Happy Birthday, Rease!

Happy Birthday to my favorite 1 year old girl!

We love you!

and We love you too, Riley.

Enjoy!

Hey bloggers!

Just wanted to tell you about something AWESOME I found this week. The 2010 Passion Conference CD Awakening debuted this week.

I had heard bits of some of the songs on it before so I downloaded it on Itunes Tuesday as soon as I could. I must tell you....It has not shut off since I purchased it!!!

Click here to listen!

Have a great day!

Dave Ramsey

So many of you know that Caleb and I are big advocates of Dave Ramsey's budgeting and financial plan. For those of you who don't know, he is a financial guru who bases his ideas on Biblical principals. He is big on NO DEBT! We seriously started our Dave Ramsey plan in July of last year; however, with the ridiculous amount of weddings (we love you Carr's, Baber's, Davis', Hohenberger's, Blyth's, VanDeman's, Beck's & Truesdell's) we had last year, most of our extra money went towards expenses for those & not to paying down debt. Now that wedding season (which apparently lasted from May 2009-December 2009) has passed, we have been able to put a significant amount of money towards paying off debt (when we started our debt was some furniture we purchased when we got married, a loan for my car, and my student loans). I am happy to say that as of Monday, February 8th the only debt we have left is my student loans. That means that since July when we started Dave Ramsey, we have paid off about $4500 in furniture & $10,000 on my car! I think that's quite a feet for two twenty-four year olds with a pretty limited income!

We have decided (now...we are going against Dave on this) to continue making more than the minimum payments on my loans but are going to put a lot of our extra money into savings for two reasons. The first, Cal's car is just about shot so we want to be able to buy him a reliable vehicle in CASH. Secondly, we would really really REALLY like to move out of this apartment when our lease is up into a house so we are saving for a down payment. As much as I would absolutely love for the loan payment to disappear, I think for the point we are at in our life we are doing pretty well.

As you can tell, I love me some Dave Ramsey :) But I want to share that the Lord has truly taught me that he is our ultimate provider through the last 6 months of this budget. There were some weeks when our envelopes were getting pretty empty and I was worried about if we had enough to fill-up our gas tanks until our next envelope "fill-up" or how I would feed my "hollow-legged" husband with the small cash that was left, but we always had food on the table (maybe not as much as Cal would like...after all he is about quantity not quality). I have seen myself depend on my Savior, clinging to his promises to provide for us, and seeking him through prayer more frequently in the last 6 months that the other 23 1/2 years of my life.

So I know many of you think we are absolutely crazy (sometimes I think we are too) and many days I am so ready to throw in the towel on this budget, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

Christmas Miracle

So...I have my own little Christmas miracle to share.


My genius big bro, Ryan, got ALL of my pictures back that Caleb deleted!!! Thanks, Ry!
Pics to come later :)

December

Hi everyone! I had a bunch of pictures to upload today such as my Thanksgiving turkey, my new haircut, Polar Express pictures from school....however, my husband (accidentally) deleted ALL OF THEM! Oh well, I guess we still love you Cal!
So instead of pictures, I will just have to tell you a little of what we've been up to this month.
First, I chopped my hair off! I was so tired of it so I decided to cut probably between 8 and 10 inches of it off recently. It a really cute 'do...the only down side is I pretty much have to straighten it for it to look good. It is not a cute style for curly hair. Straightening isn't so bad because I have been straightening it so much that it's not really curling anymore! I know...none of us knew that would ever happen!
In my last post, I told you that I was in charge of the turkey for the Bruner Thanksgiving. I must pat myself on the back here a bit, because it was pretty delicious! Thanks to mom for helping out! It was so good that I will be cooking another one this week for Christmas! Let's hope I can repeat that performance. Also, not only was it my first time cooking a turkey it was Cal's first time carving one (which he said wasn't too hard because with my awesome cooking skills it just "fell" right off the bone!) I've decided that cooking a turkey isn't too bad, I just wish I had a house big enough to house Thanksgiving. Transporting it is probably the most difficult part! Maybe next year....

I have been really busy with school lately. We had our "Polar Express Day" on Friday. It was a lot of fun & the best part was I got to wear PJ's to school all day! Then we watched the movie in the high school auditorium on the big screen...it was like being at the movies! The kids had a good time and it was well worth all of the preparation. Now I'm off for two weeks which I plan to spend getting healthy! We have both been sick with awful coughs so I am hoping that some time off will get us healthy soon.

So...like I said I don't really have any pictures to upload, but here is one of my new haircut I had on my phone. It's not the best picture of me...but you can see the new look! Merry Christmas, bloggers!

Lately

So...clearly I have been quite the blog slacker lately. We have been so busy lately with weddings, parties, showers, etc. that I cannot find the time to blog. We had our last wedding of the year last weekend. Our best friends Kathryn & Brandon got married. Caleb was a groomsmen & I was the MOH. It was a busy few months leading up to this wedding but it was so much fun to be a part of B & K's big day. Here are some pictures of the weekend...

These two pictures are actually from Kat's Halloween bachelorette party. She was an 80's bride & we were 80's bridesmaids!

In all the madness, I did not get a pic of me & Kat on the day of the wedding but here we are at the rehearsal!

Me & Caleb at the reception.
My toast.
Photo courtesy of Candice Haase (garden rose photography)

AND FINALLY...Mr. & Mrs. Brandon Beck :)

In other news, Caleb is working for Beau Mitchell Construction & joined the Carpenters Union. He's not too thrilled about this but we are grateful for a job. Tomorrow, I will be cooking the turkey for our Bruner Thanksgiving. I will let you know how this goes! Happy Turkey Day to everyone!

Kindergarten

So it's been awhile since I have posted, because I have been SO busy lately. About a week before school started, my principal told me that I would need to change to Kindergarten for the year. I was very proud of myself & took the news very well (probably because no matter what he told me I just had a feeling that I would have to change) until he told me that I would have to change classrooms. My old first grade room was completely finished and ready to start school. So on top of teaching Jumpstart everyday until school began I have to move classrooms and prepare to teach a new grade level. For those of you not in the education field that = a big deal.
So...now I am a K teacher at least for the time being. I didn't think that it would be as big of an adjustment as it has been. Those kids are LITTLE! I'm am amazed at the difference a year makes.
I had every intention of posting some pictures of my new classroom, but forgot my camera at school...but be prepared it has a pretty sweet little treehouse/hut. :)

In other news, Caleb is still working in Lafayette. They told him he could work at least through October. I am just really praying he finds something else because he hates this job. He is trying to be positive and enjoy it as much as possible; so he keeps telling himself "At least I have a job, at least I have a job."

So that's what is going on with the Bruners...sorry our life is not too exciting :)

P.S. Yesterday Caleb and I were at church and the kids were up front before he went down for kid's church and a man was talking to the kids about cereal (he later related it to making good choices). The man asked the kid about where you find different kinds of cereal & he was asking about the cereal on the very top shelf at the grocery (ya' know the healthy, grainy stuff) and this boy answers "Uh, organic!" and was absolutely disgusted. Apparently this boy is only fed organic cereal and does not enjoy it. Caleb & I were laughing hysterically. It just reminded me a little bit of my own childhood & that ridiculous peanut butter we used to eat. :)