Good Deal.

I have to admit that I am a huge fan of all the deals from Living Social, Groupon, and other websites. Today I found out about a couple of national deals that were just too great to not share will everyone who reads the blog.

Through June 13th, you can visit Restaurant.com and get multiple gift certificates to local restaurants for as low as $2 each. Just click on this link, enter your zip code, and find what restaurants in your area are offering gift cards for cheap! Enter the promo code "DEAL" in the box after you've added them to your cart to get up to an 80% discount. I bought four $25 gift cards to Triple J Steakhouse here in Lubbock--an amazing and usually way too expensive place for us to eat! I got each gift card for $3.50...yeah yeah! Oh also, make sure to read the conditions for the gift card before you buy it---there are some that require you to spend (for example) $50 to use your $25 gift card. Still a great deal though!

ALSO, Living Social is offering 2 movie tickets for $9 through Fandango today! I was so excited when I saw this, because movies are so expensive but we still love to go when we can. Click here to buy them.

Yay for saving money. Have a great day!

Oh, P.S.

Source: prettystuff.tumblr.com via Emily on Pinterest

WOW. I am in love.

Lately.

I am happy to say that our Memorial Day weekend proved to be a successful one. A picture-less one (my apologies), but still very memorable.
We did a whole lot of....nothing. And it was amazing. Much needed.

Well, I guess I'm lying. We didn't do anything fun with other people (we've decided to take on a hermit lifestyle), but we did have a lot of fun at home by ourselves doing house projects, watching movies, shopping, and reading.

Is it bad that I can't even remember what I did on Friday? Let's see...........oh! Ok, I remember. Well, as I pointed out in my last post, Bryan began the ever-messy process of tiling the master bathroom. I began the ever-relaxing process of reading my new book. Haha, kidding. Kinda. I read all Friday afternoon and then spent ohhhhhh 4 hours cleaning the house. Yes, just four. But it is VERY clean now. Like deep clean. And I was able to reorganize our pantry as well as all of the kitchen cabinets. AND I put down shelf-liner (long overdue), AND I cleaned out and reorganized the fridge. Point, Katy.

On Saturday, Bryan headed to graduation for LHS, I cleaned some more, and then we both spent the day doing pretty much nothing. I read, Bryan played video games, we ordered pizza, and it was perfect.

On Sunday, Bryan got up early (like 6am early) and went golfing with a couple of coaches from LHS. We skipped church. I know, bad. Anyway, we met up for lunch (after my trip to TJ Maxx) and then headed into town to buy all of our supplies/decor for the master bedroom! Exciting stuff. Bryan especially loved the decor part (that was probably the most sarcastic comment I've ever made in my life). Plans are coming along nicely, and even look somewhat like the inspiration board I showed you a few months ago:

Speaking of inspiration...I was going through my StumbleUpon today (Don't know what StumbleUpon is? Well, I suggest you jump on the wagon, because you are definitely missing out), and came across this master of all craft websites: Craft Gawker. I cannot wait to do some of these projects!

And back to our weekend summary:
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On Sunday night, we went to see "Water for Elephants"...so good! I have to say, usually I like the book a whole lot more than the movie, but this time I was equally satisfied with both! After the movie, we came home where a lot more of nothing was done (or not done?)....Bryan played more video games, and I finished my book! Sobbing. Can I just say that while Firefly Lane is one of my new favorites, it is also the one book that has made me cry more than other book I have ever read? Ok, I'm saying it. I think I bawled for 2 hours. Seriously. But it's so good! I can't stop thinking about the characters. Everyone should read it, just grab a box of tissues for the last oooooh, 100 pages or so.

On Monday we both got back to work--I did some more shopping, some of which included grocery shopping so it was necessary :), pulled weeds in the flower beds, and Bryan started painting the bathroom! Hallelujah.

And here is what we have today:

Still a definite work in progress, but I am already so excited for it! I can't wait to show the final results.

We also went to see "The Hangover Part II" on Monday night with a few of the other coaches. It was funny...but very unoriginal and extremely disgusting. I was a little disappointed, but I kind of expected it with a sequel.

I also thought I should mention the "tease" we got tonight. I could have sworn it was going to storm. It looked so promising:

Guess not. We need rain SO bad. I don't think we've had a good rain (or any rain) since September.

Well, that's pretty much it! Can't wait to show you all our pretty new master bedroom and bathroom!!

My Week In Bullets

You know when you have those crazy weeks and the only way you can organize their events in your mind is to list them in bullets? No? Okay, maybe it's just me.

Here are a few of the fun, stressful, random, and meaningful events that happened this week.

• My Birthday! It was a very crazy day at work, and afterwards my sweet friends were nice enough to take me to dinner at Abuelo's (aka very good Mexican food). They even surprised me with a cake and a gift card to Gap!

• When I got home from my Birthday dinner, I was also surprised to find my sweet husband baking me another birthday cake! (This has been cake week....I've had it for dinner pretty much every night.) He had a game that night, but he still wanted to do something special... so sweet :).
• If you can't tell, Bryan spelled out "23!" with the candles in the cake. He also ran out of icing, which is why the top is the only part that's iced. Oh, and he pointed out that candle packs only come with 24 candles, so our new definition of being old is when you need more than one pack of candles....which means that in 2 short years, I will be very depressed.
• Bryan let me pick out the movie for the night....Tristan and Isolde. Very good, but very sad.

• I also had a great time talking with my mother-in-law, mom, dad,  and aunt Kathy, and listening to the sweetest birthday message from my Nanny and Papaw. That's one of the reasons I love birthdays, you get to talk with so many people that you love!
• Tuesday was a big day because Bryan and I became an aunt and uncle! Sweet Hensley Rae was born at around 7:00 on Tuesday night. We've been recieving picture updates ever since.

• We already love her and her chunky cheeks. I can't wait to meet her when I go to Houston next week!
• Tuesday was also extremely busy because we had the Graduate Dinner for all of the seniors at LCU. We spent the whole day setting up and I got home at around 8:30 that night.

• Wednesday was yet again busy at work, but the best part of the day was going to meet with our small group at church that night. We've had such a great time getting to know our new small group and we really look forward to Sundays and Wednesdays now!
• Thursday wasn't really that busy, unless you count me spending an hour killing grass and weeds in the backyard as busy...
• But I did finish a really great book called The Lake of Dead Languages. It was kind of dark, but really, really good. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting something new to read.

• On Friday, Bryan and I enjoyed our day off and did pretty much absolutely nothing. I started a new book and we watched Tangled and The King's Speech (loved them both!!), but nothing productive was accomplished....I suppose we all need days like that though, right?
• Saturday.....Saturday was my sweet sister Laura's birthday!! She turned 19 (which is so hard for me to believe!). Laura, if you're reading this, I hope you have a very happy and blessed year! I look up to you so much and I appreciate your sweet, genuine personality everyday!! Love and miss you!!

• I also got a chance to go shopping (where I might have spent a little too much money...), and went to lunch with one of my good friends, Megan, at this new place called Manna. If you are local and haven't been, you need to go! It doesn't even feel like you're in Lubbock, and the food is great! After lunch Megan and I did some more shopping and I picked up the cutest gifts for Hensley....like so cute they make me want to cry. I can't wait to give them to her next weekend!

I hope everyone has big plans for Easter Sunday!! Enjoy the warm weather, new dresses, and time with family and friends, I know I will!

Spring Break

Happy St. Patricks Day! I hope you wear some green!
We made it back from Colorado yesterday afternoon and Bryan had just enough time to install our new TV before heading off to baseball practice.

Before the switch:

And after! It looks like I need to rearrange the wall decor now...

Oh and in case you're wondering, the old TV is going in our bedroom. Looks like we won't have to fight over who gets control of the TV now!

Today is the first day of yard work....I'm kind of dreading the whole sweating/hard work part, but can't wait to see it all finished!

You can see more of the designs my mom made for our yard HERE.

