OK so this morning I just noticed that my old blogger address isn't getting readers here (aaz106.blogspot.com)... I've been parked at www.bufordbetty.com for a while now, but my blogger address should always get you here too. So if you're getting denied from that old address, my apologies! Don't know if blogger is just having issues today or if this has been going on for a while... yikes. We're working on getting it straightened out. I think if you're linking over from your reader or from your blogger dashboard, you're fine. But if you've got the old blogger address on your blogroll, it seems to be effed up temporarily. It appears to only be down in Internet Explorer, but working in Firefox. Seriously, wtf? But anyway, just know you can always catch me at www.bufordbetty.com, y'all!
Happy Friday! I'm off to check out a fab new baby boutique right here in Buford. Chic finds OTP (that's "outside the perimeter" for the non-Atlantans) are few and far between, so I get excited when I stumble upon new ones. I'll give a full report on the other side...
Showing posts with label funny peculiar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label funny peculiar. Show all posts
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Budget and love it.
I used to hate the word "budget." I tried a time or two to set one up for myself, using Quicken or some random made-up method. Those lasted all of like three days. The hub and I ultimately tried using separate accounts for bills (the "non-negotiables") and everyday (discretionary) spending. The idea being we'd direct deposit enough each month to cover the bills into the first account (ensuring those were always covered), and use the second for everything else - groceries, dining, shopping, and other miscellaneous spending. We had no real budget or control over our cash flow other than the separate bill and spending accounts.
I thought it was a rather brilliant plan, but soon the fine line between those two accounts ultimately disappeared. I partly blame Bank of America for this by allowing me to transfer money simply by wiggling my nose. Damn technology! So we later set up a third account - a supposed-to-be savings account - at a local bank, which would require some real "effort" to withdraw money from. Well before you know it, cash is being transferred out of the "bill" account more and more to cover over-spending in the other account. And eventually that "savings" account became life support for the spending account.
You see, the hub and I are both spenders. It's lovely when you have a happy marriage of one spender and one saver to balance each other out. But oh no... recipe for financial disaster here: two spenders. Getting the financial kinks figured out has got to be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) challenges in marriage. People always tell you the first year of marriage is really tough - and it's true. People that say it's all rainbows and butterflies are either smokin' crack or more likely, they're just not real with each other. That's not to say it's not great... but you can't sow a good crop without breaking a real sweat. While we were both big spenders, we spent money on different things. Me? Hot new Kate Spade bag. Hub? Some stupid computer equipment that takes up space. Ask him and he'd tell you: Her? Some stupid overpriced purse. Me? These awesome speakers that will allow me to shake the very foundation of our home while playing flight simulator. And that was one of our issues... we didn't understand why the other spent money on the stuff they did.
So yes, the lines got blurred and we'd just spend money as we pleased. Fortunately, it was mostly done with cash over the years. That's not to say we don't have some credit card debt in our debt snowball, but we were never really ones to whip out the plastic for everyday spending. Neh, we were sensible and saved the credit cards for the bigger "emergencies" (insert big eye roll). But even when you have good income, if you're just paying bills and spending money left and right, you don't have much to show for it. No real direction... we weren't hurting, but we weren't getting anywhere either.
But then, 2008 (one of my not-so-favorite years, if you recall) came and kicked our pretty white asses. Without boring y'all with the bitter details, we were pretty much forced into doing a complete 180 on our personal finances. The hub had a really shitty year work wise... he was in the middle of a lawsuit with his former company and he made a couple of job moves during the year. So our income took a big hit. Bad financial decisions made in the past came back to haunt us. And the ultimate turning point came when we were finally able to sell our townhouse (our first home that we had not been able to sell for 2+ years). The buyer wasn't the only one who ended up cutting a big check that day, but we were just glad to see it go. That very same month, Dave Ramsey was on tour in Atlanta and we decided to go. We were familiar with him and had once attempted to follow some elements of his program - a very wimpy attempt I might add, as it got us nowhere. But this time, he reeled us in and our lives haven't been the same since.
