Frugal or Green?

Or both! I'm realizing that my mother's old frugal ways are today's eco-friendly habits. I used to think my mom was weird for reusing zip loc bags, but now I find myself doing the same thing to cut down on waste. Also like keeping rags handing for cleaning. Luckily, these habits save money too! So lately I find myself thinking of ways my mother used to cut corners and reuse things for a different use. My mother also kept plastic butter containers to store left overs. Though I hated peeking inside butter containers in fear of finding moldy food (yeah...my mom worked full time) and it takes Bryan and I over a month to use up an entire butter container, maybe I'll start keeping an eye out for useful, reusable containers.

I also find myself gravitating to green wedding blogs, too. Now that our wedding is becoming more and more simplified due to funding I am going to enjoy finding ways I can add hand-made detail to our wedding. I haven't really been very artistic in the past, but I also haven't really had ways to apply my limited artistic talent. So I'm hoping it shines for our wedding.

For the time being I'll be focused on different design....for our new apartment! We will pretty much know in about a week whether or not we're moving in July. We reserved a 2 bdrm right down the street from us yesterday. It's very white and boring so now I'll be on the hunt for affordable and hopefully green ways we can decorate our apartment. Paint will definitely be needed. I'm excited to have a short term tangible goal to focus on, I've needed that for some time.

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my really awesome sister in law's birthday! Mary is an exceptional wife, mother, woman, friend and so on. She blogs over at My Thinking Chair and it is worth a read to see my adorable nieces! Also, she has her own Etsy store called Banana Bear Boutique. She and her friend make hair bows, baby burpies, gift sets, clothes, I Spy bags and more. If I ever have a baby shower gift to buy, I know I'll go to her store and feel good buying something handmade of great quality. Happy Birthday, Mary!!!

Bike Ride

Finally, the weather was really warm this weekend. On Saturday we went to the National Zoo. We arrived later in the day so we missed the lions and tigers, but it was still nice to get out. It was really crowded there, but we got to see a huge hippo (what other size are they, really?) at eating time. I got some good pictures from that.

Yesterday, we got some cleaning done and rearranged some furniture. Then, I got the bright idea to go for a bike ride. So we rode around Piney Orchard and I could barely make it home. The hills and dry air nearly killed me (or so I felt). I can't believe how out of shape I am. Bryan said the back tire on the bike I was riding was pretty flat, but still.

My brother gave me some pointers on the Motivational Statement for the Navy application. Hopefully, I will work up the nerve to call this other recruiter. Somethings seems funny about him, but a phone call can't hurt me. Otherwise, I'm just trying to plug away and keep all doors open to new opportunities.

Foodie?

Last night B and I ate at Chili's and we didn't enjoy it. I find more and more that I do not enjoy eating out a chain restaurants anymore (besides mexican!! hello chipotle!). I just felt gross and bloated after I left. I might have already shared this once, but I'm going to share it again:



It truly is a great site. I receive daily e-mails from them and she covers EVERYTHING. She has recipes for restaurant swaps, reviews on new low-cal products, quick and easy recipes, awesome drinks and fast food restaurant reviews. There is more, but that is all I could think of off the top of my head.

In February or March I also bought a copy of this magazine:



B and I probably ate from this magazine for 2 weeks, that is how many easy recipes there were inside. Dare I say, I like it more than the Food Network Magazine, which by the way I haven't gotten the next issue of in the mail. Food Network is good for more elegant, planned meals. But Clean Eating actually had week night friendly recipes and we felt GOOD eating them.

Bed Frames

Woke up in a terrible mood this morning.
One: the bed is falling apart (on my side) so the matress dips in uncomfortable places.
Two: had bad dreams about b and i
Three: sick of our crowded apartment

We are busting out of the seams. I was looking all morning at rentals, but I can't find anything. It's really frustrating. Hopefully B will start a new job soon and we'll have a bigger budget to work with. I wanted to put off moving until I knew whether or not I had a chance to go into the Navy. But I'm miserable in this home. Besides I'm tackling the Navy at a snails pace. I sent another e-mail to my recruiter and he's out of the office until tomorrow. So yeah things are moving right along. I'm trying to get all the annoying paperwork out of the way and then I can focus on the fitness and studying. There are just so many things on our plates right now I'm trying to take one piece at a time so I don't become totally overwhelmed.

So I'm looking for a new bed frame on IKEA this morning. Nothing really caught my eye. I've always gotten my furniture from them, if anyone is aware of another affordable furniture retailer; let me know!

Snippet and Ink

Here is one of the wedding blogs I've started to follow and drool over:

They recommend all kinds of different vendors, give color inspiration, and all kinds of other goodies.

Thanks to some encouragement I have decided to continue to pursue getting into the Navy. I know I want to go back to school for something and having the chance for the Navy to pay for it is really appealing. That isn't the main reason I want to go into the Navy of course. The Navy means putting some other goals aside for a couple years, but not forever. Besides, I don't even know if they'll accept me, but I don't want to give up on applying. I'm going to try a little harder. How I'm going to get into physical shape for it is beyond me, but I'll start today. Should be interesting.

Easter weekend was fun and seeing Bryan all dressed up is something I always look forward to. He looks damn good in a nice pair of slacks, a crisp white shirt and a tie. If I do say so myself. I forgot my camera at home like an airhead but my mom took a picture of us and I'll have to bug her to put email it to me or something.

My Dad became surprisingly angry when I mentioned that we asked my best friend's girlfriend to perform our wedding ceremony. I told them she was a reverend (she isn't really, she just printed out a certificate online). So my Dad was very upset and said he wouldn't attend our wedding ceremony if a woman preacher was the officiator. So I explained she wasn't really a reverend, but that if she could get a license to marry that we would really like her to do it. Well, he was still angry because I guess you can't even have a civil ceremony done by a woman. I don't really know the rules on these things. I KNOW that women can marry people, but I don't know how grey it becomes when my religion is tossed in there. Bryan and I of course want God mentioned in our ceremony somehow, but is it wrong if a woman performs it? I don't believe so, but apparently my father does. I hate to give in on my beliefs, but I'd also hate my father to think our marriage wasn't legitimate and not attend the wedding. I'll probably just compromise if he feels that strongly about it...any ideas or opinions on a religious (christian) ceremony performed by a woman??

Blog Rolls

I'm also really psyched about the new blogs I found to follow. For the longest time I read mommy blogs because for some odd reason I felt a connection to them, but I found a 20something forum and I joined. Found new blogs from people my age and love them.

I've also found a bunch of great wedding blogs that I'll probably steal all my ideas from. Their inspirational and make me feel good about taking my wedding in a "green" direction!