God does provide. This time He did it through 3rd anniversary gifts. We have wonderful families. :) We now have enough money to build back up our $1000 emergency fund (which was depleted by all the tire/car stuff), AND we have money to buy a new couch with. Well, new to us, anyway. I'm putting my hopes on Craigslist, but oy, that can sure be a gamble.

Week 2 of living on a cash budget. Yikes! Our food money is down and I'm beginning to freak out just a little bit with five full days before payday left. We've also used up our date night budget and our Starbucks budget. :P But it's working. It's beginning to take effect--Stephen is understanding how having concrete money (CASH) makes living within our means much more real. It's amazing and more than I could've asked for.

Last week we celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We spent two nights in a condo in a little woodsy resort community. We got the vacation at a deep discount months ago for agreeing to listen to a presentation from a timeshare group called Vacation Internationale. There were little annoying things--paying $5 for 24 hours of Internet, for one. But what made up for it all was an AMAZINGLY low-pressure meet up with the VI guy. Wow. I seriously felt guilty because I had been dreading the presentation for so long. We've been to one other that I just dislike with a passion because it was a hard sell. Ugh. But this guy was way different. It was a conversation and he actually said himself he didn't think we were at a place to buy a timeshare! Amazing! What that does for VI is it leaves a great impression so when we DO have enough money for a timeshare, they are who we'll go to. The other neat thing is that they're non-profit. Who ever heard of non-profit timeshare organization?! I am so impressed with everything about them.

Anyway, it was overall a very nice vacation. We had a great anniversary dinner at a yummy bistro. They had gourmet teas--oh yum! The one I had was caramel green tea and it was like dessert in a cup. :) The food was tasty, too. If I'm ever back in the area and have the money to, I'll have to revisit the place.

This weekend was crazy and is about to get crazier. Tomorrow Stephen has two different meetups with two different guys, one at 9:00 a.m. and one at 10:30 a.m. Immediately after that, we're driving for an hour and a half, most likely (are we crazy? yes), to go picking apples with my mom. The more I think about the drive the less I like the idea, but the farm is one I want to go to so badly. :P We'll see what happens tomorrow--there's another local farm we could possibly go to. Anyway, we pick apples all afternoon and then we head to Dave Ramsey's class at night. Oy. What a long day ahead!

So I really ought to be going to bed, but I have one other piece of news. :D Elizabeth finally had her little baby girl! She went into labor last night about 8:00 and had Raelyn at 10:00 this morning. I stayed up super late texting her and waiting to hear any news, and then woke up every time she texted me! But she's my best friend and I wanted to be there so much for her. Now I just have to wait to see pictures on Facebook... The waiting is hard!

Anyways, that's my news for the week, I guess. :P I could ramble on for hours...I'm in one of those moods...But I'm so tired. So good night! Sleep well! :)

-Stephanie

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