Road Trip - See All Fifty States

 As I mentioned in a previous post we love to travel. In fact, one of the reasons I decided to start my debt free journey is so we could have more money to see the world. We got this fun idea to try and see all fifty states. Ideally, we would start in alphabetical order, but I knew I couldn't save enough to visit Alaska. 

Our first official state to visit was Alabama. We live about two hours away from Alabama, so it really isn't that bad of a drive. Thanks to Pinterest, we found Birmingham, Alabama had a free botanical garden to visit. I took my birthday off last year and decided to make the trip to see the gardens. Siri had difficulties in getting us to the parking lot, but once we finally got there it was pretty neat. It was really cold and misting a little. I would like to go back when we have more time to explore.

We were in a hurry to get in and I didn't really get a good picture of the map. I think we had an hour by the time we got there, and I wasn't sure how big it was.

It was really peaceful. There weren't a lot of people when we went, so we were able to take our time and enjoy the scenery.

Had it been warmer I could have easily sat on that bench for a long time.

I thought this looked neat.

Can we say beautiful?! This is when you first walk in, and I was in awe. I know this picture doesn't do it justice, but it was really pretty in person.

Had to take advantage of every photo opportunity.

As a Christmas person, I had to take a picture. 

This is on the way out. I think there was a lot we missed, and the time of year wasn't the best, but we still had a good day. 

We have lots of places to visit and are so excited. Our goal for the states we've already been to is to find somewhere we haven't been. We have actually been to Alabama before, so finding the gardens was something new. I'm hoping to document each and every place we go just for our memory's sake. 

Because I'm Happy

 Everybody is different in how they stay organized and remember important dates. I am the type of person that needs to physically write down things. I have been using the Happy Planner since 2015 or 2016. I originally wanted an Erin Condren planner, but that was too expensive for me. A quick google search and the Happy Planner popped up. 

I am a seasonal type of person. The Happy Planner covered this for me with minimal decorating needed. 

This was either my second or third planner. 

My favorite planner from them is from 2019 - 2020:

This was the most seasonal filled planner I had, but sadly this was the last real seasonal planner the Happy Planner has made. I miss the seasonal days of Happy Planner, but still use their planners. If I ever find another planner that is seasonal, I will switch in a heartbeat. The owners sold to a corporation, and we all know how that works. Everything is the same and very neutral in color. The seasonal they did have was not seasonal at all, and now the seasonal is a color block planner which I hate. I think the idea is to buy stickers and other accessories to really make your planner spread pop, but who has that kind of time and money. The Happy Planner is where I emotionally spent the most. I would buy all the sticker books I wanted at one time, instead of saving up.

This is one of the spreads I did. It is certainly not the best, but it got the job done.

This is what I aspire to achieve in my planner one day. I am not an artistic person at all, but I try. When I first started using this planner I dedicated the top box to me, the middle box to Maddy, and the last box to Marley and other misc. items. I found I was wasting a lot of space, and I needed more space for my to do list. After seeing how other people use their planner, I decided to switch it up. I change the location, but one row is my dedicated to do list. The other two rows can be used for decorating. The side column on the left is where I write down my cleaning schedule.

I also utilize their weekly meal plan sheets to keep track of what's for dinner. Meal planning is a huge help on time. I no longer sit and wonder what we are going to eat. I simply look at the meal plan and have all the ingredients ready to go.

I used to use my planner to help budget. I still use the monthly calendar to write down all my bills, but I have moved over to the Budget Mom's budget workbook to keep track of bills and expenses. 

I would be lost without my planner. I have tried to use my phone calendar, but it is not the same for me. I enjoy looking at my weekly spread. It helps get me through the week. Maddy has climbed on board the planner train, but mostly because she enjoys decorating her planner. She uses her planner to write down her school assignments for the week.

We have the same planner this year.

If I can't have seasonal, dogs would be my second choice. I absolutely love this planner. 

How do you remember all the things?

Christmas 2021 - Part 2

 Merry Christmas! Maddy was beyond excited about Christmas morning. She asked me the earliest she could wake me up. I decided 6:00 A.M. would be alright, but she was not allowed to set an alarm. She did not set alarm and found herself awake at 5:00. The minute the clock hit 6:00 she was waking me up. She scared me half to death. 

Once I finally got out of bed, I got the camera ready to take any last-minute pictures. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I mostly took videos this year. After presents I made pigs in a blanket.

We had lunch with family at my mom's house. 

That was the gist of our Christmas. 

I thought I would share what Maddy got for Christmas from me. 

She wanted an Instax or something similar. I am the type of person that does a lot of research on things to find the best. The main reason she wanted the Instax is because it prints out a photo. After a lot of research, I came to the conclusion the Canon Ivy was the best option. I told her if she still wanted the camera I would get it for her, but she has loved her printer.

