Here’s What! Puppy edition!

April 25, 2014 | cheriarmour

So today’s “Here’s What” is a little bit different because this Friday is a very very special Friday.

First and foremost, Happy Friday, and a big huge congrats to all the participants in this year’s Boston Marathon. I know a few folks here in Raleigh that raced and finished, and I’m so proud of their huge accomplishment. Here are two of my friends who did it! Congrats to them!

Hokay.

So earlier this week, I posted a little teaser to Instagram…

So are you curious yet? Do you want to know what it’s about?

So, let’s back it up to March 1st of 2014, when a friend of a friend adopted a dog from a shelter. The dog was underweight, a Belgian Malinois, which is sort of akin to a German Shepard. So the dog’s Mama, Andrea, was sitting with her on the couch on Saturday night when the dog had an “accident”.

Before long, Andrea realized that the “accident” on the couch was no accident, and that Georgia, the dog, was delivering 7 puppies!

Unfortunately, one of the puppies was lost, but Andrea successfully delivered 6 healthy little puppies, 3 boys and 3 girls and is letting them stay until they’re weaned off their mama. Wanna see?

One of the pups nursing.

Puppies really like to nap…check out this guy taking a little nap on his back 🙂

Those little tongues!

So here is the deal with these precious little bundles.

They were be available to be adopted in about 6 weeks.

Andrea WILL NOT adopt them out to just anyone. If you are interested in adopting them, please shoot me an email – Cheri.Armour@gmail.com. I will forward your information over to Andrea, and she is prepped to vet you, because even though she would love to keep these pups herself, she physically cannot do it.

This is what I’m obsessed with today.

What are you obsessed with this Friday?

Budgeting.

April 23, 2014 | cheriarmour

Austin and I had to have a really difficult pre-wedding conversation yesterday, about budgeting.

I think it’s really cute and funny to be poor and subsist soley on Ramen and Diet Mountain Dew for college, but I’m out a few years, trying to build a life for me and my husband-to-be, and we would be complete idiots if we didn’t have the very difficult conversation about money.

I think naturally, money is just a really difficult and uncomfortable topic to talk about. Then, throw in the fact that I don’t make very much of it, and Austin makes more than enough, and it makes for some learning curve and growing pains.

Because I make so little, I’ve gotten comfortable being a little sloppy with my spending. As long as I can make my sort of “required” bills, I don’t worry about a ton else. But that can’t work forever. Things happen. Transmissions go out. Sometimes you jam your thumb (side eye). Sometimes something just unexpected comes up. And it makes me extremely uncomfortable to not have some sort of cushion or nest egg built up at the point that I thought I would.

So, a few steps I’m taking to take some more charge of my finances?

I’m using Mint to keep track of/analyze my finances. I almost dread when I open Mint up, but it’s necessary, I think, to keep track of what’s going on. From Mint, I’ve gathered a few things.
I really need to chill out on the coffee. Like it’s really not even funny, I have to chill out. As of this month, I’ve spent $40 on Starbucks, and a few more dollars at McDonald’s and Bruegger’s on coffee-related items. I need to come up with a plan to still get my caffeine, but to forgo a few trips to Starbucks. Realistically, I’d like to limit my outside coffee budget to about $25/month, which can feasibly be done if I skip the fancier drinks and just go with americanos and flavor them to my linking.
I’m awesome with brown-bagging the lunch, but I need to chill on errant trips to the Teeter when I feel inspired to cook something weird. My food spending is a little higher than it need to be.
Switch to cash for food. No more swipey swipey for me.
By the end of this week, I need to call the awesome folks down at the student loan place, and figure out how much I’m going to be paying once we get married and combine the incomes. It’s gonna hurt, but the bigger the monthly payment, the faster I can be free of that debt.
Long term? I gotsta make more money! I’m keeping the eyes peeled for job opportunities that will afford me (hee hee) more wiggle room.

