Come Novemeber 9, 2009 we will have one loan completely paid for! What a relief. Now in December we will only have to make 4 separate payments and not 5. We shouldn't have to do that for long though.
We've been living with the Roller's for almost a month now. It's been interesting. I've had a lot to learn about family roles and how things really work around here. I'm starting to get used to it, I think.
Our room is still a mess. Usually I can have a room put together and organized in a timely manner but I have been sick for the past 3 weeks. Yes....3 weeks. Each week brought a different illness. I'm still not 100% but I can deal. Our immune systems aren't used to living with children. Every little illness our nephew's get we get it too. Not......fun...... This could be a long 4 years.
Other than that our lives haven't changed. It's been boring and uneventful.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
If Jimmy cracked corn and we don't care, why do we sing about it?
These are the pictures of the room. I apologize if they are hard to see.
This is the wall we knocked down. It's kind of funny because when Scotty's family first moved in they had to build this wall because there were 4 kids and they needed the extra room. So now, 17 year later, we are knocking it down. This room used be Scotty's room.
This is Scotty's room and the mess we made knocking down the wall.
Scotty was super tired after knocking it down. He might be exaggerating a little bit.
Knocked down wall from Megan's room.
This is the wall we knocked down. It's kind of funny because when Scotty's family first moved in they had to build this wall because there were 4 kids and they needed the extra room. So now, 17 year later, we are knocking it down. This room used be Scotty's room.
This is the other side of the wall. This room used to be Scotty's sisters room, Megan. The previous owners had 2 little girls and these 2 rooms were sort of one. There was a partial wall here at one time. One room was for sleeping the other for play. When the wall was built they left a doorway between the 2 rooms, which is what you see on the right.
This is Megan's room again with the closet, taken from the doorway between the 2 rooms.
Scotty's room again with the closet, taken from the doorway. Under the plastic is a bunch of stuff we put in a garage sale pile.
This is Scotty's room and the mess we made knocking down the wall.
Scotty was super tired after knocking it down. He might be exaggerating a little bit.
And the 2 rooms shall become 1. It's a 2 level room so we built a step.
Knocked down wall from Megan's room.
Final product of Scotty's room.
Scotty's room again. There used to be a closet there...but it's gone.
Megan's room. The wall on the left is new. The door leads to the closet and inside the closet is the previous closet. I think they call that a double walk-in.
Megan's room. Closet on the right, the other door leads to the hallway.
I can't seem to find the pictures we did of the living room. I'll find them someday. So that is Scotty's parents new master bedroom! It's quite a down grade from their upstairs room. I feel guilty taking their super large room but they keep reassuring me that it had to happen for Darrell's sake. So there you have it.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
We've Finally Arrived
I must say, me and Scotty are pretty much professionals now. We have successfully finished the first part of the remodeling of his parents house. Overall it took 4 long months. We started in the living room taking off popcorn on the ceilings and patching holes or other imperfections in the wall. We textured the ceiling and painted everything. It looks really good. Then we moved to the back bedrooms. That's what took the longest. We made two bedrooms into one which consisted of knocking down a wall, building a closet, painting everything and putting carpet in. It's sounds easy enough but there are lots of small details no one bothers thinking about. I have yet to put the pictures on my computer so you'll have to wait to see the before and after.
This past weekend we were able to move his parents downstairs and started organizing the upstairs. When springtime gets here we are having a HUGE garage sale. I'd like to say the upstairs is completely empty and ready for us to move in but it's not. It's full of things to put in the attic and garage sale stuff. We put the first coat of paint on last night and we'll put another one on in a few days. Our plan is to start the moving process Friday (weather permitting). Because of the storage incident that happened in June his parents rented a POD and have put it in their yard so we don't have to worry about someone making a home of it. So all of our stuff is occupying a lot of the space and we can't get the garage sale stuff in it till our stuff is out....but we can't put our stuff in the room till the garage sale stuff is out. So it's going to get a little tricky but we'll manage. It's going to be so nice to see all of our stuff again.
