Isn't this just so quaint!

This property is in Sharon, South Carolina which is about 30 minutes from my parents house. It's so cute...and it's even in a little poe-dunk town. (Only about 400 people live in this town .) It's perfect for goats and chickens and a big garden...not to mention all the cosmetic work that needs to be done on it. The asking price? $49,900.

This land parcel (5 acres) in the center of Sharon has the perfect combination of pasture and woods, it even has a stream on the property that leads to a small pond nearby. Sidewalks, Town center, town playground across the street, historic district, charming community. It is less than a 40 mile commute to Charlotte and York county schools are excellent.

This property also includes a 2 story historic home approx 2400 sq ft., 4 + bedrooms, parlor, living room, formal dining room, kitchen, butler's pantry, 2nd story balcony, front porch, back porch. The home needs TLC to bring it back to it's original glory. We purchased this home to relocate to and restore however, family illness has prevented our move from Florida. We can't continue to pay taxes and insurance on two homes. This home deserves to shine again.

We will be showing this home by appointment only. The home was purchased by us in late 2006 for 55,000 and it is valued by York county $78,200, the land alone is worth our asking price. Email me with your questions, I have more pictures, serious inquiries only since we will be traveling from out of state for showings. Home is being sold as-is.


Here's more info that my dad got when he e-mailed the owners:

It will require a new septic tank or French drain system & appliances to make it
livable and a great deal of cosmetic work. The flooring in the bathroom
needs repair, we replaced the subfloor and beams in the one room that had damage
from a water heater that a prior owner left to leak once he lost the home to
foreclosure. The roof has been repaired and there are no leaks. The
home was built around 1910.

Our original plan was to live in it while we fixed it up. We purchased the home cash from an investor who bought the home while in foreclosure. She basically owned the home for a month prior to our purchase. The home was occupied up until then.

Maternity Fashion Show: Take One

This week I got a package of new clothes from my parents & sister...so here's their requested fashion show...

Onto the {maternity} fashion!

You know you're a military brat when...

--If, when you went to a civilian movie theater for the first time, you were shocked to learn that nobody else was standing up before the movie.

--You see a child crying as they say good-bye to their daddy as they go off to combat and you start crying because you know what that feels like. (I have a little girl in my class now who's dad is “on a ship” and she's wearing a bell around her neck, so whenever she misses him she rings the bell. It's cute, but kind of annoying...)

--Your history teacher talks about different war sights in high school and you know where they mean, because you've been there.

--There's a new kid in town, and you can't resist the opportunity to welcome them into the community because you know what it's like to be new.

-- You've learned to write other military family's address in pencil- and you warn people to do the same with yours.

--The national anthem is played at a game and it means much more to you than just time to play ball.

--You never really know how to answer the question "Where are you from?"

--Your knees start to go limp at the sight of a military uniform.

--What will trouble you most about graduating college isn't becoming a real adult, it is that your ID card will expire and you'll become a civilian.

--The term "permanent address" is an oxymoron. (This was laughable when applying for college.)

--Your childhood friends were Christians, Buddhists, Jews, black, white, brown, and you never noticed a difference. (I don't think I noticed race until we moved to Virginia and I was in public school when a black girl asked me why my skin was still dark in winter. I don't know...maybe 'cause I'm injun. I don't think I even knew what to think of the question.)

--Your childhood neighborhood had a "Yard of the Month" award. (My mom won this award numerous times. In Japan, we even got a big torii to sit our front yard because of it.)

--Your base promoted safe driving by arranging wrecked cars with "bloody", mangled mannequins in high-traffic areas.

--"The economy" means going off-base and paying higher local prices.

--by the age of 10, your shot record was more than a page long.

--by the age of 10, you knew how to convert at least one foreign currency to U.S. dollars.

--the church you attended during childhood offered both Protestant and Catholic services.

--It's a daunting task to obtain transcripts from every school you've ever attended.

--All the "nice china" in your house came from the 100 yen store in Japan. (I never got china, but I sure got a lot of dishes there. I miss that place. It was the best.)

-- Bases you have lived on overseas were separated from the "economy" by a barbed-wire fence.

