Status Update

I really stink at this blog thing. Oh well. Maybe if I lead a more interesting life I could blog more about interesting things…but I’m just not interesting. But I did realize that I haven’t made a post about the status of our loans, which is a question we get at least once a week.

We’re chuggin’ along. That’s really all I can say. We are roughly a year and a half away from being 100% debt free. It’s strange for me to say because I’ve been so used to saying 3 years, 2 ½ years, etc. So to think we’re only 1 ½ years out is crazy! There have been some months when we couldn’t make those big extra payments so that’s put us a month or 2 behind, but that’s okay.

I still have moments when I feel like this will always be our life. We’ll never move out, never have a place of our own, but I know those are lies that Satan tries to convince me of to keep me down. I think when we hit the halfway point I felt like I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but then we didn’t seem to go any further. But now we’re way past halfway and that light isn’t my imagination. It’s definitely getting bigger.

Looking forward into the future I wonder how this will affect our spending. I’m sure we’re still going to be cheapskates. We were before we got married. Everyone gives Scotty a hard time about being cheap but I personally think I’m cheaper than him. My mother tells me I squeak when I walk. Ha!

But going back to the loan situation, I’ll be real honest. Sallie Mae (the company that owns us) has been very frustrating. Their customer service is awful. I’ve never actually talked to a real human. Emails are never responded to, and there are constant changes to the website…kind of like facebook. The most recent change, though, has been a good one. From the beginning we’ve paid a large sum of money every month. We had no say in which loan that money was going to. Sallie Mae just divided it equally between all of them. So a debt snowball is virtually impossible to do. So if you have a loan for a measly $700, that you could get rid of quickly, you can’t until all other loans are paid off too. Does that make sense? BUT the recent change has fixed that. When you make a larger payment you now get to choose what loan you want it to go to!!! This is big people. Real Big. We actually have a measly loan that started at $700 so we’re going to get rid of that just because we can, but then we’re going to get rid of the ones with the highest interest rates. This means that we’ll get our loans paid off a smidge quicker, maybe a month or 2 quicker. That’s a BIG DEAL!!

When we started our journey I was very worried about what others were going to think. Why? I don’t know, that’s just who I am. I didn’t want to be judged because we were living with parents. But for the most part, we’ve gotten a lot of encouragement. That encouragement means so much to us. This process would be a lot harder without it. There are, of course, the haters. We’ve been told we’re just moochers, not really paying anything off, just trying to live for free. 1)I’m a little shocked that some people really think that. 2)If you’re one of those people….I don’t need you. And that’s that.

We’ve been blessed to have the friends we have. You all mean a lot to us! Thank you!!

B.O.S.S

Where did the summer go?!?! I've never been so busy in all my life. The summer's have now become my least favorite part of the year. We have more down time when school starts!


Any ways. I'm not going to blog about everything we did because some of it isn't very interesting. But one thing we did that we've never done before is participate in a huge slip n' slide! We kept our youth group semi busy during the summer with camps and small trips and we wanted something super fun to do before school started. So Scotty came up with the idea to have a huge slip n' slide. The kids had an AWESOME time!

This is Shavar modeling the slip n' slide before we took it out of the box.

This is Shavar unrolling the slip n' slide while Amanda and I watched.

And here is the slip n' slide completely unrolled. That's a Big Ol' Slip n' Slide aka B.O.S.S.

Add a little water and some baby shampoo and this is what you get!

Here's one of our teens trying to get fancy and catch a football while sliding.

LOL!!! I laugh every time I watch that. Poor kid. So there's a tiny bit of what we did. More recently my brother got married. When we get some pictures back I'll blog about it. The wedding was amazing and I can't believe my big brother is married!! I'm so happy for him and excited to have a new member of the family. We love her!

A Rare Treat

It's that time of year again at Carousel Studios. All the kids are ramped with excitement about the end of the year recitals. Sunday was our biggest recital where all of our classes come together and play a series of duets. Everyone did a great job!! I'm so proud of the work they put into this music.

Tonight will be the biggest night for the seniors because it's their very last recital as a student of Mrs. Betty's. It's bittersweet. Watching all the kiddo's play takes me back to the time I was a student of Mrs. Betty's. She is hands down the best teacher of all time! She pushed me and challenged me in ways I never thought possible. She'd play a recording of a song for me and say "You're going to play this!" And I'd say "In your dreams!" But she always got her way. :)

One of the songs she was determined to get me to play was Chopin's Fantasy Impromtu. For those who don't know that song, it's roughly 12 pages of pure craziness! I seriously questioned whether or not Mrs. Betty was in her right mind when she gave this piece to me.

