Under the Sea

Coming from a life-long Disney fanatic, I am super pumped about them releasing The Little Mermaid on DVD.  Of course, I grew up watching it on VHS and still throw it in the old VCR on occasion, but I will get to add one of my all-time favorites to my DVD collection.  We added Cinderella for my birthday and now this!  I have had people tell me that I am getting too old to love Disney as much as I do, but those are high quality motion pictures and they take me back to simpler times when my parents did everything for me, I didn't have bills, and I didn't have to stress out about tests and finals.

With that said, I apologize for my lack of a post in awhile.  It's been a little hectic at school with the teachers throwing everything on us all in the last two weeks.  Thanks a lot!  I have an exam Monday and skills check-offs basically every day after that.  We could've spaced it out a little. As those of you who have experienced nursing school know, it is not the most organized thing and often things just happen when they happen with not too terribly much notice.  I would much rather have spaced out all this junk throughout the semester.  However, I do have to take a moment to thank my wonderful husband for being such a willing participant in helping me practice my skills.  He is a great patient!

I can't thank God enough for putting such a wonderful man in my life.  I know I mention my husband quite a lot in this blog, but I really am such a lucky girl!  In watching the news the past day or so, I realized how scary his job can be.  Lots of times, he and his firefighter friends brush it off like what they do is no big deal, but I am so proud of my husband and his crew.  Many firefighters and emergency personnel ran into the flames that engulfed a West, Texas fertilizer plant this week rather running out.  Several of those brave men lost their lives and their families lost them too.  I can't imagine getting a phone call or visit like that, but that's the risk my husband runs every day when he goes to work.  I tell him often that while everyday does not involve dangers and massive life-threatening fires, you never when that one day comes and they get called to the big one.  The one that will cause him and his friends to risk they lives to save others.  For any of you that know, care about, or love a firefighter or emergency responder, give them some extra love today and every day and make sure they know how much you care.

I'm All In

Wow!  What I wonderful day I am having today!  My husband came home from work and we got dressed and went to church.  I knew it was going to be a good day because it was Baptism Sunday at church and we were going to get to watch people to make a great decision in their lives.  Since last week, I had been mulling over the idea of baptism in my head.  In the Methodist faith, which is how I grew up, you are baptized as a baby and presented to the church and that's that.  I started to think if I should get baptized again as an adult now that I know to make decisions for myself. 

As we sat listening to Pastor Allen preach, my mind was racing.  I started wishing that I had signed up to participate in the baptism ceremony.  Then Pastor Allen said that if you had been baptized as a baby and wanted to make the commitment as an adult, then today was your day.  I was totally unprepared.  I had on a dress and no change of clothes, but I felt God calling to me.  There was the feeling of butterflies in my stomach and I knew He wanted me to take the plunge.  It was then that Pastor Allen said anyone could get baptized today because the church had put together some bags for people that weren't prepared that had a change of clothes, undergarments, and flip flops that you could get baptized in. 

There was my answer!  He instructed anyone participating in the baptism ceremony to go out to the commons area when the final song started.  I looked at Justin and said, "I'm gonna do it!"  He was so supportive and by my side the whole time.  I went and got my change of clothes on and waited until they called my name.  There were people cheering and clapping and I was helped into the baptismal pool.  Pastor Jason looked at me and asked had I accepted Jesus as my personal savior and I said, "Yes!"  Then he dunked me under the water and I came back up a new woman.  The old was washed away and a girl with a clean slate emerged.  It was amazing!  I was so excited about the decision I had made and Justin was there by my side telling me how proud he was of me.  I was proud of myself and I can't thank God enough for putting that butterflies feeling in my stomach and pushing me to follow Him.  By far, this is the one of the best decisions I have ever made!

Springtime Procrastination

My nursing classmates and I are nearing the end of our first semester and it seems that all the work is being piled on at the end.  We have skills check-offs, exams, and projects to get done all in the last couple weeks.  It's enough to drive you nuts!!  However, Pinterest afforded me the ability to procrastinate my school duties for at least a little while.  On my way home from school yesterday, I thought to myself, "Marissa, we need a spring wreath for our front door."

