In With the New

After living all week with only one car, and officially getting rid of the Saturn on Thursday, we went and picked up the new Mazda3 yesterday!

It is glorious. It still has not really sunk in that it's really ours. It's weird to ride in it, and it's weird to see Michael driving it. It'll take some adjusting, that's for sure! We'll have plenty of time to get used to it when we get home from Florida. Until then, it'll be here waiting for us.

A few snaps of our new ride:

We love it!

Read more...

Out With the Old

On Monday, Michael went to the gym, and when he came out, his car wouldn't start. Undoubtedly a pain in the ass, but we've actually been anticipating this for the last two years.

You see, Michael's car is OLD. Really old. And when you own a 1996 Saturn with 132,000+ miles on it, you expect that at some point, it's going to crap out.

Our main reason for not replacing it before now was simply that we were enjoying having no car payments. We both work only a handful of miles away from home, so Michael was really only driving his car to/from work and the gym. For longer trips, we always took my car. We were planning to milk the Saturn as long as possible, and if all went well, we'd purchase a new car in August or early September, just before the baby is born. Well, that day came a little earlier than we were hoping, but again, it wasn't really unexpected.

The thing is, we actually could've paid to get the car running again--it turned out that the problems weren't even THAT major; it would've cost about $180 to fix. However, given that we were planning to replace it in a few months anyway, we discovered that we'd hit the point where it was no longer worth the trouble. Plus, we've been looking at Mazdas as a replacement, and as we recently learned, Mazda is offering 0% APR on their loans right now.

On Tuesday night, we shopped around at a couple of different Mazda dealers, figured out exactly what we wanted, and went home to sleep on it. On Wednesday morning, we e-mailed the dealer with the best price, and attempted to negotiate even further. We reached a deal, and during our lunch break, we went and signed the papers. A brand new Mazda was ours for the taking. We just had to wait for it to come in, since they didn't have our exact model/color on the lot. Booooo.

On Thursday morning, before work, we drove over to the shop to take care of the Saturn and wash our hands of it. Initially, we wanted to donate it to Kidney Cars, but the shop was going to charge us for the towing (which we expected), as well as labor for what they had to do to diagnose the problem (not expected). Since we didn't want to spend a single cent on a car that we were planning to trash, we decided to take up the shop owner on his offer to waive the towing and labor costs, and give us $50 cash. It was the path of least resistance and didn't involve us shelling out money for a junker car, so we went with it.

We cleaned out the Saturn and enjoyed a last few laughs at its expense. Now that we were ridding ourselves of it, we could officially admit what a piece of shit it is. I mean, you KNOW you've driven your car into the ground when you willingly walk away with nothing to show for it except a $50 bill. HA!

Still, it was the end of an era. Michael has been driving this car since the end of our freshman year in college in the summer of 2001. We've been together for eight years, and he has driven it for our entire relationship. It was pretty weird to know we were "saying goodbye" to it, but we were certainly more than ready to do so.

But not without snapping a few last photos, of course!

Next to the dumpster, right where it belongs! It actually looks pretty decent from this angle, doesn't it? Well, that's because Saturns are made of PLASTIC. Believe me, this car was a hunk of junk.


Obama '08, baby.


The driver's side, with its broken, hanging sideview mirror. In December, a deer ran into the side of the car while Michael was driving it and broke the mirror (the only damage). We had trouble finding a replacement, so, well, it just never got fixed. GHETTO, I know. But oh, how it makes me laugh.


Michael, showing off our "profit" from finally selling this piece of crap. Have I mentioned that the Saturn is most likely flat as a pancake by now?

Goodbye, Saturn. Despite your obvious physical flaws, you were pretty good to us. Thanks for saving us from years of car payments!

Read more...

Ketchup Day

It's Ketchup Day: January 2010 Edition. Enjoy!
______________________________________________________

Life has been busy and keeping us on our toes. Blogging has been difficult this month, but I'm trying to keep my head above water. I'm happy that January is almost over, because February is a short month (even though it always feels long), and once March hits, it's almost spring.

Every year that I live through winter, I hate it more and more. Don't get me wrong; I like having four seasons. It's just that I wish winter only lasted through Christmas. Really, I'm starting to believe I'm not meant for the cold. I dream of picking up everyone we know and love, and moving (all together!) to a warmer climate. Wouldn't that be nice?

