Goals Update

Well all in all I think I'd say that we liked having goals for February. Some we did alright on, some not so great and some we far exceeded. So here's the update on them:

1. Get house ready for showings and maintain cleanliness without stressing!

We did really well with this. Luckily we only had to do it for about 5 days. That's right - as most of you know our house sold - in 6 days! We put it up on Monday the 30th, had a showing that Saturday (our 1 and only showing) and then had an offer on Sunday. Super exciting that it sold that quickly but a little nerve racking because we had not started looking at all. We figured we'd have months so we'd start to slowly look around and see what we found. Turns out we should have been looking before we even put our house up! There's not much out there right now (levels are super low right now - I guess the same as they were in the early 90's), I think we priced our house at its value and I'd like to think we do keep it really nice - so it got snatched up! Luckily the buyers wanted an extended closing so we don't have to be out until the 20th so we had a little extra time. So we’ve been busy looking at lots of houses and figuring out where we want to live. We actually just had an offer accepted yesterday, which is good, but bad news is it’s a short sale, which does not mean quick. So thankfully our realtor, Amanda, actually has a rental property not too far from us that is vacant that we can stay at. I’m sure that’ll be a lot better than squishing all of us into an apartment. So think thoughts of closing in 60 days for us (apparently that’s fast for a bank…) but it could be a while. We’re excited about the new place though and it’s got a big open living room/kitchen that I think Dane is very excited about. The whole interior needs to be painted though – so he’s not so excited about that part. Not a far move for us – probably ended up being only about 5 miles but things came up that made it more realistic for us to stay in the area we’re in. So it’s looking like goodbye Murphy Creek, hello the Conservatory. We looked around in Castle Rock, but I think we’d really like to be in Castle Pines North not further south, but it’s a tad out of our price range – hopefully one day!

Our new house???

2. Have balance of $2200 in savings for Hawaii:

Ended up with a balance of $2450 – so we went above on this one which means hopefully this month we can actually buy our tickets – YAY!!!! As long as that doesn’t mess up our loan stuff coming up…

3. Lose 3 pounds:

To be honest I’m not sure if we’ve done this or not. I have to weigh myself tomorrow to see. Last time I checked I had lost a couple pounds but I haven’t really done much to do that. Perhaps just dealing with the craziness of our life the last month has been enough to do it without working out!  And I'm not putting my previous or current weight on here, but I will say my pants aren't as tight anymore :) So we maybe have met this goal but without much effort so I don't count it. 

4. Tax information to Matt:

Did this – and we’re getting a refund! Very exciting for us because we’ve owed the last 2 years – refunds are much more fun!

5. Work on Subbie:

Well sadly the Subaru died so I'd say this goal was a fail. That’s right we had 2 cars die within 2 weeks – awesome. So while we didn’t want to get a car payment, we are. But I’m excited for a new car and hopefully no problems (knock on wood). We are now the proud new owners of a 2012 Kia Sorento. We should be picking it up sometime in the next few days. We went with the Sorento over the Outback so we’d have the option of seating 7. Seems like a better choice in the long run and I think Dane’s just excited (and me too) that it’s not a van – he’s delayed that becoming a part of his life – at least for now.

Our new ride

6. Date Night:

We went out and got some crab and even went to a movie! Of course we were oblivious and didn’t realize it was Valentine’s weekend (shows how much we care about the holiday) and so it was super crowded and I got the wrong food :( So not the best dinner but the movie was fun and it was nice to get out without kids.

7. Weekly time together:

I’d say we did decently on this. We made an effort 3 times to spend time together but not quite weekly. With the house, car, kids and getting the 6th season of Dexter to watch (which we watched in 3 days and dealt with only sleeping 6 hours a night) we had our hands full.

8. Have dinner prepared and healthy 5 nights a week:

I think we did this. I didn’t really keep track too well on this, but we don’t really ever eat out and most nights we try to cook. We have started to explore the wonderfulness that is the crockpot and that helps. I’ve never used a crockpot before – I always associated roasts and stews with them which I don't like – not chicken and delicious things so it’s been fun trying it out. So far we’ve had some great stuff.

So there you have it, the results of February. I think it was nice to put them on here because I had people ask me about them so it was good for accountability purposes. And it’s nice to actually write the results and feel like you’ve done something – it’s the little things, right? :)