Family Weekend

After a couple-day blogging dry spell while the stomach flu destroyed me, I'm back to post about happy things while taking a few breaks to tend to Karl who is currently being eaten alive by said flu.  Awesome.  Just trying to strengthen our immune systems before Lucy comes :)

Here is a picture heavy post for you :) ... University of Arkansas Family Weekend is a maj Cuppett Family tradition!  It obviously began my freshman year with all 5 of my family members making the trek in the 'burban up to Fayetteville, eventually adding Karl to the mix my Sophomore/Junior/Senior years.

This year is Emma's freshman year and we had all been looking forward to Family Weekend literally since she decided to go to UofA last spring!  We always all have such a blast!!!  This year instead of having 7 peeps there would be almost 12, you know,  the 'almost' being Lucy.  Obviously.  The real family weekend happened on a weekend with a major scheduling conflict, so we created our own and it happened to coincide with Karl coming home from Korea and Homecoming- win!

Unfortunately Jeremy had to leave early for work so we really missed him for half of the weekend but we tried to soak it up for the time he was there.  It was so crazy how different {yet equally fun} it was this year and will continue to be while Emma is a student.  Having babies and husbands up there was different than years prior- we went from 1 hotel suite to 4, 1 car to 3, packed a stroller, picked activities with nap time in mind... the weekend was an absolute blast despite the change!!  We went to the game, had every meal together, shopped and ate locally, went to a corn maze and saw tiny little piglets, and just had so much fun all together.  Having everyone together is really rare with Karl's deployment/Emma at school/me & Karl here now.  I am so thankful for this weekend and feel blessed by it!  Praise God for these sweet times!!

twinkies!!

buddies

boo, pic without jeremy :(

on our way to the Pi Phi house

look at those teeth!

Jeremy :(

LOVE  Emma & my parents enjoying Pi Phi things

Matt held this pumpkin like a guitar, ha

 Look at those three!  And those northwest Arkansas trees!!

Cookie and Ollie :)

I have such an awesome family!! I am so thankful for each and every one of them.

Hannah K.C. Burton

Thanksgiving

Karl and I were hoping to be in Texas over Thanksgiving, but God had other plans and they were good, duh.  I was kind of dopey about Thanksgiving all week because I really love Thanksgiving, and while my family doesn't have a big tradition, we always enjoy lots of good food and family time and I knew I would be missing that.  Oh, and also Karl & I would be waking up from night #9 in the sickest hotel ever come Thanksgiving morning.  That is another post.  Know this: I am such a hotel freak/snob.  I don't do cheap hotels, old hotels, hotels that don't have a properly working air conditioner or hotels that I feel like I need to wear shower shoes in... all of that was broken on our 10 night stint in military housing.  Grossssssss.  I'm still recovering.  

Anyways, Karl and I planned to have a Thanksgiving picnic, see a movie, explore the phoenix mountains (you know, without getting out of the car), and just lay low but have a special day, nonetheless.  I woke up on Thanksgiving regretting our plan.  I jumped online and found this restaurant nearby that had an open reservation and we decided to splurge on a nice meal.  So we saw a movie and had lunch, skyped my family, and then had dinner.

Dinner was SUCH a treat!  Not only did Karl treat us to fancy but it was just sweet time with him.  How many couples get to have Thanksgiving just the two of them!?!  Not only that, it really reminded me of the holidays that Pa insisted we all spend/dine at The Gaylord- eating fancy out on Holidays will always remind me of Pa and that is sweet stuff.  We will absolutely go back to the place we ate at- God totally blessed us with this awesome Thanksgiving treat because making a last minute reservation, boy, we could've ended up anywhere.  We sat on a patio with heat lamps and talked about all the ways God blesses us so abundantly.  Here is where we went!  Come visit us and we'll have a spa day there :)

The icing on the Thanksgiving cake was going to bed knowing that was our last night in the nastotel, you know, nasty hotel.

Very thankful,
Hannah K.C. Burton

Lucy Mae

WE HAVE INTERNET!!

This post couldn't come at a better time because just this morning I found out that if Lucy doesn't come on her own, she will be kicked outta there in 10 days!!  WOO HOO!  I am SO excited to be an aunt to another little one!!  This post is dedicated to Baby Lucy and how much I am looking forward to her!  Since I haven't blogged hardly at all the past year, I'm not sure that Lucy has gotten any Blogger attention yet, which is a shame, since she is 39 weeks.

