An exciting secret

Shhhhhh!!!

Don't tell anyone!!!

If you're reading this, then you get to be in the know. I don't think anyone is reading this. I hope nobody's reading this! But I need to write about it. If I knew how to make this a private entry, I would.

Jordan and I are trying to get pregnant. I know. Scary right? NOPE! Super exciting! Before we got married, we talked about that we didn't want to have kids right away so we could enjoy some time just being married. But we said that by the time our 2 year anniversary rolled around, we'd like to start trying or at least thinking. Well our two year anniversary is coming up. I've got a sweet teaching job. Jordan's got a job as a mobile pet photographer and is putting on a lot of house roofs in these last few weeks before the snow. We're not entirely out of the school debt, but it is disappearing and we hope to be out of debt before Christmas. Which means we'd be in our own place around then. We've decided that we're ready.

But we're not telling anyone that we're trying!! I'd like for it to be a surprise. Though I do think that Beth may suspect. Mark Miller knows because Jordan talked to him about it. But that's it! Except for YOU. Who's reading this. But we'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anybody. I'd really like for it to be an out-of-the-blue surprise to our family. But we're pretty excited. I've started taking prenatal vitamins and everything. Trying to get more exercise, eat healthy, drink less caffeine, all the usual suspects. Its pretty awesome.

So this past weekend, Jordan and I were in Cheyenne for his job. It amazes me how SMALL it is. In fact, wikipedia just told me the population is 57,000. So its about twice the size of Marshall, TX. And its supposed to be a CAPITAL city!!! You don't have to pay for parking downtown, and there are no high rise buildings. In fact, there are NO building over 6 stories tall! They were having a rib fest downtown this past weekend, and when Jordan and I drove by there was a country band singing a cover of "Everybody dies famous in a small town".

Wikipedia also just told me that Fort Collins has more than double the population of Cheyenne.

Still, it was a nice place to visit. For the weekend. I wouldn't want to stay there much longer, much less live there. But it was a nice little weekend getaway for us. And when I say us, I mean me because Jordan was working most of the time. Actually, I was too. Sitting in the hotel room working. But still, it was a change of pace and I enjoyed it.

And hey! Maybe we can postulate some day that our first child was conceived there. :) Hehe.

Life Changes

Well, a lot has changed since I last popped my head on here to journal. I'll address them quickly:

- I got a job teaching math and social studies part time at Liberty Middle School.
- We moved to Colorado and moved in with Jordan's parents in order to pay off some debt
- Jordan left the Parking Spot after a miserable year and is now working as a mobile pet photographer on the weekends, and as an independent roofer during the week days
- Jojo is... well... curled up sleeping on a blanket. I guess that hasn't changed.

I love my job. I love that I've only got three classes and am done every day at 11:24am. I love the people who are directly on my team, though get a little annoyed at some of the other people in my departments.

Jessica's quilt is finished and on her bed up in Fort Collins. I also just recently finished Chelsea's christmas present quilt, which is a denim backed quilt that rolls up and is designed to be taken to the beach when she goes with her boys. Chelsea and Jarrett are also pregnant again, which is fantastic. I finished two i-spy quilts for the boys for Christmas, and am waiting on my new walking foot to arrive so I can quilt the new baby's quilt. Jarrett is also getting a quilt for Christmas, though that has been sent out as fabric to my sewing bee buddies.

Life is good. Its not easy not having our own home, but hopefully we'll be finished paying off the student loan and out of here pretty soon. I do enjoy and love my in-laws, its just difficult to live with people after living in your own house. Its surely not easy for them either. Hopefully we'll have some exciting news here shortly.

Sleepy Time

So.... It's 11pm and my husband has been asleep for an hour or two, but I couldn't sleep. I guess we're kinda like old people in that we go to bed so early, but he has to get up at 4am so its just what we have to do.

My dear favorite father in law was in the hospital yesterday and today for surgery to get some kidney stones removed. Turns out he has more problems than that, which I am not privy to discuss without him making them public knowledge. But when Beth called me today and was telling me about it, it was making me tear up. They had planned on being here next weekend to spend some time with us, and we had planned to go tour the new Cowboy's stadium (Bill is a huge cowboys fan), but he's not allowed to fly by doctors orders. So that plan is scratched, and Jordan and I are both severely disappointed. I was really looking forward to seeing them. Hopefully my mom will be able to come down and see us in a couple weeks, if everything there goes to plan. It gets lonely living down here in Texas by ourselves with the cockroaches and June bugs. I'm missing my family.

But life goes on. My tutoring job will be ending here soon with the ending of school, and I've been looking for other work but haven't had any responses yet. Actually, that's not true. A money laundering scam emailed me back. No thanks, not falling for that. Idiots. But it would be nice if I could find some kind of work. I'm not the only one looking, obviously, and that makes it hard.

