Day 181

It was great to wake up to the eventual defeat of the New York Yankees this morning...it really was. I'm not a fan of them nor the Detroit Tigers but if given a choice as to who I will like less, it will always be the Yankees. Of course, the Air Force guy in the office is a diehard fan so he actually came into the office late so he could watch their defeat. My morning was pretty busy along with our Marine colonel coming into "town" again, en route HOME. Yep, he completed his turnover and he'll be leaving early tomorrow morning out of Afghanistan. Great for him! It was great to work for him and just a few hours ago, I shook his hand goodbye and wished him a safe trip home.

It was very clear that we were entering a 3-day weekend as the day wore on. Pretty much zero activity coming from Stateside as the day began over there. So, I kept busy managing the trail race that ended up selling out a few hours ago...only 6 days after I opened registration. Looking at the registration list, it's basically the "who's who" in the local trail running community. I can't wait to get back on the trails with them! That took me into the early evening before I headed back for the night...but only temporarily. At 11:30pm (3pm EST), we had our appointment to call Dave Ramsey. Every Friday is "Debt Free Friday" on his show and people call in from all over the country (and world, in our case!) to tell their story and eventually scream "We're debt free!!!!!!!" Well, tonight was our turn so I took a cat nap then headed back to the other side of the base with the intention to call Dorothy at 11:30pm...3pm her time. Just as planned, I called her then she conferenced us in to Dave who is on his book tour, currently in Houston, Texas. After speaking with his producer, we were on hold for about 6 or 7 minutes then went live on the air to hundreds of thousands of people! Truth be told...I was shaking like a leaf the whole time. Just a tad bit of pressure knowing so many are listening. In the end, though, it worked out well and they'll be sending us the podcast of our "scream" next week!

So it's 12:30am now...time for a quick shower then bed. It was certainly worth sacrificing sleep for this tonight. When I first learned of being deployed, Dorothy and I set the goal to do our scream from Afghanistan...live on the air on one of his "Debt Free Fridays". That would mean reaching our goal 3 months early. We did. WE did. It was teamwork all the way and no other way. "Thanks, Dorothy, for sitting me down on Christmas 2009 and insisting we make some hard decisions...like writing our first budget in over 17 years of marriage and sticking to it. Many say it is tough to do this. I say the opposite. When we sat down and wrote a budget, lived to it, and held each other accountable, it removed a stress that once plagued us and has not returned. Thank YOU for taking the initiative and the lead. YOU started it...WE did it...WE finished it TOGETHER. I love you!"

Goodnight, everyone.