Tonight I baked homemade chocolate chip cookies and homemade peanut butter cookies for Neil and his friends to eat while they’re on their trip to Lexington for a Health and P.E. convention Wednesday through Friday. Gotta keep my man fed!

Today I spent a luxury car car payment on groceries. Please my check card and love of baking away from me.

A week ago I began the giveaway of the year. You’re really missing out if you don’t enter.

Two weeks ago I debuted the brand new Rhouser Designs website. Please check it out and let me know what you think. I absolutely love it!

There we were, Erin and I, staring up at the departure and arrival board at the Nashville International Airport. We had just said goodbye to Emily and we feeling rather melancholy. We saw that there was a flight leaving for New York City in about 2 hours and we got to thinking, we weren’t doing anything this weekend. My aunt lives in NYC and I knew she wouldn’t mind the two of us crashing there for two or three days. We were seriously thinking about getting in the ticket line but we kept thinking. Good thing we did because I’m pretty sure that’s the only thing that stopped us from getting on that plane.

We hadn’t saved up for a trip but we had just seen Emily off to Germany and for some reason the only thing Erin and I wanted to do in those 15 minutes was to go somewhere ourselves. Somewhere, anywhere. NYC sounded like the most fun. Also, neither one of us is particularly spontaneous. But we didn’t have any clothes. Any toiletries. And oh yea, any money.

In re-thinking our plan we decided it would be much more fun if we had money to spend in NYC. Much more of a NYC worthy trip if we had our favorite clothing. And for the plane ticket money we would have wanted to stay longer than a weekend.

So we left the airport but did decide that we would try to save up for some kind of trip in the near future. We debated going down to Destin and and booking on of those destin florida rentals but settled on going to Germany at the begining of the year to visit Emily.

Since Emily’s coming home sooner than planned we won’t be saving up for a plane ticket to Germany so maybe we’ll revisit the NYC idea? Or maybe some place completely different. Now that we’re not buying a house a little more of my money can go to our trip. Hell, Australia sounds like fun.

So I’ve changed my mind. Again. I know what you’re thinking, “Dang she’s the most indecisive person I know!” You’re right. I am. You haven’t figured that out yet? Let me start from the beginning…

This past February I decided I wanted to go to nursing school in a town that’s an hour and a half away from where we (Neil and I) currently live. Knowing that I would have to be at clinicals every other day at 6:30 in the morning means that I would have to leave the house no later than 5am and that doesn’t sit well with me. Also, that much driving, I’m sure we would go broke before the first semester was over. Neil only has one more semester of classes and then he’ll student teach during the spring semester, but he can do that anywhere. SO we decided that if I got in to said school we would move to a town I’m quite fond of, that’s only 20-30 minutes away from said school and only an hour away from where we currently live. That town is Clarksville. That leaves Neil with only one semester to drive back and forth and me with zero. Neil decided he’d like to student teach in Clarksville. More schools there you know.

It was decided. If I got into nursing school we would move to Clarksville over the summer, Neil would drive to Murray for his last semester of classes and everything would be jolly. We wanted to buy a house. We’ve been renting (sort of) for 2+ years and I would have to stay in Clarksville for school for at least 5 years (grad school included) so it only makes sense to buy. We have the money and if we closed on a house before the end of the year we could claim the 8,000 $ first time home buyers tax credit. Can I get a Hell Yeah? I was a done deal. Or so we thought.

You all know about me finding out I didn’t get in to fixing everything and getting in to nursing school. I was so relieved and Neil and I pushed on with the house hunt. It all was going so smooth until I get a letter from my school. I would only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursday this fall and there are no clinicals during the first semester. That changed everything. How much sense did it make for Neil to drive two hours every day when I only had classes two days a week? And not having clinicals means I wouldn’t have to be anywhere at 6:30am. We thought about it and came to the only smart conclusion: we wouldn’t move until the end of the fall semester. Neil would be done with classes and only have student teaching left, which he can do anywhere AND that would give us some time to save up more money. You can do wonders in 4 months.

Speaking of money….we found out that I won’t be receiving any financial aid this fall. Yea, we hadn’t planned on that. Time to think of something else. We’re still trying to catch up on bills from where we had to shell out for Neil’s summer classes and we’re going to have to pay for at least half of his classes this fall. Add on top of that my nursing program fees…you don’t even want to know how much they are. It all started to seem daunting. All that gas I’ll be paying for to drive 6 extra hours a week, trying to save money for our house. Dang. Growing up sucks.

Hear ye, hear ye. After finalizing everything I can let the bag out of the cat. Or is it, the rat out of the bag? I am postponing nursing school until this coming spring. I am taking a semester off school all together. I am going to work more and spend more time on my web design. That means would be saving SO MUCH MONEY and not wasting as much time (in the car). Once Neil’s out of school for Christmas break, thus ending his last semester of classes, we would move in our new home in Clarksville. Er….that was until last night.

I know, you’re getting tired of everything changing. You were just now able to catch up and I’m changing something again. I’m sorry. But the short of it is…

Yesterday Neil and I spent 5 hours looking at both old and new houses in Clarksville and we’ve figured out that for the amount of money we’re comfortable spending on a mortgage will not buy us anything we’d be comfortble living in for 5 or so years. Could you see this coming? I sure didn’t. I was so gung-ho on finding a great house, buying it and living happily in it for as long as we had to be in that area. But, no offense to Sam or anyone living in the Clarksville area, the more time I spend in Clarksville the more I want to move to Paducah. We always knew that we wanted to settle down in Paducah. That’s where both of our families live and it really is the perfect place for us. In every sense of the word perfect.

I’ve lived in Murray for 5 years now and buying  a house in Clarksville would make it another 5+ years before we could finally make the move to our dream town. Where we want to have and raise our children. Last night in bed Neil and I …stop thinking dirty… talked it over, I made my famous pro-con list, and decided it would be less stressful and just all around better for us to rent instead of buy in Clarksville. I only HAVE to be in that area for two years and what’s two years when you’re renting? Nothing. Whether we rent a house or an apartment (which is looking better and better by the second (AED)) we’re not for sure yet but we are going to stop our house hunting indefinitely. In Clarksville anyway. Once I’m done with nursing school we’ll move back to Paducah and never look back.

I know some people like the chance to move away for a little while, have that adventure. I miss Paducah and I’ve had enough time away from my hometown to know that I’d rather be there than anywhere else. Unless you’re talking Disney World. We all know how much I love Disney World.