we {heart} dave ramsey

This is Dave. 

Every Sunday evening we go to this church down the street from where we live...

to watch him do things like this....

so we can learn things like this:

(We watch him on DVD then have a group support discussion... Dave's not actually there.) I love Dave Ramsey. His lessons are brilliant, loving, fulfilling, inspiring, motivating, energizing, and full of education and hope. He has certainly changed our life. He teaches about how much you really pay when you use a credit card, even if you pay it off every month. About the benefits of taking out a 15 year mortgage. About how much $50 a month will be worth when you're 65 if you start setting it aside now. About taxes. Insurance. Health. Disability. Life. Teaching your children about money. And he makes it SOOO easy to understand.

I will forever be grateful to Dave Ramsey for his life lessons, and I will forever be grateful to the people who are supporting our journey to become completely debt-free (medical bills, cars, house.... everything). Our parents have given so much to help us raise and take care of our children as we have cut daycare out of our budget temporarily. My parents take the girls at least once a week and Dan's parents take them anywhere from a long weekend to a week every month so that we can build our business and therefore take care of our family. 

This entire week our girls have been in Fort Wayne with their Grandma and Grandpa Brand. This has given Dan and me many many hours of uninterrupted work time, which we are so appreciative of. We do miss our girls so much when they are gone, but we enjoy the fact that they have a real relationship with their wonderful grandparents and we generally keep so freakin' busy when they are gone that we almost (ALMOST!) don't have a chance to miss them!

Last month when the girls went to Fort Wayne we started our week with a wedding and Baby and Toddler Expo! We set up this booth Friday, worked the wedding Saturday while my dear friend Sarah A worked our booth for us, then Sunday Dan worked the show while I was in bed sick all day (boo). 

This week we started with a garage sale and then 9 back-to-back family sessions the following day with several of our favorite clients! That was so much fun!!! Busy, busy! This garage sale was offered by our Dave Ramsey class to the students as a way to sell some stuff and become closer to getting out of debt. Thanks SO much to my parents for helping me sort, price, and sell $183 of stuff! Dan worked several photo sessions that day and I could not have done the sale without them! Since Joe and Lisa are doing the class too, we snagged booths next to each other. 

This is how Lisa spent time in their booth:

This is how Joe spent time in their booth:

(Love you guys.) :) I'm so glad I did the garage sale. It was nice to get some cash, but I also learned that all of the work that goes into a garage sale is really not usually worth the effort. It was my first {and last} garage sale. If I had worked at our studio that day we would have come out ahead. Next time it's Goodwill for me! :) (And maybe ONE more sale to sell all of our kids stuff once we know we're done and they've all outgrown all their gear.) :)

We did two very fun things this week in the midst of work. We purchased this awesome swingset for the back yard with gift money we were given to pick one out last year! Thanks so much, Grandma and Grandpa Brand! I am SOOO excited to set it up next spring! (Well, I'm excited to watch our dads set it up!)

And, we went to dinner and a movie, thanks so much to my dear friend JoAnn for treating us as a birthday gift!!! 

Of course, you can't see A Christmas Carol without your 3-D glasses!!!! 

The movie was incredible (absolutely NOT suited for children), but wonderful. The week was exhausting and productive, and I am ecstatic to get my girls back tomorrow. I can't wait to squeeze them and see how much they've changed in a short week!!!! 

I'm off to bed! Oh geez, it's after 1am. Goodnight!!!