This week we were wrapping up a lot of nagging things around the house, and we finally put an end to all of our extended family activities. We’re finally settling into our CO life.

FIRE: Day 29 (7/27)

There wasn’t a lot going on today with the house now that we have it almost fully back in order. I mowed the lawn and hung up a few things on the walls.

BC had a sleepover last night and was a wreck from lack of sleep. He came home at 10:30am and fell asleep. I woke him up at around 12:30 when I had to leave for my dentist appointment. That appointment ran long because it was a new dentist, and when I got home at around 2:45pm he was still sleeping. I made him stand up so he would stop sleeping.

I’m pretty bummed out after going to the dentist. I have always had issues with gum recession and inflammation, but I’ve had it pretty well under control over the last 10 years since getting a gum graft. My gums were apparently inflamed after a year of not having my water pick or reliable access to mouth wash. In some places we even had kind of weird toothpaste. They want to do a deep cleaning and root planing over two sessions which sounds terrible and is expensive.

FIRE: Day 30 (7/28)

I found myself with quite a bit of leisure time for a change, so I found a book to read. It’s The Big Picture by Sean Carroll, and so far so good after about four chapters. I like astrophysics books because they’re interesting, but also because they make me feel small and unimportant.

We keep getting mail from Kaiser at our virtual mailbox, which we used as the mailing address when we initially applied for health coverage. I finally tracked this down to Kaiser using the connectforhealthco mailing address, so I called them to change it. It was an uncomfortably involved process where they had to read me all of the terms and legal stuff over the phone, and get my permission to submit the application change. It was alarming enough that I asked them straight up if I was kicking off some new re-enrollment where we have to start from scratch with Kaiser, and he said no. So I did get it changed, but it wasn’t as simple as updating a web form.

We went to JC’s mom’s house for both lunch and dinner since all of her siblings are there.

FIRE: Day 31 (7/29)

Today we went to a nearby lake/pond with JC’s side of the family to do some paddle boarding and swimming. It’s called Bear Creek Lake Park, and it was a pretty good time. It wasn’t too crowded on a Wednesday, although JC’s brother says it’s packed on weekends. We got there around 10:30am and stayed until it started storming around 2pm.

After relaxing back at home for a few hours, we went back to JC’s mom’s house and had pizza for dinner. I watched Ferris Bueler’s Day Off as well with the kids. It’s been a couple decades since I’ve seen that movie.

FIRE: Day 32 (7/30)

I thought today would be pretty relaxed, but we are still finding a lot of little things to wrap up around the house. We spent a lot of time working through the remaining totes and boxes in the garage. This involved hanging up a bunch of stuff on the wall like pictures, magnet boards, an ugly old telephone which was JC’s grandma’s first phone, etc. When we were done we had everything in the garage cleared out except for what’s being donated to goodwill.

I also worked on the finishing touches of our baseboard and shoe in the kitchen which is chalk painted. This involved painting them, and then putting a couple coats of flat top coat over it.

I also had an eye appointment today. That was all good, and I just need a slightly stronger reading glasses prescription. I needed an easy appointment after my dental appointment.

In the evening BC went to play softball with a neighbor family, and JC went to the pool with her sister.

FIRE: Day 33 (7/31)

This is the final day of the first month of FIRE back in CO. I worked on the budget for July today. Despite all of it’s complexities with special funds for the car purchase, flooring, move-in related expenses, grocery restocking, and sprinkler repairs, the numbers worked out really well. Also it was only during this month that we got final values for all line items in our budget to see if we really achieved FIRE. I will be doing a separate post on the budget soon.

Aside from the budget, it was a pretty full day for me around the house. I attached the chalk-painted shoe in the kitchen, caulked baseboard in the living room, and then painted all of the white baseboard in the dining/kitchen/living rooms. This is truly complete and off of my list now.

We had one last hurrah at JC’s mom’s house with all of her sibling’s families this evening. As usual, it got to the point where everyone was at their limit with visiting. This was the most condensed family together time we’ve had since we all went to Florida together a few years ago. This togetherness time rivals that, just more spread out.

This time around, we stayed at JC’s mom’s house for over a week combined, and during that time we saw both of her brother’s families regularly. We made the two hour drive’s to my mom’s house to visit her. JC’s sister’s family came to town for a week after that, so we spent time with them and both of her brother’s families. We are capping this off by going to my sister’s house tomorrow night to see their family and my mom. It’s the equivalent family together time of at least three Christmases.

FIRE: Day 34 (8/1)

We really didn’t do much of anything today during the day. AC had a sleep hangover from her sleepover last night, so she took a long nap. I also napped at some point. BC played around the cul-de-sac. Then I reconciled our July budget while watching the original Road House. I had never watched the unedited version of that, and it made me laugh that Dalton killed people by ripping their throats out, just like McGruber.

In the evening we went to my sister’s house and caught up with them and my mom. That was an enjoyable end cap to the family marathon we’ve been on.

FIRE: Day 35 (8/2)

I worked most of the day on the blog post documenting our current FIRE status. In the evening we had FAC since we were busy with family both Friday and Saturday night.

Thankfully we’re finally on the other side of all this move-in and family chaos.