On top of all the work we've been doing we've gotten some bad news lately. Last month sometime we received an email from AES (American Education Services). They told us our first payment is due soon. We thought that was strange because as far as we knew all of our loans were through Sallie Mae. So Scotty emailed them back and told them they have a mistake. A few days later we received a phone call explaining that if we don't pay they will file fraud charges. We were utterly confused. So Scotty called the number back and asked for all sorts of information. I emailed our financial counselor from OC to see if she knew anything. I figured she had taken out a loan without his permission. I thought that because she did the same thing to me while I was in school. I kept a close watch on the activity with loans and noticed an extra $2,000 that wasn't suppose to be there. When I confronted her she said I had asked for it....she was wrong. She fixed the problem but she didn't own up to it. So needless to say, me and her aren't the best of friends. So I just assumed she did the same thing with Scotty. But after Scotty talked to someone on the phone we found out that it wasn't a mistake. At the time we thought our financial counselor took out ALL loans from Sallie Mae except one....which is really annoying and stupid. So here we are with an extra loan we didn't see coming. But don't worry it doesn't end there.... Just this week we received ANOTHER letter from a DIFFERENT service saying that we start payments soon. I can't believe this has happened again. I'm so glad that Scotty is so calm and collected. I was in the middle of a break down when Scotty got the smart idea to find the credit report Arvest pulled on him a few months ago before he got hired. It had listed every single loan, including the surprise 2. Needless to say there shouldn't be anymore surprise loans. Now if you're thinking if we had it on the credit report this whole time why didn't we know about it? Well, me and Scotty were absolutely positive that we knew where all of our loans were from. Our credit is good so why bother looking? Wrong. Our financial counselor from OC finally emailed back and said that she did indeed take out ALL loans from Sallie Mae except one, and that is the most recent one. But the one from AES was a mystery until we found out that Sallie Mae sold it right as we started paying them off. I'm sure they sent us a letter about it but they send us a letter about everything so we probably just skimmed it and threw it away. Bad idea. It's still really frustrating though. Why would our financial counselor do that? I know it's not her fault, but because of the history with her I'm still going to be mad. So when my loans are out of grace period in December we will be making 4 separate payments to get them paid off.
Our goal is still to pay them off in 4 years. We have set out a plan and we are going to be successful. But some words of advice....read every letter your loan service gives you and make sure you understand it. Ask your financial counselor where all your loans are from and how much they're for. Hopefully your financial counselor was better than ours.
This past weekend we were able to move his parents downstairs and started organizing the upstairs. When springtime gets here we are having a HUGE garage sale. I'd like to say the upstairs is completely empty and ready for us to move in but it's not. It's full of things to put in the attic and garage sale stuff. We put the first coat of paint on last night and we'll put another one on in a few days. Our plan is to start the moving process Friday (weather permitting). Because of the storage incident that happened in June his parents rented a POD and have put it in their yard so we don't have to worry about someone making a home of it. So all of our stuff is occupying a lot of the space and we can't get the garage sale stuff in it till our stuff is out....but we can't put our stuff in the room till the garage sale stuff is out. So it's going to get a little tricky but we'll manage. It's going to be so nice to see all of our stuff again.
