I've been eating so much bad food lately, most of it not of my own cooking. I have to say I have really gotten lazy this month and also have gained about 5 pounds. This is really, really bad. Not only healthwise, but medically and financially.

I have to be very, very careful with what I eat to keep my symptoms in check and I haven't been. My biggest excuse is lack of time. The thing that sends me off the most is skipping breakfast, but I don't like taking time to make breakfast in the morning after having made it for the kids. It's not like I can just eat the standard and not to mention carboriffic fare of toastor cereal or waffles either.

Anyway, today I decided to make up some breakfast TV dinners for the freezer. I now have 2 weeks worth of breakfasts in there. I have:

6 servings of omlettes (turkey ham, scallion, bell pepper, x-tra sharp cheddar, tomato)
6 servings egg scrambles with homemade sausage which will be accompanied by fresh cucumber slices
2 egg scrambles with sugar-free bacon and daikon home fries

This also accomplished using up some stuff that would have gone off in another couple of days.

If I make it to the store on Tuesday they should have some ground lamb marked down and I will make up some lamb de provence with lavander patties (just one pound ground lamb with 2 tbsp herbes de provence with lavander seasoning) and some ground pork for making more homemade sausage. I also would like to make up some salmon patties (egg, parmesan, garlic, salmon) to freeze for lunches. I can make the salmon patties whether I make it to the store. I've got some canned salmon that is getting close to the use by date. May make some tuna patties, also.

Dinners tend to be much easier for me to cook without planning ahead or even with planning ahead. I'm hoping starting my day with a good brekkie and not ignoring my health and dietary requirements will make this urge to eat out and eat junky go away.

This has been a rough week for getting on the computer and blogging. Rose is badly sick again for one. I thought it was pneumonia for awhile because of the depth of her coughing and the fact that she was getting dizzy.

But when I took her to the doctor her lungs and bronchials are clear. She has a severe sinus infection though and a chest cold. Lovely. $15 co-pay. So we got two prescriptions, generic zithromax and flonase. $20 total co-pay. I'm not sending her back to school until Monday.

Tobias had his first t-ball game and goodness its going to be boring. Two games a week that last far too long. We're definitely going back to soccer next year. This is too tedious and unenjoyable to watch and T says he was bored during the game. It was also very cold there. It isn't right on the river, the river is across the road and down in the gulley, but its close enough that it makes it quite cold. So blankets are going along for tonight's game. Rose will be staying home. I don't want her out in the cold. The neighbor girl will keep tabs on her.

I also spent $20.00 this week to fund T's hot lunch account.

I ordered my parkhopper for Disneyland which should arrive on the 25th. $189. I think that covers what has been spent this week, then.

And I've managed to write 9 pages this week. Not great but something.

About 3 a.m. last night the sky split open and we got walloped with one heck of a thunder lightning rain storm. Guess I was right about the source of the migraine. Fortunately it did not last long and I was able to get back to sleep. This morning I just needed a butal to function instead of Imetrix. I had a lot to do today so I'm glad its down to a quiet roar in my head.

First thing was to take the kids into my mother's house. She is keeping them for the rest of spring break. I pick them back up on Sunday just in time to take them to the open house for MIL and FIL's 40th wedding anniversary.

After dumping them off I went for my cranial sacral therapy and that made a big difference in the reduction of pain in my head, also. Then I had made an appointment a few days ago to get my hair cut, so I went to Regis for that. I only go twice a year to get my hair cut so I figure I don't mind shelling out a bit more when I go. Most of the time I cut my own bangs and not worry about it, but twice a year it needs an overhaul.

It was about 18 inches long and getting heavy, and I am so tired of blowing it out straight, which I have to do when its all one length, so I had layers put in to take off the weight and took about an inch off the ends and got my bangs back above my eyebrows. With all the weight off my hair does what it always does and went bouncy and curly.

Anyway, it was $38 and I left a $5 tip. I was very pleased with the cut and will go back to this girl again. Just not for another six months.

I had lunch at the mall while I was there, not good for me food at all, which was probably stupid considering I'm just getting over a migraine, but I did. $3.02 for a small strawberry Julius, $2.75 for a prezel with mustard, and $1.09 for a double cheese from Mickey D's.

After that I went down to Lane Bryant. I don't normally shop there but they were having a sale on unmentionables, and since I needed new unmentionables, I decided to see what they had. They had a very large selection of the appropriate size of unmentionables in an attractive array of colors. Each unmentionable normally costs $28 but the sale was buy one at regular price, get the second one at $9.99. Which is a very good price considering the product is of very high quality. So I got four, and I had a coupon for $15 off any purchase of $15 or more. So ended up paying $65 for $122 worth of unmentionables (that is including tax on both amounts).

Then I bought two pairs of running shoes. They were on sale 2 for $89.99 (which is pricey) and I have such a difficult time finding a shoe that fits my foot right, let alone running shoes, so I got two, one white pair and one black pair of the exact same shoes, and one will go in my closet until the other wears out. I also bought 2 pairs of the reinforced heel and ball off foot socks for running/walking for my trip to Disney for $10. The socks help not to get blisters, and the properly fitted well supported running shoe should help as well. I'll be using my white pair on the treadmill to get them broken in. It's only 17 days until I go so I do need to get them broken in. Shouldn't be a problem. Anyway with tax it all added up to $112. But I shan't need to make anymore purchases like that for a good bit.

Went to the chiropractor, put $10 in the gas tank, then came home, took a nap, shook off the majority of the headache hangover and spent the next 3 hours answering the phone before I decided to just let the machine get it. That's of course when people stopped calling.

My mood is much improved today, so it was definitely migraine related. It is good to be back to my happy self with a cheerful outlook on life.

I almost never get migraines anymore but I've definitely got the onset of one. I haven't eaten any triggers, which makes me think its pressure changes. When the barometric pressure rises or drops dramatically and at a very fast clip, its been known to trigger one. I really ought to get a barometer. But I can tell my hunch is correct. I went outside and felt the air and smelled the air and I know there is a storm coming on that will hit tonight or early tomorrow. That air just feels too heavy.

