Snow Day!!

Today is the first snow day of the school year. David & Nathaniel slept in till about 7:45 am, much to my delight. They wanted to go outside right away, but I've been making them wait a little while. They do need to eat breakfast, and they have a few chores to do before heading outside to play.

In the meantime, here are some pictures just to show how much snow we've gotten since yesterday afternoon.

This is Stormy, up to her chest in snow, but she loves it.

Our poor grill is covered.

Stormy again.

And somewhere, under all that snow is our red car. Oh, right. There it is.

We've gotten over a foot of snow so far, and it just keeps coming. The wind is starting to pick up too. I'm guessing when the kids finally go outside, it won't be for very long.

In other, non-snowy news, Richard has bronchitis. He went and saw a Dr on post yesterday. So he's on drugs for the next 10 days. Poor guy. I'm still not feeling great, but I am feeling much better compared to a week ago. I still don't have my appetite back, which is good for the waistline.

Monday evening was our last FPU lesson for this class session. I'm going to take a break until the end of February, and then start another one.

Have a great Snow Day!

What Is That Stuff?

This was yesterday. Yep, that white stuff is snow. It never did stick and it turned to rain in the afternoon, but the kids loved it while it was falling.


We had FPU last night. It was on credit bureaus and how creditors can use underhand tactics to collect debts, and what you can do to protect yourself. Dave Ramsey never teaches to try to dodge a debt, but this teaches you how to deal with creditors. We also had 4 people cut up a total of 5 credit cards to the tune of about $6000.00. It was great.

I just started a book today, and am about 2/3rd of the way through it. Its by Jerry Jenkins, co-author of the Left Behind series. The book is called "Soon" It was published in 2003. Here is what amazon.com says about the book.

"Paul Stepola, an agent working for the National Peacekeeping Organization (NPO), has been assigned to enforce compliance with the world government's prohibition on religion. Paul relishes his job and is good at it. He is determined to expose underground religion--flush it out, expose it, and kill it--until his life is turned upside down and he is forced to look at life in a different way.
As Paul begins to unravel the truth about what he has found, events taking place around the world start to make sense. Something big is coming--something that can't be stopped. And it is coming soon. "

Its very intriguing, and I just realized that its the first in a series, and from what I can tell, our church library doesn't have the rest of the books. Well, I guess I have something to ask for my Birthday & Christmas.

Finally!

David is fever-free! His temp was normal when I took it yesterday morning! Yippee! He would have gone to school today except that there wasn't school due to parent/teacher conferences. So he and Nathaniel got to go play at a friend's house while I got my hair cut & colored. I had the appt originally for last Friday, but had to change it since David was sick, and when I rescheduled it, I'd forgotten that the kids didn't have school. My friend Lisa, who has 4 kids, a boy who is David's age & her youngest daughter is Nathaniel's age, agreed to watch them for me. The boys had a great time with Daniel and Isabella.

We had our FPU class last night instead of Monday night because of the Monday night football game, Packers vs. Vikings. Its a big game since the teams are huge rivals & it was made even bigger this year since Brett Farve is playing for the Vikings. We usually root for the Packers, but wanted to see Brett Farve beat his old team. And beat them he did! Anyway, class was good. We watched the "Dumping Debt" DVD, which is my favorite out of all 13 of the lessons.

Tonight is the 2nd episode of Stargate: Universe. Well, technically, its the 3rd episode, since the premiere last week was 2 hours. But the 2nd week. I'm looking forward to it. Its also the season premiere of season 2 for Sanctuary. Both are on SyFy, back to back, starting at 8pm CST.

FPU Week 2

We had a good class tonight. Dave Ramsey is a very smart, funny man, and he's right on the money. (excuse the pun, please) We had a good group discussion; usually we split into 2 small groups, but we were missing 4 couples tonight, so we all met in the same group. It was good.

Richard went hunting for the first time tonight. Didn't get anything, but is going to try again tomorrow after work.

Monday night Football? Nah!

