Being a One Car Family

One cost-cutting measure I've seen recommended numerous times is becoming a one car family. Ugh. Every time I saw someone make that suggestion, I cringed. I vowed that would never happen in our family. I'm sure part of my thinking came from my grandmother, who had her own car despite the fact that she almost never drove. Cutting back to one car just seemed too radical.

I started to think a little differently when we moved at the beginning of this year. Instead of being 20 miles away from work, my commute is about 0.4 miles. In other words, I can walk to work, home for lunch, back to work, and back home in less time than it took me to drive to work before. Do we really need another car when I'm that close? Even if the weather conditions make it unsafe for me to walk, it wouldn't be too inconvenient for a coworker to give me a ride. In fact, three people offered to take me home one day when it was snowing.

I still resisted the idea of going down to one car. I wanted to at least have the option to drive. But two weeks ago, Nathan's car died. Completely died. There's still a chance it could be fixed, even though we've been advised not to put another dime into it, but so far we haven't messed with it. Nathan has been driving my car to work, and I've walked every day, even in rain and snow. And guess what? It hasn't been that bad. Will we buy a replacement car? Maybe..maybe not. It will of course be necessary when we move or if I change jobs, but for now, one car is actually okay.

There are several advantages of not having a second car and walking to work...

• I'm forced to get some exercise.
• The walk to work makes me much more awake and ready to start my work day.
• I can't go buy fast food for lunch (at least not on my own).
• I sometimes see geese, ducks, and killdeer on my commute.  
• We save money on gas, even if not a lot. 
• If we do get rid of the second car, we'll save on insurance and maintenance. 

And the disadvantages?

• I don't feel like jogging when I get home. (I do walk another mile with Nenya though.)
• If Nathan has car trouble, I can't go pick him up.
• I can't run errands during lunch.
• It's not easy to go to doctor's appointments, although I found a dentist right by work.
• People think I'm weird. Walking commutes are rare in the suburbs I guess.
• I don't like inconveniencing people, so I hate asking for rides.

We aren't sure what to do about our car situation for the time being, but at least I know we can survive with one car.


Are you, or have you ever been, a one car family? If not, would you ever want to be one?


 

First World Problems We Encountered While Moving

Oh, the first world problems. When you consider that one-sixth of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water, can we really look at our own lives and say we have a lot of  problems? Of course it's natural to get used to luxuries we've had our entire lives, but it's important to keep things in perspective and remember that they are just that: luxuries. I'm not the first to write a Top Ten Tuesday post of first world problems (here's a good one), but to remind myself how good I have it, I wanted to make a list of the "problems" we faced after moving into a house at the beginning of this month. 

1. Our garage isn't big enough to easily park both cars in it.
2. The water company doesn't have online bill pay. We have to mail a check.
3. Since we only have one extra bedroom, my desk has to go in the living room.
4. It took two weeks to get internet hooked up.
5. We discovered our refrigerator was blowing hot air, so for the five days until a new one was delivered, we had to eat what was in our pantry or get fast food.
6. The living room had so many boxes the first couple days that we had to go through a maze to get to our table.
7. I didn't buy enough shelf liner for all my kitchen cabinets, so I had to go back to Meijer for more.
8. The cable outlet is on the opposite side of the living room from our TV.
9. It costs more to have the newspaper delivered here, so I canceled my subscription. Now I have to go to a store to buy a Sunday paper. (Edit: Just hours after writing this, the paper company sent me an e-mail saying they "want me back" and offering the rate I was previously paying.)
10. The landlord didn't give us a remote to open the garage door automatically.

I think we'll make it through...


Check out more Top Ten Tuesday at Oh Amanda.

Our 2011

It's been a good year. We haven't really had any major events in our lives, but we've gone on several trips and had a lot of fun together.

January

Nathan gave me a special birthday.
We had our first fondue date night.

We decided to stay in our apartment for another year.

February

Nathan wrote a blog post.

We figured out our first joint tax return.

I got sick of winter.

March

We saw Michael W. Smith (one of Nathan's favorite artists) and Amy Grant (one of my favorite artists) in concert. We teared up as soon as they walked on stage.

