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This little purse is the reason I don't have a prettier picture for today. Don't get me wrong-- I love the purse. And I never have anything get lost in it. But, the downside is, its too small to hold my camera. So tonight as I was leaving our FPU class at church, there was the prettiest pink sunset in the sky. I rushed the 2 miles to my house to get my camera, but by the time I got home, then ran back outside to snap the shot, it was gone. :-( Who knew the sun could set so quickly?! I guess now I do. I'll be switching to my bigger purse tomorrow. Also in this picture above, you can see our FPU workbook and stuff... this class is so great. We are so ready and excited to be paying off Sean's student loans sooner than we have to. Hopefully, by this time next year (or close to it) we will be debt free, except for our house payments!! I never realized how much of a tremendous blessing it was that my parents had a college fund for us kids, so we didn't have student loans. I think I'd be much more discouraged if our debt were twice the amount it is now. So it makes me all the more determined to provide that for my kids, too!

But of course, reaching our goal of being debt free, no longer slaves to any sleezy financial institutions does require sacrifice and saving and slicing a lot of things in our budget. So dear family, if you read this... Christmas presents may be a little slim this year. But we still love you! We're trying to pay off debt and live like no one else right now, so that later, we can really live like no one else. And we promise when that happens, your Christmas presents will really rock! :-)

And just in case you're wondering, our "pay off debt plan" does not include any more Coach purses anytime in the near or somewhat distant future. Darn! But when we do finally get it all paid off and our 6 months of savings in the bank and a retirement fund started and investments made and a college fund going, well then.......... :-)