I took my medication and I'm going to bed early tonight. I am in a very foul mood. I woke up fine but about five it went downhill and that is when I felt the pressure changes. Nasty mood out of nowhere is usually another sign of a migraine coming on.

Okay, I'm off to go curl up in a small, dark, soundles cave and hope things shift by morning.

Today is my blogoversary. I had written this wonderful wildly witty entry and it disappeared into the ether, and I don't have the energy, the memory, or the desire to recreate it, but you all would have been very entertained and it would have offered you a life changing moment. No, not a life changing moment in your life, just one in mine.

Which is what this year has been like for me, one life changing moment after the other. Some were so little I barely noticed them until they built upon each other and suddenly I had some really big things going on in my life. The biggest one of all? Living within our means. Where did that come from? How did we do that? Where did this amazing thing come from? It would have been a thrill ride to read about it. But oops, its gone. So...that was our big life changing moment. Hope you were along to see it as it happened and if not, go back and see how it did. I think there's a time machine around here somewhere...

I guess I'll just write about my day today instead. I went to the doctor, my blood pressure is happy on the cut from 40mg to 20mg on my meds for the last two weeks, so I get to continue on that for a while and come back in July for another check. One more step in my plan to get off it for good.

I also got my flu shot booster and don't need to worry about that again until October. Thyroid meds are doing a good job so I'll stay on that as well.

Other things done today, a trip to storage, a visit to the chiropractor, and driving DH to the airport. Then a wedding shower. It went okay. I had very mixed feelings about going to it. I'm happy for the people getting married, they are both great people.

But the husband is, or rather was, the spouse of a very close friend who died way too young and way too unexpectedly and it feels wrong to think of him as married (or about to be) to another woman. My friend's twin daughters were there and they are very happy and get along well with what will be their new siblings. I was very happy for everyone, but looking at the girls was eerie. They look so much like my friend did as a girl. Still, the two merging families are all so overjoyed. It has been good on both sides for everyone.

I think mostly it just has made me miss my friend. I will visit her grave tomorrow and then I think I will be okay about everything. She was the kind of person who would want everyone to be happy after she was gone and going there and reminding myself of that will help me to stop being a silly goose about it.

Anyway, that was my day.

Went to the chiropractor this morning, paid $175 for the family monthly unlimited plan this time. I managed to tweak out my hip again, big time.

I also had cranial sacral therapy, which helped some with the hip as well.

We filled up the car at Costco, $39 and something. It's up to $2.959 per gallon, everywhere else is at least $3.05 and most are higher. I have $16 and some odd change left on the cash card there.

DH and I went out to lunch at Hungry Bear. We spent $36, including tip. We ate at two and I doubt I will eat another meal today, it was very filling. The food is always good there, the best of the best of diner food.

So quite a bit of money out the door today.

Bills paid so far today:

$400.00 MC credit card
$400.00 House mortgage
$ 93.00 Power bill
$ 72.00 Cell phone
--------
$965.00 total

I still have to round up some other bills and deduct the upcoming auto payments for Life Insurance and the security system.

Not really much to talk of today. The doctor did start me on thyroid medication, so we'll see how that goes for the next six weeks. Well, I hope. I'm tired of being exhausted so much of the time. That was $21.99 for the new prescription.

Sigh. Well, I had my little outpatient procedure today and darn it all but I am going to have to have another surgery. I am so not a happy camper. I guess I can count myself as fortunate it will be a minimally invasive operation instead of the gut you like a fish kind the docs seem so prone to want to do with me. But still no sign of tumors of any kind, so I rejoice in that fact. It will be done inhouse in the office which has two surgery rooms, I will be knocked out, but it won't cost as much as going to hospital or the surgery center. So again, I will count myself as fortunate

It'll knock me down for about a week, but he said after 24 hours I can resume light duties or whatever. I assume that means dishes and laundry but I will do my best to make sure that is all out of the way ahead of time. And I may be unfrugal and just spring for microwave save paper plates and bowls, some plasticware and a bunch of napkins or paper towels to get through the week with. Maybe make up some dinners ahead of time for the freezer, or really be unfrugal and just stock up on Marie Calendar TV dinners.

I'm waiting to see what dates are available. If I can get it done on the 13th or 15th, I'll do it before I go to Disneyland so I'll have 2 full weeks to recover. If not, than I will wait until I come back and do it second week of May.

I will try hard to keep a positive spin on this, but I so hate having surgery. And I'm a bit annoyed at my body for being so useless at times. But it could be so much worse, it really could, has been in the past, this is just a minor repair jobby.

I guess DH's promotion and accompanying raise will have gone into effect just in time to pay for this when we are billed. Another thing I can feel fortunate about. Never having to put a surgery on a credit card again. That is something I wouldn't have been able to say a year ago. But I can say it now.

Okay, so $15 co-pay for the doctor and my blood pressure is down to 114/80, so he decided to reduce my dosage from 40 MG to 20 MG, but make it one with a diuretic because I still seem to be swelling up way too much. And he gave me six weeks worth of samples. And a flu shot. My doctor gives flu shots in the spring and then again in the fall. He says they only really last 6 months without the booster. And he gives them in 2 doses, so I will get the booster dose in 2 weeks when I go back for the blood pressure check. He is good about combining appointments so that I don't have to make a seperate visit for every little thing.

He also sent me to the vampires, I mean the phlebotomist, for a blood draw to see if my throid might be underachieving. We do the test every couple of years because every single female in my family has an underactive thyroid. I have always been borderline normal. So that was another $15 co-pay.

I couldn't find any tops I liked or the CD I wanted so I decided to go to the bookstore. Like I'd find tops or CDs there, right? $61.82 later I decided I really should stay out of bookstores. I forget after about six months go by. But I'll have plenty of reading material to read on the plane for my trip. And at least I paid for them in cash.