As much as I'm bitching about the cold, we really had a nice weekend. Yesterday was sunny and relatively warm, so we took Tessa for a really long walk. Today wasn't as nice (it rained), but the temperatures were in the 40s so it is hard to complain. Although I always appreciate the warm days that are a reprieve, I'm always a little bit bitter about them because I know they're just a tease. This week, we're back into the 20s and snow, snow, snow. BLAH BLAH BLAH.
______________________________________________________

Remember the heart-wrenching story about little Maddie? Her mommy, Heather, had a new baby on Friday. I couldn't be happier for an internet stranger. The child she lost cannot, of course, ever be replaced, but I feel like love is so tremendously healing, and that darling little Annabel is the best thing that could have happened for her parents.

Ironically, someone else had a baby this weekend, too. Jenny, who I've written about before because her blog was the first I ever saw and read, welcomed her third daughter on Saturday. Like Heather, Jenny lost her first daughter much too soon. Allie died of leukemia in 2004 at just 9 months of age. Today, her second daughter, Maggie, is 4 years old, and the family is now complete with the addition of little Katie.

Happiness all around!
______________________________________________________

A few of you have asked (in the comments of other posts) about our upcoming vacation plans. Well, the truth is that we don't have any. Yet. But we're working on it.

We have several ideas, but we have quite a few balls up in the air right now and we need to get everything straightened out before we start making decisions about any vacations. We're hoping that our next trip will happen around the end of April, but we'll see. I'll be sure to keep you all posted about where we're going next! :)

I think that by the time our next one rolls around, this will have been the longest stretch we've gone between vacations since before we were married... so I'm sure I'm going to be really ready!
______________________________________________________

I've made quite a bit of progress on my 101 in 1001 list lately! I went in on Friday and crossed off and updated a bunch of things. Woohoo! Check it out, if you want.
______________________________________________________

We've been watching football all day. Earlier, we went to Champps for the Jets vs. Colts game. I didn't really know who to root for, as I hate Peyton Manning, and I couldn't in good conscience root for the Jets (they are division rivals for the Bills). By the end, however, I realized that I would have preferred the Jets. I think. I guess I'll never really know. But I found myself scowling when I realized that Peyton and the Colts would be going to the Super Bowl again!

The second game, Vikings vs. Saints, is still going on now, and it's a pretty interesting game so far. I'd really like to see the Saints pull this one out! I like Drew Brees, and let's face it--I've made no secret of how I feel about Brett Favre. We'll see what happens. No matter the outcome, we'll be gathering a small group at our house for the Super Bowl again this year. I always look forward to that!
______________________________________________________

And with that, another weekend comes to a close. I am not looking forward to going back to work this week. It seems like the work weeks are continuously getting longer, while the weekends are getting shorter. *sigh*

Read more...

Rest & Relaxation

What a way to kick off my holiday break!

Tonight, I experienced another first. Thankfully, this one was much more pleasant than yesterday's first.

I got my first massage! It was everything I dreamed it would be.

To make the deal even sweeter: My mom treated me. Thanks, Mom! Oh, and bonus: I got to cross off another item on my 101 in 1001 list. Woohoo!

And now that I've done it, I can't imagine how or why I went 27 years of my life without ever indulging in a massage before.

It was so warm, comfortable, and relaxing. There were a few slightly painful moments when she was working on my neck and shoulder area. She said that I had a lot of knots/tense muscles in there, and said she knew I would when I told her that I work a desk job. But even though it hurt a little, it was also the best part!

Oh, except for when she massaged my scalp. That practically put me to sleep. Unfortunately, the scalp was the last thing she did, so I was just getting into that "place" of deep relaxation when she was all, "OK, Heather, we're done." Bummer. But it was a nice, long, relaxing hour and it was just plain fabulous.

I feel nice and "loose" now, but I also feel a little bit sore! She said not to be surprised if my neck and shoulders ache a bit tomorrow. I never thought that a massage would end up causing me pain! I'm pretty sure it's worth it, though.

And now, I have 12 days of vacation from work! Yesss! I'm one of the lucky ones; my company closes for the holidays every year.

Is there anything better than the first day of vacation? I think not.

Read more...

The World is Ours

Tonight, we tackled #50 on my "101 in 1001" list: Start a newlywed map.

We've been talking about doing this for several weeks now, but as with pretty much everything I do, I had to research it to death. What size map should we get, what color map, what frame would we use, what color map tacks? We debated, we procrastinated, and then... we finally pulled the trigger.