--Your house had a building number rather than an address.

--You cried on September 11th, you were also silently praying that your dad (or your friends, my dad actually warned me which of my friends were likely to be shipped out soonest) won't be sent to war because you knew war was now inevitable

--You have to explain to someone what a "7Day" is

--Your 10th birthday was a big year because you got your own ID card.

--You remember staying in an airport terminal waiting for Space-A.

--Base housing sucks, but you call it home anyway.

--You showed up to school the next day after a big sale at the BX- and 10 other girls are wearing the same shirt.

--You find typical American stereotypes of other cultures odd

--You saw protesters outside the base gate on the way to school on the bus. (Not on the way to school, but it happened.)

--Traveling across the country in one car with two kids and your parents on the way to your next "home" was a vacation. (It was one van, three kids, and my parents. Vacations have rarely, if ever, actually meant a real vacation. It meant traveling across states, oceans, or continents to visit friends and family.)

--The question "where are you from?" becomes a conversation, not just an answer.

--You have to constantly repeat to yourself "My dad is fighting for the freedom for them to do that," so you don't beat the crap out of some civilians for disrespecting the military. (I still have to do this. I have given my fair share of “you get to have your [stupid] opinion, because of what my dad/friends are doing” speeches.)

--Before doing anything too mischievous, you stop and think how it will affect your father's career.

--You experienced culture shock upon arriving in the States. (That first year back was rough...people just didn't/don't get it.)

--You've ever had to face being called down to the office while your dad was deployed.. and crying with relief when it turns out its only your lunch that you forgot at home....or your mom needed something out of the car!

--Saying good-bye is harder not because you're moving, but because you know this won't be the last time you do it. (I've been known to bawl at saying bye to little kids I knew, just because I knew this pattern would keep repeating over and over and over...until they're at least 18.)

--Your civilian friends find it weird that you can make friends in minutes and best friends in hours.

--Those same civilian friends will never understand what you've been through. But that's ok because they're the ones that are missing out. (I wouldn't have always described it as the “best” life, but I wouldn't want anything different. I got to live and experience a way of life that is...I guess there's no real point in trying to explain it, because the only people who will ever really understand are the ones who lived it too.)

So...it's been awhile...

People keep leaving little hints here and there regarding the lack of new posts on my blog. What can I say? I'm pregnant. I'm now past the debilitating exhaustion and have been taking the last few weeks slow. Doing a little bit here, a little bit there. I've been seriously considering updating the blog. Really I have.

It started a few weeks ago around Teacher Appreciation week. I thought it'd be an easy post--the gifts and cute stories. I even took a picture of the things I got planning to post about it. (Obviously, it's yet to happen.)

What has been happening lately? Well, we're now coming to the end of the 16th week of pregnancy. I've gotten a somewhat-noticeable baby bump. My last prenatal visit was the 19th and everything was normal. Heard the heartbeat, got measured, and I've only gained 5lbs. total since the beginning, which my midwife said was on track. The protein and glucose tests I take on each visit come back negative, which is another good thing. Our due date was moved up two days to November 10th, since the baby was measuring bigger in the last ultrasound than our original calculations.

Our next visit is June 19th. It's going to be a significant visit, since it'll be our second ultrasound and we'll (hopefully) get to see the sex of the baby. Joe still doesn't want to know, so he's planning on leaving the room when the technician says boy or girl. But don't worry, I get to tell people--you just can't tell Joe, agreed?

That's all for baby news.

I still haven't experienced the SuperWoman energy people keep talking about in the second trimester, but I am trying to be more productive. Oh, and I'm now able to stay up past 8pm (most nights). But today, I even made a list to help boost my productivity:

Today's To Do List

May 29, 2008

1. Breakfast

2. Swimming

3. Lunch

4. Put away dishes

5. Make bed

6. Make dinner (in progress)

7. Blog Update (in progress)
   

8. E-mail for youth stuff

9. Work

See...I'm being productive. It's a pretty impressive list, isn't it? One thing I have been working on is getting back into a consistent workout program. I was doing pretty good in the beginning until those few weeks of exhaustion came along and all I could do was sleep, work, eat, sleep. Right now, I'm swimming three days a week at the YMCA. My goal is to swim three days a week and walk two.

