Journey to Financial Peace - Part 1

Let's start at the very beginning – a very good place to start, naturally. ;o)

Early 2000s. Financial Peace University [FPU] was offered at my then church. My concept of Dave Ramsey and FPU was that this class was for middle-aged families who had major financial difficulties, as in major credit card debt, mortgage, etc. Sort of like an AA for finances. For some reason, I just had that stereotype in my head.

2009. Nate and I decided we weren't happy with our finances. We didn't have what we considered major debt, but we just knew there were a lot of things we should be doing but weren't, such as saving for retirement, and we had no idea where to start. We got Dave Ramsey's book, "The Total Money Makeover," as a gift. We excitedly read the beginning of it, and then...stopped. Not for any reason, but I don't think we had hit enough of a "rock bottom" to feel desperate enough to change our situation. Dave Ramsey says, "you have to get mad." We definitely weren't mad at that point.

2010. Toward the second half of the year, I went through a period of unemployment. I have no idea how we managed without racking up a ton of debt. Our idea of a budget was to write down the bills that we had to pay, such as our loans, etc., and then to make sure we covered them. It was an attempt, but it certainly wasn't a very good way to go about it. So suffice it to say, we weren't budgeting at the time. Right before Christmas, I was offered a job, and we moved to Texas. You can read about all that here and here.

Early 2011. We hadn't been in Texas longer than a few weeks when we felt convicted about the fact we hadn't been tithing. It's embarrassing to admit, but we hadn't tithed faithfully pretty much ever. We put in a little here and there, but the 10% God requires as per the Bible, yeah, no. We didn't. I recently heard a statistic that 5-7% of Christians tithe. I could write a whole post about this, but I'll just say that that makes it easier to admit since we obviously weren't alone. Tithing has changed our world. It requires faith. And because of that, we have been forced to get our finances under control. It's been HARD. But God is faithful.

August 2011. Remember up there where I said we hadn't hit rock bottom? Well, in August, we did. Three weeks without work in addition to three planned (but not budgeted-for) cross-country trips? If we had been budgeting properly, we could have saved the money beforehand. But, we didn't. Because of our own lack of planning stupidity, we got ourselves into consumer credit card debt for the first time. Yeah, that one is hard to admit. Ouch. This is what Dave Ramsey calls stupid tax (the price you pay for a stupid decision). Anyway, we discovered that Financial Peace University was offered at our church, and the class had already started. BUMMER. We didn't have the money for the class materials anyway. But, we "got mad" and were determined to do something about this hole we had dug for ourselves.

September 2011. We did our first real budget in September. That process is initially so hard. To scrounge up all of the info of where every single dollar you spend goes is, well, painful. But so worth it. I can honestly look back and say it was the hardest part. We also took an Equip class at our church about what the Bible says about how to handle money. Our new way of handling our finances was definitely not perfect, but we felt encouraged. I started listening to The Dave Ramsey Show hour-long podcasts, which helped keep us motivated. We researched more about the Seven Baby Steps (which we now have memorized), and we started saving for our baby emergency fund plus cost of materials for the FPU class at our church that starts in January.

October 2011. Nate and I finally understood how the zero-based budget works and wrote out our monthly cash flow plan. Thanks to bumming materials from an old FPU kit, we started using the envelope system for groceries, eating out/date nights, personal care items, vehicle care, etc. It has helped a ton to not just use the debit card for those things. Before if we had gone over our budget by $5, I would have just said, "oh well." Now, when paying with cash, I can't do that, and it really helps us stay under our budget. At the end of the month, we finished Baby Step One: the $1,000 emergency fund plus the cost of materials for FPU! We feel so encouraged. I started listening to the 3-hour-long Dave Ramsey show at work, which continues to inspire and keep me motivated to start Baby Step Two and our debt snowball.

November 2011. We wrote our zero-based budget/monthly cash flow plan at the beginning of the month, as we will continue to do. As we are right now, we are scheduled to pay off our consumer credit card debt by the beginning of March 2012, though we would love it if we could beat that. We have budgeted for a teeny-tiny Christmas, and we will hopefully be able to scrounge up some extra income in the next few months. Nate and I are so in-sync about this, which is apparently not the case for most married couples in our situation. I am so thankful for that. Our next goals are, in this order, to pay off: our truck, my student loan, our car, and then Nate's student loan. These are based on pay-off amounts (as the interest rates are all very close to the same). Right now it looks like it will take up to two years, but then we will be finished with Baby Step Two, and we can be DEBT FREE.

You can read all about Dave Ramsey and everything he teaches on his website, but just for quick reference, the Seven Baby Steps are: 1 - $1000 emergency fund, 2 - pay off debt using the debt snowball (except the house, if applicable), 3 - build full emergency fund (3-6 months expenses), 4 - invest 15% of income in retirement, 5 - save for kids' college, 6 - pay off house, and 7 - build wealth. Since we don't have a house or kids yet, we will adjust this to fit us as recommended by Dave. Having kids and buying a house will probably fall somewhere between step 2 and step 4, depending on how quickly we can pay things off and save for other things appropriately.

I know personal finances are a very private thing for most people, and since this is the Internet, I will not share tons of details. But, Nate and I are so excited about this. We are embarrassed about the stupidity and ignorance that got us to where we were, but we don't even mind talking about it because we are on the path to get out of it. I will continue to update on our progress, probably after we start the class!

Learning to Enjoy Grocery Shopping

I found my new favorite place to grocery shop: Walmart Neighborhood Market. The ambiance is like a high-end grocery store such as the local Tom Thumb, but with the exact same prices as Walmart SuperCenter. LOVE. No seriously, if you can be in love with a Walmart, I am. This seemingly very minor discovery totally changes my world when it comes to grocery shopping because I hate grocery shopping.
I actually love shopping in general, and I don't particularly mind cooking. I do hate spending money, especially when there is the issue of fluctuating grocery prices and determining what a good price is on a gazillion products in a grocery store. This is a potentially stressful process for a frugal woman like myself. A frugal woman who has a teeny-tiny grocery budget to stick to. When I say teeny, I mean less than $50 a week (and our eating-out budget is even smaller, FYI).

Enter EMEALZ. Since cooking isn't my favorite thing to do, meal planning feels like homework. I dread it. I put it off. I don't mind scouring the internet (ie. Pinterest) and cookbooks for fun things to make or even for food to make for special events, but for weekly meals? Yuck. Not on this budget. It's no fun for me. Emealz takes care of this for me. I've been using Emealz for almost a year now, and we've absolutely loved like 90% of the meals we've made with it. The 10% we didn't love were mostly because we aren't big fish eaters, but you can swap the fish out for chicken in just about every instance. It is so worth the $1.25 a week if you are like me and hate meal planning. TOTALLY.

BUT, I still dreaded grocery shopping. We're on the Walmart plan (because overall it's cheaper than the others) with Emealz, but I've never been able to enjoy the shopping. It's the overall experience that I hate. It is generally better if I have a drink with me, but the overcrowded aisles, the ridiculously long check-out lines, the hike to and from the parking lot, and even the ultra-bright white fluorescent lighting in the store make it a miserable experience. This Walmart Neighborhood Market is a grocery store only. It's much smaller than even a basic Walmart. The parking lot is smaller. It's the middle of a mostly residential area, which means the store is less congested. The lighting in it is more subdued and indirect. This week, I spent less money on a week's worth of groceries than I normally would and was in and out of the store in record time. I have been shopping there for several weeks, and now I look forward to grocery shopping. What a difference shopping in a decent store makes!

This post probably doesn't interest anyone too much, but it was too exciting for me not to share!

My Dr Pepper Birthday Party

This year is the first time I've celebrated my birthday away from my parents and younger brother. I've lived close enough to them to be able to get together for birthdays and holidays every year until now. We've been in Texas for 9 months now, and while we love it here, this is the first birthday we've come upon (since we moved two days after Nate's birthday in January). It has been hard, but I know Christmas will be harder.

So, to keep from being so bummed about it, I decided to plan a little Dr Pepper themed party for myself. Not that my husband wouldn't do it...because he was very willing, but I wanted to do it because I love being creative, decorating, event planning and fun things like that. It was truly a joy for me.

I joined the addiction that is Pinterest, and I pinned so many ideas for my party-on-a-budget. Seeing as I'm already an avid fan of Dr Pepper, it was super-easy to use things I already had for this evening.

