The Wisdom of a Woman

Sometimes others can just say it better. I haven't had the same experience Molly is writing about, but I have definitely felt the way she is talking about. Soak it up.

Molly Piper-We used to be Happy People

Celebration Elimination

If you haven't been following too closely, Celebration Elimination is what Patrick and I have when we pay off one of our bills. As mentioned in our previous Celebration Elimination post, we are following the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt. We won't admit how much debt we started out with until this is all over, but it will be awhile until that happens.

Last week Patrick and I paid off one of our cars! It was so exciting writing the check and mailing it off! We celebrated by buying a small patio set for our front porch. We have been wanting one for quite a while, but Dave Ramsey kept haunting me every time we talked about buying one. Once we paid off the car, we felt better about buying it. The California weather allows us to spend a ton of time out there. We love it! Now, we have to get started on the next bill.....the other car.

Eaton Canyon Falls

So we have this book of a ton of hikes around the area. We started out planning to get to all of them, but I'm not so sure that will happen. Last weekend we set out on hike #2 to Eaton Canyon Falls. According to the book, the hike is at the easy/moderate level, 3.0 miles round trip and at 300 feet elevation. It was supposed to be a crazy adventure that would involve crossing a stream and getting soaked, but we are in a drought out here and the stream was completely dry. Not one drop. We did get to experience a little water near the fall, which Bailey greatly enjoyed, but the rest of the hike was rather warm and dry.

What do you Know....

Patrick and I finally discovered the beautiful California we have always heard about. Last weekend we departed to La Jolla for an early anniversary trip--I must pause here and mention that I can't believe that we have already been married for almost 3 years. We stayed at La Valencia Hotel, which made our trip comparable to our honeymoon. It was an incredible trip.

Friday
7:00am-8:00am: Up early to finish packing and get ready. Dropped Patrick's electric razor in the toilet and accidentally flushed the razor attachment.

8:00am-9:00am: Stopped for frappuccino and pumpkin bread from the local coffee shop in our quaint suburb. Dropped Bailey off at Jeff and Julie's so he could hang with his girlfriend, Allie--a yellow lab, for the weekend. Stopped at Wal-Mart to buy Patrick another razor.

9:00am: Finally got on the road

11:00am-4:00pm: Spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. It was huge and full of tons of things to see. The weather was perfect. Lunch at a hotdog stand....yum.

4:00pm-6:30pm: Drove north to La Jolla to check in at La Valencia. We bought the standard room, the cheapest option, and had minimal expectations. Wow. When we got to our room, we thought they had put us in the the wrong room. We had operable french doors that opened to a patio overlooking the pool and ocean. It was gorgeous!

6:30pm-9:00pm: Back to San Diego for dinner at Olivetto, where my aunt works. Yummy Italian food and wine bar.

Saturday
9:00am-10:00am: Walk to The LivingRoom for some frappuccinos

10:00am-2:00pm: Basked in the sun at the pool that overlooks the Pacific. I got lost in Twilight (don't judge) while my cool husband brought his highlighter to mark in his book The Mortification of Sin. We appreciate our differences. Paid an absurd amount for lunch at the pool.

2:30pm-4:30pm: Went on a kayaking tour that requires a blog entry of its own. It seemed more like a clip from a movie. We had a flawless trip up until the Kayaking tour. The blissful, romantic tour I had imagined was more like a baffling roller coaster of emotion. Patrick was immediately infuriated that he (we) could not master kayaking. I think he even held me exclusively responsible for not keeping the kayak in a straight line. He narrowly avoided a co-kayaker's paddle to the face, and I got sea sick. Not to mention the fact that our tour guide suggested I get in the water to help with the sickness....right before he told us about the leopard sharks that were swimming beneath us.

6:30pm-8:30pm: Another incredible dinner...this time at Acqua, compliments of my Aunt. She had everything pre-arranged for us. She ordered everything ahead of time and we were overwhelmed with not only the quality of food, but the amount of food. It was so yummy! We even got a table overlooking the sunset over the Pacific.

