Going to Lake Powell

I'm so excited. I found out last Friday that I'm going to Lake Powell this weekend. It's been a possibility for a few weeks, but I didn't know for sure till then. It's going to be so much fun. If you've never been to Lake Powell, make it a point to go. It's just about the best lake ever (partially because it's so big, and is also a great location). I hear this is a good time to go because it's not quite so hot, but still warm, and cools off at night.

Basically, a millionaire I know, John (who I've mentioned before), is letting a group of us go down and stay at one of his house boats (he has two). We're going to swim, hike, hang out, have fun, and learn from John about how to be successful in life. It's going to be great. I'll let you all know how it goes when I get back.

In other news, to make up for the day off I'm taking (since I still don't have paid vacation) and to try to get money to pay for Aaron's schooling, I'm doing some freelance work this week. So pretty much I'm working 12 hours a day. I know many who do this on a regular basis, but I just don't know how they do it. I guess we just push ourselves to do what we need to do, but it's still hard (unless of course you love the work so much it doesn't seem like a job). I am grateful for my job and the freelance work, though.

Financial Stress

I hate it when you have unexpected expenses. Especially when they equal $1000 . . .

I just realized a couple weeks ago that we were not getting a Pell Grant this year. I guess I figured we would still get something, now that I'm working full time, but apparently the government thinks $20,000/year is WAY too much to get ANYTHING. So we absolutely got no money this year for school from the government. Well, at least Aaron got a half-tuition scholarship, so that helps.

So when I realized this I applied for a Stafford Loan to pay the rest. I called the Financial Aid office and they told me to fill out a form and they would notify us in 3-5 business days. So we wait 5 business days and then give them a call (we had to call because for reasons I don't want to get in to, we don't have access to our mail box, so I didn't know if they notified us by mail). I'm thinking that we'll call, see if we get approved and then have the money to pay tuition. Well, when we called yesterday we found out there was a whole bunch of other stuff we needed to do to get the loan approved, let alone get the money (that they didn't bother to inform us about when we first called). On top of that, UVSC adds over $200 in "Student Fees". Why this is not included in the tuition, or what it's for, is beyond me. It bugs, though, because the half-tuition scholarship doesn't pay for half of the student fee and so we owe almost $1000 to UVSC by today.

I hate money stress!

Great Weekend--Great Labor Day!

Can I say that I LOVE paid holidays. Since I'm still a temp (which will hopefully change soon), I look forward to the six holidays a year that I get off WITH pay; I love it! To add to that, I completely did nothing yesterday--well, pretty much nothing. I got up pretty early and went over to Wal-mart to beat the rush. We needed groceries pretty bad and I decided I need to do better about planning out some meals and buying the ingredients for them. So Aaron and I picked out some meals that we both like and I made a shopping list. The meals the we picked are French Bread Pizza (so easy), chicken enchiladas, Rio Ranch Chicken Wraps (really good, pretty easy), and Twice-Baked Potatoes.

So that is what I did first. I was really frustrated because I was looking for coriander and couldn't find. I was pretty sure it was a spice (and I was right), but it didn't look like they had any in the spices aisle. I might have to go somewhere else to get some.

Then I came home and pretty much just hung out all day. I read some from a novel I'm rereading, Mistborn, and then watched How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (it was on Comcast's "Free Movies" list), and finally finished off the day by playing Oblivion on the computer. I can't believe I got sucked into a video game, but I have! I'm having fun with it. So that was pretty much my day. At the end of it I was feeling guilty for not being more productive, but I guess when you only get 6 days of "vacation" a year, you tend to want to just relax and have fun. Besides paid holidays, I haven't taken one day off from work for 18 months! So it was really nice to have that day off. I can't wait till I'm hired and I get a couple weeks or more every year. I'm looking forward to it (plus my company gives 10 paid holidays a year rather than 6).