Yummy Sweet Potatoes

I made this on Thanksgiving and it was super yummy!  I also made some tonight without nutmeg (because I don't have any here) and with regular sugar instead of brown sugar.  Still tasty, but I would have rather had the brown sugar. I also put a lot of more butter in than just a tablespoon, because it kept them nice and juicy while they baked.

Sweet Potatoes

• 3 Sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size cubes
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp of brown sugar (more if you want it sweeter)
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg
• Pinch of ground ginger
• Sea salt, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a small baking dish with cooking spray. Peel and dice the sweet potatoes into bite size cubes and place in the baking dish. Melt butter in the microwave and pour over the potatoes along with the olive oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Add more sugar or cinnamon if desired. Toss to coat evenly.

Bake in the oven for 60 minutes. Stir the sweet potatoes once or twice during roasting. Enjoy.

Made My Day

So the car situation turned out way better than I thought it would.  Because of a wet driver's seat and pet hair all over, the rental place ended up not only paying for one of my days like they told me they would, but actually ended up paying for all 11 days! Woo!  I went from going to have to pay $154 to nothing! Yesss!

...and it gets better!

The body shop was able to take my deductible from the insurance checks, so I didn't owe them anything either! AND on top of that, when he did his math, he found out he actually OWED ME 10 bucks! Wait a sec, I get paid 10 bucks to get my car fixed from two accidents! Um, OK!

So needless to say I was in a fantastic mood the rest of that day.  My bank account is still in a great mood too :)

I did some mad Black Friday shopping (from midnight-8am and then again from 3-7pm) and got just about all of my Xmas shopping done.  So I used the money I was going to use for the rental/deductible and paid off my Xmas credit card debt.  Woo! 

Tomorrow I go back to school after a 5 day break.  I'm not even totally dreading it, because it was so nice to have a couple days to recharge that I'm ok with going back.

Now I'm off to a brunch with my best friends, and then we're going to make cookies all afternoon!  Best week ever! :)

It pays to be nice!

So two years ago I got in my first car accident, and shortly after someone ran their door into my door.  So I went to this car shop to get my car worked on twice within the same month or so.  The people at the car shop were so nice to me, and really took good car of my car.  They made sure to get it back to me sooner than later, and honestly I was just so happy to get it back looking so nice again!  So I sent them a thank you card, because that's just the kind-of person I am! lol.  I know it's silly sounding to send a body shop a thank you card thanking them for something that they do all the time.  But I really wanted to do it, so I did.  They called me when they got it, saying that it was so sweet and they were so surprised because no one has ever done that before.  :)

 Skip to now and my horrible car luck and I'm back at the same shop.  Why go anywhere else, when I know that they do great work and treat you fairly?  Well, not only did they remember me when I called (two years later!) but they still have my thank you card pinned to their wall! Yes, really!  

Two years ago I got a $100 discount because they were a "VIP" body shop under my insurance.  Apparently they didn't continue doing this with Ameriprise because they had to keep up with certain training/paperwork, blah blah.  So although I love this car shop, I was bummed I wouldn't get my $100 off like last time.

I talked to the guys at the shop about it (the two owners) and they said that they will definitely save me at least $100 off my deductible, if not more! 

Ooohhhh yeaa! It pays to be nice! So all I have to say to those nay-sayers who say thank you cards are not necessary is Ha!

:)

I also got a discount off of the rental car place because they gave it to me when it was still damp in the driver seat (gross) and the cup holders were covered in pet hair.  So I called and complained and they are going to take a day off for me! 

My bad luck is starting to turn around!

Tomorrow I am dancing the thriller dance at my school's talent show.  Wish me luck! Lol.  Should be interesting...

Today is the day!

I'm taking my car into the shop today, finally!  I'm also getting a rental car.  The fact that I will be spending a ton of money with my deductible as well as the cost of a rental car for about a week is in the back of my mind only because I'm just so anxious for my car to be fixed already!
 
Woo!

I took a half day to get this done, and I'm hoping that I will have some leisurely break time between doing the car stuff and going back to school, just so I don't feel like I took the time to make sub plans just to be super busy and not have time to relax a bit.  We shall see.

Thursday night is the Talent show.  Originally I was going to do a staff act like I did last year, but a lot of people dropped out and it just didn't work.  So now I'm doing an act with a bunch of kids and our music teacher...Thriller by Michael Jackson.  Oh yeaaah.  I'm trying my best to practice non-stop but it's hard finding the time.  Pray that I don't embarrass myself onstage!

Anyways, have a terrific Tuesday!

What you learn living together...

from here

You can't really anticipate what it will be like to live with a significant other until actually doing it...

Here's what I THOUGHT would be a challenge:

• Laundry - we both do this very differently
• Seeing too much of each other
• Learning gross/weird facts about each other that we didn't know before
• Having issues sharing the bathroom in the morning
• Grocery shopping - we eat very differently from each other (different foods and different portions)

Here's what has actually happened (so far, since it's only been a little over a month)

• Laundry - we do laundry separately and it's fine.  I usually do mine randomly throughout the week and sometimes on the weekend.  He does his on the weekend.  No problem!
• Turns out our schedules don't match up really well, so with the exception of bedtime we actually haven't been seeing enough of each other!  We actually miss seeing each other sometimes, because our schedules are so busy/opposite. Weird!
• We haven't learned anything crazy that we didn't already know!
• We have a few shared food items that we can get together, and in the mean time we just keep a running list on the fridge so that when one person goes, they can get what the other wants too.  And then it's the other person's turn next time. 

Things that I have learned...

• My time frame of putting things away is very skewed from his time frame... I like to have things put away right when I see it or think about it...he's more of a I'll put it away sometime this week kinda guy.  Which is probably not too far from other guys' habits.
• We use alarm clocks in very different ways!  I set 6 alarms and turn them off each time so I can get a few more minutes of sleep in between each alarm.  For some reason it's gratifying for me to fall back asleep each time.  I always think of Steve Byrne talking about how he loves sleep so much.  D is a two alarm kinda guy.  One at a really early time.  And then an hour later, another.  He gets up right away on the second.  Way different than me waking up every 7-10 minutes six times!
• Our t.v. preferences could not be more different!  With the exception of Storage Wars, anything food related, and anything on the Home channel we pretty much don't have anything in common, t.v. wise.  He is all about sports, sports, and sports!  I love watching college football from time to time, but after a while, I get tired of it.  He could watch it all day, every day...and pretty much does (and not just college...professional too! and other sports)  I wholeheartedly admit that I'm addicted to reality t.v.  I enjoy the ridiculous drama of the housewives shows, the Kardashians, and True Life.  I watch Grey's anatomy every Thursday (and have been since college) and I also watch Glee when it's on.  I have just recently gotten into "Once Upon a Time" too on abc. 

It's amazing what you learn in a month!  Although there have been (and will be) some challenges, I know that we made the right choice with taking this big step.  I do look forward to coming home every day, and even on days where I don't see him much it's nice to know that he's next to me at night and there in the morning when I wake up...well, when I wake up the first time of my six alarms that is! :)

Have you learned anything crazy or surprising after first living with a significant other?

Easily Excited

Starting my day off with one of these babies...

turns an ordinarily ok day into a fantastic day!

I tried it for the first time this morning and LOVED it!  (I usually just stick with pumpkin spice lattes this time of the year).

:) Simple pleasures. <3