Times are Tough

So I get a call today. Apparently my dad and his mom during the course of opening a checking account also opened a credit line that she can use for overdraft protection. She, since then, has become completely unaware of this line of credit and what it was for. Anyway the call I got today was asking me to explain what this line of credit was and what I knew about it. Nothing of course, since I've barely spoken to my grandmother since she left my care a year and a half ago.


Then tonight, my dad asked me if we would be able to pay his bills untill he gets a few paychecks under his belt from his new job. (which will be his 3rd job since he's moved in with us three months ago)


Why? How? What have I done that makes people think that I have money to give away? My sister askes me for money almost every quarter. Hubby's mom askes him for money every phone call.

I know things are hard. I know times are tough. I know it is HUGE to swallow your pride and ask your daughter or son for money... but I really don't have it. I hope Kharma is understanding when it is my turn to be in a beggar's shoes.

I'm not turning these family members down because I don't want to help or because I don't trust them or don't think they need the help... I honestly don't have it. I've been in and out of doctors offices all year and most of last year. I've had surgery. Hubby is waiting til October to have his surgery on his next vacation - so that it's not so much time lost from work. And we just had to replace our heat pump and air conditioner - and it cost us $10,300 (which we had to put on credit!)

Catching up, Again.

More things to catch up on... I don't even know where to start.... so here goes.
I had made up my mind at the end of last year that I was in too much pain to continue dealing with my endometriosis. Went to my dr. discussed options and had decided to have a hysterectomy. (much to my drs. disappointment) A couple of weeks went by, I started talking to women going through the same pain and stress. I read up on hysterectomies and then I started reading up on IUDs. Alot of information is out there about IUDs and alot of it came back to the IUD actually causing my pain. I made another decision. Let's take the IUD out, see if the pain changes. If it doesn't then okay, if it does then we'll see. I went in told my dr what I wanted to do, he agreed. It was as though he literally pulled the pain away from my body when he took out the IUD!! I had been in such life altering pain before that... to the point that I had to force myself to function, or to get out of bed. It was a nightmare. The next few days were kind of a start over... a little bit of pain but nothing close to what I was used to. Then, after that.... nothing. Just nothing! No pain at all. I cancelled the hysterectomy and went on birth control pills and haven't had that kind of pain since.
Coupled with the bodyaches I started having major headaches in August. Daily headaches. I let them go.. didn't think much of it really. Until the first of the year rolled around and I was still having them. I finally decided to go to the dr about it. She set up an appointment for a CT scan. When that came back I went to a ENT specialist. She decided that, since my sinus cavaties were completely blocked, and since I had a deviated septum and a bone spur in my sinus cavaty, I should have surgery on my sinus to correct and empty them. I had surgery April 4th. Came home the same day, went to sleep and woke up for the next 7 days long enough to change the gauze under my nose and take another Loritab and go back to sleep. By the next thursday I was able to wakeup and stay awake for longer. Two days later my headaches were back. Nothing had changed. I went to a Neurologist in May. He put me on an anti-inflamitory and a low dose anti depressant that he says they prescribe for headaches and sleepless nights. He also sent me for an MRI, that came back clean. So we've found nothing wrong so far....
My dad moved in with us. He had been employed in textiles and his company did a layoff right after the 1st of the year... he knew it was coming... grapevine, you know. Anyway, he's been looking for a job... found a couple but nothing seems to be the right fit. He went to a job fair last week... and was offered a job building "freight cars for the railroad." He goes on Monday to take test to see if his body qualifies as well. Cross your fingers!
I'm still employed at the same bank. But my old boss asked me to come and work for him temporarily in the mortgage area. That was in Feburary, I'm still there... and I love it!
Summer's coming and once again our Air Conditioner is on the fritz. I had decided that we weren't going to turn the a/c on this year - try to do better for the planet and save a little money at the same time. Then the temperature hit the 90s! Hubby has to sleep during the day because of his work schedule. So he's sleeping during the hottest part of the day with literally no relief. We've had problems out of our Central Air every year since we bought the house. (and the house is only five years old) Hubby asked is Stepdad to come take a look at it the first year and has trusted him to handle it every year since. But I'm through with that. We're going to get professionals here and soon. We turned the a/c on Thursday of this week... upstairs once again doesn't work, downstairs does though... so we've been sleeping in the livingroom since Thursday... not comfortable.
I started my Flylady program again.. to try to keep my stress level down and to a minium. With the heat and hubby's schedule it's been difficult to do my zone work and keep up with what I'm supposed to be doing. But I'm trying... and that's what counts - Babysteps back to my routine!

well that's me in a nutshell... except for I can't decide whether or not to have another baby. There are alot of sides to the issue.. Money, Lulu needing a sibling younger than she is, my age, the state of the economy or lack there of, not to mention the normal worries of will I be able to do it basicly on my own since hubby works Monday through Friday from 10pm to 12pm... I really don't know what to do or if I want to do anything...

