Finances

Dearest Blessings~

Joshua, you made it in your toddler bed until 12:30am(ish) this morning.  Then, you got up out of bed and cried as you walked up to our bed.  :-P  Grace, you then woke up at 4:21am.  Daddy changed your diaper and then I nursed you.  I continued to hold you once you fell back asleep.  You woke back up at 6am.  I took you into the play room.  You played in your swing and did some tummy time.  I ate a little cereal and then I read as I nursed you.  I'm reading a book about finances and retirement .... not that I'm anywhere near the age of retirement, though you two probably think I'm geriatric!  But, it's never too early to start planning.

Plus, finances have been on our mind recently since we're refinancing our house to lock into a low interest rate.  I wonder what the housing market will look like when you all read this.  It took a nose dive a few years back when the market crashed.  I'm sure you all will read about it in future history books!  ;-)  We're locking into a 4.5% interest rate.  What are the rates for you all when you read this?  

Anyway, since we've been talking about budgets recently, daddy and I also opened up a college savings account for each of you today.  Woo hoo!  You two are going to college!  ;-)  Once we set them up, I turned to you both and said, 'You're going to be a Tarheel!'  Joshua smiled and Grace gave a little cheer!  It was cute!

I think daddy and I are pretty good with finances and a budget .... daddy especially is!  He has his Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from Yale.  ;-)  He set up a budget for the house and we've stuck to it pretty well.  For example, for this current month of July, we only went out to eat two times!  That really saved on our budget .... and we're healthier for it I'm sure.

Grace, you poor thing .... you've had the hiccups all day.  Even when I nursed you, you continued to hiccup.  :-P

We made a pizza for lunch.  It started to really thunderstorm as we were all downstairs.  So, we ended up putting movie on after lunch in the playroom since it was wet outside.  We watched 'Singin in the Rain' .... which was an appropriate title for our current weather.  I can't complain though .... it made the day cooler (low 80's today) and we needed the rain.

Once the sun came out, we ran some errands.  We went to the pet store and picked up a special kind of litter for the cat.  It's suppose to help with picky cats who don't use the box.  I hope it helps!  He pooped outside the box again this morning!  While we were there, Joshua had fun looking at the dogs, fish, gerbils, and other animals .... Grace, you were sleeping.  ;-)

We went back to Lowes to pick up a bigger ceiling fan for the play room.  We measured and we can fit a 70" fan up there.  They had a nice one yesterday when we went, but today it was gone!  What?!  Who else would have grabbed a 70" ceiling fan in 24 hours!  Oh well!  As we drove off, we got caught in a heavy thunderstorm.  I had to pull the car over since it was so heavy.  Once it let up, we tried a second Lowes and they were out of the ceiling fan we needed too!  Ugh!  It just wasn't our day for a fan.  :-P

When we got back, I did a quick pump as Joshua ate some hotdog for daddy.  I felt a little sick this evening, but started to feel better once we met Grandpa Mike at the burger place near our house .... Andy's Burgers.  Mimi's out of town, so we just met up with Grandpa Mike.  Joshua, you ate some french fries to add to the hotdog that you ate at the house prior.  Grandpa Mike talked to us about finances too and we told him about the college funds that we started for you two.  As we were leaving, we placed Joshua in Grandpa Mike's car and had him pretend like he was driving it.  ;-)

This evening we all relaxed in the playroom before bedtime.  Daddy read us some Bible stories and I nursed Grace to sleep.

Sleep tight you two!

I love you both!  :-)

~Mommy