I finally got around to adding the CU money to ING, plus needed to add in the amount of interest from the last two months to arrive at my new total in the emregency fund.

$2198.58 Old Balance
80.00 auto deposits
6.10 November interest
+ 6.42 December interest
---------
$2291.10 New Balance

So I have about $500 to save to finally have a half a month's pay in the bank. Then onward to the next goal of one month's pay.

Expenses for today were $20 to the school for my son's hot lunch account. Otherwise, nothing.

Getting back into the habit of blogging daily is harder than it seems. I may just have to content myself with three or four entries a week.

My kid's school has initiated a new food program and is giving free breakfasts for the next four years to all children now, not just the one's who qualify for the reduced or free lunch program. And they made it retroactive to the beginning of the school year.

Which means my son's account just had $56 dumped back into it. That's nearly a month and half's worth of hot lunches. He'll eat breakfast at school quite often just because he has to get up so early with the newer start to the school day that he often isn't hungry yet, but by the time he's at school he's ravenous.

So it was a nice surprise to get the money back and I think we're going to take more advantage of the new breakfast program since it is available to all children. It'll save us a little on our grocery budget anyway.

Well, really I still am sick. Really sick. Just this side of pneumonia sick. One big plus of this is that I have not been spending much in the way of money, because I haven't gone out any more than I've had to.

For some reason life just seems to carry right on whether I feel like getting out of bed or not. I'll have to spend tomorrow because I'll be out of cold medicine and needing a refill on my prescription by the afternoon. And well, DH comes home so I'll have to drive in to town to pick him up, too. Then he can drive for the rest of my life as far as I'm concerned. Or at least until it doesn't feel as if my entire head is made up of gunk.

I didn't even bother to do any surveys for like two weeks now, I didn't transfer money to ING last week so I'll wait until tomorrow and do both Thursday deposits then.

Basketball sign up happened yesterday so I did write a $25 check for that. One of the cheapest sports available, soccer is like $70 now but they aren't playing that anymore apparently.

I feel like I've been living on caffeine and cold pills, not a very good combination at all, but what else can you do? Moms don't really get to be sick, we just blunder on.

Anyway, I really need to do better on keeping up with my blog. My focus is way off on financial stuff lately and I'm pretty sure that's from not writing on here. Let's hope I can get my act together again, 'cause I sorely need to.

Well, I am looking forward to school staring tomorrow. They posted the monthly lunch menu on the school site today so we went through it and it looks like there will only be two days this month they don't want hot lunch.

Hot lunch prices have risen from $1.90 to $2.00 and milk costs 50 cents now instead of 40 cents. But milk comes with the lunch price, its only if you buy it for your own sack lunch that it costs. 85% of their school is on the free or reduced price food program. Not us, we certainly don't qualify.

Considering the cost of cold lunches, though it is not that bad of a deal. We've got a really good lunch program that is high on nutrition. It was devised by the university food science department and everything is made on site and without the usual additives and preservatives, which is pretty cool. They get to play with our elementary school because it is the poorest county school in the poorest county school district and there is a huge effort to help the poverty stricken with proper food nutrition.

This is great, really, because the lunches are wonderful. My favorite is the roasted chicken leg, blue potatoes, glorius greens (mixed green salad), and apples. If a parent wants to go down and eat lunch with their child they can. An adult lunch is $2.50. A lot of the food in the food program is grown in county and much of it is donated from one of the organic farms in our school district.

The kids have bowls of fruits and vegetables in their classrooms for anytime snacking as well. It amazes me just how much this little public school does for these kids and how much community support it gets.

Over half the students in this school speak English as a second language. About 50 percent are Russian or Ukranian immigrants, 1 percent German immigrants, 10 percent are from our closest native tribe, 10 percent are from our originally migrant Spanish population who end up sticking around and working the dairy farms in the non-summer season because the kids are all back at school. 1% are East Indian and run most of the gas stations out here that the tribe doesn't (not the poor part of the population), 3 percent children of the kids I went to school with that came over with the vietnamese boat people in the 70's, and the rest are regularly born American kids. All that diversity and there's only 3 black kids, though. I guess they are still mostly up in Seattle. I only had 5 in my high school and that was in the biggest city of my county.

The school offers free language classes at night to parents who don't speak English as a first language. This is also a university program. So far they have always been able to get someone out for whatever language they need.

I love what the community has done for this little school. It is one of the nicest elementary schools I've seen, they got some nice grants for equipment from certain WA state foundations. And these kids are really getting a leg up. It shows in our test scores, too, the older the kids get the better their scores, to the point where the high school just got 97% on the reading part of the WASL and 93% on the writing part in 10th grade. Not bad for kids who so many of did not learn English first.

Math's at 73 but that is still a big improvement from past years. Things are working here.

Sorry, guess I went off on a tangent, but I love our school district and our school. One of the reasons I feel comfortable not homeschooling. This was supposed to be an entry about how much I was going to have to shell out tomorrow for the lunch program. $40 buck each for the month this month anyway. But considering cold lunches are made with organic bread, organic turkey deli meat, organic fruit and usually cucumber slices, it is probably a difference of $30 a month from what I'd buy. Not so awful and I seldom will have to stress about making lunches.

Which is good because school starts a half hour earlier this year, though it doesn't get out any earlier, and bus pick up will be at 8:46 instead of 9:19. Oh, well, at least the closest bus stop is our driveway, because I'm one of the moms who can monitor it.

Today was Rose's 11th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is that old. Not so little either. She's just hit 5 foot 2. She started the summer at 5 feet so that's two inches in two months. Ouch. No wonder her legs are hurting. 4 more to go and she'll be as tall as me. She's now taller than my mother. And she's complaining about how all her clothes are too short. $igh. I know what that means. At least it coincides with back to school shopping.

DH called and told me he will most likely only be coming home for a week this time. He needs to train the new RC's new alternate RC. I guess they had to hire two people to replace DH. Seems that's always the way, with him doing the work of two or more people and doing it so well that when he moves on or up they have some serious scrambling to do.

I'm not complaining though. That means an extra $2,625 coming our way, right in time for back to school shopping. I was wondering how I was going to handle that, as I hadn't quite prepared for it like I should have. They can wear shorts and tank tops to school until the weather turns, as long as the tank tops are three fingers wide at the strap and shorts are fingertip length. Rose's shorts are past fingertip length as she favors the Bermuda style length. So that would have given me a month's leeway to scramble some money together. She can still wear her windbreaker, her lightweight and her heavyweight coats since they were all big on her last year.

