New Stuff and Not As New Stuff

Had my yearly check-up last week which included blood work and all sorts of other fun stuff. Yesterday my doctor's nurse calls with the results of all the random tests... turns out I'm anemic... and hyperthyroid. Go figure. I had to go in today to get more blood work done so they can make sure about the thyroid. I also have to have an ultrasound on my thyroid. Woo. Hoo. So now I'm taking a multi-vitamin with 100% of my daily iron. Apparently normal iron levels are supposed to be 12 or higher, mine was 10. 10 of what, I'm not sure, but I know enough to know that it's uber low. This explains why I've been so tired lately, though. It's nice to know that I should start getting my energy back soon.

In other news, my vacation to Disney was pretty awesome. Exhausting, but awesome. We did so much, and I got to do a bunch of stuff that I've always wanted to do at Disney. The trip helped me to mark off some stuff on my long term to do list, and now I get to start working on new stuff. Next up are my trips to New Hampshire in April next year, then the opening of Harry Potter World at Universal Studios sometime next year, then England in 2011 for the premiere of the final Harry Potter film. The England trip was originally planned for the next Harry Potter film, but we decided that it'd be easier to save for if we had more time, plus the weather will be nicer, and I think it'll be more fun to be there for the final movie instead of the second to last movie. Also, this way, it makes it way easier on me to afford going to NH and HP World. Right now, the NH trip is my top priority. It's been far too long since I was there last and I miss it so much. My dad was there last week and was showing me some pictures he took while he was there... it was really hard for me to not start crying. So New Hampshire, here I come!

As for right now, I'm enrolled in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. I had my first official class on Sunday (it's only one class, once a week, for 13 weeks) and it was pretty awesome. We watch a DVD of Dave Ramsey teaching, then discuss the lesson for a while. We even have homework. This week is reading and creating a basic budget. The budget is proving to be a little more difficult than I anticipated, because my hours can vary week to week. I'm really excited about this class. I'm even more excited about getting out of debt. I have big plans for being debt free. I will now proceed to list some of them:

- Buying a new/used car (hopefully a Mazda Tribute Hybrid)

- Buying a townhouse (or a house if it's cheap enough) here in PTC

- SCUBA lessons (including getting SCUBA certified)

- Traveling more (all over Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the west coast of the US)

- Going back to school and getting a degree of some sort (travel agent, sports management, forensic science... one of those)

If all goes according to plan, I'll have saved up enough to pay cash for everything except for the townhouse, so the only debt I'll have is a mortgage, which is even acceptable to Dave Ramsey. I'm really excited about the direction my life is headed in and I'm determined to not let it get derailed again. I trust God and my faith is in him entirely. I know that with his help, I can stay on the right path.

Cheers!

Sitting on the sidewalk outside of pleasure island waiting for the bus. It's been a very productive day and I am so ready to do the sleeping thing.

Revelations... Not the book

Recently I had a huge revelation about my life and who I had become. God showed it to me in a dream, well, more a nightmare really. I had become this horrible, angry, bitter, hateful person, who is not at all who I really am. Really long story short, after 2 1/2 hours of praying and reading my Bible, I'm back! I'm back to who I once was, the happy, laid-back, kind, caring me. It feels so good!! God gave me two visions, as well, in this process. The first came after I started admitting to Him everything that was messed up in my life and how I had been living for the wrong people and wrong things. It was a vision of myself, with this enormous burden on my back, and the burdens all being lifted off in layers(signifying all the anger and hatred and whatnot) until I could stand fully upright again. The second came a little after that, after I told God that I was ready and willing to give up all the friends I had who weren't good for me. Then I saw an image of all my friends from the movie theater I work at, and the theater itself, in a bubble resting in my hand. Then it started to slip through my hand and fall far, far away from me and I could hear God telling me, "That's all I've been waiting for. I've been waiting for you to tell me that you're willing to give them all up, and now that you have, I am going to do amazing things with you very soon. You won't be there much longer."

