More puppy pictures!!

Because, who doesn't love puppy pictures???

On spoiling myself......

So, I didn't really mean to spoil myself, but with all of the things I have purchased/received this past week I can't help but feel a bit guilty! So....my big purchase on Thanksgiving that I mentioned in my last post? Drumroll please......................

• A 46" Samsung LCD HDTV!!!!!!! (On super sale, of course!) I've been eyeing up these bad boys for years now and finally decided this fall that I was going to get one. I searched websites, stores, flyers, and read countless reviews on different tvs. This little bundle of joy is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.....just in time for bowl season!!

Also, earlier in the week I made a purchase from Dell Home......a 10.1 inch Dell Mini netbook! I'd been wanting a laptop for a long time, but couldn't quite justify buying one when my desktop works just fine. I got a really good deal on it, and decided that I would rather have this than the new digital camera that I had already saved up money for and was just waiting until it went on sale.

Then came Black Friday. I didn't really need anything and I really didn't want to purchase anything big (since I just bought a TV AND a laptop!) but there were some good deals on a few things that I'd been wanting for a while (and we've been holding off on buying, waiting for a good deal). So I got some new towels for $4 each and a new 600 thread count sheet set for $24. Yay :)

So on Saturday while I was lounging on the couch (watching football and picturing what it's going to look like on my new tv in a few days!!) I decided to log into my Capital One credit card account because I remembered getting a letter from them a few months ago saying they were going to be offering smaller denomination gift cardsfor their miles/rewards program. I had earned 10,000 miles from my credit card using days and decided that I will never earn the 30,000 needed for a one way flight, so I thought I would cash these in after I checked out the gift card situation. To my delight, they had a $100 gift card to spafinder.com which allows you to use their giftcards at various spas. Since I've never been the spa and have a really hard time justifying spending money there, I decided to use my miles to get the spa gift card!! I'm going to get the 55 minute Swedish Massage when I go and I CAN'T WAIT :D

There, I've confessed to the world that I'm selfish and materialistic :( (I'm really not, I just needed to publicly justify all of my purchases so I wouldn't keep on feeling insanely guilty about treating myself). And also, I'm not going to buy anything for myself for like a year!

****Edit: Immediately after writing and posting this blog I was going through my google reader and reading a couple of posts from The Simple Dollar, as I had been meaning to do all day. The third post I clicked on was this post about not feeling guilty about buying certain items. Trent says "Here’s the real truth of the entire story. If it’s something you’re passionate about, you plan for it, and you can afford it, don’t feel guilty about buying it. There’s absolutely nothing “wrong” with living your life and enjoying the things you truly care about." Granted, watching tv isn't as great of a hobby as cooking, but the overall point is the fact that everything else in that sentence is true. Thanks Trent!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! A short list of things I'm thankful for this year:

• The health of my friends and family
• A job that is rewarding and that I love
• Having amazingly supportive parents
• Working with a great group of coworkers
• Having a nice apartment and a cute but sometimes crazy puppy
• All of our friends here in Birmingham that I'm going to miss like crazy when we start to scatter all over the country
• A husband who is patient and kind even when I'm crazy and neurotic
• Tom and I working right across the street from each other so we can get by with only one car
• My oven light being fixed just in time for Thanksgiving Dinner!

We had a pretty amazing Thanksgiving Day. We started the day off with a Breakfast Casserole and some fresh fruit. I then made dessert (had to be put in the fridge for a while) and then got distracted by some pretty good deals on Bestbuy.com. Stay tuned to find out what I bought ;) The puppies were getting pretty rowdy (we're dog sitting miss Bentley), so we took them to the dog park to play, with the hopes that they would crash for the rest of the afternoon/evening while I cooked (it kinda worked). Then I came home and cooked up a pretty awesome meal with a TON of food while we watched football in the background. My menu consisted of:

• Herb roasted turkey
• Mom's Baked Oyster Casserole
• Homemade stuffing
• Baked apples
• And I was going to make glazed carrots but we seriously already had so much food I decided to just wait until another day to make the carrots.
• And for dessert......Chocolate chip cheesecake muffins! (with chocolate chips mixed in with the cheesecake mixture!)

