Some answers, and the Christmas list

If you have ever wondered why we haven’t invited you over, it is because we are slobs. Gross, disgusting slobs.

A while back we decided that we wanted a doggie door. The only “good” place (it’s not even that good of a place) to put it, was in the room that we used for an office (although we will have to do some yard modifications.) For a few weeks now, I’ve been on this get everything disinfected and clean kick (I blame the dishwasher) and cleaning things like mad. I am sure we create as much dust as the next guy, however, our dogs are dirt magnets. There is so much dirt in this place it is disgusting. We dust the TV on a Saturday, by Monday it has a nice thick layer of dirt on it. It is nearly impossible to keep anything clean. Anyway, back on track, Jason and I decided that moving our computers into the big spare bedroom would be better, because now that I have my lovely sewing machine, I need a room to store all the stuff, so instead of us being in separate rooms, we will combine into one big one. Yesterday, we went to IKEA so that I could get an early birthday present of a lovely desk. If you didn’t know previously, I have literally been computing out of a closet. Before that I had a small glass desk on wheels that couldn’t fit everything that I had / wanted on it, and it was nearly impossible to do school work on it, as I had to set up TV trays to even hold the books. Anyway, I went from this:

[caption id="attachment_259" align="aligncenter" width="202" caption="The Closet Desk"][/caption]

To this:

[caption id="attachment_260" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Awesome desk of awesomeness!"][/caption]

I have always wanted a hutch desk, as I like the whole storing up instead of out / sideways. Walls have always been such a waste to me, especially since we have no awards, degrees, or pictures to even hang on them for the most part, and the ones we do have, we have never taken the time to hang. Needless to say, I LOVE IT! It is actually two parts, the desk, and then the hutch were both sold separately, and then Jason let me get the glass top because I like to spill things, and we got the whole shebang plus a cord keeper, two baby surge protectors (which have already been used, even though Jason didn’t think we needed them) and a bottle opener for just over $200. We don’t really have the money to spend, but I’ve been holding back $500 in my ING account for “emergencies” and this will let me be more productive with school and such! (I promise!) Also, it let Jason not feel like shit for, in his words, a bad Christmas because he didn’t have a job, and didn’t get me “everything” I wanted. I think he did fine, and I had a GRAND Christmas, but he doesn’t feel that way.

Oh yeah, so back to us being slobs. While cleaning out the other room (the one where the dogs have been staying) we literally went through half a box of dust cloths (like the Swiffer ones, but generic brand because not only are we cheap, we go through them like air.) So gross. We also vacuumed, and I am sure the bag is overflowing with dirt. We are both still sneezing our brains out left and right because of it. I have to take breaks from cleaning the old office just to get a breath of fresh air, well, that and the shredder keeps heating up. I just want to get everything clean and fresh for the New Year!  We did however, have to put out mini-fridge to rest, which broke my heart, even though its been broken for months.  I will miss you mini-fridge... I loved how you cooled my Diet Pepsi.  : (

On with the Christmas talk!

We both got off work at about 1:30, grabbed a bite to eat so that we didn’t have to “waste” time by making something ourselves. (Gosh, we are lazy!) Once we got home, we ate, got the dogs riled up, and then had to search the entire house to find all the presents we had misplaced. Once we finally got the car packed and everything together, we left at about 4:30… can you imagine what we would be like if we had children? We’d have to plan for weeks in advance simple trips to the grocery store! We headed out of town a different way than we usually do, trying to miss all the outgoing traffic from Phoenix. Shocking enough, even though we were skeptical, it worked and we arrived in Tucson at about 6:15. We waited for my mom to get home from church, and Jason messed around... as per usual:

Once dinner came around, I had delicious prime rib, while everyone else had lobsters.

[caption id="attachment_263" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Jason named his, Esteban."][/caption]

The majority of the rest of the night was spent wrapping presents, which lasted until about 12:30, and we were exhausted. I woke up at 8ish, dragged Jason’s butt out of bed around 8:45, and we had bagels for breakfast, and then started opening up our gifties!

