Financial Peace University

On August 20, Stefanie and I are going to start Financial Peace University at a local church. It is a 13 week course focusing on getting out of debt and taking control of your money. We are both looking forward to going through the course and I think it will be beneficial to us as a couple. I don't think either one of us is financially illiterate, but I really believe that we will both come away from this much better off. We've all heard the stats that xx% of fights/arguments/disagreements are about money and hopefully we will avoid some of these as a result of this class.

Here I GO!

Well...it looks as though Scott has taken over the blog. I guess that I'm just a slacker when it comes to this. Here is a current update of our wedding plans thus far.

1.) We have a location (Southside Church of Christ in Rogers, AR) & date/time (Dec. 13, 2008 @ 2 p.m.).
2.) We have a budget set in place & many spreadsheets to help with organization! haha
3.) We have a color scheme selected (raspberry & light pink).
4.) We have my bridesmaids selected (6 in all)....maybe I'm getting too carried away! :)
5.) We have our invitations pretty much done & our guest list is coming together nicely.
6.) We have our wedding cake decided on & working on coming up with a groom's cake plan.
7.) We've decided on what flowers we're going to have (various shades of pink roses, white carnations, & calla lillies in my bouquet....the bridesmaids will have white roses).
8.) We have the majority of our music selected (at least the processional...still working on the recessional).
9.) Oh....I've found my dress!!! Pretty sure anyway. My mom & Roberta are going this weekend with me to finalize it (hopefully they'll love it just as much as I do). :) Scott does NOT know what it looks like. My plan is for him not to see it until the wedding day!

Notice that I've put "we" all through this list. Scott really has been a great help throughout this process! God truly blessed me by bringing Scott into my life!!! I know that sometimes (probably MOST of the time) Scott could think of a dozen other things he'd rather discuss, but he's always willing to listen & nod his head. haha! He's wonderful, as you all already know!!!!

Random YouTube clip (beat the claw game)

Our World in 3D

I was browsing around on the Google blogs the other day when I came across the Google Earth blog. I read a little when I came to this post on 3D campus modeling. Low and behold, look who one of the winners is. Good ole UMR (actually, it's listed as Missouri S&T, but I'll always call it UMR). If you need some time to reminisce about the school that you gave 4 years (or more) of your life to, you can revisit it in Google Earth. You can download a kmz file to open in Google Earth, or you can view the models on the web.

Request for Prayers (UPDATE x2)

UPDATE: Joe was able to come home from the hospital on Tuesday. He is still pretty weak, but is recovering.

UPDATE: Joe is still in the hospital, but is slowly getting better. The doctors are going to try to start him on solid foods tomorrow, which will hopefully help him regain strength. He should be released in another 4 or 5 days.

Stefanie's dad Joe goes in for surgery tomorrow (Wednesday). The doctors are going in to remove a tumor from colon cancer that has returned. Please pray for him and his family. Stefanie is leaving in the morning and will return once her dad has stabilized and the doctors can give them an update. This is a scary time for all of us and again, we solicit your prayers.

Weddings Bring out the Inner Geek

I recently read this post from the official Google blog online. Being the nerd tech savvy guy that I am, I immediately thought "what a great idea" and began to look for ways to implement Google into our engagement. I have been a Gmail and Google calendar user for quite some time now, but I hadn't ventured too much into some of the other services. Now we've started using Google Docs to store our budget, guest list, and other information online (after all, if it can't be put in a spreadsheet, it's not really worth writing down, is it?). That way I don't have to worry about emailing the most up-to-date copy to myself or making sure I have my thumb drive with me. We have obviously started a blog to help share information with everyone. There are many good, free blog platforms out there, but since, I've already drank the Google Kool-aid, I figured it would just be easier (and might have better integration) to just sign up for their blogger service. Hopefully, the blog is useful and beneficial to you. I have already posted a map (under the Wedding Links section to the right) of the Rogers, Ar area with the church, some hotels, and a few shopping areas located. If you have suggestions for other items, please let us know. I hope this didn't turn out to be too much of a Google advertisement, but I wanted to share some of the tech side of the wedding with you. It helps keep me more involved in the planning process, at least. Don't forget you can subscribe to our RSS feed and always be notified when there are new posts.

One Week Later

Well, just over one week has passed since the engagement. Congratulations are still flowing in on a pretty regular basis and initial plans are starting to take shape. Stefanie still loves showing off her ring (I don't expect her to tire of that anytime soon) and I am wishing there was a master spreadsheet out there that would make all of our plans for us (we are making some headway, though). Mark your calendars for December 13th, 2008. The wedding will probably be around 2:00 at Southside Church of Christ in Rogers, AR.

We had a great 4th of July weekend with my parents and extended family at Stockton Lake (see pictures below). This week Stefanie is out at Green Valley Bible Camp for a week of counseling, while I try to adjust back to a full week of work.

We are starting to look at options for wedding invitations, so if you have any suggestions, please let us know.

-Scott

cousins, spouses, and kids

cousins

the little guys

The Engagement Story

Where to begin...we had just spent Friday & Saturday at my grandma's house in Poteau. The funny thing is that my aunt & cousins thought that the reason for our visit had to do with us announcing our engagement to the family (it was not...pretty sure they were disappointed). We left Poteau Saturday evening to head back to NWA. After a pit stop at my parents' house, we stopped at the local neighborhood Wal-Mart to pick up a movie at the AMAZING Redbox (we also grabbed some movie watching snacks....chocolate & gummy bears). We then made our way to Scott's house to watch the movie & hang out. After the movie was over, we were talking & Scott said, "I wonder if it's still clear out?".....I said, (being the gullible person that I am, I thought he was talking about the storms that had just passed through the area) "I don't think it's supposed to storm anymore tonight." A few minutes later, Scott said, "I'll be right back", & he went to his bedroom. He came back out with his flip-flops on & grabbed my hand to go outside. I was a little confused. WHY were we going outside?? It was a gorgeous night outside. The stars were bright & clear, the weather was perfect (cool with a slight breeze), & it reminded me a lot of one of our first dates at his house. We were enjoying looking at the stars, when a car drove by. It was so funny because Scott was like "Ugh...a car's coming"....after the car passed, Scott bent down to "straighten his jeans" & he got down on his knee. After telling me how much he loved me (and more that you're just NEVER going to know about), he pulled out the ring box & asked me to marry him. OF COURSE I said "YES!!". Needless to say, I wasn't expecting anything that night, & I was a little giddy & jumpy the remainder of the night.