2011: Puppy #2

We had an addition to the family this year, our puppy Ares!

We had figured Freya needed a buddy to keep her company and once we had a yard we figured we had space.

Since we love Freya so much we wanted to get another elkhound (and be those awesome people with matching dogs!) and we wanted a male since opposite genders get along better. We obviously went with the same breeder as Freya too.

At the end of July our new bundle of fluff arrived:

After about a week we finally picked out his name, Ares. We had been struggling before we got him and then once he arrived we still couldn't decide.

Mostly he is adorable and mellow.

But he is also destructive at times.

We have had a lot of fun with them! Snuggling, walking, playing.

Now Ares is 7 months old and over 37 pounds! It's been a fun experience having two puppies.

2011: Home Ownership

Probably the second biggest thing we did this year was buy a house.

We started the process in 2010 by looking at house with our realtor and deciding on the area we wanted.

Then this February we started looking again. We had our first house we put an offer on that ended up being a dud. It definitely worked out for the best and we now have been in our amazing house since May.

Since then we have experienced the joys and challenges of being homeowners. 

Financially, I love having my money go towards something and have the eventual goal of not having to pay a mortgage or rent.

But houses are EXPENSIVE! Between decorating, furnishing and maintenance, it adds up faster than I can keep up. We are always adjusting our priorities and keeping a continuous to-do list.

I have developed a lot of decorating ideas (mostly thanks to blogging) and have had a chance to implement a few.  Learning how to arrange a room and make things functional has been a really interesting experience. There are so many options, so I think it is key that you get pieces that are versatile.

We finally got some things up on the walls, which has made our house feel more like ours. I never really hung anything up in my other houses before, so it is a nice change. This is definitely one of those things where I think about what I want for a good long time before I actually do it and hang it up. Dylan is really adverse to multiple holes in the wall. Hopefully our new laser level we got for Christmas will help.

We have added little bits of furniture, but overall once my cousin and his girlfriend moved out, we lost a lot of furniture and our house is kind of on the empty side. Instead I rearranged and that really helped make our house feel more cozy.

New barstools for the kitchen

Living Room before

Living Room after

Dylan and I learned a lot about yard work this year. Both of us did gardening, poop patrol, and watering while Dylan did the mowing and trimming. We added some lattice under the deck as well.

We have had a couple maintenance experiences including the bathtub, the garbage disposal and the sprinkler system breaking. We have a long list of things to hit up this Spring once it gets nice out.

Overall the first 7 months have been a great adventure! I am very proud of the progress I have made. Cannot wait to fill it up with more stuff and some chillins! Cheers to the next 30 or so years of living here :)

2011: Managing Finances

2011 presented a whole new ball game in terms of managing our finances.

The first step was buying our house. Going through the mortgage process really brings to light all of your finances. We had a fantastic loan officer who really looked into our situation so we could qualify for a sizable mortgage with just my income (since Dylan didn't have a job when we started the mortgage process), and with Dylan being on the loan even though he didn't have a credit score at the time. The biggest piece is the debt to income ratio. Now we have our mortgage obviously and since qualifying for our mortgage our income has almost doubled.

Now we haven't been rolling in dough since we also decided to get married and as I mentioned that cost a pretty penny. In fact, the last couple thousand went on my credit card and for the first time I didn't pay down my entire credit card for the month. Then a couple other bigger things went on there (those rewards points keep you using that card!), and we put our gas on there and so we have been in a position where we just haven''t quite been able to pay it down every month. But based on our budget, which I will get to in a minute, we should be all set in February, barring any unusual circumstances.

That is the other thing we have started recently, a budget. We talked about it awhile back, but just never quite got there since I got a new job, Dylan got a new position, then it took a bit for my benefits to kick in so I could know what my actual normal paycheck amount was going to be.

Essentially each month is broken out with the days of the month along the left side and all of the various income/expense items listed a long the top.

                   | Beg. Bank Bal | Rachel Pay #1 | Dylan pay #1| Mortgage |   Car    | CenturyLink |TOTAL
12/1/11                   XXXX                                                         (XXXX)  (XXX)                         XXX
12/2/11                                                                                                                                            XXX
12/3/11                                                                                                                              (XXX)   XXX
12/4/11                                                                                                                                            XXX
12/5/11                                                                    XXX                                                               XXX
...
TOTAL                                                                                                                                            XXX

Then the final balance at the end is carried over to the next month. The major expenses we have are due on the 1st of the month but my paycheck on the last day of the month doesn't quite cover them all, so I have a calculation that show me how much I really have available at the end of the month knowing the amount that needs to be paid right away.

I have all of our income listed out, and each of our bills and payments we make. We do not at the moment have a budgeted amount for food, spending etc. With it being Christmas that was just unrealistic and right now Dylan pays for the majority of our food. Since he got his job at our mortgage company, half of his paycheck gets direct deposited into my account, which is the household account, which I will add him to at the beginning of next year.  He keeps half of his income for "himself" which has meant he buys groceries while I work to finish paying off our credit card. Once that is done, the goal is really for his account to just be a savings account for us and some extra spending money for him.

I also have a miscellaneous column at the far right that is for the spending I do, like buying food, movies, etc. I go to my bank account every couple days and update this column so that I really am right on track with my spreadsheet. 

I have a "Total" page that pulls in the bank balance at the end of each month, then adjusts that amount for the bills due on the first so that I can see how much I would expect to have at the end of each month.

