Budgeting

Still doing Dave Ramsey...
working on staying on a Budget.
Most months we do pretty good. but I have trouble staying on my grocery and restaurant budget.

This month we had Matt and Judy come visit for 2 weeks. We had way too much fun and we spent our grocery, restaurant, and entertainment budgets about 7 days before the month ended.

We have been a little creative this week:

So Brian and I really want to see Inception.
Sunday we got in the car planning to go see it.

Brian: what envelope are we taking this out of?
Me: The clothing budget???
Brian: Should we really do that if we are sticking to budget?
Me: ..... silence .....
Brian: .... silence .....
We went grocery shopping instead and spent the rest of the grocery money.

Story 2:
So we have been enjoying zucchini from the garden and eating food we have had in the freezer forever.
Tuesday night we were dragging our feet making dinner.

Brian: lets just order Pizza
Me: where are we going to get the money for that?
we got up and made tuna noodles, fried Zucchini
Brian declared it the best dinner have had in the while... amazing what you can find in the cupboard.

3rd story:
We want to have Sushi for dinner tomorrow. We bought all the ingredients prior to running out of money except for smoked salmon. (we used it all up during last week's sushi party)
Brian is at a work event and got a free gift today: a wooden bowl and smoked salmon.

so here is for staying on a budget.

Oh yeah- going to Disneyland in 48 hours... can't wait. got an envelope for that too.

Rainy Seattle

Brian and I went to Seattle a few weeks ago-

This is us in my Sister's Kitchen- can you tell she likes cows?

It was my sisters 22nd Birthday! This is the awesome vegan, gluten free cake she made. She is quite the cook.

I got to go to Pike's place and buy flowers with my sister and her boyfriend Adam. aww... aren't they cute??



The next day we got to go see my brother off- He is heading back to Alaska to be a deckhand on a crabbing boat. His ship is in the background... crazy big!
We also got eat dinner with my mom--- but a las no pics of her in this blog...

Shantel and I scored some deals at Goodwill... What do you think of this shirt... I said the aim of it was to cover the least amount possible- yes the string is the entire back of the shirt.... but then she said then what are the sleeves for?

Anyways... had a great time. Brian was in a conference and I got to bum around and shop and see the family...

Also went to caveman and got to see my college roomie Chalaina and my former MA Laura- who just got into DO school in Maine!!!!!

It was a nice time- the best part was that we stayed at the Marriot for 40 bucks a night... sweet... I love name your own price on priceline.

Stuff and Things!

An update...

no we are not pregnant. Everyone else I know is. Congratulations to you all! So excited for you.

For now we are just enjoying living life-

rather than blogging we have been-

Getting our yard in shape! It looks great and it's only the end of February!

Planning to plant a Garden this year.

Watching the Olympics.

Hanging out with good friends!

Working hard at our respective jobs- I have been busy with cold season and one of our other providers is taking a Sabbatical. I get to see all his patients and all of mine- I've been full most days which is nice- job security. Yesterday I diagnosed several cases of pneumonia. And my COPD patient with pneumonia who's O2 saturation was 83% the other day- went up to 93% after a few days of prednisone and antibiotics. I tried to give him some oxygen... but he didn't want any. Fun FUN!
Oh and last week I had a small bowel obstruction... I was hoping it was just really bad constipation and after running it by my supervising doc (what do you think about these dilated loops of small bowel on my plain films??) and deciding to give Miralax... I saw first hand how Miralax really worsen's small bowel obstructions. Into surgery she went.
Everything for the most part is going pretty well at work.

I have been doing biggest loser at work. I joined the gym and go 4-5 days per week. I also joined a walking group 3 days a week. And I have been eating 1200 calories/day. My clothes are starting to fit better- but I am determined to win the cash price at the end. I have been feeling like I cannot stick to a diet or exercise plan in the past few years so I am excited to have stuck to something for 4 weeks... we will see how the 8 more weeks go. I think the competitive spirit helps a lot.

We also just started a Dave Ramsey- Financial Peace class. Follow the baby steps and we may just end up ahead in the end. Good concepts. I highly recommend him!

Thus- since we started this class- we are not going to Europe just yet. I can't get a new car till I have cash for it... that may be a little while. But learning how to save money rather than spend it... priceless :)

Ah! life is so good! God is good!