Speaking of Puerto Rico ...

This is where we will be staying before we depart on our cruise ...

I am officially obsessed ...

...with Nota lol. Josh says I'm obsessed with Latin music/music in Spanish. Even though I can't understand what they're saying. For those of you who don't know, Nota (->) was on the first season of "The Sing Off" the all-acapella group singing competition and they won. They are from Puerto Rico and they are awesome. Maybe I'm currently obsessed because we will be in Puerto Rico in a month. Or maybe because what they do with their voices is amazing. Either way check them out ... Here's what I am listening to by them that I can't get out of my head:

Nota - Down (yes their cover of the Jay Sean version but its AWESOME, I think better)

Nota - Con Mi Nota en Do

Nota - Todo Cambio

Nota - This Love (yes the Maroon 5 song)

Nota - Que Tengo Que Hacer

Nota - I Need To Know (the Marc Anthony song)

They just put me in a good mood and I think they sound great! And I can picture myself listening to it, sitting on the balcony of our hotel room in Puerto Rico...

Song in my head ...

For the last few weeks I've had a song stuck in my head ... now I have always said that now living in Texas I have no problem saying "y'all" but you will never hear me say "fixin." Well the song that is stuck in my head does say fixin but I like it so much I'm gonna throw it up here anyway ... here's some of the lyrics stuck in my head...

"I moved to Nashville back in '91

I was hopin' for heaven but I met the Devil's son
David Allan Coe was right 'bout a long hard ride
Hell you ought to see the little red truck I drive

Well I refused to be something I'm not
So I didn't make the Music City news a lot
But I don't give a damn about that now
'Cause some people like the way I sound then

Things are fixin' to get real good
In them honky tonks you know I'm understood
I been to the school of hard knocks and hardwood and
Things are fixin' to get real good

I made a lot of good friends they came from all around
We chased women and dreams while searching for a sound
But we sank right down the musical tubes
Getting lost in the crowd and drinkin' too much booze

Lord knows I done a lot of things wrong
But I wrote 'em all down in my country songs
Sometimes you gotta go to hell and back
Just to know where you're at and

Things are fixin' to get real good
In them honky tonks you know I'm understood
I been to the school of hard knocks and hardwood and
Things are fixin' to get real good

Things are fixin' to get real good
In them honky tonks you know I'm understood
I been to the school of hard knocks and hardwood and
Things are fixin' to get real good

Yeah, I've done my dance on sawdust and hardwood
And things are fixin' to get real good,
Yeah, they are

I have done my dance on sawdust and hardwood
Things are fixin' to get real good "

Things are fixin to get real good by Deryl Dodd

It just reminds me of Josh and his career and that things are going to get better ... :)

Time to grow up ... or is it???

How can two people who look like this EVER grow up?? I guess it's gonna have to happen though. I don't mean we're gonna lose our fun ... that'll NEVER happen. But I mean, I just turned 30 ... it's about time we do some grown up things like save money and plan for our future. Josh wants to be a successful musician, and I want that for him too more than anything. We can't have money for new music equipment, making a CD, promotional materials, or hiring professionals to help take him to the next level though if we eat out or waste money on STUPID CRAP!

I think we're getting better though, so I won't bash us completely. I combined our auto insurance, which saved us almost $100/month. We got the storage unit cleaned out and that's going to save us $65/month. If WildBlue makes me mad one more time I'm going to give them the heave ho and go to cheaper HCTC DSL. I think a tougher financial situation in the second half of 2010 has set us up good to be successful in 2011. We had the wedding to pay for and Josh's gigs dwindled toward the end of the year, not to mention me taking a pretty good pay cut myself with the new job so we had no choice but to make some cut backs. I also managed to spend under $100 at the grocery store yesterday to replenish our groceries. I think we're getting there.

We need to prepare ourselves for buying a house, having kids, and making Josh's music a success. We want all of these awesome things for ourselves, and I think having to work hard to get there we will appreciate them once we get them. We're still going to try to take some mini vaca's this year ... but maybe just some cheaper trips or visit some of the wonderful places within Texas.

Neither of us are great savers ... I've had people suggest Dave Ramsey, and give us their own money tips. But honestly, Josh and I are the kind of people that we have to figure out the best way to tackle our money habits BY OURSELVES. Some of you will cringe but I used to overdraft my checking account CONSTANTLY. I've managed to organize myself enough to stop doing that ... however we still don't end up with extra money and occasionally have to find ways to cover bills or accounts so we don't overdraft. We find it so we don't have to pay that #$&*ing overdraft fee ... but I don't like getting into that panic situation. I used to manage my checking account with Microsoft Money where I could manage it on my computer and my PDA. I can't seem to find another program that does that for Mac and iPhone. I've found a couple more I am going to try but I think that is the key to my money organization so I know what I've spent and I don't look at my bank account and THINK I have money when really I forgot about a debit card swipe from a few days ago.

Anyhow ... that is one of my current mind boggles. We need to grow up a bit ... but we're getting there.

Back to the blog!

I figured what better time to get my blog back going again than the new year. As most of you know, this has been an EXTREMELY busy year for Josh and I. We took our first big vacation together (our cruise), we moved, we got married, I finally finished my bachelor's degree (HOORAY!) and I got a new job at AT&T! All of these changes were for the better for us. We are in a great place now. The wedding was such a huge success we can hardly believe it. We could NOT have done it without the help of ALL of our friends and family. Everyone pitched in and it was so great. I am so grateful to each of you for this. I don't feel like I can thank all of you enough. We were fortunate to spend so much time with our family and friends this year through the wedding and all of these other great events. We were also fortunate to get to spend a week in Michigan with my family and friends for Christmas. We had a wonderful time, even enjoyed the snow!!


The upcoming year for us is going to be a little less eventful (hopefully) ... we need to get some money saved up so we can eventually buy our own house. However we are starting the year off going on our honeymoon cruise to the southern Caribbean via beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico! Unfortunately the new year should include less travel to Michigan for us this year to visit my friends and family, but that means they can all come visit me! I hope to be in Michigan sometime after my step-sis has her baby and for my cousin's wedding in the fall but that will probably be it!! As my cousin Breanna said in our wedding guest book, we should send our first year of marriage traveling and Michigan doesn't count! We are taking our honeymoon cruise but I'd also like to take a weekend in Vegas (maybe for the PBR finals in October) and other new places maybe???

We would love to host any out of state visiting guests that would like to come visit. We have plenty of room to keep people. We recommend warmer months so we can take you on the river with us. :) Hope to have some visitors soon. We love you all.