Team Mitchell & Crew

And the house was quiet. Dark. Lonely. It was totally empty and aside from a really barking dog, no sound of any kind was coming from it. My husband is gone and you can tell it the moment you pull up to the house.

He is in Maryland at the moment. Nothing exciting - well nothing that is unless you consider he is getting several hundred $$ for being there. So in that case, I'd say it's pretty exciting, all be it lonely here alone without him.

He has skills. Mad skills. And because of all of those skills, he is able to do many things...therefore having a variety of jobs. I laugh and tell people that I married a Renaissance man. When I laugh, it really is just to see if people believe me, because, yes I married a Renaissance man. He can cook, clean, build, design, figure, conquer and complete just about anything you set in front of him. Because he is so well rounded, tonight's endeavor is a testament to his "up for anything" personality. Tonight - he is the "wide load" guy.

That's not our truck, but you get the point.

Seriously. Of the dozen or so jobs the man has over the course of a year, this is one of the infrequent ones, but he follows trucks. 18 wheeler types. Across state lines. For money. He drives and talks on cb's and drives some more. Did I mention he gets paid. To drive. And to talk.

He's good at it too. He practices a lot when we are in town and whenever he runs errands for me. Drives and talks. But he usually doesn't cross state lines and I never pay him for driving / talking.

But today he is bringing home several hundreds for his 14 hr day. Not too bad. To that I say, may our house be quiet and our pockets be full. Come on home good buddy! 10-4....over and out. $$$$$$

Remember the very addicting, very obnoxious- albeit it very funny "Free Credit Report" kid with the bouncing head and the cool pirate suit on TV? He pulled me in today. We talked. I took the plunge. With him and the encouragement of my hero in the making, Dave Ramsey, I got a hold of my own credit report.

http://www.freecreditreport.com/ (sing as you will..)

I am pleased to announce that I am of little risk to the future creditors that may want to lend me money (they are knowing at the doors, we know!) I am higher than what is considered "good" but with what I am about to tell you, you will see why I am not considered "great."

First, the good parts. I have no car payment. I even have 2 cars in my name + plus the truck in Scott's. Dave would totally tell me to sell one of the cars to pay off remaining debt, but ahem....Dave, 2 kids cannot fit in a Mustang, only in the Mountaineer and I have no plans of ever selling that Mustang! Regardless of the brood of children I bring into the world. Selfish, immature, shameful. Yeah, all that. It's a stick shift and it's red and fast and makes me feel like I am not 32. (Nay-saying friends and family members...you get no comment for this part!) So, point one for me.

Next, since April, I have cut my debt in half and am almost to the end of Dave's baby step #1. To get $1,000 emergency fund. Now, I would totally be there already, but apparently you pay for babies now BEFORE they are born (versus the $300 check I wrote the last day at Central Baptist in 2003), which keeps me from bouncing across town for two months. So I sent Central Baptist $400 out of the emergency fund to pay for Tator Tot outright. No complaints by any means. My insurance is pretty good and for heaven's sakes, we're blessed with another Mitchell addition. No complaints at all. Just now my emergency fund needs a bit more fundage.

I also have all of my debt consolidated into 3 chunks. Our house (not part of the slashed by 1/2 figure), my bad habits credit card that is dwindling, and the "oh my graciousness, the washer and dryer did NOT die at the same time AGAIN" card from Sears that I used in January for said appliances. Again, pretty good.

Another good, I take almost 15% of my check and put it into a separate retirement account through AIG. I started this at 22 when dear sweet Kim L. at school introduced me to Randy the Retirement guy. I had no children, no house, no husband. I loaded it up. Luckily each month, I don't miss it, because I've never seen it. 10 years of that has done really well for me.

So the bad......

According to the report, I had 13 credit cards from college the year we bought our house. In 2000, I spent my summer canceling cards to be able to get the mortgage we deserved. How can grown adults prey on young naive students on campuses and spring break events the way they do with t-shirts and cups and junk?? Look at the mess. I swore I'd never do it again!

Here's the funny part...

I have 13 NEW credit cards since 2000. I am NOT even a college co-ed anymore. I know better! Not one of them has a balance on them. Granted some did...but they have long been paid off. Apparently, now I am a sucker for the save 15% today if you open a ____ credit card. OK! I think 15% of ? is better than 0% of ?, right? Gosh! When I really thought about it, I even remember signing up for two during football season because A. I needed a long sleeve shirt for that night game and $28 is insane at Commonwealth stadium (PS: I totally love that shirt!) and B. that UK blanket looks warm! I mean it was November!!!! So - they got me that way too!

So I now begin the quest of "call and cancel" to the delightfully polite card service members at the debt institutions. At least I can do that while sitting outside in the sun.

Dear Dave, (and Carol Fosson)

I promise I am listening and trying hard. I have 32 years of silliness under my belt and that is a lot of fat to trim. Please be patient. I will get there someday. I'm now off to call the creditors.

Sincerely,
Painfully Getting the Picture

So here lately, money has been tight. I mean, life is going fine and all bills are paid for, but with the change in jobs (I mean from regular paychecks every two weeks to whenever the home owner thinks is a good time to give out money) it has changed the rhythm and routine Scott and I have gotten used to.

One thing we have really tried to do is to cut back on eating out. This one is good for all of us for a number of reasons aside from saving money. It has helped us keep homemade dinner time important. We are cutting back on processed foods. We are able to be at home to complete tasks and projects here and it's letting all of us try new recipes and foods and maybe loose a little weight along the way. So it's one way we are trying to help the team. Scott has even been eating lunches at home, which is completely foreign to him. All week long he has been eating the Vegetable Soup he made on Sunday. I am so proud of him for A. making and thus eating VEGETABLE soup and 2. coming home for lunch. So much better than the chili dogs at Wanda's Grocery that he loves!

Anyway, being limited on money now is no where near what it was like eight years ago when we got married. I remember planning our wedding and weighing so many options because we couldn't afford what we really wished we could get. Our wedding was amazing and gorgeous in every way. Not too bad for the budget we worked from...but the one regret I had was in regard to my pictures and the fact that we did not order an album. We ordered loose photos and they ended up just sending us the proofs (this was all before digital swept the nation.) So they jipped us and sent us our tiny little proofs that I them slipped into a little album from the engraving place.

Well last night......that all changed!!!

I discovered Shutterfly's Photobook section. I have now catapulted myself into the 21st digital century and made us a Wedding album. I scanned all of our photos (and they look amazing) and created a memory book for only $60! I am so pumped. (Good thing Scott is eating at home.....I'll use that money for my new book! HA! No....really, I'm asking for it for my birthday, silly!)

I'll post some links and wedding pics (ignore my chubby arms, that was 70 lbs. ago) in just a little bit!