All I want is the opportunity to fail.

Or succeed.  Preferably succeed.

I would like to add a little preface to this.  I wrote this after hearing about the Supreme Court ruling on healthcare changes.  I was (still am) a little upset about the ruling because I know the effect that has already had on my family and it will probably get worse.  Our premiums and deductibles have gone up ridiculously since the law passed and I don't see the Supreme Court okaying most of it helping that situation at all.  I imagine that we will continue to see our costs go up and our coverage go down.  Who knows where it will stop.  I hope that I do not offend anyone.  I don't usually judge individuals for the choices they make (at least I try not to but I am just human) because I do not know all of the facts.  The two most important factors that I do not have are what level of effort is your best and what you have been prompted to do by Higher Powers.  My business as to why you made major life choices are the same as to why we only have one child who is almost three.  That would be none. 

That being said, please don't be offended.  I do not assume you have no self respect because you take government aide. 

And here we go.  This is what commented on an article related to the healthcare ruling. 

I feel like I am swimming upstream.  My family is in that unfortunate spot where it would benefit our lifestyles for me to quit my jobs (yes plural and both decent paying), stay home with my child, my husband not work his extra job, stop paying for insurance, and just sign up for every government program available.  We would qualify!  We would be able to spend more time together as a family, have more kids, and get out of debt faster.  BUT, it is NOT going to happen as long as we can help it because we have more self-respect than that.  What is wrong with this country?  Why do we encourage dependence and discourage hard work? 

I am in my late 20's.  My husband and I are working SO HARD to be self-sufficient.  I think that living with a modest amount of debt (a reasonably sized mortgage and maybe a car payment) without requiring support from the government should be a realistic goal.  It seems to be getting harder though and I find it most depressing.  On top of the price of EVERYTHING going up every time you turn around, it feels like the some (probably well intentioned) people are making it more difficult all in the name of protecting my future.  PLEASE STOP PROTECTING MY FUTURE!!!!  All I want is the chance to succeed by my own hard work and choices.  I know that comes with risks, but I take more pride in a hard earned failure than in a "success" that is handed to me. 

Please!  If I choose not to have insurance, then that is my choice.  If I get sick in the process, then I should suffer the consequences of either massive amounts of debt or a lack of health care.  (We do have insurance and pay dearly for it because we think it is important for us.)  If I choose not to save for my retirement, make poor decisions in how I choose to save/invest, or even just have plain old rotten luck, I keep working until I can afford to quit or am otherwise forced to.  Society needs to be compassionate.  We cannot forget those among us that are suffering despite all efforts, but we also need to be conscious of that line where, once crossed, we go from being caring to enslaving ourselves in hopes of happiness and security.  Look at history.  I do not recall a single society that was enslaved (literally or by a form of taxation) and happy with their overall situation. 

Having Fun With Henry

Nathan was gone half the week, so Henry and I decided we should have some fun.  It was super smoky outside so we mostly stayed inside. 

Wednesday we went and did some window shopping our friend "Shell".  No pictures, but it was fun!  After window shopping and supper we went to Home Depot to drive the "beep beep buggies".  You know the buggies (aka carts) that look like trucks and have steering wheels and all?  He LOVES those things!  I've learned to save that errand for last, that way all the subsequent stores aren't disappointing and I can use Home Depot as Henry's incentive to be good.  "If you don't listen, we can't go drive the beep beep buggies!"  This works like a charm!

Thursday was supposed to be our play outside day, but it was raining ash so we opted to stay indoors.  More, my lungs hurt when we went outside so I made Henry stay inside too.  It was okay though.  We made brownies instead.  Yum!  Henry had fun helping.  He especially enjoyed tasting the batter at every step, licking the spatula, and cleaning up.  He is a good helper!!!

 

 

Friday he helped me work a little.  We picked up some keys for Emily and checked on the new house.  He was rather disappointed when Emily, E-O, and Rubye weren't there.  They will be next week though!  Hooray!  I think Henry is extra excited about this.  He keeps talking about all things baby related and how he wants to hold Rubye, hug Rubye, swing Rubye, and everything else he can think of that babies need. 

This was not taken this weekend, but here is Henry in the tree of their new front yard.  He climbed up there again yesterday.  It is a good tree climbing tree.  Especially considering the ladder that's attached to it.  That makes it extra perfect!

Was gonna post some stuff today

When I realized it's been a whole month since I've posted ANYTHING, I decided to post today.  When I realized how much has happened in the last month, I decided I needed to post something soon.  Probably today.

After the death of Tall Silver and Handsome (that's what Emily named her computer that we bought from her), it took me at least 2 weeks to clear him out of his home and make way for Spot.  (No idea why it's name is Spot.  It just seemed to fit.)  For a whole 3 days I had a beautifully clean office space that was only missing a couple up-cycled magazine holders and a colorful picture or two before it deserved to be in some sort of blog post about being frugal and making what you have look nice, cozy, modern, and family friendly.  Then I checked the mail.  Now it has almost returned to the catch-all state it was in before its new occupant moved in.

As part of our little office spaces cleaning and rearranging, I decided to minimize the number of cords I had to see and mess with every day.  That and mobility are the best parts about laptops, right?  Thinking about how this little dream of mine would come true I remembered this lovely USB port that we had upstairs, sitting in our cords box.  Brilliant!!  I could plug all of our stuff into one long strip of ports, shove that behind the file cabinet, and just have the one cord that I could nicely place between the printer and external hard-drive.    Excellent!!!  Well, I figured I would probably run into problems, but chose to not think about it and deny the signs until I had to.  The problem with digging technology out of boxes that have been sitting under the bed for years is that it's probably old technology.  Every time I plug it in, I get some little thing pop up saying that my device could perform faster blah, blah, blah... Who pays attention to those little things that pop up anyways?  (Yes.  My part time job and pre-Henry full time job is at a software company.  I pay attention to that stuff there.  I just don't like to do it at home.  Computers should just work.  Good thing one of our perks is super-duper anti-virus.)

Henry just woke up, so I'll get to where I was going.  Old technology doesn't support new technology demands.  One cannot quickly or easily download pictures via old technology.  I'm looking for a new USB hub today.  Maybe.  JUST MAYBE, I will post some April stuff before it's June.

Money Karma

I am sure this will shock everyone and leave you wondering if you even know me at all. I am a tight wad. I prefer to call it frugal, but I think it’s a little more severe than that. I try to stretch every dollar as far as I can. I have a projected budget column and an actual budget column on my budget spreadsheet. I check said spreadsheet and update Quicken at least once a week. I enjoy hitting financial goals and beat myself up a little bit if they aren’t hit when I think they should be. I think if I spend money on something that isn’t a NEED (food, housing, utilities, Henry stuff), the next time something breaks unexpectedly or I am otherwise a little short on cash, it’s all my fault and I deserve the consequences.

Which brings me to now.

I was (until Saturday) in severe need of summer clothing. I had a couple pairs of shorts, a couple nice shirt or two and a few t-shirts at varying degrees of worn out. My slippers (aka flip flops) were also looking pretty thrashed (2 years old and a few doggie teeth marks). Saturday I was feeling good about the budget. I’ve been super good the last few months at not wasting money and felt like it was okay to go find me a new pair of slippers and some shirts to supplement my wardrobe. I found all of the above. I even let myself purchase a fancy (expensive-to-me) pair of everyday slippers, which I don’t think I’ve ever really done before. I think I’m pretty much set except I would like a new pair of summer Sunday shoes and maybe another pair of shorts.

I knew I would probably regret spending money. Sure enough, I a little bit regret it.

I spent money on Saturday. On Sunday, our computer died. I’m telling you. I have bad money karma!

