Merry Christmas to you & yours

From ours. :)

Do you know how hard it is to get a family photo when one kiddo is in college? Nearly impossible. I cherish them big time when we get one. Especially when we’re all smiling and actually looking at the camera. :)

Of course I couldn’t resist playing around on Picnik a bit:

My stepdaughter is gonna kill me. I think I’ll put this on Facebook and tag her.

Of course I couldn't forget the Nutter Butter:

I had to fake that Santa hat cause there was no way he was going to let me put one on him. He is not a dress-me-up kind of dog. :)

I hope you had an absolutely lovely day. We did and I’m feeling especially blessed this evening.

I wanted to send out a huge THANK YOU to you all as well. I cannot express how much I love doing what I do, and you are all a BIG reason I’m able to do it. I am so thankful for your friendship – whether we’ve met or not. :)

Merry, MERRY Christmas!!

And now, I’m off to have thirds seconds of the apple dumplings. The treadmill and I have a date…starting tomorrow.

Right Now

Right now I’m in knee-deep in holiday STUFF. Every year I swear I’m going to have everything perfectly planned and decorated and non-stressed by now and every year about this time I laugh manically at myself.

It just doesn’t happen. :)

And I’m OK with that.

Right now the basement looks like a Christmas bomb went off. Every year I say I’m going to keep it organized as I go:

And you know…then the crazy person laughing ensues.

I blame Halloween. You can see from the five foot wide spider legs sticking out in the back that once I don’t get that all away it turns into “Awwww, I’ll just do it all in January.”

Right now I’m wondering WHY FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD it is I can’t keep the kitchen island cleaned off:

I read once online that someone thought I staged these photos. It made me laugh.

It made my husband fall out of his chair. He wishes.

Right now I’m trying to get creative with our Happy Elf (named by the Bub) every day, but I’m failing miserably. Last night it looks like he had some fun though:

And all I can think of is this:

Love that movie. Did you know it’s coming out in 3D next year? SO. THERE.

Right now I’m struggling because I was up till 2:30 a.m. reading this:

It’s good. Obviously, so good I can’t GO TO BED.

This is why I don’t read books as much anymore, which I hate. The only time I have is late at night and then I get completely sucked in.

Right now I’m getting ready for a Christmas party with the girls tonight. I’m making these (ohhhh yeah) and I sent out the call on Twitter yesterday for a festive, bubbly drink idea.

Becky’s suggestion was the easiest (I already had one of the ingredients) so I went with that:

It’s a Poinsettia Cocktail and it’s cranberry juice, triple sec and champagne. It’s yummy! I just mixed everything together till it tasted right. I may know this because I may have sampled it last night. ;)

I had about 25 things on my list today and I’m feeling pretty awesome because I got four done. Like every year, it will all get done. All the presents will get wrapped, all the food will be yummy, and if I don’t get it all done, I’m totally OK with that. All that matters is we’re happy and healthy and together. Nothing else.

Are you sampling any festive drinks, reading any good books, watching any great movies or just trying to get your house under control right now? I’d love to hear!

Have a GREAT weekend!!

Debt free: Nine months later

Well, it’s been nine months since we paid off our last debt. (Which was the US Department of Education – my student loans. Not sure if I ever told you that!)

It certainly has been nine months of living like no one else, in more ways than one. I know so many of you are fighting the good fight against your own debt, and I wanted to follow up on our story and continue to give you the motivation to KEEP GOING.

It is so incredibly, amazingly worth it.

Many of you have asked what made us decide to finally attack our debt. (Which was $125,000. Yes. Three zeros. Six digits.)

I try to be as transparent as possible on this blog, especially when it comes to our debt story. But money is probably one of the most sensitive of topics, so I try to walk the line of what to share and what not to share.

I’ll tell you we were sick and tired of making a decent living and having absolutely NOTHING to show for it but wallets full of credit cards. It was just ridiculous and sad and depressing. Month after month, half of our money went to a credit card. Or a student loan. Or a car payment.

We had money leftover, but not a ton. So when we wanted something and couldn’t afford it – what did we do? Charge it.

It wasn’t crazy or extravagant. It was just little bits, here and there. It was breaking one of my own golden rules:

I had first heard that quote in college and it stuck with me. I would recite it to myself often. Obviously not often enough. ;)

And one day, something clicked. We finally got serious about changing our lives.

