What happens when I losen the grip a little.

You may know... I have a hard time letting go of the money. (See #3) Well, Ben has been telling me and telling me we needed a new faucet for several months. (I'm very sad I forgot to take an actual 'before' picture, but this one w/ the old sink on the porch will have to do). I found this faucet at Lowe's while shopping for the new one. Wanna know how much the builder spent on it? A big fat $29.98! It didn't take long for the cap to fall off and it start to leak.


Now, if you know Ben even a little bit, you know that he LOVES to spend money. So while we were looking for new faucets, Ben mentions that we probably need a new sink to match too. Um... no. So we leave Lowe's and give up on the whole idea. Well, several weeks went by and Ben again mentions we really need a new faucet. I finally gave in and agreed. I even went by the post office that day to pick up a change of address packet (for the 10% off Lowe's coupon, of course!). Well, we picked out an amazing faucet and yes... a new sink. But I can't even express the difference it makes in our little kitchen.

Before: (Sort of)


After:
I think its wonderful and am so glad Ben persisted with the faucet/sink issue. He even installed the whole thing by himself. I watched and asked why he didn't need to read instructions a few times, but turns out he didn't need to read them after all. We struggled with the white color, but we don't have anything stainless in our whole kitchen (except the old sink) and cabinets are white, tile is gray and counter top is dark gray speckled, so it looks very 'clean'. What do you think?

Peanuts and Parades

15. Go to the peanut festival. (one item crossed off the list!)


This weekend was a very long awaited trip to Dothan to see one of my best friends, Emily. Ben was sweet enough to drive me there and participate in most of the things I wanted, including watch the over 2 hour parade early Saturday morning. Below is a picture of everyone picking peanuts up off the street! (See #14a - eat peanuts off the street.)


Beautiful day at the peanut parade!
No one else thought this was as fun as I did....
Few things that were not on the list but are firsts and have been accomplished before turning 27 this weekend:
28. Try a fried snickers. (Yes, I know... the thought of it makes you want to throw up, me too, however it was pretty good!)
29. Try a fried oreo. (I'd skip this one if ever offered it again... yuck) I'm sure you are wondering how #7. 'Lose 10lbs' is going about now, huh? I'll update about that one shortly!

Trying to avoid all the carnies at the peanut festival.

Not only is this dog named Woodle, but his little half chihuahua-half boston terrier self is pretty much the cutest dog I've ever seen.




Cooking out for the Alabama game in our Auburn-wear.

We even got to see a demolition derby!

Now just waiting on Hurricane Ida to pass by so Ivy, John & Gramma can come up for the weekend! Do you have any suggestions for fun things to take my family to while they are in town???

Thought I'd share...

I was talking with my supervisor at school today about how thankful I am that God placed me at McAdory Middle School for my internship. Not only do I have two amazing supervisors, but they are both LPCs (Licensed Professional Counselors) which is a rarity among school counselors. So they aren't in school counseling just to answer phones, change schedules, but to actually be counselors, to make a difference in these kids lives. They both have also done private practice on the side also. I just can't express enough how great it is to be able to learn from these two women.

I am so thankful to God that he walks with me each and every day. I pray that I continue to learn and grow as a christian, but it is amazing to see God's work. I never thought I'd get to the point that I am today, and to be so close to graduating. When I thought about going to school, I didn't quite know how it would work, how I'd pay for it, get to school, etc., but Ben and I prayed and prayed about it. Well, first I passed the GRE and was accepted into UAB after the most tormenting interview. My office I work for was moved downtown from Hoover, less than 5 minutes from UAB, awfully convenient for class. The counseling program became CACREP accredited (allowing me to graduate as a school counselor, not only as an agency counselor). All of these were major bumps in the road that Ben and I continued to pray about and trust that God would show me his plan and each one has worked its way out to get me where I am today. I just am so thankful that God has kept with me and shown me his path and I pray that I continue to do his will through it all.

Just thought I'd share.

27 before 27

So, I had a moment of crisis today as I realized in 6 months I'm going to be.... 27!!!!! Where did THAT come from?! Whew.... So, to make turning 27 on the 27th more fun I've decided to make a list of 27 things that I will do before I turn 27! :) I haven't been able to think of 27 things to do though, so any suggestions would be wonderful!

1. Go on a cruise! (I've never been and I've been saving and saving my credit card rewards so Ben and I can go on one). I'll accept a honeymoon vacation with Ben also.
2. Go to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Any other semi-close very touristy place I've never been.
3. Stop being such a Scrooge and spend some money on something fun (see above and below) :)
4. Blog at least once a week.
5. Pass the APTTP (December)
6. Pass the School Counseling Praxis Exam (January)
7. Lose 10lbs...
8. Get Ben and I's first Christmas tree! (Yes we've been married for almost 3 Christmases and never had a Christmas Tree - see #3).
9. Join a bible study.
10. Start and Finish my wedding album (again... its been almost 3 years).
11. Paint a room in my house! - I've been wanting to paint my house for over 3 years and can't ever bring myself to pick a color and commit. Well Jeris picked out some wonderful colors and went to Benjamin Moore in Greystone to find them, so I'm either going to just copy hers :) Or go there and ask for help of my own. :) My entire house right now is:

Bunny Grey... seriously, the whole house.

12. Refinish this very old trunk... this is very much past my 'sand and paint' technique... not sure I know where to start.
13. Exercise! I previously had this as go to the gym, but since the gym and my house are 35+ minutes away, its not likely that I get there any more often, so I must improvise!
14. (Your suggestion goes here).
15. Go to the peanut festival (I was starting to get overwhelmed and this one is already set in stone). :)
16. Landscape! This really involves splitting all my bulbs in my flower beds... its time.
17. Have a dinner party (or two).
18. Do something nice with our 'office/guest room'.
19. Go rock crawling with Ben again... I really do love to go but never have the time to.
20. Read some books! I have SO many books on my shelf unopened... Many of them are counseling-related books, but still I need to read something other than textbooks!
21. Find a job! This is a very bitter-sweet one because I have a wonderful job, but will soon be graduating and looking for a counseling position. This would be amazing if I knew where it would be by my birthday.
22. Go to Tallahassee.
23. Learn to drive the Ford F250.
24. Apply for a scholarship.
25. Pass the NCE. (I know, I took this already I know, but I don't know if I've passed or not, so its definitely something fun to add to my list and if I don't pass, then I will before I turn 27!)
26. Thank God every single day for the SO many blessings he's given me.
27. Take off work on my birthday and celebrate because it will be my 27th birthday on the 27th!!!! Golden Birthday!!!

Sunday Funday

I did some MUCH needed shopping today now that the NCE is semi-behind me. I took the exam yesterday, but won't know how I did for 6-8 weeks.... ugh... the wait. The exam was pretty hard and used much larger words in every question than necessary. Which to add that with my test anxiety made me have to break several questions down and rewrite them in simpler forms to understand what the heck they wanted me to answer. It took me 3.5 hours to take it with our limit at 4 hours.

To celebrate that the NCE was over for the meantime and that everyone passed their Comps exam this semester, a group some of my favorite people and I went to Jackson's in Soho for dinner. It was really good food and great company. But poor Ben. He only gets to eat redmeat/pork/seafood out since I don't eat it and it doesn't make much sense to cook it for one. So he ordered a Portabello Cheesesteak. I'm pretty sure he was 75% through with his meal before he realized there was no 'steak' on the sandwich and he had ordered a vegetarian meal. I think I'll have to take him out to sushi now to make up for it. He was a trooper none-the-less.

Anyways.... back to couponing today.
I went slightly over budget today, but bought A LOT. So hopefully I will be way under budget the next few weeks because I stocked up.

Publix:
Spent $88
Saved $78

CVS:
Spent $18
Saved $41
Left w/ $9.99 Extra Bucks so I really only spent $8?

Walmart:
Spent $1.33
Saved $3.00
(I usually have a rule to not step foot into Walmart for my sanity, but went today specifically to buy Sara Lee deli meat b/c I had a $3.00 off coupon and Ben was needing it for lunch.)

And now back to school work. I have a final and a paper due Tuesday, and it will be so good to finish this weekend class and have it 100% behind me!

Life Support

Yes, 2 in one day.
Some of you may have already gotten an email about this, but I missed church at Pleasant Hill Sunday by oversleeping and remembered that Church of the Highlands had their services live online. So Ben hooked my computer up to the tv and we watched it live. It was amazing! Its about marriage and relationships, but I think it would be beneficial to anyone in a relationship or wanting to be in one. Everyone needs to watch this message.

Its the one from October 11.
Let me know what you think! :)

We'll be comin' round the mountain when we come...

I'm feeling a bit dizzy lately like I'm going around and around a huge mountain.... soon it will be all downhill though! I'm very excited :)

I've probably mentioned this 5 times more than you want to read about, but I take a huge anxiety-provoking test on Saturday morning at 8:30am. The National Counselor Exam (NCE) and if I pass, I will be a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC) and I can begin my licensure process of counseling 3000 hours while being supervised (you have to pay someone to supervise you and they have to have earned the credential of supervisor from NBCC). Confusing. BUT, I'm so glad the exam will be over with and pray that I pass it! Its a big deal and expensive, so I certainly don't want to take it again. (Although it you have to retake it, I think they give you 50% off!) :-P

So that and the rest of school is my life in a nutshell lately. I did win a set of 5 counseling books at a conference Thursday though! I was super excited about this b/c I really need all the training I can get and don't have the money to go buy lots of books. One of them was called, "Students Who Drive You Crazy: Succeeding With Resistant, Unmotivated, and Otherwise Difficult Young People" Should be interesting! :)

Once this exam is over, I only have 1 final and 1 project due and then I'm assignment-free until next semester! I will still be interning at the middle school though through December and start at an elementary school in January. I'm praying I will be somewhere with a wonderful counselor who will let me get a TON of contact hours in.

So... super boring post I know, but when I saw the last time I'd posted was in September, I had to get that date a little more recent. Pray for me please that I remember all the information I've desperatley tried to cram in my head. :)