The call...

Being a Dave Ramsey fan and a loyal listener to his daily radio show (via 3-hour, commercial free podcasts) I could not wait until we got to call and do our "debt free scream" live.

I've been in contact with someone there for the past couple of weeks, and she put me in contact with Lara, Dave's assistant producer. On Thursday, Lara emailed me and asked me a few questions and offered a few dates to choose from. The next day, 25 FEB, was one of the available dates. I jumped at the chance!

Friday afternoon I got the house set up just right. I wanted to video this for our own memories, as well as a way to let the boys realize just how important this moment is. This is a moment I pray they never have on their own, as we are teaching them to follow this lifestyle forever, never getting into debt. I set up my laptop so mom, dad, and Josh could watch via Skype, and turned the table on an angle so the video would show each person. I printed out some coloring sheets from Twistynoodle with debt free sayings on them. These were used during the call to keep the boys entertained and they worked surprisingly well.

2 hours beforehand I as working on dinner, excited but nervous, and listening to podcasts. 40 minutes before, while the boys were watching a movie, I jotted down some notes just in case I went blank.

At 8:00 pm (2:00 pm EST) my internet went out. I about had a mini-freak-out, because I was really hoping my parents could watch. A quick restart of our modem fixed the problem, but, as it turned out, Skype froze up on them a few times during the call anyway. At least they were listening LIVE on Dave's website so they didn't miss anything important.

At 8:1o I dialed the number and within a minute, I was talking to Lara! I felt like we were on hold for a hour, but that was just because my heart was beating so fast. All in all, I believe we were on the phone less than 25 minutes, including wait time. Not bad.

During the waiting I remember worrying that Parker was going to get loud, so I had Matt feed him a jar of baby food. That worked, but he ate too fast, so had him feed him a 2nd jar. Then I remembered I had purchased Ritz crackers. That boy loves Ritz and we only give them to him occasionally... perfect bribery.

In the end, all 4 boys were quiet and we rewarded them a couple of times during the call with chocolate chips. And finally, we got to scream as loudly as we could. It was amazing and I hope many of our friends will be calling to do the same within the next couple of years. What a peace there is on this side of our journey.

Here's the video of our call, plus a little bonus video of us burning our statement from Sallie Mae that shows a zero balance.

WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Celebrating Carson!

8 years ago right now we were at home watching an ice storm make its way into NC. My parents encouraged us to go to Gastonia (an hour away) to make sure I'd be near the hospital in case Carson decided to come overnight. They met us there and we all crashed in the same hotel room: Mom, Dad, me, Matt and Hayden. I remember Matt was studying for a seminary exam... (random memory)

Sure enough, my water broke during the night and we were right beside GMH. Sweet Carson joined our family at a whopping 9 lbs 11 oz and with the sweetest cheeks you've ever seen.

He is the easiest kid to get along with, rarely complainingabout anything. He reads so fast I have a hard time keeping up with him even when we reserve books from other Army libraries. His giggle is so cute, even if he tries to hide it from us. He looks too cute in his Army hat and we are thankful that Ms. Jennifer had a replacement for the one he lost.

Carson doesn't like fruit, but will eat veggies, so it's a trade-off. His favorite food is his mom's spaghetti but looks forward to any chance to eat pizza, especially when it is for his own birthday celebration!! :)

He's decided to be in the Army when he grows up... he wants to fire at targets like on the AFN commercials. (He likes the "pop-up" targets.)

He just told me thanks for a Christmas gift we gave him 2 months ago, yet another example of his appreciation for what he has.

Carson doesn't get a lot of the limelight in our family... Parker's the baby, Bailey's a ham, and Hayden's the first to accomplish each next step. But that doesn't mean he's any less special to our family. His quiet nature is part of who he is and yet another positive attribute that he gets from his dad. From me, he gets his love of surprises, not wanting to know what his presents are until it's the right time! He even wants his gift from us on Saturday, the day of his small party, instead of tomorrow, his actual birthday.

I enjoy this opportunity to celebrate the young man who is Carson.

WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

So, after quite a few years of "living like no one else," we have accomplished our first major goal. We have paid off all of our debt! Quite a bit of debt, I must admit. We spent years living beyond our means, ignoring our bad habits and making excuses for why we "needed" to use the credit card yet again for groceries, diapers, or a meal out. Soon after we moved to Columbia we discovered our debt; a chunk of ice that was only sticking out enough to stub our big toe. Once we felt the sting of that, we found out we were moving to Colorado and the iceberg came pushing forcefully out of the ground, revealing the monstrosity we had unintentionally created.

Fast-forward 4 years, one cross-country move, a 15-month deployment, one overseas move, a new baby, and many lessons learned and here we are!

I still listen to the Dave Ramsey Show every day. I am SO excited to be in contact with his assistant who is going to schedule OUR opportunity to scream on-air! I am getting a little nervous and find myself wanting to write down all the questions he asks his callers and answer them ahead of time so that I'll be ready no matter what he asks! I get butterflies every time I lear a new caller say, "I'm calling to tell you that we're debt free!"

The reality hasn't set in just yet. Nothing has changed so far. We haven't yet had our first check that is 100% ours.

"Think about that. Let it sink in," I tell myself. Every single cent of Matt's paycheck is ours. There is no one who has claim to our money anymore! :) We choose to tithe and we choose to have internet/cell phones. Beyond that... AHHH!! NOTHING!

Tuesday I go to get my "out-of-debt" prize: A gorgeous Nikon d300s and a 50mm fixed lens. My beautiful d50 has lasted 5 years and has earned my respect, and Nikon has earned a loyal customer. Matt will inherit my d50. He's more excited, however, about HIS "out-of-debt" prize! You'll never guess what it is... yep. A guitar! To be specific, it's a Taylor T-5 C2 Koa top.

And even after we get our prizes, we won't change much because we have to hit Baby Step 3 hard for the rest of 2011. 2012 will be dedicated to boosting the "replace Matt's car" fund so that when we go back to the US Matt will have the cash to buy a replacement. He won't be able to buy the Defender he really wants but we're both okay with that. One day, maybe!

This is our personal journal of our lives. We share it as a way to share what we are going through. My hopes are that I can encourage anyone reading who has debt to work their way out of it. The simplest, fastest way to do so is through Dave Ramsey's plan, Financial Peace University. I would love to become one of his Financial Counselors someday!

The above picture is of the 'Debtometer' I made as a visual countdown of the last $9700 in our debt. I wanted a way to mark off every last dime we paid off, for myself, but also for the boys. They are SO excited about this and I believe we have changed our family tree for the better as a result of our being transparent with them. Here is a note Hayden wrote in his Math book this week: