Can we come visit you, too?
2007-01-03
3:32 p.m.
Happy New Year to everyone! I took the kids and the puppies down to Mom's for a few days. In what is unfortunately typical fashion for us, we arrived like a hurricane and left like one, too. The trip involved: Two puppies puking in the van, two overtired boys when we arrived, some nasty weather, two overloving puppies that thoroughly enjoyed their trip, once they got over the puking, visits with all the in-laws, all bearing gifts, all talking at the same time (a MyLastName trait), one broken window, one bag of charcoal torn up and strewn about the patio by the aforementioned puppies, and one broken-down (again!) van.
Cram all that into three days, and you'll see why my Mom sent us packing. Nah, not really. She was actually happy to see us, and I think she really didn't want us to go, but she knew I needed to get back to finish an appeal and also get reappointed.
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m-lewis (Hi M!) sent me a photo of my page that shows the text overlapping the side bar. I must admit that'd be annoying as heck to try to read, but it doesn't look like that on my screen, and I have absolutely no idea how to fix it. Anyone else have that trouble? And is anyone else having trouble reading it because the text is so small?
I may be able to make an adjustment for the too small text, but I'm afraid that might make the overlapping happen even more. I know just enough html to change colors, basically. I'm a whiz.
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When I got back home I had to quickly finish an appeal, so I haven't really implemented my New Year's resolutions yet. Because, you know, you can't eat healthy and edit, too, can you?
After thinking about it quite a bit, I've set three goals for 2007.
1.) To lose 50 pounds. I need to lose a lot more than 50, but if I can start the new year in 2008 with 50 less, I'll be happy.
I'm inspired by thecrankyone every time I read her entries. She manages to deal with plenty of stress and has lost a huge amount of weight this year.
2.) Trying to spend more one-on-one time with each of my boys. I do things with them, but usually it's together. I think we could all enjoy some one-on-one time with each other, too, besides the nightly bedtime.
3.) To stop being afraid of money. Money makes people do weird things, and I'm no exception. I'm going to order copies of our credit reports. Not because I think they're bad, but because I don't think I've ever looked at them. I did get our FICO score when we were buying this house, but that's as far as I went.
I want to know what's on the credit reports, pay off some bills, and keep a healthier emergency stash. I made a budget of just what we take in and then spend every month, and it's just shocking. Gawd, it takes a lot of money to live. And I'm not talking luxuries, I'm just talking mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc. kind of stuff.
Hubby has quite a bit of money in his retirement plan, but it's almost all in company stock. While his company is quite healthy, we both know we should do something with it besides stocks, but neither of us know what, so we do nothing. My mom loves the money game, and also insists we need to diversify it, but then doesn't seem to know just what we should do with it.
Financial people on TV make me just a little bit anxious. Like Suze Orman on Oprah, oh, THAT is a channel-changer for me. Hearing other people's financial problems or successes on those shows make me feel both better and worse.
And it doesn't matter whether we are in a financial squeeze (like the two house notes we had until Aug. this year) or whether we've got a healthy emergency fund, it makes me wiggy to think about it.
I usually live in two opposite modes of money, too: Either I'm watching every penny we spend or I'm not watching the hundreds we spend. I know that sounds utterly ridiculous, but it's true. I'm either an ostrich hiding my head or a spendthrift without a care in the world.
And now that was about five or six paragraphs letting you all know just how crazy I am.
Over and out.
7 comments so far chocolate chaos - 2007-01-03 19:19:56
the text overlap is like that for me too, could be cause im using firefox.. ill try it on explorer and leave you another comment!
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chocolate chaos again - 2007-01-03 19:24:41
ooooo much better in explorer... as to text size, its easy enough for the reader to change, its ok for me!
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grizmom - 2007-01-04 00:31:13
I have a SUPER DUPER investment guy. I know nothing about investing - NOTHING - which would just piss off Grandma, wouldn't it? :o) All the more reason to be stupid! I would recommend at least a phone call to him. He's absolutely fantastic and has done some great things for me! Yep, me, the stupid one!
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Shear - 2007-01-04 08:49:07
Thanks for the heads up on the beauty shop template! Just what I've been looking for. Now I need to find time to work on my diary.....
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m-lewis - 2007-01-04 09:19:04
Don't worry about your page on my account. If I want to read it (and I do) I can cut and past your blog into Word Perfect and everything comes up normal. Like Chocolate Chaos, I also use Firefox as my browser. I'll have to try her little trick pony and used Explorer. I'm always impressed at the amount of time you spend with your children -- projects mostly. They will remember those special moments you spend with them. My kids do anyway.
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m-lewis - 2007-01-04 09:22:10
I almost forgot -- the investment stuff. Don't you have a 401(k) through your job? The money I invest is taken right out of my check before I ever get it; that way I don't miss it. The investment people in the 401(k) plan will make recommendations for you, if you don't know what to do (and believe me, I don't).
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Summer Gale - 2007-01-08 10:18:53
I was going to mention that it was probably the browser they were using and nothing you could fix without taking the "internet explorer only" supported HTML out and replacing it with standard html. It would probably ruin the template without knowing a whole lot more html so I'd kind of just accept it if I was you. And thanks for the well wishes for my trip!
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