Monday, March 11, 2013

Interview with Rodeo Wife Sydney Asay

Kanin, Sydney, and Kasen Asay

Here is our interview with Rodeo Wife Sydney Asay who is married to PRCA bullrider Kanin Asay.  She is a wonderful light in the rodeo world.  She is a mom to Kasen, one and a half, and one of those ladies that when she walks in a room she brings a glow to it and to everyone she encounters!  We hope you enjoy her one-on-one conversation with us and love hearing how she keeps her family positive during difficult times and continues to love during hardships.  She also makes a big announcement so keep your eye out for it!

Sydney, tell our readers here at Rodeo Wives, Girlfriends, and Family about yourself
I was born in Grand Island, NE. I have lived in Nebraska and South Dakota each twice, but grew up mainly in Rapid City, SD. That's where I spent my last ten years at home before marrying Kanin and moving to Wyoming. We live in Powell, WY. We own some land and we raise bucking bulls. I have an Associates degree in Business I got through University of Phoenix. I took it all online so I could rodeo with Kanin. I have two older sisters, Lynzie and Whitney. I am very close with both of them and the rest of my family. We have a little boy named Kasen who is one and a half. We also have a baby girl on the way named Kymber who will be here in July..a great time with rodeo, we know ;)
 
 
So now that we know you are married to Kanin Asay, how did the two of you meet?
Kanin and I first saw eachother in the hospitality room in Denver, CO at the rodeo.  That's where I first caught his eye ;) I was there with my brother in law who also made the short round that day and with my sister. Kanin kept asking his friend Dusty if he knew who I was. It wasn't until about a month later we started talking. We had some mutual friends. Once we started talking it wasn't long before we knew we had a future together. We were engaged after seven months of dating and married a year after that. I was nineteen and Kanin was twenty-three.

 
 
The two of you seem to have some kind of love at first sight story so what is something you LOVE and ADORE about Kanin? 
It's hard to think about the number one thing I love about him! One of them though is how much he loves me and our family. It's because of him that we go on the road all year with him and he wouldn't have it any other way (either would I). He does anything and everything to keep that possible for us all to be together and enjoy this experience as a family.
 



Any special announcements you would like to make to the readers of Rodeo Wives, Girlfriends, and Family?
I mentioned it in a previous question, but we are expecting! We are having a baby girl this July!
We are very excited for your family Sydney.  And for all of you reading Sydneys blog.  We will be sure to announce it on our site when Kymber is born into this world! We can't wait!! 


 
What event does Kanin compete in?
Bull riding
 
 
 
How do you feel about rodeo in general?  I always ask the wives if they would rather have their husband compete in a different association such as NHL, MLB, NFL?
I love rodeo. I myself do not rodeo, but I love the sport and that my husband is in it. It definitely has it's ups and downs, but everything does. I love that my husband is in rodeo because he is living his dream and we are a part of it. It supports our family for me to be a stay at home (on the road) mom and do a lot of neat things along the way!

 
 
 
Do you and Kasen travel with Kanin?  If so, how do you like traveling and what things or advice do you give to others to help pass the long driving hours?
We travel with him 90% of the time. The only time we don't go is when he has to fly to a rodeo. I like traveling, but it's TON of time in the car, which can be very long with a little one. I would say that's the hardest part of traveling. Trying to keep a one year old entertained in a carseat for hours and hours, day in day out. The iPad and my iphone has been great for helping keeping him busy going down the road. I pass time by visiting with my family, listening to music, watching movies, Pinterest and keeping up with my family and friends on Facebook.
 
 
 
What do YOU love about rodeo?
The main thing I love about rodeo is that it truly is like a big family. We have gone through a few very hard, life-changing times and it amazes me how many people were there for us. From all different events in rodeos. Everybody did everything they could to help us through those hard times. Mainly just being there for us. Calls, sending texts, flowers, offering to help and checking in on us during those hard times.
 
 
 
How do you spend your free time when you are alone and when you are together as a family?
Being a mom, it's very rare that I ever have free time alone. When it does happen I enjoy getting pedicures or getting my hair done. We spend our free time together by just relaxing and catching up. We love going out to dinner and just visting.
 
 
 
How do you plan your rodeo schedule?
Kanin does ALL of the planning and entering. He looks mainly at money added and tries to make a run where the rodeos are somewhat together or along the way to each other.
 
 
 
 
Where is your favorite place to shop?
The Buckle
I absolutely love their belts and accessories at the Buckle so Sydney is right on the money with her choice!!
 
