Locavore

Can you be considered a locavore if you eat at local restaurants? :-)

Today is my "short day" at work and on my way home, since I hadn't eaten lunch, I stopped and got a California Taco (or Cali Taco for the locals). A while back the dude from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network came to Omaha and highlighted some of our best.

California Taco


Dixie Quicks Magnolia Room
(My FAVORITE place for Sunday brunch, the place you have to take visitors!)


BrewBurgers
(Still never been, a little too far west for me, but I'll make it out there someday.)


Finally, DD&D went to Big Mama's Kitchen, where my volunteers and I ate just a few weeks ago. We all had the Afro Burger and decided we couldn't handle it and would have to order the tamer version in the future.

A post before Vacation

I've been meaning to get this post up. An update on my container garden! It started a few months ago as seeds in my window sill at my apartment. Now I have little green tomatoes and little green peppers on HUGE plants!



Let me take you on a tour...all of these pictures were taken a week ago, so everything is bigger and fuller now!


My Zinnias! Aren't they gorgeous? They were my very first sprouts and they are many different colors and oh so pretty! I love these, and I'll have to plant them every year. I think they would be a cool garden boarder as well.

My tomatoes were also stared from seed in my window sill. I had strawberries sprout, then die because I was impatient and transplanted them too early. My chives and sweet peppers never sprouted.

So at the hardware store I picked up some sweet pepper plants and now I have little green peppers! (Large pot in the middle.) I'm waiting for them to get big and turn red. I love red peppers the best. To the sides, the round pots have carrots I started from seed when I moved here, and the rectangles have sweet peas. The peas are the one plant that seems to have died and probably won't come back. I think they got too much water, not enough soil, and I didn't move them down to the concrete in order to try to vine on the rails until it was too late. They blossomed, I have one pea pod, and now all the leaves are brown. :-( But peas grow quickly too, so I may try to replant. We've been able to eat a few small carrots already, along with the lettuce.



My dianthus that I picked up on a whim - love them, and want to plant more in the landscaping out front next year.

Now the strawberries in the large blue pot. I finally had to go buy a starter plant. I tried several times to start them from seed. And I just recently planted them in here. I was getting frustrated that it was bearing no fruit. But once I got it in its planter, it has now grown, blossomed, and I'm hoping for a few berries when I get home.
Finally, for some reason, herbs have been my biggest challenge. And I always thought herbs were supposed to be easy. The boys and I planted three different ones in this little metal box, and just one is sprouting. I think it's the basil, which besides the cilantro, is the one I really wanted to grow.

Things I can't get to even sprout? Onions and chives. Grr.

Spotlight & Giveaway

On Nicole's blog, she is spotlighting a great Etsy artist named Sarah of Fray. Her stuff is GORGEOUS! And you can enter to win her everyday tote or a caplet. And because there is no way I could afford either, I'm really hoping to win! :-)

Stunning

Can I be Emma Watson for a day? She has a cool job playing Hermione in all the Harry Potter films, she's been signed on to be the face of Chanel, she's got her choice of top colleges here and in England, and she just did one of the most beautiful photo shoots for Teen Vogue. This series of photos is one of the best shoots I've seen for any fashion magazine. Stunning.

(All images courtesy Teen Vogue)

A string of good luck!

A cash gift (my "wedding gift") from my grandpa since I bought a house. :-)
A free 10$ gift card to the mall.
A $50 gas gift card that I won by being caller number nine through a radio station.

Whoo hoo! I'm so tempted to buy a powerball ticket! :)

In love

In love with Jordan's globe and map theme. I've been on the look out for a nice globe and I want to go thrifting and see if I can find an old world map to frame and put on my office wall.

Back to Basics

Ok, I miss blogging, I really do. But every time I think about sitting down to post, I decide it's too much work, and I don't want to spend the time uploading photos, blah blah blah. I feel so pressured to do home updates and yet I always forget to take before photos.

So let's do this. This sort of started off as a money blog, and because its been 2 years since I joined the WIRR, let's do a two year review! I'll get to the house some other day. Maybe once EVERY room is done, then I'll be much more excited to do a thorough home tour.

Ok - on 6/11/2007 I had the following debts:

CC: 713.47
CAR: 11,834.89
Undergrad SL: 15,539.84
Graduate SL: 19,648

TOTAL:
$47,736.20

For my one year anniversary on 6/11/2008 I had the following debts:

CC: 0
CAR: 3,339.37
Undergrad SL: 15,396.83
Graduate SL: 17,000.00

TOTAL: $35,736.20
TOTAL PAID OFF: $12,000!!! I averaged $1000 a month in debt payoff.

Now, fair warning, my third year was focused more on liquid savings and saving for a home purchase, and once I paid off my car, I didn't exactly snowball that onto my SL payments because they are low, fixed rates and government loans.

Two year anniversary: 6/11/2009

CC: 0
Car: 0
Undergrad SL: 14,739.32
Graduate SL: 15,519.17

TOTAL: $30,258.49
TOTAL PAID OFF: $17,477.71

I sooo desperately wanted to have my total debt below $30k on my second anniversary and was going to take 258.50 out of savings and put it toward a student loan, but two days before my anniversary Thomas lost his job and I suddenly became the sole provider. Not that I provide for him, but he does give me some support and pays half of daycare. (Also, the kids' health insurance is through him.) So instead of having met a debt payoff goal, I was very thankful that two years prior I had found the WIRR and learned the importance of having an EF. And not just a $500 or $1000 EF, but a full six months of expenses tucked away. Luckily, my time with the WIRR also taught me to keep my committed expenses down, and while money will be tight until Thomas finds a new job, I shouldn't have to dip into savings too much, (other than paying for COBRA for two months). I can still take the kids home to Dyersville over the 4th of July, we already have a zoo pass and a children's museum pass, the sprinkler provides a good hour of free entertainment, and with the house, they have ample room to play.

My only worry is that when Thomas is employed again and we need to go back to daycare, they won't have room for Max & Will. That thought makes me sad because the boys have friends there that they really like and we really like our daycare. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.