We Built a Life We Loved

August 4th, 2007 changed the trajectory of mine and Justin's lives forever. It was the night we met. He liked my Doc Martins and my SUV... and I really didn't want anything to do with him. However, since my dog didn't want to leave his side, I was kind of stuck talking to him! (Thank you Rusty!)

The night we met!

I was there because of canceled plans. He was there because of a random invite from a stranger. God was there, because He knew something we didn't. The stars had to align for Justin and I to meet, and they did!

We married, had 3 children, owned 2 houses, and made countless friends and memories in Washington. This will forever be the place that we fell in love and started our family.

We have been blessed to spend so much time with our family here.

We are saying good-by to amazing friends.

 

And we've had some pretty awesome adventures!

I will always love the salty sea air of the Pacific Ocean and crisp, fresh air of the mountains. I will forever be a PNW girl.

Mukilteo, WA

Port Angeles, WA

Chinook Pass, WA

Bremerton ferry to Seattle, WA

  

This is a very small... I mean very, very small collection of pictures and people and memories and gratefulness.

We'll see you again soon, Washington. Much love.

And the Award Goes to...

I received an e-mail last week with the subject line "TOP SECRET 3RD GRADE INFORMATION". The e-mail was from Jordan's teacher, inviting us to the upcoming awards assembly, where Jordan would be receiving an award.

You guys. I was in tears. This was the first time I would be able to immediately respond "I'LL BE THERE!!" without having to request time off, without having to stress about work, without having to worry about traffic holding me up on my way to the school. Tears. This. THIS is the life we have done so much planning in order to have.

Here she is!

She was so surprised and excited to see Justin, Grandma, and me in the gym!! And seriously people, can we please fund our schools?? That gym had NO air conditioning!

Jordan's award was a teacher selected award for good citizenship!! We love our girl and her big heart! So proud of this one! Side note: I can't believe she's going to be in 4th grade in just a couple months!!

Keep on being awesome, Jordan!!

Ruff Life on the Water

Justin has always wanted a water dog. For anyone that has ever had a boxer, it shouldn't be a surprise that our pair was not too keen on getting in the mostly frigid Washington water. They were more suburb pups, content to lounge around most of the time.

When we got Lincoln, our mini Aussie, there was once again hope for a pup that would like the water. Despite Lincoln and Justin's differences, this is one area where they have definitely lined up!

Lincoln is 100% a water lover! He will jump in rivers fresh off of the Cascades if you throw a stick. He will stay in Lake Wenatchee until he's shaking, as long as you keep throwing his stick of the day.

This dog has no fear of water - which can be quite scary in rivers. Those currents completely freak me out with this dog, because he's usually exhausted from swim-fetching and I know he wouldn't be able to fight getting caught up in a current. He just never wants to stop swimming, even when he's cold and exhausted; so every time we have to be the meanies and call it quits for him.

So, finally; a water dog!! Anyone else have a water dog? What breed?

Olioboard to the Rescue!

I'm awesome at decorating... in my head. You know, making the perfect picture only to not really have anything exist in real life or be able to communicate my ideas sufficiently to my husband.

Enter Olioboard. I discovered this site a few years ago, and it's pretty amazing. You can use the site for fun or for practical purposes. It's the designing/decorating site you've always wanted and needed! Oh, and it's free!


This is how it works.

• You can design rooms using preloaded backgrounds and items just for fun or to complete challenges.
• You can upload a photo of your room (preferably empty), and decorate with preloaded items or items you load into the program that you already have or currently at a store.
• Sometimes you have to kind of piece things together on the program, but this tool is really good at giving you direction when shopping for your home pieces.

I've used it to design multiple rooms! This was the Olioboard I did for our covered patio:

I uploaded a picture of our patio, uploaded a picture of a similar couch to ours, chairs I wanted from Target, and then decorated. Then I decorated in real life! I bought the chairs and then tackled the fireplace. 

