Hello again to those of you who actually read this blog! I am sorry I’ve been away so much.  Packing and moving and unpacking and trying a new sleep/awake schedule has made blogging pretty low on my list of daily things to do anymore.

I did however have to tell the tale of what’s happened so far today.. and it’s not even 9am yet.

I was talking to a co worker last night about how this morning was going to be busy, but should all go smoothly enough… well the problem was it all hinged on one thing – the bank’s computers. Today is 16’s Chorus Festival.  Her dress was taken to the dry cleaners Tuesday and we told them we’d get it Fri morning when they open at 7:30. The plan was this:  DH was to wake up 12 and 16, get 12 off to school on the bus. Then 16 was to get 6 and 11(she had a birthday) up and ready for school while DH put gas in the van and went back to the old trailer to find 16’s shoes for chorus because she forgot all about the shoes until last night. (We STILL haven’t gotten all our crap out of that trailer! It makes me nuts). Then he was to come back with shoes, get girls, take 6 and 11 to school, then take 16 to get her dress and pay for it.  Then 16 was going to take DH to work and drive the van on to school where she could change into the dress and shoes in time to do her door-holding task as the other schools arrived to compete.  This was all contingent upon my paycheck direct deposit going through and us being able to access it, because unfortunately even after the huge tax refund came and went, we’re back to living paycheck to paycheck.

So, here’s what really happened. At 11pm last night I checked the credit union site and my direct deposit was there, but the available credit was still zero. I kept checking it, but by the time I got off work and went to bed at 3:30am, it wasn’t available.  Well, when I woke up, DH was gone and 16 was doing a poor job of getting the kids out of bed.  DH had to yell at them when he got back. He also told me the gas station declined the debit card and his card wouldn’t work in our ATM. So he took my card and left again. The van must have been on fumes by then. 16 got the kids ready and after waiting and stressing on DH, she decided to take them to the bus stop and make sure they got on the bus ok.  (There’s been some morning drama at the bus stop with our 6 yr old, so we’ve been taking them instead of riding the bus normally).  So, anyway, DH got back and said the ATM wouldn’t give him any money.  So I went into Mom Mode. I got up and got dressed. When 16 got back, I got her phone and called the cleaners and asked if we could get the dress and pay for it when the bank opened, they said it would be OK.  16 wore black Crocs since she was supposed to wear comfy shoes to do door holding duty anyway. Then I took them both in the car which has plenty of gas – it just is missing lights and has expired tags.  I took DH to work, then went to the cleaners, got the dress, took 16 and dress to the performing arts center at the school and watched her walk into the building in the rain with horrible wet hair… praying she could borrow a hair brush from someone.  And now I’m back home.  The bank opens in a couple minutes and then even if the ATM doesn’t let me access my money, the teller will. Then I can put minutes on the phones, pay the cleaners, get cash for gas, come back and get the van, drive it to the gas station down the street and fill up the tank, drive to the old trailer and find 16’s black pumps – then text 16 to tell her I have the shoes and where to meet me outside the school…  then I go back to bed and try to get more sleep since I have now only had 3 hours of sleep.  Oh,… and to top it all off, my Mother in law is coming for dinner tonight.

Someone shoot me.

WARNING This is long and boring.

I have never been especially good at budgets.  Oh I can make one like a pro accountant, but I can’t stick to them. That has been our downfall over the past years and why we are still here. It sucks having that guilt on my shoulders, but the first step to recovery is admitting the problem right?

