I've been doin allot of thinking lately about my goals. I've never been one to have goals for myself, guess if I would've then maybe I would've gone to college right after high school. I've always known I would go to college at some point in my life just didn't know when. I felt like goin right after high school wasn't the 'time' for me. I didn't want to waste my parents money by partying all the time (and that's probably what I would've done). But anyways, I really want to go back to school and every since I had Brayden it's been at the top of my list. I want to be able to give Brayden everything he wants (well not everything but you know what I mean) and needs, and not going to college makes that kind of life hard to imagine. Everything's so expensive these days. I mean they're talking about gas prices goin up and I already pay out the butt for gas plus you have daycare, which seems like every time I turn around is goin up. It's usually the most expensive when they're newborns and gets cheaper as they get older (which it has) but right when our daycare fee was about to go down they had a rate increase b/c of the increase in minuim wage. Well Shawnn and I didn't get a raise when minuim wage increased but we noticed everything else went up. Groceries went up, daycare went up, just the whole 'cost of living' went up, which is to be expected but come on!! I get so urked when I start thinking about the cost of stuff. But anyways, back to my main reason for blogging (I have a tendacy to get side tracked and on another story easily). My goals!! I really want to go to school but I don't want to go part time. I watched my mom do that and bless her heart she was a strong and determined woman!! She worked a full time job and went to school part time after working and going to school all day she then had to come home and take care of a family. Well I don't want to do that, if I have to I know I can but........So, we will have Shawnn's grandma paid off by the end of next summer(woohoo, that's music to my ears). That'll be an extra $600 a month, Shawnn and I both will be getting raises in March and April so we'll have more money there too. So with that extra money we are goin to double up on my car payments so we can hurry up and get that paid off. After paying off my car we are planning on saving that extra $600 month and start HOUSE SHOPPING (more music to my ears). We want the 'perfect for us house' so this may take a while. Brayden will start preschool next year so we will have that $400 a month to save as well so once we get the car paid off and get settled in our house I can quit work and start goin to school full time. I'm not opposed to having to work a part time job, but it will be a part time job. I want to work 2 to 3 days a week from 9 to 2 and that's it, no Fridays or weekends. I'm so excited about my goals, it's really helped me. It makes not blowing money so much easier b/c I keep thinking to myself there's a light at the end of the tunnel (the debt tunnel) and we (shawnn and I) will be able to start over. We are so fortunate that Shawnn's grandma paid off some major debt Shawnn had before we got together. Shawnn had tons of credit card debt, it could've been a bad thing if he's grandma wouldn't have been there to help him out. So b/c of he's debt we've had to live on a tight I mean tight budget for 4 years. It's been very hard and at times depressing but now that we see that light we feel so much better. We know that once we get all this paid off we will NEVER go back down that road again. We will have maybe one credit card just in case of emergencies(but I am working on an emergency fund so hopefully we won't have to use that credit card). I'm so stinkin excited about all of this. LIFE really is GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!
~Brayden Halloween 2006~
