I swear I am the only person I know who has ever been called for Jury Duty more than once. And I only know 2 people besides me who have been called once. I've been summoned 8 times in the last 12 years and I am so sick of it. I've even thought of unregistering to vote just so they leave me alone, but I can't stomach that.

This time around I am going to try to get excused. I haven't always tried, but 4 times I have. Once when I had severe pneumonia, once when I was 8.5 months pregnant with my first child, and once when I was due to deliver my second child. In fact he was born on the day I would have had to report for my first day of JD. I had doctor's notes for all of those. The fourth time I was homeschooling my kids with my DH out of state and they let me out.

Anyway, I decided to go ahead and plead financial hardship, because I can't afford to put my kids in some form of childcare, and I can't afford the gas to drive 55 miles a day, and my DH will be working in Alaska so there is no other parent to take care of the children. My relatives that might be able to help are in a different direction than the courthouse, so I'd be driving 110 miles a day to do this. Or else hoping my mother would take the kids for nearly two full weeks, rather unlikely.

You know, I really wouldn't mind serving again, because its is enjoyable, but it is just so hard to get everything in place to do it. And come on, I think I've done my duty four times!

I am hoping that since there has been a court case in my family since the last time I was called, I have been the victim of a crime, and I now have a close family friend who is a cop (came back from Iraq, went through the police academy and has been a cop a few months now), I'd be seen as far too biased as well.

Once my kids are grown, I think I'd love to do it again, though. Of course, they'll probably not send me a summons by then.

Our new Comcast bill was due yesterday, 6/29. We paid it in person on 6/28 at the local Comcast office. In the mail today we got a late notice bill from them that was issued and mailed on 6/22. What kind of a business sends a late notice bill 7 days before the bill is actually due? Of course, it says if it has already been paid to disregard this notice. But hello? Don't send me somewhat "threatening letters" a whole week before the freaking bill is actually due. Stupid way of doing business, not to mention wasting paper and postage.

The new rate increase came in the latest power bill. I am not very happy with it. Especially since my usage is so much lower than a year ago, when I was paying this rate. It's gone from $93 to $110. I guess I'll have to really buckle down again and see if I can't get it back below $100. We had gotten a little more casual in our energy usage, but its still been below what our budget amount has been.

Hopefully it will stop sprinkling long enough to start hanging laundry. All week long last week it has been either raining or spitting out and just when you think its done, it starts up again.

I know we can afford the rate increase, it is just the principle of the thing. Doggone Puget Sound Energy.

Why does it have to be so darn expensive? I mean here, in the PNW where we have cheap hydroelectric power, it should not generate a bill of $93 a month when I don't heat my house with electricity!

When my husband and I were first married in 1995, the power bill for a two bedroom, 1 bath, 1400 square foot apartment with only one shared wall and a shared floor and ceiling, cost $30 a month. And it had baseboard heaters! It had a dishwasher, it had a washer and dryer and I washed everything on warm or hot.

Flash forward 12 years to us living in a super-insulated 1800 square foot house with all high efficiency appliances. I hang dry about half the laundry and wash everything but kitchen towels, sheets and under garments on cold. They get hot to kill germs and dust mites. I do the short cycle on the dishwasher, never use the heat dry, and stop the washer as soon as the clean cycle is done. We heat the house with propane or wood. We use all fluorescent bulbs. We don't leave most appliances plugged in and the computers are off when not in use. And yet my bill has increased 200 percent.

I know the cost of living has gone up in 12 years, but it certainly has not gone up 200 percent. Certainly wages have not. If our power company was oil based, I'd get it. But its water based. You can't get much cheaper than hydroelectric when there's been an existing power structure for decades.

I have generally been happy this last year that I have managed to keep my electric bill under $100 a month on the budget program (same average payment made each month throughout the year so no one payment is super high in winter). But now, and here is the true cause of my rant, PSE, that's Puget Sound Energy, is being allowed to raise its rates 9 to 13 percent to residential customers. Which even if I luck out and draw the 9 percent, is going to put my bill above $100 and I am not a happy camper. It's a psychological barrier. I brought the bill down from $110 to $93, and now through no fault of my own, I lose that.

My gasoline budget has doubled this year, my propane budget has risen about 30%, food has gone up about 20% due to higher transport costs, and now the non-related hydroelectric power is going up. I really don't see how they can justify this. Don't they know that its one more bill raise on top of many others?

We are fortunate here in that we can afford to absorb it. Before the raise, it would have meant cutting from the grocery budget. It's not ideal, but it will not break us. Now we don't have to. But so many people have already been broken by the rise in gas and oil costs already. There was a letter to the editor in my local paper this week about one person losing their job because they can no longer afford the gas to drive to it.

What are low income people going to do? Especially if they are too high of a low income to qualify for PSE's warm home fund? That concerns me a lot. I live in a predominately low income, but well-maintainned rural area. I know of a few people who are just scraping by and I can't imagine what this new rate increase will do to them. Yes, it is "only" ten dollars a month. But when you are already stretched to the breaking point, ten dollars is a lot of money. I know people that have grocery budgets of $50 to $100 a month or less.

With ten dollars in our area, if you shop sales you can buy:
10 pound bag of chicken hindquarters for $4.90, a 5 pound bag of potatoes for $1.90, a pound of rice for .99, a dozen eggs for a $1.25, 2 carrots for .46 and a loaf of bread for .50. You could have dinners and lunches and breakfasts out of that for a week for a young family of four. Maybe half a week if your kids are older. No wonder everyone out here supplements with gardens.

Something has to give around here and I am afraid it is going to be the people. Do you remember that old song from the 80's called Parent's Just Don't Understand? I think it's time to revamp that, only title it Big Businesses Just Don't Understand. Then again, I think they do understand. I think they just don't care.

I've been really hesitant to jump into the blog contest fray because so far I haven't felt I had anything to say, but I finally feel I have a subject I can post about: My credit union.

So here are my top ten reasons that I love my credit union.

1. They were one of the first to move into internet banking, albeit you had to dial in their special phone number, which eventually you no longer needed once internet use became common and you could access it from any connection. Long before most banks knew what the internet was, my CU took its first brave steps forward. I was lucky to get in on the beta testing seventeen years ago and have happily watched them make excellent user friendly improvements to the system ever since. They make it easy to do business with them. Before that they had touch tone banking (and still do) even when I was a kid.

2. They are convenient to use. They have branches located all over the county, including in the backwater areas.

3. They have ATM's all over the county and they are all no fee ATM's. No fee to members and no fee to non-members. Never have and say they never will. This includes the ATM they have located in the local hospital. This step alone endears them to me, when other banks would pile on extra fees when you might not be able to leave the hospital during critical life moments.

4. They offer excellent mortgage rates and excellent mortgages with no pre-payment fees. In fact, their mortgage coupons have slots for additional principal payments and have done long before other banks and CU's started jumping on that band wagon. My mortgage with them is at 5.5%, fixed, 15 years and I cannot be happier.

5. The friendliest tellers in the universe and they don't charge for using them. I know most of the tellers by name. They know me by name before I give them my account information. The drive-thru teller recognizes me by my car even when I'm not at the window booth, and will greet me with a cheery hello by name before getting my info. She also knows without asking that I always prefer my cash in $20's. She also always puts in stickers for the kids without my asking and whether they are with me or not.

6. Free bill-pay. 'Nuff said.

7. Free debt counseling. And what they call pre-debt counseling, which amounts to learning what you are getting into before you take out your first credit card(theirs at a fixed 12%), car loan (theirs at 5.9 to 7.9%), or mortgage (theirs at 5.5 to 6.9%).

8. The highest paying savings account rates of any CU in town. Not saying much there, but its something. Best CD rates of any CU and all but one of the banks in town.

9. Community education involvement. They are in charge of numerous grant and scholarship programs for the three county colleges and one university in the county and are very good about getting out into the highschools and making sure the kids know about their programs.

10. They are inclusive. They welcome anyone who lives, works or worships in the county to be a member. And they truly welcome them, not just say they do. They also have inclusive hiring practices.

So as you can see, I have many, many reasons to love my credit union and I can assure you that I do.

I read this article today:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/Advice/RichDontSaveEither.aspx

and I have to say I really did not have a lot of sympathy. Even less than when I read the one about the family living on $150,000 a year and having such a hard time of it.

What is the world coming to when people can't save money on a $250,000 a year salary? Just what are they spending their money on? McMansions?

I guess I just don't get it. To me a house is a house, whether you're living in an RV park, a manufactured home, a log cabin, a garden shed, or a stick-built house. As long as it is structurally safe and is well-kept, one place is as good as the other. Maybe paying for a better neighborhood, I can see, but a home shouldn't break you. It should just be the place you hang your hat and sleep at night.

Fancy cars? Again, its transportation, it should just get you from point A to point B. As long as it is well-maintained and of a size to fit the needs of your family there is no reason for a Mercedes or even a Lexus or Lincoln Town Car if it means you can't afford your bills or to put a little something into savings.

Private schools? Even private schools don't need to break the bank. The Waldorf one here is less than $4000 a year, so it doesn't have to be some $50,000 a year perparatory academy.

I don't know. I don't know what they could be spending so much of their income on that they can't afford their bills and to save money. Even considering a hefty tax bite, I just don't get it.

Maybe they just never learn delayed gratification. I can't fathom it.

I left a second comment (#57!) over on Broken Arrow's blog, the entry about Common Myths. I wanted to say a lot more but I didn't want to deal with the responses I might get from the non-SA people that wandered over here from some other websites, since they seemed to be profanity laden and cop-hating. To an extent I guess I have been heretofore sheltered from. This is not PF related at all, just kind of emotional, because, well, its been an emotional night. Thank heavens my mother took the kids away for the weekend before this happened.

Anywho, I wanted to talk some more about speed traps. So here it is.

One more thing on speed traps. We have one on the highway just behind our house. It's right as you come out of a nasty S-curve, sometimes at one end, sometimes at the other. Speed limit is 30 for it, dropping from 55.

We who live here all know it is there, just as we who live here also know that there are five different crosses and memorials set up on either side of the road along that curve. You might even see them if you take the curve at the lawful speed.

I have seen two cars wrapped around the power pole there with one being a death. I personally have called the ambulance for one of the deaths and 2 of the non-deaths, as the sound effects at such accidents are overwhelmingly loud and I know without looking what has happened. I get on the phone and walk out behind the fence and there is another hunk of twisted metal that was once a vehicle. All I have to say for location is the S-curve on --- Road Highway, they know it without a house number or a city name.

That curve has taken out ten cars and 3 power poles in the last five years. Not one car was going the speed limit or anywhere near it. Sometimes a speed trap is just a speed trap. Sometimes it is because you're driving through a death trap.

So yeah, speed if you want to, but after watching them wash the blood off the pavement for an hour more than once, after holding more than one bloody hand or applying pressure to another bleeding head, please don't make it me that you're tail-gating when I follow the law. And don't get mad at the police when they pull you over in that spot. It being a speed trap may just have saved your life.

And oh, by the way, there was an accident tonight. That was the death I got to call in. Guess there will be another memorial up soon. I wonder what color they'll paint the cross? Maybe if they paint it blood red people will slow down and see it.

DH and I talked on the phone over an hour last night about cars. He thinks we should just start saving $400 a month in the bank until the Crown Vic goes belly up and then go looking with a sizeable downpayment. Reasonable. Better than a giganto loan. Rational decision, I think. Sigh. Okay, then.

Meanwhile, we need to get the two free and clear vehicles we own up to snuff. The Crown Vic needs a major at home detailing session and to find out why the darn engine light keeps coming on five minutes after starting the car. And the Blazer, well, the air conditioning doesn't work, the 4 wheel drive is a $200 repair short of working and something is wrong with the accelerator.

Come to think of it, the Chevy is probably closer to belly up than the Ford. But I don't want to own an SUV ever again, I don't think. Maybe one of those hybrid ones some day in the very distant future when cars run on water or something.

Anyway, DH is being far more reasonable than I am about buying a new car, I think I may be reacting too much from the I wanna factor of my brain. Even though I know I don't want the long loan, so he makes sense. So we will do that, save and save and hope that it works out the way we want by the time we need to buy a new vehicle.

So that means of the $800 net raise per four week pay cycle, $400 goes to car savings, $100 goes to EF, $200 goes to debt repayment and the remaining $100 will go to upgrading our internet connection and possibly getting satellite TV. The kids are begging for it. I'm on the fence, but more on the no side. DH isn't sure he wants to go back to our old TV lifestyle at all. We do want to wifi our computers, though, so that will be a one-time cost of $200. We will see.

And of course, if necessary, the amount in car savings can be treated as a secondary EF, but only for a really bad emergency situation.

My new laptop battery came today and I am now portable again. Love it. And my new flash drive, specifically compatible with my old Toshiba Tecra 8000, came along with it. I am a happy camper. I feel like this computer can go a few more years now without being so darn tempted by the pretty new Toshibas out there. My little workhorse is doing just fine, even if it is a bit slow. Once we have an upgraded internet and a household network, speed will pick way up, anyhow.

I don't think I will upgrade to Vista. I'm doing just fine with the old XP upgrade. I'm just glad I could get a compatible battery for a computer this old.

