One Car Family

Heath & I recently decided to go down to one car.  The decision was mostly made because we had one car rotting away in the garage.  We sold the GTO.  Heath's car was a two door and did not fit our family of four.  My Jaguar is a four door, so yeah, we kept my car.  Obviously!  Heath had an offer on his car about an hour after posting it for sale.  He accepted the offer and the car was gone the same day.  It was so weird to go down to one car, but really, why would we need two cars if I rarely drive during the day when I'm home with the kids?  The GTO was worth more money to us gone than keeping it.  We paid off three credit cards with the money we got from selling the GTO.  We are so much better off financially with having only one car.  We will get a second car when needed, but as of this moment, one car fits us best.  There's so much extra room in our garage now too.  No complaints!

We also recently got rid of our cell phones.  We've had T-Mobile for ten years, but over the last two months, our cell service had dropped exponentially.  We tried to work with them to get the issue fixed, but no matter what happened, it just wasn't going to work out for us.  There's really only one cell tower in our area with a lot of people trying to use it.  T-Mobile's coverage map shows us as "excellent", yet we would rarely have any service.  Heath's iPhone always showed "No Service" or "Searching" and my Galaxy S4 showed one or two bars and on the Edge network.  Totally unacceptable since we are supposedly supported by 4G LTE out here.  We had a land line hooked up on Friday afternoon.  Going down to zero cell phones was weird, too.  But really, it's saving us so much money per month not having smartphones!  We will pocket almost $200/mo now.  Seriously, saving money is boss.

Our next goal to save extra money per month is to refinance our house.  We want to get rid of our mortgage insurance.  When we bought our house, we got an FHA loan.  The mortgage insurance is on the pricey side and we'd like that money in our pocket instead.  I'll be making the phone call to our mortgage company tomorrow to see what could work best for us.  It would be nice to have so much more extra money every month.

We went to Carleigh's open house for school on Friday.  My little girl is getting so big.  She's on the school schedule that doesn't start until September, so while most of her friend's start school tomorrow, she has to wait a few more weeks.  She qualifies to ride the bus since we live a couple of miles from the school.  The only thing left for me to do is call the school district to verify the drop off times for after school.  Our school district only shows the drop off times for full days.  My fingers are crossed that they aren't doing screwy scheduling for half day kindergartners.  If they don't drop off for half day kids, then guess what?  We will be off to buy our second car sooner than expected.  Oh well.  ;)

This blog was a little bit every where and I apologize.  Heath & I shared a bottle of wine with our salmon dinner tonight, so I feel a little out of it while typing this up.  There's just so much going on here right now.  So many changes and it's just crazy.  A good kind of crazy though.  I'll update this again when I'm more sober and able to make more sense.

The Anxiety and Stress

This is another extended family related post.

I have been unable to shake the stress and anxiety I am feeling over the extended family coming out to visit.  I honestly don't want people here at all.  Everything nasty my in-laws have ever said about me before their two year cut out from our lives is coming back in full force.  At this point, I don't even know why we allowed them back into our lives.  I guess it was my "guilt" of wanting them to know their granddaughter.  We allowed them back into our lives about a month before Carleigh was born in 2009.  Since I know their true feelings about me, I'm trying to understand why I allow them around me at all and let them in my home twice a year.  If it wasn't for having their grandchildren, they would more than likely still be cut out of our lives.  I'm tired of having these two faced people in my home.  I'm tired of hearing about what Heath's dad doesn't like about our house, as if I'm suppose to give a fuck what he thinks anyway.  Examples, "I don't like your cats.", "I don't like your couch.", "Are you sure you can afford this house?", etc... First of all, I don't give a shit if you don't like items in my home.  Furnish your own home how YOU like it.  Second, mind your own business when it comes to our finances.  Obviously we can afford our house, you twit.  We don't own two brand new cars and don't rack up debt just to keep up with the Joneses.  We have one car paid off and another to follow soon.  And once the second car is paid off, we are not going to go out and buy another new car just so we can pay someone a monthly payment for the next three to five years again.  I'm sorry my in-laws chose to pay $900/mo for their brand new cars.  That's their deal.