My swimming workouts are getting better. The first time back in the pool in two years and I kicked my own butt. My body reverted to the need to push a competitive workout and my brain was thinking, 'If it's less than 2000m, then it ain't a workout.' It took a few more swims before I completely adjusted. Now, I'm swimming about 1,000m in about 30 minutes. I am proud of myself, because I've been incorporated butterfly into the swims. And today I swam 200m fly drill. Woo hoo! Maddie just joined the swim team at her school and the other day I was talking to her and she was saying she wasn't going to try fly...so I just had to tell her that if her pregnant sister can swim fly, then she can as well!

Well...it's off to cook dinner. Enjoy the update.

SMS Tutorials

I love it when Sew, Mama, Sew! posts new tutorials. It just makes me what to pull out the fabric and sewing machine and have at it! Here are some of my favorites from this week:

Full Spring Skirt, tutorial at Polka Dot Creations

The Angel Bag, tutorial at Lola...again tutorials!!

And in honor of Earth Day, the Eco Cloth Shopping Bag at SuzStuff

You know...it's only been like 2 weeks since I last posted, right? I mean if you count that the previous 2 weeks were pretty sparse, then it's been almost a month. What can I say? It's been a busy month.

It seems February, March, and April there has been something going on every weekend or during the week. This last week I had a junior high girls overnighter and our women's retreat (in which I was in charge of activities), and the weekend before I was in my friend's wedding. But now I'm over the big hump. There's only two things left in April: a baby shower to attend on the 20th and March for Babies on the 26th.

Now it's time to clean my house...maybe after a nap.

But is this all?

“No thoughtful person can question the fact that, for the most part, the Christian life, as it is generally lived, is not entirely a happy life. A keen observer once said to me,

“You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it. You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything so uncomfortable.”

All of God's children, I am convinced, feel instinctively, in their moments of divine illumination, that a life of inward rest and outward victory is their inalienable right. [...] And yet, to many of you, how different has been your real experience! [...]

• You have not lived as you feel children of God ought to live.

• You have had perhaps a clear understanding of doctrinal truths, but you have not come into possession of their life and power.

• You have rejoiced in your knowledge of the things revealed in the Scriptures, but have not had a living realization of the things themselves, consciously felt in the soul.

• Christ is believed in, talked about, and served, but He is not known as the soul's actual and very life, abiding there forever, and revealing Himself there continually in His beauty.

• You have found Jesus as your Saviour from the penalty of sin, but you have not found Him as your Saviour from its power.

• You have carefully studied the Holy Scriptures, and have gathered much precious truth therefrom, which you have trusted would feed and nourish your spiritual life, but in spite of it all, your souls are starving and dying within you, and you cry out in secret, again and again, for that bread and water of life which you see promised in the Scriptures to all believers.

In the very depths of your hearts, you know that your experience is not a Scriptural experience; that, as an old writer said, your religion is “but a talk to what the early Christians enjoyed, possessed, and lived in.” And your hearts have sunk within you, as, day after day, and year after year, your early visions of triumph have seemed to grow more and more dim, and you have been forced to settle down to the conviction, that the best you can expect from religion is a life of alternate failure and victory, one hour sinning, and the next repenting, and then beginning again, only to fail again, and again to repent.

But is this all?”

from chapter 1 of The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith

Menu Plan Monday

Monday - Sausage Lentil Casserole

Tuesday - Pizza (w/ the family)

Wednesday - Ten Bean Soup

Thursday - Yams, veggies, and TBD

Friday - Artichoke, hummus, flat bread, and veggies

This is today...

So...I haven't been in much of a blogging mood lately. I've been thinking about a few things I want to blog about...hypocrisy in the church (ie, being fake), natural childbirth, preparing for pregnancy, and there was something else I was thinking of this morning...but I don't remember now. I like writing about "stuff," because it helps me process why I'm thinking what I'm thinking and to see where my holes are.

