Thursday, July 5, 2012

It's the wee hours of the night; I'm going to try to go to sleep soon.

We celebrated the 4th of July by doing nothing but going to Walmart to buy groceries. I absolutely hate going to that store, and it is made worse because Ken stresses out in there. But at least that is over with for another week or so.

We had nice surprise today. I went on line to pay bills. I always check funds beforehand. Discovered Ken had way too much money in his account so asked him about it. He knew nothing. But when I told him it appeared to be a deposit from a certain firm, he was a bit surprised...turns out he got his first pay check from his new job! He gets paid the 1st and 15th and apparently they pay up to date. That was really pleasant. While at Walmart he bought himself a new radio alarm clock and I made him pay for his own razors and shaving cream! Cruel, right? But I've been supporting him a LONG time!!!

I am a stickler for making sure that something comes off the top for savings out of all funds that come into the house. So today I tried to teach Ken about TreasuryDirect.gov. Ken has a problem with not giving me undivided attention and not paying attention. He had the ball game on at the same time. So, as it turns out, he put his bank account into TreasuryDirect.gov incorrectly so he can't purchase bonds until that is straightened out. And that has to be straightened out by printing out a legal form, having it certified by a bank officer (NOT a notary), and then sending it to the U.S. Treasury Department. There are days I want to wring his neck!!! I kept asking him if he was sure he had put in the correct account numbers, etc. Sure enough, he didn't. So, papers are printed out, and now he will have to go to some bank and get an officer to certify the corrections he needs made. SCREAM!!

HOWEVER, I still took money off the top - I transferred it to my account and bought the bond off our joint account. I'm just trying to get him into the mode of contributing money to savings and not spending every dime that comes in.

Special granddaughter turns 13 on Sunday, so tomorrow I need to get her birthday "stuff" sent off. I was going to buy a Kindle but don't know if she has one or not, or would even want one. I decided to come up with something else.

Got a call from Tamara today. Bless her heart, she keeps kids for a living. She has 6 of them right now. Something was mentioned about it being one of the kids' birthday, so in front of another parent one parent said, "Oh, I'll pay for Chuck.E.Cheese." And all the parents thought it was a good idea. Problem is, she only gave Tamara $65 for the outing. Can you imagine trying to take 6 kids to Chuck.E.Cheese on $65? So Tamara called and came by to print out coupons. Jason had all the kids in the van outside waiting because they were on their way. I should have given Tamara extra money for that outing, but didn't think about it at the time. We checked on her later, and apparently they worked it out - she said the kids had a blast. She and Jason had fixed a couple of pizzas at home before going so they didn't spend $$ on food, just playing.

Got invitation from great niece Lindsey for her daughter CC's birthday party. Can't believe it, she's going to be 10 already. Lindsey's making it a good one, though. Swim party with splash pad at the local park, with request to bring water for the homeless. So the kids will learn something about collecting and donating for a cause. We'll be going to that, just not sure we'll swim!

Friends invited us over for July 4 grill and chill swim party, but we elected not to go. Now that Ken is working he just wanted to not have to do much on his day off, thankfully. And, we just did not want to spend the afternoon in the sun/heat. Neither one of us handle it very well any more.

Other than that, don't guess we did much. I made and cooked hamburger patties on top of the stove, we made sandwiches, said Happy 236th birthday to America, and let it go. Ken has to work tomorrow and I have a day full of errands including taking Maggie to the vet and finding some grooming tools for Luci. I can't take her hair any more and taking her to the groomer all the time gets expensive.

Hope everyone had a great celebration. Fire crackers are still going off here in our neighborhood. Of course, where we live that could be gun shots.