Recent Haps

Let's see...a lot has been happening in Chaosville lately! We are almost finished with Phase II of the fence (expect a post soon) and our walkway project is also nearing completion (and posting). We have ordered the supplies for fence phase III so it should all come together pretty soon. Meanwhile we are getting a lot of slow drive-bys and compliments when we are out in the front.
The garden is doing well. Everything is taking root and surviving with the exception of a wax bean plant that was sickly to begin with. None of the seeds have sprouted yet but they should do any day now.
The kids are doing great. Raley is getting ready for the TAKS tests in math and reading this week. They put so much stress on the kids over these tests. I know I have written about this before so I won't blather on, but it really chaps my hide! I am sure I would feel differently if my child was struggling, but luckily he isn't. Clay is awesome as ever. It feels so great when I sub at his school and random people stop me and tell me how great he is. Pattie is in a full bore Rapunzel stage right now thanks to the DVD release of Tangled. Yesterday she was telling our 10 year old BOY neighbor all about the whole storyline. He was so sweet listening to her though.
Our Dave Ramsey-ish plan has had another big bump (in a good way) this week. A while back we decided that we shosuld take Dave's advice and switch from whole life insurance to term insurance. We have had whole life policies since we first married and they had built up some cash value. We cashed them in and the money has allowed us to, for the first time ever, set up an emergency fund with 3-6 months living expenses in it. By our calculations, there is enough for 6 months of bare bones expenses (shutting off cable, internet, all non-essential spending) or 3 months of slightly scaled back living in the event of a major blow to our finances. The feeling of freedom and weight-lifted is incredible! We have also been able to send a large chunk of money to the land, almost cutting it in half.
The land loan is our last remaining debt, other than our house, because on Wednesday Jayme made the last payment on his hospital bill! We have put a big chunk of our tax refund into our HSA for this year's medical payments which we hope *knock on wood* will be nothing more than the average sickeness or two.
I really, really, really am not trying to brag here. I hope you all realize that. I feel like if we can do it, anyone can and I want to encourage you all make your own plan. You will feel so good when you see the light at the end of the tunnel!
The last thing I have to mention is a not great thing. Our little town doesn't feel as safe and sound right now. Yesterday morning when I woke up there was a text from my sweet neighbor. Their truck had been rifled through during the night and her purse and her husband's gun were stolen. They leave their truck unlocked (like we do) so I went out to check ours. They had definitely been searched as the glove boxes and center consoles were open. Very often, Jayme leaves his wallet in his truck but that night it had come in so I was very thankful for that. I was also thankful we had closed the garage door (sometimes we forget) because there's a lot of stuff in there they could have taken.
I am hoping to post a couple more times this week, and there are a  few new things on the food blog too. Check out the Kobayashi Maru recipe!!