The mortgage payment posted today with $293.54 going to principal and $82.32 going to interest. The new balance of the mortgage is $17,667.67.

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The amount of the U-haul rental plus mileage was $97.23 and the gas to fill it back up was $14.27.

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I will be so glad when the bathroom remodel is done. I don't know what my mother was thinking scheduling it for the week of spring break when everyone was going to be home. I know it'll be nice when it is done, but right now it is a pain in the butt. No one gets to sleep in because the workmen are here so early. I'm cranky because I can't take naps which is essential when I am ill. I can't stop coughing today unless I suck on cough drops constantly. The minute it runs out I start hacking again. On the bright side one of the workmen brought his little boy with him and he and DS have hit it off so DS has something to do today other than complain about how noisy the workers are.

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I'm not sure we are going to make it down to Seattle on Friday. We had planned to go, but DD has an ear infection/sinus infection, and I have whatever it is I have. We were going to go to the Pacific Science Center and then watch Hunger Games on the IMAX. We will at least go to the movie at the local theater if we can't go, but I will have a pocket full of cough drops so I don't ruin the movie for others.

Well, we got the house emptied. We filled up a small U-haul and we are going to have to take Mom's pickup out a few times to run stuff to the dump, but the house is empty and we can call for a cleaning estimate next time DH is home. I am exhausted. That is a lot of hard work but we got everything done in one round trip.

My back is killing me though. And my legs. I haven't done so much physical labor in a long time and I feel it everywhere. Which means I need to start exercising again. I've been letting it slip except being sure to walk to keep up the progress I made with my knee.

I've also got a bad sinus infection/bronchitis and the doctor was supposed to call something in for me but he didn't and then he won't be in his office on Wednesday so I can't even call him until Thursday. I hope moving in the rain/freezing cold didn't end up making this turn into pneumonia as I have been coughing deeper and deeper all evening. I probably should not have done it, but it really needed to get done. All I can say is we better have some amazing May flowers to make up for these icy April showers so far this month.

We will take the truck back in the morning after topping off the gas tank and then we will know exactly how much we spent on it.

By late last night, both of the BoA payments I made on Friday were pending and this morning they have gone through. It was nice to see a big fat $0.00 next to the total on the two Master Cards and know that is never going to change, barring future medical disasters. And the total on the BoA VISA is now at $6,365.74. We had a couple of autopays go through so it's a bit higher today than it would have been if it went through on Friday. Still, it's all part of the plan.

After the mortgage payment hits the account and we make the car payment on Friday, we will have $352.21 to pay off before our debt to income ratio hits 45%. That's how close we are to being able to qualify for the best mortgage loans. Of course we will still have to come up with a down payment and hopefully that will happen by year's end.

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We finished packing up the old house on Friday and today we will be going out there with a U-haul to bring everything that is left in to storage. We got the $19.99 plus mileage (.79 per mile) truck and our insurance covers us even up to replacement value of the truck so we don't have to buy their expensive 24 hour insurance policy. DH double checked yesterday. We'll put on between 50 and 60 miles so that'll be an additional $47 tops, plus whatever gas we use. I'm assuming at least 6 gallons at $4 per gallon, so another $24. But then no more moving stuff!

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I found two companies that do a very thorough Move in/Move out special on cleaning. They do everything. So if they will actually come out to the county, we will set up to get estimates done for the day after DH comes home next time and then hopefully be able to schedule a deep-cleaning of the whole house before he goes up again.

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On Wednesday DH and FIL will be putting up the last piece of drywall in the bathroom and the ADT guy is going to come out and give an estimate for replacing the code box that got cracked when those kids broke in and yanked it off the wall and see whether or not the alarm box itself is damaged. It was just yanked out of the wall and doesn't appear to be damaged. DH cobbled it back together at the time, being an engineer, and it works, but it doesn't look pretty. We want to get at least two more windows wired up as well, two that you can't see from the road and are not covered by the motion sensors.

We'll need to get an estimate still on replacing the broken window pane and then have it fixed. I don't know if we can get an esitmate this week or not. Otherwise it will have to be scheduled for when DH comes back home next time as well.

Once repairs are made and it is clean we can finally put it on the market. I am hoping to be able to do that at the end of April. And it should finally be warm enough for DH to paint that little bit around the top of the gutter that never got painted when we pained before because I wasn't tall enough to reach it even on the ladder. The back porch steps are in the way there and I couldn't quite stretch far enough. He also needs to take down the Christmas star attached to the front of the house and probably repaint that as it probably has left an outline from the sun hitting it there.

So much to do, never enough time when DH is home.

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I still have not heard about my jury duty. They were supposed to resummon me for April 30th, but I have got nothing in the mail yet. I've been checking it religiously. Maybe they've finally given up?

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I stepped off a curb at the library on Friday without relizing it was there and wrenched my low back pretty badly. It's finally starting to feel okay after a massage ($90) yesterday and a visit to the chiropractor, but I still have to watch how much I do. It's a little frustrating because there is so much to do and I was doing so well with walking and actually being able to do things again.

