Debits and Credits Must Equal... except when they don't

 I'm an accountant. I love it. I know, I'm weird.


Moving on...


When I was in high school and college all my professors told me that debits must equal credits. To the penny.

Everything must reconcile. All the time.





Now that I'm in the real world and putting my degree to use I am finding more and more examples of that not being the case. I hear about companies that just want to come close.

Like anything under $X is immaterial and therefor doesn't matter.

Sure, ten bucks isn't a whole lot to a multi-billion dollar company but isn't that how fraud begins? Not being able to prove where the money went to?

I might be the exception, but when it comes to the work that I have to do and turn in I would much rather spend the extra time to find every single penny. If I don't find it in this one account, I know that down the road it is going to affect this account...

Which affects this other account...

Which in turn makes this other account wrong...





So remember future accountants.... Debits Must Always Equal Credits.... except when they don't have to.

It's OK to be afraid. Even if I can't get that super cute picture.

Last night I took my son to see Sesame Street Live at the Cross Insurance Center (where I work). We got tickets for the meet and greet so I could snag some super cute pics of him with Elmo and the rest of the characters.

Things didn't go as I had planned. When we got into the room the person in charge explained to the kids how even though Elmo and friends looked really small on TV they were a lot bigger in person. And also that the wouldn't be talking since they had to save their voices for the show. Didn't want to get a sore throat before they had to do all that singing you know. So they were going to play the quiet game.

I was excited to see how Corbyn would react since Elmo is the one character I  can get him to sit and watch. He doesn't have much use for other TV shows.

This is what happened when I tried to get the cute picture. He was scared of the big red guy holding him and started to cry. But that's OK. He didn't have to sit on Elmo's lap if he didn't want to. I wasn't going to traumatize him just to get the shot I wanted. I could do this instead.

I was not going to be like some of the parents I saw there who were making their kids do what they didn't want to just to get that photo.

Parenting: You're Doing It Right... or Wrong.

It's been a really long time since I've written in this. I almost sort of forgot it existed. I'm obviously not very good at keeping to my own resolutions. =) Maybe that's why I haven't lost any of the "baby weight" and in fact have even gained some. Meh. C'est la vie.


For the 4 people that follow this blog (shocking, didn't know I had followers) you'll know that I'm now a college graduate, wife, and mother to the most beautiful and precious toddler on the planet.

Corbyn is my whole world and I can't imagine life without him in it. Every day gives me new joy as I watch him learn and grow. And each day also gives me new heartache as I watch my baby grow because I know he won't be this little forever and all too soon he'll grow up and won't want to snuggle with his Mommy. He'll eventually tell me he hates me and I'll cry.

He'll grow up into a smart well adjusted young man and he'll fall in love with some girl (who won't be good enough for my baby I'm sure of it) and then he will get married and start a family of his own. Before I know it I'll be old and grey and he will be the one struggling to find the right way to parent his own children. Who of course I will spoil rotten and fill with sugar and then send back to him so that the cycle never ends and he has to deal with what I deal with now.

And I hope that when he does grow up that things are different for him. I hope that the attitudes of people change and become more open minded and that he won't be judged if he decides to do something a certain way. For that is what I am trying to cope with now. I am so blessed to have a large close family and some great friends who are a big help to me in raising Corbyn. After all, it takes a village, does it not?

Every day I read stories of one parent or another who are teaching their child a certain way, or disciplining them a certain way. And I see the friends and family and even strangers of that person give their "helpful" advice on how they should be doing it. Everybody is so set in their own ways about the proper way to raise a child and if you choose to try something else you are told that it will never work and "you'll see. You'll be sorry you didn't do it this way when such and such happens."

From the time my son was this old, people have been giving me advice on what to do when he arrives in the world. From cloth diapering, to breastfeeding, and even to crib-training from birth. I hastily absorbed all of this knowledge (as well as anything I could get my hands on to read) because I had no idea what it was like to be a parent. Especially a "single parent" as my husband was overseas protecting our freedoms until our son was 3 months old.

I wanted to be as prepared as I could be for when our son arrived so that I could do it all correctly. I didn't want to damage my child by accidentally bathing him wrong or not reading the correct amount of bedtime stories.

And now that Corbyn is almost 19 months old I have realized one very important thing. No amount of advice from other people is going to teach me the right way to parent my child. My child will teach me the correct way to parent him. 

Of course, I still read parenting blogs and articles and the like. Often times it's because some of those parents are so much more crafty than I am and I can pilfer some game / craft / food ideas from them. Other times I read them for new approaches to parenting methods. I try to read about both sides of the issue (i.e. time outs etc.) and then I try to think about how it will relate to Corbyn. Will he understand what I'm doing or will he not care? Then I try to make up my own mind on what I want to do.

