updated

so our trip to Knoxville was so great. exactly what we needed...everything from the warmer weather, the view of the mountains, to reconnecting with GREAT friends and spending time with the whole family. i saw everyone that i wanted to see while i was there, and it was fantastic. it was really tough to remain positive when we were driving back to good ole' Anderson. we miss Knoxville so much and are so ready to go back and live there. the timing will be right eventually.

tim and i have been taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class through our church. i absolutely love it because i feel so much more educated with so many financial things now. we've finally put together a budget (our first one ever!) and will hopefully be really disciplined about sticking with it. it's amazing how much farther money can go when it's properly managed. we're really looking forward to paying off our small, but annoying, debts and saving for the future. i HIGHLY recommend anyone to take his class...it's incredibly educational. i'm glad we finally have someone kicking our butt and telling us how dumb we've been previously.

when i was going through our budget the other day (yes, i'm the nerd in the household who LOVES to be the budget-keeper) i mentioned to tim how we have no money set aside in case anything breaks in our house such as washer/dryer, tv, stove, etc. we laughed about how crappy our washer and dryer were since the buttons have come off and you literally had to stick your fingers into the machine to find the on switch. real safe, i'm assured. they were given to me free a few years ago from my parents' neighbors who used them when THEY got married. seriously old. no sooner than a few days later, one of our youth sponsors tells Tim he has something he wants to bring us. low and behold, he brings us a new dryer. God sure does take care of us...and even BEFORE things actually break! i'm definitely impressed. we both had to chuckle about our conversation and decided we need to start mentioning things like that more often. :) it's so awesome when God's people take care of each other.

nothing else new to report. still truckin' through the school year and trying not to kill any of the kids:) we only have about 12 weeks of school left, which i feel will fly by pretty quickly. who knows what next year will bring!

alright, i'm off to try and motivate myself to go work out. wish me luck. i've already spent too much time blogging instead of going.