A girl at my daughter's school is pregnant. This is a K-6. This girl is only 12 years old, 1.5 years older than Rose. She was pulled out of the sex education courses offered by the school because her parents were offended by it. That is their right, of course, but she didn't know anything because her parents told her nothing and now she's pregnant.

For pete's sake, mothers and fathers talk to your kids about sex before junior high! Swallow your embarrassment and do it. Start at 8 or 9 gradually increasing the information as they mature, but get it done and do it by age 10. These kids need to know!

Let them know the true facts of life before it is too late: STD's, HIV, AIDS, pregnancy, emotional trauma of sex too young in a non-committed relationship, preferably in marriage but at the very least a long-term committed relationship, birth control, barrier protection, and the only fool-proof method of abstinance. Give them the facts people or your lives may take a change you were never expecting. Just like this little girl's did.

Well, its been a little less than a year since I started this blog and today my blog's odometer rolled over to the big 100K. That's amazing to me. I know my readership has gone steadily up each month, sometimes each week. I know this because I am addicted to checking my stats pretty much on a daily basis. How lame is that? Is that better or worse than googling your blog name? 'Cause I've been guilty of that, too, LOL. Though that I've only done 3 or 4 times. That's getting to be more and more as well.

It's a weird feeling, knowing people are reading your thoughts, even when you are the one putting them out there. When I started out I didn't think anyone would be reading. I didn't have a clue about what happens when a blog takes off. Or pretty much what a blog really was, just a vague idea of it being an online journal. I certainly didn't read blogs before then. Now I can't imagine not reading blogs because I have learned so much about so many things, the majority of which are finance related, that have really helped me to get my act together. It's been a heck of a ride.

There are days that I think are so boring that what I wrote can't be remotely interesting and I'll end up with a ton of comments. Or days that an incredible amount of interesting stuff was written about and then no comments. If I hadn't been addicted to reading my stats I'd never know that people are actually reading it. Having those stats have kept me going when I was discouraged and thinking no one was paying attention. People are.

I like that. Anyway, thanks to my readers, you got me to 100,000 hits and that is pretty cool for this little ol' stay at home mom in the boondocks of WA state. Having something to say is pretty common. Having people to listen? Priceless.

And today is one of those boring days.

I did not do much today in the vein of saving money. I did take photographs of the three brand name spring sweaters I am going to put on e-bay and will try to download the camera tonight. I am not very good at that as I have only done it once and DH had to hold my hand through it.

I am totally backwards about technology sometimes. Although I have always been able to intuitively figure out any VCR or microwave (or word processing program) I've crossed paths with, the more advanced stuff waylays me. Once I get it I'm good. It's just a question of getting it.

I mean, how hard is it to take the little thingy out of the camera compartment and stick it in the dealy on the printer and let it sort itself out between the CPU and monitor? Doesn't seem like it should be such a challenge. Most of it is automatic. But then again, it took me two years to remember how to look at my photos on the camera without asking DH how do I do it. Sometimes it really is a case of PEBKAC.

And we won't even talk about locking and unlocking my cell phone keyboard so it can be on without accidentally dialing somewhere exotic like Mozambique or Zimbabwe or South Central Los Angeles.

I will muddle through, I always do, I just wish the learning curve wasn't so high. Then I just have to go into DH's e-bay account and figure out how to post what I want to post, which should fall under the intuitive grasping of knowledge (software) instead of the "darn technology and all its advances that are supposed to make life easier if you have at least the retention of a kitchen sponge," (or hardware).

I am so right-brained, left-brained stuff is just a challenge. So if I learn left-brained stuff in a creative right-brained way, I ought to get it eventually. Right?

DH got a call from his alternate this morning. She's the one who works his job on his two weeks off. She just got a job offer with another company up there. Same position, wage range starts $12 an hour higher than what DH is making now, and ends $15 more per hour than what DH is making now.

Well, his company told them that the only way to increase their wage range was to find out what other companies were paying for the same position. And the only way to do that was to apply to other companies and get salary ranges. I guess they can't gripe about it when an employee finds out they are being massively underpaid and decides to go with the company that pays better.

There is no way his company can match that. At best they might, if they tried real hard, allow the range to go up another $9 an hour. But I don't think they would.

Anyway, she's taking the job and leaving. So now what? That's all I keep thinking. Does DH get stuck there because they don't have an alternate for him and there's no one at all to do his job when he is promoted? I don't trust the company not to pull a fast one. I just don't. Not one little bit.

DH says if they do that, and don't promote him in May like they promised, he's out of there. He'll be able to hire on with one of the other companies at or above (most likely above) what he is making now. Because they need people and will be hiring through the end of summer.

DH is perfectly willing to train someone to do the current job. He's trained every one of his alternates (at no additional pay, I might add), so that's no big deal. He can walk anyone through it while he's doing the new job, too. But I don't know. I just have no faith in his company right now.

They have been good to us for years but this last one, not so much. It's a struggle because DH really, really, really likes his job, likes his company, likes the people he works with and that all is worth a lot. But being taken advantage of, not high on my list of good qualities for a job to have. Or his.

Meanwhile, he may end up working extra weeks, which will mean more pay but way less time at home. The last time he lost an alternate he was doing 3 weeks on and 1 week off for 8 months. Not easy on the kids at all. I'm used to it but they never do get used to it.

I just really, really hope that his company doesn't pull the rug out from under us. They promise so much. I am so not fond of their backpedalling when it happens. It frustrates me no end. One could go crazy thinking about this, but I'm no Scarlett, I can't think about it tomorrow because I'm thinking about it now. Argh! One could go mad thinking in circles like this. Hopefully sending it off into cyberspace like this will give me peace of mind. For a while anyway.

Over in the forums under General Discussion, the Pinecone survey post, there is an active link for the U.S. banner ad. It was active as of 11:00 p.m. PST 3/6/07. I just signed up. I am so excited. I don't know if I will qualify but just having the chance to finally sign up has me through the roof.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!

Venting. Big Time. Here, so I don't do it over there. I have to play nice in public. Here, a little less than nice when frustrated.

Well, she's back. That woman who drove me crazy because she asked for advice and then came up with every single excuse in the book, and some that weren't, not to take any of the advice offered her from anyone. And of course, there are a few newer people who don't know her M.O. who are still trying to help her. Though there are some people that have been around at least as long as me or longer who should know better by now...All they'll get is a throbbing headache from banging their heads against the wall. Yes, she asks for help, but...SHE DOESN'T REALLY WANT IT. (Caps for emphasis, not shouting, I still can't get italics to work).

I really had to bite my tongue not to post on her thread, but I won't do it. I do have to admit to being fascinated how anyone can bury her head so deeply in the sand. It's like watching a train wreck, you simply can't look away. And I know better than to even click on her threads.

She's still up to my favorite one, accusing you of giving her parenting advice instead of financial advice, doesn't have a clue that sometimes your financial decisions are caused by your parenting ones or vice versa. Just refuses to see it. Or anything that doesn't fit her unpaid for rose colored glasses version of the world.

Someone suggested her child get a babysititng job. Last time around I suggested that and oh, you would have thought I was talking about selling her daughter to a sweatshop, "my daughter will never work to pay the bills," (which wasn't even what I said, BTW) Now, its basically my daughter won't work to pay for her own college education. Please. Well, she didn't blow up about that advice this time. Yet, anyway. But I'm waiting. She's like old faithful, never quite know when she'll blow but it'll be in approximately 55 to 65 minutes.

I won't even go into the withholding debacle she refuses to fix. Like I said, she doesn't actually want a way out.

It's more of the same. Thanks for the vent.

One of the benefits of being sick, one of the few, is that everyone stays down longer, either on the couch or in bed, so I have had a fair bit of time to get caught up on reading the blogs. I don't read all of them, but I do try to read most of them. There's just a few that I skip due to excessive bad spelling or er, umm...boredom, but otherwise I pretty much read them all. So its good to be caught up again. And do so from my bed with my laptop.

I also got to finish watching my entire birthday present by last night. Well, I haven't done all of the commentaries, but everything else though. It was only 15 episodes for a whole season, which is hard when you are used to 22 but that's the BBC programming for you. I guess I should be happy there is more than six per season, like Red Dwarf was when it came out.

So, series 2 of the new Doctor Who was amazing. It took me about 3 episodes to adapt to the new lead though I liked him from the start, but by the time I got to the end it was like Christopher who? And that's hard for me to think considering I thought Christopher Eccelstein was far and away the best I'd ever seen in the role. But this David Tennant fellow, he's going to do great things with this role. It's his now.

But far and away it was Billie Piper as Rose that blows me away every time. If that girl does not end up as an Oscar or Emmy winner or whatever they have in England of the equivalent than there is no justice in the world of television and movies.

Anywho, I've been watching Doctor Who since 1974, when I was four years old (it started in 1963) and there has only ever been one episode that made me really, really sad, which was when Adric dies, back in the era of Doctor #4. But the season finale of this, oh my gosh, I was sobbing for the last 8 minutes of the show. It so broke my heart. I usually don't get that in to shows, but this just was gut-twisting and heart-wrenching. I loved it and hated it all at once.

And I absolutely cannot wait for what happens next. Let's just say the one day shipping was well worth the price!

If you've never watched Doctor Who, I'd highly reccommend the new stuff. If you like sci-fi, high camp, time travel, serious drama, and interesting relationships all tied together, its well worth giving it a shot. It is not classic Who, which was marvelous in its way, but it is even better. Seasons 1 and 2 are available through Netflix. If you like the new Battlestar Galactica or shows like Buffy or Angel, you won't be sorry you gave it a shot. Its better than all of them.

Now, on to disc 5 of season 4 of 24, which has been patiently waiting for me while I go through my little sci-fi frenzy with Doctor Who.

Yes, all right, I'm being a tad bit pompous with the title, I admit it. But, it has definitely been that kind of day. I am now up to 97 pages, although about ten of those were just dreaming...or plotting...or character development...or bits of dialogue or "scenes." Still that leaves me with 87 good pages and lots of ideas. Got to the point where the story was writing itself for a bit. Always love that place. I really am going to DO THIS this year.

And DH and I talked on the phone and he was called into the office of the head dude and he started talking salaries...still don't know if I believe "them" but they are talking a $14K raise with the new position, 10 hour days $450 a day, and that's starting wage. That would give us an additional almost $900 per 4 week period, net. Oh, what I couldn't do with $900 a month extra.

Yes, the dreaming has started, though I still don't believe "them" yet. I don't trust them not to pull the rug out. Even if they are training DH already. Even if...

No pre-spending of course, but dreams...financing a new to us car and still having $400 to $500 to pay down debt and build up an emergency fund every 4 weeks. Or saving half to pay for a car in cash or mostly in cash up to when the current 15 year old jobby goes belly-up and adding $100 a month to the EF and still paying down debt.

But there is no official start date yet. Still saying late March to late April, so...well, I suppose living in suspense is something I've grown rather accustomed to...

Speaking of which I got the results of my CT scan and I am off to see a specialist sometime in the not to distant future and I don't wanna. I still think old doc is overreacting. The scan was clean, so why? Because old doc is paranoid of missing something?

Oh, I know, the last thing I need is another tumor damaging my kidney, but it didn't show up, for pete's sake. Sometimes symptoms are there for completely different reasons. Like a UTI for example. Sorry if TMI. Perfectly natural explanation. It does not mean there is another carcinoid tumor lurking...Plus, they have always been benign when they were there and the only one that really did serious damage was the one that grew through my appendix. Sigh.

But I'll go anyway. I just don't wanna. Medical is expensive. And it doesn't feel the same as the other times. And I don't want another slice and dice session. They better give DH this promotion like they promised. One month of the raise should cover the medical costs incurred between now and April. Fun.

Oh, did I mention both kids now have the flu? The real flu, not the stomach virus thing often mistaken for the flu by folks that don't know what the influenza virus actually entails. Thank goodness its not the stomach thing. I'm not sure I could cope with it coming out both ends of both kids when I still am not 100% on top of fever, chills, bone aches, headaches, respiratory gunky stuff, coughing and sore throat. Rose is on her way back up and Tobias is holding his own and doesn't seem to be getting it as badly as Rose did, but that's par for the course. T has a much stronger immune system than R and always has.

I am glad it is a 3 day weekend so I don't have to fight with T again about staying home from school. This thing is contagious!

One of the legitimate paying survey companies offered me a survey today that would have paid $20. But when I saw what it involved, it totally freaked me out. They wanted me to register 2 credit cards and one bank account with them so they could track my spending. Are they freaking nuts? Give them my bank account number and my credit card numbers? Not bloodly likely!

In this day and age of identity theft this was highly disturbing. In fact the longer I think about it the more I'm thinking I should actually lodge a formal complaint with this survey management team, that's how dangerous I think this is of them to even think about requesting this information from people trying to bring in extra income. And there will be some people naive enough or inexperienced enough to actully give this information away.

I thought buying the dog was dumb when they couldn't pay the phone bill. SIL called up DH tonight and they have had their cable shut off, their internet shut off, their gas is going to be shut off this week, the garbage company came and took away their garbage can, they lost their alarm system monitoring, they are behind on their power bill and on their mortgage. So they very well may lose their house now. And they bought a dog.

