Free of Credit Card Debt - Free at last! :)

As of 10:25 AM on Friday, June 12 2009, Mr. Monkey and I are free of credit card debt!

I made the lum sum payments on mine and Mr Monkey's credit cards and I feel liberated!

This was made possible due to some awesome tax breaks we received last year, resulting in a HUMONGOUS tax refund. First, all taxes that we paid while living outside of the US while in the employ of a US comany, was returned to us. Then we had the $7500 tax credit, the child credit and a couple of other things that resulted in our taxable income being really small and the majority of our taxes refunded to us.

So now all that remains is to build up our savings, pay off our car loans (two of them), and pay back my mom and dad for some money they loaned to us. So we're not in the clear just yet, just MUCH closer to our goal. :)

Wow, I've been blagging

I learned a new term a while ago, when a friend asked me why I've been blagging. I naturally said "huh?"...so it's a combination of blog and lagging...so lagging on my blog. That was my something new for that day, not as profound as finally completely grasping the theory of relativity or completely grasping all the Gospel has to offer, by the way. But it's a start. :)

It's now pouring down rain outside (oh! And lightening and thunder!), I don't recall Junes in Utah usually being like this. We get this a lot in California, the June Gloom, but maybe my memory is just really bad! It's nice, although I should turn my sprinkler system off for a week or so! Yay for saving money on the water bill! I can't complain, it's not as expensive for water here as it is in Washington, where Leo's older sister lives.

I am mostly writing this entry to keep my memory fresh...allowing me to unload some memories here so I can open up space in my brain for the more important stuff like, remembering the stuff I need to buy at the grocery store.

I am on Day 10 of the Master Cleanse, it has not been difficult, and I actually had given up yesterday and had a bowl of soup with some crackers, and some tomatoes with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. But I'm back on track today. My focus throughout this cleanse has been amazing, my energy has almost never been higher, and I feel lighter and cleaner. My taste preferences are moving away from junk food and towards more gourmet ingredients, which is totally fine by me.

I wasn't originally planning on doing this cleanse, but DH has a coworker at the office who had just completed the 10 day cleanse and raved about the effects, so he decided to try it. This is the second time I have completed the 10 days, and Leo knew I'd done it before so we decided to do it together (makes it MUCH easier when you don't have to prepare dinner for somebody else while you are not eating!)

However, I do miss eating, and I used this cleanse to clean out the toxins in my body and to jump start my healthier lifestyle which I have been following for a short while, but I wanted to give it a kick in the pants, so to say. Next time, perhaps I'll try a cleanse such as the ones from the Isagenix line. I've been drooling over my back issues of Martha Stewart Living magazines for the last several days now, and I'm excited to try a bunch of the recipes in the upcoming weeks. Healthier, of course...with finer ingredients! Although, I'm craving some really fine cheese right now....Harmon's grocery store imports a lot of really yummy cheeses from all over, I love poring over the cheese counter and reading all the labels!

Although the main purpose of the cleanse is to clean, NOT to lose weight...losing weight is still a natural side effect of this. So far I've lost about 6 pounds, but I expect to gain half of it back because it is mostly water weight that comes off, at least in the beginning. But now I am finally solidly below the weight I was at when I got pregnant with Tiago (even if it's by 1 pound, but still!) But THAT weight was still 15 pounds off the weight I was at when Leo and I got married, so I've still got a ways to go, although I've gotta admit, I'm looking smoking hot! :)

DH has finally finished his major project at work, and the company launched it at the 4Life Convention in May. He just moved back to the marketing department with the same title, so now he's implementing the system he created for the company worldwide, along with taking on additional marketing responsibilities. I'm happy for him that he's back in Marketing, that's where his true passion lies and that's where he's happiest.

He'll be leaving this weekend for Chicago. There is an event on Sunday, but he's flying in on Saturday morning so that he can spend a day with my sister and her husband who are an hour and a half away from Chicago, in Indiana. She's pregnant with her first baby, a boy who will be nicknamed JD! She's due in September, and I'm excited for her...although it stinks for me since my birthday is at the END of September, so JD's birthday will be first in the month for the family, then DS (my son), in the middle, then mine 9 days after that. Oh well...I don't need presents, so if everybody runs out of money to buy gifts, so be it!

Other news in my universe, I got called to 4 callings in the Spanish branch. Oh yeah, DH and I are attending the Spanish branch now, by assignment. We had previously been invited by the branch president, but he came back to our house and said that he was authorized by the stake president to assign us to that branch, so we didn't have much of a choice...hehe. But we love it, I've always liked attending the Spanish branches more than the English ward, for the friendships, camaraderie, and the activities and food. Plus, it's more "real" than the Utah English wards, if anybody can understand what I mean by that.

I am now the Primary Pianist, Choir Pianist, Sacrament Organist, and Ward Music Coordinator. So I get to organize all the music training that goes on in the ward, so I am excited to promote musical literacy. My biggest challenge at this point is the organ. Now, those who play the piano will understand that being a pianist does not naturally translate into being an organist. Techniques are different, plus there are all those stops and pedals! How to register the organ for each song so that it sounds good??? Plus you have those volume pedals...then the split keyboards!! It's overwhelming at first, but I've figured out how to get by.

But I want to be an organist, so I ordered some organn books in the mail and signed up for Music 71 through BYU Independent Study, which is beginning organ (especially for pianists). The best part about the course is that it is free, except for the materials! I'd like to play the Tabernacle Choir organ someday for a Spanish choir...so I'd better get cracking and learn!

DS is now 20 months old, almost 21 months. He's still the apple of my eye, of course. The terrible twos are coming early, he likes to say NO whenever I ask him a yes or no question, regardless of what he actually wants to do. It's fine, I read that they are just asserting their own identity and independence. He was hitting for a while, but we worked that out of him for the most part. A new obsession with Cars and Toy Stories I and II have taken hold, he could watch those movies all day, every day. I limit it to one movie per day, and I'm quite tired of watching those three (although it's like going to Disneyland repeatedly...you start to notice new things that were there all along that you hadn't noticed before), so I am trying to introduce Tiago to the other Pixar movies we have...he seemed to really enjoy the Incredibles.

We just had Leo's older sister Lili and her son Christian here last month for two weeks. My brother-in-law was in Germany for a month, completing a foot and ankle surgery fellowship. So instead of being by herself for a month, she came out here for two weeks. Christian and DS had tons of fun together, they are only 5 months apart so they naturally are in about the same stages of development, although it's interesting to note how much difference 5 months can make!

DH and I also purchased a pass a week ago to Thanksgiving Point and to all the amenities it offers. So we went to the gardens last Saturday and spent about 2 hours walking around the gardens, enjoying the sunshine and the beauty. Then we drove up American Fork canyon to Timpanogos Cave to get some more information, and then took the back way home through Traverse Canyon through Draper and back home. BEAUTIFUL and absolutely the perfect Saturday!

I am excited for next month, because we decided to take a cruise to Mexico for our summer vacation. They are super cheap because of the H1N1 scare...we found a 7 day cruise leaving LA, visiting Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan for only $450 per person. We had received a small inheritance from my grandma that we were instructed to use on something memorable, so we applied our normal budget for vacation with that and are good to go!

Lili, Mike and Christian are also planning on going with us, so that should be lots of fun. But we refuse to bring DS with us! Since my mom has the entire month of July off, she volunteered to watch DS for a week while we go and party as if we were young and childless again! :)

So I'm enjoying things right now. Life is good.