Money Matters and Reading

Hey all. I have recently read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. I really enjoyed it, and found it to be relatively light and easy to read through. I am in agreement with him on most of his ideas. I would love to pay off all our debt. We are doing pretty well, I think. I would also love to follow all of his steps and be a millionaire... I just don't get how the people who have so much debt are able to pay it off so fast.
For instance, John has $153,000 debt. He makes $38,000 a year. He works soooo hard and is able pay off all his debt in just a year and a half. HOW DID HE DO THAT!?!?!?
I just started to read the Millionaire Next Door. I am not too far in it. Not enjoying it much and not sure how far I will get in it.
Another book I just read is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It is just a novel that was cute and fun to read. Enjoyed it.
Have any of you read any of these books? What do you think of them? What have you been reading? Do you like to read or not? Maybe you just don't have time to read. Maybe if you neglected your home and children, like some people do, you would find more time to read. Just an idea.

Puzzles and Cheese

The Bel Air puzzle is finally finished. I know that the deadline was yesterday and it was finished around 6pm yesterday. Please notice the missing piece...where oh where can it be? We don't have anyone to blame, there must be a poltergist in our house! Mom did most of the puzzling, with a little bit of help from Jessica and Dad. The total time spent on the puzzle was 18 hours. What a lot of time! I won't say a waste of time, I enjoy doing puzzles, though this was a hard one. I was afraid that I would never get it done. In fact with about 50 pieces remaining I was sure that many were missing and that they had slipped a few in that didn't belong.

Now, about cheeses, I have in my fridges and freezer:

• Velveeta
• Cabot Monterey Jack
• Cabot extra sharp cheddar
• Kraft sharp cheddar
• Hickory Farms smoked cheddar blend
• grated cheddar
• grated motzerella
• grated parmesian
• grated Monterey Jack
• String cheese
• Laughing cow cheese
• Babybel
• Sliced Muenster
• Sliced Provolone
• White American
• Yellow (orange?) American
• Cream cheese

So, I have lots of different cheeses but many of them are the same variety, just different types. I count 11 different varieties, does that sound right? I certainly don't have the quantity that Mandy does, so she is ahead......I better go shopping.

Happy Vday!

Hey are any of you doing anything fun/fancy/romantic/unusual for Valentine's Day? We don't usually go out for it or do anything fancy. The school kids get lots of candy and cards at their school parties. Last night we had a ward activity. The kids got to go do activities and the parents got to watch and participate in a Newly Wed Game and eat cake. It was pretty fun. Today our awesome neighbor Judy invited the kids over for a few hours and lunch. Mike and I will go out to lunch and then I will go shopping! It will be pretty fun, if we make it that far. Jake and Tyson keep asking me how much longer until we get to go to Judy's house! They love her! Tomorrow we will have a nice turkey dinner and each get a candy valentine from me. I hope you all have a great day! Oh, and it's a four day weekend here... yeah!

FYI

Hey, just thought everyone should know...mom is stuck in California. She was going to be coming home tomorrow, but because of another storm coming, they canceled her flight. She will be coming home Friday, almost a week later than originally planned. Dad is home alone. Mom has his cell phone and he has hers. Not sure why...

Also, Andy is home and safe!!!! YEAH!!! Laura and the boys and her mom should be joining him soon!

Challenge Mom's Kitchen: Cheese

I've created a new game to play--if any of you ever want to play it. It's called, "Challenge Mom's Kitchen." The way the game works is you select some food item in your house that you think you have more of than mom (or, if you just want to force mom to see how much of it she has :) ). Today's challenge, cheese. We have 12 different kinds of cheese (one is a strawberry cream cheese apple dip, so technically it probably doesn't count, but I'm listing it because I'm sure mom has lots of cheeses I don't). From the left, around the top and back we have: Blue cheese, 2 kinds of Swiss, cottage cheese, brown cheese, 2 kinds of cheddar, 2 kinds of cream cheese, Parmesan, mozzarella and another cheddar. Common cheeses that are missing from our fridge today are Monterrey jack, shredded parmesan, and feta. Adrianne pointed out that this might be why we feel like we need to lose weight.

What's your cheese arsenal like? Feel free to post pictures! This is a great way to go through your fridge.