Guess the big screen TV and the house full of new furniture was a big mistake last summer. What were they thinking with? Because I know it wasn't their brains.

DH said when he got off the phone that he just wanted to smack his sister upside the head and ask her if she even had a tiny smidgeon of common sense in her head or not.

I made him call her back and at least tell her about the plasma donation place and give her the phone number, between the two of them maybe they can earn $400 a month extra. Although I don't know if they will qualify as blood donors, they have both had a very, shall we say promiscuous history, including a visit from the STD fairy on more than one occassion. I'm not sure if that would disqualify them or not.

Really, a modicum of common sense could have kept them from this situaion. Now they will probably have to move back in with MIL and FIL. If they'll let them and they probably will for the sake of the girls, even though they don't want them.

Trying to find an apartment that will take a convicted felon is pretty impossible around here. The only reason they had an apartment before they got the house was because they were living there at the time of the conviction. I don't know if those property owners would allow them to move back, either. They kind of burned some bridges.

I feel somewhat sorry for them, but I'm also thinking they made their bed, they'll never learn if you don't make them lie down in it. They can't do bankruptcy again, its too soon. And they didn't learn anything from it the first time. I'm so tired of their bad financial choices.

Would you buy a dog if you could not pay your phone bill? Seriously. I want to know. If you had your phone service shut off for failure to pay, because you could not afford to pay it, would you go out and buy a purebred puppy, with all the potty training supplies and food, vet bills, and toys that go with it?

Consider that you are 6 years out from a bankruptcy, that you will never be able to get a different job from the one you have now because no one really wants to hire a convicted felon in that particular crime, that you are upside down in not one but two car loans, and that you still have to pay child support on one or your 2 children from previous relationships (not marriages) for another 4 years and have 2 children at home with your spouse who have to use WIC and the food bank and food stamps and be in housing similar to habitat for humanity but not them because they also did not want to deal with a convicted felon in that particular crime.

Would this be considered an incredibly stupid thing to do by a normal human being? Or is this just me overreacting because I'm not a dog person? Or very tolerant of foolishness. Or of this family member (by marriage, not blood), in general.

Oh, I'll keep my mouth shut, I suppose, for the sake of family unity but I had to let my opinion out somewhere. I think its beyond ridiculous and beyond stupid. And after all these years, why am I still surpised by bone-head decisions?

Someone else wrote a big rant about the cost of weddings and I was going to leave this as a reply but as it got so long, I decided to just make it my own blog entry.

I had a beautiful, gorgeous church wedding with about 60 people. My mother and father's gift to me for the wedding was my $500 dress. The dress was exquisite and I couldn't have been any happier in Vera Wang. My in-laws gift to us was the cost of the church rental, with the accompanying wedding planner whether we wanted her or not, and the kitchen clean up crew for approximately $500. I did spend $119 on a veil. I could have made a perfectly good veil for $20, but I fell in love with this one and paid for it in cash. I borrowed the hoop skirt slip thing that holds the dress out poofy from my SIL. My shoes were $10 white ballet shoes.

What did I spend (pre-paid by the way) on: I spent $750 on photographs. I'd seen what an amateur photographer had done to my SIL's wedding and I felt this was an appropriate splurge. We had a long enough engagement that the photo package was paid for long before the wedding took place. To this day, nearly 12 years later, I do not regret that.

I paid $100 for silk flowers and florist's tape. My wedding colors were burgandy and teal, which would have been hard to find in real flowers and cost about $400 to have prepared. I checked out every video tape and book in the library on how to arrange wedding flowers that they had and I learned how to do it. I put together two massive bouquets for either side of the altar, that stood on 2 $10 rented pedestals. I also made a large swag that went over the fireplace in the reception hall in the church basement and two of the ushers were charged with bringing the vases and pedestals down to the reception after the wedding was over to make them do double duty.

I did my own bouquet and that of my two attendants, did the mothers' corsages and all of the boutinierres for the men, buying a package of pins with a pearl like head for pinning them with for $2. I used about $30 worth of white ribbon (not from the bridal section, where it was much more expensive) and $5 worth of burgandy ribbon leftover from Christmas, to add finishing touches to the flowers and to make pew bows for the first ten pews, every other row (which I also learned from a library video.

We rented two candlelabras from the rental place for $10 each that held 24 candles each, each box of 12 candles cost $2, so $8 for candles. We are still using those white candles nearly 12 years later during power failures. I bought a unity candle at Micheal's for $12. The preacher we paid $50 and the pianist was $20 to play Moonlight Sonata during the lighting of the unity candle and to play the actual Here Comes the Bride Music. We used a CD with Pachabel's cannon in D for the processional, and we played a song that was special to us, also on CD. Both CD's we already owned.

We actually paid for the rental of the groomsmens tuxedos and had a coupon, 3 for the price of 2. So DH got his and the 2 others for $100. We also bought the fabric for the bridesmaids' dresses, a lovely teal satin, and my mother sewed them. They were simple and forgiving yet elegant, as my SIL was quite pregnant and my other attendant was also a bit larger. They were designed to be dresses that could be worn again, as perhaps to a banquet or another wedding as a guest. The material, pattern, and thread cost $70 and the girls bought their own shoes together. The flower girl dress was her Christmas dress, and it was burgandy and she wore her regular white patent leather shoes.

We got our wedding cake from the local grocery store. Instead of buying a wedding cake we got a 25th wedding anniversary design. It was completely white and very elegant, 3 tiers and one sheet cake, simple white cake with white frosting and frosting as the filling. The store set it up for us, and the cake cost $100. Comparable wedding cakes in the same design book cost $300. We had bought a cake topper for $15 at a craft store and put it on ourselves after the store people left.

We mostly used the church's dishes for the reception, though we did use my grandmother's punch bowl and the cake serving set I had been given at my bridal shower, as well as two champagne glasses also given at the shower. We used a $2 bottle of sparkling cider for our wedding toast. We had coffee, tea, punch, nuts and mints. The wedding had been at 2 so that people would eat lunch before the came and the reception was done by 5 as we had a reservation to make for our honeymoon, so people didn't need to eat a meal there anyway. We spent around $30 and most of that was the price of the can of coffee and the nuts. No fancy dinner, no big dancing extravaganza.

Decorations downstairs included 6 packages of streamers and 2 packages of balloons in the wedding colors, 2 teal paper tablecloths for $30, engraved wedding napkins $25 for 100 when we bought our wedding invitations at the same mail order catalog for $100. Aside from the punch bowl of my grandmother's we used a five branched silver candelabra with candles from upstairs that my husband and I and my SIL and BIL had given as a gift to my in-laws for their 25th wedding anniversary. SIL had used it at her wedding, too.

