I just got off the phone with the Mr. who just paid off the signature loan that was taken out three years ago. It is such a good feeling to have one less debt in our lives. Not to mention with this paid off, we essentially get a $200 per paycheck raise. Woohoo!! We are well on our way to being debt free (minus student loans and our mortgage) by the end of 2009.
I think we owe ourselves a beer tonight!! Have a fantastic weekend everyone. Be safe.
I can say with almost 100% certainty that the people at LOL cats who come up with these captions don't make enough money :)
The second day we were there (Saturday) was probably my favorite day... minus my intense foot pain. We woke up bright and early to go see the Tower of London!! I promise not to go into all the details of what we saw there, especially since we were there for like three hours! Some of the notable things are the ravens, Yeoman Warders, Crown Jewels and White Tower.
The ravens are kept on the premises because it is believed that if there are not six ravens at all times, the tower and monarchy would fall. The Warders, also known as Beefeaters, give tours around the palace. Unfortunately we got there before any of the tours were going, and by the time they started, we were already halfway through our tour of the palace. The Crown Jewels, duh, are gorgeous. Not my favorite thing to spend hours harping over, but still a piece of history that is worth viewing. The White Tower was built initially to protect London and scare off invaders. Now it houses a huge weapon collection, Henry VIII's armor, and the 11th-century Chapel of St John the Evangelist. The Chapel was by far my favorite part of this tower, as it is simple yet still breath taking.
When we were done with the Tower of London, we scooted outside to take some pictures of Tower Bridge (one of my favorite parts of the visit). We read through our guidebook trying to decide what to do next. My sister came across a page that talked about an homage to Harry Potter and the platform 9 3/4. Amazingly, they agreed to go out of their way to go see it for me, and off we went!
We got to King's Cross Station with no problem, but once we started realizing how big the train and tube stations were, I got a little worried about finding it. We walked around the station for probably 30 minutes (maybe more?!) and found nothing. I was a bit bummed, but we gave it our best shot. You'd think they would make it a bit more obvious, wouldn't you???
By this point my feet were *killing* me, so we headed back to the hotel for a little R&R. We all napped for a few hours, and reconvened over some tea. We decided that the Tate Modern was next, since this was what mom was really excited to do. We took the tube to the closest stop, and headed on over. We were able to see St. Paul's Cathedral on the way, so I was able to snap some pictures of the enormous dome. Then we sauntered across the second pedestrian bridge in London- the Millennium Bridge.
Immediately at the end of the bridge was the Tate Modern- how convenient! We headed inside (quickly at this point, since it was really cold crossing that bridge!) and started to look around. Unfortunately it wasn't exactly what mom was expecting. It was a lot of contemporary art that was hard for any of us to get into. We looked around for about an hour, but by this point we'd seen almost everything that was worth seeing, so we headed out.
We walked along the Thames headed back towards our hotel while searching for some food. We came across Albert's Pub, which was a fancy yet laid back restaurant. The food was really good, as was the beer (of course). Best part- it was right across the street from our hotel, so we didn't have to walk very far to get home! :) Simple pleasures, I guess.
You're probably thinking we sound masochistic for doing all this in two days. Well, you'd be right. Just kidding! Over dinner we realized that we had done everything we had set out to do on our trip. But we still had a full day to fill up. So after dinner we went back to our hotel, had some tea, and discussed what we'd do on Sunday. But that is for another post, on another day... :)
This was posted on a blog I read: “The key to wealth is being satisfied with what you already have”.
I couldn't agree more. I feel like so many of us think that “wealth” means being able to buy whatever you want, even if you had to put it on a credit card. I know I did that at times, and I think most people have. But that quote has really hit home with me today. I feel like right now I am living it. Last year when the Mr. commented on needing a new sofa, I asked why our love seat and recliner weren't OK anymore. He said they were itchy, so we bought covers. Solved, for $30.So I am slowly discovering that wealth doesn’t come from buying new things... but from being satisfied with what I already have. And that is a great reminder to have.
