A little lesson on frugality

Frugal: adj. economical; not wasteful; not lavish; sparing

I've learned the true meaning of this word since I met Larry. Larry who was wearing 7 year old tennis shoes when we first started dating (don't worry, I quickly replaced them!), and lived in a house with about as much furniture as a psych ward.

Larry and I were talking yesterday about how much my spending habits have changed since I met him. I did save, but don't get confused, I also spent. A lot. Larry really made me appreciate saving money, and now I get more excitement stashing money away than I did purchasing designer jeans that are softer than cashmere. Oh, but don't worry, I still wear all ten pairs of those jeans. They were worth every penny spent!

And lately, I've been dreaming of these...





Aaaaahhh, red soled beauties

And these...

Notice that my new frugal (let's be serious, cheap) side found a picture of a leather Chloe bag that I'm sure is soft as butter, but has a sale tag on it! This girl can never turn down a good sale!

Out with the old, in with the new

We've moved up in the world. We got rid of this...




And thanks to my amazing parents and beautiful sister, we upgraded to this...




Okay, so our old tv wasn't really that ancient. It was an old tube tv from the late 1990's/early 2000's and weighs approximately 87 pounds.

This is not actually a picture of our new tv, but close enough. It's a 42" flatscreen (Larry insisted on the size). We watched The Polar Express last night on it and he kept giggling. When I asked him why he was laughing, he kept saying, "I feel like I'm in a movie theatre!" It's official. We're frugal, and it's the little things (or big, in this case) that really excite us!

Thank you mom, dad, and Angie. Best early Christmas present ever! Or at least until you get me a beautiful Lexus with a big gold bow tied around it. I know they normally come with a red bow, but red really isn't my color. Maybe next year ;)?!

The Midwest

One of these days, I promise to post something positive about this place. Maybe.

Circus World Museum/Wisconsin Dells/Madison

This will be a condensed post. We stopped at the Circus World Museum (another trusted location from "the book"). This is where Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey began and where they continue to hold their training during the summer months. We went during the fall, when they were back on the road and the museum was devoid of snotty nosed, screaming children. Just how I like it :). They had some interesting artifacts and I even left with a Christmas ornament in the shape of an elephant made from elephant poo! I love fun souvenirs!

All those years of gymnastics paid off. Pure talent.

I'm thinking my husband of multiple talents should quit flying airplanes and join the circus, what do you think? He could be a unicyclist...


A circus master...



Or even join the animals :)




Now if only my body looked as fantastic as this snake handlers. I think I need to get her workout plan.

We drove up to the Wisconsin Dells after we were done at the museum (40 minutes, tops.). This was another location in The Book, and it was like a giant tourist trap. It was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. Random shops, water parks, outdoor mini golf, and random other places. Clearly this place would only be fun in the summer, if you had children. The thought of going there in the summer gives me chest pains. I will avoid it at all costs, forever and ever. I was quite excited that I saw online that there was a Hawaiian store there though. Sad enough, it was closed. Pretty much my luck. However, there was a candy store next door that managed to pull me in where I spent $7.99 a pound for some flavored Tootsie Rolls. Had there been a trusty Target nearby, I would have gone there. I'm still trying to get over my $5.40 bill for a teeny bag of candy. Trust me, that will be our one and only trip to the Dells. Yet another Midwest "vacation" location that I do not understand. At. All. I have no pictures, for it was not worthy.

Next and final stop, Madison. It was such a cute town. If I was forced to live in this part of the country for the rest of my life, I think I'd choose Madison. It has that laid back feeling of the West Coast, without quite as much beauty. We went to dinner, spent some time wandering around Borders (we are obsessed with books), and spent the night. We had a free night at a Hampton Inn thanks to some carpet cleaners who happened to be cleaning the carpet at a hotel Larry was staying at while on an overnight for work and they left his room door open and left while he was gone eating. Bad service Hampton Inn, but thank you for the free night! It was greatly appreciated! The next morning, we woke up early and headed to the Dane County Farmer's Market. It was in a beautiful downtown location, and I bought some gourds for fall decorating. Overall, we had a fantastic little road trip. We hope to take more in ummmm, well, 6 months when the weather around here is bearable.