For example, I have three awesome vintage Dr Pepper bottles that today I discovered (while touring the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco) are older than I thought!

I have two like these with the red 10-2-4 design. They are from the 50s (when I previously thought they were from the 70s).

I also have one of the above clear bottles that reads "Good For Life" under the logo. It is from between 1927-1950, when I previously thought it was 1950s or later. I also already owned a vintage wooden Dr Pepper crate, which is from the same period. The rest of the items in the photos are self-explanatory. 

I used Dr Pepper flavored Jelly Belly Jelly Beans that I found on clearance for half-price (*squeal!!!*) at Target to hold the roses in place.

The recipe for Dr Pepper cupcakes came from here.

Please don't judge my cupcakes too harshly; this was A) my first time decorating cupcakes pretty much ever, and B) I discovered my muffin pans are smaller than the cupcake liners which resulted in squished and weird-looking cupcakes. When I bake, I usually make cookies, so this was kind of an adventure for me. :o) The "28" design was what I decided to do instead of candles. I initially wanted to copy the look of the "23 flavors" on the Dr Pepper bottle, but it was way too intricate to do repeatedly on cupcakes for my first try.

Dr Pepper made with cane sugar - the original recipe. You really can't tell the difference in the taste, but the little glass bottles are awesome. :o)

I also made a banner that says, "I'm a Pepper", but I have to wait until I can get better lighting to get a good picture of it.

I originally wanted to have chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries stuffed with chocolate chips for other snacks, but it was a bit too pricey for our tiny budget right now. We all enjoyed it anyway!

Ten Years :: My 9-11 Memories

Everyone has their own version and their own memories of the day. Mine are not especially significant. I didn't know anyone who was affected, and I don't have anything to say that is profound or really even worth sharing. In fact, on the tenth anniversary of this historic day, I even put off thinking about it because I didn't want to remember how I felt or how sad it was. It helps me to process my thoughts by writing them down, and so that's what I shall do.

Ten years ago. I was 17. Seventeen. I've almost forgotten what it's like to be a teenager. I was recently made painfully aware of this when hearing the age (15) of a babysitter who was going to watch my niece, Ellie for me so that Nate and I could go to a comedy night at our church. I thought, fifteen is too young to babysit a nine month...oh, wait. I started babysitting when I was 12 or 13. *facepalm* But the facts are that seventeen-year-old-me and my family had just moved to Michigan like a month prior, and school had just started about two weeks before September 11. I worked at McDonald's. All of my grandparents were still living (and I now only have one living grandma). I drove myself and my 13-year-old brother to school in my parents' 1983 Chevy Celebrity. I was also enrolled at a university, where I would later earn my bachelor's degree, taking a college-level Spanish class Monday and Wednesday afternoons, but Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons were free for me to spend extra time in the lab of my favorite class, Yearbook, of which I would later be asked to be editor. This is what I wrote as it appears in my high school's 2001-2002 yearbook.
9-11
They said we'd always remember 9-11. I could never forget. Could you?
By Laura Wills, Editor of the Royal Heir 2002
      It was a normal Tuesday morning, just like any other school day. I was sitting in government class, trying to stay awake, when everything changed. Mr. Barsuhn was called out of the room, and he returned with a serious expression on his face. He told us that a terrorist-controlled plane flew into one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The class sat silently in disbelief. Later, we heard that another plane flew into the other tower of the WTC.
      This experience was frightening, but God did not want us to be afraid. The Bible is full of encouragement that applied to the events of September 11, 2001. God continually tells us not to be afraid because he sees the big picture. "...'Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; be strong and of good courage, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight' (Joshua 10:25, NIV)." God has also warned us that we will have trouble in this world. "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33, NIV)."
      Our nation will never be the same. Good has and will come from this tragedy. Let us never forget Who this nation stands for, and let us always be thankful for the freedom to worship Him. We must remember that God is always in control.