I have to admit, I feel like I have no clue what I’m doing, and I feel like a total idiot for not knowing some of this budgeting stuff already, but what are some of your best responsible spending and money saving tips?

Home happenings….

April 22, 2014April 22, 2014 | cheriarmour

More mangos.

Number one, I’m still extremely troubled by the fact that there’s not one consensus on the plural word for mango. It can either be mangoes or mangos. So, I’ve been switching it up, but it makes me really uncomfortable nonetheless. But if you’ll remember from about a week and a half ago, I went crazy on the mango sale at Whole Foods. Well, when I went back the other day, and they were on sale, this time two for a dollar, so ya girl went cray on them.

I went to town dehydrating mango, which can be really expensive if you buy it in the bags, and really really fully of sugar, so it’s nice to slice up your own, and know that you’re not getting any of the gross stuff that can come in the bag.

Let’s make a right turn.

Reality TV.

Did anyone catch the RHOA reunion? Yikes, yikes, yikes. Porsha absolutely lost her mind for a second. Now I absolutely do not condone violence, and because of that, Porsha needs to leave the reunion, and whatever it is that Bravo Andy chooses to do with her is his decision, but my LORD Kenya was getting on my nerves with the scepter and that damned bullhorn. She is so so obnoxious, and she really needs to go. But Porsha, you know you were dead wrong for hitting her.

This app.

I know you’re probably sick and tired of hearing all about my iPhone woes, but while I was in the process of re-downloading and configuring where I like my apps to go on my little phone’s desktop, I stumbled on Sara from Loving on the Runs’ sort of mini-review of TimeHop.

Here’s what it looks like, and it’s terribly cute.

The app links up with your Twitter, your FB, and your Instagram, and pulls statuses and photos from YEARS ago, so it’s a total trip down memory lane. Here’s what I got yesterday!
This one was following a day when I won like $1000 in a local singing competition. It was really awesome. I also spent most of it repairing that Taurus that I had, but whatevs, that’s the life of being an adult, right?

I skipped Body Pump this morning 😦

I’m really bummed, but my thumb kinda still hurts from when I jammed it on Sunday night. I packed my running clothes, and as soon as my clients leave from the job today, I’m going to set out for a few minutes and get the blood pumping!

How’s your Tuesday shaping up!?

The Apple Store.

April 22, 2014April 21, 2014 | cheriarmour

I visited the Apple store twice in the last four days. That’s a lot of Apple. And a lot of products.

So first, I’ve been rocking the same iPod since about 2011-2012, but in reality, the iPod has been floating around for about 5 years, and was gifted to me after some hoodlum stole it from the gym at the Banana on Glenwood (my old apartment building). The fair Ashely Little, one of my bridesmaids, shipped me the iPod, and saved me a million dollars for my classes.

So last week, I went in to replace the iPod ($150), and while I was there, I swapped out my phone because the camera was doing this weird thing….

Where it would leave this ghostly black line through the top of the photos. It was driving me crazy, and I felt like, even though I do a lot of my photographing on my new real camera, I hated putting pics like this one up on the blog because it’s ratchet. So I swapped it out. Free, because I still had 65 days left on my warranty.

So after yesterday’s debacle, when I locked my keys in my car, fell asleep on the front porch, and scraped up the entire right side of my body, I realized, upon falling down and spraining my thumb, that I’d cracked the screen of my new iPhone, the one that I’d gotten 3 days earlier.

When glass started affixing itself to the side of my head, I knew I had to go in. And there, 4 days after I swapped out my iPhone, I spent $200 despite begging and pleading for them to have mercy on me to replace my broken phone.

Expensive lesson learned.

Once again, I nailed it.

On the plus, the people at the Apple store are really nice, and I feel for them because of the sheer volume of idiocy I saw. Some guy jumped in line in front of me to check in, then left the grounds when they were calling his name. This older lady from Michigan plopped down in a chair and then stated that she had not been helped. But you plopped down and thought someone was gonna magically know to help you in a crowded store? Then this couple was literally shouting at this one associate….I just cannot.

