{10-Day Do Over Challenge}

New year's resolutions can be tough to keep. This year I'm changing it up a bit and approaching my usual list of yearly goals differently by participating in a 10-day challenge hosted by Jon Acuff. I also combined the first day's assignment with coming up with one word for the year.

Here's the first day's assignment:

{Has Anyone Seen My Blog?}

Well, hello, there!

It's been a while since I've been here, I guess. In fact, the last time I posted was just to avoid. studying.

I'm at it again, avoiding studying, but this time it's because I truly need a break! Since my last post I have read Volume 1 and part of Volume 2 of the Series 7 books, attended a 6-day class, taken multiple chapter tests, and basically studied every. day. for the past 3 weeks. Only 6 more days until Test Day!

Today was an unusual day in that I was able to study most of the day at work (albeit interrupted with actual work). So when I got home I prepped some dinner, watched a bit of news, and decided to check in on the old blog.

A few times in the past couple of weeks I've been able, or rather, compelled, to get away from studying and take a few walks. My usual walk is the East Medicine Lake Park bike/walk path and it is the best. I'm always encouraged greatly after my walks there.

So during the walks, you'll be happy to know I've come up with many ideas for new posts. You have much to look forward to in the coming months! Lucky you. Also, the past month has included the Markgraf May birthday week and a kindergarten graduation. I have lots of picture posts I need to share.

Oh, and stay tuned for a lovely post, say mid-June, that you won't want to miss. I'm pleased to let you know that I get to introduce my newest nephews! My four foster-nephews will become my adopted-nephews in about two weeks!! This over 2-year journey has had lots of twists and turns, but is ending with a beginning.

And that folks, is about all I've got for now. It's back to studying for me. Until next time...

These lovely flowers have been gracing my desk at work since last week.
A beautiful, thoughtful gift from a dear friend who lives far way. Thanks, Danna!

{How to Avoid Studying}

Remember this post about my new position at work? May is almost here and that means I am running out of time to study for my first course (the first of my several Series tests). Sounds weird to prepare for a class, but the class is mostly just to prep me for the big test. This week I'll actually be scheduling the test for the end of May or first of June, so I have got to get cracking on the books!

But today, when I had plenty of time, what did I do?

1. Write a blog post
2. Clean the bathroom - well, the sink and toilet anyway...
3. Do a load of laundry
4. Prepare steak salad for lunch with a side of cucumber salad
5. Make chili with any ingredients available in the freezer, fridge, or cupboard
6. Watch Sunday afternoon movies - PBS, anyone?
7. Bake never before made dessert to take to work - Jiffy Cherry Cobbler - hope they like it!
8. Post on Facebook about needing $25 to reach my goal for the Walk on Saturday
9. Wash dishes - taking my time to ensure proper scrubbing of pans...
10. Post on Facebook about reaching goal to raise $500 for the Walk on Saturday! Many thanks to my friends and family who helped me reach this goal. What a blessing!! I'm very thankful for those who chose to partner with me in helping the Metro Women's Center and the Amazing Grace Home.

Ok, now to buckle down for a little studying before I hit the hay...

Seriously. I've got to study!

Happy New Year {300th Post!}

I finally hit my 300th post!

Here's a quick look at my 2013 in a few pictures:

Have a blessed 2014!

{250th Post} What have you missed?

My 200th Post was posted almost a year ago and has been my most-read post of all time.

So let me say THANK YOU to my faithful readers :)

You would think this, my 250th post, should be something exciting, but instead I'm going to highlight a few posts of late...I've got nothin' else...so, enjoy! :-)

• {Kickstarter} Grace Alone - please check out the Grace Alone project that the Deo Cantamus organization is sponsoring. You don't want to miss out on this!

• {Love from Littles} = Worth Being Late - Jess & Luke's foster boys have been back with them for 5 weeks now. At this point we still don't know how long they'll have them, but we're certainly enjoying being able to love on them while we can.