Because we got MAD. Madder than hell.

We wanted to keep our money. We worked hard for it (who doesn’t?) and dang it, we were finally spitting mad about passing it out to them and them and THEM and them every month.

That’s what it takes to make it happen. You need to get ANGRY at the debt. You need to want it out of your life so bad it’s all you think about, dream about, focus on. GET FURIOUS.

So we got mad. :) And we attacked it.

I’ve mentioned before we didn’t follow the “plan” to a T – we didn’t always go after the smallest debt first. We had some credit cards with just insanely high interest rates, so we went after those first.

We didn’t eat rice and beans. Well…sometimes at the Mexican restaurant. ;) We did still eat out and treat ourselves occasionally.

But we did follow the Dave Ramsey plan otherwise. No, it’s not rocket science. Ramsey himself will tell you that. But when you’re drowning in debt (and when you finally take the time to add it all up and realize how much you are drowning), you feel completely hopeless.

I’ve had a few really sucky days in my 36 years and the day we added it all up was one of the worst.

Dave Ramsey gives you the HOPE. He gets you amped UP. Crazy intense.

(When I took this picture I was as giddy as a grown woman teenage girl waiting to meet NKOTB. I went to take Dave’s picture and right when I took this he waved. AT ME!!! I was all bouncy and hyper and texting all my girlfriends. For reals.)

It felt like we’d never get there…we worked at it for years. When we were getting to where we could feel the finish line, we decided to take Financial Peace University at our church.

I have to tell you – that class was one of the most amazing experiences we’ve ever had. It bonded my husband and I and made us even more excited and determined. There were moments when my husband would reach out and squeeze my hand and we were SO in this together.

This process changed our lives and it changed our marriage.

We finished paying off our debt two months after our last class. The 125,000 pound monkey was off our backs and it was surreal.

(This couple was there the day I met Dave – I had to take their picture because they had paid off something like $400,000. Talk about inspiring and emotional!)

It took a while for it to sink in. There are still moments when I realize we don’t have car payments. How stinkin’ weird is THAT?!

And yes…we’ve been able to do some things we would have never done before. Well – we may have done them. But we would’ve been paying them off for the next five years.

Let me tell you – sitting out on our patio at night sure is sweeter when it’s completely paid for and all ours. :)

But I think it’s important to mention all the ways we live like no one else – just in ways you wouldn’t think.

Our paid for cars aren’t fancy – not at all. Hubby’s car is nine years old with something like 210,000 miles on it. Mine is seven years old with 110,000 on it with a stupid amount of dings and dents. (I’m a magnet.)

We NEVER go on vacation. We go on some fantastic trips but they are ALL for hubby’s work. Always. Our last three trips to NYC have been business-related. Even our RV vacation this past summer was planned because of a work commitment – I don’t know if we would have done it otherwise. (Now that we have, we’re doing it again next year for sure!) Other than a few weekends to New York here and there, I don’t think in all the years I’ve been with my husband we’ve gone on one vacation together.

I hardly ever get my hair cut, nails done, new clothes. I got my nails done yesterday and I think the last time I did that was about the time we paid off our debt. ;)

I use a box to color my hair (completely necessary –- the greys are out of control), my hubby doesn’t treat himself EVER (I try to get him to, but he just doesn’t), and we don’t buy name brand…well, of pretty much anything.

But saying it’s all worth it is a complete understatement. We have started a new course for our marriage and our kids and our family tree.

When you’re considering giving up the cards, paying off your debt or are in the middle of it – you NEED to hear that it can happen. And you need to hear that’s it’s as peaceful as you think it is.

It is. All of the above. :)

One evening while in our Financial Peace class I turned to hubby and told him I needed to help someone else get there that wanted or needed to be there. (It was that powerful.)

I approached my new friends at Financial Peace Plaza and they agreed to help me out. ;) I’m paying it forward and want to provide some of you with the chance to go through the class. I’m giving away three Financial Peace packets and the wonderful folks with Dave Ramsey are throwing in two more of them.

You will get everything you’ll need in a box – and if you are able to attend the class, I WANT YOU TO GO. Sorry I’m yelling. :) The class is so worthwhile. (Go here to find one near you. I’ll either have the packet sent to you or pay for it through the church where you’ll attend – just let me know.)

If you don’t have a class nearby, you can go through it with the info and CDs in the packet.  Either way, we want to help five (individuals or couples) kick start your own peace.

