I know, I know! I have been MIA for a little while, but it’s been crazy busy! That thing called Life has been borderline overwhelming lately. No excuses, but just a quick recap of what’s been going on keeping me busy:
I think it started with us buying a new (to us) vehicle early last month. Not that it took up a ton of time, as we truly feel God placed the vehicle in our lives on purpose since we truly weren’t looking to buy yet. Even though we got a great deal from a private individual for 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe, it added a lot of temporary stress (especially for me, the financial manager of the household). Oh well, I needed to upgrade from my Celica GTS to a big girl, adult vehicle. Darn this adulting! hehe
With buying a new vehicle, I had to sell my old car that I had since 2007. My Celica has seen me grow, both in life and size, LoL. Regardless of our memories, it was time for it to go. After we prepped it and listed it on Craigslist, to our astonishment, it sold within 48 hours and for more than we truly anticipated. Woohoo!
My Wish Partner and I hosted a Make A Wish party for one of our Wish Children 
who went on a Disney Cruise with her family. It was a lot of fun, and the family and her friends had a great time at the party and on the cruise. She is a sweet girl. We had the party at the local Ale House (her favorite place to get a steak) and they really went out of their way to contribute to the party. All you have to do is ask for help sometimes and local businesses are really wonderful!
The following week, I was at an awesome work conference called Women in Automotive, which involved out of town travel. The cool 
part about it is about 10 people from my company (some I have met previously and others I have not) also were in attendance, so it was an amazing opportunity to not only learn fun things at the conference, but more about people within my own company. Priceless experience! (I also had the chance to try some new sushi at Amura in Orlando, and one particular dish called Ninja Tuna Crispy, was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!)
Immediately following the conference, we had a Ribbon Cutting/Chamber After Hours/Grand Opening event at one of our newer dealerships, which involved our company owners, manufacture reps and the community members attending.
A pretty big deal, and of course it fell on the week of the conference. It was a rush-rush day for me, but it all went well!
That same week, I also had an opportunity to attend a Women in Business Summit, for which our company’s CFO was a finalist for Business Woman of the Year, pretty cool! This was also an out of town trip. I love to travel, but boy it wears me out! Maybe I’m getting old? LOL!
Following that crazy week, on Saturday, we celebrated one of my close friend’s 
30th birthdays. I schemed with one of her other friends, whom I had never met before, on Facebook to surprise our friend with a group of her work friends to join us. My friend gave me her guest list and only expected about six of us to be there, but we surprised her with an additional five people; we got her good! It was a TON of fun and one of my favorite birthday celebrations ever. I’m glad she had a birthday, hahahaha! We ate lots of yummy food and played hours of Cards Against Humanity; an amazing time was had!
Recently, one of my stores needed to get rid of about 10 crates of parts, so I was given all of it to sell on eBay for them. Our poor
home has turned into eBay central with parts and my normal eBay stuff EVERYWHERE! I didn’t want to turn down the opportunity for additional income that I didn’t have to purchase myself (no overhead, woohoo), but it also put the pressure on me to get them listed ASAP. I have about 100 of the items listed (with several selling already), but I still have about five more crates and random big boxes to go through. Because it’s not my personal belongings, I feel like I need to put my focus on them rather than on my other items, so it’s taken up A LOT of my time over the last couple of weeks. In addition to my eBay Sunday, I have also been listing after work most nights. I am getting my eBay stuff somewhat organized, which is nice. The hubby likes it when it’s more organized, LOL.
If all this wasn’t enough, my husband and I began a Leadership Development class (as students) last weekend, which will go on for about nine months. We are 
very excited about this class, and we love our mentoring couple (they have a similar sense of humor). However, despite our excitement, it still takes up time. We are required to meet twice with our mentors throughout the month and once a month for the large group sessions, plus some “homework.” I always enjoy improving and building my relationship with God, so I’m definitely not complaining, just mentioning where I have been lately. #blessed
Of course, there was some couponing here and there (remember, I’m not an extreme couponer, but try to coupon for every shopping trip). Around the time school was beginning, I was able to get some amazing deals on school supplies to donate to the church and put aside for the upcoming Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. I forgot to take a photo of my deals, but I spent about $17, received a few more dollars in app rebates and I got about 32 items (paper, pens, markers, highlighters, etc–all name brand!). I love great deals, especially for these types of things.
