milk if it needs to be thinned out. Drizzle over the scones. Note: you will make a mess. If you look in the second picture, you'll see the glaze that has dripped off the scones. To clean, lick your counter. It's yummy. Unless of course you're a germ freak, then just clean it with a wet washcloth.

Makes about 10-12 scones