Friday Feast #176

Appetizer - What is your Favorite Beverage? A tall Glass of Water

Soup - Name 3 things that are on your computer desk at home or work.

At work I have a Zen Garden, a photo album, a calendar

Salad - On a scale of 1 -10 (10 being highest), how honest do you think you are?

Depends on the person, usually at least a 8 or 9.

Main Course - If you could change the name of one city in the world,

what would you rename it and why?

The town I grew up in is called Wytheville. It's original name was Evansham. I would change it back because it sounds alot better...

Dessert - What stresses you out? What calms you down?

Sigh... I get completely stressed out when Punk has to have everything explained to the letter.

I have a couple of things that calm me down... Yoga and Crafting

Rambles #2

Let's take some time to catch up...shall we? Alot has happened since the summer... I know I kind of fell off the face of the earth there for a while. Truth is I did what I always do (and probably always will do). I put too much on myself, had too much to do, started spinning around like a tornado trying to get everthing done and making a bigger mess of myself in the meantime. Anyway, I'm slowing down. I have to. My health has gotten a little worse. Although today was a "good" day for me, painwise.

Anyway, I digress. We.....

*traded in our Ford Freestyle for a (drum roll, please) Toyota FJ Cruiser. I know I know.. it's not helping my quest to go green but nothing that I found was going to meet my 4x4 needs and the "going green" needs too. So, I did the best I could. At any rate, I'm in complete lust over my truck!! I will post pictures soon.

* took down the hideous metal door that came on the house and put up a fantastic "dungeon" door! I'm also lusting after it.. It has a Speak Easy on it that actually works.. plus we didn't hook the door bell back up, because we would have had to have drilled a hole in the door jamb (sp) and I just couldn't handle the thought of a hole in my brand new very sexy door. And when hubby asked me what I thought we should do about the doorbell, He nearly lit up when I said don't put it back in!
* I changed jobs, I work for the same employer but a different position.... more importantly I no longer work six days a week!! and I no longer work any weekend days either!! My job is currently less stress than my previous job!
* I made this years christmas ornaments for the family. I decided to post pics of the ornaments so I'll take some this weekend and post 'em then. (I've already got some done for 2008) =)
* I READ A BOOK.. yes, me! I've been wanting to start reading and I decided to pick up Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I couldn't put it down. Loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it. read the sequel, Son of a Witch. Loved it, loved it, cried, loved it. And bought everything else he's written.
* My endometriosis has taken over. Something I haven't blogged about much before, but I'm going to try to keep track of my issues.. and I've decided to have surgery.

Thursday Thirteen #5

Thursday Thirteen

13 Movies I OWN (but haven't watched - we collect DVDs)

1. The Messengers

2. Death Proof

3. 1408

4. 3:10 to Yuma

5. All the Kings Men

6. The Pursuit Of Happyness

7. I think I love my Wife

8. Casino Royale 007

9. The Number 23

10. 300

11. Bobby

12. Ocean's Thirteen

13. The Departed

Thursday Challenge - Small

Speaking of Births - Small is my first post for the Thursday photo Challenge, so I chose a pic of LuLu and her Grandpa.

Welcome Baby Noah!!!!

My close friend and neighbor, Sandy, delivered her first baby today. I can't wait to see them! I try to wait til new momma's come home, I know what it's like to have a crowded hospital room (I had 30 people in my room the day after LuLu was born) More news on momma and baby stats as I get 'em.

Friday Feast #175

Appetizer

What is your middle name? Faye Would you change any of your names if you could? Always thought about wanting a different name when I was younger... now it's not so much of a big deal to me. If so, what would you like to be called?
Soup

If you were a fashion designer, which fabrics, colors, and styles would you probably use the most? Bright colors, Cool clean fabrics, Hippie styles!
Salad

What is your least favorite chore, and why? I don't have a least favorite chore... working, staying busy helps keep my head on straight. But asking someone else to help - now that's something I have never been able to do and throughly hate, even if its asking my family to do their own chores.
Main Course

What is something that really frightens you, and can you trace it back to an event in your life? Finding out that everything, everyone around me has been a lie. - Yes, I believe it comes from listening to my grandmother talk negatively about my mother ALL my life.
Dessert

Where are you sitting right now? In my living room on the couch Name 3 things you can see at this moment. my pets ( 2 dogs and a bird), a clock telling me I should've been in bed hours ago, the kitchen light is on - reminding me that I need to do the dishes.

