Sunday, March 28, 2010

First quarter almost gone

Its been a while. I'm very bad at keeping this up. Maybe when Kolton arrives, I'll be better as I want to share all things about him with friends.

We are about to end March and April will begin on Thursday. I am 6 1/2 weeks from my due date. I'm not sure how much I can wait. I want to see him now.

Andrew is still doing well with his career and still loves it. I'm glad he has found his "nitch" in life and plans to stick to it.

I have completed my first term for my Bachelor's degree. Did ok, could have been better but I did pass. I have started my second term. Hopefully be able to graduate in a year to year and half.

Still not have decided if I want to join the Air Force after Kolton has been born. Just want to do something with my life as well as bring my family with me and support them. In this day and age, both parents are known for supporting the family and I want to be able to provide for my child (soon children in the future) with things neither Andrew nor I was able to do.

That is basically it for now. I'll try to keep ya'll updated more.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Jan 2010 almost done...

Ok, so I have been bad and not been keeping up with my blogging like I should. Things just got busy when I started school again and just trying to find a set schedule. I am taking statistics and Intro to Psychology this term and I was doing well the first week but a mishap happened during the second week that I was not able to do really do well. Now week 3 is about to end and I am just now starting on it. Hopefully I'll get back on track as I really want to do well in these two classes so I may continue onward.

As for the pregnancy, I just started month 6. I cannot believe it, only 3 more months to go (if the baby coroporates). I believe I started to feel the first movement the other day when I was laying on my right side. It was a very gentle several pushes and I laid there for a second thinking was it a muscle spasm or not. That night Andrew laid his head on my belly and said he could hear the baby move. Course I still cannot feel anything and wonder if he was hearing the sounds my stomach makes. In about a week and half we will have another sonogram to hopefully determine the sex. As much as Andrew has been wanting a girl, I am hoping for a girl as well. Mostly because he has gotten me into looking at girl items and I already have ideas and cannot wait. I'm thinking we will go with a pink camo theme in the room if it is a girl but only finances will determine that.

As for finances, I hate to do this but I am thinking of taking another loan from my 401K that will pay off seven out of eight credit cards. If we can do that, then basically Andrew's paycheck can take care of almost everything else and my paycheck would mostly be used for gas and groceries. We are hoping to get things cleared out before the baby comes and start saving as well because we hope to make a trip to Ohio after the baby arrives so his father can see his first grandchild since he will not be able to make the trip here. I know there is income tax but that is mostly going to be used maybe for some house repairs or help us buy some of the big items needed for the nursery as we do not have anything yet. If everything goes the way we are seeing it, we will be back in the black in just a few weeks.

Granted with finances, we are down to one vehicle. That will change soon as we are looking into a vehicle that is affordable and does well on gas. Andrew has found a 2008 Crysler Sybring that is for $10K and we are just waiting for the Liberty to drop off our credit before we apply for it. If we cannot, we will try to go one more month with just one vehicle to give us time to save some $$ and find that vehicle we both like.

As for the rest of us, everyone is doing well. Andrew is still a correctional officer out at the Ware unit in Colorado City. He actually likes it and I do not plan to ask him to transfer to Middleton or Robertson just to be closer to his family if he likes who he works for. I have moved back to customer service and I'm enjoying being on nights again and with a more less stressful responsibility. Toby will be 6 this year, my old man. He started to lose a little weight and I hope that after the baby, we'll do more walking so we both can work on the weight loss. Abby will be 1 in May (on my due date) but unfortunately she was the mishap that had me fall behind on school work. She fell from the back of the truck going 30 MPH. She ended up breaking her hip and the vet feels that bed rest is the best way right now as she is still growing. In a few months I will request x-rays to see how the bones are coming. Its been a week since the accident and she refuses to be bed ridden, stubborn dog. Kinder and Kara are still good. Kara has been more loving with me since I have been pregnant that I wonder if she will try to be mama kitty.

As for the year, its been really good so far. We will celebrate our 4 year anniversary on Feb 3 and that is when we hope to determine sex. It would be a great anniversary gift. I hope to update later when I have more time. Need to get started on school work.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

2009 is almost to a close

In less than a week, we will be saying "goodbye" to 2009 and "hello" to 2010. I have to say that I'm actually happy to see it go. Its been a long and partly bad year and hope that 2010 can be a change for us. I wanted that to happen this year but it just kept getting bad.

Lets start with the lady who lived across the street backed up in my truck in April. It took $250 out of our pocket for the deductible and we still haven't seen it. Probably never see it since the collections department will have to take out interest and other things. Since then we have been $250 short every paycheck.

We (or Andrew) have been on a compulsive buying spree. He purchased a motorcycle this year which I am happy for since he's always wanted one but course here at the end of the year it is hurting us. Hopefully next year we can use it for more use than we are now.

June was rough on us because Andrew was let go of BlueCross BlueShield and he was trying to find another job. It was begin of the resession where it was hard to find jobs. I was wondering if we were going to be filing bankruptcy anytime soon.

The end of June was a bad part of the year for me. I lost a very special love one to me, my friend, grandma. We still question what happened that made her fall so quickly but in the long run she is not suffering so much. I still miss her even though I really haven't grieved for her. I don't think she wants me to but I hope she hears me when I tell her I love her and miss her so much.

Course before grandma went, we heard a sign of good news. Andrew got the call from the State of Texas to be a correctional officer. I was happy because he would be getting twice as much as he was from BCBS and hoped he would like it. 6 weeks later he graduated and was showing signs he enjoyed his new career. He is currently working out in Colorado City, TX in the Ware unit and enjoys the people he works with and what he does.

Another good sign was in the fall when we found out we are expecting our first child. I was mostly upset that my grandmother wasn't here to enjoy this with me but spiritally she is watching. Who knows, maye she was the one who helped us with the blessing of a child. I just hope she continues to watch over us and allows us to have a healthy child.

Now of course we decided to get rid of our Scion and put $1000 down for a Jeep Liberty. This was a bad idea as we then ended up being really short on bills and tried desperatly to catch up. Thanks to our Christmas money from Granny Clayton, it has helped us catch up closer where we are almost in the black. If my brother is serious about buying our TV and taking over payments on the Jeep, we should be back up where we were and this will help us prepare more for the child.

Now, this is what I can remember for this year but course I live for the future. I want to meet our little bundle of joy and can't wait to get our family started. I'm still on the lookout for a career and still leaning towards the Air Force but I do not want to take Andrew away from where he enjoys working. Its like I'm stuck inbetween even if Andrew says he does not mind what I do. I just want to support my family and being able to offer our child (and future children) things we were not able to enjoy. Want to be able to travel more as a family and be not only financially stable but have the stability as a family.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a great New Year's. I hope to keep up on my blogging in the future. If not, leave me a message on facebook to tell me to update.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

10 Weeks

Its been a while since I posted anything on here. Its been busy and very hectic. Well, I have reached week 10 of my pregnancy. Course sometimes I feel like I'm not pregnant at all. I have another appointment on November 5 and I do hope he/she is growing. I think we are ready for this new change and sometimes I feel like we still like having our own time. Course who is ready for a child?

We have hit a rock bottom this week. I had to put down Duke. Reason being was his hip dysplesia was so bad that only surgery would help most of his pain but its not a guarantee of fix. Lowest cost would be $1300 and that is combining both sides of the hips ($650 one side, then another $650 on the other after 6 - 12 months after the first surgery). Another option would have been $5000 to get a total hip replacement. We placed him on pain killers but it got to where that wasn't helping much so we had to do the unthinkable. I really didn't want to but it got where he didn't want to eat much so we had no other choice. He had a good 2 years of life.

Another problem was that a pipe in our hot water plumbing started to leak. Course we have the old plumbing that was discontinued in the early 90's but we don't have the $4500 to replace all the plumbing. Hopefully one day we might or someone who gets the house next can do it. It would help the plumbing get back up into code. Andrew was able to do the fix so that way we don't have to worry much about it.

Friday morning I was surprised that someone (or few people) decided to be stupid an throw a rock at my truck window causing the driver side window to spider the entire glass (we have the safety glass so it doesn't shatter). Other people on our street were unlucky and had their windows broken out. Going to cost us over $300 to replace the window. We are really short on cash so this is not helping.

Then Andrew had to call me Friday night to put icing on the cake by telling me the Jeep we have got a flat tire and its where nobody can patch it up. He is going to find a way to patch it up and try to scround up some money so we can try to get another tire. We do need to replace all the tires since they are almost bald. Again, no money for a while. I was extremely stressed out that it happened. I have no idea what else to do.

We are probably going to sell Andrew's motorcycle and our glass dinette set. We are even looking into selling our house so we can try to save $$. Maybe see if my father wouldn't mind us crashing at his place for a few months so we can get things under controlled and find a place to rent that will allow us with four animals. Everyone is getting hit but we are trying to save ourselves now before a baby comes and add more problems with finances.

These are just ideas till we get things back under control. I ask for prayers as we try to get out of it. Andrew is working his best and he has a really good job and enjoys it as I am trying to find one after the baby is born. I was excepted to work as a correctional officer but I'm thinking I'll apply for the Air Force once I have the baby and get in shape. Anyways. This is the update as of now.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Here is another recap on our vehicles. These are the vehicles that Andrew and I have had since we met in Feb 06.

1) 96 Nissan P/U (my vehicle)
2) 05 Chevy Cobalt (Andrew's)
3) 98 Jeep Cherokee (traded in 1)
4) 88 Honda Civic (Andrew puchased)
5) 83 Chevy Chevette (Free vehicle)
6) 06 Jeep Wrangler (traded 2 & 3)
7) 96 Mitsubishi Eclipse (was mine, turned to Andrew's)
8) 07 Dodge Ram (traded in 6; mine vehicle)
9) 92 Honda Accord (free; just till we were able to sell it)
10) 03 Chevy Avalanche (Andrew's vehicle, sold after three months)
11) 08 Toyota Scion XD (obtained a few days after sold #10)
12) 83 Jeep CJ7 (swapped #7 for, sold after a year)
13) 09 Honda Shadow Aero (our first motorcycle)
14) 05 Jeep Liberty (someone is taking the payments on #11)


We wanted a more reliable vehicle with a baby coming and the Jeep is actually lower in payments and insurance. I think this will be it for a while. Only one more vehicle when the baby is born and that is my motorcyle a Kawasaki Ninja 250.

Monday, September 7, 2009

September

I'm falling behind and I do apologize for that. I am trying to get on a schedule but its harder than I thought. Especially when you have a husband who does not go along and forgets things. So far, this month.....ran into a problem with Andrew's direct deposit. Seems like for the State of Texas it could take up to more than a month for it to work. Hopefully that will get corrected soon. My sister-in-law is attempting to get her driver's license but has failed it twice. I am hoping she can pass it soon but she better be reading the book. My brother turned 13. We had a BBQ on Sunday with the family. We brought a go kart that Andrew built up and it was fun. We got him a DSi for his birthday so I can get my PSP and DS back. Now on to the goals that I tried to accomplish for August.

1) Plan a budget. [X] Well, this is not working properly since we are still trying to catch up from the month and half we were getting just one paycheck. Hopefully soon we can catch it back up. I can probably pay off two credit cards this month but we'll see how that goes.

2) Develop mean plans. [X] Nothing has been planned yet but I hope to get this going this month. Andrew will soon start the 2nd shift (1400-2245) so both of us will be on the night shift till October when I move to days so we can try to make lunch and maybe dinner.

3) Start a multivitamin. [X] I have the multivitamins and were taking them daily but fell behind on weekends. They make my urine neon yellow its funny but I have started it and do try to take them regularly.

4) Go to the gym 3-5 times weekly. [X] I was doing well on this but then I decided to move my gym time to the morning than at night. I was waking up at 11AM when I worked out at night and I need to get used to going to days since in a month night shift is no more. I figured trying to get to the gym around 7AM and working out. I did fall behind for a week and half but I have been able to maintain my weight.

5) Try to not have Dr. Pepper for this month. [X] This so did not go well. I was doing good till the end of the month when my husband orders for me and he automatically orders DP. I ended up drinking about 10 for the month. So far this month, I've had maybe 3, course you can't be mad at me. Its 10 out of a 30 days in the month. That is still good.

6) Find a new job (locally). [X] Nothing has bitten to my applications yet. Lithia Toyota called to set up an interview but I never called them back. I'm not sure if I can sell cars. I haven't heard back from TDCJ yet but I have to give them 45 days before I start asking what is going on. I'm still at BCBS but thinking about getting a part time job to help pay stuff off quickly.

7) Save for trip to Sea World! [X] Nothing has been saved and it might have to wait till next year. Grrr!

8) Trip to Montgomery?HA! [X] Sorry Denise. It didn't happen this month but hopefully one day soon. Andrew hasn't visited that part of Texas and I want him to experience as much as Texas as I have. I know there is tons of stuff to do and I want him to meet one of my good friends. Hopefully sometimes this year.

9) Straighten up the house. [X] Well, I'd get the house how I'd like it but it wouldn't last a week. Maybe I better wait till Andrew hears back about housing. It is just hard when we both work and we just do not want to do anything. Maybe if I was on days it would be different.

10) Fix the yards. [X] Another not accomplished. The dogs are killing the backyard quicker than I can clean it up. We did pick up majority of the poop but they keep filling it back up. I want to tear up both from and backyard and find ways to prepare it for next year but its going to cost more $$ than I can plan. Does anyone know how we can get a hold of a plow?

11) Graduate with my Associate's....decide on a Bachelor's. [X]. I did get my Associate's in Interdisiplinary Studies. I am proud of myself but now I'm waiting to hear back when I can register for my Bachelor's. I figured the quicker I can get started on this the quicker I can find a better job that pays really well and I can pay back on my student loans.

Ok, so 3 out of 11 were accomplished. That just means that those eight that I did not accomplish will need to be carried on till I can accomplish them. I still haven't figured out what else I need to plan for this month but maybe just these eight can do. Well, I'll try to keep more updated. Hit me up on facebook, I'm on that constantly.