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for Nathan's birthday.

We paid off the last of our debt, except graduate school loans. 

    April

I bought a bike.

We went to Florida so I could see where Nathan went to college.

May

We went to the Indianapolis air show.
 

We went camping with my Uncle John and Aunt Kathy and our dogs.

Nathan flew a helicopter.

 June

There was a huge flood in our apartment complex.
We celebrated one year of marriage.

On the same day, Nathan graduated with his MBA.

July

We went to Chicago for the July 4th weekend.

Nathan's car window got smashed.

We went to Arkansas for our friends Kayla and Austin's wedding.

Nathan lost his job.

August

We went to GenCon.

We started tackling reorganizing and decluttering.

I met Crystal from Money Saving Mom and experienced a huge spike in page views.

September

Our friend Eddy got married.

Nathan started working a second shift job.

We got our first smartphones.

October

Nathan switched jobs again, this time back to first shift.

I finally finished our wedding album.
We started Couch to 5K.

We visited two pumpkin patches.

November

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, and Nathan's family the day after.

My car window got smashed.

December

We signed the lease on a rental house and started packing for our move.

We visited Nathan's brother and his family in California.

We celebrated Christmas with my family, and Nathan's the day after.

The theme for the first part of 2012 will be boxes, boxes, and more boxes since we're spending our New Year's weekend moving everything (hopefully) into our new rental house. After that? Who knows.

Happy New Year!

Ready to Move On

I haven't felt much like cleaning lately. Or cooking. Or blogging. Or crafting. Or doing much of anything really. It's not depression or illness. The problem? Want-to-move-itis. 

I've been doing my best to be content here. I know this apartment is much nicer than what many people have. But when I open up a dryer in the community laundry room and find something, uh, unmentionable, or when we come back after Thanksgiving and see my car looking like this...

...after Nathan's was broken into five months ago...well, it's hard not to want to get out of here.

The good news is, we are getting out of here very soon! While I had a list of the pros and cons of staying here a year ago, there is no way we could renew our lease for another year. Next month, we're moving into a rental house. It has a garage, a fenced in back yard with a deck, and washer and dryer hookups. The overall square footage is a little more than we have now, with a master bedroom as big as I could ever want. And, quite possibly the most exciting part for me, the house is only a half mile from where I work. After a year and a half with a 30 minute commute, I'll now be able to bike or even walk to work.

Although it's wonderful knowing how close I am to having so many new conveniences in my life, it's also making it much more difficult to live in the present. I'm trying to focus one major event at a time, and we have a few of those in the last half of this month! Tomorrow, we're getting on a plane to go visit Nathan's brother and his family in California. Once we get back, I'll be getting things ready for Christmas with both of our families. Since I have a company wide shutdown the week of Christmas, I'll have a week to work on getting everything packed to start moving our things in January.

I'm excited about all of it!

Enjoying Fall

Not too hot...not too cold...beautiful colors. It's a great time of year for having fun outside. 

 You can conquer a corn maze

Hug a tree

Cuddle together for warmth

Build a house

Dine al fresco

Pick the perfect pumpkin

And most of all, just escape from the city and enjoy the SPACE. As much as I love where I live now, the city can be a little suffocating after growing up with cows for neighbors.

What are you enjoying this fall?


Shared at Things I Love Thursday and Finer Things Friday.

10 Things to Do Before Kids

"So when are you having kids?"

I was really amazed when people started asking that only a few months into my marriage. With women 10 years older than I am becoming first time moms and with my parents having me (their first) more than 7 years into their marriage, I was just not expecting to be asked that question so soon. What's the big hurry? While we would certainly consider a child a blessing at any time in our marriage, I see no reason why we need to have a baby right now. I'm happy just enjoying our marriage for a while.

A recent post on Weddingbee from the "After I do" series featured several married ladies' answers to the question, "What is something you wish you did before you had your baby, or something you plan to do before you have a baby? What is something you did before baby that you’re so thankful you did?"

