101 in 1001: Food

On top of being vegetarian, I am also the pickiest eater ever.  I want to branch out and try new things over the next few years - I set my bar low on this category just to give myself a fighting chance.

Eat Poutine in Canada

This is a Canadian dish that we've been told over and over again that we have to try.  Josh and I plan on trying on a trip to Kingston.

{Try 5 new vegan recipes, Eat completely vegan for a week, Eat completely vegan for a month}

I've been trying really hard to eat more vegan meals.  I have a bunch of recipes saved that I haven't gotten around to trying.  I want to pick 5 during this time and try them out.  I also want to go an entire month with no animal products.  I want to see what I can and can't do without.  Dairy has become a big issue for my stomach over the years, so I want to make an effort to find good substitutes. 

Don't eat out for a month
I think this one might happen sooner than later since I am starting Isagenix on Tuesday.   It is way too easy for me to stop at the shopette by my house after work to pick up something quick and unhealthy.  If I don't work a dinner shift, I usually wont eat out.  But dinner shifts are at weird times and I usually don't want to make food when I get home, but I need to get over that and make smaller, healthier meals.
 

Eat at Tin Pan Galley
This is a local restaurant in Sackets Harbor and from what I hear, they have a fantastic breakfast.  I am a huge breakfast fan and definitely plan to check this place out this summer (it's only open in summer months).
 

Eat at the St. Lawrence Chateau 
Missy wrote about this place on her blog a few weeks ago and I want to try it out.  I haven't tried as many local restaurants as I'd like and this place sound great. 

101 in 1001: Minimalism

Minimalism has become a big part of my life lately and I'm really loving it.  I want to work towards simplifying my life even more over the next few months and years.  I feel like it will make life easier and moving easier over the next few years. 

Get rid of 100 things (0/100)

This one is pretty self explanatory. 

Quit Facebook for a week

I can admit, there are days that I spend way too much time scrolling on Facebook just because I'm bored.  I really want to try to stop this and do more productive things with my down time.  Hopefully I can use this week to "detox" from social media and not reach for my phone at the first sign of boredom.

Clean out boxes at Mom's house

I have a few boxes of sentimental things and such at my Mom's house and I want to go through them and get rid of some of the stuff.  There are some things I don't even know why I kept.  I plan to take pictures of the things I get rid of and load them to the cloud and my external hard drive.  I hope to get down to just one or two boxes at Mom's house.

Scan and get rid of physical photos
 I have a lot of physical photos and a lot of them are already scanned into my computer, but I want to get the rest scanned in.  I really have no need for physical photos and they're just taking up a whole bunch of space.  I have photos saved to 3 different locations so I know that unless every piece of technology blows up (including the cloud), my photos will be safe.  I just don't look at physical photos as much as I do my digital ones.

Clean and organize my car (every 6 months)
I have a bad habit of leaving my car a mess.  I really want to clean it more than this but with this winters being so cold and snowy and my garage being so small, I don't think anything more than every 6 months is realistic.  I clean it more during summer but I want to make sure to clean it at least once in the winter.

{Develop a cleaning schedule, Keep to the schedule for 6 months, Keep to the schedule for 1 year}
I had a good cleaning schedule going for a while and then I just stopped.  It was nice because I just did one room per day and didn't have to spend my whole day off cleaning my whole house.   I really want to make an effort to keep up with my schedule this time around, it really made my life so much easier, and my house looked so much better.

{Clean out the garage, Organize the garage}
Our garage is a shit show, to put it mildly.   I would love to spend one day out there getting rid of things, and one day out there cleaning and organizing what is left.  I'd also love to get in there and sweep and run a hose through it. 

101 in 1001: Local Goals

We still have about another year in New York and we really want to see some local attractions in that time.  This very well may be the only summer that Josh is actually here, so we're really hoping to check most of these off before October.

Visit Farm Sanctuary

Farm Sanctuary is a farm animal rescue that rescues farm animals from slaughterhouses, factory farms, and stockyards.  I am slowly moving myself toward a more vegan lifestyle.  I think visiting this sanctuary will be a great learning experience for me and also give me a chance to connect with these animals. 