So the grand total for my wedding was $1646 out of pocket, $2646 if you count the gifts of the church and the dress form our parents. Oh, and add in the price of the book How to Have a Big Wedding on a Small Budget, $4 used at the used book store. $2650. A beautiful wedding with not one thing I would have changed, all for less than $3000, and everything prepaid with cash.

Everyone told me what a beautiful wedding it was, how they were sure it must have cost a fortune. I just smiled at my DH and we kept our secret.

Right now I am feeling very overwhelmed by finances. Just am. Not sure why. Well, maybe it is that I have been spending down savings when what I really want to do is be building it up. But bills must be paid when they come due and you know, I really wish they would come at a more convenient time. Like 3 years from now or something.

I guess I am tired of scraping. I know this year is going to get better. Eventually. But it was supposed to be better now. DH isn't the least bit bitter over what his work pulled, but I am. I'm trying not to be because it is far from useful to feel that way. It's just that when you think you've finally come to the light at the end of the tunnel and then you find out its just an emergency flare and you're only halfway out.

I know I'll feel much better when I can start contributing more than $10 a week to savings again. I'm just letting all the negativity overwhelm me. And that's just no good. I am grateful I had a savings to spend down during this long stretch of no paycheck.

Tomorrow is payday and I know getting everything taken care of will improve my feelings. At least I hope so. I usually have a very positive upbeat outlook and I don't like being Judy Attitudy (bad attitude), I like being Sunny Bunny (good attitude). Sorry, kidspeak at my house. Rudy Attitudy isn't around yet (he's got bad manners and an attitude).

I am also exhausted. My sleeping pattern is way off.

Well, the financial down of DH's work backing out of his promised raise has been replaced with some fairly good up news. Maybe. Do you all remember back when I was talking about DH applying for another job with the same company, that he was their top choice until a last minute resume came in and knocked him out of the running?

Well, that guy was fired because despite his fancy master's degree, he couldn't actually do the work. His idea of doing the work was "Show me what you got and I'll okay it." He was the one who was supposed to do the actual work and couldn't get it through his head that he wasn't being paid to sit on his tush and okay things. He was being paid to do the work himself.

So they've started training DH for the position. Chances are he'll start in the next four to six months. If they follow through on what they said this time. And this promotion would come with a big raise, way bigger than anything he could ever get at his current job. We're talking $1000 a month more, net, not gross, and that is just the starting wage of that job. The wage it tops out at is, get this, $600 a day for a ten hour day. Yes, a day. Oh, and you get that whether you work the full ten hours or not, if you work more than 5, or $300 if you work less than 5. Even if you only work one hour that day and then fly out. Of course, that's if you have a master's degree or 10 years of experience.

So he's not near that, but he is going to start a new set of correspondence classes to finish his B.A. and then go on to get his Master's. We have to come up with the initial downpayment, which we'll use his safety bonus for, but work will reimburse him at the end of each course, 100% for A's and 90% for B's, up to $4000 a year. DH has always gotten A's except 1 B from everything he has done so far, so I don't doubt he will do well enough to get fully reimbursed.

Yes, the company pulled a nasty with the other thing, but they've really stepped up to the plate now. It sounds more like they didn't want to give him a raise now because they figure he's going to be getting a big one with the promotion, even though his direct bosses wanted him to have one. If they follow through on this, it'll solve a lot of problems. With an extra $1000 a month, we could be out of credit card debt in less than 4 years and have our mortgage paid off in 6. I do not want to get my hopes up again, but yeah, its something pretty great, possibly.

So cross your fingers for us and say prayers if you do that sort of thing, cause I sure would love to know there is a real end to this debt tunnel.

Hope: When you get to the end of your rope and find a tire swing.

I haven't updated my spending journal since Thursday, I think. I was so gung-ho on this when I started and now I'm kind of...eh. That's partly because I really don't like what the spending journal is revealing about my own personal habits. Which is that I am weird about food.

I will often buy food I don't need, even though there is plenty of food in the house because I am stressing over something. I'm not talking junk food or dumb purchases, either. Just...quantity. Like I'm afraid there won't be enough in the house or something.

This is particularly difficult now as we are no longer using the full size upright freezer. I am confined to a half size cubic chest freezer and the freezer that comes with our fridge, which is quite large for its size. I think it may be bigger on the inside than the outside, very tardis-like.

Well, I've managed to curtail the freezer spending, but seem to be trying to make up for it with pantry items. What is up with that? I did not grow up poor. Even the year my dad was on strike from the mill (he went to work pumping gas and my mom, a retired teacher, substitute taught nearly every day that year), we always had adequate food. We were never deprived. So where is this coming from?

Oh, I have issues with food. I'm a recovered bulimic, 11.5 years free of the disease, which conincides with my getting married and moving out of my parent's house. But its never been over not having enough. It was always over being in control of my life, or not being in control of it. I'm starting to wonder if my need to have such great quantities of food in the house is my way of dealing with how out of control I feel the debt situation is and the whole life on hold will he/won't he get a raise issue with DH.

And as issues go, well, I'd rather be buying too much food than ever go back down the road to an eating disorder. But when we are trying to cut back on our grocery budget and save some money here, it is very counter-productive to be coming up on this sort of thing.

I'm hoping putting it out here in black and white, may help me to recognize what I am doing and find a less destructive thing to do.

My last straw with myself was tonight when I emptied my change jar and went down to the convenience store and got a 16 inch pepperoni pizza for $6.49 when I could have very easily made something healthy at home, or even a homemade pizza of better quality for less money with what I had in the house. It went over from healthy food buying to junky food buying. Uh-uh.

This has to stop. No more money is to be spent on food between now and January 26th, unless it is for milk or for the kids for making cold lunches at school. No more mindless buying. I must be mindful in my buying.

...to the clueless person on the forums, but didn't because I sort of thought it would be stirring up trouble no matter how badly it needed to be said, and plus it sounded too snarky. Or maybe snarky isn't the right word, I might be bordering on...well, worse than snarky. Anyway, I wanted to get it out of my system so here goes:

I am sorry you don't want my financial advice. I was very careful to read the entire thread before I posted to get a grip on what you were and were not willing to do, and I tried to give you friendly, thoughtful and encouraging advice that would fit into that category. Imagine my suprise when it was completely miscontrued, shot down, or twisted into something that bore no resemblalnce to the actual advice given.

