Turning 30!

So this was not a day I've been looking forward to, but here it is, I turned 30 today(this was written on Saturday : )). I decided awhile ago that I should definitely celebrate this mile stone. My usual celebrations are pretty low key and laid back. For example I love nothing better than to order take out and have a transformer marathon for valentine's day. But I knew I would regret not making the effort to make this celebration stand out. And because Ben is fabulous he was on board.

I didn't have anything extravagant in mind so we decided to take a trip to Atlantic City. We live less than 2 hours away and I love the beach and there is just so much to see. We found a deal on-line for one of the higher end hotels that had its own spa. Well I was in desperate need of a pedicure and an eye brow wax so we left right after work (on Friday) so we could get down there in time for me to go and partake. I didn't get any pictures of the spa but had a wonderful experience. Then it was up to the hotel room to get ready for the night.

All ready for dinner and a good time!

 Once I was ready and we finally decided where we were going to eat we headed out for a walk on the boardwalk down to Caesar's the hotel/ casino where we decided we would eat. This was disastrous for 2 reasons:- 1) I was wearing heels and the "short" walk wasn't so short and 2) The wind was a menace. My hair got ruined...beyond belief. So after a few shed tears and an attempt to fix my hair I forgot about it and went on to enjoy the evening. I say a few tears but it may or may not have been a full scale melt down in the ladies bathroom...opps!  It's a good thing it was dark in the restaurant; that helps when you're having a bad hair evening!

The rest of the evening was perfect-we enjoyed our meal and I got to watch some of the Philly's baseball game out the corner of my eye as I ate (The restaurant had a bar section with sports playing). After the meal we headed to Tropicana another hotel/casino where they had a night club called boogie nights-1 requisite I had was I wanted to dance. Well  as we were walking around the casino I saw an advertisement that said that if we had eaten at a Tropicana restaurant we could get into the night club for free. I hate to pay for something that could be free so we ended up at a bar called Tango's. They had a lounge with sofas where we could relax but they were also playing some good music.

Well we weren't even there 5 minutes when they had a DJ set up. And this is when the real fun began. Ben and I love to people watch and there were a bunch of hilarious people in the bar that night. It began with a older, heavier guy trying to get down with the ladies from the few bachelorette parties that were there. And then add in a group of young guys and the next thing we know one of the guys was shirtless...needless to say endless entertainment.

We called it a night pretty early, shortly after midnight, as we knew it would be a fairly early morning. The deal we got included breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel. Ben enjoyed an omelet and I enjoyed granola and banana's. It was delicious. We had to do a few logistical moves with our car and in the process noticed that there was an imax 3d movie theater at the Tropicana so we purchased tickets and headed to enjoy the beach for awhile and get Ben's art project completed.

Enjoying breakfast

Yeah! The beach

Ben's art project

Shoes and shells!

After the movie-which was awesome- we headed back home to scoop up Cordelia and head out to dinner. We ended up at a local German restaurant. we had a wonderful time and as Cordelia and I declared in the car on the way home...It was THE BEST DAY EVER : )!

Cordy holding the flowers she cut for me with Mom-Mom

Enjoying dinner

Checkbook register

Being a fan of Dave Ramsey I try to implement alot of what he teaches. Okay everything he teaches. One thing he mentions is keeping your checking account/check book balanced. Well in today's world of on-line banking you can see what is going on at the bank in real time however it was important to me to master this skill.

I started out with good old fashioned pen and paper, but found it increasing difficult to keep it up. I would always get messed up if I forgot to make an entry or if I entered an entry incorrectly. I'm a little OCD so trying to correct these made a mess so didn't sit well with me. Additionally, whenever it did come to balancing the account I would be off by some bizarre amount.

Well I started researching what software was available to help keep track of these things. I tried mint and yodlee and I know years ago I tried quick books and microsoft money too. I would always get frustrated with this type of software as you would typically download your transactions and things wouldn't always jive and I felt that they only told me where my money went than managing my money. Now this probably had more to do with user error than anything, but needless to say, it didn't work for me.

