Budgets

Thanks to budgeting, we have some big news coming up next month. We've been able to cut our day-to-day spending in order to set (and meet) some goals.

After we got married, I was amazed at how easy it was to spend every last penny we made (and no, the information above is not mine, I wish it were). We weren't getting any closer to coming up with an emergency fund, and we were only making minimum payments on our student loans.

To be honest, I don't think I could have done it without mint.com. Their site is really user friendly, and allows me to keep up with pending and posted income and expenditures. It was a fun game trying to make sure that our net income met certain goals each week.

Here's our schedule
January - save up for big news and save up for half of our small emergency fund
February - save up even more for big news and other half of small emergency fund (while also paying to have my car fixed).
March to May - pay off small student loan
May 2012 to May 2013 - pay off big student loan


We stayed on track in January, and hopefully we'll be able to do even better in February! I'll let you know!

2012

New Years Resolutions:

1. I know... I know, I always say I will... but for real, I'm going to blog more (and post the 4 drafts that I haven't actually posted for January).
2. By the end of the year, I want to make sure the house is clean before I go to bed.
3. Learn to eat right - I got into great shape for my wedding, and then decided I would relax a little with my food. Here I am 15 lbs heavier and eating sweets all day long. That's something that I'm going to change.
4. Save enough money for an emergency fund and pay off half of our student loans.
5. Finish my Thank You cards for the wedding. They're coming!
6. Take more photos.
7. Take control of my career.
   

Christmas Decorations (and a peek at our home)

To be honest,my Christmas decorations almost didn't happen this year, and I have given up on trying to actually get everything finished.

I ran around hitting the sales to get some new decorations for our new place. I needed a giant wreath to go above our fireplace, and I needed some ribbon and other little fillers to spice up my greenery; but somehow, I lost the entire bag. I have no idea what happened to it.

In any case - Here's a shot of our place Christmas eve. Hope you enjoy (they're the only pics I got before we took everything down).

4 Years Ago

My little blog started right here 4 years ago. Maybe even this week. In fact, I started it for two reasons 1) So that I could tell my fam exactly what I wanted for Christmas, and 2) so I could document my first holiday with a boy.... today that boy is my husband, and I'm even more thankful for this Thanksgiving and getting to spend it with him again.



Thanksgiving might just be one of my favorite times of the year. It's the time we get to spend with family, the cooking I actually get to do, and it marks the beginning of Christmas Season.

I figure this is an appropriate season to get back on board with my blog. Life is finally settling down around our place, and we're looking forward to sharing it again.

Marriage

In response to my last post, I wanted to write a little about my thoughts on marriage. First off, I have to say that it is wonderful. I've never been able to do so much in my life. The hours during one of my first weeks back from work were brutal. When I say brutal, I mean I would go to work in the morning, and come home about a half hour before I needed to go to bed. I still remember one day I was so stressed because I hadn't had the time to do my laundry. I was actually planning on starting to wear dirty clothes to work (I didn't really have much of an option). Then when I got home from work that day, I was so relieved to see that Branden had taken the time to wash our clothes. It was just such a relief! I was amazed at how something so simple could make such a huge difference.

The first two weeks though were so difficult. I expected to instantly be the perfect homemaker. I took time off of work so I could finish buying our furniture, cook, and clean. Well, I learned that if you spend all day buying furniture (I fit a coffee table, a chair, a laundry basket, and two night stands in my car -- I'm still proud of that), you don't have time to cook dinner for your sweet hubby before he walks in the door (a failure in my head). And, I also learned that my duvet cover is really too big for the dryer, and after 45 minutes or so, I learned that ironing it doesn't really work.

Fortunately for me, my husband has more realistic expectations than I do. He doesn't want a perfect house or dinner waiting on the table when he gets home. He just wants a happy wife. Hopefully soon I'll get used to calling him my husband!

What's in a Name?

So, I'm happy to announce that I have officially changed my name. Great, right? So you would think.

It took me a while to decided what I wanted my new name to be. I've never gone by my first name, but I thought that dropping it, though it would make sense, would be a pain. I can't drop my middle name (it's what I've always gone by), and I LOVE my maiden name. So after much contemplation, I decided just to live out the rest of my life with 4 names. I mean, Branden has two middle names, so why shouldn't I?

 

Well, apparently, the Social Security Administration disagrees. Apparently they can't change my first name without a specific court order. And they had a gall to tell me while I could use my maiden name and my husband's last name for my new last name that they wouldn't be able to fit my middle name and maiden name as a middle name on the card. I actually considered just truncating it as a middle..... and then I realized that having Jeffer as a name on my card doesn't make any sense. My name is not Jeffer. It has never been Jeffer. 

So, in the end I lost my maiden name, and it broke my heart. I seriously considered going back to the social security office to see if I could change my mind and do a two-name last name, but ultimately I want the same last name as my husband and children.

So here's to you SSA. I may never go by my legal name in my life--because I'm not willing to pay $600 for a court order.

Oops

Here I am, less than two weeks away from the wedding, and I definitely did not update my blog like I said I would. Ha.

Another oops. Branden and I have already started moving some of my stuff into our new apartment. I felt like moving most of my clothes yesterday (it was easy) and moving my bed so that the big/more difficult things would be done. Well, I want to leave my house in 20 min and all of my church clothes are at the apartment. Oh well. I'll figure it out.