>I can’t believe it’s almost February already! These past few weeks have flown by. Good news: Aaron has a job prospect. I will post more when we know more! More good news: my cousin and his wife (Bryan and Michelle) are going to have a baby, due in August! This will be the first great-grandbaby on both sides of my family. It’s interesting though, because Bryan and I share two sets of grandparents (our moms are sisters and they married brothers).
Ugh, I think everyone is sick of this cold weather. A couple weeks ago we had three snow days in a row at my school, which evolved into a six-day weekend. It was more than welcome since we really didn’t get a lot of rest during Christmas break. Aaron still worked, of course, but it was nice to spend time together during the day. That Saturday night our three-year-old niece Zaia came to spend the night with us and that was fun. She and I made pizza and cookies. Here are a couple pictures:
A goal Aaron and I have is to be healthier, but it’s not necessarily a New Year’s resolution. We’ve been really working toward this goal by working out regularly (we joined World Gym on University in Peoria) and eating right. It seems that all we have in the apartment is “healthy food” but I guess that’s a good thing! So far we’re seeing results – we’re slimming down a bit and feeling better overall. We both have a history of heart/blood pressure/diabetes issues in our families so starting early is key! We’ve also found that buying more fruits and veggies, lean means, and whole grains is really not that much more expensive than normal. It’s a little pricier, but if you cut out soda, chips and other things, it comes out about even. Needless to say, we’re excited about creating new and healthy habits! Don’t worry; we’re not becoming health nuts. Just the other night we rewarded our good “behavior” by going to Coldstone!
We’re also finding cheaper ways of entertainment. If we go out (which is definitely not as common as six months ago) we go during lunch hours on the weekends. Or we don’t order a drink, just water. If you order two sodas or tea plus tax and tip you’re adding about $8 to the total bill! We got lucky last time we went to see a movie (Gran Torino, it was amazing) we paid the matinee prices at Willow Knolls. We’ve tried to downgrade our Comcast bill, but they won’t let us just get rid of cable and keep Internet. It’s probably cost us more to switch at this point, so we’ll just suck it up and live with it.
Just wanted to provide you with an update and maybe a reason to procrastinate, haha. Have a good evening and thanks for reading!
–Elizabeth
xoxo
mercies per mile 