Big News!

We have some great news, and we are super excited about it!  Last week, our final student loan payment went through!!  That's right, folks, we are now

DEBT FREE!!!

We are pretty excited about it.  It's been a rather interesting road to get our loans paid off, which is the only debt we've had.  We were able to pay off my graduate student loans while Daddy was still in school, thanks to a great tax return or two.  And finished my undergraduate loans last Christmas time.  That took quite a leap of faith, since Daddy didn't have a job at the time and we were living off our savings.  We sent the last $600 that month, thinking that it would be better to have it paid off than to have to keep paying a monthly payment.

And thanks to his great job right now, we were able to completely finish his loans last week.  Which means that we paid them off only 16 months after he graduated!

I don't have the figures in front of me, but I think we started out with about $24 thousand total - which really isn't too bad, considering we have 11 years of school, 2 bachelor's degrees, and one master's degree between the two of us.  

We followed the advice of the wonderful Dave Ramsey.  Thanks to him, we are sitting pretty on a budget that doesn't include any loan payments. 

WOOHOOOOOO!!!

Speaking of...

Tooty brought home a note from church on Sunday that said she is giving a talk next week in Primary!  We are trying to help her be excited about it and happy to do it, but in the back of my mind, I see myself giving the talk.  She has absolutely blossomed living here, but is still on-the-verge-of-crying-she's-so-shy about half the time.  So we'll see how it goes. 

We worked out the words today.  She was asked to speak on something related to the month's message of "The Gospel Will Be Spread Throughout All the World" or something really similar.  So I told her that means she can talk about missionaries. 

Here's the talk -

Missionaries share the scriptures.  They tell people about Jesus.  My Uncle Sam is a missionary and I pray for him.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

And we found a picture of some missionaries that we can hold up so people can see (or so she can hide).  Tonight after dinner we will head over to the church to practice in the primary room while the YW have mutual (since the church will be unlocked!). 

Good luck, Tooty!  I know you can do it!

We Are Alive

We are alive and well (except for James, who is currently in QuickCare with a tummyache).  But we all survived the move to SE Idaho, and are absolutely THRILLED to be living together again.  The girls have been doing so much better, especially Tooty, although she has decided that the best thing to do it to completely ignore my voice unless she needs something.  Which is not my favorite.  I have some pictures of some stuff we've been up to, but they are still on the camera. 

I wish that some things could just be decided for us.  We have had an amazing opportunity fall into our laps, but are currently living in a pretty great opportunity.  So how do we decide which one we should pursue?  Would you mind making up my mind for me and I will pass that along during the discussion later?  That'd be great.