Ramsey Rocks

Let me just tell ya what my sweet daughter suggested for a title of a post..."Things You Might Find in the Cat's Poop." While it can be very interesting when emptying the litter box, I'm afraid that only the Wrights can make an entire conversation out of that!!! bwahahaha

(btw, it was a rubber band she found the other day in case you wanted to know. Call if you want to discuss it further!!!)
Ahhhhhh.....Dave Ramsey. The bomb-diggity of financial gurus - and a Godly man, at that! When we found out he was doing a series of messages for LC, Josh and I got so excited. We listen to him several nights a week on our way home from his soccer practice. (I'm hoping some of this $$ stuff sticks with my 12-year-old!)

Today was the last day of the 3 messages and it has just been a blessing for us. But, I have to give my secret confession of why I enjoy him so much. It's a pitiful reason, really, but here goes:

BECAUSE WE ALREADY DO WHAT HE TEACHES!!!!!

So, I just nod my head and think things like "Preach it, brother" and "That's right" and "Y'all better listen and do what he says." And, then I 'bout pull my arm out of the socket trying to pat myself on the back!! It's quite a workout being such a know-it-all!!!

This could have possibly been the only 3 times in my life that I have been in a church service with a pastor giving a sermon that I haven't wanted to crawl under the seat because I just knew he was preaching right. at. me.


Seriously, there was plenty in there for me to learn still. (and I don't ALWAYS feel, in church services, like the sinner I truly am!) What I really want to do is to shout at the top of my lungs:

"It's true! Financial bondage is the worst. It eats at every part of your life. It is an easy path for the enemy to take to kill us mentally, physically and emotionally. It doesn't have to be like that. You can do it!!!"

God speaks clearly in his word about debt.

Proverbs 22:7 says: "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."

So true, so true. I'm working very hard to change my way of thinking about borrowing money. Although we only have car and house debt, that's only because Cutest Boy is wise - not me. When CB and I met, I had several (coughcough6cough) store credit cards with balances. My theory was that it didn't matter because the minimum payment was $20 and I could certainly afford that cuz I was a workin' girl at the Lazy E making good money.........see where I'm going with this??? I can't imagine how much in interest I have "given away" over the years with my financial wisdom! But, I still struggle with instant gratification. I want it and I want it NOW! (Varuka Salt could be my bff!)

So, while I just smiled and nodded my head at Dave, the wheels were turning in CB's head. He wants things now, too. Only he wants less house and car debt. Aye yi yi. Slow down. I haven't finished with the patting of the back!!

Here's an advertisement for a special tv event Dave's doing. I think it's so relevant for what we're all going through with the financial situation of our country.

You can also watch his messages at lifechurch.tv. The 2nd week has a part that is so funny, I about pee'd right there in church I was laughing so hard.

Closing thought: Our hope doesn't come from Washington, right? Our bail out comes from the Lord!

Financial peace to all of you,

B.

March Madness

It's the most wonderful time of the year.....................not Christmas, but the NCAA Basketball Tournament!!! It pairs 2 of my faves: college hoops and tournaments. College b-ball is so fun and tournaments are good for my adhd - concentrated action that gets wrapped up quickly with a winner! {although, a whole month to get to a championship game is a wee bit tough for me!!}

I filled out a bracket just for fun. (interpreted to say that Cutest Boy did not enter my bracket in his office pool, so it has to be "just for fun.") And, I am doing SOOOOOO good with it!!! Of last night's games, I was 3 for 4! Only my sweet Duke lost to Villanova - which hasn't happened in 50 years.


I picked Pitt to win it all and they just barely eeked out a win last night. Whew! But, hey, a win's a win, right? And just why did I choose Pitt? I don't really know!! It's not like I studied the ESPN website or just chose based on mascots or school colors. I had no rhyme or reason - I just picked and they got to be my #1. Go figure.

This is Levance Fields who hit a 3-pointer that really was the game-changing moment for Pitt. He deserves to celebrate!

If you need any help filling out a bracket, you should call Roman. She has a very simple method: Skip right to the championship game and fill in the winner's blank with OU!!

We'll see how that works out for her! Hope you are all enjoying some of the madness and that your favorite team wins!

Peace, love and go Pitt,

B.

I Am A Thief {and other rambling nonsense}

My bff from college, Mindi, is having a birfday on Monday. Proudly, I have a little something for her and went to the p.o. to put it in the mail so she will actually get it BEFORE the actual day.


(This is huge for me. I love to give gifts but the actual getting them to the person seems to be monumentally difficult for me. Don't know why. I could fill a cabinet with little treats I've bought just to brighten someone's day or for a birthday. It's very strange. I probably need more therapy for that than can be achieved in this post. tee hee)


Anyway, back to the real story. I had the gift and wanted to mail it in one of those decorated bubble mailers they have at the p.o. So, I'm there. I get it all packaged up with one of their cute labels. I turn around and the line is about 8 bazillion people long and every single one of them have a huge box or boxes to mail. No one's just getting stamps!

