Asia & Chocolate

How rude!

On Monday night I was grocery shopping and minding my own business while buying canned vegetables when a man came up to me and said, "Ha! Are you a Tennessee fan?" He began to taunt me about my Tennessee Titans and their major loss on Sunday to the Patriots. I was also mocked for my Volunteers facing the #1 college team in the nation on Saturday - the Alabama Crimson Tide.

What? Did that just happen? Grown people mock someone because they are wearing another teams colors in the GROCERY STORE?

I could understand if it was game day and I was in Tuscaloosa, but Publix??

Who has ever mocked someone in the grocery store for wearing their team colors? In all the years I've lived in Tennessee I've never once made fun of someone who was wearing an Alabama shirt, or any other team shirt for that matter. I wouldn't think of it! OK, if it was game day, then maybe - but probably not. (Confession: one time I didn't let a lady over in traffic because she had a Georgia Bulldogs tag on her car. But I didn't mock her to her face!)

I've come to the conclusion that I must hold my head high in Alabama and wear my colors proudly. I feel somewhat of a Tennessee martyr. I think I'll start blasting Rocky Top with my windows rolled down the next time I need to run to the store. Maybe it'll annoy the crap out of all those dumb Alabama fans. :)

My blood runs orange. Period. I'll always proudly wear my orange and white. (And I'll even stand up for the Titans, too.)

Domestic Goddess, I am ...

Ha! Well, at least that's what I strive to be. 

I'm sitting here watching my beloved VOLS stomp the crap out of the GA Bulldogs an I'm loving every minute of it. That has absolutely NOTHING to do with being a domestic goddess, but I had to throw it in there.

Since being married, Josh and I have been on a budget. We are blessed with two wonderful incomes and have both been spared (in that respect) from the economic downfall. We are truly blessed and want to be good stewards of those blessings.

That's why we follow the Dave Ramsey plan. If you are in debt, frustrated with your finances, or just don't have a financial plan, I highly recommend the Dave Ramsey plan. It will change your life. I promise.

In order to keep within our budget, I clip coupons like crazy. I follow Southern Savers and Money Saving Mom in order to find the best deals out there for my coupons. I love the feeling of walking out of the store knowing I've saved $50+ dollars on my regular grocery bill.

We also eat at home A LOT. I pack Josh's lunches and I menu plan to our nights at home. I typically cook 3-4 meals a week and then we have leftovers and some frozen meals the rest of the week. We also allow ourselves to go out to eat about once a week for date night. Some weeks we don't do this and other weeks we might go out twice. So it evens out over time. Individually we go out with friends too, but that comes out of our individual "blow money" each month.

My part of all of this is to keep us within the food budget and cook a lot of food from scratch. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a darn good cook. Just ask my husband. :) He lucked out in that department - and can thank my mom for teaching me how to cook over the years.

We eat a lot of chicken recipes because when I find chicken on sale for $1.99 a pound, then I stock up. My freezer is full of chicken right now. And I've found a great recipe for baked chicken. Whenever I need to use cooked chicken in a recipe, I cook it this way. It leaves it moist, tender and quite flavorful!

I got this from Weight Watchers:

Ingredients:

1 spray(s) cooking spray
1 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4 oz halves
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
2 tsp rosemary, fresh, chopped
2 tsp parsley, fresh, chopped
1/4 cup(s) canned chicken broth

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Coat a small, shallow roasting pan with cooking spray.
2. Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Transfer chicken to prepared pan and drizzle with oil; sprinkle with lemon juice, rosemary and parsley. Pour broth around chicken to coat bottom of pan.
3. Bake until chicken is cooked through, about 30 to 35 minutes.
Yields 1 chicken breast half per serving.

(Note: I don't use the parsley or rosemary if I'm just making this chicken to go in another dish.)

Counter Cultural Reading (Part 2)

The second book that was recommended to us was Start Your Family: Inspiration for Having Babies by Steve and Candice Watters. What a bold title, right? It’s funny that in this society it almost feels taboo to carry around a book subtitled Inspiration for Having Babies. But that’s what this book is all about – addressing a somewhat taboo issue in today’s culture.