I thought that since you asked for help in the beginning of the thread that you actually wanted advice on getting out of your situation, but it certainly comes across more like you just want to defend the choices you've already made, despite calling them horrible decisions yourself and that you are unwilling to recognize that this pattern of destructive financial behavior continues with your inability to cut luxury items and the belief that its going to sort itself out by itself if you can just get to the next month or to the tax refund and get caught up. Unfortunately these are many of the same choices that have put you where you are today.

And now the unforeseen has happened and you have had a car accident, and I'm sorry that you had it, don't get me wrong, for which you are going to have to pay out money for and your bills will likely remain behind and you will struggle for another year with the vain hope that if you just make it to the next tax return you'll survive. There is an expression, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten." You need to face up to some hard truths. What you are doing isn't going to cut it. You must change or you will not survive. That is the reality.

Beyond that, know this: I wasn't telling you how to raise your child. I don't really care how you raise your child, because I don't know you from Eve. But you know what? If I did and was actually telling you how to raise your child, I'd definitely have a lot to say about how sacrifice builds character and giving something up for a year or so until you can manage necessary bills will make her appreciate it that much more when it resumes and that by allowing her to continue you are setting a less than stellar example of setting financial priorities that she'll remember when she is a parent herself. Now, that would be giving parenting advice. But I won't say that, because you have absolutely no interest in hearing it, you've made it clear that you will not give up paying for the lessons or taking on an inconvenient or even a convenient 2nd job even if it means you will lose your car or not have electricity because of it. And I respect that. That is your choice. Raise your kids however you want, even if it means doing it in the dark.

-----------------------

So umm, am I right? Too snarky? Or just too truthful?

Sometimes I wonder why I read the forums. I could just give my head a good crack against the wall for all the good it does answering some threads. Oh, its not most of the time, I do know this, but some days you run up against someone who says they want help but all they really want is "Oh, look at me, poor me, feel sorry for me, let me be the center of the universe." And against your better judgement you offer some common sense sound strategies knowing the will find a way not to take it.

Stubborn, bull-headed people in debt up to the hair folicles on the very tippy top of their heads, who say the have a problem but won't really admit to themselves that it really, truly exists or that they really need the advice. Won't consider the remote possiblility that their luxury items need to be cut out pronto so they can pay their real bills.

No cable? The horror. Child has to give up an acivity? Heaven forbid spoiled junior has to give up anything. $50 haircut at the salon? But I need that for me, I must have something for me when I'm cutting back everywhere else (but not really). But I don't have money to pay my (insert mortgage, car payment, power bill, sewer, garbage, water, etc.) whatever that I actually need to pay! Help me.

Sorry, this isn't brought on by any one post, just been building up. It's saving advice, but some people really just don't want any. They want a way to shoot down any that is given though and then wonder why they can't get ahead.

Ugh, more snow. And it is still snowing. I was hoping we were done for the winter. At least it is pretty. The schools are open today but are running 2 hours late and are on snow routes, which means we have to hike out to the highway for pickup and drop off.

I'm grateful we didn't lose power last night, though we had several surges.

Tonight is supposed to be the night when parents can go review the AIDS/HIV curriculum that will be taught soon but it may be cancelled. By Washington state law you cannot excuse your children from the course unless a parent has reviewed the material. I just want to know what they will teach so I can mitigate the information with our religious beliefs and family values.

I taught Rose about puberty, sex and pregnancy when she was 9, but we haven't really gone into STD's and prevention of STD's and HIV/AIDS. I wasn't really ready for that conversation when she was 9.

I just hate that my kids have to grow up so fast in certain areas. I know that if they don't, though, they are at greater risk. We can teach them abstinance until the cows come home, and that sex should be saved for marriage according to our religious beliefs, but it depends on the child as to whether that is the route they will go and that not everyone waits or even saves sex for a committed relationship.

So if they do go and do something stupid as a teenager, it won't put their lives at risk if they know how to protect themselves. At least we've already had the some people are gay conversation, what our religion says about it, what society says about it, and what the reality is about it (as in cousin so and so is gay and so is Mom's old friend L), so if that is brought up in the course as a risk factor its been covered.

I can't be the type of parent who will bury their head in the sand and assume my kids are the ones not doing it when they are older. It's not worth my child's life, health or safety to not be straight with them. But gosh, its an embarrassing conversation, talking about how HIV is contracted through sex (which they aren't supposed to have) or blood and how to prevent it for sure (abstinance)or how to mostly protect against it, (maybe) through safer sex. And how it can be contracted through injectable drugs (which they aren't supposed to do) and sharing needles (which they really aren't supposed to do.

My daughter still believes in Santa Claus (or says she does, she might just be greedy for the stocking). I am so not ready for talking about hanging another type of sock to help prevent this disease.

I'm sorry this is so off topic. Though financially, it does tie in. HIV/AIDS treatment is horrifically expensive. So is teenage pregnancy. And drug use and rehab. Avoiding these things, will save money. It'll save more than money. Not talking about them will cost more than we can ever bargain for as parents.

The last two days went pretty well for the most part. Two no spend days in a row. Of course, nothing was open today but the casino, so that makes it pretty easy to not spend, and only someone with the patience of a saint would have gone into a store on Christmas Eve. Which, if you were wondering, does not even remotely describe me.

Yesterday was good, nothing bad at all happened, the Ice Queen was even there and she was actually (gasp) nice. Maybe she's thawing out after all these years of being, well, the Ice Queen. It would be nice to have two sisters who actually behaved like sisters instead of just one.

Today was great for most of the day until my husband's uncle showed up at MIL's house. He was NOT supposed to be there. He was not invited. We called and made sure that he was not to be there. It was a very tense 10 minutes before he left. I was about to take the kids and run. This man is nuts.

When my little boy was four years old, this man kicked him out of his chair by physically lifting him up and tossing him on the ground and then sat down in the chair himself, even though there were plenty of other chairs and my son had been sitting in this one for a good twenty minutes. Well, T got mad at him and said, "Hey, that's my chair, give it back." He was ignored. He said it again, and was still ignored. He then said, "If you don't give me my chair back I am going to kick you." Again he was ignored. So my son kicked him. His reaction? To strangle my son.

And then when DH stopped him he claimed my son gave him a migraine by kicking him. I mean, hello? Unless your head is your butt (which in his case that very well could be), you aren't going to get a migraine from being kicked by a barefoot four year old (not to mention he was playing volleyball one hour later in the full sun, and he has a migraine?). I do not believe my son should have kicked him, though if I had been treated the same way at that age, I would have. Heck, I might have done it NOW. It's not like my son did not warn him or try to solve it himself first.

Then the uncle tried to claim that T could be taken away from his parents for assault, to the boy. At age four! And he said it was an unprovoked attack. I'm sorry? If you toss a kid to the ground how is that unprovoked? Well, we talked to the police the next day and they laughed at that line and said no way would a four year old ever by charged with assault. Which we knew anyway. But we were advised to never, ever let this man anywhere near our kids again. And we hadn't had any contact with him for 2.5 years.