Obviously, I wrote this after I had had a lot of time to process the events that had happened. The things I said were true and still are. I don't believe our nation has been the same since. But that day, my emotions were raw. I spent nearly the entire school day in front of the one TV our small Christian school had in the "Cafetorium" (multipurpose cafeteria/auditorium). We started watching after the first plane hit the first tower, and so we watched LIVE while the second plane hit the second tower, the other plane hit the Pentagon, and the fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania. That day, we had no idea that that would be the end of the planned attacks. We just knew that our nation was under attack, most likely from terrorists, and it was terrifying. For all we knew, there were many more attacks to come. For the first time in my sheltered American teenage life, I didn't feel safe. That day after school, I remember going out to dinner with my dad and my little brother to a little establishment in our small town. The restaurant was full of people, but the atmosphere was hazy and quiet. With only the news on the radio, everyone was silent in complete bewilderment.

Just today, I watched video footage of the second plane hitting the second tower of the World Trade Center. It is common footage that you can find a million times over by doing a simple search on Google or YouTube, but I hadn't seen it in years. Memories of how I felt the first time I saw it came flooding back to me. Those are the snapshots that replay in my head when I think of this day. Aside from the obvious countless lives lost, the surviving friends and family, the country at war with terrorism, and the renewed sense of patriotism, here are a few things I noticed while flipping through my high school yearbook that have changed. The New York City skyline. Airline security. Security to large public places and events (including amusement parks, tourist attractions, and sports arenas). The Sears/Willis Tower. The Internet. Facebook. The software we used to design the yearbook, Pagemaker, doesn't exist anymore; it is now called InDesign, and it's in its 5th version. There are countless more, but that's all that have come to mind just now.

The world has changed and will doubtlessly continue to change in the coming years, but of one thing I'm certain: my God is greater and more powerful than any evil in this world, and He is in control.

_____________________________________________________

"I'm pressed but not crushed; persecuted not abandoned / Struck down but not destroyed. / I'm blessed beyond the curse for his promise will endure / And his joy's gonna be my strength // Though the sorrow may last for the night / His joy comes with the morning." - Trading My Sorrows, by Darrell Evans

Gateway Church :: Membership and Volunteering

As I've mentioned many times on this blog, when we moved to Texas, we knew it was where God wanted us to be. Similarly, when we started attending Gateway Church, where my brother and sister-in-law both worked, we felt at home there. We actually didn't do any "church shopping" at all because we felt like God was telling us, "This is it; this is where I want you to be. Stay at Gateway."

Gateway is not what we're used to...at all. (I'd like to write all about the size, the children's ministry, the worship, etc., but that will have to wait for another post.) But from everything we've learned about this church, it is absolutely right where we need to be. We did our homework right from the beginning. We researched the website, and at our first opportunity, attended the first of the three membership classes, which are more like seminars, called Catch the Vision.

I'm going to be really, really descriptive for this part, just because Gateway is such a different church than we've ever attended, and we'd like to dispel any rumors or apprehension any of our family and friends might have after hearing about our involvement with this new church. That being said, if you could care less, please feel free to skip to the end to read about how I'm going to be getting involved by volunteering starting in September, hopefully.

Catch the Vision
This first class was more like a seminar, a totally low-key, informational format that allowed you to make your decision on whether to become a member either immediately or later, at your leisure. I loved that there was no pressure. We watched a video about the history of the church, and it was really awesome to see how they followed God's direction at every turn. I was especially pleased to discover the church was born out of God leading our pastor to start a church rather than a group that started after breaking away from another church after a conflict. The class provided a workbook full of information including the history, vision, mission, statement of faith, and position papers (which could also be seen as their doctrine). I eagerly read it all. We prayerfully considered our decision and became members after attending for less than a month!

The Journey
The second class, called the Journey, is a lot like a class I took in college called Core 300. It focused on your personal spiritual walk, and it explained a lot of basic theology about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It was a good refresher for us and confirmed again that Gateway teaches what we already believe doctrinally. There was one topic, having to do with the Holy Spirit, that was and still is a struggle for me, but in a good way. Having grown up in the church and having attended a Christian university, it is easy for me to get comfortable that I already know everything I need to know about what I believe. It's foolish to think I know everything there is to know, as I could go my whole lifetime learning and still barely scratch the surface, so I like that there are a few areas, especially, that have come to my attention in this class where I have room to grow.