...three girls went for to London for a long weekend. ;) I said next time there would be stories of our London trip, and I am a woman of my word! I'll just give a relatively detailed recap of our trip, how's that?
The flight over was great. The plane wasn't even half full, so we were able to spread out a little bit. The flight wasn't too bumpy, so that was a nice touch ;) We got into Heathrow pretty late (10ish I believe), and took a Dot2Dot bus to our hotel. We got to our hotel, checked in and decided we were all too wired to go to bed right then, so why not look around town some? We decided to go for a stroll at 11pm and came across Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the London Eye... just like that. We took some pictures, oohed and aaahed for a little while and headed back to the rooms.
My sister and I shared a room, and mom was right next door. Come 7:30am, we start hearing a clanging noise in our room. Every minute there's a wooshing noise, then some clanging, and silence. Woosh, clang, silence. This goes on and on and on and on. In fact, it never stops. Turns out we're right next to the loudest service elevator in London! After getting ready for our first full day in London, we head downstairs to the lobby and ask for a new room. Luckily they have a few open, so we just switch on over.
The first day out on the town we got some breakfast (yummy mozzarella and tomato panini!) and headed to Buckingham Palace. Next we walk up to Trafalgar Square, where we saw a ton of double-decker buses. At this point we hop on a double-decker bus and do a site-seeing tour of London. I really enjoyed the bus tour because I was finally able to get a sense of direction. Around now Mom was falling asleep on the bus so we all headed back to the hotel. My sister and I went back out to "get lost in the streets of London". Yeah, it's a lot harder than it sounds. We start strolling along and come across our church. Then next we see Buckingham Palace again. Well crap!
We change our direction to head back home and decide at the last minute to go see Westminster Abbey. We pay the (crazy high) admission price and go on in. The church, like all churches in Europe, is magnificent. There are easily 100 people buried in the church, some of which include Keats, Tennyson and Dickens! Add on 5-10 side chapels, and you're starting to understand just how grand this place is. The coronation chair first used in 1296 by King Edward is also in this Church, with Britain's oldest door nearby. The history contained in this one building is enough for your heart to skip a beat. After spending about an hour in the Abbey, we head back to the room to pick up mom, and get ready for our flight on the Eye.
On our way to the Eye, we stop to take some more night pictures of Big Ben and Parliament, while admiring the gorgeous and amazingly calm Thames River. After wasting some time, it's time for our flight! We hop on at 6:30pm, and admire the amazing view for the next 28 minutes. It's a clear night, so the views seem endless. Lights upon lights, domes and bridges... true beauty.
After our flight is over we walk across one of the two pedestrian bridges in London- the Jubilee Bridge. It's a neat bridge, snuggling up next to train tracks while crossing the Thames. At the other side, awaiting us is the much talked about Sherlock Holmes Pub. We open the door to see one of the most packed pubs in all of London. Well... how does another pub sound? ;) We start heading in the general direction of our hotel, in the hopes that something will pop up. And lookey here! Covent Garden!
Covent Garden is a cute little market area with shops, restaurants and neat little odds and ends. We find a little pizza joint that has a few open tables and scoot in before they swooped up. We eat our meal, have some wine and beer, and head home after a long day.
Since this entry is already HUGE, I'll cut off for now. And this commences our first full day in London :)
Happy Wednesday everyone. This week has been great, minus Aspen being sick of course. It seems like everything is falling the way we had planned and hoped for it to fall. I am in a great mood because of it, which is always a nice bonus. And! It's going to get even better come Friday. You'll see ;)
I can't believe that February is almost over. Thinking back on everything I've (we've) done over the past few weeks makes me tired! And we have so much of the year left, it kind of scares me. March is going to be a really busy month, also, but not as packed as February.
The Mr. and I have already started thinking about our trip to Israel to visit my mom. We have to plan around all the Jewish holidays, but we really want to go around our wedding anniversary (September 22). But let me tell ya... I am not looking forward to that flight over. It's not as bad as Japan was, but I still hate getting on planes nowadays.
