Friday, May 31, 2013

Money is crazy... May spending

I'm was going to hold out and wait on our full monthly update because our money is a mess right now... but if I can't be transparent and admit that somehow we have either a $97.36 short fall... or a $705.62 windfall.... I really have no excuse for blogging... especially because I can explain it...

First, there is the Mortgage/Refi Business
We haven't paid our mortgage for May yet... but I still have the money set aside for it... It's technically due June 1st and late by June 15th... but the bank said that they are planning to close our new loan on June 3rd, the loan will most likely fund on Friday June 7th... so I should be able to see the new loan online by Wed the 12th at the latest... and if that's the case it looks like we may not have to cut them a check for May... or even June for that matter because our first mortgage would be due August 1st so we would pay for that in July. Which means technically I have $802.98... so we technically have a surplus of $705.62 after I take off our overage... which is also enough money to happily re-fill last months Roth IRA shortfall and cover the money we want to set aside for our next annual goal... but...

I'm worried that I may need to pay the mortgage after all... our loan may not close on time... and if we don't sign the papers on Monday, I'm paying the mortgage to be on the safe side. But here's where things get tricky. If I end up paying the mortgage, there's a chance we won't have to cut a $400 check for our escrow account for property taxes, because the amount we are short could then be rolled into the loan... possibly--- But on the other side, even if we don't pay the loan for May, we will need approximately $400 to fund the property tax escrow account (or $400 on top of the May mortgage payment).... but, 2 weeks after the loan closes, they will refund the money that's currently in my escrow account right now... Which kind of makes the $400 a wash in the end...

Second, its a three paycheck month
YUP folks, its a 3 paycheck month and that check comes with OVERTIME TOO. The check comes in today so it may in fact have enough money in overtime to cover the current months shortfall and bring us to even (minus the Roth shortfall from last month)... but I don't know because i'm writing this before it hits my account.

Normally I take $1,100 from the extra check i get 2 times a year and dump it into the roth ira... but with all the uncertainty with the mortgage, we are going to keep the money in our checking account in case we need it... and then try and refund the Roth after the refi...  which could make our windfall even larger... like $1,800.00

Third, we broke down and did some shopping...


We kept track of everything and all the receipts, but we did some shopping and strayed from the budget this month. I had overtime and we spent it... We puppy sat over the weekend and spent it... and i'm not mad about it at all.

SCB lost some weight and needed to replace all of his shorts from last summer... and with his new job now, we may need to get him a few more new things... and while it doesn't show up in the budget since I got cash for my birthday from my mom and my aunt, I myself have been doing some serious wardrobe updates since i've lost that 15-20 lbs. Add in last minute grocery runs for SCB so he can pack a lunch for work and trying to fit into our new routine, its not surprising that we exceeded our eating out budget... and I let SCB order us 2 awesome backpacking packs so we can finally use to update our emergency kits.

Fourth, my birthday 
Then there was some of the special carryover birthday spending that happened. SCB didn't realize he needed to do something special for my birthday on my birthday because we celebrated earlier in the week with my family... so the "i'm sorry" birthday tokens appeared... including wonderful cupcakes for the office from nothing bunt cakes....  Then later that week we went to disneyland and just hit the atm for $100 so we would have spending money.... and while we didn't spend all of it at disneyland, we spent some of it on Relay and odds and ends... which brings me to....

The HUGE project I've been working on... the Relay For Life fundraiser that I'm in charge of... that's already raised $97,000 for the American Cancer Society--- that i'm sure we will be spending more money at between food and prizes, and games... so....

All in all, things just aren't so final this month... In fact, they feel more fluid than ever because there just doesn't seem to have a cut off point. But I technically did keep track of all our spending... so here it is... just way skewed...

What we have spent this month
Groceries:  $239.83
Gasoline: $187.42
Car Insurance $520.34
Health Insurance: $178.00
Dr Bill: $8.00
Eating Out: $96.90
Housing: $262.50
Giving: $323.00
Mother's Day: $23.73
Birthdays: $26.82
Electricity: $47.80
Cell Phones: $137.91
Internet: $28.99
Clothes: SCG- $0.00
Clothes: SCB- $62.51
Other: $43.25 (Resume Copies, Plant Container, Relay for Life Fee, Craft embroider)
Camping Supplies: $113.38 two nice camping backpacks from Woot
Craft Yarn for Relay For Life: $93.24
Disneyland: $115.00


What we spent money on in 2013:

