1/23 Tornadoes

Y'all. My town was rocked by the tornadoes that hit the state on January 23. Because I work for the local government, this week has been insane. Just like I imagine next week will be. This is my 3rd 14 hour day, and I am barely able to function, let alone write a post that will eloquently sum up this part of my life. There is no grace at this end. I am dragging. I barely have enough energy to eat.

But, I will say that this little community of less than 10,000 people has completely blown me away. I am in a constant state of wonder at how these citizens take care of each other. This little town is genuinely a warm, loving family. It sounds heartless to say this, but it's amazing what kind of good is brought out of people when faced with this kind of devastation.

Personally, I have not really been able to process this. There just hasn't really been time enough for me to wind down enough to think about it. I got to take a police tour of the areas hit by the tornado. Wow. That is all I can say. The devastation is unreal. Truly unreal. And this is the first time (thank God) that this little city has had to deal with this sort of thing. But wow. "Wow" to the damage, but mostly "wow" to the response. I still can't believe how amazing this city it. Also, just for future reference: the churches here have been unbelievable. They have really stepped up to the plate and provided leadership, shelter, work, food, and whatever else can be imagined. We wouldn't be able to make it to day 3 without the work of the local (and statewide) churches. Thank you so much, for showing what true Christianity is about.

Baby Girl Nursery

Baby Girl Nursery by annies0627 on polyvore.com

Circo® Fitted Knit Crib Sheet- Pink : Target, $9.99
Bergamo Upholstered Glider - Urban Drift - Bergamo - Babies "R" Us, $400
DaVinci Jenny Lind Baby Changing Table - White : Target, $99
Naptime Rod Pocket Blackout 84 inch Window Panel - Light Pink Stripe -..., $50
DaVinci Jenny Lind Crib White - Your Price $220 - LOWEST Price..., $220
Hand-tufted FHSN Wool Rug (4'9 x 7'6) | Overstock.com, $90
Amazon.com: Waverly Rustic Life Watermelon (Pink Rose on Off White..., $16

New Years Resolution: January

Remember my resolution to do something new every month? Well, January is almost over so I'm kind of phoning it in on this one.

For the month of January, I (well, both J & I) had the baby talk and have started taking steps toward beginning that process.

Right after we got married the baby fever hit me, and I managed to tell myself the timing wasn't right... And it definitely wasn't. For as long as we've been together the timing has been wrong due to our circumstances (living arrangement/finances/school/insurance/etc). I've told myself and J that I want certain conditions to be in place before TTC. First, I had to graduate college. There was really no debating about that. Second we had to be living in a house or apartment by ourselves (due to timing of apartment leases we had a roommate for the first 9 months of our marriage, then my job called for us to live in a hotel for about 1 year). Third, I demanded that we have our debt under $10,000 (and we are so close to that). And finally, we needed insurance. Somehow the planets have aligned this month and pretty much all of those things have been achieved. Crazy. So now that the basic requirements have been met, we've discussed it and made a few more requirements (mostly about losing weight and gaining money) and started making plans. Part of the plans include educating myself about this whole process because for as long as I remember I've only educated myself in NOT getting knocked up. Another part includes educating ourselves about raising a tiny human. So we signed up for a small group at church for parents/new parents/not parents yet. We really hope this will be stimulating and encouraging, because honestly the thought of raising a human kind of scares the crap out of me. Don't get me wrong it makes me feel great and excited too, but there is a lot of fear there. Just trying to be honest.

So, run down of January: met all the basic requirements (set at the beginning of our marriage) for TTC, had a baby talk with J, made a few new requirements (lose weight for a healthy pregnancy, plump up our savings, pay down some more debt), and will begin educating ourselves. See? Told you I was phoning it in... But this is kind of a big deal for us.

We know ultimately it will be in the hands of God, but there's nothing wrong with a little preparation, right?

Recently Pinned

I had planned to finish my health, wealth & happiness posts... but I slept late & only have about 5 minutes to post something. Plus I love pinterest. Here are some of my recent favorites (and they're on my list of things to actually make)

Mushroom Pizza via myp90xnutritionplan

Muggle Born Onesie via weheartit

Cupcake Liner Centerpiece via traditionallymoderndesigns

Cookie sheet magnetic board via cinnaberry-suite

Wealth

Three part series in which I discuss how health, wealth, & happiness play a part in my journey.

Like so many Americans, we are in debt. A lot of debt. And we are trying to pay it off.