I also have three new copies of the Total Money Makeover book – it’s the one that we got hooked on and it’s the one they recommend to anyone thinking about taking the plunge.

Because debt is a private issue, I’m not going to ask you to leave a comment here to “win.” ;) If you’d like a chance to attend Financial Peace free of charge, or if you’d like a copy of the book, just send me a quick email. I don’t need anything else from you other than a brief hello. (thriftydecorchick at gmail dot com)

Title it “DEBT FREE!” and just let me know if you’re interested in Financial Peace or the book. That’s it. I hate to put a deadline on something like this, but I want to get you going as soon as possible if you win, so let’s say I’ll take emails till next Thursday, the 17th. (This giveaway is now closed.)

Thanks again for your support and love throughout our journey – it has meant the world to us. Your encouragement and celebration made the process even more worthwhile. :)

**You can learn more about our debt story here. And read how awesome it is to be weird here.

**All pics are from last winter when I visited FPP with a bunch of bloggers. We had a blast!!

Never Forget

Many of you have noticed that I love New York City. It’s deep. I love it like I love a friend – I knew even before I ever visited that I would love it. I just knew.

And I was right. On my first trip to NYC almost exactly ten years ago, I feel in love with the city. Hard and fast.

We were there two weeks before our country was attacked. My hubby got a shot with the impressive towers behind me (we were at the Statue of Liberty):

You have to look really hard to see them. That is still so eerie to me. I swear over the years when I look at this picture, it’s harder to see them. Isn’t that crazy?

We’ve been back countless times since – we got married there too. We couldn’t think of a better place to do it and I would do it again a million times over. (Marry my husband and marry him in New York.) :)

Last summer I took a trip to NYC with some friends, and we spent an afternoon at Ground Zero. We went through the Ground Zero Museum and it was heart wrenching and so incredibly powerful. Like last year, I’d like to share some of the photos with you today.

I think I’ll share them on this day every year…because time can make us forgetful. Time can steal away how we felt on that day – the sorrow and the despair, and the pride that was positively bursting from each one of us.

We just can’t forget.

I’ll let the pictures do all the talking:

  

            

      

Every single person who died on that day – in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania -- and since then fighting for our country, is a hero in my eyes.

I am so proud to be an American.

God Bless America!

Our Visitor, Murphy

Some mornings I wake up and have NO clue what I’m going to blog about that night. I rarely schedule posts ahead – I’m a fly by the seat of my pants kind of blogger.

This morning I was thinking of the projects I could complete to blog about, and was trying to figure out what I’d have the time to finish up.

Well…I got some blog material. Just not the kind I wanted. ;)

If you follow me on Twitter you’ve heard some of the goings on around here over the past few days. It started Saturday morning when we woke up to a puddle of water in front of the refrigerator.

Turns out the computer on the fridge had died, so everything inside (including a huge ice bucket) had melted, and then spilled out onto our floor. AWESOME, letmetellyou.

Long story short, the repair guy couldn’t fix the fridge with the parts he had, but he did fix the one in the garage that had been broken for months (we got it free from friends, so it was worth fixing, considering we had NOTHING otherwise).

Because we’ve had so many issues with our kitchen refrigerator (GE Profile) we decided to purchase a new one. I was annoyed and upset, but after a while was a little excited to get a new fridge, I’m not gonna lie. :)

But then we noticed the floors…the laminate was bubbling and buckling and all those bad “B” words you don’t want to use to describe flooring. ;)

Our insurance company sent someone out today to see how bad it was, and within a few hours of him arriving, this:

Had turned into this:

(Different angle, bear with me.)

Needless to say…it was bad. :)

We have no idea how long the water sat on the floors – we figure at least six hours. Because our laminate is “floating” – not glued or nailed down, the water traveled under the floors throughout half of the kitchen.

It also reached the basement, but luckily we got to it before it got too bad. They had to cut a huge section of the floors out – the laminate, underlayment, original vinyl floors and plywood under that all had to be pulled out.

So for the next few days, we have four blowers and an industrial dehumidifier in our kitchen, and three blowers and a dehumidifier in the basement:

I was doing OK with everything, considering, until they had to move the kitchen island.

My lovely beadboard island had to be taken apart so they could move it. It’s now sitting in the office:

And I was actually making progress on that office. ;) I had hoped to finish painting it today.

