Author Archives: 365 days of marriage

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About 365 days of marriage

I started this blog in April of 2011. At the time, Bret and I were wedding photographers and it was a way to share how marriage is more about the day to day and so much more than the wedding day itself. For about 5 years, I blogged about the joys and sorrows of the Christian walk, marriage, work, family and friends. I’ve blogged every day since a few weeks after I started. In May of 2015, we photographed our last wedding. Now, I have become passionate about simplicity, particularly in marriage, Christianity, business, travel and life. For a number of reasons, we have become minimalists. I’ve found that having simplicity makes life so much deeper, refreshing and joyful. I hope that this blog will help others see the benefits of living simply.

Day 2476 – Marriage Tip – Ask Fun Questions Out Of Books Like These!

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One thing I love about marriage is continuing the learn about Bret. Even after being married 2476 days (7 years in July) and dating for 2+ years before that, I’m still learning new things. And let’s be honest, we all change over time. Also, I have a bad memory, so he can tell some stories multiple times and I’m none the wiser!

Yesterday, we purchased a really fun book! It’s called 500 Writing Prompts. We bought it on clearance at Barnes & Noble for only 10 bucks! Our intent is to actually write in our answers, so it will be fun to go back and see what we said in the past.

Check out some of the questions!

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Day 2475 – Funny Story Of The Week

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::scene Dunkin Donuts line, Jennilyn walks in, makes eye contact with an older cop::
Cop – Hello, tell Robin I said hi.
Jennilyn – ::squints eyes, tries to place said cop, did Robin and I work on a job with him?:: “Ha ha, I will”
::cop realizes the confusion:: “Your shirt…”
::Jennilyn realizes she’s wearing a BATMAN shirt! Duh, Batman & Robin::
Jennilyn – “That’s hilarious, I work for a Robin!”

Day 2473 – Southwest Credit Card And Rapid Rewards Tips

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We absolutely LOVE Southwest, the credit card and rapid rewards program. Seriously. We are not paid to say this! Though, people have asked if owned stock in them. Which wouldn’t be a bad idea! I love talking about travel and saving money (check out yesterday’s post on cross country travel for more on that!)

I wanted to share a few things with you!

First, there is a promotion going on where you can earn a nice bonus of miles:
If you’re interested in getting the Southwest credit card, let me know your email address and I can send you some info. There’s a promotion right now where I get 5,000 miles for everyone who signs up and hits a minimum. If you spend $2000 in 3 months, you get 50,000 miles, which is enough for 2 round trip tickets. We’re big fans of Southwest. We’ve gotten to fly almost free ($22 in fees/taxes), almost all the way to Cali to visit Bret’s family 3 times because of the cards. (We have two accounts with them). We’ve used the card for a while now, I’m able to pay it off online immediately (I’ve seen credit cards where you have to wait until it posts to the account before you can pay). lol, how else can I say I’m not trying to sell you something, we really do love Southwest and their credit card.

Tips to get more miles!

If you don’t have it yet, sign up for rapid rewards through Southwest. It’s free. I tell people, think of this like a grocery store’s membership card. And the credit card is like the store credit card.

First, log in to Southwest.com and check out the following:

Companion pass
Click on Rapid Rewards
The first window should show Snapshot. This is where you’ll see how close you are to a companion pass. It does look like it’s cumulative, but it’s only in one year. I haven’t hit this yet, but if you get a new southwest card and get that 50,000 AND follow some of these tips, I wouldnt’ see why you couldn’t get to the 110,000 miles.

Promotions
While logged in still, click on the promotions tab, you’ll see current deals.

Rocketmiles
You can book hotels through here and apply them to your Southwest card. They may be double/triple. Your first stay will give you a bonus 5,000 miles (not sure if that’s a constant promotion or not). Each night will give you about 1,000+ miles. These hotels cost a little more, maybe $20-30 more than we typically spend, but when we’re getting essentially $1000 worth of miles, it’s no biggie.

Dining rewards
Sign up here, you can attach up to 5 credit cards (don’t think they have to be a southwest card, but I haven’t tested it out). The points won’t count until your cards are attached. You’ll see that you can write reviews and get more points. The first time you go has a huge bonus.

A whole bunch of tips here!

A ton more ways to get bonuses can be found here.
Click through the different areas at the top – Travel, specialty, home, etc. e-rewards is found under Specialty – it’s an easy/free way to earn miles.

e-rewards
This is an easy and free way to earn miles. This is a survey site. Once you get to $100 worth of “survey money” you can transfer them to your rewards account. Last time I checked, $100 = 1000 miles! I haven’t done this in a while, but when I was, it didn’t take long at all to get to $100. This is a great thing to do while watching TV or waiting in line.