I thought she needed a holder for her printer so she could safely take it wherever she wanted. She also got extra paper to go with it. 

She has fallen in love with the "oldies." Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, she's a fan of them all.

This was not on her Christmas list, but something I thought she could use. She is getting more and more into makeup. She is only allowed to wear eyeshadow, mascara, and lip stick. 

I was really excited over this hoodie. She is a huge Marvel fan. 

We went opening night to see Black Widow. It was a huge hit with us. Maddy fell in love with Yelena. I must admit after watching Hawkeye on Disney +, she has become one of my favorites as well. I ordered this from Etsy, but the shop is no longer open

Every Black Widow fan has to have the "You're a total poser" shirt. I just want to know why Marvel felt it necessary to kill Black Widow. I'm still waiting for her return.

Maddy got AirPods for her birthday. Somehow the left ear got messed up and was hard to hear. It was frustrating when she needed to only have one in because it is more comfortable to wear just the left over just the right. I decided to throw these in as part of her Christmas.

We were talking about Christmas one night and she stated she wished she had thought to put a karaoke machine on her Christmas list. She seemed a little bummed because no one would know she wanted one. As soon as she said that I knew this would be her final present. I had gotten most of her presents already, but I just didn't feel it was complete. After ordering this I finally felt done.

She got a new phone case and of course needed a new popsocket for her case. Out of the options these seemed to be the best. Captain America was her first favorite.

Spider-Man is what got her into Marvel. She wanted to know what the original Spider-Man movie was like. She watched it and fell in love. How this translated into Marvel is beyond me, but somehow it did. She wanted the Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland ones. 

It was time for a new Switch game. 

She bought herself some gel pens before Christmas. She used them to color, but they seemed to run out pretty quick. I didn't think anyone else would buy her some, so I got these. I found out afterwards someone else did in fact buy her some, but you can never have too many.

Bath and Body is a must have in this family. She requested this scent. I thought it would be too sweet smelling, but it really isn't. It is a light scent and smells oh so good!

What can I say, this girl loves Marvel!

Throughout 2021 Maddy received a small allowance for doing chores outside of what was expected of her to do. She decided after her birthday she was going to save her leftover money to purchase me some Christmas gifts. I tried to talk her out of it, but once she has her mind made up there is no changing it. She did a wonderful job picking out gifts I would love.

She got me this dachshund blanket that is so soft and warm! I am a dachshund lover.

Every year she gets me a calendar with the help of her Nana. She was so excited to be able to purchase this one by herself. Gilmore Girls is my favorite tv show of all time. 

This is my favorite gift she got me. It is also from Gilmore Girls. I was so surprised!

I think she has the kindest heart and couldn't be any prouder of her.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We are already counting down to next Christmas.

Christmas 2021 - Part 1

 Christmas is my favorite holiday. I wanted to share our Christmas season, even though it may have to be separated into two posts.

We did not get to all of our normal traditions this year. We usually walk around downtown, go to Rock City, see the zoo lights, and take our end of year trip. Time seemed to slip away this Christmas season and before we knew it, we were out of time.

We did make it downtown to our town's boat parade/lighting of the city. 

We usually get our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, this year was no different. We fell in love with our tree and deemed it our best tree yet. I didn't do the best job with lights, but it was still beautiful. My job is to get the lights on. Maddy does most of the decorating. There are a few ornaments that I put on such as the Manny angel ornament. 

Another tradition we have is baking day with Nana. We try to fit in all the Christmas baking we possibly can. Every year we have so many plans, but we always run out of time. Here are our goodies.

Every year we buy one special ornament to add to our collection. This year Maddy chose a Black Widow ornament, and I chose a Gilmore Girls ornament.

Next up is our gingerbread house night. 

We also choose a night to dress up in matching pajama's, Marley included, drink hot chocolate, and drive around looking at Christmas lights. I did take a picture, but I am not a fan of how it turned out. Poor Marley hated his pajamas this year, he felt like he couldn't move. 

Our town's power company puts up a Christmas display in the windows. We make a special trip just to take a look.

As we got closer to Christmas day, it was finally time to make our Santa cookies. 

We finally made it to Christmas Eve. Maddy always gets to open one present, but I pick the present. Every time I seem to pick the present that has Christmas pajamas. This year she got Marvel Christmas pajamas. I took a video instead of pictures, and the video is really dark. Here is what they look like.

Christmas Eve night we go to our church's candlelight service. It is my favorite service. Maddy took this picture. 

Once we got home it was time to get everything ready for Santa.

I think I will end this post here and put Christmas day on another one. Until next time...