$39,180.85

this is our grand total after selling the car on saturday. in 15 months, since the month after we found out we were pregnant, this is how much debt, medical bills, stupid tax, etc, we have paid off. we did this so i could leave my job and stay home with liam. it was the best decision of our life. some friends teased us for not buying each other gifts for birthdays and holidays, others for not spending money in general. but not us. we knew that with consumer debt looming over our heads and a baby on the way, we had no business (or need) for more stuff.

now, we have my student loans; then we're debt free! i can't wait to call dave ramsey. with the economy the way it is, we're not going to attack the student loans the way we did this debt. we have accomplished only needing around 20K a year to live and eat, and we will throw the rest in our money market account. we think that in 2 years, we can have a huge down payment to put down on land to build. also, this way if gas becomes $15/gallon, we can adjust our budget to accommodate.

but first we're going to celebrate. this weekend we're going to visit the hez and jay in columbia. we love those guys, and i wish we all lived closer. liam is going to enjoy having new kitties to chase, and jay's mom will enjoy having a baby in her arms. what mother with a child over 30 doesn't have baby fever?! glad our offspring can help defer the energy. he's pretty darn adorable, so i hope he doesn't make it worse.

i'm just excited to hang out with heather. we have similar activity levels. and they have cable ;)

other news. here's a picture of my new ride:

yeah - it rocks. the basket is super cool, and it has gears. we bought it on sunday (just stimulating the economy like george wants) but it wouldn't fit on our roof racks. so i rode home from 29th and topeka blvd and got a crash course in riding a trike. it's definitely different. i'll have to re-learn everything once liam's bike seat arrives. here it is with a baby about liam's age in it:

we're still waiting for it to arrive from amazon. we have his little helmet (it has pirates on it - aargh!). i can't wait. hopefully it comes on tuesday :)

to all the fabulous moms out there

hope you had a wonderful mother's day. i know i did. we went to the early service at fellowship, then headed out to salina to surprise mom and grandma. with the help of mandy and al, we pulled it off. we showed up just in time for lunch and mom was completely excited to see her grandson. sure, she likes visiting with us, too, but it's all about liam now.

we had a tasty lunch and gave mom her present. now to preface, my mother is an animist. she has a native american religious perspective, and her living room at home is all beautiful native american artwork. back in march, mom gave liam this really cute buffalo hat. colin and i thought it would be hilarious to do a photo shoot of liam in the hat. well, then the idea just grew and here is the finished product:


maybe you need to know our family well to truly appreciate it. we think it's hilarious, and mom immediately went and hung it up on the wall. the print we gave her was the size of a small poster.

the rest of the day was spent lounging outside with mom, mandy, and liam on a blanket looking at the pond. colin and stephen took the little aluminum boat out for the first time in seven years. they had fun paddling around the pond with a broken oar and a shovel. the pond has been dry for years, so it's great to have it back. mom and grandma are talking about stocking it with fish soon. i'm glad that liam will be able to make memories at his grammie's and great granny's house, just like i did.

we stayed in salina for about 4 hours, then headed back to t-town. we stopped and picked up a pizza crust and colin made us vegetarian taco pizza with some TVP. it was better that anything you can get delivered. yum!! the transition to not cooking with meat has been much, much easier than anticipated. also, it's really nice not to have to worry about the germs from handling uncooked meat. colin reports having more energy and sleeping better. i'm finding it easier to cook in general because veggies and their related products cook faster and have similar cooking times. i don't have to worry about anything not being "done" enough. anyway, it's working for us and that's all we care about.

if we come over for dinner, no need to make anything special for us. we are vegetarian for many reasons, but do not want our personal decision to create more work or possible wasted food because of trying to accommodate our choices. our friend bill from fellowship told us that the buddha's view was similar - not to refuse meat when offered by others. it's nice to have some ancient wisdom to back up our feelings. besides, the fried chicken at grandma's sunday was delicious :)

while on the subject of phobias....

