We're Debt Free!

Just try and tell us that this doesn't feel good! We have now paid off all of the student loans and we paid off our couch. We are currently debt free and it feels GREAT.

We started making $100/month payments in September but we weren't seeing much progress. We started amping up our payments in December, bit by bit, and now they are gone. We are really excited. We bought the home study program for Financial Peace University on Craigslist in January and we are now on Baby Step 3.

Family Favorite

So, one of our all time favorite families is the Dyes. We got to see them at the tail end of our trip up to Utah for Jeff & Karen's wedding. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Travus, Kathy, and their nearly perfect children (Travus may disagree...).

We got to play Settlers, eat at Cafe Rio, drive out to the airport, drive out to the airport again (!), walk around our old neighborhood, and have a great time.

Yes, we drove out to the airport twice. And, from Saratoga Springs, that is no small commute...So, here's a fun little story. On the flight up to Utah, we were on a Southwest flight that went from Dallas to Amarillo to Denver to Salt Lake (all on one plane). Well, on the first leg of the flight, Cory and I were the last two people on the plane and there were only two seats left. You guessed it. Middle seats. About seven rows apart. And Cory's seat was between two...okay, I'll just say it. In the words of The Ladies Man (and our friend Jeff), "Now, that is big. Um, I was not expecting you to say anything over 200 pounds. Uh, I was basically expecting, like, 130, 135.. yeah, you are a big woman. Um, my advice to you is to, uh, avoid any type of food product that your neighborhood supermarket might try to sell you. But here's to you, Fat Lady." Well, one of them was a man. And very nice, according to Cory.

Anyways, Cory shoulders couldn't touch the back of his seat because of the situation. Now, he's an easygoing guy, so no complaining. But, the flight attendant noticed his predicament and gave him a $100 flight voucher! I tell you that karma bank is legit...

Now, on our return flight. We were flying US Airways and we...missed our flight. I know right!! About that karma bank... We usually fly Southwest, where seats are not assigned so checking in guarantees the order you board. So, we always check in the day before. But, with US Airways, the seats were assigned so we just spaced about that whole checking in online thing. So, we got to the airport and we missed the check in portal by approximately one minute. We were carrying on, so we didn't need to check our bags. But, the very unhelpful front desk person said no can do, loser. So, we missed our flight and had a really fun time getting home.

But, we made it and life has been crazy busy! Cory started up football and today was his first day of school. God is good and we are happy. The End.

He Finally Sealed the Deal!

Well, our best friend Jeff finally got married. He is now the husband of a smart, gorgeous, and funny girl named Karen. I would say he barely snagged her, but I'm a firm believer that if you are a ten, you marry a ten. Cory and I already know that Jeff is a ten, so with our stellar deductive reasoning we gather that Karen is as well. We got to go to their wedding and had a fabulous time.

As it should be, the weekend was all about Jeff and Karen. However, Karen's family tried to include Cory and me, which we really appreciated. This included punking me. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say it involved her dad saying, "I know you from somewhere...I'm sure of it," and this post. Which is not to be confused with this post. Which is a common mistake, you know.

Cory gave a great toast, I cried like an idiot, and we were happy and sad to let Jeff go. Happy because it took him approximately forever, we're so happy being married and wanted the same for him, and we doubted he truly liked being the third wheel on our floor playing Spades. Sad because we don't know Karen. But, we are determined to get to know her and convince her to like us. Well, I am. Cory says everyone likes him.

A little blast from the past...

Jeff Klakring wedding: August 6, 2011 (top)

Cory Carroll wedding: June 20, 2009 (bottom)

 I thought the biggest picture in this collage, although blurry, was so cute. I almost feel like a voyeur.

And they're off! So, now some of our favorite people are married and they live in Utah. What's the deal with that! It seems to be a recurring trend. A lame one.

Getting Random Checks in the Mail

So, today I got an awesome check in the mail! I am a member of a site called Ebates. You go through them to buy stuff off of sites that you're already shopping on. I get checks from them quarterly and they're usually $3-4. Which is still cool, because it's basically free money. BUT! I was buying a Groupon through them the other day and saw that my big fat check had gotten mailed and it was approximately ten times our normal check. I went through them when we booked our vacation and....drumroll!

Now, I know $44.57 won't make us rich, but I'm not complaining that I made it by buying something I was already going to buy. Excellent.

Sign up! I'd recommend it :) Go here and get your big fat check. Maybe I'll use mine to buy some jeans as mine have recently gotten a large rip in the crotch area. I know that word kind of ranks up there with scab, my bad. But, it's not as bad as pustule, siiick. Oh well, I got some good use out of those over worn jeans. And Cory keeps telling me to go shopping. If you ask him my response he might say in his Nazi impression of me, "It's not in the budget!" I swear I don't talk like a wicked witch Nazi, but it's his favorite voice of me. We're working through it.

Living on Hospital Food

While we were on vacation, the seventh Harry Potter premiered. Some of you know that Cory and I are embarrassingly into Harry Potter. We're mostly into the books, but let's be honest, we love all things Harry Potter. So, we were fairly devastated that we booked our own vacation on such a crucial day. Whatevs, we're over it.

So, when we got back we decided we were going to go see Harry Potter pronto. But, we moved it to Tuesday because...Haley, Cory's sister, had her second baby! We were so excited so we headed up to Frisco to check out the beautiful Camilla Lujean.

