Destination Wedding?

*this is not a sponsored post*

Has anyone had a destination wedding? I've been thinking about having one.

Now before you get all in a tizzy, the man and I eloped and didn't have a "traditional" wedding, and we'd like to renew our vows. I want to do the whole traditional white wedding, but he has refused. Flat out refused. We actually fought about it the other night, and it was awful.

We have been married almost 10 years, and together for almost 11, and I just want to do something special for us. So this morning we were talking, and I asked him what he would like to do when we renew our vows. He said he would like to do a destination wedding, and mentioned Florida. Only immediate family, and anyone else who feels like flying out there and can afford it (a lot of my family actually).

I have to admit, I am intrigued. Though I am struggling with giving up the whole fancy princess dress, reception thing. At the time we got married, I didn't really care about giving that up, because we had already said we would do a "real" wedding one day. Now he is balking at that idea and wants to do something more creative. I don't regret eloping, but still wish we had done things a little differently, or been able to do a vow renewal sooner or something.

I googled "Florida Destination Weddings" and came up with a few neat sites. FloridaWeddings charges only $2300 for "The Ultimate Dream". Not too bad at all! They provide all the photos, an officiant, flowers, video, music, a consultant and a marriage certificate if you need one. We wouldn't as this would be a vow renewal. And if you wanted additional decor items, they provide them too for an extra cost. I actually really like this package!

But we won't be able to do this for awhile, and my hubby wants to do it for our 15th anniversary. I don't want to wait that long, but I suppose it would be best and we could do it for a milestone anniversary. It really isn't that far away anyway, I mean we've already been married almost 10 years and that has flown by. And we'd do it the summer before our 15th, so really, only 4.5 years away! He thought that we could go on a cruise after wards for our honeymoon. Doesn't that sound like fun?

But what do you wear to a Beach wedding? I still want the traditional type gown, but need something more suitable for the beach. I know its very early to plan, but it is fun to dream about it, right?

Financial Update

On Monday my husband and I went to the bank to *finally* open a savings account. We didn't put as much into it initially as we had wanted to, but still set up a monthly draft from our checking account to our savings account. It has been a goal of ours to finally have a savings account, so we are happy we were finally able to accomplish that goal.

With the new account we're also able to do 6 transfers online and unlimited in the branch. Our idea was to take the money that we saved from paying off our credit cards and our daughter's bedroom set, and put that into the account each month when the original bill was due. That helps keep me accountable at least, and it's like I am just paying another bill.

Today we came upon a bit of extra cash, unexpectedly. My husband is a truck driver and saves up all his change. He HATES to pay with change, so he just tosses it into a drawer he has in his truck. So before he came home, he transferred it all into a half gallon jug and filled it up 1/4 of the way. And at Wal Mart today, while buying groceries, we used Coin Star and cashed it in. We were able to get $150!!! There were over 1000 pennies in there alone! And best of all, the money went straight into our savings account, on top of what we had put in there today when we opened it.

Hooray!

Make It From Scratch Carnival

A big thank you to MamaBear over at GottaLittleSpaceToFill for including my post, Skillet For Breakfast, in this weeks edition of the Make It From Scratch Carnival

I really enjoy making, and eating, lol, Skillet. We've had it a couple times since I originally posted the recipe. I even made it for my husband's 29th birthday last Friday.

My New Obsession Saves The Earth

I just recently got into reusable shopping bags, and I have now amassed quite a selection.

I love that I don't have to carry bags upon bags of groceries into the house, and I can now use my reusable bags and have to carry in less than half of what I previously did.

I have about 8 blue Wal Mart bags, 3 Safeway bags, 1 large Target bag and 1 smaller target bag, and one large Gymboree bag as shown below



When I was at Ikea with my husband on Friday, I was also able to pick up 4 other bags that I love. I actually took home all our stuff in the bags. Two are navy blue and red with floral prints, one was black with bright circles and lines all over it, and the last was green with the same print. Now I can just take them with me when I go shopping and don't have to worry about plastic bags anymore. Though I still do need plastic bags for some things (like cleaning out the litter box), so I guess we'll have to use some plastic once in awhile.

I was able to get all of these bags for less than $2 each (I think I spent less than $10-12 total to get them all, if that), and the Wal Mart ones were only .50 cents. I want to get some more "stylish" bags, but unfortunately all the nice ones are so expensive. I really like my Target, Ikea and Gymboree bags, but the Wal Mart and Safeway bags are just bare bones.

