Day 56: Happy Belated B-Day Ross!

Today was full of nothingness until the evening - I was home being a lazy bum while Eric worked all day.  After he got off of work, we puttered around the house and cleaned up [because we THOUGHT Steven and Leslie were coming over - nudge nudge! :)], then left for Ross's Birthday Bash.  At the liquor store we each found a great, yet terrible, deal.  I found a 1.5 liter bottle of chilled Yellow Tail Riesling [it tasted like chardonnay and wasn't very good], Eric found a 1.75 liter jog of Blackheart spiced rum for $10 [very harsh and very gross!].

We had a great time hanging out and talking with the crowd.  Unfortunately for us, we spent far too much time on the back porch and got more chigger bites than we have ever had.  Eric didn't count his, but I've got over 50 bites on my feet and ankles, with another two dozen on my arms and hands.

Pictures will be posted when Eric texts them to me and I upload them!  The real camera should be back any day now!

Day 55: Friday the 13th

Eric and I are Netflix freaks - being the budgeteers [rhymes with rocketeer] we are, we only spend $8/month on hours and hours of entertainment.  After we watched There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day Lewis, a few years ago, I added every DDL movie I could find to our queue.  We have had My Left Foot for nearly two weeks and finally decided to watch it.  It's about a severely disabled boy who has the most control over his left foot - he was unable to speak and eventually showed his family that he wasn't dumb by writing on the floor with chalk using his left foot.  He went on to learn how to speak and paint, and he wrote a biography using a typewriter and his left foot.

We weren't thrilled about the movie at first, but it actually ended up being pretty good!

FYI - we still haven't heard back about my camera, it could be another week and a half before we get it back.

Day 54: No More Credit Card!

At the beginning of the summer I got all three months of pay in one check - Eric and I did an awesome job budgeting through the wedding and making the money last all three months.  I worked my nanny job all summer and saved up all of the extra money to make a monster payment on my credit card in August.  Eric took on more hours at work too so he could add to the total as well.

Today we made a payment of $3082.48 and called U.S. Bank to close my credit card!  Between "gazelle intense" work and budgeting, a big tax refund, cashing on some tuition reimbursement, and setting a plan - we have paid off $9954.56 of our nearly $90,000 of debt in 6 months [more than 2/3 of it is student loans].  It blows my mind to think of how much deeper our hole could have been by now had we not started down this path.

When we went to pay off my card, the statement said that if we continued making minimum payments, it would be paid off in 17 years.  That is just so wrong.

Our game plan is now to get Eric's credit card paid off by our first anniversary - then we will be free of credit cards.  Next we will tackle my car and then his car.  Our goal is to have my car paid off by next August, then his car will be ours by December of 2011.  All of this would mean that after a year and a half of marriage, the only debt remaining should be my student loans!  Huzzah!

 This is our "no more credit card" jump for joy!  It took Paul and Deb a dozen shots to get us both off the ground in the picture!

Here is our debt thermometer, all colored in!

Day 53: First Day of School!

Today was my students first day back to school, a really early start in Lawrence.  I have 7 students this year, but I think they will still be quite a handful.  I spent nearly all day with one student, and only met my other kids for a few minutes each.  I stayed at school until nearly 7pm preparing materials for my really high needs student. 

I would have gone home closer to 5pm, but there was a torrential storm that had the rain going sideways and I figured I would wait it out.  While waiting, the back foyer of the school flooded and my classroom had a major leak.  I had to move an entire shelf out of my room to prevent my materials from getting ruined.

 Across the street from the school a tree lost a large branch.

Another house across the street from my school lost the entire tree.

Day 52: Rushing Around

Eric spent the morning and afternoon zooming around Lawrence putting in applications and places, hoping he can land a day job so we have more than an hour or two of time together each day.

I was all over my school today - in and out of meetings, setting up an auxiliary classroom for one of my kids, and preparing materials for the first day of school.

Now we're home for the evening and I'm about to cook some delicious pasta, yum! 

P.S. I found this sign in the staff bathroom at work today... I have already submitted it to Monday through Friday

It's nice to know that the staff bathroom needs this reminder!

Day 51: First Day Back at Work

Go me!  I woke up at 6:30 and proceeded to do my workout video, take a shower, get dressed and get to work on time!  I forgot to eat breakfast or make lunch though, whoops!

The new job has such great people!  I'm really excited to be working with everyone and I can't wait to meet my kids on Wednesday.  I have a lot of preparation to do for these kids, but it is definitely the challenge that I was missing last year.

Eric spent the afternoon riding the new motorcycle with Alan, and got a nice new pink coat to his biker burn.

You might be a biker if your biceps are as white as Addy's tummy and the rest of your arms are as pink as her nose!

Day 50: New Computer! (sort of)

We woke up early and got to Best Buy in Lees Summit before they opened this morning to [hopefully] buy my new netbook.  When we got in they had the store arranged like Black Friday, with tape lines and sections blocked off except one way to enter.  We were assigned a person to help us choose our computer, a really knowledgeable guy...not!  They didn't have the model we'd decided on in a display, so he assumed that we knew nothing and that Best Buy didn't carry it and couldn't order it.  We looked at other models while he visited with a supervisor about how the customer is always right. 

We chose another model to buy and he discovered they were out of stock, but would have to order it.  Eric and I chatted and decided that if we were going to have to order the computer anyway that we might as well order the computer that we had originally decided on.  We told the sales guy our decision and he puttered off aimlessly chatting with other people about how to do the impossible.  We found another sales person who knew what they were talking about and had the order ready in just a few minutes.

Sooooooo, right around the same time I'll be getting my camera back, we should also have a new HP Mini shipped to our front door!

Here it is!