Well, I am facing this issue head on. I have tweaked and re-tweaked the family budget for the next 4-5 months and it’s going to work out just fine as long as we stick to it.   We switched to the high deductible medical insurance because it’s $200 cheaper per month, but it means prescriptions will be full price as will Dr visits until we get DH’s deductible met. It’ll mean the kids and my prescriptions will also be full price when they have any, but I was hoping that wouldn’t come up too often. (Now it looks like one will be on zoloft and one has a high dollar psohriasis prescription -sigh). So, I have to save money from the tax refund to have available to pay for his prescriptions and dr bills as soon as he needs them or get the bill. Thankfully presciptions count toward the deductible, so after about 3-4 months, they’ll have his deductible met and we can spend the rest of the year not worrying about anything but the low co-pays and the small % we would owe to Drs. That’s the plan anyway…  however…

There are other things we need/want out of this tax refund and our so-called disposable income.  So here’s a couple of options for the tax refund which we should get by the middle of Feb, depending on when we get the W2’s from one employer we both worked for early in 2007.

Tax refund est amount:  $4600

Option 1:
$400 16’s oral surgery
$500 Save for DH deductible
$200 my new desk chair
$2000 Medical bills
$500 Dollywood Season Passes (save $20 if ordered before Feb 25th)
$800 Remodeling the trailer
$200 DH iPhone

Option 2:
$400 16’s Surgery
$500 Save for DH Deductible
$2000 Medical Bills
$500 Dolly Wood season passes
$600 Remodeling the trailer and new desk chair
$200 iPhone for DH
$400 for down pmt on new car for 16 so she can get a job.

16 needs her back 4 molars pulled according to the dentist and after insurance pays their part, they say we’ll still owe $400 which has to be paid up front.  It’s only $200 if she doesn’t get anesthesia, but she wants it, saying she can’t stand the thought of being awake for it.  She’s a chicken and I’d prefer to stay awake, I hate anesthesia.  But I guess I need to be the good mother and get this done right. Good thing she doesn’t need braces. I’m not shelling out for those.
I *need* a new desk chair. I currently have an antique kitchen chair with two pillows on it and my ass still hurts after sitting here for an 8+ hour shift plus the time I surf the web and blog. In fact this week I had hemorrhoids.  NOT FUN! So, the chair is not optional, I must have one, and it must have arms, my arms are constantly poised on my kb or desk and I have to lean up and by the end of the shift I can barely move.    I also feel the Dollywood season passes are not negotiable. We used to go every year when 16 was little. It was always great cause opening weekend was on her birthday usually.  But we have not been back since 6 was born and she’ll be 7 this year.  Well, I take it back, we did all go ONCE when Brit and his g/f were visiting back in 2007. It had changed so much. It holds so many great memories for me and I can’t stand that our kids have not been able to enjoy those.  So, this year we’re going to go as often as we can and really enjoy ourselves.  Now, the remodeling the trailer is something that must be done.  This is for my own sanity. I may even take a week’s vacation to do it. We must get the front door replaced with a good door with a screen storm door attached. Non-negotiable.  Then the living room floor MUST be ripped up and all weak/rotten spots fixed – we can do this with a circular saw and a jig saw.  I might rent a nailgun – not sure yet.  They look dangerous.  Then we are laying down a good quality padding and then laminate wood floor.  Friend said he’d come help me install it since he’s done it before in two houses.  Ideally, I want to do the kitchen floor as well, but we’ll see how much the door costs first.  If I’m very very lucky, I can get all those things done and still have the money to buy a good used portable dishwasher.  There is one at the used appliance store in town where I bought my dryer. I’m hoping I can get a good deal on it, especially if I take in our old dryer (that’s pretty new actually and probably has nothing big wrong with it).  Then I’m ripping out one of the lower cabinets, and sitting the dishwasher in that space. It should fit just right. If all goes well, I’ll run the laminate flooring in there and it will go into the corner as well, so it looks finished and nice.    Now the last thing on the list of Option 1 seems odd and wasteful, but to be honest, DH never gets anything. He’s been silently doing without new things, even new underwear and socks when he needs them so that the kids get things they need, or I go splurge on something for the house etc. He has his check deposited into the checking account and often never sees any of it.  So I promised him that was going to change. His current phone is not holding a charge well and he hates that he can’t go to links he gets in texts he gets from Twitter. So when we went to look at new phones, he saw the iPhone and fell in love, and the thought of being able to put media on it straight from iTunes made it even better.  So dammit he’s getting an iPhone!  More than likely we won’t pass the credit check and will have to pay a deposit. I’m not thrilled about that, but I told him, we’d find the money for it somewhere – there is a budget for miscellaneous in the monthly budgets, so we may have to say up for it.  I’m sure we have to pay a month’s service ahead of time as well or something – that’s $99/month.