Visit Kingston, Ontario

Kingston is only about an hour from Fort Drum and even though its small, I'd still love to explore this little Canadian city.  I was pleasantly surprised by Ottawa, and I'm hoping I will be with Kingston, as well. 

Visit Lake Placid
I've heard nothing but good things about this area of New York, plus it's in the Adirondacks.  I'd love to visit if we have time, but this is one that it wont break my heart if we don't make it, but if we do, great!   We'd also like to take the dogs since they love hiking, but we need to work on their leash manners first.

Visit Niagara Falls
This is a big one for Josh.  He's wanted to visit the falls since before we found out we'd  be moving to NY.  I've been, but I was 8 so I don't remember too much.  We are going to try to do this in the fall to celebrate being halfway done with our debt.

Visit Vermont or New Hampshire
This is another one that may or may not happen but I'd like to try.  Vermont is closer so it's more realistic.  I'd love to visit Burlington, but I'll take anything.

Visit NYC
I'm kind of cheating on this one.  I'm actually going to NYC soon.  Funny thing is, NYC is closer to home (MD) than it is to me now, and I live in New York. 

Go wine tasting in the Finger Lakes

I feel like if you don't do this while living in NY, you've failed at life.  I love the wine up here and I'd love to try out the wine in the finger lakes region.  Even just a day trip to two or three wineries would be fine by me.

101 in 1001: Travel Goals

Technically my book goals should have been next, but those are going to take a while since I plan to throw out some of the books that I want to read in each category.  So, today I am skipping ahead to my travel goals.  As much I as want to do all the traveling, I know that our financial goals have to come first.  However, I don't want to completely neglect traveling and there are a few potential exciting opportunities coming up that I want to take advantage of.

Make a list of 50 places I would like to visit in my lifetime

I plan to make this list pretty specific.  I don't want to just list a bunch of countries because that is too easy.  I plan to list specific sights or cities that I most want to go to, or even specific experiences. 

Spend a weekend away to celebrate becoming debt free

Becoming debt free is going to be a huge accomplishment for us!  While I want to jump right in to building our emergency fund, I think it is important to take the time to celebrate that accomplishment.  If we're still in NY (God, I hope not), we'll probably head up to Quebec City.  If not, then we'll make that choice when we know where we're going next. 

{Begin saving for a Europe trip, Plan Europe trip}

There is a chance Josh could have another Europe rotation before we leave Fort Drum.  The chance is small, but we've already discussed it and if it does happen, I'm going to go visit him.  He can only take the weekend so I plan to bring a friend and spend some time in Paris and either London or Ireland.   If this rotation doesn't happen then I still want to save a plan for a trip for after we have our emergency fund in place. 

Visit 5 new cities (0/5)
These can be anywhere.  I just want to visit five places that are new to me in the next 2.75 years.  This shouldn't be too hard, especially if we PCS during this time (again, God I hope so!).
 

Visit Montreal or Quebec
Montreal and Quebec are both fairly close to us, 3 and 6 hours away, respectively.  I really want to visit at least one of these French Canadian cities before we leave Fort Drum.

Go to the beach (any beach)
This one is simple, I freaking miss the beach.  Not being close to the beach anymore is killing me slowly.  I would love to go to Massachusetts but I'm down with just a trip to Ocean City (MD). 

Go to an amusement park
I enjoy rides and roller coasters.  It was great in 2016 when Josh was doing AIT just a few minutes from Busch Gardens, but we haven't been to an amusement since we moved to NY.  There isn't much around here, but Six Flags Great Escape is about 3.5 hours away.  We could do an overnight trip there.  There is also the possibility of just going to one of our local ones when we visit Maryland. 

101 in 101: Money Goals

I wanted to break down some areas of my 101 in 1001 list that maybe need a bit of explaining, but mostly I wanted to do this because I am boring and have nothing else to talk about ;)  So here is a breakdown and short explanation of my Money Goals.

