Honey! I'm home! (for 3 days!)

I got home around 9:30 last night. I watched a little TV and went straight to bed without even checking the email . I was whooped. Driving almost 900 miles in 48 hours tends to wear a person out. We met with Dave Ramsey's right-hand mand, Russ Carrol, in Nashville. We are the proud owners of a new budget, 13 week Financial Peace University kit, (which we will be starting tomorrow), and a new set of financial goals. It was worth the trip. Russ was a pretty nice guy. Some of what he said had already sunk in when we hit Opry Mills Mall. I found 2 great bargains on Christmas gifts and bought nothing for myself. Greg bought us each a piece of candy at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. The total was $7.95. I just about crapped. It was really good candy, but for $8, I could have gotten several packages of candy bars at home. Russ would be proud. The biggest change in our budget is the $20 a week allowance for eating out. That's not much. I love to cook, but it's going to take me awhile to get back in the swing of things as far as advance meal planning and grocery buying. We'll get started on that as soon as I get done with all of these out-of-town business trips. I leave Monday night to spend the rest of the week in Jefferson City with my friend and now co-worker, Heather M. Fisher. We'll have a blast, but I have a feeling I am really going to be ready to get home on Friday. I'll be finished training out-of-town until the first or second week in November, then it's back to Jeff City. The last week of Novmber I'll be training at the Lake of the Ozarks. As far as I know, that will be it until next year. I hope.

I had a blast at the training in Columbia. I got to rate the neatest child care center I have ever seen. It was a home daycare and the owner/teacher was absolutely wonderful with the kids. I cannot say enough about her. She said she makes very little money because she puts everything she makes back into the school. You could tell. I have never seen such wonderful cultural diversity in a center. The children were listening to a mix of Zydeco, West African music and Brazilian music on the CD changer that morning. They try recipes from around the world and the parents get copies of the recipes. The children sit under an art tree, (a huge branch covered in their own artwork) and read books that they have made themselves. Amazing. I love Ms. Phyliss. I'm actually going to see if Heather wants to stop in and see her center on the way to Jefferson City. She will go nuts since she's the trainer for childcare providers and offers technical assistance to providers. If I didn't need money, I would quit tomorrow and open a center like Ms. Phyliss. She only has 10 kids enrolled and has 4 computers. That's unheard of here. Here are some pics of her school. It's just 2 rooms in her house, so it's very cramped, but very organized. I love it!

































Cool, isn't it? Makes you want to go play there, doesn't it?!?! There were no discipline issues while we were there and I have never seen happier kids than the kids at this center. They love Ms. Phyliss. Me too!

This afternoon we took advantage of Missouri's tax-free weekend and bought Carson's school supplies. He wanted so badly to go to Andy's Frozen custard when we were done shopping, but he fell asleep while I was in Hobby Lobby. Greg and I got custard, but he sleeping so soundly that we didn't get him any since we weren't finished with all of the shopping. Greg stayed with him in the car while I finished up at Target. Carson awoke as we were leaving the parking lot and screamed, "When are we gonna get ice cream?!?!?" He got a little dish at the Jackson Dairy Queen and we called it a night. He ate about 3 bites before declaring that he would rather have fruit snacks. Typical.

I'm off to work on scrapbook projects that are due for a few upcoming swaps that I'm in. Heather and I are taking are scrap stuff with us to training next week and I'd like to be able to work onthe cruise album the whole time rather than my swap stuff. We'll see how much I get done. Have a super Sunday!