Dream #1 - No Debt

Good morning everyone! Ok, so as promised I’m blogging about my dreams that have become my motivation. The first reason – the thing that will be the first one to be checked off is paying off our enormous amount of debt. I know that this isn’t as fun as travel or photography, but its an essential MUST in order for us to continue on checking off those dreams.

The student loans that we’ve taken out over the last 4 years is overwhelming and quite depressing. I would never trade my education for a dollar amount and having the accomplishment of earning my degree is truly priceless – so with that disclaimer out there I can rant a bit? Haha no, I’ll behave. The harsh reality of our situation is that Charlie and I didn’t receive any federal or state grants for retarded reasons – but ya, everything over our little university grants had to be loans. It’s a long and tangled mess that usually puts me on the bitter-train so I’ll spare you the details. J

I can tell you that having the stress and pressure of having the loans piling up every year, getting those quarterly statements of the interest that is accruing, trying to pay for living expenses, enjoy life, keep eating…it gets exhausting. As much as we don’t want it to, it consumes our thoughts and ability to do a whole lot. The idea of having to start paying off my student loans was a huge factor in my decision to go into the Masters program here at LSU – even though I’m not 100% sure that’s where I should be in my life.

So this motivation of getting everything paid off and being financially “free” is a HUGE dream. We don’t want to say that money is the number one motivation in our lives, but rather we want the freedom that comes with not having to worry about every cent that leaves the bank account. I don’t want to spend my life hours working hard, missing time with my husband, someday my kids, and not enjoying their lives because I’m chained to the reality of paying off debt from my education and trying to provide a life. I want the freedom of being able to going on vacations – guilt and stress free – taking my kids on trips, being able to be at their soccer games or dance/music recitals. I don’t want to be absent 24/7 and constantly occupied by the stress of money.

Right now our goal is to have at least my student loans paid off by next year – Charlie’s by next Christmas? Its possible, the business is taking off and this is the main flame under our butts. J I don’t know how many of you have student loans hanging over your heads – the idea of grad school is looming in front of you and its terrifying (& expensive), or mortgages, credit card debt… things to pay off and that are looming over your heads is stressful and it adds a negative shade on life. Lets work on getting rid of that, de-stress your life a bit? It’ll be worth it.

Tomorrow’s post will be more exciting – Medical Schools! Yay! I’m super excited to share with you all the possibilities that are coming up for next year. I’m so proud of Charlie and we are blessed with options.

Can dreams come true?

So school is in full swing – and I’m really not sure whether or not I’m on the right path. I’ve been working on going through each of my life goals and trying to figure out what is a possibility or what is a complete dream…and there is a part of me that gets angry at the fact that there should even be a dream category, why can’t these dreams come true? One of the reasons I didn’t blog a whole lot this last summer and almost dropped off the radar is because of this conflict. After graduation I felt at a total loss, not sure what I’m supposed to do now. I didn’t know where I was supposed to go, what school program or field I should be pursuing, everything was up in the air (and if you know me, I don’t do well with everything being up in the air.) I need more security than that. I have the constant security that is my marriage and my relationship with my best friend Charlie – he is the one person who I know I can trust, say anything to, fight with and laugh with, cry on his shoulder and no matter how bad of a day I’m having he’s going to love me and we’ll survive anything. Other than that, things seem unsure for me.

At the end of July two of our closest friends Steve and Jessica invited us to their house for a “tasting.” Charlie and I weren’t sure what it was, but decided that we were going to support them and show up – and we are so thankful we did! They were in their first few weeks of starting their Mona Vie business and in that one night Charlie and I decided that we were going to join them. (If you want to check it out, www.ckshealth.blogspot.com) That first night I couldn’t sleep, not because of weird dreams or a feeling of hopelessness but because I was so excited that I get to have hope for my dreams again. I have a lot of dreams for my life. J Since this night Charlie and I have no doubt that our dreams are possible and that things are going to work out. A few of the big ones are

1. We don’t want to be in debt – student loans and all debt paid off

2. Be able to pay for medical school for Charlie.

3. I want to pursue photography – I enjoy it and need a change of pace.

4. Travel…everywhere!

5. Buy a home.

6. Go work (without the stress of missing work (money) ) on the MORE project in Brazil and go work in Thailand.

7. Basically we want freedom.

We know that some of these will take more time, but they’re possible. We have a “why board” up in our room, with this list plus or minus a few, there is a picture of the car we want to get, the Eiffel Tower, my bucket list is posted up there… and a checklist of things to do everyday. Things are going to happen – my dreams don’t have to be put in a little category of “never going to happen.” I’m thinking that for my own sanity I’m going to blog about a dream a day… does that sound good? I know I have like 5 people following me, so to all of you, sorry you can ignore my dreaming. It’ll be good for me.

Me Ra Koh Workshop - Washington DC

Hello all! Ok I’m sorry its taken me so long to put these pictures up – but I’ve been working endlessly trying to make sure they look as good as possible as well as keeping up with household/life stuff J So I guess a little intro to what I did, why and what the end result is and what it means for me. As many of you know Charlie and I got really lucky for our wedding and had Me Ra and her husband Brian shoot our wedding photos for us. It was an amazing experience and they are truly extraordinary people. One of their main focuses is to help women gain confidence in themselves and discover what their photographs show.