Now option 2 takes some money away from other things and puts $400 toward a car for 16.  I think this is actually the one we’ll go with, though it will mean waiting on a lot of my home improvements and budgeting more of DH’s deductible money and medical bills from our paychecks themselves.  I did some fancy moving around of numbers there let me tell you.  There is a lot of money coming in with our current jobs now, I’ve just never handled it well, so it doesn’t show.  So, I was able to budget money for more home improvements, the full $1500 of the medical deductible, the rest of the $2500 in medical bills and even have room for an iPhone bill and another car pmt (small one). – all by the end of April.  In fact, in May, I have a chunk of money that’s no longer going toward those things and is just sitting there looking at me…  So I figured whynot a vacation?

Dh and I have been thinking of going to FL to visit his grandparents so they can see the kids again.  I think it’s been 3 years since they saw them.  But he doesn’t want to go really.  He says he doesn’t want to see them as old and dying…  I think that’s incredibly selfish and I told him so.  But, we may just use the money and get a motel room in Pigeon Forge for a few days and spend all day in Dollywood or the motel pool and playing minigolf or something.  It’s not a lot of money, just about $500, but I think it’ll do for that.    Still undecided on that.

But anyway, none of that will happen if we don’t stick to the budget. I am so horribly bad at sticking to them, but this past week, I did really well.  I didn’t spend anything without checking the budget first, and even noticed, it was DH who kept asking to get this or that even after his allowance was gone.  He *really* needs to deal with taking his lunch and eating that.  He used to rave about what I’d fix him, but sometimes I don’t have the budget to always have fresh veggies for sandwiches and salads or anything but bologna.  And he hates his lunchbag,  he says it’s too big. I think he’s worse that a woman.  But anyway, point is, I didn’t go over budget, though some unexpected things have.  apparently I had signed up for a yearly  credit service thing last Jan and the yearly thing went through.  That sucked.  Even if I call and cancel now, it won’t remove the charge.  Of course last jan was right after we filed for bankruptcy, so I was worried about our credit – which is still in the hole thanks to not being able to pay off credit cards and keep them low.  But that’s another story.

Did I have a point?  Did I make it?  I dunno.  Stick to budget.. that’s gotta be my mantra.  Ok done rambling.  Until next time…

Here’s to a great start to a new year for everyone!

I warn you now, this is a long rambling post, mainly just for me to brainstorm things I want to do around the house. So, feel free to click away when you get bored 

I knew I would get over the initial pain of Brit moving on with his life and I have.  His new g/f annoys the crap out of me still, but whatever. haha

My Friend back in my hometown is still on my mind now and then, but living without emailing him daily for a week while he was off work got me over the addiction and made me realize I do still have other good friends and a great family.  I think I’m starting to come out of the depression.  Knowing the tax refund will be coming soon (well probably before middle of Feb  anyway) has helped as well.

Tonight DH and I talked about the housing issue again.. well really for the first time in a long time.  I asked if he wanted to look for a condo. There was one rent -to -own in town.  Then he told me his company announced they are going to stop matching 401k contributions. Which is so ironic cause I JUST signed him up to have money taken out for his 401k last month. After working there 17 years he had never contributed, but I figured if we could contribute 40 bucks and have them match it, that was cool, … but now it’s stopped.  So, I guess we’ll pull out of the 401k withdrawals again and maybe start a savings account with what would normally go toward it, I dunno.

So ANYWAY, about the housing thing. We decided it’s just too scary an economy to even think about taking on a mortgage or rent payment that if we couldn’t pay would leave us homeless.  But we agreed, if we are staying here, then it HAS to be fixed up.

