I think that I've set a record...

for the longest time between posts ever on our blog. 18 days.

Anyways, a lot has been going on since my last post. I don't really know where to start. I'll just give some highlights:

1. On March 3rd, Guy came and helped us spread out the gravel in our driveway. We are so grateful. We love our "new" driveway.
2. After that, we drove to Nashville, TN. We listened to the book Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey on CD all the way to Nashville. We ate dinner in Franklin, TN at Carrabas and had Starbucks for dessert. Mmmmm...We stayed all night in the jacuzzi suite and then crafted our plan for OUR total money makeover. We decided to really splurge that weekend and enjoy ourselves because we knew it would be a while till we lived it up like that again. We drove back that Sunday ready for our new life of "financial lockdown." We will be forever grateful to our friends JARED & KIM for sharing DR with us. :) We are very committed to changing our lives and moving with "gazelle intensity." I highly recommend this book.
3. Our totally money makeover will bring lots of changes. We have decided to cut out a lot of extra things. In the process of doing that, we'll have something like $10000 extra in the next 6 months to put towards debt. Dave's going to sell his Jeeps. We sold our new computer. Soon we will cancel our phone and net at home. My blogs will become even more rare. I will miss blogging terribly. Just like I'll miss working out at the YMCA, going to WW meetings, etc. But this is all part of the extra in our lives that we're eliminating.
4. We set several financial goals for ourselves. We want to have everything but our house paid off by August 31st of this year. That means we'll be paying off debt at a rate of over $1000/week until then. How, you ask? Well, not by our own abilities, with our own paychecks, etc. We can not do this alone. We have faith that God will provide for us to meet this goal. In fact, in just 2 weeks, we've paid off $5700 of debt. Praise the Lord!! A month ago, I would not have thought this would be possible. But ever since we made the decision to do all this, God has been blessing us in so many ways and we finally, for once in our married life, have taken control of what is happening with our money. After all our debt is paid off then we'll build a 6 months of expenses emergency fund and then start saving for retirement, etc, etc, etc. If you want to know all the steps, get the book.
5. The weekend of the 10th, we went to Ohio. I had fun scrapbooking at the church with my mom-in-law. Still haven't even gotten to unpack my supplies and show Dave the pages I created :(
6. The 11th, was Phil & Shan's 40th anniv. We celebrated at the Barn Outback and gave them their present - a vacation in Hocking Hills in June with the whole family. I'm really looking forward to that.
7. Since then, we've pretty much been working like crazy. I have put in 21.5 hrs of extra time in at work since last Monday. I worked 8 hours on Saturday. First Sat in my life I've ever done that. Don't care to repeat it. I have 2 deadlines this week that I'm working towards. After that, things should settle down. Please pray that I will stay healthy in the midst and after all this stress.
8. We're studying Romans with our small group. I missed tonight cuz I was working late. :( Dave was sweet enough to bring me home a couple pieces of Pizza Hut leftover from dinner there. I'm so glad. That is my absolute favorite pizza in the whole world.
9. Anyways, I will try to post some pics sometime soon. Love to you all!