 

She is absolutely beautiful. We got to hold her in the hospital which is something I haven't done since my little sister was born...17 years ago. Cory had never been to the hospital to hold a new baby. It was awesome. Another thing that was awesome...the HOSPITAL FOOD. Let me tell you. If we lived closer, we would probably go on dates there. We got a good meal for $7 for the both of us. Beat that Taco Bell. I think it rivaled the hospital food in Provo, and that's saying something.

We saw Harry Potter the next day and it was about how I expected. Cory enjoyed it and I enjoyed it until the last 15 minutes when they made up a sub par ending that was nowhere near the quality of the original ending. Just repeating the mantra, "You have to view it differently than the book."

Speaking of book adaptations, this weekend, we went and saw The Help. It was so good! It was a wonderful adaptation of the book. We would definitely recommend it. 

It Will Cost you $20 to Enter My Country, Please

So, a few weeks ago Cory and I spent a week in the Dominican Republic and had a fanfreakintastic time.

Our trip started out with a Dominican hello. You walk straight onto the tarmac, and you pass dozens of workers, but they are all sitting there doing nothing. So funny. They charge you twenty AMERICAN dollars to enter their country ($10/person). Such a scam, but did we just pay thousands of dollars to get there to say no? I don't know why we don't charge people to get into American airports. I mean we pay for them to have medical care. Anyways. Our room was much better than anticipated...I was so anxious that our room would be a dump. It was wonderful! As a part of our package we got a 'free' couples massage and time in their private jacuzzi. We spent a lot of our time eating out almost every night, reading on the beach, and spending time together. Cory said life was good when he had his glass bottled coke, was reading Harry Potter, and was sitting on our balcony. We drank a ton of mixed drinks, sans alcohol, and felt spoiled spoiled spoiled.

 We went on an excursion horse back riding and snorkeling. Well, my horse was more of a starved pony. It was so sad. We met a fun couple on their honeymoon from South Carolina, saw a nice load of trash on the beach, and I dropped our lenses cap and caused a horse traffic jam to get it again.  Even with the sketchy parts, we love going on excursions and had a fabulous time on this particular overpriced getaway.

We had a great time snorkeling...but it was an experience! Cory said I had to make my duck billed picture the biggest (okay fiiine, he calls it "The Skeletor"). So, I'm kind of in the bottom percentile of swimmers. Cory was diving under water like some seal, while every so often I'm gagging on salt water because I leaned my head back too far and got some in my breathing tube. My favorite part was having all the fish come straight up to you for bread and nipping on your fingers.

My favorite part of this day was parasailing! I wish we had a picture of the gorgeous view we got. We got a great deal on parasailing because we bided our time and low balled them so much that they said we were ridiculous, left, and then came back a while later and said we had to tell everyone who asked that we paid more. It was wonderful.

On our last full day we rented a car and drove into a nearby town. I loved it. They had markets all over the place with fruit, vegetables, and meat. Ugh. The meat market was one of the nastiest things I have ever seen. Piles and piles of raw meat with flies swarming everywhere. There was muck on the ground and workers were using these huge meat cleavers (that were probably covered in disease) to cut off the meat. We were crossing our fingers that that meat was not being served at our resort! Maybe that explains my little 24 hour bug on Monday... We took some fun pictures and experienced the CRAZY CRAZY drivers there. I swear... their driving fatalities must be out of control. There were babies squashed between two adults on tiny little scooters jetting in and out of traffic, scooters carrying tvs and other huge things, vans with dozens of people in them, etc. People were insane. I liked it more than Cory because I wasn't driving. Me under possibly fatal pressure is not a pretty picture. 

The last morning, we did a little photoshoot on the beach. Cory looks like such a model in some of the pictures. Some of you know that whenever I do impersonations, it always ends up sounding like a Mexican with a lisp, who might have a minor disability. Well, my pictures were like my impersonation, but in human form. During the week, we kept seeing girls do photoshoots on the beach with what looked like their mom. They'd be crawling up the beach with this fierce sex kitten face while their mom is like yeah, work it girl. Cory thought it would be funny if I tried that. Negatory. We saw lots of old, saggy, leathery, topless women, some younger more attractive thong butt women (we're happily married so Cory just looked away, while I'm like for real! they have no dimples???), and a variety of men in very very sexy speedos. We took some pictures, but we'll spare you.

It was a wonderful trip!! As an added bonus, we just got a ticket in the mail for the red light Cory ran on the way home from the airport. I've been telling him for months... "Cory, it is illegal to not stop before you turn right at a red!" He's always like bla bla bla it's fine. Boo yah Cory. Laney is the man. So, although I am not a huge fan of making a $75 budget for the ticket, I'm perfectly okay with making a budget called, "Cory will never ever turn right before stopping and Laney is super awesome. The. End." I'm confident this $75 will be an investment. *Disclaimer: Cory really is an awesome driver. He even drives like a grandmother with both hands at 10 and 2 on the wheel. He just had a red light vice.

Um...So the Mavs won.

In case you have been living at the bottom of a well for a while, the Mavericks won the NBA championship. Which meant, that I had one flippin' ecstatic husband. If you didn't know that, I speak for Cory in saying, "You're dead to me."

I know it's been a while but I thought some of you might appreciate this play by play I captured for posterity's sake. I took pictures as they won and Cory's reaction is priceless.

Some of you may have noticed the long, extended bromance hug between Cory and Logan. It lasted no less than four frames. If you didn't, it probably means you know Cory.

We had a great night. I won't ever be able to replicate this moment for Cory, which means the rest of our life may be a bit of a letdown. Go Mavs!

Only the cutest little girl that we might steal.