DJ and Yvette’s Blog!

Sorry for the downtime, folks. DJ’s been swamped and didn’t have the time to fix an ongoing issue that had the blog down.
And yes, the front page is horribly out of date. One of these days we’ll take down our wedding site and make it a real site

Life is getting busy for DJ as we’ve decided to pursue more actively DJ (as in Master of Ceremonies) events for the year, with the unofficial goal of at least $6000 in revenue in 2010.  This is a challenge for DJ as his business isn’t really established and wedding season is coming up soon!  The DJtheDJ.com website is no more than a shell and there’s much work to be done from the State of Colorado’s perspective as well!

The goal will be to shift from a sole proprietorship into an LLC so we can better protect our personal assets.  It’s a hard decision because there’s not really any need for acquiring debts in this business and DJ already owns the equipment needed.  DJ is hoping to have everything done and a new business fully launched by mid-March.

In addition, DJ has a goal of obtaining all of his Microsoft certifications this year, as well as possibly adding Citrix certifications to the mix.  The hope is that with these certifications he can help either grow his existing role at his employer (TechSmart) and, well- make more money to pay down those debts!

Of course the plan is still to play for our church and if time allows even try recording some of those songs he’s been promising for the last 15 years…

Now that it’s typed out it certainly doesn’t seem like much… but it’s a lot of little things adding up to Busy Deej.

Hi Everyone!

On Feb 12th, Yvette will be leaving her job to take some time to study on a new aspect of her career.  Currently she’s been doing design for catalogs and ads, etc, what she’d like to do instead is to work more with photographs- focusing on color correction and touch ups for professional photographs, etc.

It’s been very difficult to come home after 8 hours in front of the computer and spend a few more trying to learn a new trade.  She’s been very frustrated but has been willing to stay until the time was right at her current job.  The big catalog went out at the end of January.  So, the time was right at her current job to give them enough time to find a replacement.

As for us, February is a great month because DJ has a lot of DJing gigs providing about 2 months of income replacement for Yvette.  Look for some pictures and video of this year’s Butterfly Kisses Dance coming soon!  The event was HUGE this year- dad’s even looking for tickets on Craigslist!

Our current goal is for Yvette to find part-time work doing something else non-computer related so that she can spend a few hours every day focused on learning more about working with photos, from there we’re not 100% sure what will happen.  We’ll of course look for steady work in that area but the end goal is to offer her services to photographers so that they can send us photos, Yvette retouches them and sends them back on a per-photo fee.  This will allow her to work on-demand out of the home, so we hope.  Of course we’re open to the idea of her finding full-time work in this arena as well- time will tell!

So we’d love your support during this transition, obviously we will be slowing down the paying down of debts during this time but fortunately DJ makes enough for us to survive, and we can get by at least 6 months on what we have extra in savings.  So we’re confident this was the right time but we know it’ll be taxing to adjust!

Hello friends and family!

Well, here it is.  Our first holiday letter as The Eshelmans!

2009 has been an interesting year, for sure.  And ‘interesting’ is the understatement of this decade!

2009 started for us just returning from our last Christmas with DJ’s grandmother, Eileen Larson.  While difficult to face at times, it was great to be with DJ’s wonderful family in a large family reunion.
Never one to let a gathering like that go uninteresting, just before leaving DJ put a promise ring on Yvette’s finger!

January passed in a breeze, with worries about the policies of the soon-to-be President dominating DJ’s thoughts (and Facebook account).
Soon more practical distractions would arise as one Sunday in our church, DJ felt a strong leading to attend what he thought was going to be a one-night event- Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (which is actually a very comprehensive multi-week course).

After attending the first week, DJ was overwhelmed with conviction and asked Yvette to join him.  She did so and thru taking the course together, we realized that we were ready for the next big step.

DJ asked Yvette to marry him on March 21st, 2009… and she said yes!  Well, eventually.  She was apparently so happy she forgot to say ‘yes’ and just kissed him instead, but he got the official ‘yes’ eventually!

So began a whirlwind of real change in our lives!
The spring did have a bit of hardship, as DJ’s last remaining grandparent, Eileen, went to her Heavenly Home- but we were very blessed to see Eileen smile very large- fixated without any words on Yvette’s wonderful eyes before she passed along.  She obviously liked Yvette very much and approved, which meant a lot.  It’s a moment DJ will likely never forget.