  • Church Giving: $1,872.00
  • Groceries/Household Supplies: $1,072.56
  • Wanda and Stitch (our '91 Ford Escort & '04 Toyota Camry):
    • Gasoline: $697.01
    • Car Registration: $189.00
    • Car Insurance: $520.34
    • Car Repairs: $109.20
  • Date Night/ Eating Out: $388.26
  • Cell Phones: $5691.72
  • Internet: $152.74
  • Electricity: $222.91
  • House: 
    • HOA: $1,312.50
    • Mortgage: $3,374.46
    • Refinance: $447.00
  • Clothes:
    • SCG: $91.74 (does not include my birthday shopping spree funded by my mom and aunt.)
    • SCB: $129.31
  • Medical/Dental/Dr/Prescriptions
    • Heath Insurance Premiums: $712.00
    • Prescriptions: $50.00
    • Dr Bill: $8.00
  • Holidays:
    • Valentines Day: $8.50
    • Easter: $13.47
    • Birthdays: 320.31
    • Mother's Day: $23.73
  • Other:
    • Expungement Fees: $292.81
    • Tax preparation Fees: $56.98
    • Computer Parts: $297.32
    • Stamps, Toothbrush heads, Grill Hose $81.52
    • Resume Copies, Plant Container, Craft embroider, Relay For Life Fee: $43.25
    • Camping Backpacks (2): $113.38
    • Yarn for Relay For Life: $93.24
    • Disneyland: $115.00

June Budget...
This probably won't be accurate, but its a best guess... especially at this point...
  1. Pay back May overage if there is one... 
  2. Pay any out of pocket mortgage refinance costs without dipping into the Emergency Fund... 
  3. Get Roth IRA Balance to $2,500.00 since we are 6 months into the year... Currently Need: $1,534.85
How am I going to do all that? With SCB's paychecks, holiday overtime, and hopefully my 3 paycheck from May once the mortgage refinance goes through. Our goal for June is to NOT inflate our life style with SCB's additional income coming in. We will just Tithe and Save it until all the above mess is balanced.... which is going to be REALLY hard to do... especially for him. Right now it looks like SCB will be stationed at 
a local site nearby my work so we aren't sure how big of a gasoline budget we will have to expand our current budget by, so I've added some of that in and made estimates. We also might have to change his paycheck withholding to make sure they are pulling enough out for taxes too. For July we will have a better budget with retirement savings for both of us and better ear marks for savings.

$1424.00 paycheck one SCG

  • Giving $142.00 
  • Mortgage (P&I, Property taxes, MIP): $802.98
  • Fast Offering: $10.00 
  • Groceries & Food: $250.00 
  • Prescriptions & Doctors visits: $50.00 
  • Date Night: $50.00
  • Birthday savings: $50.00
  • Discretionary/Clothes/Things: $50.00 
  • Savings/Surplus: $22.90

$1424.00 paycheck two SCG

  • Giving: $142.00 
  • HOA: $262.50 
  • Insurance (2 Autos, earthquake, homeowners) $129.00 
  • Utility Bills (2 Cell Phones, Electricity, Internet): $230.00 
  • Gasoline/Auto: $200.00 
  • Christmas: $50.00 
  • Kaiser: $178.00 
  • Roth IRA: $236.38
Estimate $160 paycheck one SCB (not a full week of work, training)
  • Church giving: $16.00
  • Savings: $144
Estimate $250 paycheck two SCB (again, not a full week of work due to Relay)

  • Church giving: $25.00
  • Savings: $225.00

Estimate $320 paycheck three SCB (first full week)

  • Church giving: $32.00
  • Savings: $238.00
  • Gasoline? $50.00

Estimate $320 paycheck four SCB  (another full week)

  • Church giving: $32.00
  • Savings: $238.00
  • Gasoline: $50.00
Remaining Financial Goals

  1. Make one extra Mortgage payment this year:  ($162.66 / $650.64) 25%
  2. Put at least 15% of our income into retirement: 10.16% thus far 
    1. Deferred Comp: $50
    2. Roth IRA: $965.15 / $5,000.00
    3. Pension: $791.06
  3. Save $500 for Sealing and Family coming to town in August. ($217.41 / $500.00) 43%
  4. Save $1,500.00?????? for dental work for SCB
  5. Save $1,000.00 for future car repairs and the start of a car replacement fund.
  6. Save $300 for a winter trip out to Utah to visit family.

Remaining Fun Annual Goals Updates
Wow! I've cleared through most of my *fun*annual goals already!

