Thursday, February 16, 2012

Budgeting

Ok so I figured I type up another post and let you in on a little secret....I need a budget!  I see my one friend being so open and honest about her money and her families budget and I get really jealous.  I am so jealous in fact that I have messaged her in regards to her secret of what she does. 

To go back a few years briefly Steve and I have always been bad with money.  We get a little and we can't wait to burn it and then when it's all gone we look at each other and say where did it all go?  We have gone through a lot recently.  We were foreclosed on and yes we lost our home and it was all because we couldn't pay our mortgage and we were so upside down with the property it just didn't seem worth it all anymore.  We also going back about 3 yrs had over 30,000$ in debt.  That didn't include the house or cars.  We decided at that point we were going to try out on of those debt relief companies.

I have to say that over the last couple years they have done a lot for us by settling out over 25,000$ in debt.  Currently we have less than 5,000$ owed and only one car payment.  I do rent my house so we have that to consider in the mix but I can say that although we have struggled the last few years I am happy that we are almost to a point that we have no credit card debt.  We hopefully only have a few months left to settle these final debts.  Our car payment will still be 2 yrs off but once we have the credit card debt done maybe we can make extra payments and get the car paid off sooner.

This is very hard for me to write as I am admitting not only to myself but to the world that we have a problem.  We don't do very well at handling money.  We try and save and "something" always supposedly comes up or we "have" to have something that really we could live without.  I have tried to be really open about where the money goes but sometimes it just goes and even I don't remember where.

So from here on out we are going to budget our money!  We have a little credit card debt left to repay and we are going to pay it back.  We have some medical bills that need to get paid and they will and we will pay back what we owe on the car and that's it.  So here's to a new year of financial freedom!!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Another year

Even though it's February now I can still say Happy New Year.  A lot has happened in the last 10 months since I last posted.  I have a new baby boy Andrew Jacob. He was born December 8, 2011 weighing in at 8lbs 4oz and was 20 1/4 inches long and a very healthy baby.

The pregnancy itself wasn't as difficult as Aaron's was and for that I was extremely blessed.  I didn't have some difficult moments especially at the end of the pregnancy and when I went in for the c-section I was glad to be done.  The last 8 weeks have been a lot of ups and downs.  First of all healing from the surgery was more difficult this time around and I ended up with a couple of infections.  I also had more pain and swelling as well but I think that in some part it was because I had to keep up with a very active toddler.  I was very excited at the fact that Steve was able to stay home with me for the first 2 weeks and Aaron enjoyed having daddy home as well.  I also noticed that it took longer to bond with Andrew this time around and I think also that is part to not being able to spend as much time with him and having to keep up after Aaron.  I also think that in some part I wasn't really ready to have another baby.  I have since been able to get over all of that and have I believe bonded with Andrew as much as I have Aaron. 

Another up and down with these last 8 weeks is keeping up a relationship and marriage with Steve.  There have been days that I have felt that we were just two people who happened to sleep in the same bed at night but were otherwise just 2 separate people living in the same house.  I have had to become creative at when we can spend time together and really make the effort to do so.  I am so tired at the end of the day when he comes home that all I want to do is hand over the boys and go to bed.  I can say now that Andrew is sleeping through the night that being able to sit down and have dinner and talk with Steve has become a little bit easier.

The last thing that has been bothering me is I think that my body is rebelling against me now.  I have been having such pain in my hips and legs and I was talking to Steve last night and told him that somehow I think it's related to the massive weight swings in the last 3 years.  I gained almost 80 lbs this time around with Andrew and in the last 8 weeks have lost almost 50lbs.  I did get my band adjusted back to around where I was when I had the fluid taken out but it's been fun getting used to eating differently again.  Since we don't plan on having more children at the current moment and if we decide we are it won't be for a couple of years I am hoping that I can lose the weight again and stay consistent for a while and really allow my body to get used to what it should weigh. 

Oh and one more thing....I go back to work in 4 weeks and I am really looking forward to it.  That doesn't mean that I don't like spending my days with my boys I am just not the stay at home mom type.  I think stay at home mom's rock but that is just not me.  I enjoy being a nurse too much to give it up completely.  Also I having jokingly been saying that because Aaron is hooked on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Chuggington that I have been getting "dumber" as the weeks have gone by.  :) 

Final thought:  I plan on being a little more current in my blogging as I really do enjoy it but now in addition to keeping up to date on my weight loss I am going to talk about other things like my boys and my marriage and my finances and all that life entails.....so here's to next time!