With the leftover turkey I'm going to make Paige's Best Ever Homemade Turkey Noodle Soup, Pioneer Woman's Turkey Pot Pie, and some turkey salad.

Awesome things of last week

• We went to dinner (Habanero's...woo wooo) with our friends Brian and Anne who were heading out of town for a conference followed by Thanksgiving visits with family. Brian gave me this book from his dad (Thanks Mr. Dranka!!!) from The Pioneer Woman's website which I love!! Her recipes are awesome because she gives you a step-by-step photo how to. Saturday morning for breakfast we made Egg-in-a-hole and Tom said it's the best thing he's ever eaten....although, he says that at least once every 1-2 weeks...he's easy to please :)

• My favorite radio station in Birmingham, Live 100.5 always has awesome give-aways that you can call in to win. I've been trying to call in from time to time and you usually have to be caller #5 to win. I've called in probably 10 times and 9 of the times I was caller #4 (once I was caller #3). I was beginning to think that there was a conspiracy against me. Last week were driving to work, listening to the radio, as always, and Reg started talking about an acoustic concert coming up that benefits Children's Hospital. Train is the band who is playing and in case you don't remember, I kind of love their new song "Hey Soul Sister." Reg said he had a pair of tickets to give away to caller number 17. Totally random since he ALWAYS gives them to caller #5. So I decided to call and guess who is caller #5??? ME! Too bad I had to be caller #17 to win! So I called again and I was caller #13 and then I called again and I was caller #17!! Wooooo! I won!!! So Tom and I will be going to see an acoustic show of Train and Serena Rider (sp) Friday December 4th at 5 Points Music Hall if anyone wants to join us!! (Tickets are only $15).

• The next day driving into work we were listening to my favorite radio station again and they were giving away a $50 gift certificate to a local spa!! I've never been to the spa so I was going to try my luck and call in to win. Well, guess what? I was caller #5, I won, but since I won the day before I couldn't actually win :( Reg said he appreciates my honesty so I'm hoping he appreciates it enough to slip a $50 gift card to the spa in with my free Train tickets when I go to pick them up ;)

• Every Sunday I go out and buy the paper. A few weeks ago a friend told me she got a good deal on the paper, 26 weeks of the Sunday/Wednesday paper for $1/week. I checked the mail on Wednesday when we got home and there it was, the same exact offer! It was so wonderful to just open the front door and have the paper be there this morning!

This week should hold more awesome things as Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Stay tuned for more posts! I promise I'll be a better blogger this week!

Jason and Nicole's Ridiculously Awesome Wedding Weekend

Last Thursday we piled ourselves in the car and made the 12 hour drive to Pittsburgh to see Tom's good friend Jay get married. There are a couple of things you should know before I get started in case you don't have the pleasure of knowing Jay:

1) He's crazy (in a good way, of course). Completely wild. Just to give you an idea, I think he has an airhorn located in every room in his house in case the Flyers score a goal while he's not in front of the tv and he jumped in the pool in his tux after our wedding.

2) He's one of the most dedicated Philadelphia sports fans I've ever met

3) Nicole is from Pittsburgh

4) Philadelphia and Pittsburgh fans don't get along

The drive itself was not actually that bad. We had nothing but open road ahead of us both ways and didn't hit any traffic at all. Tom drove and I got to sit back and enjoy the scenary. We passed some interesting things along the way (specifically in West Virginia), including Fayetteville, WV, apparently voted one of the "Top 10 Coolest Small Towns in America" (seriously - they had a sign), home of Marian McQuade, founder of National Grandparents Day (another sign), and the western hemisphere's longest arch bridge (thank GOODNESS I didn't know how high up I was when we were driving over it...I might have freaked out at little!)

