What a wedding! Katie really worked hard and produced an absolutely beautiful wedding for herself and Brennan. The location was gorgeous, the ceremony lovely and all the details worked to perfection. Libby and I are both exhausted from riding herd on her two little ones for the plane trip and the weekend. They went off to their father with hardly a backwards look. She hasn't called them yet. She wants to call about once a week to check up on them.
I, of course, did not get the tickets change fees from their father. I'm not surprised in the least. I just hope he doesn't pull any other nasty little tricks.
So, back to my messy house and disorganized life. The cats made out very well while I was gone. The neighbors across the street kept an eye on the house for me. My old cat, Kittypuss, seems to have done fine as well, in spite of being locked up in the house. He didn't loose any more weight.
My car, however, broke down the night I came back. When I finally got home from the airport after taking Libby to her grandfather's house, the tail lights wouldn't go off. I finally just left the car with them on figuring I would jump it in the morning. Well, I forgot until time for my appointment with Dr. Farmer. Then I apparently blew out the battery by connecting the charger up backwards. Libby had to come get me and take me to my appointment. I managed to be there for 15 minutes. The charge for a missed appointment is $149 in full so showing up for 15 minutes and paying the copay of $35 was a better deal. Then we went out to dinner and blew a 100 bucks at Pappadeux's! That was ridiculous. We're not doing that again.My dad very kindly got the car fixed to the tune of $385. I also got the registration taken care of so that is finished for the year. Now I'm broke until next paycheck on the 27. I am expecting to get $4,000 in stipends as well so I may have some extra cash to put on some of these bills.
I have made Dr. appointments with the gastroentologist, podiatrist, and opthamologist. I also followed up on the Blue Cross/Blue Shield info for the bariatric surgery. If these Doctors are out of network, I'm going to look for someone else who is in the network.
I have to go pick up the dogs and check to see if Susanna is coming tomorrow to clean. If she is, I need to get busy tonight. The place is disgusting!
Dell Hell Resolved?
Vindication! I heard from a Dell problem solver today. I am getting a new laptop! He said that it would take 15 business days, gave me an email confirmation with telephone and extension numbers and was incredibly polite and helpful. I feel so much better!
So, what did I accomplish today?
-1 pair of new school shoes, although I still need to get dress shoes for the wedding.
-Completed my 905 from my Michigan trip last month, which I should have had on my list but forgot. That worked out well because I got reimbursed for my parking as well!. So they gave me money instead of the other way around.
-Cleaned up the front yard so that I can mow the grass tomorrow.
-Re potted plants that I bought last month.
-Straightened up the porch some, not enough though.
-Got details from Household about cash advance on the credit card. Did an analysis that showed the cost would be about $22 as opposed to 28 for an overdraft fee and $60+ if I went to a Payday advance store. The kicker is, I need to pay the balance on the card my next paycheck for this to work this way.
-Learned how to use the "To-do" feature on my cellphone. I have a long list for tomorrow.
I talked to Katie-daughter today for awhile. She's stressing out over these last few days before her wedding on Sunday. She's not upset about Cassidy-grandchild's red hair though. That's a relief. Of course she hasn't seen it yet. I told her to put sticky notes on anything that I can pack up for her over Friday night and Saturday morning. She was really relieved that I could help her with it.
Rob did not send the money for the change in airline tickets for the grandchildren. He also told Stacey that he wanted to pick them up from the airport on Friday and take them to Hagerstown.
I don't think that's going to happen. I do expect some major unpleasantness with this visit for the kids. They want to see him, he wants to see them, just about everyone except their mother thinks there is going to be problems getting them back from him. Libby just says he doesn't want them full time. I hope she's right.
So, what did I accomplish today?
-1 pair of new school shoes, although I still need to get dress shoes for the wedding.
-Completed my 905 from my Michigan trip last month, which I should have had on my list but forgot. That worked out well because I got reimbursed for my parking as well!. So they gave me money instead of the other way around.
-Cleaned up the front yard so that I can mow the grass tomorrow.
-Re potted plants that I bought last month.
-Straightened up the porch some, not enough though.
-Got details from Household about cash advance on the credit card. Did an analysis that showed the cost would be about $22 as opposed to 28 for an overdraft fee and $60+ if I went to a Payday advance store. The kicker is, I need to pay the balance on the card my next paycheck for this to work this way.
-Learned how to use the "To-do" feature on my cellphone. I have a long list for tomorrow.