So, we’ve decided to stay and completely remodel this place. The kids can deal with staying in that room together as long as Child services or something doesn’t get all in our faces about 4 kids in one room.  Hell it’s a HUGE room.  I looked at a 3 bedroom mobile home and the 3rd bedroom was like a third the size of mine in this old place! I mean I’ve seen walkin closets that were bigger!  So having 3 bedrooms cannot possibly be an improvement in that situation.

So, first thing we’ll do is get the front door replaced. YAY!  Our current one hasn’t closed and locked in probably 6 years, and probably longer. We have to chain it at night to keep it from just flying open during the night.  We don’t even carry keys to it, since it won’t close and lock anyway. The cats can open it whenever they want by pulling on an edge of it with a claw or pushing from inside.   Then we decided, instead of doing the whole house at once (like getting all the floors fixed at once etc)  we’re going to go room by room so it’s not quite so disruptive. But DH does NOT want to do it himself.  He wants to hire someone to come in and do the jobs right. Since we won’t be having a house down payment to come up with or a huge rent/mortgage payment each month, we’ll have more money to put towards doing that.  Also, he wants to hire a plumber to completely re-plumb the entire trailer.  We had one plumber come out once to fix a leak when DH was sick of doing it himself and the plumber refused to do it, saying they don’t even make the black hose stuff our plumbing consists of. He said he’d only replumb the whole thing and would charge $1200.  Of course I refused and found a plumber to do the job. Anyway, DH has had to fix and patch the plumbing countless times, and eventually they are going to just stop selling the parts that will still fit it.  Besides, all new plumbing will raise the value of the place.  I used to think I’d never get anything for this old place and we should just trash it or give it away, but I am seeing trailers older and smaller than ours going for $5000 in the newspaper and Craigslist!  If they say they’ve been remodeled, then they ask a fortune, even if just in a trailer park.  And our lot is an amazing lot, so if we ever sell it, we could actually ask quite a bit I think.

Anyway, First thing is new front door, then while we work on finding a plumber to do the plumbing and saving up for that, Second is the Living Room.  We agreed the floors have to be fixed and then new flooring put down, and he wants it painted one of those pretty neutral HGTV colors. I want to get a flat screen TV and get rid of the MONSTER TV taking up so much space.  And speaking of space, we need to get rid of all the clutter!  not just find a place to put things, but to get RID of a LOT of STUFF!!!  I have to learn to let go of things we don’t need. There is no need to hang onto everything we have acquired over the years. We need to let go of so much.   I put some of these things in the Projects page on my blog, but I may change it to show the new things we want to do, and I am SO glad my husband is actually on board with this!  He really seems interested in these things we’re going to do.

I am REALLY excited about the idea of remodeling this place. It is home, and has been for 19 years of my life and all of my kids’ lives. It’s a great lot and we’re close to town, and even in walking distance of a gas station, laundromat, and restaurant.

Ok, so to organize my thoughts somewhat:

1) Front door replaced
2) Living room redone – fix subfloor, put down laminate flooring, paint walls, look for new smaller furniture and flat screen TV
3) Kitchen – Fix the subfloor, put down ceramic faux stone tile flooring, tear out the lower cabinet to right of stove, put new cabinet doors on upper cabinets over stove, paint walls and cabinets in a bright yellow sunny cheerful color (white cabinets), get a portable dishwasher to go where the lower cabinet was. (it’s just old broken down drawers full of utensils I don’t use, an unused tiny door with dead space I can’t use for anything, and the silverware drawer. So I just need to find a new place/way to store silverware.) Having a dishwasher will be amazingness! There’s a portable one at the used appliance store where I just got our dryer. I didn’t look to see how much, but I’m betting no more than 100. OH, also, they have a fantastic looking side by side fridge there that’s very nice on the inside for 250. That would also be a great addition to my new kitchen   Also, HAVE to clean out the pantry and get it much more organized.