Discovery
The third class, called Discovery, was also a lot like a class I took in college combined with a seminar I took in college. The first was a required course called Core 400, and the seminar, called Discovering My Design, was a several-day workshop offered to sophomores. I love personality tests and learning more about who I am and how people interact with each other. It fascinates me. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this class with much excitement. Catch the Vision had emphasized the need to get plugged in to a group, a necessity in such a large church, as well as getting involved as a volunteer. I've always believed it is important to minister and to get ministered to equally. Discovery is Gateway's way of helping you get to know yourself better in order to find the best place for you to serve...and to actually enjoy every second of it, rather than doing it out of obligation. I love this concept!

Most of the workbook could not be completed in class as there was just not enough time to cover it all, so I worked on most of it at home. The finished results were to be applied to the Servant Profile. The sections covered were:
1. Life Experiences, where you were given the opportunity to write about experiences you had whether it was something difficult, relational, achievement-related, or ministry-related that might impact where you might choose to serve. One example I used was achieving my art degree, and how I wanted to use my creative skills in some fashion in ministry.
2. Passion and Interests, where you could describe the things that you most enjoyed doing, and my examples included working with kids.
3. Personality, in which I took a version of the DISC test which is also compatible with the Gary Smalley Personality Types: Lion, Otter, Golden Retriever, and Beaver. I scored exactly how I expected: S (Golden Retriever), with an ability to pull out the I (Otter) or C (Beaver) when necessary.
4. Spiritual Gifts. A questionnaire almost identical to one I took in Core 400 in college which helped you know which God-given gifts you had, which for me included Craftsmanship (creativity), Exhortation (encouragement), and Helps/Service/Hospitality (assisting others, serving others, and making others feel comfortable).
5. Strengths/Abilities/Skills. This section dealt with your natural strengths. If you are familiar with the Strength Finder test, that is basically what this was. I scored high on Input (collecting, archiving, and traveling to learn more), Learner (enjoying learning more on a variety of topics), Relator (wanting to know a few people closely), Context (fascinated with learning from the past), and Arranger (organizing complex things).

[If you've skipped to the end, start HERE.]

After completing the Servant Profile, I was connected with someone, called a Ministry Placement Coach, whose job (as a volunteer herself) is to help others find their perfect place to volunteer. I just met with my coach for the first time today after church, and I have to say I'm so excited to get involved. She explained a few ideas where she thought I might be a good fit. She told me about the Event Administration volunteers who help to decorate for events. I'm sure my face lit up when she described it, and I told her that sounded really fun. If you've ever been to Gateway for any event, you know they go all out making it a fun environment for those in attendance. I love decorating, and I'm really excited to get to do this. I'll also probably begin working in Gateway's Amazing Kids, the kids' ministry, which has a more involved application and interview process in order to help keep the kids safe in such a large church. Ideally if I pass that process, I'll begin helping with the kids groups or in the nursery on the weekends.

After meeting with my coach, I don't have to do anything else until the ministries contact me. I love that Gateway has the volunteer ministry organized so well and that it is set up so that I have a contact person. Once I start volunteering, if I'm unhappy with my placement, all I have to do is contact my coach and she'll move me. That simplifies it a lot, and makes it a lot less awkward. (There's no going to a leader of a ministry and trying to come up with excuses for why you don't want to volunteer with them anymore.)

So that's what I have to look forward to in the next few weeks...getting involved. We're also going to get involved in a group, which I will explain more about in another post when I have more information.

Eight Months

We've officially been in Texas for eight months now. Minus this infernal, eternal summer heat, we pretty much love it here. There are lots of people and places we miss back in Michigan, but I am constantly reminded how much we are supposed to be here right now, at this exact time in our lives. It just feels so right.

I feel like I should kind of summarize what life has been like for us these past eight months, so if you've not been keeping up with us, you'll know what we've been up to. Can I really squeeze the past eight months into one post? I'm going to try . . . and GO.

January 2011
January was basically a whole month of packing and saying goodbye. The month culminated with the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad actual trip. We drove: Nate, a huge moving truck pulling our car on a trailer, and me, our truck with our dog in the passenger seat and his dog house in the bed. The weather was awful. But we prevailed. It took us 2 and a half days (when we can normally do it in 17 hours), but we made it.

