Tons of Updates

2) Guitar lessons - I scheduled guitar lessons in April so I'm really looking forward to that. I have a basic Yamaha acoustic guitar so it will be a decent start.

19) Write a will - I get a nice discount through a financial service I use for a will, a living will and a spouse's will - ~$35, give or take. We'll look at doing that in the next few weeks, I expect.

23) Start a garden - Spring is here, time to pick out some herbs, veggies and maybe fruits from a local nursery. I made the mistake of trying seeds last year; I just don't have the discipline for it so I need to make things easier and buy the plant. :) Give me a week or two to buy them and post some pictures. :)

24) Start a budget - Chris and I are going to Dave Ramsey's Money Makeover Live event in Dallas next weekend. From there, we'll be making some big changes to our spending habits and starting a solid budget and savings plan. I'm looking forward to it! We've already closed and cut up a few store credit cards that were recently paid off. It feels so good and we're ready for more. :)

42) Join a community band - It's been over 2 months since I joined Band of the Hills and I love it! We had our first concert of the semester a couple weeks ago and it was a blast. I forgot how amazing it can sound on a stage in a well-designed space, sound-wise. We were invited to play at the Association of Concert Bands Convention in Houston on April 15th so we (including Chris) are going to hop on a bus that morning, perform in Houston and then head back to Austin late that night. It should be fun, considering the people in the band are from all different ages and backgrounds.

45) Habitat for Humanity - After doing some searching, I think I'm going to change this one to a general volunteer gig. There are so many causes and projects to volunteer with, I don't want to limit myself to just one. I was reading a magazine that had a few 100+ year old people give advice and one of them said to volunteer because it takes your mind off your own problems for a little bit. I definitely need to explore that avenue and stop dwelling on, what I think are, problems.

46) New glasses - My contacts are definitely not up to par anymore, prescription-wise, so I think I'll be scheduling an eye exam within the next month. Then, I'll look at getting glasses and contacts and recycling my old glasses. I love that frame, but they're just too old now. I think I got more than I could have out of those things. Time to let someone else benefit from them.

73) Farmer's Market - We haven't been in a few months so we're definitely overdue. We ARE picking strawberries this weekend, but that doesn't quite count in my book. Maybe we can go to one in April; there should be some good food to pick from now that spring is here.

84) 365-Day Photo Project - After a failed attempt to start on Jan 1st, we're going to try to restart this one on April 1st (no joke!). Here we go...again. :)

88) See Broadway musical - Tickets bought for Avenue Q on April 16th! I can't wait!!

96) Go camping - It's getting too warm too fast (why am I not used to that yet??), but maybe we can find a weekend in April to go camping one night. If not, we'll just have to wait until the fall. Ugh.

Ok, those are my quick updates for now... With Chris working an earlier shift than before, I'm hoping we can get back in the routine of watching 2-3 movies/week so we can start knocking off more IMDB movies. We've been behind on so much lately. Ok, until next time!!

Thanks for reading...

(99) Multi-family garage sale

Another goal done! I really wish I had taken SOME sort of pictures, but I totally forgot. Our garage sale was this past Saturday and let's just say it definitely had its share of work. Some friends helped us price stuff late into the night Friday and I was still setting stuff up well into the garage sale. But, I'm super thankful that it didn't rain. It rained constantly for 3-4 days prior and the day after. For how cold it was (low 40's), we had a very steady turnout from about 8-10am. Sadly, that meant I didn't get much of a break that whole time. It was really neat to see things constantly sell though. I volunteered to sell some things for a few friends so I had 3-4 other families' things there so this definitely falls under multi-family. :)

We came out of it $250 richer and with a lot more closet space. While we still had a bunch of stuff leftover, a friend of ours went through it and took several things that night (Christmas in March at his house! Haha). Then on Sunday, we piled the car with clothes and several other items not worth selling on ebay/craigslist and headed to Goodwill down the road. It felt so good to just be done with it all and have that tax deduction receipt.

I've learned that it's a lot of work for a successful garage sale and if we do it again (probably in 2+ years), I'm getting more help for during the festivities. Chris unfortunately had to work that day so it took a toll on me after 6 hours in the cold. I also learned that it's much better to take low-ball offers than to have to deal with the stuff afterward. :)

(93) 18" Wheels on the CR-V

This is one of those goals I kept putting off because it was more a luxury than anything else so I didn't want to take that step just yet. Well, I ended up getting an un-fixable flat tire last week and decided to force ourselves to prep the blue 18" wheels we bought a few years ago and buy some much better tires for it. We'll probably put some sportier springs on the car at some point, which will lower it 1.5" and frame the wheels oh-so-nicely, but no rush. Not much else to say so here are some pictures...

Before Just-Like-Every-Other CR-V:

Before Wheels:

During Wheels:

After Unique-New-Hotness CR-V: