I GOT HIRED!

So as many of you know for months now I have been applying and interviewing for full-time position at Delta. I have been working for them as a baggage handler and feel so blessed to have any work, but have been anxious to get something that pays a little more and has benefits. Also, crouching down while trying to cram 170 bags into the belly of a plane when it is 90 degrees outside isn't the MOST fun. Well today all our prayers and hard work paid off. A few weeks ago I interviewed for a position as an administrative assistant in the in-flight service department. The interview went well and the job sounded like it provides a lot of variety and would be a great place to work. They called me back this afternoon and offered me the job, which of course I accepted. I will start on Tuesday, June 1st. It is full-time with benefits and vacations and EVERYTHING. We are so excited and feel so blessed. Thank you all for your prayers, love and support I will give you more details after I start.

More Gardening

Well it is that time again for the garden update. I hope someone out there is following this and enjoying watching things grow as much as we are. So a few updates. We went to the store the other day and bought a bulb of garlic. As many of you know often there are litte green shoots coming out of some of the cloves. I have always heard you aren't supposed to eat those(I don't know if that is true, but whatever) anyway instead of cooking with them I wondered if they would grow if I planted them and sure enough within a few days they were poking through the dirt and are now 6 inches tall. I also planted some marigolds at the top of my tomato planter, they are huge but no blooms on them. Anyone know of a weird marigold species that grows tall but doesn't bloom?

Another addition to our garden family are some yellow supper squash and ANOTHER zucchini. Erin LOVES fried zucchini, grilled zucchini and she makes AMAZING zucchini bread so she wanted LOTS of zucchini. As anyone who has grown zucchini before knows, typically you get so many zucchini and they are SO big that by the end of the year you can't give it away fast enough. Well Erin was concerned that we would only get a couple and they would be the cucumber sized ones like you buy in the store, despite be trying to convince her otherwise we planted another so if any of you would like some zucchini PLEASE let me know. We added a summer squash cause we realized we eat it a fair amount. But now, as you can probably imagine, the entire length of our deck is lined with buckets and plants.

We are very excited about everything and have tomatoes on our plant (LOVE the Topsy Turvy p.s.) and have dozens of green beans and radishes. Our only disappointment is that one of Erin's flower planter baskets is doing awesome and the other one hasn't quite figured things out yet. Look at the picks you will see what I mean.

Just...a little... farther...

There are technically 15 more days of school left and I think I'm more excited than my students. We took our EOCTs the last week of April, which means the last 4 weeks of school consist of review/preview for next year. We're all stir crazy and I wish we could just say "well, we've taught you everything the state said we had to, have a great summer. Peace."

Unfortunately we'd probably not have jobs anymore if we did that :( At least there are exciting things every week/weekend to look forward to and help count down the days!

Upcoming excitements:
This week: Thursday is yearbook day, which means the schedule is weird and there's one less period to teach. Friday is Career Day, which means NO MATH CLASSES! This weekend is busy: Sat I have an all-day volleyball coaching clinic at Emory, afterwards is a student's eagle court of honor. Sunday our darling friend Allison is getting baptized.

Next week: Seniors' last day is Wednesday. I don't teach senior classes, but it makes the rest of us excited. Saturday is Amy's college friends' bridal shower, hosted by me. Way excited to use a lot of the funner serving stuff we got for our wedding.

Week after that: Tuesday is the last day I see my students as they all get to exempt EOCT classes' exams. Thursday is MY last day of school b/c I'll be going down to Orlando for AMY AND LORRIN'S WEDDING! Friday is hanging out/rehearsal dinner etc... Saturday is the big shebang. We drive back Sunday.

Monday is Memorial Day. Post-planning is Tues/Wed June 1/2. Volleyball open gym is Tues - Thurs.

The next week is Open Gym Mon - Thurs.

Next week: girl trip to Utah. Cousin Shannon's wedding is that Friday the 18th. Then back to Georgia.

Rest of the summer: rest, relax, poolify so I can get tan for the first time in a few years. Justin's birthday is July 2nd. Going to a Braves' game that day - you're all invited to join! It's a Friday night Fireworks game. Then Saturday we'll do our romantic birthday dinner going out for Sushi. Yum!

Luckily we have flight benefits. Poor Justin works 6 days a week, but I'm happy to come visit people who need visiting! We'd also love to let our guest bedroom get some use, so if you wanna come visit GA we promise you'll have a great time!

Ode to Utah

As Erin mentioned, I was in Utah last week for my older brother, Ryan's, graduation. Although it was not so much fun to be away from Erin I did have a blast and LOVED seeing my family. The week was mostly graduation commencement, a really long convocation, awesome food(thank you Molly) and lots of fun with the fam. It is sometimes hard to be away from the place that I called home for 24 years and the fond memories I have there so I decided to put together a little tribute to Utah and some of the things I love about it.

But before I do I want to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to Ryan for graduating from BYU in history and Britney for graduating from cosmetology school. I am so proud of you both and know how difficult it is. Love you both.

OK so now to what I call "Ode to Utah"

First off...The beautiful mountains

Next..The Mountain of the Lord. I miss having a temple so close.


Friends and COSTA VIDA!

The recent addition of In N Out Burger. Double double, animal style with fries and a strawberry shake.


Macy's grocery store and GRANNY SYCAMORE"S BREAD! YUM!


And of course FAMILY!



Here's to you Utah!

Garden Update

So as near as I can figure the last pictures of our garden were taken on April 9th. I just took these pictures so you can see exactly how our garden is doing. We are obviously having so much fun with it and are just now beginning to reap some of the fruits of our labors(literally). I would encourage everyone to start a garden if you haven't already it is so easy and so rewarding.

WEEE'RRRRRE DEEEBBBBTTT FFRRRRREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

For those of you who don't know, Justin and I have become big fans of Dave Ramsey. Who is that? Only the second best thing to ever happen to us. Dave Ramsey is an advocate for financial fitness. My dad bought tickets for Justin, Katie and I to go to one of Dave's Total Money Makeover Live events in SLC last April. We went - and it was LIFE CHANGING.

Dave has a few taglines. One is "we tell you the same thing your grandpa would, except we keep our teeth in." He's formulated a series of baby steps that, if you follow them with GAZELLE INTENSITY, you will quit throwing out your money and can instead be building wealth/college funds/retirement. These steps are based on common sense rules like "don't spend money if you don't have it" and prioritizing appropriately between needs and wants. There are rainy days, and you need an emergency fund for when that happens. No, Christmas or new tires do NOT count for emergencies. Stuff like that.

Well, between the two of us we estimate that we had about $10,000 in debt (mostly student loans/the rest of my wedding ring). Since neither of us was making any money until September, it wasn't until then that we could really throw money at this thing. We've been taking every bit of available money to do it. We have a card table for a dining room table, we don't have a tv, we only have one car, we just inherited my parents' old computer so we wouldn't have to buy one, we're sleeping on a double bed inherited from my old bedroom set so we wouldn't have to buy a new mattress/bedroom furniture. We did purchase a couch (and paid cash for it, thank you very much) so we have something to sit on, but we've been trying to "live like no one else so later we can LIVE like no one else."

So we've been hucking tons of money at this debt. When Justin's car was in a wreck, the money we got from it went towards the debt, our tax returns = debt, etc... Hope you get the idea. We've been getting excited because we both get paid at the end of this week, and we knew we'd be able to finish the last $630 dollars on the $5,500 student loan and then we'd be DONE!!

Received the following letter in the mail from Justin's student loan people:

Why we are contacting you
We are pleased to inform you that the remaining balance of your student loan has been forgiven. This is our way of thanking you for taking care of your loan obligation in a diligent manner.
What this means to you
Within 2 to 3 weeks we will send a document confirming the paid in full status of the loan.

What?!?!?!? Did we really just read that right? WHAT A BLESSING! What a wonderful, wonderful letter to open! We feel like we've been working hard for the right thing and praying that we'd be able to push push push, and then this happens! Prayer works! Miracles happen!

So for all of you who know the Dave Ramsey radio show (talk radio, in GA it's 640WGST on AM radio), Fridays are always Debt Free Fridays, which are the days when people who've been working the baby steps get to call in and scream as loud and proud as possible, "we're debt free!!!". Everybody listen up, because on Friday May 7th (we have Relay for Life this Fri-Sat and can't call), the Michael/Andrea Houghtaling and Justin/Erin Badger family are going to be doing the first ever 2-generation phone call to scream "WE'RE DEBT FREE!"

And then we're going to dinner at Carrabba's :)

You can do it too! You're going to LOVE it! Go to http://www.daveramsey.com/ for more details.

PS - Dave's coming to Atlanta in October and Justin, myself, Dad, Mom, and Claire are all gonna be there!!

Distance makes the heart grow fonder

Or is it stronger?

Not sure, and not really sure how I feel about that phrase. Justin's brother Ryan graduated from BYU this week. Yay! So Justin went out to celebrate and support. He left early Wednesday morning, and is currently in the air on his way back to me. Having him gone for a grand total of 96 hours has not been the most fun I've ever had. Luckily I have a full time job and have had lots of extra stuff going on this week after school, so I haven't even gotten home until between 8- 10:30 each night. You'd think that you'd be tired after such long days.

Unfortunately, I can't sleep :( The best part of every day hasn't been there, and I think I just felt restless without my favorite friend. So I decided to do a shout-out blog to my dearest, darlingest sweetheart.

I know a lot of you may know Justin. Let me tell you, if you ever thought he was a great guy, if you ever thought he was a hard worker, if you ever thought he was a fun friend, uplifting, charismatic, talented, etc... I can assure you that he's all those things and more.

A lot of people say the first year of marriage is very eye-opening and even a difficult adjustment. Let me say that it's been eye-opening, but an absolute pleasure! I've realized that Justin is not only as good and wonderful as I expected he would be, but he's been so much more. He's a very kind, caring, compassionate husband. He's so thoughtful and patient and works so hard to do sweet things for me on a daily basis. He constantly surprises me with sweet things and takes time to do little things like pack my lunch, do the dishes, take out the trash, move the laundry through, or just text me to say he loves me.

We've talked a lot about how fun marriage is. Sometimes it feels like we're playing house, sometimes it feels like a dream, sometimes we're the best of friends hanging out or playing games or watching tv, sometimes we're an old couple just snuggling or holding hands, sometimes we feel like parents who get excited when their kids (our plants) start sprouting or blooming or who feel sad when other plants seem to struggle with their growth, sometimes he's my late-night talker or my problem solver, sometimes he's my therapist, sometimes my cheuffer, sometimes Justin's the best chef I've ever had, my housekeeper, my garbage disposal, my cheerleader, my leading man, my partner in crime, my comforter, my dream maker, my comic, my muse, my handy-man, my gardener, my competition in Settlers or Backgammon, my inspiration to be kinder, my mail man, my carpenter, my shoulder to cry on or the one who picks me up when I'm down.

i LOVE being married to this man. I absolutely think I get to be touched by an angel every single day. I'm so grateful that we belong to a church that teaches that we will be able to be husband and wife literally for forever. What an absolute blessing.

I'm sorry to be so sappy. It wasn't until I realized Justin's coming home that I realized how much I've missed him :(

I like to say that sappiness is happiness.

Clearly, I'm a happy girl!!! :)