Happy Birthday Favorite Father-in-Law

Today is FFIL's birthday!

Tonight we went out to eat at a soda shop for his birthday.
Here are a few pictures from the night!

Opening gifts:
(sorry, I didn't have the flash on so all the pics are blurry)

Here's EC!

She was eating a lemon!
HILARIOUS!


They're leaving in the morning. We've had such a great week with her and her mommy here! I wish they didn't have to leave! (And we wish Big Al could have come!)

I think she's really making that face because she's going to miss her Aunt Jenny and Uncle "Worker Man" :)


Happy Birthday FFIL! You mean so much to us! You are such an incredible blessing in our life and we are so grateful for you!

You're the best father-in-law I ever had!

(Well, that and the only father-in-law I've had. hehe.)

Financial Peace...

Worker Man and I started a Dave Ramsey class during the beginning of February and let me tell you, it is DEFINITELY working for us! There are many things about the class that work for us but I’m going to touch on a few of them that have really set us on the right track.

Dave Ramsey has seven baby steps to financial peace. We are only on the second baby step and it will take years to complete the program BUT the first step was critical; not only for our finances but also for our marriage. The first step is to put $1000 into an emergency fund. Now, this may seem like a strange step one but in order to achieve the second baby step (becoming debt-free except for your mortgage) it is imperative that you have some money set aside in case of emergencies.

Now, why did this work for our marriage? Well, Dave says that women have a security gland (figuratively) that causes major pain when there’s no money. But, when a woman realizes that there is money and that there will be food on the table and a warm house the security gland loosens up and you don’t even know it’s there. This is so true for me. When I see $1000 sitting in a savings account, I feel a lot better about us using as much money as we can to pay off debt.

Also, NO MONEY FIGHTS SINCE WE STARTED! Such a blessing.

The second thing that has worked for us is a zero-based budget. You can get it on his website for free.

The concept is that you will have every penny of your income spent on paper each month before it actually comes in. His reasoning behind this is that it is important that you control your money rather than your money controlling you. You will know how everything will be spent and you will plan that out before there’s “too much month left at the end of the money”.

Lastly, we use the envelope system. So, we take money out at the bank at the beginning and halfway through each month. We divide it into our envelopes (groceries, out to eat, clothing, entertainment, gifts) and we only spend what money we have in our envelope during the two weeks before we “refill” it. It such a simple way to keep track of how much you’re spending in each category. It also makes you spend less because it has been statistically proven that people spending cash tend to spend less money than people using a card. Typically 12-18% less! So, when your money runs out, it’s out until next month.

Many people think that this may be a little over the top but it’s really works for us!

Lent, no not the belly button kind.

Worker Man’s sister, Gretchen, is in town this week with my sweet, sweet niece, EC. Last night all of us were talking about Lent coming up. Everyone in my family has always given something up from Ash Wednesday until Easter as a way of recognizing the temptation that Jesus went through for 40 days in the desert. It is a very tangible way of recognizing the sacrifice that God made and the temptations that Jesus experienced by sacrificing something that is important to you during the 40 days.

Well, we were talking about what I could give up and my father-in-law mentioned that I could give up his cooking.

Gretchen’s response…

“Umm…no…I think that would be called fasting. And I don’t think it would be very healthy to fast for 40 days straight”


I must say, she’s right.

Upping the ante

Worker Man and his dad are currently in a Biggest Loser Competition. They are dieting for 3 months and the one who loses the highest percentage wins. If Worker Man wins his dad is going to pay him. If Worker Man loses, he'll have to work for 8 hours for his dad. It's a pretty good deal.

Well, recently Worker Man has lost a little motivation. So, I decided to up the ante. He really wishes my hair was short but I've been trying to let it grow out for awhile. I'm not ready to cut it but because I really want him to win this competition I decided that I would cut my hair as short as he wants if he wins.

I'm really hoping he'll choose a style like this:

Or maybe this:

Or even this:

Or, lastly, this:

(But only if I can have those legs and that fabulous dress to go along with it)

But I'm a little worried he'll choose something like this:



Or this:

Or even this:

YIKES, if he chooses this I'll definitely have to start doing my makeup like this so I can attempt to rock this hairstyle.

hmmm....maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

oh well, I ain't sceeerd.