Yard Sale Update

To say our yard sale went pretty well would be an understatement. We did a little research on when would be a good time to have it, even though our date was pretty much set, we wanted to know our odds. Rule #1: Have your sale after payday. Oops. Rule #2: Never have it on a holiday weekend, people travel. Strike two. But, we prayed, and moms prayed, and aunts and cousins prayed... and we had God up to bat for us- GRAND SLAM! Our God is not a God of rules and statistics, thank goodness! We had our very first customer at 6:30 am and it didn't slow down unitl around 12:15! We were consistently busy (but never overwhelmed)! After that things slowed down, but we still had constant bursts of people, with never more than about 5 minutes in between. We sold and sold and sold! At the end of the day we had raised a wonderful $521.23! Not bad considering that our biggest item was priced at only $15! We even received a $1 donation. :) Thank you to everyone who prayed, donated items and time, made signs, and lent us yards (and made us breakfast and lunch! ;) ) and shopped! - you made it all possible! Thank you God, for a wonderful turnout and a large step towards our goal!

With the addition of this weekend's earning we are now more than 1/5 of the way!

Yard Sale

We are having a yard sale to help raise some money for our goal of building a well this year! Both our families have contributed stuff for us to sell along with our own and all proceeds are going straight into our water jar! Come out and help support the cause if you're in the area- At Hwy 132 and FM 463, just past the Nazarene Church in Devine, TX. 7am- 2pm.

[Free lemonade! ;D]

casa HOTEL

It's been a year since our adventure started as husband and wife, and it has been so much fun. For our honeymoon we stayed at the coolest hotel in Austin {San Jose Hotel}. I picked it because one of my favorite Architects designed it. We loved it so much that we decided to go back for out first anniversary. For a full year we talked and talked and talked about going back, what room we would get, what shops we wanted to go to, where we wanted to eat. We even got a bonus for resigning our lease, $200 off our May rent!, this would cover the cost of a night! We were so ready! Or so we thought...

They were booked... Boo. But not to worry, I jumped on the computer and the same Architect had a hand in a new Hotel in San Antonio {HAVANA}. Awesome! We love San Antonio, and the hotel seemed to have the same feel as the one in Austin, and it was so new that it wasn't booked yet. We fell in love and started planning our new weekend. Would we stay one night or two? Come in Friday or Saturday? Should I take Monday off? The grand total of the whole weekend started piling up.... maybe not too unreasonably for an anniversary weekend, but it was a lot, and a lot is out of our norm.

After much much much thought we decided that the hotels would be there next year. For those of you who don't know, Taylor and I set a goal at the start of the year- we are trying to build a well in Africa! We are really excited about it and are trying really hard to complete this in one year. So the idea of being able to put this money into our water jar instead into our weekend made more cents. (pun intended ;) ) So that's what we did. But that didn't change much, we decided that we would still have our hotel stay and fancy dinner, but for much less. So with Taylor in San Antonio visiting family I got to work. And so we would like to share with you our hotel stay at {casa HOTEL}. :)

Our Room! :)

Mini Bar

Lounge

And of course we had a Restaurant too....

Dinner for two, with the house wine, "Casa". ;)

Dessert!

It was so much fun! And the total cost came to be about $25.00. 5 for the mini bar, 10 for the wine, and another 10 for the food and flowers. We can now put the rest in the water jar. :)

We also enjoyed some fun new things in Houston for the weekend. We went bowling Saturday morning for a friend's birthday, and then to Kemah Boardwalk on Taylor's mom for food and fun! We also ate a couple other meals out thanks to my mom and sister and Taylor's grandparents! Thanks all! It was definitely a special weekend for us! :D

Menu Monday

Well, our rice and bean weeks are over... but we weren't as focused the past two weeks as we have been. (We'll have to give that another try sometime!) Taylor was out of town visiting family and I was working very very late and ate most of my dinners on the company's dime. I did eat rice and beans every time I was at home, though. But, the important part is that we made it throught the past two weeks on less than $5! :) That will definitely help on our trip up North.

We were also very blessed this weekend with gifts and instructions to go out and eat from our loving families. What was the occasion? May 23rd marked 1 married year for Taylor and I, making that 7 years of togetherness! :) So as requested we did enjoy some meals out together. It was also a great time to catch up because she was gone and I was working we didn't have much time to talk the past week. I would sum it up as a really great weekend! :)

These next two weeks we don't really have a plan. :/ We have so many things coming up this weekend that Taylor is on her way to San Antonio right now to start setting things up. But it's okay because I won't have time to miss her because I will be working late again... So I'll probably buy a bag of cheese and make a pizza to take care of the meals that I will be able to enjoy at home.