Here is a picture of Oliver the day he was born.  Maddie was pregnant then.  We didn't know it yet.  Neither did she :)

Maddie has been so cute and pregnant and looks TINY still, even at 10 months!  She has had a healthy pregnancy and I am so thankful for that.  She is not a complainer and is not a lazy pregnant person, often doing too much, like still taking out the trash, carrying things around, blah blah blah.  Maddie's awesome.  Callie was an awesome pregnant person too, for the record.

We all knew Lucy was a Lucy from the second Maddie told us she was pregnant.  I was so convinced she was a girl that I only made pink decorations for Maddie's gender reveal and Matt & Maddie only decided on a girl name :)

Maddie was blessed by a shower from our Park Springs friends several weeks ago- it was so fun to get to celebrate her, Matt, & Lucy!  She was gifted the most beautiful clothing and awesome gear and the most wonderful friends and family were there to enjoy!

These awesome ladies hosted!  What a blessed mom Maddie is!

Matt & Maddie are going to be the best parents!  Although, I wouldn't want to disobey Maddie if I were her child, she is a stickler for a babysitter ;) looks can kill.

So look at all these precious pink things!!

 and this nursery!  Maddie did such a sweet job on it!  my lens wouldn't let me get wide enough but trust me, it's cute.

...and if you didn't think the nursery was cute, how about these pics of Matt recording Lucy lullabies?  Melt.

Next time you hear about Lucy it will include a picture of her in my arms.  And maybe I can talk Matt into letting me post one of his 'bies.  I could die.

Love,

Aunt Hanny

technical difficulty

So, my oath to blog all week long is not being forsaken!  I had begun a lovely post on my niece, Lucy, and was notified that I've run out of storage space on Blogger!  Don't fret, I've purchased more but it won't be ready for use until tomorrow.  So there you have it!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Hannah K.C. Burton

my good friend, Dave

I interrupt my scheduled blogging to write my future self about some perseverance, sticking to the plan, and delayed gratification.  I'm confident I'm going to need to re-read this in approximately a week year.

While I am taking a brief stint from the South and am wintering in Arizona, I still hold myself to the strict social code that a southern lady should.  However, I have a piece to say about money today.  So hold on tight to your glass of iced tea, ladies, I'm going there.

Karl & I decided during our dating relationship to start sticking to strict cash budgets.  We each did separate ones but both did so in attempt to build savings for our future together.  Over the course of those years, we moved towards Dave Ramsey's financial plan.  So for more than 4 years we have used a cash budget (like, literally taking cash out and dividing that up into envelopes designated for different purchases- eating out, groceries, dates, gifts, etc.).  Then 2 1/2 years ago we took Dave's class, Financial Peace University, and started his baby steps full force:

1. Save $1000 as an emergency fund

2. Get out of all debt, excluding your home mortgage, and cut up all credit cards!

3. Save 3-6 months of living expenses

4. Put 15% of monthly income in retirement from now until forever

...and so on.  There's like lots of steps. We'll definitely be working through them forever.

We worked and sacrificed to get through these steps because, in the wise words of Dave, "Live like no one else so you can live like no one else."  Does it sound like we are in a cult?  It kind of is.  Just kidding.  Here is the gist: our culture is one of immediate gratification & a more more more mentality- using credit cards and then often not having money to pay them off when the statement comes is normal.  Thank you government for solidifying this.  I'm definitely not saying this is the case with everyone or that credit cards are evil... I think that they can start a bad habit and if we can avoid the temptation, why not?!  Choosing to not use credit is such a small piece of what we learned but it is the gist of my #cashprobz.  See two paragraphs down.

The point of all of this- Karl and I are debt free!  That is through God's grace and the fruits of His spirit because it really stinks to be out shopping and not be buying because my envelope is empty :(  and self-control isn't my best virtue.  Part of being debt free: we are no longer paying into any student loans, we have no car loans, and we do not have any kind of credit balance at all.  I praise God for this freedom...  

...annnnnnd then we went to try and rent an apartment this week.  and have electricity turned on in said apartment.  and it was reallllly difficult. because we no longer have decent credit.  because we don't have credit card bills to pay on time each month.  or car payments to make.  or loans.  all those things that help build credit.  and then also there's that whole year that just happened where we didn't have a single bill to pay.  so our credit stinks.  so nobody wants to rent us an apartment.  or turn our electricity on.