And, joy of joy, I have a lunch date. At a Mediterranean restaurant. I'm very excited - not only because of the food that I've never really had - but because it was with a super sweet friend.

I look at my watch and decide to ditch the line and come back later. So, me and my cute envie head to lunch. About half way across town, I realize that that cute envie isn't F.R.E.E!!!!!!!! I didn't pay for it!! Of course, I turned right around and headed back to do the right thing.............NOT. I've got my priorities in order. Lunch first. But I was certain that at any second the SWAT team was going to pull me over!!

On to other news.........

We had a great spring break. I'm always sad when it's time to go back to school.

Roman went camping in the Wichita Mountains with a friend we've known for a long time. She was gone for 5, yes, I said 5, whole days up in some place where there wasn't cell reception unless they hiked to the top of a mountain!!! That was soooooo hard on this mom. But, she didn't miss us. She had a great time and loved the fact that she smelled like a big ol' campfire! She spent the rest of the week ripsticking - or *trying* to ripstick. Look at her legs after that week:

Josh spent his spring break running around our new neighborhood with all the boys he already knew here. Now that was a beautiful thing. He did start reffing soccer games last weekend. Isn't he cute? I'll be the mom sitting at every game he refs and then tackling any coach or parent that even THINKS about yelling at him! (I mean it.)

Brandon and Patrick went to Wolf Creek to ski at the beginning of the week. Is it wrong that I am totally amazed that they were able to get there and do all the things necessary to have a vacay??? They had a great time. They called Tuesday morning, their 2nd day on the slopes, and both were sick. Pat had an ear infection - which happens every time we ski - and Brandon had an upset stomach. Aye yi yi. I got them going and after a trip to the clinic, they were back on the slopes by afternoon!

And, then there was the previously mentioned anniversary. Now we have decided that we already got the best present - getting to move into our fab new house -but that Cutest Boy...he could not go wrong with the present he had for me.

Chocolate.

Godiva Chocolate.

Godiva espresso truffles to be exact.

I'm still swooning even though those babies are long gone.

Really, it's been a whole lot of schtuff at our house. Unpacked boxes are still everywhere. (still waiting for them to up and empty themselves!!) The fish is refusing to eat. There is a non-stop stream of kids in and out of my house.

And, I couldn't be any happier!

B.

Happy Anniversary, Cutest Boy!

Dear Cutest Boy,

15 years - wow!!! Remember the first year of our marriage when, at every holiday or event, we would say "I can't wait until we have a history together"? We definitely have some history now, don't we?

I love you for so many reasons. And I can't wait to spend another 50 years with you.
You are my 2,

Bev

I {heart} Movers

Movers are my new favorite peeps - especially Renardo and Anthony who moved my whole house in the snow and drizzle.
See the snow on the house across the street?

And what was I doing while they were moving all my junk? I was not laying on the couch eating bon bons - which is where I would have liked to have been and would like to be now.


Like the Cutest Boy seems to be doing, right? Can you believe all the work is done already? Aren't we so speedy? And now we (and by we, I mean CBOTB) can lay on the couch and watch the bracketing for March Madness. (insert dripping sarcasm here)

Seriously - there is so much work to be done but some couch time was much needed this afternoon and CB definitely deserved it.

The good news: we are moved in.
The bad news: the previous owners left the house a MESS.

I almost cried when I finally got over here on Thursday. There were dustbunnies the size of baseballs in some of the corners, not a single cabinet had been even slightly wiped out and there was even "gunk" in the toilets. They had 3 long-haired cats - need I say more??? All this after I had been killing myself to clean the house we were leaving. I wanted it to be spotless for the sweet couple that bought it.

So, instead of unpacking boxes and putting things away, I have been cleaning this house top-to-bottom for the last 2 days. Tomorrow my other favorite peep, Paul-the-carpet-cleaner, is coming to hose the place down! Then, I can really start to move in.

Whining over.

Here's a peek at my kitchen - THE most beautifu feature of the whole house! I'm sure I'll be cooking so much more. *wink*


I'm ready for you all to come visit! The front porch light is always on...

B.

We're Outta Here!

See you all as soon as Cox Cable gets to my new digs and works their magic on the 'puter!!

B. - who is freezing her tail off with a big ol' smile on her face!

Preamble

I have just spent 10 minutes (that I should be packing something) trying to figure out how to put a you tube video on my blog. grrrrrrrr Now all I have is the pitiful graphic below for this post. Oh well...

