What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm linking up with Jamie today for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm {loving} this gorgeous weather.
It's so great to walk outside and not immediately feel the need to shower again! We've even slept with the window open a few nights this week. And I know we will be looving the electric bill at the end of the month!


I'm {loving} that we are going to Oklahoma this weekend!
A&M plays OU on Saturday so we are headed to Norman with my parents. 
We have some friends that are going to tailgate, so it should be a good weekend!

via

I'm {loving} my bestie's new blog look!

Alyssa at Wish You Were Here was ready for a new look, so I played around on Photoshop and hooked her up with a new header and a few other gadgets. 
I was in yearbook in high school, so I used to know my way around Photoshop like crazy. But the saying 'if you don't use it, you lose it'...is true. I basically forgot everything. But I was able to google a tutorial for pretty much everything I wanted to do!
Go check out her page and leave her some blog love!!


I'm {loving} this sleepy pup! :)

I'm {loving} my sweet husband!

Have a great hump day!!

blog award!

I received my first EVER blog award! Yipeeeee!!

Thank you Janna at Perception is Everything!!!

Aaaaand another cool milestone for my little ol' blog is that this is my 100th post!!!!!!

I'm planning to do a giveaway when I reach 100 followers!!

Okay back to the award...

The Liebster Blog Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. 

To keep this award going and pass it along to other new deserving blogs, the recipient must now recognize five other bloggers with less than 200 followers that have really stood out in the crowd.

Here are the rules:
+ Copy and paste the award on your blog
+ Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
+ Reveal your top five picks and let them know that you gave them the award
+ Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers

I give this award to...
{1} Elizabeth @ The Stringers' Story
{2} Alyssa @ Wish You Were Here
{3} Megan @ The Adams
{4} Ashley @ Claudie Bell Designs
I know that's only 4, don't hate!


Hope you're having a great weekend!!

confession

As I was sitting in bible study Wednesday night, I read over a word on our study guide I have never seen typed out before.


prima donna.


After reading it to myself several times, reality struck me.


Yall, I thought this word was PRE-MADONNA. For real. 
I didn't really understand why people would say that, but maybe people were princesses and stuff before Madonna? #iknowitdoesntmakeanysense


I'm still trying to convince myself that is how you really spell it. And that it's not a phrase about a time before Madonna. Weird.


This is similar to the way I felt when I found out (in the past few years) that an ArmadillO was actually not pronounced ArmadillA (a sounds like uh). AND there's no such thing as a possum. It's an opossum. 


Man. They should really teach these things in school.

my night off

I had a night off work last night! 

I took care of some things things that been waiting on me since I've been working so much this past week.

First, went on a date.

Chris and I went and saw Real Steel. 

It was GOOD. (I'll admit, I was a little nervous it might be too much of a man movie.) Had a good story line, no blood-guts, kept us laughing. I didn't love the kid used some foul language, but overall a good movie.

Then we came home for bible study. We aren't the leaders, but we do host. Right now we are going through Love and Respect with other young married/engaged couples. 

I'll have to post about the study in a little more detail. It's good stuff!

After that, we went to the...GYM.

This isn't a big deal for some..but it's been a while since I've been to the gym.

Well, I'm feeling it today. All I did was walk 1.5 miles on the treadmill and do 1 or 2 reps on a few weight machines...but man. It was enough to throw my muscles into SORE.NESS. 

Maybe I shouldn't wait 6 or 12 months before I go again. :)

Then we came home and I finished up some Etsy orders.

And spent some time with this guy.

This is Scout's spot. He lays here more than anywhere else. He has a good view down the front hallway and most the kitchen/living room/dining room. 

Oh and he's good at flattening the cushions. :)


Aaand, I finished off a good night by sleeping until noon today. 
BUUUUT, I work all night tonight (6:30pm-7:30am), so that makes it ok, right?
Ok, good. :)


Hope your Thursday was great!

what we've been up to

And another week has gone by since I blogged last. I didn't have any exceptional blogs scheduled to post this week AND I've worked 52 hours since Wednesday. whew.

