Summer

Honestly where does the time go! Well I certainly have had plenty to keep me busy since March. I have completed yet another two semesters of school and will start my final (God willing) undergrad semester next month.In the meantime I am on summer break from school and enjoying the downtime. Regrettably, the next few weeks will not be all fun and games, as I plan to take the GMAT at the end of August and really need to set aside some study time. With any luck I will be able to get into the Masters of Accountancy program in the spring and start working towards my CPA licenses.

I am continuing to enjoy the wonderfulness of married life! It’s really hard to believe that we have been married for over a year now (technically 502 days, but who is counting). I honestly have forgotten life before him and can’t imagine life with out him.The best news is that we have been talking about and making plans to expand our little family very soon, which is excited and scary all at the same time!

In 10 days I will be celebrating my 33rd birthday on the beach with the man of my dreams! Until then I am going to enjoy the little bit that is left of 32 and hopefully do better about keeping this thing updated!

My Life List

Recently I became inspired by an online blog I read called Mighty Girl. The author, Maggie Mason, created her "Mighty Life List: 100 Things to Do Before I Go", listing all of the things she hopes to accomplish in her lifetime. The idea behind a life list is that if you list out all of your life goals (big and small) you will have a better chance of actually achieving them. I thought that this was such a cool idea and decided to start a life list of my own. I wasn't sure if I could come up with 100 items, so I decided to start small and add to the list as ideas come up.

Here is my LIFE LIST!

What about you, what are some of your life list items?

$The Grocery Game$

Recently Keith and I have been trying to cut back and save money. Since I have decided to go back to school full time and will not be returning to the work force for a while, I wanted to find creative ways to make a dollar stretch as far as it could. That was when I remembered our friend Tony and Julie telling us about a program called The Grocery Game.

The Grocery Game is a program that provides you with a weekly list of the lowest-priced products at your supermarket or drugstore matched with manufacturers' coupons and specials - advertised and unadvertised. The basic idea is that you buy the stuff you use when it is on sale and you stockpile it, therefore you never pay full price for things you use.

Since the GG offers a free 4 week trial membership - I figured I had nothing to lose and signed up in December. I can not tell you the amount of money I have saved since I started playing the grocery game. During my first trip to the grocery store I saved over $100! Most weeks I save as much as I spend. I have saved enough that my husband has agreed to let me do all of the grocery shopping - which was hard for him to do because he loved going to the grocery store.

So since December I have been slowly building my stockpile in the garage of things we use a lot - like pasta, rice, cereal, canned veggies, and paper goods.

(my stockpile)

Another thing I like about the GG is that its not just boxed or canned items, it also helps you find sales on your fresh produce as well as meats. It has really helped cut down on all of the trips to the grocery store! Now I go once a week and we very seldom have to go back. Before the GG, I felt like we lived at Publix.

As you can see I am a HUGE fan of the GG now and I really wanted to share this with you guys. I know many of you are in the same boat we are and are trying to make your dollars stretch too. Hopefully this can help!

Happy Savings!

One Year and Counting

Today Keith and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary.

It really is hard to believe that a year can go by so quickly!





We celebrated our milestone by having dinner at the Columbia Restaurant
in Ybor City. We had such a great time and the food was amazing. We even got to see the show put on by the Flamenco dancers.

(The Howe's before dinner)

Tonight we had dinner with Keith's parents Dick and Dollie at Carrabba's and then went back to the house to enjoy the top tier of out wedding cake that has been sitting in our freezer for the past year. I was surprisingly good for a year old cake!

(our cake one year later)

I am truly blessed to have such an amazing husband and I look forward to many more year of love and marriage.

Blip

I came across this really cool website via one of the blogs that I read Chookooloonks.

The website is called Blip

What exactly is a ‘blip’? (from their website FQA)

A blip is a combination of 1) a song and 2) a short message that accompanies it. The way you create a blip is to first search for a song that you want to hear (or a song that you want your listeners to hear), then add a short message (under 150 characters), finally you submit it. Submitting a blip is also referred to as “blipping”, so from here on out, when you read “he blipped my favorite track” it means “he submitted a blip that had my favorite song attached”.

I think it's a neat way to share music and I am considering incorporating it into my own blog.

Song: The Winners Takes It All by ABBA

Thankful

Our thanksgiving was filled with the three F's - Family, Food, and Football.

The best part of the day was spending time with our two little nieces and nephew Noah.

(Savannah)

(McKinley)

(Keith and Noah)

and watching Grandpa Dick play with the girls.

Boys and Bulls

This past weekend my sister and nephew came down from Jacksonville. We do not get to see them as often as we would like so we were looking forward to spending some time together. Keith and I have turned my nephew Charles into a USF Bulls fan so we took him to the homecoming game on Saturday. He seemed to really enjoy spending time with his uncle talking football. We really treasure every moment with him because he is growing like a weed and we both know that it wont be long before we he is heading off to college! And if we have anything to do with it - that college will be USF!

(Getting ready to cheer on the Bulls)

(the boys enjoying post game celebration! Bulls WIN!)

(me and Charlie in IKEA, i made him wear the flower hat)