Last post, I said I wanted visiting hours to be from 11am-7pm.  But as their visiting dates get closer, I'd love more than anything to move that time from 11am-4pm.  They don't need to be here for dinner every night.  Nor do they need to be here eight hours a day.  Since I start my new job tonight, my hours will be 6pm-11pm on the weeknights.  I'm only working 20 hours a week.  So I'd like to not have them here all day and deal with them up until the time I leave for work.  Right now, I have Sunday, Monday and Thursday off.  If my schedule stays the same, which it more than likely will, I'd only have Thursday off and away from them during their visit.  I'm not including Monday since they are getting in late that night.  And we're only getting Thursday to ourselves because Heath has to work that day.  Heath told them to find their own things to do on Thursday.

I'm also irritated because Heath wasn't home with me very long after Amelia was born.  He had to save up his PTO for when his parent's were going to come out and visit.  I wish we would not have chosen that route.  Who gives a crap if he didn't have enough PTO for their inconvenient visit?  Nobody asked them to come out to see us for an entire week.  I would have rather had Heath home for a week after Amelia was born to help out around the house.  Instead, he went back to work four days after Amelia was born.  It's not my problem if Heath didn't have vacation time when his parent's came out.  They need to learn that we can't drop everything going on in our lives just to cater to them when they fly out here.  Yes, we live in Las Vegas, but that doesn't mean we can drop everything and go and explore the city and do everything they want to do.  They can go vacation in a different state if that's what they want to do.

Then my mom seemed disappointed when I told her I had to work at least 20 hours a week, even during their visit.  I'm sorry that money doesn't magically appear in our bank account when I chose not to work.  We have bills to pay too.  This part-time job is to help pay off our credit card debts and get more money into savings.  I told her I could try to shift my work schedule around a little bit, but either way, I'd still need 20 hours a week and some of those working days would cut into their visit.  But honestly, I don't go into work until 6pm!  I told her they would still have the entire day to visit until I have to go into work.  It's not the end of the freaking world.  Or is it?

I just can't take it anymore.  I've been trying to lose weight since Amelia has been born.  That weight loss was going well until this stress and anxiety started.  I weighed myself this morning and I gained another two pounds.  Gained!  I got really poor sleep last night because my mind would not turn off from all of this stress.

My mom's crazy is showing again.  I swear she thinks she is psychic.  When I was pregnant, before my mom knew, she told me her and my aunt (her sister) had a dream that I was pregnant.  At that point, I wanted to deny it, but decided not to when I would just announce my pregnancy a few weeks later.  So I said, "Yes, it's me.  I am pregnant... but don't tell anyone yet."  My mom's response was, "OK."  Then a couple of minutes later, my mom said, "I'm texting your aunt right now to tell her her dream was right and that you are pregnant."  WTF?  I just told you NOT to tell anyone.  Then last night, my mom told me her and my aunt (again, her sister) had a dream that four people are pregnant.  My mom said, "I know Ashley (my best friend) is pregnant and I just found out a girl I work with is pregnant.  So we still have two other people not accounted for."  Ugh... So I flat out said to my mom, "you know, dreams are just that dreams.  It doesn't really mean anything."  She said, "I know, but those two other pregnant girls will turn up soon."  OMG, STFU.  I'm tired of it.

Honestly, I've had enough and I just don't want to deal with the crazy anymore.  I decided this morning that we (our little family of four) will celebrate Carleigh's birthday a week before her actual birthday.  Probably on June 22.  Her birthday is June 27.  We can give her her gifts, have some cake, and let her spend her day how she wants to.  The only thing I'll do on Carleigh's actual birthday is say, "Happy birthday!" and leave it at that.  She will be able to have fun and play with friend's before my in-law's get here.  Will that be a big enough hint that they (in-law's) don't need to be here on Carleigh's exact birth date every year?