February 2011
Nate job hunted, while I spent the time getting to know the ins and outs of life with an infant, and I began working as Ellie's nanny on Valentine's Day. Ellie turned 12 weeks old that day. I was also working part time doing some graphic design for a business in Michigan via the Internet. We were living with my brother, his wife, and their baby, so it was close quarters for awhile. But, we made it work. We had our meals together and divided up the chores. It was communal living at its finest, and I have fond memories of our time together. I think it especially helped Nate and Valerie, the in-laws, get to know each other better.

March 2011
Nate found a job, actually two jobs, and began working at our church and for my brother's IT company. We found an apartment about ten minutes away from my brother's house. It was so nice to finally have a place that was ours to call home. When we weren't working, we began slowly moving our things to our apartment and out of the rental storage unit where all our worldly possessions lived while we were staying with my brother. By the end of the month, the transition was complete, and we were moved in. The biggest highlight of March, for me, was getting my first pair of glasses. I knew I would have to get my eyes tested to get my license, and I knew without glasses, that I would have failed that test. So, off to the optometrist it was. I can't believe I went so long without getting my eyes tested. But, I am pretty used to them now, and I really like the frames. I'm thankful the adjustment wasn't too difficult for me.

April 2011
Now that we finally had a permanent address, we started making the adjustment of getting our vehicles licensed and registered in the State of Texas. It was a miserable experience, to be sure. I've moved lots of times, but this was the first time I've moved out of state as a vehicle owner. We jumped through the myriad of required hoops and finally got everything taken care of by the beginning of May, I think it was. We celebrated Easter with my brother's family, which was different, but in a good way. We're so thankful to have family near us so that we don't have to celebrate holidays alone.

May 2011
After the move and all of the necessary expenses involved with becoming residents and getting settled in our new house, we didn't have much left over for our yearly anniversary trip. I always like to go somewhere, just the two of us. I love to travel, and our anniversary is just the best time of year for us to do it. Since we were new to this area, we decided the best option was to have a Staycation. The only thing I regret about it was that we didn't take more pictures! We really did have the best time together. The first day, we went to breakfast at iHOP (Nate's very favorite place to eat) and then spent the day at Six Flags, which is literally about 10 minutes from our house. That night, we enjoyed the pool and hot tub at our apartment. It was the first time we had been to the pool, and it felt like we were staying at a hotel. It was lovely. The next day, our actual anniversary, we went to the Dallas Museum of Art. I've been to lots of art museums, and this certainly wasn't the finest I'd ever been too. Still, they had ancient Egyptian pieces that Nate enjoyed seeing, and I enjoyed visiting regardless. Afterward, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, where they had a few guitars belonging to Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. This was significant to us, as we had just gotten hooked on the show Bones, in which Gibbons occasionally guest-stars. After dinner, we wandered over to the historic site where President Kennedy was shot. Everything was closed, but we visited the monument and walked down the street where it occurred. All in all, we enjoyed our Staycation.

June 2011
My little brother's wedding was at the beginning of the month, so we took the opportunity to head to Michigan early to visit. We spent the first few days with Nate's mom and stepdad before heading to my parents' house. It had been in the triple digits weather-wise when we had left Texas, but with the humidity in Michigan combined with the lack of air conditioning most places, it was horribly hot! A few days before the wedding, I visited an old coworker of mine who I had arranged to have cut my hair. I had been growing it out since our wedding three years prior, and I was ready to have it cut. I wanted to donate to a non-profit organization, such as Locks of Love, but I didn't want it super-short. It was the shortest I've ever had it, but it turned out awesome. Kelsey did a great job. :o) My brother's wedding festivities were amazing. I had a blast hanging out with the girls, especially Becca, my new sister-in-law, and our friend and fellow bridesmaid, Angie. This wedding will always be especially memorable to me because I got to walk with my husband, as he was a groomsman. How often does that happen? It was so fun.

July 2011
The hottest month of my life. Literally. Our area of Texas was in close-to-record-breaking heat for number of consecutive days over 100 degrees. The previous record was I think 42 (or 43?) days, set in 1980. We missed the record by a few days due to a minor storm front that passed through and dropped the temperature to the upper 90s for like a day or two. We also had extreme drought conditions as we had had very little rain. We just learned to stay inside most of the time. Since everywhere is air conditioned, it didn't seem to be so terrible. The last weekend of the month, I flew to Michigan to throw a shower and bachelorette party for my best friend, Laura. (Yes, we have the same name. Yes, we're used to it. No, it's not weird for us.) It was a small gathering, but we had a great time. We went to a Tiger's game (where it was miserably hot) and then went to Hard Rock for dinner. It was a whirlwind trip for me, but it was unforgettable.

