February

OK, so I am typing on my little Dell Mini that Dave got me for Christmas and I am still getting used to the keys. Please excuse typos :-)

Katy inspired me to type again since it has been so long. I have been using Twitter pretty consistently so if you are interested you can follow me on there and get my little random blogs for the day. Go to www.twitter.com and search me and click Follow. If you have unlimited texts you can also sign up and put your phone number in there and it will text you my blogs. They are usually 1 sentence long...nothing huge. No pictures, etc. Also, if you have an iphone you can get the free app that will allow you to read the twits as they are posted---really cool!!

OK, so no garage sales lately. I mapped about 10 if them out yesterday but could not peel myself out of bed to get there, plus we had to go do our taxes--joy!

We just got our back porch re-screened and it looks AWESOME!! The next thing on the to do list is carpet which we are using our tax return to do this. WE CANNOT WAIT!!! We are going for a light tan, speckled, "frizay" style. Everything has been measured and calculated we are just waiting for the return to be processed!!

I have been a bit crazy lately at school...I just got another student teacher, which is great but also time consuming! She is a bit shy but we are working on that. We are also about 4 weeks away from CRCTs (our state test)!! Which really freaks me out!! We are all working really hard to get these kids prepared for what seems to be life or death!!

Cheerleading should not be in my vocabulary but it is unfortunately. We met at the Central Office to make sure that all middle schools in the county were doing the EXACT same thing. A bit ridiculous!! I hope this helps the parents realize that rules are rules and they will survive if it is not exactly how they want it. If we are here next year I will work with sideline and the competition team will be completely separate and I will have nothing to do with it. I hope his weeds out the parents/girls who do not care to support their school teams. Gosh, I get stressed just thinking about it!

Moving on...Dave IS RETRAINING!!! We are both really excited that he will be off the Flight Line and into a job that he feels is more fit for him. He is leaving in a couple of weeks for San Antonio for 10 days and then back to FL for the rest of his school (about 7 months). This means that we will also be PCSing (Permanent Change of Station) soon!!!! We have put CA on our wish list so we can be closer to family. We will not get our real orders until Dave has passed a certain point in his training since it is a weed-out program. I am hoping for REALLY soon so I can get a job for next year in CALIFORNIA. However, as you all know finding jobs is really hard right now. Believe it or not education is taking a hit too. Places in CA are considering firing 10% of their current teachers and consolidating schools. This is in the area we hope to be in, which is really scary. I have a secure job here so even if we get orders I may have to stay in GA until I can get a job in CA. If anyone has connections in the Sacramento area, let me know!!!!

Off to grade papers--my life!! Keep us posted on your life!!!!!

G-sales!

So I did not go last weekend---for some reason there were only 2 posted in the newspaper in town and for nothing interesting so I decided that sleep was much more valuable!

Today, however, I hit up 11 families who had a lot of crap!!

Discoveries today:

--More baby clothes...met the cutest couple shopping for their first baby (girl, they found out Monday)!! We were shopping from the same pile on the table! Interesting what you learn from having random conversations at freezing temperatures at 7am!! Approximately 10 pieces, $2.50

--Antique wire star (it is a wall decoration), $1

--Cordless phone (with no wall cords included), our phone in the bedroom just took a crap, so I got this one to hopefully replace it until we can buy a full new set for the house, $1

--Wii game, Wii Play (used but in good condition, no controllers or anything), $5

--BCBG animal print dress (I know, crazy....grrrr!!), $1

I also went to an Estate Sale in a very nice part of town where I was really interested in buying the house. The lady said that the property was apparently staying in the family. There was a nice $200 antique chair and my dear friend (the lady, who is now following me through the house) was pushing hard to get me to buy the $425 early 1900's china. I must say I did act VERY interested in it because it was BEAUTIFUL. However, I did have to walk away because $425...umm know!! Did not have that cash on hand today!

I would like you all to know that we did join the world of the iPhones this afternoon....Dave and I have been saving our allowance (yes, we do give each other a set amount of spending per month and this has greatly decreased his constant whining about me spending every last dime on any SALE item that I see---even if it is truly a GREAT deal)!! We are proud to say that so far it was well worth the save and the decrease in our monthly allowance (we have to deduct the cost of the media package service from our allowance so as to not disrupt the budgeting that we are trying our hardest to stick to). Dave got a hard case so that he will not scratch it up on the flight line and I got this cute pink case below :-)

We hope you are all doing well---keep us posted on life---miss you all!!!!

Let's Talk

Don't know if I have posted this picture before, but this is from a year ago when we were in Dallas for Christmas and eating at the GREATEST steak resturant EVER, Bob's Steak and Chophouse

Ok, so before we talk....let's NOT talk about how long it has been since I last posted.

No excuses, just didn't do it.

I have, on the other hand, been garage-saling on the weekends and have found some awesome finds, here are some of the treasures I have discovered:

-lots of baby clothes and gadgets for stinking cheap (NO WE ARE NOT PREGNANT BUT JUST ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE IS), and YES I plan to dress our future kid in hand-me-downs and garage sale discoveries---do not worry, he/she will be dressed to the T, but man have I found some of the greatest things oh so VERY early on Saturday mornings around here

-cool flour sifter for 50 cents--I have been needing one and just couldn't justify the $5+ dollars for a real one, so I just "fluff" the flour if it asks for sifting, I know, not how it is supposed to work

-Depression glass---I have continued the collection of the clear depression glass that was handed down to me from my great-grandmother, Grandma Peggy...but I will say that this stuff is HARD TO FIND!!!

-NEW, fancy wine bottle opener---yes, we have WAY too many of these so we are giving it to the newlyweds, Heather and Ben, that are now our wine drinking buddies, this was 50 cents too!!

-some clothes for ME---WITH FREAKING TAGS!! Amazing :-)

-cute Polo shirt for Dave, however he is having issues with wearing other people's clothes, we are working on this (I know that some of you may agree with him) but it was NICE and I washed it, TWICE

-books, I am always picking these up and there is never enough time to read all of them (got a Janet Evanovich, The Last Tsar for Dave and a bunch of middle school books for my classroom library)

-LOTS OF OTHER STUFF--I will post my new list this weekend after my escapade!!

I keep trying to get Dave up to go with me and he has yet to come along, even when I offer to buy him donuts from the new Daylight Donuts!!

Oh by the way, I am secretly obsessed with CVS and the ECB (Extra Care Buck--gosh, get on this bandwagon) program. Check it out here http://www.iheartcvs.com/ I am not the only one...it is borderline cultish, but no worries, I am just learning how to save some serious bucks!!

Ok, more later---gotta get this school mess graded!!

LOVE THIS!!

http://www.pier1.com/TopMenu/Products/tabid/260/Default.aspx?task=viewproduct&id=1625&urlname=prosper-tray-table

Dear, Ben & Heather

It would not hurt our feelings a tad bit if you said that you did not like this piece. We KNOW it wasn't on your registry. So please do not hesitate to ask for the receipt for return or exchange. We will be in the store waiting for it to be re-shelved so we can buy it for ourselves!!!

Sincerely, Dave & Courtney


P.S. I know, I am slightly obsessing over this!!

I love this site...

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/what-are-we-doing-on-this-site

I have followed this blog for close to a year now and I really enjoy Ramit's real-life scenarios and information on how to become a financially successful individual. This is my favorite post that he has written...it was one of his firsts.

We all do not want to be rich to be personally successful but to be successful so that we may help others.

As I reflect over the past few days I think about how important it is to give all that you can, whether it is things that people sincerely need (clothing, food, hair straightener), things that we may not need but that make us feel good (gift cards, massages, money, smell good lotions), or absolutely nothing at all just the presence of another person. We did get so many amazing gifts so thank you to all!!! (Pictures of our present-opening moments are coming soon!!) BUT--what we give and who we share it with is the most important part of this season. We are SO blessed. We were lucky to have spent Christmas with our "adoptive family" and we always feel like we are a part of their family when were are there. HOWEVER--we cannot wait to spend Christmas with our REAL family again. We miss you all and hope everyone had the Merriest of Christmases!!

Merry Christmas!!

Pandora

Hey, THANKS KATE!!!

I took a suggestion from her blog and got into www.Pandora.com

This is a site that you type in the name of a song or artist that you like and it searches radio stations to find THE song of the moment.

SO COOL!!! Pat is playing right now....Take Me Out to the Dance Hall!!! Jason Mraz is next....

Fun times...peace be with you all :-)