Then, we had all of the supplies, and all we had to do was actually make the thing. And tonight, we decided it would be our after-dinner project. We are thrilled with how it turned out! I just want to keep going into our den to look at it.

Never heard of newlywed map? Well, I hadn't either, until I saw this blog post. I thought it was such a cool idea, so I sent the link to Michael, and he agreed. We definitely wanted to make one for ourselves.

The gist is... you mount a map on foam core, frame it, and then stick tacks into all of the cities you've traveled to together. Of course, you display it on your wall. I love maps as art anyway, so I'm happy to put a map up in our house. The tacks marking our travels really just add a personal touch to it.
Jordan lists out supplies and prices, but ours cost a bit more than hers for some reason. Plus, we framed it, which she didn't do in her example, so that was an added expense as well.

Here is our final supply list as well as costs:
- 36"x 24" world map (executive version) from Mapcenter.com = $12.99
- 1 box medium map tacks (black) from Mapcenter.com = $4.79
- 36"x 24" piece of foam core = $7.50 (with 50% off coupon at Michaels)
- 36"x 24" black frame, glass removed = $27 (on sale, 55% off at Michaels)
- Elmer's spray adhesive = $3 (with 40% off coupon at Michaels)

Total cost for this project, including shipping, tax, etc. was approximately $60-65.

Note: For the foam core, I could not find a piece that was 36"x 24". All of the ones I found were 30"x 20", which is obviously way too small. What I did find, though, was that the foam core trifold display boards (the ones with the big board in the middle with two smaller boards that fold out on the sides) had a 36"x 24" piece as the middle part, so I bought one of those and then we cut the side panels off.

For more information and instructions, be sure to visit Jordan's detailed post.

Obviously there are a lot of options for you to make this map your own--varying types of maps and colors, different map tacks, and endless frame options. Have fun with it!
As you see from the photos I've posted, all of our map tacks are currently in the United States (at least our Hawaii ones put us outside of the continental U.S.!)... now that we have this map, we want to travel even more! Every time we go somewhere new, we'll be able to add another tack.

Also, after we have kids, we plan to use a different color map tack to mark the places we've gone as a family. I think our kids will probably get a kick out of being able to see all the places they've been. We hope to still take trips as a couple (and leave the kids at home!), so we'll keep the black tacks for marking those solo trips as well.

It's nice to think about starting this now, and having the map stick around in our family for a long, long time. So I guess it's best to not really call it a "newlywed map." I think "family travel map" is a better fit.

Go forth... travel... and start your own maps! :)

Read more...

101 Things in 1001 Days

Alright, so I've seen this "project" a few times before, but have never really paid much attention to it. I've been meaning to start it for a while now, but am just now finally getting around to it. I don't ever make New Year's resolutions, or really write down goals for myself, so I figured this would be a good exercise. The only thing was that I underestimated how hard it would be to come up with 101 things! It took a while.

As you see, I've already created a "101 in 1001" tab up under the header on my blog, so I can easily go back to cross things off. In turn, you can also get there easily to check up on me!

We'll see how this goes. I've pledged to donate $5 to charity for every item I'm not able to cross off, so I figure that no matter what happens, some good will come of this!

Not familiar with the 101 Things in 1001 Days project? Check out this website.

The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (i.e. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable, or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (i.e. represent some amount of effort on your part).

Start Date: August 1, 2009
End Date: April 28, 2012

Marriage & Family
1. “Date night” with Michael once a month (9/33)
2. Surprise my husband with a gift just because
3. Get pregnant (and then, please God, STAY pregnant) (COMPLETE 1/12/10 and beyond - Evidence)
4. Talk to my dad every two weeks (20/73)
5. Visit my dad and his family in Virginia
6. Host my family for dinner at our house (2/8)
7. Host Michael’s family for dinner at our house (1/8)
8. Have dinner with my family twice a month (11/66)
9. Create living wills

Mind, Body & Soul
10. Lose 5 lbs. (COMPLETE January 2010)
11. Go a week without weighing myself (COMPLETE 10/15/09)
12. Complete some form of exercise at least 3 times per week
13. Read at least one book per month (9/33)
14. Give up soda for a week (COMPLETE 1/19/10)
15. Get through a month without eating a single frozen lunch (COMPLETE September 2009)
16. Go to church every Sunday for at least a month
17. Get my first massage (COMPLETE 12/22/09 - Evidence)
18. Indulge in a few pedicures (1/5)
19. Try swimming laps for exercise
20. Learn to swim (the different strokes)
21. Go to the eye doctor
22. Ride my bike to work every day for a week
23. Stay away from the M&M jar at work for an entire week (COMPLETE 8/14/09)
24. For one week, go to bed at 9:00 p.m. just to read
25. Eat dinner with the television off for one week
26. Eat dinner with the television off for one month
27. No eating after 8:00 p.m. for a month (0/30)
28. After baby, get back to pre-pregnancy weight