Roman has to recite the Preamble to the Constitution tomorrow at school. When she got the assignment last week, I got so excited because I could still remember it from years ago. And do you know why I can still remember it when I can't remember the cat's name half the time?

Because of Schoolhouse Rock!! The way I learned everything I know now! Like how a bill becomes a law and the uses of conjunctions!

Today I thought to google it and was able to show Roman - thanks to You Tube! (Is there anything you cannot find on that site???) She thought it was cute and I was flashing back to the days of Roadrunner escaping Wile E. Coyote every Saturday morning with Schoolhouse Rock playing during commercials!

Those were the days!

Three days until the big move. I should go pack something or clean something or order something for dinner. My cooking days have come to an end because the oven has been industrial cleaned and is surrounded by police tape!

But, good news. It's supposed to snow here on moving day. (rolling my eyes) 80's today - 30's Thursday. Yay us!!

B.

You Wanna Wax My WHAT???

So I went to a new gal to get my hair done on Friday. She's the mom of one of Roman's friends and I always enjoy talking to her and she has cute hair herself - important qualifications when I'm choosing someone to do my hair!

She's washing my hair in the sink of death as I call it - because the base of my skull hurts for 3 days after laying my head on that hard porcelain!!! - when she says "Do you want me to go ahead and wax your upper lip while we're back here?"

Shock and awe!!! My what??? "I have a mustache???" says the Queen of Denial. (I've seen it before but have always had a dream of looking like my Aunt Bonnie who had a mustache darker than Hitler's) I'm sure if I don't acknowledge the 'stache then nobody else will EVAH notice it, right?
Another random confession: I have never, I repeat NEVER, had anything waxed on my body. It strikes more fear in me than a root canal ever has. And, her shop was filled with people - a couple I knew and hadn't seen in a long time so if I screamed or cried or both, that would be way too embarassing.

So I quietly said "I think I'll wait until the year 2000 and never."

And I've been talking with my index finger positioned under my nose ever since. I'm quite convinced I can live the rest of my life that way without drawing too much attention to that area of hairiness. Is that a word??

Oy vay.

What am I going to do? All suggestons accepted. All pain-free ones will be considered first!

B. - who needs to be hair-free

Like a Jellyfish

Or the title of this post could be "One Thing To Know About Beverly." And that thing would be that I do not like confrontation. I mean I really, really, really DON'T. I could go on and on about situations that make me squirm but just know that I have to turn the tv channel when people start acting ugly to each other so when I'm actually involved...aye yi yi. I'm not sure how I walk upright when I'm convinced I have no backbone.
Like this jellyfish. (picture shamelessly pulled from internet because you might remember that I still do not have my camera and aren't posts more interesting visually when there's a photo involved?)

But, that all changed yesterday afternoon! It all started when...

Josh came home from school to tell me that the screen on his phone was messed up. Emergency! Dial 911!! Call someone, anyone!! HE COULDN'T READ HIS TEXT MESSAGES!!! Oh, the inhumanity of it all. Drama, much?

Being the loving mother that I am, I rushed to the AT&T store yesterday. Not really rushed so much as it was on my way to Sonic. The guy took one look at it and gave me 2 options: Call and have a replacement shipped to us or drive up to the north side of the city and walk out with a replacement. Hmmmm...it was a beautiful day here so I decided to put the top down on the 'stang and take a little drive. The sacrifices I make for my children. :)

I get to the service center after a 30-minute drive and THAT guy took one look at it and said "That's physical damage. It's not covered by the warranty" and handed it back to me.

Whhhhaaaaaaaaatttt?? He obviously doesn't realize how precious my time is and that gas just shot back up to $1.79 and that the guy at the other store SAID they would take care of it here. So, I say - and just know that my heart is pumping out of my chest and I have to pee all of a sudden -

"That is just not going to work for me. I drove up here on the advice of _____ _____ from your store on the south side and I want this phone replaced TODAY."

Short version - they replaced it. Yay me!!

I'm so glad I didn't have to argue further because that took about everything I had. That might just be my one time for the whole year!

In other very important world news...all the finalists are selected for American Idol. I do have to say that as much as Tatiana absolutely drove me bonkers, she did make for some good tv!

We really only watch tv anymore on our dvr. FF'ing through commercials is the only way to go. But last night it came back to bite us on the booty! Our dvr is set to automatically record every episode but I guess last night's lasted a little longer than it's time slot.

Yep - you guessed it - it cut off right before the very last contestant was announced!! We all just sat there stunned with our mouths hanging open. Reality set in and we all ran for the computer but couldn't find the results ANYWHERE on the www. One quick text to Randy N. - the original AI biggest fan - and we got the results which were totally unexpected!

Spoiler Alert!! Stop reading now if you don't already know.

Yay Anoop Dog and Matt!!! And 13 finalists - wowzers!! That was a fun twist.

Do you have a fave yet? Danny G. seems to be the natural choice and I do like him but you just never know. Americans are funny when it comes to voting.

Now that's a whole 'nother post topic!!! LOL

Peace out,

B.

Things I Would Show You...

...if I only had my camera:

**Josh, Jake and Zach making wallets out of every color of duct tape they can get their hands on. Seriously funny. They are selling them at school and have already made $18 in profit. Gotta love entrepeneurs!
**All the half-filled boxes in my house. Aye yi yi.
**Max The Dog laying on his back enjoying the 75-degree day we had today.
**Pictures of Josh's team getting their 2nd place trophy at the Wichita tournament.
**Roman's fort made out of her sheet, chair and armoire because that's all she has in her room right now!
**The front page of The Daily Oklahoman with Roman's all-state choir singing at the state capital.
**A boy passing out while singing at the state capital. (I wouldn't really take a picture of that, would I?)
**A bazillion puppies at the pet store in Wichita that Josh and I REALLY wanted to bring home with us!

But since my camera decided to stay for a little vacay in Kansas, I will share this fabulous photo - again taken by Tod M and umph'ed up by him - of my soccer SUPAH STAR daughter!
It was 25 degrees when she played her first game of the tournament Saturday morning in MWC. The conditions were only worse for Josh when it was 15 degrees for his first game - but, yippee, they delayed that game until it was 22 degrees. Thanks a lot! I have never been so cold in my l.i.f.e.!

But - good news! It will be 80 degrees for Josh's game this weekend! You know what they say about the weather in Oklahoma, right? If you don't like it, just wait 5 minutes and it will change!

Peace, love and Propel,

B.

p.s. Roman's team won their tournament! Go Cosmos 99's!!

Protest

What a weekend here in the heartland! I have more bragging to do on my children - but, hey, how many posts can be written about them, right? Some of my biggest news is that I lost my camera in Wichita. waaaaaaaaaagggghhhhh!! I cannot be without my camera. I e-mailed the tournament director on a whim to see if anyone turned it in and.....................they have it and are going to ship it to me this week! yippee!!

This post is about something I wanted to write about since I heard it was going to happen. These pictures, by the way, were taken by the wonderful action, real-life photog Tod M. Thanks for sharing these with me, Tod. I would have put all of them on here, but blogger only lets me put 5!

Last week, Josh came home with a letter from school letting parents know that a radical group from a church in Kansas was coming to protest at our high school. They came to Oklahoma because a homosexual was allowed to give a prayer over our legislature and they wanted to let our town know that we have tornados because of all our sin. This group is most widely known for their protests at the funerals of soldiers killed in war. They came for the funeral of a young soldier from EHC who was killed in Iraq a few years ago. I do have to share one thing from that funeral.

Trevor had grown up at EHC and was well-loved so his death hit everyone hard. We certainly couldn't understand why a group would come to shout things like "God loves dead soldiers" and "God is glad he is dead." The group has to get a permit for every protest and they have to stay in a certain place the whole time. The youth from EHC got loads of cow manure and lined the corner where the protesters had to stand!! I didn't get to see the protesters, but I was very proud of our youth!

So, this group came to our town Monday. The group consisted of one woman, her three children, aunt and cousin.
This picture breaks my heart. How old can this little boy be? I can't even type what his shirt said - I don't want some crazy getting on my blog if they happen to google it. I only pray one day he knows the true God of this universe and His abundant love. Their other signs were even more horrible.

These next two pictures are just to give you an idea of how many people turned out to counter-protest. Tonya said it was amazing to see. I did giggle at the yellow sign in the upper right corner that said "God doesn't like ugly!"

The protesters were standing on the American flag - this was the response of our people!

First thing Monday morning, my friend, Susan, called to tell me the students were already preparing. Arrangements had been made to release all students before the time the protesters were allowed to be at the school. But, that morning the parking lot edge was lined with cars like the one in this picture. They had all kinds of different, encouraging messages about the real love of God.

This picture makes me cry just thinking about what these guys do. They are part of a Christian motorcycle group that comes out every time this group protests. When the protesters start chanting, they rev up the engines of their bikes!! It is so loud that the people can't be heard!! I am so grateful for that because the things they say are disgusting.

By the time I got to do a drive by, the protesters had already gone but there were still groups of students on the sidewalks - some grouped in prayer, some just hanging out. Some of the motorcycle guys were still at the convenience store across the street. What a crazy day. I really wanted to know what God thought of what happened there.

I was already emotional at the thought of what went on, but the song "Our God Reigns" happened to be on the radio right at that moment.

He certainly does! And for that, I am truly grateful!

B.