I started reading a few chapters before bed each night… not studying it or anything, just reading. This way I’ll have an idea of what happens in each book of the bible and I will go back and study each book over time individually. I am about to start Isaiah tonight. The toughest part was getting through the first 5 books of the bible. With all the laws and descriptions of what each priestly robe and tabernacle item should look like, it was tough to get though. If you can make it past Numbers, you’re doing great!! Then it gets more interesting. I honestly think Genesis was the best read yet! It connected sooo many dots for me. And reading the Old Testament really helps you understand the New Testament more, because Paul and most of the disciples were Jewish and were raised according to the Law. So knowing what the Old Testament Law was like helps you better understand the parables and descriptions by Jesus and Paul. I highly recommend reading the whole bible either cover to cover or in chronological order.
I’m having a HUGE Mega rummage sale soon. Selling off most of my things. I want to keep a few of my bigger items like my bed, dresser and bookshelves. Everything else goes. I need to slim down my possession to fit into a dorm room with only a few things in storage. YAY!! I feel lighter already, and I’m only just pricing things so far.
I was always thinking I had to wait until I had some major topic to write about. Turns out people who read blogs prefer shorter entries more often. So I keep them shorter, include pictures and try to do it more often. :)
I got my tattoo back in April. I made sure I waited until I was old enough to decide on a design I wouldn’t hate when I was older. What I got was the phrase “Daughter of God” written in Hebrew on my right wrist. It hurt worse than back surgery.. I think because it was so high on my wrist. I should have gotten it maybe 1 inch lower, but oh well. I’m glad I have it. I really like how it looks. I don’t think I’ll be ashamed of it when I’m older… and if I am, I can cover it with a wrist watch. I wanted to be sort of ‘marked for God’. So here it is :)
I feel God calling me to the mission field, so that is what I am currently pursuing. I feel He has opened a door for me to move to Texas, so that may be my next step. I don’t know how to go about becoming a missionary, but I have people I can talk to about this. I hope I can spend most of my life doing this!
So either my life is sooo boring that I have nothing new to blog about, or I can’t think of any good topics. I will sit down to write, and nothing comes to mind. Maybe I need to shake things up a bit in life so I’ll more compelling topics to write about. That must be it!
I’ll get right on that…
So our friend came over last night and hooked up the router. It didn’t work at 1st, but we got it running. I guess I bought a router with a pretty wide attena range, so we’re thinking of telling the neighbors the password for a nominal fee ;)
But I’m wireless now and happy! I can go online in the basement, on the back porch, wherever! It’s great! I recommend it to everyone. Unless you have a regular PC, in which case, lugging it around wouldn’t be the easiest thing. haha
I finally bought a wireless router for our internet, but it’s sitting in the box. We have a friend who said he’d come by to hook it up. I can’t wait! My roommate and I sit in the livingroom with our laptops and pass the cable wire back and forth when someone needs to change their internet page. It’s sad, really! We neeeeed to hook this router up soon!!
So I hosted a photo scavenger hunt on New Years Eve this 07/08 and it was crazy fun! I had 27 people show up! My friends and I had compiled rules and a list of items they had to take pictures of. We had a list of 5 must have items that they had to capture before they could move onto the bonus list of almost 40 items. We split people into teams of 3-5 members, said they could only use 1 car, and 1 digital camera. They had 2 1/2 hours to drive around town getting the pictures, and had to be back at our place by 10:30pm or they were disqualified. We gave away prizes for winners in 4 categories and actually got to use old bowling trophies that our friend’s grandma had won in the 70’s! Everyone loved that part!
This party was sooo much fun! People were so excited to participate! We’re thinking of doing another one during the summer, since so many of our pictures were snow related this time. This was the most fun I have EVER had on New Year’s Eve!!
My friend bought me my laptop while he was out getting a plasma screen tv on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. I love it. Windows Vista is ok. I’ve downloaded all my music onto my laptop and put them on my new MP3 player. Now we’re trying to get wireless internet set up at our duplex. We’ll see when that happens. I bought a router, but haven’t hooked it up yet. Maybe I should make that another goal to meet ;)
I went with a 30GB Microsoft Zune instead of an iPod, and I love it. They’re newer on the market, so their accessories are more expensive, but I love it more than an iPod.