• {Special Thanks} Cold Hands, Warm Heart and {Cold Walk} for Metro Women's Center - a couple of posts about the Metro Women's Center Amazing Grace Home annual walk.

• {A BMW and Bears, Oh My} A Day Trip to Spooner - oh, some good times with part of the sisterhood plus mom!

• {simplyWrite 20thirteen} Project Busy and {simplyWrite 20thirteen} 3500 Pennies - I've been writing some. I need to do this more!

Any ideas for my 300th post? At the rate I've been posting, it should be sometime this fall. Stay tuned! I'll try to work on something awesome for ya! ;)

I'll leave you with a collage of pics from this weekend of Jess & Luke's boys. They were loving playing in Aunt Cheryl & Uncle Jon's backyard.

Click to Enlarge

{simply Write 20thirteen} 3500 Pennies

 

One of my goals for the past few years has been to blog, or write, more. With that goal in mind I've come up with a theme for this year: Simply Write 20Thirteen. In honor of that theme, I'm attempting to have some writing sessions where I just write for a set time. I hope to share some of these sessions with you here on the ol' blog.

NOTE: This happens to be a personal topic, but I think I need to record this for my own sake, and with humility I hope my sharing will be of some benefit to others.

4/3/13 @ 6:40 pm

Ever get the sinking feeling that you over-extended your checkbook? You know – the pit in your stomach when you realized you weren't going to make it to your next paycheck. And now that you're on guard, and reality is hitting, your thoughts go back about a week or more a month ago when you must have stopped subtracting and just threw caution to the wind.

You’re spend, spend, spend- attitude of days gone by was back. Why didn't you take stock last week or the week before?! Where was the line? You crossed it so far back, you are now grasping backwards – you know, when you reach so far back that you pull you’re your neck muscle…oh, it hurts so bad you know you’re going to feel it for a couple of hours, or days…

Well, this pulled neck muscle, is your bank account. That pit in your stomach? It’s not going away for another 12 days – until payday.

Last weekend I scheduled my last few student loan payments and was feeling pretty good about myself. I started this week off kind of bad though. I took a few minutes to review my accounts and got slammed with the reality of having spent almost the last penny in my checkbook. At this point there are still 3,500 pennies, but if I hadn't caught it when I did, there would have been more like negative 13,500 pennies.

This is where I’m thankful that I have two checking accounts plus three savings accounts. Now before you get all “ooh…she has multiple savings accounts…” on me...

My main checking account where my paychecks are deposited is where most of my bill paying occurs.

My second checking account is through INGDirect and is also where I set up my initial savings account. They have this cool feature where you can add accounts to use for designated funds. My designated savings accounts have changed names a couple of times in the past year (mostly because I took a couple of trips and purchased a car). The current names are Emergency Fund (I hope to start to grow this when I finish paying off my student loan and move it to a Roth IRA), Travel Fund, and Unplanned Expenses.

Thankfully, I had some funds at ING. Unfortunately the funds weren't as high as I would have preferred. With a little shuffling around to cover scheduled billpay items and no additional spending, I figured I would survive until my next paycheck.

4/3/2013 @ 9:33pm

I've been thinking about this since I stepped away for a couple of hours, and I know what happened last month. I got busy and my focus got a little skewed. This affected my decisions to not spend. Yes, some day-after-day-after-day decisions to just drive to work and pay for parking was costly: two and a half times my monthly budget for bus riding.

These decisions of convenience led to other convenience decisions. Can I blame the lack of focus on my busy-ness at work? I don’t think so.

Bottom line is that I had a plan, but I didn’t work the plan.

The next two weeks I will be on a strict, budget freeze. You could call it my personal sequester...


- - - - - - - UPDATE - - - - - - -


I realized today that I never posted this. Probably because it was my own mini-crisis and I didn't want to tell anyone, but you should know I survived to payday. I should not be so impressed with myself, but my non-use of a credit card during this time was a victory. I hope to remember this lesson for many, many months in the future.