I finally came across clearcheckbook.com ! This met my criteria exactly. You manually input transactions-like the old fashioned pen and paper method, it has an on-line interface as well as mobile apps for both andriod and iphone and I can reconcile my account properly. So I can see if checks that I've written have cleared or on-line purchases with my debit card. It even has scheduled reminders for items that automatically hit your account each month. Did I mention its free?

Now if you swipe your debit card like a crazy person I can see how the manual entry thing could get exhausting but I love that when I get my bank statement I can go down the line of items and check them off and that the balances match. If for some reason things don't balance its much simpler to double check my transactions and make any necessary changes.

I was able to set up budgets so I can see at a glance where we stand. And I love that Ben and I can see what's going on with our accounts in real time on the go. Now we are just trying to figure out how long we should keep receipts! How long do you keep yours?

Wordless Wednesday-Turning 30/Throw back!!

Where has the time gone?

Short hair was a big NO NO!

Baby Pictures : )

Earth Month

So I defiantly need more hours in a day. The end of last week caught up to me really quickly and I just didn't have the energy to get in front of the computer and blog. I also didn't feel like it at work (its been really slow) and I have to look busy now and then so it doesn't always work out! Anyway, I'm hoping to get back into the flow of things and do a couple of double posts some days this week to meet my challenge of 30 blog posts in April. It's probably really supposed to be one a day but I'm going to give myself a break,

So this past weekend Ben and I enjoyed cleaning up Palmyra Cove Nature Park's beach in honor of Earth Month. As independent associates with Viridian Energy we were glad that we could be involved in this sustainability initiative. Viridian has organized these events (with local organizations) throughout their territories and have even put together a great page to celebrate earth month.

The bridge in the background goes over to Philadelphia, PA

We turned up a little late but were able to catch up with everyone else pretty quickly. Ben and I enjoyed being on the "beach" I enjoyed the sound of the water and just being out in nature, the atmosphere is definitely different than being at a park clean up. The sand, however, was killer on the legs. The trash unfortunately was the same-plastic bottles, prepackaged food wrappers and other disgusting stuff (a deer leg and dead rats-these I refused to pick up) and that was on the mild end of disgusting. After 2 hours I was pooped and ready to relax for awhile.

It was also lunch time so we went to grab some lunch and ran into my old boss from about 3 years ago which was such a nice surprise as he is a great guy. When we were done with eating the waitress came over to let us know that he had paid for our meal : )! Thank you Joe!

Are there any sustainability initiatives were you are?

Yeah the beach!

Ahh, if only we were in a tropical country

Styling our heavy duty gloves with plastic gloves underneath.

Rich Roll Podcast

I'm can't remember how, but a few weeks ago I came across this awesome podcast by a guy called Rich Roll. I had not heard of him before but just remember hearing he had a really good podcast so thought I'd check it out.  The podcasts are pretty long but are defiantly worth listening to, if you have an interest in health, fitness and/or spirituality. I decided that I would start listening to the podcast from the beginning (he had just started at the end of last year) so I could get the full story.  Well this lead me to borrowing his book-finding ultra- from the library. What a great read. His story is very inspiring-especially for those of us who have gained a few extra LB's over the years- and even those who haven't. He has overcome some giant obstacles in his life and his story came across well in the book along with his wicked sense of humor.

Rich roll's wife, Julie Piatt, sometimes guest hosts on the podcast with him. I think these are the best ones, the way they play off of each other is hilarious. I really appreciate how they can laugh at themselves individually and as a couple. Needless to say lots of fun to listen to in the car and great information.

What podcast's do you listen to?

Wordless Wednesday-Yeah to hot weather and Rita's

Post gymnastics treat...someone was happy

Weekend sniffles

So amidst the birthday parties and general conference I was diligently trying to fight off a cold. Someone in my office hadn't been feeling very well earlier last week and I could feel the germs circulating, well I unfortunately wasn't very proactive, add in a few late nights and I sir-came to the cold. Friday I woke up feeling okay, but as my day progressed things went down hill. From the time I left the house until I arrived at my office it was like I was a different person. I couldn't stop sneezing, my eyes were watering and I had to blow my nose so many times it was red raw by lunch! I felt bad staying at work but was able to avoid too much contact with people.

