Pure Joy

Today is my LAST day here and I'm on vacation for a week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A few updates.

First, we decided to take the windfall $ and put it towards debt. While talking to our accountant, it looks like we will receive an estimated $6,000 after taxes. Here’s the skeleton budget:



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 Car: $2,540.39
CC #3: 1,919.80
Non-Profit Pledge: $500
New Clothes: $500*
Insurance: $450
Savings towards paint job for car: $90**

*New clothes = new suits. The dress for this job is at a higher standard than my current position and I only have one suit. My goal is NOT to spend this much but since I haven’t purchased a new wardrobe since 2004, my clothes are pretty faded and it’s time for some newer classic items.

**Savings towards paint job – Beaker (the nickname for my little red car) is having some paint issues and I’m afraid if I don’t fix it soon, we’ll have a bigger problem to deal with down the road. I plan to drive this car for a while now that it’s paid off and hopefully a new paint job will extend the life of the car.


Also, Mr. M agreed to have the surgery. He’s calling today to see if December 21st will work which means he’s out for traveling for Christmas. However, since we’re trying to keep this infertility on the DL, this allows him to avoid the several questions that come for being out of the office for two weeks. The college slows down during Christmas break so hopefully no one will really miss him.

The Urologist



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I’m on the roller coaster of life this week. Today was our meeting with the urologist to go over the Mr. M’s test results that we received last week. Apparently the medication (that is not covered by insurance mind you) made our situation worse.

Awesome…just awesome.

The next steps are surgery for Mr. M or straight to ICSI for me. Neither is considered fun but the cost for the surgery is a little under $600 or so compared to the $12,000 - $15,000 for ICSI.

Guess which one I vote for?

And I feel guilty in doing so but if the surgery fixes the problem then we could continue building our family after our first child versus going through the ICSI procedure each time. However, I can’t force Mr. M to due the surgery as it is his body and not mine.

$8,000 windfall!

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Today was my meeting with HR to discuss the final paperwork that I would need to fill out before I leave. We discussed the cost of COBRA, what to do with my pension plan (thank you state retirement fund) and my vacation/sick leave. As of today I have 49 days of vacation/sick leave - I'm such a workaholic. Since I haven’t taken any time, the policy is to pay me in full to the tune of $8,607.00 in addition to my paycheck.

Hello – I have won the lottery.

Then she informed me that since I was leaving less than a year after my tuition, I owe them $500 making it $8,007. Still – it’s $8,000 that I didn’t plan on having in my hands.
So the next step is to figure out what to do with it and I have until next Wednesday to decide. Do we take it in a large sum, change my withholdings and pay the taxes on it? Or place it in a Roth IRA to defer taxes?

I went to Dave’s ELP site and requested the contact information for one in our area. It would be tragic if we didn’t take the right steps to get the most out of our money. My initial thought is to pay off my car or to save for IVF. I am so THANKFUL for this problem but need to figure out what to do soon!

You Only Live Once.

I find this saying so very true - we really only do live once and should not take a day for granted.

This past weekend my family got together for brunch which is the first time we've all seen each other as a group since my father's con artists incident.  It wasn't easy but I'm glad that we did it before the Thanksgiving holiday. There's no need to bring family drama to my Grandmother's house.

Today starts the last full week of work. It's very surreal and I am so happy that God has provided me this new position.  The gossip mill is running today as there is a rumor that my boss is about to be fired. I find this to be very sad because I actually do like her and hate that she's the hot topic of the water cooler chatter.

Tomorrow I meet with HR to discuss my insurance and next steps with my retirement plan as well as any other paperwork. Any suggestions from the blogger world on what to expect?

Regrouping



The same day that we found out the test results, Mr. M had his 33rd birthday. We had planned to go out and celebrate even though we both felt like curling up on the couch and crying. Okay – I felt like curling up on the couch and crying.

I am thankful that we did go to dinner because it did take our mind off the news and we had a good time just being us. An elderly couple showed us kindness by buying a bottle of champagne for us. It was such a nice, unexpected surprise.

Our meeting with the urologist is next week and so this week, all I can focus on is the present. We have to pay our roofing bill, we need to sit down and do a budget for next month and I need to get our home office in order. I have to “keep my chin up” like Out of My Window commented and focus on today.

Test Results

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We found out today that Mr. M's results did not improve from the last time. I have a sinking feeling that when we meet with the doctor that their suggestion will be ICSI.

I can hear our snowball rolling to a stop…

Snowflake!



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The bank approved lowering our mortgage interest rate! Whoo!

Plans for Carmen Sandiego

R-day was pretty successful and my boss took the new pretty well but I do have an enormous to-do list now before I leave.

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I’m blessed by the people who are sad to see me go and genuinely mean what they say. It was nice that my Airport and Budget Director took a moment to call me to say that I’ll be missed. My leaving is bittersweet for me because I thought I’d always stay in local government but know that if I don’t take this opportunity that I’ll kick myself down the road.

My new boss – we’ll call her Jay – is getting my schedule ready for the month of December. I’ve dubbed my first full week the Carmen Sandiego week since I’m traveling so much.

On another note, please say a prayer for Mr. M and I as we’ll find out his test results in the next few days. I know the waiting is taking a toll on him and I pray that our results turn out better than we expected.

Halloween

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This year – I celebrate with a grand total of $5.20 (sale and coupons) spent on over 200 +  pieces of candy. My plan was if we run out, then we just run out and I'm not going to feel guilty about it. We had trick-o-treaters for about 3 hours and still had candy left over. Instead of hosting a BYOC, I just invited a neighbor over to hand out candy and drink wine - a very relaxing night.

 

Tomorrow is R-Day – the day I plan to resign. I am working on getting everything personal off my computer in case they decide to freeze it. It would just be my luck that they would do that to me.