Another week almost gone

It's thursday...yipee!! One day away from the weekend!!
Sev is set on going to Inman this weekend. Since Christmas he has begged to go hang out w/ my dad so that they could drive their "little" cars...or better known as remote control TOYS!! Big kids.
So he has his heart set on going up this weekend...and I have a feeling he'll win, since I won last weekend and we got to stay HOME!! I'm such a home body! I like my own bed, my own things and doing things on my own time. Sev HAS to be entertained...Big kid.

So I bet you thought I had forgotten alllll about my resolution post. Nope!! I've just been working on it silently and have just now gotten the chance to share.
First, I am packing our lunches 3-4 days out of the week. This is good b/c it's saving us money. We were buying our lunches and 5-10dollars a day for lunch x's two adds up!! So part of my nightly ritual is to make our lunches. I've been pretty good at it too! On the rare occasion we're out of bread and have no other form of homemade lunch to take, we get to spend 5 dollars or less on lunch...but that hasn't happened in a while and now we actually look at that as a treat when it happens!! Not to mention I'm sure homemade lunches are better on the waist line too ;)

Second, I gave up soft drinks two years ago for New Years and for that entire year I didn't so much as look at a soft drink!! On New Years night 2008 I treated myself to a glass of ginger ale. My prize for making it a year. To my surprise it actually burnt my tongue and wasn't as tasty as I remembered. So I made another resolution to continue on the sans soft drink. Well, now this new years I decided that while I don't drink anything but water, juice or fat free milk....I still don't get enough water. So I've been taking a tupperware water bottle (thanks mom) to work w/ me and I've made sure I drink 2 of them while at work :) I swear water can cure some things!! It's amazing stuff.

Thirdly, I've put together two different notebooks and have done a pretty good job of keeping up w/ them. They are my biggest resolution for 2009. I plan to take pics and post them...eventually (HEY, working on procrastination was NOT a resolution, HA). My first notebook is my Finance notebook.....lol, and to think I HATED finance in college, Yuck. Now I actually carry a "finance" book w/ me at all times. In it I have created spreadsheets. I've put in dividers and created different sections and I'm working on graphs, I've got folders and sleeve protectors and I've managed to create one book to house all of my financial information. I'm keeping every single reciept that we get for any...ANY thing that we purchase. I have a different pocket divider for each month and in it goes the reciepts! I have the reciepts colored for "credit" and "purchase". With the reciepts comes a spreadsheet which lists when, what and where we spent money on. Behind this spreadsheet is another spreadsheet breaking down our purchases in three different catagories...Food, Gas, and spending money. All of this is broken down into months. At the front of the notebook is a spreadsheet...lol, man I love excel....and it lists every bill that we owe every month for 2009. On that spreadsheet I write in each month what the bill amount was. This makes paying bills easier and kinda fun (I get it from my diddy). I can actually see when every bill for that month has been paid in one glance. I can also see over the months which bills have gone up, gone down, stayed the same...etc. etc. Kind of cool. At the back of my book is a folder for coupons :-) ****oh no she didn't**** yes...I'm going to clip coupons!!! It's not that I'm against it...or that I've never used a coupon...duh' I like saving money. It's just...I have a hard time using coupons...b/c if I actually sit down and go through the coupon section, well, I end up w/ coupons for things I don't even need...DUH...its the point of the marketing of coupons (ta da I did learnt somethin' in skool). When I need something...I usually need it fairly quickly and don't take the time to look for a coupon for it. Well...that's going to change...darn it...I'm determined!! MY personal, ultimate, BIG goal for 2009 is to pay off my car!!!!!! Hopefully, if I can get a better handle on my finances...I WILL succeed!!
My second notebook is a more personal notebook....and actually one I've had for awhile, but got slack on using it. It's broken down into three different sections. Body, Mind and Soul. I keep recipes and healthy tips I've gathered in the Body section. I keep a journal and just little tid bits of things I collect that make me happy in the mind section and I keep scriptures and devotions and prayers in the Soul section. I call it my balance book :-)

Fourthly, Sev and I both have started couples devotions. At first we were going to do the same one. My sweet momma got us the Love Dare (we loved the movie). Then I realized it was a devotion/ journal and it was just too hard for the both of us to use it and then journal in it. So I'm currently doing that and I got sevy anther couples devotion. We'll switch when we're finshed w/ the current ones :-) So far so good!

Lastly, I've started to write down one chore on my daily to-do list that HAS to be done before we go to sleep at night. Man has this proved to be helpful!!!!! I'm my grandmas grandchild...to a T!!!! I will scrub my baseboards w/ a toothbrush and my cabinets will sparkle...but the part you actually SEE...looks horrible!! It looks like I never clean...b/c when I do clean, I'm wearing myself out on getting the down and dirty scrubbing done and skip the entire "surface" cleaning that should happen daily. So I scrubbed our bathroom last weekend and I'm very proud to say that it is STILL clean!! I keep the clutter down by putting everything away after I use it...ie. my hair dryer and make-up. I have a wash clothe that stays slung over the shower rod and I use that nightly to wipe down the surface of the cabinets. It takes maybe 2min and it's kept our bathroom sparkly :-) Last nights chore was to put all laundry away...now you can see my dining table!! If I can keep this up I'll be ONE HAPPY LADY!!! I've decided to save my down and dirty scrubbing for weekends...that way I can still feel like I did a good job and keep it looking that way during the week. Now if I can just keep Sev home on weekends more often than not...and we'll be doing even better.

Ali got groomed last saturday...he is a handsome little man!!! I'll try and post pics of his new do' soon...and no he doesn't sport the mohawk this time :-) He is currently stylin' the "teddy bear" look...soooo cute. Although....he has gotten into this REALLY weird habit of licking the carpets!! It's nasty, or so I think. He just goes to town licking the carpet and we can't figure out why. It's not in one spot...like we've spilt anything there....nope its just whenever he goes to lay down he starts licking in that spot. I'm afraid it could actually hurt him, so we're keeping a close eye on him and hopefully he'll stop soon! Oh my gosh...and I told my cousin...but forgot to mention it here. There is ANOTHER brussels in the neighborhood!!!!!!!!!! That's right another Ali that lives like 10 houses down!! How cool!! I think I scared the lady to death when I passed her on my way out to work one morning. She was walking verdale (she named him after the dog on as good as it gets) and I passed and thought "oh my gosh she has ALI!!! How did he get out???" I spun around and flew back to her...thats when I probably scared her, lol....and realized..."thats not Ali...that another BRUSSELS!!" So I hung out the window and the first thing I said was not "Hi, neighbor I'm lindsey"...nope it was "Oh my gosh is that a brussles".......probably the second time I scared her, lol. She and I talked for a few minutes and by golly he was...and he was just a cutie. Hopefully Ali and Verdale will meet soon and I can take pics. Of course he won't be as special as his cousin brussels in Raliegh...but still....another one in the neighborhood...how random and cool!!

Okay...I must work now :-) Happy thursday.