I [Heart] Budgeting

I know it sounds crazy. Who in their right mind loves to do budgeting? Well, I didn't until recently. See, I found this program over a year ago called PearBudget, which was basically a glorified Excel spreadsheet. And if anyone really knows me, they know I have a little love affair with spreadsheets (ok, probably just my husband really knows this). I do almost ANYTHING with spreadsheets (schedules, grocery list, calendars, weight loss tracking w/ bar graphs & charts, etc.). But even for me, the PearBudget spreadsheet system was still intimidating & confusing. And this is only 1 screenshot of many more pages.

OLD PearBudget

Now, say hello to the NEW PearBudget

Clean. Concise. Pretty to look at. This online system is so simple to use, I fell in love within the first few minutes. I did a 30-day free trial and couldn't be happier with how easy it is to keep track of all my spending, and see areas where I overspend (see "clothing" above. Disclaimer: the above is also not my real budget. If only I had so few bills!) The best part is I didn't have to program all the calculations in each little cell of a spreadsheet like I used to. Just grab my receipts, enter them in, "tag" each expense (this is probably my most favorite feature) and I'm done! Budgeting made simple in 3 easy steps: Plan. Enter. Review. Who doesn't want to have a more simple life? :) Happy Budgeting!

My Main Squeeze

Nothing can quite compare to fresh squeezed O.J. (except for fresh squeezed Tangerine juice :) ) Thanks to my mother-in-law, I was able to go pick 2 grocery bags of delicious Valencia oranges from her trees this week. Carson happily sat in his car seat during this time outdoors, and giggled and coo'd (not sure how to spell that ;P ) at the Grapefruit tree - silly kid! I LOVE my Bosch Juicer attachment!! It makes juicing all these oranges so fast and easy. And it's a work-horse -- not like your typical juicer that sounds like the motor is about to die when you put pressure on it.

I also snagged 2 bags full of lemons from her trees as well, so later tonight I will hopefully get those juiced and in the freezer. I'll save the lemon juice for some lip-smacking goodness when the hot summer days come around again. Although, with the weather we are having today and tomorrow (mid 80's), maybe I should make it now!

If anyone would like some grapefruit, let me know. My in-laws have a large tree overflowing with it and don't want it all to go to waste.

7 Random Things

I usually don't do these things, but was tagged by my mother-in-law. So just this once :)

1. "please don't make the nice girl grouchy". This is one of my favorite t-shirts. Too bad it shrunk after I washed it the first time.

2. My first non-classical music concert I went to was to see Weird Al Yankovic when he played at the Arizona State Fair in 1999. It was kinda lame, although I think he has some great talent.

3. I *love* bacon. However, not in the sense that I crave it, like some people do ice cream or sweets. And it's not a food that I can sit down and just eat a lot of. But I just love the flavor. If you bring over a dish to Sunday dinner and it includes bacon, you can betcha I'm gonna be having some of it! One of my new favorite salads includes the following:

• 6oz fresh spinach, washed & dried
  
• 6 hard boiled eggs, sliced
• red grapes
• sliced mushrooms
• 1 pound crumbled bacon
• served with Lite Raspberry Pomegranate dressing - YUM!

4. During a friend's sleepover birthday party, her older sister drove us to a neighborhood to go t.p.ing. We thought we were "decorating" a boy's house from school, but apparently we had the wrong house. A man opened his front door and swore at us! We all took off running, and he tried chasing after us in his car. It was scary, but we hid in bushes and escaped safely back home! I think were about 12 years old at the time. And I'm almost certain we never went out doing this again :)

5. I never went to any high school proms. And I'm not sad about it. I didn't even get asked, so it's not like I had to turn some down some dorky guy who I didn't want to go with anyway. I also didn't see the point in spending a lot of money and time trying to find a dress and shoes, and then get your hair done, and makeup, and then stand in line forever to get pictures, which would never see the light of day after you get married to a completely different man! I'm a practical person. Oh, and my hubby never went to any either. What can you say... we were meant for each other :)

6. I took one of my younger sister's camping so she could have a reason to turn down a prom date she didn't want to go with. The two of us had a fabulous time! Now that's not really being mean, is it? She was just saving both of them a lot of time and money really.

