Our car went BOOM.
Our ONLY car went boom.
Our only car to pick up daddy in tomorrow went boom.
Our only car to take Molly to preschool and pick up daddy in went boom.
Our only car to take Molly to preschool, K to her CF Clinic, and pick daddy up tomorrow went boom.
Have I said…
CRAP
Congrats to all of us that made it the thirty days…and those that tried!! I’ve made up these badges for both camps!!! Feel free to save and post on your blog…I just ask for a link back to Redefining Perfect!!
Enjoy!! I hope you use them!
Well, it looks like our Christmas, and our pocketbook have been saved! We don’t physically have the money yet, but it has been withdrawn from DH’s 401K. We can fix Dh’s car now, and this means we can sell my car (this is bad and good) to CarMax, pay it off and get that bill, and the cost of insurance off our backs!! This translates into HUGE relief.
On top of that, our Christmas will be nice for the first time in 5 years. We can get our ‘big’ gift for Denver (space camp! Whee!), and a few others (It is SO hard to shop for a 10 year old boy, you know that?). We can round out the girls toys (right now they are primarily clothes)….AND…*gasp* BUY FOR EACH OTHER!!
AND, I can buy the supplies to make the girls holiday dresses…and purses for the rest of my fam (I’m still hoping mom’s sweater will be knit in time…but just in case…hello pursy!).
We’ve been waiting on news for over a week on this! The thought of getting this money has been a glimmer of hope for us! We need it…and a good Christmas. It’s been far too long! (Plus the added money every paycheck that he can’t pay into his 401K will help, too).
Over at Crazy Hip Blog Mama’s, we were challenged to write about our best birthday’s (for a chance to win a free projector rental). For me it was an easy choice. Last years birthday party for the girls was the all-time best for me (M was turning 2, K was turning 1). And it was two birthday parties at that.
First, we had a party for the playgroup. It was a smaller party, but Dora themed, for which I made this cake. The girls had a group of a bout 10 kids to play with, while I got to chat with the adults. Dora was playing on the TV the whole time, of course, and immediately after Dora was the Backyardigans (they didn’t have the Pablo cake pan yet *lol*)
Then came the real party, with our families and friends. It was a big party, tons of people in my tiny house. I made this other cake, my first attempt at a “real” cake with fondant. It was a success…even if I did make the pink the color of bubble gum (so the ribbon looked like bubble gum *G*).
Molly was super hesitant about the cake:
But Kennedy dove in with aplomb!
In my family we’re known for having failures of parties…We haven’t had one decent party in all of the years I’ve been alive. The girls birthday parties were the best! After the tons of food and cake, they opened their gifts, and then the girls crashed! *lol* IT was a great time! I can’t wait for this years party!
And here’s some more pics of the girls from that day:
Well, we are attempting to dip into DH’s 401K now. If we get approval for the withdrawal, there will be positives and negatives to it.
Positive: We can take the car to CarMax and sell it, and have the money to cover the difference. I.E. We don’t have to turn it in as a voluntary repo (which we have been considering)
Negative: We’re taking money out of the 401K
Positive: We’ll be able to catch up ALL of the bills.
NEgative: DH can’t make ANY 401K contributions for 6 months after the withdrawal.
Positive: We’ll be able to fix our one remaining car (it needs breaks, has a bad oil leak, etc.)
Negative: Uh…
Positive: Christmas will be covered for sure.
Positive: HUGE weight off my shoulders, and our finances with the car out of our hair…which means we can, in fact, go through with the SSI appeal.
This entire article is exceedingly true for our family. We haven’t started going to the food pantry yet…but it has been in my thoughts. Wal-Mart reducing it’s prices are about the only thing keeping us (somewhat) afloat right now: