Cannon Fall Fun

Well, I have some catching up to do on here!

With the help of my mom, I got to go home for a three day weekend last month.  I flew in Thursday night and spent Friday shopping and talking and just catching up with her.  Then, once Aubree got out from school, we hit the road (with AUBREE driving) to get to the farm.

Nervous about letting my 16 year old sister drive me...

As many of you know, the farm is a very special place for me.  My grandparents on my mom's side live out in East Texas, in a house tucked away behind a curtain of pine trees and surrounded by the prettiest countryside I've ever seen.  Darren and I had the pleasure of getting married out there, so some of you who visited know what I mean when I say the air is fresh and the views are magnificent.  I visited there often as a child, and the place became a home away from home.  More than that, it became a place to clear my head, somewhere I could escape the busyness or troubles of my life in Dallas and just be me out in the quiet.  I had not been back to visit since my wedding, and was long overdue for a weekend with my grandparents at the farm.

Mom Mom prepared an early Thanksgiving feast for us

Just a few of the usual sights at the farm

Momma and me :)

Love my Mom Mom!

While I was at home, I received the wonderful news that I had passed my certification test.  This is the test that I was so worried about as I took 3 solid months to prepare for it.  Officially, I took the Allied Health Professional Cardiac Device Therapy exam through the International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners, and as a result of passing I am a Certified Cardiac Device Specialist (see my name on the list of those who passed here).  I appreciate all of the support and encouragement I received as I nervously prepared for that huge test! I have to do it again for Cardiac Electrophysiology next year.

I did it!

The following weekend, Carissa joined Darren and me for a day at the Kimmswick Apple Butter Festival.  Some of you may remember my post earlier this year about the Kimmswick Strawberry Festival.  To be completely honest, that was child's play compared to the Apple Butter Festival.  A craft fair to end all craft fairs, this little tiny town hosted 600+ booths and 100,000+ guests during the yearly festival.  We enjoyed milling around, sampling the different foods and gathering ideas for future crafts.  In order to fully experience the atmosphere, we decided to get a caramel apple to munch on and it was delicious!

Carissa also took some fun fall pictures of Darren and me at Laumeier Sculpture Park (another place I highly recommend if you come visit St. Louis).  Here are a few of the cute pictures she took:

Ok this one Darren took of Carissa and me

Love the leaf idea

For Halloween, we joined some of my favorite people at the annual Halloween party that seems to always be the highlight of October.  Darren and I decided to go as the "Where?" couple this year, he was Where's Waldo? and I was Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? :)

A few weekends later, we had the pleasure of hosting Darren's older brother, Chris, and his lovely wife, Krista.  We were all friends back at home, and for the past couple of years Chris & Krista have been missionaries in Germany.  When they returned to the states, they decided to take a road trip to visit some friends and family that they hadn't seen in too long.  We were honored to be a stop along the way, and really enjoyed sharing our life in St. Louis with them.  Krista also took some amazing pictures, including this one of us playing in the leaves.  She is starting up her own photography business and if you're looking for someone to take your pictures for any event/season/purpose, I highly recommend her!

Now, my focus is on preparing for the holidays.  As my obsession with Pinterest and Etsy grows, I have challenged myself to create gifts for my family and friends that are unique, homemade, and specific to each of their personalities.  This is taking a vast majority of my free time and is extremely therapeutic.  After Christmas, I will have to share all of my creations with you (and maybe even how I made them!).

I hope you all travel safe this week for Thanksgiving and enjoy the holiday with your loved ones.

It's Postseason, Y'all!

Well, I've fallen a little behind on my blog updates, but only because life has been quite busy for us recently! Before I dive in, I just have to say LET'S GO CARDINALS!

We enjoyed our fabulous fall vacation and took a 3 day weekend to visit our friends Dawn & Andrew in Madison, WI.  They were sure to give us the full Wisconsin experience, from squeaky cheese curds to the downtown farmer's market to the world's biggest french toast.  We were so thankful for their kind hospitality and willingness to share their life with us!

Some of the colorful and interesting sights at the farmer's market

We enjoyed the fair-like atmosphere around the capitol

Dawn & Andrew took us to this ADORABLE restaurant for brunch

We took a Cannon picture with the cannon on Wisconsin's campus

During the following weekend I found myself at a work conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I had to work most of the day Saturday, but a coworker and I rented a car and gave ourselves a little tour of the city.  We drove up into the mountains for dinner on Saturday night (there was even snow on the ground!) and then had brunch downtown near the temple on Sunday morning.  The mountains were gorgeous, the people were super friendly, and the food was delicious...but I have to say that the Great Salt Lake itself was... less than impressive.  For those of you who haven't seen it before, I'll let you experience it for yourself.