 
 
What is your personal style?
My style is pretty simple and casual. I am usually just in Jeans (BKE's or L.A. idol) and a top. I love tops from the Buckle. I usually wear flip flops or boots (my roach killers as Kanin calls them). I love jewelry, hats and headbands.

 
 
Favorite place to eat?
Papadeaux's

Favorite rodeo?
Houston

What is your favorite website?
Amazon!

Where is your favorite place to shop?
Probably amazon again

 
 
 
What do you do to keep your relationship #1?
It's something that we always have to work on. We keep our relationship #1 by communicating as much as possible and doing whatever we can to make life easier on eachother. We are a team and do everything together and help build eachother up.

 
 
 
How do you keep the sparks flying and the love fire a burnin'??
To keep the sparks flying we try to have time together every day where we can relax and catch up just the two of us. It's usually at night after Kasen goes to bed. This is "our time" together. We talk about our day, what's coming up, what's on our mind, etc. It's a good way to make sure we stay on the same page. It's also a good time to cuddle and focus on eachother. During the day most of our attention goes to taking care of Kasen and whatever work needs to get done, so it's good to try and pay enought attention to eachother and our relationship.
 
 
 
 
What advice do you give other women on staying strong throughout all the ups and downs rodeo throws your way?
It's important to keep God in the center. You have to know and believe in your heart that God will get you through all the ups and down. Trust him and give it ALL to him and he will give you peace!

 
 
 
What advice do you give to keep a positive attitude when loss is front and center and when hardships happen?
It's really important to leave what happens in the arena, in the arena and not to let it have an effect on your relationship with eachother.  If things don't go well. There will be times when it seems like nothing is going right in the arena and you need the money. But you HAVE to keep a positive attitude and be your husband's backbone. No matter how my husband competes, afterwards I always  give him hug and kiss and tell him good job. You cannot focus on mistakes made in the arena or get a bad attitude!

 
 
 
Do you have any nicknames or pet names for one another?
My husband has a million weird nicknames for everybody...for some reason he calls me Squid, lol. I think it's because it sounds close to Syd, and his nicknames are always SO random! Lol
 
 
 
If you could tell the readers about ONE great thing (discovery) or something you can't live without what would it be?
Probably a lint roller, because we love our dogs, but I hate hair on me!
 
 
 
If you were on a deserted island and could bring only ONE thing what would it be?
Kanin! I couldn't survive on a deserted island without him!

 
 
 
One word to describe yourself?
probably random

 
Favorite vacation spot?
So far, Jamaica has been my favorite.

 
Dream vacation spot?
Hawaii
 
Favorite movie you'd recommend right now for all of our ladies to watch?
Surprisingly, I loved the new Snow White and the Huntsmen
 
Do you have any unique or strange talents?
Honestly, not that I can think of

 
Do you have any pet peeves that Kanin does?
Leaving dirty clothes on the floor
 
 
 
 
What is the most romantic thing your husband has ever done?
When we were engaged, I was still living at home with my parents. I hadn't seen Kanin in well over a month because it was during the winter run. I wasn't going to see him for another month, but he surprised me and flew to my parents to see me when he had a small break. He rang the doorbell, I answered the door and it was him. He pulled it off, because I had NO idea he was coming! I was so surprised and couldn't have been happier to see him!

 
 
Do you or Kanin have any phobias?
My phobias are needles and spiders, Kanin's are the same!

 
 
Are you a morning or night person?  What about Kanin?
We are both night people for sure. We are used to late nights at the rodeo, and driving afterwards.

 
 
What was the last film you saw at the theater?
Jack Reacher (Kanin's choice). I did enjoy it though!

 
 
What is your favorite style accessory?
Earrings

 
 
Would you rather be outdoors in the wild or indoors in the house?
A perfect combination of the two! I go stircrazy in the house after awhile and I love to be outside!

 
Hope each of you reading this now feels a bit more closer to our rodeo wife Sydney Asay.  Thank you Syd for allowing us to peak into your life and learn some great things about you and your wonderful family! 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

2 families journeys to getting OUT OF DEBT, FOREVER! Follow in their footsteps and start the program now!

My husband and I first heard of Dave Ramsey through my sister, Kasey and her husband James.  They began telling us of this amazing journey they were on and the end result was leaving them out of debt FOREVER! Yes, you read right!  Out of debt FOREVER!  When we first heard them talk about this program we were, of course, skeptical.  We wondered "how in the world would such a simple few steps leave you and your entire family out of the clutches of this item we have such a love and hate relationship with"?  "Why, if this was real, then how come more more families don't start this Dave Ramsey program"?  Why is it that so many Americans are claiming Bankruptcy and forever endebted to plastic cards when there is a simple, A-Z process to get them out of debt?  My husband and I were on a quest to find the answer and the only way we could do it is have my sister and brother-in-law sit down with us and help US escape the grasp of this evil we call "debt". 

