*waving* Hi! Thanks for asking. I'm due next month. I've been getting things ready and spending time with DH, family, and friends before life changes forever. :) That's certainly not a bad thing but I'm trying to enjoy the present. I'm doing well. I know I've said this more than once but I'm still amazed at how pregnancy has altered some of my normal physical capabilities. I really though I'd be able to do most of the same things. Now something simple like picking myself off the floor is a challenge and sometimes accompanied by grunting noises. I nervous about delivery, being a good parent, and all that normal stuff. It is normal right? When I was a kid I thought my parents were invincible and now I'm going to be a parent. The weeks are flying and some days this all doesn't seem real. I know I keep saying this but I'll post a finished nursery thread soon.

I wish I knew then about making sure that the flooring contractor would check on how level the slab was. Midway through laying the ceramic in the kitchen, his guy came upon a hump in the floor and although they made it work, well that was stupid. Don't skimp on the floors if you get tile. Go for something that's nice and flat (no beveling) so the mop will at least touch the grout, and of a high hardness. Mine is chipping where they meet from things being dropped on it. If I had to do it over, I actually think I'd go for the highest quality, cushioned vinyl roll out on the market, or at least a very high quality porcelain tile. I had Kentile (sp) in my old kitchen that was 15 years old and looked like new. Can't get it anymore, but sometimes I wish I'd pulled those tiles up and brought them with me! I didn't want wood because I have an engineered wood, BR1111 Amendiom surrounding the kitchen, and it's entirely too soft and scratches too easily for kitchen use. And, what a nightmare that would have been with them trying to glue down those floors on a big hump in the slab. I'm waiting and gathering before I proceed further, to soak up as much as I can from the experience here.

I don't do this kind of thing regularly but I looked at my own numbers on the Social Security site and here's how it works for me at a simplified level: If I delay the start for 4 years from age 66 to age 70, my monthly payment goes up 32%. But doing so requires me to receive nothing for 4 years. The amount of the 4 year payments not received (ages 66-70), divided by the monthly increase resulting from waiting until age 70, is 150 months. So, it will take 150 months (12.5 years) starting at age 70, of receiving the higher payments to recover the payments not received. This calculation ignores the time value of money (which would make the SOONER choice more attractive), inflation adjustments on the increase after age 70 (which would make the break-even point sooner), and inflation adjustments on the increment over the age 66 amount that would increase the payments when started at age 70. There may be other factors to consider but I think these are the main ones. I think in general when looking at the 62-70 range of benefits, the break-even age is in the late 70s to early 80s. The choice of when to start also affects the SS benefits received by your spouse during your lifetime and after your death as a surviving spouse. Because these numbers will always be estimates and the ultimate determining factor is a person's life expectancy (which one can NEVER be certain of), you shouldn't expect to be able to do a financial analysis to determine THE right answer for you. If you die in the year of the projected so-called "break-even point", then the choice didn't matter because the result was the same in total. If you plan to die younger, start benefits sooner. If you're certain that you or your spouse will live until you're 100, delay until age 70. Click on the link below to find a webpage prepared by a thoughtful financial adviser to give you a suggestion about what approach to take. This calculation takes the numbers and slices and dices alternatives to produce a result based on Net Present Value. What I said and any other thoughts you find are only general thoughts, so don't take any advice as being carved in stone. SS Analyzer

When this all started I remember saying to a friend that the question is not WILL it affect us, but HOW it will. Today we learned of two more people we know who are sick. One is hospitalized. Everyone in my house has been staying home, but today I ran out to get groceries from the online/curbside service. I’ve never used this service, but now is the perfect time to try it. The empty parking lots in town and seeing people in protective gear made me so sad. I had a good bawl on my way home (and I’m not a cryer.... can’t remember the last time I cried).