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!

9, 10, 11, and 12

12 Drummers Drumming - a drum filled with random items with famous drummers hot glued to each item with a lovely note from the sender stating she was going to remain anonymous, but listed several things she has learned about me.
11 Pipers Piping - a New Year's hat filled with noisemakers (the piping tools).

10 Lords a Leaping - There were 10 plastic frogs that you push on their tails and they leap in the air with 10 different Lords pasted on their backs, i.e., Lord of the Rings, Lord & Taylor, Lord Voldemort, etc.

9 Ladies Dancing - 9 brownies with 9 laminated ladies sticking out of each brownie under a silver ornament meant to look like a disco ball. HILARIOUS.

Eight Maids A' Milking

Eight Milky Ways with a little girl pasted to them, along with a cow print pencil. Seriously funny...

Seven Swans A' Swimming...

Every day is my new favorite. This one consisted of a basket with seven of these acryllic swans filled with candy, all sitting on top of a blue CD (pictured) so it looked like they were on a lake. The kicker was the CD was Swan Lake. I can't believe the cleverness of it all! I have the BEST Secret Santa (or Secret MRS. Santa)!

Six Geese A'Laying...

Inside the 6-egg carton are 6 Cadbury chocolate eggs. Adorable...

12 Days of Christmas

Once again, this doesn't have anything to do with getting out of debt, but I wanted to share with you what's being done for me this year.

Someone is doing the 12 days of Christmas for me and I must say, they are giving me some of the most cleverist items I have ever seen.

This is the partridge in a pear tree (can of pears, with tree branches hot glued on the can, with a partridge ornament sitting on top).

Two Turtle (the candy) doves.

Three French Hens (plus they added a "french" Chick Fil-A gift card).

Four calling birds (four beautiful bird ornaments that are now on the Christmas tree in the living room).

And five golden rings (five glazed donuts). This is my favorite one so far for how clever it is!

Today is day 6, so I'll keep you posted on the adorable and brilliant gifts they continue to leave on my doorstep each evening.

A Debt Free Christmas

I'm convinced Dave Ramsey read my blog, because I got his newsletter in my email in-box this morning (I subscribe to it) and it was basically chastizing me for my last post. It's called "A Debt Free Christmas." Take a look:

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/newsletters/company/121207.cfm?ectid=1107cnl_art1

Merry Christmas to you!

It's that season - we hear O Holy Night sung 52 different ways on the radio. We see Christmas lights on all the windows and now yards/trees/bushes of our neighbors. We give and receive presents. We send a family update to everyone on our address list, even though we may not have actually spoken to these people for 25 years. At this time of year, people as a general rule are either overly pleasant or really grumpy - not a whole lot of in-between.

This time around, I'm feeling rather BAH HUMBUG, as I have asked all those who usually give me gifts to not do so, as I am unable to give them presents this year. This is completely not my style and it kills me, especially when I see the perfect whatever for the perfect person, to not immediately snatch it up and wrap it and be giddy with happiness (and some relief) for finding that perfect item for that perfect person in my life.

Nope, attempting to get out debt really stinks because it means I have to focus on me, myself, and I during this giving season. Frankly, I'm not a fan of me, myself, and I, so to have to spend all this time/money on me, myself, and I puts me in the grumpy category this year.

I know I know I know - it's for the best and I'll be so much better off and all of that stuff, not to mention the home I hope to buy some day and doing this puts me closer to that goal. I'm just frustrated that it's all about me this year. Blech.

Me is SO overrated.

I love a free lunch...

I work at one of the greatest places on earth. My bosses (I have 3) are all aware of my goal of getting out of debt. In fact one of them inspired me to start this process to begin with. They have been extraordinarily supportive and are always offering thoughts and ideas and free lunches to me to help me get through this.

Yup - free lunches. I LOVE free lunches.

Today's free lunch was CPK. A new California Pizza Kitchen opened up at Val Vista and Baseline, which isn't too far from my office. My finance boss is working on closing out the month of November and I'm helping him out today. Because of this, he purchased lunch for the 3 of us doing this.

I think I can do CPK every day of the week. Nothing like that Thai chicken pizza to put me in a largely happy mood...

And when I don't have to pay for it?!? Fuhgetaboutit!

