Another One Bites the Dust

Student loans can kiss it, because I just realized I've paid off a $12,000 loan.

Yep, $12,000. I feel like it's my birthday. Except it's in January. And I'm not getting any money.

Now, I've talked about student loans a few times, here, here, and here. But in case you forgot, Ryan and I started our marriage with a whopping $140,000 worth of student debt. That's the damage after scholarships, grants, and course fee waivers. What a joy it's been, investing in our future. 

But what an investment! I have two bachelor's degrees and a master's in business administration and Ryan's working towards getting his doctorate.

So in general, we use my paycheck to pay for our normal expenses, which include normal monthly student loan payments. To pay off our student debt ASAP, Ryan and I funnel his checks into paying off loans. Now, you may think that graduate students are very handsomely paid but I can assure you, they're not. In the least bit. 

In my very little free time, I like to recalculate the pay off dates for each of our remaining loans. The loan we're currently targeting is technically two loans and they are scheduled to be paid off on February 20^th. But since I'm all over managing our debt like white on rice, I went in today and saw this little gem!

One of the loans in the account is paid in full! I can't even begin to describe this feeling. It's superb.

Now, if only I could fast forward three years. That's when all of it but $28,000 in subsidized loans are left. Talk about a weight off my chest.

What are you looking forward to? Are you working on your debt?

Top Five Friday: Words

I'm not sure about your week, but I'd just like to say that I'm super glad this one is almost over.

Like so happy. That picture could be of me celebrating this week being over. Glitter and everything.

It's been a challenging week with my job. It's been tough getting used to the more difficult activities at physical therapy. And I've nearly been downright murderous trying to track my calories, sleep, and steps.

For now, I'm going to take a deep breath in and breathe out. Here's my top five things that have kept me going this week.

1. Something to make me smile.

2. Something to move me.

3. Something to inspire me.

4. Something to ground me.

5. Something to calm me.

What's been keeping you sane this week?

2015's Recipe Quest: Update 2

I'm sad to say that there's been a death in the LaBarge household. A true companion for the last two years, this hard worker finally broke.

It's my favorite cutting board and I couldn't bear to throw it away. I'm going to use my crafting skills to bring it back to a new life. Sort of like a phoenix, minus the burning.

While I mourn the lose of the best little cutting board that can't anymore, here's a list of what we dished up:

1. Sandwich Bread

I literally want to kiss the woman who posted this recipe. After two and a half years of trying, I made a fluffy white loaf of bread. To be fair, I gave up after the first year and have been too scared to try again. After reading the recipe was no knead, the part where I think my other breads broke down, I was on this like white on rice and thought about it for days. And heavens to Betsy it freaking worked. I'm making more this weekend. I'm going to experiment with adding some butter or sugar because it's a little "eh." Here's to not screwing it up!

2. Chicken Pesto Sandwich

Inspired by the picture accompanying this recipe, I made my own version of a chicken parm sandwich. One which involved the bread I freaking made, pesto, thick slices of tomato, and a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese surrounding a freshly cooked chicken cutlet. It tasted like heaven but would be an even better grilled on a panini press. I'm going to try that next time.

3. Spicy Coleslaw

I'm going to call this recipe a bust. I wasn't brave enough to try it and Ryan said it was pretty terrible by itself. He suggested adding it on top of a pulled pork sandwich but I'm not so sure. I still have tons of cabbage. What the eff am I going to do with it.

I was going to try one more recipe this week but a lack of parchment paper set me back. Total new recipes for 2015 is up to seven. Here's how the new ones shape up:

Keepers

- Nada - 

Keeping but Tweaking

Sandwich Bread
Chicken Pesto Sandwich

Weepers 

Spicy Coleslaw

Eat. Sleep. Work. Exercise. Repeat.

I found this list somewhere and I'm trying.

I'm trying to get more sleep. I'm keeping up with my water intake. I'm working out six days a week. I'm trying to read for fun. 

Damn, though, if it isn't exhausting. What do you think? Here's what I've got going on:

Monday: Work. PT. Eat. Sleep.

Tuesday: Work. Swim. Eat. Sleep.

Wednesday: Work. PT. Eat. Sleep.

Thursday: Work. Workout. Swim. Eat. Sleep.

Friday: Work. Bike. Eat. Sleep.

Saturday: Workout. Swim. Farmer's Market. Errands. Eat. Sleep. 

Sunday: Relax. 

Add in some nights when there's more work after exercising and it's just a blast. That list up there? Yeah, not everything gets done. But I'm checking off the boxes most important to me. 

So my house might have a little dust; my desk might be a little cluttered. Life's about setting priorities and making yourself happy. Right now, for me, my free time is exercising. Some days I might feel the urge to switch it up. But I make those calls and I do what's best for me. 

In the end, you can't be all things. In the end, all you can do is try your best. It's all we can ask of ourselves, right?

What's on your list? What are you working on this year?

Top Five Friday: Free Fonts

I'm really super excited to share these with you. I love fonts and really love using different ones to create printables for myself and to give away as gifts. It's super cheap and totally customizable. Total win-win!

Here's some of my favorite "dot" fonts. The best part? They're all free!

KB Fun House | Peggy Font | Janda Sparkle and Shine | The Classy Dots | Connected

What are some of your favorite fonts? Any you recommend?

These are my confessions

Let's get right to the thick of things.

1. Just about my favorite part of the whole movie theater experience are the previews. I get more and more excited as each new one plays. It's weird.

2. I thought Taylor Swift was singing about "Starbucks lovers" rather than a "long list of ex-lovers."

3. I think I'm lactose intolerant and I'm going to deny it hardcore. That smoothie I mentioned? Two hours later my stomach felt like a geyser ready to burst. Now that I think of it, that sounds gross. But it wasn't like that! I promise. It was just all this gargling. Today, I had cereal for breakfast and two hours later the same thing happened. Seriously though, I can't be. I will live with the terrible uncomfortableness for hours in order to eat and drink dairy. Let's see if I can go three for three tomorrow!

4. You know how some people are really great with movie quotes? I'm really great with Disney quotes. Like I can repeat the whole Lion King movie verbatim. I'll often say quotes from the movie under my breath in conversations. It may come off as crazy but eh, my friends love me.

5. Growing up, I taught myself how to use the Microsoft Office Suite. I spent hours just dicking around on it. It came in super handy at college and I'm like the Excel guru at the office. That's pretty cool, but I think about all the time I wasted invested. It feels kinda cool though when everyone comes to you with questions. It just sucks when you have eleven million things to do.

I feel like I was a little too "I'm wicked awesome!" in that last one. So tell me. What do you rock at? Anything you wanna confess to?

2015's Recipe Quest: Update 1

If you read my new year post, you'll know that one of my resolutions from this year is to try fifty-two new recipes. That equates to one a week. 

In my magical list of made up rules, I'm defining new recipes as ones we haven't made before, not necessarily something we haven't eaten before. I'm sure there will be weeks when it's something simple and other weeks when it's more elaborate. 

So here's what we dished up:

1. Cabbage Noodles

Roughly adapted from this recipe, we had a four pound head of cabbage that we needed something to do with. We made this huge batch of it and had it as a side dish for days. Now, we still have two pounds left of cabbage.

2. Carrot Bread

Um...I freaking came up with this by myself. I was feeling carrot cake, but wanted more of a bread. I adapted the recipe for zucchini bread, adding here and taking away there. It came out pretty fantastic and was great for breakfast. Especially sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

3. Meatballs

Personally I loved the recipe. We mixed things up a bit and did a half pork, half beef combo but Ryan thought it needed something more. I think he was rooting around for onions mixed in. I really hate to say it, but I think we'll keep looking for that great recipe. (But seriously I love this woman's blog - you should totally check it out)

4. Strawberry Swirl Smoothie

I based it off of this Nestle recipe but substituted a banana for the yogurt, since it's not a staple in our house. My bananas weren't exactly ripe ,which I think took away some flavor but, overall I enjoyed the texture and taste. 

Two weeks in and we already have four new recipe tallies. Here's how I'm calling 'em:

Keepers
Carrot Bread

Keeping but Tweaking
Cabbage Noodles
Strawberry Swirl Smoothie

Weepers
Meatballs

Candy Heart Sign

Remember how I said I was determined to be on top of my holiday decorating this year? Well, guess who has their Valentine's Day mantel done?!

Yep, it's me!

I'm quite happy with it. Especially with the way candy hearts came out. I was inspired by this pin and couldn't wait to make it.

I bought the hearts each for 99¢ at Michael's but had everything else laying around the apartment. Here's a visual.

How are you decorating for Valentine's Day?

The instructions feature the following font: Connected. I used a picture from this website: Candy Hearts

Three and a Half Years

If there's one question I get most often it's, "How long have you been married?"

This time I got it after I commented that I'm always late because it's hard saying goodbye to that face in the mornings. I live seven minutes away from work and I'm always five minutes late. It's my daily struggle.

You'd be late too though, right? I mean, look at that face. Imagine it still sleepy and cute in bed. It's rough leaving it.

So I got the, "Aww, how long have you been married?" I'm accustomed to. My response earned surprise, as it generally does. Then I was promptly reminded that I am not the norm in the world.  

