Day 184, August 21st

 Sunday, Ryan headed out to play baseball and I tackled some chores around the house.  Our evening plans were quite exciting, we were having dinner with my old friends Brett and Emily!  I have known Brett since 4th grade, we dated in 5th grade, you know, the time when you said you were dating but never talked to each other...that's how serious we were. Luckily Emily isn't threatened to hang out with one of Brett's ex girlfriends!! :) I met Emily in high school where we bonded over our shared awesomeness.  We all ran with the same crew in high school, but it wasn't until after high school these crazy kids realized their love for one another.  Rachel and I went to their wedding in 2007 I believe, and that's really the last time I had a real Brett and Emily session! 
So thanks to Facebook, we've reconnected, and Emily asked Ryan and I over to dinner, mostly because she wanted an entire blog post about her!
Brett and Emily have a son Max, a real child, not a fur child like ours, so it was exciting to meet him, and play with all of his wonderful toys!!
We had a delicious dinner that Emily made, and caught up on old times, probably bored Ryan a little since he wasn't around for those days, and had a wonderful evening catching up.  It's nice to be able to pick back up with friends after so many years.  It's weird that I've known Brett since I was 9...think about that, totally weird! 

Day 183, August 20th

Saturday, we met up with Tommy to catch up with what was happening with his wild life.  We met for lunch at Postino's and had some good conversation and wine!
After our lunch, Ryan and I decided it had been too long since we shopped, so we headed to the mall and did some serious shopping!
After a lovely day of spending money, we headed home, put away our swag, and watched The King's Speech.  We've had it for awhile but I think we were skeptical about how much we'd like it, well that was silly, because we loved it! It also sparked great interest in King George for me, and I did some reading for the rest of Saturday night.  We had a great day, and it's always nice to get new stuff too! 

Day 182, August 19th

Ah, today is our 6 month anniversary...no, I don't celebrate month anniversaries, but I am forcing Ryan to acknowledge this one since it's our first year of marriage.  We didn't exchange gifts or anything, not that I would have turned a gift down...

So to celebrate still loving each other after a whole 6 months, we headed up to Scottsdale Quarter to try out the new Stingray.  Not the best experience, that's for sure.  We got drinks while we waited for a table, and then we were seated at the sushi bar.  Our waitress came over, we ordered waters and she said our edemame and soup would be out in a flash.  As we finished up our sushi she finally came back over so I could ask where our water was, and with all our sushi gone, she brought us our edamame! I know sushi comes out faster when you're at the bar, but seriously?! Good thing we had drinks beforehand or I would have died of thirst!  I will probably stick to the Biltmore Stingray from here on out.
After dinner, we walked over to Primebar, where our friend Cindy works, for a quick drink.  Well, a bottle of wine later, I told Ryan we had to go home before I fall asleep!! It was good to see Cindy, annoying that people kept ordering drinks so she had to work instead of spend time with us! :) We had a lovely night, reminiscing over all our married days together!

Day 181, August 18th

In super lazy mode, when we got home Thursday we decided we were just going to head to Aunt Chilada's and let them make dinner for us! Per usual, lately, we were put in the back room, which makes me think I'm not good enough for their main room...but that's just because I'm sensitive, or is it?!
Dinner was delicious and we had a nice night out on the town...

Day 180, August 17th

Had an interesting day at work on Wednesday, so when I left work, I called Ryan to ask him if he could stop at the store and get beer...because I was going to need it! He happily agreed, stopped for some brews and we got into fiesta mode.  We made some fajitas and spent the evening just hanging out! It was the perfect ending to the not so perfect day.

Day 179, August 16th

 On Tuesday Ryan head up north to Mojito to celebrate Nick's birthday with cigars and poker...very manly.  I told him to take a picture since he was out doing something while I sat home, but he didn't. I guess it's not cool to be like, hey I need a photo for our blog!
While Ryan was manly, I made dinner and read some of our book for book club.  We were reading A Stolen Life, which is really good, and totally creepy since it's a true story.  I highly recommend you read it!
Ryan got home pretty late, but said he had a really good time, and won thousands of dollars at poker! I was excited, but they weren't playing with real cash, so once he told me he lost it all, I didn't react like a crazed person!!  A lazy night for me, but a fun and festive night for Ryan!

Day 178, August 15th

So, our first year, we're hardcore tackling our debt, which means I love finding ways to make some extra cash money! Which is why my excitement for selling stuff on Amazon only grows every day!! Anyway, another money maker I've found, thanks to my friend Amy, is Ebates.  It gives you cash back on online purchases, ranging in % back depending on the store.  It's pretty amazing, I must say, I mean yes, you have to shop in order to get this quarterly check, but let's be honest, I'm shopping anyway!
When I got home from the gym I had my Ebates check and a letter from JDRF saying they've added to my retirement plan! Woohoo!! Money all over the place! :) 

Day 177, August 14th

Sunday was our eldest son, Gus' 4th birthday.  We treated him with wet food for the occasion, and he enjoyed his day lounging in the sun, reflecting on his fourth year of life.

Once Gus felt super loved, Ryan and I headed to the store to prepare for our cookoff with his parents.  A few weeks back Denise had an idea that we all draw a course, appetizer, salad, main dish, dessert, and each make what we draw for a complete meal between us.  Ryan got main dish, which is nerve racking enough, but way more when your dad is a chef!!  Paul pulled appetizers, and pretty much had the fanciest course for sure! I pulled salad, which was quite easy, and I felt bad that I really didn't have much work to do!  Denise had dessert, and if we were rating would have won for presentation.  We had a great night, cooking and spending time together.  I added our wedding photos to their computer, and while I was doing that I saw Denise had some photos that I hadn't seen from the wedding, so I asked if I could have them, well we never got around to saving those pictures to a disc since it would have ran late into the night.  

They headed home, and Ryan and I started cleaning up, he said to me innocently, sorry you didn't get your photos... AHH I didn't take a photo for the blog!!! He of course was talking about the wedding photos, but I realized I didn't take my daily photo! Can you believe that?! We actually did something fun and exciting and I didn't take a picture!?! UGH!

So I forced Gus, as any mother would do, to take a photo.  Good thing it was his birthday, otherwise it would have been dirty dishes.

Day 176, August 13th

Saturday morning, we hit the gym, did our chores, and then thought, hey! let's hit the town!! We had some movie gift cards accumulating, since I honestly think we've only seen 4 movies in the theater together, so we decided we'd movie it up!  

We headed out in the late afternoon to our favorite spot, Z Tejas, and had a nice late lunch, early dinner?! I don't know how you'd define it really.  After we were stuffed, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to spend the last $15 we had from our wedding.  Of course we spent more than $15, but we got that much off our total, so that was lovely.

After we spent some money, we headed to see Friends with Benefits.  Mostly because I think Justin Timberlake is beautiful, and Ryan thinks the same thing of Mila Kunis...but it really was a good movie! We had seen that No Strings Attached movie, which is basically the same idea for a movie, but I must say FWB is much better.  You should see it if you haven't!