vacation!

Here is our agenda for the next few weeks and needless to say we are excited!!

Saturday - Wedding in Michigan, reception at the lake!

Sunday - Driving to my old college town of Central Michigan University. Josh has never been so I wanted to show him a part of my history there. Then driving to home (Michiana)

Sunday night - dinner with both families and nieces - so excited!!

Monday - All day at my grandpa's cottage on the lake. Hopefully filled with some nice swimming, tubing, boating, skiing, etc. (not in a reservoir, or in salt water, awesome!)

Tuesday - Off to D.C. to visit Josh's brother and his wife

Friday - Rest of the Parker clan joins us for the holiday weekend

Saturday - open?

Sunday - Off to Richmond, Virginia for a Parker family get together (and a pool!)

Monday - Venturing into D.C. for 4th of July events!

Tuesday - Touring the Capital building in the afternoon, Cubbies game in the evening!

Wednesday - open?

Thursday - leave back for Abilene. Booo.

The end!

Extreme couponing!

So, my version of extreme couponing is simply making an effort to use the coupons I actually have before they expire. That's the extent of it. Whew! I found these heels on clearance at Kohl's for $10.88 and I had a 20% coupon. Making the grand total $8.71. Do I need them? No. Do I love them? Yes.

Reggie loves the new bed....unfortunetly it's not for him, it is for Ty! I think Reg may be a little too big for it!

I can see a light....

With all my awesome SAHM (stay at home mom) friends out there, it is SO easy for me to become jealous and wish I never had to work an 8-5 job again so I could just hang out with them and all their amazing kids. BUT, I'd be missing the M in SAHM, kind of a big deal.

So, what keeps me going 40 hours a week, week after week, is knowing that we are making a dent in our debt. I'm also mentioning this so that when we are finally debt free, I can reference this day and rejoice! After doing some calculations, I've discovered we have officially surpassed our halfway mark!

When we got married at 23, we were over $100,000 in debt between the two of us:

2 brand new cars: $37,000
2 Bachelor degrees: $65,000
3-4 credit cards (mine): $10,000

Slowly, throughout 4 years of marriage, we've paid off both cars (mine, his), my credit cards (woohoo!), and $19,000 in school loans (enter future paid off post here). While also seriously saving each year for retirement - we can't wait until that day!!

$66,000 down.....
$46,000 to go!

Our ultimate goal is debt free before kids. However, I also love the rhyming sound of "debt free before 30!"

Can you imagine!?!

Let's hope we don't have to buy a house any time soon....