stir crazy

We've been cooped up in the house since Monday night because of this snowfall. Being from the Midwest, the amount of snow we got {less than 2 inches} is absolutely nothing compared to snow I've seen before, and definitely nothing compared to the amount of snow the Midwest has gotten this Winter. Anyways, after E left for work today, my OCD got the best of me & I decided to tackle the driveway which was covered with slushy snow and ice where the sun hadn't hit yet. I looked all around our garage and realized we don't have a shovel. Well shoot, why would we? We live in the South, we shouldn't ever need a shovel. Long story short, I "shoveled" our driveway with the lid from a large plastic rubbermaid bin. It took me about an hour, but it's all clear, well for the most part. It was quite a workout, I was covered in sweat by the time I came back inside. 

I think I went a little stir crazy, eh?

Being cooped up allowed us to talk more about our goals, both personal & as a couple. We decided that we're going to run a 5k together. This is obviously going to be no big deal for E, but it will be a challenge for me. I connected with a friend and she pointed me to an eight week 5k training plan that I'm going to start on Monday. {you can find various training plans here} I'm not a very big fan of running, but I always feel good after, so I'm just going to do it! My biggest issue with running {other than my leg pain, which will go away once my leg muscles are built back up} is that little voice in my head telling me I can't do it & I need to quit. I mean let's face it, I'm a fatty not a fitness model, but I'm not going to die if I keep running. Not only will I not drop dead, I'll just get closer to reaching my ultimate goals. 

Friday is cleaning day in my house; I have it down to a science now.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit how much I enjoy cleaning the house. 

{don't worry, I know I'm a weirdo} 

Since the cleaning is already done, up next is meal planning! 
Meal planning is essential for us to reach our health/fitness goals.
We're never going to reach our goals if we eat like crap! 
I've been scouring my cookbooks along with various websites, blogs & Pinterest for new, healthy recipes and of course ways to save money while eating healthy 

{thank you all for your tips too!} 

What's your favorite healthy recipe??

I'll end with a little motivation for your Friday!

{excuse the language}

xo

Sadie

financially fit

As I said before, one of our goals is to become smarter about our money and spending. Since 2 inches of snow has officially shut the town down, we decided to take some time today and write out every nitty gritty detail. 

I'm not sure if you've ever done it {and honestly I feel dumb for never doing it before} but setting a budget when you've never had one before is a little difficult. Seeing the numbers in front of me made me a little nauseated; we have so much student loan debt I could puke. But on a more positive note, it could be much, much worse. I mean it could be outrageous credit card debt, but it's not. Even still, debt is debt. 

After feeling nauseous for a little while, I now feel very motivated to shed our extra spending fat & pay off those daunting bills even quicker! Writing out everything has allowed me to reflect on how blessed we are; we have the ability to make some spending swaps & shed our spending fat, which so many people do not have the luxury of doing.

We both feel super excited, we shed a big amount of weight today by joining our car insurance policies. By doing so, we saved ourselves almost $100 a month! yay!

We also completed our tax paperwork yesterday and have plans to pay off one of our small student loans with our return. Boo-yah, debt!

One of the issues I'm having is budgeting for groceries. Eating cleaner and healthier, does not mean eating cheaper. I've looked into couponing and I've successfully used a couple coupons, but I think we could definitely do better in this area. 

How do you cut costs while still eating good, healthy food? If you use coupons, where do you get them? Please, help me out if you can!

One of our goals for 2014 is to finally take our honeymoon {I say that like we've been married for 10 years haha}. We want to go somewhere tropical & all inclusive, anyone have any recommendations?

I'll leave you with this:

Set some goals, make plans to achieve them, & don't stop until you do! 

You are the only thing stopping you! As I've heard before, doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will, keep that in mind!

XOXO

Sadie

married

We got our wedding pictures in the mail yesterday, and I literally spent a few hours of my day looking at them and falling more and more in love with each snapshot. I'm obviously biased, but our wedding was perfect. Of course random things went wrong throughout the day, but myth has it that if things go wrong on your wedding day, you'll be together forever. If that's true, we will be together forever. 

Anyways, I just wanted to share a few of my favorites 

{but let's be honest, I love all of them}

My inspiration for this post came from this:

And since our wedding was gorgeous, E & I are in for an absolute treat to make sure our marriage is more beautiful. I'm so incredibly blessed to share my life with my best friend. I have no doubt that our marriage will always be beautiful, no matter what gets thrown in our path. 

So here it goes. Here's a look at the absolute best day of my life, enjoy!

we're so blessed to have such great friends

having both of my siblings home meant the world

cheers to a long, happy marriage!

a HUGE thank you to our host & hostess

thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to Brian for singing & helping with everything!

Welcome to the Marine Corps, Ma'am!

isn't this picture absolutely gorgeous?!

 

It meant the world to E & I that people braved the weather to celebrate our special day with us.

Thank you, we love you all!

Pictures courtesy of Lauren & Taylor at Laurel Tree Photography

{check them out here}

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into the best day of our lives! 