Oh! I remember the other thing...it's the problem with "spiritual experience." And I've also been thinking about the use of spiritual gifts or the lack thereof. Mine in particular. The problem with thinking about these things is that they're not small topics, but I think on them in these little spurts of time and then they get intertwined with each other. I think that's why I want to blog about them. So that each one gets set straight (at least in my own head) by itself.

Then there's a little list of things to do. Some are wants, some are needs. But I'm tired today. I did spend some time updating my Good Reads account. I haven't done that in a while. And I even made a few years. Woohoo! And put in the cute little widget down on the sidebar. Oh, yeah...it's a pretty book list! That's life...at least for today.


Oh...I also got my copy of Lies Young Women Believe (authors Nancy Leigh DeMoss & Dannah Gresh) that I've been looking forward to. I'm reading Lies Women Believe with my CPR group, but I'm excited to read this one and use it with the junior high girls at church. I've got to read it first...

Works-for-Me Wednesday

Because I have a track record of forgetting birthdays and other occasions not only did I get a calendar (and try to use it), but now I start make my own cards ahead of time. Back in November I bought a pack of plain white 25 cards/envelopes from Michaels on sale for $2.50 and then use the scraps from my scrapbooking stack to decorate.

So...back in December I made birthday cards although way through May. It's about time to start making cards for the months after May...time to get to work.

Our Anniversary!

It's been one year...

For our first anniversary, we ate breakfast at one of our favorite little places, Champagne Bakery, and then in the afternoon we went to The Flower Fields in Carlsbad. For dinner, we went to Carver's, a Mueller favorite. (I'm sure you want to know all of this.)

The Flower Fields were beautiful!

What was I thinking? White shoes!

Frugal Fridays: Inexpensive Cards

Recently, I started making my birthday cards in advance. Like months in advance, because birthdays have a tendency to creep up on me.

So, I purchased a pack of cards & envelopes $2.49 and a packet of birthday stickers for about $5. For a total of $7.49 for 25 birthday (or other occasion) cards. I just dip into my scrapbooking scraps and decorate away!

On Being a Princess

Since I've never really shared much of the reason behind Reflections of a Princess,
I thought I'd start here on what being a princess means. Enjoy!

A princess of grace is a woman who has accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior and trusted him with her life. She is on a life-long journey of falling deeper in love with Jesus and binding her life in His. A princess of grace is concerned with God’s glory and renown. Her life purpose is to proclaim Christ in her life—through her thoughts, words, and actions. A princess of grace understands that she is not perfect and sin will still erupt in her life. Though she still struggles with the old self a princess of grace knows that its proper place is at the foot of the cross, and her hope lies in knowing that her position in Christ is eternally set and her condition is continually being sanctified.

A Princess Story [Note: A Princess Story is a novel/spiritual growth book I started and have yet to finish. It has evolved much over the years, since the idea began. I'll share more about it later.] is based on 1 John 3:1 and Psalms 45:10-11, 13. First John 3:1, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Psalms 45:10-11, 13, “Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house. The King is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord...All glorious is the princess within her chamber; her gown is interwoven with gold.”

A princess of grace realizes her position in the kingdom of God. She has been adopted as a daughter possessing the full rights of sonship (Ro. 8:15-17) becoming an heir with Christ. A princess of grace also knows that she is not simply the daughter of a King, but the betrothed of Prince Jesus, who gave up his life and arose from the dead to live with her in eternity forever. She knows that on the day of the Lord her True Love will come to carry her home as His bride, and she waits in patient joy for that day. Until then, a princess of grace spends her time following deeper in love with her Prince, delighting in him as he delights and takes pleasure in her.

When a woman begins the journey with Jesus she forgets and leaves behind her former way of life and is totally loyal to her adoring Prince. He is enthralled by her beauty. He finds no flaw in her (SS 4:7) and takes her unto the higher places to engage in deeper communion with him. The princess may be nervous and a bit scared by approaching the higher places, knowing that struggles and death will be present, but she knows in the end she will reflect more of her King. A princess of grace trusts the infinite knowledge of her Father and trusts the (confident) loving guidance her Prince’s hand holds. She knows neither will leave her and the high places will drive her closer still to each.

A princess of grace knows her journey is life-long and that joys and trials will come. However, she knows everything will be worth it; “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:7-8).

