criticized

It is amazing how people can criticize another person for trying to better themselves. Let me explain. Peter and I have what I would consider a moderate level of debt. All of our debt is considered "good" debt (if there is such a thing). A car payment, a mortgage, and school loans are all considered "good" debt. Lately we have not been feeling so great about this "good" debt and have been trying to find ways to pay it off. I came across the book "The Total Money Makeover" and instantly we knew we found the right book for us. This books main theme is about Living like no one else now, so later you can live like no one else. That means we have a lot of things for the immediate future that we are willing and going to have to sacrifice in order to gain what we want in the long term. Debt is a means to obtain the I want's before we can actually afford them. He uses the scripture in Proverbs 22:7 "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender" to drive his point home. So we are working on our debt problem. We started at the beginning of the month and we are doing really great for one month of time. In his book he discusses how when you start the program that immediately unexpected costs will arise and let me tell you - we have had A LOT of unexpected costs this month. Anyway, we were also told that most people will not understand and we will get a lot of criticism for the choices we are making now. For example, one of the things we are doing to cut our grocery bill drastically is to eat a beans and rice diet for most lunches and most dinners. People at work have started to notice and the comments are coming! It is obvious to them that I just bought a house and we must have bought a house that we can't afford - WRONG! I honestly don't care what the people I work with have to say though and we press on.

I don't know if we will actually follow the program completely and get out of debt and become millionaires or not. But I do know that we are making great progress in the here and now and we are trying so hard too!

On with other news: I had mentioned some unexpected expenses. One of the things that came up was our dear little Juno. She tore one of her dew claws on Thursday and she had to have surgery on Friday where they removed both of her dew claws. She has hardly even noticed that she had surgery and it is amazing how tough this little dog is. The vet told us that it is the equivalent of us getting our thumbs cut off (ouch!) and there is no way that I would have been doing as well as she has done.

I leave you with some pictures of the babies:

Juno's wrapped legs and painted toe nails

Little Indy

Yummy Treats