cptacek (spelling?) asked me what great system my husband was using for our budget. Nothing earth shattering...just a spreadsheet. Now, I am very poor with spreadsheets and anything beyond word on the computer but my husband is a genius in my eyes!

I guess what makes our spreadsheets great is that they are REALISTIC and include every penny we spend. I mean EVERY penny. Unlike in the past when I had total control of the bills, M. plans for things in advance. Example, cheerleading camps, pay to play sports fees at school, dance competitions, propane fill ups.

Yes, we now pay our propane bill 100% in full when they fill it up. It is empowering. So, it's not like our system is great, but for us it works really well. We have this summers vacation budget, school shopping budget and next Christmas budget worked out.

If my husbands gets bonuses they will go to the credit cards and a down payment for a new car for me. (used car)And MAYBE living room furniture, we'll see...

Another person asked me what the MEN type 1 gene is. It stands for multiple endocrine neoplasia and it is a disease that causes tumors (benign) in your pituitary gland in the brain, parathyroid glands, and pancreas...also our family's mutation seems to cause adrenal tumors. It is an autosomal dominant gene which means my kids had a 50% chance of getting it from my husband. We have 2 girls and one is positive and one is negative. It sucks.

Fortunately, it can be dealt with by lots of monitoring and surgeries. My husband is 33 and last year had 50% of his pancreas removed because the tumors he had were growing and had a chance of becoming cancer (not the same type of pancreatic cancer in the general public but still scary). MEN affects people differently, there is a chance E. will not have trouble with her pancreas until she is really old or maybe never at all.

Now, my oldest daughter who is 15 is negative for MEN but has Lupus...totally different disease. She takes plaquenil prescribed by her rheumatologist daily plus multivitamin with iron, fish oil, biotin and a specialized herbal supplement from a holistic Dr. She is doing well (knock on wood)

I hope I have answered peoples questions ok.

This Thursday E. has her first appointment at the Cleveland Clinic! Nervous.

In the money department I received an unexpected $560 refund from an insurance policy that was "involuntary terminated." (due to M.'s medical problems I assume)
The money is sitting in the bank. Not sure what to do with it. I need a new pair of running shoes so that will pay for those. I think I will keep the rest in the bank for now. Something will get paid that needs to with it eventually, but I'm going to buy the shoes this week.

I started the Biggest Loser contest at work because I gained 18 nasty pounds since my lowest weight of 128. SUCKS. So that makes me #146! But I reminded myself that a year ago at this time I weighed 176 pounds (eek!) so I have managed to keep 30 pounds off this year. That is an accomplishment!

I look at this contest as a way to motivate myself for that last appx. 25 lbs. I would like to weigh 120-125. I am excited about this. When I lost my weight last year it poured over into other aspects of my life. M. became involved in our budget, the house became more organized and I stopped shopping just to shop. I am doing this with one of my best friends and we both need to lose about the same amount of weight, it is also a contest because the winner gets vacation days and I WANT MORE VACATION DAYS!!!

Well, wish me luck!!!

I can't even remember last time I visited but I decided to update. Things are going well in general. (Knock on wood) We have all but 3 credit cards paid off. Capital One, Bank of America and Chase...that is it for credit card debt. My husband has a great system in place.

We paid for Christmas entirely in cash but on the downside we spent way too much on the girls. One thing I would like to improve this year is SAVING money. We spend spend spend and we need to be saving more.

My husband splurged and bought me an Armani watch for Christmas...it's so pretty and for all the times I say I don't care about brands, well, maybe I do just a little tiny bit. (:

For 2009 we made about 10k less than last year but are definitely on better financial ground thanks to paying down our credit cards! Our total credit card debt today is just under 15k. I think last year at this time it was around 23k.

I have a facebook account now and have found a bunch of old highschool friends. Well maybe more acquaintences but some friends.

We found out a few months back that our youngest daughter is positive for the MEN type 1 gene but that our oldest daughter (the one with Lupus) is NEGATIVE! I wish both of them were negative and I cried for a long time when I found out about E. When we told her she cried and cried and screamed and it was horrible. But we told her to look at her dad, grandpa and aunt, they are all alive and living happy, productive lives...they just have to have surgeries and see the Doctor more than "regular" people. We are dealing with it. She has her first appointment at the Cleveland Clinic on January 14th. Feels like a strange inaugeration of sorts.

Well, I hope everyone here has a terrific new year and I will try to blog more than I did in 09 because it keeps me on track.

GO OHIO STATE BUCKEYES!!!