crazy 'bout apps

A list of some of the fun apps for my fancy Android Smartphone:

• Fireworks (a real hit with Wesley; touch the screen and fireworks go off over a city skyline of your choice. I chose Settle, naturally)
• a Magic 8-Ball (seriously! you shake the phone and an answer pops up, just like an 8-Ball)
• Kids Paint
• Kids Doodle (kinda like Kids Paint, but different)
  
• Farm Animal Noises (touch the picture of the animal to hear the noise; this is a big hit while in grocery store lines)
• ABCs (very basic; it just says the letters)
• a Guitar (with strings you play and everything!)
• Shazam (hold it up to the radio and it can identify ANY song!)
• Photo Puzzle (takes any photos I have on the phone and makes jigsaw puzzles out of them; think Wesley will be ready for that in a couple years!, but I do them sometimes for fun)
  

And some practical ones:

• a Google Reader reader
• Scriptures (plus Ensigns and Conference talks!)
• Ward Roster (download church member roster from the Web and import, voila, the the ward's addresses and phone numbers on my phone!)
  
• a Task Killer (like an "end program" for PCs, except for phones, to save battery life)
• a Flashlight (hehe, the whole screen lights up; this has helped us find things dropped under restaurant booths)
• Movies by Flixster (reviews, showtimes, etc.)
• Bloo, a Facebook interface
• Exercise tracker (I don't use it tho; oh well)
• Word of the Day (gives me a word of the day every day; today's word: appanage)
  

Other ones I've heard about that I don't have:

• For ladies, ahem, time-of-the-month trackers
• a Metal Detector! seriously! They can't explain it, but it 100% identifies metal
• a Level (with bubbles to show you when something is level)
• a Compass
• a Strobe Light
  
• Dictionary
• Coin Flip (hahaha! it's a coin! and you hit a button and it flips!)
• Star Wars Light Saber (I can't bring myself to download it; sounds interesting tho, huh?)
• Chuck Norris Jokes ('nuff said)

Anyway, it only gets better. This phone is dang fun.

Any apps you love?

sometimes we have to take it easy

I'm curious as to what you guys think about this.


I'm as excited about the Olympics as anyone. I've caught some snowboarding (so cool), cross country skiing (fabulously reminiscent of my time covering the sport as a 2002 Salt Lake volunteer), and more.

But there is something bothering me.

Lindsey Vonn is a talented skier, but when she came out before the Olympics and said she was injured, her shin was bruised, she skied in pain, etc., part of me was just like, "then don't compete." What's the big deal? We're talking about your life here, the rest of your life. What if something happened when you pushed yourself and you could never walk again? Would it be worth it to say you competed in the Olympics? Or even won a Gold Medal?

But of course, my inclinations were wussy, and she competed anyway and won a Gold in Alpine Skiing, and they said it was the first Gold the United States has ever won in that sport. Rah rah, everyone was so happy, Lindsey beat the odds, what a fabulous athlete and asset to America, and on and on.

I am being sarcastic. I just don't think this point of view is healthy.

I remember watching the Olympics in 1996 and seeing the Gold-Medal run from Kerri Strug. We were all so ecstatic! Look at her! She's perfect! She can't even stand on her leg and yet she wins for America! Red, white, and blue!

I think we get so blinded by this country pride and this need to win that we ignore the fact that what we are doing isn't healthy for these athletes! Is it right to pressure injured people to compete, simply because they are our best hope? Is it right to then congratulate them exhaustively when they've put their bodies on the line, and they win? Should we be rewarding that? What message is that sending?

There was a fascinating series of articles in the Seattle Times a year or so ago about high school football players and concussions. It was chilling to read. These young kids have been taught their entire lives to play hard, win, and persevere at all costs. But then something happens, like a head injury, and they just push through it because they can't be seen as someone who stops for a head injury!

Days later, some were dead. Some never walked again. High school boys whose lives were over.

It scares me that this is the atmosphere we've created in this country. We applaud, we encourage, Olympians like Kerri Strug who compete when completely injured. I like winning just as much as the next person, but do we really find inspiration in these stories? Kerri Strug stories and Lindsey Vonn stories?

One bio blurb from Lindsey on TV last week said at one point she had also bruised her thumb and sliced her wrist, and she said she felt like she "had been hit with a sledgehammer," yet she was out competing the next day.

If I was hit with a sledgehammer, I'd need to rest.

