SHE SAID - 7th Grade Magic

7th grade - the magical year I was allowed to start wearing makeup to school.  This was a BIG MOMENT for me.  As I mentioned before in a previous post, I've loved makeup from a very young age, but up until 7th grade I was always playing with makeup.  This was the real deal - I was growing into a young lady...ok, ok, let's be honest, I didn't really blossom until about four years later, but you get my point.  

My mom knew this moment was special for me, so she made a big to-do about it - we ventured to the department store to get my first 'real' makeup.  Fancy, huh?!  I remember approaching the makeup counter, and I swear - I swear - it had a heavenly glow around it and I heard angels singing.  (Ok, maybe that was just the fluorescent lights and music coming out of the ceiling speakers, but let's not go spoiling my glory).  My greedy fingertips quickly found the dozens of eyeshadows that were on display as samples.  I tried to keep my cool and downplay how excited I was, but I can distinctly remember thinking makeup shopping and swatching colors was the absolute COOLEST.THING.EVER.  Funny thing is, fifteen years later testing out makeup is still one of the things that makes me happiest in life!  After a bit of swatching, mom allowed me to get three things: 1) pressed face powder, 2) blush, and 3) a duo eyeshadow of neutral browns. We then went and got clear mascara to keep with the don't-over-do-it-you-are-only-twelve theme (smart parents).  

I carried my shiny new powder compact around with me 24/7!  Bringing out that jade green piece of plastic in public was like a badge of honor for me.   Wearing makeup made me feel pretty-and knowing it was department store makeup-now THAT made me feel sophisticated (ohhlala).  Like I said, my parents had me keep it very natural and basic for starters, so it wasn't until 8th grade when my previously inner makeup-explorer made its outward public debut....don't worry, I'll tell you alllllll about that in another post.

SHE SAID - Ohhh How I Love A Side-Pony

Yes, it's true.  I do love a good side-pony.  I've always been the girl with short hair.  Or so it seems that way in my head.  Through all of high school and most of college my hair was shoulder-length or shorter.  This lack-of-luscious-length really hindered my side-pony ability.  Until now.  Or well, until I grew my hair out about a foot longer than normal.  There are so many possibilities for fixing it!  It does take a bit longer to fix than my short hair, but I'm having fun with it while I can.  So, for starters, I'll show you the length I feel my hair 'has always been'.

Now, let me show you some of my side-pony fun.  I learned the basics of these braids on YouTube and have tweaked most of them to my liking.  I'm proudest of the DNA-looking one just because that was one of my specialty tweaks! :)

Ohhh how I love me a side-pony!

SHE SAID - In The Beginning...

In the beginning God created a girl that loved her some makeup. Ok, so maybe I wasn't a makeup lover from birth, but only because my little baby brain didn't know it existed yet! Once I was introduced to makeup as a toddler, it was all downhill from there.

My mom used to let me play in the makeup she no longer used, so my tiny little kid hands went to work. What I remember most vividly was acting as if I had my own makeup TV show when I was about 4 or 5. I had a lighted mirror that I would cut on after turning off all the lights in my room, then I would place a towel around my neck/shoulders, and my show was ready to begin!  Apparently I thought doing makeup was super messy and towel-worthy (or maybe my mom made me do that come to think of it...who knows?!)  Anyways, I'd begin each show by saying to the mirror (AKA - my loving imaginary TV viewers) "Now remember, your face is your canvas and you are the artist".  Seriously, I would say that - I'm not joking, hah.  I would have so much fun just playing with the makeup and feeling proud of myself for what I'd created. Little did I know (since internet was yet to be widely introduced) that I was going through the motions of what so many fellow makeup lovers would be doing on YouTube 15 years later - sharing makeup tips, exploring creativity, and being all-around-flat-out-no-lie-obsessed-with-makeup.  So I'm late to the blogger/YT game make-up wise.  Oh well, you gotta start somewhere! 

So After a 4 Month Hiatus...

I'm taking over!!  I, as in Rachel.  That's right.  I'm going to be doing a few 'She Said' posts while we gather out thoughts on how to best convey our Dave-Ramsey-Is-Cool-And-You-Should-Do-His-Stuff thoughts. :)  Because we do love the DR!

Annnnnyyyywayyysss - this little tidbit is just to inform you that there IS more to come from the blog DR-wise....we're just really bad at writing the posts for it, haha.  

For my 'She Said' sessions, I plan on mostly writing about makeup and other girly things, but maybe I'll throw in some basic 'life' stuff.  Who knows?!  I'm setting no boundaries!  (AKA: I want to blog about makeup but if I come up idea-less I'll do something else just to keep the posts going!)

Now, I'm off to write the first 'She Said' post!  Wish me luck!

The Basics - Who is this Dave Ramsey guy?