I talked to Katie-daughter today for awhile. She's stressing out over these last few days before her wedding on Sunday. She's not upset about Cassidy-grandchild's red hair though. That's a relief. Of course she hasn't seen it yet. I told her to put sticky notes on anything that I can pack up for her over Friday night and Saturday morning. She was really relieved that I could help her with it.
Rob did not send the money for the change in airline tickets for the grandchildren. He also told Stacey that he wanted to pick them up from the airport on Friday and take them to Hagerstown.
I don't think that's going to happen. I do expect some major unpleasantness with this visit for the kids. They want to see him, he wants to see them, just about everyone except their mother thinks there is going to be problems getting them back from him. Libby just says he doesn't want them full time. I hope she's right.
So I spent the weekend doing laundry and washing dishes. I didn't get finished with either, but it is in reach. I don't have a dishwasher. I think that is going to be one of the first things I spend money on in the fall after the extra income from teaching GED and after school tutoring kicks in.
Counting the positives:
1) The dogs will be staying with friends this weekend while I go to my daughter's wedding.
2) The cat has gained back a pound.
3) I have most of my classroom finished for moving.
4) The Lexapro is starting to work. I am feeling better-not where I should be, but better.
5) I have plans made for tomorrow for doing yard work in the morning, shoe shopping at lunch time, and housework in the afternoon.
6) I successfully negotiated a bill reduction on my oldest daughter's cellphone! Over $450 in data transfer charges have been run up! I was outraged. She says she doesn't use it and it must be a mistake. The odd thing is that they are all uploads at night while she is working. The AT&T customer service lady was very helpful and polite. Hurray for AT&T!
NEGATIVES: I have not heard back from DELL. I apparently have entered DELL/HELL with my new laptop computer. It came not working and they won't take it back. I am really unhappy about this. For $1000 I should have a working laptop. I feel that DELL has become a fraudulent company. I have sent emails and contacted customer escalation. They were supposed to reply within 1 business day. Guess what! No reply. Their customer service is now based in India, answered by people who barely speak English, and can only spout the DELL party line. There is not any real help. How such a large corporation expects to survive with this type of disservice is beyond me. No wonder my school district is switching to HP.
TOMORROW- Yardwork and housework: grass mowed and trimmed; potted plants moved for easier watering while I'm gone, kitchen cleaned and laundry finished. Ambitious! We'll see what I get done.
Counting the positives:
1) The dogs will be staying with friends this weekend while I go to my daughter's wedding.
2) The cat has gained back a pound.
3) I have most of my classroom finished for moving.
4) The Lexapro is starting to work. I am feeling better-not where I should be, but better.
5) I have plans made for tomorrow for doing yard work in the morning, shoe shopping at lunch time, and housework in the afternoon.
6) I successfully negotiated a bill reduction on my oldest daughter's cellphone! Over $450 in data transfer charges have been run up! I was outraged. She says she doesn't use it and it must be a mistake. The odd thing is that they are all uploads at night while she is working. The AT&T customer service lady was very helpful and polite. Hurray for AT&T!
NEGATIVES: I have not heard back from DELL. I apparently have entered DELL/HELL with my new laptop computer. It came not working and they won't take it back. I am really unhappy about this. For $1000 I should have a working laptop. I feel that DELL has become a fraudulent company. I have sent emails and contacted customer escalation. They were supposed to reply within 1 business day. Guess what! No reply. Their customer service is now based in India, answered by people who barely speak English, and can only spout the DELL party line. There is not any real help. How such a large corporation expects to survive with this type of disservice is beyond me. No wonder my school district is switching to HP.
TOMORROW- Yardwork and housework: grass mowed and trimmed; potted plants moved for easier watering while I'm gone, kitchen cleaned and laundry finished. Ambitious! We'll see what I get done.
From April to July - what a disaster my life has become. Depression and anxiety have totally take over my life again. My antidepressant was switched to something cheaper and I have been on a downward spiral ever since: money out of control, housecleaning and laundry not done, animals neglected, eating fast food with a resulting 50 lb weight gain in 6 months; my health physically and mentally has really been suffering.
I think I may try to set up a flow chart to analyze what happened. I need to break the circle and get out of this spiral.