Sidenote: Candice Watters actually played a role in Josh and I meeting. True story! Part of the reason why I ever joined e-harmony in the first place was because I had read a blog called Women Praying Boldly. The idea was that marriage is what God wants for us, unless He’s given you the gift of singleness. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was supposed to get married. The only problem was that I wasn’t meeting any guys. Her blog/Web site said to put yourself in places where you’ll meet guys who are the kind of guy you would want to marry. I couldn’t think of anywhere literally that I could go to meet guys (definitely not clubbing on the weekends HA!) so I decided to take my dating to the virtual reality. And it’s there that I met my husband! I didn’t realize that this lady was the same one behind the blog until halfway through the book. I encourage all single women out there with the desire to be married to check out her Web site. Good stuff!

OK, back to the book.

This book is awesome! It boldly confronts the misconceptions about having kids. You don’t have to get all your ducks in a row before you have kids; kids don’t ruin your life; they do require sacrifice, but it’s worth it; your biological clock doesn’t tick forever; kids don’t ruin your marriage; etc. As an older couple when we got married, Josh and I obviously have addressed having kids in the near future. And this book calmed a lot of my fears and gave me much inspiration for having babies. ☺

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who’s engaged, married and thinking about kids, or a couple with young kids. I plan to read this to Josh after we finish Sacred Marriage just because it’s so good. I think it will quell any fears he might have about having kids as well.

Counter Cultural Reading (Part 1)

Since we’ve been married, Josh and I have read two great books that came highly recommended and they are just too good not to share …

The first one is Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. I bought the book right before our wedding and Josh & I started reading it together soon after we returned from our honeymoon. One thing we enjoy doing together is reading, so we always have a book we’re reading through together. (This works because I’m a good out-loud-reader and I’m a visual learner. Good thing Josh is an auditory learner, otherwise he’d be out of luck, I guess!)

I had heard of Mr. Thomas’ books before from other bloggers, but had never picked one up before. Let me tell you, this one is amazing! It challenges the cultural belief that marriage is supposed to make you happy and suggests rather that marriage is to make us more holy – more like Christ. What a shocker in today’s culture! It goes totally against the grain of what our society shouts at us everyday: if it doesn’t make you happy, then it’s not worth it. What a load of crap from Satan.

Mr. Thomas discusses disciplines in marriage like service, prayer, love, respect. He also explores ways that married teaches us to persevere, show respect, and forgive. The book is rich with insight and we are reading it quite slow, as we like to discuss the sections of the book. It truly has stirred some great conversations between us. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is married or engaged. It applies to all stages of marriage from newlywed to 60 years of marriage. I think it’s a book we’ll revisit from time to time throughout our marriage.

Stay tuned for the second book tomorrow …

Do you like free stuff?

I do! I am all about free stuff (well, to an extent) ... free, good stuff that I'll use and won't clutter my house. I don't want to take something home just because it's free and never use it, therefore it's cluttering my home. You know what I mean?

But I do like free stuff that I would already buy.

Maybe a year or so ago my friend Patti introduced me to couponing. There are many Web sites out there dedicated to couponing and getting the most bang for your buck when grocery shopping (or other shopping too). There are TONS of deals out there for free or almost free products.

For example, yesterday

I took advantage of the Kashi $5 gift card deal at Target. (I believe it ended yesterday.) And I ended up with 5 boxes of Kashi cereal, 5 boxes of Kashi granola bars and 5 boxes of Kashi cookies for $5. What a steal! And I love Kashi products ... they are healthy and delicious. On top of the gift card deals I had a coupon for $1-$1.50 off each box I bought, so that's why it worked out to be so cheap. I get so excited about spending so little money on things I would buy anyway.

And just today I got a  free  1-year subscription to InStyle magazine!