As for the wedding and it’s planning, there’s no doubt about it- Financial Peace changed a lot of things about how we approached the wedding, and thanks to some generosity from our families, we were able to pay for the entire wedding on a budget of about $7,000 in cash.  Absolutely no credit was used for the event, which for DJ… was a big thing!
(and it’s continued- in the first four months of our marriage we’ve paid down almost $6,000 of debt!)
Today we live on a comfortable budget and believe our life to be much happier because we are communicating well about the #1 thing that families struggle and fight over… money.

Of course, we have made sacrifices- we currently live in a very small apartment (with a very small rent!) and will be waiting to have kids until the shackles of debt are no longer around us (currently estimating 1-2 years but we’ll see how God works on that one)!

After the wonderful wedding on August 29th here in Fort Collins, which we were blessed with so many of you attending, we went on a short honeymoon to Estes Park- where we rented a cabin and played for a few days.  The rest of the honeymoon will follow over Christmas in Glenwood Springs!
Soon after, we had the pleasure of attending DJ’s cousin Meg’s wedding (a very funny story that involves getting married three times in one summer!  Meg is a missionary in Hungary and married there as well as here…  long story!).  DJ actually DJ’d the wedding as well, which was interesting because the wedding was in Indiana!

Sadly, the only other travel we’ve done this year has been to Yvette’s uncle Steven’s funeral in Houston on December 14th.  He was a wonderful man and will be missed by us both greatly.  The trip did give DJ the opportunity to finally meet the rest of Yvette’s extended family, which was quite positive.  Fortunately DJ did get to spend a little bit of time getting to know Steven before he passed, which we’re thankful for.

Yvette and DJ were surprised to have two sets of siblings move here to Fort Collins- DJ’s sister Star and family, and Yvette’s sister Nikki and family!  That has been wonderful to say the least!

In summary, we are quite happy and content.

No, those words are not quite right…  let us say we are extremely blessed.

God has blessed us beyond what anyone should expect this year.  Not only with our love and marriage, but with steady paychecks, a somewhat loving cat and wonderful families and friends that care for us.  In short, more than could be expected in our difficult times.  We both feel that we are headed in a very good direction and absolutely love being in love with each other!

Merry Christmas to all!

As a freshly married couple, we’ve had some challenges to overcome. One of them was meals. We wanted to save money, but we were finding that trips to Sams Club and the grocery store wasn’t enough. Food was going bad in our refrigerator and we weren’t really all that effective. We were going over budget every month for groceries and all too often too tired when we got home to do anything productive.
As you can imagine, this is bad for a lot of reasons- we even began gaining more weight!

You’ve heard us go on and on about Dave Ramsey, so naturally we were stressed a bit because wasting money doesn’t work for paying down debts!
DJ had been hearing an advertisement on Dave’s radio program for E-Mealz and we decided to give it a try.

We LOVE it!

In the first two weeks we’d slashed our spending on food in half, and have found a lot of… well, PEACE in having a plan!  Yvette loves it because she can just follow the plan right in front of her and it causes a lot less anxiety, but probably mostly because she doesn’t have to eat DJ’s improvised meals on this plan…

It’s pretty simple, you sign up for an account and you can download weekly meal plans. These plans have all the ingredients you need on a sheet you can take to the grocery store and only buy what you need- no more being swayed by what’s on sale and buying too much of stuff you don’t need!
From there, it’s just a matter of every night selecting what meal you’d like and making it. We’ve found all of the meals so far easy to make and delicious, with a good amount of variety.
There are a host of different options for the meal lists- we’re currently on the basic two person plan- but there are tighter plans for diets and even some that track seasonal sales at certain stores (mostly East Coast, unfortunately).

So we say go for it- click the link and try it out!  It’s $15 for 3 months (we saved more than that in the first week, so YEAH it’s worth it!)

All Smiles at our wedding reception

Yup, it’s true- we’re married!

We’re still sorting out our new life, so we haven’t had a lot of time to update the blog, but the wedding was great!

Basically we did photos in Edora Park right before the ceremony.

Then of course the ceremony at Life Church, with Yvette’s college roommate playing Harp, DJ’s extended family singing a wonderful song and of course, A special Recessional.

After a few family photos we sent everyone to the Lincoln Center while we took our photographer to get some rather classic photos of us going downtown to the Spicy Pickle (where we took our engagement photos).

Then to the reception where we tried hard to say hi to everyone- sorry if we missed you!

Dancing was great and the food was plentiful (a little too much so- we had a LOT of leftovers!)

