Can I get your opinion?

I've been looking to add more seating to our living room, but unfortunately, I don't have too much additional space to work with. The half-wall between the living room and the kitchen is blank, but because the media center is so close to the half-wall, a chair or sofa against that wall would make it look as though it were in the middle of the room. Therefore, it seems as though some type of ottomans/cubes or bench is the perfect solution, and while I was out shopping this past weekend, I found these.
I love them. They are the perfect size, the tops come off to provide storage, they are comfortable to sit on, and I found them at TJMaxx, so the price was great. That being said though, I'm not really sure if the zebra print goes in my house.
I know that animal prints are "in" right now, and I really do think that the print is cute, but I'm just not sure if it fits my style. I'll be the first to admit that I don't exactly know what my style is, but I think Abby best described it as "country chic with a touch of Kirkland's". Haha. So do you think these ottomans fit that style? Do they go with the rest of my house or do they look too "busy"?Keep in mind that my mom is making valances for both my living room and kitchen windows using the fabric that is shown below.
I know that there are a lot of you out there that don't usually comment, but I would really appreciate your advice on this. I promise that I won't get my feelings hurt no matter what is said, and if the general consensus is that they don't go, I will probably just get them recovered (just because everything else about them is so perfect) -- possibly in either a brown, black, or tan houndstooth print.
So what do you think? What's YOUR opinion???Note: You can click on any of the pictures to make them larger.

A Wonderful Christmas

This year's Christmas was wonderful. We were fortunate enough to be able to see both families on both days, and although that might sound a like a lot of running around, it was totally worth it.

Christmas Eve started out with the Liggetts. We went over to Ben's parents' house that afternoon and had a great time -- just the five of us -- opening gifts by the fire and chowing down on pizza. Everybody loved what we got them. Kyle even let out a shriek when she opened her "Ellen" hoodie (you cannot fully comprehend her excitement until you understand both her love for sweatshirts and her love for Ellen DeGeneres). Later that afternoon, Ben's cousins Matt and Sam stopped by to get their gifts. Unfortunately, this is the only picture that I took on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but it's a pretty cute one.

Sam, Josh, me, Ben, and Matt

That evening, we went over to my Aunt Valerie and Uncle Ronnie's house for dinner -- a honey baked ham and all of the fixings. Their house was so beautifully decorated for Christmas (it always is!), and we had a great time opening gifts and meeting their new puppy Rylee.

Later that night, Ben and I exchanged gifts -- just the two of us. We sat in the front room next to our beautifully decorated Christmas tree and took turns opening our presents. Ben got me an HD radio with an ipod/iphone dock for my desk at work, and I got him a wall mount for the TV, basketball shorts, an Xbox 360 game, and cologne. We were both very happy with what we received and felt so very blessed that the other one had listened so well to our needs/wants throughout the year.

On Christmas morning, we headed over to my parents' house. My mom made monkey bread for breakfast, and we had a great time exchanging gifts with my parents, grandmothers, and Holly while sitting next to their beautiful 12-foot Christmas tree. Everybody loved what they got, and I'm pretty sure that the "family favorite" was the calendar that I ordered for my mom that contained pictures that I had taken of our family throughout the year. I even went so far as to include all of the birthdays and anniversaries that she copies from one calendar to the next each year (thanks for your help with that one, Holly). She loved it! My mom's Uncle Jimmy, cousin Travis, and his precious family stopped by later that day. Unfortunately, we had to leave shortly after they got there, but I am glad that we got to see them -- Olivia and Sophia give the best hugs ever, and I got to see Jack awake for the first time. I love those kids.

Later that afternoon, we went over to Ben's Uncle Pat's house for lunch, which was absolutely delicious. Prime rib and beef tenderloin -- need I say more? :) We had a great time with all of the "Texas Family" and did quite a bit of both catching up and reminiscing. We also did a gift exchange, and Ben and I made out pretty well this year -- especially considering a few of the cousins have forgotten to buy a gift in the past and have given whatever they had in their wallet at the time. This year Uncle Pat got me a beautiful sweater from White House Black Market, and Ben's cousin Bridget got him a really nice George Strait button up shirt. Needless to say, we are going to be stylin'.

Later that night, we finished up our Christmas celebration by watching "Christmas Vacation" while lying in bed. We were exhausted but thankful, and the past couple of days had been a wonderful reminder of just how much we have to be thankful for.

P.S. Happy Birthday Abby! I had fun at dinner tonight, and I hope your birthday was just as special as you are. :)

Wishing you...

... a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

"Couponing" at Walgreens

I went "couponing" at Walgreens today for the first time ever. I've always been a little hesitant to do my grocery shopping at drug stores because of their various reward/point systems, but I decided to give it a try today and to just stay away from things that seemed like a good deal only because they earned you rewards/points. Overall, I think it went pretty well.