I think I've vented enough, but I'm sure I'm not done.  I'd just like to go back to feeling normal again.

It's Almost Time

It's almost that time.  Baby A will be here before we know it.  When I was at my 34 week check up, I showed my doctor my contraction counter.  Since I've been getting a lot of contractions, I wanted to show him and ask him when I needed to go to labor and delivery.  He said if I get more than six Braxton Hicks contractions per hour, no matter how long they last or how apart they are, that I need to go in.  He told me at this point, he will not give me anything to stop labor since I'm almost full-term.  He told me he didn't want to scare me, but I could go at anytime now.  I'm not ready for that.  I'm ready merchandise-wise, but not ready to have the baby yet.  I'd like her to come in March.  She's due March 25, so the earliest I would like her to come is March 11.  That would put me at 38 weeks.  Fingers crossed she will stay until 39/40 weeks though.

Last week, I had to take my cat, Baby, to the vet.  Last Friday night, she started to have a problem with her mouth.  I thought it was her jaw.  She started to drool a lot and could not close her mouth.  On Saturday morning, it was still happening so I called the vet.  They were able to squeeze us in that afternoon to get her checked out.  Turns out, she had an abscessed tooth and two other teeth that were really loose.  They did surgery on her and cleaned her teeth.  It set us back almost $500, but hey... that's my kitty we're talking about.  She was totally worth it.  When we brought her home, she was still coming out of her pain killer coma thingy.  She couldn't walk at all.  It was so horrible, yet funny at the same time.  I felt so bad for her, but she's better now.  We were sent home with some medication, of course.  She's a tough cat.  I'm glad we caught this issue in time before it lead to something worse.  Baby is 13 years old and I've had her since she was a kitten.  She really is my baby... in fur form.

This weekend, we paid off our water softener.  That's extra money in our pocket every month.  As soon as Wells Fargo let's us start paying on the GTO again, that will be paid off soon too.  Heath made such a huge payment on his car that the bank sent him a letter telling him not to pay it until May.  I understand they didn't want us to keep paying and paying no interest.  Heath told me he wants to pay $1,500 in May just to piss them off again.  I think these banks should just STFU and take our money.  At least we're paying our bills.  I cannot wait until the car is paid off though.  We will have two cars paid off.  It's been such a long time since we've been free of car loans.

The weather's been getting a lot nicer here, especially this weekend.  It's going to be in the high 70s, low 80s all weekend and into next week.  We have our windows open in the house and enjoying the fresh air.  I got my car washed today after letting it stay dirty for a couple of months.  Since I've been since last month and again last week, I wanted all of the germs wiped out of my car too.  I'm still trying to get over my cold from last weekend.  My nose is kind of stuffy still, but I can smell some things again which is nice.

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day.  Heath grilled us some steaks.  We do not go out to dinner on Valentine's Day.  It's so crazy out there.  We bought Carleigh some Crunch bars and Spongebob gummies in the shape of Krabby Patties.  Heath got me a ton of my favorite chocolates.  And I got Heath his favorite chocolates.  It was a fun Valentine's Day.  We all had fun, especially Carleigh since she got to exchange Valentine's with her school friend's.

You're Not My Interior Designer

Can I go on a rant for the next five minutes?

My father-in-law has said he doesn't like our couch.  He thinks it's uncomfortable.  Heath & I love it.  We bought it a couple of years ago when we had to throw out our old leather couch due to damages.  Our couch is a five piece sectional and it's microfiber.  It's a great couch for a house with kid's and pets.  The couch is comfortable for us.  Carleigh always takes naps on it, so it can't be that horrible.  And honestly, if you only come out to visit twice a year, stop complaining.  If you hate our couch, sit your ass on the floor.  Let me know how comfortable that is.

