He is a good man

That hubby of mine.
He just called from the flood zone. I asked him if he knew how long he'd be activated, how long he'd be there. After all, we have reservations for the 7-9 of April for our little getaway. He said that he already told them that he would be able to stay until the 5th...

I have to work at the bank on the 4th... a week from today, then the 5th starts my vacation. I'm off until the 13th.

I'm exhausted, I put off going to bed when he's not here, and then I don't sleep well. It's 20 to 10 and I am going to try to go to sleep. Last night I was up til 1:30... watching stupid movies and just avoiding sleep. Stupid.

ok, that's it. a week without him, and then it's all good.

No more Naughtiness

Today I was working in the laundry room, prepping the area for Comet's whelping box. I found more cat shit.

I went upstairs, put on my shoes, told the kids they could come along if they wanted to say goodbye to her.

I now have to go out and buy more bleach for scrubbing. I talked to the people who got their shitty kitty back and in a week or so, after I have removed the bad kitty smell from areas that kitties are not allowed to go potty, then we can get a new one. Free. Already spayed. Already declawed. Not gonna pay for that again. And with a guarantee that the new one will be litter box trained.

I will get a new kitty, since Tiny really seemed to enjoy the company. After she got over hating her, of course.

The kids are pretty upset, Emma was crying. I do feel bad about it, but I cannot have that going on in my house.
Maybe I'll name the next one "perfect kitty" so when she lives up to her name, I will be happy.

Activated

I'm sure many people across the country have heard about the flooding in the Fargo Moorhead area. The incredible story is really the volunteers though. We live 45 miles away and have been busing people... adults after working a full day, students getting out of class (college AND high school students) to go over there and help fill sand bags, to form lines to haul those sandbags from trucks to the levees. Building walls of sandbags to try to protect the cities from the Red River. People are coming from all over the area, because that's what we do here. We help each other.

Last night my husband got a call. The Minnesota National Guard was called out to help. He left this morning at 5:30 am. I don't know when he will be back. I don't know anything. I'm sure he's busy and when he has time he will call to let me know something. Until then, I can comfort myself with the fact that at the very least, I don't have to worry about him being shot, like I did the last time the National Guard took him from me.

He's doing a wonderful thing, and I am very proud of him. I also worry about him. I'm sure he's exhausted, I'm sure he's cold and I'm sure he's wet and filthy. And I'm sure he's worried about our situation here. We had our own little levee break, although an ant hill in comparison to the Mount Everest they're fighting over there. JP was in the process of getting the two bedrooms we lost ready to be sumped, pumped and drain tiled. That will have to wait until he gets back.

I have this weekend off. Entirely. No bank, no pull tabs. We were going to have a fun family weekend. Maybe another time. We can wait. The people of Fargo/Moorhead cannot.

Kept the naughty kitty

Yeah, she's still here. I called the place I got her from, basically telling them that I was at my wit's end, and if it didn't stop, I'd be bringing her back. They had some suggestions, some cheap fixes and some pretty expensive. I told them that I had already spent quite a bit on a cat I didn't like very much, so I sure as hell wasn't going to shell out much more. I tried the cheap fix, getting a second litter box... apparently the little snot doesn't like to share a bathroom.
Fine.
Don't share.
Just use one.
Either one.
I don't care which.

She seems to be okay now. We still have to shoo her off the dining room table if we leave the room, little bitch, but we are getting better about clearing off anything that we would rather she not nibble on.

Besides, Tiny loves her now... just like Naughty told her she would when they first met.

In the trenches

In a couple of ways, we are in the trenches.
First, JP rented the jackhammer and got the concrete floor broke up at the outside edges of the affected rooms, so we are in the process of cleaning up broken concrete and then we can do the drain tile thingy and the sump pump thingy (I use the word "thingy" when I don't fully understand stuff, so bear with me!)

We (and by that, I mean ME!) are also in the trenches of this whole bill pay-off thingy. I'm happy to see the first two targets shrinking... our anytime credit 'loan' attached to our checking account is down to roughly $600 (usually maxed out at $1500) and the Menard's bill (which funny, was also $1500 in January when we got the dishwasher and double ovens) is at $1000, with a $400 payment scheduled for 2 weeks from now.

