Tuesday, August 19, 2014

It is amazing!

Wow, last post was December from my mission, and since I've been married for 2 years now, that means that this blog hasn't been updated for almost 3 years.
So, a little update about me, my life and what is going on.
I married my best friend, J, September 2012, after our journey through all the hoops that are our very broken immigration system (if you disagree, try the painfully slow and paperwork laden process), J finally got his visa, we moved to the US to be closer to my family, and to be able to take advantage of the more advanced civilization that is the US. Then 6 months later he finally got his green card and started to work. About that same time work finally came through for me, and I was offered a part time-which transitioned to full time- job at the regional hospital. J started the education process and got his CNA, and has since been employed between part-time and full time. He also has some money making hobbies that have been surprisingly productive.
So its just the two of us, and our friendly border collie.

We've set some goals, which we hope will make our lives more meaningful. Mostly financial, because honestly money is such an interesting topic to me. I'm not saying that it means everything, but once you understand the power of compounding interest, and decide to put it to work for you, instead of against you, well the results are amazing!
But to put it out there our financial goal this year (we're going year based on our housing contract, not calendar year) 1. To save $3000 a month for a future down payment on a house. 2. To put 25% of the bigger paycheck into 401K. and 3. Decrease all other spending to enable the above two goals. We also are working on other revenue streams, like J's hobbies, and my dabbling in the world of investments, but we aren't counting those into out revenue streams, as they aren't as certain.

Some other goals we have, J and I would like to start a family, and we hope that this coming year brings pregnancy, and an addition to our family.
We have dedicated every other week to serving in the temple as spanish temple workers. We can do that until we have a baby, then we will be dedicating our time and talents more to our family.
We have big plans to go on a vacation to visit J's family in Central America toward the start of the calendar year,  and have invited my parents to come with us. My dad won't be able to due to some health issues with his business partner/brother, but my mom is planning to join us for our adventure.
J has been working on figuring out how to continue with his education. At first we thought he'd have to take the GED, but after speaking with some advisors, we discovered a company that may validate his "high school" education. We've got the transcripts, and the diploma, now we just have to translate, send and pay for the validation. We hope it all works out, and that he'll be able to start taking some general classes this fall/winter.
I think that about sums us up!