Hanging out at Home, September 2011

School started the end of August so I really had no choice but to hang out at home. School starting means that my freedom slips away. It seems to get worse as my boys have gotten older. Instead of just 1-3 teachers in elementary, my boys each have 7 teachers. Maybe it's just me with an overactive imagination, but every syllabus and orientation I have to sign literally feels like a prison chain being wrapped around me. It's awful, I often wonder if I will ever grow-up and enjoy responsibilities and schedules???

Seriously, with 4 children you would think that I feel a huge weight from being their mom. In a way I do, but in other ways I don't. Most of the time it feels like play because I really do enjoy my family and taking care of them. My main fear is that I just don't want to screw them up. I guess I believe they are innately pretty good and I just need to stay out of their way and help them be the best that they can be.

Of course, the easiest way for me to start appreciating being at home is to get in the kitchen. Especially with my pretty little girls.


It also doesn't take me long to be at home before I start contemplating decorating projects. This time it was installing flooring. I found some at a price I was willing to pay that I actually liked so I convinced Ken to buy a box for us to try out at home. We put it together and let the kids have at it.
The boys brought out remote control cars and Ginger put on my heels.
Oh, my goodness she is so cute!
Normally you would think Rose would go for the girly heels, but nope! She went for rough and tumble Karate Chops.
Here is the sample. In the end, I'm thinking of not installing it in our house right now. Maybe the next one. What happened, since I obsessed over it for a month. I bought a steam cleaner off of craigslist for super cheap and it totally got every stain that was bugging me out of the carpet. Wish I would have thought of that sooner!
We also bought a new weed whacker for the boys to use on our overgrown yard. Ginger loved hiding herself inside the box it came in and popping out! We got great videos of her hiding but I couldn't upload them.

One of the most exciting things we did in September was decide on what we are going to do for Ken's 40th Birthday celebration in June 2012! We debated various options all summer and then all of a sudden it just seemed so clear what we should do. Obviously the beach was top of our list, but not the only place. I think we briefly considered Italy, Alaska, and flying lessons too.

I think turning 40 is a huge deal! Especially for us, about 6 years ago when Ken got his first job after finally getting his degree we made a goal to save a specific amount (our "magic number") for retirement by the time Ken was 40, so that the money could just sit there for 25 years and fund our retirement without contributing another cent. Ken actually had many jobs with matching 401k's before he graduated from college. But we really stepped it up the last 4 years, which oddly is the only time he had a job that didn't match his 401k at all.

Anyway, now that our goal is quickly going to be attained--kind of. Oh, how naive we were in thinking our "magic number" could fund the lifestyle that we imagine in retirement. Especially considering Ken's salary doubled in those 6 years while the market certainly did not! Plus, the reality has hit us that we cannot afford to NOT max out his retirement contributions every year given the tax implications. We were so, so, so naive! However, it's not like it wasn't good planning. We have almost achieved a huge goal for us.

Since 40 means achieving a huge dream, it seemed only reasonable that to celebrate you actually live one of your dreams! So for Ken's birthday we booked one of our favorite vacation places in the world--The Villa in Cancun for one entire month. Ever since the first time we stayed there we have been dreaming of what it would be like to have our own beach house/condo and stay there for months at a time during the summer. Especially with Ken continuing to work from home. He will take two of the weeks off, but the other two he will have to work. The Villa has a US phone number and free wi-fi so he should be just fine working from Mexico.

We'll be here for Ken's birthday, Father's Day (which is actually his birthday this year), 4th of July, and for our 14th Anniversary. We are so excited to spend this time with our family and are looking forward to seeing the brilliant blue water again!