Ugh...snow. You know I really don't get why today had to be a late start day for the school district. It's 32 degrees outside and the roads are completely clear. In November when it was 17 degrees outside and had a windchill factor well below zero, and 8 inches of snow instead of the current two and the roads were lousy, they did not cancel school or have late starts even though they should have.

My son doesn't go in until eleven so it's pretty much blown my whole morning. Although he did fold a load of towels without being asked. He's starting to pay some attention now to what needs to be done around the house. Now if my older daughter would do the same thing...

So today after I go to the physical therapist for my knee I will go to the bank and make a mortgage payment and then go to the other bank and pay off our personal loan in full. Yeah, that is going to feel pretty good. Like a giant weight being lifted off our shoulders. I can't wait to do it and see our debt total drop so substantially.

Found 3 pennies in the school parking lot. That is $5.03 so far this month. I threw them in the coin jar when I got home.

I know I've been AWOL for the last two weeks but our house was broken into twice and we've been dealing with a lot of stuff because of it. The first time they jimmied a window open it happened to be the one that was wired to the alarm system. It was originally the nursery and the only bedroom that the door wasn't covered by the motion sensor. The alarm went off and it was enough to scare them away. The police found the window raised two inches.

We came out and saw that nothing that was still in the house had been touched so we figured that was that. We made triple sure all the windows were locked and the deadbolts were drawn and came back home. That was a Friday afternoon. That Sunday morning at six a.m. we got another call that our alarm was going off so we let my mother know what was going on so we could leave the kids and we went out there.

Another window was open two inches, but the weird thing was that the screen was in place. So somehow they were jimmying the lock again and it was for sure that we hadn't accidentally left one unlocked. This time, though nothing was stolen, they ripped both the alarm box and the alarm code panel off the wall. The back door deadbolt was not in place. So we figure they came in, ripped the alarm off with the hope of coming back later and it no longer working, and stealing. Then they ran through the house and out the back door leaving the dead bolt open. Then they came back and put the screen in place.

Well, this time Chris and I put screws in all the window frames to prevent the windows from being raised at all. Chris, being an electrical engineer was able to rewire both the alarm box and the alarm code panel and put them back into place and we tested them to be sure they were working again and they were. We spent the next week packing boxes and moving them to storage. It's ridiculous how much still needs to be done there, but at least there have been no more alarms going off and no more breaking in, though they may have attemtped it. The sheriff's deputy was able to get one really nice fingerprint off the window, but nothing has come of it so far and nothing probably will.

I don't actually feel violated, probably because nothing was stolen and we weren't living there at the time and all of the stuff that's really worth anything except the piano was moved before any of this happened. And the piano we never paid any money for, it was a family hand me down and really, who's going to try to walk off with a piano? Yeah, it would be sad if it were vandalized, but in the end we can get a good used piano for $500 out of the want ads. No one is playing right now anyway. We are going to have it moved the next time Chris comes home though.

Mostly I feel like all of the money we've paid to the security company over the years hasn't been wasted, because even if there was nothing to steal, there still could have been an opportunity for vandalism and I do not want to have to clean up after that. It's no fun. I've seen what some of the homeowners out there have gone through when they've gone on vacation and had no security system and come back to shaving gel and silly string and spray paint on the walls inside their homes.

In other news, my emergency fund made a whopping forty-eight cents in interest last month. We got $800 more than we were expecting back on our tax return. Something about not making over $150,000 so we got a stimulus thingy or something. I had no idea they were doing that this year. Before when it's happened it hasn't been part of the return it was a seperate check sent at a different time.

I decided to put $1000.00 of the return into the EF and $1000.00 of it away for summer camp. Both kids want to go for at least a week this summer and with the extra money we can actually swing two weeks for both of them, plus some day camp for my son. That brings the EF to $1,520.64.

$1000.00 has been set aside for moving expenses and house repairs and the last $1000.00 I haven't done anything with yet, but half of it will go to pay for half year property taxes and the other half will go into the safety net short term savings.

I hate having such big returns, we could really use that money throughout the year, but because of how Chris works we can't. He works two weeks on, two weeks off, but they tax his paychecks as if he were bringing one home of equal amount each week, instead of two weeks pay covering four weeks. Or now that he's switching to 3 on, 3 off for the spring/summer, it'll be 3 weeks pay covering 6 weeks. It sucks and it's stupid, but there is nothing we can do about it. Every year we check the tax law to see if anything has changed so that won't happen, but the answer is always no.

I haven't been using much cash for the past three weeks so I haven't bothered to empty out my purse in that amount of time. I did tonight and was pleasantly surprised to find $6.16 in coins. No wonder it was feeling heavy.

$73.32 starting balance
+ 6.16 amount added
-------
$79.48 ending balance

I really need to take that in soon. I keep procrastinating it.

We got an "extra" paycheck this month. We get two a year, where it just happens to fall in such a way that no bills have to paid out of it. That money will go into short term savings for the adjustment period into the 3 on, 3 off changeover, just in case. If the adjustment goes smoothly and we don't use it, after a couple of months I'll move that money into the EF. If it doesn't, and it usually doesn't, we'll end up using it. I'm better prepared for it this year though, so I'm hoping we won't need it. And that about wraps things up.