 {Pay off my Discover student loan, Pay off Josh's car, Pay off my chase student loan, Be completely debt free}
Achieving these three goals will complete Baby Step 2 for us.  We plan to be debt free before summer of 2020, so this should be more than achievable.  We're currently working on Josh's car which we hope to have paid off by the end of the year. 

{Build a 3-month emergency fund, Build a 6-month emergency fund}
3 months will be about $5000 and 6 months will be about $10,000.  I'm overestimating a bit because I'd rather have more than we need rather than not enough.  Of course, this number could change due to a change in our location. 

{Begin a savings account for a down payment, Begin a savings account for a future car or truck, Start a PCS fund}
After we get our emergency fund established, we still have a lot to save for.  We may (god I hope) need the PCS fund before our emergency fund, but either way, we'll still need to save for when Josh ETS's (gets out of the Army).  Both our cars are getting up there in age and mileage.  Josh as a Ford so it'll probably go before mine ;) so we want to have a nice amount saved up for when that happens.  We also want to start saving for a house.  Once Josh gets out of the Army we want to rent for a year and then buy something - I won't buy without a 20% down payment (on a 15 year fixed rate mortgage). 

{Begin investing in a Roth IRA,  Learn more about investing}
We hardly have anything as far as retirement savings.  Once our emergency fund is fully funded, we plan to start investing in Roth IRAs.   Until Josh gets out of the Army, if we fully fund our Roth's that should be more than 15% of our income.  So we'll stick with just that until we get our jobs out of the Army. 

{Leave a 100% tip, Find a charity to consistently donate to, Give 5 just because gift}
When we are finally debt free, we want to do fun things, travel, and all that stuff but we also want to give.  I am a server and we get treated like shit, to say the least - I want to be able to give a server a 100% tip, whether it's because they seem like they're having a bad day or because they were fantastic.   We'd also love to give to worthy charities like Rescue and Freedom Project on a regular basis, not just sporadically.  As for the 5 just because gifts - I want to be able to see a book or a piece of clothing that I know a friend would love, and buy it for them just because.

Put away $10 for every goal completed
This is pretty self explanatory. 

101 in 1001: Round 2

In 2015 (can't believe it's been that long!), I chose to participate in Macy's 101 in 1001 link-up series/challenge.  I'll post the final update in August when it officially ends, but I'll just say I didn't even do half the things on the list.  A lot of the goals were just so lofty and I don't think I realized just how much the Army takes over your life.  On top of that, we started focusing on our finances over everything, so some of those goals just didn't make sense.

I wanted to try again with some more realistic but still challenging goals.  I'm really excited about a lot of these goals and I think most are attainable even with the changes the Army could bring to our lives.  I'm really excited to get started with this new list!

May 15, 2018 to February 09, 2021

MONEY
 Pay off my Discover student loan
Pay off Josh's car (2/14/19)
Pay off my chase student loan
Be completely debt free
Build a 3-month emergency fund
Build a 6-month emergency fund
Begin a savings account for a down payment
Begin a savings account for a future car or truck
Start a PCS fund
Begin investing in a Roth IRA
Leave a 100% tip
 Learn more about investing
 Find a charity to consistently donate to
Give 5 just because gifts (0/5)
Put away $10 for every goal completed (0/101)

BOOKS
Complete an "Around the World in 80 Books" challenge (6/80)
Read a book in one day Anna and the French Kiss (03/13/19)
Read all of the books currently on my shelf (6/28)
Attend Bookcon in New York City
Read all of the Lord of the Rings books (1/4)
Re-read all of the Harry Potter books (0/7)
Read 5 classics (1/5)
Read a total of 200 books (61/200)
Read 20 nonfiction books (10/20)
Read a book written by an author with my initials
Read a book with 500+ pages (Winter by Marissa Meyer 12/17/18)
Read a biography Talking as Fast As I Can
Read a book set somewhere I've always wanted to visit
Read a book beginning with each letter of the alphabet (21/26)
Read a book based on a true story
Read 10 books I read as a child (or wanted to) (0/10)
Make a list of 100 books I'd like to read
Read half of the books on that list ^ (0/50)
Meet a famous author
Get a books signed by that author