8:30pm-9:30pm: A little shopping on Prospect Street on our walk back home, then back to the hotel for some piano bar action.

Sunday
9:30am-11:00am: Rise and Shine. The husband went to the coffee shop while I held down some seats by the pool. Then, we soaked up every last minute until check-out at noon.

Road Trip Baby!

Last week I ventured out on the longest drive in the shortest amount of time ever. Kathryn embraced a fun opportunity to complete a clinical rotation for school in Colorado Springs and I was the lucky gal that got to make the drive with her. The road trip to Colorado Springs started around lunch on Sunday....12:21pm to be exact. We patiently listened to the "be safe" speech from Paul and then hit the pavement for the long haul. I can't possibly record the experience in paragraph form, so I have opted to list out the memorable parts of the trip.

1. Making 5+ U-turns (most in an attempt to find Sonic)

2. Yummy Sonic blast and the never ending crave for ice cream

3. Forever battling the ETA on the GPS

4. Hue's random sickness in the middle of the night (Hue is the attractive accented
GPS voice that went absolutely crazy)

5. The scary voice that got the job done while Hue recovered, but kept referencing a noise coming from the trunk....and my avoiding looking in the rear view for fear that I would see a young, pale girl in a white dress

6. The long drive through Kansas. At one point, I would have bet money that Kansas is the only state between Georgia and Colorado.

7. The disgusting feeling around the 18th hour and the rather strong desire to brush my teeth.

8. The random variety of food: bananas, apples, cheddar bunnies, keylime cupcakes (gross), water, cheap coffee drinks, m&m's, subway, arby's, sonic blast.....oh yeah...and fiber one bars.

Palm Springs

The next best thing to going home is having family visit California. My cousin Lori and her husband Jason were in Palms Springs this week and Patrick and I were sure to take time to hang out. It was my first trip to Palm Springs, and I must say it isn't the desert oasis I imagined it being. When I think of Palm Springs I imagine palm trees and kidney shaped pools. Not so much. In spite of the "June Gloom" lurking over the city, we have a great day with Lori and Jason. We took a trip on the tram...the longest, steepest tram in the world actually. There was a little too much spinning involved in the ride up, but it was a gorgeous view. By the way, I'm not being anti-affection in the picture above. It was COLD at the top so I was trying to keep warm. Of course we had to have some great mexican food and then we paid a visit to an outlet nearby. Yay for fun day trips in the middle of a work week.

Celebration Elimination

Since February 1st, Patrick and I have been on a rather focused effort to get out of debt. I owe it all to Dave Ramsey...and my parents for introducing me to him. We are following his baby steps and are currently digging our way through baby step #2, which is to pay off all debt except the house (which we don't have). When we sat down to determine to the penny how much debt we were in, the goal seemed huge. Student loans sure do add up. We had to seriously cut our standard of living, which wasn't high to begin with. Anyone who has ventured in our kitchen since February can attest to fact that we have been living off of mostly beans, rice and cornbread.

We have had to be intentional about finding creative ways to stay motivated. Like, we designed our a list of our debt to put on our refrigerator so we could cross things off as we paid them. But it isn't just any list, it has a graphic of someone climbing up a flight of stairs to victory and surrounding by money. Don't make fun. I also have little celebrations with my coworkers by bringing in a treat every time we pay something off so that they can celebrate with us. But, my favorite motivator is what Patrick has creatively named "Celebration Elimination." After each debt we pay off we reward ourselves. Each reward gets bigger we are paying debts off smallest to largest. We paid off our first credit card last month and celebrated by going to see a movie in theaters. What a treat! And, we just paid off our last credit card this week. As you can see, Patrick got to cut up the card and I got to close the account. Our "Celebration Elimination" this time was driving to San Clemente yesterday to the Rainbow Factory store and getting discounted flip flops. Woohoo!

We are $10,000 down and plan to have one of the cars paid off next month!