Simply Living...

So, I know one of my recent posts was about living a simpler life.

I'm about to take it to a whole new level.  I mean starting from scratch...

Many of you know me from the college days, and I will admit I was high maintenance.  That might even be putting it nicely.  I don't know if I didn't realize it at the time or if I was just okay with it because I had a standard of life that I wanted.

Enter the real world, a mortgage, jobs, cars, kids etc. Not only did I realize how I was living wasn't making me feel better it has actually done the opposite.  A while back we did Dave Ramsey...twice.  We follow some of his stuff still, but really have lost sight of what we were initially going after.

Four years and two kids later, we've done a lot of reflecting, talking, praying and now taking action.  As most of you know, our house is on the market, today was the last day of 'for sale by owner,' tomorrow it's going to an agent.  We've been talking with him throughout the whole process and we've finally decided after a lot of talks that its time to take the plunge.  Maybe we were just taking our time with the listing self consciously because we weren't sure if it was the right thing, now we are fired up and ready for the big leap.  We are crossing our fingers it goes FAST!

I know the big question everyone has for us..."Where are you going."  Right now, honestly, we have no idea.  And it doesn't really bother us either.  We have a lot of things we want to accomplish in a short amount of time.  We've talked about the idea of moving South (as in southern states, not southern Iowa.)  It's always been a dream to live down South and we aren't ruling it out, just adding it to the bottom of list for now. Lucky for us, Dan loves his job and team here but if he did decide to go with another team, we do know his company has locations in Georgia and Alabama (two of our top choices!)

Our list is long, first and foremost, concurring those pesky student loans (AND FAST.) Second, we've always talked about building...but doing it DEBT FREE.  Building has turned in to me wanting an acreage, where I can work the land, have some pets, maybe some big kids toys ;) and be out of the suburbs. I know some of you are re-reading that saying, "is this the same girl?"  Yes, still me, I still like cute clothes and all things girlie.  But, I've also seen how peaceful a simple life can be.

So, if you are curious about what things are going to be happening with us you will have to keep up with the blog.  We won't be posting much on FB about our new journey and the changes we're making, but I'll try to update the blog with all the changes: budgeting like crazy, everything from scratch, going green, simplifying the closet, decluttering, and decorating our new place. This is the short list.  We are so excited to be stepping closer to our dream life!

This is going to be a long, exciting journey and we are excited to see what God has in store for it all.

Are you living simply? Have you given up the "American Dream," of material must haves and debt? I'd love your tips!

Love,
The Buchholz's

It's our Journey...

Oh where, oh where to start....

It's Monday...how bout that...the weather is chilly there is a big snow storm heading our way..and well I'm pretty excited! We are having a great start to the week to be honest.  It's 11:30 at night I am energized and ready to get my to do list done for the day.

I didn't set New Years resolution(s) this year as I mention before but I have been setting weekly goals.  So far staying on top of laundry and picking up toys and other misplaced items daily has been going smoothly.  The house looks good if someone decides to stop by instead of me freaking out at the last minute shoving things in random spots.  Nobody does that right?

Lately, each week I try to add something else to my focus, I added getting back to my devotions not on a daily basis but a few times a week to get started.  This past weekend I really got to thinking as I'm doing my devotions which happen to be about how to be the best wife the way God called me to be.  That I'm the one that does the finances in the house as I should because I have the time to sit down and look at everything and I pay the bills as well.  I know how much is going where and when.  I got to thinking that a lot of times I feel bad that I'm not helping with the actual finances.  Dan has never made me feel that way or said anything that would make me think he wants me to help, but I feel like that is a lot of stress to put on one man.  Although, I do believe that is the mans' job (no ladies I'm not all about being all kinds of equal to a man!)  On the flip side of my feelings though I would never want to go back to work.  I cherish my time with Kypton so so much.  I would never in my life give it up (unless there was absolutely no other way, of course.)  so, essentially I would like to make a little bit of money where I can do my own hours and be at home with Kypton all day.  No, going to a place of business and working night hours is not an option either, haha, not to be picky.  I guess looking at that I figure if I work at night I will be worthless with Kypton all day, and then what is the point of me being home with him, right?