So-
I actually took out a loan to pay off most of my high-interest credit cards. I very carefully set up a budget, analyzed how to best utilize lower interest rates and created a plan to get my debt under control. Then I went and spent the cards back up! This is exactly what you are warned against in all the debt consolidation programs I've ever read about. Some of the money was spent on things I needed, household items and prescriptions and such, but most of it went to fast food because I'm not cooking at home. Why? The gas stove leaks and I a) didn't have the house clean enough that I would let anyone in and b) I frittered away most of my available cash and credit. I think I may try to set up a flow chart to analyze what happened. I need to break the circle and get out of this spiral.
Medical bills from car accident and heart tests need to be paid-
I set up payment plans with 3 out of the four collection agencies to the tune of $200 per month, a bit more than I should have. I don't know what happened to the fourth, I thought I had made arrangements with them too, but nothing is being billed to my account. This was in November 2007. I cancelled my cleaning lady temporarily thinking I should be able to manage for a while.
Cleaning lady not coming from November 2007 to the present-
I was able to keep up with things for awhile, but not as well as I should. I am tired all the time and far too often looking at the dishes that need washed and laundry that needs done just overwhelms me. I have been either going to bed, playing stupid games on the computer or reading. Now the house is so bad that I can't let anyone in. Stuff is piled everywhere, it's actually unsafe for me to walk through because I loose my balance too easily after the knee transplants last summer, the house is filthy and I have a rat infestation. I can't have my grandchildren over to spend the night because of it.
Gas stove needs repair-
It started leaking gas sometime in the fall. I thought it was a burner. My daughter said the stove was leaking gas also. The usage went from 1 CF to 4 CF in one month. I quit using the stove thinking that would take care of the problem until I could get it fixed. The next month the gas usage was just as high. My middle daughter told me to turn the gas off at the floor connection and I did. The usage went back to normal. I haven't had it fixed, and I realize while I'm writing this that this has been since last October maybe. 9 months. The money I've spent eating out could have bought me a new stove at least!
House air conditioner went out in the second week of June-
Again, the house is so bad I don't want to let anyone in to fix it. I had planned on buying a room air conditioner for my bedroom to cut down on cooling costs. Why cool the whole house down to 72 at night when I only need my bedroom that cool? I actually had bought one with my rebate money, but never installed it. Now I have and it works fine. I went and bought another one to put in my kitchen/dining room/den area and it really has helped as well. I'm wondering what the difference in the electric bill will be. My father offered me a third one that came out of their sun room when they rebuilt it. I think I will put it in my office or in the other den window.
Prescription change?
I'm wondering when that happened. I have cycled through Alexia and Cymbalta and finally told the Dr. that I wanted to go back to the Lexapro. I'm looking at a lot of things happening or starting back in the fall around October. The Cymbalta really helped with the pain from FMS and the knee transplant surgeries, but the depression became worse. The Alexia just left me feeling fairly grim, not as well as with the Lexapro. I am beginning to think that I should never have let the drugs benefits program choose a medication. They wanted me to switch because of the cost of Lexapro. I said okay, but this was a serious mistake as events showed.
I have started therapy again, and went back to the medication that was working. I've only been back on Lexapro about a week and I feel somewhat better mentally. I think maybe a higher dose might be needed. I am thinking about discussing this issue again with my doctor.
The intake appointment was last Monday. Dr. Farmer is very nice and actually spent some extra time with me. I feel relieved to have restarted the process of getting well again. He also gave me some instructions - since I don't want to risk poisoning my cats and dogs with rat poison, I am to go on line and look for "green" methods of rat removal. I did this, and reordered some repellent that I tried previously. It turns out I didn't follow the directions so no wonder it didn't work. I also found a poison that shouldn't bother cats and dogs. If the repellent doesn't work I will try that next.
My old cat is loosing weight again. He is 16 years old. I am feeding him with wet food and keeping him in the house. He's put back on a pound. I will take him to the vet next week. I am also going to take care of the dogs needs. We need shots and licenses, heart worm testing and preventative medication and flea treatments for everybody. I have a little money and I decided that the animals will be first, then the gas stove, car air conditioner, and the house air conditioner. I will be getting my stipends this next paycheck and am going to use them to pay down the credit cards that I spent back up.
This analysis has helped quit a bit. I need to do some more investigation about my anti-depressants. I have spent most of this weekend working on cleaning the kitchen and getting the laundry washed and put away. I may make it!
Unfortunately, this is just the "small" stuff. The long term stuff I haven't even touched on. Another time.
I think I may try to set up a flow chart to analyze what happened. I need to break the circle and get out of this spiral.
So-
I actually took out a loan to pay off most of my high-interest credit cards. I very carefully set up a budget, analyzed how to best utilize lower interest rates and created a plan to get my debt under control. Then I went and spent the cards back up! This is exactly what you are warned against in all the debt consolidation programs I've ever read about. Some of the money was spent on things I needed, household items and prescriptions and such, but most of it went to fast food because I'm not cooking at home. Why? The gas stove leaks and I a) didn't have the house clean enough that I would let anyone in and b) I frittered away most of my available cash and credit. I think I may try to set up a flow chart to analyze what happened. I need to break the circle and get out of this spiral.
Medical bills from car accident and heart tests need to be paid-
I set up payment plans with 3 out of the four collection agencies to the tune of $200 per month, a bit more than I should have. I don't know what happened to the fourth, I thought I had made arrangements with them too, but nothing is being billed to my account. This was in November 2007. I cancelled my cleaning lady temporarily thinking I should be able to manage for a while.
Cleaning lady not coming from November 2007 to the present-
I was able to keep up with things for awhile, but not as well as I should. I am tired all the time and far too often looking at the dishes that need washed and laundry that needs done just overwhelms me. I have been either going to bed, playing stupid games on the computer or reading. Now the house is so bad that I can't let anyone in. Stuff is piled everywhere, it's actually unsafe for me to walk through because I loose my balance too easily after the knee transplants last summer, the house is filthy and I have a rat infestation. I can't have my grandchildren over to spend the night because of it.
Gas stove needs repair-
It started leaking gas sometime in the fall. I thought it was a burner. My daughter said the stove was leaking gas also. The usage went from 1 CF to 4 CF in one month. I quit using the stove thinking that would take care of the problem until I could get it fixed. The next month the gas usage was just as high. My middle daughter told me to turn the gas off at the floor connection and I did. The usage went back to normal. I haven't had it fixed, and I realize while I'm writing this that this has been since last October maybe. 9 months. The money I've spent eating out could have bought me a new stove at least!
House air conditioner went out in the second week of June-
Again, the house is so bad I don't want to let anyone in to fix it. I had planned on buying a room air conditioner for my bedroom to cut down on cooling costs. Why cool the whole house down to 72 at night when I only need my bedroom that cool? I actually had bought one with my rebate money, but never installed it. Now I have and it works fine. I went and bought another one to put in my kitchen/dining room/den area and it really has helped as well. I'm wondering what the difference in the electric bill will be. My father offered me a third one that came out of their sun room when they rebuilt it. I think I will put it in my office or in the other den window.
Prescription change?
I'm wondering when that happened. I have cycled through Alexia and Cymbalta and finally told the Dr. that I wanted to go back to the Lexapro. I'm looking at a lot of things happening or starting back in the fall around October. The Cymbalta really helped with the pain from FMS and the knee transplant surgeries, but the depression became worse. The Alexia just left me feeling fairly grim, not as well as with the Lexapro. I am beginning to think that I should never have let the drugs benefits program choose a medication. They wanted me to switch because of the cost of Lexapro. I said okay, but this was a serious mistake as events showed.
I have started therapy again, and went back to the medication that was working. I've only been back on Lexapro about a week and I feel somewhat better mentally. I think maybe a higher dose might be needed. I am thinking about discussing this issue again with my doctor.
The intake appointment was last Monday. Dr. Farmer is very nice and actually spent some extra time with me. I feel relieved to have restarted the process of getting well again. He also gave me some instructions - since I don't want to risk poisoning my cats and dogs with rat poison, I am to go on line and look for "green" methods of rat removal. I did this, and reordered some repellent that I tried previously. It turns out I didn't follow the directions so no wonder it didn't work. I also found a poison that shouldn't bother cats and dogs. If the repellent doesn't work I will try that next.
My old cat is loosing weight again. He is 16 years old. I am feeding him with wet food and keeping him in the house. He's put back on a pound. I will take him to the vet next week. I am also going to take care of the dogs needs. We need shots and licenses, heart worm testing and preventative medication and flea treatments for everybody. I have a little money and I decided that the animals will be first, then the gas stove, car air conditioner, and the house air conditioner. I will be getting my stipends this next paycheck and am going to use them to pay down the credit cards that I spent back up.
This analysis has helped quit a bit. I need to do some more investigation about my anti-depressants. I have spent most of this weekend working on cleaning the kitchen and getting the laundry washed and put away. I may make it!
Unfortunately, this is just the "small" stuff. The long term stuff I haven't even touched on. Another time.
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