September Spending Reflection

This is how it all went down for September.. eeek!

After spending some time with Excel and a calculator, I am able to share a bit about how the September Spending Freeze went in the Waltz household. I like to think we are fairly cautious with our money and try to sock away as much as we can to debt repayment (car, student loans, credit cards, the norm) and there has been such a shift in where our money is being spent since we moved to the East side of Portland and do not spend half what we used to on gas for the cars. In my cutesy pie chart below you can see where the majority of our monies went and compare it to what professionals say your pie of money should look like.

Debt Repayment - the largest piece on the pie! We are using the Dave Ramsey snowball method to clear off our debts one by one.So if it means buying less fun things to pay off previous purchases, then that is how we will roll for that day/week/month/year.

Living & Fixed - these are things like rent, utilities, car insurance, etc. Needless to say we love where we live but it definitely hits the checkbook a bit. But that in a way readies us for a mortgage payment one day too.

Food & Groceries - obviously this covers food and groceries... :)  So I combined our restaurant eating with groceries to make this simpler. It was tough to see that we didn't save what we could have if we had shopped a bit more at the market and skipped on the Subways, McMenamin's and food on the go opportunities. I did fairly well on sticking with 1 Starbucks a week and making a few lunches for work but was not able to achieve total success. I'd give myself a C+ in this area. 

Extras - it was interesting to see that many little things popped up throughout September that didn't happen in the months previous. A surprise car issue that needed to be tended to, a hotel stay purchase for our trip to LA later this month for a family situation and other purchases added up quickly in this area. 


Transportation - I am going to toot the horn here.. Toot! Only 6% of our spending went to gasoline. Had we still been in Beaverton that number would easily be in the double digits. AND we even had a trip to the other side of the state and back in September. Good planning and saving on our part. 


I will continue to personally keep track of our spending but it was good to make myself accountable to a small group of other freezers this past month and see how we all did. 


Maybe I will treat myself to a chai latte, new jeans and a dinner out.. or just sock away the $50 and cook at home with my hubs. Yes, a much better idea indeed. :)

A Beautiful Day

Wow. That is how I would describe my personal kick off to this fall season in my life.When I would hear people say how "blessed" they feel or how "blessed" they are, I often wonder what does that mean to literally "feel" blessed? I am 100% sure I felt blessed yesterday and it is still oozing over into today. Quite a good feeling too! I am feeling determined to enjoy this fall season. Usually I see it as a sad thing; the summer time is over, the weather is getting cooler and it is of course the reminder of my Dad's passing (Oct. 22, 2007). But, I'm having a change of attitude of how I approach things in life. Yesterday felt like an answer to a personal prayer of a change in attitude for me. Seeing things fresh and enjoying things moment by moment. When you look at something with a clear perspective and fresh outlook it is much easier to adapt to changes that come your way. Knowing that I am a complete work-in-progress I almost have to remind myself daily to just let things come as they may and know of the things that I am in control of - attitude and energy. 

Yesterday Travis and I had a leisurely breakfast at Biscuits (love that we have one 10 minutes away from our place!). After some pancakes + hash browns, corned beef hash (I'll let you can figure who had what..) and coffee we were off for our day. Each year Suavie Island has a huge corn maize that they design in different shapes and icons. This year they did it with the spirit of the Portland Timbers.

We did not venture alone out to the island though - we met up with our close friends Teresa and boyfriend Nick. They are a wonderful couple and we are so grateful for their friendship! 

After going through the maze for a long while.. we finally made it out of there! :)

Sauvie Island doesn't joke around with fall harvest time.. they had stands for corn on the cob, baked potatoes, lots of kettle corn, caramel apples, elephant ears, coffee, cider and lots of other goodies. Plus a super cute "cottage" with a room full of Christmas goodies. It was so hard not to buy about a dozen ornaments in there and a cute reindeer decoration. We went on the hay ride there to pick out our pumpkins and here is what we settled on..

When we got home we had just enough time to clean up and change to get ready for our church evening at Solid Rock. We have been attending fairly regularly (I had written my 'church' post in advance when we were looking at different churches, but had visited Solid Rock many times before that.) and would like to consider it our new community. :) We had set up a meeting with one of the Pastors to find out ways to get plugged in more at the church and to get to know him more and to let him in on our story and our faith. It was such a great meeting and I absolutely feel so comforted knowing that we are just 2 of the 5,000+ people that attend their gatherings, but they are able to make time for you when requested. I felt so enriched in the abundance of things we can participate in, learn further about and grow more friendships with other Jesus followers. 

