Our New Furbies!! (Fur babies)

Things with the housing loan- apparently due to my excessive school loans, I couldn't be approved for enough $$. Which is fine- so, we're moving on to Plan B! (save money/pay off debt) I've been working on my financial binder (more updates to follow).

In the meantime- we decided if we couldn't get our own place then maybe we could talk to our landlords about their no pet policy. We've been renting our house for a year now and have a great rapport with them (they even got us a Sheetz gift card for Christmas!). So we made the call last Friday and Saturday we got the OK!

So this week our family got 8 paws and 2 tails bigger! 

Meet Nala. She's so teeny!!! Definitely the runt of the batch. 

 And this is Vito. I think he's part sloth. haha... actually, they're both quite rambunctious (+5 points for me using a big word like that)

 At the end of the day... they love each other. Brother and Sister.... so cute <3

Welcome to the Varner family, Nala and Vito!

So prepare to see endless pictures of my new babies. Afterall, I'm a proud parent now. :)

*Soon to come, camping pictures- my newest sand sculpture*

Varner Family Planner (Part 1)

Yesterday I woke up thinking, "I have nothing to do today."

And then I stumbled upon this beaut: The Nest Effect

After drooling a bit, I scoured my office/scrapbooking supplies I realized I have everything I needed on hand to create such a masterpiece (except a 3-hole punch)...


I spent the better part of the day going through all my scrapbook papers finding scraps that would work together to create a purty cover that would slip in the clear pouch on the front.

Success?

I think yes.

I also researched a few other family planner/binders online and made 5 of my own sections. A lot of people have a section for meal planning and grocery lists but I already have a system set up for that.







 So my sections are as follows:

*Calendar/Planner (also lists birthdays/anniversaries)

 *Budget (breading down our spending into subcategories and what bills are paid with which paychecks (isn't organization BEAUTIFUL?!)

 

*Bills/Expenses (lists when bills are due w/ contact information)

 

*Debt/Savings plan (based off of Dave Ramsey's teaching)

 

*Cleaning/Projects (monthly cleaning tasks and DIY projects I would like to attempt)

Here are the calendars I made up for the rest of the year... and a list of months' days for birthday/anniversary lists...

 

I ended up checking Facebook to find all my friends/families' birthdays in one convenient spot!

So, there's what I have so far. Many more forms and pictures to come. :)

We Came. We Saw. We Loved.

Jeff and I went to tour a house this past week. I don't want to get too excited yet, I'm still working on getting the pre-qualification for the housing loan.

It was just simply perfect.

3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, hardwood floors, cute kitchen, sweet deck, 3/4 of an acre of land, tiger lillies galore, and trees that line the property. 

What's not to love, right??


So, here's the plan. Jeff and I are praying pretty hardcore about this. Last week we did some fasting, and talked to God about the situation. We're asking for His hand in it. If we get approved for a loan, and the house is still availabe, we're going for it! (Woah!) If we're denied for whatever reason we're going to stay where we are for another year and  save $$$! So either way it's a win.

Of course, having tons of free time while I'm on vacation all summer... I've been pinning on Pinterest like a busy little beaver!

Current Loves:

Coral and Aqua. I'm thinking of incorporating these colors into the dining room.

Yellow and Grays. Master bedroom.

I can't stop meditating on this verse:

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4

It's so beautiful how our God wants to bless us. Jeff and I have recently been given the opportunity to host Bible Study at our house the past two weeks for the Men's Freedom House (click link) and it's been incredible. We'd love to give God the glory for a new home with even more space and opportunity to host events.

Please feel free to pray with us!

Housewife Diary (Part 1)

So, obviously one of the perks of being a teacher is having my summer off. As of Saturday I was blessed with 65 days of freedom.



What am I going to do with myself?!?!!?

Well. Step 1- release my inner housewife.

My husband posted on facebook this weekend "I think my wife is a superhero when I'm not around. Where does she hide the costume?"  hehehe... what a sweetheart. Here's the story behind it:
Saturday I went yardsaling (that's my typical Saturday AM ritual). I scored a working push lawnmower for $10! So, I hauled it home in my champ-of-a-94 Honda Civic named Trevor. I lifted it out of my trunk. Filled it with gas. Sported by bikini top (might as well get some sun if I'm gonna mow, right?). And took off. My husband got home and saw the neighbor mowing his lawn and walked over and thanked him for mowing ours as well when the neighbor smiled and informed him that in fact, it was ME that did it. Yep- yours truly, wife-of-the-year.