HAR. That so didn’t happen. :)

Because they had to remove the island, they took the trash compactor out too – it’s now in the garage. So this is our trash can for the next week, two weeks…month?:

We have no idea what the timeline will be. Because our flooring goes throughout the kitchen and family room, it’s ALL going to have to be pulled up and replaced.

For now, we will be living upstairs for the next few days. You can’t hear much over the blowers. :)

Our trash can is a chair and our refrigerator is in the garage (opposite side of the house from the kitchen, of course). Good thing I’m not a cook!!

That’s a joke Dad. ;) (Kind of.)

I’m not good at having our house turned upside down – messes and toys I’m OK with. But this…this is going to give me hives and I’m well aware of that. I’m trying to fight them off by at least cleaning up the kitchen. It’s been a disaster all day, so I tried cleaning tonight:

It’s just a MESS. And the blowers send all the dust back onto the surfaces all over again, so I’m not sure why I’m even trying…but I’ll keep doing so. I must. :)

Tomorrow the insurance adjuster comes out to check it all out and we’re hoping for good news. We’ve never had to file any claims on our house, so we’re kind of learning as we go.

This has been an eventful summer around here – first the back door disaster, then we had some siding fall off in a storm, then we realized a couple weeks ago that our back door frame is rotting away (like, crumbling) and needs to be replaced and now we need a new fridge, new flooring and let’s not forget a whole fridge full of food. (Of course I had gone grocery shopping just two days before.)

We’re rolling with it though, and I’m reminded again how thankful I am that we are all safe, happy and healthy. That’s all that matters to me, and I am certainly counting my blessings tonight, even while the hives form. ;)

Soooo…Murphy has been hanging out around here fo sho and we need to kick him to the curb. He’s been sleeping on the couch waaaay too long. Gots to pack his bags and GO. He doesn’t have to go home but he can’t stay here. ;)

Any recommendations on flooring? We’re looking into engineered wood this time. Seems to be a good in between option – better than laminate but not as expensive as hardwoods. Because our kitchen and family room is one big space, we won’t break it up with two different types of flooring (like tile and hardwoods). If the kitchen was a separate room I would use tile for sure.

The guy overseeing all of the clean up said they have special mats that soak up any water damage from engineered flooring now, if it’s caught early. (Crossing my fingers and toes we’ll never have to find out how that works!!) Any thoughts? Anyone have them and like them?

That was my exciting weekend…how was yours? ;)

Goings On

Hello there!! Hope you are having a great week! It’s the last one of July – can you even believe it? I’m actually writing from our deck tonight. It’s been so dang hot it’s been unbearable even at night, but it’s quite lovely this evening.

And now that it’s nice out, what am I doing? Not working on anything on our HUGE, ongoing list of outdoor projects, but blogging. Figures. :)

Anyhoo, first I need to announce the winner of the Pottery Barn gift card, courtesy of Groopdealz. Whoohooey, Dawn of dccrader(at)hotmail(dot)com,  you are the lucky duck winner! Dawn, holla at me in an email and I’ll get you hooked up with your gift card.

I forgot to mention that I was included over at my friend Emily’s Now and Then series last week:

You can go here to see some before and waaay before pics of our family room. :)

This week I may have mentioned a few times on Twitter and Facebook and then Twitter and maybe here, and then I called my Dad and my teacher from the 5th grade and mentioned it on Twitter…again, that we went to the NKOTBSB concert the other night here in Indy.

:)

I tell. you. what. Whew. First of all, certain things get better with age. I’m just sayin’. I think all of the guys are in their 40’s now? And they can jump and run all over and sing and we’re in the stands screaming like teenagers and we’re sweating and exhausted. :)

And while wearing uncomfortable (cute) shoes, you know…just in case one of them has super sonic sight and can see my shoes from a mile away and they’re all, wow, I must meet that girl with the cute shoes! She’s rockin those!

What? Huh? That’s not how your mind works? Well, um…awkward.

Anyway, I got tired from screaming and jumping around like a lunatic, and then I go to sit down for a few and then Donnie goes and takes his shirt off and there. you. go.

And all the sudden I wasn’t so tired.

HA!

If you’ve been you know…it’s a ROCKIN’ show. I think this must have been my 8th (or so) NK’s concert and it gets better every time. Entertainment at it’s best!!

