JPEG for Halloween!

Desktop Shark

Shark attack!
More like, where the heck is that dang file? Oh yeah, must be in my desktop shark.

27, 28, 29....

After having a birthday, it usually takes me about 2 weeks to realize I am indeed another year older. In just 3 years I'll be 30 can you believe it?

I posted this sentiment on Facebook and got tons of replies (mostly from others feeling the same way about approaching 30 or who have already said "seeya!" to their twenties). The number itself doesn't scare me. I don't think my spirit will suddenly feel crushingly decrepit on October 15, 2012 (which by the way I have requested to receive a pie in the face from my husband.. it's in his Outlook calendar). The nerves come from the increasing proximity to life things that are bigger than anything I've done yet. That's the scary part.

Jon and I plan for a lot to happen in the next 3 years:
- move closer to work for both of us, a duplex or townhouse
- save up for a better car for Jon
- buy a car without taking out a loan
- save up to buy a home
- buy a home
- start a family

Moving twice and meticulously managing our budget doesn't bother me.. Buying a house and starting a family? I'm trying to decide if that is intimidating. Right now I don't feel that it is because the moment for those things is not too near. But I think the more in advance I can get used to those ideas, the better I will feel when the time comes for them.

Then again, I don't know if I can imagine having a kid in 2-3 years, gah! haha. The idea is nice but the reality hounds me. Sometimes I think that my comfortableness with someone-else's-small-child-interaction determines some level of readiness on my part. At Girls' Night last night I was watching a friend's little girl (age 3) run about, being playful and disobedient.. and I was like this is exhausting just to watch! Then again, I was tired to begin with so no help there.

Anyway.. I know I should "stop worrying and love the bomb".. but I think part of the aging challenge is not to see it as such a harsh timeline.. but rather as a more freeing cluster of opportunities and new experiences.

Lovin' Falltime

Financial Peace University - Week 3

Why do days feel so busy when most of it is only driving? It's not really busy, just long.. but we're having fun in this photo :)

Last night was week 3 of Financial Peace class.. and we've got something new to try: the Envelope System.
Basically, after receiving our paychecks an amount will be cashed, and that cash will be divided into envelopes that we have assigned to certain categories of spending, like food, entertainment, etc. Based on our specific budget plan, ONLY a certain amount will be allowed for those things per month. If there's no cash in the envelope, then money will not be spent. I'm actually kind of excited to see how this works. I can see how, without planning and probably without some sacrifice, this would be a difficult task but I think we can do it.

So, one of the last exercises we did in class last night was to (anonymously) total up the amount of debt (not including mortgages) among all 8 families attending so that we can see what progress we've all made by the end of the course. We. Were. Shocked! Over $1 million, holy pants! I hope this class can help us all! That number makes me nervous, but I think the lessons in this class are hitting them (as well as us) over the head in such a way that we finally have the motivation to work exceptionally hard this time around.

The Fun Theory

The Matrix of Going Home for The Weekend

Whenever we release the idea that we'd like to make a St. Louis visit in a month or 2, I hear (many times over) "what's the plan? what's the schedule? when are you going to be here and when are you going to be there? when will you be home for dinner?"

I don't need to plan this months in advance, but a laid-out plan is obviously necessary:

Here is the matrix that is A Visit With The Correntis in a single weekend.. color coded and bolded for easy reading. Print it out, keep it in your pocket, and don't ask... because you already know :)

I look at the husbands in the CC'd area on that email and can hear them going "is this really necessary?" Yes, it is really. You are probably more sane due to my efforts here, ha.

Financial Peace University - class 1

Starting this past Sunday, Jon is facilitating a 13-week course offered through the Vineyard called Financial Peace University. It's basically a video series given by Dave Ramsey, who by the way is a very good public speaker, and very entertaining about the illustrations and even magic tricks he uses to discuss lessons. Jon is pretty entertaining himself as facilitator. Not only is he facilitating, but we are taking this course together as a couple in order to better our money habits. We've had one class so far and already I think we've gotten a lot out of it.