Some of the things that I am trying to make part of my parenting method are:

1. No spanking. I really want to try to go through life without needing to spank him. I was spanked as a child and I do not feel any animosity towards my parents about it. Heck, I hardly remember it as I can honestly only remember it happening once. But I don't want to spank my child. Sometimes I fail and I have spanked before. My husband spanks him. But I want to try not to spank. I have faith in myself that I can find ways to teach without resorting to spanking.
2. Nursing. I breastfed for the first seven months of his life. I continued to nurse even after he got teeth at three months old and started biting. But he weaned himself and I had to swap to formula until he was old enough for cow's milk. I'm going to nurse baby #2 when they come along and I would love to nurse for 1+ years if they will let me.
3. Co-Sleeping & Baby Wearing. I love sleeping with my baby next to me. A big part of that goes back to the second item on the list. I'm much too tired and, let's face it, much too lazy to get out of bed to nurse all the time. I like the bond it builds with my child and I like to be able to wake up and look over at the peaceful sleeping face of  my baby.

My list is quite small and I'm sure it will grow as he grows. I feel strongly about all of these items and it saddens me when my family and friends do not support me in my choices. Of course their opinions don't change mine, but it would be nice if they could step outside preconceived ideas and support me trying something different. I understand you were spanked, and you spank your kids, and that it works great for you with no lasting damage to the kid. Good for you. I don't want to do it. So support me in that choice. I can and will find other ways of discipline / teaching.

You're all on board with nursing a baby... but only until they are X months old. Then it's all about pumping into a bottle or using formula. Baby is too old to be doing that especially *gasp* in public. Nursing my son was one of the best parts of being his mother in those first seven months. Knowing that 100% of his nutrition came from my body. I was a superhero. If he was hungry I could solve that problem without thinking. And I fed him whenever and wherever he happened to be hungry. Behind closed doors or not. You eat in public, so does my child. Deal with it. Look away if you can't stand seeing it and the maybe 1/4" of exposed skin you would have seen.

This last one fully frustrates me on the lack of support. I'm not asking you to sleep in bed with my child. So what if it takes longer to crib train them when we decide its time? You don't have to have sleepless nights. Just because crib training was hard for you doesn't mean it will be for me. My child is not your child and might not care where he sleeps. Then again, I could be wrong and it will be hell training him. My problem not yours. And if you need to gloat when that time comes, then do so silently. I'm still going to sleep in bed with him until we decide it's time.

I didn't mean to get all preachy there but it's hard sometimes to keep from getting upset about it all. But that's what my blog is for. I'm allowed to vent if I want to. 

So I hope that when my son is grown and raising children of his own he will have more support in his choices as a parent than I have in mine. And I hope that when the time comes I can be as open minded as I wish people were with me.

20 DAYS TO ORGANISE AND CLEAN YOUR HOME CHALLENGE

2013 is almost upon us and I feel as if I need a change in my life from the general disordered mess that is my house. So I found this link on Pinterest and I'm going to do my best to change my whole lifestyle regarding my home in one month. Just in time before the baby arrives.

Oh yes, for those that follow me only on this blog and don't know me in person or on Facebook, quite a bit has happened since my last posting 6 months ago. When last I wrote I was impressed with my success using the Body by Vi program to help me shed some unwanted weight. I didn't quite hit my 35 lb goal mark, but I did OK. I lost all of that weight just in time to learn that my husband was deploying to Afghanistan for a year and that when he came back our family would consist of three members instead of just two!

Yes! We are pregnant =)   I'm 6 months along now and due on my husband's birthday in late March with our first child, a little boy.

This is me the day I found out I was pregnant at 4w4d along (right) and a photo I took just the other day at 27w0d along (left).









And this is my son.

Corbyn Wayne Arrants. Due on March 28, 2013.











And now for the main focus of this posting. I am going to be starting a month long challenge about changing my household and I want to keep myself accountable by marking my progress. So I'm going to try to keep updated daily on it. There's no guarantee I won't fail to do so, but from what I've read that's part of the whole challenge is making it so that you get into new routines. So here goes. Stay tuned.

ViSalus 90-Day Challenge

If you follow this blog and have never met me, let me give you a description of myself.

I'm almost 26 years old and I stand 5' 6" tall and have an athletic build. All my life I've been able to eat whatever I want and not need to worry about weight gain. My metabolism coupled with my super active sports life in high school kept me at a tiny 110 lbs at my heaviest. That was 8 years ago.

I grew up, moved to college, got comfortable in my long-term relationship, and replaced sports with video games. Needless to say, I gained quite a bit of weight. Like 60 lbs of weight.