August 2011
A few weeks later, Nate and I flew back to Michigan to attend my best friend, Laura's wedding. I spent the week with Laura while Nate went to see his parents for a few days. In the past nine years of our friendship (has it really been that long?!?!), I have come to know her family and friends. It really feels like they are an extension of my family and friends. Laura and I are like the sisters each of us never had, and I love the friendship we have worked very hard to build and maintain. It has been so worth it. I told Laura the weekend after I met Andrew (but several years before they began dating), that I wanted her to end up with a guy like Andrew. I had no idea she would actually marry him, but I am so glad she did. They are perfect for each other, and I just love that they are now Mr. and Mrs. After the wedding, we came right back to Texas to take part in Ellie's dedication at church. It was awesome to go to God in prayer, together, to ask him to bless her little life and to help us be a godly example to her. As her aunt and nanny, I was honored to be a part of it. I definitely teared up. She means so very much to me, and I constantly thank God for allowing me to be a part of her life.

That brings us to the present. Thanks for being interested in our lives. We have some new things planned for September, including me getting involved volunteering at church as well as both of us attending an Equip class (a month long topical Bible study on Wednesday nights) and joining a small group at our church. Stay tuned!

Mrs. Piatt's Log. Stardate: -311347.8

So I'm a Star Trek fan. Not a closet Star Trek fan. A full-fledged, seen-almost-every-episode-of-every-show, geek-speaking fan. I don't hide this fact. I mean, my external hard drive is named The Defiant, and my flash drives are all named after runabouts. I am totally okay with my geeky-ness. I've been watching TNG* since I was probably about nine years old with my dad and my brothers. Admittedly, I used to hate it. I'd complain when my dad and brothers were watching it, but they would just tell me I could go do something else if I didn't like it. So, I sucked it up, and got sucked in as a result. Over the years, my mom has even learned to enjoy the show.

This works out perfectly because my husband is also a Trekkie. (Great, you're thinking, their future kids are doomed.) Nate watched the show Star Trek: The Next Generation religiously on TV when it first aired. We're geeks. It's true. It's one of our favorite things to watch together. Because without our geek shows, we'd have a hard time finding shows we both enjoy. Generally I like period dramas, and he prefers action/comedy. It's hard impossible to find a show that fits both of those categories! So Sci-Fi it is.

A year or two ago, we borrowed TNG* on DVD from my younger brother and watched all seven seasons. We own the subsequent movies, and we watched them as well. Then we borrowed DS9* on DVD (also seven seasons) from my dad. Now that we have discovered Star Trek: Voyager on Netflix, we are excitedly watching it. Yep. You guessed it. Seven seasons. We're currently on season four.

Anyway, after all of that useless knowledge to amuse and entertain you, I was recently struck by something one of the characters said on an episode of Voyager that I recently watched. Bear with me: it pertains to this blog entry. ;o)

One of the characters was chattering on incessantly, and the other said, "You know, you really should keep a personal log. Why bore others needlessly?"

It was meant as a humorous quip, but it really struck me. I've been reevaluating my use of social networking sites lately, and I have discovered at a time in my life when social networking is my virtual circle of friends, I probably "chatter on" too much with constant posts about unnecessary things – things only a select few care about. Sites, such as Facebook, serve their purpose and I'm thankful to have them, but I think my time is probably better spent writing in a blog. I used to journal several times a week on actual paper as well as online blogs, and at certain times in my life, I have kept daily journals, such as my trip to England and Scotland in 2005. I cherish those journals as they help me remember significant events, but more importantly to me, how I was feeling and what I was thinking at the time.

That being said, I hope to keep up on this blog a little better than I have in the past few months. No promises, but it's worth a shot. Besides, this way, if I bore others, I'll be able to say that it's my personal blog, and if they are bored, they can just stop reading. :o)

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*Common Star Trek abbreviations as follows: TOS = The Original Series, TNG = The Next Generation, DS9 = Deep Space 9, VOY = Voyager