Putting back the funds into my savings accounts is going to take some time. Oh, and that sinking feeling? yeah, that lasted right up until payday. I'm thankful to be working the plan once again.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“A budget tells us what we can't afford, but it doesn't keep us from buying it.” –William Feather

{200th Post?}

Well this was supposed to be my 200th post, but that didn't happen. It's looking like my 219th post, to be more accurate.

__________________________________________

I'm going to try to make this interesting for you, my readers, but I make no guarantees (as a member of the financial field, I'm not allowed to guarantee anything anyway).

So, let me tell you what I've been up to lately...

1. Foster kiddos. About 12 weeks ago Jess and Luke started caring for 3 little boys: E(3), BV(16 mo), and FD(1 weeks old). It goes without saying that Jess and Luke's world was turned upside down, but the rest of the family has been able to help out and pitch in whenever we can. A couple days a week, Jen helped out during the day while Jess worked. She had a couple of basketball players who helped out the other days. I've been able to babysit quite a bit during the evenings and weekends - mostly after they're in bed when Jess went into the office or while they went out on a date or ran errands. I also spent a weekend with Jess when she was single-parenting it while Luke was in Boston at wedding. About 3 weeks ago Jess resigned her hr/accounts payable position at church; she's now a full-time stay-at-home mom and the boys are loving it! At this point we don't know how long they'll be with Jess and Luke, but we're loving on them as much as we can while we have them.
2. Fundraising for Metro Women's Center. If you gave money to the annual walk event, I thank you. This past fall MWC was able to purchase a home and many people been working on fixing it up and furnishing it to be ready to be used by those in need. If you were thinking of giving but didn't yet, you can still by going to my FirstGiving fundraising page. For more info about the Amazing Grace Home, I invite you to visit Metro Women's Center blog.
3. Work projects - I've mentioned before how I was interviewing for a new hire in my office. Well he's hired and thankfully not my responsibility; my co-worker gets to train him. We call him "Sabrina's* Slave". We're also in the process of changing 160+ investment accounts and ~100 insurance policies to a joint rep # for clients that we are buying out from another advisor. This is just Phase I of the accounts coming to us. Thankfully Phase II is a much smaller list. Something else I've been working on  is the planning of our annual client golf event to be held in August. Invites went out the middle of the month and RSVPs are already rolling in. You can check out our website that I help with. The bulk of it is designed and updated by a marketing company, but I'm responsible for content that is firm-specific.
4. May Birthdays - My nephew Ethan turned 4 on the 15th and we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Red Robin on that Tuesday evening followed by cake at my sister's. My niece Morgen turned 8 on the 20th and she celebrated at a birthday party with 10 of her closest friends. Mom, Dad, and the rest of the Mpls Gang were all in attendance as well. It was quite the hub-bub-a-loo! 11 screaming 8-year old girls, that's something you've got to experience first hand! Jess's oldest E(3) enjoyed splashing the girls while he was hanging out in the kiddie pool; they enjoyed egging him on as well. 
5. Baseball and Kindergarten Graduation - not to be left out from all the May activities, my nephew Carsten (6) graduated from Kindergarten and started little league baseball during May. His graduation program included songs and a play from all the seasons while one of his classmates kept asking when he could fly his kite. Each season he would ask, "is it time yet?" and finally, when it was Spring, he was able to fly his kite - and it actually flew! They had rigged up fishing wire for him and made it fly above the stage - pretty cool for kindergartners! :-) The baseball games haven't been the most exciting, but it was fun to see him connect with the ball for the 2nd time. 
6. Weekends with Mom and Dad - It's been fun to have Mom and Dad so close - they've been able to come over on different occasions and I think they were here 2 times in May and I went to their house over Memorial weekend. Of course, that wasn't so much a fun weekend as Mom was sick. I did enjoy getting to see my aunt and uncle though! Dad's baby sister, Jan and her husband, Dale, drove up from Rockford, IL on Saturday to spend some time with my parents. Unfortunately Mom wasn't feeling so great, so it was up to Dad to entertain them :) Jan did make a yummy strawberry-rhubarb crunch. I was able to have some on Sunday when I got there.
7. It's a girl! Probably the biggest news is our latest Flaming addition, my 3rd niece, Ella Taylor. Ella was born to Jake and Meg and big sister is Lily Bug who will be 2 in a week! You can read about Ella's arrival and see some pictures on their blog. There's also some cute comparison pics of Lily and Ella. Ella was born on Thursday and came home on Friday. Here's what they've been up to since she came home.

