I guess I'm boring ;)

My husband said that I haven't posted pictures on my blog for a really long time.. and now it's boring! Why, thanks, Babe! =) I think I am the only wife who has a husband who checks her blog daily!

I decided to just come here and post some pictures....of my handsome hubby.. hehe. Teaches him to tell me my blog is boring! ;)

This picture shows just how much my hubby takes really good care of things he owns. He came home on his lunch break and then .. finished waxing his car! Still in his blue's (that's not his daily uniform.. this one is a "dress" uniform).

And lastly, our bestfriend's got a boat!!! So here's a picture of Brandon on it. My husband and Matt spent the day Saturday cleaning it up and changing the oil on it. I have a feelin' I'm going to be super tan this summer!! Goodbye pasty white legs!! ;)

A Challenge

The husband and I were looking at our finances the other day. Something we do every so often. We did all the math to see how much we were bringing in and how much we were spending. We added up all our bills and all that fun stuff. After all the important things are paid and our money goes to it's proper places, we still have a significant amount of money left over. But it got me thinking, where exactly is our money going?? I want to know how much we are spending a month on food, on diapers, on clothing, on every thing! Of course I have an estimate on how much we spend, but I want to know down to our last penny.


I've tried in the past to keep every single receipt for that month so I could see what we were buying. I've even tried writing every thing down in a notebook and it didn't work. I would always lose a receipt or two and just give up. It's hard when you have to remember to get the receipts from the hubby, too. I could go online and check, but that would only tell me how much we spent and not on what. But after looking at our budget today, I am motivated to find out. It's going to be a lot of work, but it needs to be done. A trip to DisneyWorld is a big motivater, too!! ;)

Last night, we were talking to our friends and we decided to have a little challenge. Absolutely no eating out for the month of February. No quick stops through the drive-thru. No more being lazy --start packing a lunch every night for the husband. Not only will it be healthier for us, but I want to see if there is a drastic change in our checking accounts. The winner of the challenge has to buy dinner at a Japanese restaurant on the 1st of March! Pretty good incentive, right? =)

If anybody has a better, easier way to track spending your spending, I'd love to hear it!

Christmas Eve

We don't have a lot of traditions in our little family. But one that we do have is every Christmas Eve we go drive around neighborhoods and look at all the lights and decorations. We enjoy it a lot. We started this tradition on our 2nd Christmas as a married couple. That year my brother tagged along with us since he was visiting. Last year, Arlene's brother, Kennedy, came with us since he was staying at our place while on Christmas break. And now this year, our bestfriends (who are like family) came along!

There was one house that was just unbelievable. The couple told us they have 87,279 lights all together! Can you believe that? They allow people to walk through their front and back yard to check out all the decorations. It really is amazing. They start putting up lights in September/October just to have it done in time for the Christmas season! Check out these pictures. Wouldn't you love to be their neighbor and have to compete with that!? :P

only in Florida would you see this

only in Florida would you be wearing short sleeves on Christmas Eve

our bestfriends Rebekah & Matt

panoramic view of the backyard

** I am a total slacker.. can't believe I'm posting about our Christmas Eve in January! **

Where is the time going??

Today is December 1st! Already!? What happened to November?

Ever since we all got back home early last week our life hasn't slowed down one bit! When I think back to last week I can hardly even remember what we did! I went to bed Wednesday night thinking I was catching a cold.. what do you know.. Thanksgiving morning I woke up SICK! Probably one of the worst colds I have had in years. It took forever to get ready and we were late, but we finally made it to Brandon's Grandma's house. As the hours went by, I was just getting worse and worse, and definitely not in a giving thanks mood! We decided to leave early and I was going to just go home and go to bed, but we had to go to our bestfriend's house for dinner. Rebekah spent the whole entire day cooking a wonderful meal and I couldn't just not go over! We hung out for a little bit, but I just had to get home. I am so glad we went though, because her cookin' rocks!

I had intended to go out on Black Friday to do some Christmas shopping, but this cold was just too much. I usually get all my hubby's Christmas gifts this day, because all the stuff he wants goes on sale (can we say Craftsman?).

On Saturday, we did make a trip to Toys R Us to get some things for Kyle and I even went to a Pampered Chef party that night. We did a lot of spending this week, but it was all bargains, so it's okay. We scored some pretty great deals online though! As each years go by, I get more of my Christmas shopping done online. Love it! I would share my deals.. but I have family and friends who read this.. and I can't be telling them what their gifts are!! :)

Brandon goes back to work this week, but then he took the next 2 weeks off!! Yay! We love any extra time we get to spend with Daddy. =)

I hate to post without pictures.. but this couch sure is comfy and I am just too lazy to go get the camera! LOL. Our desktop isn't connecting to the internet so we've had to use the laptop to get online. It's much more work to use the laptop then the desktop, so I haven't even been getting online as much. The other day my google reader said I had 136 unread items! I thought just maybe it would be a slow week and not very many people would post.. boy, was I wrong!