So operation get well was in full force. My main weapons were apple cider vinegar, honey, lemon, garlic, cayenne pepper and lavender oil. I took shoots of apple cider vinegar , which is very good at alkalizing your body. Then I mixed the freshly squeezed lemon juice with honey, cayenne pepper and garlic ( which I crushed) and poured hot water over it to let it brew before drinking. I followed this up with rubbing lavender oil on my neck, chin and bridge of my nose as well as burning it in a oil diffuser.

I also tried to eat as clean as I could to help boost my immune system so I could fight it off but unfortunately I couldn't resist our general conference tradition but did have a great smoothy on Saturday and made a huge jug of green juice on Sunday. I also tried to stay a hydrated as possible drinking lots of herbal tea-peppermint and camomile are my favorite-I also drank some coconut water and of course good old fashioned filtered water.

Yeah fitting in a green smoothie on the go

Yesterday (Monday)  evening I was feeling way better with just a little bit of a stuffy noise. Today I'm even better with the last few remnants of it leaving...I can actually smell and taste again : ) Oh I forgot I used coconut oil to help my nose and it is all better too. Now poor Ben is fighting it off...Sorry honey!

Pure lavender essential oil-my Mum has used these since I was a kid.

My oil diffuser spreading wellness in our living room, then kitchen, then bedroom.

183rd Annual General Conference Weekend

We had the pleasure of watching general conference this weekend. The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints holds conference twice a year. Once in the Spring and than again in the Fall. General Conference is transmitted from the conference center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Talks are given by the general authorities of the church that give its members guidance. 

I was very blessed after being baptized to be able to go to Salt Lake City and attend conference in person. The experience was fa-nominal.  I would encourage everyone to attend in person, at least once if possible. Anyway back to this years conference. As I mentioned conference is transmitted, and can be watched on BYU-TV (if you have satellite t.v) or in our case we watched it on-line at LDS.org. We have a HDMI hook up from our t.v to the P.C so its pretty much like watching a regular t.v show. Saturday did present a little challenge but we were able to watch 2 out of the 4 hours in between the birthday parties.

I love general conference as I find it is so uplifting. I always hear something that resonates with whatever is going on in my life at the time. The feeling it brings into our home..can only be described as sweet bliss.This year was also one of the first years Cordelia has really paid attention to what was going on. It was so sweet seeing her face light up as she saw President Monson come onto the screen.

Besides the spiritual blessings of conference there are temporal ones too! We get to enjoy the tradition of cinnamon rolls and pineapple and strawberries. This tradition was started by my good friends Ashleigh and Spencer. I was hauled up at home with Strep Throat (luckily no longer contagious) and this was the wonderful breakfast they brought over. Well I loved it so much that it has stuck. This may change in the future as it doesn't quite fit with the new dietary direction I'm trying to take, but I'm taking baby steps!

Yummy!! I forgot to get a picture of them before we dug in : )

In between conference on Sunday Cordelia did enjoy playing some wii, and dress up and dancing and a few other things.

What do you like about general conference?

Birthday Party Central!!

So Cordelia was really blessed to be invited to two birthday partys that were both taking place on Saturday. We started bright and early at 9.30am for the first party. This was held at her friend from church's house and had a princess theme. The girls started out in the salon with getting their nails painted. Then they moved on to the games...only after everyone's nails were dry, of course!

They played the following games:-

• Pin the tiara on Rapunzel
• Catch the glass slipper
• Don't eat beast
• Mermaid race
• Bobbing for "apples"

All the girls had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed the cupcakes at the end of all the activities.

Pin the tiara on Rapunzel

 

Don't eat beast

Cordelia did great and didn't eat beast : )

enjoying her candy

Pass the glass slipper

Bobbing for "apples"

Get those ballons

Getting ready for the mermaid race

Ready, set, go!

Enjoying cup cakes.

 So after a brief intermission-we went home and had some lunch- it was on to party #2 which was a friend from schools party. This started at 1:45pm and was held at Pump it Up. Cordelia had attended a few parties here before so was very excited when we arrived...and off she went!

Stopping for a brief moment to get some balls through the "hoops"

Bounce, bounce, bounce

Happy Birthday Jadelyn!!

