Some Weight Lifted Off Our Backs

I am thrilled to announce that Doug and I have paid off our "small" law school loan--as of about an hour ago. We have been preparing to do this, and getting really excited about it. And I can't help smiling because we finally did it. We still owe a lot of money on the "big" loan. But at least there is just one, and we owe $12,000 less than we did right after law school. We look forward to using Dave Ramsey's debt snowball idea, wherein we have checked off our smallest debt, and now we can pour more money into this remaining debt. Then we'll pour it into our house mortgage. We would love to pay off our remaining student loan within the next ten years, and we plan to be aggressive about it. We just paid on the compound interest on our remaining loan tonight and hope not to ever do it again. I appreciate that there is a system in place that allows us to go to law school when we're broke, and pay money back as we're less broke. But I hate interest. And debt stinks.

So consider me broke. And a little bit fancy free.

Things I have loved this week: getting kisses from Brooklyn and Lucy. Brooklyn just learned this trick, and she has started making kissing noises--okay, lip-smacking--when there is food nearby. But she has planted a few kisses on me, and I have loved it. I always give Lucy kisses at night as part of our bed-time routine, but we have added Lucy giving me a kiss on the cheek, and it has added something sweet to my life.

I finished "The Way of Kings" this week. It's Marshall's favorite book, and my mom, sister, and sister-in-law have also read it and loved it. If you can stomach the bizarre things about fantasy, I recommend the book. It's clever, the dialogue and action are great, and the message is awesome.

And other things: I actually whimpered while I was in "Powercut" on Thursday. We were doing cling and press (where you lift the bar high above your head, then bring it back down to your chest, then raise it up again. . .), and my bar wasn't even as heavy as most of the people (99% female) in my class, but the music was loud, so no one could hear me whimper, and I let myself do it. It was hard to lift that stinking bar three times in a row as part of a "super set." I don't like super sets. I do love dead lifts. I've never lifted before this fall, and it is really hard, but really satisfying. I like being stronger than before, and pushing myself to fight my demons. These particular demons are feeling physically and inner-metally weak. I made that word up, but it means I don't think I have the will-power that I want to have.

I found out I'll get two contracts for Spring semester, which is great, but I found out I'll be teaching two different classes. One is FDENG 201, the one I've been teaching for almost two years, but the other one is English 106, and it's basically remedial English. I'm not excited about it. I hope to learn from the material, and serve and love my students in that class, but I'm not very good at working with really poor writers online. I'll have to figure out how to do that, and try not to dip into my jealously guarded family time in order to be the teacher I want to be.

So I bid you adieu, lighter of heart because of that small loan. In the words of whoever penned this song, "Nuh nuh nuh nuh! Nuh nuh nuh nuh! Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye!"