Not too terribly much going on. Tomorrow is payday and it's pretty much planned for so not much to do then but figure it out to the penny and then do it. A good chunk goes into savings, so yay.

DH has decided he is finally going to go on a diet. Probably the same one as me. I don't honestly know how I will cope with that. I find that when I am dieting I need to be very protective over my food and my diet and making sure I get what I need when I need it. Which can be difficult if my food suddenly goes missing because someone else ate it, and DH is a big culprit for that or at least has been in the past. So we will likely have to get very, very organized about food or things won't be pretty.

Still he needs to be losing weight as well so hopefully it will all work out okay and we'll just slide into a good place with it all.

I got excused from jury duty, but again, not permanently. Until April 30th, though. Which might actually be a good time to do it. I don't want to do it in the summer, because we are hoping to send the kids to a camp in Arizona this summer and I don't want to spend all that money and then get called for the days we are supposed to fly down or come back. Because, "I spent a bunch of money and you are ruining my plans," is not a good excuse to get out of jury duty. I am hoping that by the end of April I'll have had the surgery and healed well from it.

I don't know why they don't just give up on me, though. I mean, it's been going on two years now and I keep having to have surgeries and they keep getting doctor's notes, and I keep telling them I will have to have more surgery in the future, and it's like they don't believe me or something even though I always do and I always have a note. Why do they not call healthy or non-injured people in? I swear I am the only person I know that has ever been called except DH who was called once. I've been summoned 15 times. They really liked to do it when I was pregnant on bed rest or nursing and then the years I was homeschooling.

Anyway, I hope I am good to go for the next date, because then they can't call me again for 3 years. I will have 3 years of peace without trying to schedule appointments and any future surgeries around some arbitrary court dates.

After a month of being in separate states, DH is finally home. And he grew a beard while he was gone, but didn't tell me! Not that I mind, I love DH in a beard, and he usually does grow one in the winter, but I was very surprised he'd done it so soon. He looks all distinguished now.

Today is going to be a no spend day, even though DS thinks we need to celebrate DH being home by going out to eat. I said no, but I am making my bacon cheddar cheeseburgers tonight and sweet potato fries so it'll be a bit like diner food. DS doesn't think that cuts it, but I don't care.

I read Jeffrey's article on not shopping at Costco with interest, even though I pretty much politely disagree with most of it. I've talked about my reasons for shopping at Costco before here:

http://luckyrobin.savingadvice.com/2011/02/26/why-i-buy-in-b.... I think his reasons are good for him and his mad couponing skills, but not for me and my need to avoid most manufactured foods (which is generally what coupons buy).

I can usually resist the shiny though and stay out of the areas where I don't need to go (electronics, jewelry, books, clothes, games, CD's, toys). When I go to Costco I have a plan and don't wander. Plus I live close. Makes a difference. Also makes a difference if you go Tuesday at 10:30 and not Saturday afternoon. Last time I went was a Saturday afternoon. BIG mistake. It could turn you off the place for life. Still I like to see the other opinion. It just goes to show that you have to evaluate these things based on your own circumstances. Once my kids are grown and have moved out, I doubt I will need a place like Costco anymore. For now it suits our needs.

I was able to reschedule my VM follow up appointment, so now I will be seeing the knee surgeon on 12/6 and the Virginia Mason doctor on 12/9. I am going to take my daughter out of school at 10 on 12/9 and she will come with me to Seattle and act as my navigator. We will then spend the night in the Inn at Virginia Mason and have a mother/daughter afternoon/evening. On the way back we will hit Fashion Bug and possibly The Avenue. Depends on whether or not I feel confident enough to drive through Ballard. Probably not. Their traffic scares me worse than downtown Seattle traffic, which at least seems to have more of a rhyme and reason than "you can't get there from here."

I really need to find a new parka. It has been far too cold already this fall. I was going to try to wait until winter 2012/13 to buy one as I am still losing weight, because I didn't want to buy one that would be too big next winter. But now I'm thinking a gently used 2X coat would probably resell pretty well on E-bay if I don't overprice it, maybe half of it's original value. So if I can find one, I will buy one. I am really tired of these cold mornings. I also need a couple new pairs of jeans since mine are literally falling down. I keep having to hitch them up they are so baggy now. DD wants a couple more pairs of jeans as well. I will set aside enough money for that out of the next paycheck.

I am pretty much basically on autopilot until Friday as far as finances are concerned. And even then, it'll just be setting some money aside for the first of the month bills and dumping the rest into savings. We have moved past living paycheck to paycheck. It is really weird. I know that we aren't that far away from it, maybe a month or so ahead, but having as much money in the bank as we do right now, I don't have that same unsettled feeling in my stomach that I've been living with since the first round of big surgeries started eight or nine years ago and brought with it the debt we have been struggling to get out of ever since.

DH has heard that bonuses will be paid out right around Christmas time, but not the set date. We still don't know how much, but all evidence points to a fairly substantial one, between 5 and 10% of his yearly income. It would be so nice. I know I shouldn't even be thinking about it yet, but I find it is on my mind a lot. I tend to worry about things I have no control over. And anticipate. A lot. I need to stop that, because there is no guarantee of anything in this life, especially end of year bonuses.

At least I know for sure that our tax return next year will be huge, because we maxed out our HSA and we will get all of that back. At least that money I can depend on and maybe dream about a little.

Didn't make it to the CU to deposit the coin jar scrapings. I totally forgot, which is easy enough to do. Maybe tomorrow after I pick up DH from the airport. It's been a month since he's been home. I will be so glad to see him.

I am slowly catching up on all the stuff I have been ignoring this week. I think mostly I've just been exhausted and pushing myself too hard on not enough sleep. I still don't quite feel like I've caught up on sleep even though I slept nine hours Thursday night and eight hours last night. I kept waking up and then going back to sleep. I'm not supposed to have this kind of night restlessness on the medication I'm taking. It's supposed to knock me out cold. Still, I got more sleep in the last two nights than in the rest of the week combined so there is a bit of a difference.

I'm still fighting some kind of ick. Or a new ick that ran across the end of the old ick. Feels like I've been sick with something or other since September and I am tired of it. I can't remember the last time I actually felt like myself.

I have to go grocery shopping today. I have no appetite so that should make it easier. No picking up impulse items just because they look good. I've done pretty well with meals the last couple of days and today is leftover clean up day.

I've got leftover taco meat, cheese, and lettuce for making taco salads. I've got leftover chicken and noodles. I've got half of a very large pork chop and some cooked broccoli. And I've got half a tray of homemade enchiladas, so we are pretty set for the day. It's nice to not have the pressure on there of what to come up with and not be inclined to hit some pizza place or drive-thru.

