A Year of Change

When all seems lost or you’re really down, what can you do? I say think positive! Think about it, you have only two options, get dragged down or lift yourself up. I’d rather be up. We’re kind of in that position now, swimming in bills, bills, and more bills, due to medical expenses and taxes and a few thrown in unexpected surprises and it’d be real easy, in fact expected, for us to get down. But I refuse to do so, instead I’m going to get more determined to get out of this mess. Don’t know if we can but what’s the alternative, to be all depressed and do nothing? Nope, we will stay positive.

Now to the day, baseball was cancelled due to the snow so Ty went to Vinny’s around 10:30. I ran to the store after a long workout at the gym and then made some chili. Jag wanted to go to the movies so we picked up Ty and Vinny and all headed out to see Noah. It was ok but not so much a kids movie. But the kids still enjoyed it. They all three then played until around 6:30 wen we took Vinny home.

Tonight we’re supposed to have a baseball game but I don’t see how as it’s 18 degrees out with a blanket of icy snow on the ground. I’m sure the field will not be in any shape to play ball. Even Mojo is in sleeping in bis bed. That’s about it, time to get positive and come up with some ideas to keep the checking account in the black. Take care and God Bless.

Well is started out calm enough but soon the day turned hectic. Mom and Ty ran out of the house by 8:09am and were on the way. Jagger and I had to go buy a new dishwasher, get some fuel (lunch) in him for his games, get some food for dinner and then head off to the ball fields. We made it there by 1 and the boys started stretching and warming up for 4 hours of baseball. Soon it was 2 o’clock and our first game of the season started. Now these games don’t count in our standings as we opted into a tournament to get some extra  playing time. The two teams we played were really good as we “played up” meaning we opted to play against stronger teams than those in our division. The second team in particular was from Canyon City which is a good three hour drive south of Denver. These kids had been together for 3 years and came up through a “club” or system that starts at 8 years old and goes all the way to high school. They all had wrist bands with plays on them just like professional players. The catcher looked 18 years old and had an arm to match. We started off by getting two runs in the first but that was it.

Meanwhile Mom called and Ty and his team did really well and would soon be on the way to join us. They arrived by 4pm for the second game. They had hopes of winning State but it wasn’t to be. They still did a great job. Truthfully it worked out well as if they had won State, then they would have gone to Globals in Nashville Tennessee which would have cost each family something like $6000 which we just don’t have. He was disappointed but shouldn’t be as they did really well to get this far.

It’s 5:15 and raining but I just got an email saying we have a game at 8am! I think (hope) they’ll cancel this in the next hour as the rain is supposed to turn to snow in a few hours. We’ll see, maybe we’ll be rushing out of here soon. It looks like a rainy week around here until next Saturday when it’ll dry out. Easter is next Sunday and we have Lorenzo coming in from New York as we have a wine dinner on Monday the 21st at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

Guess I’ll run in case we’re off to play ball in a few hours. Hope everyone is well, God Bless.

Alright now we’re getting somewhere, here’s two new comments

1. Robi says:

   April 11, 2014 at 4:25 pm

   My biggest dream at the moment is to be able to live without so much debt. You know the routine – just when you think you are getting even, BANG, something else comes along! Guess it keeps me honest! I would also like to be able to vacation a bit more! It’s all good tho, I feel so blessed and lucky for EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in my life! I have so much more than many many people! Have a great weekend – Over and Out from sunny Arizona which is to be 98 degress today – now that’s something to be thankful for!

   We couldn’t agree more Robi, debt is like a disease or the devil that sucks you dry. When we get out, we’re never going back, it’s just so freakin hard to get out, it’s like we need divine intervention so we pray a lot!

   Reply
2. Blondie says:

   April 12, 2014 at 1:27 am

   I would like a simpler life : living by the ocean or in the country where you can walk around and see beautiful scenery ….near some nice neighbors whom you can share a meal and a nice bottle of wine with! Very low key and stress free living is the life for me:)

   Spot on Ali, we too wish for this but in the country or mountains. Lori would like the ocean but the places with ocean front are in unstable states or too isolated.

   Now how about the rest of you, let’s hear it before I start naming names!

