Goal #36: Pay off my student loans

As of today, I'm 100% debt free! And will be that way until we get a mortgage later this year. It feels good!

I had been making regular payments - twice the minimum, but it still would have taken several more years to pay off my two student loans.

We have decided to get an FHA or, more likely a VA home loan (James was in the Marines), meaning that we don't have to use much of our savings for a large down payment on a house. So I just paid my loans off to be done with it and avoid paying more interest.

That's two less bills every month (that I can put back into savings)... yay!

See my list of 100 goals to accomplish by my 30th birthday here.

Weekend in Washington

Last night, James and I returned from a 3-day weekend visiting family in Washington. His sister, brother in law, nieces and nephews live there and one of the nieces got married on Saturday.

I just love my new family! They're so much fun to spend time with. We spent the Friday through Sunday hanging out... I wish I had taken more pictures, but I have several from the wedding. It was a beautiful event and a ton of fun!

Me & my niece!

James & his brother in law

James & the bride

James, brother in law, niece, nephew's girlfriend, nephew

Niece Linae

Great nephew (the bride's son) and nephew

Our niece the flower girl and her dad

The worst part of the weekend? I got sick :( I'm home from work today because I feel so weak - it seems like everyone else in the world has had this cold, so it's about time (unfortunately).

Open house

This afternoon we went to our very first open house! We aren't planning to buy for a few months but in all honesty I've been looking online for over a year [maybe two].

Recently I convinced James to drive around with me one Saturday and look at the neighborhoods and houses we thought we'd like to live in. And last weekend, I suggested that we start going to open houses. Just to get more of an idea of what we can get within our budget. I was pleasantly surprised that he thought it was a great idea! Woo hoo!

So today we went to a house and weren't too impressed. I think it's a little overpriced for how outdated it is. We'd have to replace all the flooring [half yucky carpet, half yucky linoleum].

We prefer one story but are open to two [which this house is].

The dining room and living room below are one combined room.

There's a second family room downstairs, which James liked.
I'd rather have one larger room.

I liked the size of the backyard.

Overall this house is fine, but we think we can find a better fit. It just wasn't completely us. We loved being able to check it out and we'll definitely be going to lots more open houses in the coming months!

Our wedding day: The reception (Part 3)

I made a little toast after dinner - I wanted to say so much more about how much I love my new husband... but I could barely get through the part about thanking our guests for attending without crying! So I had to cut it short, but hopefully it was still sweet.

Then we cut the cake!

NO messy cake smashing!

 

A blues band, Lil Pea n the Third Degree, began playing at 8:30.

There wasn't a ton of dancing, but some.

We spent the rest of the evening talking and having a blast, visiting with family and friends. It was so much fun.

Our photographers left at 9, although the party was still going. So I have one more reception post coming with non-pro pictures!

Our wedding day: The reception (Part 2)

After our first dance, we sat down at our sweetheart table for some delicious appetizers [vegetarian crostinis and mushrooms stuffed with corralitos sausage], and we found out the reason we had to wait so long to come in. My sister/maid of honor gave a beautiful speech about how much she loves us, and began a slideshow of pictures she had collected - of us growing up, and us together (I actually blogged a lot of those pictures here!).

The guitarist played in the background as we all watched it. It made me cry!

Okay in the interest of full disclosure, the surprise was not a complete surprise. When Rose went to my mother in law's house to get photos, she blabbed to James that she had been there, but wouldn't say why. We had forgotten about that by the wedding day with everything else going on, so we really were surprised at the time.

Still, it was a beautiful surprise gift and I cannot thank her enough for taking the time to put it together!

Dinner was next - yum! We had a buffet of Michael's house salad [mixed baby greens, Point Reyes blue cheese, candied spice pecans, local apples and dried cranberries tossed in a tarragon vinaigrette. I'm not kidding that people are still talking about it], grilled sierra steak with mushroom sauce, barbecue chicken, roasted vegetable lasagna, sage buttermilk biscuits, roasted garlic mashed potatoes and mixed veggies.

After eating we mingled with guests a little - because we had such a small wedding (62 guests), we were able to talk to every one of them and say more than just "hello, thanks for coming." I'm so happy about that - we love every person there and are so thankful that they made the effort to attend - we really wanted them to know that!

A few more shots from our guests -

To be continued...