I'm pretty sure their are many other things I've missed here, but I think I'll stop for now. 

And I wasn't going for a 7Things post, but it appears that's what this turned out to be! For many weeks in a row I've missed writing my 7Things posts. Back in March, I think it was, I scheduled about 2 months worth  "A Year Ago on Not the Last to Know" posts.  Next year I think they'll be a little bit more exciting since I had been blogging a bit more regularly this year (...until about mid-April...). 

Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the blogging habit again, but don't hold me to it. June and July are looking to be busy months too! I think I'll work on some picture posts. I downloaded 430 pictures from my phone tonight. I need to go through them and see if any are blog-worthy :)

*named change to protect the innocent

I can see Russian from my blog! :)

Just a little Sarah Palin humor to go along with the fact that someone from Russia viewed my blog this week :)

Click to Enlarge

And while I'm at it, here's my blog audience since the beginning:

Click to Enlarge

Women of Faith Conference

(This post was written last week but due to my lack of Internet at home I wasn't able to post until now...how's that for another excuse!)

This post is a long time coming (about a month overdue to be more precise). I’m ignoring the pile of dishes left over from my mini-bake fest and postponing my Christmas decorating to write this overdue post. But first maybe I’ll make some tea…be right back!

While the tea was brewing I did put away some clean dishes, but blatantly ignored the pile of dirty baking dishes (all right, there were also a couple of days worth of supper dishes too). Oh, and before you think that I was baker-extraordinaire today, let me clarify that I baked two batches of Trader Joe’s box pumpkin bread into 16 mini loaves and made pancakes for my late lunch. The pumpkin bread is for my co-workers and probably my niece and nephews who love pumpkin bread (but their mom doesn’t like pumpkin so they don’t get it much).

So back to the point of this post…Women of Faith (I last blogged about this here). But first, let me just say, I make some good Flaming Tea – yum!

Some months ago I for the price of a couple of blog post, I received two free tickets to attend the Women of Faith conference in downtown St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center back in October. Not having ever attended a Women of Faith event, I didn’t have many expectations. The tickets included events on Friday during the day, but since I had no one to go with until the evening I opted not to attend, but now wish I had so I could have heard Dr. Henry Cloud.

So Friday night, my sister-in-law’s sister (and my brother-in-law’s cousin – yup), Lindsay, and I headed to the evening session. We stopped at Smash Burger to use a Groupon Lindsay had picked up a while back and got their in plenty of time to park and get to our seats.

Friday night’s session was mostly introducing us to the speakers and a mini-concert by Natalie Grant. On Saturday I started to take notes on my phone from some of the speakers, but I had technical issues and lost the notes…While all of the speakers had outstanding testimony’s of God’s grace in their lives, two speakers stuck out to me: Lisa Harper, single and age 48, who is working on adopting her first child and Luci Swindol, single and age 79, who has lived a full life and reminded us all to live in the moment. 

One verse that stuck out from the sessions was I Timothy 6:17, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.”

Saturday Lindsay and I ate lunch at Cosetta’s, an authentic Italian restaurant with good slices of pie, and I’m not talking about apple pie! 

{women of faith}

Back in July I found out I was selected as a blogger for the Women of Faith event. 

This opportunity was given to me because I review books for Book Sneeze (Thomas Nelson Publishing) and then blog about the books. 

I'm receiving two registrations to attend the event so I plan to bring Lindsay! along for the ride.

This will be my first Women of Faith event. I plan to write a post after the event so stay tuned!

