10k in 8 months??

Remember how I told you here that we had a gameplan? Yeah, well, just when I jumped on board Z's idea, we hit a roadblock, and it's back to the drawing board. The latest idea is Real Estate. Z's already read books, and had me attend a seminar with him on the subject. Now, we can't drive ANYWHERE without noticing simple things about people home's that could be improved and greatly increase the curb appeal and value. I personally like the idea because it means flexibility! Meaning, even if we did start out here in the midwest, there's always the option of moving back home and doing the same thing. So anway, this shift of plans has made us define our "save-like-crazy" philosophy a bit more..

To the tune of $10,000 in the next 8 months.

Eek! Sounds like a lot, but we've outlined a budget that will take care of it. The toughest part for me is going to be cutting out my "flex" budget. In our previous budget we each had $100/month to spend on "whatever". For me, it had been cute things for the house, clothing, girly stuff, etc. In an effort to save, we eliminated that.

I thought it would be horrible, but when I think ahead to what we're saving for- our own home, and financial stability- it makes me feel so much better. I am SO looking forward to what our future holds, and walking by that undeniably gorgeous new handbag isn't so hard when I think about what I'm trading it for. Besides, I think my current plethora of handbags that are taking up two of those back-of-the-door bag-hanging stips, will do just fine. :)

So why am I rambling on about this on my blog? Just to give you a heads up on what's to come- Lots of Budget-friendly ideas that replace the overlooked dollar-eating items, activities, etc. I'm no expert on the subject, but hopefully my attempts to tighten the budget reins will help someone else in doing the same! Feel free to share your own ideas or $-saving finds!

Budget-friendly Idea #1- Say goodbye to Blockbuster.

• To rent a movie there you pay ~$5 for a 5-night rental. Redbox & some grocery stores offer movies for $1/day
• If you're like me, you watch a movie once and return it. I can't watch a movie more than once unless there's a large enough time gap in between that I've forgotten most of it (which happens more than I care to admit). Do you really need a movie for 5 nights? As long as you can be responsible about returning it on time, You can save ~$4 per movie.
• Say you rent 2 movies/week (average for us- sometimes it's just 1). That's a savings of $32 per month, $384 per year. Not a lot, but it's a start.
  
• Redbox sends Z a text message every Monday with a code for a free rental. So that means we'd save $480/year if we only rented movies on Mondays! Not bad! Of course, weekends are a more popular time to rent movies, but I don't mind cuddling up for a movie on a Monday night! You can sign up for the text messages on their website.
  
• If Redbox or the local grocery store doesn't have the selection you want, it's much easier to swallow $5 once in a while than the $480/year.
  

Oh My Wordle!!

Thanks to those of you who participated in the wordle.net I posted about the other day! And, as promised, here's your very own wordles!

Lucy from Lucy's Life is a great cook & her wordle shows just how much she loves to write about cooking!

Christina from Another Day in Paradise whipped up a wordle that displayed words from her entertaining musings on everyday life. I love the colors she picked!

I had to laugh when I saw S. from a.little.bit.delirious's wordle! This girl loves her some Margaritas apparently!

Thanks for doing this girls! It was fun to see them!!

A Perfect Illustration

Is it just me or was this professor extremely wise in doing this?

Note: I don't know who to credit this story to, as I received it in an email. But just so you know- I didn't write it. :)

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said okay, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little..

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.

On the Same Team

God gave me a little reminder last night about how we need to view our marriage. Z and I have really been trying to figure some things out lately, and make some important decisions. We disagree on a decently important issue, and it was beginning to feel like the fact that we had opposite beliefs was getting between us.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks! We're on the same team!

We shouldn't be facing each other when disagreements come up, we should be facing the disagreement together. Make sense? In case I just lost you- here's my LAME illustration. :) We start out aiming at the problem from different sides, but usually we get so passionate we 'overshoot' and end up wounding the other person. If you first come together and unite yourselves, you can attack the problem together. Oh yeah, the orange blob is the problem. Attack the problem, not each other. :)

I like to compare it to a sports team or a family.

When you're part of a team, you will not go far without team unity and loyalty. And with my family, they came first no matter what. Doing things for friends came after doing things for my family. They were my TEAM. And if it came down to it, I'd choose my team, or my family over anyone or anything else. If you're in a game and a player from the opposite team intentionally fouls and injures someone on your team, you're gonna work your butt off trying to shut them down the rest of the game.Why? 'Cause that's where your loyalty lies. If anyone does something to hurt the team, it clearly defines them as the opponent.