Friday we got to catch up with our good friends Joe and Laura while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. Jay wanted to make sure Pittsburgh knew that there were Philly fans in town.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner at a fun little Italian restaurant, DeNunzio's. Thanks to Laura and my awesome detective work (and google), we found the restaurant without a problem. Jay got all of the groomsmen Phillies jerseys (except for Nicole's brothers - they got Steelers jerseys).

After the party it's the hotel lobby........(50 awesome points for whoever can name that song!) We caught up with everyone else after the rehearsal dinner. There was a cozy fireplace, a serious game of poker, and some not-so serious games including "One Brown Bear" and "Yama-Yama."

The ceremony itself was really nice. Oh, did I mention there were 22 people in the bridal party?! Yeah, it was huge.

We got to the reception and had a few minutes to mingle before the real ridiculousness began. They served PEPPERONI CHEESE as an hors devour which actually had tiny pieces of pepperoni in the cheese. This was the best thing ever and I can't believe I've never had it before!! I'm very excited about it and hope to find somewhere to buy it soon!!

Then the bridal party made their entrance. OF COURSE all of the guys had their Phillies/Eagles/Steelers jerseys on for this part. Each couple walked in to parts of different songs and then Jay and Nicole entered to the Rocky song "Eye of the Tiger." And they didn't just enter, they had a choreographed knock-out entrance complete with boxing gloves and the Rocky champion belt (Nicole won).

Next came the best Best Man speech ever. Jay's older brother Steve gave a really funny speech, and after everyone cheers'd he had one more question for everyone. "What is the best thing to ever come out of Pittsburgh, besides Nicole?" Of course all of the Pittsburgh people in the crowd started yelling "Six superbowl championships" but they were wrong. The real answer is "I-76 STRAIGHT TO PHILADELPHIA!!!!" and then immediately the Eagles fight song started blaring and all of the groomsmen and Jay stood up on their chairs (at the head table) and strated screaming the Eagles fight song. Awesome.

Just when everything calmed down again, the bridal party was called up for the bridal party dance. They started out slow dancing to "I've had the time of my Life" when all of the sudden the music stopped, everyone looked quite confused, and Bust A Move started playing. Everyone in the bridal party formed 2 lines across from their partner and Jay and Nicole started to bust a move down the line, followed by each couple in the wedding party. Luckily I had the inside scoop so I was able to get the whole thing on video. *Video to be posted soon - Be sure to check back, you don't want to miss this, trust me!*

Later in the night everyone was enjoying themselves on the dance floor when the DJ called Nicole to the center of the dance floor and placed a chair in the middle of the giant circle of people for her to sit on. Next thing we know, Jay has the mic and is wearing some pretty ridiculous props compliments of the DJ and starts serenading Nicole with Baby Got Back. Yeah, the whole thing, start to finish. Classy ;) Somehow I missed the garter toss which included a rubber chicken and a ginormous pair of old lady underwear. The rest of the evening was comprised of some great music, fun dancing, and even more props provided by the DJ.

Sunday we said our Goodbyes and made our 12 hour journey back home. We stopped to pick up Bailey from her BFF Jack's house on the way home and she was super excited to see us. Jack, however, was whining to Paige (his mommy) because he knew that us being there meant Bailey was about to leave. I'll post some pics of their Best Weekend Ever as soon as I get them from Paige. It looks like they had a blast!!

Drumroll please.........

I got all this....

....for $2.50!!!!

Awesome, right? I big puffy heart Publix! Here is how I did it:

• Dove Deodorant: Full price $4.49, BOGO coupon in the Publix Green Advantage Buy Flyer paired with 2 (since buying 2 deodorants) $2 off coupons here
• Campbell's Select Soup: currently BOGO ($1.20 each) with this coupon for $1 off
• Tylenol: On sale for $3.99, $3 off coupon in the Publix Green Advantage Buy Flyer combined with a $1 off coupon from the Sunday paper

**Publix allows you to combine a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon on the same item...one of the many reasons why they are awesome!!**

Weekend Festivities

Friday after work we kicked off the weekend by heading to Jim 'N Nick's to celebrate with our friend Brian, who defended his thesis and now officially has his PhD!!