Now I've gone into how his program works before - it's basically a series of baby steps to financial peace. Though I need to update my numbers, you can see where the hub and I are on my sidebar. We're currently on baby step #2, the debt snowball (where you pay off all your consumer debt - everything but the house). We'll be here for a while. Our goal is to be done with this step by the end of 2010. A lot's gotta happen between now and then, but it's definitely doable. If you're not familiar with Dave, he's not some genius financial guru who's come up with some miracle method of winning with money... his methods are common sense. He often calls it "grandma's advice." But he's blessed with this uncanny ability to deliver the message in such a way that gets your blood pumping. He makes you want to drop kick your debt and change your life. That's the other thing - he's completely against debt. So part of getting on his plan is refusing to go into debt ever again. The one exception he makes is for a mortgage (one you can afford, that is). He won't personally do a mortgage, but he's OK with you getting one to purchase a home if you're otherwise debt-free, have an emergency fund and all that.
So yes, he's got such amazing wisdom and tough love when it comes to money - I could go on and on about it all, but what I really want to focus on this go-around is the budget. Learning to live on a budget is one of the biggest things I've taken away from all of this, so it's only fair that I share it with y'all. The overall purpose with Dave's whole program is having a PLAN. Having a plan is what financial peace is all about. And that's really all a budget is - a plan. I always thought of a budget as something restrictive, something only people with lower incomes needed, and basically something NOT FUN. But I gotta tell ya... the monthly budget has become my best friend. It's all about telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. You give every dollar - every dollar - a name before it comes in. Whether you've got $2,000 a month coming in or $20,000... you give it a name and you tell it where to go.
There are all kinds of "budgeting" tools out there... different software applications and web-based programs. Most of which will budget your inflows, minus your outflows, leaving any surplus at the bottom. But Dave uses what's called a zero-based budget. This means that every last dollar of your monthly income is allocated to some category, so that your net result (income minus expenses) is zero. If you have a big surplus after paying out your bills, that's great - but you gotta give it a name. Where is it going? On this form, you'll also notice the ordering of expenses. The first item on the list is charitable giving, followed by saving - before you ever get to your monthly bills. This reordering of how we paid out money each month has had a HUGE impact on our personal finances. It may look simple on paper, but it's a hard pill to swallow at first... especially for two people who paid bills, spent and spent, and then oh yeah if there's anything left we *might* save or give. When I said we did a total 180, I wasn't kidding.
We now tithe and it comes out first on our budget. We would give to our church here and there before, but not like this. We had never actually tithed. I mean 10% y'all... that's HUGE. And if you looked at our budget, even now, you'd be like what the hell? Y'all can't afford to be giving away that much! I sure would've said that this time last year. But now I say we can't afford not to... it has absolutely opened my heart to trusting God with our finances. And that's what tithing is all about. God doesn't need our money, hello. He needs our hearts. So yes, this whole new way of ordering things has changed our lives. Most simply put, the gig goes...
I'm telling you, it'll rock your world. When we put together our first zero-based budget, we decided to jump in head-first. We ripped off the band-aid and started giving, saving, and spending in this new way. Putting together that first budget took a LONG time. I remember saying out loud at my computer, like five times, "this is hard!" And hello, I love spreadsheets. But getting it all to balance and making sure we accounted for everything took some time. But once you get the first one done, the months that follow are pretty quick to set up. You just tweak it a bit for what you have going on in any given month. The hub and I will sit down and literally go through the calendar to see what we have coming up the next month that we need to plan for financially. It's not always perfect, and of course things pop up and you have to juggle things around a bit when they do. But I can't even put into words the peace of mind this way of budgeting brings me! Right now we're probably making the least amount of income together since we married, but I've never been more at peace. I know where everything is going... I know we have money for the things we need - because we planned well. So you get a budget put together... But how the heck do you actually stick to it?!