I decided to attack 2 bills at a time, because I pay bills twice a month, every two weeks, really. So I grabbed the two smallest ones, that are normally paid on opposite paydays.

When those two are done, roughly by May, I will pop the Menard's money to the military card, and the anytime payment to Discover. Those two are bigger, both around 4K... so those will take longer. But getting rid of the two little ones first will feel good.

But in the back of my mind, I have to keep thinking about how expensive this remodel is going to be, AND the fact that both my sons had consultations with my old Orthodontist last week.

Insurance covers SOME of it, better than they did with me (because they DIDN'T cover me... YOU SUCK BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD!) ... oh, sorry, tangent... anyway, even with part of it covered by insurance, that still leaves a big chunk for us to make up... so instead of things getting easier, they just keep coming at me making simply living more difficult.

I'm tired, worked at the bank this morning, and pull tabs tonight. JP is gone all weekend, so at least I have the bed to myself, without ear plugs. Mom and I are going to Fargo in the morning, then I work pull tabs again tomorrow.
And the hits just keep on comin'!!

How come nobody told ME to build a friggin' ark!?

We had blizzards last week, Tuesday was pretty bad, kids were out of school. Wednesday was all about blowing it around, zero visibility, kids were out of school. Starting Saturday, it was warming up. Today was in the mid 40's.

And the water started POURING into the basement. We have a finished basement, in fact, my Mom's bedroom, and Eric's bedroom are both down here, as is the family room. On the west end of the house, where the two bedrooms are located we now have a wading pool.

I was upset about mom's room, but it does happen there darn near every spring, but NEVER this bad. I felt awful for her, we have to move her out of there to get the sump thing going that we've been putting off. Kind of forced the issue now.

But when I walked in to Eric's room to check his... I just burst into tears. That poor kid. The entire room is soaked. You squish when you walk across the carpet. His room has NEVER flooded before... well, it wasn't even his room last time we worried about flooding.

He just got moved into this room last summer. It was Alex's room, but he was a naughty mischief maker who snuck out the egress window and got his room swapped with Eric's... upstairs. Right across the hall from Mom and Dad's room. So he could be watched closer. So Mr. Eric, once thrilled to have a MUCH bigger room is now crushed. He will also be moved out so that clean up and repairs can be done.

It's after midnight, Mom and Eric are sleeping upstairs, Mom on the sofa and Eric on the loveseat. I am in Mom's room, taking the first shift. The first shift of running the shop vac to suck up the water... we finally got ahead of it. It's still coming in, but instead of a river, it's down to a stream...It's a 12 gallon shop vac and I lost count of how many times we have emptied it. The water is coming in from several points along the outside walls... where the wall meets the floor.

Needless to say, I put in a call to my boss, at home, around 7 pm asking if I could take a vacation day tomorrow. JP is also taking the day off, as is Mom. We three adults will finish getting Mom's stuff out of here, and get Eric's room emptied out, too. Then JP can start doing this trough thing along the walls, leading the water to the sump pump area we have designated in the bathroom that shares a wall with Mom's bedroom.

Oh, and also tomorrow, I am taking Naughty back from whence she came. She IS living up to her name. I have never in all my life of owing cats had a problem teaching a cat to shit in the litter box. On Saturday we decided to "super clean" the laundry room. Found piles of cat shit behind the laundry table, some 'fresh' some not so fresh... not happy. Got the cats all set up with their own little area, fresh litter and their food, all set up, their own private area, with NO easy access for the dogs... within HOURS of doing this (this is after scrubbing the floor with odor killer etc) I found a pile of cat shit WITHIN A FOOT... yes, 12 inches away from the litter box.
With all the problems I am having living on the Titanic, I don't need to deal with cat shit, too.
My biggest concern now is the money. First off, I paid $70 to "rescue" this little bitch. Then I paid $165 for the spay and declaw just over a week ago. Now, with her being "defective"... am I going to get any kind of refund???

Probably not... the way things have been going for me lately... probably not.
Oh. And I smoked my last cigarette at about 6pm Sunday night. By 7:30 I had bummed a pack off my mom. This stress shit is not the best time for me to be bitchy and jonesin' for a smoke...

Good Lunch with Mary

Bloody Mary, that is!
It was a good lunch, we sat and chatted about our joint issues at work, and laughed because if we didn't, we'd probably cry... but we also laughed because we didn't have to watch what we said. We made jokes at the expense of others because we could, because we didn't have to worry about who might be listening. We were free to discuss everything at work that angers, disgusts and frustrates us.

And it felt good to just relax with the nice people I work with.

Doing Lunch

Me and the girls I work with (that I like) all work together this Saturday. We've made plans to go out to lunch after we shut down at noon.
You know what that means!!

2fers on Bloody Marys!

I just have to convince the other girls that we need to go to the Speak Easy... that's the place that makes the best Bloody Mary's in town. And their artichoke spinach dip is amazing!

Maybe we'll invite Gina and Mike over for a cheap fun night on Saturday night, too, some drinks, some cards, whatever. Oh, yeah, because I do NOT have to work pull tabs this weekend! Yippee!

Murphy's LUNCH

I know he's got that law, "anything that can go wrong, WILL" But today I had Murphy's LUNCH. I go home for lunch every day, I only live 5 blocks from work. I get the mail. let the dogs out to potty, whatever.

When I left the building today, it had been snowing, so I had to scrape my windows before I could drive. I got all the way around, and when I got to the back window I noticed that the wiper was all gunked up so I lifted it up to snap it down, thus knocking all the slush and crud off. PINCHED MY THUMB! And I have to bowl tonight! It's gonna swell...I whine and whimper a bit, and head for home.

I popped my leftover rice hot dish in the microwave and ran downstairs to the fridge to grab a Diet Pepsi. I got settled in at the dining room table with my lunch. Everything was going fine, and as I finished my little dish of hot dish I remembered that I had bought a big bag of apples over the weekend. I jumped up and went rifling through the drawer for my handy-dandy little apple cutter, cores the thing and quarters it for me! I get my apple cut up and head back to the table to munch. SPILL MY POP! All over the chair and floor... I get up again, grab the roll of paper towels, and clean up my mess.

Finally I get to sit down and eat my apple. Being good. Eating healthy, right? I damn near choked to death on a piece of apple! Got that coughing that makes your entire ribcage feel like it's going to explode... can't get air, eyes watering (the ONE day I decide to wear eye make-up, OF COURSE!) and turning bloodshot. Not pretty. When I finally hacked up the offending piece of fruit, I threw the rest in the garbage. To hell with it.

My thumb hurts, my soda is spilled and my healthy lunch tried to kill me.
How's YOUR day?

Almost forgot!

Today, March 8, 2009 is the 18 year anniversary of JP's and my first date.
Long damn time and yet I can remember it like it was yesterday. 18 years!
That's almost 2 decades... wow.
I love him.

Money comes and money goes

So just Friday I was all up on my soapbox about how things have to change, and although I am proud of myself for not giving in on the cigarettes, I DID splurge a bit yesterday when we ran to Fargo. I bought myself a new pair of jeans. Let it be said that before, I had TWO pairs of jeans, both size 10's, that I've been belting to 'make it work' since early fall. I've owned the jeans for probably 5 years, just been too small for them since the fall. So I found myself a new pair of jeans.... ONE pair, on CLEARANCE for less than $20 in a size... 6!! I also got myself a new swim suit... JP and I are going on our little getaway in a few weeks, and the main thing is a water park, and I didn't have a suit that fit me... so I got a new one. Maybe I'll take a picture of me in it and post it... maybe not.

So I feel a little guilty about spending that money, but honestly it was for stuff I NEEDED, and NOT cigarettes, so I guess it had to be done.

Another thing I did Friday that I'm pleased with myself for... I got my yearly raise, and it was 2.25%, and I raised my 401K amount by 1%... so more for me when I'm old and gray, and with still getting 1.25% added to my check I won't even notice the rest. Take care of it now, and take care of it in years to come...

Now I'm going to veg with ANTM and Pogo.com until I fall asleep... have a great week, y'all!

Naughty under the knife

I took Naughty to the vet yesterday, JP will pick her up when he's done with work tonight. She's getting spayed and declawed. Tiny looks lost around here without her little friend. It's sweet.