We actually got paid on Thursday this week because of the holiday and I didn't really notice. Just went on as usual on Friday than saw the date and went, "Oh." I have worked up the budget and just need to write out a couple of checks and mail them off. These are places that don't take online payment and it would waste more gas to drive to them to pay than it would use a stamp.

Once I figure out how much is left I will send it to ING. I think it's going to be right around $3000 or so. This is mostly January/Future HSA money.

We had a hail storm last night. Actually we had two, or at least we had hail a couple of hours apart. They were the size of peas. Really weird weather around here lately.

I need to finish up laundry. I have three full baskets to put away and another load to wash. Wonder if I can get the kids to clean the bathroom? And all the sheets need to be changed. It never ends.

I did clean out my purse today and had $1.81 in change to that went into the change jar. I gave my daughter a $5 this morning so she could buy lunch. She doesn't eat peanut butter and I had to throw out the lunch meat (despite ordering it by the slice, they didn't eat as much as they said they would) as it had gone off.

DH is home. Yay! It will be good to have him home for a while now.

Mom's class on what to expect when you go home from the hospital was long, almost 2 hours when it was supposed to only be 1.5 hours. Those chairs are rough to sit in for that long with a bad back and knee. I go back tomorrow at 9 for another one of her physical therapy classes and then some time in the afternoon she'll be released to come home.

My aunt and uncle who I have not seen since my daughter was 3 and I was pregnant with my son, stopped by to see my mother. They had no idea she was in the hospital. Gee, Mom, and I thought I didn't talk to my sisters much. They were on their way up to Canada to visit their daughter so they stopped here. I gave them Mom's room number and they said they'd stop by and see her, but whether they will or not is anybody's guess.

Tomorrow is payday. I'll be glad to see it.

DD and I went to see a movie today. We saw Contagion. It was very well done, very believable. We both liked it a lot. It was solid and very good. I wasn't blown away or thinking, hey, I need to see that again right now, but it was definitely worth the money ($16.50 for the two of us to see a matinee). It was nice to have a girls' day out with her. We don't really get that much anymore now that she's 15. I used part of my allowance money to pay for it.

DS went to a decoy show with my mother. They were selling some of Dad's collection. They made $1220. After paying for the table space and the hotel overnight, the profit was $1020. Mom had promised DS 10% for his help. So he earned $102. He's really excited. Right now he has $148 in his possession ($10 from last pay cycle, plus the $36 allowance for the last six weeks).

Mom is taking him to buy a couple used video games tomorrow and the rest he wants to put in his bank account to save. He, at least, is getting the concept of saving. I told DD she has to start saving at least $10 out of her allowance every six weeks regardless of what she wants to buy. I just want her to get into the savings habit. She's never really been one for saving, but I think it is a skill she really needs to have by the time she gets out of high school.

Anyway, I cleaned out my purse tonight and had $4.50 for the coin jar. I still have $15 in cash and plenty in checking for what needs to be purchased this week. Tomorrow I have to buy a music book for DS's orchestra. It costs less than $10, though.

Thought I'd take a look at my total credit card debt, as I haven't in a few months. There were some charges made last month (more than I knew about) and things went up that should have gone down. I suppose you can only control the spending of another person to a certain extent. Even when you are on the same page most of the time about getting out of debt, there are unplanned splurges that happen. I would rather they not go on a credit card, or worse yet multiple credit cards that I had paid off, but again...there is only so much one spouse can do.

There is also a plane ticket to Portland and a plane ticket to San Francisco that DH had to get. He had to go through Portland on the way up to work and he'll have to go down to San Francisco briefly on the way home. That's an additional $500 or so.

Anyway...

$21,013.23 BoA VISA
$01,655.18 BoA MC1
$00,183.91 BoA MC2
---------------
$22,852.32 Total CC debt

I think my plan of attack on Friday (after making the car payment and the few small incidental payments that are due at that time) will be to pay off MC2, make a small payment to MC1 and throw as much as possible at the VISA. Interest rates have changed recently and now the VISA has the highest one while the MC's have both actually gone down. So I will throw all extra money at the VISA. It's the one closest to its limit so paying it down will have more of an effect on our credit rating for the short term.

Unfortunately this puts us into next year for the final CC debt payoff. I am a little frustrated by that, but I always knew it was a possibility with all the medical expenses this year. I can pay off somewhere around $1800 on the VISA on the 16th and then throw at least an additional $1500 at it the next week.

DH says they usually get fairly large bonuses at his new company at year's end. He didn't get one last year because he'd only been there three months. It would be nice if we got one, and would help immensely on the debt payoff, but I'm not going to count on it. I don't know. Bonuses at the other company were only around $800. Supposedly at the new company they are closer to $10,000. I have a hard time believing that, though. I know he's in a big money industry, but that just seems ridiculous to me.

There should be an additional $1200 in this pay cycle since DH has hit the SS cap with wages. If so, I'd like to put most of it in the holding tank for upcoming medical expenses. Then it can be transferred to the HSA when it comes time to pay the bills. Normally I set aside $500 a month for medical, so together that would be $1700. All of my Virginia Mason bills to date have come to $1750 and I won't have to have more radiological tests with this next surgery so $1700 should cover it. Then the November pay cycle I will put $1700 in to medical to go for next year's deductible and then I think it will be safe to go back to just $500 a month. That would have the money set aside for the $2500 deductible covered by the end of January. Next year shouldn't be too bad for medical, but I'd at least like to have the deductible covered.

The extra $1200 in December will go partly to Christmas and partly to debt. I am hoping to buy a few things over the next couple of months for Christmas presents so I don't need to use too much of that money for Christmas. Sheesh, I can't believe I'm thinking about Christmas when it's been 80 degrees out all week.

I will be glad when this next week passes and I can start making forward progress again.

Both kids are off for the first day of school and I have the whole day to myself. Okay, I have a dental cleaning at 11:00 but that is just a blip on the radar. Otherwise I have the day free until 2:15. I am also in the mood to really write which I haven't been in ages, so chapter 32 and I are going to spend some quality time together, as well as a short story I've been working on. My goal for the day is 2000 words, which I can do easily without interruptions and kids about the house.

There is really nothing on the financial front today, other than to transfer the money from the holding tank to the checking account for the security system bill that comes due on the 11th. No other bills are due until after payday on the 16th, though there will be school photos. I've got money set aside for that though.

I'm planning on taking the kids swimming after school today. Hopefully it'll be pretty deserted and I'll be able to swim laps. I've debated going earlier to the adult lap swim, but I really want to write while I'm in the mood.

Started my diet this morning. So far so good and no cravings.

Today after swimming we went to two grocery stores. I bought a beautiful allotment of organic produce and proteins. I spent about $100. I misplaced the receipt (it's probably out in the van) but I know it was just a couple dollars more than $100. This way of eating is a bit more expensive, but in the past it has worked well for me so I know it will again.

