Our little thrillseeker

Our small town's summer festival is called Fun Fest. I know...so original, right? And to be honest, it's not all that fun. Especially when you don't know very many people there because you haven't lived here all your life. This year was admittedly pretty fun because we have a little boy in tow to show us the world from a whole new perspective.

We met up with friends Justin, Jen, and 6 year old Olivia (or maybe she's 7) on Saturday. We had some good food, including cheese curds of course. And, even more fun than cheese curds, we took Colin on rides. And by "we" I mean I took Colin on rides. Kevin took the pictures to prove it. Colin was barely tall enough to ride them at all. And by "barely tall" enough, I mean he was 1 inch shorter than the required 32 inch height. Like the carnies are going to get out their yard sticks, right?

First we rode the train:
Then we rode in a cool car.
I put on a pretty good show, because this ride made me want to toss my cheese curds. I had to put my head down and just look at the floor of the car for the last half of the ride.
And when it stopped, a dude outside who was watching his kids go around in circles saw that I was feeling a little green and shouted, "One more time!" haha...very funny.

Then we rode on the rollercoaster. Before we got on it, Colin saw this one and got soooo excited about it. So we rode it. He seemed to really like it. And after we got off, he'd look at it and get excited again. Click on the picture to get a good look at his smiling little face!

After all that excitement, we sat around and recovered. Colin tried out Justin's sunglasses.
Kevin and I shared a piece of chocolate-dipped cheesecake on a stick.


It was scrumptious, as always, and I can't wait to get another piece next year!
As much fun as I had riding with Colin, I am so glad I don't have to go on that car ride ever again.

There's happiness in the word "please"

We've been teaching Colin to say "please" a lot; pretty much after he asks for anything. So now, he says the following phrases:

uh ee* = up please, when he wants to be picked up
dah! = stuck, which is usually followed by...
ah ee* = help please
*sometimes he says "ees"

My most favorite one he says is "help please," and he's been using it a lot. The other day, his pacifier fell behind his Rubbermaid "toy box" we keep in the living room. So he said, "ah ah" which is uh oh, and then I said, "help please?" and he repeated, "ah ee." I moved the box out a little bit, but he still couldn't reach it, so, without a prompt, he looked at me and said, "ah ee" again. Today, he wanted me to turn on his truck so it would move. He gave it to me and said "ah ee."

It's kind of annoying when he wakes up in the middle of the night searching for his pacifier, but how can I not melt when I hear his scratchy, tired, little voice saying "nah nah?" with a little lilt, as if he's calling it to come to him. So I (or Kevin) feel around in the dark of his crib for it, put it back in his mouth, and he lies down again.

Other new words he's saying:
bubbles (I can't even think how he says it)
sti= stick
tee = teeth. We make an attempt to brush them after bath time, so he often says it then.
hah = hot. ANY food we give him is now "hot." Even if it's a piece of bread or yogurt. He says, "hah" and then waves his hand over it and blows. The stove is hot. The granite bench is hot. The driveway is hot. This one makes me smile a lot too.

I love hearing his vocabulary grow every day. And I really love hearing kind words like please. It's a word we don't hear often enough from children today.

There's one more angel in Heaven

There's one more star in the sky... (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat anyone?)

Kevin's grandma, M, passed away peacefully yesterday morning. I suppose there are no fireworks in Heaven, so hopefully she saw the ones Kevin launched last night.
(Picture courtesy of Betsy Cole Photography)

What a lucky gal to be up there with friends and family watching over us.

Thanks for any thoughts or prayers you sent. They are much appreciated.

And yes, I know that when we die we don't become angels or stars :)

New camera, new pictures!

Most of my summer school paychecks are going towards the down payment for a vehicle in October because that's when our lease runs out. But, since I got paid today, and since The Jerk still hasn't returned my camera, I bought a new one today. I couldn't be happier.

I got a Canon Powershot SD1300.
It is, literally, a point and shoot. It sets itself to portrait or landscape or macro or whatever it deems appropriate.

It has digital zoom up to 16x. I'm usually not too thrilled about digital zoom because the pictures are usually grainy. But look at this.


This is a dumb picture, but I love how the sippy cup is in focus and Colin's car is blurry in the background. You can also see some texture on the sippy spout because Colin bangs the sippy cup on the driveway.

A close-up of my lettuce.
I planted it in the planter just outside our door. This is VERY convenient when you get the urge to have a salad. A little snip, snip, wash, wash and you've got your very own homegrown salad. I could get used to that!

Someone likes to climb on top of the heat register to look out the window.

Working on his laptop.

Good, right? This totally satisfies me until I get that DSLR I want.

Thoughts and prayers request

Kevin's grandma, M, doesn't have much time left. She had a brain tumor removed this winter, and her health has declined ever since. She's living in assisted living right now, and is only expected to live a few more days.

Please keep her and her husband and Kevin's family in your thoughts and prayers.

In the words of Stephanie Tanner,

"How rude!" <--click it!

Remember the days when somebody found something and returned it? Those were nice, weren't they? ::looks to ceiling out of the upper left corner of my eyes and sees a big thought bubble above my head with a smiley face in it::

Those days are long gone. Someone stole my camera. I've sort of been in denial about it because I'm mad at myself and I'm mad at the jerk who took it.