To get to my point...my answer is working from home while improving my overall health and enjoying my family.  Everything on my time.  Dan and many other people we know drink a lot of Spark.  If you don't know what Spark is (like me until the last week) PLEASE contact us!  We are jumping in to the Advocare Business.  Many people I know not only use but sell the products and we are just as excited about them.  We haven't decided what all exactly we want to use besides the Spark energy drink but we have some ideas.  We are excited for this journey together.  That was the main thing when I brought this up to Dan was that I wanted his full support if not him doing it with me.  We are going to do this together, get back in to working out...this time as a team, and show the world what our dreams are made of.

We thought about who our target would be and if we knew anyone that may be interested and if you think about it, we all know someone who either just had a baby and are trying to lose the extra pounds, or someone who has struggled with weight for a while and need something to keep them on track, or even the workout king/queens. Let's face it we all could use a little help in the area of being healthy.  Advocare is for everyone, someone trying to lose weight, someone who just wants more energy, someone who wants to feel healthier overall, or those who love to workout, there is something for everyone!

Stay tuned for this new journey and all of our updates!

Love the Buchholz's =)

News Flash...

3/11/2011-

I don't usually date my posts however, since this wont actually be posted on the day I write it, I did, so you can follow our little story:

On March 9 I felt a little sick at work, in fact I stood up from a table and told my co-worker I thought I was going to be sick. Keep in my the flu has been going around school like crazy! I had this feeling for about a week prior however I never thought I was actually going to throw-up until that night. I never did but I did start to question if I had the flu or if I was growing something inside me.

The next morning I didn't have my morning class so I decided with 3 days until my period I would take a pregnancy test and at least rule that out. Well it wasn't ruled out, I took one and it came up a very faint positive, I was excited but didn't want to get too excited just in case it was a false positive. I sent a photo of the test to my sister and she said, "I think that's a yes, but you better take another one to be sure." On my way to class I stopped by the dollar store (big mistake) to get a test, and got two. I took one in between my classes and it was negative, so of course I was really bummed, went to class, came home because class got out early took another test.....negative....I did some reading online as to how this could be one positive and two negative, and it said that the morning is the best because that is when the HCG (Pregnancy hormone is built up) and being that I hadn't actually missed my period there wasn't a ton to start with. That could have been what cause the two negative results. So what did I do...drank a ton of what the rest of the day, went to hang out at my parents house...(no body knows at this point that its even and option...besides my sister) leave there around 10:00 run to Walgreens pick up two more tests...run home and take one...POSITIVE :) Dan is out at pool league this night and has no idea what is going on, didn't even know I was taking a test....

Dan got home around midnight...I waited up....mind you the night before I was up until 3:30 studying and doing a project, and I have been exhasted for two weeks now and couldn't figure out why... so Dan gets home, I'm watching Drop Dead Diva in bed. It went a little like this...

Hollie: "Honey, we need to talk."

Dan: "I think I know what you are going to say"

Hollie: "Really? What do you think I'm going to say"

Dan: "You are pregnant?"

Hollie: "Yep, I took four tests today, two came back negitive insert story I just wrote above but I am going to take another in the morning to confirm." "What are you thinking?"

Dan: "I knew it!"
Hollie: "How do you feel excited?"

Dan:"Yeah"

Hollie: "scared, nervous?"

Dan: "Nervous."

Hollie: "Everything is going to be just fine!

Then just like the night we got engaged...neither of us could sleep! I guess what you have all been waiting to here is, WE ARE EXPECTING!! :)

The day I found out :)

It was a roller coaster of emotions this week...I found out my advisor had messed up my classes so I wont be done until 2013 which I'm okay with now but I wasn't at the time (this happened Monday...)and by Friday I was finding out we were going to have a baby.

We weren't really planning on having kids until I was out of school however, we know God had his own plan and we couldn't be more excited...at the time I am writing this none of you know and I wont actually post it until after we tell our families on Mother's Day, as that is when the first trimester will be over!

Here is the start of the 9 months: 4 weeks 3 days :)

Either way this is the start of our journey...hopefully you enjoyed this post...there will be many to come :)


Love,


Dan, Hollie, Tyson, and Hershie...and little Baby B :)