7. I would love to be a librarian. In the past few years, I've recently found a love of reading and think it would be so fun to help children discover a love of reading books as well. I remember my elementary school librarian, Mrs. Bond, reading stories out loud to our class, and how she would show excitement and use different voices to make if more fun. I still remember some of those stories today.



Now I tag: whoever is in the mood and wants to share!

Time for a funnier post after that somber 1 hour 44 min one :)

Some updated pictures of Carson. He's 3 months old in this set and loves sitting in the bath water. Mommy gets credit for making him laugh.







(don't worry, I made sure these were rated-G pictures)




Oh and this video will make any dad laugh that's gone through or is going through life with children:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Oh and we haven't had a repeat of the 1:44 episode

One hour and forty-four minutes

Yup. That's how long I endured Carson's crying this evening before he finally went to sleep. Don't worry - I didn't just ignore him. I checked on him every 10-15 minutes and tryed soothing him by giving back his pacifier he'd spit out and humming two verses of "I Am A Child of God." Let's just say he wasn't interested in either of those, and just screamed even louder! Now I'm exhausted and ready to sleep myself! I am quite surprised I didn't give in by picking him up and rocking him to sleep (which is what we've been doing for several weeks now, and even that method is met with resistance). But I told myself that we have to have a better sleep schedule so that I can actually function better each day. For the past 3 months now, I dread every morning because while Danny is leaving for work about 8:20am, I'm usually crawling back into bed trying to get some more sleep after dealing with Carson all through the night...okay, and from all the day before too...and the day before that :) Then when the Little Man wakes up, I anxiously await for an hour or two to pass for when he'll fall asleep again so I can go back to bed too! I'll be honest and say I'm not very productive before 1pm. Unfortunately, Carson's daytime naps tend to be only 30 minutes long (although all the books say they should be about 1-2 hours!), which doesn't give me anytime to get things done around the house. And then by the time I do actually lay down, it's only a brief 10 minutes later he's crying and awake and we start all over again! So it's time to kick things in gear, and start off the New Year with some good habits :) Hopefully tomorrow night will be less crying.

Photography

A few of you have been leaving some nice comments about the pictures I've taken of Carson, so I thought I'd explain how I got into photography.

I've always been interested in it for as long as I can remember but never really had the instruction or money to actually become serious about it. Back in 2006, my good friend Joe C. was needing some help with the weddings he shot, so he asked me if I'd like to (really) learn how to use a DSLR so I could help him. I was very excited about this opportunity so I ended up buying a used Canon 20D and Joe let me borrow his extra Canon 50mm f/1.8. It was the cheapest setup at that time without sacrificing the quality of the shots (ie - not having a cheap camera and cheap lens).

Today, I do weddings on the side as well as any other needs a client has. My humble website is http://www.finetunedphoto.com/ where I have all the pertinent info about me and a small gallery of shots. While I keep things strictly business on that website, I do update a small gallery of personal shots I've taken. That secret URL can be found at http://www.finetunedphoto.com/misc/. I made this for myself so I could easily pull up galleries, but anyone can see it. In there you'll find a lot of cool shots from things like our Tahiti trip we went on back in May 2007 as well as Washington, D.C., just to name a few galleries. Photography is not my career, but it is a hobby I enjoy and hope to continue to develop and improve on.

Do you shop Amazon.com?

To all my friends and family out there, I am making a special request. If you are ordering from Amazon.com will you please click on the below link before ordering? The charity I am involved with, Love Without Boundaries, gets a percentage of your sales if you go through their website. Once you get to the Love Without Boundaries site, look at the bottom right side of the page where it says "How To Help." Click on "Shop AMAZON.com" to get started! Or I'll make it really easy for you and provide a link right here: Shop Amazon and help Love Without Boundaries

Thank you! Every little bit helps, more than you know. And if you want to see some of the faces you are helping, these are some pictures that bring a smile to my face.

This is a group of babies in an orphanage. Look them all standing up in their cribs - like they are ready to start dancing once someone turns on the music :)

This is little Gracie, and she is just beaming. The pigtails and double chin crack me up!

The dimples on this boy are so adorable. The fact that he is also missing an eye and half his nose doesn't seem to bother him because he's just smiling away and loving life!

This group of orphans just received new shoes and they are showing them off! I can't believe how well-behaved they are to sit there all in a row, not moving an inch. And I love how the girls in the back all have the same haircut. Don't you just laugh when you see that?