So tons has happened around here lately, mostly great stuff too! It has been a whirlwind of a couple weeks, and I hope that since I have about one hour free to write this post, that means it might be cooling down a bit.
First off, Levi celebrated his fourth birthday this past week. I can hardly believe my little guy is four! On his birthday he had a friend come over and play on his train set. Then we went to McDonalds for dinner. He was thrilled! The Saturday following he had his party. All his cousins from in town came, and about four friends (and a couple of their siblings) showed up. Levi was in heaven! He had so much fun! We again went to McDonalds for his party, but I think that will be the last year we do that for him. It was just really loud. But as I said, he had fun, and that’s what matters.
Hazel on the other hand has been sick the last few days, and now that she is getting better, Levi is getting sick. Hazel, when she is sick, tends to want to cuddle and be held more. So this meant my home gets a bit neglected, and chores pile up. Thankfully my mom took both kids for about an hour yesterday so I could do some much needed cleaning. Hazel is on the mend, and I am very glad about that, she had a nasty cough, sore throat, and a fever. No fun for the Baze.
To get out the other day we went for a drive. We went about five miles north of Corvallis and took a road about ten miles long to a highway that headed south again, and then back home. It went through the foothills of the Coastal Range, and we saw some pretty scenery. You can see some of those pictures coming up in my Oregon 365 blog. That website is: www.oregon365.blogspot.com. Right now I am doing roses for Valentines day, but after that I will start with some of the shots I took.
Well, we got our tax return, and we thrilled with how much we got. It was a lot more than we expected, so we are doing the smart thing with the extra money: paying off debt. We are paying off one credit card completely, and putting quite a bit towards our other one. We also went out and bought a new car. We have been needing to upgrade for a while because our tiny car wasn’t meeting our needs. We did a lot of research and looking and finally found one that we both loved. It is a 2001 Acura MDX and has all the bells and whistles. We got it for an internet special, so it was $3000 less than their list price on the lot, and $4000 below blue book value. Needless to say we got an amazing deal! With our down payment, we now owe less than what the car is worth, which is a first for Justin and I in married life (we have always owed more on the car than it was worth).
We also have made some other minor purchases with our return, including a new couch (it was much needed, we’ve only had garage sale items that we bought for $25), and a new shelf for the living room. We needed a new shelf because Levi tried climbing the old one, and since it was cheap wicker, it snapped into a bunch of pieces. I am please with how we spent our money, and we still have quite a lot in savings for the summer and such (summer is usually when we are really tight because we don’t have financial aide).
Well that’s all. Its a lot, I know! Hopefully we’ll calm down a bit!
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2 comments:
It's hard to believe that Levi is 4.... Wow! Anyway, congrats on your spending savvy... so many people are incapable of making wise decisions. :)
We tend to do the exact same things with our tax returns, but it never seems to go THAT far. We're looking for a new car too, like yours actually. Those sedans really can be impractical once you have 2 kids, especially the days I have an extra kid to take along.
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