New Look, New Name

I changed the look of my blog. Took out a bunch of junk. Added more junk and picked a really weird green -- I know, I know. No longer estranged -- Just Getting Stranger.

Why the name change?

A year ago I filed for divorce from J****.

A year ago I went to the attorney and filed for divorce. I didn't want to, I felt I had to. He was drinking to excess. He wasn't working. He was irresponsible. He got more DUI's and the list goes on. The children were being adversely affected, I was starting to be afraid of him, things were rough. I tolerated, I hummed and hawed around until you my friends gave it to me with both barrels loaded. J**** started reading my blog, he realized that she is serious. He has been sober and clean for 120 days today. He also heard this morning that he will be full time as soon as the bureaucratic red tape is taken care of and the opening is available. Hopefully next week. He attends church with us and has truly amazed me with his progress. Tomorrow = 4 calendar months and the anniversary of the day that we met.

If you had asked me where we would be today, I would have sworn he'd either be in jail or homeless and I'd be a single mom. Prayer works, tough love works, al-anon helps, gut feelings help, and you guys kept me tough.

We are no longer estranged.

Dave Ramsey program tells you to be weird.

We are working the Baby Steps outlined in the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover and we just threw Snowball number 4 today.

Here's the Snowball progress to date:

Doin' the Crawl -Arrears Caught Up - DONE - $1761.86 - 2/9/2007
Baby Step 1 - DONE - $1000.00 - 2/15/2007
Baby Step 2 - 11 SNOWBALLS left to throw
Snowball 1 - $413.00 - Thrown 2/16/07 - Legal Fees
Snowball 2 - $167.04 - Thrown 2/23/07 - Medical Bills
Snowball 3 - $242.73 - Thrown 3/15/07 - CapOne - CC1
Snowball 4 - $300.00 - Thrown 4/12/07 - Pinnacle Finance (negotiated down from $533)

No more credit. As one bill collector told us -- he doesn't finance anything anymore except dirt. (Land, Home, Realty) If I can't afford it and can't pay cash for it, I don't need it. Be weird Dave says, live below your means so you aren't eating Alpo when you are old and gray.

As each snowball is thrown, the load seems lighter. I guess we are growing up. We paid for Dental visits by waiting until we could pay cash - no credit card, no borrowing from mama/daddy, no using line of credit at bank. Just plain ol' cash.

Things like this seem to fall in place when God is on your side. I give on Sunday morning what I can afford -- since I can't afford to tithe I am building the church website. I ask God everynight to make me a good steward of my money. He helps me. How? I wanted to attend the Financial Peace University (FPU) by Dave Ramsey. Dave begins offering an online version -- perfect for me -- who can get a cheap babysitter for three to attend classes for 16 weeks? I get accepted as a free beta tester. J**** and I get to take the course for FREE, FREE I say. Now that is cool.

As a Christian we are to be a peculiar people.

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; 1 Peter 2:9

We are supposed to be different, a light in a dark world. Be good, not be like the majority, but be Christlike. We are supposed to make people go hmmmm. What is more peculiar than to love God, your neighbor, and even your enemies?

Strange is fun, just look at us.

Yes, we are strange. I am the mom that tells my screaming child in the store to scream louder they can't hear you on the other side of the store. I am the mom that sits with the kids during children's song service and sings "If you are Happy and You Know It" and does all of the motions. J**** is the dad that squirts our kids and the neighbor kids with water hoses and runs races with them down the middle of the street. Ours is the house where all the kids want to come and play. I am the mom that sits in the middle of the neighbor's trampoline with 4 little girls making balloon animals. G***** sings everywhere she goes. We like the "Walton's" tell each family member goodnight and we love you before bedtime EVERY night. We say grace before we eat. We aren't afraid to be a little different. We have fun, we love each other. Normal is boring.

and thank goodness we are JUST GETTING STRANGER everyday.