Lovely things

Ella in her first pair of jeans and the pretty pretty roses Sam gave me this morning!

Sweet Samy!

This morning I woke up and took a shower. Sam had told me he had to stay late at work for a meeting. While getting ready I heard Sam come it. He hands me a card- one of the SWEETEST cards I've ever received. It was about growing old together. Then he handed me two dozen beautiful roses and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him (again)! Today is exactly two years from when he proposed to me. "Yes!! Of course!" I said. I'm so very blessed to have such a sweet, romantic husband. I love you baby.

I know they're not good for me, but I'm chowing down on a couple of corn dogs right now. Yum yum :)Gonna head over to my sister's house in a bit to hang out while Sam sleeps. I can't wait til the day he is off nights. It's really hard on us. We're always on opposite schedules. Not fun at all. But I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. We are very grateful for his job- it's a really good job. Just don't like that we don't get to spend as much time together as we'd like.

Short post today. I need to do some things before I heady to my sister's. Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

errrggg!

That is my sound of frustration. The other day I spent a couple of hours trying to revamp my blog, including lots of new coding and other stuff I have no idea how to do. I found a website that gives step-by-step instructions for tech illiterate people like myself. I follow every instruction, and right at the end I couldn't download a file I needed to make the whole thing work. Errrrgg! :sigh: Maybe I'll try again when I have spare time to waste.

I just came back from a bridal shower a couple of hours ago. A good friend from high school is getting married in a few weeks. It was strange but nice see people from my high school softball team there- people I haven't seen since I graduated. I found out that the bride, one of my good friends back then, went to Italy to play for a U.S. college softball team!! How amazing is that?! Who does stuff like that?! I am so proud of her! She's always been really good, but Italy? I'm so impressed that she played ball in college and just kept her dedication to the sport. Go girl :)

I need to upload some pics of Ella. Haven't posted any in a while. My sweet baby! She's almost 6 months now. Isn't that just nuts? She's pretty much mastered the art of rolling over, and now she's trying to figure out the crawling bit. It's so cute to see her try to coordinate her movements. Sometimes, I'll put a toy in front of her, just out of reach (I know, I'm so mean). But lo and behold, she finds a way to get it!

Ah! We have so many weddings coming up! I thought spring was wedding season... not this year. So far we have:
-Kourtney and Landry
-Micah and Bradley
-Kristen and Evan
-Roni and Chandler (just married)

So, the same day as my last post about the care package- I went as planned to WalMart and got all the stuff. Before my post that day, I had already gone to the post office to find out how much shipping to Afghanistan costs and get the box so I would know what would fit in it. I asked the post office man all my questions about shipping overseas and was all set!

Or so I thought. I got all the stuff and taped the box well to ship half way around the world, addressed it and went to the post office to mail it. Errrgg! So, I tell the man (same guy) that I'm ready to pay. He says, "Did you fill out the customs form?" "No, wasn't aware that I had to." He says, "Yeah, just fill this out." So I step aside and do as told. This was after waiting in line already like 10 minutes because some lady had to ship like 20 pairs of shoes to people all over the country- yeah, heard her whole story. Anyway, I fill out the form and hand it back to the man, and he says, "Oh, you have to go over it again, to make sure all the carbon copies are legible." OOOOOKKKK! I didn't see it when he first told me to fill out the form. It would've been nice if he said that to begin with. So there I go to the side again and fill out the form so that alllllll the carbon copies are legible (7 total). Yeah, I had to press freakin' hard.

Ok, back to the annoying post office man. "Here you go," I say as politely as I can. "Oh, no," he says :( "Do you have more than 4 items in here?" he says. "Um, yes. I have lots of snacks in there for my cousin." "Well, this isn't going to work, ma'am. You have to list each item and it's value." What? Are you SERIOUS?! WHY ARE YOU JUST NOW TELLING ME THIS?!!!!

I say, "Really, like how many packets of ramen noodles and cans of tuna? Really?"
"Yes ma'am," says that wonderful post office man AFTER my box was sealed and ready to ship. So I just got my pretty, duct taped all over box and left. :sigh: It's still sitting in the same spot in my laundry room the day I came back from the post office. Still sealed up all nice and tight. I so don't want to go through that whole process again :( Poopy post office man.

Well, I suppose that's enough for now. Here are some pics of my beautiful little girl.