I never buy magazines anymore because I get them for free, so spending $5 in a checkout line for ONE magazines seems crazy to me! Let me tell you how I did it. Well, the two magazines I already get are Martha Stewart's Living and Elle Decor. I got them both for free by following Money Saving Mom. Every now and then she'll post about a free 1-year subscription to a  magazine just for filling out a survey

But today I was so excited when I woke up to find an e-mail from amazon.com saying that their price for InStyle magazine for a year was only $5. And I has a gift card for $5 to amazon.com from swagbucks.com just waiting to be spent. (If you don't already know about swagbucks.com, then you should go there and download their search engine toolbar. Use their search engine every time to make an internet search and you'll win swagbucks. These swagbucks can be redeemed for all kinds of goodies including amazon.com giftcards or starbucks giftcards. It's awesome and completely FREE!) So, no less than 5 minutes ago I ordered a year's worth of InStyle magainze for free. I LOVE IT!

(I use Money Saving Mom for Target and Walgreen's deals and other little deals here and there. And I use Southern Savers for my weekly Publix shopping trip. You can even print your grocery list directly from her blog. It's awesome!!)

I love blue ...

As our home remodeling draws more and more to a close, I find myself obsessed with paint colors and thinking about how I'm going to decorate the casa.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color blue and right now have three colors of blue that I want to paint in my house. All of which seem to be a color of turquoise. Well, two are and one isn't. I'm beginning to wonder if three different colors of blue will be too much in our 1,300 square-foot home. Mmmm, maybe. :)

These are some swatches of the color we'll be painting in our house (one blue is missing because the contractor has the only swatch I have):

My love of blue has lead me to this Web site ... House of Turquoise

Aren't these gorgeous? My rooms will never look like these because Josh says these are too pink, but I love the blue in these.

My master bedroom, kitchen and guest bathroom will all be blue. I can't wait to put some after pics on here once I get them all decorated.

Home is where the heart is ...

When I met my husband, we dated for a while before I ever went to his house. I actually met his entire family after dating for three weeks and still had not seen his house.

Finally, when the time did arrive for me to see his "man cave" he spent a few days cleaning and fixing things up. His brother came over and helped his fix the mantle over the fireplace. He even rented a carpet cleaner and steam cleaned the carpets. Believe me, it was much needed.

Now, I've got brothers, so I know how messy and dirty boys can be, but Josh's house had a special smell (due to his 7-year-old bulldog who lives inside) and Josh had a high tolerance for dirtiness. :) I love my husband and I was obviously already in love by the time we went to his house (otherwise I might have baccked out ... just kidding, honey). I can't fault him too much, though, he's a guy! And guys are just dirty. :)

So, when we began talking about marriage and where we would live, it was decided that we would live in his house. (I still lived with my parents, so that wasn't an option. :) ) After that decision was made, though, I made a list of things that needed to be fixed before we could live there after the wedding.

It's now been three months after we got married and we still don't live in the house (BUT it's getting closer). And what started out as fixing a few things has turned into a complete remodel/rebuilding of his home. You see, his lovely home is in a beautiful historic district in Huntsville. It's unique, quaint, cute , but the home was built in 1918, and then an addition was built in the 1960's, I believe. Both times it seems that building codes either didn't exist (most likely) or they weren't followed.

Originally we planned to made all of the floors level, and do some painting and DIY projects to spruce the home up. But once we got the ball rolling we discovered that the floor couldn't be level without tearing down the addition and rebuilding it. And one thing lead to another before we realized that it would almost be better to start from (almost) scratch.

This month we've been told that the house should be ready to move into by the end of September. (Keep in mind this process started in March.) And we're crossing our fingers that it would be the case. I'm so ready to finally live in our HOME, and not the one-bedroom apartment we've been living in for the past three months. I'm ready to have walls painted and hang our pictures, be able to use all of our new wedding gifts and just NEST like every newlywed woman wants to do. And I'm so excited for the fact that when we do move in, it will be like moving into an almost completely new home, built just the way we want it! I am so excited!

Here are some pictures from the past few months ...