Home Is Where the Heart Is
29. Redecorate our bathroom
30. Tile the floor in the bathroom
31. Replace furnace/central air
32. Replace carpet
33. Replace faucet in the kitchen
34. Empty entire fridge, clean it, then put everything back in
35. Reorganize kitchen cabinets
36. Clean out the den and convert to a nursery (when the time comes!)
37. Buy a new house

All Work, No Play
38. Book my first “stranger” photo shoot
39. Do at least one photo shoot a month (8/33)
40. Invest in two new lenses (0/2)
41. Upgrade my camera (COMPLETE - 1/1/10)
42. Start a family/child photography side business
43. Launch a photography blog and/or website
44. Get accepted into ILP PrePro
45. Get elected as president of a professional organization (COMPLETE - December 2009)
46. Get a better job (COMPLETE 2/23/10 - Evidence)

Hit the Open Road
47. Travel to at least six different cities for weekend getaways/vacations (1/6) -- #1 Chicago; #2 San Antonio; #3 Austin; #4 Key West; #5 Miami
48. Travel to a foreign country (Canada doesn’t count)
49. Get to New York City during the Christmas season
50. Start a “Newlywed Map” (COMPLETE 9/16/09 - Evidence)
51. Go camping
52. Participate in Montreal Bike Festival
53. Visit the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, OH
54. Take a day trip to a state park and have a picnic

I ♥ Food
55. Try at least two new recipes a month (18/66)
56. Take a cooking class with my mom
57. Go out to breakfast (3/5)
58. For one week, make meals that can only be made with ingredients already in our cupboards (excluding perishables—vegetables and dairy)
59. Make homemade pasta
60. Try yogurt again
61. Try oatmeal again

Friends Are Forever
62. Talk to my best friend every two weeks (20/73)
63. Get together with “the girls” from college at least three times per year (2/8)
64. E-mail friends at least once per month (7/33)
65. Catch up with an old friend
66. Throw SuperBowl parties every year (1/2)
67. Send birthday cards to all friends/family in 2011

Pinching Pennies
68. Deposit some EXTRA money into savings after every paycheck (20/73)
69. Increase the percentage of my income that is put into my retirement account

Cha-Ching
70. Buy a new car for Michael (COMPLETE 4/23/10 - Evidence)
71. Buy a Mac
72. Pay off my LASIK eye surgery (COMPLETE 1/22/10)
73. Buy a Nintendo Wii (COMPLETE 12/25/09 - Evidence)

Pay It Forward
74. Grow out and donate my hair (COMPLETE 8/5/09 - Evidence)
75. Clean out closet twice a year and donate old clothes to charity (0/6)
76. Donate blood at every drive held at work (0/10)
77. Donate $ to charity (0/5)
78. Mail packages to soldiers through Operation Baking Gals (2/10)

Just for Fun
79. Do another wine tour
80. Go to an amusement park
81. Go skiing
82. Go to a local museum (COMPLETE - 11/7/09 - Evidence)
83. Get pictures taken in a photo booth
84. Go to a drive-in movie
85. Host a holiday cookie swap

Hobbies & Skills
86. Blog at least 20 times per month (8/33)
87. Redesign my blog again (COMPLETE 1/4/10)
88. Learn to knit
89. Sew something
90. Make a quilt
91. Play my flute again

Capture the Memories
92. Get photos printed and framed to hang in my office at work
93. Get photos printed to hang in bedroom
94. Take more home videos
95. Design a honeymoon album and get it printed
96. Participate in Project 365

No More Procrastinating
97. Finally give album changes to photographer so we can finish our wedding album (COMPLETE - November 2009)
98. Delete my MySpace profile
99. Cancel our Vonage account (no more home phone!) (COMPLETE - 8/31/09)

101 in 1001
100. Donate $5 to charity for every item on this list that I do not complete
101. Start a new 101 Things in 1001 Days list once this one is completed

Read more...