So hubby and I decided to get married. We went off to Sedona, Arizona and had a very private ceremony. Then we traveled around the Southwest seeing the sites. When we got back home and was completely moved in and free of my apartment, we had the "discussion" about my debts. I had been paying minimums on my loans since they were automatically deducted from my paycheck. It was the credit card debt that I was so so embarrassed to share. It wasn't super outrageous. I had roughly $6000 in credit card debt, plus my car loan and the furniture/debt consolidation loan. I can't remember exactly how much I owed on the loans.
Without even know what we were doing, we started paying things off. After all we were DINK's now (Double Income, No Kids. We were really starting to make a dent in things. I can't remember the EXACT order of things... Mommy brain and all. lol
My hubby listens to a lot of talk radio. He started listening to Dave Ramsey's show on the radio. He insisted we sit down and figure out a budget, then make some envelopes for each budget item and put cash into them from each paycheck. We quickly paid off all the credit card debt and my loans. We were left with just our mortgage. During this time, I was laid off. Big bummer. I was happy to be without the headache of my job, but oh so disappointed that it would take us that much longer to pay off the mortgage. Especially since we had agreed that we would pay it off completely before moving... so glad we didn't also agree to waiting on kids til then.
I was never able to find a job... this was back in 2001. I didn't really want a job and just wanted a break from working. I looked and didn't really find anything. Shortly after being pink slipped, we found ourselves unexpectedly pregnant. Talk about a game changer. Well, I ended up losing the baby. It got us thinking though about purposefully starting a family. We upgraded the cavalier to a camry. We ended up taking out a home equity line of credit to pay for it. So that pushed the mortgage up. Which also meant it would take longer to pay off the mortgage. BTW our mortgage was about $55,000 at that time on a starter house.
I'll pick up Pt. 3 with the next chapter of our life... KIDS! And how we had to adjust to one income with an increasing family size.
Showing posts with label moms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moms. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
No sick days for mom
I haven't been seriously ill in years. The last time I had the flu I was 18 and once I got over it, I was then sick for two straight months with doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Finally after many tests, they came up with a diagnosis of Crohns disease. The very next day I landed myself in the hospital for two weeks on a liquid diet, 20 pounds lighter, had a feeding tube inserted into my chest, and missed my high school graduation. Talk about a bummer. But that was all before kids and I still had my mom to take care of me. That's another story for another time.
Flash Forward too many years than I care to count. Time for the flu round 2. At least according to my symptoms it is allegedly the flu. It hits me hard on Friday afternoon. Body aches all over the place, fever, coughing, fatigue. You name it. I can still function, but anything beyond turning the channel on the TV is a bit much. Let alone trying to figure out what to feed two kids who aren't old enough to make their own dinner. And since we now have an operational wood stove I have to keep stoking the fire and adding wood. Since I'm freezing my butt off with chills I get the temp. up to 75 degrees. Oh and did I mention I had to bring more wood inside at least twice......
Saturday roles around and hubby takes B to his cub scout hike. They are gone all morning, leaving me alone with Grainerd. Taking care of one child with a very active imagination is pretty easy. She just plays with baby dolls while mommy sleeps... or tries to. B's cub scout shirt was dirty so I had to do the kids' laundry. The floor needed to be swept, dishwasher emptied, things put away... and you guessed it, more wood brought in. If I don't do it then who will? and to what standards? Oh, and did I mention that hubby just had to go out and hunt later in the afternoon? leaving me with two kids to take care of and feed dinner to. He's great about taking over when I'm sick, but give me a break. We won't starve if you don't get that elusive deer.
Sunday comes around and I get out of bed feeling great! That feeling is fleeting and within an hour or two of waking I'm feverish again and all I want to do is sleep. At least the body aches have gone away. Since I didn't get to hubby's laundry on Friday or Saturday, I feel I must get his done so he has clean underwear.
Monday shows it's darling face. Hubby is working on a special project at work so he is working 1st shift. Which means that mom has to get B and Grainerd ready for school. Getting B on the bus is no big deal. But Grainerd I have to drive to school. Which also means I need to at least look presentable. We get on the road and I'm sure that I'm not fit to drive but we are already at least halfway there, so I press on. I sleep while she's at school until it's time to pick her up. Maybe I'm a bad mom because I took her to school when I was sick. But she wasn't so why should she suffer. I take the easy way out for lunch and run through the BK drive thru. At least she wanted apples instead of french fries. Still had to make dinner for the family since hubby who normally does the cooking doesn't get home until 4:30 and we are having chili.
So here we are at Tuesday. I'm still tired but at least there is no fever... yet. And we aren't talking a high fever either. Only like 99.5 but it knocks me out for the count. I'm left wondering how kids can still act "normal" when their fever is 101 and sometimes higher? My kids seem to do okay until it hits 102.
I've also been trying to quarantine myself this whole time hoping that nobody else in my family gets sick. Time will tell if that works. So far so good. At least this time around with the flu things seem to be pretty mild.
Flash Forward too many years than I care to count. Time for the flu round 2. At least according to my symptoms it is allegedly the flu. It hits me hard on Friday afternoon. Body aches all over the place, fever, coughing, fatigue. You name it. I can still function, but anything beyond turning the channel on the TV is a bit much. Let alone trying to figure out what to feed two kids who aren't old enough to make their own dinner. And since we now have an operational wood stove I have to keep stoking the fire and adding wood. Since I'm freezing my butt off with chills I get the temp. up to 75 degrees. Oh and did I mention I had to bring more wood inside at least twice......
Saturday roles around and hubby takes B to his cub scout hike. They are gone all morning, leaving me alone with Grainerd. Taking care of one child with a very active imagination is pretty easy. She just plays with baby dolls while mommy sleeps... or tries to. B's cub scout shirt was dirty so I had to do the kids' laundry. The floor needed to be swept, dishwasher emptied, things put away... and you guessed it, more wood brought in. If I don't do it then who will? and to what standards? Oh, and did I mention that hubby just had to go out and hunt later in the afternoon? leaving me with two kids to take care of and feed dinner to. He's great about taking over when I'm sick, but give me a break. We won't starve if you don't get that elusive deer.
Sunday comes around and I get out of bed feeling great! That feeling is fleeting and within an hour or two of waking I'm feverish again and all I want to do is sleep. At least the body aches have gone away. Since I didn't get to hubby's laundry on Friday or Saturday, I feel I must get his done so he has clean underwear.
Monday shows it's darling face. Hubby is working on a special project at work so he is working 1st shift. Which means that mom has to get B and Grainerd ready for school. Getting B on the bus is no big deal. But Grainerd I have to drive to school. Which also means I need to at least look presentable. We get on the road and I'm sure that I'm not fit to drive but we are already at least halfway there, so I press on. I sleep while she's at school until it's time to pick her up. Maybe I'm a bad mom because I took her to school when I was sick. But she wasn't so why should she suffer. I take the easy way out for lunch and run through the BK drive thru. At least she wanted apples instead of french fries. Still had to make dinner for the family since hubby who normally does the cooking doesn't get home until 4:30 and we are having chili.
So here we are at Tuesday. I'm still tired but at least there is no fever... yet. And we aren't talking a high fever either. Only like 99.5 but it knocks me out for the count. I'm left wondering how kids can still act "normal" when their fever is 101 and sometimes higher? My kids seem to do okay until it hits 102.
I've also been trying to quarantine myself this whole time hoping that nobody else in my family gets sick. Time will tell if that works. So far so good. At least this time around with the flu things seem to be pretty mild.
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