It is a year and 2 months later and my husband and I have now went from hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to now being left with only a couple of loans!  We never thought that at 30 years old we would be living out the rest of our lives free from debt. We would  be able to pay for trips in cash, vehicles in cash, and not let debt keep us from doing the things our hearts desire and helping our children live a life where they can go to college without having massive loans left to pay or get them a car where they aren't stuck with a huge loan.  I believe in this program so much that I have practically become Daves personal spokesperson without him even knowing it.  He should pay ME for giving him so much free advertisement but then again, HE is the one that has helped millions of families get out of debt and their kids will be out of debt, and their KIDS' kids will be out of debt. 

I went on a quest to find 2 family's who were willing to open up and journal their process of getting out of debt.  They had to be willing to let us see the ups and downs, their loans, why they are currently in the middle of this process, and share their income.  Thank you to the two family's whom are allowing us to take a peek into their journey every month and help all the Rodeo Wives, Girlfriends, and Family readers see how terrific they are now that they have learned to know that money doesn't control them and won't ever control them again!  It will not be the reason they can't sleep at night or the reason they don't want to answer the phone for fear that it is a bill collector on the other end.  Nope, these family's will never have those fears (unless they decide to go A-wall and take out new credit cards or go crazy buying things on loan again after they do all the hard work to getting Debt Free)   I picked a family of 4 (husband, wife, and 2 kids)  and a couple (man and wife) who have been married for 10+ years to share their stories so each of you will know you can do it no matter what your status!

I hope each of you reading this will choose to start the program to getting OUT OF DEBT.  You won't regret it!  There may be difficult times and in the beginning.  You may struggle to keep your budget, but, you won't ever regret sacrificing a year or two of being strict with your budget to FOREVER being OUT OF DEBT! You will sacrifice not doing things for awhile and you will see your friends go out to eat, take trips, spend money on desires and impulses that they want and you can't and won't be doing that BUT, YOU will be the family who has NO mortgage, NO credit cards, NO loans.  YOU will be the family who can take a trip to Africa, Europe, ANYWHERE for that matter without maxing out a credit card and enjoying every cocktail while you're there bc you won't be coming home wondering when that first credit card bill will come with that cocktail price on it.  You paid in CASH! Yes ma'am you did!  Can I get an Amen?!  So sit back and enjoy the journey because it will forever be worth it!
 
 
Meet our First family.  We will call them the "H Family".  This family is the man and wife who decided to share their journey with us.  Here is their journey to getting out of debt and the "H" family gives you a breakdown of Dave's steps to getting out of debt.  You don't just start paying stuff off.  There is a very specific method Dave requires of you and the H family details that below.   
 
 
Let me introduce ourselves.  We are a family of two.  I am a teacher and my husband is a technician.  We both started out our marriage with me having $20,000 a YEAR private college loans.  We ended up buying a new car since my car was quite old, plus we bought a house.  We also had to purchase items for our new house and slowly the credit card amounts started accumulating.  After a few years of it slowly building up, we read Dave Ramsey's book and decided we needed a change. 
 
We started the program last year.  First, we built up $1,000 in emergency savings which is the first step in Dave's process to getting out of debt.  (You have to have $1,000.00 in savings before you can start paying off your loans and credit cards.  This way, in case of an emergency you aren't taking out another credit card to pay for the emergency.  There is a method to this madness so trust Dave and you will be out of debt in no time).  Dave then talks about the snowball effect where you will start by paying off your lowest balance credit card.  Once it is paid off, you then take the amt. you pd monthly on the old credit card and apply it to the next highest balance credit card.  You would continue that process until all of your c.c. are paid off.
 
Before we started Dave Ramsey, we decided to cut up all but one credit card.  We then started paying EVERYTHING in cash.  If we didn't have the cash, we didn't buy it.  If we had to pay for something online (ex. airline tickets), we made sure it was with our debit card and would not put anything towards credit.
 
