It's been a stressful and difficult summer. Between Mark's surgery and then dealing with 2 rounds of c. diff colitis, it was over 2 months of health stress - pretty much June, July and well into August. We're so glad he's doing better and that we're getting back on track.
We recently got 3 pairs of new glasses around here. I know they say you're supposed to get your eyes checked every year, but um, it's been more like 8 or 9 for me and Mark, so we figured we should get in there.
Speaking of 3, we've been at our new business location for over 3 years. We found out just before our beach trip that the man who owns the property out there (and who runs the place and who invited us to join him there as part of that integrative health community) died. We're not sure what that means for us and our business. We sold our farmhouse and moved our in-home business there 3 years ago and now it's a very real possibility that we won't have that location for our clinic if his family/estate sells it, which looks likely. We're not stressing too much. We're choosing to look at it as a sort of crossroads and perhaps an opportunity for different possibilities. We'll see.
We've done 4 official college visits so far (as well as many, more informal visits at various schools, so we've explored 8 total so far). A couple of schools (one we've visited and one we haven't yet) are standing out as front runners and others are dropping much lower on the list if they even stay at all. These adventures are FUN and we're having so much fun exploring possibilities and seeing what's out there and seeing what is a good fit and what makes Kate thrive. We have several more to check out and she's already working on her applications. Mind blowing.
5 more weeks until NaNoWriMo! A favorite time of year around here. :)
We enjoyed a lovely week at the beach. It has to be one of my very favorite times of year and never have I looked forward to it more than I did this year (again, reference the stressful summer). We made sure to go for as long as we could considering work and school schedules so we managed a 6-day trip! That's longer than we're usually able to go, so it was super relaxing. We don't get there nearly enough.
7 - the number of times we pulled in and out of our driveway today. That should give you some idea of how things are around here. Today has been a bit stressful, too. Lots of running around and barely keeping up. It's the middle of the night right now and I haven't finished this and I have to get up tomorrow to do more running around! If I'm doing my math correctly, tomorrow should be 5 in and outs of the driveway. And another college visit, though this time for Max (long story, but neat opportunity - more as we learn more).
8 - the number of times I've cried in the past few days? Hahahaha . . . whaaaaaaaaa! Maybe. I haven't counted. Nah, I'm just kidding. Hmm, let me see. 8 . . . the number of conflicting events and activities we've tried scheduling today. I mean, probably, but no . . . what else, what else. Ah! The number of books I've completed so far for my 2017 Goodreads challenge. I'm in the middle of about 5 different books at any given time, too. So I am on track for my challenge!
So, we were hoping to have our student loans paid off before we started paying for our kids college, but that's not happening. However, we have consolidated and paid extra here and there and done our best to expedite paying them off and we've got 9 years to go! Seems weird to celebrate that because it's still a lot, but at least it's not 30 anymore. These stupid loans just hang over our heads.
In a few days, we celebrate 10 years of running our business together. 10! We've also, incidentally, been running our homeschool group and book club for over 10 years as well.
So there you are. A little 1-10 check in from us. :)
4 comments:
11, the number of times I got palpitations thinking about how busy things are around here sometimes. ;)
Great post, as always. You always seem to capture the essence of our wonderful life, whatever format you choose. Thank you for documenting all of this!
Can we go back to the beach? Forever?
Fun post! You have a creative mind. The beach pics--sure looks like you couldn't be any happier anywhere else on earth. You can see the relaxation in your faces. And I like crab but I honestly don't think I could handle that much crab at one meal.
Seriously had no idea student loans were ~that~ bad. That's crazy. From now on, no fair ending such a happy post with the topic of student loans.
Wow, you managed to make it all the way through ten without even stretching for it! Impressive.
I can't believe NaNoWriMo is already this close again. Crazy! I'm excited, though. I think I might actually be able to handle it this year.
I'm really glad we were able to go to the beach for so long. It was a fun, relaxing trip. I hadn't seen those pictures before, either. I love the one of Scout in Max's sunglasses. Also us dabbing. That was awesome.
Mark, I know. I feel bad about that. I feel like I'm barely catching my breath sometimes and I see that look on your face, too, sometimes. And yet, we do have a wonderful life. There are stretches that aren't so crazy, but man, those crazy ones feel like they're kicking our butts sometimes!
Jimmy, thanks! It's interesting you say that - it is a place where I feel *VERY* relaxed. This year, I didn't feel quite as relaxed as usual and Mark noticed that when we were there. I've been feeling anxious. I think I haven't quite come down from the stress of summer. :/
That was #9! 10 is happy. :) Yeah, they pretty much suck. But I will say we started paying them off in 2007, so the fact that we've paid off 21 years of loans in 10 is pretty good.
We recently called the loan people and griped to them because they've been in the news for swindling clients and they've actually done that to us in a couple of different ways. For years, we've asked them to please set it up as a 10 or 15 or even 20 year repayment instead of 30, but they refused and said they didn't offer that. (I should note that they've always been at a low interest rate, so we're grateful for that.) Well, they recently DID start allowing that, so we set it up as a 10-year payment plan this year and we even got them to agree to pay toward some of it themselves (due to their lies and misinformation, we got hit hard in deferment during residency and they were NOT clear about that at all - had we known, we wouldn't have deferred at all).
So we did get *something* out of calling them and threatening to pay them off with a home equity loan. They didn't want us to do that, so they worked something out with us. I think they're getting slammed due to all of their negative press. It's so shady. I really hate how complicated finances and taxes and all of that are.
TMV, thank you! Woot for NaNoWriMo! And me, too. I love the beach and our family beach trips.
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