What a great time I had this weekend. The down side - I now have a new hobby that is NOT cheap. I've already been scoping out E-bay for big lots that can get me a little bit of everything rather than buying things one at a time at the craft stores. We scrapbooked from the time we got up in the morning until...well, until the time we went to bed in the morning (usually around 3 am). It was so addicting - but I really enjoyed it and was able to finish my firstborn's book as well as get my ds2's book nearly done. I wanted to do a scrapbook for both, just the first year, in addition to my photo albums. Now I can focus on events as they arise, like weddings, picnics, holidays, etc.
We have a lot of miscellaneous money coming our way lately - $150 commission check, $60 rebate on my contacts, $60 BOA bonuses for opening accounts...plus we will be getting a nice chunk of change from our taxes, which (I think) we will pay off DH's car loan with. Then I can throw that $200/month either toward my student loans or our IRAs. So far we have put $2k in, out of the $8k we plan to (or did the maximums go up this year? I think they might have - we try to contribute the max toward both). So we are starting off the year okay.
Tonight we took ds1 (2.5 years) and my niece (3.5 years) to McDonald's for dinner and to play, then to see Curious George. Really cute movie. Ds did very well - I was quite pleased with his behavior, because I really wasn't sure how he would be. We sat in the last row, on the aisle, which was a smart move for us. The kids got to stand up for a few minutes when they got antsy without bothering anyone, and we could slip out easily to the bathroom. Oh, and we had a diaper on ds because we are not too comfortable with him telling us when has to go when we are out in public - but he did! He didn't even mind leaving the movie for a minute to go. I was certain he would just go in his diaper so he wouldn't have to get up, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Looks like all this potty training really is paying off Anyway, we spent $13 on dinner and $14 on the movie (both kids were free - another pleasant surprise!). Definitely a fun night.
Tomorrow we are having ds1's Early Intervention evaluation - he gets speech services. They are going to continue services for another 6 months as he is just now really starting to talk - but we have to review his goals just the same. Tomorrow was my morning to sleep in, but they will be here at 9. So I told DH to get me up at 8:55
I'm not doing well on my real estate goals - I just have not gotten motivated to sit down and get my mailings out. Maybe I will make that a goal for tomorrow...