Last week was amazing. Our weather here was perfect, unlike this weeks cooler temps. We had record highs, reaching over 80 degrees. That's a big deal here in New England. We had a BBQ on our back porch every single day it was nice out. We had steaks, chicken, ribs.. you name it, we grilled it. I love days like that.  After a wonderful dose of summer, mother nature brought us back to reality and made the temps more normal.. which means back to the 40s and 50s :( Atleast I got to wear a lot of my favorite sundresses last week!

I made a stop to my grandmothers this weekend because she is moving out in June and keeps asking me to go through all her stuff before she gives it away. I loaded my car right on up. I asked her for a toaster for our camper (since we now need double of a lot of kitchen stuff and money is a little tight for that right now) and she gave me that and a brand new toaster over. I would've never bought a toaster oven but I'm glad to have one now. I'm making english muffin pizzas today for lunch! She had an indoor outdoor carpet that was perfect for our back porch and a nice brown fleece blanket to add to our bed since the puppies decided to chew through our other one. I grabbed wall decor, kitchen towels, car towels, bath towels, beach towels, beach bags.. tons of goodies. I love that she's so generous with all her stuff and gives it to us. It's definitely nice to save some money on stuff we need to buy. Now if only she had a keurig... Ha! I stopped going to Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks so I could save money by using the keurig, but now we need another one for the camper. I'm all about saving money now that we have the house any little short cut I can use to save money is great to me.

While I was at my grandmothers, I went through some old pictures she had in boxes. There were photo albums from my moms weddings that just made us crack up. I found a picture of my great grand parents wedding along with my uncle, who has passed away far too young (RIP). It was crazy seeing how things have changed and how we all have grown up. So, here's some flashback photos of me..

 1999 with my little sister

 not sure when this was but that's my cousins Ashley, McKenna, Kelsey (in my lap) and my sister Mariah.

{RECAP} Foxwoods!

Well, I bring no good luck stories. We had a very unsuccessful trip to Foxwoods this year but it was fun and I got a lot of new Pandora charms for free! (details later)

Hard Rock Cafe = love

(note from mom and video bingo screen)

(cross, seashell with starfish, giraffe, lots love from our honeymoon and flip flop)

 Since my mom and grandmother go to Foxwoods atleast 4-5 times a year, they get a lot of DreamCard points and rewards. When they go, they get a free room, get bonus slot play money (free money to gamble with!), eat for free, get Dunkins for free and usually get stuff at Hard Rock or wherever else they go for free. The dream points are amazing if you are a serious gambler. I, however, am not so I only had $10 worth of points of my card, haha. But my mom and grandmother still had $150 or so each by the end of our trip. We started looking through the big book at Pandora and I started picking out my charms. I had only planned on getting my giraffe one since they can get expensive but they had special for St. Patrick's Day that was buy $100 worth of charms and get a free bracelet. My mom told me to go ahead and get $100 worth and we will get a bracelet for my sister. Sweet! I picked out my charms, picked out a charm for my sisters new bracelet and we started to cash out. My mom saw the total and told me to grab another one so she could use most of her points on her card, so I did. I got 4 new charms, my sister got a bracelet, a charm and 2 clips and we didn't pay a dime. This is over $300 worth of Pandora for free people! How amazing?! I am so grateful that my mom and grandmother let me use all their points to get my charms and I'm happy my sister has a pandora bracelet now too. This was far more meaningful than winning some money at the casino since I will always have these charms.

 Friday we all came home and that night H and I spent the night at my mom's house so we could get our camper out from behind their house in the morning. We have space at our house for it but the ground is too wet so it would sink really bad during the winter so we have to bring it to their house. We cleaned out the cabinets and I found a bunch of random old stuff, like our caricature picture from when we first started dating! I brought it home and framed it and put it in our room, I love it. We brought the camper up near our house, to H's boss's house down the road and today we are bringing it to the RV place to get serviced and ready to go. Yay! 

Then there was yesterday... ah, beautiful 70+ degree weather, windows down, BBQing on the grill, Dairy Queen at night.. glorious. H unfortunately had to work so he was gone during the day so I was left to spend my birthday money. Where else to do that other than Target?! The other day when I was there, they had just gotten in a cute new dress that I knew I had to have so I tried it on and loved it. Sold. Then, I needed new undergarments so I grabbed those. 6 for $20, sold. Then I went to the home section, where I shouldn't have gone and got a frame set for 50% off and a new Welcome mat for 50% off. I couldn't say no. Spring cleaning wouldn't be complete without a new welcome mat folks! After spending over $100 at Target, I went to Walgreens to pick up some new polishes. I told H I wouldn't waste money on getting my nails done (maybe a mani pedi every month or two) so I've become a nail polish hoarder. Essie was starting to break the bank so I only splurge on those occasionally and have found a new love for Sinful Colors. Yes, Target sells them but Walgreens and Rite Aid have a selection of colors like I've never seen before. I wanted one of each. I settled for 5 and at only 1.99 each, the 5 polishes were almost the same as one Essie. I consider that a steal. 

New nail polish tray, slowly getting full * 5 new polishes (the white shows up so it's a good polish for french manis)

new frame set came with the 8x10 in the middle, the two 4x6 frame and the love plaque

I made this our cruise wall with pictures from both of our cruises we took. 

I still need to add a few more up top, but that's another day.

And.. I'll leave you with some humor. I sent this to my sister, while almost peeing my pants with my mother at Foxwoods. 

What Im Loving Wednesday!

Linking up with Jamie @ This Kind of Love for What I'm Loving Wednesday!


I'm loving scarves. All scarves. I can't stop buying them. I bought 3 of them in the past two weeks.

I'm loving Weight Watchers Apple Pie Yogurt. Don't judge. I'm not even doing weight watchers but I can't get enough of this yogurt. I have to be one of the weirdest yogurt people because I HATE fruit in it. I don't like the smoothness of the yogurt mixed with seeds and crap. Blah. But this, delicious little bites of apple make my day much better.

I'm also loving that I started cleaning out my closet, our back porch and much more. Total spring cleaning. Nothing feels better than getting rid of the old and in with the new.

I'm loving that I'm going to Foxwoods tomorrow for an early birthday trip. I don't care about the gambling but it means I get to eat at one of my favorite places, Hard Rock Cafe.

I'm loving that it's almost time for our work season to start. I have tons of new ideas to put into play and I'm ready for a good pay check again.

I'm loving all my pinterest finds

When the air and BS get too thick..

Not only am I making one post today, I'm making two. O-M-G! Let's just start off by saying, these past couple days have been fantastic here in New England. I can't believe the wonderful weather we are getting this early in the year. It hit 70 degrees yesterday, that has to be a record of some sort. Since H is working during the day for a few more weeks, we've been enjoying our last couple nights to do what we want in the beautiful weather. Starting with, cleaning our vehicles this weekend. Mind you, I HATE cleaning out my car. I would rather clean my whole house before cleaning my car. I should probably start liking it more or H won't let me get a new car next month. (Which we decided will be a brand new Equinox since I love mine so much) I love the way my car smells now, so I should be happy but boy was it a lot of work. And yes, H made me wax the damn thing too. Ugh. But his truck sure looks mighty sexy.

Monday night, we washed the dirt bike, cleaned our yard (FINALLY! hell-o slackers we've only been here for over 4 months) and started to clean out the back porch. We even busted out the little weber grill and made some steak and south african braai brokkies (sp?) which are basically a grilled cheese and tomato just with shredded cheese instead and toasted on the grill or in south africa, a braai over an open flame. Man, these things are to die for. This is my prepping for the BBQ... mmm.

Last night, another gorgeous night we started playing a little Tiger Woods on the xbox before dinner was finished then took a drive down to the beach with all the dogs. It was amazing how it was almost 10 degrees colder near the water than it was at our house, 10 minutes away. We weren't quite prepared for that so we headed back home where it was warmer and played with the dogs for a bit. They all love being outside, it's so cute. And while sitting on the couch watching tv with H, I said I wish we had a thunderstorm to end this perfect night and sure enough, in the middle of the night, I awoke in a panic attack thinking our house was collapsing. Thanks mother nature, I wanted the thunderstorm but you could've made it a little more subtle.

I also have been embracing my bargainista in me by spending a lot of time at TJMaxx/Marshall's lately. I scored a gorgeous leopard print scarf, originally from Express for only $5! Last time I found a leopard print scarf I wanted from Express, it was $25! What a steal. Then I got a cool gear cup for my iced coffees for only $4 when they are $8 at Wal-Mart right now. Annnnnd, I got an Abercrombie plaid button up shirt for only $15. We all know how expensive Abercrombie is! I don't even shop there but the plaid was too cute to pass up. It's amazing how much of a deal you can get on stuff if you really look around. I'm proud to say I've finally turned into a bargain hunter.

 (Yes, that is my breakfast today. Coffee and Apple Pie yogurt, mmm)

Now for Wednesday Link - Up.. yay :0)

I feel like it's been forever since I've been on here.

Has it not?

Ok, maybe I'm crazy.

Our taxes came in yesterday!

HOOOO-RAY!

Which means . . . 

RETAIL THERAPY! :)

 

I went to Target yesterday and found these gorgeous boots for only $11.84! I certainly needed another pair of boots after discovering that. They are very comfortable as well.

 

I also bought nude pumps and nude skinny belt to wear with my LBD that I bought prior to this shopping trip. I can't even express how much I love this dress as it's so versatile and you can do so much with it just by adding a belt or different colored shoes.

I hate how all Targets near me are having a "construction" moment. I don't know what they are doing, but there was absolutely nothing in the make-up section. I wanted new nail polish and there was none! The shelves were completely wiped out. Maybe they are rearranging it all but I wasn't very happy :(

I also went to Old Navy to look for a scarf that I had seen online, which of course they don't carry in the store. But, I found this adorable red cotton dress to wear with my boots! Yes, I was singing Something Bout A Truck when I bought the red dress. "Somethin bout a girl, in a red sun dress "  Hey, it happens. The dress was on clearance for $11 also. It's not on clearance online either so that made my day as I've been eyeing it for a little while! 

 

I also paid off our credit card so we have that in case of emergencies again. It feels good to get things paid off. I have a few bills to mail out and things are good. Now, I just need to venture out in the snow to get envelopes. Yes, we are finally getting snow! It hasn't accumulated to much near me, but it's snowing none-the-less. It's so beautiful outside.