Part of the scenic view up the mountain on our drive to dinner

Enjoying some post-dinner face time with the fireplace

View from the top of one of the mountains

We gave ourselves a tour of the campus around the temple downtown

This weekend had a few fun events for us here in town.  We spent Friday night seeing THE LUMINEERS in concert!!! I have been a fan since I heard "Ho Hey" on the radio the first time, and immediately bought their album.  It's one of my favorite go-to albums for my long drives with work or whenever I need to mellow out after a stressful day.  I highly recommend listening to their lesser-known songs and seeing them in concert if you ever get the chance!  

Our group ready to see The Lumineers

So close!

Their stage setup was very cool

Today, Darren and I joined our friends Carissa and Brian to see our very first NFL game at the Edward Jones Dome!  We were Sam Bradford fans before we moved to St. Louis, so getting to see him play live was very exciting.  The Rams were playing the Jaguars, so Luke Joeckel from A&M was also playing (on the opposing team) and it was exciting to root him on as well.  Unfortunately, he got injured pretty early in the game and couldn't finish playing, but we still got to see him.  In the end, the Rams pulled out a victory and we decided that we must be good luck!

Enjoying our first NFL game!

Carissa and Brian hosted us for brunch before the game

We won! We must be good luck!

I feel I must also tell those of you who actually read this that I sprained my ankle a couple weeks ago playing volleyball.  I went to the ER to rule out a fracture, but had to stay home from work and then use crutches for a while.  I'm not exactly sure the extent of the soft tissue damage that I have, but I've had to take things slower at work and stay off my feet when possible for about 2 weeks now.  I'm praying for a quick recovery, but I'm not exactly giving it time to heal.  I'm sure in time it will be fine, but it has been a bit of a set back being physically limited with my job.  On the bright side, I've been crafting and trying out new recipes recently so look for posts on those soon!

Exploring St. Louis

As you know, Darren and I have lived in STL for a while now, and we have started to run out of new things to do.  When we have friends who come to visit for the second time, we want to make sure to show them sights of our city that they haven't previously seen... so, we got to try out a few new places this past weekend when our college friends Robert & Tessa came!

The first thing we made sure to do was take them to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game at Busch Stadium. With the Cards fighting for the top position in the NL Central and October's post season madness hurriedly heading our way, there hasn't been a better time to catch America's favorite game.  We tried something new by travelling on the Metro to get to the game, and enjoyed some free soda while watching the Cards vs the Brewers.  We may not have won, but it was still super fun to get out and be part of the spirit cheering on the Cardinals.

Our seats may have been high, but they gave us a great view of the entire field!

Carissa joined in the fun, despite being a Cubs fan

R&T at their first Cardinals game

On Friday after work I joined up with everyone to visit two of our favorite lesser-known attractions, Lone Elk Park and the World Bird Sanctuary.  Both of these are free (donations accepted) and house some rather unusual animals.  Lone Elk Park is a drive-through exhibit (with some hiking trails as well) that showcases elk (who would've guessed?), deer, and bison.  Just down the road from that, the bird sanctuary has various species of rare birds as well as some reptiles.  Tessa even found a parrot that would play peek-a-boo with her (and I caught it on video!). 

We found this to be hilarious.

The elk were rather exciting to watch

I enjoy driving through this forest

One of the huge owls 

Cool logo

After a delicious lunch at Favazza's on the Hill, Tessa and Robert asked to visit a site that Darren and I had never seen before- the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.  Even though I have toured my fair share of cathedrals in Europe, this one's majestic mosaics and colorful artwork really captured my attention.  Since I am not of the Catholic faith, being in such an ornate building would prove to be rather distracting during worship because I am just fascinated by how intricately everything is decorated.  From the expected stained glass windows to the smallest little cherub sculptures nestled under the pulpit stand, every single item in that church was made intentionally beautiful. 

This was a really cool statue outside in a prayer garden

On Saturday we took them up to Eckert's in Grafton, IL to pick some apples. If you have never had the opportunity to go pick your own fruit from an orchard, whether apples or peaches or anything, I highly recommend it! It's usually very inexpensive and such a fun experience. Darren and I had been apple picking last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. We chose this particular farm in Grafton because we knew they had a petting zoo (with a camel!) and a cute little country store. 

