Good Bye, Uncle Bill

Yesterday was a really hard day. Last Saturday I got a call from my mom saying that my Uncle Bill had passed away. It was very unexpected as he was in great health and only 66, but he died in his sleep and my aunt was unable to revive him. He was my father's older brother by 11 years and had 2 kids and 4 grandkids that will miss him terribly. The funeral was yesterday and the church was full of all the people he had touched over the years.

Uncle Bill was my closest uncle on my Dad's side of the family, since he was also my godfather. I was baptized in the catholic faith, but was raised methodist and that never bothered Uncle Bill one bit. He still took his "job" very seriously and liked to spoil me rotten. I looked forward to his presents the most on birthdays and Christmas because he always managed to know exactly what I wanted, even if I didn't.

Because of family tensions (a really LOOOOONG story that I don't even know completely) we never had much communication with my Dad's brothers and sisters. I only knew Uncle Bill and my Aunt Carol out of the 7 siblings. Uncle Bill has two daughters, neither of which I ever spent much time with. They were older by a few years and I am really sorry that I haven't gotten to know them. Now they both live on opposite ends of the country and I have a feeling I won't ever get much of a chance to develop a relationship.

I think the hardest part of the funeral was putting myself in everyone else's shoes. I have a bad habit of empathizing too deeply with people and I then over react to the situation. Even now I am sitting here with tears running down my face because I just can't help but feel bad for the children who no longer have a grandfather and his wife who no longer has her husband.

Caleb was having a really hard time understanding why we were there and what was going on. Definitely some really big concepts for a 3 YO to handle. He kept asking who the man was and why he was laying there. The only thing I could tell him was that Uncle Bill was sleeping and that Bumpa had to say goodbye to him. He then asked all the way home when we could play with Uncle Bill and why Bumpa was so sad....pretty profound for a boy who had never met his great uncle, and now he never will.

Crochet: finished the bunny hat and MACG meeting

This is a picture of Caleb wearing the bunny hat and mittens that I just finished for a friend of mine at work. Well, actually for her new baby, but you probably figured that part out. It was really easy to make and took me about two nights to get it completely finished. Very quick, painless and adorable.

I also managed to finish the first of many swiffer shrugs that I want to make for Christmas gifts. LOVE the pattern! It was a lot of fun to do and very easy once I got the hang of it. Took it with me to the MACG (Madison Area Crochet Guild) meeting and it was definitely a big hit. I like the idea that it is environmentally friendly and I think it will actually work BETTER than the ones I buy in the store because it will pick UP the dirt and not just push it around.

I didn't do a whole lot else this weekend, crochet wise, but I did attend the latest MACG meeting at Lakeside Fibers here in Madison. I really look forward to getting together with these ladies and just having a little spontaneous conversation about anything and everything while we all get a chance to crochet. These ladies understand the addiction and don't think less of me for it.

Did manage to work on Caleb's blanket a little more and started on the carrot bagholder, but then realized that I needed an elastic hair band to go any further so had to stop. I think I did the first 6 rounds wrong anyway, so I will frog it and try again. Not a big deal, just gets me back to square one. Now all I have to do is locate me "I" hook....I think a certain 3 YO who shall remain nameless has walked away with it again, which means I may NEVER find it.

I did find a really neat pattern for a crocheted sponge this morning that I am going to make instead of some of the dish clothes I had planned. Sponges, swiffer shrugs, dish cloths and potholders will all make good gifts, I just don't know if I should "theme" them or not. I think I will try, just to make them a little more personal.

Why me? (AKA The animal rescuer)

As I was leaving for work this morning (already late as usual) I noticed there was a dog running around in our backyard. Now, as any of you who may have been to our house know, our backyard is roughly the size of an office cubicle so there was no chance I wasn't going to spot him. He looked like a young chocolate lab and he had tags, so I went out with a couple of dog biscuits to try and see if I could figure out what where he belonged. I felt really sorry for him because he had icicles on his chin, so he had obviously been out for quite a while. He turned out to be a really nice puppy and I decided that I needed to bring him inside to get a closer look at the tags.

I cordoned off the living room and dining area so that he wouldn't try to run upstairs and put Caleb on top of the table, just in case. After a few more biscuits I was able to get his collar off of him and take a look at the tags. The address and phone number were from Plainfield, IL! There goes my chances of this being a quick phone call to some one else in the neighborhood. Now, my only choice was to call animal control....but I only got an answering machine. Then I called the humane society and they said some one would be out to get him, but not until after 9:00. I wasn't about to let him go again so that I could go to work, so I was kind of stuck until some one came to get him. Grrrrr....

At about the same time I was being told that I would be there a while, the dog started scratching and rubbing and my brain immediately thought "FLEAS!" I knew I had to do something other than letting this dog have free run of my house, so I put him in our small bathroom, took Ruby out of her crate, put the gate up in the hallway to keep her upstairs, wrestled her crate downstairs, pulled out her bedding and coaxed the poor puppy in there. He went in reluctantly but easily enough. Of course, he didn't like being in there so I gave him some treats and eventually and bone stuffed with cream cheese to try and keep him busy.

The very nice animal control lady came by at around 9:30 to get him and said that they would find his family. I sincerely hope so because he was really a very nice dog who needs a family to play with.

Want to hear something odd? Last year at this same time (right before Thanksgiving) I had to call animal control because I found a very scared and loving kitty under my back steps. How weird is that? Is my house some how the magnet for stray or lost animals in the neighborhood?

New furnace, new glasses, and a bit of "yarn"

The new furnace is in and working like a charm. My boss thinks we got taken on the deal, but I am just glad it is over with and I can sleep at night again. Since we already paid for it there isn't much we can do about it anyway. There was some lingering smell from the epoxy PVC glue and some oil that had to burn off, but otherwise there isn't a noticeable difference.

Also, I finally got a chance to stop and pick up my new glasses since my meeting in Sauk got out a little early and there was no point in going back to the office. No prescription change but since the old ones were basically worn out, I decided it was time to spring for new frames. Since I am so freaking blind I have to pay big bucks to get thin and light lenses, but it is worth every penny. Got the kind with the magnetic clip-on sunglasses again and this time they aren't that horrible amber color. Yeah! Sometimes it is the little things in life, right?

Typical Wednesday nutty-ness last night with swimming lessons and Noodles and bedtime and everything. I did manage to find some time to check out the yarn sections at both JoAnn and Michael's though. :) Didn't do too much damage, but did pick up some new patterns and the yarn I needed to finish up the bunny hat and mittens I am working on. The baby shower is next week so I am hoping to get it done by then. Will have to put Caleb's blanket on hold for a little while so that I can get going on all these Christmas gifts that I keep adding. Don't know exactly who all of them are for, but I figured I would get a bunch done and then sort it out later. I have several dish clothes made and I know the Swiffer shrugs won't take too long. Want to make a plastic bag holder that looks like a carrot (very cute!) as a gift too.

Speaking of Christmas, I have NO idea when I am going to get my shopping done. Jay may be coming down this weekend but I will spend time showing him what Caleb and Mom want rather than doing my own shopping. Grrrrr.... We will be putting up the Christmas lights on the outside of the house on Saturday so at least we are getting started on the Christmas spirit. Have to get the tree decorated yet, but may work on that tonight during the Packer game. We are lucky enough to have the NFL network (thanks, DirecTV!) so we can watch it at home unlike MANY other people in the state.

Merry f*ing Christmas.....aka the new furnace

That's right folks, we need a new furnace. The old one was only 6 years old but was apparently defective and has developed a cracked heat exchanger. Doesn't affect the operation of the unit, but carbon monoxide could be leaking out of that hairline crack....NOT GOOD! Good thing we have a CO detector, but YIKES! We wouldn't even have known about it if the igniter hadn't broken and left us without heat for 3 days. When the repair guy came he checked the heat exchanger because apparently this has happened on almost ALL of the furnaces of this model. Sure enough, he found a crack and refused to turn our heat back on unless we had the CO detector. Scary....very, very scary! Thankfully there was never any CO detected but just having the high potential was enough to keep me from sleeping well at night.

So what is the solution to this problem? Why...a new furnace of course! GREAT! This is the BEST time of the year to just drop $1400 on a new furnace. Thankfully, we have the money in our emergency fund, but it is going to wipe out a good chunk of the savings. I HATE doing that, but why else do we save the money, right? They call it a rainy day fund and it is definitely raining....or rather snowing because we don't have any heat....

The new furnace is the highest efficiency unit that we can put in so we will have to see if it has any affect on our heating bills this winter. We can get a tax credit AND save on the heating bills, so all the better. It is being installed this afternoon and I can't wait for it just to be IN so I can sleep a little better. They must have known how important and dangerous our situation is because Scott called on Monday to schedule it and they will be here today (Wednesday) putting it in. Wow!

Crochet: more progress...sort of

Why is it that whenever I finish a project I have to start another one immediately? The worst part is they usually aren't even part of my WIPs but a new project that I just found in some magazine. For example, I was just able to cross the dreaded hooded scarf off my list, but then figured I had a few minutes so I would whip up an adorable baby hat and mittens that I found in the latest Crochet! magazine. Don't get me wrong, they are ADORABLE, but I really didn't need another project. Yes, I am using up stash yarn....but I have a TON of other gifts to get done. OK, who am I kidding; I am an addict and there was no way I was going to resist doing this cut little bunny hat. Even if I had to make Caleb where it, it was going to be made! I will post pictures of it as soon as I get it done, which will most likely be tomorrow evening.

