Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Helio! Helio! Helio!

I knew it, in the way that you wish so much that it is already fact, from the beginning.

He's hot stuff!

And now, my fast from television begins. I am not going to watch television again until Christmas break -- that's nearly 4 weeks! And for those of you who know that I have only 3 channels (ABC, CW, WVUA--local channel), you might think this would not be such a big loss, but I really scheduled my life around the boob tube.

Monday:
Dancing with the Stars (Helio! Helio!)
Christina Who?
The Bachelor (now over--what a loser)

Tuesday:
Beauty & the Geek
Reaper
taping Dancing with the Stars results show and watching it later
Boston Legal

Wednesday:
taping Pushing Daisies when at choir practice
Private Practice
taping America's Next Top Model, Cycle 11
taping Gossip Girls

Thursday:
Ugly Betty
Grey's Anatomy

Nothing Friday or Saturday

Sunday:
Life is Wild, but sometimes Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
America's Next Top Model re-run (if I didn't have time to watch it)
Brothers & Sisters


The truth is, the only show out of these that I really like (other than the aforementioned Dancing with the Stars) is Pushing Daisies. The rest are just mindless fodder for the overtaxed teacher's brain. It's pathetic. And, ever since Alias went off the air, ABC has been pretty much worthless to me, until Pushing Daisies (I can't help it that I LOVE Kristen Chenowith).

I heard on NPR that there was study of television watching habits and adults average about two hours of television per night. That's the truth for me! I was apalled when I actually thought about it, and that is what brought about this fast. So, now I'm going to spend my time reading, grading papers, washing dishes, and doing these other things that I didn't have "time" to do. Like I said, pathetic.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Dancing with the Stars!

I love this show. Tonight is the finale for this season, and I'm actually watching it now. They're about to announce the person who came in third! It better not be Helio...

Yes! Marie and Jonathan are going home.

If it's not too obvious, I'm rooting for Helio. I realize that it has been since season 1 that a woman has won, but seriously! Helio is goooooooood! And goofy!

I was at a middle school basketball game, and I "had to" rush home to see the finale of "Beauty and the Geek" followed by this.

For the record, I had to borrow $5 from a student to gain entry to the basketball games. I'm in more debt. It was worth it, though. I love to see my students doing things that they love (because diagramming sentences is not it). This adds a whole new dimension to their personas. Something outside of the classroom.

And KF is technically a former student.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Debt Free By 30

That's only 19 months from now.

I've been wanting to go to this class at church called Financial Peace University. It's a Dave Ramsey class. Eli doesn't really want to go, because he doesn't think he'll learn anything new. We seem to be pretty knowledgeable about personal finance. I've read all the hot books -- Pay It Down by Jean Chatzky, The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach, and now The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I'm a class learner. I want reassurance that what I'm doing is the right thing and that someone else is doing worse than me. So, in January, I'm going to the class (possibly solo).

After our first year of marriage with two incomes and no savings, I decided that I needed to educate myself. We've been married 4.5 years, and have been living off 1 income for 3.5 years, and we're paying down our debts.

I realized the other day that when Eli graduates, we'll have all of his undergraduate and law school loans to pay off (that's somewhere upwards of $60,000) in addition to my loans and the car payment. Yikes!

We've been saving for the last two years, trying to come up with a sum of money for a down payment on a house whenever that may occur, and an emergency fund. After crunching the numbers on his loans, I decided that we'd just better get out of debt before taking out a mortgage. So, I manipulated a few numbers and realized that if I just divert my monthly savings to paying off my student loans, then I would have all my loans (plus the car!) paid off by May 2009--one month before I'm thirty.

I also realized that if we start paying on Eli's loans and we're making two incomes, that we can pay off ALL our debt by the time Eli turns thirty. That gives us 31 months to pay it down.

Can you imagine being debt free? Just thinking about it makes me feel weightless.

Plan G (or what's next)

Our time here in Tuscaloosa is coming to an end. Eli graduates from law school in five months and after that, everything is up in the air. The plan is to move from here and have an adventure somewhere.

Plan A: Eli gets into the Air Force JAG program (he got a rejection letter from them today, so we're reapplying, and continuing to pray). I stay in Tuscaloosa for one more year and teach. Eli goes to JAG school and officer training in Montgomery, AL, from January to April of 2009. We move to some exotic location (Italy? Japan?) in May.

Plan B: Eli gets a government job that sends us overseas as soon as he passes the bar (October 2008); I get a job that is not teaching so I can move ASAP.

Plan C: Eli gets a job with MLS and we get to move from Tuscaloosa as soon as he passes the bar; I get a job that is not teaching.

Plan D: Eli gets a job. Amen.

Plan G: We pray, and let God do what he does best. And we stop making intricate plans (okay, okay--I'm the guilty one--I'll stop making intricate plans).

I need to let go and let God. I want so much to have an adventure, to travel the world, but I also want to be content with wherever God leads us.

Miscellaneous First Post

Well, livejournal has been blocked from my work computer, and I feel the need to write my thoughts from time to time. I started a blog for my class, and one for my running (to take over from my marathon fundraising website), and now I'm out of control. I have one for me to speak my mind.