I've made some good progress on Jessica's Paintbox quilt. Still piecing the squares for that one. I've also got plans for what I want to make for Julie, though I won't start that one till Jessica's is finished. And just for fun, I started a charm square hexagon quilt, which will be pieced and quilted entirely by hand. Obviously, this is going to take a lot of time. But I find them fun to do and its something I can do sitting on the couch with Jordan, instead of constantly having to move between sewing machine and iron like my other quilt.

Jordan went on the men's retreat with our church, and I think that was life changing for him. He learned a lot of great things and came back feeling very empowered to tackle some issues he's been dealing with since middle school. I'm so proud of him.

And the yawning commences. I think I shall go lay down and attempt to sleep. Hopefully successfully this time.

Good Morning!

It's 6 am, and I've been up for a couple hours. I'm considering starting to work on my next quilt, but I'm afraid that I'll be so tired later in the day that work will be miserable (2-5 today). And so I'm laying in bed and searching the internet and trying to convince myself that I am tired. My eyes are heavy, but I can't seem to fall asleep. Jordan's already left for work. :( But I did cook him some eggs before he left. You know, since I was up.

Life is good. Finished a massive new quilt for our bed, and just in time because the very first quilt I made is very thick and warm. Which is heavenly. But not in the summer. Which is the season the state of Texas most resembles right now. So this new quilt is beautiful and light and not quite as warm, so we're not turning down the AC so much at night. That's good. It should save us money.

So the last day of school for the kids I work for is May 26. About a month away. I need to find another job for the summer. Which is good because I've started to get tired of tutoring. It can be so unpredictable - whether I have work or not based on what they've got. Though I know a week of working any other job will have me missing the tutoring. Hopefully (crossing my fingers) it'll pick right back up where it leaves off in the fall. Though I suppose I should make long term contingency plans just in case.

Sometimes I feel like my life is really not interesting enough to write about. I mean, its just the normal everyday life. Jojo sleeping all the time, me cycling between cleaning and sewing and tutoring. Jordan going to work and coming home. Who wants to read about that? We're so... normal. And boring. I certainly don't want to read about that. Maybe we should move to China or something.

Or something.

Oh happy day!

Life is going well for now. Actually, not much has changed. But I have decided that life is going well right now, and so that is how I feel. Jordan's still working for the parking spot and looking for something better, I'm still working as a tutor and wondering what will happen when the summer comes, and Jojo is still being happy go lucky. :) But we are blessed in that we have everything we need, and even have some things that we don't need but we really really like. The budget has worked wonders for us, and we have money left over at the end of the month every time. Its a good feeling to be in control of your money.

I have been bitten hard by the quilting bug, and am currently flying through a summer quilt for our bed that will be much larger than the winter quilt that is on it right now. And not a moment too soon, for it is beginning to be uncomfortably hot here and we are sleeping under our white thin living room blankets because the quilt is simply too heavy. The summer quilt is of the "New Wave" pattern, and is based off of the "Citrus" fabric of one of my favorite designers. Its is these lovely summer shades of lemon and lime and some oranges and perhaps a brown or two. Its coming together very nicely and I'm enjoying working on it, while equally dreading the day I have to quilt it on my little machine.

The in-laws are going to come visit us in the beginning of may, and I'm looking forward to seeing them. We haven't seen any of our family in so long because work schedules simply do not allow it. However, Jordan's schedule at work was just switched back to the morning (5am-2pm) schedule instead of the evening (12noon - 10pm). This will be much much better for us, because we'll be able to eat supper together and just generally see more of each other. His boss at work really likes him, and maybe there will be an opportunity to move up into an assistant manager position soon. We shall see. He's a great worker and wouldn't mind working there as long as he didn't end up a driver for the rest of his life.

Other than that, life is good. I've finished more projects since my last post, but I won't list them here again until I can update the list more fully. The summer quilt will probably be finished being pieced (the top) this week or next week, at which point I will have to decide what I want to do for the back and then get down to the quilting. I'm also looking for patterns to make some throw pillows to match, and have a found a couple great patterns so far that I really like. Making those will be a nice break when I get tired of wrestling with the quilt during machine quilting.

One thing I forgot to mention is that we absolutely love our church! Everyone is very friendly and welcoming and GENUINE, and we've made several good friends from our small group that meets on Monday nights. Last monday we all went to Main Event and did some bowling and shuffleboard and lazer tag. We're all older (most people are older than we are, with the oldest being in their 50's or early 60's), so it was definitely a slowed game of lazer tag. But it was a lot of fun all the same. We had a great time and really enjoy being with these people.

