Well hello there

Sorry I have been neglecting my blog this past week. Mike left Kodiak on Thursday and is now back in Anchorage working. Work has been kicking my butt. I leave the apartment at 6:50 am and get done on the job site normally between 5:30 and 6. I come "home" eat and then go to the office to write a report which takes between 1 and 2 hours depending on how much was done at work that day. Then Friday night I had to inspect a 2nd project. So I went to my normally project until 6pm and then went to another site form 6:30 until 11 PM. Which means I did not write my report. So last night Saturday, yes they/I work Saturday too, after work I went to the office for 3.5 hours. I wanted to get everything done so I did not have to go in today but my brain died at about 10:30. So I have to go in again today.

In other news MIKE SOLD THE VAN!!! We have had it posted on Craig's list since before I left Anchorage. Mike had met with a few people before he came out here but no one serious. Yesterday he met a couple at REI at 3. By 3:15 he called and said they had countered and we sold it for $1,800! Way more than any dealer would have given us for a trade in!

Now when I get back from Kodiak we can go car shopping for real! I already know it is going to be crazy when I get back between trying to get the new condo put together, getting the new car and of course work. I will try to post some pictures tonight.

What SUV?

Mike and I are in the process of deciding what type of SUV we are going buy. The 2000 Mini-Van we have from my parents is slowly dieing. It works fine in the summer, but when it is cold the transmission does not like to start working. Once you get it to go it is good but...yea. We plan on selling or trading the Van in. So the SUV. Mike has been looking for some time and has even test drove a few. Right now at the top of the list are Nissian's Xterra, Murano, and Pathfinder. We have also considered the Hyundai Santa Fe, Honda Pilot, and Nissian Rogue. Along with decided WHAT one we like most we also are deciding New vs. Used. I think I am more on the Used side because we want a few more bells and whistles than the Versa has. However the problem with used is you do not know who really owned it before you or how they took care of it. Of course the dealership is going to tell you its perfect and had only one owner who took really good care of it but they are trying to make some money. Mike is undecided. As for which on we like most we are trying to decide how big or small of a vehicle we want. Do or will we need enough room to seat 7 or is 5 seats OK. How much do we really want to spend, what % of a down payment do we want, and how fast can will we be able to pay it off? How crappy is the gas mileage going to be? How much is insurance going to be? What interest rate are we going to get? It is all about the MONEY for me!! We really do not care too much about the color, just not White or Black.

Yippie!

(Image from http://aftervictory.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/07nissanversar34500.jpg)

I know grief has a lot of up and down emotions... well today has been a roller coaster of emotions. I miss Callen so much it makes my heart ache, see post below. But at the same time Mike and I are jumping up and down with excitement like little kids.... Why you might ask? Well I know financial matters are generally a taboo to talk about but screw taboos, you are not supposed to talk about emotions and I do that all the time.

So Why you might ask at we excited? We paid off our Car today!! So we have no more car payments!! We bought the Versa Mid-January 2009 and paid it off in 14 months!! Yep we were pretty aggressive with our payments but I HATE... HATE losing money to interest.

We plan to save what we were making in car payments for a down payment on a new SUV/truck from Mike. We hope to buy it sometime this fall. The Van has been having some transmission issues and Mike broke the drivers side Wind Shield Wiper last night. So he is excited for a new SUV!

New Van

Well it looks like new! So pretty! We got the Van yesterday. Total cost would have been $1,700, but thank the Lord it only cost us $100. The most ridiculous thing was that just for the Dodge name and Grand Caravan name it cost over $100.

Today I had my first meeting for FLL (First Lego League). We had 5 girsl but know of at least 3 more who will be joining us today. The girls seem nice and I know it will be a great time. Then we went and worked out. And tonight we are going dinner at Simon and Seaforts.

Tuesday

I brought the van in this morning to get an estimate. If we had to pay out of pocket it would be $1,400, ouch. Thank the Lord for insurance. And that is for a salvaged gate piece that the body shop will repaint. I just left the van there and got a ride to work from one the the guys at the shop. It "should" be done by Friday. We were a little unsure of the body shop since no one had suggested it to us but the shop has a 100% guarantee on the work for as long as we own the vehicle. And since Mike and I have decided that we will pretty much drive it until it dies we are not so worried.
We do not have to much planned for tonight. Homemade wild rice soup is for dinner with some left over corn bread muffins that I made last night. And the Biggest Loser Starts tonight, I am a dork but I love this show.
I am also excited for this weekend! Mike and I are celebrating our 1 year anniversary! We are going out to dinner on Saturday to Simon and Seafort's. And on Sunday we are having dinner at Samantha and Hans place and then going to the LION KING!! I am sooo pumped! To bad it is only Tuesday.

Oh Happy Day

Pictures of the van

So I decide to call insurance this morning to see if maybe the vandalism on the car would be covered. Guess what? It was covered almost 100% yeeha! All we have do is pay out $100 deductible and all the body and glass work is taken car of.

Mike and I celebrated tonight with treating our self to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream

Weekend Review

Saturday was a wonderful day. I baked Enchiladas, Manicotti, wild rice soup, and made puppy chow. I went and worked out. And Saturday night we had the first get together for the young adult group at the church.

Sunday... was not so nice. It is 5 am, Mike gets up gets ready and heads out to the van to go to work... he gets in the van and realises that the rain sounds like it is in the van. He starts looking for an open window, turns around and realizes that the back window is completely smashed and broken out. So what does he do... runs back in the house turns on the light in the bed room and asks me if I took the check book out of the van. I say "yes dear" grunt and turn over.

Mike says " well the van does not have a back wind shield"

Me "CRAP"

So Mike goes to work and I call the non emergency line for the police they say to just file a police report online, there is nothing they an really do for us... SERIOUSLY. If we do not have a suspect they can not do anything... isn't it their job to find who did it! ugh! So I move the van into the garage since Mike took the car. And go back in the house to sulk a while.

Later in the morning, feeling like I could deal with the situation and replacing a window is not that bad; I go to investigate and clean up the glass a bit. Only to realise not only did the culprits smash in the window they also hit the back of the van with a bat, their foot, a bar, or something. And the back hatch back of the van is totally deformed. Because of this I cannot even get the back door open, are you kiding me!

So Monday I plan to call some companies on my lunch break and see how much it is going to cost us. I hope we can get the back hatch working and opening, so we only have to replace the window. Other wise we will try to find a hatch for the van at a junk yard to put on.

Hope everyone else weekend was good! (I will post pictures tonight)