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Archive for December, 2006

Goals

December 30th, 2006 at 02:28 pm

Now seems to be the time to write goals, both real concrete ones and wish ones.

Concrete Ones: Financial

1. EF is currently way way low. By the end of 2007 I plan to have it up to one month's take home.

2. Increase the 401K percentage by 2.5 percent in January and in July as we did this year.

3. Increase our Tithe by a percent in August as usual.

4. Pay off the medical bills from January 2006 (that will take alot.) Right now we pay 50 a month on 4 bills. At this rate if I add what I was paying to the next payment I will accomplish this.

5. Pay off the IRS bill we weren't expecting. (will come mostly from the tax return)

6. Save for the next trip east so it is paid for beforehand.

7. Continue college fund for DS2

Concrete Health

1. Find a source for non hormone induced dairy products, and a local source for eggs.

2. Continue to only have one can of soda a week and several bottles of water a day

3. Continue Vegie diet, increasing methods of food preparation to give variety to meals

4. Use more whole grains and healthy foods, less sugar

5. Lose weight, about 40 #

6. Radically limit our eating out unless on a road trip and even then pack food.

7. Walk somewhere every week increasing to 3 times a week.

Concrete Personal:

1. Start studying for ordination with Wesleyan church

2. Continue meeting with Pastor of church and improving understanding and insight

3. Be more open and friendlier with those I love as well as those I am developing a rapore with.

4. Lose weight (40 # or so)Figured it was worth repeating!!

5. Get the house unpacked and straightened out.

6. Read less fiction and more Theology books.

7. Become more organized and efficient.

Concrete Parenting:

1. Have more kids

2. Help DS2 learn to share better and be polite.

3. Continue playgroup and find other opportunities for him to practice the above skills

4. Have a more organized plan with more variety in his school work

5. Instill a love for nature and God's creation in our children.

6. Teach them good nutrician habits and exercise.

7. Teach them good money management skills.

Concrete goals House:

1. Make all curtains for the house

2. Paint the downstairs rooms

3. Decorate walls upstairs

4. Redo the roof on the garage and fix the doors

5. Make the yard and driveway less of a swamp.

6. Put up a backyard play set.

7. Fence the backyard so the dog can run free.

Now for the wish list!!!

1. Become more active in the church.

2. Get my Veggie Tales business off the ground and going on a supervisor level.

3. Make everything fresh or from scratch

4. Sew something for each person on my Christmas list.

5. Finish my thesis and last course and get my Masters of Divinity.

6. Go on a family missions trip.

7. Keep the house neat and clean.

Cold Tired and Tired of it

December 28th, 2006 at 09:54 pm

The title really says it all, I am cold (heat down to 62 right now which is 2 up from usual) tired, DS2 getting up way to early due to disrupted routine and tired fo feeling that way! in other words I am whining! To top it off I still have boxes and I haven't unpacked any of them today. I have to go to the old house and finish cleaning it so we can get out deposit back. Did I mention I was tired?

Surprise

December 27th, 2006 at 01:39 pm

Our LS surprised us intensely. He got married in Las Vegas this month! I think this girl is good for him, he has stopped telling us how unhealthy we eat and started asking for cheese and crackers. He's becoming Americanized! He's still slim and healthy but has given up the protien bars are better than real food attitude. Of course he was horrified when he found out we are Vegetarians but has gallently tried each pseudo meat dish I have presented him with. I in turn has kindly granted him one meat meal a day (yesterday I bought him KFC) We just don't let him eat it around DS2!! Brian i sa bit evangelistic in his no meat routine, he tells people that is is killing animals and he doesn't want to do that. I have to work on that before we go see grandchildren or my kids will kill me!!!!

Early Morning

December 27th, 2006 at 01:33 pm

This morning my day started very early! My DS2 was up before the birds asking to get in our bed. This is rather unusaul but it has been busy lately and his routine is obliderated. Our loaner son i sstaying here for a few days and is sleeping in his room so he is on a mattress on our floor. I let him come in and he proceeded to cry and beg me to get up and cuddle him. I finally got him to explain that he dreamed he'd "fallen down the stairs and broken his body" Since then he has happily gone up and down them a few times but boy it was early!!! Maybe that means an early nap? Of course not nor Mom since by then LS will be awake but I can dream!

