You never know what tomorrow will bring...

I need to go to the grocery store, and if I want to have some sanity while I am doing it I need to go when Dan is around to watch the boys.  Which leaves the evening hours or in the morning before Dan goes to work.  Easy enough.  Well last night came and I finally finished making the menus and writing out the grocery list (A MUST have if you want to stay on a budget!).  And I was so TIRED, so I thought "I will just get up early tomorrow and run to the store."  That should work right?  Well when my alarm went off this morning, it is set to the radio, and I heard "snow across the valley" I didn't really think anything of it, so off I go getting ready and I think to myself, "hmm I wonder what it looks like outside..." SNOW in the valley is right!  I would guess, going off the snow on our porch, a good six or seven inches.  I am NOT going to the grocery store this morning.  WHY did I put it off?!!!  Oh well, we do have milk, bread and cheese so what more do we need?  Thought I would share....  

Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  It was so fun to have children old enough to kind of understand what is going on.  It was the second year we have spent Christmas in Utah, the first was the year Adam was born.  So I knew it was going to be a special year.  Meaning Dan and I were in charge of the "Christmas Magic".  It really is different being in your own home on Christmas morning and being the "Parents".  I have LOVED going home to Georgia and spending Christmas with our family there and I really missed being there this year with everyone.  So I was more determined to make this Christmas special, so I wouldn't get too home sick.  We did have a great Christmas.  We drove I-15 MANY times between Provo and Salt Lake City, 15 times.  But it was well worth the gas money, you do the math...oh it is about 100 miles round trip.  We had a great time spent with family and friends.  And we enjoyed just being home together.  Dan was off work for 10 days and we took full advantage of it.  It has been good to go through the holidays and enjoy all that time together and now I am having a hard time getting back to a routine in life.  It is coming slowly day by day and Adam is already asking about Valentine's Day so we can decorate the house again!  I love my family!  

A Note: We had another miscarriage the week before Christmas.  We had only known about the pregnancy for a week and were planning on sharing the news at Christmas with our family and friends.  I wasn't very far along so it wasn't as bad as the last one and  physically I feel back to normal now.  It was really sad and hard,  but we trust in the Lord and hope to add to our family SOON!!! 

FREEDOM

We are debt FREE!!!!  As of December 26th we are free of debt and the interest that comes with it.  We started our "Total Money Makeover" in the summer and here we are less than six months later totally debt free.  We did it using the method that Dave Ramsey has put together.  (He is a national talk radio host).  I am going to call into the show on Friday and tell him our story so we can scream "WE'RE DEBT FREE!!" on the air.  I have my doubts on actually getting on the air, but it is worth a try after all the work we have done.  Life is so sweet knowing all the income we get we can use for worthwhile projects.  I want to say a HUGE Thank you to Dan for introducing Dave to me and sticking with the budget and working SO hard to provide a wonderful life for all of us.  And a thanks to Adam and Richard for being our sweet boys and learning the phase "That is too expensive".  A quick story: I was getting ready to go to make the VERY last payment on our car and I told Dan (jokingly) that when I finished paying I would yell "Freedom" right there in the bank.  We had a good laugh and off I went with the boys to the bank, which is inside the Maceys' grocery store.  So I am there making the transaction and Adam starts whispering, "When are we going to yell Freedom?"  I had no idea he had overheard the conversation I had with Dan; I had told him where we were going and what was going to happen, but not the yelling freedom part.  So I told him we had to wait until I finished the paying off process and then we would yell.  So when the lady handed me the FINAL receipt which read: ZERO balance, Adam and I stood in the bank at the grocery store and yelled: "FREEDOM"  and the tellers had a good chuckle.  I hope he remembers that experience and we can teach him and Richard, mostly through our examples, how to live debt free.  So if you are interested in changing your life in regards to money and you want to know how we did it, I would love to share!  Check out www.daveramsey.com for more info too.