Officially OVER!!!

Yes that's right. Family pictures are officially OVER!!! Thanks to our great friends The Tramms we had a successful family picture day. One more thing to check off my TO DO list for the upcoming holidays.
Normally we just have pics of the kids for our Christmas cards, but I realized that my baby is almost 3 and we have not had a single family picture since his arrival!! Mostly because here I am almost 3 years later trying to lose my pregnancy weight and I have avoided the camera at ALL costs. Well, times are changing, and people are just gonna have to get used to the fat Jazz because losing weight is my least favorite thing to do and I am not good at it. So enjoy your fat Christmas pics this year!!!! Or as my hubby would say Phat Jazz (pretty hot and tempting)!! Yes at least I still have 1 fan, and the most important of all:)
I am hoping that photo shop can be my friend before the final portrait is revealed:)

Surfside Seaplane Base

This is my Grandma's brother Bruce. I have pictures of me as a baby at surf side with my aunts playing on the rope swing over the water. It is a fun place:)

31 Things

I found this on BillMissandBrood:)

1. Where is your cell phone? in my purse in the van
2. Where is your significant other? working away in the rain
3. Your hair color? Red with faded blonde high lights
4. Your mother? don't go there
5. Your father? My Hero
6. Your favorite thing? chocolate and time with my hubby (even better if they are together!)
7. Your dream last night? Don't remember
8. Your dream/goal? To be everything God wants me to be to my family
9. The room you're in? Dinning room
10. Your hobby? cleaning???????? j/k lately it's been reading about natural birth
11. Your fear? truthfully I struggle with fear although I know it is NOT from God. My biggest fear is dying before my children are adults.
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Debt free, happy, and content:)
13. Where were you last night? home with my fellas
14. What you’re not? rich!!!!!
15. One of your wish list items? kitchenaide stand up mixer !!!!!!!! -anyone giving one away:)
16. Where you grew up? Forest Lake, MN
17. The last thing you did? Took Jaden to school
18. What are you wearing? Jeans and a tshirt over a long sleeved shirt.
19. Your TV? Being sold or giving it away
20. Your pet? Latte- she is a teacup poodle
21. Your computer? Dell Inspiron 1501
22. Your mood? optimistic about our finances
23. Missing someone? or something? My old house church
24. Your car? Dodge Caravan Sport for now (I think we are selling it and getting something older so we have no car payment!)
25. Something you’re not wearing? a hat
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? too short
28. Love someone? MANY people.
29. Your favorite color? pink, purple, and black
30. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday at Eli walking around the house ALL day without pants or a diaper. He has a cute butt:)
31. Last time you cried? Monday about how much debt we have:(

Financially FAT!!!!

OK. I have known it for a while but I have a serious problem with financial DENIAL!!! I have started reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey as a suggestion from this really cool person I know, Miss. Anyways, holy debt Batman!!! I am financially fat and the person I am looking at in the mirror is not looking good!

Ken and I are starting Ramsey's total money makeover and the next few years of our lives are gonna be different people!!! We are going to be learning how to live like no one else so that later we CAN live like no one else:) This is going to be a challenge and hard work and eye opening and did I say hard work?

I am hoping to use my blog as a tool for accountability and also sharing our journey through the whole process. Sorry if I bore you all with our getting out of debts plans, but really my life isn't that exciting.

So we are working on making sure we are current with all of our monthly payments for everything like utilities, mortgages, loans, medical bills, etc.. Everything needs to be current before we can move on to the next step. This will be done by the end of this month.

The next baby step is having a $1000 emergency fund. Well God (you know, the Almighty!) has provided that for us in one lump sum!! He is good, really really good. Imagine my surprise (not God's) when I finally picked up my property tax papers from my aunt, our tax lady, thinking we would maybe get back 300 or so. Nope!!! $1087 to be exact. Holy emergency fund Batman:) So by the end of November hopefully we will have baby step 2 completed and on our way to baby step 3.

Now the hardest part. Step 3, the debt snowball. Yuck! I have always know in the back of my head how much debt we have, but seeing it down on paper from smallest to largest, PAINFUL. I have been working on our debt list, minimum payments, total payoff, interest rates, and all that junk. So when we are ready to start tackling that, we have a plan in place.

The funnest part in all of this is seeing already how God has provided for us. I am looking forward to this journey a) to be debt free and b) to have my relationship with the Lord grow even more:)

So as a disclaimer to family and friends:
If it looks like we have money, we don't! We are like the rest of America and just
pretending. If we start selling a bunch of stuff, we are not crazy. We are just trying to wipe
out our debt fast and furious by making money where we can. If our gifts to you are not as
much as it seems like we could spend on you, just wait 10-15 years and the see the gifts we
will be giving away. Short term pain for long term gain! Thanks for understanding.

I will update further in my journey:)

Not Me! Monday

It's that time again. Check out MckMama for the rules of the game:)

This week:

I did not have ANOTHER PJ and no shower day. Seriously 2-3 times in one month, gross. What, do I look lazy? Not Me!

I also did not pretend that I was not home on the said pj day when someone came knocking on my door. I am comfortable enough in my pj's to be seen in front of anyone who may stumble to my door. I would NEVER intentionally ignore someone. How rude!

I did not spend way too much time trying to find the answers to MckMama's contest questions the other day, only to not be even close to over half of them! Who has time for that? Not Me!

I did not eat 3 1/2 pieces of french toast this morning. Nope I have a lot more self control with food than that!

I did not totally forget about Not Me! Monday until I was doing my morning blogging about 10 minutes ago. I also did not have a totally uneventful week and forget to keep track of my not me's!!!!

Bedtime Story As Told By Jaden

So here is another bedtime story as told by Jaden to his mommy the other night.

*Once upon a time there was a Queen and she was really pretty and she was you mommy. And there was 2 prince's and a princess. Eli was a prince and he was Spider Man and I was a prince and I was Indiana Jones and KyLee was the princess and she was Spider Girl. And mommy you were really strong because you had power and could throw things up in the air. Except us because we had power too because I had my whip and Eli had webs and sissy had girl webs............*


You just know any story that starts like that is going to take a while:) Oh he is funny and sweet!!

Fun at The Green Barn

First stop: The Giant Corn Pit

Next stop: The pumkin toss and local jail

Then on to the Hay Maze:

Then Eli's favorite part of the day: They very looonnnnggg hay ride (he sat like this the WHOLE time staring at the tractor)

And last but not least, The Pumkins:

All in a days work:)