I got marked down Dover sole, marked down red snapper, thin cut breakfast pork chops, a marked down t-bone, a marked down rib-eye, and three whole chickens over five pounds each (they were my best deal because they were already cheap and each one was marked down $1.50 making each one less than $3 a chicken). I repackaged everything up to freeze. I think I got enough protein for myself for two weeks plus several helpings for the kids.

I also peeled and sliced up some low glycemic veggies so they would be ready to grab. In the past preparation or lack thereof has always been my bugaboo. Most of them can be eaten raw and a few will have to be cooked (can't stand raw broccoli).

I have to be more careful than most people doing a low carb diet because of past kidney damage (from the tumors). I can't do Atkin's because I can't risk ketosis. So I'm settling more on the Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program. It's geared more toward people with high blood pressure like me or a history of heart disease in the family (also like me). And I know it works because I've done (an albeit looser version of) it before.

It's been a few years and about 3 surgeries since I've done a controlled carb diet so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things pretty easily. I'd like to lose about 30 pounds before my next surgery. I think it would make recovery just so much easier.

My planned start day is Wednesday when the kids start school. It is much easier to get started when they are not in the house and also when DH is gone. I'm not going to have a big carb fest tomorrow or anything, but I'm not trying to do it on a day I have to run all over the place either.

In the long run I think I will actually save money eating this way because of the health benefits brought by losing weight.

I'm getting my exercise into gear before starting though. Started today with the swimming. I did 15 laps. 13 is 1/4 mile. It's nowhere near the 45 I was doing before reinjuring my knee last year, but I don't want to push too hard when both my back and my knee are not doing great. I wore my knee brace in the water and I did slow, careful strokes. I spent 25 minutes doing the laps and then played with the kids for another half hour and then the hot tub for a few minutes. The swimming did help loosen up my back which was good.

It's DH's birthday today (42) and he and I are going to a movie. The two things don't really have anything to do with each other. The movie is more a date that we have pretty much been postponing for the last year. We haven't been to a movie in the theaters in...I'm not sure when. When was Order of the Phoenix in theaters?

I know it's a big expense, but it's rare one of my favorite British actors (David Tennant) is in something besides TV, and since I generally like vampire movies (as long as they don't sparkle or mope) we're giving Fright Night a try. I also like the girl in it, Imogene Poots and I've heard all kinds of good about the teenage male lead and then of course Colin Farrell is a great actor so even if the plot bites (ha ha, sorry), I figure the acting will still be spectacular.

There are a lot of movies I actually want to see right now. The Help. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Franco has come miles and miles since Freaks and Geeks hasn't he?) But this is probably the only one we will see. I want to see it this week because I'm afraid it'll be out of theaters if we wait until the weekend. Stuff does not stay long around here if it isn't a franchise like Harry Potter.

We may or may not go out to dinner. It depends on time. We're going to the 5:20 showing. I'm not sure if that is matinee price or not. It used to be shows up until 6:00, but I don't know anymore. So we'd get out by 7:20 or so, and that is probably when we'd have to pick up DD from her friend's house. DS is staying with my mom.

There's this steak house I really want to go to but it doesn't open until 4:00 and that really messes up movie times if we go early. Maybe we can do it another day. It's been about a year since we've gone there.

DD has an appointment with the nutritionist at 1:00 and we are going to hit a sports store while we are over there on that side of town for DS. He has outgrown the young boy sizes but is too short still for the young men sizes so we are hoping to get him some sweats and swishies that will do. Anything we've found with actual number sizes are about a foot too long.

We are seriously thinking of taking him to the Mens Warehouse and getting him measured and having some trousers tailored to fit him if this doesn't work. It would be a little expensive but he'd at least have a couple nice pairs of pants. I don't know what clothing companies are thinking here. My daughter went through the exact same thing in the switch from girls to juniors and it was an annoying couple of years where she ended up wearing a lot of boys clothes. DS doesn't have the option to shop in a different department like she did.

I read an article today about how the Seattle libraries have closed for the whole week so they can save $650,000 and stay within their budget for 2011. Of course no one is getting paid this week, so it's an unplanned pay cut for all the library workers. I guess it's better than some other options, like permanently closing branches, but it still makes me shake my head. Seattle is such a bookish town that I'd think the libraries would have full support of the city, but maybe that's just foolish thinking in this economic era.

Two of the books I had on hold came in on Saturday but they didn't call me to let me know until 15 minutes before closing time so I had to wait until today as our libraries are closed on Sundays. DH picked them up for me while I was at an appointment ($60 out for physical therapy). Anyway, I finally have in my hot little hands The Help (big print edition FTW!) and The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing. I'm still waiting on the last Rizzoli and Isles book, but should be pretty close to the top of the hold list as I was in 7nth place the last time I checked.

It'll be a bit before I get to them though as I am in the middle of two other books, one for pleasure and one for learning stuff about investing.

Well, we drove by the almost perfect house today on the way home from the chiropractor and it had a sale pending sign added to the for sale sign. It made me sad, a little, but in a lot of ways it was a relief because it removes the temptation of moving up our timetable that I think my DH was falling prey to. After viewing the main floor master bedroom, I knew it would be pretty much impossible to set up our furniture in there, and so the dream house turned out not to quite be what I wanted. Oh, I could have easily made do with it, but it wasn't in the cards and we are not ready no matter how much DH wants to be.

We drove by several houses yesterday that are for sale and quite nice from the outside and we have virtually toured online so I am not really worried about us finding a house when the time comes. But that time is not now. I am curious, though, how much the almost perfect house sold for. I hope they didn't get their ridiculous asking price. I hope the buyers lowballed them and got a good deal, because I would hate to see that house raise the taxes for the rest of that neighborhood.

We have been thinking that if we do end up with a two story house, we definitely want to get a chair lift installed on the stairs. They cost about $1500 and make the house somewhat ADA compliant. That way we would not have to rule out two story houses, though I still would prefer one story. Of course my taste for Craftsmen homes is totally at odds with my practical need for a rambler or ranch style home. Any house we get will have to have one shower/bath redone to be ADA compliant and also possibly have hand rails put in longer hallways. Maybe even a ramp to the porch as I'm not sure my disability will ever improve.

I really wish we could build from scratch, but land prices are astronomical and I don't see that as a practical solution. But it would be nice to be able to put in all the handicapped stuff right from the get go.

My entire family has a case of the blahs today. I think we all may have picked up a touch of something at the Fair on Friday. Everyone is running a low grade temp and has a variety of aches and pains from sore-ish throats to grumbly tummies or congestion. It's hard to tell sometimes.

We had a major weather swing yesterday, a day of rain and very cool temps after several days of very warm weather (75 to 88). Today it has swung back again to hot. I always feel yucky when the weather swings like that, as I am sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. It's not enough to put anyone down for the count, but it's definitely enough to give us all a case of the "I don't wannas."