let's revisit my fear of flying. colin came home from work yesterday really excited. the studio has exceeded the last 6 years of profits for the first four months. nathan took everyone out to lunch and surprised them with the news. apparently if this continues, everyone might be taken on vacation this winter down to mexico to celebrate.

it was all i could do not to cry while thinking about not just my husband boarding an airplane, but myself and liam. ack!! i know, it's a stupid fear. colin says to me "i get scared, too! you only have to get through a three hour flight." i almost threw up in my mouth a little at that. the last time i was on a plane was on a little 45 minute flight from chicago. oh yeah, i was also trashed on vodka tonics. that's not exactly an option when mothering in general and breastfeeding in particular.

i know this is an irrational fear. i have friends who fly every week or so for work. back and forth from KC to DC. they're fine. i think i need to do some hypnosis or something. i mean, here's a chance to go to mexico for free, with colin and liam. i have a while to get over this. it's only a few hours, right?!

our past week or so

we've been busy! we had a lot of stuff happening at fellowship: green meeting, green movie night - during which i won a prize for my fused plastic bag creation. it was a place mat. we've had some building dreams meetings and finally unveiled the first plans to the congregation. if all goes as planned, this time next year we will be finished with all construction. that will be so cool!

colin is almost done with his newest website, for PTMW. it's great! he's taught himself some new cool flash for this one. his good friend eric padilla got married last saturday. we got a chance to hang out with some of his friends, including gravy, rusty and elaine. we don't see a lot of our pre-baby friends much.

we went to the farmer's market last week. i'm hoping to plant our garden this week. i had grandiose plans of starting my seeds inside this year, but i couldn't figure out how to keep the cats out of them. oh well. our rosemary, onions, strawberries and mint are already back. we're planting basil, cilantro, parsley, carrots, green beans, dill and marigolds. the marigolds are supposedly to help keep the rabbits away. we'll see.

colin finished my clothes line. i haven't broken it in yet, but i feel the day will be here soon! i'm really excited. liam loves being outside. we like to rock on the porch swing together and take walks in the neighborhood after dinner. last night we walked over to colin's mom's house. it only took about 20 minutes or so. we used the stroller and liam fell asleep on the way home. he's totally crawling now! it's really cute. he's still not completely proficient, but it's just a matter of time.

i started watching baby willow for the marables this week. she is so stinkin' cute! it's a little taxing. since liam is still practically exclusively nursing, it gets a little dicey at times. i don't know how people with twins do it!

finally, our most exciting news this week is this:
this is colin's father's day present. it's a cordless electric mower. no more gas here, thank you! it is being delivered today. we still have to go buy a little storage shed for it to live in. his old mower was a manual push reel mower. he said the other men in the neighborhood made fun of him. it is a great mower, but only if you use it all the time. colin's stoked to have a bag so he can feed our compost all of our grass clippings.

we're putting colin's car in auto trader next week. i'll post some pics after we get it all detailed. it's a great car and i don't think we'll have any problem selling it. we don't have to rush, so we can wait on a good offer. then, look out, sallie mae! you're next ;)

storm freak out at my house last night!

and it wasn't baby liam. i have a few irrational fears, including flying and tornadoes. when i was a kid, my older sister could make me cry just by saying the word tornado. come to think of it, mandy may very well be the original source of this anxiety. but i digress.

last night we opened up all of the windows before bed, knowing it was going to rain. storms haven't really bothered me as much in the last few years, but sometimes they still get me. last night i woke up around 1am to not very hard rain, but i couldn't go back to sleep. i could hear the storm moving closer to our house. it wasn't loud here, but i could hear it further away. it was weird. so i start to panic that i can even hear such a thing and have to now wake up colin. if i'm awake and scared, there's no reason to be by myself. colin gets up and looks outside. he says the rain is waking me up because it's falling on a tarp outside and that it's just a summer storm. i don't believe him and know something is wrong. he says if it was dangerous, the sirens would go off. i say they could be broken. and then i actually hear them. i now have my liam in my arms and i'm breathless and my heart is racing even more. i make colin grab the papazon pillow and our comforter and head to the basement.