This is where Dave's cash envelope system comes in, which to me is the true cornerstone of the budget. It's a hard, hard thing for some people to transition to, but it is SO freeing and I believe it's the real key to making the budget work. Once again, this is something I've gabbed on about before... but this is big. Old method for spending? Separate checking account for "discretionary" expenditures... used whenever, however, and not really accounted for in any way. And as I mentioned, we often started pulling from that "bill" account to cover our expensive asses. New method? We come up with categories for monthly spending and divvy up actual CASH into envelopes for each category. Once the cash in any given envelope is gone, it's gone. In short, we use cash for all our spending. Bills are still paid electronically or by check or whatever, but everyday spending? Cash. We only use debit cards for the rare big expense like a doctor visit or vet bill. Everything else is cash, cash, cash. So what's the point?
The point is... well my favorite point is that all our spending money is already out of our account and I don't have to worry about who's spending what. That equals peace of mind. But another biggie - using cash hurts more. It's like "real" money. Think about the last time you went to the grocery and swiped your card. Do you really even pay attention to the total? Do you have any idea how much you spent as you're wheeling your cart to your car? If you were counting out bills I guarantee you could tell me exactly how much you spent. Cash is pretty and we want to hold on to it. It hurts more. Translation: we spend less when we're using cash. Need some proof? Do a little research on how much profits went up for fast food chains like McDonald's when they started accepting plastic. It's unreal.
Being on cash for the last, gosh... 9 months now has TOTALLY taught me the value of the dollar. I just spent money blindly before. I was not a huge, over-the-top spender - I mean we certainly didn't have endless funds, but I just didn't pay attention. Just as a simple example, I used to hit Starbucks 2 or 3 times a week when I'd get a craving. A quick, thoughtless swipe of the debit card and I'd get myself an afternoon pick-me-up. Well now, I seriously couldn't tell you the last time I was in a Starbucks. Still love the place, but hell if I'm parting with $4 for a damn coffee. It's like I'm looking through an entirely different set of eyes, and I love it. Yep, this big spender loves being on a budget. It's not about restriction, as I once thought. It's about freedom.
And that freedom allows us to set goals and make things happen. Like Dave always says, today we're living like no one else, so that one day we can really LIVE like no one else. I recently got a great email from a dear reader who also had the Dave bug. She was about to call in to Dave's show to make her debt-free scream. Can I even tell you how much I am looking forward to the hub and I doing this? On Fridays Dave takes callers who have dumped all their debt and has them scream, "WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEE!!!!!" I seriously tear up listening to these people and the amazing things they have done. One couple last week called in who had paid off $180,000 in debt in 3 years on an average combined income of $110,000. And they have 4 kids. Such amazing stories and so encouraging... So I wanted to share Jane's email with you and hope that it encourages you like it did me. Thanks so much, Jane, for allowing me to share your words and I hope they'll help light a fire under someone!
Hi, I've been reading your blog for some time now & I notice you too are a Dave Ramsey follower. Yah! Anyways, I'm emailing my friends & fellow Dave Ramsey peeps that would appreciate that me & the hubby have made it out of Baby Step 2 today!
I'm holding off telling anyone the total amount we paid off until we tell Dave first (it's a shitload though to be crude about it), but I just want to tell other Dave blogger fans that it really can be done!
Hope to hear of you & your husband becoming debt free soon too! AND hope to hear you announcing a baby on the way too! Happy thoughts!!
So anyway, I'm just giddy right now & wanted all my fellow Dave bloggers to keep at it!
Sincerely, Jane :)
This stuff really works, y'all. And just like Jesus, it's for everyone! If you have any questions on how we do the zero-based budget or the cash envelope system, ask away! I certainly don't have all the answers and we've got a long way to go, but we've come a long way too.
I thought it was a rather brilliant plan, but soon the fine line between those two accounts ultimately disappeared. I partly blame Bank of America for this by allowing me to transfer money simply by wiggling my nose. Damn technology! So we later set up a third account - a supposed-to-be savings account - at a local bank, which would require some real "effort" to withdraw money from. Well before you know it, cash is being transferred out of the "bill" account more and more to cover over-spending in the other account. And eventually that "savings" account became life support for the spending account.
