Work, Taxes, Debt, etc

I am so glad it's Friday today; it has been such a busy week. There is a project I've been dealing with at work for months and the last part *finally* works. It would have worked 4 months ago if the timing in the datasheet for the memory chip had been correct. But it's finally done and now I just have to spin the board and finish documentation. Whew!

We got our tax refunds back this week too, yay, although the one went in savings and the other is going towards debt. Well, Jay did buy a new putter (why oh why does he need *another* one??) and a new golf bag, and I ordered the Chatelaine Christmas Mystery II kit. Now I certainly didn't *need* it, but I love the Chatelaine designs. I just can't help it!

I am trying to spend less overall though so we can get out of debt and buy a "real" house. We are so close to being able to afford it. I think we could even buy something now but Jay would need some convincing still. In the meantime I will pay off as many of our bills as I can. We could get a 3-4 bedroom house (1700 sq. feet) with about a 1/4 acre in the area I want to live for between $500,000-$550,000. Our townhome would probably sell for at least $380,000. It's amazing; we bought it in August of 2003 for $280,000. I can't believe how much prices have increased; when we bought I was afraid we were buying at the peak. I mean, two years earlier the same place was about $140,000 or so. It's insane. I love where I live (most of the time), but both Jay and I are well-educated and we do pretty well financially. I don't know how most people can afford to live here.

I'd been thinking for awhile about how much I want a "real" house, but I was reminded of it this week when we went to Costco. Luke saw this play structure: linky (it's $300 less if you buy it at the store rather than have it delivered). I've never seen his eyes light up like that (though tomorrow I might; we have free tickets to Legoland and we're going tomorrow). I wish we had a house with a backyard so I could get it for him. I WILL find a way, somehow. Of course, even if we had a place and got it now it would take me years to assembly it!

Well, it has been a very busy week, and this weekend will be full of activity. My dad is coming down to visit today and we're going to Legoland tomorrow. I have wanted to go for ages and I can't wait. I did go to kickboxing last night, which was great. Yay!! My eating has been pretty heinous this week though, so I'm dreading the weigh-in Sunday. At least I'll be walking around all day tomorrow.