I bought mine on eBay. You’ve got to watch for New ones ‘Still in the box’ or still ‘factory sealed’ so you get a brand new one. I’m very happy with mine and recommend them to anyone else!
Now if I could just figure out how to download movies onto it. Hmmm….
I just started a new bible study with some of my girlfriends. We are going to go thru the whole bible in a year according the schedule on www.biblereadthrough.com. We’re starting in the middle of the year and will finish in August of last year. I’m so excited for this! I am so excited to spend time with God. I have been pretty diligent about reading the bible passages every night. We’re in 2Chronicles, Malachi & John.
I can’t wait to have read all of God’s word and know what He has laid before us. I can’t believe God has given us this book and all the information about his love and our lives, and I haven’t even read it once in 28 years. I spend so much time watching tv, but I never spend any of that time with God.
So that is changing slowly now. YEAH GOD!!!!
So studying Wisconsin Insurance laws is really boring, so are the different aspects of insurance in general. I would say that if you don’t have to get this license for job purposes… don’t bother. It takes 30 – 40 hours worth of studying to pass. But I did it! 1st try! :)
I bought a 2003 Saturn LSeries sedan in metallic cherry red. The guy that owned it before me was making some modifications to it, so it’s got all tinted windows, a Python security system with remote start, a different silver grill on the front with horizontal bars, aggressive snow tires, dual exhaust pipes- the big fat ones.. don’t know the fancy wording for all this stuff—and he switched out the tail lights for Euoropean style lights that are round and bubble out. But… with all these little mods, he didn’t touch the factory stereo system! I would have expected a better cd player than the factory one. Wouldn’t you?
Oh well ;)
But I love my car, so everything is great! My 1st payment will be May 29th. That’s when I’ll have less money for fun stuff. :( I haven’t had a car payment in 5 years! So this is a change for me. And my insurance went up now that I have to have full coverage on a newer car. Bummer.
Thanks for all the support! I’m sooo excited to finally have a newer car! And it’s just the car I was looking for. :)
So my dad works at a car dealership again and found me the same car I was going to buy last time, but for about 3 grand cheaper! I’m going up to visit him and purchase it this weekend. So Saturday morning I should be the proud owner of a Saturn L200. I’m pretty excited about that!
So I’ve bought maybe 5 replacement cd’s so far. Most of them at 2nd hand resale CD/DVD stores, but 1 at regular price. Hmmm.. it’s kind of nice to have a case and words for them! ;)
One tattoo I want to get for sure is the Hebrew translation of “Yahweh’s Daughter”, because that’s what I am. I chose to refer to God as Yahweh because if I get it written in Hebrew, that’s how they refer to God. Trying to figure out a place to put it since it’s kind of a label of sorts. My friend Erich suggested my arm – like in the military- or on a tag coming out of my behind like a stuffed animal… isn’t he funny ;)
Any suggestions? Where would you place a label on someone? Arms are overdone. I was thinking on my neck, just right below the hair line so it’s only noticeable if I move my hair.
The other ideas are: 1. A goldfish colored Jesus fish (hollow in the middle) that has scales, and a goldfish looking tail.
OR… my friend is a graphic designer and designed one with 3 fish & 3 super thin crosses. The big fish would be central, the 2 smaller fish are staggered symetrically on the bottom 1/2 of the big fish, and intersect with it at some point. Inside the big fish toward the nose would be the 3 skinny crosses with long vertical lines and different heights and lengths. It looks so cool! I just don’t know where I’d get that one if I got it. Maybe on my upper back between my shoulder blades.
I want the Hebrew tattoo for sure, then I’ll decide on the fish later. I guess a friend & I have a date to go get this done in March or April so…. pretty soon.
I did it! I’M OUT OF DEBT!!! I’M OUT OF DEBT!!! Come on!! Dance with me! Sing my little song of financial freedom!!! WEEEEE!!!!!
SOOO FRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My past won’t haunt me!!!
Nobody’s gonna take my pride, nobody’s gonna slow me down, OH NO! I’ve got to keep on movin’!
Who’s with me!? Line up so I can run down the line and give high fives.
