Last week: WED- I had leftover food that Bobby’s mom had cooked over the weekend (thank you!). THURS- I had a $7ish lunch from BBC (good, but too expensive!). FRI- I had a $5.50 lunch from Bobby’s Too on Friday (my fallback when I eat at the office: 1/2 order of mozarella cheese sticks and a cup of soup). 

Wedding update? I have sent invitations! And even though I wish I could invite ALL my blog readers to come, Bobby and I are mostly inviting family, because our families are HUGE! Here’s what the invitations looked like, though: 

I actually fell asleep in the middle of ordering these invitations (in early March-ish). When I woke up the next day, my computer was in the bed next me, so I went to finish the order. And somewhere in the middle of the night, this invitation design went on sale! 

Maybe the people at WeddingPaperDivas.com have read the blog and know I’m struggling. Maybe there is an online shopping fairy. Maybe my parents’ prayers are being answered. Whatever it was, it made me happy. 

(I made the information cards on my own, printed/cut them at Kinko’s.) 

Notice the lilly again? And the red and orange? … Catching my attempt at a theme? … Please just say yes.

I admit, my guilt over my past two months’ spending on food has kind of killed my joy in letting you know my daily failures/successes. BUT I have found some self-discipline somewhere recently. (I think I found it under a stack of bills for the wedding…lol) Ok, so here are my successes:

• 1. Finally actually taking my coffee to work daily. This cuts $2.something I had been spending on coffee almost daily. And I’ve done it for a couple of weeks. THAT is big. HUGE. Big gold star for me!*

*Asterisk: From now until May 16th Starbucks has happy hour from 3 to 5 p.m. with 1/2 price frappuccinos. This has been hard to say no to. Even with a couple of splurges to take advantage of this gift from God, I think I’m doing good on bringing my coffee spending down.

• 2. Bringing food to work from home. My motivation is that if I do that, I can justify small-time spending on a snack later in the day. Again let’s not focus on how this is an obvious step to take. Let’s focus on the fact I actually started DOING it fairly consistently. Another big gold star for me!

So yesterday I had leftover pizza from Sunday night. And today I had food that Bobby’s mom made over the weekend. And I brought my coffee both days. Today I had a $2 frappuccino. (I can’t describe all of the warm, fuzzy feelings that come with a $2 java chip frappuccino. It was definitely worth the efforts to make it to Starbucks before 5.)

Speaking of Starbucks, our photographers posted a few of our engagement shots on their blog. Here is one:

at a Starbucks to remind us of where we first met <3

For the rest, visit our page on Bobbi + Mike’s website!

Today, Jimmy John’s so nicely decided to distribute free sandwich samples, which I accepted. Not sure if that makes up for other times this week that I’ve gone over my $5 budget… ?

But the BIG news is that – deep breath – we’re less than 3 months from the big day! And we had our engagement shots on Wednesday night! The weather was oh-so-perrfect, and our photographers, bobbi + mike, are pretty much amazing. It was lots of fun!! (I was nervous it would be hard for some reason?) Plus it was a great excuse to be hugged and kissed for a couple of hours. Now I’m pumped about our wedding pictures too!!

Random wedding pic of the day, from Etsy:

less than 3 months from our wedding day!

Also, I found a way to save $$ on a favor idea, and Kinko’s helped me print directions cards to stuff with my invitations this weekend. (Thank you to my family in advance for all of your help. What? You didn’t know… ? Hmm…  )

Then Monday I ate leftovers from the weekend (Carbonara from The Farm). And yesterday I ate leftovers from the weekend (pizza from Mother Bear’s). 2 for 2 this week!

my printer that decided to die when i needed it...

The pizza is from a girls’ night Friday night where friends + bridesmaids + I were supposed to assemble invitations. Of course my printer dies on Thursday night while printing labels. So we stuffed, stamped, and labeled until we ran out of labels (while watching “Did You Hear About the Morgans?”) Then Bobby ran to Best Buy and got a new printer so we could finish the job. He also brought cookies. Did I mention I’m marrying him? And very happy about that?

Cookies went very well with my sparkling grape juice, which is my favorite fun addition to dinners right now.

Then my bridal shower was on Saturday! Yay that my maid of honor and my Cali-based bridesmaid could both come!! And yay for actual things for our apartment. It’s feeling more and more real.

me looking at the recipe book my mom made for me (right before i cried) - bridesmaid and roommate Shaunquia on my right

Is that shallow? Or just dumb? Or is it rewarding someone out there for caring about making it look nice, too?

I mean, I look at other things too. Like… ”Organic” usually means good. It always means expensive. The fewer the ingredients the better. High fructose corn syrup does not count as a vegetable. See? I know the basics.

