Sparkles

So I went home for Christmas and while I was there I got my hair done. I only get it done when I go home so thankfully I have been home every 6-9 months or so. Cut, colored, and this time Kari (the awesomest hair dresser ever) tells me about something new! She puts two bling strands in my hair and says they could fall out in about a week. So I got gold for Christmas! Here it shows in a picture:

 

Also Mr. Elliott! Anywho. Here I am, January 17th (almost a month later) and they are still in! Over Christmas I showed them to my friend Jen, who teaches P.E. in grade school  and she goes "oh all the 3rd graders have those" hahah. So I am a 3rd grader, but I love them! When I got to work and people noticed them I just said "Oh, I turned 25 and started getting gray hairs, good thing my gray hairs come in sparkly!"

I want some things...

I have a problem, and it is that I am not able to spend my gift cards. I do... eventually. But this is a picture of my "gift card wallet". As you can see its jam packed full of gift cards... about 80% of these gift cards are worth less than .93 cents.

I have on unused gift card to Starbucks. As I don't drink coffee and I only VERY occasionally buy a double chocolate frappuccino, I have been saving it for something special. Whenever I go to Starbucks to edit I look at the wall of fun glasses, thermoses, and other fun stuff. I can't decide. And guess what, I've had this gift card for over two years.


On a somewhat related topic... I want some photography things... these things total a ton of money, and since it has been my plan from the beginning to never buy photography things on credit, its gonna be a while. All together they total somewhere around.. oh.. I'm not really adding it up, I just know its more than 20,000. At least all of my photography money I earn goes to new photography things! Someday the photography money can be used towards every day life. But for now I save and save and save. Honestly. I have everything I NEED right now. The things I want are just, as my mother would call it, peripherals, and upgrades.

Anywho... I hope you all aren't too bored. not the greatest post.. adios muchachos!

Poor Grad Students Guide to Frugality

Here are a few things that Kyle and I have done to make it through grad school on on meager salary.

1. Live in a tiny 600 sq ft $400 apt close to campus.
2. Bike to work and school every day year round. (saves at least $120 a month in gas)
3. Plan out meals and get groceries weekly
4. Every once in a while don't get groceries so you can clean out your cupboards.
5. Entertain yourself with bunny ears on your TV, Red Box, and Netflix. Forget about going out to the movies for a while. (unless of course its the midnight showing of Harry Potter)
6. Find free furniture. But try to be minimal because not much fits in your apartment.
         a. When you move its going to be a lot cheaper not to have things to move.
7. Don't go out to eat. Just don't.
8. Google creative cheap recipes so you don't get sick of spaghetti and tuna and noodles.
9. If you didn't sweat or spill, the clothes aren't dirty. Save some money by keeping the laundry load light.
10. Find babysitting jobs, they are awesome for an extra couple of bucks.
11. Turn off any appliances if they aren't being used, and unplug them.
12. Charge anything you can when you aren't at home to save on electricity costs.
13. Adjust your water heater to a tolerable level.
14. Give gifts of time/work. (aka photo shoots and designing) instead of spending money you don't have on Christmas, Birthday, and going away gifts.
15. For trips visit friends. Never stay in a hotel. If you can't find a friend to stay with, contact a friend who has a friend or relative living there. Its always great to meet new people!
16. Never buy on credit. Save up for everything. (That way you don't have another payment to add onto everything else.)
17. Budget your money so you can save and you don't spend money on unnecessaries like gum and magazines.
18. Borrow books from friends/ share books with classmates.
19. Don't go on walks at night, this isn't frugal really, just safe. As you chose an apartment in a neighborhood where walking at night isn't recommended. (you went with the cheapest you could find, so thats what you get)
20. Document this time of your life! It may not be super exciting now, but you will want to remember it for when friends and your kids go through the same thing.

Christmas Plans

Alright... So ... Well first I will give you a picture of our travel plans:

OK, so we are doing a lot of driving. We are leaving at 5pm on the 22nd and driving 9-10 hours to Ron and Janelle's (aunt and uncle's) house in Kansas. Then we will leave the next morning for KC to pick up Heidi and Elliott. We will drive with them plus Kyle, me and Coach (yes coach is going!) the 5 hour trip to Iowa. We will be there from the evening of the 23rd through some time on the 27th. Then we will drive the 4.5 hours to Minneapolis and stay with Dustin and Sarah (cousins). Kyle will be visiting the University of Minnesota that day to meet the Head Strength coach. Then on the 29th we are driving 8 hours to Sutton Nebraska. We will be there until the morning of the 2nd. Then the last leg is about 10-12 hours.

YAY!

Pray for safe travels and good weather! Love you all!

-Jenni

Hospitalized for Exhaustion

I wonder how all of those movie stars get hospitalized for exhaustion. I need an in on their secrets because that sounds awesome right about now. This is me at my day job:

I don't know if you can tell exactly what is going on... so I shall explain.

I started the path to a new website for Jenni O Photography in September. I hired an awesome web designer (Frankie O'Rourke) and he has had to put up with my indecisiveness and designing a website around me, an artist, as opposed to a contractor or something. So my website had to be awesome. (and it is, just you wait!) I had to write the content, make my favorite pictures as sharp as possible, and help Frankie understand who I am.

I also got injured in October at work. When people ask what happened to my hand because of my ginormous velcrowey brace I usually tell them that I box. As in fight people. But I don't. What actually happened is I punched holes in cardboard with a hand hole puncher for two days straight and I damaged some nerves in my thumb and forefinger.

