Farewell...

After hearing the news last night, I kept thinking about the wonderful reunions he was having in heaven, especially with his sweet wife Marjorie.

I dearly love President Hinckley and will miss him and his absolute wisdom.

From his own words:

"This is a time to be strong.

"It is a time to move forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth and the importance of our mission.

"It is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow.

"It is a time to be found keeping the commandments.

"It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain.

"It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another in all our relationships. In other words, to become more Christlike."

My First Fiscally Responsible Decision...

Many years ago, I worked in an office - a very fun, lighthearted office - where I was given the nickname Tarushka LaRueski. Thank goodness Tarushka did not stick, but LaRueski did.

Many years later, I decided to advertise my nickname on my license plate:

It was a fun thing to do and I got lots of inquiries about it, making it fun to tell the reason why, where it came from, the fun people I worked with, etc.

Well in October, when it came time to renew my car registration, I saw that it was, once again, an additional $25 to have a vanity plate. It was $25 the first year, and I figured since they had to make a special plate, well, okay. But $25 each year you have the plate? That's just goofy and didn't make any sense to me at all, especially since this time around I was all about getting out of debt and knowing where every single one of my dollars go to.

So I was deeply saddened to tell them no for the vanity plate (and the fact that I am not using my vanity plate, they had to make a NEW plate for me, but didn't charge me a cost to do it - HUH?) and go to a much more hum drum one that begins with a Z.

Like in snore...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A light at a very long tunnel

This past weekend I met with a friend who is rather smart with his money. Extremely smart in fact. I was able to bend his ear for about 2 hours or so and really figure out how I'm going to be able to succeed in this getting out of debt business.

He created a spreadsheet for me listing all of my debts, the amounts I owe, the percentage rate, minimum payments, etc. and really helped me see the benefit of extra payments, which debt I should pay off first, etc. Every single thing was listed in this spreadsheet and REALLY helped me see a light at the end of a very looooooooooooooong tunnel. Still, it's a light and I will reach it eventually.

I have a rather long way to go, but a plan - a rock solid plan and I'm totally rejuvinated.

Thank you to everyone for the kind comments and words of encouragement. They help me probably more than anything and I appreciate the support and the tough love!

Tell me what you would like me to blog about. It's been a long time since I blogged and I want to be more consistent. The problem is I don't know what to write about.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

My New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year's everyone. I hope your 2008 is happy and successful and, well, just really good.

My new year's resolutions (which to be quite honest, I have NEVER done before) are these:

1. Pay off my credit card ($5,000)
2. Pay off my car ($8,300)
3. Pay down significantly my line of credit
4. Start to really look for a property to purchase (probably not until the very end of the year)
5. Lose weight

Had to put that last one in there 'cause I hear it's the law.

Putting these down really make me accountable to do them. I can REALLY use any and all encouragement, as I've been getting rather discouraged a lot lately 'cause it's just so much and I don't have enough to make it go away.

Anyway, here's to you and yours for a phenomenal 2008!