Monthly Archives: December 2012

Time For a Little Sunshine

Yellow Flowers

Britton has been enjoying his time off and resting after his major medical incident back in November. He has recovered nearly all of his memory and is functioning quite well with the treatments of the doctor. He has been sleeping through the whole night again and doesn’t seem nearly as anxious either. Life as a whole has gotten much better for him and us. He is scheduled to return to a modified work schedule near the beginning of February.

In the mean time, our good friends have been talking about picking up a property in Puerto Rico as well which would be awesome because we would love to hang out with them there. They love the tropics as we do and I think together we would have a blast. They had a few properties they wanted to check out, and like we did a few years back when we first unknowing found our house, are sending a scout, our friend Matt, to check them out. Britton thought it would be a good time to go on a trip since he is using up all of his time off for the year and it’s a rare opportunity to do something like this with his best friend.

anasco beach

So Britton and Matt will be in Puerto Rico for a little less than a week in the middle of January. They will be staying at our place in Rincon while together they look at properties and do a few  fix-up jobs and clean-up around the property.

Since it is just a short trip, I am going to stay home and vicariously enjoy the sunshine through Britton and Matt’s updates. It will be tough since we’re in the midst of the coldest part of the year, but just knowing that they are down there getting it ready for our final journey coming up will make it all the more sweet.

 

Rincon Sunset

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Christmas Surprises

This morning we awoke to a white Christmas which is somewhat unusual in this dryland prairie area of Colorado that we live in. It added a sparkle and glitter to an otherwise very cold day (high of 18!). We slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast and made Christmas cookies to give out with the presents.

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Kitty was appreciative of being inside and the chickens mainly stayed in their coop except when they let us know they needed their water warmed up and were tired of eating snow.

White Christmas and chicken
The White Chicken on White Christmas

Later that afternoon we went over to Britton’s family’s house to open presents and then headed over to my grandma’s for ham dinner and a little more gift exchanging.

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My grandma and aunt at dinner

And as Britton promised in the last post, we have a little Christmas surprise for all of you as well.

Drumroll….

We got chopped! Here we are before:

Cassie with Long Hair
My long hair (before)

Britton before
Britton’s hair and November mustache

And after:

Britton and Cassie Haircuts
The new sleeker usBritton shaved down and I’m without about 9 inches of hair

Me and B at Grandmas
What do you think? A good Christmas surprise?

Big changes have been happening a lot lately and we felt compelled to do our part through our appearance. It’s always fun (and a little scary) to try something new. We hope you all had some wonderful surprises and a great time with family and friends. Merry Christmas!

 

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Galleta de la Fortuna

Cassie and I went out to lunch at Ambrosia (Asian food restaurant)  here in Greeley and this was in my fortune cookie:

Fortune

I am a pretty big believer that life is always a struggle, but I think the fortune is pretty spot on.  This is a good sign for me as I feel as though my time off has given me an opportunity to reinvent myself.  I am getting my passion for life back, which is a great sign!   Oh which reminds me….I will have a surprise in my next post.  Stay tuned!

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Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do or Do Without

The title has been our mantra for years and years.  We have lived by it in order to save money but also to reduce waste.  We generally reuse anything we can and avoid buying new things for as long as possible.   This applies to everything from bedroom slippers to cars and even roofs on houses.

I have repaired our roof many times while I see a lot of neighbors just paying to have new roofs put on.  I spend ~$30 on shingles and a few hours of time.  I just have trouble letting go of the $4k-$5k on a whole new roof.   Plus, my repairs work fine….I do realize at some point however, it will need to be replaced.  I just want to hold out, “If I can replace the roof once, when everyone else did it twice in the same time frame……”.

worn slippers
It’s time for new slippers?

The avoidance of buying new stuff has left us with some pretty ragged wares.  I’ve had old sweatshirts and faded hoodies that have lived long past their time.  I have shoes held together with screws and cars held together with glues.

It has however allowed us to take the money that would have been spent on new items and put it into savings or investments.  We have found that it is much easier to do this when you have a purpose, ours being to move to Puerto Rico, rather than to just do it because.  This purpose also complicates things.  Get a new car before moving?  No way!  Get new slippers?  Will we even need them in PR?

We do eventually replace things, it’s just that we use it up and wear it out.  We try to make it do and we try to do without.   If all else fails, we bite the bullet and get a replacement.  On sale.  With a coupon.

We are planning to get new carpet for our house (it’s 11yr old carpet) but this isn’t for us per se, we are going to turn our house into a rental when we move.  As an investment we can justify the cost.  Weird huh?   We often times will spend money on something we aren’t even going to directly use ourselves!

high mileage Honda
Time for a new car?

 

Even with my car I am thinking about just getting a new motor (make it do).  It leaks oil, the valves make awful sounds and the transmission has a bad 3rd gear (I have to shift into 4th before going into 3rd).  I just don’t want to spend anything on it.  I also want to see it hit 300k.  My mtn bike had 24 gears when I bought it 14 years ago but now only has 2 usable gears…lol.

In my mind I attribute this method of thought to the depression era, or what I think the depression era would have evoked in people’s spending habits.  Hence the saying. I also don’t think we would be this way (or to such a degree) if we didn’t have our Puerto Rico dream. Puerto Rico gives us a purpose and so even when it is a sacrifice, it doesn’t feel like it because it is a goal with a purpose.  I once heard it said and believe it: “Goals without purpose are empty of meaning, while having a purpose can give meaning to any goal.”

I came to the conclusion the other day that I haven’t just been doing this with our stuff.  I have been doing it with my own body and mind.  I have used it and used it and put it to work for hours and hours without sleep and expected it to just do everything I throw at it. I have used it up, worn it out, made do and then lost my memory and so had to do without (for a while, now it’s back thankfully)!

So even with this mantra, we may have worn it out too. Sometimes we have to be willing to try new things as well. It’s all about balance. For me, I needed this time to rest and rejuvenate.  I wish roofs on houses could get fixed with just a little relaxation and rest!

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