I am getting sick of bills. I did the math, monthly we pay out $1000 to what I call "disposable" bills. credit cards, truck payment, student loans. So I came up with a plan to start eliminating them. Snowballing a la Dave Ramsey with twists that fit our situation. I spend $70 each paycheck (every 2 weeks) for cigarettes. Well, I used to. Tomorrow is the day I would buy 2 cartons... to get me through the next 2 weeks. I'm not buying it. I put the money towards a debt instead. I still have 6 packs of smokes, and I am going to stretch them as far as I can, then when it's gone, I'm done.

I round up on all the bills... that's dumb. Yes, they're all getting extra, but none of them are going away. So I stopped that. I still budget the overpaid amount, but I send all that extra to ONE bill now. And when it's gone ( and it won't take long, at this rate) I will add that payment to the minimum that's been going to the next one on the list, and overpay it til it's gone... and so on and so on.

There's a few other plans, too, and I'm asking my hubs to give me 6 months of this, 6 months of being tight and really being aggressive on paying down our debt. On September 1st, I will show him the balances, in comparison to what they're at now. If he likes it, if he's happy, then I will continue to snowball until it's done. If he sees it as a waste, and too hard on the fam financially, then we can go back to same old same old. But that won't happen. He will be happy, and I will continue until it's done.

I'm just tired of having all this money leave us every month for shit that I either don't remember buying, or if I DO remember it, I don't have it anymore... credit sucks. If you can't afford it NOW, with what you have, then you don't need it now... save up and get it when you DO have the money in your hands.

I'm happy so far with our savings account, it's the first time we've been faithful about adding money to a savings account WITHOUT taking it back out. The balance in there is just over 2K... and it will stay there. I've considered using it to pay off a bill, but if I do that, Murphy's Law will kick my ass, and something will come up, vehicle needs repairs... SOMETHING, and without a savings, I would have to put the Murphy's Law problem on credit. So the savings account stays put.

I have to get in the shower, and get to work, so y'all have a good day.

Bowling Update

Haven't done a bowling update in AGES... and because I am such a dork, I guess I am required to mention it occasionally.

My team is in 1st place, we rock! Tonight I had a 150 average for the 3 games... and my season average is sitting at 135, so I'm happy so far. There, that's it.

Time for bed, early meeting tomorrow, then a "company fun night" after work... great, I can barely stand 7 1/2 hours with most of them, now tomorrow it's stretched to... shit, it could end up being 12+!!

good night.

Working for a living, more stories to tell

I work pull tabs every other weekend, NORMALLY. The girl who works the other weekends had a baby last week. I knew this was coming and had offered to help/cover some of her shifts. So with my ok, I am scheduled to work EVERY Saturday and EVERY Sunday in March. It will effectively double my paychecks and give me more chances at tips. Nice.... yes. Exhausting? Probably. I am sure that by April I will be ready for a day off.

Speaking of April, I have a vacation then. I'm taking the 6th through the 10th off. Since I can't get any vacation time during the actual summer (thanks to me NOT being the boss' pet) this is the closest I can get. But during that week, JP and I are going to get away. Not far away, just a couple of hours. There's a lodge in Brainerd that we stayed at once before. The pool area is enormous, darn near a water park. We are going to go during the middle of the week, and off season, should be cheaper. Oh, and just us, no kids. Mom is going to keep them here, they'll have school anyway. We need some time away together, and I am really looking forward to it.

I started thinking about my 'book' tonight at work, too. There are several characters in it that I am curious about. Unanswered questions that, as it turns out, I have the answers to. I may end up turning this 'book' into a long short story, and include it with the stories of these other characters into some sort of book that way. Yes, I guess one could say that I am putting off calling it "done", and therefor putting off sending it off to get my rejections, too. That may well be, but... (hell, I can't think of a good comeback, so shut up... there, that's a good, weak, overused and ineffective comeback)

My mom is talking about Comet's puppies already. We aren't even sure she's pregnant, won't know for a minimum of a week or so. We've talked about what she'd name her little pup. So far she's liking Chloe. I love this idea. Her registered name would be Lady Chloe Katlyn... it's a lineage thing with the rest of the name, but we'd call her Chloe. Mom's original Golden was Zoey. I think it's a great way to give a nod to the origin of the breed in our family, and yet to give the new one a chance to make her own way, be her own dog.

I'm tired, and I have to work again tomorrow... so I will go to bed watching the end of "LOTR: Return of the King" and try to start fresh tomorrow. Vacation is over, tomorrow is back to same shit, different day (code here for "the boss is back in town!)