Tobias on the other hand will need a new heavy coat and several new pants. He's grown 3 inches since January. Fortunately all of his shirts were bought long so they all still fit nicely. And we're good on socks and unders for everyone. I'm sure he'll need shoes, though. His tennis shoes were tight at the end of the school year and he's been living in his sandles. They'll both need boots, but those can probably wait until mid-November, as we don't usually get snow until the 20th or so.

I need a stadium coat or a parka or something this year. That squall jacket I got last year is fine for fall and spring, but no good for snow. It doesn't keep me warm at all once the temperature hits 28 degrees F. That type of coat will be at least $100. Sometimes I wish I wasn't allergic to wool and down, it would be so much cheaper.

I reckon between all the needs we will probably spend around $600. So that'll leave $2000 extra to put on debt, into the education fund, and maybe a bit into the EF. A very good thing. I need to make the effort not to let it get frittered away. DH wants to start going for his BA through correspondence by October or November. That money will get reimubursed through work after the fact but we need to come up with it in the first place.

He's going to run the numbers for me on taxes and make sure with his new day rate that enough taxes are being withheld. And also see about upping the 401K by 1%. I don't think we can until November.

So much running around in my head right now.

Today is a no-spend day. I do like having those. I was very tempted to go down to the gas station and buy something earlier. Except there wasn't even anything I specifically wanted to buy. I just wanted to go look and "get something." How lame is that? Fortunately I recognized it for what it was, boredeom.

It was a very similar feeling to the one I get when I'm not really hungry but find myself peering into the fridge to see if anything "looks good." Again, boredom. I think I've been doing too much cleaning today so my mind is rebelling a bit.

I've got three loads of laundry hanging on the clothesline. The rain never showed up today, so hopefully its gone and I can get some more on tomorrow. Makes me feel frugal to hang it.

I need to finish cleaning up the kitchen. I made chicken soup in the crockpot this morning and I have a sink full of dishes that need to go in the dishwasher. But I'm in a real "I don't wanna" place. Dinner does need to started though and I don't want to have twice that many dishes in the sink when I finish with dinner so I suppose I'll have to.

It's 75 today. It's been quite a jump up the thermometer. I won't complain about it though or it might go away. I like 70 best. But 75 is preferrable to 60.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. It gets out early at one. And DH flies home in the morning. So its going to be a full family afternoon. Maybe we'll go for a bike ride.

I'm not looking forward to school being out. Well, Tobias is going to summer school until the end of July. His reading is behind. Both the teacher and I agree that it is because he is lazy and doesn't put forth the effort, there is no learning disability, but this program specializes in reading so I agreed to send him.

His sister was exactly the same way. It wasn't until the fourth grade when she really took off and left everyone else in her class in the dust. I'm not worried about him. And it will be nice to have him it four mornings a week from 9 to 12. He needs the structure or else he will run wild.

It is weird for me to have resistant readers because I was reading at 4 years old. But its not something I will stress about. T loves to be read to and I know it will click eventually, as it did with Rose.

Okay, I really better go tackle those dishes so I can get started on dinner.

A bit of money out this weekend. On Friday we had the oil change for 47.56, plus a few other minor maintenance jobbies thrown in. Got an estimate on what needs to be done before we go to Victoria at the end of July and it will cost $246 or so. Oh, joy.

I had a P.T. appointment for my shoulder and that was $50 out of pocket with another appointment scheduled for next Wednesday.

And the jamboree for the t-ball season was also Friday, and it went pretty well. Tobias started batting left 3 games ago and he could really whack it out of there. We never thought to check him for batting left. Rose bats better left, too, but it just never occurred. Neither child has a dominant left hand, they both write naturally with their right hands, but my dad's a lefty and I do a ton of stuff with my left hand even though I write with my right. I always have done so much with the left. I always thought it was my strings training that made it so dextrous, but its genetic as well.

Yesterday was more cleaning and organizing and sorting and storing and on and on ad infinitum. Or so it seems. You can definitely tell stuff is gone now. Whole rooms look almost sparse and I am liking it. The recycle guys are going to love us come Tuesday morning.

Today has been yard work on top of yard work on top of yard work and it isn't done. So I suppose I should get back off the computer and back to work.

I forgot to post yesterday that we spent $55 on Chinese food. Part of that was two gallons of egg flower soup, for the two of us who cannot keep much down but soup. We like the egg flower soup because it is high in protein without being chewy soup, and also because this restaurant uses no MSG. Most store bought soups use MSG and we are allergic, it causes extreme stomach problems and when you are already having extreme stomach problems from a virus, MSG is not your friend. Not that MSG is ever your friend.

There was also other food bought so there will be leftovers for a couple of days. So DH doesn't have to cook much. I decided not to cook until this virus is gone as I am afraid I will pass it on to DH if I do. It's highly contagious. Tobias had it first.

I also wrote a $30 check to fund Tobias' hot lunch account at school yesterday. This should be the last one of the school year.

This morning DH took Tobias to the chiropractor before school and bought him a McDonald's breakfast. I'm not sure how much was spent but I gave him a $10 so it was under that. The rest of us went after picking DH up from the airport while T was in school. Since he had a t-ball game last night and has another one tonight, going in right after school didn't work and he hadn't been in since before my surgery.

We have the kids seen regularly as both DH and myself have mild forms of scoliosis. Mine has been corrected by chiropractic treatments. DH's is a little worse and his family has the the tendancy to go towards the hunchback osteoporosis hump. His grandmother had it horribly and his mother is starting. DH seems to have corrected against it since he's been seen for years, but we won't know until he's older. He has a high calcium intake as well, so the doc thinks he may not have this problem.

Tomorrow I go the surgeon for my follow-up appointment. I am not sure if that will be a co-pay or not, since surgery appointments are different from diagnostic appointments. It may be part of the surgery package. If it is not it will be a $15 co-pay. I will also be paying a $107 bill there, my share of the diagnostic appointments after insurance. I have not been billed for surgery yet. Tomorrow is payday as well, so there will be other bills and the mortgage stuff paid then, too. Lot of money going out tomorrow.

I just about wanted to cry today when I realized that the $50 worth of gasoline I put into my car today only gave me 13.873 gallons of gas. There has never been a time in my life that a fifty dollar bill would not fill up my 18 gallon gas tank. And I'd usually get back at least $5 in change this last year. Until now.

I don't drink fancy (or any) coffee, at $3 to $7 a cup, so I guess I still get to complain about the price of gas. $3.59 per gallon. This has to stop. It is wreaking havoc on the budget. I have no idea at all how the minimum wagers are surviving right now. I hope they all live close to their jobs, because I don't think they could afford to drive to them anymore.

I absolutely hate doing this, but I have decided to double my gas budget. That means it will be $200 for each four week period. And with $50 not even filling the tank, that means I have 13 gallons to work with. Thank the good Lord that last week is the last of t-ball. That takes a gallon round trip to drive to each time.

If this keeps up, if it gets worse, I think it'll mean no soccer in the fall. Rose can still play basketball because it is only one mile from the house and we can ride our bikes in good weather even. But I don't see how we can just blithely drive 12 to 15 miles one way to 3 or 4 practices a week if both kids play and 25 miles on game days. It's just too much.

I had thought about letting them go back to the dance studio next year instead of sports and if I could get them in afterschool classes on the same day, I could combine it with a weekly trip to the chiropractor. One trip a week is still manageable for extra-curricular activities. But not much more.

Maybe I'm being a pessimist. Maybe gas prices will go back down. Hey! It wasn't that funny...Stop laughing at me.

I had to sit through another t-ball game tonight. We are so doing soccer next year. The entire team had a very bad case of being little boys. Chelsea was absent, so I can say that. I didn't think they were ever going to settle down and pay attention to the game, and I was right, they didn't. Oh, well, just three more to go and then the season is over.

I went to the grocery store and spent $40 on food. Well, mostly on food. I bought a five ounce tin of Hungarian paprika for $7.79. That's technically a spice. And then the $3.99 for the infotainment magazine wasn't technically food, either. But the rest of it was.

I am going to go to Costco tomorrow if I feel well enough to do it. I am out of some staples. Well, not staples in the traditional sense, because its ravioli, chili, and kosher beef hot dogs, but those are things that are eaten all the time here, so I call them staples. I want to get strawberries and maybe some other fruit if it looks good. And I need to fill up the gas tank. I may just wait until Friday, though. We'll see.

My kids are still fighting over stupid stuff and I am ready to send them to boarding school. No, not really. I don't think. They are normally such good kids. In fact, the school librarian was just talking about them the other day and said they were two of the nicest kids she's ever met and she thinks they are just wonderful. I wonder what she would think if she could see the little hellions right now? Though maybe they are so good with her because she controls the books.

This has been a rough week for getting on the computer and blogging. Rose is badly sick again for one. I thought it was pneumonia for awhile because of the depth of her coughing and the fact that she was getting dizzy.

But when I took her to the doctor her lungs and bronchials are clear. She has a severe sinus infection though and a chest cold. Lovely. $15 co-pay. So we got two prescriptions, generic zithromax and flonase. $20 total co-pay. I'm not sending her back to school until Monday.

Tobias had his first t-ball game and goodness its going to be boring. Two games a week that last far too long. We're definitely going back to soccer next year. This is too tedious and unenjoyable to watch and T says he was bored during the game. It was also very cold there. It isn't right on the river, the river is across the road and down in the gulley, but its close enough that it makes it quite cold. So blankets are going along for tonight's game. Rose will be staying home. I don't want her out in the cold. The neighbor girl will keep tabs on her.

I also spent $20.00 this week to fund T's hot lunch account.

I ordered my parkhopper for Disneyland which should arrive on the 25th. $189. I think that covers what has been spent this week, then.

And I've managed to write 9 pages this week. Not great but something.

Well, today was Tobais' first day of T-ball practice and he did pretty good. I'm not sure the coach knows what he is doing, he's never coached before, but he seems to have a good raport with the kids, which is really the most important thing.

T had a good time and his little friend from down the road is on his team so he's happy about that. Of course, that means he has a bit of a penchant for goofing off. I think he's going to be the class clown type.

Spent a little money today at the convenience store, got some soup and some diet lemon/lime soda for Rose. I think she may have strep throat. Its got that smell to it, so I think we'll be going to the doctor tomorrow, which will be a $15 co-pay. She's had a fever for two days and can barely talk. She's going to miss her singing concert this week, which is too bad as we were both really looking forward to it.

I've been getting a ton of writing done. I've hit my goal for the year of 365 pages so I've stopped counting pages. It really helped me to get in the habit of writing daily. Now if I skip a day it seems wrong.

DH emailed me today and they're putting up the JVA at work this week for the new position. Which means they've got funding, so it should just be a matter of waiting a little bit longer now. I hope so. I've spent the last six months doing nothing but waiting or so it seems. I'm so tired of that.

I made sure before I signed my daughter up for softball for the spring that they would be practicing at her school, which is a mile from our house. Well, now they are saying we have to drive all the way to another school for practice as there were only 5 kids from Rose's school in her age bracket that signed up.

It's 30 miles to the other school from our house and its a long and winding road so it takes about an hour to drive there. With two practices a week that's 120 miles on the road for 2 round trips and 4 hours driving time. I don't want to do that and don't want to pay for the gas to do that.

I had a long talk with Rose and as I see it there are only two options, either she doesn't play or we see if her school has a 4th grade team. Because she does not turn 11 until August we had the option of placing her on the 5th and 6th grade team or the 3rd and 4th grade team. Well, of course she wanted to be with her classmates not her agemates. I don't even know if there is one, and I am trying to track down who I would even ask.

But...neither one of wants to put up with that much time in the car. And on top of that, Tobias is playing t-ball at their school on the same nights that she would be practicing at the other school, at the same time. No chance of running back and forth, no way to do it. DH isn't home enough and my mother has to deal with dad, who is having cataract surgery on Monday. She can't leave him to help me and nor should she. Dad has to be her first priority.

I feel bad for Rose. I know how badly she wanted to play. And Tobias really didn't care about t-ball, he wanted to play soccer. The only reason I didn't sign him up for soccer is because Rose wanted to play softball. Now I wish I'd just signed them both up for soccer, but its too late for that. I think. Maybe I should check. It might be possible as Tobias' team is always little, to get him on. And Rose might be able to get on a team as spring soccer is always less crowded than fall soccer.

I don't know that I could get the money back from baseball. Well, maybe for Rose but I doubt it for T. But I'll have to see.

DH's auction ended with a bid of $180.38! That's about $20 or $25 higher than last time. I think we will definitely be using Saturday evenings as an ending time for auctions in the future.

Not bad for something free to us. The money is already in paypal. It will go into savings. I'm not sure if it will be for EF or Schooling, but it can sit in ING until I figure it out.

I had my appointment with the specialist today and had an ultrasound done. He decided to sign me up for another test, so I will go back on March 27 for some kind of scope thingy. It is out-patient and doesn't require drugs. $15 co-pay for that.