She knew what she was doing the whole time, though. In high school I was a huge performer. I played about 7+ recitals a semester. Something changed in the past couple of years and I have a hard time doing it now. My nerves get the best of me. So here's a rare treat:

This is my Sr. recital in 2005 playing Fantasy Impromtu by Chopin.

I wish I could say I can still play that piece. It was, hands down, the hardest piece I've ever played. It took about 8 months to learn and memorize. Since 2005 only one other student has managed to play that piece. Many have tried though.

I still get nervous when I watch it. I'm thinking "don't screw up, don't screw up." When I watch it I can hear all the little mistakes, and I'm critiquing my posture. Ugh. AND I apologize for not taking a bow at the end. That was really rude of my teenage self to do. But I should definitely be proud of the work I accomplished. Now that I've grown up more musically I should re-learn the piece and see what I can do.

Mrs. Betty is sad to be saying goodbye to the seniors she has now. They've been working hard on their pieces for several months and have made Mrs. Betty very proud. Good luck seniors!!!!

Don't worry...we're still alive.

Because I'm sure you were all worried about it. I apologize for the lack of posting. Our life suddenly became unboring and more overwhelming than usual. 2011 has been the strangest year OF....MY.....LIFE. I don't remember what I've posted on and I'm too lazy to go back and read so I'm going to start at the beginning of the year and go from there.

I know I already told you about my gum surgery (which my gums look normal now, Dr. White did a GREAT job.) Megan brought in the New Year with us while we played Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. Best game I've ever played.

Then we got the privilege to counsel Scotty's younger brother through a very strange life event. I wasn't going to say anything about it, but it's so bizarre I'm going to now. I'll just sum it up in one sentence....Scotty's brother is living with his wife, AND her boyfriend. It's okay if you have to read that a couple of times. It's hard to fathom at first, but yes, you read it correctly. ...One big happy family... We tried everything we could to help him out without actually telling him what to do. It got to the point that it wasn't just consuming his life, but ours as well. And he wasn't using ANY advice from anyone. He's told a lot of people about it and has gotten a lot of sympathy, but refuses to listen to anyone. So I told the kid "I can't help someone who won't help themselves." I've lost all sympathy/empathy for him and his situation. He could easily solve the situation (yes, it would be life changing, hard, scary, sad, depressing, etc.) but he just lives with it...and then complains. If it's that big of an issue, CHANGE IT!

So there's that.

Most recently, myself and Scotty have relocated. Again. We're now back with my parents. I'm not going to go into detail as to why we had to move to protect certain parties, but it sucks. I just hope the saying "time heals all wounds" is true. This past week has been filled with unpacking, repacking, organizing, and adjusting to living in smaller quarters. I'm NOT going to complain though because we've now managed to make it half way on our loans. Well actually, we're now LESS than half way. :) It wouldn't have been possible if we were living somewhere else.

Needless to say, I'm surprised Scotty and I aren't on medication. :/ Things have been a mess. But on top of that there are LOTS of praises to be had. My best friend Andrea got engaged at the end of last year. I've been fully engaged with wedding planning for her. Her date is set for November 19th.


Scotty has some coworkers who are getting hitched later this month and Scotty is performing the ceremony! He's pretty excited. I'm also going to play the piano for them. So I'm excited too. I'm considering going into the wedding business. Hmm?

In a couple of weeks I'm going to be making a road trip to Tennessee to participate in another wedding. My good friend and college roommate, Becca. It was a blessing to get to know her in college. Too bad she lives so far away. :(




THEN my brother also got engaged recently!

Her name is Katie. We love her. They are planning on getting married in August...of THIS YEAR! Eek! So I'm going to be doing even more wedding planning.

I see grey hair in my very near future.

We recently learned, also, that our best friend Megan is moving our way! She got a job in Springdale. I was selfishly praying that she would get it. I'm hoping she loves it SO much that she'll stay here forever. :)



This is the 3 of us at the Cinque Terre in Italy. Best vacation spot EVER. Our friend Shiloh was on that trip with us (she took the picture). We had so much fun!

I don't know what it is about the 3 of us, but when we get together we have some of the strangest life experiences. So who knows what's going to happen when she moves here! Most recently the 3 of us (and another good friend, Ted) did a half marathon in OKC. I can easily say that's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. We walked most of the way, but 13.1 miles is a lot...I don't care who ya are. Ted and Megan had a little more get-up in their step so they jogged ahead of us. But Scotty and I both had a "hitch in our getalong" so we hobbled across the finish line. Did I mention that the weather was rainy with a high of 40 degrees?? And rained the WHOLE time! As soon as we crossed the finish line it started hailing. I'm praising Jesus that we made it across before that. I probably would have thrown in the towel. Here's a video of Scotty and I crossing the finish line. Scotty's in a bright green shirt and I'm in a purple coat with my hood on. Oh heck...the 2 people who are hobbling across the finish line are us.

http://www2.brightroom.com/browser.aspx?eid=78992&bib=16850&pwd=

This has been a strange, busy, emotionally overwhelming year. And it's only May. I'm kind of praying Jesus comes back this year so we can go to Heaven. I'm ready! There's a lot to look forward to, though. Again, sorry for the lack of posts. I hope this can hold you over for a while. Have a blessed week!!