On top of all the work we've been doing we've gotten some bad news lately. Last month sometime we received an email from AES (American Education Services). They told us our first payment is due soon. We thought that was strange because as far as we knew all of our loans were through Sallie Mae. So Scotty emailed them back and told them they have a mistake. A few days later we received a phone call explaining that if we don't pay they will file fraud charges. We were utterly confused. So Scotty called the number back and asked for all sorts of information. I emailed our financial counselor from OC to see if she knew anything. I figured she had taken out a loan without his permission. I thought that because she did the same thing to me while I was in school. I kept a close watch on the activity with loans and noticed an extra $2,000 that wasn't suppose to be there. When I confronted her she said I had asked for it....she was wrong. She fixed the problem but she didn't own up to it. So needless to say, me and her aren't the best of friends. So I just assumed she did the same thing with Scotty. But after Scotty talked to someone on the phone we found out that it wasn't a mistake. At the time we thought our financial counselor took out ALL loans from Sallie Mae except one....which is really annoying and stupid. So here we are with an extra loan we didn't see coming. But don't worry it doesn't end there.... Just this week we received ANOTHER letter from a DIFFERENT service saying that we start payments soon. I can't believe this has happened again. I'm so glad that Scotty is so calm and collected. I was in the middle of a break down when Scotty got the smart idea to find the credit report Arvest pulled on him a few months ago before he got hired. It had listed every single loan, including the surprise 2. Needless to say there shouldn't be anymore surprise loans. Now if you're thinking if we had it on the credit report this whole time why didn't we know about it? Well, me and Scotty were absolutely positive that we knew where all of our loans were from. Our credit is good so why bother looking? Wrong. Our financial counselor from OC finally emailed back and said that she did indeed take out ALL loans from Sallie Mae except one, and that is the most recent one. But the one from AES was a mystery until we found out that Sallie Mae sold it right as we started paying them off. I'm sure they sent us a letter about it but they send us a letter about everything so we probably just skimmed it and threw it away. Bad idea. It's still really frustrating though. Why would our financial counselor do that? I know it's not her fault, but because of the history with her I'm still going to be mad. So when my loans are out of grace period in December we will be making 4 separate payments to get them paid off.
Our goal is still to pay them off in 4 years. We have set out a plan and we are going to be successful. But some words of advice....read every letter your loan service gives you and make sure you understand it. Ask your financial counselor where all your loans are from and how much they're for. Hopefully your financial counselor was better than ours.
Monday, September 14, 2009
A New Found Respect
Well, I was hoping by now that me and Scotty would be in our new place but that hasn't happened yet. We're still working on getting the house ready. We've knocked down the wall to make the 2 rooms 1, built a closet, and covered a pre-existing door. It sounds easy enough but I had no idea how much work it took to build a wall. And of course, once you start building these things you start to remember other small details that need to get done. For example, we built a new closet...well, there aren't any racks or shelves in the closet so you have to build them. For some reason I thought when you built a closet the racks and shelves just magically appear. Tearing down and building up walls is a hard job and I have a lot more respect for people who do that as a living! I'll try to get pictures up soon!!
Our first goal was to get moved in by the time school started which was a month ago. Now our goal is to get it all done by October 1st. We'll see. Scotty seems optimistic about it--but when is he not? I don't think it's going to happen. With both of us working now it's not as easy to get over to his parents to work. And it doesn't help that they are raising a grandchild AND his siblings feel the need to drop their kids off without warning so our work has to stop. It's all very frustrating so when this project gets done we'll be happy.
Thank you to those who have been praying for us and our loan situation. In the past 3 months we've managed to pay down quite a bit. If we can manage to go at this pace they will be paid off in 2 1/2 years. If we decided that we didn't want to be losers and live with our parents it would take us till 2025 to get them all paid. I'd rather be a loser than stay in debt that long.
And there's some more good news. Scotty got word the other day that at the beginning of next year he will be permanent and we'll get benefits! I know this is weird but my teeth are craving the dentist. I don't know if we've explained this before but Scotty is classified as "seasonal" as of right now. Arvest Mortgage has grown a lot in the past year and they needed more employees but they didn't budget for it. So all the "seasonal" people are getting paid like a full time employee but they don't get benefits. Not a huge deal, but as soon as we get dental insurance I'm going to the dentist!