 Then everyone got ready to glow and the lights were turned out! This was fun-however-I had to keep a close eye on Cordelia as all the kids looked the same with their glow stick necklaces.

Ah, where did she go?

There she is!

Enjoying the birthday seat with the birthday girl.

Pizza and cake time.

Another friend from school!

Happy Birthday girls we had a great time celebrating your birthdays with you!

Movie Night @ Wegmans

Last night we had a wonderful movie night at Wegmans. I had seen notices up each time I was shopping and had just kept it in the back of my mind as something that would be fun to do as a family. Well it just worked out that Cordelia had two birthday parties to go to on Saturday (which will be another blog post) so her customary trip to Grammy and Pa-pap's had to be postponed for a week.  Well she was able to get the best of both worlds with Pa-pap joining us for the movie. So we arrived early as we had no idea how this thing worked. The lady at the customer service desk was wonderful and walked us through the whole thing.

I never realized that they had a second floor cafe area, but this is were the movie was going to be shown. We were very lucky that we were there 35 minutes early as the "doors" opened at 6pm and there were people waiting. Not many, but there are definitely prime seats which I took note of for next time. They had menu's which you could order off of, pizza and wings. They had a concession stand ( which we kept out of sight from Cordelia) and they also did prepackaged ice-creams. They had a mat in front of the big screen where the kids could hang out.
 

Enjoying ice-cream after the movie

 We really enjoyed ourselves and plan on doing this again. Oh and did I mention that the movie was free!

The Honest Company

Look what showed up at my house! I was so excited. I have tried several "green" products before but all seemed over priced for what I got. The honest company seemed to fit the profile for what I was looking for...natural cleaning and beauty products at reasonable prices.

You do have to sign up for monthly deliveries, which I was a little apprehensive about but once I looked at the budget I felt that I would truely be replacing my usual purchases with the membership. Also I can cancel at anytime so I figured the risk was minimal.

My package was coming from California but still arrived quickly. I placed my order on Friday and it arrived the following Wednesday. I was really happy with the service, when I order things on line I love the shipping confirmations that actually have tracking information which The Honest Company's e-mail did.

I used the shampoo, conditioner and lotion on Cordelia right away (I really got these for her) the verdict is still out as I really can't judge them on just a few uses but so far so good. I'll do a seperate post on there performance in the up coming weeks.

Have you found any "green" products you love?

Financial Peace University

So over 5 years ago one of the most amazing things happened in my life...I became a mother. For many when you experience a major life event, things fall into perspective. One of those things for me was my finances.

My precious pumpkin!!

So I have to back up a bit. Before Cordelia came along I thought it was okay to live paycheck to paycheck, to have a credit card with a recurring balance and only pay the minimum balance, to buy a house 100% financed and the last big financial mistake I made was when I got my last big pay raise I  brought a brand new car on finance (it only had something like 30 miles on it when I drove it off the lot). 

What's the matter with that? it's normal right?? Well let me tell you normal sucks! I can't remember how but I came across Dave Ramsey when I was about 6 months pregnant and something inside of me clicked I think I was finally tired and fed up of working hard and not having a thing to show for it especially any money. After researching his teachings on-line I remembered a conversation I had had several years before with an acquaintance explaining to me that being debt free is the best and cash is king and I seriously thought they were crazy and argued that I needed my credit card. Wow how I was eating my words now!

Well I got as gazelle intense as I could before Cordelia was born, I even sold my car! I was blessed as it was a Honda and had kept its value so I only had to come out of pocket $500 to get out of that deal. I think that was the last $500 I saw for awhile as I remember it taking me forever to even get my mini emergency fund.  But I persevered! After my mini emergency fund was done I really wanted to go through Financial Peace University (FPU), when Cordelia was about 9 months I found that a local church was running the course and they provided free child care..Another blessing. I really enjoyed the course and the community that I felt when attending.  

This little box changes lives..well the content does!

The biggest things that have helped me through this journey and still do, is the budget (I'm a geek so love it ) and the envelope system. I would encourage everyone to either attend FPU or read one of Dave's books. You'll be glad you did..the worst thing that could happen is you save some money : )!