Christmas

December 26th, 2006 at 10:02 pm

I got a present on Christmas Eve that was totally unexpected. Our "loaner son" called and said he wanted to spend vacation with us. He got on a bus very early the next morning and arrived in the next town (2 hour drive) around 7 PM. It was wonderful to see him after a year and a half. Our DS2 was overjoyed to see his "big brother" again. My DIL called and had all the kids yell Merry Christmas to us which was wonderful and we called our DD that afternoon and got to talk to 2 of the GKs. We'll go see them shortly after the new year. I can hardly wait. I love where we live and am delighted that we've found a nice church family but oh I miss my kids and grandkids. However, this is where the Lord provided a job so here we must stay.

Frustration

December 22nd, 2006 at 08:46 pm

WE have been in the new house for 6 days and I am still not unpacked. OK OK I can see some of you are laughing your heads off at that statement, as would I be if it weren't me making it. One of the boxes we moved had never been unpacked in the old house ( 3 years there) But this is different (no I don't know how but it is!) The first 24 hours I had DS2's room done, DH and I done (clothes in boxes, don't own a dresser), th eplayroom done an dth eliving room done (boxes in corner by stairs to go somewhere else. So I only have the dining room , kitchen and library plus a couple cupboards and curtains to make. 4 days later I still have to finish the kitchen (lots is done now) dining room (again some done) and the library (one bookcase done) WE won't discuss the cupboards or curtains. I am frustrated. DH is making progress in finishing moving everything out of the old house and I realize that is part of my problem, I no sooner get a pile of boxes finished than he goes and puts more in the same spot. DS2 being up all night vomiting didn't help. The problem has altered, now he's got a GI problem. Not sure which is worse but he thinks vomiting is yucky with a capitol Y, and he doesn't have to clean up after himself. This is not a good time of year to move, I still can't find the Christmas cards, they'll be very late. They are or were ready to go until the move. I thought I marked that box! I did find almost all of the Christmas stuff. I can't find DS1's present but have until th e5th of January to locate it. Hopefully we will have a nice neat house by then. I am also frustrated by our finances. WE will be ahead but not for awhile. Buying this place and having to replace the van in the same 4 days almost depleted our EF since we had to do a bit of fixing up but it increased our net worth since we have home equity now. The car has one more payment after the scheduled one and then we can sell it so we are hoping to be ahead after we pay for our trip East to see grandkids. It will be shorter than usual this time which we both hate but at least we'll get to see them for a bit. Only 24 to 30 hours at each house though.

Yucky

December 22nd, 2006 at 05:31 am

My little one just told me it is yucky to throw up. He's right. It's also yucky to clean up after said experience! Hopefully this is the last time tonight (2 episodes both quite well.... yucky) anyway I love to cuddle him but wish it was for a different reason!

Last Day to Pack

December 15th, 2006 at 09:08 pm

DH stayed home today to help pack. i have lots more to do and a little one sleeping so I am afraid to do it. Actually I have 2 sleeping, DH and DS2. Oh Well, guess it'll get done. Thank God we aren't going far, whatever doesn't get packed can be done next week, and I can clean this place then also.

Packing

December 14th, 2006 at 07:55 pm

I feel like I've been packing for months!! Actually I have been packing for 2 months! I am planning on finishing on Friday (tomorrow) and the big move is on Saturday. I have been budgetting what we can fix now and what has to wait. So far paint is waiting even though it is relatively cheap. We had to fix windows (so far almost 200) and plumbing (500) and get curtain material (150) I have to see how much more the windows will cost for screens and labor but then can rebudget and save for rugs and paint to make it look better. WE are being careful to not use credit cards to get done NOW. WE'd rather wait and do it a bit at a time. For the trip East we plan on making a list of what we need and prioritizing it so we know how much to save each month. I figure my kitchen makeover will be in a few years since I plan to do the whole thing from floor to cabinets to appliances all over.

Potential

December 12th, 2006 at 03:45 pm

I keep trying to think potential. I have a clean OK I have a dirty slate to work with. First I clean the house, then I clean it again. Then I get busy making it our house. Unfortunately all I can see right now is the dirt and all I can think about is how on earth I will get everything done. My pressure is soaring. My boxes are still unpacked and I am drowning in things to do.

