Don't Pass Me By

I’ve been feeling rather overwhelmed lately and haven’t been as faithful in writing my weekly musings. We are doing well and are enjoying some comfortability in life. Jeff is really loving his computer science class and has decided to change his major from electrical and computer engineering to computer science and met with the advisor this week to make the change; this way his focus will be more on software engineering than hardware engineering. I’m glad he’s happy and enjoying it along the way, the girls and I are so proud of him. We have made plans for our backyard garden this year; unfortunately the weather has been rather unpredictable. It gets warm and then we have cold snaps with frost. We’re planning on finally putting in raised beds around the perimeter of the backyard this spring. We have a budget for the project and after some pricing last weekend it looks like we will only be able to do half of the project this year and will have to finish it next spring. We will be planting another vegetable garden in the beds we do put in. From what we learned from last year’s experience and some new techniques I hope we will be even more successful this year. We got the materials this weekend to lay the footing, but because it was rainy Jeff wasn’t able to get as much done as he had hoped.

I had four cakes to make this week. I made two cakes for my dad’s retirement party at work. Jan helped me considerably with the templates for the cutouts. It was nice to be able to attend the party as well since I’m on the plant site now too. I got quite a few compliments on them and was asked for about four business cards with my information on them. Then on Saturday I had two birthday cakes. One was more difficult for me only in that it had a couple of new techniques and it didn’t have any fondant elements which are really in my comfort zone. Jeff is very patient with the mess I create in the kitchen each time I do cake orders. At this point I have almost any tool that I need for fulfilling cake orders, so I’m going to save my earnings to buy a new kitchen aide stand mixer or an upgraded cutting machine (mine is not very reliable in cutting fondant/gum paste).

Work is going well, I’m still waiting patiently for word that I will be hired full time. I have until June 27th to secure permanent employment at which time my contract will expire. We have faith that whatever is best for our family is what will work out. We are expecting our tax return at the beginning of next week, although, we have not decided what we are going to do about our vehicle situation. Jeff and I sat down and came up with six options for the money after we put a percentage in savings. (Option 1) Buy a brand new car and make payments, have no money left over for debt reduction (Option 2) Buy a used 7 passenger vehicle out right, no payments, have some money left over for debt reduction (Option 3) Buy a used, smaller vehicle out right, no payments, cramped room, more money left over for debt reduction (Option 4) Fix the van and hope that it lasts another year, much more money left over for debt reduction (Option 5) Do nothing, spend all the money on debt reduction, hope for the best (Option 6) Quit my job, live off the money for as long as possible. Ok so the last two were really not serious options…just something to humor us as we discuss all of our options. We ruled out option one as we do not know what our income situation will be after June and are a little gun shy of debt. After some debate we are between options 2, 3, and 4. We had the van looked at, and it was determined that there was a crack in the radiator and there was a problem with the relay to the fan. We have one estimate that the repair will be $1,200. We’ve been out to look at used cars over the past couple of weeks. The nice thing about buying from a used dealer is they would likely take our van, which would mean we would escape the hassle of trying to sell it ourselves, that, and we could get a warrantee. But we can probably get a better price and avoid paying tax on a private sale. A larger vehicle meets our needs and gives us plenty of room; a smaller vehicle would be more economical, although not as comfortable. This option is in hopes that I am hired this summer and we could afford a new large vehicle. We’re still out on what it is that we are going to do. At this poing we've figured it would be best to decide when we have cash in hand and see what is available. Wish us luck!

We had a cold rainy night in Sahuarita last night, but Nana and Papa’s house got snow, so we took the girls over this morning to play in the snow, it was a lot of fun for them. It is so neat when it happens here, I am grateful it’s not a several months out of the year thing.

Time just keeps slipping by us, sometimes I wish we could pause so that we didn't feel we were being passed by. We feel so blessed and are very happy.

A Shot of Rhythm and Blues

I'm gratful to have gotten my groove back. I went through a few blue weeks after returning to work after the holidays and finally feel like we are back in our normal rhythm of life. This week went very well. Since I last wrote, Jeff has really been enjoying classes, especially his computer science class which is relief seeing as it’s the career path he has set out on. He has also found with 16 units this semester and no days off during the week that classes have been more of a challenge; he temporarily cut back the number of weeks he is willing to work on Saturdays. He told them he would work when they were in need of extra people, but otherwise wanted to have Saturdays off. It’s been nice having him at home on the weekend, and it makes it so that he can more easily stick to his goal of not doing homework or studying on Sundays.

The weather a week ago was unusually cold. The temperatures we in the teens here and luckily we didn’t have any pipes break, although we woke up the next morning without electricity or water. While I’m aware that most of the rest of the country routinely experience cold weather like that, in Arizona we are just not suited for it. The infrastructure is not the same here, our pipes are not insulated in the same way, and heck, I don’t even own a coat! We bundled up and got through those couple of cold days. On Wednesday night of that week my mom kept the girls so Jeff and I could go on a date. We had dinner at Manuel’s in Green Valley which was delicious and then went into Tucson to make a couple of stops and then saw a movie. We had a very nice night.

I’ve recently taken on some extra responsibilities at work since one of my colleagues moved on to another team. I’m hoping and we’re praying that it will soon result in me being hired full time with benefits. It’s not been overly stressful and I’m grateful to learn new things and expand my skills. We were able to file our tax return and are eagerly awaiting our refund. I must say the car shopping has not been as enjoyable and I had hoped. I must admit that I’ve become a little gun-shy so to speak of taking a loan. Jeff and I are leaning more toward buying something older outright so that we won’t incur anymore debt, especially since we don’t know what will be happening with my job in the next six months (my contract is up in July and if I haven’t been hired as an employee then I will be out of a job). We’ve also considered putting some money into fixing the van we have now and then if I am hired in the next six months we can more comfortably buy a nice, much newer vehicle. Jeff and I have done a little bit of shopping and a couple of test drives. I really hate not knowing exactly what we want to do; I always know what I want!

The girls have been doing very well and bring joy and happiness into our home daily. We are so blessed to be parents. On Friday of this week I had the day off and spent it with my mom and grandmother. Helen and I joined them for breakfast and then did some shopping. We picked up Felicity from Jeff on his way to class and did a little more shopping. I love spending time with them. It’s so wonderful to have multigenerational relationships; I believe they greatly enrich the girls’ lives.

We did some yard work in the front, clearing out the leaves and trimming back the dead branches on the bushes and such. We are also having to hand water the plants since we discovered that some time in the past our water line to the drip system broke and one of our helpful neighbors turned off the water to the system, but they forgot to tell us. Our plants out front haven’t been watered in awhile. We’re really looking forward to slightly warmer weather so that we can start work on this year’s garden. We’ve put some money aside to put in raised bed plots around the perimeter of the yard and under the windows adjacent to the porch. I hope to use what we learned last year to have a wonderfully productive garden this year and I am also looking forward to putting some roses in as well.

(Helen got some pink cowboy boots handed down to her and she refuses to wear any other shoes, here she is ready for church last Sunday)