Town Hall for Hope

So I finally got a chance to watch Dave Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope. It's a great contradiction to the doom and gloom on the news. He tells the other side of the news - like how much the stock market has gone up since it hit its low.

So if you need a little bit of financial hope, or if you think that government will save you, check out this link: http://vimeo.com/4491396

Little Changes make a Big Difference

We're making a few changes around the house. Not big changes, but they are making a big difference.

First, we are removing the door to nowhere. Our house was built as a two bedroom. Later an addition was added to make it 3 bedroom plus an office. This was accomplished by splitting one of the bedrooms into the office and a hallway. But they left the doorway to the "bedroom" there, effectively leaving a door in the middle of a hallway. So we finally decided to take the doorway out.

I got things started by tearing out the doorframe and some of the drywall. Jason took out the rest of the framing. It was a team effort to get the lightswitch moved over and the three-way switches rewired. And then the rest has pretty much been up to Jason - taking out the paneling, putting in some replacement drywall where the door was, and mudding in the holes. It's still a work in progress - here's a half-way through picture:

The other difference is that I found a kitchen cabinet to help with the shortage of storage and counter space. I sold my trumpet a few weeks ago and used the proceeds to purchase this estate sale find.

It's in the style of a "Hoosier cabinet" with a bread box and flour bin. The table top slides in and out for additional space. I had never heard of a Hoosier cabinet before, so here's where you can get more info about them.

"Loaded with labor and time-saving conveniences, the Hoosier cabinet was among the earliest design innovations of the modern American kitchen. This culinary workstation allowed owners to maintain an efficient and clutter-free kitchen by centralizing utensils, cookware, tools, and ingredients all the while providing a space in which to prepare the meals of the day." - IU Press

Anyway, I'm really excited. There's a lot of room inside to store things, so I'm trying to plan where I'm going to move things around in the kitchen to be more efficient. Hurray!

Farewell to the Fairlane

This post is a bit late in coming, but in March we sold the Fairlane.

Jason bought the 1970 Ford Fairlane for $300 several years ago, when he bought an antique truck. He intended to sell it to pay for the shipping of the antique truck, but one thing led to another, and he ended up driving it daily for over 3 years and putting on 18,000 miles .

But he took it to the shop and they informed him that the transmission could fall out at any time because the frame was rusted through, and we decided it was time to part ways with the car. It sold on Ebay for $205.

Goodbye Car!

New Curtains

It was time for some new curtains in the living room, so in January I went to Joann's and got some fabric for over 50% off. Over the past week I finally had some time to put them together. Not super fancy, but I'm quite pleased with the result - especially since the total cost is under $100.

Curtains open during the day:

Curtains closed at night:

I'm also going to be making a throw pillow out of some leftover material. The fabric has embroidered swirls.

And check out this bouquet Jason got me nearly two weeks ago for Valentine's Day. They're still beautiful!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Well, we fell down on the job with regard to getting pictures over the holidays, but I can still fill you in on what we did, right?

We flew down to the Dallas area to visit with my sister. We did a little bit of pre-holiday shopping and decorating. On Christmas Day, one of the gals from Eleanor's Sunday School class came over to spend the day, since she wasn't able to go home. That was fun, having someone around who seemed to appreciate our weirdness and quirks.

Our family has some unique present-opening rules. For example, presents are opened one at a time (unless two people received the same present). Also, no one is allowed to wake others up - everyone is to wake up on their own. Since the day isn't really about opening presents, we had a leisurely morning, a hearty Christmas dinner, and then got around to opening the presents in the afternoon. After all that we took a walk to work off the Christmas candy.

Friday and Saturday Mom, Eleanor and I went shopping =) which was a lot of fun. Jason and Dad went to the Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFKennedy. (They didn't want to go shopping with us!) Then they played Wii.