Do you have any good tips for quickly earning miles?

Thanks to Tif for my favorite airport picture, ever.

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Day 2472 – Cross Country Travel Advice Updated

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A friend recently asked for advice on driving across the country. Since we’ve done this a few times and are planning a trip this summer, I was excited to share. As I wrote most of the following (edited slightly to make it direct to y’all), I realized I have a passion for this. I love talking about certain things and inexpensive travel is one of them.

An old blog post about the drive.

Tips on saving money using a Southwest credit card.

To my wonderful readers! If you’re interested in getting the Southwest credit card, let me know your email address and I can send you some info. There’s a promotion right now where I get 5,000 miles for everyone who signs up and hits a minimum. If you spend $2000 in 3 months, you get 50,000 miles, which is enough for 2 round trip tickets. We’re big fans of Southwest. We’ve gotten to fly almost all the way to Cali to visit Bret’s family 3 times because of the cards. (We have two accounts with them). We’ve used the card for a while now, I’m able to pay it off online immediately (I’ve seen credit cards where you have to wait until it posts to the account before you can pay). lol, how else can I say I’m not trying to sell you something, we really do love Southwest and their credit card.

I will write a post tomorrow with some tips on how to rack up the Southwest miles! Some are without having to spend money!

Information about getting cheap RV rentals. There are great deals, but they’re locked in by location and dates.

I would recommend getting an America the Beautiful pass. It’s $80 for a year and gets you in to pretty much all of the national parks. From what I’ve read, it’s good for you and another person AND everyone in your car. So, I could put down my name and Bret’s and we’d both be on the pass. Then we can take people in if they’re in the car. I don’t know much more than that, so check out the website. Since we’re looking into driving the northern route this summer, we want to see Rushmore and Yellowstone, just the two parks almost pay for the pass itself. Since we live in Maryland, we’re so close to SO many National Parks that would count (Fort McHenry, Gettysburg [I believe], etc.), so it makes sense.

Choice hotels tend to have good deals, last time I looked into them, especially if are a choice hotels member (it’s free) and you can book them at least 10 days (though, I don’t recommend booking hotels that far in advance on a road trip, you have NO idea what will happen on the road). OR, if you have a southwest card, you can use Rocketmiles to book your hotel. You pretty much always get 1000 miles on top of the points you earn for the hotel itself. They tend to range about $20-30 more than most hotels, but 1000 miles is like spending $1000, so it works out well! The first stay gets you 5000 miles.

I just found some great deals on Amtrack. You can take a train from San Francisco to Baltimore for about $300. We’ve thought about renting a car and then taking the train back….or maybe getting a flight close to where we want to go and then driving the rest. Maybe Chicago and then drive from there to the other places.

Some tips – If you’re driving, ALWAYS stop when you’re tired. Even if it’s just for a little bit. Having a cooler and food with you is GREAT. There are more tips on that first link. Though, I will say, we’re NOT going to sleep in the back seat this time. We’re going to sleep in the passenger seat….don’t think it’s too safe, really.

Oh! Little known fact, the states in the south are really bad at taking care of snow! So if you’re driving in the winter, know what the weather is. We were stuck in Texas for 10 hours because of ice. My internet wasn’t working well, but I was able to call my mom and she finally figured out what was going on by calling the highway patrol. So I would get the highway patrol numbers for all of the states you’re driving through.

If you camp, look into parks versus big name campgrounds. We regularly camp at a state park and it’s only about $20 a night. Or there are mini cabins, at our state park, for about $55. So that’s something to consider too.

If you sleep in the car, Walmart parking lots are good as are big name gas stations like Pilot and Loves. DO NOT go to the bathroom in a small dinky gas station. lol, there was one place we stopped at in Tennessee or Kentucky and I swear, it was like I was walking through someone’s house. Ha ha, I don’t think we stopped at a no name place after that!

I would also say, figure out the places you HAVE to stop, then the places you’d like to stop and then the, it’s ok if it doesn’t happen. So, know what’s absolutely important and build the trip around that.

Highlights in our travels:
San Antonio, Texas
Monterey, California
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Russells Truck & Travel Center, 1583 Frontage Road 4132, Glenrio, NM 88434 (lol, YES, a rest stop!)

Do you have any questions about cross country travel? Let me know in the comments!

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