Ravelry has proven to be extremely addicting. I love the fact that I can keep a list of all the projects that I want to do. I am sure there are great things that I have wanted to do, but have lost the print out or forgot what book they were in. Now I can look at all the other great things people have done and with one click add the same project to my queue. Then I can add notes as to what type of yarn I want to use and who I want to make it for. Fabulous! I spent quite a while adding pictures off a lot of my finished projects, and two of them have actually been chosen to be the picture used to represent that pattern on the site! I know that it is probably because it is the first time that pattern was added (with a picture) but it still feels very validating. My family just doesn't always understand the addiction that crochet has become for me. I LOVE to create these things for the people in my life, but I don't think they can always appreciate the work that goes in to them.

One of the things that is continuously on my to-do list are items to do for charity, but they seem to get pushed to the bottom of the list whenever I find something else to do for some one in my life. I am going to make it my goal this January to try to use up some of my yarn stash (even though it isn't all THAT big) to make items for charities. I will try very hard to just use the yarn I have and not worry about all of the colors matching or coordinating. There is a certain kind of "visual interest" in all those different colors blending and contrasting....but it goes against all of my OCD-ishness. Like my father always says, "if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well"....actually he always said "don't do anything half-assed", but you get the picture. :)

Tis the Season

The good news is that Thanksgiving and all related craziness is over. The bad news is that Christmas is right around the corner. December is the one month each year that I love and dread all at the same time. I love it because there are so many wonderful memories associated with the Christmas season, but I hate it because I feel like I am being pulled in 12 thousand directions. My life is already crazy with work and taking care of a toddler, then add gift shopping, meal planning, grocery shopping, present wrapping, party going and house cleaning to it and I want to run away and hide.

This Christmas should be a little more fun than those in the recent past though, because Caleb is starting to realize a little of the magic of the season. He doesn't completely get it yet and trying to get him to understand that putting the tree in our living room doesn't mean Christmas is tomorrow has been a challenge, but he is getting there.

We went yesterday and picked out our Christmas tree at a choose and cut place near Waupaca. Very nice place that we hadn't been before and the tree cost up $45. Considering we paid more than double that a few years ago, it is worth a little bit of extra gas to get it while we are up in Waupaca for Thanksgiving anyway. That is the advantage of living so close to the Christmas Tree capital of the world. We got a 7.5 foot tall Fraser Fir and it looks great in the living room. Will try to get it decorated this evening, but I am not going to hold my breath. We are also going to be shopping for the lights to put on the OUTSIDE of the house, which means that we will probably be eating dinner out or getting take-out AGAIN. We have tried to put lights on the outside of the house the last couple of years but by the time we finally get around to it, neither of us thinks it is worth the effort. Caleb is adamant that we have lights outside this year, though, so I think it will really happen.

On Ravelry!

I have been waiting for over a month for my invite to join Ravelry, a new knit and crochet community on the web. Currently it is only in the Beta stage so they were only accepting people a little at a time. I have spent the last few minutes looking around, but I know I will be spending a LOT more time working on my stuff on the site. Great place to keep info on projects, hooks, yarn stash, etc. Can't wait to meet all the neat people there either!

On another note, I got lots done this weekend, crochet wise. I FINALLY finished Mom's Christmas gift, but I am not going to post a picture on here yet because I don't want her to see it! IT turned out much better than I thought it would while I was working on it. All the fighting I did with it was definitely worth it. I also got LOTS done on Caleb's blanket, which is now about half done. It is bright and cheery and I hope he really gets some good use out of it.

I had intended to get even more than that done, but my thoughts of a relaxing weekend where there was lots of time to crochet was a figment of my imagination. Oh well...maybe next year.

Mighty hunter weekend

Yes, that time of year has come again. OPENING DAY! For deer hunting that is. Tomorrow morning, before first light, hundreds of thousands of manly men dressed in bright orange will go out into the woods and shut them some deer. All of the men in my life are extremely excited. Even the littlest one. We haven't quit figured out how to tell the 3 year old that he is too little to go out in all the woods with all the other guys, but since they will be long gone before he is awake I think it will work out OK.

Mom, Caleb and I will be spending a lot of time inside or out on the Gator. I am hoping to make a bunch more progress on my crochet projects since Nana will be there to entertain and play with the little guy. We have a birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon, which should be nice but more than likely will be very tiring (for me, not Caleb). Will try to get mom to come along so that maybe we can hang out in Appleton and have dinner. Planning things in the afternoon are always tricky, especially since Caleb isn't all that great at taking "mobile naps" any more. Will have to just play it by ear and hope for the best.

Wednesday Craziness

Last night was the usual Wednesday craziness. Scott had bowling (4 PM to 6:30 PM), Caleb had swimming lessons (6:45 PM) and I had bunco (7 PM). Luckily, we were all able to get where we needed to go, but we were running around a lot.

I got home from bunco at about 9:30 in my usual GREAT mood. It is so freaking stressful dealing with these women! I am seriously thinking about resigning and becoming a hermit. I know they are supposed to be my friends, but I don't feel like I fit in with them anymore. Most of them are SAHM's whose kids all go to the same schools. And those that do work can only talk about how they would LOVE to stay home with their kids. They are constantly talking about carpools and teachers and field trips and test scores. Two of the women had their infants there and that just made me feel uncomfortable...I acknowledge that is all in MY head, but it just compounds the fact that I don't want to be there anymore. The NEXT bunco is supposed to be in 3 weeks and it is the annual Christmas party with gift exchange. I am definitely NOT going to that this year....last year it took almost 2 hours to decide HOW we were going to do the gift exchange. I do NOT need that stress in my life right now. And of course the "Supermom's" were there again last night. I spent the entire night avoiding them and I think I did pretty well, since I didn't sit by them the whole night. I know it is totally middle school behavior on my part, but I am sick of being judged by them. More accurately, I am sick of comparing myself to them and coming up short.

Mom and Dad are going through more hell with the business, and Mom is not doing well with it at all. I am really worried about her. Dad APPEARS to be doing OK, but that is because that is what he WANTS us to see. Yeah, learned a lot of ways to deal honestly with me emotions from that guy. I can't say much, but the IRS agent who has been harassing my Dad is at is again. Dad was just going to give in and retire, but Dad's lawyer is afraid that even if Dad doesn't sign any more returns ever again, this guy is just going to start digging into client's past returns and start assessing him penalties based on those returns. The lawyer wants Dad to "fight the good fight", but I don't know if either of them will survive the stress. Even after watching them go through 31 tax seasons, I have never seen them this stressed. At least with tax season there is an end in sight....get past April 15 and you can coast for a few months. This crap could go on for years and years.

Another epic blog post. Either I have a lot to say or I don't know how to shut up once I start.

Crochet overload!

I have been diving head first into crochet lately (again) and am loving it. I am planning on making a bunch of Christmas gifts this year and have been finding lots and lots of cute patterns in the process. One of the latest things I want to make is a "swiffer shrug", which is basically a reusable wet swiffer pad made out of cotton. Will probably have to modify the pattern slightly to get it to work for the swiffer "max" that Mom has, but that shouldn't be too hard. I found the pattern HERE. They look really neat and are definitely eco-friendly!

I know I am the only one reading this blog, and I know what is in my own head, but maybe I should give a little background on how/why I crochet. I have had MANY hobbies in my life, but some how I keep coming back to this one. I wish I could say that I learned at my Grandmother's knee, but while Grandma did crochet, she never managed to teach me. I first held a hook while attending River Valley School (I was one of 6 kids in my class), a very small private school which subscribed to the Waldorf Method. One of the classes that was taught by one of the parents was knitting and crochet. We did everything in the process....sheared the sheep, washed the wool, carded the wool, spun the wool, dyed the wool...then finally got ready to learn how to knit/crochet. I was pretty much hopeless with both hook and needle. I crocheted a LOT of triangles (chain 1; turn?) and knitted lots of things with holes in them. Gave it up at the age of 9. Fast forward 16 years to early 2002....we moved into our new house and one Sunday we were invited to our neighbors house to watch the Packer game. My neighbor had a book entitled something like "learn to crochet" and was busily making an afghan. I borrowed a hook, read the book and took off flying. In a matter of a few minutes I had re-learned everything I thought I forgot about crochet and was "hooked". (I know, really bad pun!) I have been crocheting on and off ever since.

I have started many projects and even managed to finish a few, including baby blankets, a crib mobile, hats, scarves, etc. I have yet to finish a full size afghan, but I have one that is about half way done that I would like to finish before the end of the year. Doubt it will happen, but miracles happen everyday. :)

Crochet: Finished Projects!

Since Scott took Caleb to PetSmart last night, I was able to spend a little time finishing up two projects that were on my crochet WIP (work in progress) list. Thought I would post some pictures since I very rarely actually REMEMBER to take pictures of my work. How silly is that? I give 90% of it away and I have no real record of it. Anyway, here they are:





(I am not very good at posting pictures yet!)

The first is a baby blanket that I started a LONG time ago. I thought that adding the crocheted edging would be quicker/easier/simpler to do than actually crocheting the whole blanket....boy, was I wrong! It took forever to punch all the holes and then to crochet 4 rounds. And to top it off I HATED the yarn I chose to do the edging as it was a pain to work with, but I was too far in to quit. I got it almost done and just couldn't stand it anymore so it got put into a bag a stuffed in a corner. But after finding it I decided that I had to finish it or there was no point doing all the work in the first place. Don't know who I will give it to, but at least I have it ready to go for the next baby that comes into my life.

The second picture is of a little gingerbread man that I made as a Christmas ornament for a gift exchange through my local crochet guild. He was a ton of fun and worked up very quickly. I am thinking about doing a few more just like him for the Christmas tree or for gifts. With all my other WIP's though, I may have to way until next year!

