New year new post (finally!)
Yes, yes, I am definitely still alive and slightly guilty about my lack of posting. But better late than never I suppose! The truth is that my computer is so slow these days that I hate booting it up and using it for anything, and tend to do more stuff on my phone. But the phone is no good for writing posts. The kids both have laptops of their own so at this point the desktop is basically a paperweight. I've been thinking that maybe I should just get a laptop of my own and get rid of this old relic. I'm just terrible at spending money on things for myself. We shall see. Until then I'll try to do a better job with this thing.
I cannot believe that it's 2020 already! The time just keeps flying by so quickly it makes my head spin. My life now is very different than anything I ever imagined growing up, but it's so good and I'm happier than I ever thought I'd be. The big news right now (although it doesn't feel that big to me yet) is that Jeff and I have decided to just go ahead and get married, sometime within the next few months probably. It was something that we decided together over the course of several conversations instead of a "proposal" type moment, which might be why it doesn't feel that momentous to me. It's something that we've both known that we'd do eventually, we just hadn't put a date on it for practical reasons. Finances, to be exact. Once we get married we'll move into a higher tax bracket, the kids will lose their state insurance because I'll no longer be a single parent according to tax forms, and they won't qualify for as much (or maybe any) financial aide if they decide to go to college anytime in the next decade or so. But as it turns out the kids will both be losing their insurance in the summer, due to Kiana aging out and my income going up so Livia will no longer qualify. Jeff has much better insurance through his job so getting married seems like the best choice for us now.
So there you have it. Medical insurance being the main factor when it comes to setting a date, something that I think is actually very common here in the US. It's such a terrible system and I really wish we'd catch up with the rest of the developed world and just provide medical care for everyone. I believe it's coming eventually but who knows how long it'll be, and even though we don't really use the insurance I don't want to be caught without it just in case we ever do need it.
We told the kids about our decision a couple of days ago and Kiana immediately starting trying to plan something more extravagant than we want, which was very funny and cute. I'm glad she's excited. Then we shared the news with a few close friends last night and they were also VERY excited and ready to start planning. I'm glad to have the support because truthfully I have no idea what to do. One step at a time I suppose. Jeff seems to be excited about finding a ring so maybe we'll get out and start searching for one this upcoming weekend.