we have a great cheap rental house in a great neighborhood. but it is cheap - and part of the reason (beside my landlord being awesome) is the basement leaks. so we get downstairs (liam is awake now) and decide to sit in the back corner with the least amount of water. colin heads back up for the laptop. i am trying to figure out what debris in our basement will be our fate.

long story short (obviously) there was no tornado. it was just a really strong storm. liam was confused and wanted to play when we went back upstairs, and our comforter got wet with basement ick. our papazon pillow is gross now, too.

colin and i both decided that we need to clean our basement and have a set (and furnished) place to go during storms. we are also expanding the plans in our head for our dream house. it now includes a shelter space that has no part of our house structure above it.

liam didn't fight going back to sleep once we turned all the lights back off. lucky for me, the storm died completely after my freak out. best of all, my husband was super sweet (as always). he snuggled up to me after getting back in bed and thanked me for keeping our family safe. he's the best, and i love him because of it.

what babies really need and other news

not much - that's what! here's a cute photo of liam in his laundry basket. this keeps him wrangled so i can take a shower while he plays. when i finish, i fill the tub for him and pull him in with me. (i had to censor out his junk in this photo...)
and here he is all clean! he loves baths. btw - his little "colbert ear" is really obvious in this photo. they're actually the same size, but attach to his head at different angles. i think it's adorable :)


babies are so much fun! and you don't need to buy a bunch of crap for them. seriously, if you haven't procreated yet, talk to me before you do. i'll save you thousands of dollars, literally, by keeping you from buying all the stuff our society tells you babies need. they are lying and just trying to make money. ok, i'm off my soap box :)

here's my newest little craft. it's a clothes pin bag! it was really easy to make, and will serve me nicely once we get the clothesline put up. i can't wait!

here's a closer view:


i'm blogging today from cold, cold, council bluffs, iowa. colin has a photography conference today through tuesday. we drove up last night. our hotel is swanky - the spring hill suites marriot. we have a fridge, microwave, huge flat panel tv, and internet. the furniture is "hip and modern". here's liam playing on the floor:


they have a hot breakfast and i think snacks later. liam and i are going to go shopping for new swim suits for both of us. my favorite thing about our room is the shower.

check out the chair in the corner. just in case you get too tired from standing and showering. "gosh, i'm totally wiped out from my business trip. if only i could sit down..." brilliant design.

computer, wash my clothes.

look at who's coming to live at our house saturday. it's my fancy new washer! i don't even own 16 pairs of jeans, but you and everyone you know could come over to my house and we could wash them all at once :). my old washer was bought 2 years ago from an ad in the paper for $60. nothing fancy, and it may even be older that i am. i noticed a few months ago that it doesn't actually spin during the entire spin cycle. so a new washer went to the top of our list of things to buy when other things are paid off.

well, other things have all been paid off! except for the car and student loans, we're debt free! we have 1K saved towards what we're upside down on the car, and then we're selling it! this feels pretty good.

this washer is super great, and has a sanitize cycle for when i do my diapers. it also has a delay start on the wash, so you can load your clothes before bed, then have it start later so they aren't sitting damp all night. it also spins your cloths almost dry so you don't have to use your dryer as much. we're putting up a clothes line, too. if we do 8 loads of laundry a week with this machine, it costs $10 a year to operate. i can't wait to start comparing our bills!

the best thing about my washer is it's paid for. it's really neat to pay cash for the things we need. we did it with our bed, and now our washer. oh, our dryer too. the other best thing is this is probably the greatest impact i could have on the environment until we go down to one car.

i feel a little silly since i am so giddy about my new washer! but you'll understand once you see it. and liam's super fresh diapers.

speaking of liam, he's hilarious. he's going to be crawling soon and we have a bunch of videos to post once colin reformats them for the web. stay tuned. it's better than cable.