New Car!

Oh and my other big news is that we bought a NEW CAR!  One I have always wanted!  We started looking mid-December and even looked while we were up in Chicago.  I had it narrowed down to a Highlander or a Nissan Murano.  It had to be white with preferably tan leather interior.  I thought car shopping would be fun and easy.  It was Not. At. All.  I really couldn’t decide on what I wanted and things that were important to Brian (technology, updates) were not important to me and things that were important to me (Cuteness factor, price) were not as important to Brian.  We had been looking and I finally came across a Lexus RX330 online that was at a dealership nearby.  The mileage was higher then I wanted but the price was lower than we expected to spend.  We went and looked at it and drove it and before we even got out of the car, Brian had a little smirk on his face.  I asked what was so funny..he chuckled and said “I knew we would end up with one of these”.   He knows me all too well!  My parents have had one for a few years and I INSIST on driving it anytime they drive it down to Louisville or we go up to Chicago.  So…now I have one of my very own!  I am loving it.  It is cute and drives SO well in the snow and wet roads.  I have mentioned we moved kind to be kind of out in the country and bit and some all of the roads to get to our house are kind of steep and windy so I feel SO much safer driving the Lexus rather than my 2004 Toyota Solara.  AND we did hang on to the Toyota.  It such a great little car and gets great gas mileage and the dealer wasn’t’ going to give us much on our trade in so we decided to hang on to it for a while.  I have A LOT of emotional attachment to it as well so its temporary relief to not have to get rid of it though.  One day I will have to get over it though.  J

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

It’s been a few months since I posted (boy does that sound familiar!) so I have a lot to catch up on!  Our holiday season was HECTIC!  Nice, fun, sweet, but mostly hectic.  Thanksgiving started it off with my family (Mom, Dad, Sis, BIL, nephew) coming down to visit.  We had a great time!  It was so nice to have the whole family be able to stay under one roof for the first time ever.  Well, let me back up.  They have been driving down from Chicago to Louisville for years now but it has always been my parents staying with me (us once we got married) and my sister and BIL staying at a nearby hotel.  We went over to the In-Laws for Thanksgiving dinner and did our usual trip to Churchill Downs the day after.  Throwing our money to the wind and eating and drinking too much after drinking and eating too much the day before, go figure.

Soon after that we hosted TWO back to back Holiday parties.  Never. Again.  We had Brian’s entire school faculty over on Friday night.  I would guesstimate that there were about 60 people???  Yes. 60.  I don’t really know a lot of them and of course they all knew each other so I spent the evening kind of running around, then I would have nothing to do, then run around some more.  Saturday we had all of my friends and most of their spouses over plus some kiddos.  Approximately 15 people?  That was nice as well…low key.  The hardest part about hosting was the fact that we had only been in our house about 2-3 months and I was kind of a total spazz about making sure the house was decorated and put together beautifully.  Everyone GUSHED about the house though so that was nice to hear. 

After that we had a week or two of quietness before we headed to Chicago for the weekend before Christmas.  Continued on the eating and drinking too much campaign.  We took time out of the eating and drinking to visit the Goodwill by my parents’ house three times.  My husband is obsessed…it IS a pretty good Goodwill, I must say.  I can’t say much though, I came out with 5 tops and a jacket (who is this girl) and he bought 6 pair of pants all for about $60.  Good, quality stuff too! 

We came back on Christmas Eve and had my In-Laws over for dinner on Christmas Day.  It was my first cooking of Christmas dinner and it turned out GREAT if I do say so myself.  Made all the staples my husband requested…the broccoli casserole, corn casserole, etc,etc.  It was fairly easy too.  Granted it was only 4 of us but that’s ok. 

New Year’s…we hosted AGAIN!  Although this was only 3 couples and one of the couples kiddos.  It was very low key…played some Wii, sat around, and most were gone before midnight.  I will say it was nice to just sit on the couch with the hubs and a glass of champagne at midnight and finally take a breather!  2013 is sure to be another crazy year!

We moved!

It would be really wonderful if I would post more on a regular basis.  I guess I have a decent excuse though.  WE MOVED!  Into an absolutely gorgeous, huge house!  Ok so it’s been almost a month and a half but it has taken awhile to become the slightest bit settled.  We have so much more to go.  That being said, the house was in wonderful condition with nothing crazy that we have to do right away.  Ok, the master bath is a tad circa 1988ish but we will get there.  I will admit I have no patience (something I am working on) but I am really ok with going slowly with the decorating.  Thank God because it’s SO hard.  One would think with Pinterest, HGTV, and numerous decorating blogs I spend hours at work looking at, it would be easy.  Um no.  It’s like impossible.  There are walls that I have no clue what to do with.  I have spent hours upon hours walking around home stores and can’t commit to anything.  We have no pictures hung or anything because for some reason I am having such a hard time trusting myself to know what would look good.  Ugh…so frustrating.  So back to the house….it is a large 5 bedroom 3.5 bath house.  Great big country style kitchen, wrap around porch, gorgeous large yard for my little (ok well big) pups to play in.  I get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I get home.  It’s a little big for 2 people (ok and two big dogs and one big cat) but I hope to be filling it up sooner than later. 

From the mouths of babes….

My husband is an Assistant Principal for a public Elementary school. A few days before we got married, one of the second grade classes decided to make him a book full of marriage advice. Every now and then I read it and think about how easy it would be if we just listened! Especially about the new car part…seriously Honey get with the program. J

 

My No Spend Month starts today!

