Try Again - No Gaga for Us

Well, today was the day that tickets to the Lady Gaga concert at the Toyota Center on July 25 went on sale.  My wonderful wife took the time out of her day to try and score us some tickets (they went on sale at 10 a.m. so I was in class).  However, it was not meant to be.  They seemed to be sold out before they even went on sale.  Oh well.  Amy was so upset, bless her.  But it is what it is.  Would have been AWESOME, but I'm not going to pay like 5 times the ticket prices via other options.  Good news though, as I figured, they added a 2nd show on Monday, July 26!  These tickets go on sale next Friday.  So, we'll see if we were meant to go to this show.  If not, total bummer but I can handle it.  I think this whole Dave Ramsey viewpoint accompanied with the adoption have helped me to realize what is truly important.  Now, don't get me wrong, I still have my moments when things get skewed, but I'm slowly coming around.  So, the new countdown to the next sale date begins!  T-minus 6 1/2 days and counting.  Stay tuned.

Tonight though should be fun.  We are going to a party at a church/school friend's house that should be pretty cool.  It's a crawfish boil and I love some crawfish - but not in the whole peel and suck the head sort of way.  But there's gumbo which I also love!  So, that accompanied by the fact that our 931 band Antidote 7 will be playing (yes they do mainstream too) make it a shoe-in for an AWESOME time!  Mom is watching the boys overnight, which they both are excited about.  So, party, good food, good drinks, friends, and a kid-less night!  That's a way to start the weekend after a crazy busy week!  Hence the reason I'm posting now - later will not be an option and remember the post-a-day goal!  Friday, April 9 - check!
 
All is well, with fingers crossed for concert tickets, in Drosche Land.

Easter 2010

Well, the last holiday of the school year has officially come and gone.  As busy as we were, I have to say we did well today - doing absolutely nothing.  We needed it too, all of us.  Easter yesterday was great.  The Easter Bunny did an awesome job and the boys loved it!  I'm only going to post a few pictures below.  For the rest I'm going to use Snapfish to place a link on the side like I did for the Campout pictures.  I hope this works and everyone can view them.  Anyway, moving on.  Easter at 931 was wonderful, we truly enjoyed it.  Especially Braeden.  Easter must be his favorite time of the year because he has been talking about it for the past two weeks.  He can tell you the whole story too!  This makes Amy and I so proud and just is another great example of the wonderful education he is getting at Trinity - and I promise I have no biases! :)  After church we surprised my grandmother for her birthday, Amy's idea, and that went very well.  Then we spent the remainder of the day hanging out at Amy's Mom's house eating delicious food!

Like I said earlier, today we truly just stayed at home and relaxed.  Sure there was cleaning and laundry to be done, but we only left the house late in the afternoon to do a little quick grocery shopping.  Amy, riding high on the thought that the money we could have put toward a new car can do wonders for the adoption and our debt snowball, spent a lot of time doing financial planning today.  First of all she did her usual 2nd pass for our taxes and found a few more breaks we can take.  We will only owe the government $3.90!  HA!  Take that Uncle Sam!  We haven't owed that litter EVER!  Needless to say this is fantastic news.  Next, she did a lot of work looking at our debt snowball, and our lives once everything is paid off.  We truly will be following the Dave Ramsey plan.  It will be awesome and will truly allow us to go through the adoption much more easily.  She is wonderful!  Not only does she do a great job at our family finances, but she loves it!  I couldn't be luckier.  So, all in all, it was a great break.  I can't believe that the school year is almost over though.  I'm both excited and nervous about staying home with the boys over the summer.  I haven't had a summer, ever, so I'm not sure what to do with one.  Luckily the boys will still be enrolled on Tuesday/Thursday so that'll give me a good schedule of home/away.  But that's a post for another time.  Time now to relax with Amy, watch Dancing with the Stars, and vote for Kate Gosselin.

All is well, after an egg-cellent break, in Drosche Land.

 

Jack and his eggs after the hunt

 

 Braeden with his egg hunt treasures!

Bunny Prep

Well, Amy and I just finished filling over 60 eggs for the boys for this year's Easter.  Yes, it seems like a lot, but each is only filled with a few pieces of candy, and there are some filled with some change.  They love putting money in their jars.  We are going to get them on the Dave Ramsey plans for kids when they are a bit older.  For now we are just trying to teach them to "save".  They will not make the mistakes we made with money, that's for sure.  But I digress.  This morning has been one busy blur of a Good Friday.  I woke up at 6:15 this morning to find Amy awake since 5:30 and the boys since 6:00.  Amy was already hard at work cooking and preparing for the coming holiday festivities.  We were just talking the other day about how everyone loves the Easter holiday, but nobody every actually "rests" over this vacation.  It is always go go go, this year will be no different.

