Today the lady who looked at the trailer with her friend who will be living in it called me.  She said they definitely want it, and had talked to the park manager. The lease stipulations said the shed had to be moved, they had to fix the underpinning skirting and they had to clean up the yard.  Not too bad for a free house, so they agreed, and the guy had to fill out an application.  When they find out if he’s approved, she’ll call me back and let me know.  I HOPE he gets approved. Gosh!  Turns out, he’s a divorced dad paying a ton in child support and is staying with this woman who had contacted me. He’s living with her because he can’t afford rent on anything else, so without friends, he’d be homeless.  Sounds like the other guy living in the camper. Remind me if I ever divorce DH not to take him to the cleaners and leave him homeless.  Thanks.  That just sucks!  So, anyway, the swingset will stay I guess, in case his kids visit.  They didn’t mention it anyway.  I’m SO excited about this now!  Once it is out of our hands and we can no longer be beholden to the managers of that other trailer park, the better my sanity will be!!  I’m glad I decided to put it on Freecycle.

Today was a crapper financially though.  DH’s antibiotics plus his Plavix and Lipitor and Lisinopril all came to over $300 – that was the money I was going to pay the past due amount on the electric bill.  We STILL haven’t met his deductible.  I think he’s really close, but DAMN!  we’re living on next to nothing and everything is getting behind just to keep him alive.  I’m going to have to call them electric company or go down there in person and see if I can get them to defer it another month due to these circumstances. When I signed up for the high deductible insurance this year, it was with the intention of using the tax refund to pay all the medical bills and prescriptions that would make up the deductible very quickly, then we’d be fine the rest of the year. However, we decided on the spur of the moment to buy this house.  I AM SO GLAD we did, but OMG, these bills!  We had $2500 in medical bills we didn’t get paid off last year that we still owe, and now we’re up to nearly $2000 more NEW medical bills  ACK!!!!  And to think this time last year we were fresh out of bankruptcy and didn’t owe a dime to anone.  DAMN.  I think I’m gonna cry now.   I seriously need a bailout!!!  Heck at least we still have our jobs.   KNOCK ON WOOD!!!

As I posted earlier today, WE GOT THE HOUSE!!

So, what’s the next step?  Well, it wasn’t getting any sleep, that’s for sure.  I decided it was finally time to pack, like seriously make a dent in it.  Fortunately DH and I had picked up a bunch of boxes behind the Dollar Tree.  I completely cleaned out my closet of hanging clothes, packed the stuff i know I won’t wear in the next month, and put stuff with stains or holes into the trash bag and nice stuff i don’t want or can’t get into, went into the Goodwill bag.  The local schools lets school out at noon due to the ice storm we were set to get.  So when the kids got home, I let them know the good news and they started packing their stuff. I told them to box up anything they don’t wear to school normally and any toys they can live without for a month or two. I don’t have a clue how long it will take to get settled in with heat and water and all that, so I don’t want them to pack stuff they’ll be crying for later.  Though to be honest, I don’t see it taking long to unpack everything.  There’s not much room here for them to actually own much.   It’s DH and I that have too much junk.  Even he impressed the heck out of me today.  He looked around the room at the progress I had made and said “My knick knacks and things I want to display…  throw away any of them that are broken.”  I asked if he was sure since almost all of his things are broken due to the kids knocking them off tables and shelves and breaking off pieces of them.  Poor guy.  He nodded yes. and said, “I am tired of having things that are broken.  besides it gives me an excuse to buy new ones I like.”   …  wow.  Can it be that DH has finally come around?  He’s no longer the “I don’t care what the house looks like as long as I have my books and laptop.” kind of guy.  He finally cares!  Groundhog Day is AWESOME!

Oh, and when DH got home from work, he had checked the mail, and the last W2 had arrived.  Since he has to work 13 hour days the next two days, I asked my boss online if I could come in late, then called and made a last minute appt with H&R Block and headed to town with DH.  16 was supposed to make dinner, which she of course didn’t do. Lazy kid.

We did the 1-2 day Classic Rapid Refund. We’ll get the check in 1-2 days. Usually it’s the next day when we get it. I hope it will be so in this case too.  As soon as I get the money, I’m going to call the trailer people and set up a time to meet and do the down payment and sign papers etc.  DH is off Thursday, so I guess that’ll be the day.  Meanwhile I’m hoping they’ll let me go check out the trailer again.  If it didn’t seem kind of creepy, I’d love to just go and sit down in the floor of each room, and *feel* what it’s like to be there. I’d start cleaning, but they need to do that as part of their agreement of things they do.  I’d LOVE to start putting moving boxes in the bedrooms to get them out of here!, but that won’t happen til we put the money down and get the keys (even though they leave it unlocked right now.)

I guess I can’t really get the electric and water and internet started on the whole switching over process til I have the keys and can say it is OUR address.  OMG a new address!!  WOOHOO.  I’ve had this same address for 16 years and it’s a horrible street name and we always have to spell it for people. I hate it.  The new one should be much easier for non-locals.  And locals will all know where it is from the name.  Pretty cool.

Oh, and the other day when I showed the house to DH, I took some pics with my camera (I finally found it again). The front porch, kitchen, DH checking out the sink cabinet for water damage (none we could find anywhere! woohoo), the kids’ bathroom and the view from the back porch.  The bluish gray line in the background is the mountains.  I’ve got to cut down that brush stuff blocking my view!