Sooo, I’m a little happy right now! Who wants to celebrate?
So this morning I woke up early to call the place I owed $863.63. It was actually an old Sam’s Club card that had accrued sooo many late fees and interest charges that it went way up! So I called and talked to John. I prayed before calling for confidence and strength to negotiate a lower price with them and I DID!
I came right out the gate saying that I would like to work with them to lower the pay off price, and pay it off today. The rep punched in some numbers and came back saying they could let me pay it off at $633.03 – about $200 less than what was owed. I thought about it (at least I made it sound like I thought about it, I fully intended to get this down to about $500), and asked one more time – very politely, but firm – is there any way we can get this down any further to around $400 – $500 and I’ll pay it off today? Dude goes to his supervisor and comes back saying they can go down $100 more to $533.03. I pretend to think about it for a second, then accept the offer. I got over $300 off!!! I was sooo proud of myself for not only taking care of the bill, but for being firm and confident to negotiate! I’m so happy with the results!
So now I’m going to go test drive the car they delivered to my local dealer for me. I am going to re-evaluate where my finances are right now and see if we can wait a week or so to redo my credit report once all these places post my payments. IF I can swing it, maybe I will end up with a new car. I know credit reports like to see 3 months of good repayment on things, so I’m fully prepared to wait until May to buy a car. It will be a bummer, but if that’s what it takes, that’s fine.
I am now officially a responsible adult!
So I was all set to buy a car…. TONIGHT! But then I changed my mind. I had the car picked out & delivered too, which hurts.
But here’s the thing. I fell into the stupidity financial trap as many early 20 somethings did- and ruined my credit 6-7 years ago. Well, like I said, I was all set to go pick up the car tonight, but changed my mind. See, because of my poor credit HISTORY (only 2 more years before it all falls off my credit report!!!!!!) my interest rate was going to be crazy high! My monthly payments were going to be $100 more than I planned on cuz of insane interest added on. There was one company that pulled up on my credit report as not having been paid off, so I called them and paid that tonight over the phone… then I remembered 3 others that had sent me bills many many years ago, but I hadn’t ever paid them up cuz I was always poor… so I called them up too and paid them! You should have seen me! I came home, sat down at the counter with my debit card, yellow pages & cell phone and called all over finding #’s of places I knew I had an outstanding balance.
Here’s the funny thing, I am sooo blessed! I have a good job now with good pay. I lived on sooo little for sooo long when I moved here, that back when these bills were created I thought $50 was the most astronomical amount to pay.. cuz I just didn’t have it! Now, I’m calling these places that I had been hiding from for 5-7 years and they’re telling me my past due balances of $88, $91, $300+ and even one for $860+ and I’m thinking… Oh! That’s no problem! The $300 & $860 I’m going to call Monday (they were closed early today) and try to negotiate for a lower pay off price… then just pay it!
I’m sooo flippin’ excited right now! I don’t even care that I can’t get a new car for several months now until I save up another down payment. I finally feel like an adult and like the weight of this burden I’ve been carrying, this figuritive black cloud over my head, is lifting! I think it’s great that I saved so much for my car, which totally revamped my finances/budget/saving habits and now I’m using it to clear away my past!
I really can’t describe how amazing it feels to pay off a bill that has been looming over me for years. I was soo lazy! Sometimes I would just not pay it out of laziness. But that was then. Now, I pretty much do everything online.
So now, I’ll pay everthing off but my last college loan and when I save up money the next few months and walk into that dealership again, I can do it with my head held high knowing that most of my credit has been taken care of. I won’t show anything being owed to a creditor, I’ll show good steady payments on recurring accounts like my auto ins, cell phone & student loan… which will be the only debt I have. Hmmm… No debt. I’m liking the sound of that so much that it’s making think I should just drop some cash on my car for a good tune up and drive it into the ground. THEN, if I’ve been saving as well as I have been, I’ll have like 1/2 the car payment put away and I’ll be able to buy an even newer car for 1/2 the payments. DANG! This is great!
Funny the way this worked out, huh? I started saving for a new car, and ended up NOT getting the car, but correcting the root of my financial problems with that money instead. Crazy. I LOVE IT!
