mood: pensive
listening to: Mix 94.7 Nineties at Noon



Forgive the self-indulgence and lack of coordination of my thoughts on this post...I just need to get some stuff down. If this offends anyone, I apologize...that is not my intent. This is my journal, however, and you can choose to stop reading at any time.

As many of you know, Dustin and I have spent the past year and a half or so paying off my credit card debt and his student loans. I am happy to announce that in the next week, we will be completely out of debt, paying off close to $30K. It has been very difficult...we have both been living on "shoestring" budgets. It has been completely worth it, though...to know we only have our house to pay off (goal is less than 7 years on that), and that we can finish building up our emergency fund. Most of that will be taken care of with his bonus in July, though. We can finally afford to have our carpet replaced with wood floors, and we can be more prepared for kiddos. Dustin and I have been through a lot over this time. We have fought over the money, we have fought over plans for children, but in the end, it has made us stronger and brought us closer together.

Throughout this process, however, we have both become very disillusioned with others that are in our age group that do not seem to think being out of debt and actually planning for a family are the things to do. It is very frustrating being the ones working so hard and sacrificing while those around us continue to have fun and spend like money is no object to them. They are more concerned with "living it up" and "being young". It's very hard being the exception to the rule...quite a few people probably chose not to spend as much time with us because of our philosophy on money. We understood, though, that making these decisions might make us unpopular, so to speak.

As far as starting a family, it will still be a while for us. There are some things in our relationship we need to work out, and there are some health issues I need to deal with as well. We would appreciate it if our friends and family would support us in our decision to wait a bit longer. For those of you who have already shown us your support, we deeply appreciate it. There is not any one person in particular that has pressured us to start our family, but there have been some things said and done that did make light of it and it was hurtful to Dustin and myself. Having kiddos is not something Dustin and I either one take lightly.

I just want our parents to know, if they are reading this, that I am not referring to any of you. You have always supported us in everything we have done. We are very, very lucky to have such wonderful parents. You have been our role models and, quite often, sources of strength as we dealt with and continue to deal with these things.


For those of you that stuck through this whole post, congrats. It was a difficult one. I promise something more lighthearted tomorrow.