Blog Award

My sweet friend, Glittery Katie, a fellow Bombshell gave me this sweet blog award. I know there have been a few others (Carmen, Gabby, I'm sorry) but with all the surgery/meds/pain whoo-ha I've been bad about keeping up with things. That said, I really, really appreciated them and felt a little thrill at being mentioned. Thank you.

The way this works is:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know!
5. I am not such a stickler for rules if you are like me: do as you please with it!!!

I'd like to give this award to Cheryl - one of the most talented card makers I've ever had the privilege of knowing and an absolute sweetheart as well.

And to Maggi, I really can't say enough wonderful things about the positive, creative force that is uniquely Maggi. She's the real deal.

10 things that make me happy!

1. Coffee
2. Bombshell Stamps and Pin-up culture in general
3. Gauche Alchemy and the fact that I can be vintage and eclectic in my crafts without shopping. Yahoo. And my Gauche Girls.
4. Stripy Socks!
5. My friends in Portland. Who I love with all my heart. You know who you are.
6. Mountains. Snow. Mountains with Snow. Being snowed in up the mountain
7. Jason, Estela and Benjamin.
8. Being a boy mom, which means life is filed with zombies and dragons, not Barbie and ballerinas.
9. Bubby. The very, very best dog in all the land
10. Being married to a guy who still rocks my world and takes my breath away each and every day.

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We are still working on our March-April budget and it is seriously kicking our butt. Squeeze as hard as I can and I can't get our spending below 70% of our income. Grrr. This month we have no health spending account to fall back on, so prescriptions, doctors co-pays etc. are all cash categories. We also have a Costco membership due and last month we ate the cupboards bare (on purpose for the sake of freshness) so groceries are going to be spendy. This should be an interesting month money-wise.

I share this, because I sometimes worry that I haven't put a wholly honest spin on the TMMO - debt reduction journey. It hasn't all been a happy scamper from spendthrift to miser. Thousand dollar bills haven't fallen from the sky (although it was nice to sign the check from the tax man as opposed to writing him one) and we've worked hard every day. This week alone we've spent at least two hours a night scouring our bills and budget trying to decide if a category with twenty dollars in it can be moved down to fifteen. It's a lot of work and sacrifice. We're just Go Hard or Go Home people so we've made crazy progress.