How about Financial Peace University? That's where I was tonight. It was great fun. Everyone seemed to have an enjoyable time & everything went smoothly (except a minor technical issue with the DVD player). We've got a good group.

I do believe that's all I have to say this evening. Except I'm tired & I have a headache. Time for bed.

It Was A Good Day....

Church service was good. I played piano for the worship team, which went well. We had a guest speaker today because our senior pastor is out with his family since their 8 year old son, Benjamin, had open heart surgery on Tuesday. I believe he had a hole in his heart, but the surgery was successful. Praise God! Benjamin is a great kid. After service we had the annual Hot Roast potluck, which was yummy. Always lots of good food, most of which my kids won't eat, of course. After the potluck, we had what was dubbed the Psalm 150 service. (you should read it) We had some people sing, play piano & the worship team did a couple of songs. It was fun. Nathaniel fell asleep during it, which was suprising since the music was pretty loud.

The boys were in bed about 7:20, but I had to go up about 8:00 to take Nathaniel to the bathroom. Twice in about 5 minutes. David was out cold. I wish I could sleep like that.

Tomorrow night is our first FPU class of our 2nd session. We had a last minute sign-up this morning at church, which brings out count to 19 people. I'm excited!

Tomorrow morning is my first morning to help with David's class. Its only for an hour, but I had a lot of fun last year, and thought I'd continue to help until he thinks its uncool for his mom to help in his class. :)

Volunteers? Anyone?

The other day I took some pictures of the volunteer pumpkins that we have growing in our yard. Richard threw an old pumpkin we had from last fall over into the cow pasture sometime during the winter, and just a couple of weeks ago we noticed this huge mass of leaves and vines. Upon closer inspection we found a mini pumpkin patch. It started on the pasture side of the fence & ventured into our yard.....
We have 5 pumpkins in varying stages of growth. Well, 5 that we can see. There might be more on the other side of the fence. There's another one that is smaller than this one.

This one and the one in the picture below are the largest of the pumpkins we've seen. To me it seem pretty late in the season for them to just be developing, but its been a weird summer for gardens, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Obviously I don't have a lot to talk about since I'm showing you pictures of pumpkins. :)

We have 7 couples registered for Financial Peace University. I'm ordering the kits on Friday so we'll have them in time for a Sept 14th start date.

We're going up to the Twin Cities for the weekend, not including Monday. The boys are excited since we're staying with Richard's sister & her apt complex has an indoor pool.

I Have a Better Perspective...

on last night's FPU preview. Yes, very few people came. However, that doesn't mean that people won't sign up for the class. I know of several people, now that I've thought about it, who are going to take the class. There's the church secretary, the newly married couple, a couple from the first class who had to drop out after a few classes, and a couple who registered online. That's seven people. PLUS the couple who signed up last night, and will be bringing their 2 teenaged kids. Even if that's all we had, thats a good group. And when I talked to my church advisor at Dave Ramey's office about it, he said that a small group is almost better than a large group because we'll all bond. We won't have our small groups that we bond with. We'll bond with the whole class. Very good point.

On to other topics. Nathaniel's potty training has been going very well. He hasn't had an accident (other than #2) since this past Thursday. So it'll be a week in a couple of days that he's been dry. Yippee! I think we're going to switch him from his training underwear to regular underwear another week or so, just to be on the safe side. But I've very pleased with how he's doing. I hardly have to ask him anymore if he needs to go potty. He just goes on his own. I do still ask in the mornings right after he gets up, but he doesn't usually want to go right away, so I wait till he decides to go on his own, and he runs right to the potty. I just keep reminding him to stay dry.

The boys are in bed now. And so far all is quiet. David, I'm sure is asleep. Nathaniel is probably playing a little with all the toys in his bed that he sleeps with. He better get a good night's sleep tonight since he's not getting a nap tomorrow. We have his Pre-K open house from 1-2 pm & Dr appts for both boys at 2:45 pm. But that's the last things that we have to do for the week.