Here's a picture of what I got.
My total without coupons would have been $36.72, but using coupons, I got everything shown above for only $11.44. I saved $25.28 or 69% off of the original total.

Here are the coupons that I used.

John Frieda Luxurious Volume shampoo -- $6.99

$2.50 off (here -- manufacturer)

$3 off (here -- Walgreens)

$1.49 after coupon

Dove deodorant -- $1.99 (with in-ad coupon) x2 = $3.98

$1.50 off 2 (10/4 RedPlum)

$1.24 each after coupons

Viva papertowels -- $6.99

$2 off (here -- manufacturer)

$2 off (here -- Walgreens)

$2.99 after coupons

Kleenex -- $0.79 (with in-ad coupon)

$0.75 off (here)

$0.04 after coupons

Pretty good for my first time, huh?

Who wants dinner?

I'm pretty sure that Amos does.

Christmas Parties

Ben and I went to his company Christmas party last night. The party was at Sullivan's Steakhouse this year, and it was absolutely awesome. The food was delicious -- stuffed mushrooms and shrimp for appetizers, a choice of fillet mignon, shrimp with pasta, or salmon for an entree, mashed potatoes, broccoli, cream corn, bread, and a choice of cheesecake, brownie with ice cream, or key lime pie for dessert. Definitely one of the best meals that I've ever had! We spent the evening laughing and talking with his co-workers and their spouses, and before we knew it, we had been there for over 4 hours, and Sullivan's was closing. I would definitely say that the party was a huge success!

Here's a picture of Ben and me before we left for the party.
A big "thanks" to Cheryl for letting me borrow her black heels.
Aren't they gorgeous? I would say that "beauty knows no pain", but that would be a complete lie. Those heels were killing me by the end of the night, but they sure did look great with my dress. Thanks again for letting me borrow them, Cheryl. I love living next door to you. :)

Although I'm a little late on blogging about it, we went to my office's Christmas party last week. Jacobs decided to do something a little more family oriented this year with dinner and a "quote-along" to the movie "Elf" at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown. For those of you who have never been to a "quote-along" (I hadn't until this party), it's similar to a sing-along in that the words appear at the bottom of the screen and are hi-lighted as they are being said. Before the movie started, they also passed out "jingle bells" to ring during the songs, and white balloons and streamers to be thrown during the "snowball fight" scene. The kids absolutely loved it, and the adults had a lot of fun, too. I was a little skeptical at first (especially when 2 guys dressed as "Buddy the Elf" got up on stage to explain what to do), but I was surprised at much I (and everybody else around me) got into it. Everybody was singing along to all of the songs, and when it started "snowing" at the end of the movie, it really did feel magical.

Unfortunately, Ben and I forgot to join in on the snow scene by blowing our bubbles, but the good news is that Annie and Amos had a great time eating the "snowflakes" later that night. We only let them do this for a couple of minutes, I'm pretty sure that they would have done it for hours or even days if we would have let them.

Why I have to use coupons...

I met Abby at the mall tonight to do a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping. We didn't find too much (I only spent about $15 and that included my dinner), but we did have a lot of fun looking around and catching up. I called Ben when I was on my way home to let him know that I had left, and he mentioned that he had done a good deed that night that may or may not get him in trouble. When I asked him what the particular good deed was, he went into a very long, drawn-out story about how a girl had shown up on our doorstep selling magazines. This girl was pregnant and very young (something that he mentioned several times) and told Ben that she was trying to make something of her life. Again, Ben mentioned that she was young and pregnant, so he decided to buy a "few" magazines to help her out. Afterall, her shoes were wet, and it was cold outside. After picking out a "few" magazines, the girl added it all up and gave him his total. $140. Yes, that's right -- $140 on magazines. He waited for my reaction, but to be honest, I was stunned. Don't get me wrong -- I am glad that my husband is so compassionate and soft-hearted, but $140 on magazines is a little excessive. Especially when I have a slight hunch that we will never see a single one of those magazines.

When I got home, Ben met me in the garage to see if I was mad. I assured him that I wasn't but that I had established a new house rule -- no buying things from anyone at the front door unless I am home. As soon as we got inside, Ben asked if he could give me one of my Christmas presents early so that I wouldn't be mad. Again, I assured him that I wasn't mad, but he insisted that I open one of my gifts that night. He sat me down at the kitchen table and told me to close my eyes. When I opened them, there was a little gold box with a big green bow sitting on my lap. Thinking that it was jewelry (what else comes in a box that small?), I reminded him that we had a spending limit this year and asked if he had stuck to it. He assured me that he had, and I opened the box. Imagine my surprise when I saw these.
Again, I was stunned. The first words out of my mouth were, "There's no way that you stuck to the spending limit." His response was, "This isn't a Christmas present. It's an 'I Love You' present." Sweet, huh? He told me that he had wanted me to open them early so that I could wear them to his Christmas party tomorrow night and that I could only keep them if I wasn't mad about the magazines. I again reminded him that I wasn't mad and put on the earrings. I mean -- how could you be mad when you have such beautiful earrings....and such a wonderful husband?
So, in summary, I have to use coupons so that Ben can #1, buy me nice gifts, and #2, give money to random pregnant girls that show up on our doorstep.

