Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Family Update!

Whooo ok so I thought it was high time for a general family update!

Lots of different stuff so... the bulleted list!

  • JOBS-  Ok I'm not sure if I mentioned this on here yet... but I do have a regular part-time teaching job now!  I'm teaching the three and four year old preschool classes at our church.  Pay is less than what I would make subbing regularly but it's STEADY work and I finally get to have my own classroom.  So yay!  Hubby still has his job with the medical supply company and it's going ok.  They've cut overtime and hired a 4th driver so he isn't making as much overtime as he was before (which we unfortunately had come to count on) so that hurts a bit BUT on the flip side it's nice having him home more.  He is always on the lookout for other opportunities though.  AND also I will be starting this Tuesday evening tutoring a 5th grade boy once a week.  I know him from subbing at his school so I think it will be great for both of us.  It'll be a little extra income too and I don't have to be away from my baby that much more (only an hour each week)
  • FINANCES & WORKING TO BECOME DEBT FREE-  hoookay so I think I mentioned this once but we are doing Dave Ramsay's steps to financial freedom.  We haven't even gotten the first baby step BUT are working toward it.  We are currently trying to sell our Jeep.  Unfortunately at the moment it has been listed for a month and STILL hasn't sold.  We've dropped our price by $500 and still nothing.  So next week we are gonna offer bottom line (what we owe) on it and pray someone takes it!  If not then we are gonna have to figure out what else we can do to get our monthly payment down enough we can have some money left over after bills to actually save.  (We're exploring things like refinancing our current loan for a lower interest rate, possibly trading the Jeep on another vehicle and trying to get the payment down where we need it and then selling our Malibu, or even trading both the Jeep and Malibu for something...)  Anyway prayers in this matter for us are greatly appreciated!!!  I'm really anxious to "get the ball rolling" on our debt snowball so we can be DONE with debt, especially credit card debt!
  • JACKSON'S FIRST BIRTHDAY is coming wayyy too soon for this mama!  I have started to plan his party though.  I'm going to be doing a couple YouTube vids about it (if I can find the time), but we have decided on a theme (Little Monsters), venue (we are cramming our family and close friends in our house), and date (the 23rd, Saturday after his birthday).  I'm planning on making the smash cake & cupcakes (note- PLANNING... will have to do a trial run beforehand) and doing $5 pizzas and finger foods.  Hoping to keep it low budget (after all, he doesn't really care-- it's basically for me lol!)  I have a board on Pinterest you can follow if you'd like to see my inspirations!
  • FALL IS HERE!  My favorite season by far!  We are hoping to get away on a little weekend camping trip, either with my brother & his family or just the three of us at some point, just depends on money (blah).  Then we will have Jackson's first Halloween.  I am planning on taking him out in his costume with my nieces (though we won't be asking for any candy ;)).  Then the next thing you know his birthday & Thanksgiving will be here!  I love the Fall weather and pretty leaves... and the fact that it ends with my son's birthday just makes it all that much better!
  • BABY #2.  Thought I might as well address that now since lots of people have asked me this.  Haha.  So no we are not currently trying for or hoping for another baby ;)  But yes we do want more kids.  Some days when I happen to see a newborn or when I realize how BIG Jackson is getting now, I can feel that baby fever start to creep up.  But then my common sense takes over and while we would welcome another baby if God decided we needed one now-- I would really like to wait a little longer.  Till Jackson is sleeping through the night would be nice for one, and also I think we need to be at least in a little better financial position than we are at the moment.  I'm not going to wait until we are debt free because honestly that's going to take us several years I'm sure.  But it would be good to wait until we are at least able to SAVE money for when I am off work-- because that's when we got into the most trouble with credit cards was when I was on maternity leave with Jackson.  So yeah I'd like to have enough saved up that it will cover my lack of income for at least 8 weeks.  But that being said we actually aren't doing a whole lot now to prevent pregnancy.  Despite breastfeeding, I still got my cycles back at 5 months postpartum (and I hadn't even started Jackson on solids yet at that time!  Lol I felt gipped!) I'm taking ovulation tests and we are trying to avoid my most fertile time (though my cycles are irregular now that I am nursing), and we are otherwise using a particular "method" that isn't exactly super effective.  So there is a chance I could get pregnant now but it's pretty low.  My original plan was to prevent until Jackson turns a year and then we would just not try but not prevent.  That's still the tentative plan but that may change.  I don't think we will be doing that whole "TTC" thing this time though.  We did that with Jackson and it took us a year to get pregnant and it was just stressful and such.  This time we plan to just quit preventing and then when it happens- it happens! 
Alright I think that's about it for this update!  Until later!

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