FPU Preview & An Open House

I was so excited about this evening's FPU preview. I baked for about 3 hours this morning so we'd have snacks. The boys and I went into town about 2:15 so I could spend a hour or so setting up tables & chairs before going to David's school's open house. Then it was time to grab some dinner & finish up at the church before the preview started at 6:30.

David had a blast at the open house. We were the first ones in his class, so we got about 10 minutes of chatting with his teacher without interruption, which was nice. I found out her 4 year old twins will be in Nathaniel's pre-k class, so that'll be fun. David was excited to see some classmates from his Kindergarten class last year, a friend from pre-k that wasn't in his class last year & we also went and said hi to his kindergarten teacher. Nathaniel was at a friend from church's house during this, so I could concentrate on David.

The FPU preview. Where do I start? Well, first, it was definetly a Monday. We had problems with the sound system, couldn't find the needed cables, and only 6 people (not including me and my other small group leader) showed up. I had set up 6 tables that would seat 8 each, so needless to say I was a bit disappointed. I forgot, however, that we have at least 2 more couples coming for sure. One didn't plan on coming to the preview, and I really didn't expect them, the other couple was going to come, but circumstances changed & they weren't able to make it. One of the ladies that came tonight was in my first class, but she came to sign her daughter & son-in-law up. (yep, they know, they were just out of town) When I commented afterwards that I was expecting more people, she told me of something that happened to her. She started a Bible study, and the first day, only 1 person came. And the next time, and the next time. Always the same person. She said she asked God why there weren't more people. He said not to count the people, but to feed His sheep. It doesn't matter how many there are, but that they are hungry. Thank you, Karen, for your words of wisdom!

To my cousin, Nancy - I hope you're feeling better!

The Countdown Begins

We're finally home! And so begins the countdown till school starts. 10 days and counting! (including today) David's Open House for 1st grade is tomorrow. Nathaniel's for Pre-K is on Wednesday. Our Financial Peace University Free Preview is tomorrow night. Tomorrow is going to be way hectic, but I have a list! A to-do list, that is.

I have to go get the kids ready for bed, I'll post more tomorrow.

Some FPU pictures and a Deluge

I decided to post some pictures of our FPU graduation from last night, since I didn't last night. We had a lot of fun, and I cried. No idea why, I just did. Gratitude and appreciation, I think was part of it.

Here was most of our class, watching the DVD lesson. If you see the guy to the far right in the red hat, look back & a little to the left and you'll see Richard, back by the window below the clock.

A friend & co-worker of Richard's is a professional chef and made this credit card cake for us for free. It was chocolate with raspberry filling. Yummy! I had one couple who had not cut up any credit cards during class cut this one up.

In this quart sized mason jar is approximately 45 credit cards & about $100,000 worth of credit. We had 3 very sad ladies that cut up their Kohls' cards, but they did. Someone even chopped up their Victoria's Secret card! Much to her hubby's disappointment. :)

There's me, actually not waving my hands around as I talk for once.

It was a great class, I'm very proud of all of them! We're going to be starting another class in September and I'm very excited about it.

This morning was bed linen washing day. I stripped the guest beds and threw everything (not all at once) in the washer, then hung the linens up to dry outside. It was cloudy, but I didn't think it was going to rain anytime soon.

So after lunch we all head upstairs for naps. Nathaniel, David & I. I'd slept horribly last night, and could hardly keep my eyes open for most of the morning. Sometime while we slept it started raining. And all the linens were still out on the clothes line. When I woke up at 4:30 pm, I heard rain hitting our roof. I was hoping it was just sprinkling, but Noooo, it couldn't just be sprinkling. It was pouring. I went running downstairs, grabbed a laundry basket & threw a jacket on and rushed outside to bring the laundry it. Soaked was what I was when I was done. I was out maybe 5-7 minutes, but I was soaked when I was done. My hair was dripping wet, my pants were soaked and the only part of me that wasn't was my shirt cause I'd thrown a jacket on before I went outside. Note to self: check the forecast before you take a nap next time laundry is on the line. Literally.