Merry Christmas from the Liggetts

Haha...Ben didn't quite make it back into position before the timer ran out. Definitely my favorite out-take. :)

O Christmas Tree

Wonderful Weekend

The past weekend was WONDERFUL. I took Wednesday off, and we both had Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving, so we had SO much time to have fun, get things done, and relax -- all in the same weekend. It was awesome! Unfortunately, I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have (so I will have to supplement with some that I already have), but here are some of the highlights.

• I went shopping with both my mom and Holly on Wednesday. We started at 10:00 am and didn't finish till almost 8:00 pm. It was awesome.
  
  The girls on the Riverwalk (November 2009)
  
  
  
• We spent Thanksgiving Day with both sides of the family at the Wheelers' Ranch in Tarpley, Texas. This was the first holiday that we spent as "one big happy family", and it turned out great. Unfortunately, Holly had to stay back in Austin to work though, so that was a bummer.
  
  The Liggetts at Grandma Wheeler's Birthday (July 2009)
  
  The Armstrongs on the Riverwalk (November 2009)
  
  
  
• I had lunch with Abby and our moms at Red Lobster on Friday. We had a great time catching up and looking at pictures of the grandbabies.
  

  Abby & me at the Hays County Heart Walk (March 2009)
  
  
  
• I did a little more shopping with my mom that afternoon, and we ran into Kate Skelley (a friend from high school that I haven't seen since graduation) and her mom while we were at Hobby Lobby.
  
  
• I put out all of the Christmas decorations -- except for the tree, which will happen next weekend.
  
  
• We went to dinner at Hyde Park Bar & Grill with our awesome neighbors Jason and Cheryl and then went to the mall. Unfortunately, I didn't find what I was looking for, but we still had fun.
  
  The Sotos & The Liggetts (November 2009)
  
  
  
• We met our newest family member -- Baby Jack. He's my mom's cousin's baby, and he is absolutely ADORABLE. We also got to play a little with his big sisters Olivia and Sophia, which is always a blast.
  
  
  Jack Hudson Straus (November 2009)
  
  Holly & Sophia (October 2009)
  
  Me & Olivia (October 2009)
  
  
  
• We also celebrated G's 82nd birthday on Saturday while visiting the new baby. We celebrated with McDonald's (Olivia's favorite) and cheesecake (also Olivia's favorite). 3-year-old's (and 82-year-old's) are the best!
  
  G with her 2 favorite dogs (January 2009)
  
  
  
• I bought an early Christmas present for Ben -- a basketball goal. Ben and I originally went to Academy just to look at it (and make sure that it would be easy to get in and out of the garage), but after seeing how excited Ben was about it, I decided to buy it right then and there.
  
  
• We also bought a mini-skateboard while at Academy. It was only $5 and was sitting at the end of the basketball goal aisle, and Ben just HAD to have it. It's been pretty fun so far. I tried it out, too, and after being on it for all of 1 second, I scraped my elbow through a long sleeve shirt AND a jacket. I guess I won't be doing that again.
  
  
• We put up our Christmas lights, and they look AWESOME. Ben decided that he wanted white lights this year, so we sold our colored ones to his parents and bought new ones. We also lined the sidewalk with Christmas trees this year.
  
  
• We made our very first pizza from scratch -- even the dough. It was a little messy, and it wasn't the prettiest pizza ever, but we had a lot of fun, and it tasted great.
  
  
• I ran errands with Cheryl on Sunday while the guys put Christmas lights up on Jason and Cheryl's house. It started pouring about 2 minutes after Ben got off the roof. Perfect timing.
  
  
• Ben set up the basketball goal, and we shot some hoops with Jason. I went inside after only shooting a couple of times (it was freezing outside!), but the guys stayed out for quite awhile. As I was walking inside, Ben said, "Just flicker the porch light on and off when it's time for me to come in." I'd say that this gift is definitely a hit!
  

Why can't every weekend be a 5-day weekend???

My husband is amazing because...

... he surprised me with...
... not one, but two Hey Cupcakes today.
Isn't he amazing?

"Couponing"

I went to both Walmart and Target today.

Here's a picture of what I bought at Walmart.
My total without coupons would $17.50, but using coupons, I got everything shown above for only $10.45. I saved $7.05 or 40% off of the original total.

Here are the coupons that I used.

Bic Disposable Razors -- $2.88
$2 off (9/20 SmartSource)
$0.88 after coupon

L.A. Looks Hair Gel -- $1.94
$1 off (8/2 SmartSource)
$1.94 after coupon

Tide Laundry Detergent (travel size) -- $0.97
$1 off (11/1 P&G)
FREE after coupon

Fiber One Granola Bars -- $2.44
$0.40 off (9/13 SmartSource)
$2.04 after coupon

Nature Valley Granola Bars -- $2.44
$0.40 off (9/13 SmartSource)
$2.04 after coupon

StarKist Tuna Salad Pouch -- $1.27
$0.50 off (here)
$0.77 after coupon

Blue Diamond Almonds -- $2.88
$0.75 off (9/13 SmartSource)
$2.13 after coupon

Stacey's Pita Chips -- $2.68
$1 off (here)
$1.68 after coupon

Here's a picture of what I bought at Target.
My total without coupons would $10.77, but using coupons, I got everything shown above for only $3.63. I saved $7.14 or 66% off of the original total.

Here are the coupons that I used.

Secret Deodorant -- $3.59x3 = $10.77
$2 off 2 (9/27 P&G)
Buy 2, Get 1 Free (11/1 P&G)
$0.50 off (11/1 P&G)
$1 off 2 (booklet of Target coupons that I got in the mail)
$1.21 each after coupons

Happy Halloween

P.S. I love you, Holly. :)

Spoiled...

Check out who has their own papasan chair.
Seriously...does life get any better than this?

Fall Favorites

Just wanted to share some of our recent "fall favorites".

I love, love, love the candle that I bought a few weekends ago while shopping with my mom. It's called "Autumn Wreath" by Yankee Candle, and it is awesome. It's definitely the best "fall" scent that I've ever smelled, and what makes it even better is the fact that it is now 25% off at Bed Bath & Beyond and I was able to use a 20% off coupon. Ah-mazing.

Ben is currently in love with the Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins that I found at Walmart. He says that the "holiday" peanut butter cups are way better than the "normal" ones. We've always bought the Valentine's hearts and Easter eggs, but we had never seen the pumpkin ones before. Needless to say, he was very excited when I came home with his surprise.

What's wrong with this picture?

I think that this might be the cutest thing that I've ever seen.

Hmmmm....

I'm not sure what's more amazing.

The 96 red roses or the fact that I ate every single one of those 70 bags of sunflower seeds myself.

Happy House Anniversary...

Today is our 1 year house anniversary. It was on this day last year that we closed on our house and moved in later that same day. It seems hard to believe that a whole year has already passed. We've had so much fun, and I know that we still have so many things to look forward to. I told Ben that I'd like to take a picture in front of our house each year on October 20th, so that we can document how our house (and yard) changes from one year to the next. Unfortunately, we didn't get home from work till it was dark outside, but as Ben so eloquently put it, we have to work late to afford this nice of a house. Haha. So true. :)

Double Date

This past weekend Ben and I went on a double date with Holly and her boyfriend Nelson. We decided to meet for dinner at Hyde Park Bar & Grill and had a somewhat healthy meal (go us!). Ben, Holly, and I all had the grilled chicken and guacamole BLT, and Nelson had the turkey burger. The not-so-healthy part of our meal consisted of the stuffed mushrooms that we had as an appetizer, but they were pretty delicious, so in my opinion, the calories were well worth it. Here's a picture of all four of us with our food. Although a couple of the people at our table (a.k.a. Holly and Ben) were slightly opposed to the idea of me asking the waiter to take our picture, I'm glad that I did. I think it turned out pretty cute.

After dinner, we decided to consume some more calories and headed over to Hey Cupcake for dessert. If you haven't had one their cupcakes, you are really missing out. Personally, I am a little obsessed. So far, I have tried the Double Dose (chocolate cake with chocolate icing), the Red Velvet (red velvet cake with cream cheese icing), and the Snowcap (chocolate cake with vanilla icing). I highly recommend all 3, but I have heard that the Michael Jackson (chocolate cake with cream cheese icing) is the best. Unfortunately, they have been sold out of that particular one every time that I have gone, but don't worry, I won't give up. :)

After dessert, we decided to burn a few calories (instead of consuming them) and went bowling at Westgate Lanes. I hadn't been bowling in forever (6 years?), which I think it was pretty obvious with my low score, but we had a great time. We ended up bowling two games, and Nelson won both. Unfortunately, I came in last both times, but on the bright side, my score did improve from one game to the next.

And what bowling date would be complete without a few "action shots"?

I think everyone will agree that Nelson's action shot is the most exciting while mine is probably the most boring. I'm beginning to wonder if that has any direct correlation with our scores. Maybe I should try throwing my arm back behind me with a "jazz hand" next time we go. It's worth a shot, right? :)

Thanks again for going out with us, Holly and Nelson. We had a lot of fun and can't wait to do it again soon!