So one of the new books I started reading today. I'm already 9 chapters in. Which isn't as much as it seems because the chapters are short and I'm only on page 49. So far so good, but a little weird. "It's called The Wave by Walter Mosley and I found it in the sci-fi section but it seems more like a supernatural fantasy to me. Maybe it was mishelved, or maybe because it didn't have a unicorn, a dragon or a vampire on the cover they assumed it was sci-fi.

Tomorrow I go in for another kidney test. I hope this will be the end of it. My kidneys haven't bothered me at all in two weeks, so I think it was just a long-term infection or I'd still be in pain. But everyone just wants to be sure. At least there are no tumors this time, so big yay in that department.

My goal for the month of April and these last few days of March is to get myself completely healthy for my vacation. I've done Disney sick and no thanks on that score. It ruins half the fun. So, I have to make sure I take my vitamins, do my one hour on the treadmill every other day and try to drag my sorry self back in to Curves. I always feel better when I exercise but its the starting it up again that is so hard to do. It also means not staying up past midnight writing, which is pretty hard sometimes when I get in the groove.

Today is a gorgeous sunny day. The creeks flooded 2 days ago after the deluge and there is still standing water everywhere. The main creeks is five feet across and normally it is down at least a foot from the bridge that goes over it. Now it is running with maybe an inch or two between the top of the water and the bottom of the bridge. And on either side of the creek there is water for a good 50 yards. I have never seen the creek flood this badly before, usually its maybe 20 feet on either side.

There is one house a mile down the road that has its driveway underwater and huge ponds on either side. Now the front part of their property tends to fill up but again, I have never seen it this bad. There were geese in it! Not just ducks. Really weird to see.

As far as I know, the river did not flood this time. Of course it may have further down up by Ferndale or Lynden when all the branches and tributaries have joined up on the last leg out to the bay. I know they were on flood watch. But I didn't see anything about it in the paper, so it may have just been the huge amount of runoff from the foothills as the snow melted and the rain hit hard.

I guess that about covers it for today. Or at least for this afternoon.

I am going to the doctor this morning for a blood pressure check, so that will $15 out for a co-pay. He may or may not change my medication and if he does, he may or may not give me samples to try it first. If not, that will be a prescription co-pay.

I am also going to buy a couple of shirts today if I can find some that I like, so I can retire some old ones that have seen much better days. And one CD that I have been saving up for with the recyling money. I think that will be about $30 dollars between the shirts and the CD.

I hope to make it over to the storage place to rent a unit but that may not happen until Wednesday when DH is home.

And I need to buy gas but that's on the pre-paid Costco cash card that I loaded, so no money out there.

I also need to pay the medical mortgage, the phone bill, and the water delivery bill. So that'll be about $1100.

I was thinking about dropping the water delivery again but we had a test result come through on the tap water reservoir Saturday with e.coli again, so nope. I'd rather pay out for it than risk our health.

Today was the day of the survey apparently. I completed surveys from Lightspeed, NDR, GlobalTest Market, Zoomerang, and my very first PineCone survey.

Zoomerang seems to be going very well. I have not reached a point level with them yet to cash out for anything, but it was one of the sites recommended in a book I read months ago, I think it was called The Mom's Guide to Making Money on the Internet, or something like that. Anyway, when I do my first cash out with them I'll blog on it.

Not much else going on, really. I'm watching season 3 of Red Dwarf and working my way through my MyPoints backlog (still). Tomorrow I have cranial sacral therapy, and I'm sending Rose back to school. Her fever broke and her strep test was negative and she's well enough to whine about being bored. If you're well enough to whine, you're well enough to go to school in my book. She won't be able to sing in the concert tomorrow. She hasn't gotten her voice back enough. I think half her probelm is pollen. I know its mine.

Oh, $15 co-pay for doctor's visit today.

Well, today was Tobais' first day of T-ball practice and he did pretty good. I'm not sure the coach knows what he is doing, he's never coached before, but he seems to have a good raport with the kids, which is really the most important thing.

T had a good time and his little friend from down the road is on his team so he's happy about that. Of course, that means he has a bit of a penchant for goofing off. I think he's going to be the class clown type.

Spent a little money today at the convenience store, got some soup and some diet lemon/lime soda for Rose. I think she may have strep throat. Its got that smell to it, so I think we'll be going to the doctor tomorrow, which will be a $15 co-pay. She's had a fever for two days and can barely talk. She's going to miss her singing concert this week, which is too bad as we were both really looking forward to it.

I've been getting a ton of writing done. I've hit my goal for the year of 365 pages so I've stopped counting pages. It really helped me to get in the habit of writing daily. Now if I skip a day it seems wrong.

DH emailed me today and they're putting up the JVA at work this week for the new position. Which means they've got funding, so it should just be a matter of waiting a little bit longer now. I hope so. I've spent the last six months doing nothing but waiting or so it seems. I'm so tired of that.

I had my appointment with the specialist today and had an ultrasound done. He decided to sign me up for another test, so I will go back on March 27 for some kind of scope thingy. It is out-patient and doesn't require drugs. $15 co-pay for that.

Spent $10 to buy a small pizza and a soda from Round Table. I ordered it in the parking lot of the doctor's office, swung by the credit union, and it was ready by the time I got there. It cost $10.23 but for some reason the employee gave me $10.25 back from my twenty dollar bill. I didn't notice this until I got back home and looked at the receipt. I do remember him taking some coins out of the take a penny, leave a penny container. Maybe he didn't want to give me all the ones that $9.77 in change would give me?

Oh, well, so not only did I save 23 cents, I earned 25 cents on top of that. I did call them up and they said not to worry about it. I wasn't worried, but I remember what it was like to have a till off when I was a college student so, I guess that is why I called.

I ate the pizza on the way back home and arrived at the school in time for Tobias' parent/teacher conference. Did that, then went to Rose's. I'm glad that's over for another while.

Now I feel all stone in the stomach though, from eating white flour and drinking white sugar. Bad choice, I know but I haven't had good pizza in so long and I had to grab something or I'd be really hungry as I couldn't eat before the ultrasound. I should have got tacos, at least they are marginally healthy, especially if you get them in the whole wheat tortilla like at Taco Time.