 

{Dear Jesus} my prayer this week

 Dear Jesus, thank You for loving me...

for staying beside me, for holding me up when I fall. Please give me an open mind and an open heart. Let me see things as You see them. Show me what’s truth. Show me where I am wrong. Open the doors You want me to walk through, and close the ones that lead to places You don’t want me to be.

Please bless my efforts to improve my finances. Multiply my resources, and bless me so I may be a blessing to others. Most important, line up my thoughts with Your thoughts. Help me forgive myself for the mistakes of my pat, and forgive others for mistakes against me, just as You forgive me for all my sins as soon as I ask. I release the mistakes of yesterday, and I receive the blessing You have for me today.
 In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

I'm reading "Your Money God's Plan" by Amie Streater and hope to post a book review about it when I'm done! It started out as just a book review, but its turning into a Bible Study - lots of Scripture to look up! It's great!!!

“Amie Streater…delivers a powerful message of common sense and biblical wisdom that today’s churchgoers desperately need.” - Dave Ramsey

Faith Minute and Google Reader

I hear the Faith Minute program on the radio most mornings on my way to work. The past couple of mornings he's been talking about work.

Sometimes just hearing something doesn't mean it stays with me (especially in the morning) so this morning I tried hard to remember to go to their website and add it to my Google Reader - this way I'll be able to hear and read! (I'm a visual learner after all...)

Today this part really stuck out to me (especially in light of yesterday's "rant" - as my dad called it :)

"Avoid always blaming others for what is wrong. Become the employee who contributes rather than complains."

Read the full article here.


Since I already mentioned my Google Reader subscriptions, let me take another few minutes to highlight some recent favorites:

• Michael Hyatt featured a guest post on What Cheap Grace May be Costing Your Organization. "Cheap grace—the kind that allows for bad behavior to flourish unnoticed—is more expensive than you might think. It costs you, your employees, and your relationships. May it be that we dare to lovingly confront, hoping for confession and reconciliation as we do so."
• In a newer-blog-to-me, The 99 Percent, I learned 6 Simple Yoga Stretches for Daily De-Stressing. Now before you right it off, I just want you to give it a try. I already added a reminder to my calendar to do this during work. I often get bogged down with work and start feeling crumby. I think this will help me to breath deeper and help me get my work done faster! Try it with me! Let me know how it helps you!
• Recently someone on Facebook asked what About.com was for, and if it had any value. I happen to subscribe to articles about management per a suggestion from Google Reader, but do not usually get much out of it. However, one recent article was on Meeting Management. Since I attend more than my fair share of meetings, I was interested in the article. The article expanded just a little on the idea of "A meeting has to have: a Purpose, an Agenda and a Timeframe." 

So, what are you reading these days?! Please share, I'd love to add another blog or two to my 157 subscriptions!! :) Seriously, I'm always interested in reading more about God, saving money, getting out of debt, decorating, creative office management, organizing, and much more!!

more ways to save money

Yesterday I posted how I'm doing with Part 1 so here's my take on Part 2 of Pocketyourdollars.com's 25 ways to save money. 

14. Use coupons.  1/2 Check!
I'm not the best at this, but I do try. The sad part is I often throw out coupons because they expired! But..wait for it...yep, today I used 3 coupons at Target! Oh, and the bonus is that I also used a gift card!

15. As long as you’re in a coupon mood, use virtual coupons too. 1/2 Check!
Ah, yes, coupon codes. I try to search for these whenever I'm buying anything online, but sometimes I forget...

16. Save on health costs. Check!
My normal M.O. is not to go to the doctor. That saves me tons of money!!

17. If you can’t eliminate something, just reduce it by half. N/A
Most of the suggestions here didn't apply to me. The biggest one is that I don't have cable.

18. Make what you have already work better. N/A
Again, most of the suggestions here didn't apply to me.

19. Swap services with friends and family. Check!
I do babysitting for my sister, but not really for anything in exchange. Also, I've offered assistance to many friends and family in need of resume help. Again, nothing really exchanged. 

