This weekend has awakened me to the reality that I hate moving. During four days I exerted more manual labor than I had over the previous ten years. Monday morning I was barely able to walk and my fingers were so swollen that my wedding band no longer fit. Thankfully I feel much better today, and I would like to thank the many people who helped! I feel your pain!

The good news; we no longer live in an apartment. Although our duplex is about the same size as our apartment, we did add a privacy fenced back yard and an attached two car garage while lowering our rent by $54 per month. The other good news is I was able to purchase or otherwise acquire a refrigerator, microwave, lawn mower, weed eater, two twin beds for the kids (their toddler bunk bed is for sale), the U-haul rental and a bbq grill for less than $500 total. Thanks to my mom for donating and delivering the lawn mower, weed eater and microwave

I feel a sense of peace knowing I now reside at a location I plan to remain until we are debt free. The inability to call any place home over the past 30 months has been one of the most difficult things about our journey. I am glad we can finally turn the page in that chapter of our life!

I turned in my resignation today. Starting sometime in July (exact date still to be determined) I will no longer work full time for the National Guard; I will contnue my one weekend a month and two weeks each summer (hoping that is all they ask of me).

In a couple of days I will unveil my business web site. I have definitely reached the PNR (Point of No Return). Very exciting stuff!!!

Since reporting to Camp Atterbury in November of 2006 my debt elimination can only be described as slow and steady. With nothing new to sell and no way to make extra income I have been in a rut…a rut of paying nearly $3,000 toward debt each month.

When I returned in February I had high hopes of dramatically increasing this total; however, with three hours on the road every day I am just too tired. I quickly became frustrated and didn’t know what to do.

In mid-March after getting my life with God and my family right, it suddenly came to me. I was mad at myself for not thinking of it earlier, yet in retrospect it is probably better I didn’t. Within a couple of days I was all in…I would be opening a new business in July.

Normally I would have informed my employer of the upcoming change in my life prior to this point; however, over the past month I have found myself with no boss. That changed last Monday…but of course I have been TDY in California. That means on Wednesday morning I get to sit down for my initial counseling and simultaneously let my new colonel know of my plans.

Next weekend I will be kicking off my initial advertising campaign. At that point I will fill you in on all the details. If you are dying to know what it is before then just do some public information searches and figure it all out; my licenses and permits are already in place

I was thinking, I will be working half a day on Saturday, off Sunday, half a day Monday and fly home Tuesday. Now that I am living in the lap of luxury I decided to search what it would cost to fly Amy and the kids out. Yesterday American was $326, but all other airlines were over $1,800 per ticket.

Today I rechecked and Northwest is now $326 along with American; and the other airlines are down to $1,200.

Tomorrow I am supposed to get my stimulus check direct deposited (cursing my 99 ending to my SSN); and I was thinking maybe I will get the extra $600 after all for the kids (according to the IRS web site calculator we should get $1,200 although with $600 for Amy, $600 for me and $300 per child I was hoping for $1,800; budgeted for $1,200). Then maybe the ticket price will drop to $200…oh what a dream!

**Update**

Just $1,200 from the IRS and it wouldn’t be responsible to spend extra money like that…but it sure was a nice thought

Record heat has invaded the bay area and the old style barracks we are housed in have yet to receive an upgrade to air conditioning; not even a window unit. Last night it was 82 degrees in our end of the barracks when I went to bed around 10. Today the heat really rolled in and we were well into the 90’s by our lunch break (inside the barracks).

With these extreme conditions we approached our instructors who are staying in better on post housing that is air conditioned. They tried to get the 6 of us who don’t live locally into their housing; however, it was totally full so instead they stamped our orders with a “statement of non-availability.” That sought after stamp set us free to pursue housing on the local market at the per diem rate.

I have just settled into the lap of luxury between the Silicon Valley and Napa Valley. I took one last glance at the thermostat as I was walking out of the barracks at 8:00 pm; 92 degrees!!