Finally!!!!

We have a closing date on our house, 

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

ALL smiles here :-D

Initially, it was going to be for Friday but stupid title company messed it up. 

Oh well. 

Only 4 more days and that beauty of a house will be ours!

ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

This past weekend I went and helped my brother and his wife start painting their family room. 

and by helped I mean...

Just helped with the primer. 

It's starting to look good guys!

Brandt painting away...

Primer going up in their family room

Me RELAXING on their couch after a whole 20 minutes of painting.

(I will have enough painting myself soon enough) ;-)

Dan and I really haven't been up to anything fun at all. We have just been anxiously awaiting the close date on our house and now that it's next Tuesday the end is near! I will tell you that we are SICK of living with boxes all over. I am a pretty organized person and Dan is kinda a "neat freak" so these past few weeks have been a challenge for us both. We feel like we have been at a standstill since January when we found out our offer was accepted.

Tips for Saving up a down payment on your 1st home:

* **

Live below your income:

This should be happening no matter who you are or how much money you make. But if you're trying to save up for a down payment on a house it will happen a lot faster if you live below your means.

 Dan and I sacrificed by renting a 1 bed 1 bath apt instead of a 2 bath 2 bedroom or a townhouse. By doing this we saved an extra $200-$400 a month!! 

We also have skipped out on vacations. While friends of ours took off to tropical warm climates we hung back and just went on a nice date or had a fun weekend. 

*I told Dan it's our turn to FINALLY go on our honeymoon this next year!

You can also cut out things like cable, going out to eat, shopping for cleaning supplies & things like shampoo/conditioner @ the dollar store. 

We saved every cent of our tax return last year! Just put it right into savings so we never even saw it. We also took money out of each paycheck and immediately transferred it to savings. We have it built into our budget that we are saving $600 a month at least. 

Instead of going out to the movies we did a lot of ON DEMAND this past year. It only costs about $5 a movie, you have it for 24-48 hrs, and you can eat your own goodies and stay in your pj's in the comfort of your own home!

There are a lot of things you can do to save money. Those are just some of the things we did- besides the cutting the cable. Heaven forbid Dan live without ESPN. :-)

Seeing all the new VS swimsuits makes me think about this:::

Pretty darn excited...

1.) Last week at current job! I am pretty excited to be moving on, making more, and having some extra perks that I wouldn't have with my current job. But I will miss the girls I work with! They are so wonderful and I will miss them a lot.

2.) I WENT SHOPPING!!! Always a good way to end the week. They had a sale at Express so I went and snagged some new work pants x2 to be exact &&& Dan was able to get (2) new work shirts.  

3.) Loan is out of underwriting and approved! Thank goodness! We also extended our lease for another month because it was just too hard to close on our house before March 1st. This has relieved SO much stress for us and this way we can "take our time" moving in, get our appliances and carpet installed, and begin painting. 

4.) Finally used my $50 gift card to Macy's from Christmas and got a Bobbi Brown shimmer brick compact in rose gold. 

5.) Date night with my man! We went out to dinner and then caught a movie with his brother and a friend- Always a good time.

YOU my friend,

are on my -

WISHLIST!!!

I Want, I Need.

I'm sure this is old news by now

but

what an amazing girl!

Victoria's Secret Angel, Kylie Bisutti, left the famous Victoria's Secret to honor God, her husband, and herself.

Don't get me wrong- I love the company, love the clothes, & all the fancy underwear.

But there is a fine line...

We need more women like this in the world today.

Watch the interview below:

High Five Friday

My top (5) things of this past week are:

1.) Date night with Dan to finally see "The Vow"

( I know I have been annoyingly jonesing about this for a while)

2.) Getting enough sleep!

Usually I stay up too late and have to wake up early for work. I drag the rest of the day and then crash when I get home- and then the cycle repeats itself. All this week I have made a conscious effort to get 8 hrs of sleep a night. :-) feelin good!

3.) Being offered a new Job.

I was offered a position at verily large internal medical practice with (3) additional Urgent Care facilities as a medical biller. I Accepted! I am excited to get a raise in pay along with flexible working hours and the ability to work from home when Dan and I have babies! Not to mention my very OWN office! I will miss my current co-workers :-( those girls are the best!

4.) Scheduling our House Appraisal!

It is scheduled for this upcoming Monday. Once that is over we will have all the "bigger" things done as far as closing, pretty much all that is left is paperwork. Almost done with closing!! Can't wait to move in!

5.) New Season of The Housewives of Orange County Started!!!!

Such trash television, but I love it. Love the drama-filled lives of these women. Orange County and New Jersey are probably my (2) favorite. 

Date Night

Date Night with the Hubs to see "The Vow"

such a cute movie

Pre-show:

Dinner @ Steak N' Shake

I have not been there in F-O-R-E-V-E-R

We also enjoyed a "Strawnana" Shake

(Strawberry-Banana)

mmmmmmmm.

It was huge. 

I suggest splitting one, I used to eat one of these by MYSELF in high school.

unbelievable.

and 

somehow winter came while we were in the movie???

It had not snowed ALL winter in Michigan and last night it decided to come.

We went 35mph (literately) on 75 home.

It was so icy out,

Thanks Michigan!

Of course you WOULD snow right before we move--

hopefully it doesn't stick!

It was nice to finally go on a date with Dan, we surprisingly don't go out like this that often. 

Especially with all the house stuff going on, we have been really trying to watch where we spend money until after we close. 

Speaking of the HOUSE:

Appraisal is Monday!!!

After that things should move along a lot more quickly,

at least we hope...

We already gave our 30-day notice to our apartment complex- so lets hope we close before the end of February.

If not:

Hello Mom & Dad's!

(lets hope not, then we would have to move TWICE)