Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover day 1

I've been talking about starting the Dave Ramsey TMM for about a year now. I have made futile attempts to borrow the book from other Moms. I wasn't really as motivated as I am today. Yesterday my DS's Meds were changed, and that added $121 to our monthly budget.

So, I signed up for the 7 day free trial, and have completed the baby steps up to savings. We need $700 to move onto the next step.

I plan to sell off my Early American glassware collection to obtain some of that $700, so we can move on.

I wish I had started this at the new year, like I had planned, because we could have had $1000 in savings, and in fact we DID, but have since spent it, and replenished it a few times. But, I can wish in one hand, and crap in the other and see which one gets filled first, right?

We have to learn to leave the savings alone! We don't pull it willy nilly, but we spend that way sometimes, which causes a need to pull savings for other needs.

What to do for my birthday...

My birthday is coming up in just a few days. I've received a card from my dear friend Angie, my Momma, and my Grandma. I'm not really sure what I want to do with myself on my birthday?!?

I thought about running through the streets yelling "It's my birthday, It's my birthday", but it seemed a little predictable for me.

Maybe I'll just have a cupcake. Chocolate please, with Cool Whip and sprinkles on top, because I prefer oil over cream =)

4/5/09 It's camping time!

We put our trailer on a lot in Jamilou Shady Acres campgrounds. Our site backs up to the Hoosier National forest. It's a beautiful view and the kids have acres and acres of tick filled woods to roam in! We took a hike in the woods, and enjoyed some time around the fire.

3/24/09 Nadine's school fitness program

The JGE Cheerleaders led the student bodies from all Perry Township schools. Each school did a routine. The Cheerleaders did a variety of aerobics. The kids did some really neat stuff, but Nadine's squad was not very visable from where we sat =(

3/21/09 Sleeping Beauty's ball

Krista and I took Gabby, Nadine and Jasmin to the Children's Museum to see Sleeping Beauty. We had dinner at the ball, and enjoyed a bit of the museum before the play. Nadine got to go on stage and teach the audiance how to curstey. She did a great job! I loved the play, and we all had a great time!

Giovanni Schiaparelli's Birthday

Today's Google Logo is representing the Birthday of Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (March 14, 1835 – July 4, 1910). schiaprelli was an Italian astronomer and science historian.

He was also a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino and the Regio Istituto Lombardo, and is particularly known for his studies of Mars.

Among Schiaparelli's contributions are his telescopic observations of Mars. In his initial observations, he named the "seas" and "continents" of Mars. During Italy's "Great Opposition" of 1877, he observed a dense network of linear structures on the surface of Mars which he called "canali" in Italian, meaning "channels" but mistranslated as "canals". While the latter term indicates an artificial construction, the former indicates the connotation that it can also be a natural configuration of the land. From this incorrect translation, various assumptions about life on Mars derived, as the "canals" of Mars soon became famous, giving rise to waves of hypotheses, speculation and folklore about the possibility of life on Mars.

In his book Life on Mars, Schiaparelli writes: "Rather than true channels in a form familiar to us, we must imagine depressions in the soil that are not very deep, extended in a straight direction for thousands of miles, over a width of 100, 200 kilometers and maybe more. I have already pointed out that, in the absence of rain on Mars, these channels are probably the main mechanism by which the water (and with it organic life) can spread on the dry surface of the planet

3/1/09 Spring time is near!

Spring is less than 3 weeks away! The kids helped me start some veggie seedlings today. We didn't have much going on this weekend so we decided to take advantage of the free time!

Andrew requested Rhubarb this year, and Nadine agreed so we picked up some seeds to plant whe the time comes. Nadine did 12 cherry tomato starts, Andrew did 12 eggplant starts, and Dane did 12 tomato plant starts while Aiden tooka nap!