I did it again!

I can't believe it! I was really going to try to keep up with this blog thing and here I have gone and let a month go by already, how did that happen? I think you gals that do this on a regular basis are WonderWomen! You inspire me!

Ok, so, I have tons to share...

WE ARE MOVING!

We are not leaving Hermiston, in fact we don't know for sure where we are going!
Here's the deal...We are selling our house!

We moved into this wonderful, "big" house in an AWESOME neighborhood one year ago, 1. because we loved it and 2. because I was operating the daycare out of our home and I wanted to have a NICE, BIG, LOVELY home for people to feel comfortable in...another reason we chose the neighborhood...people could feel safe coming here (not that they couldn't feel safe in other areas around Hermiston, it just happened that this neighborhood is where we found this house...)

Well, this summer we have been taking a financial class at the church, it's the Dave Ramsey series...anyway, we think it is great information! But it really got us thinking about A LOT of things! and here is where we stood...
1. MONEY is tight living in this house!
2. We haven't been saving like we should be or want to be and it's not because we've been spending it on other things, the money just hasn't been here this past year!
3. If we don't save, we won't be able to save for our children's college funds or our retirement (which is very important!)
4. We don't NEED this NICE, BIG, LOVELY home in a wonderful neighborhood. We don't DESERVE it, we've barely gotten started with our lives/careers...why should we DESERVE anything...
5. Our girls, at the age they are right now, will never know the difference between and NICE, BIG, LOVELY home and a more run down, smaller home. All they need and want is mom and dad and security!
6. We don't have the daycare out of our house anymore, so no NEED for all the EXTRA room...

So, with all of that said...a house is built of sticks no matter where we live and for right now we are choosing to live in a pile of sticks that costs a little less so that we can save for our future!

It hasn't exactly been an easy decision to make, but ever since we took the plunge it has felt so good and so peaceful! You know there was some pride that had to be shaken up to get to the final decision...who WANTS to admit that the house they bought just a year ago is just too expensive? But, when you can't afford to invest in your future and your children's future, you have to make cuts...and our house is our cut!

We are praying that the house will sell quickly so we can move into something much smaller, with a much smaller mortgage and start on our debt-free plan...We are stoked!

Yeah, Dave Ramsey! His series is great! I don't feel like Dave "forced" us to sell our house (and I hope none of you think that I was implying that...), In fact I feel like Cory and I have really taken the course to extremes (but, we are kinda extreme...), but if you are interested in ideas about investing, paying off debt and living debt free you really should check out his series, Financial Peace University.

OK, I was going to post pictures and tell you other things about our summer, but this has already turned into a very long post, so....I'll post pictures later...
Anyway, I hope you are all doing well. I enjoyed reading a lot of your blogs tonight and catching up on what you all have been doing! God's Blessings on all of you!