I am going through the "I don't wanna cook," one myself. Fortunately we have leftover spaghetti, ravioli, cole slaw, taco meat, and baked potato soup so my "I don't wanna" is turning into an "I don't have to." If we didn't have so many leftovers right now I can easily see this as being a day of low willpower that sends us to the drive-thru (no one feels good enough for a sit down restaurant anyway, so it would be limited, but still).

I am debating on whether or not today will be a no spend day. I could get off my backside and make some bread or I could go down to the store and buy some. If I go to the store, I know I will be tempted to buy something we don't need like a rotisserie chicken or a premade meatloaf from the deli. Because that's even easier than warming stuff up. But it would be a stupid financial choice to go when my will power is so low.

Bread is time consuming though. Maybe I should just stir up some bisquits. That takes about 3 minutes. Same with cornbread muffins. Or maybe pancakes. Ugh. I don't want to do anything. Maybe we can just go without bread products tomorrow and we'll feel decent enough to make them then.

I love the ability to manage my library account online. I love the fact that I can go on to their website and renew a book and not have to waste the gas to run down there and do it in person. I also really like that I can look up my holds and see what place I am in the queue. Currently there are six people ahead of me for The Help and four people ahead of me for The Silent Girl, the next book in the Rizzoli and Isles series. When I put them on hold they were 122 and 115 respectively and that was less than a month ago.

I am halfway through two books right now. One is a mystery that involves geneology research so I'm pretty much loving that to pieces and the other is one that was recommended on

www.thesimpledollar.com (which is a blog I have been devouring) and is by John Robbins and called The New Good Life. He is the son of one of the founders of Baskin Robbins and he walked away from the family fortune to make it on his own. It's a very interesting read so far. I am glad the library had it and I get to read it for free.

One of the things we decided not to do while we are living here is to buy books. The number one reason for that is the space factor. We simply do not have room for stacks of books to take up residence and we have a bunch of unread books in storage. The second was the expense of any new book. As much as I love to own books, right now it is not practical. Anything that comes into this house takes up space that might be better used by something else. So it's been nice to be able to use the library so much, now that we only live 2 miles from one.

It's not like I don't have any owned books here. I have the Little House books, the Harry Potter books, the Narnia books, five books that I need to read before they go to storage and are replaced by five books from storage that haven't been read, and some cookbooks (about five or six from our collection). But I can't justify the space to have more than that here. A temporary stack from the library is just fine and fills my ficovore needs perfectly.

Three to be precise. The first one was $269,000 and it had six bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It also had a partial kitchen and full kitchen. The main problem is that the full kitchen is on the second floor. It was originally set up as a house that rented out rooms and has three separate entrances. It wasn't bad, especially for the price, but with the kitchen upstairs it had to be struck off the list. I just cannot climb stairs three times a day to make dinner and converting the downstairs one into a full kitchen would be difficult, though possible. But nothing about the house really sang to me anyway.

Then we went to see the dream house that is too expensive right now ($419,000 and I'm sure it will come down again). It is four bedrooms and 2.5 baths. This is the one DH toured a while ago and took pictures of, and I had seen the virtual tour online, but had never been to. A lot of it is perfect, but not all of it. There is one bedroom downstairs and in order to put a king size bed in it, it would have to go with the head under the windows. Any other place in the room and it would block either the bathroom, the closet, or the door leading into the room.

I don't like having my head under the windows because I easily catch cold that way. We did discuss just putting the bed against the closet and getting a wardrobe for hanging clothes or taking the door off the closet and leaving just enough space between the wall and the bed to get to it. We have a fairly large dresser for most clothes anyway. Otherwise I really love it. Not enough to do anything crazy for it. And we aren't really ready. Right now we are just looking to get an idea of what we want.

We looked at another fairly large home (1 story) that had four bedrooms and 2 full baths. It had a large garage (neither of the other two, did), but it's the sort that is stuck on the front of the house so when you pull in all you see is garage, not house. It needs a new paint job on the outside. The kitchen was nicely sized but didn't have a drawer stack. It was all cupboards with a bitty drawer above each lower cupboard.

It was a good price for it's size, $229,000 and because of the state of the outside of the house I am sure it could be talked down to $200,000. It smelled though. It smelled like a nursing home or a hospital, disinfectant, urine, and sick people. Enough so that I had to wonder if someone had died in the house. It definitely wasn't the smell of animals makring their territory. The rugs were extremely ugly and would have to go (I think that was where the smell was from. One tub and shower would have to be replaced as you can tell there was mildew in the seams. The neighbors had a giant RV parked along the property line, so I'm sure that would be there all the time except when they were on vacation, a constant eye sore.

I didn't love the house, but I didn't hate it, either. The problems could be easily rectified, especially at that price. The location would put it in a different district for high school, though. I think it would be the same one for middle school.

We still have a long way to go before we are ready to buy though and I'm in no rush. DH and my mom went out to our house today and took another load to the dump. That should keep the HoA off our backs for a little while. I would like to get the piano moved this hitch if we can. I want it here where it will do some good and get some use.

I need to sit down with my budget spreadsheet and figure out exactly what I need to do with the next paycheck. I'd like to send $2000 of it to debt repayment and then make sure that I have enough money set aside to cover the bills until the start of the next paycycle. There will be one more paycheck after that, the small one with two days on it, and that one I'd like to bank in it's entirety, part to the EF and part for future medical savings, but I might only be able to do one of those. One way or another though I am getting my EF up to $2000 this month.

DH's b'day is coming up and I know what he wants and how much it will cost so that is included in there, also. And his allowance has to come out of next week's check, too. I have been debating what to do with my allowance. DH gets $100 every six weeks.

I usually don't spend that much, usually getting a season or two of some show I want on DVD or something like that and using the rest on cooking magazines, but right now I don't want anything so I am thinking about setting it aside in another savings account. I've been toying with the idea of getting an Index Fund through Vanguard to generate some side income (the one I am looking at pays dividends). It costs $3000 to buy in. So it would take a while to save that much up, but what else am I going to do with it on the months where I have no interest in spending my allowance?

Today has been a slow day. I had to use the heater again last night and this time I left it on all night. Today is cool and about 65 with a breeze. I'm convinced we're never going to see any true summer weather here this season. I had physical therapy so $60 out for that.

We picked about 3 gallons of blueberries last night and there's still just so much more to do. I can't believe how much two six foot tall bushes can produce. I'll make another batch of cornbread blueberry muffings today, but that only uses about a cup of blueberries. We'll make jelly with about half of what we picked and freeze the other half for later use.

The two new chickens are finally old enough that they should start laying eggs soon. I keep hoping to go out there and find three or four instead of the usual one or two. The fun part is that when they start laying often times they will produce double yolk eggs for the first six months. The kids love having a fried double yolker.

