Big decisions and stressors!

I always feel like there's that point in your life where you have to make a big decision.  Moving, buying a house, having a kid, going back to school, changing jobs.  And what are the top 3 stressors according to polls/studies?  That would be having a kid, moving and changing jobs.  So as you can see we've already accomplished 2 of the most stressful things in life.  I think selling the house is encompassed within the "moving" category - but it's rented, so I'm not going to say another word about that house.  You never know, we might be back in Minnesota after I finish school.  Travis says no way to that one, but that's probably b/c it's been about -20 or -10 or -something or other over there and our highs this week have been in the low 70s. 

Anyway, so it's funny how we all have little steps/planned out phases in our lives - where we thought we would be when we were 25, where we actually are.  Other people have a list such as, get married right after college to high school sweetheart (or college sweetheart), buy house, have a kid, get a dog, etc.  As for Travis, it was stockpile a bunch of money, get married at 30 yrs old, already own house, have a kid right away b/c now he'd be "old".  For me, it was get married to the right guy that I just knew I would find soon, get out of Minneapolis, buy a house, have a kid, go part-time, have another kid, stay home. 

Funny how things turn out.  It was get married to guy I met at work after dating (total) for 15 months, when I'm 23, 24 a month later (Travis was 24, 25 a month later), move into the bachelor pad house (which we updated quite nicely), listen to Travis complain about the cold and long winter weather in MN, (yes, I joined in the complaining), devise a plan to leave MN, apply to grad school, get accepted, begin overhauling and try to sell the house, move to sunny AZ, find affordable and acceptable apartment, go back to school, get Travis down here and help him find a job, rent out the house in MN, train outdoors and sign up for more races... and just relax for a while.   And you know what, where God and life took us is so much better than any old planned life checklist!  We're just not in control and that's the beauty of life they say.  So I'm pretty proud of us for getting through 2 of the top 3 stressors in life together.  We make a pretty darn good team I must say.

So what's in the future in our checklist?  Not really sure.  We are aiming to pay off the car ASAP and start funding our 3 - 6 month emergency fund.  We will be saving for a baby and a house little by little.  We're trying to take it one day at a time and just relax about everything.  We've talked about becoming parents frequently for the last few months, so we'll just wait and see when timing works out for that.  We're hoping to buy a house in the next 3 - 5 years.  Yes, think long-term here - we're in this economic disaster b/c everyone HAD to have a house right out of college and forgot that student loans and credit card debt actually both have to be paid off and can choke the life out of you and your marriage.  So, thank you God, that we learned our lesson at the young ages of 25 and 26 :)  It's okay if we don't have a house before we're 30 years old or before we start a family.