The Perfect Combination

I would like to think of myself as a connoisseur of fine dining. I would also like to think of myself as having quite the mature palette. With that being said, I have found the perfect concoction 

at . . . 

CT and I have turned Friday night dinner into a tradition of eating out at Chipolte. It started as something we did before every friday night football and basketball game, and it's continued since then. I can't tell if it's a good habit we've formed or a bad one. On one hand I think it's good because it tastes so delicious, but on the other hand it's bad because it's putting a dent in our wallet as well as putting a dent in the back of my legs. That cellulite is no joke. ;)

Anyways, the perfect concoction is . . . 

 - bowl

- half brown rice/ half white rice

- no beans

- fajita veggies

- steak

-no salsa

- corn w/ extra corn

- sour cream

- cheese 

- guac 

- add salt 

Try it. 

I promise you will not be disappointed! 

Alphabet Weekend Worriers

 I am excited to share that I am part of the Alphabet Weekend Warriors. 

We are each assigned a letter of the alphabet where we are to plan a weekend day/night revolving around the letter. 

My Letter:

I have already started planning this day and I can't wait to reveal it to you all.

Tune in August 13th for the big reveal, and feel free to check out But first, coffee to see all the other alphabet weekend warriors. 

{they begin Sunday Aug. 11} 

We still have spots available for Alphabet Weekend Warriors! e-mail Kallie @ butfirstcoffeeblog@gmail for your chance to join in on the fun!

Life Lately: According to Instagram

If you aren't already following me on instagram, you should totes go and do that, I'm tiffross5!

What's going on lately you ask?

I got a new macbookpro this past weekend and I'm having so much fun decking it out! I love the great deals you can get on Amazon. $1.99 for the chevron keyboard and $10.99 for the blue case, keyboard, and screen protector = awesome!!

My hubby does a fabulous job at picking out jewels for me. 

I'm obsessed.

We had lunch with one of my best friends this past weekend and her little girl Aynslee. She makes my heart happy. 

CT and I are currently working our way through all the Harry Potter dvds. We have gotten through 2/8 so far. 
Then if I get around to it, I'll start to re-read the books. Wishful thinking!

Last weekend we went to a Vows Marriage Conference hosted by our couples pastor at our church. It was extremely interesting, and it feels good to invest in your marriage and to be proactive.
Read about some of it here and check back in the next few Sunday's to learn more about what we learned! 

I have a picture of this quote on the home screen of my phone. 
A daily reminder that we all live a beautiful life. 

Nice little day date we had.
 Picnic, feeding the ducks, and some golf range!
 Cheap and fun, you can't beat that!


Linking up with Life Rearranged. 

FML. Student Loans

A few weeks ago I got mail stating that it was time for us to send in our last years proof on income so they could decide how much they were going to charge us monthly for our student loans.

Man, did that get me super depressed and in a slump.

Student loans SUCK! 

CT and I could afford a nice house for the amount we have in student loans. 

 It really is so depressing.

CT and I went to a private school, where we were both student-athletes and paying 24 thousand dollars a year.

 

CT went 4.5 years and I went 4 years. 

We had a few scholarships but not near enough to cover full tuition. 

You can do the math. It's not pretty.

 

Good ole Friends University. 

It really was a great school: nice facilities, small class sizes, attention needed from teachers. Looking back I did love it, but if hind sight was 20/20 I definitely should have went to Juco for two years getting all my prerequisites out of the way before going to Friends. 

After really looking into what all we owed, and seeing what our monthly payments were going to be, I came to the conclusion that we really need to start budgeting.

And adding to it, I figured out how much we spend on eating out each month. For the past 5 months - anywhere from $300-$600. 

How awful and eye opening that was.

It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about all that money we wasted. 

I have heard good things about the Dave Ramsey debt reduction program. 

Anyone had an experience using it? 

I don't know much about it other then it's kind of like a cash envelope system. When the money is gone you don't get any more until next month. 

We are going to start doing that for entertainment, eating out, and lunch money for work. 