Someone remind me why it's not a good idea to start up any kind of dialogue with a troll, and then whack me with a copy of the Complete Tightwad Gazette if I do. I don't even know if this person really believes what they are saying or is just trying to start arguments, but this person can't respond to anything without insulting the person she is talking to/and or making inflamatory comments in general. Very wrong inflamatory comments.

Oh, well, I am done with them. I am so used to friendly disagreemets on all the boards I'm on, that this person just threw me for a loop and I totally don't need the drama. I tend to hang out at nice places online, where people discuss things respectfully, so it always surprises me when a troll shows up and doesn't abide by the unwritten rules of niceness. It shouldn't but it does. I will just ignore this person in future.

I just added $7.45 to the coin jar. The cherry lady was there when I drove by today so I stopped and got six pounds of cherries for $12. I'm glad I did as she said this was the last day she was going to be there as the season was over. Then I paid .55 at the library for parking since the two handicapped slots were taken and so was the 5 minute drop off slot. Since I had to pay I figured we'd spend a little more time there so spent a little more on parking to do so. So the $7.45 was the change from the $20 I used for all that.

Mom is picking me up milk on the way home from DS's tae kwon do class. I gave her a $20 for that so whatever is left from that I will put in the coin jar as well and then make my deposit tomorrow. I still have $40 in my wallet and am debating dumping that in as well since tomorrow is payday.

I am going to Costco tomorrow. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that (and really hope they have a ride on cart) but I need to buy TP, paper towels, butter, unsalted butter for baking, lemons, potatoes, peanut butter, sugar, flour, cocoa (if they have it), tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, e.v. olive oil, crackers, cashews, and a couple of other items that are cheaper at Costco than anywhere else. My stores have not been this low in ages. I am so used to having a fully stocked pantry that I've had to be a bit more creative than usual this week with meals.

I cleaned the fridge today in preparation. I am really pleased at how little I had to throw out. I am getting a lot more skilled at leftover management and not letting veggies go to waste than I used to be.

I went to the final grocery store today and got the few processed food items that I buy that are additive and preservative free, two pot roasts and a pack of chuck steak for making beef with broccoli. I spent a little over $40. I left the receipt in the van so I don't remember the exact amount. I was able to walk it today, but when I came home I had to lie down for an hour.

I also bought two bottles of nasal spray as my allergies are bad right now and a container of Tums. Some of the medication I am on (the antibiotic) gives me stomach trouble, hence the Tums. That was around $27 with tax. I had them ring the meds up separately from the groceries because they come from a separate budget. I am definitely seeing a price increase in OTC meds.

The store was out of Motrin. I have about 20 pills left. That will hopefully last another week and then maybe I will have the strength to go to Costco and get the mega bottle.

We ordered a pizza today. I could have cooked (and actually will for dinner) but I do like to get a Round Table Pizza once a month so that was $27.18.

Oh, I sent some money with my daughter to the mall. Mom is taking her birthday shopping and I wanted her to pick up some Paul Mitchell Special Tea Tree shampoo. I sent her with $40. It's usually around $32 for the 32 ounce bottle.

I know it's pricey but it is the only thing I have found that can control the oil slick that is my hair. And it lasts about 3 months. I have tried virtually every shampoo on the market. Most of them are volumizing and moisturizing, two things that I definitely do not need. My hair is thick enough it could have it's own zip code.

Drove by a house today that I viewed a virtual tour of online. It is behind the grocery store we went to. It's really gorgeous on the outside, too. And it is a second house that would really fit all our needs. Enough bedrooms, enough bathrooms, in the right school district, close to my favorite grocery store and within walking distance of two of our favorite restaurants and the library.

It showed me that I didn't have to fall in love with the first house just because it was perfect. That there are other houses and will be other houses when we are ready that will fit our needs. I really am leaning towards the Craftsman style if we get a two story. I'd prefer a one story just because stairs are not my friend, but if there is a master bedroom on the ground level I am fine with that.

Of course I also, and this is more critical than most things, want whatever house we end up with to have an easily adaptable bathroom so we can make it handicapped accessible. Oh, and a big, pretty, bright kitchen. Okay, I guess that is enough rambling from me today.

OH, yeah, and I added $7.07 to the coin jar today.

Since we had used up virtually everything in the refrigerator yesterday, leaving us with pretty much just condiments, butter, cheese, carrots, potatoes, and apples and Chris was leaving today to head back to work, I decided to do a last minute shopping expedition and get everything I should need until payday. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle it because I was only 11 days post op yesterday, but I had my handicapped parking pass and the stores have those scooters to ride around on with the baskets on front so I figured I'd be fine.

The first thing I did was sit down with the grocery ads of the four of the five main grocery stores. (Freddy's doesn't come for free, you have to buy a Sunday paper for their ads, so I didn't consider them). I found the store with the top deals and then the store with the second best deals in case the first store was out of what we wanted.

Cost Cutter was having a major produce sale and since my produce bins were virtually empty, I decided to stock up on a variety of shorter-lived and longer-lived produce. We'll eat the shorter-lived stuff this week and the longer-lived stuff next week. They also had chicken legs and chicken thighs on for .98/lb and full chicken wings for .99/lb.

I ended up with 4 white onions (the sale made them cheaper than yellow ones for a change), 4 beefsteak tomatoes, 6 nectarines, 2 lbs of strawberries, 1 head of iceberg lettuce (I know, not the best nutrition in the lettuce bunch but it was .98 instead of $1.79 like the leaf lettuces), 1 head of green cabbage, 2 canteloupes, 1.4 pounds of red grapes, and 2.17 pounds of broccoli. They had some lovely cherries for a very good sale price, but my mother had brought back some bing cherries from a family reunion in Eastern Washington, so free trumps very good price.

I also got a large Alaskan Wild Coho Salmon fillet that was marked down as it needed to be made that day. It was $8.99 for 1.57 pounds, which is unheard of outside of buying an entire fish. I got ten pounds of chicken thighs, ten pounds of chicken legs, and three pounds of chicken wings. Then I bought two bags of organic white cheddar popcorn (one for each week).

I don't get the fancy deals like some folks manage but I did get $41.62 off my order between coupons and sale prices.

After that I felt okay enough to go to a second store so we went to Haggen, because I didn't like any of the beef prices at Cost Cutter, or the cuts on their pot roast. I found a nice big pot roast at Haggen, a lovely chuck and it wasn't in the despised cuts of cross rib or bottom round, neither of which will get tender the way I like them in a crockpot. Suddenly that's about all that the stores are carrying and I just don't like them. I like it when there's enough fat in the cut that they fall apart when you try to lift them out of the crockpot. I shouldn't have to cut them with a knife.