So I have gotten a little more into blogs lately and coupled with my Pinterest obsession (because for serious, who isn’t obsessed these days), I have stumbled across the idea of a No Spend Month.  The idea is based on a family of 3 or 4 people who are only allowed to spend $250 on extra “stuff”.  Necessities like groceries, gas, and bills don’t count. 

I want to do this a little different.  I really can’t include my husband because we somewhat keep our finances separate for the time being.  He (we) have number of rental properties which he is sinking a lot of money in at the moment.  I will write more about our lovely (cough, cough) rental properties sometime.  Right now they are consuming our lives to the point where I don’t want to think about them! 

So, I want to try and spend $300 between now and July 20^th.  That will be $75 a week.  This includes groceries and gas but does not include any bills.  Make sense?  Sound difficult?  Only time will tell.  What worries me about this is tomorrow, for example, I will have to get gas.  $60 right there!  Ugh!  Then I believe I have a hair appointment on July 18^th.  Dangit.  $120 right there!  Double ugh!  That got me thinking….there is not much I can do on gas.  My commute is like nothing and that will probably last me 2 weeks.  But the hair thing, hmmm.  Maybe I can work on that. 

I have a few reasons for wanting to do this.  For starters, ok I admit it, I have a teensy bit of credit card debt I’m paying off.  Ok maybe more than a teensy bit.  Let me put it this way.  It’s under $5k.  I know, I know, geez I was living on a single income for like ever.  It’s so much harder than living on two incomes.  That being said, with my townhouse being sold (fingers crossed till closing in 2-3 weeks), every cent I earn goes right to paying that off.  So…another two to three months, and that should be gone.   My second reason is, I need a new car.  Ok, I take that back.  I don’t need a new car, I want one.  See my problem here?  (However, the front console of my car is being held together by a rubberband)  The sooner I can pay off that debt, the sooner I can start socking moola away for a slightly used, super chic, SUV.  A white Nissan Rogue is at the top of my list right now.  That may change by the end of the day.    My third reason is, that when we have little Kehrer’s running around (which I hope is sooner than later), I would really like to be able to stay at home with them.  This will entail living off of my husband’s income, which he makes a good living, but that doesn’t mean we will have money for me to spend my days shopping and hitting up the local spa.  Not by a long shot.  So I figure this would be good practice. 

We have SO much food in our pantry and fridge, not to mention about 400 pounds of steak and ribs downstairs in our freezer.  Brian bought a half a cow awhile back.  Great investment if you are thinking about doing it!  We should have enough food to not do much grocery shopping for awhile.  Hamburger helper anyone???

I will post in one week to let you know my status.  Wish me luck!

What to write about. 

Well I started this blog a long time ago…I have wanted to get back at it and now, while I should be “working hard” right now it’s more lie “hardly working”.   I figured it would be a great time to start! 

I have now been married a little over a year.  I think (know) that both my husband and I would agree with the saying of “The First Year being the Hardest”.  We are both two strong willed people that have been used to getting “our way” for a very long time.  We are getting better with this, slowly but surely.   

Some random thoughts about our marriage so far…

1)      Knowing that even though my husband did quite well as a bachelor for almost 38 years, his life is so much more complete with me in it.  We were driving back from a little weekend get a way a few weeks ago and the song came on the radio “I’d be looking for a woman like you” by Lee Brice.  The song has always reminded me of us, and I didn’t even realize my husband listened to words of songs but the second the song came on, his first words were “this song so reminds me of us”.  And yep, from the line of “She knows what a mess I'd be if I didn't have her here” to “And not one throw pillow on the bed”, that song pretty much sums up our marriage.  We have a total of 9 pillows on our bed when completely made, just FYI.  It’s awesome.    

2)     We will make great parents and I think we will have a wonderful family.  I don’t think there are two people in this world that balance each other out the way my husband and I do. 

3)      I have realized that I have a lot of work to do on myself.  Not that I ever thought I was perfect or even close to it.  I think being married makes you realize that your perception of your own strengths and weaknesses are not at all accurate.  I’m not quite who I thought I was.  Before I was married, I used to think I was level headed….after being married for a year I can wholeheartedly say that’s not true, I really need to relax.  I also used to think of myself as kind of a hard ass.  While I know my husband shakes his head, rolls his eyes, etc when I am trying to save every helpless animal that I come in contact with, I know deep down he loves this about me.  Brian makes me feel like I am one of the most caring, sensitive (in a good way), empathetic people in the world.  And that makes me want to be even more “that way”.

4)     I have turned out to be a damn good cook.  More posts on this later…

5)     No matter how big the fight or how frustrated you are…being married is worth it.  As I stated earlier, I think both Brian and I would agree that the first year has been tough.  We have had a lot of adjustments, and still have many more to go.  But, even at the lowest point, I wouldn’t trade him or what we have for a second. 

6)       When people call me Mrs. Kehrer, I still feel the need to do that snort/laugh combo at them.  Sometimes I actually do it.  I don’t know why.  I’m almost 32 and still don’t feel old enough to be a “Mrs”.   

7)     In some alternate universe, if my husband was married to some other woman, I would be painfully jealous of her.   

So there are my random thoughts on our marriage for the day.  I will end with this….

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories?
- George Eliot

…Getting there.  J

Wedding day and one year later!