“boiler-room style sales culture”

I can't say that I am surprised that my former school is being sued. My School allowed just about anyone into it. I remember being paired in a group project with three others. One student was special needs, which is fine, however, the school had no special needs program. $$$ was the only thing they saw when they accepted this poor girl into the school. How is anyone to succeed if there is no filter?

I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, but spending as much as I did on my education would have to be my biggest. Hindsight is always 20/20, my degree is in Interior Design, which you'd think would be a lucrative career- While there is the exception of those starting their own businesses and making the big bucks, you are pretty much either stuck in a sales job or if your lucky working under an architect.

This school, when I was there, charged upwards of 35K per year for tuition alone. Finishing your degree in 3 years will cost you a small house. I'm embarrassed to say, I financed the whole thing. So here I am, 26 years old with a modest life, I drive an old car, live in a 'cute' house (I've learned that since becoming a homeowner, cute means small), and have what would appear to be a stable middle class income job. The only thing in my life that is extravagant is my student loan bill.

I've been able to manage but I often wonder about the students that paid for the same education as I did, but really weren't qualified. Did they drop out, not get their degree and will they spend the rest of their life with a HS Diploma working minimum wage trying to pay off their loans? Will they default and not ever be able to experience, what I think are some of the greatest things in life like being a homeowner, buying their first new car, having a job they genuinely enjoy? I can't even imagine.

I will always have my degree and yes, that is something awesome. I am a first generation college graduate and I am definately proud of that. If I could go back though, I definately would have chosen a more affordable college and a more broad course of study.

Adjusting back into the simple life...

One month after I said I do, I am still adjusting back to life as usual. There are so many things that we want to get done in the next month or two. For starters, we are working on staining our new fence (which has proven to be an excellent deterrent for our weirdo neighbor, except when we are staining it). I expect this project will take up all of my evenings this week.
Next weekend we are headed up to the North Shore for my best friend's sister's wedding. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I know AJD will make for a stunning bride, her beauty will hardly compare to the scenery, but that doesn't stop me from being excited about that too! I figure it will be a nice little getaway for NPZ and I. Hopefully it will tide us over until our real honeymoon in Feb. (haha, get it tide!)

After the wedding weekend getaway I will waiting patiently (okay, impatiently!) for these to arrive.

I have agreed to agreed to help out with my mother in laws wedding by doing the wedding invitations. There was a lot of information needed for invites, so I decided to go with the pocket style, hopefully this won't be too tricky! Her husband is from Chicago, and her family is mostly in MN, so while it's not your traditional destination wedding, for some of their guests, it definitely is. I have to get them out right away so hopefully they come soon! I'm hoping I can recruit some ladies to help me out! I think it will be easy because luckily I was not a bridezilla and did my own invites, so none of my friends are sick of me yet!

Lots and lots to do, and lots and lots to enjoy!

-Liz

The Good Husband

Last night I started drinking at 5:06 pm. It had been a rough week at work to say the least. (Caution: The following is a rant) I was swamped with problems all week and to top it off my boss was really thinking his dick made him smarter than me. I'm seriously considering a sex change just to prove that my brain function is normal...but then again, I wouldn't want to do anything that would satisfy this jerk. Sis LJP pointed out to me that he may just have a severe case of little man syndrome, which is the likely cause of the male superiority complex in my office considering that the two worst are the two smallest dudes in the office. Regardless, I don't really think that it is an excuse to be so arrogant or condescending towards women.
Obviously you can see my week pissed me off and my rant up there was off subject besides that it was the reason I was drinking the moment I got home on Friday. Luckily, I came home to my awesome husband.
I ended up in bed early and slept in until 9, which was needed. When I walked downstairs NPZ had cleaned the ENTIRE house. What?!?  This was his first Saturday off since the wedding, and typically I clean the house on Satuday while he's at work. I don't mind this arrangement, but it was actually just what I needed today.
How did I get such a great guy?

-Liz

Monday

Generosity.

We have been feeling so lucky. Not only because we get to have each other forever, but because of our family and friends. We have received an outpouring of support that we never knew we had. This is my 'Thank you' post to everyone who has been there for us. It is also a post to show just what we've been doing with your generosity!

NPZ was SO excited to use his NEW Weed Whip. This is our very first new (and not just new to us) lawn equipment!

We grilled out on our 5 year (dating) anniversary, we just couldn't skip such a big milestone, even though we had been married for a few days. NPZ's lovely coworkers got us a grilling kit apron which we love and a thermometer steak fork which we tested out.



NPZ's coworkers also got him this nifty beer bird contraption. It made for a perfect Sunday night dinner - we were able to grill even though we saw some showers because it took about an hour and a half to cook it...lets just say it was TOTALLY worth the wait! YUM! This birdy here came out of the freezer that my folks bought us as a wedding gift! NPZ was so excited about the freezer, I could hear him singing in his female voice about how awesome it was while I was organizing closets!

Speaking of cleaning....Before the wedding this is what my house looked like!

It was awful! I tried and tried to keep all this as organized as I could, but the best I could do was to make sure there was a walking path! I'm definitely glad we bought a house before planning the wedding because if this was all in our 1 bedroom apartment I think I would have lost my mind.

We loaded it all up two days before the wedding and I got my spare room back!

Big Blue did the trick and we were able to fit all of the stuff plus the flower in one trip! We were pretty tired and thirsty after though ;)

I spent last weekend doing this to 3 of my closets- and my heart palpitations have subsided. I went to target and picked up some shelving which ended up only costing about $35.00 a closet and I got so much more storage space out of my mini closets. (Notice all my new towels? Awesome shower gifts from some pretty generous ladies!)

Thanks Again!

Truck

Everyone keeps asking about the truck in our wedding photos.

Well...there really isn't any sentimental meaning behind it. We just thought it would look cool in photos. Since we didn't get married in a fancy location, I thought it would set the tone for our wedding pictures. Our wedding was down home, crafty and laid back.

I was really happy with the way the 'truck' pictures turned out. We went to an old overgrown park to take the pictures. Our photographer (www.georgehausler.com) was awesome finding the lighting through the trees. 

So that is that.

-Liz

Now that he's seen the dress...

When I decided on a 'Green' wedding, the first recycled item I looked for was the dress. Here's how I did it. First, I went to all the boutiques and found the model numbers of the dresses I really liked (Like is a key word here, it was important not to have a favorite) Then I waited. You need to wait for the dress to go 'out of season' so that online sellers have a chance to buy and wear it to their wedding and sell it after. These were the dresses that I liked:

And of course this guy:

I purchased my dress in January from a woman in NC who had not altered hers. I paid $150 for the dress and another $100 getting it altered and cleaned.

I loved that my dress was inexpensive, and that it got double the life of a typical wedding gown.

You can always be green by selling or borrowing out your wedding gown, but since I knew that my wedding was outdoors- I figured it would not be in good condition afterwards. I was right.

People seemed very surprised to find out that it was a second hand dress. I loved it!

-Liz