Thank you to everyone who helped make it special. 

Cheers to making our marriage even more beautiful than our wedding was!

XO

-Sadie

Thankful

Well, isn't that just the truth? At least it is for me.

I have so many things in my life to be thankful for it's crazy; I'm one truly blessed individual.

I have a wonderful husband who I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Among the millions of things he does to make me happy, he keeps a smile on my face and makes me laugh constantly.

I could go on and on about him, but I won't; at least not today.

I have the most wonderful, supportive, amazing family in the entire world. 

I would not be the person am today without each and everyone of them. 

Here's a few snapshots of my family. Thank you for everything, love you. 

{if you're not pictured, please don't be offended, it's only because our family is HUGE & I don't have pictures of everyone on our new computer}

[ps, I left out grandparents because if I didn't, this post would take all day]

The English language doesn't have enough words to describe how wonderful my mom is. 

I'm thankful for our amazing friends; You know who you are. Thank you for keeping in touch and remaining wonderful even though we may be separated by distance!

I'm thankful for my education and the obstacles I faced while getting it. Thank you social work professors, you taught me how to deal with jerks difficult people. On a nicer note, I'm extremely thankful for having the professors I did, it taught me to stick my ground, stand up for what I believe in & most of all, if I plan to make any change, I'd better speak up.

All of the blood, sweat & tears were worth it.

I'm thankful for the roof over my head, the food in my kitchen, and E's steady income. I'm so thankful for so many more things, but mostly, Jesus; Without Him, I'd have nothing else to be thankful for.

If you're still reading, you're probably already bored, so I'll wrap it up.

So, moral of the story, take a look around and be thankful for everything you have in your life.

I'll end with this:

XO

-Sadie

Love Yourself First

Carrie Bradshaw said it best...

I saw this quote while browsing through Pinterest this morning and it really hit home. 

I think about my goals for this year pretty much non-stop, and the number one goal is to be healthier and most importantly, to feel confident about my body.

I'm so sick of feeling like the fat girl. I want to get excited about shopping for a cute bikini and I want to be even more excited about wearing it. 

The worst part of feeling like this is that no one has ever said anything poor about me or the way I look. Everything negative I think about my body has been generated in my own brain.

So the whole point of this is that until I can just love myself and everything that I am/am not, I'm not going to truly achieve any of my goals. I could lose a million pounds, but it wouldn't matter because until I change the way I think about myself, I'll always find a way to put myself down. 

In order to try and shape the way I think, I'm going to start giving myself at least one compliment a day starting with today; I have long, pretty hair.

No matter what your goals are, always remember to love yourself first. Until you truly love yourself, you won't be able to fully love or appreciate anything else. 

XOXO

Sadie

Domestic Engineering

As you know, I'm not currently working, so I've been dubbed a "domestic engineer" I cook, clean & generally keep up the house. It's not that bad, it's giving me the time to complete online seminars to try and beef up my resume before we get to California. Not working will also allow me the time to volunteer somewhere once I can find a place.

This past week I've learned a few things:

Having a clean kitchen makes me happy. 
I feel like such a dork saying that, but honestly I love having a clean kitchen. It makes experimenting with food so much more pleasurable. Dirty dishes and I are improving our relationship. Washing dishes wouldn't be that big of a deal if our dishwasher actually cleaned the dishes. I've tried using two soap pod things, using all the different modes, and everything else I can think of to make it clean the dishes, but it never fails, the dishes always come out still dirty {Anyone have any suggestions?}. Oh well, by washing our dishes by hand at least I know they're getting clean, right?

I still hate really dislike running.
I was motivated to just get up and go for a run by a friend's blog post last week [you can check out her amazing blog here]; and because, let's face it, there's nothing stopping me. It wasn't terrible; I had good music in my ears and I was able to run more of it that walk, so I felt really good about it. Then I got home and remembered why I don't run. My leg was absolutely killing me; that's what I get for wrapping my car around a tree when I was 16 :) 
On the topic of working out, E and I were at Target yesterday and they were having a sale on all of their workout gear, I got new goggles & they are gorgeous! I'm one step closer to getting back in the pool and it feels so, so good! I will get back in shape!

I'm a good cook.
This sounds conceited, but I've decided that I am. Our grocery shopping trip got pushed back, so I was forced to make a meal with the random things in our pantry and fridge. I put together the few things we had left in the house. I know it's not that healthy, but it turned out fabulous! 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• fettuccine pasta
• spinach
• boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• juice from half of one lemon
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• seasonings {I used garlic powder, lemon powder & basil}

Directions:

• cook pasta according to directions on box
• heat half of the olive oil in pan and cook chicken breasts {I seasoned them after putting them in the pan}
• remove chicken from pan, cut up into pieces {whatever size you'd like} 
• put spinach in pan & cook [low heat]
• drain pasta & put in pan with spinach; add rest of olive oil
• add chicken 
• season to taste, stir up & serve

I got directions on how to make homemade applesauce in the crock pot from one of my sweet friends, Melissa, so I tried that for the first time. The applesauce is amazing! We've decided we will never buy applesauce from the store again!

