Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Take A Guess

I've worked a TON the past couple of weeks.

Want to guess how many hours I have so far?

Go ahead, I'll wait....



Ninety two.   Ninety-friggen-two hours in 8 days of work.  And I still have two days left this week/pay period.


A couple of nights I would just be going to bed as Lance was getting up for work.

Yesterday, I got to bed at 6am.  Lily got up at about 9am.  I fed her, rocked her and loved her, then put her back to bed.  We then slept until about 10:30, when I fed her again and we played while we watched Dancing with the Stars.  After that, it was 12:30 and nap time.

I have no idea how long Lily slept, but I got up at 3:45pm.  I'm pretty sure she woke up before that and cried herself back to sleep.

Mother of the year!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

In Other News

I'm transitioning into a pescatarian. It's something I've been considering for quite some time now.

Pescatarians are also known as fish eating vegetarians.

Why I'm doing this is a mixture of many reasons. The main one being that I want to eat more fruits and vegetables. Duh, right? I can no longer have chicken and rice, or steak and potatoes, or roast with veggies. I have to get most of my calories from other sources.

Another reason is the horrible things I've heard about the meat industry and the treatment of animals. Do we really know where that chicken breast came from? Animals, like humans, are also supposed to have joy! They are not to be raised horribly, put in poor conditions,  then slaughtered wastefully.

I figure, if I'm not hungry enough, or willing to kill the animal myself, then I shouldn't eat it. That's where the fish come in. I am willing to go fishing. That being said, I don't like much fish besides sashimi (sushi), so I won't really be eating much of it any way.

I tried this new diet out for a week and this is what I've discovered:

*It's not difficult. I just have to be creative so that Lance doesn't think he's starving.

*Cafe Rio is not as good without meat. Have you tried their pork? Amazing. That is what I'll miss the most.

*Fast food isn't really an option. Do I really want to pay $5 for a mediocre salad that I could make way better at home? No, I do not. I love french fries, but they really aren't good for me either. Not having a big juicy burger makes me want to binge on fries. Bad idea. However, Taco Bell's veggie Cantina Bowl is not bad. Not great, but not bad.

*Zupas, our new go-to. We can always agree on going there. Plenty of options for both of us. Also, I didn't have to give up my favorites here (Nuts About Berries on mixed greens and Wisconsin Cauliflower soup).

*Carbs, the easy alternative. I'm trying to limit them, but when I've got 5 mins to find food, grilled cheese with tomato and some sort of fruit on the side seems to be my go to.

That's all I can think of right now. Also I typed this all up using my phone and it's taking forever.

Oh yeah, so far I've lost 2 pounds. That's a nice side effect.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Hard Time

Our short sale application has been declined.  Apparently, we make too much money. This is really, really bad news.  Let me back up a little...

We bought our house in 2008 for X amount of dollars.  A year later, the market crashed.  And when I say crashed, I mean crashed and burned.  Our house is now worth Y dollars.  Y = X - $40,000.

Yup, we're $40,000 upside down in our house, for no reason other than bad timing.  We're sick of paying money into something that is so far upside down. If we're going to throw away money, why not throw it away in the form of rent at a lower price, in a better location, closer to Lance's work, with amenities such as a gym and a pool?

At first, we thought about renting out our house.  Several obstacles got in the way of that.  First, our loan type won't let us rent out our house, we have to be the primary occupants.  We kind of pushed that aside and figured they'd never find out.  But then there's that "first time home buyer's tax credit" that we applied for in 2009.  What a joke.  We had H&R Block do our taxes, and when the guy who was helping us asked us if we wanted to do it we said, "No. We don't want to do that because it has to be paid back."  He responded with, "You don't have to pay it back!  I would strongly recommend getting it, it's free money!"  He was very, very misinformed.  We do have to pay it back. Basically it's an extra $500 per year that we have to pay on our taxes.  Anyway, because of that "tax credit", we have to live in our home until it's paid back.  Lastly, our mortgage payment is so ridiculously high, no one would want to pay that in rent.  The town homes around here rent for about $900/month, and our payment is much, much higher than that.

Refinance?  Hah!  Everyone we called said they couldn't help us.


I've come to the conclusion that those of us who work extremely hard for our money, are good at saving money, are good at budgeting and live comfortable because of the above get screwed over while everyone else gets all the free handouts and help.

People who bought their homes after the market crashed?  Oh yeah, they don't have to pay back that tax credit. Only those of us who got screwed over by the crash have to pay it back.  How is that fair?

Part of me wants to abandon ship.  Let it foreclose.  Who cares anyway?  Foreclosure would give us bad credit for 7 years.  So, we'd have to rent for 7 years.  So what?  We'd have to live in this house for at least 10 or more years in order to BREAK EVEN on what we paid in the first place.  So, foreclosure is temping.  Very tempting.

Bottom line, yes we can afford our house.  But, what is the point?  It's too far from Lance's work, it's far from what little family I do have left in this state, and our house payment is too high for what we live in.

Friday, September 14, 2012

6 Months

My baby is 6 months old.  It's amazing how much has changed.

3 days old

6 months old


I've started taking Lily on walks every day.  It gets me out of the house, which is really good considering that I've been working 10-12 hours each night.  Lily loves walks!  She likes to watch the trees blow in the wind.  She's so content just strolling around.  If I stop for a break she'll get upset.  She doesn't like to stay in one place very long.

The busy season at work as officially begun, and miraculously Lily had a growth spurt this week so she's been sleeping a TON.  That means I still got between 6 and 8 hours of sleep each night! I try to take each day/night/work shift as it comes and not have any expectations for the next day. The worst night of work so far was 5pm to 5am, then Lily got up at 9am.  I was light headed and dizzy all day long.  We both went down for a nap at 3pm, and I slept until 5pm, when I had to get up to work again. Lily slept until 6, lucky duck.  I can't really complain about sleep.  Sleep is something that Lily has never deprived me of.

General freedom, and a full day without crying is a different story.  Make that a full hour without crying, if she's awake.  She cries a lot. D-R-A-M-A! Basically I play with Lily all day long to keep her happy.  Have you seen my house?  Me neither. I can't find it under all this mess.

Lily is worth it all though.  She makes me so happy.  Every night before I go to bed I go in her room and take a peek at her.  She's in a different position every night.  While I'm in there I make sure her covers are on, and that she's not too warm or too cool.  I just miss her.

I wanted to post a video of her, but it won't work.  Lame.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Hello Again

Hello again, old friend. 

I'm not really sure if I should call you a friend or not.  I haven't missed you.  I thought I made that clear when I never wrote, texted, called, emailed, or anything else of the sort! 

I hate the way you make me feel about myself and about life in general.





Maybe it's time to get pregnant again so you go away for another 14 months.  *evil grin*

Monday, September 3, 2012

Freedom!

I just deleted a bunch of people on Facebook.

Friends of friends, family members of friends, people who were "friends" in school who I don't really talk to any more, and just some other people who I don't really talk to or hear from anymore are all gone.

It feels wonderful.

I "hid" people that I want to unfriend but I'm worried they'll notice.

Now maybe I won't be so negative when I get on Facebook.

Also, I was sick of my blog's design.  I'm not sure if it will stay how I have it now, but, whatevs.


Sounds like I was craving some change.