DH finished the pizza off when we got home from conferences. I had eggs and no-sugar bacon and a kohlrabi for dinner. The kids had leftovers of theirs.

I haven't been doing a running log of my novel writing since DH came home. Mostly its because I have less time to myself to write when he's home. But I'm up to page 72 in the story and have 105 pages of other stuff to work in and around the main plot line. And some of it is for the second book, not this one anyhow. But it is coming along.

I got accepted at PineCone and am now just waiting for the surveys to start coming in.

I cashed out at NFO MySurvey today after doing a 200 point survey that put me over the limit, so will have $10 coming in the next 3 to 5 weeks. And still have 150 points in my account. Only 850 more to go to cash out again, LOL.

Still no news from ReadRevenue, TinklyCash or Dayslook on payments.

DH is taking the kids to his mother's house tomorrow. I am not going. I love his parents but they have a cat that is all over the furniture, which is bad enough, because I clog up and have a hard time breathing, but if they run the air cleaner and I sit next to it, I do okay. But his sister will also be there with her kids and their dog, and I'm more allergic to dogs than I am to cats. Badly allergic. And the in-laws let that animal run around inside the house.

Which I would never allow myself, I get irritated with people that think it is okay just to bring the dog in because it is their dog and they don't ask permission, they just do it. (Worse at the grocery store when someone brings in a puppy in a purse which is illegal in a grocery store! Service dogs are of course not the issue at all, they go where they need to.) Which is what SIL did the first time and now they can't say no because they already did it. And I'm "Hello, its your house, of course you can say no to your spoiled youngest child." Sigh.

This is, by the way, the pedigree puppy that was bought when SIL and BIL had had their phone turned off, their gas turned off, their cable turned off, their mortgage behind, their car payments behind, and were about to have their electricity shut off and to lose their cell serivce if they didn't come up with a $400 payment. And they can't declare bankruptcy as its only been five years or so since they did that last time. So, I'm also not fond of the dog for that reason, but really it is secondary to my need to breathe.

Plus MIL's cat is scared to death of the dog. I don't want to come across as an animal hater, because I'm not. I love cats, but I just can't have them around much. Not terribly fond of dogs but don't hate them if they are properly mannered and on a leash. I have real issues with ones that are allowed to run around free all day as we have a county leash law as well as it being in our CC&R's for our housing development. A couple of the roamers have attacked children. So, in that respect I am anti-dog. Well, maybe more anti-bad-dog-owner, as dogs, like children, only do what they are allowed to do or have been taught.

So anyway, being in that house tomorrow would mean I would probably end up having to use my inhaler and it wouldn't be enough and I'd end up visiting the ER. So not how I want to spend my Saturday. Instead, I will stay home and do some writing and get caught up on laundry with my lovely new dryer.

I guess if MIL wants me to come to their house she's going to have to make a choice between standing up to her daughter about the dog, or me. And I'm okay if its the dog, I'm perfectly content to have a phone call once a week with her that lasts an hour.

Turned into a bit of a rant there, sorry.

I am quite posty today, I know. This makes five, I think. Possibly six. But anyway...

I wish I could do more right now than just add $10 a week to savings. And I know I will again after my trip.

It feels weird to be taking money for just myself right now, but this trip is about learning more information about my disease and being with others who have to live with it as well and listening to lectures and speakers and blah, diddy, blah, blah, blah.

Plus, there's a side trip to Disneyland, but that's just gravy. I don't have to pay for my plane ticket, that's just miles cashed in (DH is a frequent flyer due to work) and since it is first class there will be a meal both directions (and they are good up in first class, not bad like in coach), so two less to buy total.

And DH gave me his guest pass for the Boardroom, which is a private waiting lounge at SeaTac and I can eat a meal in there as well, they usually have soup, veggies, cheese, other finger foods, fruit and beverages all for free.

I'm having a roommate to split hotel costs. I'm doing it as frugally as I know how (even the side trip I am splitting costs with a close friend who also has this disease). And we used Mouseplanet to look up all the restaurants in the park and their menus and prices so we could plan all of our meals and which ones we might split the cost of there as well. I also got information on surrounding restaurants and their menus and prices. Isn't the internet grand?

DH says I don't have to justify it, but I'm not trying to justify it to him, I'm trying to justify it to me. Why is it so hard for us as women to spend money on ourselves on something just for us? Especially when it is mostly health related? And one could also argue that going to Disneyland is good for mental health also. Okay, see? Justification again.

Here I am, almost having died a few years ago, having to turn my life completely upside down, having to deal with other health issues that I need to learn more about to stay healthy and I feel bad because I'm going to take a bit of time to have some fun in there, too. Okay, when I put it like that, I don't feel bad about it anymore. But I will still be glad when I can contribute the change jar and the surveys back into savings again. Building savings makes me happy.

I had my second cranial sacral therapy session today. It was more intensive than the first one. My mother is paying for me to have six sessions in the hope that it will fix me. Apparently I'm broken. Well, my immune system is not the best, never has been and I've had all sorts of soft tissue damage in my life.

I didn't realize it until the therapist asked today, but my arm, the one that I tore all the tendons in between the wrist and elbow in a horrific accident about 12 years ago hasn't hurt since the first session. And I have been doing A LOT of typing in the last two weeks, which always makes my wrist and elbow and hand hurt and it isn't. So I guess there is something to this voodoo that he do so well. Ouch, that was a bit of language slaughter, wasn't it?

Oh, well, whatever happens happens. And the price is right so bring it on, I guess. Though I wouldn't mind going for a massage sometime soon. Ah, just dreaming. Not going to pony up $50 any time soon for that. But DH is home so maybe I'll have him do it, he's pretty good at making the muscles feel better.

I woke up to six inches of snow this morning after two gloriously beautiful days of 50 degree weather. Waiting for the bus this morning made us all look like we'd been frosted it was coming down so hard, those ginormous fluffy flakes the size of a quarter if you know the type. It was beautiful but I thought we were done. I guess I can thank my lucky stars that we didn't get feet like other people across the country have had to deal with.

