the boat.

A man drove away with our boat today. I am still crying.

A question most pregnant ladies ask themselves, "would I be crying this much if I wasn't pregnant?"

Probably.

Although, I know crying over Captain America because he stands for everything good...was a total pregnant thing.

I haven't blogged FOREVER and a day.

But today here I am.

I am one of those bloggers who do not feel obligated to update and talk about all things that have happened since I last blogged. That would totally stress me out if I felt that way about blogging.

Ok, so we sold our boat today.

Chay knows how to "wheel and deal" very well. I honestly don't like it very much and so I haven't been the most supportive wife on the planet when it comes to Chay wanting money to buy something so he can trade it or sell it for more. Especially when the food budget gets cut in half... But it seems to always pays off in the end...I just get all worked up about it and have little patience.

So Chay buys a broken motorcycle. He fixes the motorcycle. A guy wants to trade him a snowmobile for the  motorcycle. It is almost winter at the time and so another guy wants to trade Chay a boat for the snowmobile. It happens to be a nice ski boat in perfect condition and well taken care of.  So one day I look outside and we have a big boat in the driveway and it's ours. I roll my eyes and get all anxious with hopes to sell it fast in the spring.

We take the boat out on the water for the first time.

I can't stop smiling. My children can't stop smiling. Chay is smiling.

I am taken back to my childhood when we would spend the summers on the lake and be lucky enough to go out on friend's boats.

Warm weather hits and we find ourselves taking out the boat almost every weekend. We invite friends and we all go tubing and...you know, everyone is laughing. I love when people laugh. Don't you?

I made up my mind that we would never sell the boat. If we do, we will never have one again and this might be the one thing that our family can always do together.

So, Chay's student loan kicked in this month. We refinanced our home and got a killer rate but had to put our small second mortgage on a credit card. (The details are boring). Then there is still my ugly student loan and other debt we are dealing with. Chay is ready to move up in his field but has kind of plateaued within his specific department he's at right now. Plus he drives about 100 miles a day. He has applied other places but things haven't panned out. Our children are getting older, I'm having another baby in February...

So as a couple we start praying to Heavenly Father for Chay to find his niche or just a better paying job closer to home. Remember we have already decided not to sell the boat regardless. But the more we prayed  the more we realized that God had something else in store for us...because there was something we needed to learn first...Instead of God helping us land the perfect job we were reminded over and over to GET OUT OF DEBT first.

We then sadly had to look at our favorite asset. The boat.

Family members and great friends had tricky remarks that confused us for a moment. "Whatever you do, don't sell the boat. I have heard so many parents say it was the one thing that their family always did together no matter the age of the children." or " you own the boat, why would you ever sell it, just enjoy it" or "it is one toy you will never regret owning, great family activity."


trust me, it was tricky tricky...we tried several times to talk ourselves out of it- knowing we could get out of debt just a little slower if we just budget better... but once we decided to listen to the Spirit, there was no looking back...it had to be done- we knew selling the boat would prove we were serious and together we came to the conclusion that we had to sacrifice a lot to make this work. We trust Heavenly Father enough to know He will bless us even though things will be tough for while.

We have a cork board in our bedroom with our financial goals and plan pinned to it. There is also an American Flag pinned next to our goals--represents FREEDOM.

So the journey begins...and right now it totally sucks.

and no, I still won't coupon.