It's funny I'm writing this today actually, since I'm on this crazy exercise kick and I'm working so hard (and losing weight, yeah!), but last week I overdid it and something happened to my left knee. Ouchy. Shane is telling me to take it easy, see a doctor, chill out.

But oh no, I have to keep exercising. I did the elliptical last night, yoga this morning. I can't stop. I've set a goal for myself. I need to achieve. Right? Isn't the message the Olympians are teaching me is to keep going even when I'm injured because there's no other way?

It's kind of ridiculous. I know I need to take it easy. I want to keep exercising, so I'm limiting myself to just walks and yoga, no hard-core cardio. But it's hard to give that up. It's hard to say, "I can't."

And that's the issue, I think. I don't think it's right that it is so hard for someone to say "I can't." If they really can't, we should be OK with that. Although from watching the Olympics, it's obvious America doesn't like it when someone "can't." When it's important, we pressure -- and I don't think that's right. I bet those paralyzed high school students don't think it's right. I wonder what Kerri Strug would say.

We need to take care of these bodies of ours, since sometimes we completely run them ragged.

Then, it's only natural that sometimes we have to take it easy. I don't want to be afraid of that. In any quest for greatness, there are highs and lows. Work your best to achieve the highs, patiently ride out the lows. In the end, I think we'll all get where we want to go, if we stick with it in a healthy way.

houses and money and messes, oh my!

I don't think any of you know that I'd really like to move, and that we're considering moving. Our home is good for us, really it is, but it's a condo and we want to be in a house. Going up and down three flights of stairs with a toddler (and groceries) is such a chore. I am saving baby stuff (high hopes!), so we're busting at the seams. There are so many things I wish I could change cosmetically about our place, but the hub feels that if we're not planning on staying there, we should just wait it out.

So I've been waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

We're finally starting to decide what to do. I think the time is right. We have several choices:

• Refinance and stay for another 2-5 years (how to organize more than one kid in this space is what concerns me; my friends over at AAA Update can attest to the difficulty of it)
• Sell our condo and move to a new house, in our ward (north Lynnwood, south Everett area)
• Sell our condo and move to a new house, outside of our ward (anywhere around Seattle, but probably Snohomish County)
• The same two options above, except RENT our condo instead and deal with being a landlady
• Sell our condo and move to the TriCities, where we'd get a HUGE bang for our buck, but we'd leave all the friends, doctors, memberships, annual events, jobs, etc., we've grown to love
  

But all this and a discussion of pros/cons is not what this post is about.

Last night, we went to go see a house. On paper, I loved this house. It had everything we wanted! A family room and living room. FOUR bedrooms. Nice kitchen. Three whole baths. Two-car garage. HUGE lot (10,000+ square feet). Built in 2000 (Shane doesn't want anything newer, I don't want anything older). Quiet cul-de-sac, no HOA dues, in our current ward boundaries. AND for a price we could afford, probably, depending on how much we took out of savings and how we could swing things. It was a dream! I was so excited to see it.

I did some research on the property to figure things out. From our realtor, we learned it was a short sale and there is more than $300,000 in debt on the house, but the bank was willing to work with the owners and sell for less.

See, that is all funny, since the Snohomish County assessor's Web site told more of the story. By checking the parcel information for the property, I learned the people who live there now are the original owners. In 2006, they either got divorced or someone died, and the "new owner" was just one of the two of them. Since they bought the house in 1999 for lots lots lots less than $300,000, we figure that meant they refinanced in 2006 (right at the peak). They took out a HELOC or something. And all of a sudden, the property debt was way way way way up there.

OK, whatever, people do that kind of stuff. But, enter the real estate crash, and you've got a big mess on your hands.

But, the thing that is really awful about this house, my dream house, is that it was trashed. Completely trashed. The water heater was leaking all over the garage. The carpet was ruined. There was dirt and dust and yuckiness everywhere. The fridge hadn't been cleaned in ages. The bathrooms were grimy. There were cracks in the walls. The yard was unkempt. I could go on.

I find it interesting that the owners don't care enough about their investment to even make it presentable!! I thought that was a given when you're trying to sell a house! Our realtor called these guys twice during the day -- they knew we were coming and at what time -- but we still came right as dinner was ready. The whole place smelled like Asian rice. They hadn't picked up, they hadn't cleaned, they were home!, it didn't matter to them if we wanted to buy or not. It was the bank's problem.