Tell me your best broken phone story!

Easter Sunday OOTD + my little spill…

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014 | cheriarmour

Easter Sunday was beautiful in North Carolina, and one of the first Sundays I was able to go out and run for a little while outside because it finally wasn’t gross and rainy all day! We’re not big church folks, so instead of going to church, I straightened up, and by straightened up, I mean I pretended to straighten up for about 10 minutes before I got sick of it and started blogging and catching up on the DVR I missed out on. But, the day wasn’t complete without me putting on this ModCloth dress for Easter Dinner…

I actually bought it for the Jingle Ball back in October, for only like $160. And I say only because it was actually normally priced for such a nice dress, but I had it rushed because I’m an idiot and I waited until three days before the even to get the dress, and then I had to have it rushed. I actually had to go to a sketchy part of town to pick in up from a UPS spot because it arrived literally the day before the event. I ordered a size 6 and prayed. Thankfully it ended up fitting, but this time when I slipped it on, it was actually a little loose around the midsection. I don’t think I’ve lost any weight, save for maybe a couple of racing pounds, but the weight lifting is really rearranging things. My tummy and my waist are totally loving it!

PS, I’m totally loving our real camera! One of these photos was taken on an iPhone, and the detail on the DSLR doesn’t even compare!

The Spill

So last night, after Easter Dinner, I headed home, and immediately proceeded to lock my keys in my car. I had everything in my arms, my camera, a half-gallon of coffee I’d manage to snitch from the dinner, and cups to go with it, and has I was wobbling toward the stairs to go into my house, I fell down, cracked my phone (two days after getting it, mind you), sprained my thumb, and had to collect all of my coffee cups that were now rolling around on the sidewalk. I could hear Coco freaking out inside.

So I did what any rational female would do at 11:00 pm, and I wedged the screen off of my front window which I’d locked.

Dangit.

I Googled AAA, called them, and then proceeded to fall asleep on my front porch. Yes, fall asleep on my front porch.

Luckily, I woke up in time to meet the AAA guy, who told me something along the lines of “You look spectacular” or something (I know, honey), and got into my apartment, and into my PJs with my sprained thumb with just enough time to stalk a few folks on social media.

Oh, and Austin says he’s not paying for my new phone, that I have to buy it myself.

I nailed Easter Sunday. Nailed it.

How was your Easter Sunday!

The no-reply blogger.

April 16, 2014April 16, 2014 | cheriarmour

I got this on Twitter the other day.

You’re a no-reply blogger.

I didn’t even know what it meant! So my first instinct was to fall on the ground and ask for forgiveness for “not replying” to something. I’m very literal. But when I replied to her comment and Googled it, I found it what it means.

Bloggers pay attention!

If you’re a non-blogger too, and every thinking about blogging, this is kind of a good thing to know anyways. So when I Googled it, I stumbled upon this article by the super-sweet Susannah, who, with her blog, guided me through what exactly was going on.

So when I created my Gmail, it was May of 2009, and the contact info attached to this Gmail was my Elon.edu address, which, unfortunately, we were not permitted to keep. This meant that when I created my blog, almost four years later, when I commented on Blogger-hosted blogs, (which is a Google thing), it would respond to them using an old, no longer functioning email address. So when bloggers would try to reply to me, they would get a no-reply message!

Thank GOD that she let me know, god only knows how many comments I’d made that they couldn’t reply to. So, bloggers and writers! CHECK to make sure that when you’re commenting on blogs, you’re taking the necessary steps to make sure that you’re not a “no reply” blogger. Any questions? Put them below!

Yoga pants?

April 15, 2014April 15, 2014 | cheriarmour

Don’t take this the wrong way, I love workout stuff – it’s nearly as essential to my workouts as my will to workout is. That might sound ridiculous, but if you’ve ever worked out in the wrong shirt or a bra that’s chafed you, you know exactly what is is I’m saying.