Project List update!

Well, I got a new job. Starting next week I will be working about 30 hours a week for the 2010 census, walking around looking at living areas and deciding how many people live there. So I've been crafting like crazy this week (an unavoidable spring break from working since all my students are out of town for their spring break). I'm trying to get all my commitments done and out of the way because I don't think I'll have much time to do any crafting. So here's an update to the list. I've decided to split it into three parts: finished, in progress, and soon to be.

Finished
1. Mom's birthday present custom teacher bag
2. A new everyday purse for me!!
3. The "Happy Puppy" quilt for quiltforkids.org
4. A coupon holder for my purse
5. Baby quiltforkids.org quilt (no name yet)
6. Colorful Kitties quilt for qfk
7. Space Dreams quilt for qfk
8. Claire313's crazy Sanibel bag

In Progress
9. "New Wave" pattern quilt for qfk - pieced and ready to be quilted
10. The knitted afghan with 117 squares - 22 down so far!
11. A new quilt for our bed (started in 2009, lets finish it!)
12. Ruth's crazy Sanibel bag - 90% done

Soon to be:
13. A birthday present for Julie (Oct)
14. A new and improved knitting project bag (I learned from my mistakes on the last one)
15. A weekender travel bag/luggage
16. A change purse to hold the change in my purse!
17. A nice warm hat for my hubby - already have the yarn and needles, just need the skill
18. Fill up the nice wedding scrap book we received as a gift that is still empty (we've been married more than a year)
19. The Apples and Pears NICU quilt for quiltsforkids
20. Scrap quilt from the dh's great grandma's fabrics!
21. Cloth Napkins for us
22. A new bag from the pattern I bought LAST YEAR
23. Tool belts for the nephews
24. Use up the UT fabric remnant I bought
25. Tea cozy for the SIL
26. Cloth Napkins for the B&SIL's family

Waiting on God

So I've realized that the biggest misconception that I had about marriage was that I would no longer be waiting on God. I'm not really sure why I thought that, but I thought that the biggest waiting game was waiting to find your spouse. And I thought that once that was over, everything would just fall into place.

I've come to realize that's not true, and I think I will be spending my entire life waiting on God. Waiting to find out when Jordan will get a job that doesn't pay hourly and doesn't leave him feeling useless and like he's wasting his life at the end of the day. Waiting to find out when we'll be able to have kids, which I think is a foolish thing to do when we're just keeping our financial heads above water providing for the two of us. Waiting for when we'll find our place in this world. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Something Americans are simply not good at. Its no wonder that abstinence education fails when even adults can't bother to wait for things - and must buy that new car/house/boat/clothes/whatever NOW on credit, and then lose everything. The country is in a financial mess because newly weds are living at the same standards and in the same houses and with the same possessions NOW that their parents worked 25 years to get, all on credit. We, as Americans (and probably as human beings) can be bothered to wait for what we think we should have now. We're like spoiled children. And I am no better than the people around me. Sure, I don't have all that stuff that society says we need, and I don't have massive credit card debt that I took out to get it. But I'm tired and whiny about having to wait on a good job to come through for Jordan. I want it NOW. And I'm tired of having to wait to have kids (though I only decided that I'm ready to have kids in the past couple of weeks). I want to start NOW. I look at the people around me and in my family, and I want what they have NOW.

Well, news flash. I am not my neighbors. I am not my sister-in-law. I am Jodi. Ingram. And I will have to wait on God. Because when he is ready to bless us with these things will be the very moment that I am actually truly ready. I could take matters into my own hands and TAKE those things, but that has definitely NOT worked out in the past and has left me with scars that I don't think will ever truly heal and go away. I do not want to repeat that time of my life, especially now. And yet, the red-headed stepchild in me is screaming NOW NOW NOW.

It sucks. But that's the way life is. Life is one big waiting game, and I don't want to join the people trying to cut in line. We really are blessed exactly where we are. We have made a budget and are sticking to it - we're finally living below our very meager means. We're beginning to dig out of the student loan that I foolishly took out when I wanted my masters (NOW) and didn't stop to consider the financial repercussions. And I need to learn to be patient and wait. Our time will come. Trying to make it come faster will only make where we are right now harder. We, as Americans, need to stop looking at what other people have and enjoy what we already own.

Doesn't make it easier though.

More Projects Completed!!

