HAPPY THANKSGIVING

So, today is Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for. A wonderful husband, a beautiful child and a roof over my head. Also with so many people out of work we are blessed with a job this year.

We prepared a meal for just the 3 of us this year and it wasn't bad at all. I hope this year to come will afford us to be as blessed as we have been so far. Happy Thanksgiving.

Now looking forward to Christmas.!!!!!!!!!!!!

TRANS-SIBERIAN FUN

So yesterday my sister and I took Kolbie and my niece to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was an awesome show. The lighting was spectacular and the music was great. I guess my absolute favorite part was when the electric guitar and the fiddle battled and the drum solo. Kolbie has told me that he wants a set of drums and this absolutely made it worse. He was amazed by the whole show. He loved the fire and the lasers and and the fireworks at the end. This was his first concert. He has never been to one before. He also enjoyed the fact that we were all the way at the top of the place. Freaked me out but he loved it. It did help with the smoke though. We didn't get chocked out by that.

We had a great time. I want to take Bruce next year. He would have enjoyed it. I highly recommend this show if you can go.

GOOD BYE MADDIE

Well our youngest dog went on to be with Jesus this morning. It was sad but I am glad that it is over. She has been sick for about a week. I hated to watch her dying. Kolbie did great. He was so understanding about the whole situation. Funny how kids adapt.

"DIY"

Well this past week we decided that we would have our toliet worked on because it had been leaking and while we were at it we would take up the flooring that was there and replace it. EASY right???? Not so. When we pulled up the flooring it was absolutely rotted under the toliet area and a good peace away from the toliet. Our easy fix was turning into a bathroom renovation. We decided we would go ahead and put in a new toliet, sink, and vanity. So far we have put in a new floor (SUBFLOOR INCLUDED) and replaced some of the drywall. This is a picture of the floor that we have gotten in. More pics to come when we finish the project. So much for a weekend of relaxing. We are definetely not WEEKEND WARRIORS.

MY LITTLE BOOKWORM

God did not bless me with a purely athletic child. I think that he knew that I could only take so much with an athletic husband so instead he gave me Kolbie the Bookworm. We recently had Parent Teacher Conferences at school and he got a really good report. They base their reading level on a Dominie Scale, (not sure is that is spelled right), and he is a 10A. This means he is a second grader reading at a 3rd to 4th grade level. His math skills were also above average. As you can see from the picture he loves to read and his nose is often in a book. He is currently into the Spiderwick Chronicles. Football, Baseball, or even Soccer, I don't think so. Occasionally he likes to do a cycling event but most of the time he curls up with a good book.

A LITTLE SOMETHING FROM "DAVE"

So I frequently go on www.daveramsey.com for a little inspiration with our debt freedom plan and this is what was on his site today. I found it very intriging.

The 10 Cannots
By William J. H. Boetcker(wrongfully attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

*You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
*You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
*You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
*You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
*You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
*You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
*You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
*You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
*You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
*You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

Very inciteful!!!!

"I VOTED"

So I got up early this morning to be at the polls at 7:00. Got there shortly after and it was already lined up out in the parking lot. I thought oh well I should go ahead. It won't get any better. It took about 1 hour and 30 minutes but "I VOTED".

CHANGING OUR FAMILY TREE!!!!!!!

So this year during racing season Bruce and I decided that we wanted to get completely out of debt and owe no one. We discussed our options and decided that we would race a little less next year and really focus on paying off everything we owe so that we could focus on racing a little more later.

We decided that we would start this once racing season was over this year, so that is exactly what we did. Racing season ended for us on October 12th this year and we decided we would get on with the plan from there. I am excited to say that we paid off the most annoying bill we have had so far this past Friday. A Halloween present to ourselves. If we stick to our plan and no major events happen we should have our house (the last debt) paid off in 4 years. That is only 8 years into our loan. Something to look forward to. After that we are taking a trip. Maybe DisneyWorld or the Tour de France.

So why did I call this CHANGING OUR FAMILY TREE. Because I don't want Kolbie to ever be burdened by the mistakes his parents made. I want him to know that you can have what you want without paying for it for 5 years and that you can do whatever you want without hoping it pays enough to pay everyone else. True happiness comes from living life to the fullest and not from material possession that you can't take with you anyway. Happiness is doing what you love and not what you have to. That is called a JOB. If changing my family tree works as I know that it will then my JOB will soon be less burdensome and maybe a little fulfilling.

TRICK OR TREAT

So yesterday was Halloween and we decided we would do our yearly go to the mall tradition. This works out great because Bruce and I get to shop a little while we let Kolbie fill his basket with cavity creating sweets. Thank goodness he is not a big candy fanatic. Anyway as I said in my previous post, yesterday was my sisters birthday and some of her friends were throwing her a birthday party so she asked me if my nephew ( her middle child, she has 3) could stay with us, so of course we thought it would be great for Kolbie to have a friend to trick or treat with. They had a blast. I am not sure what Kolbie was but he had a green skull face and Lane was Ironman. There were some creepy gouls and goblins out. In Gaffney some of them weren't even wearing a costume and would scare the pants off you. Kolbie wasn't too scared since he had a friend and most of the ghouls and goblins were the same size as him.

We didn't stay long. They were ready to come home about 30 minutes in and that is exactly what we did. They hit the couch and crashed. Both probably had a big day at school since they had parties and all. They were both up early this morning. 6:24 to be exact. WHAT!!!!. As I am posting this they are running a muck through my house screaming and laughing. It is okay though, Kolbie is having a blast and that is all that matters.