4) Our bedroom. Now I thought about this one. I wanted to do the girls room before ours, but it has some serious structural damage to fix that is part of the bathroom’s problems, so had better be done all at once with the bathroom. So in our bedroom – take everything out and replace the carpet with either carpet or hardwood laminate – still not sure which. Probably carpet. Paint the walls a nice neutral cappuccino color or mocha or whatever they call it. Then put everything back in the room in a much more organized manner. I need my desk/work area, and DH needs his library/gaming area, plus we have a queen sized bed and the chest of drawers and need to be able to get to the closet.  I think honestly that everything is on the opposite wall from where it should be. lol I like my duvet cover, but I need a new down comforter to put in it, and we need new pillows and a new set of sheets would be nice when we can afford them.  And I have to get a new desk chair.  I want leather so it is durable, and it has to have arms and a good supportive back and cushy bottom, swivel and rolls well.

5) The girls’ room – as I mentioned this room in is on the other side of the wall from the bathroom and has some damage from that. In fact it’s missing a floor in a good size corner of it. – fix all the flooring problems, rip out the carpet, put down laminate hardwood flooring, paint the walls, something pretty but cheerful. Maybe even put a mural on one wall. Knock down the wall that makes the dark unused closet corner, Put the bunk beds back in place, move 6’s babydoll stuff to new corner we freed up with the closet wall, get her a small table and chairs. Get another computer desk for girls’ computer to sit where babydoll stuff used to be. Get them a cute throw rug and a couple of bean bags and floor pillows.  Get new curtain rods and new pretty sparkly colorful curtains and big window blinds like we have in the rest of the house.

6) bathroom – big job I think. Need to fix the floor (continuing from the girls’ room) but since we are getting all the plumbing replaced, we may just have it done after that’s all done, so they can rip up parts of the floor to get to the plumbing easier. So, when plumbing is all done and subfloor is all replaced, put down ceramic stone floor tiles like in kitchen. Put in a new vanity, preferably a double sink one since we have 4 girls and only one bathroom. And a huge mirror on the wall over the vanity with great lighting so they can put on their makeup and do their hair etc. (and me too when I do heh)  Thankfully our toilet is fine so it can go back in and the tub is in great shape and is INCREDIBLY heavy, so I don’t want to even try to replace it.  Just new vanity and sinks, paint, mirror, floor… oh and a door LOL.  The girls’ room and the bathroom just have curtains up because the doors broke down years ago.  I want new doors put up on both those rooms, and mine too.  Ours is missing a door handle!

7) Hallway – now it is highly possible and likely that the flooring in the hallway will be redone when we do the kitchen since it’s going to be the same ceramic tile. But I also want the walls painted, I want new hampers, Oh! and when we get the front door replaced, I want a new back door as well, one with the big window in it to let in lots of light and make the hallway look bigger.