My youngest turned ten today. I think that's way harder for me to grasp than the fact that I turned 40 in February. In less time than he's been alive so far, he'll be heading off to college or trade school. Wow. I hope he earns lots of scholarships.

My sister's kids descended en masse on us, presumably to celebrate my son's birthday and not to eat us out of house and home. I hadn't really planned on doing anything other than making T pizza for dinner because it was what he wanted. We already celebrated his birthday and gave him his presents last weekend when his dad was home. Today was just supposed to be a mellow day. T didn't want any more than that.

I wasn't feeling good. I'm still not, been fighting a sinus infection that's not responding to meds, and I just really wanted a quiet day. R made the from scratch chocolate cake batter while I sat curled up in a chair in a blanket in the kitchen and read out the ingredients to her from my laptop. Then we discovered that mom's one cake pan was flaking.

I haven't brought in my glass cake pans or my metal rounds yet and I really did not want to have to drive with my head this full of congestion and buy a cake pan when I had good ones at home. Didn't want to drive back to the house either. Fortunately I had bought baking cups for making muffins and had my muffin tin here so instead of a birthday cake he got birthday cupcakes. I did put together the from scratch butter cream frosting but R stayed with it in the kitchen while it blended for the ten minutes. I love having a child who is old enough to bake with minimal supervision.

I had started the dough in the bread machine as soon as the cupcakes went in to the oven. They were cooled and frosted by the time the dough was done rising and I had assembled the pizzas and they were ready to go into the oven. I had only intended on using part of the dough to make one pizza but with extra mouths I suddenly had to feed I ended up using it all. Fortunately Mom has one of those ovens that has two parts so you can cook two things at once. I was able to cook them evenly and not one after another and they came out perfectly.

T loved his birthday dinner. He said it was better than Round Table Pizza and a bakery cake. Which made me feel pretty good, considering that from making it all from scratch, I spent around $12 where all that pizza and cake bought elsewhere would have rounded out around $60. The boys loved the food too and wished that their mother would cook like that. They said it was the best pizza they'd ever had. That made me feel good even if I was kind of annoyed with the whole day's change of plans.

I think I probably would have taken it better if I wasn't so grumpy from being ill and tired and if it had been planned and not suddenly thrust upon me. *sighs*

I had to go buy a few gallons of organic milk yesterday so I ended up with $3.58 in ones and change out of a $20 to add to the coin jar.

$60.28 beginning balance
+ 3.58 amount added
------
$63.86 ending balance

Yesterday I also paid $1079 on the credit cards and $375.14 on the mortgage.

My brother-in-law and my nephew stopped by today and I did not find out until dinner time that they'd eaten all of our leftovers that I was planning to use for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. At least they didn't drink the organic milk, probably since it was non-fat. They did down six cans of Mom's Sprite between them. They are used to coming over, going into the fridge, and eating whatever they want. Which was fine when my mom was the only one living here. My mother didn't care. But I do.

Aside from the fact that it was my grocery budget they were eating up, what really irks me is that they ate enough food in one sitting to provide two full meals to the four of us. No one needs to eat that much food at one time.

I ended up on the phone with my sister and from now on they've agreed to ask first before eating anything here. Sister was not happy because they arrived home an hour after leaving here and proceded to eat a full dinner. Since they are both very much overweight (both morbidly obese) and supposed to be watching their diets, it made her pretty mad that they were sneaking food.

I had planned to be able to just nuke up dinner in five minutes time and planned our day accordingly. Everyone was starving by the time we found out so I did what I would have done before the belt-tightening. I jumped in the car and went to McDonald's. Old habits die hard, I suppose. Still, I ordered off the dollar menu and we had drinks at home, so I wasn't completely out there. Ended up spending $6.46. Everyone got a double cheeseburger and small fries and we had oranges and canned green beans at home to round it out. Mom had decided to fend for herself and made chipped beef on toast.

I need to go back to making up our own tv dinner meals to keep in the freezer. I'll be making a big batch of burritos up later in the week, so if I freeze the extras in individual portions that'll be a start. We do have a fridge in our wing of the house, just no stove, so some things I keep up there because it's where I do the majority of the cooking, so I don't have to be schlepping stuff up there every time. I won't make that mistake again.

I think I'll put a pot roast in the crockpot before I go to bed so I'll have some meat to work with for tomorrow's meals when I get up. I think I'll also thaw and brown up a couple pounds of ground beef to have on hand. If I'd had some pre-cooked hamburger on hand tonight, I could have just quickly seasoned it and made tacos.

I added $3.54 to the coin jar, the change from the ten I used at McDonald's.

$29.05 beginning balance
+ 3.54 added
-------
$32.59 ending balance

What is it about throwing away food that makes me feel so awful? Even when I'm doing it for a good cause it raises something in me that just makes it feel wrong. I suppose it's better that it feels wasteful than that it not, but every little piece of the money saver in me is protesting this turn of events.

My youngest child has just been diagnosed with mutiple food chemical sensitivities. I have to get these items out of the house. In some cases it is enough if he even touches the foods that they affect him. (Cheese powder covered snacks, for one). Oh, I know it's all less than good for you food anyway, but still...it's hard. Fortunately he is not here to see it all being thrown out.

He's agreed to go on the new diet, actually seems eager to do it if it will make him feel better and improve his mood swings (which are scaring even him lately). But that doesn't mean he'd react well to seeing the Captain Crunch, the Cocoa Puffs and the Lucky Charms go into the trash because of the food colorings or artificial preservatives.

I'm torn between saving unopened packages of food to give away or, knowing what I know now, just throwing them away, because really, no one should be eating these chemicals, especially the children most of the products are designed for.

It's a fight. Waste food, waste money, that's ingrained in me from childhood. I have to get past it. We've experimented in the past before with going organic, cooking completely from scratch, and I know I can do it. It's just...really hard with all the other changes going or right now.

Still, in the long run it's the best choice, the only choice I can make. Be wasteful in one area to improve all other areas of life. And make better choices with my food dollars from now on.

We're starting on the Feingold diet as a family. We've got enough information to start while we wait for our full packet to arrive. At least I've got enough healthy food in the house that I don't have to go shop for it at all. We can start tomorrow. And that's a good thing.

Well, I say big storm. Not exactly a hurricane or the like, but relatively big for our area. It was enough to knock power out through much of NW Washingtion, us included. It went out at about five, just when I was in the middle of cooking a lasagna. It went into the fridge with a bag of ice from the freezer so it didn't heat it up too badly in there.

First thing we did was clean off the woodstove and the surrounding area while it was still light. It's kind of been used as a catch all for the summer. It only took about 20 minutes to get it cleared and to empty the ash from last year. DH was supposed to have done that before we shut it down for the summer, but he forgot. Apparently.

Anyway, we didn't end up needing to use the woodstove because the temperature outside didn't drop below 58 degrees. But it's cleared now, so the few nights when it's dropped down to the 30's and 40's and I've had to use the propane will be a thing of the past. We intend to use the wood stove for the rest of the fall/winter/spring. We have all the free wood we cut up and chopped from the summer of '07 and it is bone dry now. So no more heating bills after the next propane bill comes due. It's got maybe 3 weeks of sporadic use on it.

We did end up going out for dinner in a little town down the mountain about fifteen minutes drive away, where they still had power. The place we wanted to go was packed so badly people were eating outside under the awning, in the rain. No thank you.

We ended up at a smaller family style restaurant that is tucked away from the main strip. It was good food and everybody cleared their plates, but the cost was still higher than I like to pay on a meal out for four. With tip it came to $63. Won't be doing that again for a while, but it was great service and delicious.

If we'd had the makings for anything that wasn't raw or didn't need to be heated up, we'd have done that instead. We were even out of peanut butter and bread, but I go shopping today to remedy that. We've been eating out of our cupboards for three months while we use up stuff that's been there for ages. Empty cupboards just happened to coincide with power failure. *sighs*

We had power back before we went to bed when they'd been anticipating not having it back until today some time. Not too bad, considering.

So, it's been a little over two months since I last posted an entry. Things have really changed so much for us in that time period. DH was given yet another raise of $50 per day with the new contract. This puts our income at a level I never thought I'd see while we were still in our 30's.

The raise did not go into effect until this month, so we won't hit $117,000 for a yearly income this year, but that's what it'll be next year. I cannot even fathom this amount of money. I know there is a huge chunk of that going for taxes, but our liveable income has gone up so far in the last 8 months it's almost ridiculous.

The first thing we did was raise our 401K by 1%. I'd like to do more but we have to buy a new car and until I know what the payments will be I don't want to do anything more.

If all goes well, by the end of the week we will be the proud new owners of a fully loaded 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid with 21,000 miles on it. We have $2000 for a down payment and will be financing the rest.

I'm currently using my mother's car because I'm afraid to drive mine. Especially after an $805 car repair to my '92 Crown Vic that still didn't fix it all the way, I'm not putting anymore money into that car. And Blazer needs the transmission fixed and I just don't want to spend that kind of money on a '96.

We've made some large purchases so far this year. The first was a new couch that seats six and came with an ottoman for $1387.94 which included delivery. The old one has been moved into the playroom which never had one before and is horribly broken down and offers no support at all. It took us several months to save up for that.

Then last month we bought a new TV with my husband's yearly safety bonus. We spent a lot of money on that, but I figure it's a long-term investment for us since we don't go to movies or out to do anything much (besides eat) entertainmentwise. We just watch movies from Netflix. So we got a big screen HD plasma from Costco and it's fabulous. 50 inches. $1300.07.

Our entire tax return of just over $3600 went to pay down debt, which we still have far too much of. I'm currently working on making up a new budget to reflect the new income.

We will qualify for the entire tax refund coming out in May for two adults filing jointly with two children and when that check comes it's going straight into the emergency fund.

I really wish we had not gotten so far into debt in the past. I know that it was mostly medical debt but when I think that we'd have over $2000 a month from this point on now that wasn't allocated to something if we didn't have debt, it would be amazing. That's $24,000 of net income that could be going into retirement and stocks and vacation planning. Oh, how I wish.

I'm going to try to keep this blog going better now. I need to stay on top of the budget now with the new numbers and a new payment that will be coming into the mix. Other things, our 401K is still above $50,000 and our mortgage is almost down to $30,000, so progress is being made. Always a good thing.

I've been letting things slide for a bit too long. I'd say almost two months now, but particularly the month of December. I've just been ignoring things, and that's the kind of thing that got me into trouble in the first place.

What is it about finances that makes you turn your eyes away or put your head in the sand anyway? I haven't been completley hopeless. I mean the bills are getting paid. On time, too. But I can't remember the last time I transferred money from my CU to my ING account and I'm pretty sure there's at least six weeks of auto-deposits sitting there ready to go.

Haven't kept my running account of savings or the coin jar or updated my 401K either. Well, new year and maybe I'll get myself back to this. I need to. I'd rather know what I'm doing than not know what I'm doing.

I've rolled up a bunch of coins tonight, $36.50 ready to go to the CU for deposit. I've stopped saving $1 bills, a habit I'd like to get back into. I have managed to make at least one of the monthly $100 transfers to ING from the past two months. I think I did both, but I'll have to pull my statements and check to be sure.

I just feel so scattered. Or at least, scatter-brained. My house on the other hand has never been this organized before, so really no excuse for this lazy financial head in the sandiness.

This isn't a New Year's Resolution or anything because I don't make them, but I'm really encouaging myself strongly to stay on top of this in the coming months. It's too important to just not keep track, and if I don't I know we will just blow the extra on eating out and frippery. I'd rather be using that money to save up for my DH's next set of course work and a family vacation then what we've been using it on, anyway.

Well, here's hoping I won't be such a stranger to my own blog in this new year.

Yesterday DH and I dropped the kids off with MIL and then went to Costco to buy the kids their new mattresses. That came to $303.50. I had budgeted $302 for it, but I think I must have added up the tax wrong or its gone up another .01 percent. Still, it was a good price for two twin mattresses and the kids are very happy with them. They slept very well last night.

Since we had FIL's truck we took a big load of stuff to our storage unit, which is starting to get quite full. Next time DH comes home we'll do some sorting and rearranging in there, but since he's only home for a few days this hitch we're not going to do it now.

Afterwards we went back to MIL's house and our neices were there playing with our kids. We hung out for quite a while so DH had a chance to visit with his mom. His dad was at work.

My SIL showed up with her new boyfriend a few hours later to pick up her girls. I haven't met him before, even though its been a couple months now. He seems like a very good person, he's kind and respectful to her and her daughters and my first intinct was to trust him. He's head over heels for SIL.

Now with her almost ex-H my first instinct was to run as far and as fast away from him as I could get and never ever leave my kids alone with him. I was proved right there. So I am very happy for her. She deserves this second chance after shaking off that abusive, child molesting felon.

I see a huge difference in her daughters as well. They are blossoming into two very different children. And its a very nice thing to see.

I got shanghied by another website

www.whofic.com called A Teaspoon and an Open Mind and have been off playing with them all week, since I had a cold and didn't want to think about reality. But reality is back and 20,263 words of fanfic later, and an empty spot in my head where a story used to be, I'm back to reality and blogging again.

Oh, I'll still play over there, but it won't be as time consuming. Anyone into Doctor Who and Firefly there is an amazing crossover story called Out of Joint. I usually don't like fanfic crossovers but this one is just done so amazingly well. Especially River and the Doctor, though there was a good bit between mechanic Kaylee and the Doctor's TARDIS. But I digress.

So, bills so far this week:

$1000.00 to medical debt
$1000.00 to Chase (last card)
$ 129.50 to BoA (leftover interest, but now its clear)
$ 9.58 to Citi (leftover interest, now clear)
$ 100.00 to the gas card
$ 200.00 to groceries and toiletries
--------
$2439.08

Otherwise its been a pretty low spend, low key week. We haven't done much since I was getting over the cold.

DH comes home tomorrow, finally. I haven't seen him in a month. There will be some spending as we are going out to eat at a nearby restaurant while we get a new car stereo installed.

I am starting to settle in to this new payraise DH has and I feel so much better about everything. Life has gotten a whole lot easier in the financial ring, but I really want to make sure we maintain our focus on getting out of debt and building up the EF. I am so close to $2000 and then after that I want to build it up to $2600 and that will be half a month's wages saved.

I haven't done much in the survey area this week. Too much time spent writing and reading instead. But I'm pretty close to cashing out again with Global Test Market for a $50 check. I think I need just 50 points to do so. So time to refocus and get on with it.

I've missed being around here and now I need to go and get caught up with you folks!

I took my car in to the dealership this morning for an oil change and for them to put it on their diagnostic machine to see why the engine light is coming on. It's been on for a year. Midas had put it on their machine a year ago and couldn't find anything so didn't charge for it.

I thought that maybe the machine at Ford would be better at diagnosing a Ford, so gave it another try. They found the problem. It is not a safety issue, but it will not be good for the engine if I let it go too much longer, especially if I want to keep the car running another two years. They used a lot of initials and said something about a whosit and a manifold thingie (yes, my knowledge of car bits is astronomical), and needing to order a part.

Anyway today's visit cost $135.12. I made an appointment for Friday to have the rest of the work done. It needed to wait until the next payday anyhow. The estimate is $679 and that includes tax. Well, we have an extra paycheck this cycle that was all supposed to go towards paying down debt. Now a big chunk of it will go towards fixing the car.

I am going to be positive about this, though. We have the money to do it, when we might have had to use a credit card a year ago. And even if we didn't have the money coming in I have over $1100 in my emergency fund. So we would have been able to cover the car cost with the EF without putting it on credit. And that is huge. Not having to use the EF is even bigger. It feels really good.

Wow, will you look at that. 200,000 hits on my little old blog. That just kind of blows me away. 16 months of blogging and you guys haven't gotten tired of reading me yet. So thanks to all my readers. I sure do appreciate all of you!

A long time ago my friend gave me a box of boy's shoes that her son had outgrown and we have been waiting and waiting (there is a seven year age gap) for Tobias to grow into them. Well, last night we were cleaning out his closet in preparation for new clothes and I had him try the shoes on and two pairs fit! So that means no new shoes need to be bought for him.

They were in really good condition, too. One pair canvas sneakers and the other leather hiking boots. He can still wear one pair of tennis shoes from the end of last school year so he'll have a pair for gym class as well. One more thing I can scratch off my list.

Now I just have to get caught up with the laundry so I can see where Tobias stands on clothes before we go out and buy him new school clothes. I think plenty of his older clothes can make the transition into play clothes easily. Oh, and we found two sweatshirts and a pair of shorts in the closet that fit him great. They are faded and in the play clothes category, but it will be nice to have two sweatshirts for the upcoming autumn after school play time.

Here is an interesting short article about the current mortgage lending woes and how the lending nitwits (his words) keep causing this cycle to continue.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/WhyYouCantTrustYourLender.aspx

So tomorrow Rose is supposed to be getting her braces. They're all paid for, fortunately and I will owe nothing more. We promised her Chinese food for dinner, since it is soft and relatively easy to chew. We figured she'd be in a fair amount of pain from them.

DH is taking her, just like he will be taking her to get her ears pierced. I can't stand to see her in pain. I hated being the one to go with them for vaccines when they were babies.

So, no pricey braces but it will be a pricey week between the Chinese food and the ears getting pierced (part of her birthday present). Ah, well. It's all been planned for.

There is a house kitty corner across the street from my parent's house that just sold for $738,000! This is NOT a $738,000 neighborhood. This is a $250,000 to $450,000 neighborhood. We always called this house The Castle, yes in capitals. It had a turret in the middle for the front door area and it went up two stories. The bottom story was done all in brick and the second story looked more like a Swiss Chateau. It's on 3/4 of an acre.

It is a gorgeous house on the outside, but it is not a nicer house on the inside than other neighborhood homes and I don't get why it would sell for such an outrageous amount of money. Most homes in the neighborhood were selling for around $350,000.

It is on the busline, 1/2 mile from the nearest grocery store, 2 blocks from the elementary school and 2 blocks from the hospital, all which raise value a fair bit, but also 2 blocks from the domestic violence shelter which lowers it. So for the most part it is very well located. But still, it seems whoever bought it paid twice what is worth.

My husband's uncle was the realtor on this one. He makes a 6% commission. Not bad for two months of work!

I just hope this ridiculous sale price doesn't cause property taxes to rise in the neighborhood. They're already too high there.

I've been thinking a lot lately on the house I was raised in. I never ever thought we were rich growing up. My Dad was a mill worker and my mother was a teacher. Not exactly jobs that you would think of as wealth building. Yet, my parents saved a lot of money. They paid off their mortgage early, they had paid for cars, we always had meat at the dinner table, and I always had nice looking clothes (usually not namebrand unless I wanted to buy it myself) and nice things.

I remember how much more it seemed like my friends had than I did. Their houses were showcases, while ours was lived in. They had a lot of namebrand clothes and expensive toys and jewelry. And I realize now, their parents had a lot of debt. But they seldom had meals like we did. Their parents spending habits showed up in the food. There were a lot of meals of soup and sandwiches and rice and pasta. When my friends came over for dinner and saw steak on a weekday, how stunned they were.

As an adult I've discussed things with my old friends and know how true it was that their parents were in debt and also that they fought all the time over money. Meanwhile they were taking fancy vacations in rented RV's on a yearly basis. They always liked how calm my house was and how easy it was to be in and that there was space in it to breathe.

Space in it to breathe. Yes. There was. The house I grew up in has 7 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a living room, a rec. room, a family room, a full kitchen with seperate dining area, a half kitchen, a storage room, 3 finished built in storage crawl spaces. And a basement. On a half acre. Room to breathe and room to play.

I always thought we were poor because we didn't have "stuff." Now I know we were rich because we didn't have "stuff." My biggest memory of the big strike at my Dad's mill was my parents talking about how they were going to get through it. My mother had just retired from teaching the year before. But they had savings. And Mom went and got substitute teaching jobs and Dad pumped gas at night and walked the picket line during the day. And we got by fine. We always had meat on the table, still had nice clothes and toys and a nice house to live in. The only concession that had to be made was no soda pop or potato chips in the house for the nine months of the strike. That's what I remember. We were fine.

During this strike, I saw marriages dissolve, families break up, people borrowing money from the bank to get them through until the strike was over. It was just supposed to last a few weeks. So many people were unprepared. But not my parents and not my family. We were "rich" in what mattered. And we did quite well because of savings and the ability of my parents to work extra jobs.

I wonder how I lost that lesson so badly for so long along the way. Well, life happened, I suppose. But I get it, now with so much more life experience behind me than I had then. My parents never called it an emergency fund. It was just savings. But we had no downshift in our style of living in what was definitely the biggest use of an emergency fund I've ever seen.

That's why, one day I want to have at least six months of living expenses in my EF. Then on to a year. So that if something happens, we will go on just fine with breathing room. But first I am building the first month. That's where it all starts.

Yes, room to breathe. My friends knew how important it was before I hit my first decade. It was a lesson learned by me and forgotten. And remembered again. I want room to breathe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So much running around in my head right now.

It's good to be back and in my own bed after a week away. My vacation was pretty good. The rest of the family had a better time than I did. I got sick so bad that I thought I had pneumonia and ended up staying in bed for 2 days straight, except to go to London Drug and pick out cold medicine. They happened to be selling the Harry Potter book, and of course it had the British cover art, so that was neat.

So I was dizzy and just totally coughing down in my lungs and we almost went to a walk in clinic, despite the cost of it, but after two days in bed I woke up feeling better (still pretty bad though). So I didn't go to Craig Darroch or the Titanic exhibit or the Undersea Garden, but everyone else did.

I did however go on the carriage ride through Beacon Hill Park, which is similar to Central Park in New York, only safer. We really liked that and it was $90 well spent because we learned a lot about the city and the park and of course Tobias got a kick out of the horse because it kept passing gas. He's at that age.

Despite that it was a lovely ride and we saw people parasurfing. They had special surf boards attatched to their feet and parachutes on and the wind would pick up the parachutes and they would fly into the air. It was amazing. We also saw the world's tallest totem pole at 156 feet. I have a picture of my kids in front of it and the scale is just mind-blowing. I'll try to post it. I haven't done pictures before on here but DH is home to help me figure it out.

I did get to see Hatley castle, but I was not impressed. It was way overblown. By the time I was marginally well enough to do Centre of the Universe the kids were down with it so we didn't go.

I spent a lot of time in bed sleeping and a lot of time in bed reading Harry, which I finished Tuesday night. I spent time in the hot tub to help break up my congestion and it helped a lot. And the kids were out with DH for long stretches of time, which was really nice. So even though my vacation did not turn out quite the way I planned, and even though I still have a cough, ears that crack when I swallow and a bit of gunky stuff, I had a lot of me time, a lot of rest and a pretty good read.

I was actually disappointed in a few things in the book, but for the most part after the first 200 pages it went fast and was exciting. One thing I had predicted came true, so I was happy to be right about it. But that's all I will say about it because I know so many people don't want to know anything at all until they are done reading it and I know how careful I was to avoid any spoilers until I finished it.

I came back with a $20 bill and a couple dollars in change, so not bad. I'll put the Canadian money in a jar until we go to the zoo next. We're really close to the one in Langley and it is so much nicer a zoo then the one in Seattle is.

I'm looking forward to having my mail all delivered tomorrow. I hope that $50 check came. It's been six weeks so it better have. I just hit 1000 points again with them so I need to cash out again, too. I did a few surveys while I was sick in bed.

I guess that about covers everything. Oh, I probably have money to move to ING. I should do that, too.

DH just faxed back the signed job offer for the new job. We are really excited, especially after months of run-around and getting our hopes up, only to find them dismally crushed.

This last time I said I wouldn't believe it until he had the offer in his hands. Well, he's had it, so I believe it. The raise won't go into effect until his second paycheck back up. So it won't be until September that we see what a true four week paycycle is like. But it should be $2000 more every 4 weeks, net. His day rate will be $525. I can't imagine it. And all that with only a two year certificate of completion from a technical college in Engineering Technology/Architecture and a two year A.S.T. college degree, (that's associate in specialized technology).

It will be great to be able to start making huge strides in debt repayment and finally get the Blazer repaired and do the one or two things to the car that need doing as well. Plus, DH will be able to start his next correspondence school session on his way to his B.S. Of course, I've teased him for years about having a degree in B.S., but this will be one from a college, not one for talking his way around something! LOL

We plan to build up the EF and a car fund now. We're thinking towards a Prius or if not a hybrid, something like a Matrix with good gas mileage. In a perfect world there would be a hybrid mini-van, because that is what we really want. Oh, well.

This is our last night in Victoria. I'll write more about it when I get home, I think. Just wanted to share the good news.

I added 23 cents in coins and $3 in ones to the change jar today.

I got a reimbursement check for $42.89 that will go to the EF.

Lightspeed survey money didn't show up in paypal today. I was surprised as they said next business day, and that was today. They are usually that fast.

I am over the halfway point ($25) to cashing out with GTM again.

DH was told the job vacancy announcement has gone up and that they hope to have the paperwork for him to sign Wednesday before he flies home, which would mean he would start the new job when he goes back after our vacation. I still don't believe them. Not until it is in writing. Not after last time. Or the time before that. I almost wish DH didn't tell me this stuff until it was a done deal. I don't need to obsess about it.

At 8:30 a.m. it was already 87 degrees out. There is a hot wind blowing and all the trees are shedding what looks like 1 inch long, 1/8 inch diameter pinecones. It looks like it is snowing, if snow were bigger and you know, brown.

It's just supposed to get hotter and hotter. I set the sprinklers in the garden this morning and will let them run until noon, I think. The ground is parched and everything is growing so fast right now. I don't want to lose any of the veggies, because having them is making a major dent in my food bill.

I had every single house fan going in the windows all night to get the house cold. I have several of those double window fans which work really well. It's nice and cool but I imagine that won't last past noon when the sun is directly overhead and beating in through the skylights.

I'm so glad I did all that crockpot cooking last week. It is really making a difference that I have so much I can just warm up in the microwave and not have to heat up the house by using the stove.

Two good things came in today's mail. One, I got excused from Jury Duty, thank goodness, so now I can set up swim lessons for the kids. Really did not want to serve a fifth time!

Two, the Circuit City rebate came, so that $150 will go into the EF, which will bring that account to $751.05. Yay! It's a growing. That's just $248.95 from my $1000 goal.

Just checked my stats page and sometime in the last day or two when I wasn't looking I hit 150,000 hits. Pretty cool.

I actually tried to talk DH into getting a flat panel HDTV today. I don't know what got into me. But they had a 27 inch one on sale today and tomorrow for $399, no rebates necessary, just flat priced. And I wanted it! DH talked me down. Sigh. Why did he go and have to get responsible all of a sudden, pout, pout.

That's okay, we don't need it and its not in the budget and we are planning it for Christmas as our present anyway. Patience, patience. Follow the plan.

Did you ever have one of those days where you're walking around kind of outside of yourself? Like you are observing your life from a distance and though you are aware of it, you're just not really there in the moment. Today was like that, definitely a little left of center. I suppose I'm still reacting to that car accident behind the house. Maybe its a protective thing, so I don't really have to think about what I saw. Which is fine until night time when there is nothing left to distract me and it is all I can focus on.

DH flies home Wednesday and that will help so much. He is my rock. I think I've been left with this overwhelming sense of helplessness. To not be able to help someone that way, I don't even think I've come to terms with that. I just keep pushing it out of my mind, like stuffing things into the closet that you don't want to deal with until much later, if ever.

It is hard for me to focus on the financial right now. I had food delivered today, $70 worth of frozen cod and salmon from a frozen food wholesaler. It should last a good while. And I spent $2 on 64 ounces of an electrolyte solution for Rose. She's got a nasty stomach/intestinal virus and was getting pretty dehydrated. This is the same one Tobias had about 2 weeks ago. At least all the symptoms are the same. Let's just hope the sweethearts have not passed it along to me. That's the last thing I want to deal with right now.

I miss my sense of optimism. It got hit with a sharp knock this weekend and doesn't seem to want to come visiting.

Had a bit of a creepy morning when my old neighbor who had been evicted from his home two months ago came by. I figured he must have worked stuff out with his landlord. He wanted to use my phone and I was not about to let him into my home. Both of the cordless phones were charging and no way was I letting him in to use the corded phone. That guy just creeps me out. Then he wanted to borrow gas and I said I didn't have any. Like I would loan him anything ever again. He still owes me $11.55 from over a year ago.

Today after school I got a knock on the door. It was the Sherrif's department asking me if I'd seen my neighbor today. Apparently he didn't work stuff out with his landlord and was not supposed to be back on the property next door. He asked me some questions. I didn't know much, like I said the guy gives me the creeps so I try to avoid him like the plague. They had 3 police cars and 3 officers there for a half an hour. I don't know if the neighbor ever came home though or not.

You'd think having this stuff going on would have actually engaged me in my life today but it didn't really. I was still outside myself. I'm getting to know most of the sherrif's department this year. That's got to come in handy at some point.

I hope I can shake all this off soon and get back my positive happy outlook. I miss it, but at the moment I don't quite know where I put it. Somewhere outside the bubble.

Maybe tomorrow will be a nice normal day. I'm tired of the drama. I'd like to be bored instead, thank you.

I've been kind of a space cadet the last little while. Watching someone die can do that to you.

I broke my laptop screen the night of the car accident. Cracked it so only 1/3 of the screen is normal and the other part is all swirly. DH is going to see about finding another old Tecra screen online with a non-functioning hard-drive, to cannibalize. When he gets home he can hook it up to the PC monitor and we can grab all the stuff off of it that I should have been backing up but wasn't because I misplaced my flash drive. Sigh. Then DH will take it over as his computer.

I finally got a new laptop on Saturday. I'd been waiting and waiting and waiting for a really good sale. Well, they had one last week, and I had the money set aside for it, so breaking the screen was the impetus for me to decide that I just wasn't going to get a better deal than $449 for a Toshiba. Now, a Compaq, I could have gotten for around $419 but it just looked so flimsy in comparison. Of course, there was tax and I have to send for the $150 rebate, so out of pocket was more, but I had out of pocket set aside as I said, so all is well.

The rebate will pay for the $150 software Office 2007 that they are no longer putting on new computers except a 30 day free trial. It's a bit of a pain in the butt actually, more bells and whistles in Word than I care to deal with, but got it figured out after about ten minutes. I have to have Word for my books. Works doesn't come close to cutting it.

I am going to spend some time in the tutorial I think, seeing if I can reset the defaults. There was a way on Word 2000, so I am sure it exists.

I'm learning my way around Vista as well. So far, don't care for the new mail program all that much. It works, and the autojunk feature is nice, but I miss Outlook. Oh, well, this too shall pass.

I'm going to have to uninstall McAfee. I hate it already. I don't want to install Norton, I don't think. It used to slow down everything so darn much on the old laptop. Of course, it was a two hamster drive (Rafaela and Eduardo), with Norton making it act like a one hamster drive. This new computer seems to have at least ten hamsters powering it, so maybe I could get by on five. Anybody have any ideas on a really good anti-virus program that is not boggy and isn't terribly expensive? Though I'll settle for not boggy.

Not really much else going on here. Tobias was out playing all day with friends and Rose had an upset stomach so we vegged on the couch all afternoon and evening watching Dr. Who. She still hasn't seen all of series 2, so we got through a fair bit more of that. They are supposed to start showing series 3 in July so I did want her to get through it but she won't watch it by herself, and as it was, was clutching my hand through a lot of it. She loves it though. Same as I did with the original stuff when I was a kid. Only this is better in so many ways.

Anyway, today was a no spend day. Tomorrow probably won't be.

I think we may have gotten ourselves adopted by a cat. I don't particularly want a cat. I've been cat-free since the summer of 1996 when Honi died. Never got another one because first I wasn't ready, and second I'm allergic, and then now Tobias is allergic as well. If I ever got another cat it would be an outdoor cat, period. But I don't want a cat.

I don't want the responsibility, I don't want to be tied down and not be able to vacation when I want. I don't want the vet bills. I don't want the fear of living near a major highway that sees dead animals squashed across it on a daily basis. I don't want to pay for pet food and I don't want to deal with massive pet food recalls for commercial food that has killed or sickened so many pets. I don't want the emotional attachment of a pet. I don't want a cat.

So this cat shows up today and he has an injury on his left foreleg. He's not limping that I can see, but he's definitely been in a fight and the leg is missing some fur. He was quite friendly so I have hopes that he belongs to someone. Only...no collar and he's not fully grown. He's maybe 8 or 9 months old. Well, he jumped right up into my lap on the porch swing and settled down like we were old friends. He's a tiny bit skittish. I've told the kids to move slow and he seems to like them as well. But sweet-tempered or not, I don't want a cat.

The kids wanted to feed him and his ribs did seem awfully prominent, so I fished out an old can of tuna that I don't like the brand of, its too dry for me. The cat wolfed it down like he hadn't seen food for a long time. I put out a bowl of water, too which he drank all of, so I refilled it. At least he had a good meal. I don't like to think of him starving, even if I don't want him to stay.

I think he is a stray or he was dumped. He's not been fixed and he should have been by this size if he had a responsible owner. I have fed strays from time to time and they have always moved along, so hopefully this sweet guy will do the same. He is a lovely ginger tabby cat with a white chest, neck and under the chin. His coat looks healthy mostly but he has dandruff and probably needs some good brushing. He is very well behaved. The kids are calling him Tiger. I don't want a cat.

If he stays, he will have a better name than Tiger. He will have something stronger and bold, something that befits his personality. I almost want him to stay. Oh, this is not fair. I so don't want a cat!

My kids woke up without wanting to kill each other so I am hoping the behavioral idiocy between them is over and they are back to their sweet-natured selves.

I drove down to the convenience store because I wanted Pepsi and chocolate. Now there is a very good reason why I didn't buy those items at the grocery store yesterday, but I determined that the craving wasn't going to go away after 18 hours, so I went.

So I went in and bought them and came back out to the car only to find my ignition key was not on the keyring. I obviously had it to drive down to the store so I triple-checked the ring. It has a lot of keys on it but not the one I needed to start the car.

I went back into the store and followed the long circuitous route I took to get my items. Pepsi being at one end of the store and chocolate directly opposite at the other end of the store. Nothing bright and shiny on the floor. I checked the check out counter. Nothing. I asked all the employees if anyone had turned it in. Nope.

Went back outside and looked on the ground between my car and the doorway. Nope. Well, maybe it came off when I flung my purse into the car. My keys have a hook on them that I hook to my purse when I don't have pockets. So I ended up cleaning out the entire passenger side of the car, paper by paper, empty water bottle by excess junk mail. Not in there either. Big sigh.

Finally the two cars that had been parked next to me to the left pulled away. It was in the second furthest parking space right up against the little concrete barrier. Thank goodness.

I discarded the defective ring and put the ignition key and te trunk key on a stronger ring.

I was really quite frustrated. Today it is 81 degrees outside. I would have had to walk the mile home to get the other set of car keys and then the mile back. Now normally that wouldn't be all that horrible, except I had on flip-flops and oh, yeah, I had surgery on Friday!

I started off with a "why are you doing this to me" prayer, which I caught myself in and quickly sent off a "please help me find it" prayer instead. Change of attitude leads to gratitude. Oh, sorry that's one of my Mommyisms. But still.