Gratituesday: Huge News Edition

For more Gratituesday, check out Laura's blog.

I have BIG news!

We (my brother and I) have the most amazing mother on this planet. She is that crazy fun mom that still knows how to make everything better, find your missing sock, and laugh at herself. She is so strong, an immense model for women everywhere ... most specifically me, and she doesn't take any crap from anyone. I have her same no-nonsense attitude ... just possibly amplified to 11. I feel like I could go on for 100 years and still not say all the good things about her. For her, for our relationship, for our living situation (we own a house together that we all live in -- crazy fun), and for every single day that I get to share my life with her ... giggles, hilarious stories, sous chef dinner duties, and the occasional tears. I love you, Mom. For you, I am most thankful.

Enough suspense? Really?! Come on, lady, where's the BIG news ...?!

My amazing mother has a birthday coming up a week from today. It's a big one, this birthday, like the capital B-I-G kind. 3 years ago, around her birthday time, my brother and I were sitting around dreaming of places we could whisk our mother off to for her BIG birthday this year. She deserves more than I can ever give her, and we wanted to give her one of those 'experience of a lifetime' kind of trips.

But ... what about your frugal life? ... your debt?

Yea. Exactly. I mean, where can you really 'whisk' someone off to when you have a bare-bones-we-just-keep-the-lights-on-and-try-to-climb-this-mountain-of-debt budget?

Well ....

3 years is a long time to plan. Really, it's a long time to save. We spent almost none of that time actually planning. We knew from the word 'go' where we wanted to take her, we just didn't know how we were going to pay for it. I am happy to announce that through budget tightening, extra income acquisition (eBay, craigslist, surveys, cashcrate, inboxdollars, etc), collecting change, shorting the grocery budget, and doing odd jobs we have managed to both keep up with the debt snowball AND fund this BIG birthday vacay. *whew*!

Alright, already! Where are you going?!

Ok, ok ... we are departing on Thursday, southward bound to ...



That's right! We have a date with a mouse. We shall return (never? please? ha) on Sunday, 3/8. I will endeavor to blog from Orlando, assuming Be packs the laptop. If you don't hear from me, he probably left the computer at home, or I'm simply far too busy living up the not-so-wintery Florida weather and spending time with the most deserving woman in the world. To her, I am forever grateful.


Simply,

Em.