Birthdays Suck When You Get OLD

Another year older, another year wiser... I don't know about that part but I did feel pretty old this year. Brent came home at lunch to surprise me and take me to lunch on Thursday for my birthday, only he was too late. He was trying to surprise me but I was eating lunch with my sister. He was a little miffed but understood because he didn't tell me. We decided to go to Rao's for dessert and coffee. He brought me roses and a card and I wanted new cooking stuff so we headed out to Kitchen Koncepts (my favorite place besides Office Depot and Barnes & Noble) and I bought some stuff there. I got a Tracy Byrd cookbook, because he owns the store right, and they are going to have him autograph it for me for purchasing his cookbook. Haven't picked it up yet but for some crazy reason I was excited about that. My mom-in-law made the best cake for me and it was soo delicious. I love the icing more than I love the cake. It's Brent's favorite and he always has it on his birthday so this year I wanted one too. I think it's a buttermilk cake but the icing is like fudgey with pecans and is sooo guuud. Yummy. That was the highlight of my day. Anywho, he bought me a new huge dutch oven and I'm still trying to decide on stainless steel cookware but there are so many choices I cannot make up my mind. You know me, I have to over analyze everything and go through Consumer Reports and looks at deals online and compare prices and then, ONLY THEN, will my stomach not hurt when I make the decision. I emailed a cooking blog I visit to find out which cookware she uses (it looks really durable) so I'm waiting for an answer to my question on that also. I'll let you know when I decide, whenever that may be.

So what are your big weekend plans?? Ours, to get stuff done, business taken care of and out of the way. We have two bookshelves I bought on clearance at Office Depot to put together so I can sort through all of the boy's books and get yet more things ready for a garage sale this spring. I haven't had a garage sale since Liam was 2, he's now 12, so needless to say, we have a lot of CRAP that has accumulated in the last decade. Gosh, that sounds so ominous! I'm going to have to do all of my cleaning out when the boys are at school. Every time I try to do it on the weekends they put back just as much as I pull out to put in boxes. And then they never actually play with it again. I guess all of a sudden around here things will just start disappearing like when I was younger. "Hey momma, where's my Barbie?" "What Barbie?" That was usually the end of the conversation because then I was old enough to realize she was gone, gone forever. We're going to Lowe's today to get two new doors. I have two closets with hideous doors on them when you walk in the front door and I HATE them so this is it, the weekend to make changes. By Monday there will be two new closet doors if it kills me (well, actually "him" because he has to put them in).

Well Sunday night we are going to the preview for our Dave Ramsey class that begins at the end of the month at a local Baptist church. We are so excited!!! Some friends are taking it with us and these people we know actually completed the course and are now the instructors because they loved the program sooooo much. It is a Christian-based debt program that teaches you how to budget, pay off debt and then turn around and take that new found wealth and put it into you and your family's future, such as different investment options and real estate. Really interested in that aspect. Anywho, these friends paid off all their credit cards, loans, SUV, about $35,000 of debt (in two years) and are now working on paying off their house. I got inspired because I think we are in a better situation than most people who start attending because we have no credit card debt whatsoever. However, I have never had a b-b-b-BUDGET (yikes) so I'm definitely thinking this could be worth it. We want the car and house paid off within two-three years so we can build. In the Dave Ramsey 13 week course we'll learn about financing real estate, how to invest in real estate and how to make wiser decision regarding our retirement and 401K's and things like that. You also learn about "stupid tax" but I have no idea what that is. I think this is going to be a very beneficial learning experience for us. We've been married 18 years and this is the first time Brent's been interested in anything like this. We have made wise decisions with our money as far as our future but deciding to build vs. buying a new house is something we've really struggled with. So I guess it's now or never. I think we're psycho: One day we talk about this and the next we're looking at new suv's (which is a big no-no in Dave's book) so I guess we're up for the challenge. If you've gone through the program, I'd really like to hear from you. I really need the motivation to make this work.

I Think My ADD is Kickin' In Blog: Total Rambling...

OK, let's begin with the fact that I missed my Bobby on Letterman last night. I was so busy watching him on the Outlaws concert on CMT that I completely forgot about him being on Letterman and went to bed. My gosh was I pissed when I got up this morning and screamed because I friggin' forgot. I don't know why I just didn't set it to record the program, but I guess that's karma rearing her mean ass, as Earl would say! Well, on with that....

Hey, hey, you know what I hate: I hate people that just brag on their blogs. My life is so perfect, I'm so happy, I'm so skinny I need to eat more ... blah, blah, blah! Get a life. Nobody's perfect and I'm guessing you're just masking all those hidden emotions and the reason you blog is because you are such a BI-OTCH you have no freakin' friends! It's one thing to say something but to go on and on and on gets really old. If you had a real life, you'd have a really interesting blog. Anyway, on with that.....

Ian's Aunt Jacalyn and Aunt Christene will love this one: "When can we go to Mass? I've never been to Mass?" Huh, shake the head, what??? I told him "yes, you have been to Mass." To which he replied "nu-uh, that's church. I want to go to Mass!" Whatever.... would someone please explain it to him because he evidently does not believe me.

Brent was off yesterday for Columbus Day and the kids had school. Needless to say, we had a great day and it was fun just doing whatever we wanted. We were relaxed, energetic, content, happy and were actually looking forward to picking up the boys. You know, all those things you aren't when your kids are home and screaming! Reminds me of the old days "before kids." Ian got out at 1:30 for teacher conferences this week since the six weeks ended Friday. His teacher really said a lot of positive things, such as he is really sweet, thoughtful and very sociable. Well, yeah, he takes after his daddy in the "sociable" department. Liam did not have a lot of homework last night so the neighbor came down and played Halo 3 on xbox all evening until I finally said enough at 8:00pm. That's my little one's bedtime and we had not eaten yet! Gotta get back on our schedule so we can have our alone time after they're in bed. I relish spending time with Brent after the boys are in bed. We usually talk or watch TV or watch funny stuff on youtube or porn. No, not really. Yeah, really. Nah, anyway on with that...

We've been listening to Dave Ramsey a lot on xm and downloading his podcasts to try and teach us about what/how/when to start saving and investing. We were talking yesterday about how somebody is always working on some kind of self-improvement whether it be emotionally, financially, losing weight, marriage/family issues. etc. So we decided to start learning how to save money (other than his auto-deducts for retirement and college). We spend a lot on "mindless spending." Like $200 the other day at Circuit City on dvd's, a cd, Spiderman 3 game, a Halo 3 wireless game controller and a cheat book for Halo 3. I mean this is ridiculous. We DO NOT have any credit card bills, which is a blessing. When you see how much you basically just throw away on mindless spending, we want to start doing something more productive with our money. If we're ever going to build our house on this land, I guess we have to "live like no one else now, so we can live like no one else later." Yeah, I'm so proud of myself. That's a direct quote from Dave! As long as I can stay away from Target, I could save a bunch.

Trying out a new chicken enchilada recipe I found in a Southern Living magazine. Or maybe the Paula Deen's Mexican Chicken Casserole. I guess that's my ADD kickin' in! LOL They hate chicken but maybe I can mask it enough that they don't gripe about it too much. Have a lot going on this evening after school so I need to have all this ready before school gets out today. It's usually about 8pm before we're finished with soccer and Ian has CCD tonight. If you have any good recipes, email them to me so we can give them a try. What kind of self-improvement are you working on? I know, I know, everybody is "losing weight." Ciao!!!