So even though between my job and teaching classes, I spend a lot of time in any variety of workout gear – yoga pants, sports bras, and technical tops, I was really puzzled when Austin, the boy behind the blog, gave this thought-provoking answer to one of the questions I asked him during an interview last week.
The question was: What’s a popular fashion item for women right now?

His answer?

Yoga pants!!!

Okayyyyyy. So I was really trying to figure out where this answer came from. Again, it’s not that I find yoga pants offensive, but really, when you think of popular women’s fashion items, you might think of things like, the color mint green, sparkly ear cuffs, or cropped tops with jorts, especially for Coachella. But yoga pants?

So I asked him to clarify, and this is what he had to say. Imagine this in a southern accent.

Well that’s all I see those girls wearing when I go to shop at the Cameron Village Teeter [Harris Teeter].

Annnnnd that would explain it. Every single girl who shops at the Cameron Village Harris Teeter, which is where you go if you want to make sure someone hits your car when they drive 30 mph in a parking lot to return their Redbox DVDs, is a student at either Meredith or NC State. Their uniform is either Norts (Nike Shorts) an oversized sorority tee, with an option of swapping the Norts for sweatpants with a pair of boat shoes, Nike Frees with high socks, or Rainbows.

The moral of the story? Austin is taking his fashion cues from the Harris Teeter. Cool.

Zyrtec.

April 14, 2014April 13, 2014 | cheriarmour

Remember when I told you that Zyrtec was one of my weekly obsessions? I wasn’t lying, on Friday, after spending a miserable Thursday at work. I was not kidding at all.

Toward the end of the day, when my throat was feeling extra horrible, I wanted to kick a hole in the wall, but I resisted the urge. Barely.

So, on Friday morning, when I woke up feeling like less of a monster, and more like Cheri, I did the natural thing. I tweeted @Zyrtec to tell them that their product was really fly, and was surprised to see how responsive they were!

I followed them…

And I called them.

They were really great. They wanted to collect some info from me about my age, my usage of Zyrtec, and then they popped a few coupons in the mail for me.

If you didn’t know it already, it’s true. I am still obsessed with Zyrtec, and they rock. And they didn’t pay me to say this, even though I would be totally down with it if they did decided to throw me some bennies and free product to talk about their miracle drug.

I had a total meltdown.

April 13, 2014April 12, 2014 | cheriarmour

I came home on Thursday night SORE.

My throat was sore.

My body was sore, on account of the fact that I woke up to run 4 miles with a coworker, and then I taught class around 6:30. And I fantasized about the bath I would take that night, complete with a book with actual pages, and epsom salts.

So I turned on the water, and this is what happened.

If you can’t tell what exactly is going on here, I can fill you on. When I turned the water on, water filled with a black ash waterfalled, and I watched, in disbelief, as my clean bathtub started to become smeared and smutty.

And I lost it.

I called Austin about 4 times.

I texted him.

And then I started to freak out.

My throat hurt. My body hurt. And I couldn’t get my warm bath.

So I screamed. I told Austin that I was going to kick down the door of the front office. Austin called and asked if I wanted a hotel room to take a bath in. I said I didn’t and that I’d rather just punch everybody. I screamed for so long and laid on the floor for so long that Austin looked really worried. And then, like a child who had just thrown the most epic of fits, I fell into a deep sleep.

I threw a fit. And I’m sorry. We live in the greatest nation of the world, and I’m throwing a fit because I can’t take a bath when I want it? I need to grow up. No, I didn’t get my bath, but I went to sleep in a warm bed, I have folks who care about me, food in my belly, and I think they might have fixed the water. So I might even have a bath. I’m lucky. And happy 🙂

	cheriarmour on Nice going, papermate.
	Michelle on Nice going, papermate.
	Headbands of Hope +… on Headbands of Hope Photoshoot…
	cheriarmour on Athletes foot. ON MY HAND…
	Lib on Athletes foot. ON MY HAND…

Overactive Blogger

Life