The current plan is to get all the basics installed along with a few plants and then add more overtime. So it definitely won't look like the pictures above right away, but it sure will look a lot better than it does now!

Confessions

So....

Firstly, I would like to apologize for my lack of personal posts. I know that I originally started this blog to document our house projects AND our personal life, but honestly we have been complete losers lately and have just been hanging around the house when we aren't at work. Well, I actually take that back....we DO have friends and we DO hang out with them fairly often, but I'm horrible at taking pictures at any sort of "outing" with people, mainly because I don't want to be "that girl with the blog and the camera". So for the extreme lack of pictures with people in them....I am sorry. :)

Now that I've gotten my apology out, I would like to continue disappointing those of you who read this for personal posts with a HUGE secret that I've been hiding in my house.

For anyone who reads this blog and knows me personally, you know that I am a self-admitted neat freak. Like bad. Like, to the point that it has annoyed every roommate I've ever had and is often more of a character flaw than anything else. SO, you will be shocked when you find out my secret.

You may either gasp or laugh when you see this picture...choose one or the other:

I KNOW. It's terrible. Bryan keeps calling me Monica because of that one episode of Friends when Chandler finds her secret junk closet and discovers that she really wasn't the clean freak that he thought she was (that's one of my favorites by the way). Well people, I don't have a junk closet, I have a junk ROOM.

It didn't originally start out this way, but it has been like this since....Christmas.

You are probably thinking, "Why on earth is she showing me this?" Well, after spending the last year looking through blogs and magazines that feature pictures of "perfect" homes, I found myself wanting that form of perfection and wanting it NOW. In the last few months however, I have realized that it's okay to have crap in the corners....it's okay for things to not be done, and for things to get messy. It also really annoys me when people act like their whole life is perfect....no one's is, so I wanted to do my part and show you that I am definitely a part of the "imperfect club".

Now, don't think that I have changed my "neat freak" ways. Just like Monica, I keep the rest of the house pretty clean (90% of the time), and I actually do have future plans to turn the junk room into a craft/office/scrapbook/gift wrap room. BIG plans. Be excited.

Here are some of my inspiration photos (I pulled these LONG ago...and don't remember where they are from):

For now however, the junk room will continue to be the catch-all of the house unless I randomly have the time and energy to tackle it once and for all. Until then, I have slowly been making my way through all of the drawers, bins, and closets in the house to declutter and re-organize (I try to do this every few months....I'm not a fan of junk drawers and messy closets). In fact, I got a whopping 3 trash bags full of clothes to donate just from MY dresser and half of the closet.

This doesn't include the 2 bags that are already out in the garage from the last time I cleaned out the closets almost 2 months ago!

I would also like to wish a pretty belated birthday to my Nanny! She celebrated her birthday last Thursday and of course I forgot to post it! (If you think I'm bad with this, you should see me try to send cards...) I don't know how much she gets to read this at the moment, but if you see this, I love you Nanny and miss you so much and can't wait to see you this summer!!

Ok, random post: complete.

Birthdays and Sick Days

Blah, I've felt like such a slacker lately mostly due to the fact that I feel like DEATH. I've had a 101 degree fever all day today...and I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon. I don't do well with being sick, especially when there are other things I need/want to do!

I also wanted to send out a shout-out to my WONDERFUL mom for her birthday!!! Sorry, I'm almost late....but this fever thing kind of threw me off. Anyway...thank you for being SO amazing and for loving me even though I probably drive you crazy 90% of the time. You are so talented and fun and I want to be like you when I grow up! LOVE YOU!

I used the oreo cake picture again because I know you liked it :).

I will hopefully (depending on how I'm feeling) be doing some more fun projects this weekend so there should be some interesting posts coming up!

Sick Day

Well, this weekend will be pretty low key because Bryan's sick!

I went to Wal-Mart last night to stock up on medicine, Ramen, and Gatorade....so we should be good from here on out! We were doing to redecorate the guest room this weekend with new bedding and new paint (that I bought 4 months ago...), but that may have to wait (unless I randomly feel like doing that on my own).

I hope your weekend's more eventful than ours!