On Sunday we visited Eleanor's church, Stonebriar Community Church, where Chuck Swindoll is the pastor. He spoke about not knowing what the future holds, and being prepared for whatever may come - with Christ!

We had lots of yummy foods at yummy restaurants - Cheesecake Factory, Carrabba's Italian Grill, and IKEA. Yes, IKEA has a cafeteria, and the food is quite good, and inexpensive...

We flew back to Indy a few days before the New Year. Since we both had to work, and we're tired old people, we didn't do anything at all for New Year's Eve. But on New Year's Day we visited Jason's sister and brother-in-law for brunch, and then visited his brother and sister-in-law to meet their new daughter.

Speaking of Amber - she wrote on her blog recently about a Meijer Ambassador program she recommends they start. I recommend something similar for the US Postal Service. As a frequent shopper at the USPS, I really dislike having to answer all the questions every single time. I recommend a Frequent Mailer ID that allows us to bypass the security questions at the beginning of the purchase, and the "would you like stamps with that?" questions at the end of the purchase... Just a thought.

We Did It!!!

After a few years of planning, hard work, and careful budgeting, it's official!

Jason bought the house in late 2002. A few months later, he was laid off, and worked odd jobs for 3 years. When we married in 2006, the plan was that we would live off Jason's income, and use mine to pay down the mortgage. Which would have been fairly easy, except that a few months after we got married I quit my job as an engineer at Raytheon and starting working part-time at H&R Block and Accountemps, with a significantly reduced annual income.

But our goal was to pay off the mortgage by the end of 2008, so we did what it took and got it done.

Wednesday I went over to our Credit Union to send the wire transfer to pay it off. While I was there, I got out 2 $100 bills so we could pay for our celebration dinner with cash. Jason invited me to buy a new dress for our celebration, so I went shopping afterwards. =)

Thursday night we put debt free bumper stickers on our vehicles.

Friday, we took the Fairlane downtown to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We got valet parking. The food and service was terrific. The steaks were mmmm... so delicious!

We told our server what we were celebrating, so he brought this at the end of our meal:

Then we went to Hilbert Circle Theatre for Yuletide Celebration! We met up with Ken and Kristy, and Adam and Jenn. Yuletide Celebration is a lot of fun for the young and the young at heart.

I've been smiling for three days straight - I definitely recommend being debt free for a mood booster! =)

Thoughts on the Season

Today at lunch, a lady was ranting about how horrible Christmas was going to be this year, because everyone in her family had decided to cut back on how much they're spending on gifts. "My parents are giving me 50 cents!" she said, which I assume was an exaggeration. She went on and on about how people are choosing to be cheap for the sake of being cheap, not because they don't have the money.

Oh, how she doesn't get it.

While I hope people are making wiser financial decisions in today's troubled economy, that really shouldn't impact Christmas - because Christmas is not about the gifts we exchange. It's about the Gift God gave us for Christmas so many years ago. Beyond that, it's about what you can give, not what you can get.

Which leads me to the book I'm reading during lunch, "Ordering Your Private World" by Gordon MacDonald. It's been teaching me quite a bit about the importance of having Christ first in your life, even going so far as to schedule on your calendar the time that you're going to have listening to what God has to say to you (not just talking to Him). The part I read today discussed that General George Patton would frequently stop his soldiers to ask if they knew what their mission was - that the mission was the most important thing they could know.

So I started thinking about it - what is my mission? What is my mission today? What is my mission for this week? For this season? For the year? For my life? I must be a bit off track, because I'm having trouble answering these questions. I have goals, things I want to (or need to) accomplish. But are they my mission? Probably not.

The context of this discussion is the importance of Sabbath rest. Not just "taking time off" to relax, but really spending a day enjoying God's presence (and presents). Looking at the past, the present and the future, in terms of what God has in mind for you. It's been a long time since I've done that.

How about you? What's your mission? Are you spending time in Sabbath rest? Can you answer these questions quickly, or, like me, do they make you pause?