present!

today the husband & i had our first "monthly budget meeting." let's be honest: talking about finances & budgets is not fun...and, for us, usually leads to some slightly elevated voices, tension, and heavy sighing. so, we took the lead from another newly married couple (and friends) who are similarly in transition and similarly trying to be smart & proactive about their financial future. they have "money meetings," during which everything related to family finances and budgets can be discussed, thereby preventing this less-than-thrilling material seeping into daily happy times. sounds like a smart, responsible plan, yeah? i'll keep you posted. i'd say today's meeting was a wild success, and i believe the husband would agree.

i think it helps that we kept conjuring up the image of jemaine & bret...and murray saying "band meeting." {do you watch 'flight of the conchords'? if not, give it a whirl. hilarious.} we totally meant to take roll call at our meeting, but forgot. we even had an agenda! and ground rules!...which were actually really helpful in terms of controlling the aforementioned negative behavior habits. luckily we'll have a lot more meetings to convene.

our inspiration (and what's been stuck in our heads):