It started melting around noon, dropping huge loads onto the roof from the cedar trees. It was down to about 3 inches when I left to take the kids in to spend the weekend with my parents and my sister's youngest boy. (And if you heard a shout of joy around 6:00 PST tonight, that would have been me leaving my parent's house free and clear.

I love my children dearly but I was very much ready to love them at someone else's house for a bit. Two weeks of the flu with cranky kids followed by a 4 day holiday weekend and me not getting enough sleep the last two nights, does not make for good family harmony. If I had to hear "She's on my couch cushion!" "No, he's on my couch cushion!" one more time I think I may have gone mental. Especially since the middle couch cushion between them is supposed to remain empty to prevent such arguments from happening in the first place, but someone always wants to put their feet up.

I don't have to pick them up until Sunday noontime so I will have lots of time to write tomorrow. That I am looking forward to. I did some serious pondering on the drive home and figured some more stuff out plotwise, so I am quite happy with it.

I did my shopping after letting the kids off, major monthly grocery shop plus a WalMart shop as I needed OTC meds, including the type you have to sign in blood for at the pharmacy (Sudafed, Children's Motrin Cold) to replace what was used up during the flu. I also got motor oil, goldfish crackers, nasal spray, a new drying rack, and a new George grill. Kind of an eclectic lot. But I didn't have any impulse buys at WalMart and I can't often say that. I will need to do a Freddy's run for organic milk when I pick up the kids but then we should be set for a fair bit.

I wrote 3 pages last night, which puts me at 125, just over 1/3 of the way to my yearly goal. Yay, me.

I also bought some food from the Schwan's guy today and used $20 for gas.

We went and got take out tonight and spent $13.86 for the three of us. Tobias threw up in the car on the way home. Fortunately I had an empty 22 ounce cup to hand back to him in time, so it didn't get all over the car or him. I hope it was just car sickness. He does get it sometimes. He seems fine now. Well, I suppose I will send him to school tomorrow and if he gets sick there I will just go and get him. He's not running a fever.

Today was the last day of the mini-winter break. It would have been all week but they are making up snow days W-F this week. Rose is completely over the flu and Tobias is over the worst of it, just a little sniffly still. I will be happy to see them back in school. Rose missed all last week and Tobias missed Thursday and Friday. They both are anxious to go back and the advice nurse I talked to today said they could as long as there was no fever or coughing.

As for goals, well, I wrote one page last night, didn't work on anything else, though. Oh, well, I am 4 days off caffeine, so I guess that was one of my goals, too, to get off the soda completely. Don't drink coffee.

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!

Rose has been sick the past two days and has not gone to school. I had to drop her off with my mother this morning so I could go to my first cranial sacral therapy session. I have to admit while I was lying there it felt a bit like voodoo magic and I kept thinking, well, this won't accomplish much. But surprisingly it made me feel better somewhat. Not a huge transformation but a noticeable improvement. Enough for me to go back for an additional 5 appointments and allow it a real go.

My birthday present had arrived by the time I got back, the new Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series. I've spent a few hours watching the first disc and doing all the commentaries while I did my PTR's, and watching the extras on the first disc. Now I've started episode 3 on the second disc.

It is really very good. I wasn't sure what to expect. I never am when they change out the lead. For those of you who don't know, the main role is set up in such a way that if the doctor "dies" his body regenerates and looks completely different, but he is still the same character with a few different personality quirks. This is a very clever way of replacing an actor who leaves the role, without ending the show.

They are on the 10th lead now and there have been close to 30 seasons, I believe. They brought it back in 2005 after being off the air for several years and they modernized it. But at its heart it is very similar, but I've found it even better. Sort of like the difference between the high camp of the original Battlestar Galactica and the high drama of the new one.

So I have adapted to this new doctor, though I adored the one from the first new season. He was Christopher Eccelstein who is currently reoccuring on the tv show heroes as the invisible guy. But I took quite well to the new one, David Tennant, even though I've only ever seen him in one of the Harry Potter movies and he was playing a bad guy.

Definitely worth the one day shipping.

Anywho, Tobias came home froms school cranky and flushed and warm to the touch and he took a two hour nap (no, he does not do this) so doctor Mom is diagnosing him with Rose's cold. He may stay home tomorrow.

I wrote 6 pages last night, which puts me up to 52, I think. I think I'll work another hour on it tonight.

Today was a no spend day. I had enough pennies to do a roll, so I did that.

I still have not been paid by ReadRevenue one month after cashing out (its supposed to take no more than 72 hours) so I have decided to quit them. They have failed to respond to any of my 5 emails. They were so good in the past about paying, but I can't waste my time on them if they aren't going to pay out anymore.

Oh, wait, it wasn't a no spend day. I wrote a $20 check to fund my son's hot lunch account at school. I forgot.

I went into my blog settings and updated my age and changed the color of the header, which I like to do every few months. Change the color that is, not the age, LOL.

My birthday was kind of a non-event, but that's okay. I ordered my present and it should arrive tomorrow. I sprang for the one day shipping. I figured that was my reward for doing nothing about me today.

The kids want a cake, but I'll wait until the day after Valentine's day and get a marked down cake or cupcakes. That's what I usually do if I don't feel like baking.

I drove DH to the airport and he's on his way back to Alaska. He is going to have to start attending an early morning meeting every day. It's 30 minutes of overtime every day for 14 days, so neither one of us is complaining. This is in preparation for the promtion, so it looks like its for real or they would not have him attending these meetings.

I am going to go see the cranial sacral therapy guy tomorrow. I hope this is a step towards wellness.

I wrote four more pages last night, which puts me up to 46 and I am going to write for at least an hour tonight before going to sleep. That goal is really moving right along for me now. I just wish I had more time, but I'll have all school hours on Wednesday and I have a lot figured out now so I may get a couple of good chapters out. Here's hoping.

I guess that is about it for today. Not, too exciting, at the moment.

I feel much better today, it is amazing what a decent amount of sleep can do for your attitude and your whole general outlook on life.