You see, the hub and I are both spenders. It's lovely when you have a happy marriage of one spender and one saver to balance each other out. But oh no... recipe for financial disaster here: two spenders. Getting the financial kinks figured out has got to be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) challenges in marriage. People always tell you the first year of marriage is really tough - and it's true. People that say it's all rainbows and butterflies are either smokin' crack or more likely, they're just not real with each other. That's not to say it's not great... but you can't sow a good crop without breaking a real sweat. While we were both big spenders, we spent money on different things. Me? Hot new Kate Spade bag. Hub? Some stupid computer equipment that takes up space. Ask him and he'd tell you: Her? Some stupid overpriced purse. Me? These awesome speakers that will allow me to shake the very foundation of our home while playing flight simulator. And that was one of our issues... we didn't understand why the other spent money on the stuff they did.
So yes, the lines got blurred and we'd just spend money as we pleased. Fortunately, it was mostly done with cash over the years. That's not to say we don't have some credit card debt in our debt snowball, but we were never really ones to whip out the plastic for everyday spending. Neh, we were sensible and saved the credit cards for the bigger "emergencies" (insert big eye roll). But even when you have good income, if you're just paying bills and spending money left and right, you don't have much to show for it. No real direction... we weren't hurting, but we weren't getting anywhere either.
But then, 2008 (one of my not-so-favorite years, if you recall) came and kicked our pretty white asses. Without boring y'all with the bitter details, we were pretty much forced into doing a complete 180 on our personal finances. The hub had a really shitty year work wise... he was in the middle of a lawsuit with his former company and he made a couple of job moves during the year. So our income took a big hit. Bad financial decisions made in the past came back to haunt us. And the ultimate turning point came when we were finally able to sell our townhouse (our first home that we had not been able to sell for 2+ years). The buyer wasn't the only one who ended up cutting a big check that day, but we were just glad to see it go. That very same month, Dave Ramsey was on tour in Atlanta and we decided to go. We were familiar with him and had once attempted to follow some elements of his program - a very wimpy attempt I might add, as it got us nowhere. But this time, he reeled us in and our lives haven't been the same since.
Now I've gone into how his program works before - it's basically a series of baby steps to financial peace. Though I need to update my numbers, you can see where the hub and I are on my sidebar. We're currently on baby step #2, the debt snowball (where you pay off all your consumer debt - everything but the house). We'll be here for a while. Our goal is to be done with this step by the end of 2010. A lot's gotta happen between now and then, but it's definitely doable. If you're not familiar with Dave, he's not some genius financial guru who's come up with some miracle method of winning with money... his methods are common sense. He often calls it "grandma's advice." But he's blessed with this uncanny ability to deliver the message in such a way that gets your blood pumping. He makes you want to drop kick your debt and change your life. That's the other thing - he's completely against debt. So part of getting on his plan is refusing to go into debt ever again. The one exception he makes is for a mortgage (one you can afford, that is). He won't personally do a mortgage, but he's OK with you getting one to purchase a home if you're otherwise debt-free, have an emergency fund and all that.
So yes, he's got such amazing wisdom and tough love when it comes to money - I could go on and on about it all, but what I really want to focus on this go-around is the budget. Learning to live on a budget is one of the biggest things I've taken away from all of this, so it's only fair that I share it with y'all. The overall purpose with Dave's whole program is having a PLAN. Having a plan is what financial peace is all about. And that's really all a budget is - a plan. I always thought of a budget as something restrictive, something only people with lower incomes needed, and basically something NOT FUN. But I gotta tell ya... the monthly budget has become my best friend. It's all about telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. You give every dollar - every dollar - a name before it comes in. Whether you've got $2,000 a month coming in or $20,000... you give it a name and you tell it where to go.