Once upon a time two weeks ago, we were at A & A's (Kevin's bro and new bride) wedding reception. It got to be pretty "late" by our new "parent" standards. You know...8:00. Way past Colin's bedtime. He was a crank. It was time to bust out of there. ASAP. Before all heck broke loose. So we quickly gathered his stuff together and went home. Correction. Kevin dropped Colin and I off at home while Kevin went back to the reception (it was 5 min away from our house) to hang out with family and friends. Fine and dandy. I bathed the boy and put him to sleep and settled in to fix one of my summer school girl's knitting project. What? Fine. Call me grandma. I make beautiful blankets, so there.

You know how when you're in the middle of doing something, and all of a sudden you realize that, OMG! I should be at the dentist right now! or...Shizz! I forgot to put deodorant on! Well, in the midst of tinking (knitting backwards dontcha know), I realized, OMG! I forgot Colin's cooler at the reception! It's this really nifty cooler we used to transport milk. I had forgotten it on the floor under my table. Can't live without it. So I called Kevin's cell. No answer. I left a voicemail. ::sigh:: Surely he'd listen to his voicemail before he leaves and he'd grab it. He arrived at home. 11:00 pm. No cooler. Crap. Long story short, we got the cooler back because A & A packed it up with all of the other stuff from the reception. Whew!

But did I think, "OMG! My camera!" Nopes. I may have thought, "huh...did I grab my camera? Of COURSE I did! It's in the diaper bag. Silly." Because who would leave a camera out on a table and leave in such a haste that they'd totally forget it?!? ::looks around, points to self:: Me. Idiot. And of course it's gone. It's a snazzy little thing, my Canon Powershot. Too bad the mean Stealerpants doesn't have a charger or a USB cable ::insert mean cackle here::. Although you could probably find those for under $20 ::pout::.

But even after I kinda had a hunch I left it there, I didn't believe it. I looked everywhere. I called the reception place. K called A & A. Then I stopped looking because you know how it is. Lost things show up when you stop looking for them. Still waiting.

I thought about taking this chance and upgrading to a DSLR (Canon Rebel EOS XS, in case you're curious). But, because of "the situation" (see previous post), I'm just going to replace it with...drumroll please!...the same camera. It works just fine. It takes video (DSLRs don't, unless you spend megabucks). It's reasonably priced. And then when I'm really ready to take the plunge, I'll get the Rebel and keep the Powershot for on-the-go purposes.

Some people really are jerks, you know. There were pictures of Kev, Colin, and me on the camera. Stealerpants could've easily turned it on, looked at the pictures, found Kevin in the pictures wearing a tux, standing outside the reception site, and known that Kevin was A's brother, or if (s)he didn't, that at least (s)he knew he was in the wedding, and given it to A. Seriously, Jerkface. How rude!

Lord help me, we will raise Colin to do the right thing.

Confession (update pt. 5)

I'm not saying this to put all our cards out on the table and reveal too much to our readers. I'm not saying this to receive handouts. I'm not saying this for pity. I'm not saying this so you can judge us.

I'm saying this so we can be accountable. I'm saying this so that we can be proud of a HUGE accomplishment when everything is all said and done. I'm saying this so we might inspire another family to do the same. I'm saying this because it's on our minds daily and when it's over, we'll feel so at peace.

We're in $35,000+ debt. Credit cards only. Not including student loans or mortgage. You might ask us...WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING? Believe me, we were thinking the best we could. But when...

You graduate from college in August 2004, and apply for jobs you don't even get an interview for, and instead you sub. And you sub some more. And you work at the YMCA. And you teach piano lessons. But you don't get health insurance, so you pay for your own. And then you DO get a full time teaching job in 2007. And you teach summer school. And piano lessons. And you cancel your gym membership. And you have a baby. And daycare costs $720/month. It adds up. And it adds up quickly.

Sure, we had some fun with those credit cards. We went to Jamaica. But I wouldn't trade that for anything. It was something we'd never done. And we wanted to do it before we had kids. And who knows when the next "just us" vacation will be. That vacation was invaluable to us. Sure, next time we hope we'll have a vacation fund of some sort to actually pay for a vacation instead of racking up our credit card bill. We didn't spent outrageously. Look in my closet if you don't believe me. I HATE about 80% of the clothes that are in it. Either they don't fit or they are old.

We tried the Dave Ramsay snowball, and we were doing so well. But then Colin came along and daycare expenses put our momentum at an absolute halt. Hamsters on a wheel--that's how we felt with our credit cards.

Now that you *maybe* understand, you ask, "NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?" Because, obviously, something needs to be done.

And to that I say, "Not what are we going to do, but what did we do?

Through work, we have an Employee Assistance Program through Family Means in Stillwater, MN. We saw a credit counselor there who helped us "balance our budget." He gave us some tips. And he set us up with the Debt Management Program (DMP). It isn't a debt settlement program (which I understand can be a bit sketchy). What happens is that our credit cards get closed. And we're okay with this because we really don't use our cards very much anymore anyway. Our interest rates get lowered to INSANE APRs. What was once a 20% APR is now a 7% APR. So that right there cuts down A LOT of our debt. And now instead of sending money to our creditors, we send it to Family Means and our counselor disperses it to them using Dave Ramsay's snowball. All clients get put on a five year plan to pay their debts off. Ours is more like 53 months (4.5 years) because our debt isn't TOO high. But then we're always going to pay a few $100 more a month to get it down faster. Our credit scores may go down, but only by 10-40 points (more on the 10ish side for us because, again, our numbers aren't THAT high). And then they'll go back up again.

We are SO excited for this. We left our appointment feeling less burdened already. Kevin told me I should have convinced him earlier. I told him he should just listen to me the first time :) We're set to start in July.

I plan on letting you know when good things happen with this. I want to share this accomplishment with you. Maybe if you're in the same situation, it will help or inspire you.