I also ran into a few people I knew from high school there that evening. It's so cool when you can just catch up with people and immediately feel at ease and comforted when in a huge crowd none the less! We are in the middle of a series Salt + Light at church and talking about having mission in your community. I am loving this series and learning about the Sermon on the Mount. Overall just feeling encouraged and full of all types of ideas and ways that I can contribute and pursue what His desire for me is. In attending the (praying for Portland) 'Seven' events these last few weeks has also allowed me to put even more thought into what it is that I can be a part of and what I can do. I was in a group with about 6 other young women (high school and college age), but I just felt so much empowerment and so much love already for those ladies when we were praying and talking. I feel that I still have a calling for working with youth and am trying to channel what exactly it is that I can do or where I should be.

I am so thankful for a wonderful husband who I definitely unloaded all my feelings of "being blessed" last night on our drive back home. Thinking about the week and what all Saturday alone brought us emotionally, mentally and spiritually is so amazing. We sang the song in the video below (You're Beautiful by Phil Wickham) at church last night and it is definitely a reminder of how wonderful and beautiful everything around us is. And because of Him, we have so much to be blessed by. :)

Keep Calm and Carry On

*all images via Pinterest

Where's That?

When family or friends ask us where we live (unless they live in the Portland area), they almost always say: Where's that? when we tell them Fairview (not to be confused with an awful institution that is no longer!). 

Some fun facts about Fairview*:

1. There is an amazing wild rabbit population.

2. It's where people who want to get away from Portland city life go to veg out.

3. There is zero sign of elderly people - really - we have yet to see any members of the senior community.

4. Amazing restaurants are within a 5 mile radius.

5. population: about 9,700.

6. Fairview has a newsletter in lieu of a newspaper.

*completely made up by S and T due to our observations. except for #5 - that one is pretty much true. And #6.

To kick off the summer in our new little city we ventured over to Blue Lake Park for an afternoon. It is so gorgeous and huge! So many play structures for kids, family bbq's and some crazy Frisbee golf games. Take a look at our afternoon in the park via 2 videos..

Seriously YouTube? You pick that photo of me to be the default photo for that video. Good grief. I know it looks like I'm giving it the wow one of the cats just used their box stink face, but it was such a fun and pretty day. 

I was going through our summer time photos and videos because I'm someone who just loves loves loves the summer time and could have it for 3 seasons instead of just 1. (I'd make an exception for winter time - peppermint hot chocolate, Christmas, snow flurries.. ahh.) But since meeting this guy..

I've been changing my tune about this whole fall thing slowly but surely. Maybe a new pair of mid-calf, slouchy brown boots have something to do with it? Well time to start making our home 'fall ready' .. and by that I mean I am making several of these..

via Pinterest

Have a lovely week. Toodles friends!

Prayin for Portland!

Check out the video below and learn a bit about something super amazing going on in our city: Portland.

Seven Promo from JP Watson on Vimeo.

Pretty cool huh? We have been steadily attending Solid Rock (Sunday mornings back in Beaverton when we lived there this past winter/spring time) and have been going to their downtown location on Saturday nights the last 4-6 weeks. John Mark who was in that video is one of the Pastors at Solid Rock and we love listening to him speak. What's even cooler? He's my husband's age! Which leads me to another cool thing: About three quarters of the church community there is between 18-35 years old. We feel like we fit in and have found a cool cause to be involved with. It's called Seven. Just like what was mentioned in the video (or if you couldn't load the video..) for 7 weeks on Wednesdays, there are gatherings at a different church each evening (on top of the early 6:30am crew and noon group) at 7pm that get together to pray and talk about how we would love to see Portland grow and build a terrific community of believers and also just ways to strengthen what is already here too. We went to the first night (last night) and it was incredible! Take a look at the photo below..

via original photo on Solid Rock's Facebook page

Plus there was an over flow of more people behind this camera person in the large foyer area too. The whole church was packed! (I would estimate over 1,000 people easily.) It was so cool to be among other believers and really amazing to be with SO many people in our age group! I totally encourage friends to come and enjoy the event on Wednesdays or even take time at home during that 7pm hour and think of ways that Portland could use prayer. I'm a newbie with prayer and half the time speak in bullet points of thoughts and ideas, but it's all good God loves any way that you can communicate with Him. :)

It felt great to pray for colleagues, community leaders, restoration of our lives, neighborhoods, families, marriages, teachers and even the local economy. But that was just our small group of 5 people, imagine what over 1,000 people were adding to that list!