My next post should have a lot of London stories in it, because I realize I forgot to put them on here. Sorry about that. But at least you have some neat pictures to look at.
And in honor of Wednesday...
It was hard, but I chose ten of my favorite photos that I took in London. They don't give you the greatest view of everything we did, but so what. :)
Read more...
As you probably saw on A Snowy Apple, Aspen hasn't been feeling well for the past few days. She wasn't eating as voraciously as usual, and her energy level, while still there, wasn't up to par. Last night the Mr. woke up at 2am and there were no fewer than 10 "land mines" all over our bedroom, closet and bathroom floor. You could tell that her tummy wasn't feeling well based solely on that.
"I like nice, hearty women... I'm not into the brittle, cultivated look. I feel like women get skinny for other women. If I wanted to be with a skinny, flat-chested person, I'd date a 20-year old man."
NOT! I woke up this morning hoping for work to be closed or at least a 2 hour delay... But no luck. I suited up for the day, took the dogs down for their morning walk and almost fell on my toosh when I hit our porch. Yup. Just a sheet of ice. As is the driveway. And the road. And the sidewalk... Even the grass is slick!
I managed to walk them without falling once (huge feat!). The commute in wasn't terrible. I heard of a few accidents on some of the roads, but nothing that impacted my drive. I was still at work by 6am this morning and I can't wait to get home for the weekend. We don't have anything planned as of yet, so I'm really looking forward to the relaxation. Maybe the Mr. and I can have a movie filled weekend :) I know he'd love that!
Happy Friday everyone, and have a great weekend.
Today is my lovely niece's birthday! She turns 8- yes, she's a millenium baby. Unfortunately she is down in southern VA, so we don't get to see her (or my brother who's birthday was the 11th). Soon, I hope!
Read more...Since my last post was so serious, I had to throw in something fun. Both are from LOL cats again...
We have officially paid off all credit card debt. Granted it wasn't vastly high, but still- it's GONE! And with the remainder of our tax refund and half of the Mr.'s next paycheck, we'll pay off the signature loan later this month. That will mark the end of our consumer debt. Yes, we still have two student loans and two car loans, but we can work on those much more quickly now.
I was looking over my 2008 financial goals yesterday and was floored at how much we've done. Here's a run down of what I wanted to accomplish in 2008, and what we've already done 50 days into the year.
1. Pay off our last credit card- CHECK
2. Double our long term savings account balance- we are over 50% of the way there!!!
3. Pay off signature loan by Feb 2009- we'll be doing that a full year early
4. Open Roth IRA- only thing we haven't worked on yet.
The main reason we haven't opened an IRA at this point is because I've read many an article about waiting until all your consumer debt is gone, and you have very little other debt. And since the Mr. and I are fairly young, I don't think it would hurt to wait another few months or year. I do want to make sure I don't use the excuse that "we're young" as a reason not to open one soon, though! I hope to pay off my car two years early (next year), and at that point I'm sure we'll open one for each of us.
Well, I'll stop rambling on about our finances, but I wanted to share the good news. I think the Mr. and I are both finally seeing the rewards of this spending freeze we put on ourselves. Good reinforcement if you ask me!
After flying in on Monday, I knew I needed to stay awake until at least 6:00pm to make sure that I wasn't too jet lagged. I was able to keep my eyes open (barely) until about 7:30, at which point I fell asleep faster than ever before. I slept almost all the way through the night, but woke up at 4:00 when the Mr. got up for work. I couldn't actually get back to sleep, so I decided to get up 30 minutes early and use the time well.