This is amazing in and of itself, but it's even more amazing because a few weeks ago I had a word spoken over me saying that I was going to do "amazing and extraordinary things for God and the people will know who I am." It also said that I "will be a prophet to the nations." There is so much more to both of these stories, but these are the main points.

I am so, so, so excited to see what God has in store for me. I'm ready to do whatever it is He has for me to do and go wherever he wants me to go. I keep getting this feeling that something big (and good) is going to happen while I'm at Disney. I don't know what, I don't even know if something big really will happen, but it's an exciting prospect. I'm just so excited about all the different possibilities that are open to me because my God is a great and mighty and awesome God.

It feels amazing to have found genuine joy in my life again, by just living for God. Sunday I'm starting on the production team at my church. Next Sunday I have the preview class for my financial planning classes. Next Monday marks the beginning of my week at Disney World. And the Sunday following the trip I start my actual classes. I'm really excited for the next couple of weeks! And on top of all that, I figured out that I should be able to go to New Hampshire in April, England in November 2010, and be completely out of debt by November 2010!!

Some very exciting times are headed my way and I plan to use this to chronicle it all. =)

Discovering Dreams

Since my sophomore year of college I have spent countless hours, days even, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I went from major to major to major until I finally just left school and moved to Georgia. I've been here for about a year and a half now, and I've been doing pretty much the same thing, just without spending all the money of taking classes. I've gone from subject to subject, researched the required classes to get certain degrees, looked up costs for different schools, looked at colleges where I would go to normal classes, online schools, and even block schedule colleges.

I had a sort of break through one day at church, when my pastor said that what we do with our lives, for our careers, should be our passion. So I got really excited and thought, finally, here's my breakthrough. Just figure out what my passion is and go back to school for that. Enter new problem. I have since been trying to figure out what my passion is. This has proved to be far more difficult than I expected. There are so many different things that interest me, it's been really hard to figure out what my passion is. Then, last week, it hit me. Could it be so simple, so easy? Ever since websites like Orbitz and Cheap Cheaptickets came into existence I have spent probably as many as hours researching trips as I have trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I love traveling. Flying is one of my favorite things. I love exploring airports and hotels. I love walking around new cities, taking pictures of places I've never been before. The one thing that I want to do before getting married and having a family is travel as much as I can. What does this all add up to? Two words: Travel Agent.

It sounds kind of wierd, even to me, but now that I've thought of it, I feel more at peace, and actually excited about it. It would give me more of a set work schedule, which I've been craving. I would get paid to do what I already spend hours doing for free. It may not be a huge business, but according to this government website it's not going to be dying out anytime soon. I can go to school and get an associate's degree for it, then if I wanted to I could get a bachelor's degree for business or something. I could make more money, which is always nice. Between more and a set schedule, I would be able to get in a lot more traveling, and I could take some classes toward other majors that I'm really interested in, like Forensic Science and Sports Management. If I could get myself well-established as a travel agent I would be able to work from home, too, so when the time comes when I do get married and have a family, I could stay home with my kids and still be able to work.

It's so exciting to finally figure out what I might actually want to do with my life, and to know that by figuring out that one thing, everything else that I want to do would be able to happen too. Everything from getting my own place, to traveling, to studying all the different things that interest me, to it be a little easier to save up for the different things that I'm trying to save for. I've been slowly getting my life back on the right track and I feel like this is such a huge push in the right direction and I'm just really happy. It's seems like everything else is kind of starting to get better too.

More excitement falls into the two trips that I already have planned. I'm going to Disney World for a week in August. Everything is already done for the trip, all I have to do is pack and get there... in another month and a half (ish). Then, in June I'm planning on going to England for a week. Sarah and I have been talking about it for a couple weeks. I've already started pricing stuff, we're pretty much waiting on exact dates, and to get back from Disney, then the saving for England begins! I'm also planning on going to New Hampshire for a week next year, and I'm about as excited about that as I am about Disney and England.

It feels good to be really happy again.