TRAVEL
Make a list of 50 places I would like to visit in my lifetime
Spend a weekend away to celebrate becoming debt free
Begin saving for a Europe trip
Plan Europe trip
Visit 5 new cities (1/5)
Visit Montreal or Quebec
Go to the beach (any beach)
Go to an amusement park

 LOCAL
Visit Farm Sanctuary
Visit Kingston, Ontario
Visit Lake Placid
Visit Niagara Falls
Visit Vermont or New Hampshire
Visit NYC
Go wine tasting in the Finger Lakes

MINIMALISM
Get rid of 100 things (100/100)
Quit Facebook for a week
Clean out boxes at Mom's house
Scan and get rid of physical photos
Clean and organize my car (every 6 months)
Develop a cleaning schedule
Keep to the schedule for 6 months
Keep to the schedule for 1 year
Clean out the garage
Organize the garage

FOOD
Eat Poutine in Canada
Try 5 new vegan recipes (5/5)
Don't eat out for a month
Eat at Tin Pan Galley
Eat at the St. Lawrence Chateau
Eat completely vegan for a week
Eat completely vegan for a month

WATCH
Watch 15 documentaries (1/15)
See a drive-in movie
Watch 50 of IMDB's top 250 movies (2/50)
Have a Harry Potter movie marathon
Have a Disney movie marathon
Spend a rainy day watching movies in my PJ's
Listen to 5 TED talks  (0/5)

RANDOM
Finish German Rosetta Stone
Complete 7 goals in 1 week
Go horseback riding
Get comic and giraffe photos framed
Make Christmas cards
Put together a Will
Get the pups fully trained

SCHOOL
Begin school
Maintain a 3.5 GPA (at least)
Maintain a 4.0 GPA in all Paralegal classes

BLOG/WRITING 
Blog twice per week for 1 year
Keep a journal for one year - write 2X per week
Make a list of 100 things I've already done
Make a list of 100 things I want to do before I die
Document one day of my life in photographs
Do at least 1 vlog

FITNESS/HEALTH
Learn to hold a handstand
Complete a Walk to Mordor challenge
Hike in the Adirondacks
Hike with the dogs once per week
Get a massage
Complete a 30 day yoga challenge
Use my fitbit to track my activity for 3 months
Find a workout schedule that works for me
Keep that schedule for 6 months

ARMY/MOVE
PCS to {???}
Make a PCS bucket list
Do at least 5 things from that list

KEY:
Italics: In Progress
Strike Out: Finished 
Red: Not Happening 

Erin's Challenge: Final Update

Erin's challenge ended on the 30th and I am so freaking excited that I was able to finish it!  I've done a few book challenges before but never managed to finish, so this is exciting for me!  Here are all the books I read and links to the reviews. 

• 30 points: Read a book that was originally published in a different language than your own

  Bear Town by Frederik Backman (01/7/18)

• 30 points: Read a book where most of the action takes place on a form of transportation:
Open Road Summer by Emery Lord (01/8/18)

• 10 points: Read a book that has a (mostly) red cover:
The Royal We by Heather Cocks (01/19/18)

• 5 points: Freebie – Read a book that is at least 200 pages:
Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict (01/31/18)

• 15 points: Read a book with a character’s name in the title:
Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally (02/04/18)

• 20 points: Read a book from this list: Book Riot’s 100 Must-Read Books with Plot Twists:
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (03/04/18)

 • 10 points: Read a book that starts with the letter “L”:
Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor (03/16/18)

• 35 points: Read a book with a character that suffers from a debilitating physical illness:
 Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas (03/30/18)

• 25 points: Read a book by an author whose first and last name begins with the same letter:
Ashfall by Mike Mullin (04/11/18)

 • 20 points: Read a book with the words “house” or “home” in the title:
Close to Home by Cara Hunter (04/15/18)

(200/200)

Book Reviews: April

I finished Erin's Challenge!  I have never finished a reading challenge before so I am super excited!  I would do the Semi-charmed challenges a few years ago, and I came close but never ended up finishing.  I also knocked out a few States for my 50 States Challenge.