Well life is just plugging along at the moment. Jordan and I are in a small group at church and we're all reading and discussing "The Screwtape Letters" by CS Lewis. Its been a lot of fun meeting everybody there, and we've got various little hangout plans with a bunch of them. I'm really looking forward to it every week. Everyone is real and genuine, and most people have been where Jordan and I are now (questioning, and broke lol). This past Monday we were in charge of snacks, so I busted out our Chinese cookbook and made Won-Tons and Eggrolls for everyone. I also made pigs in a blanket, chocolate chip cookies, and brought along some fruit for those who try to eat healthier. Everyone was commenting on how great it tasted, which was awesome cause it was a whole lot of work to get all that ready. I was pretty much cooking all day Monday.

I've been making good progress on my 50 projects in 2010 thing too. Here's the list I've got so far. Italics means finished, and bold means in progress:

1. Mom's birthday present custom teacher bag
2. A new everyday purse for me!!
3. The "Happy Puppy" quilt for quiltforkids.org
4. The knitted afghan with 117 squares - 11 down so far!
5. A coupon holder for my purse
6. A new quilt for our bed (started in 2009, lets finish it!)
7. A birthday present for Julie (Oct)
8. A new and improved knitting project bag (I learned from my mistakes on the last one)
9. A weekender travel bag/luggage
10. A change purse to hold the change in my purse!
11. A nice warm hat for my hubby - already have the yarn and needles, just need the skill
12. Fill up the nice wedding scrap book we received as a gift that is still empty
13. The Apples and Pears NICU quilt for quiltsforkids
14. Scrap quilt from Jordan's great grandma's fabrics
15. Baby quiltforkids.org quilt (no name yet)
16. Kitty quilt for kids quilt (no name yet)
17. Spaceman quilt for kids quilt (no name yet)
18. Claire313's crazy Sanibel bag
19. Ruth's crazy Sanibel bag

So 5 projects done of 50, I'm 10% done! But the year is more than 10% over, so I need to bust a move. All my projects are so big and time consuming though!

Well, its about time for me to leave for work. God has blessed us in that I was able to pick up another student for tutoring, and I'm working with him for about 2 hours every week. Its great because the little income boost has really helped. The problem is that all this tutoring will be ending in about two months because of summer vacation, and I will need to find another job to make ends meet until it all picks back up again in the fall. At least, I'm assuming it'll all pick back up again and I'll get to keep my same students. I'm not sure what I'll do in the summer, but hopefully God will provide something. For the time being I'm trying not to worry about it.

Jordan and I were successful in sticking to our budget this month. We now have a fully stocked emergency fund and will be making a larger payment on my student loan debt than we originally anticipated. Its nice because the first couple of weeks were lean as we were waiting for my paycheck to arrive so we'd have money to buy groceries, but since then we've had everything we've needed and haven't really felt the pinch of running out of money at all. Which is because we haven't. It has really worked out well for us, and it was really encouraging. We even had some car trouble this month and a doctor's visit, but we turned out ok. That's always a nice feeling to see hard work start to pay off.

50 Projects in 2010!!!

So we've been doing pretty good on my new year's resolutions so far! I've added a new one that I'm focusing on for the month of February - drinking my full 64 ounces of water every day. When I complete it for the day, I get a sticker on the calendar. I've gotten a sticker every day so far this month!

1. Etsy store - has had to be put on hold as I've been trying to get another job so that we can get out of debt faster.

2. Cook dinner at home more often - We have been doing really well on this, up until Jordan was switched back to nights. Now I have to gear myself up for cooking lunch for the two of us every day, instead of supper which seems easier as I have more time. But we haven't eaten out at a restaurant since I don't remember when, and our fast food intake is much lower too.

3. Reduce our eco footprint - our gas bill this last month was down almost $20!! And its the winter!!! I think that's pretty good.

4. Plan to and stick to a budget - We've started the Dave Ramsey budget, and are living much more frugally than a couple of months ago. Hopefully this will pay off soon as we will be out of debt.

5. Get out of debt - well, we're working on it! It may take longer than a year, but I hope not.

And now I'm going to start a new count thing: I want to complete 50 projects in 2010!! I think I'm already off to a good start though, and it shouldn't be too difficult as long as I stick to it. I'm going to try not to include the things I'm making for Craftster swaps on here, as I want to make sure I'm making things for our home too. Here are the things I've already started/finished:

1. Mom's birthday present teacher bag
2. A new everyday purse for me!!
3. The "Happy Puppy" quilt for kids - needs batting and quilting
4. The knitted afghan with 117 squares - 4 down so far!
5. A coupon holder for my purse
6. A new quilt for our bed (started in 2009, lets finish it!)
7. A new wallet
8. A new and improved knitting project bag (I learned from my mistakes on the last one)
9. A weekender travel bag/luggage
10. A change purse to hold the change in my purse!
11. A nice warm hat for my hubby - already have the yarn and needles, just need the skill
12. Fill up the nice wedding scrap book we received as a gift that is still empty

Obviously, that list is not to 50. But I need to think of more things to add to it! I'm getting project ideas all the time, I just need to have an achievable goal so that I can watch myself working towards it! I'm excited. And it gives me drive and direction in all this free time that I have currently. But I've already learned how to sew button holes, and how to do satin stitching on a machine. Not to mention the knitting stitches I've had to learn and master. I'm excited, and hope that this will increase my crafting skills.