This is me on March 17, 2012 weighing in at 168 lbs!

While I'm lucky to be tall and hide my weight well (instead of having it all settled on my hips/butt) it still wasn't a look I was comfortable with.

So I decided to change it. That's when I met Sara Sirois and learned about ViSalus 90-day challenge.



Let me tell you my story and why I love this diet program.

Visalus is a meal replacement program (think SlimFast - but actually good tasting). The plain shake made with just milk and mix will taste like vanilla/white cake batter. That's the only reason I decided to try it. I couldn't imagine trying a liquid diet if it didn't taste good.

You can replace 1 or 2 meals per day with a shake depending on your personal goals. It does not need to be the same meals each day either. I drink 2 shakes/day and I always have one for breakfast since I don't normally eat breakfast. It helps to give me a boost of energy in the morning and keeps me from getting hungry earlier on in the day. Then depending on my plans for that evening I will either have my 2nd shake for lunch or dinner and a regular meal for whichever I don't have a shake.

For instance, if I know my husband won't be home for dinner I will typically have a salad with some kind of meat for lunch and then a shake for dinner so I don't have to cook. Or if I know I'm going to dinner with family and friends I will have my 2nd shake for lunch.

And that's all there is to the program. 2 shakes & 1 meal per day. It's very important that you don't skip meals though. Like don't drink a shake for lunch & dinner and not eat breakfast. You still need the proteins/fats/etc that you will get from eating regular food to optimize your health.

The shakes have a TON of nutrients and vitamins in them, but you need the sugars and fats and all the other stuff that comes with eating regular meals. Not to mention that eating all 3 meals a day will boost your metabolism. If you skip a meal one day you'll probably be OK but if you do it over a long period of time your body will go into "starvation" mode and it will turn muscles into fat to burn for energy. Not a good thing.

SO...back to the plan basics... There are a variety of kits you can choose from again depending on your preferences and what you have as a lifestyle.

The kit that I get each month is the Shape Kit. It is $113.95 after tax and S&H. They charge your card automatically each month as long as you are active on one of three dates that you choose (5th, 12th, or 19th). The shape kit comes with 2 bags of mix and 10 sample flavor packets (2 each of orange, peach, banana, strawberry, chocolate). This is enough product for 2 shakes per day for a month.

You are also allowed two HEALTHY snacks per day. They can be up to 200 calories each. The company offers items you can buy that go hand in hand with the shakes, but I just opt for things like string cheese, apples, and pretzels. The chewier they are the better since the only thing I miss about eating "real food" is the chewing. So having chewy snacks gives me that feeling and helps to make me feel full between meals.

It comes out to less than $2 per shake after adding in the cost of the milk / juice that you mix it with (plain shakes, no added flavors). You can add just about any flavors you like and there are loads of websites that can give you ideas. I normally add fruit to mine as it makes it thicker so you feel fuller longer. I've been on the diet since 3/22/12 and have only had the same shake once since then.

And here is the best part. They have a "3 for free" promotion. What that means is that if you get three people to sign up under you during any month, you get your next months kit for free (you just pay S&H - $10). That doesn't mean 3 new people every month. I signed up on March 19 and couldn't quite get the three before the 31st. So I had to pay for my April kit. But in the month of April I got 4 to sign up under me. So when my kit shipped out in May I was only charged $10 instead of $113.95. Definitely can't beat that!!

I'm saving a ton of money and losing a ton of weight (and inches!!) which makes me feel better about myself in addition to generally feeling healthier. My current challenge ends in only 5 more days and I plan to start another right after as I would like to lose even more weight and inches. Plus the shakes taste good and make me feel good.

This is me on June 1st weighing in at 142 lbs!

All I've done is replace two meals a day with a delicious, nutritious shake from ViSalus.

Even then I cheated on some days and only had one shake, and there were times when circumstances didn't allow me to have ANY shakes that day.

I did no extra exercising aside from normal housework and walking the dog. I feel so much healthier and better about myself. I can't wait to start my next challenge and hopefully get down to what the doctor claims is my "ideal" weight of 130 lbs.




If you would like to try ViSalus to see how much you can lose, please don't hesitate to call me or e-mail me. My cell phone # is 207.735.6522 and I am out of work at 5 PM every day. You can also visit my website at: www.http://courtneyjo86.bodybyvi.com/ to see some videos and get the inside scoop.

At $2 per meal, how can you afford not to?

Love is simple

So much for my daily postings in this blog. Guess I won't have nearly as much material as I'd hoped for that class. Oh well.

My wonderful mommy is back in the US and it's so wonderful to have her here for Mother's Day. We enjoyed the pool and hot tub in the hotel, as well as some wonderful meals together with friends and family. You never really know how much you will miss somebody until they are no longer just a phone call away. Even though we talk nearly every day via some form of social media the difference of being able to talk face to face is priceless.

My heart aches to know that she will be leaving in another week and a half and going back to her new life in Scotland with my step-dad. I wouldn't change anything for the world because I know she is so much happier in life and that is all that really matters. It's been a really long time since I've seen her this happy and I'm glad that she finally found somebody that she can relate to and who understands her on a level beyond what we as children can even fathom.

Things were not always happy in my house growing up and just like any other normal family we had our share of unhappiness, heartbreak, and anger. That's what makes a family and gives us that bond that nobody can break. There were times I wish I could change certain choices that were made to spare the pain that followed but I know that without learning and growing from those mistakes that we would not be the people we are today.

So even though I spent three years in pure hell while a certain T.C. lived in my house I know that it made my mother a stronger person and not so easily fooled by promises of love and happiness from people who cannot hold up their end of that promise.

Today I see her happy for the first time since V.F. left our lives and that makes my heart burst with love and pride. The fact that I get a lot of the credit for her current state of happiness (I did introduce them, you know) isn't something to forget either. I practically handpicked my own step-dad. Who knew? At the time all I wanted was peace from the "noob." Hahaha

Love is simple folks, you simply have to be willing to open your eyes and take a chance. Take that leap of faith and go outside your comfort zone. Should that fail and you still can't find anybody... ask your children. They are usually a better judge of character than you realize.

Journey to a Happier, Healthier, ME!

Throughout my life I have heard about a lot of different "get thin quick" schemes and these great diet pills that promise extreme weight loss in little to no time at all. My daddy raised no fool and over the years I have ignored all of these methods of weight loss in favor of walking, running, and going to the gym.

I've never had a real issue with my weight and my height helps to hide the little bit extra that I do carry around.

This is a somewhat decent photo considering I was trying to get a good side shot while holding the camera myself.

According to the doctor's office my BMI is 24.71

I'm not entirely sure what it's supposed to be for my "ideal" weight but I know I would like to lose between 25 - 35 lbs before I'm done.

I know that getting myself healthy is not something to be done overnight. It is going to take time, and sweat, and effort. Thank GOD it's getting warmer out so I can do some of that sweating outside rather than in a gym.

Phase 1 of my goal involved deciding on some kind of diet program / change. And not necessarily a "diet" such as Atkins of Weight Watchers, but just a change in my diet - you know, the foods I stuff myself with. So I looked around at what my friends were doing because let's face it, I'm a sheep. I like to follow others and learn from their trials and errors on what works. Why start from scratch if a friend has already fine tuned a plan that works?

A couple of my friends are on this "Zone Diet" program which involves dividing up your food into blocks and you can only have so many blocks of certain things per day. For instance you can have 1 carb block, 1 protein block, etc and so on. And there are only certain foods that qualify and you are told the quantity which consists of one block. I decided NO on this one because I don't want to have to weigh my food before I cook it to make sure I'm only getting 3 ounces of something.

Next I looked at the Atkin's diet. No bread for a certain amount of time, and then no milk for a separate period of time. Not going to happen. Can't live without milk so scratch that.

Fast forward a dozen more diets I didn't like the look of and I finally decide to start listening to my boss at work about the program he and his wife are doing. It's called Visalus which is more commonly known as Body by Vi. It is a meal substitution plan that guarantees results even if you don't exercise and the shakes taste like cake batter.

The amount of weight and inches that you drop depend a lot on what you eat for your one meal of the day and you obviously will lose much more by exercising. Reading more into the program you can actually receive your product for free by signing up three people under you. This doesn't mean you have to sell the product, you only sign them up to take the 90 day challenge (which is what the company is famous for) and you receive your product for free!

I'm going to be keeping a record of my progress so keep checking back!!

State of Maine CPA Exam

Holy freaking crap!! So I'm reading up on CPA stuff today and there is this company (Becker) that offers a study program/course for your CPA exam. It includes:

How much longer until I'm grown up?

I have been asked by my husband to please remove this post. I don't agree with that or feel I should have to delete something on my personal blog, but I will pick my battles and do as he asks.

Life Is Unfair, And Then You Die

I know the world isn't fair, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?
Bill Watterson

My husband and I are planning on starting a family when he comes home next week and while this makes me unconditionally happy it also brings with it some feelings of anger and resentment when I think about the future life of my unborn child. I've been feeling this way for a week or so now and I felt I needed to write it down so that I can get it out of my system instead of letting it fester like the poison it is.

To explain why I feel this way some back story about my family is needed. 