I thought it was a good question to consider. Is there anything I could do now that I won't be able to do once kids come along? Is there anything I need to do before I become pregnant to improve my pregnancy experience or my child's life? Honestly, I can't think of anything I need to do, but there are a few things I probably should do or would like to do. This is a list of ideas, not necessarily goals or suggestions.

Figure out being a family of two
After a year of marriage, we're still working on how to function as a family unit and how to communicate with each other. I don't expect us to ever completely master that, but I'd like to feel at least a little less clueless before we add anyone else to the mix.

Go on a relaxing vacation
I'm not talking anything exotic here (we honeymooned in Cincinnati, after all). We just have a tendency to want to do this, this, this, and this when we go on trips. I want to go somewhere and not have an agenda for once. I'm thinking a nice cabin with a jacuzzi tub.

Start buying organic food and stop buying as much processed food
I can't see us ever buying organic food exclusively, but I'd like to at least buy the dirty dozen organically (an idea I got from the baby bucket list of Erika from Newlyweds on a Budget ). I want to start making my own granola bars, and maybe even crackers.

Get a second dog
This one probably sounds crazy if you aren't a dog person (which I used to not be). But Nathan really wants a second dog, and lately I've been thinking having a dog that will actually run with me would be awesome. Nathan met with a trainer last week about Nenya's anxiety and confidence issues, and she actually suggested getting a second dog once Nenya has become a little more socialized. If we're going to have two dogs when we have kids, it's best that we have both of them trained well before we have kids.

Get in the habit of regular exercise
I want to be able to exercise while pregnant, which means I'd better start exercising before becoming pregnant. This needs to happen sooner than later.

Move somewhere with a washer/dryer and fenced-in yard

This one is not optional. I am not going to haul a bunch of clothes and a baby out to the car to do laundry, especially since we'll have a lot of extra laundry. I also don't want to have to go outside with the baby and the dogs, especially if we get a second dog!

Read and Research
I want to read up on the facts on things like pregnancy and childbirth. What foods should I avoid? Home birth or hospital birth? I like to plan ahead. So far on my reading list are What to Expect Before You're Expecting and Get Ready to Get Pregnant.

Have a better community
We don't have much of a community here right now. Both sets of parents are an hour away, which is nice, but we can't really use them as a last minute baby sitter. We don't have many friends here either. Becoming first time parents when we're this isolated is a little scary.

Do some freelance design work
Although I will most likely continue to work full-time after our first child is born, I'd like to at least explore the possibility of working from home. I could use the extra work to build up my portfolio no matter what direction my career takes.

Continue putting all my income towards student loans and savings
Unless it takes us a long time to get pregnant, it's unlikely that we'll have all the grad school loans paid off before we have a baby, but I want to pay as much as possible.

How about you? Is there anything you'd like to do before you have kids, or that you wish you had done before kids?


Visit Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday Posts.

Changing Shifts & Shifting Gears

The good news is that Nathan started a new job this week. The bad news? He works 3pm-11:30pm. He doesn't get home until I'm in bed and doesn't wake up until after I leave in the morning. Both our jobs are a half hour from home and 20 minutes from each other, so dropping by for lunch isn't going to happen either. In other words, we aren't going to be seeing much of each other.

This is going to be quite the transition. These last couple weeks before he started the job, I tried to make the most of our evenings, spending as much time with him as possible. I wasn't worried about things like dusting, reading, or blogging. Now, I'm going to be on my own each evening with plenty of time to get work done. But so far, I'm not doing much of anything. I've just been sitting around while the dishes pile up and the floors get dirtier and dirtier. I've gotten used to this relax mode I was in.

I need to figure out how to switch gears and restructure my time. My weekly chore schedule is going to need to change to make my Saturdays open. I'm thinking one day of intense cleaning, one day for intense cooking and baking, one day for shopping, and two days of light cleaning and whatever projects I want. We also need to figure out how to pack a week's worth of quality time into the weekends. We've been having date nights almost every Saturday since we've been married, but we'll need to make it a date day!

I'm thankful for this new job. I'm thankful we only had eight weeks with just my paycheck and didn't need to touch our emergency fund. I'm just not thrilled about this life change, and neither is Nathan.