October Sucked

I know....I know....once again I am here explaining why I haven't posted in a really long time. At least this time I have a pretty good excuse. On September 18, I had a positive pregnancy test and we were really beyond excited. I scheduled our first OB visit with a new doctor and we went about picking out baby names and telling our family. Our first Dr appointment was on October 5th, when I was just 7 weeks along. The appointment went great, until the very end when they did an ultrasound. The doctor said that things were not as developed as she would suspect, but told us not to panic and added another blood test. That afternoon she called to tell us that the pregnancy was not viable and that we should expect a miscarriage at any time. I was devastated to say the least.

For the next week, I waited for something to happen and it never did. I was a weeping puddle of mush most of the time, but I couldn't seem to get past it or move forward in the grieving process because I was technically still pregnant. So, I called an scheduled a D&C for the morning of the 16th. Mom was kind enough to come down and spend some time with me and drive me home. I took that day and the next day off to be alone, but then I had to go back to my life as usual. At least once it was over, I was able to "move on". Whatever that means.

I still have episodes of sudden tears and a sense of loss, but they are getting further apart. It has been hard because not many people know I was going through this, so they couldn't understand why I was acting so strangely.

Added to that is the fact that after 33 years, my parents are being put out of business by a rogue IRS agent who has decided that he doesn't like my father. This has been super stressful for both my parents and I have been worried about both of them.

But some good things did happen in October. Caleb was an adorable pumpkin for Halloween and I won $40 at bunco. Scott shot a doe with his bow, which means that we have more meat in the freezer and now he has earned the right to try for a buck during gun season. We got to see some old friends when they came to town for the MTU vs UW hockey game last weekend; that was a lot of fun, but I think I am still recovering from all the cleaning I had to do beforehand. :)

We got the news last night that Caleb is being moved up a level for his swim classes! He is finally getting comfortable with the water and we are happy that he is coming along well. Of course, he still has problems with putting his face in the water and with listening to the teacher, but at least he is making progress.

Hopefully next time I will have some happier things to talk about. I am currently making a bunch of crochet items for charity and for gifts so I will try to take pictures of them as I get them done so I can post them on here. At least I am being productive now that it is too cold outside to do anything productive.

Poor Puppy!

It looks like when Ruby (our Vizsla) hurt her foot a few weeks ago that she hurt it much more than we originally thought. She must have caught it in her crate or something because we didn't know she hurt it until we saw her limping pretty badly. Of course, that was on Friday of Labor Day weekend and we didn't want to pay the ER vet prices, so we figured we would take the wait and see approach. By Tuesday she was walking just fine, but had started really licking at on particular toe on her foot almost constantly. Fast forward three weeks and I noticed that the tissue around her one nail was turning black and looking infected. Guess it is time to take her to the vet....

Had an appointment last night and it turns out that she must have broken a nail way up in her foot and it was finally growing out to the point where we could see it was cracked and severely damaged. They said that the whole nail was going to have to come off, which would require a mild sedation. We took her back in this morning for the procedure and we just heard that she came through it just fine. her foot is going to be bandaged and sore for a few days, but at least it will start to heal now instead of rotting away in her foot. Don't want to see what the final bill is going to be, but I guess that is just life when you have a pet that is like a family member.

BFP!

I can't believe it! I'm pregnant! We have been trying for a couple months with no results. Then, today just before lunch I realized that my cycle was due any day and that I could probably try to take a pee test. I happened to have one in my desk drawer (long story) so I stuffed it into my pants pocket and headed to the bathroom. Sure enough, there were two lines! I still can't really believe it!

I thought about waiting to tell Scott until I got home, but there was no way that I could sit still. So, I grabbed the cell phone and headed to the car. Needless to say, he was really happy! I think I am still floating on air, and it hasn't really hit me yet, but I am sure it will. Soon.

Still Standing....sort of

Let's just say, I am glad to be sitting down again. We were so busy this weekend that I have no idea how we got everything done. Saturday and Sunday passed in a blur of cleaning and prepping and scrubbing. Caleb was a trooper all the way through, even though Mom and Dad were so busy and didn't get a chance to play with him too much. The good news is that the party on Sunday went really well. The Kiwi's had a great time and stayed for more than 5 hours. We have enough food left over to feed an army and we will be eating potato salad for the next week at least. The fridge is busting at the seams and we aren't going to be able to see the back of it for a while.

The good news is that my house is the cleanest it has been since we moved in six years ago. It is nice knowing that all I have to do is pick up a little clutter and a few toys and the house will be sparkling again. After the cupcake debacle (more on that later) my kitchen needs some definite attention but I just didn't have the energy to deal with it last night. I will tackle it tonight when I get home and that is good enough for right this minute.

Yesterday was Caleb's birthday and we just took it easy and enjoyed the day as a family. Caleb opened some gifts and then watched a little TV. I got up early to do some dishes and then decided to see what I had in the cupboard to make a birthday cake for the little man. That is when I made my first mistake....I asked Caleb what kind of cake he wanted. He said strawberry. Strawberry? I had white, yellow and chocolate. I even had an angel food, but no strawberry cake mix. Since I wanted to make cupcakes for him to take to school today, I decided that I would just run to the grocery store to pick up a couple of quick items. Get to the cake aisle....no strawberry cake mixes. Hmmmm....picked up some strawberry extract and since I knew I had a white cake mix at home, I figured that would work. I would just find a recipe online to help me with the ratio. Grabbed some strawberry frosting and a couple of other things and headed home. It was a gorgeous day and I was driving the TJ with the top down. Can't get much better.

So I get home, and get ready to make the cake quick before we head out for a day of fun. That way it would be cool and ready to frost during nap time. Perfect! Get Caleb all set to help, pull everything out of the fridge....only have 2 eggs and we need three. Crap! Remember how I just got back from the store? yeah.....so I run next door to Cindy's and borrow an egg from her fridge and run back. By this time, Caleb is getting antsy. We quickly get the cake mix put together and put it into the oven. Twenty minutes later I am curious as to how it is turning out and it just doesn't seem to be rising all that much. I think the humidity was wreaking havoc on the cake and the top came out all sticky and gross even though the cake inside was finished. Thought it might firm up as it cooled....nope, it stayed sticky and mushy.

So then we run out the door to go to Red Robin (Caleb's favorite) for his birthday lunch. Have to take the long way since Caleb doesn't like to go fast with the top down on the TJ. Nice drive and a very nice lunch. From there we went to play mini golf, which is something that Caleb seems to really enjoy. The only problem was that we decided to go mini golfing on the hottest and busiest day of the year. By the time we got done with 15 holes we were dead and decided to basically skip the last few. We grabbed some desperately needed water and headed home for a much needed nap.

During nap time, I was going to make the cup cakes for Caleb to take to school on Tuesday to share with his friends. Decided I was going to try to a cute recipe that I saw using ice cream cones instead of cup cake wrappers. Guess what else I forgot to buy? That's right, ice cream cones! Scott ran to the store to pick up all the stuff I had forgotten earlier while I worked at getting the cake mix prepped. Got everything into the oven pretty painlessly, but when it came time to pull them out, only half of the batter in each cone actually baked while the other half was raw. Gross! Tried to salvage a few of them but decided to give up. Stopped at the store on the way to school the next morning to BUY cupcakes, which is what I should have done in the first place. I am done trying to make cupcakes....they just never want to turn out for me. How sad is that?

Friday=donuts?

Every Friday since I started at my current job over 6 years ago, there are donuts that appear in my office. I have mixed feelings about this tradition. Yes, I like eating the donuts, but on the other hand, they sure aren't doing my diet any good. We tried unsuccessfully a couple of times to get them to add a healthy option (i.e. fruit) but the only thing that has made an infrequent appearance are bagels. For those of you who don't know, bagels actually have MORE calories than a donut, just less sugar. Go figure. Anyway, I will have to go see what is left after getting into work later than usual (I had a meeting).

Last night we decided to make a run to Kohl's after dinner to find a new pair of pants for Scott. Caleb decided that he wanted to wear his "backpack" into the store which I was thankful for. His backpack is actually a stuffed puppy harness that has a "tail" that Mommy can hang onto. In essence, it is a leash. I never understood why parents would do this to a child, but then I had a 2 year-old. A 2 year-old who likes to run and hide amongst the clothing racks at the store and scare the crap out of Mommy but not coming when called. NOW I understand why people put toddlers on leashes. So, we are walking around the store, which is nearly empty, getting many dirty looks from people who used to be just like me. And very knowing looks from the people who have actually been there. Caleb pulled me from one end of the store to the other, but at least I knew right where he was.

Plans are moving along for the party this weekend. Tonight will be cleaning the upstairs. The ENTIRE upstairs, including our closet and master bedroom. *shudder* We can do this....it's just not going to be pretty. I have 4 separate lists that I have been diligently creating so we can keep everything together, including my sanity. I don't want my entire weekend to focus on this one event though. I AM going to be doing some geocaching. We only have 12 more to go before we hit 400 and I have done a cache in over a month. There is valuable weather wasting away that I need to take advantage of!

Mom and Dad are still in Oregon (maybe) but are headed south into northern California today. Then they are planning on taking several days to drive back north to Washington along the Pacific coast. I am so jealous! I just hope they take lots of pictures and really enjoy it. How could you not have fun driving that little Mini in that kind of country? Gorgeous!

Off to finish some work and then run out of here early today. It is an absolutely perfect weather day out there and as soon as everyone else is gone, I am outta here!

Day from H-E-Double hockey sticks

Yesterday was a horrible day. Bad news at work, bad attitude at home. It was truly one of those days that makes you want to run away a pretend you never existed.

And the people who's shoulders I would normally lean on are unavailable so here I am. But I don't want to say too much because this is far to public of a forum, even though I don't think anyone has ever read it.

There are so many days that I consider making this blog private, but then again I really don't care if some one out there in cyber land reads it.....I just don't want the people that I KNOW to read it. Make sense? I can whine and cry and complain all I want here without actually having to confront some one, which is something I definitely do not do well. After all, why would I let some one know what I am truly feeling when it is much more fun for them to make them guess? (*insert sarcasm here*)

Can't think of a catchy title

Caleb learned how to climb all the way up into my Jeep, all by himself! Considering he will be three in a week, that may not sound like much, but let me assure you that since he is such a little guy, this is a big deal. He has been getting more and more independent so this is a real victory for him. Go, Caleb!

Also, last night he was throwing a fit because he wanted some fruit snacks before dinner. I told him "no" and he proceeded to throw a fit. I tried a new approach of ignoring him. Completely. He was even hitting me at one point, but I just kept on ignoring him. So you know what he did? He put himself in a time out! I had to try really hard not to laugh because it was just too cute. He kept begging all the way through dinner...then when dinner was over and he had eaten a good amount, I told him he could have his treat. Hopefully, I didn't screw anything up in the discipline area.

Mom and Dad called last night and they are in Idaho. Trip is going well, but they had more bad news from home and may just send the trip into a tailspin. It is hard to have fun when your business is having problems 4 states away.

Another dull day

Since I am trying to diligently post something each day in hopes of capturing the small gems that may happen in our humdrum life, I will try to summarize our day yesterday as concisely as possible.

Caleb started his first day in the new classroom at daycare. He is now in the big kid room with 8 kids instead of 6. So far he is loving it. Scott also had his first day in his new office at the Fitchburg facility so he is not loving it as much. He is constantly complaining about the decorating choices, but I am sure they will stop offending him so completely soon. Either that or he will learn to deal, because there is nothing that can be done about them at this point.

The weather was gorgeous here yesterday, so of course I spent the entire thing at my desk or in my house. Why would I want to go outside and risk all those nasty mosquitoes? (said with tongue firmly in cheek) I really hate what this sedentary life is doing to me, but I don't know how to fix it. I hate being cooped up, I hate my job, I hate being fat. I guess I am just all around unhappy with my life right this second.

After we all got home, we ate dinner, watched some TV and Caleb fell asleep on the couch about and hour before bedtime. Guess the little guy was just worn out from all the running he was doing at school. Once he was tucked in, Scott and I decided to watch an episode of "Top Gear" on BBC America. I don't think we have ever laughed so hard! Jon and Becky turned us onto the show two weeks ago and I think we have a new favorite show. Let's just say that last nights episode had a competition to see who could build an amphibious vehicle.....and one of the was called a "Toyboata"....get the picture?

Mom and Dad have left Glacier and are on their way west again. They got some pretty bad news from home yesterday, though, so I don't know how much longer they are going to be out there. I sure hope they can finish out the trip as they had it planned, but I have a feeling that might not happen.

Looks like I am planning a party for this coming weekend after all. The past two years we have had Caleb's birthday party on labor day weekend so I am usually running around with my head cut off trying to get everything done. Since we planned his birthday party this year at the Children's Museum, I was looking forward to not having to do all the work. Well, there are several people here from New Zealand installing the equipment that Scott spent the last 2 years working on and he would like to invite them over for a real Wisconsin BBQ. Actually, I really don't mind doing it. At least this way my house will get cleaned! And I love putting the menu together and getting things checked off the to-do lists. Makes me feel organized. The part I really hate though....cleaning up. I spend all that time cleaning and then have to re-do it all the very next day. Ugh.

So for not having anything to say about yesterday, I guess I typed a lot. I am off to start creating about 4 separate to-do lists. Wish me luck!

Welcome to life with a 3 year-old

What a weekend. On Saturday Scott went to Oshkosh for the great outdoor festival, so I decided to take Caleb to the park for a picnic, followed by a few hours at the zoo. We arranged to meet my friend Eryn and her 9 month old son Drew there, but they weren't able to make it until the afternoon. The picnic went well, although it was a dumb idea to take Caleb for a picnic at the playground....why eat when you can play! It was a wonderful day and I am so glad we didn't just sit at home and watch TV. The only draw back was that Caleb didn't get his nap until after 4:00. He slept for over 3 hours and then went to bed at his normal time, but his schedule was thrown for a real loop.

Sunday we went to a birthday party for one of his friends in the neighborhood, Josie, and had a great time. Came home and had a quick visit with his grandparents who stopped by to drop off his birthday gifts. Didn't get down for a nap until after 4:00 again, but this time it was disastrous. He slept for little more than an hour and woke up crabby and whiny and just plain hard to live with. We tried to get him to eat dinner with us, that resulted in a tantrum. We told him he couldn't watch TV while we ate dinner, that resulted in a tantrum. He wanted water but when we brought it in a red cup instead of a blue cup, he threw a tantrum. Get the picture? So, before I had even finished my dinner, I took him upstairs to get him into his PJs and ready for bed, even though it was only 7:00. Really had to fight him but I knew he was so over tired that I managed to not loose my cool. Tried tucking him into bed, but that resulted in a tantrum the escalated to a MEGA tantrum. This was very scary, and behavior we haven't seen from him before. He was throwing himself around and screeching at the top of his lungs. We basically tried to ignore him, but it just wasn't getting any better. Finally, Scott crawled into bed with him and was able to get him calmed down slowly. He eventually passed out and slept the whole night peacefully. Note to self: NEVER LET CALEB GO TWO DAYS IN A ROW WITH REALLY LATE NAPS!

One week from today Caleb turns 3. We are already experiencing the independent streak, the stubbornness and smart mouth. I am scared by the concept of discipline, because I know there are 1001 ways to do it wrong. We are currently using the time-out method and have recently added a timer. He has to sit on the step for 3 minutes before he can be done with the timeout. That is working pretty we actually. Whining is a HUGE problem, but when we tell him to stop, he usually does. I know there are many things we are doing right, I just hope they out number the things we are screwing up.

Still raining

It rained yesterday. It rained last night. It looks like it is going to rain again today. My patio is beginning to mold. Caleb hasn't played outside in 4 days. Even *I* am beginning to go a little stir crazy. The forecast says that we should have sunny skies by tomorrow but I am not going to hold my breath.

My parents made it to Glacier Nat'l Park during their trip west to Washington. They said it is absolutely beautiful and right now I wish I was with them. I could use a little change in my life.

Caleb was feeling fine yesterday morning so we took him to daycare. I hadn't even made it to work yet when they called to say that he had thrown up poltergeist-style and needed to be picked up. Since Scott was doing something important at work, I turned around and went straight back to the westside. And of course, he was perfectly fine when I got there and was never sick again the whole day. He ate fairly well yesterday, but I made sure to give him only the blandest foods I could find. We took a risk and dropped him off at school again today and so far so good.

I was up WAY too late last night (or should I say this morning) but I really didn't feel like going to sleep. Did some crochet, watched some TV and enjoyed the fact that my kitchen was (mostly) clean. Since I was home two days this week my house actually looks like it wouldn't have to be closed down by the health department. I know that is temporary, but it will be nice while it lasts. The floor still needs to be mopped, but taking care of that, cleaning the bathroom downstairs and doing a little dusting should make the downstairs livable. The upstairs on the other hand....that needs a LOT of work.

I MIGHT get some stuff done this weekend, but at this point I think that is doubtful. Scott is headed up north on Saturday for the Ducks Unlimited event in Oshkosh and Caleb and I are staying home. He has already watched enough TV to last him until he is in kindergarten so I should try to come up with something ELSE for us to do tomorrow. Maybe the zoo....will have to think on that a little.

Under the weather

The title for this entry definitely has a double meaning....

Caleb woke up early Tuesday with a fever and I decided to stay home with him all day. He was a perfectly happy, active little man the entire day, he just had a fever of 101°F for most of the day. He watched too much TV and I managed to find the living room floor again. By the time Scott got home last night, the kitchen, dining room and living room were much better than they had been in the morning. Not company ready, but definitely nothing I would be ashamed of if some one stopped by expectantly. Since Caleb still had the fever this morning, Scott is staying home with him. Hopefully he can get the vinyl floor mopped and then everything will be as clean as it gets these days.

Also, it has been raining here for almost 2 weeks and they are calling for rain for most of this week again. The grass is growing so fast that is was just cut on Saturday and needs to be cut again on Wednesday! The only problem is that it doesn't dry out long enough for us to cut it. The sun has been peaking out a little between rain storms the last two days, but it is soooooo muggy that you could drown just by taking a deep breath. It is grey enough that it reminds me of being in Houghton in the winter....although there isn't any snow.

Sounds like Mom and Dad are having an enjoyable journey west in the Mini. Mom did say that it is completely different being in the Mini all day with Dad than being in the Envoy with him. Of course, the Mini is 1/3 the size of the Envoy so that is understandable. :)

I have my neighborhood bunco group tonight. Should be fun and exciting....NOT. I have been a member of this group for almost 5 years now and it is really getting old. I have less and less in common with these women all the time. Most of them are SAHM's and have quite a bit of disdain for my CHOICE to work. I am probably reading too much into it, but I really dread going most months. If I could only think of a way to back out of it gracefully, I would.

Tonight is also Caleb's last swimming less for this session. We didn't go last week because my parents were here and there were just too many scheduling conflicts. And other than the fever, he has no symptoms of being sick. A dose of Tylenol will keep the fever in check long enough to let him have the last lesson, followed by a quick dinner and then I am off to bunco. Should make for a rather unproductive evening to say the least.

Where did the weekend go?

Zoooooom! There went the weekend! How did they do that? Friday night I went scrapbooking with my friend Vicki, which was really nice. We scrapped at a church (not usually my favorite thing) but it had huge tables, great lighting and was open as late as we wanted it to be. Perfect! I got about 8 pages done, not bad for my usual speed. Hope I can find the time to get some of them posted onto the 2peas website, but I really want to get my space organized before I focus on that.

Anyway, we left the church at 3:20 AM on Saturday to head to Vicki's house. Got a few hours sleep and made it home around noon on Saturday. Came home to a house that had some how exploded in the previous 12 hours and a family that hadn't made it out of their PJ's yet. I jumped into the shower, got everyone else cleaned up and then spent most of the afternoon trying to get the house cleaned a little bit. Scott did the bathrooms and I worked at the downstairs, but couldn't concur the living room. I decided it was best to work on sorting and packing away the mound of toys than stuffing it into the corner and we are still working on that.

Saturday night we decided to go out to dinner, then take Caleb bowling for the first time. They didn't have bowling shoes small enough, so Caleb bowled in his socks. Very cute. We got through about 4 frames before Caleb had had enough and was dragging us towards the video games. Finished out the game as quickly as possible, then moved onto a trip to Culver's. Did I mention that it was pouring rain since noon? We dodged a lot of rain drops before settling into the house to watch the last half of the Packer pre-season game that we forgot was on.

We were up and going early on Sunday. Headed to see our friends just outside of Delafield, about 75 minutes east of Madison. Spent the morning with them, had lunch at McDonald's (with the playland), grabbed some MORE ice cream at Coldstone and headed to Oconomowoc to drop Mom and Dad's truck off at my aunt and uncle's house. Left there around 4:15 and decided to try for a stop at the outlet mall in Johnson Creek. Grabbed a bunch of clothes for me and Caleb before heading back to Madison. Ate dinner on the eastside of town, got home around 8:30. Watched a little TV, stuffed Caleb into his PJ's and collapsed into bed.

No wonder I am tired this morning. Some how even those weekends that we don't have anything planned seem to fill up really fast. This next weekend isn't going to be much better either, since Scott will be gone on Saturday and then we have a birthday party to go to on Sunday. Sheesh! maybe things will slow down soon? Pretty please?

Pooh's Fair

Last night was the "Pooh's Fair" at Caleb's daycare. Basically, they turn the playground into a little mini carnival with games and face painting and cotton candy. I thought he would love it! Instead, he freaked out and was clinging to me the entire evening. Huh? Maybe he was just freaked by the crowds, maybe having all those people on his playground was too much for him...I don't know. After a while he finally calmed down and seemed to enjoy playing some of the games.

The highlight of the evening for him was definitely the bouncy house. He went in there twice and wanted to go in a third, but they had to take it down. He ended up spending the most time playing in the sand box with Alex, his buddy from class, however, we had to leave when he grabbed the truck from Alex and then threw a fit when we made him give it back. We left there with him screaming, he screamed while we put him in the car, and he screamed all the way home. Lots of fun.

OMG! Toy recall!

I have heard about so many recalls over the past few years, but I got used to the fact that they never concerned us. I always over-research EVERY purchase we make and would only buy products with proven track records, etc. However, last week we were shopping for a birthday present for a friend of Caleb's at Target and we ended up in the "Cars" movie toy section. Well, Scott went crazy when he finally saw the "Sarge" Jeep toy available. We had been looking for this toy on and off ever since the movie came out almost TWO years ago! A full grown man jumping up and down in the middle of Target is not something you see every day, so how was I going to say no? So we paid the $3 for the small toy and took it home. It was out of the package and in Caleb's hands before we left the parking lot and everyone was happy.

Flash forward to this week and I innocently get an email from Fisher Price (I signed up for their newsletter when Caleb was a baby). I almost just deleted the email as I do with most of them but decided to read it. Lo and behold, it was a bulletin discussing the recall that their parent company, Mattell, had announced. So I said, "what the heck" and started looking at the items that were recalled. Sure enough, there was a picture of poor little Sarge. After some investigation when I got home, it turns out that our Sarge toy was made in China and was from the batch suspected to have lead paint in it, therefore, I need to send it back to them and will receive a voucher in place of the toy. And, oh yeah, make sure you allow 10 to 12 WEEKS for delivery of the voucher after receipt of the toy. I thought Scott was going to take it harder than he did, but he was pretty much OK with it. We just have to go find one that was made in Taiwan instead. Luckily Caleb is far past the stage where he has to put everything into his mouth. I would have been really worried if I even suspected he got it near his mouth, but I doubt he did.

Luckily, that is the only toy that we have that was even close to being recalled. The rest of them were all for "Polly Pocket" dolls or toys that are too old for Caleb yet. Definitely makes you think...

Some day I will be good at this...

Apparently, I suck a blogging. I have managed to make ONE post for each of the last several months. I missed July completely. This was supposed to be a quick method of recording the daily happenings in our lives, like an online journal, but instead it just started collecting dust like every other method I have ever tried.

I guess a lot of life just doesn't seem like it needs recording as it happens, thus it doesn't get made a priority. Besides, I feel like I am going 5 different directions all the times and end up spending any "extra" time I have doing something at least semi-relaxing. Most nights I am so exhausted that even watching TV takes too much effort.

Well, you haven't really missed anything during the last 6 weeks. Caleb is getting bigger, Scott and I are still working, and my parents are still hard to track down. They are leaving for a driving trip out west on Sunday morning to take a friend's Mini Cooper to Olympia, WA (long story). I got a chance to drive the little car yesterday and it wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be. Expected more zip, although Dad did say that without anyone else in the car is was plenty zippy.

Caleb has been taking swimming lessons and although he protests before each lesson, I think he does like them. At least they are only half and hour and he doesn't tend to cry once we have him in the water. We are going to continue his lessons this fall and winter, but it may be a challenge to get him to stick with them.

Scott and I are planning on taking our first real trip "away" next month, which we are both really looking forward to. Caleb is almost 3 and we have never left him for a full 24 hours with some one else. He has been over night with Nana and Bumpa before, but we were home before breakfast the next morning. I think he is going to be fine, but I may worry about it too much despite it. Anyway, we are headed up north, back to Houghton to take a stroll down memory lane. We haven't really spent much time up there since we graduated NINE years ago and really want to get back to see what has and hasn't changed. Plus, it will almost be peak color so it should really be beautiful. Did I mention that there is also some prime geocaching to be done up there? I can't WAIT!

We have really kicked up the burners on the geocaching this summer, since Caleb is finally old enough to "help" us out a little. He can walk down the trails and likes hunting for "treasures". Last night he even wanted to hide one of his toys and then we could "geocache it", which is his language is "find it". To funny!

It looks like my brother is having a great time in Florida. He has been helping Mike out at the Eden house with some repair and odd job type stuff. They have been so pleased with his work that he could be there for 3 years, just finishing the projects that Mike has started and not gotten back to. Glad he is finally getting away and a little more on his own. Plus, if he decides to relocate down there we will have some one to visit! I would love any excuse I can get to go back to Key West.

Well, that is just about all I have for now. Maybe if I do several short posts each week it won't turn into a huge event when I get around to the once a month post. :) Maybe that will happen....but don't hold your breath.

Trip to the Zoo

Caleb got to go on his very first field trip this morning. I dropped him off at school and then they rode the "big yellow bus" to the zoo and I met them there. They rode the carousel, saw the animals and had a great time. I love our little zoo here in Madison. It is completely free and just a gorgeous little facility. The animals are well taken care of and are in really nice enclosures.

I am glad I went because Caleb got freaked out several times. Miss Maria tried showing him a spider and he just about jumped out of his skin. Then, we went into the aviary and it was so loud that he started to freak, but we managed to get him out of there just fine. However, he was so jumpy the rest of the time that I think he was glad to get back on the bus and leave. There was one bright and funny incident....as we were leaving the penguin exhibit, Caleb asked if he could bring one home with us. Too cute!

All in all, it was a good trip and Caleb had a great time, but I am glad I was there to keep him from melting down. He just doesn't seem to do well in completely new situations like the zoo. I think we are all going to have to go back there a couple times this summer so he can get better accustomed to the animals. I don't want him to be freaked out by every little thing, but is isn't even 3 yet and he is so little that everything must seem HUGE to him, especially things like bears and lions, even if they are behind glass.

More highlights

Here I go again with the bullets:

• Caleb learned how to do "thumb up" this week (6/18/07) and has been eagerly showing everyone that he can do it.
• Caleb started swimming lessons two weeks ago (6/13/07) and is doing great. I expected him to be super nervous and stubbornly refuse to participate but he is taking to the water like a little fish. He won't put his face in the water, but for a kid who has only gone in the pool a couple times that isn't a big surprise. He was even jumping off the side of the pool into the water last week!
• Funny story: On our way home from daycare one day, Caleb grabbed his upper lip and said "Ow!". I asked him what was wrong and his reply was "My mustache hurts". Too cute!
• I think we can safely say that Caleb is potty trained! He still wears a pull-up at night but I am not worried about it. He sleeps so deeply that he just doesn't realize he needs to go and I refuse to get him out of bed in the middle of the night to make him try. He still wants help using the potty and for now I am alright with that as well.
  
• We went camping recently (6/15/07) with some friends and had a great time. Scott dunked his cell phone in the lake but we managed to get it dried out and working so I let him live. Caleb did great and only asked to go home at the very end. We got rained out the last morning but we were all so tired we didn't care and headed for home.
• We have been doing a lot of geocaching or "treasure hunting" as Caleb calls it. Found some great caches and met some great people
• My neighbor had a garage sale this past weekend and let me put some stuff in it. We sold quite a bit of stuff and made$22.50. Not a ton of money but more than if we had given it directly to Goodwill like we had originally intended.

I am hosting bunco night at my house this month on Wednesday and I have to get my house super clean in the next couple of days. Unfortunately, I have to continue the constant battle with clutter AND deep clean at the same time which makes things hard, especially with a toddler running around. I tried to get a bunch of stuff done this weekend, but just couldn't do much and entertain Caleb at the same time. I let him play in the backyard where I could see him while I did the dishes, but I was checking on him so often I still didn't get anything done. Scott spent the morning golfing 18 with Marty so he wasn't any help and then he wanted to work on the pergola refinishing when he got home so that didn't give me any relief either. Finally got Caleb down for a nap and then I had to go grocery shopping.

Hopefully I can make it through the next few days without passing out or screaming, but I am not making any promises.

Sara

Wow!

Well, holy crap, I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted anything on this blog. So much has happened that this may be quite the marathon post to get everything caught up, but I will try to stick to bullet points as much as possible. So grab some popcorn and hang on!

First, Caleb is doing great. Growing like a weed and finally getting the hang of potty training. He has also learned how to ride his tricycle and is becoming more and more independent. Every time I turn around he wants to do something else all by himself. Makes me sad and proud all at the same time.

• At the beginning of May I had the chance to go scrapbooking for the whole weekend. Got lots done and met some great people. Vicki and Melissa went with me and we split what turned out to be one of the nastiest hotel rooms I have ever stayed in. WAY to much money, but I wasn't there for the room.
• My parents left (April 14) and then returned (May 11) from their annual trip to Key West, Florida. I wanted to go with them so badly I could taste it, but the timing was all wrong.
• Scott left on May 17 for 2.5 weeks in New Zealand. He was supposed to be coming back this Sunday but will be gone until at least June 9th. We miss him like crazy but we are getting along OK. I had to mow the lawn last week for the first time since I was 12. It was only after I was 3/4 done that I realized the mower had a self-propelled option. Would have been nice to know when I was mowing the HILL in the front yard. Oh well, I definitely burned a bunch more calories that way!
  
• Just signed Caleb up for swimming lessons for the summer and for gymnastics again in the fall. He is only 2 and I already feel like we do nothing but run him around. I would like to get him into music lessons and then of course soccer/T-ball in a year or two. And Scott will probably want him to try hockey. Will have to see what we have time for but definitely leave time for him to be a kid.
  
• Work has been crazy for me and I am just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We bid two subdivisions this spring and the questions were just relentless. Finally settling down into the more mundane design and reports that is so familiar. Although it feels like I have been working on the same report for weeks now, I am making decent progress
• Got to go to a geocaching event at Hartman's Creek in Waupaca a couple weeks ago. Had a BLAST and will be looking forward to doing it again next year. We did 35 caches in one day that involved 9 hours of hiking, lots of ticks and a few blisters. It was heaven!
  
• Took last Friday off of work to make the Memorial Day weekend 4 days instead of 3. Let Caleb sleep as long as he wanted and then went up north to Waupaca. Beautiful weather was great! Had a campfire on Friday night and enjoyed the stars. Caleb and Bumpa played so hard that they both went to bed early.
• Mom and Dad are coming for this weekend because Dad has a meeting tomorrow (Friday) morning here in Madison with his lawyer. I hope they plan on staying the whole weekend. I could really use the hand getting stuff done around the house. Nothing seems to get done and there is always more to do.
  

Well, that is the month in a nut shell. I will try to update more regularly. I am thinking about actually telling people in my family about the blog so they can read it, but I don't know. It is pretty cathartic to know that I can write anything I want and no one knows it is there. Journaling at it's best.

Weekend recovery

I know it is Tuesday, but I am just now getting a little breathing room to jot down a few thoughts from the weekend.

Saturday was nice. We spent the whole day at home and tried to get some things done. Notice I said "tried". We did get most of the books put onto the book shelves downstairs which is something I have been meaning to do for months. Then we made a BIG dent in cleaning all the crap out of our room. It became the dumping ground for all the stuff that we cleaned out of the office/guest room so that we could turn it into Caleb's big boy room. The weather was crappy so it was pretty easy to justify staying inside.

Sunday we did some running but managed to not spend a ton of money. Caleb and I went to Tanck's house so Caleb could play with Naomi, while Scott met Marty at the Alliant center for the Deer and Turkey Expo. We met back at Tanck's and then stopped at Noodles for lunch. We had a BOGO coupon so we decided to treat ourselves. Caleb decided to be quite the brat on Sunday so there was a bit of a battle going all afternoon. It was very draining and I think I ended up more worn out than he did.

Potty training has been pretty much a lost cause the last week or so. He didn't tell us ALL weekend when he had to go or had GONE for that matter. At one point I went to change his pull-up and his little bottom was flaming with diaper rash. Felt bad for him, but I didn't know it was there to even change! He may have had a bit of an intestinal bug because he had about 5 BM's in two days. Not like him at all, but he didn't complain about a yucky tummy.

The good news for the day is that I sent the last payment in for Caleb's furniture. That means the first of our debts has been paid off is about 1 month. Now we are moving onto paying of the living room furniture once and for all. Should be able to send the last payment in on that in June. Can't wait!

Home Again

Well, Scott got home last night and was able to put Caleb to bed for me. Of course, I managed to fall asleep on the couch about 10 seconds later. There went all the plans I had for getting stuff done last night.

Tonight I have decided to run away. I am going to go over to a friends house for a couple hours and just chill out. I hope there will be alcohol involved but since I am trying to save money I don't think so. Should be fun and a little time to just get my head back together after this week.

I was hoping to have a "no spend" weekend, but Scott has plans to go to the Deer and Turkey Expo this weekend. That will be about $6 in admission fees and then they will probably go out for lunch. At least I have no plans to spend money, unless you count the gas I will be burning. :) Don't know what the weather is going to be like but it would be awesome to take Caleb to the park again. And I would LOVE to be able to get the kite out this weekend. Caleb has never flown a kite before and I think he would love it.

The spring cleaning bug is starting to bite me pretty hard. The yard needs a lot of work but the inside of the house is even worse. It is going to take us MANY weekends to get it in order. With Caleb demanding our attention so much (specifically mine) lately it has been all I can do just to make dinner. We are virtually piled under mountains of crap that don't seem to have a home. That has GOT to change soon or I am going to hurt some one. Maybe I will ask the neighbor kid if he wants to earn a little money watching Caleb while we are at home. That way we can get something done but Caleb will still be entertained.

Random stuff

Scott has been in Detroit since Monday and I am beginning to unravel. Caleb has been a bit hard to handle the last couple days, plus he didn't sleep well, therefore I didn't sleep well. At one point he was awake and yelling for me because one of his socks had come off. Sheesh! I am going to need a little time to myself once Scott gets home on Thursday.

The discussions started earlier this week about when to start trying for kid #2. We have agreed from the beginning the two is a good number but the added daycare costs are going to kill us. But with our get out of debt plan in full swing we should be able to soon free up about half of what we will need ($500) but that won't be for another year. Where the other $500 is going to come from I have no idea. I am torn right down the middle about wanting another child. On one hand I want another child, but at the same time I really like the fact that Caleb doesn't need constant attention and is becoming more independent. I am finally able to get a few things done around the house without holding a kid in the other arm. I am already exhausted every night, how much more tired am I going to be if there is another person to do everything for?

I feel badly whenever I have the thought go through my head that Scott doesn't help out around the house. The truth is he does help, but usually only with what I tell him to do. I end up feeling like his mother at the same time as Caleb's. No, that isn't fair to him, but when I am looking at the disaster that my house has become and then look at Scott sitting at the computer surfing for Jeep parts we can't afford, I can't help but think that isn't fair to me either. Why should I be the one who has to clean up all the messes? I don't MAKE all the messes, do I?

But I can't expect things to change if we have another child. As a matter of fact, I can only expect them to get worse. Caleb is already insanely jealous whenever I hold another baby. I can't imagine what he will be like when and if we have a baby of our own. He is almost 3 and we may have already waited too long to give him a little brother or sister. WAY too long if you ask any of the 7000 people who seem to ask us weekly when kid #2 is coming along. At this point I think it is illegal in the state of Wisconsin to only have one child. Two is the norm, maybe even three. Heck, even 6 to 8 isn't unheard of. But only ONE!?!?! Why would we even consider such a thing?

Well, I am going to think on this a little more and head to the bank. Then I will be picking Caleb up and heading home to a nasty mess and dinner that I have to make. At least I have it all planned and I just have to put it together. Never got around to starting the dishwasher this morning so I will have that to deal with as well. What a great night this is going to be.

Another blog

Since I seem to be writing so much lately about our finances I decided that it would be better to create a separate blog for that and leave this one for the purpose it was meant for....recording family happenings so that I can remember them in the future. If anyone is interested, you can find that blog here.

Where is Caleb?

Scott and I were woken up this morning by noises coming from under our bed. Scott got up to find that Caleb had decided to hide under our bed again. But this time he took his puppy pillow with him and was all the way in the MIDDLE of the bed. When asked what he was doing, he said "Hiding!". Why? We may never know. At that point Scott looked at the clock....it was only 4:20 AM! WHAT!?!?!? It took us over an hour to get him calmed down and back to sleep. Needless to say, we were all late again this morning.

Whoa!

My boss just fired my co-worker yesterday. Don't get me wrong, this is something that I (we) have been hoping for for 3 years now, but to have him actually FINALLY do it was a bit of a shock. We thought it was going to happen so many times before, but it never did that we had convinced ourselves that it was never going to happen. Then it did, and all of a sudden, too. While a very big part of me can't stop grinning, another part of me help but sympathize with the guy. He has a daughter who just turned a year old and his wife is a SAHM. I don't know how I would feel or what I would say if something like that ever happened to me. Don't get me wrong....the man was an anchor to our team and every project he ever touched turned into a horrible mess, but I can empathize with him at the same time.

On another note, we have taken a step forward in our quest to be free of Wells Fargo. I have always hated working with them as they can never seem to post anything in a timely manner and the customer service has always left a lot to be desired. We have had a Wells Fargo credit card since we were forced into taking it as part of our first mortgage when we built our house. Never really used it for much, but ended up with a fraud claim when some one charged more than $2000 worth of stuff to the card both in Canada and Japan. That was a nightmare process that involved the closing of our number and the issuance of a new card. When the new card arrived, I didn't activate it for almost 2 years. Then, Scott decided to use that card to go to Germany with so he activated it. It has been nothing but a nightmare for the past month because of it. BUT, I didn't want to close the card because I was afraid that it would negatively affect our balance-to-limit ratio for the credit report. (i.e. having $10,000 in CC debt looks better if you have $20,000 in limit than if you have $12,0000) So, we decided to try applying for a different card so that we could cancel the WF card altogether. I applied online yesterday for an MTU alumni Mastercard and was approved with a much higher limit than I expected, $15000. That means I can close the WF account and still be ahead! Plus, this card offers a 0% interest rate on balance transfers for the first 12 months so we are transferring all of the balance from the UWCU card (9.9% interest) to the new card and will end up saving $500 in interest over the next year. Since we are planning on being having the balance paid off in the next 12 months, that is a great deal! Then, that frees up the UWCU card, which I have never had any problems working with, for Scott to use as his travel card.

However, here are the other accounts that we have with Wells Fargo:

• Slumberland furniture
  
• American furniture
  
• first mortgage on house
  

We are working quickly to get rid of the first 2, but we will probably never be able to get rid of the mortgage. Up until recently we were with Washington Mutual, and never had any problems with them. Then we got a letter last month saying that our mortgage had been sold to WF. I cried. If we could get the same rate, I would even consider refinancing just to get rid of them, but that isn't possible and is rather silly. I will just have to make sure that I play their games. And it is even more incentive to make sure we can pay cash rather than financing it.

More Water Heater Drama

Want to hear something funny? My brother, Jay, who is a contractor, highly recommended the tankless water heater to us from the very beginning. Well, when I talked to him a little more this past week, he said that when he talked to a bunch of his buddies he had changed his mind. He suggested that we try to find an ultra efficient traditional tank model instead. I just had to shake my head in disbelief. But, all of his points made sense and we are going to take his advice(AGAIN) and look at a tank version. Hopefully we can find one this week so that Dad and Jay can get it installed this weekend. The good news is that we are going to be saving a ton of money and I have family who knows how to do the installation for free. There are perks in the end, but I found myself defending the decision to go tankless to a bunch of people and now we are going completely the other way. Oh well...that's life I guess. In the end, at least we will finally have reliable hot water from a water heater that doesn't sound like the house is going to take off.

We had a very nice dinner last night with some friends who we really should have over more often. Eryn went to Tech with Scott and I, even though we didn't know her at the time. Turns out we know a lot of the same people though, which is pretty cool. They just had a baby boy who is about to turn 3 months this week. We are going to be able to share a lot of baby stuff with them which should help lessen the piles of stuff that we have building up in the basement.

Cadbury Carmel Eggs are a tool of the devil. They are so freaking good that there is no way that I could resist them. I did pretty well this year though, considering that I just bough my first one this weekend. I know, I know....bad for me, waste of money, you are on a budget now....believe me you are telling me anything I haven't already told myself. But did I mention the are really really good?

Caleb is back sliding with the potty training and the bad news is that we are letting him. We didn't get him to go potty all weekend and then today at daycare he had an accident and then ASKED to be put back into a diaper. Poor little guy. I can imagine how stressful and tough learning something so completely new must be. Granted he is only 2.5 and is doing great for a little boy, but apparently he just needed a little break.

What do we do with an old computer? It would be a great computer for a kid in HS or MS, but I don't think we are going to get anyone to buy it. Then what? I don't know if we are going to get much of anything from it if we donate it, but I guess any little bit that we can get back on our taxes is going to help.

Speaking of taxes, did I mention that we have to pay in this year? Yeah, that pretty much sucks. Granted, after you figure in what we are getting back from the state we are going to owe $350 to the feds, but that still hit us below the belt. Hopefully, if the same thing happens again next year we will be in a better financial position to handle it. Thank goodness we are going to be getting a big flex spending reimbursement this month, because Scott's increased withholding from his check is hitting us a little hard at the same time. I just have to get everything figured out in YNAB and we will be fine, but things are still going to hurt a little.

Well, I guess that is enough for the moment:). I am going to finish watching TV and then go wake up my DH so we can go to bed. He is currently sleeping upstairs with Caleb, just like I did last night. At least this way one of us gets caught up on our sleep while the other one gets some alone time.

Why so long?

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. So doesn't feel like it. Guess that is just a symptom of my life going at warp speed.

Last week was busy. Caleb got up REALLY early a couple mornings but seems to be back on track now. I hope. One morning we even found him UNDER our bed at 5:30 am! Why he was under there, I don't have a clue, but he apparently thought is would be funny. Scott saw him there only after realizing he wasn't in his bed and then when he came rushing back into our room happened to see the dust ruffle move. We may have to get rid of the dust ruffle! :) Didn't get much done at home, didn't get much done at work. Why do I feel like I have a lot of wasted effort here? Hmmmm.....

The weekend was nice. It was chilly but at least there wasn't much wind so we were able to play outside quite a bit. The playground in our neighborhood was even dry and it wasn't overrun with kids so we were able to use it. Caleb is even big enough to walk there and back himself so we don't even have to worry about the stroller. Which is good since at 2.5 he thinks he is too big for it anyway. He refuses to sit in it ever! So much for spending all that money. Oh well, at least now they can go into storage for the next child and won't be taking up space in the garage OR the back of my truck.

Financially we are struggling. This is just a really weird time right now. We are waiting for our state tax refund so that we can send all of it plus $350 to the feds. Yeah. Also, my reimbursement for daycare flex spending has been delayed for some unknown reason, which means I can't pay a few bills as soon as I would like. This weekend we didn't do very well at sticking to our budget either. I spent too much at Barnes and Noble and then we over spent on groceries. And, horror of horrors, we went out to eat on Friday! GASP! We broke our streak of not eating out, but there was just nothing we could do about it. Unfortunately, we could have chosen a CHEAPER place to eat, like Culvers or Noodles, but we didn't. And I COULD have chosen not to have the 3 margaritas, but I didn't. Other than that though, we didn't do any unnecessary spending, which is good for us. We managed to make it all the way through Sunday without spending any money. Even though we haven't been doing things as well as I had hoped, I am chalking it up to a learning experience at this point. We have never lived under this strict of a budget before and we will continue to adjust things in the near future.

Friday night I had one of the greatest experiences of my life. I got to meet my favorite author in the whole world, Jodi Picoult, at Barnes & Noble. She was there to do a reading from her new book and do a book signing. I was simply blown away. WOW! She is the most outgoing and put together person I have met and the things that come out of her head and onto a page just astound me. I bought the new book and 2 of her older books, which led me to overspend significantly (see above) but I only feel slightly guilty. I know I will make it up by not buying anything for scrapbooking or crafts this month alone. We got there over an hour early and almost didn't get a seat. There were easily 300 people there many of whom had driven from 3-6 hours to attend this signing. I was impressed to say the least. The best part of it all was being able to experience it all with my mom, who got me hooked on the books in the first place.

Water heater update...sort of

Upon much deliberation we still don't know what to do about the water heater. It is so incredibly LOUD right now that we can distinctly hear it running while we are in the shower. On the second floor....and the water heater is in the BASEMENT!

As I see it we have 4 options:

• Replace heater with new tankless right now, putting another $1700 on the credit card @ 9.9% (Total cost: $1880.88)
  
• Fix the existing heater ($300 +/-) and then put money aside each months for approximately 2 years until entire unit needs to be replaced (Total cost: $2000)
  
• Borrow $1700@ 8.9% on 24 month term from UWCU (Total cost: $1862.16)
• Sell investment shares to replace water heater now (Total cost: unknown)

The cheapest and easiest option is to put it on the credit card, but seeing as how we have put ourselves on a voluntary freeze and are trying to pay off the huge balance that we have, my gut is telling me that is a bad idea. The most expensive option is to fix it and then save for the bigger replacement cost in 2 years, but that is the one we are leaning towards. At least I am.

We will have to talk things over with my parents this weekend and get their take on the whole thing. Since they are accountants maybe they will have a clue what the best idea is. Just have to hope the dang thing lasts that long. *sigh*

Please don't arrest me!

After I dropped Caleb off at daycare this morning I stopped at my usual gas station and filled up. I wanted a juice and a couple other things so I decided to pay inside the store rather than at the pump. Once the pump switched off I headed into the store, picked up a bottle of juice and a couple of things to eat for breakfast (yes, I was running behind AGAIN) and went to the counter. I said very clearly, "I have these things and Pump 8." The cashier rang the things up as I ran my card through the reader, she handed me the slip to sign and then handed me my receipt as I handed it back to her with my signature. I stuffed the receipt in my purse, picked up my things and went back to my car. All sounds pretty normal, right?

Fast forward to the other end of my commute. Being newly budget conscious, I decided to enter the purchase into my spreadsheet tally for gas so I pulled out the receipt. The total was $3.67. WTF!?!?!? There is definitely something wrong with this. That is barely the cost of 1 gallon of gas these days and I was running on fumes so obviously the attendant forgot about the gas. What do I do now? My biggest fear was that they would try to come after me for a drive off, which could cost me my license. Not good. So I called the gas station, explained everything to the very nice lady and got it all straightened out. She thanked me for being honest and offered to give me a free car wash for my troubles.

Now, the weird thing about this is that I NEVER look at my receipts. Bad, I know, but they just get shoved in my purse and I don't think twice about it. I really don't know what made me look at the slip this morning rather than just waiting for the charge to come through on the bank account in the next day or two. Very strange, but it all worked out for the best.

Time Change Blues

This whole time change thing always throws me for a big loop. It takes me DAYS to get my internal clock straightened out, and even then I struggle. I woke up at 5:00 this morning and I have no idea why. But I was able to watch a movie that has been hanging around our house for almost a month. Grrrrr....This whole Netflix thing isn't working out to the money advantage that I thought it was going to. Might consider canceling it but I really don't want to. We already don't go out to movies and I know that we would never take the time to go to the video store. That would leave only Pay-per-view and that is a big snore. They never seem to have more than one movie we would watch during the month.

Things with Caleb were a little strange this weekend. We let him get away with too much, but we were both so tired that it was just easier that way. Neither Scott or I could fully function yesterday and needed heavy injections of caffeine. So much for sleeping in on Sunday mornings. I really miss that.

The weather here was unusually warm (50°F) and we all had a blast playing in the melting snow. Scott and Caleb each used their shovels to move blocks of ice and snow onto the pavement so that it could melt faster. Probably wasted effort, but when you have been snow bound you just want the stuff to go away as fast as possible. We did get the garage straightened up a bit, but that isn't saying too much. The house is still a disaster.

Biggest accomplishment for the weekend? We gave Caleb a bath! He is the worst about getting clean and we have the hardest time keeping him clean. Granted, he is only 2 and can't get THAT dirty in the winter, but he still only gets 2 baths a week at the best and 1 at the worst. We shoot for Wednesday and Saturday but just aren't that consistent about it. Of course, last night we couldn't get him OUT. Sheesh! Just goes to show that you can't predict a toddler!

After bath time came some snuggle time and then falling asleep (me) while Caleb read his book. I was just so wasted by 8:30 that I couldn't think. However, as Caleb was really snuggling down and getting ready for sleep, he gave me a hug and said "Mom, you best friend". *sniff, sniff* That just made my heart positively MELT! All the chasing and arguing and frustration for the weekend with a toddler just didn't matter any more.

And this weekend we began having our first big test of our new budgeting/spending philosophy. Our water heater is just about dead. Actually, the BLOWER MOTOR on our water heater is just about dead. The water heater is only 5 years old and the blower motor has been going for most of the last year. Now what do we do? Replace the blower motor? $297.....Buy new water heater? tank: $700, tankless: $1500....none of those is what I had in mind right now. There is simply NO EXTRA MONEY and our emergency fund is depleted because I have had to borrow from it the last couple months. I just want to cry!

Family Matters

First off, a quick update on the financial side. I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for YNAB Pro and have been working on figuring it out. So far I think it is going to be a very powerful tool, but I am going to have to adjust my entire way of thinking to understand it. The biggest change is going to be the "0 based budget" concept, which means that you look at every penny you are going to be earning for the month and then give it a "job", whether that is savings, bills, etc. Then, when you "available" money gets to zero, you STOP budgeting. Now, this requires that I keep a close eye on what we are spending and when, but that isn't such a bad thing. One of the cool things is that you can either budget from just one account or from your whole "pile of money" wherever it is located (savings, checking, money market, etc.) At this point I think I am only going to look at the main checking account and still keep track of the other account via spreadsheet. That has worked very well for us since the beginning and I hope it will continue to work just as well. But then again I will have to keep figuring it out as we go along.

Caleb is still having issues with the potty training. Last night he peed in his pants and was running around naked (which he usually loves) but then all of a sudden he asked me to put a pull-up on. So we did and then less than 5 minutes later the pull-up was soaking wet. Basically he knew he had to pee but wanted to go in the pull-up rather than the potty. Oy! We will keep working on it but this is going to take forever.

This weekend should be pretty quiet. We are just going to hang around and try not to spend money. I have all the meals for the weekend planned so that should help. If Caleb gets nuts we will try to go to the play area at the mall (free) or maybe see if he would like to play with the neighbor again. We are usually going to many places that he might go a little stir crazy spending the day at home, but it is something we should be doing more often. Now that the basement is finished I hope we can start using it more. It would really be nice to have a TV down there, but that could be a while.

I think we are going to try to invite Keough's over for dinner and cards tomorrow night since we are going to be in town for once. That should be fun, but we will have to see if Caleb will let us play cards or if he will want the undivided attention that he usually does.

Wake up call

So I was up until 1:30 this morning playing with budget numbers and cash flow balances. Right now, things really suck! But there is some good news along with the bad. Right now we are $21,500 in debt (including car, excluding house). OUCH! But if we stick to our guns and the plan I have currently laid out, we should be down to just two debt payments (besides mortgage) left by November. We should be completely out of debt in less than 3 years. Of course, that means we don't get to eat out for the next six months or go to a movie or buy any gifts for anyone. *Sigh* OK, so maybe I am exaggerating a little, but not by much.

Here was the scariest number I encountered last night: $464....amount of money spent just EATING OUT last month alone. Even scarier: $3400....amount of money spent eating out for the last YEAR. Definitely sobering to look at those numbers. Of course, if we had eaten at home over the same time period we would of have more grocery costs, but not THAT much. We could have probably saved around $3000 just by eating at home more. That makes driving by McD's all that much easier to do these days. Of course, I feel like I am missing out when my co-workers go out but I can really appreciate the fact that I am helping myself get out of debt by staying at my desk.

Wait a minute.....I thought this blog was supposed to be about the happenings of my family, not our dire financial straights. Yes, that was the intention, and for the most part it remains the ultimate goal. But typing all these things out has really helped me with my thought process.

So how is the family doing, anyway? Scott is well and it looks like he is only going to be spending 2 weeks in New Zealand instead of the original month. I wish I could go with him, but it just isn't going to work; the timing is awful, especially for Caleb. We are still working on potty training with Caleb, and of course, consistency is hardest on our part. He does REALLY well at school, but not so well at home. He is getting it but the age old question still persists....when do little boys learn to pee standing up? I have no idea since I never thought I would ever be asking such a question. Besides, I have never peed standing up so what do I know.

Mom's birthday is this weekend and I think we are going to miss it for the first time in a long time. I had hoped to drive up to spend the day with her, but gas money is really an issue right now and I can't afford a gift right now so maybe if I wait a week to see her I can crochet her something with yarn I already own. Might have to give those dish rags I have been meaning to do a try.

Financial Oy Vey

OK, so yesterday I spent WAY too much time trying to figure this debt/budget/finance thing out. Currently, we are making about $5900 a month but we have $5800 allocated for in our "budget". I put "budget" in quotes there because what we had before can only be loosely termed a budget. I have discovered that many people are going away from the term budget altogether and instead calling them spending plans, since the point is to allocate every penny to a certain place for the month, whether it is a utility payment or funding a savings plan. As long as everything has a job, that is a good thing. Finding "extra" money to pay down debt is going to be the challenge.

Paying for daycare SUCKS. It is the second biggest payment we have every month other than our mortgage. We pay almost as much each WEEK as we do for our car payment in a MONTH. Now that is a sobering concept. Yes, we can pay for a bunch of it pre-tax through the flex spending plan, but that only accounts for HALF of the amount we pay for the year. But since the flex spending is reimbursement has already come off the top of our take home pay, my goal is to count the reimbursement as "bonus" income that we can use to pay down debt or more importantly, build up our buffer (at least in the short run). But since daycare costs are equal to 1/4 of my total salary, it makes no sense to look at staying home with Caleb. It does make us stop and wait on having a second child, though. If we are struggling this much with only ONE in daycare, I can't imagine having TWO in at the same time. *GULP* Of course, if we were to have little to no money going towards debt repayment each month, we would be able to afford it, but barely.

I have climbed onto this get out of debt wagon in the past and quickly fallen right off. I would create a "budget" in Excel and then vow to stick to it. However, once I had created the "budget" I had no way to track our progress. Even MS Money which I faithfully used would only tell you where you fell short at the end of the month, but what good did that do me? Now I have discovered You Need A Budget and I AM going to try to use it affectively. Of course, I first have to figure out how to find the time to figure the program out and then monitor everything on a monthly (or even better, weekly) basis. I am determined to make this work this time and I am recruiting Scott's help and support. We got ourselves into this and WE are going to get out of it.

The thing that makes me sick is that we are making more money than I ever thought possible, but we can't seem to make the ends meet. It is disgusting! I didn't grow up with this much money and I can't seem to spend it wisely. How can we rack up $4,000 a month living expenses? But when I look at what we are spending our money on, I don't know where to trim. Our cell phones have become essential, DSL is a must, and I refuse to live without DirecTV.