Luck

We finally paid off our Student Loans.

Even though I don't quite know exact details for every week that we were scrimping and saving, I do know this, the stars and the heavens aligned and we are officially out of debt. (Still have house and 1 car debt, but those don't count in unnecessary debt) I wish I could say that I had a life changing experience going through these last couple of months, but I really didn't. All I can say is we were prepared(food storage and a menu plan), we had a goal (get out of debt), and then we tried and tried and tried. I say tried three times because I know one week we went out to eat three times to crappy fast food places because we had no food in the house and it was one of those weeks. Needless to say we survived and learned that we can stick to a goal, we can fail and then try again, and we sometimes come out on top.

We actually were able to pay off the loan a little quicker than we thought because we got a refund from taxes. Thank Heavens because I don't know how long I really could have survived on so little. I'm not as talented as my mom or sister in making something out of nothing. I am definitely not as good with money as I would like to be and it was good to see that even I can pay off something early, if I make up my mind and stick to it.

Living on faith and $50 dollars a week

So, Aaron and I have had student loans we have been paying off since he graduated from BYU. 10 years later I am officially tired of them hanging around. I have made a goal to only spend $50 a week on groceries and put our extra money towards our student loans. Can I do it? Only if I am accountable, write it down on my blog and have some peer pressure follow me around!

Here is my idea in a nutshell

$150-$50=$100 into Student Loan. $400 a month into loan and loan will be gone in 4 months instead of being gone in 10 months.

To start I organized my meals and food storage to align with the stars and here I go!!

I will let you know how it goes! wish me luck!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

We had lots of fun today with WAY too much candy!

Landon just about overdosed!

Yesterday, the kids all got just about as much candy as at Halloween. And in less than 5 minutes!

Makayla won a big prize by finding a special egg!


We hope everyone else had as much fun as we did!!!

Come Aboard...

Ok, Ok. So we finally broke down and jumped on the band wagon... er, well, the Patty Wagon! This is not likely to be a daily or even weekly thing, but we'll try. Besides, maybe if we put some pics up once in a while everyone will quit bugging us! Just kidding.

So, here's what's been going on the last couple years... pretty much the house remodel. Yep, that pretty well sums up our lives. Here are some before and afters... It's still a work in process, but we're getting there...
This is the kitchen before we bought the house.
This is the dining room before...
This is the living room (the dining room is through that wall)...

drumroll please........
How it looked yesterday (before the kids got home from school!). The view is from the corner pictured below by the fireplace.
This is the view from the sink.
I found a better place for the kitchen cabinets.
This is the master shower before....
Dad helped out with much of the new shower.
It's still just concrete at this point, but we're getting ready to do the tile soon.

These are some shots of the previous master bedroom (that's a queen size bed). The closet is to the left of the bed, and was only 18 inches deep.
Here's what it looked like before I rebuilt it all. Note: I took out the room next to the master bedroom also. So it's now the entire width of the house (the short way), as a master bedroom should be!
This is the view now from the same back corner of the room (that's a king size bed). The door on the far left is to the bathroom (still a work in process...see next picture). The wall on the left is the end of the walk-in closet.This is my side of the closet (right side).

This is Kari's side of the closet (left side). Kari also gets the top, the bottom, and half of my side... guys, you know what I'm talking about!Just another view of the master bedroom. You can see the rocking chair in the "reading nook" by the window. Wish I had time to use it!
Now for the basement. This is the before showing the wood stove from the back.
The closet opens up to the brick on the backside.
There was a ton of brick (and dust) that we hauled out through the basement window in the white 5 gallon buckets.
Here's what it looked like while we were building it back up. The column is the chimney. I decided to build around it (smart move).
Here's the view now, from the same corner.We made a little play room for the kids. We store all the books, and games in there. The door on the right is an access panel to the water line.
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Well, that's it so far. I still have to finish the master shower (double heads will be NICE), and do some moldings and trim in a few places. But, it's mostly done.

So, enough of the house... here are some recent pics of the family.
Taron & Makayla playing a duet at their Christmas recital.

Makayla and Alexis at their Cristmas dance show. Makayla's routine was Hawaiian themed. Lexi's was Rudolph. Kari made Makayla's and all her classmates' costumes from scratch! They look AWESOME.This is Landon at Halloween.Kari was baking and we turned around to find Landon having fun!
This is the kids (with their cousin, Morgan Merkley) on the first day of school. They all have a few less teeth now!
Landon (left) and cousin Memphis Pierce. "No cookie is worth the aggravation of getting a haircut!" Especially your first one!Makayla's Baptism was great. We bought the dress in Belgium three years ago, and she was about 6 inches too tall for it! So, Kari and her mom took it apart and added the ribbon section to the middle and bottom (not shown). It was beautiful.
No dad could be prouder!

Well. I think that's enough for today. Have a great week!