It was awful. It was so hard to see. Afterwards, Shane and I were talking, and we made a few assumptions about what had happened, and basically it seems that these people made out like bandits. They had this home they didn't take care of, didn't care about, but because of the real estate climate they were able to get bucko bucks from the bank and spend it all on whatever they wanted: trips to Hawaii, new cars, flat-screen TVs, whatever. That money evaporated. And now the bank, essentially, owns a deteriorating asset and they have to "write it off" and deal with the consequences of the homeowners having a "hardship." ("Hardship" is the main reason for a short sale; and owner has to prove to the bank there is some big reason why they can't make their payments and have to sell now for less than they owe on the home.)

Shane says, and I agree, that so many people (and the media?) make it out to say the banks are the villains, banks are so awful for making people pay back their loans, blah blah, whatever! If you saw this house, you'd know what I'm saying. Sometimes the people are the villains. It's true, the bank had no business refinancing and letting those people walk away with all that cash. (It's hard to say, since if homeowners want to buy a new house or open a business or whatever, then using home equity is a good way to do it.)

I just can't believe it. I live in a condo, under 1,000 square feet. In my Outlook I have set up "tasks" of chores. Every three weeks it pops up that I change the bed sheets. Every week it pops up that I vacuum and sweep. Every two months it pops up that I dust our wood. Every 6 months it pops up that I run a cycle to clean the oven. You see what I'm saying? The windows in that house last night had never been cleaned in 10 years, I can tell you that for sure.

I meticulously care about my investment. Shane and I, we don't want to take over a house that the previous owners didn't care about at all. It would be a huge mess! The cosmetic issues alone made me cringe; what if there was more? Structural damage? Water damage from the leaking water heater? (We're talking a bucket was under this water heater, catching the leak, full of water, and overflowing.)

To be balanced, I must say if there is a hardship, it makes sense that the owners can't afford to get a new water heater or replace the carpet to make the place presentable. They can't even make their mortgage! But I just have to wonder... how does one get to that point?

Some people just don't care.... and I feel like I'm the one who actually has to deal with it. Because all this real estate money in our society essentially evaporated, I am still dealing with inflated house prices, and the only option for me is to sell my condo (for tens of thousands of dollars at a loss) and move to the TriCities where cost of living is cheaper.

One more anecdote. In the paper recently was an article about this single mom and how her life was oh-so-hard since she was unemployed, had zero income, was living on food stamps, and found it so tough to take care of herself and get the government assistance she needed. I kept reading. The article said this woman was a successful mortgage broker who made $400,000 in 2008. FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. And now she was living on food stamps. WHERE DID IT ALL GO??? I'm sorry, but I have zero sympathy for someone who makes that much money and does not save a dime.

I'm just so frustrated. All of us live in this world together, and it's hard for me to try to teach my son good values about hard work, when around him people are getting away with laziness. I want to say that it only matters how you live your life, but sometimes I'm not sure. It seems like everyone else's dumb choices are affecting me. Perhaps the point is just to deal with it well, and continue to do right by ourselves and by God. It may not be fun, but at least I'll feel right about myself in the end. (Even if I'm still in my condo.)

noah's rainbow...

In honor of today's Sunday School lesson, here is a gorgeous pic I took on Friday as we pulled out of our driveway to playgroup...


11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

Genesis 9: 11-17

i'm on a quest

Wesley has moved up a shoe size, so we were in the market for new shoes. I'm not impressed with shoes that "light up" or shoes that tie or shoes that are icky looking, so I was being particularly picky.

One day -- not two weeks ago -- I was at Fred Meyer and saw the cutest pair of shoes. I loved them instantly. However, since I'm pretty frugal (read: cheap!), I decided I'd wait until FM came out with one of those "15% off shoes" coupons. They have them all the time, so I knew I wouldn't be waiting long.

Well, Wesley's toes were getting smooshed and we were getting impatient so I went ahead back to FM with the intention of buying the shoes, even without a coupon. BUT, I went to another FM and they didn't have the style! I was heartbroken! I found some other suitable shoes (since he really needed shoes, that very day) and made a deal with myself that when a coupon came out, I'd go back to the other FM and buy the shoes one size bigger, so we'd be prepared for the next time around.

This weekend coupon day has come, oh joy!, but today I went to not one but two Fred Meyers looking for those perfect shoes. It's like they were a dream! They are nowhere to be found! I am at a loss, wondering if I made them up. I can picture them now: overlapping laces tucked in (so the shoes can be slipped on), brown trim, with fun green and orange highlights on the white sneaker. Perfect little boy shoes.