My father and my husband agree.. that I am NOT a numbers person, and although I know how to be smart with money, I know there are even smarter things about it that I can learn and put into practice.

The class is made up of a great combination of different folks: newlyweds, high schoolers, young couples with kids, older couples with kids, and older couples with college kids. We went around the room talking about our basic money triumphs and downfalls. I was kind of shocked to realize that I was basically the only one in the room who'd never maxed out a credit card, never been in debt, and who always had emergency money set aside for unexpectancies. I felt kind of weird when my turn came up to say: "I save well. I've always saved well and have never had problems" (and in my mind) "It's foolish to use credit cards when you don't have money!")

I realize that people will find themselves in desperate situations and think it necessary to use money that isn't there.. but the truth is that good money habits start young, and with discipline can be maintained throughout a lifetime. Had they done so, their predicament may be different.. But of course, it also depends on income, which for some people depends on their personality and their A) ability or willingness to keep a job or B) the type of job they choose. And of course there's always the ultimate chase for doing what makes you happy, which can be a real challenge and I recognize that.

I learned that sometimes my money habits are too "clench-fisted." One of Ramsey's examples discussed how money cannot come and go through a clenched fist, as opposed to an open hand that allows money to move fluently (side note, spending/saving is a good fluent action, as opposed to spending/spending). I thought about this, and realized how high on the list "giving" was (the list being the basic budget we had to fill out as homework). I've had big issues with this in the past, feeling that saving up was more important than giving (i.e. tithing/donating money to the church) but in the past couple years I've realize how important it is to do so.

It's true that you pretty much learn all of your money habits from your parents. My family has been pretty strict with money, but I get most of my spend little, save as much as possible habits from my dad. I think those habits are good, but there can be an extreme to them.. and I think somewhere in the extreme is where I overlooked the importance of giving.. and of saving up for the sole purpose of being able to spend a little extra on special things here and there.

Saving money is DEFINITELY a process as well as a commitment. And NOT spending money in order to do so is such a discipline, one that I'm probably too familiar with, but that so many people are not as I've witnessed in class. It really is a way of life, and because it is, it's a hard habit to change. I had good habits established, but I'm finding that some of my currently established habits need to change some because my finances have changed post-marriage ;)

Credit card debt is something I've never experienced before. Now I'm learning how best to work with it and how to eliminate it. It's not easy. We did our "bit more than basic budget" last night to find exactly how much we're saving per month.. Not at all what I originally had projected! But I'm pretty confidant that our current plan will allow our savings to increase well enough in time. I do get impatient though.. and patience seems to be the very thing with any of this stuff.. with jobs, with making money, with saving money, and with paying things off.

It is a lot to juggle at once.. and sometimes with those expenditure-related habit changes comes giving up certain things to allow for more savings to build. We learned that we spend a lot in groceries per month, and in dining out.. which I didn't think we ate out that often, but I guess we do at least once a week since we tend to enjoy a weekly date night. $20-30/week for a nice meal adds up for sure. We are not to starve ourselves, but to figure a way to spend money more wisely in that area.. or to make more homemade meals for lunches and for road trips.. which I'm actually quite accustomed to. My family always made lunches to pack in a cooler when we went on road trips or to fun outings like Six Flags or something. I'm not opposed to it. Yes it takes more PLANNING, but how hard is that? Not hard. Plus the homemade food is better for you anyway.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how we can improve our money and living habits with the goal of saving better. I like that kind of change and I like that kind of challenge. It'll be motivating to witness each other making the effort.

I'm already thankful for this class!

Disney World Recap..

Well! What a great mini vacation! We're actually driving back right now, and I'm glad to be off my feet for 8-9 hours. I figured I'd take the time in between work projects to recap our adventure...
Tuesday night was our whirlwind experience of Disney World, to which neither Jon nor I had been to before. It was an evening-only invite for the "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party". Our pastor Jeff is a very enthusiastic fan of "the mouse" ha. He was like a kid clapping and doing the Mickey ears with his hands during our bus ride to the park. The real reason Jon wanted to go was to see how crazy Jeff would get about it, ha.. since apparently he talks about it ALL the time.