I hated how the top of our fireplace was the same color as our house, and I knew I wanted something to warm up the dark stacked stone. I used the preexisting white frame-out as a template, measured and had the staff at Home Depot cut boards for me. Then, a coat of stain and nails down each side and the center, and it was done! here's the inspiration again, and the mostly finished project.

I never made it around to getting a coffee table or other decor before we decided to sell, but I was really pleased with how well I was able to bring the Olioboard to life!

Here is the living room wall Olioboard design and result:

Living Room wall - mostly just size & placement ideas

Real life - I loved the end result! (Rocking chair typically sat in the same place as in the idea board)

And I never got around to the mater bedroom in real life, but I'm thinking it should be easy enough to transfer to our next house.

I have a different gold mirror that was my grandma's, so the idea one is just an example.
And I thought it might be fun to have his & hers chairs, like in the movie Up!

Hopefully you find the resource helpful! I know that I will be using it MUCH MORE as we move on to our next house! 

Picture This!

In the age of camera phones, I tend to take a LOT of pictures. Most of those pictures don't make it off my phone, except to grace the newsfeeds of all of my Facebook friends.

However!! I do love me some photo books. Whenever Shutterfly has a free photobook offer, I try to throw a book together really quickly and get it ordered. Usually I pay under $8 for shipping and that's it! Truly a great deal.

I love photobooks, because I can't hang up every picture that I love. I mean, I COULD... but let's be realistic. So, the kids and I have been able to spend a countless amount of time flipping through pages of photos of our family and those we love! This is the latest book I scored for FREE:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create your own custom photo books at Shutterfly.com.

It should be the final package to arrive before our move! I can't wait to get it in my hands!


**If you want to score free photobooks and other photo items, just follow Shutterfly on Facebook!

P.S. I love you

6 years ago my childhood best friend died by suicide.

That's how I'm supposed to say it. "Died by suicide." It's the correct way to say it. Saying she "commit" suicide implies a crime occurred, implies she did something wrong.

Depression killed my best friend.

That seems more accurate. Depression kills. This is what Depression looks like:

Krystle Rae Todtman - My Name Twin and my foundation

Blonde. Blue eyes. Smiling. Depression is a beautiful lie. Depression lies to us:

• You are worthless.
• You are unlovable.
• You are a burden.

And depression lies to the world:

• Your loved one is okay.
• Your loved one has it all together.
• Your loved one is happy.

For 4 years after depression killed my best friend, I was a broken soul. I spent my waking hours mostly going through the motions of the day. I smiled. I took care of my family. I went to work. But depression had worked its way into my mind and my heart. It took me 4 years of pain, sorrow and tears... all the while reaching out to help others, to finally ask for help myself.

"God - I know I've asked a lot of you. I've asked you to heal Krystle's soul, to surround her with your love and grace... I've asked you to protect her after this life. But God, I need you, too. I can't handle this sadness on my own any longer. Please, please take it. Please."

And I cried. Because, you see, suicide doesn't stop the pain. Suicide magnifies and multiplies the pain. It spreads that pain far and wide to anyone and everyone that knew you. In their grief they question everything they thought to be true. They look suspiciously at everyone around them. "Are they depressed?!" "Is that person feigning happiness?!" It is never the end of pain. Suicide is depression's victory and battle cry.

The day after my desperate prayer was a little better than the one before it. And the next day was a little better. Soon, my tears dried and I felt I could see light and logic for the first time in a long time. And, I know, God had answered the prayer He'd been waiting to hear.

He had been walking beside me in my grief. He was there the whole time, but He was not going to take this time of grief and mourning from me until I was ready to let go of it. And eventually I was ready.

I will never stop missing Krystle. I'm not sure that my heart will ever stop crying out for her this time of year. But I will rest in my faith that God saw her sadness, wrapped her in His love, and said "You are home. And there is no hurting here."

So... with all of our social media fueled good intentions... please, please take it to the next step. Instead of waiting to be reached out to, reach out. Instead of being willing to listing, be willing to talk. Please believe me when I say, you don't want to be in a situation where you're looking back thinking, "I wish I they would have come to me." Depression doesn't reach out. Depression isolates. Be the one to call it out. Be the brave that your loved one needs. Fight for them when they give up. I wish I had.

My friend Dave.

Let me introduce you to my little friend - Dave Ramsey.

Dave hates credit cards. He hates auto loans. He hates debt. Dave LIKES people not having to stress about money and debt.

We've always had credit cards, and used them. What's the big deal? Everyone has credit cards. We have also always had two auto loans... sometimes two auto loans and a trailer loan and a motorcycle loan. What's the big deal? We can make the payments.

We tried a few times to reduce our debt, but it was all very daunting and it seemed just as easy to continue making the payments. When Justin and I decided to move to Ohio, it made sense for me to be a SAHM once we got there... childcare is for real expensive, people! And, with plans for a smaller mortgage and the very real possibility I wouldn't find a comparable salary there, we would just suck-up the income loss. But that meant we were going to have to eliminate some of this debt.

I had a three year plan. Pay off ALL of our debt!! Let that sink in for a moment... two car loans, trailer loan, motorcycle loan, credit cards. So, we did what our friend Dave suggested.

Our debt was officially holding us back, and that just wasn't going to work for us. We started selling things. We were actually selling so much stuff that my cousin approached me, concerned that we were in financial trouble. And we were! We weren't in trouble because we couldn't pay our bills; we were in trouble because we were living to pay our bills.

Good-bye dirt bike. Good-bye quad. Good-bye Coach handbags that were sitting in my closet. And the moment I knew Justin was really serious was when he chose to sell his motorcycle.

Boy, she was a beauty. She was on the pay-off schedule and we could have kept her. However, he said that the money we could make from selling her would get us that much closer to our goals. So, our tax return paid off the bike loan... and the bike sale paid off another debt. And - just like that - $8,000 in debt... GONE. It was amazing, and I felt like we were breathing fresh air for the first time!

I noticed other changes, too. Our house was feeling a little empty. We'd sold furniture, kitchen stuff, clothes... and it was like our house was taking a nice, deep breath, too! (This was playing in nicely to that book, the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I loved so much!)

All in all, by the time I found out I was pregnant with Skyler in June, we had paid off $14,000+ in debt in 2017 alone. Then, with the pending arrival of a new baby, we had to reconsider our move. It was decided that the baby really had some divine timing, because - with our debt pay-off success already - we could justify pushing up our move 2 YEARS, so that I could stay home with baby from the beginning.

This is not our starter home; this will be the 3rd house we've sold, and we've upgraded with each house move. Thankfully, with the current market, we were in a prime spot to sell. The sale of our house will allow us to further our debt pay-off goals and comfortably go forward on 1 income. With that said, here are my home buying tips that I use to ensure a good sale in the future:

1. If you buy new construction, ALWAYS buy during phase 1 of the neighborhood; you pay the lowest price.
2. Buy the biggest lot, the corner lot, the house with the widest front elevation.
3. Everything you add to your house, should be add with resale in mind; even if you're "never" moving.

It's so nice to see that hard work and sacrifice really do pay-off! Years of working 70+ hours a week, commuting 2+ hours a day, and pushing through when we wanted to give up... 10 years after marriage, we are headed towards a simpler life!

So, if you're ready to be brave and tackle your debt... or just turn your direction towards financial freedom, I highly suggest meeting my friend Dave. (Just click on his name!) If you're looking for more support, I suggest joining Jenplans.com's Facebook group. It's a great place to get advice, encouragement, and share your successes with people on the same journey!

I'm going to leave you with my favorite Dave tips!

** There is no boasting or horn-tooting about this post. This is our story, and we hope that it inspires others to dig in to dig out of debt! Living pay-check to paycheck sucks, and you don't have to do it! Meet Dave, follow the steps, get a 2nd job, whatever it takes! YOU CAN DO IT!