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I have a nasty cold again. Just a head full of snot and lots of coughing as it drains. Plus I'm tired because even though I sleep, I wake myself up coughing. My daughter infected me this time. And I can't figure out where I put the pseudophederine. DH bought two boxes for me. I guess I can drag myself down to the store to buy more. It's just such a hassle since they keep it behind the counter and you have to show ID and sign for it.I'm just glad it's still available.

I am getting really antsy. Late Friday night I made two payments on the BoA website. One to cover the interest from the card I just finished paying off of $34.02 and one towards the last VISA we owe money on for $1490. Neither one of them has showed up yet, not even as pending. The money also hasn't been taken out of the checking account on this end.

I am now starting to wonder if BoA's website had an issue over the weekend. Usually it shows as pending right away. If it hasn't shown up by tomorrow I will have DH call them and see if there is any evidence of it on their systems. If not, I will go pay the $34.02 one in person at the bank. Not too big a deal if that one ends up being paid twice because of a glitch. On the other one I will wait a few more days on. $1490 being paid twice would screw up my checking account.

I have to transfer the money from the EF at ING back to checking so I can make that payment. Part of me is still resisting it though DH and I both agreed it was the best idea and it'll keep us on track for having the credit card paid off by May 18th. I know we will still have $1000 in the EF and we of course have the credit cards as back up if necessary even if that idea makes me cringe. I just need to do it. Why is it so hard to take money out of the EF for non-EF reasons? I know we will get it built back up again, but it is such a psychological thing for me to have that money there. I know, in the long run, it'll be a bigger psychological thing to have that credit card paid off, though. So...gotta do it.

I added $3.44 to the change jar today after cleaning out my purse and DH's wallet. I think I have enough to roll quarters. I will be making a deposit to the Safety Net today. I am still going to work on building up the EF even though I'll be taking most of it to pay down the last BoA card.

Sometimes I think I just like banging my head against the wall. A house came on the market on Friday and it's just about perfect if you could just pick up the house and plop it down where you wanted it to be. And the price! $219,000 for 1747 square feet, with an unfinished basement. The outside was cute, not the greatest color, what I like to refer to as one of the least offensive shades of bland, but nice windows and doors, and the inside looked great from the photos. Hardwood floors in the living room, dining room, and master bedroom. Main floor master bedroom with ensuite. Gorgeous, big kitchen, large enough to put the table in and use the dining room for the piano and exercise machines. Open floor plan. The second floor has 2 bedrooms, plus a big rec room and there is a second bathroom, a must.

It has a fenced yard with five raised beds for gardening, is a completely flat yard, and has mature fruit trees. But it wasn't too big a yard either, so easy to mow. We drove by it. The only thing it didn't have that was bad was a driveway and there is no street parking, but there is a place for one car under the trees. I don't like the idea of parking under trees as there is so much sap and bird droppings that get on the car that way. There is no garage or storage either, which isn't necessary with the basement. But it looks good otherwise. It really does.

It is even in the right school district for both kids, though right on the borderline for the middle school. And the location is the reason why it's got a lower asking price than the norm. It's close to the freeway. Close enough you can hear it, but not as close as our old house was to the highway. It sounds more like a river than traffic. The neighborhood is okay, but not a favored area for me. I'd say it's lower middle class and I'm not sure what direction it is going, up or down. I looked for signs but they were mixed.

There were some very nice homes there, and a lot of minivans that were at least from this century, but probably early to mid last decade (probably all paid off!). There were also a couple of condmened houses being torn down and a house that had obvious burn damage that was being worked on. There were no wrecked cars and cars up on blocks, there was no sign of trash and the yards were all maintained. The front porches were not all cluttered up with junk. Some of the roofs had a lot of moss, but many where spotless. It was raining hard and a couple of the yards were flooded, which might indicate trouble with basements getting water.

We will probably not make an appointment to look at it. I know I need to have patience, and not push to look at things yet. And as nice as it is, there is enough for me to go, no, it's not got quite enough of my ticky boxes checked. And I don't want to rush into something. We rushed into something in 1998 and I have been regretting it since then. I don't want to make the same mistake we did before, being in a hurry to get out of where we are and not going into things with our eyes wide open.

I want one of my preferred neighborhoods. I want walking distance to certain things. I want to be closer to mom than that (but not so close she walks to me!) And I really do want a driveway. *sighs* I need to stop looking but those shiny real estate sites are just so...shiny.

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Ex-BIL is being a jerk again, no surprise. He has decided to sue SIL to try make her sell the house they still jointly own because she is messing up his credit by not making the payments on time. Of course, he is late every single month in giving her his share of the mortgage, not to mention child support, so of course she cannot make them on time. Kind of a duh thing.

This is the house that two of his children, whom she has full custody of, live in. It takes a special kind of selfishness to be such an awful human being. This is so the cheating, child-molesting idiot and the woman he is currently shacked up with can try to buy a house together. The only reason he is doing it now and not sooner, like when they divorced, was because one of the conditions they had when they built the house through an assistance program, was they had to wait at least five years to sell it or pay a major penalty. Guess when the five years was up?