At the end, we put Yvette up on DJ’s motorcycle and we rode off into the night (well, around Old Town anyway).

The next morning we opened gifts which we must say were extremely generous.

Then off to Estes Park for a few days off; we’ll have more of a honeymoon later this Christmas!

We’ll update sometime soon with more details and hopefully a photo-blog of the event itself.

For now, however- we invite you all to view and order prints from our wedding from our photographer before we release our photos from the event.  Shaun got some great shots, so enjoy!

http://yvettedj.weddingherald.com/

Today is our 2 year dating anniversary!  Two years ago, DJ asked Yvette to be his girlfriend.  It’s hard to believe it’s been two years, yet sometimes it feels as comfortable as if it’s been 10.  What a wonder is love

We plan on celebrating ‘on the cheap’ tonight- but we did splurge for some crab legs at Sam’s Club   But DJ will be the chef this evening.

Sorry this hasn’t been updated in some time, but we’ve been busy!

DJ has completed his move into the apartment and we’ve been re-arranging and making room for Yvette’s possessions as well.  The other day we combined our CD Collections!  How exciting!

We have a 5×10 storage unit that is getting plenty of use so far.  A ‘funny’ story that happened during the move is that DJ underestimated the structural strength of a set of shelves we were going to use in storage.  Well, structural when put on it’s side…  apparently it didn’t like it and came crashing apart!  Oh noes!

So, storage is in shambles right now, but at least it all fits

As for the apartment itself, there’s still a few random boxes left but on the whole we seem to be doing pretty well at getting everything into it’s proper place.  Honestly, getting those last minute details done for the wedding are more important to us right now

Our plan right now is to keep the 5×10 storage until we can figure out how to sell some items that won’t be needed.  Keep your eye on our website sometime around September for a list of things that will be offered first to friends and family!

Hello everyone,

Planning is still moving forward but we do have one request of everyone:

If you could complete our online RSVP form by July 12th it would help us out greatly in counting up what we need for the Reception, etc.  Even if you’re NOT coming, we’d still appreciate it if you would fill out the form up to the ‘attending’ drop-down box.

Here’s why we’re doing electronic RSVPs:

-It helps us keep organized wherever we are, home, work, coffee shop, whatever!

-It helps us keep track of who can come to what event more easily

-It helps us know who to bug about not replying yet more effectively

-It saves money (postage and printing)

-It’s more ‘green’

It hasn’t been easy- we’ve had lots of setbacks with spam filters and such but we’re hoping this will all pay off in the end.

We’re hoping for more than one happy ending with all of this:  DJ is hoping to use all these experiences to streamline the experience for other couples and offer a more robust service for others getting married!

Yvette and I signed a lease on a new apartment today!  We’re excited because the rent is under $700 for a 2 bedroom apartment, which is great since Yvette pays almost that much now for a 1 bedroom apartment!!!

The apartment is in a condo complex and rented out by the owner, so we’re anticipating a lot less of the noise and hassles of most apartment complexes.  That and I found out that we’ll be living next door to a policeman, which is always a good thing   I’m willing to bet a patrol car in the parking lot each night will prevent the crimes, noise and of course the ever annoying pot-waft I can’t seem to be rid of in this town whenever I’m in an apartment.

The kitchen is pretty small but it has a decent sized living room, a porch and of course two average-sized bedrooms.  One of the bedrooms will be used as an office and spare room (as well as Missy’s room during the day) with a futon (at least that’s the current plan).  Of course we’ll have pictures down the road.

The apartment, for those of you familiar with Fort Collins, is on the corner of Lemay and Swallow- so much closer to both of our offices!  We’re both looking forward to not having to deal with College Ave. unless we really want to!

Not a House?

We get the question a lot- people just assume that because we’re getting married and the market is so ‘good’ that we’ll just buy a house together.

