Remodel

At our house in Idaho there was a lot of landscaping that needed to be done to make our large yard useful. But here we have very little yard and it doesn't need much work. So instead we have been thinking about what we can fix up inside the house. We'd love to remodel the kitchen and put in custom cabinets, granite coutnertops, and laminate wood flooring. Of course that costs quite a bit, so we will probably do some smaller projects first, like the bathrooms. We are going to tile the two upstairs bathrooms and would love to get new countertops (one is pink, one is blue). We have some tile in the garage that was left from the last owner so we need to see if it's enough for one or both bathrooms, then we'd just need to rent or borrow a tile cutter and find someone who knows how to do it to help. I think one of the best parts of owning a home is being able to change things however you want.

Not as helpful as planned

A few weeks ago my wife downloaded some free antivirus software, AVG I think, onto our desktop computer. She was hoping that maybe the reason it was running slow was from a virus and not because it needed more system memory. Well, it found a bunch of viruses, adware, tracking codes, etc. So she got rid of all that, but it was still having problems. In fact it started having more problems, the Internet took forever to load pages, and sometimes wouldn't work at all, even though our laptop Internet was working fine. So I had to take AVG off and that fixed it. At least we were able to use it for a little bit to get rid of the viruses that were on there.

Way Too Fast

Is there a point in life when time seems to be slipping away faster and faster? I seem to be hitting one of those times. The weeks seem to go by in an instant and yet, I can never seem to get everything done. I don't want the rest of my life to be told in a blur. It's frustrating because I want to cherish each moment, but each moment seems to be shorter than the previous one. Maybe this is why we need to keep records and journals. If we didn't, time would go by so fast that we would have no record of anyone anymore. Please, time slow down. I want to live my life while I'm in it, not life my life and then look back on it.

Traveling Light

Between my wife and I, we have one piece of luggage. That seems strange, but our luggage collection used to be bigger. I used to have a big square piece of luggage that I used for my LDS mission, but it got sold off in an accidental garage sale. We now just have one big piece of luggage that belongs to my wife and we also have a lot of duffel bags. It's really not a huge deal because when we do travel, we can put everything in that one piece of luggage. One day, we may need to invest in more luggage again.

Combining Homes

One thing I wish we could have brought with us to the Salt Lake valley was the yeard we had in Pocatello. It was much bigger then the one we have now. The one we have now is a tiny lot with a couple of trees. They aren't Loquat trees I think, but they are beautiful trees. The yard we had in Pocatello had big trees that you could sit under in the summertime and just enjoy the shade. One day, I hope we have a home again that has a much bigger lot. I feel kindof crammed in without a good sized yard.

Big Sale

We bought a new 50 inch plasma tv a few months ago because I was tired of trying to fix our old one. We bought it from Circuit City before they decided to go out of business. And like any other time when you buy something big, as soon as you buy it, it's on sale all of a sudden. If we were to buy the same tv now that it's on sale, we would save about 300 dollars. However, who wants to go 5 months without a tv.

Can"t Get Ahead

I received a 1000 dollar bonus on my last paycheck. It was going to be great. We would use that extra money to fix the windshield for our van and then use the rest of the bonus money to pay off the hospital bill for our baby. From then on, we would be able to pay off our credit card and then a student loan.

To get things started, we came up to visit my parents in Idaho to get the windshield fixed. That task took a few hours. Then, from then on, it's been problematic for our van. First, we would put in in reverse and it would quit. Then, we were able to get it in reverse, but couldn't get it to go past 40 mph without it sputtering and then dying. The van is now at the dealership, hopefully getting fixed. I know it will cost more for them to do it, but I don't have many options when we need to go home to Salt Lake today and we need the van to run.

It seems we can never get ahead of our bills. We get a lucky break and plan to get out of debt, but then something unexpected always seems to come up. The van, for instance, never had problems before replacing the windshield and replacing a windshield should have nothing to do with how the engine runs. It seems as if I am destined to be just out of reach of getting out of debt for the rest of my life.

Filling The Budget Gap

With the economy slowing down, the new baby in the house, and the loss of some of my wife's income, I've been looking for an opportunity to help fill the gap in the family budget. I've been thinking of things to sell, looking at side jobs, and keeping my eyes open for a good franchise opportunity. Funny as it seems, no matter how much money people don't have, they always find a way to fund something they want. I know if I can think of something good, it won't be hard to sell it to people. That would definitely help fill the budget hole we have right now.

Shopping Online

It seems that these days you can buy almost anything online. You can get things from vacuum cleaners, to cars, to even houses online. With all the transactions going through a site's POS system at one time, it's a miracle that there isn't more money lost by buying something online. Thousands of transactions can go through a website in a small amount of time, it's a wonder they don't get confused. These procedures must have gone through some serious testing before they actually get released.

Message Of The Times

There's been so much going on in the market today. A few years ago, housing was going nuts. You couldn't drive past an open field twice without it being slated for development the second time you drove by it. Then, all of a sudden, that bubble just popped. Now, you can feel how slow that market is now. Then, the energy bubble started to form. Oil was trading at levels that had never before been seen and couldn't be explained. Then, just like the housing bubble, we woke up one day and the energy bubble was gone. Where is the next bubble going to form? Actually, I think it's sad that we are looking for another bubble. Why can't we just stick with the market fundamentals instead of pushing the envelope all the time? Pushing the envelope may seem to be a good solution until the market fixes itself and we're back to the fundamentals again.