Dave Ramsey.  Never heard of him?  It's ok!  You're not alone.  And coincidentally enough, we're here to introduce you to him!  If you've ever made money, spent money, gave money, or saved money you'll want to meet Dave.  Or at least, we want you to meet Dave!  So in order for us to introduce you to Dave, maybe we should tell you how we met Dave:

She Said - My Aunt got me Dave Ramsey 'Total Money Makeover' for Christmas when I was a Sophomore at Virginia Tech.  I'll be honest my first reaction was ...a book?  But since I was home for Christmas break, I figured I'd at least read it a little before bed to see what it was about.  Well, I started reading it...and couldn't stop.  At that point, I definitely wouldn't say I was a huge Dave follower, but I was definitely a Dave fan.  I was decent at saving money, and reading the book just made me more aware of spending vs. saving.  Soon after Derek and I got married, we decided to become Dave followers instead, and the rest was history!  Or well, actually, the rest is still happening!

He Said - I'd heard of Dave through Rachel's parents but never really had an interest in learning about him until I began watching this family on Youtube called the Shaytards (look them up). This family makes daily videos on Youtube, kinda like a reality show, and they are big Dave fans. On one of the videos they called into Dave's radio show and did their debt free scream (To Be Explained Later). Since we already had the book I decided to read a little, then a little turned into the whole book in a couple days. Ever since we've been obsessed learning, living and spreading his word. 

Ok, so the question still stands - Who is this Dave Ramsey guy?  Well, to describe him quickly, Dave Ramsey is a financial expert.  To describe him thoroughly, Dave Ramsey is a financial expert who is blunt, motivational, experienced, knowledgeable, encouraging, practical, and well, just plain good at what he does. What he teaches is not rocket-science, it's common-sense practical money handling, but he teaches it in such a way that you get psyched about KILLING DEBT!  Or if you're already out of debt, he makes you excited about SAVING MONEY!  Or if you've already saved a chunk of money, he teaches you how to INVEST wisely!  See the pattern?  He teaches you what to do with money regardless of what money situation you're in.  

So now that we've formally introduced you to Dave, we hope to get started on introducing you to things we've learned from Dave.  

Yeah...So We're New at This (BLOOPER VIDEO!)

When we filmed our first video we were pretty nervous/anxious so that little 00:28 video took us over twenty minutes to record....no lie.  Hah, so we've assembled a little video of some of our struggles.....we hope you enjoy!

This Book Changed Our Lives

This week we had a couple over to 'introduce' them to Dave Ramsey (DR).  We were really excited for the opportunity (not to mention a bit nervous) because it was our first time doing this.  Sure, we've been members of two Financial Peace University (FPU) classes, but we've never been the leaders - so this was new ground.  We discussed what were the main points we wanted to hit and discovered it was really hard to narrow it down because we truly feel that ALL of DR's teachings are important.  We did, however, finally decide on a format for our evening of teaching:

• We watched the intro video to the FPU video series, which introduces the 7 "baby steps"
• After the video was finished we told them how we were introduced to DR
• We talked about some finance forms (Quick Start Budget and Debt Snowball)
• At the end of the night we gave them their own brand new copy of Total Money Makeover to help them on their debt free journey

Before the night ever began we wrote a note in the book that read "This book changed our lives and we hope it helps you too".  As cheesy at that sounds...it's completely true.  For anyone out there on the verge of reading a DR book - DO IT.  You won't regret it.

We love this book so much that we actually want to give some of YOU copies in the future...so be on the lookout for that!

- COMING SOON - Derek and Rachel's Debt Free Story

INTRO!

Hey guys watch our quick intro to know what to expect from the coming blogs!

Is This Our Mission?

Mission - Noun: An important task or duty that is assigned, allotted, or self-imposed.

In our couples Bible Study recently we were asked what is our "mission" as a couple. We quickly both came to the same conclusion that our mission at this stage in our lives was to help others with financial motivation and advice. We are by no means financial experts but we both have studied the teachings of Dave Ramsey and other financial leaders, and most of all, we both know what its like to have a fire burning inside of you with the goal in mind to KILL DEBT!

So here we are, attempting to put it out there that we-want-to-help-you! (Yes, you!) But honestly we're not sure how we're being called to do that yet...so this is the beginning. The beginning of something that we hope will help many of our friends or anyone out there reading. The beginning of us asking God is this our mission? Fingers crossed we're on the right path.

Hopefully over the next couple of weeks/months we will get a better hold of what we want this whole thing to look like. To start things off we plan on doing some different things including making short videos in hopes of educating as many people possible about the world of being debt free and posting blogs about personal finance as well as posts about other random things we might find important to us. We'll also hopefully be fielding questions about these subjects, doing some giveaways and ultimately spreading the word of what we are trying to do. So come one, come all and we guarantee you might learn something.