Scotty's Bucket List

I have seen many people's bucket lists, and thought that it would be neat to write my own. Periodically I will add to my list, and mark things off as I complete them.

Here is my list, enjoy!

-Attend an Olympics Games
-Be a foster parent
-Be on the city council
-Build a model train
-Coach a youth basketball team
-Compete in a curling match
-Complete a full marathon
-Create a hand-made chess set
-Do woodworking
-Go zorbing
-Help build a Habitat for Humanity Home
-Learn archery
-Learn how to ride a unicycle
-Learn sign language
-Learn to play the accordion
-Learn to play the guitar
-Own a house
-Pay for a stranger’s meal
-Pay off student loans
-Perform a wedding
-See the Northern Lights
-Shake the hand of a president
-Solve the Rubik’s Cube (without cheating)
-Take flying lessons
-Tune a piano
-Visit “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter”
-Visit all 50 states
-Visit Canada, Eh?
-Visit Las Vegas
-Visit the Grand Canyon
-Watch all 8 Harry Potter movies in one day
-Watch every movie that has won the Oscar for best picture since 1986 (the year I was born)
-Write a book

Beverly's Legacy

Beverly was born Dec. 18, 1937, in Oklahoma City, Okla., to Charles Austin Coleman and Marjorie Alma Fore.
She and her brother, Charles Richard Coleman, were raised by their dad and stepmother, Neoma Dean Coleman. She married Jerry Morrison on March 30, 1957, at Bethel Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.
She was a Sunday school teacher for 50 years, Vacation Bible School director for 14 years, served on the Long-Range Planning Committee for First Baptist Church in Pea Ridge for 15 years, on the Money Counting Ministry for 17 years and the Nominating Committee for seven years. She also worked in the Puppet and Bible Drill Ministries for several years. She loved people and was always concerned with their relationship with Jesus Christ. She also loved dogs and owned her own dog grooming business for 20years.
She is survived by her husband of almost 54 years, Jerry Morrison of Pea Ridge; two daughters and sons-in-law, Sherrie and David Ragland of Pea Ridge and Iris and Darrell Roller of Rogers; one daughter-in-law, Lisa St. John and husband, Steve, of Rogers; her brother of Hot Springs; a sister-in-law, Peggy David Schmidt and husband, Loren, of Greenwood; eight grandchildren, Travis Clark and wife, Mary, of Pea Ridge, Joseph Ragland of Pea Ridge, Megan Roller of Rogers, Mollie Hendrick and husband, Mark, of Bentonville, Scotty Roller and wife, Summer, of Rogers, Trey Roller of Springdale and Stevie Grace St. John of Rogers; six great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews, family and friends.
She is preceded in death by her parents; a son, Jerry Leon Morrison; and one grandson, David Lynn Ragland.

If you knew Granny, you would know that she made it her life goal to bring as many people to Jesus as possible. She touched so many lives while she lived on this earth. It was very apparent just how many lives she touched by the amount of people who came to the visitation and funeral. The family heard story after story of how Granny shared the Gospel with them. She's an inspiration to us all and we deeply miss her.

Sweet, Sweet Banana Bread

For those who don't know, it's has snowed like crazy in our area! I think we got somewhere between 20 and 25 inches. The last time I remember seeing snow like this is when I lived in Norman, OK and the snow was as tall as myself (I was 4). I'm currently a little freaked out about the roof caving in. Scotty texted me as he left for work this morning and said to stay down stairs because he was hearing creaking and popping. Not good. It has stopped making those scary noises, so I'm hoping it's okay now.

Since we've been snowed in I decided yesterday I'll make some banana bread. The problem I have now is that I want to eat it....ALL. I've kept it in the kitchen and didn't bring it back to our little domain so that I wouldn't be tempted. But I can't stop thinking about it. I ate a lot of it yesterday, and I think Scotty's dad nibbled on it a bit....but I know it's down there....speaking to me. It's taking all my will power not to pig out.

I've been trying to fill my time with crafting instead of eating. I did a little bit yesterday with what little supplies I have here. I want to do more though. I should have taken pictures of what I did so that this story could be a lot better.

Scotty was able to stay home yesterday since his office closed. It was so nice having him around! When he started to get bored he wanted to go play in the snow. I DID take pictures of that, but they're on his phone. I'll post them later. The story won't be as funny without them.