Fast forward to last night... we've just finished watching American Gladiators (yay for Evan and Monica!!) and it's 7:00pm. I'm installing some updates on my Mac and I clicked the "restart" button. The next thing I remember is the Mr. waking me up to go upstairs at 8:30. Turns out I was reaaaally tired, and decided the couch was a fine place to sleep. Luckily I was able to sleep until my alarm went off this morning, but I am really worried about staying awake tonight. I babysit for the last time (*sniff*), and I won't get home until almost 10:00pm. Seeing as how the past two nights I've averaged the bedtime of a 5-year old, this scares me. Maybe she and I can have "nap time" after we eat Spaghetti-O's and bananas. :)
We arrived back home about 3:30pm yesterday to gorgeous 55 degree weather. My darling husband came and picked my mom and I up, while my sister drove straight home in her car. The trip was a lot of fun, and I have so many pictures and stories to share.
Our hotel while on our "jolly" in London was in a perfect location. About a 10 minute walk to either Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, or Buckingham Palace. Add another 10, and you've pretty much seen all of the sites ;) But seriously, the hotel was awesome. Some funny sounds at night, but that's a whole different post.
We all walked ourselves into oblivion. Between blisters, sore feet and aching Achilles tendons, we had it all. We got to do everything we had set out to do, and then some. After our second full day there, we'd already checked off everything on our "must see" list, so we had to come up with some new ideas pronto! Apparently Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Tate Modern, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London weren't enough for us ;) We needed more, more!
Luckily we were able to add on more, so we visited the National Gallery, Harrod's (a 1 million square foot department store!!!!!), and some of Hyde's Park. We also did double decker buses, the tube, and traditional pub scenes, so I feel like we were really successful on our long weekend.
More details and some pictures to come :)
I thought I'd let everyone know the Mrs. made it safely to London. I talked to her earlier today and they had a good flight over. After they landed they wanted to kill a few hours before going to bed. They decided to take a walk and see a few sites. I don't want to give out too many details since I know the Mrs. will have plenty to talk about when she gets home.
Read more...I'll be on a plane headed to London! We leave early tomorrow morning, so I won't be able to post anything for a few days. But I can guarantee that it will be worth the wait. I'll come back with a ton of great pictures and stories that I promise to share.
A collection of some of the funniest pictures I've seen in the past week or two.
From http://icanhascheezburger.com and the Bits and Pieces blog (links on the left).
As I'm sure you remember from my recent posts, I have decided to give up shopping for Lent. So far it's been going really well. I haven't had the urge to buy anything or even go "window" shopping on the internet. Maybe it's because I'm leaving the country soon, so my mind is set on other things, or maybe it's just because of how awesome I am. (Uh oh, after I get back, I'm going to be screwed!) But, seriously, things have been good.
Before Lent started, I made a list of certain items that I could still buy, one of which was anything absolutely necessary for the upkeep of personal hygiene- such as haircuts. I scheduled a haircut for Wednesday along with my sister who also needed to get a cut, color, and manicure. When I called the Mr. to gripe about the fact that our usual hair-lady (we luuurve her) wasn't working on Wednesday, he asked why I didn't schedule an appointment for anything on top of the haircut. Duh, stupid- Lent!
Fast forward about two hours and I get a call from him saying "You have an appointment for a manicure with Lisa at 3:30- my treat". ::insert jaw drop:: This is truly amazing to me, since we get very little per month for fun money (to be spent however we want) and he is using it on me. When he told me this, I of course tried to reject the gift and tell him it's fine, my nails aren't going to shrivel up and die if I didn't get a manicure. He wouldn't hear of it. He had his mind made up, and I couldn't change it (oh, darn.).
It's little things (ok, maybe this isn't sooo little) like this that make me fall in love all over again. Not flowers, or gushy poems. Random acts of kindness to show his love. Enough of this sappy stuff now- I'm getting my nails done!!! :)
Today is my brother's birthday and I wanted to give a shoutout to him wishing him a great one :)
Read more...Well, almost... T-minus three days until my mom, sister and I will be on a plane flying to London! The tickets for most activities have already been purchased, so now we're just along for the ride. We leave early on Thursday morning, and come back Monday afternoon. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be devoted to touring as much of London as possible :)
The weather forecast at this point is fantastic. Highs in the upper 40s and low 50s with no rain. Mmmhmm, NO rain! :) A friend of mine in London said this past weekend was in the 60s and sunny, so I'd be OK with that, too. At this point I'm just crossing my fingers for no precipitation. Is that so much to ask?