And so, she steps out confidently in faith to journey as a princess of grace. She is joyful and will willingly lose all she has to keep her love, the dream and desire that has so long been held in her heart, an authentic romance.

Menu Plan Monday (on Tuesday)

I did it, finally...but I got a little lazy...I mean tired and posted my shopping list! I'm going to cook this week...I really am! Now, I'm going to go clean my kitchen, because it's crying for me.

Henry's Farmers Market

broccoli (x 2) - $ .77lb

cauliflower (x 2) - $ .77lb

oranges – 5lbs. for $1

cantaloupe (x 2) - $1 each

spinach (x 2) - $ .69 each

apples - $ .79lb.

Strawberries - $2.50 each

green cabbage – 3lbs. for $1

red potatoes - 3lbs. for $1

tangerines (?) - 5lb. bag for $4.99

I'm getting there...just not yet

I've finished all my commenting...now it's time for menu planning.

(Someone just texted me.)

And, don't you know, dinner is still sitting on the counter?

Maybe it'll be a little longer night than I thought. Ouch!

24/7 Prayer Video

I just (started) was reading a GirlTalk post from yesterday, and the line, "You’ve probably never seen a trailer that made you worship, but this one will" reminded me of a video I've been wanting to post.

A friend of ours made it for our church as a promo for 24/7 prayer that's happening during Holy Week. (It's actually happening around the world, so check here to see what's going on in your next of the woods.)

Anyways, here's the video Brian did--all in one sitting! It's pretty awesome, although he did say editing took awhile.

Sleep is kicking in...

I thought I could stay up past nine o'clock just fine tonight. (It's about 10pm now.) But, I'm fading fast. I wanted to spend some time commenting on blogs that have visited me, but my eyes are getting droopy.

You see, last night I fell asleep somewhere between 8:30pm and 9pm (I was reading when it happened, so I can't say exactly...). And Sunday night, I was in bed by 9pm and if you count Saturday night (in Indiana) when we went to bed at 11:15pm east coast time, which is really 8:15pm on the west coast....then this is the latests I've stayed up in that last three days! Woo hoo!

I'm thinking I'll try to push through the tiredness. I mean, I do need to make a menu plan so I can make a grocery shopping list for my shopping day tomorrow. And it seems I can only really do that when I tell myself, "But...I need to post Menu Plan Monday!" (Even though I've already done two dinners this week!)

So...I'm off...

Our March for Babies Letter

Dear Friends & Family,

I'd like to share with you and event I am participating in this year. March for Babies (previously Walk America) is a walk designed to raise funds and awareness in improving the health of babies. Their goal is improve babies health by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality through research, community services, education and advocacy.

This walk is personal for me, since Joe and I lost our baby in the fall due to a miscarriage and dear women in my family have lost children in stillbirths, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and miscarriages. These are no longer things I hear about that happen to other people, but have become a part of my life and history. It is my desire to educate myself and others in helping to bring about healthy babies for all.

There are two ways you can help this cause:

Donate. You can join us by donating as a sponsor by logging onto http://www.marchforbabies.org/justgrace (see the box on the side: Help Me Save Babies).

Join our team. You can join Joe & I as part of our walking team by logging onto http://www.marchforbabies.org/s_team_page.asp?seid=509981 and click on the “Join this team” button.

March for Babies in San Diego will be taking place:

When: 4/26/2008, 9:00 AM Where: Balboa Park, 2125 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA
How long: 5 miles

Thank you,
Joe & Jessica
Team Addison

The Wedding of Mr. & Mrs. W

It was a beautiful, although a bit cold, day in March at the quaintest little church with stained glass windows and a painted pipe organ. It was a small gathering, but full just the same. And a service that reflected the couple's desire for God's glory and His name to be made great among the nations.

I'll have to tell the camel story later. It's pretty good.

(Evidence that we were there and not just my camera!)

A person's a person no matter how small...

I'm so excited about this movie. I think it's going to be adorable. We took the school kids on a field trip in the fall to see Seussical the Musical and the parts from/about Horton Hears a Who were my favorite. The young man who played Horton was such a sympathetic elephant.