It's not very exciting but it works. And what we lack in "eating" excitement this week we will make up for in "doing" excitement, we promise! So come back soon to find out how we cut back a little and gained a whole lot! :D

charity:water + TOMS shoes

Well, it seems two of our favorites have outdone themselves! Check out these sweet new kicks from TOMS, partnered with charity:water!

Two causes with one purchase! Two cool! Ha, ha!

Wanna buy me some?!

Do you want to be a part of something huge??

A quick note about an awesome event worldwide that is happening today!

I received this reminder email from CHF this morning:

Tent City Worldwide is tonight... Are you ready? Together, friends of Children's Hunger Fund all across the country will be pitching tents, sleeping in tents, and texting TENT to 85944 at 8 pm tonight! If your plans don't involve camping out in your living room, backyard or school gym, we still invite you to join with us by texting TENT to 85944 and give $10 toward ongoing relief in Haiti.

Text TENT to 85944!
Tent City Worldwide calls us all to remember that right now, Haiti is being flooded with rains. Children there are living in conditions most of us wouldn't be able to handle for even one night. Please help. For more information, go to www.ChildrensHungerFund.org/TentCity, and text TENT to 85944 today.

We cannot help but wonder what could happen if every person getting this e-mail, participated in this call. How many suffering children and families could be helped? 1.2 million people were left homeless by January's quake.

How many of these people lost family or friends in the devastation? How many of these people were left crippled? How many of these people were left without hope? Please help support the efforts of local churches in Haiti as they deliver much needed resources to their communities, by texting TENT to 85944 now.

We love camping, and this would be a ton of fun, but we will be on the road again to SA. So will you join us by texting tonight? I can only imagine the turnout for this will be simply amazing!

Menu Monday

For the next two weeks we will be doing something that we have talked about for a while but have never gotten around to doing... rice and beans for two weeks! We have a few things in the fridge left over that I am trying to finish off while Taylor is in San Antonio til Wednesday, but once that is gone we will be eating rice and beans and maybe some tortillas ;). Not only does this help us realize why we are doing what we do (like when we originally ate from the Food Pak) but now since we have dates for our trip, we really have to focus on saving up some more eating out money! We will keep you posted with how it goes...

On a side note, Taylor's brother, Brady, just found out about our food adventure... funny because he was here eating with us for about a week! I guess eating off $10 a week isn't as different as you would think. It started off being stressful during our grocery trips, putting things back, being over-charged, but once you get the hang of it is pretty easy.

The Giveaway Winners Are...

Thanks to all our readers and friends who stopped by and entered!

(All followers who entered are on the left!)

We let the experienced littles help us with our drawing! ;)

Brogan went first to draw for the candle...

Congrats, Rachel!!!


And Teddi drawing for the necklace, while beautifully modeling it...

Congrats, Jill!!!

(Winners, please send us your address to taylorfrankie23@yahoo.com)

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Happy Mother's Day to our winners and to all our reader's and to our very own moms!

We love you!

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Seven years ago today I was on a very top secret mission to get the very best birthday balloons to a blonde haired, blue eyed girl that I went to school with. They day before, I handpicked each one, carefully tied on ribbons to match, topped it off with a big SpongeBob SquarePants balloon then took them all and tied them around a box with a card inside! The next day I picked them up and delivered them to the school. I hadn't known Taylor for long, but I knew it was her birthday and I knew she liked balloons and SpongeBob so I think I did pretty well!

Now, seven birthdays later she's 22 and my beautiful wife! She has been my best friend ever since and I thank God that I have someone to share my life with that is so kind and loving!

Happy Birthday, Taylor!

The tradition continues!

"Simply Rose" Giveaway

This weekend we got to go for a drive to Castroville, Texas for the Grand Opening of Simply Rose: Gifts and Holistic Healing. The shop is in a really great part of town, right off the main road, surrounded by antique shops and other gift boutiques. Now we don’t normally do shop reviews on this blog but since we have received so much support from our families in the past, we are more than happy to share their adventures as well! ;)

Rose is our Step-mom and Simply Rose is her new shop! Her family is also a big part of this new adventure! Her brother gives massages at the store and her niece sells hand made jewelry. There are also many others helping out with behind the scenes and getting this adventure launched! It's so exciting and we're glad we got to be a part of Opening Day!

Rose and her first dollar!

As a special treat we are doing a giveaway for our readers! The first item is a Vanilla scented candle from a beautiful line of candles Rose sells. The second is a necklace made by her niece! We had a hard time picking just one!

We will be announcing the winners on Mother’s Day so hurry and enter! Just leave a comment with your name and we will put you in the hat! Also, if you are a follower or become a follower, you will have a additional entry! Good luck! :)

And if you are in the area make sure to stop by and say hi to Rose! Congrats, Rose!