It's Hard to be all Grown-Up

January has proved to be a difficult month in the life of being a new homeowner, newlywed, new year, etc...

Yes, I said "new" to both homeowner and partner in marriage; seeing as we have not even had our 2nd Anniversary for either events.

I am the designated "money person" in our marriage. Scotty's imput is necessary - as he is head of the household - however, I am the only bill-payer between the two of us. I was truly thrilled when January came around the corner this year - I had been budjeting all year long for our property and school taxes so those would not kick us in the teeth and I was excited to do our personal taxes early so we could put 1/2 towards our retirement account and use the other 1/2 to beef our savings back up (we bought a $5000 fence this year, fixed our chimney from IKE for $3000 and got trees trimmed due to IKE damage for another $500).

So, last week, I go to pay our property taxes only to find they almost doubled the amount I budgeted for! REALLY?!? Was I that careless? I thought...."It's okay...we have that amount in checking, and we are about to get our savings right back where we want it..."

Yesterday, I excitedly begin to do our personal taxes. I answer all the questions the little online touturial is asking:

Do you have kids: NO

Did you purchase a new home in 2009: NO

Did you buy any new energy effecient upgrades for your home in 2009: NO

....on and I went, until I got to the very last page to put in my bank information....

I eagerly typed in the info and clicked "CONTINUE"...

"You owe $698"

WHAT!?! We owe money??? Are you saying that even though neither Scotty nor I claim anything on our W4's and the IRS takes the maximum amount out of our paychecks each month - all year long - we STILL owe an additional $700????

I swear, I almost cried.

So, today, Sunday - our usual day of rest and relaxation - has turned into a day of hard discussions and re-budgeting for 2010. Lots more money will have to be allocated into our end-of-year property tax payment. We will have to visit the possibility of changing our W4's to include the IRS taking more than what we have already allocated, so maybe next year we won't owe, and some vacations/small trips that were on 2010's calendar will no doubt we pushed back.

Oh the joys of being all grown-up..........

2010....

Can you believe it is 2010? I can't believe we have passed the days when we day "two thousand ____" and have moved into they days of "twenty ten"! Definitely seems surreal.

2009 (two thousand nine) was, I would say, an okay year. Nothing truly amazing or spectacular happend this year in the Floyd home to define the year for us. We took some fun vacations, celebrated our 1st anniversary and had a big pary for Scotty's 30th. We did recently settle on a church - Calvary Houston.

We are pretty excited about being part of a church family again. Me, I'm sure, more than Scotty. Recently I have felt depressed....not like end my life depressed....just feeling sad every day. Scotty realized this and we sat and talked about it for a while. The last time I felt like this, I worked for a church. They had no office, so the office was in my apartment and day in and day out I would just sit at home answering the church phone (which sometimes would ring at 2am, by the way), creating e-mails to be sent out and trying my best to keep up with my pastor. I never saw anyone. Sure, I had a church home, but I volunteered each Sunday and never sat in service. Sure, I had a life group, but they talked weekly about the sermon that was preached the Sunday before and, of course, I couldn't really follow b/c I didn't hear it! It all boiled down to the fact that I had no friends. No one ever stopped by my little office apartment just to say hi. No one ever invited me to lunch to just get away. Nothing. If I needed anything, I had those friends for sure: Ashley, Beth, Kristy. But, at the time, I really didn't realize what I needed. Thankfully, the church split, and all I really felt was FREEDOM! I was free to not be at church from 6am-1pm. I was free to not put on a fake smile each week because I was a "Leader" and was supposed to "be on stage" each Sunday. I was FREE.

Now, however, in 2010 I am realizing I am close to where I was then. When Scotty and I were engaged, I imagined we would find a fun couple - maybe in our premarital sessions, maybe in our new church, maybe in our neighborhood - that would be our "friend" couple. Know what I mean? That couple both you get along with. The ones you want to have over for dinner and you all go see movies together and such. I truly believed that would happen. However, as much as I have tried (i.e. inviting people over, having parties, etc...) we (I) have no friends. Everyone we know has kids. This doesn't bother me, but people with children befriend other people with children so their kids can play together and they can walk each other through the times they are in. The only person who still will hang out with me (kids or not) is my very best friend, Kristy, but she lives over an hour away.

I say all this, not to whine, but to simply hope that our new church and 2010 brings some new freindships we can cultivate. I also pray that if there is any feeling or thought in my heart that is not totally God honoring, that He would reveal that to me. Feelings are a dangerous thing, and satan can definitely take-hold. Please pray with me.