There are all kinds of "budgeting" tools out there... different software applications and web-based programs. Most of which will budget your inflows, minus your outflows, leaving any surplus at the bottom. But Dave uses what's called a zero-based budget. This means that every last dollar of your monthly income is allocated to some category, so that your net result (income minus expenses) is zero. If you have a big surplus after paying out your bills, that's great - but you gotta give it a name. Where is it going? On this form, you'll also notice the ordering of expenses. The first item on the list is charitable giving, followed by saving - before you ever get to your monthly bills. This reordering of how we paid out money each month has had a HUGE impact on our personal finances. It may look simple on paper, but it's a hard pill to swallow at first... especially for two people who paid bills, spent and spent, and then oh yeah if there's anything left we *might* save or give. When I said we did a total 180, I wasn't kidding.
We now tithe and it comes out first on our budget. We would give to our church here and there before, but not like this. We had never actually tithed. I mean 10% y'all... that's HUGE. And if you looked at our budget, even now, you'd be like what the hell? Y'all can't afford to be giving away that much! I sure would've said that this time last year. But now I say we can't afford not to... it has absolutely opened my heart to trusting God with our finances. And that's what tithing is all about. God doesn't need our money, hello. He needs our hearts. So yes, this whole new way of ordering things has changed our lives. Most simply put, the gig goes...
1. Give.
2. Save.
3. Live on the rest.
I'm telling you, it'll rock your world. When we put together our first zero-based budget, we decided to jump in head-first. We ripped off the band-aid and started giving, saving, and spending in this new way. Putting together that first budget took a LONG time. I remember saying out loud at my computer, like five times, "this is hard!" And hello, I love spreadsheets. But getting it all to balance and making sure we accounted for everything took some time. But once you get the first one done, the months that follow are pretty quick to set up. You just tweak it a bit for what you have going on in any given month. The hub and I will sit down and literally go through the calendar to see what we have coming up the next month that we need to plan for financially. It's not always perfect, and of course things pop up and you have to juggle things around a bit when they do. But I can't even put into words the peace of mind this way of budgeting brings me! Right now we're probably making the least amount of income together since we married, but I've never been more at peace. I know where everything is going... I know we have money for the things we need - because we planned well. So you get a budget put together... But how the heck do you actually stick to it?!
This is where Dave's cash envelope system comes in, which to me is the true cornerstone of the budget. It's a hard, hard thing for some people to transition to, but it is SO freeing and I believe it's the real key to making the budget work. Once again, this is something I've gabbed on about before... but this is big. Old method for spending? Separate checking account for "discretionary" expenditures... used whenever, however, and not really accounted for in any way. And as I mentioned, we often started pulling from that "bill" account to cover our expensive asses. New method? We come up with categories for monthly spending and divvy up actual CASH into envelopes for each category. Once the cash in any given envelope is gone, it's gone. In short, we use cash for all our spending. Bills are still paid electronically or by check or whatever, but everyday spending? Cash. We only use debit cards for the rare big expense like a doctor visit or vet bill. Everything else is cash, cash, cash. So what's the point?
The point is... well my favorite point is that all our spending money is already out of our account and I don't have to worry about who's spending what. That equals peace of mind. But another biggie - using cash hurts more. It's like "real" money. Think about the last time you went to the grocery and swiped your card. Do you really even pay attention to the total? Do you have any idea how much you spent as you're wheeling your cart to your car? If you were counting out bills I guarantee you could tell me exactly how much you spent. Cash is pretty and we want to hold on to it. It hurts more. Translation: we spend less when we're using cash. Need some proof? Do a little research on how much profits went up for fast food chains like McDonald's when they started accepting plastic. It's unreal.
Being on cash for the last, gosh... 9 months now has TOTALLY taught me the value of the dollar. I just spent money blindly before. I was not a huge, over-the-top spender - I mean we certainly didn't have endless funds, but I just didn't pay attention. Just as a simple example, I used to hit Starbucks 2 or 3 times a week when I'd get a craving. A quick, thoughtless swipe of the debit card and I'd get myself an afternoon pick-me-up. Well now, I seriously couldn't tell you the last time I was in a Starbucks. Still love the place, but hell if I'm parting with $4 for a damn coffee. It's like I'm looking through an entirely different set of eyes, and I love it. Yep, this big spender loves being on a budget. It's not about restriction, as I once thought. It's about freedom.
