Wedding!!

Since Christmas break ended, we have been having a lot of turmoil in our household. It has definitely been nice to NOT have anything happen in the last few weeks. We've dealt with:

*My baby girl, Tiny, dying from kidney failure
*Irregular pap smear which resulted in a biopsy (it really hurt!)
*Shylo's best friend growing up getting into a very bad car wreck and breaking her neck
*My mom losing her job due to state budget cuts
*Eric losing one of his jobs


But some great things have come of the past few months as well:

*I had my final weight-related meltdown and have taken to losing weight again seriously. I have made my own breakfasts and lunches the past 2 weeks, and tried to make most of my dinners. I have also stopped drinking diet coke (cue the gasp!). I allow myself 6oz of coffee in the morning to wake me up, but I carry a water bottle the rest of my day while I am at school. I haven't seen a change yet, but I can already tell I have more energy once I get home.

*Eric and I have finally decided on a wedding!!! Eeek!! After 1&1/2 years planning thus far and many tears over finances, I happened to randomly find exactly what I was looking for. Surprisingly, I had no idea I was even looking for it!!! I was bored at home one of the nights that Eric had to work late, when I looked up destination weddings. Sandals Resort was one of the places that popped up. If you stay with them at least 6 night, you get to have a wedding free. Yes, that is F-R-E-E free! My heart was already starting to get excited when I scrolled up to the top of the page to see the different resorts. They had the typical Jamaica, Bahamas, etc. But what really caught my eye was St. Lucia. St. Lucia??? I've never even heard of it. So, naturally, my curiosity got the better of me and that was the very first place I went. I was instantly enamored. St. Lucia is beautiful, I loved the resort, and St. Lucia is home to the world's only drive-thru volcano. A DRIVE-THRU VOLCANO!! How cool is that??!! I was hooked. By the time Eric got home from work, I was shoving the computer in his face going Look! Look! Let's do this! He was hooked too. And that was that. That night, it was decided we would be getting married in St. Lucia. And I am so super excited about my wedding for the first time in over a year. And I cannot wait till the time gets here.

Goes to show, life will hand you things when you least expect it. Just about the time when you think you cannot take much more, he will guide you in a way that was totally off the path, that it makes life a little bit more bearable again. Peace and God bless.

Here's to 2012

It has been SO LONG since I have managed to post something on here. My life has been a whirlwind as of late. Here's my year in review:

1. This summer, I had posted that I had paid off my Tech ring in full and couldn't wait to tackle my next debt. I started getting excited about my financial future this past February when I listed to Dave Ramsey's CDs that I borrowed from my parents' Financial Peace University. Dave Ramsey talks about getting mad a debt and living a debt-free life. He is a truly inspirational man, very enthusiastic, and I began to become enthusiastic as well. If you would like to learn more about Dave Ramsey and what he has to say, you can find out more here.

2. With my debt tackling underway, I decided I needed to get into couponing. What I have learned so far is that teaching full-time and going to grad school part-time leaves very little time for couponing. I am very thankful that I started this summer though, especially for the day-to-day things we use. As of right now, the only thing that has run out of my stockpile is shampoo and laundry detergent. Everything else (such as body wash, toothpaste, and deodorant) I still have stockpiles of. By doing this, I have more money in the miscellaneous category of my budget to spend on things I want, not just need.

3. I officially got accepted into grad school toward the end of August. It was a long struggle to get there, one that started way back in January, but I am hoping with all my heart that it will be worth it. This past semester was super busy (I only made 2 home football games and 1 tailgate, and for anyone that knows me, that truly is a big deal) but I managed to pull out an A and a B. Here's to going into the next semester with a 3.5 GPA! Woohoo!!

4. My old TV was a box. And when I say box, I mean a BOX. No flatscreens in this household! Eric and I had been looking at new TVs for what seemed like FOR-EV-ER. Yet, we were no closer to having one. Then *poof* Walmart had a fantastic deal for the start of school for a 40" Vizio LED. Like, better-than-black-Friday kind of deal. And I wanted it. What you might not know is that literally 1 month before, I had paid off my credit card. Yes, I worked my tail off during summer school and had succeeded. My credit card showed a blank, a zero, nil. But, now there was this TV and I really really really wanted it. And I convinced myself to get it, so I did. I love my TV very very very much. I love getting to watch DVDs and Blu-rays on it. But within a month, I had regretted it. My credit card had over $1000 on it again and I was mad at myself for giving into temptation. But, perhaps, it was for the best because it made me mad. MAD I TELL YOU!! So I decided that this was it, no more! EVER!