Spent $10 to buy a small pizza and a soda from Round Table. I ordered it in the parking lot of the doctor's office, swung by the credit union, and it was ready by the time I got there. It cost $10.23 but for some reason the employee gave me $10.25 back from my twenty dollar bill. I didn't notice this until I got back home and looked at the receipt. I do remember him taking some coins out of the take a penny, leave a penny container. Maybe he didn't want to give me all the ones that $9.77 in change would give me?

Oh, well, so not only did I save 23 cents, I earned 25 cents on top of that. I did call them up and they said not to worry about it. I wasn't worried, but I remember what it was like to have a till off when I was a college student so, I guess that is why I called.

I ate the pizza on the way back home and arrived at the school in time for Tobias' parent/teacher conference. Did that, then went to Rose's. I'm glad that's over for another while.

Now I feel all stone in the stomach though, from eating white flour and drinking white sugar. Bad choice, I know but I haven't had good pizza in so long and I had to grab something or I'd be really hungry as I couldn't eat before the ultrasound. I should have got tacos, at least they are marginally healthy, especially if you get them in the whole wheat tortilla like at Taco Time.

DH finished the pizza off when we got home from conferences. I had eggs and no-sugar bacon and a kohlrabi for dinner. The kids had leftovers of theirs.

I haven't been doing a running log of my novel writing since DH came home. Mostly its because I have less time to myself to write when he's home. But I'm up to page 72 in the story and have 105 pages of other stuff to work in and around the main plot line. And some of it is for the second book, not this one anyhow. But it is coming along.

I got accepted at PineCone and am now just waiting for the surveys to start coming in.

I cashed out at NFO MySurvey today after doing a 200 point survey that put me over the limit, so will have $10 coming in the next 3 to 5 weeks. And still have 150 points in my account. Only 850 more to go to cash out again, LOL.

Still no news from ReadRevenue, TinklyCash or Dayslook on payments.

DH is taking the kids to his mother's house tomorrow. I am not going. I love his parents but they have a cat that is all over the furniture, which is bad enough, because I clog up and have a hard time breathing, but if they run the air cleaner and I sit next to it, I do okay. But his sister will also be there with her kids and their dog, and I'm more allergic to dogs than I am to cats. Badly allergic. And the in-laws let that animal run around inside the house.

Which I would never allow myself, I get irritated with people that think it is okay just to bring the dog in because it is their dog and they don't ask permission, they just do it. (Worse at the grocery store when someone brings in a puppy in a purse which is illegal in a grocery store! Service dogs are of course not the issue at all, they go where they need to.) Which is what SIL did the first time and now they can't say no because they already did it. And I'm "Hello, its your house, of course you can say no to your spoiled youngest child." Sigh.

This is, by the way, the pedigree puppy that was bought when SIL and BIL had had their phone turned off, their gas turned off, their cable turned off, their mortgage behind, their car payments behind, and were about to have their electricity shut off and to lose their cell serivce if they didn't come up with a $400 payment. And they can't declare bankruptcy as its only been five years or so since they did that last time. So, I'm also not fond of the dog for that reason, but really it is secondary to my need to breathe.

Plus MIL's cat is scared to death of the dog. I don't want to come across as an animal hater, because I'm not. I love cats, but I just can't have them around much. Not terribly fond of dogs but don't hate them if they are properly mannered and on a leash. I have real issues with ones that are allowed to run around free all day as we have a county leash law as well as it being in our CC&R's for our housing development. A couple of the roamers have attacked children. So, in that respect I am anti-dog. Well, maybe more anti-bad-dog-owner, as dogs, like children, only do what they are allowed to do or have been taught.

So anyway, being in that house tomorrow would mean I would probably end up having to use my inhaler and it wouldn't be enough and I'd end up visiting the ER. So not how I want to spend my Saturday. Instead, I will stay home and do some writing and get caught up on laundry with my lovely new dryer.

I guess if MIL wants me to come to their house she's going to have to make a choice between standing up to her daughter about the dog, or me. And I'm okay if its the dog, I'm perfectly content to have a phone call once a week with her that lasts an hour.

Turned into a bit of a rant there, sorry.

Our tax return showed up in our bank account today. This is the fastest we've ever gotten it. Just 3.5 weeks.

I haven't done anything with it yet, but the plan is:

$2000.00 to a credit card
$1000.00 to Vacation fund (but will send to ING until needed)
$ 458.13 to education fund (but will send to ING until needed)

Might as well earn some good interest on those last two things. I am setting up a spreadsheet to keep track of what's in the ING account so nothing ends up in the wrong place.

DH's bonus check came in the mail today. DH says they made a big error in how much they took out in taxes, they took out 10 times the amount they should have. They did it to everyone, so there will be another check issued for the additional amount probably with the next payroll. So for the time being we have $600 check that will go to savings, but is earmarked for DH's continuing education. The company does reimburse for tuition but not until the end of semester when grades are issued. They reimburse 100% for A's and 90% for B's. But we still have to come up with the initial amount to get started.

DH isn't sure when he will get started. He wants to make sure things get rolling with the promotion and his new job responsibilities before he takes on more school work. He'll be doing it correspondence again with an accredited school. So the money will stay in savings for awhile earning interest.

I forgot to mention that I mailed off our tax refund papers on the 2/12/07 so we should be seeing a refund within 5 to 6 weeks. DH makes too much for us to qualify for free online filing, our taxes are too simple (we don't deduct, we check but standard has come out better every year so far) to purchase tax software to efile for free. So we deal with having to mail it in and wait. We do have it direct deposited each year so that makes the wait about one week less.

We are getting back a little over $500 more than we expected, when DH figured stuff out based on last years forms. I like this years forms much better! We will use the extra to either fix the dryer or buy a new one and anything leftover goes into the summer sports camp fund.

Our property tax bill came in the mail. First half is not due until the end of April. I was really excited as the taxes have dropped by over $100. The school bond on our elementary school expired, so ten years later it is now paid for. That's kind of an exciting thing, too. I'm sure the school district will be putting up a bond for either a new elementary or a second junior high within the next year or so.

The population is exploding out here, probably because it is one of the few places in western Washington where you can still buy a house for less than $100,000. Of course, the developers are working on changing that, building really out of character for the neighborhood, fancy shmancy two story houses with double garages that dominate the 3/8 acre lots. That type of house needs at least 2/3 of an acre to look right.

Most of the houses out here are simple one story 2 and 3 bedroom houses, though ours is a 4, and most people do not have garages. You can really tell which houses were built before the last 4 years because they blend in well with the rest of the houses out here. There were no two story houses in our division before 4 years ago. But neighborhoods evolve, even it it doesn't mean getting better. Not that it is really getting worse, just out of character. Property values are up according to the realtors and banks, but not the assessors, so far.