Outside! – This one is last since it will need to be warmer weather by the time we tackle it. Some of the things I want are small, and some are pretty big.  First of all, we need a small back porch, just a landing with stairs and a rail is fine. Right now we have an old set of steps on top of a rotten pallette. It scares me to death everytime I step down on it, and since the trailer site up so high, the first step is still a doozy. Same with the front. I want a nice big front porch.  I want it to start as close to the HUGE crepe myrtle as possible since the front door is basically right next to the bush/tree/monster and then stretch along the side of the trailer a bit. Since we have the gazebo canopy thing which I love and it’s so big, building a deck to fit it on would be really expensive, so I figure just a nice small porch, big enough for a couple of rocking chairs and a small table, then steps down to where the gazebo is.   As for the gazebo, I want stepping stones put down to expand the concrete of the porch slab there now so that there is no muddy area under the gazebo.  It’s been a horrible mess all winter with people walking to and from the van under the canopy (quickest way to get there and driest) so where there had been grass, it’s now just mud.  Let’s see…  I want a hanging lamp in the gazebo (we had the one from the girls’ room in there this summer and loved it, but they stole the lamp back. ) A new glass or metal table to put our umbrella in (need an umbrella stand too) and more padded lawn chairs for additional seating with shade for when we have cookouts and family get together etc.  I want one of those cool fire pits for roasting marshmallows and sitting out at night with friends. (This is something I would love to do more often!)  We need to prune back the crepe myrtles (probably need to hire someone to do that) and I need to dig up the irises Mom gave me and put them in the new raised bed a friend of mine starting working on last summer for the kids. I want the irises in it so maybe they’ll finally bloom, and then plant the giant sunflowers for the girls, and some veggies, especially tomatoes and peppers.  Need to cut down a bunch of stuff in my overgrown flower bed and keep it weeded and pretty this year so it’s nice to look at from the porch and gazebo.  I want a fence panel thing to hide the trash cans attractively. I want the newly growing pile of new garbage out by the shed hauled off and then the shed area all cleaned up. Cut back the wild roses and other bushes  and keep that neat and cleaned up.  Might get some more of the privacy panels like for the trash cans and put them around part of the area and put the Gazelle there in the shade and maybe another seating area, and possibly a fountain . I’d love to make that area like a sort of secret little get away area.  As for the shed itself, it needs some help. A new coat of paint would probably be good as well as trying to get the doors fixed so they actually are attached and shut and can be locked again lol.  I can’t think of anyway to fix all the leaks in the roof other than throwing a couple of substantial tarps over it, so we need to do that and tie them down really well so they don’t get ripped away in a storm and look decent.  Then we need to clean it out. It is currently jam packed with crap. This is part of our having to de-clutter.  If there’s stuff in there we haven’t even seen in 5 years, how can we possibly need to still own it???  If the shed is emptied and dry and useable again, then we could get a bunch of the stuff out of the house that’s taking us so much room, like the air conditioners, huge Halloween and Xmas storage totes, etc.  I mean it’s ridiculous! We have a 10×14 storage shed, but our lawnmower is stored under the trailer, there are two air conditioners in the kitchen floor and one in our bedroom floor, there is a big green storage tote of xmas stuff in the kitchen floor and a huge Halloween storage tote on top of the dresser in the girls’ room where 6’s giraffe collection is supposed to be. Oh and there is a stack of boxes in the bathroom full of who knows what… and that’s JUST the beginning!

I am actually EXCITED about the new year.  There is so much good stuff that’s going to be happening. If bad times roll our way, then we deal with them and move on.  We have to keep our eyes on the goal and remain determined to make this place the best damn house in the neighborhood and make the kids feel like they have a great place to come home to and hang out and play and I want us to be a family and do things together and enjoy it.

In addition to the remodeling this year, I am going to buy a Wii and Wii Fit. I am considering Rockband, but I would have to know where I would store the drums and stuff.  And I am going to get all of us season passes to Dollywood and renew our family membership to the Knoxville zoo.   We are going to finally enjoy life and have a good time. No more being miserable, no more telling the kids, “No, we don’t have the money”.  DH and I both have excellent jobs (for the area, and about average income for the country) and it’s time we stopped thinking and living like we are still poverty stricken.  It’s all about your outlook. If you think you’re poor and live like you’re poor then you’ll sabotage yourself to stay poor.  THAT is what happened in 2008.  I could not get out of the mindset of being poor white trash.  But we aren’t.. Living in a trailer park is not a bad thing really.  In fact this is a better looking and better maintained neighborhood than a lot of the streets of actual houses in town.  It’s kind of more like a condo village.  In fact we used to have a pool, but they had to close it and fill it in when some stupid idiot sued them when her son almost downed even though the sign said do not let kids go in unattended by a parent and she wasn’t at the pool with him.  Stupid b**ch.  LOL anyway, point is, the steets are all paved and well lit, there are maintenance people onsite. The manager is really good now (we’ve had several over the years), and the owner cares about the place.  We’ve got a fancy new mailbox enclosure, the big mansion that houses apartments and the office has been renovated and painted.  The old trashy trailers have been renovated and painted and are being rented out again.  I really do wish the playground hadn’t been taken out.  Maybe I’ll put in a request for that when I make the next rent payment.  There’s a lot of retirees here too. They wanted a warmer climate but didn’t want to move to FL.  In fact some of them only stay here in the winter and go live with their kids up north in the summer. There’s a couple of homes next to each other that have the most amazing lawns.  I am so jealous lol.  (they don’t have the nieghborhood’s kids all over theirs though haha)