20. Maximize the money you already have. Work in progress!
I'm not so sure this advice is that great since savings accounts aren't really offering much in the way of interest...I'd love to save more though.

21. Hold a swap meet. X
Ah, not gonna happen.

22. Have some real money with a mortgage overhaul. N/A
No house for me!

23. Avoid fees and save postage. Check!
I don't write checks any more! My bank has free bill pay. The last two checks that I was writing regularly were my rent and my tithe, but a couple of months ago I ditched the checkbook (ok, not literally. It's still in my drawer, but I don't think I'll get new checks anytime soon, hopefully never.)

24. Have it delivered and save. N/AI don't get the paper, even for the coupons...I think with a one-person household there would be too many coupons!! (I'm saving trees by not getting the paper, right?!)

25. When you can’t buy…borrow. Check!
See #11 from yesterday.

So, did you get any new money saving ideas?! I'd love to hear about how you save money!

122 blog subscriptions

Yes, I currently subscribe to 122 blogs and am always adding more. No, I don't read everything that is posted; I do, however, stay as current as possible.

How do I do it? Two words:

GOOGLE. READER.

One of the blogs I subscribe to and generally obtain a lot of useful information from is written by the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, Michael Hyatt. Not sure how I found his blog, but I really do get a lot out of his posts. He regularly challenges me to think, to learn, to read and much more.

I tell people all the time they should use Google Reader. I've thought of posting step-by-step instructions (in fact I found a draft I started about 2 months ago but never published!), but now I don't have to!

Michael Hyatt has written a post for me (ahem, YOU!). Go here to see how it's done!

http://michaelhyatt.com/how-to-use-google-reader-to-keep-up-with-your-favorite-blogs.html

Would love to hear back from you if you're now a Google Reader user or if you have some other format that works for you!

window to my work world

Conversation* with Male Co-Worker Today

CO-WORKER (via speakerphone): Could you come in here?

ME: Uh, what’s up?

CW: Could you just come in, so I can ask you something. I need your help…

ME (walking to his office): I’m not going to help you with your Facebook issues…

CW: No, it’s not that… I just want to know… My wife won a contest on this site (points to screen) and there are all these comments! What?! do people really spend all day commenting on websites?! Is this like another Facebook site? Do they really have to sign up and log in to comment on these things?! Do these people not have a life that they can sit around and make comments about my wife’s recipe?!

ME: [I couldn’t help it! I just laughed at him…]

Later that day…

CW: I just want you to know that [name redacted] agrees with me. After I spoke with him, I concluded that FB is a female thing. You made me feel like I didn't know about stuff, but he doesn't read blogs either. I know I’m right. He agrees with me.

ME: [no comment, just a smirk…what could I say?! It was two against one!]

*This conversation is not verbatim, nor is it transcribed in its entirety. Due to my memory skills, the essence of the conversation is given for your amusement.

Note to self: Remember when you read 5 Things to NEVER Do on Your Blog the other day? #2 was NEVER tell your employer you have a blog. I think this is wise advise... :0) 

TO DO List

My "oh, so exciting 100th post" was a TO DO list. Want to see the progress I've made?

What's in the works/done:

• Take a day off of work. Yah, I was sick so I had to take a day off...boo :( Our vacation/sick days are combined so it really stinks when I actually use a sick day.
• Finish my taxes. I've done what I can and have asked my dad to help me review them. Hopefully, I did it right!
• Go to doctor for routine checkup. Scheduled for next Tuesday!
• Sign up for individual health insurance. Application is completed!
• Prepare for PartyLite show. Gotta get on this! Party is Thursday!!

What's left:

• Order Internet cable
• Join a gym
• Go tanning
• Send out my "New Years" letter
• Start planning vacation time
• Buy new phone
• Install showerhead

More for the list

• Schedule eye exam

And of course, to stay focused:

• Debt Elimination: Destination 2011.

All I can say is I love crossing off items on a list!

100th post

Update 1/31/10: So I realized I left off a few things...I've added them below.