Rose has been sick the past two days and has not gone to school. I had to drop her off with my mother this morning so I could go to my first cranial sacral therapy session. I have to admit while I was lying there it felt a bit like voodoo magic and I kept thinking, well, this won't accomplish much. But surprisingly it made me feel better somewhat. Not a huge transformation but a noticeable improvement. Enough for me to go back for an additional 5 appointments and allow it a real go.

My birthday present had arrived by the time I got back, the new Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series. I've spent a few hours watching the first disc and doing all the commentaries while I did my PTR's, and watching the extras on the first disc. Now I've started episode 3 on the second disc.

It is really very good. I wasn't sure what to expect. I never am when they change out the lead. For those of you who don't know, the main role is set up in such a way that if the doctor "dies" his body regenerates and looks completely different, but he is still the same character with a few different personality quirks. This is a very clever way of replacing an actor who leaves the role, without ending the show.

They are on the 10th lead now and there have been close to 30 seasons, I believe. They brought it back in 2005 after being off the air for several years and they modernized it. But at its heart it is very similar, but I've found it even better. Sort of like the difference between the high camp of the original Battlestar Galactica and the high drama of the new one.

So I have adapted to this new doctor, though I adored the one from the first new season. He was Christopher Eccelstein who is currently reoccuring on the tv show heroes as the invisible guy. But I took quite well to the new one, David Tennant, even though I've only ever seen him in one of the Harry Potter movies and he was playing a bad guy.

Definitely worth the one day shipping.

Anywho, Tobias came home froms school cranky and flushed and warm to the touch and he took a two hour nap (no, he does not do this) so doctor Mom is diagnosing him with Rose's cold. He may stay home tomorrow.

I wrote 6 pages last night, which puts me up to 52, I think. I think I'll work another hour on it tonight.

Today was a no spend day. I had enough pennies to do a roll, so I did that.

I still have not been paid by ReadRevenue one month after cashing out (its supposed to take no more than 72 hours) so I have decided to quit them. They have failed to respond to any of my 5 emails. They were so good in the past about paying, but I can't waste my time on them if they aren't going to pay out anymore.

Oh, wait, it wasn't a no spend day. I wrote a $20 check to fund my son's hot lunch account at school. I forgot.

Yesterday was Rose's last two games of the season and the girls did a fantastic job. They were tied 14 to 14 with 4 minutes left in the game when the other team broke away and made a run up to 22. Then in the last minute the other team couldn't get their hands back on the ball and our team made it up to 18. If there had been one more minute our girls would have done it. They were so thrilled. This was a team that had beaten them hardily in the past so it was very encouraging.

And their second game they won! 17 to 11 and that game was neck and neck up to the last quarter, then in the last 3 minutes you couldn't stop them and it was amazing. The best game to watch all season as they fought so hard and were well matched for most of it. One of our girls made a beautiful 3 point shot. And Rose made a basket, too. She also got a majorly nasty bruise just below her knee when she took a bad tumble. But she only sat out a couple mintues and wanted back in.

It was so nice to go out on such a high note! Their banquet is next Saturday night and its going to cost about $11 and then they are going swimming at the aquatic center for 1 1/2 hours and that will cost $1.50. Then no more sports stuff until the end of March when Softball and T-ball start up. I am going to have to buy mitts and cleats, I think. But if they had been playing soccer they both would have needed new cleats anyway, they've outgrown the ones from fall.

Yesterday was a no spend day, also.

I feel much better today, it is amazing what a decent amount of sleep can do for your attitude and your whole general outlook on life.

It's been a busy morning. We mailed off the boots from our second auction, picked up the kids from an overnight with their grandma, and picked up some medication.

Our total in paypal after fees was $9.86, which I transferred to the CU this morning.

I'm going to try to get the dance shoes listed this weekend so we can get moving on those. I have 8 pairs of ballet shoes and 5 pairs of taps and a bunch of mismatched shoes so I know there are some more around the house somewhere. Probably in Rose's room. I also found a pair of those Fisher Price skates that you put on over your kid's tennis shoes. Might be able to get a few dollars for those on e-bay. I'll have to check and see if those sell or not. Otherwise they'll go in the garage sale pile.

We need to get the outdoor play equipment cleaned up and listed on Craig's list. We managed to get the freezer off the porch last night and aired it out over night. DH is going to Kaboom it (multi-purpose cleaner) and then we may bleach clean it as well. Then we will list it on Craig's list for $50.

It is a 33 year old Montgomery Ward freezer. It has some cosmetic damage, but still works great. It's a bit of an energy hog, our power bill dropped $10 a month since we unplugged it. But for someone who doesn't have one, $50 will still be a good bargain for them, I think.

We also have a big old chest freezer that we bought at a garage sale 7 years ago that I think we can get $100 for. It's been outside so its dirty on the outside, but we can put that in our ad. DH might try to Kaboom it, too. If we can only get $50 for it, that would still be fine.

I'm looking around trying to figure out other things that we don't need that we can sell. I want to declutter this house and make as much off it as I can. It is giving me the feeling much like I had when I first started adding money to the EF last year. Finding more and more ways to do it so I can build savings up again. I feel so much more secure having money I can draw on in need.

Oh, I read over the pages I wrote on my night of sleep deprivation and they are good, I'm starting to think I do my best writing when I'm sleep deprived. It used to be when I was on a sugar high, but without much sugar these days I don't get that anymore. I wrote 3 more pages last night before I went to sleep so I am up to 39 pages for the year. Only 326 more to go to reach my goal.

I used DH as a sounding board last night and he can often make suggestions to get me around a block on a throughline, or send me off in a new direction with some random comment. I was having difficulty with the development of a certain character and now I've got her all figured out. She was not a character I could just leave out, she was too important to the plot, I knew who she was and where she needed to end up but not how to get her there and now I do. So yay for me and DH, too. Big breakthrough. Next week when the kids are in school I should really be able to start pounding out some pages.

Mom talked to me last night and she is going to pay for me to go to carnio-sacral therapy for six weeks. Her idea, and she says it has helped her a lot. I'm hoping it will help with some of the ongoing health issues in my life. I'm willing to try anything at this point, nothing has worked in the standard medical field. As much as I love my doctor and think he is a great man, I have mostly given up on Mainstream Medical. I have no faith in the AMA. I know there are good individual doctors out there who want to heal, but I've come to the conclusion that for the most part they want to medicate you, not heal you. Medication keeps you coming back, healing you keeps you and your dollars away.

