Awesome E-mail!

I never knew how much I appreciated a clean, put together home… until Katie left! I miss you, honey!

Well, I have about 10 minutes before I need to get ready for Red Robin tonight. I just wanted to leave you with an idea and an image. Thanks Tim for the Email. I hope everyone enjoys the image! Just think of what people are thinking when this guys passes them! I think I would be looking behind me for any strays!

Feel free to send this post or this picture to your friends!! Let me know if you try it out!

The Bachelor

Well, Katie is at her teacher’s confrence ALL WEEK and me and Sooie are “Bach’n it”! Wahoo! I’m just glad that she isn’t gone over the weekend, because it is when I have nothing to do that I REALLY miss her! Hopefully this work week will keep me so busy that days will FLY by!
What “extra time” that I do find, I will be getting the rest of our stuff ready for the big YARD SALE this weekend! Call us for some details if you are interested!
Any other extra time will be used in furthering my “nerd status” learning more web site languages & dinking around on my computer!

Check for some “style” updates!

- The Bachelor (kinda)

Continued Success & Praising the Lord!

Katie and I just got home from working a mid shift at Red Robin where we started at 1 in the afternoon and we were phased out about 9 or 9:30. This was a tremendours belssing because for about 2 hours durring the mid shift, we are the only ones on the floor!
The Lord blessed us with many tables and many generous people! (Of course there were “those other folks” too, but they were few and far between! )
JUST TODAY: we made $225 in tips!! That is about tripple what we usually take home on a double day!
We also received our pay check of $114 combined and Katie received her Bonus check today of $820! So today, we “found” $1,159!!!
It was definately not easy! It was hard work & long hours, but the Lord is good and blessed our efforts FAR beyond what we had anticipated! We even prayed on the way there that we would see the Lord’s hand in our work and he would be evident to others through us!

It was a great shift today & Katie and I both had a wonderful time this morning in our new “library” / “sitting room” just visiting with each other, and the Lord.

What a blessed day! WE’RE (going to be) DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!

Praising the Lord,
The Ellens

Here Comes Santa Clause!

Well, Christmas is in December again this year, but this time, Katie and I are prepared! WAHOO! We just opened our Christmas club account and filled it up with our Christmas budget! So, our Christmas gifts are all paid for! How ’bout that! We paid off our first debt this month, bought car insurance for 6 months, & paid CA$H for our wedding pictures! We are ON THE WAY!
We have also been working hard on coming up with an easy way to budget. I’m a computer guy, so XL is awesome for me and I love it. She is a paper girl so notepads are her thing. So, we are using a note pad! The thing is, no matter how great and nerdy we make the budget, if it doesn’t work for both parties, then it winds up not working at all! When she shows me the notepad, I see an xl sheet with a cool “hand written” font! So, that is working for us.
Katie has been doing an absolute incredible job of tracking our expenses and accounting for EVERY dollar! This is such a blessing because now we are starting to have more realistic pictures of what it cost to live life as we need to. Every spare dollar is going to pay off our debt and I think we have decided to stay with Red Robin as long as they give us some better shifts and sections in the future.

Continue to pray for us. As you well know, finance is the number 1 “issue” for us, but that is because we are normal and just getting used to this “paying” for everything. Since we have enrolled in FPU We are becoming abnormal in that we are paying OUT – not IN! We will be done with the “payments” thing soon, so PLEASE KNOW – if we don’t come and visit you, or don’t go out to eat with you, or don’t invite you over to cook out on our dollar, or don’t want to pay for the gas that it cost to see your home – PLEASE KNOW that WE LIKE YOU. We are GETTING OUT OF DEBT!

Check out that sweet Java Script over on the right (that is the language used to make the picture change when you put your cursor on the links). I’m still learning, but this one was a little more difficult to write!

We love yall. Thanks for your prayers.

Fixed… Again

Well, I think we finially have the car situation under control! It broke down about a day after we got it back and we had to take it back to the Firestone who origionally worked on it. Luckily we were still under warranty from the last time that they fixed this & the whole job was free! So now, we are a 2 car family again & life is slowly returning to normal.

At Red Robin, we havne’t been making what we “used” to make. Our manager has hired on TONS of new folks so even though our hours haven’t changed, the number of tables we get in a shift has been almost cut in half! This is really making us look & evaluate our time. Where can we profit most in the shortest time spent? It is a tough question to answer, because we know that there is great potential at Red Robin (for a short time) however, we feel our potential there has been cut by the massive number of new hires!

In the real estate business, I’m becoming very familure with all the processes involved in marketing a home and helping buyers select a home that suits their needs! It has been LOADS of fun for me to help agents in the marketing of homes in Northwest Arkasnsas durring one of the busiest times of the year! I’m learning a so much in “practical” knowledge. Now, I just need to finish this stink’n program so that I can take the test. Advice: if you ever want to be a real estate agent, go to the 3 week class rather than taking the computer/online class. It is more trouble than it is worth! That is for sure!
I’m ready to be an agent! The time has definately come!

Katie is at home all day, sitting on her duff, watching Oprah. JUST JOKING!!!! I don’t even think she likes Oprah! She will be working on some school stuff like the Outdoor Classroom Grant & other things.
Mainly, she is doing a wonderful job taking care of the home, Sooie, & me! We are actually in the process of combining our craft room & office so that we can have a quiet sitting room at the end of our house. I help out some yesterday, but she will be doing the bulk of it while I am working. It is a really neat preview of what it will be like when she doesn’t have to work anymore!

We are also getting ready for our big Yard Sale coming up on the 24th! If you have any items to donate, please give us a call or email us @ RaynKatie@gmail.com. This is our BECOMING DEBT FREE Yard Sale with Justin & Rachel!! Hopefully we will see you there!

Keep us in your prayers! ~Yard Sales, Katie’s Car, Ray’s Jobs vs Ray’s Education, Katie’s Time Off, Red Robin (stay or go?)

Thanks yall! See you soon! (at the Yard Sale!!!!)