There’s something about being in a space with thousands of women who were YOU 20-something years ago. It’s like you look around and you feel like you belong…it’s really a wonderful feeling:

I went with Stink Eye Sis and two (practically) life long girlfriends (love you Erin and Mandy!!!).

Sis and I got a good pic in the bathroom:

Because I ask you, where else do you take pictures?

And here’s the one and only full length photo in a mirror that you will ever see of this blogger. Just to show you the cutie shoes:

I felt like a COLOSSAL dork taking my own picture. 

And my feet still hurt.

Anyway, it was a blast. Jon didn’t feel my mojo from a mile away and call up into the stands though, darn it. Or he maybe he did and he was terrified. We’ll never know. (He’s a DIY guy you know…someday I WILL get him to read my blog.)

Did that sound stalkerish?

Uhhh…

If they go on another tour, we’ll be there. If they want to keep going for ten more years, we’ll be there. :)

And at the end of the night, who do I run into but a TDC reader?? She was sitting a row behind us – how wild is that? Hello Michelle!!

To see more about our girls weekend in NYC to see them last summer, go here. To see my sister dancing with Donnie a couple of summers ago, click here. (No that’s not me screaming in the background. I didn’t film that. I’m off to the right with my mouth hanging open because my sister is dancing with Donnie.)

Now, back to reality. The reality I LOVE. :) I told you we took a vacation a few weeks ago and I wanted to share a bit about it because we had such a fantastic time.

I must preface this by saying that practically every trip we EVER take is for hubby’s work. I mean, overseas (back in the day), NYC, wherever. It’s pretty much always in relation to work. Which certainly doesn’t suck, but we just never go on a vacation, just because.

So that made this one even better. We decided to rent an RV and travel north. We had a destination (Wisconsin Dells) but we decided to just go slow, enjoys the sites and take our time.

We took our time a little too much securing the RV, so when we called, all they had left was a Class A – and when they say Class A, they mean “house on wheels”:

I had envisioned something like this:

So I was pretty stoked. :) It was practically a freakin’ tour bus! And it. was. AWESOME.

Hubby has driven a few RVs before, but it was a bit intimidating. He got the hang of it right away though – and that is reason 4,203 that I love him. I love that he tries new things like this, isn’t afraid, and just goes for it and makes it happen.

The little man thought it was a bit harder to maneuver:

:)

We drove up to the Indiana Dunes for our first night, and if you haven’t been to the Dunes, you are missing out. It is absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful white sandy beaches:

It had been 20 years or so since I had been there and it was lovely. The Bub had never been on a beach, so we got to see another first in action:

  

Yes, I giggle about a boy band from the 90’s, but this man is my forever man. The most handsomest, most loving, most amazing man I could ever ask for. And he doesn’t care that I go scream at boy bands from the 90’s. ;)

Our favorite part was the view of the Chicago skyline on the horizon:

Can you see it? Too cool!

We stayed at RV parks every night, and by the second night were old pros at parking, putting down the jacks and hooking up the water and electric.

Let me tell you, I can’t recommend the Wisconsin Dells enough for a family vacation. That place was incredible. We didn’t even begin to scratch the surface though – the activities were endless.

Indoor theme parks were everywhere, outdoor parks as well, duck boat tours – and it’s the water park capital of the world. And they take that seriously folks. I mean, they are EVERYWHERE:

We went to Mt. Olympus one afternoon and didn’t even get through a quarter of it.

SO FUN. Watching my husband go down the water slides – priceless. :)

There were a ton of fun, unique restaurants too, like Buffalo Phil’s, where a train delivers food to your table. Or a bubble machine:

That’s a happy hubby right there. :) Love him so very much.

We will go to the Dells again for sure -- it was an absolute blast. And RVing was SO MUCH FUN! We had the luxury of electricity and a shower, but also got to roast marshmallows over a fire and enjoy the outdoors as well.

I grew up camping every weekend as a kid, and I’m not high maintenance in the least, but I don’t know if I could do the whole tent thing again. This was the perfect mix for our family and I can’t recommend it enough. Big RV or small one – we will do it again. Our plan is to head west next summer and I can’t wait!

So, that’s what’s been up around here lately. Thanks for indulging me! Have you been to see a boy band from the 90’s lately? Scream like a 15-year-old? Take RV vacations? Scream like a 15-year-old while flying down a water slide? I’d love to hear. :)