And that freedom allows us to set goals and make things happen. Like Dave always says, today we're living like no one else, so that one day we can really LIVE like no one else. I recently got a great email from a dear reader who also had the Dave bug. She was about to call in to Dave's show to make her debt-free scream. Can I even tell you how much I am looking forward to the hub and I doing this? On Fridays Dave takes callers who have dumped all their debt and has them scream, "WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEE!!!!!" I seriously tear up listening to these people and the amazing things they have done. One couple last week called in who had paid off $180,000 in debt in 3 years on an average combined income of $110,000. And they have 4 kids. Such amazing stories and so encouraging... So I wanted to share Jane's email with you and hope that it encourages you like it did me. Thanks so much, Jane, for allowing me to share your words and I hope they'll help light a fire under someone!
Hi, I've been reading your blog for some time now & I notice you too are a Dave Ramsey follower. Yah! Anyways, I'm emailing my friends & fellow Dave Ramsey peeps that would appreciate that me & the hubby have made it out of Baby Step 2 today!
I'm holding off telling anyone the total amount we paid off until we tell Dave first (it's a shitload though to be crude about it), but I just want to tell other Dave blogger fans that it really can be done!
Hope to hear of you & your husband becoming debt free soon too! AND hope to hear you announcing a baby on the way too! Happy thoughts!!
So anyway, I'm just giddy right now & wanted all my fellow Dave bloggers to keep at it!
Sincerely, Jane :)
This stuff really works, y'all. And just like Jesus, it's for everyone! If you have any questions on how we do the zero-based budget or the cash envelope system, ask away! I certainly don't have all the answers and we've got a long way to go, but we've come a long way too.
Monday, September 8, 2008
And now I can breathe!
Ahhh... too big major exhales! The shower on Saturday went off without a hitch, and I also finished this really big project at work I've been hammering out the last several days. I had to come in to the office yesterday to crank through it and I wrapped it all up in a nice bow early this morning. Now that I'm over those two humps, I feel much more relaxed. Work is still crazy busy - our last two major deadlines of the year are approaching, but I got that one big monkey off my back now, so I'm feeling purty good.
Did y'all have fabu weekends? We didn't make it to the game of course since we were in shower mode all day Saturday. We just had Larry Munson on the radio while we got la casa in tip-top shape. Belly and Charlie got shipped off to grandma and grandpa's for the day and Gertie stayed for the festivities. She is a spaz around her brother, Charlie, but when she's alone she is totally chill. And she's the only one of our three that doesn't try to jump on people. So she was the lucky girl who got to stay and hang out for the party.
I was actually rather calm all day Saturday, despite my long-ass to-do list. I usually have to down glass of wine about two hours prior to any hosting duties to prevent freaking out, but I was pretty darn relaxed for whatever reason. No wine required. MIL and FIL came in town for the shower (the groom is a childhood friend of the hub's, so they were on the guest list). It was great to visit with them even though it was less than 24 hours. Here are a few pics of the setup...
The wine station - a rather popular spot. You just never know who's gonna drink what. Especially at a shower because it's really the bride and groom's guest list, not yours. We just did beer and wine. Neither the hub nor I drink beer so I never know what kind or how much to get. I always consult my beer-drinking friends. But this crowd turned out to be wine people, so we have a bunch of Bud Light in our fridge now with nowhere to go. And it'll sit there till someone else takes it because it sure won't get consumed in my household.
My food table turned out nice... I'm so darn picky with the setup. I think I switched it up some more even after taking this pic... I'm extremely anal about how the heighth of everything balances out. I suppose it's the libra in me. That or the crazy.
And my cutie favors were a hit! Most of them were taken, but the good girl that I am saved my Wally World receipt and I'm totally returning the leftover ones. I gotta check their return policy... anyone know if they'll take back candy like that? They're those movie theatre size candy boxes.
