February ended on a very sad note. My father in law passed away last weekend at the age of 60 from a heart attack. He fell out of his bed on Wednesday Feb 17th during the middle of the night and his heart stopped beating. His heart began beating again after the paramedics got there but he had been without oxygen too long. On Sunday he passed surrounded by his wife of 40 years and kids. It was a shock to all of us. My husband flew to VA the morning it happened and the girls and I flew out the next day. We spent a week there before flying back to CO.

Life takes us by surprise sometimes. It's important to remember that in all things God has a plan. Even in the unexpected. He was laid off of his job last August and he and my mother in law were planning to move to Texas this summer where he would look for a new job. They did come and visit us a few times during this last year for about 6 weeks total so, we did get some quality time together.

I've had our emergency fund sitting at around $1000 because we've been putting everything else towards debt. I wasn't concerned about Jon loosing his job because he's in the military and I figured that $1000 would cover most emergencies but I never thought anything like this would happen. I guess this re-enforces why they call it an emergency fund. Between flying expenses to get to VA and helping out his mom in other ways we spent close to $3000 this month. This is going to drastically change our plans for the next few months but I am hoping by summer to be back on track. His mother is disabled and cannot do a whole lot on her own. We will be making a few more trips out to VA, just one of us at a time so we don't have to bring the kids, over the next few months getting her ready to move to Texas. We are setting up a Unitrust for her to pay her each month from the life insurance money with the hope that it will last her 20 years. She has a lot of medical expenses and a bad spending habit. I am hoping that she will be responsible with her money but it's going to take a little hand holding.

Our total debt at the end of the month is $90162.