March for Babies

I was reading Beth's post on starting a team for March for Babies and it got me thinking on my way to work Thursday morning. I started off thinking if I could do it. Would family and friends walk along side me? How much money would I need to raise? Could I handle it emotionally?

But here's what got me: a team name. At that point, my eyes starting watering up a bit just thinking about what I'd name my team. I knew the name.

I talked with my husband about it in the evening and he said, "Go for it." So I am.

Team Addison.

Our Indiana Adventure continues...

So last night I told you how our original flight was delayed, and it was. But we had more excitement in the airport at St. Louis. We didn't have assigned seats on our flight from St. Louis to Indianapolis, so we were supposed to go to the gate agent and get our sheets.


However, when we got there the gate agent said they weren't assigning seats yet, because they were going to be over their weight limit and some people weren't going to make it on the flight. Can we say a little stress? Ah! I called my grandmother who lives in Highland, IL (about an hour from the airport) and joked with her about how we were coming to visit her. We entertained the idea of just driving to Indianapolis...only about 4 hours, nothing right?


Well...after waiting a little while longer we got on the flight. We made it here. Martinsville, Indiana. It's dark and snowing...about 3 inches. Scary roads for a Southern Californian driver, although I do have a tiny bit of snow driving experience from a snowstorm in South Carolina.

But guess what? Our hotel is next to a Kroger! This is my first one! How exciting... ; )

The bottom line: I'm glad we're here.

It's a party!

Put on your party dress
and break out your dancing shoes!

It's time for The Ultimate Blog Party!

Welcome to the party @ Reflections of a Princess! I'm your hostess, Jessica and resident princess. Why reflections of a princess? Well, a few years back God impressed the passage in Psalm 45 onto my heart that I was His daughter, betrothed to His Son, thus not only a heir to grace but also a princess, part of a royal priesthood. There's a lot that followed after that in what God revealed to me, which you'll find on here occasionally.

But here's a little introduction about myself. (If you care for a longer introduction, click here.)

I'm a 20-something living in Southern California married to a wonderful man. I grew up in the USMC, so I've moved 10 times and lived in 16 different houses! Whew!

As of now, I'm an assistant teacher at a Christian Montessori school. In February, I started working part-time as my husband and I are taking steps to building our family.
(We hit a rough spot in the fall after a miscarriage.)

My hobbies? I love to read, write, scrapbook, and sew (although I don't get to it too often). I'm also a junior high youth leader at my church (going on five years now!), and contrary to popular belief these are not horrible years.

Other random things about me? I like ellipses. Which are these little things...I like Law & Order:SVU is fascinating, even though it freaks me out sometimes. I'm a Biggest Loser fan (and secretly, America's Next Top Model). Oh, and I've been know to have a foot/shoe fetish.

I'd love to get know my fellow bloggers,

so leave a comment and a random fact about yourself! : )

Frugal Friday: Scrapbook Embellishments

Since one of my goals for this year (hopefully, the next 2 to 3 months) is to start a scrapbooking blog/Etsy store, I'm working to shift my focus on Frugal Fridays toward that purpose. And since scrapbooking is such a pricey industry this is one way I hope to inspire people to scrapbook and keep scrapbooking that benefits them financially as well as aesthetically (<-- Can I just say this was one of my favorite words to use in college papers. It's beautiful.).

Frugal Scrapbooking Tip of the Week

Make your own chipboard embellishments. When I first thought about doing this I thought it was too hard. Guess what? It's not. It's actually pretty simple. The hardest part comes with cutting the chipboard. (Not quite sure what chipboard is? Find out here.)


How to Make Chipboard Embellishments:

Supplies You'll Need:

• chipboard
• paper
  
• pencil
• scissors
• a distressing tool (sandpaper or an emery board)
• stencil or shape (to trace)
  
• adhesive

Step-by-Step

1. Trace your shape onto your chipboard. You can also do this freehand.
2. Once you've traced your shapes cut it out.
   
3. Using your adhesive, adhere your chipboard to your paper and then cut it again.
4. If you prefer to keep the edges crisp looking skip the distressing step. (I do it because it makes the little mistakes in cutting go away.) Take your distressing tool and gently sand the edges. This is where making sure your object is soundly adhered is important, otherwise your paper may move during the distressing.

