Had my mammogram/ultrasound yesterday, and there was still some cause for concern after it. They sent a sample off for testing, and today I got a call that it was nothing! So I don't have to worry about that anymore. My HR confirmed that the mammogram should be covered 100% by insurance and the ultrasound 90%, so hopefully the total bill's not too bad.

AS is on a business trip, so everything seems a bit out of whack. But she has Wi-Fi and took her iPad, so we'll be able to talk via FaceTime every day. She's back Sunday evening.

She found out she gets a $500 honorarium for the trip in addition to transportation, room and board! We haven't discussed what it will be used for, but I'm hoping to put at least part of it toward snowflaking those upcoming dental costs.

NT is helping me save some spending money; I really wanted him to watch Les Miz with me this weekend, but it's not available on Netflix (of course; they never have anything I look for). It's $5 to rent on Amazon Instant Watch, so I figured I'd just buy it since I'll want to have a copy eventually anyway. I bought it at Barnes & Noble for $29; NT looked on Amazon and saw we could get a good used copy for $12. So he figures even if we spend the $5 to rent it, buying for $12 and returning the $29 copy will still save me $12! We'll still get to watch it this weekend, but I'll have a copy of my own too. That's good thinking.

We spoke to friends who went to the ultra-expensive restaurant down the street, and they reiterated how great it is. So we decided we'll go for it! Those same friends are taking our kids for two nights in August, giving us a rare "grownups weekend." So I think we'll splurge on this restaurant that weekend. I'll try to remember to commemorate with photos, since we probably won't be eating there again in the foreseeable future!

That will probably take the bulk of our remaining vacation funds, but we'll hopefully have a few hundred bucks to help offset spending on the rest of the summer fun we've got planned: a day trip to a small-town festival, the State Fair, the Renaissance Festival. It's amazing how easy it's been to spend our vacation money PLUS our regular spending money! At first all the little extras felt super-luxurious, but you do get used to it. However, I'm confident we'll be able to buckle down more starting in September, because we'll be motivated to save up for our next trip (sometime in the spring of next year).

Looking ahead to August financial goals, I'm thinking I won't have a very impressive debt-payment goal, since I'm going to use the bulk of our surplus to make a payment toward NT's tuition. I'll pay the rest of it in September. (September will be even less impressive in that regard.) At least part of the August payment will go toward "estimated future debt," but that category has less than a thousand bucks left, so most of this semester's tuition and all of the remaining tuition, while it'll count toward our big-picture goal, won't count toward debt repayment. That's OK, my accounting method of having "estimated" debt was a bit confusing to explain every time anyway.

AS's raise will hit in mid-September, so that will make everything a bit easier, even if I need to pay my dental bills out of our regular budget vs. through snowflakes.

There's a good chance I will be able to pay off the student loan of NT's that I've been hacking away at by the end of this year. That will leave just one for him and one for AS. I'm pretty sure I can knock those out by the end of 2014. I can't imagine! It just seems so crazy that we'll be debt-free except mortgages in less than two years. AND that NT will be done with school around the same time.

I can't believe I'm even considering it since I hate how AS's and NT's schooling ate into our time together, but I'm idly pondering a return to school myself when he's done -- for a bookkeeping or accounting certificate of some kind. Since I've come to love math so much over the past few years, and I feel like I should have more than one marketable skill, it seems like a good match. But we'll see if I still feel this way in a year and a half!