Free ninety nine

Happy Halloween one and all! We had a month full of halloween festivities including but not limited to: cookie decorating, mummies (pigs in a blanket), Booooogie By the Beach (my first event as a city employee), and a photo session just the two of us (coming soon).

                           

                                                                                                                                                                  I received the happiest halloween gift of all in the mail today! FOUR two tone eye shadows from Target! I thought I was getting ONE, for 99 cents so I am in heaven. It inspired me to take the following photo:

            
                                                                                                                                                                                      

items:

3 boxes kleenex (~$8)

2 boxes regular toothpaste (~$5)

2 boxes trial size toothpaste(~$2)

face wash ($4.50

2 candles ($8)

2 febreze sprays ($5)

1 shaving cream ($4.50)

1 bottle lotion ($2.50)

1 bottle rubbing alcohol ($1)

1 bottle shampoo ($3)

1 bottle hair spray ($2)

1 pair black leggings ($8)

4 thingies of eye shadow ($12)

2 (8x10) photo prints ($7)

120 (4x6) photo prints ($20)

2 febreze plug ins ($4)

3 cover girl blush es ($12)

1 tube cover girl base ($4)

2 bottles softsoap handsoap ($4)

1 bottle hand sanitizer ($1)

1 dude deodorant ($3)

TOTAL: $120.50

I paid: $0.00 !!! Isn't that crazy?? Granted, it took some effort, a few shopping trips, and a bit of looking things up online. But not bad!

Channeling your Inner Kardashian

I suppose I'll just come out with it.

We watch the Kardashians.

The drama, the plastic surgery, the familial love, the life style. Everything is to the nines. What's not entertaining about the Kardashian family?

Here I have created three simple steps to becoming a Kardashian.

First, let's work on the smile.

Step one: To achieve the right effect, one must suck upon something sour, careful to never expose the canines.

"Teeth are for poor people"

Step two: If it feels like the most ridiculous article of clothing you could put on your body, it's probably just right.

Rarrrrrr.

Step three: black hair dye, breast augmentation, botox. Mandatory.


Every time I see this:

All I really see is this:

Then I'm reminded of this:

And I can't stop giggling.

Cheery

Some things worth grinning over:

1. Spending $25 on $75 worth of groceries this morning
2. and the cute Russian lady cashier being tickled to death over it
3. Beating my fastest 5k time by 2 minutes
4. Raising my lsat score by 13 points so far. Come on December 3rd!


It's almost halloween aka I have been on a sugar high for a solid 24 hours and plan to remain that way until midnight on Monday. Sugar really is like crack.

Ew.

The other night I was looking up things to go in the Miami area for when the LSAT is over and Danny has a break from school we can go do something called not studying. I came across this paragraph in the Lonely Planet Miami:

Little known fact: on the Eighth Day, God shook all the eccentrics of America into the nation’s Southeast corner pocket. And They Became South Florida. And It Was Weird.

Cruise down I-95 from the northeast corridor and at some point, near Richmond, you cross the invisible line separating the North from the South. Now go further, all the way to America’s tip. Somewhere around Orlando, you crossed another line, separating the rest of Florida from reality. Here in Miami, the Everglades and the Keys, things are a little Alice in Sweaty Wonderland. It’s the weather, y’know; all the humidity and hurricanes drive everyone a little crazy. And the alligators. And the mosquitoes.. And the people, of course.
What was once a citrus farming town is now a pan-American mosaic, the most Latin city in the world north of Mexico. Throw in enterprising Caribbean immigrants, Jewish Holocaust survivors and their children, a fantabulous gay party scene, mad rednecks, the cast-off spawn of the dinosaur age cruising local waterways, and a South Beach celebrity scene that would make OK! magazine wee itself in joy, and, well…Look guys: it’s weird here. And beautiful.
Which isn’t to say modern Miami lacks problems. This international city has both the cheerful energy and hungry Third World edge of the Caribbean and Latin America. Economic inequality is rampant, and the grandiose spirit of American capitalism has mixed with Miami’s Latin/Mediterranean flair, making the gulf between the haves and have-nots here seem particularly vast.
Sounds good? Come on down. The air feels like a silk kiss and the beach smells like lotion and hormones. Welcome to Miami. The party started five minutes ago.


Although I firmly believe that California also has its share of weird-ee's, allow me to further illustrate the author's point. Yesterday at work [note that I work in an elementary school/the city building] one of my lovely coworkers was asking me what I was going to do since Danny was out of town [side note, he is at an interview for dental school, yay!] I told her I was probably going to spend most of my time studying for the LSAT.

She told me I should go to a club that is known for its married folk. What? She explained that everyone who goes to this club is married (sometimes the married couples go together) and they "switch it up."

You may be wondering, what does "switch it up" mean? As did I. So I asked, "what does switch it up mean?"
"You know, you go meet someone else there and you can go home with them for the night. Switch your spouse up. Its understood that every one is married so thats the nice part about it."