I usually don't get worked up like this. I think it's because when I want something, I usually buy it right away (if it's on sale or I can live with the price), or else I take my time because I know whatever it is will be around for me to research it and decide I'm ready for it (think a mattress, a car, a vacuum). But toddler shoes are a different story. It is really bugging me to have these shoes vanish! I'm now scouring the Internet, searching for these elusive shoes, wanting them no matter the price. It's taking over my life.

But it's a quest.

What do you do? Do you always buy something you want immediately? If you come back and it's gone, do you freak out? I could just let it go... but I feel like I need to put forth the effort right now. I need to at least find them and have the option of getting them (for 50% more, who knows). So, that's what I'm up to. Toddler shoes and coupons and quandaries, oh my.

ode to 12:30 pm church

Oh, afternoon church
You wound me so
Of no fault of your own
I do love the hymns
I do love the lessons
I do love the spirit
But I do not love… the schedule

On Sunday
As the mother of a busy, active toddler
I feel deprived
As the enjoyer of Sunday afternoon naps
I feel distressed
As the advocate of well-rested children
I feel disputed

I find the meetings enjoyable
I will sacrifice to be among the Saints
But for my son
What of his sacrifice?
I lament is too great
Too much
Too tiring

Each week
My son yawns as we head out the door for Church
But no nap awaits him
My son squirms as the sacrament is passed
But no nap awaits him
My son whines as I drop him off at nursery
But no nap awaits him

Even though there are toys and snacks and games and crayons and decibels
He doesn’t seem to enjoy himself
As no nap awaits him

Oh, afternoon Church,
You come at such a difficult time
My heart must reconcile my love for the gospel
With my need for naps

And how it pains me

I believe we will survive
It gets easier every week
And I can’t help but think
It is hard for my son
As it was hard for The Son
Who felt all the sadness and pain and anxiety and exhaustion
That we have ever felt
Trials await us
In one form or another at all times
And this is ours to bear

Oh, afternoon church

Each week
You steal naps
I steal inspiration
Toddlers steal sighs
May we become friends
Is my only hope
Amen.

new beginnings

One of the big events the Young Women at Church hold every year is called "New Beginnings." It's mostly for all the girls turning 12 and entering the YW program so they know what they're in for!! But also, it reinforces the purpose of the program to the other girls, and it can be pretty motivating.

We had our 2010 New Beginnings last night, and it was awesome!! Our theme was Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the places you'll go!" What a cool book and theme. Since the main purpose of YW is to help the girls achieve Personal Progress, the focus was all around that -- places you'll go with Personal Progress.


First, we had someone read the book. Then, our YW president presented all the exciting things going on Church-wide in YW this year. Basically, since they "redid" the program and added the value of Virtue (eight values now instead of seven!), they redid all the materials, the book of experiences, the rewards, the medallion, everything. She got to show off all the cool new stuff and tell everyone about it. I'm pretty excited to earn my medallion again! (I earned it when I was a YW, but since it's all "new" and I'm a leader, I can earn it again. I'm working on it.)

(Editor's Note: If you're wondering about all the terminology and stuff, I explained a lot of it here, part two of this post.)

Next, the main event of the night was a showcase of "places you'll go." If you work hard at instilling the eight values in your life, where will it take you? What can you do?

1. Faith -- go to the temple
2. Divine Nature -- go experience motherhood
3. Individual Worth -- go participate in Relief Society
4. Knowledge -- go get an education
5. Choice & Accountability -- go earn your YW medallion (finish Personal Progress)
6. Good Works -- go serve a mission
7. Integrity -- go provide leadership
8. Virtue -- go get nothing less than a temple marriage

It was awesome. We had eight mini-speakers come and they each brought a suitcase filled with things that helped them get where they were going, or things representing that goal. Then they all talked about it for a few minutes. It was so cool how it all tied in so well with the theme!

I worked on decorations for the event and I made the little flags that were on all the tables. The other organizers with me asked nicely that they be flags (instead of just signs or posters) since there were flags in the book --made sense, so I made it happen! I made the flags in Publisher then printed them and mounted them on colored posterboard to match the value colors. (Did you know they have metallic gold posterboard at Joanns? Seriously.) The crazy part was: how do I get them to stand up? Well! I wish I had a picture of this, but I taped the dowel rods to cans of chili and refried beans and green peas and then covered the cans with posterboard as well. It was AWESOME. Seriously, when I figured out how to get them to stand up on Saturday night I was giddy for like an hour. It was like discovering cold fusion or something. Very cool.