Here's the breakdown according to December 2011 statements:

Best Buy Credit Card- $1346.55

My personal Credit Card- $1497.16

Compass Visa- $3112.04

Compass Gold- $5285.00

Overdraft LOC- 654.67

TOTAL: $11,895.42

(I didn't add in my loans, because for some reason, that just hasn't really registered in our minds as debt... in our family, it falls more into the house mortgage category. But for the record I have $28745.33 in student loans for 5 years of undergrad at a small public liberal arts institution.)

To be fair, a majority of this debt was gained (made/happened/etc?) through not-so-wise-decisions made during J's previous marriage, so it has been with us since we started dating over 5 years ago. My personal credit card was used a lot for our wedding stuff & again for "emergencies" when J was out of work for 3 months (not smart I know, but we did what we had to in order to survive).

I do want to take a minute to commend J. He has been working diligently at paying off his debt for as long as I've known him. And since we've been dating he/we have paid off 3 debts (when we first started dating we owed about $20k to various places) & managed to bring the rest of the balances down a lot while eking out a life for ourselves.

This year it is my goal to pay off at least 2 of these debts (the Best Buy card & the LOC) & after looking at my budget for the year, we may be able to pay down my credit card A LOT (I hope to have it paid off by next Spring)... as long as we don't have any major changes.

And honestly, I love planning this stuff. Part of me gets stressed when I look at how much we owe because by nature I am a worrier, but then I look at how far we've come &/or I write out a budget & see how efficiently we can pay it off & I end up feeling uplifted and empowered because I know WE CAN DO THIS! We don't have to be a slave to our debts. We can work our way out from under them & live fulfilling lives as a little family in a little house in our little town. And that makes me feel all warm & fuzzy. Who knew the right attitude about debt could do that?

Health

Part of my Health, Wealth & Happiness posts, focusingon how these 3 basic elements of life pertain to my particular journey.

This one is more of a diary & probably won't be all that interesting

to anyone else, which is good since no one else really knows about this blog.

Let's talk about weight loss. Let's talk about how muchI want to do that.

For as long as I can remember I have been preoccupied with my weight & with losing some of it. I can even remember back to elementary school when my BFF of the year & I decided we were going to only eat half of our school lunches to lose weight. I'm talking about early elementary school, like 2nd or 3rd grade. I remember always being self-conscious about my weight... and I think the other kids in school picked up on that so I became an easy target for bullying. I never really talked about it with anyone, but I remember being so young and crying so hard about what the other girls said/did to mock me. But this post isn't supposed to be about reliving childhood nightmares. Let's just sum it up by saying I can't remember a time in my life when my weight wasn't something I struggled with.

Fast forward to today. I'm happily married, have a good job & a wonderful house, but still struggle with my weight. So a few months ago I signed up for Weight Watchers (& a year ago I did the CarbLovers Diet, which worked well but wasn't a way of life that I could maintain, however I know people who have successfully lost weight on this diet & managed to keep it off.)... anyhow I was really gung ho about WeightWatchers for about the first week. Then old habits started creeping in - it doesn't help that I started doing this right at the major food holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now, I'm paying $40/month, & I've gained about half of what I lost (about 4lbs now). Folks, I should have already lost about 16lbs based on the whole lose 2lbs/week thing. Instead I've lost 4. And it's discouraging. Very discouraging. Mostly because I have specific goals in mind for the next year or so. I really need to lose about 120lbs to be in the healthy BMI range (for my own health). I also need to lose that weight to prepare for a healthy future pregnancy. But most importantly, I want to learn how to have a healthy life so that I can have a healthy family & so my future babies won't have such a difficult childhood.

But, I guess that's enough with the whys and wherefores, can I talk about HOW this is going to be accomplished? Because the honest truth is that I'm not entirely sure how I am going to do this. I know the basics: exercise and eat right. But I have a hard time putting this plan into action. I very often find myself unprepared on the battlefield of weight loss. But in an effort to be healthy and not just "lose weight" I've started going to a Zumba class near my home. It's a lot of fun for working out. She teaches 3 times per week, but I usually only average about 2 classes/week (which is still better than none!). As for eating right, I plan to stick with WW (It does work if you work it), but in an effort to save $$$ I will probably change to the online only plan.

But I also think it's important to have big picture & small doable goals.

Big picture I'd like to reach my goal weight of 160lbs (for

a healthy BMI range, although personally I liked the way

I looked & felt at 175 much better) before TTC.

Small doable goals:

I'd like to weigh less than 250lbs

I'd like to be at my wedding weight of 220lbs (ideally by our 3rd anniversary on 6/27/12) I'm on the right in this picture.

I'd like to weigh less than 200 lbs

I'd like to be at my meeting J weight of 180lbs

& finally my goal Weight of 160-175lbs (that's me on the left, obvs.)

Now, let's actually DO this!