5. I told you that story to tell you this one. When I got mad, I decided Eric was going down with me. Trying to get debt free is like being on a diet; it does you no good when your significant other is eating (buying) so much goodness in front of you. So I saved up and spent the money to get the home edition of Financial Peace University for just Eric and I. It comes with DVDs & CDs that can be used at home or in the car. Eric listened to the CDs in his car in record time, and within about a week, he went from an "I want" kind of guy to an "I want to start saving for retirement" kind of guy. This could not have made me happier!!! But, I reminded him, that we needed to get out of debt as well as figure out how to pay for a wedding, and neither one of those would work too well unless we were in this together. and you know what, he was on board with me. It took us 3 months that were full of roadtrips, weddings, and family functions to get our Step 1 completed, but we did it!!! We just paid my credit card off in full last week, and I am now going to freeze that card so that we will never use it again!!! If you would like to see the Financial Peace University I bought for Eric and I, it can be found here.


For 2012, Eric and I have big plans for us, especially financially. Our hope is that by this time next year, we will have my car paid off in full and a good portion of our wedding paid for.

I hope that each and every one of you had a fantastic 2011 and here's to an even better New Year!!!

The End of an Era

I began to read the Harry Potter books when I was 11. At that time, there were only 4 books for a child to devour, and I was not bent on becoming one of them. But spring of 6th grade found our school in the hallway doing the duck-and-cover because there had been tornadoes spotted near my hometown of Windthorst,TX. In order to calm some of the children down, our 6th/8th grade ELAR teacher began to read from the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was love at first chapter. That day changed my life.

I subsequently devoured the first 4 books and even began reading them to my 3rd grade sister to be able to share my love of them. Harry Potter became one of my greatest friends. He taught me the value of bravery, empathy, friendship, kindness, and love. He was the person I strived to be as well as the one who gave me hope for a brighter future outside of my hometown. Then something extraordinary happened.

They were making a movie

My world could not get better. I searched online every single day for any scrap of news about the movie I could find. (FYI Eric, this is where my web searching abilities came from) I printed out each actor/actress to try to imagine them as the characters in my head. I collected every bookmark, every sticker, anything I could possibly get my hands on. I even pinned up a 6 month countdown to the movie release in my locker.

Then, I saw the movie, and it was everything I had dreamed of, and my love for the Harry Potter series was just solidified.

A year and a half later the 5th book was released. By now, the world had finally noticed Harry Potter. We picked it up at midnight, of course. The next day, I can remember the exact intersection in Arlington the band leadership crew was driving through when I read about Sirius Black's death in the book. I cried for days because I felt Harry's pain as if it were my own.

I have been there for every midnight release of the books, seen the movies the day of release, and experienced all of it with Harry: sympathy for Snape's torment, anger at his betrayal, happiness that Lupin found love, sorrow at so many deaths.

This Friday will be it- the end of an era. There will be no more midnight releases, no more reading 700 pages within 13 hours, no more movies...no more Harry, Ron, and Hermione. This is the end of a very dear friendship that has lasted the span of 12 years. This Friday, I must say goodbye to one of the most influential people thus far in my life. It also marks the official end of my childhood. There is nothing to carry on with me anymore, just memories.

Goodbye Harry. Thank you for being there for me when no one else in my hell of a town was. I will miss you with all if my heart. I will make sure you will live on in the imaginations of my own children.

Love forever,
Mylie Jo

Couponing 06/19/11

Today, I just made a quick trip to CVS. I ended up seperating my transactions into 3 different ones in order to maxamize the use of ECBs. Here is how my day went:

1st Transaction
2/6.97 On Sale Pantene shampoo and conditioner
-$3.00/2 Pantene Manufacturer's coupon
-$3.00 ECBs from my last purchase
=$1.05 + $2.00ECB from the above to use on my next purchase

2nd Transaction
2.97 On Sale Colgate Advanced
2/4.97 On Sale Aussie or Herbal Essences product
-$1.00 Colgate Advanced Manufacturer's Coupon
-$1.00 Aussie or Herbal Essence product
-$1.00 Aussie or Herbal Essence product
-$2.00 ECB from above transaction
=$2.92 + $2.00 ECB from the Colgate to use on next purchase

3rd Transaction
2.97 On Sale Colgate Advanced
2/4.97 On Sale Aussie or Herbal Essences product
-$1.00 Colgate Advanced Manufacturer's Coupon
-$1.00 Aussie or Herbal Essence product
-$1.00 Aussie or Herbal Essence product
-$2.00 ECB from above transaction
=$2.92 + $2.00 ECB from the Colgate to use on next purchase

Total OOP: $6.89
Total Savings: $29.83 + $2.00 ECB to use on my next purchase

A little bit of old...

Yesterday, my dear friend, Megan Riggins, posted a Facebook status update about the StrengthsQuest most of the students at Tech our age had to take way back when. It made me wonder what mine was. I hadn't looked at my StrengthsQuest in so long. I took my StrengthsQuest fall of '06 during my Freshman year when I had to take it because we attended a seminar about our strengths for our Honors Literature class. I have changed a lot over the past 5 years of college and post-college. But, these things that were my strengths, I feel are still a pretty core part of myself. I guess you can change the small things, but your inner-most self, the views you have on the world and how you react to it, will always be essentially the same. Enjoy.

