Superbowl Sunday

As a "hip hip hooray" to having the house done, and prettified, we had our friends over on Sunday. We had BBQ Chicken salad sandwiches, lots and lots of queso, veggies, treats, and there was endless fun. To be honest, I didn't even know the Broncos were playing, and definitely didn't know I'd be rooting for them. I mean, that game was seriously sad. Us girls ended up chatting on the bed towards the end...yawn.
Once everyone left, Tanner and I stayed up talking, him working on homework, and I was crafting. We stayed up until 1, and were both POOPED the next day. We are so not used to that. Usually, I'm out by ten, he wakes me up on the couch when he's done with homework, and then we go to sleep. It has become our routine I guess. We have also been getting into a routine into snoozing our alarms at least twice. I mean WHAT? Ok, that's normal for me, but not for Tanner. He's usually the one that finally gets me up!

On Saturday morning, I took Tanner to his DAT practice course, and then I ran some errands to Costco, got gas, cleaned the house, ran to Wells Fargo, all the normal Saturday activities. I then caught myself in our "treasure chest" where we keep important things. I won't tell you where it is...though you could probably find it. :) I always complain to him how he never keeps anything special that I do for him... that sounds worse than it is. But, I like to keep little notes he has written me in my wallet, or a fake mustache on my mirror in the car from one of our first dates to Nickel City...you get my point. As I went to look for our marriage certificate (to finally change my credit card name), I found multiple, multiple, notes that I had written him, folded up safely in the treasure chest. I even found our two journal posts of how we knew we were going to marry each other, and even about our wedding day. Reading those things brought back so many memories, and just made me so giddy. I then went to find my journal I wrote in my Freshman year of college (which I wish I would've been better at), but I read about my developing crush, finally going on a date, dealing with this new relationship, and a missionary, and it reminded me of all those feelings I had when we first dating. To be honest, I don't think you ever get that back, because life changes. It was SO fun to reminisce, and fall in love all over again! That's why I added a love story tab, because I really want to write down everything before I have kids, and really forget everything. That is NOT an announcement. I guess I get a little sappy around February, because 2 years ago, on the 8th was our first date. It's crazy how fast time goes.

Tonight AAA came and checked on Big Blue, our Expedition, and it in fact isn't dead! We just have to make sure our gear shifter is in park. Ha! It has a few problems, but we feel blessed it wasn't something worse. A battery would've been ok, but we felt like he was really seeing his last days. Who knows if we will still end up selling it, but at least we have a second car! I would really hate to not take Tanner to school, that's the best time of the day!

Ya, that was jumbled and weird.
Happy Tuesday!

Oh Happy Day!

Today, we went from this:

{dishes in the bathtub.. don't worry.. I cleaned it extra well}

to this:

Those holes are from where our faucet used to be wall-mounted. SO they will be getting covered up shortly. But can we just sing and dance to a hallelujah chorus right now? I mean really. That was the best picture I could have ever gotten from my husband! Tanner missed a class, and sweet Madison taxi'd him around to go get a new sink and all that jazz, because nothing can ever work out the first time right? At least that's what we've been learning with this old house...and because, did I mention we are now a one-car-family? Bums. 

I can't wait to go home and boil water with water from my sink!

SUNDAY

Yesterday was such a happy day. We have the majority of the house done, besides our missing faucet, and that gets fixed on Thursday! WOOT WOOT!

We had such a fun time at church meeting new friends, and socializing. We are in a married student ward, and it's such a nice break from being Sunbeam teachers. We loved those kids, but I like spending time with my husband in class, and meeting new friends along the way. We are in charge of our Valentines Day Party (on the 15th) and I can't wait. You know I was pretty stoked about planning yet another party!! We had a great dinner, and talked all evening. We picked up Madison from the airport, and had a fun drive chatting even more. It's still so crazy to me how you can fall more and more in love with your husband. I think back to our wedding day, where I thought I was so in love, and wouldn't know what to do without him, but those feelings have more than quadrupled. I love it. I love being married, and believe it to be the greatest thing in the world!

I shared this video on Facebook yesterday, because it's one of my favorite Mormon Messages. Life has been so stressful lately, but it's most important to remember who and what matters most, and spend your time with those that matter most to you. 

Have a happy day!

Start Each Day With a Grateful Heart

Today, I am Grateful. I realize my last post was a bit on the dramaticcccc side. But, sometimes you just need a little lettin loose, ya hear? I wish I wouldn't have been so grouchy, to everyone. It's hard being gone all day, coming home to a messy house, and finding motivation to make it better. I'm not a very patient person, so in my eyes, we should've had the house done the day we moved in, but that's not realistic.

