LB is having another nap, whew. Nothing like a slow walk through the park in the drizzling rain to put a kid to sleep, I guess.
I have 2 1/2 months left of maternity leave. After that, I'll no longer have any income, no longer have a way to pay for my car payments, my car insurance, my phone bill. All those come to roughly $600 a month. I'd like to find something part-time, but I fear that I'll have to reduce myself to a menial job... like fast-food, so I can work evenings and weekends when Tomek is home to be with LB. I don't want to do something further down the totem pole than I already was at my current/previous job. I think a lot about what I enjoyed doing, and when I was in college, I worked at the tutoring centre within the college. I enjoyed working with the continuing education adults the most. They seemed to really have a need, a drive to do well in school. I felt most appreciated when working with them, as opposed to working with my former 10 year old student. I just don't have the right whatever I need to work with and be successful with kids. So I wonder about tutoring adults. I wonder about brushing up on my editing skills... I wonder if I should just get any job that will help pay my portion of the bills. 2 1/2 months seems an awfully short time to figure that out.
That leads me to telling my current company that I won't be coming back to work. I haven't gone in to show them LB yet because I know the accountant is going to ask me. And I dont know if they'd somehow stop my mat. leave benefits now if they know I'm not going to return. Part of me would like to return so I feel more useful (the whole not making money = not useful thing is a recurring theme of my life these days), but then there is our vacation in August. They wouldn't be happy with that, I know. It's likely if they found out about that they wouldn't want me back anyway. So I'm still stuck in a circle about that, too, although Tomek did say I should just go in and tell them that caring for LB takes more than I ever imagined and I'm not ready to come back to work. That is true. I don't want to leave her with anyone until she can walk and talk. That way if something shitty is going on, she can run away (from a bully, not from the entire day care) and she can tell me about it.
On a more positive note, I have managed to reduce my debt to $100. Not including the 22 months of car payments I still owe. Yay!
Speaking of cars... we have two. I'm wondering if we'd be better of with one, especially if I'm not bringing in any meaningful income. Tomek drives a 12-year-old Talon, not suited to the work he does or the price of gas these days (it's currently $1.20/litre... $4.80/gallon. And that's regular gas. His car takes supreme.). He's thinking of a small SUV. He might be able to get a bit of a deal on a new car through a dealership his work has an "in" with. Plus he now gets a $500/month car allowance in addition to his salary. But he works till almost 9p.m. each night it seems... when quitting time is 4 p.m. I'm not even sure what the deal is with overtime if he's salaried. But I have a feeling he doesn't get much for his extra work. I drive a 5 year old Jetta. I'd like to finish paying it off and have it as a good family car. But Tomek doesn't really like it. The transmission isn't the greatest already--it kicks and that seems to be common in the Mexico-made VWs. Sigh. So I'm wondering if we should sell mine, use his as a tax write-off or trade in and buy a smaller SUV. But there are no deisel SUVs out there, only pick-up trucks, sedans and wagons. A turbo-deisel Jetta wagon might be nice... but it's not really practical for a work vehicle. But an SUV would guzzle expensive gas like an SOB. If someone made an everyman's van or SUV I bet they'd make a killing. So not sure what to do in that regard... I know Tomek's car is like a ticking time-bomb though.
Passports--I've decided to mail in our passport applications because the line ups are nuts and not anything I can stand in with LB, especially since she's teething so badly now (I think her top teeth are going to cut through soon!). And Tomek has to hand in her application because the guarantor is his dentist. And the passport offices are only open when he's working like mad, so he's never able to get to one. So now I have to get envelopes and find out if I should mail them or courier them or what... and make damn sure that the applications are perfect. I have to mail them to Quebec. Gah.
Taxes. Due soon. Crap.
RESPs... we had a guy come and give a presentation about his company's RESPs, it sounded good, now Tomek is hesitating because he wants to research other companies... and his buddy just told him about a savings plan somewhere where if you put in $500 US you get an 80% return. I'm not inclined to believe him but the guy says he put his money in and he's seen a good return. So maybe we should do something like that--it would probably be more than the gov't would kick in. But how long would it last? Maybe we could do that savings till it stops being lucrative and then move to a gov't-assisted RESP plan.
Vacation... Tom's brother is taking this vacation as a non-vacation. It's a time to run like mad and visit all the random and removed relatives all over Poland. He says that if we want a vacation we should go somewhere where we don't know anyone. That kinda pissed me off. I don't want to run around like mad like we did in Spain, and we CAN'T with LB, it wouldn't be fair to her. We are going to visit the relatives Tomek KNOWS and we are going to visit some places in Germany for a couple days and we are going to Prague and we are going to have a relaxing time, even if it means we don't get to see Tomek's mom's cousin's brother-in-law's twice removed aunt.