Intellection
You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the "muscles" of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be focused; for example, you may be trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or understand another person's feelings. The exact focus will depend on your other strengths. On the other hand, this mental activity may very well lack focus. The theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply describes that you like to think. You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection. You are introspective. In a sense you are your own best companion, as you pose yourself questions and try out answers on yourself to see how they sound. This introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives. Or this introspection may tend toward more pragmatic matters such as the events of the day or a conversation that you plan to have later. Wherever it leads you, this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.


Input
You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don't feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It's interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.

Consistency
Balance is important to you. You are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same, no matter what their station in life, so you do not want to see the scales tipped too far in any one person's favor. In your view this leads to selfishness and individualism. It leads to a world where some people gain an unfair advantage because of their connections or their background or their greasing of the wheels. This is truly offensive to you. You see yourself as a guardian against it. In direct contrast to this world of special favors, you believe that people function best in a consistent environment where the rules are clear and are applied to everyone equally. This is an environment where people know what is expected. It is predictable and evenhanded. It is fair. Here each person has an even chance to show his or her worth.

Context
You look back. You look back because that is where the answers lie. You look back to understand the present. From your vantage point the present is unstable, a confusing clamor of competing voices. It is only by casting your mind back to an earlier time, a time when the plans were being drawn up, that the present regains its stability. The earlier time was a simpler time. It was a time of blueprints. As you look back, you begin to see these blueprints emerge. You realize what the initial intentions were. These blueprints or intentions have since become so embellished that they are almost unrecognizable, but now this Context theme reveals them again. This understanding brings you confidence. No longer disoriented, you make better decisions because you sense the underlying structure. You become a better partner because you understand how your colleagues came to be who they are. And counterintuitively you become wiser about the future because you saw its seeds being sown in the past. Faced with new people and new situations, it will take you a little time to orient yourself, but you must give yourself this time. You must discipline yourself to ask the questions and allow the blueprints to emerge because no matter what the situation, if you haven't seen the blueprints, you will have less confidence in your decisions.

Empathy
You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. You do not necessarily agree with each person's perspective. You do not necessarily feel pity for each person's predicament—this would be sympathy, not Empathy. You do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but you do understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words, you seem to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings—to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these reasons other people are drawn to you.

One snowball at a time...

Since there were no coupons in the Sunday papers this week due to Memorial Day, I will be writing this blog about something else going on in my life that started back in January.

All of my life my parents have struggled to make ends meet. And the sad thing is, we never had anything to show for it. We didn't have a nice house, we never had a car that wasn't at least 5 years old when we bought it, and we only got to go on a vacation that was within the Texas/Oklahoma borders. Yet they struggled to make ends meet. Hmm?

After I had left home for college and was working 40 hrs a week to make my own ends meet, struggling day to day just as they had always done, my parents joined First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls. First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls is one of the three metropolitan sized churchs not within a metropolitan area in the entire nation. It is BIG. And since it is so big, they have numerous programs and events for people to join and be a part of. It was there that my parents were able to harness one of the tools available to them which was Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. They completed the entire course and began to set about changing their financial identity. I got to stand back and watch these changes take place and transform my parents entire relationship not only toward money, but towards each other as well.

This past January found me once again struggling to make ends meet at the end of the month despite having a "real world job" now. This was the kick start I needed to finally be inclined enough to put in the effort to go through Financial Peace myself. And I did. I listened to the audio CDs in my car to and from school, no other time. It took me about 6 weeks to finish it all, but my perception toward my finances have been changed permanently for the better. And I am so thankful for it. It's amazing how much simpler and less stressful my life is now that I budget and save and pay off debt with bigger goals in mind.

Now onto my little success for the week. I finally got my Texas Tech ring ($1,120) paid off after 9 months of payments. I was putting $100 down each month on it as well as any extra I had at the end of the month. Now, I will be able to put that $100 a month that I was paying on the ring down toward my credit card debt on top of what I was already paying on them. This is part of Dave Ramsey's debt snowball plan, and it truly does work because after hitting this first milestone, I am more determined than ever to be debt free of all debts (other than my student loans) by next summer. One snowball at a time...

Reality

The reality is, I felt like a failure when I graduated college without a ring on my finger. That's what is supposed to happen, right?

The reality is, my fears made me push so many away.

The reality is, Eric didn't push away, at least not for good.

The reality is, I love Eric more than I ever thought I would.

The reality is, I still really want that ring and know for sure that I belong to someone.

The biggest reality is, my other half is leaving for Paris on Friday, and I have never been more scared in my life.