New Drive

Jordan is interviewing for a new job right now. We're hoping and praying that its not a sales job, and that it'll be salaried and the right job for him. We shall see. He forget to grab his coat and his ipod charger, so I'm going to drive out to his work later today and bring it to him.

I've found myself a new project. I'd like to start work on another quilt, but after having to pull out all the stitches I've put into the one that I started making for Jordan and I, I need a little break from that pattern. I found this website while reading on a blog: http://quiltsforkids.org/ and I signed up to receive a kit of fabric. What a great way to get out of my quilting funk and help some needy kids at the same time! I'm rather excited for it.

Still no luck on the job front for me. Everything that comes across craigslist is a sales job, or a full time job that would make it so I can't tutor. I know that something will happen soon though, so I'm not going to let it get me down. Until then, I'm just trying to squeeze in as many hours of tutoring that I can. Never thought I would say that teachers don't assign enough homework. :)

Looking up?

Well, Jordan's work called about 30 minutes ago and informed him that apparently the guy who he'd switched shifts with in order to do a favor had decided to go ahead and switch back and not tell Jordan. So they were calling to find out why he was not at work. Which really makes me angry in a way I can't express, as Jordan really did his co-worker (who would have been fired if Jordan hadn't agreed to switch with him) a favor, and now this co-worker decides to completely screw him over. Oh it just makes me SO MAD.

Thankfully, we've both spent the past two days applying for jobs (Jordan more so than I because I've been cleaning house as well and we've only got the one computer), and Jordan actually already had a call on one and has an interview tomorrow. Of course, he had to call and reschedule the interview when he found out what his co-worker had done, but at least they were able to make time for him earlier tomorrow so he can still do that and make it to work. Oh, I am soooo angry at this person right now. But I really hope that this job Jordan is interviewing for is the right one for him (not sales) and that it works out, so he can get out of this crummy situation.

I'm trying to find some kind of part time work too, because we realized that our current income and budget are not going to allow us to get out of debt in any timely fashion. But the job I've got (tutoring) pays sooo well, that to give it up for a 40 hour a week $8 an hour job would be pointless as they'd have about the same income. So a part-time job it is. Anything would help, honestly. And I'm applying for anything I can find.

The Etsy business is definitely going to have to go on the back burner for a while until this whole mess is cleaned up. Which stinks, but that's ok. It'll still be there waiting for me when I'm able to get back to it. Just like this house, which seems to continually get itself messy when I'm not looking. I did finally make myself a new purse the other day. I had planned on listing it online to sell it, but I like it so much I'm going to have to keep it for myself. Which I think is ok, because I never make anything for myself.

Phew. I'm still quite ticked off. I need to go scrub something.

Frustrations and Revelations

I'm pretty frustrated because the HORRIBLE bed and breakfast job that I worked over Christmas STILL has not paid me. She said she mailed the paycheck on Jan 18th, but how long can a letter take to get here from Weatherford? If it has not arrived on Monday, I will bring it up with her again and have her mail me a new one. This is absolutely ridiculous. Granted, she's not the best person with money (I took a payment to Macy's for her the day before Christmas - she was paying $40 on a $500 balance), but I still should have been paid by now. It doesn't help that we need the money right now. Several of our bills were high this month for some reason, combined with me not being able to tutor half the month because school was out. Just frustrating. Our budget has officially begun, but it feels like we're more in the hole than when we started because of this situation.

In other news, Jordan and I went and heard Grant play at a coffee house yesterday, and it was actually a lot of fun. We brought a board game, because my husband loves board games and I knew saying we'd bring it would convince him to go. Ultimately, it was a good thing because we both needed to get out of the house and he ended up having a lot more fun than he thought he would. The job situation is rough on him, and he deserves better. I haven't been much help lately because I've had a severe lack of patience for various reasons, the chief of which being that I need to get back into a house-cleaning and Bible-reading swing of things. Christmas "break" really threw us off. Anyway, the coffee shop was a lot of fun. And then tonight we went and heard the Fort Worth Symphonic Orchestra play a free community concert at church. The nice thing about these concerts (one of which I went to in December) is that we sit extremely close because its a small-ish auditorium. At least, small compared to Bass Hall. But we were probably about 10 feet away from the conductor. It was great. Apparently they had a contest for musicians in high school (or below) and the winner came to play with them. The winner was a Senior high school student who played a violin concerto (extremely long - totally memorized) with them. He looked nervous as all get out, and he messed up every now and then. But he sounded really good, and I bet it was a thrill to be the soloist playing with a professional orchestra. Man, the orchestra sounded amazing as always. The second piece they played was a symphony written by a bohemian composer, and it was beautiful. It featured the lone flute player, and she was remarkable. The lone clarinetist was also amazing. Its funny that the orchestra will have only one (two for the low brass instruments) player on each instrument, and then a whole herd of violins and violas and cellos and upright basses. The wind instruments can still be clearly heard. I keep saying this, but MAN they sounded good.

