I got a new car! Actually I decided to trade Carmella {the sportage} in for a better car.

The commute to work for me is 1 hour each way so basically I’m driving 2 hours every day and not saving money in gas especially when the sportage only has 25 mpg. So it was time to trade in for a new car. I knew I wanted to stay with Kia since I’ve never had problems with Kia before.

First I did research online finding out which dealership had the best reviews in Phoenix. We called and made an appointment with a salesman for Sunday. Sunday was probably the best day to go since it was on Superbowl day and I’m sure shopping for a new car was the last thing on people’s minds that day.

We looked at the Forte & Soul since both of them had really good highway MPG. I immediately disliked the Forte because it seemed small to me. I can’t go from a SUV to a Forte. I liked how Soul was similar to a SUV so we test drove a bright red Soul. I knew I wanted it and Tyler really liked it too.

We went back inside to start the negotiating process. It took a while since we wouldn’t budge for what they were asking for. It came down to the point when the sales director had to come out to talk to us. He said he had to call the owner to see if he would be okay with sticking to our budget. I don’t know if this is something they do often when they call the owner. He came out with a big smile on his face and said he was able to get us what we wanted!

I’m so glad buying a car the second time was painless as the first time was. The best thing was that buying a black Soul was cheaper than the red one which was perfect since we wanted the black one!

I’m in love with it! I was so excited to drive it for an hour to work on Monday. It was pathetic because I couldn’t sleep on Sunday night. It brought back memories of all those first days of school where I couldn’t sleep the night before because I was so excited to see my friends again and wear all my new school clothes.

Anyways, isn’t it so cute!? I know I’ve named all my cars in the past but I’m going to just name it The Soul for now until I come up with a name.

On Saturday all of the girls met up at the dry bar to get our hair done. No cuts, no colors, just blowouts with wash included all for $35! They even ask you if you want margarita or champagne which was also included in the $35. Nice deal, huh?

I love how it looks like a bar!

Even across the street there is minibar.ber.shop for guys where their deal is “get buzzed. $20 haircuts & $2 beers” haha, I love it. Rahul got his hair done there while the ladies were getting our hair done.

Anyways, we headed to Lindsay’s house to get ready and took some pictures before we left. I think we were the only ones that arrived in a SUV with 2 guys cramped up in the very back. It was so funny to let them out when we pulled up to the resort with valet parking.

It was a black-tie event so we all had fun dressing up and going together. The food was amazing especially their dessert. Tyler became obsessed with the fruit and asked our server where they got their fruit from. Amazing how everyone went out of their way to find out for Tyler, jeez. It turns out all the head chefs already left so Tyler was bummed to not get an answer.

This is how much fun we had!
We were probably the youngest people there with our own table since people had to buy tables to go to the honor ball.

Last week was a busy week for me. I wish my body didn’t require sleep so I could get a lot more done with everything!

The highlight of the week was that I went to a Zumba class on Tuesday night. A friend of mine went with me and we had so much fun! I went again on Thursday and definitely will be going 2 times a week now. I’m not a dancer and not an expert but what makes it great is that I know I’m not the only one in the room that doesn’t get some of the moves. But I’m determined to get there and be shakin’ my booty the right way!

My mom went to Zumba with me on Thursday and she told me afterwards that she didn’t do Zumba, Zumba did her. Whatever! She would rather exercise in front of the TV at home in private anyways. I have some more girlfriends who are interested in going to class and even my sister too so it’ll be fun!

I know Missa Lee is going to comment and say, “I told you!!” because she’s been trying to get me to try Zumba for months. Pffft.

It’s been a while since I updated about Cheerio. Isn’t he so cute!? I can’t get enough of him, seriously. I love it when he greets me at the door when I get home from work. Sometimes he’s not at the door when I come in but he’s always running down the hall to the door with his ears flapping up and down.

We keep spoiling him with new toys & treats. We’re learning what treats he does and does not like. So far we have found some good “healthy” treats that he likes. I usually give him a treat before I leave for work to distract him from giving me the sad face when I leave.

When we’re not home he has access to half of the house. We don’t trust him with the front of the house where the foosball table & living room is. When he was being potty trained, he would poop on the carpet. Now he has not gone potty in the house for a while anyways. We always leave all the bedroom doors closed when we’re gone too. Also the laundry room is blocked with a gate because of the cat litter box.

I’m glad Tyler is usually able to come home for lunch so he can play with Cheerio and let him out to go potty. We make sure we give him lots of love when we’re home to make up for it.

However…he’s not exactly innocent as he seems to be. He chews on the edge of the carpet in the family room. Ugh! There are a few bald spots from him doing that. It’s driving me crazy! I wish we had a lot of money to just rip out all of the carpet and tile to put in hardwood floors. This is the first thing I’d do if I won the lottery.

BUT again…how can I be mad at this adorable poochie?! His ears are so soft that I want to nibble on them!

Chantelle came up with a photo challenge for January and it’s awesome that so many people are partcipating in this challenge. It’s not too late to join if you haven’t yet!

So far I’ve completed 6 days and it’s been real fun posting them on Instagram with the hashtags (#JANphotoaday & #fatmumslim) and seeing all the other pictures from people doing the challenge too.

P.S. See the last picture? I finally caved in and got a Erin Condren life planner. I’m in love with it!

P.S.S. Check out a new WordPress theme called “Out of Chevron” that I just put up on Etsy. The great thing about this new theme is if you don’t like the color you see then no worries, we’ll customize the color for you!

P.S.S.S. Hope you all have a lovely weekend! xo!

I sat up to get a drink and saw that the house was flooded! I’m not quick at rescue and was too shocked to do anything. Tyler ran to the laundry room to shut off the water.

It turns out that our washer works but wasn’t spinning. My dad came over earlier that day to help us take apart the washer to see if the spinning belt needed to be replaced. The belt was not worn out and everything looked fine so we went to Home Depot and did our research. There was a sale going on with 10% off on top of the sale price.

We wanted to play it safe and get a new washer that would last us years than to pay almost the same amount to get someone out to come and look at it and fix whatever the problem was then hope that it doesn’t happen again.

We decided on the Maytag Bravos XL High-Efficiency Top Load Washer even though we would have liked to get the most expensive & pretty washer that is way out of our budget!

Anyways, back to what happened. Tyler put the washer back together and hooked it back up in the laundry room since we weren’t going to get our new washer until Friday. I wanted to do some laundry and told Tyler I’d do it the old fashioned way and squeeze out all of my clothes since it wouldn’t spin.

Well, I guess the pipe wasn’t fully attached and came loose and silently flooded the house! I immediately left and went to the store to get mops and a bucket. My dad then came to our rescue with tons of towels and the shop vac.

I sent a text message to a friend who lives close by asking him if he could come and help us. He said he was going to eat dinner then come over. By the time he got to our house, we were pretty much done. We teased him saying that if he ever tell us that his house is on fire then we will come over after we eat.

Our neighbors probably were wondering what was going on since there was water coming out of our garage and down the driveway. I’m so glad that nothing really was damaged and that I saw it before it could have gotten worse.

{My DIY Coffee Filter Wreath}

I made my grandma’s coffee cake and it turned out to be delicious! I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures. Next time!

My parents got me this beautiful capiz pendant from West Elm!

I’m in love with it and cannot wait to put it up! Now I need to figure out which room I want to put it in.

We got my parents a 16×20 canvas of me and my sister since my mom has always wanted these pictures to put up. I ordered them from WinkFlash since I was able to get 60% off of my order and I’m happy with how they turned out! My parents love them and actually hung them up on the wall in the hallway on their side of the house so they can see it everyday.

Here’s a typical kissy-face picture of me and my sister. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas/Holiday season!

I found a good picture of each family member and printed them out. So we cut them out and taped them on each present. I didn’t need to put who it was from since we used the same wrapping paper for all of our presents.

My dad…isn’t he handsome?!

and my gorgeous mom & sister!

I cut up more tags so my parents can use them too with their presents. I can’t wait to spend time with the family! I wish Tyler’s family wasn’t so far away so we could celebrate with them too. We live only 4 miles away from my parents so we’ll be celebrating with them Christmas Eve then go home when we’re ready to go bed. Christmas morning we will immediately go back to my parents’ house in our pajamas. So much easier than packing up our stuff and besides our bed is way better than my old bed.

My mom has asked me to make grandma’s coffee cake this year and I’m so nervous that I’m going to mess it up. I’m probably going to be texting my friend from work who is the perfect wife who cooks and bakes everything. I’m hoping mine will turn out better than my mom’s last year. This will be perfect to make with my new KitchenAid stand mixer that I got for my birthday! I’ll keep you all posted and hopefully I’ll be back with good news.

I hope you all have a wonderful break and Merry Christmas!! xo!

I’m always buying cheap handbags that never last me a long time. For months I’ve been looking for the perfect one and never found one or worth the money. I started looking online and suddenly thought about Epiphanie. Once I was on their website looking at all of their handbags, I was so overwhelmed because I couldn’t choose which one I wanted. I spent hours trying to make a decision! It was driving me nuts and then I finally decided on the Clover bag mainly because the iPad will fit inside.

So I ordered it last week and became obsessed with tracking the package. It was the longest 2 business days (weekend included). This morning I checked online and saw “Out for Delivery” and immediately I knew it was going to be a good day!

The girls and I were eating lunch in one of the conference rooms (our lunch spot) today when a co-worker came in with the package. It was beautifully packed in a cute pink zipper bag that read Epiphanie.

So I opened it and there was my gorgeous gray Clover bag! I looooove it! I even brought my camera and iPad to work with me so I could immediately put them in my new Clover bag.

I love how the inside is pink and there are velcro panels inside so I can keep my iPad in one section and my camera in another when I bring it with me. I’m sooo in love with it!

I thanked Tyler for my Birthday gift even though I bought it, haha. I told him not to bother getting me one for my Birthday on Sunday, the 18th. I can’t believe I’m going to be 27. Crazy! I lost track after 21.