It's been a busy morning. We mailed off the boots from our second auction, picked up the kids from an overnight with their grandma, and picked up some medication.

Our total in paypal after fees was $9.86, which I transferred to the CU this morning.

I'm going to try to get the dance shoes listed this weekend so we can get moving on those. I have 8 pairs of ballet shoes and 5 pairs of taps and a bunch of mismatched shoes so I know there are some more around the house somewhere. Probably in Rose's room. I also found a pair of those Fisher Price skates that you put on over your kid's tennis shoes. Might be able to get a few dollars for those on e-bay. I'll have to check and see if those sell or not. Otherwise they'll go in the garage sale pile.

We need to get the outdoor play equipment cleaned up and listed on Craig's list. We managed to get the freezer off the porch last night and aired it out over night. DH is going to Kaboom it (multi-purpose cleaner) and then we may bleach clean it as well. Then we will list it on Craig's list for $50.

It is a 33 year old Montgomery Ward freezer. It has some cosmetic damage, but still works great. It's a bit of an energy hog, our power bill dropped $10 a month since we unplugged it. But for someone who doesn't have one, $50 will still be a good bargain for them, I think.

We also have a big old chest freezer that we bought at a garage sale 7 years ago that I think we can get $100 for. It's been outside so its dirty on the outside, but we can put that in our ad. DH might try to Kaboom it, too. If we can only get $50 for it, that would still be fine.

I'm looking around trying to figure out other things that we don't need that we can sell. I want to declutter this house and make as much off it as I can. It is giving me the feeling much like I had when I first started adding money to the EF last year. Finding more and more ways to do it so I can build savings up again. I feel so much more secure having money I can draw on in need.

Oh, I read over the pages I wrote on my night of sleep deprivation and they are good, I'm starting to think I do my best writing when I'm sleep deprived. It used to be when I was on a sugar high, but without much sugar these days I don't get that anymore. I wrote 3 more pages last night before I went to sleep so I am up to 39 pages for the year. Only 326 more to go to reach my goal.

I used DH as a sounding board last night and he can often make suggestions to get me around a block on a throughline, or send me off in a new direction with some random comment. I was having difficulty with the development of a certain character and now I've got her all figured out. She was not a character I could just leave out, she was too important to the plot, I knew who she was and where she needed to end up but not how to get her there and now I do. So yay for me and DH, too. Big breakthrough. Next week when the kids are in school I should really be able to start pounding out some pages.

Mom talked to me last night and she is going to pay for me to go to carnio-sacral therapy for six weeks. Her idea, and she says it has helped her a lot. I'm hoping it will help with some of the ongoing health issues in my life. I'm willing to try anything at this point, nothing has worked in the standard medical field. As much as I love my doctor and think he is a great man, I have mostly given up on Mainstream Medical. I have no faith in the AMA. I know there are good individual doctors out there who want to heal, but I've come to the conclusion that for the most part they want to medicate you, not heal you. Medication keeps you coming back, healing you keeps you and your dollars away.

I'm jaded here, I know, but I've been in the medical system since I was twelve years old and I ended up diagnosing myself with my original condition based on my own research and than forcing the doctor I was seeing at the time to test me for it and I was right. I have had to be forcibly proactive with my health for all of my adult life, to keep insisting that there was more going on than they believed and I have always been right to keep pushing even when called a hypochondriac to my face. So you can understand why I am jaded here.

Okay, this entry started about something and totally turned into something else about 3 times along the way. Oh, well, that's me when I get going. It's time to leave for basketball so I'll wrap it up for now.

Technically it was a CT scan, but not the kind you have to drink barium for. The kind they inject you with radioactive dye for. So I still ended up being shot up with glow in the dark juice and run through the giant Livesaver.

Probably won't know anything until next week as my doctor has picked this week to go on vacation, so even if the results are in before that, I won't get them. Oh, well.

It was an easy enough procedure, but I am very tired from it anyway. I'm not sure why. Glad to have it out of the way. I did not have to pay a co-pay, which was nice. I'll have to pay some. I've had 2 doctor's visits so far this month but my deductible is $200, so I'll be in it for at least $50 or $60. But won't have to pay it out of this pay cycle, it'll come out of the next one.

So, my kidneys are acting up and I'm going to have to get an x-ray as regular doctor thinks there is more going on than just a simple infection. Because they are recurrent. I'm of the mind that I just have to be on antibiotics longer than 2 weeks. Give me 5 weeks and it'll kill those bacteria suckers. They're resistant, what does he expect after all these years of treating them? So an x-ray, but so far no glow in the dark juice and being run through the giant Lifesaver.

Of course, I may be in denial because I really don't want my life turned upside down again by another medical crisis. I am so done with that. I mean, the insurance is relatively decent now, but still...I do not want anymore hospital bills, anymore surgeries, anymore bits of me taken out than have been. True, what's one kidney? Just a spare part anyway, but still, I'm attatched. I've lost enough odds and ends already.

I used to joke that the only things left that they could take out without replacing were a kidney, a spleen and part of my liver. Guess I shouldn't tempt fate that way, should I now?

I mean, I didn't have a clue when they went in for other stuff that they'd find a big honking tumor growing through my appendix, or a year after that my gall bladder would be 90% dead and the remaining 10% diseased. I knew stuff was wrong with the gall bladder because I was turning yellow and couldn't do anything and was having nasty attacks and they noticed it was "a bit odd" during the first surgery but it never occurred to me that it was mostly a dead organ sitting there.

So now with the kidney, I'm either going to be in complete and utter denial or I'm going to go in the opposite direction and completely freak out and think there is a tumor pressing into the kidney and that is the problem. I'm trying to sit here and be numbly in the middle until next week when they take the x-ray.

I'm more worried about what will happen to our financial health if this is serious than I am about myself. Which I recognize as being tweaked but there you go. I'm tweaked. Well, maybe its simply a coping mechanism. My daughter is now the age I was when my mother had cancer. That brings up all sort of issues with my own kids. Or would do if I told them what was going on.

