A 5k and a Tear-jerker

I was nervous about running a 5k on Saturday for several reasons.

-It was only my second ever
-I hadn't prepared as well as I should have
-My calves were incredibly sore from my little jaunt up Bunker Hill Monument two days prior
-The course was described as very hilly

On the positive side:

-I woke up feeling rested after being able to sleep in a bed following two nights on a floor in a sleeping bag
-The weather was pretty much perfect
-There would be walkers that I would blend in with if I couldn't run the whole thing
-Several of my friends were there which was sure to make everything more enjoyable.

Becky, Carie, Christa, me, Melissa, Sarah, Julia

I still don't have any idea what my time was, and I don't have a fancy Garmin to track my pace and all of that, but none of that really matters to me at this point.  I was able to run/jog the whole thing (which was actually 3.4 miles, not 3.1), including the hills, and felt really good afterwards.  I did cramp up during the second mile but was able to breathe it away. 

Unlike the 5k I did in March of 2011, I didn't quit running immediately following the race.  I've run another several miles on my own since Saturday.  Hopefully I keep it up this time!

Now, for the tear-jerker.  This video is an iMovie that my little sister made for an education class final.  She just completed her freshman year in college and has made more than a few folks cry with this video.  Enjoy.  (I can't get it embedded into Blogger, but the link above will take you to her Facebook page.  Hopefully you don't have to be friends with her to see it!)

Finally, an FPU update

I haven't been posting updates because I didn't have anything new to report.  We're just keeping on with what we're doing.  Oh, and I felt bad horrible about not having done a May budget yet.  Somehow, in the midst of the craziness of life the past couple of weeks, we didn't take the time to just do it.  We also haven't taken the time to deal with the insurance stuff that we need to.

We are using the same cash envelopes as last month and did reload them, so technically, we have budgeted for groceries, clothing, babysitting, and "blow" money even though it's not down on paper.  We met with an estate planner tonight which will lead to us having written information to bring to a lawyer for a legal will.

We've continued to watch our spending closely while still allowing ourselves to live.  We went out for a friend's birthday and took the kids to a carnival for an evening.  It's all a balancing act, and we feel pretty good about how we're doing.  We got our tax assessment in the mail (turns out finishing your second floor and adding a garage makes the value of your house skyrocket!) and were able to estimate what our tax bill will be.  Thanks to JD's overtime pay and the items that we sold, we were able to put about 40% of the tax money away in April.  Not bad!  (We're used to plowing money paying for property taxes, so this is the first time we've had to save for them in quite a few years.) 

Next week should be might be a little less crazy, which will lead to more progress, which will lead to more to report.  Maybe.

Crazy Busy

I've felt a little overloaded this week, not enough to stress me out, but just enough to make each day the whole week feel really full.

We had late evenings of baseball/softball this week.  Zeke had his first game Tuesday and had a nice hit off of the first pitch during his first at bat.  The players behind him also got hits, so he was able to score a run.  He was extremely happy.  I was a bad mom and forgot the camera.  He had his second game tonight and got hits both times he was up.  I remembered the camera, but forgot to take any pictures.  That may have been a result of chasing an energetic 1.5 year old around for 2.5 hours.  Ryley has her first three games next week.  I've accepted that between 5 weeks of sports teams and 5 weeks of trying to finish the school year, not to mention the beginning of summer-y weather and late nights for JD, I'm going to be in survival mode for a little while.

I'm taking my students to Boston very soon and have been working quite a bit on getting all of the little details figured out.  This is the first time I've done this, and I'm already looking forward to the next time which will be so much easier since I will have done it before!  I've also been thinking about who will need to do what to help out with the kiddos while I'm gone.  I think I have most of that part figured out, but still need to make sure I'm set with organizing stuff like all of their uniforms for school and sports in order to make things a little easier for JD.

Over the course of the week, I managed to get a few nice walks in.  No runs though.  I had shin splints after a run late last week and used that as an excuse for a few days.  The 5k that I signed up for is just a week and a half away and I'm not going to be as ready as I'd like to be.

I'm off to read the last chapter of Johnny Tremain so that we can discuss it at school tomorrow.  Good night.

And the winner...

... of Financial Peace is Alisa!  I hope that you and your family get as much out of it as we have!

FPU Give-away

I posted my latest FPU update without the promised give-away.

Here it is, the book that started it all, (for JD and I anyway) Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace (updated version).  

It's a brand new copy and I'm hoping someone else can learn from it as much as we have.  This book had led to us having very different ideas about money than we used to, and we definitely feel like we are on our way to being debt free.

To read reviews from Amazon, click here.

If you would like to read it, or know someone else who may benefit from reading it, just leave a comment saying so and I'll pick a winner on Saturday night.  (If you're a public follower of Kell&Crew, I'll throw in a second entry.)

FPU Update- Birthday on a Budget

It was my birthday last week.  When we made the budget for April, we decided not to budget any money for my birthday.  Right now, it's more important to me to get out of debt than for JD to buy me something that I don't really need.  We planned on staying home and just spending time as a family.  An unnamed benefactor ended up giving JD some cash and telling him to take me out to dinner for my birthday, so we ended up going out after all.  Dolly watched the little people, and JD and I went out to a local restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I received some birthday money from my in-laws and grandfather that will be going towards getting our kitchen/dining/living area painted.  You know you're a grown-up when all you want for your birthday is paint.

With 4 days to go in April, we've spent most of our allocated money for the month.  A couple of things went over the amount we had budgeted, but they were things out of our control like car repairs and fuel bills.  We did well in every other area.  JD worked many more hours in the past two weeks than the100 that we budgeted for, so we were able to put the "extra" into the property tax fund and also pay several bills that are due in May early which will enable us to put some of June's bills into May's budget and keep us ahead of the game.

After watching the FPU lesson on insurance, we realize that we need to make some changes as far as our insurance goes, so we'll be working on that in the next couple of weeks.

Staycation has started!

Last year we went to Florida during April break.  This year we're saving money and staying home.
I'm surprisingly content to be home and get things done around here.  Our big plans for the week include dentist and orthodontist appointments, a sister-date, and hanging out with friends.  Oh yeah, and catching up on house cleaning/organizing, laundry, bills, etc.

The weekend was kicked off with Book Club which I hosted at my mom's house.  I love those Friday nights with my girlfriends!  We discussed the book, our kids, life in general, and no one had to rush home as husbands were fending for themselves and in charge of the kiddos for the night.

Saturday was low-key and included a birthday party in the afternoon for my friend Jodi's little girl.  The kids had a blast playing pinthetailonthedonkey and smackthepinataashardasyoucan.  The chocolate fountain was a hit as well.

We headed down to Springfield, VT for the day on Sunday.  We attended another birthday party, visited with friends from my YMCA Camp Greylock days, and caught up with JD's college buddy and his wife who reside in Montana now.  The kids had a grand time, especially Ryley, who got to ride her horse friend, Sybil.  She didn't want to come home; between the horses, dogs, and cat, she was ready to move  into the barn.

The winner of the Bondiband is.... Andy Beth!  I'll send it to you via the Christa-Express.

The next giveaway is FPU related and will be coming soon along with an FPU update.