Anyone have tips on how to survive working opposite shifts?


Check out more Try New Adventures Thursday at Alicia's Homemaking.

Picky Eaters & Other Quirks

I know I've mentioned before that Nathan is a picky eater. He says he can't change his taste buds, and I get that, but it sure makes my life complicated. I feel like I'm making food for a toddler!

Pizza with only toppings Nathan hates, a.k.a. deliciousness

These are just a few of the ways he's a picky eater:

• He doesn't like "chunky" tomatoes. Even diced tomatoes have to go in the food processor.
• He has no tolerance for spicy food. He even hates ginger. (Pepperoni is pushing it.)
• He likes raisins by themselves but not baked in things
• He won't eat lettuce, peas, broccoli, peppers, or just about any other vegetable.
• Apples, apricots, and potatoes must be peeled for him to eat them.
• He hates pineapple. He insists even a little pineapple juice ruins punch.

But really, it's unfair for me to say he's the picky eater. Even though I will eat almost anything, I do have my quirks when it comes to food. One day when Nathan was kind enough to make me a sandwich for lunch, I complained that he hadn't sliced it diagonally. "Now who's the toddler?" he asked me. Oh. Oops.


These are some ways I'm a picky eater:

• I don't like milk on my cereal. Any cereal. Ever.
• I hate fresh bananas or anything banana-flavored (just like the Pioneer Woman). However, I love dried bananas and banana nut bread.
• I don't like donuts.
• I like my sandwiches cut diagonally.
• I can't stand it when different foods touch each other.
• I hate asparagus.

It's easy to make fun of someone's quirks when they're not your own. We might not even think some of our preferences or behaviors are odd because it's just the way our families have always done things. For example, since I grew up eating both canned and frozen varieties of most vegetables, I thought Nathan was picky for insisting that frozen corn and canned green beans are good, but canned corn and frozen green beans were disgusting. Then I mentioned this fact at his parents' house, and his parents agreed that these preferences were just common sense. We all have our own definition of normal.

Marriage is a great way to learn about your quirks. I never realized until Nathan pointed it out that I drive with my left foot on the seat and my left knee over against the window. Apparently walking around while brushing your teeth isn't normal either. The good news is that Nathan hasn't discovered anything weird enough to scare him off (yet).

Has your spouse pointed out quirks you didn't know you had?

Our Labor Day Weekend

We spent a lot of our three-day weekend working on more decluttering. We filled Nathan's trunk (a huge one!) with boxes and bags of excess to take to Goodwill. We also sold a box of books at Half Price Books for $11.50 (and managed to leave the store with $3). 

We continued weeding out the clutter after the Goodwill trip. I spent time going through my dresser, asking questions like how many pairs of Christmas socks is excessive? Nathan went through his closet and found several shirts, pants, and ties he didn't need. We came up with enough extra clothes between the two of us to fill at least another trash bag!

Marsh was tripling coupons again this weekend, so we had to make a trip there. We got all of this for $10.65, and they weren't even tripling $1 coupons this time. That definitely topped my Memorial Day triple coupon shopping. It was fun having Nathan with me to help me decide what to buy and to watch my couponing skills in action. He said I "kicked some serious tail."

(An old photo. It wasn't that cold Monday.)

While we spent a lot of Monday relaxing, we were very active for some of the day. We started out the day by taking Nenya on a two and a half mile walk, and later Nathan and I biked another 11 miles. Not bad for two people who have hardly exercised at all the past year!

It wasn't anything too exciting, but we have so many weekends with planned events or traveling out of town that it's nice to just stay at home sometimes!

The Home of My Our Dreams

Source: thriftysolutionsforanurbangal.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I used to love watching the design shows on HGTV. I would look at all the beautiful remodels and think about how beautiful my own home would be. I've also collected a lot of images of home decor from design blogs and Pinterest.

It's fun to dream about the perfect bathroom...

Source: homestoriesatoz.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Or the ultimate kitchen...

Source: theinspiredroom.net via Amanda on Pinterest

But the thing I didn't realize before I was married? It isn't just up to me what my home looks like. It turns out some men actually have opinions about the way their homes are decorated! 