Now I've spent the rest of the afternoon/evening getting everything dry. Serves me right, I guess.

Graduation Day!

Today was Graduation Day for our first Financial Peace University class. It was a lot of fun. We had drawings for 3 of Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makerover" Books, had lots of yummy food during our potluck and had a little graduation ceremony & cake afterwards. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. We had 16 families out of an origianl 20 graduate. The main requirement to graduate was that you attend 12 out of 13 classes, and we had several couples that had perfect attendance. It was great.

The last lesson is entitled "The Great Misunderstanding". Its about giving. Not only tithing, but giving in general. I had a lady comment to me after class that her husband had been commenting that he wasn't sure that the classes were very good, since they all seemed to be centered on getting out of debt/getting more money. This one lesson changed all that. It brings everything you learned in the previous 12 classes together, and it totally makes sense. Its awesome!

Our next class starts in September. I'm hoping to get at least 15 families signed up. Anything above that will be awesome!

More Company and a Funny Email

Our nephew Conner & my father-in-law came for a week long visit today. It seems like every other week someone is coming to our house. Oh, wait. It is about every other week! Richard hasn't seen his dad since December when he went back to Idaho to elk hunt, and it was March, 2008 when the boys and I saw him.

I got a funny email yesterday from a lady in our Financial Peace University class. I got a kick out of it and thought you might, too. Here it is....

Do you know your HYMNS?
Dentist's Hymn..................Crown Him with Many Crowns
Weatherman's Hymn...There Shall Be Showers of Blessings
Contractor's Hymn..............The Church's One Foundation
The Tailor's Hymn......................Holy, Holy, Holy
The Golfer's Hymn............There's a Green Hill Far Away
The Politician's Hymn...............Standing on the Promises
Optometrist's Hymn..........Open My Eyes That I Might See
The IRS Agent's Hymn.................I Surrender All
The Gossip's Hymn.....................Pass It On
The Electrician's Hymn.................Send The Light
The Shopper's Hymn....................Sweet Bye and Bye
The Realtor's Hymn. . . . . . I've Got a Mansion Just over the Hilltop
The Massage Therapists Hymn . . . ......He Touched Me
The Doctor's Hymn......................The Great Physician
AND
for those who speed on the highway - a few hymns:
45mph....................God Will Take Care of You
65mph.....................Nearer My God To Thee
85mph.....................This World Is Not My Home
95mph....................Lord, I'm Coming Home
100mph.... ........ ....Precious Memories

Give me a sense of humor, Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some humor out of life,
And pass it on to other folk.

We had below normal temps again today. I think the high was 61. Its 59 as I type this. I hope you all are having a great weekend!

A Better Deal Than We Thought!

We went and picked up the "new" riding lawnmower today. And the bagger. Because the guy didn't know if the bagger would actually work with the mower, he just gave it to us instead of having us give him the previously agreed on $25 for said bagger. So $100 for a riding mower and bagger worked out to be a pretty good deal.

The past couple of Sundays have been busy for us. We had the Earl White reunion 2 weeks ago, and last week, nephew Conner was back. This Sunday we're back to normal. Normal being church in the morning and Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in the evening.

For those not familiar with Dave Ramsey, he has a talk radio show, several best selling books, and developed a 13 week class on finances called Financial Peace University. We are leading FPU at the church we're attending, with 21 families taking the class, including us. The class teaches you how to develop a budget, get out of debt, save $$, invest, save for your kids' college. Its a great class for anyone to take, even if you have no debt. I've had people in my class say, "if we only knew about this 20 years ago...." which should be a hint to the younger crowd to take FPU. We are on week 11 out of 13 weeks, after taking a 2 week break. We're on track to have about 75% of our class graduate with perfect attendance, and about 80% total. You can check out Dave and Financial Peace University at www.daveramsey.com.

The boys start VBS at a church in town tomorrow. 9 am to 3 pm. Lots of time to get lots of stuff done this week!