Stocked

When Ken's old company was acquired he got an immediate settlement for any of the stock that had been vested on the date of sale. We had exercised all of his shares (meaning we had purchased all of them) before the sale and the agreement was that the escrow bank would send us a check as his shares vested each month. So imagine how happy we were when 6 months after the sale date we still had NOT received a single check. Ken was majorly disgruntled about the whole stressful acquiring process anyways, but then to be owed money and not get it and not have anyone who knew what was going on everywhere he asked questions. Bleh:-(

Ken was so fed up about it all that he decided he was going to corner the VP of whatever and get some real answers when we went to California Trip. Of course, as it always happens when you are so frustrated and work yourself up into a tizzy over it and finally figure out what you are going to say...Ken talked to the guy (nicely restrained, of course) and in like 2 seconds he said that a check was in the mail for the previous 6 months already. The check actually beat us home. Thank goodness for starting off nicely!

Then a month after that a miracle happened! HP decided to pay out all of the remaining unvested shares because they didn't want to pay someone to handle the paperwork each month. So instead of having to wait 2 1/2 years as the bulk of Ken's stock shares vested or 3 1/2 years to get all of them, we were mailed a check for all of them in full! (Minus our escrow deposit shares of course)

Happy Windfall! At first I was a little ticked because it seriously screws with our taxes for this year. And I had just paid our taxes for 2010 that were way too much because of the first set of stock. But then I realized how freeing it felt that Ken didn't HAVE to work for HP any more. Granted, now that the acquiring stress has settled Ken has really been loving his job the last 2 months or so.

Anyway, we have a tradition that started way, way back when we were totally poor. Basically it's this. Anytime Ken gets a bonus or a huge windfall we stock up our house with groceries, toiletries, etc. Seriously, it's my favorite thing in the world. It probably seems insane to most people but I get RIDICULOUSLY giddy over stocking up our pantry. If Ken handed me $1000 and said buy yourself a new wardrobe I might be a little happy and smile, that is after questioning him a ton. Hand me $1000 to buy toilet paper and toothpaste and I will jump all over that blessed man and go crazy!

Clearly, our family has grown since we started this little tradition. I remember being able to go shopping for 3-4 hours and only spending like $350. This time it took me 4 days! Pretty much 4 days of doing nothing but shop and put away groceries all day long. To the tune of $2800. Yikes!

Seriously, you must think my cupboards were bare. But they were not, like not even close. In fact I had to make up a list of 1 can of this, 2 cans of that, etc because I really only had limited space to fill. I love my clean, stocked pantry! All of my cupboards in the bathrooms and kitchen are totally organized and full too. I may not have to shop for the next 6 months.

I also bought this beauty! It's a waterproof, fireproof safe. We have meant to buy one for years but never did. I found one that I love though and it has room for hanging files. That was my big dilemma because I didn't want to just stack all of our different documents in a safe.

So, the funny thing about deciding on what kind of safe to buy is you start having all of these thoughts about how someone could basically pick the whole thing up and run out of your house (Me) , or about the lock not being wimpy (Ken). But then we realized we aren't getting a safe because we think people will steal from us. Really it was more for the fireproof concerns.

Especially because Ken has not been very thrilled that I have been squirreling away cash. Literally it's like a squirrel I've been pulling out a $20 when I use my ATM since February. Ever since my grandfather died and my mom had to deal with all of the arrangements, I have been really concerned about something happening to one of us. My main concern has been that my mom needed to pay $10,000 before she even got my grandfather's death certificate. We have excellent life insurance on both of us so we really are not worried about providing for our children long-term. But I have been very anxious about how in the short-term they would still need to have money available for funeral expenses and living expenses. They wouldn't even have access to our bank account without the death certificate. Plus, given that our bank is still in Utah it would take some time to get it straightened out. We are planning on moving everything to a trust for them this summer. It's a ridiculous amount of paperwork and will require us to close and re-open several accounts and get things re-titled so we will see if it totally happens this summer.

My parents are watching our kids for a week at the beginning of August though so that gives us a deadline to work towards. In the meantime I'm sure Ken would appreciate it if I actually put the cash I have saved so far inside the safe:-)