Clutter. I don't even want to go here, but it feels like our apartment is too small for us already. I didn't figure properly on how much space a baby's stuff would take up. And it's not just her. Tomek and I are both TOTAL packrats. And that is making things tough on us... and I'm the only one who has time to organize shit, and I'm getting nowhere fast.
LB's blog is way behind--I have so many great pictures of her and I can't get them up fast enough. I'm heading over there now though. And the VIDEOS. I have TONS of cute videos, but they take so long to upload that I haven't uploaded any in months now. Damn.
Oh, and my subpoena arrived today. Along with a cheque for $94 to cover my expenses and such. Why do I feel like I'm being bought off to betray the little guy I should be defending. Double damn.
So that's a little snippet of my life... how are you all?
Thursday, April 12, 2007
A few things on my mind
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4 comments:
If you got rid of your car, that would suck about your mobility, but it would also mean your pressure to find a job to make the payments on that car would be a whole lot less.
I mailed in my passport application and got the passport back in five weeks, it wasn't too bad.
RESPs.... our financial advisor suggested we only start using the RESP plan when our kids are four or five years old. The reasoning is that if our children go as far as post-doc for which they could still use RESP funds, they could be in school past the age of 25, and RESPs have a lifespan of 25 years from the first deposit. So if you start when LB is at age 4, LB can withdraw from the plan up until age 29. So what you can do is invest somewhere else for the first few years, and then you'll have a lump sum that you can take full advantage of the RESP plan. BTW, I would be wary of any organization that approaches you with their own RESP plan that involves you putting your money in a pool that is invested - there are drawbacks there that aren't easily recognized. It is simpler and safer to pick out investment products that you may already be investing in with an RRSP and categorizing those investments as RESP. Anyhow, I'm no authority but I just wanted to offer from my personal experience.
Clutter. If the both of you are pack-rats I don't think there is a lot of advice I can give you. I guess the thing is to stop being pack-rats.
How am I?
All is well for the most part, up until very recently c was crying fiercely every night when we would put her down for sleep. The last few night have gotten better. She'll be two on May 10th, g will be five on April 26th.
We're going on a little vacation Victoria Day weekend with two other couples who also have two kids each - we did it last year for the first time and we found it really fun so we're going again, this time to this place, spending Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
And then this summer we'll be out your way. One of C's oldest friends lives in Vancouver, her aunt lives in Sechelt and we'll be spending a few vacation days on Vancouver Island. Mostly we're going because the brother of one of the people in the couples we'll be vacationing with in May is getting married in Vancouver this summer. He is an RCMP officer working mostly in North-Van.
Finally, with respect to opinion outpost I haven't had any surveys yet. It could be that I am mostly a non-consumer and that shows up in my setup questionnaires.
Phil: thanks for the info on the RESPs!! they never tell you that kind of thing. i forgot to get tomek's signature last night on LB's passport application, so now they won't go out till monday. darn. i hope our turnaround time is as good as yours was.
any idea why c was crying? LB falls asleep without needing food or a walk now, but we have to be lying with her in order for her to drift off... maybe c just wanted to cuddle?
i don't think i could ever stop being a pack-rat. i'd feel like i was throwing/giving memories away, even if it is just old school assignments, books i never read, etc.
2 vacations in one year, lucky you! are you a bonafide ATC now? are you enjoying it as much as you thought you would? i'm considering training for a different career... or a career of any kind really. but need $ to do that...
I bet you feel LOTS better having got all that out.
c cries at night because she doesn't want to miss anything - she recognizes that not everyone else is going to sleep and so she wants to stay up with the rest of us. What she doesn't realize is that toddlers need as much as 14 hours of sleep a day while toddler's parents have to get by on significantly less.
I guess with the little one and all you didn't manage to stop by my blog during that rough spell in April when I was cut from the ATC training program. I'm back working where I was working before in a new role that appeals to me somewhat more.
As for the two vacations - the first one is really low cost, a 90 minute drive, splitting the cost of renting a house with two other families, preparing our own meals, no-cost entertainment like board games, going for walks, watching movies we bring with us...
The second vacation we managed to swing because we had just enough aeroplan points to fly the family over, otherwise we're not sure we'd be going. We were lucky that when we booked we got a direct flight - this is the first time we fly with the kids and I am sure it will be a bit of a chore.
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