Alone

 My husband doesn't love everything I love, and the same is true of some of the things he loves to do. But we do quite a bit together. Our friend circle has gotten so small, and our tolerance for BS is why. We are typically okay with it, but when I go thrifting, go to garage sales, or craft those things, I go alone. Sometimes, wouldn't it be fun to have a girlfriend, or even my daughter, to hang out with and do these things? But I just don't have that in my life anymore. I keep my friendships at a distance. I have been burned so many times in my life that I can't bear to have any more loss of friends or family. Even my brother-in-law and sister-in-law avoid doing stuff with us. They never invite us, and when we ask them, they ignore us. Why do I keep trying? I don't know. Some friendships we were used in, and now that we are no longer needed for whatever reason, those friendships have died. Anyway I am alone a lot I am not overly sad about it but once in awhile I think man how cool would it be to be doing this with my friend.  

We have our Tuesday-night friends. We meet for dinner and drinks, and we look forward to that time. One of the gals started inviting us to their home, and we asked them to our home, usually for drinks and a bite to eat, and that was fun, too. In our Tuesday night group, we planned a girls' trip. There are just three of us, and it will be until the end of August. We are going to Wisconsin to our camper for two nights, and we know we will have lots of fun and laughs.

My other friend and I have a cruise planned for January 2025. We go out every couple of months and have a great time. We do many things, so it's always different when we go out. We all like trying new stuff and new events, and we all love live music.

Another couple we see less often but love to do stuff with. We have dinner and drink plans for July 27th, and we always have a great time when we get together. We gals are planning a trip to Kansas City for a night, so we will talk about that on the 27th.

Well, two out of the three of us did end up going to the camper for a long weekend. It was a blast, our couple of friends, we still do stuff. We love trying new things, so anytime there is an incredible pop-up place or a band we like in town, we go check them out. They have become really good friends. Because of Dustin and my love of live music, we recently (2025) met a new couple we clicked immediately, and to have that happen is so amazing, so we do get together with them, even went to their house for a bonfire, dang that was fun! Anyway, friends come and go, but the older I get, the better the friendships become. I know I could call any of these people, and they would be there for us in a heartbeat, and those are people you keep in your life....  I don't feel alone anymore. Those friendships that died made me feel that way, but I don't look at it that way anymore. They are no longer in our lives, probably for good reason.

It's always about the $$$$

 I spend $41.70 monthly on streaming services, a fraction of what Satellite used to cost us. We occasionally take breaks from some of them, especially when there is nothing new to watch, so sometimes we spend much less. Sometimes, I pause them for camping and traveling because why pay when you can pause them?

I just paid off my Renegade; it was a long six years. I have one more payment for my surgery, which will be paid for this month. It was 100% worth every single dime!

The only bill I have after July is my Home Depot card. I am gonna be better about filling the mini pantry more than my normal once-a-month.

The reason I am at this point is I have spent the past two years paying shit off and working hard at getting things paid off. Could I have done it quicker? YES, but you know Amazon and stuff...

Anyway, the reason I worked hard at paying everything off is so we could take on paying for a septic tank at the WIS property, and we are going to try and get that paid off in a year and a half; that is our goal, given nothing weird happens like when we had 4 appliances take a crap at the same time that was FUN! Then, the roof needed to be replaced. I know life happens, and those sorts of things would have made me cry in my earlier adult years, but we figured it out and rolled with it. Anyway, I am not sure why I am telling anyone all this, other than that I am proud of myself for finally being at this point in life where things aren't hard because there was a time in our lives when we had it rough. Still, we always seem to figure it out, thankfully.

One thing I know for sure is that we don't need the best of the best to be happy. I never play keeping up with Jones; I never have and never will. While everyone around us was becoming house-poor, we were the opposite, living in our cute little bungalow and paying less than $500 taxes and insurance included, and that is how we were able to buy a property where we will build a new home much more significant than our little bungalow only due to the county requirements. Still, I am okay with it. We deserve it. We have worked our asses off to be here.

My husband gets overtime, but I do not, sadly. He also makes three times the amount I do in a year. I never in my wildest dreams thought we would be making the money we do now, and we deserve it. We worked our asses off. Both of us deserve this. Now we are on the downhill slide, one day closer to retirement with each passing day, so while we can and can work, we are gonna kick ass on building this new home. One day, we will sell our current home, pay off the new home, and move to Wisconsin. We are both excited to start this dream home. My few requests are that I have a pantry, a much larger kitchen with plenty of countertop space, and a mud room off the garage. These are my must-haves!!! We have floor plans that we both love. I cannot wait to sit down with a builder and make this happen, but for now, we are gearing up for a loan for the septic tank, and once that is 100% paid off, we will move on to the next step. So I still have to work, LOL, because I will have an entire home to decorate and fill with furniture!! I am so excited!!! The only things we will bring with us are our family photos and our furniture. Other than that, I will decorate much differently than our current home. I will probably have a garage sale before we move, or I might just give it all away. That's more my style, anyway!