battle of the field

we've finally moved!

after 7 days of battling with the house inspector of battlefield (over our new yard which, by the way, was FROZEN as he told us (and father bybee) to break dirt clumps and even out uneven patches...a very long and frustrating story) and two full days of moving followed by some organizing, i have reached the following conclusions:

1 - i should give away 80% of all my clothes, because it was honestly embarrassing to see how many clothes i really do have. at my final count, i had about 5 items with tags still on them. brad had 2 (one of which i bought him, and one of which was a tie he thought he might have an urge to wear at some point). And sweaters, i didn’t even count the number of sweaters i own (apparently i really like them), but it was shocking to see them all stacked on the same shelf. Who needs this many sweaters? (Particularly when my classroom averages about 82 degrees. i’m not joking. i sweat…) And plates. we are in the process of counting those, but so far we’ve found 12 still in their original boxes.

2 - our old house was definitely too small for us. the new one is over twice the size of the old one, and our furniture and “stuff” has already filled it up.

3 - i don't want to move again in the next 25 years or so. maybe our kids will move out and take a bunch of our stuff with them so we'll never have to move it.

4 - budgets don't really work when you've just bought a house and are moving into it.

5 - we can live without the tv and internet. (i knew this before, but it was reassuring to feel the silence again.

pics to come, but we don't have the internet hooked up at our house yet, so it'll be a little while.

Less than one more week until coacher and i lose our lives to coaching spring sports. wish us and our marriage luck!

and my chair doesn't even spin

tuesdays and thursdays come with some very challenging students. it's all i can do not to explode every now and then. a spinning chair really would give make their attitudes about 10% more bearable. now, my monday classes...they are dreamy (comparatively speaking).

40

40 - the number of dollars coacher and i each get to spend each week in february.
14 - the number of dollars i have left
5 - the number of dollars coacher has left

we both had to get gas, and i am up for another round at the pump soon. eek.

and we are out of ice cream. this could mean trouble.

anyway, we have tweaked the rules of this lovely experiment as we go. for example, "rollover money" (copyright crystal) are now allowed from week to week, provided we ever have money left.

also, if we find money lying around the house, we can use it. (that's what college kids do, right?)

AND if we had prior commitments (vb tournaments, for example) we don't have to take the money out of our weekly allowance.

is that cheating? naahh....

yumminess

little known fact: when i was in high school, i used to make one pancake for breakfast every morning. weird, huh? and the weirdest part about it is that i still love pancakes, which is why i'm excited that high street is offering an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast this saturday, february 7th. The yumminess will take place at the north applebee's near kearney from 8-10 am. cost is $5, in case you're interested.

speaking of $5, coacher and i have enlisted ourselves in a little challenge to live like we are poor college kids. (and we think it's kind of fun...go figure.) this means we each get about $40 a week to spend on everything we need, including gas and food. we actually began the challenge with $55 a week in mind, but then we thought we might as well go all out for it, so here we are at $40. so far we've done okay, except for the little stop by jimmy john's last night at 8:30 because we were just famished. honestly, i was kind of getting shaky, and we were both definitely cranky, so i maintain that it was probably a good decision in the grand scheme of things. however, keep in mind that we are only on day 5 (day 5!) we "splurged" on day 4. we stink at this.

(back to the $5...coacher pointed out that the 5$ all-you-can-eat deal is DEFINITELY something a poor college kid would do. sooo, i guess that makes the pancakes an extra-good idea. right?)

anyway, we issued this challenge to ourselves to see how much money we could save in just one month. i will probably get a little competitive about it.

but here's the kicker....we stinkin' bought a house and kind of spoiled that whole "live like a poor college kid" thing! hey, when God opens a door....

all i can say is hallelujah for more storage space, kitchen cabinets, shelving, rooms, bathrooms, garage space, etc. etc. etc. i can't wait to organize, decorate, and have people over without worrying about how messy our bedroom is or that the bed is unmade. (they'll never have to see it!)

that said, i'll miss our cute little home on maryland with it's shiney white trim, built-in shelving, arched doorways, and huge tree in the backyard. my parents and i nurtured it from its "ugly and awkward stage" and now it is such a cute little thing.

(ps...i tried to find pictures to express my thoughts about how lovely it will be to organize and decorate, but for the life of me i could not find anything that would do my inspirations justice. i give.)