Gotta Love it When...

...a trip home ends up costing you an arm and a leg.

The weekend was good until I got back into town yesterday. Unfortunately, I had completed the 5-hour drive and was 2 blocks from our apartment when I slid in the snow and skidded on top of a curb/median trying to turn right. Yet another reason as to why this winter needs to END! I'm so sick of it already. Thankfully, no other cars were around in that lane and there wasn't any bumper damage, but now I'm finding out I need 2 new parts and a new set of tires (at least I already knew the tires were needing to be replaced sometime soon).

So here's the new cost of a trip to Fayetteville in the winter...
Gas: $45
Meals with Friends: $25
Car/tire repair: $(WAY TOO MUCH)
___________________
= NOT COOL!

But, that's why we listen to Mr. Dave Ramsey and have an emergency fund. I'm just bummed I have to use it...goodbye what I've been saving for several months. :( It could have been so much worse though...like this:

{Massive 40-car pile-up in Kansas City yesterday, photo from the Kansas City Star - www.kansascity.com}

Can I move back to the South yet?! (At least they don't get snow quite this often - although this year is probably an exception)

I left my camera at home, so Kim's Colors Day pics will be coming tonight or tomorrow! :)

Thursday

So I decided the ol' blog needed a spruce-up yesterday. I'm very ready for spring - this Midwestern, freezing cold winter has lasted long enough! I hate the dry hands and chapped lips, waiting on the car to defrost every morning, having to dress in 5 layers (and not being able to wear half my shoes because they'll be too cold), etc. Maybe this background will help spring to hurry up! :)

I worked on the chair a little more last night...the arms are being a little tricky. I was going to post a sneak peek photo today, but I ran out of time this morning {story of my life it seems like}. I never feel like I have enough time just to chill and get things done at home - Eric came home early from class last night and I barely had enough time to clean the dishes and vacuum up the staples from the chair in the carpet in the office...plus I had about 5 canvases thrown out to dry all across the living room! I've got two canvases to finish before I ship a big box out...hopefully I can get those done by next Monday so the apartment will be picked up and more presentable.

I found this recipe this morning, looks delicious! I may have to try it out soon:
----------
Strawberry Soda Cake
1 - package Strawberry Cake mix (any brand)
1 1/3 cups Strawberry Soda
(strawberry soda is substituted for the amount of water on the cake mix)
2 - 3 Eggs (if you want it lighter and fluffier use three eggs)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 – 2 lbs Fresh Strawberries (Sliced)

Add cake mix to a large mixing bowl. Add egg, oil and strawberry soda. Beat until smooth. Pour into two round cake pans that have been greased and floured. Bake as directed on cake mix or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. When cake is done remove from oven and cool in pans for 15 minutes. Then remove to a wire rack and completely cool. Frost first layer with icing and arrange sliced strawberries on top. Add the second cake layer and frost top and sides with more icing and top with more sliced strawberries. Save one whole strawberry for the middle of the cake. Gently slice and fan the whole strawberry, Place on top in the middle of the cake.
Measurements vary depending on what brand of cake mix you use. Follow the directions on the back of the box substituting strawberry soda for the amount of water listed. Also add the amount of eggs and oil stated on the mix, I use Duncan Hines.

***For my icing, I made a typical cream cheese kind. Cream Cheese, Powdered Sugar and Vanilla!
----------

I'm attempting to get more caught up on the Dave Ramsey series since I only have 9 weeks left to access the website (a huge thanks to Grandpa Art and Grandma Ivah for getting me set up on it!!).Unfortunately, my internet browser likes to give me trouble with the video and I can only watch it on my laptop, so I've been a little slow with it.

I listened to the section this morning on creating a budget - something I wish I started a LONG time ago! Eric and I started creating our own monthly budget right before we got married, and it took us (well, me) several months to get into the swing of it. I was so used to spending basically all my paycheck on eating out, shopping, getting my hair done, etc. Then, if I had a little leftover at the end of a payperiod I would put a little bit into savings. I had a semi-decent amount saved up by the time I graduated, but looking back, I wish I would've disciplined myself to have a little more. So now, here we are as newlyweds living on one income...goodbye $100 hair color appointments, ordering whatever off the menu out at dinner, shopping every few weekends, etc! Definitely a big change, but we're doing well with it. When we did our budget, we actually had calculated my pay at about $50 less than what it actually is so we have a little extra savings each month. And, I transfer money to savings on payday, not later on - definitely helps to just make that money "disappear"  before you can spend it. :) Now, if only the economy were better so I could get more interest off of it! Having a strict budget in place definitely makes me think twice before I go spending money.

