I am still taking the bus to and from work for now since the kids are still not back to school and their fall activities did not start yet. It is still taking me 80 minutes to get home. I have started listening to the radio and that really helps pass the time. DH and I are going to share one parking permit and definitely not get a second one. We have decided that we have to keep one parking permit but may be able to reduce down to a part-time permit (3 days a week) if the road construction ever is finished. We live in an area where the construction crews are small and take forever to complete a project. We are still waiting for the parking office to process our "carpool" application. Right now, only DH can drive because the parking lot requires the use of our employee IDs to open the gate and mine has not been registered through the carpool application yet. It is driving me crazy! Our employee IDs are also what we use for free transportation on the bus. So, I can't just take DHs ID and drive the car home as he would need his ID to ride the bus. So far, we have not been able to have the same work schedule - my job is basically just 8am - 4 pm but he has a job with a lot more responsibility and has had meetings lasting well after 5 pm. I am hoping that this wave of meetings is over and he can try to schedule things to leave by 4 pm.

DH is leaving this morning for a yearly conference that is very important in his line of work. He is hoping that Irene is not going to impact his flights. He will return on Wednesday night. I hope that the damage from the storm will be minimal for all who live along the East Coast.

Of course, since Dh is out of town, the kids' activities just started and I will be solely responsibile for getting them everywhere. We just got the baseball practice schedule for the next week. My one son has practice Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and a game on Wednesday. He gets Thursday and Friday off and then has practice again on Saturday and Sunday. Seriously?! One of the fields they use for his age group is very close to our house which is a huge help. The other one is a 15 minute drive across town. We should be getting the soccer schedule for my other son any day. I am betting that he will have practice/games the same times as my other son. We have plans for Labor Day weekend and I don't want to feel like I have to stay in town just so the kids can attend practice. That's what is weird about where we live: everyone is from here so they never go anywhere over holidays. The kids always have practices/games over Labor Day, Easter and Memorial Day. They are almost always the only kids that are not there during those times as we are NOT from this area.

My boys have spent this past week at home without any supervision since I started my new job two weeks ago and my DH had to be at work full-time this week. They are really good boys. My 13 y.o. DS push-mowed our entire hilly, 1 acre yard and did not complain one bit. He was not allowed to do the steep parts himself. My ten year old did some laundry and dusted. He did a little complaining. Last night I brought home pizza for them and they told me how bored they had been being home by themselves. I told them that is why I wanted to get a job - that I had been bored at home by myself and the only thing to do was cooking, cleaning, and maintenance. That was a real lightbulb moment for them. They didn't think that that sounded like a lot of fun! We did discuss how sad we all were that I was not there to take them to do fun things during their summer break. We would do all kinds of fun things and we always really looked forward to summers together. My DH will have to be the one to be taking them places next summer as he has the flexibility with his job. Honestly, he just isn't as much fun and does not enjoy the things like the rest of us. He'll have to loosen up a bit and just start taking them to do other things that he may enjoy doing with them. He doesn't have to take them to do the same things.

I am thinking the month of August is a bust to our budget and I am not even going to put it into my yearly spreadsheet that I use to calculate the following year's budget. This was caused by several reasons:
1. The housesitters caused quite a bit of trouble. We had to replace our dryer, coffee maker, some baking pans, and our lawn tractor's transmission (it is being worked on now). Just writing that shocks me that they could mess up so many things!
2. Re-stocking the house with staple items. We gave away all of the sauces, condiments, and a lot of food when we left as it would have gone bad or past it's expiration date while we were gone. We came home to a completely empty refrigerator. Buying all new sauces, etc. took a real bite out of the grocery budget.
3. New clothes for my new job.
4. My DS 13 is getting braces so we had to pay an up front fee of $350 for molds, x-rays, and photos that the insurance will not cover.

So, I will start "fresh" in September and track those budget numbers. I am anxious to settle into our new budget and see how it goes. I am focused on saving almost all of my salary. I am anxious to get that started and enroll in my employer's savings plan but they have not given me a password to get into the system and register. I will post back and keep myself responsible for keeping my savings on track.

I am off this morning to Payless to get soccer/baseball cleats for the boys and perhaps a cell phone for them to share. If DS13 is going to walk to practice or I will have to drop him off while I am with DS 10 somewhere else, I need to be able to get in touch with him.