Our good friend Dave talks and warns about this, well, not about the whole year of not paying bills but about credit scores stinking.  Regardless of his warning, I still consider this a fault in his plan for young adults without a giant cash source, which would allow many to not care what their credit looks like if they never need a home loan, for example.  So that's where we are at, Dave, {sticks tongue out}!!  I still swear by his financial plan.  I can see how beneficial it is for us now and in 30 years.  What really stinks is that I feel punished by the positive choices we have been making; I am frustrated by the standard that most Americans live by which has in turn become how lessors decide who is a suitable lessee, what mortgage rate you can get, etc.  

So I feel like going to apply for a credit card and buying things so I can raise our credit score so when we are ready to buy a house, we can do so more easily. There, I said it.  {...and then we would be declined for the card, ha}

So now you all know The Dave Pickle.

I'm holding strong though, Dave.  Hit me up.  Encourage me, Dave.  A dolla make me hollllla!! 

I'll let you all know how this turns out.  Seriously though, for Dave's thousands of young adult followers (again, sounds cultish...) this is going to be a huge problem.  

Also now you all know that I have cash on me at all times

Hannah moneybag$ Burton

Hello from Arizona!

Hi there, friends!  I'm writing from the nastiest hotel room EVER (negative) but my husband is laying on the bed in front of me (positive) so those two things cancel each other out, right?  We are in Arizona and staying on Luke Air Force Base, Karl's new duty station, until our new apartment is ready to move in to on Friday.  By the time we check out of this dump place, we will have spent 10 lovely nights here.  I have never been more excited to live in an apartment.  I feel like I've flashed back to that two weeks where Karl & I shared a twin size bed when I visited him in Korea, except we are sharing a full size bed, which may as well be a twin size bed when it is 85 degrees in the room and you can basically see the germs closing in on you from every side.  But who's complaining about really little lame things :)  See paragraph #4.

The drive here was really nice!  While we are basically in the desert, the view from anywhere here is breathtaking!  We are in a valley so there is mountain range in all direction!  Every sunrise (which I have seen, see: bed situation) and sunset are glorious.  There are huge Gumby-esque cactus everywhere.  Beautiful flowers, awesome parks and trails, TONS to do- shopping, outdoor activities, restaurants- this really is a great place to be stationed!!  I definitely don't feel like I'm in the South.  Women dress differently, I've definitely not heard any "y'alls,"and I had the only top knot in sight at church on Sunday... but it's cool, I won't let anyone bring that down.  While people are definitely not rude, I don't feel like I've really had any experiences with people going out of there way to be friendly like I experience regularly in Texas & Arkansas.  I'm excited to be here!  Excited to be a light in a place that may not be as "Christian" as the other places we've lived, excited for Karl to be at a base with easier work hours, excited to be close to California (holla at you, Ardis'!!) and other fun weekend destinations!

In addition to all of that, being reunited with Karl is awe.some.  Reality from Karl & I: it is hard to get reacquainted after a year apart and independent living for both of us.  Welcome to an often overlooked aspect of military life.  We are getting back into a groove while continuing to allow God to use this past year to draw us both nearer to Him and each other.  More honesty: I love him more than ever and cannot wait for this year of adventure with him!!

his homecoming :)

In keeping consistent with this post being all over the place: shoutout to my bestie Jacki, reading this here blog from a hospital bed.  I intend on keeping this thing interesting so she has something juicy to read everyday while Baby K keeps growing. And I can't mention Baby K without asking for some extra special prayers for them- for Baby to stay right where he is for much longer!!

So everyone plan your vacation to see us!  We can see the Grand Canyon, shop & spa in Scottsdale, road trip to wine country, head a couple hours north and ski... I mean, honestly, lets do this people!

And because this was a VERY wordy post and that is lame to not include some pictures...

Our attempt at a family picture this summer.

This is literally as good as it got.  

Emma's Bid Day... yes I know, I've already blogged her initiation.  

Best Pi Phi day ever, every single year!!

Love it!!  

and a random adorable picture of my BIL Jeremy blowing out his 30th candles and Oliver having the time of his life.

On the docket for this week: mine and Karl's unconventional hotel Thanksgiving, Family Weekend in Fayetteville, Baby Lucy and her expected arrival in no more than 3 weeks, our Friday move-in and some apartment deets, and me and Karl's weekend rendezvous in Alaska (which occurred approximately 3 months ago.  Suit me.).  Sounds juicy, right?  Especially the Alaskan rendezvous.  You'll like the rendezvous.

From the state that doesn't observe daylight savings (sounds snobby, right?),

Hannah K.C. Burton