SO, I'm here to catch you up, since I'm sure all of you have been dying to know what we have been up to this week! :D

one

We started Financial Peace University this week. We aren't drowning in consumer debt, but have a small amount in addition to student loans, car payment, mortgage, etc. So, we took the plunge to focus on becoming debt free! I'll post more about this later.

two

After listening to some of Dave Ramsey's radio show, I kept hearing ads for e-mealz. After checking it out, it is (in theory) created EXACTLY for ME! For me, the worst part of dinner time is standing in the kitchen around 6pm and wondering what the heck I'm going to cook for dinner!

I found a Living Social deal that was half off for a 3 month subscription. So I paid $7 for a 3 month trial! I'm excited to try it out and see it if works for us. 

Anyone else used e-mealz? What are/were your thoughts?

three

Chris has been getting headaches almost daily the past several weeks. We decided to make him an eye appointment just to rule out the cheapest, least invasive solution for the headaches if it's his eyes. He has always had perfect vision, but hadn't had an eye exam in a long time, so thought it'd be good to check.

Well my husband is getting reading glasses! They'll come in sometime this week and I can't wait to see them! We are praying that these will be the solution for his headaches.

four

HardChord DynaMix is an a cappella student group at A&M, much like the groups on The Sing-Off. We went and watched them perform on campus this week and it was AWESOME! The things they can do with their voices is incredible!

five

This isn't what WE have been doing, but it's still exciting! My mom left last Wednesday for Uganda and she'll be there until this Saturday. She went with the same group Chris and I went with this summer! So excited for her and a little jealous. :)

Have a great and blessed week!!

winner winner chicken dinner

Chris and I don't win things very often. 

I can remember winning a CD once from the local Christian radio station when I was a teenager. I did win a Carmex gift set from blog giveaway a few weeks ago, so that's something. 

Last week there was a local raffle to raise money for Mercy Project. Towards the end of the contest, the founder of MP said that it hadn't had a great response so everyone's chances were pretty good to win. 

Well, on a whim, Chris bought $105 worth of tickets. (which equaled 7 entries because they were $15 each)

This wasn't just any 'dinner-for-two' or 'tickets-to-a-football-game' kind of raffle. It was big-ticket-item raffle! 

Still with me? Good.

So...Chris got a phone call Monday night saying we had WON the raffle! We could NOT believe it!!! 

Wanna know what we won?

You sure?

A KING-SIZED TEMPUR-PEDIC CLOUD SUPREME MATTRESS SET! 


For real. Still can't believe it.


I grew up with a full sized bed, and this is what I had until Chris and I got married. Chris had a queen, so that's what we've slept on for 2 years. When we went on our honeymoon cruise, we slept in a King sized bed and it was glor.i.ous. Not that Chris and I don't love sleeping next to each other...we just both love our space.
This means we also didn't have a frame/bed for this mattress. Think that made us change our mind? Heck no! 
We paid $70 (bed frame) + $105 (raffle tickets) for a $3500 mattress set! And with the tax we WOULD have paid...it is about a $3800 value! So..we made it work!
We moved our queen bed into the guest bedroom. (which my 6'2" dad is very happy about!) And the full bed that WAS in the guest bedroom is now propped up against the wall in the office. 

This was our queen bed setup (pic taken Dec '10)

This is our new special-amazing-dreamy bed! 

Scout approves :)

I sink!

It happened so fast that I really didn't even have a chance to research about this mattress, but I hear they are Tempur-Pedic's best seller. Chris tested it out the first two nights because I had to work, but we both slept on it the past 3 nights..and...I think we'll keep it. ;)

It's uhhhh-mazing! 
It's definitely different, so it'll take some getting used to, but we are okay with that!
THANK YOU SLEEP STATION!


Now...we are going to have to find or make some kind of headboard...or bed or something!
Here are a couple ideas that I love from Pinterest for headboards!

pinned here

pinned here

We aren't in a huge hurry to get something up, so we might just save our money for a bed with a head and/or foot board. 


Anyways, I'll update again after a few more weeks of sleeping on it. :)
Anyone else have a Tempur-Pedic bed?


Oh, and don't hate us for winning. It might never ever happen again!