Other things we are going to start doing to help us save some money:

1. Start shopping for Christmas and Birthday in the off months and start doing DIY gifts.

 I have a gift section started hidden in my new buffet table. I recently hit up the semi-annual bath and body works sale. 

Most everything was 75% off. 

You can't beat that! 

I got a bunch of goodies and saved lots of money. 

2. Use coupons.

 For any and everything.

3. Meal plan so I don't make frequent stops at the grocery store. 

 I have gotten a lot better at this but there is still room for improvement.

4. Plan better/cheaper date nights 

 Picnics, farmers market/flee market trips, batting cages.

Those a just a few ideas of mine. 

What do you do to save money? 

I haven't quite been able to talk the husband into down grading our cable package . =/ 

I doubt that will ever happen.  

 

Birthday Week Recap

Wowzers! 

This lady feels like such a lush after this weeks shenanigans. I have drank maybe 5 times this whole year, and three of those were nights this week. 

 All day Wednesday was our managers retreat, and then we had a whole work meeting followed by pizza, booze, bowling, and go karts! 

 This is just a select few of the awesome ladies I work with.

 I needed to mark this day in history. I beat the G = the greatness = CT! 

I won't ever let him live it down. 

 Thursday was my 24th birthday!
May 30th. The perfect day for a birthday.
 It was a fast day at work with lunch at one of my faves with the med team ladies, and then an evening with my man.

When I walked in from work, CT surprised me with this beauty. 

He started off spoiling me at the beginning of our relationship and it continues! 

For dinner, we went to Playa Azul for some margs and the usual, and then headed to the circus. 

My favorite part was the animals and the crazy motorcycle drivers in this huge metal ball. 
What blew my mind was that the circus crew was maybe only a total of 20 people that performed all the stunts, music, and dancing. 
The guy driving the motorcycle was the same one on the tight.
 They are very talented people!


On Friday, I stayed late at work and then went over to Miss Evie's house to have a triple date bbq. 
I am trying to hook my sister up with her brother. =))

Jenna was in town for the weekend. 
On Saturday, we went and got a manicure, did a little shopping, and then went to Old Chicago for some pizza.
 I had to get a paint brush and some new hardware for my buffet table I'm redoing. 

  This was after 2 coats. I'll do one more coat tomorrow and then showcase the final product. 
I love it!

Workout gear from the sis. 

When anyone asked what I wanted for my birthday, I sent them to my previous blog posts and it worked. =)) 


I have a feeling 24 is going to be the best year yet!

Mothers Day Weekend

I love the weekends! 

 Lounging. Cleaning. Sleeping in. Naps. Catching up on DVR. Loving on my husband and pupperz.

 Yesterday was most definitely a Friday. It was such a CRAZY busy day at work. I think it mostly was due to our cosmetic clinic director only having 3 more days left with us. I'm already feeling the repercussions of her leaving. I got triple the amount of emails that I normally do. Things are about to get even more crazy. All I can do is take one day at a time and continue to check www.indeed.com in the meantime.   

Last night a group of us girls got together for a going away dinner + drinks and then they all came back to my apartment.

We went to Mikes Wine Dive.

It was the best meal I've had in a really long time. 

I got a fried egg sandwich, a spicy oyster appetizer, and some gourmet deviled eggs. I was going to get the smores for dessert but I was too stuffed by that time.

This is where CT and I will be going for my birthday dinner [in 19 days!] because it was so delicious.

Speaking of my birthday, we also got tickets to the circus! I can't wait. 

 

 

Welp, it's mothers day weekend! 

I hope ya'll did something special for your mom. My mom was able to come up to Wichita yesterday to be a training model for us at the clinic for injectables.

 One of the many perks of my job!! 

 In the last month she has got more then $1500 in free product. I'd say that's quite the mothers day gift. =)

 

 

My mom also brought to town my new buffet table. Now I'm just needing to go find some red chalk paint and get to work. 

There are so many apartment projects on the to do list.