I had several other cute little extras I wanted to do but as I mentioned earlier, time just didn't allow. The hub had altered some popular movie DVD covers with the bride and groom's faces. (It was a movie-themed shower, remember.) We were going to print those out and display them, but yeah... didn't happen. I also had planned on displaying some funny movie quotes around the house, giving the food funny names - spoofing titles or actors and whatnot... oh and I was going to do wine tags with movie couples' names (like... Sally Albright and another for Harry Burns). Oh well... mopping the floor was higher on my to-do list.
The funniest thing about the shower though was the mix of people. Don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but the bride's family is huge. She's one of 8 kids, so in a family that big, there are bound to be some freaks. I had met some of her fam back in July at their engagement party, but not all of them. So the eldest (I think) brother came to the shower along with the bride's parents and as SOON as he came in the door I could tell that he was high as a kite. The hub actually answered the door and I was back in the kitchen, but I could see the front door. Well bride's parents do the normal obligatory small talk with the hub at the door, but brother (who I think is 40ish?) immediately darts (and I do mean DARTS) for the kitchen. There are several of us hovering around the kitchen island (the wine station - I told you it was popular), but he just kind of maneuvers his way around us to grab some cheese and crackers and then jumps over to the wine and starts rummaging through it to see which one he wants. Hurriedly pours himself a very full glass and then takes off. Like seriously didn't say a word or make eye contact with any of us in the kitchen. No "pardon me" or "hey, I'm so-and-so" or "oh, this looks good..." Nothing. Never seen this guy in my life. It was beyond weird!
So five minutes into his stay we've already figured out he must be the black sheep. Oh dear... He didn't cause any trouble but it was pretty entertaining, to say the least. I believe he had two entire bottles of wine all to himself over the course of the evening (thank God for 2-buck chuck). And I think he hit on every unrelated female there that moved. I was busy playing hostess, so I really didn't catch any of that - thank goodness. He was apparently very interested in seeing my SIL (who was also there) "later." As in later that night? It was all very odd... and I totally didn't notice this during the shower, but afterwards we were all talking and apparently, black sheep brother, bride's parents, and one of the sisters mysteriously disappeared out the front door for 15 or 20 minutes mid-shower, and then came back in the house in a much more mellowed-out kinda mood! OMG! I find this just hilarious given that my sheltered self has never ever seen an illegal drug in life. And here we have party guests getting lit in my front yard. Too freaking funny... I suppose you've figured out by now that the bride's parents are total hippies. They are perfectly nice and loving people, but yeah - total hippies. And it's even funnier because the groom's parents are ultra-conservative. Oh this wedding is gonna be awesome!
Yeah so entertaining if nothing else... the shower was great. We were all pooped, including Gertie... It is hard work being a party girl, you know!
Alright... there's still work to be done, so I best get to it. I will pop back later with my party menu and my total budget. I stayed on budget and the food was so fab and easy to do, so I will share. Hope your weeks are off to a great start!
Did y'all have fabu weekends? We didn't make it to the game of course since we were in shower mode all day Saturday. We just had Larry Munson on the radio while we got la casa in tip-top shape. Belly and Charlie got shipped off to grandma and grandpa's for the day and Gertie stayed for the festivities. She is a spaz around her brother, Charlie, but when she's alone she is totally chill. And she's the only one of our three that doesn't try to jump on people. So she was the lucky girl who got to stay and hang out for the party.
I was actually rather calm all day Saturday, despite my long-ass to-do list. I usually have to down glass of wine about two hours prior to any hosting duties to prevent freaking out, but I was pretty darn relaxed for whatever reason. No wine required. MIL and FIL came in town for the shower (the groom is a childhood friend of the hub's, so they were on the guest list). It was great to visit with them even though it was less than 24 hours. Here are a few pics of the setup...
The wine station - a rather popular spot. You just never know who's gonna drink what. Especially at a shower because it's really the bride and groom's guest list, not yours. We just did beer and wine. Neither the hub nor I drink beer so I never know what kind or how much to get. I always consult my beer-drinking friends. But this crowd turned out to be wine people, so we have a bunch of Bud Light in our fridge now with nowhere to go. And it'll sit there till someone else takes it because it sure won't get consumed in my household.