Update on Granny. She's still in the hospice house. She constantly has visitors, which just goes to show how loved she is! She has her good days and bad days, but we were told it won't be much longer. So keep the family in your prayers for the next few months.

I also have another prayer request. Scotty's younger brother (Trey) is going through some pretty serious personal/marital issues. To protect him that's all I'm going to say, but please ask God to give him wisdom and strength.

If you also got snow this week stay safe out there and protect yourself from the freezing temperatures!! For now....I'm going to eat another slice of banana bread. It's a problem, I know.

Prayer Request

The Roller family needs prayers. Berverly Morrison (Granny) was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 or 5 years ago. At one point she was cancer free but then it came back. Now has spread to most of her major organs. She's been going through all sorts of treatments that have caused her to become weaker and weaker. Just last week we found out that she's being put on hospice. But now the family is meeting with different nurses to see if she needs to stay in a hospice home. Just over the weekend her health has plummeted. Thankfully, she's not suffering. We're all going to be spending as much time as we can with her these next few months. I just want any body and everybody out there to pray for her, and the family.

Most Recent Happenings

I know. I've been a slacker at blogging. But I promise you don't want to read about our boring lives. We haven't done anything in a long time that is worthy of blogging about. But since Christmas and New Years just happened we've been more busy than usual. Before I go any further, I just want to let you know I'm on some heavy drugs at the moment so please ignore any strange typo's or sentences that make no sense. I do apologize.

We had a great Christmas this year! We stayed the night at my folks Christmas Eve and watched movies and enjoyed a quiet house. My brother wasn't there this year, which is super sad, because he was visiting his childhood friend in Oregon. Him and his wife just had a baby and Justin is the Godfather. It was our 1st Christmas without everyone there. Weird. We woke up Christmas morning and did our usual opening of presents. I think everyone was pretty pleased with what they got. We then enjoyed a nice big breakfast and just lounged around till about noon. I'm glad we got the day started with lot of peace and quiet because the Roller household was CRAZY!! A good crazy, of course. Lots of kids running around with excitement, adults trying to cook lunch, and me trying to stay out of the way. :) We ate lunch just as soon as everyone got there. Me and Scotty struggled because we JUST had a huge breakfast, but we managed. After lunch we then opened all sorts of gifts. It was a lot of fun. When I married into this family it was small. Scotty had 2 nephews and now we have 5 nephews and a niece. And a couple extra sister-in-laws. It's still small compared to my family, but this big house feels a lot smaller with everyone in it. Instead of giving everyone a gift we draw names and just give ONE person a gift. Scotty's cousin drew my name and she got me Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin for 4hands!!! I'm super excited about it! The only problem is no one will play with me. :( I have to find someone brave enough. Scotty got a gift card to Vintage Stock, which is a movie/video game store. He really wanted a video game for our gamecube.

After Christmas time really flew. We dog sat the next night and had a game night with Scott and Stefanie! I'm not sure what happened on Monday or Tuesday of last week but Wednesday my best friend, Megan, came to town!! She got here right in time to have a Mary Kay party. I got suckered into it. I like Mary Kay good enough, but I'm too poor to buy it. Until these loans are paid off, Mary Kay isn't getting my money. It was fun though. Then that night we took Megan to Fast Lane. We had some free passes because of a close out a couple of weekends ago so we used them. We played some lasor tag, go karts, and played some games...all for FREE!! That's the way to do it.

The next day I had surgery. I think I talked about it in my last blog. I'll review. My gum in the front 2 bottom teeth had receeded way too much. It was really painful and I had to have a gum graft. The surgery went well. It took about an hour. Because it was too much money to put me out I only did the numbing. Which turns out was no big deal. My mother was worried beyond belief about that, but I've gone through worse. I've got my happy little pain pills, along with antibiotics, and gross mouth wash. I still have some pain and am REALLY hungry but I can deal. After surgery all I wanted to do was play Mario with Megan and Scotty. I love that game. We went to see Harry Potter 7.1 on Friday. Then went home to play more Mario. It's hard playing that game on drugs. Late Saturday night we beat it though. And even though we beat it, I still want to play, but it's Megan's game and it went back to OKC with her. :( It was a great visit, and we enjoyed spending the New Year with her.

Can anyone believe that it's 2011? Me either. What the heck happened to 2010? I'm not going to complain about time going by so fast because that means we're that much closer to paying off our loans!!!!!!!!! 2 years from today we will be in our own place. I'm really starting to see a small light at the end of the tunnel. Whereas before, I was convinced there was no end. We'll be half way done pretty soon. Would it be really conceited to throw a party when we're done? Hmm. It might happen.

I hope everyone had a wonderful new year!! I can't wait to see what 2011 brings.