Tessa bravely fed the creepy goats

on our way to the apples!

I would call them expert apple pickers

Enjoying the beautiful weather

Finally, for our last adventure in the Lou for the weekend, we all explored the Crystal City Underground and played lasertag inside a cavern!  The drive was rather creepy since we waited until dusk to locate the very-difficult-to-find attraction, but it was all worth it after we crossed the single-lane bridge over a steamy swamp and through the dusty tunnel to get to one of the best kept secrets in STL.  We accidentally gave ourselves a full tour of the caverns before locating our lasertag spot, and enjoyed a friendly competitive game of couple versus couple (3 couples total) sport.  When we finished playing, we sat near the live jazz band and played card games while still inside the cavern. It even looks like they host sand volleyball tournaments down there! Super cool.

R&T ready to rock and roll

The winning team!

Carissa and Brian by a random aztec-y wall?

We were extremely happy to host our friends and visit all sorts of places around town.  Thanks to Robert and Tessa for braving yet another trip to stay with us in the Lou, we hope you had a fantastic time!

We are the Aggies, the Aggies are We

To celebrate being out of debt, Darren and I budgeted for a little "play" money that we decided to put towards our fall garden.

Last fall, after having moved out to the suburbs, I realized that THE flower to plant this time of year was the ever-glorious mum.  Golds, oranges, crimsons, and whites were popping up all over as the air turned crisp and football season got underway.  I knew that when the time came, I would plant mums in my own garden this year.

We've been lucky enough to have a pretty mild summer this year (no worries, I've heard rumors that we are supposed to get a bitterly cold winter to make up for it).  That being said, we had a nice little preview of fall for a few weeks in August that made me want to don a sweater and start sipping hot tea.  With all of the fall excitement, I knew it was time to start planning our mum garden.

The thing I love about mums is how lusciously full they get.  Planted correctly, you could have your entire garden covered in thick, healthy blooms all bundled up next to each other.  Even though the golds and oranges were tempting colors for fall, we knew we wanted to stick with what we knew: maroon and white.

So, on our celebration date night, we went to the store and picked out enough maroon and white mums to completely upgrade our garden out front.  It took two shifts of sweaty, dirty work breaking up the clay and pulling out everything from old bricks to nails, but it was worth all of that effort!

I can't wait them to bloom to their fullest potential! I will have to update you all on how they look in a few weeks.

Tackling Student Loans

Howdy!

Some of you may have seen my post on facebook earlier this week which announced that Darren and I had paid off all of our student debt.  We are very excited about reaching this goal, and especially since we completed it a few months earlier than planned.

As most of you know, we haven't had the most stable financial situation since we've been married, so money topics were not ones we enjoyed talking about after we said, "I do."  The more we read, the more we realized that getting our finances in order would not only be smart, but would also provide a sense of peace when paying bills, planning events, and basically any transaction that involved spending money.

Fortunately, we found a church that we had started to like just before it began a Crown Financial Peace Course.  This course taught the basics of budgeting, all Biblically based with the emphasis on the fact that we are stewards of the money God blesses us with.  That course, starting in January, taught us how to take our income and divide it among the things we had to pay (rent), the things we need (groceries), the things we want (dinner out), and the emergencies (flat tire, ER visit).

I bought a binder with tabs (one for each month) and used a few Pinterest posts as inspiration to create our own budget documents.  Every single transaction, whether cash, check, or card, was documented and then divided among each category.  We allowed ourselves to have some room for fun (entertainment budget) and some room for unplanned things (medical budget).  I find writing everything by hand to be extremely helpful because it makes you think twice before splurging on those adorable shoes at Target or ordering pizza for dinner because you don't feel like cooking.

After 3 months of the Crown Financial course, our class began a Dave Ramsey course using his book the Complete Guide to Money.  Dave goes over baby steps to financial success and Darren and I decided to do these, mostly in order, to achieve our goals.  The one thing we did differently was instead of doing baby step 1 of an emergency fund of $1000, we went ahead and skipped to doing the emergency fund that would last us 6 months.  This way, if something happened to my job we would be able to survive reasonably for 6 months.

One of our most important goals was paying off student loans.  Without getting into details, we had five different loans with five different interest rates.  We used Dave's snowball method, which means you focus in on one debt while paying minimum on the others.  In our case, we chose to pay off the loan with the highest interest rate first.  This way, we paid off one loan in its entirety before moving on to "attack" the next loan.  At the end of each month, any extra money that we didn't use was put toward the loan. Every. Last. Penny.  You see, since we had the 6 month emergency fund, we knew our savings account was fine until we reached this goal.

