Tamra has been begging me to sign up for a one week retreat in July (I must have become real ornery;) ) at the Francis House of Prayer. I've been telling her over and over that a week straight with the kids and being pregnant would be tough. She insists that she thinks I would enjoy it and that she would be fine. I finally gave in and signed up. I've never been on a retreat before, so I am looking forward to a new experience! It's been four years since I've escaped.
Yes, we're excited!!!! We are going to have a third child. The baby will be born around October 20th. When there's more news to post, I'll be sure to post it, but for now, here is a video of us telling Kaitlyn (our oldest)...
Well, at first it started seeming like the credit card bills kept on coming. My wife and I had a toddler and a baby on the way. One evening, I reluctantly decided to add them up! My wife was standing by the fridge and I asked her if she wanted to guess how much we owed on the credit cards. She doesn't like guessing games, but I sure wasn't going to blurt this number out. After telling her to guess higher a few times, she finally guessed close enough for me to tell her and then we both shared the shock.
That evening I used Google to find out how to get out of debt and I discovered Dave Ramsey and his baby steps. After learning about his show on XM Radio, I decided to start listening and I also added my name to the waiting list for his book at our local library. My wife and I also decided to stop the hemorrhaging of money by deciding not to eat out, renew magazines, visit our parents in Florida for Christmas annually, and no more buying anything. I also canceled the magazine subscriptions I had to get the checks for the unused portion of the subscriptions.
Tamra and I were both freaked out by what we discovered that night. But, in hindsight, I see it as a beginning to a very enlightening journey. After taking responsibility for where we were financially and admitting we had to do something about debt, it was time to start our journey out of debt and towards success.
(to be continued)
July 1st, 2006 Podcast
It's Officially Gone!!! We are a TV free home and it feels good. If you remember from a previous post about two weeks ago, we put the tv on the floor in our bedroom by the closet to see what life would be like without television. The first few days were an adjustment (for Tamra and Kaitlyn, mostly), but we survived and feel like we have more valuable time together without it. Kaitlyn watched one or two 20 minute shows a day and then Tamra would watch a show for about an hour a night. Now, more work gets done and done by including Kaitlyn! She really likes to help us (she asks!)
Homeland Security Cyber Storm Exercise Associated Press Article
- Protection from misinformation and politcal rantings (from us evil bloggers)
Radio Free Liberty Podcast
- EXCELLENT!!!, usually only about 15 minutes
- Episode 23: more detailed discussion of above exercise
- RSS Podcast Feed: http://radiofreeliberty.libsyn.com/rss
Free Talk Live Podcast
- Excellent, but about an hour
- RSS Podcast Feed: http://freetalklive.com/netcast.xml
Tamra and I were talking this morning and out of the blue she mentioned she didn't think she wanted to watch TV anymore. I didn't have a TV when we met (I despise the thing) so I was excited at the opportunity her change in thought provides. I emailed at work and let her know that someone from freecycle picked it up and it had to be a record time (post till pick-up) (Hmm what would the demand be for free 27 inch TV's?). She was in shock and asked about the kids and expressed that we should have done a trial first, but I let her know we weren't going to keep it for them. They don't need TV.
She came home for lunch and saw Kaitlyn dancing around the living room singing her new song "No more TV, no more TV, no more TV..." But through our conversation (I found out she already told people I got rid of it),she sensed that it wasn't really gone. It's unplugged on the floor in the bedroom back by the closet. I already thought I'd stash for a trial. So are we nuts?? It will be interesting to see what happens next (another grandkid???, he he )
What makes this so interesting is that last night I came across an interesting article "My Frugal Life - 'I longed for a simpler lifestyle.'". I think there's plenty of simplifying that could go on in our house so maybe eliminating TV will be our start.
