It was a hoot having Campbell come and visit me in Arizona. I was not able to pick him up on Fri. so he had to sit and wait for me to pick him up on Mon. He was very upset but alls well that ends well.We enjoyed having him here. Now he is on the way to "a city born from the ruins of a former civilization" located right here in Arizona!! Postmaster said he should arrive there sometime tomorrow. Will post pics later when I have uploaded them to photobucket.

It was so hot here this weekend that I only got this one picture. Campbell came along with us to the Habitat for Humanity Restore. Here he is giving his stamp of approval for the sink that I bought for a potting bench I want to make. It was priced at $25 but all sinks were 50% off. Got it for $12.50. The wood pieces were samples of wood finishes and I thought they'd make great legs for some project. And books were only a penny! I managed to get a collection of hardcover Lawrence Sanders novels. I'll have my husband ship Campbell out tomorrow or Tuesday. Thanks for the wonderful stuff and letting me get in on the Junk Train circuit!

I just read this post and wanted to respond. I was interested in the responses that you recieved V. Some were helpful. I have a few thoughts on this subject as well. I found it amazing that someone would have the guts to post that if you can't feed them don't breed them. As if by asking the question about how to prepare for the future, you are not doing your duty. It sounds like you are doing a great job feeding them, if you will, and are now looking toward the future. Good for you. I also found it interesting that the debate came down to a pick one scenario for everyone who did respond. You are crazy to pay for their college and not take care of yourself or you are selfish to take care of your retirement and not help your kids. I put forth that you have set two goals and want to know how to make both of those goals work. Without knowing more about your financial situation, no one can tell you how to do this or if it's possible. What I will tell you is about myself. I am a stay at home mother of three. My husband is ten years older than I am. He wants to retire in his early 60's (62 at the latest). Our children will just be going to college at about the time he wants to retire. I want to pay for college for my children. These are both valid goals. We gathered all of our information together and went and paid 400$ to a financial planner. It was the BEST thing we ever did. We are not rich. But we thought it was well worth the money to have someone help us look at our overall financial well being and help us draw some basic predictions (conservative predicitons) towards the future. He looked at our insurance and our finances. We found out we probably needed more disability insurance, if something were to happen to my husband, there is no way we could have held on to the house and made things work, even if I went back to work. We found out that we were doing fine with retirement and needed to think about college funds. I have the peace of mind now, knowing that if my husband were to die or get injured we could keep the house, maintain our style of living and be OK. And I won't have to go to work. That is important to us. We can retire in our 60s but it will most likely be age 65 (instead of 62) and pay most of our kids college expensis. I would strongly suggest that you think about going to a financial planner. Pick one wisely but know that they are worth the money in my book. Some things to think about- you can save for the local state university and your child will end up in Harvard. Then what? For us, we decided to save as much as we could towards helping our children get a basic four year degree. If we have enough to pay for their college, great. If they go to Harvard, Yale etc- high expensis, they will have to work and get student loans and scholarships. Or you will save for college and they won't go to college. Then what? This is one reason we have not put anything in their name that will equal a large chunk of money that will be theirs at age 18. Although they are adults at age 18, we know that they are still young and still lack the in depth decision makign skills they might need. We would hate to see our money spent on a nice car at the expense of college. The choice will be theirs at that time. What college to go to? How to help pay for it- live at home, work, not go? They will be well on their way to adult hood and able to make decisions that impact their future. Even now, our children are encouraged to save for college. (ages 4,2,5 months). We take any gift money sent to them and put it in the bank in their name. We give them a small allowance and help them split it up to tithing, spending, savings (my 2 and 5 months old don't get it yet, but they will). We are setting a policy now that any money they get in gifts at least 1/2 will go to the bank. This will be their money towards college and other expensis they may have as they grow and leave home. (Down payment on a home? Down payment on an appt? Down payment on a car? college?) The other thing we did- we took all of our money (except for a little bit) and put it in our accounts. We have not seperated out college vs retirement vs a big wedding. We figure it is all ours and if something comes up that we have to spend it, we want to be able to do so with out feeling like we are spending our childrens' money. WE earned it and we want to use it the best way we need to at any given time. You just never know what will come up (accident, job loss, etc.)... So it's in one big pot with our name on it (except for a very little bit). Closer to college time we will sit down and figure out where we stand- how much we have total, how much we can help each child out with college, how much we need for retirement etc. Then we will help our children. It is my belief that we had these children and along the lines of if you can't feed them don't breed them- we want to help them along in their adult hood the best we can. It seems a shame to force them to take on student loans when we will hopefully be in a position to help them if not pay for their college totally. I have some personal reasons for wanting to help my children through college based on my history. But there you have it. On the flip side though, we do not want to hurt our retirement or not retire to help our children. As someone posted earlier- $30,000 at age 30 is easier to pay off in the long run than the same debt at age 60 on a fixed income. I maintain that there is probably a fine line between these two goals that you can walk. I would put forth that with some research and budgeting, most families can be in the position we are now in. It's not ideal- we scrimp a bit and we don't do everything (many) of the things I'd like to do (like move to a huge house, go on more vacations, fly etc). But I feel good about where we stand. We know we can take care of ourselves and our children now and for many years to come. We know we can retire and help our kids through college. A 529 is a great option. We have one for each child. There are other options- roth iras, coverdale ira, schwab accounts, drips, etc. You get the idea. This is one reason we went to a financial planner. He helped us untangle the information and then backed off and let us make the decisions that we felt were best. Good Luck. Ginger

Our pup and their pup grew up together. He's either one month younger or older than mine, I can't remember. Everytime they came over when they were young, and mind had new tricks and could stay/sit/down etc all they'd say is "Ohh, I wish we had the time and etc etc to teach him all of that, but it's just been so hectic, and I've been so sick/tired (with the pregnancy)" And I think he just kind of got lost in the pregnancy, and newborn stuff. I think I'll just start in on it, because he's already picking it up on his own, and I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to enforce stay, and down when he takes off and gets mud all over my couch! If they mind I'll just say that while he's at my house, for extended periods - It'd be easier for me and for him, if he had the same rules as my dogs. My dogs pick up on it, too, when he gets away with stuff they know they aren't allowed to do, and they start to misbehave. My dog will start to come when she's called, and when she sees he's taken off the other way, she follows him. Or she'll run inside and not sit and stay at the door like she's been taught etc etc. They already say he's not trained well, and he doesn't listen well to them at all, even at their house. I'm over there quite often. They kinda just let him run rampant. On the furniture, jumping on things,etc. He kinda rules the roost. The tell him to get down, or come, or lay down etc. But he doesn't know the commands well enough to know what to do. So hopefully if I do work with him, they'll continue with it, they try..I just don't think they realise it takes more than a couple of cookies to teach a dog something and have him be consistent. Just thought I'd ask before I tried, to see what the general consensus is from other dog owners. Thanks for the replies :)