I am still really wiped out today. I am not sure why as I feel like I got enough sleep, but I just feel like a zombie.

My nephews are driving me crazy. Well, the younger one is the worst. He's being extremely disrespectful to my daughter. He also brought some video games with him that are rated M and are basically those games where you just murder people, including hookers and drug dealers. I told my son he couldn't be up there with them while they were playing those games. I am shocked that my sister is letting her kids even play those games considering how conservative she is about things.

My nephews also decided it would be fun to go lay down in the middle of the street after dark last night. It was still early, just dark. My son's no longer allowed to go outside with them unless my daughter or an adult is there. My son was pretty much freaking out when they did this last night, but he didn't tell me last night. He told me today. I kind of thought my twelve-year-old would be safe with them since they are 15 and 18, but clearly he is not.

I knew that my mother was going to invite them down and then basically ignore what they were doing and all this was going to fall on me to take care of them and my kids to entertain them. It's what she always does. I really did not want them here during the first week of school as it would make things really hard on us. I told her she should have invited them in the summer and when DH was home to help, but of course that would have inconvenienced my sister (who is supposed to be homeschooling the youngest right now). And heaven forbid we ever inconvenience my sister.

Well, I'm not taking up the slack this time. I am too tired and sick to deal with them so basically my kids and I are staying in our wing of the house and leaving them to their own devices. When they came down here whining about being hungry I told them to go tell their grandmother as she's in charge of them, not me. Or to *gasp* make their own food. They're certainly old enough. And Mom bought them enough junk food to feed an army, including a bunch of stuff that my son likes but is allergic to.

I will be so glad when they go home. It's times like this that I hate living here. Most of the time I'm okay with it, but right now it's all just making me so irritable. I am so glad that our house will be done in about two more weekends and then we can put the thing on the market and hopefully it will sell and we can buy a new house and get the heck out of here.

I sent for another $5 gift card to Amazon from Swagbucks today, so that should show up in a week. I have gotten $25 worth of free gift cards this month. This is the first month I've managed to do that in. Not bad for 10 minutes worth of effort in a day (if that).

I've qualified for a couple of the good surveys at ACOP this month. Will probably have a decent cash out next month.

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I have two crockpots full of tomato puree cooking down into sauce. I have decided I don't care that it takes longer, it's hands off and that makes it easier for me. The whole house smells like tomato sauce.

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I just found out that my mother invited two of my nephews up to stay next week. Starting on the first day of school. There has been the whole long summer to do this and she invites them up the first week of school? And the first week of homeschool for DS? Sometimes I don't think she thinks things through. My nephews are supposed to be homeschooled, but my sister is...lazy about it. Oh, they do get educated, but not on any kind of a schedule. This is just going to make things ten times harder for us. Oh, well, it's not like I can do anything about it. This is part and parcel of living in someone else's home.

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I hope our house sells fast and we come out of it with a good down payment. I really want to not be subject to Mom's whims. I feel like the dang thing is never going to get on the market, though. They were supposed to paint the outside of the house last weekend and the inside this. For whatever reason it didn't happen and now they are planning to paint it this weekend. The weather is supposed to be good for it, but I'm not sure about how much longer.

And for some reason or other they seem to want to paint the outside first. Even if it rains. This is not a good plan in my mind. *sighs* Since they are fitting us in around other people there is not much I can do about that either.

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We have close to $800 worth of eyeglasses to pay off in the next 3 months (same as cash, fortunately). If it isn't one thing it's another. Our vision insurance only covers glasses every 2 years instead of the industry standard of every year for lenses and every 18 months for frames. They do cover one eye doctor visit per year though.

Unfortunately both kids' prescriptions have changed so much that there was no way of putting it off for another year. Fortunately DH and I are not having any problems with ours and can wait another year. Personally I think insurance companies should take into account changes in the prescription and if there is a valid change, then pay for it or some of it, regardless of how long it has been. Just wanting different frames sooner is not valid, but the eyes changing enough to make a major difference is medical and should be covered no matter what.

Next payday I will finally finish paying the dentist for DH's crowns. Yesterday I made another $500 payment to DS's doctor. That leaves us owing them two more payments, or a total of $1000 left. Ugh. But no interest. I think I'm putting half of next year's tax return straight into the HSA next March.

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I borrowed $300 from the freezer fund which will be replaced over the course of next month (I hope). I needed to buy school clothes and supplies before school actually started and with all the extra medical I've had to pay from DS's head injury this summer, I couldn't budget enough for it. It was either that or take it out of the emergency fund, which I couldn't justify. That is okay, though.

Fortunately DS didn't need much because he's homeschooling, but he did need fall appropriate clothing as he has grown way, way too much since last fall to fit into anything he had. And DD had to have non-marking sole shoes for PE separate from her regular shoes. She has PE all year though and at least her feet have stopped growing. She should be fine except for snow boots (which can wait a few months) and she can always use mine if she has to. DS will need them if we have a bad winter, though. And DH said something about needing new work boots soon. It never ends.

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We got 3 duck eggs today. We were pretty sure we had 2 males and 2 females, but now it's looking like 3 females, with Patches being the one male. Because ducks don't lay more than one egg a day.

Sometimes it really feels like I'm living my life on hold; like I'm just putting my time in to get to the other side of something. Right now that something is my son's medical bills. We have three more payments to make of $500 each, one for August, one for September, and one for October. Then in November we can start slamming that extra $500 onto the credit card debt again.

It's been one thing after another this year. First my physical therapy, which ate up close to $3000 and then this whole mess happening with DS's head injury which is going to come in around $3000 when all is said and done. Part of me really wants to go after the other boy's family for medical expenses (not punitive damages, just actual costs), but they are poor and it would probably just push them into bankruptcy in which case we wouldn't be reimbursed for the injuries that boy caused anyway. We totally have a case, but it's probably just not worth pursuing.

The head of admin is trying to set up a meeting with the principal and the vice principal and a few other people. I am not holding my breath about them taking responsibility for this assault. I doubt there will be an expulsion of this kid either. He should not be allowed back in school after what he did. Not that it much matters since DS is homeschooling this year, but he could attack other kids in the same way. They have just handled things badly from the beginning.

It just bothers me, too, that without the extra medical debt this year, we'd be out of credit card debt by now. It's frustrating to me. I feel like I'm a whole year behind because of it all. I know we will get there, we are getting there, but I want it to be now.

I really hope that what DH has been told at work is true, that Christmas bonuses will be double what they were last year. Because if they are we will wipe out that debt in one fell swoop. And if not, well, the tax return we get this next time will as we have maxed out the HSA and will get to deduct the full amount. I know it's coming whether at the end of December or sometime in March. I just really want it to be now. That impatience to be done with it is strong.

We have had debt due to medical stuff for so long. I am used to living with it, but I want to be over. It's been such a long road. I can see the end, yet I know how far it is still to go.

I can't count on the house selling. Not in this market. It would be nice if it did, but who knows. I certainly don't.

So the workmen have been out at the house all weekend. How they can work in this weather I do not know. Yesterday they took down the rotting, wooden carport. The roof was totally caving in. They took down the fence, too, which was mostly down anyway, but they got it all stacked and ready to be hauled away. Today a man is coming to haul it away. He uses it for winter heating. Since it was neither weather treated or painted wood, it is safe to do so. He is also taking away all of the many boxes of kindling that didn't go when we gave away the bulk of the stacked wood. He will also be taking all the beams from when we tore down the green house a few years ago.

They are cutting all of the tree branches that overhang the house, getting rid of the old chest freezer that weighs 20,000 pounds (or something ridiculous), hauling away a bunch of old concrete, and ripping out some rhodies that were planted too close to the house.

Then next weekend (I think) they will be pressure washing the house and repairing a small area of the siding, putting up new gutters, taking the window in to have the inside pane of glass repaired, landscaping and whatnot.

I'm not sure when they will start painting. The inside can be done at any time. The outside will have to dry for several days after they pressure wash it. August is our dryest month so it should get done by the end of the month. I hope.

After they are done painting we will have someone in to decide whether the living room and play room rugs are salvagable. All of the bedroom rugs are, but there is some arts and crafts paint and other things that kids inevitably stain carpets with on the two main areas. We are thinking we may just replace the play room floor, which is really a dining room, with lineoleum that looks like tile, and then just do the living room rug. The other possibility is to put in a wooden flooring. Costco sells a fairly inexpensive one in two different shades (a light or a dark) and since it is going in a house we are selling, it doesn't have to be the color I would want, it can be just a fairly nice color. I would want a honey blond if I had to live with it, but other light colors would be good in that house, too.

Mom says she will pay for it all and we can pay her back when we sell it. I told her she's speculating that we will actually get enough from fixing it up to pay her back. We still have to cover the just under $17K mortgage payoff and the realtor fee. With the market the way it is out there anything can happen. One house that was 1200 square feet, 3 bed, 1 bath sold for $83,000, and a 1400 2 bed, 2 bath for $98,000, and one that was 1600, 4 bed, 2 bath sold for $35,000. Although that one was a foreclosure and I have a feeling it was trashed.

There's a house for sale down the block for $179,000 and I think those people are just dreaming. There is another one for sale for $28,000. I just do not know what our house will bring. It's assessed at $97,000 (used to be $110,000). We paid $65,000 for it and I would be more than happy to just get that. That would pay off the mortgage, the realtor, Mom, and give us some money left for a downpayment. The lot is worth $35,000. If we even got that it would pay off the mortgage, Mom, and the realtor, leave us with abour $10K and stop us leaking all the money that a second house requires you to spend even if there was nothing left for a downpayment.

I don't know. I hate the uncertainty of the future sometimes. Speaking of uncertainty...well, not really, as DH has been assurred by everyone that his job is safe, they fired a bunch of people where DH works and will not be replacing them this year, that means instead of the 2 jobs he is currently working (because they never rehired people after the last round of firing), he and his alternate get to take on the responsibility of 3 positions (one above his paygrade and one below it). No raise to go with the increased responsibility, and he's day rate so no overtime either) though he may be required to work extra weeks. The money would be nice, but having his home time cut down to a week instead of two will be hard, particularly while homeschooling my son.

He did say there were other companies up there hiring for what he does so if things get bad he does have options, but right now he loves his company and his work and he's totally not the type to jump ship unless he's being threatened with unemployment. He was with the last company just shy of 15 years and would still be with them if they hadn't lost the big contracts. They should be rehiring those positions next year when things ramp up again.

I talked to DH tonight for a good while and while he's been assured that his job is safe, there are going to be some other people losing theirs up at work. It means that he may be taking on more responsibility as those jobs don't get refilled. It also means that he may have to work extra days or extra weeks. Extra days or weeks mean extra income, but at the same time, it means more time away from the family. I doubt there will be any raise with this responsibility. He's already practically doing two jobs, so a third one added in...well, I hope it's not too much stress for him.

Having made the decision to homeschool our son this next school year, having DH around less to help out when he's home, or keep me sane, means it'll be that much harder. Of course, I'll only be homeschooling one of my kids this time and he's a way better reader now than he was the last time we homeschooled, so maybe it'll go okay. I know since he's had treatment for his forward head posture, he tends to be a stinker only one day out of seven instead of the other way around. That may make all the difference in the world this time around.

DS has decided he wants to go with WAVA again after all, so everything will be free after all. I would have chosen a few more exciting things, but he says he really, really wants to do WAVA. He liked it before a lot. And it does keep him in the state school system. Though I really, really want to know why they think they need immunization records for a virtual school? He will not be around other children on a daily basis.

We are trying to get a hold of a lady on Craig's List who gives music lessons for $15/30 minutes. DS has decided he does not want to even do just orchestra through the school system, since the principal sometimes comes in and sits and watches the class. This man has fallen so far in my son's estimation that he doesn't want to take a class he loves because of the risk that that man will stop by once a month to view it as he did during sixth grade. I really wish there was a way that I could impress on that principal all the damage he is responsible for doing to my child.

Since the principal has been unwilling to communicate at all since all of the medical evidence (including x-rays) came in supporting our child being pretty severely injured at school, we can't even talk to him about it, or try to help restore any kind of trust there. He's just...well, they say bullying starts at the top. I know he bullied us when we went in. I think maybe he's so used to having his own way he has forgotten how to bend. Too bad that in the process of becoming so unyielding, he's broken a student's faith that he would be safe at school.

I hate nights where I have insomnia. Or at least "not tired enough to fall asleep until it's really late-ia." We spent a good portion of today out at the house determining what we wanted to keep and what was going to be hauled to the dump of the stuff in the yard and shed. We locked up what we are going to keep and everything left is going to be junked. It's probably 4 pick up loads worth of stuff that will never be usable, like the 2 extremely heavy bags of solid concrete that got rained on. They used to be powder. Or the patio table umbrella that somehow managed to grow an entire layer of something green and fuzzy.

We ended up basically keeping very little. I'm not sure how we ever accumulated so much useless stuff. Having lived in 1000 square feet for the last two and a half years has given me a lot of irritation at our formerly cluttered life. And I am not looking forward to going through the stuff in storage, though that will be our next step, because the smaller the unit we can get into the less we will have to pay.

The guy who wants our car is going to put in $1000 worth of labor in fixing up the old house for it. We will buy the primer, but they have a bunch of leftover paint from other jobs that their boss just gives away after a house is done and that will be free. They already have all the equipment. They will tape and mud and fix some small holes (nail holes, when we changed out the thermostat and put it at the other end of the house) and paint the inside and when that is done we will have the carpets cleaned. The one guy says he has seen carpets in worse shape than ours come back great with professional cleaning so we're hoping we won't have to replace the rugs.

They are also going to take all of the junk we sorted out today to the dump and get the yard ready for sale. He's got a guy who wants to tear down the carport, which is falling down, for free, so he can have the wood. He'll also take all of the greenhouse demolition wood and the broken fencing away.

They want to paint the outside of the house, too, again with free paint from other jobs and they will spray it as they have that equipment.

The other guy is getting estimates on the broken window pane repair and on how much it will cost to replace the four doors and one door frame that need replacing. And also where we can get replacement sliding doors for the closets and how much.

And they want to do all the yard work needed to fix it up. They know we can't pay a lot because of my son's medical bills right now, but it sounds like as long as we pay for the supplies they can't provide, any additional labor costs can wait until the house is sold. I know the head guy is doing this because he really likes my mother, but I don't want to get too far beholden on a house we may not make much from at all.

I really would like to get moving on this and get it on the market, but I want to pay as we go, too, which may not be possible at a quick rate. But I think just getting the house painted is a step in the right direction.

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As for steps in a different direction, two of the houses that we have had our eyes on for a while both had substantial price drops. The one house, which is pretty much perfect except for the location (which is not a bad location, it's in our chosen school district, it just is not where exactly I want to be) dropped it's price today to $200,000. Which would be a really nice mortgage to have for a house with it's square footage and yard. The only thing I don't like is that I have noticed the neighbors are creeping their stuff.

They are parking one of their brokendown cars partially on that property and their junk is also creeping over. The house has been empty for a while and I don't really want to have neighbors who start taking over bits and pieces when you aren't looking. Plus there was so much clutter in their garage and the yard seemed trashed. All the other yards in the area seem fine, but I don't want bad neighbors. I've had them once and I will not knowingly buy a home next to them.

The other one which is a block outside our desired neighborhood and is only outside it because it is across from the freeway and the noise is loud, was $330,000 when it was taken off the market after a year several months ago, and it came back on the market at $300,000. It is a perfect house for us in a better area. Handicapped accessible, handicapped bathroom shower, a large yard for gardening, a big garage/shop. You can't really hear the freeway from the back yard and it's pretty quiet from inside the house, but it is very loud in the front. All of the bedrooms are in the back though and we've lived with road noise when we lived in the country next to a highway. But I still think it's going to drop more.

If our house had sold and we had the downpayment in hand we'd make an offer. It would be closer to $225,000 to start with, going up to $250,000. I can't say with the road noise it is ever going to sell for more than $275,000. Considering how long they've been trying to unload it, it's just been vastly overpriced. It's also on a dead end, not easy to give directions to, and behind a crematorium/funeral home so it can't sell like the same house picked up and moved to another location and they have to accept that. Once they do I think the price will fall again. When it does, I hope we can take advantage of it.

I told DH today though that I really want to have at least $30,000 in the emergency fund before we start saving for a downpayment. I don't want to go without it.

He said there might be a possibility of him working an extra week. They had fired two people in documentation (they were alternates) and have not rehired replacements even though it's been months and he's sort of been doing both his regular job and the job of the person who is gone. And the second job is falling behind because he has his hands full with his own job. So he may see an extra week of work. Which financially would be great. It would give us enough to pay off the last $1500 of DS's medical bills and still leave us with some money for the house renovations. But I remember how hard 3 weeks on were on everyone including him. And that was 3 on/3 off, not 3 on/1 off. Yes, the money might be nice, but we would muddle by without it to the new year when everything will get easy again. At least I hope so.

We went to the Pacific Science Center to see the King Tut exhibit yesterday. It was fantastic and we had a great time...until we tried to leave. Seattle traffic was nasty on the way out. I was not pleased that Obama was in Bellevue. It screwed up being able to get back out of the city. I have never seen Seattle traffic this snarled before. It took 25 minutes to go .4 of a mile! And then another 15 minutes to go 3 blocks. And with all the one way streets, you can't get there from here, even with GPS.

I thought we'd never get out. Since we had bought our tickets well in advance of Obama scheduling his trip here, all it did was make me cranky. And I would have been just as cranky if it had been Romney screwing with traffic. I am an equal opportunity grump.

Also what is up with all those dedicated bus lanes? Can't they be dedicated bus lanes and carpool lanes? We had 5 people in the car. That's practically a bus! LOL No, I know, public transportation is big in Seattle and the buses need to stay as on time as possible. But...it's not like half the city stays out of them, anyway. They would go in them illegally and then try to shove into the lane that it was legal for cars to be in. Made me even more grumpy, because we were driving properly and they were cheating and people were letting them in anyway. When it takes six light changes to get across an intersection because only one car at a time can make it because of all the irresponsible scofflaws, it irritates me. DH even honked his horn once. DH never honks his horn.

And don't get me started on the crazy, jay-walking pedestrians who were trying to commit suicide by car. Or the motorcyclists who think they belong in the bicycle lanes. I may never complain about the crazy drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and bikers in my city again. I think next time we may just take the train. Save ourselves a lot of annoyance and not have to deal with the crazy people.

We ended up spending $200 of our vacation money, well within the allotted amount for the day. I even came home with some money. It goes back in the vacation fund so we will have it for our trip to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma next month. Hopefully there will be no political visitors at that time! Because if there is one thing that gets to me more than Seattle traffic, it is Tacoma traffic!

Jeffrey, I don't know if my PM's made it through to you or not (I sent one 36 hours ago and one about 12 hours ago) and I don't even know if this is going to post, but my blog is not letting me post 9 times out of 10 and if I try to edit something that does post, it erases the whole post. It is also telling me I am not allowed to make comments either on my own blog or other people's blogs. Hopefully this one will manage to get through.

Or maybe it's just been the roughest week in a while. DS is finally improving with the concussion, but he has also been diagnosed with forward head posture which was aggravated by, but not caused by, the same thing that caused the concussion. His head isn't seated properly on the neck. It can cause many of the things we have been seeing in DS including a decreased lung capacity (by 30%) making it difficult for him to have any stamina while running in PE. It pinches the brain stem and can cause irritibility, sleep problems, quickness to anger, digestive issues, etc. It is treatable though.

He has to do these special treatments that are going to cost $2500, $500 a month. Treatment may run longer, but that is the full cost even if it goes on all year. I have made the first payment, so just 4 more months worth to come up with. We probably won't be reimbursed for this from insurance since it is an out of network doctor and it is alternative medicine, but it's not like there is an in network doctor that isn't too far away to drive to this often. Because there is one though, it looks unlikely they'll let us have it. If I hadn't seen the improvement already I'd be very wary of the whole thing, but it really is helping. He has to wear a one pound weight band on his head as well for 20 minutes every morning and night to help correct it.

We will not be able to get a half a sustainable, organic beef in December like we were planning because of this expense, but we should be able to get one in the spring. We will still be able to buy some each month out of our grocery budget though as we've been doing. Tomorrow we are going to the ranch to buy some beef and pork. My plans are for 4 beef chuck roasts, 12 pounds of hamburger, 2 pounds of bacon, 1 package of sausages and 8 pork chops.

I am not going to buy anymore of their chickens though. They are only 3.5 pounds which makes the pieces very small, and I prefer to have a 4 to 5 pound chicken so I can have some leftovers for making another meal. Well, I had a bit of leftovers (one back portion and one leg), but not nearly enough to make another meal for four with. And they aren't nearly as flavorful as the beef and pork. I am going to try one of the local chickens that they have for sale at Terra Organica (they are bigger) and if I like the flavor, I will purchase several from the farm. I have the money for the chickens set aside.

We had the last ranch chicken for dinner tonight. I cut it up successfully by myself without Mom hovering by. I've got it down now and I think I can do it with no problems from now on. I think I will invest in a pair of poultry sheers though. It would make cutting between the back and the breast easier. Mine are buried somewhere in storage and weren't the best pair anyway, so a really good new one is in my future. Maybe that'll be my Christmas present this year. We also had potatoes from the garden, lettuce from the window boxes, and some organic nectarines.

When I was out in the garden today I noticed the raspberries are ripening. In a week I should be able to make jam. There might even be some for picking tomorrow. I also checked out our blueberry bushes (which are now taller than me) and they are so loaded with green berries, I know there's going to be a lot of picking this August. I think we will probably get at least 5 gallons per bush and I might be estimating on the low side, so lots for the freezer and plenty for jelly.

The Italian prune tree is loaded this year. Last year we didn't have too much as there was a bad windstorm at the wrong time of year and most of the blossoms got knocked off before pollination. This year will make up for it. There will be plenty for canning. The blackberries are also loaded with blossoms and I think I will get enough to make a batch or two of jam this August.

I'm going to get a couple of flats of strawberries tomorrow, too, so I can make jelly this week. I'll be making grape jelly (from pure grape juice) while I am at it. Might as well only get the kitchen hot and sweaty once.

The grapes are doing pretty well this year. I saw some blossoms. If they produce, it will be the first year they have. There may be a few bunches for eating, but I doubt there will be enough for jelly. Still, if there is, I will make some. It is hard to find good-tasting organic grapes that are reasonably priced.

The compost bin is off to a really good start. Adding in the chicken bedding is going to make it really fertile. DS loves to take the vegetable and fruit scraps out to the bin. It might be a boy thing, but he likes to see the stuff break down and rot. It seems to be his favorite chore and it is one he can do right now as opposed to mowing the lawn. He can't operate machinery until four weeks post concussion.

Today was payday. I haven't done a payday post in forever, but I have been keeping all of my spreadsheets updated and my checkbook balanced. All the bills are paid until the middle of July so it's going to be pretty much automatic pilot on that until the next payday in two weeks.

We did get accepted for the 0% for a year Chase VISA card I talked about a while back. We have received the cards but are still waiting for them to do the transfer from the BoA card. The next payment isn't due until the 21st so I am hoping they will do it before then. It has been pending for a while now. Banks sure can move fast when they want to, when it benefits them, but they sure drag their feet when you want them to move quickly.

Well, I haven't posted my meal plan for this week even though I made one and a good thing, too. I've had to redo it. The circuit the stove is on shorted out today. That whole area needs to be rewired it's so old. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow evening if Mom's handyman can make it over, but it may not so we need to cook things that can be made on the electric griddle, the Foreman grill, the crockpot, the Belgian waffle maker, in the microwave or the deep fat fryer. While it's nice to have those options, it does make things a bit more difficult to plan for.

Anyway, today's meal ended up being:
Pork chops (on the grill)
French fries (in the deep fat fryer, had planned fried potatoes on the stove top)
Salad
Cherries

The rest of the week goes as follows:

Tuesday--
Belgian waffles
Ham made on the griddle
Leftover broccoli and cauliflower
Strawberries or cherries

Wednesday--
Had planned on bacon cheeseburgers but I can't make buns until the oven is fixed so if not:
Picnic ham made in the crockpot
Sweet potato tater tots (was planning on baking in the oven, so will make in the fryer if necessary)
Coleslaw
Bananas or cherries

Thursday--
Should have the oven back by then so:
Bacon Cheeseburgers
Pineapple or nectarines
Green beans

Friday--
Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches on homemade bread
Salad
Strawberries or nectarines

Saturday--
Homemade pizza
Cole slaw
Leftover fruit from the week

Sunday--
Pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Leftover fruit from the week

I may have to make adjustments depending on the stove, but hopefully this will work. I can make bread in the bread machine for the toasted cheese sandwiches on the griddle if necessary, just need the oven for buns. We've gotten so spoiled with the taste of homemade bread and buns I think we'd rather go without than buy storebought now.

I haven't been blogging for the past few days because my son got a concussion on Thursday at school. He was hit in the head from behind twice by another student and the school, particularly the principal, has been a nightmare to deal with. There was a lot of gross negligence on their part. He sat in the office for an hour before we were even called and no one bothered to check his head (which had a bump) or him for signs of concussion, though he was clearly exhibiting them. Once we had medical proof from the doctor in hand and gave it to him he has ceased communications with us. Honestly I think he is trying to cover his butt at this point.

We contact the superintendent of schools on Monday. I am just glad the school year is now over. DS will likely be homeschooled this fall. At least that is his decision at the moment. We told him he can wait until the end of August to decide, though. I won't send him back into that environment unless there has been some real changes in attitude and behavior by the administration.

BoA just sent us a letter saying they have sold our car loan to some bank I've never even heard of, Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. I'm wishing now I'd just gone through Toyota financing again even if it was .5 percent less to do BoA.

At least it appears you can make your payments online with this new place. I am really unhappy about this, though, because if I'd wanted a different bank when I got the car loan, I would have gone with a different bank. I liked the convenience of having it in the same place as my credit cards so it would all show up on the same page. One place to monitor it, one place to keep track.

I suppose now that we only have one card with them left with a balance on it it isn't that much of a big deal. Our loan is long since closed, two of our master cards are paid off and there is only the one VISA with a small balance.

I guess I will adapt and change, but I really hate change unless I am the one instigating it. We may just see if we can refinance it with our local credit union. I like having a branch in town I can drive to if I have to wait until the last minute to make a payment. I had that with BoA. I don't have that with some bank on the opposite coast to where I live.

I guess it's just another step closer to wiping our feet of the Evil Empire forever, but I'd prefer to know at least a little something about this other place. And it isn't like they all were originally BoA cards to begin with. The two master cards were originally MBNA and the VISA was originally SeaFirst (a local bank that no longer exists), both of which were bought up by BoA and I didn't like that then, either. I eventually got used to it. I will again.

I haven't been feeling great the last couple of days. Not sick, really, just...yucky. Today I didn't stick to my meal plan. I cooked, it's just that the idea of doing a complicated new recipe did not appeal. Plus, I realized I was out of soy sauce, so I couldn't really make the marinade. I ended up just doing bacon cheese burgers, corn on the cob, and nectarines. It worked well. We picked up soy sauce so we can make the Tropical Chicken Stir-fry tomorrow and bump the ribeye meal to next week. They are frozen so it's not that big a deal. Plus DS is doing a make up tae kwon do class tomorrow for when he was so sick, which means a stir-fry will just be easier than the other.

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I found this interesting booklet on meal planning:

http://nchstd.documents.s3.amazonaws.com/More%20Month%20than.... It's kind of a crash course for people who don't really know what they are doing. It wasn't exactly news to me, but I think it would be very helpful for someone who hasn't tried meal planning before and wants to dive in. It does require time though. I think this is more for families with a stay at home parent (and not of very young children, but at least preschool age and up, because some of it would just be hard to do with a toddler clinging to your leg or wearing a baby) or maybe one parent who is only working part time. I'd find it hard if I was working full time. Not that it's not doable, but it's probably not practicle in that situation. Also didn't really care for the breakfasts, because I don't like oatmeal (unless it's in cookies or bread or granola or Joe's O's), but it's not hard to plan breakfasts. And I liked the shopping lists. It's a good teaching tool really.

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I added $6.98 cents to the coin jar. I picked up a prescription for $25. We filled up the gas tank on the van, $57.16. We did a major stock up run to Costco so I shouldn't have to go there for a couple of months, and picked up six LED lightbulbs there, batteries, toilet paper, and of course groceries.

I got really annoyed at a lady there. She was trying to squeeze between me and the shelves instead of going around DH and I. There was not room to do this and she was practically shoving her cart into me. I was probably less than gracious about it because I was having a bad pain day in my leg which always makes me walk slower. I walked even slower at that point. I get cranky when I hurt. She huffed loudly and finally just went around us. I wanted to tell her off, but I bit my tongue. People are rude enough at Costco without me adding to it.

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Spent $10 on two foam swords for the kids. I probably played with one of them more than was seemly for an adult, but it was fun to whack something today. Very stress relieving. This was actually an expense for school.

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Here, have a photo of the half grown chickens roosting in the coop. I will try to get a photo of the ducks up soon.



Oh, and here's a photo of the damage my mother "didn't" do to our older car. The suction cup dent remover does not work to pull it out, either. It cost $5.

1. Colored my hair with an old box of hair dye that has been kicking around for 2 years. It was bought back when it was $5.99 a box. It looks great by the way, though it is not the color it said on the box. I colored dark reddish brown hair with some grey something called Brazilian Bronze. No. Copper maybe, but definitely not bronze. So I've got a bit more red in my hair than usual, but it works.

2. I stuck to my meal plan and made spaghetti and meat balls with from scratch sauce, even though I wanted to get take out burgers from Boomers. I have enough sauce left for both the leftover noodles, meatball subs tomorrow and to make a lasagna later. And I immediately froze what will go for the lasagna as soon as it cooled. In the past I've left it in the fridge too long and ended up throwing it out. That was a while ago, but I am guarding against it in my effort not to waste good, organic, wholesome food.

3. Picked up two cook books from the library that I really wanted to buy. I did not see them at Goodwill when I went there on the weekend. They are The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook and The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry. One is a doorstop. The other is pretty hefty, too. Neither book has photos so I'm glad I did not buy them. I like photos with my recipes. To me the word illustrated means they should have photos. There are a few drawings, but they are a drop in the bucket. I am still going to read them as they came highly recommended, or at least the first one did, at a blog I have started reading in the last week.

4. I started reading a new (to me) blog at

www.thefrugalgirl.com. I'm working my way through the backlog of posts (she has almost four years worth) and I really like it. She has similar values to mine and is homeschooling her kids. I don't homeschool anymore, but I did for several years and I still have the mindset, so I am really enjoying her and she is so cheerful and upbeat, which is nice. I was actually looking for frugal recipes with meat and she was one of the choices and then I was like, hey, what else has she got, and then I was totally sucked in. She has good ideas and reading her stuff is really encouraging me to stick to my meal plan.

5. Took a walk. Free exercise.

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In other news, we have a nesting pair of what I think are chickadees living in the bird house on our back porch. I moved our recycle bins to the other side of the porch so as not to disturb them. They built a nest all last week. It was fun to watch them being so industrious. I think they are either Boreal or Mountain chickadees. It's more likely they are Boreal as I don't know if the Mountain ones stray this close to sea level, though there are still a lot of foothills around us.

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On Saturday evening I found Navi dead. She was the white hen. I don't know what was wrong with her. There was no sign of trauma, she was just on her back, feet up in the air and stiff as a board. She hadn't laid in a week and we think she might have been backed up with the eggs still inside her. I hope not because that is a horrible way for a hen to die, but it does happen.

If one of them had to go though, she was the bully in the henhouse and it was better it was her than any of the others. The flock is much more harmonius now. We buried her and gave her a little funeral. The chickens and ducks are very much pets, albeit working pets.

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My diet and exercise are going well and I am losing weight again. I'm sure sticking to my meal planning helps with that a lot. I am generally feeling better, but my face has broken out like a teenager at the worst part of puberty. I think it's just the fact that I haven't slept well in a few nights. I know it's not sugar or high fructose corn syrup because I haven't had any in ages. I do not think it is fair for people to have wrinkles and zits. Like karmically unfair. I'm going to bed early tonight.

...I got excused from jury duty. Fully excused this time. Apparently being partially disabled, being on certain medications that cloud my thinking, having various doctor's notes about surgeries and being unable to sit on those hard chairs for eight hours a day due to my hip and low back are not valid reasons to be fully excused without being recalled in six months, but being a stay at home mom who has to take her kids to and from school or be home with them on non-school days and has a spouse working in another state and cannot afford to pay someone else to do that because all our money is going to pay off past medical bills, is. Go figure.

But at least I feel like I have my life back now. That I don't have to wait another stomach-churning day to figure out if they are going to call me or not. That I don't have to worry about not drinking water all day or having violent allergic reactions to people's perfume or cigarette stink. That I don't have to have all my months of physical therapy ruined by being unable to move like I need to move throughout the day to avoid wrecking my body. That I won't have to go through the muscle spasms that would be caused by sitting in those chairs for so long.

None of it would be worth the $10 a day stipend. $100 to regress all the physical progress I have made and had to spend $1700 out of pocket for. Yeah, that's really what I wanted to do. I like walking without a cane. I like being able to go up and down stairs like a normal person again. I like only having to use my handicapped parking permit 1 time out of 10 and not every day. Going backwards I'm not a big fan of.

The only thing is I know that in a year or two when we buy a new house and we move and I have to change my address with the DMV and change my voting address (it's automatic now with changing it at the DMV) it will just pop me up on their list again. It does that every time I change my address or renew my license. Like clockwork. But at least I know which reason to use now. I suppose that is something.

And someday when I am healthy and strong and my kids are grown and they call me to serve, I will go. Of course, that is probably when they will finally give up calling me to serve.

I stepped on a staple today, not like the kind you use to hold papers together, but a more heavy duty one, like they use in construction. It was on the fairly small side of construction staples, but it still hurt like blazes. It didn't bleed too much, it was in the thick part of the heel, and I really don't like walking on it right now. Of course I did it too late in the day to go to the doctor for a tetanus shot (I'm due), but I will call tomorrow. You have 72 hours to get one after a puncture to be in the safe window.

I did not end up going to the store last night like I had planned. I had also only planned to only spend $10. And ended up spending $129.21 today. Well, I bought more cold medicine, and they had hamburger and pot roast on sale, and then they had chicken noodle soup and beef stew and chili on sale, and my pantry has been looking a little bare because anything we could heat and serve was pretty much used up while I was so sick (still am, but more functional now). And I bought milk. So...it's not like I went out of my grocery budget or anything, I've barely spent any of it this month so far, but it was a lot of unplanned buying. Staple buying, but unplanned.

I made tacos for dinner tonight. I didn't feel well enough to make the hamburger on the stove so I did it in the microwave with my Tupperware stack cooker, then added the taco seasoning. We use the big container of McCormick taco seasoning they sell at Costco and we use half a cup per pound. The directions say 1/4 cup but it is not enough for our tastebuds. We didn't have quite enough shredded cheese for everyone so I improvised with some Tillamoos. I do have some cheese I could shred but I didn't feel like standing there and doing it. Mom gave me all the lettuce leftover from the family gathering, so we used that for the lettuce.

This is the second dinner I have cooked this week that did not come out of a can. I made chicken last night. So I do seem to be getting back on stride a little, but I don't have the energy or strength to do anything big and complicated.

I have to take DS to tae kwon do tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday. I really don't want to, but he still has to get two classes in before the make up test Wednesday. He's missed so much being sick. It's already been four months to get the needed classes in. Usually at his age it only takes two months. I think I may just sleep out in the car. I am so tired and the hard benches inside for parents are so uncomfortable.

I'm still not quite myself. I am just so tired, still feeling blechy even if I am on the mend. I think I've lost all sense of ambition. I guess if I am going to be sick it is good to be sick in that long interval of not having to pay any bills until the 20th because I am not very on top of the finance thing right now.

I went nowhere yesterday and thus spent no money. Almost the whole family descended yesterday and it was long and exhausting though nice to visit. Although I still want to know why I am the only person in my family (besides my kids, and DH when he's home) that help my mother when everyone comes over.

I know that my older sister has always held the attitude that she is a "guest" and therefore does not have to help out. Where she got that attitude from I do not know because it is not the way Mom raised us. My eldest sister, who had just got done telling me all of the changing she had noticed in Mom and how much she was slowing down, sat there and watched me (sick, coughing me) clear the table and put everything in the dishwasher and did not budge an inch. *sighs* My thirty year old neice was there, too. Nothing.

My mom is 72, she had knee replacement in September, and she is not as strong as she used to be. My kids did a lot of work helping her get ready and I helped with the cleanup (i.e. did most of it). I am the least able of us three girls despite being the youngest, but I would not dream of leaving her to do it all alone.

I go through this every holiday and get together. I am always so stunned by the fact that they still won't lift a finger. I have asked before in the past and have pretty much given up asking them, but it still annoys me. My daughter did ask one of them if they were going to help and got the response, "Oh, I'm too tired." ????? Ooookay. My family.

Anyway, today is a spend day. The kids walked down to Trader Joe's and bought a big jug of pure maple syrup and additive free lunch meat for DS's school lunches, spending $21.78. I will be running down to Haggen after dinner to pick up some organic milk and 1/4 pound of deli ham for DD's school lunches. It'll come to under $10, so I'm counting that as close enough for recording purposes.

I feel like all I have done for the past four days is sleep. My fever finally broke yesterday. A week at 101 is hard, but yesterday it was 99 and today it was 97.6 (my normal). I am still coughing a lot, but it's way up towards the base of my throat. I can read again (have several days worth of blogs to catch up on now!) for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

I have spent around $40 on Dayquil, Nyquil, and psuedophederine this week. They at least helped manage the symptoms. Until today that is all I spent in the last few days (for the daily expenses challenge). Today I ordered a XL pizza from Round Table which was $27.18. I'm still not much up for cooking. I managed a chicken stir-fry from one of my homemade kits in the freezer yesterday, but that about did me in. Mostly it's been soup and sandwiches around here, or anything that comes out of a can but doesn't have additives.

Hopefully I will feel good enough on Sunday to make a big batch of pancakes for the freezer. That would have come in handy this week as it only takes 30 seconds in the microwave to warm one up from frozen. Maybe I'll make a batch of blueberry cornbread muffins, too. That's real simple and fast and involves hardly any work on my part.

Mom is having a big get together on Saturday. Everyone will be here except my husband. My eldest sister, her son and his wife and their son, my older sister, her spouse and her four boys, me and my two kids. I don't know how much time I'll spend there, though. I can't be around my nephew's wife much as she is pregnant and I don't want to expose her to this. I'll probably hang around for an hour or two and then go back to bed.

Mom wants DD to make cookies. DD is probably still contagious with this same thing I'm getting over. I don't think that's a smart idea at all, and DD doesn't want to, but once Mom gets a thing in her head you never hear the end of it until it gets done. Of course if the whole family then gets sick it will be DD's fault. *sighs*

I filled out my jury question form and sent it in today. I listed all of my physical limitations and disabilities, as well as a list of the medications I am on that may cloud my thinking. I will probably still have to serve, but whatever. They can't say I didn't warn them.

Yesterday's expenses:

$49.06 @ Costco

Today's Expenses:

$10 for DD to turn in for art supplies at school tomorrow for art class.

Really got irritated at the workmen today. They left their equipment in the house, blocking the hallway and access to the kids' bedrooms when they left. Including a power saw that was plugged in. Dangerous and careless. And Mom didn't understand why I was upset by that. It's not like her life is being disrupted by the remodel at all, other than she has to park her car in a different spot in the driveway. She's in a different wing of the house. But this was dangerous and she shouldn't have acted like it was harmless. I will be so glad when they are done. I will be even more glad when we can get out of here.

Mom had one of her nasty moments today where she was blaming us for the mold in the bathroom again, even though the workmen said it was caused by the leak in the roof which had nothing to do with us. This went into a woe is me fit which she does about every six months. She refuses to go out and do activities where she can meet people and then complains about how she has no friends because Dad never wanted to socialize. I keep encouraging her to do so now, but then she snaps at me about it saying I just want her out of the house (which isn't true, I want me out of the house). I hope I'm not seeing the early onset of anything. But she's always kind of been like this, it just wasn't as extreme when Dad was alive and still had his mind.

I just do not have the energy or the stamina for this when I am running a 101 degree fever and trying to cough my lungs out through my windpipe. I didn't snap at her, but it was close. I just keep telling myself she is my mother and I love her even when she goes a little nuts.

I swept DH's wallet and added $10.65 to the coin jar. I had enough to roll quarters so I did that. I have a pretty hefty deposit to make on Monday if I feel well enough to go to the CU.

DH decided to make a Costco run today instead of tomorrow so there will be some expenses to report after all when he gets back. He is just getting the minimal though, toilet paper, tomato sauce and chicken pot pies (DS eats these when I am too sick to cook, DD can fend for herself). Since DH goes back to Alaska on Monday and I have no energy yet, I want to have them on hand.

I got my summons for jury duty and surprisingly it's actually for the date they said it was going to be for. That has never happened before. I just hope I am over this borderline walking pnuemonia/bronchitis thing by then as I don't see me getting it deferred again or excused.

Sometimes I think I just like banging my head against the wall. A house came on the market on Friday and it's just about perfect if you could just pick up the house and plop it down where you wanted it to be. And the price! $219,000 for 1747 square feet, with an unfinished basement. The outside was cute, not the greatest color, what I like to refer to as one of the least offensive shades of bland, but nice windows and doors, and the inside looked great from the photos. Hardwood floors in the living room, dining room, and master bedroom. Main floor master bedroom with ensuite. Gorgeous, big kitchen, large enough to put the table in and use the dining room for the piano and exercise machines. Open floor plan. The second floor has 2 bedrooms, plus a big rec room and there is a second bathroom, a must.

It has a fenced yard with five raised beds for gardening, is a completely flat yard, and has mature fruit trees. But it wasn't too big a yard either, so easy to mow. We drove by it. The only thing it didn't have that was bad was a driveway and there is no street parking, but there is a place for one car under the trees. I don't like the idea of parking under trees as there is so much sap and bird droppings that get on the car that way. There is no garage or storage either, which isn't necessary with the basement. But it looks good otherwise. It really does.

It is even in the right school district for both kids, though right on the borderline for the middle school. And the location is the reason why it's got a lower asking price than the norm. It's close to the freeway. Close enough you can hear it, but not as close as our old house was to the highway. It sounds more like a river than traffic. The neighborhood is okay, but not a favored area for me. I'd say it's lower middle class and I'm not sure what direction it is going, up or down. I looked for signs but they were mixed.

There were some very nice homes there, and a lot of minivans that were at least from this century, but probably early to mid last decade (probably all paid off!). There were also a couple of condmened houses being torn down and a house that had obvious burn damage that was being worked on. There were no wrecked cars and cars up on blocks, there was no sign of trash and the yards were all maintained. The front porches were not all cluttered up with junk. Some of the roofs had a lot of moss, but many where spotless. It was raining hard and a couple of the yards were flooded, which might indicate trouble with basements getting water.

We will probably not make an appointment to look at it. I know I need to have patience, and not push to look at things yet. And as nice as it is, there is enough for me to go, no, it's not got quite enough of my ticky boxes checked. And I don't want to rush into something. We rushed into something in 1998 and I have been regretting it since then. I don't want to make the same mistake we did before, being in a hurry to get out of where we are and not going into things with our eyes wide open.

I want one of my preferred neighborhoods. I want walking distance to certain things. I want to be closer to mom than that (but not so close she walks to me!) And I really do want a driveway. *sighs* I need to stop looking but those shiny real estate sites are just so...shiny.

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Ex-BIL is being a jerk again, no surprise. He has decided to sue SIL to try make her sell the house they still jointly own because she is messing up his credit by not making the payments on time. Of course, he is late every single month in giving her his share of the mortgage, not to mention child support, so of course she cannot make them on time. Kind of a duh thing.

This is the house that two of his children, whom she has full custody of, live in. It takes a special kind of selfishness to be such an awful human being. This is so the cheating, child-molesting idiot and the woman he is currently shacked up with can try to buy a house together. The only reason he is doing it now and not sooner, like when they divorced, was because one of the conditions they had when they built the house through an assistance program, was they had to wait at least five years to sell it or pay a major penalty. Guess when the five years was up?

Well, I guess my rant paid off, because DH just called me to tell me that they called him 5 minutes ago and he has been fully excused (not even rescheduled) from jury duty! So no EF crippling time off from work, no debt repayment stall out, no worrying about the financial side of things, thank goodness! That takes about half the stress out of my system. Now if they would just contact me about mine, so I can know and plan, I would lose another 40%, and just be left with the normal 10% or so that is part and parcel with being a parent.

But the best part is I will have that Master Card paid off by the end of March! I can make the payment on Friday. Well, there will probably be some interest calculated, but it'll be piddly and I can pay that off as soon as it hits. And then it's just a matter of destroying the VISA, smushing it down into nothing and being free of the dang noose of credit card debt once and for all. It is so close I can taste it.

It feels good to have my hope back again. I am generally an optimistic person, but debt has so burdened me for so long that sometimes I get very gloomy about it when things go wrong.

Now we can go ahead and schedule ADT to come out to the old house and put in a new control box. The old one works, but it is badly cracked which will not look good for resale. I'd also like to put four more windows on the system. And maybe the window people can come out and give us an estimate as well (one pane of glass on a double-paned window needs to be replaced as it is broken). We won't be able to fix it until the end of April/beginning of May, though, but we can at least schedule it for when DH will be home.

The insurance company is requesting a new certificate of security now as well, to keep our homeowner's insurance so low, so this is a good time to try to get it done. If it's not one thing, it's another. But at least I'm facing it again with a better attitude.

So we still don't know whether DH has been excused from jury duty or not. Which is ridiculous considering he is supposed to report on the 4th. He asked to be excused due to financial hardship, which it will be as we are still pretty much living paycheck to paycheck while we try to dig out of debt. It's really bugging me how unorganized they are. If he has been excused all will be well and he can go back to Alaska on schedule. If he has not been, he will miss a week of work, have to change his flights and pay a fee to do so, possibly have to pay the difference if flights cost more the day he needs to fly, etc. If he hasn't been we are going to have to make some tough financial decisions.

I just found out that the Bank of America VISA due date is going to be the 21st and we get paid on the 20th, so I can go ahead and do the payment to pay off the Master Card. But now I'm not sure if I should until I know whether or not he is going to have to serve jury duty, because that extra $2000 will come in handy if he loses a week of pay. I was so looking forward to having that credit card be completely gone this month.

The other option is to pay it anyway, and then take the hit to the emergency fund. But I don't want to do that. I feel like a baby about it. My mind keeps going, "It's not Faaaaaiiiirrrrr!" and stomping its foot. We worked so hard to get that emergency fund to where it is at and to just see it wiped out is so frustrating.

I wish they would just hurry up and send a letter or make the phone call letting me know whether he has been excused or not. Living in limbo is my least favorite thing to do, and the court system has made me do it more than they should ever make anyone do it.

I still haven't heard about my own summons, either. Supposedly I am to report on April 30th, which is what they told me when I was excused for six months because of my surgery last time. But every other time I've been rescheduled, when the new summons comes, it's never for the date they tell me for, it is for different dates, generally two to three weeks later. So I can't plan anything for the month of May or June because I don't know what they are going to end up doing. They really need to be on the ball and give proper notice so that people can arrange their lives, not leave us hanging for so long. It's ridiculous and highly unprofessional. My tax dollars at work, thank you, gubbmint.

I'm trying not to be frustrated, but it's like they are putting themselves in our way of finally getting out of debt. Like they will be single-handedly responsible for destroying any further major forward progress we could make right now. And I know when I go in to serve I am going to have the worst attitude in the world about it because of all this rigamarole. Plus, you know, be slightly spaced out, because I am still on painkillers and muscle relaxants for my hip, back and knee. So I will be not the most attentive person. Just what you want in a juror.

It also looks like some of my problems that I had the last surgery for are coming back, so I will have to be thinking about a second surgery there to make a final repair. The doctor warned me that might happen, but there has to be about a year between surgeries for complete healing, before doing the second surgery. *sighs* Which will be July. But I haven't called yet to try to schedule anything because one, I want to be out of credit card debt first, and two, I don't know what my life is going to be like until I find out about this stupid jury duty thing! And also, three, I don't have time to be bedridden again for several weeks recovering. *big sigh*

In the small arena of making a little step forward, I added $8.11 to the coin jar. Although I'm starting to wonder, what's the point of scraping so hard to build an emergency fund if something like all this can just wipe it right out? Which is counterproductive, because it's better to wipe out the emergency fund, than to wipe out the finances altogether, right? Just so incredibly discouraged.

Well, I finally heard back from Best Buy. I guess it took the 2 full weeks to realize the laptop was beyond repair, which seriously, it wasn't. All it needed was a new screen. It worked just find if you hooked it up to a monitor. To me, that's like totalling a car because you need to replace the windshield. *sighs*

Anyway, they said I could get a new one of comparable value for free or credit towards an upgrade. I'm sure there won't be one of comparable value. And is that comparable value in today's dollars or in the dollars of the year I bought it? I liked my old laptop. It had the best keyboard in the world for typing quickly, plus a ten-key pad so I could easily enter stuff into spreadsheets.

And will the remainder of my service contract transfer to the new one or be refunded? And what about the one time license for my Office software that was only to be installed on one computer? And what about the fact that I'd just renewed my Kaspersky anti-virus program? Are they going to replace all of that or am I just going to be out of luck on those counts. I might have to make a fuss.

I wonder if I get the broken one back then? Because if I do, we can hook it up to a spare monitor and use it as a backup computer that has Office on it. The kids would like that since they are working out of Open Office and Office 2007 respectively. They probably won't let me keep it, though.

I guess it's a good thing I kept putting money in the laptop fund as I will likely need to buy a new service contract. Won't go without it after how much value I got out of it with these last several repairs.

I don't normally give people money. I have a thing about the people on the corners with their "Please Help" or "Will Work for Food" signs wearing brand new looking Nike shoes and name brand jeans. Totally possible that they bought them at a thrift store, but when I am wearing my three year old no name jeans and off label shoes, I'm very unreceptive.

Still, this girl approached me in the parking lot today and she was semi-hysterical. I mean, either she was a top notch actress or she was genuinely upset. Her story was that she'd just left the local community college (was nearby, check) and she'd run out of gas on the Guide (scariest road in town to break down on, it's five lanes across and busy (also nearby, check), none of the nearby gas stations will loan out gas cans because they never come back (I've heard that before), and she didn't have any money on her and her roommate was in classes until late. The Home Depot was nearby but they didn't loan cans and one cost $10 (about what we paid the last time we bought a gas can). And she had only managed to collect a handful of change and most of it was Canadian (also, likely, lot of Canadian shoppers come here).

Meanwhile, the entire time she was talking I was checking her over. Worn jeans, plain t-shirt, not a fancy name-brand coat, and Payless Shoe Source type shoes. Her eyes were clear, showing no sign of drug use, and she had a well-used backpack on her shoulder with the community college logo. If she was scamming, she was incredible at it and deserved the $20 I gave her. She started crying that I gave her enough to not only buy the can, but some gas, too. I just told her it was okay and that I would hope someone would do the same for me or my daughter if we were ever in a similar situation (though we have AAA just so we don't get in that situation, but I didn't say that!).

She smiled at me and calmed down a little and said she just couldn't believe anyone would do that. Then she said she hoped one day she might be in a situation where she could do the same thing for someone else. Made me feel good even if it was a scam. Though I watched her walk over to The Home Depot and then I had to swing around to drive past it on my way out of the shopping center and saw her go into the store, so I feel relatively confident I did the right thing in giving her the money and I hope she has a chance at some point to pay it forward.

So DH just got called for jury duty for April 2nd. And I have to report for it on April 30th, after deferring it 3 times due to injury, surgery, and physical therapy. I mean, do they seriously think that calling two people from one family in one month would not seriously devastate the finances of said family? For DH to go that two weeks without pay would take us until December to recover from. It would wipe out our small emergency fund, make us unable to pay Mom for a couple months, and put us behind on our debt repayment (not with the credit card payment, just our schedule for getting out of debt). Plus we would have to make a minimum payment, instead of the planned one.

He can probably get out of it being as he works in Alaska, has no paid time off, no vacation time, no sick leave, and is the sole support of the family. He is not even in this state long enough at any one time to serve a full two week term.

I don't think I am going to attempt to get out of it, even though I know it will cause me pain to go, simply because then they can't call me again for 3 years. I have been summoned at least 16 times since I turned 18, so I know they won't just stop if I get excused. They'll just wait six months and try again. I still can't sit up for more than two hours without major muscle spasms and cramping starting in my back, hip, and thigh. Sometimes they are so painful I gasp out loud which would be lovely to do during the middle of a trial.

I am working on strengthening my core and legs, but it will probably be another six months before I am able to do as much sitting as jury duty will call for. I won't be able to get up and stretch or walk around as needed. But I won't be able to take pain killer or muscle relaxant either because they addle my head and you need to be clear-minded to serve.

And heaven help me if I have to sit next to a smoker, cat owner, or a perfume addict. I'll sneeze and cough the entire time because cat hair and those scents just cling and I am violently allergic.

If they could put me in a plastic bubble with a recliner and the ability to move as needed, I'd do just fine. I hate these limitations. I really think it could be interesting to serve, but I don't want to be set back physically. I have worked so hard to get to this level of mobility and I don't want to lose it.

So all that moaning my mother has been doing about the bathroom ceiling supposedly being messed up by us and the fact that there were four people taking steamy showers in there and just going on and on about how it was all our fault, even though she's the one constantly turning the fan off before the steam is gone? Turns out it wasn't caused by that at all. Turns out there is a leak in the roof and it has been coming in from above the ceiling, coming through the ceiling and not in any way, shape, or form is it our fault, according to the contractors. She did not apologize at all, but at least now we are not the ones who will have to pay to have it fixed. I'm pretty sure that there is a leak under the floor from the pipes under the bathtub as well that is ruining the linoleum and it is not, as she claims, caused by us getting water on the floor and not wiping it up (which we all do wipe up because she is so rabid about it). *sighs* Mom, I love you, but maybe things go wrong because your house is old.

DH and the kids and I spent the day out at the in-laws. We also picked up our check. It is a Cashier's Check so we don't have to wait for it to clear, it'll be available immeadiately so on Monday we will deposit it and then drive directly to BoA and make a payment. I can't wait to watch that balance drop like a rock.

After numerous delays DH's grandparents' house sale finally closed yesterday. His parents told us to come by for a check today after 4:30. I'm still not sure of what the total is as DH forgot to ask but it should be between $7000 and $8000 for his share. I cannot wait to get that in the bank so it can clear and we can send a nice lump sum off to Bank of America and see our balance really drop!

Still no word on when to expect our tax return as that particular function of the IRS website still does not seem to be working properly. *sighs*

So I was pretty much off the internet yesterday (see previous entry) and didn't get to put in my pantry quest info. We had frozen hamburger and buns and cheese on hand, so last night we made cheeseburgers for dinner. I add about 4 tbsp of tomato sauce to my burger meat. It keeps the meat a bit moister while cooking. We had 1.09 pounds of meat and made five burgers with it (Mom ate with us). Each patty is sprinkled with onion salt and Lawry's seasoning. Delicious.

I also made up some simple cole slaw. Cabbage keeps for a long time until you cut into it and I have several in the fridge, so when I need a quick go to veg for dinner I make cole slaw.

DS added some dried mango slices, but no one else was really in the mood for fruit or had filled up too much on the cole slaw.

My favorite store has started one of its stupid game promotions. Now is a good time to be spending less time in the grocery store, that's for sure.

I will be paying my medical bill in full today as well as sending a payment ot AMEX and the mortgage and maybe one or two smaller bills as well. I wish I'd done this before my laptop screen busted. Now I will have to transport the Excel file into Open Office and set up the March Budget template in it and then transer it all back when I get my laptop back. If I hadn't procrastinated and done it earlier in the week that wouldn't be an issue now.

I have been procrastinating something fierce this last week, but finally sat down tonight and did the bills. I should have done them on Friday. It's not like anything was due before the 17nth and those are all bills I can walk in or drive-thru for. But I'm not usually this far behind. I feel like a ditz.

Okay, some of it has been severe stomach upset since Sunday night, but that doesn't account for not doing it on Friday or Saturday. I think it's time I go see a gastroenterologist because this has been happening too often to be just a virus or food poisoning. Maybe it's an ulcer or something else along those lines. I did have one when I was 20, I just don't remember throwing up all the time, just tons heartburn. This time I've got both and it's been pretty steady since the beginning of December. Maybe I can get something stronger than OTC fake Zantac. I'm really tired of barfing. And no, I'm not pregnant.

I hope this isn't going to be another expensive medical year. I'm so tired of medical. I had to get a prescription today and it's gone up $12 from last month. $106.05. Hopefully this will be the last month I need this one. I will be so glad when I hit my deductible again.

Anyway, I have balanced my checkbook and entered everything into the spreadsheet, so I shouldn't have to worry about anything financial again until the next payday on the 24th. Which is a good thing the way my brain feels.