So anyway, my father-in-law kept calling Heath and leaving voicemails today.  He even sent a text that was like, "Can you please call me back NOW!!"  something like that.  When Heath saw that, he was thinking it was some kind of emergency, so while we were shopping, Heath calls his dad back.  I could overhear Heath talking about leather.  So I turn around and just give him that "seriously, is that what was SO important?" look.  His dad kept calling us over a COUCH he saw at Sam's Club.  He told Heath that they found a "nice" leather couch and chair set at Sam's Club for $700 and wanted to buy it for us for Christmas because our couch isn't that great and because of our "situation".  I don't really know what "situation" he's referring to.  First of all, I don't want leather furniture in my house.  Not because it sucks, but because we are going to have not one, but two young kids and pets.  I'll pass on all leather furniture until we're old and retired.  Second of all, you're not our interior decorator.  Stop trying to buy furniture for our house.  If he liked that set, he should've bought it for his own damn house.  Just saying.

I cannot stand the meddling.  I think he assumes that since we are going to have two kid's and plan to go one income or me working part-time only that we won't be able to afford anything ever again.  He forgets that we are being responsible and not buying two brand new cars every six months.  Good for him if he makes six figures, but that doesn't make you "rich" by any means.  We have one car paid off and another to follow within the next five to six months.  There will be some other random small debts paid off too.  If I continued to work full-time and had two kid's in daycare, then we would have a "situation" on our hands because that would be about $1,500/mo for two kid's in daycare.

I just wish they would shut the hell up and worry about themselves.  I'm tired of having them make decisions for our family as if we can't make them for ourselves.  I'm tired of them assuming we have money troubles.  I'm tired of them assuming we can't do anything for ourselves.  They have their adult son (25) living with them still because I know they do the same shit to him too.  He enjoys it, so he figures why should he ever move out.

All I'm saying is, please let us purchase our own furniture for our house and stop complaining about the furniture we bought.  I really don't care if you think our couch is uncomfortable.  That's not my problem.  We bought our couch because it was comfortable for us.  It makes us happy, so deal with it.  Sit on some plastic $5 chair from Walmart if you hate our couch that much.  No one is stopping you from bringing your own chair.

Mood Swings

Mood swings are the absolute worse thing about being pregnant.  At least they are to me at this current moment.  I'm not really sure what triggered the mood swings, but I have them and I want to scream.  We went shopping at Target and got groceries after that.  I was feeling moody at the grocery store and all day after that.  It's just awful.

On Thursday, I left work for a couple of hours to see my doctor because I was having some cramp-like pains on my right side.  I found out it was just a round ligament and it's totally normal to have.  I don't remember having something like that when I was pregnant with Carleigh.  It also caused some really awful backaches too.  This pregnancy is definitely harder than my first.  The doctor also told me I wasn't gaining enough weight.  I'm 18 weeks and only up five pounds so far.  Honestly, who cares?  Every woman is different in her pregnancy.  I can't force myself to eat more during the day to gain weight.  If I overeat, it will make me nauseous and uncomfortable.  The holidays are coming up and I'm sure I'll gain enough weight during then.  With Carleigh's pregnancy, I gained too much weight.  So I think my body is just taking it easy this time around.  My 20 week scan is scheduled for November 6.  Then my 3D ultrasound is November 9.  It should be fun since Carleigh gets to go to the 3D appointment.

In other news, we paid off my Jaguar last week.  I am so excited to no longer have a car payment.  Heath's car isn't too far behind.  We are getting closer and closer to becoming a one income family.  If anything, I'll just have to work part-time to help pad things until we can fully reach that goal.  We are trying to avoid having me go back to work full-time after the baby is born because paying for daycare for two is very expensive.  Carleigh starts kindergarten next fall, but I'd still rather be home to drop her off and pick her up every day.  Otherwise we would have to pay the daycare for morning and after school care.  It's just an expense we don't need and would like to try to avoid at all costs.  It's doable.

Carleigh is excited for Halloween.  She's going to be Minnie Mouse this year.  We are taking her to the pumpkin patch tomorrow.  We are painting instead of carving this year.  It will be less of a mess for me to clean up.  That's always a win.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!