I've been making handbags recently, and I finally made one for myself (granted, I was testing a new style to see if it worked - and I like it a lot!). I've been using it and loving it the past day, and have a couple modifications that I will put into place when I start making them to sell. Kristen thought it was cute anyway. And I really really like it a lot. I enjoy making handbags, much more than anything else I've made.

Well, life goes on. The library is awesome for free entertainment. We checked out a copy of HBO's "John Adams" series and have been watching that. Its great, and you should see if it you get the chance. The first episode is a little rough because, as my husband put it, "I just didn't care about any of the characters". But by the second episode you've been drawn into the story and it really is well done. We've been enjoying it.

We've also resurrected Lego Star Wars since we never completely beat it. We're now working on the last 15% and we'll have beaten the whole game. Its a fun game and we enjoy playing it together. Anyway, back to my book. I'm currently reading "Julie and Julia", yes the one they made the movie of. I enjoyed the movie, and - as usual - the book is far superior to the movie. Well, kind of. Its much much better at telling Julie Powell's story, but doesn't tell Julia Child's story at all. The movie did a better job at that. Good night inter-world.

Every Once in a While

Grrr. Sewing machine pedal decided to stop working. I called a shop around here that carries my brand of machine, and they told me to bring it in and they'd diagnose it for free. But over the phone, they thought I would need the circuit board in the foot replaced, which would cost $75. But if I have to replace the entire foot, the part will cost $250. LAME!!! Especially since the starter on the camry decided to die as well, and we have to get THAT replaced. Estimate was at $340 with the part and labor, but Jordan did it himself and saved us $150. Still, meant we couldn't afford to fix the sewing machine.

However, Beth has decided that it is time for her to get a new sewing machine, and she is sending her old one down with Bill who is driving to Oklahoma to pick up the new youth minister on Monday and help them move. So we're going to drive tonight and spend the night at Jordan's grandma's house, and then see Bill and some of the other church guys on Monday. I'm excited to see family, as it sure does get lonely down here in Fort Worth. Its rough because I spent my first 1.5 years out of college (teaching) getting used to being lonely and not being able to hang out with friends. But Jordan is just now going through that, and there isn't a whole lot I can do to help him. Its hard because I'm home alone most of the time and look forward to when he gets home, but when he gets home he's a little down because all of our friends have other plans and can't hang out like they used to in college - which I guess is just part of growing up. Plus he hates his job and is just generally dissatisfied with life right now. Again, I think that must be part of growing up as I've got a lot of those feelings going on too. Oh well, life goes on.

We're officially starting our Dave Ramsey budget this friday with Jordan's paycheck, but its going to be hard because our emergency fund was so depleted by the car starter. Its good, because I have the feeling we would have run into a MAJOR crisis soon which we would have been unprepared for financially. We were talking last night about how if either of us were to get sick or in an accident, we wouldn't have any way to pay for it. But now that I think about it, Jordan is actually insured already for his health. It would just be the $500 copay, which we could come up with. Its me who we can't afford to get sick or injured. Just a rough spot to be in, when we're living below our means but just not making enough money and generally feeling like we're spinning our wheels. At least we don't have kids.

What a whiny blog post. Honestly, we have a pretty good life. We've got food on the table, two funny (and frustrating sometimes) dogs, each other, and an unlimited pass to the local library. I'm pretty convinced that the only thing more money would bring is more bills. And so I'm going to work on changing my attitude today.

A weekend of new jobs

I took the test for the census job on Monday, which was kinda a shame because Bill was in town and I really would have like to see him. The census test was a joke, and anyone who graduated high school should have been able to get 100% on it, as long as they actually tried. If you try to do it too fast, you will miss questions as they trick you. But it took me about 15 minutes out of the 30 we were allowed. There were some people who didn't even finish, and some people who didn't pass (passing is 10 out of the 28 questions). I was the youngest person in my testing group. Everyone else was in their 30's or above with one or two exceptions. Since I got a perfect score, theoretically I should be at the top of the list when they come to fill positions. We will see though.

Jordan went to see his dad in dallas while I was testing, and Mrs. Gayla was there. She and her husband live here now, which is weird to me because several of us from MABC ended up here in Dallas/Fort Worth (Harris, Watson, Kristen, Jordan and I..). She works for the Southern Baptist Convention of Texas and told Jordan about a couple openings they have, which would be great for me because I would like to have health benefits. Hopefully I'll be able to do the work from them (hopefully in the missions department like Gayla) and still keep my tutoring job, which will help us follow our Money Makeover plan that much faster.

We had to get the cars' registration renewed yesterday. Good bye $100. AND in the state of Texas you have to have your car inspected every year, so we still have to do that. Already thinning our emergency fund as the two people who were supposed to pay me on the 15th (the tutoring company and that terrible bed and breakfast) STILL have not gotten my pay checks in the mail. Which is a huge part of the reason we're doing the money makeover plan - so that when people fail we won't be left in a pinch. Also, the started on the Camry has started to fail, so now we have to replace that. The mechanic down the road (who always quotes us high) said $340 to replace it. Jordan is looking at other options. Just frustrating.

We've spent the last 5 days pretty much consistently hanging out with the Watsons and the Michalkes. Its fun to have other married couple friends. On Sunday, after we went to church, we went back to the Watson's house and talked for a while. Everybody ended up telling their beginning of relationship through engagement stories, which was interesting to hear. The Michalkes were high school sweethearts, the Watsons randomly met and got engaged shortly after, and then Jordan and I. Of course we had to tell the whole Jodi's-college-mistake story, even though we were trying to gloss over. But they wanted to know, so we told them. Its great to hang out with people in our same situation of being newly married, broke, and trying to find where we fit. I've really enjoyed it.

The dogs are driving me nuts. Abbey has decided that after a month with no accidents, she is now no longer potty trained. So we're back to the kennel/outside time until she gets it through her head that she has no other choice. Hopefully this time it will stick. She's also been a whiny brat at night, which leads to less sleep for Jordan and I, which leads to raised nerves at night. Jojo is just very vocal, as always. Their new game is to sit on top of the couch and bark at the neighborhood stray cats.

Goals for the day? Do a little cleaning around the house, as they dogs have decided to unstuff another previously-stuffed animal all over the living room. I've got to replant some cabbage seeds that have sprouted and will need a bigger pot before they go outside in the garden. And I'm going to list an item or two online - at least make them so I can list them throughout the week, as well as finish mom's birthday present and figure out what dad is getting so that I can get that box in the mail and not worry about it.

The Financial Guru

So, I checked out The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey a couple days ago, and have started reading it. It sounds great. I mean, it sounds hard and it will be hard. But it'll be good for us. I'm hoping we can get into great financial shape and not have to hit rock bottom like most of the people in the book, with tons of debt and medical bills and job losses all piling up at once. We have been squandering our money, mostly on entertainment and going out to eat. But that has started to change since we've been focusing on meal planning and eating at home, and hopefully the envelope system and the "spending your money on paper before you get it" plan will help us trim up and start putting away some savings.

My etsy store will have to go on the backburner for a little bit, because I don't want to be investing so much money in it when we should be paying off the debt. I'm not going to stop working on it. I'm just not going to be buying new material. It'll be a while before it starts earning me money, so I need to stop investing so heavily and buying so much fabric when I haven't even been able to have the time to list items every day like I should be. I'm still going to try to have 20 items listed by the end of January (hopefully I'll have about 30-40 items by the end of february, as that is when people say they start seeing steady sales if you've been doing the promotions right), and I certainly have the fabric stash to do it.

I've got a job test tomorrow for a census job, paying 11-16 dollars an hour. Even if I just work that part time, it will help us pay off our debt all the much faster.

But, my 15 minute break from house cleaning is up. Hope everybody has a good day!

Enchiladas and Twitter

I've been staying pretty busy making new items so I have something new to list everyday on etsy. Once I have more of an inventory, I think I will take out an add on facebook so I can get some exposure that way. I've got a fanpage on facebook as well as a Twitter account now. Just trying to promote myself and get people into the store. Hopefully eventually it'll lead to my first sale.

Cooked enchiladas last night for Jordan and Grant. Easy meal, and Jordan just loves it. They're pretty good too. And the best part was I doubled the ground beef while I was browning it, and then some of it aside for the taco soup today. So supper today will be easy peasy and I don't have to worry about it too much.

Started work on mom's birthday present today too. Bought the fabric for it yesterday and I'm in the process of designing it now - just taking a break to order some business cards and do a little marketing. I really am enjoying this etsy stuff. Keeps me busy and gives me a sense of purpose during the day.

Promotion, promotion, promotion

Well, its been an interesting couple of days. Still no sales in my etsy shop, though I did have someone contact me about a custom order for their wedding party. I hope that works out because it would be fun to do. I've just been promoting the shop like crazy, trying to get more people into the store. Even if nobody buys anything yet, at least they've been made aware I exist and hopefully made a mental note for the next time they're looking for a gift. We'll see. Its mildly frustrating, but I'm going to keep at it. I really want it to work out.

I spent a lot of time a couple days ago designing a new wallet for the shop. I haven't found anything else like it on etsy, so hopefully it'll be my key to carving out my niche. I made 3 prototypes before ending up with one that I like. Unfortunately, I didn't stitch entirely straight so I'm keeping that one for myself. I starting to make an actual one to sell, but ending up making a mistake somewhere and it came out too short. I hate doing that. But Jordan has been very encouraging during the whole frustrating process. It doesn't help that the sewing machine was having issues as well.

In other news, I got into the Frugal Living Swap in craftster, and I'm pretty excited about that. First thing I'm making for my partner are some reusable menstrual pads. Frankly, they gross me out. But she really really wants them and there are quite a few people who love them. So whatever. I will make them for her, but I certainly don't have to use them!

We've been doing well eating supper at home, except that there have been a couple supper mishaps where it wasn't cooked fully or burned or something along those lines. So we've still ended up eating fast food. But it'll get better, I trust. At least we're trying!

Our First Downfall

Well, despite our hard work we ate fastfood the last two days. I had a beef stew cooking in the crock pot on Monday, but I put in the noodles too soon and they dissolved into the stew and the whole thing just looked disgusting. It was horrible. So we threw it out and went and got Taco Bell.

And then yesterday, I had dinner planned and ready to be cooked, but we ended up going over to Grant's house the play games and stayed there through dinner time. So we had to pick up fast food again. I'm not going to feel too bad about it. Just pick ourselves back up and get back on the cooking-our-food not-so-much-fast-food bandwagon.

I added two new items to my etsy store today, the personalized coffee cozy's and some Breast Cancer Awareness ones. I enjoyed making them and I am hoping that my store will start to get some traffic so that I can get closer to making my first sale. At the moment, I'm just one in a sea of etsy stores and I'm not sure how to get my name out there and get people into my store. But it'll happen with time as long as I keep doing what I am doing. I've got a couple new products in my head that I'd like to make and have up in the next couple of days. Breaking into the market is a little hard, but I'm reading and improving my store every day.

Jordan and I went to the library these past two days, and I've checked out quite a few books about gardening and how to grow your own vegetables without spending tons of money to do it. We're going to use the Square Foot Garden method, since it doesn't require us to dig into any soil (which is good because we don't have a yard) and is instead more like planter boxes but for veggies. I picked up a good variety of seeds from Lowe's today, and may start some of the longer-maturing ones inside on the window seals so that we can start enjoying fresh produce earlier in the spring than we'd be otherwise able to.

Life is good!

Open for Business!!!

Well, Cozy Designs is officially open for business on etsy. Jordan is going to make a banner and avatar for the shop today, but the coffee cozy's are already up and listed for sale! I also took pictures of the wine glasses I made for our anniversary this weekend, and plan on adding those tomorrow for $25 for a personalized pair. I haven't found anything like them (etched, found plenty of painted) on etsy. They look very classy and elegant, so I hope they sell well.

Jordan and I went to the library today and I checked out a handful of gardening books. I'm hoping to start a container garden of herbs and vegetables that we can use in our kitchen so that we don't have to buy so many. Having things like fresh cilantro and peppers on hand will be helpful in the cooking and will also save us some money hopefully.

Its been a good day to make progress on our goals!

A Weekend to Remember!

Well, its been 2010 for 3 days now. Jordan and I went to Dallas for our anniversary, and ended up spending more money than we had planned on due to unseen circumstances. So we've got some making up to do. But we had a lot of fun. It was a good anniversary and some good husband-wifey time. My dad was also in town today, so we spent all day with him. It sure is nice to see family after so long without them.

I've added another thing to my to-do's for this year. I'd like to run a half marathon. My family is running one in May, and I think that if I can stick to a training program we'd be able to do one about the same time. I could definitely do with some exercise to lose some of the weight I've gained.

I did a lot on the 1st to get ready for my goals. I took a lot of pictures, and am now waiting on Jordan to make an avatar and banner for my etsy site. I did some crafting and other little things that I need to do in order to be ready for that.

Overall, its been a very busy last couple of days. School is starting back tomorrow, which means I should be going back to tutoring on Tuesdays. The return to a normal schedule will hopefully help rather than hinder our striving to meet our goals.