Well, we have some thoughts on that:
1)  Why would you add the stress of buying a house to the stress of a new life together?
2)  We still have a lot of debts to pay off.  In other words, until we get them paid off, we’re ‘broke’.  It doesn’t make sense to buy a house when you’re broke!  By renting at this price we’ll have several hundred dollars extra each month to put towards reducing our debts and within a year or maybe two we’ll be in a position to get a mortgage with no other debts; a very nice thought.  Dave Ramsey has a good saying about this- that if you buy a house when you’re broke Murphy moves in!
It seems that starting a family and having a house is a good thing.  But having a family, a mortgage and a bunch of debt is one of the big problems with our nation and we’d really like to get off to a better start as a family.  We would like to start from a position of financial strength, not weakness.
3)  So you say, well- put the $700 a month into a mortgage so you’re not ‘throwing money away at rent’!  It seems to me that if I have $800 a month in debt payments and $700 in rent, then when I’m done paying off the debts I’ll have enough money to afford a pretty nice mortgage payment, and won’t have to worry about selling off my little apartment.  I’m willing to push my frustrations about being 33 and not owning a home aside when I think about that.  Besides…
4)  When I first started saying we should look at houses back in March, Yvette said “I dunno”.  More sagelike Ramsey advice:  Listen to your (future) wife’s gut feelings!  They’ll save you money!

If you can’t tell- our feet are very well planted with this decision.

No, we’re not ’shacking up’…

DJ will begin moving in gradually in July, his lease expires July 31st.  Sure, more expensive this way but having been in the Fort Collins rental market for this long I know that these kind of deals don’t stay long.  In fact, another condo just two doors down from this one is renting for $75 more and is in worse shape.  So, worth it in the long run.

The other nice thing about all this is that a gradual move is much less stressful.  I can take a load of stuff in my car on my way to work (I’ve been passing this complex every workday for almost a year now) and the big stuff sometime around the end of the month.

DJ will have almost a full month of peace before the wedding, as Yvette won’t be moved in until well after the honeymoon.  Her lease doesn’t expire until the end of September, so we have yet another month to get all of her stuff moved in.

So- a gradual move in to be sure, but a lot less stressful!  It’s a shame we couldn’t syncronize our move in/out schedules more, but when you think about it- it’s only this one time- at least when we get a mortgage on a house we’ll be in control of when we move in!

One fun little detail is that part of this plan will mean getting a storage shed for the time being- DJ being in his 30s, there’s a lot of ’stuff’ he’s accumulated that will be useful when it comes time to buy a house, but not in an apartment.   Besides, gotta store that DJ equipment somewhere!  That was another huge reason why we jumped on the apartment- the price allows us to get a storage unit and an apartment for less than the average apartment!

Come October- the Debt Snowball begins in full effect!  Then lookout world; the Eshelmans will finally get themselves a house!

*comments in the blog are currently disabled due to a rather annoying spam issue- please feel free to send us any comments you have in an email!*

It’s been a common question – “how’s the planning going?” or a myriad of advice, offers for help, etc- for which we are grateful!  We are currently using Google Docs to stay organized, which is pretty cool!  So we have a list of priorities, deadlines and the budget all lined out for us and accessible wherever we go!

But we thought maybe it would be a smart idea to let everyone know where we are at in our planning!

• We currently have a Church (Life Church) and a Pastor (Jeff Crabtree).  We don’t have the exact time set yet, but we think sometime around 3:30 pm on August 29th, 2009.
  Expect a somewhat informal ceremony, with Black and White theme colors (maybe some blue thrown in)
  Expect padded seats in a very open room.  We’ll be showing a slideshow as you come in.
• We have booked a Reception Venue (The Lincoln Center) Right now the plan is to have everyone go there at around 4:30 and enjoy some food while we take our pictures.  We’ll be there sometime around 6 to visit and cut the cake, do toasts, and of course- to dance!
• We have decided for the time being to serve a light meal- cold cuts and appetizers.  This is in order to have as many people there as possible and not go over budget.  This of course may change if we can make adjustments in the budget, but we’re advising everyone to eat a hearty lunch just in case!
• Alcohol will not be served during the reception, however we are trying to put together plans to have a post-reception gathering somewhere so we can buy everyone a round of drinks to celebrate with us!
• We have selected Robert Krueger as our DJ.  Robert is a long time friend and someone DJ trusts.  So, to answer everyone’s question- no, DJ is not trying to DJ our wedding- in fact he’s looking forward to paying another true professional to be there.
• We have selected Shaun Hudson as our Photographer, largely on Robert’s recommendation and the fact that we love his work!
• We do have a cabin in the mountains picked out and booked for a small honeymoon for a few days after the wedding- our current plan is to go somewhere warm in December for our actual honeymoon!

There’s a few other details people are asking about that we’re currently working on:

• Hotels – we’ll have this arranged and announced before the end of May.
• Gift Registry- will be on-going, but we should have it begun by the end of May.
• Invitations- watch for these in the first weeks of June!
• Pre-Marital Counseling- yes, we will be doing this as well, mid-June

other details will be posted here as they come available!