• My older sister got pregnant and gave birth to my niece at the age of 16. We wouldn't trade dear sweet Emily for the world nor would we change the course of events that led up to now as we love her too much to change anything. 
• Emily grew up in a loving home surrounded by her favorite auntie (me!), her uncle, meme (my mother), grampy, as well as another grandmother, great grandparents, and even a cousin. Very cool start to such a promising young life.
• My mother remarried in 2007 and has since then moved to Aberdeen, Scotland with my stepfather. She is the happiest I've seen her in a very long time and I adore my new dad. I dream someday of going to Scotland to meet that whole new side of my family and getting to pick on the new little brother I have. I would not trade my mothers happiness for all the riches in the world as she deserves to finally find some happiness in this lifetime.

I think you can see where this is going by now. But if you can't, I'll tell you what makes me bitter. 

My entire life I have been in my sister's shadow, so to speak. She was older so she got to do everything first. She got to go everywhere first and she was the favorite (I'm not kidding, ask my mother who her favorite child is). I grew up with a severe case of middle child syndrome. I could never understand why she got away with bloody murder and I got grounded for doing the same because I should have learned from her mistakes.

Now don't get me wrong. I love my sister. It's been a long time coming as I couldn't stand her growing up and used to wish that bands of gypsies would come and steal her away at times, or wizards would come to my house and lift the spell she must have cast on our parents to make them oblivious to everything she did that should have gotten her grounded. But now we've mended our relationship and I look to her for wisdom and support to get me through whatever I happen to be going through. She's been there for me to cry on her shoulder and she was central to making my wedding the success it was. I love you Stachia Ann!!

What makes me bitter and jealous and hate the way life can be sometimes is that I know when I have my children they won't get to grow up with their grandmother only a car trip away. My mother is going to be 4,000 miles away and Skype is the best I'll be able to do for them to know her and love her the way I do. I will have to choose between having my mommy at my baby shower... or at the birth of my child. Choose between seeing her at Christmas or on their birthdays (if even that often). 

Mom already had to miss both my bridal shower and my bachelorette party in order to make it to the states for my wedding. I hate that my children will have to go without knowing her as well just because I waited to have children. And that is where the viciousness comes in. It sounds horrible, like I'm condemning my sister for being an unwed teenage mother, and I honest to God am not. My sister is an amazing mother and is the best single parent that I know. She has sacrificed everything to ensure her daughter is well taken care of and has everything she needs to grow up happy and healthy.

Yet I can't help feeling the way I do. That life is so unfair and I'm getting the shaft for doing things in the "proper order." Long-term boyfriend, wedding, then children. I feel a touch better having this all written down instead of bottled up inside of me. I am hoping that something changes for the better of all parties involved. Who knows, maybe by the time I get pregnant they will have invented and perfected teleportation between countries. That would be great.

Until then, life sucks and then you die.

Sluts Unite!

This morning I learned that I used to be a slut. And I'm okay with that! For anybody reading this who is confused please read the following article:
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/01/10552338-limbaugh-contraception-advocate-should-post-online-sex-videos

This confused individual seems to think that by health insurance covering the costs of contraceptives (which by the way men can get as well since some places allow insurance to cover condoms!) that the taxpayers who are fronting the money for this need to get something out of it and we should all make videos and post them online for viewing pleasure.

First of all they are INSURANCE PREMIUMS you nitwit, not your tax dollars. I am paying for a service that helps me when I need it. Just like car insurance has to pay out for an accident my health insurance is required to cover the costs of certain things when I signed their contract saying they will pay $X when I give them $X a week from my paycheck.

Second of all this doesn't make my contraceptives free. I still have co-pays, deductibles, co-insurances, and the like to pony up to get these contraceptives. My particular insurance is $25 per week from my paycheck and still requires me to pay a $20 office visit for exams and such. While my pills are free as long as I have had an annual exam in the last 12 months this does not in any way mean that I'm relying on the american people's wallets to have sex.

And lastly, my question to you Mr. Limbaugh is this:

Would you really rather have insurance cover contraceptives (a service we have to pay for) or would you like to have to foot the bill for THOUSANDS of unplanned pregnancies from women who are not able to support a child because they were unable to afford the necessary protection to prevent the pregnancy in the first place?

Some people really should think before they speak. /end rant

At The Peak

I can almost see it
That dream I am dreaming
But there's a voice inside my head saying
"You'll never reach it"

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most, yeah
Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on 
Excerpts from "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus


Another week has gone by and I've spent the time in my same routine. Work, homework, squeeze in some friend time, and finally scratch out a little me time. I'm working away diligently at passing my time until Eric comes home and trying to keep myself busy. Karma has decided to help me out with this task and even out the playing field some after my last bit of good news.