   Yesterday was jam packed, baseball, D.I., work and more work. Today we have two baseball games, the State D.I. Championships and then who knows what. I did get a new Mac Book Pro laptop yesterday which is pretty cool. Thankfully the company paid for it.

   Wish I had more time to talk about things like the poor rancher in Nevada that the gov is sending in armed troops to get him to stop grazing. Not sure who is right or wrong but I do know the gov shouldn’t send in over 100 armed troops for a rancher and his family. Watch closely as groups from as far away as New Hampshire are coming to his aid, hope no one gets hurt.

   Time to run, lots to do, God Bless.

Ok, here’s a comment from Annette,

Today we’re going to divert from the normal what we did babble as we really haven’t been getting much participation from any of you. Instead we were talking last night about just how we and others live their lives.

So for an exercise, ask yourself, are you getting everything you want out of life? Are you doing what you want? Are you happy with where you live? Are you bored? Now most people ignore these type of questions as they feel they can’t do anything about it. Well I’m going to go out on a limb here and tell you that you can. I know it’s easier said than done to move, to get a new job, or take up a new hobby, but when it comes down to it, is there really anything you can’t do if you really really want to do it? The only thing we all have is time, and its limited, so why resign yourself to being stuck in a bad place if you don’t want to. Change doesn’t happen overnight but with a little planning, you can do just about whatever you want to.

So just for fun, and to get some participation, we would like for each of you to send a comment saying what you’d like to do if you could do whatever you want. We’ll start by saying we’d like to move to a place with some land where we could have some animals , a big garden and some space, preferably in the mountains. Now it’s your turn, come on, you can do it. How about Uncle T, we never hear from you!

Looking forward to hearing from you, God Bless.

In our quest to pay down our medical and tax bills, we’ve put a moratorium on just about every purchase outside of the daily necessities like gas and food. We figured out that the reason we both have periodic headaches is because our humidifier broke 4 months or so ago. Throw in our dishwasher that doesn’t really wash dishes anymore and the annual pool dues that must be paid by April 15th if we’re joining this year, and we or I, am in a little bit of a pickle. I just love these little challenges that pop up on a daily basis as it keeps me on my toes. Stay tuned to see how I handle this one!

Today it is supposed to be 77 degrees! We’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time as we’re all ready for summer around here. I was talking with a friend yesterday who  said we’d better be careful what we wish for as a really hot summer is never enjoyable. You can always warm up but sometimes it’s hard to cool off!

Jagger had his honors language arts and math tests yesterday from 3:30 until 5:30 at The Manning School. He thinks he did pretty well. I can’t imagine and hour and a half of algebra testing in 6th grade. In fact I don’t remember even learning algebra until high school and have long since forgot it.

Today Ty has D.I. and Jag has baseball so it’ll be a busy afternoon.

I forgot to post happy birthday for Grandma Dixie’s birthday yesterday. I tried calling her a bunch during the day but she must have been on with all her fiends all day as the phone was always busy. She sure has lots of friends. Finally she called us around dinner time, hope she had a great day!

Time to run, lots to do, hope everyone is well, God Bless.

p.s. I asked the misses if she wanted to drive the Porsche to work today to which she said, you bet, so she’ll be whipping around town looking even hotter than usual which is hard to do! Michael our friend called the other day and said to please drive the thing to keep it warmed up. It’s actually just been sitting in our garage gathering dust for a month as the weather hasn’t been too good. Hope she has fun!

It’s getting warmer and the grass is getting greener every day. I expect that by the end of the week we’ll be swimming in green. The boys had a good day as did the misses and I. Lots going on work wise, for both of us. We managed to put a dent in our medical bills yesterday paying over $1000 only to get a new bill for $1200 in the mail from the misses latest procedure, can a guy get a break?

What else, let’s see, the gov is still twisting numbers as they get on tv every day telling us how great things are, hmmm. Here’s an interesting quote for you all,

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” -Thomas Jefferson

Oh and Annette sent a comment on Airstream’s, seems Jim’s grandparents had one that they traveled in quite a bit, what fun, but don’t worry, we’re not jumping on the travel trailer bandwagon anytime soon, unless of course we win the lottery!