The police said it was up to us whether to press charges or not but it most likely wouldn't make it to court, so we chose just to sever all contact. Seeing him again enraged me. Especially since he was uninvited. DH and FIL did form a barrier so he couldn't get past them to where my kids were and I wouldn't look in his direction or even acknowledge he was in the room.

It was very prickly until he left. I am glad he did. I did not want to have to. It took a bit to calm T down, he is still afraid of this man even though we haven't seen him or talked to him in so long. He ran and hid. He seems to be fine since then, but I will not be surprised if he starts having nightmares again like he did after it happened.

Other than that, it was a good day, though. With good food and good company and DH and I scored big with a really nice weight bench.

I went Christmas Looking today. This is a lot like Christmas Shopping, only without the actual bying of anything. I did a fair bit of Christmas Looking at Barnes and Noble and have a very good list of items that I think will do very nicely as presents. There was a series of drawing books that I would really like to get for my daughter. She's very artsy crafty, loves to draw and paint, and has some good instincts that I think these books would help channel along.

Found a doorstop..er, coffee table book, on castles that DH would drool over if he'd been there with me. He loves this sort of thing, it has pictures and architectural interest with both the insides and outsides and the art and interior design and the surrounding countryside. It is a real work of art.

Found a book on crocheting that I want so will give the name of that to Mom when she asks me what I want.

I looked at "stuff" at Costco while I was there to buy eggs, nuts, and cucumbers. There wasn't really much that caught me eye in the Christmas decorations. I have learned not to use exposed bulbs or holographic thingies with exposed bulbs in open areas or the rain just shorts them out within a day or two, so that cuts out a lot. I tend to stick with rope light structures mostly now.

I looked at "stuff" at Rite Aid, but they don't have more than half their display up yet, and none of their standee stuff at all. Rite Aid had the church I want the last two years, I am hoping they have it this year. I want to use it as a train station for our rope light train, as it looks like an old-fashioned train station as well as a church.

I looked at "stuff" at Fred Meyer, didn't like anything there, either. Sigh. Picked up organic nitrate/nitrite free lunch meat for the kids' lunches next week while I was there. Got myself some more Vick's Sinex nasal mist (a full $1.20 cheaper than anywhere else) and then signed over my first born at the pharmacy so I could get liquid Children's Motrin Cold medicine (in grape). It has sudafed in it so of course its behind the counter now, too.

Can I just say that I hate having to go to the pharmacy for over the counter cold medicine. It is so stupid. The meth heads are going to get their supply regardless, all they are doing is annoying the crap out of the rest of us with sickness. I mean the last thing I want to do is stand in another line after standing in the first line, to even find out if they have it in grape, because heaven forbid I come home with berry flavored, or bubble gum flavored, or horror of horrors, cherry. Then I have to fill out all my information in their little book, because they are too lazy to do it themselves (like at WalMart who enters it into the computer once so then all they have to do in future is put your license number into the computer and its all there), so that if I buy more than my allotted (sp?) amount of cold medicine they can hunt me down and search my cupboards for incriminating amounts of ibuprofen cold, sudafed, and dimetapp. Hmm, she has adult formula, junior strength formula, and children's formula! She's trying to buy them all at once. Over limit! Over limit! What does that mean? She must be a drug addict!

Or maybe she has a small child, a medium child, and an adult and they are all freaking sick right now. Geesh. Heaven forbid you try to stockpile medicine for the winter! Because it would be so much fun to run out in the middle of a cold and drag a whiney, feverish, germ-spewing youngster through the six inches of standing water and the torrential downpour to get another bottle. And after all that crap of being told they have Children's Motrin Cold, in grape, which is what I specifically ask for each time I ask, they hand me Children's Ibuprofen Cold, Kroger brand. "What the heck is this?" "Oh, its our generic store brand. And look, its in grape, just like you wanted." "No. I wanted Children's Motrin Cold." "Oh, we don't have that." ARGHHHHHH. Bought it anyway, but I tell you, as much as I normally love shopping at Fred Meyer, I will not be back for a loooooooong time.

I'm just glad the kids were with my mother. I had a hard enough time navigating today without them. Did buy a few more groceries as Haggen. Enough so I wouldn't have to buy any more this week.

Entry # 6 for today

Boy, having that damper fixed is making a huge difference. Even my room feels warm and the heat from the wood stove never reaches my room. That's why I have a tiny little heater in my room. Well, that and I sleep with the door closed, as I can't have light on while I sleep and the kids sleep with the hall light on and I can still see it clear at the other end of the house. But it sure feels good right now.

Tobias caught a cold last night. He is all hoarse and starting to cough, his eyes are all baggy, he's a major crank box and he fell asleep at 5:30 on the couch for two hours. And then at 9:00 he didn't fight me about bedtime, just crawled in and fell right to sleep. Poor guy.

I guess I'll be taking him with me tomorrow for the oil change. I hate to do that, but it shouldn't take to long and I've already put it off about 3000 miles too long, just kept adding oil as needed.

Actually, well below freezing. I do not like trick or treating at the best of times and it seems that without fail it is always miserably, bitterly cold outside every Halloween. We went up one side of our street, down the other, came inside to warm up for a half hour and then went the other way and repeated. We went to maybe a total of fifteen houses. Almost no one goes trick or treating in our neighborhood, most folks go to town to trick or treat at the mall or the giant strip mall, where it is a good deal safter and you can start earlier. But that means that those kids who do go around the neighborhood get handfuls of candy at each house. So the kids ended up with approximately 40 pieces of candy and several toys. They had fun even if I didn't. But I was so glad when they wanted to give it up. And I am so glad it is over for another year.

I didn't spend any money today but I daresay I will be in the future. I turned on my furnace. I just could not get the chill off the whole house with the woodstove. The outer walls were cold to the touch. It was 20 this morning, I didn't look at what the temp dropped to tonight, but it was colder than this morning.

I watched the DVD Pride and Prejudice today. Twice. I was utterly delighted with the entire movie. I've never actually read any of Jane Austen's books but now I am going to have to. The story was absolute magic, lots of conflict and good twists and turns, lots of turmoil and sadness and joy. I didn't really think I would like it all that much, its been sitting on my TV for months on loan from a friend of DH's. Now I could kick myself for not watching it sooner. Keira Knightly impresses me more and more each time I see her in something and of course, Donald Sutherland will always be enjoyed.

Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a movie review. Not really much going on on the financial front, but felt the need to fill blank space with type tonight. Well, and complain about the cold.