Google Chef - Beef Teriyaki

I tried a new meal yesterday, and the most unusual thing happened: I loved it and Mike said "meh, 'salright." Gosh! Any way, I got it from Campbellskitchen.com. It is beef and broccolli in a brown sauce served over rice. Actually the recipe called for broccolli flowerettes, but I found a mix of broccolli, carrots and water chesnuts amounst the frozen veggies! It was pretty sweet!

Missed the boat

Alright... so we didn't make our goal "Eliminate in 2008" which meant having paid off all our credit card debt by Dec 31, 2008. Boo. But hey, we made it 73% of the way! Christmas can be such a drag. BAH HUMBUG! Well, ok, so I loved all the stuff Mike and I bought each other, but we're tightening the purse strings and cinching up the belt on our splurging appetites.

We retired the "Eliminate in 2008" goal and renewed the goal to pay off our credit card debt by June 30, 2009. I call it "My Credit's Fine in Summer, 2009." At least we survived the Christmas season by not ADDDING to the credit card debt. Woot.

But even more exciting than that is that we are going to pay off my Focus by April! Just 4 months away! That will be 2.5 years early from it's original term and the interest we will save is about $1600! We refinanced it in Sept for a lower, and fixed, interest rate. It was about to go variable. *shivers* Since then we've paid off 20% of the remaining balance! Go team!

A Christams Tag

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial

3. When do you put up the tree? After Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? Early Jan

5. Do you like eggnog? nope

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I would have been about 9 or 10 so Amy would have been about 6 or 7 (we are 3 ½ years apart) and a few weeks before Christmas that year she came bursting into the room, “Bree, Bree, come see this!” and I went into the spare bedroom that was kinda like a storage room at the time and I found a Super Nintendo hooked up to a tv. I ran downstairs to give my dad a hug and say thank you and he “said, you weren’t supposed to get it until Christmas!” (Insert little pouty face here). I found out later that my dad had been testing it and had already put several speed times on Mario Kart! :)

7. Hardest person to buy for? ???? I believe in gift cards

8. Easiest person to buy for? Mike. Just get him the latest new video game. We have the Xbox 360 and the Wii so there are lots of options

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, two

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail (thanks G-ma P for being my pen pal!)

11. Funniest Christmas gift you ever received? Ammon Ence gave me M & M’s because I gave him Sprees and taped a B over the SP

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation “better take a raincheck, he’s got a lip fungus ain’t been identified yet.”

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Meh, whenever

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? yes

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? This year I tried making red and green sugar cookies with food coloring. They looked awesome, but Chris my bro-in-law said “Shrek meets Hellboy” and kinda ruined it for me.

16. Lights on the tree? blue

17. Favorite Christmas song? This year it is a song that they sang at Rachelle’s choir concert “This Christmas… as you decorate the tree…”

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I love a good vacation, if only Mike wasn’t the only IT guy available at his work

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? yes, with the song

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? silver star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? whenever

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Breaking the budget

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Silver and Blue

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Steak and shrimp, just like Thanksgiving

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Rockband 2

TAG!!!! Amy, Annie, Lisa, Lanae, Mike, Melanie

It's the most... craziest tiiiiiiiiiiime of the year!

Happy 26th Birthday Mikey!
Happy 3rd Anniversary to me and Mike!
Happy 27th Anniversary to me mum and dad!
Happy 69th Birthday Gandy-Moo Behunin!
Happy 22nd Birthday to Amy! Happy start of your Golden Year!
Happy 20th Birthday to William!
Happy 1st Anniversary to Lisa and Danny!

Did I miss anyone?

In honor of our 3rd Anniversary, I would just like to say the 3 things I love about Mike are:

• He makes me laugh
• We are best friends
• He is way cute

And in closing I would just like to say Bah Humbug and a Happy Christmas to you all!

Closing Shop and Awards Night

So yeah, I'm pretty much done gardening this year. I pulled up my tomato a while ago since it froze and I raked up the leaves and put them in my compost heap. I still have a few rose bushes to trim before the snow falls. But that's all. It looks like I still have carrots though. How funny is that?

And we had our 3rd bi-monthly credit card progress dinner. We have paid off 70% of our credit card debt! I even gave Mike an award since he has been more optimistic about our goal than I have. It says "Steady as a Rock Award; Awarded this day Nov 14th 2008 to Mike Waite for being "Steady Eddy" on the road to financial freedom." It's really a Pepsi, his favorite.