Downtown Madison and the farmer's market

Taliesin

On our trip to Wisconsin, we drove to Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wrights personal home. This was in our trusted book of things to see, and while we planned on doing the tour, our frugal sides won. One thing you will learn about Larry and I while reading about our travels, is that we are in and out type of people. Tours make us cringe, tourists make us nauseous, and the thought of timed, group tours REALLY make us run the other way. As was the case with Taliesin. The shortest tour they had was 3 (yes, THREE) hours! This tour was of the home and I believe some of the grounds. I would rather have a cavity filled than to spend three hours on a tour, no matter how cool it may have been. We spent about 15 minutes driving around the grounds, as close as we could possibly get to the home, and it was more than enough to make me happy!

The house and grounds were absolutely gorgeous! Frank Lloyd Wright had an architecture school on this property, and I can see how the scenery could make an artistic persons mind flow. Maybe one day they will have a tour where you can go through at your own pace. If so, I'm there!

Taliesin from the road. Gorgeous house in a gorgeous location. He only allowed brown cows on the grounds surrounding his home as he felt black and white cows were not as aesthetically pleasing with the colors of the area. Mr. Wright, I agree completely.

A beautiful waterfall that went underneath the driveway up to his home.

Floor to ceiling windows everywhere...I like this man.

Another view of the home.

The chapel

His architecture school. He lived on this property for 30 years.

Wisconsin Trip

I haven't been very creative with my post titles lately. The creative juice just isn't flowing, in case you haven't noticed the horrid background on my blog. I L.O.V.E. damask, but let's be serious, I've had the same background with mismatched widgets (I think that's what they're called!), and I need some serious updating. I sure wish one of my creative blog friends would help (hint, hint). Back to my post on Wisconsin. Larry and I decided to take a couple of days together to take a road trip somewhere green with hills. Wisconsin it was! This was a little anniversary trip for us, and we didn't feel like dealing with non-rev travel, so we opted for a drive. Honestly though, it was so pretty with gorgeous fall colors on the trees, rivers, and hills. I mention hills often because I miss them. You'd never think you'd miss hills until you move somewhere that is lacking hills of ANY kind.

Our first stop was House on a Rock. This was a strange thing we found while researching Wisconsin on the internet and we thought we'd stop by. It wasn't in our trusty book (for the millionth time in 3 blog posts, 1,000 Places to See Before you Die), so we weren't determined to make it. We finally found it, and realized we're cheap. We didn't feel like spending $80 to roam through this creepy house with rooms filled with dollhouses, clowns (aaaahhhhh!!!), and a bunch of other random things. After a quick drive down the odd driveway and a few photo ops, we were off to our next stop...Taliesin.

Super strange art/flower pot creation on the driveway into House on The Rock. I thought they were super cool! Larry in front of the entrance. Notice another one of the crazy flower pots. I sure would have loved to meet the guy who built this house. Seems like he was quite a strange man.

View from a viewpoint of the house. If you look carefully towards the middle of the picture, you can see part of the house jutting out from the rock.

Indiana Dunes

I really needed a beach trip. Bad. Unfortunately, our trip to Key West/Sanibel Island/Captiva/Wherever else a plane could get us was cancelled. Dang hurricanes can really make non-rev travel more difficult than it already is. Next best option in this fantastic place they call the Midwest...You got it, the Indiana Dunes. I had heard people talk about it, and since it was in our book of 1,000 Places to See Before you Die (trust me, I could have died without seeing it and I would have been A-Okay!), we thought we'd take a day trip. This quickly turned into a morning trip when we realized there was nothing to do there. We went on a quick little hike and spent a few minutes next to the water.

Note the sign. I'd say Larry and I have completed some seriously strenuous hikes (look up Captain Cook Trail in Kona). We are always prepared with plenty of water. This "hike" was a joke. Took us 5 minutes tops to complete it and make it to the "top" of "Mt. Baldy". I put these in quotations because seriously, all we could do was laugh. I'm not sure people out here, or whoever named this "mountain" has ever really seen a mountain.

Larry hiking up Mt. Baldy. I will admit, the sand was a great calf workout!

The view from the top. Might be nice if there wasn't a giant industrial area right there. Yuck! Way to ruin the view.

It was a little bright!

Trying to meditate and ignore the hideous building to the right of me blowing toxic smoke out of its smoke stack.

In front of the dunes. Oh, and the sand is trucked in. Yet another disappointment we learned while reading some signs on our walk. I meant hike.

The Chicago skyline way off there in the distance across Lake Michigan.




This is closer to what I had in mind when I thought of a day at the beach. Sorry Indiana Dunes, I have no love for you.