I began my most recent class on Tuesday the 24th. The class is Advanced Financial Accounting and is a level 440 course. It is still only five weeks long and it is still online, but the difficulty factor has just quadrupled. The workload seems fairly similar to those prior classes I've taken but the reading.... wow.

I've printed off all of my chapters for the course and put them in a nice 2" binder. I even color coded the sections by chapter and assigned week of reading. Just look at me go!

Until of course I realize just how much reading is going to be needed during this class. 2 cm stack of computer printed pages (double sided) all need to be read by no later than 02/27/2012.

/sigh

Apparently I will be putting my glasses to good use this class.

But like a good little girl I set out my notebook and my pencil, my highlighter and my sticky notes, and got down to reading my chapters for the week.


After three hours I've read approximately 12 pages. I'm pretty sure I read the same section four times at one point...






But every time I get discouraged and feel like I'll never be out of school I just have to look at this page and realize I'm so much closer than I have ever been.

I am only 8 classes until my graduation date. 9 months to go and I will have a $45,000 piece of paper hanging on my wall. And 6 months after that I'll be broke trying to repay that $45K.

This screen doesn't hurt either. More than 3/4 of the way done with my degree program isn't such a bad thing.

Also knowing that I've brought my GPA up a solid 1.66 points is very gratifying to my ego.

*gasp* Yes, for those who didn't know I was not doing so well at UMFK. Maybe I'll tell that story one day.


But for now I need to keep my head held high and know that there is always going to be another mountain to climb. I just need to remember that I'm at the top of this one and on my way down. I can worry about the next one later.

Celebrate!

There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times
And your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you
Kool & The Gang - Celebrate

Today is a fabulous, wonderful, fantastic, all around good day! Why? Pull up a computer chair and let me tell you...

Lately things have been heading on a downward spiral and I was starting to wonder how I would be able to stick to my philosophy about keeping a positive attitude no matter what. Today, all that has been turned around a complete 180 degrees.

Two weeks ago I sent an e-mail to my financial advisor at school after I noticed that my account had a $3,000 credit balance. I wanted to cancel the payment plan I was making ($200 every two weeks) since I obviously didn't need to anymore. A few days later I heard back from my academic advisor to inform me that Carol had been moved off my advisement team and that I would have a new financial counselor. This was met with some dismay as I have had 5 different sets of counselors and I was just getting a good repertoire with this current set. I didn't want to have to start all over again.

Since there was nothing I could do about it I decided to just move on and send the same letter to my new counselor about the payment plan and such. At the same time I was browsing the web and an ad appeared on the side of the screen saying "University of Phoenix offers military tuition rates for active duty military personnel and their families." Being that Eric joined in October, I included this concern in my e-mail. That day at work I got a phone call from the school but we were busy so I let it go to voicemail and I checked it on my way home. I couldn't make out the extension they were saying so I called the main office and asked to speak to my counselor. Turns out both my counselors were moved off my team and I didn't know why.

Skip ahead two days and I sent a third e-mail to all four of the counselors (2 old, 2 new) explaining my unhappiness with the situation and my confusion on why it happened. But again seeing as I could do nothing about it, I felt I needed to be friendly and introduce myself to the new counselors. I listed out all my concerns and what I was hoping could be taken care of.

Fast forward to today. I first get a conference phone call from the two old counselors explaining that I was moved to a new team because the military division is separate from normal academics. You get a special team of people who are up to speed on what is required and how the program works. Sad to see them go, but this is okay because it means I'll be going to school for less money. 20 minutes later I get a call from Julian who is my new financial counselor. And that's when things got good.

I currently pay $1,175 per 3-credit course. The military tuition rate is $750. Yes, do the math. It's $425 in savings, per class. That brought a smile to my face. But wait, it gets better. A couple months ago I applied for a private student loan to cover the costs that my financial aid wouldn't cover. It was disbursed on 01/13/12 and there is now an $8,000 credit balance on my account. With the discount of my tuition, plus the money I had paid in, I will be getting quite a refund from the school in a week or so!

I will be able to pay off the bills I would have had paid off already had I not had to pay out of pocket for classes in addition to taking the extra financial aid money and using it to pay down the balances on my higher interest rate loans that I have from when I attended the University of Maine in Fort Kent. Double bonus!

And here is the best part, because I am getting back all the money that I paid in and paying off those bills with it, I'll be saving about $400/month in expenses which I can use to buy a new car since mine is on it's last legs!!

I am SO glad things finally worked out for the best and that I don't have to worry about making ends meet when Eric comes home and goes back to his old salary. This will also help to be able to buy him a vehicle when he comes home. Hooray!

So lift your glass in a silent toast and join me for a celebration dance!!

Hello 2012! Bring on the zombies!!