I also got 10 pounds of flour and 8 pounds of sugar, 8 lemons (for making homemade lemonade), 3 gallons of milk, 2 gallons of orange juice, 2 12 packs of Charmin at $6.99 with two $1 off coupons, so $5.99 each) since I knew I'd not be making it to Costco any time soon to buy the huge package. I got two family size cans of both Dinty Moore beef stew and Chef Boyardee mini ravioli (it comes without MSG now and no preservatives!), and four cans of no beans steak house chili from Stagg (not on sale, not even close), a package of hot dog buns (.25), and both a Fine Cooking and a Clean Eating magazine. Between coupons and sale prices I saved $32.45.

I went through both magazines last night. I like both of these magazines because they have well explained recipes and they also teach you cooking techniques (like how to cut up an artichoke for example, which hardly seems worth the effort, frankly). I also like them because they don't use ingredients like "cream of something soup" or empty five cans into the crockpot with your meat. I don't have anything against recipes like that but we can't use them with DS's allergies. And I prefer as close to natural and organic as possible just because I've had so many health problems and need the best nutrition I can give my body. (Not that that stops me from craving a quarter pounder from time to time).

I found ten recipes in one and three in the other. I was happy. I've come to think a magazine is worth it if I just get one great recipe out of it, and I feel like I hit the jackpot with these two, especially Fine Cooking. Then I looked up a recipe online for Chinese beef and broccoli which I hope to have the energy to make later this week. The kids had some at the City Center when they went to the Pacific Science Center Saturday and have wanted it since. The only places around here that make it all use MSG, so I'll have to do it myself. Fortunately the place there made it without any MSG.

I'm pretty excited to be meal planning this week because I have so many fresh ingredients and so many different colors of food, the plates will look great.

Oh, we've also got fresh blackberries and raspberries right now as the canes in the back yard are producing overtime. I can't wait for the blueberries to be ready. The bushes are loaded and blueberries are just so good and so good for you with all their anti-oxidants and stuff. I love the taste of summer!

There's never much to do with finances during the two weeks out of six that DH doesn't get a paycheck. It's always the lull before the storm of payments. Or maybe the one after. But he did have another pile of coins that he left on his dresser to add to the coin jar, so $1.55 went in today. I also rolled coins, one roll of quarters, one of dimes, and one of pennies, so that will be ready to deposit to the Emergency Fund (Safety Net portion) whenever I manage to get to that CU.

The safety net is at $307.03. My goal is to slowly get that portion of the EF up to $500 and then eventually $1000, just with coin jar savings. Of course the bulk of the EF is at ING and gets more regular feedings of larger amounts of money, each month. At least $100 and any more I can scrounge up.

When this new round of medical bills comes through and the last credit card is paid off (hopefully within the next six months), I will be happy to jump our EF savings up to $1000 a month until it gets to where it needs to be. I would ultimately like it at one year's worth of income (not expenses, but income). Once the debt of the credit card is gone, one year's income would be enough to live on for 2 years if something were to happen to DH's job. I don't think it will (or if it did, he'd just move companies again like all slope workers eventually do), but I just want to have it. Having several months of uncertainty last year made me feel like this would be the best course.

I think it would take several years to get it to that point, but like I said it is my ultimate goal, not my immediate one. My immediate goal after everything is paid off is to build the EF to $10,000 and start saving for the new house downpayment. We still have to sell the old house, too. And at the rate we are going fixing it up it won't even be on the market until next summer. Not that I am in that much of a rush. Even with what we might get for it, we will still have to save money for about a year to get the downpayment we want to make.

We probably won't get anything near what the bank ($110,000) or the tax assessor ($115,000) says it is worth. But I would honestly be happy getting what we paid for it back in '98, which was $69,500. That would give us enough money to pay the realtor, pay off the mortgage, and have $40,000 to $45,000 for the downpayment. I honestly just want it to be gone. If someone walked up to me today and offered me $50,000 in cash for it as is with no repair demands, I'd probably take it.

Combined with our mortgage, all the bills related to that house roughly come out to $1000 a month that could be used for other things. Storage, water/sewer, power, phone, security system, insurance, HoA dues, time for maintaining the yard...it could all be used for better things. I know technically I would at least have to pay storage anyway until we move, but I still consider it part of the overall expense of not having our stuff in a house.

Sometimes I wish I had a financial fairy godmother who could come down, wave her magic wand, and everything that needed to be done would be done with no effort on my part. But no one ever gave a beggar a free horse ride, so...bit by bit, step by step, pulling up my own bootstraps and getting us where we need to be is my job. And I'll do it. I will get us there. Eventually.

For the longest time I have thought that we absolutely need to have a four bedroom house when we buy again. Four beds, two bathrooms, and a well put together kitchen were the priorities on our list. In the back of my mind I've always had it that we would have that spare room in case my mother ever needed to move in with us.

But four bedrooms puts everything into a price range, that while affordable on my husband's income, still isn't necessarily the amount of money I want to be paying. And we don't need four bedrooms. I mean if my mom had to sleep on a pull out couch she'd do it. And after all, my eldest is almost 15. She's not going to be with us forever, though I would like her to stay home during college to save money.

There's also the possibility that my eldest sister woud just move in with my mother again if she gets to the point of needing daily assistance. And my middle sister is down to a seventeen year old and an almost fourteen year old, so she has an extra bedroom as well. Both have made murmurs of takin her if it comes to that. I had always thought it would be left to me. It usually has been when it comes to my parents.

So now I'm thinking 3 bedroom houses would be a better choice. I just need 1.5 baths at the bare minimum, but would prefer 1.75 baths or 2 full baths. These 3 bedroom houses seem to drop the price by around $50,000 to $75,000.

As much as I have always dreamed big, I think I would rather downsize at this point in my life. Give me a single level house with a tiny yard to maintain, my big kitchen and two toilets in the house and I'm happy. I'm happy with 1,500 square feet, but could see myself going down to 1,300 if it had a basement or a shop or a garage for storage. Then I would just need a nest somewhere in the house where I could set up my writing station and be comfortable. If I have one give me it would be a wrap around porch, but that is not an essential. Just a long standing want and can always be built on later.

We have learned in living with my mother that we don't need a lot of stuff. Most of our stuff is in storage waiting to be moved when the day comes. But I'm of the opinion that except for some kitchen gear, keepsakes, photo albums, books, and artwork, there is very little in there that I want to keep. Most of it is kids toys that are far too young for them now, clothing that needs to be donated to charity and so many odds and ends collected over time. We might want to keep the antique sewing machine and table we got from Chris's maternal grandmother because it is beautiful, and the ottoman that goes with our sofa but takes up too much room here. But I can't think of much else that matters enough to me to keep. And neither can DH.

So I think when we start looking we'll start looking with all those things in mind. I do want space for the piano and treadmill (which could go in the garage) and enough room for our sofa set and one recliner so I can keep my knee elevated. Something else that has become important to me is handicapped accessability. Grab rails and such. And if they don't have them are they an easy install.