Oh, and I almost forgot. Southside Church of Christ is going to need some serious prayers because we have decided to plant a new church in town! Don't worry, nothing is wrong with the church. We aren't splitting we are PLANTING! The elders are still working out details but what we know right now is that it will be west of I540 and our family minister (Marshall Brown) with his wife and kids will be the minister. It is very exciting and very scary once you start thinking about what all has to be put into this. So keep the church in your prayers.
Our first goal was to get moved in by the time school started which was a month ago. Now our goal is to get it all done by October 1st. We'll see. Scotty seems optimistic about it--but when is he not? I don't think it's going to happen. With both of us working now it's not as easy to get over to his parents to work. And it doesn't help that they are raising a grandchild AND his siblings feel the need to drop their kids off without warning so our work has to stop. It's all very frustrating so when this project gets done we'll be happy.
Thank you to those who have been praying for us and our loan situation. In the past 3 months we've managed to pay down quite a bit. If we can manage to go at this pace they will be paid off in 2 1/2 years. If we decided that we didn't want to be losers and live with our parents it would take us till 2025 to get them all paid. I'd rather be a loser than stay in debt that long.
And there's some more good news. Scotty got word the other day that at the beginning of next year he will be permanent and we'll get benefits! I know this is weird but my teeth are craving the dentist. I don't know if we've explained this before but Scotty is classified as "seasonal" as of right now. Arvest Mortgage has grown a lot in the past year and they needed more employees but they didn't budget for it. So all the "seasonal" people are getting paid like a full time employee but they don't get benefits. Not a huge deal, but as soon as we get dental insurance I'm going to the dentist!
Oh, and I almost forgot. Southside Church of Christ is going to need some serious prayers because we have decided to plant a new church in town! Don't worry, nothing is wrong with the church. We aren't splitting we are PLANTING! The elders are still working out details but what we know right now is that it will be west of I540 and our family minister (Marshall Brown) with his wife and kids will be the minister. It is very exciting and very scary once you start thinking about what all has to be put into this. So keep the church in your prayers.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
We're almost there!
For the past 3 months we've been working hard on trying to get Scotty's parents house ready for us to move in...or invade. The living room is done and the smaller room (piano/library) next to it is almost done. Tonight we are going to do the biggest thing of all--knock down a wall to make 2 rooms one. We are pretty darn excited!!! Once we get the wall knocked down we can paint and move his parents in their new room. THEN we're going upstairs to paint and move our stuff in. So we may be looking at about a month before we move in....maybe less. Either way, we're excited about getting more room to breath. The hard part about moving is trying to keep my mother happy. She's pretty bummed we're moving out. "Oh, I'm going to miss you so much!"...."I'm never going to see you any more!" I just keep telling her we're only 10 minutes away and we can come over any time we want. My precious mother...
On top of all that excitement I did a little something new yesterday. I posted all of my college books on Amazon.com. I refused to sell them back at the school bookstore because they rip you off. So I had about 27 books to post--some books were my brothers as well. I went into it thinking I might sell one book BUT I got better results. I hadn't even had the books posted for 2 hours and I already sold one. How cool is that?! But it gets better....once I got home from church in the evening I sold a second one!!!!! And to top it off, they were books from the absolute worst class alive--Psychological Statistics. HAHAHAHA Dr. Newell!! That class was a waste of time and money. But any way. I sold the books!!!
Thanks for everyone's prayers about Scotty's dad getting a job. He got one at Hobbytown USA. It's a nice temporary job, I'll say. He has another interview today to be a dispatcher. He seemed really excited about it so pray that he can get that job! Also, Megan Collier is now in Gambell, AK. She was very nervous but of the few times we've talked she seemed to be enjoying herself. But keep her in your prayers as she starts the new school year.
