so time for an update

Gracious, I have several blog topics to write about, but really no time since I’ve got lots of school deadlines looming and I must remember when they are and what I must do for all of them. Gah. Juggling school, plus work, plus new marriage is a whole lot of juggling.

Things with K resolved well.

He felt like he was giving me advice and I wasn’t listening to it, hence his tone, and he didn’t realize he was sounding so condescending.

He also didn’t understand the limitations I was dealing with, like the fact that I could not get an email address for the Dean at my school, I had to fill out a form on a webpage, which limited me considerably. While his suggestion to attach the original document corrected was good, I didn’t have the technical capability to do so, and at that point it was too late anyway.

He was also concerned that I was angry about a lot of things: 2 major problems (the wedding musician, the inept professor) – that seemed like a lot of things.

It rather helped to have me point out: ok, you’re concerned that I’m angry about things, so you treat me like an idiot to help that? how does that help?

oh. oh! ok.

I also later pointed out, wow, K, you treat me every day with so much respect, in every thing you do you treat me with respect, but when you get angry, you treat me with disrespect. And I dont like it.

that was pretty illuminating.

I talked to him about trying to give him clues that he was going too far, that I didnt like him talking to me like I was an idiot, and I didnt like that tone of voice, and I didnt like him talking to me with a mean voice, but he didnt hear it when I said it.

Which was what happens when I tickle him and he wants me to stop – I somehow dont hear him saying stop and he tries to tell me, but I so miss the clues, too. I feel awful about it.

So we talked about this, and discussed how we need a keyword that will get attention, so that we know we need to stop.

It felt so good to talk about this, to work on this issue on both sides for each other.

K also talked about how he does really respect me, and will work on his tone of voice with me, and listen better to what I need.

So, resolution worked out well, and got us closer. I love that. We both work well at resolving things, and then fall in love even deeper when we do so.

In super happy news, money things are improving!

we got a letter from Social Security, saying that we have too many resources and that they will stop giving me checks of $225 per month. They listed the amounts in our bank accounts. We can have $3000 as a married couple, but not more than that.

we had a savings account online for about $6700.

So I said, let’s brainstorm options here. K was willing.

How about we use that savings account to pay down your biggest loan? We’d save a lot on loan interest, plus I’d get more money each month from Social Security that could pay for food. and keep my full health insurance, which I really need. So soon we will fill out a form to ask them to reassess our situation.

Fortunately, K was willing, and much to my surprise, transferred the money to his account so he can send the payment this week to his loan.

Want to hear total numbers of his debt now? You’ll be amazed. You might want to sit down. 😉

First, my student loan for my first couple semesters of grad school was $4000, I dont have to make any payments on it yet, but I did make a payment so now it is $3600! Yay. I’m planning to pay it off before it comes due so that I never have to pay interest on it. 🙂

Now K’s loans. In December 2009, when K had to start making payments on his loans, the total was over $62,000.

He has been making big payments each month, and now with our savings acount going to the loans, his whole total is:

$37,000!

The biggest loan, which was $30,000 and at 7% interest, is now at just $8,700. !!!

Isn’t that exciting?

That biggest loan with the highest interest rate will get paid off this year. We thought it would take several years to pay it off.

Then he has two smaller loans, one at 3% interest, another at 4% interest, for a total of about $29,000. Those he has been doing just slightly over the minimum payment amount, as his biggest payments are going to the larger and higher interest loans.

yep, this all feels like abundance. 🙂 That’s a whole lot of progress on reducing loans that at first felt so overwhelming.

He has been applying for part-time jobs in the hopes of making a bit more money to pay down the loans. we’re hoping something opens up soon.

meanwhile, on the subject of abundance, my new job with the little baby is awesome. I really like the family I work for, they are super nice and they like me a lot.

I am so grateful the old job ended.

Did I tell you that the last couple months of that old job, I was praying for help? I prayed that things either improve or change.

It changed, and that was such an improvement. I suspect that those prayers are why I found jobs so quickly – I was really ready for change and ready for things to be better.

So I’m still praying for abundance, looking at symbols of abundance in our lives, and believing that abundance is coming. We both keep seeing abundance in our lives in so many ways. 🙂

And we pass on that abundance, as well. Since we got some beautiful new kitchen towels as a wedding gift, I went through our kitchen towels and found some that are in great condition, but no longer fit with our kitchen color scheme. A friend of mine who doesnt have much (she’s got major abundance issues) will be given the towels, if she wants them. 🙂 She loves gifts like that. 🙂 And likely she really needs them. 🙂

Here’s hoping you are seeing abundance growing in your life, as well. 🙂