Oh!  also, with the tax refund or money I manage to save up once we get ahead, we are getting another car.  There are a few at the place where we bought our van that will take $400 down on a good used sedan and we can make bi-monthly payments like we do for the van.  Since we won’t have a huge rent or mortgage payment, we can handle another small car payment.  As soon as we pay off the loan on the zombie buick, we’re getting rid of it.  I’m sure someone will buy it for something., even just 2 or 3 hundred. It still runs and has a great motor.

Whew, I guess I was in a talkative mood tonight/morning. I’d better get to bed, got a big day ahead of me ferrying people around.

Happy New Year everyone!!  I hope everyone has a great one, and ours turns out to be as good as I dream!

I went to get DH from work while on my lunch break at midnight. He normally gets the store closed quickly and I can get back home in my half hour break time. Tonight they had a problem with the money, seems the head cashier lost some… a lot. So we were late getting abck, but hopefully I won’t get yelled at for it.  I texted my boss to let him know what was goin on.

Dh says the leak is up in a place we haven’t had a leak before and it’s going to mean him getting up under there and fixing it himself tomorrow (later today actually)  after work… Christmas Eve.  I told him no, we can wait, and just deal with turning it on to use it and off when we don’t need it on.  But he says no, he needs to fix it.  I’m going to try to talk him into waiting.. the problem is we have that stupid boy coming down on Saturday, and DH doesn’t have a day off anytime soon other than Christmas Day.  Maybe if he can buy the part he will need tomorrow after work, he can work on it Thursday.  We’ll have plenty of spare time that day with people just hanging out and eating and playing with new toys. It *should* be the same part he’s always used on the other parts…  but I don’t want him cutting the pipe completely and making it impossible to have the water on at all – and then find out he CAN”T fix it.  So, I must put my foot down and just bear with the inconvenience for now.  God knows it’s been worse..

Which reminds me… for DH it has gotten worse. Back in Jan 07 when he had his heart attack, they decided he must have sleep apnea, and scheduled tests. He did the sleep study thing and they got him a CPAP machine and he’s used it ever since, never missed a night with it and says he feels like a new man now. He must have never ever rested before getting the machine.  He’s truly addicted to it (which is good, it keeps him alive)…  well his precious new puppy somehow got ahold of it today and chewed the mask off of it.  It’s supposed to be hanging on the post of the bed, I don’t know how it got off of it.  I guess we’ll have to call the home medtech people that supplied it and we pay rent to each quarter to see if we can get a new mask.  He was due for a new one anyway.   Until then, he has to sleep without one… so he’ll be snoring all night and will be grumpy and tired til we get it fixed… yay.

Oh, also, a check I’d written a while back that had bounced and I had completely forgotten about (I know totally my fault)  was redeposited.  The bank paid it, but we were charged a fee and went into overdraft, so now we’re at -94 in the bank.   This last $15 in my purse is going to be very tightly held. We have powdered milk, so the kids can drink that and we can use it for baking. We can bake bread, and we have a ton of oatmeal.  We’re used to living on very little.

I *think* we’ve hit rock bottom, cause I’m beginning to think things might possibly get better – cause they can’t get much worse. KNOCK ON WOOD.  Actually, I’m *really* worried about the tires on the van now that I know the steel in showing. I WILL get new tires on it, even if they don’t match the back tires, but again, it has to wait til we get paid again.  I’m just so nervous about them.  I really need to stop letting 16 drive so much.  …  but we’re at the bottom now,  we MUST be heading UP now.  I’ve got to think positive or I will literally go insane.

(My word count was one less than 667 so I had to type something else. )