 

1. paint buffet red

2. paint mantel white

3. add tile around bathroom mirror

4. paint bathroom

5. find a better fabric storage for hobby room

6. refinish kitchen table 

 

 

     Still on the agenda for the weekend: Wichita Wild football game, church, our nieces soccer game, and a dance recital. 

 

 

 

 

 

If Only

This past week + weekend has been quite the doozy! 

I worked 40+ hours at my regular job at the cosmetic clinic, then an additional 11+ hours at my summertime/weekend job assisting with event coordinating. 

As I was laying in bed last night, the bottom of my heels were throbbing all the way up into my calves. I then woke up this morning and my biceps were tender to the touch.

That just goes to show you I haven't hit the gym in awhile. 

Note to self -- get with it! 

This wedding I worked yesterday was absolutely gorgeous! I can't imagine how beautiful it would have been if it wasn't 40 degrees out and it would have went as planned. 

They spent a pretty penny on this wedding. 

A good couple 25 million pennies! 

If only...

 I had 1/6 of what they spent on this wedding I would be SOOO happy. 

All I want is my darn student loans paid off. I'm so blessed to have had the opportunity to go to college but the payments after the fact are absolutely awful. CT and I will still be in debt when we are 90. 

It's brutal.

 

 We ended the weekend with some family time at church and lunch, and then a date night were we attended a local amateur hockey game. 

It never fails, every game we attended our team loses.

This upcoming week we have lots to look forward to. 

Final buff baseball games, another exciting dr. appointment on Wednesday to see if we get a green light, and some much needed mom time on Friday! 

Beautiful things are about to happen! 

I Will Do Better

Blogging. . . I will get better at it.

 It has been since June when I last blogged. How sad =(. Working 40+ hours a week is no excuse. There are many working women out here in the blog-world who are full time wives, moms, and working women who blog multiple times a week.

3 posts a week is my goal! 

Anyways, this past weekend we went up to KC for the 2nd round of the NCAA basketball tournament to watch a little RockChalk basketball.

A little snow, a little shopping, a little alcohol, and lots of bad food! 

 

Excited on the way up to KC! (We hardly do couple pictures. Another thing I need to do better at.)

 

 

 

  

Sporting our crimson and blue! 

OOTD. 

Royal Skinny jeans- Gordmans. Gold sparkly Toms. Arm candy- namaste bracelet. Honora pearl bracelet. Stella&Dot bracelt. Gold chained bracelet from Gordmans. Gold bauble necklace from Groopdealz.

 

 

What a fun eventful weekend! My daring husband spotted some open seats and made us sneak down passed the guys in the yellow checking tickets. "Act like you know what you are doing and don't make eye contact." The wise words from my husband. =)

 

 We ended up sitting in row 7 behind the opponents bench, as opposed to going up into the rafters where our purchased seats were. CT and I were getting blown up on FB and through text message all game because each possession we were in perfect view for all of TV land to see! 

 

A big shout out and thank you to the Ole Miss coaches wives. We apparently were sitting in their row, and they piled their kids on their laps so we could continue to sit their the remainder of the game. 

 

What do you know, there are still some good people in the world these days.

Wichita RiverFest 2012 & Red Velvet Funnel Cake

I look forward to this time of the year for two reasons. 1) Because the most interesting people come out during riverfest. Think about the people that you can find on people of walmart but only worse. 2) The food! 

This year I was super excited to find out prior to attending the riverfest, via facebook, that the funnel cake stand had a new menu item, RED VELVET funnel cake w/ CREAM CHEESE frosting! I knew I had to get one along with my usual roasted corn. 

My usual river fest treat, roasted corn with melted butter and garlic salt! 

Red velvet funnel cake with cream cheese frosting exceeded my expectations. It was totally worth the $7. 

CT enjoying some dessert! 

 Last night was an expensive date night but totally worth it. People watching and good food. It doesn't get much better than that! This weekend we will be heading to Salina's RiverFest so be on the look out for more food pics. I might just have to try one of those jumbo turkey legs.