 

A man might hang up a fuzzy stocking poster in the bedroom because he made it in his college graphic design class and he's proud of it. And if his wife asks why it has to be on display in the bedroom, he may respond, "Where else should we put it?"

Or, a husband may wonder why his wife thinks a "random jar" qualifies as a decorative item - a beautiful, antique Ball jar that many women would love to have for all sorts of decorative purposes!

No, this isn't just my home. This is our home. A home where two opinions of what is and isn't beautiful clash and sometimes compromise. A home where a dog thinks tennis balls and stuffed hedgehogs belong in the kitchen. And one day, we'll have kids adding their own personalities and styles.

The year I had an apartment all to myself, I could decorate however I wanted. I could hang up my French posters and display my Ball jar without being questioned. But I'd rather come home to a husband and a dog than a lonely apartment decorated my way. While I may not love all of my husband's things, I love him enough that I can at least tolerate them. 


Home is really all about the people. It's about what you do in the home. Forget the little things you don't like about where you live and just focus on living!


 

Our First Farmers Market Trip

I'd been meaning to check out the local farmers market since it opened a couple months ago, but I had never managed to make it there. I usually don't go grocery shopping until at least 11:00 on Saturdays, and the market is only open until 11:30. 

What finally motivated me to get out of bed and go? Corn. Corn is one of the five vegetables Nathan will eat, and he's very picky about the kind of corn. All my attempts at serving him good corn had failed, and locally grown corn was my last hope. I also wanted to find some tomatoes, green beans, and red potatoes.

Now that we've had our first experience, I can't believe we waited this long to go. I found everything I'd hoped to find and even threw in a beet as well. The corn was really, really good.

I boiled the red potatoes and green beans and served them over pasta, loosely following this recipe. I think my potato to pasta ratio was a little off since the potatoes I used were so big, but it was pretty tasty.

The most amazing find for me was this lovely little thing. I have always hated beets. Or so I thought. It turns out I just hate canned beets.

After 35 minutes at 400 degrees and some olive oil, it's a completely different story. I was shocked. The taste reminded me a little of sweet potato fries, which I love. That beet pretty much changed my life.

I cut the corn from our last cob and tossed it with chopped tomato and avocado. Too bad we don't have any locally grown avocados!

  

We will definitely be returning to the farmers market. The food might be a little pricey, but if it's 20 times better than the produce you can buy in the grocery store, not to mention chemical free, I think it's worth it.

Do you shop farmers markets?

More Try New Adventures Thursday at Alicia's Homemaking

More Finer Things Friday at Amy's Finer Things

His hands are full too!

When Nathan and I first started dating, several of his friends told me things like "You have your hands full!" or "You don't know what you're getting yourself into!" It was all in fun (I think). What they didn't realize was that dealing with me isn't exactly that easy either. My own quirks and personality flaws have provided him with plenty of challenges.

Here's a recent example of one such challenge. Nathan was at the first day of GenCon, having tons of fun playing games without his wife. He was just about to begin Munchkinsanity, a game which he had very much been looking forward to playing.

Then he got a phone call. 

His wife had walked out the door to take the dog out and locked the door, only to discover that she had forgotten her keys. He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to leave his game, but he knew his wife needed to be the priority and she didn't want to stay outside with the dog for three hours. So he left to return home.

After he had been home for a while, his wife went to get her keys out of her purse but couldn't find them. She checked the other obvious locations in the apartment. Still no luck. Finally, she went outside with the flash light and found her keys next to a bush right outside the door.

She had remembered her keys after all! They had just fallen out of her pocket when she tried to jump away from the attack of the lawn sprinkler! And, being the scatter-brain that his wife is, she had completely forgotten that she had remembered her keys.

No...I really don't think he knew what he was getting himself into either.

For Richer. For Poorer.

This past weekend, my longtime dream of riding a zip line finally came true! It wasn't a huge one, but it was a good starter zip line. Once we finished our adventure, Nathan broke the news to me that he no longer had a job. He wanted me to have my fun that day, but he couldn't put off telling me any longer.

