Amazing Site for the Frugal at Heart!

For anyone into saving some money, you should check out this amazing website. She has really great ideas for how to organize your coupons, and get the best bang for your buck! My sisters and my mom and I have tried to be better at coupon-ing, and this is a really great way to do it. Everytime Randy and I go to the store and use coupons, Randy asks "How much did we save??" Who doesn't want to save money while grocery shopping?? Seriously, check out her site!!!

Current Obsessions :)

Okay, so I've decided to tell you about the things that I am *currently* obsessed about. First, I am totally obsessed with cake decorating. Not just ANY cake decorating, but fondant! My first attempt at fondant was actually pretty successful... With a few minor bumps along the way. Let me just tell you that fondant has this amazing quality of covering up cake disasters :)

I have been watching Cake Boss lately, on TLC. He is amazing! He started talking about how easy it is to make flowers, and such, and I was like "Hey, he said it was easy!" Yeah right... (No, I did not make the flowers below. But he called these easy!!)

I am also obsessed with trying to improve my blog. Do you like the new facelift? There are so many talented people out there. How do you do it?? I'm just REALLY good at stealing ideas.

Working out.

Wait, working out?? Did I just say that out loud? Because I'm pretty sure that I'm really not obsessed with working out. But being healthy, now we're getting on the right track! I think I am going to start counting calories, by using this sweet tool (which I also stole from someone else). I am determined to be healthy! I think...

Okay, last obsession- looking at other people's photography skills and dreaming that I had an amazing camera that could take pictures like that! Don't get me wrong. Randy and I have a great camera that suits our needs. But one day, I will have a nice camera that focuses correctly, zooms, and is just all around awesome!

Obsessions. They can be fun!

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was so much fun this year. It was actually our anniversary of our first date as well, so we decided to recreate some things from our dates. We made heart shaped pizzas, made amazing french bread, and had little pies from Burger King for desert :) We got to hang out at home and watch a movie, and it was seriously the best day ever! I am so lucky to have a husband like Randy. He is always there for me. He is so loving that sometimes I think that I don't deserve him. Here are a few pictures.

This is the beautiful bouquet that Randy bought. He specifically bought a calla lilly because they are one of my favorite flowers!

The amazing heart-shaped pizza!

Aww... how cute!

And last but not least, our amaryllis that we grew, that has nothing to do with Valentine's Day. But... it bloomed!!

Future Postings

It's been a while, and I have a few things that I need to post about. The first post should be about Valentine's Day, and will include pictures. The next post will be about my new curtains! I am so excited that I finally have curtains in the living room :) We bought some lace curtains at IKEA, and I hemmed them myself! (With the help of my sister...she's just so good at surging.) It has been fun trying to think of ways to improve our apartment. Okay, pictures coming soon!!

I have a dream...

Okay, so maybe not a dream, more like a goal, but still a dream nonetheless. I have been working out almost every day for the past two weeks, and I feel GREAT! There is a challenge at the fitness center to workout as much as you can, and for every seven days you work out, you get a prize. I'm not really in it for the prize as much as I am to see how many stickers I can get for the month of February. I really want to continue to workout so faithfully, and have decided to set a goal to run a 5K. I am still in search of the perfect 5K, and would love any suggestions from those few who actually read my blog.

This dream includes feeling great, looking great, increasing my energy, and keeping me active. I used to love running in track and field, playing basketball, gymnastics, softball... what happened to those days?? Ah the bliss of childhood, where the only things we had to worry about were having fun and staying out of trouble. Well I am still going to have fun! Racquetball anyone?

Stuff

I got a new job at the community college in the financial aid department. Yesterday was my first day, and I literally thought that my brain was going to explode. There is sooo much involved with financial aid! I have to learn how to use the program that they use for inputing information and such, and there are lots of screens with weird names. I really like the people that work there though, and really think that I will enjoy it! I don't know if I will be able to try to work two jobs, as yesterday REALLY sucked working from 8-12, and then 2-8. All I can say is that I slept quite soundly :)

Randy is still searching, as well as waiting to hear back from the many jobs that he has applied to. All in all, life is definitely NOT boring, and it's nice to feel like I am contributing to our finances! It's nice to be busy. Oh, and I am still learning all sorts of new recipes. The other day, I made Lion House Rolls, and a carrot cake! The carrot cake was made by Randy, my mom, and myself. It was a spur of the moment idea :)

Domesticity

Is that even a word? And if so, what is its definition? In my case, it has meant learning all sorts of new things about cooking and baking. This week, I tried my hand at making Chicken Pot Pie, and a nice, double layer, cream-filled chocolate cake from heaven. I mean, the picture looked easy enough, right? The chicken pot pie was actually quite easy, and tasted REALLY good! We had all of the ingredients, so it was nice not having to go to the store. Here is the pie.

Like I said, the pie was easy, and great to eat. The cake, however, was another story. I was so excited to make it! I started out by baking the cake in two 9.5" pans (I didn't have 9" like it wanted), and then let them cool. Easy enough. Then I worked on making the cream for the middle. My hand mixer was going crazy, and stuff was flying all over the kitchen. Too bad I didn't take a picture. At first, I tried to contain the flying mixture, and then thought "what the heck" and just cleaned it up after. I put the cream between the cakes, and trimmed the edges to make it look nicer. Then came the frosting. The recipe lied about how much milk to use, and the frosting didn't have nearly enough. When I turned on the hand mixer, stuff went flying EVERYWHERE. I tried frosting the cake, and it didn't turn out very pretty. I didn't have enough frosting, so I repeated the stuff flying everywhere part. Even though the cake doesn't look very pretty, it sure tasted good!!

Well, more to come on my cooking adventures! TTFN!