The Saturday 7

1. Last Monday marked 1 month since I gave up Dr Pepper. I did it with the intention of losing some weight, so I replaced it with 0 calorie, 0 sugar Crystal Light. Once in a while I had a diet Dr Pepper, but again that's no calories or sugar. I honestly drank a LOT of pop before. I'm sure it was upwards of 500 calories a day. I was sure cutting it out would result in weight loss. Wrong. I lost absolutely nothing. 0 pounds. So not worth it. I bought a 2 liter yesterday and already have it half gone.

2. So it's been kind of a depressing week around here. We're having some major financial problems. For all the years we've struggled financially, we've never actually missed any payments on our bills. But unless something miraculous happens this weekend, the electric bill will not get paid by the time it's due on Monday. (So if there's no Saturday 7 next week, it's because our electricity got shut off. ;-)) The reason we're having such problems is because my new hours/pay have finally caught up with us. We literally do not make enough to cover our bills every month. So something has to change.

3. The solution that makes most sense it to buy a cheaper house. We got a great deal on our house, but we can't afford it anymore. :-( My hope is to sell the house for more than we owe on it (it's worth more) and put a big down payment on a cheaper house. Until recently, I wasn't having any luck finding a cheap house that isn't completely disgusting. But then I came across this one. Love it! You won't be able to see the pictures unless you sign up with the website, so here are some of the highlights:

Living room - love the bamboo flooring!

Dining room (being used as an office).

Another view of the dining room - built in bookshelves!!

Kitchen with eat-in area and slider to deck. 

Tiny bathroom - the only one in the whole house! :-/

Master bedroom

One of the upstairs bedrooms. (There are 2)

Isn't it gorgeous?! There are a few problems, though. Haha. We took the $8,000 first time homebuyer's tax credit when we bought our house. We have to live here for 3 years otherwise we have to pay it back. 3 years will be June 5. Sooo . . . we have to sell our house for more than we owe - quickly, and the above house has to stay on the market until our house sells. But we can't sell it until June 6. Haha. What do you think the odds are of that? Sigh. I shouldn't get too attached . . . Oh, did I mention that this house is exactly half a mile from my sister's house? Yeah, not getting attached . . .

4. Justin worked 6 days this week. A friend of ours hooked him up with a side job of doing demo on a house. He spent 11 hours yesterday tearing the roof off. And he left at 6:30 this morning to do it again. I feel terrible that he's working so hard, but I'm so grateful that he's doing it.

5. Lucy learned a couple new words/phrases this week that I'm just thrilled about. The first one she picked up from Lyla: "mine!" I knew that'd be coming soon. And the second is kind of adorable, and kind of annoying: "do it!" Meaning, "I want to do it." She also correctly identified the color orange a couple times this week. (What a weird color to start with!)

6. Another of her favorite new words is "help." She helps me with everything. Laundry, dishes, cooking, even going to the bathroom! I'll say "I have to go potty" and she yells "help!" and runs into the bathroom with me. Haha. I let her rip the toilet paper off the roll for me, but I handle the rest. ;-) It really is nice that she likes to help so much. I get a lot done during the day because she's happy to help me.

7. Time for the Radical Update: this week I read most of Job. Man, talk about a depressing book. And we prayed for Brazil, China, Cambodia, Congo DRC, Costa Rica, Croatia, and Czech Republic.