I would say that the best part about this whole process was the peace that it brought when we wanted to splurge a little.  Before, we had no idea how much money we'd already spent eating out that month and felt bad if we thought we had gone out too often.  Now, we knew exactly how much we allowed ourselves to use and when we got to the end of the month and had a little left, we would go out and ENJOY it completely guilt free.  We did the same when buying new clothes, purchasing new guest bath towels,  and splurging on the expensive brand of cookie mix at the store.  It was budgeted for that purpose, so it was okay to use it whichever way we chose to.

One of my other favorite categories that we put together was our "personal" budget.  This can be according to your income, but for us we decided that we each get $25 a month to use as we please.  I could save up and get my hair highlighted, Darren could save every penny for something special, etc.  We also gave each other an additional $50 when it was the other person's birthday month to be used for cake supplies, dinner out, or a gift. It's money that is ours to spend without having to consult the other person, because ALL other purchases are mutual agreements.  I remember someone suggesting this back when we were in marriage prep classes, and I HIGHLY recommend it.

I have Word documents of generic versions of our budget sheets if any of you are interested in starting this process yourselves.  There's nothing quite like knowing exactly where all of your money is going, and feeling like you're completely on top of it. If there is anything I can do to help you reach your goals, let me know! This process has literally changed our lives and how we look at money, and we are so much happier because of it.

I promise, I'm still here!

My reason for this update is twofold: first, I wanted to reassure you that I had not forgotten about my promise to keep all of you informed of our "exciting" life.  Second, I wanted to explain that I have been urgently dedicating every spare moment possible to studying for my upcoming exam.

As such, I will keep this brief.  I promise to return to frequent postings about our adventures as soon as August 29th has come and gone.  Why the 29th?  That is the fated day for my IBHRE (International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners) exam in cardiac rhythm devices.  Without getting too far into the details, it is an expensive exam that I must take every 10 years to be certified as a cardiac device specialist.  It has a reputation for being extremely difficult (hence the dedication to studying) and I can't really afford (financially, professionally, emotionally) to fail it.

Leonard doesn't like all of the attention I'm shunting away from him and onto studying

However, I wanted to share with you a few brief bits of information.

First, I am overwhelmingly thankful for those of you who took the time to make Darren's birthday special.  We have a mantel strung with birthday cards, a few dinner and movie dates on the schedule, and a weekend of fun memories thanks to you all.  Darren's best man and best friend, Cory, even came to visit us for Darren's birthday.  God placed very special people in our lives, and even though we are physically separated by distance, your love and encouragement is felt daily.

Here's our mantel covered in birthday cards! Also, you can see that I'm ready for football (read the next paragraph)

Second,  the weather here in St. Louis has been unbelievably gorgeous.  We haven't seen a degree higher than about 85 in the last week or so and, when you put that together with sunshine and a gentle breeze, you get my absolute favorite weather.  Our flowers are happy, the grass is green, all of our neighbors are outside reading on their decks and the children are running around playing games in the yard.  It looks like a scene from Pleasantville out here.  As much as I miss Texas (the people, the food, the overall mindset), you've got to admit the weather here wins big time.  About a month ago we had our first taste of this early-autumn preview, and I decided it was time to decorate for Aggie Football season.  Our mantel is decked in maroon, we've got the Aggie-colored afghan made lovingly by one of my adopted mothers from church (thanks, Mary!), and I put together a football schedule using the giant chalkboard from our wedding.

My football schedule. Who knew I'd have so much fun with a chalkboard??

Finally, I am going to be a bit vulnerable with you here and ask for your prayers.  This test means a lot to me, and I have been dedicated to preparing for it since early June.  I know that God has a plan for my goals and my career, and this is just one step of many to continue fulfilling what He has in store for me...but that doesn't mean I am immune to test anxiety and the endless black hole of "what ifs."  I have always loved learning and applying my brain power to gaining more knowledge, especially now that it's directly related to my field.  I just have a special challenge as my test day approaches because my rep is out of town on vacation the two weeks leading up to my test, meaning I am taking on all of his responsibilities as well as my own.  That limits my study time and increases my stress. I hope that two weeks from now I will be updating you on some of our adventures with a peaceful mind knowing that I did everything I could to be successful.

A beautiful rose from our garden- they've finally begun to bloom!