The end is near..

So Trenton and I have 3 weeks before we say goodbye to daddy for a couple months. He will then drive home for a week, and then we will say goodbye to him for a deployment. I am trying to be strong about this, for our son and really myself, but having to pack up the house myself is just leaving me moping and crying while trying to stuff our loving home into small boxes. Part of me just wants to rush through this and get things done, but half of it I can't do alone. I know in order to get this done and to make sure all affairs are in order, I can't feel sorry for myself, but saying goodbye to your first real home together as a family is harder than I thought it would be. I need to find the strength in me to get through this, to not cry every time I put something in a box, to not cry when I think about Trenton being 1 1/2 before he sees his daddy again. Deployment is a part of the military lifestyle and I have done it once before, but this is the first time I've ever had to pack up our home and prepare for a sinlge parent sort of lifestyle. Getting through it isn't the hard part, the only hard part right now that I see is getting it started.

no sleep, no time, no fun.

I have officially started the process of packing up our home. I have never done this before so I can only hope that I do it right and nothing will break. Packing with a 5 month old is very hard espcecially since I am going to have to do most of it myself. We have a storage facility reserved for us down the road, and we are selling the couch. Pretty sure all of our stuff will fit in a 7x13 considering we only have one bed, a huge tv, kitchen table, crib, and a dresser. Of course we have some other small things, but I'm pretty confident with some situating we can fit it all in! It's hard to plan out what will go in boxes, because a lot of the stuff we have won't be going in boxes, and what will go in boxes I've already packed. Wall hangings, pictures, books, movies, games. The kitchen stuff obviously, but I'm not ready to pack that yet. We still have a good 3 weeks before we have to be out of here, so I am just going to do a little bit each day. Today I got everything off the walls, and am going to have Trevor pack up his entertainment stuff once he get's home. We will get a truck from the storage facility, have some sailors over, and pack and move all in one day. Shouldn't be too bad :).

Our couch will be going soon, and we will be sitting on the floor. I posted it on craigs list thinking it would take a week or so, but no some body wants it now. That is fine, just wasn't planning on sitting on the floor for 3 weeks ;). The good thing about not having a lot of stuff in your home is the fact that you don't have a lot to pack when you move! I will throw out a lot of stuff that I could easily re-purchase or stuff that we won't use. It's bitter sweet to be packing everything, knowing that we won't have a "home" anymore that is ours..at least until Trevor get's home from deployment. I wish it were the fall and this deployment was almost over. It's going to be a rough 7 months, but I know we can do it, and we will come out stronger as a family for doing so! Life is hard sometimes, but I'm trying more and more to find that silver lining!

Money, life, and where it all goes...

We turned in our taxes and it looks as though we are going to get A LOT more back then we thought, that is if the IRS doesn't think otherwise ;). If this is the case then we will pay off all of our debt besides Trevors car payment, but I will be trading his car in for an SUV when I get back home any way. It will be nice to not have any debt when he deploys, that way I can work on saving money and really creating a good steady flow of cash into the bank account. It's kind of hard for me to budget right now because our paychecks change each week, so I just know what comes out and when and I go from there. Sure, we live paycheck to paycheck (for now), but at least we aren't using our credit cards like we could be! I am just ready to really start saving money and putting it away for our life down the road. I will give myself an allowance each week of what I can spend on certain things including groceries, and all the extras! To be successful at saving money you have to sacrafice buying for yourself. You know, I went to Target today and found a dress for 25.00 that I really loved and it looked great, I went to pay and had left my card at home. Maybe it was a sign or something, but that 25 dollars could definitely go somewhere else where it's actually needed. If I still want the dress it's always online ;). So please, if you have any secrets to how your family saves money and puts it away, please share!