The Countdown Starts

First: Benji is trying to count.  If I get him started with "One," he'll follow (occasionally) with "ooo (2)," "eee (3)," "oar (4)," and "fff (5)".  I'm not sure why five is just "fff," but at least he's consistent.  He tries to use his fingers, but can't really articulate one at a time.  It's pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  And I do.

Second: The Consignment sale starts tomorrow!  Yay!  It's the best place to get clothes for the little man.  My problem is I have kept them all, and I'm rapidly running out of closet space.  Time to start selling!

Third:  America's Got Talent is done for the season.  I usually don't get into reality shows like this, but I pretty much watched every week.  It's cool to see such amazingly talented people gain recognition.  I'm glad Michael Grimm won.  He's an average, down-to-earth guy with an awesome voice.  I was cheering for Prince Poppycock, though.  He's just too fabulous for words.

Fourth:  Next month is my last "big bucks" payment.  I have been paying down my credit cards using a consumer credit service, and they have taken $670 every month for the past four years.  No, don't count--I owed a lot of money, due to tuition and car repairs and a study-abroad and a wedding and honeymoon. . . and poor money management.  I'm the first to admit that I'm not very good with money.  I love to spend it, but only if I get a good deal, and unfortunately I'm always on the lookout for a good deal.  Actually, I got two boxes of Mulitgrain Cheerios for $2 today . . . but I digress.  Anyway, I paid off Capital One a few months ago, and I paid off Bank of America this month, and next month I will finish off with Discover.  It feels pretty good.  I still have a few other things to pay off (like student loans), but this is a big step.  And that $670 will come in pretty handy.  I'm hoping I can work part-time sooner than later, but I carry the insurance and it just isn't worth it to work part-time and pay twice as much for the same thing.  Here's hoping Allen can figure out how to support us without me having to work all the time.  And here's hoping we can stay away from those seductively evil credit cards in the future.