So blogger has outdone itself again. There are two new features that I have added to my blog... On the left you'll see "Search The Proudfeet" which will, obviously, allow you to search this blog for a word or phrase I may have used. So now when you're telling all your friends and family that hilarious story I wrote about on here, you can quickly search for it and show them! You're welcome :)
Secondly, you can now subscribe to my blog through an RSS feed. For those of you who read a lot of blogs like me, this is really nice because you can keep your blogs in one place. I use Google Reader, and it's fantastic. So if you use any RSS feed (Yahoo!, Google, whatever) I made your life easier, too. Again, you're welcome.
I also see that my hit count has passed 500 already. That's amazing to me. I wonder how much of it is my family checking up on me ;) I'm tempted to create a poll to see what my reading population is. But then again, this could be a slap in the face when 100% of the answers are "I'm related to you, moron!"... I may just go ahead with it because this blog is for my benefit anyways. So ha!
Giving up shopping for Lent was a great idea. At this very time, I am really loving the idea of taking any extra money we get from odd jobs with our families and putting it into savings. I think about our financial position, and love the direction it's heading. And I look at where we've been, and I am truly amazed at what we've done.
Macintosh needed to go in to see the vet and get a round of his yearly vaccinations. We decided to bring Aspen so they could meet each other and so she could get a really quick check up.
Today is my father-in-law's birthday. Unfortunately we don't get to see him today, but he'll be coming to visit when his granddaughter has her birthday party.
Until then... Enjoy life :)
Today marks the first day of Lent for all of us Catholics, and this past weekend I finally decided what I was going to give up. Shopping. Yes, truly, shopping. I've created a list of things I am allowed to buy (groceries, dog food, birthday cards/presents etc), and an even more explicit list of what I *cannot* buy. That list would contain clothes, jewelry, apparel of any sort, house decorations, and so on.
The reasoning for why I chose shopping is rather simple. Normally I give up soda or chocolate. Recently I haven't been drinking that much soda, so it wouldn't actually be much of a sacrifice. And I just wasn't in the mood to give up chocolate again this year, so I thought about what else I loved. My darling husband didn't want me to give up him (hehe), so shopping it is!
Earlier this year I asked the Mr. if he'd be up for doing a first quarter spending freeze. Meaning we don't spend any "unnecessary" money, and we limit our fun money. He agreed, like a good boy, and it's been going pretty well. Unfortunately, I didn't give it my all, and I still bought a few things- like a book of our honeymoon photos, and some jeans for work. This got me to thinking that I can always make an excuse to buy stuff, but if the big Guy upstairs was going to hold be accountable, then I'd do better! I realized we didn't need that book of honeymoon photos, but we both really wanted it. The jeans, I really did need. When you wear jeans every day and only own three pairs, you kind of need to buy a couple extra. And they were on sale. So stop making fun! :)
But anyways. For the next 40 days, I will be abstaining from the malls, outlets and online stores so as not to tempt myself. A lot of people don't think I'll be able to do this, but I have faith in myself. When I get my mind on something, I'm pretty lethal. And this drive to pay off debt and save money is an even bigger kick in the butt. So now you'll not only get awesome posts about what we're doing over here at Logan Wood, but you'll also see the trials and tribulations I go through when I can't go shopping... Enjoy.
And no, I'm not talking about McDonalds. I'm talking about this weather!!! Yesterday it was in the 60s, today when I took the dogs on their morning romp, it was already 65. I love it, love it, love it.
This week has been a huge blur for me, though. Between errands and planning for London, I feel like my free time is be sucked right out of my schedule. Car inspections, haircuts, grocery shopping, vet appointments, babysitting. You name it, and we've got it this week. I'm not actually complaining about having so much to do, but it's such a switch from our normal weeks. Normally we just come home, go to the dog park and watch TV. I'm enjoying this full schedule a bit, but it worries me that we won't get everything done that we need to.