This last weekend I had the privilege of finally going to one of their workshops in Washington DC, spend two days with them and 19 other women learning, growing and stretching as an individual and a photographer. Saturday we spent all morning working on camera stuff/reviewing settings and such. That afternoon we had mothers and their babies come in and model for us. I got to work with Becky and her baby Clara – adorable. Steph was so kind to let me borrow her camera with her super shnazzy lens that I used to get some of these shots:

I also got to take some shots of first time mom Paula and her beautiful baby girl Jane.

And this is Stephen. J

The next day we got to work with families, everyone was so nice and helped each other out, I got to use other lenses, cameras and learn from everyone around me. Here are some of my family shots.

I honestly don’t have any words for the way the weekend changed my life. I knew that I loved taking pictures and capturing different moments in my and others’ lives, but I had no idea how the pictures were impacting me. I’m looking forward to taking more pictures and seeing where this new path leads me.

I hope you guys like the pictures! Let me know what you think!

First Grad Class

Not too bad... I'm quite exhausted - photo editing, running 2 blogs and having a business its definitely keeping me busy, in a good way though! I'm having a blast!

Tomorrow:

Post blog of Washington DC trip with pictures.

Email pictures to Me Ra

Go buy my school books for my 2 classes.

Laundry

Organize office/TV room.

Go for a walk with the Boothoms.

ITS

Life is good :) Let the good times keep coming!

Check out www.ckshealth.blogspot.com

I'm going to Maui! Diamond Run goal = April 16, 2010.

Going to keep focusing on the positives even though the negatives keep coming.

God Bless you all - Good Night.

Summer Catch Up

Ok – I know I’ve procrastinated this summer keeping everyone up to date on what’s been going on in my life. So I’ll try to summarize it as best as possible.

My last post was the week of my sister’s high school graduation – my finals week at LSU. After that life got slow and hectic at the same time. The end of school was a challenge for me, the end of so much hard work and blood, sweat and tears… Quite an experience. In the end, graduation was awesome! SO thankful school is over and I have my diploma!!!

Yvette, who thought I was crazy for crying all week had graduation finally hit her. I heart her. She is one of my favorites.

I spent the beginning of my summer with Tim after his knee surgery – playing referee between his knee and my giant Booth dog. Haha that was a challenge, the big loveable doofus dog wanted to help Tim, and would end up just landing on him. So that was a 24/7 job.

In July I started working at Quality Management again; doing a big project. So that kept me busy. Charlie and I also started working on our own business, Mona Vie. We are having SO much fun starting it up and seeing it grow. www.ckshealth.blogspot.com is our blog that if you guys want you can keep up with what is going on.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out this summer (if you didn't know) so I spent WAY too long out in front of the theater by myself - but it was worth it! Family tradition of the midnight show continues. :)

July 22 marked 5 years of being together and 2 years of marriage. So, we felt like it was something pretty amazing and it should be celebrated, so Charlie took me to The Melting Pot. It was a good night to enjoy a 2 ½ hour meal and just hang out. I love my hubby – I can’t wait for our 5 year marriage anniversary.

Every year I fall more in love with him, he’s my best friend.

In August we had a “Family Vacation Week.” Instead of going out of town, we decided to spend a week together as a family doing things here in the area that we haven’t done before. So the first day we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Rosine’s which has Mediterranean food.

Then we went and painted our own plates at the Paint a Memory place in Corona – now we have a complete set of “family” dishes. It was a lot of fun – despite all the ridiculous teeny bopper music they were playing. Lol

The next day we went swimming, barbequed and went to the Orange Country Fair.

Santa Monica Pier & Venice Beach was the next day’s activities.

Tuesday we had a family photo shoot with Yvette & Darren. They were awesome!!! Here is the link to the slideshow that she put together – She is AWESOME!!!! Check it out!!!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6512912&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1%22

San Diego Wild Animal Park was Wednesday:

Then a weekend in Solvang:

We stopped at The Alcove Café on the way out – delicious food.

Game night in the pet-friendly hotel. J

We’ve been working on Mona Vie quite a bit and at the end of August Yvette joined our team! Super excited about that J So within a week we had a trip planned and we went up to San Jose for a tasting at her mom’s house and spent the weekend up there. So awesome! Things are moving fast and we had a blast up there.

Did you know that San Francisco has a 2 Story Anthropologie!?!?!?!?!?! Oh my gee. Lol What an awesome place. Haha I only spent $9 on nail polish. Good for me.

And now – here I am, sitting in the Washington DC Airport with my computer. I just spent the weekend here for a photography workshop with MeRa Koh J What an amazing experience!!! I’ll post tomorrow with some of the shots that I got over the last 2 days – and tell you guys all about it. So much fun. Life changing, really.

My flight takes off in a few hours, and I won’t get home until late tonight. YAY though for all the fun and exciting things going on right now.

School starts this week – I’m only taking 2 classes towards my Masters. So that’ll give me more time to put towards Mona Vie and my Photography.

I'm lame

I know its been a while since I posted - but HI Everyone! We are alive! I'll post during the week while I have some free time. :) promise.