The 7 Baby Steps

One of Drew's favorite things to do is to listen to AM radio, and one of his favorite shows is the Dave Ramsey show. For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Ramsey, he educates listeners on how to manage their money, or lack their of, and shares his get out of debt tricks. Today, Drew was listening to him while driving home from Costco and heard the 7 Baby Step tips on how to get our of debt, and came home to share them with me. Here are the 7 steps that Ramsey suggests:

1) Take $1,000 to start an emergency fund- for all the things that come up where you'll need instant cash to pay off (loss of a job, medical issues, faulty car transmission).

2) Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball- listing your debt from smallest to greatest (excluding your house) and paying off the smallest first. then, put that money towards the next smallest until it is paid off, et. etc.

3) Turn your emergency fund into 3-6 months of expenses- never hurts to have a few months of money set aside to help out in case of job loss or something else large.

4) Invest 15% of household income into ROTH IRAs and pre-tax retirement- enough said

5) College funding for children- with having your debts paid off and a decent size emergency fund, saving for your childrens' college experience will be easy(ier).

6) Pay off your home early- they say that if you can make one extra mortgage payment a year, you can take 15 years worth of interest off your total.

7) Builkd wealth and give- investing in property or stocks and blessing others with your excess (which at this point will be HUGE).

So Drew started doing the math the instant he got home, and has since figured out how long it will take us to save the $1,000, pay off our car, increase the emergency fund, increase our retirement, and pay off our mortgage. At first it sounded crazy, but as soon as he started showing me the numbers, I realized how "easy" it will be to actually accomplish this list. I'm super excited and am so proud of my honey for figuring this out. He's always looking out for us- he's so good to me!!!

Want to know more on the 7 Baby Steps? Visit www.daveramsey.com And stay tuned, maybe we'll be sharing our excess before you know it :)

16 Days to Go....

This week has certainly had its ups and downs as we find ourselves ever nearer to our wee one's expected arrival date. Up until now, I had been joking that as long as the carseat had arrived, I didn't care when the baby did. Well, the carseat HAS arrived and on Tuesday night I had to remind myself to exhale, nervous with anticipation that he really COULD (and might) come anytime.

Last night, Thursday, Drew and I installed the carseat before I head off today to my 37/38 week appointment. Last week the doctor told me that I was 2cm dialated and 50% effaced. Now, I do realize that I could sit at those numbers for the next three weeks, but the doctor was optimistic that I might progress more quickly. So, with the carseat base in place, Drew asked me to go into the house and grab the actual carseat so we could make sure it all "clicked" into place. From the time I walked into the house and back out again, I could actually feel our little man "drop" inside me... "Lightening" I think they call it... It was so strange. I almost felt paralized with excitement, fear, anxiousness, fear, elation, fear...It was crazy. When I changed my clothes before bed, I could actually see a physical difference when looking at my stomach in the mirror. The shape had changed and my belly button was in a whole new place (Drew thought that was funny).

Within the next few hours, I felt a huge surge of energy. We made cookies, I did a load of laundry, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, cleared the table and kitchen table and took out the trash. I don't know if this was actual "Nesting" or me just feeling like I could actually get somthing accomplished. But I also woke up at 3pm feeling compelled to wash baby clothes and write thank you notes. I convinced myself to stay in bed and enjoyed getting a good night's sleep.

I'm just glad I have an appointment today so that I can get some real news about what I felt last night. Will certainly post any new developments as I learn them....

Happy Friday to All!!!!

Maternity Pictures

Two weekends ago I met up with a local photographer to get some maternity shots taken. We had a great time around town and in her personal studio and we got some amazing pictures. While i'm not sharing all of them, I thought a select few would be ok. Perhaps I'llpost a few more in the next few weeks, but I hope you enjoy...

Photographer Becky (Boyer) Gaviola can be reached via her Blog at www.sebssmile.blogspot.com

The Nursery is Done!!!

Finally, after months of gathering and sorting, buying and returning, washing and folding, our nursery is ready to go. We're only missing one little piece :)

The only good part...

Drew and I started our Saturday taking a tour of St. Lukes' Labor & Delivery floor and Mother and Baby care floor. It was a lot of good information- glad we did it.

Then we decided to head towards Babies R' Us so that we could order the rocking chair we've selected for our nursery- the last remaining piece we need. Let me just tell you, that finally getting to park in the Stork Stall was THE ONLY GOOD PART ABOUT OUR VISIT!!

We went back to order the chair but wanted a different color than the floor model. The woman started typing everything into the computer, after we waited for someone to get to the computer. At one point Drew asked if she needed us to give her the color code of the chair we wanted and she said, "Oh, I just ordered you the brown chair. I didn't know you wanted a different color- that will take 8-12 weeks for delivery." Well perhaps you would have asked what color we wanted? Didn't that box need to be checked- and we don't even 8012 weeks. So the brown chair it is!

Then she signs us up for the Babies R' Us credit card stating it will save is $40 and that we can pay it off on-line when we get home. So we take the 'temporary card' to the cashiers desk along with our order form to pay and of course we get THE MOST incompetent woman waiting on us. She keeps asking if 'we're picking the chair up' or 'are you wanting to pay the 20% or the whole thing' and is halfway mumbling to herself the entire time. She had NO IDEA how to ring up our sale so I finalyy 'encouraged' her to get some help. She walked over to another clerk who also had no idea what to do, so onto a THIRD person she went. This person began to fix our problem, but the first dumbass hit a button in the middle of it all and didn't get our credit info.

WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?!? Luckily, the woman who started all of this (the one who ordered the wrong color) saved the day. She came and took over he sale, got our coupon, our loyalty card info, our credit card info and hit total all in the right order- who would have known it would take FOUR people to get us out of there.

It was the worst experience I've had there (out of an astonishing three other trips) and I'm not sure how excited I am to go back. I realize they're suppose to be the baby experts, but on a busy Saturday, you'd think they would have plenty of experienced and well- trained staff members. Good thing we were registered at Target- hopefully things will go smoothly in that store!!

Week 33

With less than 50 days to go, we find ourselves gearing up for some busy weeks ahead. We are scheduled to start our birthing classes this week, in the next 7 weeks I have 5 doctors appointments, a shower in Twin Falls in February, maternity pictures in February, a few loads of baby laundry and we're still in search for the perfect rocking chair... With all that going on, I figured I better get a current baby bump picture up before I run out of time :)

Boise Baby Shower

Today I had a baby shower in Boise. It was so wonderful having so many of my girlfriends together in one place for the afternoon. We did an art project of painting burp cloths, enjoyed fantastically yummy munchies, super sugary punch, a candy buffet and some really cute take home party favors. Thanks to Ardele and Kresta and everyone else for the hard work I know and could see that went into this afternoon. I had such a wonderful time that I had to come home and take a nap..... Just a few pictures to show off our little man's haul of goodies :)

A Mary Kroll blanket exclusive

The perfect colors!!

So many pockets for so many goodies to fit into

Part of our Candy Buffet

The party favors