I got confirmation that Citibank issued me a double 1099-C this year from a settled acct back in 2009. Yayy for us, saved us a lot of stress, hassle and money!

The only other noteworthy info is at that I should be paying off my car next week! Final payment....I have to admit I've not made one before bc I havent normally kept cars around for that long. We typically end up trading them in and starting the entire idiotic payment cycle over! So I am looking forward to paying it off and driving it for many years to come, FREE & CLEAR!

Other than that, my oldest daughter kicks off her college softball career this weekend. She is a freshman and plays for a division 1 school in the south...we are proud of her and look forward to her first year! Please keep her bat in your prayers haha! :-)

I have just begun reading the book called The Help, based in the 1960's...still very early in the story but it is very addictive! Can't wait to get into the full story line, etc.

Lastly, my husband & I started juicing raw fruit & vegetables back in January in place of our breakfast and lunch...and then eating a fairly healthy dinner. It is going well and we have both slimmed down a bit....we also feel pretty good bc our bodies are getting so much more nutrients than what we typically ate in probably one week! We ate some fruits & veggies here and there but not near enough for any substantial benefits. I also started doing the Jillian Michaels 30-day Shred workout last night and I am sore! I went for a good run today too to try and get some of the soreness worked out...helped but my legs are mostly tired tonight. Good! I have lost about 8 pounds which is good....funny how that small amount makes such a difference in how your clothes fit. I would like to lose another 10 if I could to be around 130. I'm slightly taller than average so my height helps with disguising some weight gain but I've never been this heavy and I don't want to start a long term relationship with the extra weight. It started coming on when I started working from ome full time about 1.5 years ago. I have become very sedentary and I can tell big time! But we are both eating healthier now and I plan to become much more active from now on.

I came across an article on a blog that really spoke to me. It was info passed on from a nurse who worked in a hospice-like environment where she cared for terminally sick or people who had reached the end of their life. She said she always heard the same 'regrets' over & over...one of which was choosing to be happy. While I don't consider myself a miserable or perpetually pissed off person, I do let small things bother me more often than they should and I do worry about stuff that rarely happens. I have decided to make a conscious effort to choose to be happy more often. I'm sure I will get mad about some things as we humans do, but overall I am going to choose to be more happy in general rather than worry or stew over things that annoy or upset me. Because I'm trying to become debt free, money seems to be the biggest source of stress & anxiety right now. It did occur to me that it took me a long time to get into debt....so I can't just expect to snap my fingers to get out of it. But I am impatient, I want to move on to the next phase of of building wealth instead of giving it all away right now to get out of debt. The next time I find myself stressing or feeling bad about the situation, I am going to try really hard to refocus that energy. I make a great living, I am not behind on my bills, I have plenty of food in the pantry and clothes in the closet, we are all healthy & well...God willing I will be able to maintain this same situation for a long time so there is no immediate "fire" that justifies my occasional bouts of stress & anxiety about getting out of debt any sooner that what our budget allows.

So wish me luck! I'm out of practice and it will take some work!

After spending most of my morning on the phone on Monday trying to track down the right group to speak to about the "erroneous" 1099-C's sent to my house (these are for cancellation of debt, charged as income), I got a call this morning saying it does appear to be an error but they don't know how to fix it. I told them they IRS said if this is an error, they need to retract BOTH forms or else the IRS will be looking for us to claim them on our return. So I told the lady it is super critical we get this resolved ASAP bc it is causing me lots of stress! If these turned out to be legit, we would need to come up with about $16k....major issue! We are not out of the woods yet but I feel a little better about the situation. Hopefully I can get the confirmation I need today!

On another good news front, I got a $300 bonus for an ongoing project on my latest check. As a you can imagine, it was happy news to receive. I was notified today that I am getting another bonus for another project and it will be $1000! I was elated to get that news! It is really good to be recognized for your hard work & expertise! For all you managers out there, it is a great motivator to recognize your employees

Will keep you updated on the final verdict on the tax situation. Keep those prayer lines open.

Lastly, I have one more payment (2/15) to pay off my car! Yay for the Big Saver household!