Voila! You're done!

The best thing about this method is that even if you aren't a big scrapbooker with lots of supplies on hand you can still make these. One thing I want to try: homemade chipboard alphabets. Now that will take some time and patience!

Have fun scrapping!

Unexplained Delayed Flights : (

My husband, father-in-law, and I are headed off tomorrow to Indianapolis to a friend's wedding. I booked us the perfect flight, we were going to leave early in the morning and arrive mid-afternoon with enough time to take a break at the hotel before heading out to the rehearsal dinner.

Except...except for at dinner I got a 1-800 number on my cellphone, which I didn't answer because it was dinner time. Then the 1-800 number left me a voice mail. So, then I listened. Our wonderful flight got canceled! And we are now rebooked on a flight that doesn't leave until almost 1pm! Which means we won't get there until 10pm--after the rehearsal dinner and hang out time! Oh, so sad.

I was bummed. Still am, but at least we won't have to wake up at 4am and I still don't have to work. That's the silver lining people. My husband lovingly reminded me that God's in control, which I wanted to respond with a "Grr..." But, yes, of course, God's in the small stuff too.

(I'm adjusting...)

Kudos to my Hubby

My husband started blogging, as an anonymous 20-something on personal finances, in December 2007 and gets pretty consist hits. A few times he's even been a featured blog on different carnivals, which bumps his hits up a bit.

This week, however, he submitted a post on a carnival, and then his hits starting going up like crazy! He was getting something like 100 hits an hour! Why such an increase in hits? His post got picked up by the Consumerist, which apparently is one of the wider read money blogs out there! The next day he found out that the MSN Money blog linked to him as well.

Pretty cool, hubby. Pretty cool.

Just to give you a taste of what this did to his stats here's a graph he made:



You know what the crazy thing about all this is? His post was about Pet Monkeys - The Financial Considerations! (I guess I'm giving a little bit of his anonymity away so...Ssh--don't tell!)

Works-for-Me Wednesday Backsward Day

Here's my thing...I've been married for almost a year now and have not yet had to clean our oven. But after my hubby made some ribs a while back and the juiciness spilled over, now we get a slightly burnt smell when we use our oven. So, I reckon it's time to clean it, but here's my problem...I don't know how!

Are there any products I shoudln't use? Is there a certain way to go about it?

Help, please!

It's a date!

Crystal over at Money Saving Mom asked the question what do you do for dining out. We've kind of have a cheat on the date market considering we have an overflow of restaurant giftcards and two giftcards for Regal Cinema. We use them pretty sparingly so they last a long time.

On Monday, we went on a date (dinner and a movie). We ate at Applebee's ) and then went to see a movie (which was also on a gift card). All in all our date total (out of pocket) came to $9.36, since we were finishing up the giftcard and then the tip. It was great. We also noticed that going out during the week the restaurant and movie theater were both considerably less crowded.

I have to say a bit about the movie we saw Vantage Point. It was good. Usually I'm not into action/suspense movies, but I think getting on the Law & Order: SUV bandwagon has definitely brought me along in that direction. Check out the trailer:




Keeping Dates Frugal

• Stick with water
• Split an entree and get a side dish as well.
• We always fore go dessert.
• Sign-up for different restaurant newsletters even places like Baskin Robbins will send you a coupon for free ice cream (or the like) on birthdays. My favorite is Golden Spoon which sends out free yogurt coupons every other month or so.
  

Have anything you want to add or see others ideas, check out here.

Making Your Home a Haven Monday

So, even though I'm posting this on Tuesday I did do the challenge on Monday. The challenge was to tackle a pile. I started off with one, but ended up doing three. Our mail basket & secret chair, pantry shelf, and the file cabinet.

Oh...and it's called the secret chair, because it's the place where I discreetly place the mail/junk/things to be filed that don't fit in the mail basket and remains unseen because the tablecloth covers it. (*so sneaky*)

Here are my before and after pictures:




Yay! It's all done.