Debt Free

Yesterday I received my usual bi-weekly paycheck plus I also received payment for my 3 credits of overload from last semester and for 60% of one credit of overload this semester. Today I made the final payment on the loan I took out in January 2018 from my retirement account. I had used the loan to pay off the mortgage. That means in a few days (after the payment clears) I will be officially debt free for the first time since January 2001. I have used credit cards since I was a teenager, but I always pay my balance off in full every month. The first time I paid any interest was in 2001 when I purchased my first home eight months before Paul and I got married. Paul came into the marriage with school loans. We paid off the school loans in 2013 when he finished his doctorate. The interest I've been paying over the last year hasn't been to a bank but just to my retirement account, but my goal had been to pay that off ASAP just in case I go back to being a SAHM. I thought it would be a great feeling to finally be debt free again after paying interest for 18 years, but I am too numb from the passing of my brother to feel joy over being debt free. I spent a lot of money today because in addition to that payment I also paid our property taxes and mailed a check to pay for half of the deck. The payment was due April 1 as he plans to start working on the deck in early May. I also contacted Airbnb to see if I can get a refund for what we had paid for two nights in NYC.

As far as Maurice, today I packed up the modem he had been renting and printed a label to ship it back to Xfinity via UPS. I also cancelled his rental insurance policy. I am trying to pace myself and just get a little done each day. I worked at a frantic pace on his apartment last weekend and then with preparing the slide show, writing my eulogy, editing the obituary, etc. that I need to slow down. Ian and Oliver caught a respiratory bug; I was assuming it was the one the Towfighis have, but Yvonne said they didn't have a fever with theirs. As you can see from the first picture in this post, Oliver took a nap on the couch this afternoon, and he doesn't usually take naps. Ian came to the dinner table and said he didn't want to eat his chicken strips but just wanted to go to bed. Here's to hoping that Paul, Nadia, and I can escape this bug. My stomach is upset enough from dealing with the shock of losing my brother. Paul is taking Nadia to the Upward basketball awards ceremony tonight. I am staying home with the boys. 

On Sunday one of the things I had brought home from Maurice's apartment was his food. I threw away the opened box of rice and opened container of salt and the few things that were in the refrigerator, but I brought home a box of Crispix, some various Little Debbie snacks (oatmeal crème pies and such), and everything from the freezer. The kids don't like beef stew, which is what I made yesterday so they've been eating Uncle Maurice's chicken tenders. Nadia also has had two pieces thus far of the strawberry cheesecake that was in his freezer. There are also beef pot pies and a couple of other tv dinners from his apartment. Speaking of food, the people at Grace Baptist Church in Bowie were very generous once again. They stocked the Towfighis house with food - cereal, juice boxes, soda, oatmeal, bagels, cookies, fresh fruit, crackers, a hot meal for all of us on Tuesday night, $100 gift card to Chick-Fil-A, paper products, milk, bread, chips, peanut butter, jelly, lunch meat, a cherry pie (with my Dad's name on it), etc. Folks from the church also provided the pot luck meal served after the funeral on Thursday. They are very generous and thoughtful! It was nice not to need to cook while we were preparing for the funeral. Considering I was in Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday and home alone on Monday night and in Maryland Tuesday through Thursday, the only cooking I've done in the past 8 days has been the beef stew I made in the crock pot yesterday morning. It's been nice to have one less thing to do. At some point I will need to get back to cooking, but I'll take as long of a break as I can.