I'm jaded here, I know, but I've been in the medical system since I was twelve years old and I ended up diagnosing myself with my original condition based on my own research and than forcing the doctor I was seeing at the time to test me for it and I was right. I have had to be forcibly proactive with my health for all of my adult life, to keep insisting that there was more going on than they believed and I have always been right to keep pushing even when called a hypochondriac to my face. So you can understand why I am jaded here.

Okay, this entry started about something and totally turned into something else about 3 times along the way. Oh, well, that's me when I get going. It's time to leave for basketball so I'll wrap it up for now.

At the grocery store. Rose's games, which were so ridiculous I am not even going to list scores, but every single girl on that court today had fumble fingers, both sides, both teams. It was like the ball was magnetically opposed to going through the basket. Like bouncing off the inside rim and back out again. And the dropped passes...well, it was entertaining.

Anyway, so shopping.

1 package pork chops, originally at $5.38, marked down to $4.05, stickered with an additional $1 off coupon to $3.05
2nd package pork chops, from $5.57 to $4.57 with additional $1 coupon to $3.57

5 pounds of beef shoulder steak for $10.07
2 pounds beef stew meat @ $4.66, marked down to $3.66, with $1 coupon to $2.66
2nd package beef stew meat @ $4.78,makred down to $3.78, with $1 coupon to $2.78

one 5 pound whole all natural local chicken @ $5.25, marked down to $3.25, with $1 coupon to $2.25

Pretty darn good for 16 pounds of protein. It averages out to $1.52 per pound.

Yesterday was game day and as usual, Rose's team got trounced. It just is hard to get any rebounds when 4 out 5 players on the opposing team are a head taller than the tallest player on your team.

I emailed the head coach last night and I told him that next year they need to divide the teams up more evenly between ages and grades and experience and lack of experience and height because when you have one team from your school that is beating everyone by 30 points or more and the other one has barely managed to win 1 game all season, there is a huge inequality and it makes the losing team very dispirited every week. I don't know if he will do anything about it, but I'll be a big pain about it at the start of next season to at least be heard on the issue.

Rose got fouled on badly and got pushed into another player who's elbow went right into her temple. She was hurting too bad to even take her free throws and she's good at those, almost always makes them in practice. Another girl got slammed in the face and her tooth cut through her lip and was bleeding. She couldn't take her free throws either but also had to have a sub. Same person fouled them both. She got pulled two fouls later, thank goodness.

We packed our own snacks yesterday so no money was spent at the vending machines. The kids left the game with my parents and I came home to rest. Which I did do some, but then I got to writing and 26 pages later it was 3 a.m. That's really good for my health. But when stuff starts writing itself, I tend to go with it, because you never know when the muse is going to leave.

I made a promise to myself that I was going to write 365 pages this year, whether it was good or not, the habit needs to be gotten back into. And blogging doesn't count! And neither do outlines. That doesn't mean I have to write a page a day, I just need to hit my page count by year's end.

I went back and read the stuff over this afternoon and corrected all the typos and grammatical errors that weren't intentional, and I was really pleased with it, as sometimes middle of the night writing turns out to be less coherent than other times. In any case, its going in the "write" direction. Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

Today I went in and picked up my kids and got gas. I used $30 of my gas money. It was down to $2.55 a gallon. I didn't go to Costco where it might have been cheaper because I can't find my Costco card and I didn't really want to go all the way across town, either. My card expires at the end of this month anyway and I'm not sure I will renew it. It's a hard decision, especially since they raised the fee.

Mom got me some eggs from the organic egg farm when she went out to get some for herself, so I have four dozen fresh eggs in my fridge. She cleaned them out between us. So that cost $6.

I got really fed up with a rude person today, and kind of let them have it in my own understated way. I always try to be polite, even when what I really want to do is be less than polite, to put it politely. Some folks are clueless and no matter what you do or say, they shall remain clueless. But such is life when you are dealing with people who don't have an ounce of common sense or consideration for others.

I'm going to try to see the doctor tomorrow if I can drag myself out of bed. Or more accurately not fall back into bed once I get the kids off to school. Or at least make an appointment for Tuesday if necessary. I am tired of being tired and not well.

I did a survey this morning and have a $5 check coming from Your2Cents. I also took a prequalifying survey for ACOP but I don't know if I'll get it as they asked about what type of TV service we have and we don't, so that's probably a no. I didn't make the one with the product trial I wanted as it was supposed to have started the 24th. Oh, well, these things are hit and miss. I've gotten two offers this month from Vindale but I just don't know if I want to do those anymore.

I'm still waiting on ReadRevenue to pay out from the 1/13 cash out. I'm not sure what is wrong but I heard from another one of the PTR places that they were having problems connecting with paypal due to an earthquake and dislocated cables, and since both are Asian Island based that's probably what the deal is. So it will most likely get straightened out eventually.

Today, well technically yesterday, was payday. It was such a relief to finally have money again. I really hate paycheck to paycheck and I swear some day I will be free of that leash. It may take 10 years but I will be free of it!

I am so exhausted all the time right now. I wish I knew what was wrong with my system. Is it possible to get mono more than once in your life? Because I had that in 8th grade and that is the closest thing to how I feel right now. All I want to do is sleep. After the kids went to school today I went back to sleep and did not get up again until it was time to go out and meet the school bus. This was on top of a full night's sleep.

The kids wanted to go out and play and since it was sunny and reasonably warm out at 47 degrees I let them go until 5, which is when it gets on towards dark. So while they were gone I managed to pull myself together long enough to check online to see what the amount of the direct deposit was and to write out some bills.

$42.92--Homeowner's Insurance
$41.73--Phone
$70.94--Cell Phone
$93.74--Citi MC
$93.00--Puget Sound Energy
$35.00--MB Youth Baseball--T-ball (Tobias)
$45.00--MB Youth Softball--Fastpitch (Rose)
$100.00-Cash out for gas
$312.00-MBNA MC

I still have to pay the house mortgage ($400), the 1/2 year dues for the homeowner's association ($125), set aside money for 1/2 the water bill due at Feb's end ($56), 1/2 for garbage ($25), put aside $50 for propane (still haven't been billed yet) and $100 for property tax savings out of this check.

Mortgage and Homeowner's dues are due on the 1st. I would have paid the mortgage today but we didn't make it into town before the CU closed. The drive-thru is open until 7 but they won't take mortgage payments, so I just could get the cash out for gas. And there is no one in the office on Fridays to accept the dues, either. So I will do those most likely on Monday.

