Sometimes the Powers of Good converge

Have you ever gotten the feeling that life is shitting on you?

It's a vulgar way to ask it, but sometimes, it feels that bad. And unless you are perfect, I know that your answer is yes. We have all felt it.

In the past two years, Jenn and I have struggled through a lot of stuff, including Jenn being laid off twice and me getting laid off once. There has been a lot of other stuff that I'm not going to put into print here, but let's just say that we have struggled. And recently, it has seemed to pile up and happen all at once.

But since I have gotten laid off, there have been a lot of good things happening. I touched on some of it in my first entry.

Before I got laid off, Jenn and I agreed to use our very sizeable tax return to catch up on some bills and pay off a couple of credit cards. We also agreed to get rid of most of our credit cards and start paying down as much debt as possible. We also agreed to attend something through Jenn's church called Financial Peace University. Mind you, all of that was agreed to BEFORE the layoff.

Because of the layoff, we were able to pay off our smallest credit card bill and catch up where we had fallen behind since Kaleb's birth. We are holding back the rest to get through the layoff as best we can.

But we went one step further, on the faith of the financial program we started March 15. We invested $1,000 in an emergency fund. All the while, I'm thinking "BUT WE'RE IN AN EMERGENCY!!!!!!!" The other half of me is thinking "So what. Maybe if we skimp enough in other areas, and cut out as much as we possibly can, maybe we can make it through this emergency without cutting into that emergency fund. Then we'll be that much better off."

Call me crazy, but I think we can do it. I HOPE we can do it!!!!!! I'm afraid of the Financial Peace University because it is going to make us look at what we've done and change our behavior. It already has. But we have committed to it.

Then tonight, we watched a movie called Fireproof, about a couple who salvages their marriage from the grips of divorce. I won't say we were to the point that they were, but with the financial stress we have been under due to Kaleb's birth and bout with RSV, and with some stupid debts we owe, it hasn't been a lot of fun.

Sometimes a movie hits WAY too close to home, though. The movie The Break-Up might as well have been about me and my ex-wife. Fireproof might as well have been about me and Jenn.

What it comes down to, is that these two products - a class and a movie - have changed us for the better. Sometimes good things are poured on you just as much as life can seem to shit on you. The question is, are you paying attention when the good things happen?

My eyes are open and I am paying attention. But I'm not waiting for good things to happen to me. I am going to MAKE good things happen.

For more information on both of these potentially life-saving programs, visit http://www.fireproofmymarriage.com/ and http://www.daveramsey.com/

In other news, my second interview went well. I either totally screwed myself over with one answer or completely won them over because of my honest over that one answer.

I also have an interview scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. So we'll see what happens!