Does anyone know where I can find some cute, affordable, reusable bags? Even if you have a shop on Etsy, I might be interested in buying some!!

Did you know that each reusable bag used can potentially eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime? I found that out at Reusablebags.com When I go grocery shopping, I use tons and tons of plastic bags. So by using my 16 reusable bags, I have now elminiated 16,000 plastic bags!!!

Another interesting fact that I found was how plastic bags are created:

"These days, most plastic bags are made from a type of plastic called polyethylene. 80% of polyethylene is produced from natural gas - an abundant, yet non-renewable resource. Polyethylene, as a raw material, can be manipulated into any shape, size, form or color. It’s watertight and can made UV resistant. It can be printed on and reused many, many times. In many cases, it can be recycled but is not considered “cradle to cradle” meaning it cannot be recycled over and over nor returned to an organic state."
GreenFeet.com

I'd love to quote more from the above mentioned blog, but there is just a plethora of information, so I highly suggest you go and read it yourself. I found it a very very interesting article to read.

The Trip To Ikea

Yesterday I promised you all a synopsis of my trip to Ikea. It's not very exciting, but I was very happy with what we were able to buy.

The man and I had plans to leave home at 8AM. We didn't get out of the house till 9AM, and then to Ikea about 10:30 or so. I had so much fun shopping. We don't get to Ikea very often, so I always find some sort of treasure there.

After we were done shopping, we headed over to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch, as it was my husband's birthday. After that we headed home, only to go out again that night for dinner with the family and shopping at the mall for his birthday present. My mom was here and also wanted to buy the twins' their birthday gifts. While we were there, I landed up getting our youngest daughter's ears pierced (she turned 3 yesterday!!). We had a busy day, and an even busier weekend.

We got two floor lamps, for only 7.99 each!


I also got a lazy susan, a glass canister for spaghetti noodles, new glasses for the kitchen, 2 storage jars/candy jars, bread knife and another knife set (we haven't bought new knives in years), a new whisk that I needed, some spatulas, cutlery/bowls and cups for our youngest daughter. We also bought a few other things like some napkins, power strips that we needed for behind the TV, and a few packs of swedish cookies for the kids that we also tried, lol.


These are my "candy" jars


This is for my pasta/spaghetti noodles.

My Lazy Susan, which sits atop my new table.

And the stuff for our daughter:






The man and I got a little lost in Ikea. That place is HUGE!!! He said he wanted to look at the dining sets, so I took that to mean he wanted to look in the warehouse. Nope. He wanted to look at everything put together, so we had to back track through the store and find the table and chairs we wanted. We found it and then we paid. I LOVE the new table and chairs. I would take a picture of it now, but it is covered in craft supplies due to a "Robot" homework assignment, and an "About Me Poster" both due tomorrow.

It was well past the time we purchased a new table and chairs. We've had the same one for 9 years! It was the set we bought when we were first married, and we outgrew it ages ago. It is solid, very solid, and very heavy. We could fit 10 people around it if we wanted to, but we only bought 6 chairs. 8 would fit comfortably.

Here it is:





I'm already counting down to my next trip! We're going to Canada this summer, so maybe we'll stop in there. There is one about ten minutes from my mom's house. Yaay!


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My Day

Brand new table and chairs from Ikea- $600
Cheescake Factory for lunch- $72
Budget rental van- $130
Putting out your back because of said van and no good shocks: Owww.

Yep, I put out my back today. After a wonderful day with my husband at Ikea, his birthday lunch at The Cheesecake Factory (oh my the food was delish!!!), and driving home on King Country roads in a cargo van that has shocks not made for the weight of just two people and a table and chairs, I put my back out.

Nope, I didn't do any heavy lifting. I only helped my husband carry the box with the table into the house, and that was really only about 65lbs of weight for me. It was the bumpy roads of King County, combined with the shocks of a big ass cargo van.

I'm in agony. But at least I have a nice new kitchen table and chairs that my husband so lovingly put together for us tonight, on his 29th Birthday! Oh yeah, Happy Birthday Sexy Man, I love you more than anything!!!

Look for a post soon containing the other details about my weekend, and the goodies I bought at Ikea!

Ok, So Today Was Supposed To Start Well

So yesterday I spent the whole day running errands, doing laundry, mopping, dusting and general cleaning up to make the house perfect for my hubby. The kids went to bed, and I folded some more laundry, took a shower and shaved. Then I did my nails. I got to bed about 12:45...much too late, but that always happens when I do all this stuff.

I'm very tired and accustomed to waking up at 7/7:15 each morning, so I knew I wasn't going to get much sleep at all, but what's done is done. Imagine my irritability going way way up when a very loud, very obnoxious, 8 year old girl decides to wake herself up, and her sisters, at 6:15 and take up residence in the living room, right beside my bedroom. Where I have very thin walls.

Then my husband called me. He is supposed to be on his way home already because he had two quick drops/deliveries this morning. Or so we thought. A certain company, which shall not be named, decided to reject 6...yes 6, pallets of salad bowls. Now my husband has to go find a soup kitchen or something and give it to them. And he also has to go to his other stop and deliver their stuff. What was supposed to be a quick stop at this 2nd drop, will now turn into an ordeal because they now have to remove 6 additional pallets to access their 2 pallets.

So much for having a full day with my husband before the kids came home. Gah!

What do I do to pass the time till I have to go pick him up now? I have several options (keep in mind I am already showered):

Load & unload the dishwasher, and put away the dishes I had to wash by hand
Get dressed
Do my hair and makeup
Go shopping for meaningless things
Sit around and blog
Make my bed
Watch TV
Go to Goodwill

I think I like the 4th and last options the best! lol

Make It From Scratch Carnival

Here is a big thank you to Tim at Applehead, for including my post It Was TuTu Easy in this week's edition of the Make It From Scratch Carnival.

Skillet For Breakfast

Yesterday for breakfast I made a new favorite of ours: Skillet. It is such a simple name for something so delicious. My husband is a big advocate of the kids having a hot breakfast as much as possible, so I usually make this or pancakes on the weekends. I don't have time on school days, so usually we just have hot oatmeal.



Skillet:

You will need a large frying pan

2-3 small to medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 dozen eggs, whisked with a bit of milk, salt and pepper
chopped cooked ham
Cheddar cheese
Optional: diced onion and green peppers

First you're going to take your potatoes, and fry them up with a dash of salt and olive oil. Wait till they are nice and golden brown and easily pierced with a fork, and then take them out of the frying pan and place into a bowl.

In the same frying pan, now pour your eggs and let them cook for a few minutes before they start to solidify. Then start to scramble them. Once they start to solidify, add the chopped ham. I usually use 1/2 to 1 cup ham. Let that cook for awhile longer until the eggs are more cooked.

Lastly, add your already cooked potatoes and as much cheese as you want, to the frying pan, and let cook till you think your eggs are done.

Voila, you're done!


It is so easy to make, and even more delicious! It feeds about 5 people a substantial breakfast. That's me and the kids. You could also add some green pepper or onions, but I ran out of those so I didn't add them. I can imagine it would taste even better with those additions.

February Shopping Summary

Well, my grand total for the month of February was *drum roll please* $175.97.

That total DOES include the two t-shirts I bought for the Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes, the other tights/t-neck my daughter needed for a performance, and does NOT include some returns I did from my online Old Navy order. So, if I take all those away, I am left with $138.93, which is not too bad! It is more than I like to spend, but also seeing that my husband ok'd the Old Navy order, then I say I did pretty well. If you want to take it even further than that, then my total would be just 86.99 if I took off the old navy order, and anything needed for school.

The jeans I bought for 4.99 were paid for with my pay pal money, which I had earned with blogging money. The tops I bought at the Gymboree outlet, I paid for with cash I had saved up in my wallet and that my hubby had given me.

All in all, I don't think I did too bad at all. I just realized I did forget to add a couple goodwill purchases to my tracker, namely yesterday's for the denim dress, and a value village trip for shorts for the boy. I didn't count those though in the total because they were needed items. Everything that was not necessarily needed RIGHT NOW was included in the 86.99.

Right now I am doing another one for groceries, just to see how much I am actually spending on food and toiletries/household items for ONE month. I am keeping all my receipts in an envelope and will tally on March 17th. As of today I have 17 more days to count. I am not trying to cut back on anything for the month, I just want to see where our money is going. This includes ALL grocery items, toiletries, pet food and supplies, cleaning items. I am pretty sure I am well over what I thought I was at, so if i am correct, I am going to try pare it down the following month (April 18-May 18).

I think I liked doing the spending tracker, and I'll be doing it for clothes again this month!

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Just wanted to add that NONE of this was put on a credit card. I used my debit card or cash for each purchase!