Foto Pherrets # 96 - Season

The Return of ..... Me

I've been gone for quite a while... just took some time off from blogging.

I hope to be blogging more in the coming weeks and months.

I've decided after much thought to have a hysterectomy. I hope that my body will recover well. I'm trying to keep my thoughts up about all this. Even though it is a huge decision.

Rambles

wow, 22 more weeks left in the year. Hopefully only 22 more weeks that I will be working 6 days a week. I never in a million years thought that I would have let this schedule go on for 5 solid years... it's ridiculous. But there have been some things that have had their hand in and forced me to continue.

I drove my Mom and step-Dad home today. He is very sore and in some pain from the triple by-pass that he had last Thursday. But, that's to be expected, right?! It's not everyday your chest gets cracked open. I'm just tired from the drive.. 80 miles each way... and to think that I drove it for 5 years! WOW!

Friday Feast #152

WOW, I can't believe it's Friday already!!!

Appetizer : On a Scale on 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest) how much do you enjoy watching sports on television?

Depends on the sport, usually a 6 I can always find something else to do besides sitting 'round watching tv.

Soup: If you could completely memorize any one work of fiction, which on would you pick?

That's a toughy.. since we're so close to THE DAY - I'll say the Harry Potter novels.. there are some very good lines in there.

Salad: What is your favorite breakfast food?

Hubby's Chocolate Chip Waffles

Main Course: Name something fun you can do for less than $10.00

Sidewalk coloring is fun... was fun with my two year old.. I made "thank you" cards for her birthday presents..

Dessert: How long does it usually take you to fall asleep?

I don't sleep well, so when I get into bed it usually doesn't take very long... .say 15 minutes tops.. But I'm normally up til 1am

New Poll

I added my first poll to the page.. check it out - more to come!

Your Opinions, Please

Has anyone heard of http://www.sparkpeople.com/



Go check it out and tell me what you think... by the way it's free.

Family Matters

On Sunday I got a text message from my sister - "are you still at work", I replied "no', the response that came back was "call me" So, I did. Kim had gotten a call from someone that works with our mom, Debbie, and stepdad. Our stepdad, Bobby, had had a heartattack at 1230pm that day while at work. The way the story has been told and retold to me is After the first heart attack Mom took Bobby to the hospital in their town. While he was there he had three more heart attacks before 6:30pm. It was at that time that he was airlifted to my small city 80 miles away. Bobby's daughter brought Mom here and after a while left.
Since then of course has been a difficult week. I've not really spoken to my mother since I was 14, when I moved out.. just off and on... more of a mutual thing really. In any case, she doesn't have a cell phone, the same girl that brought Mom here ran her cell phone bill up to over $1,200 from calling, texting and downloading.. then proceeded to steal the bill out of the box so Mom wouldn't know. Anyway, I digress.... so she doesn't have a cell phone, left in such a hurry that she didn't get any clothes for herself, they live on very little means so she didn't have any money to eat here. I offered repeatedly for her to stay here or shower here or whatever... I took her to Wal-mart a few times whatever she wanted I bought. Gave her money just in case. and while she was at my house taking a shower I gave her clothes to wear. I just tried to do anything I thought would help her.
I've learned that Bobby has no medical insurance. I just can't understand how that's going to work... two hospital bills - two surgeries (one being a triple bypass) yadda, yadda, yadda.. Now he's partially disabled...
She's upstairs now.. just went up to bed. Monday she came here took a shower and asked to go back to stay there that night.. she was able to stay with him. They opened him up on Tuesday to look around... found 7 blockages. They started prep'ing him for surgery on Wednesday and then at some point found another blockage in his neck. So they pushed the surgery to today, Thursday.
His surgery went well. The blockages were corrected and he was in his room resting when we came here tonight. I stayed out of work today to go sit with mom and keep her company.. She did well too. She came back here tonight to rest, she wasn't allowed in his recovery room so hopefully a good night's sleep in an actual bed will do her good.