On top of all that excitement I did a little something new yesterday. I posted all of my college books on Amazon.com. I refused to sell them back at the school bookstore because they rip you off. So I had about 27 books to post--some books were my brothers as well. I went into it thinking I might sell one book BUT I got better results. I hadn't even had the books posted for 2 hours and I already sold one. How cool is that?! But it gets better....once I got home from church in the evening I sold a second one!!!!! And to top it off, they were books from the absolute worst class alive--Psychological Statistics. HAHAHAHA Dr. Newell!! That class was a waste of time and money. But any way. I sold the books!!!
Thanks for everyone's prayers about Scotty's dad getting a job. He got one at Hobbytown USA. It's a nice temporary job, I'll say. He has another interview today to be a dispatcher. He seemed really excited about it so pray that he can get that job! Also, Megan Collier is now in Gambell, AK. She was very nervous but of the few times we've talked she seemed to be enjoying herself. But keep her in your prayers as she starts the new school year.
Monday, June 29, 2009
And So It Begins...
WORK! It has begun!! Today is Scotty's first day at his new job. We had prayed so hard that he finds something and those prayers were answered. So hopefully he really enjoys it and can make a good career out of it! I'm so proud of him. For those who don't know, Scotty got a job at Arvest Mortgage. It is pretty close to what he was doing in OKC. He takes care of people who are having trouble paying off their mortgage. Let's hope he likes it and excels quickly. And if he doesn't like it, then lets hope that he finds something else! As for me, I've started teaching piano at Ms. Betty's studio. It has been a lot of fun and being in the studio brings back so many memories of when I was a student there. When school starts back up again in August I'm planning on doing some substituting in music classes to get a little extra income. We have to start paying on loans in July so we'll need all the little extra cash we can get.
Besides work we've been working hard on VBS stuff at church. We're teaching the story of Adam and Eve to 1st-5th graders. Last night was the first night and it was a lot of fun. VBS is always so exciting even for us big kids.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that both our parents have been keeping us busy with projects around the house and I am very glad to say that we finished Iris and Darrell's living room! It looks so good! All we need to do is decorate it and then start on the next project! It's been a lot of fun.
Well...Scotty said I'd post a week or so ago about the cruise but we've been so busy lately I haven't had time! I'm not going to say a whole lot about the cruise just because it'd take me all day to tell you about the magic we experienced! But I will say that we loved it SO much that we want to go again before we start having babies. And when we start having babies...and they're old enough...we want to go again...........and again and again. It was AMAZING! We highly recommend Disney Cruises.
That's it for now, but I do have a prayer request. Be praying for Darrell (my father-in-law) because he has been job searching too. Pray that he finds something that will be enjoyable for him. Also be praying for me and Scotty to get these crazy loans paid off in our goal time. It's going to be really hard but we have faith that it'll come through somehow. Thanks!!!
Besides work we've been working hard on VBS stuff at church. We're teaching the story of Adam and Eve to 1st-5th graders. Last night was the first night and it was a lot of fun. VBS is always so exciting even for us big kids.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that both our parents have been keeping us busy with projects around the house and I am very glad to say that we finished Iris and Darrell's living room! It looks so good! All we need to do is decorate it and then start on the next project! It's been a lot of fun.
Well...Scotty said I'd post a week or so ago about the cruise but we've been so busy lately I haven't had time! I'm not going to say a whole lot about the cruise just because it'd take me all day to tell you about the magic we experienced! But I will say that we loved it SO much that we want to go again before we start having babies. And when we start having babies...and they're old enough...we want to go again...........and again and again. It was AMAZING! We highly recommend Disney Cruises.
That's it for now, but I do have a prayer request. Be praying for Darrell (my father-in-law) because he has been job searching too. Pray that he finds something that will be enjoyable for him. Also be praying for me and Scotty to get these crazy loans paid off in our goal time. It's going to be really hard but we have faith that it'll come through somehow. Thanks!!!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Updated Cruise Slideshow
At the bottom of this page I have put a larger slideshow, along with captions and music.
It is at the VERY bottom of this page.
Enjoy,
Scotty
It is at the VERY bottom of this page.
Enjoy,
Scotty
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