Why I've been M.I.A.

It's been an extremely long time since I last blogged..there was a lot going on. I didn't blog in March because it was just the worst month I've had in my whole life. It was my last month being 24 & everything that could go wrong, did. I comforted myself by thinking that it's all happening now, so that 25 will be the best year ever! What went wrong you ask? Lots, but the one thing I'll share is that we had not one, not two, but three floods in the basement apartment we were renting & the landlord refused to do anything about it so we had to find a new place to live. (They did end up paying for our damaged furniture though.) We moved in April to an awesome one bedroom apartment, extremely close to the park & my job! Oh, & the best part about it?? There's two pugs that live across the street!!!! :) They're two girls named Mamba & Seven & Cinnamon is terrified of them at the moment, but I'm hoping he'll get used to them & they'll become friends!

I despise packing & unpacking (since I've had to do so 6 times in the past 5 years & that's not even counting this one..) but it eventually got done, with Cinnamon's help.

 Haha..the little Stinker loves to hide in enclosed spaces. He also took a long nap in the closet while I was hanging up clothes. The place is pretty small but it's enough for us since we're trying to save money & know we'll only be here 2 years max (maybe this place will break my curse of having to move every year?) because...WE'RE MOVING TO FLORIDA! :)

I went to visit my friend at the end of March & looked at houses while I was there. I showed Jose pictures & told him all about how cheap it is & he got really excited! We decided that there's no way we can start a family in Jersey since we would never be able to afford a house & we definitely want a backyard for the Monster & future kid(s) to play in. Also while I was in Fl, my friend let me borrow this awesome book, called "Total Money Makeover". It made me realize that I really need to get rid of my debt to lead a less stressful life. So we've been doing really good at budgeting our money & I haven't been spending money on things that aren't necessary. My school loans should be paid off within a year, then the year after that we'll be saving for a down payment on a house! We're both really happy where our lives our heading & I definitely think that I've matured so much & I'm loving being 25!

April was pretty much spent unpacking. It took so long because I didn't have any vacation time until June so I was working a lot & again, I hate unpacking! Before we started budgeting ourselves, we made several (successful) trips to Ikea & Walmart & Dollar Tree to get stuff for the new place. I also spent a lot of time trying to organize a corner of our bedroom into my craft space. I love that all my stuff has a specific place & I can easily find it. I'll share pictures soon!

In May I did do some crafting, but overall didn't feel very creative & just worked long hours in order to pay off my bills faster, so was too tired to do anything but spend time with my family when I got home. (We watched all of Prison Break, Arrested Development & now started watching 24 on Netflix.)

In June, there was a lot of changes at work (the manager got fired, among other things) so the DM did the schedule & messed everything up. For the past two years I've working morning shifts & this month I've had to close so much & as a result didn't feel like blogging since I haven't been in the best mood.

Since my new-found thriftiness I've also had to give up a couple goals I planned for this year. I can't buy Photoshop  or take any classes (to learn crochet, etc.), but I did find an awesome site, Picnik, which is so easy to use (& FREE) so I think I'll last without Photoshop for two more years. & instead of learning new things, I'll just work on getting better at making cards & entering lots of challenges. In fact I need to do that now, but I'll be back later to show you all the awesome mixed media book I made with pictures of my baby!