We're getting there...

Today we officially paid off the rest of our school/Nick's car/basement debt. It's all gone! Now we just have the house and van to payoff. It's so nice to have it done with. Luckily all of it was 0%, so we never paid a dime of interest but we made about 5% in interest income on all of it. We decided to pay it off because the interest rates went so low and we were about done with the 0% deal. If we can stick to our budget then the van will be paid off in two years, luckily we don't pay any interest on that loan either. Then we'd just have our house left to pay off, but I think we'll end up moving long before that ship sails. My goal when I bought the house was to have enough in savings to be able (if I wanted) to pay off the house. We've lived here 5 years now and I don't know how that will play out.
We've decided that Nick is going to go back for his Masters and has officially applied at the U. We looked through all of his classes for the next 5 years and the only one that is taught at a good time is his first one. The others are basically in the middle of the day. Oh well, things always seem to work out for the best.
Yesterday Madelyn stood up by herself for the first time. It was really cute. She pulled herself up against the wall and then spread her legs out pretty wide and then let go of the wall. She was so proud of herself that she was standing there with nothing helping her. She lasted a few seconds and then fell on her bum but she was giggling a lot and clapping her hands. Good times.

Good news and bad news

Well the mudding is all done! A huge thanks to Jessie, the Black's neighbor, for doing a fabulous job at a fabulous price! We'll definitely be asking them to do the garage and rest of the basement when the time comes. Nick and I were so excited to prime and paint, but then the flu came to visit us AGAIN! And again it started with Andrew and then the rest of us got it. Nick and Madelyn didn't get it too bad, so again Nick was cleaning the whole house and keeping up on the nasty laundry while I slept and tried to get better. The only places Andrew has been are church and Grandma and Grandpa Nielson's. None of the Nielson's are sick, so I've come to the conclusion that it was probably from nursery at church. Nick missed work yesterday but went today even though he was feeling not so great. I'm missing work today but I don't want anyone to get sick because of me.
The week before last we got new clothes from Kelli in Oregon for Madelyn! Cuttest things ever! We put her in one of the dresses and took some pictures. She was loving it! Especially the shoes, yummy stuff! Oh and the last picture shows my childrens true personalities towards me!

We're on to the mud!

Nick has finished the sheetrock in the basement!!! It's looking so nice. Terry, Nick's dad, is coming over this week for a couple hours each day to do some mudding! He's so good to us.
Today I snapped my fingers at Madelyn to stop crawling to the bathroom (you know the three snaps) and she gave it back to me, waving her arm in the same motion I snapped at her. She's definitely got a 'tude. I was laughing really hard, so she started laughing and snorting, cute.
My best friend Kelli sent me two more boxes of clothing for Madelyn and one of the dresses fits her now. It was the cutest little dress I've ever seen! We took lots of pictures and need to post them on here. We also took some video of Andrew "helping" in the basement. The new word he learned Saturday was sawsall and today he learned what a sidekick is. When Nick got home from work Andrew told him "I'm a sidekick," and pulled his pants up really high, while tucking in his shirt. Can anyone say Steve Urkel? I guess how I explained it to him wasn't very clear...