Sunday Update

I had a great time reuniting with two old friends, Brandi and Melanie. We knew each other at K-State and have lots of fun memories together. Melanie and I met many years ago in Carmen's bible study and she introduced me to Brandi soon after that. When Devin and I had to live apart for a semester a few years ago, Brandi would come over every Tuesday and watch American Idol with me and keep me company. The three of us went out to Zona Rosa and had Bo Lings and talked and talked and talked. Good times. I'm always extra homesick for K-State days during the fall and today was no exception. I met some great people at K-State and wish I could see them more often. Too bad toddlers=timesuckers (it's ok...they're worth it)!

Unfortunately I came home from my social extravaganza to see that my cat, Gus, is having some...issues. He's like a 60 year old man suffering from an enlarged prostate. He's been using his litterbox constantly and peeing little drops of bloody urine on the carpet too. Poor guy. I guess I'll have to take him to the vet tomorrow, which will be OH SO MUCH FUN with Addison and Celia, my pregnant self and a 17 lb. cat (although I do think he's lost a few pounds). That may have been a little too much information for you, but it falls under the "it's my blog and I can write about whatever I want" category. Just in case you haven't heard, I am a cat lady. I think dogs are ok, but I turn into an emotional pile of mush anytime I see a cat. Just so you know...

Lately I've been feeling slightly self conscious about how much I talk about Dave Ramsey. We've been on his plan for two years now and I honestly haven't shut up about it. Well lately I've been wondering if I need to tone down it down a little. You know, not bring it up quite so much. After giving it some thought, I don't think I can do that. The truth is, going to his Financial Peace class changed my whole life. Since it's our two year Dave Ramsey anniversary, here's a little recap: Devin and I did some STUPID stuff with our money in college/right after college. We bought a lot of stuff we couldn't afford, didn't save anything, accrued a ridiculous amount of debt, kept transferring balances around, etc. We also fought constantly about how we were going to handle it. Our first year here in KC brings back not so good memories because of the constant weight/stress/guilt I was carrying on my shoulders. After we started that class and took a good hard look at the numbers (scary) we realized we were spending more than we were making just on basic bills. Plus we realized we had somehow accrued over $60K in debt..umm..yikes? And no, that was not including the house. The great thing about taking that class together is we bonded together as a team for probably the first time in our marriage. In fact, we got a fortune cookie that month that said "teamwork makes the dream work" and laughed at how vomit-inducingly corny that statement was. We stuck it on the fridge as a joke (we're slightly sarcastic) but it was sort of true. Instead of fighting about how to handle money, we work together on it and celebrate together when we make progress. We started our budget and cash envelopes, and started verrrry slooowly on our debt snowball. Eventually it picked up. My nannying job helped, Devin got a slight raise, tax returns went to the debt instead of to stupid purchases, and now we're down to over half of it paid off. It hasn't been easy. In fact, it's been really, really, really hard at times, but it's totally worth it.

Anyway, that's my little rant. I am warning you though: if you go through his class you will likely turn into a little freak like me!