Get Air

Yesterday we took the kids out to eat at Denny's and then went to Get Air.  We had so much fun.  We haven't been there before and I bought 6 tickets on Groupon for all of us to jump.  When we arrived we noticed that we were the ONLY adults jumping.  Blake didn't want to do it, but I didn't care.  I was excited and it was a lot of fun.  But boy, oh boy did I work up a sweat.  I had to jump with my legs together and took a potty break so I didn't wet my pants.  Our kids had so much fun and I am so glad we could go and do something as a family.  I sure love them!

Date Night

Blake surprised me on Friday by only working a half of a day.  So we decided at the last minute to go out.  We called it our "celebration" night only we did it cheaply.  Kaymin (I don't know how I ever managed before when she couldn't watch our kids) baby sat while Blake and I went and saw Man on a Ledge and went out to eat at Bella's (I have a two for one coupon).  It was so much fun just being with Blake.  I really need it too!  I had a rough morning with Gerrit.

UGH Banks!

Just when I thought things were all settled up with our mortgage...there was a hiccup.  Isn't that the way it always goes?  I got in our account on the 3rd and found that our mortgage payments had been reversed.  Apparently when I called and spoke to the gal on the phone she should have ran the payments through as a "payoff" but instead the money sat their in limbo while another mortgage payment came out of our account therefore making our "payoff" money more than what was left.  The system didn't know what to do with the money.  So I called again, this time I got a very smart person who helped me and paid off the right way.  She had to reverse the other mortgage payment that came out and found our money in limbo to use for the payoff.  So really our payoff date is February 3rd.  The only thing I care about...is that it is really paid for.  HOORAY!

FREEDOM!

FREEDOM!  Apparently that is what people can call up and say on the Dave Ramsey radio show when they are out of debt...except for their house.  Now I haven't even listened to his show, but Blake talks about it all of the time.  Today marks one of the best days of our life.  Today, Blake and I paid off our house.  We are now 100% debt free.  I tried to talk Blake into calling in, but he won't.  Bummer!  I just can't believe it.  I wanted to shout from my rooftop...although that was a dumb idea...so instead I texted our family and danced around singing and acting giddy.  I knew this day would eventually come...but I am still in shock.  Blake I begin building our home I believe we dug the whole around November 1, 1996.  We moved in March 25, 1997.  After we had lived in it for two years, we decided to switch to a 15 year mortgage.  Our interest rate at the time (it was good back then) was 8 1/2 percent.  We switched to a 15 year at 6 1/2 percent and it reduced us paying almost $200,000 in interest.  About a year or so later we refinanced to 5 1/4 percent and another 15 years and that is where we stayed.  We paid half of our mortgage payment every two weeks, which ended up paying 1 full extra principal payment a year.  Eventually when I started working and we put all of our extra money on the house.  It was amazing to see how quickly it went down.  Our next move is to save up money to pay cash for some property.  I need to get away from all of these neighbor kids.  I just can't believe we own our home.  I am not sure when it will hit me.  Maybe when I see that money in our account still when it should have been taken out for the house.  Now we promised our kids a BIG vacation.  I thought I had them talked into Hawaii, but I think I got out voted and we most likley go to Disneyworld or on a Disney cruise.  Either way, it should be a ton of fun.

Classic Skating

On Tuesday our school had a Classic Skating night.  We have never been able to go due to illnesses, surgery and just plain life.  However, this Tuesday was perfect for us.  They allow scooters so I took all of the kids scooters, with the exception of Kaymin's, and we headed off.  Blake met us there and I was happy since I ended up with 5 kids.  Richard, what I refer to as my 3rd son, asked if he could come with us.  He is our neighbor and Kaymin's age.  He is a good kid and I knew I wouldn't have to "babysit" him.  The kids all had friends that were there and they had a ball.  Kameni decided she wanted to try skating.  So I went and rented her some skates.  She fell a million times, but she got right back up and kept at it.  She would fall so hard that she would cry and it still didn't stop her.  I am so proud of her.  She is SO wonderful.  After an hour, she almost had it down.  She rarely fell and was doing so good.  Now all she can do is beg for skates.  I love her attitude.  Blake says she reminds him of me.  I do see a lot of myself in her.  Especially her feisty, little attitude.  Oh, how I love that girl.  Kaymin is becoming a good skater.  She got rollerblades for her birthday a while back and she practiced and practiced.  She skated the whole time with her friends.  Deilen rode his scooter and played laser tag.  He never even cared if he tried skating.  Gerrit would ride his scooter and then he would play on the Pirates Cove.  He just had fun feeling like he was a big kid.

Planting Already

On Saturday I planted our pepper plants for this year.  I usually put them in the basement under a shop light, but we have decided to try something else this year.  Our one bathroom window (the one in the hall that is used the most) gets the sun all day.  We only have two windows that are on that side of the house.  Both windows happen to be in the bathroom.  We never use the tub in our hall bathroom so we decided to put our shelves that we use our our outdoor greenhouse in our tub (so it is high enough to see the sun from the window) and put our plants on it.  That way we won't be paying for electricity and it will be a lot warmer.  We are thinking that is our problem in why our plants don't do very well.  Our basement in unfinished, therefore there aren't any heating ducts.  So we will try this for this year and see what happens.