So another year has come and gone and we are once again faced with the task of setting goals for ourselves that most of us will abandon before too long. I myself am already slacking on my goals out of sheer lack of interest. I made myself some New Year's resolutions and have yet to fulfill any part of them.

1. Clean my house top to bottom and keep it spic-and-span the entire year. I've yet to fully clean it. In fact, I haven't even washed the dishes that have been in my sink since my husband came home! I know, completely gross and I really need to get on top of that.
2. Drop 30 lbs by March 8th. I have been watching what I eat and drinking a lot more water than I did last year, but I still haven't made it to the gym even once. I always seem to run out of time when I get home in the evenings and I can't make myself get out of bed early enough to go before work.
3. Get money put away in the bank for a house down payment. I got as far as doing my FAFSA for the next school year, but haven't made my new budget or anything yet. Our tax return will go a long way toward getting some bills paid off which in turn will save us money each month. My student loan will also help with this.*

*A little note: I do not advocate getting a student loan in order to use the money to live on. My situation is that I took out the loan for school expenses I am currently being made to pay out of pocket for. The disbursement date for my loan is after the last payment date that I will be making, so I am using the same amount of money out of my loan for other bills that I would have had I not had to pay $100/week to the University.

So for now I receive an F in New Years Resolutions, but I plan on bringing that up to a minimum of a C by the time the year is over. =)  

In the end, we're all going to be eaten by zombies on 12/21/12 so why bother?

Squashed between a rock and a hard place

A personal offense is like a scratch on a phonograph record. I couldn't move my thoughts beyond my pain. It kept repeating, as if I were stuck within its grooves. There was only one way to play beyond it. I had to forgive them, so my heart could take its form again.
Laurel Lee

Being stuck is a position few of us like. We want something new but cannot let go of the old - old ideas, beliefs, habits, even thoughts. We are out of contact with our own genius. Sometimes we know we are stuck; sometimes we don't. In both cases we have to DO something.
Rush Limbaugh

Today I need to get some things off my chest that are just going to fester if I don't "talk" about them. I have noticed that the holiday seasons are becoming more and more materialistic rather than focusing on the gathering of loved ones and creating memories to last lifetimes. When does enough become enough where you speak up about such quandaries? I am not just stuck in that spot between the rock and the hard place on making a decision about this, I am squashed in there and it's getting painful.

Holidays have always been about family to me rather than what you can find under the tree. Maybe that's because growing up we didn't always get everything we asked Santa for. Maybe it's because my parents and grandparents taught me that if I'm not grateful for everything I receive, then things will stop being given. The past few years during the Christmas season I have been witness to extreme ungratefulness and a lack of understanding the ideal that sometimes the best "gifts" we receive come in the smallest packages. 

How do you tell somebody their child behaves in such a way when it seems to be almost an encouraged part of their behavior? And how do you express feelings of unhappiness to a family over something that seems so trivial and silly after such a wonderful day (aside from the aforementioned witnessed behaviors)? 

I feel something needs to be said or these behaviors will just continue to occur, but doing so will only make the situation worse. Thankfully I have a year to contemplate this problem before I am forced to face it again and maybe by then those I have witnessed will have grown and matured some to realize the Earth does not revolve around them and that there are things more important than the number of packages under a tree.

Why I want to be like Edward Cullen

Would you please tell me what you're thinking? BEFORE i go mad? Edward Cullen

I'd rather know what you're thinking even if what you're thinking is insane. Edward Cullen

So I'm trying to keep to my philosophy of last week and take everything as it comes and make the most of what life has to offer. Sometimes this can be difficult, even with the underlying bubbly happiness I feel because I only have 5 more days until my husband comes home.

So here is what happened in a nutshell...

I attend college online at the University of Phoenix. I am proud to be a phoenix and with minor exceptions this school is perfect for me and my lifestyle. As with anything there can always be minor improvements and for UoP, the learning team aspect is something I wish we didn't have to deal with. 

Basically we are assigned to a group of 3-6 students that we are required to work with for the 5 week class and submit assignments that we all collaborate on. In theory this practice is a good one since we can't physically be in the same room to work together. It gives an added social experience to our schooling because we can use any form of communication that works for us.

In my current class my group has 6 students including myself and we are working on our first group assignment  this week. There are 4 problems to complete, each with multiple parts. A smart person would assume that the total number of parts would be divided up so that the work load is even for each person. This is often not the case. This particular instance had three of the students claiming an entire problem for themselves, leaving only one problem (with only two parts to answer) to be distributed between three other students. 

I normally complete every problem for every assignment for my own personal benefit so that I get as much practice as possible for the final exam, and then just submit whichever part I am assigned. In this instance I offered to post the whole assignment to the learning team forum so that we could all double check each others work. So that if I messed something up, chances are somebody would catch it and I could learn from it (and vice versa).