Saturday we went to the Moss Rock Festival with some friends. It was like a super-mini Arts Fest complete with cake tasting, microbrews and live music. We had a good time.

Sunday I made chicken tortilla casserole (yum) and tried my hand at some carrot cake since we had leftover carrots. We have a busy week coming up to prepare for Jay and Nicole's wedding trip. Stay tuned for some random posts to keep you occupied!! Bailey apparently had a tiresome weekend too, this is how I found her Sunday afternoon.

Things to do before I turn 35

Around my 29th birthday, I started thinking about how at one point in time I had wanted to make a list of things to do before I turned 30. Unfortunately that never happened, so I started to make a list of things to do before I turn 35. I forgot about it and came across it the other day while I was looking for something else on my computer. The cool thing is I can already cross one thing off my list!! Here it is...a work in progress.



Things to Do Before I turn 35

• Have a baby (or maybe 2…or maybe 1 with another on the way)
• Buy a house (or be in the buying process)
• Be studying for, or have already taken (AND PASSED!) my PCS exam (Pediatric Certified Specialist)
• Spend a day (or weekend!) at the spa (and not worry about how much money I’m spending)
• Go to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver (not sure if this one is going to happen!)
• Buy a new couch (the most super comfy awesome couch ever)
• Own 2 flat screens, at least a 42” one in the living room and at least a 32” one in the bedroom :D
• Still be blogging :)
• Have Bailey trained so she can be out of her crate 24/7
• Open a Roth IRA
• Be in some kind of leadership role at work Done!!
• Have thoroughly gone through everything we own so we don’t have a lot of clutter or extra stuff we don't really need
• See the Eagles win a Superbowl (Ha!)
• Have 33% of my student loans paid off
• Go to a Penn State away game

I'm sure I'll think of more in the next 5 1/2 years, but this is a good start for now :)

October Goal Recap

October Goals
1. Increase savings by 10% Pass!
2. Run a 5K. Pass! We ran the Race for the Cure a few weekends ago
3. Successfully bake a pumpkin roll Pass! I ended up making 2 and both turned out great!
4. Take pile of stuff stashed behind the bar to Good Will Fail. It's all still sitting there :( (Erin - could you still use some of it for your garage sales?)
5. Open a Roth IRA. Um, you guys are going to kill me. I just can't bite the bullet and do this!!! I don't know what my problem is. I think it will be my goal to do this by the end of the year. Or maybe it will turn into my New Year's resolution ;)

November Goals
1. Do back exercises EVERY DAY to prepare for 12 hour drive to Pittsburgh!
2. Plan meals for the whole month of November
3. Come in 10-15% under budget every week.
4. Be at work by 7:45 every morning (We were awesome at this until last week - maybe it was anticipating the time change but we could just NOT get out of bed)
5. Get caught up on all of my paperwork and projects at work Ha. This is a lofty goal.
6. Buy a new trash can! Our current one is broken from a "football watching incident" and it is DRIVING ME NUTS!

Weekend Top 10 (with pictures)

(In no particular order)

10. Penn State won!!

9. Helping a criminal escape

8. Eagles and Phillies are BOTH on tv in Alabama today (even though the Phillies are making me very nervous right now!!! :/ )

7. Charleston Breakfast Casserole

6. Halloween party #1

5. Halloween party #2

4. Eagles DESTROYED the Giants today!!

3. Spent $29 and saved $67 at Publix

2. Caramel Apple Pork Chops with rice and asparagus. Yum :)

1. Bailey got to play at Birmingham's first fenced-in dog park with all (most) of her friends!