For richer or poorer.

Those words are spoken in traditional wedding vows for a reason; both are very real possibilities in a marriage. When I made that vow at my own wedding, I started crying as I thought of everything we'd already been through and knew we could make it through anything. Sure enough, when Nathan lost his job after just a few weeks of marriage, we survived the poorer for a time. But then he got this new job, with great pay, and I thought everything would be better. Poorer? That was all behind us! And now, here we are, back to just my income. Although I hope this will once again be such a short period of unemployment that we'll hardly notice it, we have no way of knowing.

Marriage is kind of like a zip lining. Even though I'd looked forward to it for a very long time, I didn't know what it would be like when I jumped off that platform. Sometimes it seems like an easy ride, but sometimes you start spinning out of control. You just have to have faith that the cord holding you up is strong enough that you won't fall into the pond.  It's a crazy ride, but I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else.

I know we'll be okay. Living on my income is certainly possible, just not a lot of fun. I'm so thankful that we fully funded our emergency fund and paid off all consumer debt during our first year of marriage. If you have not yet done both of those things, I would truly encourage you to do so as soon as you possibly can. Although you may think everything is great now that you're richer, you never know when Poorer could come to visit.

The End is Near

 

In less than three weeks, on June 26, Nathan and I will celebrate our first year of marriage. As exciting as that milestone is, I'm mainly looking forward to June 26 for an entirely different reason: the conferral of Nathan's MBA. We knew Nathan's grad classes would make the first year a little rough, but things have gotten really rough now that he is in his capstone course, which is writing a 60-80 page business plan. It's a group project with 5 other people, and Nathan is in charge of the finance portion as well as editing the entire paper.

I haven't exactly felt like Nathan's top priority lately. One of his team members was telling him how great he is and that his wife is lucky to have him. I know I'm lucky, but it's kind of ironic hearing that from someone who has spent as much time talking to him this past week as I have. The frustrating part is that I know this project has to take top priority for him to do well in the class. If I want him to do well, do I really even want him to spend much time with me? I'm trying to keep busy doing things by myself, like taking advantage of this great opportunity to get lots of reading done.

Although I do my best to be the supportive wife, sometimes I get tired of being the cheerleader all the time. Nathan's stress is enough to push me to the breaking point, so much that I once sarcastically told him, "Yes, dear, you are going to fail!" No, he's not; I just fail at being a wife sometimes. If nothing else, this has been a good learning experience.


Soon...soon it will be over...just not soon enough!

Nathan's Wedding Gift

A year ago, when we were planning our wedding, Nathan got the idea that instead of having a limo pick us up from the wedding reception, we should have a helicopter. He wanted this to be a surprise for me, but once he decided it would probably be a little too expensive, he told me about his idea. 

Not long after he told me this, there just so happened to be a Groupon for an introductory helicopter flight lesson. Up until that point, I wasn't sure whether or not to buy Nathan a wedding gift. Sure the sales ladies at Jared insisted that I had to buy him a watch since "It's tradition!" but Nathan was happy with the Walmart digital watch he had. 

Flying a helicopter on the other hand? That's something he could enjoy. So, although we left the wedding reception in our own car, later that night I told Nathan that he would get to fly a helicopter. I really thought he would have his lesson last summer, but somehow we just never got around to it. Finally, two weeks before the Groupon expired, Nathan flew a helicopter!

First, the flight instructor showed him and another student all the controls. The two other students there that morning were also using Groupons, so Nathan wasn't the only one to wait until the last minute.

Then he went inside the tent classroom for his ground training.

...while I sat and watched the birds. The metropolitan airport is probably one of the quietest places in the city when there are no helicopters or planes taking off - just the sounds of red-winged blackbirds, mockingbirds, and killdeer.

And then it was Nathan's turn to fly!

A few more instructions

A little bit of hovering

And he was off!

I wish I could have seen the view he had of the city up there. He even flew over our apartment and saw my car on the ground.

Still smiling after his flight 

 Yep, I'd say it was a lot more fun than a fancy watch!

Linked at Try New Adventures Thursday at Alicia's Homemaking.