But why? When did it become normal to not be over the moon in love with your partner? When did it become normal that you don't feel less than whole and maybe just a little lost without your other half? Shouldn't we all long for the time we spend with our chosen ones?

I think we need to start a revolution. One that changes how love looks, how it feels, and show how it changes us for the best.

Join me? Let's be examples. 

Top Five Friday: Tunetastic

A colleague asked me yesterday if I'd bet my paycheck on the accuracy of a piece of information I gave him.

My response? "Sure, it's not that big anyway." Which kinda, sorta got me a job offer? Funny how things work.

Here's what's been on repeat.

1. Hozier's "Work Song." Let's be honest the entire album has been on repeat. This is one of my, if not the, favorite songs on the album.

2. Broods' "Four Walls." I think it's my favorite song on the album.

3. Louisa Wendorff's "Blank Space/Style (Taylor Swift Mash-Up)" with Devin Dawson since I saw the VS Fashion Show 2014 earlier this week and saw Taylor Swift perform "Style." I found this little gem and haven't stopped listening.

4. Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" ever since I saw The Desolation of Smaug and realized what the song was about.

5. Knox Hamilton's "Work it Out" because I may have the teeniest, tiniest crush on Boots, the lead singer. But maybe I just have a thing for beards?

What've you got on repeat?

Every. Damn. Day.

I'm going to go broke buying ink. 

Honestly, my printer is utterly ridiculous. I print about four pages before one of the cartridges needs to be replaced! I even looked up how to reset the cartridges to see if that would work.

Well wouldn't you know it, I have such a new and advanced piece of technology it doesn't even have that option. What joy...

I'm thhhiiiiisssss close to saying "eff it" and selling the damn thing and printing everything at the UPS store for 78¢ a copy. 

The only thing that I've found to help extend the cartridge life, surprisingly, was changing the print quality to "best" rather than "normal." I still get color issues towards the bottom of the page, though. 

Black&White     Color

Hopefully you have more luck printing this out than I do!

What printers seem to work for you?

The printable is formatted to fit a 8.5" x 11" piece of paper and features the following fonts: KB Queeny Me, KG The Fighter, KBSticktoIt, and YummyCupcakes. 

Valentine's Day Candle Vases

Is it just me or have you, too, felt you fall behind on decorating for the holidays (aside from Christmas) and the season changes? Because I feel like it's just me. Or it could be I spend too much time on Pinterest. 

This year I'm determined to be on top of decorations. Like. ON. TOP. OF THAT. I even got my Valentine's Day Pinterest board going strong after Christmas. Overboard? Probably. Do I care? Nope.

I'm super excited though because I'm getting stuff ready slowly but surely. Starting with this candle vase I do every year. I got the berries off a Currant wreath I bought one year after they started falling out. I de-berried the wreath and put a bow on it instead. I got the vases at K-Mart when we were testing out centerpieces for my wedding. HELLO WEDDING-CYCLE. That's definitely not a word. But I feel like it could be. 

It totally could be.

Since I received the best gift ever for Christmas (my camera), I have been taking pictures like mad. To the point I'm dragging out chairs, climbing on step ladders, and laying on the ground in ridiculous positions to get "good" shots. I've been having a blast. Ryan? Not so much. I think of the 400+ pictures I've snapped so far, 200 or so are of him. Some of them may be while he's naked. But it's just for testing the light! I swear. Okay - they may be for blackmail later down the road. Right now I'm loving learning how to use the thing. 

Some other things I'd like to use...the freaking candles I seems to collect. I have about five dozen little ones, a couple pillar, and a dozen of the tall Yankee Candle jars. Yet I was still tempted to buy some at the store this past weekend. If only I didn't have to voice of reason standing next to me reminding me of my hoard...

Three down, countless to go.

What about you? Decorating for Valentine's Day yet?

Happy New Year!

I think I finally figured out some new year resolutions for 2015. Is it normal to have more than one? It is. I think it totally is. Right?

It is. I'm convinced. Anyway. Here's my list.

I think it's quite ambitious, especially considering I can't even run right now. Like doctor's orders, not allowed to run. It sucks but that's why I'm doing physical therapy. And it's not like all of those things are going to be done in January. Clearly. I mean a triathlon in January? In the Northeast? Can you imagine? I'd be a popsicle before my whole leg was in the water.

No, I fully anticipate taking the majority of the year to do these. I'm sure I'll go crazy with the recipes early on in the year, but I did fifty-two so it could be a weekly thing. I'm super excited for them already, I think I'll start planning them soon. 

What's your resolution for this new year? Any crazy ones?

[My resolution list was made using the following fonts and textures: Homestead Display. Sketch Serif. Autumn. Tree Bark Textures.]