Day 126: Dave Ramsey's Great Giving Challenge

Eric and I went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University 8 months ago, and have paid off just short of $10,000 in that period of time.  We've paid off one credit card, and will have the other credit card and both cars paid off by next December.  After that, we should be able to take care of my student loans within another three years or so.  We did this all ourselves, but we did it with the common sense ideas that we were totally overlooking.

Dave always says that you must "live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else!"  This means you work your tail off spending the absolute minimum on everything except your debt, then once your debt is paid off you can spend your money on whatever you want!

Dave Ramsey is hosting a contest right now so that the winners can "give like no one else"!  People can submit a video proposing how they would give away $1,000 dollars per day for 5 days.  I am thoroughly convinced that we can win this contest and share the $5,000 dollars with people in Lawrence.  For a little more information, watch my video and please vote for it!  You can vote once per day per email address - in order to vote with multiple email addresses, you have to use a separate browser (explorer, firefox, safari, chrome, etc.) or computer for each one.

Click here to vote!

Click here to vote!

Day 125: Homemade Halloween Costumes

Tonight I worked on creating Halloween costumes for this year!  I cut up some soda cans to make Dr. Pepper earring, and name a "Hi, my name is... Pibb" name tag for Eric.

Here is a sneak preview of my Halloween costume! 

Eric's costume!

Day 124: Small Adventures

My Thursday night class is usually online, but we meet at the Edwards Campus about once each month.  Tonight, Eric and I drove out to Overland Park for both of our classes.  Mine got out early, so I walked to JCCC to meet up with Eric.  It was only a mile walk, but it was nice.

When he got out of class we picked up some materials to make my Halloween costume, got our monthly cash from the ATM, and stopped by PetSmart to get some new food for our newly sick and pick cat, Mystic.  On our way home, police were blocking the highway for a rollover accident.  Luckily there were only minor injuries.  We got to take an interesting detour on roads that we hadn't driven before, and then we walked to the side of the highway in time to see the tow truck pull the SUV back onto it's (three) wheels.

I took a short little nap on Addy, she makes a great pillow!

Day 123: Four Months

Can you believe it?  We've been married for 4 months!  Tonight, after Eric got home from work, we grabbed the laptop and went on a walk - we brought the laptop with us so we could listen to a chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!  It is almost here!

All pictures of us look the same, but at least they are good looking photos that look the same!

Day 122: Catching Up with Harry Potter

Eric and I are anxiously awaiting the release of the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  To prepare, we are watching all 6 of the current HP movies.  We watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone last week, and tonight we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  We're also on chapter 24 of listening to the CD's of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Woo!

Next up, we've paid another chunk of Eric's credit card and colored in another 5/16ths of an inch on our debt thermometer!  I worked on our budget this evening and discovered that depending on how much our tax return is...either my car or his credit card will be paid in full in March!!!  This is ahead of schedule, wahoo!  That means the remaining debt will still be paid off by August, and his car should be paid for by December.  We can do it!

Laying down, curled in the closet, in order to accurately measure our payments.

Eric chooses to squat to color it in.

We're doing great!  A total of nearly $10,000 paid off in 7 months!

Day 121: Sleep, We Need It

Eric and I got home around 1:30am and we were asleep as soon as our bodies hit the bed.  Brian and Jen watched our cats while we were out of town, and the kitties were glad to see us back!  Unfortunately, I had to wake up at 6:30 to shower and head to work...boo!  Eric and I both have late classes on Monday nights as well.  So I got home around 8 and he got home closer to 10.  I had an advising session after my class and discovered that I should only have 3 classes left before I get my functional special education endorsement - and I'll have that finished in the summer of 2011.  I won't be able to finish my Master's project until the summer or later, so I won't be getting my degree until next year.  But, with as much work as it is, I don't really mind putting it off a bit longer.

P.S.  Happy Birthday to Cash Man!

On an unrelated note, Eric discovered Facebook Slingo last week!  Now it's just about all we do!  Darn Devil!!!

Day 120: No Place Like Home

Naturally, Oz jokes have to crop up on occasion!  We woke up to Nathan making sausage, eggs, and pancakes - yum!  Then Eric got some relaxing and reading done while I Skyped in to my confirmation class at St. Thomas.  Ashley was kind enough to bring her laptop to church with her and we video chatted so I didn't have to miss class!  All of us took another walk to get some more pictures with the leaves.

Then Eric and I packed up and rolled out!  We made really good time on the way home and continued to listen to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  I had to finish some homework in the car, and was just tired in general - Eric ended up driving a total of 8 hours and I only drove 3 hours.  Have a loving husband I have, to let me sleep so much in the car!

Molly showed that she can make shaped pancakes too...The dark one in the middle is a crescent moon!

 

Me on Skype with the St. Thomas adult confirmation class.

I am SUPER excited that Molly gave me a baby sling!  I can't wait to use it with Andrew!

Declan was having fun, but was a little spacey due to a cold.

Dec and his mommy.

What a great fall picture of the Murray's!

Molly and Nate have an abundance of leaves for the kids to play in!  We nearly lost Dec!

Cash, the explorer! 

He's 2!  What a big boy!

Molly and I!

Yay!  Leaves!

I decided to hold Cash's ball for him!

Aren't they cute?  

Mom and Dad giving kisses to their boy!

Eric playing with his Wolverine claw...

No, no!  Don't hurt me!

 Nobody was paying attention to Cash and he says "This is my party hat!"  This was really funny, because he didn't have hats at his party, so we don't know where he heard about them!

All four of us enjoying our last hours together...on four separate computers.

A really great sunset in Illinois.