All in all, it really has been helpful to have an idea of what money goes where all laid out in front of me and to see where we can be in a couple months.

It has been quite a year in terms of changing how I look at finances. From having more bills to having immediate debt to deal with, I have experienced a lot. With some house projects and baby planning on the plate for next year, I am glad I have started the budgeting process now.

2011: Getting Creative

Probably the most surprising thing that happened this year was how thoroughly I found my creative side.

I'm a blogger. Back in January I started my blog. The purpose has been consistent, mainly to just share my experiences with my family, house and life. It has been a great outlet for planning and getting more creative juices flowing. Blogging has not only encouraged me to write more often and think things out, but it has also improved my camera use and abilities. I try (albeit unsuccessfully) to take more pictures and I try to take better pictures (since it is no fun to share crappy pictures with you all).

Wedding Crafts. The wedding was one of my initial craft endeavors. Last winter I decided to start with my own Save the Dates and then my bouquets and invitations came along quickly after that. (I still have to thank all my girls for their help!) It was a lot of fun to make something more formal. Also a unique experience to make 100+ versions of the same thing. I really had to research to find the right way to do things and it involved some trial and error. I definitely don't think a DIY wedding is for everyone, but I think it worked well for me and my vision of the wedding and made me feel that much more into wedding planning.

DIY for the home. Thanks to Pinterest and blogging I have had a lot of ideas for DIY projects for our house. I think I have really only done one so far is my Fall wreath. I have a lot of inspiration and still a lot of blank walls to fill up so there will definitely be more to come. The more I DIY, the more stuff I end up with overall!

Decorating. Along the same lines of DIY projects for the house, I have fallen in love with decorating my house. Again, I get so many ideas online that I just want to go right out and do it all! Fortunately I do wait and sit back and research and usually blog about what I am considering before I do anything. I really want to make sure I am making the right choice and/or the right purchase. This is really helpful because not only does it mean I am being more thoughtful about my house, but since I take my time to weigh my thoughts, I end up spending less in the long run.

Piano. I have very briefly started learning playing piano. It has been like 2 months since I last played, but I did get some excellent piano books for Christmas so I can keep learning. I love music and I am definitely excited to get these specific creative pieces of my brain in action.

Even Dylan has mentioned a couple times this year how pleasantly surprised he is at how creative I have been. I am an accountant for my job and I obviously like to organize things and tend to be meticulous, so it really is refreshing to know that right side of my brain works a lot too!

2011: Now I am a Mrs.

I got married! Probably the biggest thing I did this year was get married. That had and has a lot of implication on what happened in 2011 and will happen going forward.

Yep, I have a husband now :) And I feel like I make a pretty good wife! We aren’t perfect, but we sure have a lot of fun! We do call each other “husband” and “wife” at home (usually at home, we try to restrain the cheesiness). I do consciously make an effort to be a good wife a lot of the time, which means something different to everyone I am sure. I keep the house clean, make sure we have food, make sure Dylan gets to make decisions, make sure we spend time together, manage our finances, plan our future. Being a wife is a lot of work! But I love every minute of it and I love having my amazing husband to cuddle next to at the end of the day. I really do think I feel closer with Dylan since we have gotten married. I don’t think I could explain it, but we are just that much more comfortable with each other and put that much more effort into “us”. I know we are still newlyweds, but I do love the married life.

New last name. I am definitely still getting used to it, but I love it! There are still a couple things I have not changed my name on, the biggest of which is my mortgage and the credit card. I’m not too worried about my car payment since that will only be around for a couple more years. The other is my email. This is more of a purging my emails and unsubscribing from things than getting everything set up on my new email.

A lot of awesome pictures. Which I am totally behind on! I still have another photo album to select photos for from my grandpa and then I have a lot of pictures I need to put in the house. I really want to try to have my wedding scrapbooks done by the end of next year, so I will need to get started on those soon (plus get my craft space in order so I have a place to actually work on them).

Great memories of the wedding. I had so much fun and still cannot believe it turned out so well! The entire weekend was absolutely one of the most fun times in my life. And I keep hearing compliments about how much fun the wedding was for everyone else too.

A lot of money spent. Without having actually added everything up, the total cost spent on the wedding was about $18K, with all but $4K of that from me and Dylan. We finally have it all paid off! I absolutely have no regrets about the amount spent (in fact I would have definitely spent more if I could have), but at the end of the day, it is still a lot.

Shiny new ring. I still love how it sparkles.

I love being married and still love thinking back to the wedding. A great addition to my 2011 :)

Recap of 2011 Series

As I was putting away some of Christmas presents, I started admiring my new 2012 Norwegian Elkhound Calendar. (I was really worried I wasn't going to get one and then I was going to make my own, which I'll probably do next year anyways, but it is just so cute!)

I can't believe 2011 is over. What an absolutely amazing year! I am undeniably impressed at how much I accomplished!

Instead of writing one longer post recapping 2011 I am going to write (and have already pre-written) a couple blogs covering the larger topics of what all I have experienced this year. Then after that I plan to have a couple "resolution" type blogs with what I plan on accomplishing this next year. 

My overall unofficial goals for 2011 were to get married, buy a house, get another puppy and buy a bedroom set. I made it to three out of four, which isn't too bad!

Stay tuned for the details and my thoughts on the things I did achieve this year and a couple other things I did along the way.