Three days until Christmas

Hello blog fans! So it's three days before Christmas & Mia is upstairs screaming & kicking the bathroom door because it won't lock. Yup, I'm gonna say that's probably the best way to get me into the Holiday spirit. Oh boy, it's been a busy few weeks, but it's almost over!!! Tonight is the last night of school, I graduate, send in my application to take the state exam & get my final certificate from the class. Woohoo, I made it! How did everything seem so easy for our parents? I'm not saying that it's was all ease & no stress at my house, but aside from the chaos of making the holiday meals, everything else just seemed to fall into place. I don't remember my mom freaking out about trying to find time to wrap gifts or those little things. It just seemed that one day there were gifts under the tree, end of story. I guess it's a lot like the theater productions I used to be involved in, on stage everything is easy & in place, but back stage it was chaos, people walking swiftly to get props in their places, changing costumes, people chattering quietly in headphones to make sure the lights, music & curtains all work as the right time. It always made me laugh when people would comment on how great the show was because from my view back stage it was always a MESS!!! That's how it is when people comment how together I seem, inside I'm a total mess, I just shove it into my mental closet so company doesn't see it! I feel so frazzled, it's amazing our tree even got decorated this year!! I think God broke my oven so I wouldn't feel the need to bake all Christmas treats I always feel obligated to bake. It has been sheer heaven not to even think twice about baking, I have zero guilt & it's saved me hours of time too. It's amazing how these things work out just right. Of course there's the inconvenience of having to go to my mom's house to cook items for my school pot luck, but it's only one night so I can't complain too much.

OK, now I'm going to tell you the good news! No, I'm not pregnant! Greg and I talked to a financial advisor & we have our plan to be totally debt free (aside from student loans) in four years or less! The woman put us on a budget, although she was shocked how we've been able to stretch Greg's salary for the past year. Our credit cards are dead to us & by the time I finally get accepted into the Nursing program (it's a three year waiting list) we'll be able to pay cash for school! How awesome is that? Once I start working, if we continue to live the way we have we'll be able to be debt free even sooner, maybe in two years! I'm so excited, it will be amazing to only be shelling out money for student loans, our house & Greg's car!! That being said, we may have to postpone our Hawaii trip since we won't be using credit at all, but we'll be saving money for the trip so we'll get there soon. I suppose the next big step in our lives is me using my education & getting a job! I've been looking around for jobs & can start applying in January so I need you all to say a prayer for me that some poor sucker company will hire me. The plan is to work in a nursing home for a year, then move to a hospital & be so awesome that they'll want to pay for my Nursing school. We'll see how that works out.

Anywho, that's about it, nothing funny has been happening to me lately, at least not that I've noticed, I've been so pre-occupied with school & living on no sleep that I've lost my sense of humor temporarily. I hope you all have a fantastic Holiday season & here's to making 2010 the best yet. I'm working on my resolution, I'm tired of the obvious ones. Maybel I'll resolve to use more curry powder in my cooking or something bizarre like that. Merry Christmas.

xoxo

Looking back

Can you even believe it's almost been a year?! Only two more weeks and we will have officially been living "frugally" for twelve hole months. Although if you take into consideration all the times we've cheated it will really be about eleven months, but still, that's pretty damn good! I'm sorry to say that we didn't get quite as far into paying off the debt as we had hoped to be by this time, but I'm proud of what we've accomplished. With us losing my income completely we were able to keep our heads above water and still have everything we needed. Money has been very tight around here, but I'm so grateful to have everything we do I feel like we've been completely successful. I can go into Target and look at the wonderful wares they have to offer and walk out of there, not only without any anxiety, but also with only the items I went in there for in the first place! Do you remember how hard it was for me 11 months & 3 weeks ago? I know it was such a great source of entertainment for you all, but it's amazing how you can change your whole life in just one short year. I think I can count on one had the number of non essential items I've purchased this year, I wouldn't have even been able to count the non essentials I purchased in one DAY on one had on an average day in 2008. My children don't ask for toys at the store (at least not when I take them, of course they do when they go with Nonnie), Emma actually said she can't think of one thing she wanted to ask Santa for, then she said "Oh yeah, I need some poster putty, I can ask him for that." Can you believe that?! Luckily my mom had some spare poster putty so she can ask for something really good like more staples and some tape for her dispenser! You're not going to believe this, but we literally have not bought one single gift for Christmas. We told the kids that they were not going to get anything from us because we can't afford it so what they get from the Grandparents is what they'll get this year (plus Santa, thanks mom & dad) and they took it like champs, not one of them grumbled, they just said OK and that was that. We also need to thank Ma & Pa Lewis for the OMSI membership renewal for Christmas, that's a great way to have fun for no money on our part! We don't have one gift under our tree, last year it was flowing toward the middle of the room by this time and they haven't said one word about it. I'm so proud of the girls and how much they've come to appreciate the things they have and be so grateful when they get something new from someone, it's been a tough but good lesson for them.

I found $6 in my pocket last week and treated the kids to a Little Caesar's pizza and you would have thought I bought them all a pony, they were so excited! We used to take so much for granted, and we still do, but it makes me wonder how we can make 2010 an even better year when it comes to appreciating what we have. I'm almost done with school, I graduate in seven days and I can start applying for jobs in January. My biggest hope is that we can continue living the way we have and not slip back into old habits. We're going to abolish all but one credit card for true emergencies only and live on a cash only basis. I think everyone should reassess their lives and see what they can do without, even if you don't need to. Maybe it's limiting your coffee purchases, or only eating out for one lunch a week or not buying those shoes you really want. Every small step makes a big trail in a year. I can't think of one person who has not been affected by this bad economy, some more than others, but it's been a great way of showing us what we're made of. We can make it through all the crap storms life throws at us if we keep our faith and huddle together in our friendship. I have loved every second of this blog because I know that there are faithful friends/family who read this and actually care about what I have to say. It's been painful and funny and a great stress reliever!! I haven't exactly been consistent about writing since the summer ended, but I plan on continuing this blog and writing about our next phase of life. Hopefully it will be about a new job and the struggles of working with cantankerous elderly people and more trial and tribulations of trying to pay down the debt. I hope you'll all continue to read and give me support and feedback. Have a happy holiday season and a great New year!

Now I'll leave you with one funny story from my intern work at the assisted living facility. Tonight I was helping my new friend Esther get ready for bed. Esther spends most of her time living in her past, but every now & then she's aware of what's going on. Usually Esther's eyes are glazed over & she's not really there, but tonight when I told her I was going to take out her dentures and clean & soak them for her she looked right at me and said "I saw myself without those things and I though 'Where the F**K did my teeth go?' I looked so funny without them!" then she started howling with laughter. I laughed so hard because she just kept saying "I looked so FUNNY!" Anyway, that's a story that makes me laugh out loud because she's not the swearing type normally.