To make the applesauce:

• 12 apples {i used 6 green & 6 yellow}
• cinnamon & nutmeg
• 1/2 cup water {you could also use apple juice}

Slice up apples, put in crock pot, dump in seasonings to your liking, add water & cook on low for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally. Yum!

Another recipe I tried this week was a "healthier" version of brownies. Once I get better with eating healthier, I'll make them completely from scratch, but until then [to satisfy a craving] I used a box of brownie mix and substituted homemade applesauce for vegetable oil and used one mashed banana instead of the 2 eggs the recipe called for. They were so good! 

And to start this week off on a great note, Wrigley's birthday was yesterday. He turned two, and like the crazy dog mom I am, I made a pan of "pupcakes" for him [I found the recipe on Pinterest & it was super easy]. I frosted one with peanut butter and let him go to town, he loved it! I have 11 more in the freezer so I can pull them out whenever for him! 

Until next time,
-Sadie

Patience

If you know me very well at all, you know I lack patience. 

This is a HUGE thing I'm planning to work on this year, but I forgot about it until yesterday. Yesterday I had the ultimate pleasure of visiting the DMV to get my new license since my wallet was stolen and I've been driving around illegally {shh}. I walked in the building confident it would be a short ordeal since I had all of my paperwork ready. It turned into a three hour errand.

As I was flipping through the North Carolina driving manual {because I had to take the written test} I slowly ran out of patience. A person behind me was clipping their nails, another person was playing games on their phone with the volume up so we could hear every sound effect, another person was playing music out loud from their phone, and then another person came in smelling like cigarettes and it started giving me a headache. On top of all of that I kept watching person after person be called before me when they arrived after me. Once my number was finally called they couldn't find my information in the computer and I had to take the driving test. To put the cherry on top of everything I have to wait for my license to come in the mail.

So, needless to say, I spent three hours of my day thoroughly frustrated. All I kept thinking about was the jerks people who stole my wallet in the first place.

After making a few other quick stops, I made it home, changed into some comfortable clothes and reflected on the experience. What it boils down to is this: Yes, sitting at the DMV for three hours isn't ideal, but there were a ton of people there so it's not like I was the only one sitting there waiting to be helped. When I thought about how mad all the people in the waiting room made me, I started to get a little frustrated with myself. It's absolutely none of my business what these people are doing, they aren't hurting me or anyone else, so I have no right to sit in judgement.
Having to wait for my ID to come in the mail is a little annoying, but what is the point in getting frustrated over things I can't control?!

There is no point, right? 

I think a lot of the frustrations I experience come from not being able to control everything.
{Can you pick out a theme yet?}
One thing my mom has been trying to pound into my brain for the longest time is:
"you can't control what anyone else does, you can only control how you react to it"
Those are some wise words right there. 

As I continue this journey of bettering myself this year, learning to lean on God for strength and wisdom to have more patience with myself and others is a top priority. 
If I can get that under let go of control I can be will be a much happier individual.

Resolutions

Well, since I've declared about a hundred times that this blog is to help me hold myself accountable to reach my goals, I think it's about time I write them out and publish them for all to see.


New Years Resolutions 2014:

Establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle

{you know, eat healthy & work out consistently} 

{The ultimate goal here is to feel confident about my body}

Become smarter about my {our} finances and make a plan to start paying off those outrageous student loans quicker 

{to reach this goal, we got Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover book} 

{you can find it here}

Grow in my faith 

{learn to just let go of control}

Keep in better touch with friends and family

Volunteer and give back to the community

Step out of my comfort zone & experience more of what life has to offer!

I'm sure there will be many more random, small goals throughout the year & I'll post on those along the way, but for now these are my top six.

One of the million things I learned while getting my degrees is how to set SMART goals! By setting SMART goals, I'm setting myself up for success :)

Each of my goals listed above has all of the specifics and is a SMART goal, however I'm not going to bore you with the nitty-gritty details. Anyways to my point: if you are setting goals, use this model, it's very helpful!

To go along with resolution number one, today is meal planning day and tomorrow is grocery shopping day; E is a little too excited about not having to go :) 

Anyways, I've decided Pinterest is amazing. I have gotten so many meal ideas from there, not to mention the tons & tons of tips on how to meal plan effectively, how to save money while planning & shopping, along with a million other helpful things.

Looking over our meal plan, I'm beyond excited to experiment in the kitchen and to try new, delicious meals! I'm even more excited because I've worked in various recipes so I can use the BEAUtiful Kitchen Aid Mixer that is sitting so FABULOUSLY on my kitchen counter! 

Along with the many meals coming up, Wrigley's birthday is Monday! He will be two! I'm so excited {or lame, you choose} I found a recipe for a doggy friendly birthday cake! 

{I'll make sure to post pictures!}