So it's Inauguration Day today. Our new president, Barack Obama, is being sworn in as I write this. A historic day that my grandkids (and great grandkids) will be talking about for years, I'm sure. It's amazing to see so many people in Washington DC. It makes me wonder how in the world they can close off so many streets, deal with millions of people and still feel that security is tight. Incredible traditions they have to Inauguration Day from centuries ago. I find it hard to fathom.
I voted Republican, but I'll still watch everything on TV while at home for lunch and tonight. (Todd says he won't watch, so I'll be by myself.) I hope the new President can do good things with the country like he said he will. Time will tell and I hope there will not be a lot of disappointed people in a year or so. It will be fun to see their girls grow up in the White House, what kind of puppy they finally decide to get (Todd's parents have a Labradoodle) and how they can be kept out of the public eye as much as possible. I can't imagine growing up like that. Far from my childhood growing up on a small acerage in Nebraska.
Todd and I are lucky in two respects -1) the economy in Austin has not been affected nearly as much as other areas of the country and 2) we are two weeks away from being DEBT-FREE (except the house), so we don't rely on anyone besides ourselves financially. We will be working on building our Fully-Funded Emergency Fund that will sustain us in case anything does happen to one of us or our jobs. (Thanks to Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover - you can get more information at http://www.daveramsey.com/ )The journey paying off over $27k in debt has taught me quite a bit - like that I don't really NEED everything I thought I did; that when you and your spouse are on the same page financially speaking, it can really strengthen a marriage and makes things A LOT easier; it's fun to see the progress and to get excited that it's almost done and that I'm glad we did it. We were debt-free one other time in our marriage, and I don't really remember making a conscience decision to go back into debt, but it just happened. Of course, we had kids at home then so bills were a lot more (groceries and car insurance, which is now 1/3 of what it was when they were are home). We've been extremely lucky that we have generous relatives who give great Christmas gifts that really helped us along the way.
So other things in life - I've changed my daily routine. I'm now getting up early and going to the gym before work. I still get home in time to spend a few minutes with Todd before he leaves for work, and we now have all evening together. Much better than going after work - then we'd eat supper late and the evening would go so fast. Now I have LOTS of energy all day. I have a pedometer on my cell phone, so it's always clipped to my pants pocket and I make sure I walk at least 10,000 steps a day. Pretty easy on days like today when I had over 6,000 after my workout this morning. I've also been taking 10 to 15 minutes each afternoon and walking around the building where I work if I'm low on steps. It gets me out from behind my desk and I get fresh air for a while.
We've contacted our church to see about possibly have Dave Ramey's Financial Peace University there. It's a 13-week class (2 hrs each) that helps people follow his plan to become debt-free. We've never been to one, but have heard lots of good things about it. We've volunteered to be the coordinators, so if it comes through, we'll be busy with that.
I haven't put my quilt in yet. I haven't even sewn much lately. I've found I go in spurts. Just don't have any neat ideas right now, hopefully something will pop in my head soon. It's nice to see something at the end of the evening instead of watching TV all evening and have nothing to show for the time spent.
We spent a little time on Saturday night with Sam, Jason and Tyler playing with the Wii. That was fun. Tyler is really funny to watch play the games. Tab, Alyssa and Angel came over to our house for a little while on Sunday afternoon. It was good to see them. They were supposed to come over the weekend before, but ended up sick. It's hard to believe Alyssa will soon be 6! Angel is almost as tall as she is. They are all growing up so fast.
I have a new haircut. Instead of my hair all being one length, it's now layered. I'm still getting used to it. I can't put it up in one ponytail when I go to the gym now, but I'm dealing with it. Starting to hope it grows out quickly but also hoping I get used to it. I thought I was ready for something different, but sometimes change is not all you thought it was. lol
Sorry no pictures on this post again. Nothing much new that I have pictures of. I guess I need to download what I have on the camera at home and see if there's anything interesting.
Have a great day!
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