I'm glad we have over a year and a half to think about these things before. If we had rushed right out trying to buy right away, I think we would have regretted whatever we ended up and we'd still be fighting with credit card debt and I really don't want that.

I added $6.09 to the coin jar. That was the amount leftover from the 20 dollar bill I gave the kids yesterday for dinner on the way back from my sister's house.

I gave the chickens an ear of corn I found in the back of the fridge. It wasn't moldy, you don't want to give chicken's moldy food, but it was less than fresh and had likely all turned to starch. I split it in half so they could each have one to themselves.

The chicks are still on mash, so I only worried about the grown ones. Those two love me because I generally bring them a treat of corn or melon seeds. Cantaloupe is their favorite and they also like the rinds. I love the fact that these two are so friendly now. They used to run away from me all the time like the little ones do. They'll even sit on my lap.

They are back to laying daily. For a while they were only laying every other day. I sure miss the days of a flock of six. Even when the chicks are grown there will only be four altogether, and we aren't entirely sure both of the new ones are female. They haven't grown up enough yet to devolop a rooster's comb. I really hope they are both girls though. Can I say again how much I hate racoons?

I finished reading my book last night, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It's like 1984 by George Orwell but for the digital future. And also not boring. It's really very current while maintaining a near future edge. It was definitely a hard book to put down.

Not much going on here. I've spent most of the day doing laundry and writing. I've got a lovely roast in the crockpot for dinner and no desire in the world to eat out. I've got four potatoes that need using up so will fry those up to have with the roast and probably add a can of green beans.

DH comes home on Wednesday. It can't be soon enough.

Days alone are few and far between when you are a stay at home mother and school is out for the summer, but today I am having one and I am loving every minute of it. My queasy stomach seems to have settled down for the most part and it's a gorgeous, sunny but nicely breezy day.

One of my five nephews turned 17 today and so my mother took my kids down south to see him. His two older brothers are also there (one lives in Arizona, the other has been off with the Job Core), and of course the youngest is there, too, as well as a couple of my brother-in-laws nieces. It is a full house and so I elected to stay home. It's hard for me to travel too much these days, and certainly not in a vehicle as uncomfortable as my mother's car, and when I do, I usually need ice for my leg and to be able to elevate it for a few hours once we reach our destination and that is not really an option at my sister's house.

I have spent most of the day alternating between writing and reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (which has been amazing so far). YA fiction is one of my guilty pleasures and this one is a definite winner. I'm going to have my daughter read it when I am done.

I did send along $20 in case they stopped for food along the way. That probably breaks my no eating out challenge, but I don't like my mom spending her own money on the kids when she's on a fixed income. She may do it anyway and I could very well end up with that $20 back.

I bought fireworks today. I went slightly over budget at $104, but got a lot of the buy one get one free types to take advantage. I need to buy a new long lighter as well.

I had a serious craving for barbecued chicken wings and I debated Little Caesar's or Boston's but I really didn't want to go out or spend the money and I had some frozen chicken wings sections in the freezer and a nice sweet barbecue sauce in the fridge. So I thawed out six wing parts while I looked up recipes on line to find out how long to deep fry them for because I didn't want to bake them for an hour.

I made up a coating of cornmeal, sweet Hungarian paprika, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and oregano and very lightly breaded the wings by shaking them in a Ziploc baggy and then deep fried them 12 minutes, turning every 3 minutes. It was about an inch of canola oil on medium high heat. Then I took them out and coated all but one of them with my barbecue sauce, as I wanted to see how it tasted plain as well (yum).

They tasted very good, but I think I need to knock the cook time down to ten minutes on the flat pieces with two bones. The pieces that look like little chicken legs were fine. I will definitely make these again, especially seeing as it was a ten pound bag of chicken wings. I will try to be more patient and bake them in the oven as it is much healthier.

I paid my dental bill today when I took DS in for his cleaning, $345. I also took DD in to get second cervical cancer vaccine, which was no cost, at least up front. DD has a dentist appointment tomorrow and I have one Thursday morning to have two cavities filled before DH and I head down to Seattle for our overnight before my appointment at Virginia Mason. I will probably have to take hydrocodone for a couple of days again. Oh, joy.

DH comes home tomorrow and I will be so glad to see him. I am so stressed out right now. I'm not sure why because everything is running like clockwork, but it may just be it's been a super long three weeks with him gone this time around.

I added $5.71 to the coin jar today. I just need three more quarters and then I can roll them and then I will make a deposit into the local safety net portion of the EF fund.

I spent a little money at the grocery store getting some milk and a rottisserie chicken. DS has a concert at 6:30 and has to be there at 6:10 and his dental appointment lasted until almost five so I didn't really have time to make anything, since I didn't exactly plan ahead. Which I should have done, but oh, well, I will stretch that chicken to within an inch of it's life, and it will become enchiladas and quesadillas and soup.

I added $1.87 to the coin jar. This cleans out my purse and keeps me from spending that last little amount on a cheeseburger. Tomorrow is payday so I'll feel like I'm making a slight amount of progress again. I hope. It's going to be a bill heavy month and that's going to make it hard not to feel down about it. I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that we won't make as much debt progress as usual. And that I don't need to eat out to artificially boost my spirits over that fact.

I am debating whether or not to skip the car payment this month as we are still several months ahead on it. Right now it's set up to come out on the 19th like usual. I don't want to skip it, yet at the same time absorbing over $700 worth of extra medical this month is going to stretch things. The budget does set aside $500 for medical. But with weekly $90 physical therapy sessions and monthly chiropractic and three monthly prescriptions, that money is already eaten up.

Plus it's going to cost around $250 for going down to Virginia Mason, spending the night in a hotel, and meals and extra gas to Seattle and back.

At the minimum (for me to feel like I'm making any progress at all) I need to send $2500 to debt repayment, $1000 of that being for DH's work expenses for airfare/hotel/food, and $500 being for gas/health club/phone. We budget $3500 a month for it right now and try to squeeze out any more that we can. I guess I shouldn't complain too much. That's still $1000 that will be going to principle debt repayment this month. I remember months when we were lucky if it was $15 over the interest.

Not really much to check in on. I had physical therapy today so that's $90 out. I didn't even make it one day on my no takeaway. I had a regular sized cheeseburger and small soda. I haven't had soda with high fructose corn syrup in it for so long and my resistance was just down so low I didn't even care. Ugh. I can definitely feel it in my system and my body is not happy with me.

I am just exhausted. It is hard taking care of someone who is recovering from surgery. Especially when it affects my sleep. I wish the kiddo could make it through the night with no painkiller, but he just can't yet, poor baby.