  1. DONE!!!! Find something new to crochet-- sweater, pattern, anything
  2. DONE!!!!! Sew something from scratch or re purpose something I was going to toss out into something I'd wear. You'll have to wait to see the post on this because i'm going to have to take in more clothes and do more work!
  3. DONE!!!! Cook or try to cook 6 new things or recipes
    1. Salmon! (I learned how to cook it in the oven)!
    2. Home made Pico Salsa
    3. Tomato and Cucumber Salad
    4. Broccoli Cakes
    5. Tri Tip Kabobs
    6. Cauliflower Cheese Sticks--- it was gross... we ended up eating pizza instead that night...
  4. DONE!!! Read / Enjoy 6 new books
    1. Sabriel by Garth Nix (audio book)
    2. Lirael by Garth Nix (audio book)
    3. Abhorsen by Garth Nix (audio book)
    4. Nothing to Loose by Lee Child (audio book)
    5. The Hard Way by Lee Child (audio book)
    6. The killing Floor by Lee Child (audio book)
    7. Die trying by Lee Child (audio book)
  5. DONE!!!!! Loose weight (or just get the scale to 148 lbs and stay there or under)
    1. The scale is at 146 WOOT-- and that's fully clothed on my work scale at the gym. Now i'm going to see if I can get down to 145 lbs by the end of June.
  6. Change my last credit card to my married name
  7. DONE!!!! Grow a garden with my neighbor
    1. For any early birthday present, SCB let me get a tomato plant, 3 strawberry plants, and 4 bell pepper plants! The strawberries are sooooo Yummy!
  8. DONE!!!!! Complete a half marathon in 3 hours and 30 minuets or less. DONE
    1. Finished in 2 hours, 41 minutes!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

I told you so...

If you remember back to these two posts (Capital One 360 Fail & Is Capital One taking over the world?) then you know that in the course of just a few months, somehow Capital One entered my wallet and took over my bank...

Well here's some more news. I just got a letter in the mail and despite the fact that they originally said they were not going to change my rewards program at all on my credit card... they are...

Goodbye 2.0% on everything cash back formerly Household Bank Credit Card...

Sniff, Sniff... On July 15th i'll only earn 1.5% cash back. It's a sad day folks.... Sad Sad day...

Monday, May 27, 2013

Semi Annual car insurance bills... 2013


Our 6 month car insurance bills came in the mail... 

I generally used to hate these "unexpected" expected bills... That is until we made a habit of putting a little money aside each month into a savings account strictly to cover these bills.

Since then, its never been an issue and we don't find ourselves scrambling to find the money since we just have to pull the money from savings and cut them a check.... which is a lot nicer when your living on a tight budget.

South County Boy: 1991 Ford Escort

Apparently my husband is special because he's ticket and accident free for over 6+ years so he gets what state farm calls their Superior Driver Rate Level. Hats off to SCB!!!!
  • Liability Bodily Injury $100,000/$300,000
  • Property Damage $50,000
  • Emergency Road Side assistance 
  • Uninsured Motor Vehicle Body Injury $30,000/$60,000
  • Uninsured Motor Vehicle Property Damage
TOTAL: $158.19
We get a multiple line deduction ($31.84), a Multi-car deduction ($39.50), Driving safety record ($165.86), California good driver ($39.55), loyalty discount ($34.12), and a low annual mileage discount ($39.37)

South County Girl: 2004 Toyota Camry
I'm not so nifty because of the ticket I got a while back for that stupid stop sign so i'm classified as a Level 1 for Driving Safety. At least the discounts I get are higher than his... but that's because it costs more to insure my car since its newer and we keep Comprehensive and Collision on mine and not on his. 
  • Liability Bodily Injury $100,000/$300,000
  • Property Damage $50,000
  • 500 deductible Comprehensive
  • 500 deductible for Collision
  • Emergency Roadside Assistance
  • Uninsured Motor Vehicle Body Injury $30,000/$60,000
  • Uninsured Motor Vehicle Property Damage
TOTAL: $362.15
We get a multiple line deduction ($73.60), a Multi-car deduction ($68.75), Driving safety record ($211.03), California good driver ($90.53), and a loyalty discount ($78.87)

How we pay for it
Last year we paid $187 for Earthquake Insurance and $321 for Homeowners Insurance. We pay these bills once a year... but our car insurance bills are paid every 6 months. So, we take the amount we pay for our car insurance ($362.15 + $158.19) and multiply it by 2 payments a year ($1,040.68), then add in our annual insurance bills ($187 an $321) and then divide that by 12 months to see home much we need to put in savings each month. ($129.00). So we budget $129 for insurance and we pay it into savings each month like it was a bill and call it even.

