The Rock & Worship Roadshow

Wow, we had a great time last night worshipping with thousands of people! The Rock and Worship Roadshow came to San Antonio and we had not been together to a concert in years, so we decided to go. One of the draws of this concert was that it was affordable. Each ticket was $10. Yes, you read it right, $10. For that $10 we got to see and hear:

Sidewalk Prophets Remedy Drive

Fee Francesca Battistelli

Family Force 5 David Crowder* Band

Mercy Me

If they are coming to a city near you, I strongly encourage you to go and see them. Wow, what a powerful night of worship. If I ranked the bands from favorite to least favorite, it would be: Mercy Me, David Crowder* Band, Sidewalk Prophets, Fee, Francesca Battistelli, Remedy Drive and Family Force 5. Interestingly, the band I liked the least got the most screams from the younger crowd. I see that as a testament of me getting older. Oh well, what is one to do?

Again, if they are coming close to your town go!!! One of the best $55 ever spent.

Entrance fee: $30

3 CD's: $15

Parking for two cars: $10

A great evening of worship: PRICELESS!!

Budgeting

As many of you may know I am a fan of Financial Peace University (FPU). In March or April of 2007 I was introduced to FPU by my sister-in-law who was going through the course. It piqued my interest enough that I ordered it for my family and we began our journey to being debt free.

When I got back from Iraq I naturally fell back into the roll of taking care of our finances. Normally I use Quicken to keep up with our finances. I went to an Apple dealer and bought Quicken 2007 for MAC since I had been using Quicken 2007 for Windows. I did not like the MAC version so I was on the hunt for something else. Well, I found it.

I have started using Snowmint. Why do I like it? Truth be told because it works well with FPU principles of using envelopes. Snowmint has a MAC version and a Windows version. It will not perform anything like Quicken, however, it keeps up with what I need it to do. It keeps up with my check book and my savings account with no problems. It is based on the envelope system and with this software I can see what I have in my clothing envelope or in the homeschool envelope. If you are a FPU fan and are working the budget and getting out of debt give this software a try. It comes with a 30 free trial. It got me hooked!

Here is a link to their sight if you would like to check it out. http://www.snowmintcs.com/products/budgetmac/index.php

I am also posting a link to the Dave Ramsey site, founder of FPU.

http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/

Just an update on our debt snowball. We have just a little less than $4,500.00 to pay off all our debt. When we are debt free, we will have paid off $65,000 since May of 2007! God is so good!!

Marriage Retreat

This past week I had the opportunity to lead in a marriage retreat for our Junior Enlisted Soldiers. Wow, we had a great time! It was a Brigade event so I had the privilege to work with three other Chaplains. We had over 100 couples there for the event.

We held it at the Holiday Inn Riverwalk, San Antonio, TX. When we were not in our training sessions the participants had the opportunity to walk around the very picturesque Riverwalk. The picture above is from our time on the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk hosts many great stores to browse and restaurants to satisfy anyone’s taste buds. We went on the Riverboat tour and enjoyed learning about the Riverwalk area.

I think the best part of the whole thing is that we got to spend time with soldiers and help them to make their marriages the best they can be. All the soldiers I talked to got a lot out of the event. I look forward to doing another retreat where we can help our soldiers and give them some time to relax.

10 Year Anniversary

I cannot believe it has been 10 years since Laura and I said our vows. I am so glad that we have started our second decade. God sure did bless me the day Laura said she would be Mrs. Michael Dawson.

We did not get away on our anniversary because on March 12th we honored those in the 1CD who gave all in support of OIF. So, we celebrated our anniversary on a little get away to New Mexico the week after our anniversary.

Last Monday we drove to El Paso and stayed the night with some good friends. Our friends kept Victoria as Laura and I went to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. We spent two nights in New Mexico. We had a wonderful time!! Thursday, we drove back to our friends house in El Paso and spent the night again.

It was so good to catch up with our friends. They have played such a vital role in our lives and it was good to spend some time with them. Friday morning we got up and headed back home. Texas sure is a big state. It was good to get home!

Driving Lessons

Yes, Victoria has started driving! I enjoy teaching her. We started out in empty parking lots and have moved on to our neighborhood and some back roads. Today as we were leaving out for another lesson, this is what transpired. (In Victoria's words.)

Daddy: "Ok, Victoria, you're going to back out of the driveway and go in that direction." (Mommy shifts uncomfortably) Victoria: "Ok!" (She adjusts seat, checks mirrors, fastens seatbelt, and puts her foot on the brake to shift into reverse) Car: "Vrrrrooooom!" (Mommy and Daddy jump ten feet.......) Victoria: "Oops! Wrong pedal. Ha ha ha!" Mommy: "If the car had been in drive we wouldn't have a garage door."

We got a good laugh out of it. Victoria is doing a really good job. I know I helped daddy grow some grey hairs, sorry! Now I get to pass on the knowledge. I am enjoying it!! Great memories are being made. One day I will tell her kids about when she was learning to drive. :-)