College Bound Scooters...

So there is Allan's new toy. It's not really a toy, though, it's a tool. We got rid of the Talon and now he has a scooter. It will get over 60mpg and goes up to 70mph. He knows I don't want him going that fast, but this thing will save us more than half of what he's spending on gas, insurance and maintenance. He'll pick it up this afternoon and ride it home from Dallas. Am I nervous? Sure, a little bit. But he's been wanting a bike since he started this awful commute and given stupid gas prices it seems reasonable to me.

I can't get over it...our girls are never going to have to worry about college! And the best part is we won't go broke saving for them! Rhiya, GraceAnne and Violet are all getting money and I ran some numbers, (because I'm a big fat nerd!). If we never save another dime past the 200/mo they'll get for the next 3 years, and invest the money we do save into college funds at around 8% return, Rhiya will have just over $11,000 for college, GraceAnne will have $19,500 and Violet will have nearly $27,000! Like I said--that's if we never invest another penny! We're going to talk to an investment guy this week about GraceAnne and Violet's accounts. Unfortunately I can't do anything about Rhiya's. Social Security says it all has to go through a legal guardian and it can't have anything to do with the person who is the reason the kids are getting paid. (read: Allan and I can't have anything to do with Rhiya's savings, so we'll just pray that the money is invested, because we can't afford to do much else for her at this point. At least with the little ones we still have 14 and 18 years.) Did I mention that our portion of the investment is only $7200 each? So let's do a little more math, cuz it's fun! Rhiya would have $3800 that wouldn't otherwise be there; GraceAnne would have $12,300 and Violet would have $19,800. That's interest, baby! I love compound interest! Pretty sweet for free money!!

Yeah--so the money wasn't really free. Sometimes I say stuff like that and people look at me like I'm nuts or say, "that must be nice." I fully realize that my husband sacrificed and to those who have the cynical "that must be nice" attitude, I direct this toward you and myself: My husband gave up 6 years of his life, his family and his leg to get the "privilege" of retiring medically from the Army. We have also fought tooth and nail for everything we've been awarded, (i.e. the S.S. battle took 4 years). If anyone else would like to sacrifice so much, I'm sure the government would be willing to take care of them, too.

NOW--the REASON I say it's all "free money" is because we were so well Blessed by his accident just in meeting and having GraceAnne. We got to move to WA state to be with Rhiya for a while and Allan found his career calling after 17 years of trying to figure out what he wanted to be when he grew up. Even though it's all related to his injury and we've jumped through so many hoops to get here, I don't think any of this could be attributed to anything we've done. This was all God's plan. He knew what He was doing and He just guided and directed us. The fact that Allan gets to go to school and I get to stay home with our babies is more than enough for me, but now the kids will have college funds and our 2nd mortgage is paid off!? MAN!! It just blows me away!

On that note I'm going to try to go back to bed. This littlest one seems to think now that puking at 4 in the morning is good fun...I'm asking for prayers that God banishes that idea from her little mind, because it's about to take a toll on me. I've been a walking zombie for the last 2 days! Hmm...is that why I've rambled my way through this blog post???