But I really am a sucker for things that look “pretty.”

See? This salad has wasabi in it, which hurts me. But it’s so pretty, that I want to eat it…

(Visit foodgawker.com for more pretty food pictures)

Anyway… I ate a turkey and cheese sandwich from home today. (I also had a $2-ish coffee from Starbucks and a $2-ish coke from Bobby’s Too, if I’m completely honest.)

And really, probably the most successful savings plan I’ve ever even half-way successfully stuck with is this blog.

So I will continue to blog, even though I went MIA for a while, adjusting to a new job, etc. I’ve not done so well in the last couple of weeks. Which I’ve justified very effectively. My reasons:  A) I have a new job. B) I am . . . adjusting. C) I …

Well, other reasons seem to creep up on a daily basis. So let’s just acknowledge I was unsuccessful and move on to this week:

• Monday – Sun-dried tomato bagel with artichoke-gouda schmear from BBC. This was a liiiittle more than $5 because of the coffee.
• Tuesday – Original roast beef sandwich, curly fries and Dr. Pepper from Arby’s. I’m not much of a fast food fan, but this was on the less terrible side of fast food options I thought. The #1 at Arby’s is $5.01 right now before tax. So with tax, I was over some.
• Wednesday – Leftovers from the spaghetti Bobby made the night before. Free! The sauce he made was really good, and I think he has a gift for cooking. Which works out very well for me. I have a gift for eating yummy food!

A foodie girl’s dream: a husband who can cook. Some pictures of things Bobby has made recently:

no bake cookies	Bobby making breakfast
a poached egg on toast Bobby made

This what it looks like from my window on the 20th floor of the Hyatt:

Here’s a little bit about our friend Bank of America (pictured above) from my friend Jon Stewart: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-february-23-2010/make-it-rain—bank-of-america

i'm a little behind in my blogging...

Hi all. So, one new job later, and I think it’s time to return to my daily blog. It’s been a bit of a mess in my head for a the past couple of weeks with trying to think about transitioning, plus wedding planning, plus life in general.

I should be able to handle a daily update about my lunch, though, really.

I don’t have a glowing report for last week. I’m not usually a comfort eater. But I can be a comfort spender on food. I don’t justify lots of other spending (clothes, weird hobbies, music, etc.). But I can justify a $9-$10 lunch on a hard day. Hence, why I started this blog in the first place. So last week, I had:

• Leftovers (less than $5) from Zagreb’s the night before (definitely not less than $5 on the original meal – but soo good!)
• Opie Taylor’s - Cyndiana burger (over $5)
• Chick-fil-a (less than $5)
• Salad from Marsh (a little more than $5 with my Snapple tea from Marsh)

And I can’t remember what else I scrounged up. But I know I spent more money on food last week than usual. Starbucks for 3 out of 5 mornings I think…

BUT – I did *finally* email the caterer a proposal for what I think will work with our budget, etc., for the reception. 500 million points for me. Thank you.

Plus today my pastor treated Bobby and I to lunch at Bucceto’s on the west side. So I’m already doing better! (Thank you, PD and Sumer!)

New goals:

1. Blog more than once a week again.

2. Work out more than once a week again.

3. Email the caterer!!

The good news is that I’m close to finalizing rehearsal dinner details. You can’t believe how perfect the room is that we’re (cross your fingers, say a prayer) trying to get. You can practically reach out and touch the ArtsGarden dome from the window! (Check out the picture to the left!) And it’s in the Embassy, which is where we have our hotel block and where most of our guests will probably be staying. So perfect, right!

Other wedding planning news? I will just say that wedding planning brings out the accountant in me. (My dad’s a CPA, so I guess I come by it honestly.) I think it’s working out close to what we budgeted, though.

Also!  Somewhere this weekend, I told Bobby I’m ok with the honeymoon being a surprise. (!)  I also said that if we get to the airport and my ticket says “Alaska“, it could be a very short honeymoon.

Finally, lately I’ve enjoyed visiting etsy.comt to look at random fun stuff. I thought this one was a good one for me:

the perfect paper set for a foodie

Other than that, today was a Monday Monday. It lived up to its name. It wasn’t horrible. I just think I was still in weekend mode.

Do you ever feel like that? Monday comes, and you just start the routine. Wake up, roll out of bed, crawl to the door… Ok – that’s not routine. (Not saying it doesn’t happen.) But you know – you just start the day and get to work. Then it’s like – wait a second, what’s this? People want things? I have to take care of that? My brain is working again?

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be more prepared.

Side note about the Winter Olympics: Curling. Why?

weather here = snowy