This thing is a pain. It snagged my favorite purple tights and it catches on everything. I have to wear it 24/7 and take some crazy anti-inflamatory pills. It sucks. BUT I can still take pictures. So thats good.

I have had a lot of photo shoots this fall which is great! But I can't wait till someday (not now) when my only job is my photography. I work all day at my day job and work all evening and weekends on pictures, my website, and designing. So this is partially why I am exhausted to the point of nausea.

The other reason is Kyle finished with classes two weeks ago and his internship is no longer at 530 am, so he no longer gets up at 430 am. This means that he goes to bed late, which means that I go to bed late. (he was the only reason that I was going to bed at 10pm before) So I am ready to pass out at my desk at work and I don't even want to eat food I am so tired.

Now Kyle has had a great semester. I would ask him to write a little bit about his recent days and he would say:

I intern at the ATC for the Olympic Strength and Conditioning Staff over 40 hours a week. I teach a class two days a week. I take classes and do homework and help with research. I play with Coach and spend time with Jenni.

His life is much more interesting than that. (Not that that isn't interesting already) For instance, he has been invited to be on the Texas Elite team for the Rugby International 7's Tournament at Vegas in February. Yeah my husband is a BAMF. The team is named "Lone Star United". I'm pretty proud of him.

Well this post has gotten pretty long :S Sorry. I will cut myself off here and write more very soon. Keep checking my website www.jenniophotography.com! Its launch is coming soon!

Love
-Jenni

Eventfull Day

Event number 1.

I got a phone call today from a number I didn't recognize so of course I answered. If it would have said "Unknown Number" I would not have answered, but as it was a phone number I decided they must have a valid request.

When I answered the phone there was a man with an accent on the other line. He wanted to give me a gift card for $200 which was the same amount of gift card that I may have randomly been picked for due to a survey that I recently filled out. Again, I thought it was valid. The man with an accent quickly repeated to me my exact address, e-mail, name, and phone number. I still had no qualms, the accent did make me nervous but I kept repeating to myself "Don't judge, don't be racist, its just probably some company who outsourced their phone servicing to India and this poor man is just trying to feed his family by taking the job."

I had been having a very stressful week or so with work and other what nots, I was tired, and this is my excuse for being stupid. He then continued to ask me my debit card number saying he just needed it for the shipping. I didn't think much about it, pulled out my card, and gave it too him. Did I mention I was also late for work? After I did so I thought crap, wait a second. I asked the man with an accent what his name was. He said "John Wilson." RED FLAG! I asked what company he worked for and he said American Auto Bennefits. SCAM!

Oh crap! What did I just do? Oh no! I am such an idiot! I told him I no longer wanted the gift card and I wanted him to delete my information. However futile asking that would be it was worth a try. He started arguing with me, asking me why I am turning it down, interrupting me and yelling. I told him "Please do not ever contact me again or I will call the police and report you." I know, again, unreasonable.

I hung up, and immediately called my bank. I apologized to them for being such an Idiot, and I got my card canceled along with a new one shipped to me. Nothing happened to my bank account and my identity still belongs to me. However, I still feel ridiculously stupid. Just fyi, they tried to call me 4 more times after that. I blocked their number via Verizon.

Event number 2.

I had to walk home from work today as my call at lunch made me too late to bike back to work and Kyle dropped me off. As I was rounding the Ranching Heritage Museum I could see a fire truck at the corner of my apartment building and it appeared as if traffic was backed up. I also saw a lot of people standing around and an ambulance on its way.

Kyle and I both cross the street at that intersection of Flint and 4th and crossing means passing 6 lanes of traffic (more if you count the turning lanes.) Kyle told me as he was dropping me off that he would be home by 5. I was freaking out.

Kyle has been hit by a car, O.K. don't exaggerate, don't freak out what are the chances that the ambulance you see is meant for your husband, oh God please don't let that be Kyle. Oh my gosh they are pulling out a stretcher. Oh please whoever it is let them be O.K.! What do I do if it's Kyle?!? Do I run up to them saying "that is my husband let me through" as I rip through the yellow tape and push my way past the officers. Oh thank God there are boobs, its a she. Kyle is O.K.! I hope she is O.K.!

By this time I was across the street. I got the story from Brittany who was standing right there. The girl is fine. Some dumb dude ran a red light, (not surprising) turning left and causing her to crash into the light pole. The only thing that seemed wrong with her physically (according to those who witnessed) was her arm.

I then saw Kyle and I guess when he heard the crash he ran outside thinking it might be me, realized it wasn't me, and went back inside our apartment. Then came back outside again a couple minutes later after he locked the door. We both realized that if either of us had been any earlier than what we were, that would have been us. If I had ridden my bike I would have been crossing at that time and possibly stuck between the two vehicles. If Kyle wouldn't have missed soccer practice (strength training) due to Coach's vet appointment going late, he would have been right there as well.

Thank you God for your serendipitous series of events, and please pray for that woman with a hurt arm and all the idiots out there that think its O.K. to run a red light.

Short Conversation

I was packing for a wedding this weekend. I am wearing my yellow and orange dress. I asked Kyle:

"What should I wear, my brown wedges or my white heels?"

Kyle - "One of each"

Jenni - "uuuurg I neeed to live with a giiiirl!"

Kyle - "Guess you should have been a lesbian"

Jenni - "I know, right?"



Just to clarify, I am very happily straight. But I wish I had someone there every morning to help me with what to wear! I don't want to wait 20 years for a daughter thats old enough to help me. My clothing judgement will be far down the drain by then...