Economy Hits Hard

I am currently reading a vampire book.  Some parts of it takes place in New Orleans.  I've always wanted to go to New Orleans.  Since the hurricane, I've wondered what it looks like now - what still stands, what has been rebuilt. If hubby and I renew our vows this summer, maybe we should look into new orleans vacations and just drive down and check it out.

Who am I kidding? We're barely hanging on financially in this economy.  Now I'm just fantasizing.  Renewing our vows is beginning to look like it's just not going to happen, let alone a vacation to the deep south.  A couple weeks ago, I was really hopeful that we'd be able to renew our vows this year.  I thought hours would pick up at work but that's just not happening yet like we've been waiting for.  There were supposed to be extra hours the last couple weeks and those were cancelled.

I sure hope things pick up soon so the hours come back at work.  Part of me just wants to give the mortgage company the house but I know that's not reasonable (but boy would I like to tell Bank of America a few things!).  We can't rent a house big enough for all of us and the dogs. 

The stepkids are getting their child support on time though and the ex's house, which is in my husband's parents name, is what she lives in.  It gets aggravating.  I do think that my husband should pay child support for his children.  I just don't think that it's fair that when the economy goes in the stinker, we are the only ones sacrificing and struggling so hard.  In a family, everybody would have to adjust and sacrifice.  That just doesn't happen in a child support situation.  We are the only ones doing that.  The ex's hours haven't been cut at all while hubby has lost a big chunk of his hours for all of 2009.  A couple hundred dollars a month less child support is the difference between us being able to make our house payment right now or not.  It makes me resentful sometimes.  Not much I can do about it though.

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Going to Renew Our Vows - Maybe in a Castle

My husband and I are trying to plan a vow renewal for this summer, possibly in a castle.  We've wanted to renew our vows now for a few years but money is always an issue.  This year is no different but if we keep putting it off, it'll never happen.

My stepdaughter and I were texting about it.  She is SO thrilled about it.  She wants to be a part of it, help plan it, pick out dresses, etc.  I was very happily surprised that she is still geeked over the idea.  She was a few years ago when the subject first came up but the last few years have been different with the stepkids (more distance) so I wasn't sure. 

We will renew our vows probably locally here and then leave the kids and get away for a few days by ourself (which we have NEVER done).  We'll probably drive south. 

Hopefully nothing goes wrong.  Money will appear for the ceremony, kids' schedules will work, the cake won't fall over, the weather will be nice, our car won't break down on the way to the honeymoon we never had (better look at mechanical breakdown insurance), I'll lose all the weight I want to, and we'll be able to leave our kids for a couple days.  Seeing how we have a hard time just leaving them to go to the movies by ourselves, that's going to be a big deal to leave them.

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Renewing Our Vows

My husband and I have wanted to renew our vows for years. We were going to do it at our ten year wedding anniversary, but that's done and over a few years ago (yes, we've made it this far and are still happy). He bought me a Diamond ring set for my engagement ring and wedding ring that is really beautiful. I just cleaned it this morning to make it all sparkly again. I love diamonds!

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Anyway, we are trying to decide where we want to have the vow renewal at. Actually, it will be more along the lines of a handfasting but instead of a "getting married" theme, it will be renewing vows. I really want to have the ceremony in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. That is the one place my soul is connected to and I think it'd be a lovely spot. Unfortunately, our immediate family don't live in Tennessee. So we have ourselves a little bit of a problem. We'll get it figured out eventually (maybe by the time we can actually afford to do it).

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