Mortgage

When we moved to Arizona, we bought a smaller home than we could afford and put it on a 15 year mortgage. We are now 6 years, 4 months into our mortgage and hope to have it paid off near the 7 year mark...cutting the life of our loan by more than half and saving ourselves thousands of dollars.

We live in an economy where people are letting their homes go to foreclosure or short sale (a term I was completely unfamiliar with 3 year ago) either because of necessity or because the home values have dropped so drastically that most people are upside down in their mortgages (owing more than their homes are worth) and figure that's the best way out.

Knowing that our house is currently worth less that what we paid for it, why would we go ahead and strap ourselves financially so that we can pay our mortgage off? I ask myself that question all the time. We are definitely a minority in our thinking...

And yet for the past 2 years, we have put ALL of our extra money on our mortgage. Sometimes that's only an extra $1000. Sometimes it's as much as $20,000 (Paul's bonuses). But most of the time it's an extra $2000 added to our $1481.01 mortgage. Right now $1084.79 of that goes directly to the principle of our mortgage. Only $400 of this months payment is applied to interest and escrow. That's the upside of nearing the end of our mortgage...more of each monthly payment is actually applied to principle, whereas at the beginning of a mortgage, the opposite is true.

We now owe just under $60,000. Paul has estimated his bonus this year to be $38,000. Too bad we won't see all of that. Thank you taxes. And of course we always pay our tithing. That's a BIG tithing check!!! But we are SO grateful for all of our blessings, financial blessings included. So the left over will be applied to our house. Leaving us with approximately $30,000 +/- still owing.

So we continue to be tight. When will this feeling end? We've been tight financially our whole marriage! Either because of salary, or school tuition, or now paying off our mortgage. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pleading poverty. We still take our family on vacation, we still buy new clothes and shoes (mostly at discount stores). We still allow ourselves to enjoy the journey, but those months where we "enjoy" are extra tight.

Paul reminded me today that we are now in the last 6 miles of a marathon. This has been a long road. And the last 6 miles are the toughest! We KNOW the end is near, but it still feels SO far away! We both know it will be worth it in the end, and so we keep chugging along. One step or dollar after another.

March 18, 2011...paid $24,506.09 ($34,345.46 left owing)
April 27, 2011...paid $3481.01 ($31,235.55 left owing)
May 16, 2011...paid $3481.01 (28,287.62 left owing)
We're considering paying off the mortgage next month. We've got enough money in savings and Paul's stock to pay it off and still have $6700 in savings.

We had a small course change...We thought about buying a larger home, which in turn caused us to stop paying extra on our mortgage.

Instead we decided against the purchase of a bigger home (for now), and decided to take a break from being financially strapped...

Instead, we PAID OFF THE MORTGAGE!!!

September 15, 2011...paid $24,689.17 ($0 left owing!!!)

The Valentines Box

Dear Grandma Carol,

Thank you for all of the time, money and love you put into our Valentine Box. The smell of hand dipped caramels, peanut butter balls and cherries made our tummies growl. The caramel and chocolate covered pretzel sticks were devoured first. Your home made sugar cookies and creamy pink frosting is unmatched! We ALL love it!!!

And as much as we all LOVE the home made yummy treats, the most entertaining part is the brown box full of packing peanuts. Next year, will you hide inside so you can see all the fun we have with it?

We hope these pictures give you a small sense of how much we enjoy it.

Love,
The AZ Boleys

The clean up--only the vacuum would do.

Another Bear?

This one is a CUB SCOUT. Andrew (and his dad and his mom) have worked very hard to achieve this rank.

Now Paul and I can sit back until his next Birthday when he'll be working on Webelo's achievements.
I have to remind myself that it's not too bad now...in a few years, we'll have 4 boys to be after with Scouting. Sigh...

Brotherly Love

I found this note from Barik on the counter the other day...

(Dear Andrew

I love you.
You are the best
brother in the whole
Universe.)

Dirty Jobs

Our trampoline of 6 years had seen better days.

It was time for a new one. And since we were going through the effort of putting a new trampoline together, we (Paul) decided to make the hole extra rain resistant. You see, the problem with having a Jerry-rigged in ground trampoline is that when it rains, the earth around the trampoline gets washed under, thus creating large holes around the tramps frame.

The workers:

(What a mess!!!)

Andrew and Barik headed outside right after school with their pick ax and shovels to work on this hole (only to have it covered a couple days later).

At the end of 6 days (filled with lots of dirty clothes and sore muscles), the masterpiece was complete and enjoyed by all!

Paul decided to turn one of the rain-made holes into a secret entrance to the "Underworld". The boys LOVE their hide-a-way!

Good Bye Bubbles...

Hello Waves...

Barik felt a little left out with all the room changes that happened several months ago, so this was our compromise. Rather than buying a new house (this one was "boring") I repainted and rearranged their room. We all approve.