See ya, Sallie

We have some big news to make...we've paid off Sallie Mae! I (Ashley) started paying beginning in January of 2009 but since I was saving for our wedding, I only made minimum payments. We started really attacking this group of loans that were all by Sallie Mae in November of 2009. 11 months later....we're done (with Sallie Mae). Total amount paid since January of 2009: $25,562.20. We still have about another $15,000 to go but we are well on track to knock it out! We have learned so much about managing money through Dave Ramsey and specifically his program "Financial Peace University." That's one of the first things we did as newlyweds and it is paying off! Even if you think you know a lot about money, you should check out his book "The Total Money Makeover."
We are on Step 2 of the Baby Step program (based off the comedy What About Bob)

Baby Step 1: Save $1000 emergency fund. Little emergencies no longer become emergencies that, gasp, would require putting more debt on a credit card.
Baby Step 2: the Debt Snowball. Pay off all your debts from smallest to largest. The reason for this is to build momentum (think: snowball rolling down a hill)
Baby Step 3: 3-6 month emergency fund.
Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of household income for retirement
Baby Step 5: College Funding for Kids
Baby Step 6: Pay off house
Baby Step 7: Build wealth and give!

For more on the baby steps click here: http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/

And just as a side note....we are not rich. We have just been on a very tight budget over the last year. We ate all our meals at home, spent very little on entertainment and gifts, and many other things, but most importantly at the beginning of the month we sit down together and do a written budget and only spend what is in the budget. Another thing that has really helped is the cash envelope system. I could go on and on but I'll stop there. If you want more details you can talk to me. :)

I wanted to share some pictures that I took recently. Taylor somehow got elected to be the elementary lunch teacher. Basically, he takes them to lunch in the cafeteria, makes sure they eat and don't pick on each other, and watches them until they start their next class. The entire elementary consists of about 11 kids. Most of them have lived in the U.S. and I think all of them have parents that are employees of the school.

Here they are attacking Taylor.

I think this is super cute...Taylor walking all the kids to class.

Here's Noah. He's my favorite!

Update on Taylor's mouth: He's doing great! He's managed to heal up without ever experiencing a dry socket. The stitches were removed a few days ago and his mouth is slowly recovering.

The best feeling in the world...

Taylor had 2 wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday night (Both teeth were on the right side). Unfortunately I had to leave him to go to school on Wednesday morning but I came home as soon as I could to take care of him. His diet over the past few days has consisted of homemade applesauce, mashed potatoes, oatmeal, cream of wheat, and ice cream. Beside the first night when he was in complete pain at 1:30 am he's been doing pretty well. Here's a picture of him on the night he came home from the dentist


..I will let him tell the full story once he has recovered, but I will suffice it to say that just the sight of him and hearing his mere attempt to tell the story made me light-headed and feeling woozy. I had to leave him to go sit in front of the fan and get some oxygen so I wouldn't pass out.

His face started to swell up yesterday. I don't think he was very happy with me for taking a picture of his chipmunk cheek but I wanted to document it.
This picture was from yesterday. It's even more swollen today. It looks like he has a big wad of gum..or chewing tobacco, stuffed into his right cheek. He was brave enough to come back to work today.

Taylor is a brave, brave man. After hearing his story, many of the other teachers, myself included, decided we don't really want to have any dental surgeries done here in Korea.
The one major plus was price....$100 for 2 wisdom teeth extractions, including 2 x-rays, local anesthetic (yes, this means he was awake for the entire 50 minute procedure), and pain medication. It's hard to argue that price!

In other news, the night Taylor came home from surgery happened to be the same night the power went out. He came home and fell asleep but we were both up around 1:30 am as he was in extreme pain. He was pacing back and forth in our apartment with an agonizing look on his face. This went on for about 20 minutes, then BOOM, the kitchen light made a loud pop and went out. Then we noticed that the power was out all over the apartment. Come to find out, it wasn't just us, it was our entire building.

The power went out Wednesday morning at 1:30 AM. It did not get turned back on until Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 pm. Luckily, I took all our perishables in a cooler to work and stuck them in the fridge. Once the power was turned on at 4:30, we discovered that some things had been damaged and needed to be replaced. Like the light in the kitchen for example. Another one....the water heater.

The water heater did not get fixed until Thursday afternoon around 5:30. In lieu of taking ice cold showers, we took no showers, hence the title of this post. You know that feeling when you haven't showered for awhile, or you've managed to get yourself really dirty? But oh, when you take that shower and get clean it's the best feeling in the world!

Luckily, it hasn't gotten cold enough to need heat in our apartment. The heating is done by hot water being flushed through pipes underneath the flooring. Essentially, it is floor heating. But without hot water there is no heat.

We're very glad to have this wonderful resource back. Sometime we lose sight of how great we have it in life but it's moments like these that give a reality check.

The other night I was reminded of the month I spent in Uganda, Africa. One of the best times in my life. Every other night we were without power and forced to eat, fellowship, clean up dinner, and go to bed by candlelight. There simply was not enough power for the entire town of Masaka.

Korea is a very developed nation and I am thankful that the adjustment hasn't been as drastic or extreme as it could be if we had moved to a Third World Country. But I never want to forget the beautiful people living in those nations that don't have it so easy. In the U.S. and some other countries (not Korea) we can turn on the faucet and have clean drinking water. It's that easy.

I have met children in Uganda who walk miles and miles every day to get clean drinking water and they carry several gallons of water back across the many miles, oftentimes with no shoes.
When we think about these sobering facts, really, honestly, what do we have to complain about? A cold shower? Old clothes or shoes? Going to work to earn a living? Food?

Think about what you have. All the many blessings God has bestowed upon you. The health, prosperity, friendships, environment you live in. So many things to be thankful for. So many.

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies;
but let the thankful heart
sweep through the day and,
as the magnet finds the iron,
so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
Henry Ward Beecher