Shipshewana

No, I didn't make up a word for my latest post title. Shipshewana was yet another one of our locations to visit on our quest to see as many places as possible from 1,000 Places to See Before you Die (USA and Canada version). It was only about a 2 hour drive each way, so we took a little day trip to Amish Country, Indiana. I loved everything about it...The giant flea market, loads of homemade goods and goodies (ask my cat about Amish pie...She loves it!). It was so interesting to see how just miles away from our urban lifestyle in Chicago, people are living in their own little world, circa 1850 (I swear that's what it felt like!). If you have never been to an Amish community, I urge you to find the closest one and GO! It was such a fun experience!

Modern-Day Amish on bikes instead of in buggies. I'm not so sure that's the safest way to transport your children, but they sure do look cute!

The typical view while driving down the street. I was shrieking with excitement each time I saw a buggy. I just think it's crazy that people still live this way. No internet, facebook, or blogging?! They have NO idea what they're missing out on!

One of the all so important locations to visit before I die. We purchased some yummy popcorn from this shop and I think we may have enough popcorn to last us for a year...If that's all we eat. This family run business that started in 1936 sells 250 million pounds of popcorn a year!

An Amish parking lot, seriously. This was the parking lot outside of the local hardware and feed shop.

On a sidenote, funny story about this little shop. I saw it off the side of the highway on our way to Shipshewana and convinced Larry that I just HAD to stop here on the way home. I adore all things Christmas and was really looking forward to spending hours browsing through ornaments and was really hoping to find my mini artificial palm tree (anybody know where to find one?!). After spending 30 minutes off the highway to get to this store (I'm thinking I need to contact Indiana's transportation board to suggest they make an exit directly to this shopping are), I was so unpleasantly surprised. This store was a mix of Michael's with a little specialty grocery store. Seriously, people?! Whoever was in charge of this store name, or furthermore, whoever is currently in charge of this marketing department and has not changed the name yet, needs to be fired! Maybe I need to make a call to Donald Trump? How do you name a store Christmas Tree Shops and not have ONE Christmas item. Oh, the disappoint I felt that day. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out how to get back that hour and fifteen minutes of my life. On a more positive note, Larry did find some Vermont maple syrup...He seems to think he's some sort of syrup connoiseur lately. Next up on my entrepreneural (and yes, this word I did make up) list...Creating a Christmas themed store that actually carries Christmas items. What a concept!

Road Trip Day 3

Boy was I anxious to get home! We got up super early to catch a 6:30am flight from Sioux Falls to Chicago. We didn't get to the hotel until almost midnight, so we were beyond exhausted. On the way to the airport, we realized we needed to fill up the rental car. Apparently they don't feel like they need gas stations within a 10 mile radius of the airport?! While searching for gas, the car died. Literally died, while going down a hill. I was in full on panic mode as we only had 25 minutes until our flight left. At that point, we decided to forget filling up (yes, our cheap selves opted to pay the horrendous fee for the rental company to fill it up). At that point, we were so ready to get home that we just couldn't chance missing the flight.

Never in my life have I ever been so excited to see this...

In case I haven't mentioned, I REALLY dislike living in the Midwest...R.E.A.L.L.Y.

Road Trip Day 2

Day Two of our non-rev road trip was a busy one. Larry wanted to stop and see Battle of Little Bighorn, and we both wanted to see Crazy Horse Monument and Mt. Rushmore before catching our afternoon flight. This meant departing Billings at 7:00am after only 6 hours of sleep. Lack of sleep on top of an insane amount of Robitussin and Sudafed had me feeling PRETTY relaxed...or wired...or tired...I never quite figured it out.

At the site of The Battle at Little Bighorn, where Custer's Last Stand took place. It was a quick 20 minute stop as we were in a rush...We had a flight to catch folks...or so we thought.

We made it to Wyoming, and Larry was a little late with the camera.

South Dakota...Woohoo! Our destination state. We only had two stops to make before heading to the airport.

Stop #1: Crazy Horse Monument. Worst $20 I've ever spent, considering we were here for approximately 3 minutes to take a picture.

Stop #2: Mt. Rushmore. Best $10 we've ever spent! It was such an incredible place. The beauty of the surrounding areas and the massive size of the rock carvings was truly gorgeous.

It was at this point we decided to stop at a McDonalds to check ourselves in for the flight that was leaving in less than 2 hours...What do you mean the flight is now oversold?! There were 7 open seats 4 hours ago!!! At this point, our only option was to keep driving...to Sioux Falls, SD; the closest airport with open flights for the NEXT day.

