Monday, July 16, 2007

Why I Need a Sick Day to Study for Organic Chemistry

Excerpt from tonight's review class:
"Well, those aromatic spices were worth more than gold. That is if you talk about price per pound. So you could fill a boat with spices or gold, but you need a big boat for spices, because they are more bulky. You could probably fit the gold in a rowboat. But then how do you get a rowboat back from Borneo? The pirates would kill you. So, you need a bigger boat."

I think self-study may be the way to go this quarter.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Last Day

I just wanted to share that today was my last day taking Tamoxifen. So, I may have moved up the quitting a little, but I have good reasoning. I assume that I will get the "all-clear" to resume family planning in early September. Being a planner, I have an appointment to have my IUD removed on August 1st. Now, we certainly do not intend to get pregnant in August, I'm fully supportive of doing one final round of exams before that, but without pretty much guaranteed birth control, we decided that I would stop taking the tamoxifen when I got the IUD out. That way, if there is an accident, the worst that happens is that I don't get to have another mammogram, MRI, and Chest X-ray before we start. I won't have to worry about birth defects or worse because of my medication. So, that was the plan, but today I ran out of pills and just decided I didn't want to get my Rx filled again for these last 2 1/2 weeks.

Before anyone says I should have taken it longer, remember my doctors were on the fence about if I needed it anyway. I have faith that we've been very proactive in fighting off my cancer. I know it could come back, but if it does, I won't beat myself up about quitting the tamoxifen 6 weeks early than my doctor said I could. I'm ready for cancer to be a closed chapter in my life. I'm ready to get back to the fun stuff!

Speaking of fun stuff, I have some really adorable pictures of Grace, including one of her holding a kitten, riding on a kiddie 4-wheeler with her cousin Logan, and wearing silk pajamas that Grandpa sent her from China. However, my camera program just locked up and will require me to reboot the computer, so those will have to wait for another night.

Oh one more note. Our house is still on the market. No offers yet, but we have had 5 showings in the past 3 1/2 weeks. We have faith that when the time is right it will sell and while we sacrifice some space, we'll be able to focus on our debt-free goal and help secure our family's future.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

For Sale

Things have been very busy around our household. Eric and I had been discussing for a while and have decided to put our house on the market. It's a scary step but we believe it is a commitment to what we are working for in our future.

We've decided that we will go back to apartment living for the foreseable future (think until I've completed my residency after med school). For the next 2-3 years, the advantage will be that we can hopefully save between $300-$400 more a month by renting. We'll use that extra money to work on our debt. Right now we expect to be completely debt free by May 2010 and I expect to start med school in August 2010. However, hopefully we can move the debt free date up a bit if we free up some money in the budget. However, there are a couple other factors that may effect that. First of all, I may have mentioned that I got a promotion at work, however, last week I finally discussed the details and was told that even though they moved me up a level in title, my company doesn't do salary increases mid-term. I don't agree, but what can I do? And no, I can't turn down the promotion. It's already been processed. As a result, I no longer receive overtime and my first check on straight pay only was $120 less than what I usually budget. Meaning I have to find an extra $240 per month in my budget. Add to this that hopefully in about a year, I'll have 2 kids in daycare. Not sure what that does to the budget, so basically we're looking for any opportunity now to work on paying off the bills. So far since, February we've decreased the debt by just over $10,000 so we are on the right track!

Anyway, we put the house up for sale 2 weeks ago. We met with the realtor on a Thursday night, had a sign in the yard on Friday and on Saturdy got a call for a showing on Sunday. I spent all evening Saturday and morning Sunday until the showing cleaning! Since then, we've had 3 more showings, so 4 in 2 weeks seems pretty good. No offers yet, but I'm hoping traffic will eventually mean an offer. My house is cleaner than it's ever been as I've been obsessively cleaning. We've also been spending alot of time the last two weeks looking for apartments and I've started making lists of stuff to sell. I'm organizing a multi-family/community yard sale to help us downsize.

We're not sure where we're going to live yet. Right now we're between 2 townhomes. One has an attached garage, pool, and fitness center. The other has a partially finished basement with large utility room. We are having trouble deciding if the extra room is more important than the community amenities and an apartment that we just like better.

I also started school again last week. I'd like to say I've been studying, but not so much. I promise next week, I'll buckle down!

Can't think of much else going on. GWO was great as always and I'll see them again in later July. The family is good. Grace is still adorable and growing up so quickly. Eric is doing good too. In just 2 months we get to go to Hawaii and I can't wait.

Ok, stuff to do. More later!