Well, my Dashboard says that this is my 100th post so I should probably make it a good one, eh? I have a "New Years" letter that I've been meaning to post, but I haven't actually mailed it to anyone except my immediate family so I'm going to hold off for a little while.


Speaking of getting things done, here are a few things I need to do in the next couple of weeks (in no particular order), but they should be done before the middle/end of February:

1. Order Internet cable - hooking up my cell phone to my computer for internet is just not cutting it anymore for me.
2. Take a day off of work.
3. Finish my taxes - I started, but stopped when I got to the point of entering my PartyLite stuff...this is out of my scope of knowledge. Hopefully I can dive in and figure it out soon...I'm eager for the return $$.
4. Join a gym.
5. Go tanning. I'm tired of Minnesota Winter White and need a little color in my world. Thought this would be a nice pick me up!
6. Send out my "New Years" letter...oh, I did mention that already, didn't I?
7. Go to doctor for routine checkup. Ok, so it's not routine for me, but they say it should be...
8. Sign up for individual health insurance. My company is not offering group insurance anymore. This is also the reason for #6. The new company is going to want to see some medical records and I don't have any since I've been in Minnesota.
9. Start planning vacation time: Trip to my parents (spring). Trip to Jake & Meg's to see Baby Jake (late summer). Trip to ______? Got any ideas?
10. Prepare for PartyLite show for a friend this next week & work on planning my own PartyLite show. Who want's to come to my house for a party?!
11. Buy new phone. Found out this weekend that mine has problems. I was able to fix them, I think, but it makes me nervous! Especially since this is my only source of telecommunication with the outside world. Maybe I should look into a land line...?
12. Install showerhead I got for free from Xcel Energy...they sent me a survey by mistake and I still go the free showerhead for turning in the survey!
13. Debt Elimination Destination 2011. This won't happen in Feburary obviously, so I think I'll blog on that more at a later date. I'm putting it on this list b/c I want to keep it in focus! I'm soooo close, but I have to stay focused!!

So what's on your TO DO list?

free cd download

Just wanted to let my blog readers know about some great music that you can get for FREE!

http://mincymedia.com/blog/2009/08/13/free-cd-download/

It's kind of fun/interesting to be able to tell you about this music because I personally know the musician! Dave was the music director/pastor at Harvest when I lived on Guam. I really enjoyed singing in choir and ensembles under his direction and learned a lot from him. Like me, he's not on Guam any more, but he's still actively involved in church and music to the honor and glory of God! His blog will tell you more about his ministry and his music. Hope you get a chance to download this FREE CD and maybe even buy his newest CD!

Just as a point of fact, last year I received his Christmas CD from my sister for my birthday. Let me tell you it was my favorite CD of the season. I think I listened to it well into January, maybe even February! Yes, it was that good!

(So, Dave, how about adding Minnesota to your itinerary!?! Sara, you have roots up here! You should come for a visit!)

what's with the capital "K"?

Two people have asked me this question in the past few days, so I thought I'd address it on the blog of knowledge.

If you've received email from me in the past two years or so, you may have noticed my signature similar to this:

beKah

So to answer the question, let me just say that, yes, it may be that I capitalized the K for flair, but more importantly the capital K is for emphasis on the fact that there are no "C"s in my name!! As an added bonus, I just plain thought it looked cool! (insert big smiley face here)

That's it, that's all there is to it! ...and now you know!




Thanks for reading my blog!

this & that...time to catch up, continued again & again

Back at the end of June, I started to work on catching up on my blogging. So for the past month, along with keeping up with current events, I've been getting caught up. I did not realize it would take this long!! This marks the final entry for my catch up phase (not to be confused with ketchup!).

In April the church ladies hosted a shower for Jess. Here are a few pics:



My mom was able to come up for the shower and here are a few pics from her time here with us:



Not to be left out, Dad came up for a police chaplain conference and was able to be my first guest in my new apartment (arriving just in time...he didn't have to move anything or help unpack!). He stayed at the apartment with Luke, who was my 2nd guest. Here are a few pics from back in May: