Time for another Update

I have nothing better to do, so let's update the blog. I'm loving my layout for this month. The scrap kit is called So Chic and I can't remember where I bought it right now...but it was somewhere cool, I'm sure. Things that have gone on. Well most recently there was the largest and deadliest tornado outbreak in Alabama since the 7o's. Yeah, that was fun. Got to watch a tornado go past my house...it was about 3 miles south of the house. We have no damage, just a bit of debris in the yard. Most areas around us are devastated, however. We were one of the first to get power back...which is such a good thing or I would have gone mad. They told us to prepare for about 7 days without power, we had power back within 24 hours. School for Chris has gone well. He is waiting to see what the school decides to do about finishing the semester since Wallace State was hit as well. He is hoping he won't have to finish his course work and can just take the grades he has now. All A's. (grin) The kids are doing well. Kaelyn has been having some issues with her grades, but other than that everything is dandy. Attie gets out of school the 26th and the kids were scheduled to get out the 31st, but not sure how things will go after all this. They are still not back in school from the storms yet. Oh, and we have no air conditioning...lovely eh? We have to wait til everything is back open from the storms to get it fixed. So we bake and we wait. lol I can think of nothing else...not much has happened. We've just been sailing through waiting on things to get better. Hopefully they will in the very near future, but until then we will just hang on and go with the flow.

Time for an Update

Well, as you may have guessed from my absence, things have been extremely stressful. Chris of course lost his job, thank you to PetSmart for being such an ass and using him until the doctor released him and then firing him. Class act that. We have been without income for about 2 months now. Let me tell you things were stressful. We did qualify for a little help from the state and that put food on the table for the kids. Somehow, thanks to the kindness of others, our electric bill got paid. We were also able to keep the phones and the internet, both of which Chris needs for school and finding another job. We finally received a bit of good news when his unemployment was approved. I was able to buy the animals food this morning...and boy were they happy about it. They've been living off stale bread and cornbread for several days now. We have been able to arrange for the mortgage to be put off a month, which eased us through some of it. We've somehow kept gas in the vehicles for school. It's all been up to prayer as my mother would say. Chris is still combing through want ads and applying to any place that has walls, but still no calls. It's maddening. I have to try to have faith that all this is worth something and that there is a higher plan and a better life at the end of this mess. If not, it's all just madness. Well, that's my stressed out life in a nutshell....until next update....

A good week

Can you believe it? It's been a good WEEK!!! Despite all that is going on around us, I've had a good week. I've made a list this week and stuck to it. My living room is clean, my kitchen is clean, the den is clean (cluttered with stuff to be put in storage, but clean), the bathrooms are clean and the kids has been spruced up so they can use it again for showers. All I have left to do are the bedrooms and the laundry room and my house will be completely done! I'm excited. I got dad to use the tractor to pull up 3 bushes in my front yard today that I've been itching to get rid of...so they are gone! I plan on making a little butterfly garden around the crepe mertles now...which means I am going to have to learn to use a tiller. Not sure I like that, but I guess I will learn if I want it done. I wonder how much mulch costs? I better check into that as well. We also got some much needed good news this morning...we qualified for a little bit of assistance since Chris lost his disability. So that is a huge worry off my mind. I'm looking forward to tomorrow for a change. I may have put something on my list that I can't accomplish tomorrow, but I will work that out when I get to it. I'm going grocery shopping in the morning, as usual. Then I will try working on my bedroom for a bit. I've spent a lot less time on the computer this week. The only day I really missed it was yesterday when Chris had it at school. So to sum up...I've had a good week. LOL

I feel good....lol

Read that in a James Brown voice. Ok, enough oddness. I am feeling good today. I was productive. I got the kitchen cleaned, the dishes caught up, the den vacuumed, the litterboxes done, the guest bath done and a load of laundry done. What a way to start the week, eh? Now if tomorrow can be as good as today was and the rest of the week following that and I will have a clean house!!! I still have a Christmas tree up in the living room..still can't find a box to fit the thing in. I think tomorrow I'm gonna move it to the den just to get it out of sight. I've looked everywhere for one of those huge plastic containers....can't find one. I know these things exist...I've seen them. But can I find one...nope. Chris goes Friday to talk to the dreaded lawyer again. We will see what he has to say about this whole mess. Meanwhile, we hang on tight to what we've got. I still need brakes on the van...trying to make it until Chris's student loan pays out in March...but it's looking grim...I may have to break down and have them sooner. I started individual therapy this month. I like my therapist..she's short, black and funky. She's very direct..which is good for me. We are trying the list approach to things again...I did accomplish all the things on my list for today. I am just hoping I can make myself continue to do it. It's burning up in my house right now...even with the air on. I'm roasting. But at least I'm not freezing!! I am so happy to see the weather nice for a change. We went to the flea market Saturday...I took my camera and took pics of the kids as we went through. Chris said I was insane...but I got some really cute pics. I took the kids to the park Sunday and then out for ice cream...it was a nice day. Well, I think that's all I can think of. Like the blog? lol I'm already planning for Easter...I'm such a nerd!!

My Drama Queen is turing 10.

I'm having a hard time believing it. I've been a mommy for a decade!! We are celebrating tomorrow with Strawberry cake and ice cream. Kaelyn is having a sleep over next weekend. I'm going to take her shopping tomorrow so she can spend the money her Grammie sent her, she'll love that. I just can't believe she's turning 10!!!

Excitement!!

I am so excited! We filed our taxes! ( How often do you hear that? lol) We are getting back a large chunk of change. We will be able to pay off 3 bills and still have money left over for a little indulgence! I am so ready for those bills to be paid off! Life will be so much easier with those paid off. The kids should be able to start back to karate once some money is freed up for gas. Then I won't be paying useless karate dues. And if my van doesn't break, which I have this horrible feeling that it will, I might be able to get my camera that I've wanted for 3 years now. I just have this horrible feeling that the van is gonna die...I don't know why...fear of Murphy's Law maybe. Either way, 3 bills get paid off....so I'm happy...

A critter update

I was readying through my blog and realize I had not updated on my critters. Firstly, Satchel....she got a virus and died about a week after I posted about her. I am still very upset about it, I carried her around with me everywhere and I was very attached to her. After she died, I started looking for a new pup and found Zeke. (he is the black puppy in the pic) And not long after that I found Summer (the white boxer). Summer is about 2 years old and spoiled rotten. She knows several commands, but her best one is sit pretty. She will sit up and do the whole cute paws in the air thing. Zeke is equally as rotten, but know no tricks as he will not sit still long enough to learn any. Zeke is 4 months old and going to be huge, he is already as big as Summer. And then to Heat, our greyhound. He bit Kaelyn about a month ago, bruising up her arm pretty good. I decided that he needed a new home after that. I don't know if he would have ever done it again or not, but I did not want to take the chance. He is being placed in a new home without children. In fact that adoption agency contacted me this week to tell me he will be going to an adoption group in Canada in a few days. Brownie, Emma's dog, is still around despite being shot twice this year. He's too annoying to die. He does come in from time to time and chill in the house, but then he starts tearing things apart and trash diving and has to go back out. And then there's the cats. They are all still here. We've had no more tragedies since the big one. Thank goodness. Bucky, the large tortoise, is wintering in a box in the living room. This has worked out surprisingly well for all concerned. He's not messing up my kitchen floor and yet, he still is staying warm. Everybody is happy. I was given a salt water tank a few months ago. It's been a battle. Currently I am battling aipstaisa, red slime algae and bristle worms. I only have 2 fish in there right now along with some crabs, snails and urchin. I hope to get a cleaner pack of critters next week to take care of all the problem species and then I will stock it with fish. I am also ready to get started on a second salt water tank, this one for seahorses. I will have to go slow with this one...as it requires planning and a very established tank. But I'm hoping to be ready to order my seahorses in late spring. Well, that is the critter update...I love em like my family....