Well, that was our week, was yours just as busy and hectic??

Old Friends

Today I was able to go have lunch with two best friends that I grew up with. We met when I was 5yrs old, so I have known them for about 17yrs!!! It was so great to be able to see them again. It has only been two years since I last saw them, but when you see someone pretty much every day for many, many years - two years seems like a loooong time. I wish we could meet up more often, it was fun catching up!! =)

My sister, Marie, Alicia, Courtney, Me, Leah, and Kyle

Alicia, Courtney, Me, Leah, Kyle and my brother, Chris

Unforgettable Moments

I saw this idea a long time ago, and now that I have a blog, I figured this would be a good place to share just a few unforgettable moments. Of course these are in no particular order.

1. The day I came back from Christmas vacation, and Brandon surprised me at the train station. My Mom and brother came to pick me up, and deep down I had a feeling he would be there, too. We weren't dating yet (we had been talking about it though), but the feeling I had when I saw him is unforgettable!

2. The night I trusted Jesus Christ to be my personal Savior. I was spending the night at my K-5 teacher's house and we were going through the Bible story picture cards when she asked me if I was going to heaven. After explaining Heaven and Hell, Jesus' love, and that I was a sinner I asked God to forgive me and was saved.

3. The day my Mom and sister came to "steal" me and my brother from my Dad. My parents were going through their divorce and we were still living with my Dad. My Dad was at work and I was at T-Ball practice when my Mom came and told me to get in the car. We went and picked up my brother from the babysitter's, left Tokyo and drove up to Misawa. Every time I hear any of Madonna's old songs like "Like a Virgin", it reminds me of that long drive home. I was only 5yrs old, too.

4. The day my best friend and her brother sneaked me into their house. Their Dad came home early so I had to jump out of the house through their shower/bathroom window!! I remember Arlene throwing my shoes out the window and running so fast. I looked back and her Dad stuck his head out the window and yelled at me. Funny now, but it wasn't back then!!! LOL

5. The moment Brandon held Kyle for the very first time. His eyes watered and it melted my heart. It made me love my husband even more, if that was even possible. =)

6. The day we found out that baby #2 was A GIRL!!!

7. The day Brandon and I went to go on a cruise for our friend's wedding. We had Brandon's Aunt and Uncle watch Kyle for us. It was so hard waving goodbye and leaving him for the very first time. I cried so hard on the drive to Miami. While on the cruise, every.single.thing reminded me of my baby boy!!! We had a GREAT time though. It was a vacation/honeymoon (we didn't have a honeymoon after our wedding) for us, and I would go on another cruise again. But the next time we do it, I will wait until the kids are a little older.

8. The moment I heard my niece's first cry. I had walked out of the delivery room to call my Mom and Kylie's Dad to let them know that Kylie was about to make her grand entrance. As my friend and I were walking back to the door, we were debating who should open the door (hey, I was only 16yrs old!!) and as soon as I put my hand on the door knob I heard Kylie cry. I opened that door, oh-so-fast!! I will never forget the day my niece was born. I was ecstatic!!

9. The day Kyle locked us out of the house. Leah was just a few months old, sleeping in her crib and we were outside cleaning up. Kyle walked into the house and when I realized he went back inside, I walked over to the door. But it was already too late. Brandon and I stood at the door begging him to unlock the door. There are two locks on the door, and once we got one of the unlocked, he turned the car alarm on! He had gotten a hold of Brandon's keys that were right next to the door. Brandon closed the garage door, I don't remember why (probably to avoid a scene), but when he did it got extremely loud. All I could do was stand there with my hands over my ears tryng not to go into a panic attack. I was about to start crying my eyes out when Brandon had me go to our sliding glass door and yell for Kyle. I banged and banged on the door and finally he came and looked through the blinds. Kyle was able to open the sliding glass door for me. Of course he was crying the entire time because he thought we were locking him out of the house! I never want to go through that again!!

10. The day my hubby came back from his 5wk TDY to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. It was our first "homecoming" and it also happened to be the day he asked me to be his wife!

Do you have any unforgettable moments you'd like to share?! If you do, I'd love to read them. I'm just nosy like that! hehe

Here I am

Okay, so I decided to finally do the blog thing myself. I usually blog on myspace, but Arlene pretty much forced me to move to blogger. So, here I am. I am super new to all this, so all the help I can get would be greatly appreciated.