That's about it for today...I'm ready for an early Valentine's dinner at Olive Garden tonight!

Playing Catch-Up

Crazy week! :)

So, since I haven't blogged about life happenings lately, I figured I'd fill y'all in through one big post! My parents made the trip up here last weekend for the first time in 5-6 months and we got to take them around town (more like they took us around town...we saw parts of town we've never seen since living here! LOL). We also made a trip down to Jeff City to see family and the guys got to see some former Cardinal baseball players at the Cardinals Carousel. Sunday we went to the Catholic church on campus for the first time which was a lot bigger than the Newman Center at Arkansas - that's for sure! I got officially initiated into the Columbia alumnae chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota (international women's music fraternity) on Sunday, too, which was exciting. And then Monday we didn't do much of anything on our day off...the highlight of the day was Sonic!

Speaking of...their cherry limeade chillers are delicious!

You know you want one right now!

Wednesday was my 6-month "anniversary" at work so I officially get to use paid vacation time now. :-D

And then all excitement was ruined Thursday when we got the dreaded utility bill...
I seriously thought Eric was joking with me when he told me the amount. Boy, oh boy! Michiganders, I think we're going to have to take up your 65 degree thermostat tactics. I've been freezing with it at 70, but maybe it'll be worth it if we can keep a few extra bucks in our pocket. So, you can guess what I'll be shopping for this weekend...

I'll search all of Mid-Missouri if I have to just to find a leopard-print or zebra one!

Yet another reason to add to my list of why I despise winter here. And, my car is still dirty after the snow two weeks ago. No sense in cleaning it off yet since we're getting rain and the roads are still black. At least in Arkansas the snow is melted within a few days and they don't put black stuff all over the roads.

In other news, Eric started school again Tuesday and it seems like it'll be a good semester. I'll see if I can get him to blog about his classes soon.

Happy weekend!

Christmas, Finals, and Life Lately

Whew, has it been a crazy few weeks. Eric just finished up his finals on Tuesday (wahoo!), I went home for my church's bazaar last weekend to sell artwork (which was a huge success - I was very pleased. More on that later!), Amanda came down for a few days, and now we're in the middle of the chaos of finishing up preparations for Christmas. Can I get a few days off to relax now please?! :) (I wish!)

So with the help of my wonderful sister (thanks Kim!), we were able to get a few Christmas cards printed this year. They're nothing fancy, but I thought it was important to start a tradition so that Eric and I would have one every year from the year we got married. I'll share them on here once we get them in the mail. Next year it's my goal to start working on them sooner so I can do something neat and creative.

Eric's out of school now for 5 weeks (I'm so jealous), and I've decided that I definitely don't like the whole "no winter break" thing and having to work the whole time. :) Thankfully though, a few of my girlfriends are in the same situation and we all have to work while our significant others get to do nothing all day. :) At least we encourage each other, LOL. However, I'm finding that it's not all bad - I came home last night to a vacuumed and clean apartment and Eric even had the grocery coupons all printed out. He's also been getting up at 6:45 to fix lunch as usual, too, so I can't complain! (THANK YOU ERIC!)

It's going to be one of our New Year's resolutions to start budgeting even better. We've been doing pretty good, I must say. It's especially been a little more difficult for me to get used to since I'm used to spending some of my paycheck at the mall on clothes. Eric did the whole Dave Ramsey series a few years ago, thanks to Aunt Cindy and Uncle Dave!, and I'm thinking I should probably look into it, too, since I'm not as good as he is. But we have a good envelope system with cash, he has his calculator out every week at the grocery store making sure we don't go over our budget (that's depressing sometimes though, because we reach the limit so quick! Goodbye snacks, sweets, and other good food! :) ), and I'm always trying to find coupons to save a few dollars here and there. My friend Kalyn found a website a few weeks ago that Dave Ramsey is a fan of called e-mealz.com. We haven't created an account yet, but we're going to in the next few days! Check out her blog on the left (Life with the Cavaliers) and read what she has to say about it! I'm definitely excited about it because it tells you how you can budget your money, find good coupons, etc. Now, the next step is how do we get this rising utility bill down?! :) I just about cried when Eric just sent me the bill especially since it was a LOT more and we were gone a whole week for Thanksgiving! Aye aye aye. I just told Emily that I guess we'll be turning off the heat and getting us some Snuggies instead! Oh the life of being newlyweds...

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!