I'm going to have a lot of medical expenses coming up. They will be billed to insurance first, but I know they will be coming eventually because of our $2500 deductible. I'm going in for my first mammogram tomorrow. I should have had it done when I was 35 since my mother is a breast canceer survivor, but I never did. Now I'm almost 43 and finally getting in there. Not sure how much that is going to cost, but any sort of imaging tends to be spendy.

Then on Wednesday I go in for my sleep study consult. Thursday I have my physical (I think, could be a follow up). Then on next Friday I see the physical therapist. After that I go in to the dentist on the 21st to get the temperary crown on the right side. And somewhere in there I'll probably have my actual sleep study done.

I think we'll definitely be using some of the surplus of the tax return to pay for some of this. Hope it comes quickly. Those who have filed so far seem to be getting them back pretty fast. I was really hoping to put more of it in savings. Life never really goes as planned, though, does it? I can make payments at the dentist, they are very good about that, but the others will probably need to be paid for when the bills come. At least we can handle it though. At least we don't have to put it on credit cards. We have moved very far in the right direction.

Or in this case the woman. The wind is still blowing here to the point that it made my van shake while I was driving today. I can hear it outside. It sounds like moaning and groaning. I'll have to use my fan on a higher setting tonight to block it out while I sleep.

I went back to the grocery store to get the stamps they forgot to give me. No problem at all since I had my receipt. I ran into my husband's aunt while I was there and had a short visit with her. I haven't seen her since last summer so that was nice.

I got the propane bill for the old house today. It was really high. I wonder if the workmen are forgetting to turn it down to 55 when they leave. I'll have to remind them, because this is a higher bill than any we've ever had out there before when we were living there 24/7.

This whole process is really dragging on forever. Now they're saying late April instead of March. *sighs* My mom is also pressuring us to put it up at $130K now. Last time it was $110K. I told her in no uncertain terms that we would price it according to what DH's uncle (the realtor) says it is worth and not with the idea that it's going to be any great sale that gets back all the repair money.

I honestly think we'll be lucky to get $100K. I wanted to sell it for $85K as is before all this repair work was done. I wish she would back off. It's not her house, it's not her sale, and it's not her money. I have told her to, but I don't think she is listening.

She's been really weird about money all around lately, freaking out about the gas bill and the electric bill (which we pay, not her) needing to be lower, yet insisting on using 60 watt incandesent lights in her end of the house (4 in the kitchen alone), leaving her TV on all day whether she is watching it or not, and keeping the furnace about 70 all the time. It's like she's got a bee in her bonnet and she won't leave it alone, but she's not willing to make any changes in her own behavior that lead to higher bills. Hopefully she will calm down again soon.

I think we all will be ready for the week long break in March when we go to Cali. I'm ready for some sunshine, that's for sure.

We had more dental bills come in. My crown is paid off, but this is residual stuff from DH and the kids that the insurance didn't cover, $233.90. I am thinking I should really reschedule my second crown until after vacation. It doesn't hurt anymore so I don't think I'm grinding on it at night anymore. Well, we'll see. My appointment is not until the 21st. Who knows? Maybe the tax refund will come in quickly and I can just pay it all up front.

I am glad that dental counts for the HSA, but I sure wish it counted for the $2500 medical deductible, because by the time I'm done here, I would have met over half of it. I suppose this is a very first world country problem to have. At least I can get good dental care and have dental insurance that partially covers it.

There is a particular person that is ticking me off big time on another site I frequent. Her behavior is very deliberate and she is doing it on purpose. I keep telling myself to respond with dignity and grace, to not let her get under my skin, and to be the bigger person. She is just wanting to get a rise out of me and if I give it to her, she wins. So I am being careful to be nice, but what I really want to do to her is play whack-a-mole. And I could. But I won't. Dignity and grace and kill her with kindness. And vent where she can't possibly find me.

It is very windy today, and was blowing like crazy last night. Even though the temp is 50 degrees F today, it feels cold because the wind rips right through you. You can get an idea from this photo how stuff is blowing around in the new grassy area we've opened up to the chickens.



The turtle sandbox that used to be the duck pond was flat last night and now it's on its side. There will be a fair amount of cleanup when the wind stops. Not many of the chickens are willing to be out today, but I can't blame them. I saw a gust of wind pick up poor Ecru. She does not like it when she's not in charge of her own flying, as you can imagine.

We'd gotten in the habit of collecting eggs a few times a day when it was really cold and they might freeze. Still doing it even with the warmer weather. This photo is from the afternoon haul.



The colors are a little off, but in real life they are medium brown, pale green, pale pink, pale blue, and pale brown. The green one is from one of the Auracanas and the blue one is from the Auracana/Bantam cross. It's fun to have a rainbow of colors. We do get some darker brown ones and some white ones as well as a darker pink with reddish speckles from time to time.

I had physical therapy today so I took a dozen eggs to my therapist and an 18 pack to the receptionist at the same office. The eggs really build up when DH is not here. He eats 3 to 5 eggs a day when he is home. Physical therapy was $90.

I stopped at the grocery store and bought milk and stamps, but she forgot to give me the stamps and I was distracted by the kids so I didn't think about it, so now I have to go back tomorrow and go to customer service and get the stamps. Pain in the neck. I don't need them until Friday fortunately. There are only a couple of bills I still mail because they don't have an option of paying online or their websites are so screwy I don't want to deal with them and I'll be sending those bills in then.

Not much else going on here. Just waiting for Friday to come so I can do more financial stuff. Oh, and I sent for another $5 Amazon gift card since I hit 450 at Swagbucks, thanks in part to a 40 point search. That's my new highest. The previous was 29.

DH went ahead and e-filed through TurboTax. It cost $30. I thought he was going to wait until tomorrow so he could get the interest from the final CU savings account. He just added $5 to our interest income instead. Which is over what it would have been with less than $500 in it at any given time at .1% interest for the year. Just to be on the safe side.

The final numbers made the return be a bit more than I expected it to be. DH was just guesstimating when he said $8500. The real total is $8903. Now if we're lucky, like Secretary Saving, we'll get it back within five days. And if not, we'll get it in three to five weeks.

I'm hoping it will come soon because I just want the Chase card taken care of and the credit card debt done once and for all. I will try not to drive myself (and you guys) crazy about it, but clearly there are no guarantees that I won't.

Hopefully this will be the last year we'll get such a tremendously large return. Last year and this year were because of medical expenses. I would really rather not have over $10,000 in medical expenses in 2013! Of course I have no idea what the sleep study will cost and if I have sleep apnea I'll have to buy the C-Pap machine which looks like they run between $600 to $1000. That will be completely out of pocket because of our $2500 deductible.

Maybe that will be what I use some of the tax return for. Well, at least we'll have the money to cover it if it comes to that.

It is sunny and bright outside today and almost warm at 47 degrees F. It's the sort of day that fools you into thinking spring is just around the corner and that it's time to start planting. Of course it's not. I have to wait until mid-April for most of that, though snow peas will be going in during March and a pot full of lettuce greens and maybe one of spinach will have a place on the deck and be brought in if frost threatens.

The seed catalogs are here and they bring these dreams of eating summer produce with them. I've been plotting out my garden space for a couple of weeks now. I've definitely got the green thumb fever.

The chickens are enjoying their new pasture, though I'm not sure much will be left of the grass. One thing less to mow, I suppose. And they are determined to dig into the compost bins from the bottom. Silly chickens. Of course they know there are all kinds of yummy things in there for them to eat. Since expanding their area to range in, they haven't tried hopping the fence at all. Which is nice, since there are no unexpected surprises being found in the driveway.

They will help to double our garden space though, so I can't complain too much. Chickens are very good preparers of the soil. It's keeping them out afterwards that can present a challenge. I like to fence the garden off for a good six weeks to let plants get established. After that they don't do too much harm.

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I couldn't get into the blogs last night to report this, but I spent $44 on prescriptions yesterday. The lower dose BP med that the doctor wanted me to try is $40. The one that I was on before was $80 so if this one works for me, then that will be a nice change. We pay for all prescriptions at full price until the $2500 family deductible has been met.

I also spent $60 on food. DD has decided to do a new exercise and diet regime so she asked for me to buy some foods for her to implement that. I will be glad when I can grow baby spinach, because it costs an arm and a leg practically. At least cabbage is always cheap. I also picked up some salmon. They had wild caught sockeye for $5.99 per pound if you bought the whole fish.

The new chicken fencing is up so the chickens have a whole new "pasture" to range in that is all grass and no mud. A good time was had by all. However, they are trying to get into the compost bins. My opinion is let them. They'll scratch it up and turn it over and then we can shovel it back into the bins and close them back up.