Care package

I want to send my cousin a care package today. When Ella wakes up from her nap, I think we'll go together. Sam's working on homework. At 6 o'clock we have a dinner party for a good friend. It's her birthday today! I love birthdays.

What kind of stuff do you put in a care package? I think I'll google it, but for now these are some things I'm going to buy when the princess awakens:
- trail mix
- chocolate covered pretzels
- pb&j
- jelly bellies
- beef jerky
- protein smoothies
- ramen noodles cups
- fruit cups
- mac & cheese
- granola bars
- pic of Ella (we just got some made last month and they're ADORABLE!!)
- homemade card

Anyway, short post today. Toodleloo!

I want...

I was talking to Sam tonight about something I've been thinking about. I don't mean to compare... at all... because I'm really really happy with my life. I've just been thinking that there are things I want to do that I haven't done yet. But I'm really excited, because now I get to do them with Sam and Ella. I guess what I want most of these things I speak is to travel. I told Sam that I want to make it a yearly thing to take a family vacation, just our little family.

My whole reason for bringing this up is that Sam and I are both so responsible. We can definitely afford to take trips, even if they're bigger trips. But, we're both so responsible when it comes to saving that we don't. I don't mean to say that we never go anywhere- we do. We take trips to different places and have fun together :) I just want to make memories with him and El Bell in all different places.

Sidenote!: Sam surprised me so wonderfully last night! I feel like such a dork- but I'll get to that part. When we layed down to sleep last night, I rolled over and felt something funny under my pillow. I pulled it out and it was a journal Sam had written a note to me in. It was a really cute note, and at the beginning it said, "Right now, I'm probably trying to find a way to get you to look under the bed..." Well, I just read right past that to the rest of the note and when I finished, Sam pointed to that line. I re-read it and moved my hand under the pillow. Finding nothing, I looked at him funny, like "what?" Haha, he started looking at me and was laughing. I re-read it (again) and realized it said under the bed, lol... not the pillow.
So down on my knees, I got to look under the bed- and what did I find?!?!
A digital camcorder!! Yay!!!! I've been wanting one since I was pregnant with Ella! He got a really really nice one :) We've already taken several videos and I absolutely, positively like it :) Thank you Honey Bear <3

So done with the sidenote...

Anyway, Sam and I are really good at saving, and we're getting better and better at it. We always think things like, "We don't really need it", when we want to buy something and waste money. I just don't want to be like that when it comes to making memories with my family. I really want to travel and see different places with them, especially now that we have the camcorder and can record awesome places and new things. I want to make it a tradition to take a yearly family vacation to new and different places.

Ideas:
-Grand Canyon
-Maine
-Virginia
-North Carolina (I'm not sure why I put Virginia and North Carolina- just seem like cool places to go to)
-Montana
-NYC (Not really sure I want to take little kids here- but maybe one day)
-Any national park ( We super duper love camping)

I will add to this list as I think of new places- perhaps I'll add a tab from my homepage just for my places to go, but I'll have to figure out how to do that first.

Getting things done

Started reading a new book last night. It's the most challenging book I've read in quite a long time. It's scripturally and historically based and hurts my brain. But- it is very very interesting and I want to learn more! I'm going to take notes, and even went to Office Depot today to buy new highlighters and post-its :)

This morning Sam and I went and got Ella's pics taken. FINALLY! Ahh, can't believe it took me 4 1/2 months to do it. I've thought about it almost everyday and kept procrastinating.

I'm really excited. The budget Sam and I started last month allowed us to increase our savings quite substantially. And, honestly, we only stuck with it hardcore for the first half of the month. It kinda went out the window after that. We used to eat out all the time and when we started the budget to the middle of the month, we ate out just once or twice. For us that is AWESOME! I'm just proud that we showed ourselves we can do it. But we've recommitted to start again at the beginning of September. It's nice to see our savings grow with diligence :)
I think I'm going to help my little sis develop a budget for when she goes back to college. I'm really pretty good when it comes to saving and budgeting :)

Random note to self: I don't want to introduce the following foods to Ella or the rest of our future kids (God willing) for a loooooong time
1) corndogs
2) chicken nuggets
3) hot dogs
I know too many little kids that want only those things and are waaay too picky.

I'm off to budget for Andi!

So tired....

Work completely sucked today. And I never say that.

I'm so completely tired. I don't want to go back tomorrow.

Uggh.