Double Budget

Here I go getting behind things again.  Work has been incredibly busy lately with extra briefings and lots of helping with resumes, cover letters, and interview preparations.  I have some regular clients now and I've had a couple mini-successes with clients which also makes me appreciate my job even more.  It's so nice to help people gain life skills and to help them as they transition into the next stage of their life.

However with my job has also come double the income for our family.  The way we had split up finances and accounts before never really made sense to me, so now we're focusing on going back to just our two separate accounts.  The hub takes care of the regular bills that we have to pay (internet, cell phones, most the gas for the vehicles) and now a truck payment.  We both will cover groceries now.  My paycheck however covers my student loan and paying off the other bills we're working toward.  Once I've paid off a few larger ticket items (the couch, bed, and his loan) then I'll start adding on to the truck payment.

Additionally having two incomes has enabled us to take care of a few of the things that we've been waiting on and that is part of what we're doing this weekend.  Today we had Roxi fixed at the vet and tomorrow we're taking my car in for a long due maintenance.  I used to take my vehicle in every 10,000 miles for the recommended servicing, but on a limited budget the last few months we've gone 30,000 miles with just the regular oil changes and tire rotations.  Luckily the hub has  the ability to do the oil and tire rotation himself, which is saving us almost $100 on the total amount for tomorrow.  In addition to the maintenance, it's also time to replace the spark plugs and timing belt, so we'll just get it all done at once since it's a 1.5 hour drive to the dealership.  (Thank God they were open on a Saturday!)  A hefty little amount, but something that is worth it to keep the vehicle running for many more miles to come!

I will admit that the double budget has also led me to do a little more free spending here at first however.  It's nice to finally be able to invest in a new skirt for work and eye shadows when they're on sale (which they are at Alima--the Portland mineral make-up company that I love--until May 7th!!), or to be able to take the husband out to dinner for his birthday.  BUT I also know that is something I need to watch since every extra purchase is an amount that could go toward saving for our transition or for paying toward my massive student loan.

However I also might be using some of the extra funds to take a trip back home---but if anyone spills the beans to Granny I'll be slightly annoyed (so shhhhh family!).  I'd like to be able to surprise my Granny somewhere near her 99th birthday.  We were able to webcam the other evening as she was down visiting my parents, but I also know how much she misses our regular once a month visits we used to be able to do.  And truthfully I miss being able to spend a relaxing weekend with her!  It'd be so great to see her and to be able to visit some of my other regulars as well.

In other news, the truck is wonderful.  I sort of miss commuting home with the hub, but he's enjoying having his own freedom and mode of transportation.  The two trips we had to take to Houston were lengthy but it was nice to see something new (even if city traffic was incredible!).  We definitely feel we got a really good deal on the vehicle we purchased and its much nicer than we even knew we were getting.  The dogs already love it and the hub developed a way to tether them in the bed so that they can walk around but can't get themselves over the edge at all.  Anna's pretty much eager every time she gets near the truck!

My container garden has taken off.  My green beans are all out of the ground and the tomatoes are just starting to form.  The peppers still have some growing to do but the jalapeno is large and in charge!  And the grass in the back yard continues to slowly grow and spread too. Hopefully by the end of summer, it'll almost be complete! :)

And I suppose that's most the update.  Except two of my coworkers and I got in a 6-7 mile walk on Wednesday after work and we're hoping to make it a regular go at least once a week.  Anna made her first solo run today in which she actually ran the whole thing---before we got Roxi she never quite wanted to do it.  So for the next week I can at least get one dog to run with me until Roxi's healed enough to be able to go again.

I've been horrible at checking on other blogs but hope to get to it this weekend!  Hope everyone is doing well though!  Huge hugs all around!

Resources and Links Week April 19

Once branded a coward, he fights for PTSD victims, originally from the Associated Press and discovered via Yahoo News.  Report of one man's fight to overcome his own stigmatization by the US military and his passion in now fighting for the rights of other US soldiers struggling to get their needs met.  Combat related mental illness is something that I'm extremely interested and passionate about, especially when I think of the millions of Afghan and Iraqi War Veterans and the history of our nation's inability to take care of the Vietnam veterans that we have/had. The VA system is already extremely overburdened and we will have millions more who are technically eligible for services.  Since mental health still isn't held at the same importance of physical illness and so much stigmatization of PTSD/anxiety still occurs within our nation (especially in the military), its a true shame to feel that so many individuals who need assistance may never be able or willing to get it.  And it's my belief (and some research demonstrates) that alcoholism and drug use are ways to self-medicate underlaying mental illness. The two hand-in-hand create a major issue for our struggling veterans.....and is something I see even within clients I currently work with now.  A large majority of the homeless males that I interacted with in Portland were US Veterans--what a way to support the men (and women) who offered their lives for our country and our safety.

Washed Up Whale Found with Gallons of our Garbage in its Guts presented by Treehugger.  Need further proof of why the plastic swirls in the Pacific and Atlantic are having negative effects on our marine life?  Don't forget that plastic breaks down, gets eaten and accumulated in the tissues of our fish, and then passed on to us....

Alright so I know two isn't a lot, but this summarizes my thoughts from this week too.  Soldiers and Earth Day. :)  There was so much information out there on April 22nd, but most of it was stuff that has been discussed in the blog world about eco stuff, and truthfully it was an extremely busy work week so I didn't have as much time to follow newsworthy info!

Weekend: Trucks, Cajun Fest & Crawfish

Lots happened this weekend.  Made a trip to Houston and found a truck for the hub.  We will have to drive back to pick it up on Saturday, as not all the paperwork was able to be completed on a Friday evening.  We feel we got a good deal since the final price was $3,000 under Blue Book.  We'll be trying to roll more into the trip this coming weekend for sure.

I went to CajunFest here on post--a little festival put together for the local community and those that live on the military installation.  Cajun food, Cajun music, and a variety of booths with freebies/info/fundraisers.  The music was pretty fun and it was a great way to "work" two additional hours this week. (We had an informational booth.)

After Cajun Fest, the hub and I loaded up the dogs and ourselves and headed out to the lake on the Texas/Louisiana border.  We stopped and picked up a bunch of jumbo crawfish and arrived to meet other people from his work who had rented cabins out there.  After purging the crawfish, they got thrown into a big boiling pot of water that already had seasoning, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, sausage, and shrimp cooking.  Once ready it drains and all gets dumped on a covered table.  People eat it straight from the table, grabbing each item piece by piece, and shells go straight into the trash along the table.  Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

  Hope each of you had an amazing week/end! :)

Resources and Links for Week April 12

EWG's Guide to Triclosan Need another concern about antibacterial products?  Triclosan was discovered in the urine of 75% of Americans.

It's Time to Look Upstream (Living Downstream Trailor Link) via Enviroblog. If you've followed my blog for any length of time or have had any sort of conversation with me about environmental health, then you know that Sandra Steingraber is an environmental researcher that I think everyone should read.  Her work is incredibly informative and inclusive.

Happiness: No Purchase Necessary, Says Study via Treehugger.

EWG's Healthy Home Tips.  Really great room by room resource of healthy home tips.

Real TSCA reform: Will you know it when you see it? via Safer Chemicals, Healthier Families blog. Great information on what reform should look like for the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Chemicals in Newborns via EWG & The Women's Conference.  Brief overview of the high number of chemicals that impact our newborns and potential legislation for it.

Pesticide Linked to Developmental Delays.  While we all know that organic is better for so many reasons, here's just another study demonstrating the negative health effects pesticides have on our young and unborn.  The evidence is pretty irrefutable. 

Most of the links this week pertain to chemical exposures, etc...

Weekend Update

Weekend Update:  End table sanded and repainted.  It was going to be sanded and stained, but I forgot that there were approximately 5 coats of paint on it, so I sanded through the first layers and then just went with brown paint.  If we do choose to stain some day, then we'll have to strip the paint.Attempted to dye pillow cases to get more color in the living room.  For some reason I never have much luck with dye.

Bought a few more starts, so we're up to: yellow pepper, green pepper, mint, basil, rosemary, jalapeno, strawberry (not pictured), and our tomato.  Might pick up a cat nip plant still for the meowing variety in our house and I planted a few seeds of bush beans in the ground.  We'll see how the new starts do and if the beans come up, but all together that's probably as much as we'll do here (although maybe a few more flowers or corn).  In that little area I think we'd be doing well! The nice thing about the containers is that they get some sun in the morning and then I'm able to move them, as pictured, onto the grass to get a bit more evening sun.

Some of the 6 month goals have now been deleted: pay off car, set up hanging basket garden, reseed backyard (which we did again today also), and sand end table.  Some of the remaining goals have also been edited, which I think is an important thing.  Our goals don't always stay the same as circumstances and we change over time.  SO We've got the worm farm, but I still need to order worms.  We were able to get financed this weekend at a good interest rate through our bank/insurance provider for the truck, so now we just need to find one in the next few weeks. And we've decided to put our master bedroom in the back half of the house as it stays cooler in the evenings, so we're going to leave our current room as it is and have it become the guest room once we do purchase a second bed set.  That way we won't have to rearrange as much when the time comes and we'll hopefully stay cooler while sleeping too. 

Pretty good weekend overall and lots of things getting crossed off the list in the last few weeks---always nice to see!  Hope you each had a good weekend too!

It's the Weekend! :)

Work this week was incredibly busy so I'll readily admit that this was the first week where I counted down til weekend.  The hub had some long nights out in the field followed by early mornings so he too is enjoying sleeping in and relaxing.  We have a couple things to take care of today: I have a hair trim and he might go fishing with friends, but knowing us we'll probably enjoy the slowness of the day and daydream about our goals.  And speaking of goals:

---Yesterday we sent in the final amount to pay off the car!! :)  It always feels incredibly great to pay off items and to work on paying larger debts back.  The title should arrive in a week and the pay off noted on my credit at end of month.  I ended my student loan deferment and am in repayment which also feels great.  The hub continues to research trucks and by the end of May we should have one purchased.  In my calculations it should be paid off by this time next spring.

---Our tomato has tripled in size and looks awesome.  We brought it in last night due to chillier nights lately, so I'm hopeful it'll continue to do well.  The basil died within the first few days of planting, but the jalapeno and rosemary are surviving fine.  My daffodils have bloomed out, but the star lily is back from winter hibernation.  I hope to get a few more starts this weekend and some additional grass seed. BUT we have little grass starts making a come back! We're just hopeful more seed will encourage additional sprouts rather than waiting for it to spread.  The dogs haven't been too happy about not getting outside as much, but they're surviving.

---The neighbors returned my sander (and did I mention they're not moving now?!) so I'm hopeful I'll sand the end table in the next weekend or two. The hub ordered us a sectional last weekend as we'd discovered a good deal online.  It's not organic by any means, but the size is perfect for my 6'4" husband and contained what we both wanted in a sectional.  It's red which is a change for us, but we needed more color in the living room.  The company said they were willing to deliver to our rural area and within four weeks, so we're just waiting for the call to schedule. Once it arrives the living room will be situated, the futon will move into the dog/office zone and we'll just be budgeting for the King bed.

--Still managing to work out 3-5x a week. Since changing contraception, I finally feel my body responding to exercising and healthier eating.  It's nice to feel the extra hormones purging and the realignment toward my natural body chemistry.  A coworker lives two streets away so we've talked about running together some evenings-- it's always helpful to work out with other people.  I had a personal goal on Weds as the husband had a long day (6am-2am) so I took work-out clothes to work, left the car in our adjoining lot, and proved to myself that it's possible to make the 6 mile trek home (decent weather prevailing).  Truthfully I only made 4 miles before our neighbor made a big UTurn in the main road and ignoring my protesting told me to get in his jeep.  However, being my stubborn self I then walked the dogs two miles just to prove that the total 6 miles could be accomplished. (Must be the Scots-Irish side of my nature!)

And overall things are moving along alright.  Last night we made the hour drive to a nearby little town that we love.  The hub was able to see the gorgeous wildflowers along the highway and we played a little game of "count the Baptist churches along the road." :)  The food is amazing at the restaurant we frequent and the customer service had largely improved in the months since we'd last been there.  We left more than satisfied and then settled into wonderful conversation on the way home.  After a busier than normal week with limited time together, it was the perfect start to our weekend.

I'm looking forward to the next few months ahead of us.  While they'll remain busy, we have two long weekends scheduled together, we'll be taking care of some of our goals, and there's a good chance we'll be spending time with old Oregon friends.  I hope each of you is moving into spring with an open heart and plenty of sunshine.  Hugs and best wishes! :)