My food table turned out nice... I'm so darn picky with the setup. I think I switched it up some more even after taking this pic... I'm extremely anal about how the heighth of everything balances out. I suppose it's the libra in me. That or the crazy.
And my cutie favors were a hit! Most of them were taken, but the good girl that I am saved my Wally World receipt and I'm totally returning the leftover ones. I gotta check their return policy... anyone know if they'll take back candy like that? They're those movie theatre size candy boxes.
I had several other cute little extras I wanted to do but as I mentioned earlier, time just didn't allow. The hub had altered some popular movie DVD covers with the bride and groom's faces. (It was a movie-themed shower, remember.) We were going to print those out and display them, but yeah... didn't happen. I also had planned on displaying some funny movie quotes around the house, giving the food funny names - spoofing titles or actors and whatnot... oh and I was going to do wine tags with movie couples' names (like... Sally Albright and another for Harry Burns). Oh well... mopping the floor was higher on my to-do list.
The funniest thing about the shower though was the mix of people. Don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but the bride's family is huge. She's one of 8 kids, so in a family that big, there are bound to be some freaks. I had met some of her fam back in July at their engagement party, but not all of them. So the eldest (I think) brother came to the shower along with the bride's parents and as SOON as he came in the door I could tell that he was high as a kite. The hub actually answered the door and I was back in the kitchen, but I could see the front door. Well bride's parents do the normal obligatory small talk with the hub at the door, but brother (who I think is 40ish?) immediately darts (and I do mean DARTS) for the kitchen. There are several of us hovering around the kitchen island (the wine station - I told you it was popular), but he just kind of maneuvers his way around us to grab some cheese and crackers and then jumps over to the wine and starts rummaging through it to see which one he wants. Hurriedly pours himself a very full glass and then takes off. Like seriously didn't say a word or make eye contact with any of us in the kitchen. No "pardon me" or "hey, I'm so-and-so" or "oh, this looks good..." Nothing. Never seen this guy in my life. It was beyond weird!
So five minutes into his stay we've already figured out he must be the black sheep. Oh dear... He didn't cause any trouble but it was pretty entertaining, to say the least. I believe he had two entire bottles of wine all to himself over the course of the evening (thank God for 2-buck chuck). And I think he hit on every unrelated female there that moved. I was busy playing hostess, so I really didn't catch any of that - thank goodness. He was apparently very interested in seeing my SIL (who was also there) "later." As in later that night? It was all very odd... and I totally didn't notice this during the shower, but afterwards we were all talking and apparently, black sheep brother, bride's parents, and one of the sisters mysteriously disappeared out the front door for 15 or 20 minutes mid-shower, and then came back in the house in a much more mellowed-out kinda mood! OMG! I find this just hilarious given that my sheltered self has never ever seen an illegal drug in life. And here we have party guests getting lit in my front yard. Too freaking funny... I suppose you've figured out by now that the bride's parents are total hippies. They are perfectly nice and loving people, but yeah - total hippies. And it's even funnier because the groom's parents are ultra-conservative. Oh this wedding is gonna be awesome!
Yeah so entertaining if nothing else... the shower was great. We were all pooped, including Gertie... It is hard work being a party girl, you know!
Alright... there's still work to be done, so I best get to it. I will pop back later with my party menu and my total budget. I stayed on budget and the food was so fab and easy to do, so I will share. Hope your weeks are off to a great start!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thanks for the evite.
I just got an evite to a summer cookout next weekend. Looks real fun, guys! Problem is - I have no idea who this person is that sent it out. Seriously NO idea. By looking at the invitees, I see that there is some kind of connection to our neighborhood up here in suburbia. But this person lives in Decatur. I'm completely clueless. Perhaps I'll reply *maybe* and add "I'll give you a final answer as soon as I figure out who the hell you are. Thanks for the invite!"
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