Driving past the Badlands. We would have loved to stop, but as you'll see in the next picture, delirium was starting to kick in. Too much driving, not enough sleep, and a large amount of cold medicine were making me grumpy and anxious to get into a hotel bed (eeewww, who wishes for a hotel bed in this bed bug infested day of age?!). We still had another 5 hour drive ahead of us (after the already 5 hours we had driven that morning).

Delirium...Larry really had no excuse :)

This picture was taken through the windshield and I think it turned out so pretty! We were so excited to see that we only had about 200 miles to go, so I asked Larry to take a picture. We had no idea how gorgeous the clouds were going to look!

Miles and miles and miles and miles of sunflower fields. They were so pretty. I had a lengthy conversation with Larry (but really myself) about how I couldn't believe they wasted so much acreage to plant sunflowers just for the beauty of them, but how I was so grateful that the farmers thought about us road travelers. After a 10 minute rant about how nice that is of farmers, Larry reminded me of these things called sunflower seeds. You mean they don't just plant these for the beauty?! Wow! Who would have thought?!

Road Trip Day 1

Okay, so I'm still new to this blogspot stuff. My posts are going to be backwards, I spend hours re-arranging my pictures, and I'm starting to think an HTML class during my five years of college might have been helpful. Try not to laugh at my kindergarten style blog. Please.

Day 1 of our road trip took us from Seattle to Billings, MT. It was almost a 10 hour drive, and did I mention I do all the driving in this family. My husband may be able to fly an airplane, but driving cars is a completely different story. We're all safer (you included) if he stays in an airplane.

First Stop: Columbia River Gorge

Welcome to Idaho! We were in a bit of a time crunch, so the majority of our pictures are taken from the car. Don't forget, we had a flight to catch in Rapid City, SD the following afternoon!

Lake Coeur D'Alene. Sure wish we would have had time to stop and enjoy it!

Welcome to Montana! This was definitely one of the prettiest parts of the drive. Driving through the passes at sunset was gorgeous. The rest of the drive in the dark (did I mention I have HORRID night vision?!) pretty much included me trying to stay in the lines (yes, another Kindergarten reference) and Larry yelling at me when he saw deer on the side of the road. I'm pretty sure if we would have had a video camera with us and recorded it, we would have ended up with a movie deal.

Non-Rev 101

For those of you who don't know about non-rev travel, it's pretty much the one and only benefit of working or being married to someone who works in the airline industry. The funny thing is, sometimes it hardly feels like a benefit! We have to fly standby, and with the way that planes are packed and often oversold, it often means we can't get anywhere! Here are a few of my own rules for non-rev travel:
#1) Never make a non-refundable hotel reservation for your desired location.
#2) Bring enough snacks and activities to entertain a 2 year old...errr, I mean, yourself.
#3) Be prepared to spend hours or even days stuck in undesirable cities.
#4) Don't make plans...Ever.

When we finally found a day that we had a decent chance of getting on a flight to Seattle, we hopped aboard. At that time, the return flights were already looking questionable, but after going back and forth about whether or not to cancel the trip all together, we decided to go for it.

Four days before we were supposed to leave Seattle we realized this would never be happening. Every flight was oversold, so our odds of making it on were slim to none. We were spontaneous (rule #5 of my non-rev travel rules) and decided to turn our bad luck into a road trip...To Rapid City, SD...The nearest city to Seattle with flights that were wide open. We rented a car, and with Larry's car discount managed to only spend about $150 on a one way car at the very last minute, not too shabby!

Lincoln's 'Ol Stomping Grounds

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Larry and I are trying to see as many things as we can from the book "1,000 Places To See Before You Die in the USA and Canada". One of these locations is Springfield, IL for historical Abraham Lincoln sites. We took a day trip in July and had a great time. My history buff husband, who would rather watch The History Channel than football, especially enjoyed it.

The Lincoln Tomb, from the backside of the grounds.

Lincoln's resting place

Larry in front of the tomb. All of the Lincoln family except their oldest Robert is buried inside the tomb.

A fantastic museum! One of Lincoln's three remaining top hats is here, along with the bloodied gloves he had in his pocket the night of his assasination.

One of the original campaign banners, now inside the Old Capitol Building

The Old State Capitol Building in Springfield

The Lincoln Family home, where they were living when Lincoln was elected President.