Done

December 11th, 2006 at 11:45 pm

We are now homeowners (again for me 1st times for DH. We hit a small snag when doing paperwork but it all worked out in the end. Now all I have to do is clean it (yuck) and paint and do windows in several rooms and sew curtains and buy/install rugs and make a bannister and decorate and get dressers (rental had built ins) and replace 2 toilets and replace the shower mechanism and fence the yard and... and... Does it ever stop? We will be doing a little at a time since we are now broke! I can't believe we bought a van on Friday and a house on Monday. This has been an interesting week an dI refuse to add to the forum on "what did you spend today" today!!!!

Never wonder what is next,

December 9th, 2006 at 03:01 am

You may find out! Yesterday I was concerned about the fact that my oven doesn't work any more. Today we had a 9 AM appointment to do a walk through at the house we are buying. On the way I noticed that the car is running a bit rough. I took it to th edealers because no one else had time to look at it today and I had a 3 hour drive to make tomorrow. It seems that my engine needs to be replaced. A new one is almost 4000.00!!! I dont' know anyone who rebuilds engines. I called my husband at work and told him I needed him to come over so we could figure out what to do. We decided on three choices. Thake the thing home and park it and drive the car which would need 4 new tires and a brake job in order to have us use it full time. (we pay it off in 2 months and were planning on selling or donating it since the new house is within a mile of work.) That choice would mean we rented a car anytime we took a long trip East to see kids since the car has 107,000 miles on it. Choice 2 is trade it in and buy another van since we need the space. Choice 3 is use a credit card to have th ecar repaired. Neither of us liked choice 3, choice 1 concerned us since we would still have to pay payments and insurance on the van as it sat in th edriveway and we weren't sure when we would be able to have it fixed. So we decided to explore choice 2. We talked to the dealer where we bought it and he offered us 4000 dollars as a trade in. We owe 9500. That didnt' work for either of us especially since we couldn't finance the difference along with the price of the van we were looking at. At another dealer they offered us 7500 for the van after finding out the extent of its problems. They also told us what happened, seems there is a gasket that rots and lets fluid into places it shoudn't be which then destroys some sort of rod an dbearing or something like that. We agreed on a van and then saw the price. My DH said if they'd drop the price 4000 we'd buy it. They cringed and offered (40 minutes later) 1500 off and DH said yes. Hours later I was wondering what was taking so long and getting very nervous since I had 11 people coming over for dinner in a couple hours. They finally told us that the financing problems were because the company didn't want to finance the car for that amount with the extra from the last loan. I was releived since I was afraid our credit had gotton messed up somehow. Anyway they had to give us a 11500 trade in allowance, 2000 more than we owed!!!Our payments will be higher but not as high as we thought. God is so good. Not only that I got home in time to have company although I admit we had pizza instead of the dinner I had planned. They had fun and the kids made "gingerbread houses" out of graham crackers after dinner. my 3 year old was in the car dealers from 1130 am to 444 Pm. He was more patient abou tth ewhole thing than I was! Of course he wasn't too concerned about the company coming!!! All in all an interesting day but I guess we are ahead slightly. At least we didn't have to rent a car for out trip tomorrow.

Another day another probelm!

December 7th, 2006 at 10:31 pm

Today the stove that I have been putting up with until we move did the unforgivable. It set off the CO alarm. For months we have been working around the problem that it heated up slowly and not to the temperature you wanted while permeating the house with the intense smell of gas but this is too much. Finally the realtor we rent form agreed with me that we need a new one and they'll work on it. in the meantime I am haivng a dinner party for 13 people tomorrow. NOw What? Anyone know how to cook lasagna in a westinghouse roaster?

troops

December 2nd, 2006 at 08:15 pm

Today DS2 and I went to the dollar store for a stocking to send to one of DH coworkers that is stationed in Kuwait. WE found some fun stuff to put in it and when he gets up from nap will get it ready to mail. I should be packing but am not sure where to start. DH is still sick and is watching a movie in bed on his laptop. Oh well if I pack something I need in th enext few weeks I will deal I guess I always do.

Packing

December 2nd, 2006 at 03:01 pm

Yesterday I packed all kinds of stuff into Avon boxes a friend had given me. I feel like I haven't made a dent in the stuff around the house. This is tough. What can I pack and live without between now and two weeks from now? Wait, it isn't 2 anymore. we actually close on the 11th that's a week from Monday. We move on the 16th. Hopefully I'll be packed by then but if not we can keep at it the house is our responcibility until the end of the month unless they rent it earlier. Expenses related to this are over whelming right now especially when I consider our trip coming up in January. Oh well I guess we'll make it, we always do.