PS: You may have noticed that I'm always happy when I'm discussing food. All kinds of food really. I have to mention there are so many other things that bring me joy and happiness, but during this getting-out-of-debt process, the small things (like the tasty foods mentioned) are what do it for me.

It's probably why I'm so svelte and lean...

NY pictures

Even though these don't really have much to do with getting out of debt, I wanted to share a couple of pictures taken while on my trip back east:



This is my mom and I in front of Niagra Falls (it was about 40 degrees).

This is my dad and I in front of the Sacred Grove. It was about 25 degrees this day and oh so so so cold. Beautiful, special, but just really very cold.

Here I am standing on the Smith Farm. Where the Palmyra Temple stands (in the background) is still part of the original land the Smiths
owned.

She's baaaaaaaaaaack.........

Hey y'all (in my best Paula Deen impersonation) - I'm back from New York. Loved every minute of it, most especially getting to visit with my parents. It was a really great trip, and I have to be honest. I spent some money. $14.50 to be exact. For only the best chocolate cake known to mankind:

Apparently this delightful grocery store called Wegman's had a contest for the best chocolate cake recipe. The winner received compensation (I think) and Wegman's bought the rights to use that recipe and make it their own. Boy oh boy, going off of my debt diet (and other diets) for this thing was oh so worth it.

I can't believe I just said that.

But I really meant it (smile).

Oh, and by the way, only 4 weeks from today until Christmas. In case you weren't aware...

I'm going to New York...

...for the Thanksgiving holidays. My mom and dad are serving a mission in the Rochester, NY mission office. I haven't seen them for a year and I have the privilege of getting to spend this holiday with them and a good portion of the other missionaries at the Palmyra visitor center. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?

Anyway, for this reason, I will not be blogging during this time away.

Oh, good news. I bought this plane ticket in July WITH MY DEBIT CARD, not a credit card, so this is one of the few things in my life that is actually paid for. It seriously makes this trip that much better, as anything this major is rarely paid for with cash. Don't know why I had such a vision of clarity when I bought this ticket. Yea for me!

Anyway, HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you and yours.

Things are going well...

Many, many people continue to ask me how things are going and how I'm doing in my quest to get out of debt.

Things are going well, but oh. so. SLOW.

Since deciding to do this, it's all I can think about and trying to figure out ways to make it happen sooner. I know I've said this before, but I can't believe I let it get this bad, for one, and for two, I am begging for patience to get this taken care of. It's AMAZING how little time you need to get so far into debt, yet how LONG it takes to get out of it. It's an awful, awful VICIOUS cycle.

I guess the best success I've had so far is the fact I haven't used or even thought of using a credit card since I first started this. That in and of itself is truly a record. Seriously. Even when you go through the exercise of cutting up credit cards and washing your hands of them, in this day and age of electronic everything, most if not all of my numbers were stored on my favorite sites (Amazon.com anyone?) and I didn't need the physical card to still use it.

It was totally deceptive and I'm ashamed of myself for being so sneaky.

Needless to say, those account numbers HAVE been deleted off of my favorite sites and they have been physically removed from my wallet.

It's really a phenomenal feeling. And the scariness of not having them around as "backup" has really gone away. Maybe not totally 100%, but pretty darn close to being completely gone. Wow.

Seriously - wow.

I Love Jen...

Jennifer and I went to Costco the other night for a couple of things she needed. As we were getting in the car, she asked me, "Do you REALLY need to bring your purse?" She is my getting-out-of-debt conscious and knew if I leave my purse at home, I'm less tempted to purchase anything.

Does she know me or does she know me? (I brought my purse anyway.)

There are some rather wickedly delightful (or delightfully wicked) chocolate truffles that Costco puts out every year for the holidays. She's never had them before and I wanted her to share in this dream candy. I put a box of them in our cart and she immediately took them out and told me we didn't need them.

I felt like a child getting her hand slapped for putting Hostess cupcakes in the grocery cart instead of the celery my mom asked for.

So I sulked a little and then we got to the book section. Oh boy. They carry a book there that I just finished and absolutely fell in love with. A friend of mine has been recently laid up with some major surgery and I wanted to get her this book to read. Again, Jen told me to tell my friend about the book and let her acquire it instead of me getting it for her.

That goes against everything I have ever done. But it's what I need to do right now and once again, Jen saved me from myself.

