The ANTS come marching one by one....

I found this awesome lamp that has a bulb in the glowing ball and it's the perfect night light.  Even Micah actually got a little excited and took it on himself to update the wiring, even though it worked.

lately....

we've been doing some projects, naturally. So I found this lamp at Goodwill this summer and realized it had this cool night light feature. However, it's like 40 yrs old and when I got home, it wasn't working, even though it'd worked at the store. It made Micah nervous to have old wiring in the house and so that was kind of the end of that. But then I started to revamp it and told Micah about this feature and he'd wanted a nightlight, so he figured out how to do 2 sockets on one switch and completely rewired it for me! I repainted it and I had to get a lampshade for it, but we totally are proud of this project. A lot of effort for light, but you gotta admit, it is pretty cool-and unique, huh?

....And finally got some furniture. We've spent a night or 2 last week like this! Our friends make fun of us for being so 'calm' about having a baby. Friends that are having babies had this stuff set up months ago and are due after us. I'm not sure it's calmness; I just really haven't been worked up over a crib because the baby's not going to sleep in it for a few months anyways, but now that there's an actual nursery set up with some clothes in the drawers, we somehow do feel better. Something to kill time while we wait....

Before & After

We have totally lucked out with people being so generous with hand me downs! Our friends in the ward had twins last year and so of course, people gave them TONS of stuff. This year they're moving and I don't think needed, nor wanted to store a lot of it, so this is one thing we got from them. They said even though it' s one of the older ones they were given, it worked the best and the newer ones broke on them.

I always love a good project, so I thought I'd just update this a little so here's the 'Before'

Ta-dah!!
I must say I'm pretty proud of myself and my hand sewing....
we'll see how sturdy it is and how well it holds up...

Look who got a wedding gift!

Look what came in the mail the other day!
(I called Micah at work to ask if he'd ordered anything from BB&B, because it matched so perfectly the oil rubbed bronze & brown scheme I'd just put in. His answer, "Do YOU think I did?" Of course not.) After searching through all the wrapping junk, I found a packing slip that said who it was from and "Best wishes on a life together"

It'll go perfectly with this decor I JUST put in the bathroom, don't you think?

Micah and I didn't do much with wedding gift cards and $ because we figured what was the point of getting stuff to fit out apartment? We decided we'd wait for a house so we could pick out stuff that would be a little more permanent. So I finally got to use some of my BB&B cards and have a real bathroom kind of! And 2 weeks later, I get a lost wedding gift in the mail...AND it said there was another package coming...irony of ironies...what's the chance of getting a nice shower curtain just WEEKS after I finally got one!? We've had a secondhand one that worked just fine, but it's fun to get some matching stuff. I'll just have to exchange it for something else!

July Visitors....and my 'garden'!

One of Micah's buddies from home lives in AZ so we get together with them every so often. Well they came to visit us for a weekend this month and we had so much fun! Their kids are always so much fun and want to help with everything. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of little Brilyn helping Micah in the kitchen make ice cream....or teaching him to dance.
Her parents were asleep but she wouldn't go down for a Sunday afternoon nap, so Micah and I were playing with her. I told her to get her shoes on and we'd go for a walk. She ran and got her 'blue shoes', as she so lovingly calls them, and came and sat next to me as we waited for Micah to finish up something before going for a walk. After a minute, I looked down, and Oila! I couldn't move for fear of waking her up!
This is our beloved yard...pretty much a sandbox. We will have to sink a lot of moolah into it I'm thinking to actually have soil.....
So for now, this is my garden! I've been so excited to have fresh tomatoes! Even if there are only enough for one salad after my whole harvest. Peppers and cukes I can eat from the store, but I have NEVER eaten a tomato from the store that comes close to homegrown....that's what I miss most.

Ode to Lisa Michelle-

So I LOVE getting a good deal. Cheap or thrifty, call it what you may. I just like the challenge and it makes me extra happy to shop and know I got a good deal! At our family reunion/Renee's wedding last month, Lisa told Micah at some point that she's gotten into couponing (groceries) and Micah said that sounds like something I'd be interested in....so she told me about it-and I got interested. I'm not nearly as good as her, but here is some of my handiwork this past month:

$4.21 at Target
retail: roughly $15ish

Toothpaste: .12
Lightbulbs: .89 ish or something
Granola Bars: $1.19ish
Juice: .98
Pens: Free
Candy bar: .29 (Normally $2.29!)

$1.07 at Walgreens
retail: around $7

$12.86 at CVS (yes, I have started stocking up on diapers)
retail: roughly $28

drum roll please....
.69 at CVS (retail $31.04)
no, i do NOT even mean each

I stumbled upon some clearance shelf and could NOT believe my eyes! they had a bunch of baby stuff like 70-90% off! These were like .50-.90 each, but I had a .50 off coupon for Pampers and I had a CVS $3 rewards coupon from a purchase a few weeks ago (spends like cash at CVS) and after paying the leftover total of .69, I actually somehow got a $2 rewards coupon back (which I promptly spent on diapers of the previous picture) so in all actuality I MADE $1.31 on these wipes! 656 wipes for .69 works out to .001052 cents each, so even if CVS brand is terrible and you have to use like 10 each time, at that price I'll use a whole package for one cleaning! Anyways, this made me pretty excited. There was even a label on the clearance shelf for a 36ct Huggies Diapers for $1.80!!! but those were all gone. So this bargain was total chance, for sure, but pretty good chance! I went to a few other CVSs in the neighborhood but none of them had this deal.

People say couponing takes too much time and it's not worth it....once you figure our what you're doing, it takes some organization and it does take time, but time is something I happen to have PLENTY of currently. Plus, there are tons of bloggers that do all the hard work for you. Before I have thoroughly bored most of you, I'll just post some of my favorites that were passed on by Lisa.

http://hip2save.com/
www.totallytarget.com
http://www.savingwithshellie.com
http://couponcravings.com

Our newest love....

Micah has golfed since his mission...however, I HAD never been. He's tried to get me to go a few times and we've gone to the driving range and hit some balls after dinner now and then. My excuse was always that I was nervous to go because I'd be so terrible and then we'd have these old cranky men behind us waiting and then I'd just feel pressure and be worse and really just not enjoy it. However, I gave in this past month. We went to the course on Base where we've gone to the driving range.
As you can see, it's getting progressively darker. That was how Micah got me to go-pretty much guarantee we're the last ones on the course for the night! It worked! No one was behind us, and we were slow enough-especially with Micah stopping to teach me that we pretty much had the course to ourselves.
And you'll never believe it, but I actually enjoyed it! It wasn't as bad as I'd imagined...I mean, I was WAY over par every time, but the ball mostly stayed straight and on the fairway! I'd imagined my ball going all over the course and into the wilderness and spending the whole night in cactus and sand, but it wasn't that bad!

As (almost) always, a gorgeous sunset. The course is set far enough away from everything that you just see the mountains and sky for the most part!