Apparently my classmate S.B. took high offense to this because she assumed I was saying that my work was better than everybody else's work and that we should only use my work. After repeated attempts to clarify what I meant and why I offered such a thing in the first place, a couple other members of the team spoke up to try and help out since we had been in previous learning teams together and they knew what I meant by my offer and how well it had worked in the past.

This only made dear S.B. more upset to the point she lashed out at the whole group saying that for the remainder of the class she was only going to be in the forum long enough to decide which part of the assignment she was going to do and then to submit it and to hell with the rest of us.

So why do I want to be like Edward Cullen?

If you haven't figured it out by now I want to be able to read people's thoughts and find out how their screwed up brains work. But I want like super heightened Edward Cullen powers. I don't want to have to be within a certain distance to work my magic. I want to be able to just have to call this woman on the phone and figure out just what makes her brain tick and to find out if she honestly thought I was trying to say their work wasn't good enough or if she is just a drama queen who was trying to cause trouble.

Not to mention, think of all the other cool things I could do with powers like that!! I could be the world's best journalist because I could read their minds. Nobody could keep secrets from me and I would always know what they really meant when talking to them. I could be a super spy able to get any information I wanted from any target just by asking a question and listening to their thoughts while they lied to my face. Awesome!

The best vitamin to be a happy person is B1

Dreams get you into the future and add excitement to the present.
Robert Conklin

Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire - you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away.
Denis Waitley

The days are passing quickly. How time flies when I reflect on the time spent apart from the one whose company I crave over all others. The time is dwindling until I am to be reunited with my husband and I can't seem to stop smiling lately. At first my face felt funny because it had been so long since I have been truly happy. But as I smile more and more the feeling becomes the normal and I don't remember being unhappy any longer. 

There will always be periods in my life where things aren't going my way or I don't like what life has given me, but I am determined to make the most of each and every day because I know that things could always be worse. I am healthy and well-fed, I have a roof over my head and clothes on my back, my family is safe and without great illness, and I have a circle of friends who are always there for me.

Each day that passes adds excitement to my life because I know that I am one day closer to starting my family. One class closer to attaining my college degree. One heartbeat closer to my happily ever after. I just know everything is going to turn out the way I've dreamed. I woke up this morning, apparently on the right side of the bed, and just had this feeling inside that I haven't felt since I was back in high school.

That feeling of building excitement I used to get before an upcoming sports event that I was part of. The slow pulsing of adrenaline seeping into my system throughout the course a few days making it so that I can hardly sit still by the time the day comes around. I feel that now each time I look at the calendar and realize that it's almost down to single-digit days before I am in my husband's arms again. 

I feel this again in my school life as well. I'm starting part 3 of my Intermediate Accounting class and once this finishes early in January I will begin taking the classes that will ultimately prepare me for my CPA exam. Knowing that I am that much closer to achieving what I set out to do so many years ago is exhilarating. I will have my career in only a few more short years, because of course I need the obligatory two years real world accounting experience.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present. And I am never going to take this for granted again. I am going to live my life to the fullest and rejoice in everything that comes my way.

A woman who is a master of patience is master of everything else.

Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different outcome. Chinese Proverb


There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness. Friedrich Nietzsche
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I am not a patient person. Just ask my friends. I am impulsive and I want what I want when I want it. I don't like waiting. Waiting to grow up, waiting to finish school, waiting to get married and have children. My life is full of waiting and it's a daily struggle to learn the patience I need in order to make it at this one-day-at-a-time pace the world has designed for me.

I have not seen my husband for 62 days and 22 hours. This is the absolute longest we have ever been apart since we met in August of 2001. It is absolute torture some days when I want nothing more than to hold him in my arms and kiss him until I'm breathless. I know all the reasons that this decision we made is the right one. I know that it will put us on a path to attaining everything we want as a family, but it all comes down to that waiting thing again.

I try to keep myself busy to keep from thinking about how much I miss my husband. I try to fill up the time with family, friends, work, and college... but when I'm there lying alone in the dark trying to fall asleep without my best friend beside me the hours seem to stretch into forever. I know that I only have to suffer for another 16 nights alone until I will have him home with me again.

Each time I think about how close I am to hugging and kissing my husband my entire being feels lighter, like there is a weight lifted off my shoulders. To know that soon I won't be sleeping alone or eating dinner alone when friends cannot be found to share a meal with makes all my waiting worth it. I refuse to let reality seep in and remind me that after those 12 wonderful days and nights that I will have to face another 10 weeks alone before having him home for good.

Reality will just have to wait.