We can't take out another loan, I won't charge anything on a credit card, and I can't visit the bank of MOM because of the fact that she already took out that mortgage for us for the last go around and we'll be paying it off forever and a half. It's probably nothing serious. But...what if it is? What am I going to do?

Sell the house, maybe. Pay off all our debts and the mortgage on our own house, go move back in with mom and work on paying off that mortgage.

Then there's the whole Dad thing. Dad has cataracts, early to middle stage dementia, and MS. Mom's overwhelmed. But coping. If there is one thing my mother can do it is soldier on no matter what. I don't want to make her have to cope with me, too. Not right now.

Well, I'll muddle through, I always do. I will bend, I will not break because that is what I do.

Anyway, probably too much information. But thanks for listening. I needed that.

I would guess yes. Doctor's office finally called back at 2:40 and do you think I actually got to talk to the doctor? Noooooooo. They just rescheduled my appointment for Thursday morning. So I waited around 4 hours for them to reschedule the appointment. Now why couldn't they have done that in the first place and not messed up my entire day?

Well, on the bright side of things, that makes it a no spend day after all. But I'm still aggravated.

Well, my whole plan for the day has been shot. The doctor's office called and cancelled my appointment for some reason or other and said that the doctor will call me "sometime" today to do a phone appointment. Couldn't give me a time, of course, so basically I either have to wait around all day for the phone to ring or say screw it and go do what else I had planned to do. And with Murphy's Law being what it is, I'll be outside waiting for the school bus when he finally calls. Frustrating and annoying.

1. Go to the doctor.
2. Possibly go to the pharmacy depending on what news I get at the doctor.
3. Stop by Michael's and get their monthly calendar as I am interested in taking a jewelry making class. If I like it I may consider trying to make some stuff for profit.
4. Go to Costco. I decided to bite the bullet and keep the Costco membership, but I am going to have to get a new card because my lost one is just not turning up.
5. Deposit my $8 check from ACOP into my vacation fund at the credit union.
6. Pick up organic milk and some organic lunch meat for school lunches.

So it will definitely be a spend day, no way around that today.

I'm torn about dinner tonight. I know I could just make something simple like spaghetti and meatballs, something that I don't have to babysit if I put the meatballs in the micro. But I am still so tired and even that sounds like a huge production.

I have to go buy milk anyway so I'm trying to talk myself down from getting a pizza while I'm out. It's only $6 for a large pepperoni, but then again, its $6 that really does not need to be spent. The problem with being sick is that my resistance to spending money goes way down. There is just so much ease, or at least there is a perceived ease to getting take out.

If I didn't need milk, I wouldn't even drive down to the store as it requires more effort than I really feel like putting out there. Oh, I'm alert enough, its not like it would be dangerous for me to drive the 1.2 miles to get there, but I'm just really lethargic. Haven't done my treadmill since last Wednesday.

I do have a doctor's appointment for tomorrow. I'm kind of glad I couldn't get in today, so I could get some more sleep while the kids were at school.

Yesterday was game day and as usual, Rose's team got trounced. It just is hard to get any rebounds when 4 out 5 players on the opposing team are a head taller than the tallest player on your team.

I emailed the head coach last night and I told him that next year they need to divide the teams up more evenly between ages and grades and experience and lack of experience and height because when you have one team from your school that is beating everyone by 30 points or more and the other one has barely managed to win 1 game all season, there is a huge inequality and it makes the losing team very dispirited every week. I don't know if he will do anything about it, but I'll be a big pain about it at the start of next season to at least be heard on the issue.

Rose got fouled on badly and got pushed into another player who's elbow went right into her temple. She was hurting too bad to even take her free throws and she's good at those, almost always makes them in practice. Another girl got slammed in the face and her tooth cut through her lip and was bleeding. She couldn't take her free throws either but also had to have a sub. Same person fouled them both. She got pulled two fouls later, thank goodness.

We packed our own snacks yesterday so no money was spent at the vending machines. The kids left the game with my parents and I came home to rest. Which I did do some, but then I got to writing and 26 pages later it was 3 a.m. That's really good for my health. But when stuff starts writing itself, I tend to go with it, because you never know when the muse is going to leave.

I made a promise to myself that I was going to write 365 pages this year, whether it was good or not, the habit needs to be gotten back into. And blogging doesn't count! And neither do outlines. That doesn't mean I have to write a page a day, I just need to hit my page count by year's end.

I went back and read the stuff over this afternoon and corrected all the typos and grammatical errors that weren't intentional, and I was really pleased with it, as sometimes middle of the night writing turns out to be less coherent than other times. In any case, its going in the "write" direction. Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

Today I went in and picked up my kids and got gas. I used $30 of my gas money. It was down to $2.55 a gallon. I didn't go to Costco where it might have been cheaper because I can't find my Costco card and I didn't really want to go all the way across town, either. My card expires at the end of this month anyway and I'm not sure I will renew it. It's a hard decision, especially since they raised the fee.

Mom got me some eggs from the organic egg farm when she went out to get some for herself, so I have four dozen fresh eggs in my fridge. She cleaned them out between us. So that cost $6.

I got really fed up with a rude person today, and kind of let them have it in my own understated way. I always try to be polite, even when what I really want to do is be less than polite, to put it politely. Some folks are clueless and no matter what you do or say, they shall remain clueless. But such is life when you are dealing with people who don't have an ounce of common sense or consideration for others.

I'm going to try to see the doctor tomorrow if I can drag myself out of bed. Or more accurately not fall back into bed once I get the kids off to school. Or at least make an appointment for Tuesday if necessary. I am tired of being tired and not well.

I did a survey this morning and have a $5 check coming from Your2Cents. I also took a prequalifying survey for ACOP but I don't know if I'll get it as they asked about what type of TV service we have and we don't, so that's probably a no. I didn't make the one with the product trial I wanted as it was supposed to have started the 24th. Oh, well, these things are hit and miss. I've gotten two offers this month from Vindale but I just don't know if I want to do those anymore.

I'm still waiting on ReadRevenue to pay out from the 1/13 cash out. I'm not sure what is wrong but I heard from another one of the PTR places that they were having problems connecting with paypal due to an earthquake and dislocated cables, and since both are Asian Island based that's probably what the deal is. So it will most likely get straightened out eventually.

