- New job
- New husband (and a new last name)
- New car
- Pets - same pets, nothing new here!
- Budgeting
- Cooking
- School
I started my new job back in July. I have been working in this field for over 8 years, so it's not a drastic change, but anytime you switch to a new company, there is a huge learning curve. I have no idea who people are, who to contact for simple questions, and I'm lucky I know where to heat up my lunch. I work in Medical IT, so I end up working with a lot of buildings, a lot of managers, and a lot of differing opinions. Having worked in this field for so many years, and having worked at three different companies, it's interesting to notice the things that are the same, and the things that are different. And it's also interesting that so many people are resistant to change.
Not me apparently! I also just got a new car a few weeks ago. I didn't really need a new car, but with the winters in Minnesota, I really wanted something with All-Wheel drive. Plus, even though I moved from a Sedan to an SUV, I have better gas mileage! Can't complain, right?
I seemed to have skipped the whole new husband part. Yes! I got married just over a month ago - on September 1st. You would have thought that might have spurred me to start blogging, but apparently I have more time now than I did back then. Plus, I have a lot of free evenings since my husband is attending Grad School and I barely see him between Monday and Thursday. I have been filling my evenings with learning how to cook better!
My husband and I have two dogs. Before I met him, I had my own dog - Bowser. Bowser is a Shih Tzu/Poodle mix. He'll be 6 years old in November. After my husband and I had stated dating, we started talking about him getting a dog. It was about 8 months into our relationship, and we already knew we were headed toward marriage. I was already planning to move to a new state with him (because it was either go with him, or lose him... and I wasn't going to lose him!). We talked about the different breeds of dogs we liked, and after I heard that he liked Corgis, I immediately went on the search for Corgi puppies. We actually had wanted a girl, but we would up getting the sweetest, male Corgi. We named him Dexter. Dexter is now almost 2 years old (in January 2014), and most of the puppy habits have been grown out of. It's fun watching my older, yet smaller dog, act like the little brother.
On to budgeting. Hubby and I have started talking about how great it would be to own a house. Unfortunately, I don't have enough savings to even think about making a down payment. So, budgeting and saving money is the first step towards that goal. I have a few things I'm having to cut out, such as my fun Birchbox and Ipsy samples that I get each month. I also subscribe to ShoeDazzle, which is $10 a month, but it goes toward a pair of shoes. Julep is the last monthly subscription service I have. That's about $20 a month, but can be skipped each month you're not interested. If I cancel all of these, that's $50 in savings!
I think cooking will be explained in much more detail as you read my posts! We received a lot of great cooking appliances and utensils as wedding gifts, so I'm very excited to start using my food processor, mandolin, and other items. It makes some of the more difficult recipes possible.
The last item on my list is school. I actually never went to college. I did attend online classes for a year through University of Phoenix, but I never obtained a degree. So I've set a goal for myself to go back to school and get a degree. My long term goal is to earn a Bachelors degree, but my short term goal is to start toward a 2 year degree and ideally transfer into a 4 year. The plan is for me to start that program in January. Wish me luck!