I love Portland and I am learning how prayer can change things or help us understand why God has things happen the way He does. I have loved learning so much through the teachings at church and we are excited for next weeks gathering too. I will close this blog entry with a photo of Travis becoming baptized and a member at our previous church a few years ago. This was truly the beginning of 'our' walk as a couple and was quite a beautiful moment indeed.

It's all about Dad today: Happy Birthday!!

Sigh.. I knew that I would write a post (or many many more in the future) dedicated to my Dad and what better timing than his birthday to write one for him! My dad passed away almost 4 years ago (I was 22 at the time) and it is so hard to put it into words exactly what it is like to lose a parent. But - I want to keep this post light and happy, I have already had a few tears today and I want to be able to smile a little more tonight and enjoy the day a little bit like he would have. 

So without further ado: Happy Birthday to my Dad - THE David Lee Self.

 

Yes, before I was born my dad was an animal trainer at Sea World. He looks pretty fabulous riding on that whale! :)  He always had the dream growing up to work at Sea World and he made it happen! He started out selling balloons around the park at 15 years old and in a few years was training to work with killer whales, dolphins, sea lions and other marine life. I love this photo of my Dad. We have it blown up and framed in our living room and it is so cool to see what my dad was like and the things he got to do. 

Below are a few of my favorite photos of my dad. He was an amazing man!

this must have been in the early 1950's. I love that cardigan!

barefoot, surfboard, sun tanned. that was my dad in a nutshell. He grew up living in southern California.

My dad invented this move that many animal trainers still use today at Sea World. It's called the Roman Ride when you ride on the backs of 2 dolphins. How cool. I would love to swim along a little dolphin one day. 

Moving to the 80's (aka I was brought into this world!), this is one of my favorite pics of my Dad and I. Him complete with a windbreaker, baseball hat and making sure I was snug and secure with him - and outside. (Most photos of my dad and I are taken outside.) He taught me how to throw a softball, play tennis and didn't miss any opportunity to listen to the questions I had. And I had many questions about the world, sports, life and school. Maybe that's why he got me the Greatest Answers book as a kiddo?

At my college graduation in 2007, I was so happy that he got to be there to share in the moment that I had graduated college. He was so proud and although he didn't feel 100% that day, he was not about to let that stop him from seeing his youngest graduate with a degree. 4 months later he passed away but my prayer was answered 1 year before I graduated. I wanted my Dad to see me graduate and know that I achieved what him and I had talked about all during my high school years. Graduating with a college degree. 

Happy Birthday Dad. I love you so much and I love to brag about you and know that I had the best dad. Thank you for staying up until the wee hours of the morning to make sure I made it home (late) but safely.

Thank you for asking the boyfriends of the past many questions to make sure they treated your daughter right.

Thank you for setting such an incredible example of how a husband should love a wife. 

Thank you for being my Coach, Counselor, Security Guard and driving instructor (who knew the car went that fast down Kuebler road?!).

You are the greatest and I always love telling Travis about you and can't wait to tell future little Waltzes all about their cool Grandpa and what he was like. 

"I love my girls. I'm so lucky!" - David Self talking about his wife and 2 daughters on lots of occassions. :)

But we all knew we were the lucky ones! :)

Our Engagement

One of the best moments in my life occurred this very day (it was just the 19th back then) 2 years ago. On a trip to Seattle, Travis and I enjoyed a day of fun typical Seattle things - Pike Place, eating fish and me gazing forever at the Space Needle. Travis said after a yummy dinner downtown - "lets go to the Needle tonight and go the top!" So of course I said 'okay - sounds good.' We get to the Space Needle and get ready to go to the top and see all the lights and views from the top of Seattle. It was absolutely gorgeous. On a starry night, lights glowing all over down town I definitely was taking in the moment and snapping some photos. Travis said he wanted to get someone to take a picture of us at the top, so I handed him my camera and watched him talk a little longer than usual to someone on how to take a photo using our camera. So, he comes back and I get ready to pose for a photo together, but then the guys says "ok we're rolling..." to which Travis says "he is not taking a picture of us, he is taking a video. I thought this would be something you would want to share with everyone one day and as a memory for us to have." I was a little suspicious about what was going on at this point, but rolled with it. Then Travis gave an incredibly romantic speech to me (and in front of about 2 dozen people outside on the Needle and asked me if I would marry him. Amazing moment. Take a look below to see the photo taken right after we became engaged and after happy tears were wiped from our faces.

Of course I will also include the link and video of our engagement. Yes, it is dark - it was at night friends! :)  Turn up your speakers and then hug someone you love. :) 

"I am my beloved and my beloved is mine" - Song of Solomon 6:3