We just updated all of our totals and we have pd off all of our credit cards except for one plus one of my student loans.  We have one more student loan, our house, and my car to pay off and we will be debt free!  It has not come without sacrifice!  We looked at our taxes and found the total that we earned last year and found that we used 1/3 of our income to specifically work on paying down our debt.  We have also made sure that we eat at home.  When we hear about all of our friends taking vacations and going to Disney or traveling around, we are quite jealous, but we know our staying home right now will be rewarded later on.  If I HAVE/NEED to travel, I add on extra jobs/ tasks to earn extra money to be able to pay for the trips.  I travel twice a year to see family and I always perform extra jobs so that we have the money to pay for it and we do not have to charge it and pay it off month after month.  We put the money in our account, purchase the trip on our debit card and are not burdened by it the next month when we have to find money to pay for it. My income is constant but my hsubands income varies from week to week, so it makes budgeting even that much more important. 
 
We are also very faithful in tithing above and beyond 10%.  No matter what is written on our pay checks, we feel it is important to give to the Lord first.  Everything we have been given was by God and we feel that we can express our gratitiude and faithfulness by submitting our "First fruits" to the Lord.  He says, "Bring me your tithe.  Test me in this," says the Lord.  "and see if I won't throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."  I am thankful for his faithfulness and provision in our lives.
 
A family member passed away recently and we were very blessed to be given some money that he had left us.  Initially we were talking about all the great things we could use with the money: a trip, redoing our backyard, a couch, redoing the kitchen, and more, but I just kept getting this sickening feeling in my stomach.  My flesh wanted to use it for selfish reasons since we had spent so much time sacrificing and depriving ourselves of things for us!  However, my brain was telling me that I would regret it afterwards.  We decided to use it to pay off some bills and would be rewarded later.  We ended up paying off our first vehicle, a school loan, plus a credit card with the money.  After we did it, I felt such a sense of satisfaction and know that we are that much closer to being able to afford these kinds of luxuries all on our own!  The end results will be so worth it! 
 
Our goal is to have almost everything paid off this year and look forward to sharing our journey with you.  I know there will be some ups and downs,  but we are very goal-oriented.  Thank you for letting us share a little bit of our story. 
 
 
Coming next from this family, I will have them give somewhat of a breakdown to how they pay their bills so you can get a view of how it works.  I asked the family of 4 to give us this breakdown now so you can see how they make it work.  Let's call them the "J" family.
 
 
We are a rodeo family of four.  My husband rodeos and I stay at home with my children, a boy and girl.  We have been working for over a year now on the Dave Ramsey program and every month we are getting closer and closer to being debt free.  We currently have 3 loans left to payoff.  A Student loan for $20,976.60, our vehicle for $23,000.00, and a loan for $28,682.70.  We had over $300,000+ worth of debt before we started and now we are left with these 3 loans so you can see our excitement!  Every month we make a budget, which is listed in Daves workbook.  It resembles something like this:  BUDGET
Utilities:  AT&T 165.06
                XCEL ENERGY:  136.70
               BLACKHILLS ENERGY:  266.01
               CENTURY LINK: 40.00
 
Vehicle Loan: 650.00
Business Loan:  400.00
Miscellaneous:  1000.00
Church:10% of what we win and our monthly sponsorship 
Doctor: 120.00
Student Loan: any extra goes towards this since it is our lowest loan and is what we are currently working on
Groceries: 800.00
 
Dave Ramsey asks that you make a rough draft budget of what you think you will spend ranging from groceries to doctor bills, to utilities.  You CANNOT go shopping for clothes, take trips, etc.! You save every, single, penny extra and put it towards your loan!  This is how you get things paid off so quick.  So, Say my husband brings in 5000.00 from his monthly sponsors which is what we use to pay our bills and then on top of it he wins 3000.00 from the rodeo.  Because we are a rodeo family and we NEVER know if we will be bringing in 1000.00 or 15,000 we make sure to use what ever he wins and  pay his entry fees and any vet bills, blown tires (bc we all know how the many miles on the road do a tire good on your trailer and semi) and then whatever is left over, we do NOT save, we put it towards the loan.  Some might think we are crazy that we don't have a security account besides our emergency fund Dave states to have, but God has ALWAYS provided for our needs.  If my husband doesn't win, God has ALWAYS given us the money we've needed to pay for our entry fees and expenses.  Some months we don't have more than a penny to put towards the loan bc he didn't win any extra and some months we've had 30,000 to put towards it.  We all know how unpredictable rodeo is so it's a guess.  As a rodeo family, it may take you longer to complete the program BUT as a rodeo family making the national finals, you may have things paid for in one year.  Just depends and it's unpredictable but don't give up!  Have patience and keep thinking of how great it will be when this is completed.  This journey has been well worth it and we're excited to be journaling our experience with you all.  Thank you for allowing us to.