I also had to work hard to make the colors right and pastel -- the value colors are usually pretty deep and royal, so we got pastel and even neon fabric to put on the tables and I made the posterboard and the signs match that. I'm so glad it all worked out really well.





Our speakers all did a great job and were so inspirational. The Bishop finished up the night with a few words on how our possibilities are endless... and then the feast on whimsical and colorful sugar cookies and pastel marshmallows and skittles began. Hehe...


Wandering Nana who is awesome made all the fluffy tissue paper flowers. Basically, everything was on purpose and matched imagery from the book -- pastel colors, fluffy flowers, the flags, the huge mural, everything.

Other stuff:

• We had all the girls write a goal on a tag and we're going to attach them to balloons and set them off -- like this is our goal for ourselves and we're going to do whatever it takes to get it
• Wandering Nana made sweet take-home gifts for everyone; they were necklaces with "courage" on them, which is part of the theme for the year (be strong and of a good courage, from Joshua 1:9)
• All the publicity posters and invitations, plus the programs of the night's events placed on everyone's seats, matched that ginormous mural you see in the background -- they traced it and water colored it and everything! It was really a cohesive effort by everyone on the committee.
  
• We asked the parents of all the incoming girls to bring a suitcase full of things representing their daughters, and we put them on a special table. It was really cute, too.
• One of our girls actually did this -- a lot of the preparation -- for one of her 10-hour value projects. You go, Kali! She's one step closer to earning her medallion.
  

It was a great night. The girls had fun! It's also so nice to see all the hard work of preparation pay off. Oh, the places we'll go! I hope you have an awesome year and if you want a new beginning, take it.

twenty months later...

Today I successfully created our little dude's 529 college savings plans. Since a lot of you have kiddos and are probably in the same boat (worried about paying for that education!), I thought I'd share some of our thought processes going into what we decided.


First, as a disclaimer, I want to say, I don't necessarily think college savings is mandatory. When I was college bound, somehow I knew I needed to pay for school myself. I worked really hard, got scholarships and Pell grants, saved every penny I made waiting tables during the summer, and I graduated debt free. Students don't need mommy and daddy to save the day and pay. I didn't.

That being said, Shane's folks paid for his education, so all he needed to pay for was room and board, books, play money, etc., so he feels entitled to give the same to Wesley. OK. It's not like I'm against paying for my kid's schooling. I just think it's important to let kids achieve what they will, and if that means keeping the money saved for another kid or giving it to someone else, so be it. I'm all about achievement!

So, what did we decide? We actually bought into two 529 plans -- Washington and Kansas.

I.

But first, what is a 529? A 529 is like a 401(k); it's a savings plan for education purposes specifically. Some key points about 529s (quotes from sites I consulted):

• "Although your contributions are not deductible on your federal tax return, your investment grows tax-deferred, and distributions to pay for the beneficiary's college costs come out federally tax-free."
  
  
• "You, the donor, stay in control of the account. With few exceptions, the named beneficiary has no rights to the funds. You are the one who calls the shots; you decide when withdrawals are taken and for what purpose. Most plans even allow you to reclaim the funds for yourself any time you desire, no questions asked."
  
  
• "The best part: You can often start an account with as little as $25, and you can use the money in a 529 plan at any accredited college or university in the country."
  

Each state in the United States offers at least one plan, and for many states you don't need to be a resident of the state to apply -- or use it at a school in that state. So that meant we had, like, 50+ plans to look at and figure out if we wanted to sign up for them. A seriously daunting task.

My main guide was bankrate.com's "Saving For College" site, which rocks. You can select what features of the plans are most important to you, find states' plans that include those characteristics, and compare them side by side.

First, I looked up some of my "favorite" states, to see what they offered:

• Washington (prepaid units -- more on this later)
• Maryland (T. Rowe Price-managed investment fund)
• Utah (Vanguard-managed investment fund)
• California (Fidelty-managed investment fund)

Hmmm, a lot of these are managed by companies. Well, since my retirement fund is with Merrill Lynch, what state do they manage? Maine. We have a Charles Schwab savings account, what state do they manage? Kansas. Seriously, every firm manages at least one of these.

II.

So second, I thought I'd figure out what the different types of plans were. What did this all mean?