I honestly don’t know how it happened, because I know everyone is tight on money, but we got some AWESOME gifts this year:

Jason
Flowering Tea Pot
Tiki Wind Chime
Slippers
Stuffed Penguin
Curious George at the Aquarium
Penguin Bank
Snowman Ornament
Beverage Warmer
Marley & Me (from my mom)
Penguin Ornaments
Bartending for Dummies
Star Wars : The Force Unleashed (For Wii)
Contigo Coffee Cups (x2)
Wooden Puzzles
4,000 Wii Points (Which have been spent on the Wii Browser, Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros 2 and 3, and Bubble Bobble, with more points to spend.)
Poopin' Penguin
Waddling Penguin
Audio Cord (so he can plug his Zune right into his car, and play music)
Phone case
Glasses Cleaner

Amanda
Stuffed Dalmatian
Curious George and the Firefighters
Snowman Bank
Snowman Ornament
Staple-Free Stapler
X-Ray Bag
Scarf (Handmade from one of my mom's clients)
Tape measure / screw driver / flashlight combo
Marley & Me (from Jason)
Snowman Coin Purse
Wii Fit Mat
Tripod and Camera Bag
Sewing Scissors (8" Dressmakers Shears & 5" Knife Edge)
USB Owl
Sewing Machine (even though I got it a month before, it was "for" Christmas)
Hungry Girl Cook Book
Fire Jewel Swarovski Necklace
Poopin' Reindeer Key chain
Meh. Hoodie
Popping Edamame key chain

For both of us
Entertainment Book (omg, yay a years worth of coupons, I'm in heaaaven!)
Dip / Cheese Ball mixes
Duracell Color Mini Charger (Green with 4 AAA and 4 AA batteries included)
Camping Shower (no more stinky campers!)
Shower Bags (x3)
Lantern (with added propane and extra mantles)
$30 Bed Bath and Beyond Gift Card
$50 (2-$25) Safeway Gift Cards
$25 Joann's Gift Card
$25 Kohls Gift Card
$25 AMC Gift Card
$25 PetsMart Gift Card
Lotto Tickets

For the puppies
Food bowls (for grandma's house so we don't use her Tupperware anymore :p)
New blankets (red for Landon, pink for Lucy)
Mans (that they fight over constantly, and Landon had "dis-armed" his within the first 10 minutes)

I hope I didn't forget anything...  but see what I mean?! :D

The blow off.

Tonight we got the brush off from the event planner.   I am hoping that because our appointment was scheduled for today at 6:30 it was merly just "lost" in the hustle and bustle of the holiday.  However, I am still bitter at the fact that we inhaled our dinner, rushed the kids when we got home, and had to stand in the cold for 15 minutes for nothing tonight.  (Lucky for me, I got a new coat last night or I would have been screwed!)  It also astonishes me as this specific company came highly recommended, has won many awards, and signs their emails with, "The Bitterness of Poor Quality remains long after the Sweetness of Low Price is forgotten."  Heh.  It halfway irritates me the most because until we decide if we can afford these people, we can't set the date for the other place... although we can't really do that either right now with the lack of funds.  I just wish we could get everything lined up already.  Ugh.   On the happier side though, one of my co-workers gave me tickets to the Arizona Bridal Show in January.  They give away a ton of stuff, so I am hoping we win a free honeymoon (since we don't have one in the works) or a free gown or something.  :P Wish wish wish.

Other than that, all I have to leave you with, is a love-onion, and holiday wishes because I probably won't be updating this for a few days.  :)

Being fat pays off.

Yeah, you heard me.

The $1,100 that we spent on food alone in the last 3 months (that doesn't include alcohol or other crap that we buy) saved us $1.10 in gas, knocking it down to a whopping 42.9¢ per gallon.

