I Believe In -

I believe in :

Love

A clean home

A great book

My marriage

Smiling for no Reason

Starbucks

Long drives

Listening to people
Movies that make me smile

Family

Friends

Remembering the past

Helping those in need

Dancing and singing along to music

8 hours of sleep

Envisioning my Future

Thanks to Kim at http://newlywoodwards.blogspot.com/ for the idea for this blog.

Happy Hunters

Greg and I saw 7 more homes this past Saturday, and some of them were a wreck! I am know that we are not looking at high end homes, but we are not looking at low end either. With the cost of living on LI being so expensive, we are trying hard to find something decent, that with work we can turn into something we love. Our total count for homes / townhouses looked at is 22, plus hours and hours of online research and driving through different neighborhoods.
That being said; we have placed a bid on a home! Amazing, but scary. I am trying very hard not to get my hopes up, or to mentally move myself in already because I know how tricky and unpredictable the housing market is on LI. This is a long process, I am happy that we have time to navigate it!

My little girl - Roxy

Meet Roxy!

Roxy is our Pug or rather Puggle that we have had for 3 years. Roxy was a previously owned by 2 other people and could not find the right home. The girl who owned her before us had another small dog and decided that she didn't want Roxy after 6 months. We agreed to take her and she was dropped off a few days later at our house, no leash, bowl, food or toys. It was sad because we knew that she hasn't had a 'real' home till she came to us.

Roxy is a truly busy, fun loving dog. She is quick to play and run around. She likes to taunt the dogs on the neighboring fences, and is really good with other people around. She spins in circles when she needs to go out, and expects a cookie when she comes in.We have become VERY attached to her. She is spoiled and loved!

Monday night, Roxy scared the living day lights out of me and had what I later found out was a seizure. She has never had one (that we know of) before this and it was terrifying. After about 30 minutes she returned to her normal self and left me in a state of panic and shock. I took her to the Vet on Tuesday and was asked to leave her for 4 hours for testing. During that time, I hung out at my mom's house and was nervous and sad. When Greg and I picked her up we learned that she has an enlarged heart as well as a mass in between her stomach and intestines. We had to wait until today for blood test results. Luckily those results came out fine! She is otherwise healthy and will be on seizure medication for the time being daily.

So far she is OK, and I am happy - Although I am still nervous of the "what if 's ". I don't know how people with children do it! This almost made me crazy worrying about her!

Be Mine

Happy Valentine's Day -belated ;)

I once again hosted Coffee Hour at my Church with my Grandpa this past weekend. I really like doing it, it is nice to have something for people to enjoy (besides weak coffee) after church. My church is Bay Shore United Methodist. Greg and I were married there in 2008, and I have been a going there since I am 8. Here is a favorite photo from our wedding of the alter of the church.

The past week I made over 70 "Conversation Heart" Cookies for the coffee hour. They went over great! I am thinking that I might have to host more often.

Kim in the Kitchen

I had a major 'Fail' in the kitchen this week. It seemed like I followed the recipe to make fried flounder and whole wheat pasta, but it tasted awful. I am really still not sure what went wrong, but it ended up in the garbage and pizza was delivered.

I have to give a HUGE thank you to Ashlee at http://ashleescooking.blogspot.com/! I made her Asiago and Provolone Mac & Cheese with a crock pot recipe for Ribs. What a fantastic meal!! So good! We had a guest for dinner and he loved it too. This might become my 'go to dish' for family parties.

I also made a simple meal using some items from the freezer and pantry. I picked up some Skirt Steaks that were on sale, marinated them in some garlic and olive oil. With that I steamed string beans and made a box of scalloped potatoes. Easy meal yet delicious.

Lastly, for Super Bowl Sunday at home- I took the easy way out. Wings from Uncle G's with mozzarella sticks and beer. Greg was happy and I didn't have to do much work!

House Hunting & HGTV

As I mentioned January 20, Greg and I decided to look into buying a house instead of a condo. We thought that the town we saw was right for us, then after more researching decided that it in fact was not right for us at all. We received a pre-approval from our bank for a mortgage and viewed six homes this past weekend. Four of those homes were in that town we were origionally looking in. The other two were on the same block in a town a few miles away. One home had some one squatting in it! The other I really liked, it is just a bit more than what we can spend and it looks like the price was set by the bank. We are going to keep looking and saving. We are not in a rush to move out of our current rental place and luckily don't have a lease being that it belongs to my Father in Law. I just don't want the right home to pass us by, so I am keeping both eyes open and stalking the internet sites daily.

When I was wedding planning (feels like ages ago!), I was stuck on all the wedding shows. Bridezilla, Rich Bride - Poor Bride, My Fair Wedding etc... were my life! Now I am all about HGTV and their home buying and renovating shows. It does also make me want to pick up and leave Long Island. As much as I love it here and our families are here- we would get so much more for our money in other states! I love Property Virgins on HGTV it makes me feel good to know that we are in the same boat as many other people. We are ready and would like to make that next step, but a little scared. I have fallen in love with being a wife and working and getting things done while Greg is at his second job. I always thought I would be working and not really doing the house work, cooking, cleaning and planning, but I love it! I would rather not get a second job, but if it means we can afford a great home, I am not opposed.

There is still part of me that thinks..... what if we moved?

February Goals

1. Get all album Art work for iTunes. (This drives me crazy that it is missing)

2. eBay MORE items

3. Find knitting class or tutorial videos

4. Work out 3 times a week

5. No texting/tweeting/Facebook while driving

6. Read 2 books

7. Clear out our stuff from my Father In Laws garage

8. Pay off vacation

9. Spend less!

10. Make 4 new recipes

January Goals Recap

1. 12 days at the Gym (or working out)
Booooo!!! Hisssss!! I did not even come close. I had a good start and then, life happened!
2. Clean up and Organize work desk
Check! Looks good and has some new pictures on it too.
3. make 2 new recipes this month
Done :) I think I did 4 new recipes. I posted some on the blog. I did have 1 complete cooking nightmare this weekend. It was the kind of meal that you don't bother eating and order pizza! LOL
4. Organize the living room closet
Check! My hubby (Greg) really did most of the work and I finished up parts of it.
5. eBay 5 items
Cha-Ching! We made over $100.- by selling some items that were lingering around our place.
6. Blog weekly
Done ;) I am happy with my blog post for the month and plan on doing more on this blog and the Book Blog I have also.
7. Stick to spending plan (record spending)
Cha-Ching (again!) I did very well by doing this. I really saw where I could cut back and pay off some more bills and our pending vacation.
8. Organize and scrapbook more
Half done. I managed to organize the area and look forward to diving into scrapbooking again soon.
9. Print Disney pictures
Incomplete. I didn't print them, because I didn't start scrapbooking again. However, I did print other pictures for my desk and for some family members.