Not Much New Here

Well, as the title might suggest, there's not really anything exciting going on around here lately. Carrie still army-crawls, but is getting better at pulling herself up on people, tables, couches etc. She still has no teeth. She has re-discovered how to talk, although she rarely actually does. Only when she's alone and absorbed with her toys will she start to babble. Overall, she's happy and content. If she whines, it's because she's tired, and that's about it. It's interesting that she really isn't that animated, and you have to be a performing monkey to get a few giggles out of her, but she's not somber at all, just content to be quiet and happy.
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Over about the last week, we've had several times when we pried her fingers out of our hands and had her stand on her own. Most of the time she lasts about a second and then teeters and we catch her. There have been a few times though where she's actually lasted 4-5-6 seconds before she wobbled. I dont' think she realizes the reason everyone gets so excited, but we sure enjoy watching her.
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Justin will start his job at the University of Phoenix tomorrow. He'll have full-time training for 3 weeks, then find out what shift he has. They either have 6-3, 7-4, or 8-5. Justin is hoping to get the 7-4 shift so he can still referee high school basketball after work, but not have to go to work sooo early. We'll see. We know of several people who have his same position and have heard mixed feelings. Some don't like it, some do. Most will agree though that it's pretty good pay.
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Luckily for us, "pretty good pay" means "really good pay" because we've been living on the bottom of the food chain for the last few years. We're excited for Justin to have a solid job we can rely on. Me especially... because I'm getting burned out at work. Tomorrow is my only day off this week, and next week and the week after, I'm working Mon-Thurs. I'm really not sure why I agreed to that. Four days a week is a little beyond my sanity capacity. Tonight I was writing a to-do list for tomorrow (my day off) and by the time I was done, it took up a whole page. I said to Justin, "so much for a day off". I think once I finish out these next few weeks of work that I've already agreed to, I'm going to tell my work I only want to do two days a week.
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I would be perfectly content to always stay home, but we've come up with a game-plan for debt-reducing and saving. Justin's salary should be just about right for us to live on. So, for the next little while, if I can work two days a week, we shuld be able to have about an extra $1,000 a month. We'll put that towards Justin's student loan and credit cards which we unfortunately started using too much this year as our checking account was meager. Once we get those a little more under control, we should be able to put some away for a down-payment. Our lease on our apartment is up the end of next May, so hopefully we will be ready to try to be in a house by then.
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This picture is to show how cute Carrie is posing for the camera with a little shy smile, and to show her giving her stuffed animal "Vinny" a horsey ride. I'm not sure how he got there, but she crawled around the whole living room with him on her back.
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