Dumping Debt: 4th Month

I just posted March's Dumping Debt...now lets see how long before this post is actually ready to go.
**OK, it's May 29th and I still haven't finished this post, so long for getting Aprils month done early!**

We've changed a few things up this month, had some mental struggles and have given into some indulgences, what can we say we're only human right? Get ready, it's a long one this month!

Positive experience this month: Family's generosity and persistence allowed Malachi and I to fly to Portland to see Andrew's Grandma, and little gifts we were given for Easter to treat ourselves. Plus, I felt we spent a lot of money on groceries because of Easter, but we actually didn't go over budget for food!

Challenges/Unexpected expenses this month: I love listening to Dave Ramsey's radio show, it motivates me hearing other peoples' debt free scream, I learn A LOT about different aspects of finances and it always gets me excited for the Budget committee meeting with my handsome husband. However, what I haven't shared with you all, because I've been reluctant to do so, is that most of the meetings, at some point, I end up in tears. I'm not sure if I can actually blame it on being pregnant or not, I don't like to but that could be a reason I get so emotional. As much as I am excited for all of this, I always end up confused during our meetings. For example: It's hard to keep track in our paperwork when we are paid in US dollars but then have to pay utilities in Canadian dollars....or having different bank accounts with different incomes (Kiewit in one and Military in another, USAA's regulations for accepting their Career starter loan), and last but not least getting paid weekly. I loved the fact that we got paid weekly when living in the states but now that we are in Canada, it's pretty annoying. The reason being; we have to make sure we bring enough cash to exchange to pay for rent and utilities otherwise we have to make another trip to the states. Yes we can do a wire transfer but it ends up being $30-40 with all the different bank fees and such...that's actually conservative, I think when we calculated it all up it was actually in the $50's. I think it's ludicrous to pay those fees and refuse to do so, when it cost less to just make a trip...however it's just not always convenient when you have a little one and in your third trimester. Anyway, being paid weekly means we may not have enough in our account at that time, which then means making another trip to Bellingham. Also, getting paid weekly is hard to work out in a budget. I mean if we get paid say, 3-4 days before the new month has started then half of that weeks paycheck goes to the new month right? 

When we started all of this Andrew figured out the average of each month and that's what we've been using for our budget paperwork...we figured that would incorporate the money that splits between two months and so on. What I don't get is; we've gone over our budget every month, but always have extra money in our bank account. Now if you remember there were times that we had extra money, by God's grace (cashing in our credit card points) but if you look at our paperwork, it just doesn't make sense, we really shouldn't have the extra money that we do at the end of each month, but still be over in all of our paperwork. Every time we go through the paperwork I just feel like a failure because we're always in the red but then our bank account still has plenty of money in it. Maybe I should just be happy that we have extra rather than the opposite, and it's a blessing. But my control side of me wants to know how this is happening, and I get upset when I can't make sense of things. What we've decided though is to no longer use the average but add up how much we're actually going to earn for that month and base our budget on that. And if there's a day or two in the new month that was included in the previous weeks paycheck, we'll split that paycheck up so those days are accounted for. Hopefully that will make things better. Don't get me wrong, I'm still excited and looking forward to our budget committee meeting this weekend, I like the challenge of all this but do get a little upset at times.

Remember how I mentioned Andrew just likes making graphs and excel spreadsheets...well I've joined him in the "nerdyness.". While he was at work one Saturday I made our very own Debt Free Thermometer. I emailed it to him as a joke and a little bit later I got this picture back:

 Now it's on our wall ready to be filled in. At the time of the picture, April 26th, the red line is at 16%! =)

Helpful tip this month: One change we made this month is we've put a stop to our Debt snowball, we are only paying the minimums on the loans and saving the extra money to go towards our baby's birth, just as a precaution. Then if everything turns out fine, we will put all that money setting aside straight towards loans once the baby is home safe and sound. This is something that Dave Ramsey has suggested from the beginning but we have just started to do. His reasoning is in case there is an emergency we will have extra money set aside to deal with it. Our reasoning is since we are up here in Canada, we have to pay out of pocket for Doctors appointments and then get reimbursed by our insurance. So we need that extra money available and I am so thankful for having this insight before we give birth! God has taken care of us in that way majorly! We've already had to give a $2,000 deposit to our doctor so having that money available as been a huge blessing.
Dave Ramsey suggests this for anything major that may happen in the near future, like the possibility of a job loss, moving etc.
Also, something I never mentioned is in March we cashed in some savings bonds that we've had this whole time. It's so tempting to just hang onto them as a back up plan, but we're continuously told that the interest the bonds are accruing is nothing compared to the interest gaining on our loans. It only makes sense to cash them in and put towards loans. But remember they've gone into our "baby emergency" account as of right now....hopefully in June or July it will be clear that baby is totally fine (God willing) and we can make a nice huge payment towards our loans! Which we are very much looking forward to!

Malachi's First Camping Trip

Last weekend was a three day weekend up here in Canada. We impromptu met up with some of Andrew's co-workers and went camping...we only stayed one night (that was all this 36 week pregnant body could handle, if you really want to test your body's ability without any core strength at the end of a pregnancy then go camping...it seemed I was off balance in every single thing I did!) But it was fun nonetheless.

Daddy got some Cabela's gear for Malachi

So darn cute!

"I Hunt for Hugs"

I was being taken back to my childhood...eating Bugels!

Finding us some firewood

It seemed he always found the chips...no matter how good we thought we hid them!

Malachi's buddy for the weekend, only a week apart in age. Yes they have matching hats =)

Mount Baker, in Washington



Grandma Higle

Last week my Grandma passed away. She lived in Michigan and we didn't get to see her often but I have many fond memories that will always stay with me and I'd like to share a few.

I always loved coming home from school near Christmas time and seeing all the new presents that had been sent from Grandma and Papa. I remember peering through the window, seeing all the new presents under the tree and thinking, "Ok it can be Christmas now"...as if the number of presents we already had under the tree wasn't enough. I also loved that Grandma would send a bag of bows separate from the presents and let us kids put the bows on, it's the little things that really resonate with children.

During a visit in Oregon, Grandma took me (me only) out for lunch. It was such a treat to go out for lunch and I felt so special to spend that time alone with Grandma. I also remember after we ate our lunch we were looking at the desserts and Grandma got so excited that they had baklava...every time I hear that name I think of her. 

We only went to Michigan a couple of times but I absolutely loved making that trip and spending time on the lake. It was such a special time seeing Grandma and Papa in Michigan in their own home. I always wished we could go more often. But we did get to see them more often when they spent winters in Arizona, we would visit them during spring break. I always looked forward to the individual size chip bags that they would have ready for us. It was great enjoying the warm weather but sad to leave Grandma and Papa to head back to the snow.

Grandma would always ask if there were any boys I was interested in..I usually didn't have anything to report but I felt so grown up when she would ask =)

And finally Grandma had knitted Christmas stockings for all of her children...my mom took on that tradition and made us girls our own personalized stocking too. Well, just this past Christmas my mom surprised us with a stocking made for Malachi and Andrew. I'm not sure if I will try to make future kids stockings myself or nicely ask my mom to do so, but it was Grandma who started it all!

Oh and I can't forget the secret Higle chip dip....it's absolutely delicious and always a treat when made and usually consumed in a very short amount of time!

Patricia Higle

Grandma's High School Graduation Picture...absolutely beautiful!

This was always my favorite picture, Grandma and Papa for their 40th Wedding anniversary, 1993.

We got to see Grandma for her 80th birthday over facetime, a year from this past January, gotta love technology!

 I don't have any pictures here of us with Grandma, I"ll try to get one or two and update this post a little later. Also, Papa passed away before starting this blog so I'd like to remember him as well.

Love you Grandma and Papa!

Sister Jamie; Biological and....

My sister Jamie has been discerning her vocation in life. In the past couple of years God has made it very clear that he has called her to religious life AND these past couple of months He has lead her to the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Michigan. We are SO excited for her! She received her acceptance letter last week and will head to a 2 week retreat in the end of June and then start her first year the end of August. 

Love you Jamie! Couldn't be more happy for you and of course we are praying for you!

My Beautiful Mother's Day

I was blessed with a wonderful day yesterday, I may be a little bilious today but that's okay. Andrew let me sleep in, made us crepes for breakfast, mass, yummy potluck celebrating the kids who received their first communion, couple of episodes of Damages while Malachi napped, amazing (HIGH calorie) dinner made by my handsome husband which consisted of french fries with campfire sauce from Red Robin, BBQ'd burgers, then a nice long walk to Burnaby Lake and topped it all off with some ice cream & peanuts. And I wont mention the treats Andrew and Malachi got for me...Andrew swears he won't buy anymore desserts till after we give birth, we'll see if that actually happens. (I have NO self control!) =)

Every year I wonder if my husband can top the last...so far he has!

Thanks to my Mother for the many ways she has supported me and most importantly showed me to put God first. And to Andrew's Mother who raised an amazing faith-filled man who works hard and loves his family very very much. And all the other mothers/friends out there who have helped me along my motherhood journey.

The view from our porch...with a special lense on our camera.

My husband knows me too well! Campfire sauce

Poor guy started the day out with a fever but by dinner time was feeling much much better!

I love charcoal BBQing!

This paints a pretty good picture of our dinner scenario...although Malachi didn't care about the beer but certainly had his fill of frozen fries...guess he just couldn't wait for the deep fryer.

"Carrying Precious Cargo"

Graco advertisement?

5 Weeks Left

We only have 5 weeks left till we meet our little one...assuming he/she waits till due date to join us. 

Last night we had a 3-D ultrasound in the comfort of our own home...I had won this at a brunch I went to back when I was only 10 weeks along.

Unfortunately it was hard to get good pictures because we're so far along and baby is so big, plus there was a lot of tissue in the way, but we got one good one of his/her face. Andrew and I think it looks like Malachi when he was born!

Updated Saturday the 10th: the ultrasonographer sent us a couple more pictures that she found when looking back through our ultrasound.

Technician said the baby can look distorted because of the amniotic fluid...or maybe baby really does have a big nose =)

This one is the hardest to decipher, right in the middle is the baby's nose and his/her hand is rubbing the baby's left eye and the right eye is closed, under the black at the top of the picture.

We almost gave in and found out the gender! I'm glad we didn't though...the surprise is so fun after going through labor.

My Man= 1ST LT SCHAAL

This weekend we made a trip to Oregon for Andrew's promotion during drill. And of course we visited family and friends. 

Andrew went from a 2nd LT (Lieutenant) to 1st LT. So proud of him and his hard work! Drill weekends can be a bummer sometimes when he is gone or when we drive all through the night to get back just in time for him to go to his civilian job, but he loves being in the National Guard and from what I heard this weekend he does a good job and is appreciated by other soldiers in the unit. 

I'd also like to add that he recently received a promotion with Kiewit too. He's a hard working man and I'm glad it is not going unnoticed.

Thank you Handsome for being willing to serve your country and providing for your little family. We love you!

Jennifer took a video with our camera but I'm having troubles uploading it, this is the best I could do for now.