Busy!

This has been a busy month already, but I'm afraid it's not going to slow down until November. In the next three weeks, I have my first TESS pre conference, observation, and post conference, first national board meeting, a pumpkin and classroom door to decorate for red ribbon week, a website to build, RTI conferences, report cards, a half-marathon, parent teacher conferences, a PD day, and Griffin's first trick-or-treating! Whew. I'm exhausted typing it all out. 

I'm most excited for the half marathon! I missed my 11 mile run yesterday due to storms. My 9 mile run was amazing. My last long run was 10 miles and it didn't go as well as the nine miles. I had to take a potty break after the first five and never found my rhythm for the last five. It was tough. So it's messing with my head!! I was hoping to have an awesome long run under my belt going into the half. I'm still excited though and relying on my training and God to get me through it!

Our new 3rd grade shirts!

Friday night was Fall Fest at school. Griffin LOVED the bump and jump! That's all he wanted to do. I love that so many if my co workers have little ones just like me. It's nice to swap mom stories! 

We've had lots of family time at home the past week or so. We ran out of money, so Griffin was our entertainment as we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Haha! The water heater and garbage disposal going out with a few other unexpected expenses made this month a little tight! But G had his first pb&j with no allergic reaction! Woot woot!

Speaking of money, Brandon and I sat down and had our first budget meeting in many months. We are back on a plan and I know Dave Ramsey would be proud. We have several things we want in the upcoming year or two (vacation, bigger home, and a little brother or sister for G), so we better get our finances in order! 

Still trying to drop some weight! I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer!

This kid is my everything! 

Seventh Month

I’m really sad about this post. I didn’t write down his stats….
    
As you can see though, he’s still as cute as ever!

I believe her was around 19 pounds and 28 inches.
The big milestone this month…..

Griffin cut his first tooth! Actually, two teeth came in this month. Almost at the same time. Teething wasn’t terribly awful. However, at that time, Griffin also experienced his first double ear infection. That was HORRIBLE! It took us over three weeks to get him better. The doctor tried a round of amoxicillin first. After a few days on that and a temp over 102 during the weekend, we went back. G got a shot and a different antibiotic. After a week on that, we took him back. One ear was still infected. He took a z-pack and in five days, he was good as gold. On the other hand, his sleep schedule and eating schedule and any and every other schedule was completely screwed up. He is just now getting back in the swing of things.
   
This month, he started eating a container of food at lunch time. He wouldn’t take a bottle very often because of his teeth, so he ate more solids. We also started feeding him bites of our food. He LOVES it!

Meanwhile, my attitude was still stinky in September. I had good days, but a lot of bad. Going back to work was a MAJOR adjustment for me. Brandon and I got to take a little getaway though to Oklahoma to hear Dave Ramsey speak. It was awesome! G stayed with Nana. It was my first time to leave him overnight. I cried and cried that night, but it was good for me to get away with the hubs! We had a good time!

OH! This month a tree almost fell on our house too. Luckily, we had only minor damage. Thank you Lord for protecting us!!

I currently have 20 episodes of Til Death Do Us Part recorded on the DVR.

I love this show! I would much rather watch Dave Ramsey… but I don’t get that channel. So Gail Vaz Oxlade will do.
I haven’t written a Dave Ramsey post in awhile. We are still trucking along. We will make our last Hawaii payment next month. It will be nice to go on vacation without worrying about the cost! Our debt repayment plan has changed a little for various reasons. It will all be gone soon enough though!!
I’m sad Spring Break is over. The next two weeks of school will be all about the Benchmark. GAG! I’m sure I will wake Bran up in the middle of the night teaching. haha Poor guy.

Why yes… That is all mine!

I just paid our very last truck payment!!! woohoo!!! It feels so nice!
I’m not sure what are next steps will be with our debt and Dave Ramsey. We for sure want to stay on the debt repayment path, but we need to start saving money as well. I will be needing a new car eventually (boo on the car payment!). Bran and I would also like to start thinking about starting a family. So…. I’m not sure where we are going. We are not going to spend $1,000 on our debt this month and next month since Christmas is coming up. Usually I get a Christmas bonus, but I don’t know if we will get that this year. It certainly is nice!  I guess I am off to crunch some numbers and make a plan!

Getting Old

Bran made dinner tonight. It was so nice! We were sitting on the couch afterwards watching America’s Funniest Home videos. The next thing I know, I am laying down, and so is he. We are now fighting for more room in our sleep. ha! And it’s only 7:30. Finally, being the wonderful husband that he is, he decides to give me the couch, and he goes to bed. We are seriously acting like we are old people.
I really should stop talking about Dave Ramsey. Any time I make some sort of debt-free proclamation, something bad happens. Seriously! It’s getting annoying! This time, it’s Bran’s truck. Poor guy. He tried to start it yesterday morning, and it won’t start. We are going to have to get it towed and all that jazz. The Lord works things out though… Every single time this happens, we usually have a little extra money come in from somewhere. I just happened to get my check in today from our co-op from the class I taught last month. Now of course I had other plans for this money… But it is so nice to not have to worry about paying to get it fixed since we are on a tight budget.

Update on the Dave Ramsey Plan

I regularly crunch our numbers. I seriously think it’s so much fun. ha! It must come from my momma. Bran and I are doing SO good sticking to our budget. It is amazing to see our debt shrink little by little each month. We graduated from Financial Peace University in February…. 6 months ago. In March, I posted that we had around $17,000 in debt. I am happy to report that that number has shrunk to $10,000! Woohoo! We are on our way! And what is even better…. I am able to get $5,000 of that $10,000 forgiven thanks to a teacher loan forgiveness program. That is exciting!

However, since I am starting graduate school, I will be adding another $5,000 to the total. But that’s ok with me since I will be making more money after I graduate. Not only have we paid off a big chunk, we have saved a big chunk for a wonderful vacation next summer. Exciting times in the Motley household! God is so faithful!