Our final bill was $5.27 for almost 12 ¼ gallons of gas.  Sweet justice.  We are sticking it to the gas man!

Guess who we found at dinner?

SANTA!  In the flesh! :D

[caption id="attachment_245" align="alignleft" width="218" caption="Santa from across the room (and me in the bottom left corner)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_244" align="alignright" width="214" caption="Santa close up, we were trying not to be noticed... and I don't think we were caught!"][/caption]

Wednesdays are designated wedding planning days.

So we have a lot of information.

This "morning" started at a bright and early noon-time.  We headed off to the post office to ship some of the "larger" presents or "completed" presents that are going to Oklahoma, and spent an obscene amount of money doing so.  Did you know they charge you for packing peanuts, and don't tell you?  Yeah, we thought that was nice.   The rest of the day was spent traveling around a surprisingly small radius of Mesa, and not getting a ton done.  We had to go back home at the beginning of the trip because I forgot to put my engagement ring on when I woke up this morning (since I have to take it off at night to put medication on my hands) and Jason refused to do anything after the post office until that problem was fixed.  After that, we headed to Bookman's because I was looking for  a DIY wedding book, as one of the places we wanted to look at basically let you do everything for your own wedding, which made me happy.  (And this has both pro's and con's and I fear I may be turning into Bridezilla, but I just have not liked most of the things that I have seen, and I want it to be perfect.  :(  Sadface.)  Anyway, we ended up finally finding a copy of Wedding Planning For Dummies, which seems to be chock full of DIY ideas and tips / tricks, and The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Weddings, which we skimmed through, and wow, it really is a survival guide, it has everything from the cake dropping, to someone objecting to your marriage to the wedding dress getting lost, and you not knowing how to dance!  I am seriously thinking of putting this in a glass case in a central location with an axe next to it on our wedding day,  so that should either side have an issue, they know where to go!  After that, we went to Hobby Lobby, where we spent a decent amount of time becuase the store is obnoxiously huge.  However, much to our benefit, they were having a huge sale!  I know we shouldn't be buying things, but sometimes it's just so hard, we are so used to living comfortably (not rich, but if we see something small that we want it's usually no issue to get it, and it's impossible to break that habit.)  We actually went there with a purpose: to find silk flowers.  But, since we have been to three places I think we may have to special order them.  However, we did end up picking up Jason a cute penguin etched glass ornament for $1, some purple glass candle holders for the wedding for 50¢ each (we probably should have picked out more) and some cute wooden picture frames for the kids (2 dog ones and 2 cat ones $1 each.)  Then we headed over to Joann's to continue our quest for silk flowers, and paper goods (because we want to make our own invitations too but can't find the right stuff for that either) with no luck, and headed home for a short break.

Skipping around, Tuesday night we went to an open house for The Palms on Southern.  It was cold, and rainy, but we went anyway hoping they were open.  They were literally 5 minutes away from us, it's actually further to go to the grocery store we shop at.  They were decently priced,  and had the 3rd open, so here are some pictures:

We got a lot of information from this place as well.  They even convinced these cheap technology-geeks that we did in fact need a DJ and we can't host our own wedding with an MP3 player, and we got a ton of resources from them with business cards and brochures for everything from cakes to DJs to photography.

Back to today:
After our romp around town, we went to another open house.  This one was for Chapel on the Farm.  The set-up is very basic and simplistic.  I fell in love with it online, and could barely wait for their open house today.  Everything was so quaint and cute.  This is the place that is pretty low on the price scale because they pretty much offer just the building for getting ready, and the reception site, which was fine with me (so far, we haven't investigated the cost for the rest of the stuff we need.)  I fell even more in love with it when we got there.  It has a ton of history that I will spare you, for now... Here are the pictures:

After that, we headed home, where I made Crab Puffs for dinner, with artichoke... and here we are... :)

I'll leave you with even more pictures, a little more in the Christmas spirit: