WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!

Well folks, we did it! We finally paid off ALLLLL of our student loans of $70,000 in a whoppin 28-month period! We are officially "WEIRD" and we are proud of it! 

We do not plan to ever go back into debt other than maybe for a 15-yr mortgage in which we plan on saving at least 25% to put down on a house before we ever even buy. 

We are excited for what  is to come as we now start saving for cars (to pay in cash) and then a house. 

We decided at the beginning of year 2 in marriage that it would be worth it to make sacrifices early in life than later and we are so excited now to actually keep our money and use it for our present and future instead of our past. 

If you have been following our story, you should probably know we have been following the Dave Ramsey plan. One part of his plan when starting out is to wipe out your savings account, except for $1,000 for emergencies and pay off a big chunk of your debt up front. Though skeptical, we decided to follow through and we are proud to say we never one time had to delve into that money for any reason whatsoever. 

We are now on baby step #3!!!

We plan on officially celebrating by going on a cruise to the Caribbean in November but until then we are able to loosen our belt slightly.

Thank you to everyone for all your support and encouragement and hopefully we have been able to inspire others :)

And that's our life at current!

T-Minus 10 Months until Financial Freedom!

The time has come where we can start to count down the months until we will finally become debt free! We had to take a little time off during the summer because I had no source of income coming in, but we are ready and with strong force prepared to start knocking down our last amount of debt of $26,000. With 2 teacher incomes as well as 3 separate “part-time” jobs we are able to live on one merely income and put the rest of it into Hubert’s last student loan. It is going to be very exciting for us to throw $2,800 a month into our last remaining debt with such “gazelle” intensity.

 Please pray/think of us as we are on this last home stretch of our journey. Of course our journey will not be completely finished in June 2014, but we will be able to loosen up our belts a bit and breathe a little easier as we work on getting an emergency fund together and start saving for a house. God had blessed us so incredibly much that we have never been in need or have come across an emergency. However, if/when an emergency comes, we should be prepared for it because of the precautions we are taking now.

Hubert and I plan on taking a celebratory cruise either next summer or whenever the best deal is to reward ourselves of our hard work. We even talked about possibly driving up to Nashville and letting out a “debt free” scream in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Plaza where it is now streaming online for all to watch.

We have been so encouraged by people around us and we hope to only inspire others to move towards the goal of having financial freedom!

And that’s My Life at Current

-Erin

My five year post-graduate journey as an “undecided” psychology major

Over the last few years I have worked at seemingly many different places. I even had people over the last year or two ask me “so what are you doing this year!” because they were just used to hearing me working at different places. I’ve gotten lots of confused faces when I have had to tell everyone that I was yet again working somewhere else, so I figured I’d share my challenges that I have had to deal with to finally get a job I feel I will enjoy.

 I took psychology classes in high school which got me enjoying the field and my freshman year of college I declared my major in psychology. They tell you at the very beginning that if you want to be a successful psychology major, you need to get at least a Master’s degree to do pretty much anything. Literally through my entire 4 years of school I could not find something that I wanted to do with that degree…and that was how I graduated…with no clue of what to do.

July 2008 – neurotherapy lab tech

Pretty much straight out of college through some connections I got the opportunity to work as a lab tech in a neurotherapy office. It was a great experience and I got to work with lots of different people including children with special needs. This began my interest in Exceptional Student Education.  Unfortunately I was let go due to the business not doing well. I worked there for a year and a half.

March 2010 – local high schools

Soon after I got let go, I got into substitute teaching.  (Which by the way if you have no job, substituting is an excellent job to do before waiting for what you want to come around.  If you have degree it’s around $10/hr and if you are reliable, you will usually get 30 hours minimum a week.) I subbed at only high schools so I could be done working by 2:30pm.

October 2010 – Oviedo High School

I learned of the term “paraprofessional” which is basically a teacher’s assistant. I knew that I could not be a teacher with only having a psychology degree, and at the moment I wasn’t sure I wanted to be one. So I looked into being a “parapro”. This only required having a bachelor’s degree and good track record, which I had with substituting. I got my first assistant job at Oviedo High school working in a self-contained Autism classroom. This was challenging at times with certain students, but all around I enjoyed it. Unfortunately I was let go at the end of the year due to budget cuts.

August 2011 – Forest City Elementary

I was hired on again as a paraprofessional in a self-contained Autism classroom except now at Forest City Elementary. This was the most challenging thing I had experienced. With 11 kids, lots of behaviors, and never a time to myself, I ended up almost crying every day before I went to work. But I didn’t want to gain a track record of quitting so I decided I would make the most of it until…

October 2011 – Lake Mary High School

 I got a call from an assistant principal at Lake Mary High School for another challenging position that was needed to be filled. This was a temporary teaching position in a self-contained classroom with teens with emotional/behavior disorders. Through 2011, I had been getting information on what I needed to do to be a teacher and started going towards that goal. Although I knew this would still be tough for me, I knew that I needed teaching experience and I didn’t know how much longer I could continue at Forest City. I resigned from Forest City and took on the high school teaching position for 2 months. When that position was over I was offered another paraprofessional position at the same school.

January 2012 – Lake Mary High School

I worked as a paraprofessional with students with Moderate Intellectual Disabilities, severe disabilities, and also physical disabilities. Still looking for teaching positions I was getting interviews periodically through here.

February 2013 – Hamilton Elementary

I got an interview and was offered another temporary teaching position to last until the end of the year. I had a hard time deciding if this was something I should do or not, but I finally decided to take the risk because at that time I had really decided that I wanted to be a teacher and these assistant positions I was getting, were not fulfilling to me and I was not enjoying them.

Thank God I made a positive enough impact that I was offered this coming year a prekindergarten position for 3-5 year olds who have disabilities. I have heard a lot of good things about this class and I am very excited about it! My first contracted “big girl job” only took me 5 years, 130 applications and over 30 interviewsJ. I had a lot of times where I felt like giving up and throwing in the towel, but through lots of patience and prayer I persevered and it has paid off.

I now have peace and I know that I am right where I need to be right now.

And that's my life at current!

DIY: How to organize your spices and beautifully display them!

For about two years now I have been trying to find a way to organize my 30-40 spices that I have accumulated over the last...while :)

       This is what my spices looked like. Nothing terrible, just frustrating to find things.

I have searched high and low, but whenever I want to buy spice racks of some sort, you have to either purchase them with the spices already in it, or there are not enough containers for what I need! Until now, I have just been putting all my spices in a drawer or a cabinet and even though I try to keep it alphabetized, it is still difficult to find what I am looking for quickly. 

I finally came across this concept of having spice containers that were magnetic on the bottom to put on your refrigerator! I thought that was great but whenever I priced them, they were about $2-4 per container! <--- Not for me. 

I was getting discouraged until last weekend when I finally came across these perfect containers and decided to conquer this project on my own and DIM! (Do It Myself :) 

I came across these bins at Ross and I apologize in advance I do not know what original store they came from, but I do know they were being sold as bead organizers. There were 25 in a pack and it was being sold for $5 per pack! SCORE! I purchased two of them (the only two they had left) and immediately when I went home I went to work.

The only two other things I needed to complete my project were magnetic strips to cut and stick to the bottom and my handy dandy label maker that I use all the time for everything :)

   

I started individually pouring my spices in their containers while labeling them with their correct name.

After that, I cut and placed a magnet on the back. I do have to put a disclaimer: the magnets were not sticking very well probably because there was a little dip in the middle of the containers and it was having a hard time sticking. For mine, I reinforced the magnet to the container with a little superglue. Careful, though when you do that, it makes it permanent! :)

THE FINISHED PROJECT!

I love the uniformity of this and as you can see, I have them alphabetized for easy searching.

HAPPY ORGANIZING!

The most important thing to give your children…

That's me! 

Some of you are probably thinking how ironic it is that I feel like I am actually able to give some parenting advice since I myself have no children. However, for some reason, children have always been around me. From starting to babysit at age 12 through high school and even college, to my first job out of college and my current positions at school and at church, somehow, I have found myself around kids.

Throughout the last 13 years I have been around lots of kids and I have come to the realization that when you boil everything down, children need one main thing: CONSISTENCY

I understand that people may argue there are more important things kids need like love, discipline, structure, Christian values, parent involvement, etc., but all of these things mean nothing without consistency. Here are some of my thoughts and concerns about this situation and why I feel consistency needs to be implemented in every aspect of life when raising a child.

Discipline

I have learned that discipline has zero effect on a child unless it is followed through. Once a kid knows they can sway you to do what they want, or to “undo” a punishment, you are a goner. Empty threats to a child are one of the worst things you can do in regards to discipline. Following through with discipline will create less arguments and better behavior. The trick is to make sure the warning/threat you are implementing to your child is something that matches the crime (meaning: make it relevant, and don’t give a punishment during anger). This consistency needs to be used both at home and in the classroom.

Christian values

Nothing bothers me more than to see Christian parents raising their children and then not attend church regularly. Church is the one place we can come together to encourage each other and fulfill our important purpose on the Earth (Hebrews 10:25). I think of all the repercussions of things like irregular church attendance, not teaching your child how to tithe and handle money, and not implementing Christian values consistently. I can’t do anything but assume that if the family does not see these things as high importance now, the child will grow up and continue to not see these things as important. 

Parent involvement, love, gushy gushy stuff

And then you have the part where you are just being around your kids when they are being kids. I have seen teen after teen strive for their parents’ attention and constantly get rejected. It’s so sad to me that so many parents are not able to put some kind of focus on their kids. Too many kids have learned to have to grow up far beyond their age in order to take care of themselves, other siblings, or sometimes even their parents. Though this seems a bit extreme, it’s everywhere, and all I wish is that parents see the value of raising their children appropriately, giving them lots of love and discipline, as well as showing them the importance in life.  

While I would love to say that if all of these things are implemented, you will raise the perfect child, I am absolutely scared to death that I know this isn't true. You eventually have to release them from your arms and pray to God that they make the right decisions. Without even having a kid of my own, I cannot imagine the struggle that would be. Raising children scares the crap out of me but I’m looking forward to it every day. 

That's My Life at Current

Sugar, Food, and Body Image

I fight with myself on a daily basis on whether to satisfy my taste buds or to eat the food that I know to be healthy and good for my body. Unfortunately, I have found that for me at least, I cannot satisfy both; at least I have not reached that point yet. I never really was someone that gained weight in high school, and in college I might have gained 5 pounds or so but it was during a summer break in college that I decided to go on weight watchers, just for the time I was home. I remember it being really difficult but by the end of the summer I was proud of myself that I had weighed the least amount that I had ever remembered myself to weigh as an adult or even a teenager.  But I still wasn’t satisfied.

Throughout college and even after, I found myself periodically keeping track of what I ate and even counting calories. During the times I was keeping track, I would find that I had such a huge sweet tooth that I would actually sacrifice eating the amount of food that was good for me just to get in my sweets that I so much desired. I still got the results I was looking for but I was ever so hungry and sometimes after work I would find myself stuffing my face after a full day of eating less.

After getting married, I gained 10 pounds that first year and quickly started seeing it in the mirror. I decided to hard core count calories and 6 months to a year later I was down 18 pounds, but still not eating the well-balanced diet that I needed.

Over the past year I have been doing some research about healthy eating and I have become overwhelmed at everything out there. I have found though that the general consensus is that the healthier you eat, the more you can eat! What a concept, hah. I have been more concentrating on whole wheat/ whole grain items, fish, nuts, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Of course, I eat things other than that, but that is a lot of my concentration with going to the grocery store.

I always focused on what I ate and based that on what I wanted to look like. I never really considered that the food I was eating was affecting the inside of my body one way or another. This has also helped me in determining what type of food I eat. Along with trying to be healthy on the inside I have never been someone to regularly exercise. If I didn’t see results on the scale, I would stop (because I hated it anyway). I now am realizing the importance of staying active and the health benefits of it. So, last week Hubert and I started this crazy program called Insanity. It is a 60-day workout program and in this, my goal is not to get super skinny and flexible, but for it to kick-start us in staying active. We are also eating from the nutrition menu they have provided to make sure we are eating the food appropriate for this workout. I have vowed not to jump on the scale during these 60 days and only to use a tape measure as I hope to gain strength in muscle.

I am still far from being healthy and doing everything that I need to be healthy, but I find it concerning when so many times that I am “caught” out in public eating healthy, I almost get scrutinized for it. I haven’t figured it out yet if it’s because of my size (not overweight but still eating right) or due to the unpopularity of healthy food.

I have one more little tidbit about this topic; obviously I have had a lot to say about it! I get very irritated when there is judgment about people smoking, tanning, drinking, and other things that people are saying is harmful to your body. According to I Corinthians 3:16-17, it says:

"You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that. God's temple is sacred-and you, remember,  are the temple."

I feel people like to pick and choose as to what is harmful for you body. This reference just ensures me that how you treat your body is also highly related to the food you put in your mouth as well as the activities you are making your body participate in.

Like most girls, I constantly struggle with my body image and never being satisfied with outcomes, but I am trying to change my outlook, remain healthy, and constantly remember that I am God's temple.

That’s My Life at Current

Does Absence Really Make the Heart Grow Fonder?

I read a book soon after marriage that said as husband and wife there is no such thing as spending too much time together. It actually said that if you have hobbies that do not interest your spouse, try to find another hobby that you both will enjoy. My first impression of that was that it was completely absurd and that we needed time apart in order to enjoy and appreciate time together. Nonetheless, we talked about it and figured we might as well make an effort to find new things to do that we enjoy together. We discussed the realization that I would never be playing basketball with him nor would he be playing softball with me, so we ventured on to find other sports/activities that we both enjoyed: volleyball, geocaching, devotions, board games, and even exercising together (sometimes J). I have to say, the times we have spent time together on purpose have been some of my most cherished memories. This is not to say that we never do things separately; there are the occasional times when Hubert will go out with his buddies or vice versa, but it’s not too often. Still there is never a feeling of inhibition between us; we truly enjoy spending time together.

I do have to say that it took some getting used to, at least on my side. This was not because I was always wanting to do things apart from him, but more because I enjoy my time alone, and I very early realized that when you marry someone, they are always there, haha. But I very quickly found out how fun it is to always have someone at your side-someone to laugh with, joke with, cook with, get out frustrations with, and learn how to do somersaults on a mattress with (totally happened last week).

With my measly 2.5 years of experience being married, I truly believe that it takes more effort and compromise learning to be together in all things than having time being separated. I feel if you are blessed to be able to have a similar schedule as your spouse, take advantage of it and learn how to do everything together. I mean, this is the one earthly relationship that we are meant to be together with until death. Embrace it, love it, and cherish it!

And that’s my life at current

PS Shout out to hubby-he gets his top braces off tomorrow!!!