When I picked this book for both the 50 States Challenge and Erin's Challenge, I really didn't think I'd like it that much.  However, not many books are set in Iowa so it stayed on my list.  I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  I really loved how much the two main characters developed throughout the book, and I love that Darla was the resourceful one.  She grew up on a farm so I feel like that's much more realistic.  The only thing I had a hard time with was the graphic descriptions of butchering animals.  I understand they did it to survive but I really didn't need details.  I'm vegetarian for a reason.  There were some points where the story got a bit slow, but overall I think it was well developed and well written.
 4/5
Read for 50 States Challenge (Iowa)
Read for Erin's Challenge

There were a lot of things I didn't like about this book, but it kept me interested and I never would have guessed the ending.   I really hated the format of the book - the whole no chapters thing really throws me off.   I do like that she kept throwing in twists that made it impossible to figure out who took Daisy.  Overall, I'd say this was just OK.  If you like thrillers and procedural dramas, maybe check it out, otherwise I'd skip this one.
 3/5
Read for Erin's Challenge

This book was a big deal when I was in middle school, but for some reason I never got around to reading it.  The 50 States Challenge gave me a reason to check it out.   I went into this with the mindset that it was meant for a younger audience and I'm glad I did because I ended up really enjoying this book.  It has a great message, quirky characters, and childhood innocence all of which made this book great.  Although I felt a bit silly reading this as an adult, I'm glad I finally got around to reading Stargirl.
4/5
Read for 50 States Challenge (Arizona) 

This was one of those books that was enjoyable and entertaining, but not anything super amazing.  I liked that D.J is a likeable and believable character.   The plot was enjoyable, even if it did get a little repetitive.  I found myself actually caring what happened to the characters.  Just an enjoyable, quick read, but nothing life changing.  I liked it enough that I'll probably read the next two books.   *I did find out, after looking at the authors page, that the author is Liz Gilbert's (Eat, Pray, Love) sister.  
3/5
Read for 50 States Challenge (Wisconsin)  

This is the second book I've read by Kody Kelplinger, and I don't know what it is about her writing that sucks me in!  I read this book in one afternoon, so clearly I really liked it.  I thought the sex strike was pretty genius, and I liked how the book explored some of Lissa's new friendships, not just her relationships.  I can definitely see why some people may not like this book, and there were things that could have made this book better, but I enjoyed it anyway.
4/5
Read for 50 States Challenge (Michigan)
BookCon Author 

I enjoyed reading some of these stories.  Military life is hard, and it was nice to read some uplifting stories, but also some stories that made me feel like it was OK to not always like the Army.  I'm not going to rate this, because how can you rate people's life stories?

 Well, the good news is my gag reflexes still work.  It took a lot for me to get through this book!  It was super repetitive, way too gushy and angsty, and just blah.  I can get into a romance but this one was just not for me. 
2.5
Read for 50 States Challenge (Montana)

Life Update: April

The beginning of April was pretty blah, but luckily it got better towards the end of the month.

April is my birthday month and due to Army stuff, Josh missed it by one day.  But, we were able to go out to dinner and celebrate the day after he got home, which made it better.  I'm not a big birthday person, but having him home would have been a great present.

Lets talk about that Army stuff.  Josh went to California for training.  He flew out with the helicopters and they left a few days before everyone else.  It took a whopping 3 weeks for them to make it out there.  Josh was paying for a lot of his own food through this trip, so it got expensive!  I was seeing red by the time week 3 rolled around.  The good thing is that he ended up in Arizona at one point and was able to have dinner with our friends who live outside of Phoenix.    Also, just to give y'all a glimpse of Army logic - one of the helicopters made it there the day before training was over.  It was broken down in Oklahoma for a few weeks and instead of turning it around and going home, they had them fly to CA just to turn around and go home.   Luckily it only took 5 days for Josh to get back, with only one breakdown that was an easy fix.

