Thursday, May 28, 2009

Liberation

We always thought it was nice to have a good amount of money in our bank account. Just in case there's a rainy day. Then, we realized that we had money in the bank, which was making about 1/2 %, and several loans that we were paying 6% on. How does that make sense? Plus, if something does happen, we could always sell one of our cars. It didn't makes sense to use anymore, so we broke down and paid off the suburban. It felt so liberating to send that check in!

The coolest thing about the whole situation: in the future we can put the old car payment towards our student load. We figure that instead of taking another 10 years to pay those off, it will only take about 2 years. That will save interest too. Then... if we get really crazy, we could actually start making extra payments towards our house. Imagine that.

On another positive note; we started the kids on their new chore charts. I can't remember if I already wrote about this, but apparently it's important to me, so who cares? Every day after school they spend about an hour reading, and cleaning. I'm always coming up with other things for them to do. It's great, because now I don't get behind on stuff. If something needs to be done, I just add it to the chore cards. Of course it doesn't always go smoothly, and I have to coach them through most cleaning tasks. But, they are getting better, and needed less and less help every day.

I have been working hard the past 4 days to get our pool water balanced. I have added like 3 gallons of acid so far!! and I'm not even close to the suggested Alkalinity levels. I must have started at like 500, and the goals is 100. I'm currently at around 300. Tomorrow, the pool store will test the water to see if my test kit is accurate. I also bought this thing called a "poolskim"... man .. did I write about this already?... i simply can't remember, nor want to check. Anyways, it attaches to the return vent of the pool, and sucks in stuff floating on the water surface. It seems to be working great!! I also fixed our hottub. After we drained the pool, the water was flowing in, but no bubbles were coming out. At the pump station there was a pipe that sticks straight into the air, which shoots out water if you plug the jets. So I figured I would blow into that pipe, to see if I couldn't get the pipe to start sucking air into the jets again. I didn't really think it would work, but it totally did!

Summer brings another one of my favorite things: the tv show "So you think you can dance". I really watching great dancers dance. Of course the first auditions bring good entertainment too.

5 comments:

Amber said...

This post made me laugh. I'm not sure why, you just seemed especially funny today! I am envious of your chore chart AND of your pool. Today would have been a perfect day for a backyard pool. I am not envious of all the work it seems to take to get the water just right!

Oh and I too am stoked for SYTYCD!!!! I LOVE THAT SHOW! Do you have any favorites yet?

Jessica said...

Amber - I'm glad you enjoyed it. sometimes I wonder if anyone ever even reads them! Your posts are ALWAYS funny/inspiring. I wish I was as good of a writer as you. In fact, I used you as an example just today when telling my husband about bloggers I admire.

Nancy Sabina said...

So You Think You Can Dance is just so fun! We got Ruthie into it last year when she stayed with us and now she's a total addict, too.

Ruthie said...

I love So You Think You Can Dance! I don't have cable at my apartment and therefore don't get any channels, so I solicited all my friends until I found one that would let me come over to watch it with her. Word is getting out that we watch it, so every episode so far we've had another person come watch it with us. Its turning into quite a little party every week! And, to make it more fun, we do exercises and/or try out the dance moves during the commercial breaks so we don't feel like vegetables!

Have you heard they're having another season in the fall? I'm a little worried about that, since I really can only afford for it to take up two evenings a week for four months out of the year.

Will of the hill said...

I love your posts--and always read them--maybe not daily --but i love my jessica catch up days--YOU make me smile--you motivate me --and you make me feel sane in my crazy farm life!! Now if I could only entertain you by writing in my blog huh?

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