Well, look at that....

I'm a real, live real estate agent! That's right folks! Here I am with my very first paycheck from my very first sale! Of course I'm dorky and had to have our office manager take a picture of me - whatever. It's been a long time coming!

This closing was probably the easiest one I'll ever have. Both the seller and the buyer live out of town, so it was a "by mail" closing. I literally walked into the title company and was handed a check. They told me that's all they needed from me! I ended up hanging around for a little while to have coffee with the seller's agent and the title agent. Hey - it's good to make friendships in this business! So hooray me!

Saturday I had a wine tasting event in Bemidji. For those of you not familiar with Iron Range geography, Bemidji is about 2 hours away from us. I had originally booked this event back in December when I was desperate for clients and would have driven to the moon if need be. Being the wonderful person that I am, I grudgingly went through with this one and gave up most of my Saturday to go sell some wine. And I made Travis go with me. I'm not driving to some strange city 2 hours away by myself!



Bemidji happens to be quite the large city, and it is very near the beginning of the Mississippi River. It's so small though that I could walk across it, and it freezes up in the winter. Pretty cool! What else is in Bemidji you might ask? Why Babe the Blue Ox of course!









Don't forget about Paul Bunyan!











I'm not too familiar with the Paul Bunyan story, but apparently where there are woods and logging you'll find a giant Bunyan statue with his trusty ox.

After seeing the "sights" of Bemidji we went out for dinner to the Green Mill. You may remember this restaurant from my Grease post. I was hoping for the free bottle of wine again, but alas, they saw me coming and discontinued the special right before I stepped in the door. We still had a nice dinner though (even if I had to pay for my glass of wine!).

I started my new part time job this week on Thursday. It isn't too taxing, although there is a lot of unfamiliar terminology that I have to learn. They company assists people with their disability claims, so there is a lot of medical and legal knowledge floating around. I received my first paycheck on Friday though, so I'm liking this place!

We also got our tax refund on Friday, so we now have a fully funded emergency fund (a la Dave Ramsey's teachings), have paid off our credit cards (hoooooooray!) and paid our heat bill (propane, not like we were months behind on the utilities). Let me tell you - it's been a breath of fresh air. And our resolutions are still going strong!

So Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Take some time to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you!