The vast majority of 529s are savings investment plans, which basically means you put in $$$, a company or person or someone invests that money and magically (one hopes), you get a return. In 18 years, when little dude goes off to college, you can use your investment and the return for college costs, tax free. There is always risk in these investments, but they are also long term.

Other savings plans are CD-based. We looked into a few of these. With Certificates of Deposit, you are guaranteed not to lose your principal. If you put away $50,000 between now and then, you will at the very least get back your $50,000, but if you're lucky, you will get some return on that money. That's the goal.

Lastly, some plans are prepaid units plans, like Washington state. If it costs $75 to buy one unit at a university in Washington today, the plan will offer you the same unit for $100 (a 25% markup!), with the expectation that in 18 years the same unit will cost $150 or more, and you got it for $100. By buying the units now, you get a deal. Some of these plans didn't have eligibility requirements -- but Washington does. Investors have to be residents to buy into that plan (and fortunately we are! so it was open to us).

III.

So third, I thought: what is important to me? What do I want? I used the Saving for College site to look at enrollment fees (I didn't want to pay one), management fees (I found five different classes of fees, and I didn't want to pay any of them), and eligibility requirements.

Shane also chimed in: He was interested in overall return on investment. Which plans performed the best? What was the best deal?

For me, of the CD plans, the Arizona and Montana plans had no eligibility restrictions, no enrollment fees, no management fees. Of the managed plans, plans from Arizona, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon, and Texas all had no eligibility requirements, no enrollment fees, and minimal management fees (three of the five categories were free of fees).

Bankrate also announces the best performing 529 plans, and at the top of that list was Kansas, the plan run by Schwab. We were already kind of interested in that one because of our existing Schwab account. That further piqued Shane's interest.

IV.

The next step was to pick a few and get all the documentation and go through them with a fine-tooth comb. We determined it was OK to have more than one account. Why not have a CD, a "sure bet," as well as an investment account with better chances of interest and return?

We ordered materials from Arizona (three types of CDs) and Kansas. We downloaded the Washington prepaid-units information, too.

We were particularly interested in this Arizona CollegeSure CD, described on bankrate.com with this: "The interest rate on the CollegeSure CD is pegged to a private-college tuition index." Hmm, that was interesting -- a CD where the interest rate rises and falls with tuition rates? That seemed like quite a concept, and a good deal.

Unfortunately, we got all the paperwork and discovered it wasn't as good as it seemed. In fact, even though it was named a "CD," it was really a prepaid unit program! The CD terms were "guaranteeing" that at maturity, each "full unit of a CollegeSure CD will pay a sum of money at least equal to the weighted-average cost of one year's undergraduate tuition." When Shane crunched the numbers comparing Arizona to Washington's plan, Arizona charged almost double for the units! It made the Washington plan look much better.

For the prepaid-unit Washington "Guaranteed Education Tuition" or GET plan, you have two options. One, you buy units with a "lump sum" of cash whenever you'd like. The units are being offered for $101 today. Twice a year, the cost resets. I can buy as many as I want for $101 now, but when the cost goes up, there's no going back. My price is the current price.

OR, you can set up a "monthly custom plan," where you say, "every month for the next 10-15 years I'll buy two units at the $101 cost." You have a $202 payment DUE on the 5th of the month every month for the next 10-15 years (with a late fee if you miss it!!). And, not only that, Washington charges you 7.5% interest each month! According to my trusty calculator, that is $15 a month for a $202 payment, $217 total. It's like, Washington is "loaning" you that money and you're paying interest to them. Shane thought this was such a bum deal. Even though you get the magical low price of $101 forever, it's basically a loan and you pay a premium to keep that fare.

V.

Well, now that we were armed with knowledge, we:

• Opted to buy a wad of WA-GET units now.... and we'll basically let the 529 sit for 18 years. It doesn't require any management at this point.

• Opted to set up a direct deposit from one of our checking accounts into the Schwab Kansas savings plan. That's the one that'll be doing a lot of growing and changing, we hope.

It was such a big decision! Maybe that's why it took forever to do it. I feel pretty good about our decisions. Some of my other friends have the Utah plan, a guy I know who is a money manager always recommends the New Mexico plan to his clients, and another attorney I know said he doesn't like the 529 plans and instead is setting up a life insurance plan that he'll close when his kid goes to college! I guess the possibilities are endless. This is just how we went about it. I'd love to hear any of your stories. I'm glad we're finally set up!