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We got everything in under the wire for homeschooling this month. I was a little worried since both DS and I had the flu virus for a good ten days this month. But we did get caught up. Now I just need to worry about getting him through his regular lessons tomorrow and then the weekend is here and I am going to sleep.

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I met with the new doctor today and I have to say I like him a good bit. He listens well. Didn't have the physical today as he wanted to talk about some of the other problems I've been having, the dizziness, the tremors, the tingling, the dizziness, the exhaustion, the insomnia, the dizziness...

And he wants me to go for a sleep study, because he is expecting that my chronic exhaustion/insomnia situation may actually be sleep apnea. Oh, joy. So I have to call them tommorrow and make an appointment.

I also was given a mammagram paper and I need to call and set that up. I've never had one. I should have had one at 35 since my mother is a breast cancer survivor, but I had so much else going on in my health the past seven to eight year it never happened.

I also have to go over to the lab who did the blood work for my last doctor and get a copy of it sent to my new doctor, since that lab is not part of their computerized sharing system.

He also wants me to order a device for taking blood pressure at home. Fun. It's going to be an expensive next couple of months, I can tell.

Anyway, so new doctor man wants to get to the root of most of these things before I come back in 2 weeks.

So in writing down my surgeries, it came out to 11, 7 of which have been in the last decade. Geesh. No wonder I can't get well. My body is determined to kill me.

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Anyway, there was no money out today though my kids were despereate for me to get burgers, or Hawaiian Barbecue, or KFC and I totally would not. I came home and I made spaghetti and meatballs, which I think was technically tomorrow's meal, but close enough.

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I still have $120 left in my checkbook and payday is tomorrow, albeit the two day paycheck.

My physical therapist was sick today and cancelled our appointment. I have to say I am glad because I really didn't feel up to being tortured this week. Come to think of it, she was showing symptoms last week, so that's probably where this cold came from. Anyway, that's $90 I didn't need to spend this week. I'm glad of that, because I'm not sure about my doctor's appointment tomorrow whether or not physicals go towards the deductible or they are covered outright. I'm thinking outright, but I won't know for sure until I get there. I gave them insurance info over the phone. Plus throw in the new patient thing and who knows.

Today I am at least making what's on my meal plan for the week. But then roast chicken and baked potatoes are easy. 5 minutes of hands on time.

I need to start taking my vitamins again. I've been slacking off and only doing the vitamin D3, but I need to add back in C, fish oil, E, magnesium and potassium. I always feel better on that regimen, but when I need it the most, in winter, is when I tend to slack off on it.

I will be getting my rewards coupon from AMEX in February. The only thing I don't like about it is that since it's tied to my Costco card, I have to take the coupon in to Costco to get my cash. I'd prefer they just send me a check I can cash at the credit union or apply it directly to my account. I hate going to our Costco. The parking lot is a nightmare. It's one thing when I am actually buying groceries, but another thing when I am not.

We have one of the busiest Costco's in the state. I really do not understand why so many Canadians cross the border to shop here, but every other license plate is Canadian. There is a Costco on their side in Abbotsford two minutes from the border.

I can't see how waiting in a 40 minute (or longer) border crossing line, coming stateside to shop and get gas, and then spending another 40 minutes (or more) to cross the border again, could ever be worth it. I would think you'd be wasting as much gas in the lines as you would save from getting it stateside.

I wouldn't do it. Maybe back in the olden days when gas was 99 cents a gallon and dairy products were cheap, but now? Of course, they are probably the only thing keeping the retail economy of this county afloat. I doubt it would survive without the influx. But it does make it difficult to park, run in, and get back out quickly with all the non-local shoppers.

I've been thinking about just getting rid of this card and dropping Costco as well. Only thing is, this is the only card in just my name. All of our other cards are my husband's and I'm either a co-signer or an authorized user. I know they changed the law a while back so that it was no longer based on household income, so if you don't make an income of your own, you couldn't get a card of your own. I don't know if that change was ever rescinded or not. I know there was some hoo hah about it, but not how it turned out. So I'm not sure I'd be able to get another card in just my name if I did cancel it.

It probably doesn't matter too much as I don't intend to need a bunch of cards and my marriage is solid, so I'm not expecting to lose access to DH's, but it just seems smart to have at least one card in my own name.

Right now I'm breaking even on the Costco membership fee and that's about it. And there are less and less products we buy there as we've switched to getting our meat from the ranch and not from Costco. I may give it another year and track it and then figure out whether or not it is worth it to me. They've stopped carrying the brands of tomato sauce, peanut butter, and green beans that I liked so that's going on the con side. Mostly I am just buying the non-food products there. It's becoming less and less worth it.

I am glad I copy my entries every time before trying to post them, because this week SA has been eating my posts alive, its favorite comment being the one that says "Our records show that you are already logged in as yourself." And I'm like, No Duh, every time it does that. So if I'm logged in as myself, than what is your problem, you goofy computer program? /vent

Some days I wonder why I even bother to make a meal plan, when I end up making pizza 3 times a week lately. I had planned to make Bolgogi (Korean stir-fry), which should be a relatively easy new recipe for me. But I didn't. Maybe my day was thrown off because my mother had a procedure done and had to be there at 6:30. And I had to take DD to school at 7 and then pick Mom up at 7:40 which turned more like 8:30 because she takes so long to come out of anesthetic. I was dragging by the time we got home and pretty much dragged all day, so when it came time to make dinner I had no interest in making a new recipe.

Instead I took the easy way and dumped dough ingredients into the bread machine. All told it takes about 4 minutes of hands-on time to make a pizza. I always have toppings in the fridge, either ham or pepperoni or sausage or ground beef. I always have cheese. I always have onions and bell pepper strips (frozen). I always have tomato sauce and basil and oregano. So when I am feeling particularly tired (or lazy) or don't want to think it seems to be my go to dinner.

At least it is good pizza. One of my tricks is to rub the dough (and my hands) with extra virgin olive oil before pushing it out on the pizza pan. I think it makes a big difference in not only the flavor of the dough, but in making a crisp crust. Also the crust never sticks to the pan when I do this.

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I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks today. That makes my total $85. I should get one more in by the end of the month.

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I scheduled a doctor's appointment with a new doctor. I decided to try to find someone who wouldn't put me on a waiting list just to make an appointment. This doctor I will be able to see on Thursday and he's in my PPO.

It's not a female like I wanted, but I didn't find anything negative on him on the web and he's young enough that I shouldn't have to worry about finding a new doctor again in my lifetime if I like him.

I went ahead and scheduled a physical. It's been a few years. I need to make out a list of my medications and dosages and see if I can find my copy of my blood work results from December so he won't order extra.

I also need to sit down and list all my surgeries. I can't even remember how many I've had. 7 or 8 since 2003, at least five before that. The last one was in 2011. When I make out lists like that, I realize how lucky I am to be alive and doing relatively well now.

I think my insurance covers physicals without having met the deductible, so hopefully there will be no out of pocket expense for this visit.

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I have physical therapy tomorrow so that is $90. I have thought about cancelling because I don't feel well, but that might just be the course of today and being so tired.

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I almost lost a shoe today to the mud pit that is the chicken yard. It can stop raining any time now. I need to buy a pair of Wellies. Even the boards we've put down to walk through the mud are sinking in it. Rain is better than frozen because it's warmer, but frozen is better than rain if you are trying to walk across the ground. I'm ready for summer. Really, really ready. At least we will be in Cali for a week in March. That will help with my cold season blahs.

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On the bright side of things, my knee hasn't hurt all week. And I am back to walking down stairs one foot per step instead of two footing it. Still a little slow and I still like to be within grabbing distance, but it feels almost normal at the moment.

Some days I wonder why I even bother to make a meal plan, when I end up making pizza 3 times a week lately. I had planned to make Bolgogi (Korean stir-fry), which should be a relatively easy new recipe for me. But I didn't. Maybe my day was thrown off because my mother had a procedure done and had to be there at 6:30. And I had to take DD to school at 7 and then pick Mom up at 7:40 which turned more like 8:30 because she takes so long to come out of anesthetic. I was dragging by the time we got home and pretty much dragged all day, so when it came time to make dinner I had no interest in making a new recipe.

Instead I took the easy way and dumped dough ingredients into the bread machine. All told it takes about 4 minutes of hands-on time to make a pizza. I always have toppings in the fridge, either ham or pepperoni or sausage or ground beef. I always have cheese. I always have onions and bell pepper strips (frozen). I always have tomato sauce and basil and oregano. So when I am feeling particularly tired (or lazy) or don't want to think it seems to be my go to dinner.

At least it is good pizza. One of my tricks is to rub the dough (and my hands) with extra virgin olive oil before pushing it out on the pizza pan. I think it makes a big difference in not only the flavor of the dough, but in making a crisp crust. Also the crust never sticks to the pan when I do this.

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I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks today. That makes my total $85. I should get one more in by the end of the month.

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I scheduled a doctor's appointment with a new doctor. I decided to try to find someone who wouldn't put me on a waiting list just to make an appointment. This doctor I will be able to see on Thursday and he's in my PPO.

It's not a female like I wanted, but I didn't find anything negative on him on the web and he's young enough that I shouldn't have to worry about finding a new doctor again in my lifetime if I like him.

I went ahead and scheduled a physical. It's been a few years. I need to make out a list of my medications and dosages and see if I can find my copy of my blood work results from December so he won't order extra.

I also need to sit down and list all my surgeries. I can't even remember how many I've had. 7 or 8 since 2003, at least five before that. The last one was in 2011. When I make out lists like that, I realize how lucky I am to be alive and doing relatively well now.

I think my insurance covers physicals without having met the deductible, so hopefully there will be no out of pocket expense for this visit.

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I have physical therapy tomorrow so that is $90. I have thought about cancelling because I don't feel well, but that might just be the course of today and being so tired.

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I almost lost a shoe today to the mud pit that is the chicken yard. It can stop raining any time now. I need to buy a pair of Wellies. Even the boards we've put down to walk through the mud are sinking in it. Rain is better than frozen because it's warmer, but frozen is better than rain if you are trying to walk across the ground. I'm ready for summer. Really, really ready. At least we will be in Cali for a week in March. That will help with my cold season blahs.

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On the bright side of things, my knee hasn't hurt all week. And I am back to walking down stairs one foot per step instead of two footing it. Still a little slow and I still like to be within grabbing distance, but it feels almost normal at the moment.

I've been doing some thinking about the next couple of months. In February we will buy our Disneyland Parkhopper tickets, which will set us back $2030 for 7 tickets (unless they go on sale), but we should be able to buy them outright in February. I will charge them for the benefits of charging, but then I will pay it off as soon as it posts to the account.

We already have enough saved up to cover prepaying the limo rental both ways, so that will get taken care of in the next few days. We chose to do a limo because it was actually cheaper for 7 people and all their stuff than two taxis or vanpools.

And then in March I will take $2500 for the trip itself. I think that should easily cover groceries, a few meals out and souvenirs. It's probably more than we need, but I'd rather have too much than too little and come home with money. SIL is paying for her own food for her and the girls. We are picking up everything else, but flights and the condo are long since taken care of.

Also in March we should have our taxes back. The Chase card will be at $4900 by then and our taxes will more than pay for that. (We will get a lot back because we fully used the HSA again this year and will get all of that back). We will also be getting DD's MacBook. If there is any money left it will go to the EF. Last year (and circumstances haven't changed) we got around $8750 back. $6150 is from the HSA alone. That should put the EF around $4000 to $5000.

After that I need to decide what I'm going to do. Our only two debts will be the mortgage and the van payment. The mortgage has a higher percentage rate than the van, but the house will be up for sale by then. I'm not sure if there is any point in paying down the mortgage, yet if it doesn't sell right away then there is.

I figured that we could have the mortgage paid off by September/October if we start paying $2500 a month in April. I keep going back and forth on this. Part of me says forget prepaying it, put that money in the EF and college fund instead. Or put it toward the van. It's like being on a merry-go-round. I just keep going around in circles trying to figure out the smartest thing to do.

My mother keeps butting into the house stuff. She's trying to be the one who will set the price. She's acting like she's the one who gets to okay any offers and it is driving me right up the wall. I want her out of it, but she has a way of squirming into our business and getting people to talk to her who legally should not be talking to her about any of it.

I don't particularly want her knowing A. What the amount of the mortgage is left on the house, and B. What the price is that we actually get for it. It's none of her business. She does like sticking her nose in. She wants to set the price far higher than what I think anyone will pay for it. I've seen how long houses sit on the market in that area if they are over-priced.

I love my mother very much, she has a lot of great qualities and I never have doubted that she loves me, but she is a difficult personality. She is very pushy and stubborn and manipulative when she chooses to be. I just can't figure out what she thinks she'll get out of any of this.

I will be glad when we are not living under the same roof again, even though I know I will worry about her. I am ready to worry about her from a slightly more removed area. Even if I know she will likely end up moving in with us several years in the future, it will be different. It will be her living in our home and not vice versa.

Right now she is very weird about money. She's been like this the last year. We pay for the gas, the electric, the water/sewer, the internet, and the garbage for the entire household, yet she worries about how high the utilities are. She often eats with us and spends very little on groceries herself, but worries constantly about the cost of food. She barely ever drives anywhere, but worries constantly about the cost of gasoline.

She gets $1000 from us every month as we pay back our loan, and $757 from social security. Her house is paid for, her SUV and pickup are paid for. She pays for some chicken feed, satellite TV, $100 in groceries each month, car and house insurance, and property taxes ($2500 a year) and that's about it. Her income is more than enough to cover it. She's always been a champion budgeter. Even after we move out and she takes back over the utilities (they'll drop), she'll still have more than enough to meet her needs.

I don't know why she's being so weird about money. I've even told her we will take care of her after our loan to her is paid off. She will not be on the street, she will always have enough to eat. I do have to wonder if maybe I'm seeing the beginning stages of dementia or if the two mini-strokes did more damage to her brain than they thought. It's something I'll have to keep an eye on.

I think I may have mentioned this already, but my doctor retired after saying he wasn't going to and now I need to find a new one. The main doctors' collective in town put me on a waiting list because apparently they can only schedule through February and they are booked. I'm totally thinking they need to improve their software, or go back to an old-fashioned doctor's appointment book.

But I did find another organization in town that takes our insurance and DH gave me a list of the doctors there that are open for new patients, and ten of them are female, so I am going to spend a lot of time on the phone on Monday (or Tuesday if they are closed for the holiday) and see if I can't get an appointment in the next 30 days instead. I hope so, because my BP meds run out on March 1 and my new cholesterol medicine runs out on February 22, and I can't even get a hold of my old doctor to add refills until I can find a new one. I'm more concerned about the BP med than the other.

If I have to I will go to the walk in clinic, bring my prescription bottle, see a doctor and explain the situation and at least get enough BP meds to last through March.

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I am trying not to get impatient waiting for Experian to update its stuff. It has about $16,000 worth of paid off stuff still listed. Usually it's updated mid-month, but for some reason they haven't updated it since December 7. We have a monitoring service because of theft years ago. I am just impatient. I want to see how all this payoff is going to affect our credit score. I hope they update it in February.

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I have decided to stop wavering and go ahead with paying off the 0% Chase bill next instead of the mortgage. I have also decided to stop sending extra to the mortgage. The extra $193.16 I've been sending each month will replace some of the wiggle room that the higher social security taxes took away. That was a hard decision to make, but I am feeling pinched right now trying to meet all goals with that money missing from our income. And I don't like feeling pinched as it tends to make me resentful and want to go waste money on something. I may revisit that in a month or two, but for now I will just make the regular payment.

I don't think I realized how many times a day I check in here before I suddenly couldn't. Five minutes here, five minutes there, a good hour in the afternoon or evening. So happy the site is up and running again.

I have made good use of my time researching meat rabbits and meat chickens, pens, hutches, and tractors (not the diesel kind, the movable pens with built in coops) and getting an idea of what the expense will be and the minimum size property we'll want to purchase when we are ready to move. I know we are probably two years out from raising either right now, but the more I know, the more feasible it'll be to actually do it.

There has been nothing financial to worry about this week. I'm just waiting for Friday to make another payment to BoA and another payment to the dentist for my crown.

Homeschooling is going well this week despite DS being sick with the flu. He's been hovering around 100 degrees with his fever and generally miserable. I am understanding the math faster than he is, which never happens. We're doing a reduced schedule for him at the moment, as he isn't up for a full class load, but he wants to not fall behind on the harder things to catch up on, namely math and science. We are a couple weeks ahead on history and a few days ahead on literature so as long as we get chair time in by the end of the month we're fine.

Queen got a bath today. She's been hanging low to the ground when she walks and that's usually a sign of a partly blocked vent (and it was) which can lead to getting egg bound which can lead to death. Always so much fun to break it up, but she perked up after she was dry again.

The two leghorns went over the fence to the nice neighbor lady's house, who sometimes invites them over when she's working in her garden, but she was away all day today and so her dogs were in the fenced back yard instead of the house. Oh, my gosh, I have never seen the leghorns fly before, but Ecru got going so fast she was over the neighbor's fence and across the yard and over the fence into the chicken pen in one go like a little white bullet. That's about 40 feet.

Everything I've read says they can't fly more than 15 feet, but that girl zipped like a bat out of hades, so I guess they can if their lives are in danger. I have never seen a chicken with her wings pumping so fast before, not even the time Curious got her tail feathers clipped by the same dog. Ecru was hilarious, but only because she didn't get hurt. A chicken with a dog bite is no laughing matter.

Eggshell only made it over the neighbor's fence and into our yard in one go, but she was right off the ground again and airborn a few seconds later. They do learn eventually to check for dogs first. It just takes some of them longer than the others. I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere for people getting into and out of debt, but I'm too tired to figure it out.

I did get a $5 gift card from Swagbucks for Amazon yesterday, and I got another survey from ACOP, so that'll be $3 eventually.

Today is payday, finally, the first one of the new year, and the damage is $123 and some change more in taxes out of this first check. Next week will be a bit higher as it is a seven day paycheck and not just a five day one.

I started my morning by taking a shot at the Evil Empire and paid off another $2000. DH bought his one way plane ticket on Wednesday which had brought the balance on the BoA VISA to $5,983.64. So the new balance on the VISA is $3983.64. I will have 3 autopays coming out before the end of the month, so that will go up a bit, but I am still on track for paying the card off by month's end. Total credit card debt currently sits at $9083.64. This is the first time in a very long time I have been under $10K. Go me.

Then I made the car loan payment. I also paid another medical bill to the podiatrist and made a payment on my crown to the dentist.

$2000.00 to BoA VISA
757.82 Van payment (plus extra to principal)
205.30 Dentist
75.00 Podiatrist
50.00 Two weeks of allowance for the kids
-------------
$3088.22 Total

I still owe $350 to the dentist for my crown and should have that paid off by the end of the month. I am thinking of rescheduling my 2nd crown until after vacation in March. The tooth has not been hurting since getting the other crown put in. I don't think I'm hitting it anymore when I grind my teeth at night. The last one ended up costing $200 more than the estimate because of how much novacaine they had to give me.

I have just under $300 for the next week. I need to buy toilet paper and tissues. Normally I go to Costco for that, but I am just not up for a warehouse store, so I'm heading to Kmart. I've been out of tissues for a week, not great when everyone is sick. Even if Charmin is nice to blow your nose on, tissues are better.

I need to do a grocery shop, too. I have a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase. This is one of the rare times I will use coupons, since most are for processed junky foods and are useless to me. They are also having a sale on Organic Valley products so I will get milk, heavy cream and half and half (the last 2 for making ice cream) if the sell by dates are decent.

I spent $6.43 on two prescriptions today leaving me with $20 in the checking account until Friday. I also bought two burgers at DQ today out of what's left of my December allowance, leaving me with $6 in cash. No biggie. Plenty in savings still.

Now onto the chickens. I swear the majority of the chicken pictures I take are of chicken butts. I swear they are facing the camera when I push the shutter down, but by the time it goes off they have turned around. It's the one thing I really miss about film cameras, there is no delay between when you snap the photo and when it is taken. Still, film was expensive to develop and I do love the ease of digital. I managed to get a few non-butt chicken shots today though.

First up are Queen (Rhode Island Red), Curious (gold sex-linked orpington), Goldilocks (Auracana, gold cheek puffs), Henrietta (Auracana, red cheek puffs), and Kyri (Bantam Auracana cross, gold cheek puffs).



Henrietta has the most beautiful markings.



Georgie (gold sex-linked orpington) on top of Fort Knox. Of course. If there is a roof, she will be on it.



Georgie and Kyri



Silver (silver lace-winged wyandotte, I know, creative naming). I swear she was facing me. At least it's not a full on chicken butt shot. This view shows off her gorgeous wings more fully, though.



Patricia (Barred rock). She is a stubborn bird. That is why she is named after my mother, who is also a stubborn bird. She is second in command of the pecking order, after Queen.



Curious, Silver, Pipsqueak (black australorp), and Ecru (white leghorn). Pipsqueak stayed small for a long, long time. Now the only chickens bigger than her are Silver and Half-pint who also stayed small for a long, long time.



Half-pint (black australorp) and Eggshell (white leghorn, I think she's been rolling in the mud)



Queen (HBIC)



It has been such a wet January so far, the area around the coop, shed and Fort Knox is just mud. It doesn't matter if you scrub out the buckets every day (which we do) and fill them with clean water, they are filthy within a couple of hours.

We are hoping to reseed some of the area in spring, although I don't know how successful that will be. The chickens have pretty much ravaged that area. We'd have to pen it off for weeks. Fortunately there is plenty of nice grass outside the main pen and they don't spend the whole day in the mud, just the main feeding and scratching session. The rest of the time they are chasing bugs and worms and eating plants around the property.

Laying is going well. With 9 pullets, a 20 month old hen (who finally stopped molting), and two that are nearly 3 we have a very good supply. I'm not looking forward to next year at this time. We'll have 9 hens molting for the first time and two hens molting for the second time. The yard will look like a slumber party after a pillow fight. And one hen laying consistently. I hope they don't all go into molt at the same time! There is a bit of variance between the breeds, but still most of them molt at approximately 18 months and it can take several weeks.

Now Mom is saying she doesn't want to raise anymore ducklings after all. I think that is probably wise. We all love them, but they are seriously filthy animals and not as biddable as chickens. I wasn't really up for it this year anyway with homeschooling. That takes up too much of my time and you seriously have to worry about baby birds a lot. I'd really prefer a more carefree spring, but we'll see what happens when they appear in the feed store and start making their cute little duckling noises.

I spent $6.43 on two prescriptions today leaving me with $20 in the checking account until Friday. I also bought two burgers at DQ today out of what's left of my December allowance, leaving me with $6 in cash. No biggie. Plenty in savings still.

Now onto the chickens. I swear the majority of the chicken pictures I take are of chicken butts. I swear they are facing the camera when I push the shutter down, but by the time it goes off they have turned around. It's the one thing I really miss about film cameras, there is no delay between when you snap the photo and when it is taken. Still, film was expensive to develop and I do love the ease of digital. I managed to get a few non-butt chicken shots today though.

First up are Queen (Rhode Island Red), Curious (gold sex-linked orpington), Goldilocks (Auracna, gold cheek puffs), Henrietta (Auracana, red cheek puffs), and Kyri (Bantam Auracana cross, gold cheek puffs).



Henrietta has the most beautiful markings.



Georgie (gold sex-linked oprington) on top of Fort Knox. Of course. If there is a roof, she will be on it.



Georgie and Kyri



Silver (silver lace-winged wyandotte, I know, creative naming). I swear she was facing me. At least it's not a full on chicken butt shot. This view shows off her gorgeous wings more fully, though.



Patricia (Barred rock). She is stubburn bird. That is why she is named after my mother, who is also a stubborn bird.



Curious, Silver, Pipsqueak (black australorp), and Ecru (white leghorn). Pipsqueak stayed small for a long, long time. Now the only chickens bigger than her are Silver and Half-pint who also stayed small for a long, long time.



Half-pint (black australorp) and Eggshell (white leghorn, I think she's been rolling in the mud)



Queen



It has been such a wet January so far, the area around the coop, shed and Fort Know is just mud. It doesn't matter if you scrub out the buckets every day (which we do) and fill them with clean water, they are filthy within a couple of hours.

We are hoping to reseed some of the area in spring, although I don't know how successful that will be. The chickens have pretty much ravaged that area. We'd have to pen it off for weeks. Fortunately there is plenty of nice grass outside the main pen and they don't spend the whole day in the mud, just the main feeding and scratching session. The rest of the time they are chasing bugs and worms and eating plants around the property.

Laying is going well. With 9 pullets, a 20 month old hen (who finally stopped molting), and two that are nearly 3 we have a very good supply. I'm not looking forward to next year at this time. We'll have 9 hens molting for the first time and two hens molting for the second time. The yard will look like a slumber party after a pillow fight. And one hen laying consistently. I hope they don't all go into molt at the same time! There is a bit of variance between the breeds, but still most of them molt at approximately 18 months and it can take several weeks.

Now Mom is saying she doesn't want to raise anymore ducklings after all. I think that is probably wise. We all love them, but they are seriously filthy animals and not as biddable as chickens. I wasn't really up for it this year anyway with homeschooling. That takes up too much of my time and you seriously have to worry about baby birds a lot. I'd really prefer a more carefree spring, but we'll see what happens when they appear in the feed store and start making their cute little duckling noises.

All of them. I'm not picking sides.

I do not like the hit we are going to be taking with the end of the payroll tax holiday. I'm estimating $500 a month on a normal month. Probably $750 this month due to the extra week of pay. I may come up short paying off the BoA VISA this month. I am still going to try to squeeze it out, because gosh, darn it, I want it gone, but any breathing room the extra week of pay gave us is gone. Your gubmint dollars at work.

I am just very, very glad we have spent the last few years buckling down hard and paying down our debt with a vengeance and that we are used to living on less than half our income. And if it is that bad for us with a good middle class income, I can't even imagine how hard this is going to slam those who are barely scraping by. Well, hello there Great Depression 2. I'm not an alarmist by nature but I don't see us coming out of this for a long time. I worry about what the world will be like when my kids are adults.

I am starting to think about putting the whole buying a new house thing on hold for a few more years. Well, I've been thinking it for the last few months, but this may just be the final nail in the coffin. It's going to take longer to build up an emergency fund with $500 a month missing from DH's paycheck. It's certainly going to make saving for and cash flowing college harder than I thought. And Mom isn't getting any younger. With two mini-strokes to her name already I really worry more about leaving her on her own.

It's even crossed my mind to cancel or postpone Disneyland. I'm not going to, but I think this is going to be the last vacation of consequence for a few years. I'm just really glad that we'll have a full kitchen in the condo.

It's possible DH might pick up another week in February. If he did I could bank that and it would go a long way towards making up the shortfall for the rest of the year.

I am worried about my knee. It has been swollen and painful since Christmas and it's started clicking. I am going to try to get a hold of the doctor tomorrow now that the holidays are over. I am hoping it is just needing to be drained of fluid. I do not want cortizone. I also do not want to end up having knee surgery again and having yet another medical debt to pay off.

Okay, I know I sound negative and down, but I am actually in a surprisingly good mood today despite everything. This has been more of a getting it out of my system rant. DS was pretty easy on me with his first day of homeschooling since the holidays ended. And I am totally understanding the math today, so go me. I thought I was going to struggle the whole year, but I think that this unit at least will be easy.

Well, it's nowhere near the $57,010.88 of principal debt we paid off in 2011, but that had extenuating circumstances. I still think we did a good job with paying off over $21K of principal in 2012.

$18,544.28 Mortgage Amount as of 12/31/11
-14,948.33 Mortgage Amount as of 12/31/12
-----------------
$__3,595.95 Amount Paid Off in 2012

$20,228.79 Amount of Credit Card Debt as of 12/31/11
$12,514.07 Amount of Credit Card Debt as of 12/31/12
-------------------
$-7,714.72 Amount Paid Off in 2012

$87,000 Amount Owed to Mom as of 12/31/11
-77,000 Amount Owed to Mom as of 12/31/12
--------------------
$10,000 Amount Paid Off in 2012

So I paid off a total of $21,310.67 in principal this year. I have no idea what I paid in interest, but it was a lot. I have $104,462.40 left to go. All but $5200 of the credit card debt will be paid off by the end of January. That will leave me with a 0% loan from Mom, a 0% $5200 credit card debt (well, $5100 since I will pay off $100 of that in January), and the mortgage which is currently just under $15K.

As usual I am not including the car loan. I never have included car loans. Probably because if we had to sell it and not have one it wouldn't affect our bottom line. We barely drive as it is. We have 12,000 miles on our car and it is a 2010 and probably 4000 of that was on driving vacations, which again, could be easily cut without affecting our bottom line. I may put it up there after everything else is paid off, but I consider it more or less a fixed expense. It's at 1.9%.

Mom still wants the steady $1000 a month so she has a steady income stream to go with her social security check and can put a little in the bank for emergencies, so she doesn't want us paying it off early. So that is another 6 years and 4 months worth of payments to go. This will be the first year where we shouldn't have to take a month or two off from paying her back, due to high medical bills.

We also paid a little over $12,500 in medical expenses out of pocket, $6500 (the HSA amount) of which we will get back on our tax refund.

By the end of March or April (depending on whether or not taxes will be refunded promptly) I can pay off the last of the CC debt. And then just deal with the mortgage, the car loan, and Mom. So two secured debts and no unsecured debts. Well, I suppose technically the loan from Mom is unsecured, but she's my mother and there is no way on God's green earth that I will not pay her back. So that loan is very secure, so to speak.

So I will be focusing on the mortgage and the EF after CC's are gone. I'd like to get that finished off by the end of 2013 unless we manage to sell it. We should be able to do that with no credit card debt left. Also will be building the college fund.

I finished knitting DS's scarf. Yellow is his favorite color and it is a hard one to find at a store. It was hard enough finding bright yellow yarn. This one is a single thickness.



This is one I made previously and I did fringe on that one. DS didn't want fringe on his as he thought it was too girly. It's a deep rust or copper color and a double thickness as well.



Now I'm working on one for DD, but the pattern on the yarn wrapper does not actually match the yarn, which is supposed to be purple for so many rows and then black for one row and then purple again. It says fourteen per row but it really needs twenty and it does make a difference so I am going to have to unravel it and start over. This annoys me, but oh, well. Life goes on.

On Christmas DH's FIL forgot to put the turkey neck into the roaster (or maybe didn't because it was still frozen). Last night I put it in the crockpot with some water and DS and I split it for lunch. I can't believe the amount of meat on a turkey neck, I always forget. And it is so tender and flavorful. Anyway, to the juices left in the crockpot I added all of the turkey carcass bones that I'd frozen along with all of the peels I've been saving for the last few months (onions, carrots, garlic) and some celery leaves, salt and pepper and filled it to the top with water, so it is cooking down for a total of 20 hours.

Tomorrow I will make soup with half the stock and freeze the rest. I wish I had some fresh parsley for it, but I'll add some parsley flakes to the finished stock. I am defiitely planting parsley next year. Right now I'm looking at potatoes, celery, carrots, and an onion for it. I don't think we'll be adding noodles this time, just lots of potatoes. I might even thicken it to make stew. This will be the last of the turkey, so we will have used every part. The chickens got the organs. I am very happy to have had a zero waste turkey this year, considering how much it cost.

----------

We made a simple ice cream recipe in my new hard ice cream maker. It's definitely harder than soft serve, but still not as hard as hard ice cream from the store, but that might have been because we didn't do a custard base, we just did a simple one of 1 pint cream, 1 pint half and half, 1 cup of sugar and 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract. It will freeze all the way up overnight though and I'll see how the end result is. I haven't tasted it, but everyone else did and pronounced it good but light on the vanilla.

Their website has all kind of recipes for it, regular ice cream, sorbets, sherbets, and sauces. I'll experiment with recipes until I find ones that freeze harder. There was a note with the recipe for Champagne sorbet that said that the alcohol will make it thaw quicker, so I am wondering if maybe that was part of the issue, since pure vanilla extract is basically vodka and a vanilla bean.

I probably won't eat too much of it since I'm trying to stay away from sugar more and not become diabetec, but there was one sorbet that used strawberries and 2 tbsp honey that might not be too bad. I won't even have to wait until summer since I have strawberries from the last season in the freezer. (I usually won't buy fruit out of season because of the cost).

----------

Got a bill from the podiatrist, $114, for DS's toenail thing. That's for two visits and he spent a half hour with us both times. Since my podiatrist is way out of network the insurance didn't cover it. Still, he's the best and my family has an established relationship with him. Plus $57 per visit? I mean, who still does that? No one. Most doctor's charge $90 or more around here. Anyway, I mailed that off.

----------

DH took the kids to Kmart today. DS got two more pairs of sweatpants and one more pair of PJ's. DD got one more pair of PJ's. They should both be set now for the rest of the winter. Stuff was marked down even more than the other day. DH ended up spending $48.87. I forgot to give him the saving's card again. Oh, well. I need to start keeping it in the checkbook, I think.

---------

DH also picked up a prescription for himself, $2.50 and toiletries and cleaning and laundry supplies for $61.34. The latter stuff is all unscented, coloring free, natural stuff because of DS's chemical sensitivites and allergies so a bit more expensive, but we shouldn't have to buy it again for quite some time.

----------

DD has volunteered to cut DS's and DH's hair tomorrow. We have a clipper so it's not like you can go wrong much with that and she's getting to be as good at it as I am. I just don't want to do it right now with a swollen knee.

----------

I still haven't watched the Doctor Who Christmas special. I guess I am not quite the fangirl I once was in the Eccleston and Tennant years. I still hope to watch it tomorrow, though. I haven't watched anything since before Christmas. Who has time for TV right now?

----------
I received a $5 Amazon giftcard from Swagbucks and cashed out for another one yesterday. I think that about covers it.

We have actually managed pretty well with the portable heaters. I mean it wasn't comfortably warm or anything, but it wasn't freezing either. Just more sort of adequate. Fortunately the new control board for the furnace came in a lot earlier than they claimed it could get here and the guy came out and installed it around 2. It is nice to actually be warm again. I think that's something we can really take for granted sometimes until it's no longer there.

----------

Some expenses that have gone out this week:

$50.47 for 3 prescriptions
$90.00 for physical therapy

Also $76.95 to AMEX which had a couple of autopays go through before I could cancel one and switch the other to the BoA card. The holidays made me absent-minded. Or maybe I'm just naturally absent-minded. It has a zero balance again and I don't plan to use it for gas until the BoA is paid off.

And $30 to DD for last week's and this week's allowance. Also 4 cents to DS who has finally paid off his advance and will resume getting his full allowance next week. As of next week the kids have to start banking half of their allowances for Disneyland.

----------

Finally got through the preface of the book I got for Christmas. The review at Amazon said it was written from a Christian perspective, but I think it's coming off more like he's a religious whackadoodle. If it doesn't tone it down some I may not make it through the rest of the book. So far the writer does not come off as the sort of Christian that I strive to be, certainly. More the type that I tend to look at and think please get out of my religion, the type that makes that verse about not judging others very difficult to apply. At this point I am glad I did not purchase it myself. I hope it gets better. I hate to think it was a total waste of my SIL's money.

----------

I do plan to get back to the food stamp challenge menus soon, but I totally torqued my knee on Christmas day and so it's making it hard for me to concentrate for the amount of time it takes to devote to one of those. It is getting better but is still swollen and sore. Hopefully it will continue to improve.

----------

DH and I have been planning out more of our Disneyland trip. We have a hotel narrowed down for our overnight in Seattle. It has a hot breakfast included (not continental). That was the last thing that needed to be booked.

----------

The chickens are doing really well. Finally put a light in a week or two ago. Today we got 10 eggs out of 12 chickens. Not bad. I miss Lady, though. She is doing well at the new farm, but I still miss her. She was my favorite duck and such a sweetheart.

Or in my case the chew chew train. I woke up today without my tooth hurting. I took 2 oxycodone yesterday and nothing today, so that should give you a hint at what a change this is. I still have a sensitivity to cold on the newly crowned tooth, but other than that my tooth feels pretty decent and that is expected to improve by the weekend. This is so nice.

Now I can eat protein again and less carbs, which means I can get back to healthier eating. I haven't been able to eat raw vegetables for a while, just cooked. Now I can shift my diet back to lean proteins and vegetables with one fruit a day. I'm glad of that because I managed to gain back most of the weight I had lost while unable to chew properly.

I got my blood work results back. I'm not anemic. I do have high cholesterol for the first time and I have a feeling that has to do with all the soft carbs I've been eating. The doctor ordered me some meds and will retest me in 3 months. I was also close to diabetes, which I never have even come close to before, so I think getting back on my protein and veg style of eating will improve that as well.

My vitamin D was low so I'll be taking 6000 IU a day. They forgot to check my thyroid so the doctor is calling them to see if they still have the blood to run that. It was on the form so I don't know why they didn't run it. Hopefully I won't have to go back to the vampires for more blood to be drawn.

The doctor says that being close to the line for diabetes could explain my exhaustion and dizziness and always feeling thirsty. Since all of my symptoms starting coincide with when my tooth hurt so bad I started eating only soft foods, that sounds about right. Being close to having diabetes can also cause tremors.

As of today I am back to eating right and hoping that those other symptoms will go away as my diet straightens out and I lose the weight I gained back.

The doctor said the prescription for high cholesterol is expensive so he called me in a 90 day supply so I can get it now while our deductible is met. In two more weeks it goes up to full price until our new deductible is met. After that if it costs too much he will give me samples. Of course come March we'll have a lot more room in the budget for expensive pills.

December broccoli!!!!!! What is with this weather system? I am grateful for it as it means less money spent on produce, but it is downright weird. And the sprouting broccoli is still making new heads. We had a smattering of snow yesterday (didn't stick) and yet I am still harvesting broccoli.

------------

I went to the dentist today and they had the permanent crown ready so he took off the old one, cleaned up the adhesive then put in the new one, took it off and adjusted the bite, repeated this for four times and then finally it was right. I did not choose to have novacaine. I probably should have because it didn't stop hurting for 4 hours. But I didn't want to spend my day with a frozen face. And it was uncomfortable and a bit painful, but not something I couldn't deal with.

After that he adjusted my night guard so that it wasn't resting weird against the new tooth. I ended up paying $200 at the dentist and will be making another payment in January and one in February. Then on February 7 I'll be having the cracked molar on the other side taken care of. That should give me about a month with the new crown before we go to Disneyland.

After the dentist I went to the vampires and had two tubes of blood drawn. I had a great phlebotomist. Found the vein first try and everything. Now that I'm showing no signs of the UTI infection I can have all those blood panels done and see if we can't get to the bottom of my exhaustion and tremors.

----------

Lady the duck has gone to live at another farm today. The woman had lost one of her ducks, and she had a very lonely drake as well as another mated pair, so if all turns out well, Lady will adapt to the new place. If she does not we'll take her back. But she's got two different creeks to swim in and a bigger area to roam. I will miss her, but I think she will be happier there. Plus they have a dog trained to protect their ducks and 21 chickens from predators. It's a sad decision, but she really was missing her dead flock mates. As much as she got on with our flock of chickens it wasn't the same for her. I am sad and I will miss her, but it seems like the best thing for her.

As much as I wanted the BoA card to be gone, I just could not stomach draining all of my funds to do so. DH and I decided to go ahead and pay off the AMEX so I did that last night. I'm just waiting for it to show up on the accounts now. We feel pretty good about the decision and it's one less payment to make. Usually we use the AMEX as our gas card, but I think I'm going to keep it unused until the BoA is paid off and just pay cash for gas. It feels good to have one card gone.

I think I will still probably use the $1000 in the freezer fund on something else, though. I've been thinking about that for a while now. I have come to the conclusion that I really don't want to get the chest freezer while we are still living here. I want to get it after we've moved into our next home. It is so easy for a freezer to get banged around during a move or for something to go wrong with it. I'd rather only have it go from the store to it's final destination. Plus if we were to get it now, it would have to go into the unheated garage and that violates the warranty.

I don't want to touch the other funds though. I'm just paranoid something is going to happen and I'll need to drain my funds for something else. Like another unexpected medical or dental bill. The way my tooth is hurting even with the temporary crown, I think I'm defintely looking at a root canal. Ugh. So I want to have the money for that if I can't pull it out of the budget somehow.

I really wish the tooth would stop hurting. It was so bad last night I ended up breaking into my bottle of oxycodone that was left over from my surgery in the summer of 2011. First time I didn't feel any pain there in a very long time. I will mention how much it has been hurting when I go back to the dentist tomorrow and maybe he will prescribe something less potent but strong enough to stop the pain.

It is a weird feeling to have an empty bill box and to have paid all of the bills to the end of the year already. I know it's been like this for the last couple of months, but I'm still not used to it. I really like it though. Instead of being paycheck to paycheck we are half a month ahead and that is wonderful. I can't wait for that to be a month ahead. And then 2 months and then 3 months, etc., as we build the Emergency Fund back up.

So the last of the bills and some miscellaneous shopping were paid out of today's payday. The breakdown is as follows:

$90.00 Physical Therapy
$41.75 Various cold medicines to replenish stock
$70.56 Internet
$44.87 Phone line Old House (for security system to work)
159.65 Propane bill Old House (was already in savings)
144.00 Water/sewer (was already in savings)
-------------
550.83

I put $2500 into short term savings. That will cover all bills between January 1 and January 11th.

I will have two more physical therapy appointments this year so I have that money set aside.

I took out $215 in cash, but $15 went to DD for her allowance. DS doesn't get an allowance again until January (he got an advance). So that $200 should last us until the end of the year for toiletries and meals out. I have $1300 left of this paycheck, but we still need to buy presents for a couple people. Whatever is left will be sent to the credit card.

Next week's paycheck will be the 2 day paycheck and that isn't earmarked for anything yet. I will need to pay the $505 for my crown whenever they send me the bill so I'll probably set that aside out of it.

I deposited my coin jar money to the Emergency Fund and have hit my goal of $1500 in there by the end of December.

1457.42 Beginning EF
+_66.38 Coin Jar Money deposited
-----------
1523.80 Ending EF

Christmas bonuses should be mailed out today and they usually get here pretty fast since there are so many flights a day between Anchorage and Seattle and then between Seattle and here. It might even be here as soon as tomorrow (last year it came the day after the Christmas party, which is today), but I'm figuring probably Monday or Tuesday.

I am trying not to be anxious about it. It's just that we are so close. Even if it is 5% of income like last year instead of the rumored 10% of income it will still wipe out the BoA card with a little leftover for the AMEX and then the AMEX will be wiped out by the extra paycheck in January. Our tax return would then wipe out the 0% Chase card with plenty leftover since we'll be getting quite a lot back due to maxing the HSA and spending it all this year on medical. And if it's the 10% then boy howdy it's all gone before the year is up.

I just want it done and gone. It's been so many years. I want that weight lifted off my shoulders forever.

DH heard from work this morning and he will be working a 3 and 1 shift when he goes back up, so that will be an extra week's income. 3 and 1's can be hard on the kids, but it sure is good for the finances. Depending on whether or not Congress and the president get their acts together and hammer something out, I'm not sure how much extra take home pay that will be. Somewhere between $3400 and $4000.

I calculated it out and if the tax cuts for the middle class don't get renewed we will be paying an additional $6000 or so a year in taxes or about $500 a month will be missing from our take home pay. That is an awfully big chunk and it will be noticed. Thank goodness we will not be having such large credit card payments to make next year. And thank goodness we actually only live on about 1/3 of DH's pay. We can adjust. I just don't want to have to.

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I went to the doctor this morning. Turns out I have a low level UTI. Since the only ones I have ever had were raging and painful, I didn't expect it to be that, but the test strip turned all sorts of lovely colors. I haven't had a UTI since my surgery in the summer of 2011, so it was not even on my radar. He put me on Cipro and Pyridium (generics of). I haven't gone to get them yet so not sure how much they will cost but shouldn't be too much. Maybe around $10 or so.

He does want to run all the bloodwork after I'm over the infection, especially to test for anemia. Doing it now would skew the results. He does think it is possible since both Social Butterfly and the Ice Queen (my older sisters) are prone to anemia. The good news is my blood pressure is just fine at 117/68. They also both have thyroid issues so we will check that as well.

I also found out the doctor is not actually retiring at the end of the year. He's just going to work Tuesdays and Thursdays and he's bringing in a younger doctor to work M-W-F who will eventually take over the practice at the end of next year. My doc has a real high opinion of him, says he has great bedside manner. I'll have to meet him and judge for myself but at least that's a better place to start than cold-calling new doctors. I also met his new medical assistant. I know I still may likely need to find a new doctor, but it's nice not to have to do it yet.

I haven't been on in a couple of days. The pain from the cracked tooth has been pretty bad over the weekend, but I go to the dentist this morning to start getting it fixed. I'm not sure exactly what they are going to do. Probably a temporary crown while the final one is made.

I need to do a bills update from last Friday's payday. DS is sick so homeschooling is pretty minimal so far this week. We've worked on his persuasive essay, but that's it so far. Hopefully he will be a bit better today and we can get some more done. Although I'm not sure how I'm going to be after going to the dentist. DD is finally well. She went back to school on Friday, but it took her through the weekend to beat this thing.

DH comes home around midnight tonight and won't have to fly back to work until the 31st. We still don't know if he will be working an extra week in January or not. They are hiring for a Jan/Feb ramp up and he will likely need to train people. It's going to be a crazy busy time so hopefully he'll be able to squeeze some more income out of it. It would be nice to have a little extra in the bank.

With whatever the tax situation is going to be for 2013 still up in the air that would go part of the way towards covering any loss due to higher taxes. Although without the credit card payments we will soon no longer need to make, it won't hit us as hard as it would have if that tax thing isn't renewed. And also we could put some money in the HSA as the $2500 deductible starts over again in January.

Since we will be fully deducting the HSA this year and we did last year, I really want to start building it up again. I don't forsee any huge medical things next year, but I didn't this year either. If DH gets an extra week's pay, I can at the very least put the money for the deductible in the HSA and the rest into the emergency fund.

I'm still working on the second week of menues on my food stamp challenge and also a $40 menu that will provide 10 days worth of meals. I tried to make a $33 menu for just one week, and while I could do it, the variety just wasn't quite enough to make me happy. That extra seven dollars really opens things up, while still keeping to the idea of $4 a day average. It will also be food that you can make in a microwave and with an electric burner, in keeping with the idea that not everyone has a regular stove to work with.

I have some thoughts I'm trying to pull together on the foods stamps challenge. I also never posted my actual menues for this week, but so far it's sort of been chicken noodle soup and spaghetti.

I go to the doctor on Thursday. I want to get some bloodwork done, have my iron levels checked, have my thyroid checked, and my vitamin D levels and see if maybe I need to be put on a different high blood pressure medicine. Also I want to see whether or not I have diabetes. The onset in my extended family has been around age 45 on average. I've still got a few years to go, but I am exhuasted all the time lately and pretty much have been since August. I'm dizzy a lot. And I'm ridiculously thirsty. I want to see if there is an underlying cause, or if it is just a case of catching everything under the sun.

Well, this project of mine is taking up quite a bit of time, I sacrificed my novel writing hour to it, but it sure is a fun and interesting challenge. But now back to my real world for a change.

I have three dentist appointments scheduled for next week. DD is on Monday, I am on Tuesday, and DS is on Wednesday, but thankfully DH will be back around 12:30 a.m. on next Wednesday morning. I am finally getting my teeth fixed. Or one of them. Yesterday was just a cleaning.

But yeah, it's finally my turn for something. I was going to have it done this summer, but then DS was assaulted and given that major concussion and neck issues. The bill on that ended up being $3000 out of pocket. We may or may not see some of it come back but I doubt it. Thankfully we had the HSA and we'll be deducting the full amount there again this year.

Then I was about to get it done and DH broke a crown and cracked another one, so then he pushed in front of me, because you cannot walk around with a broken molar if you can at all afford to fix it. Well, now all those things are paid for so it's my turn. I told everyone else that they are not to injure themselves at all until after my teeth are done. Because I am seriously tired of soft foods. So far our portion is looking like $505.

Remember when I said there would be $521 left for me to do something with this month, but I wasn't sure what? I am pretty sure God was laughing at my plans. But hey, at least we have the money to pay for it and that is the important thing.

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I've been picking up a large amount of blog traffic from somewhere during the past couple of months. I'm getting over 3000 hits a day most days. Whereas I hit the 1,000,000 mark on April 19th, and that took me six years of blogging (well, five if you count the year I took off), I'm now close to hitting the 1.5 million mark and at the rate it's been building I may just do that before the end of the year. I sure wish I knew where it was all coming from, but I'm happy to have the readership. My traffic for last month was 111,670, but it had a weird spike in the middle with 30,000 some hits on one day that was just ridiculous, but even taking that away it was 80K. The month before was 52,895 and in July it was 34,577. I think before October my highest was around 38,000 and more were closer to the 30,000 mark.

I don't often think what I have to say is all that interesting or appealing to many people besides myself, unless I'm posting to a theme. Normally I just post for daily accountability, though I strive not to be boring. I mean the coin jar updates are just plain old tedious. I wander off topic quite a bit. I occasionally rant about things like cable television. I get silly and want to spend far too much money on things like Doctor Who action figures or memorabilia because I am that type of fangirl. Most of my posts don't have pictures to grab the eye.

But I am digging my way out of a hole built years ago, not giving up, taking it step by stubborn step. I am proving that it can be done even if it takes years and years. And maybe that's what people come around for. To see someone else who is working hard to get the debt put behind them. I am glad that there is some appeal to someone though. It's always nice to know it's not disappearing into the ether. That people are actually reading what I write. So thank you to all of you who have been bump, bump, bumping my stats along. I'm grateful to every reader I have.

I took DS back to the podiatrist today. After a week on antibiotics and soaking his toes in epsom salts, then pouring on hydrogen peroxide and then using Neosporin, the swelling and infection had gone down enough for the doctor to get in there and clip the jagged edges without having to resort to lidocaine and surgery. So that saved us a couple hundred dollars. I am so glad that he didn't need to go the full route. I know from personal experience how painful that is.

The doctor cleaned up the sites and packed them with cotton again, which will work it's way out over the next two weeks. We shouldn't have to go back unless things get worse again. He is to continue on the antibiotic now, but doesn't have to do that rest of the regimen anymore. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing for DS for a while. He sure could use a break.

I bought a few things at the grocery store today. I can't find what I did with the sales slip. It might have blown out of the bag. It was pretty windy. But judging from the cash I have left, I spent about $40, which jives with what I bought. I picked up some organic frozen dinners to have on hand.

Meal planning is all well and good, but there are some days where I just don't feel like cooking. Even though I am more or less over the flu, I am still dragging, still sniffly, still running a low grade temp, and generally just feeling very blah-ish. I mean, I'm ten times better than I was, but I still just don't feel right. Hopefully it'll pass soon, and well before I come down with the next things.

I don't like to use frozen dinners, but they've brought in a new organic line of ethnic foods. Things like Indian, Thai, and Korean foods. Stuff that I haven't learned how to make yet. So I figure at least if we have frozen dinners it will be food that is different from what I'd be making. So far I'm sticking to the meal plan. It's really just back up.

Anyway, that's about all for today. Didn't really do anything else but homeschool.

I went to physical therapy today, so that's $90 out. I also renewed a prescription, so that's $40. I didn't actually need to renew the prescription, it's only an occasional medicine, but if I renewed it today I could then renew it again at the end of December. Since January starts the medical deductible over again, I figured I wanted to get some on hand for later when it was $40. Without the deductible it's $119. Two months worth should do me for all of next year.

There's another drug I want to do that with before my doctor retires at the end of the year, but it doesn't have any refills left so I will have to call the doctor and have him refill it. It is $160 when the deductible has not been met, but $40 when it has. It is one for muscle spasms and tremors. I do have a full bottle of them, but I'd like another on hand.

Right now the tremors seem to be under control and I haven't used the medicine since July, but with our big Disney trip coming up in March I want to make sure I have it, because with all the walking we will be doing I will have muscle spasms and tremors. I'd like to be prepared for that. Even if I rent a scooter while at the park there is still the walking from the hotel, etc. I am hoping to get by with not renting a scooter though. I will take my cane so I have it if I need it. I just hope I don't need it. It's been months since I've needed it.

I have got to remember to call PeaceHealth and see about finding a new doctor before I get seriously sick again. I've got the names from Aetna that are preferred providers, but I have to see who is accepting new patients. I want a female doctor this time. At my age, I feel a little uncomfortable to be dealing with male doctors who are so young I'm getting a Doogie Houser vibe off them.

The doctor I had for my knee surgery was young, male, and very disrespectful, and the one guy I saw who referred me to Virginia Mason for the other surgery had an office staff that was so incompetent it made me cringe, so it's kind of made me not want to deal with young male doctors at all. I suppose it is biased thinking, but so what? I get to choose who I am comfortable taking off my clothes in front of, and it's not going to be some rude, wet-behind-the-ears type.

I do need to get established with someone soon though, so I can continue with my maintenance medications. I also should ask my current doctor if I can have my medical file. I'd like to have it for a lot of reasons and if he's retiring there is no point in him keeping it. I just really wish he weren't retiring. But he's 81 so I can't begrudge it. Well, I can, but I won't. It's just hard going from someone you have trusted for literally your entire life, who helped bring you into the world, to a stranger. Not fond of change, me. But I'm going to have to get over it.

I really don't like these shorter days. Getting up in the dark to take DD to school is not my favorite thing to do. Some kids have to walk to school in the dark and of course being the sensible and responsible teenagers that they are wear all dark colors and cross in the middle of the street. Ditto riding their bikes without head or tail lights. Or helmets.

I can't decide whether it's a death wish or the invincible gene. Either way, I don't want to end up with splattered teenager all over my car. It's dirty enough as it is. (Sorry, morbid humor. I'm just kidding in case anyone took that seriously). I get so tense because I am always afraid a kid is going to dart out in front of me. It's happened enough times as it is.

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DS is still in a lot of pain. I went to the store today to get more medical tape, neosporin and some epsom salts for him to soak his feet in. Then after the soak we have to pour a bit of hydrogen peroxide on his toes, then dry them, then put neosporin on the wounds, then put guaze around them and tape it in place. The one toe looks better than it did yesterday. The swelling has gone down. The other looks worse. Anyway, I spent $12.43 on the medical supplies.

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It seems like my cushion is being wittled away. Instead of an extra $400 to send to the credit card, I'll have closer to $300. Oh, well. Life goes in it's own direction, which is not necessarily the direction you want it to go in.

I'm just trying to hold out and not order a pizza. I think I am going to bump up pizza night to tomorrow. Homemade of course. I need to get past the desire to order one takeout. Mine always taste better.

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We got the invite to DH's Christmas Party for work in the mail. December 14th. Not that we can go even, it's in Anchorage, but that means the bonus checks will be given out to those who go and mailed out to those who don't. Which means we should have it in about 3 weeks time. I so hope it is the rumored amount, which is twice what last year's was. I know I can do a lot with it either way, but to be able to pay it all off at once...well, I can't help anticipating it.

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I am on my third day of no caffeine. I was throwing my diet out the window and up to about four cans a day of Pepsi Throwback. It was bad for me and it was getting to be an expensive habit. So here's hoping I can keep it out of the house. I am really tired, but I know that will pass in another couple of days. Already my stomach is feeling better and my heartburn is gone. I don't know what gets into me. I try to keep our food pretty natural and ethical and then I just kind of throw it out the window on one item. Human nature, I guess. Pepsi Throwback is actually in the 100 mile food shed, there's a bottling factory one county over, but that is not a good excuse!

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DD's MP3 player broke and she about had a nervous breakdown. She's somewhat OCD (not as bad as DS) and listening to her music about a half an hour before bedtime is part of her calming routine. I helped her figure out one of the free internet radio things that you can put in one artist and then it plays other artists in that vein. She was a little worried about it running all night and I told her it was fine as long as it wasn't loud enough to disturb the rest of us.

I also told her we could buy a new one on Friday, that I'd advance her the allowance to do so. She's had her current one for several years and taken very good care of it, but it just won't turn on. Fortunately, she had all her music backed up on her computer, so the loss isn't total.

It's been such a long day. I'm glad that it's over. I'm looking forward to payday on Friday. I want to see that debt total go down. One more nail in the coffin of the Evil Empire.

We finally got a hard frost last night. And I do mean a hard one. When I went out at 7 to take DD to school there was thick ice on the windows. Fortunately,I had some spray on de-icer. I started the car heating and defrosting while I sprayed it on. Unfortunately, there was a layer of ice on the inside of the windshield and you can't spray de-icer on the inside because of the fumes. I had to scrape it. It wasn't nearly as thick on the inside.

I checked all the windows to make sure nothing had been partially down overnight to cause it to freeze inside, everything was up. Then after I scraped it we had to sit for a while with the defroster going to get rid of the humidity that was making it fog up. The car probably ran for 20 minutes before the windows were safe to see out of. Fortunately, DD's school doesn't start until 7:45, she just likes to get there early. She was still fifteen minutes early.

I was really surprised because we've had such mild weather this fall, I was expecting it to continue. The broccoli looked like it was a goner this morning, but the leaves all thawed out just fine by mid-day and were looking as healthy and beautiful as ever.

I had to take DS to the foot doctor today. He had gotten inflamed ingrown toenails on both of his big toes. It runs in the family. Of course he did this early in the holiday weekend so he's been miserable pretty much since Thursday. The doc drained them and packed them with cotton and prescribed an anti-biotic.

We'll go back on Monday next to see if they need surgical correction after the swelling has gone down. It's a very minor surgery, he just cuts away a bit of the tissue and any torn part of the nailbed. They use a local anesthetic, lidocaine. DS had a lot of relief just by having the side of the nailbed packed with cotton. It will probably have to be corrected though if he is anything like me or his father. Bad toenails or not, DS has the nicest looking feet. He could totally be a foot model or something.

Anyway, so we paid out $4.76 for his antibiotic and I renewed my BP med while we were there for $40.00. And since that store happened to have some Haagan Das vanilla ice cream I got that too, for $6.49. A little more than I like to pay for it, but at least I found it. Considering I wanted to just tool on down the road a bit to Arby's and buy dinner instead of coming home and making stir-fry, that's not too bad. Arby's would have added about $35. And my cooking was better anyway.

I think the heater is going to have to stay on 70 tonight. I can feel the chill through the house despite having on slipper socks, a sweater, and an afgahn over my lap. I've pulled out the extra blankets for everyone, but we may still be sleeping in sweats tonight.

All of the birds were out today, even Silver (the shyest and most timid) and Lady (the duck). They've decided to be free range apparently. But they stayed in the yard and still put themselves into the coop a half hour before dark. Lady was less than pleased that her little pond was frozen over and she let the whole world know. Not that she's super loud or anything, it was just a constant murmur of complaint.

Fort Knox remains empty. It's just as well. It's warmer in the chicken coop with all 13 birds sharing body heat. We have to be a little more aware of the waterers now, making sure they aren't frozen. They will be eating a lot more feed now to keep up their body temps and be able to lay eggs. We got 7 today. There were five delivered to the box on the back porch. Both leghorns are laying in there now. Because why use a perfectly good set of nesting boxes when you have access to the world's best cardboard box?