New Year, Similar Resolutions!

Happy 2013! It's been a few months since I've posted anything, let alone since I've blogged on a regular basis. Yet with the new year upon us, I'm cleaning my blogging slate and trying yet again to blog on a regular basis. Who knows, maybe third time will be a charm. I might make it easy on myself and steal from my friends and try a "Wordless Wednesday" or "Thankful Thursday". I think having a theme could help get me in a good routine. I might even go out on a limb and try blogging twice a week! Watch out 2013 I might be successful with this year's resolutions!

I will end this short and sweet post with an ironic twist to life. Last year I began 2012 sitting in a lonely apartment in Laguna Beach, while my husband and sister continued to live our fun "Dublin Life". This year I am very happy to say that I start the year living with my hubby! The ironic part? We are spending our Sunday evening in separate rooms! I'm sitting in our office, with my back to the living room, blogging, headphones in, jamming out to "Feel Again" by One Republic, trying to drown out Walking Dead in the background. Tyler has recently become a fan of the show and knows better than to try and get me to watch a show about zombies! Although he did tell me that the show would pull at my heart strings...yeah right!

I should point out we did just finish watching a movie together, so technically we didn't spend all of Sunday evening apart. I'm just thankful to be under the same roof!

P.S. Here is a picture of our living/office room. I love the open concept, but you can imagine how loud my music is playing in order to ignore the zombie screams coming from the other room ;)

Lynn'm

10 years ago, I met Lynn. Just typing the words "10 years" and I am flooded with memories, all of which put a smile on my face. From what I am told not everyone exits college living with their same roomie from Freshmen year, but when you've got a roomie like Lynn you're bound to never let her go!

Today is Lynn's bday and after looking through my "extensive" library of posts I realized I've never given her (or a few others) a bday blog shout out....so here we go.

I tried finding a picture from our dorm at Ward Hall and realized that was before Facebook, so I had to scan in a copy.

The caption in my photo album read "Lynn and I bonding after bowling"....who knew! I look like a hot mess, but not Lynn she always looks great! Speaking of a hot mess, check out our bedroom :)

Lynn has been the most wonderful friend over the years, putting up with my control freak ways and always being there to support me. Never placing judgment on me, just always there to listen. Happy Birthday Lynn'm! 

Dublin

5 1/2 years ago, Tyler and I drove up to NorCal. Getting ready to make the move from down south, I was very hesitant. I had just gotten settled in Aliso Viejo and was looking forward to spending the summer at Laguna Beach. The Ford "Gods" had other plans for me and as we were driving up the 580, passing 100s of windmills I began wondering if we had made a mistake. The "golden" hills were very green that spring and I felt like we were in Ireland. Which is ironic as we ended up calling Dublin home.

I have come to learn to trust the Ford Gods, as everything happens for a reason and it seems as though everything falls into place.

We began our journey by quickly making some amazing friends amazing friends.....

                                        

We went to concerts in Golden Gate Park

We even tried out a country concert

Went skiing in Tahoe

Started the best Thanksgiving tradition with the Miyalopers

Where food was never an issue....

Celebrated Christmas in our first house

Enjoyed the Andersen Holiday Party!

Were convince to run a 5K (I don't look so enthused)

Camped at Pinecrest Lake multiple times

Enjoyed a little wine tasting

Made it to either a Raider/49er game each season

Cheered for the SF Giants as they won the World Series

And.....

Celebrated our engagement and wedding!

                           
                                 

Needless to say if there were a t-shirt that said, "I heart Dublin" I would buy it!

Happy August

Well, I fell off the blog-wagon pretty easily! Life got quite hectic after my NorCal vacation. It was a great vacation filled with some amazing family time, picture perfect weather, tasty food, wine tasting, and we even squeezed in a couple of dinners with Nick and Bryn!

Then life took an exciting turn when we found out in early July that Tyler was accepted in Grad School! That is when we decided that we would make SoCal our official residency. Yup that's right no longer will we have a vacation property in SoCal but rather a home! It's exciting and nerve wrecking all at the same time. But that being said, we are both excited for the changes!

We decided to take a different housing route this time. We are going to wait before we buy again. This way we can get an idea of the area. Since Tyler will be going to school in Pomona and I will be working in Irvine, we have decided to move to Anaheim, as it's the most central location we could find. I mean it's right down the street from one of the "happiest places on Earth", what's not to love! We found a new construction that was renting 12 units. We're pretty lucky to be living in a brand new place.

Check out our new "Loft Livin'":

https://plus.google.com/photos/111734868586125141617/albums/5765542156121819025?authkey=CJPlqPO3nr6CvwE

Day 1 of 15

Woo Hoo, I'm finally taking my first vacation day of the year! It's probably a couple of month's late, but I'm really looking forward to having a few days off. Plus, I get to spend 10 days at home! Better yet, we get to spend some time with family. The whole Sprague family is making the trip and we've got lot planned. Which means hopefully I will have something a bit more exciting to blog about. Although who's to say expired milk isn't exciting :)

May?

I'm sorry did I miss the month of May? Where on Earth did it go? We've been so busy, I love lots to blog about, but haven't seem to find the time to do so! Sure it sounds like excuses to most, but here is an example of how hectic life has been. It will justify my lack of blogging and hopefully make you laugh (although it could gross you out too :)

Tyler flew down for Memorial Day Weekend. I did some meager grocery shopping before he got here, thinking just get the basics (since we would probably go out to eat for dinner). Saturday morning, I made some coffee and informed Tyler we could either have cereal or waffles for breakfast. Tyler selected cereal. I grab the Cheerios out of the pantry and the milk out of the fridge. Immediately I notice that the milk had some chunks floating at the top. I thought, cripes I just bought this how could it have spoiled already? Of course I'm talking out loud and Tyler can hear me, so he suggests I check the expiration date. I answer a loud, "April 26th".....Tyler then informs me that June is only a couple of days away! Again I ask, where did the month of May go to?

Hope you all (that is all 3 of my readers) have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Cost Savings

While we have both our condo in NorCal and what I like to refer to as our "vacation property" in SoCal, I have been findings ways to keep the cost of the vacation property to a bare minimum. I always cringe when it comes time to pay our cable/internet bill and when setting up these services down south it became a challenge to see what kind of deal I could get. I was determined that I would not pay more than $50 for both services. Because I was a new customer I was able to stay under $50, but that will expire in the next month or so. Planning ahead I started pondering about cable alternatives. Right now for 28.99/month I get the basic networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and WB), every foreign language news station in the LA area (Korean, Chinese, Hispanic, etc...), QVC and TBS. Sure there are a few more, but nothing worth watching. I realized that essentially I am paying 28.99 for TBS. I'll be honest QVC is always fun to watch, but really defeats the purpose of 'cost savings', especially if they are having a special on Bare Escentuals.

Not having a DVR I began utilizing Hulu to catch up on my favorite shows. Most shows are free, but I was getting sick of staring at my computer all day and then again at night. I had heard about the Roku system which allows you to stream applications such as Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and Pandora on any TV. Their #1 selling model was $89 ($10 off) at Costco and included a 2-month subscription to Hulu Plus (a $16 value) so I decided to pick it up. I thought after 3 moths I would have saved enough money to pay for itself.  Best choice I've made in long time. I love it! It was simple to install, quite compact, E-A-S-Y to use and is all around AWESOME! I would highly recommend it anyone. Pair it with an antenna so you can get your basic cable (remember the Summer Olympics are only 79 days away) and let the savings begin!