Today, well technically yesterday, was payday. It was such a relief to finally have money again. I really hate paycheck to paycheck and I swear some day I will be free of that leash. It may take 10 years but I will be free of it!

I am so exhausted all the time right now. I wish I knew what was wrong with my system. Is it possible to get mono more than once in your life? Because I had that in 8th grade and that is the closest thing to how I feel right now. All I want to do is sleep. After the kids went to school today I went back to sleep and did not get up again until it was time to go out and meet the school bus. This was on top of a full night's sleep.

The kids wanted to go out and play and since it was sunny and reasonably warm out at 47 degrees I let them go until 5, which is when it gets on towards dark. So while they were gone I managed to pull myself together long enough to check online to see what the amount of the direct deposit was and to write out some bills.

$42.92--Homeowner's Insurance
$41.73--Phone
$70.94--Cell Phone
$93.74--Citi MC
$93.00--Puget Sound Energy
$35.00--MB Youth Baseball--T-ball (Tobias)
$45.00--MB Youth Softball--Fastpitch (Rose)
$100.00-Cash out for gas
$312.00-MBNA MC

I still have to pay the house mortgage ($400), the 1/2 year dues for the homeowner's association ($125), set aside money for 1/2 the water bill due at Feb's end ($56), 1/2 for garbage ($25), put aside $50 for propane (still haven't been billed yet) and $100 for property tax savings out of this check.

Mortgage and Homeowner's dues are due on the 1st. I would have paid the mortgage today but we didn't make it into town before the CU closed. The drive-thru is open until 7 but they won't take mortgage payments, so I just could get the cash out for gas. And there is no one in the office on Fridays to accept the dues, either. So I will do those most likely on Monday.

Oh, I went to two grocery stores and spent $37.16 at one and $86.44 at the other one. I did make one wasteful food purchase. They had Marie Calendar TV dinners on sale 4/$10 so I bought four spaghetti dinners. To me, that is the ultimate in wasteful food spending because it is the absolute easiest, cheapest meal to make from scratch. But I am sick and I wanted my comfort sghetti, so I did it.

Usually when I buy something from Marie Calendar it is just something I don't normally make myself or if I do, it involves a tremendous amount of effort, like pot pies or beef stew. And if I hadn't been limited by the amount of freezer space I knew I had left, I might have bought more. I guess I need to add don't go food shopping sick to the list of don't go food shopping hungry or with the children. I did all three tonight. My bad.

My oh-so-wonderful mother is going to take the kids home with her after Rose's basketball games to spend the night. I love my Mommy. She took one look at me tonight and offered. I am very glad because I am just not operating on all 8 cylinders. Actually I'm not sure I'm operating on all of 1 cylinder at the moment. Took my temperature: 100.5. Oh, joy. I hope this isn't the start of walking pnuemonia, come to think of it. That I don't want to deal with. At all.

Today was game day and we spent 3 hours at the gym, with packed lunches. As usual, Rose's team lost the first game, but it was much better, it was 28 to 24. I really thought we were going to win the second game and I'm not a hundred percent certain we didn't win, because the person manning the scoreboard kept "forgetting" to put our points up when we made a basket but the other team's went up right away and never seemed to get forgotten. People had to keep going over to tell her to put the score up five times during that game. I wish they had someone impartial
running that thing and not one of the parents. Hire a high school student or something.

Anyway, the other team's last basket was made after the last buzzer sounded. It didn't even leave the girl's hand until the last buzzer had started but they counted it anyway. Sometimes we have good refs and sometimes we don't. They weren't calling much traveling or double dribbling in any of the games on any of the teams. Just fouls when they happened, usually. And the refs judged the basket good so the other team won by one point, final score 19-18, though there was a lot of disagreement from the coach and the parents. If we'd had instant replay, I think it would have been different. This is the only team we had already beaten once this system and they just weren't that good. I have no illusion about Rose's team, I know they are less skilled than most of the other ones that are more evenly divided between 5th and 6th graders but it was just a very fishy thing all around.
Regardless it was a good game even if a huge case of ditsiness seemed to overcome both teams at times. It was exciting and fun to watch and that's all I really care about as long as Rose is having a good time.

They had their team photo taken today so hopefully that turns out well. I forgot to ask DH how much it cost as he's the one that filled it out and handed it in. Probably $10 as that is usually how much these things cost. DH took me home after the game and then took the kids off to his mother's house to do laundry and visit, while I rest. Doc said to rest for the next 48 hours, which puts me pretty much to noon tomorrow. We still haven't gotten the dryer fixed or replaced. We probably will when the tax refund comes. Now that we are catching up on clothes, I can do a load a day and hang it on the drying racks.

Oh, I forgot to post yesterday that I went to the doctor. I have a problem with getting chronic kidney infections, its a side effect of the whole medical mess that tried to kill me a few years ago. We have to stay on top of it and I have to go in at first sign of symptoms to prevent further kidney damage. I came close to losing my right kidney at the time, so I'm very careful about this.

So I'm on medication, 2 RX's at $10 each, and these are different ones from the ones I was on last time. I insisted on that as the ones I had last time made me gain 15 pounds of water weight in 2 weeks time. Not fun. It went away after I went off them, but really didn't want to go through that again. It was really uncomfortable.

As for other things medically related, I have been kind of ignoring my exercise program lately, pretty much since before Christmas, so starting on Monday the doctor said I could do stuff again but to pace myself and watch for kidney pain, I am going to get back to it. I will start walking on the treadmill 20 minutes a day and hopefully get back up to an hour by month's end.

I keep wavering on whether I should cancel my Curves membership or not, but if I can just get back in the swing again I know I'll really start using it. Then again, with the treadmill and the weight bench and weights, it also seems like a waste of money sometimes. I don't know. It's kind of my last hold out between financial necessity and what I need to do for my health. We'll see.

I think I'll update my spending journal tomorrow seeing as it is almost midnight.