The park is so huge it takes a bus ride, a mono rail and some walking to get up to the front gates. But once there.. Jeff took off with us all keeping up behind him for the rides he thought we should experience:

Haunted Mansion: This ride was a really impressive intro to the detail that Disney's rides really have to them. First of all, the exterior of the place is super cool looking. You walk in and everyone get's "sealed" into this room with the neat ceiling (below) the floor slowly drops you to the bottom level where the actual ride is (a simple coaster where the seats rotate around depending on how you go over each hill). The rest of the ride is a series of technically impressive rooms within this haunted mansion. Jon and I were trying to figure out the tricks of each of them. "I can see the hydraulic actuator!" Jon says about some trick.
I was really impressed with how they did the ghosting effect.. either through a projection onto a "blank" model so that it looks 3 dimensional, or like with the ghost playing the piano and the one where they make it look like there's one sitting with you in the ride - they use actual dummies where you can't see them and have the lighting reflect their images onto glass.. genius! Great ride.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Disney World has a lot of those boat ride-through type rides, but they do them really well, with lots of details like movie sets themselves. This one was really impressive.
I liked how they did the animated projection of Davy Jones on a wall of steam that looked like a waterfall (top right) so you're like ahh! don't want to get wet! ...but you don't. The Jack Sparrow character was done pretty well, and relatively realistic.


Splash Mountain: This one is the classic boat ride (around the scenes of the Brer Rabbit story) with hills, splashes and the final huge hill, huge drop, huge splash at the end ha.
Jeff told us we'd just get "a little spray in the face" - yeah right Jeff! We got soaked! .. Jon is planning his revenge ha.


Buzz Lightyear: This ride is absolutely awesome. It's like combination roller coaster and shooter video came.. with spacey atmosphere and black lights and such.
You have 2 guns per car with score boards and little "Zurg" targets (the yellow circles with the Z in it) are all over the scenes you pass through. You use the laser guns to hit the targets and get as many points as possible. It's pretty challenging...and there's one room with a full ceiling/dome projection of traveling through a galaxy.. whoa!!! very fun. (Yes these images are not ones I took.. it's nearly impossible to be doing this stuff and trying to take non flash photography).


Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor: This one was basically just an impressive way for animated characters to interact live with the audience. It was funny, but not super hilarious, ha. Ohh, Jon just told me Jeff wanted us to go through so that Jon could figure out how they did it to tell him about it.
It's basically a means of animating the character with simple motions to match the live audio it's connected with.. there are people walking around with mics to involve the audience with jokes, etc. It was impressive though how smoothly the whole experience worked. That has to be a lot of configuration.


Winnie the Pooh: This ride was one of many under our category of "will give you crazy nightmares". The ride itself was pretty simple.. you go around in a honey pot shaped car that smells like crayons, for some reason.
The funnest part of this one was the Tigger room where the car "bounces" on the track (it's a bunch of small hills).


Teacups: Also an awesome ride ha.. and I actually have a photo of us on this one:
Click to enlarge.. Jon's making a funny face. We kept trying to change rotational direction on it.. it's quite challenging.. and dizzying.

It's A Small World: Okay this boat ride was another creepy, nightmare-inducing experience.. it's basically just the different areas of the world represented with these tiny Precious Moment like characters, ha.
The bottom row shoes a close up of the characters.. and Jon getting his nightmares induced.


Thunder Mountain: This is the best ride ever!! Or at least.. the best one during this trip. The coaster looks like a little kiddy train, but goes super fast over hills and around turns and down in dark tunnels and such. The scenery makes you feel like you're in Indiana Jones! We actually rode this one at night (although I have no photos of it).
We were both laughing and going "whoa!!!" uncontrollably.. and decided that when a ride makes you do that, it's gotta be the best.

More to come about our trip to Kennedy Space Center...