Tomorrow is my father in laws birthday, so hopefully we'll get to see him soon. Then next week is my brother's birthday... It's been even longer since I've seen him and his family :( Unfortunately we can't just go down and see them, since they have like 98354 cats, and the Mr. is allergic to them. Ok, 98351 cats- sorry!
And with all the hype come and gone, the Super Bowl is now over. And the Patriots lost sight of their perfect 19-0 season. So sad.
The Suber Bowl wasn't that exciting to me. The last five minutes were great, with both quarterbacks doing all they could to bring their team to a victory. But the Giants just outplayed the Patriots. No doubt. Brady wasn't throwing well, Moss wasn't catching, and Brady's offensive line was doing very little for him. Up until the last quarter, the New England defense was playing really well, but they just didn't make the big plays they needed to. And Brady didn't capitalize on the interception in the first half. Oh well, it happens.
As far as the commercials... Maybe I am skewed and remember last years incorrectly, but I just wasn't as impressed with this years Super Bowl ads. There were a few (lizards dancing to Thriller, Wall-E, and the Rocky themed Clydesdale come to mind), but nothing that blew all the others out of the water. And a few were down right annoying, like the talking stain commercial. The only thing Tide did successfuly was annoy the crap outta me with that!
Jordin Sparks sang the National Anthem and did an amazing job. I didn't realize how beautiful her voice was. She was obviously nervous, but still belted out a gorgeous tune. Tom Petty did pretty well with the halftime show. Overall I'm not the biggest fan of him, but he surprised me. For being 57, he still knows how to rock out! And I'll admit it, I was singing along to Free Fallin'. How could you not?
That's all I've got for the Super Bowl recap... Until next year :)
What a fantastic weekend!! I got to go out to lunch with some of my married friends on Saturday afternoon. We went to a restaurant called Carlyle and it was really good. After that the Mr. and I spent some time with my family.
We have now owned our house for over a year! OK, so only a year and a day- but still!! Over a year! :)
For the past year, our house has been really good to us (::knocks on wood::). We haven't had to pay for any expensive upgrades or replacements, and that is a huge relief. I know I was really worried about everything that could go wrong in a house, but since it's not even 10 years old, I was hoping the repairs and replacements would be minimal. Luckily for us, they were! Doesn't mean there aren't a lot of things I'd love to upgrade- washer and dryer (helloooo front loaders!), kitchen cabinets and installing hardwood... But those upgrades can wait for our single family home. Or at least for a little bit longer...
Yesterday the Mr. and I did our taxes. It was nice filing jointly, because that was one less package on TurboTax we had to buy. And this is where the excitment of our house comes into play. Since this was our first year owning a home, we itemized our deductions and for good reason. We are getting back a hefty amount for overpayment, and I am really excited. We'll be able to pay off the little bit of credit card debt we have, as well as paying off a loan the Mr. took out a couple years ago. That alone will bring in an extra $400+ a month in free income. This makes me feel so warm and fuzzy, because we have been kicking our butts to get a in better financial state. This really helps!
I do feel bad for the Mr. because he was really excited to get back a big return. He would love to enjoy a little bit of it, rather than using all (or at least 95%) of it for debt. I suppose if there is a few hundred extra that we don't need for debt, we can use it- but I'm not counting on it. What I did suggest was using some of the newly freed up money to fund our trip to Israel in September/October. Since my mom is moving over there, we need to be able to buy plane ticketes, which are definitely not cheap!
And last good piece of news- the Apple repair shop called yesterday to let us know that the Mr.'s MacBook was up and working. It fell a couple days ago, and wouldn't turn on, so we were worried about having to buy a new computer. Well!! Turns out something just got dislodged and came loose, so they just reset the logic board and reseated some cables and all is well. Yay for only spending $90 for the repair instead of $1000 for a new computer!