So I set about to fix this obvious problem.  I stopped at Michaels and picked up the supplies I would need to make a wreath similar to one I saw on Pinterest.  Below is the wreath I was attempting to copy.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find this type of letter, but I thought it turned out cute none-the-less.  All I bought was a twig wreath, wooden letter, fake hydrangea blooms, and some burlap.

I used my trusty hot glue gun the wooden letter and the hydrangeas.  I made a bow out of the burlap and attached that with hot glue as well.  It was just that simple!  Now the hubby and I have a custom-made Spring wreath and I got at least a half hour of procrastination from doing school work.  I would not have been able to finish this great project without the help of my sweet baby Gracie who is always willing to lend a helping paw when Mommy is crafting!

Happy Spring Crafting Y'all!!

Mountain into a Molehill

Several months ago, shortly following my wedding, I picked up a book that my husband had been reading for quite awhile.  I started to thumb through it and a few hours later found myself halfway through the book and formulating a plan in my head.  The book I was reading was Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover".  I called Justin up after reading through the first couple chapters and started to discuss the book with him and see how he felt about it.  So we decided to give it a try and the next day began the process of getting rid of our debt.

As you can imagine, we have quite a bit of debt, most of it is my student debt from attending Wake Forest.  However, we also have some credit cards and things that need to be paid off as well.  Per the plan, the first order of business was to write down all of our debts from smallest to largest.  We sat down together and figured up all of our debts and what the minimum payments were for those.  The next thing was to pay the minimum on all debts to keep them current while accruing an Emergency Fund.  Luckily for us, we had just gotten married, so we used the cash we received as wedding gifts to establish our fund for the most part.  The next step was to maintain making minimum payments on our debts until the smallest was paid off.  During this time, Dave Ramsey suggests throwing any extra money you have at this smallest debt in order to pay it off faster.  We accomplished this first milestone by paying off my credit card that I acquired during college.  One debt down, several more to go.

Dave Ramsey calls this phase of the plan the Debt Snowball.  Basically, you continue to pay minimum payments on everything and once you pay off a debt, that debt's minimum payment gets added to the next smallest until you have only one or two large debts and are making substantial payments on those every month.  He tells you to go after your debt with a gazelle-like intensity and sacrifice now so you can play later. 

So we have been working diligently at this and have managed to still enjoy a comfortable lifestyle while paying off another small loan that my husband accrued and are just about to pay off another credit card in only six short months.  It is such a great feeling to know that we are making this happen.  All the while, we are building up our savings and taking these debts out one at a time.  I thought this plan was really a good choice for us because it gave us some direction as to how to get started and where to go first.  We are well on our way to being debt free.  I can't thank my husband enough for getting this book and planting the seed.  He is also working his behind off in order to help pay off debt so that we can cut into it while I am in school and only working part-time.  He is an amazing man and I am so lucky to have the kind of support he gives me!

I feel like the verse in Psalm 1:3 that says, "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Projects, Projects Everywhere!!

In the midst of the final month of the semester, all I find myself thinking about are projects I want to do around my house instead of studying fluids and electrolytes or IV drip rates.  My husband and I moved into our house about a year and a half ago and because of our impending wedding and lack of funds, mostly just moved out furniture in and hung pictures on the walls.  As I'm sure many of you are, I am a Pinterest addict and am constantly on there looking at anything from decorating ideas to crafts to workouts.  Unfortunately, my husband hates this website because it means more projects for him to help me with...sorry baby!

I don't know if you read my earlier post about us painting our kitchen, but I think that is what started this process of decorating the house and surrounding areas.  I now have ideas for the back yard, our bedroom, the laundry closet, and other areas of the house.  Below you will find some pictures of the things that I want to try to do at my house...maybe not exactly the same, but along those lines.

             
As you can see, Justin and I will be quite busy over the next few months getting some projects done and some more painting.  I have a couple weeks off before summer semester starts and a couple more weeks before fall, so I will be using my time wisely to create my cute little house.  More pictures to follow as projects are completed...oh yeah, I forgot to post pictures of my apple dumplings that I sent to the fire station, but they were a huge hit and none came home!!