Highlights

Lots of new things have been happening in the Crispin household! Here are some highlights from the past several months!

♦ January started off with a visits from two of my dear friends Meg and Beth. Meg came out on a whim & we had a great time taking some of her family on a tour around the whole island! I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked as I couldn't get any time off work but we still managed to have a great time! A few weeks later, Beth came to visit and we had such an amazing time soaking up the sun, hitting the beach, eating awesome food and just hanging out. Sadly for some odd reason, I have absolutely no pictures from her time here :( but trust me we had a blast!

♦ February brought another visit, this time from my sweet friend Charis and her husband Ed. They treated us to some amazing cooking and we had such a fun time hanging out in the evenings. Ed and Joe are like two peas in a pod and got along great and Charis and I had some great girl time!

I have really been missing home, especially my family and friends and it was such a blessing to have not one but three of my closest friends come to visit! It really boosted my spirits! Thanks girls! :)

♦ February also brought a big change in our lives. Our lease was up on our rental and for various reasons we decided not to renew. It's bittersweet leaving the first place we ever lived, where we started our marriage but we found a gorgeous place to rent in the middle of the island with awesome landlords. We pay 1/2 the rent, have essentially no commute, and have amazing views! We love it! It is quite cozy though, we moved from a 1200+ sq ft house to a 400 sq foot semi-attached apartment. It sounds drastic and while it was quite a change, we do really like it. We sold the majority of our things (couch, bedframe, dining room table, tv) and have embraced living a simpler life. We have found that we are much happier with less stuff. We are getting used to the weather on this side of the island, it is much cooler & rains a lot here. I had to find my sweatshirt, fuzzy socks & even dug out extra blankets and my down comforter - stuff I never thought I would actually use in Hawaii! There will be some more pics to follow of our tiny new abode.

Me in my many layers of clothes & blankets - it is cold at our new place!

♦ We started taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in January and by the end of March, paid off Joe's car loan and my student loans from college - over $20,000 worth of debt. We fully embraced the class & worked hard at applying the principles and are so proud to say that we're debt free!! I highly recommend the class, it really changed how we think about money & material things & we were able to get out of debt!

♦ We celebrated Easter with two services. I really wanted to go to a sunrise service and Joe's coworker invited us to a service on the Battleship Missouri. I am so glad we went, the service was incredible and we really enjoyed it! We followed that service by talking to our families, then went to a service (with a potluck! :) ) at our regular church. All in all it was a great day and we enjoyed celebrating!

Me and My love at the "Mighty Mo" for Easter Sunday. Note some of my favorite flags in the background! :)

There is so much more I could write as this is just a snippet of what's going on but in an effort to avoid writing a novel I will stop now. :) I will try not to neglect this little blog and keep more up to date with the happenings in our neck of the woods.