I don’t say this to complain about money. Or to woe-is-me. I’m not really complaining at all. There are a lot of people out there that would love their problem of the week to be a broken computer. I am very grateful that that has been our toughest non-trial this week. Naturally, I always feel like we could use a little more money, but who doesn’t? I just think it’s funny. I think it’s funny that me spending money on me almost inevitably leads to something like this. So what do I do about it? Take whatever I spent on myself and put 10x’s that in savings. What else can you do with life besides try your best, plan ahead the best you can, then roll with the punches and find the humor in it all?

~~~~

I wrote this last week when I was frustrated with it all and without a computer to post. Now we have a new computer (HOORAY!). I didn't feel like changing all the timing of it, so pretend you read it last Tuesday. Now I can post Easter pictures, finish planning a baby shower, and make my family room a little more clutter free (hopefully) by clearing out the old desktop. Happy Day!

February

Yesterday, when I started this, I looked out the door to see where Henry and his Daddy went. They were playing outside, then I noticed it was all kinds of quiet. They're walking on the trail down the road. It was cute.

February was mostly a sick month for us. One of us was sick at almost any given point. And by one of us, I mean Nate. With a few exceptions. I'm glad the month is over and hope that the sickness goes away. Halfway through March has been mostly better. Henry does have some sort of cold or something, but it's just a runny nose and a cough. Nothing we can't handle.

Here are some pictures.

Henry helped his Daddy shovel snow after church one day. They have fun together. Oh! Our car passed emissions. That was big February news. No more Oregon plates. (Mixed feelings about this. Oregons registration is way cheaper and no testing. Oh well.)

His hair got so long that it looked like this pretty much all the time. It only looked decent for a second if I managed to get it totally wet and I got to comb it.

This is a bad picture of what it looked like after I half way cut it. I got a lot of it done, but Henry was done with the hair cut, so it's not that great. His eyes are kind of puffy from all the tears. Had you been listening to the ordeal from outside, you'd think we were torturing the boy. We tried all the tricks. It just didn't go over well.

Henry spilled some water on the carpet so he grabbed the swiffer he uses to help when I mop and mopped it up.

Happy Valentines Day!

Today was a normal but weird day and certainly not what many people would consider an ideal Valentines Day. I think it's more fun as a kid holiday. Certainly any excuse to go on a date and spend time with my Sweetheart is a good thing, but Valentines isn't usually an excuse we use. Now that Henry is getting older, it is fun to make it a special day for him.

Today my grown up Valentine got drugs to help him get over his strep throat. I didn't take a picture because I wouldn't appreciate the documentation if it were me. I took off work early to take him to the doctor and pick up his prescriptions and sickie needs. Now that he's on an antibiotic and has a super-duper cough syrup, he should start to feel better soon. It's been a couple weeks, so I think we'll all be excited when the healthy days come. Hopefully none of the rest of us will catch it!

I think Henry had a fun Valentines day! He spent the morning having Valentine fun at his Grandmas. He came home with all kinds of fun treats and cards. He got his card from G.G. yesterday and insisted that it go on his wall in his bedroom. His new cards had to join his G.G. card. While I was trying to get him in a picture, he decided he should get in some push ups.



In an attempt to keep Henry busy and let Nate rest, Henry and I made Valentines rice crispy treats. I dyed the marshmallows pink and everything. After supper we cut them into heart shapes and attempted to cover them in sprinkles. We made a treat bag up for Daddy. Henry was very excited to take his Daddy a bag of treats. He gave him his treats and a kiss then we came back downstairs. He is a sweet, considerate little boy.

Atleast it's over (hopefully)

It is sad how closely you have to watch out for people trying to steal your money.

Please look past the poor grammar and incoherency that is about to come out of my mouth/fingers. I'm venting.

Background: We recently switched insurance companies and banks in an effort to save hassle and money and until now have been pleased with both.

Today: Because of a glitch with my insurance companies website, I ended up with $40 in bank fees. I get ticked when people try to spend/take my money without my permission, so I followed up. When I first told the insurance company about the possible glitch, I was pretty much told that it wasn't their problem because it wasn't an error that had ever been reported before and that I needed to take it up with the bank. I was very irritated and confused with this response but did not push it because I didn't have all my facts yet (ammo) and I was trying to keep my cool.

So, I call my Credit Union.

I was already irritated and probably caused some of the jerkiness that came from the other end of the line, but still. He told me that I had to have not put in the complete account number, which would direct the withdraw to my savings and not my checking. We went back and forth for a while, but the jests is I told him I put in the account number straight from my check and what I heard (implied) was that I was either lying or dumb. I eventually told him off and hung up. The only people I ever hang up on are telemarketers that won't let you hang up on them politely.

I then called my kind husband who let me vent 'til I stopped crying. I was feeling completely defeated. I HATE feeling defeated by my own efforts.

When I got home, where I had access to my check book, insurance information, and everything online that I needed, I decided to go talk to the Credit Union in person. They were amazing. They confirmed that I had used the correct number. They also reversed the fees, even though it was not their fault. They're just amazing like that.

The Credit Union phone experience was the first time I have at all been displeased with them. It was probably just a combo of two people having bad days and ending up on the phone together at just the wrong time. Or maybe it was just me having a bad day and, despite my best efforts to conceal my frustration, taking it out on the guy on the phone and him reacting like I would react to someone yelling at me.

So, I come home and call the insurance company. As it turns out, the website error that caused the whole mess WAS a reported problem. I told the new lady on the phone about the fees and what the first lady on the phone said and she did what she could to make it right.

Now that it's all over, hopefully, I'm not upset with either company and it actually all seems kind of silly. I feel better about my efforts to save hassle and money. I feel much less defeated than I did earlier this morning. I love our selection of bank! And the insurance company at least made an effort to make things right.

I am the only one that stuff like this happens to? Does anyone else feel like they have to keep on top of everything to keep from being taken advantage of? I feel like I'm doing it all the time and it's exhausting.