Friday is payday and I will be glad to see it here so I can start paying off some of these medical bills and make a debt payment. Of course, this is the one that doesn't do much of anything but hold us even. The payday after that is the one that makes progress. Some days I feel like I live paycheck to paycheck. And not in the traditional sense, but in the sense of anticipating the next check so I can work my debt snowball, and possibly having no life.

I need to get back out there in the world again, but until DS goes back to school next week that's not really an option. I'm actually anticipating my dentist appointment tomorrow, even though I really don't want to deal with a numb face again, as I will have adults to talk to, or at least who will be talking to me. Two more cavities to fill and have them fix the tooth they filled before that still hurts every time I bite down on something medium to hard. I have at least kept up on my flossing every day.

I've been reading Tess Gerritson novels that I checked out from the library lately. Read Vanish last week and am part way through The Mephisto Club. I really like her books. They are mysteries usually, although she has this fantastic sci-fi one called Gravity. I read a few of them several years ago, but I really don't remember so much swearing in them. Could be faulty memory or could be she's changed with the times. But it is so unnecessary for the plot. It's getting harder and harder to find writer's who don't gratuitously drop the F-bomb all the time. *sighs*

My daughter is adapting to the new pre-diabetes diet far better than I thought she would. After 36 hours on it she says she already feels better within her body. She isn't find it difficult to stay within her alloted carbohydrate and calorie levels. I think this diet is going to actually lower our food budget because she is becoming far more satisfied on far less calories and eating a lot more produce and a lot less meat. I know it's early days yet, but I certainly hope it continues.

After my son recovers from his tonsilectomy I am going to join her on the diet, I think. I've known I am insulin resistant for years, so it will benefit me as much as it does her.

It'll be a lot easier to cut out restaurant meals now, since they will be so difficult to calculate compared to home cooked meals where I can weigh portions on my little digital scale. Eating out is and probably always will be my weakness. It really messes with the budget, because I don't really plan for it and then we go anyway and then I have to shuffle everything to make up the difference.

DS wanted ribs for dinner tonight since he won't get to eat meat for a few days after his tonsils come out. Sort of a last supper sort of thing.

Dinner tonight:
Beef ribs (seasoned not sauced)$3.96
Green beans $1
Corn $.89
Baked sweet potatoes (.39)
Milk $1.50

Total: $7.74

I can't believe it's May already. Where has the time gone? Does anyone else feel like this year is just whizzing past? Certainly feels that way to me. Maybe it's because we are accomplishing so many financial goals this year. Does time drag on when you are dreading your debt payments instead of looking forward to paying them off? I think it probably does. Making progress speeds up time or something like that.

DH told me that there is a possibility of another job on the horizon. It would basically be the boss of the position he's in now. And it would come with a 33.3% or more raise. I'm not going to count that chicken until it hatches, but of course my mind couldn't help dreaming a little. It would put him back on 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off which means even more than the wage increase.

I hate 3 weeks on, three weeks off with a passion. It is hard on the kids, hard on me, and hard on the budget because I have to budget on a six week pay cycle and not on a four week one, so some bills get paid twice in one pay cycle and if I'm not tightly organized it messes up everything. To not have to deal with that and go back to a monthly budget would be awesome.

The only problem I can forsee is that though this job is the boss of his current position it is with a different company subcontracting to the main company, which means a change in benefits (again) and a possible Cobra. He's not sure how far in the future this would be but if we're lucky it would be after I have my surgery.

I don't want to try to do a pre-existing condition thing there. I want it over with before, so hopefully it'll work out like that. I don't know. It depends on how soon Virginia Mason can get me in for surgery after the initial consult at the end of May. I guess though with the dramatic income jump we'd at least be able to afford the Cobra payments and the medical payments.

I know it's a little early to be planning, but please Santa, all I want for Christmas is a healthy body, kay? Thanks.

Not much to blog about yesterday so I didn't. First day I missed in a long time. DH went out to the house with his dad to work on the shower stall. He ended up having to come back into town for parts and then go back out again, so he used 4 gallons of gas instead of 2. That'll throw things off a little bit. Glad we aren't making a trip to Seattle this month after all.

DD went to a birthday party. I gave her a twenty so she could buy a present and the change she brought back was $3.25, all in quarters, so it went into the change jar.

The people that fixed the plumbing on Friday came back to take away the broken up blacktop from the part of the driveway they dug up to get to the pipes. The backhoe is still here and will likely remain here until Monday.

My mother decided not to repave that part of the driveway and brought some good dirt/compost in and is going to plant potatoes there. The sewer and gas pipes are eight feet down so the plants shouldn't interfere with them like the honeysuckle roots did. 3 feet of pipe was just jamemed with honeysuckle roots almost in a solid mass.

I'm not crazy about the idea of her planting veggies there because the part of the ground where the overflow pipe comes out spewed sewer water for three days. That can't be healthy. Hopefully she'll just avoid that area, since they actually dug up thirty feet and there is plenty of ground that didn't get contaminated.

As for today my daughter is making the entire dinner. I said I didn't want to do anything, didn't want to be involved in making an elaborate meal and was happy with spaghetti, but she wanted to do something so I told her to go ahead.

We had a turkey at Christmas that we didn't use. We had ended up celebrating Thanksgiving a couple weeks late since DH was in Alaska on the actual holiday, and so nobody was in the mood for making another turkey so soon. So it sat in the freezer since Christmas, but it looked good when we thawed it out this week. So basically we are having Christmas dinner for Easter. She gets to turn it in as a missed lab in her home ec class, too.

I didn't see a price on the turkey so I can't really do a breakdown, but I'm sure it was close to $30 since it was a free range organic bird. Only a 12 pounder, though. And we'll be eating off it all week so that definitely brings the price down on everything.

I received a check today from our propane company for $10.53. It's a farmer's co-op so every year we get a little bit back for being members. It's never very much, but I always figure every little bit counts. So that will go into the laptop fund.

I've been fiddling with the budget while setting up the spreadsheet for April. I think I can manage to set aside an extra $300 for medical expenses without dipping into how much I want to send to debt repayment. It would mean no money added to the EF this month, but I'd rather have it around for the incoming medical bills.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. I'm afraid it's going to hurt. I bit my tongue really hard on Monday and I figured it would be healed by now, but it still hurts. But I don't want to reschedule again. I already did when I had the flu for several weeks. Since most of my symptoms are gone now (just have the congestion and tiredness), I'd really like to just get it over with.

I still have not received a release from the courthouse for jury duty or a statement saying I have to report in despite the doctor's note excusing me. I'm really starting to get annoyed. Monday is not that far away. They really are not on the ball at all about this. Since I have to be notified "in writing" for it to be official they need to get moving. I will call them tomorrow if there is nothing in the mail.

I also still have not been called back by the doctor about being referred to Virginia Mason. Not like I can make an appointment until after I know what's going on with jury duty, but the lack of professionalism is really starting to grate on me. How hard is it to return a phone call and do your job?