I realized that Z is my number one partner in this life - my number one teammate. When a problem or a disagreement comes up, it should be something that we team up and tackle together. If another human being says or does anything negative to our relationship it should only bring us closer together and make us stronger. Even if we may feel that we agree with someone else more than with each other, our loyalty has to lie with our spouse. Simply "taking sides" with someone else can create a wall between us.

We were serious when we took those vows. And we're still serious about them now. We made a commitment to fight for our marriage no matter what. And when the goal is to vanquish the problem, and not convince or defeat the other person, we have a common goal, something that we can fight for together. So instead of problems causing a split, they give us something to work together on. And boy, is that a whole lot healthier for our relationship!!Us sporting our "team" T-shirts the night before our wedding. The backs said BRIDE 08 & GROOM 08.

New Header

I really don't mean to overload your RSS feeders, but I had to let you know about an awesome site I just used to create my new blog header (click out of your readers & take a look!).

The website is http://fotoflexer.com. It's very advances and user-friendly for a web-based photo-editing program! Try it out!


Reminder: You have until Friday to make your own wordle before I post them!!

Fettuccine with Creamy Red Pepper & Feta Sauce

Last night I tried out this recipe on my ever willing taste-tester, Z. :) He says thumbs up, just add some salt & pepper! :)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• 1 (16-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese or a 6-ounce block
• 1 pound whole-wheat fettuccine
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft, about 10 minutes. Add roasted peppers and saute until heated through. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Place mixture in the bowl of a food processor with stock and all but 2 tablespoons of the feta. Process until combined and smooth, about 30 seconds. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Toss pasta with sauce, adding pasta water by the tablespoon, if needed. Sauce should cling nicely to pasta. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Divide among pasta bowls. Sprinkle with parsley and remaining feta cheese.

**If you don't have a food processor, a blender works just fine!**

Happy April Fools Day!

And Rabbit Rabbit!! [For those of you who have no idea why I just said that- My mom told us that a professor of hers in college told them that if you say Rabbit Rabbit to people on the first day of the month before they can say it to you, then you'll have good luck for that month. Personally, I don't believe in luck- it's just a competitive little game that I partake in. And since I've been beat by my mother, one sister, husband and high school friend already this morning, I had to say it to all of you to make myself feel better. :)]

Anyway... I tried to think of a crafty little April Fools joke for all of you, but I have too much to do at work today to come up with one. So, instead, I figured I'd share what I view as the best practical joke I ever fell for.

I went to a Christian Academy in high school, and for some reason the students and teachers seemed to be into the whole April Fools thing. Like, once the teachers were all in on faking getting 2 friends and myself in trouble- detention slip and all. Another time I convinced a teacher to photocopy an amusing picture of a friend onto the back of all the quizzes he gave out that day. Great fun. But the greatest prank of all - hands down - was played on the entire student body and faculty by my genius mastermind computer teacher.

Just so you can fully appreciate this- this guy is a genuine, self-admitted computer whiz geek. And, that is not derogatory at all. He's brilliant. K, so here's the story:

It's about 11am and my headmaster comes over the intercom with an announcement. We should say a prayer because there has been an internet-based attack on Christians by Islam extremists. If teachers were willing, the computer lab was open for classes to come in and view what was going on. So, pretty much every class took their turn filing into the lab and checking out the situation.

We were told we could view the story at cnn.com. The front page of their website told the story: Islam extremist computer hackers had somehow taken over the internet, and EVERYWHERE the word "Christian" appeared, it had been changed to "Islam" or "Islamic".

At first we didn't believe it, but then the computer teacher told us to go to any website we wanted and see for ourselves. So we did, and sure enough- it was changed. Every. Single. Time. We were shocked, as were our teachers.

Well, we went to lunch, and it was the talk of the cafeteria. No one could believe it! Other April Fools jokes were going on everywhere, but no one questioned this!

Towards the end of the school day, I happened to be in the main floor hallway and saw my computer teacher heading into the headmaster's office. I wondered what was up.

Minutes later, the headmaster comes over the intercom again and announces in an amused tone that "Mr. S has fooled us all". Yep, somehow he'd found a way to pull this all off. I still don't get how he did it. None of us do. Like I said - genius. And best April-Fooler ever.