Picture for our 25th Anniversary

Pictures at the Botanical Gardens for our 25th wedding anniversary.

Update on the ED

Totally LOVIN' it!!!

Our Nephew turns 4!

This is our oldest nephew and he

celebrated his birthay on Saturday

with a party at the farm...a Cars/Clown

party. He actually turned 4 on Sunday!

Love this boy!!!

Way out of my Comfort ZONE!!!

This afternoon I start cross training in the Emergency Department at Children's! I am excited but nervous. I have been in the ED to work with Chris as a SANE, but never as an actual ED nurse.

So please say a prayer!!

Our Song: Endless Love

I tried to post this from youtube, but could not get it to work. This was and still is our song! This is old school compared to the music videos of today. Hope you enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_tpE9ZSZyk

Today is the DAY!!!

Today is our 25th Anniversary!! It has been an awesome 25 plus years! We had a wonderful dinner on Saturday evening at the Pita Stop located on Southside by the old Healthsouth Hospital. We shared some Kapooli, Donald had the lamb kabobs and I had the shrimp kabobs. He was so excited when he opened his gift to see he would be driving a race car on 6/24 for 10 laps at Talladega! My wonderful gift was a 3/4 karat diamond eternity necklace! I was just blown away by the sparkle of the diamonds! (Integrity Jewelers 205-910-9094) they do awesome work!!

Yesterday I had a photography class at the Botantical Gardens after church and the boys came over after lunch to go to the Bonzai Tree showing. We made a few pictures for our anniversary too.

I should have the pictures tonight, so I will post some tomorrow!

What has been happening...

Just a quick overview of the last few days...and on toward the weekend...

• Worked 12 hours on Saturday in the NICU; love the babies!
• Sunday was a wonderful day in the house of the Lord, the boys gave me a new Palm Pilot to feed my need for organization!
• Monday I had the Blitz at UAB, had a great visit and lunch with Tara. Took the 2nd class in Introduction to Light Measurement at the Birmingham School of Photograpy.
• Tues was a steady day at work, went to a Candle Lite party at Liz's house...this will feed mine and Joseph's candle obession.
• Today has been steady and I met with Jimmy Barnett which is the Educator in the ED at TCH and have my orientation days lined up! I am so pumped about this opportunity to work in the ED and continue working with the SANE program at a whole new level. Church tonight! Missed my kids last week, due to that wonderful allergic reaction to a med.
• Thursday I am not working any extra, going home at 4 to spend time with my boys and maybe a little housework (yuk).
• Friday will end with going to a Coming of Age concert at the Refuge from 6-10 pm; COA is our youth minister's band and they totally rock! You can check them out at www.indieheaven.com and you can link to their myspace from there too.
• Saturday we are cropping at the church; that afternoon we are going to the Botanical Gardens to the Bonsai showing (Joseph has one and we are going to see what it is all about). That night at 6 Donald and I have a date night to celebrate our Silver Anniversary which is on Monday! We are eating dinner at the Pita Stop on South Side and exchanging our gifts. I wish I could drop a hint about his gift here, but if he reads this it would spoil it. I will post pictures etc on Monday and let you know what it is!
• Sunday will be another glorious day in the house of the Lord! I just so love our church and everyone there! At 1 pm I am meeting my photography class back at the BG for a workshop. Amie B. is going to be my model so I think it is going to be fun...the weather is suppose to be nice.

Toodles!

Want to be Debt FREE and have Financial Freedom???

This is a long post, but will worth the read!


Dave Ramsey Seminar….Total Money Makeover

Read Proverbs it has 31 chapters and it tells you how to be good stewards of your money.

This is the basic he told us last night…his website is http://www.daveramsey.com/ if you want more info.

Baby Step #1:

$1000 to start an Emergency Fund (time frame 1 to 1 ½ month) put it where you can get it, but not for Pizza! Prioritize!! In a 10 year period everyone will have a financial emergency!

Mutual Funds a one time investment of $1000 from age 25 to 65 at 6% will be $10,285 at 12% will be $93,050 and at 18% will be
$750,378

CUT UP CREDIT CARDS!!!

Open credit cards with a zero balance count against you as well as car pmts when you apply for a mortgage.

You do not need a credit card to rent a car, check into a hotel you can use you debit card!


Stay away from car payments drive reliable used cars. Save and pay cash!

Leasing a car is the most expensive way to finance a vehicle

Baby Step #2

Pay off your debt using the Debt Snowball

Quit borrowing more money!
You must save money!
Prayer really works!
Sell Something!
Part-time job or overtime (temporarily)

List you debts in ascending order with the smallest payoff balance to the largest. Don’t worry about interest rates or terms unless you have two debts that have similar payoffs, then list the higher interest rate first. (I am going to place a copy of this in the break-room if you want a copy)

Baby Step #3

3-6 months of expenses in savings

Emergency fund is insurance not an investment it must be easy to access or liquid. An emergency fund can turn a crisis into an inconvenience.

Money market accounts are easily accessible, often have no penalties for early withdrawals, and often have check writing privileges.

Baby Step #4

Invest 15% of household income into a Roth IRA and pre-tax retirement.

Compound interest is the key!

$100 per month from age 25 to 65 at 12% will be 1,176,477 from 30 to 70 years right at 6 million dollars

Start NOW!!


Diversification means to spread it around and it is a lower risk!

Mutual Funds are long term investments at least 5 years buy and forget it!

Invest:

25% in a growth and income fund
25% in a growth fund
25% in international funds
25% in aggressive growth funds


Baby Step #5

College fund…make sure your kids are fit too!

And Education Savings Account (ESA) or Education IRA, funded in a growth stock mutual fund is the best. $2000/year tax free

Research the cost of attending college.

The average college student graduates with $27,900 in student loan debt.

First rule of college…Pay Cash!

Savings bonds and pre-paid tuition not smart investments---the return rate is low

Baby Step #6

Pay off home early!!

You do not need the tax deduction! If you are debt free you can give to charitable organizations and help others and get the same deductions!

Best option a 15year fixed mortgage

Payments should be no more than 25% of your TAKE HOME PAY!

Written Workout Routine

Must have a cash flow plan.

A budget is when you say “Show Me The Money”

4 to 8 million dollars will flow through our hands by the time we retire!

A good cash flow plan should be a zero based plan. The envelope system is a practical tool. A written plan removes the management by crisis from your finances so the money works harder.

Give a budge 90 days to work for you:

Food
Utilities
House
Transportation
Clothes
Fun

Baby Step #7

Build wealth and give!

Wealth is not an escape Mechanism, it is a tremendous Responsibility!



If you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else!!

Matthew turns ONE!!!! Today 5/11/07

(1) At UAB 6/06 (2) 10/06 (3) 2/07 (4) 4/07

Today is this gorgeous little boys birthday! Matthew turns one! He is such a miracle, he was born at 28 weeks, weighing just over 3lbs! He is very healthy and is such a happy baby! We are so blessed to have him and his sweet parents James and Emily at Bethel and I am doing my best to spoil this sweet boy!! He has the best smile, it just lights up his whole face!

Today is...

Today is this handsome little boys birthday!! He is two! We celebrated it over the weekend with a "Cars" theme party. He just loves Lighting McQueen!