Baby Step #1: DONE!

As of last night my Emergency Fund is complete!! Due to some poor planning last month (i.e. forgetting to budget for gas expenses for trip home) I did not complete the emergency fund prior to the end of the month. Yesterday was pay day which allowed me to move around some money in this month's budget to complete the ER fund!!

WooHoo!!!

Which means Baby Step #2 is under way! This is where I start paying debt off! By the end of summer I hope to have the following paid off:

US Bank Credit Card: $1,194.43
Chase Credit Card: $2,440.72
Joe C. Davis Student Loan: $2,654.62

Total: $6289.77

I will start paying every extra penny towards the US Bank Credit card until it's paid off while paying the minimum payment on the others. When the first is paid off, all those funds will go towards the second one.

By the end of the year, I will have completed those three debts and then will have a made good headway in the first of my two large student loans!

Freedom, here I come.

Ice Storm- Texas Style

They say that everything is bigger in Texas. I have found that to be mostly true. However, this morning I found one area where it is most certainly false.

Ice Storms. Baylor delayed opening until 10 a.m. today due to the icy weather. When I took Tuck out around 7:30 this morning the grass was a bit crunchy, but I didn't see much ice. However, if you remember from my last dose of Texas winter, Texans really don't know how to act when there is the slightest bit of snow or ice. It seems to me a bit ridiculous to get the morning off for such a little bit of ice. Regardless, I'm enjoying be a bit lazy around the house this morning before work.

Stay warm- especially those of you who are in places where you really got snow or ice. My parents spend a few hours last night without power and my home state has declared a State of Emergency.

I'll take the Texas Winter!

Yummy Cookies!

Tonight I decided to make something with the bananas I had frozen in the fridge. (I'm horrible at eating them before they get too brown. I freeze them until I can use them). I checked the internet for a banana bread recipe but found one for Banana Cookies.

I had to try them. I chose to add chocolate chips instead of nuts, and added about 1/4 a cup extra because I love chocolaty cookies.


Not only are they really yummy, but two cookies are about 5 Weight Watcher points a piece- which isn't terrible for a cookie. Check! They also are made with bananas and eggs which are filling foods. Check Plus!

Visit this site for Banana Cookies and other great recipes.

Why I'm still fat. . .

Probably has something to do with the fact that after going and working out for one and half hours (including cardio, abs, and weights) I come home and promptly eat half a jar of queso and Mission Lime Tortilla chips (OH I LOVE The Lime Chips!!).

I think if I had just stayed home from the gym and gone to bed at 9, I might have burned more net calories.

And maybe, if I didn't satisfy a small bedtime snack craving with stuff like that my 3-5 work out sessions a week might actually result in some weight loss.

Perhaps if I just had some lime chips (off a plate, not out of the bag) and some fresh avacado or salsa.

Or, maybe that banana turning brown on my table.

Or if I just took my dog out and went to bed rather than feeling like I MUST check facebook and email (in that order, of course).

That's It! After this jar of queso- I'm not buying anymore!! (it's to yummy to throw away!)

Here's to Hope and Change, and a new day tomorrow!

New Year's Resolutions

This time of year it seems like everyone is making a new year's resolution or two. I've never been a big fan of the idea of resolutions. I prefer to use the term and idea of goals for the year instead. I have spent some time reflecting on this past year, and have determined some goals for the year. I'm a big fan of choosing baby goals each month to make the bigger one's happen. These are the goal's I've established for this year (outcomes, if you will!)


1. Get connected in a meaningful way to the larger Waco community.

I have several different ways I want to seek this out. I want to not only make a difference in the lives of those in my community, but allow them to make a difference in mine. I want to find a small group to plug in with at church. I also want to begin volunteering for Care Net. It's no secret that I'm passionate about pro-life issues, adoption and abortion alternatives. I think that there is so much I can learn by walking with some women who have been in these situations.

2. Work towards financial fitness.

I need to be better at budgeting (I stink). I also want to have credit card debt eliminated by summer and one of my three student loans gone by the end of the year, with a big chunk of a second one paid off. I'll go into more detail about that when I finally complete my ER fund. (Which, due to the lack of my ability to budget, will be later than originally planned.)

3. Run more- longer and frequently.

I want to run a 5k next month. A 10k at some point in the spring and then a half marathon in the fall.

4. Cherish friendship with but a chosen few and study the perfecting of those friendships.

This number is directly a line from the Alpha Gamma Delta purpose. The older I get the more that purpose resonates with my heart and soul. While I love and cherish my friends, I am not the greatest at maintaining contact with them. I want to be a better friend this year.


5. Grow deeply in faith and relationship with the Lord.

I think it speaks volumes that I thought to write this one fifth. We sang a song at church today that said that God is in our every breath. I found myself wondering if I truly let Him be IN the breath or just make it happen? I want to seek His face so that there is now doubt that I live out of an overflow of God's love in my heart.

I think those are five very loaded things. Overall, I hope that I grow deeper this year. And I hope that my life reeks of intentionally, love and grace.

A Neat Site!

I ran across a new site called Scrapblog.com. You can create scrapbooks with digital photos from your computer or websites like facebook and flickr. I created one with pictures of Tuck. Check it out!!

Interesting Blog Post

I ran across an interesting blog article today titled "Growing up Female". I thought it was particularly interesting as it talks about the mixed messages that we send girls in our society and just how far we've fallen from being a culture that teaches sex as something special and sacred.

I work with a lot of college students and it's no secret that college women have my heart. It's hard for me to watch them struggle with this and see the heartache that the mixed messages often result in. But I have to admit, I'm kind of at a loss of what to do about it. I'm amazed at how difficult those conversations become in light of a culture shaped by Planned Parenthood and "Sex and the City" (which I have to admit I enjoy watching). But how as people who believe in waiting until marriage and the beauty of truly being faithful to your spouse before, as well as during, marriage do we begin to penetrate this culture of recreational sex?