It's almost Friday!

Ok, I've made it this far, only one more day to go!

Yesterday we ended up with about 6 inches of snow on the ground. Andy's school was closed, so he stayed home with Josh in the morning and I went to work from 8 till 12, leaving at 12 pm to pick Andy up. He went to work with Josh for a grand total of 15 minutes.

After I picked Andy up, we went to the post office to mail a paperbackswap.com book, and headed home. I made him some mac & cheese, he made a "house" out of a Nike shoebox and furnished his house with all kinds of assorted little items he found laying around- like a sauce cup for a hot tub, an empty contacts box for a refrigerator, an empty toilet paper roll for a chimney, etc. etc. I remember making a house like that when I was younger. He did a really good job- he used his plastic knife (he calls it his sword-fish I think) and taped all the pieces, colored some of the pieces with magic marker designs, labeled them with his magic marker ("K" for kitchen, "T" for tub, etc)

I'm glad he had a snow day yesterday. It provided us the opportunity to spend some real quality time with each other. I didn't spend that time cleaning the house from top to bottom, or running errands and making him go boring place to boring place. I catered to him. I cuddled with him. We sat on the couch together and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the Johnny Depp version) and snuggled with my quilt. I let him eat his favorite icee pops from the freezer. We had a great afternoon!

We left the apartment at 5 pm to meet his dad at school and Andy was going with his dad for 5 days. Andy started to get teary-eyed as he climbed into his dad's car, but I told him everything would be all right, and that while he was at his dad's house, he would have lots of fun. I told him that I was going to wash all his clothes and put them away, put his toys away, clean up his room, etc. so everything would be ready when he comes back to Mom's house on Monday.

Then we parted ways and I drove on.

I started to feel my normal Wednesday/Thursday depression/whatever so I drove to the Salvation Army store which was nearby and looked around the place for a good hour at least. That was the first time that I've been to that Sallie's. I found 5 or 6 really nice shirts for Andy for about $12.00. A tye-dyed Cocoa Beach t-shirt (we are going to Florida for a week in April- Yeah!!) and some other shirts, including an Army shirt-jacket style shirt. They're all really nice. I washed everything but the Cocoa Beach (didn't want the colors to bleed on the other clothes!)

Later that evening I hopped on the treadmill for about 15 minutes, prepared dinner, and watched some more of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations from the DVD set I checked out at the library. I love that guy!

When Josh got home, we ate dinner, put Batman Returns in the DVD player, and I folded the laundry from the load I washed earlier.

I didn't get to bed till about 11:00, and I really felt it this morning. Tonight my goal is to be in bed no later than 10:00 pm, no matter what.

Today I'm really wanting to run to Target during my lunch hour to get a price adjustment for some items that we purchased for me the weekend before last. (my Vacation/Summer clothes- yay!) I don't think that'll take up a lot of time, so I should be able to stop at home after that and check the mail.

After work I need to go to Meijer, cash in pop cans, and buy Mountain Dew and whatever else we need immediately. At Kroger, 1/2 Gallon milk is on sale for 1.25, grapes are .99 a lb, and Meijer brand canned veggies are on sale for 4.92 for a 12-count case. Canned goods are always a good thing to have on hand. That comes out to be .41 per can. I'm not sure how much Aldi's canned veggies are, but I should really check first. I really don't think they're much cheaper than that, so I'm kind of leaning more toward the Kroger brand. We're out of corn and could always use some more green beans and peas- why not? Our wonderful (walk-in and spacious) pantry is an extension of our Emergency Fund.

Speaking of EF!! The tax refund check has cleared, so it's time to make that ING Transfer!! And while I'm at it, I would LOVE to write that big $1,000.00 check to Gardner White and get that baby mailed out today. Of course I'd MUCH rather be writing a check to our long-term savings account, but we're committed to knocking out our debt as quickly as we possibly can.

In other news, a few weeks ago I signed up again for 401k deductions. My company matches 100% up to 4%, so I signed up for the 4%. My tax status is now at Married with 1 exemption, so I actually got more in my last pay check than I expected. So, last week, I bumped my 401k contribution to 6%. I refuse to touch it. I want to hold it there for a while and after we get more debt paid off and raise our net worth, I'd like to bump it up again. Also, IF I get an increase this year (hopefully my company won't cut that out!!) I would like to take that raise and put it directly into my 401k contribution. If I get a 4% raise, (doubtful) then that's how much more I am putting in my 401k every pay period. It would be nice to contribute 10% by the end of this year. I really don't want myself or Josh having to work during our "Golden Years" and we sure as heck don't want to eat cat food to survive!!