So, for anyone who wants to know, the book I read recently is called "Home to Holly Springs" by Jan Karon and it was phenomenal. Go to the library and be sure to check it out!

And gosh, thanks Jen for being so mean! (smile) Oh, and also thanks for the birthday present left to me this morning - a box of those exact same truffles I was going to purchase for her. Aint she great?

Blessings, blessings, and more blessings...

I love my job and the company I work for. I've been here for over 4 years and I hope to be here for many, many more years to come. (Take a look: www.infusionsoft.com)

My company just blessed me today with an affiliate check.

Many months ago, I sent an email to a lot of email contacts in my address book, letting them know about my company and the demonstrations they have on a regular basis about our software. I sent this email to people who have small businesses of their own that I thought might benefit from our software. I included a link that they can click on to add their name to our database and it puts them into a campaign that follows up with them. It also means if they were to purchase our software, I would be the lead affiliate on their order and I would get a commission.

Someone bought today and I get an affiliate check (10% of the purchase order).

This has never happened to me before, and I have no doubt that Heavenly Father is blessing me for making (finally) some right decisions in my life regarding finances.

How awesome is this?!?

Mmm... Leftovers!

If you know me, you know I am not a fan of leftovers. There's just something about eating a dish that you already ate recently and it has lost is freshness. Weird, I know, but I've just never appreciated leftovers.

Until now.

I've said in earlier posts that lunch is usually my only substantial meal of the day, and it's hard not to eat out for lunch. I'm really trying here. It is my hugest struggle right now to be quite honest.

I go over to my sister Andrea's home for dinner every Sunday. It is truly the highlight of my week. Her little critters are some of my most favorite people to be around, and frankly, I enjoy being the referee between Andi and her kids (her husband Ron is the bishop and isn't around a lot on Sundays). Anyway, we usually have really good, substantial meals that are phenomenal.

Because my birthday is this week, I got to choose what I wanted to eat for dinner/dessert yesterday (without having to consult the kiddies). I had one of my favorites: Hawaiian Haystacks and Peach Cobbler. Life just can't get much better than this. The kids agreed with me on the Haystacks, not so much on the Cobbler (can't account for no taste at that age I 'spose).

Lucky for me, there were a lot of leftovers and I got to take some home to eat for my lunch today. I actually was excited for my leftovers. Probably one of the first times in my life that I was.

What are some of your favorite leftovers? Inspire me...

And the final number is...

As most, if not all of you know, today I had a garage sale. My first ever. I had contributed items to someone's else's garage sale in the past, but this garage sale was my first. And a good chance it will be my last.

I've gone through so many emotions doing this. It was MY stuff being sold for pennies on the dollar, and even then people didn't want to pay the $2.00 or whatever. They wanted to haggle. I HATE haggling. But it was so great to realize items and things that I didn't need or weren't doing me any good was making me some money that I so desperately need. I was overjoyed and sad all at the same time.

Jennifer, our friend Shawna, and our friend Lori all had things in the garage sale, though I probably had the most items there with all of my books, DVDs, and videos. We started at 7:00 a.m. and pulled our cars back into the garage at 12:45 p.m. It was fun, exhausting, frustrating, exciting, discouraging, and interesting.

We met a lot of people from all different walks of life. It was quite enjoyable to visit with them and learn some of their stories. It was frustrating when someone realized one of my paperbacks was $2.00 instead of $1.00, and SHE PUT THE BOOK BACK. It was sweet to hear of a woman's story who had a 10-year old girl who loved nothing more than to read books, all kinds of books, and she went home with about 25 books for her daughter to read. Another woman saw I had almost every book a certain author had written and she was so excited to get every single one of them so she, her sisters, and her daughters could all read them. What was great about her was she didn't even haggle. She realized getting 21 books for $40 was a steal and she and the rest of her family were going to benefit from it. The happiness on her face made this enjoyable.

The total for me for the garage sale alone was $234. With the pre-sale of some of my books, the grand total that I made by selling my things was $400. Jennifer sold about $50 worth of stuff, Lori sold about $20 worth of stuff, and Shawna (bless her heart) got to take all of her stuff home. This made the net for the garage sale $300. Not too shabby for a bunch of junk, eh?

Anyway, I'm grateful to have done this, and now I'm even more grateful IT'S OVER. Happy Saturday everyone!