Sadly, I knew what club she was talking about before she explained it because this was the SECOND time someone has referred me to this club. All I have to say is.... yikes spikes. All you folks who are planning a trip to visit need to bring your passports and space ships because it's a different world down here.

What a doll

I'm just playing around with how to make my photos a little bigger on the el blog and i keep finding this lady and giggling.

This blog

needs a makeover.

I am now under construction.

Evening Run

Every day when I get off work I go for a short run along the beach, and every day I think to my self dang, I wish I had brought my camera. The sun sets are just so gosh dang pretty. I love how the light makes the water look kind of pink. So, yesterday I decided to finally bring it with me even though it weighs like five pounds. And it was a beauty. We are stoked that we get to live here for a little bit.

I'm Cheap

Since getting into this whole couponing thing, Danny and I have noticed that in our sunday papers there are often deals to local restaurants we frequent/would like to frequent. We made a deal that on our dates, we're going to try to only go to places where we can use coupons. So... we're cheap.

Tonight after using coupons for our date at Steak and Shake, we went to Walmart where I got the following items basically free:
2 packs of mentos up2u gum
2 febreze candles
2 febreze sprays
2 febreze plug ins
2 boxes of kleenex
2 bowls
1 gallon of milk
2 tubes of toothpaste

then I got eye shadow for $1, mascara for $3, body wash for danny for $2 (a little pricey but its a special kind he likes) So to reiterate, I'm cheap.

I'm also currently a brunette.

Some Pics

The moon has been crazy big and orange the past few days. These dont depict the orange much, but you can imagine.





These treacherous beasts are often scattered like mines all over the beach after it storms adding an element of fear to my morning runs along the peaceful sea.


We experienced our first tropical storm last weekend. The wind was so strong I literally could not open our apartment building door. I felt like I was going to get whisked away. Instead of staying inside all weekend, we enjoyed the gusty, pelting raining, thunder and lightning on the beach.


Anddddd keeping with our yearly tradition, we decorated halloween cookies conference weekend. And when i say we, obviously I mean myself. Every year I ask danny if he wants to decorate, and every year he says ehhhhhhh. Its part of the tradition.

The Last 3 months

We have been home for over 3 months now! Isn't that crazy? I had to recount like 4 times to make sure that was correct. Literally the fastest 3 months of my life. Anyway, here are some new things in our life:

1. Moved to Miami
2. Bought a car in oklahoma (a completely spontaneous purchase inspired by our air conditionless drive in the jeep on the way here)


3. New buds

4. Danny turned 27

5. Amber turned 24. Seriously? Wasn't I just like 12?

6. Danny started his Masters degree
7. I work as a school counselor/event planner
8. Traveled from the Pacific north west (seattle) to the Atlantic South east

Eh. Thats about it. Maybe not as exciting as I thought.

In other news, I am starting to get the hang of couponing. Tonight at the store I scored 4 bags of frozen vegetables, 2 bottles hand soap, 2 bottles Dr pepper, 2 bags of bagels for around $8. It should have cost around $28. Not bad. I recommend the following websites:
southernsavers.com
moneysavingmom.com

Cheers.

My a me

Have we talked about the hard hearted-ness of the people of Miami yet? I think because of the ocean, I assumed everyone would be like they are in Hawaii-- nice, easy going, earthy, etc. Not so. Very materialistic. Very not easy going. And very not nice. At least, that was our initial impression after driving around day after day for a week with no luck finding housing and dealing with Danny's school and people at hotels.

I've come to realize that people here aren't mean-- they just aren't open. Gotta warm em up first.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I ran into the grocery store on the way to enrichment and were standing in a long line of people who had a million things, we just had two. One of the workers came and grabbed us out of line and checked us out in her secret lane. I told her she was the nicest person I had met in Miami. I said it as sincerely as I could because I meant it! She looked at me like I was HIV positive.

It's the little things people. It's SO nice to see people helping other people out. Which leads me to my next point,

We have been the recipients of the following free items:

3 tv's
1 set of drawers
1 dining table
6 dining chairs
1 couch
3 couch chairs
1 bench
1 entertainment set
1 lamp
1 ottoman
10 dinner plates
4 glass cups
8 dessert plates
1 night stand

Seriously? I can't even believe it. Thank you, sweet elderly Cuban lady from next door! We also had another lovely Cuban lady knock on our door yesterday and tell us not to buy a bed because she will find a free one for us. What a dove. I think we are literally the youngest people who live in our condominium complex, and the dear old people have taken us in under their wings. We feel very blessed and taken care of and we loooove these ladies who live by us! Must find a way to pay it forward.

In short, a little love goes a long way when you live in a place where there aren't tons of smiles. And a lot of love (i.e. all of our furniture) goes a ridiculously long way. So I'm going to go try to do something nice for someone now.