Our Quest for "Weirdness" Part I

I overheard my mom talking about him. I overheard my uncle and aunt raving about him. I heard he had a money plan. Dave Ramsey, whoever he was, had my family talking about his plan. Somehow, I made the mental note to check him out online sometime.
One day, I remembered that mental note and Googled Dave Ramsey. I found out he had a book called The Total Money Makeover. So I picked up the book on CD from Amazon.com. I left the book on the kitchen counter with plans to listen to it on our next road trip. It was January 2007. Presidents Day weekend was to be spent at Disneyland, with lodging at my good aunt's home. Friday, February 16 was the day it happened. It was the day we saw the light- never to return to the darkness...they day we decided to "shave our heads and drink the Kool-Aid". We listened to that book all the way to Orange County, and finished it with 30 minutes of travel remaining. We talked excitedly about it for that 30 minutes. We now knew if we would live like no one else, then later we could live like no one else.
We walked in my aunt's home TOTALLY fired up because we now knew we would be wealthy people. We found my aunt listening to the archives of The Dave Ramsey Show at her computer. We talked the rest of the night about it. Things they were a-changin'!
We came home from that trip with money to spare. From there we started Baby Step 1- Save $1000 for a beginner emergency fund. For people who could never find spare money before, we surprised ourselves big time when we scrounged up the money in a month! We were excited, on fire and on a roll. With our emergency fund in place in a money market account, it was onward to Baby Step 2 at the end of March. We're still on Baby Step 2 and what an awesome journey it has been. More on that later.