This is right after they tore down the back half of the house ... messy!

 

And this is the back of the original part of the house, and can you see what's holding it up? Looks like loose pieces of wood. And see how the floor sags in the middle? Not good.

Much better! The foundation has been fixed and now the floor is level.

 

And here they've started to rebuild the foundation on the back of the house ...

 

Right now they are in the middle of framing the back of the house and then will come the roof. I'll post pictures of that, and I'll post pictures of the inside as well once they start working on it.

More to come ...

A sign of marital times ...

Couponing.

It seems like it's taken the place of blogging in my life ... well at least for tonight. :)

Josh & I celebrated our 3 month anniversary by getting up early this morning, working out, Josh making breakfast for me, going to church, and playing golf. Whew! What a day. So, I told Josh I was going to relax tonight and spend time blogging.

But, instead of writing a lot of blogs, I spent the evening cutting coupons, making grocery lists and organizing my food life. :)

The joy of couponing, has come to me over the past year after learning from my friend Patti that you can save a LOT of money on staples from the grocery store/drug store, etc.

If you're not already doing this, then you need to be - if you want to save some money. I typically save about 50% on my grocery bill, but a lot of people save even more. (I'm still learning.)

I love these two Web sites: southernsavers.com and moneysavingmom.com. Check them out to find out how to save tons of money at the store.

I love ...

... or at least talk about these things a lot ...

A current wordle of my blog.

What are YOU talking about?

(Previous wordle)

Excellent Nashville wedding vendors ...

When I got engaged I had a vague idea of what I wanted my wedding to look like and so I immediately began scouring the internet in order to make my dreams come true. But one area I had some trouble with was finding vendors.

ALL of my vendors ended up being discovered through word-of-mouth. Maybe I'm just dense, but it took me forever to find a dance floor rental place - and I found the one I used through my caterer - whom I discovered through a friend of my mom.

So, I thought I'd do Nashville brides a small favor and share my vendors with them ... obviously these people don't just do weddings, so others might benefit as well - not just brides.

Photography: Evin Photography *** Evin is a long, time family friend and talented photographer. She and her partner Sara Mac made my wedding day a day to remember with the beautiful pictures they captured. Visit her Web site (evinphotography.com) and click on "buy prints" ... and then on "Josh & Laura Wedding" (they won't be there forever, so don't wait to see them).

Flowers: A Wedding to Remember *** Both of my brothers used Sue Workman of A Wedding to Remember for their wedding flower. Her pricing is, if not the lowest, then dang near close to the lowest in the industry. The flowers are gorgeous and you will not be disappointed. (Call Sue @ 615-790-3065)

Caterer: Your Place, Not Mine *** This out-of-the-way caterer was recommended by one of my mom's friends. And boy am I glad we listened. Not only was the food GREAT, but the prices couldn't be beat.I would suggest discussing with him how the leftover food will be handled at the end of the night, because my only complaint was that there was a lot of food leftover, and his servers loaded it all up and took it with them. We paid for it, so I would make it clear that you want to keep the food at the end of the night, if you prefer. (Call Mike @ 615-871-9156)

Party Rental: Classic Party Rentals ***My caterer recommended this party rental place, and they turned out to be the perfect fit for me. I rented my table cloths and dance floor from them. Excellent service!

Cake: Linda King ***When I saw this cake at a friend's wedding, Josh and I had only been dating for a few weeks, but I knew this was the cake for me. It was delicious and had cherry blossoms all over it. I LOVED it. So when I got engaged I called up my friend and asked for the name and number of the cake lady. :) It's a couple who bakes cakes out of their home and the price is very reasonable; they will even stay for the reception and serve the cakes themselves for no extra charge. She ended up making Josh's groom's cake as well. We loved them both. (Call Linda @ 615-368-7534)

And now that I'm married and so over all things wedding, I've discovered a great blog for doing a wedding on a budget. I just wish I'd known about her sooner. For all the budget-wise bridal information visit the Budget Savvy Bride Weblog.

Happy wedding/party planning!