Archive for the ‘Fun Stuff’ Category
A Visit, A Budget And A Mystery
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Yesterday, we had the pleasure of visiting with Lauryn and Daniel for a bit while they were finishing up the week and a half stay of their honeymoon here in New England.
That’s right, their honeymoon. They were willing to share part of their honeymoon time with us! For those of you who don’t know, Lauryn is my cousin….sort of. In law.
When they visited our church yesterday everyone was trying to figure out how we knew each other. Some thought it was a surprise to us that they came while others thought they were a visiting couple that we just happened to hit it off with. And some are probably still not quite sure how we know each other.
Lauryn and I share the same uncle. I’m his niece on his wife’s side of the family (my maternal aunt) and Lauryn is his sister’s daughter. She’s my cousin’s cousin but not my cousin. Sounds like one of those logic/math word problems, doesn’t it?
Lauryn’s mom and my mom have been good friends since they were little meaning Lauryn and I have “known” each other since we were little, although I’m several years older.I haven’t seen Lauryn in almost 10 years.
Lauryn got married two Saturdays ago in Texas and her and her new husband are honeymooning here in New England. Since they were about three hours away from us they thought they would stop by our church for Sunday morning services and then go to lunch with us after. It was a great visit and we were happy to get to meet Daniel for the first time. Daniel and Lauryn are a super cute couple and were glowing from happiness. This was also Lauryn’s first time to meet Katelyn and Madelyn after having read so much about them on my blog! Katelyn quickly attached herself to Lauryn and Daniel and wanted to hold hands with them. Lauryn even kindly took Madelyn to the bathroom while I was waiting to rehearse a song after church! And she didn’t even complain when Maddy got some urine on her. A gracious young lady all the way!
Congratulations Daniel and Lauryn! It was great seeing you! God bless you two as you build a new life together. Love you guys!
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As I’ve mentioned we just started attending a Financial Peace University Class by Dave Ramsey at our church. Tomorrow night will be our second class. Mike and I have been working on our budget all week. We’ve always had a very loose budget and …wow…this budget we have to create for the class is showing us how way off we were living before! We’re also having to share with the instructor {privately} how much debt we have-i.e loans, credit card, mortgage etc. Thankfully we only have a mortgage and some credit card debt. We could be in a much worse financial situation. We cut up our credit cards over the weekend. That was a liberating (yet scary!) feeling. I closed all accounts except the one we have debt on still. We had several accounts open that we weren’t using so it was nice to close those down and be done with them.
I have to say my biggest struggle is going to be a food budget! I’m not used to having an exact, cash only grocery budget. I know we spend way too much on groceries and that’s with the coupons I use when I can. I’m going to try to implement a weekly menu plan, including snacks, and start buying a lot of generic stuff.
I don’t know what the average family of 4 spends on groceries. I don’t know what is considered about right or way too much. I have a feeling we are in the “Spend Way Too Much” category. We usually spend, on average, $160-200 A WEEK on groceries. That makes about $800 a month on just groceries! Our new grocery budges is $100 a week. This will help in our losing weight endeavor as we’ll have to make sure our food lasts the allotted amount of time. We have budgeted eating out on Sundays because that’s what we do. We eat out after church on Sundays and we won’t be be stopping that any time soon. It’s our weekly treat.
This will be an interesting journey but I know we’ll come out ahead! Like Dave Ramsey says ” Live like no else so you can LIVE like no one else!!” (or at least, I think I got that right!) If you get the chance to take this course- DO IT! Even if you think you’re pretty good with your finances it still holds a wealth of info to make your finances even better. He talks about paying off your house sooner, planning for your children’s education, planning for retiring with dignity, and building your wealth. All with wise saving and spending and budgeting. He doesn’t have any get rich quick schemes. His advice and methods are actually hard work and all about delayed gratification- i.e being an adult!
I will most definitely be blogging about our progress!
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To end my post today I thought we’d do a “Guess Those Scribbles” game. Instead of guessing what Katelyn drew you’re going to guess what she was trying to write in this photo:
What was Katelyn trying to write?
I’ll give you some choices:
1) Katelyn Mietzner
2) Katelyn and Madelyn
3)Ni Hao Kai-Lan
4) It’s K-Mart Smart
5) Katelyn and Mommy
Go!!
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Wordless Wednesday
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
This photo is just begging for a caption isn’t it?
I found Mr. Ken Doll hanging out like this in the playroom the other day. Barbie was nowhere in sight.
Hmm…..
What do YOU think he’s doing? Make this Wordless Wednesday not so wordless!!!
Well, I guess the “wordless” part is already shot to you-know-where…
Anyway…
Top Secret
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Katelyn came home from school yesterday with this bag-
It’s stapled shut. There’s a picture of what appears to be a candle that Katelyn drew, cut and colored stapled to the front with a snowman drawn on the bag underneath the candle.
There is definitely something in it but it’s not very heavy or thick.
Katelyn told me I can’t open the bag until tomorrow after her school Christmas party and that it has to go in her closet until then. So, now, it sits in her closet. I”m amazed at how well she’s keeping this secret. She told our Chiropractor yesterday all about it while I closed my eyes and covered my ears.(Yes, she told me I had to close my eyes too!) He just laughed and said it was awesome and what a great idea. I’ve been a good mom and haven’t peeked.
But I’m dying of curiosity!!
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS IN THIS BAG????
Any guesses???