I'm grateful that my husband stayed up until 11 (we are an old married couple) last night, to help me hang up the frames on our new "gallery wall". When we started this project two days ago, my nails kept breaking, and I realized it was all plaster. So, last night we finally had time to go get new screws, and molly's, and things for the drill, and we were able to hang pictures! It wasn't until the second to last frame, that I accidentally made a huge hole with the hammer. HA! There was one tiny spot on the wall where it was completely hollow, and once the molly was in, I hammered, and all I can remember is Tanner yelling nicely, to be careful, and BAM. Hole. It made for a good laugh... we'll never know with this old house of ours!

I'm grateful that I can have fun, and laugh with my husband constantly.

I'm grateful for great friends that have helped us with this moving process. That have moved us in, moved our washer and dryer down the tiny stairway, and will again today, and that have invited us over for dinner so we didn't have to do dishes in the bathtub. That has been multiple people, and we feel so loved for their kindness.

I'm grateful for friends that stopped by the house last night with our new love fern to make me feel better, and so that we could get shakes at Chick Fil A after, because the night wouldn't have been the same without them.

I'm grateful that we are getting our new washer today, because our old/new one leaked on the third wash. And, I'm extremely thankful for delivery services that will grab our old one, and bring us a new one, for a small charge (which we think is SO worth it) to remove some of the stress and hassle from our shoulders.

I'm grateful that we haven't had a faucet. WHAT?! Yes, I am. Because I've had to do dishes in the bathtub, and boil water from our bathroom sink, it has made me realize how truly LUCKY we are.

I'm grateful for our home, and for the great opportunity we had to buy it, and have it as an investment for when we go to Dental School.

I'm grateful for the new Lorde cd our friend Christopher gave us to copy, so that we could jam out to it while hanging frames.

I'm grateful for the new candle Madeline gave me, because I love new smells, and it went perfectly with our new jams. :) Nice thing about a teeny house, is that it smells up the whole house pretty quickly!

I'm grateful for our parents, that have supported us the whole way.

I'm grateful for the temple, and that my husband takes me their constantly. It brings the most amazing peace to our lives.

And, I'm especially thankful, that our new home really feels like HOME, and that ever since I've slept there, I've never wanted to leave!

Hopefully soon I'll get some pictures up of the hiz house!

B U D G E T

Lets just start by counting how many breakdowns I've had this week. Maybe we shouldn't. I just finished one, like 5 minutes ago. I had all these great plans to get my final frames hung up tonight, but change of plans, I had to play nurse to my boss. It's not fun helping someone out of surgery when you absolutely hate blood, and being well, a nurse. I seriously can't handle it. How the h e double hockey sticks am I going to be a mom someday?

Moving on. Our washer flooded last night. I still don't have a faucet. Tanner starts his DAT practice class on Saturday. My pictures still aren't framed. I have bins filled with art and pictures and no room to put them, still in my family room. I have a couple more things I want to buy, but I'm trying to stay on budget (let's be real though...I'll make a pouty face and remind him how hard I work everyday? Ya right... never works, that stinker.) I have a pile of t-shirts in my hallway that need to be gone through for Plato's, or DI, or drawers, but we've both been a little too lazy at that. Did I mention the reason my frames aren't up, is because our wall is straight plaster? Every nail I put in broke.

I'm so sick of moving. I knew it would be a process, but honestly why is it taking this long? I wish I could've stayed here for Christmas break and got it all done. Or, moved in more before Christmas. It's such a mess! I just get so frustrated. I'm sorry, no one likes to hear a complainer.

So, about budgeting. We went over our "Zylstra Family Budget-2014 (year of the horse)" ((Yes I really added that on our Budget)), and it is HARD! We included EVERYTHING this time. In the past, we never included getting my hair done, or tuition spread out by months, etc. I seriously feel like we have no money now! But, I decided I would take the challenge of cutting down on our grocery bill, which I thought was very reasonable before, but I knew it would be something easy to cut down on, if I took the time to organize my lists and meals better, and make sure we have leftovers! Good thing we both think leftovers are the bomb diggity.

So, we wrote down our budget on a very nice, lined sheet of paper, but I wanted something totally set in stone. I made a google doc for the next 11 months, that has the same budget every month, and our "extra" money will go towards trips, shopping, etc for vacations and special occasions. I'm really excited to see how it goes! We are both people that LOVE to watch our savings grow every month. It seriously makes me so excited!

I think it's important to budget, and my husband (Mr. Frugal) has definitely taught me how to be better. Our first year of marriage was so frustrating because I thought he wasn't being fair. But, because of him being frugal, I started to "get it". We don't need the cutest clothes, or the best cars, or anything of that matter to be happy. We are newlyweds! We just want to have that 20 years down the road :) haha! This was totally random, and dumb, but SAVE MONEY YA'LL!