I started going back to the gym and it has been great.  I tried just going and lifting weights but I just wasn't motivated.  So, I decided to try going back to the group classes offered at the gym on post.  This was absolutely the right decision!  I've been doing mostly Zumba and Body Blast with the occasional Yoga class thrown in there.   They've been so much fun and a great way for me to get back into working out without overdoing it.

I've also started drinking a new shake for breakfast every day and dinner a few nights per week.  I've been seeing a whole lot of talk about shake programs like Herbalife and Isagenix but none of them had vegan friendly options, so I found my own shake for $25 at Wal Mart.  It's 100% plant based and delicious!  I have so much more natural energy and I'm totally on board with the shake "trend". 

We also had a few warmer days at the end of the month which gives me hope that winter might not last forever!

April was pretty uneventful, but the weather is warming up here and we have a trip to MD planned this month which I am super excited for!   Hopefully I'll actually have something exciting to share in my May update.

Debt Free Update #4

I can't believe it's May!  This year has just been flying by!  I'm so excited to share this first debt free update of 2018!  I'm so happy with everything we accomplished!  Here is my month-by-month breakdown!  *Also, I wrote all of this month by month as it was happening which is why it sounds like I have no clue whats going to happen in the coming months.

January

On January 16th we paid off my first student loan!! Y'all, I am so happy to be writing that!  Each debt that gets paid off is another weight off my shoulders!  That's $3,778.00 out of our lives forever!  It's also an additional $57.57 per month in our pockets - well, it's still going towards the next debt for now but you get the point.

We jumped right in to paying our next debt which is our personal loan.  We took this out to consolidate all of our credit card debt (except the one).  It was higher payments and lower interest and at the time we hadn't heard of the snowball so it seemed like a good idea.  As of the day we paid off the student loan, we owed $4,822.00 on the personal loan. 

The day after I sent the last payment for my student loan, Josh got his per Diem pay from deployment.  We were going to throw that right at the personal loan, but we decided to hang on to it for a bit because of the Government shut-down threats.  I'm glad we did because Josh's car ended up needing a new radiator, and we owed on our state taxes and we didn't get enough back in federal taxes to cover it.  When all was said and done, I was able to put $400 of that money on to the personal loan.  Other than the per diem money, we were able to put and additional $100 on to the personal loan.  Bringing our January total to $500 on this loan.

February

February is when I really got started on my new job and bringing in some extra money.  Even with a few small set backs such as needing to replace Josh's ASUs jacket we were able to put a whopping $1389 on to our personal loan this month!  I have a huge grin on my face looking at that number!  If we keep that up, this debt will by paid by the end of April or beginning of May!  We will also officially be under $40,000 once we pay this off!  That is huge because when we started this journey, my student loans added up to almost $40,000 by themselves. (**we actually went under the $40k mark at the end of March!)

March

Oh March ... March was just a tough month all around.  I was a bit discouraged in March and just losing my patience - I just want this stupid debt gone, and I want it gone right now! Then the training that Josh had to go on cost us an arm and a leg.  The amount of supplies they make you purchase is just stupid.  Also, he was flying with the helicopters and had to buy his own food along the way.  The 5 day trip turned into an almost 3 week trip due to the birds breaking down.  So he was eating out twice a day for three weeks.  This girl was not happy.   We were a bit lower than I wanted to be this month with $1161.   What kept me going in March was knowing that this loan will be gone before our Anniversary in May.

April

Getting closer and it's killing me slowly!  This is our last full month of paying on this loan and it's felt like the longest month ever!  We should have this paid off before we go to Maryland in mid May, which is super awesome!  This has been our biggest month yet with $1470 going towards our personal loan and we only have $550 left to pay on it!  I'm super proud of us because Josh's training was super expensive.  I'll go into more detail on that on Thursday, but I'll just say we were pinching pennies for part of the month!

I'm SO HAPPY with our progress during the first 1/3rd of 2018!  We paid off a Student loan and came pretty damn close to paying off the personal loan!  If all goes well, we should have Josh's car paid off by the end of the year which means we will officially have no car debt (my car has been paid off for years).