A more exciting week than usual

Ok, I realize that this blog has basically become all Scout all the time, but this post is my attempt at "In Other News".

I don't think we even have many blog followers these days, but I'm cool with it. It's mostly for us and maybe a few close friends & family members here and there anyway. Eric complains that the blog has gotten boring since we moved away from Saipan. He's right. However, when I ask him to spice it up by contributing a clever post or two, he's lame and refuses. All of that creative writing talent locked away! So sad.

So, without further ado, here are three things that happened this past week that were actually pretty exciting (for us anyway)...

1. Last week Eric won $20,000 in a Mass Mutual competition!! I wish we could share the winnings and take you all on a fabulous cruise, but it's all going straight to our student debt which is a HUGE blessing. They're even giving us an extra $7,000 to cover the taxes. After this, Eric's law school debt will go down from 6 digits to 5!

The Contest: In 140 characters or less (!) describe what you could be doing to save money and pay back your student debt faster.

The Judging Criteria:

• Creativity of response that demonstrates your desire to complete your financial obligations in reducing your student loan debt 

• Feasibility of implementation of strategy 

• Impact, speed and possible success predicted to pay down debt 

• Universality, ability for application and execution by other millennials 

And the Winner is... 

2. A few days ago Scout and I got our first taste of fame. We were shot for a commercial for a Home Security company. We have a friend who needed me to play the non-speaking role of a mom pushing her child in a stroller while checking her smart phone. Really challenging stuff. I tried not to let it go to my head too much when they referred to me as "the talent". :)

3. Guess who finally got her DSLR as an early birthday gift?! It's not the D90 that I've been lusting over for years; I actually decided to go with the newer and more affordable Canon T3i, and I absolutely love it! You can see some of my first photos in the blog post below. I'm obviously still learning, but it's so much fun!

As generous as this gift was, with Eric, there are always strings attached. We made a deal a while back that if he got me a DSLR, he could get Lasik eye surgery (not exactly a fair deal, but that's how badly I wanted the camera). He's never been a fan of contacts, and he's too vain for his glasses so, even though I'm the one who's practically blind and have been for more than half of my life, he's the one who gets the surgery first. Oh well! I've got my camera now so I can't hate.

And there you have it. A week with a small dose of excitement thrown in. Now we'll go back to our merry, boring way. :)