The Plan

As of now, August 2012, I've had a copper IUD in place for roughly two and a half years.  After getting the IUD things were peachy.  I didn't have to worry about being overly emotional because of hormones nor getting pregnant.  My relationship with Josh became stronger and stronger.

I've always wanted a family and a career.  And it seems natural to me to establish a career before a family.  For me, the proper order of life-changing moments goes like this:

1. Settle into a job
2. Become financially independent
3. Get married
4. Buy a house
5. Start having kids

I understand that for many people this order may bee different but for my friends and family, this is the standard.  I'm also a PLANNER.  It is very difficult for me to move onto the next phase in life without knowing what comes after that and looking forward to it.  For example, before finding out I was pregnant, I was beginning to settle into my job, starting a savings plan, and on my lunch break, I was planning my future wedding.  I'm always looking far into the future, maybe even a little too far.

Anyway, Josh and I have been living together since October of 2010.  A few months prior to moving in with each other, he was offered a very well-paying job in Los Angeles.  Although I had a decent job and an awesome apartment of my own in Denver, I desperately wanted some adventure.  I wanted to move away from home and become independent.  I also really liked the idea of being closer to a beach.  So, Josh took the job and moved from Denver to LA.  Shortly after, I quit my job and followed him.  We found an apartment and within one week of moving, I found a new job in LA!

We lived our lives, explored LA, built upon our relationship, started to pay off debts, and became adults.  In October 2011 we moved to a different apartment, started to pay off more debts and then in May 2012 got engaged!  After almost four years of being together and one and a half years of living together, we decided to move to the next step.

Throughout May and June we decided to plan for our wedding in September 2013 in LA.  Since all of our family and friends would need to travel to LA, we would make a weekend out of it, rent a large vacation home, have the reception on the lawn, make it a family affair.  Long ago I had my wedding colors picked out and I created a Pinterest account to gather ideas about all of the other stuff.  We established a budget, which would require me to save a large chunk of my paycheck every month for the next year, but I had paid off all of my debt so that was not going to bee a problem.

Life was coming together and I was right on plan.