Hope ya’ll are well (I threw in the ya’ll for Grandma Dix!), take care and God Bless.

Work, work, school, that’s what’s going on around here today and for the rest of the week. Lori is going in early so it’ll be me and the boys for most of the morning. Last night we were in bed by 9 after the much anticipated season premier of Game of Thrones which Lori loves. Today is supposed to be the last cool day with a rain snow mix in the morning before warming to 55 or so. Then later this week we should hit 75 degrees!

I think Jagger has a placement test tomorrow in math for Junior High. Throw in 2 D.I. practices for Ty, 2 baseball practices for Jag, a trip to the doctor in Vail, the State D.I. Championships this weekend and a baseball game or two, and we’re pretty darn busy. None of the above includes the misses or my work either which is pretty hectic on its own.

Our friends (the Harris’s) want to look for a used or gutted Airstream trailer to fix up. They’re out there for $5000 or less but just who knows how to fix one up? They want us to get one too so we can all go camping together. We think we’d love it IF we would use it on a regular basis but again, fixing one up is a whole different ballgame. Plus who has $5000 to buy the thing in the first place. They (Airstreams) have always been the coolest of them all. Growing up, or actually since 1931, they have graced the highways with their bright silver aluminum shells. There are actually forums dedicated to Airstreams and there’s some really cool vintage ones out there. It’s like a sub culture out there of Airstream owners. We found one in Golden for $3000 when we were looking just for fun. Don’t worry, we have plenty of creditors that are first in line before we could consider any fun purchases, but it would be a blast if you think about it. New ones by the way are $50,000 and up! I have no idea why they are so expensive except they seem to last forever and really hold their value unlike other brands out there. Oh well, if they get one maybe we can tag along with our tent and sleep next to them, although the misses wouldn’t be too big on that! Grandma Dixie and Pa Don as we all know, are the king and queen of the road having spent many many years criss crossing the country in various motor homes. I’m sure they could tell us of all the not so fun parts of hitting the road!

Oh well, it’s fun to dream, it’d be a blast wouldn’t it. Uncle T should buy one as he has the spare time to hit the road!

Guess I should run, Lori has a headache, we’re hoping it’s because it’s so dry or something  as we don’t want to go down that road again. She has to get to physical therapy which she’s never gone to, bad girl. Hope you all have a great week, take care and God Bless.

Well we slipped off the program last night and had a nice night out having a bbq at the Harris’s house. Lori and Carrie set it up and we both bought some ribs that were on sale. The nice thing about going over there is the kids play outside non stop for the entire time. I managed to stay away from gluten, dairy and most carbs (Carrie did make some delicious garlic mashed potato’s) but we did indulge in a  couple of adult pops!

Earlier in the day Jag and I ran some errands while Ty went to play at a friends house. Then Jag went out to sell some first aid kits for baseball. Tom and Ali also took him to lunch, lucky boy! Jimmy across the street had his truck stolen by two black kids (not stereotyping here but it is what it is) who then wrecked it but he’ll get it back Monday.

The Final Four is set and Wisconsin lost in the last 10 seconds, sorry Mom. It looks pretty nice outside this morning, maybe it’ll be a warm one.

Everyone is still sleeping (Jag was up until almost 1am watching tv) and it’s 7:30 now. Hope everyone is fine, have a great day and God Bless.

I made it home with the boys a bit after 3pm and then Ty went to Vinny’s. Jag and I cleaned the house, or at least the kitchen and living room and then Mom arrived home around 5:30. We had some scallops for dinner and a glass of champagne and that was it. We were both ready for the weekend. I think we went to bed at 8 or so and everyone but me is still sleeping.

Not sure what we’ll do today. I might go trade a rifle in for one with a lighter caliber for Jag as he can hunt big game this year after he passes the mandatory Hunter Safety course.

Baseball was cancelled yesterday as the field was too muddy. Today he’d better get on selling his first aid kits, so expect a call!

I’m not sure what the weather is today, it’s supposed to warm up by the end of next week but could rain or snow again before that. Guess I’ll run to the gym while everyone is sleeping, hope you all are well, God Bless.