Oh, I went to two grocery stores and spent $37.16 at one and $86.44 at the other one. I did make one wasteful food purchase. They had Marie Calendar TV dinners on sale 4/$10 so I bought four spaghetti dinners. To me, that is the ultimate in wasteful food spending because it is the absolute easiest, cheapest meal to make from scratch. But I am sick and I wanted my comfort sghetti, so I did it.

Usually when I buy something from Marie Calendar it is just something I don't normally make myself or if I do, it involves a tremendous amount of effort, like pot pies or beef stew. And if I hadn't been limited by the amount of freezer space I knew I had left, I might have bought more. I guess I need to add don't go food shopping sick to the list of don't go food shopping hungry or with the children. I did all three tonight. My bad.

My oh-so-wonderful mother is going to take the kids home with her after Rose's basketball games to spend the night. I love my Mommy. She took one look at me tonight and offered. I am very glad because I am just not operating on all 8 cylinders. Actually I'm not sure I'm operating on all of 1 cylinder at the moment. Took my temperature: 100.5. Oh, joy. I hope this isn't the start of walking pnuemonia, come to think of it. That I don't want to deal with. At all.

Today was game day and we spent 3 hours at the gym, with packed lunches. As usual, Rose's team lost the first game, but it was much better, it was 28 to 24. I really thought we were going to win the second game and I'm not a hundred percent certain we didn't win, because the person manning the scoreboard kept "forgetting" to put our points up when we made a basket but the other team's went up right away and never seemed to get forgotten. People had to keep going over to tell her to put the score up five times during that game. I wish they had someone impartial
running that thing and not one of the parents. Hire a high school student or something.

Anyway, the other team's last basket was made after the last buzzer sounded. It didn't even leave the girl's hand until the last buzzer had started but they counted it anyway. Sometimes we have good refs and sometimes we don't. They weren't calling much traveling or double dribbling in any of the games on any of the teams. Just fouls when they happened, usually. And the refs judged the basket good so the other team won by one point, final score 19-18, though there was a lot of disagreement from the coach and the parents. If we'd had instant replay, I think it would have been different. This is the only team we had already beaten once this system and they just weren't that good. I have no illusion about Rose's team, I know they are less skilled than most of the other ones that are more evenly divided between 5th and 6th graders but it was just a very fishy thing all around.
Regardless it was a good game even if a huge case of ditsiness seemed to overcome both teams at times. It was exciting and fun to watch and that's all I really care about as long as Rose is having a good time.

They had their team photo taken today so hopefully that turns out well. I forgot to ask DH how much it cost as he's the one that filled it out and handed it in. Probably $10 as that is usually how much these things cost. DH took me home after the game and then took the kids off to his mother's house to do laundry and visit, while I rest. Doc said to rest for the next 48 hours, which puts me pretty much to noon tomorrow. We still haven't gotten the dryer fixed or replaced. We probably will when the tax refund comes. Now that we are catching up on clothes, I can do a load a day and hang it on the drying racks.

Oh, I forgot to post yesterday that I went to the doctor. I have a problem with getting chronic kidney infections, its a side effect of the whole medical mess that tried to kill me a few years ago. We have to stay on top of it and I have to go in at first sign of symptoms to prevent further kidney damage. I came close to losing my right kidney at the time, so I'm very careful about this.

So I'm on medication, 2 RX's at $10 each, and these are different ones from the ones I was on last time. I insisted on that as the ones I had last time made me gain 15 pounds of water weight in 2 weeks time. Not fun. It went away after I went off them, but really didn't want to go through that again. It was really uncomfortable.

As for other things medically related, I have been kind of ignoring my exercise program lately, pretty much since before Christmas, so starting on Monday the doctor said I could do stuff again but to pace myself and watch for kidney pain, I am going to get back to it. I will start walking on the treadmill 20 minutes a day and hopefully get back up to an hour by month's end.

I keep wavering on whether I should cancel my Curves membership or not, but if I can just get back in the swing again I know I'll really start using it. Then again, with the treadmill and the weight bench and weights, it also seems like a waste of money sometimes. I don't know. It's kind of my last hold out between financial necessity and what I need to do for my health. We'll see.

I think I'll update my spending journal tomorrow seeing as it is almost midnight.

I received an email back from the assistant superintendent of our school district today, saying I could call a number and talk to someone about setting up an appointment to go and view the curriculum we couldn't go and see because of the roads. I wasn't thrilled with the way it was handled, very holier than thou email, I was way more polite than they were, but at least I got my way and can review the course material when it is convenient to me.

Rose has another 3 hour basketball practice tonight. And math homework. And half a page of spelling homework. I never had this much homework in 5th grade. Or this much athletics practice. But its what she wants, so until it overwhelms her, its okay with me.

Yeah, right. So far we have one foot of snow, but it was supposed to be not as bad as last time. Silly meterologists, predicting the weather is not for mere mortal men.

We did not end up going to the meeting tonight, the roads are like glass. Did they reschedule the meeting? No. Did I write a disgruntled email to the school district superintendant? Yes. I shouldn't have to risk my life on the roads to meet their stupid state law standards.

As of 4 p.m. six school buses had slid off the road, 2 semi-trucks had jack-knifed and several cars were in ditches county-wide. But no, we aren't going to reschedule. I don't think they actually want parents to attend. Hence them not even sending the information notice home until last night. Not the brightest people in the world, those who run our school district. Scary thought, isn't it?

Today ended up being a no spend day as we weren't about to go out on the roads just for one item at the grocery store.

Dinner was a smorgasboard of leftovers for everyone but me. There wasn't enough for me, so I had whole wheat pancakes, ham, some cherries, and a salad. Weird, I know, but I do try to balance my meals.

Our neighbor had the nerve to ask us if he could borrow money again. He still owes us $11.55 that he has said at least 3 times he will pay back on "payday" but whenever payday came he never did.

Even if we had the money we wouldn't loan it to him. When DH said we had no cash on hand (well, except $7 or so in the change jar and we need to save that for milk in case we can't get to town we can use it at the gas station) he had the nerve to ask for us to write out a check to the store for him. Yeah, right. I don't give my mother a blank check for anything, let alone some guy with a history like his. I don't believe some people.

DH just went down to the gas station and filled one of our gas cans for $12.50 so we have it on hand for the generator. We have already had one brief power failure today and winds are expected to be nastier tonight, plus there is a very good chance of heavy snow if the temperatures plummet. Nothing like the 2 feet we got last time, but several inches.

I hope it doesn't hit us, but at least we have a back-up energy and heat supply. That generator may not turn out to be just an expensive piece of porch equipment after all. Though I am still feeling the pinch of buying the thing!

Rose's basketball practice was upped to 3 hours tonight. I hope the power does not go out at the school, though there are emergency lights I don't know if there are any in the gymnasium. I don't like these 3 hour practices. Especially on nights they assign math homework.

Dinner tonight is my lower carb version of Chile Verde.

Ingredients:

1/4 lb sugar-free bacon, crumbled
1 lb boneless pork roast, cubed
1.5 cups chopped scallions
1 T minced garlic
4 oz green chile peppers, diced (fresh or canned)
1.5 T jalapeno peppers, diced (fresh or canned
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

In large skillet, fry bacon crispy. Set aside. Start browning pork in bacon fat. Add bacon crumbled. When pork is browned, add scallions and garlic.* Saute until tender. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Simmer for 30 min. Turn up heat to medium for 15 min to thicken. If you want to add some thickener like corn starch or flour you can, but I don't.

*Optional: if desired, julienne chop a green bell pepper and add with scallions and garlic to stretch meal further. Serves 4 without bell pepper, 6 with.

Can serve by itself or with 100% whole wheat tortillas, veggie wraps, etc. Added cheese or sour cream also optional.

Recipe responds well to doubling, tripling or quadrupling for the freezer.

Rose's basketball games went pretty well today--for Rose. Our team lost both games but Rose made the most baskets of any of her teammates in the first game and was one of only 3 people to make any baskets on her team on the second game.

The first game was against our own school's other team and they have most of the 6th graders and the 5th graders they do have are the most advanced players. They didn't divide it up well, not mixing the experienced kids with the less so ones. Of the 10 kids on Rose's team, only half have played before. And this is the team they practice and scrimmage with, so we knew going in we wouldn't beat them. I just told Rose to do her best and she did.

The second game went pretty well considering that 5 out of 10 of their players were half a head to 8 inches taller than Rose who is the tallest girl on her team. There's not too much you can do when people outreach you by that
much, so I'm proud my daughter did so well against them.

I do wish they would have separate 5th and 6th grade teams and not combine
them together. They have enough kids to do it and its hard when you are
overmatched because of height, even though you play well.

I just wish that the girl who used to bully Rose would get her act together. She used to be such a good player and now she's just acting like a ditz and has made maybe one basket in 3 games when she used to be a top scorer. She doesn't pay any attention to what's going on around her, I don't know why she is even out there if she isn't going to give it her best. Well, she doesn't bully Rose anymore. Kind of hard to when Rose has flown right past her in skills this year. It's a good thing Rose isn't the vindictive sort or she'd have good reason to bully back now. Or at least tease.

Anyway, I still feel really good about Rose, knowing she is getting better and better all the time and trying hard.

We got smart and packed lunches today for the kids, since the games were from 12 to 2 and they just get so hungry. If we hadn't packed food, they would have wanted to go down the road to the Casino and get sub sandwiches at their market store that has a Port of Subs in it. Wanted to prevent the "can we eat outs" from happening.

After that we went into my mother's house to do laundry and Mom took over so we could go do the rest of our grocery shopping. We are trying for a weekend shop that means we won't shop again for the month except to buy eggs and milk. That is the best way I can think of right now to keep to the grocery budget of $200 a month.

Then Mom decided to take the kids overnight so we came home without them. I made whole wheat hamburger buns tonight as we are planning on making cheeseburgers for lunch tomorrow. I've got a few ideas to try next time to see if they might work better. We put them in a 9 X 13 glass pan and next time I think we'll try using a cookie sheet instead. The pan works great for rolls but less great for buns. I think I'll see about finding a different whole wheat bun recipe that's a little different, too.

It's late now so I will post our spending journal for today tomorrow.

Rose's games went pretty well today. They didn't win either one, the first
one was hard as the other team had 3 girls who were taller than Rose by a
head or more and she's the tallest player on her team. And there was a lot
of fouling going on that wasn't called.

The other team would hook their feet around in front of our players ankles and trip them. It looked like a move that they were taught to do, when you have four out of five players doing it consistently, it is not an accident and it isn't just one person playing poorly. That's bad coaching and bad reffing to allow it. I've seen similar things in soccer and it can really cause injuries. In fact it did here, one of the girls had to leave the court and sit out for about 15 minutes it hurt her ankle so much. At least the refs were calling on the double dribbling and traveling the other team did. So the end score was 22-12.

The second game went a lot better, they only had one girl who was a head taller than Rose, and a few of similar heights to our girls. It was a tight game, well played, although one of our girls suddenly got really scared of shooting. She is a good shooter but it's like she's afraid of missing so instead of taking shots when she's in a great place with no guards on her, she'll pass it to someone, and not usually to someone who is open. She could have scored half a dozen times, but its like her confidence
went away. Still, our team did great and the score ended up being 32-26,
only a six point spread.

Afterwards, the kids went with MIL and FIL down to Stanwood for the Christmas thingy at some campground, like a Christmas Fair with tons of lights and stuff to do, so DH and I got a lot of time to ourselves. We went out for RM dinner to our favorite Mexican place. I'm sure its not hydrogenated fat free, but I gave in as DH really wanted to
go there. We ate way too much food! But only spent $24.14 plus $5 tip.

DH and I went shopping and got gifts taken care of for FIL, MIL, both young nieces, and the yarn for me to make Dad two hats. I'll have to knit in overdrive but since I can do a hat in 3 hours it should be no problem.

I also bought the throwaway containers to make the 2 lasagnas that are BIL and FIL's requested Christmas presents. And two more because both sets of parents (mine and DH's) have requested my lasagna at their Christmas get togethers. At least its easy to mass produce! I still have to buy the ingredients, though. I make them in the throwaways or it can be months before I see my glass cookware again.

Then at home I ordered Mom's present to be delivered by Wednesday, and 2 CD's that I wanted for DH to give me. That just leaves me with the McD gift certificates for 3 of my nephews (I quit giving to nieces and nephews after their senior year of high school). Now I just have to go with DH to buy his weight bench and I am done!

So obviously it was a very busy and very productive day. Tomorrow will be
productive too, but for less happy reasons, we are CLEANING the house.
Yuck. Deep cleaning. But then we will finally put our tree up. Yeah, don't have it up yet. But you should see the outside of the house. In fact, you probably can from googlespace, LOL. It's a tad decorated with the lights. Oh and MIL and FIL gave us two more yard decorations, like we needed more lights! DH will put them up tomorrow, though.

Oh, and we bought gas today on the Costco cash card.