I don’t have a great deal of time to write tonight. I need to get to bed. I have to go with DH to a Dr appt in the Big Town an hour away and it’s at 8:30am. (That’s 5 hours from right now).

He had been hospitalized for chest pains in October. They ruled out his heart by doing several tests and a cath. They thought it might be his gallbladder as it can have pains all over the body as poisons back up. But they did an ultrasound and his gallbladder was fine… however.. they found a spot on one kidney. It alarmed them enough that they set up a CT scan.  Since he did not want to wait on the hospital to arrange it, the cardio Dr set him up to have it done at his office. Well, they got the results back from the CT scan a few days ago and said there was a 3inch diameter spot on one kidney and they were going to call a speicalist.  Apparently an appt was set up for him that no one informed him of,  and he got a call from the Urologist office reprimanding him for missing it.  So he called the cardiologist and asked and they discoverd he’d never been told.  The nurse who had looked at the CT scan results was quite upset and called and set up another appt for ths morning and said he HAD to make this one. He needed to see that dr ASAP.  …

So, now we’re worried silly over what they’re going to tell us. I researched it, and I think the next step is an MRI. But the Urologist, may forego that and demand a surgery immediately. Who knows. THANK GOD we have health insurance.  These bills are going to take our tax refund, but at least we’ll be able to pay them. Not like when he had the heart attack and we had to file bankruptcy. I am still heartbroken about that (pardon the pun).

So, those of you who read this and believe, please say a little prayer for my husband and my family. Thank you.  I’ll post and update on his diagnosis when I get a chance.

Today was 12’s presentation for her Gifted class at school. I had to get up and take DH to work after he came home for lunch to give me the van, then an hour later, 12 got home followed by 6 and 10. I had to pick up 16 at school after choir practice and take her and 12 to the middle school across town to set up the display.  Yes, I left 6 and 10 there by themselves. They often take off for hours at a time to a friend’s house. I figured they’d be ok at home. I told them to lock the door and all that.  We got to the middle school took her stuff in and found out the basketball team would not give up the gym til 5pm. I had to leave 16 and 12 there with the stuff, then go get DH from work at 5. Well he was 20 minutes late getting out. Then he took me home since I had to work tonight and then he went on to the middle school to finish getting set up and to be there for the presentation.  So, I walk up to the front door and I could smell the evidence. Something had burnt. They’re not to cook when an adult isn’t there to watch. Come to find out, 6 decided she could cook ramen noodles herself, so she never asked 10 (who was mesmerised by the TV and oblivious to everything). She put the noodles in the bowl forgot to add water and put it into the microwave for who knows how long. Finally one of them noticed the smoke and stopped it before it was a tragedy. My vintage green Tupperware bowl now has a big hole in the bottom of it with black bits of plastic hanging off.  That was such a close one! OMG.  I told them they can never be left alone again. Both are pretty torn up about it and no how serious it was.  Neither one tried to hide anything.

I managed to get dinner made and got to work, then the family got home. Seems 12’s display went over well. It wasn’t as fancy as most, but the adults liked her costume and people loved the tortilla chips she’d made. (btw we will be toasting our own tortilla chips from now on, no more bags of them).  She had taken off to get food for her best friend and left her booth for like 15 minutes so people were asking 16 about the stuff, but of course she was clueless.  Overall 12 did well apparently.

Now the bad stuff.. DH has a CT scan on his kidneys tomorrow. They had found “something” on his kidneys when they did the ultrasound on his gall bladder in the hospital. Well, after 16 went out running all over the damn county Fri night with her friends and all the running we’ve done all over town for the kids play DH having to go to his mother’s house (an hour away) to feed her animals (Yes she’s in NJ again – OMG )  … we now have 1/4 tank of gas and the CT scan place is in the BigTown an hour away. We have zero money. I gave my last bit of cash to the girls for lunches and we’re overdrawn $148.  I know I just got paid.. it’s gone. And then some.  Oh, and DH has to go back to his mommy’s to feed her animals twice more this week. He doesn’t get paid til Fri night at 10:30pm-ish (direct deposit).  So,.. what do we do?  Well, looks like we get to ask 12 if we can borrow from her savings account AGAIN!  Hell I still OWE her $40 from last week when I had to borrow!  THIS HAS TO STOP!!!

MIL had given DH $60 to feed her animals. He blew it all on fast food. ALL OF IT in like 2 days.  But he’s not the only one. Last Thursday (before I even got paid) we had to go to BigTown to see his Cardiologist, but we had no spending money.  Instead of going and coming straight back home, I decided to check the balance on my credit card. A payment had gone thru and they raised my credit limit…  so we got stuff we didn’t need and then bought dinner out for everyone instead of cooking at home or getting groceries.  I kept telling DH we should at least use the card at a place that we could get groceries and maybe a deli box of chicken or something, but no he had his heart set on Long Johns.  Well, I didn’t have enough on the card to get the big meal, so I got an 8 piece for like $17 and heated up a can of corn at home.  SIGH  I know I need to stick to my guns better.  But I guess I keep hoping he’ll like magically grow up and be a responsible man who helps me be a parent and help run the house…  I’m just an idiot sometimes.

Ok, so when do we get the money from 12? She has to go to school in the morning. The money is in her bank savings account. Do we make her late to school just to bum money off of her? SIGH.  Probably.

As I said, this just has to stop….  oh and by the way, our dryer broke.  Yeah. Life sucks.