Peeks from the Week

I am loving these hot August days.  I feel alive in the summer heat.  It has cooled off a bit today but I hope the heat wave returns next week for our trip to the Jersey Shore.

Anyways, this week was pretty good.  We hosted two sets of friends for our breakfast for dinner tradition.  On Tuesday night we had our friends Janet and Peter over for German pancakes, fresh fruit, and bacon (or fake-on for the vegetarian).  We played Pandemic and lost, big time.  That's the first time that has happened.  Dan and I have always won.

Thursday night we had Harry and Jennifer over and I made the same menu because it was yummy and easy. We heard all about their amazing trip to Belize and then played Settlers of Catan. 

We are trying to build new friendships and strengthen older ones so simple dinners are working well.

The other big news from the week is Dan and I are now officially debt free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I had a massive amount of student loan debt from graduate school at NYU.  I had made my peace that I would be paying it off the rest of my life.  Because I work at a non-profit, I was on a really low repayment plan based on my income.  We did the math and I would never, ever be able to pay down on the principal while on that payment plan but we couldn't afford a bigger monthly bill.  It was a huge burden for me coming into our marriage with so much debt.  Even though I have been paying my bills for over four years I still owe more than I did on the day the loans went into repayment because I was accruing $6 of interest every single day (that's over $2,000 a year).  Student loan debt is ridiculous if you work in a profession that cannot pay you enough to offset the cost of your education...the so-called education you needed in order to get that job in the first place.  Ugh, I'll stop there before I get carried away.

Anyways, a few months back Dan and I started talking and we decided that if we moved things around and pinched a little we could pay the loans off using the money we had been saving to start our family.  We both knew that we wouldn't ever get this opportunity again once we start having kids.  Now we are pinching pennies to refill the nest egg.

On Wednesday the debt cleared.  I'm bitter about it.  I'm thrilled its gone but annoyed that we ended up paying so much money for two years of  "education" that was not worth the cost.  Oh and that $6.15 left in my account...that's the interest accrued on the same day I paid the loan off! Ridiculous.

There are only two more Summer Fridays left.  Big ole frown-y face about that.  Summer is slipping through our fingers so fast.  Plans for this weekend include painting the apartment entryway room and perhaps a picnic.

Hope you enjoyed this peek.  Happy Friday!