Braggage

It is time for a little bit of braggage. Bragging on my parents.
First, they are so stinkin cool and I just love them, and I love who they are.
Second, they are so close to paying off their house early---it is awesome.
After P and I discovered Dave Ramsey, I told my parents about him and his plan, and they started to look into it. Then earlier this year they went to one of his seminars when he was in Houston, and they got fired up about getting out of debt. The only debt they have is their home, and ever since the seminar, they have been fired up about getting the house paid off. The goal is to get it paid off by December of this year. They are working the snowball like mad men and working so hard to pay off their home.
They are so pumped up about it. My mom keeps saying that they are going to have a major party once the house has been paid off, and they are going to burn the mortgage papers!
It is so cool seeing them going down the right track and getting it together. WOW!
So awesome!!!

Be sure to go in straight lines

Sorry that I have been MIA for a while. I have not been blogging or even reading blogs for a while, so I have some catch up reading to do.
So here is our situation---I am done with work for this summer, and now I have a week off and I have come home to my parents house for a week for some r&r. It has been great getting to sleep in and just spend my days being lazy, it has been great. I love getting to come home and spend time with my mom and dad. They really are wonderful.
And because they are so wonderful I decided to help out around the house today. I cleaned up the kitchen, did some laundry, and picked up around the house. Then I looked outside and saw that the grass needed to be mowed. I called my mom and let her know what I was going to be doing for my dad. My parents are pretty meticulous about the yard, and it always looks good. So when I called my mom to tell her she got quiet for a minute, and then she said, "well, ok, but be sure to go in straight lines." AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Here is the back story, when I was maybe 13 or 14 I decided to be "helpful" and surprise my parents by mowing the lawn. As I mentioned earlier, my parents are pretty particular about the yard, I however am not. I decided that I wanted to mow shapes into the grass. Circles, triangles, squares, and diagonals, and it was AWESOME BABY!!! Well, my parents didnt think so. That afternoon, my dad saw what I did, then got the mower back out and went over my art. I thought it was hilarious. So today I realized that it must have been a pretty tramautic experience for my parents, because they are still holding on to it more than a decade later.
Yes I mowed the grass today, yes it was in straight lines, and yes it is plain and boring, and yes I had to put my desires asside and leave the shapes off the lawn---boring!

That just how I roll

A conversation between my husband and I



P: You look really nice today

Me: Thanks

P: Ok we need to get you a nice watch

Me: I like my watch

P: You have on a dress, Tiffany ear rings, and an Ironman digital watch

Me: Thats just how I roll

The Dream Jar

The picture is not much, I know that, but it is what is inside the jar that counts. We are still working out way through the Dave Ramsey baby step process, currently we are working on step number 3, the fully funded emergency fund. We had this step completed, but then had to tap into it in order to purchase our car, and not go back into debt. So the last few months have been filled with us trying to save up in order to get our E-fund back up to 100%. We are close, very close in fact, just one or two more months from having it fully funded.

Now, let me go back to the jar, the Dream Jar. This is the beginning of our home fund. We have decided that we want to pay cash for a house. 100% cash, no down payment, no mortgage, nothing. So the small amount you see in the jar, is the beginning of this fund. Obviously, we have a long way to go, and we are just getting started, be we have already saved over 100 bucks just in change, and rolling over our monthly cash budget at the end of the month. Once our e-fund is knocked out, then we will begin to save for the house more aggressively. But for now, each time I look at the dream jar I get excited. We managed to take a step, all but a small one, to our dream without really even trying. We have talked about paying cash for a house for a while now, and honestly, in the back of my mind it always seemed kind of like a pipe dream, something we wanted to do, but I didn't really think it would/could ever happen. It just seemed to crazy, to big, to out there.

Then recently Crystal, over at MoneySavingMom, did a series of blogs about her families quest to pay cash for a house. They saved for years, and they just bought their first home with cash!! How awesome is that?????? Cash for a house!!! Her story totally inspired me, and made me realize that we can do this too. It will be a hard and long process, and it will try our patience, but in the end, it will totally be worth it. I believe that. I was listening to one of Dave's podcast the other day and he said "100 % of homes paid in full never get repossessed." Then he laughed and in his sarcastic funny way he talked about how he had done some extensive research to get the facts on that statistic. So yes, it is a dream and it is a pretty big dream, but that is the point of dreams right? Dream big, dream really big, reach higher than you think you can, aim to go further than you think possible.

So here goes!

Star Gaze

Last night by the lake there was a slight breeze that was refreshing after a day of 100+ temps. As the cool breeze brushed along my skin, I sat in silence and listened to the crickets chirp, and I lay down and stared at the stars. The black sky and the bright stars were so beautiful. It has been a long time since I layed on my back and stared at the sky. It was expansive and beautiful.

Happy 4th

I love this holiday. It is one of my favorites.
I love this country. This country offers so many hope. She offers so many a place of refuge. She can be a haven to many, while being a burden to some, and despite that, I love her.
I love that this country offers promises. I love that you really can go out and be what you want to be in America. I love to hear stories about people growing up in poverty and rising through to become huge successes.
I love that my two parents never went to college, but I had the chance to go to school, on a full ride, and be the first in my family to graduate.
I love that there are so many people of so many nationalities all living here together.
I love my country.

I am also thankful for my country. I am thankful that those stars and stripes still billow in the breeze. I am so thankful for the many men and women who died so that I can sit here and type out my beliefs and thoughts freely. I am so thankful that my dad, grandfather, brother-in-law, uncles, and cousins have defended this land, and many of those were able to come home safe and sound. I am thankful that tonight, a solider is standing guard in a far away land, alienated from his home by thousands of miles, fighting for me, someone he has never met.

Despite all of our differences this country works, and she works for good. Yes we have our ups and downs, but I think more than anything she has done more good than harm for the world.
I hope that this country continues to try and attain an unattainable goal, a goal of perfection. No, we wont ever reach that goal, but we can keep trying.