Wednesday, July 13, 2011

I always said I would NEVER have a blog......

Well here I am after much nagging from friends and family I am finally starting a blog! I didn't in the past because of being so busy and I thought blogging was only for people with kids and to have a blog without having kids would make me look self indulgent and narcissistic but everyone claims it won't. Although I know no matter what I do my sisters will ALWAYS see me as fancy, but I think I've finally embraced that! But anyway here goes nothing! I think my first post will be about the 3 most exciting things that have happened to us since 2011 started!
NUMBER 1 is that we are debt free! Last year we received a late wedding present from Steven and Christie and it changed our lives! They sent us the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Now I must admit I did not read the book cover to cover but I skimmed through it and read different sections and wrote the steps down and then found myself constantly talking to others about the book and thinking about it all the time. This ultimately led me to sit down and look at our finances, I knew we had debt and I had been making our monthly payments on everything on time of course but as I started to add everything up I realized since we had gotten married we had both gone from no debt to $10,000 dollars in debt! It made my mouth drop we had only been married a year and we had that much debt! So I sat Sky down and I laid it all out and we decided we were going to make a drastic change! The next almost year was SUPER hard but it made our marriage so strong! And in February of 2011 when I sent in that last payment I had never felt better, being debt free is the way to be!

So NUMBER 2 is actually our reward for paying off our debt! Our DREAM car!!! So February we paid everything off and did our taxes and our tax return was much bigger than I had ever anticipated so we realized we were able to buy and afford our dream car so we went and got a Nissan Rogue and finally sold my car which I HATED with a passion to a kid in my accounting class! That car was the worst if it sat in the sun too long it wouldn't start for up to an hour and I would get stranded places, it was terrible in the snow which led to my 2 tramatizing crashes in it, and worst of all it had no air conditioning! Everyday I drive our new car I think how much I deserve it and am so thankful for it since I had to drive around a piece of crap for 2 years!


And finally NUMBER 3 is that we finally got to go on vacation! Since we were in so much debt we were never able to afford a vacation so this vacation was the first we got to go on in a year and a half! It was such a treat and so perfect and we had a blast and just got to totally be alone and turn our phones off and reconnect it was so great! We decided not only are dates a priority to keep our marriage strong but so are vacations!! Day 1 we drove to Vegas, checked in at Mandalay Bay, had lunch, went to the beach/pool for a couple hours, went on the strip for a couple hours and had dinner at the NewYorkNewYork. Day 2 we spent the whole day at the beach and then had dinner at the House of Blues which is super special to me because that is where I saw my first concert back home! Day 3 we spent the whole day again at the beach and then checked out of Mandalay Bay and into The Eastside Cannery then at night we went to the Venetian to ride the gondolas and eat dinner at The Tao which was the most amazing food EVER! Day 4 we just hung out on the strip and went to Pawn Stars and had dinner at Serendipity 3 since I went there in New York City and loved it and then went and saw Mystere Cirque de Soleil and then went up in the Eiffel Tower. Day 5 we had breakfast in the Paris, btw I made us eat every morning in the Paris because of the great crepes, but by the end Sky was all creped out! Then we shopped at the outlets forever cause they are amazing and we drove home!






XOXO