30%

Celebrating a lot today!!  First, it's Saturday!  I love weekends!  Forced myself to sleep in this morning and relished the coziness.  It's getting cooler and time to put a blanket on the bed.

We're also celebrating because our house is officially refinanced and our mortgage payment is officially reduced 30%!  We drove to Walnut Creek yesterday to sign the loan documents and marveled at how this process was 30 days vs. the months we spent being jerked around by two 'big banks' who couldn't get their processes together enough to close the deal.  Note to us:  never, ever go through a lender directly.  We used a highly recommended broker and had we gone with him from the start, we'd have been done months ago.  Oh well - we learned.  We are so relieved to have it done and the amount we will save over the life of the loan is amazing.  If rates fall again, we'll do it again.  Turns out my fretting about not qualifying if we didn't have J.'s continuation salary in the equation wasn't an issue - the loan was qualified on my income alone.  So if the rates change again, we could refi again...and that feels really good.  I had been so worried that without J.'s income, we would be 'stuck' in the 5.75% mortgage forever - but we wouldn't have been and aren't stuck even in our new mortgage, should things change.

B. has entered training for his next goal so he is officially incommunicado for the next three weeks. We won't hear from him until November 15th.  He called last night to confirm he was there safely - he couldn't sleep 'cuz of the time change (he's back to being three hours ahead of us in North Carolina vs. the one hour ahead of El Paso).  He is stoked - and nervous.  My anxiety is on high as well - there is a lot riding on this for him and I feel nervous and excited and cautiously optimistic all at once. He said it's not as bad as basic - no yelling (so far) and because all the soldiers there are 'experienced', they are treated more as 'adults' vs. as kids that need to be broken.  Today, they get 'checked in' and tomorrow, they start the training - no pictures; no Facebook page; no updates of any kind.  If he calls between now and the 15th, it will probably be 'cuz something 'bad' has happened - so we hope he won't call instead of hoping he will.

H.'s new job is going great - he was selected for the 'warm' warehouse which he's happy about.  He enjoyed Thursday and Friday off (the first two days in a row he's had off in a couple months) and today, he works five hours instead of ten.  He's enjoying the job.  He will officially be a Teamster!

It was a good week on the work front - though I put over 300 miles on my car and was out of the office more than in.  Lots of meetings at the County Office as well as a workshop in Sacramento. Time in the car with my new boss which was fun - and when I was in the office, there were a gillion meetings about upcoming construction projects.  Busy, busy week and next weeks will be more of the same.

Today, it's stuff around the house - yard work, getting donations ready for pickup (five full bags so far and I'm sure we'll get quite a few more ready today).  I am gently (sort of) nudging my husband to work on his closet 'cuz he has clothes in there he hasn't worn in decades.

Halloween decor also to be done soon...and we need more candy!