Yesterday, by 10:30am the house was clean (vaccuumed, swept, dusted), the dishes were handwashed, dried, and put away. The wash was dried, folded, and put on its respective dressers. And I did a Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout. 

 I got smart and did the dishes last night before going to bed... so literally... all I have to do today is go over our budget and find out how much money we have to put toward a house payment. Sneak peak: The house hunt begins tonight at 5:30pm! First house tour! We're totally stoked!

Time to get some more housewife stuff accomplished! Maybe I'll find something that needs reorganized!!!!!!!!



 

Faux hawk fun. :)

Here's the latest news!

Only 2 school days left with the students, then 3 teacher in-service days... and then it's officially summer vacay!

Since my school is adventure-based and I teach middle school boys- my coworkers are primarily males. A few of them decided to come into school the other week with mohawks.

And since I am awesome, I decided to try my hand at hawking my hair as well. I spent my morning today researching various youtube videos on how to create a faux hawk.

Here is the outcome of my labor.

Needless to say. I'm stoked for work tomorrow. :)


p.s. I love my job. (Yellow Breeches Educational Center)

All work and no play makes Heidi a dull girl.

So, I'll just come out and say it. Jeff and I both love Nerf guns. As a matter of fact I came home yesterday from work to find him laying outside soaking up some sun and I got a Nerf gun and chased him around the yard.

We have quite the collection. :)

So, I created a gun rack for them.










That's all.

I was planning on writing more but then the internet took too long to upload that photo... so now I have to go get ready for date night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'Tis the season.

My favorite time of year is rolling back around... spring... which means YARD SALES!

Last year I scoured yardsales for wedding finds (Yard Sale Beauts). This year it's for our house!

Since we got the house in September (Home Sweet Home) there was one thing I've been dieing to have for our kitchen. Our house has a country feel to it and I thought that a cute little baker's rack would be perfect for the one wall. Unfortunately, prices are about $149 for them. (Not an option.) I was surfing Craigslist last weekend and there was a local yardsale (7 miles away) that said there was a baker's rack for sale. So, I was one of their first customers the next morning.... and guess how much.................

ONLY $10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I moved it in, and filled it with what I had on hand. Above it I have strings with wedding pics held to them with mini clothes pins. Over Christmas it held our Christmas cards :)

Yesterday was a mega-yard sale day with my mom. :)

Here's my winnings:
Spiderman 3 Blu-ray, Prayer of Jabez Book, Make-up purse, Pampered Chef veggie steamer, LEGO TABLE, Black and Decker tool playset (for future children- $1)!!!, 2 crates for the front porch, shorts for my stepson, shirt for me, Nerf board, Home Sweet Home sign, and a hilarious game where you toss bulls and earn points for what position they land in. :)

Grand total........ $18!!!!


Life is good. I love sales. :)

Life is hard.

So, four months into married life. And I can't believe how tough it is!

I've been explaining to friends and family that Jeff and I fell into the "all our problems will be solved when we're finally married" category. haha

See, we did everything before our wedding day: we took classes, we did the homework, he studied the Bible together, prayed together, enjoyed weekly dates, read "10 Great Dates Before I Say I do", took a Financial Peace course, and even waited to have our first kiss on our wedding day.

And now.

Marital bliss still exists, but we've added to the mix: financial drama, work drama, family drama, communication drama, health drama, and spiritual drama.

It's nuts. haha


With that being said, I love my life.

My husband is wonderful. And we're still as in love as ever. Last night we had an awesome Date Night. A friend's neighbor (yeah, that random)- got us a wedding gift of very nice towels. We already have towels for our bathroom so we took them back to Target and scored a sweet $55 to spend on goodies.

And so we bought: DVD's.
*Battlefield: Los Angeles
*Date Night
*Class of the Titans
*Bounty Hunter (not the TV show!)
*Inside Man
*And a 4 pack of thrillers: Seven, Insomnia, Devil's Advocate.... and 1 I forget

We had a blast picking out movies we'd both enjoy and walking hand in hand through the store spending someone else's money. :)