How do you pay your annual and semi annual bills on a budget?

Friday, May 24, 2013

He has a job!

He got a job...

He gets to work again...

and its full time....

No joke! I could dance all over the place.

The Details:
So South County Boy will start work officially on Tuesday for Goodwill! Well, technically through a temp agency that Goodwill hires from for the first 3 months... then after that I think they hire him directly if he pans out, but we aren't sure.

He won't be paid much, $9 an hour, but after a year and a half of unemployment, this is a gift. He will have to work weekends... but with him working 8-5 and getting paid weekly, what ever days he does get off in the middle of the week, i'll be home by 1:30 pm so we will still get to see one another... and have dinner together every night. Considering the types of jobs he could apply for at this point with his education, this really is a gift because most jobs would have required nights and that would have meant us working completely opposite schedules. 

So what is he going to be doing?

He'll be running one of the donation drop off trucks somewhere from San Clemente to Santa Anna, but they told him probably orange county because that's the greatest need at this point. We have a few close by and were hoping he might get the one that's litteraly walking distance from our home... but that won't happen.

What is pretty cool, is he is allowed to do whatever when no one needs to drop off items... Like homework, reading, etc... and there's this program offered through BYU Idaho (through our church) where you can work on completing a BA, an Associates Degree, or even a certificate program.... and you can do the whole thing online and in local group meetings... and AT MOST a Bachelor's Degree cost $8k...

South County Boy isn't sure if college is for him, but i'm hoping he might consider working on his AA or a certificate program... and if he decided this works for him, he could work on it while working which would be nice for him. 

So here's to a better 2013!


Sunday, May 19, 2013

Crazy Busy!

Married almost 2 years and he still
carries in all the groceries from the
car... a true keeper.
I haven't forgotten you all! I've been swamped with Relay For Life (I'm event chair for my local city and our event is June 1st so i've had tons of meetings, phone calls, and mini pre-event stuff going on)...

I'm currently going back for Day three of another 3 days lifeguard certification course that i'm teaching at work... 30 hours of work in 3 days... after a 40 hours work week on top of having to go back to work on Monday morning at 5:15 am and knock out another 3 days before a "Relay" work day event on thursday... and a glorious 3 day weekend I can't wait for...

SCB hasn't heard back from the movie theater... but they haven't contacted anyone...

He went to a job faire this week and has an interview WED with good will for what we think is a full time job... so cross your fingers. They called it a "group interview and training day..."

We did Disneyland with my bestie for a belated birthday gathering... It was awesome... Cars Land is epic...

and here's some photos to get you through this mini hiatus while I play catch up! I haven't forgotten you all and i'll be back to my usual soon!


too tired to put smoothie in a glass...

Belated birthday surprises at work...





I made this... my "i will crochet something
new" thing of the year... Meet the cutest
Cow ever... This guy is helping to cure
cancer... I sold him for a $10 donation
to Relay For Life.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Happy Birthday to me...

Technically on SCB's birthday... but we celebrated mine the same day... So here's to 27!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Huge Wood Turning Weekend...

This past weekend my husband did LIVE Woodturning demos at our Cities 2 day Art Festival... Were both exhausted to boot, but we had an AMAZING TIME.

We blew through a few hundred business cards and had to start writing our info on scraps of paper as people kept buying and picking up information and watching South County Boy do his "thing" while I sold his lovely pens and pencils.

It was an amazing weekend and we sold over $800 in inventory!!!

I'm just blown away. We had the tri-fecta folks (mothers day next weekend, fathers day and graduation the following) and even with a bit of rain everyone came out... and watched and purchased...

We never had a slow moment in 2 days!

Here's a bunch of pictures for you all to see the step by step process to make a pen! Our Etsy shop will be updated later tonight if you interested in picking up a nice gift for someone special.















Friday, May 3, 2013

Refinance Updates

So I got a new Good Faith Estimate in the mail the other day... and it wasn't pretty.

Because the original guy I spoke with at BOFA put my home value at $180 k-- not the $150 k it came in at, all of our rate information was done under the impression that our home would have much much more equity (like 60% loan to value).... and so on paper, it looked like we would qualify us for the best of all deals in terms of a lower rate with no points what so ever.

Well, we got our new Good Faith Estimate in the mail... and it had $1,130.00 in "discount points" added to it to keep out 3.5% rate...

