I'm thankful for a lot of things... especially for $1.57 gas price. My son filled up his Honda Fit for $14.00 (and he said it was on almost on empty). Woo hoo!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FRIENDS!!!!

Has anyone wondered what it's in my profile picture. Wonderful tropical fruits and vegetables! Papayas, cubanel peppers, cilantro and a gigantic pumpkin and green plantains (hanging). This is one of my favorite pictures, taken on one of my trips to Puerto Rico.

Believe it or not, I can get gas for a $1.87 per gallon. How much on your neck of the woods?

My sons are now 18 and 14 years old but we still make it a point to go out to dinner every two weeks to our favorite Costa Rican-Ecuadorian restaurant. Aside from the awesome rice, beans,carne asada (seasoned thin sliced steak cooked on a BBQ grate), fried plantains and avocado, our dinner date helps me continue to keep the lines of communication open with my teenage sons. It's amazing what they'll tell you when they're enjoying a good meal! $32.00 on my debit card + spending time with my boys is priceless in my eyes.

My husband and I were shopping at Walmart today. We usually go all the way to the back to see what big items they had on clearance. We stumble upon the home and garden section where my husband saw 5 lawn mowers just sitting there. He had one of the employees call for the manager and he asked him how much they were looking to get for the lawn mowers. Get this, she said $20.00. We bought two brand new mowers (one for our house and the other for the rental) for $40.00. Their original price for each was $170.00. What a bargain!

One of the apartments in our rental house is not rented and I'm surely feeling the pinch. It used to be that we would put the rent sign on and it would rent in a few days. No bites yet as of today. To make matters worst, we have to do replace all the windows in the house (17 of them) at the tune of $4,000.00. My son's college spring tuition is also due in December, that's an additional $1800.00 and another $500.00 in January for books. Quarterly property taxes were due for both houses the first of November ($1,800 for one and $1,000 for the other) and of course Christmas. We've decided that it is going to be very low key and my sons understand. OUCH!!!

Our emergency fund is dwindling quickly, but we refuse to take anything on credit. We'll just have to work extra hard to replace that money little by little and pray that no new expense comes our way.

I'm off from work today and tomorrow due to teachers' conventions in Atlantic City. This weekend will also mark the end of my second graduate course, so I'll be very busy.

Meanwhile, I wish all of you a good Friday.

I miss the life I had when my children were little. We did not have much, we lived in a house that was barely 900 square feet, but my kids had what they needed, they attended the religious school we wanted for them, took a nice vacation every year and I was able to stay home to care for them. We were super happy. I know I'm a little melancholic today (after watching all of those little ones coming to my house for candy). I've come to the realization that more is not always better. Why didn't we stay in the small house (that was paid for) with low taxes? Instead, we bought this nice house, paying double the taxes and a $250,000 loan and a $2200 mortgage payment (taxes and insurance included). I hate to say it, but we fell for the trap of keeping up with the Jones's.

Thanks for listening, this site is like going for therapy.