fiscal fast: day one

So far, so good. We made our lunches (left over rolls and ham from Easter dinner with carrot sticks, crackers, and fruit-by-the-foot Easter egg candy), took the free shuttle to and from campus, and for dinner we had omelets made with free eggs from the neighbors, ham from Easter dinner, green peppers, and cheese. Yum!

Today wasn't so hard not to spend any money (since we don't usually spend money on Monday anyway) but I'll bet that it'll be harder on days like Tuesday where we usually run errands, or Friday which is grocery day. Stay tuned...

On another note, here are some pictures from Easter! Braeden and I made surprise baskets for each other which was really fun not only because we got Easter baskets but also because there was almost a month of secrecy as we snuck around getting special things to fill the baskets with. We agreed on a limit of $30 per person, including the baskets themselves.

I bought Braeden's basket from the dollar store but they only had ones that were pink and purple and yellow, so I spray painted it green and painted some grass on it for fun. Inside is Easter grass that I made by folding up pieces of scrap paper and cutting them into strips (I'm not wasting one of my precious 30 dollars on silly store-bought paper strips!), dinosaur transformers, a leather beta fish key-chain (Braeden loves beta fish), peeps, eggs filled with candy, and a lil piggy bank filled with the left-over cash.

The dinosaur transformers all transformed! Braeden split them into teams, The Twins (the green and red dinobots behind) and The Dino-Crotches. Obviously The Twins are the evil ones.

This was Braeden's basket for me! Inside is candy, eggs filled with candy, the first season of Modern Family, and a book that he made all by himself called Why She's Perfect (for me at least). So cute. He says that there is another gift on the way that he ordered on Etsy but the lady didn't mail it until like 2 days before Easter because she'd been on vacation (good trick) so I'm excited to see what that is, too!

We had our dinner group over for Easter Dinner—normally one person hosts and makes the dinner and another person brings dessert, but since Easter is a big deal we did it potluck style this time. I made the rolls from scratch (which I had never done before) and they actually turned out great! I used a recipe I found from AllRecipes.com and not only was it the least time-consuming recipe I could find, it was also delicious! I was a little worried since no matter how much flour I added the dough was just really sticky, but I just went with it and it turned out just fine. Our other friends brought ham, green salad, fruit salad, mashed potatoes, and sugar cookies for dessert. Also Eric (who also made the ham) brought a bunch of eggs that he had blown out and filled with things like small chocolate eggs and a few were "weapons grade" which we think means they are filled with glitter but have been too afraid to try... It was a really delicious and fun dinner.

We also had the missionaries over for the dinner and we all pitched in and made them Easter baskets too. Braeden and I went to the dollar store and bought them candy and toys and, deciding that they wouldn't keep or want to keep wicker Easter baskets, made them little paper baskets out of the bags that we always buy our apples in. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Elder Watkins and Elder Crocket with their baskets. They were really excited to get them. (Can't you tell from their faces?)