Huge Savings

I think this comic goes really well with this time of year. Isn't it so true that we get so caught up in the money we've "saved" by shopping deals that we forget that we haven't actually saved a penny? What would happen if you actually took the money you would have spent and set it in your savings account? I think you really would be surprised by the money you saved! But instead, we keep those "savings" in our spending pool and never see it. This is something that I think as a culture we need to work hard to change. If you're a big penny-pincher or bargain shopper, you should try this- just for 1 month. Take the difference from what you WOULD have paid and what you DID pay and put it in your savings. If you were going to buy the item at full price anyway, you won't miss the extra money. Then when you find a great deal, instead of thinking you now have more money to blow somewhere else, you can think that you just put some money away- and depending on the rate of your savings, that money is going to make you some money!

Appendicitis

Ian had another stomach ache episode and went to the doctor. He ordered a CT on his abdomen and the results came back: Ian has appendicitis! So I met him at the hospital and we waited, he was prepped for surgery, we waited, he was operated on and I waited, he went to post-op and I waited. And finally 7 hours later he was put in an overnight room to recover where I could see him. He's doing great- anxious to get home. But he needed more morphine than they anticipated and the surgery was started so late in the day that the doctor said to be safe he wanted him to stay overnight.

So thank you to those of you sending well-wishes our way! And thank you to my sister who took some time at the beginning on the phone talking to me and researching some info for me to keep me sane. And a BIG thank you to Joan for taking both of my kids for 4 1/2 hours during this whole thing! I finally picked the kids up at 9:30 and got them both to sleep by 10. A late night for everyone, but Serra had a blast playing with friends, Alex was happy as long as someone was feeding him or holding him, Ian was knocked out or medicated for most of it, and I was stress-ball but at least I didn't have to take care of anyone and could just veg in the waiting room watching cable [which, by the way, has reminded me why we don't pay for TV...] So now I'm going to wind down and go to bed myself! We'll pick Ian up from the hospital sometime tomorrow morning and then start to baby the invalid. :)

Another funny thing is that we finally had a real date planned- which of course has been postponed. AND we were going to go up to Rexburg tomorrow to visit Ian's brother. AND Ian has a work trip next week. The doctor says Ian will be able to do anything he wants- but he has to feel up to it. So we'll see how long it takes for him to recover!