Debt Reduction Surgery

so today John and I finally decided to go through with the Debt Reduction Surgery. we had been holding off, thinking we might be able to get this pre-forclosure house next to his parents, but after the long consideration and thought we put into trying to make it work (it needed about $25000 in repairs) we decided not only would the bank most likely not accept our low offer, but it wasn't in our best interest...we had a goal (to get out of debt) and we need to achieve it first. so the house thing is off. it was a pretty big decision and rather emotional, seeing as to how we don't know when we'll get a house, but to break the mood of remorse, we jumped right in to our Debt reduction! we were holding on to about $3700 for a down payment for the "maybe" house, and since that was a no-go, it was free again! we stripped off $7500 in debt since the last "total money makeover" post! we paid off our credit card with our bank, our debt consolidation loan, and citi credit card, and we are now attacking our car loan!!! it feels so awesome to be paying more than the minimum for the car note. that has never happened! we suddenly can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! we have just under $8000 to pay off in our debt and that just made our day! life without a car note??? very soon, very soon.

so in the midst of this life-changing decision, we got to talking about other life-altering decisions like, when to get a second vehicle, when will we get a house, how much house can we afford, do we still want to move to utah? and so we have changed our minds about a few things, and i'll explain.

first and foremost, we have decided we aren't going to move to utah...house prices there are just as much, if not more than houses here, so we'd be waiting even longer to get into a house, and the big reason we decided not to move is the cost to visit...plane tickets would run $1200 to $1600 if john came, and that would leave us without family for a long time. and since kathryn has gotten quite attatched to the extended family, we have decided we can settle for Walker, La. it's a much smaller town than BR, and i LOVE that. and the school system is not too bad...or so we've heard...so, we'll be looking for a house in the Walker area, probably in another year and a half to 2 years. we are going to be saving up for the second vehicle as soon as we become debt free, and we will pay cash for it. we'd like to get a van, but it looks like there aren't many to choose from...no one is selling them! so i guess we shall cross that bridge when we get there...hopefully we will have a second vehicle in a year. then save for the down payment for the house/fully funded emergency fund. and maybe i may try to go back to school after all that...but idk.

so aside from that...the kids are...still alive! i had the flu a week ago and didn't know it (i wondered why i felt so TIRED and achy and terrible) and turns out Daniel caught it and he had it bad! his fever was 104.5 at the docs office on saturday morning...i was really worried about him. and kathryn probably had it too, she was sleeping more than normal and had a bit of a fever, but nothing over 102.5...and just as daniel starts to get over his flu today, kathryn breaks out in hives...well, that is very sad for her. i called the nurse and she said it is usually caused from a viral infection...so she is still sick =( i dunno if there is anything more than benadryl that she can take... i just hate it when my kids are so sick and there is nothing i can do to make it better other than comfort them.

so the last bit of news we have is kathryn finally got evaluated for speech therapy and turns out she qualifies for a whole lot more...i guess when you assume your kid is normal, you never want to think otherwise...i never had much of a reason to think kathryn was anything but a typical kid developing at her own rate...well, apparently she has quite a few developmental delays including her speech. the good news is...they want to offer her therapy for all the areas she is weak in. so that is terrific. i guess to all the parents of 3 year olds, you have no idea how frustrating it is to not be able to communicate properly with your toddler, or to not know what they are trying to say 90% of the time. i only hope it works/helps her to improve her speech. everything that i have tried with her seems to not help much. oh well, leave it to the professsonal. bad news, they are going to take up to 2 months getting back with me about when we can get started.