I am a husband, father, son, brother, blogger, working stiff, amateur poker player, web designer, guitar player, sports lover, geek, and a darn nice guy. This is my blog which is not very well maintained. If you feel like getting more regular information about my daily happenings, check out my Twitter page.
Hello again, I’m your friendly slacker blogger Phil. I’m the guy that’s been posting once a month on average lately. Many apologies for that, and I can honestly say that it’s not because there’s nothing going on. A lot has happened recently so let me share what’s been going on.
I have to start by sharing the good news that I am getting another promotion! Just a few months after getting promoted for the first time, I’ve been offered another position as a Site Supervisor. It’s my first job in management and I’m very excited. There are many things that I love about this new job, and many of them have to do with the fact that it’s not my old job. It hasn’t been the smoothest 9 months of my life, but this is what they promised me when I took the first promotion so in the end I’m happy. It will be some more money too, which is always nice when you have a car payment every month.
We did get a new car a few weeks ago. We got a 2005 Chrysler Sebring and it’s very nice. As I said in my post a few weeks ago, we decided that it was not in our best interest to lease a new car. It all worked out well and we’re very happy with the car we have. It’s a very cool color which I haven’t seen before. I guess the best way to describe it is that it’s a graphite/metallic black color. My favorite part is that it has green and purple flecks in the paint that sparkle in the sun and make the car look maroon. It’s pretty awesome. I’ve attached a few pictures of the car for your enjoyment.
We also got a really great deal on a Nintendo Wii off of Craigslist. I’ve wanted one since it was known as the Nintendo Revolution long before it was announced to the public. Now we have one and it’s awesome. Cassie and I play against each other all the time and she’s getting way too good at some games. I still kick her butt on Wii Sports.
Lily is still growing and developing at breakneck speed. She’s talking so much now and she’s also got a new love of singing. Watch for yourself.
Things are good in this Hull house, but the rest of my family is struggling right now. Both my dad and my sister need new jobs and my mom is having knee replacement surgery soon. Please pray that my dad finds work before she goes in for her surgery. They are terrified of being without an income for six weeks or more. God will provide, but it won’t hurt if everyone prays to remind him. Angela also needs to hear about a job at her church that she’s been waiting on for years.
It’s 4th of July weekend and I’m going to go have some fun now. (I take that back, it looks like I’m going to go clear out the closet in our bedroom.) I am ready for some fireworks tomorrow though. I love me some fireworks.
It’s been almost a month since I posted here, so I guess I’m due. I wish I had a great excuse for why there have been no updates, but I don’t know if “I was watching a lot of sports” qualifies. Things in our house are good for the most part. We’ve had a rather challenging time on the car front. We decided that it wasn’t smart for us to lease a brand new car so we’ve been trying to find a good used car to buy. It’s been harder than we thought, but we’ll hopefully have something soon.
Lily is growing and developing at an amazing rate. There are so many things that she can do now that she couldn’t do just a few short weeks ago. She’s finally starting to make strides towards being potty trained which will be a huge step for her (and for us because no more diapers until the next kid). She has so much personality now it’s amazing. She’s started to imitate us all the time and it’s very funny. The hardest part is that she does stuff that she shouldn’t, but we’re laughing too hard to tell her no.
We went to the annual Salvation Army Central Territory congress this past weekend which is the first big SA event that we have been to since we left over 4 years ago. It was good to see some old friends and to be reminded of the rich history that the Salvation Army has. It’s amazing to see so many of the people I grew up with stepping into significant leadership roles in the Army, and it makes me wonder if it could have been me if circumstances were different.
Well it’s taken me an hour to write this whole deal which just goes to show how little is going on right now that I can share with the whole world. I’ve got a sore throat so I’m going to go take it easy.
We came one step closer to getting our new car today, we decided which car we are going to buy. I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it has not been easy for us to decide which car we wanted to buy. We’ve discussed and looked at pictures of dozens of different models, but we decided that we are going to buy a Ford Fusion.
What helped us make up our minds? Two things made the decision really easy. First, the Microsoft Sync system that is available on new Ford models. It’s amazing technology and we both were impressed with the hands free phone and iPod control features. Second, the price was in the range of what we can afford which is really the biggest factor. We were able to get a Ford “X” plan discount from a friend which knocked the price down quite a bit. Thanks to Uncle Sam and the tax rebate we just recieved, we have a pretty good down payment.
In other news, I’ve now lost 64 pounds since the beginning of the year. I just bought a bunch of new clothes today and it feels really good to buy smaller sizes. As I’ve said before, my goal is to lose 100 pounds by the end of the year and I think I’m going to get there. I’m hoping to get to 75 pounds by Cassie’s birthday in the middle of June. Cassie’s lost about 45 pounds (I’m not sure her exact number) and she’s working out like a maniac. She’s doing a Biggest Loser challenge at her gym and she needs to work out 6 days a week to stay in the competition. When you combine our weight loss, we’ve lost an entire supermodel!
The past week has been a whirlwind in our house. Cassie’s car is in bad shape and has been for over a year and last weekend the brakes finally gave out. We were planning to use our tax rebate money as a down payment on a new car, but we won’t get that money until next week so we were stuck having to choose between putting money into a car we’re getting rid of or trying to make due with one car for the next two weeks.
Thankfully, God worked a miracle and we were able to get Cassie’s brakes fixed for a relatively low cost but we were still trying to figure out what to do about a car.
Anyone who knows us or reads this blog on a regular basis knows that Cassie and I live on a very tight budget. We have enough to pay for everything we need, but there is little left over. We are thankful because God always provides for us and we never come up short, we have what we need and not much more. Adding a car payment to our budget would create a pretty significant strain on our budget, so now we have to make some tough choices.
One of the choices we have made is to hold off on buying another car a little while longer. We’re finding some ways to squeeze some extra money out of our budget and we’ll try again in another month or two. Truth be told, I’m relieved that we’re waiting. I was really worried about how we were going to pay for everything and now we’ll have some extra time to figure it out. I don’t want us to get ourselves in trouble with adding a big new expense and stretching ourselves too thin.
We’ll see what the summer brings as well. There is hopefully going to be opportunities for me to move up the ladder again at work. Another promotion and hopefully a significant pay raise will make things so much easier.
Today is May 5th, which is a reason for celebration. If you live in Mexico, you are celebrating Cinco de Mayo. If you live in our house, you’re celebrating Lily’s 2nd birthday.
We had a very busy weekend with Lily’s birthday party on Saturday and then another birthday party for our cousin Emily on Saturday. Lily’s party was pretty small and quiet compared to last year, but it was still a lot of work to pull off. Cassie and I both ended up exhausted by the time Saturday was over.
Today is Lily’s actual birthday and I think it’s going to be a pretty quiet day for us. I think we’re going to Chuck E. Cheese to play some games and not eat any pizza. It should be fun.