After lunch today we head to the mall to meet my Mom who is getting an iPhone!  She lost her other one and she has wanted an iPhone since we got ours last year.  So, Amy and I have converted another person to the iPhone.  I am so excited!  Plus we get to go to the Mac store which is always fun.  After that we will be going to their house to help her set it up and learn it.  Tonight we will go to the 931 Good Friday service with Mom.  I am super excited about this because they always lead such an amazing Good Friday and Easter worship.  I know it is going to be an awesome experience, as 931 typically is.
 

Tomorrow we head to Amy's Mom's house to dye eggs with Amanda and her kids so the boys are super excited about that as usual.  I think right now we are bringing about 3-dozen eggs!  The kids are so cute when dyeing the eggs though, I can't wait for the cute pictures.  We will eat lunch there and head back home to get ready for an evening with friends.  Our college friend Niki and her husband David are coming to Houston today so we will be getting together with them and Sarah & Nathan!  It'll be a like a college days reunion!  We live fairly near Sarah and Nathan but never see them due to such busy schedules.  We haven't seen Niki in 5 years since Sarah and Nathan's wedding so that should be fun.  The boys are coming with us so I know they will charm everyone there once they get over their initial shyness.

Sunday brings Easter morning worship at 931, which I'm also pumped about!  We didn't get to it last year so I am excited for our first time.  After service we will head to Amy's Mom's for Easter lunch/dinner.  Celebrating Thanksgiving with my side of the family and then Easter with Amy's has been a good compromise that seems to work well with everyone.  Then Monday, maybe, might bring some rest and relaxation.  But that remains to be seen, we'll see if anything pops up before then.
 

So, with a hectic schedule, bags of Easter goodies that the Easter bunny will bring the boys, and a fridge that smells like fart we enter Easter vacation.  I know it will be crazy, but it will also be filled with fun, memories, and some great worship experiences.  As usual though I'm sure we will feel like we need a vacation to recover from our vacation!  

All is well, and hopping along, in Drosche Land.

Not Right Now - 2

Well, we had yet another instance of "Not Right Now" yesterday.  With the weather beginning to heat up the van is acting up again with its sluggish response when you press on the gas.  It hasn't done it all winter, but is occasionally doing it now.  We had it looked at several times last summer and no one could ever find out what was wrong.  Well, we thought that maybe we should look into a new car before it gets bad again.  Plus, it wouldn't hurt to downsize a bit either.  So we packed up the boys and headed to CarMax.  We had done some research before so we knew what we could afford and what we were looking for.  We also knew we were upside down in the van, so any loan we took out would have to include the negative equity in it.  Finally, we knew how much we had to spend in order to keep our monthly payments about the same.  At CarMax we checked out the three cars we had in mind - the Toyota Rav4, Honda CR-V, and Nissan Rogue.  The CR-V was not quite right, we didn't like the inside or general layout.  We loved the storage space on the Rav4 but when Amy test-drove it she said it was cramped feeling and bouncy.  So, we decided on the Rogue.  It was spacious, comfortable, and had some nice upgrades and amenities.  We decided to take the plunge; keeping in mind we had the walk-away power to leave if it wasn't going to be a fit.  We knew buying a new car wasn't really according to Dave Ramsey's plan, but we needed a reliable car that wouldn't fall apart on us.  So after much waiting we got our results back.  It was a no go.  Not because of our credit or anything, we were just too far upside down in the van.  The banks only will allow you to have negative equity up to a certain percentage of the price of the new car.  We were able to get a good interest rate and a monthly payment similar to our current one; we just didn't have the cash the loans were requiring to offset the negative equity.  So, once again we get our answer of "Not Right Now" from God.

But again, it's ok.  We will survive.  The good news is that we were able to get a good interest rate and monthly payment on 0% down!  If we were less upside down in the van or owned it outright, we would be fine.  That is good news in and of itself.  The only bit of bad news we got was the fact that CarMax will not buy a car with more than 100,000 miles on it, the van is at 90,000.  So, we are stuck with the van.  No worries though, the plan now is to just pay off the van and get a new car later.  More good news is that since we got the good interest rate and 0% down we wanted, we might be able to buy an actual new car when we do decide to get one.  So, once again we are given this answer and we accept it.  It'll give us time to pay off our credit cards and get everything squared away for the adoption and a new car later.  We have grown up quite a bit in the past year or so since we began the Dave Ramsey plan and became involved in 931.  We are more accepting of God's plan for us and more willing to follow along rather than try to lead.  It is comforting to know that all will be ok.  Thus is the inspiration from a verse Amy found - Jeremiah 29:11.  This has become somewhat of our mantra as we enter the adoption process, but really is something we try to keep in mind in all areas of our lives.  It's on the main page of this blog because it has become so important to us.  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Amy is great at finding applicable verses for situations and feelings.  Another one of her many talents.

All is well, even with the answer of "Not Right Now", in Drosche Land.