Rambling Thoughts

I am so glad that it is Friday!  Matter of fact, I am glad that next week only has four and a half days for us to attend.  And, when we are released at noon next Friday, I don't have to come back until January 4th!  The worst part is that I will not be able to post anything here whenever I feel the urge.  I will have to find a computer to use.  Don't think for a minute though that I would trade my days off for having access to a computer!

I have gotten most of our Christmas gifts bought and wrapped.  They are not under the tree yet though because we have not put our tree up.  I know....pretty soon it will be too late.  But we haven't been home a lot these past few weeks.  I am hoping to get it up this weekend.  If not, then it may have to wait until we get out of school.

I entered this contest with the letter to my younger self a few days ago. Thought I would have a decent chance since nobody had entered it at that time.  Now there are several others that have entered, so my chances are slowly decreasing!  Much easier to win something when you are the only entry!

Also discovered that according to Georgie over at decisionally challenged, I am nowhere near the last one to mail my Secret Santa gift.  There are still 75 folks who have not sent in the delivery confirmation number....and there are only four more sending days until they should be shipped.  I somehow feel much better about that!  I also got driving directions to see just how many miles the package I mailed had to travel from my house to theirs.  Can't tell you now, but I will once we are allowed to disclose who we sent our gift to.  I think it would be fun to know just whose gift traveled the farthest to reach it's destination!

This weekend, we are going to be doing something special.  But I can't tell you about it yet.  I want to have pictures to go with my explanations.  I will tell you that it is something that we joined in on last year and have decided that it will be something that we will attempt to do every year from now on.  Last year it was cold and windy and this year looks to be the same way unfortunately.

Have I mentioned how much I hate being cold?  Well, I don't like it at all.  As I sit here typing this in a supposedly warm building, I have a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie on.  Plus jeans and two pairs of socks.  And no, I am not breaking a sweat.  Honestly....my feet are still cold!  Other than that, I am fairly comfortable.

My husband's cousin is living in Hawaii at the moment.  She was saying the other day that she was going to the beach and that it was hot there.  I told her that I hoped that she and her husband were sent to Alaska by the Army on their next assignment.

The Boy tells me this morning on the way to work/school that he has two different Christmas lists.  He makes one for me and one for his father.  Tells me that this way he won't get duplicate gifts.  Smart, except that by doing this, when there is nothing on the list that I can either afford or am willing to get, then I don't have a clue that there are other things out there he is wishing for.  And I discovered that of these two lists, the items I have been presented with are much more expensive than what is on the other list!  I think the DNA Donor has The Boy convinced that I make more money than he does.  Amazing how that is so far from the truth!

I told The Boy that he needs to only make one list and then if it is a big thing that he is asking for, then if I decided I wanted to be the one to get it for him, I would just call DNA Donor and let him know to mark it off the list.  I know there are problems with that theory, (because I have lived through them) but I still feel it is the best solution.  Convincing The Boy of that is an entirely different thing.

Got paid yesterday.  It is gone.  Early in the year, I sat down and made a list of all our bills and when they were due.  I then made a list with all the dates that both myself and Crazy Man were supposed to be paid.  Once that happened, then I could assign bills to a paycheck.  Every bill has a paycheck.  Everything gets paid this way, and sometimes I get ahead.

How do I get ahead?  Well, some months have an extra week in them.  The way I do it, the bills come out in order.  That way at the end of the year when Crazy Man's checks get smaller because of less work available for him, I don't have to worry about not having the money to pay a bill.

I also have figured out that at the end of the week before I add in the next check, I divide the total my checkbook shows and take half of that to put into savings.  Even if it is only a couple of dollars, I have been able to save quite a bit.  We have been saving like this for 9 months so that we can have money to spend on our Hawaii trip.  I like being able to have money ready to pay bills so that I am not looking to see who can be put off for another month.

We don't make a lot of money, but we have everything we need.  And, even some things that we want!