After a few emails and phone calls, I asked our lender how much we were saving each month if we paid the "points" to keep the lower rate...

He told me $6..... a month

I asked if he was joking...

He said no...

I asked why anyone would pay over a grand to save $6 a month... It would take 15 years to break even.... He seemed a bit surprised I had caught the change and did the math to see if it made sense...

**Cricket Cricket**

So needless to say, glad I called about the new GFE when I saw it in the mail. We obviously decided not to pay any points for our loan. We will be getting a new GFE in the mail in a few days but it looks like we will be getting a 3.75% rate with no fees and a 1/3 point credit in our favor... (which is just under the amount we paid for our home appraisal...)

AND it might look like we don't actually have to cut them a mortgage check this month at all because right now with our current loan, our next payment isn't due until June 1st and late by June 16th... and they are projecting that we close and finish this all in the next week or so... and someone at Bofa said if we close in May, our next payment on the new loan wouldn't be due until  July 1st so i'd normally pay that in June... so I might not have to part with $802 this month!

But i'm keep the money set aside just in case!!!!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

April Updates + May Buget

Refinance/Money
Wow! What a month. With all the refinance stuff going on, we didn't put any month into our Roth IRA last month like normal, but we did manage to CASH flow our $447 appraisal fee... I taught another Lifeguard Training class this month so we are hoping the extra money from that can replace the money we didn't put into the Roth when we get it early in May. We also had some extra money come in, gas rebate check from work, $25 credit card rewards, etc... and most of it was spent/absorbed.

We spent a lot of money in April... That tends to be the case with us when birthdays come around. I want to make the hubby feel special and not deprived so we go out more often and we pick up small things here and there, and we shop, and it adds up. Thankfully we were able to reduce our expenses elsewhere and broke even, even with the appraisal fee-- but without the normal amount that should be going into our retirement account. Oh well... we can't be perfect but we had a good month and it was much needed.

Part of our stress came from my working long hours and SCB tried changing his anti depressant to a new brand for some side effect reasons... but after a week and a half of pure hell and chaos he went back to his regular meds and we both felt relieved to have a more normal environment again. It was night and day and I will never let him touch that other brand again... (It was more expensive too but man was it a horrible week and a half)

Job Interviews
South County Boy went on his first job interview since we expunged his record and we are still waiting back to hear if he got the job. He has 3 more applications on his desk to fill out and turn in regardless. Always best to keep lots of options open.

BBQ's
Other than birthday shopping and picking up some clothes, we ended up buying a new Propane Gas hose for our BBQ with some of our credit card rewards cash because we hate our BBQ. My mom insisted on buying this GINORMOUS BBQ when we first started talking again as a belated house warming gift... and ever since then its been taking up wayyy too much space on our patio... and one of the grill panels is warped just after about a year of light use... It just dips downs into a puddle at the middle.  because we have only ever used one of the three panels. never use the whole thing with just the two of us...  So the idea we have been floating around with was either  to *fix* it and make it smaller somehow, or replace it.

"Stitch" died while we were cleaning her out to take her
down to the free car wash (we had coupons) so "Wanda"
had to jump her... yeah for old reliable battery awesome
"Wanda"
After much searching both online and in stores, I've learned that most propane grills can't be *bought* in compact form unless you get a table top one... and internet reviews for table top grills are not so pretty... We found one or two standing ones that might work, but it was going to cost us $150-$250 to replace ours since only 1 or 2 models didn't have those stupid side panels that just take up so much space... but they came with horrible grill plates. So we decided to repair ours instead. We bought the new propane gas hose for $18.33 which allowed SCB to take off the side burner we have never use and the extra side panel that was on the other side. He then just moved the warped grill plate off to the far side of our grill and we are now just using one of the 2 other pates that we never used before. Our grill now takes up 1/2 the space it did before and it fits in the corner of a patio!

Now for the money (we under cut grocery and gasoline costs which helped us cover some of the other stuff!):

What we have spent this month
Groceries:  $159.60
Car Repairs: $89.20
Gasoline: $102.63
Health Insurance: $178.00
Prescriptions: $30.00
Housing: $1,512.48
Giving: $309.00
Birthdays: $191.88
Electricity: $45.10
Cell Phones: $137.91
Internet: $28.99
Eating Out: $96.89
Clothes: SCG- $48.47
Clothes: SCB- $57.73
Other: $81.52 (Stamps, Toothbrush Heads, Grill Hose)


What we spent money on in 2013:

  • Church Giving: $1,549.00
  • Groceries/Household Supplies: $832.73
  • Car:
    • Gasoline: $509.59
    • Car Registration: $189
    • Me incredibly bored at Home
      Depot while SCB browses... and
      browses... and browses...
    • Car Repairs: $109.20
  • Date Night/ Eating Out: $291.36
  • Cell Phones: $553.81
  • Internet: $123.75
  • Electricity: $175.11
  • House: 
    • HOA: $1,050.00
    • Mortgage: $3,374.46
    • Refinance: $447.00
  • Clothes:
    • SCG: $91.74
    • SCB: $66.80
  • Medical/Dental/Dr/Prescriptions
    • Heath Insurance Premiums: $534.00
    • Prescriptions: $50.00
  • Holidays:
    • Valentines Day: $8.50
    • Easter: $13.47
  • Birthdays: 293.49
  • Other:
    • Expungement Fees: $292.81
    • Tax preparation Fees: $56.98
    • Computer Parts: $297.32
    • Stamps, Toothbrush heads, Grill Hose $81.52
May Budget
While our refinance will go through this month, we have decided to discontinue adding the extra bit to our mortgage until we figure things out. We need a little breathing room after cutting our expenses so much this past year, so we are going to add in some more spending than last month and see how that goes.

$1424.00 paycheck one
  • Giving $142.00 
  • Mortgage (P&I, Property taxes, MIP): $802.98
  • Fast Offering: $10.00 
  • Groceries & Food: $250.00 
  • Prescriptions & Doctors visits: $50.00 
  • Date Night: $50.00
  • Birthday savings: $50.00
  • Discretionary/Clothes/Things: $50.00 
  • Savings/Surplus: $22.90
$1424.00 paycheck two 
  • Giving: $142.00 
  • HOA: $262.50 
  • Insurance (2 Autos, earthquake, homeowners) $129.00 
  • Utility Bills (2 Cell Phones, Electricity, Internet): $230.00 
  • Gasoline/Auto: $200.00 
  • Christmas: $50.00 
  • Kaiser: $178.00 
  • Roth IRA: $236.38
Remaining Financial Goals

  1. Make one extra Mortgage payment this year:  ($162.66 / $650.64) 25%
  2. Put at least 15% of our income into retirement: 9.76% thus far 
    1. Deferred Comp: $40.00
    2. Roth IRA: $702.24 / $5,000.00
    3. Pension: $624.66
  3. Save $500 for Sealing and Family coming to town in August. ($190.00 / $500.00) 38%
  4. Save $1,500.00?????? for dental work for SCB
  5. Save $1,000.00 for future car repairs and the start of a car replacement fund.
  6. Save $300 for a winter trip out to Utah to visit family.
Remaining Fun Annual Goals Updates

If its in bold, i'm either working on it, or finished with it!
  1. DONE!!!! Find something new to crochet-- sweater, pattern, anything
  2. DONE!!!!! Sew something from scratch or re purpose something I was going to toss out into something I'd wear. You'll have to wait to see the post on this because i'm going to have to take in more clothes and do more work!
  3. Cook or try to cook 6 new things or recipes
    1. SCB got some pretty Olive wood
      that was cut down from some
      trees at the crystal cathedral. He
      started working on a bowl he's
      going to finish for me at Arts Alive.
    2. Salmon! (I learned how to cook it in the oven)!
    3. Home made Pico Salsa
    4. Tomato and Cucumber Salad
    5. Broccoli Cakes
  4. Read / Enjoy 6 new books
    1. Sabriel by Garth Nix (audio book)
    2. Lirael by Garth Nix (audio book)
    3. Abhorsen by Garth Nix (audio book)
    4. Nothing to Loose by Lee Child (audio book)
    5. The Hard Way by Lee Child (audio book)
    6. The killing Floor by Lee Child (audio book)
    7. Die trying by Lee Child (audio book)
  5. DONE!!!!! Loose weight (or just get the scale to 148 lbs and stay there or under)
    1. at 147 clothed on my work scale at the end of the month! Now i'm going to see if I can get down to 145 lbs on my work scale.
  6. Change my last credit card to my married name
  7. DONE!!!! Grow a garden with my neighbor
    1. For any early birthday present, SCB let me get a tomato plant, 3 strawberry plants, and 4 bell pepper plants! My neighbor will be getting some more plants since my balcony gets the sunshine and we will share in our happy little bounty.
  8. DONE!!!!! Complete a half marathon in 3 hours and 30 minuets or less. DONE
    1. 2 hours, 41 minutes!